They figured they would broach the subject of the wards with Hermione that day after one of the few classes she didn't have with Ron or Harry - Ancient Runes - maybe walk with her to her next class as they inconspicuously talked to her about it, "All subtle-like," as Jake described it. As it was, they didn't have to look long for the witch, running into her as they walked into the Great Hall late for breakfast. The room was already full of people, much of the food eaten, but the two boys were fast eaters, anyway.

"Woah-" Danny grabbed Jake's arm as Hermione came running up to them, stopping the dragon from bumping into her while he seemed lost in thought. "What's up, 'Mione?"

"Jake, Danny," she greeted, "thank Merlin, I was just looking for you."

"Why, what's happen-"

She cut Jake off by shoving a paper in his face. "I don't have time to talk now, just make sure to meet us at this time and please, don't tell anyone, it's kind of a more... quiet matter."

Jake blinked but took the paper, and the two boys barely had time to say goodbye before she was off again, throwing a "Nice to see you!" over her shoulder as she rushed out of the Great Hall.

"What was that all about?" Danny wondered aloud.

"She's scheming, is what," a voice said from behind them. They turned to see Ron and Harry making their way out of the cafeteria as well. Ron, who had spoken before, gave them a rare smile. "Harry doesn't think it's a good idea, and frankly I don't want to involve you either, but she can be very persuasive, so."

Jake let out a frustrated sigh. "What are you talking about?"

"Just read the paper," Harry said tiredly and followed Ron on his way out.

The dragon looked down at the message Hermione had scrawled out, raising his brows as he read. He handed it over to Danny. "Huh."

Meet us by the gardens before lunch. Want to discuss learning opportunities. It's behind Umbridge's back so keep quiet about it. -Hermione

Danny smiled a little. "So secretive. I wonder what it is?"

Jake yawned and turned back to the Gryffindor table they were originally heading towards. "Dunno. Don't really care. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

They piled their plates high with food, Jake seeming to find great joy in eating as many pastries as possible ("You know, I'm technically supposed to be on a diet, at least at home," he said, "since World Dragons need to be at the top of their health. So this is, like, a really nice bit of rebellion."). The students sitting at the table greeted them warmly and immediately joined them in a conversation about the latest potions assignments ("Snape's out to kill me, I'm sure," Seamus groaned).

Neville Longbottom was there as well, grinning shyly as Danny asked him how his classes were going. "I'm doing better than I expected, and Herbology is surely going to get me a good score on the OWLs. Though I do wish they'd let up on the homework."

"God, same," Danny groaned, thinking back to the unfinished chemistry homework he had sitting on his bed. Trying to homeschool himself was a hundred times worse than sitting in a stuffy classroom, what with his focusing issues, and there were plenty of distractions at Hogwarts, that was for sure.

"Are you two planning on doing more in the classes?" A seventh year asked them.

"Wha' y'mean?," Jake asked around a mouthful of pastry. He was eating like he had just spent two weeks without food in the desert and had just rejoined civilization. Danny snorted and pushed a napkin in his direction. He swallowed and asked again: "What do you mean?"

"It's just," she said, "I overheard McGonagall talking to one of the professors about you two telling us about your worlds and culture. Dragons and the like, and the ghosts as well, of course. It's all very interesting-"

"Aw, c'mon, I'm sure they have their own work to worry about," a student sitting next to her cut in.

Danny waved him off. "It's fine, we're technically supposed to do that anyway. Yeah, we kinda slacked off on it, huh?" He rubbed his neck subconsciously. "The truth is, we don't really have any set instructions on what to do here."

"More like, make friends and don't burn down the school," Jake piped up.

"You've been struggling on that front, huh? Mister "Watch How Far I Can Toss A Fireball?" Danny grinned under Jake's glower.

"Oh, shut up, Casper."

"Look," Danny said to the students, "we're an open book." Ha. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask. And if we see an opening in the classes, then absolutely we can tell you some stuff."

"Is it true the Dracos live on a hidden island?" A small kid piped up, looking at Jake in awe.

The fourteen-year-old put down the cup of juice he had been inhaling. "Yeah, sorta. It's hidden, like only dragons - uh, Dracos - and some other special peeps appointed by the council can get to it, but we don't all live there. I was raised in New York."

"So there are communities for Dracos in the human world?"

"Uh." Jake glanced sideways at Danny, who shrugged. It was up to him how much he wanted to say, how much he wanted to trust them. "Not really? Not like in here. We live around nonmagicals. Uh, muggles. We have a human form, so it's super easy to blend in. Wow, y'all really don't know a lot about us, huh?"

Danny supposed he was a little surprised at the fact that there was so little known about Jake's species; then again, the wizards were Independent, so that the Dragon Council would never feel obligated to check up on them and otherwise act as a sort of protector like with other magical creatures. But from what he'd gathered staying in Hogwarts, they seemed cut off from pretty much anyone that wasn't their own, muggles included. They had a whole class for muggle studies, for Ancient's sake. He was a little disconcerted that they would spend so much time learning about the functions of an iron, but at the same time, he had to concede it was at least a little bit funny.

"I think that's why they're asking you to teach us," the seventh year who had originally brought up the question pointed out.

"...Right," Jake was saying as the bell began to ring; all around them, the students stood up from their desks to get to their first period class, some waving goodbye to the halfa and dragon quickly shoving the remainder of their food in their mouths before it magically disappeared.

As they made their way out of the Great Hall, Danny turned to Jake and asked, "So what was it that you were thinking before we got here?"

"Huh?"

"Dude, I had to basically stop you from running into Hermione, you were so zoned out."

"Oh." Jake ran his fingers through his spiked hair, something Danny was recognizing to be a nervous habit of his. "I was just… thinking."

"No shit? Really?"

A slight smile graced Jake's lips and he bumped his shoulders against Danny. "It's about the book Hermione was looking at," he confessed. "The one about the - the Huntsclan."

"Ah."

"Dark shit to be thinking about at eight in the morning, huh?"

Danny recognized the tone under his attempted humor. "You don't have to read it."

"Yeah, I know, everyone always tells me to distance myself from Huntsclan stuff. Apparently I experienced a 'traumatic event' and need to 'let myself process my emotions and heal,'" Jake said, using air quotes. "But like, I'm really curious? Like, so curious. And I really wanna know what the hell Umbridge was doin' with that book, y'know?"

Danny sighed, looking up at the ceiling of the hallway they walked aimlessly down. "Same, I guess."

The school was so big - the amount of rooms and hallways and high ceilings was staggering, and it was a wonder they managed to familiarize themselves with most of it. Sometimes Danny thought he'd get lost in the castle and never find a way out. Never find a way home.

Jake's scales really did work like armor; they were nearly impossible to penetrate and any time Danny tried to punch it, the shock just traveled uncomfortably back into his own arm. Ideally, he would have used the dragon's larger body to his advantage since it was a bigger target, if Jake didn't have the incredibly annoying ability to shapeshift quickly into his smaller, human form every time he tried to land a hit.

Danny soared as high as he could with the sparring room's ceilings and fired a few shards of ghostly ice at the dragon below him, taking care not to use too much ectoplasm after the last incident - they still didn't know the full effects of ecto on magical armor - then braced himself as Jake suddenly launched himself up, fire in his eyes. Danny ducked at the last second, using a little intangibility just in case, and dove back to the ground. He used the second of being in Jake's blind spot to grab his tail and leg and touch it to the ground, where he then encased it in a block of ice.

Before Danny could pin him completely, however, Jake erupted into flames and switched back to human form and yanked his much smaller foot out of the ice with ease.

Danny groaned. "Stop doing that!"

"Most useful trick I've learned," Jake laughed. "It's hard to pin me down."

"Oh yeah? So am I," Danny retorted when Jake rushed at him and he turned intangible at the last moment, leaving the boy to stumble a little as he fell through his opponent. Before Danny could move, however, he felt something snake around his feet and yank, sending him sprawling to the floor. Jake was on him in a moment, pinning his body to the ground as he pressed on his shoulder.

Danny's mind went blank as Jake grinned at him, their faces only inches apart - for some reason, he didn't think to just go intangible, and the match was over as Jake touched a claw to his throat and said, "Dead, twice-over. I win."

Danny let out a breath, his head falling back to the floor of the sparring room while Jake stood up. He accepted the boy's hand, still transformed into one with claws and scales, allowing himself to be pulled up.

"Almost had me there, though," Jake remarked cheerfully, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He transformed his hand back to normal and used it to run a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes. Confusion flickered in his eyes as he looked at Danny. "You alright there, pal?"

Danny blinked. "Uh, yeah." He rubbed his eyes. "Just tired, I think. Good job, I'll, uh. Get changed. Then we can go meet up with the others. It's almost that time anyway."

"'Kay…" Danny heard Jake trail off behind him as he made his way to the main room for fresh clothing, transforming back into Fenton as he went along. As he picked out a soft shirt and pants to put on, he tried not to think about the way Jake kept having him freeze up anytime he got too close. The friendly touches on his shoulders, hands, and back were becoming more frequent as their bond strengthened and Danny wasn't sure why it made him both giddy and nervous at the same time. Not to mention it made sparring all that much harder, unable to really concentrate as hard on blocking the other boy's attacks when he was too distracted by the way his arms moved.

Jake snorted, bringing Danny out of his pondering. "How many NASA shirts do you have?"

Danny glanced down at the NASA-print shirt he held in his arms, then back at his friend, who wore an infuriating smirk as he picked out his own fresh set of clothes. "I'm sorry," Danny snarked, "who's the one who unironically says shit like 'I'm a skater boy?'"

"Those are not the same thing, and it's totally ironic-"

"Uh huh." Danny pushed past him to the bathrooms. "Let's just get ready to go, Dragon Boy."

"Dragon Boy, huh?" Jake mused, a bit of amusement in his voice. "Haven't heard that one in a bit."

Danny would have asked what he meant, but there were places they had to be, so he opted to just get changed as soon as possible before they were late.

Not that Hermione had actually given them an exact time, just "before lunch." They decided to get to the gardens just after classes ended, since there was about a five-minute window in between that period and when lunchtime officially started, though students didn't typically get to the Great Hall till later.

The Hogwarts gardens connected to the greenhouse, where Herbology lessons were held. Danny wasn't quite sure who took care of the flora, exactly, but students always took great care walking around that area so as not to disturb any particularly dangerous plants. Because they couldn't have a separate, locked area for growing the poisonous flowers, apparently.

Hermione was already there when they arrived, standing a bit impatiently by one of the giant pumpkins. She visibly relaxed as she caught sight of the two boys. Jake waved at her, a grin on his face.

"Hey," Danny greeted, "what's up?"

Hermione bit her lip, looked around as if to see if anyone was watching - and someone very well could be, what with how uptight Umbridge had been recently. "I had an idea," she began, beginning to walk down the path of the garden, back where they had come from. As Danny and Jake followed, she continued, "it's got to do with Umbridge."

"Well, spit it out," Jake egged her on, eyes sparking mischievously at the High Inquisitor's name.

"We - well, mostly me, Ron's on board but Harry's a little skeptical - want to start a club," she said, excitement tinting her voice. "Since, well, DADA is loads of rubbish, right? Umbridge hasn't been teaching us anything, and she's absolutely awful to the students."

"Don't we know it," Danny groaned. "I really thought a class about defending against the dark arts would be more than just taking notes."

"It should be!" Hermione whirled around and stopped them in their tracks. They stood just outside a door into the school. "That's what it used to be like. We'd practice spells, they'd teach us useful stuff, but now the Ministry isn't taking any threats seriously and sent that… that toad- " She stopped herself with a huff. "Anyway, we were thinking of starting a club for actual defense. It'll have to be secret, of course, there's no way Umbridge would allow it. And Harry would be the teacher."

Jake raised his brows. "Harry ?"

They didn't really see Harry in action much, Danny supposed, but he still gave off an air of scrawny, angry fifteen-year-old who wants to dismantle the government more than a teacher for a club on self defense. But, hey, maybe he was basing the kid too much off of him or Jake. The two of them certainly weren't teachers by any means, but they definitely knew how to throw a punch.

"He's been through more than many students here, and is brilliant at self defense," Hermione defended. "He's too modest about it, but I think he could do it."

"So where do we come in?" Danny found himself asking.

Hermione shot him a grin full of uncharacteristic mischief. "We were thinking you two could help out. I know you two can fight, and you're technically here on a mission to spread your gifts, right? Having a half-ghost and a dragon on our side wouldn't hurt, plus it would get you more popularity among the students, at least those not on Umbridge's side."

"We're on missions to spread our gifts or whatever, yeah," Jake interjected. "But we aren't supposed to go behind any backs to do it."

Danny stared at him. "Seriously? You're taking Umbridge's side?"

Jake snorted. "Nah. I'm messin' with ya. Sounds fun, I'm in."

Hermione blinked in surprise. "Really? I mean, I'm glad, but I wouldn't want you in any trouble-"

"We'll do it," Danny promised. "Let us know when and where to meet up, we'll be there."

"I'll let you know when the first meeting is!" Hermione smiled brightly at them. "Thank you so much. Listen, I've gotta go, Harry and Ron are waiting for me at lunch - unless you're joining us?"

"Actually," Jake said suddenly, poking Danny's arm, "we were thinking of talking to you about something."

"Hm? Oh. " Danny nearly facepalmed. That was the whole point of them trying to get in touch with her since this morning, wasn't it? They needed to talk to her about the wards.

In truth, he was still nervous about asking for help. Hell, he was nervous about going with Hermione's plan with the club - the little anxious voice inside him was telling him to fly away from everyone, don't get too close. Ghosts don't need friends.

But he did - he really did, and ignoring his problems weren't going to make them go away. It was time to take Jake's route for once, and actually do something about the friends they had made here. Besides, Hermione was smart as hell, and he had no doubt she'd be able to help them out if she really wanted to.

Her intelligence makes it easy to double cross you as well, a voice whispered in Danny's mind, and he pushed away in favor of saying, "meet us by the Room of Requirement - seventh floor, by an ugly tapestry of this guy-"

"Barnabus the Barmy," Jake said.

"-once you've finished eating?" Danny finished, wondering how the hell Jake had remembered the name of the tapestry (and who had even told him in the first place).

"We've got pop tarts, don't worry about us skipping," Jake chimed in as she opened her mouth again, presumably to invite them to sit with the rest of the wizards.

Hermione looked at them both, curiosity sparking in her brown eyes, then nodded. "Sure. I'm assuming you don't want me to let anyone else know?"

"Yeah," Danny confessed sheepishly.

"I'll meet you there, then." With a wave, she was off.

Jake rapped his knuckles against Danny's head. "See? Wasn't so bad."

But Danny had a bad feeling. Maybe it was his anxiety talking - maybe he could stand to be cautious for just a little longer.

Hermione was acting… shifty, to say the least, all throughout lunch. She didn't meet Harry or Ron's eyes, didn't talk as much about the new schoolwork as they'd expected, and seemed distracted to the point where she almost used her cup of pumpkin juice as gravy over the meat.

It wasn't necessarily frustrating since Harry had Ron to talk to as well. Odd and concerning? Yeah, a little.

"Alright, spill," Harry finally burst when Hermione only replied to their questions on the latest essay with an mhm or no, totally . "What happened with Danny and Jake?"

"Nothing," Hermione said quickly, "I mean, I told them about the meeting times, and then we were on our way." A bit of guilt flashed in her eyes.

Ron had caught it too. "Mm? Sure," he said with his mouth full. Crumbs lined his lips. Hermione rolled her eyes and pressed a napkin against his mouth, forcefully wiping it clean. "Oi!"

"You're impossible," she complained.

"And you're hiding something," Harry cut in, not in the mood to let them bicker. "Come on, what did they say?"

Hermione stared at him. "Nothing happened, Harry, so you can stop acting all concerned. Honestly, it's like the moment you turn your backs to the two you immediately assume they're going to jump you."

Harry threw his hands up. "I do not!"

Hermione gave him a look, and Ron, the traitor, followed suit.

Harry sighed. "Alright, maybe Danny's a little quiet and suspicious, but that's it. I don't hate them, they're nice enough."

"That's not what you said last night," Ron piped up, the traitor, and Hermione whirled around to look at him.

"What did he say?" she demanded.

Ron gave Harry a pointed look, who groaned dramatically, tossing his fork on the plate. "Nothing. It's just, it's a little odd how they haven't really told us much about their lives, isn't it?"

"They've told us plenty, what do you mean?" Hermione argued.

"We don't know where the Isle of Draco is."

"Neither does Jake. It's hidden."

"So? That's not suspicious? And look at Danny - I mean, he's right dead, sure, but he can blend in so well - they both can. It's not odd to you how we didn't know much about them at all?" Harry let out a breath. "Besides, I feel like they're watching me."

"Why would they do that?" Ron asked.

"Well, lately it's let up, but Danny, I swear, he's just. Always lurking, I feel. I don't know. He makes my skin crawl just a bit." Harry sighed again. "I feel bad saying it because they are nice, and I consider them my friends, but it's just weird. They're kinda… preoccupied."

Hermione looked a little guilty again.

"'Mione," Ron said.

She looked back at her food. "Hopefully nothing after today," she muttered, then stood up abruptly. "I've gotta go."

"Where?" Ron began to stand up as well. "We'll go with-"

"No!" Hermione yelped, then clamped her mouth shut. "No, it's just some studying I forgot to do, you two finish your meals. Lunch is almost over, I'll see you next period." Before they could say anything, she was gone.

Ron rolled his eyes at Harry. "She's nuts."

Harry just grunted, then stuck another piece of meat in his mouth. Whatever the witch was doing, they could question her about it later.

"Oh, Merlin's Beard," Hermione moaned, leaning her head in her hands.

"Yeah," Jake said.

"And I'm the first one you've told?"

"Pretty much," Danny answered, rubbing the back of his neck.

Hermione bit her lip in concentration, looking at the two boys in front of her. They sat on the bed made for Jake, side by side, while she sat on Danny's. The dorm room they had been given was bigger than she had expected, complete with a small kitchen - or rather, cupboards full of what she guessed was food - as well as a minifridge.

It took them a while to settle down and actually talk about the issue at hand. Jake was more fidgety than normal and Danny just looked uncomfortable, but he always sort of did, so that wasn't really a surprise, especially since they let her into the actual room they were staying in and didn't just meet up somewhere else. The two had been more elusive the past few weeks and Hermione was beginning to worry it was because of something she or the others had done, but now that the full story was laid out - well, she supposed it wasn't the full story, they didn't seem the type to be so open - she could see why they had been more distant lately.

"So to reiterate," Hermione said, "Jake, you can't get through, but Danny, you can."

"We think I might be able to with practice," Jake corrected. "But we don't know how much we wanna try it and it does mess with my chi a bit, which isn't exactly healthy."

"And it's got an effect on me, too, but yeah, I can push through," Danny said.

Hermione blew a strand of hair out of her face. "This is… this is big."

"Yeah, that's why we've been researching-"

"No, you don't understand," she cut Jake off. "For a protection spell of that sort, you'd need a lot of power. It doesn't look like whoever made it had enough to make it fully functional, but it's still a lot. They knew what they were doing, which means they've been watching you, getting information on you before you got here, and they could still be doing so."

The two boys looked alarmed, like they hadn't really thought about being watched outside of Hogwarts. "We figured whoever set them up could be in the castle, which was why we didn't talk about this till now," Danny confessed. "To be honest, we have no idea who we can trust."

"You can trust me," Hermione said firmly. She was enormously glad they had come to her for help instead of the professors - now that Umbridge was High Inquisitor, she had no idea what the professors were supposed to report due to the Ministry interfering. They were in unknown waters. "Although I will say your usual routine of researching in the library won't work. You're way too obvious. I figured something was up because of all the books you were leaving around."

"But you were only half right," Jake said with a self-satisfied grin.

Hermione snorted. "Yes, but you're still idiots for doing all of that so in the open." If she was being honest with herself, she was a little disgruntled at being wrong, no matter how much so. They were being ridiculously careless, especially if their captor was in the school with them, but them still getting away with it when usually she prided herself on being able to figure out people's secrets showed that their impulsiveness was paired with insane amounts of luck.

"First off," she told them now, "You'll need a circle of people you can trust. The club we're putting together will give you that - we're all sort of spitting in the face of authority with it, aren't we? Second-" an excited grin found itself on her face, "-If you're going to keep on researching, let me help. I know a lot about protection wards, and I'm friends with Harry, who's brilliant with defense. We're the best you're going to get in the help department. Third," she said loudly as Danny's mouth opened to cut her off, "did you two check to see if the wards spanned the whole school? Or just that one area?"

"It goes along the cliffs close to the village," Jake answered. "I don't know about the whole school. But we can enter the forest just fine."

Hermione nodded. "Too many wards would draw attention to the Headmaster, so I doubt it spans the whole way, or if it does, it's very loosely applied."

"You don't think Albus knows?" Danny asked, skeptical.

Hermione thought for a moment. "I think he's a good person," she said carefully. "I don't think he'd keep you here against your will, but I can't say for sure he doesn't have a hidden agenda. I can say, though, that whatever he's planning isn't evil. You can trust him."

Jake snorted at that, for reasons Hermione wasn't really sure. "You guys love your secrecy so much," he said, a surprising amount of venom in his voice. "Y'all with your Order and magic and wards and hidden agendas. You can't tell us to trust someone you yourself just said could have ulterior motives, yo."

Hermione was about to defend the headmaster - she knew the two boys had been allowed to sit in on Order meetings, had heard some of their plans, so they didn't really have a right to talk about withholding information. Especially with Harry's concerns, she thought suddenly, though a thread of guilt wormed its way into her chest at the negative feelings towards her friends.

"Just…" Danny rubbed his neck again. "Don't go telling people about this."

Hermione narrowed her eyes, catching the hidden meaning. "Danny, Ron and Harry are my friends and I'm not about to keep secrets from them. You trust me, you trust them as well."

To her surprise, it was Jake that spoke before Danny could retort. "Yeah, whatever. We'll be around them a bunch for the defense club. Don't tell the teachers, we mean."

"Sure," Danny muttered.

There was a darkness in those boys, Hermione realized, that they carried in their hearts. What it was from their pasts that made it so hard to trust people she didn't know, and to say she wasn't curious was lying to herself. But she wanted to help mend that bridge between them, between their worlds, and if it was one more thing on her plate on top of Harry's scar hurting and the Order, then so be it.

After all, she liked a challenge.

hope everyone's been safe in quarantine! chapter 11 will be up in just a bit. i also have the rest of the story outlined so updates should be a little more frequent since i'm a) stuck inside and b) have all the events i wanna put down already listed, which is great for my shitty memory lol

thanks for reading!