Chapter Text
Harry swallowed, looking at the strange creature as it moved off his bed. “Er,” Harry started, before realizing he was being rude and tacking on, “Hello I’m Harry P-”
“Harry Potter!” The creature interrupted in a high-pitched voice. Harry winced and glanced at the door, hoping that the sound didn’t carry to his relatives. “So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, such an honor it is…” the creature said, wide green eyes bulging out of his head.
“What are you?” Harry asked, grimacing a moment as he realized what he had asked, “I mean, who are you?”
“Dobby, sir. Dobby the house-elf,” the creature, house elf(?), answered.
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but this really isn’t a good time for me to have a house-elf visiting,” Harry said, watching Dobby. The elf hung it’s head, wringing its hands together. Not sure what exactly a house elf was, or what it could do if he angered it he quickly added, “Not that I'm not pleased to meet you, but, er, is there any particular reason you're here?"
The elf perked up, nodding his head, ears flopping around, “Oh yes sir! Dobby has come to tell you sir… it’s difficult, sir… Dobby wonders where to begin.”
“From the beginning?” Harry prompted. Then gestured to his bed, “How about you sit down?” he suggested, remembering to be polite.
And with that the elf burst into tears.
“S-sit down!” he wailed, causing Harry to wince and once more glance at the door. "Never... never ever…”
Harry thought he heard the voices downstairs falter. "I'm sorry," he whispered, trying to figure out how to get the elf to be quiet. "I didn't mean to offend you or anything."
"Offend Dobby!" choked the elf. "Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard,” the elf stared wide eyed and whispered, “like an equal..."
Harry, trying to say "Shh!" and look comforting at the same time, ushered Dobby back onto the bed where he sat hiccoughing, looking like a large and very ugly doll. At last he managed to control himself, and sat with his great eyes fixed on Harry in an expression of watery adoration.
It took a few moments, but the house-elf finally stopped crying. Harry decided to keep his mouth shut, not knowing what might prompt the elf into tears again.
The elf swallowed, “Dobby heard tell," he said hoarsely, “that Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time just weeks ago... that Harry Potter escaped yet again.”
Harry gave a nod, and Dobby’s eyes glistened, “Ah, sir," he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. “Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later... Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."
Harry blinked, first over hearing that the elf would be shutting his ears in the oven door, and then the fact the elf wanted him to stay here. With the Dursleys. Wanted to keep him from his only method of escape. His freedom.
“I have to go back. Term starts on the first. I don’t belong here!” he whispered loudly, trying to mind his volume.
"No, no, no," squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. "Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger."
"Why?" said Harry in surprise.
"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make the most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!"
"What terrible things?" questioned Harry at once. "Who's plotting them?"
Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his head frantically against the wall.
Eyes widening in shock he grabbed the elf pulling him away, “Stop that!”
“Dobby must punish himself sir, Dobby can’t be spilling his family’s secrets.”
“Family?”
“Dobby is a house-elf, bound to his family and serving them.”
Harry swallowed, “And you can’t escape?”
“No sir. Dobby must be set free. Only if my family gives me a piece of clothing may I be free.”
“So this family of yours… have they done something?” Harry mused, then noticing Dobby moving to hurt himself again he quickly added, “You don’t have to answer, I was just thinking out loud.”
The elf stopped his movements.
“Look, I was in danger last year, and everything worked out in the end, right? I have to go back to Hogwarts, no matter what danger I face. Besides, my friends are there.”
“Friends who don’t even write to Harry Potter?” The house elf said, head tilted to the side, and eyes wide.
Harry froze, eyes meeting the elf, he narrowed his eyes, “How do you know my friends haven't been writing to me?”
Dobby looked nervous, shuffling his feet and wringing his hands together, “Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best-”
"Have you been stopping my letters?" Harry interrupted, no longer caring about being polite.
"Dobby has them here, sir," said the elf. Stepping nimbly out of Harry's reach, he pulled a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing. Harry could make out Hermione's neat writing, Ron's untidy scrawl, and even a scribble that looked as though it was from the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid.
His friends hadn’t forgotten him. With the flood of relief at that information he glared down at Dobby, who shrunk down, “Harry Potter mustn't be angry... Dobby hoped... if Harry Potter thought his friends had forgotten him... Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir. Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he gives Dobby his word that he will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, sir, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, sir!”
“Nothing you do will stop me from going back to Hogwarts, even if you keep the letters I will still go to Hogwarts, even if my friends really did abandon me I would still go back,” Harry hissed.
Dobby shook his head, “Dobby must stop you, even if it means getting you expelled. Dobby bes warning you. ”
Harry froze, “What?”
“Young wizards aren’t allowed to do magic, sir. Dobby will make them think Harry Potter did magic, then you will not be returning to Hogwarts,” Dobby revealed, heading towards the door.
“That won’t work,” Harry said, before he could even think about what he was saying, “As you said yourself, I’m Harry Potter, they wouldn’t stop me from going to Hogwarts just because I used magic,” Harry had no idea what he was saying, they might expel him, he just had no idea. But it didn’t need to be true did it? He just needed Dobby to think it was true.
The elf paused, seeming to think about this before giving a slow reluctant nod, “You’se be right.”
Harry gave a sigh of relief.
“Dobby will just have to make sure that you can’t get to Hogwarts.”
Before Harry could say anything the little creature snapped his fingers, and with a loud crack Harry found himself falling.
He screamed a bit before he crashed and then sunk into the water.
Disoriented and confused he scrambled to swim to the surface as he gasped for breath. Coughing out a bit of the salty water he started to tread as he looked around.
Water.
Water as far as he could see.
Was this Dobby’s plan? To kill him via drowning in the ocean? Maybe he shouldn’t have stopped Dobby’s original plan if his alternative was to get him killed. Didn’t Dobby want him to not get to Hogwarts so he wouldn’t be in danger? This seemed pretty counterintuitive.
He swallowed and once more looked around, eyes narrowing as he spotted something in the distance. What it was he couldn’t tell, but it was something, and so he started swimming.
He estimated it took about an hour or so, but when he arrived he saw it was a piece of wood, floating on the top of the water.
Grabbing a hold of the wood he sighed in relief, arms trembling a bit as he pulled himself onto the piece of wood. He found himself drifting along the waves and with no idea which direction to go he let himself be pulled along.
The hours slowly passed as the sun drifted down, which now that he was thinking about it, hadn’t it been night time already? And now the sun was back up. Which meant that Dobby must have transported him quite a way aways.
Yawning, he realized just how exhausted he was, especially after swimming for an hour. Laying out on the board he fell asleep to the rocking of the water.
Several times throughout the night he woke up with water splashing him as the sea turmoiled. But eventually he was somewhat rested, and the sun was up again. His stomach rumbled.
His mouth felt dry as he looked at the water surrounding him, “Water, water everywhere, yet not a drop to drink,” he murmured, remembering the salty taste of the water that had gotten into his mouth.
Salt water.
Which he knew was unsafe to drink.
So he sat there, drifting.
Left with nothing but his thoughts.
Harry woke up with a gasp as water splashed against his face again. Or at least that was his first thought. When the water trickled into his mouth he realized it wasn’t water at all. "Where in the seven seas did ye come from small... boy... child... thing."
Harry blinked, croaking out a groan as his head pounded, and he couldn’t really see much. Not for lack of glasses but everything felt horrible. His throat felt like the sandpaper his uncle had him use to scrape off paint before he repainted the item.
“Drink up,” the same voice as earlier said, and Harry felt something being placed to his mouth, and he gulped it down. This stuff actually tasted somewhat like water, unlike whatever had splashed him awake.
As the water went down he felt a bit better. Looking around he saw he was on a boat. It was small, only one sail and barely big enough to hold both him and the other person.
Looking at the other person he blinked again at the strange clothes the other man wore on his head he had a black hat, of a type Harry hadn’t seen before. In his long brown hair he had beads braided throughout it and there was some red cloth mixed in that was coming from underneath his hat. He wore a long coat over a loose dingy white shirt, covered with a blue brocade vest. A belt crossed his vest while two rested on his hips, a sword and a gun nestled in it. Loose brown pants were tucked into huge knee-height leather boots.
Such strange clothes that he had never seen anyone wearing, or at least no one living, he might have seen a ghost wear something like this in passing. The ghost had creeped him out a bit, staring at him. If Harry didn’t know better he would have thought the ghost had recognized him. But that was impossible. Though he supposed it was also possible that the ghost knew an ancestor of his.
Looking back up at the man's face he swallowed, “Wh-” he coughed, throat still hurting. “Where… am I?”
“Ye’r on my boat, and I am Captain Jack Sparrow.”
“Okay?” Harry said, confused as the man looked at him like he expected to be recognized.
“The best pirate of the Carribean?” the man prompted.
Harry just blinked again. Pirate? Pirates still exist? He thought that pirates had died out centuries ago. Carribean? Was that where he was? Harry was fairly sure he had heard that before, but he couldn’t place where it was in the world.
The man, Jack, huffed, “So what happened lad?”
“I was stranded at sea,” Harry answered after a moment, “I’ve been floating along for a few days, so um thanks, for rescuing me.”
Everything ached, and he still felt incredibly groggy. Against his will he felt his eyes slipping close again.
“Oi! Don’t ye go dying on me now, I just rescued you!”
Feeling something pressed to his mouth he instinctively drank, before immediately coughing as a taste of something decidedly not water hit his mouth. Still it was something to drink so he drank whatever it was that was being offered. It almost seemed to burn a bit, his throat heating up.
And whatever it was at least seemed to help the pain go away a bit, which was nice. “There ye go lad, feelin’ more awake now?”
Harry nodded.
“Good, cause if you plan on stayin’ aboard you’re gonna be having to pull your share of the work. Savvy?”
Harry looked around the boat, “Alright, what do you need me to do?” he questioned. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere. Well unless the man actually did kick him off the boat for not pulling his weight. But Harry was used to having to earn his keep, and this definitely couldn’t be as bad as doing chores for his relatives.
Jack grinned, “Well first of all, ye’r gonna be havin’ to do some fishin’ I don’t have enough food for the both of us. Really not even enough water, though the rum should hopefully last us until we arrive at Port Royal.”
“Rum!” Harry exclaimed looking at the drink in his hand with wide eyes, hastily holding it out to Jack.
The man laughed as he grabbed it and tossed his head back, gulping big drinks, “Never had some before lad?”
“No, I’m twelve!”
“Twelve! I thought you were nine!” Jack exclaimed. “Never had rum before, the horror…” he groaned, hands moving out as if to express his horror.
“Where are we?” Harry asked, trying to ignore the voice in his head that sounded like Hermione that was scolding him for drinking underage. How was he supposed to know?
“Somewhere in the Carribean seas, hopefully in the right direction of Port Royal,” Jack answered, pulling out a device and looking at it for a moment. “It’ll be a week or so at this current speed. But only so long as the winds remain favorable.”
It was silent for a bit as Harry sipped another jug of water that Jack had handed over. “Alright lad, if ye want to be eatin’ you’re gonna be needin’ to catch some fish,” Jack said, handing over a pole.
Harry stared at it for a moment, before grabbing it and looking it over, trying to figure out how it worked. “Never fished before?”
“No sir,” Harry answered, flushing.
“Here, watch,” the man instructed.
With that Harry took his first lessons in fishing.
And yes, when he stood up he ended up stumbling and falling a lot as the boat rocked side to side with the waves, unlike Jack who seemed to have no problem. He also had no problem laughing as Harry tripped and banged himself up on the small boat.
At least he then proceeded to point out some tips to help Harry get his ‘sea legs’.