Ghost Writer: I must commend your originality, Selene. Most so-called fanfiction doesn't quite compare to real literature, but you're brilliant at avoiding the usual mass of similar plots.
Selene: Well, when I'm reading a specific category, crossover, or pairing, I get annoyed when I don't think there's enough stories for it or a lot of the stories use the same plot device, detail, or plot twist.
Tucker: You two read way too much… even if Selene doesn't read actual books much anymore.
Sam: Give me a break, Tucker. Just because you're barely willing to read a book if you were paid doesn't mean that others can't enjoy a book.
Dana: While these two argue, you might as well get on with the story Selene.
Selene: You're right. In fact, it's the sort of fighting that elicits jokes about married couples now that I think of it.
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and Harry Potter belong to Butch Hartman (is that the name?) and JK Rowling respectively. I only own the idea of fem! Danny reincarnated as fem!Harry. And maybe the idea of Danny being reincarnated.
Summary: The last thing anyone who knew her expected was for Dana, who was both Dana Phantom & Danielle "Ellie" Fenton to die saving a friend from being hit by a car. Nonetheless it happened, but instead of passing on or becoming full ghost, she was reincarnated as Danika Potter. Normally, this would remove Dana Phantom from the picture. But having one of Clockwork's time gear pendants stuck in her core wasn't without consequences. Growing up with the Dursleys, Dana Potter knew she wasn't normal by any meaning of the word. Then one day she met Ghost Writer. She found out that she was half ghost, and the block on her memories were unleashed. Can Hogwarts handle a chaos bringing anomaly, and how will Snape handle her being nothing like her father? fem!Harry/Clockwork/Ghost Writer.
Warnings: Slight AU, gender bender, slight violence, some foul language, fem!Harry, mentions of fem!Danny, eventual threesome
"Bold"= dialogue in a dream
"Italics"= dialogue in a flashback.
Chapter One:
Rebirth of a Hero
There was the sensation of running, and pushing someone out of the way.
"_ look out!" she shouted, only it didn't sound like her, and the body felt… wrong, like it was too big to be her, only it felt familiar, like it was just right somehow.
Something hit her, and sent her flying a few feet away. Dana hit the ground hard. She couldn't move at all, and her entire body was either in unbearable pain or was so numb it could barely process anything. The only thing she did know was that she was bleeding profusely.
"_!" some people were shouting a name, it almost seemed like it was hers but she couldn't hear properly.
Now Dana could hear people running towards her. There were also so many honking sounds in the vicinity now that she was developing a headache on top of everything else. As odd as the idea sounded, she couldn't bring herself to be surprised for some reason.
"How many times do I have to tell you to call me _?" she asked; for some reason she had absolutely no control over her voice.
"Are you really complaining about something like that at a time like this?" a male voice asked.
"You're the one who should know better" she retorted, "_ Are you okay?"
"That's not the issue, _" a girl's voice retorted.
She absently wondered why the names were muted.
"I definitely was a little rash." She admitted, "But it's all good as long as you're okay."
"TIME OUT."
Suddenly, all of the sound was gone. She was getting very tired of not seeing anything.
"H-hey. Didn't expect you to show up." Dana greeted.
She was pulled into someone's lap.
"You know you were always the one person I couldn't bring myself to leave alone, _." he said.
She chuckled as if remembering something. "Heh, guess I'm just lucky. You're the only reason I got this far, you know."
Even though everything was black, it was like Dana actually could see, because she knew the man was smirking. Though, something was slightly bitter about it. "I could never have simply let you go through that."
"I never did get to repay you." she said, "I'm… done for… right?"
The man nodded. "I'm afraid so. Otherwise, you either you both should have been all right, or _ would have lived but been hurt."
"Guess I was… a little hasty." she admitted, "It's kind of ironic that it ends this way."
"It figures that the one slightly possible outcome that happened when it should never have been in the equation is one that the Observants would prefer over how it was supposed to be." He said, clearly upset in spite of the attempted humor.
"Hey now, don't be like that." Dana said, "I'll… be… back. Promise. Even if I… _."
Right then, the sound went mute again. Then, five year old Danika Potter woke up. She had no coherent memory of the dream. Dana sat up, careful not to hit her head on the ceiling of the cupboard. It was all the little girl had ever known. Yet, she scowled, indignant and angry. Dudley was the only other kid whose room situation she knew personally. Yet, that she slept in a cupboard while her 'cousin' Dudley had two was ridiculous. And Dana was not just saying that because the talk about Dudley's friends made it obvious that they all only had one room.
'Well,' Dana thought, 'At least the cupboard isn't as dark as my dream.'
Just then Dana's 'aunt', Petunia Dursley, rapped on the cupboard door, telling her to get up. Her supposed relative's next words made the little girl pout. It was really unfair that the one day she got away from Dudley and 'Uncle' Vernon she would spend helping Aunt Petunia clean. Dana crawled out of the cupboard to face the new day.
"That's enough, Dana." Petunia said sharply not even an hour later when her niece's age proved to mean she was too short to dust properly, "Go clean up the attic."
"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Dana said.
Not many people realized that the Dursleys even had an attic. Unless they were from the neighborhood, that is. It was one of the attics that had a proper door and staircase, so visitors to number four Privet Drive usually thought the unassuming door was just a closet. Dana made her way up the staircase, grateful that it was a little nicer than the one Dudley claimed the stairs leading to the basement at one of his friends' house.
Half an hour into her task, Dana had finished getting rid of the dust. As she tried to recover from the coughing fit the dust caused, she opened the window. Temporarily blinded by the sunlight, she walked away from the window only to trip on something.
"Owie…" Dana complained, then noticed, 'But why doesn't it hurt more?'
Sitting up, Dana turned to see what she fell on. It was a mostly empty cardboard box. For a second, Dana blinked in surprise. She had never seen a single box of the sort in the Dursley household before. Most of the time, Dana only saw boxes like that if someone moved in or out of the neighborhood. Curious, she looked inside.
"A pair of books, some paper, and a bunch of pictures?" Dana said to herself, slightly disappointed.
Soon enough though, that disappointment was all but forgotten. Most of the pictures proved to be of two girls a little older than Dana. On the back, most of them said 'Petunia and Lily'. The pictures must have been of Petunia and Dana's mom when they were kids. Confused but more interested, the five year old dug through the box. Dana pulled out one of the books, which to be…
"A diary…? Neat! I wonder what kind of things Aunt Petunia did when she was a kid."
The diary proved to from when Petunia was a teenager, not a kid. Dana almost put it down when it proved to be boring talk about school and Petunia's school friends. Dana was just putting it down when a page came loose. She picked it up, and read.
Dear diary, it's Christmastime again, and Lily came back from school for the holidays. This time is different. Lily hasn't spent time with that friend of hers while at home since last Christmas. I'm not worried about it like our parents are, I don't even care who she does or doesn't spend time with. But this time, she was telling Mummy about a date she went on with that James Potter freak she's been complaining about since she was eleven. There's no love lost between me and Lily. We haven't been close since before she went to that so-called school. But in spite of everything she's still my little sister, and it's my job to look out for her when Mummy and Daddy are too blind to see that they need to take care of her. Lily's hated Potter since they were eleven and his treatment of that odd friend of hers proved him to be arrogant and a bully. Why would she suddenly give in to his pestering her, let alone give him the time of day? Before this, it always looked like Lily would end up with that friend of hers. Our parents may think that both oddities are just a part of growing up, but I still know my little sister well enough to know that something is wrong. Her sudden closeness with Potter and distance from her best friend are both causes for concern, one I know must be related. Even if nothing will ever get me to admit it the one thing I'm proud of is how Lily was never one to tolerate people like Potter. If things go beyond a few dates or a semi short relationship, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive her. After all, how can I consider a girl who lost part of herself somewhere along the line the girl I grew up with?
Just then, Dana noticed a picture that was different than the others. It was folded in half. The half that Dana could see had a red haired, green eyed woman in a wedding dress that had to be her mother. When she turned the picture over, it showed a man with messy, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and glasses. It made Dana feel like her black hair was as neat as the Dursley household in comparison.
'… My dad… was a bully? This stinks.' Dana thought with a pout, 'No wonder Aunt Petunia hates me.'
Dana was almost in tears now, in fact she might have been crying if she didn't have a feeling that it was ridiculously ironic. The news that her father might have been no better than Dudley was too much to take. Still holding picture and page, Dana made her way downstairs, cleaning now completely forgotten. She found Petunia cleaning the kitchen.
"Aunt Petunia? Can I talk to you?" Dana asked.
"Girl! I've told you before, don't ask… questions. What are you holding?" Petunia said angrily, only to falter when she saw Dana was holding a picture and a piece of paper, though the look on her unwanted niece's face was even more disconcerting.
"Why do you hate me? I try to be good, I really do." Dana asked, clearly upset, "I say 'please' and 'thank you' and I don't complain when you ask me to clean, and I do good in school, and I don't hurt people Dudley does in school, and whenever the teacher has a note for you about me I don't tear it up like Dudley does, and I don't complain when he uses Dana Hunting to beat me up, and I always listen you to and Uncle Vernon. Is it because I'm not like other kids?"
"What did you say about my Dudders?"
"He's always beating up the kids at school, he even steals their lunch money." Dana said, "He never listens to the teacher either, never does his work in school, and he makes me do his homework for him too. And he's so fat and stupid he's like a pig in a wig."
"Girl-"
"If you give me a minute, I have one he only ripped in half!" Dana interrupted, fearful of her aunt's wrath.
"Be quick about it!"
A minute later, Dana was back. After the blonde woman read it, she did something she thought she would never do.
"Thank you, Dana. You actually are a good girl when you're not pulling off any of your funny business." Petunia said.
Said 'funny business' was why Dana was a strange girl. Odd things often happened to her. One time, Petunia needed to help a neighbor with something and left Vernon to watch dinner. As a result, a pot caught on fire because Vernon spilled oil onto the flame. Dana freaked out, and when she was trying to get the whale of a man's attention, the entire pot flame and all was encased in ice. Vernon smacked her, accidentally sending her into the pantry door. Petunia then walked on the room, and Dana was ultimately let off the hook for potentially saving the house and their lives. Then one time Dana ended up going through a wall while escaping from Dudley and found herself in the back room of a pet store. That one landed her in her cupboard for a week straight.
Dana's little secret was that now she could control both her ice powers and her ability to go intangible now. (She found the word in a dictionary.) Plus, Dana had the ability to fly and shoot a green energy from her hands, which she could control to do other things. The little girl could even change the way she looked, it was how she was always escaping her cousin and his friends. Her hair would turn white and she'd start to glow, that was usually the only time she could use the energy, fly, or use her ice powers. When she was like that her clothes changed too, into a neat black and white outfit. She could also change her hair when she was her normal self. Plus, sometimes she got a weird sensation that led her to locate weird people with red or green eyes. Most of them glowed too, and usually acted surprised when she let on that she noticed them.
"Aunt Petunia, does that mean you really do hate me because I'm weird?" Dana asked.
Petunia sighed. "No, that isn't why. You see, your mother had a childhood friend." the woman said, "He could be creepy, and he seemed to hold me in contempt for being normal. But he was a nice boy, and was a better friend for Lily than any of our other neighbors could be. They even went to the same school. There was just one problem for them; their popular but arrogant and somewhat greedy classmate, James Potter. He'd always had something against Severus, though I never paid enough attention to catch what. The fact that Potter was after Lily from the start but she wouldn't give him the time of because of how he treated her friend led Potter to bully the boy."
"So… what does that have to do with me?" Dana asked.
"When she graduated, Lily came home saying that Potter wanted her to meet his parents. His friend had even told her he wanted to propose. I also gathered that she'd had a fight with her friend when they were sixteen." Petunia explained, "I never liked how Lily continued to ignore her friend even though he tried to apologize. Nor could I forgive James for taking my sister from me, or causing Lily to turn her back on her values. You have your mother's face, but your dark hair makes you look like your father when you wear your glasses."
"You mean the toy I got for helping the lady at the bookstore that Dudley broke?" Dana said, then, "So the problem is my hair? I don't want to look like my dad if he was a bully, how about this?"
With that Dana made her hair turn silver. Petunia started, but sighed. Now she could see that Dana was just a little girl. The woman felt guilty, thinking of how she had taken out a grudge out on a child. It made her ashamed to think she'd called herself normal.
Petunia sighed. "I suppose, but why can't it be a normal color?"
"I don't want to be seen as my mom either." Dana countered, "So can we call a truce? As in I can do what I want within reason as long as I stay out of the way of all three of you?"
"All right, Dana, that sounds fair enough." Petunia said, "Off with you, then. But be back in time for dinner."
"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Dana said, already halfway towards the door.
The moment Dana was out the door, she switched to her other form and was flying towards town.
'What do I do first?' Dana thought to herself. 'I know, I'll go to the library. I've never been there before.'
Before long, she was downtown. Knowing it would be bad if people noticed her, if only because Vernon and Petunia would freak. The moment she reached the steps, Dana got the strangest feeling. There was a part of her that thought it felt weird and amusing that she of all people was the one who had picked a library of all places to go. Yet, that same part felt that something was comfortingly familiar. Shrugging it off, Dana entered the library. Only for the odd sensation to go off the moment she entered the door.
End of Chapter