The Pirates

Hermione shuffled through the crowd, book bag in tow as she narrowly dodged the oncoming traffic. “Watch it, lady!” an older man yelled as she nearly ran into him. She mouthed a quick ‘Sorry’ as she rushed to catch up with her large group of friends, who were boarding the large “Pirate ship” on the pier. Hermione blew a loose curl out of her face as an older man, tall as her hip stepped in front of her, ice cream cone in hand. “Get your Pirate-Gold! It's free!” 

     He shoved it just below her nose as she violently shook her head, “No, no. I’m alright.” 

“No, no. You must have your Pirate-Gold!” The man chuckled as he shoved the cone into the palm of her hand. He turned away, and yelled out into the surrounding crowd, “Get your Pirate-Gold!” 

           She rolled her eyes, but ate the ice cream regardless as she followed behind her friends. They had left her at the Pirate bookstand a couple shops down. Though, she didn’t blame them as all of them were eager to board the boat to watch the sword fighting show that was supposed to start any minute. Hermione smiled to herself as a soft melody played next to the large ship. A younger man – she guessed to be in his late teens, leaned against a pole as he played his guitar for change. His brown curls swayed with the salted breeze.

    “Would you play a song for me?” She asked as she worked on the ice cream cone. He smiled widely at her. 

     “Any suggestions, miss?” He strummed lightly on the strings with a sparkle in his mischievous blue eyes. 

          “Know any Goo-Goo Dolls?” She asked with a small smile. Vanilla ice cream dribbled down her chin as he chuckled. 

“Do I know any Goo-Goo Dolls, she says.” He shook his head lightly as he began to play ‘Slide’. She wiped away the ice cream and hummed quietly, but jumped as a small hand smacked her shoulder. 

          “Are you coming or what?” Ginny rolled her eyes as she tossed a few dollar bills into the player’s guitar case. 

“Hold on, he’s-” Hermione started as Ginny dragged her up the ramp to board the large ship. She gave a small wave as he yelled ‘Thanks!’. 

      “You’ve been missing the show, and when I say a show, I mean a SHOW . The guys that are doing the sword fighting are gorgeous! The things I would do to-” 

Hermione shoved Ginny lightly with tinged cheeks. “Shut up.” 

        “You say that now, Hermione.” Ginny wiggled her eyebrows as they moved through the crowd to the front of the group near the stage. Swords clanged and echoed across the ship as the crowd oohed and awed in response to the close calls the men seemed to have. 

        Hermione licked her ice cream nervously as she watched a young blonde slash at an older man. The older man laughed as the group clapped at their performance. The men bowed as the older man introduced themselves. “I am Sirius and this is my cousin Draco, who has been training with me these past few months. We will have another performance shortly after Draco plays a video demonstration and tells a few tales of the Pirates that ran these surrounding seas.” Sirius motioned to the waters that surrounded the large ship. He stepped to the side as Draco stepped forward. Hermione gasped lightly, which earned a smirk from Ginny and Lavender. Draco, the younger man, stripped his shirt and dabbed his face with a towel, melting each of the women in the crowd into a puddle. 

“Damn..” Ginny gave a low whistle as the surrounding women nodded in agreement. 

He was tall, especially from the stage. His skin was porcelain, pristine except for the large sword tattooed down his chest. Hermione bit her lip as her grip tightened around her ice cream cone. He was inhumanly beautiful, and the girls around her seemed to have the same thought. He ran a hand through his platinum blonde hair with a smirk as Sirius shook his head and handed him the microphone. 

“Here is a very cheesy demonstration, at least how they did it in Hollywood with actors like Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks.” He gave a cheshire grin to the crowd as he pressed play. Music played through the ship as a small projector screen lowered. 

Raise the flag of piracy, sing the song of victory
Glorious in battle are we
We've never known defeat, we never will retreat.
We live to hear the cannon roar,
And terror is our sempahore
Victoriously loathsome are we,
We rob the rich, the poor; then steal a little more.

Pirates ran across the ship as cannons roared on screen. Swords clashed between different groups of pirates.

Victory, we fight to win
Victory is ours again
We are the scourge of the land and sea
Beastly pirates are we.

Masters of the briny sea,
We'll go down in history.
Couragous men who live by the sword
We deal in treachery, the kings of lechery.
Raise the anchor, trim the sail
We raid tonight if winds prevail
Invincible we fight to the end
United to a man, we need no battle plan.

Victory, we fight to win
Victory is ours again
We are the scourge of the land and sea
Beastly pirates are we.

It's so pitable a sight, to see them walk the plank
They squirm and cry for mercy regardless of their rank.

Victory, we fight to win
Victory is ours again
We are the scourge of the land and sea
Beastly pirates are we.

Victory

He pressed stop with a chuckle as the group gave a slow clap. “I wasn’t lying when I said it was cheesy. Now, LADIES.” He paused as all the women seemed to gulp in anticipation. “Ladies, Ladies. Who dares to learn the art of swordsmanship. Lunge and Parry, in and out, huh?” 

Ginny and Lavender smiled at each other and nodded as Ginny gripped Hermione’s arm into the air. “She’ll do it!” 

“Wha-no, I’m good really.” Hermione protested as Draco grabbed her other arm – the one that held the leftover ice cream. 

“Great, here you are. Let’s get you up here.” As he hoisted her onto the stage, the cone fell to the floor. The crowd awed as he apologized. “Ah, I’m sorry.” 

As she corrected her stance, Draco folded his arms across his chest as he checked her out. “Not bad, I suppose, You’ll have to do. What’s your name?” 

Hermione glared as her friends yelled, “Hermione!” She glared harder at them. 

“Hermione, hmm?” He said, almost to himself as he grabbed two wooden swords. He passed her one as he directed her into a proper stance. He pointed towards his legs and how he held the play sword. “Alright, Hermione, get your stick up. Here you go, right?” 

 She swung harshly at him, still annoyed at how he had dismissed her looks previously. Draco’s eyebrows shot up, and held in a laugh. “Ole.” she muttered under her breath.

“Atta girl,” He paused as he stepped behind her to adjust her hand placement. “Yes, right there. Put both hands around.” 

Her friends giggled as she glared in their direction. Dirty minded ass- ”Two legs together, and it’s touché,” His hands slightly glided over her own. “Meaning touch.”

The crowd oohed as her cheeks burned in response. He stepped away suddenly and looked at the crowd. “Now, less than a hundred years ago, pirates used to really operate around here. Raping and pillaging,” 

They made eye contact as she whispered, “God I’d hate to be pillaged.”

He smirked at her as he said, “Killing! Note the footwork.” He stepped in a beautiful design as he said, “Face so, lunge so, and point penetrates you.” The wooden sword hovered over her heart. She exhaled deeply as he set down the sword and clapped. “Give her a hand, girls. Give her a hand.”

He jumped down from the stage as the crowd clapped for her. “Way to go, let’s get you down here.” He held her under her armpits as he lifted her down off of the main stage. He set her down lightly, as her friends began to crowd around them. He stepped to the side as he watched the gaggle of teen girls swarm her. Sirius placed his hand lightly on Draco’s shoulder with a smirk. 

“Are you going to invite her to your private boat, Draco? Or do I need to do that for you?” Sirius smirked as he checked out the many women that surrounded them. Many glanced his way as he rolled up the sleeves of his white linen shirt. He had often wondered what was so enticing to women when men rolled their sleeves, but regardless of not understanding, he did it often. 

Draco rolled his eyes at his older cousin as he stepped forward. A small gap was made as each woman stepped aside as he made his way down the ship where Hermione had walked to. “Hey, Harriett-” 

 She held up her hand, which stopped him in his tracks. “Hermione, got it?” He nodded as she slowly lowered her hand. 

He ran his hand down the back of his neck, “Listen, Hermione. I’m taking my boat later to Pirate Rock to do a bit of skin diving, and possibly some treasure hunting if you’d like to join?” 

          “Me?” Her eyebrows rose as her friends whispered around her. “You’re joking?”

He shook his head with a chuckle as he laid his arm across her shoulders and guided her down the boardwalk.”No, listen, I’ve got a great boat, bunks and everything. Oh hey, why don’t you bring a few of your friends along. It’s going to be great fun.” 

         Hermione sighed as she looked around at the eager group of teen girls. They all nodded, aggressively at her. “Alright, what time sounds good?” 

An hour passed after his last show as Draco boarded his ship. The group of girls slowly trickled onto the boat, without Hermione. “You too?” He said as a short blonde haired girl climbed aboard. “All of you?” He glanced around at the growing number of women that surrounded him on the small boat. His eyes searched for the crazy haired brunette aboard. “Where’s Hermione?”

      “Quick, here she comes!” Pansy chuckled as she slipped behind the steering wheel.”Hey, stop that!” He yelled at her, but paused in his steps as he could see Hermione running towards them from a distance. 

     Hermione ran down the dock, McDonald’s in tow as she rushed to the boat at the end of the pier. “Finally! What took you so long? I thought you weren’t coming.” Draco asked as she shoved the food into his hands. He stumbled back into the boat as one of the girls untied the knots to the pier and another started the engine. The boat separated too far from the dock before Hermione could board. “Hey, what’s going on?”

     Pansy yelled, “Better luck next time!” 

“You guys! Wait!” Hermione yelled as she ran down the edge of the dock. 

      Daphne yelled, “Yeah, go read your books!” 

Another yelled, “Bye.” as they grabbed hold of Draco.

      Hermione paused on the ending of the dock as she watched the boat float away in the water. Her eyes drift down the shoreline as she sees a large sign, “Boats For Rent”. 

I shouldn’t. Don’t be ridiculous. She said to herself, but couldn’t help the deep sigh that left her chest as she watched his blonde hair fade from view. I’m not that much of a dumbass. But surely it’s not that hard to steer a small sailboat, truly. Her feet slowly brought her to the small storefront. She could still see the boat in the distance on the shoreline. She could catch up, right? Join her actual friends in the water.  The water was rougher than she expected, though it was what she deserved considering she could only afford to rent a small–what she would call a dingy. Though they advertised it as a “sail boat”. Sure. She supposed it could be used for that – attached to a much larger boat.

      She could hear their laughter as she slowly got closer. “Hey, you guy’s, it’s me. Hermione!”  The water crashed around her as she stood to man the small sails. The boat rocked back and forth at the motion. She stepped slightly to the left on some rope, and lost her balance. The waves crashed around her body as she fell into the cold waters.