Confrontations

"That's Unspeakable."

The way Moody frowned, he wasn't happy with that answer.

Danny was also growing tired of it.

Danny had taken to saying the phrase whenever Moody questioned him on why he had been in the Department of Mysteries in the first place, and since Moody didn't think that was an acceptable answer he kept rephrasing the question.

At least the questions about Mr. Weasley and the snake were ones Danny could answer.

Except for the details regarding how he'd gotten Mr. Weasley out of the Ministry. He'd pulled the main straight through a closed gate, after all.

Mr. Moody had a suspicious look on his face, and was far too observant to not notice the inconsistencies in Danny's story.

Which was why Danny was almost happy when his parents entered the room and distracted Mr. Moody and Professor McGonagall from their questions.

"Danny-boy! Are you alright? We heard you got attacked by a giant snake." Danny's dad pulled him into a bone-crushing hug before holding him at arm's reach to look him over for injuries.

"I'm fine. The snake didn't attack me."

His mother's eyes narrowed. "Is that blood?"

"Not mine."

"You shouldn't even have been there. You should be at school, young man." Having apparently decided Danny was unharmed, his mom went straight into lecture-mode. "While it's good that you could help Mr. Weasley, I'm very disappointed in you. You could have died."

Danny's fingers pulled into fists, and he couldn't stop them from shaking with anger.

"Like you would have let me."

He had not meant to say that.

His mom's eyes widened, and she turned towards the non-Fenton Order members. "Could we have some privacy?"

McGonagall left without protest, but Moody shot Danny one last, lingering look before vacating the room.

She waited until the door closed before turning back towards Danny.

"What do you mean by that?" Her voice was hard and cold, like iron.

The thin layer of cold calm that had covered Danny's emotions broke. "You know exactly what I'm talking about! Otherwise you wouldn't have asked them to leave!"

His parents shared a worried look.

"I know about the unicorn blood." He spat the words, as if to get rid of the taste of them on his tongue.

"Sweetheart..."

"I don't want to hear it."

"How did you find out?" His dad was uncharacteristically serious.

"So it's true?" Danny had still been hoping beyond hope that Vlad had been lying.

The look in his parents' faces was all the answer he needed.

"Why?"

"You were dying in my arms and I had a way to save you." His mom's jaw clenched, before her voice softened. "Danny, we're your parents. We couldn't let you die due to our mistakes."

Danny didn't meet her eyes, trying to hold on to his righteous anger.

"There was no time to think, not like with..." She trailed off.

"Like with Vlad?"

"Is he the one who told you about this?"

"So what if he was!? At least he told me the truth, unlike you guys! Does Sam and Tucker know about this? Does Jazz?"

"Sam knows. Tucker... fainted when we started talking about taking you to the hospital. We never told Jazz."

Danny nodded, absorbing the new information. He sat down again on one of the chairs, and was soon followed by his mom. His dad had taken to pacing in front of one of the windows.

There was a moment of silence as all the of them gathered their thoughts.

"Why?"

"We already told-"

"Why did you kill the unicorn?" Danny clarified without looking at them. The pattern of the wood on the floor was suddenly very interesting.

"We didn't. We got the blood from the black market." His dad seemed genuinely surprised at the accusation, so it was probably true.

Danny snorted. "Like that makes any difference."

"I guess it doesn't." His mom shook her head, before leaning over and taking Danny's hand. "But you must realise, honey, unicorns aren't humans. They don't have emotions."

"I'm not human, in case you forgot." Danny pulled away his hands.

"But you're sapient. A unicorn isn't." His dad looked desperate in trying to get the point across. "Killing one is no different from killing a cow for meat."

Danny shook his head. Yes it was.

"I won't be home for Christmas," Danny said the words with finality. His tone made it clear he didn't allow them to question him. "I don't want to be around you right now."

"Danny-" Ignoring the atmosphere like usual, his dad started to protest.

"I just... I need this to calm down. If I come home with you I'll say or do something I don't mean."

His mom nodded. "Are you going back to Hogwarts, then?"

The thought of spending the holidays at school, when he'd just had a big argument with his classmates, didn't seem appealing.

"I'll be in Amity Park. Just because you got thrown out doesn't mean I can't go back."

Danny felt drained. He didn't want to spend another second with his parents, so he got up and went back into the kitchen.

The kids had all gone to bed, but Mrs. Weasley, Professor McGonagall and Mr. Moody were still up.

Moody's wand was already turned in Danny's direction when he walked through the door, but there was something different in his expression. The way his eyebrows twisted almost made it look like he was feeling pity, along with the previous suspicion.

"Want to hear something interesting?" Moody didn't wait for Danny to answer. "You already figured out I can see through walls."

Danny nodded hesitantly, not liking where things were going but not having the energy to stop it.

"If one has an ability like that, isn't it important to make the most of it?"

"Sure. I guess." Danny shrugged, somehow it felt like having a conversation with Mr. Lancer, where the teacher tried to help him come to the correct conclusion on his own. Still, he was much too tired to understand what Moody was hinting at.

"I know how to read lips."

Danny's eyes darted towards the exit, while his fingers curled around his wand. The adrenaline rushing through his body woke him up again. The conversation with his parents rushed through his head. What had he revealed?

Everything. Or close enough. He was doomed.

"Any thoughts?" Danny was expecting a curse to hit his chest, or maybe to get pulled off to Azkaban.

Instead, Moody shrugged. "I only drink from my own flask. Keeps me from getting poisoned."

"Thanks for the tip." Danny wasn't sure of whether he was sincere or sarcastic, but he was already developing a headache from not drinking enough water, so he gave Moody a broken smile.

Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall wore similar befuddled expressions.

The lack of curses thrown at him, or at his parents, was starting to confuse Danny.

He risked throwing a look out the door, to see if his parents were still in the conference room. Danny could see his mom through the open doors. What he couldn't do, across the distance of the hallway, was make out any minor details about her – such as the shape of her lips.

That was when he realised that Moody's comment was built upon their previous conversation in the kitchen, and not anything he'd gotten through spying on the Fentons.

"You're bluffing." Danny exhaled the words.

Moody shrugged, like he wasn't overly upset about getting caught.

"You've got a really good poker face."

"You don't," countered Moody. "And you're not very good at distractions either."

"I'm working on it."

Moody looked like he was going to comment on how Danny's immediate reaction to thinking he'd been overheard was to hold onto his wand and look for escape routes.

He didn't have time to, because Mrs. Weasley had had enough of cryptic conversations. "It's already so late. Are you sleeping here, or are you and your parents going home for the night?"

"Here. I'm sleeping here. Can't speak for my parents, though."

AN: I tried to keep Jack and Maddie's reasoning regarding unicorns similar to their canon reasoning regarding ghosts. They are not particularly good people when it comes to how they treat anyone they deem as less than human. At least they didn't dissect the unicorn.