Danny carefully put his overflowing bag down on the floor, then threw himself onto a cushion with far less care.
"You okay over there, dude?" Tucker asked, one eyebrow peaked behind his glasses. "Lemme guess, the talk with Dumbledore didn't go well?"
"How'd you guess?" Danny groaned into the cushion.
"Eh." Tucker shrugged, turning away from Danny's dramatics. "To be fair, Dumbledore didn't seem like he would've accepted anyway."
"It's stupid, though." He finally pushed himself upright again, propped up on his elbows. "I mean, Ron's dad got hurt real bad! Why would he go through such efforts to recruit a super-powerful ghost if he won't let me help?"
"Based on what I've heard, it's because he's a bit of a bastard." Sam sat down on the edge of a table, one leg folded under her. Unlike Tucker and Danny, she didn't have a pile of presents – she didn't celebrate Christmas, after all. She did, however, have a rumbling pile of black fur in her arms. "He's smart and powerful, sure, but he's also set in his ways. If he has an idea he doesn't listen to anybody else. Or so Harry, Ron, and Hermione say."
"That's dumb." Tucker rummaged through his bag of presents, starting to split it into two piles. One from home, and one from there. "Did he at least tell you why he won't let you help, Danny?"
Danny shrugged, pulling his own presents closer to follow Tucker's idea. "It's still the same thing as this summer. Phantom is a secret weapon, so I'm not allowed to help. Just in case anybody picks up on my existence, I guess."
"That sucks," Sam scoffed. "But there isn't really anything you can do about it, can you? We don't know what's going on or how to help, so you can't even sneak off for it."
"Pretty sure that it's in London too." Danny frowned at the presents in front of him. He had gathered a surprising amount of presents from fellow students. Maybe he should've bought some for them, too. "So I couldn't just fly off to try and help, not if we're not nearby."
He finally finished splitting his pile of presents, and glanced over to confirm Tucker had done the same. Sam grimaced, eyes darting between the two of them, and said, "Poor Spooky, she had to drag all of this stuff here."
"Yeah, it's, um." Tucker frowned at his presents. "More than I was expecting, to be honest. I guess people here just kinda go nuts with it."
"I even got one for Phantom!" Danny dug out the present, soft and floppy, the paper around it rough. "From Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, apparently."
"Wow, mine looks exactly the same." Tucker plucked one of the presents out of his 'Hogwarts' pile, showing it off. Like he'd said, it was the same size, shape, and floppiness. "Wonder what's in them, if they're all the same. You got one of those for your regular self too?"
"Yeah," Danny confirmed as he grabbed that one too. "Want to open them simultaneously?"
"Wait, hang on." Sam put down Lilith and reached behind herself, revealing another identical present that she had previously hidden. "I've got one too. I guess she, and Sirius and Lupin, didn't know I don't celebrate Christmas."
"So…" Danny held up his present – the one addressed to him, not Phantom. "On 3?"
Both of his friends nodded, all grasping their presents. In perfect sync they counted down. With a loud ripping sound they all shredded through the paper, revealing the presents.
"Um… wow." Sam held up the sweater, deep purple but with a golden S on the front. "It's… Oh, it's hand-knit. That's really sweet, actually."
"Yeah," Danny agreed, fingering his own navy blue sweater, the golden D glimmering in the light. "It feels really warm, too. That's really handy."
Tucker nodded, inspecting his own maroon-red copy. "And she tried to match them to us, not our houses. Hey, Danny, what color did she make Phantom's?"
"Oh, good question!" He turned to grab the one addressed to Phantom, ripping it open. Then he made a face, showing the article off to Sam and Tucker.
"Wow, green, huh?" Sam grimaced briefly, but broke into a grin almost immediately. "Personally I would've gone with black, I think, but it does match your eyes."
"And it stands out more against your jumpsuit, I bet." Tucker fluffed his own sweater briefly, then shrugged and pulled it on over his regular clothes. Surprisingly, it matched well with his beret. "Come on, let's all put ours on and take a photo! I bet she would love to see it."
"We don't have a way to take Wizarding photos, though!" Danny protested. Then he slammed his jaw shut again, as the room dutifully formed a camera capable of just that. "Well, alright, never mind."
"Should've known better, buddy." Sam followed Tucker's example, pulling her own sweater on as well. Then she swatted a hand at Danny, gesturing at him to hurry up. "Come on, get a duplicate going already. We don't have all day."
"Yeah we do," Danny grumbled, standing up from his cushion to shift into ghost form. "We have like 3 weeks off, Sam."
"Christmas is wasting, come on." She clapped her hands together to hurry him, jumping off of the table she was sitting on.
"What do you think I'm doing?" Danny countered, gesturing at himself as Phantom. For good measure he duplicated as well, instructing it to shift back to human form. "Do you want me to rush through duplicating again? You want to see that again, huh, Sam?"
"Oh god please no," Tucker begged, slapping a hand in Sam's face to quieten her. "Just take your time, I don't want to see another of those monstrosities ever again, thanks."
Danny laughed, pulling his bright green sweater over his head. Afterwards he mussed up his white hair to make it stand back up again, watching his duplicate do the same. "They weren't that bad."
"Are you sure we were looking at the same thing, dude?" Tucker quirked an eyebrow, then straightened his beret again. "Seriously, they were horrifying."
"You're just a baby." Sam huffed out an impatient breath, gesturing for everyone to group up. She ducked down briefly to pick up Lilith again. "Do you think the Room can take a picture for us, or should we get another duplicate to do it for us instead?"
They paused, but the room didn't answer. Danny shrugged, pulling on his core to form another duplicate. "Alright, guess not. Another Danny, coming right up."
The Phantom duplicate took the camera from Sam. Then it floated a small distance away, peering at them through the old-fashioned device.
"Say cheese!" it instructed in Danny's own echoing ghost voice, holding the camera steady and pointed at them.
"Cheese!" they all echoed back, followed almost immediately with a blinding flash.
Sam quickly hurried back to the duplicate, grabbing the emerging photograph in one hand, her other supporting Lilith as the cat clambered onto her shoulders. She waved the photo, quickly, then scrutinized it for a few long moments.
Finally, she declared, "Looks good to me! Let's write a thank-you note and get Wraith."
"I honestly can't decide if she'll be thrilled to fly a shorter distance for once, or if she'll hate us for making her fly again." Tucker scratched his cheek, moving over to look at the photo as well. "We really did make her go from never doing anything to suddenly flying absurd amounts and distances."
"That's just how life is," Danny commented as he looked at the photo as well. It looked good, if one ignored the fact that he and his duplicate looked almost identical. But, well, if they got away with it in real life, why not on a photo? "You're constantly bored out of your mind, wishing for something to happen, and then when it does you regret ever asking for it."
"Wow, Danny coming in with the deep thoughts on our beautiful Christmas." Sam took the camera back from the duplicate, allowing Danny to dispel both. "Hey, did we get more shared presents, anyway? I got some from Sirius and Lupin as well."
"Me too." Tucker ducked down, pulling out a heavy rectangular present. "Does yours look like this too, Sam?"
"Yep," she confirmed, showing off her own. Danny revealed his own, identical to theirs. "Looks like we all have these. Feels heavy. Books maybe?"
"Let's find out," Danny suggested, setting his own package down on the table. Tucker and Sam followed suit, and once more they counted down in sync.
"Yep, definitely books." Sam flipped open one of the books, an intrigued looks on her face. "Oh wow, with animated depictions and everything. These are really useful, actually. I bet they got some for Harry as well, and maybe some of the others too."
"They'll be good for the DA," Tucker agreed, eyeing the series of matching books as well. "I mean, it's right there in the title, isn't it? Practical Defensive Magic and its Use Against the Dark Arts? If that doesn't scream DADA then I don't know anymore."
"Y'know what?" Danny paused as both of his friends answered with "what?" in perfect sync. "I'm actually kind of glad that they came to Amity Park and that we met them. It was kind of scary at first, and sure, Hogwarts isn't as great as we were told. But it's still nice, to learn more about magic like this. And to get a better look at how the Wizarding World became the way it is now, because oof, what a mess of a system."
"Amen!" Tucker cheered, raising his hand. Behind him, Sam did the same. "But seriously, we should really sit down at some point to figure out if we want to follow the rest of this magical education or not."
"Yeah, probably." Sam looked up from her book. "On one hand, knowing more about magic couldn't hurt. But on the other…"
"They gotta have some way to get you into Muggle college afterwards, right?" Danny leaned over to pick up one of his Hogwarts presents, figuring he might as well get started on unpacking those. "With how many wizards come from partial or full Muggle origins, there must be some that want to follow a regular education afterwards. All we would have to do is figure out how to explain that we did part of high school in the UK."
"I'm sure we could think of something." Tucker shrugged, following Danny's example to grab one of his presents too. "Wait, hang on, do you have one of these from Hermione too, Danny? They look the same."
"Oh, I have one of those too." Sam put down her book, laying down on her stomach on the table instead to watch them unpack their presents. Lilith easily shifted along with Sam, before curling up on the flat of her back. "She gave it to me ahead of time, said I could count it as a Hanukkah gift."
"Wonder what it is, then." Danny and Tucker shared a glance, shrugged, then ripped them open simultaneously.
"Aww, is it a homework planner? That seems about right for her, to be honest." She sounded apologetic, but the grin on her face was anything but. "I'll hold off on opening mine until the right time."
Danny opened his mouth to reply, but the planner in Tucker's hands – which he had flipped open – was faster. It spit out some sort of semi-motivational outcry, encouraging them to work on homework.
"I don't think that there is a right time," Danny managed after it had quieted again. "Come on, are these enchanted? That's horrible, I hate it."
"You know what? These seem exactly like Hermione's jam, yeah." Sam took Tucker's from his hands, looking it over. "I'm sure she gave them to everyone she gives half a damn about. I bet there'll be a burning party the day everyone comes back in the Gryffindor Tower, with everyone covertly getting rid of them."
"No offense, but I bet most people would've gotten rid of them before then." Tucker glared heatedly at the planner in Sam's hands. "It would be way easier to do it sooner, before Hermione is around to see it."
"Yeah, they might be useful if they didn't talk like that." Danny flipped his open, then immediately closed it again as it started spouting inspirational nonsense at him. "Maybe if they told you what you still needed to do, or offered guidance on your planning or something."
"What, like 'Hey, idiot, you've gone and planned 20 hours of homework on one day. Change it or you'll probably cry and/or die'?" Sam snorted. She then handed the planner back to Tucker, who took it with a less than thrilled face. "I mean, she means well, but I think we're doing alright, all things considered."
"Eh, I guess you're right. Let's just get rid of these, then." He chucked it to the side, then turned to the smaller pile of presents. The ones from home. "And I'm done with these magical things, let's do the ones from home first."
"I think we got another case of duplicates," Tucker said, holding up a small rectangular present. "I've seen one of these in your pile too, Danny, and they're from Jazz, so."
"Oh yeah, I had one too, although I obviously haven't gotten around to it yet." Sam gestured vaguely with the hand that wasn't propping up her face. "I bet she kept it small on purpose, so it wouldn't bother Wraith too much."
He hummed, tearing open the paper. Inside was a small gadget, designed exactly like all other Fenton appliances. "Huh, I don't think I've seen one of these before. Must be something special, if Jazz bothered to send it to us."
"Looks like it's a battery for ecto-based electronics." Tucker was twisting his gadget around, inspecting it carefully. "Must be so we can keep our phones charged. Thoughtful."
Danny nodded, looking at the various presents that still laid in front of him. Then he frowned, pulling out a letter from the stack.
"Hey, guys?" he said, drawing the attention of both of his friends back to him. "This one is from Dani. How'd she even find me?"
"Maybe she visited Amity?" Sam suggested with a slight shrug. "It probably says in the letter."
"Yeah, probably." He carefully tore it open, eyes darting to read through the letter. Once he was finished he frowned. Then read it again. And a third time, just to be sure.
"What's in it?" Tucker asked, looking up from one of his own presents. "You're making a weird face. Is it good or bad?"
"Good, I guess," he answered, carefully. "Apparently she dropped by Amity Park not too long after we left. And she's just… been there, ever since. Took over for me in ghost hunting duty, although she works with Jazz and Valerie, too."
"Wow, your parents must've flipped. Finally got rid of one Phantom, and then another shows up?" Tucker huffed out a laugh, leaning one elbow on the half-unpacked present in his lap. "Jazz would've had her hands full with calming them down, I bet."
"Actually…" Danny stared at the letter still. "Apparently they're… okay with it, now? Apparently Val, as the Red Huntress, went and confronted them. And she told them that both the Phantoms are okay, and that she is planning to work with them, and if the Fentons are too stupid to figure it out themselves then are they really ghost scientists? And I guess Jazz got involved too, because it worked, and they grudgingly admitted that maybe they were wrong."
He grinned, ignoring the wetness in the corner of his eyes. "According to Dani they've even worked together a bunch of times since. They even complimented her once or twice, and asked with genuine concern and curiosity why she was there instead of me. Phantom me."
Both Sam and Tucker blinked at this, surprised. Sam, finally, said, "Well, I guess something had to convince them, eventually. And this is better than the inevitable 'oh wow, Danny is actually Phantom' thing."
"Yeah, no kidding." He swiped a hand past the corner of his eye, blinking away the half-formed tear. Then he folded the letter closed, gently, with a huge smile on his face. "You know, I think that this might be one of the, if not straight-up the, best Christmas present I've ever received. I mean, my parents accepted Phantom, and were worried about him!"
Tucker hummed. "I can't imagine any of these living up to that, yeah. Not even," he grabbed a random present from the Hogwarts stack, which was closer to him, "this present from Draco Malfoy. Wow, you got that stuck-up Slytherin guy to send you one?"
"Wasn't he the really annoying blonde one you were trying to reform?" Sam asked, taking it from Tucker's hands before Danny could reclaim it. "You must be doing a pretty good job if he's sending you presents."
"He doesn't hate me, at least." Danny shrugged, then lunged to take it back from her. "Or it's spelled to lay some kind of terrible curse on me when I open it. But my magic sense suggests not."
"Aww, that's sweet." Tucker demonstratively gestured at his own Hogwarts pile. "I mean, I got a bunch from my housemates too, but they're not, well. Slytherin."
"Yeah, haha, I got it." Danny drummed his fingers on the package, looking at Tucker instead of the shiny wrapping paper. "My house is the shitty one with the bad people."
"You said it, not me," Tucker chirped, his hands raised.
"Boys, boys, come on." Sam gestured at the piles of presents that still remained, scattered around the room. "Focus, please. I've got better things to do than sit around and watch you squabble over gifts."
Sam had been watching the Weasley twins demonstrate a new product of theirs when she saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the Gryffindor Common Room. She'd been hoping to catch them soon, so she could thank Hermione for the present – and hopefully stop her from noticing that she had gotten rid of it already.
But instead she hung back. Harry looked miserable, pale and peaky. The three of them sat down, seemingly planning to work on homework, but Harry seemed to give up on it quickly.
Now slightly worried, Sam made her way closer.
"Hi guys," she greeted them once she was close enough for them to hear over the exciting shrieking, "Everything alright over here?"
"'m fine," Harry mumbled, rubbing the scar on his forehead. "Just feeling a little ill."
"What, just out of nowhere?" Sam eyed him, worriedly. You didn't just randomly get sick, not like this. "Didn't you have remedial Potions earlier? Did Snape do something?"
"It's fine, it's nothing." Harry shook his head, then grimaced as that apparently worsened how he was feeling. "We were just working on Occlumency."
"That's not Potions at all." Sam frowned at him. Now it made sense; Snape was a terrible teacher towards Harry. Why would someone – Dumbledore, probably – pick him of all people to teach Harry? "But let me guess, it didn't go well?"
Harry snorted, dismissively.
"Yeah, I figured as much." She sighed. "Did Dumbledore arrange this? Does he not realize how shitty of a choice Snape is for teaching you, or…?"
"There were no other options," Hermione informed her, haughtily. "Dumbledore made the right choice."
Sam scoffed, shaking her head. "Maybe there were no other teachers, but clearly we're not limiting ourselves to those, are we? You could always try learning it the same way Danny, Tucker, and I did, if this isn't working for you."
"How?" Harry asked, brow creased. "I thought it was a really rare skill, since so few wizards know Legilimency?"
"Oh, sure." Sam shrugged. "But we got Phantom to teach us. Legilimency is really similar to the overshadowing of a ghost, apparently. So we had to learn anyway, to protect us from his enemies without having to rely on technology."
"What's this 'overshadowing'?" Hermione leaned forward, intrigued and clearly curious. "Is it a special skill limited to ghosts like him?"
"I mean, I think so? I've never heard of a regular ghost doing it, anyway." Sam shrugged. Wizarding ghosts likely didn't possess enough strength for overshadowing, if she had to guess. Not corporeal enough, and all that. "It's, um, possession, basically. A ghost can take control over a body, and a well-trained one can hide so well that they can't be detected by anyone but other ghosts."
"Bloody hell," Ron exclaimed, before his eyes darted away briefly to make sure no one had overheard. At a quieter volume, he continued, "And any ghost like Phantom could do that? There aren't many, surely?"
Sam made a face, then wiggled her hand. "Eh, it's not a big concern, anyway. For most ghosts there isn't much of a point, since hiding in a human body is just that – hiding. They're weaker like that, and a protective spirit like Phantom could still find them. Plus they can't hide from ghost hunting equipment, like detectors or anti-ghost warding."
"And shielding from them works the same as shielding against Legilimency?" Harry's brow was still creased, but Sam honestly couldn't tell if it was in thought or just because he wasn't feeling well.
"Yeah, apparently." She shrugged, loosely. "We didn't know at first, to be honest, but that's what the Sorting Hat said. And it makes sense, since it all works based off of mental strength and stuff."
"Oh yeah, supposedly that's how the Sorting Hat works." Hermione nodded eagerly. "Did that mess up your sorting, then? Or did you have to lower your shields to let it in?"
"The latter. The Hat was impressed by our shields, then asked us to please lower them so we could be sorted." Sam made a face, playing with some of the bands on her wrist. "To be honest, if we realized how big of a deal these houses were, we probably would've messed with the Hat a little. Get him to sort us all in the same one, since we were all being considered for Gryffindor anyway."
"Wait, hang on." Harry flapped a hand, dismissing that discussion. "If Phantom taught you guys how to do Occlumency, could he teach me too?"
"Well, yeah, probably." She cocked her head in thought. Or faux-thought, at least. If Harry was being forced to learn Occlumency, there probably was a damn good reason for it. And if that was the case, she would make sure he would learn it, one way or another. "I'll ask him, but I'm sure he'd be fine with it, especially if you have a good reason for it. Which you do, I'm sure."
"I don't want to talk about it," Harry immediately answered, expression turning far more grumpy all of a sudden.
Sam just nodded in understanding. He would probably tell Danny for the lessons, and then Danny could tell her and Tucker. "That's fine, man. I'll see if I can ask Phantom later this week. Do you want me to act as the messenger, or can he come to you directly?"
"Meeting me directly is fine." Harry looked at the homework in front of him, then heaved a heavy sigh. He started putting it away with a desolate expression. "Thanks, Sam. Sorry to run off immediately, but…"
"Don't worry about it, you don't look good, I get it." She shot Hermione a brief glare when the girl opened her mouth, no doubt to nag him about doing his homework later. "Just get some sleep or something, and I'll talk to Phantom for you."
"Thanks." Harry waved a brief goodbye at them all, then trekked off to the boy's dorms.
All three of them watched him go, then Hermione frowned and nudged Ron. "Go keep an eye on him, will you?"
"Why, he's just gone to get some sleep," Ron protested, gesturing at his homework. "Shouldn't I be working on this?"
"Well, yeah, but…" She glanced back over to the entryway to the dorm rooms. "I think his defenses might be lowered now, after Snape's lesson. You can do your homework later, together with Harry. Just… please, Ron?"
The boy heaved a sigh, but nodded. "Yeah, alright, if you say so. Goodnight, girls."
They watched him go, then Hermione sighed. "I hope Phantom can help. I'm sure it's useful, but if Harry can learn from someone who doesn't seem to carry such a grudge…"
"It'll be fine," Sam assured her, patting Hermione on the hand. "If it's so important Phantom will take care of it, okay? Don't worry about it."
"If you say so, Sam." Her eyes remained locked on the doorway that Harry and Ron had disappeared through. "I'll just have to trust your judgment on that."
Yes I picked the exact day when the first chapter would go just so this specific chapter would drop on the 21st. Also I tried to incorporate some stuff to reference Sam being Jewish but, well. I'll admit that I didn't do super deep research, just to make up for the fact that I've osmosis'd some stuff about Christmas and didn't pick up nearly as much about Hanukkah. That's probably a really crappy excuse but hey, at least it's more than canon incorporated? Plus there's very little focus on the actual holiday here, just presents, and a good portion of those guys didn't know Sam was Jewish either.
And, yeah. This chapter was mostly just banter and fluff, but (some of it) will tie into future content! And there's that set-up for Harry's secondary Occlumency lessons, by someone more focused on actually teaching him Occlumency.
Next week, chapter 18: Snake Bite, Serpent Strike