I'd like to thank Balthazar23, Antar23, werewolfXZ, damadape, TheNarratingMan, WraithNX01, Vahktang, flixus, Lynix, TripsToTheRescue, fredfred, InquisitorCOC for betareading.

Chapter 16: The Village Part 1

Godric's Hollow, Devon, Britain, July 11th, 1996

Lily Potter almost dropped the book she was reading - or trying to read in an attempt to distract herself - when the doorbell rang. It was almost noon, but James would use the Floo network. As would most of their friends. That meant… Someone who didn't want their trip to be logged by the Floo Network Authority. Which officially didn't happen, though Lily knew it could easily happen if you knew how to circumvent the safeguards. Or had the authority to do so.

She drew her wand and approached the door. The wards hadn't been triggered, which was a good sign - anyone who managed to slip through the protections wouldn't need to stoop to cheap tricks like ringing the doorbell. On the other hand, that would be so obvious, people might try it anyway.

She peered at the small mirror that showed the outside. Sirius and Peter! She gasped. They were expected, although… She shook her head. Paranoia wouldn't help anyone, no matter what Moody thought.

She still kept her wand ready as she opened the door. "Sirius! Peter!"

"Lily! We return, not quite triumphant, but with results!" Sirius said, grinning.

"What the lout means is that we completed our mission," Peter explained with a frown aimed at Sirius's back.

"Yes, yes."

"Come in!" she told them. As soon as the door closed, she asked: "Did you find Cobblespun?"

"We found, captured and interrogated him!" Sirius announced. "He was clever, but not clever enough to fool my nose!"

Lily looked at Peter. She loved Sirius, if not as much as James did, but she didn't like his sense of theatrics. Most of the time, at least - he had his moments.

"He wasn't in the hotel; that was a decoy," Peter told her. "He was hiding in another building, but Padfoot found him, and we took him last night."

"We would've returned at once, but we encountered some trouble with the French," Sirius said. "Nothing serious, but it slightly delayed our departure from our neighbouring country's shores."

"They shouldn't have identified either of us, though they'll suspect us, of course," Peter explained. "We didn't hurt them, or anyone other than Cobblespun, so the French shouldn't be too angry."

"They can't prove anything anyway." Sirius grinned. "Two can play their silly games."

"You wouldn't consider it a silly game if they decided to send some 'deniable assets' after you," Peter commented.

"They can try," Sirius's grin widened. "But we have a Dumbledore, and they don't."

Not for the first time, Lily wanted to ask whether Sirius mangled famous quotes intentionally or just got lucky. But she wouldn't ask - if he was doing it intentionally, he would be waiting for such a reaction. And she had Harry to worry about. "So, where's Harry?" she asked.

Sirius sighed, and she pressed her lips together as her heart sank. "We don't actually know that," her friend said. "Cobblespun doesn't know, either."

"You've used Veritaserum?" They would have, of course. But she had to ask.

"We did. We thoroughly interrogated him. Which contributed to our troubles with the French," Peter said.

"We didn't want to do anything illegal on British soil, so we did it on French soil," Sirius said. "But the buggers must have had some way to track him."

"Or we made a mistake setting up the safe house; happens to the best of us," Peter said.

Of course, Peter would take the blame; their friend was much too hard on himself. Lily shook her head. "None of you were hurt, which is what's most important."

"And that we got Cobblespun," Sirius added. "He doesn't know where Harry is - but he knows where he got the Portkey from." He bared his teeth. "As we expected, Cobblespun hadn't inherited it - he stole it."

Lily had expected that indeed. But… "No one claimed to have lost it, though." And, given the coverage in the Prophet and the gossip in the Ministry, she was certain that almost everyone in Wizarding Britain had heard what had happened - and how it had happened."

"Of course they wouldn't have come forward - the Portkey was part of a pirate's estate." Sirius scoffed. "Can you imagine how embarrassing it is for an honourable pureblood family to have such a scoundrel in their family tree? Not embarrassing enough to get rid of the loot they brought home, of course! Abandoning gold, no matter how bloody? Perish the thought!"

"Which family is it?" Lily asked, clenching her teeth.

"The Averys. Slytherins to the core, of course."

Oh. Severus's friend.

Unknown Island, July 11th, 1996

"A ship?" Harry Potter, now mostly hidden behind a rock, took a closer look. Yes, there was something in the parts of the sea - the bay - he could see through. "A sailing ship?"

"It looks like a sailing ship," Granger agreed. "I can't make out any details, though." She looked at him as if he would do any better.

So he shrugged. "I can see a white sail, nothing more."

"So much for your 'Seeker eyes'."

He frowned at her. "That's not the same." He was an excellent Seeker, but he didn't have hawk eyes.

"And you don't know any charms that would allow you to make out things further away."

"Such charms would disqualify me in Quidditch:"

She gave him a look as if he had said something stupid, then turned to look at the settlement again. "If there hadn't been a ship, I would have expected the settlement to have been abandoned. Why else would they tolerate a wyvern hunting people?"

"The ship might have just arrived, to check up on the wyvern," he speculated.

She muttered a curse under her breath. "We can't let them see us until we've determined who they are and what intentions they have."

"Yes." That was obvious.

"But if they're here for the wyvern, they'll be searching the island for it - they'll check its lair," Granger went on. "They might find our traces!" She looked back at the other side of the hill. "

"Nothing we can do about it," he said. "And they'll suspect our presence anyway, once they find out that the wyvern's dead."

"Still… they might have wondered whether the wyvern was killed by a whale or something. But once they find our tracks, they'll know we did it." Granger shook her head. "This was a stupid mistake. I should've thought of this possibility!"

"I didn't think of it, either," he told her. It wouldn't help them if she beat herself up over this.

Instead of being grateful for his attempt to console her, she looked at him as if she had expected him to make such a mistake. "We can't change it any more - but we need to cover our tracks from now on."

"That'll make fishing and getting salt harder."

"More difficult but not impossible," she said. "But we need to find out who those people are. And what their intentions are."

"You mean, we need to find out whether or not they'll mean us harm."

"Yes." She let out her breath. "They might belong to a wizarding authority investigating the island."

He snorted. "You don't believe that, do you?"

"It would be too much of a coincidence," she admitted. "No, I think these people have a reason to hide the island."

"And not a good one - not for us." He nodded and pressed his lips together. "Getting close without being detected will be dangerous." And exhausting - they would have to travel through the jungle to keep hidden.

"Yes." She took a deep breath - he could see her chest heave. "But we don't have a choice. We need to know what we're facing if we want to escape from the island."

"Right." He nodded again. "They would probably spot a raft, even if there weren't spells alerting them - or stopping us."

"Can they do this?" she asked.

"They hid the entire island," he told her.

"But that could've been by… No. A Fidelius Charm would still affect us, wouldn't it?"

He frowned. "I don't know." He hadn't asked Mum and Dad about it - they didn't like talking about the war. "But Azkaban is covered with spells which prevent people from escaping the island even if they manage to escape their cells."

"But Azkaban is smaller than this island. By a lot. And we know the spells have an even bigger range since the wyvern hunted in the sea."

"You studied Azkaban? Afraid you'd end up there?" He forced himself to chuckle at his joke.

"So I wouldn't get lost visiting you in prison," she shot back.

"You'd come to visit me?"

"To taunt you, of course."

"I'm touched!"

They both chuckled - but not for long.

"So, back to the shelter?" he asked.

"Let's study the lay of the island a little longer. We need to plan how to proceed. Maybe make a crude map…" Granger squinted at the village, then looked at the rest of the island. "You wouldn't be able to conjure a pen, would you?"

"No. You can conjure parchment?"

"Yes."

"Makes sense. You would have bankrupted your family otherwise, with the length of your essays."

She snorted, but her expression wasn't amused. Not really. But before he could ask what was wrong - it had been a harmless joke, after all - she gasped. "I'm so stupid! Lead!"

"Lead? Oh. Lead!"

"Yes. It's not the most healthy method - not at all, actually - but I should be able to write and sketch with a piece of lead. We need some wood to transfigure into lead."

Harry raised his wand. "No problem."

Hermione Granger frowned at the parchment she had conjured. It was crude, rough, far from the quality of the parchment Hogwarts used. On the other hand, rough as it was, it might work better with a lead pencil. "I wish we'd learned a spell to create graphite," she muttered.

"Or ink," Potter commented.

"Yes. Although I guess either would lead to problems if someone dispelled it," she replied. Like a certain boy messing with her homework.

"That's an idea. You wouldn't need to use invisible ink then!" Potter grinned.

She glared at him. "Do you think it's funny to destroy hours of someone's work?"

He looked taken aback for a moment, then shrugged. "Not hours. But making someone rewrite their sappy letter home? That's funny."

"For you, maybe." She sniffed.

"You'd find it funny as well if you'd had to listen to someone compose the letter out loud," Potter retorted.

"I would tell them off long before I contemplated destroying their work," she shot back.

"And if they don't listen?"

"There's always the Silencing Charm," she replied.

"That's not exactly nice," he said.

"But better than ruining their work. I certainly would prefer to be temporarily rendered mute than to lose half my work."

He chuckled. "Really? I'd thought not being able to talk would be a fate worse than death for you."

She scoffed. "I can always dispel the charm, for one."

He laughed at that, and she joined in for a moment - she knew that she had a slight tendency to tell off people. Only those who deserved it, though. Mostly.

"Well, what about making them think they lost their work? Like with a Switching Spell? And see them freak out before you give them their letter back?"

She frowned for a moment. "That would actually be funny." Especially if done to the sort of people who made fun of her homework.

"Good idea, then!" He grinned.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Anyway, Let's cast Bubble-Head Charms." She did so right away.

"Bubble-Head Charms?"

"Yes. And cleaning charms afterwards. We don't want to inhale or ingest lead," she explained. After all, there was a reason unleaded petrol had replaced leaded one. The damage that stupid decision had done to people over decades...

He stared at the transfigured lead pencils in his hands. "Right."

She took one from him and handed him a sheet of parchment. "Let's sketch the island. We can compare and combine our work afterwards."

Sketching the island was more difficult than she had anticipated. She had to guess the angle of her field of view to estimate the distance from the hilltop to the village, and it wouldn't be very precise. On the other hand, the only really important part was the coastline - the jungle covered the rest of the island, and while the hill stuck out of the jungle, they had already explored it.

After fifteen minutes, she was done. Mostly. Neither an art teacher nor a cartographer would praise her work, but it should serve as some guide and help.

She glanced at Potter's attempt and frowned. And clenched her teeth. His sketch looked… much better than hers, as much as it pained her to admit it. Perhaps not as precise, she'd guess - she was more or less certain that she had the actual distances more correct - but his coastline looked better than hers. More detailed and recognisable.

And it also looked less like a primary school project.

"I think you've got the bay there wrong. And the cove is a little larger, isn't it?"

She forced herself not to glare at him. "We can compare notes once we're back in our shelter."

"What? It's better to compare our sketches here where we can easily check."

She swallowed her retort. Potter was right, damn it! "Alright," she managed to say without growling. "Let's take a look at the maps."

Granger couldn't draw to save her life, Harry Potter realised. Even his little sister had done better work before Hogwarts - and she was about as talented in drawing as she was in potions. But at least she had admitted it - even though it must have cost her half her tooth enamel. Now if only she would stop trying to correct his distances…

"This has to be larger - our angle of view means it only appears shorter," she told him for the third time.

"Fine," he said. "Then draw it."

She glared at him, took the third sheet of parchment from him, then quickly marked down a spot. "Draw the coastline to this spot!"

He glared at her, but it was obvious that she wouldn't budge. With a sigh, he completed the coastline there. "Happy?"

"Yes." She flashed her teeth at him. "Now let's get back to the shelter before it gets dark."

"Right."

Using the compass - or the navigational help, as Granger called it - they managed to find the shelter in a reasonable amount of time. However, they had to go to the beach, ultimately, to reorient themselves. And to get another fish, even though Granger worried far too much about being spotted while in the water. They didn't have the time to get some salt, but Harry managed to get a coconut full of saltwater.

An hour before sunset, they were in front of the bunker, going over the map while eating a few leftover pieces of grilled fish with the help of roughly-made toothpicks.

"The approach through the jungle would offer the best cover, but it's also the most obvious," Granger said, pointing at the edge of the jungle on the map.

"Never do what they expect," he told her. That had held true his whole life - being unpredictable didn't mean he never got caught, but it certainly helped a lot. "And this isn't a situation where doing the most obvious thing will be the last thing they expect - they'll have the jungle covered. If only to keep out predators."

"Like the wyvern."

"They must have charms to repel it." Not that they would be needed any more. "And they will probably have traps and worse around the village."

"But if we can't go through the jungle, that leaves the beach - or the sea. Neither offers much cover, if any at all," she objected before taking another piece of fish.

Harry pointed at the map. "We could approach from the sea and use the rocky ridge here as cover."

"Wouldn't that be too obvious?"

She was right. He frowned and looked at the map again, trying to picture the cove in his mind. "If they've covered all the rocks and both sides of the bay there, then we have to stay in the water - underwater!"

"Underwater?"

"Bubble-Head Charms," he said.

She rolled her eyes. "That wasn't what I meant. We won't see anything from underwater."

Well, they would be able to scout the seabed, but mentioning that wouldn't help their planning… unless… He grinned. "We'll be able to slip into the cove underwater, then stick our heads out and look around."

"And if they detect us?" Granger asked. "We'd be trapped in the water in the middle of the settlement - next to the ship. And what if they have protected the cove from the sea? With nets or similar means?"

That was a possibility, but… "We would spot the nets."

"Unless they are disillusioned."

"Now that's paranoid," he told her, then ate the last piece of grilled fish.

"They tolerated a huge man-eating wyvern," she retorted.

"We don't know that," he objected. "The ship could have arrived just recently, and the village could be abandoned. That's part of what we need to find out."

"And you think it's worth the risk."

"Yes." He was a Gryffindor, anyway. "And you can stay back and summon me if things go bad."

"Do you honestly think that would help us? If they are hostile and the village isn't abandoned, they would hunt us down in that case." She crossed her arms.

"It's better than getting captured right away." Or killed, but he didn't say that. He didn't have to.

"Any spot from which I could summon you would be even more exposed," she said.

"Well… I guess that means you either stay back here or come swimming with me." He grinned at her with far more confidence than he felt. She was right that this was dangerous - but they couldn't risk building a raft, or doing much of anything, until they knew more about the ship.

She clenched her teeth and scowled but nodded. "Yes."

"Great!"

This was reckless. Stupid. Far too dangerous. Hermione Granger should know better than this. She did know better than this. But she also knew that they couldn't just hide and hope to be saved. If the Ministry or Potter's family hadn't found them so far, odds were that they wouldn't find them, ever. That meant they needed to escape the island on their own - and they needed to know what the village was. Without more information, they couldn't plan their escape.

And so she had to join Potter on this foolhardy adventure. Great. "We'll have to give the shore a wide berth," she told him. "Just in case there are guards or spells on the rocks there."

"Can you swim that far?"

She scoffed. "Can you?"

"Of course!" he replied, though she couldn't help feeling he silently added 'how hard can it be?' to his claim.

Well, they would see about that. If things didn't work out, he wouldn't drown, at least, and she could summon him out of the water.

Unknown Island, July 12th, 1996

She really needed to step up her cardio, Hermione Granger thought as she stopped for another break - thinly disguised as a 'navigation check'. That Potter was in better shape than she was was unacceptable. Especially when it went beyond sitting on a broom and playing Quidditch. Wood had been obsessed about training indeed.

She recovered her breath - without being obvious about it - and cast the Four-Point Spell. Once her wand stopped pulling on her hand, she aligned the crude compass they had fashioned and consulted her - their - map. "We're more or less where we should be," she stated, glancing at the beach visible to their left. "That's the prominent rock on the map."

Potter peered at the map as well - he leaned in so close, he almost touched her, and he smelt quite nicely, she noted - before he nodded. "Halfway there," he commented.

"Only as the crow flies," she corrected him. "And we'll have to swim the last part."

"Yes." He snorted for some reason. "Let's go on."

"Yes." She stashed the compass in her shirt. In the jungle, their line of sight was too limited to navigate by picking a landmark, and they were following the coast anyway.

It really was just a cover for taking a break - of which Potter had to be aware. At least he wasn't rubbing it in.

She flicked her wand to wipe some sweat from her face, then cast a hairstyling charm to redo her ponytail. "I'll have to readjust once we're home," she muttered.

"What?" Potter, a few steps ahead, turned to look at her.

"I'll have to remember not to cast so many cleaning and hairstyling charms," she told him. "Once we're back home."

"Ah." He nodded, then frowned. "Why, though?"

She rolled her eyes. "Because of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, of course." She bared her teeth at him. "As a muggleborn, I can't cast spells at home and have them 'mistaken' as cast by my parents'."

"Right." He nodded again. "But that's only for two more months, isn't it?"

"Yes," she said. "But that doesn't change how unfair it is."

"Well, kids showing off is a threat to the Statute."

"That goes for others as well. The Weasleys live in a muggle village."

"Not exactly in the village," he corrected her.

"Close enough to visit it," she said.

"And if they work magic there, it'll be recorded." He shrugged.

"But I can't even work magic at home without breaking the law! Unlike purebloods."

He shrugged. "It's also to protect you - well, probably not you, but other muggleborns. If they make a mistake with a spell, who's going to call St Mungo's?"

That was a good point. But it was still unfair. She said so and walked on.

He snorted and overtook her again. Which was also unfair.

An hour later, they were close to the cove according to their map and her calculations. Close enough to stop. "We're here," she said, pointing at the map."

"Right. Swimming time."

"Yes." After a short break. "We'll have to clear the peninsula there - if you can call it a peninsula." It was small, after all.

"Works for me," he said. "But we'll have to give it a wide berth."

"I know." They had talked about it before, hadn't they? She took a deep breath.

"We could wait a little longer," Potter said.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "We know what we want to do. And I can swim the distance. There and back." She swam more when she went to the pool over the holidays. "Can you make it?"

"Of course!" Potter told her.

She narrowed her eyes, but he didn't flinch.

Well, he better not be lying.

She nodded. "Let's go - we have cover here until the water." Rocks formed a little bay here - far smaller than the cover they needed to enter but sufficient to hide them from view from the village. And even from the air if they stuck close to the rock formation.

She stripped out of her top, shorts and shoes, then shrank them and put them in the makeshift pouch stuck on her hips. It wasn't watertight, but that didn't matter. The map, though, she hid by burying it in the sand - they could always summon it if they didn't find it again. But that would keep it dry. Then she cast a Bubble-Head Charm.

He did likewise. When he took the first steps towards the water, she stopped him. "Wait. Sunblock, please." They would be in the sun for some time, after all.

"Oh, right."

Two spells later, they quickly dashed over the sandy beach and threw themselves into the surf, then dived as deep as they managed.

Harry Potter took a deep breath when they finally hit the water and could dive. He had cast a Bubble-Head Charm, and he was sure he had cast it correctly, but still… some instincts you just couldn't shake. And one such instinct was to take a deep breath before diving. Even though it made it harder to dive.

Granger didn't seem to have any trouble, though - she was ahead of him; he could see her kicking her legs as she skimmed the surface of the seabed. Her hair had escaped her ponytail and was trailing behind like... well, he couldn't think of a good comparison, actually.

And he shouldn't be thinking of her hair, anyway. Or her legs. Or body. He had to focus on their goal. Which was to sneak into the cove and find out what ship was there - and what village. And he shouldn't let Granger lead the way. He was in better shape than she was, and he was faster with his wand.

Well, she was in shape, so to speak, especially seen from behind…

He gritted his teeth and pushed himself a little to swim faster, past Granger. He gave her a thumbs-up as he passed her, then blinked. They needed a better way to communicate. Perhaps… He pointed at his head, then at hers, then made a talking motion with his hand.

She frowned at him, then pointed at her ear.

Well, she must have realised what he meant. He swam to her and grabbed her head, then pulled her towards him until their two bubbles of air touched. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, obviously - if we can breathe air, we can also speak." She sounded a little stilted. He could smell her breath - she must have cast a charm that made it smell like mint. Or a tooth-cleaning charm scented like mint. Not a bad idea, actually - he was going to breathe his own air for a long time.

"Good. So we can talk to each other in a pinch - if we stick close." That might not always be possible, of course. "And we can use hand signs if we can't talk."

"Yes. We should've agreed on a few specific hand signs beforehand," she said.

"Well, up, down, back forward…" He shrugged. "What else do we need?"

"Danger?"

"I think our expressions will make that obvious. We aren't wearing diving masks and breathers, after all." He grinned.

"Right." She frowned, and his grin widened. "Is that all?"

"Yes."

"Then you can stop hugging me, and we can continue our dive."

Right. He was sort of hugging her, wasn't he? Well, they weren't touching, but he kept her head close to his. Which was a little… well, intimate. Or would be if it weren't Granger.

He released her and turned to swim along, parallel to the rocks on his right. They still had a way to go, after all. And the water wasn't cold, but not particularly warm, either.

It took them quite some time to round the rocky not-peninsula. Granger had kept up just fine, though - Harry had regularly checked if she was still behind him. That was what diving buddies did, or so Dudley had explained after his vacation to Greece. Though muggle diving was much more dangerous than using a Bubble-Head Charm, they were about to enter a potentially dangerous area. If those wizards on board the ship were hostile…

He froze. That was a shadow moving in the water, further out. He turned to Granger, then grimaced as soon as she made eye contact, pointed ahead and made swimming motions with his hands.

For a moment, she didn't look like she understood, but then, she swam towards him and looked in the same direction.

And he saw the shark swimming towards them. Bloody hell! Harry drew his wand out of his pants, cast a quick Shield Charm with it and then pointed it at the huge fish coming towards them. It was… almost as big as Harry was. Which was a lot bigger than it sounded.

Granger was at his side, with her wand out as well.

A stunner would probably take the shark out - but what if it made it float at the surface? That would draw attention. And if the wizards on the ship realised the shark had been cursed…

Granger had cast a Shield Charm as well, he noticed.

And then the shark reached them - and bumped into Harry's Shield Charm. Which bumped Harry back. It hadn't tried to bite him, though, he realised as he frantically kicked his legs to return to Granger. Who was bumped around as well when the shark circled around her and hit her with his tailfin.

She took a little longer to return, not that Harry blamed her. But the shark didn't bump into them again and didn't try to bite them. It circled them a few times, though, before finally swimming away.

"Probably just wanted to play," Harry muttered. Granger didn't react - of course not, she couldn't have heard him.

He looked at her, then pointed ahead, towards the cove.

She nodded.

Hermione Granger was still shivering a little when Potter signalled to continue towards the cove. Even though she had been protected by a Shield Charm - and a solid one - a shark slapping her around wasn't something to shrug off. And those teeth… Nothing on a wyvern, though.

Potter had shrugged it off easily, so she would do the same. Besides, they had killed a wyvern - a man-sized shark wasn't in the same league. Although she much preferred to fight on solid ground, not underwater. Or close to an unknown ship with a crew whose motives were equally unknown, but probably suspect given their location.

Potter was already ahead of her, so she sped up to catch up to him. She hadn't actually been scuba diving - yet - but she had read up on it enough to know that you had to stick with your diving partner so you could communicate and help each other. If they lost sight of each other, they would have a hell of a time trying to find each other again. Even summoning might not help - Potter's pants had looked very tight, but not very solid, and she knew her own underwear might not hold up as well as her jeans either, should Potter try to summon her with her clothes.

Another mistake - an oversight - she should've caught before diving. She could only hope Potter would realise it as well and wouldn't trust that she could summon him out of danger again.

She snorted. Hope? Trust, but verify. She overtook Potter - he wasn't as good a swimmer as she was, she noted - and grabbed his head to make their air bubbles overlap. "Potter."

"Yes?" He looked surprised.

"I'm just checking that you're aware that summoning each other has to be a last resort. Our current attire isn't as sturdy as our normal clothes," she told him.

He blinked, then glanced down. "Right. That would be embarrassing."

Very embarrassing. "And potentially fatal," she retorted. If he tried this on her for a lark, she'd… well, she wouldn't kill him. But he'd wish she would have.

"Well, yes, but we'd still try it if it was the only way to escape. Even a slim chance is better than none at all, right?"

"Of course. I said it was a last resort, didn't I?" she replied.

"Yeah."

"Also, we shouldn't be deep enough to worry about decompression when we resurface, but it would be safer to take a break of a few minutes when we're going up. Just to be safe." Hermione could be wrong, after all, and a mistake here could be fatal.

"Decompression?"

"The bends - divers can die if they return too quickly to the surface," she explained.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"You didn't mention that when we were planning."

She suppressed a frown. Yes, she should have. "I didn't think we'd have to worry about it. Not so close to the shore. But better safe than sorry."

"Alright."

She nodded and released his shoulders, then pushed away with a kick of her legs, twisting to propel herself towards the cove. They were almost around the peninsular. Or mole - though it was a natural formation. A natural harbour - that would've attracted people in the past, hence the village.

Potter overtook her again, but she saw he was pushing himself to do so, so she slowed down a little. He might be in better shape than she was, but it wouldn't help anyone if he tired himself out trying to upstage her.

Then they entered the cove - she could see how they turned by the way the angle towards the sun shifted. She swallowed. If she squinted, she could already see the hull of the ship ahead - or a shadow where it would likely be. She swam forward, touching Potter's legs.

He stopped and turned. She closed the distance again. "We could swim to the shore," she said, "instead of to the ship."

"Too risky," he replied. "The crew will likely look at the shore, not straight down."

"They could look down." People did that, leaning on the railing, looking down at the water.

"Even odds then, but the ship provides better cover. And we don't know what the village looks like."

He sounded confident, so she nodded. Even though she had her doubts. But they would stick with the plan.

Potter took the lead again, and she easily followed him, staring up at the surface, hoping they were deep enough to avoid notice until they were directly under the ship.

The water was growing a little murky, she noticed, which would only help them. But was that the result of sediments being washed into the sea by a small stream or something else? They hadn't seen a stream from the hill, but a small one could be covered entirely by the tree canopy. And, historically, settlements were founded at rivers and other sources of freshwater, even though spells could compensate.

They reached the ship before she could make up her mind, and she felt relieved when they were shielded by the hull above them. Although… That wasn't a modern steel or carbon hull. That was a wooden hull, she noticed as she looked at the keel. And one which had attracted some fouling - she could see plants and some clams stuck to the planks forming the hull. Not too much, but still… No copper covering the hull, either.

Potter swam over to her and leaned in until their bubbles merged and their faces were almost touching each other. "It's pretty big. That's no yacht." He was whispering despite being underwater.

She agreed. "It's also old. Or old-fashioned." This wasn't the time to mention the Ship of Theseus. "Look at the rudder."

"So… An old sailing ship. Wizards, then."

"Likely," she said. "But we need to take a closer look to find out more."

He nodded. "Let's use the eastern side - we'll be in the shadows there when we surface."

Not much of a cover, but better than nothing. She pushed back, then took a deep breath and started to swim upwards, towards the surface. She stuck close to the hull, but not too close - she couldn't risk getting cut by clams or anything else stuck to the hull; the blood would attract sharks even if she healed it at once.

She hoped Potter was as careful.

Then she reached the surface and looked around. And gasped softly.

The village wasn't abandoned - she could see a dozen people, easily, walking around or working on something in front of the houses. And the houses… Mediterranean for sure. White or sandy colours, flat roofs with awnings… but those ornaments. Oriental.

Someone touched her arm, and she almost gasped again. Potter!

He pointed up. She tilted her head back, and her eyes widened.

Those were cannons sticking out of the rump there. Old cannons - those had gone out of style a hundred and fifty years ago! For a moment, she wondered if they had been thrown back in time somehow, before she noticed the very modern-looking anchor array.

Still… who would use cannons in this day and age? And old ones? Reenactors? But they wouldn't have used a modern anchor. She squinted her eyes. Those barrels, what she could see of them, were covered in... runes? What kind of wizard would use a cannon when a blasting curse would do as well or better?

"Pirates," Potter whispered next to her ear. "Barbary Coast pirates."