Late because shit happens.

*****

The next morning he woke up and his head hurt, none of the others were up yet and by the time Ron woke up he was tying his tie.

Ron looked at him and spoke, "You look pale Danny."

Danny shrugged, "I'm fine."

Ron chose not to argue with him and he got dressed, by the time Ron was dressed they only had two or three minutes to get to class. Danny grabbed Ron's wrist when they had less then a minute to get to class and ran as fast as he could to get there on time. The two just barely got through the door before they would have been late and the two were trying to catch their breath.

Ron looked at him, "How can you run so fast?"

Danny looked at him, "Because I just can, and I wouldn't have had to run if you hadn't woken up so late."

Danny quickly took a seat and Ron followed, Danny was still tired from last night, he wasn't sure what it was or if it was normal. It didn't start happening until after he became a halfa so he thought it had something to do with that. It would still take some time to recover, since he hadn't eaten or anything after it happened he was weaker then normal.

Danny looked at the cat on the desk and she looked at him, the cat then jumped off the desk and changed into Professor McGonagall. Danny had been told all of his teacher's names by Ron so he finally knew what her name was. She looked at the two, "You were very lucky to get here before you were late."

She gave Danny what almost looked like a concerned look before turning away and Danny wondered what the look was for. After McGonagall's class they had potions, Snape walked and immediately started talking, "There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class."

"As such I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and the exact art that is potion making. However for those select few who possess the predisposition I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and snare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."

Danny leaned back in his seat as he listened, his instincts told him the man wasn't bad but he wasn't someone you'd want to piss off. Snape looked at him, "Mr. Phantom, our new celebrity." Ron gave him a slightly worried look before Snape spoke again, "Tell me what would I get if I added powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Danny leaned forward a little and rested his arms on the table in front of him. "Unfortunately I wouldn't know since I haven't gotten a chance to read anything from my books since I only got them yesterday. I can't answer any question you might ask me at the moment so I'd respectfully suggest asking someone else." Danny smiled, "Sir." The smile immediately fell and he leaned back in his seat again.

Snape seemed slightly annoyed by his answer but Danny could see a very begrudging respect hidden in his eyes. When the lesson was finally over it was time for lunch, Danny honestly thought he was going to pass out soon so he was glad he could rest for a bit. While they were eating one of the students, Seamus, was trying to turn his water into rum.

After a few attempts there was a small explosion and Seamus had ash on his face and his hair had been blown back from his face a bit. After a few seconds there was the sound of an owl call and Ron spoke, "Ah, mail's here."

All of a sudden his owl, whom he'd decided to name Hedwig, landed in front of him and nuzzled his cheek. She didn't have any mail, which he expected, so she likely just wanted to see him which he appreciated. Danny smoothed her feathers a bit and Hermione looked at him, "Why is your owl here if she doesn't have mail for you?"

Danny smiled at Hedwig a little, "She probably just wanted to say hi."

After a minute or two Hedwig flew away and Ron started reading the paper, "Hey Danny, someone broke into Gringotts."

Danny leaned a little closer and quickly read what was written on the paper and saw that the vault someone broke into was the one he and Hagrid went to. He didn't say anything though, he wanted to know what the hell had been in that vault even more now. Danny just hummed and continued eating, he eventually headed to his next class which was flying lessons, apparently.

They stood outside next to brooms and the teacher walked in between the two lines of students and brooms. "Good afternoon class."

All of the students spoke at the same time, "Good afternoon Madam Hooch."

Danny thought it was slightly creepy but didn't say anything, when Madam Hooch got to the end of the line she turned to them and Danny saw that her eyes were yellow. She spoke, "Welcome to your first flying lesson, well, what are you waiting for, everyone step up to the left side of their broomsticks, come on now hurry up."

They all quickly stood next to their brooms, "Stick your right hand over the broom and say up." Danny, as well as all of the others, did as they were told and Danny's broom shot up to his hand immediately, for others it took several tries. Hermione's just rolled on the ground for a bit and Ron's hit him in the face and Danny forced himself not to laugh.

Madam Hooch soon spoke, "Now, once you've got hold of your broom I want you to mount it." Everyone moved to do so as she continued, "And grip it tight, you don't want to be sliding off the end. When I blow my whistle I want each of you to kick off the ground, hard, keep your broom steady, hover for a moment and lean forward slightly, and touch back down."

She looked around for a second, "On my whistle." She then blew her whistle and Neville immediately started floating and it didn't seem like he knew what he was doing, he then started flying off and Danny felt just a little bad for him. Neville ran into a wall, almost hit the group, went through one of the archways, then got caught on a statue.

Danny was just about to move to get him down when Neville's robe ripped and he got caught on one of the unlit torches before falling the rest of the way to the ground. Madam Hooch told everyone to get out of her way and she helped Neville stand while saying he had a broken wrist. Once they were both standing she looked at the group, "Everyone is to keep their feet firmly on the ground while I take Mr. Longbottom to the hospital wing understand?"

"If I see a single broom in the air the one riding it will find themselves out of Hogwarts before they can say quidditch."

Madam Hooch walked away and once she was gone Malfoy spoke, "Did you see his face, maybe if the fat lump had given this a squeeze he would have remembered to fall on his fat ass."

Malfoy held up Neville's remember all that he had gotten in the mail that afternoon and Danny bit back a growl. "Hand it over Malfoy."

Malfoy turned to him, "No, I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find." Malfoy then got on his broom, "How about on the roof."

Malfoy flew higher into the sky before looked back at him, "What's the matter Phantom, a bit beyond your reach?"

Danny glared at him before mounting his broom and Hermione spoke, "Danny no way, you heard what Madam Hooch said, besides, you don't even know how to fly."

Danny glared at her a little before taking off, with all the practice he had flying on his own this was easy. Danny flew up to Malfoy, "Give it to me before I decide to knock you off your broom."

Malfoy looked at him, "Is that so, have it your way then."

Malfoy then threw the remember all and Danny quickly went after it, he flew as quickly as he could and he caught the remember all in his hand. He stopped just before hitting a wall and flew back down a little faster then he should have, he pulled up just before he hit the ground and gracefully got off the broom.

Almost everyone ran over to him and congratulated him on catching the remember all and complimenting him on his flying. Professor McGonagall came out of the school and was quickly walking toward him and he sighed. "Well fuck."

McGonagall then shouted, "Danny Phantom!" All of the students when quiet, "Follow me." Danny immediately followed her, he knew this would probably happen sooner or later, just not on his first day. McGonagall was walking surprisingly quickly but Danny could keep up, he was just wondering where they were going.

McGonagall stopped him, "You wait here." McGonagall then walked into Professor Quirrell's classroom, "Professor Quirrell 'scuse me, could I borrow Wood for a moment please?"

Now Danny was very confused, what the fuck was going on, he hadn't thought teachers would beat kids for doing something bad and his instincts weren't trying to warn him. Quirrell looked at her, "Yes, of course."

One of the students followed the older woman out of the room and McGonagall looked at him. "Phantom this is Oliver Wood." Wood smiled at him a little and she continued, "Wood, I have found you a seeker."

Danny was going to say something but he decided to shut up, by his next class word had already gotten around. He overheard Nick talking to another ghost, "Have you heard Danny Phantom's the new Gryffindor seeker, I always knew he'd do well."

Apparently Ron had heard Nick too, "Seeker, but first years never make the house teams, you must be the youngest quidditch player in-."

Danny cut him off, "A century, McGonagall told me."

All of a sudden the twins showed up and Fred put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey well done Danny, Wood's just told us."

Ron looked at him, "Fred and George are on the team too, beaters."

George spoke, "Our job is to make sure that you don't get bloodied up too bad, can't make any promises of course, rough game quidditch."

Fred spoke, "Brutal, but no one's died in years, someone will vanish occasionally."

George spoke, "But they'll turn up in a month or two."

Ron spoke, "Go on Danny, quidditch is great, best game there is, and you'll be great too."

"Assuming I don't do something stupid."

Hermione suddenly spoke from his side, "You won't do something stupid, it's in your blood."

Danny looked at her, "If this has something to do with my family, including my parents, I don't want to know."

Danny started walking away and Hermione called after him, "Why don't you want to know?!"

Danny didn't even look at her, "Because I just don't!"

Both Ron and Hermione looked confused, after classes were finally over Danny found Wood, like he had been asked to before, and they went outside. Wood looked at him, "Quidditch is easy enough to understand, each team has seven players, three chasers, two beaters, one keeper, and the seeker, that's you."

The two set down the large box they had been carrying, which Danny could have carried himself, and Wood opened it. Wood took out the largest ball which was red and looked at him, "There are three kinds of balls." Wood tossed the ball to him, "This one's called the quaffle, now the chasers handle the quaffle and try to put it through one of those three hoops."

Wood pointed to the Quidditch field where three rings were, Wood continued, "The keeper, that's me, defends to hoops, with me so far?"

Danny nodded and tossed the ball back to Wood, "So what are the ones that are moving?"

Wood picked up what looked like a wooden bat off the ground, "You'd better take this."

Danny took the bat and Wood let one of the balls go, it immediately flew up into the air. It then started coming back down and Wood spoke, "Careful now it's comin' back."

Danny watched the ball and when it got close enough he used the bat to hit the ball away and it went through one of the statues that was holding two swords crossed over it's head. Wood looked a bit impressed, "Not bad Phantom." Danny smirked, "You'd make a fair beater."

The ball then came back and Wood spoke, "Uh oh."

Danny caught the ball before it hit Wood and easily held it in place, he put it back in the chest and put the chains on it. "Okay, what was that?"

Wood looked absolutely stunned before he answered, "A bludger, nasty little buggers, but you are a seeker." Wood opened the small Hogwarts crest in the box to reveal a small golden ball and he took it out. Wood looked at him, "The only thing I want you to worry about is this." He held up the small golden ball, "The golden snitch."

Danny took it, "I can definitely catch this."

Wood smiled, "Ah you think that now, but it's wicked fast and damn near impossible to see."

Danny smirked, "You will learn Wood, you will learn, so what's my job?"

Wood looked slightly amused, "You catch it before the other teams seeker, you catch this, the game is over, you catch this Phantom, and we win."

The golden ball then sprouted wings and started flying around, Danny smirked and let it get a bit farther away before quickly running over and catching it. Wood was stunned, Danny had moved like lightning to catch it, he felt like this was going to be an interesting year. The next day Danny was in one of his classes and he was learning how to make something levitate.

The Professor spoke, "One of the wizards most rudimentary skills is levitation, the affinity to make objects fly." He looked around, "Do you all have your feathers?" Hermione held hers up, "Good, now uh, don't forget the nice wrist movement we've been practicing, just swish and flick."

The teacher had everyone imitate the movement, "Oh, and enunciate, wingardium leviosa, off you go then."

Danny looked at his feather and took a deep breath, he could make things levitate using his ghost powers, he could do this. He could hear Hermione lecturing Ron and the boy insisted that Hermione try doing the spell. Her feather floated into the air on her first try and the teacher smiled, "Well done!"

He looked at the other students, "See here everyone, Miss Granger's done it, splendid."

Seamus then tried the spell again and his feather burst into flames and and Danny didn't even look startled, he just looked beyond done with the world. The class soon went back to their own feathers and Danny tried the spell, he also got it on the first try. The teacher looked impressed with him as well and Danny just leaned back in his seat, he was tired.

After classes were finally done for the day and they were back in their dorms Danny went to his room rather then hanging out in the common room. Danny found Hedwig perched on his headboard when he walked in and he smiled before walking over to her. She perched on his arm and he teleported them to the roof before he laid down and looking at the sky.

He hadn't slept well, he wasn't throwing up blood like the first night but his insomnia kept him up, even playing his violin hadn't helped. He sort of wanted to be back at the Fenton's house, not because he missed them or his life, it was his friend. It was probably hard to believe but he did have a friend, his friend wasn't just anyone either.

He hadn't gotten a chance to tell him anything because all of this had happened so suddenly, he felt bad. Danny didn't know what to do, he didn't have a phone, he couldn't exactly send Hedwig with a letter, and he didn't have any other way of talking to him. Then Danny thought of something, he could teleport, now he felt stupid, he could teleport to where he was.

Granted he would be tired afterward but he could still do it, he smiled to himself, he'd go visit him soon.