Song of the Sea

Chapter Six: The Confessions

"So a nutter who was in wizard jail's escaped and is now trying to kill you?" said Jack incredulously after she finished recounting the story of Solomon Annon.

"Pretty much," said Diane darkly. "I honestly don't know how he got out, but I guess that's anyone's spectuation." She took a sip of wine and rubbed her eyes, which were red and tired from crying earlier. Jack was leaning forward, chin cupped in his hands and his eyes bright.

"That's very interesting," he murmured, almost as if to himself. "So he sent that storm and destroyed the figurehead..." He lapsed into silence for several minutes, thinking to himself. When she was thinking of going to sleep, he spoke again. "This nutter...was the old man his father?"

She shrugged and yawned. "Doesn't seem so, does it? I wonder...if old Mr. Annon wasn't his father, who was? He didn't really look like anyone else from our village."

"You knew him, didn't you?"

"Everyone knew everyone else where we lived. The Annons were easily the wealthiest family, and while I lived with my aunt and uncle, they seemed fairly normal. The 'nutter' didn't really seem too different from everyone else--a little reclusive, a little quick-tempered, but I never thought he'd actually kill anyone." She took another sip of wine and continued. "They were one of the few wizarding families there, along with us. He never really seemed like a bad chap, just a bit of a temper."

"Barbossa never seemed like a bad chap either," said Jack darkly. He was studying her intently, the way he had on the first night they'd met. "You never knew that he was going to escape?"

"The thought never occured to me, mostly because no one's ever escaped from Azkaban before. Then again, no one's ever managed to create a storm like yesterday's before, so who knows what he's capable of?" She cut off, looking very pensive. Her talk with Jack had gotten rid of most of her initial blind fear, but it was now replaced by wariness, and above all, confusion. How could he have escaped? More importantly, how can he know that I'm here? These and myriads of other questions chased themselves around and around in her head, until her mind was reeling, and she felt that she could really do with her father's Pensieve.

"Didn't the nutter say something along the lines of, 'Why did you not tell me what I am?' to the old chap?" said Jack curiously.

"Yes. I assume that Solomon has some unusual power or some unusual ability that Old Annon didn't tell him about. I guess that that, whatever it was, is what he used to escape."

"But why now? Couldn't he just have finished you off two years ago? Or five?"

"How'm I supposed to know? I don't regularly look into the minds of 'nutters', as you so elequently put it," snapped Diane, feeling increasingly tired and irritated. Jack cocked an eyebrow at her, and she sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to sound snappish, but it's been a trying couple of days."

"Trying? Deadly and too magically airy-fairy for my taste would be nearer the mark," said Jack with a hint of dryness in his voice. "So, Miss Fairy. Your department. Where do we go from here?"

Diane sighed again and fiddled with the edge of her sleeve. "In all honesty, I don't really know. I have a bad feeling about this Isla de Muerta--Island of the Dead. Then again, if the ship stays at sea, Solomon could easily whip up another storm." She drained her glass of wine, set the goblet down, and continued, "But I'm the one that he's after. If you just leave me on shore and forget about this whole thing, I can just deal with him."

Jack shook his head vehemently. "No, little fairy. That nutter nearly killed two of my crew and almost sank my ship. I'm in on it too now, like it or not."

"You've got an overdeveloped sense of vengence. You might be a pirate, and an expert swordsman, and whatever else, but he's a wizard. And a nutter--an extremely angry one," she said in exasperation. He merely chuckled.

"Sure, he's a wizard, and an extremely angry nutter, but I'm Captain Jack Sparrow." He gave her his typical lopsided grin, and she couldn't help but laugh at the sheer irony of the situation.

"And a hopeless nutcase," she said, still chuckling and raising her hands in mock defeat. "Fine. You win. As always."

"I love winning. I usually get gold and drinks all around," said Jack dryly. "And this time, I get evil nutters and wizards all around. Not exactly the victory that I would like, but it's still a victory, which is savvy."

"You're talking in circles, Captain Jack Sparrow the all-powerful pirate king. We both need sleep, or we won't be worth dead flobberworms in the morning." He nodded and moved over in the bed for her to lie down. He figured that he didn't want to know what dead flobberworms were like.

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Diane woke up early the next morning, and started to slip out of bed when she realized that Jack was still sleeping. She'd never seen him sleeping when she was already up--with his eyes closed...he almost looked innocent. Almost. She gave herself a little shake and headed back up on deck, doing the usual repairs while trying to come up with a plan.

She still had a very bad feeling about Isla de Muerta...the name just totally creeped her out. But still, Jack had told her that you could only find it if you'd been there before, or with that weird compass of his. As she fixed a few frayed ropes, the truth finally hit home. Solomon was after her blood, and by casting his lot in with her, Jack's life and the lives of his crew were essentially in her hands. She rubbed her temples in frustration--why now? On top of everything else, why did she have to deal with him as well?

Perhaps they could dock on Isla de Muerta, restock on money and supplies overnight, and head for...but he could easily set a storm after them, and he'd already proven that he could kill all of them without lifting a pinky. Diane scowled and rubbed her forehead again. Never a morning person, she figured they would think later, when she was actually awake.

"Miss?" said the gruff voice of Gibbs. She let out a yelp like a startled puppy and whirled around, drawing her wand. He stepped back hastily, eyeing her wand.

"Sorry." She stuck her wand back into her pocket, slightly ashamed for her skittish reaction. "What is it?"

"How be Jack? Can he get up now?" he demanded roughly. Diane nodded, heart rate still slowing down.

"He's fine, and he'll be up and about in a few minutes." Just as she said that, Jack popped his head above decks to much cheering and yells from his crew. He grinned and bowed briefly at the pirates before heading over to Diane and tousling her hair. He tipped her a quick wink before heading up to the helm again. She chuckled slightly and shook her head--he was always so easy-going. Of course, he was never really that easy on anything; a hard-learned lesson for her during her three weeks on board the Pearl. "How far are we from the island?" he yelled at Gibbs.

"Just a bit, Cap'n Sparrow! Should be on the horizon any minute!" Realizing with a brief jolt of panic that she only had a few hours to postpone their planning, Diane hurried up to Jack and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What is it, love?" he drawled with a spark of excitement in his eyes as they gazed out onto the open sea.

"Don't call me 'love' for the umpteenth time," she replied automatically. "What we talked about last night?"

"Ah. The nutter?" he said airily, eyes still fixed on the ocean.

"Call him that if you like. I figure that we might as well go to the island and get your gold and supplies, but is it possible for us to leave in the early morning hours?" Jack finally took his gaze off of the sea and stared at her incredulously.

"In the morning? No sense of adventure or exploration, Miss Fairy. There's probably more gold hidden elsewhere."

"Thought you said you had enough? Besides, what's the betting that it's not cursed? You'll get adventure enough by getting tangled up with Solomon," she said acidly. Jack gave her a bit of a pout before slowly nodding. She was about to turn away and muse a bit more when he suddenly reached out and touched her arm.

"Wanna try sailing her?" he said lightly. She stared at him in disbelief. "You're no sailor, but you might as well try a bit, savvy?"

"I'm allowed to?" He nodded and let go of the wheel with his right hand, giving her a challenging look. She stepped back slightly from him, eyeing the sea with some mistrust.

"Not scared, are you, little fairy?" he teased. The tone in his voice and the look in his eyes were enough for her to step up to the wheel and gingerly grip the handles. It felt a bit like an oversized wand handle, worn smooth from Jack's hands gripping it. He let go of the wheel and she felt a slight rush of panic. She clutched the handles so hard that her knuckles turned white, as though a tiny shift in its position would be the end of the world. Jack sighed from behind her and stepped up next to her, putting his hands over hers on the helm.

"Don't death-grip her, Diane. Just relax," he whispered in her ear. He was so close that she could feel his body heat and his breath fluttered her hair. Which was not helping her to relax. "Easy on the grip, easy on the turning. She's not a machine." Diane nodded and gulped, relaxing her death-clutch ever so slightly. For all her magical abilities, she couldn't even steer a ship when it was going straight; the thought was almost laughable. Jack gently turned the wheel a bit, and as though her senses were heightened, she fancied that she could feel the turn, even though it was something she never would've been able to normally.

Several minutes later, she had loosened up a bit and could actually talk and hold the wheel at the same time. "How in Merlin's name can you do this all the time?" she hissed through still-clenched teeth.

"That's my type of magic, love," he said, chuckling slightly so that she could feel his body shake. She didn't bother rebuking him, just focused all her attention on keeping the ship on her present course. "So? What do you think of the Pearl?"

"I think that you're a nutcase for actually enjoying the command over her." Jack laughed again and squeezed her hands. She could feel the calluses and scars that he had from fighting, and really noticed for the first time how much smaller she was in comparison to him; and in comparison to his ship.

"She's the only lady I know well enough to command fairly," he said quietly, and Diane again heard the barest hint of wistfulness that she'd heard when he'd talked about Elizabeth and Will. She gave him a slightly preoccupied smile and handed the helm over to him.

"She's all yours, Cap'n." He gave her an equally troubled smile and gently squeezed her hands again before letting her go. She quickly walked away from him and returned to the daily repairs, shaking her head to clear it. Now was not the time to examine emotions or act rashly or any of that idealistic idiocy. Despite all of her stern training from her father to read people's feelings and to be perceptive, she suddenly realized that she wasn't at all perceptive to herself. I can know others, but not myself...how does that work? I'll just have to deal with this later...

"LAND!" called Parker from the crow's nest, jolting Diane out of her brooding as the ship's moderate activity escalated in a flurry of frenzied movement. As usual, she darted out of the way and headed up to the bow. Jack didn't notice her watching him, and she marveled to see how he almost seemed to be a part of his ship, working in perfect sync with all the things that she could never understand. Someone called her over to help with a rusty pulley, and she sighed and turned away.

There were no docking areas on Isla de Muerta, and in the year since they'd overthrown Barbossa, the crew of the Black Pearl hadn't bothered building lodging or anything; it wasn't a place where one would want to spend the night. This left them only one choice: to anchor near the cave where all the riches were stached and return to the ship to sleep. Diane watched with a mix of amusement and pity for a moment as Gibbs and three other pirates struggled to load the boats with seven heavy treasure chests before levitating the chests in. Jack stepped into a boat just as the last chest was touching down and offered her a hand in. She accepted with good grace, but looked askance at the oar that he handed to her.

"We're going to row?" she said incredulously. Jack raised his eyebrows at her.

"What do you suggest we do? Fly?" The instant the words were out of his mouth, Diane went for her wand with a sparkle in her eyes. "Oh no...I've had too much magic worked on me already..."

"We're not going to fly," she said dryly, and tapped the back of each little boat with her wand, sending them shooting off toward the island. She laughed as a few of the pirates still tried to paddle with an intensely confused expressions on their faces. Jack chuckled too as their boat shot ahead of the others, being the only one not burdened by heavy chests. "See? I told you we weren't going to fly!"

"No sense of hard, sweaty work. Lazy, you wizards are."

"I hate you," she replied, but her eyes told a different story.

"Thanks. I love you too, little fairy," he teased, and tousled her hair again. She shoved him away, determined not to feel anything, and turned her attention back to the island, which was approaching rapidly. Neither of them said anything as the boats shot toward the cave as a terrific speed, but he gave her more odd looks the closer they got; he probably thought that the little boats were going to be dashed into pieces as they headed through a tunnel and toward the rocky shore. When Jack had opened his mouth to yell at her, the boats slowed to a crawl, gently bumping up onto land. He closed his mouth and let out an involuntary sigh of relief, making Diane snicker.

"Never do that again, savvy?" he said severely.

"Aye aye, Cap'n," she said, and hopped out of the vessel. She was about to head on into the cave complex, but he leapt out too and barred her path.

"By all means, if you wish to die here, continue walking," he said nonchalantly. "You don't know your way around." She stopped dead and bit her lip again, but didn't argue as the rest of the pirates heaved the trunks up onto the shore and hoisted them onto their shoulders.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake. Locomotor Trunks!" The trunks floated up into the air and hurtled before them, held up by her wand. More than one sigh of relief came from the pirates and Jack led them through the labyrinth of tunnels and caves. Diane struggled to remember; left, right, left, left, far right fork...but it was impossible. The captain seemed to know where he was going, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt and stuck rather closer than she usually would.

The last chamber, as they approached it, seemed to be brighter than the others, but no different until they entered. Veritable mountains of gold, streams of pearls and jewels, and chests overflowing with rare and rich antiques met her eyes, all glowing with an unreal light. She gasped and simply stood there, completely dumbfounded at all the riches at Jack Sparrow's command. She now understood why he'd refuted her original offer of gold: her family's entire net worth was scarcely a tenth of all this.

"We haven't got all day, lassie. Kindly move on and drop those chests," growled someone from behind her, sounding completely immune to the wonders within the chamber. As though in a dream, she moved into the center of the cave and muttered the countercurse. Jack gave a disapproving glance to his pirate, but had to laugh at Diane's expression.

"You're on your way to being a pirate, Miss Fairy," he said, and immediately he and his crew began grabbing handfuls of gold and jewels and loading the chests with them. She carefully climbed her way across the room, being very cautious not to step on anything priceless. There was a mound of jewels near her hand, and she was about to pick up the closest brooch when a voice sounded in her head, cutting through the spell the riches had placed on her: foolish. She withdrew as though burned; she was as idiotic and greedy as any Muggle child--any of this could easily be cursed, and she might not even know it.

Diane pulled out her wand and muttered a different form of the Identification Spell, which would make anything that had been magically tampered with glow green. There were sporadic patches of green all over the room, most of them on old items and old jewels. She ran to Jack and he looked up from rummaging through yet another old metal chest.

"Don't touch anything that's green. Or for that matter, stay a few feet away from the green things--it means they've been charmed." He nodded and passed the message on to his crew, one of whom froze dead, having just reached for a glowing silver goblet. She examined it--nothing odd. Just a goblet with the Black family motto and crest on it, spelled to repel dirt and grime. Over the constant clink, clink, of coins dropping into the chests, she headed over examine some other green things.

Most were fairly innocous, with preservation spells and the like. One antique Persian tapestry, however, tried to wrap around her when she prodded it with a stick, and she was forced to torch it to prevent suffocation. Another magnificent necklace of opals seemed to have an anti-Muggle curse on it--she was no expert in long-lasting item curses, but something looked distinctly unwholesome about it. The chests were almost full and they were about ready to leave when a spot of silvery-green light in a far corner caught her eye.

It was a Pensieve, lying in the corner as though it had been used briefly, then discarded. The sides of the bowl were cracked and bits were chipped off of the edges. Moreover, it wasn't full to the brim of thoughts like her uncle's had been. It was only half-full; and who would go through all the trouble of acquiring a Pensieve if not to use it much?

Diane carefully levitated it into the air in front of her and onto more stable ground, curiousity suppressing caution. She sat down next to it and prodded the surface with her wand. Immediately, the thoughts began swirling around and turned clear. Through the surface of the Pensieve, she could see a middle-aged man, standing next to a young woman who looked as though she were pregnant. He was yelling at her, and she was backed up against a wall, going paler by the second. Suddenly, she stood up and started screaming back, and the man too went pale. By reading his lips, he seemed to be saying, "Are the rumors true?" The woman nodded...

The memory swirled, and the same woman appeared, but her face looked like wax, and as the vision widened, Diane gasped in horror. The young woman was lying in a coffin, her face pale in death and her open eyes blank. The man was standing next to her, regarding her with a mix of fear and grief. He closed her eyes with a hand and shuddered as he touched her stone-cold body...

A room filled with black velvet furniture met her eyes, and the same man from the rest of the memories was sitting in a velvet armchair. He looked much older now, and his hair was grey, his face lined. The door to the room opened and a pale little boy of no more than four toddled in with a nurse. He made some inquiry to the older man, who didn't even turn around in his chair, but shook his head. The boy's face contorted and he started to cry and gripped at the man's sleeve, but he shook the boy off so violently that he tumbled across the room and crashed into an ebony table. He seemed to cry harder, and the nurse picked him up, fleeing from the room, but Diane was sure that she'd seen the little boy's eyes before...

The man was elderly now, and sitting at a long dinner table across from a pale, dark-haired youth who looked as though he hadn't been healthy in years. The youth was absorbed in a book on demons and the old man, focusing on his dinner, didn't notice at first. Several moments later, however, he looked up and saw the book. A horrible expression flickered across his face and he grabbed the book, flinging it across the room. The pale youth looked up at him with no fear whatsoever in those haunting, silver eyes, and said something with an expression of utter disdain on his face. His eyes burned with an eerily green light, and the old man recoiled in horror, the same look on his face as there'd been on the last day of his life. The youth then looked up; Merlin! He was looking through the Pensieve! His face held the same fury that those same eyes had regarded her with, nearly nine years ago...

"Diane! Diane!" called a voice from the distant present. Her head pounded as the vision in the Pensieve dissolved and the world in front of her swirled. Someone's arm went around her waist, and a blessedly firm grip took hold of her. "What is it? Dammit, little sorceress, what's wrong with you?" said a familiar voice urgently.

Someone forced some ale down her throat, making her splutter and choke, but it settled her churning stomach and cleared her head. As the scene swam into focus, she saw Jack holding her up. "It's him, that's his Pensieve," she choked.

"Whose what?" he said, utterly bewildered.

"That silver bowl...that belongs to the nutter's father," she said quietly, her eyes darkening again as she spoke. "Solomon Annon must have ties to piracy...or he must be here. We need to get out now."

A/N: School starts tomorrow! I'm starting high school, and my school has about 3,500 kids, so I'm gonna get lost and die in some closet or something like that. Even if I don't get lost and starve, the plague of homework will take over my life. The updates in this story will be delayed for a while until I find my feet...I'm really sorry and I wouldn't have it this way, but my parents don't think that Harry Potter fanfiction is a legit reason to miss class. In Jack Sparrow we trust!

-starshimmer

Thanks to reviewers:

Slytherin queen: Sorry, not gonna be able to hurry with next chapter, but I promise I'll be able to get it up eventually.

DarkSorceress226: Yes, they are sweet...Diane doesn't know how lucky she is...

Celticstarwolf: Banter is great, but it will unfortunately be reduced somewhat because this is going to get a bit darker.

pottersister666: You'll see more of the past, and my take on Jack's past in later chapters.

meJDgurl4ever: Don't we all love Jack? And I'm assuming that JD stands for "Johnny Depp"?

Natalyly: OK, I'll try for subplots, but I'm not that good at them; haven't done them much before, but that's a great idea. It will be difficult to incorporate canon characters, but I can try.

irishlassy06: I would give you rum if I were of age *looks around shiftily* Sorry but I'm still in high school. *salutes Captain Blackjack with butterbeer*

amishrabbi: OK, I guess I'll continue pissing people off with cliffies...

Maryn: You've never been acknowledged in a fic before? Sadness...and thanks(as always) for the crit.

Rebirth LaFay: Was I not clear during the flashback? Sorry, but we will see a bit more of Diane's past.

Mystic9429: I'm assuming that was a first-chapter review? Yeah...it's a bit too turned towards PoTC, but I can't seem to make it work with canon characters...suggestions would help greatly.

Vanity Kidman: Thanks, and I'm glad that the crossover was actually believable.

Ron Wheezeley: I know...I can't spell or read or write French...bad me.