Why
Ron was not happy with the newcomer. At first he thought the guy was Harry, they looked so much alike except for the eyes, Danny had ice blue ones and didn't wear glasses but besides that? Same height, same wild and jet black hair, same stature. Though during dinner he noticed the differences and in the end he couldn't understand how he could ever think that they were in any way alike, or maybe he just didn't want to accept their similarities.
Danny wasn't as thin as Harry. And Harry had at least a little bit of tan and wasn't exactly as pale as Danny. The kid also was blissfully ignorant when it came to anything magic related. He was excited about every little magical thing, though, in retrospect, Harry wasn't much different when they first met. The blue eyed boy also ate more than Ron's best mate and was actively involved in almost every conversation. He wasn't as held back like Harry but he was very mindful of the people he interacted with. He didn't steal the spotlight and it seemed as though he was pushing his partner into the centre of it, which was kinda like Harry?
He was also sitting straighter, more agitated. It was as if he was as paranoid as Mad-Eye, which was weird. According to him did Danny grow up in a muggle town and had a normal life.
Ron exchanged a meaningful glance with Hermione who seemed surprised at his knowing look. What? He was very perceptive when it came to other people. Especially when he tried. He did grow up with five brothers after all .
Yet Ron couldn't help but think that something was fishy about that boy. He seemed happy enough, maybe a little uncomfortable. He didn't know anyone here after all.
He just hoped that Danny didn't think he could just befriend them only because he was Harry's twin. There was the slim chance that the guy was a Death Eater after all. Maybe a spy. Everyone thought Danny was dead until now, this could all have been planned out. Ron swore he would talk about this later with his siblings and Hermione. When Danny was asleep?
He would probably sleep in the extra bed his mom had conjured yesterday.
Ron swallowed uneasily, he did not want to sleep in the same room as a potential Death Eater! Was his mom mad? Was everyone mad? The way they talked to this kid who looked so much like Harry, the way this Danny prat behaved. It unnerved him, to say the least. He did not trust him and probably wouldn't ever.
In that moment he caught Danny's eyes and the raven haired looked at him confused and then smiled a little. The audacity! Only Harry was allowed to make that face. Ron sighed relieved when his mom declared that they should go to bed. Ron would wait for Danny to fall asleep and then head to the twin's bedroom. If he interpreted the stare they sent him earlier correctly, then that's exactly what they wanted, too.
Soon after turning in for the night he ignored Danny's goodnight wishes and pretended to already be asleep. After about twenty minutes he was sure that the boy was asleep and quietly left to go to Fred and George.
Arriving at their room he noticed Hermione and Ginny already sitting on Fred's bed looking at him expectantly.
"You are late, Ron.", Ginny chided him and Ron had to try really hard to not roll his eyes at his little sister "Yeah, well, I had to make sure Danny was asleep. Sorry that it took so long." Now he did roll his eyes and his elder brothers chuckled while Ron squeezed himself between them.
Hermione leaned forwards and spoke up first "I think we all know what we want to talk about. Harry's supposed twin brother."
"'Supposed'?" asked George with a sly expression and Fred laughed at him "Yeah, how are we supposed to know that Danny really is who he says he is? Remember last school year when we all thought that Mad-Eye was really him? Turns out he wasn't."
George nudged him "Of course I remember that, I was there. So what you are saying is that Danny is not Danny but a spy sent to us by You-Know-who? I had the same thought but if you think about it, it's a little far fetched. I'm sure Dumbledore of all people wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Also, it's almost impossible for a Death Eater to enter this house."
Hermione and Ginny nodded and the red haired girl said "Well, Dumbledore was also really excited about finding out that Danny is still alive so maybe he just ignored any uneasy feelings?"
Ron perked up "At what point was Dumbledore excited?" "Two days ago, he and Professor Snape came here and Dumbledore seemed really happy and excited for some reason. His eyes were gleaming with joy. We didn't know what it was about but a day later we overheard Dad and Mom talking about 'him being alive' and 'hope for everyone'. Today we realized what it all meant. So yeah. Dumbledore was more than excited."
"So what do we do now? Harry's bound to come soon, right?" Asked Ron nervously, it didn't sit well with him to not tell Harry about his twin and the possibility that Danny was a Death Eater. His mom had told them after dinner that they are not allowed to tell Harry about his brother. It was infuriating and Ron felt so utterly helpless, what kind of a best mate was he when he couldn't keep him up to date and had to lie to him?
Sensing his unease Hermione replied "We should keep an eye on him. The possibility of him being a Death Eater is very slim, though it is there. He is probably just a kid whose whole world was turned upside down not even three days ago and he probably just wants to meet Harry. Let's be friendly to him so that we get to know him better. Then when Harry arrives we can tell him that he can trust him." Upon noticing Ron's stare she hesitantly added "We don't have to befriend him but maybe he is a good person and we actually start to like him. Not as much as Harry but still try to be people he can talk to when he needs advice and help."
The kids nodded, satisfied with the plan and Ron made his way back into his room. He was used to have adventure after adventure thanks to Harry but now he felt like this Danny prat would bring his very own with him. When he lay down in bed he glanced at the sleeping boy, he hadn't move much and seemed to have a dreamless sleep. He also didn't snore so at least he'd get his beauty sleep. Five minutes later he was asleep and didn't wake up until breakfast.
..........................
Danny liked British food, he learnt. Or at least Mrs Weasleys cooking. It was so good he didn't even miss the Nasty Burger or Sam's delicious vegetarian Lasagne. He did miss his friends though and hoped they were fine so far and had no problems with any ghosts. Danny tuned back into Sirius' and Remus' conversation. His uncles, because both insisted that he may view them like that, just had a weird talk about how a dog stole some food in their sixth grade in Hogwarts. Padfoot was its name? The dog apparently ran into the Great Hall, snatched some sausages and ran out again. He hasn't been seen since, even though the professors tried to find him for three days straight before giving up.
Noticing the mischievous glance Sirius shared with Remus, Danny got the feeling that they had something to do with that. After all, they even gave the dog a name. He swallowed a piece of bread before asking "Did you guys adopt the dog or did you help it hide?"
Remus smile grew wider and Sirius heartily laughed "No, we didn't adopt him. He was too wild. However I'm sure he enjoyed the sausages." Remus shook his head in amusement "Actually, Danny, I guess you could say that James, your father, adopted Padfoot." They shared a second glance and the halfa felt really left out. Obviously it was a secret but he didn't know why they wouldn't fill him in.
He thought back to last night when he went for a stroll after Ron came back from wherever he went without telling the halfa. Danny had planned on going out that night anyways and pretended to fall asleep which wasn't really hard considering he could control his breathing. His patience payed off when he felt Ronald trying to sneak away without making too much noise, though even if Danny actually were asleep at the time he would have woken up because of his sensitive hearing. Also, Ron wasn't exactly a quiet person, he probably cursed more times on his way to the door than Danny in the past month and he had to fight ghosts.
So instead, he waited about thirty minutes until Ron came back and then waited for another fifteen minutes until the redhead began to snore, before Danny was confident enough that he wouldn't be missed. He transformed into his alter ego, turned intangible and flew out of the house, relishing the fresh air- even though he didn't have to breathe in his ghost form.
At first he randomly flew about the place and tried to memorize everything he saw but then he just went wherever his ghost tail wanted to go. In the end he reached the Themse and stared at the river in awe. This was his first time in London or in Europe and he appreciated the cultural differences he noticed. He couldn't see any stars though, since the sky was clouded and illuminated by the city lights. He did find joy with the London's Eye where he allowed himself to go a round and then flew through the city taking everything in.
He wondered if his cousin/clone/sister Ellie has already been to London, since she has used the past three months since she has been stabilized to travel the world and to meet different ghosts. He also wondered if she knew about those wizarding ghosts.
The halfa chuckled a bit when he remembered the last time seeing her, which was only two weeks ago. She came to visit him, not knowing that his parents recently learned about his ghost status, to tell him about her travels and what happened while she was battling a ghost in Cairo and got surprising help from the Red Huntress. Yes, apparently Valerie tried to find Danielle since she learned about the girl's halfa status.
After defeating the sphinx like ghost, Ellie followed Valerie back to Amity Park to spend some quality time with her and thus visited her favourite cousin in the process. Danny was excited to learn all about Cairo and was surprised to see that Ellie was now as tall as Danny and looked much more like him since she cut her hair much shorter. The most surprising thing however was to learn that she and Valerie were dating.
Ellie was beaming with joy when she told him that and he could only feel happiness for them both. When his cousin told him that she kinda, maybe told Val about Danny being Phantom, he didn't feel angry at all and just hugged her. Valerie was okay with it and came over the next day and had apologized for hunting him and being so oblivious to the obvious. It all turned out all right in the end, however, the discussion he had with his parents after they met Ellie floating around in the living room and looking like a gender bent version of their son, had been quite interesting.
He and Ellie had to physically stop Danny's parents from going after Vlad and killing him in their anger. They eventually relented and promised Ellie to always have an open door for her if she ever needed a family to talk to.
He smiled and a warm feeling spread in his chest as he remembered all that. Ellie and Val were somewhere in Canada right now, enjoying summer break.
It wasn't until the Elizabeth Tower with the Big Ben in it started to ring for one a.m. that Danny realized that he should probably turn back. He let his instincts take over and found himself at Grimmauld Place after a five minute flight, only when the street came into view did Danny suddenly worry about the possibility that he couldn't enter the house anymore. Before Dumbledore had left earlier that day, he told the young halfa that he would need a piece of paper with the instructions written on it. Fortunately, the moment he thought of the house it materialized in front of him and he headed inside intangibly. When he reached his new room he slipped inside and transformed back into his human half. Within a minute he was fast asleep.
That's why he was very disoriented at first when someone suddenly knocked on the door and yelled "Breakfast in five" at a godforsaken hour. He looked at his watch and groaned, eight a.m! If he weren't so used to surviving with barely any sleep, he would probably fall asleep in the middle of breakfast. However, now he just organized his thoughts and tried to wake up enough to go to the bathroom and get dressed. When he went down to the kitchen almost everyone except Ginny and Hermione was already sitting at the table, well, Molly was standing in the kitchen and was filling some plates with bacon and beans.
Now he was chatting with his uncles who had greeted him with bright smiles and was listening to their conversations. He didn't quite understand why the other kids seemed reluctant to talk to him and hoped that he didn't mess anything up, like a secret test or something. After he filled his plate for a second time he noticed Hermione, who showed up about five minutes after him, glancing at him every now and then. So he tried to smile at her in what he hoped was reassuring and the bushy haired girl nodded with a smile. Then she just started a conversation with Tonks and Danny felt a little foolish.
He turned back to Remus and Sirius and was about to ask just how they managed to ride invisible horses, when Mr Weasley cleared his throat and everyone halted for a second wondering what Arthur was about to say. The eldest red head looked at Danny and said "If it's ok with you, I would like to take you to Diagon Alley so that we can get all your stuff. I'm talking about your robes, books and... your wand."
Danny tilted his head and was about to answer when Mrs Weasley chimed in "Arthur, do you really have the time to accompany Daniel for a whole day?" Arthur looked at his wife with a quizzical expression before he sighed and shook his head, however, Remus suddenly took over "I could take Danny, I only have to leave tomorrow afternoon at the earliest for," he halted and finished with a side-glance at the kids "Order business." The raven head could feel a grin spreading on his face, he really liked Remus, somehow, the wizard reminded him of Lupo. Maybe it was the name-Lupin- or just the feeling he got from his godfather, either way he trusted him and didn't mind seeing wizarding London with him.
Molly seemed hesitant at first but reluctantly agreed and Remus and Sirius high fived. Danny finished his breakfast and watched with amazement when the plates suddenly started to float and then cleaned themselves after everyone was done with their food, why he missed that yesterday was a mystery to him.
Soon after that the kids were ushered into one of the -surprisingly many- rooms of the house to clean it up. Danny however was told to get ready, since they'd probably need the whole day for shopping. Danny was sure though that Remus wanted to spend some quality time with his godson and he was right. Around ten in the morning they bade everyone goodbye and went to Diagon Alley.
Remus told Danny on the way a bit more about the wizarding world and that they would be entering the alley through the Leakey Cauldron. After the young ghost asked what would happen if a No-Maj (he liked the term he learned from Frostbite much more than 'muggle') were to enter the pub, Remus assured him that muggles would not be interested in the seemingly run down pub and just ignore it. The boy was surprised to learn that witches and wizards apparently had a lot more inventions on how to keep No-Majs away than he initially thought.
Finally they reached the pub but upon entering, everyone inside went silent and stared at the newcomers. Danny, who despised attention, tried to duck behind Remus, who went to another door in the back of the pub and just ignored the stares and whispers. Danny only concentrated on bits and did not like what he heard at all. They were obviously thinking that he was Harry and they whispered about whether or not he was "stable" or "mad" or just "a plain liar". He almost wanted to turn around and ecto blast all of them for talking about his brother like that.
Danny knew of the situation around Harry and Dumbledore thanks to Frostbite and thought that he could be a shoulder of support for his twin but now he started to think that he would probably just beat up those who dared talking about him like he was crazy/totally nuts and a liar!
When they left the sinister place, Danny found himself in front of a brick wall and tried to not look confused. He thought that the door they just entered through would somehow teleport them to Diagon Alley but evidently he was wrong. He looked up at Remus who seemed deep in thought and then tapped several bricks in a specific order. Suddenly the wall started to rearrange itself and make way for the entrance to Diagon Alley.