Danny returned to Hogwarts and to his seemingly endless patrolling for ghosts. By the time term started back, Danny was grateful for the change in tasks. Malfoy returned slightly better fed and less pale, but by the end of the first week, that had changed. The teen still had the uncanny ability to give him the slip, but now that Danny knew Malfoy was using the Room of Requirement, it didn't take long to find the teen again. He'd also noticed two little girls hanging around on the seventh floor and with a little further investigation it was revealed that the girls were Crabbe and Goyle after taking polyjuice potion. Probably being lookouts.

Halfway through January, Wulf returned with news of another ghost sighting. Danny was immensely grateful to the ghost. Between watching Malfoy, keeping up with his studies with Miss Fisher and taking moderate care of himself, looking for Voldemort's ghostly army wasn't easy. Wulf spent weeks at a time searching England for Danny's enemies for him. Danny grabbed a thermos and followed Wulf through two portals, pausing in the Ghost Zone. They emerged in a dense wood.

Danny frowned. The woods felt… empty and yet there was an air of danger.

"Kiun fantomo vi diris estis ĉi tie?" Danny asked uncertainly, having become fluent thanks to Dumbledore. (Which ghost did you say was here?). Wulf growled softly and sniffed the air.

"Mi tovis Skulker. Sed mi povas flari multajn fantomoj nun," Wulf muttered between sniffs. (I found Skulker. But I can smell a lot of ghosts now). Danny blinked, alarm bells blaring in his head. Danny scanned the trees and gasped as his ghost sense triggered. Before he could react, a number of ghost rays exploded from between the shadowy trees and hit both Danny and Wulf. Wulf was knocked unconscious being the main target and Danny doubled over from a shot to the stomach.

By the time he looked back up, he was surrounded by ghosts. Skulker, Ember, Spectra, Bertrand, Johnny 13 and his shadow, Kitty, Undergrowth and a number of other ghosts Danny didn't know personally. He recognised a number of those ghosts as minor pests from Amity Park that he had caught and returned to the Ghost Zone in the past. Danny coughed and straightened up, quickly throwing a glance at Wulf. The ghost seemed fine, just out cold. Danny was on his own.

"Thanks for making this easy guys. If you could just line up nicely, I'll suck you all into my thermos," Danny attempted with a smirk.

"Nice try whelp. Consider this a warning. Our Lord is displeased with you. He is angry about you defeating Vortex and working with the order. Continue to anger him, and this will be like a walk in the park compared," Skulker growled. Danny swallowed, sensing exactly what was going to happen. There were only two escape routes, up or down. Both wouldn't be fast enough to escape. He could teleport away but he couldn't abandon Wulf and teleporting wasn't instant for him yet. It took a couple of seconds to gather the energy needed and picture where he wanted to go.

"Well, it is a nice day for a stroll," Danny retorted, desperately trying to keep his voice even.

"It's an even nicer day for some revenge," Ember remarked with a grin, clicking on her guitar. Danny turned intangible and phased down, it would buy the most time. He narrowly missed Ember's attack. It was complete chaos for a few moments after that. The soil was dark, damp and hard packed with roots. Ghosts chased after him and after dodging a number, he got caught by a swipe from Bertrand in a lioness shapeshift guise. Danny cried out as he hit a tree, completely disorientated by the sudden dim light, pain in his arm and unexpected change in direction. He panted for breath and glanced at his arm. It was oozing a lot of green blood. So much it was hard to tell how bad the wound actually was. Johnny 13 zoomed by and Kitty jumped off the motorbike.

"Nothing personal Phantom," she muttered and punched him in the face, breaking his nose. Danny saw stars and by the time his vision cleared, he was once again surrounded.

Spectra floated closer and gripped his shoulders painfully.

"Hello Danny. I think we need to have a little talk. Let's start with how you abandoned Amity Park, your home, friends and family. Do you even know what happens there anymore? We could have attacked there without you knowing," Spectra whispered in his ear. Danny blinked and shook his head.

"No. It wasn't like that. My-my family can protect Amity Park," Danny mumbled, fighting his headache, pain in his arm and nose as well as the sudden wave of cold misery and self-hatred Spectra was causing.

"Hmm, what about your work with the order then? You failed to save Sirius Black didn't you? That was all your fault. You were there. You could have gone through the veil and snatched him back. It's your fault Harry Potter lost his godfather," Spectra sneered. Danny gasped as his guilt gripped his heart. He did blame himself for that. But was Spectra right?! Could he have gone through the veil and saved the wizard? Had he failed more than he realised?

"Who else have you failed? Our Lord only knows about Black, but there were probably plenty of others. You are always messing up. Aren't you Danny? Who else have you led to their deaths?" Spectra breathed in his ear. Danny gulped. The plan. Dumbledore. He could have stopped Dumbledore putting on that ring. Because he wasn't fast enough, Dumbledore was dying. He was going to lead Harry to his death. He also failed Katie Bell. If he had watched Malfoy better he could have prevented the student getting cursed.

Spectra grinned cruelly and nodded to the other ghosts gathered.

"You got yourself half-killed. Are you really the most reliable person Danny?" Spectra concluded and viciously slashed his chest with her talon-like nails. Danny cried out in pain, drowning already in his guilt and insecurities. The next few minutes dissolved into blinding agony and cries of pain as the ghosts surged forwards and beat him.

Wulf stirred, heard Danny's cries and sprinted to the halfa's side. He unsheathed his claws and, with a loud protective growl, launched himself on Danny's attackers. He tore through Undergrowth's vines restricting Danny's movement, threw ghosts out of his way and finally scooped up Danny. He was barely conscious and holding his ghost form, bleeding freely from numerous wounds, muttering incoherently and crying silently. Wulf snarled angrily at the recovering ghosts and quickly made a portal one-handedly. He jumped into the Ghost Zone and closed the portal immediately.

Wulf looked down at Danny and whined in concern. He didn't know where to go. He supposed Hogwarts was best. Danny did seem to have friends there. Wulf slashed the air and made a portal to the school. He phased out of Danny's classroom after closing the portal and scanned the corridor. It was relatively quiet. The ghost glanced at Danny. He was still mumbling. Phrases the ghost couldn't understand but the teen was obviously distressed. Wulf walked uncertainly down the corridor and desperately wracked his brain for a place or person he knew Danny would deem safe. The ghost knew Dumbledore was a friend, but Danny had mentioned before that the wizard left the school a lot for unknown periods of time. Wulf glanced at Danny again and whined uncertainly.

"Bloody hell!" a boy shouted. Wulf looked up to see a red-haired boy called Ron with a boy with black hair and a lightning bolt scar, Harry Wulf recalled, with a girl with big bushy brown hair. They were the only ones in the corridor.

"Wulf! What happened?" Harry exclaimed with concern. Wulf garbled an answer but the ghost was too worried to remember that only Danny and Dumbledore understood Esperanto.

"Harry, Danny looks really hurt," the girl whispered fearfully.

"We should get him help. Madam Pomfrey will know what to do," Ron suggested. Harry nodded.

"Right. Wulf! This way. We'll take you somewhere Danny can get help," Harry called and beckoned to the ghost. Wulf nodded and ran after the three teens as they led the way. They had gone down a number of corridors before a drawling voice stopped them.

"What are you three doing? Shouldn't you be in class?" a man with long greasy black hair inquired.

"Dan- er Phantom's really badly hurt. We're taking Wulf to the hospital wing," Harry explained with a scowl. The man raised an eyebrow.

"I'll take Wulf. You three, get to class," the man ordered. Harry scowled darkly.

"We know you and Phantom don't get along," Harry retorted. The man raised an eyebrow.

"Really. I hardly think that preference would be important if Phantom is so injured he can't fly or walk," the man remarked before turning to look at Danny. The man's eyes widened slightly before ordering the students to leave or get detention.

"This way Wulf," the man called and marched off down the corridor. Wulf glanced between the retreating teens and the man. Seeing that the man had more authority, Wulf followed uncertainly. Before long they reached a hospital-like room and the man motioned to a bed. Wulf carefully placed Danny on the bed and took a small step back. Together, Wulf and the man got their first good look at Danny. He had a black eye, broken nose, split lip, shredded jumpsuit and his arm was bent wrong. The man took a step back and was about to get someone to help when Danny's eyes fluttered shut. Wulf gasped and attempted to hide the halfa as he passed out from pain and exhaustion. But nothing the ghost did could hide the bright white light as it appeared around Danny's waist and swept along his body, changing his battered jumpsuit into a school uniform with a yellow tie.

Gasp! Snape knows Danny's secret!

What will happen next?!

Special chapter coming up, Snape's point of view.

Until the next chapter.