Chapter Nine | The Powder Keg
Wading into the throng of charging fishmen, Quinn fell into step next to Usopp, covering him as he fired shot after shot from his sling into the crowd. Some scratched at their eyes, trying to claw away glue-like hot sauce that stung her nose from a dozen feet away. Others were stunned by flashes and explosions, and Quinn realized those were the little pellets Usopp had been filling with gunpowder earlier. She slashed and shot at anyone who came close, trying to fall into the rhythm of battle with an unfamiliar weight in both hands. The cutlass she had taken was front heavy, and though the flesh of the fishmen was thick, more tough than it had any right to be, with enough force it cut, and oh did it cut true.
Through the clash Quinn could see Luffy trading punches with Arlong, his voice reaching over the fight and pushing her on. "You made our Navigator cry!" was his battlecry, fury so unlike him yet fitting all the same. Sanji leapt over her head, slamming his heel onto the crown of an approaching pirate and sending him chin first into the paving stones, cracking them on impact. "Usopp, you gonna' be alright on your own?" she asked, firing off two quick shots, one blowing the tentacled arm off the octopus man that Zoro was fighting, the other taking the head off a frilly necked man wielding a pair of maracas of all things.
"What?"
"No bravery without fear, remember?"
He hesitated for a moment before nudging her back with his own. "Go help them! I'll be fine!"
"Good man!" she shouted, charging into the fray and plunging her sword into the first gut she found, forearm slamming into that man's neck and pushing him off the blade. A shot to the chest finished him off just as one came sprinting towards her. Purely on reflex, Quinn kicked her foot against the ground to backpedal, but as she did the earth pulled into a wave, drawn and flung as if a rug. It rolled across the battlefield, tossing fishmen in every direction and clipping the foot of the man charging towards her, sending him skidding across the stones. She kicked him in the head as she ran forward, a thousand thoughts flitting through her mind.
Basic wandless magic works. More advanced when channeled through runic arrays. She snarled as a punch made its way through her guard, catching her just below the ribs and flinging her backwards. Quinn took a deep, gasping breath as she sailed through the air, instinct the only thing moving her as she rolled on impact, quickly pushing back onto her feet. Transfiguration? Conjuration? Would that work?
She swiped her cutlass through the air, wishing with all her might for something to happen. It was at the peak of that slice, the point of the cutlass aimed directly at her enemy, that a vision came to her. A whip of flame, the same she'd witnessed Dumbledore wield against Voldemort with startling finesse. The instant that image leapt into her mind that very same whip leapt from the tip of the blade, coiling around the fishman and constricting him. She yanked, following through with the swing and flinging him across the park, rubble kicked up where he smashed into the far wall.
A vicious grin overtook Quinn as she finally had an inkling of how she could use magic in this place. Determination, understanding, and sheer, stubborn will – all of the fundamentals of silent casting dialed up to the extreme. She had to envision exactly what she wanted and leave no room for doubt nor hesitation.
She pulled the trigger in the same moment that she summoned a fighter towards the bullet, the two colliding in mid-air. As his bottom half was separated violently from his top, she jabbed her sword towards the pieces as she would when forcing a transfiguration. The bisected fishman shuddered violently before the two chunks of him were transformed into snarling wolves which quickly dove into the fray, yanking an enemy away from Usopp as he backpedaled, firing wildly into the thinning crowd.
Quinn felt a tug on her magic when the wolves disappeared, much sooner than they should have, but still – she transfigured something without her wand. She could do it, she could survive this place in a way she still knew how.
"Take, handle the girl!" Arlong shouted as he ducked underneath one of Luffy's punches, growling when another caught him in the flank and sent him spinning into the pagoda. "And Mohmoo, get the boy!"
The battle screamed to a momentary stop as a massive, hulking sea creature burst out of the lake. Two massive horns jutted out from the top of its head, and a ring hung from its nostrils, but the oversized, puppy dog eyes and black spots littering its white scales made Quinn do a double take.
Is that a cow?
An elastic fist snapped towards it, crashing into the beast's nose and knocking it onto its back, a great, bellowing whine shaking the park. "Shit," she muttered, astonished at the show of strength. "Idiot with a punch like cannon fire wasn't a lie then."
"Useless!" Arlong roared, lunging towards Luffy with an open mouth, razor sharp teeth snapping shut with a crack as he tried to take a chunk out of the boy. "And don't make me repeat myself! Get the girl!"
One of the officers heeded his call, a tall man with a fin running from crown to nape, his skin white as snow and lips bearing a noticeable hinge. He was the most fish-like she'd seen so far, reminding her of the merfolk in the black lake with his slitted pupils. Take cracked his knuckles as he approached, shaking out his shoulders for good measure. "You killed my friends," he hissed, lurching towards her with a spring in his step, fists raised in a boxers stance. "I'm going to enjoy avenging them."
Scowling, Quinn fired off a shot that he dodged, head snapping to the left and his hair fluttering as the bullet sailed by. A few steps, a feint, and he was within reach, his fist snapping through the air and just barely catching her by the shoulder. She felt her bones creak, within an inch of breaking, and span on the spot, whipping the cutlass at his throat.
It skimmed across his collarbone, carving a thin, shallow line from shoulder to rib. Cursing, Quinn all but shouted at herself to use her goddamn magic, still feeling naked without a wand. Her cutlass twirled as she directed a bombarda towards Take, the shimmering light slamming into him and exploding in both of their faces, launching them in opposite directions.
Rolling across the stone, Quinn pushed herself to her feet as soon as the world stopped spinning. Her eyes darted around, catching a glimpse of Usopp taunting the fishman with puckered lips and baiting him outside the park. She saw Sanji laying kick after kick into the one with fins jutting out of his elbows, nimbly dodging the open palms and jabs directed his way. Zoro, on the other hand, was bleeding profusely, the wound he received from Mihawk drenching the bandages wrapped around his chest. She was immediately thankful for having shot off one of the octopus' arms, a hastily fashioned tourniquet clenched tight around the stump but the man looked none the better for it.
Take had finally made his way back to her, charging at Quinn with tattered clothes, his chest and neck covered in burns from taking the brunt of the explosion. She grinned, easily spotting the wild look in his eyes, pupils shrunk and his lips twisted into something animalistic.
He wasn't thinking.
The grin was quickly swept away by a flying punch, his knuckles just barely grazing her cheek. She felt the bone break nonetheless, howling in pain and ignoring every reflex she had to grab the injury. Quinn let off another explosion instead, doing her best to close the distance. Take dogged her at every step, and while she dodged, ducked, and feinted left and right, even skimming blows felt like she'd been punched by a giant, her limbs beginning to drag. A particularly nasty hook landed flat on her shoulder and Quinn bit back a scream, dropping her pistol.
Thinking quickly, Quinn ducked again and ran her cutlass across the ground, conjuring ice at Take's feet. He barely noticed until one foot skidded across the shimmering surface, sending him ass over teakettle. Gulping down air that stung with every breath, she made one last desperate lunge away from his flailing fists and slid to a stop a dozen feet away. Her ribs ached, her left arm dangled at her side, but the fire in her gut had yet to be quenched.
Quinn waited, watching, and the moment Take rose to his feet and reared back, one fist high in the air, she moved. Ducking to the side, she swept both pistol and foot in an arc towards him, shoulder screaming in protest. But her magic answered, the paving stones rushing up to swallow his feet while a bullet crackling with lightning careened towards his chest. A silent scream was caught in his throat as he desperately tried to sway left in mid-air, to dodge the blinding white chunk of lead aimed right at his heart. But the earth churned, reaching up and consuming Take up to his waist, trapping him.
The bullet bored a hole through him, just barely missing his heart but putting him out of the fight regardless. A scratchy gurgle echoed in his throat and Take's eyes rolled back in his head, only the whites shining through shuttered lids. From his burned and blackened chest rose a trail of thick black smoke, the stench of it was eerily alike burnt fish, making Quinn's nose twitch in disgust.
Instinct from years as an auror had her placing her hand on his shoulder and muttering a faint episkey. Quinn let her magic travel through him, staving off death for a moment longer. She took that brief moment to catch her breath, pushing the pain out of mind while she once more surveyed the battle. A sigh of relief left her when she saw Zoro's opponent face down in the dirt, barely stirring, while Zoro sat propped up against one of the park's booths.
She dashed towards him, leaping over the field of bodies with single-minded determination. She slid to a stop next to him, immediately falling to her knees and pressing one hand gently against the wound across his chest, the other hanging at her side. "Bloody idiot, you had to go fighting a week after almost getting killed," she hissed, pouring magic into the wound. Thank god for wandless healing training, otherwise Zoro, herself, and half the people she worked with over the years would be long dead.
"The hell are you doing?" he groaned, trying to push her away.
"Healing you, you twit."
"What kind of devil fruit do you have?" Zoro coughed, fresh blood trickling from his wound and soaking her hands. "Saw you fighting there, throwing people around, moving the earth-"
"Questions later. Healing first," she insisted, glaring at him. She glanced over her shoulder to see Sanji limping over, only to collapse next to Zoro and clumsily fish a cigarette out of his jacket pocket. He fumbled with his lighter for a minute until Quinn took pity on him, reaching over with her one good arm and snapping her fingers, Sanji grunting in thanks.
"Where's Usopp and Luffy?" she asked him. "I lost track of them in the fight."
"Usopp is over there," he rasped, pointing with his cigarette at the entrance where Usopp was being tended to by the villagers, Nami staring at the pagoda with Luffy's hat crumpled between her hands. "Luffy is fighting Arlong in there."
Just as he said that the building shook, rubble spitting from an open window at the top level, a cloud of dust trickling after it. Papers fluttered out of the window every so often, and Quinn blinked when a table was tossed out of it, smashing against the pavement. "Good. Alright. While I deal with this idiot, what're your injuries?"
"Couple of broken ribs, collarbone might be busted, and I'm gonna' have a welt the size of the Merry on my belly tomorrow morning."
"I'll heal you once I'm done with Zoro."
"A woman of many surprises," Sanji purred, or at least tried to, his voice thick with exhaustion. Shakily, he inclined his head towards Zoro, who was grumpily staring off into the distance and doing his best to ignore the cook sitting next to him. "I thought you needed your wand to uh- do that."
"So did I," she said, checking over Zoro's wounds a second time to make sure she got the worst of it. She shuffled over to Sanji, wincing as shocks ran from her shoulder to chest, left arm still dangling uselessly. Sucking in a deep breath, Quinn healed her shoulder as much as she could without completely exhausting herself, all her energy already spent on fighting Take and dragging Zoro away from death's door. A low grunt escaped her at the sensation of knitting flesh and fusing bone, and she wished not for the first time that she had buried her nose in a book on advanced healing instead of settling for the basic field medic training all aurors underwent.
That, and she wished she had her usual suite of potions on hand. Blood replenishers and Skelegro would have been a godsend right about now.
Panting, she let go of her shoulder and sagged with exhaustion. "I'll get to you in a sec' Sanji. Just gotta' catch my breath."
"I'll live."
"Cheers."
Rolling onto her back, she fell over next to Zoro, sandwiching him between herself and Sanji. Across the park, Usopp gave them a weak wave and a thumbs up, but his grin spoke volumes. He'd won his battle. She shot him a thumbs up back, slumped against the… looking up, she saw it was a bar.
Raising her hand, Quinn summoned a bottle of whisky, hoping one would come shooting down from above. Like a gift from on high, it did, sailing into her open palm. "Whisky, anyone?" she asked, waving the bottle around. Zoro's eyes immediately flitted over to the booze, intense and more than a little greedy. Quinn unscrewed the cap, taking a deep swig before passing it left.
Zoro hummed contentedly as he gulped down the whisky, and Quinn put a cupped hand over her mouth and went to shout at Usopp when a thunderous crack echoed across the island. Her head snapped to the source, a leg stretched dozens of feet above the pagoda and rising, the top of the building shattered. From where she was, Quinn could hear the dull roar of Arlong and Luffy screaming, the walls shaking and soon to crumble. The foot that hung in the sky, stretched to its limit, finally hit its apex and began to fall. Slowly, first, before the elastic snap of rubber brought it crashing down in a flash.
The ground rumbled beneath her as dust poured from the gaping hole in the ceiling, crash after crash after crash as each level gave out beneath the force of Luffy's kick. The rumbling stopped for just a moment before the building began to collapse, and Quinn gasped as she watched it fall in on itself like a house of cards. Rock and wood tumbled down, fire from smashed lanterns spurting out of cracks in the stone before being swallowed up by the force of hundreds of tons crumbling beneath it.
Dimly, she could hear Nami screaming Luffy's name, but Quinn sat frozen, dust billowing across the park in thick clouds and the dull crunch of stone still ringing out every so often as the rubble was crushed under its own weight. "Luffy," she whispered, before another gasp left her when a hand punched through the top of the heap triumphantly, and out of the rubble crawled Luffy, one arm soaked with his own blood and his clothes in tatters.
He lifted his chin and roared his victory, arms outstretched. The villagers soon joined him, whooping and crying and all inbetween, Arlong Park in ruin and with it their woes.
"Nami!" Luffy shouted, pointing at her from atop his crumbling throne. His shoulders heaved with exhaustion, arm trembling. "You're one of us!"
Quinn grinned, her eyelids fluttering closed as exhaustion finally took her.
-::-
She sat next to the bonfire, a beer in hand and every part of her body aching. It was night, and it looked like the whole village had come out to celebrate their newfound freedom. Luffy danced around the flames like he hadn't fought a man twice his size for the better part of an hour earlier that day, laughing and whooping as he clumsily jumped around, clapping his hands above his head. Every so often one arm would snake out, lacing its way through the crowd to grab a piece of meat that he would shove in his mouth, cheeks puffed out comically, and out would come the bone, shining and clean. It was bizarre, it was ridiculous, but it was so obviously Luffy that she couldn't help but smile at the sight of him.
Beside her Zoro drank like a fish, putting down enough liquor to make her concerned, if not for the steel sharp glint in his eyes that led her to believe he was more sober than not. Hell, Hagrid would have had a hard time putting down that much booze, and the man was a half-giant.
Quinn sighed at the thought of Hagrid, resting her chin on one fist and taking a lazy swig from her beer. It was just now setting in that she'd never get to go back. All her wants and fears and plans for the future had gone up in flames. Her friends, as much as that word had been used in the loosest sense over the last five years, would think her dead. Ginny would be left wondering for the rest of her life if she'd driven Quinn to disappear, or worse…
She didn't know what to do with herself.
Her gaze flitted over the crowd, catching a glimpse of Nami sitting on a porch next to her sister, sharing wine and looking up at the stars. Further on, she spied Usopp regaling the villagers with a grand tale, his hands waving through the air in pantomime as he led them through his fable. Still, her gaze drifted, pausing on Sanji as he worked over a row of grills and spits with a finesse that would leave Molly Weasley jealous, politely but insistently asking him for his recipes.
Molly. Arthur.
They were the closest thing she had to parents, and Quinn knew they would insist the opposite but preen at the idea when she wasn't looking. They'd taken her in without a single complaint, treated her as one of their own the instant that gangly, starved twelve year old had been dropped at their front door at four in the morning with a nicked Ford Anglia still sputtering behind her.
Fuck. She missed all of them. She wished… she wished she could have had one last talk with Ginny, with Ron and Hermione. One that didn't end in shouting or tears. One that didn't end in her disappearing forever.
Quinn grunted and finished off her beer, snatching another from the crate behind her and pressing the cap against a ridge on her seat. She smacked the top of it with her palm, slurping at the froth that spilled from the open neck.
She planned to get well and truly pissed. Her existential crisis could be dealt with tomorrow.
Her gaze wandered again as she drank, lingering on Luffy, who caught her eyes. He grinned all the wider, nimbly jumping through the crowd until he was in front of her. "Quinn! C'mon, let's dance!"
She didn't have time to reply, Luffy hoisting her up by the arms so he could lead her around the fire in a frenetic, jittery dance. He skipped and swayed like a toddler, all waving limbs and giggles, but she found herself laughing along with him as they stumbled around the flames. It was pure and free and without any expectation or judgement, just the sound of drums and the occasional villager singing an old shanty that lilted like the magical folk songs Ron used to belt out when he was four drinks deep after a Quidditch match.
Around and round they went, Luffy's energy infectious in a way that she felt compelled to match. With his shaggy black hair and short stature he could have been her brother in another life, and Quinn wondered why his immediate reaction was to say she looked like Nami instead of asking why she looked like him. It must have been the colour of her hair, not that same, disheveled mess that she and Luffy both shared.
Her aches were quickly forgotten, lost in the rush of the party as Luffy disappeared and villagers who had before avoided her now approached Quinn, thanking her profusely for her part in the battle. She was stuck shaking hands and trading drinks with stranger after stranger, and in a blink she somehow ended up next to Usopp, showing him how to do a jig that Minerva had taught her a year or two back. They got together once or twice a year, usually when Minerva attempted to hire Quinn as the new Defense teacher and instead ended up with them, as always, lounging in front of a fire and trading stories over Ogdens. And there she was, one arm looped around Usopp's shoulder, instructions flying from her lips as she kicked and bounded.
"I have two left feet!" Usopp shouted next to her, trying to squirm away. "You're embarrassing me!"
Finally taking mercy on him, Quinn laughed and let Usopp go, smiling at another gaggle of villagers who were singing the Straw Hats praises. She didn't have the heart to tell them she wasn't a Straw Hat herself, instead nodding and shuffling through the dense crowd bit by bit, everyone milling about in a tight throng in the light of the bonfire. It cast the village in a warm glow, the crackling of embers barely audible beneath the constant chatter.
It made Quinn feel warm for the first time in years.
"It's great, isn't it?" Someone said next to her, and she turned to see Luffy standing at her side, smiling as he watched everyone celebrate.
"It is. I missed moments like this. Everyone gathered around, happy, free. It reminds me of Christmas."
"Christmas?"
"It's a… holiday where I'm from, that we celebrate in the winter. You give each other presents, you eat good food, tell stories, play games. It's cozy."
"Christmas… I like it! Can you tell me how it works?"
Quinn smiled, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. "You just want to know because of the food, right?"
Luffy grinned sheepishly, kicking one foot in the dirt. "Is it meat?"
"A big chunk of roast ham or a whole turkey."
"I love ham. On the bone?"
"Not normally, but I'm sure you could get it that way."
"I really like Christmas."
"I do too."
They stood next to each other for a little while, enjoying the party from afar. The villagers were giddy, each and every one of them, and the sight of them dancing, chatting, and sneaking off to go celebrate in a more intimate way was heartwarming. God, she really had missed this. She missed people, crowds of them all dressed in red, sitting or lying down in front of a roaring fireplace. Was that the last time she had been happy? Hogwarts?
Shit, if that wasn't depressing she didn't know what was.
"Quinn?"
"Yeah, Luffy?"
"Join my crew."
She looked at him, then back to the crowd. The way that flickering amber glow danced across the joyous faces, their silhouettes cast wide across the trees and cottages, making their toasts and claps and twirls as they spun round the fire grand enough to match their mood. Would every island be like this? How wide was this world, truly, for there to be fishmen and brave young captains made of rubber daring to challenge the open seas?
How much of it would she see, should she join Luffy on his adventure? Would she find her place here not on firm land but on the untamed ocean, a madman with a Straw Hat at her side?
"You really want a witch on your crew that badly, huh?"
"Yup!"
Quinn turned her attention back to Luffy, inquisitive. He was open, honest to a fault, but he was the kind of boy – no, young man, barely five years her junior – to run headlong into danger if it meant saving his friends or standing up for his ideals. Luffy was exactly like her in that regard, except he hadn't and would never give up on his dreams, not like she had the instant she became an auror.
There was something about him, in the way he talked, in the way he held himself, that told Quinn that Luffy was the type to take the world by storm and love every second of it.
That was why she stuck her hand out, matching his sudden grin with one of her own. Luffy beamed at her as if she'd told him she'd just made his every dream come true, as if she'd given him the sun and the stars with one simple gesture. He took her hand and laughed, eyes closed and his other hand pressed against his belly, and Quinn swore in that moment that Luffy was made of pure, undiluted happiness.
"Looks like we've shaken on it, haven't we, Captain?"
Luffy didn't say anything. Instead, he laughed.