Settling In And Studying
When he woke up the next morning, Danny was pleasantly surprised to see Ron still asleep. He had nothing against the red head but he still noticed how cold Ron was toward him, as were the others. They weren't exactly ignoring him but they weren't accepting him either. Danny did notice that the twins- Fred and George- appeared to want to talk to him, probably because he was a twin himself but they didn't have the time yet and Danny would rather not be alone with them. The two downright smelled like mischief and pranks, especially after they managed to put something into Ron's plate yesterday, that had their younger brother sprout nasty looking pimples on his face. Molly hadn't been very amused, so yeah, he did not intend to become their next victim.
He stood up begrudgingly and went to the bathroom, glad that barely anyone was up and he had enough time to take a shower and dress. Remembering that he'll have to study the whole day he chose to wear a simple white shirt and some casual sweatpants. Satisfied with his appearance and ignoring his untamed hair for once (he could swear it was getting worse everyday), he descended down the stairs and went to the kitchen. He doubted that anyone would be awake at 5 in the morning.
To his immense surprise he met Sirius and Remus, though while Sirius was casually sipping tea and winked at him upon noticing Danny, Remus used his shoulder to sleep. He had seemed a little tired yesterday, Danny thought. He was brought out of his musings when Sirius spoke up "Don't mind Moony, he needs his beauty sleep. Good morning by the way, what has bitten you to be up so early?"
The halfa shrugged and guessed "Same as you?". Sirius laughed at that "So you also have nightmares of the time you spent in a wixen prison for almost twelve years, all the while being innocent at that?" Danny was shocked, why would Sirius be sentenced to prison for something he didn't do? "What happened?" he asked carefully and took a seat opposite the man he barely knew.
Sirius leaned back, carefully placing Remus' head onto his lap, so that the man could continue to sleep. He looked at his nephew? Somewhat-godson? God-nephew? Something like that. He contemplated what he could tell him, what he should tell him, after all, he is Lily's and James' son and deserves to know everything. Deserves to know about him, Remus and Pettigrew- that rat.
The escapee took a deep breath and began "You see, there are several possibilities on how wizards can hide from other wizards. To hide from Voldemort, Lily and James used such an option. It's the same as we used on this pretty house. For it to work, the owner needs someone they can absolutely trust with the secret of where the safe house is- a secret keeper. James chose me as his secret keeper but in the last moment Peter Pettigrew convinced me to let him become the keeper. I thought it was a great idea. Everyone would immediately think that I was the one chosen for the task- which I was- so no one would suspect Pettigrew.
"What no-one knew was that our so called 'friend' was and still is a traitor. He sold out your parents' hideout and let Voldemort kill them, almost killing Harry in the process as well, as you probably know by now. So, while Voldemort's body was defeated by Lily's protection and sacrifice for your brother, Pettigrew ran away. I realized that he was the only one who could have betrayed my best friend and went after him. That little slug faked his own death, killing 12 innocent people in the process and blaming it on me. So when the ministry apprehended me, they just threw me into Azkaban without a trial and I've been stuck there until two years ago."
Sirius' face broke out into a crazed grin and Danny's eyebrows shot up, the older wizard leaned forward and said grinning "I am the only one who has successfully broken out of Azkaban, of course now I'm on the run and thus stuck in this hellhole. At least here I don't have dementors sucking at my soul trying to kiss me. I may not be interested in women but I'm definitely not interested in those beings." He involuntarily shuddered, remembering the time in the Forbidden Forest. Without Harry he would be very dead by now.
Danny interrupted his thoughts "Dementors? Funny, that's the second time someone said that word. What are those? Are they bad?" Sirius raised an eyebrow "Yes, they are bad. They are like Death itself. Feeding on your happiest memories, leaving behind nothing but coldness and despair. They can feel you, all your emotions, everything. If they feed too much they could suck out your soul- your very being, leaving behind only a shell of your former self. It is a fate worse than death and they are the prison wards. The Ministry controls them, which is why they can be used as wards. The thing is, the worse your life, the more likely it is that a dementor will try to get at you. Only a so-called Patronus can defeat them or at least chase them away."
"Then how did you escape? Did you cast a Patronus?", Danny asked worried. Those beings sounded suspiciously like a certain type of ghost that had been exiled from the GZ over 1500 years ago. He looked at his uncle who looked down at Remus, seemingly pondering something before he answered "You know of Witches and Wizards now, so you should know that a lot of magical beings you've heard stories about are real, too. There are vampires and fairies, giants, goblins, house elves and werewolves. There are a lot more but vampires and especially werwolves are despised by the wizarding community."
Danny nodded along, Frostbite had told him about the magical creatures that roamed the planet. He thought it was funny that he never knew, though he was confused why Sirius would tell him about them now. Sirius just continued, almost like he was talking to himself "At age five, because of certain circumstances, Remus was bitten and turned by a werewolf. So, he is now one of them and turns every full moon. There is no cure for it but that doesn't mean he is a bad person. He just can't control his inner wolf, no-one can, which is why they are frowned upon by our society. Please don't think less of him now, he is one of the bravest and most powerful and intelligent people I have ever met...
"Anyways, when he came to Hogwarts we, meaning James and I, befriended him and figured out his secret soon enough. If anyone would have learned about his secret, he would have been expelled or imprisoned, maybe even killed. So we decided to aide him every moon, for that, we decided to become Animagi. A witch or wizard that can transform into one specific animal. It is a long process and it took us three years but then, in fifth year, we were able to transform at will. James could transform into a stag, Pettigrew into a rat, which I find is fitting and I can transform into a grim.
"In animal form we formed a pack and we were always there for him, to help him to get through it. Those were good days, nothing else mattered much. Err, the reason I'm telling you this is because dementors can't feel animal emotions, so I transformed into my animagus and escaped. Knowing that I was innocent also helped keeping me sane enough to survive and run away."
That was a lot to take in and Danny was shocked. He never thought that anyone would have to live through something like this. His half-life wasn't at all a breeze and he did end up in prison for some time but 12 years? While having your life sucked out, never feeling happy? Only escaping because of a decision that was also highly hazardous in your childhood? Having magic sounded less and less amazing and more and more dangerous. The boy swallowed, unsure of what to say because there wasn't anything he could say, in the end he settled on asking some more questions "If you are innocent, then why do you still have to hide? Is there a way to prove that you didn't kill those people? That you are not a traitor?"
The man made a face, stroking Remus' hair "No. They would kill me on sight. Maybe if they would grant me a trial I could convince them with the help of Veritaserum, a potion that forces you to say the truth, but that isn't possible. The wretched Ministry is too busy blaming me for everything bad that's been happening since Voldemort returned and trying to make everyone belief that Harry und Dumbledore are nuts."
"It probably doesn't help much if I say this, but I think you are incredible, you and Moony both... wait, don't tell me- don't tell me the dog you talked about yesterday was actually you? You are Padfoot? And the nickname Moony is for Remus because of his lycanthropy?" Danny beamed, proud that he figured it out! See, Sam, Tucker and Jazz? He wasn't oblivious at all! In his joy he happily ignored the voice in his head that berated him for letting Sirius know that he knew what the werewolf disease is called and that a grim looks like a furry dog.
Sirius send him a grin "Yup, I'm Padfoot, Pettigrew we called Wormtail and James is Prongs. Moony is Moony. Don't call him Wolfy though, he doesn't like that." "Damn right I don't.", the sleepy voice of Remus Lupin said from underneath the table. Danny and Sirius looked at him while he sat up into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes and then smiling tiredly at his boyfriend and godson "I take it you told him about us?" Sirius shook his head "Nah, I thought we were obvious enough?" Remus sighed, already regretting that he woke up "Not that, the fact that I'm a werewolf and you an animagus."
Sirius turned a little red, which contrasted heavily with his pale skin "Oh, yes, I did." Danny snickered and Remus shoved him lovingly. Of course Danny knew now. His godfather and uncle were dating. He may not have known them for the better part of his life (half-life) but he was incredibly happy, something told him that they needed each other. He was content with watching the two talking and decided to drink something before breakfast. He was about to stand up for a third cup of coffee, when Molly Weasley entered the kitchen, surprise showing on her face when she noticed Sirius, Remus and Danny.
"Well, good morning to you. Daniel, you know that you can sleep in, right? You don't have to stand up this early. It's barely seven a.m." Danny was surprised, it's been two hours since he got here? Wow, who would have thought. He smiled, trying to hide his discontent for being called Daniel by any other person that wasn't Clockwork or Ghost-writer and just shrugged, not feeling patient enough to answer her with words.
Molly brushed it off and began making breakfast, deliciously smelling Drop Scones with syrup. Danny licked his lips and helped setting the table, which wasn't exactly necessary because- magic!- but he did nonetheless, trying to be helpful.
Thirty minutes later and the rest of the redheads plus Hermione appeared and sat down, the rest was at work or doing Order business. Danny was disappointed that Tonks didn't seem to be here, he quite liked her, she was very nice towards him and tried to include him in their conversations. While eating he listened to Ron and Hermione talking about Harry and tried not to listen in but it was really hard, not only because of his advanced hearing. He learned that they weren't allowed to give him any information about their whereabouts and they weren't happy with this at all. He could see that they were extremely loyal to him and loved him as their friend.
They reminded him of his own best friends, he missed Sam and Tucker a lot already and unlike Hermione and Ron did he not have any means to get into contact with them just yet. He smiled a little when he thought of his owl who was sitting upstairs in his room and was probably already asleep. Best purchase ever. The raven head was about to take another bite when Fred (or George?) addressed him. He was a little bit stunned because the kids tried to avoid him and even though he knew the twins wanted to talk to him, something held them back yesterday.
"So, Dan, how are you feeling on this glorious day?" one twin asked mischievously and Danny shuddered "Er, please call me Danny. Just Danny. I don't like Dan or Daniel. Also, I feel bored." Fred- he was just going to call him Fred until he was told otherwise, took in a sharp breath and turned to his brother with fake worry on his face "Dearest brother, our esteemed guest is already feeling bored! What can we do?" His twin placed a hand on his brothers shoulder and said with equally fake seriousness "Why, dear Forge, we mustn't allow that, must we? We should invite him to the wonders that is the magical world, bestow upon him the magic that is this gloomy place and make him feel welcomed!" Forge, probably George, nodded along and looked at Danny, a dangerous gleam in his eyes
"I think we should throw a little party tonight, after your studying and our cleaning mission. After all, even if you are a Death Eater, which I doubt, it wouldn't do good if you feel left out." Danny raised an eyebrow "A Death Eater? I don't eat death, I live it (haha), also, I'd feel honoured to be welcomed into this modest house and by you. Don't know what I did wrong so far but if I can change it, I'd happily do so." As if he was a Death Eater, did they seriously think so? He looked like a scrawny teen (which he was) and had no knowledge of any spells, least of all spells that could harm other people.
Was that why the others were so distant towards him? Well, in that case he'd just have to prove them wrong. The twins high-fived and held their hands out for Danny to shake. He grabbed both their hands with his and they came to the mutual agreement that he was as innocent as he could be. He tried not to think of Dan.
After breakfast the other teenagers were ushered away with cleaning supplies and Danny was told that he had five hours, so until lunch at one p.m. to read and memorize as much from his books as possible. Remus advised him to study every first chapter of his school books and see how many more he could eat up.
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With that he excused himself and went to his shared room, stroking Ari's head while picking up his book on Charms. Before he started he remembered something, he could duplicate himself! He took out his other books: Potions, Transfigurations, DADA, the Astronomy book for the school, Herbology and History of Magic. He then held up the books for his electives. Remus had told him about those and he also said that he could choose whichever ones he wanted. In the end he decided upon Care of Magical Creatures and Study of Ancient Runes. He had a knack for languages (thanks to his ghost powers) and had no problem understanding any human language, he could not talk to animals but he had a good understanding of what animals needed or wanted.
He concentrated on his ghost core and the ring Dora gave him and could feel his powers surging through him and connecting with the energy of the ring. When he opened his eyes, seven other Danny's stood around him and they all grinned at each other and simultaneously bumped their fists into the air "Yes! We did it! Haha!"
The duplicates and the original Fenton made themselves comfortable around the room, each having picked up a book and something to write on for the notes. The only class left was the one for magical creatures and Danny was confident that that could wait, after all, the electives weren't as much as the core classes. They started to read and Danny was secretly happy that he had an excellent memory when he used duplication, so when he would fuse himself with the others once more he would understand everything they read and remember it.
He looked down at his astrology book and smiled, he could do this.
It wasn't until almost four hours later that the Danny's looked up from their books, simultaneously looking at the door. They heard footsteps that advanced slowly toward this room. With a sigh, Danny called his duplicates back and mentally prepared himself for the onslaught of information. He was not disappointed, it was a bit disorienting but after a couple seconds all the stuff he just learned found their own place and arranged themselves in his head, so that he would not be overwhelmed. He couldn't have a burn out now. He was glad for his halfa status or his body wouldn't be able to hold so much in his brain.
He guessed that since he was half dead, he didn't have as many problems as regular humans when it came to memorizing and archiving stuff. His friends still wondered how he could fail any of his tests when his memory was so good and he automatically understood most of what he read. However, he didn't want to admit that he was just too occupied with ghosts to worry about school. Sure, there were the fights which his friends knew about, but he also attended political gatherings and truces, as well as studying ghost etiquette with Ghost-writer and traveling through the ghost zone, breaking off fights on behalf of the Ancient's Council.
He felt as everything fell into place and marvelled over everything he just learned, when the door opened and Sirius poked his head inside. He looked at the books spread around the room and then looked at Danny, an amused smile on his face "Lunch is ready, everything alright with you? Any difficulties?" The boy shook his head, standing up and walking over to Sirius "Nope, everything is progressing nicely." His uncle laughed "You sound like some evil guy who wants to take over the world or something." Danny nodded sagely "Or something."
Lunch felt like they had no time whatsoever, the other kids, especially Ron, swallowed their food as though they were scared someone would steal it. Danny held back a little, he didn't have to eat much anyways but to lay off any suspicion he always made himself eat three times a day. Hermione and Ginny talked about how they would get the mildly cursed pillows clean, without them getting dirty and Fred and George debated over some poison- pixy? Poxy? Doxy! And Remus and Sirius argued with Mrs Weasley over everything and nothing.
Barely 15 minutes later and everyone was ready to continue and Danny tried to hold up with the pace. Remus stood up and Sirius whined at him not to go, though he didn't mean it, maybe a little. His boyfriend smiled at him "I also wish this mission were a little easier to accomplish and not so hopeless but someone's got to do it and you can't really leave the house, can you?" Sirius made a face and looked away, grumbling about how he would love to punch the minister, punch everyone, especially a certain painting.
Danny didn't say anything and just hugged Remus goodbye, not openly questioning where he would go and what he'd do. He already realized that this Order was fighting against Voldemort and so they had to be two steps ahead of the Dark Lord if they wanted to win. He briefly wondered if the prophecy could be important but then dismissed the thought. Remus left and at the very same moment and strict looking, elderly woman entered the house, smiling briefly at the werewolf and letting herself in.
When she noticed Danny standing like a lost child at the entrance, she straightened up even more but her face softened. She smiled down at him "Hello Mr Potter, I am the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts and your future transfiguration professor, Professor McGonagall."
Danny looked rather sheepishly at her and rubbed his neck "Nice to meet you, Mrs- Professor. I think I prefer Fenton though. I'm not used to the surname Potter yet." The teacher nodded in understanding and led him to a living room with a couple couches placed in the centre of the room, she motioned for him to take a seat and he did so eagerly, suddenly very anxious.
"Before we begin I would like to inform you how these practical lessons are supposed to work. We only have limited time to get you up to the standard of your future classmates, so almost every professor of most of your main cores and electives will spend three hours a week with you, quizzing you about the theory you have learned about and then teach you about how to use the spells, incarnations or how to brew the potions. Certain material we will only look at, since it is not as important, you are expected to keep up at Hogwarts however.
"Every other free minute is for you to read and learn about the classes and the books you have bought. I am confident that you will manage all this. While I did say that your weekends are meant for you to study, you are free to manage your own time, I would advise you to invest at least five hours a day to reading and trying to understand as much as possible. If you have any questions you may either ask your fellow students or the adult supervision in this house or even fire message the teacher you want to talk to."
"Fire message... Er, never heard of it, what is that?", the professor nodded and elaborated "You basically stick your head into the fire of your chimney and say whom you want to talk to. It sounds scary but it really isn't too bad. I will show you later how to do that.
"Now, we have an hour to talk about Transfiguration, then you will meet your Charms professor, then your Herbology professor and then your Potions professor. I think the two of you have already met? You have a fifteen minute break between each lesson, let us begin. Tell me what you have already read about the subject today."
(AN: He is just going to explain what Transfiguration is, you can skip it if you want)
Dany took a deep breath and called upon the Transfiguration file in his head. As if reading from the book he summarized what he had learned "Transfiguration is considered one of the more scientific branches of magic. It mostly focuses on the alteration of the form and/or appearance of an object. That is possible by altering the molecular structure of the object in question. It is a very hard subject and difficult to master, since you have to get everything exactly right, with that I mean the wand and hand movements, the incantation and even the picture you conjure up in your head before you even try the spell. You basically have to know the object you wish to transfigure.
"There are five main branches that can be divided into several sub-branches. The first one is Transformation, followed by Untransfiguration, Switching, Vanishment and lastly Conjuration, which is considered the hardest branch. Transformation is when one alters an object, for example a pencil to a feather. It is also considered transformation when a human transforms into an animal. Untransfiguration reverses a previous transformation, like altering the feather back to a pencil. Switching switches out at least two objects, it is easier if they are of equal weight and volume, however, switching a table with a teaspoon is also possible. If you vanish something you force it into non-existence, it is not able to be reconjured and thus lost. The last one is conjuration which creates something, though there are certain limitations as listed in Gamp's law of transfiguration."
(AN: End of explanation)
The young wizard took a shaky breath, amazed by everything he just said and if he interpreted McGonagall's expression right, then she was very impressed as well. A light smile graced her lips and and she looked thoughtful for a second before she said anything "That was very impressive, Mr Fenton. If you keep up inhaling all of these informations you might really manage everything in just six weeks. You even know things that aren't taught until the higher classes. Have you spent today just learning about Transfiguration?"
'Oh oh', Danny thought. He hadn't considered how his fast advancing might be noticed by the others. He couldn't tell them about his duplication ability, that would be disastrous, so he had to find a good explanation, fast. "No, I'm just really good at memorizing stuff, it's kinda like a photographic memory. I don't really have problems understanding the scientific approach since my parents- adopted parents- are scientists, they taught me a lot." There, he was really getting good at selling half-truths.
McGonagall believed him and told him a bit more about the first branch: Transformation, she admitted to being a registered animagus, although she stressed the word registered. She probably knew about the Marauders and their animagus forms. After telling him about the first incantation that would transform a match into a needle, he was finally ready to do magic for the first time in his life, consciously.
He looked at his wand and felt the familiar energy buzzing through it. He looked at the box of matches and did everything he learned today, he imagined what the needle looked like, how much it would weigh, the colour it would have and then waved his wand with determination shouting "Acusignis", a word he knew meant something like Needle torches, and watched as the box of matches transformed. The box transformed into a perfect, normal household needle.
Despite it being taught to first years, Danny felt as though he accomplished something big and he smiled. He just willed a random box to change, with magic. His teacher was also excited "That was excellent, I hope you will be sorted into Gryffindor, I wouldn't mind giving you house points right now." Since Danny learnt about the house point system from Remus yesterday, he didn't have to ask what she meant. She was probably Head of House.
"Even though this is taught to students three years younger than you, it is still difficult to master, you might have some talent with this class. If we continue like this, you'll be through with the first four books within six weeks. I have to admit that I am rather looking forward to it. Speaking of next time, I have to take my leave now, I wish you as much fun with Charms as I hope you had with me. Goodbye Mr Fenton."
With that she turned around and left the living room, leaving Danny alone, after he wished her goodbye as well.
Ten minutes later did the next professor show up, Professor Flitwick. He introduced himself as Head of the Ravenclaw house and his charms teacher. After Danny summarized what Charms was (namely a spell or enchantment that adds certain properties to an object or an individual. Unlike Transfiguration though, charms don't alter what the object or subject is but what it does. Like a feather starting to flow or the tip of the wand lighting up or repairing broken things), Flitwick immediately started to show him several first year charms he had no problems with. After twenty minutes Danny knew Lumos, Lumos Maxima, Lumos Solem, Wingardium Leviosa and several others.
Since Flitwick had so much fun he added several more charms that got progressively harder. Danny had a lot of fun as well. He really only had to memorize the enchantments and what they do and then learn the wand movements et voila, a perfect charm. He immediately enjoyed casting Protego since it made him realize that he could protect his friends as both a ghost and a wizard now. At the end of the class Professor Flitwick was almost jumping up and down, happy to have someone who had no problems pronouncing any of the words (again, thank you random ghost powers that just pop up!)
In Herbology Danny had a little more difficulty, Professor Sprout was nice enough but Danny wasn't a big fan of plants, even if they had magical properties and they probably felt similar. However, they couldn't use too many actual plants so the professor showed him how to handle certain plants with an illusion charm and lots of theory.
Eventually, the time for Potions rolled around and Danny felt really drained, today had been extremely stressful and now he had potions, great. Apparently his teacher thought the same, cause when he appeared, his black cloak floating behind him, he was grumbling incoherent words, pointed at Danny to follow him and left again. With nothing better to do, Danny did as told and found Professor Snape in the basement of the house in a room in which his new cauldron and a lot of ingredients stood.
"There won't be any childish wand waving and I implore you to do as I say or I will see to it that you will not be able to participate in Potions. Understood?" Danny nodded confused, did he do something wrong? "Answer with words, Mr Potter." The halfa suddenly felt very annoyed but reminded himself that he should be on his best behaviour "I understood you perfectly... sir. Though I would prefer if you'd call me Fenton rather than Potter." That earned him an eyebrow raise form the greasy haired Potions Master "Is that so? You are a Potter though, so I will refer to you as such. Now, how far have you read in your potions book?"
Danny suppressed the urge to twitch with his eye and relayed to the man that he managed to read until chapter 5. He thought that was good progress since the whole book only had 18 chapters but Snape didn't seem to share his sentiment "I would have thought you could read faster. No matter, I shall show you what exactly you can do with potions. Also, I end this private class- and if you have to stay here until midnight. If I'm not satisfied with the results you do it all over again."
With that nice warning they finally started and even though Snape always made unnecessary snide remarks, Danny liked the subject. He wasn't as good at it as he was with Charms and Transfiguration but at least he understood how important the necessary compounds were and why one should know how the different ingredients behaved when thrown together. He was suddenly very thankful for his chemistry classes and Jazz who always told him in great detail about certain experiments and how they worked.
Still, even though potions and chemistry shared some similarities, there were great differences as well. For one, you could create a deadly poison or a life saving potion if you stir the liquid a certain direction or one time too many. Then there were the spells one had to use every now and then, the tempus charm was quite important for this. After three hours Snape deemed Danny's potions (he had to make two) sufficient enough and left without a word after telling the halfa how to clean up properly.
So now Danny was tired, exhausted and hungry, not as much as a fully living person would be, but hungry enough that it bothered him, when he entered the kitchen though, he was surprised by the confetti thrown into his face and- were those fanfares that played in the background? The Weasleys plus Sirius, Hermione and Tonks cheered and welcomed him into the Wizarding World. All of his exhaustion was suddenly gone and he joined the others, to just relax and accept how much weirder his life has gotten. He was suddenly very excited for the next few days.