Chapter Three – Still Not a Saboteur

Lily stepped out onto the main deck in search of Remus, but she only saw Marlene standing on the quarterdeck and, curiously, James up in the crow's nest.

Captains didn't typically take on lookout duties, but then again, captains didn't normally operate with such small crews. James had six watch shifts and six crew members, excluding the cook. He could have asked someone to take two shifts, like many of the pirate captains Lily had met would have, but he hadn't.

Lily crossed the deck to check the library, but when she tried to enter, the handle didn't give.

She would have climbed down the ladder to look for him if Dorcas weren't sleeping on the gun deck, so instead she scaled the stairs to Marlene, who stood with one hand on the helm, the other casting spells at the sails.

Lily smiled. "Hi."

"Hi. Getting bored yet?"

"I am well on the way."

Marlene sighed, although it seemed a little put-on. "Shame you lied to us, or you could have helped out."

"Not really. I don't have a wand."

"Could've borrowed one? Yeah, I dunno. Seems a shame to miss out on the additional help."

"I'm also clueless how to make a ship run with magic."

Marlene finished a spell that adjusted a system of ropes and pocketed her wand. "Oh, anyone can learn. We did, didn't we?"

"Presumably." Lily couldn't admit to being vastly inexperienced with magic, so she said, "James wasn't at breakfast. Does he normally eat by himself?"

Marlene leaned backwards against the helm. "Yeah. Thinks it's captain-like to give us our space."

"Apparently he's lonely in his own space – he invited me to dine with him tonight."

Marlene's face lit up and she stood upright again. "You should dress up!"

Lily frowned. "Why?"

"Because it's fun?"

The dresses Lily's parents had forced her into when they'd entertained guests had been useless for running about and climbing trees. Lily had always proudly come back to the servants with ripped hems and grass stains.

But personal preferences were not the priority at the moment.

"Well, is James going to dress up?" Lily asked.

"He's always dressed up a bit."

He did have a finer shirt than the rest of the crew, and no one else wore a hat.

If she dressed up, he could take it as a sign that she was trying to do what he wanted. Which might show that she had no ill intentions, or show that she was trying to manipulate him.

Of course, she was trying to manipulate him into trusting her. But only because he was making her.

Lily sighed. "Will he be happier if I dress up?"

"Well, you'd be prettier to look at, if nothing else."

"He did mention that I'm better to look at than Sirius."

Marlene laughed. "That's true enough. We'll find you something to wear after lunch, before I go to bed."

"Didn't you sleep all night?"

"No, I did some work after you—well. Normally I take the graveyard shift here but James wanted…you know."

James hadn't just been prepared for her to wander about – he'd encouraged it by reducing the number of people on duty, the snake.

"Sirius mentioned something to the crew," Marlene said, "only he won't ask, he's too bloody proud, but I'm not – how did you get into the navigation room without anyone seeing you? Sirius said he watched the deck for you, but you just showed up in the room, and we've warded the boat with Anti-Apparition spells."

Lily bit back a smile. "I'm actually a ghost."

"Possible, except I think we've already disproved that one."

"Figment of your imagination?"

"We haven't been at sea nearly long enough for that yet, and even if we had, I hope we'd have a more exciting mass delusion than you. No offense."

"What do you think?"

"Well, Sirius reckons you're an Animagus."

Lily hesitated. "I'm not familiar with that spell."

"How can you not know what an Animagus is?"

"What can I say, my education focused more on classic literature than spells."

Marlene's eyes flicked up and down Lily. "Where did you go to school, exactly?"

"I've only ever had governesses," Lily said truthfully, neglecting to mention none of them had been for teaching her magic.

"Oh." All hints of suspicion dropped off of Marlene's face, and were replaced by something closer to pity. "Are you like…well, I know seeing magical things doesn't mean you've got…I mean, you didn't go to Hogwarts."

Lily lifted her chin, her hands finding their way to her hips. "Not for a lack of invitation, thank you very much."

"That's a shame. That you didn't go, I mean. I think we'd have been there around the same time. Before."

"Before…."

"Before You Know Who," Marlene said, as if it were obvious. "He Who Must Not Be Named."

"Is that one of those voodoo pirate things? Because voodoo has always seemed unnecessarily complicated for magic, at least what I've heard about it from other pirates."

"How can you not—" Marlene narrowed her eyes. "Wait, are you taking the mickey again?"

"About what?"

Marlene cocked her head. "You've really no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"How could I when you haven't even told me the name of the person we're discussing? What's so special about him that he mustn't be named?"

"But—where have you been the last two years?

"Around." Lily crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not easy making a living these days."

Marlene stared at her for a few moments, apparently unable to fathom that Lily wouldn't know someone who didn't appear to have an actual name. Then comprehension dawned on her face. "Hang on a minute—are your parents Muggles?"

Sev had told her not to tell people she was a Muggle-born witch, which she'd assumed was more about revealing her magic than her heritage. But the way Marlene asked about her parents….

"No," Lily lied.

"But then…you don't know who You Know Who is," Marlene said, forehead wrinkling.

"That's a bloody stupid name. Do people call him that to his face?"

"That's not his name. You just can't say it or—but how do you not know this if you're not Muggle-born?"

"I don't know," Lily hedged. "I've been busy."

"You know, it's all right if you are Muggle-born. We're not—well, we're not You Know Who."

"Well, I'm not."

"But really. I mean. Are you lying? Either you're a very, very good saboteur, or you're completely ignorant."

"Oi, I'm not completely ignorant."

"But you are." Marlene reached out and adjusted the helm with one hand. "I mean, you don't know anything, do you?"

"I know loads of things, thank you."

"But nothing—I mean, how can you be—I suppose if you've been pirating the past few years—when did you start that?"

"But you already—how did you know I've been gone for two years?" Lily asked suspiciously.

"I didn't. But you started two years ago?"

"What of it?"

Marlene's lips pressed together. "That's awfully convenient timing."

"With what?"

Marlene didn't answer right away, instead sizing Lily up. "Well, if you really are that ignorant, then I'm definitely not afraid of you."

"Oi, I can be plenty dangerous. That is, I'm not going to hurt you, but I can handle myself. I've fought off pirates before."

"But you're not dangerous. At least, not the way we care about. I'd better not say anything more."

"Why not?" Lily demanded.

"Because if it's a trick, then I'm not falling for it. And if it's not a trick, well."

"Well?"

Marlene smiled, sad and humorless. "If it's not a trick, I don't want to have to be the one to tell you."

Lunch was a no more comfortable affair than breakfast. Although Dorcas had gone to bed after breakfast, Sirius had just woken up.

"You're still here?" he said, eyeing her coolly.

"Suicide hasn't presented itself as a favorable option yet, but you're making me rethink that."

"Excellent news."

But after Marlene had shoved down more chicken than Lily had thought one woman could consume, she dragged Lily below deck to rummage through her trunk, grinning eagerly. She outfitted Lily in a deep blue dress made of some satin-type material—Petunia had always cared more for clothing than Lily had—that swirled around her feet when she turned.

Lily left Marlene to sleep and wandered back up to the main deck, where she spotted James behind the helm, his shirt hanging open around his collar as he cast spell after spell at his ship. Peter had taken up watch in the crow's nest, and Lily went to give the library another go.

But when she tried the handle, it remained locked. She hadn't had time to attempt anything else before the door opened in front of her.

"Did you need something?" Remus stood in the doorway, hand still on the handle.

"Only a reprieve from boredom."

Algernon darted out from the library and wound his way around Lily's legs.

"He is fond of you, isn't he," Remus said.

"He is," Lily said, glancing up at the helm above Remus's head, "and so's Algernon."

Remus bit back a smile. "Care to join me in the common room?"

"If you like," Lily said, although she didn't quite understand where he meant. But she followed him across the deck to what she'd started thinking of as the dining room.

"Chess?" Remus asked once they had entered.

Lily grinned. "Oh, yes, please."

They quickly lost themselves in a game set up on the dining table, sunlight streaming in through the windows behind her. They played in silence at first, gauging the other's strategy, but fortunately the quiet didn't last more than a handful of moves.

"You're quite talented," Remus said, eyes on the board. Algernon sat curled up on his lap, purring contentedly, his tail flicking.

"You're a worthy opponent," Lily said, trying to read Remus's expression. He didn't appear to be an emotive man, though, at least not when he actively tried to hide it.

"Who taught you?"

"My father. You?"

"The same." Remus smiled a little. "He always called it the game of kings."

"Chess isn't the game of kings – it's the game of those who have the king's ear."

"An interesting perspective."

"But I will give you that it is the king of games."

He slanted a grin at her. "I can see why he likes you. I'm speaking of Algernon, of course."

"Of course," Lily said, the corners of her mouth twitching.

She hadn't played chess in months – most pirates didn't care for it, aside from the odd captain or first mate. She'd missed it, in a way. She'd spent hours playing with her father as a child, tucked up in a corner of their two-storey high library, staring at the board in frustration as her father bested her over and over again, encouraging her to try harder.

"Does he know what you do for a living?" Remus finally moving a pawn forward. "Your father, that is."

Lily's gaze dropped to the board. "No."

"Then again, I suppose he might not mind, depending on what his profession is."

"Was," she corrected. Although it had been years, her heart still twinged at the admission. "And he might've cared but he can't now."

She moved a knight and risked a glance up at him. He had a knowing sort of look on his face, and Lily averted her eyes and shook her head a little.

"But that's years ago now," she said. "What about your parents?"

"Oh, well, my father used to work for the Ministry, in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

"Before," Lily said, trying to copy Marlene's inflection.

He nodded. "As you might expect, the department's taken a bit of a turn recently, and not precisely in the manner he favors."

Lily had a hundred questions about the wizarding world and what had happened that was so significant to warrant Before, capitalized and stressed, but whatever it was, she couldn't risk asking too many things without apparently exposing that she was Muggle-born. She still didn't know where Sev was, or why he'd gone, but his final letter had been explicitly clear.

So she nodded back at Remus and smiled sympathetically. "Is he doing something else now, then?"

"He's tried to find work in the Muggle world, but the only exposure he's had to Muggles has been through my mum and her family. But I wouldn't say the transition has been entirely successful. He went out in one of her dresses once."

"Oh, dear."

"With one of her hats and everything."

"The dress I can see, but the hat?"

"Well, he thought it was a matched set, you see. And in fairness, she did always wear them together in good company."

Lily smiled and moved her knight, while Algernon stood up on Remus's lap, stretched, and dropped elegantly onto the ground.

"Tired of me already?" Remus asked him.

Lily wondered if everyone on board spoke to the cat naturally, or if that was all James's influence.

Algernon ignored him and strolled toward the door. Lily didn't understand, at first, what Algernon was planning to do. But then the door magically swung open for him when he approached, allowing him out onto the deck.

And Lily had an idea.

When Lily tried the library door that evening, it opened easily. She took her time walking across the room to James's cabin – she'd barely had a moment to inspect it the previous night when James had marched her through.

Shelves lined every inch of wall, all overflowing with parchments and books and detritus. Rays from the evening sun filtered through the lace curtains on the windows, casting long shadows over the table in the center of the room.

As she moved closer to James's cabin, she could hear his muffled voice through the door, probably talking to his cat. But when he opened the door a minute later, Algernon was nowhere in sight.

She reminded herself she was trying to win him over, and smiled.

James smiled back and let his eyes dart up and down. "You look really lovely," he said, stepping back to let her through.

"Thank you." She strolled past him and glanced around the room. It looked as it had the night before, only now platters piled high with food covered the table, with place settings for two squeezed in between. He'd tidied up a little, at least removing the clothes from the chairs, but he'd only tossed them in a pile in the corner.

"I didn't know we had that dress on board."

"I suspect you're not personally responsible for the female clothing inventory."

"And just as well I'm not. Please, sit down."

"Thank you." She adjusted her skirts as she lowered herself into the chair, holding her shoulders back and her neck high. She could turn on the standard courtesies when it suited her; there just weren't many instances where she bothered.

But for her freedom, she'd play the lady as much as needed.

He remained standing and picked up a dark bottle from the table. "Wine?"

She smiled, one of the demure ones her father had taught her. "Please."

James poured wine into two goblets, ending with a flourish, and held one out to her.

She took it and graced him with another smile, this one mischievous. "Are you trying to seduce me?"

His mouth curved up at one end. "Would you like me to?"

"A lady never says."

He laughed a little, mostly to himself. "For the moment I'm only trying to seduce you into giving me your secrets."

"Pity," she said lightly, and took a sip of wine. It was surprisingly well chosen for a pirate, a good match for the food in front of them.

He lowered himself into the seat across from her. "I'm sorry I had to take you prisoner."

"I find that hard to believe, based on your own comments."

"All right," he said, grinning, "so it's a little fun having someone new on my ship."

He picked up a napkin and draped it over his lap, and Lily followed suit.

"You know," she said, "I do understand why you did what you did. You've got to protect your crew."

He raised his eyebrows, both in approval and, if she wasn't mistaken, a bit of surprise. "I'm glad we're in agreement about something, at least."

"But I hope you'll trust me before too long. I'm not interested in the full pirate life."

"Do you mean to say you're half a pirate? And, if so, which half?"

"I'm not any sort of pirate, really. I only came on board to, hm, reappropriate some of your items for myself."

"Is that so." He picked up his knife and fork. "What were you going to take from me, then? Anything in particular, or whatever struck your fancy?"

"Whatever small valuables I could find. Not everything, just a handful of select items."

"And that's all you intended to do, is it?"

She nearly shrugged, but that wasn't ladylike. Instead she lifted her chin, just a little. "A woman's got to make a living somehow."

"That's a very peculiar brand of piracy you've got there."

"I'm not a pirate. Not really."

"You just said you steal from ships. In my world that's the very definition of piracy."

Lily served herself from the dinner platters. "I don't think so. I imagine piracy as having some element of violence to it, and I didn't attack you. I would never hurt anyone unless they attacked me first."

He cocked his head. "But if you'd actually stolen from me, I probably would've taken that as license to attack you."

"The people I steal from don't have to hurt me. They could just turn me into the Royal Navy. If they choose a violent path, then that's on them."

"If they choose to use less than lawful methods, you might still be short a hand, even if you're their moral superior."

"Except I'm very good, aren't I? You're the first to catch me, and it seems—although it might be premature—that I'll walk away with a full complement of limbs. You've no actual intention of hurting me, unless, I imagine, I hurt you or your crew first."

They looked evenly at each other for a moment, a silent challenge, and James looked away first. He finished serving himself and began to eat.

She repressed a sigh. She probably hadn't come off as particularly endearing or trustworthy. Debating the morality of their respective lines of work wasn't likely to get her anywhere, but she couldn't let a pirate judge her without arguing.

"While I don't agree with you," he said thoughtfully, pointing at her with his fork, a piece of fish dangling precariously on the end, "that was well articulated."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not an idiot."

"I gathered."

"So that's me," she said dismissively. "Common thief, not someone working for What's His Face."

"You Know Who," he corrected.

Lily stabbed a carrot with her fork. "Yes, Marlene told me about his idiotic names."

"She did mention you had a curious lack of knowledge regarding recent events."

"Well, I've been in England a grand total of three days in nearly as many years."

It wasn't that Lily didn't want to know what they were talking about—she did, if only because Marlene had spoken of it so gravely—but James already had the upper hand. She wouldn't very well bare her ignorance to him and give him more leeway.

"And you've no contact with anyone in England?" he asked. "No one at all?"

"No."

She'd been to England but not home. She'd considered writing a letter to Petunia, once, but she'd never managed to find the words she needed.

"You're very strange," he told her.

"I'm not the one with an eye patch on his cat."

"That's with good reason. But either you're a very good saboteur—"

"Or I'm just terribly unlucky, yes, I know."

He tapped a finger where it held his knife. "I was going to say an uneducated witch who's playing pirate, and has no idea who You Know Who is or what's going on in wizarding affairs."

"I could call you equally uneducated. Just because I don't know what you know doesn't mean I don't know anything."

"Sorry, not generally uneducated, but in the things that you should know. Non-academic things, I should say. No, you're plenty clever, but I can't help but wonder…are you Muggle-born? Marlene told me you say you aren't, but I'm finding that hard to believe."

She tried not to let her shoulders tense and focused on cutting another piece of fish. "I don't see how my parents are relevant."

"See, if you were a saboteur, I think you'd have a backstory planned out better than that."

"What?"

"Well, you wouldn't just outright deny being Muggle-born. That only makes me suspicious."

"I'm really not following."

"No." He picked up his cup of wine. "I really don't think you are."

"As your dinner guest, I'd appreciate it if we could discuss something else."

"Not yet, and since I'm the captain," he said apologetically. "It's all right, you know, if you're Muggle-born. You're in good company. Not that I am, but Caradoc's Muggle-born, and Peter and Remus are half-bloods."

It wasn't that she didn't believe him—he seemed genuine, just like Marlene had—but she still trusted Sev over all of them.

"But," James said, tilting his head, "if you are Muggle-born, why would you feel the need to hide it? Unless you were aware of recent events, that is."

Lily raised an eyebrow at him. If he wouldn't tell her everything, she wasn't obligated to do the same.

"You're a very confusing person," he concluded.

"I'm not the one insisting I remain on this ship, I might remind you. You can drop me off in any port. Any one at all, and I'd be more than happy to stop perplexing you."

He grinned. "I won't be dropping you off quite yet."

"You're a very annoying person," she retorted.

"Only because I'm demanding simple answers, like who are you and what do you want. Nothing much, really, in the scheme of things."

"Did I or did I not already tell you why I came on board? I'm certain I did. I was there for it."

"We've covered what you want, yes, but not who you are."

"Weren't you just telling me you didn't care if I was Muggle-born?"

"Not your blood I'm worried about so much as your character. How can I trust what you want if I don't know who you are?"

"I'm not a bad person," she offered. "Isn't that all you need to know?"

"Did you or did you not confess to making a living stealing from others? Funny, in my book that's not under the definition of good person."

"Ah, but I only take from pirates like yourself, so they've no right to the items in the first place."

"A thief of thieves? Oh, I do like that. But couldn't you just make an honest living?"

"Too dull," she said, the closest thing to a lie she'd told him besides the self-protective one about her blood status.

His eager smile wilted. "You're doing this for fun."

A disbelieving laugh escaped her. "I don't know where you think you get off judging me. There's only one pirate in the room and it certainly isn't me."

James leaned back in his seat, his half-finished plate still in front of him, and linked his hands behind his head. "You still haven't convinced me you're not one, but your point is well taken. Still doesn't lift your own burden, though, or make you a good person if I'm a worse one. By your standards, of course."

"I think it matters if you're judging me. Let's not forget who's part of a group known for pillaging ships and villages."

"I wasn't aware thieves ranked higher than pirates on the morality scale. Aren't we doing the same thing to different people?"

Of course, she was only slightly morally better than a pirate, and she only considered this the case because pirates didn't take one or two valuables, they took everything.

But she wouldn't convince him, and that was fine. That wasn't the objective for the evening anyway. Not that she appeared to have made much progress on that front, either.

He watched her with keen, laughing eyes, waiting for her next volley, and she sighed.

"You know," she said, "I can't help but feel I'm not fostering trust."

He smiled, a curious, knowing sort of smile. It was too close to smug for Lily to appreciate it. "You are persuading me to trust you, but not in the way you think you are."

He thought she was confusing, but obviously he'd never stopped to listen to himself.

"I don't know how to convince you to trust me," she said.

"It goes both ways, you know. It's very obvious you don't trust me or my crew, when we've given you no reason to distrust us, whereas you've proved you're plenty clever and a practiced liar. By your own admission you're a criminal."

Lily scoffed. "No reason? Are you forgetting you let me on board knowing full well I was lying and then arranged circumstances so I would still try to steal from you?"

"That was a reactionary lie. Not even a full lie. Or any lie, technically. A misrepresentation at worst."

"Not to mention your crew threatened me."

"Oh, Dorcas?" He laughed, short and deep. "Don't mind her."

"Except I do mind, actually."

"You're under the protection of parley and, more importantly, my word. I wouldn't worry about it."

Clearly it was no matter to him that his crew were beyond his control. And he wondered why Lily didn't fully trust him.

"So this dinner was pointless," she said. "You still don't trust me and I'm still stuck here."

"Oh, no, I wouldn't say it was pointless. I thought it was fun to talk about this sort of thing. Maybe you didn't."

It had been entertaining – certainly much more engaging and challenging than the conversations she'd had in the past several months. She couldn't admit to that, though.

"You said I'd have free rein of the ship," she told him.

"And?"

"The door to the library was locked earlier."

"Oh, yeah. That'll be Peter working."

"Well, what if I want to use the library?"

James quirked his eyebrows. "Wait until he's not working."

"I don't understand why he and I can't both use the room at the same time. It's not exactly a cupboard."

"Sorry," he said insincerely. "He's got things to do and I don't want you anywhere near them."

Lily sat up a little straighter. "So it's important, what he's doing."

"Nah, we just like locking Peter up."

"So kind, you are."

"Pirate," he reminded her.

She pretended to fume about her restricted access so she could have a moment to concentrate on her surroundings. In all likelihood, James had kept her effects in his cabin. She hadn't tried his door when he wasn't occupying it, but if he hadn't already been magically locking it, he probably was now. But hopefully her loophole wouldn't have occurred to him yet.

"So you're reneging on our parley," she said, after she'd had a good look around.

"Not reneging. Amending. You did it yourself this morning."

"Fair enough," she said grudgingly.

Once more he'd reasoned her into a corner with no hope of appeal. She nodded absently while he invited her back for dinner the next night, and subtly dropped a piece of fish into her lap.

He might have got her on their agreement, but it didn't matter. Soon enough she'd have free rein, or close to it, despite him.

James took the latest shift in the crow's nest, from after dinner until midnight, and Lily spotted Peter in the common room, playing dice and drinking with Marlene and Caradoc – if she was going to try to reclaim her belongings, she wouldn't have a better chance.

They probably thought she was no threat at all, wandless and without her hairpin, but her mum hadn't been a pirate for nothing. She'd instilled in her daughter the ability to pick basic locks. In case you're ever kidnapped because of your father, she'd said, a mischievous gleam in her eye.

Lily tried to use a normal hairpin on James's door, but as expected, it failed. He'd locked it with magic, and she had no way around that.

But James clearly hadn't designed the ship with the intention of holding people captive.

She stood next to the door to his cabin, her bit of fish in hand, and said softly, "Algernon! Oi, Algernon! You beautiful thing, I brought you something."

She heard a gentle thud through the door, and then nothing.

"Come here," she said, a bit louder. "I've got a bit of fish here for you because you're such a magnificent, gorgeous cat who has a lunatic of an owner."

The door swung open, and Lily jumped back to avoid it smacking into her face. She wasn't quick enough, though, and it whacked her foot. She cursed and hopped onto her other foot, but still had enough sense to grab the door handle before it shut again.

"Come on," she told Algernon, and limped into James's cabin.

Algernon followed, golden eyes fixed on her hand.

The door snicked shut behind them, and Lily lowered herself into a chair at James's table, the horizon behind her as dark as irises.

"Here you go," she said, holding out her palm to Algernon. "Because you're such a good cat."

He darted forward and licked the fish off her hand, rough tongue brushing against her skin, and then retreated, eyeing Lily cautiously.

"I'm not going to get into any trouble," she told him. "And I'm definitely not going to hurt James, so calm down, all right?"

She checked the drawers under the reading alcove and found nothing but clothes and spellbooks. Tempted though she was to borrow the one on potions, she left them alone. Instead she rummaged through his desk drawers, hurriedly opening them and pressing her hand against the bottoms to test for false panels.

Algernon had hopped up onto the reading nook and curled up in a ball, tail flicking while he watched Lily poke around the room.

She found her effects in one of the drawers under James's bed, lying next to a small mirror and a curious golden ball with tiny, delicate wings. She traded out her hairpin for one she'd borrowed from Marlene and opened her pouch. As best she could tell they hadn't figured out how to find the true contents, although interestingly all of her coins were still in the Muggle side.

She picked up the dagger her friend Miguel had given her during her brief stint as a pirate, but her hand stilled before she took it out of the pouch. If someone caught her with a weapon, they'd be suspicious of her motives, and of how she'd managed to sneak it past them. She reluctantly nestled it back in her pouch beside the necklace her parents had given her on her tenth birthday, and allowed herself a brief caress of the pendant before removing her candle.

There was nowhere safe to stow her candle. If any of the crew mistook it for a regular candle, they could burn through it without even realizing its powers. But if she was going to search the ship for information without the crew knowing, and if she was going to try to escape at some point, she'd need the candle. She tucked it into her bodice along with a box of matches, and converted the bag back to the Muggle side.

She dropped her pouch back in the drawer and stood up, closing the drawer with her foot.

"Algernon," she called sweetly. "Would you mind escorting me back into the library?"

Algernon looked at her sourly.

"Come on," she pleaded. "I don't want to break the spells."

But he remained unconvinced.

"Please? Look, I only took back what was rightfully mine. And you saw, it's nothing dangerous. A candle and a hairpin, honestly. I'm not going to take over the world with that."

He slowly stood up in his spot, and Lily beamed.

"Yes, see?" she added. "I'm really not intending anything awful. I just wanted my own things back."

Algernon leapt off the bench and trotted over to her.

"I'll steal you some bacon at breakfast," she said, in a sing-song voice.

He purred, happier than she'd heard him yet, and sprang over to the door.

It opened at his presence, of course, and Lily smiled at him. James might not have come around to her, but she'd manage without him.

And if his cat liked her better than him, well, that was just a bonus.