a/n: Kinda sorta decent, yes, this is another start of another Harry Potter - Danny Phantom crossover 'cause I like them so much. It is unrelated to my other HP/DP crossover(s) and hopefully get moving plot-wise at a reasonable pace. This chapter is more on the set-up side of things... Anyways, hope you all enjoy this start, awkward writing and all!
Last thing to note: I don't have any intended romantic pairings for this story, I almost never do since I write romance infrequently and at the moment, perhaps a bit clumsily... (though I am attempting it in my one-shot collection...) Just thought I'd point that out. Now on with the novice story! WOOT WOOT!
Chapter One - Tent City
Summer vacation, ghost obsessed parents, and suddenly available time spelt one thing for Danny: Trouble. Trouble in the form of camping and innocent father-son fishing trips, annoying over-analysing older sisters 24/7, and about a bazillion opportunities to accidentally reveal his secret. It was simply perfect. It meant there was absolutely no way he would be able to relax all break. Joy.
"This is it!"
His father, a large and broad built man always clad in sunshine orange, stood feet apart and proud, smiling goofily off into the distance. Towards, what henceforth forevermore shall be deemed, 'Tent City.'
Never before had he seen so many different types of tents or sheer quantity of them in one place as there was in Tent City. Red, blue, green, orange, purple, black, polka dots, stripes, bearstein bear patterns...! Large, small, somewhere in the middle, double tents, single tents, square tents and tepee tents, zippers and velcro, strings and snap on buttons. And around them were trees, adorned with decorative colored banners just as vibrant as the tents themselves.
"Wow," someone breathed. It was hard to pinpoint who said it since it echoed all their thoughts exactly.
"Must be some sort of celebration going on," Jazz deducted, staring up at a particularly captivating sign with a leprechaun that almost looked to be moving.
"Ya think?" Danny said flatly, "Way to state the obvious, Jazz."
She glared at him and stuck out her tongue. Not that he cared. At least it was better than the calculating looks she was giving him the whole way here. What, did she think he was going crazy or something? That was one time. One time! And it was justified, dammit! Youngblood really was there!
"Come on, Kids! Lets go set up the Fenton Tents!"
His meaty, black gloved hand landed on the boy's slighter shoulder so unlike his own large frame. Danny groaned inwardly. No doubt this meant his father planned to take Danny away someplace in the middle of nowhere to do something related to ghosts the moment camp was set up. Looking up only confirmed it. Darn his Dad's cheesy open-book grins.
They clambered over the rocky path, circumventing the colorful cluster of tents altogether in lieu of finding a more Fenton worthy spot. Which really meant a spot that was more isolated so it felt more like they were roughing it in the wild against the elements than part of some large group of camping hippies.
"Danny, come help me set this tent up," his sister called.
He moved to her side, hands automatically moving to stretch the tarp base as his sister had pushed the first pole side through the tent and was trying to get it into the tarp hole. His fingers nimbly guided the metal rod into it.
"What do you think of this place?" she suddenly asked as they moved on to the next side.
He cast a covert glance over to their parents. They were working on the other tent; or rather, his Mom was working on the other tent. His father was really just standing there talking a mile a minute in his excitement.
"I think it's... different than most the places Mom and Dad take us."
"Yeah, it's pretty cool, isn't it? No ghosts and a potential carnival escape inbetween Dad's Fenton Camping 101 talks..."
He smiled softly at his sister as she spoke animately, for once, about their family's choice of vacation spots. Personally, he would have preferred Fiji or someplace else hot, but it was nice to see her analyzing something so enthusiastically on something that wasn't another person, him, a ghost, him, solutions to a ghost dilemma, him, and, well, namely anything to do with him.
"Hey, Danny, Earth to Danny."
"Huh? What?"
"I said, 'I'm surprised that so many people can fit in that tent.' I mean, I think I've counted four people exit it already."
She laughed, shrugging off the strange spectacle without much thought. Danny, however, turned to look at the scene. A tent, looking no bigger than a two person tent, maybe three, of a worn red color stood erected within seeing distance. Several people stood outside it. Surprisingly, just as he was looking, more people came out of the tent. It was weird, certainly, it made no sense, really. How could they have all fit in that small tent and come out smiling without aching muscles? Or seemingly no aching muscles?
But what struck Danny as more suspicious was their attire. Here they were, in the middle of a camping ground and they were all decked out as if they were going to some football game. And then once a rather sizable, almost mob-worthy group somehow all squeezed out of the tent of mysteries, Danny watched with more than a little confusion as they collectively walked into the neighboring forested area into the middle of nowhere without wearing proper hiking boots, carrying water, or having any sort of usable equipment for hunting, fishing or some other activity. What the hell?
"Oh, Danny-boy!"
He gave another internal groan. Of all the times for his Dad to take him off for father-son bonding time. Danny walked over to his father, preparing for the worst.
As they walked off, he cast one last glance to the small, unremarkable tent.
Later. Later he would investigate this closer.