Disclaimer: Yup. I still don't own anything. I barely own this plot line. :P

Warnings: No death here, but it is kinda depressing I guess. There will be slash (boy x boy relations) in future chapters.

Hello and thank you to everyone who reviewed, fav'd, and/or followed this story! You people are amazing for my poor withered ego! X3 This chapter didn't end up quite as long as I wanted it and certain sections gave me a fair bit of trouble, but here it is! Hopefully the next chapter won't be so difficult. v.v And for anyone who was wondering, I have decided which pairing I'll be going with! I'll leave it as a surprise for now though.~ I also kida/sorta know where I'm going with this now. Go me! And now, without any further ado, I give you chapter 2!

Chapter 2: A Gray Morning

When Danny woke up the next day it was with the vague hope and almost expectation to see little glow in the dark stars on a pale blue ceiling; Something familiar. Something to let him know things were still normal and that that night had just been a really bad dream. What his tired eyes were greeted with instead, however, was a drab gray ceiling that might have at one point been white. A glance around showed the rest of the dim room to be of the same color pallet with moth eaten curtains doing their best to keep the muted light of a cloudy day out of the time beaten room. He returned his gaze to the ceiling with the flat look of one who didn't want to think about anything. To think about it would be to make it real, and if it were real then that would mean… That would mean that he was alone now. His parents and friends were gone and his sister was missing…

Despite his desire to not think about anything, the thoughts and memories came streaming in from last night. The memory of stiff, dead bodies falling to the floor of his living room tried to surface, but Danny pushed it back, resolutely denying his morbid mind the chance to pick over those details. Instead he focused on the conversation he'd had once he'd come to number twelve Grimauld Place. Dumbledore had sat with him for more than an hour, answering only some of his questions and bringing up many more in the course of the conversation. From what he'd been able to gather, some evil, murdering megalomaniac dark wizard (and apparently wizards really do exist and those magic sticks were actually wands) found out about him all the way from Britain. He'd found out both how powerful he was and what he was (and how had that even happened?!) and had decided that he would be an invaluable asset to his side of the war. It was a vague explanation at best. Dumbledore hadn't been all that clear about anything. Danny wasn't even sure if Dumbledore knew himselfwhat the dark lord wanted with him and was just being vague or if he was just as in the dark as the rest of them. For all Danny knew that evil wizard could want him as some sort of magic battery or something. Whatever the reason was, it meant that a dark over lord was out to get him and this Order of the Phoenix, of which Dumbledore was apparently the leader, had decided to take him in and protect him. It might have only been to keep him from bolstering the fire power of the bad guy, but the whole rescue and protect thing was still pretty well appreciated.

Those psycho murderers with the bad horror movie serial killer uniforms were called death eaters, he'd been told, and they were pretty much Mr. Big, Bad and Evil's henchmen. They'd been sent to collect him and kill whoever got in the way. Or whoever witnessed them being there. Or really anyone they saw. Death eaters apparently weren't all that picky about whom they killed. Well, no, scratch that; they apparently liked other wizards and witches who were from long lines of well known or well thought of wizarding families, or 'purebloods' as they were commonly called. Elitist jerks. Their 'I like you' list was apparently pretty short and it didn't include the likes of Danny's family and closest friends.

The bed squeaked quietly as Danny turned onto his side, curling slightly into himself and clenching his eyes shut as the dull ache in his insides narrowed into a sharp pain in his chest, his stomach roiling unpleasantly. His family was gone. His friends were gone. Somehow the pain seemed so much worse today than it had last night. Maybe that was because it had had some time to actually sink in. Or maybe the light of day just made it all the more real. There would be no more Dad and his crazy inventions, good intentions, awkward father/son chats with well meaning advice, or bone crushing hugs. There would be no more Mom and her confused yet concerned glances in the morning after a late night of ghost fighting, strange yet delicious cookies, reanimated ghostly dinners, or uniquely warm and comforting arms to hold him when he needed it most. There would be no more Tucker with his tech obsession, lame come ons, strange sense of humor, or stinky cologne. There would be no more Sam with her exceedingly unique outlook on life, dry wit, biting sarcasm, late night flights with her pressed tightly against his side, or her tendency to always have his back no matter what.

And Jazz… He didn't even know if she was ok or not. His fists clenched against the threadbare sheets as he thought about his sister. Someone had indeed been sent for her, as promised, but she hadn't been found. No one knew if she were alive or dead and it had taken every ounce of will power he possessed as well as a great deal of logic from Dumbledore to persuade him not to zoom off and go looking for her, evil murdering wizards be damned. Hell, he was still fighting the urge to go look for her. She was all he had left now and he needed her to be here with him! He was told that they'd keep looking, but it provided little to no comfort…

Aside from the possibility that Jazz was still breathing he was well and truly alone now and it hurt. Not only that but now he was also thrown into this whole different world where he knew almost nothing about everything and the crazy evil dude was more than willing to kill people to get to him this time. The only reason he wasn't in Voldemort's clutches this very instant was because someone had managed to tip off the order. (Dumbledore hadn't elaborated on who had tipped them off, only that it had been a highly trusted source.) Danny might not have cared so much at this point if old Voldy had been out to kill him or something, but that's not what the bad guy had in mind. No, Voldemort wanted to use him to further his whole world domination and muggle (non magic people according to wizards) purging agenda. Being a forced accessory to mass murder was not very high on Danny's 'to do' list. In fact it was probably listed right beneath becoming Vlad's little pet son and assisting him with world domination.

Cracking his eyes back open to stare bleakly across the room, Danny wondered if Voldemort knew anything about the older half ghost. Danny had always been far more visible as far as the public eye went when it came to his ghost half. He'd also always been far more abnormal seeing as how he went out of his way to be selfless and heroic, a very non-ghost-like quality. Vlad would blend with the rest of the ghostly population much more easily in his ghost form and he'd always been good at keeping his nose clean in his human form, so it was unlikely that Voldemort knew anything about him. Right? Danny was still unclear what the dark lord wanted with a halfa in the first place but in his experience it was never good to let the bad guy get what he wanted. Danny decided that as long as talk of other halfas didn't come up, he would say nothing. The fewer people who knew about Vlad, the less likely the chance of Voldemort learning about him.

A sharp knock on the door interrupted Danny's musings.

"Hello? Danny, are you awake, dear? I just wanted to let you know that breakfast is ready. You really should come down and eat…" A kindly female voice called from the other side of the door, trailing off awkwardly. She sounded like she was probably an older woman. A mother most likely, given the way she talked. Danny felt a painful squeeze on his heart when the thought brought to mind his own mother who he'd last seen cold and dead on the floor just that night. She wouldn't have liked it if Danny shut himself away in his room and didn't eat. It was so difficult to want to get out of bed, though… Everything hurt. He felt sick to his stomach and the way his chest kept constricting he was sure he could burst into tears at any given moment, even though he could have sworn he'd cried himself dry last night the moment he'd been left to himself. Eventually he'd worn himself out enough to drift into an uneasy sleep, but it hadn't lasted long. The results were a bit less than pretty. He might even still have blood in his hair. Could he really allow other people, people he didn't even know, to see him like this?

When he gave no response after a few minutes the woman knocked and encouraged him to come down for breakfast once more before hesitating steps were heard making their way away from his door.

It was the thought that he might get more info on Jazz that had him making up his mind. There was also the faint possibility that Dumbledore had made some headway on that spell that had knocked out his powers too, he reasoned. Turns out that the spell they used for that had been some seriously complicated stuff; parts of it custom made just for him. He'd been told it would likely take quite a bit of time to lift that spell, though, so he didn't feel too optimistic about that.

The bed gave an almighty squeak of protest as he levered himself upright, shoved the thin gray blankets to the side, and pushed himself to his feet. This house could really use a good interior decorator, he decided as he got a better look at his surroundings. The color palette was definitely leaving much to be desired. But then again, maybe gray hadn't been the intended color scheme. Some things had a little bit of a tint to them, suggesting that they, at one time, were not gray. Perhaps time had faded the brilliance of what might have been a really nice room at one point. Or maybe the dust had just sunken into everything and dyed it in drabness… It certainly felt like the dust was trying to seep into him. Making him feel dried out and brittle, like the slightest touch or even breeze could crumble him into nothing.

With a sigh at his own melodramatic thoughts (though wasn't he entitled to them at this point?) he pushed a hand through his messy hair in an effort to straighten it a bit then made his way across the creaking floor boards and out of the room before padding lightly down the stairs to the kitchen. The room itself hadn't changed much in the hours he'd been away from it aside from gaining a bit more brightness and an inviting smell of sausage and eggs. That and the occupants of the room were widely different as well. Ok so maybe the room had changed a bit. It was amazing the difference some light, some decent smells, and some life could make.

The man who'd rescued him last night was sitting at the table, Remus Lupin he'd said his name was, and he was speaking in low tones with another man who was gaunt looking with long, shaggy black hair and dark eyes. Also at the table were three teens - a black haired boy with glasses, a tall, gangly red-headed boy, and a girl with the bushiest brown hair he'd ever seen - who were off to the side eating slowly and seeming to lean towards the two adults at the table like they were trying to inconspicuously eaves drop on the quiet conversation. Danny raised a brow at the strange behavior but put the observation down as something to worry about later.

The black haired boy's gaze rose briefly from his food and green eyes locked onto ice blue. Danny had a moment of feeling completely out of place under that searching, almost suspicious look from the other boy. He fidgeted nervously, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and wondered if coming down to breakfast had actually been a really bad idea.

"Who are you?" The boy asked bluntly, almost rudely, eyes narrowed behind his round glasses.

The question got the attention of the others in the room and before he had a chance to answer, Lupin was smiling at him gently and answering for him. "Danny! It's good to see you up and about. I was worried that…" His voice trailed off for a moment before he continued with an almost forced cheer. "Sirius, this is the boy I was telling you about." He addressed the man next to him before turning his attention back to its original target. "Danny, why don't you have a seat and have some breakfast? Molly here is a fantastic cook."

"Oh would you have a look at you!" came a voice from the other side of the room, startling him and causing him to jerk, wide eyes coming to rest on the homely face of an older red-headed woman that he hadn't noticed before. "You're naught but skin and bones! So thin! Well, we'll just have to fix that." And before he knew what had happened he'd been ushered to a seat and had a full plate of food placed in front of him with a fork in his hand.

"Um, t-thank you..." he stuttered, trailing off uncertainly.

"Molly Weasley, dear, and just eat what you can. I can imagine you might not have much of an appetite after…" She wrung her hands in an upset manner, her eyes going watery all of a sudden, putting the lie to her cheerful manner of just seconds before and showing clearly that she had been filled in on just why he was there and what had happened, unlike the teens who'd been watching the scene curiously since they'd noticed him.

Not wanting to delve into the events of last night at all, Danny quickly took a bite of the eggs he'd been given. "Mr. Lupin's right. You're an awesome cook." He complimented once he'd swallowed, forcing a smile that he hoped came off as at least a little reassuring. She gave a weak smile back and he knew he hadn't been convincing at all, but she was willing to drop the subject anyway.

"Well, there's plenty more so help yourself." She offered before returning to her place at the other side of the room where she seemed to be washing dishes with her wand, waving the length of wood in a practiced motion as the mess seemed to clean itself. Magic. That would take some getting used to.

"Danny is it?" The dark haired boy asked with a slightly narrowed gaze, prompting the addressed boy to return his attention to him. "Just what are you doing here? You can't be a member of the order…"

Danny shrunk down in his seat a bit and pushed at the eggs on the plate with his fork. 'And here come the questions.' He though sullenly. As he lowered his eyes to his food uncomfortably he missed the sharp look the bushy haired girl gave the dark haired boy. He did not, however, miss her scolding words.

"Harry! We haven't even introduced ourselves yet!"

'Harry' had the decency to look a tiny bit ashamed before Lupin cut back into the conversation.

"Quite right Hermoine, I do believe introductions are in order. Danny, these three are Ron Weasley-" the red head lifted a hand in an unenthusiastic greeting, "-Hermione Granger-" the girl smiled pleasantly and chimed "It's a pleasure." "-And Harry Potter." Lupin finished as Harry just continued to watch him with seemingly resigned expectation. When Danny didn't respond in any way to Harry's name his look morphed into one of vaguely surprised confusion, like he'd expected some sort of recognition. Danny frowned almost imperceptibly at that before Lupin continued.

"And my friend here is-"

"Sirius Black." The man next to Lupin interrupted before extending a hand over the table. Danny hesitantly reached to take it and shook once up and down. Sirius raised a brow at the cold temperature of his grip but said nothing about it, opting instead to give him a small, slightly skewed smile. "I'm also the owner of this run down monstrosity some would call a house." Danny quirked a small grin back at him and decided he liked Sirius.

"Everyone, this is Danny Fenton. Due to some… Extenuating circumstances, he'll be staying with us at the order for a while." Danny winced at the entirely inadequate explanation and knew the others wouldn't leave that alone. His gaze returned to his plate of mostly untouched food and he poked at it again.

"Extenuating circumstances?" Asked Hermione, "What sort of circumstances would bring an American boy to the Order?" She asked Lupin. Her voice held a note of incredulity with a strong hit of curiosity, her expression matching her tone.

"Yeah, I can understand Harry and the rest of us. We deserve to be here. But what's so special about him?" Danny didn't like Ron's accusing tone and if not for his powers being blocked off at the moment then his eyes surely would have flashed green.

"Sorry I'm not special enough to deserve to be here!" Danny growled scathingly, aiming a frigid glare at the other boy, some of the anger at his situation bleeding through to be vented on the red-head, "I promise you, if I could change the events that led to me coming here I would!" His voice rose a bit at the last word as he slammed his fork down on the table.

"Don't go yelling at Ron! It was a perfectly reasonable question!" Harry retorted, defending his best friend.

"It was a perfectly jerky way to ask it too! Maybe he doesn't deserve an answer!" Danny returned even more heatedly. Deep down he knew he was being petty. He knew he shouldn't be flying off the handle like this. But all of the pain and anger that had been simmering just beneath the surface had been poked and provoked and now that he had a target, even if it was more of the convenient sort than the deserving, he was ready to lash out however he could.

"Now, I don't think either of you are being quite fair-" Hermione tried to interject only to be cut off by Danny's angry shout of "Nothing about this is fair!" His fists sat clenched on the table top, his body shaking visibly as he tried to get a handle on himself. No one had anything to say to that. Ron and Harry wore shocked expressions. Hermione looked a bit lost. Lupin just looked sad and Sirius was looking away with a dark expression on his face. Over by the sink, Molly, who had turned, ready to cut in herself to stop the arguing, had gone still, tears lingering in her wide eyes.

Danny took a calming breath and let it out shakily, deflating a bit as he did so. "Nothing about this is fair…" He repeated, this time quietly but with no less feeling. This whole situation was completely screwed up! His life had already been complicated; Bullies, falling grades, frequent detentions and groundings, ghosts out to take over his town or kick his ass… It had been complicated but it had been his life! Now it was all gone and he would give anything to have it back. He'd happily sit a thousand more detentions to be sitting down to breakfast with his family right now. He'd let Dash shove him into a million more lockers to be able to complain to his friends on the way to school afterwards. He'd fight every ghost he knew just to see his sister right this second!

He squeezed his eyes shut in an effort to hold back his tears and stood. "Thanks for breakfast Mrs. Weasley." He all but whispered before turning and hastily leaving the room and his all but untouched sausage and eggs. He heard someone call for him but paid no mind to who it was or what they were saying, quickening his retreat to a jog and making his way back to his room. What he wouldn't give to be able to go ghost and fly right now. Flying always had a way of calming him down and helping him to sort through his turbulent thoughts. That damnable wall was still there, though, placed between him and his powers and still as impenetrable as it had been when it'd appeared.

He shut and locked the door once he'd made it to the room he'd slept in before approaching and collapsing upon his bed. Previously restrained tears were finally allowed to fall as he felt his insides breaking apart all over again. His body shook, quiet sobs and whimpers tearing themselves from his unwilling lips. He didn't want to cry anymore. He'd thought he'd already cried himself dry just that night. Apparently, however, he was wrong. He could feel himself breaking into tiny little pieces. Everything hurt. Ron's words at the table had just driven home how out of place he was here and how very little he deserved to be protected by these people. Because of him, people had died. His family and friends had died. What made him think he deserved any sort of kindness or protection?

With a particularly painful throb in his chest he realized he had forgotten to ask about Jazz while he'd been down there. It was the only reason he'd gone down at all and he'd forgotten! What kind of brother was he?! But how could he go back down now? He curled onto his side, grabbing his pillow and clutching it to his chest. What was he supposed to do now? Everything seemed so hopeless; so dark and consuming and painful…

How on Earth was he supposed to get past the loss of everyone he loved?

I was sorta on the fence about leaving off right there, but I really only wanted to get in how Danny was taking all this in this chapter. Next chapter will have a bit more character interaction at the very least. And this is where I beg for your input, opinions, ideas, and other such things in the form of reviews! Think there's something I could have done better? Something you absolutely loved? Something that pissed you off? I wanna hear about it! Seriously! Every time I find out I have a new review I do a little happy dance. X3

Oh! And also, I occasionally put updates on this story or little notes about my progress on this story on my profile page. If you're feeling impatient for the next chapter or if I get a certain question asked repeatedly in reviews I'll write a little note on my profile to address it. :3