Chapter 3: The Order

"Has anyone heard back from Albus or Severus yet?" Minerva asked the members of the Order as they all sat eating Molly Weasley's magnificent food in the dungy kitchen. Negative muttering and shaking heads answered her. She sighed. Albus had told them that he and Severus were to visit two muggle ghost hunters. The idea of muggles being able to capture that which they could not simply baffled her. However, Albus and Severus had left early this morning. She was worried.

That is, until Albus and Severus both entered the kitchen and her worry turned to panic. Albus' wrists looked as though they were burned, and he had a light bruise on his cheek. Severus' wrists were not burned, but were bruised, along with his chin. Severus was glaring heatedly at them all while Albus merely looked grave.

The room was in complete silence.

"What happened?" Minerva choked.

Albus sighed while Severus' glare turned darker.

"Our friend Phantom felt a little threatened when we said we were there for him." He explained.

A gasp rose from the audience.

"You found him then?" Remus asked, excitement visible in his voice.

Albus smiled slightly. "Not only did he find us, but he has agreed to help us, for he knows who Voldemort's ally is."

Excited mutters broke out. Each person not able to contain their excitement at having the 'Ghost King' help them.

The excitement turned to confusion when a teenager walked in behind the two wizards. He had black, unruly hair, slightly tanned skin, and bright blue eyes. He wore white shoes, blue jeans, and a white shirt with a red oval in the center. All-in-all, normal.

And obviously a muggle.

Moody acted without thinking.

His wand flew through the air and sent a stunner with such speed Remus could hardly see it, even with his advanced eyesight, at the muggle boy.

The boy who somehow moved even faster than Moody.

He spun out of the way, kicked Moody's wand out of his hand, grabbed his arm and slammed him on his stomach onto the table in one fluid motion.

Everyone, sans Dumbledore and Snape, screamed and jumped away. Moody has never been taken down so easily before! And by a teenage muggle no less! In less than a second, they all had their wands trained on the boy who looked unconcerned at the situation.

Dumbledore and Snape, however, looked extremely wary and worried. Not for the boy but everyone else. If this turned into a fight, they knew who would win.

He raised his hands in a placating gesture and walked closer to Danny.

"Everyone must calm down." He spoke slowly and calmly. "There is no need for fighting. Alastor had attacked him first. Mr. Phantom was only acting in self-defense." He had called him Phantom deliberately hoping to instill the seriousness of the situation and who exactly they were dealing with.

He knew his words reached them when Minerva paled and dropped her wand. The others, too, were pale and many gasped. They hastily lowered their wands and shuffled away from the calm teenager who was still holding down a very nervous Alastor.

Dumbledore cautiously approached them. "You can release Alastor, Danny. He will not attack again."

Danny hesitated before relinquishing his hold on the ex-Auror. Moody quickly scrambled to his feet and practically flew to Dumbledore's side. Danny merely crossed his arms and leaned against the table, perfectly at ease.

"So it seems your Dark Lord bit off a little more than he can chew." Danny drawled, looking almost bored.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked quickly. Did he know who Voldemort's ally is?

Danny snorted. "Your dark wizard has no idea what he just got into. Your guy might be evil, but he is nothing compared to Dan."

A chill traveled down their spines.

"Dan? Who's Dan?" Remus asked.

Danny glared. "A ghost. The most evil ghost to ever exist. Much worse than Pariah Dark."

Everyone paled, including Dumbledore and Snape. After Danny asked his questions he agreed to come with them and help, though he refused to tell them anything. This was as new to them as it was to everyone else.

"How do you know him?" Kingsley's deep voice penetrated the silent room.

"He's my arch enemy." Danny stated. His lips were pursed together in aggravation. "I barely managed to defeat him in battle two years ago and then had him locked up and placed somewhere that was supposed to be safe."

"Where could you possibly have kept a ghost prisoner?" Minerva asked, incredulously.

Danny grinned and pulled out a metal thermos from behind his back. "This is the Fenton Thermos. It has the ability to capture ghosts and keep them inside unless released. I use it to keep my town safe from the dangerous ghosts. I capture them, then return them to the Ghost Zone."

Hermione eyed the cylindrical container with glee. Her fingers twitched in the urge to snatch it from Phantom and examine it herself. "How on Earth did you get that?" She blurted out.

Danny tossed it in the air before skillfully catching it. "My parents are inventors and the World's leading ghost experts. They invented it but I was the one who managed to get it to work."

"As fascinating as this all is." Moody growled. "Can we get back to this mysterious 'Dan' you mentioned? Who is he? How is he so powerful?"

Danny tucked the thermos away, lightly biting his lip in hesitation. "Dan is…complicated."

Kingsley crossed his arms. "Un-complicate it then."

Danny sighed and sank into an empty chair at the table, gesturing everyone else to do the same. Once they were all seating, Danny leaned forward and folded his hands on top the table, looking at them seriously. "Dan doesn't technically exist anymore."

Blank faces occupied the room after his cryptic statement. He rolled his eyes. "Okay, so two years ago some ghosts sent me and my friends ten years into the future. The world was practically destroyed. Cities were turned to rubble, people lay dead in the streets. It was complete devastation." Danny paused to let the image he created sink in. "It turned out that the one responsible for destroying the Earth was a ghost that we called Dan. Dan existed because his past self made a mistake that resulted in killing everyone he cared about. In his grief he did something drastic to make the pain he was feeling go away and the result was…" Danny's eyes became unfocused as he remembered what happened, "horrifying."

Everyone was silent as they watched Danny remember. "When I trapped him in the thermos after barely defeating him, I managed to stop the event that would have created Dan in the first place. But because I had Dan trapped in the thermos in the Ghost Zone, he was officially taken 'out of time'. He exists outside of time now. Which means whatever happens to his past self, will not affect him now."

The room was silent for several moments as everyone tried to digest what Danny had just laid out for them. A ghost existing outside of time? That sounded almost impossible to defeat.

"Who is Dan's past self?" Dumbledore slowly asked. He had a suspicion that he dearly hoped was wrong.

Danny looked up from where he was studying his hands to find everyone staring at him in rapt attention. He took a deep breath.

"I am. His name is Dan Phantom."

The room was silent for a brief moment before an explosion of noise penetrated it. Everyone was shouting, either at each other or at Danny, who could barely understand a word anyone was saying. The loud noise began to hurt his hears.

"ENOUGH!" He shouted, letting a little Ghostly-Wail through his voice. His shout reverberated throughout the room, causing several people to clap their hands over their ears and dishware to fall to the floor.

Once it was silent again everyone slowly took their hands off their ears and stared at the ghost boy.

"I understand that the news I just gave you is shocking," Danny stated, frustration lacing his words, "but behaving like children will get you nowhere."

Several of the adults straightened their backs, eyes narrowing in offense.

Dumbledore stepped in before anyone could do something they would regret later. Like attacking Danny.

"Danny, how could this be? How could he be you?"

Danny sighed, his shoulders slumped. "Like I said, something happened."

"That's not a good enough explanation." Snape bit out, his onyx eyes glaring dangerously at the youth.

Danny glared back. "That's all you need to know. I will never become Dan. He only exists because he was taken out of time."

Dumbledore cleared his throat and tried to defuse the situation. "All right. You are the expert here. What do we need to do to stop Dan?"

Danny rubbed his eyes, his exhaustion catching up with him. "Right now, we can do nothing. And I need to sleep. I haven't slept in close to thirty hours."

Molly jumped up, her motherly instincts rearing its head. "Right! Of course dear, you do look tired. I'll lead you to your room."

Danny nodded before following the Weasley Matriarch through the door.

Once Danny left the room, everyone's eyes following him out, the room erupted into whispers.

"What do you think?"

"Can he really be trusted?"

"How do you think he 'died'?"

"I wonder how powerful he really is."

"Think he could help us defeat Voldemort too?"

The last question, asked by Harry, silenced the room. Eyes shifted so no one was staring at the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry knew the prophecy, he knew he was the one who had to defeat Voldemort but that didn't mean he couldn't get a little help.

Not another word was said as everyone departed from the room, intending on getting a good night's sleep.

Meanwhile, Molly led the tired ghost teen up the stairs. If he was a little more awake he would have noticed the heads attached to plaques for decoration. Molly didn't say anything until they reached a dark wooden door which squeaked terribly when she opened it, revealing a dark room with three plain beds.

"I'm afraid you are going to have to share a room with Harry and Ron, dear. There is just not enough room for you to have your own bedroom." Molly said as she pointed towards one of the vacant beds.

Danny nodded before trudging over towards the aforementioned bed, falling on it face first, and was out within moments.

When Harry and Ron entered the room they were shocked to see Danny asleep in the extra bed. They exchanged a wary look before changing into their night clothes and heading to bed themselves.