The visit to Amity Park was pleasant. He hadn't been away from his friends for more than a few days before this and he hadn't realised how much he missed them. They spent the entire day playing video games and watching movies. He ate dinner with his parents and sister, a rarity in the Fenton household between Jazz's studying even in the summer, Danny dealing with ghosts and Maddie and Jack working in the lab. The glowing food couldn't compare to Hogwarts meals, but it was nice all the same.
He returned to Hogwarts that evening to have his last lesson in Occulmency for the next few weeks. Dumbledore was only able to breach Danny's mind once and even then it was only for a split second, not enough to get any information. Dumbledore dismissed Danny for the evening so he could learn off the list of spells his "wand" was capable of.
The next day, early afternoon, Dumbledore apparated Danny to Grimmauld Place.
"You really have to tell me how that works sometime," Danny muttered as they walked to the materialised building. Dumbledore chuckled.
"Certainly, apparition is easy to explain but takes a lot of practice to get right. But that will have to wait for now," Dumbledore replied. Danny nodded and allowed Dumbledore to knock on the door.
"Finally, someone remembers not to ring the blasted door bell," a man grumbled on the other side of the door as it opened, revealing Sirius Black. The wizard grinned and allowed Dumbledore in.
"Hey Dumbledore," the man beamed before spotting Danny.
"Who's the kid?" he inquired with a slight frown.
"Sirius, this Danny Fenton. Danny, Sirius Black," Dumbledore introduced them. Deciding to play the part, Danny blinked in shock.
"As in the escaped mass murderer? Woah, I'm not so sure about this Dumbledore," Danny exclaimed. Sirius scowled, missing the mischievous glint in Dumbledore's twinkling eyes as he instantly understood what Danny was doing.
"Calm down Danny. Sirius isn't a murderer. He was framed and wrongly convicted," Dumbledore assured the teen. Danny glanced at Dumbledore before acting perfectly uncertain as he bit his lip and nodded.
"Alright, if you say so. I trust your judgement Dumbledore," Danny relented and not-so-discretely slipped his hand into his pocket to grip his "wand". Sirius noticed the action and stomped into the dark, dusty house towards the kitchen.
"Danny, try not to upset Sirius. Being cooped up in this house is hard enough for him," Dumbledore whispered.
"Don't worry. After the meeting, hopefully Sirius will have done or said something to "change" my mind. I don't like ticking him off either but you know secret identity," Danny replied softly. Dumbledore gave a slight nod before they entered the kitchen.
The room was filled with people. Sirius had slumped in a chair furthest from the door. Mrs Weasley was clearing away dirty dishes, clearly the residents had just finished lunch. Mr Weasley as well as the five teens Danny spotted last time were seated around the table. Remus and Tonks had also arrived.
"What's up Sirius?" one of the red-head twins called, noticing the wizard's dark mood.
"There may have been a slight disagreement between Sirius and a new member. Everyone, this is Danny Fenton," Dumbledore answered and gestured to Danny as the teen entered the room.
"New member?! He can't be older than us!" the other twin exclaimed scandalised.
"I'm sure Danny only looks young George. Danny, you're over seventeen right?" Mr Weasley interjected. Dumbledore and Danny had already decided not to lie about Danny's age. They were lying about enough without changing his age too.
"Er, actually I'm sixteen. But laws are different in America and my parents agreed to this," Danny answered. The one of red-head boys spun around to the brunette teen.
"Hermione, is that true?" he demanded. The girl bit her lip.
"I haven't read anything about American wizarding laws. I don't know," she mumbled, Danny could see it killed her to admit it. Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly.
"I do believe introductions are in order," Dumbledore prompted, reminding them that Danny didn't know their names, or at least shouldn't.
"Sorry dear. Molly Weasley," Mrs Weasley began the introductions, offering Danny a handshake. Danny smiled to show he didn't mind and shook her hand, regretfully forcing himself to keep acting wary of Sirius. Mr Weasley, Tonks and Lupin introduced themselves, Lupin giving Danny a discrete smirk. Then it came to the teens.
"Fred Weasley," one twin called.
"George Weasley," the other added.
"But everyone gets us mixed up," the twins chorused giving cheeky grins to the halfa. Danny could just tell they'd said their names the wrong way around. He nodded and shook their hands.
"Hermione Granger," the brunette teen told him.
"Ron Weasley," the last red-head boy informed him.
"Ginny Weasley," the final teen concluded.
"So, you're from America?" Hermione inquired as Danny and Dumbledore sat down at the table, politely declining anything Mrs Weasley offered.
"Yep," Danny confirmed.
"Not a very strong accent," "Fred" remarked. Danny rolled his eyes.
"So ya'll want me ta talk like this now George?" Danny retorted, putting on a mockingly strong southern accent.
"No. I just thought all Americans had strong accents. Wait! You called me George!" George replied. Danny smirked.
"I may be from America, but I can spot a prank when I see one. Been in enough pranking wars," Danny commented. The twins gaped at Danny.
"We can trick everyone! Even mum!" Fred exclaimed. Danny shrugged.
"Then you should have learnt by now not to give the game away," Danny advised.
Fred and George shared incredulous looks before smirking deviously. Danny could sense a coming pranking war. Unfortunately this time he couldn't use his ghost powers to give himself the edge. But experience meant that the twins would find it hard to catch the halfa off guard. Suddenly there was a clanging noise in the hallway and a woman started screaming. Sirius glared angrily at the door before jumping to his feet and pulling out his wand.
"Dammit! I've told them not to use the bloody doorbell!" Sirius growled and stomped out of the kitchen.
"Who's that screaming?" Danny asked with concern.
"Oh no need to worry Danny. That's just a painting of Sirius's mother. This house was previously owned by her before she died some years ago," Dumbledore assured the teen calmly. Minutes later, the screaming stopped and Mad-Eye clomped into the kitchen.
After a quick introduction and a few more entrances, everyone was gathered for the meeting and Mrs Weasley ushered the teens out, bar Danny much to the others' outrage.
"Right, so Danny here is a new member and until further notice will be staying here. Is that alright Sirius?" Dumbledore began. Sirius scowled at Danny, who shrank slightly under the wizard's glare to keep up appearances.
"Sirius, he's only young," Mrs Weasley interjected.
"No excuse," Sirius growled.
"Sirius," Mad-Eye warned. Sirius frowned at the auror before sighing and nodding to Dumbledore.
"Good. Now, Severus, any news we should be aware of?" Dumbledore continued. Severus sighed and gave a brief rundown of Voldemort's recent movements.
It was a shorter meeting than Danny's first. Concluded with a few commands and an order for Danny to meet Dumbledore at a nearby location the next day. Danny knew that the meeting was so that he could meet the tutor Dumbledore finally tracked down. He'd be having lessons regularly during term and every available day until then. Due to Danny's duties to the order, his education would be interrupted regularly and so the wizard decided that Danny couldn't be restricted to term and school times if he wanted to keep up with his peers.
Then one by one the members filtered out, leaving Mr and Mrs Weasley, Sirius and Danny in the kitchen. For the first few seconds there was awkward silence. Unfortunately Danny had to continue acting wary around Sirius as the wizard had done nothing to "redeem" himself. It felt wrong to Danny to keep up the façade as he understood Sirius's position and even empathised. After all, he'd been labelled evil and a criminal unjustly too. But he couldn't suddenly trust Sirius without a plausible reason without risking his secret.
"So, Danny. Tell us about your family," Mr Weasley suggested, eager to break the tension. Danny smiled.
"Well my mom's a witch, works in our government, the MACUSA. Nothing special a pen pusher more than anything. My dad is a muggle. Crazy inventor type. Bane of the town," Danny answered, silently grateful for Dumbledore and Lupin for giving a quick outline of what the wizarding world was like in America. He'd decided with Dumbledore to not mention Jazz or that he had siblings. If he had to, he'd say Jazz was a friend, like Sam and Tucker.
"A muggle? Really? I find muggles fascinating. Please, tell me more," Mr Weasley prompted excitedly. Danny smirked, thinking of what Mr Weasley would say if he ever learned that Danny was a muggle himself. But happy to distract himself from the act of being frightened of Sirius, Danny began to describe the life of a muggle.
And Danny is now living at Grimmauld Place. In case anyone's wondering, Harry isn't there, the dementor attack at Little Whinging hasn't happened yet. This is still early summer.
Let me know what you guys think so far.
Until the next chapter.
