The Green Siren

Chapter 01

Draco wouldn't consider himself a hateful person. He said his prayers daily, lacked in enemies, and couldn't honestly say that he wished death upon a man. Blood thirst and corporal punishment were subjects he tended to shy away from, to the commodore's displeasure and his mother's delight.

Looking upon the gallows, from his position in the shade beside his father, he couldn't understand why men and women made it a habit to observe such horrific happenings. Watching one hang by his neck in such a lovely square sickened Draco. Despite the crimes committed, death was an intimate affair and it felt wrong to deliver it before a crowd in such a humiliating position, even if the miscreant didn't grant that choice to another.

"Ronald Weasley, be it known that you have for your willful commission of crimes against the crown. Said crimes being numerous in quantity and containing acts of or relating to piracy..."

Tuning out the man reading off of a scroll, Draco's eyes locked onto the man being led up to the gallows. His hair was limp, hanging down to his shoulders, and a fiery red almost as vibrant as the uniforms some of the soldiers wore. Despite the intimidating drumroll and the stating of his crimes, his blue eyes met those of anyone who dared hold his gaze. Draco felt his stomach flop and his chest tighten when they locked with his gray eyes and after only a moment, he glanced down at his hands.

"... for conspiring with known enemy to the crown, convict, and pirate, Harry James Potter..."

Draco's eyes widened and he looked up at the red-haired man again. He was part of Captain Harry Potter's crew? His mouth went dry and he gulped—this man, Ronald Weasley, somehow seemed much more dangerous than he had before.

He chanced a look at his mother and father and wondered how they could look on with such stony expressions on their faces. Draco knew that his father had to be an expert at controlling his emotions—it was an important art one must master before even considering breaching the world of a politician—but it still unnerved him.

"And for these crimes you have been sentenced to be, on this day, hung by the neck until dead." The man rolled up the scroll and tentatively met the eyes of the pirate. "May God have mercy on your soul."

As a soldier stepped forward to secure the rope around the pirate's neck, Draco could hear his pulse thrumming in his ears. He'd never watched a man die before—he'd only attended this hanging because his father had insisted he start partaking in public events, as Draco would most likely secure the position as governor once his father stepped down. It hadn't fully occurred to him until that moment that he'd actually witness a man's life torn from him.

"May God have mercy on all our souls," he breathed, his words audible to only himself.

Once the rope was snug around the pirate's neck, the soldier stepped back and nodded to the executioner. He stepped forward, toward the lever that would unhinge the trapdoor-like floor beneath the pirate. Draco took a deep breath and prepared himself, pushing his emotions away in an effort to remain indifferent.

Right as the executioner reached for the lever, a thud sounded and Draco wondered if the lever had been pulled. He frowned—the pirate was still standing at the gallows. Confusion flooded him as a disheveled soldier stumbled into the courtyard, panting and mumbling hysterically.

"What is the meaning of this?" Commodore Snape demanded sternly, striding toward the broken man.

"P-pirates," he stuttered. "They're in the village. Headed this way."

Commodore Snape's nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed. Draco turned to his father, ignoring the commodore's response. The only indication that Lucius Malfoy was even remotely unsettled by the soldier's words was his white-knuckle grip on his cane. Narcissa took her husband's arm and looked on with wide eyes, alternating between the gallows, the commodore, and Draco.