Disclaimer: I disclaim Rowling's characters, her world and her ideas. I claim mine. But I can't claim the song "Ye Mariners of England", which was written by a bloke named Thomas Campbell. So, likewise, I must disclaim the title. (And we all know already that whatever quotes I insert at the beginning of the chapter are Shakespeare's). We all clear now?

"I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate to closeness, and the bettering of my mind."

---- Prospero, Act I, Scene II, The Tempest

THE TEMPEST

--- Ye Mariners of England ---

They had made it safely out of the harbour…farewells were made, last-minute reminders shouted out, the engines started, the anchor weighed, and kisses exchanged (with well-meaning looks from the three men who weren't involved). David wheedled Neenie out of Cordelia's arms with well-practiced ease before the kisses began.

Meanwhile, the three otters managed to drive Will up the wall in the ten minutes it took for Grandfather and Hector to ready the yacht, and David and Cordelia to say their goodbyes. Finally, after many agonizing moments of putting up with the three devils, Will had an idea.

He spotted an empty packing crate at the end of the dock, with fishing lines and some bait sitting next to it. With an air of 'doing good' about him, he grabbed the bait and tossed a few bits of dead minnow to the otters, who scrambled over each other furiously to get to them first. Then he chucked the rest of the bait into the empty crate; the otters tore after it, and, with a faint cry of triumph, he wrestled the lid onto the box, tying it shut with the fishing line.

He chuckled, wiped his hands together, and went to rejoin the others who were getting underway.

It wasn't until Cordelia had waved them out of the harbour that she realized the box she was sitting on was moving on its own accord. With a realization and a curse, she untied the fishing line and the three missing miscreants fumbled out. The four men and the baby on the yacht watching them in the distance, Iris, Juno, and Ceres raced each other along the length of the dock and plunged into the water, making quick time to get to their loving master.

Grandfather lowered his cane into the water for them to grab onto, and Hermione squealed with delight, running forward to hug her "lost, durling odders". David laughed heartily as his older brother cowered in front of the growling animals. If looks could kill, Will would be way below the water's surface, five fathoms deep and sinking fast.

Otters did not forgive easily.

It started out as a low grumble. Grandfather, at the helm, gazed out to the north, in the direction they were sailing, his cap pulled low over his eyes to block out the sun's glare.

Hector looked up at the sky, startled. It sounded like thunder, but the clouds above were whiter than snow…just then, David and Will picked up the grumbling and started to hum in two different keys…

And then Hector understood. That grumbling he'd heard wasn't thunder at all --- the noise was coming from John Granger himself. In fact…it looked as though the old man was humming!

With John Granger doing the low bass, and Will belting out the baritone, David began to sing the melody in a strong, deep tenor.

"Ye mariners of England,

That guard our native seas;

Whose flag has braved the thousand years,

The battle and the breeze!"

Blimey! Hector knew this song…about every single sailor did, in fact. And the three Granger men looked as if they sang this song fairly often, each singing or humming a different set of chords that matched together perfectly.

It was a bouncy, fairly energetic tune, and Hector was caught up in the spirit almost immediately. He opened his mouth to sing the second verse along with David.

"Your glorious standard launch again

To match another foe!

And sweep through the deep,

While the stormy winds do blow;"

Like the Barbershop Quartet, the men raised their voices loud and strong for the coming of the repetition, shouting out the last three syllables of the first line, as the song called for, and trailing out a long crescendo for the last word.

"While the battle rages loud and long,

And the stormy winds do blow!"

With big, round eyes Hermione watched them all, enchanted, as the yacht sailed along, spraying seawater everywhere. The wind whipped her bouncy tangle of brown curls around, and she had to squint against the strong rays of the sun.

Daddy, Gampa, and Munkle Will had proceeded straight on to the other verses, but after the seventh, Hector had to stop. He strode over to the bow and took a seat beside Hermione, who seemed entranced in her game of fetch with Ceres, also known as----

"Fets, Ceres, fets!"She giggled, throwing her doll as hard as she could…where it landed two feet in front of her, right on the poor otter's tail.

Hector shook his head and chuckled, reaching into the icebox and pulling out a water bottle.

Kids…you gotta love them. Hermione reminded him an awful lot of his own niece, a darling little girl of two with bright yellow hair.

Oh Susie! The thought of her brought a pang to his chest. How much you must have grown since last Christmas.

The events that had happened last winter, which had led to their separation, came again ever so clearer then they were before. When his oldest brother and his small family had died a few years ago, the world fell down around him…but when the news came that his brother's murderers were after him next…

But, no…they didn't even stop there. They had to go and threaten Doug and Susie…and they've been in hiding ever since… I'm missing out on my only living niece's childhood, and I don't like it one bit.

He took a swig, wiped his mouth, and sat back, eyes closed, becoming a sailor to his own drifting thoughts. For as tired and dehydrated as he was, Hector was quite unaware of his captivated audience.

Hermione had watched him, wide-eyed, as he came over to where she was sitting to get a bottle of water. She had stared as he unscrewed the cap and took a long swig of it, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he gulped rather noisily. Then he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and put the lid back on, leaning back with his eyes closed until his head was in the shade.

Of such instances are memories made.

Neenie edged closer to him, trying to be as quiet as a titmouse. She stood up on the ice box and leaned ever closer to his face, astounded as she was by the lightest sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of his nose.

Why! They looked like teeny little bugs! Teeny little brown ones, all fluffy and round and they looked really, really soft. She wanted to touch one, to see if it would move…

Slowly, she reached out her hand, a little finger poised and ready to solve the mystery of the poka-dots all over his face. His nose was three inches away now…two inches…one inch…

"BOO!"

Hermione screamed and tumbled backwards off the icebox. Hector chuckled, leaned down, and set her back up on her feet. Her face was no wreath of smiles. "That was mean! That was bery, bery mean!" she pouted, crossing her arms and glaring up at him.

Hector held his arms out in surrender. "Yes, I agree, you're quite right. That was very mean for me to do. Can you forgive me?" he asked guiltily.

She glared at him. After one long minute of pointed silence, he lowered himself to his knees and prostrated himself before her, bowing low. "O High and Mighty One! Your lowly servant is but a humble man who begs forgiveness before Her Royal Majesty, Hermione the Queen. Please succumb to his wishes, and find it deep within yourself to place forgiveness upon this poor sailor! Please, I beg of you!" he implored, grovelling at her feet.

Hermione gave out a deep, drawn-out sigh and looked at her father over his head, as if saying, "Why must I put up with this?"

She reached down and tugged at his hair, in a glorious effort of helping him up. When he was finally kneeling at her level, she stood on his knees and wrapped her chubby little arms around his neck; then she puckered up her lips and used her hands to squash his cheeks in order for him to do the same.

David, Grandfather, and Will were watching the exchange with quite a bit of amusement, and they all laughed as they watched Hector colour slightly after she kissed him.

He gave a goofy grin and put up his best Cockney accent. "Kist by a real lady, I wos!"

A mighty gust of wind livened the sails quite considerably, just then, and the sun was so obscured by billowy clouds that it looked for a while as though that was the last they'd be seeing of it for the rest of the day.

In no time at all, the four servants and their queen were caught up in a roaring game of Parrot…the little queen being the subject of the game, of course --- a job which she was quite capable of fulfilling, and even more capable of enjoying.

"Right-o, Neenie, how about this," Will rubbed his hands and thought hard. "Can you say…'mariner'?"

"Meniner!" she repeated, clapping her hands with delight when they laughed at her.

"Can you say…'grandfather'?" John Granger asked, and then roared with laughter as she replied with a "Gampopper!"

Hector leaned in close to speak to David, as 'William' became 'Wilbum', and 'chocolate' became 'tocklett'.

"Do they always do this?" he asked in undertone, indicating John and Will.

"Are you kidding?" David laughed. "I'd think they'd play this game with themselves if they only knew how to pronounce the words right!"

There was a pause in the game as John and Will turned to look at the two men, who were turning red with laughter.

All in all, Hector thought, it was a pretty pleasant afternoon. It didn't take long for the Granger men to warm up to him as readily as they had warmed up to each other. Though he couldn't quite tell why, Hector had noticed a distinct cool tone between John Granger and his older son. It wasn't until David had 'accidentally' pushed Will overboard that the old man was seen with a true smile as he looked on at Will's antics.

"Though you know I should be havin' you flogged for tryin' to do me gals in!" he told a sopping wet Will. "It's a captain's right!"

Will just glared back, then succumbed to the wiles of his sympathetic niece. "Finally, someone who loves me," he grumbled, as she brought towel after towel over to him.

It was while they were all sitting down to eat their lunch that Hector had the most unexpected conversation.

"So…Hector…d'you have any family hereabouts?" Will asked around his ham-and-cucumber sandwich. Neenie wrinkled her nose as she watched her uncle swish around his food in his mouth, looking every bit like her mother.

Hector stiffened and chewed slowly, delaying his answer.

"Oh, you won't be gettin' nothin' from him!" John Granger interrupted, feet propped up against the railing. "Tried askin' him meself this mornin', but he weren't saying nothin'. Clammed up like an oyster, he was!"

David furrowed his brows, but didn't look up from cutting Neenie's apple.

"No, I…" Hector hesitated. Might as well get it all out now, if I'm going to be working with him. "I-It's fine…I don't mind." He looked up to meet three pairs of eyes (Neenie was staring at his shoes, not his face), and settled back in his chair. "Well, I grew up in York, in North Riding----"

"Yes, yes, we know where that is, we're not daft," John interrupted. His younger son glared at him over Neenie's head.

Hector briefly smiled. "Sorry. Back then I was the youngest in my family, with an older sister and two brothers----"

"Wait. What do you mean by 'back then'?" Will butted in. "'Back then' meaning…you aren't now?"

"When I was sixteen, my parents died," Hector explained. "I was left in the care of my sister. Then shortly after I'd finished school----"

Neenie giggled. Juno had climbed onto her, placed her front paws on Neenie's chest, and stuck her nose into the girl's ear, as though longing to tell her a secret.

"Where'd you go to school?" Will asked.

"Erm…somewhere quite north of here, you've probably never heard of it," Hector said, flustered.

"Have you been to university? Or are you looking into one?" David said.

Hector studied his plate, choosing his next words carefully. "Truthfully, I haven't even thought of it. You see, after I'd finished school, my parents' murderers went after my eldest brother and his wife and kids. So now it's just me and my other brother and sister. I've just been so busy trying to support me and my sister that there's never been much time for furthering my education. But I've always had a knack for sailing, and it does make a good living…you, of all people, ought to know this, John."

Hector glanced up to see John Granger staring out over the sea, a far-off look in his eyes.

Will looked confused. "But…what about the men who killed your family? Have they been apprehended? Are they still out there, or did the authorities catch up to them?"

"Will," David warned. "I'm not too sure he wants to talk about it now."

Will looked disgruntled, but didn't say anything, which Hector was grateful for. There was an awkward silence that filled the yacht now, broken only by Neenie's persistent giggles.

All in all, everyone was pleased when Will rummaged around and held up a bag of ripe cherries and a pack of playing cards, saying, "Cherry Poker, anyone?"

Hector set down his cards after his fourth round.

"I'm out," he said, and popped one of his cherries in his mouth. He felt a tugging on his trousers and looked down to see Hermione scrambling to get onto his lap.

"Wants one," she demanded.

"Come over here, Neenie," Daddy said, not wanting her to be in the way.

She pouted. "No!"

"It's alright, I'll cut them up for her," Hector said, hastily. "You've got a game to win."

"Oi, and who said that I wouldn't be the one winning?" Will said mildly. "See your ten and raise you fifty."

"Bit cocky, aren't you?" Grandfather asked, setting his cherries in the middle of the table.

David chuckled. "That's how he's always played, Dad. But I know a bluff when I see one."

"Oh, bluffing, am I?" Will retorted.

Hector looked down as the two grown men started bickering, to see Neenie looking up at him expectantly. "I's Neenie," she chirped.

He laughed and said, "You're right, we never have been properly introduced, have we?"

She just smiled shyly at him.

"My name is very long," he said.

"Whats is it?"

"Pandaemon Hector."

She giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck, hanging on tightly, pretending to be a monkey. "I likes you, Pan!"

"Oh yeah? Well I likes you, too, Neenie!" he said, tickling her.

Laughing and squirming, she managed to wriggle out of his grasp and onto the floor, where she dived under the table for cover. Will jerked as she latched onto his leg and crawled up. "Why, hallo there, little snake!" he exclaimed as she settled herself in his lap, sticking her tongue out comically at Hector.

"Will, it's your draw," Grandfather said.

Neenie looked at the newly acquired cards in her uncle's hand. They reminded her of a game she and Mummy would play, with things called 'mumbers'. In fact…the cards did have mumbers on them, and one of them looked an awful lot like a----

"Swee!" she squealed, pointing. "Swee…an' a two…an' a fo'…an' a --- a----a----"

"Why you little----!" Will roared. Grandfather, David, and Hector burst out laughing. "She's --- she's reading my cards! You little cheater!" He plucked her off his lap and sat her down on the ground.

Startled at this new change of scenery and at the sharp tone her uncle had used with her, Hermione screwed up her face and began to cry.

"Will! Now look what you've done, you big prat!" David said, and hurried to console his daughter. As he picked her up, her wails just grew louder, and Iris, who had been sleeping in the stern, gave a rather human-like grumble and shoved her head underneath her sister's rump.

"Can we start this round over?" Will said.

"Could you stop being a bloody imbecile?" Grandfather growled. "Look at what you did to the poor child!"

In spite of her tears, Neenie managed to wail, "Wants Pan! Wants Pan!"

Hector half-rose out of his chair, accidentally knocking the table over in his haste to get up and console the girl. His face was one of tragedy that Will was most wont to tease…had he himself not been the cause for his niece's grief.

"No, Neenie…shh, not now. It's time for your nap," David whispered.

At once, Neenie's wails rose to screams. "Nononononononononono!" she cried, flailing her fists.

"I could be wrong, but I don't think she wants one," Will said.

"Well, I think that you should be recommended for just stating the obvious!" Grandfather said.

"And I think your poker game has decided to call it a draw," Hector said, looking at the upturned table and spewed cards.

"And I think it's time our grumpy little queen went down below to take her nap!" David said, and set off down the narrow stairs.

This idea apparently didn't suit well with 'their little queen', however. Hector could hear her screaming and kicking the whole way down and felt a twinge of guilt. Even Will, he noticed, was looking a bit chagrined, feeling that it was his fault for scaring her.

And all because I chased her under the table… If I had known she'd start a tantrum because of it…I hope she falls asleep all right…

"Don' worry, lad, she puts up a fuss every time she goes for a nap. Don' be blaming yourself for her tantrums," John Granger said.

Hector looked over at him, a bit startled. "Since when did you start reading minds, Gampa?"

The old captain chuckled. "Since you decided to fall in love with a two-year-old, Pan!"

As well as could be expected, Hermione did have a fitful nap. David emerged from the stairwell long after her screams had ceased, looking thoroughly exhausted and well-worn.

"We plumb forgot to bring her bedtime book, so I had to think up a story to tell her and she…er…well, it didn't seem to please her for some reason…" he explained.

"What was it about?" Grandfather said.

"A large castle and a little princess. I just got to the part where she befriends a giant dog after meeting the fierce giant, when Neenie started screaming, saying I was doing it wrong!" he shook his head, remembering.

"How'd she say it was supposed to go, then?"

"Well…I couldn't quite tell at first, but I kind of got the drift that she wanted the giant to be the friendliest giant in the world, and the large dog was supposed to be mean and ugly and scare the little princess very much," David sighed. "How she ever got to be this picky is beyond me!"

"You were always pretty mild when we were little, Dave, so I'd say it's all Cordelia's fault. Who knows how much of a terror she was at that age? Her mother probably spoiled her no end!" Will said.

"You're right, Will, you were the wild one. Always blamed for everything, you were. Mum never looked twice at me when she saw that someone had replanted all her flowering bulbs in the loo. I'll forever be grateful!" David smirked at his older brother.

"That was you?" Will yelped. His father roared with laughter as Will held his head in his hands. "Holy shite…she never forgave me for it…I'm still scarred from having to pull those damned roots out of the plumbing! And it took me a week to be able to pull all the thorns out of the seat! And it was you the whole bloody time!"

David just chuckled and turned to Hector.

"We had to pee on a flowerbed for a week," he explained. "Will's just sore because he had to be rushed to the hospital after getting a thorn stuck up his----"

"New subject!" Grandfather sang.

Will was suspicious.

He'd been taking a nap in the hot sun with a bottle of beer in the one hand and a cucumber sandwich in the other when he suddenly noticed the lack of voices.

Why is it so quiet around here?

He cocked open an eye and peered around him. To the left, Dad, David, and Hector were sitting around the table and conversing in whispers.

Now I know something's up. They've never whispered while I was sleeping if they could help it.

He thought a while, watching them.

They're either scheming or trying to make me think that they're scheming, he decided. Either way, I won't be fooled.

He closed his eye and pretended a huge snore, listening hard as to what they were whispering about. After ten minutes of spying and coming up with nothing, he promptly drifted asleep.

He never even noticed that the yacht had altered its course sixty-five degrees to the right.

It was nearing four o'clock in the afternoon when Will started seeing a little blob on the horizon.

"Hey what is that?" he asked, squinting.

"That, you devil, is a change of plans," Grandfather answered.

A little brown head poked around the stairwell. Spotting a certain person, she zigzagged around the group of legs until she threw herself onto a pair of brown-tasselled shoes. "Sssss, sssss!" she hissed, wrapping her little arms around her daddy's legs.

"Oof! A snake's got me!" David said. He disentangled her arms from his legs and picked her up. Almost immediately she had her head on his shoulder and a thumb in her mouth.

"Not's a snaky no mores!" she yawned, snuggling closer to her daddy.

It was widely known that the person who tucked her into bed before she fell asleep would become the object of her affection as soon as she woke up. There would be no removing her from her daddy's arms for another hour or so.

Another ten minutes later, Will could clearly see that the little blob he'd noticed earlier was turning out to be an island. It was a fairly moderate island, of a rather decent size; Will saw a few towns at the very least, surrounded by a forest of trees further inland. And there up ahead----

"A harbour?" he asked, puzzled. "I thought the only one for miles around was Brownsville's. Where are we?"

Hector said nothing, but turned the yacht sharply right to avoid running into a rowboat that came whizzing by. The two men onboard the dingy sailing craft never even bothered a sorry, but kept on straight into the mouth of the harbour.

If that weren't enough to send Will into the depths of confusion, the fact that Hector wasn't heading toward the harbour, but rather avoiding it completely, and going, instead, the opposite direction sure did it.

They sailed right by the harbour's docks and sailing vessels to the other wilder side of the island. The forest was dense and quite overgrown; cliffs jutted out high above them while waves crashed upon the rock base with such ferocity that Will was shocked.

Hermione held tight to her father's neck, staring at the looming cliffs with enormous eyes. David stared at them grimly, all the while whispering words of comfort to her. Even the otters, Will could see, shrunk back from the railing, not wanting to swim in that strong current and eyeing the crashing waves with distaste.

Hector was at the helm, face set, carefully steering the yacht clear from the waves' pull with Grandfather muttering directions in his ear.

"Don't clutch the wheel so…easy does it…the wind is pulling us a little more now…more to starboard, now, more to starboard!"

Will saw how tense Hector was, and realized why. If he so much as gave the boat an inch, the current could catch them and bash them against the sharp rocks. They'd all be shark meat within minutes.

It was enough to make anyone nervous.

Making a wide berth around the cliffs, they were soon freed from the strong current and everyone let out a collective breath they hadn't known they'd been holding.

Hector navigated them around the shoals, keeping a weather eye out for any rocks jutting up underwater. Around them were gorgeous rock formations, rounded by centuries of water and wind. Caves weren't uncommon, ranging from small otter-sized cubbies to daunting and gaping black holes. It was to one such cave, which had quite a sunnier spot and rather warmer waters than most, that Hector steered the Milan 360.

Will was still marvelling at the peacefulness of this little cove when David and Grandfather emerged from the galley with fishing poles and tackle, grins on their faces. Hermione squealed when her father presented her little floaties, and the otters were off in the water in a flash.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"The newly-dubbed Granger Fishing Cove, of course!" his father answered. "David and I found it last year."

"Well, yes, but…but where?"

David looked up from fitting Neenie's bathing suit on. "But didn't you know where we are, Will? Even you weren't this daft, I thought!"

Will opened his mouth to retort, but his younger brother's next words took the wind out of him.

"We're at Bowman's Isle, of course!"

Author's Note: But, of course. Now who can tell me what significance this new information holds? And who can catch all the clues I've inserted here about what will happen next? Especially those concerning quite a bit of the plot-line? And don't despair! We haven't seen the last of Cordelia...or Puck, for that matter. they still have one more role to play before the end is through.

Question: What sort of revenge should the otters have on Will for him locking them in the box? Hmm? I haven't decided what I want to do with that, so any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated...and full credit, of course!

Now, I know that you've all been going "Yes! She's finally updated!" but I thought that I should warn you that this bliss will only last a couple of chapters or so before it is all overturned! So don't say I didn't warn you. Things will be getting pretty nasty in a bit...

...In fact, I know that this will sound horribly cliched, but somebody is going to die. In fact, a couple of people. So BE WARNED!

...Right then...now that I've scared you all off...is there anyone left of you to review the chapter now?

Please?