I do apologize profusely for taking so long to get this up. I bought the Sims 2 game and it's proved amazingly addictive. When I managed to conquer that addiction (slightly...) I found myself with an amazing case of writer's block. And after that, my family and I went on a three-day trip to Kilkenny (lovely place, that...)I know it isn't much of an excuse, but it's all I have, and the truth. Sorry!
Enjoy chapter twelve...
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Harry was about to doze off when he heard the door to the room he was hiding in open. He jumped in shock and tried to go further back into his hiding space.
"-Can't believe he made us spend all that time lookin', and it wasn't even there!"
"Well, he did say that we mightn't-"
"Find anything, I know, I know, but that don' stop it bein' a waste of our time! An' we coulda got caught, too. It's stupid, an' pointless, an' ye all know it!" A pause. "Ye know what? I really wish Barbossa hadn't got rid of Jack Sparrow! He's ten times the cap'n that Barbossa'll ever be!"
Someone sighed. "We know tha', Pintel, an' ye've said it before, an' we all wish it too. But it don' stop the fact tha' he's been gone for near five years now, an' we ain't seen hide nor hair of him since he stepped off the ship in Tortuga. An' I know we didn' wanna mutiny, but if we'd tried to stop Barbossa, he'd have either dumped us on land too, or, more likely, killed us. What happened, happened, an' we can't change that. Even if it does mean that we're stuck with that waste o' space upstairs as our captain!"
Harry's eyes widened. They were unhappy? Harry knew Jack would do near enough anything to get the Pearl back- he'd told Harry that several times. He stopped his train of thought when someone else started talking.
"That's fair an' all, but I honestly don' know if I can stand much longer with that idiot. That's the sixth useless stop we've had in the past two months, and we'll prob'ly have six more! I'd mutiny now, if I could, but the six of us couldn' stop Barbossa an' his crew."
A parrot squawked. "Wind in yer sails! Wind in yer sails!"
"Well, we migh' be able to," a voice said thoughtfully, "We're all decent enough swordfighters, an' there's only another seven plus Barbossa on this ship. It's only him we have to worry abou', really. He's good."
The second pirate interrupted again. "Sure, we migh' be able to take 'em, if we were lucky and timed it right, but we'd mutiny to what point and purpose? There's on'y six of us, an' tha' migh' be just enough to take over, but we won't have a captain. Much as I hate te say it, we're better off under Barbossa than we are just us. We'd need a decent captain, and the best one out there is Jack Sparrow, an' we don' know where he is, or even if he'd come back after we left him."
Harry was suddenly tempted to stand up and announce his presence. They needed a captain, and even though he knew he wouldn't do it, he knew Jack'd jump at the chance to get his ship back. He held his tongue, though, for another minute at least.
"He would!" said one. Harry thought back and realised he'd been called Pintel. "I ain't sayin' I know Jack Sparrow better than all ye lot, but I know tha' he'd love to be back!"
"Thing is, we ain't seen him for years. I ain't heard anythin' abou' him, either. We don' know where he is, even if he's still alive!"
Harry raised an eyebrow. Jack was more alive now that he ever had been- hell, he couldn't be killed! Did they honestly think he'd have died?
"Well, Marty, ye've got to agree that ain't particularly likely! There's not much that could stop Jack Sparrow!"
There was laughter.
"But seriously. I really don' know how much longer I can stan' that man without shootin' him. I migh' just jump ship next time we make port!"
A chorus of voices came.
"Aw, ye wouldn't!"
"Ye can't, Ragetti! There's few enough of us as it is!"
Harry took advantage of the chatter to shift a bit, into a more comfortable position. The voices slowly stopped, and Ragetti began to say something. But before he could get any words out, Harry made a rather big mistake. He leaned a little too heavily on the barrels behind him and, wouldn't you know it, they were badly stacked and came crashing to the floor, thankfully missing Harry.
Unfortunately, the pirates having a conversation not five foot away couldn't miss the racket. Harry muttered some words Jack had taught him before making another rather rash decision and standing up.
"Hello," he said, staring at the numerous guns and swords pointed at him, "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Harry Sparrow."
And after that there was silence for a few seconds, then a collective "WHAAA?"
Harry smirked. "You heard me, didn't you?"
It was a balding, squinty man who answered him. From his voice, Harry knew he was called Pintel.
"You- ye related to Jack Sparrow, then?"
Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yep. I'm his son."
Even more shocked silence answered this. Eventually another man spoke, a tall one with an eye patch. Harry knew from his voice that he was Ragetti.
"Spittin' image of 'im, ye are!"
Harry grinned at him. "Thanks. I get that a lot."
"But , we didn' know he had a son!"
"Well, in all fairness, he didn't actually know until last year. Lived in England with my Mum until she died, and a few months after that, I came out here to find him."
Harry paused and smiled again. He knew that he looked particularly like Jack when he smiled, as they had the exact same smile. Or rather, Harry had started smiling like Jack unconsciously in the past year sometime. He was aware that his voice sounded very different, though. He still tended to speak properly, and his accent was still distinctly English. Hopefully that would fade a bit, with some more time.
"So, I believe we were going to plot a mutiny?"
"Hang on a minute," said a very short bald man, "how did you get on this ship?"
Harry shrugged. "Snuck on when you lot were on land doing... whatever it was you were sent to do. Wasn't hard. I could see the Pearl from up on that hill. Jack told me all about it, I recognised it from his descriptions and decided to sneak aboard and see where it took me."
The little man seemed to accept that.
Another slightly short and chubby man asked another question.
"Just where is Jack Sparrow? Why ain't he with you?"
Harry looked at him. Well, it was a valid question.
"Well, we were in Tortuga a few days ago, when I was kidnapped by agents from the East India Trading company. They left Jack alone, just wanted me. So they knocked me out and took me on their ship back to Port Royal there. Gillette tried to get information out of me, but I didn't tell him anything, and he branded me." Harry showed them the 'P', still dark red, but not as sore, under the makeshift bandage. They locked me back up, but I managed to escape late last night and headed for the deserted part of the island. When I got here, I saw your ship and sneaked on."
"Why did ye sneak on?" asked Pintel.
Harry smiled again and shrugged. "I'm not sure why, really. Could be because I had no particular desire to stay anywhere near that town, 'cause if anyone sees me I'll be back in prison in no time at all!"
Harry surveyed them all.
"Anyways, gents, I happened to overhear that you aren't all that pleased with your current captain, and, to be honest, I can't blame you."
Harry stepped over the fallen barrels and wove around the pirates until he found a chair by the table. He sat down on it and looked up at the others, who were still looking at him with a mixture of shock and admiration.
"And I happen to know just the man who would love to get this ship back, and revenge on the guy who took it from him."
Harry's smile turned feral, and he leaned over the table.
"So, gents, it seems we have a mutiny to plan."
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Sirius was training. He'd wanted to help look, so the minister was letting him join the main auror squadron that was going to be looking for Harry, as he'd been an auror before he was arrested.
The minister had, however, requested (very politely) that Sirius go through some of the basic training again first, though. A 'refresher course', he called it.
Sirius had very nearly refused, but then he'd thought about it. There were many people out already looking, even though it had been over a month already. If he went out now, malnourished and wasted away after ten years in Azkaban, he'd be more of a hindrance than a help.
But a few days retraining would help immensely, he knew.
Right now he was duelling one of the other aurors. It was very difficult, but Sirius was glad to see that all his skills hadn't deserted him in Azkaban- he only needed to get used to using them again.
He tried his hardest to concentrate on what Kingsley Shacklebolt was doing, but his thoughts kept drifting back to his missing godson.
I'll find you, Harry, he promised himself, and when I do I'll kill the guy that took you.
Little did he know, that over two and a half centuries earlier, another man quite like himself that thought the very same thing about the very same person.
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Jack was still staring at his compass, but he had moved from the helm of the ship to his cabin as Wally had pushed him away from the wheel again. Jack hadn't protested as much as the last time, but he'd still been very reluctant to move. Wally had only persuaded him to go downstairs after a promise that he'd keep an eye on that dot on the horizon and tell Jack if it changed direction or speed in the slightest.
Jack stared at his compass.
He knew that what he wanted most in the world right now was his son back, but he had a nagging feeling he knew exactly what ship that one in the distance was.
The Pearl.
He knew he wanted his ship back, but he thought he knew his head by now. How was it possible that Harry was on board the Pearl? Had Barbossa discovered who he was and kidnapped him all over again?
Because he knew he'd take Harry over the Pearl any day.
His head still confused and fuzzy from lack of sleep, Jack lay down on his bed and closed h is eyes. He knew he wouldn't sleep well, but he needed the rest badly.
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Harry and the others (he'd learnt their names by now) put the finishing touches on their plan, hoping against hope that this time tomorrow, they wouldn't have to put up with Barbossa any longer.
All they had to do now was wait until nightfall.
At night, there would only be two or three crewmembers awake, and Barbossa would be in bed, asleep, as would the vast majority of the rest of the crew.
It would be the perfect time to take over.
But there were still several hours to go before they could even start the beginning stages. Harry declined the others offers to join them in a game of cards or dice, and hid behind the barrels again, in case anyone came in. The men in the room had to leave every so often to go and do their work up on the ship, but they always came back.
Harry thought about sleeping, but decided against it. He knew he wouldn't sleep, so it was pointless to even try.
Instead, he found a small chunk of wood on the floor, and decided to try and practice doing something with it wandlessly and wordlessly. He knew it would be difficult and that he probably wouldn't manage to accomplish it, but he thought he might as well try.
He sat cross-legged on the floor, after double-checking that no part of him was visible from the door. He'd even got Mulroy to check.
So he sat and stared at the piece of wood.
Wingardium Leviosa, he thought. Nothing happened.
He thought it again, harder. Still nothing. He tried pointing at it and concentrating, but that didn't work either. Eventually he just screwed his eyes shut and started to chant in his head.
WingardiumLeviosaWingardiumLeviosaWingardiumLeviosaWingardiumLeviosaWingardium Leviosa...
He opened an eye and glanced at the wood again. It moved slightly, but it didn't float.
Harry glared at the chunk of wood. Why wouldn't it float? It wasn't as if it was the hardest spell he'd ever done!
He closed his eyes again.
Floatfloatfloatfloatfloatfloat! You stupid piece of wood!Wingardium Leviosa!
Harry opened his eyes. The lump of wood was hovering before him. He grinned.
The wood fell to the floor and Harry geared up to try again.
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It was over an hour later when Harry finally stopped. He was now able to lift the wood into the air easily enough, and, if he used hand gestures, he could get it to move about a little bit, too.
He had to stop, however, when he realised that practicing his magic in such a way was tiring him out immensely. He peeked out of the hole next to him and saw that there were at least another two hours yet until it would be dark enough to start the mutiny.
He tried to make himself comfortable, lying back on the barrels, and closed his eyes. He still doubted he'd sleep, but it was better than nothing and he might as well try. At the very least, there was no point in keeping practicing and tiring himself out even more, because then he would be in no fit state to fight tonight, and fighting was going to be inevitable.
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And that's the end of another chapter. I apologise once again for the awful amount of time it took to get this out. I am very, very sorry! I shall try and get chapter thirteen out sooner!
'Til next time!
