Disclaimer: Not mine. Does it matter?

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Chapter 9

That night, Danny lay awake and stared at the ceiling. He was waiting for the right time; he wanted to be sure that no one else would be awake before he left to start his exploring. A quick Tempus showed that it was almost one in the morning. 'That should be good. I doubt anyone else would want to be up so late.'

Before Danny could do more than sit up and prepare to leave, he heard a sharp gasp and motion from Harry's bed, like he had sat up suddenly. Frowning, he turned invisible and intangible to stick his head out the curtains. After a moment's consideration, he sat back on his bed and listened.

Harry woke with a gasp, sitting up and looking around. It took him a long moment to realize that he was back in his own bed in Hogwarts. After a moment, he forced himself to relax and think.

He shook his head. That had been a really strange dream. 'What was that all about? It felt kind of like a vision from Voldemort, but my scar doesn't hurt. Besides, I doubt he'd send me anything like that. It was almost like I was being taught something.'

Dream Flashback

Harry felt oddly weightless. Looking around, he realized that it was nighttime, and he seemed to be floating high in the air. 'Why am I here? What's going on? And what was that?' He had just seen a flash of something glowing at the edge of his vision, looking like it was moving quickly.

Spinning around, and never mind how he could even do that here, since he seemed to be floating in mid-air, he saw a very strange sight. A guy who looked a bit younger than Harry, perhaps a year or two, was flying. He had no apparent support, but it didn't seem to bother him, considering the blissful look on his face.

Watching him, Harry had the feeling of somebody who went through all kinds of stress most times, but this was the only real time he had to himself. Oddly, it made Harry think of himself. He went through tons of stress, between the Dursley's and the Wizarding World alternatively loving and hating him. The only times he really had to relax was either when he was alone or it was just his closest friends, like Ron, Hermione, and Remus.

As soon as Harry understood that, there was a soundless flash and the scene changed.

The last scene had been silent, but here there was sound. He found himself floating outside of what seemed to be a school, and vaguely heard a strangely listless cheering coming from inside. But that wasn't what interested him. That was in front of him.

The same boy he had seen flying before was being held in an uncomfortable-looking grip by a woman who was a black flame, or perhaps a black flame shaped into the form of a woman. The boy seemed angry and desperate as he struggled. "Let me go!"

The flame—er, woman—laughed, and Harry suddenly wanted to be farther away. There was nothing good about that laugh. It was the same kind of laughter he had heard Voldemort use as he watched Muggles being tortured. Then she spoke, in a mocking voice that made him even more wary.

"Why would I do that? Your doubts, your misery, its delicious! And the best part is, after that silly speech is over, and the last domino falls, and the sparklers vaporize the speaker, we'll leave you here to take the blame! And by the time I'm done with you, you'll be sure it was all your fault!"

The boy closed his eyes, and muttered, "Man, I'm so tired of you dumping on me, and I'm so tired of dumping on myself. Jazz never did that, even when I was mad at her, and I won't let her DOWN!" Two rings of light rose from his waist, forcing the strange woman to let him go. He whirled around, green eyes glowing angrily.

The scene froze, and Harry blinked in confusion. "What's going on? Why did it stop?" Harry began to unconsciously pace, trying to figure it out. 'Well, what made the other scene change?' After a long moment, he realized. Looking at the boy, he spoke softly. "I understood something. Like a lesson? But what is this one trying to tell?"

Half closing his eyes, Harry thought of what they'd said. "She was saying something about his doubts and misery, and he said…that he was tired of dumping on himself?" Shaking his head, he paced some more, before he finally understood. "Doubt. Something made him doubt. But sometimes you have to believe in yourself, no matter what others think or say."

The soundless flash that he had half expected confirmed that Harry had understood that lesson. The next, was a bit stranger. He was floating over a large field. There were bleachers filled with what seemed to be freaky clowns, and a huge, bald, pale man with red eyes spoke into a microphone.

Harry ignored the words, focused on what he was seeing. A roller coaster with one train, filled with three couples and a teenage girl. They were hurtling along the track, and Harry saw the same boy from before. He landed in front of the cars, obviously intending to try and make them stop. But the pale man he had first noticed used some kind of light—a spell?—to turn him into jello that burst apart when the first car it.

The train was almost in front of a clown head that spat fire when the boy returned to his earlier form and rolled in front of it, creating a huge shield to block the fire and protect the people in the train. As they passed, Harry vaguely heard the teenage girl yell something about 'ghost envy' and 'psychology', but he wasn't paying attention. 'I've seen that color before. Where was it?'

A moment later, he got his answer, as the boy seemed to consider that girl's words. He seemed to understand and threw a ball of green light at a pair of huge hammers set to crush the train as it went by. The green ball destroyed the heads of the hammers and the train was safe for the moment. That was how Harry recognized the light.

'Hey, Danny's ecto-gun thingies shoot something like that. Does that mean that that boy's a ghost?' Then he almost smacked himself. 'Gee, Harry, he's floating without any support, created a shield that blocked fire and a blast that took out two huge blocks of stone. I'd say that, yes, he's a ghost.'

Turning back to the action, Harry was just in time to see the boy—ghost—use his blasts to create a rough smiley face in the pale guy's hat. Harry barely listened to what the ghost said as he watched the ghost-boy go through impressive mid-air acrobatics to avoid the man's grasping hands. Even when the man managed to seemingly smash him between two huge hands, he simply floated up from between them, saying something about 'intangibility.'

Harry watched as the huge man finally got frustrated and swatted the ghost-boy out of the air. "If you think being a…ghost is so great, just watch me whenI'm a…ghost!" He did something, closing his cloak around himself. After a moment, he opened it and he was very different. His legs had become a kind of tail, his skin was green, and he suddenly had four arms.

Down on the ground, the ghost-boy stared up at him, and muttered something about his job just getting easier. Before Harry could wonder about that, he picked up what looked like a soup canister and pointed it at the huge ghost.

Said ghost was sucked inside, clawing at the ground to try and stop. It didn't work, and when he was sucked inside, something that looked like a really weird, elbow-length metal glove fell to the ground, resizing itself from huge to a more normal size.

Harry frowned as the scene froze. "Another lesson, huh?" There was an almost expectant silence, as he studied the frozen scene. "Okay, he was showing off, and making the big guy really frustrated." Once more, he began to pace. "Then the big guy did something, and he was a ghost."

Turning, he considered the object in the ghost-boy's hands. After a long moment, he went closer and saw that he had been right. As far as he could tell, it was nothing more than something to hold soup. Admittedly, there were some strange designs on it, but still.

Then Harry realized he was getting another odd sense of familiarity, like he had when the ghost-boy created a shield. He took a closer look at the thermos, and soon realized. "Oh! I see. Danny has a few things like that; he said something about them holding ghosts."

Harry frowned. "He couldn't use it while the guy was still human, so he forced him to turn into a ghost?" Turning once more, he saw the roller coaster, and remembered what that girl had said. "Something about 'ghost envy' and…'Use psychology.'" Harry blinked. "He tricked him?" Harry slowly nodded. "I see; he showed off so much that that guy got jealous, and turned himself into a ghost."

Looking around, Harry saw that the scene hadn't changed. "What, there's more?" Sighing, he considered it again. After a long moment he spoke, "Weakness. The guy's jealousy was his weakness, and that ghost-boy used it against him." Finally, the flash came, and the next scene was shown.

This time, the soundless flash led to a somewhat different scene. For one thing, the ghost wasn't there. It was Danny. A slightly younger, beat-up Danny, but it was still Danny. For another, the street was torn up and several buildings were rubble. It looked like some kind of war zone.

Danny had a frantic look on his face and looked exhausted, but he was running toward something, his hand outstretched. Turning, Harry stared. There, tied to a huge vat with some kind of glowing green rope, were six people.

They were all staring desperately toward Danny, and he noticed what looked like some kind of temperature gauge. The needle was all the way to the right, buried in the red. Harry wasn't sure what it meant, except that whatever temperature it was measuring was dangerously hot.

Following the people's gazes back to Danny, he saw that the other boy had tripped. He was staring desperately towards the people strapped to the vat, still trying to get up and get to them.

Harry, not thinking about it, forced himself over to them and tried to free them. He was frustrated when he realized that here, he could affect nothing. As far as anything here was concerned, he didn't exist.

Looking at the people once more, Harry's gaze caught on a specific person, a black-haired girl with violet eyes. Before he could remember where he'd seen her before, the vat exploded.

End Dream Flashback

Harry sighed softly. "That was really weird. First there was a boy flying, then the same boy being held by a flame woman, him fighting some really weird guy who could control everything. And finally, a vat exploding with people strapped to it while Danny is too far away to do anything. Why can't I ever have normal dreams?"

Danny's eyes widened as he heard Harry giving a rough description of his dream. Closing his eyes, he decided that he needed to hear more detail. Something told him this was important.

Glad of the thick curtains around his bed, he changed to his Phantom form. Then he split himself into two. One went invisible, while the other returned to human. 'That's really useful sometimes. Especially when I need to be in two places at once.'

Sliding out of bed, Danny made sure to make enough noise to catch Harry's attention. Walking to the door, he made sure his footsteps were slightly audible, and just before he went down the stairs, he glanced over and met a pair of curious green eyes. He was all but verbally asking Harry to join him.

Harry frowned when he heard the soft rustling of cloth that usually came when someone climbed out of bed, followed by quiet footsteps. Poking his head out of the curtains, he saw Danny glance over at him just before he went down the stairs.

Harry bit his lip in consideration. Being around him for a few months, Harry had quickly learned that Danny only made noise when he wanted to. Obviously he had meant to catch Harry's attention. Making his decision, he grabbed his wand before going downstairs.

Danny heard the footsteps on the stairs and was glad Harry had decided to join him, but he didn't look up from staring into the fire.

Harry took a moment to find Danny, curled up in a large chair in front of the fireplace. He seemed almost mesmerized by the fire, and Harry wondered if he should say something. Before he could, Danny spoke.

"Hey Harry." Danny smiled when he heard the hesitant steps to the other chair that faced the fire.

Harry frowned. "Why did you want to talk to me?"

Danny shrugged. "I heard you wake up. I was just wondering what that was about."

Harry's frown deepened. He would have had to have some extremely good ears to hear that. "I had a weird dream. And for some reason, you were in the last part." Blinking, he realized what had been bothering him about the girl in the dream. "And so was your girlfriend."

Danny pulled his feet up and wrapped his arms around his knees. It was the farthest from a calm position Harry had ever seen him in. "Was there a huge vat that they were strapped to?"

Harry blinked and turned slightly to stare at him. "Yeah. How did you know?"

Danny shook his head. "It never happened. Not in this timeline. Clockwork made sure of that."

Harry frowned, really confused now. "If it never happened, how did I see it? And who's Clockwork?"

Danny tensed. He hated that memory, but there was nothing else but to explain. Otherwise, Harry would just be even more curious. "Clockwork is a friend of mine. He can basically control time and sees into the future. There was one future where Phantom ended up evil, all because my family, friends, and teacher were killed at the Nasty Burger. What you saw was just before the explosion."

Harry nodded. "Alright. But who's Phantom?"

Danny smiled slightly, much less tense. Sometimes it was good to think ahead. "Why don't you ask him?"

Before Harry could ask him what he meant, a pair of bright green eyes seemed to materialize not far from his face. "I wonder how you could see the past like that. Are you some kind of Seer?"

Harry yelped in surprise and jerked back. The eyes receded and he could see that they belonged to a boy with white hair and pale skin, wearing a black and white outfit and floating several inches off the ground. "You're a ghost."

Phantom bowed in midair. "Got it in one. Too bad I couldn't introduce myself earlier, but eh, this works."

Harry blinked, trying to regain his scattered thoughts. "But you're solid."

Phantom shrugged. "Most of the ghosts I know are. Only ones that I've seen that aren't are here."

Harry blinked again, and finally managed to regain his scattered wits. "You're the one I saw before. But your outfit was different, and you looked younger."

Phantom waved a hand. "Not all ghosts age, but some do. I just happen to be one of them. And Sam was more than happy to convince me to wear something that wasn't hazmat."

Phantom stood still in midair, so Harry could see the differences. He was wearing a somewhat loose pair of black jeans with a long chain attached and a white belt. His gloves were still white, but they were different. The cuff was much looser.

His boots, while still white, were combat boots. He wore a nearly skin-tight black shirt with several narrow white belts at the upper arms. The final touch of the outfit was the same white symbol Harry had seen on his earlier outfit. On top of all that, his hair was longer, and gathered into a loose ponytail in back.

Finally, Phantom interrupted Harry's study of his outfit. "Like what you see?" he asked teasingly.

Harry immediately blushed and stammered, and both Phantom and Danny, who Harry had nearly forgotten about, laughed. Danny shook his head. "Don't worry about it; he's just messing with you."

Phantom shrugged. "Yeah, I'm perfectly straight, thanks. Anyway, let's move on before it gets too early."

Harry frowned in confusion. "Don't you mean too late?"

Danny shook his head and answered. "No, he means too early. It's after one already, and Phantom shouldn't be seen by anyone else."

Phantom shrugged. "I'm trying to keep a low profile. It makes things easier, and I don't have to worry about people asking questions." He shook himself. "Anyway, getting back on track. You saw the Nasty Burger incident, what else did you see?"

Harry blinked. "Uh, well the first was just you flying. Then there was one with this really weird woman holding you who seemed to be made of flame, a freaky pale guy who was huge and seemed to be controlling everything and last was the, uh, Nasty Burger one."

Danny leaned forward slightly. "Well, the flame woman was Spectra." He and Phantom both shuddered. "Not real strong, but she's nasty."

Harry frowned and tilted his head at the identical reactions. "What do you mean?"

Phantom flipped over and began to pace upside down. Watching him, Harry had a slight vertigo. "Have you ever met someone who seemed to love making people miserable?"

Harry considered that for a moment before slowly nodding. "Sort of. I mean, my cousin Dudley likes to make everyone in the neighbor hood afraid of him."

Phantom nodded. "Alright, imagine a psychiatrist who loves to make people miserable."

Danny picked it up. "Now imagine that psychiatrist needs to feed on misery and doubt to keep from aging."

Harry frowned. "Keep from aging? But everything ages." He glanced up at Phantom. "Well, most things."

Danny smiled, having caught the glance. "Yeah, well Spectra was a ghost. If she didn't feed regularly, she could get wrinkles in just a few hours. If she left it too long, she'd become an old, bent woman. And she hated the idea of giving up her youth."

Harry imagined all this and winced. "All right, I'll agree that she's nasty. But how do you know her?"

Danny shrugged. "She was a psychiatrist. Someone decided that the school needed one." Danny decided not to tell him about the thing with the bugs. It would bring up too many questions.

Harry wanted to ask more, but something about Danny's body language said that that discussion was over. Glancing up at Phantom, who had decided to perch on the wall above the fireplace, he saw that it was just as final with him. Figuring that if he pushed it they would refuse to answer any more, he decided to change the subject. "What about the huge pale guy?"

Danny and Phantom exchanged a glance. Phantom decided to take that one. "That was Freakshow. Probably about the time he had the Reality Gauntlet, if he was so big. Once he had all the jewels, he used it to change the world so he was in control."

Harry shook his head in confusion. "Wait a minute. Reality Gauntlet? Jewels? What are you talking about?"

Phantom laughed. "Sorry, I forgot you didn't know about any of that. The Reality Gauntlet was something that could be used to control reality. There were three jewels needed to use it, the Gems of Life, Form, and Fantasy. The Gem of Life could bring anything to life. The Gem of Form could change the shape of anything, and the Gem of Fantasy could…um, I don't know how to explain it." He looked a bit embarrassed about it.

Danny grinned. "It might be easier to give him an example." Turning back to Harry, he started to explain. "Okay, soon after he first had the gauntlet and everything, he used the Gems of Life and Form on a cloud. The Gem of Form made it kind of man-shaped, and the Gem of Life brought it to life, so it fell out of the sky on a pair of idiot ghost hunters."

Harry shook his head. "Wait, ghost hunters? You mean there are people who hunt ghosts?"

Danny nodded. "Yep."

Phantom rolled his eyes. "Those two were from the government, called the Guys in White. They're usually more concerned with keeping their suits clean than anything else."

Danny nodded. "Yeah, but anyway. The Gem of Fantasy ended up at a comic book convention. It turned three geeks into the characters they were dressed as."

Phantom rolled his eyes again. "Unfortunately for me, they were all dressed up as super villains, so I had to fight them."

Danny nodded. Without changing his tone, he calmly asked a question. "Hey Phantom, how long has Hermione been listening?"

There was a squeak from the stairs and Harry twisted around, startled. Phantom was fairly calm though. "Eh, just before Harry asked about Freakshow."

Danny nodded. "Yeah, thought so."

Phantom snorted. "Then why'd you ask?"

Danny smirked. "'Cause I don't have direct line of sight to the stairs." In a way, he wasn't lying. The line of sight he had wasn't exactly what somebody would call 'direct'.

Phantom rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Flying over to the stairs, he bowed to Hermione. "Care to join us?"

Danny grinned and spoke up without ever turning around. "Come on, Mione. We don't have classes tomorrow, so we won't have to worry about falling asleep in them. You might as well join now so you can both tell Ron about it in the morning."

Unknown to either Harry or Hermione, he could effectively look through Phantom's eyes, since he was just an extension of Danny himself. 'Probably a good thing I've had practice acting like two different people. Hermione would notice if I screwed up. Though her face at the moment is priceless.'

Harry blinked. "How did you know I'd tell Ron and Hermione?"

Danny shrugged. "I've been around you three for a few months now. Unless you honestly can't, you three seem to tell each other everything."

Hermione finally came down the stairs and settled into another chair. "I only came down because I woke up and thought I heard something down here. What are you doing in the common room so early in the morning?"

Harry glanced at both Danny and Phantom, but neither one seemed inclined to explain. He sighed and told Hermione about the dream, waking up from it and hearing Danny move around, coming down soon after, and getting some explanation for what he'd seen.

Hermione looked between them, and found it a bit eerie to stare at Phantom's green eyes, which she was sure were glowing. "What do you mean, his outfit's different?" she asked Harry while gesturing at Phantom.

Phantom rolled his eyes. "I'm right here, you know." She blushed and stammered an apology, but he waved it off. "Eh, it doesn't matter. Anyway, my other outfit was a lot different. I think the only things that stayed the same are the color scheme and my symbol."

Danny rolled his eyes. "He went to Sam when he asked. Since she was the one to come up with the symbol in the first place, she wanted to make sure he kept it."

Phantom shot him an annoyed look, but went back to explaining. "Anyway, my old outfit was just a black jumpsuit with white boots, belt, gloves, and collar." He reached up and traced a circle that covered his collarbones and went back over his shoulders to show her what he meant.

Hermione blinked. Studying his outfit for a moment, she blinked again. "Is there some reason you have the chain, or is it just decoration?"

Danny laughed, while Phantom rolled his eyes. "You'd be surprised how many ghosts don't expect to be belted with a length of chain. The funny part is that they sometimes wonder where I got it from." Glancing around, he wondered, "What time is it, anyway?"

Danny cast a quietTempus and blinked at the result. "It's almost three in the morning."

Phantom stretched in a way that made both Harry and Hermione wince. "Well then, I'd better be off. Even I need to rest, and it's been a long day." He turned towards the stairs and went invisible.

Danny subtly relaxed once he no longer had to maintain the split. 'Now that I know how, it really doesn't take much power. It's being seen as two different people and having to keep my concentration during a conversation that's the hard part.'

Danny rolled his shoulders and settled more comfortably into the chair. Or at least, it was comfortable to him. Judging by the looks on their faces, it didn't look like it to Harry and Hermione.

Hermione shook her head. She had walked in on Danny in some strange positions—draped upside-down over the back of the couch for example—but she still wasn't used to it. Seeing him lying diagonally across the chair with his feet up at the corner of the back and arm and his head hanging from the opposite corner was something that didn't look at all comfortable, but he looked like he could fall asleep.

Danny blinked as they continued to stare at him. "What?"

Harry shook his head. "How can you sit like that?"

Danny shrugged as well as he could from his position. "It's comfortable."

Hermione shook her head. "It doesn't look comfortable."

Danny shrugged again. "Then don't try it. Doesn't matter to me." He stared into the fire, which looked somewhere between upside down and sideways, and said nothing more.

Harry yawned, and Hermione couldn't hold back an answering yawn. "Well, classes or not, it would be best to go back to bed," she announced. Standing up, she started to go, but paused when Danny made no move to follow. "Aren't you coming?"

Danny grinned. "Well, if you want to take me up to the girl's dorm, you can, but I think Sam would object."

Hermione snorted while Harry snickered. She had walked right into that one. "Not what I meant. Are you going back to bed?"

Danny waved a hand. "Maybe later. I'm just going to stay here a while. Goodnight."

Hermione hesitated briefly, but Harry shook his head. "Come on, it doesn't really matter. It is a Saturday, technically. He can just sleep in." Hermione sighed and nodded agreement.

Danny ignored them both, seemingly mesmerized by the fire's leaping light and warmth.

Some time after he was left alone, Danny shifted so he could sit upright in the chair, not once taking his eyes from the fire. It was mesmerizing in a way, and he saw no reason to leave it. After all, he was cold often enough since his ice powers developed. He liked to find warmth where he could.

Danny snorted softly at his own thoughts. 'It's kind of weird how I'm not that affected by temperature. Course, that's probably because I'm half-ghost. Unless it gets really cold, I don't notice the cold. Unless it gets really warm, I don't always notice heat. It's kind of nice to feel it here.'

His eyes drooped closed, and he let himself slip into sleep with a final, idle thought. 'I have a feeling I'm going to stay near the fire a lot while I'm here.'

(break)

AN: Okay, I've got my brother rambling on about something or other behind me, so I won't write as much as usual. I know there are some people out there who are just saying 'darn, why couldn't she write more.' Yeah. It could happen. And my brother is being weirder than usual. The weird part is that he has a 'usual' weirdness level. Blah. Whatever. Anyway, yes, I know. It's only one night. And don't even ask where that dream came from or if they'll be more. I have no idea, it was just something my brain spat up and bugged me with. Lovely imagery, I know.

P.S. My brother has asked to tell you about the time he says a certain phrase that made me crack up. Middle of summer, humidity through the roof, me lying across two couch arms in front of a fan and Josh on the larger couch face down. Out of nowhere he says, "I am a cocunut I have a round head." Yes, this was mostly to shut my brother up. You can shut up now, Josh.