Chapter Five
The night they return to the village, Mary burns her hand on a candle. She’s just reaching above it for a book, but the heat scorches brighter than she’s used to. She clutches her hand to her chest. Pain had become a dulled thing for her, but staring down at her dark, reddening flesh, it's hard not to feel exposed. Weak.
Immortality had a power she’d grown accustomed to.
Yet, as she pulls on her coat and marches over to Amelia Bones' house for a salve, there’s not an ounce of regret for her choices.
“Mary,” she smiles, opening the door, “I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“I was hoping I could buy some of your burn salve? I wasn’t being careful with a candle.”
“Of course,” Amelia turns and beckons her inside, “that’s quite unlike you, though. Is everything alright?”
Mary touches the stinging skin of her palm, wrenching her hand away when it hisses in protest. Amelia comes back, handing her the small wooden container with concern etched in her eyes.
“Yes. I’m–things are good.”
“I’m glad,” Amelia smiles, “you deserve good.”
She is tempted to stay at this little port in the middle of nowhere. It could be a good life.
But the next morning, Sirius is at her door.
“We’re setting off tonight, I wanted to come thank you for all your help, and…” he trails off.
“And?”
He straightens up, “well, we do have room. On the ship–a spare bed, in fact. I was wondering if, well,” he stutters, which is quite unlike him. “Would you like to join us?”
Mary has spent enough time grieving.
“Yes,” she says, standing up straighter. “I accept.”
“You’re going to love the others,” Sirius waves his hands around as he talks, ecstatic she’s said yes.
“Others?”
“This is just a boys trip. Our main crew includes a few others. One girl--Marlene, oh you’re going to love her.”
Something funny happens in Mary’s chest. It’s been so long since she heard that name. Seen that grin; those eyes that could cut through flesh to her truest parts.
When they board the ship, James is walking around with a cane on one side and Regulus on the other. It’s a fancier one than the stick from the forest, there’s something like waves etched into the dips and curves. The handle curls up and turns into the face of a serpent. She’d bet all the money in her pouch Regulus had made it for him.
Sirius claps her on the back. “James will show you around, I’m going to let Moony know we’re back.”
She nods, and makes her way over to James.
“Mary!” he waves, face a bit flushed from exerting his strength.
“Your leg doing alright?” There seems to be a bandage wrapped around his bad arm, but his ankle is dark with bruises, she worries it may be more severe than she'd thought. It might take more time to heal.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” James brushes it off. Regulus scoffs but James just ignores him. “Let me give you the tour, it’s not that big a boat.”
“Absolutely not,” Regulus interjects. “You are going to rest. Go count our rations, love, I’ll show Mary around.”
“Perfect,” Mary agrees before James can argue.
They head off and James heads over to Peter, who’s lifting barrels from the port onto the boat.
“He’d run himself into the ground if we let him,” Regulus sighs, running a hand through his hair and leading Mary further on the ship. “Our hammocks are down below. Sirius and Remus usually take the one room we do have but I’ll make sure you get it for some privacy as you adjust. It’ll be about two weeks until we reach the others.
It’s darker below deck, there are only a few lamps lit around the open space. It smells musty, like stillness makes a home here. It feels frighteningly nostalgic, but Mary calms herself.
“I appreciate the tour, but if there’s anything I can do to help get us organized I don’t mind.”
“The others have got it,” Regulus waves her off, taking a seat in one of the lower hanging hammocks. Only Regulus Black could make something like that look graceful. “I want to talk to you.”
This again, she groans internally. She gets ready for the questions he always has for her when she finds him. Why do I know you? Have I met you before? How are you always in my dreams? She wishes he was more open to learning about his gifts, but perhaps they’ll always scare him.
“I wanted to say thank you.”
“For?” Mary asks, a bit startled.
“Your advice about James,” he replies, “and for helping him. I wouldn’t have known what to do.”
“It’s just herbs,” Mary shrugs.
“Could you—“ Regulus cuts himself off. “I was wondering if you would teach me.”
“Teach you? Herbs?”
“Magic.”
To say Mary’s surprised would be an understatement. Regulus, in all his lives, has refused every offer. Begged her to keep his gifts a secret. It became an old script, but she never gave up, and always showed him glimpses of his potential.
“I would love to.”
The weeks on the ship are long, and Mary doesn’t have her immortality protecting her anymore. The sun burns, hunger makes her weak, and the exhaustion she feels at the end of each day is almost enough to make her regret her decision.
But surrounded by the faces she’s known for centuries, finally being one with them again, it’s worth it.
“I didn’t think I’d find you up here,” comes a voice from below her. She’s sitting in the Crows Nest, sharpening one of Remus’ knives for him because she knows he hates the sound when Sirius climbs up next to her.
“Just keeping an eye on the clouds,” she shrugs.
“No, I think you’re getting some space,” Sirius discerns. “It’s a small ship, I come up here in the mornings.”
“Without James?”
“Yes,” he crosses his arms. Mary gives him a pointed look. “Fine, sometimes yes.”
They fall into a comfortable silence until Mary puts the knife down.
“So,” Sirius starts. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened at the mountain?”
“You mean when I saved your asses?”
“I mean you went to look for herbs that literally don’t exist in that area.”
“Maybe I got lucky.”
“Or maybe,” Sirius says slowly and with confidence, “you found what we were looking for.”
She’s known Sirius for centuries, and they’ve played many roles. Perhaps it’s the fact that he found her the first time, or because he was once her husband, but she finds herself telling him the whole thing. At least as much as she can fit into words.
“I knew there was something special about you,” Sirius grins at her. “Or, Regulus did. He’s the one who insisted I invite you to join us.”
“I see,” Mary murmurs, her image of Regulus re-framing in her mind. A small part of her pangs with pride.
“We should be arriving today.”
Marlene, she remembers, and Sirius seems to hesitate. “Will it be difficult? To see her. I mean—is it difficult? To see all of us?”
“No,” Mary says and finds it’s an honest answer. “It feels more like coming home.”
Marlene has climbed the main mast, and waves down at them as they pull into Port.
“God it’s good to be on dry land again,” James groans, leaning on his cane as they make their way off the ship.
“I want a proper drink,” Remus murmurs. Peter makes a noise in agreement, groggy from his night shift on deck.
Mary walks down the pier, and runs face first into Dorcas.
“Oh!” Dorcas startles, eyes wide and taking a step back, “sorry love didn’t see you there.”
“No, it’s fine!” Mary reassures her happily. “I should have—I’m—“
“Mary is our new crew member,” Sirius saves her, slapping her shoulder good naturally.
Dorcas breaks out in a big grin, “welcome aboard. If two weeks with those boys didn’t kill you then you definitely fit in here.”
“Oi! We’re not that bad,” Sirius complains.
“Sure you aren’t darling,” Dorcas smirks before walking away to wherever she was headed before.
“C’mon, I’ll show you around the island.”
Sirius explains that this is their base of operations. Most locals know them and keep quiet about it. Some aren’t quite as kind and Sirius teaches her where to avoid, what places are safe and which ones will call the royal guard on them.
Then they go to the pub. Where Mary experiences a jarring state of deja vu, because there’s Marlene Mikinnon, her foot on a man’s chest—who looks more disoriented about being beaten than he is angry.
“Sirius, you’re just in time for the show!” Marlene exclaims, grabbing a shot off the tray of a passing barmaid.
“What’s he in for?” Sirius responds dryly.
Marlene looks down at him wickedly, “I’ve been following you for weeks, lad. You owe Portia Mayors her rent.”
“I’ll get her the money, I swear,” the man groans. “I’ve just been—“
“Three months of it,” Marlene presses harder.
“Yeah," the man chokes, "three months. Got it.”
Marlene steps off, grinning as she makes her way over. “Who’s this?”
“Mary. She’ll be joining us for awhile.”
“Lovely. Pleasure to meet you, Mary.” Marlene grins, sticking her hand out for Mary to shake. It feels electric, and something in Mary’s stomach flutters giddily. Marlene has always made her feel fucking crazy. A certain kind of out of control that nobody else has ever managed to bring into her life.
“Likewise.”
They spend a week stocking up their main ship. It would have been shorter but James sees a real doctor who warns him any extreme strain could tear the muscles further until they heal.
Mary spends her spare time training Regulus. She teaches him how to navigate the woods. Not with a compass, or map, but through the very land itself. It's an old instinct, one he has to dig for. But he’s a quick learner.
Moss grows on the north side of a tree, and shadows stretch east to west. But the thing that sticks for him is the stars. He claims his parents taught him, but Mary guesses it’s something he’s always known.
His gift isn’t like hers. Mary can turn tides, bring rain and wind to barren lands. She can bring an end to forest fires, or start her very own. It was a commitment of hers, that no one she loves will ever burn again.
But Regulus has sight. He can see through layers of consciousness she never even knew existed. He’s aware of events even before they happen, sometimes years in advance. He claims it makes him feel mad, and she hates that there’s many lives where he has succumbed to it. But this will be different, Mary promises herself. This time he will learn to control it.
When they’re finally ready to leave, Mary has started feeling at home on the new ship. It’s bigger, and there’s two bunk rooms. She share’s with Dorcas, Marlene, and a woman named Emmeline Vance—who promises to teach Mary some new sword fighting techniques after she manages to best Mary. It had been silly, a simple cut to her arm makes her laugh. But it’s strange to bleed after centuries of existing painlessly.
The others think she’s a little mad, but not Sirius. He just grins, a secret safely shared.
The horizon is open, the blue water glistening in blinding light. Marlene is on one side of her, and Sirius on the other. Peter is playing a song on his flute somewhere on the ship, and James lets the sails fly.
She has a mission, perhaps even a goal.
It’s time to find her Lily.