Disclaimer – I actually NEED one in this chapter! I don't own anything except for this plot and Elijah and Erica Foley. Woo!
"Woah"
Danny stepped out of the fireplace and into a huge crowd of people. He stared around, and didn't even notice the seven other people he was with step out of the fireplace. There were galleries and book shops, a huge wand shop and a joke shop. There were faces everywhere, old and new…wait a minute…old faces?
"Tucker," Danny said, pointing to the wand shop, "who does that look like?"
"It looks like…oh c'mon Danny you don't actually think that's—"
They were turned towards a wand shop, where a tall, broad blonde boy with blue eyes was talking to an old man, holding up a broken wand and looking disappointed. The boy nodded his head at the man, and began walking out of the shop, when he caught sight of a somewhat-scrawny teen pointing at him. He smiled a malicious smile and walked towards him.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Danny Fenturd!" the boy said
"—Dash Baxter. You know, knowing our luck we should've expected something like this" Tucker said smoothly.
Danny gave a slight groan. He scowled and turned around. "What are you doing here Dash?"
"Same as every other kid: shopping for Hogwarts. Now, you on the other hand can't possibly be here for that, so what are you doing here? Hogwarts can't have possibly accepted you three so late anyways." Danny was about to speak, but Dash didn't let him. "Yeah I didn't think so. You're really not that talented. So who do you know that goes to Hogwarts?"
"Dash" Danny managed to say clearly through gritted teeth as he fidgeted under the heavy hand Dash had clapped onto his shoulder, "I am going to Hogwarts. It's you that we're wondering about."
"But, you've never been to Hogwarts. You've been in the same school as me since the 3rd grade."
"Yeah, that's why we're wondering why you're here, you nitwit," Danny said, muttering the last part to himself.
Dash chuckled. "Yeah about that, I've been going to Hogwarts all my life. Time Turners really do come in handy. My parents didn't want me to go off to some random school, so we'd rewind the whole year. It took a lot though, so many turns of the hourglass. It took us AGES to find a better way, but at the moment we had to figure out how many turns—"
"What a Time Turner?" Tucker asked curiously.
"They send you back in time. ANYWAYS, once I got to my fourth year—"
Danny stopped listening. His hands were rubbing his temples, and he was wondering where his luck went.
'That's just it though,' he thought, 'I have no luck. And the longer I get lucky, the worse the outcome will be. Dash Baxter definitely files under unlucky.'
He was knocked back into sense when Sam nudged him in the stomach. "Danny, he's asking you something."
"Oh, uh, right. What was the question?" Danny said, moving his thoughts back onto the conversation.
"Why'd you get accepted so late Fenturd?" Dash asked.
"Uh…I um…well you see…I'd rather not answer that." Danny said. He looked down to his hands and started fiddling with his fingers.
"Sure." Dash said mischievously. "Well, I won't be going back to Casper high this year ('swell' Danny thought), so we'll probably be seeing each other more than usual. I'm in Gryffindor. Good luck during the sorting." Dash left, punching Danny and Tucker in the arm and waving to Sam.
Sam blinked in surprise at his back when he walked away. "Was he…being nice?"
Danny laughed nervously. "Yeah, he was. I'm not sure what's more scary: the fact that Dash has access to magic, or that I'm sharing a dorm with him."
They looked at each other and then realized that they were alone. They looked around and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione walking towards a really big building with the word "GRINGOTTS" on the doors. They walked in and saw hundreds of little dwarf-things and their jaws dropped.
"They're not dwarfs," Hermione explained when Tucker voiced his thoughts aloud. "They're goblins. They handle the currency here. Hermione led them to the smallest podium at the end of the room, with a sign on it saying "CURRENCY EXCHANGE".
"Sam, your parents left you a vault. Here's the key," Hermione pulled out a little gold key, and handed it over to Sam. She left to follow Ron and Harry.
Hermione turned to the little podium. She talked to the goblin and the goblin nodded. Danny and Tucker gave them their money that they got from their parents (about 200 each) and they got tons of coins in return: bunches of gold ones, a good amount of silver ones, and about a handful of bronze ones. They groaned and complained about the coin money system.
"Alright," Hermione said, "you're going to need a vault for all of this. Do you want two separate vaults or are you going to share?"
"Share," They said at the same time.
"I'm not going to remember my vault thingy if I have one on my own." Tucker said.
Danny scoffed. "Yeah, me neither."
After Danny and Tucker got their vaults and met back up with Harry, Ron, and Sam (who was completely amazed at the large amount of gold coins her parents had left her) they left to a place called Flourish and Blotts, coins jingling happily in their pockets.
They were amazed, again. There were books flipping themselves, portraits waving. They followed to where Hermione, Ron and Harry were standing, and picked up the book they were holding.
"Standard book of spells: Grade 5?" Danny asked.
"It helps us to learn the spells for every class," Hermione said. "Just take it, it's on your supply list. And we're going to have to get you everything else we have already. Come on," She led them out of the shop.
They bought everything they needed; quills ("But why can't we just use pens?!" Tucker complained), parchment, ink, cauldrons, gloves, the works…or the works for magic school anyways. Once they finished shopping for their school supplies, it was time for wands. Sam was excited, and Danny and Tucker were still sulking over the fact that they had to use quills.
"Oh c'mon guys," Sam said, "stop thinking about the stupid quills and start thinking about your own magic wand! Don't you think it would be cool to have a wand, to do magic?"
Danny chuckled. "Sam, I already have ghost powers, I don't know if I can handle magic. What if it explodes on me or something? The only reason I did this was for you…but I have to admit, I thought it would be pretty cool to make things disappear and stuff, but without touching it, anyways."
They walked into a place called Ollivander's, the wand shop they had seen Dash in. There was a small desk thing at the entrance, and millions of boxes everywhere. A man on a ladder appeared and smiled.
"How may I help you? Are you having trouble with your wands?"
"Uh, actually," Danny said, "We need wands. We're just starting at Hogwarts"
"Well that can't be right; you look way over 11 and…oh…You three are the new kids: Mr. Fenton, Ms. Manson, and…ah, the young Mr. Foley." His eyes seemed to linger over Tucker as he smiled, probably thinking of memories past.
He walked towards Sam. "Which is your wand arm?"
"My right, sir," She replied.
"How is he going to find the right wand?" Danny whispered to Hermione as the wandmaker left to rummage through the tons of boxes in the room.
"He looks you over, picks a few out, and you wave them around for a bit," she said patiently. "Either something good or bad happens. Nothing huge, you'll probably just break a vase or something. 'The wand chooses the wizard'" she quoted.
They heard silent muttering coming from the back about phoenix feathers and unicorn hairs and finally came back, holding a box oh so delicately, like if it was made of glass. He opened it and handed her the wand.
"Ebony and phoenix feather; 8 inches, take it and give it a wave."
Sam looked at him with a weird face, but gave in and waved the wand at a bookshelf. The books went up in flames, and she widened her eyes. She was about to shout an apology, but the old wand maker scurried off to find a more suitable wand for her as Hermione put out the fire.
"Try this: Maple and unicorn hair, 11 1⁄2 inches."
She waved the wand, this time towards a couch, hoping to maybe cause less of a catastrophe. The couch exploded comically causing Danny and Tucker to laugh at the giant black smear on the floor and stopped abruptly when Sam shot them a death glare. She put the wand down carefully, and was about to say it was hopeless, until the old man pulled out another wand.
"This one is mahogany and dragon heartstring, swishy, 11 ½ inches."
She took the wand, and felt the comfortable fit in her hands. She raised her eyebrows and gave an accepting nod, and waved it towards a vase. Sparks came out of the wand and the vase began to float for a few seconds. She smiled and put the wand back in its original box.
"Well, that's a match. Ms. Manson, your new wand." He handed her the box and she carried it with the utmost care. She walked to the newly refurbished couch that Hermione had conjured up, and sat down.
"Next up: Mr. Fenton, if you please would just step here, thank you." He examined Danny with bulging eyes, looking up and down, left and right. He turned him around a few times, and then scuttled off to the shelves. He brought back a red box and opened it, revealing a sleek, black wand. "8 inches, Blackthorn and phoenix feather, extremely powerful. I'm positive this will work for you."
Danny waved it at a piece of paper, and sparks flew onto it, revealing a detailed version of his Phantom insignia. He grinned and took the box and wand and sat next to Sam, who was already examining her own.
"Next up is you, Mr. Foley," Ollivander said excitedly.
He pulled Tucker and examined him very closely. He looked sharply into his eyes, then grabbed his palm and studied it. He ran off to the very back of the room, and pulled out a dusty old box, muttering about waiting for the right person for this wand. He pulled it out, and before Ollivander could say anything, Tucker's eyes flashed and he spoke.
"Holly, 12 inches." Tucker said surely, before his eyes widened in a surprised expression.
Danny and Sam shot up to look at Tucker.
"How did he know that?" Danny asked Sam, who looked just as surprised as he did.
"I have no idea." They both stared at Tucker peculiarly.
Ollivander raised an eyebrow, and then smiled. "Yes sir, with a unicorn hair core. Give it a wave"
Tucker nervously looked around and felt like an idiot waving it towards a book. The book opened and turned a few pages, stopping abruptly. Tucker smiled and returned the wand to its box. Ollivander smiled and looked at him. "You are definitely Elijah and Erica's grandson."
"Yeah," he said, the shocked expression never leaving his face. "They're my mom's parents. How—"
Danny and Sam asked before Tucker could. "How did you know that?"
Ollivander smiled. "You have his eyes and your grandmother's face, and they were the best two Aurors I had ever met, and not to mention your grandfather's amazing talent in the Wandlore branch of magic. They defeated Norman Bruno back in their day."
Now Harry, Ron and Hermione looked confused. "Who's Norman Bruno?"
"He was one of the best Death Eaters He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had, unfortunately." Ollivander said, walking over to the book Tucker opened and picking it up. "He used to work in the ministry in a lower, unimportant branch, and just got up and walked away one day, and joined the Death Eaters. The only reason he's so unknown is because he committed hundreds of murders and Imperiused thousands of people, and got away with it. Once your grandparents caught him, they had to let about thirty-seven people out of Azkaban."
Ollivander held out the book. It was flipped to a picture with two people on one side (Tucker's grandparents) who were fighting against the man in the other picture, which they guessed to be Norman Bruno.
Tucker's expression changed from shocked to confused. "So how did I know all that junk about the Wandlore?"
"I'm not sure, sonny," Ollivander said, gazing into space. "Perhaps you just carried on some of your grandfather's talent, or it was just a whim. Either way, you'd probably do wonders in that particularly difficult branch of magic."
Tucker turned around to catch Danny and Sam's eyes, both pairs alight with interest.
"Now, three wands at seven galleons each comes out to twenty-one galleons," Ollivander said.
Danny and Tucker had confused looks on their faces, and began rummaging through the coins that they had recently acquired from the bank. They were muttering about which coin was which, when Sam had come up to them and took 7 galleons from each of their piles, including her own. They took their wands and left the shop, excited expressions on each of their faces.
--line--
The kids had spent all their time in the rooms practicing 4 years of magic in a month. Even spare minutes went to learning wand movements or incantations. They learned everything they needed to know, from Potions to Charms, Transfiguration to Herbology…everything little detail was now fried into their brains. Almost everything was learned, except for Divination. They all decided that Divination was a waste of time and that it wouldn't matter if they knew the material when they got to Hogwarts.
The last month had simply flown by, and Danny, Sam and Tucker still couldn't believe that they were actually leaving to Hogwarts the next day.
"Well, this is really unbelievable," Danny said after a lesson. "And it's going to get even more unbelievable when we get to platform 9 1⁄2."
"9 3⁄4," Harry said with a chuckle.
"Whatever, it's still pretty cool."
They sighed and thought quietly to themselves while they packed. And unfortunately for Danny, his thoughts drifted back to the dream that he kept having, and his eyes flashed red; there goes 8 hours of peaceful sleep.
Of course, Sam and Tucker caught this, and they immediately pulled him out of the room into an empty room next door. Harry, Ron and Hermione, who thought they should follow at first, decided against it and just shrugged.
They closed the door to the empty room behind them, and saw cauldrons filled with bubbling potions and experiments everywhere. They ignored it and Sam and Tucker turned towards Danny.
"Danny, are you okay? Were thinking about the dream?" Sam asked. She was concerned, but of course, any girl would be if her best friend slash "significant other" was slowly unraveling from within.
'It's not the time to think about that now, Sam!' she scolded herself, but Danny's next statement kept her from arguing with herself any longer.
"Of course I was. It keeps getting more real. I keep trying to find why this is happening, but then I think of him and I don't want to do anything stupid so I shake it out."
Fred and George came in holding boxes from Zonko's Joke Shop and a couple of passed out Doxies that they were fighting against two day ago. They simultaneously raised their eyebrows.
"OI! GET OUT OF OUR RO—"
"Danny you know you can't keep thinking about this!" Sam scolded. "Do you honestly think the dreams are real? If they were, Dan would've come ages ago. I don't want you to worry about something that doesn't need worrying about."
The other teens walked in. "What's going on—"
Tucker cut them off. "Danny you can't keep lingering on these dreams, just put them out of your mind and think of something else like I don't know, fluffy pink bunnies, or the fact that we're in London getting ready to go to magic school. That should be enough to get any thought out of your head."
Mad-Eye, Tonks, Sirius, and Lupin walked in. "What are they arguing about—"
"I'M TRYING! YOU DON'T SERIOUSLY THINK THAT I WANT TO THINK ABOUT THOSE DREAMS DO YOU? THEY'RE TEARING MY HEAD APART! THE CHANCES THAT ALL OF THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING ARE HIGH! IT SEEMS MORE REAL BY THE SECOND!" Danny leaned his back against the wall and slid down to the floor. Sam paced the room.
"Danny if this was real, he would be here right now. Didn't I say this already? When you decide to do something, you stick to it no matter what, which makes him the same way. If it were up to him he'd be here, and we wouldn't be."
"That's just it Sam, it's not up to Dan. Some other snake guy is holding him back. (The other wizards looked at each other frightened) I don't know what Dan is up to, but I'm going to find out, even if—"
"ALASTOR YOU'RE HERE! Listen I need you to check—"
Mrs. Weasley walked in. Every wizard tried to shush her, but they were too late. Danny, Sam and Tucker turned to the door which was being crowded up by every witch and wizard in the house. Molly widened her eyes. "Uh…beg pardon. Alastor there's a cupboard in the next few rooms over and there's something in it, is it a boggart?"
Mad-Eye's eye turned to an impossible angle. He started clunking out of the room. "Yes it a boggart. I'll get it—"
"No, no! I'll get it!" Molly said, scurrying out of the room as fast as she could.
They all turned back to Danny, Sam and Tucker. Danny rubbed his temples and got up from the floor. He walked over to the window and opened it.
"I'll be right back. I need to clear my head." He jumped out the window and transformed into Phantom, flying away at 112 miles per hour, leaving a concerned Sam and Tucker looking out the window until he disappeared. The two of them turned back to the crowd.
"Uh…heh…you're probably wondering what's going on?"
'Should I really go to Hogwarts? I mean it's probably just going to make things worse with the stupid dream…woah…shake it off.'
After he had left, he flew for about 7 hours to Amity Park. He'd thought about a lot when he left. He was going to the only place that could calm him down, but when he got there, someone was on his stump.
"Valerie?"
Valerie was at The Spot, sitting on the tree stump where she had first found out about Danny's other half. She turned around, and opened her mouth in shock. She couldn't believe it…Danny was back!
"What are you doing here?" she asked in shock as she turned around and ran to hug him.
"I needed somewhere to clear my head, and I don't know my way around London, so I came back. It took forever though…" Danny trailed off before continuing, "What are you doing on my stump?" he asked playfully.
Her eyes narrowed, playing along. "I was trying to figure out how to send you something but then that owl flew away and I didn't know what to do."
"Yeah, that's what happened when I tried to send you the letter…"
An awkward silence fell upon them.
Valerie gave out a depressed sigh. "Why didn't you trust me enough to tell me before?"
"Because Valerie," Danny started, "You never gave me a chance to tell you. Have you ever looked back at the times we've fought, literally? There wasn't a chance in the world that you would've let me tell you. That night, that was the only time I ever expected for you to understand, and unfortunately…"
"Danny, I'm so sorry!" she said quickly, burrowing her face in her hands. "I didn't mean to run off like that it's just…I didn't know what else to do at the moment…I was in shock. You try finding out that the person you used to literally fight with was one of your best friends!"
"Well, that's what happened when I found out about you, only we weren't as close back then." Danny said.
"I've been talking to your parents. They felt the same way I did. Your dad felt the worst though, always talking about how he wanted to…you know…"
"Yeah, but I knew how he'd react, but I just chose to keep it to myself, I wasn't ready for the whole world to know."
"How did—"
"Long story short: Evil Ringmaster changed reality and everyone found out about my 'condition'. I then used the power of reality to change everything back to normal, so no one knows what happened."
Valerie's jaw dropped. "And when did this happen?!"
"A week before I left to London."
"Wow."
They sat in an awkward silence, and twiddled with their fingers. Valerie spoke up first. She talked about the fights they had. They asked questions they were never able to ask before, most of them coming from her. Awkward questions arose as well when Danny started telling Valerie about him and Sam. A flash of…something passed on her face, but was gone before Danny could properly look.
Pretty soon they were both laughing about how ridiculous their fights were, ghostly or non-ghostly, and the sun had come up. Danny yawned and looked at the stars, which were now obviously gone.
Danny flew up out of his seat. "Oh no, I was here all night! I gotta go!" he said quickly.
Valerie raised her eyebrow. "Why? What's wrong? It's like a quarter to five in the morning."
"I'M GONNA MISS THE TRAIN!"
"What train?" Valerie managed out after a slight chuckle.
"THE TRAIN TO HOGWARTS!" He swerved towards Valerie's direction. "Valerie look, the new school I'm going to is a magic school called Hogwarts. You don't believe me now, I know you don't, but you can't tell anybody, regardless! I won't get into any trouble for telling you this here, all of the wizards back in London don't like it here apparently, but if anybody but my family finds out, I'm dead!"
Valerie's face turned to that of a skeptic. "Yeah right Danny, get over yourself. There's no such thing as—"
Danny pointed his wand to a tree and concentrated. He shouted the Patronus Charm, which took him two straight weeks of four to five-hour of sleep to learn with lots of help from Harry and Professor Lupin.
The second he finished the spell, a huge silver raven flew out of it.
Danny looked at him with his eyebrows furrowed. "Tell the others I'm on my way"
The raven spiraled and zoomed away, leaving traces of silver behind him. Danny jumped up to fly away behind it, but quickly turned around to see Valerie one last time before he left. She was standing there wide-eyed and jaw open staring at the silver trail left behind. At least she wasn't running away.
"Don't worry Val," Danny said. "I'll be back sooner than you think. Take care of the ghosts for me while I'm gone! I'll miss you!"
He flew off into the horizon, and smiled. 'Finally! No more secrets, no more lies. Valerie and I can just be normal friends…who hunt ghosts. Nothing's ever normal for me is it?'
A/N - woo!