A/N: Happy Halloween! Sort of. Technically it was yesterday, but I didn't post yesterday, so I'm saying it now :P I hope you all had a great candy-filled day! No tricks, 'cause tricks are bad...

Although, I might make Harry play a trick some time in the future... hmm, food for thought :)

Chapter Six

The Decision

That evening, every villager left their homes for the center of town. Stalls were set up, lights were strung from lamp post to lamp post, and the tavern was bustling with the laughter of drunken pirates and townsmen who gathered either foolishly believing they could keep up with the seadogs in alcohol intake, or just to hear the strange tales of a crew who traveled the Grand Line with legendary ease. Everyone was participating in the festivities. Well, except Spaz and Harry. Harry was far more interested in sneaking onto the pirate ship to explore and as far as he could tell, it was quite deserted.

Spaz, well, Spaz was staying in the hotel room. Harry didn't really understand it, but he dismissed it from his mind quickly enough. It wasn't any of his business, so why bother worrying about it?

The timing was perfect, for once. The Potter luck had kicked in and Harry's Devil Fruit Power activated halfway through the day while he was talking with Spaz when they were helping the innkeeper decorate the lounge for the festival spirit and was still going strong. A quick sensation of an egg cracked over his head later, Harry was immaterial, disillusioned, and ready for an adventure.

Standing on the dock, the ship loomed a good two or three stories tall, rocking gently in the waves, a simple but fierce dragon protruding as the figurehead. The sides had a motif of waves, interestingly enough, that almost but not quite distracted one from noticing the five openings lower down that no doubt served as windows for cannons. But the masts. Seeing that tall middle mast rising high above, holding two furled sails, Harry decided that was where he was going to start.

Of course, he had to get on the ship first. It wasn't the biggest ship out there, Harry was quite sure – though he had no personal experience to back up such a conclusion – but the pirates anchored it a little ways off, nonetheless, and came to shore on rowboats. It would look ridiculously suspicious if one of those rowboats suddenly began rowing itself back to the main ship, so he'd have to swim. Casting a warming charm on himself, Harry slipped in and swam through the water, protected by his secondary magic from the ocean's weakening effects.

Swimming quickly, it wasn't long before he reached the hull, and, struck by sudden inspiration, Harry reached his hand in and moved straight into the vessel rather than locate and climb the rope ladder. It had a surprisingly welcome side effect. Because his magic pushed the water away continuously as he moved, it pushed away the water on the hull's surface as he reached in such that when he emerged on the other side, he was completely dry and would not leave water droplets everywhere. Something to think about for later, Harry decided, smiling as he could almost hear Ron exclaim "Wicked!" and Hermione's excited babbling as she thought up of at least a dozen other ways Harry could utilize this effect of combining his magic power with his Devil Fruit power.

Darting through the cargo holds, subconsciously marking in his head a simple map of the area and potential exits, Harry finally found where to climb out to the deck. He came out pretty close to one of the rope nets leading up to the uppermost look-out post of the middle mast, so, he climbed up. The sea air blew through his hair as he climbed. It was tiring, but the wind made him nostalgic of days when he flew through the sky.

Nostalgic or not, flying on a broom or a hippogryph or a thestral was a heck of a lot less exhausting than climbing netting! He took a break at the lower look-out post and gazed out into the ocean. Not much could be seen at night, but the moon hung crystal clear in the sky as all the clouds had snowed themselves out last night, and stars twinkled both up high and in the reflection of the ocean water down below. It was a good view.

Harry gazed back toward the village. The buildings looked smaller than ever from both away and above. But he was not high enough. Harry had experienced heights that made his current position seem like child's play! Strength training was added to his mental list of things to do and Harry continued up.

The upper most lookout post was also home to a smaller Jolly Roger flag. This one looked hand-painted, the design on only one side and with some rough-edged brushstrokes, but otherwise identical to the larger one at the stern that announced their identity. Actually, if he squinted, Harry could see a bit of color on this smaller flag. Just what – ? He perched on the railing of the crow's nest and reached towards it, hoping he could angle it in the moonlight for a better look since he didn't dare cast a lumos. Taking a moment to adjust to the sway of the ship, Harry almost laid a hand on the corner of the fluttering fabric, forgetting for a bit that in his immaterial state he couldn't physically move it, only to find a sharp blade in front of his head pointed towards his mouth.

"Back off."

Reflexively, Harry slid back, still perched on the bar. To his alarm, the blade followed despite his invisibility, and when he jumped down onto the platform for better maneuverability, it slashed across his face, drawing blood. 'How? I'm still immaterial, aren't I?' Harry thought to himself, testing it by sliding his arm straight through the wood beneath his feet. And yet, there was blood dripping down his face and probably on the enemy's weapon as well, though he didn't know if said enemy could see or feel it.

"A pirate's flag is a symbol, you know, a treasure for their crew, and once lost, it isn't something that can just be replaced."

"Hey now," Harry spluttered, caught off guard by the strangeness of the words, "I just wanted a better look."

A figure stepped out from the shadow cast by the mast and into the moonlight. It was a man, about Harry's height. Beneath a straw hat one could see his hair was a vivid red color and three scars across his left eye. It was a strange combination of features, both frightening and friendly, especially that grin.

"Were you really?" he said, sheathing his blade, a saber Harry could now see, with a grin. "Dahahahaha, you know kid, that's what the big one is for!" The man leaned against the fence facing Harry. "So, what prompted your curiosity, eh boy?"

Resigning himself to the fact that this man could sense his presence, Harry dropped the disillusionment, but was careful to keep his wand hidden up his sleeve. This man was dangerous, but strangely enough didn't seem to have any intent to harm him anymore. The tension that was in the atmosphere just moments ago had utterly vanished.

The man blinked a bit in shock as suddenly Harry came into view. "Wow, neat trick! How'd you do that?" His eyes sparkled like a muggleborn first year after Professor McGonagall transfigures her desk into a pig and back.

"Um, secret, I'm afraid."

"Ah well, that's too bad. So, what brings you aboard my fine ship tonight?" His ship? So this man was?

"So you are Shanks, captain of the Red-Haired pirates?"

"Dahahaha," the man guffawed, his head thrown back in laughter, "yep, that's me. So you came here without even knowing that, eh? Damn, Kid, you here on a field trip or something?"

"Your ship is beautiful."

"That she is. You came to see her up close?"

"Yeah. Though, in the end, the view from up here is all I really got around to seeing."

"You like heights?"

Harry smiled, "the higher the better."

Shanks laughed his interesting laugh again, and reached over to slap Harry on the back, only to go straight through. Looking over at Harry, Shanks gave a low whistle. "That's neat." Steadily, Harry felt the tension build in the atmosphere again. It was intense, but with no intent to harm. Instead, it wrapped around Shanks' body like armor, and when the man reached over again, he touched Harry's body like it was solid. Harry's eyes widened.

"How?"

"Guess you've never met a Haki user before, eh Kid?"

"Care to explain?"

"Eh, I'm no good at that kind of stuff. I don't know how well I understand it myself. Everyone's got it though. It's just a matter of using your ambition as presence, intimidation, and fighting spirit, yeah?"

It was a pretty vague answer. Haki, something everyone is born with in this world, so what about himself? Did he have this power, or does his existence as one from a different world make him an exception? That'd be too bad, but this power – it had the capability to render his Devil Fruit power useless, and that was an intriguing, as well as worrying, thought.

"How many people can use this power?"

"Hmm? Oh, not many out here in the Blues. A decent number of people in the Grand Line are pretty good at it though." He seemed to bore of the conversation and with a flash, jumped out of the post and onto the netting. "Wanna tour then, since you only got to see the view from up above?"

Shanks was a strange man! To think that this person who Harry could feel was capable of killing him in just seconds would have such a flippant attitude that made his worries dissipate into thin air.

"Sure!" As Shanks clambered down, Harry didn't even try to follow and instead sunk down using his Devil Fruit Power. As long as Harry was "inside" something solid, gravity had little control over his movements, so with his hand sunk into the mast, he slid easily through all obstacles and came to a soft stop upon reaching the deck.

"Awesome! Hey, what's your name, Kid?"

"Harry. Potter Harry."

"Well, Harry, how would you like to join my crew?"

"What?"

It really is hard to tell when people like this are being serious, but Shanks insisted on inviting Harry to join, and finally they agreed to have Harry make a decision by tomorrow. In the meantime, Shanks led Harry through the ship, excitedly pointing out the figurehead as a potential look-out post, the kitchen as a place where every pirate took a turn at cooking (except for this one person named Lucky Roo because apparently he ate more than he cooked!), and the map room which held a collection of books, some simple sketched out maps, and an entire wall filled with globes that looked a bit like compasses that could point up and down as well as around, either attached to watchbands or inside wooden structures similar to that of hourglasses. Soon, Harry bid Shanks good-bye, and swam back to the island. He was mindful of the fact that the man showed Harry nothing important to the defenses of the ship, like where they stored weapons (though Harry had already passed by some cannons on the way up to the deck unbeknownst to Shanks) or where everyone slept, or even where most of their resources were like ship parts and money and food beyond what could be found in the kitchen. It could be that Shanks just didn't find any of that interesting enough to include on the tour, but Harry thought it was more likely that Shanks just knew better. That Haki. If the power is from his ambition, then his ambition must be great, and one doesn't gain great ambition and then harness a power like that without knowing the dangers of letting people know too much.

He recalled that blade opening a cut under his eye. Harry shuddered. To have been attacked when he thought himself safest, to have the air suddenly thicken from the man's Haki. It was eye-opening.

Did he want to join this man and his crew? To live with that new danger?

Of course he did! That's why he came here, isn't it? To feel the pressure of battle again, and to force himself stronger in order to protect himself, to fight for his ideals! With this man who caught him by surprise and had the strength to kill him without magic, how much could he grow?

Did he actually want to become a pirate of all things? To just pick up his stuff and be a man who lived on the other side of the law?

And yet, why would that stop him, really? The law meant little to him back home as part of a vigilante group, and from what he's seen so far, not all pirates pillaged helpless villages. This pirate in particular travels the Grand Line! Just think of all the adventures to be had! What reason could he have to turn down the possibility? He'd ask Spaz if he'd be okay with it, he thought to himself as he returned to the inn, ignoring the festivities going on around him, and that'd be that.

"Hey Spaz," he says, not bothering the open the door and just stepping through, "What do you think about tagging along with Shanks' crew for a bit?"

A/N: And we return to where we left off last chapter, finally understanding just what the heck happened in order for Harry to decide to join Shanks! Though knowing Spaz's background, the answer to Harry's flippant question won't come easy.

I hope this also opened up on some more information about Harry's power, though he still doesn't know how to turn it on and off consciously. Also, please let me know if future "contemplating Harry"s would be welcome.

44 reviews as of today, November 1, 2010~

Thanks everyone :)

Edited

11/1/10

12/26/10