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

Chapter 17: The Village Part 2

Godric's Hollow, Devon, Britain, July 12th, 1996

"There are no records in the Ministry about any Avery having engaged in piracy." James Potter sighed and sank into his favourite seat in the living room. Not that there would be any records after a few centuries - enough gold would see embarrassing files vanished. "Also, as we expected, the theft was never reported to the Ministry." And he had been diligent in his search.

"Of course not. Imagine the scandal if it were revealed that a distinguished pureblood family owed their fortune to a pirate's estate," Sirius said, grinning. "Even worse - to a famous muggle pirate's estate! Well, what was left of it. Henry Avery made a fortune as a pirate shortly after the Statute of Secrecy went into effect and then disappeared. Despite a huge bounty on his head, he was never caught. And neither was his treasure found."

"You've done your research, I see," James said. Which was a surprise.

Remus snorted. "If you can call walking into a muggle bookshop and asking for 'books about the pirate Avery' 'doing research'."

Sirius frowned - pouted - at them. "Hey! I got results. And as Peter will confirm, results are all that matters."

James glanced at Peter, who nodded in his usual, quiet manner. "It fits. They must have hidden the pirate."

"Hidden the body, I would say. You know the Averys." Sirius scoffed. "They wouldn't have let him live a moment longer than what was needed to get all the gold he took from the Mughal Empire's ships. No loose ends to tarnish the family's already less than perfect reputation, either." He shrugged in that nonchalant manner of his that James had never mastered. It was probably a Black thing. "My family would've done the same, of course - but our fortune was earned by wizards, not muggles."

"The question is," Lily reminded them, "not how they made their fortune, but how we can get them to tell us where the Portkey led to."

"We could try blackmail," Sirius suggested. "I doubt they would risk attacking us."

"But they could tell on us," Remus pointed out. "Trying to blackmail an Old Family wouldn't look good, either."

"We could claim that we were merely trying to be discreet for their own sake," James said. That was done far too often for real, anyway.

"Would they do it? Would they refuse to help us find Harry?" Lily asked. "Wouldn't that see them crucified by the Prophet?"

"The Prophet's been covering the kidnapping extensively," Remus said. "And everyone knows Dumbledore is helping us. The Averys would face some backlash if they didn't help us."

"They could claim they have no idea," Peter pointed out. "And if we present proof, our operation in France will be revealed - officially revealed, that is. And that will cause trouble for the Ministry and Dumbledore."

Trouble they couldn't afford with Harry missing.

"They could easily avoid any trouble by coming forward, blaming everything on the Death Eaters in the family, and earning favours by helping us," Sirius said. "After three hundred years, most of my esteemed peers in the Wizengamot wouldn't care overly much about some muggle pirate - especially if they got him killed to keep their name clear. Many would think this was sort of like taking care of a squib, actually."

James clenched his teeth. He didn't like where this was going. "They haven't contacted us. And they must have recognised the stolen loot - the Prophet might not have listed it, but the Wizengamot got everything."

Lily spoke up: "They might not have known. If this was stolen from a Death Eater - or another family member who got killed in the war - then the current family might not have been aware of it."

Sirius snorted. "They would've been aware of it. If a low-life like Cobblespun could steal it, then it wasn't hidden from the family. At least not the core members, so to speak. Especially during the war, they wouldn't have risked losing crucial knowledge through death."

James cleared his throat. "So, that means they have more to hide than an embarrassing muggle family member."

"Yes," Sirius said. "Cynthia Avery isn't the brightest witch in Britain, but she's smart enough to see the opportunity here. If she didn't take it, it means revealing the origin of the Portkey would reveal more secrets they don't want to be revealed."

James sighed. "That means asking them wouldn't help."

"No." Sirius shook his head.

"Sorry." Peter shrugged.

"I don't think so," Remus agreed.

"And if we kidnap one of them and interrogate them, they'd know we were behind it," James said. And that sort of action wouldn't be tolerated by the Wizengamot. No family would want to risk such a thing happening to them.

Lily took a deep breath. "Then I think there's one option left."

James clenched his teeth together. He hated this. Really hated this.

"I'll have to ask Severus to help us."

Unknown Island, July 12th, 1996

Harry Potter was certain: Those people had to be Barbary Coast pirates. Everything fit: The ship, the houses and the people.

Granger, though, didn't seem to share his opinion. "We're in the tropics," she whispered. "Quite far from the Barbary Coast. Morocco would be closest, but that's still over a thousand miles from here."

"Yeah?" He scoffed - softly; he couldn't risk anyone overhearing them. "Someone forgot to tell them that."

She scoffed in return. "You can't just assume that people are pirates just because they conform to stereotypes."

"Well, they've got a ship armed with runic cannons, they have a magically hidden port, and they apparently kidnap people. In France." The conclusion was clear as day!

"We need more information to determine if they are actually pirates. They might be descendants of pirates," Granger argued.

"We can't swim closer," he whispered. "The risk's too high." Pirates would be alert - and would be quite experienced in fighting. Probably. In any case, they couldn't risk being seen. Not unless they were certain that the villagers weren't pirates. He hoped Granger didn't have a romanticised view of pirates - Harry had no illusions that those people would help two shipwrecked teenagers. The best they could hope for would be ransomed back to Britain. The worst...

He clenched his teeth and studied the waterfront and the rest of the small village again. He couldn't see many nets being worked on, nor many boats that might serve fishermen - and those he could see were very securely tied up.

"It doesn't look like a fishing village. And it isn't a trade port," Granger whispered.

Of course not - you didn't hide trade ports. And… He narrowed his eyes. "See the building there at the end of the waterfront?"

"Barred windows," Granger replied. "That would be a hugely oversized prison for such a small village."

"Yes." The island might serve or have served as a prison island, of course, though that was unlikely. In light of the dead witch's last message, another conclusion was much more likely: This island had served as a slaver base. And might still be in use.

"Damn!" he heard Granger hiss - she must have come to the same conclusion. Finally!

"Well, we won't find out anything else by staying here," he whispered. "Let's swim back and return to our shelter." Before they were spotted and hunted down.

"Yes."

They slowly sank down, below the ship's keel, before swimming towards the open sea again. Granger was holding up better than he had expected - she could swim, at least, even if she sucked on a broom.

They didn't encounter any sharks on the way around the peninsula, either. Harry was very grateful for that. A Shield Charm would repel a shark, but it was still unnerving to see such a huge fish trying to nibble on you - and if the shark managed to push one of them to the surface...

But nothing happened, and they reached the beach from which they had started without trouble. He held up his hand, though, to stop Granger from rushing out of the water. He wanted to take a look first. Though he couldn't see anyone waiting in ambush. "Did you cast your Human-presence-revealing Charm?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Let's rush to the treeline. Yell if you spot anyone."

"Of course."

He went in first, dashing out of the water, then sprinting over the beach. As soon as he reached the trees, he ducked behind one, let Granger pass him, then conjured a breeze to wipe out their tracks. At least those in the sand - the ones underwater would have to be wiped by the waves.

Granger didn't comment, for a change - she was recovering their map.

"Wipe out all of our tracks, as well as you can," he told her.

"I wasn't planning to leave an arrow pointing at our shelter," she shot back.

"Better safe than sorry," he quoted her own words back at her.

Judging by her glare, she still didn't like that. But that was a good thing. As long as she was annoyed, she wasn't panicking.

Then she pulled her shrunken clothes out of her makeshift pouch and started drying them. But that would take a while. And Harry really didn't want to stay so close to the pirates.

"We could fly back and dry them at the shelter," he suggested.

She frowned at him. "Travel through the jungle in our underwear?"

Harry felt himself blushing. He hadn't thought of that. "Never mind." He pulled his own clothes out.

And tried not to look at her as he dried his shrunken clothes and his pants.

Hermione Granger felt relieved when they finally reached their shelter - but she couldn't help worrying. Before, the threat of discovery had been theoretical. Even after spotting the village from the hill, she hadn't really thought that they were in danger. Intellectually, yes, but emotionally, no.

But now… She sighed and sat down on 'her' bench at their table. A couch would've been great right now.

"So…" Potter sat down on the bench across the table. "We're on a pirate island."

"Or on a former pirate or slaver island," she corrected him.

"You don't believe that, do you?" He leaned forward, both elbows on the table.

She gritted her teeth. "We can't discount the possibility, but we can't afford to be too optimistic."

"I'll take that as a 'no'," Potter said, smirking. Only briefly, though.

She suppressed a huff. "Assuming that this is a pirate village, why didn't they get rid of the wyvern? If we managed to kill it, a group of pirates certainly would've managed."

"They didn't want to get rid of it," Potter said at once. "Cover their village - and, perhaps, the area around it - with some wyvern repelling charms or something like it and leave wyvern to patrol the rest of the island."

But any invaders ready to attack a pirate ship or village wouldn't have trouble with a… "You mean they wanted it to hunt down fugitives?" She felt sick in her stomach.

"Perhaps they used it to scare any captives so they wouldn't try to escape." Potter shrugged. "They could've pointed at it when it was flying around."

She pressed her lips together and took a hissing breath. "Then we're in trouble. Deeper trouble, I mean. They will notice that the wyvern isn't flying around any more."

"We'll have to hope that they won't notice right away and that they won't want to check out its lair." Potter bit into a slice of coconut meat. "Even with a Disillusionment Charm and proper brooms, it would be dangerous to disturb the wyvern in its lair if it's just feeling ill for a bit."

She nodded. "But we can't count on such a delay lasting forever. Sooner or later, they'll realise someone's on the island."

"We've buried the wyvern's carcass. They might think it attacked the wrong sea monster and was killed at sea."

She pursed her lips. "Do you think we'll be so lucky?"

He grimaced. "No. We'll have to plan according to the worst case."

"Active pirates and slavers," she summed up.

"Not that there's much of a difference between the two, at least where Barbary Coast pirates are concerned. Dad told me about them." He sighed.

"I've read about them in History of Magic," she told him.

"We didn't cover them," he said, frowning. Then he snorted. "You've read ahead, of course."

"They were mentioned when we were learning about the early Ottoman Empire," she corrected him.

"Ah." He shrugged. "In any case, they're still active. Not as much as before Grindelwald's War…"

"Dumbledore's Intervention afterwards, you mean," she corrected him. "Dumbledore and his allies from the war forced the Ottomans to abandon slave raids and the slave trade - which flourished during Grindelwald's War with most of the European forces involved in the war."

He frowned at her for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, the raids are still going on, just not as frequently any more, and, officially, they're the work of 'criminals' - unsanctioned pirates. But it's an open secret that the Ottomans don't really try to shut down the pirates."

She snorted. Typical. But her stomach felt like it was dropping. Barbary Coast pirates. She'd read the book. She remembered what they did before the war. "They didn't change at all, did they?" She hadn't read any articles about them in the Prophet, but she had only a sample size of five years, and Britain wasn't a target for the pirates.

Potter blinked, seemingly confused for a moment. Then he looked grim. "They cut down on the raids, but…" He sighed again. "They're still kidnapping people. Wizards and witches. For ransom or for the Janissaries. Or the harems."

He was glancing at her without directly looking at her, she noticed. "Harems are merely the women's quarters in an Ottoman household. Not what the fantasies of the Orientalists made them out to be," she said.

Was he blushing? In the dim light inside the shelter - none of them had lit their wand - it was hard to tell. "Women's quarters or whatever, kidnapped witches often end up enslaved in those. Dad and Mum were very clear about that when they told Rose and me. And the Beauxbatons students last year confirmed it."

She hadn't asked their visitors about that. An oversight, in hindsight. So, that disgusting practice hadn't changed, either. Witches, deprived of their wands to make them easier to control, kept as status symbols for the rich and powerful… She shook her head. She didn't want to think about that. "As far as I know, only children get sent to the Janissaries." Children young enough to be raised as loyal slaves trusted with wands to fight for the Sultan.

"Yes. Some Ottomans keep enslaved wizards and witches to work for them, but it takes a lot of effort to keep them under control and let them use wands," Potter explained. "That cuts into profits."

She clenched her teeth, then forced herself to relax. She didn't want to ask, but she had to know. "So… did your parents also explain to you what we can expect, should we get kidnapped?"

He winced. "Probably a ransom for me. Dad's prominent and well-off."

And her parents were neither. She pressed her lips together.

"So, we can't get caught," he told her.

She looked at him. He would probably get ransomed, wouldn't he? But he met her eyes with a determined expression.

Hermione nodded and felt a little better.

Harry Potter saw that Granger was apparently impressed by his declaration. She was smiling weakly at him. And he clenched his teeth, suddenly guilty. It wasn't as if he was lying, but… "Also, if we get caught, and they find out who I am..."

"Which is needed so you can get ransomed," she interrupted him.

He frowned. "Yes. But if they find out who I am, they might decide to make us disappear instead, to prevent Dumbledore from finding out about them and coming after them."

"Oh." For a moment, she looked very vulnerable: Eyes wide, mouth slightly open, not moving. Then she pursed her lips. "That only means we won't have anything to lose."

Great. Granger was overreacting again. "I said there's a chance that they might kill us and vanish the bodies. They might ransom us back instead. Claim they saved us."

"And obliviate us?"

He nodded. "Only way that would work." And they would be wondering for a long time about what kind of memories they had lost. What had happened to them. What had been done to them. He ground his teeth.

"Would Dumbledore be deceived by such a transparent lie?" Granger asked,

"I doubt it. But he probably wouldn't want to start a war or another Intervention over it - if we're returned safely and unharmed." Harry's parents had told him that the Headmaster loathed war and killing.

"That would mean these slavers would escape justice." Granger shook her head, baring her teeth.

"Are you convinced of their guilt already?" he asked. "You wanted more proof, didn't you?"

She pressed her lips together and glared at him. "I said we should plan for the worst case."

"Write our last will?"

She actually chuckled at his dark humour. "Yes. So, if anything happens, others might find out afterwards. It would give our families closure. And we might get justice posthumously."

"I'd rather escape and forego justice - if I had to choose," Harry told her.

"Let's hope we won't have to choose," she replied. "We owe the dead French witch. Without her warning, we might have stumbled into the pirates - the possible pirates. And they might've been able to fool us if they're pirates."

Harry wasn't sure if he shared Granger's views - they wouldn't have simply walked into the village, would they?- but he nodded anyway. After a moment of looking at each other, Harry sighed. "So, what do we do? I wanted to build a raft to leave the island, get out of the range of whatever spell blocks Patronus Messengers and let my parents find me."

"Or get to the west coast of Africa and call home," she added.

"Yes." But that was a very long shot. They didn't know how far they were from the west coast. Granger had measured the shadows but hadn't been able to determine their latitude more precisely than 'definitely the tropics'. "But now… They must have protections in place that keep ships from finding them - or escaping."

"Any spell able to keep a ship out won't have any trouble with a raft," she agreed. "We'd bounce off like…"

"...like a fly on a Shield Charm in a Wronski Feint?"

She huffed. "Not everything's about Quidditch, Potter."

He frowned in return. "You know, we've saved each other's life a few times now."

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't we be on a first-name basis?" He tilted his head a little. "I mean…" He trailed off with a shrug.

She pondered the question for a moment - her eyes lost focus, and she relaxed a little. "Do you want to?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

He shrugged again. "Do you?" How should he know? It just felt a little… weird to call her Granger. And hear her call him Potter as if she were a stranger.

She stared at him without saying anything for a few moments longer. "Answering a question with another question? That's usually the refuge of those who can't or won't answer the first question."

"Really?" He glared at her,

"Yes." She bared her teeth again.

She had him there. Not that he'd admit it - he'd show her! "Yes, I want to… Hermione." He almost spat the name out.

"Alright… Harry!" She replied with a sneer that would've made Malfoy feel jealous.

Once more, they stared silently at each other until he snorted, followed by her.

"So, what do we do now? If we can't build a raft?" Granger asked. "Levitating a plank as a makeshift broom won't work either."

He nodded. "They've got a ship, so they're able to leave the island. We need to find out how they do it - or we need to stow away."

"Stow away?" Hermione Granger shook her head in disbelief. "You want to sneak on their ship and hide, even though we don't have any idea about her layout or the defences the pirates will have cast?"

Potter pouted. "We would observe them beforehand and find out."

"And we could easily avoid getting caught while we snoop around, I suppose," she commented with as much sarcasm as she could manage.

"Obviously, we have to be very careful." His frown deepened. "Do you have a better idea?"

She bit her lower lip. That was a transparent ploy. "At the very least, we need more information before we make any plan." She cocked her head to the side. "I'll remind you that we didn't manage to kill the wyvern with our first attempt - and, assuming that we are facing pirates, we are unlikely to get a second attempt to fool them if we fail our first."

"That's why I said we need to find out how they defend the ship and their village - and the island." Potter shook his head. "But unless you've been taking lessons from a Curse-Breaker on the side, I don't think we have many chances to defeat the island's protections and escape on our own."

"We don't know what kind of protections they have - other than the fact that it's magically hidden," she countered.

"We know that it's warded even against Patronus Messengers and Dumbledore's best spells," he pointed out. "And we know that a kidnapped witch couldn't escape even though she had her wand. That means apparition must be blocked as well."

He was correct. "Portkeys work, but that won't help us," she added, for completion's sake. "Though there might be a fireplace connected to a Floo Network in the village."

"I doubt they would leave such a weakness when they went to such lengths to hide the village," he retorted.

She shook her head. "You never know - laziness and desire for convenience are amongst the biggest weaknesses of humans everywhere." Muggles and wizards alike.

He frowned for a moment. "We can't rely on our enemies making such a mistake, though. And we wouldn't know the names of any connected places, either."

"Yes. I think our best bet remains to escape by water - according to what we know so far," she amended.

"And stowing away seems to be better than testing the defences of the island on a raft," he said.

"We don't know that yet. They might rely on defences that we can deal with. If they used the wyvern as a deterrent against escape attempts, then they might trust other magical creatures to stop unauthorised travel." Hermione grabbed a slice of coconut without thinking. Ugh. She was fed up with coconut. But to put it back or vanish would make her look weak or spoiled, so she forced herself to eat it.

"Creatures which are likely more dangerous than a wyvern." Potter shook his head.

"That depends on their capability. Water-bound creatures could be foiled by levitation, for example," she pointed out.

"And how would we test for that? Send a raft out and see what happens?" He shook his head. "We would alert them to our presence that way. Even if we had a second raft ready, we would have trouble escaping."

She had to agree - she had seen the cannons, after all. And no raft would be faster than an enchanted sailing ship. "That still leaves us with the need to find a way to safely gather information about the village and the ship."

"Well, obviously, we can enter the village from the sea - we did that. It would be weird if they warded the landside but didn't do anything to secure the shore," Potter explained.

"Unless the spells go back to a time where few people could swim," Hermione told him. "They might predate the Bubble-Head Charm."

"They would've adjusted the defences since then." Potter shook his head. "But we don't have to risk sneaking through the jungle if we can use the sea. Which we can."

Great. Another underwater trip. "And if we're in the harbour, what then?" She looked straight at him. "We need a way to hide from detection." And that was quite difficult - especially since neither Hermione nor Potter could cast a Disillusionment Charm.

"Well, if we sneak in during the night, we should be able to reach the shore without being detected," Potter said.

"And we won't be able to see much, either," she pointed out.

"That's why we need to find a hideout in the village where we can stay during the day." He grinned.

She stared at him. That was… dangerous. Foolhardy. Very difficult. But it might be their best chance to spy on the village. Not that that meant much.

But it was something. And that was better than waiting until the pirates - if they were pirates, she reminded herself - discovered that the wyvern was missing and started a manhunt.

"Alright," she said, almost against her will.

Granger - Hermione, he reminded himself - had agreed with his plan! Yes! Harry Potter grinned.

"And how will we find a hideout without exposing ourselves?" she asked.

"Ah." His grin didn't falter. Sirius had taught him that being confident was half the success.. "We'll sneak in at night and look for one."

"And if we don't find one?"

"Then we sneak out again and try again the next night." That was obvious, wasn't it?

"We don't know spells to see in the darkness," she said. "It'll be very difficult to find a suitable hideout like that - we might find out that what we thought was the perfect spot is rather exposed come morning."

He frowned for a moment. "That's why we'll have to be very careful."

"We'll have to be very quiet as well. That will hamper communication," she went on.

His frown deepened. Why did she agree with his plan only to keep trying to prove it wasn't feasible. "Nothing we can't work around," he said. "If we arrive after midnight, most of the pirates should be asleep."

"They'll have guards up. At least on the ship. And at the prison, if they have captives," she pointed out.

"Yes, but they won't see us." He smiled. "We'll stay away from there. And I know how to avoid their guards - we'll shrink ourselves!"

Granger blinked before her eyes widened. "You want to shrink us?"

"Exactly. Like we shrunk the tree trunks for our trap." The pirates wouldn't be ready for that, he was sure.

"That's dangerous! Almost as dangerous as self-transfiguration," she snapped. "If you don't cast the spell perfectly, you might leave your wand or clothes behind."

"We can watch out for each other," he told her. "If one of us makes a mistake, the other can dispel the charm." Not that he would make a mistake.

"Even if that works out, we would have to stay shrunk for an entire day," she said. "What if we get attacked by animals?"

"We can deal with animals," he said. They couldn't work magic, after all.

She didn't seem to believe him. "Relative to us, a cat would be as big as the wyvern."

"But it wouldn't be as hard to curse as the wyvern was," he pointed out. "And it can't fly."

"Birds of prey can fly, though. Owls could hunt us. And depending on where we hide, we might have to deal with snakes and vermin," Granger said. "Giant snakes. And who knows if the pirates have some magical animals around to deal with vermin - or if they are prepared for their victims trying to escape by shrinking themselves?"

He pressed his lips together. No plan was without any risk, and they were already in danger anyway. "We can create a safe hideout here - like a miniature shelter - and take it with us, then hide in there. A coconut, stuck to a roof, would be pretty safe from any vermin."

She frowned. "That might work - though anyone spotting it will probably try to pick it up."

"It shouldn't be too hard to find a hiding spot for a coconut," he said, grinning again.

"Unless they have spells that deal with shrunken people. If we can think of it, others can. If they have some variant of an early anti-vermin spell that targets any animal below a certain size…"

He couldn't help wincing. Anti-vermin charms were usually very specific, so any pets were exempt. But few wizards had pets as small as they would be. And Uncle Peter had told him stories about having to deal with Anti-Vermin Charms that targeted rats.

Granger wasn't finished. "I think we have to assume that the ship will be protected against such an intrusion. Historically, rats were a big problem for sailing ships, so they'll have spells warding the ship against rats. Probably insects as well."

"But if they ward the ship against all small life forms, they won't be able to fish," he objected. And sailors would want to fish.

"Unless they have a spell that stuns or kills vermin. That wouldn't impede fishing at all," Granger said.

That was true, of course. Still… "How likely would that be?"

"Likely enough so we can't risk it." Granger stared at him.

"Not without testing for it." He grinned. "You can conjure your birds. See if they make it."

She slowly nodded. "That might work. They might still have spells specifically against shrunken people, but…"

"...they won't have them set to kill an intruder, I think," he said, smiling. "That would kill a valuable hostage. And if one of us is stunned, the other can revive them."

"If our assumptions are correct." She was looking rather dour, he noticed. "They did let the wyvern eat at least one fugitive, after all."

"Yes." Harry managed to avoid wincing at the reminder. "We'll have to test for such spells first thing once we're in the port again."

She nodded.

Another trip to the pirate port - the potential pirate port, Hermione Granger reminded herself. This could still turn out to be a simple mistake. A former pirate base, the spells that kept it hidden still going on, a former pirate ship used for trade - there was no need to change any spells on it or remove the cannons, not with Extension Charms enlarging the hold - and the community too small and too traditional to deal with the wyvern… She suppressed a sigh. Yeah, right. It wasn't very likely. Not at all.

She sighed. "So, if we plan to shrink ourselves" - she suppressed a shudder at the thought - "then we better ensure that we can do that before we sneak into the village."

"Ah, right." Potter looked a little less confident, she noted. He looked like he usually did when McGonagall announced that they would have to write a longer than usual essay.

She looked at him. "How skilled are you at reversing Transfigurations?"

"McGonagall didn't find any fault during my exams," Potter said. "And I'm pretty sure I did well in my O.W.L.s."

"So you didn't receive any special training." Hermione pursed her lips. She had hoped Potter would have had more experience undoing various hexes and jinxes.

"No."

"We've never learned how to reverse miscast Shrinking Charms," she pointed out.

"We've learned the basic principles," he retorted.

"I think we both know that that's not enough." She shook her head. If they managed to partially shrink a body part… She shuddered at the possible consequences.

"It has to be good enough," he told her. "What are the alternatives?"

"To reversing a Transfiguration mishap? Or to shrinking us to observe the village?" She cocked her head.

"The latter," he replied. "As to the former, we just have to be extra-careful when casting."

"We could take some driftwood and create a sort of… floating observation post," she suggested. "It would hide our heads while we're in the water, observing the village."

"We wouldn't be able to get close enough to observe them in detail," he retorted. "We have to be in the village to find out how they run things. And what they do."

"Before we risk shrinking ourselves, we could sneak into the village at night to see what we can find out."

"You think that's less dangerous?" He stared at her.

"Compared to shrinking your head by mistake? Or your legs? Yes." She nodded firmly. "We will check their defences tomorrow night. See if they repel small animals, for one." She could conjure a flock of birds for that.

"And we can check if the prison holds anyone," Potter said.

"Yes." She nodded again. If there were captives, and they could get them wands - they had a spare wand already, didn't they? - then that would change the entire situation.

Potter snorted. "You know, I'd have thought you'd consider this far more reckless than shrinking us."

She sniffed in return. "I've had to rely on Matron Pomfrey far too often to trust my own skills at undoing a miscast spell." And most of that had been his fault.

He had the grace to blush. A little. Then he stared at her. "Really? And you didn't make an effort to change that?"

"I studied counter-curses to common hexes and jinxes, mostly." And some actual curses.

"I guess I should've used more Transfiguration in our spats."

Spats. She pressed her lips together, then smirked. "I would've retaliated with similar means."

"Ah." He looked a little queasy, for some reason. Perhaps he finally realised the true dangers of shrinking yourself. "Well, we can still train the Shrinking Charm tomorrow, on your conjured birds, for example."

"And attempt to deliberately miscast it?"

"Exactly!" His usually cocky grin reappeared. "Just in case we need to hide in the village anyway."

As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. And it wasn't as if they had much else to do tomorrow. "Then we should go to sleep early," she said. "We'll have to be well-rested tomorrow, so we need to sleep longer than usual."

"Right."

They looked at each other for a moment, and she felt herself wetting her lips. "Good night," she said.

"Ah, right. I've got the first watch. Good night."

Unknown Island, July 13th, 1996

Hermione Granger yawned. It was… well, it wasn't too early. The sun had gone up a few hours ago. But Potter - Harry, she reminded herself - had needed more sleep. Otherwise, he'd be too tired to be careful later today. When they would be sneaking into the pirate village. And he was barely cautious enough when he wasn't tired.

She stood and stretched, then walked over to wake up Potter. He was sprawled on his bed, only wearing his pants. He must have kicked his blanket - well, his robe turned half-blanket - off. Sleeping like that, he looked almost… well, he was attractive. Aesthetically, at least. No baby fat left in his face and not much on the rest of his body. He wasn't overly muscular like some of those bodybuilders in the action movies, but still nicely toned. A hint of abs, defined biceps and his legs… Well, he had to have muscles to fight all the g-forces while trying to plant his broom into the ground despite all the safety charms. And without his smirk, his face looked nice as well. His hair… well, she was the last person with any right to complain about wild hair.

All in all, quite a nice sight, indeed. No wonder she was having weird dreams about him. If only his personality matched his looks! Well, then he'd have a girlfriend already, so, in a way, that was…

She blinked and stifled a gasp with her hand. What was she thinking? She was mooning over Harry - over Potter! And he was the boy who had done his best - or worst - to make her years at Hogwarts a pain! Sure, he had saved her life, but so had she his in return. And anyone could be a decent person with enough motivation. Such as being stranded on a desert island. Or a not so desert island.

That was the whole reason for her uncharacteristic thoughts: The stress, the danger and the isolation. Even if something happened, nothing would come of this - once they were back in Britain, things would go back to normal. Well, not exactly as before, but without being forced to stay together, they would return to their own social circles.

Which, she reminded herself, were connected due to their best friends being a couple. What a mess. She really didn't want to hear about Potter getting a girlfriend.

She blinked again, then buried that thought and shook her head.

"Hey! Wake up! Harry! Wake up!"

He didn't react.

She sighed and bent down to shake his shoulder. "Wake up!"

He opened his eyes, and before she could pull back, his hand was on her cheek, and he smiled at her. "Hey!"

She felt herself blushing. What was he doing?

Then he blinked. "Oh."

"You need your glasses," she said, in the driest voice she could manage. "I think you mistook me for someone else."

"Uh, right."

She nodded and left. And refrained from touching her cheek.