Chapter Fifteen | A Pirate's Life for Me

"You killed him?"

"Yes sir."

"D'you have any idea the shitstorm you've brought down on us?"

"Robards-"

"Don't fuckin' pull that on me." Running his fingers through his hair, Robards pointed at the corpse on the floor, Scabior's dead eyes bloodshot, his greasy hair matted with pulped meat and filth. "You went after him after I told you not to! I told you not t'go looking for the fuckin' guy!"

"Why!?"

"Because Kingsley'll have our fuckin' heads! That's why!"

Half-tempted to kick the bloodied corpse at her feet, Quinn just glared up at Robards, lip curled in disgust. "Who's pulling him off? Huh? Is it Malfoy?"

"It's not fuckin' Malfoy-"

"Then who!?"

"I don't know!" Hand in the air, Robards shook his head. "I don't know who. Someone's got his ear."

Stepping away from the body, Quinn paced, biting her lip. "Then why-"

"Potter. Just- I heard rumours."

"Rumours," she repeated dryly.

"The old guard… someone wanted 'im protected. Remote, but protected. We don't touch 'im and they don't try for a new law they've been bandying about."

"No one fucking tells me anything. What law?"

"Somethin' to do with werewolves. Same old same old, but one of 'em was damn insistent about it."

"I'm going to-"

Ready to stomp out of the morgue, the only thing stopping her was a hand around her arm, and Quinn snarled. "What the hell, Robards?"

"You're gonna' march up to Kingsley's office? Huh?" He squeezed her arm, the tension just bordering on painful before he let go, waving her on. "Go. Have at it. Don't come cryin' when he lets the Goblins through and they stuff you in a hole in the ground."

"The fuck are you talking about?"

"They've been after your neck for years, Potter. You know that, everyone knows that. Who the hell do you think has been stoppin' it all this time?"

"Kingsley."

"And if you go chargin' on up there you think he's gonna' be pleased about it? He'll rake you over the goddamn coals and then some, not just for this but more'n you can guarantee that. D'you think Kingsley won't ratfuck you for his polls?"

"He's-"

"He's not the man you fought a fuckin' war with, Potter. The sooner you get that through your bloody head, the better."

-::-

Quinn had her pistol pointed at the woman's head, and the rest of the crew had matched her. Even Sanji had a gun leveled at the intruder, standing on one side of her while Usopp stood at the other, his slingshot raised, drawn, and ready to fire. Nami's bo staff was held firm, and Zoro had one sword half-drawn, eyeing the woman who still sat, relaxed, on the rail before the galley.

"Don't point those at me," the woman droned, and while Sanji and Usopp were tossed onto the deck and everyone's weapons were thrown down, it was only the familiar twinge of magic that kept Quinn's pistol held tight. Reaching out unbidden, she took hold of the arm that sprouted from her shoulder, a disembodied reflection of the one propping up the intruder's chin. "Oh?"

Her voice was calm, but a brush against her mind told Quinn that stopping her had made her very, very afraid. Something flitted through the woman's head, the fear she felt so closely tied to the World Government as to be inseparable. She could not have one without the other, and the woman's name floated to the forefront. Nico Robin.

"Would you mind removing your arm?"

"Would you mind lowering that gun?"

Nico Robin had no intent to hurt them, not that Quinn could detect. In fact, she felt conflicted, closed off, and once more she realized she was standing in front of someone who was wearing a mask. This mask, though, had been a part of the woman for so long that it had all but become a part of her. What that mask hid, Quinn didn't know, but she saw it all the same. So she holstered her pistol, putting two hands up in mock surrender. "Alright then."

"How nice of you. Regardless, to put your fears at bay… I'm not here on an assignment, Miss Wednesday. I have no reason to fight you, and I don't intend to fight your newfound friends either." She lifted her head and smirked at them, revealing a sharp nose and startlingly bright blue eyes. "A very interesting bunch of friends, at that. It's a shame that you're being hunted by Baroque Works because you decided to help her." Robin pointed at the Princess and tilted her head. "And a shame that your newfound friends are all pirates.

"But, the most terrible of them all?" Raising one finger, she turned it towards Nami. "That log pose of yours is headed somewhere very dangerous. An island called Little Garden, which, if you do decide to continue following that pose we won't have to send anyone after you. The island will do all the work for us."

"So… are you a good guy or something?" Luffy frowned, looking for all the world like thinking was physically hurting him. "I don't get it."

Smirking again, the woman tossed what looked like an hourglass towards Vivi, who stared at it, shocked. "An Eternal Pose…"

"To an island just shy of Alabasta. Yes. You can forego all the trials of Little Garden and avoid our agents, none of whom know that route, so long as you follow that eternal pose."

"Why would you give us this?"

"Now that's a very good question." She shrugged. "Who knows?"

A startled yelp left Vivi when Luffy snatched the eternal pose from her, crushing it in his hand. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Nobody gets to decide our adventure!" He shouted, glaring at Robin. "We're going to Little Garden!"

"What a shame."

"Whatever. You're the one who blew up the roller guy. I don't need to listen to you," he insisted, crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out.

"Funny. Well, if you survive, then we'll meet again."

"I hope not."

Ignoring Luffy's retort, the woman wandered over to the portside rail, shrugging. "I wish you the best of luck," she said, hopping off the ship. There was the sound of a grunt, and Quinn looked over the side to see a massive turtle carrying her away, presumably off to Alabasta.

"What… what's her game? What was the point of all that?" Vivi asked, staring off into the distance. "Why warn us?"

"Who knows? Maybe she's just another schemer, I know we've got two women just like that already on board."

"Musclehead."

"Witch."

"Okay, well- our log pose is set and we know where we're going," Nami said, trying to put on hopeful airs. "Let's take a break, get some rest, and figure this all out later?"

"You're the smartest, Nami!" Patting her on the back, Luffy grinned. "I'm gonna' go nap."

"Great. Um- Princess?"

"Just Vivi. Please."

"Okay, Vivi… I'll show you to your new room, that sound good?"

With that, Nami and Vivi went below deck, leaving an exhausted Quinn up top with everyone else, sans Luffy, who had gone up to sleep beneath the tangerine trees.

"So…" Glancing at Sanji, Quinn's lips thinned into a line and she pointed between him and Zoro. "What happened with you two during the fight?"

Crossing his arms, Sanji scowled. "This bastard went around attacking everyone."

"Because it was an island full of bounty hunters," Zoro retorted.

"You could have tried not to target-"

Quinn immediately put her hand up, feeling a headache coming on. "I swear to god, Sanji. If you were about to say what I think you were going to say…"

"I think I'm gonna' go get some rest too," Usopp declared, inching away from Quinn. "Uh- see ya guys later!"

"Well, it's just- he's a brute!" Sanji said, ignoring him, and Quinn gave Usopp a short wave goodbye before poking her newfound teacher on the arm.

"Zoro."

"Yeah, Witch?"

"I'm going to be sparring with Sanji for the time being."

"What!?" they both shouted, Zoro glaring at Sanji, who for his part looked absolutely dreadful.

"Quinn, you can't-"

"Do you not remember our talks?"

"Of course I do, but-"

"Sanji." She grabbed him by the arm, jaw rigid as she looked him over. "You're not just a friend anymore. You're my crewmate. If you get hurt because you won't even consider fighting back against a woman, what do you think would happen to the rest of the crew? To your friends?"

He stammered uselessly, torn between pride and shame. Quinn squeezed his arm in what she hoped came across as reassurance, though it was a coin toss what with how tired she was. It could just as easily have come across as threatening. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"I… I do."

"Then you know how serious this is. We're in the Grand Line now, Sanji… whatever the hell that actually means for us. Just- tomorrow? Or, today, I guess," she added, looking up at the slowly brightening sky, the sun drifting across the horizon. "We're going to get whatever complex you have out of you. Yeah?"

"Yeah. Yeah." Sanji nodded, still looking a bit sick. "I'm going to get some rest."

He wandered over to the deck hatch and disappeared into the men's room, shutting the hatch gently behind him as he descended into the bowels of the ship. As soon as Sanji was out of sight, Zoro let out a weary sigh. "I thought you were abandoning your training with me for a second there."

"That a blow to your ego?"

"Yeah," he answered honestly.

"Is it going to make whatever rivalry you two have worse?"

"It's not a-"

"It's a rivalry. Don't kid yourself."

"You're really picking fights today, huh?"

"I'm not…" Quinn sighed, rubbing her temples with both hands. "I'm sorry. I am."

He shrugged in reply, looking out across the glittering sea. "No worries."

"I shouldn't be biting your heads off. It's a bad habit of mine. I just… I insert myself in everything and I know I do."

"Ego?"

She snorted, shaking her head. "Worry."

"Funny that you worry so much."

"Hm?"

Zoro gave her a sidelong glance, shrugging again. "You're closed off. I get it, sort of. It just means you're damn hard to get a read on. But I get it, I mean, what you told me… I thought Devil Fruits were just a myth until I met our maniac of a captain, and then you start asking questions and saying things that make it sound like you grew up without ever seeing the sun."

"Not this sun," Quinn whispered, frowning. "Not this sky."

Making a strange noise in his throat, Zoro scratched the back of his head. "Things like that. Hell, I'm not good at this sort of shit, but you know what I told you. Luffy won't care. No one is gonna' care. They'll probably just be excited."

"Tell me about the World Government," Quinn said in lieu of an answer. "That woman from earlier…" She bit her lip, wondering if she should even finish her sentence. Instead she looked at Zoro, trying to measure his weight as a person not through legilimency but with a paranoid, but no less keen eye. Whatever Quinn saw, something that she couldn't even define, it spoke true. There was no judgement here. There would be no betrayal. "I took a peek into her mind."

"You… what? Is there anything you can't do?"

"Complex magic, for starters. Not without a wand."

"Mindreading isn't complex magic," he deadpanned.

"It's more of a… passive skill. Something you cultivate in the same way that you'd learn how to play an instrument. Some people take to it naturally, some have so much difficulty with it that they might as well never even bother. Legilimency, the name for it… it's something I realized I was far better at than the opposite magic, Occlumency." Quinn clicked her tongue. In for a penny, in for a pound. "I've always been better at picking people apart, figuring out what it is that makes them tick, rather than knowing what's going on in my own head. Does that make sense?"

"A born swordswoman."

"You're just saying that because I'm your new protege."

"Is that what you are? I was thinking of a punching bag."

"Prick."

"The World Government," he said, going back on track. "What about them?"

"She was terrified of them. Absolutely, utterly terrified."

"That… I don't know enough to answer. Don't hear much about them where I grew up, and I was too busy going from island to island to learn anything about them either. But what I have heard isn't good. I mean, Marines, right?" He turned to Quinn, finally tearing his eyes away from the ocean view. "Maybe a couple I've run into that were alright. Most of them though? Assholes. Greedy, treacherous shitheads.

"Like- that pink haired guy who took you captive. He walked into the Baratie like he was untouchable. Started throwing his weight around as soon as he was through the door. 'Give me this, give me that, don't you know who I am,' and everything else under the sun. He hadn't even tasted the food before he was picking fights with anyone who looked at him." His lip curled, Zoro spat over the side of the ship. "Don't tell the cook, but I was itching for someone to put that guy in his place. When curly brows kicked the shit out of him? Dinner and a goddamn show."

"Guy fuckin' starved me. Shot a cannon at me and… well, you know who, stuck in a little raft in the middle of the ocean. Didn't even say anything, but he fired to kill on sight."

"Did I ever tell you how I met Luffy?"

"No." She frowned. "I don't think you did."

"Okay, so- little place called Shells Town. I went there to drop off a bounty at the local marine base, which was pretty much the only reason the town existed now that I think about it. Nothing else there, really. Anyways, I was trying to find a bar when I was done, and some idiot was walking around town with a wolf. This wolf, because it's a fucking wolf, attacks a little girl." His teeth ground together audibly, and Zoro hissed through them like a cobra, reared and ready to bite. "So I kill the thing. It turns out the idiot who owned the wolf was the son of the marine captain who ran the base."

"What'd he do?"

"He arrested me."

"And you let him?"

"We made a deal," Zoro explained, though his scowl never left his face. "If I went a whole month without eating, he'd let me go, no questions asked. It turned out he never intended to honour that deal."

"I could've told you that."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I think it was ten days in, something like that, and Luffy shows up in Shells Town. I don't know him, I've never met him, but he hears that I'm strung up in front of the marine base and he decides to take a peek at the Pirate Hunter, and the first thing he did when he saw me was ask me to join his crew. A crew that didn't even exist yet."

At that, Quinn chuckled, and Zoro wore a smile of his own. "He found out the son was going to have me executed so he jumped the wall, told me he was setting me free and I had to join his crew, and then broke into the base to go find my swords. And the son? He was just a spoiled brat. His dad, Morgan… Morgan was a real dirty son of a bitch. Shells Town was his own personal kingdom. He was having a fifty foot statue of himself put up the day Luffy broke me out, and when his men refused to shoot that little girl, Rika… I heard he killed one of them. When they couldn't beat me or Luffy, he ordered them to kill themselves."

It took a moment for Quinn to register what he had said, the words barely fitting together. She canted her head, as if trying to listen for an echo, and it was only when her brow crinkled in anger and her pupils thinned did it click. "Please tell me they didn't."

"We stopped him in time. But… Morgan ran that base for years. He stole from the people who lived there and he spent that money on statues and paintings of himself. Years, and Marine Headquarters never stepped in. His men never said a thing." Zoro held Quinn's gaze, a rage about him that was just barely contained. "The Marines are the World Government's attack dogs, and if that's the way some shithead in some tiny little town in the East Blue acts? I can't imagine what the rest of them are like."

"Isn't that bloody cheery. Shit." Quinn remembered the chill in the air, barely staving off the constant torrent of unbearable heat that came with Nico Robin's fear. Something terrible had happened to her, something that had made a mark on her so deep and horrid as to stain her conscience to this day. "Whatever it was they did to her, she's scared of them in a way I can't even comprehend."

"We'll keep an eye out then."

"Simple as that?"

"Of course."

-::-

Squaring off on the deck in front of Sanji, she held her arms in a loose guard, bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet. The crew, of course, decided to sit around and watch their little sparring session, Luffy's head whipping back and forth excitedly as he waited for someone to make the first move. That person would have to be Quinn, what with the way that Sanji held himself with all the reluctance of a man awaiting execution. He was all shoulders, hunched in a way that she nor anyone else on the ship had seen him before. Even Zoro looked uncomfortable, a strange twist to his mouth that was the epitome of conflicted.

Looking around, Sanji asked for the umpteenth time, "Do we have to do this?"

"You need to learn how to fight women, Sanji. Otherwise you're going to get yourself, or someone else killed."

"C'mon Sanji!" Usopp shouted, punching the air. "You can do it!"

"Why don't you come down here and fight her?"

"What! What?" Waving his hands and shaking his head, Usopp took a step back. "No. No thank you. I'm good."

Something to work on later, she told herself. Maybe she could help teach Usopp some Auror techniques for mid-range engagements?

A problem for another time. Sanji's refusal to even throw a kick her way was starting to get irritating. So she closed the distance, a right hook cutting towards his chin which was nimbly sidestepped, so she made a low feint towards his belly and followed it up with a jab, catching Sanji in the ribs. "C'mon, you're gonna' have to hit me back or I'm going to throw you in the goddamn sea," she hissed, considering pulling him into a grapple, something she doubted Sanji had ever dealt with before. Not that she was any good at it, but she hoped it would be enough to kick him into gear.

There was something not many people knew about Quinn, the little tidbit limited to herself, Ginny, what must by now be the newly wedded Weasley couple, and Dean Thomas.

Boxing.

It had been Dean who'd introduced her to it, laughing one day after a D.A. meeting about just "Punching some Death Eater cunts in the mouth." They'd sparred a few times at school, mostly just to keep busy and so that Quinn could get her blood pumping without Quidditch to keep her busy, but there was something therapeutic about laying into a punching bag that she realized upon graduation that she'd missed.

So she picked up boxing at a gym in Hackney, near Grimmauld Place. It was somewhere she could go without being recognized, without anyone knowing the weight that came with her surname and the history of the scar that ran furrows from brow to nose. The gym was a quiet place, somewhere she could let her hair down and forget her day, emptying her anger into a swinging pillar of faux leather.

"Quinn-"

She ignored Sanji's plea and punched nothing but air, a gust of wind thundering towards him. It caught him in the side, spinning him off kilter, and Quinn's fist crashed into his cheek, knocking him to the ground. Sanji groaned, pushing himself to his feet, though he looked no less determined to continue dodging her blows and never strike back, something that was irritating her more by the second.

"You're insulting me right now."

"I'm not-"

"You're insulting me, Sanji. I know you could kick my ass in a heartbeat if you were really trying."

He stuck his chin out, stubborn, and Quinn punched him again. Sanji didn't even try to dodge it that time, and her jaw dropped when her fist actually connected straight on, launching him over the rails. Quinn didn't hesitate to leap in after him, only realizing something was wrong when, upon striking the water, she felt every ounce of strength leave her body. The shock of cold made lead of her limbs, quelled the anger brimming inside her, and left her gasping at nothing in an instant.

Light cut through the waves above her, and the keel of the Merry drifted past the corner of her eye. Her mouth opened, only bubbles of air drifting from her lips as she sank, clawing at the water like molasses. The only thing that Quinn could hear was the dull roar of thousands and thousands of tonnes of ocean swaying left and right, something frigid flitting past her ankle and causing her to choke down brine. That was when panic began to set in, and it was only the sudden sensation of arms closing around her waist and a powerful kick jettisoning her upward did she realize what an idiot she was, jumping headfirst into a sea she knew would no longer welcome her as her own once did.

Quinn gasped upon breaking the surface, blinking rapidly as a ladder was thrown overboard and she was hoisted back onto the deck, coughing and spluttering while trying to shake off the chill that had just barely begun to seep into her bones. "Shit," she rasped, wiping the foul taste of salt from her mouth and spitting up the rest of the seawater that clouded her lungs. "Fuck. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Sanji said from next to her, helping her to her feet.

"No. I'm sorry. Really, I am." She ran both hands across her face, furious at herself.

Blowing up on people- this isn't home. There's nothing to run from anymore.

"I… can we talk? After we both get cleaned up. Or before, I don't really care either way."

Sanji blinked in confusion, but nodded. "Sure. Um- right now?"

"Yeah. And sorry guys," Quinn added, looking around sheepishly. "I forgot about the whole ocean- whatever. That thing. Fuck it." She threw her hands up, leaning against the rail and staring a hole into the deck. Her hands shook, less from the cold but more from the sudden adrenaline that stared her down like the blade of a guillotine. But it was the face of Usopp, looking down at her from the galley with the slightest hint of fear in his eyes that made Quinn's heart clench up.

She was avoiding them. All of the Straw Hats. Joining the crew had been a spur of the moment decision, not the life-changing thing that would come to define the lives of everyone around her. It wasn't as if she didn't want to join the crew, but… there hadn't been the same severity to it. There hadn't been that push, that drive that she'd seen in Nami's eyes when Arlong Park had fallen and the whole of her life opened up before her, a thousand roads she'd thought she'd never travel, and she picked the one that Luffy stood in front of, waiting for her with open arms.

Quinn was a stranger amongst strangers, something alien to this place as much as it was alien to her. Caught up in the rush of it all, she'd barely had time to question anything since hopping aboard the Going Merry and throwing herself into learning how to sail, outfitting her pistol with as many runes as she could cram onto it, and now learning how to use a sword. She didn't want to stop and take a breath, she didn't want to have a moment to herself because that meant picturing Ginny, sitting by the fire knowing Quinn will never-

The wards, she realized, bile rising in her throat. How did I forget the wards.

They were tied to her. And as Quinn reached down to grab a hold of that familiar twinge of magic that had tugged at her chest since the moment Sirius fell backwards into the Veil and ownership of Grimmauld Place changed hands, she knew she would find nothing there.

And find nothing she did.

To everyone back home, she was dead. Not just missing. Dead.

They would have held her funeral months ago. Would have mourned, grieved, raised candles in her name, and buried an empty shroud alongside her dearest belongings. Then would come the feasting, the stories, the tearful revelry as they bid a final goodbye and celebrated the life that was and wouldn't be.

She wanted to vomit, and were Quinn not propped up by the rail she would have fallen over. Instead she wavered, clutching at the rail and digging her nails into the wood. "I'm not from here," she blurted, her voice thick with discord, stained with regret. Nami set her drink down, frowning, and beside her Vivi made a small noise of confusion. Quinn didn't care if she heard, didn't want to hold in this secret any longer because it was the only thing keeping her from actually caring about the people that surrounded her. The people she'd chosen to join, to dedicate however many years of her life it took to reach their goals.

Because she didn't really care, not in the way she should. It was clinical, distant, more the paper-thin compassion that came with work rather than a proper friendship. It was why she decided kicking the hell out of Sanji would do better than sitting down and having an honest talk with him, trying to convey her fears and worries in a way that actually made sense, rather than hoping that she could bruteforce his conviction away with sheer stubbornness and bloodied knuckles.

"I'm not…" Quinn sucked in a breath, meeting Luffy's eyes. "I'm not from this world."

"Woah," Luffy gasped, eyes widening. "What does that mean?"

She snorted, scratching her neck even while the rest of the crew opened their mouths to ask her every question under the sun, bar Zoro who sat in the shade of the sail, arms crossed and his eyes shut as he listened. "It means," she started, swallowing heavily and praying to a god she never believed in that Zoro had spoken true when he said they wouldn't care. Wouldn't betray me. "That I grew up in a world so, so different from this one. A place where I went to school with hundreds like me, where Devil Fruits don't exist and every corner of the earth has been put to a map."

Quinn saw Usopp lean forward. She saw Nami raise an eyebrow. She heard Sanji shuffle his feet, and the click of his lighter and he lit a cigarette.

"I want to tell you all about it."