Author's Note: Time to get aboard the Oracle and head off to adventure.

Chapter Four: Octopussy

Lavender was actually trained in proper use of Gillyweed, but that didn't mean that the shift between breathing normally and breathing through gills was not a bit disturbing. Lavender had been using Gillyweed since she was eight. She knew how to swim with them. She knew the signs that it was time for more Gillyweed. She even knew the proper way to still breath normally in the air when the Gillyweed was still manifesting gills on her neck.

It was almost second nature to her.

So she could enjoy the swim out to the Oracle. It wasn't a swim with a lot of color. This wasn't the Great Barrier Reef, but that didn't mean that there wasn't color, or even coral. Oculina patagonica was rather abundant in the area. It just wasn't a region where there were a lot of color, at least during the day. She did spot a few spots of Astroides calycularis, but it being a nocturnal coral, it's splashes of color were by no means as bright and widespread as it would be in some hours. And there wasn't much of it, as the orange coral was just not as widespread north of Sardinia.

Lavender swam behind and a bit to the right of her uncle, being careful not to go either too fast or too slow. The gillyweed hadn't just given webs between her fingers, allow her to propel herself forward faster than she would have normally swum, but it also had created webbing between her toes and elongated those toes to be five times as long as they had been. If she hadn't had some training, she was sure she would have been shooting every which way. Thanks to quite a few hours over the last three years, she swam, as the expression went, like a fish.

Or maybe not like a fish, as Lavender was briefly split from her uncle by a striped dolphin swimming between them. Lavender responded to the dolphin's roll as they past her by doing a roll of her own. She heard the dolphin squeal in response as she continued to follow her uncle out into the depths of the Med. Her uncle took a turn into a deeper valley, and in the distance she could see the dark outline of Her Majesty's Submarine, Oracle.

It was just slowing to a stop, so she slowed as well, following her uncle's motion. Then he waved his hand forward, and they shot forward, curving toward the slowing submarine, approaching from the front. In their increased speed, Lavender's sight contracted as they sped through a school of fish too fast for her to identify them. It wasn't long before they reached the Oracle, and headed for the open torpedo tubes. Lavender didn't expect to have any trouble getting into the twenty-one inch torpedo tubes, but she knew it was going to be a close fit for her uncle.

Uncle Charlie indicated which one she was to take, and as she adjusted her course, she noticed him raising his arms above his head, narrowing his width. She followed his actions as she propelled herself into the top port side tube. She felt the hatch close behind her.

Commander Bracegirdle was one of the few magicals commanding a ship of Her Majesty's Royal Navy, and the only one that currently commanded a submarine. He was not the only one that was qualified to do so. He was quite aware that the double oh agent who had just arrived via his forward tubes not only out ranked him, but was objectively better than him. His own commanding officer had advised Bracegirdle that the Royal Navy was still trying to get Captain Brown back in their service. It was obvious from the posture of Seaman Meyers that the young wizard hadn't expected Brown to be followed by a young naked girl. Bracegirdle had been briefed before Captain Brown had gone ashore, so he did expect Lavender Brown, and was prepared.

The Oracle was at the disposal of Captain Brown and MI6. It had been seconded to MI6 almost the whole of the current deployment. Captain Brown, however was different. He was the only only double oh agent who had actual submarine experience, having actually taken the full Perisher course right after it had been revised to be harder. He'd been the only one who had passed that version. He'd taken a turn on the Repluse where he'd done some amazing things with the Resolution class ballistic missile submarine, and had in the course of events saved then Lieutenant Commander Bracegirdle's life.

"Welcome Back, Captain Brown," Bracegirdle said. "I see you've arranged for your niece to join us, but it appears that you forgot one important thing."

"Ah, and what is that, Commander?" Brown asked.

"She's a naked young girl on a ship full of male sailors," Bracegirdle replied,"and you seem to have forgotten to provide for some modesty."

"The Royal Navy is full of gentlemen who know better than to go after the niece of the one man on board who has a license to kill," Brown said. "That being said, I'm certain that something can be found for her."

"Sir, if it would please the commanding officer, I believe something could be made of Lieutenant Steele's mess dress uniform that was damaged as he came aboard," Seaman Meyers interrupted.

"Excellent suggestion, Seaman," Bracegirdle said. "I'm reliably informed that you have some skill with the needle. Convey my compliments to my exec, and obtain the appropriate uniform. Should an appropriate needle not be in ship's stores, I believe that Captain Brown has some in his kit. Dismissed. Captain, Lavender, let us adjourn to the wardroom and see if I do have a crew of gentlemen."

Seaman Meyers had left the moment the word "Dismissed" had escaped Bracegirdle's mouth. The commanding officer liked a crew that hopped to orders. He lead the double oh agent and his naked niece to the fortunately unoccupied wardroom, passing several members of his crew who were off shift in their bunks. He could see when they noticed Lavender, those that were awake. The widening of their eyes gave them all away. Pretty much all of them immediately closed their eyes. Since Lavender was only twelve, on the mature side of normal twelve, but twelve none the less, he wasn't actually that worried. Lavender could easily be seen as the little sister of the ship, something he intended to encourage.

Captain Brown had forgotten exactly one thing when he went to pick up his niece for their mission. That one thing was the fact that she was on a nude beach and thus would not be wearing clothes. She had her wand in a charmed invisible holster, but that was all little Lavender had one her when he'd picked her up. To be perfectly honest, the Brown family had never been one to wear clothes much, and it hadn't been often that he'd visited home and seen Lavender with clothes on.

Now she was developing. While he may have thought that his older brother was a bit of a hypocrite in his asking his daughter to put on clothes, given what said older brother had been doing when he was Lavender's age. His niece had a good head on her shoulders, she wasn't going to get into trouble, and the girl knew how to defend herself. That being said, he found that on board a ship filled with British sailors, well, it was better to be a little proactive. So as soon as he'd installed Lavender in the ward room, which also doubled as bunks for visiting officers, he headed to see the First Officer, who he already knew was a neat hand with the needle.

"Don't worry, Captain Brown, I'm already working on it, with Seaman Hood." the Number One said, before he'd even said a word. "My number one dress got damaged a bit in port, and I think I can make it into a fair set for her. I will need the usual measurements, chest, waist, hips, inseam, and height. She'll be the best dressed girl in the Royal Navy."

"Very good Lieutenant Green," Captain Brown said. "I shall get that shortly. Meanwhile, I'd advise that you prepare for Adriatic sailing. I have reason to believe that you may be off the coast of Tirana or there abouts in the next couple weeks."

"Ensign Martin-Smith, I shall be at the charts should I be needed. You have conn," Green said. "Let me know those measurements, sir."

Captain Brown returned to the ward room, discovering his niece on the upper bunk, a novel in her hand. "Already have reading material I see?"

"Seaman Smythe offered me his copy of The Hunt for Red October," Lavender said. "From his stammer, I think the Captain prefers that I have something to keep me occupied."

"And were you by any chance doing your stretches when he came in?" Captain Brown asked.

"Why Uncle Charlie, you've always told me that exercise is good for the body and I should endeavor to keep my youthful flexibility," Lavender smirked. He glared. "I may have been stretching my left leg to the ceiling at the time, but he didn't knock."

"I remind you that privacy is not an expectation on a sub," Captain Brown said. "Stand up, I need to get your measurements for Lieutenant Green. He has volunteered his number one dress to be transformed unto your outfit. When we go ashore, we shall have different clothes, of course. I expect to meet Q before we reach our target. My current kit is a bit exhausted, and you need your own, upgraded from last Yule."

Lavender dropped down form the bunk into a crotch before standing up straight. "Any particular pose, uncle?"

"At ease, Lavender, at ease."