Shiver Me Timbers [Harry Hook + Reader]

Non Compos Mentis

He returned within minutes. "One book - in this entire library - on Horacio. One book, and it's barely holding together. Shady."

"Let's keep an open mind Johnny," Uma glanced over at him, but I could tell she was suspicious as well.

Most of the book was about his family life. He was the 7th youngest out of 12 siblings, his family was well enough off for him to be educated - he definitely wasn't around anymore, this book was made 100s of years ago. Real ancient stuff.

As we could have guessed, his hobby was tinkering around with magic - he was fascinated by curses and potions and spells. There wasn't anything about him being evil, so that was slightly assuring.

Johnny read out. "'Horacio became fascinated with a select area of magic, referred to as "dark magic". He devoted most of his time to figuring out how to break a dark curse.' This is a quote from him." He gestured to a section at the bottom of the page.

"𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚜𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚊 𝚜𝚘-𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 "𝚃𝚛𝚞𝚎 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎'𝚜 𝙺𝚒𝚜𝚜" - 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚢 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖, 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌 𝚞𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚢 𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜. 𝙷𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛, 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌, 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚢. 𝚆𝚑𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚊 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚍? 𝙽𝚘. 𝚒𝚏 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎, 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝. 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚎 𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚛𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎, 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛. 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚢 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚗. 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚢."

"So he sounds crazy." I began. "But he also seems to know his stuff."

"Does this guy like dark magic or not - he talks about using a curse that lasts forever, then proceeds to say he's finding ways to make it not last forever. The whole quote seems like a riddle."

"Yeah, I don't know Uma - but maybe he's just someone who loves a good challenge." Johnny flipped through a bunch of pages that just seemed to go on about his beliefs and ideologies. Highly repetitive.

He continued reading. "Horacio became so skilled in forms of magic, that he took on four students as apprentices, and taught them everything he knew. They became like his children, and Horacio cared for them like no other until-" He paused.

"Until what?"

He quickly flipped through the rest of the book. "It's incomplete!"

"What? Why would it be incomplete?"

There was not a drop of ink on any of the following shrivelled pages - their edges had browned, so the paper was definitely always there. Who would publish an incomplete book?

"Let's deal with that later - but do we trust him?" Johnny looked at Uma and I expectantly.

"We can't be sure until we know what comes after the, well, "until" - but I trust what he's said about dark magic."

"I trust it as well," Uma added.

"So do I." Johnny agreed.

"Well then, Harry's definitely 'non compos mentis'," I said.

"That's for sure. But (y/n), if Horacio is right, and this is actually what Harry is under, then you know what that means. We have less than a week to wake him up." Uma looked at me gravely.

"Just under a week... before it's too late."

This week's hectic for me so I'll only post next on Friday! Stay tuned to find out what we do to try and wake Harry up (I love the next chapter, it's one of my favourites)!

Also, I can't belive we reached 7K so quick! This is so exciting!

Thank you to everyone who reads, votes, and comments on the story! I appreciate each and every one of you :)