Chapter Twelve – Democratic Rule

Lily's side barely twinged at all in the morning, and she scaled the ladder to the main deck just in time to see Marlene scaling down the shroud, backlit by the sun.

Marlene dropped onto the deck in front of her. "Morning!"

"Morning," Lily said, uncertain if she should act somber, or mirror Marlene and pretend nothing had happened. "Coming to breakfast?"

"Oh, pass, thanks. I've got a schedule to keep."

"I thought mealtimes were part of the schedule."

Marlene forced a smile that wrenched at Lily's heart.

She stood on the balls of her feet, and seemed to vibrate with a strange energy, nearly bouncing in place, eager to move on and do—something. If it weren't for that awful smile, Lily might've mistaken her eagerness for a renewed interest in sailing. If it weren't for that smile, and the red streaking through the whites of her eyes, and the few locks of hair that had fallen out of her braid and hung askew.

"Right," Lily finally said. "Well, I'm going to eat. And you should, too, at some point."

"Yeah, right. Will do. But I've got to run right now."

Marlene turned away from Lily without another word and took the stairs to the quarterdeck two at a time.

There was no chance Marlene wasn't really in ruins, and there had to be something Lily could do.

She just couldn't think of what it was.

Lily trudged into the common room, where the smell of fresh bread greeted her. Caradoc turned from directing food through the air and smiled sadly.

"Run into Marlene?" he asked.

Lily nodded and sank down into a seat. "She's so…."

"I know what you mean." Caradoc brought his wand down to settle the platters onto the table, the dishes nudging each other out of the way to make everything fit. "I ran into Dorcas a few minutes ago. She said Marlene's been this way all night."

"Shit."

"It could be worse, I suppose."

"I just…I hate seeing her that way."

"So do I."

Lily didn't blink when Dorcas joined her at the table, taking the seat furthest away, but then James entered and sat next to Dorcas.

"Not too cool for us common room diners anymore?" Lily said.

"Nah." James twirled a fork in his hand. "Gets a bit lonely eating by yourself."

"He thought it was pirate-like," Dorcas said. "Idiot."

"Oi, we convinced her, didn't we?"

Lily caught Caradoc rolling his eyes, just barely, before he sat down next to her.

"Thoughts on what to do about Marlene?" Lily asked. "Or are you too busy giggling over your idiotic ruse?"

"Nothing to be done," Dorcas said bitterly, helping herself to some bread.

Which was of course the truth, but Lily's chest tightened at hearing someone else say it. Marlene was in pain, but Lily could do nothing.

"We'd all talk to her if she wanted," James said, "but I tried, and she doesn't—she won't talk about it."

Caradoc poured himself a cup of tea. "I tried earlier, too, but she said she had to go clean the deck."

James's mouth slid into a frown. "I thought she might like a shift or two off, but she insisted on sticking to the schedule. And she has been working, only it's a bit…manic? The deck's never been cleaner."

Lily took the teapot from Caradoc. "At least it's not something more harmful?"

"She's not right," Dorcas concluded.

"But we had the send-off." James mussed up his hair with one hand. "And I thought—she always seemed better after the ones we had back in England."

"Those weren't for her family," Caradoc said softly.

"Yeah, I know."

"Who did you quote?" Lily asked. "The line about the heavens – I've heard that before."

"Oh, I dunno. Sirius gave it to me, said he thought it seemed fitting. And it's a sight easier than trying to say the usual Welsh phrase."

"You didn't even try?" Dorcas said. "Coward."

"Welsh is mad, all right? So I improvised. Anyway. If you think of something, Lily, let me know, but for now I don't know that there's much we can do. At least, not for Marlene. You could do with some magic lessons."

When confronted with a magical attack, Lily had been stupidly useless. Even if she'd had a wand, she wouldn't have known what to do besides stab the woman in the eye.

But she didn't have to stay that way, apparently.

"If you're offering," she said, "that'd be brilliant."

"Remus would probably be best," James said. "Oh, and Dorcas."

Lily's eyes flicked to Dorcas, but rather than looking disgusted, Dorcas was watching her intently.

"How much do you already know?" Dorcas asked.

"Er, that I remember? Maybe five spells. It's been years since I've actually cast anything."

Dorcas and James shared a look that Lily didn't care for, and he glanced back in time to catch Lily's scowl.

"It's just—that's so strange," he said. "Nothing on you. But if you haven't had a wand—it makes sense. You can have the Death Eater's, you know. She's not going to need it."

"Oh," Lily said. Any wand was better than no wand, but a wand that belonged to someone like that…. "Right. Is she still—she's still down in the magazine, isn't she?"

"Warded safe and sound."

"What did Moody tell us to do?" Caradoc asked.

"He had some recommendations," James said, "but it's up to us, really. He can't stop us if we—if we make a group decision."

Dorcas nodded. "Good."

"I think we'll have a vote. I'm not promising I'll listen to the outcome, but I want to know what everyone thinks. Let the others know they need to consider their options, will you?"

"Aye aye, Captain."

"You know, I never got why anyone would add the second aye. One aye is fine for conveying the message."

"No." Dorcas slid back in her seat. "It isn't."

James sighed while Dorcas marched out of the common room. Lily caught a faint smile on Caradoc's face before he sipped his tea, and she grinned at him.

"By the way," James said to Lily. "I'm reassigning Sirius to help Peter with map duties. Cracking it is top priority."

"Is that supposed to be a subtle hint?"

"Few people have ever accused me of subtlety," James conceded. "Trickery, yeah. Cockiness. Charm. But never subtlety."

She smiled. "I'm not promising anything, but I'll try."

"That's all we ask. Should be something to keep you busy, if nothing else. Plus, you'll be helping keep You Know Who from getting what he wants, so that's got to count for something, right?"

"I certainly can't argue with your agenda."

"As far as agendas go," James agreed, "it's admittedly pretty damned stellar."

Lily followed James out of the common room, but hung back as he approached Marlene where she sat on the deck, repairing some ropes with her wand. He held a plate full of food in front of her face, nearly catching her nose on an egg.

It was better that James did it. He was her captain, after all, and she appeared to be listening to him.

But then Marlene leaned back and shook her head, and Lily turned away from them, arms folded. She needed somewhere to go, someone to visit, but the only other people available for company were Caradoc and Peter, and Caradoc was likely feeding the Death Eater. Just as well, really. She had duties, too, now.

This time, the library door opened for her.

Peter looked up from the map and offered a meek smile. "You're here for the map?"

She took the seat next to him. "Apparently."

"Good. I can definitely use the help."

"I'm sure you're doing fine."

"It feels hopeless." Peter slid the map to sit between them. "But James said you noticed something we didn't."

It didn't take long to explain her theory about the dots. He agreed that they looked intentional, and they began compiling a final list of anagrams from the dotted letters. Even when she had the full list in front of her, though, none of the anagrams stuck out as an obvious clue.

They'd just begun discussing how else the letters could be coded—the letters could be shifted, the words might need to be translated first, or any other number of options—when James walked in from the main deck.

"How's it coming?" he asked, resting his hands on the back of an empty chair. "She's not showing you up, is she, Wormtail?"

Peter smiled. "She's got some good ideas, actually. There are definitely dots there, but we've no idea what to do with them."

"Bode was too clever by half." James sighed. "I think working in the Department of Mysteries rotted his brain."

"Maybe he got too close to the prophecies."

James laughed and ruffled Peter's hair. "I've got full confidence in you, but it can't help to have a pair of fresh eyes."

"It can't hurt, anyway. I've been driving myself mad over this."

"Still not as mad as Bode, though," James said.

Lily cocked her head. "D'you have Bode's message somewhere?"

"Er, yeah, sure," James said. "Why, d'you think it'll be useful?"

"There might be other clues or—I don't know. I'm just curious, really."

James disappeared into his cabin and returned with a thinly rolled piece of parchment in hand. He placed it on the table in front of Lily and sat down across from Peter.

Lily untied the piece of twine and unrolled the note to find elegant writing.

The portal is gone. I'll bring you the key to the map. Don't let him get it.

BB

And there, in the top right corner, Bode had written in capital letters OI.

Lily frowned. "Why did he write it up there?"

"We think he wrote it in a hurry when he realized he wasn't—" James rubbed the back of his neck. "Er, his owl showed up missing a leg."

"Oh," Lily said, feeling a bit hollow.

She looked back down at the note.

These were Bode's last written words. He'd killed himself just to keep this prophecy from What's His Face. Someone clever enough to make this map—or mad enough, perhaps—had made the calculation that the world would be better off, and safer, without himself in it.

"Yeah," James said. "So we think he was going to bring us the key but then he couldn't, and maybe this is the key, or it's not, or it's part of a word…. We really don't know."

A few words started with oi: oil, ointment, oink. None of them seemed immediately helpful, though.

"What was Bode like?" Lily asked. "I mean, was he the sort of bloke who'd say oi?"

"Not really an oi man, no," James said thoughtfully. "He was a stodgy bloke. Bit of a pretentious git, actually—self-important, thought he was dead clever—but from what I know damn good at his job. Muggle-born."

Muggle-born.

It didn't matter, really, that he was. Had been, rather. Despite his blood status and whatever prejudices came along with it, clearly Bode had been talented and hard-working enough to land a nice job at the Ministry protecting exceptionally valuable objects.

If Lily's parents had let her go to Hogwarts—if Before hadn't become After—Lily could have done the same.

"Does the message help at all?" Peter asked.

"Hm? Maybe." Lily glanced down at the note again. "Not yet. But it might."

James didn't join them for lunch, but Marlene did. Although she still forced herself cheerful, she barely touched her food or spoke.

"Can't believe he's letting you look at the map," Sirius muttered. "He barely let us look at it until we were on the ship."

"And I am on the ship," Lily said. "Honestly, who am I going to tell?"

"How should I know? You kept my wand somewhere. Who knows what else you have?"

"James does, actually." Her hands clenched around her utensils. "He's seen everything I own, and he left me with everything—which isn't much, not that it's any of your business—except my cutlass."

"Of course he didn't leave you with that. He's not a complete idiot. Most of the time."

Remus looked like he was going to say something, but he didn't, instead picking at his food.

"Have you talked to the Death Eater at all?" Peter asked Caradoc.

"She hasn't said anything to me, and I haven't asked."

Peter bit his lip. "Right."

"Not like she knows anything useful, best we could tell," Sirius said. "Only about the work she's done or heard of. And she's done some pretty awful things, by the sound of it. She confessed to killing more than a few Muggles."

"I still wish I could've helped with the interrogation," Peter said.

Lily's fork clattered against her plate as she abruptly set it down, her appetite lost. No one else seemed to be bothered by the news that the Death Eater had murdered Muggles.

Then again, they'd probably heard worse.

Sirius gave a half shrug. "Didn't miss much, really, and we needed you on watch. You can probably have a look at James's notes if you like."

Peter nodded and went back to his food.

Marlene stopped eating halfway through the meal. Caradoc gently nudged her with his elbow, and she managed to clean a bit more off her plate by the time everyone else pushed back from the table.

Lily made to stand up, too, but Remus caught her eye and inclined his head. She nodded back, although she wasn't entirely sure what she was agreeing to. Peter and Sirius wandered off to the library together, and Caradoc started clearing dishes, but Remus stayed seated, and so did Lily.

When they were alone, Remus reached into his pocket.

"Catch." He tossed an item the size of a large walnut at Lily.

She swiped a hand out to catch it but missed, and it fell to the ground, spinning madly of its own volition. "Sorry."

"My fault, really. I'm used to being around James and Sirius, who used to practice catching their wands for hours on end."

"They didn't really, did they?"

Remus gave her a sly smile. "They claimed it was a good dueling skill, and I suppose that's true in a way, but mostly they probably thought it made them look cool."

Lily laughed and picked up the item he'd thrown. It was a small glass top of sorts, only unlike the child's toy, it kept flashing a bright light in her palm.

"What's this, then?" she asked.

"It detects untrustworthy people. After a fair amount of effort I made it stop whistling, but even my strongest charms can't keep it still."

She held it up in front of her face, the top pinched between her fingers. "Interesting."

"It's been going off for months, actually. I'm of the opinion that it needs to be recalibrated, but I haven't had time to take it in yet."

She lowered the top and looked at Remus. "Are you giving me a broken toy?"

"No," he said, on the verge of smiling. "I'm telling you that I trust you."

"Because you have a broken top. Of course."

"It's been going off at a low level for a long time, since before we left England. It only started this madness when the Death Eater came on board."

Lily let the device fall onto the tabletop, where it whirled about at random. "Oh."

"Precisely." He picked the top off the table and clutched it tight in his palm.

"So you've known all along that I wasn't some Death Eater."

"No, I thought it was broken. But clearly it works to some extent. When faced with a real threat, it performed."

"Won't be enough to convince Sirius, though, will it?"

"No," Remus sighed. "But I wouldn't worry about him. Even Dorcas might be coming around to you."

"If by coming around you mean coming at me with a knife."

"I was under the impression she hadn't threatened you in days."

"And what does it say about the circumstances that we're measuring that in days?"

"Admittedly it's less than ideal. But in any case, she's not the only willing and able instructor on board. I'd be more than happy to teach you a spell or two in my spare time."

"Yes," Lily said immediately. "Please, I mean. If you've got time."

"I always make time for an eager pupil. We could begin now, if you like." He drew a wand out of his pocket.

No, two wands.

He held one out handle-first toward her, and yes, it was someone else's wand, a murderer's wand to boot, but it was a wand. Lily managed to take it with some modicum of restraint, and not snatch it out of his hands like a greedy child.

She liked the way it felt in her hand, cool and smooth and powerful.

"Can I hold onto it between lessons?" Her eyes traced the grain of the dark wood. It was longer than Sev's wand, and it did feel less at home in her hand, but it was a wand.

"James said it's yours for as long as you like."

Lily had long been regretting her decision to steal from James, as unavoidable as her situation seemed in retrospect. Being confined, even on a nice ship with good food and some pleasant company, was tiring and frustrating.

But it might all be worth it, she thought, wand firmly clenched in her hand, if she got to learn more magic along the way.

It had been years since she'd last cast a spell, and apparently some of her pronunciation had slipped in the interim, but the thrill in twitching her hand and uttering ancient languages and feeling the heady rush of magic course through her body—well, some things were unforgettable.

Some things were incredible.

She got in several attempts at the Shield Charm before she forced herself to go back to work on the map. Not that they got much done in the library when she arrived – Sirius was too annoyed that she was there to actually help them move past anagrams.

By the time dinner rolled around, they'd managed to bicker plenty without actually accomplishing anything.

It had served, however, to make Lily forget what James had scheduled for the crew that evening.

He joined them in the common room after dinner, gesturing for Caradoc to stay seated and leave the dishes alone for the moment.

"We'll do this quickly so Remus can get back up on watch," James said, standing at the head of the table. "Wait, where's—"

Marlene ducked through the door and slipped into a seat.

"Right." James offered her a tight smile. "We're voting on what to do with the prisoner. I'm not promising I'll follow the vote either way, but I'd like to hear your thoughts."

Peter worried his lip. "Are we writing down our votes?"

"No. I want this all to be public, or at least public on the ship. But whatever gets said here, whatever happens, you're not to tell anyone else, ever, what passes in this room tonight. We'll never speak of it again either way. Understood?" He received a few nods and hums in response. "Right, then. Caradoc, we'll start with you. You've got to feed her, after all."

Caradoc's eyes widened a bit. "Oh. All right." He ducked his chin. "I think we should just keep her prisoner, and let Dumbledore decide once we get back."

"Right. One for letting her live." James nodded. "Moony?"

Lily blinked. She hadn't realized—but of course those were the options. They hadn't said it explicitly earlier, but what else could they have meant?

They'd given this a day's thought and they—they were ready to kill her. The woman had come to kill them if she could, but she was a person—an admitted murderer, but a person—and they were ready to commit the same crime they'd condemned her for.

Remus glanced at Marlene before looking up to James. "I second Caradoc's vote. We can interrogate her more in England, and if nothing else, she could be a bargaining chip."

Lily tried not to stare. Even Remus had gone harshly practical when it came to this woman's life.

James's eyes flicked to Sirius. "Padfoot?"

Sirius leaned back, hanging one arm off the back of his chair. "Off her, I say. My wards will hold, but we've already got everything we're going to get from her. And you heard it from her own mouth – she was going to kill us given the chance. You can't honestly want to keep that threat alive."

"Two to one. Wormtail?"

Surely they wouldn't actually kill her. James wouldn't allow it. Who would do it, anyway? It would be James, probably, or maybe Remus as the first mate. Or maybe they'd let Sirius do it, given his eagerness.

But no, James would insist on doing it himself.

They weren't voting for her life. They were voting on whether to make James kill someone, and Lily was useless to stop it. Her mouth had clammed up, and even if she had been able to wrench it open, she had no words ready, no clue how to object to the proceedings.

Maybe it wouldn't matter. The vote was horrendous, but it wasn't over yet.

Peter swallowed and looked down at his lap. "I vote…I vote not letting her live."

"Two each. Marlene?"

"Kill her," she said, without a hint of hesitation. Her false smile had vanished.

Marlene, who'd befriended Lily even when Lily had lied to her. They shouldn't have let her vote, not in her current state. But without her, there would have been an even number of votes. Not to mention it was impossible to read how Marlene would have reacted to being excluded.

"Three to two," James said, his face unnaturally void of expression. "Dorcas?"

But there was no question of which way Dorcas would vote.

Dread crept over Lily in cool, dark tendrils. Dorcas and James were the only votes left now, which meant—

It wouldn't matter what James voted.

He'd have to kill someone. Possibly even before the night was through.

Lily's mouth finally opened, ready to protest, when Dorcas folded her arms over her chest and scowled.

"Let her rot," Dorcas said.

"Sorry," James said, "is that—"

"In a cell. Alive and miserable. We'll question her more back home."

"Right. That leaves us with a tie, then."

"What about Lily?" Marlene asked. "She's the one the Death Eater hurt."

"Oh, no," Lily said hurriedly, "I'm not a part of the crew."

Even if she'd felt entitled to a vote, she couldn't have participated in this atrocity.

"But she's got responsibilities now," Peter pointed out.

"No," James said. "I'll break the tie. We're letting her live."

Marlene was suddenly standing up. She glanced down in confusion, as though she wasn't entirely sure how that had happened. Then she looked around the table, that bloody fake smile plastered back on, and strode out of the room without another word.

One of James's hands threaded through his hair. "Right. Thanks for your input."

That was it, then. Two minutes of discussion and the Death Eater could have been dead.

She wasn't, though. At least, not at the wands of James's crew.

Lily glanced around the table. For all his bluster, Sirius only looked mildly disappointed, and Peter actually seemed relieved.

Caradoc began clearing dishes. Peter moved to the sofa to take out a deck of cards. Dorcas pulled out a knife next to him and began sharpening it. Remus and Sirius, heads leaning in and speaking quietly but fervently, wandered out onto the main deck.

Which left Lily and James at the table.

And she might not have been able to say anything during the vote, but her mouth was working fine now.

"We need to talk."

Lily led them upstairs, where James leaned back against the front rail of the ship, ducking his head.

"I can't believe you just voted on that," she said.

He looked up. "Sorry?"

"You voted on whether to kill someone."

James squeezed his eyes shut. "Nothing on your intelligence, but I don't think you have enough context to understand our situation—"

"It's someone's life you were just voting on, regardless of the context—"

"Lily, please remember that I do respect your opinion," he said in a strained voice, his hands gripping the railing behind him, "but you don't—the Death Eaters, they're not like normal armies." He caught her eye roll. "They're ruthless."

"I'm familiar with the novel concept of history, thanks. Ruthless armies are nothing new."

"But you don't know magical history, and you don't understand—"

"What's there to understand?"

James didn't answer right away, and he swallowed hard before speaking. "We've got some of our people back from them, you know. After the Death Eaters finished with them. Meant as taunts, really. They're not—" He closed his eyes. "Mad-Eye told me what they did to the McKinnons. How they found them—what was left of them—" He broke off and looked away. "I might've killed our prisoner, and she wouldn't be the first person I've killed, Lily, but I'd never—I would've killed her quickly—"

"James—"

"And kept her for proper burial, with proper rites, and—"

"I know you would have," Lily said. Her outrage had drained away, and her hand shot out to entwine itself with his.

He looked back to her, eyes searching hers, begging for forgiveness for a crime he hadn't committed.

"James, it's all right," she said. "Really."

He stood still, staring at their hands – he was holding back tightly, almost uncomfortably so, as though he needed to feel someone else's pulse, alive and beating.

"I suppose it doesn't matter," he finally said. "She's going to live."

"For now."

"For now," he agreed. "And I know—I know it's hard for you to understand what we've seen. What they're like. But I didn't initiate that vote lightly."

She might not have understood the context, but she did understand him.

"No," she said, "I—I know you didn't."

When she'd been a part of a pirate crew, they'd never killed unless it was necessary. Or so they'd claimed. Lily had only been able to stomach one raid with casualties before metaphorically jumping ship.

Her mother had never said whether she'd killed anyone. Lily had never asked—never thought to ask—but sometimes she wondered, now.

Of the murders she'd witnessed, the one James's crew had just avoided would have been the most justified. Or at least as justified as killing could be.

"You're actually lucky, I think." James pulled his hand loose. "That you didn't go to Hogwarts, and that you left England when you did. You missed all of this."

"I don't feel very lucky."

"You must be at least a little lucky – you found us instead of Death Eaters."

Her mouth curved into a small, humorless smile. "And then you held me captive. But in your defense, you haven't killed me, so thanks?"

"I'll take any points, even if they're for basic human decency."

"You're more than decent, James."

"Nah." He pushed off the railing and turned around to rest his forearms against it. "I do all right, but I'm not running around England spying on Death Eaters or anything."

"But you're doing something else worthwhile. I mean, how many refugees do you think you've taken to France?"

"Er, I dunno. Since my parents started…maybe a couple hundred? Or more? Not something I try to keep track of."

"That's…. That's amazing."

He shrugged. "Most of the time I was just helping my parents."

"I'm sorry I ever implied…you didn't run away from England."

"No," he said, voice low. "I couldn't."

Her heart fluttered, a poplar leaf trembling in the wind.

"So who's Mad-Eye, then?" she said briskly. "You mentioned him, and some other bloke – they're in charge of you?"

"Us and, well."

"Other people," Lily supplied, leaning onto the railing next to him.

"I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"Your secret anti What's His Face club?"

"Oh, believe me, we've got a much cooler name than that."

"You must have. I mean, Mad-Eye – now there's a name."

"It has the added benefit of being accurate – he's actually got a fake eye. I mean, you'd know him on sight, just from knowing his name. Kind of brilliant, actually. My nickname doesn't have that sort of dashing edge to it."

"Prongs, right?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

"I assume there's a story behind it."

"Of course there is. Who do you take us for?"

"Pirates."

"Well, yeah. That. Prongs'd be a terrible pirate name. I'd want something cooler if I really were a pirate captain."

"Captain Potter isn't so terrible."

"Sadly I'll have Prongs for the rest of my life. It could be worse, I suppose, but it's no Mad-Eye Moody."

"Would you.…" Lily broke off. "Would you tell me about your top secret club? Please."

He looked out at the last rays of sun melting into darkness in the distance. "Will it help you sleep?"

"Oh, tremendously."

"All right," he said, nearly smiling. "Let me tell you a bedtime story about a man called Dumbledore…."

After James left to go on watch, Lily stayed on the deck for a while longer, watching the stars emerge around her. She pulled out the wand she'd got from Remus. Her wand, now.

"Lumos," she said quietly, and a faint light began glowing on the tip of her wand.

That had been the first spell Severus had taught her. They'd practiced with sticks until he turned eleven, pointing and shouting at each other in mock duels in the woods on the edge of the Evans estate.

Magic had seemed so exciting, then, all blooming flowers and levitating the kitchen biscuit tin into her hands. At the time, going to Hogwarts had seemed like even more of an adventure than becoming a pirate.

Her mother would sometimes show her things, or tell her stories, that Lily was absolutely forbidden to tell her father. "Pirates only," her mother would say knowingly.

And Severus would teach her incantations that neither of them fully understood. He hadn't asked it of Lily, but she'd kept those hidden, too.

She'd been keeping so many secrets, and now she had one more to hide, should she ever meet more witches and wizards.

Algernon appeared at the top of the stairs and trotted over to Lily. She sat down on the deck and spread her legs in a vee, one hand still holding the lit wand. Algernon half leapt onto her, his paws resting on her chest, his yellow eyes watching Lily's face intently.

"Hullo," she said softly. "Did you not realize I was a witch?"

Algernon, of course, said nothing.

Lily stroked her hand over his ears, down his neck and back. "I can do magic. Only I forget, sometimes. I suppose except for James's eye patch you don't have to pretend to be much of anything."

When she'd finished her long stroke, he pulled his paws back and sat down in front of her, still watching.

Lily gestured with her wand. "I could kill someone with this."

Algernon did not seem afraid, though.

James had barely been spared having to kill someone. He probably would have used his wand, and not a dagger or sword or whatever other nonmagical weapons were on board. Those methods likely hadn't even occurred to him.

Severus hadn't taught her the incantations for the Unforgiveables, but he'd told Lily about them in hushed tones, even though they'd been alone in the woods at the time.

It had sounded so inconceivable. A word or two, a flash of light, and someone could be dead. "But you have to mean it," Sev had said.

Lily had never wanted to kill anyone. The pirates in her crew had expected it of her, though. Miguel had argued with her over it, in fact, hadn't been able to understand her reluctance. He'd been raised on the streets, while Lily had jumped from a life of luxury to one riddled with violence.

Maybe it was easier to do it with magic. There had to be thousands of ways to kill someone without using the Unforgiveable. In theory it certainly sounded much less gruesome than slashing someone's throat.

James had killed someone before. Probably a Death Eater. Probably in self-defense. Maybe even accidentally. But had he used an Unforgiveable? He seemed more likely to use one of the other endless methods.

Lily scratched Algernon under his chin, and he purred.

"James wouldn't kill someone unless she had to," she told him. "We both know that. I don't know that anyone on this crew would. Even Dorcas didn't do it, when she could've."

At least, the crew Lily had met when she'd come on board wouldn't have done it. Now, with Marlene….

Her voice had been so cold, her determination clear.

Lily pet Algernon one last time on the head. "Nice chatting, Algernon, but I've got something I need to look into."

She eventually found Marlene in the navigation room, re-stacking maps in the cabinet by candlelight.

"I thought you weren't on duty this shift," Lily said, hovering in the doorway with her arms folded.

"Nothing better to do," Marlene said.

There were several questions Lily wanted to ask her—are you really upset James isn't going to kill someone, would you have voted this way if your parents were still alive, how are you coping—but given Marlene's attitude, they seemed pointless.

She couldn't even fully blame Marlene for acting the way she was. Lily had been a mess herself at that stage, but she'd had the luxury of running away, hadn't had people who cared pestering her with questions.

Not that she would have traded to be in Marlene's situation.

But looking back, there was one thing that probably would've helped, if she hadn't cut herself off from it.

"You know if you ever want to—to talk," Lily said. "I know we haven't known each other very long, but I think that helps, sometimes. Someone who doesn't know everything and everyone involved. So if you want someone to just listen, or whatever else you need, I'm here."

Marlene paused in her sorting, hand still on the shelf, and tilted her head. After a moment, she turned back to face Lily.

"You know what would be more fun than stacking maps?" she said, mouth curved into another terribly false smile. "Learning how to use a sword."

"Sorry?"

"You bought that cutlass, yeah? Teach me how to use it."

"I'm—I'm not exactly an expert."

Marlene kept looking at her, and she was showing interest in something, and there wasn't an obvious justification for Lily to say no. Maybe it would burn off some of Marlene's frenetic energy. Maybe it would give her something to think about other than the obvious.

"Er, I suppose I could do that," Lily said slowly.

It couldn't be nearly as terrible an idea as Lily was imagining. James could lock up the cutlass when they weren't using it.

"But James is in the crow's nest," Lily said, "and I don't know where he put my cutlass."

"That's easy enough to fix. I'll go on watch while he gets it."

There was no excuse, then.

Ten minutes later, Lily stood with Marlene on the main deck, her cutlass in hand and a promise to James to return it when they'd finished. There were more ropes and other trippable objects around than she cared for, but it had the most open space.

"Right." Lily held up her sheathed sword. "This is your standard cutlass and scabbard. Cutlasses are nice short sabres, good for close combat."

Marlene nodded, eyes following the blade.

"You've got the hilt here"—Lily gripped her cutlass and unsheathed it, moonlight glinting off the steel—"and the blade." She held out the sword toward Marlene without handing it over. "It's dull back here by the hilt—for parrying—and up front it's sharper, for attacking."

Marlene leaned forward and inspected the blade. "Can I hold it?"

Lily held out the hilt with two fingers. Marlene gripped it—poorly, Lily noted—and stepped back to swish it through the air.

Lily reached out a hand to adjust her grip. "No, don't wrap your hand around the hilt so tightly. Looser, more open. More in your fingers, less in your palm."

Marlene adjusted her grip to something that wasn't quite accurate, but close enough for a first lesson.

"If you hold it too tightly," Lily said, "your arm will go wherever the blade goes. So if someone attacks and you parry, you'll lose your arm movement. You need to hold on less tightly, give yourself more freedom and power."

"Oh," Marlene said, swishing the blade again, "it feels plenty powerful to me."

Her faux cheer seemed a bit more real, then. Less empty.

But perhaps, Lily thought, watching Marlene slice through the air, that wasn't an improvement at all.