Chapter Two – Parley

Not much distinguished the captain's cabin from other ships Lily had been on. The same rear-facing windows, dark woods, and ornate trim decorated the room, all warmly lit up in candlelight gold. An alcoved bench built into the ship served as a cozy reading nook near the windows. At least, Lily would have used it as a reading nook, and James certainly had more books on his shelves than most of the captains she'd encountered. Clothes hung haphazardly on the chairs around the table in the middle of the room, and Lily couldn't see the top of the desk for all the parchment strewn over it.

She took it all in absently, mind otherwise occupied devising reasons for being in the navigation room. She'd been caught, but she could still salvage the situation.

She stood by the door while James grabbed a chair from the table and swung it around to sit backwards on it.

"Your crew is terribly rude," she said, putting on an affronted look, "threatening to attack me like that—"

"Oh, do tell," he said, resting his elbows on the back of the chair, "what excuse would you like to offer up? Sleepwalking? Looking for the loo?"

"I was only looking around, and then your—whatever his position is—"

"Navigator."

"—yes, him, started hurling accusations my way."

"No," James corrected, "you were sneaking. You already played me false once with that man in the alley."

"How dare you—"

"I'm rather disinclined to trust witches who lie their way onto my ship."

Lily's heart hammered against her chest. "I can be unkind on occasion," she said, "but witch—"

"Don't play the fool," he said sharply. "That cabinet was magically locked."

It was possible, of course, that the cabinet had been magically locked. Her hairpin opened any lock, Muggle or magical, and gave no indication either way.

"Which means," he continued, "that your hairpin is something special. A magical item, in fact, and you must be a witch."

If their cabinet was magically locked, at least that meant they were witches and wizards themselves, and not witch-fearing Muggles. Probably.

"There's no need for name-calling," she said, just in case.

"The thing is, Lily, you saw our ship. No one sees my ship. Unless…." He raised his eyebrows.

Oh. Oh. She'd been so stupid. The ship had some sort of spell on it to hide it from Muggles.

Habit encouraged her to keep lying, to pretend she was some naïve Muggle-born who didn't know what she was, but that seemed futile and pointless.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not like I knew you were magical pirates."

He quirked his lips. "Oh, of course not."

"I didn't, though."

"You know, there's this funny thing that happens when you start out lying, where your integrity gets entirely ruined." He stood up from his chair and walked over to look out the window. "So, Lily, if that is your name, what were you intending to do on my ship? Presumably more than gain passage to Saint-Nazaire."

She pressed her lips together. She wouldn't incriminate herself, even to fellow thieves. There were penalties for stealing from pirates, harsher and more immediate ones than any governmental system would condemn her to. But they didn't have much proof of a crime at the moment – all she'd done was break into a cabinet.

"Let's try this," James said, turning back to her. "You're from England, yes?"

"Yes," she said, voice curt.

"Are you actually trying to get to Saint-Nazaire?"

"I am."

"Why?"

"I've a friend who's offered to put me up for a while. I needed passage."

"You're lying, actually," he said with confidence, strolling toward her. "If that were the case, you could've gone with any old ship. No, you wanted passage on my ship specifically. But where I get lost is why."

Lily lifted her chin as he stopped in front of her. "I don't have to answer to you."

"You're not obligated to do anything, true. But you are stuck on my ship and I'm not planning to go to Saint-Nazaire."

Stuck on his ship was promising – stuck was at least alive.

"Then where will you drop me off?" she asked.

He slanted a grin at her. "Who said I was dropping you off?"

"What, you want me to follow around your crew indefinitely?"

"The thing is, Lily, I can't just let you walk away."

Hopefully that was not a reference to cutting off her legs.

"Why not?" she said.

He grinned, in the way Lily imagined the devil would, cocksure and triumphant. "Because. As you so accurately deduced, I'm a pirate."

Indefinite imprisonment seemed a strange way for magical pirates to handle a simple matter of thievery, but Lily had nothing to compare it against. Neither Sev's magic lessons nor her mother's pirate lessons had ever covered magical pirate codes. She hadn't even known there was such a thing as magical pirates.

Still, even if she didn't know their punishments, there was one aspect of piracy that surely even magical pirates followed.

"In that case, Captain Potter, I would like to invoke the right of parley."

He nodded slowly, mulling it over. "What would you want in this parley? Passage to Saint-Nazaire?"

"I'm not fussed where you drop me off, but I'd obviously like to get off this ship sooner rather than later."

"I suppose that's an easy enough request."

"And what do you want in return?"

"Nothing much, really. I want you to tell me the truth about who you are and why you're on my ship."

"That's it? I can tell you that now, and you can still make Saint-Nazaire by tomorrow night."

"The problem is, I won't know if you're telling the truth or not. I don't have Veritaserum on board and you've proven yourself adept at lying."

"For parley I'll tell the truth."

"See, you clearly don't understand trust. It's a crucial element in any productive relationship. You've already lost mine, so how can I know you're telling the truth?"

Lily let out a short breath. "Then how can I earn your trust so you'll believe me so I can get off your ship?"

He shrugged. "I suppose it'll just take time."

"Time."

"Yes."

"How long, exactly?"

"I'm sure I don't know."

That wasn't much of a parley, if he got to arbitrarily determine when she'd fulfilled her end of the bargain. But he could've asked for lashings as punishment for her crime, or worse.

If this was the bargain she was getting into, she only had to make the terms starkly clear. Her mum had taken every opportunity to negotiate with Lily, tricking her into eating her vegetables or into revising her lessons.

"So you propose," Lily said, "to keep me on your ship until such a time as you trust me to tell you the truth about why I boarded your ship, at which point you'll drop me off at the next major European port in full health with my current effects."

"Well," he said, drawing out the word.

"Well, what?"

"If the truth turns out to be something I dislike, then I'm afraid I won't be dropping you off."

"So I have to earn your trust, convince you I'm telling the truth, and then you might let me go?"

"What can I say," he said, that smug grin still stretched across his face, "I'm a pirate."

Admittedly there wasn't any good argument to that, but at least she'd be safe temporarily. Provided he was a man of his word, anyway.

"But you won't lock me up in the meantime?" she said.

"If you misbehave I will."

"And what counts as misbehaving?"

A smile played across his lips. "Oh, I'll know it when I see it."

"You're enjoying this."

"A beautiful woman lies her way onto my ship and then I have to keep her around? Yeah," he said, "I am."

His blasé attitude made her palm want to connect forcefully with his face, but she reminded herself that his terms were actually quite favorable.

Although he did seem to be willing to let her look like an idiot in front of the crew.

"Why did you let me on when you knew I was a witch?" she asked.

"You would've fooled me if it hadn't been for the Muggle-repelling charms," he said. "I let you on because I wanted to see what would happen. I needed to see if you were a threat, and if so…."

"What are you afraid I'll do, exactly?"

"Frankly, I think you're here to sabotage my ship."

"And why would I do that?"

His eyes roved over her from head to toe, assessing, not leering. "You tell me."

"That doesn't—you're impossible."

"I don't have to prove anything. You've already proven you've got ulterior motives. I just need to know what they are before I decide what to do with you."

He wasn't being entirely unreasonable, but it still grated that she'd walked into a trap. She'd always expected to get caught eventually, true. And she had been caught wandering around on other ships before, but she'd always been able to lie her way through an excuse. This particular situation was…unanticipated.

There was only the chance to make the best of it.

"So I'll be given room and board at your expense until you free me," she said.

"Naturally. Although I wouldn't mind if you paid the amount we agreed upon for passage to Saint- Nazaire."

"And if I don't?"

"Well, to be honest, I'm already going to take everything you own, most of which will get returned to you if I free you. It's really just a matter of whether you give it willingly or not."

Her nails dug into her arms where they remained folded across her chest. "If you free me."

"I make no promises. If you're here to do what I think you are, then I'm definitely not letting you go."

"If I were going to sabotage your ship—which I'm not—wouldn't it make sense to just kill me before I get the chance?"

"Would you like me to kill you?"

Lily arched an eyebrow at him.

"As I thought," he said. "And I would prefer, all things equal, not to kill you, so I'm glad we're in agreement on that. Honestly, I think there's a good chance you're telling the truth, that you aren't here for sabotage, but I can't know for sure until I trust you."

She bit her lip to keep from saying something she'd regret.

"Look, I'm taking a risk here, too, you know," he added. "I'm not being as harsh as I could – like you said, I could just kill you now. I'd rather not, and I'd love to trust you, but I've got plenty of reasons to believe there are magical saboteurs searching for me and my ship."

"Which are?"

"Either you already know and there's no point in telling you, or you don't know, which is how I prefer things anyway."

All Lily had to do was prove she wasn't a saboteur, an easy enough task considering it was the truth. She had to be able to get them to trust her within a couple weeks at the outside. During that time they'd probably take port somewhere, depending on where they were going, and she could try to escape if things were moving too slowly.

"Where is your crew headed?" she asked. "Only I'd like to get a general sense of direction so I can think about upcoming ports and where you might drop me off."

"You'll figure it out, I'm sure, clever girl like you."

"Perfect. Thanks."

He stepped around her and she turned in place to keep an eye on him, but he only reached for the door.

"If you're going to stay on board," he said, "you could help out, you know. You did offer to cook and clean."

"I'm really not very good at either," she said, which was not a lie.

"Fair enough." He opened the door. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to finally go to sleep. I'll have Sirius wake Marlene to check you over for your belongings."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I did say I'd take everything from you. It's not meant to be humiliating. It's just a precautionary measure, in case you have other magical items that might help you with whatever your mission may or may not be."

His only crime was not being an idiot, but that was a small comfort in the face of effective imprisonment.

"And of course," he said, holding out his palm, "I'll need all your hairpins before you go."

In the morning James had Lily stay in his cabin while he addressed the crew. She fidgeted in Marlene's dress and tapped her fingers on the table. All night she'd tried to think of a way to escape, but nothing reasonable had come to mind.

"You're the one who betrayed our trust," Sirius said, much too smug for Lily's liking. "No need to look so sour."

"It's not that," she said flatly. "It's my time of the month." It wasn't true, but it did make Sirius look away uncomfortably, and she smirked.

The door opened and, of all things, a cat wandered in.

A cat with wild orange fur and an eye patch.

Lily's mouth opened, and then closed.

"I had to hide him last night," James told Lily as he followed the cat through the door. He'd donned a worn three-corner hat, tufts of hair sticking out underneath. "He can't defend himself like the others."

"You didn't find a wand on me, if you recall," she said. "What sort of threat could I be?"

"We'll have to find out, won't we?" He grinned. "This is Algernon, by the way."

"Your cat is wearing an eye patch," Lily felt compelled to point out.

"He is! Although he's none too pleased about it."

Algernon strutted over to Lily and plopped down on the ground in front of her, his face tilted up, expectant.

"Hello, there." She lowered her palm in offering, and Algernon sniffed it twice before licking it. "You're harmless, aren't you?" She petted his ears, and he purred quietly.

"Oh, sure," James told his cat, "get revenge on me by befriending our enemy. Don't think I can't see right through your plans, Algernon. Your psychological tricks won't work on me."

For lack of other options, Lily looked to Sirius for confirmation that James was a lunatic. But Sirius was watching James intently, an eager, almost pleased look on his face.

"Right," she said slowly. "In any case, I thought of an addendum to our parley last night – I won't take part in any raids you might make while I'm on board."

"Wouldn't dream of it," James said.

Sirius snorted. "Aren't you a generous captain."

"I mean it," Lily said. "I don't want to get involved."

"Trust me." James picked up a piece of parchment from the table. "I've got more important things on my mind than raiding any random ship we come across."

There were very few things that would lure pirates away from raiding, but it didn't really matter since she would hopefully be off the ship soon enough.

"Anyway, you're released from my cabin," James told her. "Everyone's been properly warned about you now."

"Yes, I'm certain they're now properly afraid of an unarmed witch. Thanks for that."

"Oh, I'm sure you can be plenty dangerous if you want."

She gave him a mocking salute and wandered out onto the deck, preening a little in the sunlight. There were few pleasures as lovely as the warm sea air whipping overhead, the thick, clean smell of salt on the wind.

Near the front of the main deck, Dorcas walked alongside the rail, the tip of her wand hovering just above the wood. She looked blankly at Lily when she walked by. "I told him to kill you."

Lily's hand twitched, eager to grab her mokeskin pouch—but Marlene had confiscated it. The only weapons on board were wands, by the look of it, and those were all but useless to Lily.

She pressed her lips together and walked on. "Thanks for your vote of confidence."

James had given her free rein on board and she didn't have to stand by and listen to idle threats. Unfortunately there was nowhere else to go, really. Normally at this stage of the trip, she'd have several valuables tucked in her mokeskin pouch and would spend the day further befriending the crew, lest they suspect any ulterior motives. But now she'd been caught, and with such a skeletal crew, everyone was occupied.

There was nothing to do but explore, particularly if she was going to be confined to the ship for an indefinite amount of time.

She'd already seen the gun deck and most of the main deck—although she did want another look at the library between the main deck and James's cabin—and she was plenty familiar with the navigation room.

Together that comprised the majority of the ship. She had no interest in the orlop deck—it wasn't worth crawling around the bottom of the ship if she had nowhere to store anything valuable she found—which left the room at the front of the ship, under the foremast. If nothing else it would offer the best view of where the ship was headed.

She didn't look out the windows when she entered, though, her eyes instead drawn to Caradoc. He stood with his wand outstretched, directing a parade of dishes through the air and onto a long wooden table.

"Good morning." He smiled, keeping his eyes on the silverware. "Breakfast's almost ready. Oi, to the left, now," he gently scolded a recalcitrant fork. Chastened, the fork budged over into perfect alignment with the knife and spoon next to the plate.

Lily stood mesmerized for a moment at his casual use of magic, the way the plates hung effortlessly in the air. Her heart twinged in jealousy.

She glanced at the table, and then at the door. "Should I…."

"Oh, you're more than welcome to join us." The last fork settled into place and Caradoc looked up at her. "I'd hate for you to eat alone."

"Thanks," she said, her voice coming out more uncertainly than she'd intended.

"I'll be back in a moment," Caradoc said.

Lily nodded, unsure what else to do, and he disappeared out onto the main deck.

She hadn't seen anything like this room on other ships. Then again, most other ships barely had enough space for the crew to sleep and eat – this ship had the luxury of a room clearly designed for lounging.

Most of the windows faced out onto the ocean ahead of them – they were headed southwest by the look of it. A few rays of sunlight streaked across the room from the porthole windows, falling on top of the cozy sofa and chairs nestled in front of the main windows, the back of the sofa dividing the sitting and dining areas. Bookshelves lined the walls, filled with trinkets and books and bottles of liquor, all apparently magically restrained to keep from falling off in the rocking of the waves.

Lily wandered over to examine the book titles and let her fingers trail along the tops of the spines, all dust-free. She'd only got through one row when she heard footsteps approaching the room. She turned to see Marlene stroll through the door and smile at Lily.

"Plenty of time for books later." Marlene slid into a chair at the table. "Come on, Caradoc's just on his way up."

Lily chose a seat next to Marlene and offered a weak smile. Marlene didn't seem to be outraged that Lily had lied to her, and Lily wasn't about to turn down another friendly face.

The door opened again, and this time Dorcas marched in. She took one look at Lily sitting at the table, scowled, and spun around to leave.

But she ran into Remus in the doorway.

"Not joining us for breakfast?" he asked.

Dorcas scoffed and waited for Remus to move. When he did, she stomped back out onto the main deck.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake." Marlene pushed back her chair and chased after Dorcas.

Remus smiled at her as she passed and joined Lily at the table. "You understand, I'm sure."

"The impulse to kill strangers? No, I never caught that illness, fortunately."

"I take it she told you what she told James."

Lily gave him a wry grin. "It was the first thing out of her mouth when she saw me."

"Well, you've got to give her points for transparency."

Peter poked his head into the room. "Is breakfast ready?"

"Nearly," Remus said. "Caradoc will have it up in a moment."

Peter sat next to Remus and muttered something to him, inaudible to Lily. She looked away, pretending they weren't so obviously talking about her.

Dorcas stepped through the door once more, her arms folded tightly over her chest. Marlene came through right behind her wearing a fond smile, one hand pushing Dorcas forward. She released Dorcas at the head of the table, far away from Lily, and nudged her toward the chair. Dorcas dropped into the seat and pointedly looked anywhere but at Lily.

Marlene retook her seat next to Lily and leaned in toward Lily, hushed and apologetic. "I told Dorcas if you tried anything really dangerous, she could kill you."

Lily's stomach turned. Hearing it from Dorcas was—well, it seemed like something she'd do. But Marlene had seemed nice.

"She's funny that way," Marlene added thoughtfully.

"Did James agree to that?"

"Oh, it wouldn't matter. He needs us and if you're dead, you're dead. No coming back from that. But it'll be fine. I didn't think you'd try to kill us. And now you've got extra incentive not to, I suppose."

Lily was spared from having to reply by Caradoc's entrance. Platters heaped high with bacon and eggs floated through the air behind him, a happy procession of food that flowed around Caradoc and onto the table. They landed with a small clatter, and Caradoc smiled.

"Happy breakfast," he said, sitting on the other side of Lily.

Which brought Lily to having two allies, three if James was included in the group of People Who Didn't Want to Kill Lily. Or maybe he brought it to two and a half, since Marlene would let Dorcas kill her under the right circumstances.

Silence reigned while everyone served themselves, Dorcas still ignoring Lily, and Peter glancing at both women nervously.

"So," Lily said, half to break the awkward silence and half out of hope. "Where are we headed?"

Dorcas slanted a savage glance at Lily.

"I'm afraid we're not permitted to share that information," Remus said.

"Ah." Lily shoved a forkful of egg into her mouth.

"But I'm sure I speak for the group," Remus said, "when I ask who you are, Lily."

"Oh, I'm no one, really. Just a—" She didn't think of herself as much of anything besides a person, and she'd never explicitly told anyone what she did before. Sam and everyone else she'd got to know in her brief stays in cities had recognized a fellow thief immediately. "I'm a simple English girl who finds her way onto a surprising number of pirate ships and walks away finding that somehow something valuable has fallen into my possession."

"You're a thief," Peter ventured.

"Pirate," Dorcas muttered.

Lily ignored her and nodded at Peter instead.

Marlene sipped her juice, a strange orange one that didn't smell familiar to Lily. "That's a bit of a dangerous job, isn't it?"

"Only if you get caught," Lily said.

Remus raised his eyebrows. "And you have."

"But luckily for you," Marlene said cheerfully, "we don't make people walk the plank around here."

Peter looked vaguely upset over this, which made Lily all the more grateful that at least half of the crew didn't want to kill her. Although one person wishing her dead was really one too many.

Remus gave Marlene a mischievous smile. "Not anymore, we don't."

Marlene threw her head back and laughed.

Lily wasn't cut out for a full-on pirate life. She could never laugh about killing someone.

She focused on her plate, lest she provide them justification for reinstituting the plank, and savored the eggs and bacon. Muggle pirate ships relied on much less elegant food and drink, but with magic they could keep food from spoiling. And on top of the fresher supplies, Caradoc seemed to be an excellent cook. A quiet one, too – he hadn't spoken since the others had joined them, although he appeared to be following the thread of conversation.

"Oh, yes," Marlene said. "I'll never forget the splash he made."

Remus sighed, much too happily, in Lily's opinion.

"Enough with the reminiscing," Dorcas said sharply, although she ruined it by smirking. "Brilliant as that day was."

By the feel of it, the eggs in Lily's stomach had suddenly gone off. She ducked her head down and poked at her food.

As the others ate, Dorcas began barking out directives for the day about the maintenance they needed to perform on the ship. Some of the instructions sounded familiar, about tacking and decks and sails, but other terms were entirely new. They sounded like magic, which explained how they managed with such a skeletal crew.

"Do you have anything that Lily might do?" Remus asked. "James requested she help out if possible."

Lily scowled.

"She is not to touch my ship," Dorcas said.

"Very well. It's your call," Remus said. "Sorry, Lily."

"No complaints from me."

Dorcas nodded. "Then everyone else, get to work."

"As she said," Remus told the group.

Everyone pushed back from their seats and began filing out the door. Caradoc served up two plates, presumably for Sirius and James, and handed one to Dorcas and one to Peter.

Lily stayed in her seat for lack of a better option, and soon only she and Caradoc were left.

"Can I help you at all?" she asked. "Dorcas only said not to touch the ship."

"Oh, no, I'm fine. Thank you for offering."

Lily nodded, and with a lift of Caradoc's wand, all the dishes lifted up again and trailed him out the door.

She tapped her fingers on the table, alone once more and with no clear objective in sight. Even doing dishes would have been better than sitting around aimlessly.

She sighed and went back to inspect the bookcase. Everyone else might have left her, but books would always be there.

Lily sat curled up on the sofa, an anthology of Aristophanes's plays in hand, when James and his cat strolled in a couple hours later. She could have ignored him him—she was enjoying Lysistrata much more as an adult than when her mother had read it to her—but she was, perforce, trying to win him over.

"I see you've settled in for a holiday," he said.

"Dorcas has forbidden me from touching her ship." Lily marked her place in the book with her finger as he stopped behind the sofa. "So I'm going to let the two of you sort that out."

"You could clean the deck without being much threat."

"I don't know about that. I am an enormous threat, per your own determination."

"And per my own determination you're perfectly capable of simple tasks."

"I could be completely useless for all you know. My skills lie in areas other than domestic work."

"Yes, I did notice."

His cat had sat down on the ground and was pushing at his eye patch with a paw. She nearly reached down to help him take it off, but surely even James, slightly mad as he might seem, had a reason for putting an eye patch on his cat.

James leaned forward, resting his hands on the back of the sofa. "I'd like you to join me for dinner tonight."

"And I'd like to get off this ship. Trade you?"

"Not really a trade so much as a request."

"I can't imagine why you'd want to dine with a dangerous woman like myself. I might accidentally kill you."

"Well, I figure I'm the one who really needs to trust you, and how better to get to know you than over dinner?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "You just think I'm beautiful."

"It's true, that's certainly a perk," he mused. "Much better than looking at Sirius over the table. I think he chews with his mouth open to spite his parents, even when they're not around."

"I'd prefer to eat with the crew, even if it means more threats from Dorcas."

"I'm sure you would."

But he looked at her expectantly, and she sighed.

"I'd be happy to join you," she said through a forced smile.

"You know, blatantly lying is really not doing much to make me trust you."

Lily dropped her smile. "In that case I'll be there despite how I feel about it."

"As I thought."

After he and Algernon had left, Lily set down the book on the table in front of her and moved to stand near the windows. They'd tacked another direction now, but they were still moving southwest.

James could be going a variety of places: the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Africa, India. If it were anything but the first, they'd have to take port at least once before they reached their destination. Unless, of course, they really did have that many supplies on board thanks to magic. But surely magical pirates needed time on land as much as the next person, and they'd stop for a change of pace eventually, regardless of their supplies.

At least she hoped as much. She'd have no chance of escape until they stopped.

Which meant, of course, that she had to work on alternate methods in the meantime, and the only real option was to convince James and the crew to trust her.

By and large, pirates were very single-minded. Some were brutal, ruthless in their ambition for gold and silver and women, their ships often on the brink of yet another mutiny. Other pirates followed very strict codes of honor and behavior; they still raided ships and sacked cities, but they would only kill as a last resort.

So far James and his crew seemed to fall into the latter category, but they didn't quite fit there, not with the callous way they'd joked about the plank, or about letting Dorcas kill Lily.

Besides Dorcas, everyone else seemed decent enough on the surface. Then again, Lily had only just met them and had no idea what sorts of sordid things they'd done as a crew in the past. These were the first wizards she'd been in prolonged contact with besides Severus. Maybe having magical powers gave most witches and wizards some sort of superiority complex. Sev had never been that way, but he might have been the exception.

Regardless, Lily needed to convince them she wasn't a threat, and at least she didn't have to convince everyone. Caradoc and Marlene seemed to be on her side already. Remus and James didn't trust her but they didn't seem to mind her, either. Peter and Sirius had made their dislike clear, and Dorcas wanted her dead.

That really wasn't too dire a situation, death threats aside. She was never going to persuade Dorcas to care for her, but she could probably win over James and Remus. James thought she was pretty, and Remus at least seemed to respect her.

Tempted as she was to sit and read in the sun, she had more important things to do.