Danny laughed as he recounted his own story for Peeves. The poltergeist cackled happily.

"Uh oh. Better go the long way to lunch," Danny heard Ron hiss nearby. Danny turned to the voice and smirked, spotting Harry, Hermione and Ron trying to sneak off.

"Hey! Harry! Good to see you again!" Danny shouted to the wizard. Harry blinked in surprise before he recalled his meeting with Phantom last week. Danny turned to Peeves.

"Not a word about Harry's supposed insanity. I mean it Peeves," the halfa growled. Peeves pouted.

"Phantom's no fun," the poltergeist complained.

"You know the coloured ghost?!" Hermione exclaimed. Harry blushed.

"Yeah. I guess. Nick introduced me to him last week after I snapped at you guys," Harry admitted.

"Come over. Peeves was just sharing a few stories with me," Danny encouraged the students with a friendly grin.

"You're friends?" Ron realised with clear shock. Peeves frowned.

"Peevesy is very fun to be around. Peevesy is a good friend," Peeves muttered with annoyance.

"Calm down Peeves. They're just surprised because no one knows anything about me. Why don't you go to my classroom? I'll catch up in a bit," Danny appeased the poltergeist.

"Peevesy will go play a prank on 'ickle Flitwick instead. See you Phantom," Peeves decided. Danny waved as the ghost flew off through the halls.

"Anyone asks, I didn't hear that last comment," Danny remarked to the trio of students. The boys grinned while Hermione frowned.

"Shouldn't you report him?" Hermione pointed out.

"Hey, Peeves wanted to drop a suit of armour on anyone who came this way before I found him," Danny retorted. Hermione blinked in surprise. Danny smirked.

"So, I've met Harry, but you guys haven't met me. Danny Phantom," Danny resumed.

"Ron Weasley," Ron returned.

"Hermione Granger. Are you from America?" Hermione replied, noticing Danny's accent. Danny nodded.

"Yep, ghosts I usually hang around disappeared off one day. I decided to do some travelling. Found Hogwarts and decided to stick around. Glad to see Harry not so upset though, and with friends, always a plus," Danny answered and smiled at the teens.

"Why do you care about Harry so much?" Hermione inquired with a suspicious frown. Danny raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a nice guy. And the only person around here I've spoken to, other than teachers and ghosts, is you guys," Danny replied.

"Do you believe me? About Voldemort?" Harry blurted out hopefully. Danny turned to Harry.

"Yes. I do," Danny confirmed, ignoring Ron and Hermione's hisses. Harry's eyes widened in surprise.

"You didn't flinch," Harry pointed out in surprise. Danny laughed.

"Names don't scare me Harry. Actually very little does," Danny admitted.

"Why, 'cause you're already dead?" Ron asked. Danny frowned.

"You'd want to watch how you phrase your questions Ron, you can offend a lot of ghosts with questions like that. But no. You probably guessed that I'm not the same as the ghosts you usually meet. My type of ghost is corporeal. And I've faced very dangerous ghosts like myself a lot in the past. I guess I've toughened up because of it. It takes a lot to spook me," Danny replied with a grin.

"Did you make a pun?" Hermione realised. Danny smirked in confirmation.

"What's corporeal?" Ron inquired. Hermione huffed in annoyance.

"How about I show you?" Danny suggested and floated down to the ground and held out a hand for a handshake. Ron stared at Danny's hand sceptically. Danny waited, already sensing Harry's curiosity growing. Danny's patience was rewarded by Harry shaking the halfa's hand. Harry gasped as Danny gave the wizard a firm handshake.

"I have that effect on people," Danny chuckled.

Ron and Hermione's eyes widened in shock and they quickly held their own hands out for a handshake. Danny laughed and gave them a handshake each.

"You're so cold," Hermione muttered. Danny shrugged.

"Sorry about that. I can't help it. I'll let you guys get your lunch. Don't worry about Peeves, if I'm around I'll try to stop him doing anything too dangerous," Danny concluded and floated into the air again.

"Wait, why haven't you spoken to anyone else?" Hermione inquired as the halfa turned to go. Danny laughed.

"Easy. Being mysterious is fun. Feel free to call me down if you spot me. See ya around," Danny answered and floated off down the corridor and turned down the first corner. He turned invisible and returned to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Wow, I never knew you could touch a ghost," Ron muttered, staring at his hand.

"I didn't notice last time how nice he was," Harry remarked, making the eavesdropping ghost smirk.

"I wouldn't be so sure. He seems too interested in us. Especially you Harry. Be careful. He might be with the Ministry," Hermione advised. Danny gave himself a half shrug. It was good to see the trio being cautious but he wasn't so sure about being the object of their suspicions. He followed them as Ron and Hermione debated about whether or not to be cautious around Phantom. He left them when they reached the Great Hall to phase down to the kitchens to get lunch.

Danny followed the trio down to Care of Magical Creatures and watched as Umbridge asked about Hagrid. It didn't bode well. When Hagrid finally got back from talking to the giants, he had to ace his visit from Umbridge or he'd be fired for sure. Danny filed away the exchange to report to Dumbledore in order to give Hagrid a heads up. After Herbology, Danny grabbed a quick dinner and returned to his room to change out of the Hogwarts uniform, dreading the time he'd be caught in the badger affiliated outfit. He teleported to Miss Fisher's and for next few hours studied with her. He returned at half nine and as expected, Danny found Harry still in detention.

Danny waited until Harry was excused before returning to his room and heading to bed. The next day he followed Harry around like usual and when he decided to have break from watching the wizard, he did the homework Miss Fisher assigned. Harry had finally learnt how to act during the detentions with Umbridge and Danny only stayed in case Harry's scar hurt him again. Dumbledore wanted to know if it happened around Umbridge again. That Saturday night, as ordered, Danny changed out of his uniform and teleported to the Ministry and patrolled the prophecy room. It was a dull night, but important. Sunday he spent sleeping, at least until Peeves decided he wanted to spend time with the halfa.

Things became a routine, Dumbledore assigning guard duty, usually at the weekends, and Miss Fisher's lessons a week in advance, written on a page for later reference. Things started to ease up the next week as Harry finally learned to reign in his anger and avoided detention. Danny even got talking to a few students, if they were brave enough to call to him while he was visible, he'd stop and talk. Word got around about how he worked and students grew more confident and called to him regularly. Danny was going to offer to spend the day following the trio in Hogsmede when the visit came around, but Dumbledore decided that the day would be better spent with Miss Fisher.

That evening Danny reported to Dumbledore's office to get his weekly schedule only to find a veiled witch inside.

"Come in Danny. Mundungus, tell Danny what you told me," Dumbledore commanded the witch. The veiled witch turned to the halfa.

"What?! Dumbledore, this is kinda sensitive info," the witch retorted in a gruff masculine voice that Danny recognised. Wait. Mundungus? Mundungus Fletcher?

"Danny Phantom here is watching Harry for me Mundungus. This is important for him to know," Dumbledore revealed, conveniently leaving out Phantom's membership in the order. Mundungus threw off his veil and considered the ghost. Danny always remained Phantom outside his room in Hogwarts.

"Fine. Harry and a bunch of kids are gonna make a club to have Harry teach them all Defence Against the Dark Arts. Recruiting today in Hogsmede," Mundungus reported. Danny blinked in surprise.

"Why are you dressed like that? And why were you watching Harry?" Danny asked, throwing in the second question more for show than anything else. Mundungus shrugged.

"Wasn't going to watch the kid. I was in the Hogs Head. I kinda got banned a few years ago. It's a shady pub really, but good for business. Then Harry and a load of kids come traipsing in. Gave Aberforth a turn," Mundungus answered.

"How many?" Danny prompted.

"Must have been twenty-five. Maybe more, I tried to not make it obvious that I was eavesdropping, you know," Mundungus replied.

Danny turned to Dumbledore.

"Let me guess. You want me to keep an eye on this group," Danny guessed. Dumbledore nodded.

"And to the best of your ability, keep Dolores away from them," Dumbledore added.

"To do that, I'd have to get close to Umbridge. You realise that, right?" Danny pointed out. Dumbledore nodded seriously.

"I understand that Danny. But some things are more important. But I understand that you are friends with Peeves," Dumbledore commented. Danny smirked.

"I think I know where you're going with this and I'm sure Peeves will like it," Danny remarked with a grin. Dumbledore smiled.

"Thank you Mundungus. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. Keep an ear out for us. See you at the next meeting," Dumbledore excused the thief. Mundungus nodded and pulled his veil back up before sneaking out of the castle again. Dumbledore then gave Danny his schedule for the week and bid the halfa a goodnight.

That Monday, Danny saw the new rule, educational decree number twenty four. The rule banned groups and clubs unless given permission from Umbridge herself. Could she know about Harry and his barely formed club? How?! Danny decided to take Dumbledore's order seriously. Deadly seriously. Harry wasn't going to give up so the halfa had to protect the club as much as possible. Danny followed Harry to History of Magic, staying as far away from Professor Binns as possible. The ghostly teacher was a big fan it seemed. So in order to remain hidden, he had to be extra careful. He waited for almost twenty minutes for Harry to talk to his friends, starting to fall asleep from the lesson. Suddenly there was a soft tap at the window and Harry's owl Hedwig came into view.

Gradually the rest of the class noticed the owl, including Harry, Professor Binns oblivious to the fact. Discretely, Harry snuck over to the window and let Hedwig in. Harry returned to his seat and then asked to be excused, pretending to feel ill. Binns allowed Harry to leave. Harry carefully left the classroom with Hedwig and set off towards the staff room. Danny, sensing something was up, followed. Harry had a brief disagreement with the statues outside the staff room and then McGonagall but he was able to ask for Professor Grubbly-Plank to heal his owl. McGonagall reminded Harry of the letter and warned Harry that communication in and out of Hogwarts was being watched. Danny peered over Harry's shoulder and read the letter.

"Today, same time, same place," the letter said. Danny scowled. He got the veiled confession that Hedwig had been coming from Grimmauld Place. He silently thanked Dumbledore for always giving him Mondays off from Miss Fisher.

Danny followed and found out that Sirius had been in contact with Harry using the common room fireplace. Danny frowned. He was only brought out of his thoughts when a fight broke out between Neville and Malfoy, Harry and Ron holding him back. Danny bit his lip, he wanted to help but before he could make up his mind Harry and Ron pulled Neville back. Minutes later Snape called them in, punishing the boys for fighting.

Danny sighed, he'd mentioned the unfair treatment Snape displayed towards Harry to Dumbledore but nothing had come of it. Danny was tempted to comment himself but didn't want to make it worse. However, then the halfa noticed Umbridge. Umbridge tried her manipulation tricks to make Snape slip up but the potions master was more than equipped to handle the witch. Harry seemed exceptionally distracted, but then again his two most disliked, if not hated, teachers in the same room during a lesson. Danny could understand.

Harry messed up his potion, earning himself no marks and extra homework. Then it was Divination. Trelawney was fuming, clearly having gotten her report from Umbridge and found it unsatisfactory. Thankfully Harry kept calm during his final lesson of the day with Umbridge. Deciding to watch Harry intently, Danny grabbed a quick dinner from the kitchens before finding Harry and faithfully watched him. Danny saw the upset over Umbridge holding off on deeming Gryffindor Quidditch team legal, but Danny really thought that they should have seen it coming. Umbridge wanted to make Harry miserable and angry. Anything she could do to ensure that, she would.

Danny floated above everything in the Gryffindor common room, watching Fred and George advertise their Skiving Snackboxes while Harry did homework. Hours later, Danny was starting to feel that he was wasting his time. But with the common room empty, Sirius's head appeared in the fireplace. Danny frowned. It was a big risk. And knowing it wasn't the first time was even worse. But Sirius revealed that the order was aware of their impending group and how they knew. Throwing in a little advice about using loud, busy places instead of quiet places to discuss things like secret organisations. Danny frowned as Sirius revealed that Harry was still being watched and surprised Danny by passing on a message from Ron's mother for the teens not to go ahead with their club.

Sirius then encouraged Harry to resume what he was doing in forming the group and even offered some suggestions for locations. However without warning Sirius disappeared and a hand reached through the fire, grasping for Harry, Ron and Hermione. The trio fled, leaving Danny to glare at the hand. Umbridge's hand. She soon withdrew it and the fire died down slowly. Confident that there was nothing else to learn, Danny retired to his room for the night, deciding to report his findings to Dumbledore the next day.

So a bit more on how Hogwarts is treating Harry and Danny's job watching the teen.

Let me know what you guys think so far.

Until the next chapter.