Author's Note: Hey friends! Remember months ago when I said "huh, might continue this, might not"? Well, here we are! This chapter's songs are set to the music of Great Big Sea once again, specifically the songs "My Apology" and "How Did We Get From Saying I Love You." Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Warnings: NA

Stacked with: MC4A; Shipping War; Tasty Yandras; Animal Verses; Ornate Oscillating Obelisks

Individual Challenge(s): Gryffindor MC (x4); Marauders Tales (Y); Bow Before the Blacks; Brush; Seeds; Shipmas; Creature People; Colonial Times; Old Shoes; Location, Location, Location; Trope it Up C (Secret Relationship); Themes and Things A (Friendship); Themes and Things B (Reunion); Themes and Things C (Flowers); Ethnic and Present; Neurodivergent; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; Real Family; Flags and Ribbons; Team Player; Short Jog; The Real MC

Representation(s): Pirate!AU; day trip; Lady Valentina Maria Roquelle di Birdie (parrot); Remus Lupin (werewolf)

Bonus challenge(s): Ntaiv; Bast's Blessing; Creature Feature; Vid Tangent; Wind Beneath; Second Verse (Pocky Pockets); Chorus (Persistence Still)

Tertiary bonus challenge: Orator; Oath

List (Prompt): Potential Non-Romantic B Plot (Training a new pet/work animal)

Word Count: 3964

Shipping Wars

Ship (Team): Lily Evans/James Potter (Patronus Pair)

List (Prompt): Summer Medium 2 (Pirate AU)

2

The Sea Gave Us Time

"We should invest in a cat," Sirius said over dinner

Remus put down his fork and knife. "Absolutely not."

"Cats are useful!" Sirius protested.

"That's what you said about the parrot," Peter said.

"And she has brought light and colour into our lives," Sirius said.

"That's right, Dumbass," the bird croaked from her perch—James' empty chair at the moment.

"To be fair, cats do hunt rats and have a practical purpose to play on ships," Remus sighed. "That was not an endorsement."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know we had any volunteers to run the rats on The Sunken Siren," Sirius bit back. "A cat would be more than happy…"

"What's so wrong with rats?" Peter asked.

"Jesus, Wormtail, have you been feeding them again? Thus aggravating the need for pest control that a feline could so easily fill?"

"I will leave," Remus said. "I'm so very serious."

"Funny, because I thought that I…"

"You're a mess," Remus sighed.

"Speaking of a mess," Peter said quietly. "We should maybe… well, since he's not here…"

"Talk about how fucking bizarre James has been acting?" Sirius said. All of a sudden, his worry became real and genuine and grounded. He rested his chin on his fist. "I've tried broaching the subject with him. But he's been as antsy and impossible and evasive as always. I'm sorry, lads. I really don't know this time."

"We can't let this go on much longer," Remus said. "By which I mean the sleeplessness, the restlessness, the not-eating…"

"So glad we're eating," a voice said.

James dropped down from the deck, ignoring the ladder he could have climbed. James grinned at them and collapsed on his usual chair, scaring off the bird and grabbing a piece of bread from Remus' plate and taking a massive bite.

They exchanged confused glances.

"How's life, James?"

"Great," he said. "Hey, so listen; I know the full moon is still a week away, but why don't we start heading towards land a little early this time?"

The little time they did spend on land was only to account for the full moon. On those days, they anchored the ship farther out from the harbor than strictly physically possible (hence the blessing of having spent at least a few years learning magic before jumping to piracy) and let Remus' transformation run its course. As it turned out: werewolves didn't swim. The problem was largely that Remus was the keeper of their entire party's intellectual capacity, meaning that they got up to their absolute stupidest antics without his supervision. But overall, the system worked.

"Because we're pirates?" Peter said. "And the longer we spend on land the more likely we are to run into the Royal Navy. This is fairly common knowledge."

"I know, I know," James sighed. "But Moony hasn't had a night in town for so long. I thought it'd be nice, you know. Given your birthday's coming up."

Remus blinked once. "My birthday is December. James, are you alright?"

"I meant last year's birthday," James said. "We didn't do anything. Anyways; Stranger's Harbor is a day away if we change our course, yes? Yes! They've got that antique book shop there that you like, Remus. The bakery with the best croissants this side of the sea. Plenty of places for Sirius to get absolutely sloshed. It'll be great!"

He threw the bread back onto Remus' plate and wandered away.

James was laying on his bed, staring at his cabin's ceiling and trying to draw constellations between the nails that had been hammered in at random, speckles of paint…

"Look, close, where men have failed

In their tragedies you'll find your chance

Every pearl stolen away will for an hour leave you unveiled

The port of unknown faces will see you well-met and hailed."

He sat up, startled to hear those words again. But it was just Remus.

"How do you know that song?" James asked.

Remus extended his arm and Lady Valentina Maria Roquelle di Birdie, alias Lucy, alias Seeds, alias Dumbass, flew up and landed on his arm.

"That bird," James sighed. "How dare she parrot me so."

"I would never admit it to Sirius, but she is quite useful," Remus said. "Perhaps she's growing on me."

He stared at James. When Remus Lupin wanted a question answered, he did not ask again. He waited. The rest of them were like sharks, in constant motion to try and keep afloat. Remus was not: he was still and methodical.

"Would you believe me if I told you I caught it on an ocean breeze?" James asked.

Strictly speaking, this was the truth. And in the name of the Sea and her Mercy and Might, James hoped that Lily had caught the same song this time too.

"I wouldn't know what to believe because you've changed so drastically in the last months," Remus said, shutting the door behind him. The parrot fluttered and landed on James' desk.

"I don't know what you mean," James said.

"We all worry about you," Remus said. "You've become unpredictable. Volatile. And quiet, too. It's impossible to keep up with you in any meaningful way."

"I've always been a bit of a wild child," James said. "Nobody's ever understood the way I leap from one thing to another, or run away with my thoughts."

This was not something he missed from Hogwarts.

"Not with us," Remus said. He sat down on the minuscule desk, bringing his feet on the equally narrow chair. He dusted off the top of his boots. "Where do you go at night? When you're supposed to be keeping watch but you lower a boat into the waves?"

"I put defensive spells up," James said. "I'm not being negligent. I'm not leaving the ship unguarded."

"I believe it," Remus said. "But that is not an answer to my question, per se."

James chewed his lip.

His friends wouldn't believe him. None of them.

Or worse, they would and they wouldn't understand. James knew they wouldn't. None of them had ever been in a comparable situation, not even in an equivalent which included two humans—which James' current predicament did not, complicating the issue of Lily further.

He thought back to the Sea's latest song. Every pearl stolen away will for an hour leave you unveiled. If that meant what James thought it meant… if he was right about this port of unknown faces, and if by chance Lily knew where it was as well…

The rest of the song hummed in his ear, where it had been quite the ear worm since he'd first heard it.

"Come along

If you believe the moment calls for unity

Come along

If you believe your love can move the sea

Come along

If you believe that stolen kisses

Ought to grow to something free."

"James," Remus said, catching his attention again.

"Sorry," James said. "Yes. I'm… I'm here."

"Right," Remus said. He was holding his arm, his thumb nervously running circles over a spot James knew for a fact held Remus' nastiest—and first—scar. His bite mark. "James, I know what it's like to keep a secret. No matter how good you are at it, it will always be easier as a shared load."

"Got it," James muttered. His stomach twisted. He didn't want to share Lily. He didn't think he could. But he couldn't quite meet Remus' eyes either.

"And there's something else you should know about secrets," Remus said, getting up again. "The people who love you will love your secrets too. You should know; you taught me that."

James opened and closed his mouth.

"We've never hesitated to put ourselves in stupid situations by taking stupid risks, but the unknown is genuinely frightening. Please try to find the time to tell us the truth," Remus said. "Before we have to start thinking twice about where we follow you."

James shone the lantern around the surrounding waters one more time. For once, not seeing Lily's red hair break through the waves brought a smile to his face. From what he knew about the underwater geography of the merfolk's territory and the special currents the Sea raised just for them, her path to Stranger's Harbor would be vastly different from the one The Sunken Siren was taking.

If Lily wasn't here this soon after hearing one of the ocean's songs, it meant she was going to meet him there.

The town was alive with preparations for the Summer Solstice Festival, one of the busiest times of the year for what was town on a very busy island.

It was, of course, crawling with Royal Navy. Her Majesty's Finest had several bases on Diagon Island. Considering how many international trading routes the island connected, they were particularly active and stringent and vigilant. Diagon Island's reputation as a convenient if not dangerous landing base for unsavory characters such as themselves doubled the need for security—though most not-so-legal types stayed out of Stranger's Harbour and lingered in the Northern parts of the island. But not the crew of the Sunken Siren, of course!

After getting rid of the other boys and sending them on their own ventures, James was having to ask some very strange questions. For example: if I were a mermaid, where would I start exploring a seaport town?

Presuming, of course, that he was right. For months the Sea had put them in each other's paths, but James still struggled to make sense of his strange patron's words sometimes. It made him feel somewhat better that Lily, who had always known her and her ways, faced the same uncertainty.

James was sitting by the general store near the harbor, finishing the last few bites of a fish sandwich and pretending to scrutinize the various wanted posters like a good citizen as he puzzled through what to do from this point onwards.

"Looking for yourself?"

He spun around and there… inexplicably, against all odds, against all reason—there was Lily.

There was Lily. On land.

Beautiful as ever, mind you. Her hair fell loose around her shoulders, save for a dozen of tiny braids threaded through shell beads crossing the back of her head in the merfolk's way. She wore a simple white blouse tucked into a scarlet skirt—he had no idea where she'd gotten any of those clothes, or the simple work apron she wore over them. She could have worked in any boutique, at any hostel, at any tavern in Stranger's Harbour. But she was Lily and she was here.

He dropped his sandwich and went to her, feeling the smile breaking out on his face. She laughed and they crashed together like waves. James tightened his hold around her waist and picked her up. She laughed into their kiss, and he felt her legs lift off the ground. Her legs…

"You're here," he said, pushing back a stray lock of hair. "How are you here? By the Sea, I'm sorry I kissed you, I must smell like fish…"

"I understand that this is quite the transformation, but keep in mind that I am half fish to begin with," Lily smiled. She looked down and hiked her skirt up a bit, showing that she did indeed have two legs now.

"How?" James repeated.

Lily reached into her blouse and pulled out a necklace of pearls that contrasted sharply with her simple clothes. She looked up to him invitingly, and he reached out to touch the beads. Some of them were luminescent, and others were dull. The former were particularly frigid to the touch, like a bucket of storm water.

"What's this?" James asked.

"I found it in a shipwreck," Lily said.

"In 'men's tragedies?'" James ventured.

Lily nodded. "I've visited many of them, to try to learn more about you wizard lot. I haven't found many magical things, but this… Once I found it, the sea told me to file it away, not to wear it. And then I heard our song."

James smiled. He loved that things could be theirs, and today seemed like a wonderful addition to that list.

"One pearl per hour?" James asked.

"Presumably, but I don't know what that means," Lily admitted. She blushed—which for a mermaid meant getting paler.

James kissed her forehead and counted the glowing pearls on the necklace.

"We have about an evening," he said.

"An evening," Lily nodded. "Well, we're in your realm now. What does one do with an evening on the surface James?"

"Any number of things," James smiled. "But first I want you to meet a few people."

"Her Majesty's Finest?" Lily asked with a smile on her lips.

"Quite the opposite," James smiled.

Despite the best intentions to find Sirius, Remus, Peter, or any combination of them—they got distracted.

James should have known this. The second time they'd met, Lily had worked up the courage to ask James about the lantern he brought down with him. He'd lowered it down to the water for her and she'd been fascinated by the fire inside.

She was similarly attracted to any number of mundane human objects. Seeing her bounce from place to place forced him to see the world through new light. She was fascinated by the fruits in the market, and James quietly bought a carton and whisked her away to try them privately to avoid drawing attention to themselves. It was the right call; he loved Lily's reaction but the way her eyes popped at the first bite of fruit definitely would have raised some questions. It occurred to James that there probably weren't many sweet things in the sea.

The smell of freshly baked bread, the softness of freshly dyed yarn, the smoothness of jade stones that were meant to protect sailors—all of these things drew Lily's attention. James reached for everything she looked at to give it to her, he wanted to give the world to her. Every now and then anxiety would come crashing down on him—hours, they only had hours together. It felt profoundly unfair.

But then Lily would ask a question about a type of flower in a bouquet or laugh at a busker and James would laugh with her. They only had a few hours but those few hours were the world.

Peter was minding his own business, spending some hard-earned, well-stolen coins at a betting table in the market. He felt quite comfortable with his odds, given the fact that the dealer's four of clubs was in Peter's sleeve, when he overheard a most unlucky sound.

He spun back and saw none other than Walburga Black, strolling through the market and complaining loudly about the smell of fish, at the arm of her husband and in the shade of parasols carried by servants. House-elves lugging cases trailed behind them meekly.

"Oh, shit," Peter said. "What are the odds?"

"Three to five," the dealer said. She arched an eyebrow. "Did you want to raise again, sir?"

"No, not at all," Peter said. He dropped his cards on the table. With four more rounds of play he could have doubled his winnings, but Sirius needed to be found immediately.

"Thank you," Peter said, grabbing the coins on the table and dashing off to find his friend.

This was not good.

Another category of things that Lily was particularly keen on were things that couldn't get wet. In other words, things she had never seen before.

The bookstore caught her attention, for one. James had to explain what books were.

"Stories, but solid," Lily said.

"Sure," James nodded. "Stories but solid. Which isn't to say we write down everything, we memorize and sing some too. And others we just tell once, and that's all. And sometimes we keep stories to ourselves. Or we write down books that aren't full of stories, but have other things in them."

"Write?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," James said. "You, umm… we have these symbols, they mean words when you put them together a certain way…"

"Like our runes," Lily said.

"Maybe," James said. "I don't know enough."

Lily nodded. "Merfolk—if we find a shell big enough to hold them, sometimes we speak into seashells and whisper words of power to keep the message locked."

"That's beautiful," James said. "I would love to hear that one day, if that's okay."

"I would love to hear this reading," Lily said.

James nodded and tugged her towards the bookshop, holding the door open for her.

Lily picked up on the quietness and serenity of the little shop immediately, her eyes surveying the narrow alleys and the stacks of books that topped the impossibly high bookshelves. The whole shop looked like it might topple down at any time, while also seeming solid.

"I don't know where to begin," Liy whispered.

"I do," James said, tugging her hand. They got distracted along the way by the shop's cat, which was lurking around.

"I've never seen such a beautiful creature," Lily said, petting it softly.

James smiled and plucked a book off the shelves. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Short, sweet, classics, and magical enough that they may just meet a mermaid's expectations of the world.

They sat together in the back of the shop.

"Can I sit on you?" Lily asked. She blushed again. "I just—I saw a human couple in the market like that, and they looked quite comfortable…"

"Of course," James said. "Come here."

Sirius, during this time, was at a shop labeled Horace's Apothecary, discussing the possibility that his friend had been poisoned by a love potion.

"I don't know when he'd have ingested it," Sirius said. "We've been at sea for so long, but he's an idiot to the upteenth degree, so I won't discount the possibility based off of logistics."

The apothecary froze.

"You've been at sea?"

"Yes," Sirius said. The man paled. "Surely that's not so unusual in these parts."

"No," the Apothecary said quietly. "But it does mean that I… that I'm quite alarmed by just how much you resemble the gentleman on that wanted poster now."

Sirius spun around to look at the wanted posters plastered on the wall by the door. He saw his own face, butchered by the artist but still recognizable, along with James, Peter, and Remus…

He turned back to the apothecary, fully intending to obliviate the man, but the apothecary was quicker than he looked. With a flash of emerald green light he disappeared, and with another flash Sirius was suddenly standing outside the shop, whose sign now read 'CLOSED.'

Then he heard someone ringing a bell—presumably one of the emergency bells that was to be rung to summon the Royal Navy.

Oh this was not good.

Lily squealed with delight when she saw the tiny fish-shaped cookies being cooked up at a stand.

"Look!" she said.

James laughed. "They're even better once you taste them, they're… you'll see."

He bought two, but held off on eating his until he saw her taste hers. Her eyes widened in shock when the custard inside splattered out.

He smiled and took a bite of his, taking her hand with his spare and listening to her chatter on about human food.

"By the way," Lily said. "I see a lot of coins being exchanged. Does everything cost coins in the human world?"

"Yes," James said. "It's a problem."

"Where do you get your coins?" Lily asked.

"Don't worry about that," he said. He grinned. "That's not your problem."

Remus was enjoying his first taste of goddamned peace and quiet in nearly a month, sitting at a cafe with his new book, a title that had released just a month after he'd set out to sea last time. From his seat, he could see the masts and sails of the dock.

Out of nowhere, a woman with violently pink hair wearing blue trousers, messy boots, and a men's shirt under a very loose and light black coat came to sit at his table. Remus looked up from his book and coffee, unsure as to what fresh hell this was.

Cup hovering a few inches away from his lips, he arched an eyebrow.

"Can I help you?" Remus asked.

"No," the woman said. And there before him, her features changed. All of a sudden, opposite of Remus sat a pirate he knew well with auburn hair cut at the chin, a strong jaw, and a scar near the eye. "But I suppose you could give me my ship back."

Remus put down his cup. Still, his heart was beating in his throat. Oh, shit.

This was not good at all.

When he and Lily made their way back to the marketplace, candles had been lit everywhere to account for the darkening sky. Where the buskers had performed that afternoon, now a band played slow songs with a fiddle and a series of flutes. Couples and pairs had taken to the dance floor, swaying softly.

Lily paused and watched, as she'd paused and watched a thousand things that day. James squeezed her hand.

"Did you want to try?" he asked.

"I'm afraid of dancing," she said quietly. "It seems like a rather elaborate use of legs that I don't know that I'm ready for it."

"Do you like the music?" James asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Are you… are you a little bit in love?" James asked.

"More than a little bit," Lily said quietly.

"That's all you need," James said. "Come, I'll help."

He looped his arms around her, hands resting on the small of her back.

"What do I do with mine?" Lily asked.

"Where do you want to put them?" James asked.

She looked around at the various other pairs around her, and then back at James. She put her arms around his neck and smiled at him. He smiled back and started swaying along with the music. Lily seemed unsure at first, but soon she was just leaning against James and following his motions.

"Dancing is just like the rocking of the sea," she said quietly.

"It—I suppose it is," James said.

Lily nodded before leaning her head against his chest. He wondered for a minute if she was doing it because everyone around them was, or if she just genuinely wanted to.

He kissed the top of her head and rested his cheek against her hair. The smell of salt hung around her faintly. The pattern of her breathing was ever so slightly different; she inhaled and exhaled like the roar and crash of waves. He heard her hum and sing, ever so quietly.

"When we walk on this land, there's no telling how long

Before something that cuts comes along

And though it may seem like we've crossed over a line

What can be done when stars align?

I swear we won't break

We can weather their storms, sink down to the sea floor

I swear we won't break

There's no way to leave what we have on this shore."

We may be at the mercy of the tide

But our hearts too can decide

Tonight."

"Tonight," James repeated into her hair. It felt like the most precious thing in the world, until he remembered who it was he was holding.

She looked up at James, who was hyperconscious of the two lonely pearls left on her necklace.

"Take me to your ship," Lily said quietly.

"What?" James asked, caught offguard.

"Take me to your ship," she said again. "I only have two hours left on the surface. I want to… see everything."

James paused for a moment, but soon he guided her off the dance floor and down to the docks and up the plank and down through The Sunken Siren.

And that was where James was when all of Stranger's Harbour went absolutely, positively, batshit crazy that night.