Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Graduation is in less than a week and James Potter feels like the least accomplished boy to ever exist.

The past four years of his life had been filled with endless work to get only a penny for a reward. All those days spent pouring over his textbooks with the tutor his parents tried so hard to get him, only to come out with a B- at best. Exhausting rugby practices after school only to get injured and have to sit out for a week. And, of course, the endless time pining over people he simply couldn't have.

James had applied to so many schools, only getting into the community college twenty minutes from his house with an undeclared major to go along with it.

The boy just needs to catch a fucking break.

And, as any sad boy would, that break comes to him in drinking his 18-year old sorrows away with whatever his mum and dad left unattended.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter aren’t home, so this should be rather simple. James does what he always does on nights like this; he grabs the poorly hidden key to the liquor cabinet in his mother’s wooden vanity, unlocks the cabinet filled with beautifully crafted glass bottles of many colors, and rummages around to see what his parents might have forgotten they had.

After about 5 minutes of going through expensive whiskey his parents would definitely notice was gone, James catches a glimpse of a small bottle of orange liquid. It sparkled, almost as if edible glitter has been added to it - truly a gorgeous drink. The label has mostly been rubbed off, but from what he can see, it's called ‘C~~l ~~ T~~ ~ea.’ James decides it's called ‘Culty’ and takes a small sip.

James immediately wants to wash his mouth out, like a mother does to her child who cursed once. “Oh my god, that tastes absolutely vile,” James croaks to himself, “It tastes like someone mixed vodka, seaweed and soy sauce to create the nastiest drink ever.” James immediately runs to the sink to wash his mouth out with as much soap as possible.

After he finishes using the soap, he decides to drink a bit of milk. “That ought to do it,” he mutters. Walking to his room, James begins to get quite drowsy; he chalks it up to the drink being too strong. He simply decides he should go to bed, considering he has work the next afternoon.

James sleeps like a bear in hibernation that night. Little did he know that would be his last night in his home for a long, long time.

Chapter Text

The first thing James hears is water. A lot of water. And birds? These aren't the usual birds he gets in England, though. These birds squawk, not chirp. As James slowly opens his eyes, he is immediately blinded by the sun, and he can only see blue. As he adjusts to the light of the sun, James realizes that this is not his room. It looks like a beach. Yep, he thinks after further inspection, definitely a beach. “HOLY SHIT!” James yells, and the fact that he has no idea where he is finally hits him. He scrambles to get up and decides it’s best to walk around and try to find people.

As he walks, James ponders what could have landed him in this specific predicament. Was this a cruel prank one of his former classmates played on him?

In primary school, James had a particular knack for pranks. He adored a good prank and still adores them to this day. In Year 8, James played this amazing prank with his mates involving setting back all the clocks in the school by just a few minutes a day. He didn't know how they had managed to do it. Although it was a small building, there was at least one clock in every room. It took them all a good hour and a half after school each day to get it done, even with the four of them. The prank caused so much chaos in that school. Every class came out of their rooms at different times. The times that school started and ended were wrong, too! It was truly brilliant, and it was the most fun he’d had at school.

Deciding to quit reminiscing, James thinks about who could have done this to him. Avery wasn't smart enough, Bones could barely lift a chair, let alone a rugby player, and his old friend Grant didn’t speak to him anymore, let alone put this much effort into pranking James.

He’s quickly drawn from his thoughts by the sound of yelling. He thinks it could be whoever got him here, so he runs to the noise as fast as possible. As he hurriedly makes his way, he only hears more voices, which should be a good sign, but it's not just one or two more people; it sounds more like a village of some sort.

About 5 minutes later, James finally sees the chatter he's been listening to after climbing over a hill. It’s a very small town, and James can see almost all of it simply by being on the hill.

The first thing he notices is that it doesn't look like a modern town. It's very run down; the homes and businesses are primarily made of wood, the roads from dirt rather than concrete, and... Hold on a second, James thinks, why are all of these people dressed like they’re at some Renaissance fair? All of the men in the strange town seem to be dressed in leather boots, cotton clothes, and outerwear from animal hide. The women were dressed in skirts and corsets.

James starts to wonder if he had a concussion, because nobody dresses like that unless it's a costume of some sort. He immediately feels out of place, giving his own T-shirt and sweatpants an ashamed glance.

He simply begins to wonder if this is a mirage of some sort. He doesn't really know how mirages work, but he figures it must be this. After deciding on what to do next, James simply walks towards the mysterious town, assuming it’d be gone by the time he gets too close - that’s how mirages work, right? But it doesn't, no matter how long James can approach it. He's at the very edge of the town by the time he realizes it's really there in front of him.

Terrified, he rushes into the trees to figure out what to do.

“Okay,” he whispers to himself, “you have no idea where you are, you have no idea how you got here, and you certainly can't blend in with the crowd to figure it out.” James begins to pace back and forth, desperately trying to come up with a solution. “Alright, James, what are you going to do? I suppose you could walk in and ask around, but you don't know how friendly these people are. You could run away back to where you got here and look for clues, but it was a fucking beach; if there were any clues, you would have seen one.”

James continues his helpless search for a solution, but before he can come up with one, his train of thought is interrupted by a sudden, “What the hell are you wearing?”

James lets out a rather pathetic shriek as he whips around to see who crept up on him. “I don't know, what the hell are you wearing?” James shoots back, still very shaken. His startler lets out a chuckle at James, seemingly amused by his discomfort.

“Clothes,” she says, gesturing to her trousers, shirt, vest, and boots. “These are good, practical clothes. What you are wearing is certainly clothes, but they don't look very practical,” she says.

“I'll have you know that where I'm from, these are considered very practical,” he retorts.

“And where exactly is it that you are from?” she asks.

“England,” James quips.

“What the fuck is an England?” replies the strange woman. Okay, James thinks, she has to be playing a role here. Perhaps she's an actress?

She certainly has the looks to be an actress. She has this gorgeous, thick curly hair that reached about the end of her ribcage when in a braid and the most stunning gray eyes. She was gorgeous. “I’m so sorry,” he starts, “I might have recently suffered a very bad head injury and… I might be going crazy. Did you just ask me, “What the fuck is an England?”” he asks, using his fingers to quote the air.

“Yes, I did,” says the woman, “so I doubt you have suffered anything serious.”

James is so exasperated that he can only say, “So what is your name?”

“What's yours?” she retorts, equally annoyed with him.

“No, no, no, no, no,” James states, “you cannot just sneak up on me, scare me half to death, make rude comments on my sense of style, and expect me to give you my name before I know yours.”

A beat passed before the woman shrugs. “Fair enough,” she says. “My name... Is ’Nobody’.”

“…your name is not nobody.”

“My name is not what?” Asks ‘Nobody’.

“NOBODY!” James yells.

“Yes?” ’Nobody’ replies.

“Okay, okay, if I tell you my real name, will you tell me yours?” James inquires.

“No promises,” replies ‘Nobody’.

“But… please?” he asks, his voice verging on begging. ‘Nobody’ gives him a look, as though he were something pathetic.

“My name is James, okay?” he says. ‘Nobody‘ smirks at his name; he didn’t know why, but it looked very mischievous. Then, she begins to speak.

“Well, since you were kind enough to give me your name, I suppose I'll give you mine.”

“Thank Christ,” James mutters.

“Who’s Christ? Is he a friend of yours?” ‘Nobody‘ teases, her desperate attempt to change the conversation topic. James practically had smoke coming out of his ears at this point.

“Okay,” he huffs, “just tell me your name and I'll-!” Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a loud, “SIRIUS! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

James knows that voice. It was the loudest one in the village, the first one he heard.

“Here, of course,” replies the woman who James assumes was actually named Sirius. James turns towards this new person who’s pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

“I just can't with you right now,” the guy replies. The man stopped in his tracks, looking James up and down. “What the hell are you wearing?” he comments.

“You never did tell me what you’re wearing,” Sirius adds.

“I don't know, sweats?” James says. “You guys are the weird ones looking like you're at a Ren-Faire, okay? I'm not that crazy looking.”

A long beat of silence passed between them, before the new guy leaned into Sirius, muttering, “Is he okay?”

“I don't know, Remus. He mentioned hitting his head earlier.”

Chapter Text

James feels slightly unwell.

Maybe he’s hungover, or perhaps it’s the fact that this man he’s never met, with some pretty gnarly (if not intimidating) scars on his face and hands, is rapid-firing questions at him as if he were an EMT.

“So, what’s your name?” Asks the man.

“His name is James,” Sirius replies, interrupting James.

“The lady is correct,” James adds, “what's your name, sir?”

“My name is Remus,” he says. “Do you know how you got here, James?”

James deliberates whether or not he should be answering any of Remus’ questions. Although… he does seem to care. The man has this look in his eyes, the kind that a parent calming down a kid who has scraped their knee would have. James figures it’s likely in his best interest to trust him, since he hasn’t really got any other options.

“No,” he answers honestly, “I think somebody’s pranked me. I have no idea where I am right now.”

“Okay, and where are you from?”

“England.”

“What the fuck is an England?”

“That’s what I said!” Sirius exclaims, interrupting suddenly.

“Okay… well, since neither of you know what England is, you might as well tell me where I am,” James spits, his rage more directed towards Sirius.

“Well, James, we are in Ravens right now,” Remus replies.

“Fabulous,” James says, satisfied, then pauses for a moment. “Wait… what the hell is that?”

Remus pinches the bridge of his nose with great irritation. After taking a very deep breath (and seemingly counting to ten in his head), Remus asks, “James, can you tell me what you remember from before you got here?”

James nods, replaying the moments before he woke up in his head. “Well, I was feeling very sad, so I snuck into my parents' liquor cabinet.” Sirius let out a chuckle. “It wasn't my proudest moment, alright?” James defends. “Anyway, I drank this orange liquor I found in the ba–”

“Wait, wait - back the fuck up,” Remus interrupts, holding up his hands. “Did you say orange liquor?”

“Yeah…?” James confirms, confused.

“Did it have a label on it or writing of some sort?”

“Yes, it did, but it was rubbed off or something.”

Remus and Sirius look at each other - Remus looking concerned, Sirius confused.

“Okay, you’re gonna have to meet Lily,” Remus tells James, his tone more matter-of-fact.

“Cool,” says James. “Who’s Lily?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As he is being taken to see Lily, James gets a better look at the town. It's not just his new companions; everyone here looks at him like some sort of specimen. Well, they're mostly looking at his clothes. They tilt their heads in confusion, and several children point their fingers at him.

“Why did we have to take the main road, again?” James asks, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment as people gawk and stare.

“Because it's faster,” says Remus.

“Because it's funnier,” snickers Sirius.

As they approach the other end of the town, James finally sees where Remus and Sirius are taking him: a ship. A massive ship, the biggest he's ever seen, although he hasn't seen many ships in his life. It's beautiful, really. Large white sails tied to high masts, a very long deck - not to mention how clean it looks.

When they all get to the dock, James hears a tap every now and again in a steady rhythm. Looking down, James notices that Remus has a peg leg. James straight-up didn't notice; he thought Remus’ limp was just a pirate thing.

When they all get onto the ship, the mood changes. The entire crew slows down, first acknowledging Remus and Sirius, after which they immediately look at James. James fidgets with the strings of his sweatpants in a desperate attempt to ignore what feels like billions of eyes on him. James follows Remus towards the head of the ship, quickly - and rather meekly - scanning the ship to see everyone. After seeing two very large redheads, a short woman with the biggest glasses he's ever seen and a set of blond twins next to a man with green hair, his eyes land on a boy.

He has dark curly hair that is cut short, a rather lean face and the most gorgeous green eyes he's ever seen. Beautiful, he thinks, completely entranced by those eyes. After a few moments of staring at this mystery boy, James realizes he has stopped walking altogether in his trance. He promptly runs to Remus hastily, nearly knocking him over.

“There you are,” says Remus. “James, this is Lily, our captain.”

Remus gestures to the woman in front of him. She's wearing a large pirate hat, and looks intimidating, almost as if she would kill you without a second thought.

“Nice to meet you, James,” Lily says with a kind smile spread across her face - which startled him, considering how she came off. “My name is Lily Evans, I'm the captain of The Portkey.”

She extends her hand, and James accepts it; she shakes it firmly. He imagines that her handshake must be the kind his dad always said was respectable: firm, but not aggressive. “Nice to meet you too,” replies James, wearing a polite smile of his own.

“Remus tells me you got here through rather mysterious circumstances,” she starts, “could you tell me what they were?”

James relays the same story he told Remus and Sirius. He leaves out how he only wanted a drink because he was sad, and Sirius gives him a smirk to make fun of him for it. When he gets to the orange liquor, he notices Remus giving Lily a look. Lily nods in acknowledgement before returning her attention to James for the rest of his story. When he finishes, she lets out a sigh, a hand going up to her chin as she thought.

“Now, seeing as you're saying you’re from a place we don't think exists, you don't know where you are, and you keep talking nonsense, you ought to stay with our crew,” Lily says. “I’ve been looking for a new cabin boy anyway; Reg seems to be getting incredibly bored with the job.”

“What does a cabin boy even do?” James asks, confusion at the job title evident in his face.

“You would be running errands and cleaning, but you would mostly be helping Pete in the kitchen.”

“Great!” James exclaims happily, “My mum always said I'm a decent cook.” Thank goodness he’d been assigned something he was already good at.

“No, James,” Lily replied, interrupting his inward party. “By that, I meant you‘ll be cleaning up the kitchen. Peter likes his space when he's cooking; he threatens us whenever we offer to help.”

“Oh…” mutters James, deflating, his eyes dropping to the deck below them in disappointment.

“Well,” Lily says, clapping her hands once firmly. “Let's get everyone introduced to you, shall we? Mary, can you tell everyone to get up to the deck?” She asks of a woman with the most terrifying glare he's ever seen. The woman takes the order, nodding and walking out of sight. “Now, while she's getting everyone, I'm gonna grab you some old clothes. I hadn't said it before for fear of upsetting you after such a scary day, but you look absolutely ridiculous and the others will not take you seriously wearing that.”

“Lovely!” Sirius exclaims, coming to clap him on the back once. “Don’t worry, Jamie, everyone’s gonna love you,” Sirius finishes, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

He hopes, regardless of whether or not it was sarcasm, that she’s right.

Chapter Text

After getting into some old clothes Lily found for him, James feels considerably more comfortable, like he blends in more. However, he’s by no means comfortable in the physical sense; his pants are too big for his waist, and his shirt is so small he can barely breathe.

“You’ll get used to it,” Lily assures James as he changes into the clothes, sensing his discomfort. “You can't be picky when you're a pirate.”

James stumbles out of the Captain’s Quarters to see a large group of pirates all gathered in a circle: some he recognizes from when he first arrived on the ship, some he’d never seen before. They’re all circling Remus, and snippets from their millions of questions - seemingly about him - catch up to him as he nears closer.

“So… you’re trying to tell us that Sirius met this schmuck a mere hour ago and he's… just joining the crew?” Says a man, James thinks, could easily be one of the punk kids at his school. Green hair, scary piercings and all.

“Oh, thank god you're here,” Remus breathes gratefully, clearly overwhelmed by all the attention.

“Hello,” James says, waving sheepishly to the crowd.

The crew simply looks at him for a few seconds, some faces scrunching and some eyes narrowing, as if scanning him for ill intentions.

“Everyone, this is James,” Lily introduces. a hand coming down on James' shoulder, “he's going to be our cabin boy for the foreseeable future.”

“What's baby Black gonna do then?” A blonde woman asks, stepping out of the crowd with her arms crossed.

“Regulus is going to be showing James what to do; after that, he and I will discuss other duties,” Lily answers matter-of-factly. The blonde woman, seemingly satisfied with the answer, steps back into the crowd.

“James, that is Marlene,” Lily gestures to the woman. “She is our boatswain.”

“Cool. Nice to meet you, Marlene. Er - what's a boatswain?” James asks.

“I do sails, anchors and shit,” Marlene replies, a proud smile finding its way onto her face as she speaks.

James nods with a face that says, ‘Yeah, that makes sense.’

“I don't know about him, Captain,” says a man with dreadlocks, his brows furrowing with uncertainty. “Should he really be here if he doesn't even know what a boatswain does..?”

“He’s told me he's a fast learner,” Lily holds James up to the crew, squeezing his cheeks together to make James look like a fish. “He looks earnest enough, right?”

“What she said,” James says, words muffled by the unfortunate position of his face.

A shorter man with a round face chuckles. “Okay, now I’m convinced,” he says, grinning at James. “How could you deny such a pretty face?”

“Thank you, Wormtail,” says Lily as she drops James' face to its usual position.

As Lily continues to answer the crew's many questions, James can finally get a proper look at everyone. As he looks around, he notes that most of these pirates appear intimidating, as pirates often do. A set of massive redheaded twins that James reckons could easily snap him in half catch his eye. They both have strong builds and towering height; one has long hair tied into a low ponytail, and the other wears an eyepatch. They’re both grinning at James, muttering to each other, chuckling, which suddenly made him feel rather self-conscious. A woman stands, with a long face and a jawline that could cut glass; she's holding the handle of her sword in a way that looks somewhat relaxed, but her eyes stay diligently trained on James. She squints at him, almost as if she were planning the best time to run that very sword through his throat. The mere thought of it made his palms sweat.

Then he spots the woman who sat in on James' conversation with Lily. Mary, James recalls, looking at her. She fixes James with the sharpest stare, and by god, it is terrifying. Somehow more terrifying than the woman, quite literally, wielding a sword. This woman is the first image that pops into his mind at the word ‘pirate’. She’s wearing a dark brown coat that matches her boots perfectly. Actually, all of her clothes seem to fit shockingly well. If James didn't know any better, he would think Mary was the captain. She holds herself like a statue; her hands crossed in front of her chest, barely moving. The only change he notices in her movement is her breathing.

James sees a pretentious-looking blond standing next to a black man. The blond dramatically gestures to his friend, hands flailing as he speaks; he looks like he’s complaining about something. The friend in question seems very annoyed, rolling his eyes every few seconds. Next to them is someone James thinks looks much more like a witch than a pirate. She has blonde curly hair and is wearing flowy clothing that he’s sure is not suited for combat. Though the most noticeable feature of hers is her comically large glasses. They are at least 8 centimetres in diameter, making her eyes appear massive. On both sides of the frames are two extra lenses that can be flipped down, almost like ones that jewellers and such used to wear. She is standing with a much larger group, including the punk and the man who questioned James' capabilities, along with two other women, one of whom looks like a mermaid with legs. The legged mermaid sways back and forth while she listens to Lily, as if she were in her own world. Her blonde braids follow her swaying movements, giving the effect that she's in water, which sells the whole mermaid idea even further.

The next person he sees is barely looking at Lily, instead looking at someone else from across the deck with so much hate that her eyes appear completely black. James curiously follows her eyeline to see who she is looking at, and his eyes land on Marlene. The blonde looks significantly less confident than she was when she spoke to James, clearly having noticed the other woman’s vindictive stare.

After observing the two women for some time, James' eyes land on the boy next to the woman staring at Marlene. It's the same boy who stopped James dead in his tracks when he first boarded the portkey. He has eyes that make you feel as though he already knows how much you’re worth; lingering, inspecting for just a bit too long before slowly moving away. He is resting his head on his friend, the one still very much staring daggers at Marlene. He seems apathetic, almost like he’s counting down the minutes until he can go back to whatever he was already doing. Now that he’s actually getting a good look at him, James realizes that this guy could very well be a total prick, with how he doesn’t seem to care what his captain has to say.

James doesn't think much of it; he doubts he will have to talk to him much. According to Lily, he's only really going to be interacting with the cook. And, although he has no idea who this cook is, he does know that he's generally good with people.

This should be a no-brainer.