A/N: Hey guys, it's been another week. The One Piece manga is picking up speed again and I am so excited to see their improved fighting abilities :) It's unfortunate that the Straw Hat pirates won't be joining my story for quite some time, as I've got about ten years to kill, but I'll get there!

I do wonder, though. So many people are alerting this story (*squee*) but how are you guys all finding it? Like, did you all honestly find it by checking the Harry Potter and One Piece crossover page, or just Harry Potter crossovers in general, or just One Piece crossovers in general, or...? 'Cause there's hardly anything in the HP/OP crossover category. Please maybe mention it in any future reviews. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Chapter Seven

Friends and Companions

Spaz seemed, strangely enough, not so excited about this idea. In fact, he fell from the air – Harry was a bit confused about how he got up that high so far from the furniture – and didn't get up. Strangest of all, he didn't say a word.

"Spaz?"

"Shanks?" he squeaked out. "You want to join a pirate crew?"

Harry frowned. Could it be that Spaz didn't like pirates? Maybe he used to be a marine – it would explain some of his strength since no doubt marines received training and participated in battles. It would also go a long way in explaining why his reaction to Shanks' arrival was one of fear and shock despite all the villagers knowing that he wasn't a violent person. But if he was a marine, then that complicates things.

Even if he wasn't a marine; if Spaz disliked pirates or even Shanks himself due to personal reasons – Harry wasn't so foolish as to believe Shanks was always just a peaceful pirate who loved parties just because he could put Harry at ease so quickly last night. He's no doubt killed before, as proven by his attack in the crow's nest, and even people who claimed to fight on the side of justice often did things morally ambiguous. If something Shanks did bothered Spaz, then Harry wasn't going to force the topic.

"It's just an idea. It won't mean anything to me if you say no. We can still stay here the rest of the winter." A burning sensation through his fingertips heralded his return to the material world, and Harry began to remove his outer clothing as he waits for Spaz's reply. What he just said was a lie – it would matter; Harry would be disappointed if Spaz said no. But he wasn't going to drag a reluctant Spaz along and he wasn't going to just leave him here either. Spaz was the closest thing to a friend he has!

Harry paused at this thought. Was Spaz a friend? Despite knowing practically nothing about him? But they had been together for several months now, living together on an island, and then in a hotel room, and drinking together often. There was no reason not to consider Spaz a friend, even if Spaz didn't return the sentiment, and Harry wanted to stick together with him. If Spaz rejects this opportunity, Harry would be okay with waiting for the next one that would be more agreeable to them both.

"Can I," Spaz finally spoke up, his voice soft and timid, "can I have more time to think about it?"

"Sure. I haven't agreed yet or anything, so take your time."

Nothing else was said, and Harry fell asleep to silence for the first time in months.

The next morning, Spaz was already up and gone. Passing by the inn keeper on his way to breakfast, Harry learned that he had left an hour ago without eating. Deciding to let Spaz think on his own, Harry wandered around town, wondering if he should take the time to start that strength training he promised himself last night when from the corner of his eye, he saw Shanks, walking down a side street, eyes red from a hangover, another man beside and slightly behind him with an exasperated expression on his face.

Harry smiled. Haki, apparently, was how Shanks sensed his presence last night, but he wondered if this other person, probably a member of his crew, knew it too? A quick dart behind a tree and a disillusionment charm later, Harry hurried after the pair, trusting in Shanks sense of humor to not give him away.

As he moved closer, Harry could feel the air grow steadily thicker. He was surprised he hadn't noticed before. Shanks probably had been using this kind of Haki that could detect the presence of people ever since arriving, though the range was actually minimal and couldn't possibly reach the ship from island – he'd have to ask then about how Shanks knew he was on the ship.

Finally reaching Shanks, he fell into step next to him as Shanks looked over and said,

"Hey kid, make a decision yet?" The game being over, and the other man's surprise at his captain's words pretty much giving away his ignorance to Harry's presence, Harry dropped his disillusionment charm. With a flash almost as shocking as Shanks' attack, a rifle was pointed to Harry's head and a menacing cock sounded in Harry's ear. Harry had snuck peaks of enough Wild West movies that Dudley enjoyed in his childhood to know what that meant.

'I have got to stop getting myself into these situations!' he thought to himself, as he slowly turned to face the other man.

"I don't mean any harm to either of you," he stated calmly, his heart not one bit calmed by the tingle in his fingertips. He knew very little about Haki, sure, but from what he's seen Shanks demonstrate, there was definitely more than one kind. Sensing a person's presence is one thing; imbuing skin and weapons with it to injure a Devil Fruit user is another. Just because this man couldn't sense his approach didn't mean he couldn't still injure Harry despite the Devil Fruit power.

"Er, Shanks, does this guy know Haki?" Harry threw out there, as the man with the rifle seemed to be in no way placated by his words, eyes glaring down the barrel – bloody hell this guy was tall, teeth chomped tight on a smoking cigarette, and probably still spooked by how Harry snuck up on the two.

"Well, he's learning a bit, but he can't shoot any bullets of it," Shanks said with a grin, looking on at the situation like he hadn't a care in the world.

"Thank Merlin for small favors then, but do you think you could maybe tell him not to test it on me?"

A flicker of comprehension passed over the man's face, and he tentatively moved his rifle forward, eyes widening as his weapon passed right through Harry's head. With a sigh, the man put his rifle down and glanced over Harry's head to look at Shanks.

"So this is the new crew member you were going on about last night and getting yourself ridiculously drunk over? Figures you'd pick him for a reason like this."

"Hey," Harry protested, "I haven't agreed yet, you know!"

"So that's what you're here for, right?"

"Er, about that, it's not up to me, exactly. I think it'd be pretty fun, but this guy I'm traveling with – "

"Well, he can come too!"

"Captain, honestly, you know nothing about this other guy, about either of them really. Can you even trust them to survive the Grand Line?" the other man butt in, extinguishing his now useless cigarette for a new one.

"Aw, geez, Beckman, we're not going to the Grand Line at the moment, just passing through. I want to go visit East Blue a bit after I experiment something first in the Calm Belt. We can decide on his ability to survive then, yeah?" Shanks had an awfully suspicious look on his face when he said the word 'experiment.'

"Er," Harry spoke up, "I don't mean to interrupt, but while its awful nice of you to invite my friend too, he's having trouble making a decision, and if he says no, then it doesn't really matter if I'll survive or not. Although," Harry said, steering the conversation away as he really had no idea what Spaz would choose and isn't willing to explain further, "I did have a question for you, Shanks."

"Shoot."

"How did you know I was on the ship last night? I get that your Haki can sense me, but from what I can tell, it's got a range of maybe a couple meters. What gives?"

"Dahaha, you hear that Beckman? Kid can sense the edges of my Color of Observation! Ain't that something?"

Beckman, who was sputtering at the idea of Harry actually being on the ship – apparently Shanks wasn't too clear on the details at the tavern last night when he was celebrating a new crew member – gave his captain a half-hearted glare for actually appreciating this unknown character's ability to sense such a weakness.

"Actually, last night I forgot to bring the extra belis for my favorite sake that I left in the lower crows nest, and when I felt a presence, well, I checked it out and sensed you up there in the lookout platform with our Jolly Roger! Hey! That reminds me, you never did say why you wanted a closer look at it. Usually the bigger one at the stern is good enough for the curious."

"Caught because your enemy was absentminded; that hasn't happened in awhile." It was true. While Harry had done a few raids on Death Eater hideouts during the war and experienced a few close calls by unexpected early returns similar to Shanks' early return for his money, the last stretch was mostly a war of attrition where Voldemort and his followers clashed daily with Harry, the Order of the Phoenix, and the Aurors.

"Well, I thought the smaller one had some color on it and wanted a better look at it to see for sure. Seems a bloody stupid reason to almost get killed, though." Harry looked sharply to the right. For a moment he thought he saw Spaz's silhouette.

"I'll see you guys later."

"Hopefully next time you'll call me Captain, eh Kid?"

"Don't bet on it. You'd have to stop calling me kid, first, and I'm not going anywhere without the other guy either way so you might as well stop asking!" And with that, Harry sprinted off with Shanks' laughter in the background.

"He's got a good attitude at least, Captain."

"True that," Shanks replied, leaning against a building to shade his eyes from the sun. "Makes me wonder who that friend of his is."

Harry searched around a bit, but couldn't find Spaz, and soon gave up. Shanks didn't seem in any hurry to leave yet, and he did tell Spaz to take his time with the decision, but he was beginning to feel a bit worried about how boy was taking the whole situation. It's incredibly difficult to know how best to approach a person when you know nothing about his past.

Giving it up for now, Harry walked to the beach designated as his training grounds instead. Strength training. How in bloody blazes was he supposed to do that? Nothing of the sort was necessary as a wizard for battle. If you were a duelist, then reflexes, a good spell repertoire, and a trained magical core were far more valuable than muscle strength. Duels typically were quite short, so stamina was hardly ever a problem. For longer, more chaotic battles during war, well. If you were tired, drink a Pepper-Up. If you were trying to escape, apparate. If you needed to climb anywhere, levitate yourself. Even quidditch was a sport of little physical activity. Flying on brooms required a good center of gravity, so some abdominal muscles were necessary, but other than chasers and beaters training their upper-body with practice shots and hits, not much else was done because no one believed it mattered.

But here, it did matter. And now, Harry was stuck, needing to train, but with no idea how beyond what little he picked up in primary school PE. His gym teacher seemed pretty strong. Er, what did he do? Harry picked his mind, trying to remember his "before-Hogwarts" years, but couldn't recall much from that particular class other than trying to look invisible so Dudley would forget to smash his face in with the dodgeballs. Then he thought back to Dudley's TV shows. No, nothing but fancy punching and kicking which he might practice later, but he'd probably pull a muscle trying that kind of thing right now and there was no muscle relaxant potions to use anymore. What about when Dudley was trying to become some sort of champ boxer? His trainer had given him a list of exercises that Aunt Petunia stuck onto the refrigerator. There was something about push-ups on that, right? Harry remembered push-ups from PE class, though at that age, very few of the kids were any good at it.

With a sigh, Harry dropped to the ground for some push-ups. Maybe as he worked out, he'd be able to sense the effects of certain exercises and move on from there.

Six reps of ten push-ups later, Harry was sweaty, exhausted, and sore. He was also frustrated and no closer to understanding if what he was doing was helpful in any way. How unfortunate that despite all the hobbies he picked up over the years, exercise wasn't one of them! Except sword training, but he mostly worked on it as an art form since there were no practical uses for it as a battle style back home, and maybe dance, but really, he wasn't going to tango his way up the netting to the crow's nest!

"Ya know," Harry heard a voice as a shadow moved up across his face as he laid in the sand, "you should probably be doing aerobic stuff like running before bulking up on muscle, 'cause you seem more like the body type that would work best with speed, and running's good for that and stamina and general leg strength, plus you already have good reflexes and stuff so that's a good thing to build on when training for a fighting style but you don't have to 'cause its really just an idea yes sirree I don't mean much by it or anything and I'mnot trying t'be nosy andaskabout – "

"Spaz."

The increasingly unintelligible babbling stopped for bit. "Yeah, Harry?"

"Thanks. I think I will try running. It makes sense."

There was a pause and the shadow moved away, but instead of leaving, Spaz plopped himself down next to Harry and stared at him with a pensive look on his face.

"You're weird, ya know that, Harry? I can't tell if you're strong or weak. I mean, you're above average in physical strength, and your reflexes are pretty good, and you're a pretty hard worker, but you obviously didn't get it through normal training 'cause you don't even know how! It's like instead of getting stronger to fight, you ended up in fights and got stronger by accident. And then, you throw in weird stuff like a ghostly body and stuff appearing from nowhere without even stuff like a Devil Fruit or high-tech weapons to explain it."

Silence fell between the two. Harry wasn't about to volunteer any information, and Spaz didn't seem to expect him to.

"Neh, Harry," Spaz spoke up. "I don't mind going with you on Shanks' ship, but I don't want to be a pirate."

Harry smiled. "Well, guess I better ask if Shanks wouldn't mind settling for some traveling companions instead of crew members."

A/N: So now it's up to Shanks if they'll be setting off or not, though I guess it's pretty obvious whether or not he'll agree. I don't know if any of you guys noticed, but I wrote this chapter in present tense, as opposed to the past tense I've been using in chapters 1-4 and 6. Please let me know if you prefer it this way! **

Thanks again to my beta, RedValentino!

A/N2: People seem to prefer past tense, so I changed this chapter to match.

59 reviews as of today, Nov. 9!

Thanks everyone!

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Edited

12/27/10