Messenger from the Past
February 3rd, 1768
Lily Evans desperately needed a cigarette. She wasn’t addicted, not at all, but she needed some relief - something fun to take the stress away, to ease the tension in her shoulders. Getting drunk while at work was disgusting, even if the rest of the crew disagreed and had no qualms about getting wasted off their asses in the middle of the week. She, however, had to stay sharp at work, and since that was all she apparently did, drinking was practically out of the question.
Besides, half of those bastards didn’t even think she belonged there, although she was just as prestigious as James, just as good. They had even attended the same school and yet, James was the likable one, the good guy. Lily was nothing but a stone-cold professional with no empathy and sense of fun. Sometimes she entertained the idea of showing them a completely different side of her – get all hammered up beside them and chat with them like James did – but no. She doubted it would work like that.
So, she stuck to smoking. She did it in secret, in her office with the little window open, mainly because she wanted it to stay as just her thing. The one thing no one could critique and complain about.
The wind whistled in her ears as Vespera flew forward, towards the strange ship in the horizon. People tended to assume a lot of things about Lily Evans, and that’s why she loved working the helm, although it wasn’t exactly her job. Being physically in control of something was nice. When she was steering the ship, the world was calm and the nervousness creeping up her spine, warning her about all the possible possibilities, seemed bearable. Control was nice.
Plus, if everyone saw her working, then no one could say she was there just to sit still and look pretty.
Next to her, James was much more worried than her; he stood stiffly, shoulders back and hands behind his back and resembled his mother so much that it was almost uncanny. Somewhere in his quarters, there was a painting of Euphemia Potter standing exactly like her son, with that exact same coppery skin, winkling eyes and smile lines crinkling his cheeks.
James leaned on the railing. “Still no colours. What are they playing at?” he muttered at himself, frowning at the ship they were rapidly approaching.
Lily hummed. It was very odd indeed, for a ship that gigantic to break the rules and not have a visible flag fluttering in the wind. The weather was clear enough and even though the sun was setting, there was still enough light to see. The other ship had just lit their nightlights, dots of yellow flickering all over the deck.
Huffing, James turned his back on the ship. “They’re not even firing at us. Don’t they realise that we could sink them in like, what? Half a minute?”
Rolling her eyes, Lily snorted. “Yes, I am aware of that.”
James smiled at her. Once upon a time, that smile would’ve made her stomach flip. “I don’t want to hurt them, Lils. What if it’s just some new fisherman who doesn’t know the rules?”
“Everyone knows the rules,” Lily replied. Splashes of salty seawater flew over the ship’s side. “And if they don’t, well, that’s their fault.”
James didn’t answer.
She caressed the worn wood of Vespera’s helm in deep thought. Everyone did know the rules. If you rent out a spot in a port, you had to sign an agreement which the rules were a part of. If the person signing couldn’t read, then someone simply read the text aloud. Her finger caught on a tiny wedge. The other ship knew exactly what they were doing. Another small splinter caught her finger. So many people before her had held that very helm, that the polish had begun to chip. The surface wasn’t gleaming anymore, instead it had turned into a soft sort of brown that looked loved.
All over Vespera, lights came to life as the darkness settled over them. The gunners lit up oil lamps around their cannons, illuminating the deck further. Alice passed Lily and winked at her, setting a big candle right next to her. Mockingly saluting, she continued towards James.
He had taken to pacing around the quarterdeck. Lily watched Alice approach him and smiled mildly at the instant bickering that followed.
“Potter, they are too close for comfort. We need to fire.”
“Would you like to shoot a little family with three small children???”
“And if those are pirates?”
“Well, then I’d-”
James didn’t get to finish his sentence, when a shrill shout sounded from the front.
“Halt! All gunners stop!”
Lily snapped into attention.
Bones had climbed onto the bowsprit and was staring at the ship approaching. “It’s one of ours! It’s undercover!”
James snatched the telescope from his belt. Sure enough, almost instantly Lily saw the flag of the Navy be lifted up to the sky. “What? Who is it?” she demanded as soon as James had turned back around.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. No indications of ranking.” They stared at each other for a second, and a line of worry formed between James’ dark brows. “Could they have... stolen it?”
Lily shook her head. “How? Besides, who even cuts the signal flags in a fight?”
Alice ordered her gunners left and right, and somehow, they managed to form a proper greeting position. James continued peering through the telescope, bringing it so close to his eyes that it kept clinking against his glasses.
“Bloody hell, you blind bastard!” Lily snatched the spyglass from his hands. “Let me try.”
“Fine, go ahead.”
He took over the helm with no need for a request, and Lily wandered closer to the railing, bringing the thick, heavy glass almost against her eye. It took a couple seconds to adjust; first, she didn’t know what she was looking at, but soon found the dock with blurry faces. Blurry faces that stayed surprisingly still, not in panic and preparing for a fight like the crew on Vespera. As the distance between the ships became narrower and narrower, she started to separate features: eyes and hair and the colour of their coats.
“She’s seeing something!” Alice called out, probably after noticing the concentration on Lily’s face. “Are they a bunch of conmen?”
“No, they have our coats. No need to-” She squinted her eyes, something unexpected catching her attention. Most of the sailors on the other ship were people she only recognized by face – old school mates, older students, and such. But the man standing right in the front, pointing at their direction...
“What is it?” James asked.
Severus was there.
Why, she didn’t know. He wasn’t a sailor; he had no qualifications, not like James and her, but there he stood nonetheless, not in a captain’s uniform but clearly with some form of authority. He hadn’t seen her yet, obviously – the distance was too grand, and he still looked nonchalant. Empty, blank, like a canvas before the painter got busy.
Lily lowered the spyglass and flinched, for the other ship was much closer than she had anticipated. No miracle that she had been able to interpret the faces so well.
She made a confused face at James. “Snape is there.”
“Snivellus?” James asked, equally perplexed.
“Oh, shut it.” The nickname awoke a sting of anger in her, despite not having to defend her old friend in ages. “I don’t know what he’s doing here.”
Alice had already forwarded the news, and the crew was visibly relieved now that the danger had turned out to be a false alarm. The ship had started to slow down, ready to anchor right next to the other Navy ship.
Lily’s mind couldn’t slow down, though - not yet when she tried to prepare herself. It had been a while since she had last seen Sev: they had been in London, picking up Locke, and even then, she had avoided almost all contant with him. Seeing Snape brought back old memories she couldn’t suppress, all the way from Denmark, the homely and beautiful Copenhagen that had somehow been so harsh to her.
She thanked their luck that Locke had been the one to drag Sirius underdeck. If the strange mapmaker couldn’t keep the Black heir in control, no one could, and Severus noticing Sirius would be... it would be more than a disaster.
Lily was still there, when the other ship finally reached them, and Severus, side by side with some other sailors, crossed the bridge to Vespera.
Their eyes met. Lily hated the way her stomach twisted, and from the obvious way Severus tensed up, the discomfort was a shared feeling.
“Lily.”
Now, I really need a cigarette.
She suddenly found the planks of the ship very interesting. She hadn’t realised Vespera needed new nails, some of them looked rusty. Yeah, also someone needed to clean the planks around the mizzen mast better. Was that a knot in the rigging? How had that even hap-
“Lily?”
Or two cigarettes.
She sighed and raised her eyes. “Severus.”
“Quite a time, since we’ve seen each other,” he stated, and it was almost comical how quickly he had lost his assertiveness, returning to the same, greasy-haired boy Lily had spent her entire life knowing.
Pathetic, Sirius would have said. She didn’t know how to feel.
“I thought you were in London,” Lily answered politely. She made sure not to express a single hint of emotion, nothing that Severus could get a grip of and use against her. To hurt her. That thought stung, and Lily grimaced. It’s like we’ve never met before.
“I was. Now I’m here.” Severus seemed to remember his worth and fixed his posture. It was futile: something about him always seemed a little awry, despite a straight back and upright shoulders. “Dumbledore has asked me to deliver an order.”
“Ah, that’s with the secretive ship then!”
It was James, and Lily closed her eyes for a second, readying herself for the show that was about to begin. When she blinked, the warmth had already disappeared from Severus’ face, replaced with a cold sneer, cruel and annoyed.
That was the Snape people knew and... well, tolerated.
“Potter,” he said dryly.
“Snape.” They stared at each other for a long, painful second, and suddenly, Lily felt like she was fifteen again, watching two teenage boys behave like pathetic babies. Her cheeks started to turn red as the crew clearly noticed the quarrel and followed the men’s moves with not much discretion.
This is not how I want them to see their captain.
Thankfully, James decided to be the bigger person and a false smile spread on his face. “You had something to tell us?”
“I’d rather discuss it with Lily,” Severus levelled, and Lily wanted to punch him right at his beak-like nose. How could she ever win the crew’s respect with Snape talking like this? All the work she did, and with a single word he destroyed at least a month of progress.
“We’ll discuss it together, thank you,” she ordered. “In peace.”
The crew around them seemed to catch the hint, and it took mere seconds for Vespera to become alive again, everyone back with their daily tasks. They followed James up the stairs, back to the helm where Alice had taken over the wheel and were quickly joined by Kingsley and the sailors Severus had brought. It was enough privacy to loosen the tight knot in Lily’s chest – at least, until Severus spoke again.
“There is something going on with the House of Black.”
Lily felt her heart drop. A thick silence surrounded them, and all she could do was to try her best to stay neutral and swallow down the bad taste in her mouth. Don’t let him see it.
Next to her, James’ hand holding the telescope started to shake. “Is that so?” he asked, feigning confidence. At least his voice didn’t quaver.
Lily tried to calm her breathing. Kingsley’s eyes switched between them, clearly piecing the picture together. Alice remained indifferent, but it was almost like she had tightened her grip on the helm. Lily wanted to bite her nails but forced herself to study Severus’ face instead.
He couldn’t know, it wasn’t possible! Sirius had been on the ship for a day, and information did not spread that quickly. The crew knew that there was an extra person aboard, sure, but Severus hadn’t talked to anyone yet.
Lily decided to worry about Kingsley and Alice later.
Severus crossed his hands. The dark material of his cloak swished with the motion. “After the disappearance of Blackbeard’s daughter, they’ve been, how to say, gathering forces and closing ranks,” he was staring at James, eyes glinting. “They were spotted nearby Sao Luis. There was more than half of the Black fleet.”
James swallowed.
Severus’ gaze bore into his head. “That is quite close, isn’t it? Almost too close for comfort.”
“Just say what you want to say, Snape.” James’ tone was clipped, but at least he managed to sound remotely normal. “Should I be scared of them or what?”
Grinning, Severus continued. “Did you know the older heir wasn’t there?”
The silence around them was so heavy that Lily could almost taste it. Alice had lifted her gaze and stared flatly at Severus. Kingsley had shifted so that the crew waiting just down the stairs couldn’t see them.
James eyed Severus neutrally. “Is that so?” he said slowly.
Sev was smiling, and once, Lily would’ve smiled simply because he was. Now, she saw the arrogance in his eyes, the way he enjoyed knowing something James didn’t. How he enjoyed delivering bad news to them.
Back in school, the two of them, Severus and Lily, had hated James and his little crew. It was always the three of them – Potter, Peter and Mary – and when the school day ended, there was a fourth one, a black-haired kid no one else had known. Separately, Peter and Mary were tolerable; he was shy enough to be no harm, and she had an odd ability to appeal to everyone. But together they had been a loud, obnoxious group of idiots who thought they were better than everyone else.
Oh, how much things had changed.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where your filthy little pirate friend is?” Severus dragged out the words, letting them sink in like daggers into a target. “I’m sure Dumbledore would appreciate even the tiniest bits of information.”
James squared up. “What are you implying, Sniv-”
“Oi, quit it. We have no clue of Sirius’ whereabouts.” Lily stopped the argument even before it got the chance to begin. She did her best to stay calm and clueless. “Should we go looking for Sirius? Is that what Dumbledore wants?”
Severus turned his dark gaze to her. “You must keep your eyes open, yes. If you see as much as a glimpse of him, report to the Navy immediately. Or even better: bring him right to our doorstep, preferably alive, but I’m sure a corpse is fine, too.” He lifted his hand to put a stray lock of dark hair behind his ear. His hair was still long like all those years ago – not in the flattering way Sirius’ was, but rather like greasy, dead vines. Lily felt bad about the comparison she had just made. “We’re not entire sure why he’s missing. His younger brother has taken over as captain.”
“Regulus Black?” Alice asked in surprise. “Isn’t he a bit too young?”
“Just two years younger,” James answered, and Lily wanted to punch him instead. Don’t make yourself look like their friend!
“So, why put Regulus in charge?” she asked before anyone had time to overthink James’ response. “What happened to Sirius?”
“There are loads of theories, but we are not sure, Evans.” Severus shrugged. “Some say he’s on a mission – perhaps undercover somewhere. Maybe they have even turned him into one of their assassins, who knows?”
Even though James had reassured Lily that Sirius wasn't up to anything, she felt a wave of cold sweat wash over her. Could they be hiding a murderer in their ship?
“Of course, it might be something else. Maybe they just got tired of him.” Snape shot a malicious look at James. “Maybe he’s dead.”
“He’s not-” James started but thanks to every single God Lily had ever heard of, was smart enough to muffle his cry before it reached its full potential. He shook his head. “He’s not something they would just throw away. Sirius is a skilled captain and practically invincible in a swordfight.”
“But blessed with a temper, so I’ve heard.” Kingsley opened his mouth for the first time in the conversation and they all nodded. “Regulus isn’t as talented but twice as obedient.”
They were mainly rumours, but Lily wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a hint of truth.
“Thank you for the warning, Severus,” Lily said. “We’ll keep an eye out.” She gave James a sharp look and he mumbled something in agreement.
“Good,” Snape smirked. “Of course, it would be best if you could use the past friendship with Potter to lure Sirius in and bring him straight to the Navy. I’m sure Dumbledore would give generous raises to the both of you.” The offer made Lily’s heart jump, but she didn’t have time to ponder, for Sev was not finished. “And one small thing,” he said with a smirk. “You must sail to Kingston.”
“Kingston?” James asked, eyes round from surprise. “But we were ordered to Santiago de Cuba?”
“There is something you need to pick up from there, on the way. You’ll find it at an Old Friend’s place.” Snape raised his brows. “I personally do not think place is a word strong enough to describe that unholy tavern.”
Ah. Mary’s.
“What is it we need to find?” Lily inquired.
“Dumbledore didn’t say.” Severus tensed up as he said it, and the following words came out with more spit than usual. “He said Potter would know.”
“He didn’t trust you with that information?” That seemed like good news to James, and it looked like he gained back some of the sparkle in his eyes. “Must be something of importance then.”
The fury in Snape’s eyes was almost hilarious and he pursed his lips as if to stop himself from saying something bad. Lily felt, in a way, relieved from the fact that despite everything, Sev wasn’t too trusted by the Navy. She and James were still above him and hopefully would always be.
Severus took out a folded parchment from his coat pocket and handed it to James. “Here’s everything in written form, coordinates and all. So that you won’t forget.”
“I doubt that will be a problem,” James smiled, “but thank you.”
And just like that, the meeting was over, and they started making their way down the stairs. Neither James nor Lily offered the guest anything, not even a warm cup of tea, but Severus and his companions, who hadn’t said a word throughout their conversation, didn’t seem at all upset. Lily couldn’t help but notice how her old friend tried to stay close to her, slow his steps so that the two of them could walk slightly behind the others. But as much as the guilt stung, Lily stuck to James’ side the entirety of the walk – she couldn’t bear a one-on-one conversation with Sev, especially not now that she had so much more to think.
Just like Lily, Severus hadn’t been born into wealth. They both had had to work for the place in the Navy’s school; Lily had made sure to impress her teachers year after year to win free tuition, and Severus had worked almost full hours in the weekends and evenings to gather up enough money. The spoiled, rich brats could never understand. The spoiled, rich brats like young James Potter, who didn’t know that by making fun of the way Severus dressed and behaved, he was also making fun of the girl he tried to impress. Lily and her past in the pauper part of Copenhagen, the gentle people that were looked down simply because of their lack of wealth.
Funnily enough, Severus had turned into his own worst nightmare: an arrogant fool who despised anyone slightly different. The more bitter he grew; the more James had expressed guilt and started to follow his family’s doctrines. Be brave and be kind. Something in the lines of that.
At the end, Severus had turned against his one and only friend. Lily still remembered the stinging words after she had told him that she would be changing departments, studying to become a leader. Of all the people she knew, Sev was the last one she had expected to try to crush her dreams.
“You as a captain? Don’t make me laugh, Lils. You really think you can handle a crew? Or a ship? But you’re so fragile and emotional and just... just a girl!”
Later, she assumed it was his last attempt to keep her to himself, to stop her from moving so much forward that he couldn’t continue tagging along. She supposed he was simply scared to lose her and panicked, trying to convince her in the only way he knew. The exact way he had been treated in his home.
Now, she was watching him sail away in his pathetic, undercover ship. Good, she thought. This time leave for good. It made her feel better to imagine the entire wooden piece of junk to burst into flames.
Her search for revenge was quickly interrupted by cursing from James’ direction. He had the parchment in a grip that was almost tight enough to rip it into pieces.
“’An important item from an Old Friend. You’ll know it when you see it’,” he read, hissing. “He’s obviously talking about Mary, but still! What the hell does Dumbledore mean?”
Lily shook her head. “That’s not the greatest of our worries, James.” She took a deep sigh and decided to tackle the question as soon as possible, now that neither Kinsley nor Alice were close to them. “What are we... what are we going to do with...”
She didn’t need to finish her sentence; James had already started to resemble a scared deer with his big, worrisome eyes. There were no words to describe how fucked they were.
Yesterday, hiding Sirius on Vespera had already been a bad idea, quite literally a crime. But now they had direct orders – both spoken and written – and breaking them was far, far worse. They wouldn’t just lose their titles, they would hang.
You could use the past friendship with Potter to lure Sirius in.
Severus and Dumbledore didn’t even know how easily James could have done that.
“We mustn't panic, flower,” he said, clearly not following his own pieace of advice. “We’ll just leave him to Kingston, with Mary. She’s involved in all kinds of business, honourable and... less honourable. Hiding a Black heir is not even a chore for her!”
“And then what?” she asked, not at all impressed with James’ plan.
“Then what... what?”
“Will you just be able to let him go?” she challenged.
James visibly deflated.
Lily’s lips turned into a sad, compassionate smile. “Can you continue your life like nothing happened?”
James swallowed. “I’ll have to. And it’s not like he’s gone for forever. Mary will help him start a new life.” The twinkle of hope in his eyes was almost painful. “Maybe we’ll meet again when the Black fleet isn’t that dangerous anymore.”
Lily nodded once. The Fleet would always be dangerous, but she wasn’t about to say that to James. This simply was what she had to work with. Three days and Sirius wouldn’t be any of their worry.
Three days and life would get back to normal.