Chapter 31: The Tale
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Chapter 31: The Tale
Unknown Island, July 18th, 1996
"...and then we saw the village and the ship. And we realised that we had to cover our tracks," Harry said.
James Potter frowned. "Why did you come to that conclusion?" Harry looked good - slightly tanned, not sunburnt, hair a mess, but that was normal, and healthy. Not hurt, not any more.
"Because they were on the same island as a man-eating wyvern who had killed several people," Miss Granger butted in before Harry could explain. "We weren't certain that they were pirates, but we had to assume the worst, so we hid and then sneaked up on the village to find out what kind of people they were."
"We did that carefully," Harry quickly added. "We went underwater to sneak into the cove because we assumed the village was warded against intruders."
James gritted his teeth. He ignored Fleur whispering to the little girl - probably translating - and said: "And you thought that they wouldn't have wards underwater?"
His son - his brave, smart and oh so foolish son smiled. "Well, we considered it unlikely. Not with the wyvern hunting sea mammals and large fishes. And we were ready to summon each other in case something went wrong."
"Like underwater netting. Disillusioned underwater netting," Miss Granger added.
"But there wasn't any. We did encounter a shark, but it was harmless," Harry said. A shark! James gritted his teeth and forced himself to let his son talk. "So, we swam into the cove and then looked around. Under cover by the ship. And we found out that the settlement wasn't abandoned, so they had been living on the island for a while. And hadn't done anything about the wyvern."
"And we saw the prison," Miss Granger interrupted again. "So, we were either on a pirate island or a former pirate island. We couldn't risk revealing ourselves."
Lily nodded. James agreed. Of course, they couldn't reveal themselves - as they found out, those were actual pirates. Not former pirates. If they had revealed themselves… Damn it!
"Anyway," Harry picked up again. "We made some plans, then went back to spy on them some more. That's how we found Céline."
James narrowed his eyes. Harry was glossing over things. He only ever did that when he was hiding something. Damn it - this was… Why couldn't Harry have trusted them to find him and simply hid for two weeks? Stayed safe instead of risking his life like this? Why couldn't they have found him sooner? They had almost… Damn it! "You sneaked into a pirate village?"
"At night," Miss Granger replied. "The pirates were busy celebrating. We could investigate the prison without risk." The girl frowned. "Or so we thought."
"Yes, we must have left some traces or tracks since the pirates started hunting us afterwards," Harry said.
"Or we triggered a spell," Miss Granger added. "We never found out what mistake we made."
Triggered a spell? What if it had been a lethal one? James clenched his teeth.
"Something easily rectified, now that we can question our prisoners," Dumbledore said.
"They hunted you?" Lily blurted out.
"We already knew that from the prisoners," Sirius pointed out. He was grinning, as if hearing how close Harry had come to dying was funny!
"Well, not right away. We returned to our shelter for a while to plan. Then we moved up and made a hideout near the pirate village, so we didn't have to walk through the jungle every day," Harry went on.
"So, that worked out, and we started spying on the village again," Miss Granger said.
She was talking a little more loudly than before, James noted. Crooks usually did that when they were agitated - or tried to hide something. He reminded himself that this wasn't an interrogation.
Harry nodded several times. "Uh, right. Anyway, we were making plans to free Céline - we didn't know her name back then - but we spotted a fishing boat sailing through the wards. So, we knew how to escape then. But the pirates used dogs to track us to our hideout, and we had to flee on our improvised broom."
"A pole we were levitating," Miss Granger explained. "Not an actual broom."
"And you managed to escape the pirates on that?" Sirius blurted out.
"They couldn't easily find or see us since it was at night, and we managed to lose them the few times they saw us," Harry said. "Blew up half the jungle, but they never caught us, and we went back to our shelter to rest and recover."
"You were hurt?"
"Only scratches. Easily healed," Harry quickly said. Too quickly.
James shook his head. This was… this was madness! Harry wasn't a trained Auror. He hadn't even finished school! And he and Miss Granger had, apparently, treated the whole ordeal as some adventure! Sneaking into a pirate village! Repeatedly! Running from pirates, and then… "What did you do then?"
"Well," Harry said, "then we made new plans to sneak into the village to free Céline and escape with the fishing boat, of course."
"'Of course'!" Lily spat, shaking her head.
"We didn't know that you'd arrive so soon," Miss Granger said with a frown. "If we had known, we would've waited. But… we didn't know!"
"We picked the best course of action we could think of!" Harry blurted out.
"And you proved your ingenuity and courage!" Dumbledore beamed at them.
For a moment, James wanted to hex the old man. Harry shouldn't have been risking his life!
"We were so worried about you!" Lily said, sniffling. "And you… you..."
James nodded.
Harry looked sheepish." Sorry, Mum, but… we really saw no other way."
"And you made it!" Sirius smiled at them. "You took on the pirates and won! Saved the girl, too! You're heroes!"
Heroes who wouldn't get the slightest chance to brave such danger again, James silently vowed. Neither he nor Lily would survive another week or two spent worrying about Harry. Certainly not now that they knew what he would do in such a situation!
"Thank you, Sirius," Harry said, beaming at him.
James frowned. Sirius had no business encouraging Harry - this wasn't some prank or Quidditch stunt. His son had fought murderous pirates! One mistake, one curse, and he could've died!
"So," Miss Granger quickly took up the tale again, "we made a plan to distract the pirates, lure the majority of them away from the village, then break into the prison, free Céline and escape with the fishing boat, to let us pass through the wards."
Harry nodded. "We had captured a broom during the chase, so we could now meet them on even terms."
James blinked. "You had captured a broom? While the pirates were chasing you?"
"Yes. I managed to hit one with a curse, and he crashed," Harry said. "Then I summoned the broom."
James wasn't about to ask Harry whether or not his boy had killed a man. But he knew he had to ask their prisoners if only so he wouldn't wonder and worry.
"Good thinking!" Sirius said. "So, everything went according to your plan?"
"Yes. I attacked the ship to rile them up so they would chase me, lured them away and then returned to pick up Hermione. Worked like a charm."
"Except for you hitting your foot against a tree trunk when the pirates were chasing you through the jungle," Miss Granger replied.
"That was an accident," Harry protested. "And I had to fly fast or I wouldn't have been able to lose the pirates in the jungle. Which I did!"
James had a few horrible visions of Harry crashing head-on into a trunk. He should have never let Lily drag him into that muggle movie.
"You sunk the ship? How?" Sirius asked.
"We turned tree trunks into metal spikes, shrank them, and I dropped them after enlarging them from a great height," Harry explained.
"Though some of the damage was done by spells when they were chasing you around the ship," Miss Granger added.
"Anyway," his son continued - a little too quickly; James saw Miss Granger close her mouth and frown, too - "I returned, and we broke into the prison."
"After we sent conjured and enlarged mice and birds into the village," Miss Granger cut in again. "And the doors and windows of the prison were protected, so we blew through the walls to save Céline."
The little girl perked up when she heard her name and said something in French. Fleur replied in French, which prompted another wave of quick sentences.
"Céline says she was very frightened until you found her," the witch said.
Harry winced, as did Miss Granger. "Well, Hermione calmed her down, and then we hid in the prison."
"You hid in there?" Lily asked.
"Well… we had taken a little longer than planned to get into the prison." Harry's smile told James that his son was about to lie again. "So, we had to adjust our plans a little."
"How did you hide in the prison, with the pirates coming?" James asked. "Did you use a Disillusionment charm?"
"No," Miss Granger replied. "That wouldn't have worked, anyway - they used Disillusionment Charms, so they also had to use Human-presence-revealing Charms." She nodded and glanced at Harry.
Who, James noted, glanced back at her instead of continuing their tale. That was a very bad sign.
Lily must have picked up on that as well. "What did you do?" she asked in a clipped tone.
"We shrunk us and hid under an armoire," Harry blurted out. "So the armoire would hide the markers from the Human presence-revealing Spell."
"We had trained to do that while we were planning this," Miss Granger added quickly. "And it worked very well."
"You shrunk yourselves?" Lily all but yelled. "Do you know how dangerous that is?"
"Yes," Harry replied, frowning. "That's why we trained for it."
"And we had used the shrinking charm a lot even before we specifically started training," Miss Granger said.
"Very impressive," Dumbledore commented with a wide smile. "Not many wizards and witches would have dared take such a risk, but I dare say you had no choice."
"If I had our cloak with us…" Harry trailed off when James and Lily glared at him. "Anyway, it worked out, and we waited until they had left the prison and started looking for us elsewhere. Then we lured one of the pirates into the prison…" He trailed off. "Merlin's Beard, I completely forgot about him!"
Miss Granger gasped. "Me too!"
"What? What did you do?" James blurted out. Had they killed a pirate?
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a doll. No - a shrunken tied up pirate!
James stared, as did the others. No one said anything for a second or two.
"He's OK," Miss Granger announced after waving her wand at the shrunken man.
"Yes," Harry said. "I cast a Bubble-Head Charm on him before I stashed him in my pocket. Well, mainly so the smoke from the fire wouldn't hurt him, but it also helped when we went underwater."
Underwater? James resisted the urge to grab Harry and shake him until he told them everything. In detail. But it was a near thing.
"Underwater?" Mum asked. She was standing very close now.
"Well," Harry Potter replied, "we had to ride out the storm, and we couldn't risk getting blown back through the wards, so we went underwater."
"You were out in that storm?"
"Of course," Harry replied. Hadn't that been obvious? "We struck at the pirates at night, then fled. And the storm began shortly after sunrise, when we were at sea."
"We were travelling by brooms and only used the boat to pass through the wardline," Hermione added. "And we didn't want to test whether or not the boat had charms to protect it against environmental hazards. So riding out the storm underwater seemed the best course of action."
Well, they hadn't thought of that, but there was no need to tell Mum and Dad that. Harry nodded. "And it worked out well," he said. "We resurfaced, got the boat out and then dried ourselves."
"J'avais tellement froid!" Céline piped up.
"You spent hours in the cold water?" Fleur blurted out. "You could've died!"
"We clung together to share body heat and minimise the loss of heat," Hermione retorted. "It was much safer than riding out the storm in a fishing boat."
"Yes. We didn't know you were coming - and we were committed. We couldn't return to the island, either," Harry said. "The pirates had to be searching for us after we lost them at the wardline." Although if they had managed that... the pirates would've never expected them to return.
"'Lost them at the wardline'?" Uh-oh. Dad had that expression he usually did when he caught Harry at a prank.
"They spotted us when the sun went up, and we had to use the boat to cross the wardline," Harry explained. "So, we had to fight them off while we did that. It was only for a few minutes, and it was only a few pirates."
"We used conjured birds to block their curses and serve as targets for Reductor Curses to allow us to hit them despite them being disillusioned and flying on brooms," Hermione added.
"Oh, good thinking!" Sirius said.
"Quite clever, indeed," Dumbledore agreed.
"Thank you!" Hermione beamed at them.
"Anyway, that's why we forgot about the captured pirate," Harry said. "Sorry."
"But he wasn't hurt," Hermione said with a sneer. "And he was stunned, so he didn't even realise what was going on."
"And then you sent the Patronus after us, and we knew you were coming," Harry finished. "And here we are!"
"So… you killed a wyvern, sunk a pirate ship, burned down a pirate prison, freed a pirates' prisoner, stole a pirate's boat and pirates' brooms, and escaped from the entire pirate crew?" Sirius beamed at Harry. "That's great! You put my training to use!"
"Sirius!" Mum hissed. "They almost died! Multiple times!"
"But they didn't!" Sirius defended himself.
"That doesn't mean it's OK!" Mum insisted. Well, she usually said that about pranks as well. "You can't be lucky forever!"
"We weren't just lucky!" Hermione protested. "We did plan everything carefully!"
"But not everything went according to plan," Dad replied. "And I know you skipped over a few things in your tale."
Harry struggled not to blush. What they had done in the shelter was no one's business but their own. "A few details," he said. "Nothing important."
Hermione frowned for a moment and glanced at him, then nodded. "Yes. We didn't go into details about dealing with diarrhoea caused by a diet of coconuts. Or how we had to bury the rotting carcass of the wyvern before it became a health hazard."
Sirius grimaced. As did Mum and Dad.
"It would've been very embarrassing if the wyvern had managed to kill us after we killed it," Harry joked. Sirius and Bill were the only ones who laughed, though. Well, Dumbledore smiled. "Oh, can we go and dig up the carcass before we leave? The skull would make a great trophy!" He blinked. "Although we would have to hide it from Hagrid, I guess."
"And Luna," Hermione added.
"Yes," Harry agreed. "But we can shrink it. Or keep it in Grimmauld Place. It would make a great conversation piece."
"Oh, yes! My godson's trophy!"
"I confess I am curious about this creature's size," Dumbledore said. "And I think Xenophilus might be interested in the skeleton as well - wyverns are rare, after all." Harry winced, and the Headmaster added: "Don't worry, Xenophilus understands how dangerous wyverns are."
"Unlike Hagrid," Sirius mumbled.
"Let's do it," Dad said. Mum nodded.
Harry had the sudden feeling that this might not have been a good idea.
Hermione Granger looked around as they flew towards the shore. The prison had suffered greatly - the walls still stood, and the roof hadn't collapsed, but what she could see of the interior was blackened with soot and signs of extreme heat such as bent and warped bars. And in front of it, she saw a long row of stunned and bound pirates lying in the sand.
She nudged her broom to the side until she was flying next to Harry, who, for once, wasn't speeding ahead, and said: "Too bad we can't hold the pirates in their own prison."
He laughed at that. "Oh, right! That would've been ironic. Though if they are smart, they would've prepared some ways to escape their own prison, wouldn't they?"
"I don't think so. That would've been a weakness their captives could've exploited," Hermione pointed out.
Instead of flying ahead to their shelter, the adults leading them landed at the shore. Hermione frowned as she followed suit. She saw Mrs Potter already walking towards the prison, followed by the Headmaster. "What is going to happen to the pirates, anyway?" she asked as she dismounted.
"They'll be tried?" Harry replied.
His father turned and nodded at them. "Yes, they'll be tried. But we're still in the process of detailing who gets to try them," he told them. "Britain, France or Algeria."
"Why France?" Harry asked.
"Fleur counts as French involvement in the capture."
"She's not a French Auror!" Harry protested.
"That would be a French Gendarme Magique," Hermione corrected him. "They don't have Aurors."
He snorted. "You know what I mean. She's no Gendarme either."
"Technically, we're all here as civilians," Mr Potter said. "This isn't an official Auror raid."
Hermione nodded - that had been obvious. Not even Harry's father was wearing the official Auror robes, anyway.
"But everyone else is British," Harry pointed out.
"Or belongs to a ship's crew from Algier. And Céline is a French victim of the pirates," his father replied.
"And we're British." Hermione nodded.
"Yes. Although I'm not quite certain if you count as victims," Mr Black cut in with a wide grin. "Too bad the pirates are stunned - imagine if they knew they were beaten by two students!"
They would find out at their trials at the latest. Oh. "Do we have to attend the trial and give testimony?" Hermione asked. Unless the trial was held very quickly, they would have to leave Hogwarts in the middle of the term for that.
"That depends on where the trial's been held," Mr Potter told her. "I'm not sure how trials are held in Algiers."
"Bet they would let them go," Harry muttered. His godfather laughed, but Mr Potter shook his head.
"No, I don't think so. These pirates are mostly Moroccans. Unless they have a powerful friend in the Bey's court, they will likely be found guilty to show that Algeria doesn't tolerate pirates."
Hermione scoffed. As if anyone believed that.
"And what will happen to them if they're found guilty?" Harry asked.
"They'll be executed," Mr Potter said.
Hermione froze for a moment. "Executed?" she asked.
"The usual punishment for piracy is death," Mr Black told them. "In Britain, France and Algeria."
"Oh." The pirates they had fought against would be killed. Executed. Hermione swallowed. That was… She glanced at the captives laid out in the sand, then looked away. That was… partially her doing.
"Really?" Harry asked. "I thought only the worst dark wizards got the veil."
"That's for using the Dark Arts," his father said. "But convicted pirates are hung. The Ministry continued the muggle practice."
"But…" Harry trailed off. He glanced at Hermione, and she saw him wince. She felt slightly ill herself.
"Oh, Harry, Miss Granger! That's not your fault! You didn't capture those pirates!" Mr Potter said.
"Except for the one we did capture," Harry replied, frowning.
"And without us, you wouldn't have found the island," Hermione added.
"They attacked you, didn't they? And they kidnapped the little girl," Mr Black pointed out.
"Céline," Hermione said.
"Right." The man nodded. "Anyway, they chose to become pirates. And sooner or later, they would've been caught by the French if they kept raiding their shores. It's really not your fault."
But it was. Dozens of people would be executed because of their actions. If Hermione hadn't gone into Knockturn Alley, hadn't picked up the Portkey…
"Céline would still be their captive," Harry whispered.
Hermione nodded. The pirates had captured and enslaved many people. And they had killed many as well. Sometimes by letting the wyvern eat them. They were brutal criminals.
Telling herself that helped. But she still didn't look at the captured pirates. And neither did Harry. To be responsible for the death of someone… She drew a sharp breath. "Did… did any of the pirates we fought die?" she asked, then bit her lower lip. She hadn't meant to sound so… insecure.
"I don't think so," Mr Potter told her with a smile.
"You mean you don't know," Harry said, scowling.
His father frowned at him, then sighed. "I'll ask."
Hermione nodded. She would rather know than wonder and worry about the consequences of her actions.
Harry Potter wasn't quite holding his breath, but he would be lying if he claimed he wasn't worried - no, concerned - whether or not he had actually killed someone. He took a few deep breaths. He had only defended himself and Hermione and Céline. The pirates had attacked them first, not even counting the wyvern. If they hadn't attacked them, Harry and Hermione wouldn't have done anything to them. Although… He pressed his lips together. They wouldn't have left Céline in prison, so they would have done something.
It wasn't as if Harry had been trying to kill them. But he hadn't exactly played it safe, either. Not that any spell was truly safe in a fight, as Sirius had taught him. Even a stunner could kill someone if they fell down and hit their head or something. Or fell from their broom if hit in the air...
He drew a hissing breath. And he hadn't just used Stunners against the pirates. Again, he hadn't had any choice - they couldn't let themselves get captured. And the pirates had kept coming after them. Still…
"It's not your fault," Hermione whispered next to him.
Harry nodded even though he had trouble convincing himself. He smiled at her anyway. Then he noticed how tense she was. "It wasn't yours, either," he whispered back.
"I should've made a better plan," she replied. "Without leaving so much to chance."
"We did what we could," he told her. Which was true. But she would still blame herself. Sirius was giving them a weird glance, Harry noticed. But his godfather wasn't saying anything. What was he thinking?
"Alright!" Dad arrived before Harry could ask Sirius. "The pirates you hurt all lived through it."
Harry felt relieved. He hadn't killed anyone! Hermione hadn't killed anyone! He smiled.
"But they'll be executed," Hermione said in a low voice.
Harry froze. That was true - they had already been told that. And that was, sort of, their fault.
"No one forced them to become pirates," Dad said, echoing Sirius. "Sooner or later, they would've been caught anyway."
That wasn't true - Harry knew that not every criminal got caught. He nodded anyway. For Hermione's sake. She couldn't blame herself for that. "So… can we lead you to our shelter now?" he asked. They had no reason to stay in the village, looking at the doomed pirates, feeling guilty for something that wasn't really their fault.
"Yes," Dad quickly agreed. "The captain has the village secured."
"And I doubt that any of them dare to turn against us," Sirius added with a grin. "Not after Dumbledore's demonstration."
"What did he do?" Hermione asked.
"Made the ship float over the village," Sirius told them. "They surrendered right after that. Most of them."
"Most of them?" Harry asked.
"Some fled into the jungle," Dad explained.
"Oh." Harry tensed. There were pirates left on the island? Hiding in the jungle? He glanced at Hermione. She had drawn her wand and was scowling.
"We need to fly along the beach then, with some distance to the jungle," she said.
Harry nodded. They couldn't risk getting cursed from hiding.
"They won't dare to attack us," Sirius said with a smile. "Don't worry. We'll have Dumbledore with us, after all."
"And the pirates will be hiding, hoping that we leave before they're found," Dad added. He turned towards the prison. "Lily! Albus! We're ready to go!" he yelled.
Dumbledore and Mum appeared in the doorway of the prison a moment later. And Bill, Fleur and Uncle Remus were walking towards them with Céline - they must have taken her away from the prison and the pirates.
"Where is Peter?" Dad asked.
"Still interrogating the pirates," Sirius told him.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"He's trying to find out what else the pirates have done," Dad explained. "And whether or not there are more of them around."
That made sense. Harry felt dumb for asking - of course Uncle Peter would want to find out as much as possible! "Should we leave without them?" he asked.
"I think they want to see your shelter as well," Dad said.
"I certainly want to see it," Mum added. "The prison was a disgrace. To keep a little girl in those cells…" She shook her head.
"Although the different spells on the building were quite interesting," Dumbledore said. "I do not think that they removed any of the original spells - it does look like they just kept adding new ones whenever they learned a new spell, no matter how the spell might fit into the pattern."
"Really?" Dad asked.
"Yes," Mum confirmed. "In some cases, I think, two spells cancelled each other out. At least that would explain why you managed to breach the walls.
"Really?" Harry asked. Had they been luckier than they had thought?
"We should've gone with the plan to kidnap a pirate and force him to help us," Hermione muttered.
Dad looked aghast, as did Mum. Sirius, though, chuckled. "And how would you have convinced them to help you?"
His godfather sounded amused, Harry noted. He narrowed his eyes. "Probably with a Sandpaper Hex," he said.
"What?"
"Hermione knows it." Harry nodded at her.
"I used it to sandpaper our floating platform and furniture," Hermione explained with a glare at Harry. What had he done? Oh, she probably hadn't wanted to reveal that.
"And how would that have helped you to…? Merlin's beard!" Sirius grimaced.
Harry cleared his throat. "Anyway, let's go. We're wasting daylight!"
"Yes," Hermione agreed.
Hermione Granger tensed as they left the village. There were pirates hiding on the island - somewhere in the jungle. And Harry, herself and the others were presenting an easy target flying as a group. Even following the shoreline and avoiding the jungle, they were still at risk of being hit by a well-aimed curse.
Which was why she kept her attention on the jungle to her left. Ready to react at the slightest sign of trouble. If a pirate showed their wand, she'd send a curse at them. As would Harry.
But no curses flew at them as they cleared the ridge of the peninsula shielding the cove. The pirates must have fled further away - and must have decided against doubling back. Or they were hiding to be able to curse them from the back.
She glanced over her shoulder, studying the ridge as they flew on.
"Merlin's Beard! Did they burn down the jungle?" Mr Black blurted out.
Hermione turned her head. What was he… Oh.
"Well, they tried to," Harry said. "That was where our hideout was."
"You were there when they did this?" Harry's mother asked.
"We were flying away," he replied. "They couldn't catch us."
"This… This…"
"It was at night, and we lost them pretty quickly. They just kept blowing up the jungle after we already left," Hermione explained.
"'Pretty quickly'?" Harry's father shook his head.
"Well, yes. And we got our first broom here," Harry told them.
"Impressive, I have to admit," the Headmaster commented. "They thought you were part of a larger force."
"They did?" Harry asked.
"They certainly didn't expect two stranded students to spy on them in order to attack them," his mother snapped.
"No, they didn't!" Harry agreed. Hermione didn't need to look at him - and stop watching the jungle - to know he was grinning.
"That's no laughing matter!" his mother protested. "You could've died!"
"But we didn't!"
"Is that your answer to everything?"
"Well… yes? It's true, isn't it?"
They didn't like Harry's answer. And Hermione was certain that they wouldn't like the shelter, either. The pirates had burned down the jungle there as well, after all. At least the hiding pirates didn't ambush them as they flew on.
"That's where we appeared," Harry explained as they reached the beach a little later. "The Portkey dropped us down there."
"They attacked you here as well?" his father asked.
Well, that was obvious, wasn't it? A look at the jungle, or what was left of it, showed that. It wasn't as if she and Harry would've done this.
"We were ready and lost them again," Harry told him.
"They must have found us because of the tracks we left before we realised that we were on a pirate island," Hermione said. "There's the shelter," she quickly added to cut the discussion short and pointed at the torn and blasted remains.
She didn't fly down right away, though - she circled the area first, going as fast as she could, to check for hidden pirates.
"There might be pirates hiding there," Harry said as he drew up next to her - despite her flying evasively; it was really disheartening how good he was on a broom.
"Yes."
"You think pirates might be hiding in the ruins of your shelter?" Mrs Potter asked.
"It's not impossible," Hermione defended herself.
"We wouldn't expect that, would we? Well, you wouldn't," Harry added.
"My spell's not showing anyone inside," Mr Black told them.
"We managed to hide from that spell ourselves," Harry retorted.
"Although we counted on the tree canopies to hide us from view; if they burrowed down a bit more…" Hermione stared at the shelter's remains. "They just blasted it open."
"I'll check," Mr Black said.
"Sirius!" Mrs Potter exclaimed, but the man was already touching down.
And then he was a dog.
Hermione blinked. Self-Transfiguration? But that was… No. The robes had disappeared. That meant he was an animagus.
And he was back in human form. "No one near us - the nose can tell."
Oh. She glanced at Harry. He met her eyes and nodded. It was safe, then.
She guided her broom down, letting Harry take the lead. If anything happened, she could summon him to safety. And his Shield Charm should deal with one curse at least.
Mr Black was peering around. "That looks like it was a bunker."
"It was meant to protect us from the wyvern," Hermione defended her design. "It wasn't meant to look like a bungalow."
"And it worked!" Harry chimed in.
"Looks cosy," the man went on.
Hermione scoffed; she was well aware that they had only made crude furniture and partitions. She clenched her teeth when she reached the remains of the door. If they had been inside when the pirates did this…
"Separate bedrooms! McGonagall would've approved!" Mr Black must have found the remains of the beds and partitions.
"You're not quite as funny as you think you are," Harry said as they walked around their old shelter.
"It looks like the pirates didn't leave anything," Hermione said. Not that there had been anything valuable left. "Not even the remaining coconuts." Or they might've been carried away by animals. Or destroyed in the blast.
"So, that's where we stayed most of the time on the island," Harry said. "Until we noticed the pirates, that is. See? We were safe from the wyvern! The entrance was far too narrow for it, and the stone ceiling too strong."
"Not that we ever had to test either," Hermione quickly added when she saw the frowns on the Potters' faces.
"But how did you know that the entrance was too narrow?" Mr Potter asked. "Because it got stuck in that cave you mentioned?"
"Yes. We can show it to you," Harry said. "But let's check the wyvern's remains!"
"Careful," Hermione cautioned. "It might've attracted scavengers, which might have attracted predators."
"Right."
Harry Potter kept an eye out for snakes and other dangerous animals as he approached the area where they had buried the wyvern. The earth there hadn't been hit by Blasting Curses - there weren't any craters - but the ground had been torn up anyway, and he could see some bones peeking through the soil. Bare bones - the jungle's animals must have picked them clean already.
"Ugh, the stench!" Sirius complained.
Harry frowned at him. "Why didn't you cast a Bubble-Head Charm?"
"I just did!"
"No, I mean before," Harry replied.
"There was no stench before."
What? "I meant before we flew here," Harry explained. "So you would be protected from gases."
Sirius stared at him, then exchanged a glance with Mum and Dad.
Harry looked at Hermione. She was as bewildered as he was, he could tell. She had her Bubble-Head Charm up, same as Harry.
And as Dumbledore - the Headmaster was approaching the former pit. "I would counsel everyone to ensure they are protected from the smell," he said, raising his wand.
Uncle Peter and Remus had already cast a charm, Harry noticed, but Fleur and Bill did so on Dumbledore's advice.
Then the old wizard waved his wand, and the earth covering the pit vanished, revealing the dead wyvern.
Mum gasped at the sight. "Harry!"
He nodded. "That's it. I guess the pirates didn't find it.
"Look at the size of the teeth!"
"And the wings!"
"Look at the spikes!"
"Merlin's beard! That was your doing?"
Harry turned to frown at Sirius. They had told them that before, hadn't they? "Yes. It was resistant to spells, so we needed a way to kill it that allowed us to get around that."
"Harry! You…." Mum started sniffling, then grabbed him and hugged him, squeezing hard. "You risked your life to trap this monster. Twice!"
"Someone had to," he told her. "And I'm the better duellist than Hermione, so I could dodge better." Everyone was frowning at him. Or glaring at him. Except for Dumbledore, who seemed vaguely amused. And Céline, who was asking Fleur something. Even Hermione frowned at him, and it had been her plan as well!
He looked at her, raised his eyebrows and grimaced.
She pursed her lips before speaking up: "Our plans might have been a little more dangerous than is comfortable, but we didn't see any alternative. We were trapped on an island, magically hidden from detection, and facing a man-eating monster that was hunting us. If we didn't ambush it, forcing a confrontation on our terms, it would do the same to us sooner or later."
"Yes," Harry agreed when Mum released him. "And after the first trap failed, it was clear it wouldn't give up - it tried to ambush us when we left the cave. And it chased us through the jungle when we fled. We had to kill it, and we didn't have any better plan than this." He gestured at the pit in front of them. "And it worked!" he stressed again.
"You were lucky. Damn lucky," Dad told him with a deep frown. "If you hadn't been so lucky, you'd be dead. Thrice over!"
"It wasn't luck," Hermione protested. "We carefully planned. If we had just relied on luck, we would've died. Or worse."
Unfortunately, just as when she had used it before, that perfectly correct statement didn't seem to convince anyone.
Mum shook her head. "I can't take any more of this. Let's leave."
"Not without the wyvern's bones!" Harry protested. That was the reason they had returned, wasn't it?
"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed. "It would be a shame to leave such a magnificent specimen behind. With your permission…?" He looked at Harry and Hermione.
"Of course," Harry told him as Hermione nodded.
Dumbledore waved his wand, and the jumbled mass of bones, rotting meat and frayed skin rose into the air, earth dropping from it as it lightly shook. A few smaller bones followed, floating next to it.
Then the whole mass began to shrink until it was the size of a football, which disappeared into Dumbledore's pockets.
"And done." The old wizard beamed at them.
"Good. Let's go," Dad said - he was hugging Mum. "Let's leave now, before we hear about yet another close brush with death by Harry and Miss Granger."
Harry bit his lower lip to keep from asking if they counted the cave escape as one or two brushes. Mum looked like she really couldn't take anything else.
And it was his fault, he realised with growing guilt. Even if it wasn't really his fault.
Unknown Island, July 18th, 1996
"...and then we saw the village and the ship. And we realised that we had to cover our tracks," Harry said.
James Potter frowned. "Why did you come to that conclusion?" Harry looked good - slightly tanned, not sunburnt, hair a mess, but that was normal, and healthy. Not hurt, not any more.
"Because they were on the same island as a man-eating wyvern who had killed several people," Miss Granger butted in before Harry could explain. "We weren't certain that they were pirates, but we had to assume the worst, so we hid and then sneaked up on the village to find out what kind of people they were."
"We did that carefully," Harry quickly added. "We went underwater to sneak into the cove because we assumed the village was warded against intruders."
James gritted his teeth. He ignored Fleur whispering to the little girl - probably translating - and said: "And you thought that they wouldn't have wards underwater?"
His son - his brave, smart and oh so foolish son smiled. "Well, we considered it unlikely. Not with the wyvern hunting sea mammals and large fishes. And we were ready to summon each other in case something went wrong."
"Like underwater netting. Disillusioned underwater netting," Miss Granger added.
"But there wasn't any. We did encounter a shark, but it was harmless," Harry said. A shark! James gritted his teeth and forced himself to let his son talk. "So, we swam into the cove and then looked around. Under cover by the ship. And we found out that the settlement wasn't abandoned, so they had been living on the island for a while. And hadn't done anything about the wyvern."
"And we saw the prison," Miss Granger interrupted again. "So, we were either on a pirate island or a former pirate island. We couldn't risk revealing ourselves."
Lily nodded. James agreed. Of course, they couldn't reveal themselves - as they found out, those were actual pirates. Not former pirates. If they had revealed themselves… Damn it!
"Anyway," Harry picked up again. "We made some plans, then went back to spy on them some more. That's how we found Céline."
James narrowed his eyes. Harry was glossing over things. He only ever did that when he was hiding something. Damn it - this was… Why couldn't Harry have trusted them to find him and simply hid for two weeks? Stayed safe instead of risking his life like this? Why couldn't they have found him sooner? They had almost… Damn it! "You sneaked into a pirate village?"
"At night," Miss Granger replied. "The pirates were busy celebrating. We could investigate the prison without risk." The girl frowned. "Or so we thought."
"Yes, we must have left some traces or tracks since the pirates started hunting us afterwards," Harry said.
"Or we triggered a spell," Miss Granger added. "We never found out what mistake we made."
Triggered a spell? What if it had been a lethal one? James clenched his teeth.
"Something easily rectified, now that we can question our prisoners," Dumbledore said.
"They hunted you?" Lily blurted out.
"We already knew that from the prisoners," Sirius pointed out. He was grinning, as if hearing how close Harry had come to dying was funny!
"Well, not right away. We returned to our shelter for a while to plan. Then we moved up and made a hideout near the pirate village, so we didn't have to walk through the jungle every day," Harry went on.
"So, that worked out, and we started spying on the village again," Miss Granger said.
She was talking a little more loudly than before, James noted. Crooks usually did that when they were agitated - or tried to hide something. He reminded himself that this wasn't an interrogation.
Harry nodded several times. "Uh, right. Anyway, we were making plans to free Céline - we didn't know her name back then - but we spotted a fishing boat sailing through the wards. So, we knew how to escape then. But the pirates used dogs to track us to our hideout, and we had to flee on our improvised broom."
"A pole we were levitating," Miss Granger explained. "Not an actual broom."
"And you managed to escape the pirates on that?" Sirius blurted out.
"They couldn't easily find or see us since it was at night, and we managed to lose them the few times they saw us," Harry said. "Blew up half the jungle, but they never caught us, and we went back to our shelter to rest and recover."
"You were hurt?"
"Only scratches. Easily healed," Harry quickly said. Too quickly.
James shook his head. This was… this was madness! Harry wasn't a trained Auror. He hadn't even finished school! And he and Miss Granger had, apparently, treated the whole ordeal as some adventure! Sneaking into a pirate village! Repeatedly! Running from pirates, and then… "What did you do then?"
"Well," Harry said, "then we made new plans to sneak into the village to free Céline and escape with the fishing boat, of course."
"'Of course'!" Lily spat, shaking her head.
"We didn't know that you'd arrive so soon," Miss Granger said with a frown. "If we had known, we would've waited. But… we didn't know!"
"We picked the best course of action we could think of!" Harry blurted out.
"And you proved your ingenuity and courage!" Dumbledore beamed at them.
For a moment, James wanted to hex the old man. Harry shouldn't have been risking his life!
"We were so worried about you!" Lily said, sniffling. "And you… you..."
James nodded.
Harry looked sheepish." Sorry, Mum, but… we really saw no other way."
"And you made it!" Sirius smiled at them. "You took on the pirates and won! Saved the girl, too! You're heroes!"
Heroes who wouldn't get the slightest chance to brave such danger again, James silently vowed. Neither he nor Lily would survive another week or two spent worrying about Harry. Certainly not now that they knew what he would do in such a situation!
"Thank you, Sirius," Harry said, beaming at him.
James frowned. Sirius had no business encouraging Harry - this wasn't some prank or Quidditch stunt. His son had fought murderous pirates! One mistake, one curse, and he could've died!
"So," Miss Granger quickly took up the tale again, "we made a plan to distract the pirates, lure the majority of them away from the village, then break into the prison, free Céline and escape with the fishing boat, to let us pass through the wards."
Harry nodded. "We had captured a broom during the chase, so we could now meet them on even terms."
James blinked. "You had captured a broom? While the pirates were chasing you?"
"Yes. I managed to hit one with a curse, and he crashed," Harry said. "Then I summoned the broom."
James wasn't about to ask Harry whether or not his boy had killed a man. But he knew he had to ask their prisoners if only so he wouldn't wonder and worry.
"Good thinking!" Sirius said. "So, everything went according to your plan?"
"Yes. I attacked the ship to rile them up so they would chase me, lured them away and then returned to pick up Hermione. Worked like a charm."
"Except for you hitting your foot against a tree trunk when the pirates were chasing you through the jungle," Miss Granger replied.
"That was an accident," Harry protested. "And I had to fly fast or I wouldn't have been able to lose the pirates in the jungle. Which I did!"
James had a few horrible visions of Harry crashing head-on into a trunk. He should have never let Lily drag him into that muggle movie.
"You sunk the ship? How?" Sirius asked.
"We turned tree trunks into metal spikes, shrank them, and I dropped them after enlarging them from a great height," Harry explained.
"Though some of the damage was done by spells when they were chasing you around the ship," Miss Granger added.
"Anyway," his son continued - a little too quickly; James saw Miss Granger close her mouth and frown, too - "I returned, and we broke into the prison."
"After we sent conjured and enlarged mice and birds into the village," Miss Granger cut in again. "And the doors and windows of the prison were protected, so we blew through the walls to save Céline."
The little girl perked up when she heard her name and said something in French. Fleur replied in French, which prompted another wave of quick sentences.
"Céline says she was very frightened until you found her," the witch said.
Harry winced, as did Miss Granger. "Well, Hermione calmed her down, and then we hid in the prison."
"You hid in there?" Lily asked.
"Well… we had taken a little longer than planned to get into the prison." Harry's smile told James that his son was about to lie again. "So, we had to adjust our plans a little."
"How did you hide in the prison, with the pirates coming?" James asked. "Did you use a Disillusionment charm?"
"No," Miss Granger replied. "That wouldn't have worked, anyway - they used Disillusionment Charms, so they also had to use Human-presence-revealing Charms." She nodded and glanced at Harry.
Who, James noted, glanced back at her instead of continuing their tale. That was a very bad sign.
Lily must have picked up on that as well. "What did you do?" she asked in a clipped tone.
"We shrunk us and hid under an armoire," Harry blurted out. "So the armoire would hide the markers from the Human presence-revealing Spell."
"We had trained to do that while we were planning this," Miss Granger added quickly. "And it worked very well."
"You shrunk yourselves?" Lily all but yelled. "Do you know how dangerous that is?"
"Yes," Harry replied, frowning. "That's why we trained for it."
"And we had used the shrinking charm a lot even before we specifically started training," Miss Granger said.
"Very impressive," Dumbledore commented with a wide smile. "Not many wizards and witches would have dared take such a risk, but I dare say you had no choice."
"If I had our cloak with us…" Harry trailed off when James and Lily glared at him. "Anyway, it worked out, and we waited until they had left the prison and started looking for us elsewhere. Then we lured one of the pirates into the prison…" He trailed off. "Merlin's Beard, I completely forgot about him!"
Miss Granger gasped. "Me too!"
"What? What did you do?" James blurted out. Had they killed a pirate?
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a doll. No - a shrunken tied up pirate!
James stared, as did the others. No one said anything for a second or two.
"He's OK," Miss Granger announced after waving her wand at the shrunken man.
"Yes," Harry said. "I cast a Bubble-Head Charm on him before I stashed him in my pocket. Well, mainly so the smoke from the fire wouldn't hurt him, but it also helped when we went underwater."
Underwater? James resisted the urge to grab Harry and shake him until he told them everything. In detail. But it was a near thing.
*****
"Underwater?" Mum asked. She was standing very close now.
"Well," Harry Potter replied, "we had to ride out the storm, and we couldn't risk getting blown back through the wards, so we went underwater."
"You were out in that storm?"
"Of course," Harry replied. Hadn't that been obvious? "We struck at the pirates at night, then fled. And the storm began shortly after sunrise, when we were at sea."
"We were travelling by brooms and only used the boat to pass through the wardline," Hermione added. "And we didn't want to test whether or not the boat had charms to protect it against environmental hazards. So riding out the storm underwater seemed the best course of action."
Well, they hadn't thought of that, but there was no need to tell Mum and Dad that. Harry nodded. "And it worked out well," he said. "We resurfaced, got the boat out and then dried ourselves."
"J'avais tellement froid!" Céline piped up.
"You spent hours in the cold water?" Fleur blurted out. "You could've died!"
"We clung together to share body heat and minimise the loss of heat," Hermione retorted. "It was much safer than riding out the storm in a fishing boat."
"Yes. We didn't know you were coming - and we were committed. We couldn't return to the island, either," Harry said. "The pirates had to be searching for us after we lost them at the wardline." Although if they had managed that... the pirates would've never expected them to return.
"'Lost them at the wardline'?" Uh-oh. Dad had that expression he usually did when he caught Harry at a prank.
"They spotted us when the sun went up, and we had to use the boat to cross the wardline," Harry explained. "So, we had to fight them off while we did that. It was only for a few minutes, and it was only a few pirates."
"We used conjured birds to block their curses and serve as targets for Reductor Curses to allow us to hit them despite them being disillusioned and flying on brooms," Hermione added.
"Oh, good thinking!" Sirius said.
"Quite clever, indeed," Dumbledore agreed.
"Thank you!" Hermione beamed at them.
"Anyway, that's why we forgot about the captured pirate," Harry said. "Sorry."
"But he wasn't hurt," Hermione said with a sneer. "And he was stunned, so he didn't even realise what was going on."
"And then you sent the Patronus after us, and we knew you were coming," Harry finished. "And here we are!"
"So… you killed a wyvern, sunk a pirate ship, burned down a pirate prison, freed a pirates' prisoner, stole a pirate's boat and pirates' brooms, and escaped from the entire pirate crew?" Sirius beamed at Harry. "That's great! You put my training to use!"
"Sirius!" Mum hissed. "They almost died! Multiple times!"
"But they didn't!" Sirius defended himself.
"That doesn't mean it's OK!" Mum insisted. Well, she usually said that about pranks as well. "You can't be lucky forever!"
"We weren't just lucky!" Hermione protested. "We did plan everything carefully!"
"But not everything went according to plan," Dad replied. "And I know you skipped over a few things in your tale."
Harry struggled not to blush. What they had done in the shelter was no one's business but their own. "A few details," he said. "Nothing important."
Hermione frowned for a moment and glanced at him, then nodded. "Yes. We didn't go into details about dealing with diarrhoea caused by a diet of coconuts. Or how we had to bury the rotting carcass of the wyvern before it became a health hazard."
Sirius grimaced. As did Mum and Dad.
"It would've been very embarrassing if the wyvern had managed to kill us after we killed it," Harry joked. Sirius and Bill were the only ones who laughed, though. Well, Dumbledore smiled. "Oh, can we go and dig up the carcass before we leave? The skull would make a great trophy!" He blinked. "Although we would have to hide it from Hagrid, I guess."
"And Luna," Hermione added.
"Yes," Harry agreed. "But we can shrink it. Or keep it in Grimmauld Place. It would make a great conversation piece."
"Oh, yes! My godson's trophy!"
"I confess I am curious about this creature's size," Dumbledore said. "And I think Xenophilus might be interested in the skeleton as well - wyverns are rare, after all." Harry winced, and the Headmaster added: "Don't worry, Xenophilus understands how dangerous wyverns are."
"Unlike Hagrid," Sirius mumbled.
"Let's do it," Dad said. Mum nodded.
Harry had the sudden feeling that this might not have been a good idea.
*****
Hermione Granger looked around as they flew towards the shore. The prison had suffered greatly - the walls still stood, and the roof hadn't collapsed, but what she could see of the interior was blackened with soot and signs of extreme heat such as bent and warped bars. And in front of it, she saw a long row of stunned and bound pirates lying in the sand.
She nudged her broom to the side until she was flying next to Harry, who, for once, wasn't speeding ahead, and said: "Too bad we can't hold the pirates in their own prison."
He laughed at that. "Oh, right! That would've been ironic. Though if they are smart, they would've prepared some ways to escape their own prison, wouldn't they?"
"I don't think so. That would've been a weakness their captives could've exploited," Hermione pointed out.
Instead of flying ahead to their shelter, the adults leading them landed at the shore. Hermione frowned as she followed suit. She saw Mrs Potter already walking towards the prison, followed by the Headmaster. "What is going to happen to the pirates, anyway?" she asked as she dismounted.
"They'll be tried?" Harry replied.
His father turned and nodded at them. "Yes, they'll be tried. But we're still in the process of detailing who gets to try them," he told them. "Britain, France or Algeria."
"Why France?" Harry asked.
"Fleur counts as French involvement in the capture."
"She's not a French Auror!" Harry protested.
"That would be a French Gendarme Magique," Hermione corrected him. "They don't have Aurors."
He snorted. "You know what I mean. She's no Gendarme either."
"Technically, we're all here as civilians," Mr Potter said. "This isn't an official Auror raid."
Hermione nodded - that had been obvious. Not even Harry's father was wearing the official Auror robes, anyway.
"But everyone else is British," Harry pointed out.
"Or belongs to a ship's crew from Algier. And Céline is a French victim of the pirates," his father replied.
"And we're British." Hermione nodded.
"Yes. Although I'm not quite certain if you count as victims," Mr Black cut in with a wide grin. "Too bad the pirates are stunned - imagine if they knew they were beaten by two students!"
They would find out at their trials at the latest. Oh. "Do we have to attend the trial and give testimony?" Hermione asked. Unless the trial was held very quickly, they would have to leave Hogwarts in the middle of the term for that.
"That depends on where the trial's been held," Mr Potter told her. "I'm not sure how trials are held in Algiers."
"Bet they would let them go," Harry muttered. His godfather laughed, but Mr Potter shook his head.
"No, I don't think so. These pirates are mostly Moroccans. Unless they have a powerful friend in the Bey's court, they will likely be found guilty to show that Algeria doesn't tolerate pirates."
Hermione scoffed. As if anyone believed that.
"And what will happen to them if they're found guilty?" Harry asked.
"They'll be executed," Mr Potter said.
Hermione froze for a moment. "Executed?" she asked.
"The usual punishment for piracy is death," Mr Black told them. "In Britain, France and Algeria."
"Oh." The pirates they had fought against would be killed. Executed. Hermione swallowed. That was… She glanced at the captives laid out in the sand, then looked away. That was… partially her doing.
"Really?" Harry asked. "I thought only the worst dark wizards got the veil."
"That's for using the Dark Arts," his father said. "But convicted pirates are hung. The Ministry continued the muggle practice."
"But…" Harry trailed off. He glanced at Hermione, and she saw him wince. She felt slightly ill herself.
"Oh, Harry, Miss Granger! That's not your fault! You didn't capture those pirates!" Mr Potter said.
"Except for the one we did capture," Harry replied, frowning.
"And without us, you wouldn't have found the island," Hermione added.
"They attacked you, didn't they? And they kidnapped the little girl," Mr Black pointed out.
"Céline," Hermione said.
"Right." The man nodded. "Anyway, they chose to become pirates. And sooner or later, they would've been caught by the French if they kept raiding their shores. It's really not your fault."
But it was. Dozens of people would be executed because of their actions. If Hermione hadn't gone into Knockturn Alley, hadn't picked up the Portkey…
"Céline would still be their captive," Harry whispered.
Hermione nodded. The pirates had captured and enslaved many people. And they had killed many as well. Sometimes by letting the wyvern eat them. They were brutal criminals.
Telling herself that helped. But she still didn't look at the captured pirates. And neither did Harry. To be responsible for the death of someone… She drew a sharp breath. "Did… did any of the pirates we fought die?" she asked, then bit her lower lip. She hadn't meant to sound so… insecure.
"I don't think so," Mr Potter told her with a smile.
"You mean you don't know," Harry said, scowling.
His father frowned at him, then sighed. "I'll ask."
Hermione nodded. She would rather know than wonder and worry about the consequences of her actions.
*****
Harry Potter wasn't quite holding his breath, but he would be lying if he claimed he wasn't worried - no, concerned - whether or not he had actually killed someone. He took a few deep breaths. He had only defended himself and Hermione and Céline. The pirates had attacked them first, not even counting the wyvern. If they hadn't attacked them, Harry and Hermione wouldn't have done anything to them. Although… He pressed his lips together. They wouldn't have left Céline in prison, so they would have done something.
It wasn't as if Harry had been trying to kill them. But he hadn't exactly played it safe, either. Not that any spell was truly safe in a fight, as Sirius had taught him. Even a stunner could kill someone if they fell down and hit their head or something. Or fell from their broom if hit in the air...
He drew a hissing breath. And he hadn't just used Stunners against the pirates. Again, he hadn't had any choice - they couldn't let themselves get captured. And the pirates had kept coming after them. Still…
"It's not your fault," Hermione whispered next to him.
Harry nodded even though he had trouble convincing himself. He smiled at her anyway. Then he noticed how tense she was. "It wasn't yours, either," he whispered back.
"I should've made a better plan," she replied. "Without leaving so much to chance."
"We did what we could," he told her. Which was true. But she would still blame herself. Sirius was giving them a weird glance, Harry noticed. But his godfather wasn't saying anything. What was he thinking?
"Alright!" Dad arrived before Harry could ask Sirius. "The pirates you hurt all lived through it."
Harry felt relieved. He hadn't killed anyone! Hermione hadn't killed anyone! He smiled.
"But they'll be executed," Hermione said in a low voice.
Harry froze. That was true - they had already been told that. And that was, sort of, their fault.
"No one forced them to become pirates," Dad said, echoing Sirius. "Sooner or later, they would've been caught anyway."
That wasn't true - Harry knew that not every criminal got caught. He nodded anyway. For Hermione's sake. She couldn't blame herself for that. "So… can we lead you to our shelter now?" he asked. They had no reason to stay in the village, looking at the doomed pirates, feeling guilty for something that wasn't really their fault.
"Yes," Dad quickly agreed. "The captain has the village secured."
"And I doubt that any of them dare to turn against us," Sirius added with a grin. "Not after Dumbledore's demonstration."
"What did he do?" Hermione asked.
"Made the ship float over the village," Sirius told them. "They surrendered right after that. Most of them."
"Most of them?" Harry asked.
"Some fled into the jungle," Dad explained.
"Oh." Harry tensed. There were pirates left on the island? Hiding in the jungle? He glanced at Hermione. She had drawn her wand and was scowling.
"We need to fly along the beach then, with some distance to the jungle," she said.
Harry nodded. They couldn't risk getting cursed from hiding.
"They won't dare to attack us," Sirius said with a smile. "Don't worry. We'll have Dumbledore with us, after all."
"And the pirates will be hiding, hoping that we leave before they're found," Dad added. He turned towards the prison. "Lily! Albus! We're ready to go!" he yelled.
Dumbledore and Mum appeared in the doorway of the prison a moment later. And Bill, Fleur and Uncle Remus were walking towards them with Céline - they must have taken her away from the prison and the pirates.
"Where is Peter?" Dad asked.
"Still interrogating the pirates," Sirius told him.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"He's trying to find out what else the pirates have done," Dad explained. "And whether or not there are more of them around."
That made sense. Harry felt dumb for asking - of course Uncle Peter would want to find out as much as possible! "Should we leave without them?" he asked.
"I think they want to see your shelter as well," Dad said.
"I certainly want to see it," Mum added. "The prison was a disgrace. To keep a little girl in those cells…" She shook her head.
"Although the different spells on the building were quite interesting," Dumbledore said. "I do not think that they removed any of the original spells - it does look like they just kept adding new ones whenever they learned a new spell, no matter how the spell might fit into the pattern."
"Really?" Dad asked.
"Yes," Mum confirmed. "In some cases, I think, two spells cancelled each other out. At least that would explain why you managed to breach the walls.
"Really?" Harry asked. Had they been luckier than they had thought?
"We should've gone with the plan to kidnap a pirate and force him to help us," Hermione muttered.
Dad looked aghast, as did Mum. Sirius, though, chuckled. "And how would you have convinced them to help you?"
His godfather sounded amused, Harry noted. He narrowed his eyes. "Probably with a Sandpaper Hex," he said.
"What?"
"Hermione knows it." Harry nodded at her.
"I used it to sandpaper our floating platform and furniture," Hermione explained with a glare at Harry. What had he done? Oh, she probably hadn't wanted to reveal that.
"And how would that have helped you to…? Merlin's beard!" Sirius grimaced.
Harry cleared his throat. "Anyway, let's go. We're wasting daylight!"
"Yes," Hermione agreed.
*****
Hermione Granger tensed as they left the village. There were pirates hiding on the island - somewhere in the jungle. And Harry, herself and the others were presenting an easy target flying as a group. Even following the shoreline and avoiding the jungle, they were still at risk of being hit by a well-aimed curse.
Which was why she kept her attention on the jungle to her left. Ready to react at the slightest sign of trouble. If a pirate showed their wand, she'd send a curse at them. As would Harry.
But no curses flew at them as they cleared the ridge of the peninsula shielding the cove. The pirates must have fled further away - and must have decided against doubling back. Or they were hiding to be able to curse them from the back.
She glanced over her shoulder, studying the ridge as they flew on.
"Merlin's Beard! Did they burn down the jungle?" Mr Black blurted out.
Hermione turned her head. What was he… Oh.
"Well, they tried to," Harry said. "That was where our hideout was."
"You were there when they did this?" Harry's mother asked.
"We were flying away," he replied. "They couldn't catch us."
"This… This…"
"It was at night, and we lost them pretty quickly. They just kept blowing up the jungle after we already left," Hermione explained.
"'Pretty quickly'?" Harry's father shook his head.
"Well, yes. And we got our first broom here," Harry told them.
"Impressive, I have to admit," the Headmaster commented. "They thought you were part of a larger force."
"They did?" Harry asked.
"They certainly didn't expect two stranded students to spy on them in order to attack them," his mother snapped.
"No, they didn't!" Harry agreed. Hermione didn't need to look at him - and stop watching the jungle - to know he was grinning.
"That's no laughing matter!" his mother protested. "You could've died!"
"But we didn't!"
"Is that your answer to everything?"
"Well… yes? It's true, isn't it?"
They didn't like Harry's answer. And Hermione was certain that they wouldn't like the shelter, either. The pirates had burned down the jungle there as well, after all. At least the hiding pirates didn't ambush them as they flew on.
"That's where we appeared," Harry explained as they reached the beach a little later. "The Portkey dropped us down there."
"They attacked you here as well?" his father asked.
Well, that was obvious, wasn't it? A look at the jungle, or what was left of it, showed that. It wasn't as if she and Harry would've done this.
"We were ready and lost them again," Harry told him.
"They must have found us because of the tracks we left before we realised that we were on a pirate island," Hermione said. "There's the shelter," she quickly added to cut the discussion short and pointed at the torn and blasted remains.
She didn't fly down right away, though - she circled the area first, going as fast as she could, to check for hidden pirates.
"There might be pirates hiding there," Harry said as he drew up next to her - despite her flying evasively; it was really disheartening how good he was on a broom.
"Yes."
"You think pirates might be hiding in the ruins of your shelter?" Mrs Potter asked.
"It's not impossible," Hermione defended herself.
"We wouldn't expect that, would we? Well, you wouldn't," Harry added.
"My spell's not showing anyone inside," Mr Black told them.
"We managed to hide from that spell ourselves," Harry retorted.
"Although we counted on the tree canopies to hide us from view; if they burrowed down a bit more…" Hermione stared at the shelter's remains. "They just blasted it open."
"I'll check," Mr Black said.
"Sirius!" Mrs Potter exclaimed, but the man was already touching down.
And then he was a dog.
Hermione blinked. Self-Transfiguration? But that was… No. The robes had disappeared. That meant he was an animagus.
And he was back in human form. "No one near us - the nose can tell."
Oh. She glanced at Harry. He met her eyes and nodded. It was safe, then.
She guided her broom down, letting Harry take the lead. If anything happened, she could summon him to safety. And his Shield Charm should deal with one curse at least.
Mr Black was peering around. "That looks like it was a bunker."
"It was meant to protect us from the wyvern," Hermione defended her design. "It wasn't meant to look like a bungalow."
"And it worked!" Harry chimed in.
"Looks cosy," the man went on.
Hermione scoffed; she was well aware that they had only made crude furniture and partitions. She clenched her teeth when she reached the remains of the door. If they had been inside when the pirates did this…
"Separate bedrooms! McGonagall would've approved!" Mr Black must have found the remains of the beds and partitions.
"You're not quite as funny as you think you are," Harry said as they walked around their old shelter.
"It looks like the pirates didn't leave anything," Hermione said. Not that there had been anything valuable left. "Not even the remaining coconuts." Or they might've been carried away by animals. Or destroyed in the blast.
"So, that's where we stayed most of the time on the island," Harry said. "Until we noticed the pirates, that is. See? We were safe from the wyvern! The entrance was far too narrow for it, and the stone ceiling too strong."
"Not that we ever had to test either," Hermione quickly added when she saw the frowns on the Potters' faces.
"But how did you know that the entrance was too narrow?" Mr Potter asked. "Because it got stuck in that cave you mentioned?"
"Yes. We can show it to you," Harry said. "But let's check the wyvern's remains!"
"Careful," Hermione cautioned. "It might've attracted scavengers, which might have attracted predators."
"Right."
*****
Harry Potter kept an eye out for snakes and other dangerous animals as he approached the area where they had buried the wyvern. The earth there hadn't been hit by Blasting Curses - there weren't any craters - but the ground had been torn up anyway, and he could see some bones peeking through the soil. Bare bones - the jungle's animals must have picked them clean already.
"Ugh, the stench!" Sirius complained.
Harry frowned at him. "Why didn't you cast a Bubble-Head Charm?"
"I just did!"
"No, I mean before," Harry replied.
"There was no stench before."
What? "I meant before we flew here," Harry explained. "So you would be protected from gases."
Sirius stared at him, then exchanged a glance with Mum and Dad.
Harry looked at Hermione. She was as bewildered as he was, he could tell. She had her Bubble-Head Charm up, same as Harry.
And as Dumbledore - the Headmaster was approaching the former pit. "I would counsel everyone to ensure they are protected from the smell," he said, raising his wand.
Uncle Peter and Remus had already cast a charm, Harry noticed, but Fleur and Bill did so on Dumbledore's advice.
Then the old wizard waved his wand, and the earth covering the pit vanished, revealing the dead wyvern.
Mum gasped at the sight. "Harry!"
He nodded. "That's it. I guess the pirates didn't find it.
"Look at the size of the teeth!"
"And the wings!"
"Look at the spikes!"
"Merlin's beard! That was your doing?"
Harry turned to frown at Sirius. They had told them that before, hadn't they? "Yes. It was resistant to spells, so we needed a way to kill it that allowed us to get around that."
"Harry! You…." Mum started sniffling, then grabbed him and hugged him, squeezing hard. "You risked your life to trap this monster. Twice!"
"Someone had to," he told her. "And I'm the better duellist than Hermione, so I could dodge better." Everyone was frowning at him. Or glaring at him. Except for Dumbledore, who seemed vaguely amused. And Céline, who was asking Fleur something. Even Hermione frowned at him, and it had been her plan as well!
He looked at her, raised his eyebrows and grimaced.
She pursed her lips before speaking up: "Our plans might have been a little more dangerous than is comfortable, but we didn't see any alternative. We were trapped on an island, magically hidden from detection, and facing a man-eating monster that was hunting us. If we didn't ambush it, forcing a confrontation on our terms, it would do the same to us sooner or later."
"Yes," Harry agreed when Mum released him. "And after the first trap failed, it was clear it wouldn't give up - it tried to ambush us when we left the cave. And it chased us through the jungle when we fled. We had to kill it, and we didn't have any better plan than this." He gestured at the pit in front of them. "And it worked!" he stressed again.
"You were lucky. Damn lucky," Dad told him with a deep frown. "If you hadn't been so lucky, you'd be dead. Thrice over!"
"It wasn't luck," Hermione protested. "We carefully planned. If we had just relied on luck, we would've died. Or worse."
Unfortunately, just as when she had used it before, that perfectly correct statement didn't seem to convince anyone.
Mum shook her head. "I can't take any more of this. Let's leave."
"Not without the wyvern's bones!" Harry protested. That was the reason they had returned, wasn't it?
"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed. "It would be a shame to leave such a magnificent specimen behind. With your permission…?" He looked at Harry and Hermione.
"Of course," Harry told him as Hermione nodded.
Dumbledore waved his wand, and the jumbled mass of bones, rotting meat and frayed skin rose into the air, earth dropping from it as it lightly shook. A few smaller bones followed, floating next to it.
Then the whole mass began to shrink until it was the size of a football, which disappeared into Dumbledore's pockets.
"And done." The old wizard beamed at them.
"Good. Let's go," Dad said - he was hugging Mum. "Let's leave now, before we hear about yet another close brush with death by Harry and Miss Granger."
Harry bit his lower lip to keep from asking if they counted the cave escape as one or two brushes. Mum looked like she really couldn't take anything else.
And it was his fault, he realised with growing guilt. Even if it wasn't really his fault.
*****