THE MAGICAL PHANTOM

CHAPTER FIVE: ALL HALLOWS EVE

"Nice night, huh?" Danny asked Snape nervously. Snape scowled in Danny's direction.

"What are you doing outside after lights out? Students are hardly even permitted to be outside their common rooms after lights out, let alone freely wandering around the school grounds." Snape scolded. Shade hissed at Danny's feet, drawing Snape's eyes to it also. "And what matter was so imperative that you had to bring your cat with you?"

"Me? What about you? I didn't think teachers were exempt from all rules either." Danny countered. Snape glared as Danny continued. "And why are you just heading to the Grand Staircase Tower? Little late for a visit don't you think?"

"I wasn't going to the Grand Staircase Tower, Fenton, I was merely… passing it." Snape told Danny, glaring still. Danny glared back.

He could tell Snape had no intentions of passing the tower. The professors' eyes were flickering back to it every so often, his feet were pointing towards the tower's entrance and the professor had called him from behind, as he was leaving the area, so therefor Snape had to have been closer to the tower than he was, which would've been unnecessary if he were passing it.

"To get to where?" Danny pushed. Snape's eyes narrowed more.

"That's private." He said simply. "What I'd like to know is why you're out of your common room at this time of night?" He continued. Danny huffed, before answering with a smirk.

"That's private." Danny reiterated. Snape growled.

"Five points from Slytherin." Snape said angrily. Danny smiled. "Get back to your common room, Fenton." Snape said before walking away in a huff, the opposite way of the Slytherin Dungeon.

"Come on, better get going before someone else pops out of nowhere." Danny said to Shade before starting to walk away from Gryffindor Tower. Shade meowed in agreement before following.

He was quite proud of the way he'd handled Snape, really. Snape could've done much worse, but Danny knew Snape appreciated his sarcastic wit and vice versa. It seemed like they had a mutual understanding; dry wit was the best defense against everything.

"Let's go, Shade. Time to go to sleep." Danny said tiredly to the cat, who meowed back. Danny sighed. "Yeah, yeah, you get to sleep in again tomorrow." The halfa mumbled back.

And so the unlikely duo of ghost-boy and wizarding cat headed back to the Slytherin Dungeon.


"Danny, where've you been? You're later than Harry and Ron!" Hermione shouted at him as he arrived almost late to Transfiguration. Danny sighed, ignoring Ron's indignant 'hey!' from the desk in front of him.

"I know, I'm sorry. But I didn't get to sleep until late last night." Danny said hoping she'd leave it at that. No such luck.

"Why? Was it about," She looked around the room, as if someone else would hear if she didn't, and lowered her volume. "The trapdoor from last night?"

Danny almost cringed. He'd forgotten about the trapdoor in the third floor corridor completely, so it wasn't what kept him awake last night. But then again he couldn't exactly tell her that he'd been up thinking on what Professor McGonagall had talked with him, Phantom him, about.

Lord Volemort's return to power, as she put it.

The way she spoke, it was as if she almost believed the rumors but was also confident that the dark wizard was vanquished at the same time. Of course she could've just been taking precautions in case the rumors were true? But what rumors were going around? No matter how wild, rumors like that usually had some truth of evidence behind them. What evidence had someone gathered about Voldemort and his return? Apparently enough for Snape to agree with telling him about it, which must've meant something, right?

Danny really didn't know what McGonagall expected him to do after the conversation came to a close. Just offer to go on a wild goose chase for an evil goose that may or may not be there? What would he do if this 'Voldemort' guy was back and Dumbledore sent him off to fight against him? Now, Danny had no problem with the fighting part, it was the 'sending off' part that unsettled him. What would he do when Danny Phantom was sent off to fight Voldemort and Danny Fenton coincidentally stops showing up to class and vanished from the Hogwarts grounds?

Suspicion would be amplified when Danny Phantom returned after his job was done, and Danny Fenton appears again and goes to class all of the sudden like he never left.

Then again, Batman pulled off a four-year absence with both of his identities and nobody seemed too suspicious. But of course Danny was working with a much smaller amount of people who'd notice an absence easier. But Batman's absence and Bruce Wayne's absence would surely be missed, seeing as they're both well-known, right? That could work in his favor, as only one of his halves is well known. But then again, he's Batman, so Danny probably couldn't pull it off as well.

Then he gave up thinking about it and wished he could watch some Batman movies.

"Danny? Was it the trapdoor?" Hermione whispered again, breaking his train of thought. Danny nodded slowly and hesitantly.

"Yeah," He started, unsure. "Couldn't really stop thinking about what could possibly be so important there'd be a need for something like that to guard it."

Hermione nodded, accepting the excuse. She had no reason not to, however, since next she informed him that Harry had been up late afterwards too thinking on it, although Ron had been out like a light.

"What about you?" Danny asked next. "Did it keep you up?"

"No, not really." She replied easily. "I figured I'd worry more about it come morning. Nothing good ever comes from late nights, especially with school the day after."

Danny almost snorted. She didn't know the half of it. She never had to be woken up constantly throughout the night by her enemies coming for her pelt, or her destruction or world demise or whatever. Her greatest disadvantage in the morning was probably sleeping through her alarm clock; his was falling into a coma.

"That's true enough, I guess. My mind just wouldn't leave me alone about it, though." Harry told them from in front of them, leaning back in his chair to do so. Hermione looked at him with pursed lips, as if about to lecture him about it, but Ron sighed a long sigh.

"Me too, mate. Wouldn't leave me alone all night." He told them, sarcastically. Harry almost snorted.

"Oh please, you were snoring so loud I thought you'd wake the whole Forbidden Forest up." Harry jibed. Ron rolled his eyes, seeing his sarcasm was lost on Harry and Hermione, who was laughing at Harry.

Only Danny was his salvation as the American teen visibly restrained an eye roll of his own.

"Oh well, looks like you two are the only one's losing sleep over it. It can't be that big a deal, can it?" Hermione questioned them.

"Well, I mean the school does have a giant three-headed dog inside the building to sit on a trapdoor. There's gotta be something important down there. And the school knows about it, but they're not saying anything. Why?" Danny reasoned.

Harry nodded vigorously, along with Ron, but Hermione shook her head.

"Surely the school has its reasons to not tell anyone. But they did tell us to stay away from that corridor!" She insisted. Harry shrugged, Ron sighed and Danny hummed.

"That's another thing in itself. Sure, they tell kids not to do something. But what do kids do when they're told they can't so something?" Danny asked rhetorically. "They do the thing they were told they couldn't do." He continued. "Wouldn't it have been easier if they'd told us there was a dangerous Cerberus down there? That would've been a little more effective in keeping us away, right?"

They all nodded immediately, but didn't see where Danny was going with this.

"But if they told us there's a Cerberus that would have led to more questions. 'Why is there a Cerberus in the third floor corridor?' 'What's it doing there?' 'Who brought it here?' things like that. Then there's the part where word gets out about it, which is only a matter of time. And what if, when it did, someone came to the same conclusion we did; it's guarding something. Only, they'd have an idea of what." Danny ranted. "They don't want anyone to know because they don't want to answer questions."

Harry and Ron stood there, stunned to silence, about to begin celebrating Danny's intense analysis of the situation, before Hermione shook her head, vigorously this time.

"Don't talk like that, Danny. Who would word 'get out' too that would have any idea what's down there? Why would the school care if anyone knew? You're all looking too much into this!" She claimed. Danny opened his mouth to tell them but promptly shut it.

He was drawing on his conversation with McGonagall to build this theory. He thought that maybe Dumbledore didn't want to answer questions about the Cerberus in case Voldemort or a follower that remained loyal knew what the dog was there to guard. But then again, he should've known it wouldn't make much sense for someone who hadn't had the lecture he had about Voldemort's return.

"Take out your wands and pay close attention to this spell, I shall not repeat it." Professor McGonagall said, signifying the start of class.

Harry and Ron sighed before turning around in their chairs to face the elderly witch and Hermione sat up even straighter, if it was possible. Danny let out a quite sigh as he took out his duel-wooded wand.


Later that same day, Danny had ended up sitting with Harry and Ron at lunch in the Great Hall, since he couldn't find Hermione anywhere. She seemed to be avoiding the two Gryffindor boys and Danny didn't think he could find her without walking through some walls.

"Guys," Harry stared, unsure. "I was thinking and, well, what if the dog is guarding whatever Hagrid moved from vault seven hundred and thirteen? That wouldn't be too crazy, right?"

Danny could practically see Sam and Tucker face palming from six feet under. Why hadn't he thought of that? It was a simple connection when you thought about it. He could also see Ron agreed, who was sitting opposite Harry.

He also knew Hermione would never agree, probably saying something like "Come on now, do you really think Hagrid would bring something so dangerous that it had to be guarded by a Cerberus to Hogwarts?" to which Danny would reply, "Yes."

"It's either very valuable or very dangerous." Ron stated. Harry shrugged.

"Or both." Harry said. Danny shrugged.

"In my experience, it's both. Probably more towards dangerous than anything, but definitely both." Danny added.

Harry and Ron sighed.


Harry and Ron smiled.

It was about a week after Harry had come to the conclusion that the thing Hagrid took from the vault and the things the Cerberus was guarding were one and the same and now Danny, Harry and Ron were sitting in the Great Hall once more. Only this time, Harry had received a package.

An oddly broom-shaped package.

Harry tore into the note open before the thing that was obviously not a broomstick (sarcasm intended) and his eyes widened in glee before eagerly passing it over to Ron and Danny beside him, confirming Danny's suspicions that the package was, in fact, a broomstick. A Nimbus Two Thousand, to be specific.

Ron seemed elated with the thing, as did Harry, but Danny was only mildly interested.

They left the hall quickly after that to open the broomstick before classes started but, alas, it wasn't to be. Draco and his cronies cut them off by the time they got upstairs, with Draco forcibly taking Harry's mail.

"That's a broomstick." He declared, tossing the stick back to Harry as his face twisted with distain and jealousy.

"No, really?" Danny asked sarcastically. "What ever made you think that?"

"Shut it, Fenton." Draco snapped, before turning his attention to the other raven-haired boy. "You'll be in for it this time, Potter, first years aren't allowed those."

"Couldn't care less about your insecurities, Malfoy." Danny shot back. "Sorry I can't stay to get on your nerves today, I'm supposed to meet Hermione in a few minutes."

Draco sneered as Danny passed them.

"What about Greengrass? Wouldn't you rather be with someone from your own house, even if she is a mud-blood lover?" He teased. Danny almost got angry, before settling for a smirk.

"She's with your little buddy Longbottom. How does it feel knowing that he's got more friends than you?" Danny retorted before he decided to continue on his merry way.

Danny left the Great Hall right after that and walked past the staircases to see his other Gryffindor friend sitting on a bench with a textbook in her lap.

"Hey." Danny called out as he approached. Hermione didn't even look up, although she wore a smile.

"You're late." She teased. Danny rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"It's not my fault. Someone's gotta put a pin in rich boy's ego, why not me?" He asked rhetorically back. It was her turn to roll her eyes.

"What was his problem now?" Hermione asked exasperatedly.

"He's just jealous Harry's got a new broomstick." Danny waved off. "I wouldn't be surprised if Malfoy runs to a teacher over the thing."

Hermione laughed hesitantly.

"Well," She started. "First years aren't supposed to have personal broomsticks."

Danny was about to reply, when Harry and Ron bustling up the stairs caught his eye. And apparently, Hermione's too, as she was stomping up the stairs after them.

"Well, it's true." They heard Harry say at the top of the stairs. "If he hadn't stolen Neville's remembrall I wouldn't be on the team."

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking the rules?" Hermione chastised them in an angry tone. Harry and Ron turned to face her, surprised, and Danny next to her.

"How much rules could he be breaking, Hermione? He got it as a gift in the mail, it's not like he smuggled the thing into the castle." Danny tried to defend the two without making Hermione too upset.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" Harry reminded shortly.

"Yes, don't stop now, it's doing us so much good." Ron added, glaring.

Hermione huffed and walked away with her head held high. Danny let out a large groan, shot a disapproving look at the two Gryffindor boys and gave chase as he called after the young witch, who refused to turn around.


It had been about a month and things weren't much better between Harry and Ron, and Hermione. They were almost never together unless they had to be and Danny was left constantly switching between parties.

If he sat with Harry and Ron at breakfast, he'd sit with Hermione at dinner. If he and Hermione spent the afternoon in the library one day, he'd be at Quidditch practice with Harry and Ron the day after. Even with his busy schedule, he and Daphne had still been hanging out just as often as Danny was party hopping. And of course Neville wasn't excluded, as he was there with him and Hermione more often than not.

Although Hermione was on his case too, she still talked to him. It wasn't about Harry's new Nimbus Two Thousand, actually. It was about something a ways before that, something that had obviously been on her mind for almost the whole time.

"How did you run so fast before? When you went to catch Neville at the flying lesson, I mean." She had asked, one afternoon.

"Why? How fast was I going?" Danny had replied, nervously.

"Twice as fast as any Olympic sprinter I've ever seen, I can tell you that much." She told him. Danny scoffed.

"Right, sure. Hermione, I don't think I could run that fast if my own life depended on it, let alone someone else's fractured arm." He had brushed off. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I know what I saw, and I saw you doubling a professional runner." She insisted.

"I know what I ran, and I ran fast enough to trip over my own two feet." He insisted back.

Which was another lie; it felt like his feet were pulled right from under him, despite him running faster before and definitely not getting that result. But he couldn't just tell her he could run as fast as he could at only eleven.

"Danny." She said, her tone leaving no room for argument. He knew that tone; it was almost as bad as Jazz's.

"Probably the adrenaline rush, you know? Nothing fancy." He finally relented. Sort of.

She seemed to buy the excuse, but only for a little while as she was back to asking again a few days after. She kept telling him an adrenaline rush wouldn't double normal human speed, and most certainly wouldn't let him trip himself. But after years of practice with evading questions, Danny had yet to give a suitable answer.

Until she started again one day in Professor Flitwick's Charms class where there were working on levitating feathers.

"Gee, Danny, if only you could float as well as you could run." Hermione teased, seeing him pointlessly waving his wand.

Flitwick had them split into pairs for the assignment. Harry was to work with Seamus Finnigan and Hermione got paired with Ron, it was hard to tell who was more upset with that arrangement, and Danny was working with Daphne.

"Don't forget the wrist movements!" Flitwick kept shouting, despite having already given the speech about 'Wizard Baruffio' and his unfortunate mistake that landed him in the company of a buffalo.

Cries of "Wingardium Leviosa!" echoed around the room, desperately trying to send the feathers airborne, most with no effect. Neither Harry nor Seamus accomplished the task, with Seamus actually setting his on fire.

"I thought that was your thing." Ron commented to Danny, who huffed.

Danny and Daphne were only slightly better off, as their feather remained in tact. It didn't float, but it was in tact.

"Wingardium Leviosar!" Ron was shouting, repeatedly jabbing his wand at his feather. He was obviously irritated that nothing was changing. Hermione, next to him, rolled her eyes.

"You're saying it wrong." She snapped, finally. "It's Wingardium Levi-o-sa, not Levio-sar."

Danny couldn't help but laugh, but he tried to keep it quite for Ron's sake.

"You do it then, if you're so clever. Go on." He insisted angrily. Hermione determinedly rolled up her sleeves and picked up her wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" She said with a flick of her wrist.

Sure enough, their feather floated off the desk and rose a good distance above any of the students heads'. It was just like outside the castle where she levitated Neville's new robes into the air. Danny was surprised she knew this spell that far in advance, but when he thought about it, he didn't know why. He should've expected it, really.

"Oh, well done!" Flitwick cried. "See here, everyone! Miss Granger's done it!"

After that the efforts doubled, everyone trying to prove they could too but very few actually succeeded. Susan Bones' feather flapped lightly, while Danny's own vibrated three inches off the table. His looked a bit… different, though.

"Danny, see? That's what happened to your broom the other day when it came to you." Ron informed him, looking past Hermione to Danny's table.

Sure enough, Danny's pure white feather was coated in a light layer of green as it floated in place. Harry's eyes widened.

"That's… odd." He got out. Hermione looked on, confused.

"That's really weird. I've never seen anything like that before." She whispered in amazement. Daphne commented next.

"It gives off a really creepy feeling, doesn't it?" She asked, staring at the object.

Danny was beginning to get uncomfortable with the amount of attention he was receiving and promptly dropped the feather, letting the glow dissipate.

"Come on guys, its not that weird. So my feather got a green tint to it?" He brushed off awkwardly.

He refused to do it again the rest of class, opting to encourage Daphne instead.


"It's no wonder nobody can stand her, other than Danny. The bloody lad's got my respect for that alone." They heard Ron tell Harry. "She's a nightmare, honestly."

Danny turned to see Hermione, who was next to him a moment ago, in a mad-dash forward with her head down. She pushed past Harry and Ron, who looked startled at her appearance, and continued running.

"I think she heard you." Harry muttered to Ron, feeling guilty.

"So," Ron replied, trying to look unfazed. "She must've noticed she only had one friend."

"Was that really necessary?" Danny decided was the appropriate question to ask as he caught up with the two.

"I'm sure he didn't actually mean it." Harry tried to amend, looking at Ron.

"No, I meant it. She doesn't have to act like she knows everything all the bloody time!" He insisted.

"That's because she hasn't been wrong yet." Danny shot back. Ron huffed.

"That doesn't make it any less bothersome." He replied.

"She could tone it down a bit." Harry found himself commenting. Danny shot him a look too.

"She shouldn't have to." Danny defended, before sighing. "I gotta go find her before she shuts herself somewhere. I'll see you at the feast tonight."

That was all he said before he turned and jogged away in the direction Hermione hurried in. Harry turned to Ron.

"Nice going." He muttered before they trudged back to the Gryffindor common room.


Try as he might, Danny couldn't find Hermione before she shut herself somewhere. She had shut herself in a girls' bathroom and refused to come out when Danny knocked on the door. But he did thank Parvati Patil for telling him where she was, even if she didn't care much for either of them.

He didn't want to leave her, but she wasn't giving him much of a choice. So he and Shade, who he'd collected from his room earlier, headed to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Good day, Phantom." Grey Lady greeted him as he entered. Danny smiled.

"Same to you. How's your All Hallows Eve going?" He asked his fellow spirit. She smiled.

"Excellent. I feel stronger than I have in a year." She replied.

Danny knew the feeling. All Hallows Eve was just what majority of the ghosts referred to Halloween as and he just picked it up. But it had the same effect on the supernatural, for lack of better terms. The legend that says that All Hallows Eve is when the human world opens into the underworld was only somewhat true.

It didn't create a portal, but it did bring the realms together, enough for most supernatural beings to feel their power levels increase. Ghosts included.

"Phantom. Nice of you to join us." Friar said as he floated by. Danny nodded in appreciation.

"My pleasure. Where're Bloody Baron and Sir Nicholas? Shouldn't they be at the feast too?" The halfa asked curiously.

"Behind you." Came the answer and Danny had to fight to suppress the instinct to shoot an Ecto-blast as he spun around to see the Bloody Baron floating up to them with Sir Nicholas by his side.

"Happy All Hallows Eve, Phantom." Sir Nicholas wished, as Bloody Baron slapped his shoulder.

"How you holdin' up, kid? I heard Professor McGonagall had a talk with you about You-Know-Who. Anything stick out to you?" The Slytherin house-ghost asked.

Danny shrugged as he walked off towards a more empty space so nobody else could overhear them and gestured for the other ghosts to follow.

"I've been thinking about it a lot but I can't be certain on anything. The way Professor McGonagall said it and how urgent she made it sound, and the fact that Professor Snape allowed me to be told, gives me the feeling they believe the rumors. But that's just the thing; what rumors? Why, now, is it what suddenly Volde-" Danny broke into his rant, but was interrupted by Sir Nicholas, who shushed him quickly.

"Don't say the name." Sir Nicholas said, looking almost afraid himself. "Too many people could overhear." He covered up, of course. Danny rolled his eyes.

"My point is, why now? Why would he suddenly come back all of the sudden after, what, ten years of being supposedly dead? That's another thing. Professor McGonagall, she sounded like she wanted to believe he was still gone and not coming back, but… it was like she couldn't help but worry." Danny said with a long sigh at the end.

The ghosts gave him sympathetic smiles, since they could see the halfa was working overtime on trying to figure this out. The Bloody Baron was the first one to speak up afterwards.

"Take it easy, Phantom. I'm sure McGonagall only told you so you'd be aware should any thing happen. There's no rush to figure everything out." He assured the American, who huffed.

"Not yet." He muttered back.

The five ghostly entities, standing off to the side, exhaled loudly as Dumbledore got situated at the front of the hall, signifying the start of the feast. Dumbledore made the feast appear suddenly, on golden plates this time, and Danny started to make his way to the Slytherin table to eat with Shade at his heels.

As he was crossing the doors, however, Professor Quirrell burst into the Great Hall and sprinted down the isle straight to Dumbledore. Although he knocked into Danny on the way, and Quirrell gave a grunt of displeasure as he ignored the stumbling pre-teen. Shade gave a loud hiss in Quirrell's direction.

"Troll- in the dungeons!" Quirrell shouted as he reached Dumbledore's chair. "Thought- you ought to know."

That was all that was uttered before the DADA teacher collapsed onto the floor in an unconscious heap. The crowd's reaction was instantaneous and, as expected, they flipped out. There was a lot of yelling and murmuring about what to do and panicking. Lots and lots of panicking. Finally it seemed Dumbledore had had enough and the elderly wizard shot off several firecrackers that violently exploded in purple to silence the crowd for merely a few moments.

"Perfects!" Dumbledore roared across the Great Hall. "Lead your Houses to their dormitories immediately! Teachers, follow me to the dungeons!"

Once again the reaction was immediate, with the perfects crowding the other students out of the hall and all of the teachers trailed behind Dumbledore as he barreled through the student body to get to the dungeons.

Danny almost turned to join the Slytherins being led away by some kid he didn't recognize, but decided to do a sweep of the room first. His eyes, now glowing green, darted around the room and saw everyone now with a green hue that assessed their power but also allowed for an easy headcount, especially if he was already familiar with the person as everybody looked different.

He had already seen Draco push through seventh years to exit the hall first with Crabbe and Goyle while Daphne was somewhere cramped in the mass of Slytherin being led out of the room. He could see Neville, who looked scared out of his mind, and he could see Harry and Ron disappearing through the door. That only left…

"Hermione!" Danny said out loud to himself. Shade meowed loudly at his feet.

"Go wait with Daphne!" Danny ordered soundly. Shade meowed again.

"Now!" He continued. Shade rubbed against his legs. Danny glared. Then sighed and picked up the cat.

"Don't blame me when you don't like phasing through walls." Danny muttered before he allowed himself to flick out of visibility before falling through the floor. Now alone, Danny popped back into view.

He quickly phased in and out of walls as making his way to the door he stood at, begging Hermione to come out just a little while ago. This time he didn't bother with the door, and simply phased in from the ceiling, attracting the attention of both Hermione, who was cowering against a wall, and the troll, which was advancing on her.

The troll was horribly ugly, with grey skin, long arms and short, thick legs as it dragged a large wooden club the size of Hermione herself across the floor. It towered over both of them at twelve feet tall, which alone was enough to make Hermione huddle in a corner. But Danny had faced worse.

"Danny!" Hermione shouted, relieved. Although she didn't know what good Danny'd do against a mountain troll.

"And what exactly do you think you're doing?" Danny asked sardonically, casually strolling up to the thing. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not polite to make girls cry?"

The troll stopped to look over at Danny, who was still smiling mockingly, before deciding Hermione was an easier target, probably sensing Danny's paranormal vibes. So, it whacked Danny with its club and sent the pre-teen flying across the room, causing Hermione to scream loudly.

To her surprise, and Harry and Ron who were by the door, frozen with terror for Danny, the halfa stood up looking almost unbothered by the blow. Instead, he appeared annoyed.

"Guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way." Danny muttered before picking up a piece of wood from the floor and using his ghostly strength to hurl the wood at the mountain troll's shoulder hard enough to stick it in.

Harry, Ron and Hermione gasped in sync, all knowing any normal throw shouldn't have done that to any twelve-foot tall troll. The troll on the other hand was outraged and immediately forgot about the Gryffindor girl and trudged across the room to Danny, who remained calm. Until his enhanced hearing heard more footsteps approaching.

'Must be Dumbledore and the other teachers.' Danny thought to himself. He had to take the troll out by the time they got here or they'd be in more trouble, which left him less time than he'd like. They were advancing quickly.

'Should I go ghost? It'll be easier that way but then it would be obvious that four eleven-year-olds didn't take this thing out. It would look like a powerful spirit did.' He debated in his mind, before he saw the troll going to swing at him again.

'Ghost powers in human form sounds good about now.' He decided mentally, letting the club pass harmlessly through him to the surprise of the people in the room. 'I'll have to worry about them later, after this guy is taken care of.'

Danny turned solid right after the club left his vicinity and followed by hopping backwards and powering an Ecto-beam in his arm, releasing it once he put distance between himself and his opponent.

The blast was strong, for his human form on All Hallows Eve, and succeeded in sending the troll stumbling backwards. Danny did the smart thing and put more distance between them, seeing the angry look. It charged again, thundering towards the backing up boy, who sidestepped right at the last second and shot off another Ecto-blast at the trolls' side, sending him flying left into the wall.

Finally, Danny decided it'd be better to finish this now and struck the trolls' head with an Ecto-powered punch, succeeding in knocking it out. Also, probably breaking Danny's hand too.

"How in Merlin's name did you-" Hermione started, in awe, but Danny cut her off.

"Answers later, they'll be here any minute." Danny said, running back to Harry and Ron. "Wands out, now."

They followed without hesitation, and the three boys stood there, their wands ready for battle. Hermione stood next to Danny, still trying to process what just happened. Sure enough McGonagall bust into the room, Snape immediately after and the whimpering Quirrell behind them.

McGonagall instantly focused on Harry and Ron, who had their wands out, although Harry's had drooped down to his side, and the frightened Hermione. Snape, however, glared heatedly at Danny, who internally sighed. The next part of his plan was going to suck.

"What on earth were you all thinking?" McGonagall said furiously. "You're lucky you weren't killed! Why aren't you in your dormitories already?"

Danny subsequently put his wand away, and Harry followed his lead. Ron was still frozen. Snape's eyes zeroed in on Harry first, before settling on Danny,

"Do tell me, Fenton, why you are, once again, not where you're supposed to be?" He said angrily. Danny gave a sad smile.

"I made a mistake." Danny 'admitted' sadly. "I thought since I'd been studying with Hermione I'd learned enough to handle a mountain troll. But I would've been creamed if they hadn't showed up when they did. They saved my life." He continued, gesturing to the Gryffindors.

Snape glared, not amused, while McGonagall seemed torn. Until Hermione spoke up.

"That's- that's not true, Professor McGonagall. I came on my own- to defeat the troll. Danny told me not too, but I thought I could handle it. If they hadn't found me," Hermione motioned to the boys. "Things could've been much worse. Danny got me out of there, dueled it. Harry distracted it while Ron, er, knocked it out with it's own club?" She said.

Now was when Ron's wand went away; it fell right to the ground. He could see Danny lying easily, but Hermione? No way. Danny was also in shock; mostly that Hermione stepped up to take the blame. He thought that everyone would be pretty happy with his excuse.

He opened his mouth to fight again, to insist that she was lying and that it was his fault. But he stopped. He couldn't do that to her. She just had the confidence to tell a downright lie to her own head of house because she didn't want him to take all the blame. He couldn't insist more without shattering that confidence. All he could do was stand there.

"Well, in that case…" McGonagall said, staring at the four of them. "Miss Granger, you foolish girl! How could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Danny frowned. He knew they'd believe her over him. She was Hermione Granger, the brightest witch her age.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken away from Gryffindor for this." She said strongly. "I'm very disappointed in you. You'd better be off to Gryffindor Tower if your not hurt. The students are finishing their feast there."

Hermione left.

"Well, I say you three were lucky. You each win Gryffindor five points. But Professor Dumbledore will hear of this. You may go."

Harry and Ron left.

"And you, Fenton. What were you thinking? A lie like that could've gotten you in serious trouble. Especially with Professor Snape." She said, who was still seething.

"Five points from Slytherin for lying, Fenton." Snape declared angrily. McGonagall frowned.

"Ten points to Slytherin for dueling a troll." She said simply back. Snape huffed.

"Get back to the dungeon, Fenton." Snape ordered.

Danny sighed and walked off with Shade at his heels once more, only to be ambushed by Harry, Ron and Hermione outside the door.

"Talk." They ordered.

Danny sighed again. This, was gonna take a while.

Aaand that's a wrap.

Interesting chapter to write here. I had a hard time on what to do about the troll fight-thing and what would happen afterwards, since Danny isn't one to sit by while his friends are in trouble.

But I got it done. Anybody think it would've happened differently? If so tell me what you would've done differently!

So keep reading if you want to see what happens next! Hopefully another update comes before the end of the month but I can't be sure.

Until then, enjoy!