Harry rubbed his ears as he and his friends hurried silently down the corridor to the dungeons. The ringing in his ears from the Howler earlier hadn't let up when they went away from the Great Hall, all eyes on them as they walked through the door and it hadn't stopped as they climbed the stairs to their first lesson: Transfiguration
"What I want to know is how mum knew what we'd done." Ron said, breaking the silence between the three friends as Harry shrugged, Hermione not even answering or making any gesture to show that she heard instead keeping her head down and her gaze fixed on the tiles in front of them, "I mean, we used that Infini-map thingie to get to Amity Park, not any other way."
"Danny's sister did say that it was very powerful," Harry muttered, "Maybe the Ministry knows about it?"
"They would have taken it away for investigation though." Ron mused, sighing as he added, "I don't know. Mum's coming later when school's finished. Maybe I'll have a chance to ask her when she's finished yelling."
His words had them falling back into the previous silence as they reached the corridor and began making their way to their class.
"HARRY! WAIT!"
Looking down the hall as an accented voice shouted, Harry saw Sam from the previous night running towards them. Catching up to the Gryffindors, she panted as she bent down to catch her breath and said, "I think we might have a way to convince your mom to let you stay here, Ron, wasn't it?"
Ron nodded before hurrying to ask, "How did you find your way? Hogwarts is confusing at the best of times. You're new to this world as well."
"Way to state the obvious," Sam replied sarcastically looking at the redhead before she added, "We just asked what class you took and a Dean Thomas told us how to get there."
"Right, okay." Harry said, looking at the goth as she finally straightened up, looked down the hallway and said, "I'm not sure if the others will agree but we were thinking,"
"What if we all gave our version of events." Sam piped up, looking steadily at them all, "It's really the truth and you did help me in the campsite, Harry. Hermione, Ron, you were great in helping calm everyone down and explaining your people to everyone else, even if Dash did overreact a little."
"You'd do that? Even for us?" Hermione asked, looking relieved as Ron started to smile just a little, a small curling of the lips. The girl nodded as the bell began to ring loudly, signalling the start of classes. Looking over Sam's shoulder, the three Lions saw that their classmates, House mates and otherwise were starting to rumble up the stairs, everyone talking about the Howler. Nodding at Sam, they separated, the American going back to the Entrance Hall and the wizards going on their way to class, keeping their heads down to avoid any prying eyes looking their way. As a result, no one saw the tiny smiles that had appeared on their faces and were still there when they sat at the back of the classroom.
-Great Hall-
"Fenturd, we need to talk." Dash said, coming up behind the Halfa as he looked around from where he was sat. A look flashed across his face before Danny nodded hurriedly and invited the Jock to sit. Dash looked at the other two people besides him and shook his head, saying, "Not here. Outside."
Danny scrutinised the bully for a minute before he blinked, shrugged, stood up and said, "Sure. What is it you want to talk about, Dash?"
"I don't want to talk about it here. Outside."
"We can talk out in the Hall, Dash." Danny supplied, walking just in front of the star player of Casper High's football team as the latter scowled but nodded, wearily. Silence fell between them as they made their way to the Hall's doors and made their way into the Entrance Hall, just as Sam walked down the stairs, a small smile splitting her face. Spotting the Jock walking behind her friend, she paused as Danny looked up and shook his head silently, signalling 'all was well'. Her eyes narrowed, she observed the scene and nodded, holding up both her hands as she began to walk again, her aim being the Great Hall and the Gryffindor Table.
Turning as the door clicked silently shut, a huge feat for an ancient door, Danny folded his arms as he waited for Dash to say what was on his mind.
"What did you want to talk about, Dash?" Danny repeated his earlier question when the blonde didn't immediately start talking, opening and closing his mouth as words failed to fall out of his mouth.
"H-how is it you're so calm about this place?" Dash finally spat out, his words coming out as Danny looked back, his face showing signs of surprise as the former continued, "We all came here just last night, we've been introduced to a world that we never even knew existed, seen things that no one should even be able to do and throughout, you've been cool and calm.
"You think I was calm when I got here, Dash?" Danny replied, "I was shitting myself when I got here. This is a magic school, not your average school. I'm still getting used to that fact as well, Dash."
Dash stared after Danny finished talking and looked at the tiled floor when Danny spoke quietly, "Just try and get to know some people while we're here, Dash. You might even make friends."
"Like you did?"
"Harry, Ron and Hermione tried to wake me the first day I was here. Nearly got a face full of ectoplasm because of it." Danny laughed, shaking his head at the memory, "I guess we just got along after that."
"So, why did you and Phantom come here?"
Danny stilled before he rubbed the back of his neck, laughing without humour before he spoke, "Peeves. Nearly Headless Nick, the Ghost of Gryffindor I think, told us that Peeves the Poltergeist was out of control and they needed help. Apparently, another ghost called The Bloody Baron was the only only who could control him. It was only meant to be like a couple of days before we went back to Amity."
"Right." Dash replied, "So, how come Manson just went then come back?"
"That's what I needed to ask actually,"
"Go on."
"You heard shouting after they ran out, right?" Danny asked, continuing at the nod from the other boy, "WE were just thinking, what if, we all told them our version of events? From start to finish."
"How's that going to help?"
"It's the best we could come up with, Dash. Ron's mom is coming tonight after class finishes. We have to tell her what happened. She might listen to us." Danny sighed, rubbing his cheek, some signs of stress creeping into his eyes, "It's clear Harry and Hermione don't want him to leave."
Nodding, Dash went silent again, turned and started pacing in front of the Fenton, a finger going up to his chin subconsciously as he weighed up his options. Five minutes went by until,
"What do we need to do?"
"Right now, you just need to convince everyone to do what I said. We'll see about the rest." Danny told him, the Jock raising an eyebrow as the nerd added, "Nicely though, Dash."
Nodding, The jock turned back to walk back into the Great Hall before he said, "I'll see what I can do, Fentoenail."
Going back into the Hall, he disappeared and left the Halfa in the Entrance alone as he sighed and looked around before he summoned two rings around his waist and transformed into Danny Phantom as Sam, Jazz and Tucker came out, spotted him and went to stand by as he smiled and began to float.
"It's kinda weird." Sam commented, "Being at school but having no class."
"It's not that weird, Sam." Phantom replied, his voice echoing in the empty Hallway, "How many times have we broken into school because of ghost attacks?"
"I think that's just you, Danny." Jazz laughed, shaking her head as they all walked out of the castle and into the grounds, "Although, Sam has got a point. It's just plain weird."
"I really can't argue with that." Danny pointed out, all four of them lapsing into laughter as they wandered down to the lake together.
Aww, such a sweet ending!
Not to the story, the chapter. The story has at least five more chapters to go on it.
I really can't believe that this story took a turn for the worst and it's just kinda bounced back to how it was before Voldie showed his ugly mug. No nosed freak! Ahem…
What? He really is a no-nosed freak!
Anyway! I'll see you in the next chapter, y'all!
