Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter or Danny Phantom
Mrs. Weasley followed them up to the first landing looking tired.
"I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking," the Weasley matriarch told the adolescents, "but I know I'm not going to get that. Just try to go to sleep as quick as you can."
Hermione and Ginny bade the group goodnight as they headed to their room. Harry was mildly disappointed by that. He had just gotten a boat-load of new intelligence and (he meant no offense to his best mate) he was supposed to analyze it with only Ron to help him?
No, Ron was for the end of the year, creating tactics to help deal with the usual end of the year mess. Hermione was for the beginning of the year, when they had to figure out what the mess would be like. Mrs. Weasley's bedtime was messing with the established order of the universe!
Actually that was pretty impressive. Maybe it was a sign of the red haired witch's true power. Harry wondered if he could simply set her on Voldemort and solve all his problems. Or at least set her on one of Voldemort's lieutenants...
Harry then realized that the year hadn't technically started yet. The Weasley mother hadn't upset the established order of the universe.
Fooie. Reality, always getting in his way.
"Night," he heard Ron say to the twins. Harry snapped back to cold hard reality and followed suite. He and his red haired friend entered their room and then started preparing for bed. The owls were clattering around on top one of the wardrobes. Harry and Ron chucked Owl Treats at them to calm them down.
"Why can't we just let them out?" Harry asked Ron.
"Dumbledore doesn't want too many owls swooping around the square, thinks it'll look suspicious. Oh yeah ... I forgot..." The youngest Weasley walked to the door and slid the bolt.
"Why'd you do that?" Harry asked. Then he thought for a moment. He came to a realization, a horrible horrible realization. His face went paler than when he had been face to face to the dementors. His could have been used as the picture for the encyclopedia entry for fear. "Don't tell me..."
"It's so Kreacher doesn't get in. Trust me, you don't want to wake up and find him prowling around your room."
"Oh, thank the gods," Harry clutched at his chest. "I thought they had Snape doing wake up calls."
Ron gaped at his friend for a moment.
"Anyway...", the red haired boy began, getting into his bed, "what d'you reckon?"
"Well... I have to say I'm disappointed with my clearance level," Harry replied. "We could have guessed most of that. The only new bit is about how valuable Phantom is and that Voldemort- Oh suck it up. Sirius and Lupin use the name. You should start as well. -is trying to recruit people and the Order is trying to stop them "
"You're right," Ron replied. "About the guessing part, not about the part where I should say You-Know-Who's name. Those Extendable Ears-"
Ron was interrupted by a loud crack and two bodies appearing on top of him.
"Keep your voice down little brother or you'll attract Mum's attention," one of the dark figures scolded. Fred or George by the voice.
"Then you two gits shouldn't have Apparated on my knees!"
"Yeah, well, it's harder in the dark-", Harry saw the dark figures get off Ron's bed. Bed-springs groaned as George sat down on the bed near Harry's feet.
"So, got there yet?" George asked eagerly.
"Got where? Pismo Beach?" Harry answered. "We were on our way but I think we should have made a left turn at Albuqerque."
"You lost me mate. We meant the weapon Sirius mentioned." Fred said, the poor deprived soul.
"Of course," Harry replied. "How silly of me. No we haven't started talking about the weapon yet. And before we do, I just want to ask everyone something."
"What?" Ron, Fred, and George asked in unison.
"Doesn't Danny Fenton look very similar to Danny Phantom? Minus the constant glowing."
"So you noticed," George replied. "Hermione noticed it right off the bat, but poor Ron here took forever."
"Hey!" Ron protested. "It only took me a week."
"We know little brother, we know," Fred said. "But moving on. Yes, they do look alike."
"Why? And why the hell are they both named Danny?" There was no such thing as coincidence Harry knew. There was only the universe trying to get him.
"Well the Order's been gossiping about it for a while," George spoke up. "Most of them think that Danny Fenton accidently created Danny Phantom when he turned on his folk's portal to the Nevernever..."
"A portal to the Nevernever..." Harry groaned and his palm met his face. "And Voldemort sent people to try and kill them. People who can find this portal..."
"Don't worry about it mate. They shut off the one in the States and Phantom told me he had that girl-spirit that looks like him guarding the place." Ron informed Harry. "Also, You-Know-Who never sent anyone to kill them. Dumbledore had Snape tell him that we got the Fentons."
"Hopefully he's not searching for something like that," The-Boy-Who-Lived said into his palm. He looked back up. "But what do you mean most of the Order reckons that 'Danny created Phantom?'"
"Something about when he turned on the portal he was inside the chamber," spoke Ron. "And about how he was between the real world and the Spirit World for a bit. They think that something happened and Phantom got created."
"Like he imprinted his personality on some ectoplasm," offered George, "and that ectoplasm turned into Phantom."
"He might have needed help getting out of there," Fred added. "And some good mindless spirit got involved, getting souped up and mixed with Danny in the process."
"Or there's Hermione's theory," said Ron, "that Danny's magic reacted to the pain and danger, so it grabbed some ectoplasm (the lucky git) and created a 'super-hero' thing. I don't get that girl sometimes, what sort of hero is a 'super-hero'?"
"It's a muggle term," Harry replied. "And that makes a lot of sense."
Harry thought about it some more.
"Isn't Phantom included in the meetings?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Do you think he's told Danny anything?"
"No way!" Fred began.
"After all-"
"-that would be-"
"-irresponsible and-"
"-Phantom would never- Ouch!"
"I warned you two not to do that," Harry said, wand still pointing at the twins as they rubbed the places the Stinging Hex hit. "Have either of you two confirmed that Phantom hasn't told Fenton anything?"
"Yes we asked them both," Ron replied. "And mate, have you been practicing your draw or something?"
"I haven't had too much else to do this summer," Harry replied. "As long as I can use magic during the summer I think I'll work on my accuracy as well. I think a nice routine of constant heavy sparring would be lovely for these remaining summer months, don't you?"
The three brothers exchanged nervous glances. Defense Against the Dark Arts was Harry's subject and then there was all that training he went through at the end of the last year...
Fenton. And Manson. They needed practice. Some practical work would be just the thing. Yes they could be the sacrfices-partner, partners to slake Harry's bloodlust- satisfy his drive to improve.
"We'll pass," George told Harry. "But enough about all that. What do reckon the weapon is?"
"It's the only thing we heard that the Extendables hadn't told us about already," said Fred. "'Could be almost anything."
"But it couldn't be worse than the Greater Killing Curse," said Ron. "What's worse than death?"
Harry, Fred, and George simply gave him a look.
"Right, stupid question," Ron flushed and looked down. "But I meant that as works as a weapon."
"Could be a particularly painful way of killing someone," Harry suggested. "But you don't need a curse to do that. My relations have been working at it for fifteen years now."
"Nah, he's got the Cruciatus Curse for causing pain," Fred answered with a wave. "I can't imagine he'd need something else. Maybe a Greater or Mass Imperious Curse."
"How do you know he doesn't already have that?" Harry asked. "Look at the country right now. But what about some new blasting spell?"
"Why would he need one of those?" Ron asked.
"It's a classic. How 'bout any mystic artifacts that he might want?" Harry questioned. "Any books of ancient lore, hidden away in dungeons that none have returned alive from and yet have inexplicably accurate maps and healing potions?"
"Nah."
"Nope."
"Got nothing," Ron tapped his chin. "We might be looking at this the wrong way."
"How so-" George began.
"-dear broth- Ouch!"
"I will keep hexing you two until you quit this," Harry warned them. "Go on Ron."
"Right," the youngest Weasley male nodded. "We've been thinking of the 'weapon' like its a spell or an object. Cause that's what weapons usually are."
"Yes, oh brother-" George began.
Fred didn't say anything.
"Good." Harry told the twins, lowering his wand a fraction.
"Oh brother who states the obvious," George finished.
"Shut up git," Ron responded. "My point is a weapon is anything that can be used to hurt your enemy. It's like chess, most beginning players think you beat the other guy by taking all their pieces, but what you really want to do is position your pieces on the board to gain control. You want to take positions more than pieces. This weapon might be a place, a person, or knowledge. Any one thing that he could use to hurt us and the Ministry."
Harry, Fred, and George mulled over this.
"That is true," Harry was the first to reply. "Though I'd like to say my suggestion about a tome of ancient lore counts as information. But more specifically... you don't think Phantom is the weapon? No, he only came by accident. The Fentons were more of an afterthought on Voldemort's part." Harry continued, thinking aloud, ignoring the sharp intakes of breath from Ron and the twins. "So its probably nothing spiritual. Let's see. People... well there's me I guess. With all the links we have he might be able to make me into some sort of weapon. But I think things would have been handled differently then...
"What else is there... Places. There's Hogwarts, St. Mungo, and wherever the Ministry is located. With Hogwarts I would imagine that you could make use of the age of the castle, the four great spirits, and the pre-existing enchantments. Actually I want to run that by Hermione, I want to try and make a 'Pig Star' installation to shoot Voldemort from across the country...
"Information. Confirmation that Snape's on his side, that's a big one. The inner workings of the Hogwarts wards." Harry sighed. "There are too many possibilities for us to guess. Let's leave this till the morning when Hermione can help us."
The Weasley brothers nodded their agreement. There was another crack and the twins vanished. Harry yawned and pulled the covers closer.
He closed his eyes. When he opened them there were many-legged creatures were cantering softly up and down outside the bedroom door, and Hagrid was saying, 'Beauties, aren't they, eh, Harry? We'll be studyin' weapons this term...' and Harry saw that the creatures had cannons for heads and were wheeling to face him... He ducked...
"Aguamenti!" Sam cried out in the lab. The goblet she was pointing her wand at filled with water.
"Aguamenti!" Danny cried out. The goblet he was pointing his wand at caught fire. Danny quickly looked around for any witnesses and then froze the goblet.
"How did you manage to light metal on fire?" Tucker asked from where he sat in the corner, fiddling with his PDA. "Shouldn't you have frozen it instead?"
"I know," Danny moaned. "And why does my Summoning Charm make pillows start tap dancing. How do pillows even tap dance?"
"At least you got it down eventually," Sam reassured him. "Now, your Reductor Curse on the other hand..."
"No, actually I like that one," Danny told her. "I've always been able to make things explode, but making them implode instead..."
He could already imagine Skulker's face next time they fought. He mightn't even have to go ghost to beat him. Just a wave of his wand and then the Fenton Thermos.
"So what do you think tomorrow's meeting is going to be about?" Jazz asked, sitting on a lab stool, reading a book on the history of magical society.
"No clue," Danny replied. "Aguamenti!" This time the goblet filled... with a green bubbling liquid. Danny glared at his wand.
"I swear this thing is defective," he muttered. With a wave of his hand the liquid froze over. With his other hand he conjured a globe of destructive ectoplasm. He knocked the glass against the wall a few times, shook out the frozen substance. It fell into the green globe and was consumed.
"I still think vanishing it would be safer," Sam commented, looking at the next spell in the book.
"Well Hermione isn't here so we can't." Danny turned to Jazz. "I've got no clue as to what the meeting's about. Probably something to do with Harry's new living arrangements."
"Makes sense," Jazz replied. "So what did you think of dinner?"
"At least we don't have to pretend we don't know about the prophecy," said Tucker. "Actually we still do. It's a 'weapon' not a prophecy. "
"Do you think we should tell Harry?" Jazz asked the group. "I mean it's about him..."
"No, we can't tell Harry anything," Sam replied. "Not only would it reveal that we know things that we shouldn't, it could threaten Danny's secret, and there's the fact that Dumbledore wants it secret. I don't know why he does, but if the old wizard with a long beard warns against something then it's common sense to give said warning some weight."
"I supposed," Jazz replied in an unsatisfied tone. No doubt she would be bringing this up again later. "And Danny, be careful. I don't know what Albus is going to propose, but it could be really dangerous."
"Don't worry Jazz. I'll be able to handle it," Danny said with a grin. "After all-" He turned intangible and floated through a counter, "- nobody can touch this!"
Jazz snorted.
"Yeah, Danny can handle whatever they throw at him," Sam spoke up, looking away from Danny and blushing. Danny looked away as well, rubbing at the back of his head, embarrassed. If he was tangible he would be blushing as well. "But please do your best not to get hurt. Tucker and I won't be there to help you."
Jazz and Sam looked at each other and then rolled their eyes.
Everybody continued to work throughout the night.
Harry stirred under his warm bedclothes as George's loud voice filled the room.
"Mum says get up, your breakfast is in the kitchen and then she needs you in the drawing room. We still need to clean up the doxy corpses and she's found a nest of dead puffskeins under the sofa."
The scarred wizard child groaned. He was a teenager. He would rather sleep through breakfast and skip straight to lunch. But at least it was Mrs. Weasley's cooking.
He better hurry up. Tucker might eat it all before he got down.
Harry up and got changed, letting the grogginess fade away. After getting dressed he made his way downstairs.
Wow and he thought he looked bad in the mornings. Danny Fenton looked like he had risen from the grave rather than a bed.
"Didn't get much sleep last night?" Harry asked him as the zombie boy started to go up the stairs.
"... Sleep... right, I should get some...," the other black haired boy replied.
"Studying all night?" Harry asked.
"Sort of," Danny answered. He had gotten a couple hours of sleep but he had to invest a large amount of energy into a duplicate recently. Hogwarts wasn't that far away for someone who could fly as fast as he could, but it was a pain to navigate the countryside. A couple hours head start was necessary to make it there by one.
Besides it was summer. Who woke up at this hour during the summer?
The halfa staggered up the stairs. Harry shook his head. He didn't envy the muggleborn. Only Hermione might be pleased by the prospect of having to catch up on four years of study in one summer...
Was that what she was doing now? Trying to cover the entire curriculum for the next three years in one summer? She just might be.
Well, he'd worry about it after he had partaken in Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking.
He sat down at the table, by Hermione, with an open spot on his other side for Ron when he came down. Across the table sat Tucker, Jazz, and Sam, all looking slightly tired but wide awake. Evidently they got more sleep than Danny.
"Did he finally get the charm down?" Hermione was asking Sam. "And did you get the Banishing Charm down? I know the Summoning Charm can be a bit of a challenge for some."
"Yeah, he finally got Aguamenti down," Sam told her, picking up a bit of toast. "I neither of us had... much trouble with the Banishing Charm. I was thinking that we might begin looking into some of the spells for DADA"
"It would be a good idea for you to start soon," Hermione told the goth. "We've got Harry here with us, and Defense Against the Dark Arts is his subject. Maybe we could all learn the Patronus Charm over the summer."
"We'd need a boggart or a dementer..." Harry said, tapping his chin. "It's too bad Phantom killed that one in the drawing room."
"Yeah, but at least we won't have to deal with those Doxies," Ron joined the conversation and sat down on Harry's other side. "Pass the bacon woulda ya?"
"But we did have to clean up that slime," Jazz pointed out. "That had dangerous unknown properties, even if it did smell like ectoplasm."
That caught the attention of all the witches and wizards in the kitchen, from Mrs. Weasley who was bustling at the stove, to Mr. Weasley at the head of one of the tables, to the trio at the table, to the twins walking into the room, to Sirius who was leaning against a wall with a piece of toast in his mouth.
"Ectoplasm?" Sirius asked. "How would you know what that smells like?"
"Our parent's portal gets clogged up with that stuff all the time," Jazz replied. "We have to change the ecto-filter every so often or it would explode. And my parents use it occasionally."
"Oh, you mean degraded ectoplasm," Mrs. Weasley said. "Green goo, am I correct dear?"
"That's most of it," Jazz answered. "But they sometimes use this glowing white stuff-"
Several people dropped things.
"Why didn't I ask them?" Hermione slapped her forehead.
"For the same reason you don't go around asking people if they've got a million galleons lying around and if they wouldn't mind giving them away," Harry replied.
"They've been experimenting with fresh ectoplasm in the basement?" Sirius added. "Damn if I had known that hosting a secret organization in this host could blow it up I would have done it a long time ago."
"A supply of fresh pure ectoplasm...," Mr. Weasley was not a materialistic person in any sense of the word. But selling just a bit would help with his family's finical problems.
"Ummm... am I missing something here?" Jazz looked confused.
"Glowing white ectoplasm is pure un-degraded ectoplasm," Hermione explained. "It doesn't have a nature, unlike the ectoplasm that makes up spirits, and its the most highly charged magical substance known to man. Not much is known about it because its so rare. We aren't sure how deposits are formed. And after they're formed they're usually consumed by spirits or become spirits.
"We do know that it makes for an incredibly powerful ingredient in Potions and a powerful reagent in other works. But we'd really like to research it, but its usually used up elsewhere." Hermione's eyes shone. "If your parents really have a supply of pure ectoplasm then-then-then I could get published early! We could be doing experiments all summer!"
"Uh, you might want to make that its really the stuff you're looking for before you get ahead of yourselves," said Jazz. "We might be using the same word for different things."
"You're right," Harry said, putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder to calm her down. "Nothing in life is this convenient. So what did you guys think of last night's revelations." He changed the subject to avoid getting his hopes up. Well Hermione's hope mostly, there was no guarantee that it could be made into an anti-Voldemort weapon.
"Well, I'm sure the twins hadn't picked up on most of it," Tucker said "So-"
"You're a terrible liar," Sirius said. "I'm guessing that you got your bug working then? Well we'll have to upgrade security in the meeting room then."
"The bug isn't working yet," Tucker shot back. "We're still having trouble detected the boundaries of the field..."
"Oh," Sirius raised an eyebrow. "So you have a different method of eavesdropping?"
"I plead the fifth."
"You're in England now, not America," Hermione reminded him. "The Fifth Amendment to your constitution doesn't apply here."
Tucker muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath about Brits.
"Ignoring the security leak over there," Sam spoke up. "Most of it is stuff anyone who knows about the past war would have been able to guess. The weapon is the only new thing to consider."
"I bet it's some sort of super-wand!" Tucker exclaimed, glad of the change of subject. The glares the twins were giving him for spilling secrets was scary. "And he wants to use it to make himself super-powerful, but the only problem is that Dumbledore's got it."
"That sounds stupid," Sam replied. "It's probably a tome of eldritch lore, written by the mad Arab himself as a companion to his other more famous work. Inside are incantations to tear apart the feeble veil of reality and unleash the terrors beyond!"
"I personally thought it might be Harry," Jazz interjected. "After all who knows what weird voodoo Voldemort could do since he used Harry's blood to come back."
"It doesn't work like that," Hermione replied. "And real voodoo doesn't work anything like muggle movies says it does."
"Alright, that's enough of that talk," the Weasley matriarch interrupted the conversation. Evidently talking about Voldemort using Harry as a weapon was going to far for her tastes. "Everyone needs to hurry up and finish their breakfast, we've got some cleaning to do. We'll be finishing up the drawing room today and then there's the dressing room on the third floor. Fred and George I want you to start dusting the third floor room. Harry, Hermione, and Ron, you'll be with me in the drawing room. Ginny will join us after she gets down and eats breakfast."
"What about them?" Ron asked, pointing to the Fentons and Tucker.
"Sam's got to study," Molly told her youngest son, "and Jazz will be helping her parents."
"What about Danny?" Ron said, desperate to get out of some work. "He's just sleeping."
"Don't worry about it," Sam said with a roll of her eyes. "He'll be plenty busy later."
AN:Sorry it's so short, writing this chapter was like pulling teeth. I don't know why. Maybe its because of the brain dead-ness at the end of the last, or the speed I wrote a chapter for my other story.
Meh, it sets up the points I wanted it too.
Don't forget to review.