Chapter Six – Off Limits

Lily moved a pawn. "Tell me about Severus Snape."

Remus watched her pawn for a long moment. The rain outside had let up after lunch, reduced now to a pitiful, miserable drizzle.

"I admit," he said, "I'm curious to learn how you know him."

"We grew up together, and I never knew him as anything other than a good bloke. Harsh, sometimes, but good. James told me—well, that he's working for the Ministry, and that he's Dark, and I didn't believe him, and he said to talk to you."

Although Remus looked distracted while he slid a pawn forward, it wasn't a bad move. "I think you knew a very different person than we did. The Snape we know from Hogwarts is, well, broken, a little. You're likely more familiar with his life circumstances than I, but he's always struck me as someone desperate for love and approval."

Sirius had been chomping at the bit to talk about Severus, and Marlene had discussed him with less than full enthusiasm, but Remus spoke reluctantly, and accurately.

Sev's parents had never been anything like kind to him, and sometimes Lily hid him in a spare servant's room overnight when it seemed unsafe for him to return to the village. In retrospect the household staff had to have told her parents about the surprise guest, but if her parents had known, they hadn't stopped it.

She toyed with a rook before shifting it, intending to sacrifice it in a few rounds. "James said I should ask you about Severus and your 'condition,' whatever that is."

Remus's eyes flicked upwards while he seemed to ponder something, but he brought them back down after a moment and smiled in the slightly sad way she'd seen him wear more than once. "I suppose it will be relevant to you soon enough." He began rolling up his sleeves.

Lily tried not to stare at his scars. "He didn't make it sound like you were dying, so I'm not sure…."

"Well, we're all dying, aren't we? I'm likely dying more quickly than most, but no, not so immediately. Normally I wouldn't divulge this information, particularly not to those I've only just met, but even if you are a saboteur I wouldn't curse you with this."

"Which is?"

"I'm a werewolf," he said apologetically, baring the long scars marring his arms. "The full moon is only two days away. Even if James agreed to release you today, I don't believe we'd make it to land in time to get you off board before then."

Lily's heart began to beat in an odd rhythm. "We're going to be on board with you while you're a wolf, but from what I've heard, if you bite one of us…."

"No, no," he assured her. "I'll be locked in the magazine all night, safe below deck and safe from harming anyone else."

"Oh, thank God. Sorry, not that I'm—I don't think you're awful, but I didn't—"

"I apologize, I didn't phrase that as well as I should have. It's difficult to remember how little you know about the ship."

"I only know so little," she pointed out, "because no one will tell me anything."

"Truly, it's for your own safety."

"But how can I know that until you tell me more information?"

"I suppose you'll just have to trust us."

Frustration twisted at her stomach. She'd trusted them plenty – she'd told them what she wanted, that she was Muggle-born, that she didn't need James to babysit her from Sirius. But they didn't seem to notice any of it.

Instead, she shoved another pawn toward Remus's side of the board. "What does Severus have to do with your condition?"

"Oh, he rather despises me for it."

"He would—why would he despise you for it?"

"He believes I'm a monster, I suppose," Remus said thoughtfully. "I don't know that he ever used that specific term, granted, but I think that's the most concise way to explain the things he's said to me since he learned of my condition."

"But…. You didn't choose to become a werewolf, did you?"

"No," he said with a rueful smile. "I rather didn't."

Lily's lips pressed together as she watched Remus send out a knight. She could best the move well enough—she thought she understood which strategy he was using—but there seemed to be very little to say about Severus. Despite what she knew of him, everyone else was making him out to be some sort of evil villain.

Everyone, that was, but Remus.

"I'm certain that Severus has been a dear friend to you, in his own way. And if you know him, I don't think you'll disagree that empathy is not one of his strengths."

Lily leaned back in her chair, arms folded. She couldn't agree with him, not outright—that brushed too close to betrayal—and she cursed James for sending her to Remus. Remus, who saw others clearly, and kindly, and had nothing but compassion to offer, even to those who apparently despised him. Remus, who seemed much too humane to succeed in his chosen profession.

She took one of his pawns. "How did you end up a pirate?"

He blinked, a little taken aback. "James asked me to join his crew."

"And that's it. That's all it took for you to join up?"

"I'm sure if you stay on board long enough, you'll understand." He smiled. "When James asks, you go."

Algernon trotted into the common room, the door swinging open for him, and stopped next to Lily where she sat curled up on the sofa. Normally he'd plunk down on the ground and demand to be petted, but this time he stayed standing, and looked up at her expectantly with his one visible eye.

"I'm no cat whisperer." She dog-earred her place in her book. "I don't know what you want."

But Algernon kept looking at her.

"You'll have to be more explicit."

He waved his tail in the air twice, and then slowly walked back to the door, which opened again. Then he turned his head back to look at Lily.

"Hang on a minute." Her eyes narrowed. "It's almost dinner time, isn't it?"

Algernon meowed, sounding rather annoyed.

"Is this James trying to get me to join him for an early dinner?"

He finally looked away from her and walked out the door, head held high.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," she muttered.

But she followed him out the door and across the deck all the same. By now the rain clouds had moved on, the ship glimmering in the rays of sun straining through thin clouds, light catching on the raindrops still clinging to the deck and rails.

Sirius stood at the helm looking perfectly bored and elegant, hair blowing in the wind and making him look more attractive than he had any right to with his personality. As Lily approached the door to the library beneath him, she could see a hint of a scowl on his face.

She made a low noise of discontentment, and Algernon looked back at her, curious.

"It's nothing," she said, and then realized she was talking to a cat again.

The library door opened for Algernon, and Lily had to admire the spellwork that had gone into the system. If they were in fact a newer crew, they'd probably inherited the ship from someone else – the level of detail in the ship design couldn't have come from anyone who didn't intimately understand sailing.

She followed him through the library and into the captain's cabin, where dinner awaited her.

James turned from the window to beam at them. "It worked!"

She sent him a mock-glare and folded her arms while Algernon strolled over to James. "You sent your cat to fetch me."

"Brilliant, right?"

"A girl might take offense," she said loftily, "that you didn't come in person."

"Hey, you should be honored." He bent down to scratch Algernon's ears. "I've never managed to get him to fetch a person before."

"He fetches things other than people?"

"Oh, he'll fetch food, or papers. Loads of things." He stood up properly and stretched his shoulders back. "If he's in the mood, anyway. And it doesn't work too well on the ship since the galley's down a level."

A short, content noise rumbled out of Algernon's chest.

"I think your madness must be catching," Lily said, "because I actually believe you."

"Finally, someone does."

"You don't get a lot of that, do you?"

"Sadly, no. It's a travesty. A massive miscarriage of justice."

"Now that I don't believe."

He grinned winningly at her, and extended an arm toward the table. "I believe you know the way."

Like a gentleman, he waited for her to sit down first. She reached for the wine and served herself before he could. To her surprise, Algernon circled around twice next to her chair, and then settled in, looking ready for a good nap.

James leaned a little sideways in his seat, his elbow on the table – not that much of a gentleman, apparently. "We got distracted yesterday."

She poured him a cup of wine. "Did we?"

"We were going to trade answers," he reminded her, taking his cup back when she offered it.

"I did make that offer, didn't I?"

"Is it still available?"

"I could be persuaded," she said, ladling out some stew for both of them, "although after the way you went off about my friend after my first answer…."

"I won't bring him up again," James said firmly.

"Thank you."

"How did this turn into me trying to persuade you to give me answers? You should be trying to win me over."

She looked up at him through her lashes. "I thought I already had."

His mouth pulled back in a grin. "In one way, I'll concede, but not others."

"Very well, if you insist that I try to win you over."

"And I do."

"Then yes, my offer is still available."

"Excellent." He picked up his spoon. "Terms?"

"To be determined as necessary."

"Making things up as you go along?"

"That's what I do for a living, isn't it?" She stirred her stew to release some of the heat. "I believe you owe me an answer or two, Captain Potter. Last night I told you I was Muggle-born, and that I knew Severus."

"Ah, but asking about Snape was only a follow-up question to the original question. It wasn't a new line of inquiry."

"It was still a question, and I still provided two answers."

"Then, please, how may I repay the debt?"

Lily didn't actually want to know most of the things she could ask, but it did seem more palatable to surrender information about her life if he was forced to do the same.

"What was Hogwarts like?" she asked.

"That's your big opening question? That's what you're dying to know?"

"Yes."

"If that's how you want to use your questions. But Hogwarts," James mused. "Well, it's only the most marvelous place on earth. It's a proper castle next to a lake in the mountains, you know? The staircases move and the food is amazing and…and it was home."

"Is it still open? Or did What's His Face…."

"The funny thing is, he loves Hogwarts. It's actually impossible not to. The school is still technically open and running, but…."

"But you stopped attending."

He nodded. "My friends couldn't go anymore, not with who they are, and I didn't want to. Not the way it is now. It's—it's not Hogwarts, anymore. It's in the castle, but it's not Hogwarts. Not really."

She lifted her cup to her lips. "Am I to believe, then, that you dropped out of school and became a pirate, of all things?"

"But I've just given you two answers – it's my turn now, isn't it?"

"The second question wasn't a proper question. It was…a factual inquiry."

"So was your blood status," James pointed out.

"Touché." Lily fixed him with a smile. "That's my next question after yours, then."

"All right." His eyes darted up and down, assessing. "Have you ever had a wand?"

She looked down and stirred her stew. "No."

"But you're a witch, and you know you're a witch. Why didn't you go get one?"

"Are we doing one question each or two?"

"Let's say we allow one follow-up, or we'll never get anywhere."

"I suppose I could consent to those terms."

She fished a piece of beef out of her stew with her spoon, picked it up with two fingers, and bent down to offer it to Algernon. Algernon's rough tongue lapped at her fingers, and he made a pleased noise, his tail swishing along the floor.

"And?" James prompted.

She smiled without humor. "I never got a wand because I never knew where to buy one."

"I never—I didn't think about that."

"I can't imagine why you would."

He chewed for a few moments, apparently pondering her answer by the intense look in his eyes. Finally he swallowed. "But your hairpin is magical."

She'd encountered a handful of witches and wizards in her time, people with objects or vocabularies that tipped her off. They'd been happy enough to barter. But she'd only found them on ships or in small port towns, far away from wand shops.

"If that's a question," she said, "you'll have to wait. It's my turn, remember, and I still want to know why you became a pirate."

He shrugged and looked down at his bowl. "Well, you'll be disappointed. That topic is off-limits."

"You can't just say it's off-limits."

"You made Snape off-limits."

"You agreed not to bring him up."

"And I'm asking you to agree not to bring up this topic. So unless you'd like to make Snape within bounds…."

She wouldn't divulge information about Severus, even if he really was working for What's His Face. She wouldn't give up his secrets to someone who spoke so poorly of him.

"Fine," she conceded. "Severus is off-limits."

"Then so is my piracy."

"I'd like to point out that that's a much broader topic to bar, compared to one person I haven't seen in three years."

"But we care equally about hiding them, which means they're effectively equivalent for the purposes of this discussion."

Lily bit back a grin. She shouldn't be smiling, not when he kept using her own rule of making up the rules against her, but she so rarely met a good conversationalist among pirates. Besides, he wasn't wrong, and she knew it, and he knew she knew.

"Can I ask how you got your ship?" she asked. "You're awfully young to be a captain."

"I'd argue piracy and my ship are irrevocably intertwined."

"I'd argue you could have a ship and be a merchant or something. Unless a ship fell into your hands and inspired you to become a pirate."

He tapped his fingers on the table. "I suppose it's not technically related to my piracy to say I inherited the ship from my parents."

Apparently Lily wasn't the only one in the family business. Although it seemed strange that pirates would send their child to a boarding school in Scotland.

"Were your parents pirates?" She added, before he could object, "That's not related to your piracy, mind you. It's related to theirs."

His lips twitched in amusement. "No, they weren't. And now it's my turn—the hairpin. How did you get it?"

"I traded for it."

"But somewhere you couldn't get a wand…."

"Is that your follow-up question?"

"No, just speculating. I suppose it doesn't matter where you got it." He twirled his spoon in his hand. "All right, if you want to bring up Hogwarts, I have to ask. Why didn't you go?"

"Simple enough. My parents wouldn't let me."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No, I don't think I do," she said, smirking. "You'll have to use another question for that, but it's my turn."

He nodded in concession and sipped his wine.

"Why did you leave England?" she asked.

James took his time answering, sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck. Finally, he said, "That's related to my piracy, and therefore I won't answer it."

"That's not fair. You could just say anything is related to your piracy to avoid answering, and I'd have no idea."

"You don't trust me to play fair? I'm wounded."

"Pirate," Lily reminded him.

"Mm," he said, distracted. "I'll only say that I left because it was the right thing to do, and because I'd been waiting for the opportunity."

"Half an answer means I get another question."

"I certainly wasn't informed about that possibility."

"I'm the one with the information you want."

"Therefore you make the rules?"

"Precisely."

"And you're certain you're not a pirate?"

"Only by birth." She nearly said 'only half,' but he'd already made that joke.

James's eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"

Lily bit back a curse. That was something about herself she could tell other pirates, but not him. It wasn't that she was concerned he'd judge her for it—after all, he claimed the same title—but she couldn't give away things like that, not without making him work for it.

"The game's over," she announced, resting her spoon against the side of her bowl.

He flashed a smile at her. "What if I'm not ready to be done?"

"As I said, I make the rules as we go along, and I say we're done."

"It's true, I can't force you to play."

"We can play again some other time," she told him. Now there were rules, and she could think out how to frame some of the things she didn't really want to reveal to him.

"But who says I'll want to play again?"

"I can't imagine why you wouldn't."

"You keep changing the rules and then you cut off the game off when you feel like it. Tell me, where's my incentive to play?"

"I'm a drain on your resources and some of your crew don't like me. Surely you've as much interest as I do in parting ways."

He shrugged. "Not particularly."

"But if we don't play, how am I supposed to…." Lily didn't need to finish, and sighed instead.

"If we don't play," James supplied, "I have to keep enduring your fascinating company."

It had been entertaining to play at the idea that she had some control over her situation, but the fact that he still held all the cards came crashing back down on her.

He wasn't a friend. They might pretend they were, and she did enjoy being around him, but that interpretation of their relationship was facile. He was someone she had to get to trust her just enough to let her go, and then they'd never see each other again.

That was all.

Lily awoke slowly to the sounds of someone rustling in their trunk, and she raised her head just in time to see Peter climbing up to the main deck.

If she was going to get off this bloody ship, she'd probably need a majority vote of the crew members. Remus, Marlene, and Caradoc might all vote that she could leave. James and Dorcas had made their feelings clear, and she'd only gone backwards with Sirius.

But Peter.

Peter didn't seem to care for her, but he also didn't seem to loathe her very existence.

In fact, he was the most mysterious person on the ship. He didn't spend much time at meals, but she'd seen him talking to the others in the common room in the evenings. And apart from his watch shift, he didn't serve any of the usual functions of a crew member. From all appearances, they'd assigned him only to work on understanding the treasure map.

She'd rummaged through his notes again the night before, and although he hadn't made much progress since she'd last looked, she had found a new sheet of parchment that outlined the details the map hid:

Need:

Starting point

Direction

Distance?

Next to Starting point, Peter had written, Azores Islands. Someone else had written by that, You're the master of the obvious, and Peter had written underneath that, It's more than nothing.

Elsewhere Peter and the same person had written another exchange.

Where did he lay fettered? Who is he?

You Know Who.

And below that, a third person had written, Very funny.

It's the closest thing we have to a location, Peter had written. Could be a reference to the starting point.

Of course, it wasn't entirely Peter's fault that he was struggling. The map made no sense. Lily had stared blankly at the map for twenty minutes before abandoning hope of reaching any sudden insight.

She might not have been able to pick Peter's brain about the map, but she could still try to convince him she wasn't a saboteur.

Nearly everyone was seated by the time she entered the common room. Dorcas's naturally displeased face went a shade grimmer, and she and Sirius shared a brief glance of annoyance without pausing in their conversation.

Caradoc lowered the plates onto the table just as Lily slid into the seat between Peter and Marlene.

"D'you want a new dress for tonight?" Marlene asked.

Lily grabbed a piece of toast and shook her head. "No, but thanks."

Dorcas snorted across the table, but Lily held her head high and ignored her.

"He's coming around to me, I think," she said to Marlene, mostly to annoy Sirius. "We had a very nice discussion last night."

She didn't miss the dark flash in his eyes as he shoved porridge into his mouth.

After swallowing, he said, "McKinnon the elder says hello to everyone."

Marlene's head snapped up, face bright and eager. "Did James talk to him?"

"Not to him personally," Sirius said, with all the smugness of someone withholding important information. "But he sends his regards."

"Is Eli doing well?" Caradoc asked. "And Catherine?"

"They seem to be, yeah," Sirius said, one shoulder pulled back over the chair, his arm dangling behind him. "Catherine's pregnant." He wore a cocky grin with an air of not really caring either way, but his smile reached his eyes too much for Lily to believe his act.

"I'm going to be an aunt!" Marlene slapped a hand on the table. "Any idea on names? I mean, besides Marlene, obviously."

Sirius took a long swig of juice. "Dunno."

Lily watched Marlene have a small fit in her chair, and glanced sideways to Peter. They shared a brief smile before Peter went back to pouring himself more tea.

"Congratulations to your brother," Lily said.

Sirius rolled his eyes, but Marlene didn't seem bothered at all.

"He was supposed to join the crew," Marlene told Lily. "He taught me everything I know about Healing. And I suppose he'll teach little Marlene that, too."

"You're definitely not being premature," Sirius said. "Not one bit."

"Sod off, Black," Marlene said cheerfully. "You can't bring me down to your level. Not today."

"Your brother wasn't interested in being a pirate?" Lily asked.

"He got married instead, the prat. They were going to wait, but with—well, everything, waiting seemed like a bad idea."

Lily nodded. "Understandable."

"Yeah," Marlene said, at the same time Sirius said, "And we got stuck with her instead."

Dorcas's elbow jerked sideways into Sirius's ribs.

"Oi." He rubbed at where she'd jabbed him. "I'm just saying I'd prefer to have Eli around."

"Unacceptable," Dorcas said.

Marlene smirked at Sirius, and he hunched over his plate.

"Two days in a row of women attacking me," he grumbled.

Peter set down his glass. "Who else attacked you?"

Sirius angled his head up to glare at Lily, and Peter gave a short nod.

"And you didn't even kill her," Dorcas said, in an impressed sort of way.

Sirius threw a dirty look at Marlene. "McKinnon saved her."

"Hufflepuff," Dorcas muttered.

Marlene made a noise of protest.

"I take back my jab," Dorcas told Sirius, and he lazily saluted her.

"How do you suppose your parents are taking the news?" Caradoc asked Marlene loudly. Or at least, loudly for Caradoc, which was enough to shut everyone else up.

"Oh, they'll be thrilled," Marlene said. "They've been after me, even…."

Lily had never been one to lose her head around the idea of children, and she turned to Peter, who looked equally bored by the turn in conversation.

"So," she said, "what's the best raid you lot have made, then?"

"Er," said Peter. "Let me think about that." He didn't look at Lily—he didn't seem to like facing her full on—but at least he didn't outright ignore her.

She smiled, trying to put him at ease. "That many good ones?"

He gave her a quick, half-hearted smile. "Yeah, they're just—they kind of run together."

"Your crew certainly seems successful enough."

Peter nodded. "James is great. He's a brilliant captain."

"Have you mostly stuck to Europe? I hear the Caribbean's lovely, although I haven't got over that way yet."

"No, we've never left Europe." HE scooped the last of his egg into his mouth.

"Oh, I went down to northern Africa once. Hot as hell. I left as soon as possible."

"Yeah, I bet." He shoved back in his seat, the chair scraping loudly against the floor. "I'm off to the library, then."

He practically ran out of the room without another look at Lily, and she resisted the urge to sigh.

Sirius shot her a triumphant look when the door had swung shut again. "Sorry, love. It's a pirate thing. See, with magical pirates, it's not exactly custom to discuss your previous adventures."

"Why's that?" Lily asked. In her experience, bragging rights were half the reason pirates did anything.

"You'd have to ask the pirates that preceded us," he said, as though it were obvious.

Dorcas snorted into her tea.

Lily looked to Marlene, whose face had closed off. There had to have been some reference Lily was missing out on, like a dead former crew mate, or something.

Dorcas whispered something into Sirius's ear, and Lily leaned into Marlene. "Custom aside," she said quietly, "I don't understand why Peter's so…."

Marlene's eyes flicked to Sirius, who was laughing, head thrown back. "He's just…he's a nice enough bloke, really. We haven't talked too much. He's always tagged along after the others – he can be a little quiet around them."

"I see that." Lily's eyes flicked to Sirius.

She tried the library door after breakfast, but it remained locked. She sighed and turned around to see Marlene casting spells at the ropes connected to the sails. It looked complicated—ropes flew in every direction—and Lily didn't want to disrupt her concentration.

For company, that left her with James or Caradoc, and James seemed to have disappeared into his cabin after covering watch during breakfast.

Peter would have been the most useful option, but it would be good to talk to Caradoc, too. Although he seemed to like her well enough, it couldn't help to be sure. Besides, he could answer some questions no one else on board could.

She climbed down onto the gun deck and turned away from the beds, toward a wall with a plain wooden door that she'd assumed led to the galley.

She knocked because it seemed like the polite thing to do, and entered when Caradoc called for her to do so.

The air in the galley was a drastic change from the gundeck, heavy with water and heat, and the walls held sunny, round windows Lily was positive didn't exist from the outside.

They'd enlarged the kitchen like they had the orlop deck – it stretched further than logic dictated, with long counters, copper pots and pans hanging overhead, and what looked like a pantry door tucked in a corner. Their breakfast dishes sat stacked up neatly next to a nearly overflowing sink. One by one, the plates dunked themselves into the water, and a dishbrush attacked the food remains with vigor.

"And here I pictured you sitting in a dark, manky cupboard peeling vegetables by hand," she said.

Caradoc sat on a wooden stool next to a bucket, his wand pointed at a potato that slowly rotated in the air, the peel sliding off in one long, narrow strip. He looked up and smiled at Lily.

"I wouldn't be a cook without magic," he said. "It's too much work the Muggle way."

She grabbed a spare stool and settled in on it next to Caradoc. "Thought you could use some company down here."

"I would never say no to visitors."

He probably wouldn't, Lily thought, but not always because he actually wanted them there.

She watched the peeled potato zoom back to the counter. "I'll reiterate my deep and abiding love for your cooking."

He directed his wand at another potato that flew to hang over the bucket. "I'm glad it's so well received."

He was kind, yes, but not the most naturally talkative person. He might not bring it up himself, but he'd probably answer, if she asked.

So she did.

"James said you're the only Muggle-born person on the crew."

If Caradoc was surprised or bothered, he didn't show it. "Yes, that's true."

"And how…how is that?" Lily crossed one leg over the other. "Being Muggle-born and a part of the wizarding world."

He tilted his head in contemplation. "It wasn't so bad, at first. I didn't even realize there was a perceived difference about Muggle-borns."

"Did most people look down on you for it?"

"Not most of them," he said thoughtfully. "Some, yes, although I don't think they all recognize how deeply they feel it. They said things, or made it clear they thought things, that were worse than they believed them to be."

"Like what?"

"Like…like if I didn't get a spell right away, they'd look at me, like, of course you didn't get it right. They wouldn't really say it, but you'd know."

"Did Severus ever—I mean, he never said anything like that to me."

"I'm afraid I can't say," Caradoc said gently. "He and I never really spoke."

"But you must have heard about the things he said. Everyone else…."

"I did hear about some things he said, but I can't say I ever heard them from him directly."

Even if Severus had never said a bad word to Caradoc, that didn't mean he had never said them to other people, or that he wasn't Dark. Whatever being "Dark" meant, anyway, besides the obvious connotation of not being particularly good.

"From what I've heard," Caradoc said, "Severus was kind to you. And I think that matters. A lot."

"It counts for something, anyway." She uncrossed her legs and fixed him with a tight smile. "But you liked it at Hogwarts? Even though you were Muggle-born."

"Oh," Caradoc sighed. "I loved it. After growing up like we did, finding other people like us…I wish you'd been able to see Hogwarts Before."

She'd never talked about this topic before—at least, not with anyone but Severus, and he'd never been able to relate—but Caradoc had a certain welcoming air to him, a way his eyes focused on hers, listening intently. They were kin, in a way.

She looked down at her lap. "My parents thought they'd have a hard enough time marrying me off without me being a trained witch on top of it."

"I suppose they didn't realize you could have met a decent husband at boarding school."

"Marrying a wizard wouldn't have been appropriate, not by their standards."

Caradoc nodded. "My parents didn't mind the idea of a wizard in the family. They thought I could come back and find ways to help them after I'd learned some things. Of course, they didn't realize that I wouldn't be allowed to do magic outside of school until I came of age. Or that's how it would have happened, if the Ministry hadn't fallen."

"You had your wand, though. You could have helped even if What's His Face was in charge."

"I wanted to, more than anything. My mother hurt her leg, and she needed help around the house. But I had other things to do."

Lily frowned. "Like become a cook on a pirate ship."

He offered her a sympathetic look, but it didn't help her understand any better. "James asked me to," he said, "and I couldn't say no."

"Of course you can say no," Lily said, trying not to come off as harsh. "He's not some omniscient god."

Caradoc was easily the kindest person on the ship, but to choose the life of a pirate over helping his parents….

"A mutual friend of ours," he said, "pointed out it might be in my parents' best interest if no one knew where to find them. If I can't visit them, it's much less likely that they'll be tied directly to me, and much less likely that they'll be targeted by You Know Who."

A burning shame coursed through Lily. "That's—that's not a terrible motivation," she said. "Protecting your parents."

"I'm normally not one for cooking, but James asked me to do it for his crew."

"Well, he made a wise choice." She nodded toward the stack of clean, dry dishes next to the sink. "You're brilliant at it."

He smiled, thin but genuine. "Thank you."

"But if you don't like cooking," she felt compelled to point out, "you could find other work, you know. Become a real crew member on a ship, or hide out in France, or any number of things."

"No," Caradoc said, still smiling, "that's all right. I'm right where I'm supposed to be."