Academy of Witches

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter.


Kiss of Destiny


The tufted black owl dropped a red envelope in Danny's lap and flew off.

"Uh-oh," Draco said, moving a few paces back. "You'd better open it quickly."

"Why?" Danny asked. "Surely it can wait until later."

"It's a Howler," Draco said, pointing to the now smoking letter. "Think of it as a paper bomb."

"Okay," Danny murmured, opening the profusely steaming red envelope, then he wished he hadn't.

"DANIEL FENTON, HOW DARE YOU PLAY WITH MY LITTLE GIRL'S HEART IN SUCH A DESPICABLE MANNER! IF YOU WEREN'T FAMILY, I'D TEAR YOUR HEART OUT AND EAT IT. YOU ARE NOT WORTH THE NIGHTINGALE NAME. YOU ARE A FENTON AND DEAD TO US!"

LISBETH AND DUNCAN GLORYWHITE

"Wow!" Draco whistled. "And I thought it was only my mom who could screech the hooks out of the floor.

"Whatever," Danny said, incinerating the Howler with a tiny speck of ecto-energy. "I was a born a Fenton and may have to live under British law as a Nightingale, but I'll die as a Fenton."

"The rest of you, that is," Youngblood said, as Danny threw a larger ball of ecto-energy at him.

Draco chuckled, as the invisible menace pinned Danny to the floor with a series of wicked looking hooks. "We have exams to study for," he reminded him

"Oh, yeah," he muttered, dreading what was coming.


In addition to the written exams, that Danny thought weren't so bad, they had to do practicals as well. Danny couldn't make the pineapple dance across the table, but he was able to extract the metal needle that Professor Flitwick had hidden inside by focusing his intangibility on his wand and using 'Wingardium Leviosa'.

"Very well done, Mr. Nightingale."

Danny was amazed that it actually worked. Clockwork and Professor Masters had been drilling him for the last few weeks that by focusing his ghost powers through his wand, he'd be able to fuse his magic and his powers together.

"How did you do that?" Draco demanded, when he came back out after his turn. "Professor Flitwick is still talking about it in there."

Danny shrugged. "It's just like magic," he grinned.

"And that's the worse pun in existence," Draco retorted.


"Harry, are you okay?" Neville asked in a whisper, while Professor McGonagall passed out their written exams and the Anti-Cheating Quills.

"Nerves," Harry lied.

"I know what you mean," Neville whispered, turning to face the front as the exam began.


Sam stared down at the ingredients list and the instructions. Could she really make a Forgetfulness Potion out of all this stuff?

"First to root out the wrong ingredients," she murmured quietly to herself. Professor Snape wouldn't hesitate to flunk her for talking during a final.


Ron and Hermione walked out of Herbology feeling like wet clay that had been kneaded a few times and dragged through the ringer.

"I am not a gardening person," Ron moaned.

"Same sentiment here," Hermione told him. "And I studied all night."


When the last exams were over, Draco and Danny went down to the lake. Upon seeing Harry and his friends there, Draco's face fell.

"Let's go somewhere else," he said.

"How about to the Forbidden Forest?" Danny suggested. "Here comes Sam. We can introduce her to Undergrowth."

"I don't know," Draco hesitated. "He's very old and cranky."

"He's a ghost and likes his privacy, but he did invite me to visit whenever I wanted to, so I want to go and introduce Sam."

"Okay," Draco sighed.

"A plant ghost?" Sam squealed when Danny's told her where they were going. "That's so cool. Let's go!"

Danny turned them invisible and they flew off. Wouldn't be good to have any one see them and report them to the Headmaster, or even worse, Filch.


"Have you tried going to Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not sick," Harry answered. "I think my scar's warning me of some approaching danger or something."

"It's a possibility," said Ron, "but still, perhaps you should."

Harry stared up at the cloudless blue sky. Lightning struck his brain as he watched an owl soar overhead, holding a note tightly clamped in its beak.

"Come on," he said, shooting to his feet.

"Where are we going?" Ron asked.

"Hagrid's," came the terse reply.

Hermione sighed and yanked Ron to his feet.

"Ow!"

"Come on, lazybones," she told him. "I think he's figured something out."

"Here we go again with the blasted Stone again," Ron grumbled. "'As long as Dumbledore's around, nothing can get past those echantments. We don't even know for sure if Snape has tried again or not, other than that time Fluffy nearly took a chunk out of his leg."

He paused in his ranting. "Where are we going?"

"Hagrid's, I think, judging from Harry's direction," Hermione replied.


"He's learning to make allies," the Halved One reported to the Time Master.

"Good," Clockwork replied, adjusting a knob on his chronostaff. "Undergrowth will play an important role in upcoming years."

"Ah," Plasmius said, catching a glimpse of what Clockwork had seen in his viewing portal.


As dark and forbidding as the forest usually was, this meadow was bright and full of sunshine. Sam gasped as she saw all the floral beauty around her.

"This is gorgeous, Danny. It rivals the Garden of Eden in all its wonder," she exclaimed.

"I'm glad to meet someone who enjoys my children's hard work," a watery gurgle said from behind them.

Sam watched as Danny relaxed, when the blue mist escaped from his mouth. "Danny?"

"Undergrowth, these are Draco and Sam, students up from the school," the ghost child introduced them.

A tall plant that towered like a watchguard in the center of the paradise opened bleary eyes. He was too far distant for Sam to make out his eye color.

"Sorry for interrupting your sleep, Undergrowth," she apologized. "I've never seen anything this beautiful before, not even the greenhouse I have at home can produce all of this."

Undergrowth beamed down at the girl. "Well, child," he gurgled. "Come and visit any time you wish with the ghost child."

Danny, knowing Undergrowth well enough to know a dismissal, bowed respectfully and flew off with Draco and Sam.

"You didn't say anything back there," Sam noted.

"It wasn't my place," Draco quietly replied.

"You're still not sore, are you?" Danny asked him.

"He's scared the crap out of me, when Harry and I ran into him that night we did detention with Hagrid. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Show manners," Sam retorted.


The Golden Trio found Hagrid shelling peas on his front porch. "Hello," he cheerfully greeted them.

"Hi, Hagrid."

"Hey, Hagrid, could we ask you a question?" Harry inquired.

"Sure," Hagrid paused in his shelling. "About what?"

"The guy that you won Norbert's egg from that night. Do you remember what he looked like?"

Hagrid scratched his head. "Don't rightly remember. He wouldn't take his cloak off. Don't give me those looks. It's not that unusual in the Hog's Head-the pub in the village-lot's o' strange folk pass through the area, yeh know."

"Did you guys talk about anything?" Harry asked.

Hermione instantly saw his line of reasoning, though Ron was still perplexed.

"Well, we talked about my job here at Hogwarts and what I did here. He told me about the dragon's egg he just happened to have. He must have been a dealer; he wanted to make sure I could take care of it, I think." Hagrid paused.

"Did you talk about Fluffy?" Hermione asked, taking her turn.

"Well, yeah, we did," Hagrid said.

"Was he interested in him?" Ron spoke up.

"Are we playing twenty questions?" Hagrid grumbled. "Yeah, I just told him that if you played a bit o' music, he'll go straight to sleep-"

A look of horror crossed his face.

"I think I just made a boo-boo. Forget I ever told yeh that," he blurted out.

The Golden Trio looked at one another and ran back to the castle.

"Dumbledore has to be told," Harry said. "Hagrid told a complete stranger how to get past the enchantments; it could have been Snape or Voldemort for all we know."

"What's going to happen if he doesn't believe us?" protested Ron.

"Firenze or Bane can back us up. Where is Dumbledore's office?"


"Draco, what happened that night?" Danny asked him, when they had returned to the Great Hall and he'd reverted to human mode.

"We're your friends, Malfoy," Sam reassured him. "You can tell us."

Draco looked at two Americans. "Alright," he mumbled.

-flashback-

"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for again?" Draco whined.

"Whatever is killing the unicorns!" Harry yelled in exasperation.

"WHAT?" a loud voice roared from behind them. "WHO WOULD DARE KILL THE PURIFIERS?"

Draco whimpered as he saw the huge plant-like ghost towering over them.

"ANSWER ME, BOY!"

Harry pulled out a pouch filled with what Draco could see was a greenish glitter. "Leave him alone, ghost."

"Who is killing the purifiers?" the ghost asked in a more surprisingly calm tone. "The forest weeps for the horror committed herein."

Harry spit into the pinch of dust in his hand and rolled it into a pea-sized ball. Pulling out a small hollow copper rod, Harry loaded the ball into it. "We don't know, ghost, but I do know this. Let us go."

"Why should I?" the ghost sardonically replied. "You are the trespassers in my glen."

"Turn your head, Draco," Harry instructed, taking aim with the rod. A blast of greenish light shot out the star-shaped end, sending Harry hurtling to the ground.

The plant-ghost screamed in anger and pain. The forest floor beneath him rumbled, tree roots rising to ensnare them. Harry pulled out a small ecto-laser and sliced them free.

"What now?" Draco demanded.

"We run," came the cool reply.

-end flashback-

"Ah, I was wondering where that went to," said Danny.

"What was it?" Draco asked curiously.

"The Fenton Star-Shooter," the halfa laughed. "Harry's first invention. Technically, he invented it to get back at Youngblood for terrorizing Featherhead in second grade."

Sam grinned. "Yeah, but he used it effectively against you the week after you fought Technus for overshadowing him to get back at Dash for stuffing a hamburger into my mouth."

Draco laughed. "So human saliva is the activation chemical for the glitter?"

"Ecto-dust," Danny corrected, "but yeah."

"So what was your first invention?" Sam asked teasingly.

"Don't remind me," Danny moaned, his face turning red.

Draco laughed as his friend's face turned tomato-red. "That embarrassing?"

Sam grinned. "You have no idea."

"Do tell."

Danny turned pleading eyes towards her.

Sam grinned evilly. "A whistle," she laughed, remembering the look on Paulina's face.

"A whistle that emits a high-frequency sound that summons a ghost dog named Cujo," Danny added. "Something I didn't know at the time."

"He turned the school into a war zone," Sam interjected. "The most popular girl's new dress was coated in green dog drool."

Draco burst out laughing. "You must have been mortified."

"Mortified wasn't the word for it," Danny shot back. "I had to spend the rest of the day with a trash can on my head."

"You're lucky the school didn't make you clean up the mess," Sam replied.