He’s a Pirate

“Okay, Princess.” James pulls the curtain separating the bed from the rest of the cabin. Regulus groans and shoves his head under the pillow. “Right, well if you had gone to sleep straight away instead of staying up most of the night you wouldn’t be this grumpy in the morning.” The captain grumbles, pulling the pillow off Regulus’ head and dropping it on the floor.

Regulus glares and flips him off.

“No need for attitude, love.” James says. “As I was going to say, we’re docking today. Only briefly, we’re running out of supplies and food.” Regulus slowly sits up and stretches his arms above his head. “You can either stay in my quarters or down in the kitchen with Luna until we’re back but I don’t want you leaving the ship or being on deck where people could see you.”

“What about Pandora?” Regulus asks, leaning back against the wall next to the bed.

“We’ve tried food shopping without Pandora before, but it didn't end well. So she is coming with us.” James explains.

“So you’re leaving me, a kidnapped Prince, alone on a ship docked at a village with a child?” Regulus says, confirming that it sounded just as ridiculous out loud as it did in his head.

“Of course not. Peter is staying on board to watch the ship.” James answers.

“Ah.” Regulus gets out of bed, no longer as warm as it was. “I’ll just stay with Luna.”

“Okay, up you get then. Come on.”

Instead of going past the crew like Regulus had grown accustomed to when going to the kitchen, James opened a door underneath one of the staircases outside his quarters. Regulus frowns, but enters anyway, James following behind him.

“This is just another way to get to the kitchens, across the ship.” James explained, leading them down a narrow hallway. “It’s almost like an emergency exit for Pandora and Luna to use when necessary.”

Soon enough, they found themselves in the kitchen.

“Okay, we will leave you two here.” James says, standing at the door with Pandora. “Peter will be on the ship to guard it, and you two will stay below deck. The only time you are allowed on deck is if you have managed to set the ship on fire or it starts flooding.”

“I doubt that’s going to happen but sure.” Regulus deadpans, crossing his arms. James hums in response and then leaves the two alone.

“Okay, what do you want to do?” Regulus turns to Luna, who is again sitting on the kitchen table. The girl hesitates before moving her hands.

‘Bake something’ She signs. Regulus thinks he has done a good job teaching her sign language over the past few days.

“We can’t bake anything because we don’t have any ingredients. Also I can’t bake.” Regulus says, leaning against the counter next to her.

‘New words.’ The girl signs instead. Regulus agrees to this plan and so they start.

It’s not long later, after Regulus submitted to teaching Luna some swear words in sign language, that they heard multiple sets of footsteps on the deck.

“They must be back already.” Regulus says, surprised the crew were so quick. He was about to walk to the door when Luna grabbed his arm, shaking her head. “What is it?”

‘Not them.’ She signs, face filled with worry. Regulus frowns and looks up to the ceiling, trying to make out a sound he’ll recognise.

“- sure they’re gone?” Someone asks. The voice is muffled and if you didn’t have very good hearing you probably wouldn’t have thought anything was said at all.

“They’ve left.” Another voice says, this one more familiar to Regulus.

Peter.

“Shit.” Regulus mumbles. He turns to Luna. “Is there somewhere you can hide?” He whispers. She nods and points to a door in the wall you wouldn’t have noticed if you weren’t looking, hidden behind kitchen equipment. “Okay, I need you to hide there and be very, very quiet. Do not come out until James and Pandora are back on the ship, understand?” Regulus instructs. Luna nods and runs off to the door, opening and closing it silently.

Regulus has no idea where the door leads to, but knowing that the girls work down here to stay hidden, he trusts that it’ll do the job. Now, he needs to find a hiding place for himself. Regulus exits the kitchen and makes his way down the corridor he and James used earlier. He ends up at the door behind the stairs on deck, putting an ear to the door to listen to any conversation.

When he’s certain it’s quiet, he carefully opens the door, just enough for him to sneak out of and immediately into James’ quarters (which was probably a bad idea now that he thinks about it as this is probably the first place these invaders will look).

After establishing with himself that he hasn’t been seen and that no one is inside with him, he makes a beeline for James’ desk, searching for anything he could use as a weapon. Scanning the desk he sees nothing, just paper upon paper (honestly, does this man ever clean?). As a last resort, Regulus decides to check the drawers, again finding nothing but paper. Until the last drawer.

The locket.

James hadn’t moved it.

Regulus hesitates, but moves quickly when he hears footsteps outside the door. He snatches the locket, closes the drawer and hides behind the bedroom curtain (again, also a bad idea on his behalf). The Prince can hear his heartbeat in his ears as the cabin door opens and footsteps that don’t belong to James fill the room.

“What are we looking for again?” A voice asks, declaring that there must be two people in the room.

“The locket, you idiot.” The other voice replies. Regulus swallows as he hears them move papers on James’ desk, some falling to the floor.

“How do we know it’s even in this room?” The first voice says. For someone who sounds harsh, Regulus thinks he’s a bit stupid.

“That’s why we’re checking it.” Regulus looks down at the locket in his hand, knowing it must be valuable for these guys to attempt to steal it. Looking around the small room, Regulus knows he needs to hide it. As he looks around the room, he accidentally bumps his elbow on the small bedside shelf/table thing James has, making a loud noise. Regulus holds his breath as the movements outside the curtain stop.

A shadow appears on the curtain, a cutlass shape on the other person’s hip. As a last resort, Regulus quickly shoves his hand behind his back, trying to tuck some of the locket chain into the back of his trousers.

The curtain is pulled back suddenly to reveal two men, also pirates. One of them is decked out in black, much like Regulus is, with black, greasy hair holding the curtain to the side. The other man has a dagger pointed at Regulus, this one with blond hair tied back on a low ponytail.

“Now, who do we have here?” The first pirate, the greasy one, says.

“You know what? I think this is the little prince Pettigrew told us about.” The blond answers, still pointing his dagger at the said Prince.

“Hmm.” The other agrees. “I think Riddle will be happier with this find than the locket.” He decides.

“And if he’s not?”

“Then we can use the Little Prince as bait to get it.” The pirate steps forward to grab Regulus, who as a reflex, hits him with the side of his hand very hard. Regulus grabs whatever is closest to him (which happens to be one of the candles) and throws it at the other pirate.

The Prince runs between the two of them before either can react and runs out the door of the cabin (another bad decision) and straight into the chest of someone else who grabs his arm with a firm grip.

“Look at that.” Regulus looks up at the man and this one he recognises. The black hat, the ring on his finger, and more so the tattoo on his left forearm. “Little Prince Regulus Black.” Regulus spits in his face. A face he knows. One that has worked with his mother.

“Let go of me, Riddle.” Regulus snaps. Using his other hand, Tom Riddle wipes the spit off of his face.

“I don’t think so. You know your mother misses you so.” The captain says, a rasp to his voice.

“I’m sure she does.” Regulus glares, attempting to pull his arm out of the man’s grasp.

“You did a good job of finding that locket, Snape and Mulciber.” Riddle’s gaze moves past Regulus to the two pirates who have now emerged from the cabin. “Doesn’t matter, we’ll take this one with us instead. He’ll be more useful at the current time.” Riddle pushes Regulus back into the chest of one of the other pirates who immediately lock their arms through Regulus’, trapping him.

“Hey! Let go of me!” Regulus tries to shout, beginning to thrash around before someone backhands him across the face. As Regulus recovers from the sudden impact, a tie is pushed between his teeth and tied behind his head, preventing him from speaking coherent sentences.

“Let’s go.” Riddle instructs. The pirate holding Regulus begins to walk forward, pushing the Prince along with him.

“I think we did pretty good this time.” James says to Lily, carrying one of the bags of food they had got.

“Yeah I guess so. I mean, at least you didn’t start a fight this time.” Lily agrees.

“Oh my god, that was one time!” James complains as they make their way onto the ship.

“It was not just one time.” Frank says behind them, walking over to the helm. James groans.

“James.” Alice says from next to him.

“What?” James groans again.

“Did you leave your door open?” She asks.

“What do you mean? You know I never leave my-” James stops his sentence as he follows Alice’s gaze to his cabin door, which is left wide open. From where they’re standing they could see the contents of James’ desk thrown all over the floor.

“Uhh, James?” Frank calls from the wheel. James dumps his bag of food and runs up the stairs to him. He passes the telescope to him and points ahead of them.

Looking through the telescope, James can see the ship sailing off ahead of them, with sails all too familiar. “Riddle.” James grits through his teeth.

“James!” Pandora calls from the deck. “I can’t find Regulus! He’s not with Luna!” Panic fills James, taking the telescope to his eye again. Focusing his gaze, he can see a figure dressed in black moving against the mast, a strip of red around his head.

James pulls the telescope from his eye and passes it back to Frank. “I am going to kill that pirate.” The captain growls. “Follow that ship, get as close as you can.” He instructs, making his way back down the stairs to Pandora who’s breathing frantically.

“Where is he?” She asks. Lily has come over as well with the rest of the crew.

“Riddle has him.” James explains.

“Riddle?” Lily says in surprise.

“Yeah. Is Luna still on the ship?” James asks Pandora.

“Yeah. She said Regulus told her to hide and that’s all she knows.” Pandora explains.

“How could this happen? I thought Peter was guarding the ship?” Alice asks.

“He was! Where is he?” James snaps, frustrated.

“We don’t know.” Lily replies.

“Well, find him.” James stomps off to his cabin to inspect the damage. His scrolls and paper are all over the floor and hanging off his desk. He notices the candle on the floor and the curtain pulled half across. He sees it out of the corner of his eyes, lying on the ground next to the door.

The locket James had nicked years ago. He had forgotten about it honestly, originally intending to destroy it and then forgot where he put it. James picks up the clunky locket and holds it in his hand. It’s still warm, and he begins to put together a story in his head of what happened.

Regulus glares up at the blond pirate, Mulciber, as he pulls his head back by his hair, forcing him to look at them.

“Let me go, Riddle.” Regulus spits.

“Where’s the locket?” The captain asks instead, ignoring Regulus.

“What locket?” Regulus says. He dropped the bloody thing in James’ cabin. He wasn’t supposed to know about it anyway, meaning he can get away with lying.

“Potter must have shown it to you.” The greasy pirate sneered, Snape was who he was referred as. “It’s all he wants you for anyway.”

“What?” Regulus frowns at the pirate.

“Your mother is offering a hefty sum of money for both your return and that locket. It’s a very powerful piece of jewellery that belongs in your mother’s hands.” Riddle explains. “Captain Potter thought he would be clever and get double the money for handing both things over. That’s all he wanted you for.”

Regulus hesitates. He knows this is a trap, deep down he knows they’re just trying to get to him, get him to give up information. “So, what? You kidnapped me for the same reason?”

“Of course not. We’re just returning you safely to your mother, we don’t care about the reward. We just want the reward for the locket.” Riddle says.

“Hmm, yes. I am tied to the mast and a member of your crew is ripping my hair out. This seems like a very safe journey.” Regulus deadpans. The corner of Riddle’s mouth twitches and he nods at Mulciber who lets go of Regulus’ hair. Snape groans as he pulls out his cutlass and cuts right through the rope binding Regulus to the wood.

“Now, where is the locket?” Riddle asks again.

“I told you, I don’t know.” Regulus answers. The back of a hand collides with his face again, the same side he can feel a bruise forming.

“I won’t ask again.” Riddle’s voice somehow grows colder as he steps right in front of the Prince.

“You can ask as many times as you want, it will still be the same answer.” Then Regulus is hit so hard, he blacks out.

“Have you found Peter?” James asks, finally stepping out on deck. It’s grown late, the sun setting low in the sky.

“He’s not on the ship.” Lily informs him. James sighs deeply.

“Is Luna okay?”

“She’s stressed, she wants to know where Regulus is. But she doesn’t know anymore of what happened other than she heard the other crew’s footsteps on the deck and Regulus told her to hide.” Lily explains. She had sat with Pandora and Luna for a while as Pandora tried to decode the words Luna was signing to them.

“Frank!” James calls up to the wheel. “How close are we?”

“They’re pretty fast, we’ll be close enough by sunrise I think if you still want to stay discrete.” Frank answers. James groans but knows that his crew are doing the best they can.

“We’ll get him back, James.” Lily says, putting a comforting hand on James’ shoulder.

“I know. I just can’t think about what they’re doing to him.” James sighs. “Or why the bloody hell did they decide to take him from us!”

“Maybe because he’s the Prince? The heir? You know the Queen has announced a pretty large reward for his return.” Alice buts in, throwing an arm around Lily’s shoulder.

“I mean, what’s the point in us taking him back if he’s just going home? Weren’t we going to do that anyway so we could get the reward money?” Dorcas asks, a small circle beginning to form in front of James.

“No? That was never the plan? And even if it was, I don’t think he wants to go back home.” James answers confused.

“Huh, that’s what Peter told me.” Dorcas frowns. The crew turned to her.

“What?”

“Yeah, like a few days after we kidnapped him Peter said the only reason we did was so we could fake returning him home and get the reward money.” Dorcas explains.

“But there wasn’t any reward announced yet?” Lily says.

“How could he have known there would be a reward money?” Alice asks as well.

Dorcas shrugs. “That’s just what he told me. I assumed he got that from you.” She nods to James.

“The only reason I had kidnapped Regulus was because he was awake and could’ve snitched on us.” James explains.

“And you thought he was pretty.” Lily provides, recalling the conversation she had with James the night they had kidnapped the Prince.

“Yeah, that too. Either way, there was never a plan to return and never a plan to get any reward.” James states. The group were quiet for a moment, the only sound was the wind and the breaking of waves against the ship.

“Holy shit.” Alice suddenly exclaims.

“What?” Lily asks.

“Think about it. Peter says that we kidnapped Regulus to get money which we didn’t. He volunteered to watch the ship when we went into the village, leaving only him, Regulus and Luna on board. Riddle’s crew somehow knew we would be here and they kidnapped Regulus. Peter is now also missing but there are no signs of him fighting them.” Alice explains, eyes wide.

“Wait, what are you saying?” Lily says.

“Oh my god.” Dorcas mumbles. “Peter was working with Riddle. He made sure he was on the ship when they kidnapped Regulus so he wouldn’t have to face us when we got back.”

“That means…” Alice starts.

“Riddle is returning Regulus to the palace to get the reward money for himself.” James concludes.

“But then why did they try to take that locket with them?” Lily asks.

“I don’t know.” James mumbles. “For now we need to focus on getting Regulus back, he can’t be going back to that castle.”

This wasn’t the first time Regulus had slept in a cage. His mother would make him sleep in the prison below the castle sometimes as a punishment. But Regulus had gotten used to the warmth and comfort of James’ bed and James’ ship and James.

He hoped. He knew he shouldn’t, but a part of him hoped James was coming back for him. James wasn’t the sort of person to only use him for money, was he?

Waking up, Regulus’ head throbbed as if he had been drinking a lot the night before. He could feel the ship swaying as it’s knocked against the waves down here. The cell is old and rusted. There’s water leaking in from somewhere and the wood is mouldy. Regulus quickly deems this as the most unsanitary place he has ever been in.

He also quickly deems how stupid these pirates are as he isn’t tied down or cuffed anywhere.

“Ah, he’s awake.” A voice startles Regulus. The prince looks around at his dimly lit cave for the source of noise. “On your right.” The voice says again.

Regulus turns to his right and comes face to face with a skull. Naturally, he screams, smacks the skull which sends it rolling to the floor, detached from the rest of its body of bones, causing Regulus to scream again and quickly pull his legs in and move himself away from the body.

The voice (that had not been on the right) roars with laughter.

“Oh fuck me, that was hilarious.” The voice says, still in the dark.

“Piss off, that wasn’t funny.” Regulus frowns, catching his breath again.

“Oh I am going to remember that for the rest of my life.”

“Okay, where are you actually this time?” Regulus snapped.

“Fine, fine. I’m in the cell behind you.” The voice instructs. Regulus turns his body around to come face to face with an actual human face this time. A boy, probably Regulus’ age, sits with his back against Regulus’ cell but his head turned towards him.

“Well you look like shit.” Regulus deadpans. The boy’s brown hair is a mess, he’s got the remains of a black eye and his face is covered in dirt and cuts.

“Thanks. I’m Barty.” The boy, Barty, introduces himself, holding out a hand through the cage for Regulus to shake. “And you must be the famous Little Prince everyone is talking about.” Barty smiles sweetly at him.

“My name is Regulus.” Regulus tells him.

“Ah Regulus. Reg. Reggie. Little Prince. Princey. Princess. Your Royal-” Barty starts to list nicknames.

“Yeah, alright I get it.” Regulus snaps. “Don’t call me any of those names.” Barty rolls his eyes. “What are you doing down here?” Regulus asks. Barty grimaced.

“I used to be a part of the crew.” He says. “I joined to piss my father off, which it did at first. Then he died. And I felt like there was no point in doing this anymore.” Barty falls quiet and Regulus raises an eyebrow. “There’s another guy on the ship, Evan. I didn’t want to do any of Riddle’s nasty work but I didn’t want to leave without Ev. Now I’m here.” He finishes explaining with a shrug.

“So you fell in love?” Regulus deadpans.

“No!” Barty protests, far too quickly. “Evan was just the only person here I had as a friend.”

“Uh huh.” Regulus doesn’t believe him. “So where’s he at then?”

“Uhh, I don’t actually know. He’s not allowed to come down here.” Barty frowns. Regulus hums. “What about you? Why you here?”

“Uhhh, I was kidnapped. Then I was kidnapped again for ransom. Now I think they’re just trying to stop me from escaping.” Regulus shrugs.

“Well, aren't our lives exciting?” Barty sighs.

“Yeah.” Regulus agrees.

It’s silent for a while until a pair of footsteps hammer down the stairs. Both Regulus and Barty turn to see a pirate, Mulciber if Regulus remembers correctly. The pirate pauses in front of their cells, arms crossed and smirking.

“Well isn’t this cute. Making more friends, Crouch?” Mulciber says to Barty, who sticks his tongue out at him. “Up you get, Princeling.” Hesitantly, Regulus stands up and the two watch as Mulciber unlocks Regulus’ door and pulls him out. “There’s a captain that wants to see you.” He says, leaning into Regulus’ ear.

Grabbing some rope, Mulciber makes quick work of tying Regulus’ hands behind his back and begins pushing him towards the stairs.

“Just hand him over, Riddle. That’s all we want.” James says to the captain. His crew are behind him, some still on his ship. All of them have guns and swords pointed at them.

“Give me the locket and maybe we’ll see.” Riddle argues.

“What locket?” James decides to play dumb, even though both captains know exactly what locket they’re discussing.

“You’re Prince would say the same thing. I know you’re both lying.” Riddle crosses his arms.

There’s a thud from behind Riddle and a short series of swears follows.

“Get off of me!” James’ heart rate picks up, recognising the voice. Sure enough, Regulus is being pushed out of a door, hands behind his back, squirming just like when James had kidnapped him. The pirate pushing Regulus drops him to his knees next to Riddle, pushing a foot on Regulus’ back, forcing him forward.

“Let him go, Riddle.” James says sternly. Regulus looks up at James, relief in his eyes.

He did come back.

“Give me the locket.” Riddle reaches down and garbs Regulus’ hair, pulling his head back to look at James. “And you can have your precious little Prince back.”

“I don’t have your fucking locket.” James answers, tearing his eyes away from Regulus.

Riddle sighs deeply. He pulls Regulus up off his knees and walks him over to the side of the ship where there’s a gap in the wood where maybe a ladder would go. Riddle leans Regulus over the side, looking down into the ocean.

“Hey, hey hey!” Regulus exclaims, trying to pull himself back up but with the angle Riddle’s holding him at, if he moved he would easily fall in.

“Riddle!” James shouts, watching Regulus.

“The locket, Potter.” Riddle says. “Or your Prince is going in for a swim.” Riddle lets Regulus fall forward suddenly, still keeping a hold of him.

“Stop!” Regulus can’t breathe. James won’t let him fall, would he? Regulus can’t swim. He’d drown.

“I don’t have your fucking locket!” James shouts. He has an arm outstretched towards Regulus, a hand open. “Let him go, Riddle.”

“Poor choice of words, Potter. But alright.” And Riddle lets go.

Regulus screams as he falls closer to the water. He can hear shouting before he breaks the surface. It’s cold. Really fucking cold. It’s cold and dark and he can feel his body seizing up, numbing. Even if he could swim, he’d struggle with his hands still tied behind his back. He tries to move, to keep his body warm. But he can’t see where he is going, whether he is facing up or down, it’s too dark.

He doesn’t have enough air in his lungs. He can’t breathe anything other than water but he can’t help it. It feels like he’s choking. There’s water in his nose, in his throat, in his lungs. He feels light. His body was slowing down, no longer trying to swim.

His mouth falls open, breathing out air bubbles, and then doesn’t breathe anything back in.

So this is what drowning feels like? Huh. Regulus guessed it would be more painful than this.

There’s a gunshot James doesn’t register. A thud of a body. Shouts of anger and swords clanging. James isn’t phased. Instead he runs to the side of the ship, doesn’t even look at Riddle as he dives after Regulus.

The cold water is a shock to the body and James is thankful he didn’t have to go after Regulus on that first night.

What’s worse is James can’t see. He can’t see anyway and it’s a miracle he hasn’t lost his glasses yet. But he can’t see Regulus.

Risking the pain and eye damage, James opens his eyes under the water, the sting of the salt urging him to close them again. But he can’t. Not until he has Regulus.

He catches something in the corner of his eye.

There he is. Floating. His fair is floating around his face. With the sun shining through the sea he almost looks ethereal.

Now is definitely not the time to ogle, James! A voice that sounds painfully like Lily’s shouts at him in his head.

Speeding through the water, James swims over to Regulus, grabbing his waist and pulling him towards the surface.

When they break through the surface, James has never been more grateful for air. Regulus’ head lolls forward, his body limp. James swims with all the strength left in him to the side of Riddle’s ship, grabbing onto a hole in the wood for support.

“Regulus?” James says. Using his free hand he wraps Regulus’ legs around his waist, lifting his own to balance him. “Regulus, come on, breathe.” The Prince’s head still hangs forward. James groans as he uses his hand to try and pry Regulus’ mouth open, he watches worryingly as a bucket of water falls out of the Prince’s mouth.

“Regulus, breathe!” James is panicking now. Not even hesitating, James opened his mouth and connected it to Regulus’, breathing his air into Regulus’ mouth.

It took 3 tries before Regulus finally started coughing and spluttering more water which must have been in his lungs. He was breathing rapidly, clearly panicking as he kept coughing up water.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay.” James says, trying to comfort him. He starts patting Regulus’ back, making sure he's got all the water out. “You okay?” He asks. Regulus takes a minute to try and get his breathing even again.

“Hands.” He whispers, throat dry from all the salt in the water. James makes quick work of getting Regulus’ hands untied, who immediately rubs his eyes once his hands are free.
“You’ll get more salt in them if you do that.” James pries Regulus’ hands away from his face and wraps them around his neck so he can get a better grip on him. Finally, Regulus looks at him, still breathing heavily.

“You came back.” His throat is still horse and it takes a lot of strength for James to not laugh.

“Of course I did.” James frowns. “Why would you think I wouldn’t?” Regulus is silent.

“What happened to your crew?” He says instead. James will investigate that later.

“Shit. Uhhhh.” He didn’t think this far. How are they supposed to get back on the ship?

“You’re kidding me right?” Regulus deadpans. “So you just dived in after me, risking your life, and didn’t have a plan to save both of us?”

“Hey, I saved your life.” James argues. “I don’t care if I was risking my own, I’m a pirate. I do that every day.”

“I didn’t ask you to save my life.” Regulus tries to fight back.

“Well I was going to anyway, so-” A rope hits James in the face, ending his argument. The two look up and find Frank looking down at them.

“Nice to know you’re both alive. Come on then.” He calls down to them. Regulus and James both frown in confusion.

“Okay. Keep your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist. I’m gonna pull us up.” James tells him. Regulus nods, tightening his grip on James’ body.

James lets go of Regulus’ waist to grab the rope with both hands, turning them so Regulus’ back is towards the ship. Putting both his feet on the side of the ship, James starts to pull and walk up the side of the ship.

Anyone else would have focused on maybe helping, or trying not to look down. Regulus was focused on something else entirely.

Honestly, who decides to wear a white, thin shirt when they plan on diving into the ocean? For the second time that day, Regulus can’t breathe. At least this time it was for a good reason. Well, at least he was thoroughly distracted from the ocean. Damn, has he ever seen James working out? Maybe it was just natural. No, there’s no way you can get a body like that naturally.

“Almost there.” James’ voice pulls Regulus’s gaze and thoughts away from James’ chest. He turns his head and can see the ships’ railing, reaching a hand out to grab it. James makes sure Regulus is over the railing before he pulls himself over.

The scene in front of them is… pleasing. For James at least. Regulus doesn’t really know what to think.

James’ crew have managed to knock out and tie down most of Riddle’s crew, and James is thoroughly impressed. Especially at the sight of Captain Tom Riddle himself with his hands tied above his head, hanging from one of the sails.

“And which one of my clever pirates got you in such a predicament, Riddle?” James asks smugly. He has a tight grip on Regulus’ wrist, shielding him almost.

“That would be me.” Lily announces. “For Pandora.” She says. James smiles and nods at her approvingly. Regulus realises then that this must be the crew responsible for Pandora’s husband.

“Right then. Is everyone tied down somewhere?” James asks Fran, who gives a curt nod. “Great, let’s head off then. Leave them like that.” James instructs.

“Wait a sec.” Regulus pulls his wrist from James’ grasp and makes a quick run for the stairs, where the cells are.

“Regulus!” James calls from behind him. Regulus ignores him, taking the stairs two at a time until he’s face to face with Barty in his cell.

“Well, looks like I’m not the only one who looks like shit now.” Is the first thing Barty says when he looks at Regulus.

“Hey, I drowned. I’m excused for looking like shit.” Regulus frowns. “Where are the keys to the cell?”

“What?”

“The keys. To your cell. Where are they?” Regulus asks.

“Why?” Barty almost looks surprised.

“So I can take them with me.” Regulus deadpans. “So I can get you out, idiot.” Barty stars, stunned for a second, and then points to a shelf with a selection of keys hanging off it.

Regulus groans as he grabs one and tries it with Barty’s cell. It doesn’t work, so he chucks it on the floor. Grabbing the next key and trying that one, he is relieved that it fits. The door opens and Barty stands up. He frowns, looking around the cell and then at the door, now hanging open. Hesitantly, he steps on foot through the door, and then the other. He looks at Regulus, who’s staring at him as if he just ate the weirdest combination of food ever.

“Hey, I’ve been down here for fuck knows how long.” Barty holds up a finger in protest. Regulus rolls his eyes.

“Okay, so James has tied down and knocked out Riddle’s crew. There’s a chance this Evan guy is up there. Go find him and if he lets you, you can catch a ride on James’ ship somewhere.” Regulus explains.

“James? James Potter?” Barty asks.

“Yeah?”

“Captain James Potter? Son of Captain Fleamont and Euphemia Potter? The greatest pirates in quite literally the whole of the seven seas despite how cringy that saying is?” Barty’s eyes just keep widening.

“Sure?” Regulus answers, completely clueless as to who Fleamont and Euphemia are.

Barty just stands and stares at Regulus until footsteps sound on the stairs. When Regulus turns, he sees it’s Alice.

“Come on, James is waiting on you.” She tells him, motioning her head to the top of the ship.

“Come on, goldfish.” Regulus says to Barty. The three of them make their way up the stairs and back on deck where all of James’ crew are back on his ship.

“Who’s that?” James points at Barty, frowning.

“This is-” Regulus begins.

“Barty Crouch Jr, big fan of your parents' work and therefore yours.” Barty announces, bowing in front of James. Regulus’ eyebrows rise at Barty in shock and James just smirks.

“He was in the cell next to me for a while.” Regulus explains.

“I’m just going to look for someone.” Barty points to the crew behind James and then walks off, in search of Evan.

James turns around to watch him and Regulus stands next to him. “He’s in love with one of the crew members and couldn’t leave him here. That’s why he was in the cell.” Regulus tells him.

“In love with a member? Of this crew?” James asks, astonished.

“Well, he said they were friends, but I think that’s bullshit.” Regulus shrugs.

“Right.” James nods. “So what does this have to do with me?” James asks.

“Well, Barty’s a good person.” Regulus starts.

“Who you’ve known for like half a day, if that.” James buts in.

“He didn’t want to work under Riddle.”

“Reasonable.”

“And he admires you and your family.”

“So?”

“So, you could give them a ride and drop them off at the next stop. Or let them work on your ship instead.” Regulus suggests.

“And why would I do that?” James asks.

“Found him!” Barty shouts to them.

“Would you really leave two innocent people on this ship?” Regulus asks, raising an eyebrow. James glares.

“Come on, Rosey.” Barty approaches them with a man with white blonde hair hanging off his shoulder. White hair Regulus recognised, and it seemed James did as well.

Regulus looks at James again, expectantly. James groans. “Fine, fine. They can get a ride.”

Regulus grins at Barty who is grinning back. “Prince Reggie, I love you.” Regulus’ smile drops to a frown.

“Nevermind, leave them to die.” He says and walks away to the side of the ship with the ladders going across to James’.

“Oh come on!” Barty shouts.

When everyone is safely back on board and they’ve checked for injuries, James begins ordering people around so they can set sail. He briefly tells Regulus to take Barty and Evan (who’s still drowsy) down to Pandora who’s been very anxious.

Upon opening the kitchen door, Regulus is met with two big hugs from both Pandora and Luna. Pandora touches his face, asking why he’s soaking wet, whether he was injured, making sure everyone else was alive. Luna was signing similar questions frantically.

Regulus tries not to laugh. “I’m fine, really. Nothing you need to worry about.” He tells her. He turns to look between Barty and Pandora. “Umm, this is Barty. He was on the ship.” He tells her.

“I remember you.” Pandora whispers. Barty and Regulus frown as Pandora places a hand on the side of his face in care. “It’s a good thing you’re not there anymore.” She says. Regulus sighs, an arm around Luna’s shoulders who hasn’t left his side.

“And uhh, this is Evan.” Regulus says curiously. Pandora lifts Evan’s drooping head so she can look at him. Now that they’re standing in front of each other, they look even more similar.

“Ev?” She whispers. There’s silence for a moment. Barty watches the interaction in confusion.

“Dora?” Evan whispers weakly. Pandora gasps, wrapping her arms around Evan’s shoulder, almost pulling him away from Barty.

“What’s going on?” Barty says to Regulus.

“Siblings I think.” Regulus answers, solemnly, the scene before only relatable in his head.

Pandora sits Evan down on a seat and begins patching him up as Regulus and Luna make a start on food, planning on making a lot for a celebratory dinner for the crew. Barty sits and watches Evan as he catches up with his sister. Pandora introduces him to Luna, Evan’s niece. Barty and Regulus aren’t sure they’ve seen a more heartwarming scene.

Later on in the dining room, Barty and Evan sit on the floor with Pandora, Regulus and Luna. The five of them watch as James makes a speech to the rest of his crew, saying how proud and impressed he is of them. And a small note to Regulus, thankful he’s still alive (Pandora got annoyed that he hadn’t told her earlier that he almost died).

After dinner, Regulus is back in James’ room, sitting on his bed, watching him work.

“Where’s the locket?” Regulus asks. James looks up at him.

“What locket?” He smirks.

“Don’t do that. That was the whole reason I drowned.” Regulus frowns. “Where is it?”

“It’s in my desk. And it’s going to stay there until I find a way to destroy it.” James explains, turning back to his work.

“Why did Riddle want it so badly?” Regulus asks.

“The locket belonged to an old pirate, dangerously powerful man. It was thought to possess some form of magic. My mother and father didn’t want to take the chances of the locket having magic. So they managed to get the locket away from him. They planned on destroying it, but they never figured out how.” James says. “I don’t know why Riddle wanted it. Probably believed it did have magic.”

“He said he’d get a reward for giving my mother both the locket and me. Said that’s what you were doing.” Regulus tells him, looking down to pick at his nails.

“Is that why you were surprised when I pulled you out of the water?” James asks. Regulus doesn;t answer. “You believed that I only kidnapped you for money?” Again, Regulus stays silent.

He hears James’ chair scrape on the floor and listens as James’ footsteps walk over to him. A hand gently grabs his chin, forcing him to look up into James’ eyes.

“Kidnapping you just to give you back for money sounds like a shitty idea of a plan.” James says, standing above Regulus. “And a part of me feels like you don’t want to go back to the palace.” He whispers. Regulus lightly shakes his head. “I was always going to get you back on my ship, one way or another. You’re never leaving my sight again.”

Regulus isn’t sure what made him do it. Regardless, he grabs the fabric of James’ shirt and pulls him down to his mouth. James makes a shocked noise, but quickly leans into it. Pushing Regulus backwards onto the bed. Regulus’ fingers tangle in James’ hair, gripping it tightly as one of James’ hands wraps around his waist while the other moves down to his neck.

James pulls back, leaving them both gasping for air. “If a speech about never letting you go again is what makes you kiss me then I would’ve made one ages ago.” James says, smiling down at Regulus.

“Shut up.” Regulus says, pulling James back down to him.