"Will," Elizabeth said softly next to the man she loves. She called his name again when he didn't respond.
"Yes? What is it Elizabeth?" Will asked after being deep in thought. He crawled into bed next to her and held her close to him as if afraid of losing her.
"Jack is not plaguing your mind is he?" Elizabeth asked and studied Will's face.
"As he is not plaguing yours?" Will said slightly frustrated at the situation. "This man is being left to die in a place where he doesn't even want to be. This is worse than being marooned or being at the gallows."
"How is that so? Will, Jack did not have a choice in the matter with Harris Norrington and his men surrounding us. We did what was appropriate for him given the circumstances," Elizabeth said.
"But this isn't the way Jack is. He is not the kind of person who would just sit here waiting for death to claim he. He would either run or fight it, but in the end he always fights. Now here he is, Captain Jack Sparrow, left to die like some sort of old man who is nearing his time. I don't like it."
"I don't like the concept in that either Will, but we might as well make his passing better than his previous," Elizabeth said sadly.
"This whole thing is not right. Jack will find a way," Will said. He snuggled deeper into the bed despite the humidity.
"He always does," Elizabeth said. They both lapsed into silence and slowly drifted off to slumber what was left of the night.
Before the young man was a dead man. The young man looked like he had not had a decent meal in a long time considering that he had a thin frame. Nor did it look like he had that much personal hygiene since his hair was up to his elbows, it looked matted and filthy, and he needed to trim the small beard that formed on his face. If you looked into his eyes you would notice how they were the greenest of greens on anyone's eyes, but behind those lovely eyes reflected something animalistic. He looked like a man who had escaped prison or rather Hell.
Harry breathed heavily and stared at the corpse ahead of him, he saw something forming by the corpse. To the naked eye it just looked like a small dust cloud with bits of it still swirling about, but Harry knew better. He knew that it was Voldemort's spirit. Harry raised his wand high in the sky and muttered something under his breath. He erected a barrier to keep him and the spirit inside, but that meant that the spirit had only one place to go.
"Harry, Harry," a hissing voice said. It came from the spirit. It seemed to sigh deeply. "You are not making this any fun. Where else am I to go to but your dying body?"
Harry gasped from the large gash on his chest. Where a once flawless torso was, an angry red mass of shredded tissue lies from the clavicle to the floating ribs. His eyes seemed to glaze over, but he was still breathing painfully. His mind raced with thoughts.
"What is it, Harry? Do you have something to say?" Voldemort hissed mockingly.
"Deal," Harry managed to utter out loud from his rambling thoughts. He staggered back to the edge of the barrier.
"What sort of deal are you bargaining for? Your soul? Your friends? I would say family, but I seemed to have killed them all off. Unless you count that muggle family your mudblood mother still has," Voldemort laughed.
"A proper duel."
"Well this doesn't seem at all proper for my tastes. A proper one would be that of a small arena of some sort with hundreds of wizards watching. So that when I kill you, the world will be mine and I can kill them off also. Hardly any purebloods left without them tampering around with those muggles and mudbloods. Harry you seem to have forgotten that you're dying and I'm just a spirit now."
"No. Years from now. Proper duel then," Harry choked out the words. The metallic coppery taste of blood reached his mouth. A spittle of blood dripped down the corner of his mouth. "We will have the adventure that you always wanted to experience and I will show you the way."
"Adventure? Your life started and ended with adventures that I caused. What makes you think that I would want that?"
"Because. You're bored and find that you can torture me in better ways than putting me in that time room."
"That is a sad reason, but true. I would hate to end my life in marriage. Fine. You do know what you're asking for right, Harry Potter? You will be jeopardizing both our lives for this little adventure."
"Anything for a proper duel to see who the better wizard is?"
"I know who the better is," Voldemort said. He paused for a moment as if calculating what could go wrong and what would be in his favor. "I, Lord Voldemort, accept your proposition, Harry James Potter."
Harry gritted his teeth from either the pain or what he knows is immoral. He nodded his head weakly despite those of those facts. He had to find a way to destroy Voldemort once and for all.
He didn't hear Voldemort's spirit mutter the words that would bind them until it was too late. Red light engulfed the spirit and the young man's body within the barrier.
"He's been missing for five weeks now! Hasn't the Order had any leads on him?" the youngest of the Weasley clan asked furiously. She wanted to kick the Hogwarts stonewalls down to find Harry Potter, but Hermione was in the way.
"Don't worry. We're as anxious as you, Ginny," Hermione said trying to comfort her.
"How dare you say that. If you and Ron weren't drunk and don't give me that look I knew you two were drunk on the night that Harry went out. I knew I should have gone with you guys to keep an extra eye out for all of you, but if Harry hadn't reasoned with me the previous night I would have," Ginny seethed as they walked out onto the Grounds. She hated how bright and cheery the day was.
"Ginny, you know that we had no control of what happened. One minute we were fine and Harry was with us, and then the next minute Ron and I find ourselves in a strange hotel room. We thought we were kidnapped first until we found Harry's note," Hermione said trying to calm and reason herself down.
"Well this is just bloody ridiculous!" Ginny yelled frustrated at the events. "Good morning, Professor Firenze."
"Good morning, Miss Weasley. Miss Granger. If you studied the stars last night and paid attention in class, it would of told you of the turning of the war has come to our favor. Good day," the centaur said before moving along.
" 'Turning of the war has come to our favor'?" Hermione repeated.
"What does he - " Ginny started to ask before she realized what he meant. She squealed, "Harry! He's done it!"
"But where is he? Shouldn't someone of told us?"
"Maybe he's hurt…"
"Girls please move out of the way!" Professor Sprout yelled. She seemed to be directing a floating stretcher towards the castle.
"Who's hurt?" They jogged with their professor.
"I don't know. Probably some Death Eaters cruel joke. I found them lying on the path from Hogsmeade. One is dead and the other faintly has a heart beat," the elder woman panted as they made it to the hospital wing. She thought that they were old enough to handle the news. "They need to put this wing in a more convenient place."
"Sorry Pomona. Who is this?" Madame Pomfrey asked. "Here move him on that bed and the other next to him."
"I'm afraid you can't help this poor man. He's dead. Girls go get Professor McGonagall and tell her that it is an emergency."
"Yes, ma'am," they said and left to get the headmistress of Hogwarts.
"Do you recognize him Minerva?" Professor Sprout asked when she arrived. Remus Lupin was with her.
"He is in a stupor, but I haven't woken him yet seeing as how I haven't finished examining him. He has lost a lot of blood from multiple wounds and his back is shredded and almost mangled to the point of paralysis, but it is treatable. Five of his ribs has been damaged with punctured both lungs. I haven't finished checking on him yet, but this man has been through a lot."
"Sirius?" Remus muttered. His eyes went wide as he took in the long elbow-length dark hair, pale skin, the small scruffy beard, thin frame, and he would also have to say insanity.
"Black? But he's dead Remus," McGonagall tried to reason with him.
"It has to be him, but how did he come back?" Remus said faintly, but he regained the hope that he almost lost when Harry was captured.
"Then who is that?"
"Are you all daft?" Remus suddenly blurted out loud. "It's Voldemort!"
Madam Pompfrey and Professor Sprout both gave a small scream as Professor McGonagall pulled out her wand.
"Where?"
"On the other bed," Remus said simply. He regretted calling them daft, but he didn't apologize.
"If You-Know-Who is there and Black is here, then where in Merlin's hat is Harry Potter?"
"I don't know!"
Three days later they still have not found any word of Harry Potter. The wizarding world rejoiced when they found out that Voldemort was dead and everyone, but the Daily Prophet reporters, had been given the whole week off. The search for Harry Potter was still on.
It wasn't until the third day of being found did the still form of 'Sirius Black' begin to wake up. Remus Lupin was the first to see the signs of the man waking up since he was seated right next to the cot like a loyal dog, or rather wolf.
"Sirius?" Remus whispered.
"Sirius? He's alive?" the scratchy voice asked. It sounded nothing like Sirius.
Remus handed him a goblet of water and felt the blood drain from his face as he realized that his best friend was not alive. "Who are you?"
"Thanks for the water Remus," the voice sounded much smoother and in a way hissing. He turned his head so that he was facing Remus with his emerald green eyes. "You don't recognize me? It's been five years for me, but a mere five weeks for you guys…"
Jack woke up in a world of mental pain and physical numbness. Without getting up from the bed he looked out the window and from a large gap between the curtains saw that the morning sun was hardly even rising.
He tried to get back to sleep, but that dream and the pain from the wound kept him awake. It would be at least another hour until even the servants woke up to do their masters requests.