A/N: Hey, everyone. I have made the final decision to really stop writing this story. It is too unfocused, and too big, and looking at my story notes, it will take years to write this out, and I am really not in love with this story enough to do that. Strangely enough, too, this story makes my head feel really foggy, even though I can just spend hours working on it or puzzling out details in car rides. Despite the drag of the story's gravity, it only, after spending hours working on it in a session, only feels like a time sink rather than rewarding and satisfying like writing a story should be. Which is no good.
I think the problem is that the story is too big, not relevant enough, and tries to tackle too much. It's unfocused. It's missing a lot of somethings and tries to make up for it by adding a lot of something else's. In a lot of cases, that results in cringe and overdone stuff that feels like its just trying to elicit a reaction. For some reason, while writing this, I felt I couldn't really empathize properly or put myself into Danny's shoes while writing it. It just never really felt real and I was desperately trying to make it real. Which, if you've read some of my deleted author notes, is probably the real source of my dissatisfaction with the story. Even having written 100,000 words of it.
Either way, I learned things from it. There were some clear themes that I wanted to tackle here in one ginormous story; I've thought of ways to tackle them in smaller, more enjoyable stories that get the point across better. I'm sort of trying to go into comics and drawing stuff because I really love to draw too. Those other stories don't make my head foggy like this too, so already I know that it is better. They feel much more relevant, and much more organic and manageable.
So.
Anyhow.
I have some words at the end, but anyhow, I'd just like to say thank you for the support and suffering through my clumsy writing and all these strange rambling, author's notes. I resolve to become a better writer, storyteller, and artist.
The thing about writing and art, however... is that they really rely so much on your heart and your current state of being. You have to be real to make it good. And it can be painful or hard to be real, but you have to really reach for your emotions to write well I think, and understand people to make your story resonate. I went through a rough time, and so I'm not too hard on myself for this story's existence, but now I also know it's time to say this is done. I've revised it. I've tried to tinker with it. I've tried to groom it, fix it, disdain it, welcome it. It didn't really fix it, because the heart of this story did start, I think, when I was first entering a depressive period. Or it was born from the seeds of thought that generated that depression. Either way. The only way to fix this story, or really feel right about it, I think, is to say I'm done with it now.
So I'm done with it now. I'm not quiting on writing, but moving on to better things.
So I'm sure you're all wondering, then what the heck is the rest of this chapter about? That's a lot of words, Shadow, for not writing this story anymore.
(Don't worry, I can always write more words. They spawn infinitely from the very depths of my soul, much to the annoyance of youtubers who are on the recieving end of my essay-ful wrath.)
Anyway, earlier I hashed out most of the plot or "happenings" for the rest of the story. I finished that today, because I felt it might give me some final measure of resolution, and also give you guys and idea of what I was going for and also why it won't ultimately happen. I was not just dangling threads and twisting them into a story. I was also dangling frayed ropes, decomposing different stories, smushing them together, twisting them into strange esoteric knots that only make sense when you've been staring at them for too long, trying to ensure logical consistency, trying to include everything when really, a story never should have been about that.
But maybe it will be interesting to you. And maybe this story has been interesting to you, in some way. I certainly hope that you've learned something by reading it if you bothered to go through all 100,000 words of it, for more your sake than mine.
Lesson: do not spend all your time in life reading fanfiction you don't care about. If you find yourself doing that, please, go outside right now (if it's not midnight or if you don't live in the middle of a city), breathe some fresh air, let your head get clearer, then ask a friend to hang out, read a real book (I recommend Sanderson's books), draw something, talk to someone, anything that is actually relevant to your life, being a happy human being, and your goals.
There's a lot to live for. So go out and live it.
If you do happen to find yourself with an absurd itch to read an author's parting story notes, however, read on. Otherwise, my advice is to click that x button on the tab and zip it out of here and get your body to the outside.
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Monsters, Chapter Three: On Ghosts
Intro to Moaning Myrtle (who's bathroom had flooded). When talking about it with the others, Danny decides to check it out, not having much of another sense of direction. She recognizes him as ghostly too, and when he asks about her death, she grows quite fond of him. She tells Danny to come back. (Later, Harry, Hermione, and Ron come in for their adventures.)
Upon leaving, he encounters Flich. Filch remembers Danny turning his cat green. It is not a good encounter.
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Later in the day, Remus. Have a talk with him. It might be overdue. Danny never told Remus, yet, that he knew he was a werewolf. Danny comes out about being half-ghost, finally. He needed someone to confide in.
Here, Danny also learns that he had a choice: to give up his ghost side, or to learn magic. His ghost powers seem to only be growing and growing however, and at some point, he might not have a choice. Remus tells him to have weekly check-ups.
On Remus: Danny told him that he had ghost powers, but not about his ghost form. He was terrified of it, and was worried gow Remus would react. Since ghosts were truly Dark (and this was emphasized in Remus' . And Danny did feel different as Phantom, less tied to himself. In many ways, he is scared of himself, and even more so because he knows the capabilities of the ghost and what it can do to human emotions, how it feeds, and how it feels. Even Jazz never saw his Phantom form. (She thinks seeing his head sink into the floor might have been a hallucination, and so she studied it more deeply. Faulting her own memory, she knows how fallible memory is. She didn't want her parents to jump on it or on Danny during a hard time, and didn't want to guilt them for the portal, so she didn't mention it then. And then she never mentioned it, until Danny hears her mumbling to herself about it, or until her curiosity and confusion bursts, or until she catches sight of some other evidence that something is up with Danny.)
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Other ghosts confront Danny.
(Hermione sent a letter to the Minister, pushing an investigation into Hogwarts staff, after the first semester ended. She spent the rest of the time, during the summer, convincing herself that the decision was right, that there are plenty of problems at Hogwarts. And there are; she just isn't entirely clear on what they are herself, and a lot of what she is saying is just speculation.)
(Daringly. She wants to find out the truth of things for herself. She doesn't trust that easily now, and as a result, some cautious ambition rises within her. She needs to do something.)
(As a result, more forces from the Hogwarts Board, which includes Lucius Malfoy, to oust Dumbledore. Fudge comes down strong on them, to try to make this succeed. Lucius also brings in Danny as a prime example of Dumbledore's failures, from some intel that Draco got from him.)
(Ginny's disappearance was the final straw. They succeed. The vote was narrow, because Dumbledore had many supporters ... but he had already been suspended in April, this is what made the decision final.)
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The other ghosts confront Danny when he is alone, confused at what he is. Hopefully they help him resolve things with the portraits. They decide to be bros.
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Chapter 4 and on
At some point, Ginny tries to tell Harry and co. that something is wrong, but is scared off by Percy, who thinks she was going to tell them about him and his girlfriend.
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Nov 30th, rogue bludger (caused by Dobby), Harry gets sent to hospital wing, Draco is seeker. Another attack happens too, on the stairs. Colin Creevey, who was trying to sneak to the Hospital Wing to visit Harry. He had some grapes with him. He was holding his camera.
(Showcases the effect of Danny's tragedy last semester on his friends.)
(Suspicion on Harry for having been present at both incidents starts arising now.)
(Harry, Hermione, and Ron decide to start brewing the Polyjuice potion to ask Syltherins about the Heir of Slytherin. Particularly Malfoy. Though, I think they'd probably recruit Danny first to ask questions, since he seems to have been acting friendly around Draco.)
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Lockhart comes to visit the school (though Lockhart himself isn't entirely sure why he is here, little does he know he is being set-up as a puppet Headmaster), with Lucius Malfoy and one other member of the Board and a mysterious fourth figure. Rogue equipment actually becomes somewhat of a big deal - he speaks with Harry about it "Oh, how awful… If I had been there..." and Lucius goes "I wonder who charmed that bludger? Is there an investigation ongoing into this?". Lucius meets Danny for the second time (first time way at the Fenton's house, but only very briefly). The fourth figure gives Susan Bones a letter, who later gives it to Danny. It is Quirrell's dead man switch collection against Voldemort. (In the original HP timeline, it would have just gone to the truth-seekers, and they would never have interfered in an on-screen way.)
(This is about when Hermione confesses about the letter… if it is made clear to her that they are from the Board. Then she realizes it is her fault they are there; but I think she decides that this is not a bad thing at all, and instead gleams with excitement as she tells Danny about this, about how it will make things better.)
(Though Hermione has decided to keep Danny out of her other adventures, seeing his reticence and unwillingness to think that something's going on. She also doesn't want to involve him or put him through any more trouble.)
(Does Danny tell her about the ghost powers? No, not yet. He might mention his own letters, from Quirrell however. Both of them still hide secrets.)
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Danny's relationship and slow fascination with Quirrell's letters and story. He learns about the truth-seekers.
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Draco comes and quests subtly about Danny's opinion of Dumbleore. Danny's somewhat dubious, skeptical words earn him being invited to Malfoy Manor for winter break. On pretext of their parents being business partners.
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Dec. Dueling club, Harry speaks Parseltongue… but no Lockhart this time, so does the dueling club get formed? Remus would probably do something different after the attacks begin. I think he would start a basic defense club instead, which would also teach some spells via dueling. Snape helps too, because Snape does actually know his stuff. Some similar events end up occuring and Harry's parseltongue is publicly revealed.
In the defense club, Danny learns that he has a partial tolerance for spells. That they sort of disperse when they hit him.
Justin Finch-Fletchely gets attacked, along with Sir Nicolas. (Because a ghost gets petrified, the fear in the school increases.)
Remus finds Harry, and with some prodding, Harry explains to him about the voices. Remus begins to suspect "basilisk" but doesn't quite know how. Because of Harry's predicament, he keeps it quiet for now and mentions his theory only to Dumbledore.
Dec 25., Hermione, Harry, and Ron take the polyjuice. Hermione ends up going to the Hospital Wing for it; otherwise, Danny knows nothing about it. On Christmas, Arthur gets fined 50 galleons for the car. Lucius calls for his resignation. Malfoy actually laughs at it (in front of the polyjuiced Harry and Ron).
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Winter Break comes, Danny cautiously goes to the Malfoy Manor with his parents and Jazz. There, some stuff is revealed: like Vlad's association with Lucius. Lucius also quests for info about his parents' feelings about Dumbledore, citing the terrible things that have happened in the school. He then mentions that Danny could be a good witness against the man, and that improvements would happen when Dumbledore was gone, he swore it. Danny also meets Dobby then, and is severely distubred by Lucius' cruelty, as is Jazz. Their parents remain oblivious.
Also during winter break, Danny sees a ghost come out of the portal, when dad left is carelessly open. He has his first real ghost fight, and fires his first ectoblast. (The issue is mitigated due to the ectoranium coating on the door, but some ghosts will still occasionally escape.)
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January, more attacks. (Need to confirm dates and who.) Dumbledore gets suspended as headmaster at some point. Lucius wants to lead up with a more permanent expulsion, and so Draco gives Danny a letter from him, looking uncomfortable. It requests for him to meet with the Board of Governors for Hogwarts and tell them what happened to him. Danny refuses. He doesn't want to do it.
When Danny returns to Hogwarts, even without practicing his powers regularly, he realizes that it's become much harder to do magic. And that his ghost powers are growing. The ectoblasts are easy, things are more under control, but he still can't phase through Hogwarts' walls. He discovers that he can phase through other objects, unattached to the building, but somehow the magical imbuement of Hogwarts makes it harder. It's like it disrupts his intangibility.
At some points, "ectoplasmic ghosts" becomes ecto-ghosts. He also reinforces his bro-hood with the other ghosts.
He visits Hermione regularly in the hospital, in her half-cat form. Friendship and bonding. He brings her schoolwork and updates her on the latest going-ons. (She is released Feb 1st, after missing a month of school.)
By now, Remus has figured out the basilisk is traveling through the pipes. All the teachers now know. His defense club focuses on "be careful around corners" and subtly teaches methods to keep mirrors in front of you and that it's good practice to do it. Soon, the whole school is traveling in groups and carrying mirrors around to look past corners. He also tells Harry about the basilisk, makes him swear not to tell the other students, or else he'll start a panic - but he tells Harry that he's the one who will know it is coming, by the sound, and to report anything he hears to Remus and do his best to steer other students away.
They still need to figure out who's controlling the basilisk. So far, it hasn't killed anyone. Remus thinks that's intentional.
(Mid-Feb, Harry gets the diary and talks to Riddle.)
Soon after (about a month or two after his efforts, when Ginny gets the Diary back, late February), Lupin gets petrified (His efforts are too obvious to the Diary, who hears about the defense club and its measures from Ginny.) along with Hermione, who had been released from the hospital wing only weeks ago and was asking him about catch-up work (petrified for the same reasoning as in the books, it was lucky that they were together). They both had mirrors, and were coming from the library, where Hermione had run into Remus.
Hagrid is promptly taken to Azkaban.
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(When it's clear that Hogwarts will likely shut down and that people are still getting petrified) Angry and not knowing what else to do, Danny decides to go to the truth-seekers, from the contact points that Quirrell gave him in his deadman switch letters. They are very curious about him and try to induct him into the order. He also asks about ecto-ghosts, and they hint that it is a pretty big thing in the wizarding world. They don't have any idea of what's attacking Hogwarts, though they helpfully give out an entire list of what creatures can petrify things.
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When he gets back, Ginny has disappeared and has been taken to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry tells his friend Ron finally about the basilisk, and is convinced that he's the only one who can help her, since Lupin is gone and he can hear and talk to the basilisk, and wants to do something, because Hermione was just petrified. They try to leave Danny out of it, since he'd gone through enough, but he overhears and demands to come with them.
Upon them telling him about why it is a basilisk, Danny realizes that Moaning Myrtle was probably killed by the basilisk, since she saw a pair of eyes and dies. Harry reveals that the Chamber had been opened 50 years ago, so of course, that meant that the opening to the Chamber was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
They escape from the prefects and go to the teacher staff meeting, where McGonagall listens to them. She calls in an auror team, but for a basilisk, they would only be able to come after extensive preparation, at least several hours. The recommendation is to begin evacuating students. She tells them to stay with the teachers as they begin the preparation, but, seeing Ron's hysterics and worry that his sister didn't have that much time and Harry's determination, Danny uses his powers to help give them the slip (turning them all invisible, so that Harry and Ron don't quite realize it) as they passed a corridor. Professor Flitwick is sent to look after them, but he can't find them, until he decides to go to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and sees the cavernous hole there.
Moaning Myrtle is angry at Danny for not coming to visit her. They go down to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry, Ron, and Danny arrive at the place, all equipped with mirrors. They see Ginny's body, and Tom Riddle's apparation.
Tom Riddle, using Ginny's wand, quickly sends a stunner both to Ron and Danny. It does not have as much of an effect on Danny however, sort of dispersed, so while he falls to the ground, he still remains conscious. Riddle gives his speech to Harry, who is confused at what Riffle is doing, but Danny gets back up and interrupts it. Riddle is surprised, though he accounts it to still being weak. He tries to stun Danny again, annoyed, but now Harry pushes them both to the floor, reacting quickly.
Harry plays hero and tells Danny to run with Ron, and Danny thinks how much easier it would be if he could just go intangible through these walls. He refuses to leave Harry or Ginny behind, and tries to go ghost, but Riddle hits him with another stunner when he's distracted, and he falls to his knee. When he stands up, it is clear to Riddle that this isn't a fluke.
The situation looked bad, and they hadn't even seen the basilisk yet.
Riddle asks what kind of friend Harry had made. Harry is confused. Danny takes the opportunity to try to cast a stupefy back, but it fizzles out before it even launches from his wand. Danny realizes that his best hope is his ghost powers… which he can only strongly access in ghost form. He doesn't want Harry to see it, however, and hesitates.
His hesitation costs them. Riddle and Harry have basically a magic duel, where Riddle easily fends off Harry's stupefy with protego and Harry barely dodges two spells. Danny, seeing his friend in trouble, loses his head (need to protect arises in him) and tries to charge Riddle while firing up an ectoblast in his human form. It misses, wildly, but now Riddle's next stupefy has barely any effect and Danny is there and tackles the man.
He holds him down, but then, reason returning, is unsure what to do, and is blasted off with expulso. Next thing he knows, he's down at wandpoint (lying on the floor, tip of the wand pointed in his face) and is told with deadly certainty that Riddle could kill him now. Harry is told to stand down, else his friend be killed.
Then Riddle whispers to Danny that he hasn't called the basilisk yet, that he could, and with a glance, Harry would be dead too, so he better not move an inch. Riddle also takes his wand, from Danny's hands.
Danny freezes.
They were outmatched.
That much was clear.
Riddle fires another stupefy at him, and Harry yells, but was reassured that his friend wasn't just killed. Danny feels more tired, but otherwise isn't very affected.
"Something strange is going on here," Riddle says, peering down at him. The wand hovered in Danny's vision, so close it doubled in his vision. The chamber around him fell away until it was just him, the wand, and Riddle.
"Tell me," Riddle demanded sharply, "why I should not just kill you and the Potter boy now."
Danny looked up into the other boy's eyes. They were cold, without an ounce of empathy.
"If you move another inch, your friend will be brutally blasted apart," the boy suddenly called out, eyes not leaving Danny. A moment later, Danny realized he was talking to Harry.
"Well?" The man's knee, which was ground into his rib, pressed down and Danny had to fight to breathe.
"I - I don't -"
"Something you can do for me." The boy smiled coldly. "Something you can tell me. Think fast. Your friend's life is on the line."
"I don't know what you -" Danny tried to choke out. He didn't even know who this Tom Riddle was.
"Think faster." The knee pressed down harder.
A thought sparked. What the truth-seekers told him, how they hinted at the value of ectoplasm. He didn't know what this insane boy was getting at, but maybe, it would give them a chance until the aurors came to rescue them.
Wild-eyed, Danny said, "Ectoplasm - I can," he gasped, "tell you about ectoplasm."
"Hmm."
The pressure lessened, though the boy's wand was still pointed at his face.
"Harry Potter," Tom Riddle called. "I brought you here, curious about something. Tell me, do you know what allowed you to defeat Lord Voldemort on Halloween night, twelve years ago?"
When Harry did not reply immediately, Riddle growled, "Speak up. While I hold your friend here, you have no power to defy me."
"... My mom died to save me. Dumbledore said it was the power of her love that saved me."
Riddle's face went flat. "So there's nothing special about you, after all."
While Riddle thought, all was silent.
"I thought we were rather similar, you know," the boy continued, almost conversationally. "Both half-bloods. Both parseltongues. Ginny went on and on about you, you know. I thought perhaps, we might have some connection. I was wrong."
"... Who are you?" Harry asked hesitantly.
Riddle smiled mirthlessly. From Danny's position, he saw the expression loud and clear.
"Why, you haven't figured it out yet, Harry? I'm Lord Voldemort."
Danny's eyes widened in shock.
"Now," Riddle said. "Why don't you tell me the name of your friend, here?" When Harry did not immediately respond, Riddle sent an expulso crashing into the wall with explosive force, shattering stone. His wand had only left Danny's face for a second. Both Harry and Danny got the message.
"... Danny," Harry said.
"Well then, Danny," Riddle smiled sweetly, "Does anyone know that you three came down here?"
"No," Danny lied, after a moment's pause.
"Hmm."
There was no warning. Danny's ribs were suddenly hit with a blinding pain, a flash of red light flung itself across the hall, and a quiet thud sounded as Harry dropped to the floor, unconscious.
When Danny realized what had happened, he phased out of Riddle's hold, and began running towards Harry. He urgently reached for the coldness inside of him, raising his hand, "Going gh -"
"Expulso."
Bright blue light landed on the stone walkway in front of him. It exploded, throwing stone chunks everywhere and blasting Danny backwards, back towards Riddle. He landed back planted on the ground, grunting as his head hit stone and his ears rang from the blast.
"That spell works quite effectively," Riddle said, pleased. "I suppose I will have to speed this up. Do not assume that you possess an advantage. I can still quite easily kill both you and your friends." He stood over Danny now, wand held lightly in his grasp. "Now, how long before anyone else arrives?"
Danny grunted.
Riddle sighed. "How often do I need to prove myself?" He turned and began walking towards Harry and Ron, thinking Danny harmless without a wand.
Danny was not harmless. He sprung up, and wordlessly tugged for his ghost core. He needed it now. If he used it, maybe he could save Harry, Ron, and even Ginny from this monster.
A flash of light, then he was Phantom.
Riddle turned.
Danny went invisible, then flew towards his friends.
Riddle's eyes narrowed.
Danny beats him, Riddle calls on the Basilisk, Danny flies away with his friends without looking back, they go to the bathroom, but Professor Flitwick is waiting so he can't reveal himself there. He drops off Harry and Ron, turning them visible to Flitwick's astonishment, but he still needs to get Ginny because she was so pale, and so despite his better judgement, he goes back down there. He closes his eyes, tries to maintain invisibility and intangibility, and tries to just float to where Ginny is and grab her. Something gives him away though, and the basilisk snaps at him. He fires an ectoblast in its direction, away from Ginny, eyes still closed. Riddle realized what's going on, and begins to cast Dark spells that can hurt Danny when he gets close, and they do. They are at a stalemate. Riddle can't stay there forever, but Ginny would die very soon. He then says Ginny could be saved if Danny writes in the Diary.
Danny is suspicious and asks a few questions, but Riddle answers them honestly, talking about his sensory deprivation and his need to just be alive, even if he's thrown into prison. Danny agrees, and Riddle calls off the basilisk. Riddle tosses the diary out of his protection, and Danny writes in it, supplanting the drain on Ginny. Immediately some life returns to her cheeks, and she begins to stir. Riddle also looks more alive. Riddle says he will let Ginny go, if Danny destroys the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Danny says he couldn't do that even if he wanted to, and that the aurors would come down soon anyway to arrest Riddle and rescue Ginny. Riddle says that some of the aurors will die against the basilisk, and that they also wouldn't be able to get close to Ginny. He then suggests that Danny help him escape, and says that he just wants to live free again, that all of this was just so that he could have a body again. Being in the diary was horrible. If Danny helped him escape, he would free Ginny and no lives would be lost.
Danny hesitantly agrees. Riddle then points out that after he was freed, Danny could just as easily tell the aurors where he dropped him off and send them after him. That wouldn't be in the spirit of the agreement. Therefore, he also wanted a vow from Danny to not betray Riddle.
Danny frowns, then says something like "Okay, I won't betray you." but Riddle wants an Unbreakable Vow. Danny doesn't know what that is, so he asks Riddle to explain it. Riddle said that if someone breaks an Unbreakable Vow, they will lose something precious to them. Danny is very hesitant, but Riddle says that he will not let him take Ginny unless he also makes this vow, and that the basilisk would be able to kill many aurors just by looking at them. They couldn't fight what they can't see.
Danny agrees, but then says Riddle would also have to make an Unbreakable Vow to not hurt Ginny or him. After some hesitation, Riddle agrees. Riddle drops the Dark shield. They exchange Vows, Riddle first, upon Danny's insistence (since Riddle is the one casting a spell), though a special two-sided variant is used so that neither bond is valid until both sides state their promise (Riddle's insurance). Each one says the other's promise (I think this is how it works), so Riddle can't slip in some clever wordage other than insisting on the word "physically". Finally, Danny turns Riddle and Ginny intangible, flying up out of the Chamber, and leaves Ginny with Ron, Harry, and Flitwick. He flies Riddle through the castle - whereupon he encounters Fat Friar, his best ghost bro, where they have a brief panic but Danny asks him to keep quiet - then out to the courtyard, then onto the edge of Hogwarts grounds. There, he stops.
Riddle advises him to return to the Chamber and pretend to be obliviated, and tells him not to tell anyone of his existence - that would be like betraying him, now. It would send people after him. He just wanted a quiet life.
Danny agrees dubiously, then flies back to Hogwarts. He decides not to hide in the Chamber because he can't pretend worth anything.
When he returns to Hogwarts, he sees that the aurors are ready and wearing enchanted masks, and hears an explanation that they were specially enchanted to create black spots in the mask during a wizards choosing, with target tracking. This would prevent the basilisk's eyes from killing them, and likely prevent petrification. A genius piece of work, specially requested for this endeavor. Despite the lack of hostages, they go down and easily kill the basilisk.
Knowing that Riddle had escaped because of him and that likely no one's life would have been lost after that first deal to save Ginny, Danny felt shame.
When he learns what Unbreakable Vow really was later, he felt dread.
But Danny only learns this later, because first he flies to the Hospital Wing, and asks Harry and Ron to not tell anyone he was with them. Instead, after they left for the Chamber of Secrets, Danny had gotten scared and went to the dorms. They ask him many questions, and Danny promises to tell what really happened when Hermione wakes up.
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Hagrid returns from Azkaban, and is given a full pardon.
Fat Friar can't keep his mouth shut, so him and the rest of the ghost bros have an intervention with Danny. He asks what that was about, and Danny says he couldn't really tell but he had probably made a mistake. This dissatisfies them, but seeing his earnestness, they decide not to do too much about it. Though Sir Nick probably goes and tells Dumbledore then.
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Petrified people are cured, at the end of the term, two months later. Everyone is still alive. Yay.
Lupin wonders who the mastermind was, as no trace of the controller was found. Due to the residue of ectoplasm detected in the room, he speculates that the ghost in the castle earlier in the year may have somehow been responsible for the incident. (Remus has also decided to resign for the next year, fearing the DADA curse and feeling quite useless, especially after having missed the last two months of the semester. He had been replaced by Snape for the interim, who had, surprisingly, done an excellent job.) Wild rumors started up that the ghost was even Salazar Slytherin's ghost, and that he had come to haunt Hogwarts castle.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn the real story. Danny tells them about being half-ghost, about what had happened after Harry passed out, everything except for the truth-seekers. He mentions the Unbreakable Vow, and Ron tells him, pale-faced, what it really meant. Danny feels his shame grow, and realizes that while he had thought he had the upper hand, he had actually lost a lot. He should have left after Ginny was sustained. He didn't even know what writing in that Diary had done, and neither did the others. He asks them not to tell anyone about Riddle, in fear of the Vow, but Harry points out that he had now told Hermione, who didn't know, and that Danny hadn't died yet, and that Harry had already known about Tom Riddle so Harry should be able to say something without it being a "betrayal". Harry says that they should just pretend that Danny had nothing to do with it, and that otherwise they should tell the truth. Hermione agrees that that wouldn't break the Vow, and that she'd try to do some research and see if they can break the spell. Ron points out that the whole point is that it's "unbreakable" and she shoots him a nasty look.
"At least look at the bright side," she said. "Riddle also made a mistake. Now he can't ever hurt Danny or Ginny."
"There's something I don't understand," Harry said. "If that thing you saw last year on the back of Quirrell's head was Voldemort, Danny, then how was Tom also Voldemort?"
"I'm not sure," Danny said. "Maybe it has something to do with that diary?"
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Then, Lucius Malfoy again presses the case against Dumbledore: this wouldn't have happened without him. He had let the threat go on, unchecked. How could he have not noticed a basilisk? Without Dumbledore, the situation had been resolved previously. Look at the disaster of the previous year. He again tries to urge Danny to speak to the Board.
Danny refuses. He had enough of being manipulated.
Dumbledore returns the very next day.
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End of Book 2: Monsters.
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Plot summary of Monsters:
Quirrell is dead. Remus Lupin, rather than Lockhart, became the DADA professor instead, because he was already at Hogwarts for a year and there were no problems and he proved an excellent resource for the school. When Hagrid is at risk of being sent to Azkaban for petrifying students, he suspects something and doubles down on his research, finally determining that the monster must be a basilisk, because all Hagrid's roosters were murdered and the suddenness of Moaning Myrtle's death (he first checked the records, then asked her directly), and that there must be a co-conspirator somewhere who murdered the roosters. This second part he kept closer to the chest, and only told Dumbledore, Minerva, and hesitantly, Danny and Harry, as a warning for them to be careful. Unfortunately, he also caught Ginny listening in to the conversation and scolded her heavily (he blamed her obvious crush on Harry), and also warned her to keep mum about it, or else. This is ultimately what leads to Remus Lupin being petrified as well - he was clever enough to always bring a mirror about him, to look about corners, and so wasn't killed immediately.
With his petrification, the worries of the Hogwarts staff tripled, since it seems not even the teachers were invulnerable. Forces (Lucius and the governor's board blackmailed by Lucius) trying to close the school/depose the Headmaster redoubled their efforts, and finding another DADA professor was on the last of their minds. They were just discussing this when poor Ginny Weasley disappeared and the announcement came out for all students to return to their common rooms.
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Growing Up
Book Three: Truth-Seekers
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Chapter One
Summer Happenings
During the summer, Danny decides to explore the ghost zone. As a result, he becomes more well-known to ghosts. This book follows the DP plot a little more, and some of the same events happen. Skulker, firstly, Technus, maybe even Ember over the summer, Vlad, Pariah Dark, Nocturne, eventually a TUE variant (then he meets Clockwork). Some of them bargain with him to be able to go back to the human world, like Johnny and Kitty. He meets Nocturne in the GZ very early on.
Notices about Sirius Black come in, in the mean-time. He talks with Harry, Ron (who at some point leaves to visit Egypt with his family and ends up in the papers with Scabbers), Hermione, and Neville frequently. The other Gryffindor boys less so. When he first goes over to the Dursleys to see Harry, since they live close and Danny is stubborn, he is stunned at the conditions Harry lives in.
Danny is still working through and sitting on Quirrell's letters, now that the crazy last semester has died down. He often discusses them with Hermione, who knows about them and is good at analyzing the information.
Tucker comes and visits. Stays over for a week. They have a good time.
Vlad comes to visit his parents. He has less of a good time, since Vlad reminds him of Malfoy. During a ghost attack on his dad, Vlad finds out about Danny being a halfa.
Danny's parents invent stuff.
The truth-seekers, who after learning that Danny's parents are ecto-ghost hunters and knowing that he had connections to Quirrell, want to recruit him. They contact him near the end of summer with a mysterious message.
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School year starts. Prisoner of Azkaban. Focuses on the truth-seekers.
Dementor in train. Not a good time.
In the school year, Danny comes to terms with not being able to use magic anymore, if he keeps using his powers like this. He and Hermione decide to learn more about why that is happening. Danny, tired of keeping secrets and seeing how much better it is when he shares with friends, opens up to her about having gone to the truth-seekers, and thinks that they might have some answers for him.
Skulker comes and attacks him. It hypes up the Sirius Black scare. Danny is able to defeat him.
Hogsmeade. To his shock, he sees Tom Riddle there, though he has a charm to subtly alter his appearance, in the bar, just talking to people. Tom sees him, and just smiles. Danny, smartly, decides to stay away.
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Danny and Hermione join the truth-seekers together, keeping Danny's secret off the books. Hermione is easily able to get in with her keen intellect. They don't want much from them. The truth-seekers are subtle influencers of society, gathers of knowledge. They hardly ever exert their influence, and are often more a loose collection of scholars than anything else. However, high-ranking members, like Quirrell was, do tend to have the ear of prime members of the Ministry. They are also just in love with knowledge.
Very few outside of their ranks know that they actually exist. They know the value of secrets.
They meet with some of the members, and share knowledge of ectoplasm. It is revealed that ectoplasm is a form of wild magic, like Dark magic. In fact, it is theorized that it is the root of all magic, before it was tamed and put into spell-form.
Some things become clearer, and Danny and Hermione speculate afterwards as to why Danny was having such trouble performing magic. Then they start planning on what they can do about it.
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Some of Vlad's minions come to attack. Ghost bros unite… but they can't really do much against them, though they can be injured. Therefore, they end up more ask victims against the sudden onslaught of ghosts rather than as allies for Danny.
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Hogsmeade comes again. Danny sees Tom. This time, Tom is alone and he walks up to Danny. They talk. Some of that conversation is about how people know what Tom look like and were searching for him; though Harry's knowledge explains that. Danny asks about the diary. Also why Tom was there. Tom explained that he was working at Hogsmeade. Living a quiet life, like he said. (Though he is actually picking up rumors, trying to make some money and live like anybody else, making allies, trying to discover the whereabouts of old allies, and meeting with said old allies. Eventually, he meets with Lucius. Tom hungers for power and fears death. He won't stop there.) Tom reveals to Danny his fear of death, drawing him in deeper.
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Since Tom craves knowledge about ectoplasm, which can stop his death without splitting his soul apart and driving himself slowly insane, his target is the truth-seekers. (They also have power with the Ministry, which makes it even more tempting.) That will be the focal point of the book, along-side Sirius's return. The two plot threads coincide at one point (Tom meets Sirius?).
Ideally, Tom will end up in a high-ranking position of the Truth-seekers and be content there, pulling strings.
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Over Winter Break, Danny discovers Vlad's halfa status. Vlad does not know about magic. They enter a standoff.
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Ensue ghostly action and ominous Sirius lurking (which is not so very ominous after all).
Danny becomes completely unable to use magic.
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It becomes revealed, through the Truthseekers, that "magic" is really just tamed magic, whereas Dark Magic and ectoplasm are like wild, untamed magic. It is too strong for Danny to control anymore with a wand (or at least, a regular wand, or without extensive training). This is why ectoplasm is so coveted by the parts of the magical community that know about it; it's like magic in its unbridled form. Some say the very source of magic itself.
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Pariah Dark variant would conclude this book, who Vlad poked awake like in DP. However, since this is magical and involves ectoplasm, Riddle and the Truthseekers get involved with that. They both see it as a way to increase their influence, especially since Danny, similarly to in DP was able to fight him off. Some dementors end up permanently killed in the battle. These are the seeds of Danny becoming Ghost King: powerful people pushing him into it. Riddle leverages his Unbreakable Vow.
Just before the battle, things happen with Sirius and Harry, and Ron's rat.
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Later events:
About timeline 2: Eliza asks Danny about timeline 2 in an interlude, since something is bothering her about it. It turns out that after Danny meets Clockwork, he ended up exploring an actual other timeline, and learned more about Quirrell and his other self because of it. TUE hasn't happened yet in-telling, so it's not told in detail here
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Book 4 of HP begins: The Goblet of Fire.
By this point, Riddle is well and truly strong-arming Danny and honestly kind of stalking him to try to build a friendship or loyalty and stuff. The more trust involved, the stronger and the more broader the definition of "betrayal" is, so he can get Danny to do stuff for him. Needless to say, it is not a very good friendship.
Danny has to unenroll from Hogwarts because he can't do magic anymore. After utterly failing finals the last semester, he is told this, and is on a probationary period for this semester. He knows he's not going to be able to do it. Truth-seekers can't help much
TUE happens, but things are very different, related to the Triwizard Championship and Danny's desire to protect Harry… This theme follows "cheating for a friend" rather than "cheating for yourself", because he is legitimately worried for his friend, but this is showing that he also doesn't have trust in Harry.
Danny finally meets Clockwork
Danny and Hermione try dating sort of, but it doesn't really work out. Ends up kind of sad, though by the end of it him and Hermione are still bros. By that point she knows about his ghostliness
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Riddle remains a sort of Gray player, if Voldemort is Dark and Dumbledore is Light.
Riddle, however, gathers followers. Since he knows about Danny's halfaness, he wants to see if he can recreate it. After having peeled the details from Danny, they break into Danny's parents' house and Lestrange, the craziest one of them all, goes into the portal as they switch it on. Except she just ends up dying and turning into a full ghost, who ends up terrorizing. Danny feels responsible because Riddle couldn't have done it if Danny hadn't slipped and told him stuff. (Possible that they recruit Vlad to build them a new portal instead, if it is not possible to just switch off the portal and on again. If Riddle ever finds out about Vlad. Which would be bad.)
The reason why Danny didn't die was because of the ectoplasm that was already in him, from the slow exposure he got from a child (eating ectoplasm in his cereal, etc.). Because of this, there was already like a sort of mold in his body that the intense jolt of ectoplasm from the portal could seep into and fit in a way that was still compatible with a human body. For Lestrange it was just like blasting her body into nothingness with no direction and just imbuing her entire self with ectoplasm.
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Werewolf Liberation, very long ways away. Based on thermos theory ("ectoplasmic vacuum"), and ecto dejecto idea. Basically a revolution then for werewolf rights, since this new medicine could suppress and "tame" the wild werewolf magic, and turn werewolves more into animagi.
Remus gets pretty involved with this stuff.
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From here on it's just kind of life. And you know, a mix of crazy things happening every now and then
At some point, Danny probably does make an attempt to join NASA, putting off being ghost king. There he probably meets "grandma", so it's not anybody you know. Surprise.
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He practices using magic with a special thestral-ecto wand and is finally able to get the hang of it.
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Mom gets into a car accident at some point. Dealing with that.
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Messing around with friends, also having a good time. Being optimistic about life. Being caught between the muggle world and the wizarding one.
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Vlad pesters him. Vlad hopefully never learns about magic or else this plot gets too complicated
Dani happens, which is great
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Horcrux Hunt, Wizarding War with Voldemort's return, some stuff that happens in the HP books.
Tom Riddle also dies somehow at some point. Maybe he becomes a crazy rock metalhead and dies in flames of glory as he realizes his true destiny is not politics but screaming his guts out, except someone set the stage on fire because they realized he used to be Voldemort. Sad life. (Actually he probably gets killed because he's a horcrux and Voldemort can't die otherwise, which is really an issue for moral debate. Or ectoplasm does come in handy to severe the two souls. I imagine he probably would have done a lot of research into the with the Truthseekers, so the second option is more likely. Then he dies in a pillar of flames on a rock stage.)
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He meets Sam at some point, either in the very late years of Hogwarts or just after Hogwarts. He meets with Tucker in Amity Park to resolve some things. Some things go down in Amity Park: ghostly and magical things that seem to never want to leave him behind. The GIW comes. He ends up becoming the ghost king by the end of it and doing his coronation for real.
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Tons of other things that I probably half set up but forgot about. Imagine some crazy conspiracy stuff.
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Danny has a child, Scott. Scott dies when he's 21 (or 23) doing dragon handling, soon after Eliza was born. Danny becomes somewhat more reclusive after this and more involved in his ghostly duties.
He is friends with his Hogwarts buddies and talks to them every now and then. And Tucker, of course.
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Tucker dies, which jump-starts the writing of this book. Grandma dies in the middle of writing the book. Eliza got upset about Danny not staying at the funeral, which you know. Sam also dies towards the end of the writing of the first book, which Danny only finds out afterwards.
Then Danny becomes fully ghost and fully king, he concludes the book series and tries to make sense of his life. Which was basically "things are weird, things are hard, but you know, you can control them and get the hang of them and keep moving on. That's part of being an adult, and even if this shit keeps cropping up anyway and attacking in waves, I actually got a handle on this shit. So I guess I better now stop moping around too and live a little and do a good job and get rid of Lestrange finally. Plus hang out with Eliza, because family is important. He embraces his ghostly life and moves on, and psuedo-dies slowly as he becomes a full ghost and loses his human traits and nonsensicality, and becomes a little more archetypal like Tucker's stories."
The end.
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If you really read through all this, thanks for hanging on for a crazy ride, and hope you don't hate me too much for an unsatisfying ending. But I don't think this story would be an exciting one to write or even read, as it is, and I have decided to end it here before it becomes an empty 1 million word monstrosity (because it would really take one million words to tell this story unless I did just summarize a bunch of stuff... which I have learned is not a bad idea at all). I think I tackled too much and tried to make it too life-ish, which ended up mixing weirdly when combined with the confines of a per-year style novel. I didn't really have any huge plans or motivations for plot, only vague ideas for character, kind of cool world-building reveals (I thought), and themes I wanted to throw in, but overall, it just wasn't very cohesive or centralized. Like for example, I had some plans for Draco too that I didn't even throw in here. There's just no follow-up for the set-up I did without spinning into a whole big shebang that takes us even further away from the main themes, which are already too divorced from the main plotlines. There were just so many things and separate things that it's hard to believe that it fits in one person's life, much less a story. And we didn't really come to just read lifeish things, if they aren't also poignant and potent. That's when we start playing life simulators instead. Or just reading actual non-fictional books like memoirs to learn about life directly.
Anyhow, everyone, be safe. Wash your hands often, don't panic but be prepared for coronavirus. Stock up on nonperishables like pasta, if you're young be really careful around your older folks because they're more at risk than you are. Keep in mind the impact this might have on your normal life, like disrupting school, work, etc., and plan for that. Outside of that, live life as best as you can.
See you all around.