Walk Three Worlds
A Danny Phantom/Harry Potter Fanfic
By CaelumFelis
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter or anything associated with them.
Chapter 10: The Definition of Family
The Potters and Ron stared at Danny in disbelief, while Vlad smiled triumphantly.
"Ah, so you have learned something, after all," he purred, crimson eyes gleaming viciously at the boy. "Very good, Daniel. You can be taught."
Danny looked sick, but he glanced at the family in the cage and Ron gaping at him, and his will strengthened.
"You know the deal, Vlad," he said, his voice and expression confident and sure, positive in the rightness of his actions. "I go with you, you leave them alone."
Vlad shrugged, the movement hindered by his heavy cape, and smirked, his victory seemingly assured.
This smugness and the complete audacity of what Danny was doing was the last straw for Harry. He was furious, and, miraculously, his fury gave him the strength to speak.
"So you're just giving up?" He said, his anger making his voice firm, and Danny flinched, his façade crumbling with surprising speed. Harry winced internally at the pain on the teen's face, but he kept going. "Throw everything you've worked for away like it was nothing? I didn't think you worked like that, Danny. No, I know you don't work like that. You don't give up, Danny. You've never given up before, why the bloody hell would you start now?"
The pure misery on the teen's face was heartbreaking, but Danny's voice was hard. "He threatened to kill you, Harry," he said. "You, Ginny, even James. I can't let that happen. I'll die before I let that happen. I will not lose my family again, Harry. I can't go through that again. I'd rather die or live with him than watch the people I love die right before my eyes one more time. I have to do this."
"No, you don't," Harry replied, forcing his painful, aching body into a sitting position with Ginny's help. "Danny, Ginny and I are adults, we've done this kind of thing more times than we'd like to remember. We're not completely defenseless. We haven't fought almost our entire lives against Voldemort just to go out by way of an insane half-ghost."
"You have no idea what Vlad's capable of," Danny whispered, looking lost. "He's so powerful. You have no idea what he can do."
Harry wanted desperately to wipe that horribly powerless expression from the teenager's face, to ruffle his hair and put a hand on his shoulder and tell him that everything was going to be all right, the way he'd seen the Weasley boys do countless times to each other, but he was stuck in this stupid cage, with a body to painful and exhausted to move.
"Daniel is quite right, Mr. Potter," Vlad said smoothly, his fangs bared in a sly, slimy smile as he floated to Danny's side and put a huge hand on the boy's thin shoulder. Danny flinched from the evil halfa's touch, then gasped in pain when the demon gripped his shoulder hard as punishment. "It would be quite useless to fight me, and would only cause more pain."
"Get your filthy hands off of him!" Ginny shrieked, as Plasmius tightened his grip to prove his point, and Danny's face drained of color. To the boy's credit, he didn't utter a sound.
"Stupefy!" Ron shouted, the spell jetting out of his wand in a flash of red light. Plasmius just turned intangible, letting the spell pass harmlessly through his torso, then fired back a pink-ecto blast that caught the tall Auror square in the chest, sending him bowling backwards.
"Ron!" Ginny and Harry cried simultaneously, and Danny's face went as white as his hair in ghost form, but he still said nothing. Harry saw this and wracked his brain to find something to snap his surrogate little brother out of this.
"Danny, I know you're scared, but there's no reason to be," he called to the younger halfa, and Danny's wide blue eyes swiveled towards him. "You said that we couldn't fight Plasmius, that we didn't know what he could do. But does he know what you can do? Does he know how powerful you really are?"
Danny blinked, seeming to slowly process what Harry had said. Harry watched with bated breath as the boy turned the words over in his mind, trying to find some loophole or untruth that he could use to ignore it entirely, but Harry knew that there was none.
Then, inexplicably, Danny's eyes switched from blue to glowing green, and before anyone knew what was happening, he'd phased out of Plasmius's grip and out of sight.
Harry grinned. He knew the look that had been on Danny's face in that split second. He'd been told that he had the same expression when he was dueling: brow furrowed with focused intensity, jaw set, eyes sharp and bright. Terrified, defeated Danny Fenton was no more. Ladies and gentlemen, confident, triumphant Danny Phantom has entered the building.
Plasmius growled and looked around furiously, his crimson eyes glowing furiously and his fangs bared. Against the wall behind them, Harry could see Ron, fingering his wand and watching Plasmius's every move with narrowed blue eyes as he listened to something only he could hear. He nodded imperceptibly, slowly rising to his feet. Like a cat on the prowl, he inched forward, wand drawn.
"What's he doing?" Ginny hissed in Harry's ear, her hand on his shoulder tightening, her nails digging into his t-shirt and skin nervously.
"Shh," Harry whispered gently. "He knows what he's doing. Danny probably has a plan. Just don't draw attention to him, it'll give him away."
She nodded, just as Plasmius was tackled again. Danny, in ghost mode, winked into view, his eyes positively feral.
"Ron, NOW!" He roared, wrenching Plasmius's arm back and revealing the remote control in his hand.
"ACCIO REMOTE!" Ron shouted, pointing his wand. The remote flew out of the evil ghost's hand and into Ron's.
"Got it!" He called, grinning triumphantly. "Sic him, Danny!"
"With pleasure," Danny grunted. He sent a barreling punch at Plasmius, who was too surprised to react, and took it right in the face.
Plasmius roared in fury and blasted Danny across the room. With a sickening crack, the younger halfa hit the wall and slid down, too stunned from the ecto-blast to go intangible through the wall.
"Danny!" Ginny cried, and Harry felt his heart seize. But Danny was right back up again, eyes blazing, if a tiny bit unfocused. He shook his head to clear it, and flew at Plasmius faster than anything Harry had ever seen.
"Ron, now might be a good time to get us out of here!" Harry called, keeping one eye on the fight and the other on his friend.
"How the bloody hell does this bloody thing work?" Ron shouted in frustration, too angry and frightened to consider his choice of vocabulary.
"Ron, just fry it!" Danny called to him as he dodged a glowing pink fist.
"Expulso!" Ron tossed the remote in the air and pointed his wand at it. The device exploded in midair, but the pink energy surrounding the cage still remained.
"Why didn't it work?" Harry heard Danny mutter as he blocked a powerful kick. He shot an ecto-blast, which Plasmius deflected with a shield, causing the blast to ricochet and hit the cage. The green energy was quickly absorbed into the pink, and Danny's eyes lit up. He jumped up to give Plasmius a two-footed kick in the chest, using the older halfa as a springboard to launch himself into the air straight at the cage.
"Danny, what the hell are you doing?" Harry shouted, wondering if the ghostly teen had finally lost it.
"Praying that I'm right!" Danny replied, as he grasped the top of the cage.
The pink aura of the cage brightened, and Danny's form suddenly began to glow as green as his eyes. Danny's face twisted in pain, but he kept his grip on the bar he was holding, and placed his other hand on it as well. His aura brightened, then dimmed, brightened, and dimmed, like the pulse of a star, growing brighter and stronger with each passing beat. The pink aura began to pulsate in time with his, growing fainter and weaker with each beat.
"My G-d," Plasmius murmured, watching the symphony of light with wide, incredulous red eyes.
"What's happening?" Ron yelled.
"Danny!" Ginny shrieked fearfully, arm tight around James, who was watching the lightshow with wide brown eyes.
Harry couldn't help but stare either. Through the pink and green glows, he could see Danny's face, no longer screwed up in pain, but strangely serene, his eyes closed and his brow furrowed just a bit in concentration. He looked as though he was meditating. Tendrils of pink energy snaked up the younger halfa's arms and were absorbed into the green aura.
"He's absorbing the energy from the cage," he murmured. "That's absolutely brilliant!"
Suddenly, the pink aura flickered, then died, leaving the bright green glow of Danny's aura. With a sigh, the teen let go of the bar and sank to the floor, leaning against the bars of the cage as he caught his breath. His aura faded, retracting back into his body like the claws of a cat, and for a few seconds he just sat there, breathing deeply.
"Alohamora!" Ginny wasted no time in trying the unlocking spell again, and this time it worked, and the door of the cage opened. She rushed out, kneeling next to Danny and checking him over. Harry followed more slowly, gently stretching his painful, cramped muscles. Ron raced over, his wand in one hand, and one of Danny's ecto-guns in the other. He stood in front of the little family, his cold blue eyes daring Plasmius to make a move.
"You okay, mate?" Harry asked, putting a hand on Danny's cold shoulder.
Danny opened his eyes and gave a wry smile, his eyes glowing even brighter than before. "Better than okay," he said. "How do you feel? You scared the shit out of me back there, Harry, lying there all still like that. I'd thought Vlad had gone back on his deal."
Harry grinned and ruffled the young ghost's hair. "I'm hard to kill," he said. "A little sore, and certainly not looking forward to getting shocked again, but otherwise I'm okay. I just need to stretch."
Danny nodded, then turned to Ginny. "You two hold up all right?" He asked, nodded towards the one-year-old, who was staring at Danny with wide, curious eyes.
"We're fine, Danny," Ginny smiled, smoothing back the white hair that Harry had messed up. "A little shell-shocked, but perfectly sound."
"As touching as this is, everyone, I think it's time to refocus," Ron cut in, glancing back at his family. "Danny, you ready to go?"
Danny nodded, floating to his feet and phasing his hand through the green backpack Ron was wearing. He pulled out another ecto-gun, and two belt-looking things.
"Ginny, take James and go to Ron's," Harry told his wife. "I don't want you two getting caught in the crossfire."
"But—" Ginny tried to say, but a gentle kiss from Harry stopped her.
"We'll be fine, love," Harry told her quietly, resting his forehead on hers for a few seconds. Then he backed up and smiled at her. "This should be over pretty quick, eh, Danny?" He grinned at his surrogate younger brother, who gave him a reckless grin in return.
"If I have anything to say about it," he answered, cocking the ecto-gun, which whined as it charged.
"Ginny, go on," Ron said, smiling at his little sister. "It's not like we haven't done something like this every school single school year, or every single day, for that matter. We'll be okay."
"Please, Ginny," Danny said quietly, his iridescent eyes pleading.
Ginny sighed, and nodded. It was frustrating, not being in the action again, but she knew that her son's safety came first, and she knew better than to argue with overprotective men.
"You three better come home in one piece, or I'll hex you into next year!" She threatened.
"Magic doesn't work on ghosts, remember?" Danny said, grinning cheekily. "Now get going!"
Ginny laughed, and Disapprated with a quiet pop.
The two men and teenager gave a relieved sigh when she and the baby left, then turned their minds to other things, like the enraged half-ghost bearing down on them from above.
"MOVE!" Danny shouted, pushing the other two men out of the way with surprising strength. They all tumbled to the floor, Danny leaping right back up again and throwing up an ecto-shield.
"Harry, the ecto-gun's for you," he said, keeping the shield up with one hand as he tossed the device at the wizard. "You guys better put your wands away, I think we've established that they're next to useless against ghosts, especially malevolent ones. The belts are called Specter Deflectors, it's pretty much a personal ghost shield. Vlad won't be able to touch you, but neither will I. So don't try to hug me while you're wearing 'em. Hurry up and suit up, I can't keep this up much longer!"
Harry pocketed his wand and put one of the Specter Deflectors around his waist, locking it with a key that was hanging from it, and pocketing that as well. He smiled at the irony of it: he, a twenty-five-year-old, fully trained and licensed Auror, taking orders from a half-ghost ten years younger than him. He gripped the ecto-gun in his right hand and nodded at Danny.
"Let's go, mate," he said. Danny grinned at him.
"Blimey, this is so weird, even for us," Ron grumbled.
"Welcome to my life," Danny laughed. "Three, two, one!" He dropped the shield and leapt into the air, immediately firing ecto-blasts at Plasmius. The bigger ghost practically tackled the younger to the ground, but Danny kicked him off and flipped back onto his feet, so fast that the bright glow of his eyes followed him. Plasmius flew at him again, and they were locked in a mid air series of punches, kicks, dodges, blocks, ecto-blasts, shields, and taunts. Harry didn't understand half the things they were saying, but he didn't care, he could only gape at what an amazing fighter Danny was. The boy's movements were faster, more fluid, and more graceful than anything Harry had ever seen. Block turned into punch turned into kick turned into blast turned into kick turned into punch turned into shield, all while a flood of sarcastic quips, scathing insults, and sharp wit flowed from his mouth. How such a talented person could doubt himself so much was beyond Harry.
"Oof!" Danny grunted, as an unexpected and rather brutal chop landed on his shoulder. Using the force of the blow, Danny rolled down and kicked Plasmius in the chest with both feet, sending the older halfa tumbling while the younger landed on both feet in mid air. Without missing a beat, Danny launched a roundhouse kick to Plasmius's head, capitalizing on the demon's moment of imbalance and sending him crashing to the floor. Plasmius shook his head and leapt back into the air, murder in his glowing red eyes, snarling in fury. He rocketed at the superhero, and latched his huge, strong hands around the teen's neck.
"DANNY!" Harry and Ron shouted simultaneously. Danny just smirked and phased out of Plasmius's grip, kicking him in the gut for good measure. The bigger ghost recovered quickly, and with an evil sneer, duplicated himself into four.
"Oh, shit!" Danny cried, before he had to duck a punch only to get a kick in the stomach, a chop to the back, and a blast to the head.
"Ron, we have to do something," Harry said urgently, gripping his ecto-gun and gritting his teeth in agony as he watched Danny's punishment.
"I'm open to suggestions," Ron said tersely. "I'd feel a lot better about this if I knew how to use this stupid thing." He brandished the ecto-gun in his hand, and accidentally pulled the trigger.
A blast of glowing green energy issued from the ecto-gun, and Harry ducked as the blast whistled inches from his head and hit the opposite wall. He grinned at his partner, who met it with wide blue eyes.
"You were saying?"
With identical evil grins, worthy of the Weasley twins back when they were still together and in school, Harry and Ron held up their ecto-guns and aimed at one of the duplicates. They began firing, and two of the duplicates detached themselves from the group and flew at the wizards.
"What'd Danny say the weird belts could do?" Ron called as he continued to fire at his ghost.
"He said that he and Plasmius wouldn't be able to touch us!" Harry called back, ducking a pink ecto-blast.
"What the hell does that mean?" Ron growled, sidestepping as his ghost tried to tackle him.
Harry yelped as his ghost suddenly grabbed hold of his shirt, but the ghost suddenly shrieked in pain and let go. Harry didn't have time to think, he just acted as he grabbed the ghost's wrist as it pulled away. The ghost duplicate began shrieking again, and Harry finally realized what was happening.
"Ron! The reason Danny and Plasmius can't touch us is because the belts hurt them!" Harry yelled to his friend, tightening his grip on the ghost as it tried to pull away.
Ron nodded and grabbed his own ghost's wrist as he ducked a punch. Together, the two men waited until the pain was unbearable enough for the two duplicates to finally wink out of existence, leaving only the third duplicate and the original for Danny to deal with.
But as Harry once again watched his surrogate younger brother fight for his life, he realized with a sinking heart that the teen was slowing down. His movements weren't as graceful or as fluid as they'd been, and he could see the fatigue in Danny's fluorescent green eyes. Plasmius didn't look much better, but judging by the widening smirk on his face, he was seeing the same thing as Harry. And the grim look on Danny's face said quite clearly that he knew all too well what was happening.
Then, suddenly, he broke away from the two ghosts that were beating the stuffing out of him and flew over to Harry and Ron.
"Get behind me and cover your ears," he said, his tone and expression booking no argument. Harry and Ron did as they were told, Harry conjuring industrial strength noise canceling headphones for himself and Ron in preparation for whatever Danny was planning.
The teen stood in front of them, feet spread apart, breathing deeply. Harry watched with growing apprehension as the two Plasmiuses rocketed towards them, twin visions of the devil, red eyes gleaming like fresh blood. But Danny didn't move, didn't even flinch an inch. The twin evil grins on the ghosts' faces widened when they realized that their prey was just standing there, and they flew even faster. Still Danny waited, and Harry was seconds away from casting a Shield spell around the three of them.
Suddenly, Danny sucked in a huge breath …and screamed.
The sound that issued from the teenager's mouth seemed similar to that of a banshee, but a thousand times more powerful, and even more unearthly. In fact, it sounded like something Peeves the Poltergeist would do if he was really serious about scaring people. Harry could practically see the sound waves as they rocketed from Danny's mouth, slamming into the two ghosts and throwing them against the wall. The duplicate winked out of existence, leaving the original pinned to the wall by pure, horrible, powerful sound.
The Ghostly Wail, Harry realized, his mind flashing back to that first day over two months ago, standing in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures as Danny registered, and wondering why he had refused to show off that one power.
"I'm too wiped, and it's too strong. If I did it right now, the energy it takes would knock me out for at least a day, and not only would this room be totally destroyed, but I'm willing to bet that the entire wing would probably go out, too. Find me someplace in the middle of nowhere with nothing important to destroy, and then I'll show it to you."
Now he understood. As he watched with growing disbelief the complete and utter destruction the Wail was waging on the room, he understood completely what Danny had been talking about that day. The Wail was a last ditch effort, a Hail Mary play, the last possible move he could make before admitting defeat. A desperation move.
And he knew Danny was desperate. The teen was weak, injured, and exhausted, while Plasmius, while still all of the above, had more power simply due to age. The way they had been going, Danny was going to crash long before Plasmius ran out of steam. Harry dimly wondered if any of the ghost energy the younger halfa had sucked from the cage had helped at all in the fight.
Then, suddenly, it ended, as quickly as it had begun. Plasmius slid to the floor, unconscious. Danny gulped air and dropped into a dizzy crouch, head between his knees, even though he hissed in pain as the position aggravated some of his injuries. Harry and Ron gingerly took off their headphones and kneeled down next to him.
"You okay, mate?" Harry asked, gently laying a hand on his shoulder. Danny hissed again, but nodded.
"I'll be okay," he said quietly, his voice hoarse from the Wail. "Thermos, please."
Ron slid the backpack off his back and handed it to the younger ghost. Danny didn't bother opening it, but phased his hand in and rummaged around. He pulled out a Thermos, unscrewed the top, and pointed it at Plasmius. He pressed a button on the side, and a jet of bluish-white light issued from the mouth of the container and struck the evil ghost, enveloping him in a cloud of bluish-white light. Plasmius turned intangible, an opaque blue-white, and was sucked into the Thermos like a noodle. Danny capped the cylindrical container with a sigh, and transformed in a flash of white light.
"Shoulda… done that… long time ago…" He muttered, swaying a bit. His eyes closed, and Harry quickly took off his Specter Deflector and caught the teen as he keeled over.
"Time out."
The world froze, as another ghost appeared out of thin air in a whirl of familiar bluish-white light. He was a tall, handsome ghost, ignoring the strange, jagged scar under his left eye, dressed in a long purple hooded cloak and carrying an odd staff topped with an hourglass. A heartbeat later, he was older— haunch-backed, with a long white beard cascading down his front, his face wrinkled with countless age. Three heartbeats later, and the ghost shrunk, his beard traded for buck-teeth, his body and face becoming smoother, rounder, childlike. He smiled at the threesome in front of him, a sly, knowing smile that bore neither good- nor ill-will. His red eyes swept absently around the completely destroyed room as he reached into his cloak. He pulled out three objects, gear-shaped medallions on black ribbon, to be worn around the neck. The medallions bore the insignia "CW", and the ghost (now middle-aged once again) fingered them lovingly as he continued to study the two men and the teenager before him, brothers in every way but blood.
"All is as it should be," he said quietly, his voice deep, smooth, soothing, and utterly timeless. He sighed, dreading the task ahead, even though he knew exactly what would be said, and what the final outcome would be, and slipped each medallion over each head.
Ron and Harry blinked, and Danny slumped further in Harry's arms, on the verge of passing out.
Ron was the first to realize that they weren't alone, and he leapt to his feet, aiming his ecto-gun at the ghost's head and snarling protectively. Harry's arms tightened around Danny, and he fixed the ghost with his best glare, daring him to come closer.
The ghost held up his hands, leaving his staff to float in midair beside him. "I mean no harm, Ronald Bilius Weasley, Harry James Potter," he said, his form switching to old-age as though agreeing with his words. "I am a friend."
Ron lowered his ecto-gun slightly, aimed for the elderly ghost's chest instead of his head. "Who the hell are you?" He snapped, his blue eyes frosty with distrust. "What do you want?"
"I am Clockwork, Master of Time," the ghost replied as his form shifted to childhood. "I came to ensure the safety of my charge and his new family." He nodded at Danny, who was struggling to stay awake.
"Clock… work?" He slurred quietly, sitting up a bit in Harry's arm and fixing the ghost with an exhausted blue gaze. "What're… you doin'… here?"
"Collecting this," Clockwork said, picking up the Fenton Thermos sitting on the floor. "Very well done, Danny. Thanks to you, the timeline is now exactly as it should be. Very well done indeed."
"But… the timeline… with the explosion… that wasn't… supposed to happen," Danny protested weakly. "I was… supposed to save… my family… I messed up!"
"Did you?" Clockwork asked, raising an eyebrow as his form shifted again to middle age. "Families come in all shapes and sizes, Danny. Just because you're not related to the Potters by blood didn't make you any less determined to save them, did it?"
"You're not… listening… to me," Danny whispered, looking pained. "My mom… my dad… my sister… I was supposed… to save them… I couldn't… I failed…"
Clockwork sighed, and Harry gave the ghost a sharp look. The bent over, skinny old ghost, with beard drooping, seemed uncomfortable, although how Harry could tell, he didn't know.
"I'm sorry Danny," the time ghost said, his red eyes sad. "But everything is as it should be. That is all I can say. But your friends and sister were right. This is your second chance. You shouldn't waste it mourning, although I know you find it impossible to forget. You saved your family, Danny, your new family, and you have a great life ahead of you with them. Focus on what is, instead of what could have been."
Danny was about to object again, when his eyes suddenly closed, and he slumped back against Harry.
"Danny? Danny!" Harry said worriedly, trying to wake him.
"Relax, Mr. Potter," Clockwork said gently. "He'll be fine. He's had a long day. I think the best thing for you to do now is take him home."
Harry nodded, brow furrowed in concern, as he gently gathered the young halfa in his arms, slightly surprised at how light he was for his age. Ron called his broom, and gathered up the ecto-guns and Specter Deflectors and put them back into the green backpack. When he looked around for the Fenton Thermos containing Vlad Plasmius, Clockwork held it up, a sly smile on his bucktoothed face.
"I'll be keeping this, Mr. Weasley," he said, stowing it in his cloak. "I seem to have amassed a bit of a collection, thanks to Danny." He gripped his staff, and his eyes glowed red.
"Time in."
A bluish-white haze built up around the two wizards, and they inched closer together, Ron with his wand out, and Harry holding tight to Danny. A flash of light, and they were gone.