Holy crap, where the hell are all these reviews coming from? Ha, well, anyway, I had a good time writing this chapter, and it's a thousand words longer than my usual chapters for this story. I have exams and a piano recital coming up, though, so expect delays for the next update. Sorry.

Thanks to phantom, the reviewer that didn't leave a name, SquirrelGirl13, The Violent Tomboy, HXCA, FoB, Vine Man, ABC, Azura Rain, Leppers, Reviewer, My Eternal Façade, Darth Frodo, Shadow49, Angel Frog, Sahxyel, DannysGhostWriter, Phantom of a Rose, charizardag, Ghostboy814, Halfa-NariMaruko, shadow929, ShiroandFubuki, and blindyourears for reviewing, and SolaCotella for beta-ing this for me!

Reviews are appreciated. :D

Danny was caught off guard by Ron's unexpected question.

"Uh…yeah, it's a soup-holder, but it's been modified so it could be used to capture ghosts," he answered. A red-haired man suddenly seemed to loosen up and became excited.

"Really? Can Muggles do that? That is amazing! I had no idea that tek-nogy had advanced so far!" he exclaimed, waving his arms around and nearly shoving his "stick thingie" up his neighbor's nose in excitement. "I mean, really, I think that's absolutely—"

"Don't worry, we Ministry Aurors are here!" a booming voice came from the doorway, and a red-faced man ran in, followed by a dozen of his lackeys. They were clearly from the Ministry of Magic, shown by the M intertwined with an M badge on their chests. The Aurors' eyes rested on Sam, Tucker, and Danny, who still had the thermos out and uncapped, aimed at the spot on the floor where Technus had been merely moments before. Their leader's minds automatically jumped to the conclusion that Danny was some evil subordinate sent by Voldemort.

"We're under attack! Fire at will!" their leader yelled. More than half of his group obeyed, while a couple seemed confused as to why they were supposed to be afraid of a white-haired boy and his two friends. (They were probably the ones with good common sense.) However, soon, they all began firing spells without asking questions—or using good aim.

The relatively calm atmosphere from before was shattered when red and yellow streams of light shot from the group of wizards' wands, aimed in the general direction of Sam, Danny, and Tucker. Five of the wizards formed a semi-circle around Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who tried to get around them and protest what they were doing. However, their voices were drowned out in the chaos that ensued.

The spells did little to affect Danny. In fact, they merely passed through his body, leaving behind nothing but a slight tingling sensation. The curses phased through him, hitting and ricocheting off the walls and floor. But to the half-ghost's horror, Sam and Tucker, although successful in dodging a few of the strange beams of light, were finally hit, and thrown across the room before sliding to a halt, unconscious.

"What the hell did you do?" Danny yelled furiously, forming two bright, glowing ecto-rays on his hands. Everyone in the room automatically took a step back, unsure of what this mysterious apparition was going to do. Gritting his teeth and aiming carefully, Danny fired off half a dozen short, consecutive shots, hitting at least five wizards' wands and destroying them, leaving behind nothing but a charred mess that the Aurors quickly threw away.

Before anyone could react, Danny had swooped through the group of wizards, grabbed Sam and Tucker, and phased through the wall, leaving behind a large number of furious, confused, and agitated wizards and witches.

Harry Potter and the Ghost of Amity Park

Chapter Three: Complications

Danny was angry when he flew out of the house, not to mention confused. Who the heck were those people in the house next door? A better question was, what were they? He shook it off as something to delve deeper on later. Sam and Tucker were his first priority now.

Unbeknownst to Danny, his new neighbors were asking themselves almost the same questions. The house was in a state of mass confusion, with a small battle going on between the Order and the Ministry Aurors, with Ron, Harry, and Hermione trying to be heard over the noise. Exasperated, the three students finally sat down in a corner and watched the ensuing fight—er, "lively" debate.

On one side of the violent discussion were Moody, Mr. Weasley, Lupin, Tonks, McGonagall, Richard, and a few members of the Order that Harry didn't recognize. The other side consisted of the group of Aurors from the Ministry of Magic, who seemed apoplectic to the point of bursting a blood vessel. As both sides were stubborn and obstinate, neither seemed to be giving up soon. And the subject of their quarrel? Why, the "ghost," of course.

"I'm telling you, he isn't on our side! Why would he just burst in here with some sort of Muggle weapon?" shouted an extremely beefy Ministry Auror, flecks of spit flying out of his mouth.

"Well, if you had been listening to us for the past few minutes," Richard growled, emphasizing his last few words, "you would've understood that, although we are suspicious of this ghost, if he is a ghost at all, we find no reason to think that he meant us any harm until you came along and attacked his friends. Do you ministry people ever think before you act?"

The man reddened spectacularly, resembling a ripe turnip. He spluttered for an excuse for a few minutes, before hastily half-whining, "He attacked us!"

"Only after you provoked him," Lupin pointed out calmly. "If I were him, I would be quite upset that you had attacked my friends too. Besides, I noticed that he never aimed for any of your people directly. He shot at your wand, damaging nothing but a few galleons worth of property. Wands can be replaced easily, after all, not lives, and I think he knows that."

"It could've been a fluke!" argued another Ministry wizard, grasping for excuses.

"Then that's one helluva fluke, to blast six wands away with only six shots," Moody growled, both eyes pinned on the man, who gulped nervously and avoided his gaze.

"Do we get a say in this?" Ron blurted, seemingly oblivious to his own boldness.

"What could children possibly know?" a Ministry wizard scoffed haughtily, causing Ron's face to heat up and Mr. Weasley's face to darken. Hermione stepped up angrily, and Harry could tell that this wasn't going to end well.

"Now really," Hermione said, scowling, "we're seventeen! And even though we still have a year of school left, I think that our opinions should have at least some influence, and how dare you treat Ron as if he's a childish infant? And the nerve of you, to attack the ghost like that! It was doing nothing wrong, and I tell you that he probably saved us from that other…Technus thing! If you must know, I'm going to find him right now, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Without another word, she whirled on her heels and stalked out, a sullen expression on her face. Glancing nervously at the silent group of adults, Ron and Harry followed her.

"Well, I couldn't have said it better," Tonks remarked blithely, as if commenting on the weather. The Order silently agreed with her.

Hermione really didn't know why the Ministry official had set her off like that. Was it because of the ghost? She did think that it—no, he had been treated unfairly. Or was it just because she didn't like the Ministry? Or maybe, could it be because the man had scorned Ron so? Perhaps.

She heard a wheezing noise, and turned around to face Ron and Harry, who were climbing up the hill to meet her.

"My God, Hermione, next time you blow up like that, give us a warning, will you?" Ron groaned, collapsing on the coarse grass. He glanced at her with a half-admiring, half-exasperated look on his face. Harry plopped down beside her, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Heheh, to tell you the truth, Hermione, I'm glad you had the nerve to put that Ministry guy in his place. I mean, it was obvious that the ghost didn't know what he dropped in on," he said reasonably. Suddenly, he frowned. "What I don't get it is…why was he solid?" Uneasy glances from both his friends told him that they were thinking the same thing.

"For a ghost, he looked a little weird," Hermione said, agreeing with him. "I mean…for one thing, he wasn't completely see-through."

"And he was dressed funny," Ron added. "I mean, what was he wearing?"

"A jumpsuit," Harry said absentmindedly.

"A…a what?" Ron asked, confused.

"A jumpsuit. It's something Muggles wear to protect themselves. Astronauts—they're scientists that go into outer space—wear them sometimes, and so do people who work in labs. Maybe the ghost died in a lab experiment or something."

"That still doesn't explain why he isn't translucent, and why he could touch solid things."

"Yeah…I don't get it either…" Harry's voice drifted off as something in the horizon caught his attention. "Hey, what's that?"

"What? Where?"

"Right there, in the sky—that red thing. Wait, it's gone," Harry said, disappointed. "For a second…I thought it was a person in a red suit floating around on a metal thing…must've been the light playing tricks on my eyes. Did you see it, Ron? Ron?"

Ron had drifted off to sleep lying facedown in the dirt. A trickle of drool was collecting in the grass, slowly being absorbed into the ground.

Hermione snorted. "That's Ron for you. Guess he hasn't gotten used to the time difference yet. I told him to let Moody do that jet-lag spell on him, but he wouldn't listen." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey, were you serious when you said you were going to go find that ghost?" Harry asked, changing the subject.

"I…I don't know," Hermione answered slowly. "I guess I was just mad, and I let the first thing that came into my mind take over. I thought it'd really spite them if I went off searching for the ghost. Now though, I don't know. I mean, the Order did all this to protect us, I don't think we should go off looking for trouble."

"Yeah," Harry agreed with her. "But they have another think coming if they've assumed that I'm just going to stay around the house all day studying. And there's still Bill and Fleur's wedding. When is it?"

"They pushed it back to Christmas, because of our relocation and everything," said Hermione. She looked at her watch, which she had bought in a small shop on their way there. "I think we should be heading back. Don't want anyone to send a search party out for us or anything."

And with that, Harry, Hermione, and a groggy, half-asleep Ron went back to the house, questions still unsolved.

Danny was frantic with worry. He had brought Sam and Tucker directly into his room, choosing to avoid awkward questions from his father. Sure, the man might've been clueless at times, but he wasn't completely oblivious or stupid enough not to notice his son dragging his two unconscious best friends up to his room without wondering that something fishy was up. Not to mention his mom was probably up from the lab already. Yup, definitely wanted to avoid awkward questions.

To tell the truth, Danny had no idea what he should do. He had a small, sneaking suspicion as to what his neighbors were: wizards. But that was absolutely absurd! Wizards weren't real, and neither was magic. Yet a part of his mind seemed to argue that, if ghosts were real, why couldn't magic be real too? And was it so far to stretch ghosts to magic and magic to wizardry and witchcraft?

Danny changed back to his human form, pacing the floor nervously. Sam and Tucker had been unconscious for fifteen minutes already. He had no idea what the wizards (that was what he would call them for now) had done to them. Had they performed a weird spell on them? Were they merely knocked out, or was this fatal? He hated the feeling of being helpless and unable to do anything but wait.

Danny stopped beside Sam, observing her face. Asleep (or unconscious, to be more specific), her expression was blank, peaceful even. He absentmindedly brushed a strand of hair out of her face, then recoiled as if burned, blushing. He was glad that Tucker wasn't awake to tease him. Danny resumed his fidgety pacing, glancing at the clock again.

Half an hour came and went, and still Tucker and Sam showed no signs of waking up. Danny was extremely agitated by now, biting his lip and fiddling with his T-shirt. He paused for a minute, gazing out the window to the house next door, and seemed to come to a decision. He picked his friends up, slung them over his shoulder, went ghost, and took off.

So the "wizards" had attacked him. But a few of them seemed okay, especially the teenagers he had met first. And that boy with the red hair…he had been something else.

"Isn't that supposed to be a soup-holder?"

Seriously, who asked something like that when a ghost flew through your roof? Danny allowed a small grin to flit across his face.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione were unpacking their trunks when the room temperature suddenly dropped slightly. Harry seemed to be the only one who noticed, since he had already changed into a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. He paused shortly, looking up.

"Er…is it just me, or is it suddenly a bit colder than before?" he asked.

"It's not just you," a voice spoke from behind him.

The wizards and witch turned their head towards the voice sharply, and Harry was sure he heard more than one neck crack. His wand was already out when the person spoke again.

"Hey, haven't you people done enough damage with that thing already?"

"Show yourself," Harry commanded, glaring at the place where he thought the invisible voice came from. Behind him, he heard Ron and Hermione draw out their wands too.

He nearly jumped two feet into the air when someone suddenly materialized in front of him, bright green eyes staring intently at him. He heard Hermione gasp sharply. It was the ghost from earlier today, and he had two people slung over his shoulder. It appeared to be the two people who had barged in during their impromptu meeting and tossed the weird thermos to the ghost. Apparently, they were still unconscious, and Hermione felt a brief stab of guilt at the ghost's worried expression.

"Look, I'm not here to fight or anything, and I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression before, okay?" the ghost said, laying his friends down, propping them up gently against the wall, and bringing his hands up to gesture that he meant no harm. "Now can you put those…uh, stick thingies away?"

Ron and Hermione lowered their wands, but Harry remained cautious. "What do you want?" he asked, not in a hostile way. He was probably intimidating a potential ally or friend, but he had learned too well that the most unexpected people could turn into the foulest of traitors.

The ghost sighed, running his hand tiredly through his hair. "Can you please undo whatever those people did to my friends?" he asked. "They weren't doing anything evil, I swear, Sam and Tucker were just trying to help me catch that other ghost."

Harry glanced at the others uneasily, but they seemed to trust this mysterious entity. Hermione stepped up, wand out.

"I'll wake them," she volunteered, walking up to the two unconscious teenagers. "Ennervate," she muttered, and Sam and Tucker's eyes fluttered open. Groaning, they got up, rubbing their head.

"Ugh, I feel like I got ran over by a truck," Sam grumbled, and beside her Tucker could be heard complaining about a headache.

"Thanks," Danny said gratefully.

"They would've woken up in an hour," Hermione explained matter-of-factly, "but I think it's good that you came to us for help sooner." The boys couldn't help but admire her cool, calm tone when talking to this possibly dangerous being.

Sam noticed Harry, Hermione, and Ron, and glanced at them sharply and suspiciously. "Who are you?" she demanded. "What did you do to us earlier?"

After some thought, Harry answered, "Here's a deal. If we tell you a little about who we are, you'll tell us who you are." Next to him, Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement. Danny hesitated before consenting, opening his mouth to speak.

"Like I said before, I'm a ghost," he said. "This is Sam and Tucker, who help me a lot. That thing you saw earlier—that was another ghost, an evil one. He could control electronic things—why they suddenly failed, I don't know. Ghosts like those escape from a portal in your next-door-neighbor's house regularly, and it's a real pain in the neck to get hunt them back down, which is what I do."

"There's a portal that ghosts can come out of in our neighbor's house?" Ron asked, disbelief etched on his face. "Blimey!"

"Welcome to Amity Park," Sam commented sarcastically. "Your turn."

"We…we're wizards and witches," Hermione admitted cautiously. I was right! Danny cheered mentally. "I'm Hermione, and that's Harry and Ron. We've come here because there's a dangerous wizard named Voldemort who's after us. He's the most feared person in the wizarding world, and he killed hundreds of people more than a decade ago. He disappeared and was revived only a couple of years ago. Those people that you met earlier…they're kind of like our security guards, and the ones who attacked you were from the Ministry of Magic. They're buffoons," she added, and Danny, Sam, and Tucker couldn't help but grin.

"The other people are from the Order of the Phoenix, a vigilante group dedicated to fighting Voldemort. They seem to think that you're not evil," Hermione told him reassuringly.

"Er…you're not evil are you?" Danny shook his head 'no.'

"One thing I don't get it…if you're a ghost, why can you touch solid things, like people?" Harry asked. Danny looked surprised.

"You mean in your world, ghosts can't touch people?" he asked curiously.

"No," Ron answered, shaking his head.

"That's weird…in our world, ghosts can be solid if they want, and they get superpowers too," said Danny. "Maybe it's like…karma or something. Wizards and witches get magic when they're alive, and when they die they're completely intangible and don't have powers. And when normal people die, they get special powers. Kinda evens it out, huh?" He looked out the window, where the sun was starting to set.

"Look, I have to leave before someone notices I've been gone this long, okay?" he asked. "See you around." He picked up his friends and was prepared to fly off.

"Wait!" Hermione called. "We never asked you what your name was."

"Oh…it's Phantom. Danny Phantom."

"Danny Phantom…it has a nice ring to it," Harry smiled. "We'll be looking out for you in the future."

With that, Danny flew off, his friends casting one last grateful glance at them for reversing the hex.

"Do you think we can trust him?" Ron asked, eyeing the part of the ceiling Danny had phased through.

"Yes," Harry answered, nodding surely. "I think we can."