Disclaimer: Hermione, Ginny and the other HP characters belong to JKR, not me. Jack and Will from PotC belong to Disney.
SenatorSolo: Haha…yes it would be super hard to do the selfless thing and give up Will. I'm not sure if I could do it…I hope I would though. He truly loves Elizabeth. As for Kingdom of Heaven, I'm glad you finally saw it and more importantly liked it. Now you can read my story and not be confused! You're welcome for 21 Jumpstreet.
Chocolatrouxluv: Jack the horny toad. Only you and I. Hehe! ;) Thanks for reading this and those select chapters from my KoH story! I love our favorite word that starts with dubya and ends with anchor.
Mae-E: Haha, another person who liked Jack-the-toad. Great suggestion about using magic to save Elizabeth; I'll see what I can do.
Inwepirate-Elf: Thanks for that awesome review! I'm glad you liked the convo between Jack and Ron…I just thought that was really important for Ron to ask somebody about his feelings for Hermione and figured Jack could be the one. Haha…yeah – you taking Will would REALLY solve the problem. (sarcasm) But that's okay, I know how you feel. I'd like him all to myself too:D
Avchocaholic: If you're happy, then I'm happy. Keep reading!
Shero003: Thanks for the review!
TheGryffindorDrummer: I'll say it again, it's not a Harry/Hermione! Other than the filter (which I changed to just Hermione) I haven't given any indication of those characters liking each other at all. I only put Harry on the filter cause the story is also about him and the fight with Voldie.
Tears-That-Fall: You must've been in a silly mood when you wrote that! Haha, Eminem songs and lame jokes made my day. I'm glad you liked it, especially the Snape parts.
Sancontoa: Yes, Will and Hermione do make a great pair. But they are from different times so that would be hard…I know it's so sad about poor Liz being locked up by the Commodore. (I realize that's OOC for Norrington though.) Thanks for the nice review!
PureAngel86: Ron and Hermione? Hmm, you'll just have to stay tuned to see!
WillsOneLove: Merci beaucoup! That was an 'indescriable' review. ;) Wasn't that awful that she was made to tell Will she didn't love him right before their wedding day! I did try to put a little bit of everything into that last chapter. Yes, Elizabeth's letter does complicate things a bit but now they've got to go and save her. So read on!
LegoLover: Wow, not only did I get to meet Bob the invisible squid, but I got to meet the other you. I'm honored! Well here's another chapter so you can go ahead and give Jack his rum now. The whole smelly pirate thing is confirmed by Hermione in the next chapter so keep reading!
Smithy: I think you'll like how Hermione handles the Will/Liz situation.
Ch. 15: Hello Norrington!
Previously, on Hermione and the Daydream Charm:
Hermione could not bear to see Will in such pain. Since the beginning of their relationship, Hermione knew that she and Will belonged in different centuries and that they couldn't stay together. She was just thankful for the wonderful time that they had spent together. She had to help him find Elizabeth and get her back, even if it meant losing Will to her.
Thinking hard, the young witch formulated a plan, deciding that if Will didn't act now, it might be too late for him and his faithful love, Elizabeth. After giving him a moment, Hermione came up behind the distressed pirate and gave him a gentle squeeze.
"Will, then there is just one thing that you can do when faced with a situation like this," Hermione informed him, drawing him out of his self-pitying reverie.
"Oh yeah?" Will muttered listlessly, gazing out at the horizon. "And what might that be?"
"Why you go and rescue Elizabeth of course!" Hermione suggested lightly.
"Ha!" Will scoffed. "And how do you propose I do that? I have no idea where she's being kept other than what she told me in the letter. And who knows; by now she may not even be in London anymore."
"But at least it's a start," Hermione reminded him. "We can start searching there and ask if anyone has seen Elizabeth, her father, or this Commodore Norrington character." He shook his head despondently.
"I don't know…I doubt Jack would want to sail all the way to London on the chance that Elizabeth might want to take me back." He exhaled loudly, running his fingers through his tangled windblown mane. "What if I'm too late and she's already married that bastard? I don't think I could ever forgive myself."
"You have to try, Will," she said, gently while rubbing his shoulders. He smiled sadly at her. "If you don't, you'll regret it for the rest of your life." He sighed.
"I guess you are right. You know what, I think I'll go tell Jack we need to set a new course," he told her, his features shining with a new determination. Hermione grinned.
"That's the spirit! But why don't you let me convince Jack – and you go clean up." She wrinkled her nose and Will gave a small chuckle.
"I suppose I should bathe…"
"And shave, and comb your hair," Hermione finished. "Jack Sparrow you are not." This time Will really did laugh. I'm going to miss that laugh, Hermione thought sadly as she turned to find Jack.
"Hermione, wait!" Will called after her.
"Hmm?" she asked, coming back so they could talk some more.
"I…uh…are you sure you're alright with this? I don't want to hurt you if indeed Elizabeth and I do get back together. Really, I promise you weren't some substitute for her, it's just that…"
"Will, you don't need to explain anything," she reassured him. "I belong in the wizarding world, and you belong here, in this century. You're a pirate, and I'm a witch, who eventually has to return to her world to fight a war against one of the darkest wizards of all time. This has been wonderful, but it never could've gone any further. And I knew that from the beginning." Shaking his head in amazement, Will took Hermione's hands in his own.
"Hermione, you are one of the most mature people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I had probably the most fun with you in these past few months than I ever have growing up. I'll always be grateful to you for saving my life in the storm not to long ago, and I'll never forget the time that you and I, along with Jack and Ginny, crashed that upscale party." She had to grin at that funny memory.
"Look back on the time we've spent together with fondness; that's all I ask of you," she said, running her fingers through his hair.
"I shall," he murmured. "I don't regret a single moment of it." He pulled her close and tenderly pressed his soft lips to her forehead. "Thank you for being there for me when I needed someone the most, and for unselfishly letting me go."
"Likewise," Hermione quietly echoed as he pulled her close. When he finally released her, she somehow found her voice. "I'd better find Jack," she told him, still a bit choked up. He nodded, and they went their separate ways. The bittersweet moment was finally over, Hermione thought, relieved that their 'break up' had gone as well as it could.
After searching below decks, Hermione found Captain Sparrow at his usual post, at the ship's wheel. Now why didn't I look there in the first place! As usual he was quietly humming the pirate song. His left hand steered the ship while his right clutched a small bottle of rum. (A/N: I just made Jack lefthanded!) The captain of the Black Pearl grinned when he saw her approaching.
"Hermione, wha' can I do fer ya, luv?" She shook her head disapprovingly at him, although she was smiling.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to drink and drive, Jack?" His brow furrowed and his lips formed to make the most adorable pout.
"Wha'd you mean by that?"
"Nothing," she responded vaguely, giggling to herself. Luckily there were no other ships around as far as she could see, so it was alright if the slightly inebriated pirate was steering the ship.
"Did yeh come up here ta mock the captain or is there somethin tha' yeh need?"
"Well, I just came to talk to you about why Will is so upset." She told him the whole ugly story, about Elizabeth's letter, Will's guilt, and his wish to rescue her. For a few moments, Jack was silent – a rare occurrence for him. He was reflecting on what she'd just told him.
"I can't believe the eunuch sent yeh ta ask me if we could sail fer London. Why couldn't he have asked me himself?"
"For the last time, Jack," Hermione irritably defended Will, "he's not a bloody eunuch!" Jack was quite taken aback by her forcefulness. Then he gave her his infamous Sparrow smirk.
"An' yeh know this by experience?"
"No!" she said furiously, a faint blush creeping up across her cheeks. Jack decided that it'd be in his best interest to drop the subject.
"I'll have ta check with Gibbs before I change our course. But I suppose it'd be alrigh' with me…" Hermione didn't let him finish before she threw her arms around him in jubilation. She knew that Jack had total authority over the ship, and checking with Gibbs was merely a formality, a way of informing them what was going on. At first Jack was taken aback by her affectionate reaction, but then looked pleased.
"If I knew I'd always be guaranteed such a reaction, I'd have ta agree to women's propositions more often," he teased.
"Thanks for understanding, Jack," Hermione said seriously. "I know how much this means to Will – he would've asked you himself, but I told him to go ahead and bathe and clean up."
"Ah," Jack nodded at her, wrinkling his nose. "I never did like bathing meself. Yeh can tell Will tha' I'm setting the course fer England as we speak, and tha' I'll announce the change o' plans at suppertime. Oh and also tell him that when he gets up her his first duty is to swab the deck."
"I'll do that." Jack nodded at her, and then Hermione went below decks to inform Will of the new plan.
Soon after their chat, Jack was faced with more company. Harry had allowed the D.A. members to sleep in, but by now they'd awakened, eaten their breakfast, and currently were practicing their magic on deck. Jack found watching them a welcome distraction from staring at the horizon all day. It was all very interesting really – at first the captain didn't believe that the group could learn from a sixteen year old boy, but did Harry ever prove him wrong.
"Today we are going to begin working with alternative defenses," Harry shouted loudly to be heard over the crash of the waves and the wind. "Find your partner and pair up – we shall be learning how to modify memories. The spell that you need to use is 'Obliviate', and it can be performed to various degrees." His 'students' began to chatter excitedly, for this was magic that they hadn't been allowed to do at Hogwarts. Luna Lovegood, who was still wearing her radish earrings, raised her hand. Harry nodded at the blonde.
"Yes, Luna?"
"But Harry, I thought that once someone's memory has been obliviated, they won't remember anything at all. How can we practice on each other?"
"Good question," said Harry. "That's true, although some powerful wizards can break through obliviated memories. But it actually depends on the intensity of the charm to determine the amount of memory lapse. For example, say I used a weak memory charm on Neville – he would forget what happened for that day and the previous at most. Now I've had practice with this sort of thing, but even so I do not wish for your memories to be damaged in any way. So instead of practicing on ourselves, I had the crew provide us with rats to practice on." He held up a cage that held about twenty squirming rats. "Each group gets one rat to share." Ginny and Ron helped him distribute the rodents to each of the groups.
"How can we tell if our memory charms worked?" Ernie blurted out, once he'd received his rat.
"The animal will begin to act confused, and run in circles and such," Harry patiently explained. "Unusual behavior is a dead giveaway that shows the spell has worked." The D.A. wasted no time and started obliviating at once. Ginny, Harry, and Ron walked among the groups to check on their progress.
"I did it!" yelled Terry Boot, who paired with Parvati. Their rat was rolling around on the floor, seemingly trying to perform somersaults.
"Excellent," Harry congratulated them, and then he modified the poor rat's memory back to normal.
All throughout the morning and afternoon, the D.A. trained, stopping only for a quick lunch. Will and Hermione joined them on deck after lunch just when Harry had switched to reviewing hexes. To Jack's surprise, Will's mood had completely turned around; apparently he was feeling optimistic about his chances about finding Elizabeth.
"Glad to see you're feeling better, mate," Jack said in a low voice when Will and Hermione came over to the wheel.
"Thanks," Will answered. "I wouldn't be feeling better if you hadn't agreed to help me rescue Elizabeth." Jack shrugged.
"Well, I figured yeh wouldn't leave me alone 'til we changed course so I decided ta save meself the agony an' just give in righ' away." Hermione knew that Jack was doing his best to sound indifferent, but she could tell that the pirate captain really cared for Will's well-being.
"Jack, have you been up here steering all this time?" Hermione asked him.
"Yeah," he admitted, sheepish.
"You should stop and get some lunch," worried Ginny, who'd overheard them and came over to join in. Beaming at her, Jack motioned for Ginny to come closer.
"Tha' sounds like a mighty fine idea, luv," he announced. "Anamaria!" he yelled for the only female pirate on the ship, who sauntered over.
"You called?" She answered sarcastically, glaring at Ginny, or rather at Jack's arm wrapped possessively around Ginny's waist. Jack, not noticing her jealous looks, proceeded to ask Anamaria if she wouldn't mind taking the wheel for a bit while he went down to the galley to get a bite to eat.
"C'mon luv," he pleaded when Anamaria gave him the evil eye. "It wouldn't be for very long, just long enough for me to have some lunch…"
"And will she be going with you to help you eat your lunch hmm?" Anamaria's little comment got a rise out of Ginny, which is what she was going for, Hermione mused.
"What are you trying to say, Anamaria?" Snarled a red-faced Ginny through clenched teeth.
"Now, now ladies – there is no need to fight over me," quipped Jack, who since up until now had been quite amused by the whole situation. "There's plenty of Captain Jack Sparrow to go around…" Both girls turned around and glared at Jack and he quickly shut up.
"I'm trying to say that you are Jack Sparrow's flavor of the month…and that he'll go back to being mine as soon as you and your little magical friends are gone," a smirking Anamaria remarked with satisfaction.
"Why you little strumpet…I ought to hex you for that!" Ginny reached for her wand but Jack was faster.
"I don't think you want to be doing that, luv," Jack told her apologetically.
"No, I really think I do," she fumed.
"Ginny, you know you can't use magic on the muggles!" Hermione reminded her.
"Fine – I don't need magic…I can take her without it." Ginny and Anamaria squared off…and it looked like a catfight was about to begin – with Jack Sparrow as the prize. The entire D.A. stopped practicing and gathered around the girls to watch. But just before Ginny could make her move, a large 'boom' sounded and the boat lurched a bit to one side.
"Blimey! We've been hit!" yelled Gibbs, who'd remained on the ship that day.
"I've realized tha', but by what?" Jack asked frantically. His answer was floating a short distance away on the port side of the ship. Looming next to the Black Pearl was the royal navy ship known as the Dauntless.
"We should surrender, Jack," Will said firmly. "Seeing as our crew is not here, we can't ask Hermione and Ginny's friends to fight for us."
"But Will, I can ask Harry…" Hermione protested, but he'd have none of it.
"No, Hermione. I don't want you to get hurt." The ever-protective Will turned to Jack, who as captain would have the final say.
"I hate to say it, but for once I actually agree with William. We shall surrender and then we'll let them capture us," Jack told them matter-of-factly.
"What? Are you bloody insane?" said Harry, who along with Ron had come to join in the conversation. "You actually want us to get captured by the royal navy, who are known for their strict policy against witches?" Jack rolled his eyes.
"Keep yer shirt on, kid. I've got a plan." Just like old times, Will squeezed Hermione's hand in reassurance as Jack ordered the white flag to be raised. It wasn't long before they were boarded by the royal navy and none other than Commodore Norrington himself.
End Ch. 15