It's been ages but I'm back and hopefully there'll be regular updates from now on (well, as regular updates can get from me) because my exams are halfway done and then I'll have the summer to work on this.


Bad Blood


It was stupid to get suspicious over a bracelet that looked like it had seen better days, but even so, Sirius would bet everything he owned that the band strewn across Lily's desk was the same as the one he had seen on the wrist of Severus Snape, the very first time he met the slimy git.

At that time, he was at Grimmauld Place. Despite practically living with the Potters by then, he was still forced to attend the annual ball that his demented mother threw every year for Christmas. Evening dinner with some of her friends, she would always say, but last time Sirius checked, dinner did not entail dressing up in all your fineries and spending it chatting with people, while holding a glass of watered down wine.

He hated them with an unparalleled passion. Being the Count of Grimmauld, however, made it entirely impossible to bypass these meetings. After all, though he was seen as an outcast by the rest of his family, he was still entitled to a rather large inheritance. He wasn't going to leech off of the Potters for the rest of his life. And so, for that one night every year, he was subjected to an evening with his family.

Sirius considered himself lucky that he got out when he did. His family, he would say, was insane, and that was when he was being nice. It was a known fact to most that the so-called 'Noble and Most Ancient House of Black,' was filled with criminals. But one of the many benefits of belonging to the Black family was that you were virtually untouchable by law. Even his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, who Sirius was certain had killed more than a few people, walked freely and acted as though her presence was a privilege to be graced with her. Money talked. And so did blood, especially to Lord Voldemort. It disgusted him to no end that his relatives sided with the man who was a known pirate, intent on overthrowing the crown. The laws the man wanted to put in place made sure that commoners were all but enslaved. He didn't say so directly, but it was true.

It wasn't just Blacks at his mother's ball, but other high up, wealthy families who were a different kind of royal. Old, wealthy families who were proud of themselves for not having their bloodlines tainted by associating with common folk. In Sirius' mind, interbreeding was nothing to be proud of.

It was at such a ball that he had run into Severus Snape. While growing up, Sirius was forced to interact with only children from those families and not once had he seen the greasy-haired wanker. He knew at once that the boy was supposed to be a commoner, and the only way he could have gotten into the party was if Regulus vouched for him. Sirius overheard the two boys talking as he was trying to sneak out into the back for a quick smoke.

Two boys sat side by side in the garden with their dark heads bent together. Since he'd returned home that morning, Sirius found that his brother was acting stranger than usual and was uncharacteristically aloof with everyone. Until Snape showed up later in the evening. As soon as the older man shucked his cloak, Regulus was at his side and stayed there for the entire night. Sirius barely paid the occurrence any heed, as at that time he was too busy choosing which fork he ought to use to off himself with. It wasn't until he caught a glance of Regulus and Snape sneaking out did his interest really pique.

He followed them out of the ballroom under the pretence of lighting up and eventually out of the manor itself until he found himself freezing his bits off in the December air as he stood in the garden without a cloak on.

"He wants to meet me?" Regulus asked the older boy, awe evident on his face.

"Yes. He heard of your role in the attack last month," Snape said. "Ever since then, your cousin Bellatrix has been speaking quite highly of you."

"I wasn't aware that Bella was in this group," Regulus said, his brow crinkling. "She wasn't there on the day of the attack."

"Bellatrix ... is a woman of many talents," Snape stated carefully. "She is also the Dark Lord's second in command. She prefers to work on land though. And it has helped us quite a lot."

"So she's not going to be on the ship?"

"No. She hardly ever stays on board for long."

"Good," sighed Regulus, his shoulders slightly slumping in relief. "I don't think it would be prudent if Bella was on the ship with me. She places a lot on my shoulders ever since Sirius..."

"You brother is seen as unfit by the Dark Lord. However, it will be a privilege to have you amongst our ranks."

By then, Sirius couldn't take any more of the conversation and angrily stalked over to where the duo was sitting. Startling them, he grabbed Regulus by his collar and pulled him up. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

"Put him down, Black," said Snape, his voice soft and hinting towards danger. "You have no concern in our conversation."

Still holding Regulus up by his shirt collar, Sirius sneered at the other boy. "I don't believe I asked you. Run along and pass out the hors d'œuvres," he said dismissively.

Snape's face took on a puce undertone and his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "I am not a servant boy," he snarled.

"Well clearly you're not from my mother's circle of friends," he scoffed. "She would die before associating with the likes of you, let alone allowing you into her house." He turned back to Regulus and simpered mockingly, "What would mummy say if she saw you with him?"

"Let it alone, Sirius," snapped Regulus. "At least I'm not out there playing as a dog for the Potters."

"The Potters are ten times the people you or him could ever be, watch your mouth," the older boy all but growled. "Why are you listening to this shite? So he could continue to feed you those toxic stories? What are you thinking, Regulus, joining the Dark Lord and his league of flying monkeys? I thought you were smarter than this. Do you have a death wish?" He shook the younger boy for good measure as he tried to get through him.

"I'm going to make a difference!" the younger boy yelled as he broke out of his brother's hold. "The Dark Lord is the rightful king of-"

"The Dark Lord," Sirius interjected, "is a crack head who goes around on a bleeding pirate ship terrorising people for fun. His favourite past time is killing off the common folk!"

"The Dark Lord is going to turn this country around," spat Snape. "If we keep up like this, catering to every whim and fancy of the commons the country will be run into the ground within the next few years."

"Oh yes. God forbid helping out the people who make an honest living," said Sirius, rolling his eyes. "I forgot; murder and piracy are completely fine, but giving help to the poor isn't." He abruptly released his hold on Regulus and turned to Snape. He jabbed him hard in the chest. "Listen here, I want you off of these grounds immediately or else I'll call the guards and have you locked away for trespassing on private property."

Snape looked completely nonplussed at Sirius' threats. In fact, he even had the audacity to allow a lazy smirk to grace his face. "Your threats carry no weight here anymore, Black. I suspect you're jealous of Regulus and I."

Sirius snorted. "Jealous? Of what, you? Why would I be jealous of a boy wearing his father's clothes and a lady's bracelet?" He saw the other boy's jaw tighten and immediately tug down his shirt sleeve to hide the bracelet. "What on earth could you have that I would possibly want, servant boy?"

"Power," hissed Snape. "When the Dark Lord succeeds the throne, you will be begging to get back into his good graces. To serve him. To serve me."

"I would rather die before blindly following that lunatic and his band of arseholes," he spat. "And you." He turned to Regulus, who wisely took a step back out of his brother's reach. "If I ever catch you with filth like him," he jerked his thumb at Snape, "Listening to whatever nonsense he's spewing, I'll skin you alive. Understand?"

Regulus' upper lip curled. "I can make my own decisions," he said, before pushing him away. Sirius stumbled backward, though not without snatching out, trying to grab Regulus and really give him a piece of his mind. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was a pale fist flying at his face with a lady's bracelet clasped around its wrist.

When he came to, he was lying in the bushes in the garden and his toes had gone numb from the cold. That was the last day he saw his brother, or even spoke to him.

Up until today, that was the only significance that day held: the day he lost his brother to Severus Snape and the Death Eaters. Now though, he was also sure that Snape knew Evans. Which left Sirius wondering, what game exactly was Evans playing at?


After Sirius alerted her to Remus, Lily got up and stretched and began rolling back up the map.

"What are you doing?" both Gideon and Fabian chorused together. "We were working on that."

"I know," said Lily lightly as she slipped it back into the box and locked it. "But we've been working on this for," she glanced at her pocket watch, "For almost two hours entirely and haven't made any worthwhile deductions. I say we take a break and start back up tomorrow."

Without leaving any room for them to disagree, Lily grabbed the necessary items and made her way down to where Remus and the others were staying. This time she didn't even bother to knock and simply threw open the door.

Sure enough, just like Sirius said, Remus was sitting up in the narrow bed, very much awake. Meanwhile James was gazing out of the small porthole, apparently not realising that they had company. The third member of their group was not to be found.

"Where's Sirius?" she asked, frowning slightly. From his spot at the window, James jumped slightly, startled. "I thought he would have come back down."

He turned to look at her. "I don't know; last I saw him he was on his way to fetch you."

Lily nodded and a small crease flitted across her forehead for a brief moment before smoothening over. Turning back to Remus, she offered him a small smile. "How are you feeling?" she asked softly.

"Better," he said. "Thank you for what you did."

She dismissed his thanks with a wave of her hand and began inspecting his bandage. "It was nothing. After living this way for so long, patching up wounds has become second nature to me," she told me as she unwrapped the bandages. The conversation came to a short halt as Lily concentrated on cleaning the wound without aggravating the cut further and changing his dressings. Once everything was all tied up and neat, she stood up. "You should really go and get something to eat. You must still be feeling horrible. I can always have someone fetch something from the kitchens for you if you're not up to walking."

Remus shook his head. "It's quite alright. I've already inconvenienced you enough for one day." He slipped out of bed and, wobbling slightly, toed on his shoes. "If I may, I think you should also get something in your system too, Lily."

She smiled slightly at him. "I might pop on down to the kitchens in a bit," she said evasively. Remus nodded and walked on, closing the door behind him.

She began the process of cleaning up the blood soaked bandages and stoppering the bottles she had brought. "You're very good at that," said James, diverting her attention for a moment. "Taking care of his injury, I mean."

Lily shrugged. "My mother was a healer for the town I grew up in. I learnt as much as I could - which wasn't really all that much - from her during what little time we spent together," she said.

One of James' eyebrows rose. "You sound as though you didn't get much time with her."

"I didn't. She died when I was six," Lily replied brusquely.

"Oh."

The two of them were quiet for a moment and the only sound was the flapping of the sheets as Lily made the bed and the soft lapping of waves on the sides of the ship.

"I'm sorry if I offended you," James said stiffly as she stood up.

Lily looked at him funnily. "It's quite all right. It's been years since it happened so it doesn't exactly bother me like it used to. The people who I grew up with, their daughter, she taught me most of what I know."

"Right," said James lamely. Looking for an excuse to change the topic to something less awkward, he quickly added on, "What will you be teaching us to do tomorrow? In the sword fighting, I mean."

She made a vague gesture in the air. "Just how to defend yourselves if something like what happened today happens again, gods forbid, until someone else comes over to take care of matters."

"You think we can't handle full on sword fighting?" he demanded.

Lily shook her head. "Mercy, no. It's just what I'll be focused on. I think learning to make sure you don't get killed is far more important than learning how to kill. If the time comes, then I guess I will teach you how to do that as well."

"We already know the basics," said James, following her out of the room and up the stairs. "We learnt it from my uncle's navy."

Lily immediately turned around and James almost ran into her. Hands on her hips, she told him, "Well then prepare to unlearn all of that. The navy fights with a bit too much dramatics for my liking. I prefer getting the job over and done with, not putting on a bloody spectacle."

"How different could the two be?" asked James. "At the end of the day the result is the same, isn't it?"

"True," said Lily. They had reached on deck, which was virtually empty other than the two men on duty. "It's just that one leaves more room for injury. I suspect that they quite like to show off scars that they get during a fight. In my opinion, those types of scars aren't for you to strut around the place showing them off. They're for you to feel ashamed that the enemy got you-"

"The enemy, might I add, is lying dead at your feet, in case you've forgotten," interjected James.

"- and learn from that mistake so that you don't make it again in future fights." Lily carried on as though he had not spoken.

They stopped in front of her cabin door and the two were staring at each other. Her face was slightly flushed after her little spiel and her chest was moving up and down to regain her breath. James crossed his arms across his chest. "I'm guessing that you're still beating yourself up over your injury from this morning." His face was impassive as he stared at her arm which lay bandaged and hidden under the soft cotton of her shirt.

"It shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have let him distract me," she replied immediately.

"Distract you?" James asked, confused. "How did he distract you?"

Lily cursed, realising her slip. "It's nothing for you to worry about."

"You're being deliberately evasive again," James told her, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I already told you; I know you're hiding something and I'm going to find out what it is. It would be much easier, of course, if you would just tell me what you're hiding if you don't want me snooping through your secrets."

A rare grin flitted across her face that almost shocked James for a second. She took a step closer to him and, with a challenging smirk plastered across her face, she said, "And I believe that I told you that try all you might, you're not getting anything out of me."

James mimicked her and took a step forward as well so that the toes of their shoes brushed together. "I always get what I want, Evans."

The grin did not waver. In fact, she cocked her head to the side and stuck out a hip. "Have fun trying to get it from me then. I wish you all the luck, Potter." She opened the door to her cabin and stepped inside. Before she could close it however, James stepped into the door way and blocked her.

Leaning against the door frame with his arms still crossed, he said, "I thought you told Remus that you were heading down to the kitchens?"

She shrugged. "I told him that I'd go down later. I'm not hungry now."

"Lies," he scoffed. "You never eat anything. You're going to wither away and - while that might be good for me so I can finally get off this damn ship - everyone else would miss you sorely if you die."

"Is that a roundabout way of you saying that you'll miss me if I die, Potter?" The grin still played around her mouth and James found himself liking this version of Captain Evans much better than the other hard arse version she usually kept up around the ship. "Have I finally cracked you?"

"No, I can still say that I'm pretty sure you're the most annoying thing that I've ever encountered."

"Annoying? I don't even warrant a 'dangerous'? What about 'scary'?"

"You're not that dangerous."

She smiled again, though this time it was feral. "We'll see if you stand by that declaration tomorrow. I bet I can have you on your knees in the first five minutes."

"I'll take that bet," he said quickly. "If you do manage to get me on my knees within the first five minutes of us facing off against each other, I'll stop badgering you to tell me what you're hiding."

"And, let's just say I don't. What do you get out of this?" she asked. "May I remind you that your passage on this ship is non-negotiable."

James smirked. "If you don't have me on my knees in front of you within the first five minutes, then you tell me what you're hiding."

The playful banter between them immediately turned tense and Lily's teasing grin dropped. "I don't think so, Potter," she said lowly. "This is something that I haven't even told my crew yet. It's not up for discussion."

"Is it that important?" he asked, all traces of joking dropping from him as well.

"Yes, it is."

"Is it a matter of life and death?"

"I'm not telling you."

"So it is a matter of life and-"

"Oh for God's sake!" she said exasperatedly, throwing her arms up in the air. She grabbed James by his shirt and pulled him into her cabin, slamming the door behind him. He stumbled into the room and almost lost his footing. He grabbed onto the nearest thing, which just so happened to be Lily. She fumbled with a match for a moment before lighting the candle. James retracted his arm from her and looked at her in shock.

"What the bloody hell was that for?"

"It's because you're too bloody loud!" she hissed, jabbing him hard in the chest. His back pressed against the door and he immediately realised how close they were standing and tried to make more space between them by pressing himself further into the wood of the door. Lily, on the other hand, either didn't realise or didn't care about the lack of space between them as she jabbed him again, this time harder. "You already know that something is up and that's more than half the crew knows, and now you're going around, announcing for the world to hear that it's a matter of life and death!"

"You're crew doesn't know?"

"Of course they don't know!" she cried, jabbing him again. "It's a matter of life and death! Why should I tell them?"

"Because it's about their death as well, I presume?" he shot back at her. "I don't know about you, but I would like to know when someone wants to off me. And stop," he grabbed hold of her wrist which was poised to hit him once more. "Poking me in the chest. It hurts."

"Good!" she said shrilly, using her other hand to slap him. "It's supposed to!"

"Stop it!"

"Don't tell me what to do, Potter. I'm in charge here!"

James grasped both her much smaller hands in one of his and managed to flip them so that it was now Lily pressed against the door. She struggled against him and while she was a much more skilled fighter, he had superior strength.

"Let me go," she said, her voice dangerously low and muscles tense. "I swear to the gods, Potter, tomorrow I'll-"

"Yes, I know, you'll kill me, throw me overboard, lock me up or kick my arse so hard that I won't be able to walk straight for an entire week." He rolled his eyes. "Really Evans, I've already heard it all from you. Your threats don't mean whit to me anymore." Lily growled at him. Ignoring her, James continued, "What's going on Evans? What are you hiding?"

She stamped hard on his foot and he muffled a curse. "Like hell I'll tell you," she scowled.

"That hurt, Evans," he muttered.

"Good. Now let me go so that I can hurt you some more!"

He pressed her further against the door, each of her struggling wrists clasped in either of his hands in an iron grip at her sides. "See, saying things like that isn't going to make me want to let you go. Really, how terrible could it be? I promise I won't tell."

The door behind her back disappeared and Lily found herself falling backwards and before she could even register what was taking place, she hit the deck with a loud thump. All the air was knocked out of her lungs as James fell right on top of her chest.

"Get off me," she gasped, feebly tugging at his shirt. She could barely breathe, having to struggle against the weight of a fully grown man.

He quickly pulled himself to his feet, though not without accidentally jostling her arm. Lily hissed as the pain flared up once more, sparking through the injury. She sat up gingerly, taking care not to further aggravate the wound and to make sure that she hadn't sustained anymore injuries in her tumble. Her cheeks flushed as she took in the scene around her. The two previously on deck- Bones and Turner- had stopped what they were doing and was staring at her along with Fabian and Gideon, the latter holding on to the door knob.

"We were looking for you," began Fabian.

"And Lupin said that you said that you were going to join him in the kitchens," continued Gideon.

"So we came up here knowing that if you ditched, then chances are you would be in your cabin," said the other twin. "But we heard shouting so we went to investigate," they chorused together. "To make sure that you were okay."

Her eyes flickered between the three men that stood in front her. Potter shifted from foot to foot while the twins stared at her gobsmacked. Stumbling to her feet, Lily gave Potter her most intense stare and was proud to see that he recoiled slightly. "Leave," she said lowly. "Now, before I decide on which method I ought to use to kill you."

Not needing any further motivation, James flew from the scene. She turned her attention to Gideon and Fabian, who just stared at her until Fabian finally asked, "So, are you going to tell us what happened?"

Lily growled, her blush deepening. Gideon winced. "I guess that's a no."

"Tell the three down below that our first lesson is after lunch tomorrow. And tell Potter that he's dead." With that, she spun on her heel and stalked back into her room, grabbing the door from Gideon and slamming it shut. There was the audible click of the lock. Lily walked straight over to her bed and without doing anything besides shucking her shoes, she flung herself onto it, only to shoot right back up with a barely refrained curse as she kicked the book to the other side of the room. She rubbed her bum, which was sore from having taken the brunt of her fall. This time she got into bed a bit more slowly and tentatively, making sure that there were no other objects in her bed.


Sirius tried to remember the path he took the first time he and the others boarded the ship. He knew the room he was searching for was on the lowest level of the ship. For some reason, the temperature seemed to drop a bit for every floor he crossed and by the time he reached the last one, his teeth were chattering. There were several rooms, though there was only one in which he was interested. He found it after a few minutes and, using a wooden block he filched from the kitchens to stop it from locking him in, slipped inside.

There was a small squeak and the sound of rustling off in the corner. The dim flickering light of the candle filled the room and exposed the pallid face of Peter Pettigrew.

"Hello, Mr Black," he said, wringing the box of matches in his hands nervously.

"Pettigrew," Sirius acknowledged, standing no more than a few feet away from the door with his arms crossed. "I have some questions and I was thinking that you could help answer them."

The man's watery blue eyes widened. "O- of course," he stammered, "How can I help you?"

"Before we start, I just want to establish some rules," said Sirius, "Whatever I say here stays in here. You are not to mention my visit to anyone else. Are we clear?"

The man nodded once. "Brilliant," sighed Sirius. "Now, you were a pirate. Tell me what you know about Miss Red Headed Horror up there..."


The map was frustrating at the very least to deal with. Lily scrubbed a hand across her weary face as she adjusted the creased parchment once again, hoping the new angle will bring some sort of epiphany to her. It didn't. She wanted to rip her hair out.

It was a map of England - that much she could understand - with Latin words scrawled all over it. At least, the island in the middle was that of England. She compared the other two islands on either side of it to all the maps she had and came up blank as to what they were. Over to the side there were more words, though this time it was written in English. The red is not to be shed amongst the blue, but at the place we once called home, that is now the gates of Hell. The line confused her to no end the first time she read it, and, after labouring over the parchment for several days, Lily thought that she had finally cracked it, but then she came across another piece of parchment. Instead of drawings, this piece of parchment held a poem, written in untidy cursive.

Here men take their final test,
Where dead men go to rest.
Traitors of barbaric masters,
Apostrophes hang not long after.
But not before unsparing pounding,
Their blind cries gone by morning.
The fiends of Hell moan and groan,
But never to be seen nor heard.
Filtered through the golden tinsel,
And overcome by Poseidon's whistle.
Guarded by one's wildest fears,
Use your wits but shed no tears.
Only then would one find treasure
That will bring about immeasurable pleasure.

To say that it threw her off once again would be an understatement. She hadn't a foggiest idea what exactly the poem was supposed to mean. She guessed that it was supposed to give the reader an idea of where the treasure was hidden, but it was so ambiguous that Lily had half the mind to just toss the map and the parchment into the sea and let it stay hidden with the treasure forever. She didn't even know why she was so caught up in looking for treasure. Maybe it was because that's just what pirates do. Maybe it was because Riddle was after it too and she would be damned if he got it. Her finding it would be a small victory.

She sighed again and allowed her head to drop to the table. Her head was pounding and her muscles felt stiff from disuse. After throwing herself into bed, she managed to sleep for a whole two hours before she was awoken by hunger pangs. The kitchens were empty when she nipped down and hastily threw together a sandwich before locking herself back up in her room. At least now Gideon and Fabian wouldn't give her grief about not eating. Not to mention Potter, the ever present thorn in her side these days.

Once her hunger had been sated, she came back to her cabin and found that she couldn't fall back asleep. For some reason she was too wired, as though her body thought it was the middle of the day and not the middle of the night. She tried everything from stripping down and taking a quick wash before changing into the most comfortable clothes she could find, to lying in her bed and counting to a hundred, only to just kick off the covers in a huff and let her bare feet pad across the cool wooden floors. She lit the candle by her desk and pulled the map over to her. She'd been staring at it ever since with a sheet full of scribbles next to it. Every time she thought of something she wrote it down, hoping that it would have been the epiphany that would lead her to the treasure.

The room had gone from needing the help of the candle to being coated with the cold watery grey light of morning to being filled with the buttery light of day since she'd been sitting there with the map. In all honesty, she didn't understand the point of taking the time to draw out a detailed map of England and its environs only to have a bloody poem as the solitary source of direction. Though she could not read Latin, she was fairly certain that they stood for various locations of importance such as the lodgings of several nobles, including the king. That was the only worthwhile thing she had discovered though.

Other than that, she came to a conclusion; the Marauders obviously wanted to keep the treasure a secret for as long as possible. Another conclusion that she came to was that they had no doubt thought that the inclusion of a poem instead of directions was a brilliant idea (it was) but that just made them jerks.

Rubbing her forehead, she cracked her neck and shoulders before picking up her quill and getting back to surveying the map once more. She could probably draw the entire thing from just her memory by now.

Almost ten minutes later, a sharp knock at the door caused her to jump and almost knock over the unlit candle at her side. "Lily," called a voice she wasn't sure belonged to Gideon or Fabian. "Lupin, Potter and Black are out here waiting for you."

Lily swore quietly before saying in return, "Tell them I'll be there in a minute." Quickly, she rolled back up the map and jammed it into a draw along with her notes. Her muscles groaned as she finally unfurled herself from the chair after hours of more or less sitting in the same position. She changed quickly, and splashed her face with some water before cleaning up her arm once more. She strapped her sword to her side and pulled up her hair before walking out onto the deck in the blazing sun.

"You look as though you've just woken up," said Gideon, smiling slightly. "I haven't seen you all morning."

"I was busy," she said dismissively. "I trust you and Fabian could handle my ship for a few hours, yes?"

The small smile fell and a crinkle formed between his brows. "Yes-"

"Good," she cut him off. "Now, go do something or the other. I rather not have my first mate get injured by one of these here."

Gideon allowed his worried gaze to give her a quick once over. He said nothing though as he took in the dark circles under her eyes and her rumpled appearance before stepping off into the shade at the side. For the first time, Lily glanced over at the three men, pleased to note that they were already holding swords. Lupin smiled at her wearily, Black looked nervous and Potter seemed to be scrutinising her.

"How are you feeling today, Lupin?" she asked, ignoring the other two.

"I'm well, Ms Evans, thank you," he said. He learnt from the last time that Lily did not like people inquiring about her and so stifled the return that had built at the tip of his tongue.

"Potter here told me that you all have some experience handling swords," she said looking at them for clarification. At their nods, she continued. "Well that might make things easier but it'll also probably make things a bit harder. Easier in the sense that you know that the sharp end goes into the person you're fighting. But harder because I'm going to teach you how to do some no nonsense type of fighting."

She cracked her neck and joints once more before unsheathing her sword. It was almost three feet in length with simple designs etched into its leather bound hilt and glinted menacingly in the sun. For as long as she could remember, Lily had been using the very same sword all her years as a pirate. The sword was no longer a weapon to her, but had become a part of her body, as though it was merely an extension of her arm. "Grasp the hilt of it like this," she showed them. "Loosely so it'll be easier for you to manoeuvre, but not overly loose. You don't want to fling it out of your grasp." She fixed Remus' fingers and extended Sirius' arm a bit before moving on.

"The ones you have right now probably aren't weighted correctly for you, but you're going to have to deal with it for now. Maybe I might let you all go look for one after we're done here." She managed to go through the ins and outs of sword play with them for almost two hours without collapsing as she felt like doing. Halfway into it, she brought in Gideon who was standing by for the entity of her lesson and demonstrated some moves with him. It startled her to find out that Potter actually was a fairly decent swordsman, although she would never tell him that. The sheer size that his head might get to would probably cause her ship to sink. Sure, all of them still had the dramatics of someone who learnt sword fighting recreationally, but Lily was fairly certain that by the time she was finished banging them into shape, they would be well enough swordsmen.

"Brilliant," she told them as she sheathed her sword once more. "You all did... a bit better than I expected. Nowhere near anyone on this ship of course, but you're all right." She brushed back the few strands of hair that had slipped out of the knot she made earlier. "Go get cleaned up."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" asked James just as she was about to turn. She closed her eyes shut. So close to her room. She could hear her bed calling out to her.

"What am I forgetting, Potter?" she sighed.

"We made a bet yesterday." Her eyes snapped back open. The beginnings of a smirk pulled at his lips. Meanwhile the remaining three men on deck regarded him with varying displays of amusement, worry and anxiousness. "It's all right if you want to back out. I'll understand if you're scared," he taunted.

The flicker of irritation began to stir within her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Remus close his eyes and tilt his head heavenward, mumbling something, while Sirius looked torn between running away and staying on deck. That was odd. Normally she would have expected him to have already spewed a series of cheeky or suggestive comments, or, at the very least flirted with her. Lily decided that she would worry about Sirius later. Right now, she had a prat to put in his place. "Do you get a kick out of getting your arse handed to you?" she asked.

"The only thing I get a kick out of is finding out your secrets, Evans," he smirked.

For some reason unknown to her, her cheeks pooled with heat at his words and his smirk got larger. "You want to play?" she asked, brandishing her sword. She met his challenging gaze and tightened the grip on her sword. "Then let's play."

He grinned at her and took the defensive stance Lily had taught them earlier on. With one last look that Lily hoped properly conveyed her deep annoyance for him, she attacked, striking out at him so fast that he barely had time to react. He caught her blade with just the skin of his teeth and twisted it around, trying to disarm her. His movements were clumsy and the last twist he did, he twisted too much in a show of unnecessary flair. She smirked at him right before flicking her arm slightly so that it was she who trying to get him to yield. Within a few seconds the dull thump could have been heard as his sword fell to the floor.

"Did you think you could actually beat me?" she asked him, grinning slightly.

"No, not really," he shrugged, not even bothering to retrieve the sword. Lupin and Black were staring at James whereas Gideon was staring at Lily. "But hey, a bloke could try, yeah?"

"I wasn't even using my sword hand," she shook her head. "If this were a real fight you'd be very much dead."

"I realised that, but thank you for your vote of confidence." He rolled his eyes.

Smiling sweetly at him she said, "You're welcome. I guess you never will know any of my secrets."

"Keep on thinking that, Evans. I'll figure them out eventually."

"Not until you can best me," she scoffed. "And we all know that's not going to happen."

"Next time I'll try harder," he promised, grinning at her.

She couldn't help but grin back slightly. Adjusting her sword at her hip, she turned and walked off to her cabin, pausing with her hand on the doorknob right before she stepped inside to throw over her shoulder, "Have fun with that."

Just before the door closed shut his response was able to filter through.

"I will."


You can try your hand at figuring out what the riddle (if it can be called that) and the poem means. I don't think it's that hard but then again I know what it's supposed to mean. The poem was written by my lovely friend Risha because she's much more talented at dactylic verses than I am. Hugs and kisses to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

:)