Chapter Seven | Ruminations and Reunification

It was raining heavily, the hills near Beddgelert slick with mud. A perpetual fog hung over the village, and between that and the wet it was almost empty apart from the scant few who lived there.

Quinn had set out on Saturday morning, and it was only through the grace of magic that she remained relatively dry and unbothered. That didn't stop the chill from constantly wearing at the warming charms she'd covered herself in, nor did it do anything to stop the eerie whistle of wind that carved its way through the valley the village was nestled in, built in that shambling, mismatched sprawl that every out of the way hamlet was between here and the Shetland Islands.

An anonymous informant had personally reached out to her to announce a sighting of Scabior, of whom there had been scattered reports all throughout Wales. He'd somehow survived that fall from the Clocktower Bridge and after two years of being presumed dead, he'd gotten cocky. Scabior could have apparrated to the continent and legged it from there, disappearing to god knows where to live a life of calm obscurity well away from anyone who would recognize him. But he stayed, yet no one seemed keen to catch the man who'd led dozens, if not hundreds of muggleborn and their families to the camps.

Someone high up must have been suppressing his capture. It was the only thing that made sense.

Out of habit, Quinn shielded her eyes from the rain. It took her a second to realize what she was doing and she huffed at herself, not daring to be any louder. Her glasses were enchanted from top to bottom and back again, damn near indestructible, weather proof, scuff proof, and whatever other bullshit she could etch along the sides once she'd run out of ideas. After years of losing her glasses in situations where she very much needed them, Quinn had finally modified them to suit her needs somewhere around… it must have been a year ago now.

Silent, she crept up the hillside, keeping a watchful eye the whole while. There were plenty of nooks and valleys along these hills, and all she needed to do to find Scabior was sniff out the shoddy wards he had to be hiding under. On her flight over she'd felt a pulse of magic roughly north-east of where she now stood, and hopefully that narrowed things down enough to flush out the rat and whoever else was hiding with him.

Her wand made lazy circles as she sidled ever upward, listening for every crack of a twig and squelch of muddied leaves the wildlife would make as they scampered by. It was past those innocuous scratches and squeaks that she finally heard the dull thump of firewood being cloven in two. Up, to the right, past two trees that formed a natural doorway and through which she could feel the faintest hum of magic.

There he was. Now she'd found the bastard.

Quinn took the long way around, up the hill and around the outside, so she could get a look at the clearing they were hidden in from above. As she did, she pulled at the threads that made up the – as she had expected – ramshackle collection of wards that blanketed the hideout. One by one, she tugged at those strings and began to unravel them, feeling the way the wards began to give out.

She held them at the tip of her wand and bent them to her will, her constant attention the only thing preventing them from falling entirely. Her magic steadied, she peeked her head over a mossy boulder and set sight on the camp.

A cabin had been made from felled wood, magically fused together to form something that looked like it would be well suited to the old American frontier, shaded beneath pine trees and resting near a wide lake. Smoke trickled from a small chimney jutting out of the back of the cabin, but what caught her eyes were the two figures huddled out front around a chopping block, an axe stacking and cutting wood of its own accord.

Scabior and… one of his old snatcher companions. There must have been more inside, what with the smell of sizzling meat in the air.

But Scabior, snatchers in general, weren't fighters. They went for ambushes, shock and awe, and were quick to retreat and call in a proper Death Eater should they be incapable of capturing their target. That was why when Quinn twisted her wand, letting the wards she had taken hold of collapse, she directed them inward, straight at Scabior.

He and his friend had only a moment to react when Scabior collapsed, screaming as every ounce of poorly put together magic carved at his insides. The door swung wide a second later, some grubby man Quinn didn't recognize lunging out into the wet with a shout on his lips.

She stunned him, but never noticed the fourth man point his wand from around the back of the cabin and fire a cutting curse at her. Quinn swore loudly when it carved through her shoulder, blood mixing with the rain that dripped down her arm.

"It's Potter!" the man roared, stepping out from cover and firing another curse her way that she narrowly ducked beneath. "Kill her!"

Scabior stood, neon green bursting from his wand and impacting the boulder she slid behind, the stone exploding in a cloud of dust and shrapnel. Without hesitation she shot off a quick barrage of curses she'd long ago committed to muscle memory, the intricate dance of her wand executed with the utmost finesse. Red, blue, yellow, every colour of the rainbow showered upon the clearing with all the ferocity of an artillery barrage. The flash of a conflagration ballooned out from the cabin; the noise of it alone was enough to drown out the screams of the men below, their clothes instantly set ablaze and their hearing all but gone.

Quinn sprinted from the dust, sliding down the hill and picking off the first man she saw with a stunner, another spell leaping from her wand before he had struck the ground that cleared away the fire that had cloaked him.

There was a stinging in her ear as a spell cut through the fog, and Quinn turned to the source, a bone-breaker already careening towards the caster. She saw Scabior's face look out from the cloven mist, two waves of it billowing outwards. His bloodshot eyes were thrown open in surprise, and as the curse struck him in the temple she watched in slow motion as his skull collapsed around the impact. It fell inward, concave, a bruised sinkhole that sent shrapnel bouncing around inside his head only for it to rocket back out from where it came. It looked like a small bomb had gone off, the spray painting the tree next to him in crimson and peppering it with chunks of bone for good measure.

Panting, Quinn ignored the macabre sight and set to work on trussing up the men who were with Scabior, levitating them one on top of the other. Scabior went last, underneath the lot, well after she'd conjured a body bag and stuffed him inside it.

Taking a deep breath, she readied them for transport. Another breath, 'calm,' she told herself, before firing off a patronus and watching as it trotted towards the Ministry and Robards, relaying to him what she'd done.

-::-

"Quinn, hey- Quinn, wake up. Nojiko's walking over here."

"Hmm? What?" she snorted as she sat up, blinking rapidly. "Nojiko?"

"Yeah, she's on her way over."

Scrambling to her feet, Quinn squinted at the hazy figure approaching them, the only sign it was Nojiko she could spy through her bleary eyes that of a shock of blue hair. "Either something happened, or Luffy's here."

"Wanna' bet it's both?"

"Usopp, that's a fool's bet."

"Worth a shot."

"Nojiko!" she called, waving at the woman. "What's going on?"

"Is your friend a maniac in a straw hat?" she shouted back, to which Usopp and Quinn shared a look.

"Told you it was a fool's bet," she said. "Yeah! That's him."

"He's going around the village asking about Nami. Arlong is going to send someone down there if he hears about it. You better drag him out of there before he brings every fishman on the island down on our heads."

"Fuck. Okay, let's move. Johnny, Yosaku, you stay here with Nojiko and make sure she's safe. Usopp and I are going to grab the Straw Hats and drag them over here."

"Aye aye!"

Rolling her eyes, Quinn took off in a sprint, Usopp following close behind. He might not have had the brawn of his crewmates, but damn that guy could run. The two of them took the shortest path to Cocoyashi, feet pounding against the sand and their breaths coming short and quick as they closed the distance. Within minutes they spotted the treeline that marked the end of the grove and the start of the village, Quinn pointing to the right and jerking her head in that direction for good measure. "You head that way," she barked, already starting to peel off in the opposite direction. "I'll work my way down to the shoreline, you start from the south. I'll whistle if I find them, you do the same. If one of us whistles, we go straight back to the grove. Got it?"

"Got it!" Usopp called, kicking up dust as he leaned into the turn, disappearing into the treeline with a sudden burst of speed.

Christ, he really can run.

Ducking under brush and over root, Quinn leapt with long strides through the brush. She listened all the way, trying to see if she could pick out the voice of Luffy or Zoro over the dull chatter of the village, the sound of voices growing louder as she approached. She skidded to a stop as she broke through the trees, startling some poor man with a whirligig on his cap. "Sorry!" she blurted, putting her hands up plaintively. "Nojiko sent me over here-"

"Nojiko?"

"-to find a guy in a Straw Hat running around bothering people? Could you point me in his direction?"

"That kid? Yeah, he's off that way," the man said, still frowning as he pointed towards the coast.

Quinn clicked her tongue twice and shot him a thumbs up, taking off in the direction he pointed. "Cheers!" she called over her shoulder, hand cupped around her mouth. "You're a lifesaver!"

"Who are you!?" was the man's reply, but Quinn was already well out of sight, dodging left and right through the sparse crowds that blocked her path along the narrow village road. A few people shouted at her, outraged, but all Quinn did was shrug apologetically and keep moving. It was hardly a minute before she saw a familiar flash of tan and red, bolting towards it. "Oi, Luffy!"

The boy leapt, head spinning unnaturally as he got a look at her. A smile almost tore his face in two, and Quinn let out a startled yelp when his arms stretched out to take hold of her shoulders and yank her towards him. She sailed through the air, popping two fingers in her mouth and whistling loudly while she was reeled in.

She slammed into Luffy, the boy howling with laughter as Quinn bowled over him and landed flat on her ass, his back pressed to hers. A brief flash of shock flitted through her mind at yet another example of how insane this world was. She ignored it, crawling to her feet with a small grunt of pain (because goddamn, that hurt). A small wave in Zoro's direction, a double-take in Sanji's, and Quinn was grabbing Luffy by the arm. "We've got a camp west of here, Usopp is waiting for all of you."

"But Nami-"

"He'll explain everything at the camp. Sanji, back me up here."

"Listen to her, Captain."

"Fine," Luffy whined, letting Quinn drag him away from the village.

They moved quickly until they'd made it to the trees, the pace of their march slowing as soon as they were out of sight of the village and on their way to the grove. "You joined up with these lunatics?" she asked Sanji, surprised at him.

"I decided a change of pace would suit me."

"Bullshit."

Sanji just smirked around his cigarette, which Quinn's gaze latched onto with hunger. "Bum a smoke? The village we stopped at to resupply had run out and I haven't stepped into Cocoyashi since we got here."

"Sure thing," he said, taking one out of the little case he kept in his breast pocket and flicking it over to her. Quinn nodded at him in thanks and sparked it with a snap of her fingers, gulping down the smoke and nearly stumbling at the headrush.

"Damn," she muttered, shaking her head. "It's been a while since I felt one of those."

"Rush?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Quinn clapped her hands and turned around as she walked, facing the group. "How'd things go at the Baratie?"

"I kicked Krieg's ass!" Luffy cheered, punching the air. "He tried to shoot some poison gas at us and didn't even warn his crew! Half of them almost died," he added with a glower, genuinely angry that the man would betray his people like that.

"And Gin?"

Blowing a smoke ring, Sanji flicked his gaze to the sky. "His arms won't ever heal properly. Not after I was through with him. That traitorous bastard won't ever fire a gun again."

Zoro glanced at the cook, poorly hidden approval in his eyes. "He had it coming after what he pulled on you."

"Yeah?"

"Of course!" Luffy all but shouted, although his voice grew quiet as he went on, a monotone anger behind his every word. "He destroyed your treasure. Sanji messed him up real bad because of that."

Slowing her pace a bit, Quinn sidled up next to Sanji and clapped him on the back. "Thanks."

"Anything for you, my dear. Although, I thought you should know…"

"What?"

"Gin said he would return to the Grand Line. He said he'd make it up to you, somehow."

She nearly stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"He seemed regretful."

"Regret won't stop me from taking his head if we ever meet again," she growled.

"Ah. What a terrifying beauty you are."

"Pervert cook."

"The hell you say to me, mosshead?"

"Jesus. What is it with you two?"

"Him," they both growled, pointing at eachother.

Luffy just laughed, throwing his arms around their shoulders and dragging them down so he could mash their faces against his. "You guys are funny!"

"Bunch of maniacs, you lot."

"Anyways! Where's Nami?"

"That's… a long story. But we did find her sister. That's where we're headed right now."

Sanji lit up hearing that. "Nami has a sister? Oh, she must be a beauty!"

"I'd say so, but I have a bit of a thing for tattooed women."

With that said, Sanji looked as though he might faint.

"How long ago did you guys get here anyways? Just make landfall, or what?"

"Oh we crashed," Luffy said. "We found a cool sea cow and I grabbed its horns and it brought us here!"

"You crashed?"

"We were too fast," he stated, completely matter-of-fact. He then giggled, planting his hands on his hips and grinning. "It was fun though!"

"That sounds conspicuous."

"Conspicky-what?"

"People would've noticed. Arlong might have noticed."

"Eh. I'll beat him up if he tries anything." Luffy blinked a few times. "Who's that again?"

Sighing, Quinn looked to Zoro, who shrugged at her. "Don't even try explaining. He'll figure it out eventually."

"Figure what out? Oh! Hey, look!" Jumping excitedly, Luffy pointed ahead at a familiar flash of red hair wandering through the tangerine grove. "Nami!"

Nami whirled around, a flash of surprise glancing across her features before it was swiftly wiped away, replaced with a cultivated expression of contempt. Quinn had to hand it to her, it looked convincing, but Nami's acting didn't hold a candle to Lavender, who had arrived at Hogwarts knowing how to cry on demand and had only become more of a terror as the years went by.

God, she missed Lavender.

Before her thoughts could take a turn for the worse, Quinn fell back a few steps and watched as Luffy ran up to Nami, jabbering excitedly about how glad he was to see her safe and sound.

"Why did you come here, Luffy? Are you that dumb?" Nami hissed, voice growing louder with every step. She brandished a bo-staff in one hand, pointing it at Luffy in a vaguely threatening manner, if not for the complete lack of a reaction from the boy.

What Quinn did notice was a tattoo on Nami's shoulder. An ornamental swirl, reminiscent of the tides, capped off with the jagged visage of a saw-nosed shark. It must have been the mark of the Arlong Pirates. Hell, that was the only thing it could have been. Unless there just so happened to be a competing crew of fishmen on the island, and Quinn wouldn't hedge her bets on that being the case.

"What? Whaddya' mean? You're our crewmate! We came to get you!"

"You believing your own idiocy would be funny if it weren't so damn sad."

"Told you she was a shithead," Zoro grumbled out of the corner of his mouth.

Sneering, Sanji leaned into Zoro's face. "How dare you disparage a young, beautiful woman like that!"

"Shut it, Sanji," Quinn hissed, pulling him away from the swordsman. "Infantilizing, remember? Besides, are you even hearing her?"

"Ha!" Barking out a cruel laugh, Nami smirked at them. "You can't even go a minute without fighting each other. Pirates? Don't make me laugh. You want to go kill each other, be my guest, but make sure to take your sorry asses off my island."

Humming and hawing, Luffy stretched. "That's a pretty mean thing to say to your friends, Nami."

"Friends? I only pretended to be your friend so I could rob you idiots." She spat on the ground in front of him. "Get out of my sight."

"Eh."

Waving his hand up and down, Luffy then put his arms behind his head and flopped onto the dirt, shading his eyes with his hat. "Night, then."

"What!?"

"I don't wanna' leave the island. And all your talking is making me sleepy, so I think I'll nap."

Scoffing, Nami turned away. "It's your funeral. Idiots," she fumed, and with that she left, stomping in the direction of her sister's house.

They watched her leave, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Usopp poke his head out from behind a tangerine tree and frown at Nami's back. Quinn whistled quietly and waved him over, thinking all the while.

Something was definitely going on here.

She could reach into Nami's mind and prise the answer from it herself, but… a part of her was curious. Quinn wanted to see what she and her sister were planning, the regular way, and whether or not it would pan out. It must have been years in the making, judging by the age of her tattoo and the speed with which she fell into the cold persona she'd so obviously crafted for herself. It fit on her like a shoe on the wrong foot, a clumsy disuse to it that she was trying to wrestle under control. A muscle not often flexed, or one on the verge of atrophy.

"Told you," Zoro repeated, letting out a tired sigh. "Think I might join Luffy for that nap. Sounds damn good right about now."

"Sand is warm," came Luffy's mumble. "But it's kinda itchy."

"Was that… was that Nami?" Usopp asked as he came closer, casting a glance to the mirage-warped silhouette of the Straw Hats once Navigator. "She seemed so sca-ah!" A surprised squeak echoed in his throat as Luffy's arm shot out, wrapping around Usopp's midriff and dragging him down next to the boy, who turned to him and beamed.

"Usopp!"

"Luffy! Let me go- you jerk!"

All Luffy did was laugh, giving Usopp a big hug before letting him go. "Everyone's here now!"

While watching them, Quinn gave Sanji a sidelong glance. He was still glaring at Zoro, but his attention was partway held between the swordsman and Nami's blurry figure. She tapped him on the shoulder, jerking her head to the side. "Lemme' talk to you for a mo'."

"Hm? Of course, Quinn. Anything for you."

"About that."

"Ah. Um- of course?"

Sighing, Quinn dragged Sanji over to the shade of one of the nearby tangerine trees and pointed at Zoro, one eyebrow quirked. "Were you about to fight him because he insulted Nami? Especially after what she said?"

"Well, I-"

"Yes or no. Spit it out."

"Perhaps?"

"A yes, then." Clicking her tongue and pacing, hands on her hips, Quinn scuffed her heels on the grass. "Say Nami becomes an enemy of yours. Say I do, or any other woman for that matter. It's going to happen eventually, unless you lot are a walking, talking anomaly. You going to kick Zoro or Luffy in the mouth for defending your crew? Because, lemme' tell you something, Sanji. Anyone worth their salt would have your head in an instant if they knew your one weakness was women of all things. Your head, and the rest of 'em," she added, pointing at the three sitting in the middle of the road, Luffy and Usopp aglow as they caught up on each other's adventures.

Sanji, meanwhile, stammered uselessly. It was obvious to her that he was torn between mustering up a retort and battling against his constant, implacable need to treat any and all women as deities.

"You're getting into a dangerous profession as far as I can tell. Gotta' get used to the idea that you'll have to kick a lady in the face to make sure you and your friends make it out safely."

"But, I couldn't-"

"Hesitation equals death, Sanji. It's the first thing I learned in my line of work. Not to mention, I'd be damn furious if I was fighting someone and they refused to fight back because I'm a woman." She nudged him with her fist. "Chin up. And don't go fighting your fuckin' friends because they refuse to mince words."

"I… understand." Looking both thoughtful and ashamed, Sanji gave her a weak smile. "Shall we head back?"

"Go on ahead. I'm gonna enjoy the shade and figure out what I'm doing once you guys are done with this island and… I think that's Johnny and Yosaku heading over." She pointed down the road, two figures walking their way. "Nojiko must've told them to get lost."

Quinn just tutted, propping herself up against the tree before sliding to the ground, resting her head against the bark. "Might take a nap myself. It's a nice day for it."

It was true, a nap would be perfect right about now, so she closed her eyes and trusted that, should something happen, at least Sanji would be the first to let her know.