A/N: Yet another week has come and gone... and I made little to no progress in writing this story . So while there are no guarantees about the promptness of future updates, there is still this one to be enjoyed! At least my Bio final is over and done with.

I hope the fight scene is okay - it's a bit short and no magic, sorry.

Chapter Twelve

Guns, Knives, Wands

Looking across the deck at his opponent, Harry was wary of the man's yet unknown abilities, but mostly confused about his behavior. Though he was a poor glarer, there was no denying the resentment and contempt in his eyes and posture. It was a bit strange, since Harry didn't believe he'd been around long enough with the crew, or even in this world, to have already created enemies when all he'd been doing with himself was training and, recently, cooking.

But there was little time for wondering about it, anymore. The man was looking anxious to start, if the twirling pistols were any indication, and his skill with them certainly wasn't for show if the whispering amongst their growing audience was any indication.

"Think he'll do it?"

"Against the kid? Seems a bit like overkill, don't you think?"

"I want to see it though! It's always entertaining to watch his bullets fly."

"Yeah, he does shoot fast and unpredictably. It's pretty impossible trying to dodge."

"I hope the kid doesn't try to just hide behind stuff – I'd hate to have to clean the deck after the fight."

"So you think the kid will have to just try to shoot him first?"

"Does he even have a gun?"

Unfortunately, no, thought Harry, though at this point, a gun would probably do more harm than good since he didn't even know how to use one. Fingering his wand, Harry muttered under his breath the conjuration spell for blades and discretely hid a few dozen throwing knives in his clothes. He decided not to use his sword since the battle was looking to be one of long distance.

The pistols stopped twirling, and instinctively, Harry threw his body towards the floor in a low crouch as two bullets soared above his head where his left arm and right leg where just a second before.

Just fan-bloody-tastic, Harry thought. It figured that bullets moved faster through the air than most spells.

The air was soon filled with flying bullets as Harry sidestepped them all. It wasn't impossible. Much like spells from wands, bullets left the pistols in a straight line, and the target could be predicted from the angle of the barrel. After so many years dueling, it was reflex to move his body out of the way of the predicted line of fire with a simple side step or twist, although the fact that there were two weapons certainly kept him busy. Very few wizards ever tried to use two wands, and though some Death Eaters attempted it as a way of advancing themselves to a higher status in Voldemort's forces, they weren't very skilled in spellwork, and Harry could often depend on a Protego shield to block the more common hexes and jinxes.

In a way, Harry was unusually prepared for a fight with a gun user, even as a wizard. Most wizards either learned specific shields for specific spells like Protego for stunners and summoned or conjured physical shields for certain spells like the killing curse, rather than try to dodge every spell that came their way. Harry, though he knew many spells, didn't see the point of memorizing so many spells when he proved naturally gifted with dodging reflexes. Not to mention his main opponent was a wizard with so much more experience with magic that trying to even find all the different shields to spells he might find thrown his way was an impractical use of his time, let alone learn to cast and use them appropriately.

With a few close calls, Harry managed to dodge all the bullets and his opponent was forced to reload his pistols. Taking advantage of the small window of reprieve from lethal projectiles to throw a few of his own, Harry slides a set of four throwing knives into his right hand and takes aim. He didn't want to damage the ship if the pirate dodged and he also didn't want to seriously injure the pirate. He'd have to avoid the vitals, but try for places that would hinder further attacks. Harry crouched down and threw the knives from a low angle, one at a time, aiming for the hands and shoulders.

The pirate swore when he realized what Harry just did and dropped into a roll on the deck. One knife sliced a thin cut across the back of his left hand, and another ended up slicing through the tip of an ear due to the panicked dodge. The rest of the knives soared harmlessly over the railing to drop into the sea.

Enraged by the situation, the pirate lifted his reloaded pistols and started firing again. This time, it was more serious. It wasn't until now that Harry realized the pirate had been thinking very much like he did when aiming, shooting mostly to incapacitate and to avoid hitting the ship. Once Harry had proven that wasn't going to work, the pirate began shooting towards his center of gravity, forcing Harry to move his entire body as he jumped, twisted, or just plain ran to dodge them all. In fact, he concentrated so much on just surviving that he barely registered the fact that the pirate was advancing closer and had no time to comprehend the significance of such movement until, out of bullets yet again, the pirate bludgeoned Harry across his left temple with the butt of a pistol.

Harry collapsed, and he didn't need to try and stand again to know he would fail. His vision was swimming, his limbs were numb, and he could feel the beginnings of nausea rising up – the match was over.

Shanks declared the pirate victorious, and the audience scattered. After reassuring Shanks that he'd recover on his own, Harry laid on the deck for another hour, trying to use his magic to heal the head injury. A hit across the temple was serious, even for wizards, and he was thankful that Shanks apparently didn't see the blow clearly enough to recognize the danger, else he'd probably have been dragged to wherever the crew used as an infirmary with whoever acted as the ship's doctor to be fussed over and forced to deal with the injury healing naturally. Left on his own like this, an hour and a few wordless Episkeys was enough for Harry to return to the kitchen where a worried Spaz was waiting. Apparently he had finished jarring the jam in time to see the fight.

"Harry! Are you alright? Are you injured? Did you get hit by any bullets? Are you bleeding? Do you need any ice for your head? Do you need to lie down? Should I – "

"Spaz, I'm fine," Harry assured him, slowly sinking into a chair, "though I would like some ice, yes."

"Right, ice, I can do that!" and in a flash, Spaz grabbed some ice from the freezer and wrapped it up in a clean dishcloth with a rubber band that had been used to hold together the chopsticks in the back of the silverware drawer.

"Thanks," Harry accepted the ice pack gratefully and placed it against his temple. "So, shall we start on dinner? How about you wash and peel the carrots while I prepare the mutton?"

Spaz seemed a bit reluctant let Harry get up, but was sufficiently distracted when Harry used a sticking charm to keep the ice pack on his temple to he could use both hands. Once that was finished, Harry fetched the onions he placed in the refrigerator when cleaning up after lunch for Spaz to peel and chop as he prepared the spices. Curry was a specialty of Harry's, especially after all those nights experimenting with spices for the stew prepared each night during the war. The entire cupboard's worth of spices were cleared out and arranged on the counter, some he lightly toasted whole as prep and others were ground into the pot later after cooking the meat, carrots, and onions. He managed to find some garlic cloves hanging from the ceiling and mounds of butter he didn't find before when making the pie crust tightly wrapped and packed away in one of the drawers in the refrigerator that he proceeded to work into his spontaneously created recipe.

As the curry simmered, Spaz was pointed towards the rice cooker and Harry started on dessert. He decided against anything too delicate and time consuming for today, and besides, carrot cake was a convenient dessert to make while working with curry because it required a selection of spices and, of course, carrots. There was, unfortunately, no grater, and Harry wasn't confident enough to conjure something that required so much detail, so he sliced the remaining carrots as finely as he could with a knife and got started on mixing the dry ingredients, most of which were close at hand after baking bread and pies for lunch.

Something to think on, Harry wondered to himself after he conjured some cake pans, distributed the batter, and placed them into the preheated oven, was whether or not he should bother with frosting. Spaz would probably love some, but was it wise to be serving so much sugar? If he was going to be cooking all the meals for the ship from now on, Harry was going to need to know more about how food affects a person's health than the few vague ideas he currently had. Maybe the ship had some books about it on board, or perhaps some members of the crew understood more about it. He'd ask Beckman about it later. For now, Harry would take advantage of the availability of fresh cream to make some frosting for decorating the cakes when they were baked and cooled. It was his first day at sea, after all, and Harry decided that licking the excess icing from the bowl would be perfect way to cheer up from his rather pathetic defeat in his first spar.

At dinner, Shanks was his usual boisterous self, laughing at how his crew dug into the curry and rice with relish while Spaz bounced on Harry's other side, alternating between enthusiastically eating, chattering about Harry's cooking skills, and shooting Harry concerned glances when he thought his friend wasn't looking. Harry did his best to act normal, but couldn't help noticing this time around that when he entered the kitchen to fetch the frosted carrot cakes, the man he faced in the spar earlier that day was glaring just as the door closed behind him. It was worrying that in such a short amount of time, he could create such a grudge without any idea why. Other than that spar, the only time he could remember ever interacting with the man at all was his cheeky dismissal of his sad intimidation attempt at the tavern, and that just didn't seem worth so much hostility. Perhaps he was just a petty man, but that was just as disturbing. Having anyone so easily influenced in a group that works as a team to accomplish their goals was dangerous, life-threatening even considering the activities of pirates.

There was little he could do about it though. Harry could keep an eye on him, sure, which wouldn't be hard since the man seemed quite focused on Harry as a target anyway, but Shanks was the captain of the crew – Harry was pretty much an outsider. If it became a serious concern, Harry would be obligated to report it to Shanks, but for now, Harry would just be a little more cautious around the man while onboard the ship.

Instead, after dinner and cleaning up the dishes, Spaz and Harry wandered around the ship. Spaz seemed quite comfortable with how the ship was structured, and when Harry accepted his challenge to race up the netting of the middle mast to the upper crow's nest, Spaz easily scampered up, pausing every once in awhile to tease Harry for his slow advance against gravity. Harry was once again forced to rest in the lower crows nest, lying down on the platform to gaze at the stars as Spaz swung around on the netting.

He traced a few constellations with his eyes, smiling at the Sagittarius that briefly reminded him of Firenze. What a strange constellation to see in the winter! Back home, his Astronomy class could only point it out at the very beginning of the school year or at the very end because it was a summer constellation.

Except, back home, he was in the northern hemisphere and now he's in the south. Does this mean that the stars in this world are the same as in his old world? Amazing! He'd read stories before in primary school about how ships used to navigate using the starts – maybe it was the same here? In that case, wouldn't it be fun, to learn how to navigate a ship using knowledge he learned from Astronomy classes at Hogwarts? A grin split widely across Harry's face as Hermione's voice flooded his mind in a stream of excitement while Ron's voice proclaimed how wicked it would be to learn how to sail a pirate ship.

Pushing himself upright, Harry rode on top of his elation and chased Spaz to the top of the mast. The frizzy haired man with the bandana that said Yassop was there, apparently on lookout duty.

"Hey there you two! Done cleaning up after dinner?"

"Yes sirree, we finished," Spaz replied, swinging himself over the railing onto the platform from the netting. "So Harry and I raced up here but Harry's really slow so I won and it was fun! The mast is really tall and you can see for ages from here!"

"Ha, that's true! This here's probably the best place to be for a view of the great blue and our fine ship. By the way, my name's Yassop," offered the pirate, holding his hand out to Spaz first since Harry was busy hoisting himself up into the crows nest.

"I'm Spaz, nice to meet you, I like your name, why's it on your bandana? Did someone make it for you? I like your hair, it's cool, mine just spikes all over and Harry's is just really messy like the wind likes messing with it. What do you normally do as a pirate? Have you ever been in a fight or – "

"Spaz," Harry cut in as it didn't seem like the questions, or the pumping of Yassop's hand up and down, was going to stop anytime soon, "give the man some time to answer and stop shaking his hand so much before you take it off." He turned towards Yassop with a smile and said, "I'm Harry, if you didn't pick that out from Spaz's ramblings. Sorry if he's a bit overenthusiastic at times."

"Nah, not a problem. I've got a son, much younger, but I hope he'll be just as energetic as Spaz when he grows up."

"Oh?" Harry asked, "Where is your son?"

"Back home, of course! Boy's barely seven years old. He and my wife live in Syrup Village on Gecko Island, a quiet place in East Blue. I'm hoping we can swing by for a visit since we're heading to that ocean anyway. Ah, I miss him."

"Why did you leave?" Spaz asked, now clinging to the tip of the mast that protruded from the center of the crow's nest.

"Because the pirate flag called out to me, of course! My wife's a good woman, told me to go after my dreams, set an example for my son. And I want my son to be proud of me, as a great sniper, the sniper of the Red-Haired pirates!"

"So you're a sniper? Cool! Can you shoot something? Show us, show us, please!"

"Hahaha, sorry, but I'm the lookout right now, and it's no good to waste bullets at sea. Some other time, maybe. When we land somewhere, I'll shoot an ant for you, how about that?"

Spaz looked disappointed, but finally said that he would hold Yassop to that agreement, and started his way down. Harry waved good-bye to the pirate before following Spaz down the netting. The two of them didn't stay up much longer after that and soon were led to their sleeping hammocks by Beckman. Harry put up his usual wards but added an alarm. It wouldn't do to be late for making breakfast.

A/N: So, Harry lost, sorry. Honestly, the point of the spars is for Harry to learn about Muggle fighting and what to expect from this new world, so he won't be using magic for awhile, and certainly not openly until he decides how people might react. He's being a little looser about it around Spaz because their both "outsiders" on the ship and thus likely won't be causing too big of a commotion about it.

So, I've gotten a few reviews from people I couldn't reply to with emails by now, and I thought maybe I should answer some of their questions:

lau - Thanks for your review on chapter 4! I'm glad you like the story :)

Listenshadow - Thanks for your input on tense preference - I'm also glad you like Spaz :)

kuro - Sobering charms and transfiguration, huh? While I do like those ideas, it didn't come to that, though I'm sure with the headache he woke up to, Harry probably wished he did, haha.

Missingnin0x0 - I'm honestly highly entertained by the possibility of using future tense at some point. Or sixth person point of view, haha. It might not show up any time soon, but I'd love to try it out sometime.

luffy1411 - Spaz's past will eventually come out, and I do plan on Harry and Spaz training each other at some point, but not yet. Harry still has a lot he can learn from the pirates and Spaz hasn't any reason to come clean about his origins yet.

YoTuesday - When the excitement of the story picks up is also when the story gets really hard to write, haha :) There may have to be a time skip somewhere down the line, since I doubt I'll have the stamina to right ten years worth of story until Luffy sets out on his adventure. I agree the wand has a lot of potential for future conflicts, but nothing's set yet. As for the pairing, it is tentatively set at HarryxRobin, but I have no experience with romance, so I'm a bit nervous about it.

If I forgot anyone, I'm sorry! Please let me know :)

Thank you RedValentino, for being my patient beta.

Thank you all my readers for your support.

I have 153 reviews today as of today, December 13, 2010!

Honestly, I think I'll force myself to keep writing just because I get such a rush with each review, haha.