Chapter 7

Danny's stomach turned when he stood up, but he ignored it and pressed a shaky hand to his mom's neck. She was dead. The pronouncement played through his head and Danny choked back a sob. He repeated the action with his Dad, and after coming to the same conclusion he couldn't even bring himself to approach Paulina and Star, let alone Sam and Tucker. Then he heard it. His name.

Danny turned and saw in the back of the bus, half under a seat, was his sister. Jazz's eyes were scrunched up in pain, her hair was a mess around her, but most disturbing was the blood pooling under her.

"D-dan-ny." Jazz coughed out his name. Her eyes looked more than a little glazed over, but Danny could see her struggling to stay awake. "You w-will always b-be m-my hero."

Danny felt like her words were tearing his heart out. "No! Don't talk like you're already dead!" Danny yelled at her. "You can't leave me alone!" His voice broke mid sentence and he started begging. "Please! It's not over!"

Jazz's eyes were still glazed over, but despite her pain she smiled up at him. "I love you, l-little b-brother. Wake up!"

Danny said in a shaky voice, confused, "What?"

"Wake up!"

Danny gasped as he sat straight up in bed. For a second he was confused. He didn't know where he was, or what had happened, all he knew was his sister was dead. He was hyperventilating and crying in the middle of all the boys in his dormitory. He was in his four poster bed in his dormitory in Hogwarts. As Danny remembered where he was he wiped his face off and his breathing calmed.

Finally Danny looked at his surroundings. Harry and Neville were on either side of him, they must have been the ones to shake him awake, and behind Neville at the bottom of his bed were Ron, Seamus, and Dean. Danny groaned and swung his legs out of bed facing Harry. "Sorry about that." Danny apologized sleepily.

"What was that?" Ron asked. Neville and Harry glared at him and Ron looked back at them, his face clearly saying, what did I do.

Danny just shrugged it off. "Just a nightmare."

Harry, Neville, and Dean knew to leave it alone, and silently went back to getting ready. Ron would have asked more questions if Harry and Neville hadn't glared him into silence, but no one glared Seamus into silence. "That didn't look like just a nightmare to me." Seamus said tactlessly, making Dean join in when Harry and Neville turned their glare to Seamus.

Danny ran his fingers through his hair and said, "Yeah. You're right, but I don't want to talk about it." Finally everyone caught the clue, not that it was really a clue anymore, and they all got ready around him.

Danny made an effort to get ready a little slower, so that by the time he was ready to get dressed the other boys were gone. Harry knew Danny needed some time alone and said he'd wait for Danny in the common room. Once Danny was alone he began to get dressed on auto pilot. He was irritated with himself for having a nightmare his first night in the dormitories. His nightmares had been less frequent lately, so he'd been hoping he'd at least be able to keep quiet. Realistically he knew it was likely that someone would see him having a nightmare, but he'd still been hoping differently. Still there was no point worrying about it now. What was done was done.

Before Danny knew it he was pulling on his robes over the school uniform and heading downstairs to meet Harry. Harry smiled welcomingly at the sight of Danny and had lead Danny back out of the common room through the portrait hole they entered last night. Down the moving stairs, through the halls, and past the entrance hall there was the large dining hall, which Harry told Danny was the great hall, that Danny had been sorted in last night. Unlike last night the room wasn't so full of students, though it was far from empty there was only about twenty people per table. There also wasn't a feast. There were plates filled with all sorts of breakfast foods, but there wasn't the overwhelming amount of food that had been present the night before. Danny grabbed a plate with some fruits and bacon, avoiding the toast at all costs, and he sat down next to Harry. Harry sat across from Ron, and Hermione soon joined them carrying a couple of lists.

"Here." She handed out papers to everyone. "Your schedules. I went ahead and grabbed them for you."

"Thanks." Danny mumbled.

Ron was already comparing his schedules with Harry's when he said, "You've got to be joking. We've got rotten luck mate."

"What?" Harry snatched his schedule back and then groaned as he realised what was wrong.

"What?" Danny asked grabbing Harry's schedule. It was exactly the same as his own schedule.

Ron answered Danny's question. "We've got potions first period."

"What's wrong with potions? I mean it's not my favorite class, but it's better than History of Magic." Danny said.

Harry explained, "You would be right if the class was taught by any other teacher, but Potions is taught by professor Snape."

"Foul git." Ron muttered helpfully.

"He is the head of Slytherin house, and he treats anyone who isn't in Slytherin like dirt, and for some reason he hates me." Harry said.

"Sounds like there's no love lost between you. What did you do to make him like that?" Danny asked assuming Harry must have done something to earn the unfavorable behavior from the teacher.

Harry defended himself. "I didn't do anything. I just showed up in class the first day and he started quizzing me like I was supposed to know the answers without ever opening a book and then he basically called me stupid and attention seeking. I'm pretty sure he just hates me because I'm famous or something."

Danny was reminded of Mr. Lancer and he groaned, "I thought I left the bias teachers behind in Amity, but I guess not." Harry would have asked about that, but Specter interrupted by jumping up into Danny's lap. "Specter where did you come from?" Danny asked surprised.

Harry chuckled, "I guess he followed us out of the common rooms. Cats are stealthy he could have just slipped by us."

"I would have noticed." Danny insisted and when he saw no one but Harry was looking at him he flashed his eyes green to explain. Harry got it immediately, but was mostly amused when his brothers cat begged for more attention after Danny made his eyes flash.

Hermione commented on the earlier conversation, "Don't worry Danny, maybe Snape won't hate you immediately. I mean," Hermione faltered under the boy's looks, "he hasn't even met you yet."

Danny rolled his eyes, "Like I'm that lucky. I'm more likely to be more hated than Harry then to miraculously gain the teacher's favor."

Ron looked at the schedule Danny had dropped when Specter landed on him. "At least your schedule matches ours, so you won't have to suffer alone." Then Ron looked briefly over Hermione's shoulder and did a double take. "Hang on." He grabbed Hermione's schedule out of her hands. "They messed yours up. Look," The redhead pointed to the page, "Ancient runes is marked down for the same time as Divination, and Muggle studies is at the same time as Care of Magical Creatures."

Hermione snatched the paper back from Ron. "You don't need to worry about it. I've sorted it out with Professor McGonagall."

"Sorted it out?" Ron said incredulously, "I know you're good Hermione, but even you can't be in two places at once."

Danny watched Hermione's face as she said, "Like I said I've sorted it out." She was blatantly ignoring Ron's question, and it made Danny suspicious that she was hiding something. Not that he had any right to pry, knowing that he was withholding the largest secret. Hermione quickly turned the topic to something else. "Hey, Danny."

"Yeah." Danny acknowledged while both he and Hermione ignored Ron, who was still questioning the girl's schedule.

"Last night you mentioned you were from Amity park, and that the ghosts there were the cause of why your magic was detected so late." Hermione repeated what Danny had told everyone the night before, and Danny nodded that she was correct. "It got me curious about ghosts. There are ghosts all over Hogwarts, and they never interfere with magical energies."

Danny explained, "That's because the ghosts here are powerless. There are a few different types of ghosts." Danny started ticking them off on his fingers. "The ghosts here at Hogwarts are known as spirits. They are people who were afraid of the afterlife, so they clung to this world." Danny ticked off another finger. "The majority of ghosts are people who were prevented from moving on due to unfinished business. After death they form in a parallel dimension known as Evermore, or the Ghost Zone to muggles. Evermore is an ectoplasmic world, and ghosts that form there, instead of clinging to this world, are given ghostly powers."

"Ghostly powers?" Hermione asked. She was very interested, but she wasn't the only one.

"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked from behind Danny and Harry jumped in surprise.
Danny had heard Ginny coming and wasn't shocked by her question. "I was telling Hermione about obsession ghosts."Danny answered Ginny and then added to Hermione, "That's what the ghosts that form because of unfinished business are called." Then he continued his explanation, "The three basic powers of ghosts is intangibility, they are naturally tangible, invisibility, and flight, but they also tend to have specialised powers based on their obsession, unfinished business."

"Those sound dangerous." Harry commented and Ron nodded his agreement.

"They are. There was actually a really bad infestation of malevolent ghosts in Amity that caused the muggles to develop weapons to fight them off. The ghostly battles caused so much property damage in the city that it cost millions of dollars in upkeep every year." Danny explained.

Harry, Ron, and Ginny were shocked that ghosts could cause so much damage, and that muggles had made weapons that could affect them. Hermione noticed something more in Danny's explanation. "You're talking in past tense. Isn't it still the most haunted city in the world?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, "Um it was, but I figured out how the ghosts were getting in from the Ghost Zone and I fixed the problem."

"What was it?" Ginny asked.

Danny blushed lightly as he said, "My parents were the ghost hunters of the town, and they kept leaving their ghost portal open instead of locking it. I stopped them from doing that."

Ron, Ginny, and Harry laughed that Danny's parents were the ones to cause all the ghost problems in Amity, but Hermione looked horrified. "How can you laugh. His parents' mistake could have seriously gotten someone hurt?"

Harry's eyes lit up mischievously as he said, "Oh I'm sure Phantom prevented that."

"Phantom?" Hermione and Ron asked at the same time.

Danny glared at Harry for the slip of information he wasn't supposed to know, but Harry saved himself by saying, "Danny mentioned him to me last night. He was a ghost that fought off the other ghosts."

"Like a superhero?" Hermione asked.

Ginny frowned recalling the odd ghost from the night before. "Wait, wasn't that ghost that Sir Nicholas talked to named Phantom?" Danny and Harry both internally winced that Ginny remembered and caught each others eye a moment before Danny explained.

"Yeah, that was Phantom. I did him a favor and brought him with me. He wanted to spend some time in the human world that he wasn't fighting. Hogwarts is the perfect place for that, so when he heard I was coming here he asked for a lift." Danny said. It wasn't good, it connected him and Phantom by more than just a town, but at least it explained why they would both be seen at Hogwarts. Then Danny added as an after thought, "And yes. He was a superhero. I'm pretty sure that was his obsession." Danny shrugged and went back to breakfast.

Ron chuckled making everyone look at him. "Off topic, but I doubt Hermione was thinking she would learn about a whole new species of magical beings and the world they come from when she started this conversation."

Danny laughed with him and said, "I haven't even finished the barest summary about the Amity ghosts."

"What more is there?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"For one I never even mentioned the third and fourth types of ghost that were never human to begin with, but we have to go if we don't want to be late for potions." Danny said, making everyone check the time and rush to get to their first class.

Danny followed quickly after Ron, Harry, and Hermione. They lead him down into the dungeons of the castle where everything was lit by torches. Neville greeted the four of them at the door to the classroom. "Hey guys. Um, Danny what's with the cat?" Neville pointed to Specter, who was still following Danny.

"Shoot!" Danny mildly cursed as he turned to his cat. "Specter," he addressed his cat, "I need you to wait for me in that shadow. I'll be back in an hour." Specter surprised everyone by trotting over to the shadowed corner and laying down for a nap.

"Wow, Dean was right. That cat listens to you almost unnaturally well." Neville commented.

Danny just shrugged and entered the classroom with his friends. Ron and Harry partnered at one desk, and Neville and Danny partnered at the desk next to them. Hermione Sat behind Neville with Pavarti Patil. "Hey Danny, why'd you have your cat wait in the shadow?" Harry asked.

"I don't know the rules about pets wandering the castle yet, and I don't want to get in trouble because my cat follows me." Danny answered.

Hermione overheard and was about to reassure Danny that the pets were allowed even inside classrooms as long as they weren't disruptive, but a different disruptive force interrupted her. "Hey, Potter." Malfoy smirked at Harry, "I heard you fainted on the train. Is that true?"

Harry growled at Maloy's teasing, "Shut up Malfoy."

Danny walked up to Malfoy and held out his hand to shake, "I don't believe we've met, Malfoy was it? I just moved here, but I think I've heard that name before." Ron and Neville looked at Danny like he was crazy, but Harry was just confused.

Malfoy puffed out his chest proudly and shook Danny's hand. "You're the transfer student. Good to see you have more sense than your brother. My father is a very important figure in the Ministry."

"Ah old money." Danny said in an understanding tone. "That explains it."

Malfoy was now becoming a bit confused himself, and found the first bit of suspicion creeping into his mind. He hesitantly asked, "Explains what?"

"Your big head. It has to be that large to fit your ego from being raised under the lie that you are better than others because you have more money." Danny said conversationally. Harry couldn't stop the smile that rose on his face as Malfoy, still gripping his brother's hand, turned pink in furry. Ron and Neville hadn't been expecting that turn of events at all. Ron burst out laughing and a Neville nearly spit.

Malfoy grew steadily more pink as he ripped his hand from Danny like he was electrocuted. "I should have known better than to assume a Potter to show respect." Malfoy sneered as all the Gryffindors in the class snickered.

"I should have known better than to expect any intelligence from a natural platinum blond bully. I guess sometimes cliches are true." Danny shrugged.

"Why you-" Malfoy pulled his wand and threw a curse at Danny, but instead of hitting Danny it hit the wall behind him when he dodged to the side. Just then the professor walked in to see Malfoy standing in front of Danny with his wand out and pointing at the later's face. Danny was unarmed and faked a yawn, making Malfoy grow, if possible, pinker in furry.

Snape came in with his usual ominous presence. All laughter in the room stopped abruptly on his entrance, and his black eyes kept even Malfoy silent when they flickered towards the two boys. His greasy shoulder length hair hung flat against either side of his face, and his over large robes billowed about him when he walked giving him and almost bat-like appearance. Snape's eyes flickered to Danny, and Danny perceptively caught the teacher's eye twitch before he looked to Malfoy. Snape seemed to not notice that Malfoy was threatening Danny and simply said, "Wands away, Mr. Malfoy."

Malfoy muttered embarrassedly, "Yes, sir." As he took his seat on the Slytherin side of the room. Danny raised an eyebrow at the blatant bias. Harry had warned him, but even Mr. Lancer wasn't this bad.

Snape stiffly took his place at the front of the room and said, "By now you have been learning in my class for two years, and you should all know what to do." As the teacher said the sentence he looked at Danny as if daring him to say otherwise. Danny didn't rise to the bait, and figured he'd learn quickly enough whether he'd taken this teacher's class before or not. Snape waved his wand and the chalk on the board began to write instructions to make Blood-Replenishing Potion. It was a potion taught in the third year, but it was notoriously difficult. "Begin." With that word he class flurried into motion.

Danny caught on to what they were doing quickly and gathered the needed materials as fast as he could. Danny soon planted himself at his desk between Harry and Neville as he got to work. At first the class seemed pretty easy. Yes the potion was a little tricky, but as long as Danny read the instructions well enough he knew he'd be fine. Then when most of the class started on the fifth step a pink mist began to rise from the potions that were brewing correctly and the air became thick with fog. As if trying to read Snape's handwriting wasn't hard enough, now Danny had to read it through the pink distortion. Even with his enhanced vision it was becoming a difficult task. Danny glanced over to his brother to see how he was doing just as Harry was about to drop in his three beetles. "Wait." Danny quietly stopped Harry. "You are supposed to add them one at a time over the course of thirty seconds."

Harry's eyes widened and he thanked Danny and fixed his potion. By then end of the class the air was so thick even Danny was working off memory of what the board said. He stirred the potion four times and then turned the fire off. It was supposed to si for the last five minutes of class. Professor Snape stood from his desk and began circling the room. His looming presence seemed to distract most of the class from their work. Snape made a point to complement Malfoy, even though Danny could see from where he was that Malfoy had forgotten the second to last step. Then Snape wove his way through the cauldrons and fog to where Danny and Harry were. He peered into Danny's cauldron first and sneered, but he didn't say anything. Danny took that as a sign that there wasn't anything Snape could criticize in his potion, and he silently cheered that he'd thwarted the bat-like teacher. Then Snape turned to Harry and his sneer turned into a smirk.

"What is this rubbish, Mr. Potter?" Snape barked.

Harry didn't look up from his potion which was not the light blue color the class was trying to achieve, and he said, "It's a blood replenishing potion, sir." Harry kept his voice as respectful as possible, but it was apparent to the entire class that Harry was fuming. His potion was only a few shades darker than it was supposed to be, it wasn't like it was ruined.

Snape looked down his nose at the potion and said, "I wouldn't call it that. Tell me Potter, what does the fifth line of the instructions say?"

Harry took his potion off the fire for the last step and then looked up to read the board. "It says, 'Chop two apricot leaves and dip the chopped leaves into the potion for three second. Take the leaves out and stir the potion for one minute before dipping the leaves in again for another three seconds and stirring again." Harry's heart dropped when he realised he forgot to re-dip the leaves.

"Did you do that?" Snape asked.

Harry scowled, "No, sir. I only dipped the leaves once."

"Correct. The potion you've created would do little to replenish blood, and you're victim, were he dying from blood loss, would continue to do so. This potion is worthless." With that Snape waved his wand and disappeared the potion in the cauldron.

Harry was exceedingly angry as he sat the last few minutes in front of his empty cauldron. The potion wasn't a complete failure, and several of the Slytherin's were much worse. Goyle's potion was billowing black smoke and was an alarming shade of red. It was completely unfair that Harry would now be getting a zero for the class even though his potion was at the very least acceptable.

The last minutes were filled with the giggles of Slytherins and the sympathetic looks of Gryffindors towards Harry as he packed everything up. Danny started packing up what he could, because he knew just as soon as he could Harry would be out of the room. His prediction turned out to be correct, because as soon as Snape called times up Harry picked up and left. Danny quickly deposited his labeled potion on the desk of the teacher, if you could call him that, and then he left the way his brother had. Danny was relieved to see Harry waiting just outside the classroom.

Danny chuckled making Harry aware of his presence as he said, "You and Ron did warn me, but I seriously how is that man still employed here?"

That comment got a half hearted grin from Harry who answered, "I have no idea why he's still here, but he hates me as much as he ever has. I'm surprised he didn't say anything to you though."

Danny smiled guiltily, "I have enhanced sight, because of my half-blood status, so I could see the instructions better. Snape didn't say anything to me, because he couldn't." Harry scoffed still in a foul mood. Danny quickly added, "Not that Snape could really say anything about your's. I've been in situations where I could have made use of a potion like the one you brewed. Even if it wasn't perfect it still worked, just to a lesser extent."

Harry held up a finger to stop Danny and said, "Two questions. How do you know the potion would have worked at all? And what situation have you been in that that potion would have been useful?"

Danny smirked and said, "Snape didn't go so far as to outright lie about your potion when he was putting it down. He said the potion would, 'do little', not nothing to replenish blood, and then he said in a scenario where someone was dying your potion couldn't save them. That means if a person wasn't dying your potion could help them, at least to some extent." Then Danny's expression turned darker and he said, "I told you I was a superhero, but that means I was in a lot of battles. There were many times I could have used a potion like that. I probably could have used one once a week sometimes."

Harry winced and he said, "I didn't think about that part of being a hero. I guess I thought more about the powers you have."

Danny smiled reassuringly at Harry. "Don't worry about it. No one thinks about that part until they see me injured or see a scar, and sometimes they need more than one scar to get the idea through their head. You're not alone."

Harry shook his head. "It still doesn't make it okay. In fact I think that makes it worse. Did anyone think of the reality of what you were doing?"

Danny shrugged and said, "My two best friends, who knew my secret identity, and my sister when she learned who I was. Oh and my arch enemy, but he was just pointing out the downsides of what I was doing so I would agree to be his son and apprentice so we could rule the worlds together."

Harry went bug eyed, gaping until Danny elbowed him in the side and pointed out that the rest of their group was coming out of the classroom. "Man Harry, that sucked." Neville said from next to Ron and Hermione.

"That git. If I was Dumbledore I would've fire the slimy git long ago." Ron said. Harry chuckled and Ron looked at his friend like he was crazy. "What are you so chipper about?" Ron asked.

"Nothing." Harry explained, "It's just that's almost exactly what Danny said."

Hermione put in her two cents, "Come on guys I know he's not the greatest teacher, but he could be worse."

Danny deadpanned, "That man is only a teacher in the loosest definition of the word. Just because he's not an axe murder that doesn't make him an acceptable teacher." No one could argue with that logic, not even Hermione, so the conversation changed.

"By the way Danny, what you did to Malfoy before class was amazing." Hermione said.

Danny smiled and said, "That was nothing. I just had to say something to get him off Harry."

"Hermione's right that was bloody brilliant. I want to remember Malfoys expression forever." Ron backed his friend.

"I'm serious that guy's nothing but a pompous idiot. I almost feel bad for him." Danny said.

"What how can you feel bad for that guy? He's a slime." Ron said shocked.

Danny answered Ron. "It's not like it's his fault he's an idiot. His breed of idiot comes from other people over feeding his ego. He has so little experience with the real world that he has no choice but to be stupid."

Hermione nodded and said, "Yeah, when you look at it like that it's kind of sad, but I still can't feel too bad for him."

Danny shrugged and said, "What goes around."

"On another note," Neville said, "We need to get going. Don't we have Divination next?"

"Of course." Hermione immediately jumped into action swiftly moving to the northern end of the castle. The Divination class was supposed to be at the top of the north tower.

"Hold up, Hermione!" Harry shouted after his friend as he rushed after her. Danny barely remembered to call Specter before he ran off after the others. At some point Hermione seemed to stop leading the group, but Harry, Danny, Ron, and Neville made their way to the northernmost part of the castle, but it was harder than they thought. They got lost multiple times, and eventually had to ask directions from one of the paintings.

Sir Catogan was his name and the knight lead their group to the north east side of the castle and up a massive staircase. Specter hated the clanking of the knights armor, but Sir Catogan was very taken with Specter saying that he was a "fierce familiar" and that Danny should be proud of such a companion. Not that Danny didn't like Specter but he was more concerned that their guide seemed more than a little crazy, but he shrugged it off. He'd gotten useful information from ghosts twice as crazy as Sir Catogan and for a painting who was to say that the knight wasn't completely sane.

The knight was true to his word and lead them all the way to the classroom landing and left after offering his services should they ever need him in the future. For a moment the group remained on the top steps of the tower huffing and puffing trying to regain their breath, but Danny, being a halfa, gained his breath first and quickly realised that there was no door. "Um, guys. Where's the classroom?" Danny said pointing out his dilemma to the rest of his friends.

Ron griped, "I knew we shouldn't have trusted that crazy knight. He wasn't all there, if you ask me."

Slowly more people began to arrive. Everyone looked confused that there seemed to be no door, but they had all arrived at the same location, so they stayed where they were. Finally Neville said, "Hey guys, I think I found the door." Everyone followed Neville's finger, which was pointed to a trap door on the ceiling.

"Are you sure that's the classroom?" Harry asked skeptically, but just a second after the door opened and a ladder lowered and landed directly in front of Harry's feet.

"Skeptics first." Danny waved Harry onward and quickly followed his brother.

Danny found himself in a heavily perfumed circular room. The walls were covered in shawls and curtains in warm colors blocking most of the outside light, and what did filter in was mostly red and orange. The rest of the light came from a fire place where there was a roaring fire. The room was swelteringly hot to the humans and Danny felt almost like he was suffocating in the heat. Around the room there were large cushioned chairs and poufs positioned around small circular tables. There was between two and three chairs to a table, so Harry, Ron, and Danny placed themselves around one table while Neville went to sit with someone else. The part of the room Danny found most particular was the witch hiding in a black shadow.

She was wearing thick circular glasses that severely magnified her eyes in her thin face. Bushy blond curls fell down the woman's back over her peasant blouse, which was barely visible under her many scarves. She also wore a long floor length skirt and so many bangled bracelets that Danny wondered if it was difficult for her stick arms to hold up. Her eyes glittered mischievously and Danny knew this woman liked to put on a show. Danny's own internal prankster responded to the woman's mischief in kind. He saw that the woman was going to appear out of the shadow directly behind Harry so he subtly moved behind Harry so he would be in front of the woman instead.

"Greetings class." The teacher emerged from the shadow. Most of the students seemed startled to see her there, and she seemed mildly surprised that she hadn't startled Danny too. "It's wonderful to see you in the physical world at last." Her voice was light and mysterious, and Danny had to stop himself from snorting.

The class finally settled in their seats and gave the professor their full attention. "I am Professor Trelawny. You may not have seen me before, but that usual. I prefer to stay up here away from the main hustle and bustle of the castle as it clouds my inner eye." She declared and the class was silent. They didn't know how to respond to the unique proclamation, and an air of slight unease settled on the class.

"In my class I will teach you the art of divination, though I suspect not all of you will have the sight required to do well in my class." The teacher's eyes briefly settled on Hermione as she said, "The sight is not something that can be learned from your books." Hermione looked mildly shocked that her books wouldn't help her, but she sat up straighter almost as if trying to prove that she would still excel at this class the same as every other. "I'll teach you how to see past the fog the veils the future, starting with the simplest methods and working on from there. First we will learn to read tea leaves, then palmistry, dream interpretation, and finally if this class shows promise I will introduce you to the crystal ball." How she kept her voice sounding so misty Danny didn't know, but she held the attention of the entire class.

The teacher continued by starting their first lesson in tea leaves. "Just grab a cup and then walk over to me and I'll pour you some tea." They followed her instructions and suddenly she turned to Lavender's friend Pavarti and asked, "Is your grandmother quite well, girl?"

Pavarti jumped out of her skin and stuttered, "I-I think so."

Trelawny hmmed and said, "I wouldn't be so sure." Then offhandedly she said to Lavender, "The thing you're dreading will happen in the first week of march." Then she turned to Neville, "You there."

"Y-yes." Neville gulped nervously at the teacher addressing him.

"Would you be so kind as to grab a blue cup next time? I'm rather attached to the pink ones." Neville nodded as the teacher poured his tea.

Everyone else was able to drink from their tea much sooner than Danny who couldn't handle the hot temperature while in the swelteringly hot room, so he used his cyrokinesis to cool down the drink slightly before he too drank his tea. They were instructed to place their cups upside down on their saucers to let the dregs drain, and then they traded their cups with the others at their table. After a minute they picked the cups back up and tried to interpret the brown mushy stuff. Ron gave it a try first. "Well Harry's got a wonky sort of cross, that's trials and suffering. But this here is the sun which is happiness. So you're going to suffer, but you're going to be happy about it." Harry snorted, "Alright you give it a go then."

Harry looked down and said, "All I see is a load of soggy brown stuff." the three boys tried to keep their laughter down low, but the teacher heard them anyway.

"What do you see in your cup Mr. Potter?" Trelawny said. Both Harry and Danny looked at her blankly until she elaborated, "Danny."

Danny looked down at Ron's cup and said, "Well you've got this, um, skull? There's a mask on top of that. The skull means danger in your path, and the mask is secrets. So there's a dangerous secret in your future."

Trelawny looked impressed and said, "Well done Danny. I sense that you have a natural talent to see into the beyond." Harry was snickering from behind the professor when she said, "Perhaps you could show your brother how to read the signs."

Harry's snickering stopped, but Danny decided to pull a little prank on his poor brother. "I don't think I could Professor, but maybe he would benefit from watching you read the cup." Danny noticed the class was paying close attention to his table and Harry's discomfort.

Danny smirked when the teacher rounded on Harry and said, "That's a wonderful idea." She took the cup from Harry and kneeled down so he could see and she said, "Well look here. There is a mask over the sun and the, oh dear, the grim. This means that Danny, or someone near him is keeping both happiness and death a secret." Danny and Harry shared a look. They both knew what Danny was keeping secret. "Then on the other side of the cup separate there is wonky cross over a mask, which means Danny or someone close to him will have difficulty keeping a secret." Trelawny's voice had been extra mysterious through the entire reading, but as she finished her voice went back to it's regular mistiness. She looked up at Danny and said, "My my, that is not a happy cup." Then she looked to Harry and said, "It's no wonder you had a hard time reading it, it's a complex cup."

The class was in awe of Trelawny's reading. Ron glanced over to see Danny's cup and realised the wonky cross looked nothing like the one in his mug. He frowned and told their teacher, "My wonky cross looks different."

Professor Trelawny frowned and said, "Let me see dear." Ron handed her the cup, and she no more than looked down then she gasped and said, "Oh my dear boy. You poor boy."

"What is it?" Someone called from a table behind Danny.

"My dear," She looked Harry in the eye and said, "you have the grim." Someone else in the class read out the grim was the omen meaning death, and the class became silent as the grave.

Hermione looked over the teacher's shoulder and said, "It doesn't look like a dog to me." Another student agreed and said it kind of looks like a donkey if you look at it from this angle.

Harry snapped, "If you're all done debating whether I'm going to die or not?" He left the sentence hanging, filling the classroom with an awkward discomfortable air.

"Well," Professor Trelawny said, "I think that's a good enough point to stop for today." She dismissed the class and slowly everyone broke from their trances and packed up their stuff. The next class for the Gryffindors was Transfiguration, so they all as a group headed to McGonagall's classroom in complete silence. The only break was from the students looking back at Harry with worried expressions.

Danny had been fighting a panic attack since Trelawny's prediction. He'd just found Harry. Harry couldn't die, not now, not so soon. Danny couldn't go through that pain again. He wasn't even done mourning his last family. Bloody images of Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker flashed through his mind, and they were followed by an image of Dan laughing while harry was tied to the Nasty Burger. It was a nightmare he'd had just a few nights ago, and he knew it couldn't happen, but Danny found himself fighting to keep his breathing even. Then two words popped into his head that calmed him, "I promise." He'd promised Jazz not to give up, and Danny would keep that promise. Once Danny was a little more calm he began to worry more about how Harry was handling the prediction than the prediction itself. Danny knew he would never let the prediction come to pass, but Harry didn't.

Harry looked pale and nervous. His eyes flickered from face to face as people shot looks back to him. The class was worried, and it was making Harry worried. They were just a hall away from Transfiguration when Danny quietly told Harry, "You don't need to worry. The prediction is wrong. I'd never let that happen."

Harry looked Danny in the eye and he saw nothing but determination and power. It solidified Danny's promise and Harry found himself relaxing. Of course Danny wouldn't let anything happen. His brother was a literal superhero. If Danny promised Harry would be fine, then Harry would be fine. "Thanks." Harry whispered. He was still a little uncomfortable, but at least now he wasn't worried about his eminent death.

Everyone sat in the class, and McGonagall began her lecture, something about animagus, only Harry and Danny heard any of it, because they were less worried. Then she transformed into a tabby cat and back human, but when only Danny, Harry, and Specter gave her any notice she said, "Really!" McGonagall exclaimed, "What has gotten into you!? You're the first class ever to not applaud my transformation."

The class looked around at each other uncomfortably, then their eyes flicked back at Harry before returning to the teacher. It was Hermione who answered the question. She stated in a slightly shaky voice, "Well you see we just came back from our first Divination class-"

"Ah, say no more Ms. Granger." Mcgonagall said and then asked, "So who's dying?" The class was shocked by the question, but eventually Harry answered.

"I am, Professor." He said and Danny sent another worried look to his brother who sent back a look that clearly said, 'I'm fine'.

McGonagall looked at Danny and then rested her eyes on Harry's before she said, "In all my years of teaching I have seen many classes from Divination. That," McGonagall seemed to struggle with the word, "woman, gives out a death omen the first class of every year. It's her favorite way of introducing a new class." She looked all around the room and said, "I've yet to see one of her predicted deaths come true," Then she looked back at Harry and said, "so I hope you'll forgive me for giving your homework. I assure you if you do die you need not turn it in." Harry laughed and the tension in the room noticeably lessened,and the rest of the class was pretty normal, but Danny could hear a few of the students were still skeptical.

AN: Hey everyone. It's great to be back. I left because I had family visiting for my brothers graduation, and I took some extra time just to get away from this story a little bit. I was getting really tired of focusing on one thing, so I wrote other things while on hiatus. Just so you know I posted the beginning of a new Danny Phantom fan fiction today, so check that out too.

Enough advertising and more about this chapter. I seem to really love doing these nightmares for Danny. Don't know why, but they're fun to write, and I wanted him to wake up crying in the dormitories. In my head originally it was only Harry that found Danny having a nightmare, but then I remembered the Order of the Phoenix when Harry dreamed of Arthur Weasley, and I knew they all would be awake. I've also barely started to hint at the more important role I've planned for Specter to play. At this point Specter is just a cat who follows Danny around everywhere, but he won't always be. Potions class was interesting to write. I wanted Snape to show his hatred of the Potter boys somehow, but at the same time the Danny I've written wouldn't make a mistake. I've made Danny way smarter than that, and if Danny didn't make a mistake Snape couldn't call him out on it. I did get some good Draco/Danny interaction though, not that Draco/Danny will be a thing.

I think Danny would take Divination, because it would remind him of Clockwork, and because he would be curious how much of the future humans were allowed to view. Danny's also a good judge of character, so I like the idea that he gets a little bit of warning about Trelawny when he sees her expression upon entering the class. I didn't really have the interaction between the Divination teacher and Danny planned, but I like the idea of Danny pushing her buttons and them both getting on each others nerves.

That's about it really. I just relaxed and wrote the chapter over the period of a few weeks, and now I'm back writing again. So as always R&R and I'll update next week, probably with more development on Danny and Neville's friendship.