HAPPY 2017 I FINALLY GOT A LAPTOP OF MY OWN GLDHFSAIHFIUSFUHIUH
First oneshot of the year and it's ectodragon, typically. I'm so frickin' excited for Voltron season 2 like boy you're gonna see so much Sheith content from me it ain't even funny
A short little thing, taking place literally only a couple days after The Order of the Phoenix's Battle of the Department of Mysteries. You can thoroughly blame SuperCarlinBros for the Veil theory and prompting me to write this.
So glad you guys liked All Time Low btw; thanks so much for all the reviews, favs and follows! ^^ This doesn't necessarily link to All Time Low as much, but it's whatever makes you guys happy lmao
Harry Potter and Danny Phantom (hhhhhh) don't belong to me. Believe me, if it did, Phantom Planet and Cursed Child wouldn't be in existence.
I'm still salty about CC, I'm sorry.
I recommend listening to Mark Nolan's Sentinel Awake and Hail Redeemer while reading this, by the way. Best way to imagine the buildup while listening to 'em.
Enjoy :)
-Cheshire
The one unclear thing about the Battle of the Department of Mysteries that most Hogwarts students wondered is how Sirius Black died.
It was pretty black and white; either you knew or you didn't. People claimed Bellatrix Lestrange turned on Black and brutally slaughtered him with a flick of a Killing Curse, while others said that he was struck down by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Conspiracy theorists came up with the brilliant idea that Harry Potter himself murdered his godfather, and Hogwarts laughed in the face of the condemning thought.
But one theory still stuck with Draco, and that was the theory of "the Veil".
The Veil of Despair, Restricted books stated. Created by the Peveralls, covered up by the Ministry. Little know of its existence, and the majority blocks it out along with every other miserable thing, like You-Know-Who.
The thing about its definition is that it sounded like a portal to the other side. A portal with one way in and no way out. A portal that led to the dead and departed.
Coincidentally, Draco hadn't seen his boyfriend in a while.
Danny heaved Skulker's metallic frame of a body to the front of the portal, stopping to catch his breath. "Damn, dude," he muttered, "you're heavy when you don't help drag your own ass to the Zone."
Skulker's steel shell groaned as its head fell off.
Danny blew a hair out of his eye. "Great."
"Father, may I come with you to the Ministry?"
Lucius snapped his coat collar, pulling his cane down from the hook and knocking the butt of it against the flooring. "What for?"
"Experience for when I apply," Draco piped up.
Father rose a shrewd eyebrow before beckoning him along.
The journey was short and sweet; after a near-sickening round of Apparition, Draco and Lucius appeared at the Muggle front of the Ministry of Magic, quickly entering inside and reappearing inside the lobby. A few stifled glares flew in their direction while looks of relief slid over other faces. Perhaps Father was here to motivate the Dark Lord's secret followers in the Ministry once again.
Draco followed Lucius into a looming dorway, turning into a plethora of mazelike hallways. Lucius glanced at his son. "You are to stay behind me as I examine the damage in the Department of Mysteries. I do not want to see you wandering off to some useless department filled with whatever other idiotic programs Fudge has running here."
"Yes, Father."
"Bring my body right here this instant, whelp!"
Danny sighed. Skulker's real form was always slippery when it came to staying contained in the thermos. No reason to do double the work and throw the body then go back for the actual ghost, right. "You stay there until I find your small little ass this instant, wannabe Jim Corbett!"
Thankfully, Draco was able to slip out of Father's sight while he discussed with a Ministry official about something useless, like replacement glass balls or something along the lines of that. He pulled out a scrap of parchment, barely able to make sense of Parkinson's loopy scrawlings about the whereabouts of the Veil. Two rights, one left, three more rights then walk straight ahead seven steps-
Suddenly a wide cavern opened, and Draco knew he had stepped into the belly of the beast.
A sense of longing dread and hopelessness filled his soul, as if a dementor had just floated by and stopped to chat. He shuddered - this was too reminiscent of Danny's hands sometimes shooting icicles down his spine when he went intangible, or-
No, no, no. Get to work, Malfoy.
Draco carefully drew his wand. There it was.
Glowing ethereally and flourishing as if there were some invisible wind blowing through it stood the Veil of Despair.
Taking a step forward, Draco raised his wand and looked past the silvery ashen threads.
Skulker unconscious and safely secured inside the Fenton thermos, Danny was finally ready to unload the night's wave of specters into the Ghost Zone once again.
He stopped, finger hovering over the release button.
Jeez, why is this taking so long?
A sudden chill wracked his body, and in an instant, Danny felt something that he hadn't felt since he had the portal accident.
He peered inside the swirling layers of ectoplasm, chemically-induced sparks flickering like popping bubbles in its hypnotizing spirals.
Something was staring back at him.
Skulker's armor and the thermos dropped carelessly to the floor. Danny's finger's flexed.
He reached a hand through the portal.
Draco stumbled back as a translucent white hand tried to grasped at his face, making desperate grabs at his eyes. The Cruciatus Curse almost slid off his tongue as if it were muscle memory-
Wait. He knew those hideous gloves that didn't match the black HAZMAT aesthetic when he saw them.
The eyes staring back at him weren't the whispering voices of the lost. Those were emerald green. A blazing emerald green, that of which he was oh too fond of-
Draco seized Danny's wrist.
The halfa gasped, retracting his arm quickly. A lone ghost probably was probably on the other side of that, trying to latch onto Danny in the hopes of pulling him in.
Heh, not today, dead thing.
Danny shook off his trance, picking up Skulker and tossing him into the portal. The fucking Ghost Zone, man. Probably some weird ghost puberty just happened and that's why he was so seduced by it.
He released the contents of the thermos and recapped it, sighing. Fucking ghosts, man.
His hand passed through Danny's as if it were air.
Dammit!
Frazzled at his luck that Danny just so happened to be on the other side, Draco patted his pockets for anything he could use for communication. Uh...
He chucked a rock through the Veil. It clattered uselessly through it, skidding to a stop by the fragments of a recently broken wand. Well, that was helpful.
Danny blinked as the shadowy form of a rock bounced through the portal, rolling to a stop at his feet. He frowned and tried to pick it up. Its form seemed to glitch, as if it were radio static.
Huh.
He scanned the lab for anything of less importance. Ah, a beaker. Mom had been hoping to get rid of their little surplus for a while.
The smoky image of a beaker passed through the Veil's divine cloth.
Hah! He sees me!
Grinning, Draco hurled another pebble through death's door.
Another vaporous rock drifted out of the portal, and a thin smile traced Danny's lips. Something was over there, but it wasn't anything he was used to. Usually whatever came through the portal was a relatively solid object, but...
A notepad was lying in wait for Danny's use. He made the most of it.
Hi.
Draco knew that handwriting. He kept every one of Danny's letters.
Taking out the crumpled makeshift map of his, Draco focused on the one in a million pieces of rubble around him. If only I could transfigure this into a-
The words came to him, and suddenly a fragile inkwell sat in front of him. Dipping his finger in ink, Draco replied.
It's me
DM
Oh, for the hell of it. He threw in a caveman drawing of a snake for good measure before tearing the piece off and tossing it inside.
Danny nearly died again. Laughing, of course.
Fate played him too well. Of course his boyfriend was standing on the other side of the portal, of damn course. Danny eagerly stuck his head into the portal - he missed Draco so much and here he was, waiting for hi-
Nothing was there except for dreary green.
He pulled back out, confused. That was...hold on.
Danny stepped back inside the Zone, searching for any sign of nearby beings. Nobody except the spare ectopus.
He sighed.
Damn.
The transparent image of Danny's happy expression falling was enough to send Draco's hopes crashing down. He couldn't see him. Danny couldn't see him.
He took a deep breath.
Okay.
An airy hand appeared on Danny's side of the portal.
Danny bit his lip and took it.
Draco couldn't feel it, but the compressed air around his hand was enough to let him know that Danny was there. He knew he was there.
He made an effort to pretend to squeeze Danny's hand before pulling away.