Hmm… Did I play with Danny's appeal a tad too much in the last chapter? Nah, he should look beautifully hot. :)
Sorry to any Bruno lovers about my comments on the movie in the last chapter. The movie just isn't my favorite one out there.
Anyone wondering where Daniel Benjamin Fenton came from? I was listening to Dance With The Devil by Breaking Benjamin when I wrote that, so Benjamin just subconsciously became his middle name.
Moonlight
Chapter 2: The Letter
Rated T for Teen
"Wh-what?" Danny
asked, taken back. What did he mean, witchcraft and wizardry?
"Read this." the man now known as Dumbledore said as he handed Danny a letter.
As Danny took the letter, he noticed that it was made of yellow parchment with a seal on the back that said H in a curled font. Danny opened the letter and read aloud:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAP and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order Of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Fenton,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Normally students would be accepted when they reach the age of eleven but over the last year we have a seen a great spike in your magical activity, possibly due to the accident that befell you on September 13th last year.
Please find an enclosed list of necessary equipment inside the envelope. Term begins on September 1. We await your reply eagerly.
Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Mistress
Danny stared at the letter for a moment more. What did this letter mean?
Was there really a school of magic?
Possible.
Or was it just a sick joke at he and his families expense?
Probable.
Danny looked at Dumbledore with an unreadable expression. Maybe it was a ghost in a costume, trying to lure him away from Amity so that they could invade? No, his ghost sense would have gone off…
Danny glared coldly at the Headmaster in question as he said, "This is a joke, right?"
"Excuse me?" asked Dumbledore, eyes widening a little.
"Oh come on." Danny snarled, he wasn't really growing on this man. "Two men I've never met before in my life come to my house to tell me that I can do magic? I'm actually supposed to believe that? Did Dash put you up to this? Oh, I can see it now: Let's go play a trick on the Fenton's!"
Dumbledore opened his mouth to say something but his mother beat him to it.
"He isn't lying, Danny." she said looking him straight in the eye. "Magic does exist."
"What? But Mom, that's impossible!" Jazz said.
"It's not impossible or improbable for that matter." Maddie continued. "You see, my great aunt Marsha was a witch, but you shouldn't have been one because the blood would have been to thin. But what I would like to know is, what accident?"
Danny glared at Dumbledore. He was going to massacre that man!
"Uh… would you believe me if I said that the letters lying?" Danny asked with the please-don't-be-mad smile on his face.
"No." his mother answered.
"Er, right…" Danny said looking extremely uncomfortable. "Well, it all started when I was fourteen. Remember how the portal wouldn't work? Well, it turns out that you just didn't turn it on. I went inside the thing to see if I could fix it, and I accidentally turned it on while I was still inside-"
"Danny! That should have killed you!" Jack yelled.
"Well, it did kill me, partly. Mom. Dad. Congratulations, I'm a human ghost hybrid."
Maddie and Jack stared at their son in a dumb-struck stupor. It made Danny feel extremely uncomfortable. He kept thinking about what his parents might do to him. Of course, he knew how they reacted back when Freakshow tried to take over the world, but the little voice that tells you otherwise is still there. Still talking. Still saying that things will go wrong.
"Danny?" his mother asked him once she seemed to compose her thoughts. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Hmm, let me see." Jazz said in an annoyed tone. "Hey Maddie, lets destroy the ghost! No Jack, lets catch the ghost. I know, we'll rip it apart molecule by molecule!" she said impersonating (or at least trying to) their voices. "You guys are so understanding."
Jack and Maddie looked down in shame. They had hunted their own son and caused him harm on a daily basis. Imagine how completely and utterly awful they felt right then.
"Honey…" Maddie said, locking her watery eyes with his shameful ones. "You know that we would never hurt you on purpose, right?"
"Actually… you would and did." he said. Meeting there looks of horror, he quickly said "No, no, no! Let me explain!" He put his hands up, palms toward them, as a sign or defense. His mother inwardly winced. That was the same thing he did when they were about to shot him when he was in Phantom mode.
"What you have to understand is the fact that you did do it on purpose." he said, hands still up. "But that was before you knew. Basically, you were aiming for me, and you were trying to hit me. But me as in Danny, me as in Phantom. You were hurting on purpose, but not the me that you thought you were hitting. Does that make any sense?"
"Not really, no." Jack and Maddie answered.
"Sorry, Danny, but you even lost me on this one." Sam said while Tucker nodded. Up until then, everyone had kind of forgotten about them.
Danny sighed and exclaimed "Why do I even try to explain things anymore?! I'm always wrong!"
"You are not always wrong-" Sam started to say in an annoyed tine, but was cut off by Danny's angry growl.
"No, I am." he hissed. "I am always wrong. Everything I ever do is wrong. I can't keep my grades up, I can't pick up something with breaking it, everyone treats me like crap, ghost or human. Now, listen to my only words of wisdom: I. Am. A. Failure."
Everyone just stared at him, even Dumbledore and the other man. While Dumbledore had his eyebrows pushed up in surprise, the other one had the smallest of all smirks on his face. He was beginning to like the negativity of this boy.
It seemed like hours before Tucker broke the ice by saying "Are you an Emo or what!"
Make note that this chapter is two Microsoft Works Word Processor pages long! Not that long, but long for me.
~SaM~