That night in the Gryffindor Common Room, the only topic going round was the new ghost who had chased Peeves that day. The white-haired boy who had flown off after confronting the poltergeist. Students talked about him as the portrait hole opened and shut as Harry walked through and stopped in his tracks as everyone stopped talking and looked at the person behind him. Gulping, he looked at Danny who shrugged and brought his hand to the back of his neck and rubbed it as they moved forward again and sat down with Seamus, Hermione and Ron who was working on his potions essay. Leaning back as they sat down, Danny sighed and leant forwards as Hermione looked at him and cocked her head in question.
"It's nothing." He said, leaning forwards as Colin Creevey, a fourth year obsessed with following Harry in school, came forwards and asked, "Who was that ghost? That white haired ghost who chased Peeves after he dropped Seamus?"
"Um..." Harry began, as Danny shifted and looked away as if looking for a break or some release as he bit his lip and said, "That was Phantom. He's the protector of my town."
"Who? Where do you live?" Colin's little brother asked, pushing his way to the front as Danny smirked and tapped his nose in secrecy and looked to Harry and the others as they nodded and Colin and Dennis walked away from them as Harry looked down at the homework assignments set for the Easter break.
"Five minutes sitting down and I'm being bugged." He moaned as they sat back in their chairs and Ron leaned back in the seat as Harry pulled out his Astronomy homework and stared at it, groaning at the task.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione asked, looking over his shoulder and down at the parchment as Danny looked at them in wonder.
"I didn't catch what the homework was. I was kind of busy working on the DA meeting when Professor Vector told us" Harry groaned as Danny looked at the assignment and smiled widely, saying, "This is easy, Harry."
"What makes you so sure?" Ron and Seamus asked, looking at the muggle as he pulled the parchment to middle and pointed to the middle of the paper, saying, "I kinda wanna be an astronaut when I grow up. So, you could say that Astronomy is my deal."
"What's an ass-tro-mutt?" Ron asked, not quite getting the accent as Seamus, Harry and Hermione stared at the muggle as he looked up and said, "Astronaut, not astromutt."
"Well, I think it's a great idea. Who knows, you could be the next Einstein." Seamus said, grinning as Danny shook his head and answered, "With my grades? Not likely."
"Why? What's wrong with your grades?" Hermione asked, looking up at the mention, whilst Harry saw the sheepish look on the hunters face as he said, "My hometown is haunted by ghosts. So me and my friends have to deal with them when they come out of the portal, along with Phantom. So yeah, you could say that my grades are down the drain."
"And I thought we were doing badly with our OWL studies." Ron commented, putting down his quill and looking at Danny as he shrugged and smirked. Looking down at his Astronomy essay, Harry sighed and threw down his quill, splattering ink on him and Danny as he shouted and stood, shaking the liquid off his hands, smirking as he flicked some at the other raven haired boy.
"What was that for?" Harry asked, Ron and Hermione stepping back from the table slightly fearful for the muggle as he held up his hand and tried to placate the boy before him, saying, "It was meant as a joke, dude, honestly." only to hiccup a second later and look about them as Nick appeared in the common room and went over to them.
"Daniel, Albus would like to see you in his office." were his words, leaving the trio looking at each other as Danny nodded and ran out of the room and into his room, coming back down and leaving with a thermos in his hands.
"What's all that about?" Harry asked, looking at the door as it shut. Sitting back down, Hermione shrugged and asked him, "What did you say that for, Harry? He was smirking when he did it."
"I don't know what happened, 'Mione. It just happened." he answered, running his hands through his hair and leaning his elbows on the table as Ron sat back down and said, "You'll have to explain it to Danny when he gets back. He looked like he was about to get pissed off."
"What was the hiccup about though? It seemed to warn him the Nick was coming through." Hermione asked, looking down at the parchment in front of the Boy Who Lived and pulling it towrds her, getting her wand out and waving it, taking the ink splatter from it and restoring it to how it had been before.
"Only Merlin knows, 'Mione." Ron asnwered, looking down at his Potions homework and getting to it. Harry looked out of the window as he waited for the only girl in the group to finish with his paper and thought he saw the Hogwarts Four in the grounds, floating about and looking to be talking.
-DANNY-
Having gotten the Fenton Thermos from the room that he was staying, Danny practically ran down the stairs and went through the portait hole with Nick following him as he tried to find a safe place to transform.
Hiding in a secret passage, he called forth the rings as Nick found him and transformed fully into Phantom. Floating up, Danny nodded to Nick and said in his now-echoing voice, "I sorta know the way, Nick. Which way was it again?"
Laughing, Nick pointed upwards and out of the passageway, saying, "Just phase through the floors until you reach the gargoyle that you saw yesterday, Danny."
"Got'cha." came the answer as the younger ghost as he flew off through the ceiling. Sighing as he flew, Danny thought back to what had hapened in the common room with Harry Potter. When he had stood up and flicked the ink off, there had been a moment where the boys eyes had flickered red and he looked murderous all of a sudden. Shuddering as he thought back to it, Danny scowled and muttered, "Dont think about it, Fenton. It was probably nothing to do with ghost's. He's probably not even Overshadowed."
Floating up to the gargoyle Nick had mentioned, Danny took a breath and prepared to phase through and go up to meet with the Headmaster of the school that was playing host to him. Going through the wall and flying up the stairs, Danny was suprised to find Umbridge stalking down them, closely followed by a fully robed black man who had a skull cap on the top of his head. Turning invisible and intangible as they drew nearer, he saw the man shudder as he went through the ghostly body and turned around and looked around the stairwell as Danny held his breath. Shaking his head, the man turned and contined on his way down the stairs after Umbridge. Continuing with the flight up the stairs, Danny landed and walked up the last few and went to the door to Dumbledores office.
Knocking, he faintly heard the wizard say, "Come in." and opened the door, going in and waiting for the man to finish talking to the bird on the stand, tapping his foot in the process.
"Ah, Phantom. I see that you got the message from Nicholas." Albus greeted, "Come in, come in. Sherbet lemon?"
"Thanks," Danny said, taking a proffered sweet and surprising the man as he made to sit down in the chair opposite the desk, "Nick didn't mention why you wanted to see me though. What's the problem?"
"Oh, it has nothing to do with why you're here, I can reassure you that. It is in actual fact to do with the witch who captured yourself whilst you were out in the open. Dolores Umbridge." Dumbledore began, sitting down in his chair and taking a sherbet lemon for himself and popping it into his mouth, scowling briefly at the taste of lemons before continuing, "She has been complaining to myself and the teaching staff that an unauthorised ghost has been haunting this school as of yesterday afternoon. She is adament to catch the ghost and take it to the Ministry for processing and tagging, as you would probably say."
"In other words, I gotta watch my back. And what about my other form. The Four told you I can change my appearance to look more human." Danny clarified, crossing his arms and staring ahead as the man nodded and said, "I am sure that while this ability is useful in your hometown for hiding in plain sight, there are those of us who can detect a dead presence within these walls, the Divination teacher being one of them, and myself as another example. But I can tell you that you needn't worry about any of us both, Sibil tends to stay in her tower and only comes down on rare occasion. I, however, know about your other form so you needn't worry about me finding out about it."
"I guess that I should be thankful that at least some of the teachers know that I can change my appearance, but what about Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley? Shouldn't they also know that I can change what I look like properly? I have been hanging out with them whilst in my other form." Danny said, thinking of the three Gryffindors as he waited for Dumbledores answer.
"Not just yet, Phantom. They are smart, I can tell you that. Given enough hints, Miss Granger and Mr. Potter will figure out who you are. Mr. Weasley will follow up on that soon afterwards, if given more hints. It's best not to tempt fate with that trio of friends." Dumbledore said, shaking his head, "In fact, that's another reason why I called you to my office."
"Oh."
"Young Harry must have told your other self about it by now." came the beginning of an explanantion, Danny holding up a hand and interrupting, "If it's anything to do with that jerk, Voldemort, I know bits of what happened to Harry and his family."
"But you dont know the full story, I'm presuming." Dumbledore said, Danny shaking his head as the man continued, "As you may or may not know, Voldemort has returned. But as you are the ghost of a muggle, by your solidity I'm guessing, you may not know that Voldemort is in actual fact a wizard who had been taught within these very walls. After he had left school, Tom, his real name that very few know about, wanted to teach here, but had been rejected the teaching post that he wanted. Defence Against The Dark Arts, or as the students call it, DADA."
"I get the fact that he wanted to teach here, but don't you guys need Qualifications for things like that? It'd seem the right thing to do instead of just giving any old someone the job." Danny observed, taking another sherbet lemon and leaning on the desk as Dumbledore stared at him, looking quite surprised.
"We never really thought of it like that." He said quietly, still looking shocked as Danny smirked and said, "I know about qualifications because I want to be an astronaut when I'm older. But seeing as I'm like this, it's a different career path for me."
"I see. Well, anyway, after being rejected the teaching post he so desperately wanted, Tom set out on the road to the Dark Side. Eventually, it become that he was no longer the handsome young man who had wanted to teach in these walls, he had in actual fact become a being of immense dark power and had changed his name to the one he is known by, nowadays."
"Voldemort. But what has that to do with Harry Potter?" Danny spoke up, shuddering at the mention of the name as Dumbledore leaned back and looked at the ghostly hero with piercing blue eyes.
"I am sure that you have seen the scar on young Harry's forehead, am I correct?" he questioned, continuing at Danny's nod, "That was created using a very powerful and Dark form of curse, known as The Killing Curse or Avada Kedavra as it's sometimes called. Use of it and two others earns you a ticket to our prison. Anyway, by the time that poor Lily and James had Harry, there had been a prophecy around for quite a few months. Believing it to mean Lily's child, he set out to find them and kill the poor kid. He eventually did just that, only to find himself with a problem. James and Lily had fought him thrice before going into hiding and therefore knew his motives, so to try and protect the year old Harry, they fought him off, or at least tried to."
"Let me guess, they died doing just that." Danny interrupted, holding up his hand and looking sick as Dumbledore nodded and continued, "Somehow, when Voldemort turned his wand on the child and cast the spell to end the short life, the spell rebounded and turned on the caster, ending his life instead of the child's. Voldemort was gone and the child became famous as well as known as 'The Boy Who Lived'."
"You all thought that he was dead and gone. Until last year." Danny muttered, looking down at his hands and not seeing the wizard nodding 'yes'.
"We did. I myself, had thought that he would return one day and would once again wreak havoc on the Wizarding Britain. A theory now proven, even if the Minister cannot see it through his fear and blindness."
"And what has this gotta do with me? I'm only here to sort out Peeves and then I'll be off back to Amity Park and back to dealing with the ghost invasion that's sure to be happening right now." Danny said, standing up and crossing his arms as Dumbledore gently glared over his half moon glasses as he answered, "I was hoping that you could watch over Harry during your time here. In your other form of course."
"I can't be in two places at once, Professor. I need to be able to get to where Peeves is in a matter of minutes, whether or not Harry is safe." Danny said, shaking his head and holding up his hands, backing away from the desk, "I'm sorry."
"I washoping that you would agree. Harry needs to protected during the coming weeks. I have a bad feeling that Tom will be trying something."Dumbledore said, looking deflated a Danny froze and looked him in the eye, "Something has happened then, I take it."
"Yeah, if you count red hints in his eyes something. My Ghost Sense didn't go off either." Danny reported, "So I don't think he'll have been Overshadowed, I'd have known."
"Might I ask what hapened?"
"Stupidity on my part. That's all you need to know."
"I see. Well, I think that I have kept you here long enough, Phantom. Just keep me posted on anything Peeves-related, or if anything happens with young Harry." Dumbledore said, standing and walking around the desk and over to the door as Danny floated behind. Nodding, Danny turned intangible and flew through the door and went back to the Gryffindor Common Room, and hopefully apologize to Harry.
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And that's it for this chapter guys. I hope you like it! It gives Danny an idea of what exactly happened to his new friend and what he's going through. And it gives some history on the Wizarding Fruitloop that is known as Voldemort.
I have some idea of whats going to happen in the next chapter, but as I am doing each story as they come to me, it might be a while yet.
Anyway, until next time then guys,
Hermione Jean Burton xxx
