The week after Valentine's Day, Danny frequently overheard Harry talking about an interview and a week later the Quibbler published an article outlining what Harry saw the night of Voldemort's return. The magazine was quickly banned, but of course that only drew attention to it and it soon spread throughout the school. Within days, everyone had read the article. Things instantly got easier for Harry. Students openly told him that they believed him. Many teachers were unusually kind to him, unable to comment due to a rule courtesy of Umbridge, and so rewarded him for the smallest things.
A few weeks later, Danny heard about Trelawney getting fired. He was unfortunately in London with Miss Fisher at the time. Danny met Firenze the next day, an excommunicated centaur that was friendly with Dumbledore. He was a very agreeable character, if a little airy in nature.
It was March before something happened. It was the middle of a DA meeting. Danny was patrolling the seventh floor as usual when there was suddenly a flood of students fleeing. Danny blinked in surprise before he scanned the corridor. But it was impossible to see who was part of the DA and who wasn't in the chaos. He suddenly located Harry as he crashed to the ground from a spell from Malfoy. Danny glared at the blonde. He was just about to give Harry a distraction so that he could escape but Umbridge was already there. Danny could do nothing but watch Harry be carted off towards Dumbledore's office.
Danny watched fearfully as Harry lied through his teeth about the frequent meetings and Dumbledore carefully used every loop hole in the book to get Harry out of trouble. Danny was about to overshadow the curly haired girl that betrayed the DA, now revealed to stand for Dumbledore's Army, when she seemed to change allegiance and shook her head when asked if Harry was the leader and so on. Danny then noticed Kingsley's wand pointed at the girl ever so slightly. Danny understood. The auror had bewitched the girl.
Dumbledore then, learning the name of the group, took the blame and knocked out everyone but Harry, the girl, McGonagall and Danny, who was floating above invisibly. When McGonagall asked where Dumbledore was going to go, Dumbledore informed them he wouldn't be going to Grimmauld Place, glancing up to the ceiling, almost directly at Danny. Then as the enemy auror, Dawlish, stirred, Dumbledore gave one last word of advice/warning to learn occlumency to Harry before Fawkes transported the headmaster away. The office was quickly emptied. Danny cast one last look around and sighed.
"Be careful Professor," Danny whispered before phasing out of the room, hearing a distinctive click as the office sealed itself.
Umbridge wasted no time in appointing herself headmistress. She was furious that she couldn't get into the office but she instead created the inquisitorial squad to do her dirty work. Later that day, Danny listened to Fred and George tell Harry, Ron and Hermione that they were done and would be causing trouble from then on, having already stuffed one of the inquisitorial squad in a vanishing cabinet. Danny bit his lip as he watched the twins melt into the crowd. He was distracted from his thoughts by Filch ordering Harry to report to Umbridge's office.
Danny watched as Harry followed Filch to Umbridge's office, taking note that the new "headmistress" wanted Peeves to be expelled. Danny phased into the office, quickly noticing Harry and the twins' brooms chained to the wall. Danny watched as Umbridge gave Harry a cup of tea. He almost interjected when Harry was about to drink. He didn't know what Umbridge was planning, but drinking from that cup was a bad idea! Umbridge began to question Harry as he pressed the cup to his lips but Danny noticed with relief that the wizard didn't swallow any. Umbridge asked about Dumbledore and then worryingly about Sirius. But a loud explosion interrupted the interrogation and Harry emptied his cup into a nearby vase of dried flowers. The source of the explosion turned out to be fireworks enchanted to behave and look like dragons. Umbridge and Filch panicked to correct the chaos.
Danny grinned at the sight and noticed Harry slip away. He invisibly followed and found Fred and George. Maybe those two weren't idiots after all, Danny admitted to himself. Throughout the day, fireworks disrupted lessons and the teachers merely summoned Umbridge than deal with the problem themselves.
The next day, Danny came to a decision. If Fred and George were going to cause trouble, then why not Peeves and himself. That lunch, Danny spotted Fred and George and called them into an empty classroom.
"Phantom? You don't usually talk to students," Fred remarked.
"That's because I didn't have a reason to. Why don't we pool our resources? Peeves?!" Danny suggested. Both twins tensed as the poltergeist entered the room, grinning broadly.
"Umbridge wants rid of both of us. Peeves has been pulling pranks longer than I think even he cares to remember. And I have my own tricks, but I have to be a lot more subtle," Danny explained.
"Why?" George asked.
"Because when I asked to stay here, Dumbledore ordered me to stay away from Umbridge. But he's not here now. And I'm sick of hiding from her. But I'm not stupid. So, here's the deal. Peeves will give you distractions. And you provide your inventions, and I'll distribute them. And if you need something hard to reach, let me know. I'm pretty resourceful," Danny offered.
"What's in it for us?" Fred inquired.
"You get all the credit for the pranks I pull and two more players to cover your backs. Peeves is good back-up to have. Trust me. And me… let's just say there's a reason I'm wanted by a ghostly warden and got thrown in ghost jail," Danny remarked.
Fred and George glanced at each other. They then grinned.
"How do we get in contact?" George asked. Danny smiled.
"Well, during the day, I'm around the castle. But at night, I stay in an abandoned classroom. Peeves will show you, I have to get moving soon. But it's always locked, you won't get in. Knock on the door and if I'm there, I'll come out. Be discrete. If I don't come, slide a note underneath for me to meet you at some point the next day. I'll come," Danny decided. The twins nodded and handed him a few sweets.
"Skiving snackboxes. They're-" Fred began to explain.
"Sweets that make you sick to get out of class. You may not see me guys, but I see and hear plenty around here. Plus Peeves keeps me up to date," Danny interrupted them with a smirk. He shoved the sweets into his tiny jumpsuit pocket and flew off, Umbridge passing the classroom seconds later.
Danny followed Harry to his occlumency lesson and scowled at Malfoy as he barged into the room and called Snape away. Harry then ventured over to the pensieve and curiosity got the better of him. Danny gasped in alarm as Harry was sucked into Snape's memories. Danny didn't know what to do. Should he go and get Harry or guard in case Snape came back first. Before he could make up his mind, Snape walked into the office. His lip curled furiously.
"Phantom. I know you're here. Tell me where Potter is!" Snape hissed, his gaze falling on the pensieve. Danny appeared and shrugged innocently. Snape glared at the halfa and lifted his wand.
"Legilimens," the wizard growled.
Taken by surprise, Snape gained entry into Danny's mind for a spilt second. Danny snarled and pushed him out immediately. Danny then charged his hand with a ghost ray.
"Don't do that!" Danny snarled.
"Or what?" Snape sneered. Danny fired his ghost ray, missing Snape's greasy head by less than an inch, smashing a jar of pickled potion ingredients behind the wizard.
"Or next time, I won't miss," Danny threatened.
"Get out of my office," Snape hissed before turning to the pensieve and entered it. Danny bit his lip and turned invisible. Seconds later Harry exited the pensieve with Snape grasping his arm tightly. Furious, Snape threw Harry out of the office, firing spells after the student. He then wheeled down, looking wildly for Danny.
"Get out!" Snape roared and Danny flew after Harry. The halfa knew he shouldn't have antagonised the potions master. But he was shocked that his so-called ally tried to read his mind.
Things progressed as normal after that with Snape choosing to ignore Harry for the most part, but issued bad grades and dropped samples on purpose to make the student fail. Peeves and Danny met Fred and George regularly and helped with setting up small time pranks, but the twins had something big planned soon. However Danny wasn't so sure about Harry using Fred and George's latest big prank as a distraction to sneak into Umbridge's office to talk to Sirius. Therefore, Danny decided to tweak the plan so that he followed Umbridge during the prank.
The prank went well, until Umbridge caught up to Fred and George. Danny scowled and flew to the twins invisibly.
"Guys, one of my tricks is invisibility. Keep her talking, I'll free your brooms," Danny whispered to them before zooming off to Umbridge's office, spotting Harry with a sigh of relief nearby. Danny phased into the office and set to work to intangibly free Fred and George's brooms. Seconds later the brooms sped off to their owners, one not fully freed yet.
Yep, Fred and George have left school. Not much to say really.
Let me know what you guys think so far.
Until the next chapter.
