Here we are folks, the third chapter. Unfortunately this is going to be a bit of a nothing chapter. Danny and Sabrina spend more time together and get to know each other more, and seeds are being planted for the future.

Chapter 3: Group Assignment

As Sabrina walks to her first class of the day, she sees a familiar face getting books from her locker. It was an African American girl with long curly dark hair and an orange headband holding it back. She's wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt, with an orange skirt and white tennis shoes.

Sabrina remembers this girl from her job at the Nasty Burger and she goes over to greet her, "Valerie."

Valerie Gray looks behind her and sees who was calling her, "Sabrina?"

The young witch approaches the other girl with an excited look on her face, "I don't believe it, you go to this school too?"

Valerie smiles and nods, "I would've been here yesterday or the day before, but I had to help out my dad back home. I heard about the ghost attack, are you okay?"

Sabrina nods, "If the ghost kid hadn't showed up when he did, I probably would've been a goner."

"…Oh." Valerie says as she takes out the last of her books and closes her locker. "Well…I'm just glad you're okay. I don't think the Nasty Burger can afford to lose their new mascot."

Sabrina chuckles, "Oh no, who are those jerks from the other day going to harass now?"

Valerie's face fell, "What Dash did was SO not cool. He's lucky that wasn't me inside the burger suit."

"Ah, don't worry about it, that was days ago. Besides, I probably wouldn't have met Danny if it wasn't for that." Valerie looks at Sabrina with a raised eyebrow,

"Danny? You mean Danny Fenton?"

"You know him?"

"We speak to each other from time to time. He's alright I guess."

"I spoke with him and his friends at lunch the other day, they're nice people once you get to know them."

The school bell starts to ring.

Sabrina looks back at her friend/coworker, "I better head to class, I'll see you around Val."

The two girls wave at each other and head to their individual classes.

"Alright class, settle down," Mr. Lancer says as he tries to get the attention of his students. Once the class finally quiets down, he continues, "Now the first book we are going to read is actually a stage play by William Shakespeare himself. For the next few weeks we are going to take a look at Macbeth. A story about a man who lets his rise to power corrupt him. Now the way we are going to discuss the book I'm sure you kids will definitely get a kick out of. What we are going to do is this: I am going to split you up into groups of two or three, and I will randomly pick a scene for that group to go over and act out in front of the class." Mr. Lancer then proceeds to pick two random names from a box. "Mr. Fenton, Ms. Spellman, it seems like you two will be covering the very first scene from the first act, where Macbeth receives his prophecy from the trio of witches. Now I know that in the original story there were actually three witches as opposed to just one, but I'm sure you two will think of something."

Once class was over, Sabrina catches up with Danny who had just left the room, "Hey Danny, wait up."

The halfa turns around and smiles upon seeing his new friend, "Oh, hey Sabrina, I take it you want to know where you want us to meet for our group project. I guess since we live next door to each other, visiting each other's houses won't be much of a hassle. So, you want me to come to your house or do you want to come to mine?"

The young witch thought about it for a moment. She didn't want Danny to see the various spellbooks, cauldrons, and potion ingredients that were all over her home.

With that she makes her decision, "I should probably come to your house, my aunts and I are still unpacking so the place is a bit of a mess."

Danny chuckles, "Hey, I understand. My place it is."

Sabrina smiles, "Cool."

As Sabrina arrives at the front door of the Fenton household, she begins to feel some anxiety.

"Why am I so nervous all of a sudden?" she asks herself. "I'm just visiting a friend's house. Nothing major right? Right." She then takes a deep breath. "Okay, here goes."

She rings the doorbell. The door opens and she's greeted by a woman in her forties, with a blue and black hazmat suit, shoulder length red hair and violet eyes. The young witch immediately recognizes this woman as Danny's mother.

Maddie looks down at Sabrina and smiles, "Sabrina, hi. Come right on in sweetie, Danny's in the living room."

The two ladies approach the living room where Danny is already sitting on the couch reading Macbeth. The halfa looks up and sees his new friend.

Sabrina smiles and waves, "I take it you're ready to get started."

Danny smiles back, "Absolutely."

As Sabrina sits next to Danny on the couch, Maddie leaves the room to help out her husband in the lab.

As she's leaving she says, "Now I don't want any funny business up here. If there's one thing I know from studying with your father back in college, is that it's hard to fight the urge."

Danny's eyes widened, "MOM."

Sabrina just looks the other way, her freckled face turning beet red.

Maddie just giggles as she makes her way to the basement.

Danny looks over at his friend, "I am SO sorry about that."

Sabrina looks over at him and just smiles, "It's okay, if we were at my house, my aunts would do the exact same thing."

Moments later, the two teens are going over the scene they were assigned with.

Danny was the first to speak, "You know, it's a good thing Lancer gave us a version of the story that has both the original script and the modern translation. I think you and I would have a REALLY tough time trying to understand Shakespearean."

Sabrina chuckles, "You say that like Shakespearean is an actual language."

"It might as well be."

The young witch lightly laughs, "So, do you want to be Macbeth, or do you want to be the witches?"

"…You're kidding right?"

"*chuckles* Alright, you can be Macbeth."

"You think you can handle playing all three witches?"

The young witch shrugs, "Sure, why not? How hard can it be? Hey, just be glad we're not doing one of Shakespeare's more romantic plays, I don't think your mom would ever leave us alone."

The halfa groans at that remark.

After some awkward silence, Sabrina decided to bring up another topic of discussion, a topic that she really wanted Danny's opinion of, "Pretty bizarre that this story starts with a guy meeting witches, huh?"

"Hmm, oh, yeah, I guess that is pretty crazy."

Sabrina bites her bottom lip, "So, uh, what do you think of witches?"

Danny looks over at her in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Like…what are your thoughts about them? I mean, we know that ghosts are real, how would you feel if you found out that witches were real too?"

Danny begins to think about what his friend just asked him. That was a very interesting question she just asked. Through his experience fighting ghosts…as well as being a ghost himself…he's well aware of their existence, but the possibility of other mythological beings existing…He never really brought that to consideration. He did remember his father telling him at one point that he had an ancestor who was a witch hunter, which now that Danny thought about it sounds even more morbid than hunting ghosts. At least with ghosts, they are already dead, witches are still living beings who look very much human, you might as well be committing mass murder.

"You know I…haven't really thought about it," Danny finally speaks. "I mean, if ghosts exists, witches must exist too right? Heck, I bet fairies must also exist."

"You'd be surprised…" Sabrina thought with a hidden smile.

"Hmm, that's a good question. Honestly, I don't know how I would feel if I found out that witches exist. I mean, are there good witches, or just bad ones? I know Sam would absolutely lose her mind, she absolutely LOVES witches. Tucker…*chuckles* He would probably ask if they are any witches that are cute…now that I think about it, I probably would too."

Sabrina blushed a little at that last part.

"Man, now THAT would be pretty bizarre, finally getting the courage to ask a girl out, only to find out she's a witch…It'd be pretty scary actually. I mean, what if I look at her wrong or say the wrong thing? I don't want to have to come home and explain to my family why I'm suddenly a frog."

Sabrina bursts into laughter, "I don't think that will ever happen."

Danny looks over with a small smile, "You think so?"

"Weell, if you do something that would piss her off, sure. But I doubt any girl would ever stay mad at you. You're too much of a sweet guy."

Now it was Danny's turn to blush, "Thanks, Sabrina."

After hours of studying together, Sabrina asked Danny if he could give her a tour of Fenton Works. This led to the two teens going downstairs to the basement where the halfa shows his new friend the lab. Sabrina looks around and was fascinated by all the weapons and ghost hunting equipment Danny's parents made. Danny shows her all of the gadgets and gear that were simply lying around, weapons such as the Fenton Bazooka, the Fenton Foamer and the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick (Which for some reason looks like a baseball bat), and vehicles like the Fenton Ghost-Assault Vehicle (Which is an RV) and the Fenton Speeder. Sabrina saw other kooky inventions like the Fenton Ghost Catcher and the Fenton Ghost Fisher. What really caught her attention was a cool looking battle suit that almost looks like it hasn't been fully built yet.

The young witch whistles, "That looks pretty metal. What is it?"

Danny puts down the Fenton Ghost Weasel to see what Sabrina was talking about, "Oh, that? Mom and Dad call it the Ecto-Skeleton. It's supposed to be an armored suit used to fight even the toughest of ghosts. As you can see, it's not yet finished."

Sabrina just nods, then she turns around and sees a familiar looking thermos on the table. "Hey, I remember that ghost kid using this to dispose of those ghosts I've seen."

Danny moves over to the thermos and picks it up, "Yeah, this is the Fenton Thermos. You know those proton packs from Ghostbusters? It's sorta like that. Just pull off the cap, point it at the ghost, and he or she will get sucked right in…Of course, how the ghost boy always keeps getting a hold of this thing is a mystery I have yet to solve."

The young witch nods again, "And where do you put the ghosts when they get sucked into that thing?"

The halfa then points to a giant round door.

Sabrina walks towards it, "What is it? A stargate?"

"It's called the Ghost Portal," Danny answers. "This is what leads to the Ghost Zone. My parents built this roughly a year ago."

"Wow," Sabrina says in amazement. She looks over at Danny. "Have you ever been inside of the Ghost Zone?"

Danny shrugs, "Once or twice."

The blonde then grins, "Think you'll ever give me the grand tour?"

"Uh…I don't think that's a good idea. My…last trip in there wasn't exactly a day at the beach."

Sabrina begins to inspect the portal "So how do you turn it on?"

"The on switch is inside the portal."

The blonde looks back at Danny in confusion, "…Seriously? That sounds like a huge design flaw. Sounds really dangerous too. I mean, what would happen if someone was inside this thing when the portal activates?"

Danny knew the answer to that question far too well. Just by looking at this portal, flashbacks of "the accident" started playing in his head.

He looks back at Sabrina, "I think it's best if we don't find out."

Looking back at the Fenton Thermos, Sabrina says, "So uh, I had another run in with the ghost boy the other night."

Upon hearing that, Danny felt like it was the perfect opportunity to bring his alter ego into discussion, "Really? A…Are you okay?"

The young witch shrugs, "It was nothing major. Some guy calling himself "The Box Ghost" was harassing me. He showed up and took care of it. Apparently his name isn't Inviso-Bill after all. He calls himself "Danny Phantom", which sounds so much cooler by the way. You're probably weirded out by the fact that the two of you share the same first name."

"Eh, not really. I mean, Danny is a pretty common name right?"

"Right, which is why the next time I see him I'll just call him "Phantom" to avoid confusion."

There was some silence. Danny looks over at Sabrina, who was still looking at the thermos. He begins to looks down in contemplation, "It's now or never Danny."

He looks back at his friend, "So uh, what are your thoughts about him?"

Sabrina looks over at Danny, "What do you mean?"

"There are some people out there that think he's no different from all the other ghosts that wreak havoc in this town. But I'm curious to know what you think about him."

Sabrina looks back at the thermos, "I think he's completely misunderstood. You know who Valerie Gray is right? When I mentioned Phantom, she had this look of resentment. Almost like she doesn't think he's one of the good guys. I know what I saw at the cafeteria, he was there to protect us from that minotaur. I really do think he's trying to make a difference in this town, and people just aren't giving him enough credit."

Danny looks over to the side and quietly says, "Sometimes us normal folks just want to hate on things that we don't understand…"

"Yes, exactly."

Danny starts to feel confident knowing that his new friend thinks highly of his alter ego, he then chuckles, "Careful, people will think you're like Paulina and is crushing on the guy."

Sabrina snorts a laugh, "Me? Crushing on Phantom? Look, I appreciate what he does for this town, but not enough to want to ask him out on a date or something. Besides, isn't he, like, dead? It wouldn't really work out in the long run. I mean, imagine twenty five year old me being married to a guy who still looks fifteen. That would be uber creepy."

Danny chuckles, "Don't let Tucker hear you say that, he's still to this day fantasizes over one day marrying Josie McCoy."

Sabrina lightly laughs, "Isn't she currently dating that one guy? Alan…something?"

"Yeeah, don't let him hear you say that either."

With that the two teens laugh.

Maddie is in the kitchen washing dishes and from the corner of her eye she sees Jazz walk in.

"I take it Danny is still spending some quality time with his new friend?" she asks as she continues what she is doing.

"They're in the living room playing Smash Badger: Wack-E Trilogy," the eldest Fenton sibling says with a smile.

"WHAT? NO WAY," yells Sabrina. "I was nowhere near that enemy."

"Yeah, the hitboxes in this game are super weird," Danny says as he sits back on the couch with her hands behind his back.

"And I swear, that jump is impossible to make. Man I am so glad I didn't get this DLC. I would be pulling my hair out."

"I have an older cousin who used to own the original Smash Badger trilogy. He thinks the games featured in this remake are way harder than he remembered."

"Have you played them?"

"Only when I was very little, I could never get past the first level of the first game. Jazz would always come in and beat it for me."

Sabrina gives a sly smirk and starts to pinch Danny's cheek, "Aw, did poor little Danny need his big sister to help him beat a level?"

Danny rolls his eyes but still smiles, "Shut up, I was 5, it was the first time I've ever played a game."

"You keep telling yourself that little bro," Jazz says as she walks in the room. "Remind me again who had to help you beat, "Piggyback Ride" after you've gotten FIVE GAME OVERS?"

Danny crosses his arms and pouts, "I was having an off day."

Jazz just rolls her eyes. She then looks over at Sabrina, "Your Aunt Zelda just called. She wants you to come home for dinner."

"I've been here that long huh?" Sabrina says as she gets up from the couch. "Well I guess I better get going then."

The halfa escorts the young witch to the door.

As he opens it and Sabrina walks out, she turns around and says, "So, uh, I guess this is goodbye for now. I can practice my lines for tomorrow over dinner."

Danny nods, "I appreciate you coming over, I had a blast."

Sabrina gives a warm smile, "Yeah, me too."

The two teens stare at each other for a brief moment until Danny clears his throat, "So uh, I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

Sabrina blushes, realizing what was doing a second ago and looks in the other direction, "Yeah, yeah I'll see you tomorrow."

With that, the blonde leaves.

Danny closes the door and then leans behind it with a deep sigh and a smile on his face. He then looks ahead and sees his mother and sister looking at him with sly grins on their faces.

The halfa begins to look annoyed, "What?"

Meanwhile inside a mansion located in Madison, Wisconsin…

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE MINOTAUR DIDN'T GET THE JOB DONE?"

Skulker casually stands there, while Vlad Masters continues to throw his tantrum.

"You said he was a high level ghost, someone even I wouldn't be able to beat, and you tell me Daniel was able to beat him no problem?"

Skulker finally speaks, "If I can interject, I was monitoring the entire fight. The whelp didn't actually beat the minotaur, at least not on his own…"

Vlad turns around and narrows his eyes, "What, are you saying he had outside help?"

"I'm saying we may have a much bigger threat on our hands."

Skulker pulls out a small monitor and shows Vlad footage of the Phantom/minotaur fight. At a certain point, the ghostly hunter pauses the footage and starts to zoom in on a blonde teenage girl that the halfa has never seen before.

Vlad looks back up at Skulker with a raised eyebrow, "Why are you showing me this random girl?"

Skulker rolls his eyes, "Look at what she's holding in her hand."

Vlad takes a closer look. He's now even more confused, "Is that a…magic wand?"

Skulker nods, "Mm hmm. This isn't just any girl, she's a witch."

Vlad looks back at the ghostly hunter with a surprised look on his face, "A witch?"

Skulker nods again.

"Like…an actual, for real, hocus pocus witch? They actually exist?"

"There are plenty of beings that you thought may not be real, but actually are. They all exist in a realm separate from the Ghost Zone. If you thought we ghosts aren't people to be trifled with, witches are FAR worse. They are VERY powerful, their magic could destroy even the strongest of ghosts. In other words, we fear them. There's a reason why we have our own separate realm."

Vlad continues to look at the paused footage with great focus, "Hmm, so you're saying our chances of destroying Daniel are now moot, now with this "witch" running around."

"Weell, not exactly. I showed Desiree the footage before coming here. She told me that the paralysis spell that was being cast on the minotaur was low level. This witch is nothing short of a pure novice. She's still learning her magic."

"And let me guess, she'll eventually become more powerful the older she gets?"

Skulker doesn't say anything.

Vlad growls and kicks a chair, "DAMMIT." The then begins to calm down, and walk towards the window. He then looks at the night sky.

"I've waited long enough, I need to hurry and find the Skeleton Key. Once I've gotten my hands on it, even this "teenage witch" won't be able to stop me."

Well...now you know who sent that minotaur to attack the school, and it looks like Sabrina's presence is starting to gain the attention of some of Danny's rogues. This can be either really good, or extremely bad. On one hand, Danny now has a powerful new ally who will put the fear of God, in a vast majority of his villains. On the other hand, this puts a massive target on Sabrina's back as some of Danny's villains will see her as either a much bigger threat that needs to be dealt with, or they might see her magic as an asset to some grand scheme.

So Vlad's after the Skeleton Key...I think some of you know where I'm going with this...Hell, I even teased the Ecto-Skeleton. But it's going to be a while before I get there. Danny and Sabrina's friendship is starting to grow, but how long before they eventually know each other secrets (It won't be TOO long. I promise.)? You just have to keep reading to find out.

Be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts on the story so far. Oh, and I like to give another shoutout to Flower princess11 for giving me the go ahead on writing a scene that was inspired by one of her DP fics.

Until next time...