The next day, Harry was obviously falling behind on his homework and Danny felt bad for the wizard. Ron had also fallen behind, but Danny just blamed that on laziness. Danny listened to their conversation as they ran to Divination and frowned. Harry wasn't telling Ron about the detention. He answered questions but he wasn't confiding. The second detention, while enraging, Danny felt went better. Harry seemed to have realised that this wasn't a game. If he wanted to survive, he had to follow her rules. He refused to speak unnecessarily, he bit his pained gasps back and he obeyed without question. Danny approved but still wished he could do something to help.
That Thursday, Danny started to hear rumours about himself. But poor Harry was too exhausted to care as Ron and Hermione tried to talk to him about the mysterious coloured ghost. Harry had obviously stayed up late trying to catch up on homework. The next detention was very much like the previous ones only much shorter. The cuts were much deeper and weren't healing. Harry chanced his arm and asked if he still had to go to detention on Friday. Danny bit back a groan. The moment he asked that favour, Harry should have known that the toad-faced woman would keep that detention, no matter what.
Danny decided to follow Harry, hoping to see an opening to talk to the wizard again. Give Harry something to take his mind off his rotten first week back. But Harry spotted Ron before Danny could think of something. Then the thing Danny had been hoping to happen happened. Ron noticed the lines carved into Harry's hand after admitting to practicing Quidditch. Finally Harry confided in someone what had been happening during his detentions. Ron instantly urged Harry to go to McGonagall or Dumbledore but Harry refused. Danny sighed softly as the wizards entered their common room. Danny had been right. Harry was upset with Dumbledore and probably thought that the teacher didn't trust or had lost confidence in Harry. Danny couldn't even say the teen was wrong, but he was wrong about why.
Friday was much like the previous days, Harry too exhausted from trying to keep up with his school work to listen to the conversations around him. Well versed with the detentions, Harry reported to Umbridge's office and started writing lines. Danny watched even though he could do nothing to help but felt he could at least try to be there for the wizard. Harry was clearly distracted though, he discretely moved his chair and watched the Quidditch try outs out the window as much as he dared. Danny smirked at the action. At the end, Umbridge looked at Harry's hand. But something odd happened. Umbridge didn't notice, too happy to have hurt Harry. But Danny did. Harry pulled away from Umbridge like he was shocked or burned. Umbridge attributed it to pain in Harry's hand but Danny knew better. Harry could hide discomfort from the detention. Something else happened the moment Umbridge touched Harry.
Harry was excused and he raced back to his common room. Danny bit his lip and sighed. Most ghosts weren't allowed into the house common rooms. Especially during term. But this was important. Something had happened to Harry in that office and he would hopefully confide in his friends. He phased invisibly inside. Harry sat down beside Hermione. Danny floated as close as he dared and listened as Harry confessed his concerns of Umbridge being involved with Voldemort. Hermione thought it was a coincidence, and Danny was inclined to agree. Moody had tailed Umbridge the minute Dumbledore had to agree to employ her. She wasn't a Death Eater.
But sadly, Harry once again refused to go to Dumbledore with his issues. Harry wanted to talk to Sirius, but Hermione advised against it. Danny frowned sadly. He couldn't offer to take the letter, or even Harry himself, to Grimmauld Place because Phantom wasn't meant to be in the order and he'd have to explain how he knew everything. Harry and Hermione went to bed and Danny went to Dumbledore with his findings. Again, they couldn't do anything until someone else came forward. But the wizard was interested to hear that Harry's scar was bothering him.
The next day, Danny decided to spend revealing himself while tracking down Peeves. He needed to rein in the ghost a bit. He couldn't outright order him, but if he could discourage Peeves' more dangerous pranks, then Danny would be happy. And if he could get the poltergeist to lay off Harry, all the better. Sir Nick alerted Danny to Peeves' prank to drop a bust of some famous person on a student and Danny went to talk the poltergeist down, offering his adjoining classroom as Peeves' playground.
Once that had been taken care of, Danny went to the Quidditch pitch to watch the practice, both to keep an eye on Harry and to familiarise himself with the game. Poor Ron was teased by everyone watching which included Malfoy. The whistle blew numerous times before Danny spotted one of the girls with a heavy nosebleed which refused to stop after the twins gave her something to help. He saw Fred's panic after checking his pockets and shook his head.
"Idiots," he muttered to himself, guessing what happened. He'd heard of their Skiving Snackboxes. Afterwards the practice was cancelled.
The halfa didn't see the trio all day on Sunday. Danny guessed they were catching up with school work. So he spent the day with Peeves instead. The poltergeist was childish and seemed a little confused on what things were fatal for the living. But he did make the halfa laugh and they quickly started to find things they enjoyed. Danny sharing what pranks he'd played before and Peeves sharing in turn.
The next day, Monday, it was announced that Umbridge was High Inquisitor. Concerned, Danny checked in with Dumbledore. Umbridge was going to watch the teachers and decide if they kept their jobs or not. Having missed Harry's first lesson again, Danny joined the trio in potions, of course without anyone knowing due to his invisibility. Danny noticed the soft jab at Harry as he saw the wizard's bad grade before he hid it. However the lesson wasn't nearly as enraging as the previous Monday.
After lunch, Harry and Ron went to Divination. Danny only followed to make sure everything was alright but paused as he noticed Umbridge in the classroom. Danny watched angrily as Umbridge made Trelawney nervous and portray herself as a fool. Danny sighed as Umbridge left. He knew that the Divination teacher's days were numbered. He would have loved to make the teacher's predication of danger come true, but Dumbledore's orders echoed in his mind. Then it was Umbridge's lesson. Hermione defiantly made her opinions of counter-jinxes known and Umbridge deducted points from the house for disrupting the lesson. Danny groaned softly when Harry hotly interjected and brought up Voldemort. He earned himself another week of detention.
Harry went to detention, followed by Danny. The wizard defiantly took his punishment in silence and left well into the night. Danny informed Dumbledore of the situation and asked if he still had to go to Miss Fisher the next evening. Dumbledore insisted that Danny take the lesson as planned, despite how Danny wanted to watch Harry's detentions in case something happened.
"Danny, you have your own life. And that requires that you get an education. It's also part of our agreement with your family," Dumbledore reasoned.
The next morning, Danny decided to try and get talking to Harry in order to give the young wizard something else to think about than Umbridge, detention, schoolwork and the Prophet's constant cruel jokes at his and Dumbledore's expense. Harry was in a bad mood that morning, something about getting shouted at and losing points because he got detention. Danny sighed as he watched the trio settle down for charms. It wasn't fair, but Harry had to learn the rules he had to play by with Umbridge. Shouting obviously in front of everyone, blatantly defying her wasn't going to work. He had to be either completely submissive or get smarter in his defiance, like Hermione. Asking hard questions, being a good student while still pushing. Like how Danny acted around Vlad when they had company. Both halfas had mastered the veiled argument almost instantly. But Harry had such a short fuse lately and angrily looked for a fight with the Ministry woman.
Danny left the classroom a few minutes later and returned to his room to make sure he had everything prepared for that evening. He returned to Harry as they moved on to transfiguration. With a smirk, Danny noticed Umbridge in the corner. McGonagall wasn't a pushover. Danny gladly floated into a comfortable position and watched the show where McGonagall showed Umbridge that while the teacher would comply, she was the one in control. Stifling chuckles, Danny left knowing that McGonagall could handle Umbridge.
While floating through the halls, Danny found Peeves.
"Peeves!?" Danny called. Peeves looked to the halfa and grinned.
"Phantom! Just in time, Peevesy was going to hide in this armour and push it on students when they leave class," Peeves informed him. Danny's eyes widened in alarm. Suits of armour were heavy. What if it landed on a student's head?!
"I have a better idea. Let's trade stories, like Sunday. I never told you about Amorpho," Danny offered. Peeves frowned.
"But Peevesy wants to do this," he mumbled.
"Peeves, this is dangerous. If you hurt someone, you'll get chucked out," Danny warned.
"Fine! But tomorrow Phantom does what Peevesy wants," Peeves decided. Danny shook his head.
"We'll see," Danny replied.
"What!?" Peeves exclaimed.
"Peeves I'm not going to agree now. For all I know you might want to throw a student out a window!" Danny retorted.
"Peevesy hasn't done anything that big in centuries," Peeves dismissed the idea.
"Wait! I was joking. You've thrown people out of windows!" Danny gasped in alarm. Peeves chuckled.
"Once. And it was the ground floor. But that fifth year was asking for it. Blamed Peevesy for damaging school property when Peevesy didn't," Peeves admitted. Danny sensed the story would be humorous and grinned.
"You have to tell me that story now," Danny prompted.
I'll be honest, like with the books, chapters in between big events may feel like fillers. I've tried to make sure that only important events are covered in the chapters, and some may appear unimportant until later.
But yeah, Danny and Peeves are becoming friends.
Let me know what you guys think so far.
Until the next chapter.
