A/N: I do not own Danny Phantom. Feedback is always appreciated :)
While Danny and Sam sat in the taxi, Danny's mind was running to other things. For one thing, he continued to wonder about Sam's headmaster at Oxford. For another thing, Danny was worried if Sam would stay in Oxford even after they figured out this D.A.L.V foundation nonsense. He knew that he shouldn't have been afraid of losing Sam but there was something aching in him that wanted her to come back to Amity Park and be with him. Danny ignored his feelings for a moment when the car stopped in front of an old house. The windows of the house looked broken and the door looked as if it hadn't been replaced in years. Did Dalv Espius really live there?
"Here you are." The Taxi driver said in a British accent that was quite monotone.
"Are you sure that we are at the right place?" Sam whispered to Danny.
"This was the address Tucker gave me." Danny was beginning to sound unsure himself. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt just to check it out."
"Maybe." Sam sighed while Danny dug for some money to give to the cab driver. "But if something crazy happens then we get out of there as fast as we can."
"Deal." Danny opened the car door for Sam as they both walked out to inspect the house. It looked as if no one had lived there for years, but if Tucker said that it was the address then it had to be. Danny inspected all around the house to see if there was any sign of life there. The grass in the backyard looked like no one had taken care of it for a long time. The sidwalk that led to the door was cracked in 30 different places. And the wooden porch was missing wood and hadn't been fixed in a while. Danny was now almost certain that no one lived there and that the address was wrong. "Maybe I should go invisible and go inside the house to make sure that no one is in there."
"Are you crazy?" Sam raised an eyebrow towards him. "You want to go in there and check if there's a crazy person inside the house?"
"No one is going to see me." Danny's voice sounded firm. "I said I was going to be invisible."
"And what if this Dalv Espius person can sense kids with ghost powers flying around his house?" Sam asked.
"Sam, he and Headmaster Hoggins are con artists. They aren't ghostbusters." Danny walked towards the house. Before Sam could object, Danny had turned invisible and phased himself through the window of the house. Well, maybe he has a point, Sam thought to herself.
While inside the house Danny took a look at his surroundings. It really did seem that no one was there for years. Maybe Dalv Espius was dead and Jazz was right. But then again, there was that feeling that Danny had again that maybe he was the one that was right. He had that feeling at the worst times and unfortunately enough, that feeling would prove to be true almost all the time. Danny flew all around the house but found nothing. Not a piece of furnutre, nothing in the fridge in the kitchen. Nothing. Danny decided to give up his search and headed back outside to Sam until the lone book on the bookshelf caught his eye. Danny flew towards the book while inspecting the bookcase. The one book that was in the house and it was just sitting there. Maybe Dalv was in a hurry to take the book with him when he left or maybe it was left on purpose. Danny took the book slowly and started reading the cover. The Truth, was the title of the book, a title that seemed a bit ironic since all he and Headmaster Hoggins did was lie to other people for their money. Danny phased out of the house with the book in his hand and saw Sam standing there waiting for him. Danny flew down in front of her, still clutching the book in his hand.
"So, what did you find?" Sam wondered.
"No one was in the house." Danny started. "But when I was flying by the living room, I found this book. I'm not sure what, but this book may be the key that we have been looking for. "
It didn't take long for Danny and Sam to get back to Oxford University to take a look at the book but while Danny was thinking how the book could tie into the whole scam, Sam was busy thinking about if Headmaster Hoggins was taking an interest in her for all the wrong reasons. She didn't want to worry Danny, but if she didn't tell him then he would possibly find out the hard way and he wouldn't like it. As Danny and Sam reached the front door of the building, Sam took a deep breath, while trying to fix her eyes on Danny.
"So, what's the plan now?" Sam asked Danny.
"Well, while you go back in Oxford and pretend that nothing is going on, I'm going to head back to Amity Park and get a headstart on figuring this out." Danny said.
"You mean why Dalv Espius lied about where he lived?" Sam wondered.
"He probably did it so he could keep his privacy." Danny reasoned. "He was heckled by the news reporters after he was released from prison."
"But we only need his address so we can figure out what is going on with Headmaster Hoggins." Sam was beginning to get agitated with the run around and frankly, so was Danny.
"I know it seems like it's bad now, but we'll figure this out." Danny gave Sam a small smile which relaxed her a bit.
"So you're going to leave?" Sam sounded worried and Danny saw it in her eyes.
"I'll come back Sam." Danny's smile widened as he put an arm around Sam's shoulders. "It's not like I am going to leave forever."
"I know. It's just..." Sam stopped speaking which made Danny worry a bit. "I just don't want you to go."
"And I don't want to go either." Danny explained. "But I have to before my parents decide to lock me in my room and put bars on my window."
"But you're a ghost, couldn't you just phase out?" Sam gave a small smile of her own.
"They'll probably use some anti-ghost sheild so I can't phase out of my room." Danny shrugged his shoulders.
"Well then, I'll keep an eye on Hoggins, just to make sure that she's not trying anything crazy." Sam said.
"All right, but keep your distance." Danny ordered softly. "We don't need her to think that you're following her to find dirt on her. That will only make her interested in you and find you suspicious."
"Well, too late for that." Sam admitted. "She has taken quite an interest to me. I should know. Catherine and Mallory think so."
"Seriously, what is up with your two roommates?" Danny wondered. "They seem to know a lot about Hoggins."
"Yeah, well Catherine said her older sister came to Oxford when Hoggins was here so tha would explain how Catherine knows." Danny heard his phone ring at that moment which probably meant one thing; his parents were trying to contact him.
"Well, I guess it's time for me to head out. " Danny put a hand on Sam's cheek while placing a kiss on her forehead. "Call me when you find something out."
"I will." Sam nodded her head. With that Danny flew up into the sky and was on his way back to Amity Park. While Danny was going back to his familair surroundings, Sam was stuck here; trying to figure out what Headmaster Hoggins was planning next.
As Sam headed into her room she noticed Mallory and Catherine reading articles online about (guess who) Danny Phantom. Sam knew that Danny was a worldwide hero and was beloved by millions but there was a thin line between idolizing and obessing and frankly Mallory and Catherine crossed the line of idolizing and went into full obsession mode.
"Something wrong?" Sam asked with a playful feel to her voice.
"We're just looking at pictures of Danny Phantom." Mallory turned her head to see Sam at the doorway.
"We didn't know that he was that cute in person!" Catherine smiled.
"Yeah, he's a real knockout." Sam wanted to quickly change the topic from Danny to something else. "Hey Catherine, what do you know about Headmaster Hoggins? You know, from when your sister was here?"
"What I know?" Catherine pointed to herself. "Well, I know that Headmaster Hoggins wanted a lot of money for my sister to come here. We could think of it as tutition money."
"How much did she want? If you can convert it to American Dollars, that would be really helpful." Sam wondered.
"It was about 80,205 euros which would equal..." Catherine started calculating but Sam already knew the answer.
"She wanted 100,000 dollars?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Exactly. My mother fortunately had that money since she works for the queen and all." Catherine boasted afterwards. Catherine didn't notice Mallory and Sam rolling their eyes.
"Great, so about your sister and Headmaster Hoggins." Sam tried to get back to the point. "Why is the tuition so much?"
"She says that it varies by different students." Catherine shrugged her shoulders.
"What do you mean tuition varies by different students?" Sam didn't like where this was heading.
"She said that it depends where they are from. Some people have more than 80,000 euros in tuition. Some have more like this one girl I knew had 401,066 euros for her tuition."
"500,000 dollars." Sam converted quickly. "Has it ever gone lower than 100,000 dollars? "
"No, it hasn't." Catherine sighed. "I ask around a lot how much they paid to get in and frankly the answers I have gotten scare me."
"So you think this could be another money scam?" Sam wondered.
"I'm not entirely sure." Catherine didn't seem so sure but she quickly composed herself after thinking about it for a moment. "But it looks as if it could be that way."
"So you're telling me that Oxford only wants us for our money?" Mallory sounded upset.
"Not Oxford...Headmaster Hoggins wants us for our money." Sam explained. "Danny told me that Hoggins did the exact same thing in America and she was forced to pack her bags and head on out. She came over here and became the Headmaster of Oxford University."
"That's horrible!" Mallory looked as if she was going to cry. From the looks of it, Mallory did not like to be used. Sam understood how she felt and as a matter of fact, she was feeling pretty mad that she was being used as well.
"So how are we going to stop her?" Catherine's voice became angry.
"Wait, you want to help me take down Hoggins and find out if the D.A.L.V scholarship is false?" Sam wondered.
"Of course!" Mallory nodded her head.
"That is, if you would let us." Catherine quickly added. Sam walked towards the window in the far end of the room while letting out a small grin.
"Well then." Sam turned around eyeing her roommates. "It looks like we have a lot of work to do."
"Brilliant!" Mallory smiled.
"We're going to stop Hoggins!" Catherine sounded excitied.
"We're going to get everyone's money back. Every last bit that she has been stealing." Sam said. While Sam, Mallory and Catherine were plotting however, they failed to notice a ghost sitting in one of the trees eyeing their every plan. If they had looked a little closer, they would have noticed that ghost...was Vlad Plasmius.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Maddie and Jack Fenton yelled while they were in the Fenton kitchen. Danny leaned against the fridge waiting for his parents to finish scolding him for leaving in the middle of the night to fly to London in order to see Sam. Danny noticed Maddie and Jack looking at him with a raised eyebrow and stern glances, meaning that Danny had better had a good excuse or he wasn't leaving the house for a long time.
"Well young man." Maddie started. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Do you know how worried we were that you weren't in your room at 2 in the morning?" Jack added.
"Can I please start by saying that I have hunted ghosts in the middle of the night before?" Danny almost wished he didn't say what he did because Jack and Maddie's stern glances turned into glances of anger.
"This was entirely different young man." Maddie shook her head. "You went halfway across the world in the middle of the night without leaving a call or a note! Do you know how worried your father and I were?"
"I get it! You were worried! And I'm sorry for worrying you." Danny put his hands up in defense. "But you have to understand that there is something going on in London that I had to go there in the middle of the night."
"And what could that be?" Jack wondered.
"There's something weird about the D.A.L.V foundation scholarship and I had to go see Sam in order to tell her what was going on." Danny said. "There's something weird about the headmaster of that school."
"And what could possibly be weird about her?" Maddie and Jack let their guard down for a oment as Danny handed the 2 pieces of paper.
"Take a look at this." Jack and Maddie read the papers before letting out a small gasp.
"So you're telling us that the Headmaster of Oxford was a con artist in this part of the woods?" Jack turned to Maddie before a smile plastered his face. "That is so cool!"
"There is nothing cool about a con artist Jack." Maddie sternly looked at her husband. She then turned to Danny with a hint of worry in her eyes. "So you think Sam might be in trouble in Oxford?"
"That's what I think." Danny said slowly. "Sam and I tried to find the guy that was apart of the whole con artist scheme that took the fall for Headmaster Higgins. Sam and I found this book." Danny handed Maddie and Jack the book which prompted Maddie to take the book and skim through it.
"Something does seem off about the D.A.L.V foundation, I admit." Maddie said. She put a hand on Danny's shoulder while giving him a smile. "I know you're worried about Sam sweetie, but next time could you let us know before you go and see a con artist. You could have gotten hurt."
"I know, and I'm sorry." Danny apologized.
"It's all right. Now go and get ready for school. Oh, and take your D.A.L.V folder with you sweetie." Danny headed to the kitchen table to get the folder as he walked up the stairs to the room. While Danny passed by the hallway mirror he couldn't help but look at himself, but there was something about the folder that caught Danny's attention. Danny held the folder up slowly to the mirror and noticed that the D. was a subliminal message.
"Mom! Dad! Come here! You have to see this." Danny instructed. Jack and Maddie headed into the hallway while Danny was holding the folder up. "Look at this folder and tell me what you see." Jack and Maddie gasped when they noticed what Danny was showing them.
"I don't believe this." Maddie gasped.
"It can't be." Jack added. While looking into the mirror, Danny, Maddie and Jack looked at the folder. The folder cleared up all of Danny's suspicions. Danny finally knew who was behind it:
D.A.L.V = V.L.A.D.