(A/N)

Well, this is definitely different. For one, I'm using a friend's computer, because I was helping her focus on school work and I suddenly wanted to write another chapter of Magical, so I'm using her laptop. It's different. Very, very different. For one, the screen's a lot smaller than any computer I've ever used before…so I've got not gauge for the length of anything I type here.

As usual, I do not own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter (wait, have I been doing disclaimers? Oh, whatever). If I did, Danny Phantom would have been grittier and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince wouldn't have sucked so badly.

Magical

Chapter the Seventh

Magical

Jazz (the cat, that is, though Danny thought that his sister might react in much the same way) did not like Floo Powder. In fact, she hated it and nearly tore Danny's arms apart trying to escape. He let go of her as soon as they arrived, and the kitten shot off yowling under the couch, a terrified orange blur.

Danny smiled and shook his head, stepping away from the fireplace and brushing soot off of himself.

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Debbie gushed, dropping her hand on his shoulder and making both of them intangible to drop all the soot to the floor.

"Thanks," Danny smiled. Then he looked around and saw that the bags and things from their earlier shopping had been moved, presumably put away. "I guess we'd better find out where 'Dad' put everything so I can start studying."

Magical

It turned out that Howard had put the books in Danny's bedroom, along with the cauldron, hat, school uniforms, and a large trunk for keeping everything in, both at home and once he had arrived at Hogwarts. Just thinking the name of the school gave him shivers. 'I still don't know much about the defenses at Hogwarts. I'm a Dark creature, disguised as a wizard…there are really steep penalties for that sort of thing. These wizards aren't a very forgiving bunch…I'd probably be killed and chopped up for potions ingredients or something.'

Those thoughts in mind, he picked up his copy of Hogwarts: A History and started reading. 'Know thy enemy and all that…though this is really more like 'know everything you possibly can about where you're going to be keeping a huge secret that could get you killed if the wrong people found out about it'. Huh. Just like home, before the Disasteroid thing.'

Magical

The remainder of the summer passed in a haze of books. Much to Danny's relief, every spell he tried worked, if not perfectly, then fairly well, the warm, wild energy that his power had become upon donning the Chameleon Amulet responding to his will when combined with words and wand. He successfully managed to levitate paper clips, and make a tea cup change colors, though he mostly skimmed through his text books to see what he would be learning in the future, and he read Hogwarts: A History several times through, paying special attention to defenses, both magical and not, and unconfirmed rumors.

Magical

Finally, the first of September came, and with it, the first day of school. Howard was taking Danny to King's Cross, the train station where the Hogwarts Express was going to leave at 11:00 on the dot. It was now 8:00, and Danny was seated in the passenger side of the car that Mr. Fenton usually drove to work. He was taking the day off to see Danny off, and Mrs. Fenton, Debbie, was going to the office early to do whatever it was she did for the Prophet.

Danny read his ticket again. 'Platform 9 ¾ ? How am I supposed to find…never mind. I probably just have to walk through a wall or something, between Platforms 9 and 10. They're not going to leave it open for Muggles to wander on…and I've seen weirder, in the Ghost Zone. Worst comes to worst, I'll just look for the highest concentration of magical energy.'

Sighing, he looked out the window at the passing London scenery—house after house after cookie-cutter house, people walking about, on their way to work…the boring drudgery of normal life, thousands of people completely unaware that magic was not only very real, but would have a hand in the fate of the world…'These are the people I'm here to protect,' Danny reminded himself. 'These people, and millions of others like them, in this world and in my own…I'm supposed to stop He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named before he can perform atrocities that would make Hitler look like Gandhi…and I'm supposed to disguise myself as a wizard, infiltrate a school full of innocent children, and make friends of convenience to do so…' He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I can do it," he whispered to himself, looking back down at his ticket. "I can do this. Get into Hogwarts, be a student, complete my…mission…" Danny closed his eyes and leaned back, swallowing heavily.

"You'll do fine, I'm sure," Howard smiled, sounding a bit nervous.

"Are you alright?" Danny asked, relieved to have something else to focus on.

"Oh, I'm fine," he smiled. "I just don't want you freaking out in the car…"

"I'm not going to go berserk," Danny sighed. "I don't care how many other half humans it's happened to; I wouldn't be on this mission if I weren't the best person for the job."

"Well, alright," Howard nodded. "Still, it's happened to every single half human who's had to wear one for more than a few years, and you're looking at seven years at least. Do you really think you can last?"

"Yes," he affirmed. "It's actually one of the things that worries me the least right now."

"Well, you can handle your other worries on the train," Howard interrupted, "because we're here. The train leaves in about an hour, so you should have plenty of time to get a good seat."

Magical

(A/N)

OK, I'll admit that it's an awkward place to end the chapter, but I would like to get it up and posted, you know?

I don't know when the next chapter will be done and up, but it'll probably be a speedier update than this one was.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to review, and I must say, I'm looking forward to breaking triple digits on those things. Just one person I need to mention by name here…

Flying Lyoko Smurf Warrior, whoever you are, first of all, I'm glad you like my story. Secondly, there are some very large differences between seventh grade and college. Yes, Japanese is fairly easy, and I do know how to learn a language, Japanese will be my third one. However, I think you're underestimating the difficulty of building a 300+ word vocabulary and learning six or so different grammatical forms in a span of 15 weeks.

Have you ever taken a foreign language class? It's very different from learning something from your parents at a young age. It's also very different in college than it is in Middle School or High School. I know. I learned Spanish in High School, and it took one year to cover what a college course covers in a single semester.

Also, Japanese is very different from English. The grammar is different, there are hardly any cognates…I could go on, but I don't want to waste the effort.