Hello! One last update for today's rounds. Like I said, tomorrow will have the final four chapters of this story and then next week, I head over to Hotel Paper and Ghost Gal. The week after that…probably continue with The Elevator Game and Freeze Out and then after that, The Alternate and Images. After that, I'm redoing a few of my old stories that took me freaking forever to update, so you should see those soon as well. I'm busy, busy!
Thanks to chapter ten's reviewers:
Light Dragon SunsSong, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, Straying Life, The Fuzy Llama
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon Studios. Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling.
Previously In Fiction: With Harry's memories, things are all on Danny, who's stretched emotions are put to the limit. And Jazz's knowledge of the possible future could be the very thing that leads them to big trouble.
Fiction
Chapter Ten
Chase
"Are you sure we shouldn't tell Dumbledore or someone about what happened?" Danny asked, before taking a drink of what looked like grape juice. Whatever it was, it wasn't what he thought, but it tasted delicious, just like everything else he'd tasted. He wondered how they did it.
"Don't worry about it," Jazz said, faking a smile. She tried to eat, but her nerves kept coming back. "It's nothing new. She probably did it for show."
"It's just, she went all strange and everything. I mean, more than usual that is. Started talking in this deep voice and everything. I thought she was spasing out or something," he said.
"Sounds like Lady Galadriel," Tucker said.
"Lady Galadriel? As in the Elven sorceress from the Lord of the Rings?" Jazz asked.
"Duh," he groaned, shoving a spoonful of potatoes into his mouth.
"So you like The Lord of the Rings, which is like fifty times more difficult to read, but you can't read Harry Potter?" she asked.
"It's not possible to like both of them," he argued.
"Is too, I do," she pointed out.
"Yeah, well, you're weird," he said.
"You can too like both of them."
"Not."
"Yeah."
"Not."
"Yeah."
"Why are we arguing about this?" Danny asked, shaking his head.
Jazz narrowed her eyes at Tucker, but sighed in defeat. She looked at her watch, her eyes widening. "Ten…nine…" she started.
"What are you doing?" Danny asked.
"Counting down," she replied shortly. "Five…four…"
"Thanks captain obvious, we meant what you were counting down for," Tucker asked.
She ignored him. "Two…one!" she said. "It's seven."
"What's so special about sev—ow!" Danny cried. A sharp pain shot through his head. "Son of a-"
Jazz placed a hand over his mouth before he finished. He put a hand to his head, closing his eyes and pulling away. His mind seemed more distant, Harry's memories coming first.
"That," she replied. "Dumbledore was right. They run on a schedule."
"It makes me feel a whole lot better too," Danny said sarcastically.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Swell. My head only feels like it's ready to explode, but other than that, I'm just chipper," he snapped.
"Sorry. But Reader just-"
"Is annoying? I swear as soon as we get home, she's going in the Fenton Thermos."
"What's the Fenton Thermos?" someone asked.
They jumped and turned around. Neville Longbottom stared around, taking a seat beside Jazz, who of course, he thought was Hermione.
Jazz held a hand to her thumping chest. "Da—Harry, had an encounter with Professor Trelawney after class. Some bogus thing," she explained.
"Okay…Why did you quit on us anyway?" he asked her.
She pushed the brown bangs away from her face before she replied. "She just annoys me. I can not stand being around that boisterous woman any more. So, no more Divination for me."
"Are you allowed to just quit like that?"
"I'm certain. I have more to do anyway. One less subject won't hurt," she said.
Neville seemed convinced. He buttered himself a roll. "Why are you guys still in robes? You do realize it's like seven?"
"Seven…" Jazz muttered. "And at seven thirty we were…" She trailed off.
"What?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Nothing," she said, looking down.
"Don't worry, she does that all the time," Danny joked.
Neville and Tucker laughed and he received a dark glare from his sister. "Hurry up and eat before I injure you. We should go visit Hagrid after we're done."
"Hagrid?" Tucker asked.
Jazz kicked him underneath the table so Neville wouldn't see.
"Ow! What was that for?" he asked, not getting the hint.
She sighed. "Are you done or not?"
"Yeah, yeah," Danny said.
"Let's go."
□□□□□□□□□
Ten minutes later, Jazz led the two boys down the hall, shaking her head in amazement. For some odd miracle, they were wearing the same outfits she remembered they had in the movie, as well as she was, and they didn't even know it.
They crossed the bridge and stepped out into the bleak, gray sunset, and started to climb down the stone steps.
"How is your head?" she asked her brother.
"Fine now. But I feel like I'm not really myself anymore," he said.
"Hey, Danny?" Tucker asked.
"What?"
"Well, you have to be half yourself cause you remember your name," he said, laughing. "It was a joke." They all three laughed. Then-
Jazz stopped laughing quickly and gasped when she heard voices.
Three boys stood between huge stone boulders, watching with binoculars down below to Hagrid's house. They were all three laughing.
"Oh great, Malfoy," Danny grumbled.
A fiery rage burned inside Jazz as she stared at the blonde haired jerk, who was laughing at who she thought was the sweetest character in the book, one of her favorites.
She knew what she had to do, but she wasn't going to follow the movie or the book. She wanted him to pay. And she knew exactly how to do that.
She jumped off the last step and began rushing towards them. Danny and Tucker, confused, followed her.
Draco heard movement behind him and turned around, to see them walking towards her. He smiled maliciously. "Ahh, come to see the show. I heard it's going-"
"You! You foul, evil, slimy little cockroach," she ranted, stepping towards him. She knew where it hurt. Without waiting another second, she kicked out with her foot and hit a sensitive spot particularly hard.
Malfoy keeled over and she showed no sympathy.
She punched him as hard as she could in the face and he fell backwards onto the stone behind him, whimpering. She whipped out Hermione's wand and pointed it to his neck, barely touching.
"Whoa, whoa," Danny exclaimed. "Ja—Hermione!"
"What do we do Malfoy?" Crabbe asked.
Jazz leaned forward so that her face was only inches from him. "You know, it's people like you that make me happy if I ever read you would die," she said. "And it's people like you that make it so fun to hit." She pulled away her wand and he looked down cautiously, but put his hands up, to shield him from her blow that wouldn't come.
He about rose up again and she pressed one foot against his knee, making it buckle, and then pressed the same foot dangerously close to another spot which she'd already injured before.
"Make my day, and go jump off a balcony," she hissed.
She leaned away and Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy rushed away before she could do any more damage. They waited until the trio had gone up the steps from where they had come, and then Tucker and Danny burst into laughter.
Jazz clapped a hand to her mouth, realizing what she had just done. "Oh my god, did I just do that?"
"That was freaking hilarious," Tucker tried to say.
"Did you see his face?" Danny asked.
"Guys, it's not funny. I just changed the book," she said, worried.
"Yeah, it is, and who cares? They should add that into the book," Tucker said.
Jazz cracked a smile. "Okay, that really felt good." They laughed again. She sighed. "Okay, that's where you're supposed to say, 'not good, brilliant," she said, pointing to Tucker.
The two boys shared confused glances.
"Never mind. Come on, we'd better get a move on," she said, already walking.
They followed her down the grassy hill, lined with steps that lead to a small, but homey little cottage. On the outside was a garden; the borders around it were huge pumpkins they'd never imagine could grow that large before. In the center of the garden was a beautiful, silvery creature with the head and wings of an eagle, and the body of a horse.
A name came to Danny's head. Buckbeak. The hippogriff that that Hagird had shown them on the first session of Care of Magical Creatures. Malfoy had been stupid, and because of that, he was in danger of being executed.
"Oh, wow, he's even prettier than I thought," Jazz said.
"You call that pret-" Tucker began.
"Unless you have a death wish, don't say a word," she warned, stopping him. He held up his hands in defense and shrugged, agreeing.
They walked past Buckbeak, who cocked his head curiously and watched them as they climbed up the steps, and Jazz pounded on the door.
"Who is this guy anyway?" Tucker whispered.
"A friend of Harry's and Hermione's and Ron's," Danny replied, whispering too.
"Oh," he said.
The door opened, and a great beast of a man stared down at them. He had very long, black and messy beard and hair, was extremely tall, and looked as if he was dangerously miserable.
"Come in, come in," he greeted, trying to sound friendly.
Danny felt a wave of guilt come over him, but he didn't feel any himself. He remembered what Dumbledore had said about emotions, and hoped he wouldn't make anything else explode.
"How are you?" Jazz and Danny asked in unison.
He didn't seem to want to answer the question. "Look at him. Beautiful thing, just to be destroyed in one quick moment." He sighed, looking around at them all.
Tucker kept staring warily at the odd, evil plant looking creature near him, the one that kept making strange noises.
Hagrid stared out the window. "Dumbledore's only coming because he wants to. Wants to stay with me…when they…Great man Dumbledore…"
"We'll stay with you too Hagrid," she said, standing up courageously.
"No, you'll do nothing of the sort. Got enough on my hands to worry about you, with all the trouble 'round. No, you just drink your tea and be off," he said. His eyes traveled around the room, and then he gasped. "I almost forgot, Ron, I think I have something for you," he said. He walked over to a mahogany shelf and brought down a pottery pitcher. He took off the lid, and pulled out a scrawny looking rat.
"Scabbers!" Jazz exclaimed for Tucker. She knew he didn't have a clue what was going on judging by the look on his face. She nodded her head towards him, and Tucker took the rodent easily. Rats hadn't bothered him. "I think that means you owe someone an apology," she said suddenly, a slight angry look in her eye.
Danny remembered that the real Ron and Hermione had always been bickering about her cat Crookshanks, and his rat Scabbers. Word had gone round that Crookshanks had eaten him, and that's what they had thought for the longest time until now.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Tucker said.
"You thought Crookshanks-" she began.
There was a whooshing noise behind them and she flipped around to see that on the table, where the milk pitcher had once been, were pieces of the drink holder, completely shattered all around.
"What was that?" Hagrid asked, looking around.
Jazz picked up a smooth on one side, bumpy on the other, green marbled stone from what was left of the pitcher. She turned it over in her hand, staring at it curiously.
Something else happened. Another rock was thrown, except for this time, it managed to hit someone.
"Ow!" Danny exclaimed, turning around, and rubbing the back of his head. He stared out the window, expecting to see whoever threw it, but instead saw three men, Albus Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, and the executioner, who was dressed like he was going to a funeral. "Hagrid," he said, kind of uneasily. Even though Harry's memories were still in his head, he still felt weird about speaking to people he didn't really know.
"You better get going," Hagrid said, coming up behind him and watching the three men descend down to his house. He was slightly pale, as if going to be sick. "If they catch you, we'll all get into trouble, especially you," he said, pointing to Danny. "Quick, go out the back." He threw a blanket over the creature inside the house.
They moved quickly, towards the back door. Figuring he wouldn't say anything, Jazz remembered a line from the third movie that Harry was supposed to say.
"Hagrid, it'll be alright," she said gently.
He nodded. "Go on," he said, desperately.
She felt her eyes burn with tears, wanting to stay with the great, vulnerable man, that she barely knew and still couldn't help but love and trust already, but she followed the boys out. She knew what she had to do.
They opened the door a crack and peered out. Dumbledore and Fudge were admiring the pumpkins and the garden and the house, their backs turned.
"Come on," she whispered.
They tiptoed down the stairs and she led them over near the humongous pumpkins, hiding behind the piles of them, their heads poking slightly over so that they could watch the adults from their position.
Fudge, now in the house, was reading something that sounded official. Danny only caught words, here and there.
Jazz watched them, shaking like mad. There was a noise behind her like a twig snapping and she whirled around.
"What?" Danny asked.
She stared at him, her blue-green eyes wide. "You?" she whispered. "I thought I just saw…never mind," she said.
"Look, I don't want to be here, especially if they're doing what I think they're doing, because I will hurl," Tucker warned.
"Alright. Go up those stairs, hurry!" she whispered.
They dodged out from behind the pumpkins and raced up the same, stone lined hill, and stopped at the top of it, where they had started out.
"I can't watch," she said, pressing her hands to her eyes. She leaned on Danny's (Harry's) shoulder, feeling a tear run down her face.
The man wearing the black clothes, carrying a large axe, walked over to Buckbeak—and completed his task.
The two boys looked away, not wanting to see any more. Jazz still had her head buried in his shoulder.
And that's when Scabbers bit Tucker's hand hard.
"Ow," he cried.
Jazz leaned up and closed her eyes. Here we go…
Tucker looked around wildly for the rodent, who he had dropped on the ground in shock. "I'm going to kill that stupid little rat," he ranted. He shoved a bloodied finger in their faces. "That's going to leave a scar. On him, I mean, but I don't care, it freaking hurts."
Danny let out a cry of pain, clutching his head. His mind suddenly cleared, allowing better thinking to process.
Jazz looked at him, concerned. "Are you okay?" He nodded, closing his eyes for a minute. "In or out?" she asked.
"Out," he said. "For now."
Tucker didn't appear to be listening, still looking around for the rat. He spotted a moving object in the grass, and began to chase after it.
"Tucker-" Danny began. He didn't seem to hear him, but Jazz grasped onto his arm anyway.
"Call him Ron," she ordered.
"Jazz, there's no one around," he said.
"There is, and there will be," she insisted. "Ron!" she called after him. She began to follow him, Danny following her, but he was way ahead.
Tucker followed the rat for a long time, pounced like a cat, and then rolled over while sitting, Scabbers clutched in his hand.
"I'll show you to bite me," he said angrily.
"Ron!" Jazz called, twenty feet away.
He looked up and suddenly his eyes became wide, staring behind them. He pointed, waving his finger around wildly.
They turned around to see a large black dog growling at them. He took off on a running start and leapt, knocking Danny to the ground.
He rolled over, feeling the dog's fur brush up against his skin, shoving the dog off of him. Instead, the dog regained balance, and bounded towards Tucker.
Tucker yelled (rather girlish) as the dog sank his teeth into his leg and began dragging him backwards, past the hill.
Jazz stopped, breathing heavily, to help Danny up, and once he was, they started chasing after Tucker and the beast, but they were miles ahead. By the time they reached the top of the hill, all they could hear was faint yells from Tucker and all they could see was a large tree at the base of the hill.
"Where'd he go?" he asked, looking around.
"There's a passageway into the tree, near the trunk," Jazz answered, eyeing the tree warily.
"So let's go get him," Danny said. He took off running, towards the tree.
"Danny! No! Wait, that's the-" Jazz said, frozen in her tracks. "Oh, no…"
He stopped, unable to hear her, about five feet away from the tree. "Jazz? Are you coming?" When she didn't answer, he stared at her curiously. "Jazz?"
Jazz looked behind him, her eyes wide, and he turned around.
There was a weird groan from the tree and it all of sudden moved. A large branch swung out and smashed into him.
He flew through the air, and the tree let go of him, and he landed hard on the ground in front of her.
"That's gonna leave a mark," he grunted. Jazz leaned down to his level, trying not to laugh, as he sat up.
He stared at the tree, which looked innocently normal now. "What, is that thing possessed?" he asked.
"No, it's the Whomping Willow. If you get close to it, it attacks you," she explained, barely being able to hold in her laughter.
"And you couldn't have found time to tell me that before I ran down there?" he asked.
"I tried!" she exclaimed, unable to hold it in any longer. "It's too bad you don't have Harry's memories right now because they would have told you so much more," she said. "Look, we need to get down there." She pointed to a weird shaped hole at the base of the tree.
"Yeah, let's do that again," he said sarcastically.
"Where's Crookshanks?" Jazz asked, looking over him.
"Can we not worry about the cat for a minute?" he asked, exasperated.
"No, Crookshanks knows how to make the tree freeze so we can get in there," she said, annoyed.
"How about we do this?" he asked, taking her arm.
"Don't you dare," Jazz warned. But already she could feel the weird tingling sensation soar through her body. "Danny, no! Remember what Dumbledore said, how your powers wear off after a while," she said. She gasped, turning around to glare at him, but instead of the face of Harry, she saw the faint outline, like a black and white picture, of a white haired, silver and black outfitted boy, with piercing, glowing green eyes.
"Don't do it," she pleaded.
"Do you want to save Tucker, or not?"
"Yeah, but-"
"The tree is evil, I know," he said.
She bit her lip. It wasn't what she was going to say, but she thought about it. If they could really not be physically touched or seen, then why would it hurt? As long as his powers didn't fade, they would be fine, right?
"Okay," she said, admitting defeat.
The image of Danny smiled, and grabbed for her arm again. She felt herself literally almost floating. They soared through the air, and she got her first taste at flying, and to her surprise, she liked it.
But her enjoyment didn't last, because soon she felt herself wrenched the other direction, as Danny barely managed to miss dodging one of the tree's branches.
She realized that even though the tree couldn't see them, it could still sense them.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, duck!" she yelled, watching as another branch launched itself towards them. They dropped lower, and then she felt herself oddly vibrating.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said, confused. "Going in the hole, one…two…three!" He dived down, and tightened his grip on her arm.
They shot through the whole, just as a large, knotted end branch, smashed into the doorway behind him.
Before his powers shorted out, he changed back to his human form, and at the same time, lost balance. He landed face first on the ground, and Jazz, who was pulled down with him, fell on top of him.
"Ow," he mumbled.
She got off of him. "I'm sorry." He could feel, even without looking at her face that she was trying hard not to laugh. "Are you okay?"
He stood up and brushed himself off. "I'm fine."
Looking around, he was confused. They were in some sort of hollow, viney space that was cold, yet damp with humidity. Tree roots sprout from the top roof.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"Underneath the Whomping Willow. It's a secret passageway, leading into the Shrieking Shack, a haunted building. That's where Si—the dog, took him," she said instead. He didn't seem to notice that she had almost slipped out who the real identity of the dog was.
"We're underground?" he asked.
"No, Danny, we're on top of the tree," she said sarcastically. "Yes, we're underground."
"Okay, chill," he told her.
"I think they went this way," she said, pointing ahead. "Yeah, look, the dust had been unsettled."
There were drag marks on the ground, leading to a ragged, crooked staircase that looked extremely dangerous.
"Come on," she urged, they started walking up the rooty and viney pathway, for a couple minutes until Danny cleared his throat thoughtfully.
"What?" she asked.
"I know you've read the book, so can you give me a little preview? Like, what happens next?"
"No," she said, shortly.
"Come on Jazz," he pleaded.
"We've already changed enough of the book, with the whole Time Turner, and me with my little encounter with Malfoy," she said, adding a bitter tone to his name.
"Yeah, but that was funny," he argued.
"But it wasn't how the book went. If I tell you what happens, I know you'll want to change it. It's what any sensible person would do."
"Yeah, but what's the worst-"
Not paying attention to where he was going, he walked straight into a low hanging branch, smacking his forehead. He fell backwards in shock.
She leaned down, overcome with laughter. "Is it possible for you to walk and talk at the same time?"
"Clearly not," he said, running a hand over his forehead.
She continued laughing, but held her hand out in offering to help him up. He took it and stood up, making sure to stay clear of the branch this time.
"Just another injury to my list," he said.
"Let's hurry, I think we're getting closer," she said.
They quickened their pace and rushed up the stairs. He saw a light ahead and when they entered into it, he saw what the Shrieking Shack was.
A rundown, two story house that creaked and groaned randomly and even seemed to sway on its own by the blowing wind.
"This way," Jazz instructed. They ran up a bunch of steps and walked into a room.
Tucker (well, Ron), sat pale faced on some sort of cot near the edge of the room. His left leg was bleeding heavily where the dog had bitten. Scabbers the rat was still there, clutched in his hands, trying to struggle free.
"Ron, are you okay?" she asked.
He pointed behind them, his eyes wide in terror. "That's not a dog! Well, it was, but it transformed into a dog!" In unison, Danny and Jazz turned around where he was pointing.
The door leading out closed, and Sirius Black stood behind it, staring at them.
I enjoyed rereading this chapter. I'm starting to wonder if I enjoy putting Danny through hell a lot more too. Ah, fun, fun to beat up your favorite character and then get mad whenever they do it in the real show even though you know you do worse.
But, it's fun. And now I'm done with a few edits! See me again tomorrow of course with the final four chapters!
Please R&R! Here's your sneak peek!
Chapter Eleven: The Lies Within
Jazz screamed, latching her hands onto Danny's arm. She knew Hermione had screamed somewhere in the book, not the movie. Besides that, Black's appearance did actually frighten her.
"I thought you'd come and help your friend. Your father would have done the same for me," Sirius said, staring at who he thought was Harry. "Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful…it will make everything much easier…"
Jazz stepped in front of him this time, and searched her mind for movie lines or book lines. "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too."
"Oh, thanks," Tucker said. She silenced him with a look.
"Only one will die tonight," Sirius said, stepping towards them.
She remembered Harry was supposed to say something and do something here, but Danny didn't know that. What was she supposed to say?
"And…what are you going to do? M-murder us like you murdered all those other people?" she managed to stammer.
Black laughed, a harsh sound. "Foolish girl. None of you will die tonight."
Lateraina Wolf