Harry Potter and the Queen Anne's Revenge
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Harry the Pirate
3 years earlier
In Knockturn Alley, Borgin is awaiting the arrival of a delivery of his latest merchandise. While en route, the delivery boy gets attacked by some seedy residents of the alley and ends up having his bag of merchandise (and himself) blown to pieces as some of the more volatile items come into contact. Among those things, a battered and rusty lamp gets knocked into the sewer.
Setting
As he's walking through the streets near the river, Harry (8) notices a strange object sticking out of the mud. He pulls it and finds it to be a lamp. After cleaning it in the river, he takes it home and hides it away in his cupboard. That night, while he's reading a story about Blackbeard, Harry accidentally awakens the genie sleeping within the lamp. Because he's still just a child (innocent and open), the genie grants him his dearest wish: a life of freedom and opportunity, just like the pirates he was reading about. He teleports Harry to where Blackbeard had had his ship Queen Anne's Revenge hidden away within a magical cove and placed under a stasis spell.
Following the genie's advice to 'find the Captain's sword', Harry goes into the Captain's Quarters and finds the sword. Upon touching it, the sword/ship recognizes Harry as its new master. With some experimentation, Harry learns how to pilot and control the ship. He sets out to find crewmembers and to make a name for himself.
Backstory for Main Story
Harry immerses himself into a world of magical 'pirates' in the Caribbean. There are three main factions of magicals that live in the Caribbean: sailors, pirates, and Aztecs. The sailors are legal transporters and shippers of exotic goods found exclusively in the Caribbean. They transport these goods to their home countries of Europe (primarily), Africa, Asia Minor, and the Far East to distribute and sell. The pirates attack and plunder these ships' cargo for loot, which they then sell back to the original distributors for a handsome fee to return to their lives of debauchery and partying, before going broke and needing to plunder again. The Aztecs are the remnants of the Aztec Empire and they seek to return to their old ways by destroying the pirates and sailors' ways of life, making them the universal enemies of both.
But the pirates also have a darker side. Many pirates desire to return to the days and ways of the Golden Age where they could plunder Muggles just as easily as magicals. As far as their magic goes, they focus less on learning archaic phrases and fancy wand-waving, and more on using magical objects with special effects and to gain powers. As a whole, the pirates are extremely disorganized and fractured by uneasy and wavering alliances. But, whenever facing a foe who threatens their ways of life (commonly the Aztecs or the occasional European armada), they have been known to temporarily unite to protect themselves and each other. Very few pirates own more than one ship and even fewer have the respect, prestige, and knowledge to command a fleet (however large or small).
Many of the Dark Crews (slang for Dark Wizards) search for the wrecks of ancient, powerful pirate ships. They desire the ships not only for the infamy they'd gain, but to also unlock their secrets (the Captains were extremely secretive in their magics) and add that knowledge to their repertories. The pirates live by the saying: knowledge is power. When not partying, they are actively seeking more knowledge to add to their power.
Misc Notes:
*Blackbeard was a dark wizard pirate, one of the reasons he was so feared. His true name was Andrew Cartigan of Scotland. He went by various names and disguises during the Golden Age of Pirates, but the most famous was his Blackbeard persona. He had decided that he'd fake Blackbeard's death and then return a few years later under the same name and ship in order to further terrorize the Caribbean. But he had been betrayed by one of his crew, who'd led a united magical armada up against Blackbeard to capture and execute him. It was a savage but brief battle, resulting in Blackbeard's death. The genie knew of the Queen Anne's Revenge's location because it had been present when Blackbeard hid it. Centuries later, the Revenge was still waiting for its captain to return and reclaim it.
*Genies are considered Dark Creatures because they are very devious and dangerous to their supposed 'masters'. They have to grant the wishes (only 1 per master) of the one who awakened them from their slumber, but unless the wisher is very clear in how he states his wish, the genie could easily turn it against them. But there are some exceptions to this rule. The biggest exception is whether or not the genie can respect the wisher. But another exception is if the wisher is a young, innocent child. Genies can sympathize with children and often grant them their truest wishes without even needing to be asked, especially if the child was a truly kind-hearted one.
*Queen Anne's Revenge has numerous special abilities. It is 'automated' to the commands of the Captain, it can surround itself with smoke and fog, turn invisible, can shoot Greek Fire, submerge itself, and (temporarily) leave the seas to float in the sky in order to cross over land or reefs to reach safety or new water. Despite having numerous cannons and gun-emplacements, Harry eventually upgrades it to having some rocket launchers, disguised metal hull plates for armor, and being Untraceable. Thanks to the high amounts of magic that saturates its very wood, the Revenge is invisible to all forms of Muggle sensory (sonar, radar, infrared, ect). Knowing that having his ship named the Queen Anne's Revenge would cause him a lot of troubles in the short run, Harry briefly renames the ship to the Adventurer.
*Pirate combat hasn't changed much beyond the days of the Golden Age. While they've adapted many weapons of the Muggles (torpedoes, handguns, RPGs), they still prefer to fight with cutlasses, daggers, axes, and hammers, especially since hand-to-hand combat is much less likely to damage the merchant ship and the precious cargo.