Chapter Text
Harry woke up to being shaken violently, reacting on instinct he pulled out his knife, swiping it out, earning a yelp as he cracked his eyes open, squinting he grabbed his glasses which he had clipped onto his shirt. “Wood?” he questioned groggily, seeing the quidditch captain standing there holding his wand to his arm, a cut healing. “By the heathen gods man what are ye doin’ wakin’ me up,” glancing at the window he saw it was still dark, “before the risin’ of the sun?”
Harry was part of the day shift, but he usually wasn’t woken until around eight.
“Quidditch practice!” Wood said exactly, as he slipped his wand into his pocket, “You have to catch up! Since you haven’t gotten any practice in.”
Harry groaned, “Ugh, I forgot about Quidditch,” he muttered as he rubbed his eyes.
“Forgot?! About Quidditch?!” Wood gasped, mouth falling open.
“Aye, it’s been almost a year after all,” Harry said, sitting up and getting out of the hammock. He gave a sigh, “Fine, what should I be doin’?”
“Good man, I’ll meet you at the pitch in 15 minutes, I got to wake the others first… though maybe I should do it from a distance,” Wood muttered rubbing the spot on his arm he just healed.
Harry hoped down from the hammock, stretching and his back cracked satisfyingly. Shaking his arms he grabbed his coat and slipped it on, before going to the chest and digging through it, looking for his broom.
Once he found it he headed down the stairs. “Excuse me, are you… are you really Harry Potter?” an unfamiliar voice called to him.
Turning he saw a short kid, obviously a firstie with mousy brown hair and the boy had a device around his neck. It took Harry a moment but he realized that the device was a camera. “And ye be?” Harry questioned.
“I’m Colin Creevey! I’m in Gryffindor, too.”
Harry pointedly looked around the common room, but Colin took no notice, continuing on. “D’you think, I mean… would it be all right if... What I’m trying to say...”
“Spit it out lad, I gotta get goin’,” Harry said with an annoyed huff.
“CanIhaveapicture!” The boy blurted out in a tumble of words. “I want to prove I’ve met you. I know all about you-”
“No, ye don’t,” Harry interrupted, narrowing his eyes, “Ye know what the wizards wrote about me. They think I did somethin’ to stop Voldemort-” Colin flinched at the name, “But I’d bet a doubloon it was my mother who actually stopped him. Now I gotta go, and if I see ye taken pictures of me, ye’ll be findin’ yer camera missin’.”
The boy swallowed, pulling his camera closer to him as he stared at Harry with wide watery hazel eyes.
Harry turned and left, heading towards the changing room. He was the first to arrive, and he leaned against the wall, waiting for everyone else to show up. It didn’t take long for the rest of the team to stumble in. Including one Parvati Patil. She gave a tired smile at seeing him, holding a Cleansweep Six. “Not exactly a Nimbus 2000, but it worked well enough for me, apparently I’m the best seeker in the house after you. I assume Wood will have me be your reserve in case something happens,” the girl said.
“That’s right!” Wood said, coming into the changing room. “Our first match is this weekend, so we will be practicing everyday for the match to catch Harry up to speed.”
There was a groaning that followed that, and Harry rubbed his head, “Wood, I’m a seeker, I don’t need to be part of the team practices, ye have practiced well enough that ye all know what ye are doin’, correct? Us practicin’ everyday won’t do anythin’ but tire the team out and make them grouchy. Since we’re already up we do this one practice, and if ye really think I’m not ready, just have Patil be the seeker for the first match, since ye ran through the practices with her. But I am not wakin’ up before the crack of dawn every mornin’ for a week, savvy?” Harry said, laying down his terms.
Wood had his mouth wide open, but the twins were cheering loudly, “You tell him Harry!”
“Yeah!”
He saw Alicia, Angelina, and Katie nodding in agreement.
Wood seemed to sink, “Oh fine, but you better have not lost any of your skill, or I’ll be doubling the practices after the Slytherin match. Malfoy has been bragging that winning will be a piece of cake with his Nimbus 2001.”
“Malfoy?” Harry questioned.
“Oh right, you don’t know,” one of the twins started to speak.
“Malfoy-”
“The git.”
“Was made as the slytherin seeker,” the second twin continued.
“-and he bought the entire team Nimbus 2001’s,” the first twin finished.
“I see,” Harry said with a nod and soon the team went out to the pitch and started to practice, and though it took a moment for him to get used to the broom again after so long, he was soon flying just as well as before. Maybe a bit better as he had an understanding of the winds and using the breezes to move.
As the practice ended Wood was grinning from ear to ear, “I take back what I said Harry, you still have your talent, though you need to get your quidditch robes fixed up before the match.”
“Aye, I’m sure one of the teachers will take me out to get them adjusted soon,” Harry responded as they headed in and to the Great Hall to get breakfast. Noticing people staring at him as he walked through the hallways, he jutted his head up a bit, swaying a bit more than he usually did as he gave a grin. If there was one thing learning under Jack had taught him, it was that confidence could go a long way.
Entering the Great Hall he looked up and down the Gryffindor table, and smiled as he saw Ron already at the table he went over to his friend. “Where have you been?” he questioned, mouth full of food, though Harry had no trouble understanding it, used to it from eating in the mess with the crew.
“Quidditch practice, Wood woke me up before dawn,” he said, grabbing a plate of food.
“What did you do to your bed, mate?” Ron asked.
“Made a hammock, it’s how I got used to sleepin’,” Harry answered.
“Will you be changing into your Hogwarts robes before classes?” Hermione questioned, sitting across from them
“They’re a bit small, and besides me clothes are more comfortable,” Harry responded waving a hand. “Though I’m sure the teachers will force me to get properly fittin’ robes,” Harry smirked, “It’s not like I care whatever punishment they try an’ give me, an’ it amuses me to imagine Snape’s face.”
Ron snickered, and Hermione shook her head disapprovingly.
With his plate full of food he started to eat, tearing into the food with relish. This was another thing he had missed, the abundant amount of food.
He reached for a drink, and grimaced as he swallowed it down. “Is something wrong?” Hermione asked, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.
“No,” Harry replied with a sigh.
Hermione frowned, “Are you sure, you look disappointed,” she questioned gently.
“I’m fine, it’s just gonna take some gettin’ used to, bein’ back here an’ all. So which classes do we have today?” Harry questioned.
“Double DADA with Professor Lockhart, Charms, and Potions.”
Harry nodded, “So what’s Lockhart like then?”
“He’s brilliant.”
“He’s a load of tosh.”
Both his friends answered at the same time, giving completely different views of the professor. Hermione pulled a few books out of her bag, titled various things such as ‘Break with a Banshee’, ‘Gadding with Ghouls’, ‘Magical Me’, and ‘Travels with Trolls’. “That’s a lot of books,” Harry said.
“The professor had us buy his entire collection for our textbooks.”
Harry grabbed one of the books and flipped through it briefly, frowning, “I’m not seeing any instructions on how to complete the spells, is there a specific section of the book where it says how to do the spells?”
“Well… no, but he’s been giving demonstrations in class,” Hermione said.
Ron snorted, “If by demonstrations you mean having us act out scenes from his book without actually doing anything.”
There was a fluttering and in front of him Hedwig landed in front of him, sucking in a deep breath he reached over, running his fingers through her soft feathers, “Why hello luv, it’s been awhile.”
She nipped at his fingers affectionately, giving a soft bark. He smiled, “Sorry for leavin’ ye behind girl, I didn’t mean to.”
Hedwig just stared at him for a moment, and Harry held a piece of bacon for her to eat. “I wonder if ye would have gotten along with Mr. Cotton’s Parrot, or with Jack,” Harry said, thinking more about the monkey than the human.
“Mr. Cotton’s Parrot?” Hermione questioned, “Why not just say the name of the parrot.”
“I would lass, if I knew it. The poor devil had his tongue cut out and can’t speak, though he’s trained his parrot to speak for him.”
She blinked, “If he can’t talk, how did he train the parrot to talk for him?”
“No one knows.”
Breakfast came to an end and with it they headed to their first class of the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts.
As soon as he entered he grimaced as tons of photos of a blonde man smiling widely assaulted him.
Sitting down he leaned back, tipping his hat down and closing his eyes, planning to take a quick wink of sleep before the class started.
"Going muggle?" an annoying voice questioned.
'Must not shoot,' Harry actively chanted in his mind as he cracked an eye open to look at Malfoy who was sneering at him with a young looking face.
Had he ever thought Malfoy was an actual threat to him? He couldn't remember, though he recalled Malfoy being his rival. But, as he stared at the boy he couldn't help but find the other boy a bit pathetic.
Harry had faced off against pirates with barely any training with a cutlass. Had escaped from being hung. Had escaped from prison. Had stared redcoats in the face as they aimed guns at him.
He had pillaged and plundered ships. Had likely caused people to die through his actions.
He closed his eye, ignoring Malfoy. "You should have stayed dead Potter, especially if you're just going to act like some sort of muggle."
Harry gave a snort.
Hearing murmuring he opened his eyes to see Malfoy pointing a wand at him with narrowed eyes.
Slowly he sat up moving his hand to his pistol. "Ye gonna curse me?" Harry questioned.
Malfoy snickered "Merlin you're even talking more barbaric, what have you been taking lessons from that brute, what was his name? Haggard?"
Pulling out his pistol he pulled the hammer back, aiming it square between Malfoy's eyes. "Mate, I'm gonna assume ye don't know what this is. Let me tell yah. Its a pistol, muggle invention, and with it I can kill ye."
Malfoy sneered, "You? Kill me?!" the boy laughed.
"Don't do it," Hermione called out, voice tinged with horror. "Think about this Harry! You'll get expelled if you do accidentally kill him."
"Who said anythin' about it bein' an accident?" Harry called out.
The two boys stared at each other, wand and pistol facing off, each looking for a weakness in each other.
The door slammed open, and Harry was pointing the pistol on reflex before he could even think about it.
"Good morning class! Today we will be going over a scene from Gadding with Ghouls!" the professor said, seemingly oblivious to the weapon pointed at him.
Harry put his pistol away as Malfoy strolled to his own seat.
After Lockhart finished his introduction which made even Harry's list of crimes seem short, the man turned his attention to Harry.
Harry swallowed, feeling a sinking feeling in his gut as he realized that he was about to have yet another blondes attention on him.
Small part of chapter seven, what I had written before I gave up on this :
Harry stormed out of the classroom, uncaring that he hadn’t been dismissed. If he didn’t he was going to go crazy. Lockhart had tried to have him demonstrate one of his scenes from his book. Harry had asked how this was supposed to teach him the spell and the man blustered out some answers.
Now, Harry was used to exaggerations, he was a pirate after all, but they usually held some grain of truth to them. For example, in Jack's tale of escaping rumrunner island, he had in fact been marooned, he had in fact been there three days.
People wouldn’t believe the books if there wasn’t some sort of truth to them. So somehow these stories had to have happened in some fashion, but watching Lockhart made Harry extremely doubtful.
Still, how many would look at Jack and think he was a terrible pirate?
Harry would just have to keep watching and determine if Lockhart was completely lying, or if maybe there was a grain of truth to what he was saying. It still didn’t change the fact that the man was annoying and narcissistic.