A/N: Hello everyone! To my regulars, my apologies for the extended wait. Last week just wasn't going to happen, sorry. On the bright side, I'm once more on track and can guarantee weekly updates for at least a month :) Not much happens in this chapter, but I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter Thirteen
Anticipation
Harry awoke to the phoenix trill of his alarm before dawn and climbed out of his hammock. Looking down at his wrinkled clothes, Harry cast a freshening charm he saw Mrs. Weasley use once and made a mental note to go shopping for some spare clothes – sewing was one household skill Aunt Petunia never tried to make him learn, probably afraid of his freakish blood bleeding onto her clothes.
Looking slightly more presentable, Harry reached up to the hammock above him to shake Spaz awake. Spaz, after a bit of muttering about how the sun was not yet up, climbed out to join Harry in walking to the kitchen.
Harry was somewhat relieved to notice Spaz took to being woken up rather peacefully. The boy was strong, and no doubt trained, but had probably never been in a serious war situation where being woken up was reason to attack. As for Harry, the trill of a phoenix was just about the only thing that could wake him without triggering his old battle instincts, so he used it as an alarm, and also tied it to the wards he erected before sleeping, so if anyone tried to wake him up, the trill would alert and calm him when he or she crossed the border.
Of course, if the wards detected hostile intent or a spell, Harry heard a sudden clang of bells instead.
Breakfast would be a much simpler affair than lunch and dinner yesterday. Harry taught Spaz a simple bread dough recipe and while waiting for it to rise, the two went down to the storage hold to take a look at what kind of food was available for cooking. There was a rather tall pyramid of crates filled with nothing but biscuits, and half the hold was filled with barrels. Upon closer inspection, the barrels contained smoked meat, pickled vegetables, citrus fruits like limes and oranges, and beer. In the remaining corner were sacks of flour, rice, and double-sealed sacks of salt and sugar. In the middle of the room were cartons of potatoes, cabbage, apples, and some other produce that didn't spoil too easily but would still need to be processed sometime this week, as well as tubs of cooking oil.
Harry grabbed a barrel of smoked bacon and Spaz took hold of a carton of potatoes, and the two headed back to the kitchen. Upon their arrival, they saw Beckman was waiting for them.
"Hey Beckman, how are you today?" Harry asked, rolling the barrel of bacon against the stove.
"Just thought I'd stop by and tell you where all the other food is stored, but it seems you found the place just fine by yourself," Beckman replied around the cigarette between his teeth. "I'm sure you noticed some of the food down there isn't going to last long. Usually we just try to eat it all in the first week because no one wants to spend the extra time figuring out how to store it, but seeing as you're probably on permanent cooking duty now, you can do what you like with it and maybe figure out some way of making it last longer."
"That we can," Harry said, "right Spaz?"
"We made apple jam yesterday! I bet we could do that to the rest of the apples, yeah? And, and, we can make lots and lots of cabbage bread like yesterday and bread should last longer than cabbage, yes sirree, we can do all sorts of things and Harry'll teach me lots about cooking."
Beckman chuckled. "That's good. Have you seen the meat room, yet?"
Harry was puzzled by this. "Well, we found barrels of smoked meat in the storage hold – is that what you mean?"
"With what these pirates eat, that meat alone won't last them long. Come on, I'll show you the other room."
The two followed Beckman back down into the storage hold and the pirate points out a door behind the pyramid of biscuit crates.
"In here," Beckman explains, opening the door and pulling a string that turned on a light bulb, "is where we keep livestock and our larger refrigerator."
Harry and Spaz gazed around in amazement. Pigs were sleeping in hay piles, dairy cows were standing in stalls, and chickens where sitting in their roosts. The smell was pretty awful, but the sheer concept of keeping live animals at the bottom of a ship was astounding to Harry who had never been on a ship, and Spaz who had never experienced a long voyage.
"Likely," Beckman continued, "now that you two are the cooks, the other men are going to leave anything that relates to food as your chores. You'll have to come down daily to milk the cows and collect eggs, both of which can be stored in the refrigerator over there," Beckman pointed to the large refrigerator in the back corner, then pointed over to another door behind the sleeping pigs. "That's where the feed is stored and you'll have to make sure you keep the animals fed, as well. At least every week, try to clean up a bit, which will get easier once we've eaten a few of the pigs. Any questions?"
Harry was utterly lost, having never tried a hand at farming. Spaz, however, was enthusiastically bouncing next to him.
"No sirree, I know what to do, I lived on a farm before, I did, so I can do this easy-peesy, count on me!"
"Well," Harry sighed in relief, "that's good, 'cause I haven't a clue."
"Heh," Beckman grinned, "you two make a fine pair, then, don't you?"
'A fine pair' huh? Harry thought to himself, carrying a few cartons of eggs and a fresh pail of milk, Spaz following closely with even more cartons of eggs. Beckman had left after his comment to wake up Shanks who would no doubt enjoy waking up the rest of his crew in the most obnoxious way possible.
Often, I feel ridiculously older than him though, Harry thought, glancing at Spaz's dramatic balancing act with the egg cartons, but I don't think that's normal behavior for a boy who looks about sixteen or seventeen. I wonder if he acts younger on purpose, Harry mused, but set the thought aside when they arrived back at the kitchen for the third time that morning.
"Alright, bread in the oven, Spaz, then we'll make bacon and eggs for everyone,"
"Yes sir, Harry sir!"
The bread was quickly taken care of, and Harry set Spaz once more on potato duty. The bacon sizzled in the pan, releasing fat that Harry used to fry up alternating pans of potato cubes. When the barrel was emptied and bacon and home fries towered on platters, Harry started on the eggs. Unfortunately, Harry had no clue how anyone liked their eggs. However, since sunny-side ups were awkward to stack and poached would take too much time, lightly seasoned scrambled eggs fried in leftover bacon fat and vegetable oil soon filled several large serving bowls. The finished bread loaves were sliced and served on the table with apple jam.
Pirates stumbled into the dining room as Harry and Spaz finished setting the table. The crew's entrance was certainly more amusing for breakfast than for the two meals yesterday. Some were awake, others half asleep; some were chipper, others looking murderous. All in all, the atmosphere was a bit chaotic, though all of them seemed very interested in the food on the table. Shanks came in grinning, ignoring the glares from one particular group of pirates sitting in a corner, dripping wet, and plopped himself down at the head of the table.
"Smells good! Is that apple jam I see? Great! Hand me a jar, will you Boy?"
Spaz tossed a jar of jam to Shanks, and all the pirates dug into breakfast, grabbing strips of bacon and spooning egg and potato onto their plates.
"Well crew," Shanks announced as the slices of the last loaf of bread were spread with apple jam and eaten, "we're almost at the gate. Everyone should know how it works by now, yeah?"
Harry coughed.
"You two," Beckman directed at Harry before Shanks could say anything, "will be joining the Captain up front. Yassap will close up the animals so they don't go flying around. I don't know how much experience you have with strange phenomenon like Reverse Mountain, and I'd rather not lose anyone this early in our voyage because everyone else is too busy to notice you flying off the end of the ship."
Harry might have imagined that slight emphasis on the word 'busy,' but he didn't think so. Beckman was likely one of the few who noticed the strange tension between Harry and the one crewman who probably wouldn't care if Harry fell overboard. Hell, he might even wave goodbye.
"Wow, fall off the back end? I've heard stories about Reverse Mountain from people who've been there, yes sirree I have, though I've never seen it before. Is it really like an upside-down waterfall like a geyser only cooler 'cause it never stops and there's actually a mountain and, and, how high is it really 'cause this one guy came back from it once and told me he touched a cloud up there but I think he was joking but its really hard to tell with him 'cause – Ow! Mm-mmf-mm!"
Harry smacked Spaz upside the head and stuffed a slice of bread he grabbed and spread with apple jam once Spaz started talking into the boy's mouth.
"Calm down Spaz, you'll see for yourself once we get there, won't we? I think it'll be much more wicked to see it live than make images in our head based on stories from other people."
Spaz pouted a bit, but was soon eating the bread with relish, adding more jam between bites.
There was another incident after breakfast. As Harry and Spaz cleared the table, the man with black circled eyes was the last to leave, and as he got up from his seat, he bumped his shoulder against Harry's arm, causing Harry to drop a jar of jam which broke and spilled onto the floor.
"Well then, errand boy, looks like you'll be on cleaning duty today as well, right?"
"I suppose so," Harry replied, with a scornful look, because really, what was this man's problem? He turned away to Spaz.
"Do you suppose we could feed to spilled jam to the pigs down below?"
"Um," Spaz glanced a bit worriedly between the two men before replying, "I guess, I mean, pigs can eat just about anything we eat, though feeding them too much sugar isn't good. It might be a problem if we accidently leave some glass pieces in it though, so it'd be best to leave it."
"That's fine, I'll take care of the glass, and it's only half a jar full of jam. Go see if you can find some rags, mops, and buckets. We might as well give the whole floor a good scrub."
Spaz looked a bit wary about leaving Harry alone with the pirate, but it wasn't an issue for long as the man left with a final glare.
"Reparo," Harry softly incanted, fixing the jar and effectively removing all the glass from the jam still left on the floor, then scooping up the spilled jam into a bowl and setting it aside for Spaz to add to the rest of the leftovers that would end up as pig feed. Spaz came back soon after with rags, a pair of mops, and two buckets filled with water.
"Um, Harry," Spaz asked, as the two stacked the chairs into a corner and shoved the table to one side, "do you know why he doesn't seem to like you very much?"
"Afraid not, Spaz. It's actually very strange. At first, I just put it down to him being one of those really petty people who get mad over some small thing like when I wasn't intimidated by his glare back at the island, but I haven't seen him get mad at anyone else yet, and someone like that probably wouldn't make a very good pirate anyway. Then I thought maybe he just didn't like the idea of outsiders being welcomed by his captain who aren't even pirates, but what happened just now pretty much proved that wrong."
Spaz looked up from the bucket he was soaking his mop in. "Why is that?"
"Well," Harry smacked his mop onto the ground and began to scrub a bit in order to loosen to food bits and dirt caked between the planks. "For one thing, he seems pretty focused on me in particular."
"Oh," Spaz thought about that a bit as he too began mopping the floor, "but, well, it could just be that you were the one he had a fight with yesterday, right?"
"That's true, but the fight is the main reason I think there's something more to his attitude. I mean, usually, when you think someone is intruding on your territory or is bothering you, you feel pretty good about yourself after winning some sort of fight with the person, right? And usually, the winner acts all superior and smug when talking to the loser."
Harry knew this from plenty of experience with Dudley, Draco, and Voldemort. Dudley always made time to give Harry a smug little smile the day after a successful Harry Hunt. Draco certainly made plenty of smug little statements when he though he got one over Harry, like after the Remembrall incident in first year, and Merlin knows Voldemort had a long monologue about his superiority after his plan in fourth year brought Harry to the graveyard by portkey.
"I get it," Spaz chirped, "that guy didn't seem at all satisfied when he beat you, and he didn't even taunt you about losing or how you clearly didn't belong here if you couldn't even hold your own in a fight against a single pirate."
"Right," Harry gave a suspicious glance at Spaz. That example of what wasn't said was rather specific. "Although he did emphasize my place as errand boy on the ship, he still seemed like he was wary of me as a threat, rather than all self-assured that he could win against me if it ever comes to that."
"Yeah, like he's afraid you've got some other trick up your sleeve, or, or, were faking your loss and stuff like that, wow, he's weird, yes sirree, but I'll watch your back, Harry, you can count on me!"
"Haha, thanks Spaz, that's good to know," Harry grinned, glad that Spaz had cheered up a bit. He was a bit subdued when he first asked about the issue, but knowing what was wrong and deciding to help seemed to have brightened him up considerably.
The possibilities Spaz brought up worried Harry. It was true that in a life or death situation, Harry might have been able to win that fight. If he could catch the pirate off guard, then a quick disarming spell would have relieved the man of his pistols. Otherwise, if the blood Harry managed to draw yesterday was any indication of the pirate's dodging skills, even if he failed the disarming spell, he could dodge and apparate until the man needed to reload, than shoot off a series of stunners, without worrying about hitting the man's vitals. If he managed to get two spells to clip the man like his throwing knives did, the fight would've been over.
But, his opponent couldn't have known that. The pirate had never seen Harry fight before and really had no need to be suspicious about Harry hiding his capabilities. It wasn't the Devil Fruit, because he had to have seen that Harry couldn't pick up anything in his ghost state and thus couldn't attack, and Harry had never done any other magic in the presence of anyone but the disillusionment spell in front of Shanks and Beckman, and some conjuring, sticking, and apparating with Spaz, except –
Shit, Harry thought to himself. The healing! The audience clearly didn't realize Harry was hit across the temple and would've needed medical help, but it was naïve of him to believe the deliverer of the injury wouldn't know where he was aiming and that he hit his target. Now the man was probably suspicious about how Harry was able to recover so quickly.
That's just fan-bloody-tastic, Harry thought to himself with a sigh. Well, nothing he could do about it now. Perhaps later he could play it off for something that would make sense in this world. Were there other humanoid species in this world? Or strange powers that weren't magic but could still do abnormal things like heal injuries really fast? Spaz once mentioned something about high-tech weaponry, right?
Harry was still a little worried about what the man might try next, but decided to wait and see. Hopefully, as long as Shanks still seemed happy with the two, the pirate wouldn't dare to do anything too dramatic and risk his captain's wrath.
Spaz and Harry finished cleaning up and was just putting the chairs and table back into place when Beckman swung by.
"We're almost there, so finish up and move your butts up to where the captain is and try to stay put."
"Awesome! Neh, neh, did you hear that, Harry, didja, didja? We're almost there! We're gonna see water go up a mountain and ride it up too and then Whoosh! we're gonna be back in the Grand Line except Shanks said we were just passing through, yeah? What do you think he meant by that, Harry, cause if we're going to East Blue like that then we'll have to pass through the Calm Belt and I don't think that's possible, no sirree, we might get see a sea king though and that'd be kinda cool but scary too and…"
Harry nodded indulgently as he placed the final chair at the head of the table. He wasn't quite as excitable as Spaz, but Harry was definitely looking forward to this strange mountain. Ships sailing over a mountain by riding a stream of upward-flowing water? Not even the wizarding world back home could claim home to such a wonder!
A/N: And there you have it. Next time we'll finally go over Reverse Mountain, meet some familiar people, the works :) As for that pirate bugging Harry, we'll get to understand him better in a couple chapters more.
So, answers for reviewers without accounts:
Jade: Yes, haha, he could do a LOT with the ship if he knew some nice spells. However, there are some limits to Harry's knowledge of spells - that was always more of Hermione's thing after all. Unbreakable, fireproof, and cooling charms I can see him knowing, but until he's willing to paint a huge target on himself as the possessor of such an amazing power as magic, he probably won't be using them on Shanks' ship. I can't imagine him ever having learned ammo charms though maybe he can do some discrete duplicating charms every once in a while on the stored ammo. Space charms he might know, I'll have to think on it a bit. Flying spells I'm quite sure Harry would've made sure to learn at some point so he could make his own broom, but again, flying ships are kinda conspicuous. Anti-pest wards I can't see Harry knowing, nor anti-rust and rot charms, though I'm sure he can conjure wind to push the ship in emergencies. Stealth charms aren't canon, but a silencio could help. As for bad weather, I doubt Harry has the knowledge to create that either. I love your ideas, but I'm afraid a lot of them will have to wait until Harry can handle being infamous again. Thanks so much for the long review though! :)
Frytrix: Thanks for the review. I'm glad everyone likes how I'm making Harry grow stronger during the course of the story. I hope you continue to enjoy the story :)
That's all this time. Thank you everyone for supporting my story!
174 reviews as of today, December 29, 2010!