The International Wizarding School Competition

Wizarding World News - Issue 2 Writing School

Technique: Paragraphing

School: Durmstrang

Year: 7

Prompt(s): (emotion) dread, (sound) laughter, and (action) pursing lips

Word Count: 991 (with 10% leeway)

Warning for Pirate!AU, and character death. I hope you all enjoy Marauders of the High Seas.


The hollow creak of the dry wooden walls could be heard over the heavy bombardment of the town. The jeering laughter of the invading force as they rampaged through the square sent shivers down her spine. She knew that if she were found here, she would be taken as a slave or worse. But that fate was far better than the one that would be allotted to men of the village.

She peered out the window of the small wooden hut that was her family's home. She could make out the shapes of human forms in the shadows thrown by the flames. Tall shadows of dark figures that would haunt her waking and sleeping nightmares for the rest of her life.

"Where are the villagers?" asked a gruff voice from one of the shadow figures again the hut nearby.

"It looks like the village was abandoned," one of the others says, trying to make himself seem more important than the others. "Perhaps they'd received word about what we did in the last village we hit?"

"Don't be foolish," snapped the man who was apparently the leader of this group. "They wouldn't abandon such a jewel as this without so much as a defense."

"But that seems to be what they have done," the man said, pointing around the small group that was shown by the fire they were standing around.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" a small blond-haired man who was standing near the leader asked, looking upon him with a look of the utmost adoration. "Do you think they are hiding somewhere within the walls of these houses? Should we smoke them out?"

She could feel her heartbeat reach a crescendo that matched the booming of the canons that were ravaging the port of the village. For sure she and the other who hid amongst the tiny village houses would be done for, for sure.

Backing away from the window, her foot hit upon one of the objects that had fallen to the floor when the attack first began. An ornate ball that her father, the chief of the village, had carved for her when she'd been but a child.

The sounds of the carved ball rolling across the floor seemed to draw the attention of the dark-haired leader of the group towards the window. He whispered something to his grey-eyed companion who could have been confused for some sort of familial relations. He then disappeared from the group around the fire.

"What's going?" asked a hushed whisper from the room behind her.

"Sh," she chides her older dark-haired sister. She doesn't mean to sound horrid towards the older girl. But if Petunia doesn't quite they can be found and then God only knows what would happen next.

"But, Lily…."

"You can't go up there," she hears one of the servants say at the footsteps of the stairs. "You can't…." His speech is cut off by something that sounds like a firecracker from one of the villages' holidays. This sound is quickly followed by a hollow thunk on the stairs and the muffled screams of the other servants in the hall.

"I think I can go up here," the gruff voice of the pirate that had been down at the fire says.

The oak wood of the floor creaks as his footsteps come closer and closer to where the two sisters are hiding. She can feel the boney fingers of her sister's hand clutching to her like she is liferaft. Like she can do anything against this monstrous pirate that is invading not just their village but their house as well.

"Shall we run?" Petunia asks, fear filling her voice as the door handle turns. "What should we do?"

She should be the one turning to Petunia for help. Not the other way around. She shouldn't be the strong one. But looking at the fear across Petunia's features as the rowdy laughter from outside continues she knows that she is one of them who will decide their fates.

The door opens and there he is. A tall gallant looking pirate in a rather tattered looking reddish coat with a gold sash around his waist. The plume of his giant hat matching the fabric of his coat to perfection. His hazel eyes look towards her and Petunia.

"What have we here?" he asks as though talking to himself. A smile crossing his lips that fills her once more with dread. More so than when the canon bombardments had started what seemed like a lifetime ago. "Remus, Sirius, take these two with us," he commands the men who are thundering up the stairs behind him. "They could fetch us a rather handsome ransom, don't you think?"

The one that she had mistaken for being a relative of this man. This self-proclaimed second in command leaped into action and took hold of her shoulders. The other man taking a much gentler hold on Petunia.

"You won't get away with this," she says, pursing her lips as she glares up at the leader of this group.

"Won't I?" he asks, stepping close to her. He is so close that she can smell the scent of him. She surprised to find that he smells quite alluring. A scent of sea salt, and cinnamon mixing together. "Then you've obviously never heard of Captain James Potter and his Marauders, my dear."

She plays the name of the man over in her head. She had heard of him but he wasn't as famous as he thought he should be. She looks over her shoulder and watches as he leaves a small thing of parchment on the bedside table of the room that was hers.

"Back to the ship," he commands, storming past her and her captor. "We sail with the tides."

Looking back she allows a lone tear to fall down her cheeks. She loves her home but she knows she might never see it again.


I hope you all enjoyed Marauders of the High Seas as much as I enjoyed writing it.