Danny stood in the large crowd of Death Eaters. There was an unnatural chill to the air from the dementors high above waiting for the word to attack. Voldemort was at the front. He seemed agitated. His snake was being kept in a protective bubble near him. Danny suddenly realised why. The snake had to be a horcrux. And another horcrux had to be in the school. Danny didn't know how many horcruxes there were but he hoped with all his being that Harry had gotten all the others. If he hadn't then this fight would be almost for nothing.
Danny scanned the crowd. There were Death Eaters, new and old. Snatchers. Werewolves that Greyback probably bullied into joining. People being controlled by spells or even blackmail. He spotted Snape near the front. The wizard stood tall, watching the castle in the distance ready itself for war. Fires flickered in the windows. Figures scrambled in the distance. First opportunity Danny got, he was ordering the castle ghosts to safety. They couldn't help the fight and they were in danger of being injured if not disintegrated by ectoplasm cleaning spells. Peeves might stick around since he could actually help and the poltergeist was never one to ignore chaos. But gentler ghosts like the Bloody Baron, Sir Nick, the Fat Friar and so many others would be better off hiding.
Danny glanced down at his "wand". This was the first real fight he'd had. Before he had participated in raids, chases, traps. But this… this was going to be a real fight. One he wouldn't be able to bluff through. He would have to fire spells and hurt people to keep his cover. Danny bit his tongue lightly. He had to disappear during the initial scramble. It was the only way. His wand was not meant for fighting. It was meant to trick and maintain the illusion of his wizarding background. He only had a handful of spells on it. And only one of each. He nodded slightly to himself. Phantom would have to fight this fight. Fenton wasn't capable.
"The school is filled with traitors. They have refused to hand over Potter. Attack," Voldemort announced. A ripple of excitement surged through the crowd and everyone started running, pushing Danny towards the school. Narcissa and Lucius, without wands, were dragged along too. They managed to extract themselves and cower nearby Voldemort, offering themselves as human shields, unable to fight. Danny slowly, carefully, moved through the charging crowd towards the edge. The army came to a stop suddenly as they hit a shield. Danny gulped and was forced to wait. He couldn't disappear while anyone potentially paid attention to him. Danny peered through the forest of heads and saw a small band of students and a couple of order members waiting on the other side, ready to fight once the shield fell.
There was a bright flash above and behind him and he glanced around to see Voldemort, wand raised high and a bolt of light, a spell, zipping through the air towards the shield. It hit and the shield fell. The army surged forward again and Danny worked on freeing himself from the crowd, much easier now that the army began to disperse. He caught a glimpse of Lupin before he finally extracted himself. He charged forward, diverting to a hidden alcove and transformed. He teleported straight into the Ghost Zone.
Despite floating in mid-air, he stumbled and retched. But he pushed down his nausea as quickly as possible. He looked around himself and saw he was beside the Far Frozen. He swallowed down a wave of nausea and flew down to the frozen wasteland. He dropped on to the snow and buried his face for a second. The cold shocked him out of the dazed stupor that teleporting into the Ghost Zone had left him in. Refreshed, he jumped back into the air and flew as fast as possible to Walker's prison.
Outside the oppressive building, there was a large group of ghosts. Not many compared to the numbers Voldemort controlled or even compared to the number of students Hogwarts had. But it was substantial considering the ghosts had only a couple of hours to prepare. The skeleton army of King Pariah stood ready. Far fewer than when Danny fought to get into Pariah Keep. But still enough to cause an enemy to falter. A group of Walker's guards floated at the ready. Wulf grinned at Danny also at the ready. Danny also saw Pandora with a number of her Grecian mythic monsters. Fright Knight sat on his horse, Frightmare, soul shredder in his hand ready. Skulker, Ember and Undergrowth were there too. Dora and her brother Aragon were there with a small army of their own, Aragon on temporary leave from his imprisonment to aid the Ghost King. He also saw the Box Ghost, returned to the Ghost Zone with Vortex at the beginning of his reign. But to his shock, he also saw Vlad Plasmius and Danielle Phantom.
"What are you two doing here?!" Danny demanded.
"The king requested soldiers for an army. We volunteered," Vlad replied. Danny shook his head.
"It's too danger-" Danny began.
"Cuz, it's just as dangerous for you as it is for us. We want to help. So no arguing," Danielle interrupted boldly, hands on her hips defiantly. Danny scowled at her. He huffed in defeat and turned to Wulf. He ordered the ghost to open a portal to Hogwarts.
"Wait until I see the state of things before following," Danny instructed. He waited until a few ghosts nodded obediently before stepping through.
The portal opened up in the courtyard. It was chaos. There was no other word for it. Students, teachers and order members were fighting against a horde of Death Eaters. Danny was surprised by how fast the Death Eaters had been to get this far already. Danny scanned the courtyard, ignored for now. There was a student whimpering in pain, Kingsley standing over her, protecting her from the Death Eater presumably responsible. The ghosts could help with that. Removing the injured from danger would save those lives but also the lives of others, removing distractions. The skeletons could do that, safe guarding a place in the castle for the injured to be kept as well.
He glanced up and saw the dementors making their way towards the school at a leisurely pace. He would deal with them. But that many would overwhelm him. Vlad and Danielle would back him up. He didn't like endangering any of his subjects or friends but they did have the most experience with fighting with him and against opponents. He then scanned the rest of the chaos. Most, if not all of the Death Eaters were wearing black. The Box Ghost was relatively useless in a fight but… as a messenger, he might be okay. He'd send the Box Ghost to rely his order to the castle ghosts to hide away from the fighting.
"Phantom! Where have you been?!" George shouted over the fighting, running over to the halfa. Danny glanced at the wizard and gave a grim smirk.
"Gathering a small army," he answered before turning back to the portal. George blinked in confusion.
"Box Ghost, Fright Knight. Come through, then the rest," Danny ordered, poking his head through the portal before withdrawing.
"Army? What are you talking about?" George finally asked.
"It's coming through now," Danny assured as the Box Ghost and Fright Knight drifted out of the green swirling portal.
"Box Ghost, spread the word among the ghosts already in the castle. Hide. They can't help in this fight and will only get hurt. Go. And watch out for any fighting, dodge any and all lights. Fright Knight, gather the skeletons and find a safe place in the castle. Protect that spot and take any injured out of the fight to there. Treat them if you can. You can start with that student there. Be careful of ectoplasm cleaning spells. Skurge. It will injure you," Danny delegated. Both ghosts nodded and the Box Ghost zoomed off to start his task. Fright Knight, waited for a number of skeletons before he started to command them like the general he was.
Then the other ghosts came through.
"Plasmius, Dani. You're with me. The rest of you. Try to subdue anyone wearing all black. Do not kill. And watch out for spells, especially skurge. Go. You two, the same applies but we're going after those things up there," Danny resumed, pointing up to the horde of dementors approaching.
"Wait! Those are dementors," George warned, still shocked by the volume of help Danny had brought. Danny nodded.
"I know. But if they hit the ground, then our side is gonna lose. We can't promise to stop all of them, but we can try to contain as many as possible," Danny replied. George gaped in wordless surprise.
"Dementors are nasty creatures. They will cause you to feel tired and weak. Don't let them catch you. They will try to kiss you and suck out your soul. I don't have to tell either of you that that's bad," Danny warned the other halfas. They nodded with serious expressions. Wulf closed the portal once all the ghosts were through before bouncing off into the fight.
Danny spared George one last glance before jumping into the air, Vlad and Danielle following behind him. The higher he went, the colder he felt and rattling breaths filled his ears. He scowled at the dementors.
"Alright, let's fight cold with ice," he growled under his breath and channelled his ice powers. He surged forwards, hands glowing bright blue. He punched forward and hit a dementor. The creature shrieked in surprise and alarm, pausing to break the ice off its flowing robes. Danny scowled at the dark beings. This started with dementors, it'll end with dementors. This time, he knew what he was dealing with. The next few minutes faded into a frenzy of dodging scabby hands, pushing away his worst memories and nausea and firing ghost rays and his ice powers. He spared a glance at Vlad, the halfa had duplicated himself and used those to corner and confuse the dementors before firing ghost rays at them. Danielle was having the most difficulty. Her speciality was ghost rays. That was what she used, her small size enabling her to out fly the dementors and firing at their backs.
Below them, the castle was engulfed in fighting, explosions lighting up the night. Danny could see Grawp from the sky in between fighting dementors. That meant Hagrid was here. Aragon and Dora were in their dragon forms, soaring above the fighting, breathing ghost fire over the grounds. He cried out in alarm as Aragon fell, a flash of light hitting his flank. Dora raced after her brother. Danny couldn't leave his own fight. Taking his focus off the dementors even for those brief minutes had given the creatures time to gang up on him. More giants had arrived on Voldemort's side and had ganged up on Grawp. Acromantula had come out of the forest to enter the fight, on neither side, merely attacking anyone who got in their way.
Suddenly Danny saw a bright white light on the other side of the castle. He gasped. Patronus charms. Dementors got past the halfas.
"Vlad! Take my guys on!" Danny bellowed before zooming off towards the light. Vlad hardly had time to respond before he was forced to charge forward to stop the dementors chasing Danny or escaping to the grounds below. Danny scowled at the numerous dementors and flung ghost ray after ghost ray at the creatures. There was a giant swinging its massive club at a number of fighters, he recognised Luna as one of them. He spotted Harry sprinting away towards the Whomping Willow, Ron and Hermione following close behind. He set his jaw and fired a blast of ice at the dementors before landing in front of the giant.
"Cover your ears! Now!" he shouted. The group of fighters hesitated a moment before obeying. Danny sucked in a deep breath before letting it out as a ghostly wail.
The giant staggered back a few steps before roaring in discomfort. Danny didn't let up. He knew how long he could wail before he lost too much power to remain Phantom. He stopped, panting for breath, the second the giant fell to its knees.
"Woah Phantom," a male student exclaimed in awe, Ravenclaw going by his robes. Danny nodded breathlessly before jumping into the air and charging up to the dementors above. He threw an ecto-blast at the creatures and they surged forward towards him. Danny gulped down his uncertainty and channelled his ice powers.
Fighting, chaos and dementors. A glimpse of Harry there too. Can anyone remember what Harry was up to? This is book canon, not film by the way.
Let me know what you guys think so far.
Until the next chapter.
