Welcome to the revised version of Cutlass. I'm aiming to make this one even bigger and better than it's predecessor. So avast ye scallywags and read on.
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Cutlass.
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Prologue.
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Miss Alexia Potter sighed and flicked through the pages of Proper Etiquette in Magical Society. The book was infuriatingly dull. It didn't even have any pictures! Alexia thought the best part about being in a world of magic was that the pictures moved.
What was the point in having a book about magical society and not having moving pictures she asked herself? Nothing, of course was the answer. It only served to make her study more tedious than it already was.
The almost eleven-year old miss thought it incredibly unfair that her elder brother was given exciting books about changing desks into swine's and mixing potions that could blow out the brains of one's foe while she was stuck with books on manners.
If only she had been born male; she would be going to school for one thing, instead of being homeschooled on the Potter estate-turned-gaol until it was time for her elder brother, as befitting his status as Lord Potter following their father's untimely demise, to choose her a fitting spouse.
Alexia scowled at her study material in a way that would have her scolded in an instant should her mother see her. Pushing the book away from her in disgust she stood in such a hurry that one of her petticoats ripped.
Alexia looked down in horror; if her mother didn't rebuke her for being so careless, the mud dirtying her periwinkle skirt would do the trick. She would remark that proper ladies did not sit on the muddy ground to do their study, especially without a parasol to protect their delicate skin!
They would learn their books they same way they did everything; trapped inside like beautiful birds in a cage. Since Alexia was a 'proper lady' and thus could not possibly be entrusted with the knowledge of useful skills like those to repair tears and remove stains, she could not remove the evidence of her debauchery.
It simply was not fair! She stomped her foot and splattered mud on the soft silk of her slippers.
Oh dear, not even house elves magic could get muck out of silk. They were ruined.
A smile spread over her face and she giggled to herself.
Ruined!
Alexia kicked off her ruined slippers and tossed them away near her discarded book. The mud felt good squelching between her toes.
"Alexandria Rose Potter!" Alexia jolted as the sonorous-enhanced voice of Dorea Potter called over the grounds of Potter Manor. "I hope that when I enter your room I will find you studying and not disobediently playing outside!"
Alexia looked down at her muddy feet and dirty robes in shame. This would earn her a stinging hex on her backside at the very least and her freedom would be reduced to nothing. But then again, Alexia thought with a decidedly unladylike smirk on her lips, mother couldn't punish her if she couldn't find her.
She hitched up her skirts and set off running across the field towards the apple orchid on the far side where James and his friends enjoyed playing games of Quiddich on their summer breaks. If she could get to the shelter of the trees her escape was half-completed.
She put on a burst of speed...almost there...hurrah!
Her skirt caught and tore against one of the trees but Alexia giggled it off and kept going. There it was! The large white oak that guarded one of the few hidden pathways out of the Potter grounds.
This one was created by her clever brother and honorary brothers and used on many occasions to escape the clutches of the Potter parents and live free. Of course that was before James decided to buckle down and take his responsibilities seriously. Around the time of their father's death nearly two years before.
Alexia paused in front of the tree, breathing heavily; she wasn't very good at running, having so little opportunity to practise.
She quickly located the large knot on the tree's massive trunk and pressed her small hand against it like James had taught her five summers ago. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." She informed the tree. It accepted her declaration and the knot sunk into the tree, the hollow it made getting larger and deeper until an arch way stood within the tree.
On the other side Alexia could see the ocean stretching before her like a never-ending road of blue, ready to take her to wherever her heart's content.
"ALEXIA!!!" Alexia frowned; her mother's voice sounded fearful now.
"Oh pooh to you mother." She muttered to herself, deciding that her mother fear was totally misplaced.
She quickly hopped through the archway less her mother's paranoia cause her to lock the wards and trap Alexia within Potter manor again. She skipped down the goat trail leading to the beach. The golden grains of sand stuck to the mud on her bare feet; it looked like she was now wearing slippers of gold.
Alexia admired how her sand slippers glittered in the sun before she washed them off in the surf. She stood with the cold sea wetting the bottoms of her robes and tilted her head towards the beautiful clear sky; almost the same blue as her eyes. Mother always said her eyes were the exact shade of Lapis Lazuli.
Her mother's fear played on her mind as she looked towards the horizon where black sails pierced the skyline.
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..:: Cutlass ::..
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Lord James Harold Potter would never in any regard consider himself a coward.
Quite to the contrary; whilst he was ten years old he climbed the tallest tree in the extensive Potter estate to rescue his younger sister Alexia's new kitten. The feline itself was black and true to the superstitious mutterings of the young master Potter's butler who stood underneath the tree with wand outstretched ready to catch the boy if he fell, that particular colouring of felines was indeed bad luck.
The butler, so engrossed in his reluctance in being involved, declined to see James miss his footing and fall. This, the neglectful man had to admit to Lady Potter in his explanation to how her precious child broke his arm and knocked himself unconscious for three days while the cat climbed down safely.
In James' young opinion, once he regained consciousness of course, the whole shenanigan was worth it just to see the smile back on his four year old sister's face.
A whole library of books could be filled with similar adventures of the rascally Potter child, all exampling his courage and rightfully defending his place in the golden house at Hogwarts School of Wizardry.
But it was at this fine institute of magical education, while finishing his final term, proud head boy status noted, that Master Potter, now taking the position of Lord Potter, learnt of his sister's absence in the house of Potter and later of her subsequent kidnapping onto the notorious French pirate ship; Le Bijou d'Océan.
Perhaps one of the most feared vessels to roam the English Channel, Le Bijou d'Océan was a ship shrouded in mystery. No history book could boast more than a few lines about the elusive craft.
There were only three known facts about her; her name, her piratical class, and perhaps the most curious; that each and every recorded time the ship was spotted a female, usually a young lass, was reported missing.
It was unknown just what kind of creature it was that ran a ship of such ill repute. Many a man had shuddered to think of the demonic spirits upon the vessel hungry for virginal blood. This belief spurned the brief practise of deflowering young maidens of any and all ages with the bulk focusing on those barely out of the nursery.
It soon became apparent, however that the demons of Le Bijou d'Océan weren't partial in their sacrifice pickings and the practise was quickly abandoned, leaving behind scores of marriage-ruined girls and disappointed future husbands.
Whenever the billowing black sails with the familiar rainbow Jolly Roger was viewed upon the horizon, wives, daughters and sisters were locked up and guarded with fierce abandon but to no avail; when the boat retreated there was one less girl.
Countless attempts by men to brave the legends and track the ship and return the stolen girls, should they still be living, proved fruitless.
That was, until the canny Lord Potter and his marauding cohorts took the matter to a more personal level. Lord Black and Lord Lupin shared the same outrage as their fellow Lord over the matter; Alexia Potter being perhaps the closest thing to a sister each had. Master Pettigrew, having three sisters of his own and an acute fear of women, did not feel the same loss but was undeniably angered even so.
Pooling their immense fortunes together, the Lords three gathered their wits about them and set off; studying each and every piece of literature available on the subject of Le Bijou d'Océan and interviewing each and any person who happened to ever spot the vessel.
But it was the Lord Black who had the unquestionably clever idea of cross-referencing the known routes taken by the demon-pirates. Upon doing so, Lord Lupin noted that several of the suspected courses crossed paths over a small area of water off the French-Spanish coast within the Mediterranean Sea.
Sightings revealed that the ship seemed bound for this area after each raid and was not seem for long periods afterwards. Lupin could only summarise that in this small undistinguishable area of ocean hosted a secret. An isle of an unplottable nature; he explained to his fellow Lords; the island of secrets is where they ought to be.
So now, six years after Alexia's abduction by the unholy fiends of Le Bijou D'Océan, James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin; now three gents of twenty-three years with reputed rakishness and individual good looks, set off for the area-of-sea-that-wasn't in hopes of finding and retrieving their long lost sister.
The lupine Lord Lupin's insightful instincts were indeed correct and the three noble's found themselves landed on a small but beautiful island with white sandy beaches, a sprinkling of palm's and a large black vessel docked in a half-hidden rocky cavern.
Good will prevailed within the stowaways-to-be and they helped themselves to the meagre offering of magical fruit the trees presented them as they waited for the cover of darkness. Night fell and the three, now bloated with Abyssinian gooseberries, banana passion-fruit, African plums, pomegranates, pineapples and durian (In fact, Remus correctly deducted that the island must be magical for most if not all of the fruits grew in completely different climates than this) cast all manner of silencing and notice-me-not charms and snuck aboard the dormant ship.
The plan appeared to be working flawlessly until Lord Black had a much untimely itch in his nose. He twitched it one, twice...and sneezed. Before one could utter the word 'Quiddich', the three trespassers were privy to a flash of red before all went black.
They awoke a number of hours later, tied to the mast and thus the story begins...
And thus begins the rewrite of Cutlass. The previous version was lacking, in grammar, bulk and plot. Hopefully this one will eclipse it in quality; it will be a better read as well. I'm reviewing the characters to make them more realistic and adding some plot ideas I couldn't fit in the previous one. So old fans; review and tell me your comparisons, new fans; review and tell me what you think.
Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate, after all.
Love Queen Cocaine
xoxo