I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.
Chapter twelve
Down the Rabbit Hole
Ginny had never seen anything like it before in her life. Everywhere she looked the there were floating islands and the sky was swirls of different shades of green light. Turning her head she realized that there we not on the ground but floating in the air in and that right behind them was a large and rather frightening looking castle around the same size as Hogwarts.
"Welcome Ginny Weasley to the Ghost Zone." Danny said with a smile. "More specifically the former Pariahs Keep. Which I suppose is now the Phantom's Keep."
"Phantom? Isn't that what the Ghosts sometime call you?" Ginny asked wide eyed "This is your castle?"
"It is, but no one uses it. I need to get it renovated. It is not exactly appealing to the eyes and I am not even sure if the castle is stable. At least not after the last time I went in there." Danny said with a strange laugh showed off the echo in his voice.
"Why?" Ginny had decided that she wanted to know everything.
"The last time I was in those hallowed hall I fought Pariahs Dark to protect my home. I don't know how I lived or even how I won, but I am not complaining. After that the more benevolent ghosts started to call me the Great One and built a shine to me." Danny said.
"Can I see it? The shine I mean, it would probably be good for a laugh." Ginny held back a giggle.
"Maybe later, first I would like you to meet some people. You can see the shrine when we visit my friend Frostbite." Danny said not hiding his groan of embarrassment.
Danny then started to fly. It was faster than anything that Ginny had ever managed to do one a broom and with the strange and somehow beautiful sky, Ginny felt like she was in some kind of dream world. The affect was breath taking.
Within minutes they had reached another castle, this one was less scary the Phantom's Keep, but was still pretty scary. It was surrounded by dark thorn bushes. They soon landed and Ginny could here cries of 'Sir Phantom has returned', 'The Phantom is here', and 'Prince Phantom'.
Apparently Danny was some kind of hot shot. The doors to the castle shot open and standing before them was a young women around eighteen years old wearing a beautiful white dress and with a golden circlet on top her head. Her skin was a green color and she had golden hair done in a brad. "Queen Dora, it has been too long." Danny said walking forward and giving the woman a short hug.
"Yes it has Sir Phantom." Then girl Dora gave Danny a funny look and said. "Though I hear it is Prince Phantom now."
Danny groaned, "I wish the Observant had asked me before making me the next rule of the Ghost Zone."
Dora laughed. "You were going to be made the next king ever since you stood up to Pariahs in single combat. So don't blame the Observant for making it official it was really some seer that passed on ages ago."
"Somehow that makes me feel a little better about it." Danny then turned to Ginny. "Ginny I would like to introduce you to Dora, Queen of the principality of Aragon. Dora this is my girlfriend Ginny."
Dora put a hand over hear mouth and said in a comic tone of voice. "My goodness not even a Prince for a week and already getting the girls." Dora started to laugh at Danny's misfortune and Ginny joined her. "It is a pleasure to meet you Lady Ginny we really most talk some will Sir Phantom is getting fixed up."
"Fixed up?" Ginny asked.
"Well I hear he is the Champion representing Lord Clockwork in a tournament in his human form. He must have something more appropriate to wear then just his usual jeans and t-shirt." Dora explained as she half dragged Danny through the castle.
"Actually Dora, I am going to a wizarding school now, robes are uniform and I think I am going to be fighting in those." Danny said.
"Do the rules say he has to?" Dora asked looking at Ginny.
"No, they don't." Ginny said with an evil grin. She knew that something was going to happen that would probably be funny to see.
"Ginny, why?" Danny cried.
"I think it is going to be fun to see you dressed up." Ginny said keeping he grin and giving a small shrug.
"We will get along just fine Lady Ginny." Queen Dora said as they stopped in front of a door.
"No, please not him again." Danny moaned.
"He is the best in the Ghost Zone Sir Phantom." Dora gave Danny a sharp look.
Danny took as deep breath and pushed the door open, Ginny and Dora following close behind. Ginny nose was assaulted by the strong smell of alcohol and the heat of a furnace that set in the corner of the room. Perch in front of the furnace was a small boy. He couldn't have been more than seven or eight. He pulled a medal rod out of the fire and brought in to an anvil and proceeded to hit it with a rather large mallet. The boy was dressed in a simple blacksmith's uniform with grey heavy clothes underneath a little brown apron. Ginny then noticed that the boy's eyes were wrapped in cloth. 'Was he blind?'
After a minute the boy plunged the metal into a bison of water and ran a hand trough his dirty brown hair. As he got up Ginny noticed that he too gave off a mysterious glow like Danny and Dora had. 'So this small child is a ghost?' Ginny thought, 'To die so young.' The thought was more than a little saddening… At least until he started talk. "Well are y'all going just stand there all day are you go to say something." He shouted swinging his hammer that was half his size with one hand. It was then that Ginny noticed that the boy was drunk. "I know what you are thinking. Remnant you son of a gun, how is it that you can have a body of a seven year old, be completely blind, and a wee bit drunk and still make blacksmith look easy." Ginny would say he was more than a little drunk and his manner of speech was nothing like the others or what you would think you would get out of a seven year old.
"Remnant you shouldn't drink so much. It is not good for children." Dora said.
"With all due respect your 'majesty' I am fifteen hundred years old was will get as want as I drunk to be." Remnant then sniffed the air. "Did Phantom being that Sam girl with him again. She seems different."
"No he brought his new girlfriend, Ginny." Dora said looking a little concerned since Remnant hadn't put down the hammer.
"No freaking way. So what is she possessed like that other one, or is she another ghost hunter that was brainwash into dating him. I think there was at least one accession when the halfa was put under a love spell. Is it like that." Remnant was laughing a bit too loudly and making everyone feel a little embarrassed. He was swinging the hammer around dangerously.
"Remnant your drunk give me the hammer." Danny said stretching out his hand.
"No, I am plenty sober." Remnant said pulling his hammer towards himself.
"Oh really then, how many fingers am I holding up?" Danny said holding up two fingers.
Remnant moved as if squinting his eyes to see the fingers even though he was blind. After a few seconds he dropped his head and held out the hammer for Danny to take. "I really am drunk if I can't see your fingers right in front of me." Ginny couldn't believe that it was that easy to trick the boy. How could he forget that he was blind?
"Now that we got the hammer away from the drunken master can we do what we came here for?" Danny said. "I would rather get my punishment over with."
"Does this mean you finally came to your senses and want a real weapon instead of that blasted chain I gave you." Before Danny could respond Remnant shouted again. "Great! So what will it be; a scythe, claymore, dagger, oh I got this wicked halberd. It could tear a hole the size of an Observant's oversize eyeball in the behemoth easy as…"
"No! Remnant I am not here for a weapon. Dora wants me to have clothes for my human form when I enter this tournament in the living world." Danny explained.
"Great, I have a suit of armor that could take a hit from Pandora without getting a dent." Remnant smiled.
"We were going to give him the cloth armor remember Remnant." Dora said patently trying to calm the boy down. "The one that is sturdy but will look good while he represents Lord Clockwork."
"You break my core, Princess. Why oh why must you always make your loyal blacksmith do such terrible things of his trade. Cloth armor, none lethal weapons and crowns that have not a single spike. You wound me Princess." Remnant was acting like he had been stabbed in the chest.
"Please do this Remnant. For me." Dora said warmly.
Remnant paused for a minute before letting out a sigh his shoulders dropping. "For you Princess." Then he jumped up and grabbed Danny by the caller. "Come on hero boy we let us get this over with. And maybe give you a real weapon will were at it." They went into a back room.
"Will we are waiting for them would you like to get a nice dress?" Dora asked Ginny.
Moments later Ginny was in a large closet with Dora filled with dresses that were all Ginny's size. Ginny had declined at first, but Dora insisted, and being from a large family where money was a little tight, Ginny had never had a nice dress before.
"Who was that boy that Danny went with?" Ginny asked.
"He is Remnant, one of the fallen elders." Dora said sounding more than a little sad. "Over a thousand years ago he had helped the ancients seal away Pariahs Dark for the first time. But when his prized sword 'Midnight's Hope' was stolen by the wizard Merlin and it had been taken to the human world where it was renamed 'Excalibur' and used as an instrument of war instead of self defense… it broke his heart. Before then he was called Ore, and sometimes The Sacred Blacksmith" Ginny was speechless, she had grown up with stories of the great Merlin about who he helped people. To hear this about the legendary wizard was a shock.
"After that things went from bad to worse with him." Dora said. "My brother found him and with his heart still broken from the knowledge of what his sword had done he was no match for my brother in his weakened state. My brother was a bad man and did terrible things that I never wish to think about again. One of them was capturing Remnant, and when he refused to make him a weapon… he cut out Remnants eyes and locked him away." Dora looked like she was about to cry. "I was the one that brought him food and talked to him for over three hundred year that he was imprisoned. I should have done more to help him, but I was too afraid of my brother."
Ginny felt sick and was about to ask Dora to stop when Dora lifted her head, a bit of light shining in her eyes. "But then Sir Phantom and his friends helped me see that I shouldn't be afraid. And with their help I overthrow my brother and we freed Remnant from his prison. When he got out he asked us not to call him Ore anymore, and from that day on he was Remnant, which means 'all that is left'."
"That might be the saddest story I ever heard." Ginny said whipping a tear from her eye.
"Most ghosts have sad stories. If not before they dead then after it." Dora said. "Most people see ghosts like us as rampaging monsters. Only a few even think that we are capable of feeling hurt or pain. And to be honest some of us have forgotten over the years what it was like to be human."
They relapsed into silence until Ginny found a dress that she liked. It was a beautiful orange and crimson red dress with golden trim. She put it on and it fit perfectly. Dora lead her back to the armory where they found Danny in human form wearing his new clothes. He had no shirt on and just a sleeveless white jacket with silver trim. Over his heart was a symbol of a dragon clutching a sword and on his back was a C on top of a W inside of a gear, the symbol of Clockwork. He had on a white version of the pants that he had on in his ghost form.
"Now you look like a Champion." Dora said.
"That is his armor? It hardly covers anything." Ginny commentated.
"I know… it is a blasphemy against my art. But it was the Princess's wishes so I will let her have her way."
"Thank you Remnant." Dora said giving the small boy a hug, the boy blushed.
"Ginny." Danny said also blushing. "That dress looks good on you."
"Thanks." Now Ginny was blushing.
"Well we really should be going. We have a least two other places we have to visit before we head back to the human world." Danny said before grabbing Ginny's hand and transforming into Phantom then he smiled to Dora, "Hope to see you soon Dora and you try to stay off the stronger drinks ok Remnant." And like that they were off.
"He is a good kid." Remnant said. "Now how long are you going to just sit there you old stop watch?" Remnant asked the air. Out of nowhere Clockwork appeared in his Adult form.
"It is good to see you after all this time old friend." Clockwork said.
"Always with the pleasantries with you Clocky now are you going to tell me what it is that you want?" Remnant asked.
"Why are you so grumpy Ore. The man I knew had a fire in his eyes that could never be put out." Clockwork said.
"Well the man you knew is gone. And in case your all seeing eyes over look this fact I don't have fire in my eyes because I don't have any." Remnant shot back. "And Ore is gone… I am just the pieces."
"What happened Ore, you were once a man that made the armies of Pariahs quacked in fear, a swords master that The Fright Knight wouldn't dare to approach. A blacksmith capable of forging the 'Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep'. Now you are nothing more than a broken child trying to drink away the memories."
"Ore die again, the day 'Midnight's Hope' was stolen from me. Without it, I am nothing." Remnant was sinking onto a stool trying not to meet his old friend's eyes. Even if he couldn't see it, he could still feel the disappointment in his gaze.
"Tell me again Ore, was it you who made that sword or that sword that made you." Remnant lifted his head a little. It was true after all that he had made the sword even though the things that it had been used to do did not exactly comfort him the memory of him making it was still fresh in his mind even after twelve thousand years. "The Ghost Zone needs you to put hammer to steel again my old friend. It is time to come out of this early retirement of yours."
There was a pause will Remnant thought it over and came to a dissection. Lifting his head he said in a clear voice that had a hint of his old fire. "What do you need?" Clockwork smiled and began to tell the great blacksmith exactly what he needed.
Ginny and Danny were flying alone when Danny started to talk. "Before we get to this next place I need you to hear a story so there won't be any misunderstandings."
Ginny looked at him, "Why what happened?"
"Well about a year ago there was another half ghost named Vlad that had a weird obsession with me. So he decided that he wanted me to be his son slash evil apprentice." Danny said, Ginny giggled a little. "After I said no enough times he decided that if I was not going to be his son then he would make one. So he took my DNA and tried to make a clone of me. Five of them were mindless, destabilized and melted, but the last one survived. But Vlad didn't like the fact that she turned out a five year old girl and wanted to melt her down so that he could make a perfect male clone of me that would do his bidding. Me and a Ghost hunter named the Red Huntress saved her, and I took her to the ghost zone and left her in the care of Pandora. After a will of me checking in on her and looking out for her future we started to call each other father and daughter. Well that is the PG version of the story anyways."
That was a shock to hear that Danny was a father. She could understand how that would have caused a lot of misunderstanding when they got there but she still wanted to see it for herself. Ginny thought that it was just like Danny to take responsibility for the girl even though it was not his decision to have her. Danny was to kind hearted for his own good.
Tell landed in front of a large Greek style building. Suddenly a large three headed dog charged at them. Ginny screamed but Danny simply shouted out. "Cerberus sit." The dog stopped right in of them and sat down. "Now lay down." The dog obeyed. "Good girl." Danny started to pet the massive dog. Ginny was starting to recover when Danny turned to her and smiled "Come on lets go in."
Entering the building Danny cupped a hand over his mouth and shouted. "Pandora, Dani, I am here to visit and I brought someone for you to meet." A black blur came out of nowhere and tackled Danny to the ground.
"Daddy." The little girl shouted. Ginny immediately saw the resemblance between the father and daughter. The girl had the same black hair and blue eyes as her father, and other then some baby fat on her face that had similar facial structures.
"Oh my goodness Dani, you're going to break my back one of these days." Danny said faking injury. "So Dani how was school this week."
The girl put he hands behind her back and looked down and started to kick one leg back and forth. "I might have gotten into a gotten into a little fight with this Trish girl." Dani admitted. "But she was being really mean and throwing rocks at Greg."
"Did you use any of your powers on them?" Danny asked.
"No." Dani replied.
"Then you were trying to do the right thing and weren't trying to hurt anyone so I am proud of you. But next time got to the teacher for help." Danny said.
"But what if the teacher do don't want to help?" Dani asked.
Danny frowned. "Well then she isn't doing her job and you have my permission to get into a fight then." Danny replied.
"I don't think that is what you should tell the girl, Danny." Ginny cut in.
"Who is this Daddy?" Dani asked jumping up and going to Ginny.
"This is Ginny, she is my girlfriend." Danny said.
"Really is it anything like the stories that Kitty tells me about your luck with girls?" Dani started giggling.
"Dani I told you that I don't care how you play with as long as you don't pick up bad habits, but please don't help Kitty and Johnny spread stories about me." Danny said.
"Dad everyone in the Ghost Zone knows about your personal life. I give it two days before even the vultures talking about it." Dani was probably right about that.
"It is the same in the human world to at school. Any info on Danny get spreads faster than wildfire. His legend is already spread across three countries in Europe." Ginny laughed.
"Is that so? I am not surprised; Phantom does get into the strangest of situations." Ginny turned to see a woman how dwarfed even Hagrid standing behind her. She had pale blue skin and red eyes. She was wearing a Greek still black toga from with four arms could be seen coming out. She also had a helmet on top her head form which fire was pouring out of.
"Good to see you again Pandora, sorry it has been so long since my last visit." Danny greeted the giant of a woman.
"Not at all. Though I have to say that I am sorry about the Observant naming you the future king and all will you were away." Pandora said. "They wanted to make you king now but Clockwork and I talked them down saying that you need more experience in life before you could become king."
"It isn't your fault Pandora, I just hope I can live up to your expectations." Danny smiled at her. Ginny noticed that the smiles he gave here looked a lot more real than the smiles he gave back home. Then it struck her that as strange as this place was… it was home to him.
They spent the next few hours playing with Dani and telling stories to her about Hogwarts. She asked if she would get to go there one day. Danny said she could once she was eleven if no one chased him out with pitch forks by then. Danny and Ginny noticed that they were almost out of time before they would have to head back up to the castle. Danny was a little disappointed that he didn't get to introduce her to Clockwork but they were out of time.
Danny used the portable ghost portal to get them back to the exact place they were when they left the human world. "Thanks Ginny." Danny said.
"For what?" Ginny couldn't think of anything that she had done that he needed to thank here for.
"Thanks for not rejecting me." Danny said. "I wished I had time to introduce you to Clockwork, but maybe another time."
"So your adoptive father is a ghost then?" Ginny asked.
"Yah he is amazing." Danny said with a light in his eyes. He then grabbed Ginny's hand and they ran off to were the rest of the students were gathering to go back to the castle for dinner. Fred and George spotted them and when up. "We were going to ask how your date went but…" George started.
"Now we want to know where you went and…" Fred continued.
"What's with the get up?" George finished.
"We went and visited some friends of mine." Danny said shrugging. "Wanted to introduce Ginny to my sort of family." It was true that those ghosts were the best family that Danny had.
"What but you couldn't have gone all the way to America and back in that amount of time." Lee said.
"Why couldn't we?" Ginny said mysteriously liking the looks on her brothers' faces.
"Let's get back to the castle." Danny said and he and Ginny ran ahead.
When they got back to the castle they went straight to the Great Hall for dinner. Viktor was already sitting in the usual spot and like everyone else in the hall saw Danny and Ginny as they approached. "Do I want to know why you look like you are going to fight a bear and your girlfriend looks like she is going to a ball?"
"You probably don't." Danny said turning to Ginny.
"Danny took me to the Ghost Zone for our date." Ginny said with a smile.
"You took your girlfriend to the world of the lost and damned souls for your first date?" He turned back to the table and started to drink from his cup. "Danny I need to teach you something about romantic atmosphere."
"I thought it went well." Danny said.
"I believe before you took me thought the portal you said, 'they all say I am as mad as a hatter, would you like to know how deep the rabbit hole goes?' or something like that." Ginny teased.
"Oh a muggle movie reference 'Aluce in Wanderland'. Interesting choose." Viktor had trouble with the names but he always got the message across.
"Didn't know you were a fan of the movies?" Danny said.
"Muggles do a lot of silly things with all their contraptions that I do not understand, but I do admit that I like the art of some of it, expectably the movie and the game videos. Watching it all on those big scenes is always a sight to behold." Viktor said smiling and waving his arms a little.
"Good to know I am not the only one in the wizarding world that respects some of the bi-products of muggle engineering." Danny said. "And the clothes were a gift from a friend. Though Ginny got to choose hers and mine we made for me. Dora said that she wanted me to wear them during the tasks. Something about representing my dad and having to look my best. The blacksmith was not too happy about it all being cloth, but he is never happy."
"I don't know, Remnant looked pretty happy when Dora gave him that hug." Ginny said.
"Ok that is true. But he has a seven year olds body and hers is eighteen. Or if you are going by real age he is fifteen hundred year old and she is only four hundred." Danny pointed out.
"Oh come on Danny haven't you ever hurried about true love finding a way." Ginny said.
"Maybe, but unless he gets a growth spurt for some reason I don't think he has much of a chance." Danny said.
"I have no idea what you two are talking about any more." Viktor said.
"That is ok I hardly understand it." Ginny said.
"That is impressive because I have been part of it for years and I still don't understand." Danny said causing Ginny to laugh.
"I was a little surprise though when Dora said that she was trying to kill you when you first met." Ginny confessed.
"Water under the bridge if you ask me. There are only three people, no two, no one ghost I can think off that I have met that didn't try to kill me. And that was Pandora. But see was scary enough to make me soil myself." Danny admitted.
"She was pretty scary." Ginny agreed.
"No she was happy when you first met her. I first met her after someone stole her box. She was furious." Danny said shivering, causing Ginny to wonder just how scary she had been.
Ron walked into the Great Hall and saw Ginny and Danny. "Bloody hell Ginny where did you get that dress?" Ron asked.
"I got it from a friend of Danny's when he took us to the Ghost Zone for our date." Ginny said grabbing Danny's arm.
"What since when are you two dating and why didn't you tell me?" Ron was clearly upset.
"The entire school knows that they are dating. They announced it in front of everyone one to upset the Fleur girl who was hitting on Danny." Viktor said.
"Viktor Krum how long have you been sitting here?" Ron said. Apparently Ron had not been paying much attention over the last few days.
"Don't know two or three days I guess, though it feels like forever." Viktor said with a shrug. "You really need to pay more attention. Also think more clearly. Try meditation or flying."
Danny and Ginny couldn't stop laughing at the look on Ron's face. Fred, George, Lee and Neville showed up then and they all started talking about the events of the day. Ginny was happy that Danny had confided in her and she got to learn more about him. He was a really kind and was more than willing to lay down his life for others. But Ginny thought back to what Dora had said about ghosts usually having sad stories. Ginny could see that Danny had a lot of them. But he always had one that smile saying I will carry the weight of the world for you so just stay safe. She was lucky to have him.
This chapter took... I forgot to turn on the timer and I really didn't look at the clock before, during, or after.
I invented Remnant on the spot without really thinking that much about it, but I might reuse him in the future for another story if I can find a good reason too.
Tomorrow is when the semester starts for me and I start teaching, so I was pretty busy today and am really tired right now.
good night.