I am amazed. 11 reviews in one chapter? I LOVE YOU!

So, here you go, my writing pried from the beating (hopefully) heart in my chest!

Enjoy! (and review!)

A Sore Back… Again

Lily cracked her eyes open, then immediately hid under the blanket again when the offensive light stared right at her, injuring her senses.

Slowly and carefully, Lily peeked out from under the thin blanket for the second time, remembering her promise to herself she would wake up earlier than Benny and Arthur. The light pierced her eyes again, but she didn't flinch this time. She sat up, and rubbed her eyes to rid them of sleep. Completing this action, Lily looked around the room, wondering why she would possibly be in here.

The memories came back in a flood. The books… the fight over the bed… Benny and Arthur…

Lily smiled as she remembered the wimpy pillow fight Benny had attempted to start last night, but Lily and Arthur had quickly shot him down, both too tired to carry on. It seems like Benny was on a constant adrenaline rush.

She heard Arthur stir below her and Lily quickly brushed her fingers through her long hair and pinned it up again. Making sure every strand was in place, Lily then placed the bandana over her head, tying tight so it wouldn't come off.

Next, Lily grabbed the cloth from the end of her bed and took her shirt off. This part was quite awkward, as it was the only time she had been indecent in the presence of a male.

Scratch that, it'll be the only time she'll be allowed in the presence of a male indecent.

Do you know why Charles let her go through with this insane plan?

So that she would not have to marry, and therefore not be exposed to anything inappropriate to a five year old.

In fact, before Lily had left, Charles had given her a stern talking to, which included the phrases, "If they try anything…"… "Hangman's noose for them…"… "If they find out you're a girl, jump off the boat. I don't care that you might be in the middle of the ocean, do not let them touch you."

It had gotten so bad that Lily was still having trouble blocking visions of death, in which her brother was the one behind it all and she was in the sea drowning because of his stubbornness.

"Charlie? Benny? You awake?" Arthur's voice floated up towards her.

"I am," Lily replied, "But I think the nut case has finally crashed."

Indeed, the sound of Benny's snoring was so loud Lily wondered by people in Africa weren't marching up to clap a hand over his mouth.

Arthur chuckled, "Thank God for that, otherwise he might've killed us all."

"Death by annoyance," Lily put in, grinning, easily slipping back into the new routine of banter.

A bell clanged somewhere nearby, and while Benny didn't stir, it made Lily and Arthur jump.

"That's probably the signal for getting up," Arthur said, starting to unfold himself from under his bed and stretching.

"Didn't look like it did the job for the nut case, though," Lily had followed Arthur's lead, slipping down from her position and grabbing her boots from the side of the bed.

"Do you think we should wake him up?" Arthur mused.

"But then we'd have to deal with him," Lily reasoned playfully.

"If we woke him up, we'd also have the pleasure of throwing things at him," Arthur said, the first mischievous smile Lily had seen creeping onto his face.

"What?" Lily, though pleased by the grin, was thoroughly confused.

Arthur didn't answer her, choosing pick up The Pirate Princess, take aim, and lob at the snoring lump.

Lily snorted when the book hit Benny squarely on the head, and he in turn jolted awake, attempted to fly… and landed on the floor.

"Now, you see," Arthur turned to Lily, still grinning, "I got the pleasure of throwing something at him, and then seeing him crash and burn."

"I like you, Arthur Weasley," Lily told him a-matter-of-factly.

"I like you too, Charlie Jones," Arthur clapped her on the shoulder.

"What about me?" Benny's voice was muffled by the wooden floor.

Arthur and Lily shared an amused look before turning towards Benny, "We like you too, Benjy Fenwick," the said at the same time.

"Benny!" came his yell from the floor.

(

"I don't understand why one of you couldn't have just climbed up and gently shaken me awake," Benny grumbled, rubbing his sore shoulder.

"And you probably never will," Lily replied cheerfully.

It was now midday and after a painful morning of book sorting, Lily was quite excited for her first lesson. It meant that maybe soon enough they would be able to start doing real jobs around the ship.

Caradoc and Sturgis had joined them earlier on their way to the deck where they were yesterday.

"What did they do?" Sturgis asked, clearly amused.

"I threw a shoe at him –" Arthur started.

"And he fell out of bed," Lily finished.

"In our room," Caradoc began with a smile on his face, "We have a little something called order."

"Really?" Benny looked shocked.

"Never heard of it," Lily said innocently.

"Neither have I," Arthur said, "After all, it is pretty hard with five brothers."

"You have five brothers?" Benny gaped at him.

"Yeah," Arthur grinned and named them all, "There's Frederick, Matthew, Theodore, Bertram, and Malcolm."

"What kind of name's Bertram?" Benny asked.

"My brother's name," Arthur replied, daring Benny to go further.

"I think it's a lovely name," Lily said sweetly.

Benny glared at her, "Yeah, you would."

"Over here!" Mad-Eye's voice carried clearly across the ship and the boys and Lily changed direction to stand by the railing, to make their way over to him instead.

"Sir," they bowed their heads to him.

"No, we'll have none of that. Just Mad-Eye, if you will," he told them, "You'll be learning a variety of things on this ship, but none will you ever fully master if you do not possess CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared the last two words, so loud that Sturgis actually took a step back.

"You'll learn how to fight, how to control the weapon in your hand. Your senses will be honed so that even when a ship is only a black speck on the horizon, you'll know what it is, and you'll know what to do."

He stood back to look at them, "The captain has granted you the rest of the day off so that you can work with me. First things first, though. You'll have to climb the rigging so you can get to the lookout position. And then you'll have to know how to swing on ropes. We'll start with that today."

Mad-Eye had hired another man onboard to demonstrate, though he told them he'd rather be doing himself if it wasn't for his "blasted leg".

None of them had had the courage to ask him why his leg had got chopped off, and they figured they probably never would.

"Listen closely," he barked at them, "Climbing the riggings is difficult. First, you have to…"

The demonstration was, in Lily's opinion, amazing. The man was a monkey, and she doubted she could ever climb that fast.

"You," Mad-Eye nodded towards Lily, "You try."

Lily gaped, "But- But… I…"

"Don't stand there stuttering, boy! Get a move on," Mad-Eye barked.

Lily looked terrified, but did as she was bid. She wrapped her arms around the ropes in the correct position that the demonstrator had showed them all.

Slowly, but surely, she pulled herself up to the lookout position, where Mad-Eye had pointed out.

She grinned to herself when she realized she had done it perfectly. Truth be told, it was quite fun. Looking down, she saw Arthur grinning at her and Benny giving her the thumbs up. She waved at them sweetly.

"Alright, no showing off, come back down," Mad-Eye yelled up at her. Coming down was harder, as she hadn't realized how far up she was until she looked down from the lookout position. She landed smoothly on the deck, beaming up her five companions. Benny started clapping jokingly, but it soon faded when Mad-Eye gave him "the look".

"Mr. Fenwick," he started, "Why don't you try next?"

Benny shrugged, but started climbing the riggings with as much grace as he would if he had been doing it all his life.

He reached the mast must faster than Lily did, and with a gesture from Mad-Eye came swinging back down like a monkey.

Arthur, Caradoc, and Sturgis all tried. Caradoc and Arthur made it up and down, like Lily and Benny, but their speed was slower and their movements clumsy. Sturgis didn't even make it up to the mast. About halfway up, he made the mistake of looking down, and with one whimper had to climb back to the deck.

"Not bad, not bad," Mad-Eye appraised them with his one eye, "Just a bit more practice, especially you, Podmore."

They learnt about how to swing from ropes. This was, in Lily's opinion, quite terrifying. You had to hold onto the rope with one hand, and then cut the rope off with your other.

Lily really didn't fancy swinging on a rope with a knife in her hand. This was in her personal category of DON'T DO THESE THEY ARE DANGEROUS in herlist.

However, like last time, Mad-Eye ordered Lily to go first. He handed her a dagger, one with a handsome, shiny blade just half a foot long. Its handle was a dark, mahogany wood that looked like it had barely been used.

Lily became aware she was wasting time looking at the dagger and looked up. She saw Mad-Eye's questioning face and a wave of determination swept through her. Sticking her chin in the air, she didn't bother to think about this new urge to please Mad-Eye, to impress him. She just wanted to prove to herself that she could do the same as any other man, possibly better.

She grabbed the rope with one hand, just as the demonstrator did and gripped the knife even tighter. The goal was to swing from her to the wheel. In one swiping motion, she brought the knife round to attack the rope. It broke immediately, and she was off.

Contrary to Lily's previous belief, though it still remained dangerous, swinging on the rope was… fun. She knew that if her hair was loose, it would be swishing a round her and tickling her cheeks. It was exhilarating to feel almost weightless, and it boosted Lily's self-esteem when she found holding herself up was completely easy,

All too soon, Lily was at her planned destination. She turned back to the group, letting go of the rope.

"No! Don't – " Mad-Eye's yell reached her too late and the rope swung harmlessly down to the deck.

"Get that, boy, and don't do it again!" Lily realized that she was supposed to bring the rope back, and feeling immensely stupid, she walked timidly to the busy deck, crowded by the crew moving around and doing their jobs.

She winced as the rope kept getting stepped on, and she had to keep repeating "Excuse me" to get it.

Once she finally retrieved the rope and returned to the railing where Mad-Eye was, she held the rope out for him to take.

He snatched it back, "Don't do that again boy. You never know when there could be a bunch of pirates surrounding you and you need it again to return."

Lily nodded mutely and held the dagger out too.

Mad-Eye's face softened, if only a bit, "Keep that. You never know when you'll need a knife too."

Lily smiled gratefully and joined Arthur and Benny again.

"You okay?" Arthur asked as Benny stepped forward to try.

"Perfect," she replied, slipping the dagger into her boot.

Soon, all the boys had gone, each of them making a mental note to bring back the rope after what happened to Lily.

Mad-Eye seemed to think that that was enough for one day, choosing to teach them little bits and ingrain them into their minds looked like the best course of action, rather than loading things onto them all at once.

"Keep practicing for the remainder of the day," he ordered, leaving them to their own devices while he searched for the captain.

"Do you want to practice with the ropes, Charlie?" Benny asked her, "After all, you need to remember not to leave the rope behind."

"Oh, shut up," Lily shoved him out of the way, but headed towards the ropes nonetheless.

The rest of the day was spent doing what Mad-Eye ordered. Lily perfected her rope-swinging abilities, and then raced Arthur and Benny on the riggings, Benny always winning. Lily also spent more time with Caradoc, who also showed Lily some tricks with her recently acquired dagger.

Mad-Eye showed up hours later and raised an eyebrow at Lily and Caradoc, who both had their daggers out.

"I don't recall telling anyone to practice fighting," he growled.

"Sorry sir," Caradoc replied, "I was just showing Charlie a few tricks."

Mad-Eye grunted. "You're all dismissed. Just be aware that I will be checking to see if you had been practicing or not tomorrow." He glared pointedly in the direction of Lily and Caradoc.

"Yes sir," came the now familiar general rumble of the four boys and Lily.

They trounced back to their new housing, filled with the feeling of accomplishment and pride. An excited buzz took up most of their trip back to their rooms as they talked about the thrill of swinging on the rope, or how fast they might be able to climb on the rigging.

"The moves you showed Charlie, Caradoc, where'd you learn them?" Benny asked.

"My father taught me when I was smaller," Caradoc, who had suddenly gone stiff, answered through tight lips.

"What was he then?" Benny, as curious as ever, was oblivious to Caradoc's discomfort, "Was he a blacksmith?"

"No," Caradoc gave Benny an annoyed looked when he opened his mouth to ask again, "Would you hold your tongue?"

Benny looked taken aback, "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude."

Caradoc said nothing, but just kept walking and didn't even say goodnight to the other four when they reached his room.

Sturgis gave the occupied room an apprehensive look before turning to the others and bidding them goodbye.

"Well that was extremely insensitive," Arthur told Benny once the door closed behind them.

"Did he really look that bad before?" Benny, to his credit, did look abashed and a little sorry.

"Yes," Lily told Benny, throwing off her boots.

Benny turned to Arthur.

"Do you really need to ask?" Arthur looked disbelievingly at him.

"You'll have to apologize," Lily told Benny.

"I know, mother," he grinned teasingly at her, "Right after I get some sleep."

He chucked his boots into a corner and threw his shirt onto the chair. Jumping onto his top bunk, he waved to them cheekily before diving under the covers.

Arthur and Lily shared an exasperated look before Arthur followed suit and stood by the bed, waiting for Lily so he could lift her up.

"Do you ever take the bandana off?" Arthur asked her.

Lily just smirked and fell into her bed.

Lily waited until Arthur's and Benny's snores became louder to disguise any sound she might've made by moving around. She slowly removed the cloth from her chest, sighing and taking a deep breath to enjoy the freedom. Then, she untied the bandana and chucked that under her pillow.

She ran her fingers through her hair, thinking she would give anything for a hairbrush. She imagined it was disgusting, all tangled and greasy.

That reminded her of a man her brother had introduced her to. Severus Snape was a wealthy count, high in his position at court. It was last year she had laid eyes on him, before any of this boy business. She had hoped to find a respectable man around her age that she would one fall in love with, or at the very least share a bond.

He had swept into her house like he owned the place, immediately earning her distrust and dislike. His lips were contorted into a constant sneer that set Lily's teeth on edge.

She had hated him not from the moment he had entered her house, but when she sat down to tea with him. It was all about Snape, Snape, Snape, and then how he needed a trophy wife on his arm. When this topic of conversation had been reached, he had looked her up and down, giving one nod of satisfaction before calling for his carriage.

Many times after this he had called for her presence at his manor, but Lily had always been curiously sick. Charles had played along with this, despite the need to get her married and they had snickered many nights imagining the look on Snape's face when he opened their letter of decline.

He had even asked for her hand a month after they had met. Lily, however, had told him that she would think about it. That was a year ago.

Lily smirked.

If Benny and Arthur ever found out the truth… well, Snape would never be safe again.

She vaguely wondered whether the two boys she had grown so close to in so little time would keep her secret if she ever told them.

Lily shook this thought away. Even now she knew they wouldn't, even if it might put their own necks at risk. But Lily also knew she would never tell them. She would never take the opportunity to show them her red locks or her actual body shape or even talk normally with them. She was, in her own mind, too much of a coward to risk the potential bond between them.

Coward. Coward. Coward.

The word rang in Lily's mind as she fell asleep.

Maybe, one day, she thought wryly, that is if, of course, I can keep it away from the rest of the ship.

I'm also updating my other story, How it all Began, if anyone else wants to check it out.

Also, I'm wondering:

Who should find out about Lily?

-Arthur

-Benny

-Mad-Eye

-All of the above

Review to tell me who!