Portkeys were Jake's least favorite method of magical transportation, which was saying something.

He'd traveled with the magical elevator to the Isle of Draco, which dropped him through the Earth at dizzying speeds. He'd taken a quick trip with the American Knight Bus when on his way to Los Angeles for a pixie convention. He'd even ridden an underwater mermaid transportation system in which he had to make sure not to fall off, lest he leave the protective barrier allowing him air.

But nothing would beat the incredibly unsettling sensation of that jerk behind the navel, the endless spinning, flying through the air in a way that was completely different from what he was used to as a dragon. And the sudden freefall certainly didn't help matters. Especially when he took the longest to recover.

Minerva had clearly traveled by Portkey several times before; she managed to land on her feet with a grace that reminded Jake of a cat, stopping a moment to pat her hair down, a few strands of which had come loose from her bun through the high winds.

Danny Fenton had looked like he was going to crash, but was able to phase through the ground before hitting it, then flying back out and stepping tangible onto the street. He grinned, looking pleased with himself.

Jake groaned from his position on the floor, his side burning from the impact of the ground. He was really getting sick of smacking into hard surfaces. "Yo, how high was that?"

"About ten feet," Minerva answered briskly. "I'll admit it was higher than normal. Apologies."

"Need some help?" Danny stretched his hand out to Jake, who took it after a slight moment of hesitation, debating just how important his pride was.

"Thanks," he said to Danny once he'd been pulled up. "But, uh, dude. Your hand is cold."

Danny laughed. "It's a ghost thing." He looked around the street they'd landed by, in the shadow of one of the buildings. The sun hung high in the sky, shining down and illuminating the near-identical residential buildings lining the road, bright, small lawns standing on either side of each complex. Stocky trees dotted the length of the street, their branches still with the absence of wind. The air was near-stifling, and Jake, whose body temperature was already higher than an average person's, found himself wishing for somewhere with air conditioning. At Hogwarts, they'd had to rely on the stone walls keeping out the warmth from the sun - and a little bit of magic, no doubt.

"Where are we?" Jake asked Minerva.

"Islington in London," she said, "as Dumbledore mentioned a week ago." She stepped out from the shadows and into the street, which was surprisingly not as crowded as Jake would have expected. An old lady was walking her dog, and some kids played together by one of the taller trees, but all in all, things looked pretty empty. The witch pursed her lips. "This isn't exactly the ideal time to come here. Normally we'd arrive past sundown, when there's no chance of being noticed, but we're on a schedule."

"There's no one really here, though." Danny shoved his hands in his pants pockets. A bag was slung over his shoulder, which likely carried some of his own possessions. Jake had also seen him sneaking a ray gun with him on the way out, but had decided not to mention anything. The dragon himself carried a backpack with some clothes to last them a few days and wore a sleeveless red shirt, which was definitely a better choice than the thick t-shirt he'd nearly put on. The temperature was much warmer here than where Hogwarts was.

I thought England was supposed to be cold.

"An unusual thing, that," Minerva said lightly, "but it works in our favor. Come, children, we need to take advantage of the time. The others would be expecting us soon." A soft sigh. "We're a little early, actually. The one time you two come to breakfast on time."

"I'm a teenage boy," Jake retorted.

They walked a ways along the street, passing identical buildings with identical lawns and probably identical interior decorating, until they reached what looked like near end of the block. While Minerva reached into her robes and pulled out a piece of paper, Danny stood next to Jake, remarking, "Hey, number twelve's missing."

He was right. The house numbers went up chronologically, but where there should have been a twelve skipped straight over to thirteen.

"Well spotted." Minerva handed them the piece of paper. "Read this, memorize it, and hand it back to me."

Jake took the piece of paper from Danny, who had read it with furrowed brows. "I just said-" Danny started.

"The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at number twelve, Grimmauld Place," Jake read aloud, unwittingly interrupting whatever Danny had been about to say. "But there's no number twelve?"

Minerva closed her eyes briefly. "I said memorize it, not read it aloud." She snatched the paper back from Jake, took out her wand, and murmured a quick spell. The small slip of paper burst into flames and she let it fall to the ground in a flutter of ash.

Jake stared at the paper. "Overkill, don't ya think?"

"Woah!" Danny exclaimed next to him (a little too loud - Jake involuntarily winced and took a step away from him). "The houses are moving!"

Jake looked up in initial confusion, only for a small "holy shit" to escape as he nearly tripped over his feet trying to scramble back.

The space between numbers eleven and thirteen began to rumble, stones grinding against each other as they shifted and moved apart from one another. The two homes, including the lawns in front of them, moved along the ground and compressed into the other buildings surrounding them, and Jake could see people sitting inside, completely oblivious to the noise and movement. In between the two buildings, another stretch of stone became visible, a few windows popping into place, even another goddamn lawn growing in the middle before a door came forward as well, completing the image of another home: number twelve, if the plague hanging at the door was anything to go by.

Danny looked weak. "What the fuck?"

"Oh, yeah," Jake commented, staring in horror at the open display of magic. "I can see now why y'all do this at night." He swiveled his head around, relaxing a bit as the people outside stayed focused on their own business.

Minerva's lips twitched. "The muggles can't see the house moving unless they read the letter. What I was worried about was them seeing us go in. Two teenage boys and a woman wearing robes suddenly disappearing through a wall between two buildings could be cause for alarm."

"You'd be surprised how many times that happens in Amity Park," Danny said in a robotic voice, still staring at the house.

"What?" Jake asked him. "The house appearing out of thin air, or people going through the wall?" By the way he didn't answer, Jake assumed he needed some time to process. Instead, he turned to Minerva. "You're lucky the Council hasn't heard of this yet. This has a large risk of people seeing."

The professor cocked an eyebrow. "Yes, well, we've been registered as Independent for a while now. We have no obligation to report back to our World Dragon."

"You do now," Jake shot back. "You guys enlisted our help. That makes you put back in our line of sight. You're Protected."

She gave a small sigh. "We can talk about the technicalities later on. Now, I believe we have a meeting to get to."

Jake grinned. "Lead the way, Professor."

As they walked up to the front of the door, Danny finally snapped out of his reverie to tap Jake on the shoulder.

"What does Protected mean again?"

"Means we have jurisdiction over them and are obligated to help in times of crisis," Jake answered.

Danny nodded. "And Independent is when they work out of the eye of the Dragon Council?"

"Look who remembered his lessons!" Jake cheered. "Yeah. If you're Independent, then you're responsible for your own race or clan or whatever. We don't check up on you. I'm pretty sure ghosts are Independent, and so are centaurs." He turned back to Minerva, who had pressed the doorbell on number twelve. "Now come on, we've got a revolution to meet."

Danny figured his brain hadn't quite caught up with the fact that magic was indeed real, and it was, like any other thing that should've been cool, kicking him in the ass.

A magic school in Scotland with moving portraits, staircases, and questionable classes? Alright, he'd seen some weird stuff in the Ghost Zone. Dora's castle had many characteristics that Hogwarts shared. Besides, he had plenty of time to lie awake at night and stare at the ceiling, wondering just what the fuck was going on.

So the buildings moving apart were… well, they didn't make any sense. It went against every law of physics Danny could think of. How was it that only the two buildings moved apart to make room? And somehow were able to maintain their original shape despite being smushed up against the other buildings that hadn't moved, despite now having an extra home there? Had it always been there? Did it come out of a pocket dimension? Would NASA have an answer? He had no idea.

Even so, the thought of just being able to blame it on magic was… comforting? Maybe that wasn't quite the word, but it made the most sense at the moment. For the first time in forever, Danny had a concrete thing to blame things on when they didn't go his way. What had started off as, "The universe hates me!" had now become, "Hey, must be magic, because that exists now!"

Maybe that could be his excuse for everything from now on. Danny, what happened to your homework? Magic. How have you not slept in four days? Magic. How is it that no one in Amity Park has figured out your secret and tried to dissect you yet? I dunno, dude. Magic.

Well, maybe not that last one. Ghost energy cancelled out magical energy. Danny suspected that was why the Portkey dropped them from so high up.

Still. He'd always assumed that people would notice these things. It only took a few months for Amity to realize that ghosts were real. The only reason Danny hadn't been found out as half-ghost was because his parents were completely blinded by their hatred of ghosts to think about their own son sharing that nature.

But a whole magical society? Right underneath their nose? How?

They existed in myths and legends, so Danny knew that people must have seen something at one point. But that was just it. They were myths. They knew how to stay hidden. Except ghosts. The Dragon Council didn't seem to care about ghosts staying hidden, which was a little weird, but understandable. It made Danny's job easier.

It just seemed unrealistic that the secret hadn't gotten out yet. Surely memory potions weren't that easy to come by. If they were cheap enough, people would get careless about slipping up. No, especially in Jake's society, where he had to go out and buy materials to brew potions instead of just waving a stick around and yelling Latin phrases, memory potions would be expensive. It was basic marketing. Right?

He had no idea. He had absolutely no clue what was going on. At least science made sense. At least NASA used technology… unless they didn't. Unless the only reason they were able to do so much was because they had access to magical artifacts. Danny was this close to forcibly smashing his own head against the wall. The stupid magical wall that had appeared out of thin air.

Scream about it later, Phantom, he told himself. Jake was standing next to him with an irritated expression as he glared at the same wall Danny had been thinking about, no doubt upset about the blatant dangerous use of magic in front of "muggles." From the stories he'd been told, Danny could safely assume that the Council would be breathing down the wizard's necks for a long time to come once they found out about this.

That was another thing that confused Danny. Was the Council comprised entirely of dragons that just… sat on their thrones all day? Did they have the equivalent of a White House? Were there different political parties? Did they live in their dragon or human forms?

It was too early for in the day for this. He liked to keep his extensive thinking to a minimum until at least five in the afternoon. Also, some caffeine would be nice.

He was brought out of his reverie by the door (to the house that shouldn't be there) opening to reveal a tall, lanky man with bright orange hair and mismatched clothing. His eyes widened as he saw the witch, exclaiming, "Minerva! How good to see you!"

She gave him a rare smile. "Arthur, hullo."

"You're a little early - do you have the representatives?"

"Yes," she answered, waving Danny and Jake forward. Danny could here some yelling coming from inside, and another voice began to screech - a woman's - but it was hard to make out individual voices. One look at Jake's expression gave the impression that whatever was being yelled probably wasn't nice.

Arthur looked at the two boys in excitement, his mouth turning downwards in a brief frown before opening the door further. "Oh, hullo! You're much younger than I expected… but come in, all, and do mind the ruckus, our children got a little excited when we returned from Harry's hearing-"

"Come now, Arthur," Minerva said with slight exasperation. "You can't just let us in-"

"The question!" he exclaimed. "Merlin's beard, you're all near paranoid. Very well, but I'll make it quick, I'm sure there are people outside… what was my first reaction at learning of the invention of the mobile phone?"

"You were particularly excited at the fact that one didn't need to attack a cable to both ends in order to hear one another," Minerva answered immediately, mirth in her tone.

Arthur flushed a deep red, muttering, "Correct," and stepping aside to let them in. "Do try not to speak too loudly. We should be getting Mrs. Black's portrait covered up within a few moments."

The three stepped through the threshold and through the small hallway, and almost immediately Jake swore. "Yo, what is this place?"

The first thing Danny noticed was the painting. A mean looking woman with pale skin and a furious expression was screaming bloody murder, shouting things that sounded like "filthy mudbloods" and something about disgracing the House of Black, both of which made no sense to Danny but definitely made him want to phase through the floor and stay there until this whole fiasco was over.

A man with long locks of black hair was struggling to pull a curtain over the painting, trying to shout over it with his own curses. "Arthur, dammit!" he yelled. "Why'd you leave to answer the bloody door at this time?"

"Sorry, Sirius!" Arthur scrambled towards the painting to help pull the fabric back into place, effectively muffling the screaming. She got in another few curses before finally quieting down.

"I hate that woman," the black-haired man - Sirius - declared.

"My ears are bleeding," Jake moaned, holding his hands to either side of his head.

Danny took in the gloomy interior of Grimmauld Place: the dark walls, dim lighting… were those heads on the walls?

The place was much quieter without the painting screaming, but chanting was still going on inside. He took a few more steps inside to look around the corner, where the beginnings of a kitchen could be seen. Inside, a few kids around his age, all red-headed, were jumping up and down with their arms around each other, chanting, " He got off! He got off! " and a red-headed woman yelling at them to quiet down.

Sirius turned away from the painting. "Professor!" he said in a much lighter voice. "Glad to see you've made it. And these are the representatives, no doubt."

"I think I've gone deaf," Jake said weakly, hands still over his ears.

Sirius let out a bout of laughter, stepping towards the two and extending his hand. "Sirius Black, pleased to meet you. You're a lot shorter in person."

"So people keep telling us," Danny replied with a small smile, shaking the man's calloused hand.

Jake removed his hands from his ears to shake Sirius', speaking in a louder voice than necessary, "What's with the crazy painting?"

"My dear old mother," the man said cheerfully. "Don't worry. As long as you're not too loud, she shouldn't cause too much trouble. 'Course, it would be better if the painting would come down. Bloody enchantments."

The chanting from the kitchen had died down, allowing the woman from before to come hurrying in. "Oh!" she fussed. "Oh, I'm so sorry I couldn't come sooner, the children were a little too excited… not exactly a good first impression, I'm sure, but I assure you, it's not so bad here, once you get used to it."

"I'm sure," Jake commented, looking around at the gloomy atmosphere. He sneered at the heads on the walls. "Nice collection."

Sirius winced. "Oh, believe me, it wasn't my idea. I inherited this house. The elves here are all barking mad."

"I'm sure it's the elves," Jake spat.

Minerva frowned. "Jacob."

Danny decided to introduce himself before things got out of hand. "I'm Danny Fenton," he told the people in the room. "Your, uh, ghost expert. The other guy's Jake Long, your dragon. House elves are a touchy subject with him."

Not that his reaction wasn't justified, Danny added to himself. House elf heads? What the hell is wrong with these people?

"I ain't nobody's dragon," Jake said indignantly.

Danny rolled his eyes. He's definitely not very diplomatic. "Of course not."

The woman's smile seemed genuine, though, and just a little bit apologetic. "The Black family isn't known to be very hospitable towards house elves. There's a long story there which I'm sure Sirius would love to recount-" here Sirius gave her a panicked expression, "-but in the meantime, I'd say we should get you two acquainted. I'm Molly Weasley, and you've already met my husband, Arthur. Do you have luggage?"

"They'll only be staying here for a few days until Hogwarts," Minerva said, "so I told them to pack light. Speaking of which-" she began to turn towards the door, "I should get back to Hogwarts soon. Albus will be expecting me."

Molly nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, I shan't keep you any longer. Send Professor Dumbledore my well wishes!"

Minerva nodded. With a swish of her cloak, she'd left through the door again and out into the much more inviting world outside. How she'd get back to Hogwarts, Danny had no idea, but he supposed he shouldn't question every little thing from now on. It'd just give him a headache.

Arthur Weasley took both their bags to their rooms, saying he'd get a few of his kids to show them where they were later. "We're a little tight in space at the moment, but we've managed to get you two a room together without the others," he said, hefting both bags. "If Ron complains, you have my permission to breathe fire on him."

"Awesome, thanks," Jake replied. Danny couldn't tell if he was kidding.

They were brought to the kitchen, where the chaos from earlier had died down a bit. Most of the kids there seemed to be Weasleys, if the hair was anything to go by. Two tall, older boys (identical twins, by the looks of it) were still grinning at a shorter, black haired kid with round glasses, looking breathless as he stood next to another redhead who looked closer to Danny's age. To the side stood two girls, one redheaded and the other with a mane of bushy brown curls, both sporting a pair of soft brown eyes.

Jake's expression since they'd reached Grimmauld Place had only gotten more negative by the minute. By now, Danny could basically read his thoughts as something along the lines of, I really don't want to be here, someone please get me out before I set everything on fire. Danny could relate. (Except for fire bit. He didn't have that power, unfortunately.) Everything up until this moment had only gotten more stressful.

"Everyone!" Molly trilled, gathering the attention of the kids gathered around. "These are the two representatives who will be staying at Hogwarts this year. Jake and Danny will be part of the Order, so please don't harass them about meetings-"

"Look a little young to be in the Order, eh?" one of the twins interrupted.

"Yes, the short one looks barely twelve," the other one continued.

Jake threw his hands in the air. "I hate drawing straws!" he hissed.

Danny snorted. "They're not wrong."

"I'm fourteen-"

"Fourteen?" the kid standing next to Glasses said incredulously. "Mum, that's not fair-"

"The hair doesn't make him look any older, either," Twin No.1 muttered. His brother snickered.

"It's perfectly fair," Molly said firmly. "Danny and Jake have been handpicked by their particular community to come to Hogwarts. They can handle themselves in a fight and their age shouldn't matter in this case. Jake especially is our superior in terms of authority, and Danny has the resources to provide us with any help we may need."

"What kind of help?" Glasses asked.

"That's classified Order business," she told him, causing him to look down at the ground angrily.

The bushy-haired girl sighed. "Honestly, you lot are so rude. I'm Hermione Granger," she told them kindly. "She's Ginny, the twins are Fred and George - don't ask which of them is whom, they'll tell you lies - and the two boys are Ron and Harry."

Danny struggled to keep up with the names as she pointed to each respective person. He'd especially have trouble with twins; he'd once spent most of middle school believing that a set of identical twins were just one person, until the promotion ceremony in eighth grade when he'd seen them side by side for the first time. Tucker never let him live it down.

Jake fixated his gaze on Glasses - Harry. "You're the Potter guy?" At the nod given to him, he continued, "Great, I'm basically your bodyguard."

"What?" Harry Potter asked, staring at him blankly.

Jake grinned. "Y'know, big strong dragon bodyguard! Ya boy's got some mad skills! You're lookin' at the one and only Am-Drag, mad playa Jake-"

Danny cut him off, however enjoyable it was to see the wizard's expression become more confused by the second. "I think they get the picture, Long."

Hermione gasped, bounding forward. "Oh! You're the dragon? A Draco?"

Jake blinked, former bravado disappearing briefly. "Uh…"

"I've read all about you," she babbled. "Is it true that Draco Island is completely warded against anyone who isn't your race? And this is your human form, right? I haven't found many books on your kind being shapeshifters, so I'd love if you could tell me about it - how do you transform, exactly? Is all of your body part-"

"Woah, reel it in, sis," Jake laughed, holding a hand up. "I just used a Portkey, nearly went deaf from a painting, and had to look at house elf heads. Give me a break."

Hermione took a step back. "Oh, yes, I'm so sorry. Aren't the heads awful? I'd imagine someone of your standing would be a little cautious of the heads. Wizards are horrid about using elves, in my opinion, I even-"

"No," Ron groaned, "you got her started on SPEW again. 'Mione, The house elves are fine with servitute-"

"Only because they've been forced into it!" Hermione protested heatedly.

"Mate," Ron told Jake, "walk away while you still can."

"Oh, no." Jake stretched his arms behind his head. "Tell me more. SPEW? Is it like a campaign for house elf rights?"

Hermione nodded eagerly. "Yes, I made badges and everything! I like to sew them clothes, you see, because-"

"They can only be free if given clothes?" Jake finished. He turned to Danny. "I like her."

Danny laughed. He met eyes with Harry, who had been watching the exchange quietly. The boy's eyes were an emerald green - not as green as Phantom's, who looked like they could burn a hole through anything if they stared hard enough - and his bangs were just able to cover a scar reminiscent to a bolt of lightning. Danny was reminded of the electricity from the Portal and had to suppress a shudder; just as he was about to turn away from Harry's stare, the wizard spoke.

"Are you really a ghost?"

Automatically, Danny replied, "Half-ghost," but realized that these kids probably didn't know what it meant. "I'm, like, stuck between the living and the dead," he elaborated. "Shocked by a ghost portal, so all the ectoenergy merged with me. I have a ghost form."

Harry nodded. "I thought ghosts were translucent and couldn't really touch anything, that's all. But if you have a ghost form too-"

"Well, I'm corporeal," Danny told him, "so I'm still different. Actually, all muggle ghosts are like that - tangible. You're thinking of wizard ghosts."

"Oh…"

This was going to be a long year. So far, it seemed that Hermione was the only one who had done research, and she and Jake were already discussing house elves together with a passion.

Why did Danny think this would be a good idea again?

Oh, right. He hadn't.

The wall still looked inviting.

Jake decided that Hermione did too much research.

Don't take him wrong. He appreciated her views on house elves and various other magical issues, like the way goblins, giants, and werewolves were treated by the wizard community, a group of people who just seemed to forget the fact that dragons still existed and now held jurisdiction over them once more. He learned a lot about feral dragons and the illegal selling of them through wizard black markets, and was shocked to know about the dragon kept down in Gringotts Bank that somehow hadn't really been known about. He remembered goblins being Independent, but it was still against the law to keep other species like that.

Oh, boy, the Council's gonna love this.

However, it did get to the point where discussions on magical issues ended up turning into an endless interview with Jake. The questions had started off innocently enough (what's it like being a magical protector, how does the Dragon Council keep track of everything, what do you do in your spare time that doesn't have to do with being a dragon?), but gradually slipped into a place that made Jake, frankly, quite uncomfortable.

"Where do your clothes go when you transform?"

"Do dragons give birth in their human or reptilian forms?"

"I heard somewhere that a dragon's powers developed fully after they lost their virginity-"

"Yo!" Jake held up his hands. "No more! None of that! Gross!"

Hermione stopped. They sat in Jake and Danny's room upstairs, a small guest room with two twin beds that creaked under their weight. Jake was in the middle of filling out a report to send back to New York, which would reach Fu Dog and allow him to send it to the Dragon Council. It spoke mostly of the Order's efforts (the meetings had been dull, in Jake's opinion, with little talk of just how severe the war was getting; oh, Voldemort had murdered a few people here in there, but they didn't seem to be doing anything about it except talk about a weapon and what it could mean for Hogwarts and Harry Potter), and Jake had thrown in some dirt about house elves, the issue on feral dragons, and just how messed up everything had become ever since they'd been registered as Independent. He may have attacked the English Dragon on the matter, since he was supposed to have at least a vague idea of what was happening. Oh, and a few sentences on how much he wanted to go back home.

Danny was on the floor texting his friends, snickering to himself every once in a while. His phone had been near taken apart by an excited Arthur, who wanted to understand just why it worked so well in magical environments. Now that conversation had been painful to watch.

"I'm just curious, is all," Hermione said defensively.

Ah, shit, now he'd offended her. "Look," Jake soothed, "I'm loving the attention, really, but I don't know all the answers to those questions. And some of them are a little weird for you to ask."

Hermione ducked her head. "Hmm. I suppose so. I'm sorry, Jake. I just get excited."

"You've hurt her feelings, Jacob," Danny sang from his spot on the floor. Jake flipped him off.

A knock on the door. Ron stuck his head inside the room. "Mum wants you to come down for dinner." He scowled at Hermione's place across from Jake, who was glaring at the pile of papers he still had to fill out.

"Thank God." Jake dumped the reports to the side, then stood up to stretch out his cramping limbs. "Man, I'm ready for bed. How long have we been here?"

"It's been, like, two days," Danny said from his spot on the floor. He turned off his phone and jumped up, holding up his hand to Ron on the way out. "High five? No? Right. See you guys downstairs."

Jake shook his head at Danny's retreating back. "That was so painful to watch, man, so painful. You gotta give the guy his high fives, he's already nihilistic enough as it is."

Ron rolled his eyes. He hadn't gotten along as well with the two representatives as the others, opting to stay by Harry's side, who had also distanced himself. Apart from the occasional jealous look as Jake and Danny went into the dining room for another Order meeting, no one really knew what he had against them.

Hermione was, evidently, also fed up. "You're all awful at making friends," she announced before making her way out as well, followed by Jake, who sent a cheeky grin at Ron.

"Stealin' your girl," he joked, reveling in the way Ron's brows furrowed in outrage.

Dinner was as delicious as ever - Jake had decided he loved Molly's cooking from the first bite inside Grimmauld Place. The thought of it being cooked by a wizard was comforting, something he much preferred to Kreacher the house elf serving them. The elf was rude, but so was Sirius to him, and the servitude was clearly something neither of them wanted. As much as Jake hated it, he understood why Kreacher wasn't able to be set free due to him knowing too much about the Order. The ties the Black family had to Voldemort were something Kreacher was well aware of, even loyal to, and the risk of exposure was too great.

The twins got yelled again for using magic to set the table, as had become custom, and Harry was up to his usual business of getting info out of the adults about the Order. Danny reached for the coffee like the heathen he was, and Jake himself bathed in the attention given to him about his dragon nature. It was especially entertaining to see the wizards try to come up with ways he wasn't technically in charge of them.

Jokes on all of you! Jake thought smugly. To be Protected means to have a boss!

Ginny was nice - she didn't ask too many questions and treated him with a level of respect, but still spoke to him as if they were equals, so Jake felt like he could talk to her comfortably enough. She was his age, too, so the two of them bonded over being the youngest ones in the group. Danny kept joking about them going on a "wizard date," to which Jake replied that she very clearly had a crush on Harry and anyone who couldn't see it was a dumbass. Besides, he had Rose.

Harry and Danny, on the other hand, got alone surprisingly well. They both shared the same dry humor, and Harry had seemed the most interested when Danny had demonstrated his powers to everyone else for the first time. From what Jake could tell, they didn't talk much about personal things - he suspected the only reason Danny had managed to open up to Jake was because the dragon kept actively trying to be social - but both Harry and Danny liked to chat about Hogwarts and wonders of the new wizarding world both of them hadn't grown up in. It was good for Danny to talk to someone who had been just as clueless as he. (It was strange to think that Hermione was muggleborn as well. She seemed to know more about the magical community than Jake did.)

And then there were the twins. Well, they weren't so bad once you got around the way they kept telling you the wrong names to call them.

"Jacob here is a prankster!" Fred announced while waving his knife around, a piece of steak on the tip.

"We've heard great stories of him and the Dragon Council," George added cheerfully.

Jake laughed. "Oh, man, y'all have no idea how much trouble I got into for pranking the geezers in the Council. Got suspended for a week."

Hermione gasped as if that were a fate worse than death. "Jake! That was irresponsible!"

"So I've been told. But it was so worth it. Anyway, it was on purpose."

"Why would you lose your powers on purpose?" Hermione screeched, absolutely horrified.

"Wait, what?" Ron asked. "What do you mean, you lost your powers?"

Jake took the time to recount the way he'd decided to take a break from being the American Dragon, the removal of his chi energy which allowed him to transform, and the fiasco that followed. "I still feel kinda bad for my sister," he snickered, "but at least she knows now not to dismiss her duties as easy. I'll bet she's super stressed at the moment too. Hopefully America won't be in too bad of shape when I get back."

"It seems you've had your share of adventures," Remus Lupin commented. "Though I do think we need to discuss exactly how your guarding of Hogwarts will work."

This again? Jake resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knew what he was going to do. Wasn't that enough?

"Professor Dumbledore talked about us trying to keep connected to the students in the school," Danny said nervously, clutching his mug of coffee tightly. "Watch out for danger and stuff. Observe classes, too."

"Y'all better be on your best behavior," Jake told them lightly. "Everything you do gets reported back to the dragons. Uh, Dracos. Whatever. Point is, now that you're back on our radar, you're gonna have to go through some major changes. Starting with the selling of feral dragons."

The atmosphere tensed around the table. "Gringotts Bank is run by goblins," Arthur started.

"Yeah, but…" Jake leaned back. "You guys are paying them, aren't you?" No answer. He sighed. "Look. I can deal with goblins. I do it several times a week. But you need to get word out about the laws of the Council. Y'all have been flyin' solo for generations now, but now that you've reached out, we're gonna need to get you back in the swing of things. That includes reaching out to your English Dragon." He paused for a moment, noting the tight lips, ignoring Danny slurping on his coffee religiously. He grinned. "But, hey! We can do that later. I say we spend the next few days enjoying our summer, then we can go buy school materials, and it's off to Hogwarts!"

"And geometry," Danny added under his breath.

"Hey, now." Jake wagged his finger at the ghost. "We don't talk about math just yet."

"What kind of classes will you be observing?" Ginny asked. "Is it only for your age group, or…"

Danny shrugged. "Albus was pretty vague on that. As long as we watch at least three different classes a day, we'll be okay."

"Three whole classes?" Arthur inquired. "Or can you move from class to class at any time you choose?"

Danny frowned. "Uh… no idea. Jake, help me out?"

"Right, Casper," Jake said. "I guess it could be three whole classes or periods, as in the time we need to watch, but there are a lot of lessons going on at once, so we could probably get away with jumping from room to room within a single period. I guess." He took a bite out of his chicken, which had been previously untouched. "We can just ask Bumblebee if we're not that sure."

"I wonder who'll be the next Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Hermione mused.

"Think they managed to hire someone?" Ron asked around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"Not for very long," Harry cackled.

Molly looked like she wanted to object to the morbid comment, while Sirius began to laugh loudly.

"Is there really a curse?" Danny asked curiously.

Ron nodded. "Yeah, the rumor is that Voldemort put a curse on the position. Any teacher will be gone by the end of the year."

"Snape's been trying to get the spot for years," Harry added. "Say, do you think if he were to take it, he'd end up leaving Hogwarts, too? Or just go back to being the Potions professor?"

"Now that's a thought," Ron laughed.

Discussing which teachers will make it to the end of the year, Jake thought. Maybe Hogwarts ain't as different as I first thought.

He laughed. Yeah, right.

"You okay, Dragon Breath?" Danny snorted.

Jake huffed. "What, a guy can't laugh?"

"That was a really belated laugh."

"Yeah, like you're still working on dying?"

Danny cried in mock outrage, and Fred and George howled with laughter.

"Oh, I like this one!" Fred - it might've been George - cried.

Dinner passed by smoothly; Jake and Danny helped out with the dishes, then both retreated to their rooms, where they waited for the rest of the house to fall asleep before discussing the year. Tomorrow everyone would go to Diagon Alley to get the rest of the school supplies, wait another day or so, and then it was off to Hogwarts again. They'd need to be alert, have a system on how things would operate, and figure out a way to report back to the Ghost Zone - Clockwork hadn't shown up yet, so things must have been going smoothly, and Amity Park didn't have any horrible accidents yet - but now that things were finally being set into motion, both boys needed to be ready for what was to come.

"A whole year," Jake said softly so as to not wake anyone up. "We gotta do this for a year."

Danny smiled at him, knowing Jake could see him even in the darkness of the room thanks to his enhanced eyesight. "You only live once, right?"

"Well." A beat. "Dunno how that'd apply to you."

Danny's laughter was one of the last things Jake heard before exhaustion swept over him and he finally fell asleep.

going over old chapters have been really beneficial for new ideas and making sure i don't have any continuation errors. glad i decided to do this

hope everyone's been havin a good day!