Here is the new chapter, finished before my essay deadlines become dire.
Not my greatest work, but it moves the story forward and adds layers to the plot.
Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 10
Danny drifted over the fields of long grass; his eyes glazed over and extremely tired. His body was stiff and hurting from his injuries earlier in the day. His hands essentially felt like heavy weights weighing him down to the earth but he had to get back to Weasley household just to blissfully land in a comfy old couch.
He saw the house in sight with the setting sun shining behind the home in the horizon. With a final burst of energy, Danny sped up his vertical drifting and went through the door and landed on the couch in a flash of light turning back into his human form lying his head on a large couch pillow.
Danny's eyes shut quickly, the overwhelming feeling of sleepiness coming over him as he sunk into the couch cushion. He slightly shifted into a more comfortable position and hung onto the spare pillow. He was very careful to not bend or stretch his aching back.
"Oh Danny, your home" Someone said distantly to him.
Danny was far gone from reality to even listen anymore, his breathing slowly becoming heavier as he lied on the couch.
"Wow, he's totally out of it."
"Oh leave him alone, he's probably had a very long day…being an Auror and all."
"I wonder what happened…"
"Well whatever it was, it must have been very tiring."
Suddenly everything became too blurry for the halfa to even recognize as his head lolled to the side he finally passed into a deep sleep.
"…..Danny…..Dannnnnny….Danny…" A voice said distantly. At first Danny just tried to ignore it the voice. A little bit later he started to feel something prodding into his side. He grumbled and turned himself over trying to get away from the annoyance of the pokes. He felt a loose blanket fall off of him exposing him to the cold morning air.
He blinked and looked up to the smiling face of Mr. Weasley. "Time to get up for work Danny boy!"
Danny grumbled at the man before speaking up with a hoarse throat. "I don't have work today…"
"Really? Well lucky you!" Mr. Weasley said enthusiastically. "Would you like some breakfeast?"
Danny gripped at his stomach as it started to grumble loudly. He only remembered now that he didn't get a chance to eat dinner yesterday.
"Yes please" he answered graciously.
With that Mr. Weasley got up from Danny's side at the couch and went back to the table. Standing in the kitchen with messy hair going all over the place was Mrs. Weasley who looked ready to go back to sleep in an instant. But instead she started to take out the breakfeast foods and started to cook.
Danny sat at the table trying to not bend his back in any way as he leaned slightly in his chair.
In a few minutes Danny was given a plate of eggs with toast. He thanked Molly for the meal and started to shovel the food into his mouth. He was currently too tired and hungry to care for manners at this point.
"Molly? Has the Prophet come in yet?" Arthur Weasley asked while looking around for the newspaper.
"I don't think so dear, I haven't seen it today"
"There must be big news for the Prophet. They usually try to fit as much information on something big before deadline…" Arthur mused.
'Oh man, nobody knows about yesterday' Danny thought to himself anxiously. He was very unsure if he should tell them or wait for them to find out on their own.
A bang sounded from the front door, signifying the morning Daily Prophet arriving by owl. Arthur went to the door and picked it up. Just as he was looking at the paper Harry, Ron and Hermione stepped down from the stairs and were walking towards the table.
Mr. Weasley unfolded the paper and stared at the front page. Danny watched as his eyes widened and looked to Danny and then back to the paper in an instant, his eyes skimming through more of the writing on the page.
"Molly? I think we need to give Danny a nice hearty breakfeast today." Arthur said enthusiastically.
All of the teens looked over to Danny with questioning looks. Danny just shied away from their stares, trying to find somewhere else for him to look.
"What's the occasion?" Molly questioned to her husband.
Arthur just rose up the Daily Prophet in front of Molly's face with an enthusiastic smile still on his face. "Because he made the front page! He saved thousands of muggle lives yesterday!"
"Really!?" Mrs. Weasley said surprised as she took the Prophet and started to read over as well.
Meanwhile, Harry, Ron and Hermione were all looking at Danny in surprise and astonishment.
"What did you do?" Ron said in wonder.
Before Danny could answer for himself the Daily Prophet was thrown onto the table by giving all the teens a chance to see the paper.
Across the top of the paper in big block writing was the Title: "Ministry narrowly foils Death Eater plans to bomb Old Trafford." Below that title was an image of the explosion over the London skyline repeating itself in slow motion. On the right was another title in slower lettering: "The Inner heroics of the Aurors and Danny Phantom." And on the left of the page was the title "The Attempted Bombing of Old Trafford and what comes next"
Hermione dragged the paper towards her and start to read it. Harry sitting beside Hermione leaned in to read the paper as well. Ron on the far side of Hermione beside Harry wanted to read the Prophet as well, so he leaned over and started to move the paper towards himself. Hermione quickly swatted him in the hand with a loud smack, stopping him from moving paper.
"Hey! I want to read it too!" Ron whined while rubbing his hand.
"Just give me a minute, I'm almost done." Hermione said in a hiss.
Danny just smirked at the two of them, watching over them curious about their reaction.
Ron without anything to do started to ask Danny questions. "Why didn't you tell us mate?"
"I was kind of tired" Danny explained feebly, scratching the back of his head.
"And I wouldn't blame him, according to this you fell more than 500 feet onto your back!" Harry said in excitement.
Danny just responded with an upturn eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I was lower than that…I also got to slow down my fall by trying to fly a bit. But I was going too fast"
Harry nodded, looking more solemn and respectful now than before. "So how are you feeling?"
"My back is pretty sore from the fall still, though it feels better than last night"
"Well that's good I guess" Hermione said now looking up from the paper.
Ron quickly dragged the paper over to himself and started to read the paper trying to get himself caught up on the events.
"So what was Goyle like?" Hermione asked timidly.
Danny started to remember the man, his thoughts went back to the words the man had for the ghost boy. 'You're lucky I can't kill you…' he thought echoing in his mind.
"He was careless, he kept on sending powerful fire spells at me. If I didn't put out the flames the stadium could've been up in flames regardless of me saving the day with the bomb"
I silence came over the teens, while Ron was still reading the paper, his head down looking over everything.
"Hey?" Ron started confused. "What's football?"
2 days later…
Kingsley Shacklebolt stepped out of the taxi cab wearing his muggle suit with a matching British cap holding onto a closed folder of documents under his arm. He walked down the street through the beginning of the night, the sun just set giving way to twilight. He passed by the passing addresses of the large government buildings around him.
He eventually made it to his destination, #10 on Downing Street. He walks up the house's front steps and knocks on the door, and takes a step back and waited. Not long after a man answered the door letting in Kingsley with a short nod.
He took off his coat and gave to the doorman and without a word started to walk through the luxurious home towards the large study/office of the home.
Kingsley knocks polite at the door waiting for the permission to enter. A few short seconds later a quick word of 'Enter' was said by the Prime Minister.
Kingsley stepped inside and saw the Prime Minister at his desk with many pieces of paper all over the table.
"Do you have the investigation report of the Old Trafford bombing attempt?" He said looking up from his documents.
Kingsley raised the folder up and placed in front of the Prime Minister. "Is it alright that I go home sir?"
"Yes and good work Kingsley."
"Thank you. And just a reminder, you have that meeting you've wanted scheduled." Kingsley said just as he was opening the door of the office.
The Prime Minister nodded in understanding. "And when is it?"
"Now" Kingsley said just before walking out the door. The colour in the Prime Minister's face started to turn white in fright. Before he could even contemplate Kingsley's words, Danny Phantom appeared out of thin air floating a foot off the floor staring at Prime Minister awkwardly.
"Um… hi, so you wanted to see me?" Danny said giving the Prime Minister a wave.
Danny followed Kingsley from above him flying invisible through the streets of London. When they reached their destination, Danny was under the impression that the Prime Minister knew that he was coming. Instead Danny awkwardly turned visible to the man's surprise and said hello to Great Britain's elected leader.
It took the leader a few seconds to get himself calmed down and under control. "Yes, yes I did. I wanted to thank you for saving Old Trafford."
"Your welcome, I'm happy to help in any way I can." Danny said graciously.
"There is something else that I wanted to ask of you." The man anxiously began to ask the halfa. "What exactly are you? I have reports saying that you're ghost from America. I have a secret American organization called the Guys in White calling me to try and get detain you for them. So, what are you?"
Danny at first felt a little put off by the question, he tensed a little at the mention of 'The Guys in White' but he relaxed, nodded to the Prime Minister and answered. "I'm a ghost, and like you said, I'm from America. The dark wizards of Britain tried to recruit me at home but I declined and was put into hiding in Britain. In a way I've been helping the Ministry of Magic ever since."
"And wizards are okay to use a ghost in their affairs!?" The Prime Minister said almost not realizing how his words could affect Danny.
"Yes, the threat is big enough that they need the help." Danny said in slight frustration but kept himself calm. "I saved Old Trafford didn't I, obviously that help from a ghost was justified."
The Prime Minister looked a little startled by the friendly conversation deterrioted and started to pacify the young ghost with his charisma. "Yes, yes you're right. It's just strange to think that I'm talking to a dead spirit right now. I appreciate what you've done, and I thank you for meeting with me. I wanted to meet the ghost that saved thousands of the lives I am responsible for. I want to know that I can trust that you are going to be there in the future."
"I will sir, I will try to help however I can."
The Prime Minister nodded and then his politician smile gone, a harder look was given to the young ghost. "I have one thing to ask you. What do you think of how this Ministry of Magic is dealing with this magical terrorist group, because I feel like they've been doing an absolutely abysmal job"
"I know how it may be frustrating for no results but this threat is very real and the Ministry is trying to do everything it can to stop the Death Eaters. Just imagine trying to arrest someone who can use magic with magic, it can become very complicated and sticky some times, especially when their leader is one of the most powerful wizards in recent memory."
The old man sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "I thought that all those ministry men were just incompetent and overreacting but since the incident with Old Trafford, it just seems like the situation has become more dire than before"
1 day later…
Danny stood upon a small hill looking up at the high noon sun shining over the English countryside. To the side a gust of wind came in bringing many of the smells of grass and trees of the area, while flicking at Danny's white hair.
To Danny's left was the city of Caxton, the town where Sarah lived. The town looked a great deal better with the wizard and muggle construction fixing up the damage from the giant.
Though some things could never be fixed, like the lives of Sarah's parents.
He slowly drifted up in the air meeting the breeze rolling over the hill from behind. The breeze felt colder than the usual summer breeze he was used to in the past few months giving him a strange little chill.
'I guess summer is ending' Danny thought sadly.
He eventually reached Sarah's foster home and flew up to her window and became visible the moment he noticed that she was alone in her room.
"Danny!" she exclaimed when she saw him floating inside of the room. She ran up and hugged the ghost boy's legs not caring about the cold feeling of the ghost's energy and dragged him down to the floor.
"Hey Sarah, how's it going?" Danny said while patting her on the head.
"I saw you on the news! You were in Manchester!" she exclaimed happily.
"News? What news?" Danny asked
"This!" She said happily dragging Danny towards her desk, where a scrapbook sat on the desk with many different news stories.
"You made a scrapbook?" Danny asked confused.
Sarah nodded excitedly. "Yeah! I wanted to get all the news stories about you"
Danny picked up the book and looked through the many stories on the page where many different pictures were featured with the news stories. At first the stories had a theme of just reporting the incident in Old Trafford then it slowly turned into news stories debating why Danny would be in Britain instead of America.
He turned the page and saw a full page picture of him flying into the air across what he read was the London Guardian.
"The TV has been talking about you all week" Sarah said happily from the side.
Danny looked at Sarah at little startled by her comment. "Really?.."
"Yeah, let me show you."
And with that Sarah grabbed Danny's hand and led the ghost downstairs towards the family room where the one television of the home was.
"What isn't your foster-?"
"They're not home" She said while turning on the television, searching through the channels. "Yes! here it is!" She exclaimed as the BBC was put on.
Danny then got to watch bewildered as the BBC was now showing a report on him.
"And to get answers on the mysterious heroic ghost we went to the first place Danny Phantom was ever spotted, Amity Park in the United States" The news anchor said just before it cut away from him.
Danny's mouth went dry as he started to see images of his hometown. The female news report was shown walking down the street explaining the first time he was seen in Amity Park. Then the reporter did something that made his stomach practically flip.
"We first visited the local ghost hunters in Amity and got their opinions on the famed ghost boy, Danny Phantom."
The news show then showed an image of both his parents sitting on the familiar couch in the living room. His father had his arm around Maddie's shoulder looking to be reassuring her with his presence. She looked like she had aged many years in just a year. Her cheeks were gaunt and her eyes looked wrinkled and tired. Danny noticed the same thing on his father but his hair looked much older with many grey hairs in his hair instead of the fringe of grey on the sides of his head in the last few years. The two were also noticeably thinner than before, looking like skeletons compared to their former selves.
As Danny stared at his parents his heart broken a little at the sight of their condition.
"He is a very perplexing figure, he has both shown acts of heroism as well as villainous acts. I'm not sure why he's in Britain but since he's left so have all of the ghosts that attacked Amity have just disappeared. That can't have been a coincidence." His mother said solemnly in a very defeated and soft voice, almost nothing like the cheery, confident tone he was used to. It took all of his will power to not sob in front of Sarah.
The image changed now to Casper High where the reporter was now interviewing students at Casper High. At first, most of the interviewed students were new student he couldn't recognize until he saw Paulina with a group of girls all screaming "Come back to us Danny Phantom"
Sarah giggled from his side and grabbed onto his hand. "No, he's mine"
Danny couldn't help but laugh at the comment. "Yeah, I guess I'm all yours" he said following along.
She giggled and started to move his hand up and down. "You want to play outside?"
"Of course, lead on"
And with that Sarah skipped out of the room while Danny followed from behind the little girl.
But what Danny didn't see was the BBC news story showing the last student interview where a young goth girl stared into the camera with a hard stare. "Danny Phantom is a hero. Anyone who says different doesn't know of the sacrifices he makes for everyone. He is not a threat in Britain, he is just out there to save lives and be a hero. It may be his ghostly obsession to be a hero."
So what do you think? Good? Bad?
Whatever the case, please share your thoughts in a review!
The next chapter is going to be very long, add the fact that I have deadlines for essays and finals soon after, hopefully I can manage my time well and I find a way to update in between my busy schedule.
Nevertheless, please be patient with me.
Until next time,
Prophet =P