Quarrels & Loves

a trade of games

Summary: On Hermione's 21st birthday―while her husband is away―the Crown of England burns their ship to the ground and steals her away. It's a shame they were unsuccessful at killing her entire crew. It would have been easier for them.

A Pirate AU; not Ron-friendly

When Hermione was fourteen, she dreamed of adventures unlike any other: of pirates and warships, of freedom and the open seas. Instead, she was shuffled from one governess to the next and from etiquette classes to dance lessons.

When Hermione was sixteen, she left the palace for good, accompanied only by the son of the Captain of the Guard in the dead of night. By morning, they'd stowed away on a ship and thus began what would soon become their most exhilarating journey yet.

When Hermione was nineteen, she married the love of her life in the middle of a bar fight in a city she couldn't remember the name of. He kissed her breathless and they stole a ship right out of the harbor, laughing together and taking their own crew to help them sail the seas. She hadn't once thought to look back.

On the night that Hermione turned twenty-one, she was stolen away from everything she had come to care for and their ship was sunk to the bottom of the port. Or so she was told.

"I can't believe you," she hissed, staring at a long-familiar face. It had been years since she'd seen him and yet, he looked exactly how she imagined he would. "They were innocent in this."

"Innocent?" Ron scoffed. "They're pirates, Hermione! They deserved their fate."

"No one deserves that," she snarled. She stepped towards him only to be stopped abruptly. Two guards, one on either side of her with swords as long as her arm.

"Pirates do," Ron said just as bitterly.

He'd sunk her ship, burned it and her crew until it sunk to the bottom of the port floor. So sudden, so unexpected was the attack that Hermione was terrified no one had survived. Ron had taken the chance to quickly assure her that such was the case and she would never forgive him for it.

"Burn me with them, then," she demanded. "I was their captain."

"Co-captain, so I'm told."

Hermione saw red, but before she could draw blood from his nose or steal a guard's sword for her own, arms locked around her and chains clicked in place around her wrists.

"I'm to escort you back to the palace," Ron told her, pulling himself to his feet. "The king has so missed his daughter and I'm sure that for bringing her back, I'll be gifted a hefty reward."

Hermione scowled, tugging at the chains around her wrists when Ron added, "Perhaps I'll even ask for her hand in marriage."

"I'm already married," she snarled fiercely.

"Were," Ron corrected smoothly. With a flick of his wrist, he directed the guards, "Take her to her chambers."

Thrashing and snarling still, Hermione was pulled out of the captain's quarters and directed to a small cabin across the deck. Shortly after depositing her inside, the guards slipped out and locked the door behind her, leaving Hermione to fume in privacy.

* * * * *

When Draco was fourteen, he followed in his father's footsteps, step for step. He admired him in everything he did and turned a blind eye to the things that his mother warned him not to mimic. Instead of attending school, he joined his father in the stable yard and trained with the soldiers, befriending the princess long before he even knew who she was.