-The Great Hall, the same day-
By the dinner the whole school already knew about Danny's act during DADA. People were throwing him glances, and his enhanced hearing caught parts of dialogs there and there.
"He says that Cedric Diggory was murdered..."
"Come off it..."
"Does he really believe what Potter tells?"
"Ya know, he actually got the point..."
At the last sentence Danny smiled. That's what he tried to achieve. Suddenly, bird's scream was heard. That was unusual, since the mail arrived only at the morning. From the special hole under the roof a blue creature flew inside. When everyone looked closely, they were shocked at the sight of Phoenix. In it's claws it was carrying some paper box. The bird then landed on Danny's shoulder.
"Hey, girl, how was your flight here?" He asked, stroking under phoenix's beak. She gave him the box with the letter attached to it.
'Dear Daniel,
I already know about your agreement with Weasleys, so I sent berries ahead. As for Dolores, don't step across the line. You can use other ways to achieve your target.
P.S. Your act during lesson was highly amusing.
Eternal luck,
Clockwork'
Danny smiled, it's nice to have a father with a future sight. Phantom gave some food for hungry bird, which it gladly accepted. She then flew back home. Danny made his way to Griffindor table, searching for two redheads. It didn't take long. They were currently making some unknown stuff, which made an unusual smell. Other Griffindors narrowed their eyes in suspicion.
"Hey guys!" He greeted the twins. It caught their attention immediately.
"Oh, hello, Danny," they said in unison, "What brings you here to our humble table?" Asked Fred, or was it George?
"I have a little present for you," Phantom put the box on the table and opened it, revealing it's contents. There was a lot of little berries, they had crimson color and were emitting slight glow.
"Are those..."
"Yep. You can make a new candies for your collection. Be warned, this is alcoholic"
-Later in Griffindor tower-
"How can Dumbledore have let this happen?" Hermione cried suddenly, making Harry and Ron jump; Crookshanks leapt off her, looking affronted. She pounded the arms of her chair in fury, so that bits of stuffing leaked out of the holes. 'How can he let that terrible woman teach us? And in our OWL year, too!'
"Well, we've never had great Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we?" said Harry, "You know what it's like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job; they say it's jinxed"
"Yes, but to employ someone who's actually refusing to let us do magic! What's Dumbledore playing at?"
"And she's trying to get people to spy for her," said Ron darkly.
"Remember when she said she wanted us to come and tell her if we hear anyone saying You-Know-Who's back?"
"Of course she's here to spy on us all, that's obvious, why else would Fudge have wanted her to come?" snapped Hermione.
Fred, George and Lee Jordan were now sitting at the centre of a knot of innocent-looking first-years, all of whom were chewing something that seemed to have come out of a large paper bag that Fred was holding.
"No, I'm sorry, they've gone too far," she said, standing up and looking positively furious, "Come on, Ron"
"I -what?" said Ron, plainly playing for time. "No, come on, Hermione, we can't tell them off for giving out sweets"
"You know perfectly well that those are bits of Nosebleed Nougat or...or Puking Pastilles or..."
"Are those berries?" Harry asked.
One by one, as though hit over the head with an invisible mallet, the first-years were slumping unconscious in their seats; some slid right on to the floor, others merely hung over the arms of their chairs, their tongues lolling out. Most of the people watching were laughing; Hermione, however, squared her shoulders and marched directly over to where Fred and George now stood with clipboards, closely observing the unconscious first-years. Ron rose halfway out of his chair, hovered uncertainly for a moment or two, then muttered to Harry, "She's got it under control," before sinking as low in his chair as his lanky frame permitted.
"That's enough!" Hermione said forcefully to Fred and George, both of whom looked up in mild surprise.
"Yeah, you are right," said George, or was it Fred? "If we use them all right now, there wouldn't be anything left"
"What do you mean?" Asked Hermione confused.
"Danny-boy gave us this wonderful present. And they work perfectly!"
It started a huge argument between prefect and pranksters. At the meantime, Harry slapped himself on a forehead, remembering that he wanted to thank Danny for today. Emerging victorious, Hermione has returned.
"Thank you for your support, Ron," Hermione said acidly.
"You handled it fine by yourself," Ron mumbled.
Hermione stared down at her blank piece of parchment for a few seconds, then said edgily, "Oh, it's no good, I can't concentrate now. I'm going to bed"
But she didn't. Instead she started fussing around wool hats, which were for house elves. That started yet another argument between two prefects. Harry wondered how they were able to become friends in the first place.
-Next morning-
No one understood, how Work has done that. Seriously, everything this guy was doing is lying on the sofa and reading some muggle book. But somehow, in the morning his huge homework was done. In reality, Danny used his duplicates. He sent them to do homework in some abandoned classroom. It was very funny to watch his housemates reactions.
"How did you do that?" Asked Malfoy once Danny sat at the table.
"What did I do?"
"You did nothing, but reading this muggle rubbish, but your homework is done"
"First of all, this isn't a rubbish. It's 'Crime and Punishment'. Secondly, I'm not telling my method"
The day went well for the most part. The face of Professor Snape was priceless, when Danny has given him his work three days earlier. Then, there was Binns.
Professor Binns was a ghost, who taught History of Magic. Actually, more like singing lullaby. This droning voice of his can heal every insomnia. Danny was not exception. Luckily, this guy didn't pay attention to his students and Phantom could get a nice nap.
But the most interesting part was during Care of Magical Creatures.
"Everyone here?" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, once all the Slytherins and Gryffindors had arrived. "Let's crack on then. Who can tell me what these things are called?"
She indicated the heap of twigs in front of her. Hermione's hand shot into the air. Behind her back, Malfoy did a buck-toothed imitation of her jumping up and down in eagerness to answer a question. Pansy Parkinson gave a shriek of laughter that turned almost at once into a scream, as the twigs on the table leapt into the air and revealed themselves to be what looked like tiny pixie-ish creatures made of wood, each with knobbly brown arms and legs, two twiglike fingers at the end of each hand and a funny flat, barklike face in which a pair of beetle-brown eyes glittered.
"So, anyone know the names of these creatures? Miss Granger?"
"Bowtruckles," said Hermione. "They're tree-guardians, usually live in wand-trees."
"Five points for Gryffindor,' said Professor Grubbly-Plank. "Yes, these are Bowtruckles, and as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in trees whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?"
"Woodlice," said Danny promptly, which explained why what Harry had taken to be grains of brown rice were moving, "But fairy eggs if they can get them"
"Good boy, five points to Slytherin, whenever you need leaves or wood from a tree in which a Bowtruckle lodges, it is wise to have a gift of woodlice ready to distract or placate it. They may not look dangerous, but if angered they will try to gouge at human eyes with their fingers, which, as you can see, are very sharp and not at all desirable near the eyeballs. So if you'd like to gather closer, take a few woodlice and a Bowtruckle, I have enough here for one between three, you can study them more closely. I want a sketch from each of you with all body-parts labelled by the end of the lesson"
Phantom wasn't surprised when little creatures didn't do anything to him. Completely opposite, they have taken liking to halfa. Bowtruckles rubbed their heads with his fingers. It caused Danny to chuckle, when he saw everyone staring at this little scene.
"OUCH!" He heard Harry's shout. Near him were Malfoy and co, laughing their butts and walking away.
"Hey Harry," Phantom approached wounded teen.
"Danny," he said bluntly, whatever this people said, it ruined Harry's mood.
"Put this on," Danny took out handkerchief and gave it to him, which he gladly accepted and wrapped it around his hand.
"Why are you doing this?" Harry suddenly asked. Phantom blinked.
"What?"
"You saved me from Snape, supported my words and got a detentions for it. This isn't something Slytherins usually do"
"We are friends, right?" Danny said with a smile, "As for Slytherins, not all of us are evil. We have Malfoyish type, yes. But there are also the ones, who are just afraid to go against them"
"But you don't," Harry stated the fact.
"It will take more than bunch of brats to scare me off," Phantom patted him on shoulder and went away.
-Laaaterrr-
At five to five Danny set off for Umbridge's office on the third floor. When he knocked on the door she called, "Come in," in a sugary voice. He entered cautiously, looking around.
In the days when Gilderoy Lockhart had lived here it had been plastered in beaming portraits of himself. When Lupin had occupied it, it was likely you would meet some fascinating Dark creature in a cage or tank if you came to call. In the impostor Moody's days it had been packed with various instruments and artefacts for the detection of wrongdoing and concealment.
Now, however, it looked totally unrecognisable. The surfaces had all been draped in lacy covers and cloths. There were several vases full of dried flowers, each one residing on its own doily, and on one of the walls was a collection of ornamental plates, each decorated with a large technicolour kitten wearing a different bow around its neck. Professor Umbridge spoke again.
"Good evening, Mr. Work"
"Evening!" Two can play this game of fake cheerfulness. Umbridge could already see the headache coming.
"Well, sit down," she said, pointing towards a small table draped in lace beside which she had drawn up a straight-backed chair. A piece of blank parchment lay on the table, apparently waiting for him.
"Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me, Mr. Work. No, not with your quill," she added, as Danny bent down to open his bag. "You're going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are"
She handed him a long, thin black quill with an unusually sharp point.
"I want you to write, I must be respectful," she told him softly.
"What's the catch?"
"Oh, you just need to write it as long as it takes for the message to sink in," said Umbridge sweetly. "Off you go"
She moved over to her desk, sat down and bent over a stack of parchment that looked like essays for marking. Danny raised the sharp black quill, then realised what was missing.
"You haven't given me any ink," he said.
"Oh, you won't need ink," said Professor Umbridge, with the merest suggestion of a laugh in her voice.
"What, am I going to write with my blood?" She blinked in surprise at his right assumption.
"Write, Mr. Work," Dolores said sharply and sweetly at the same time.
Danny placed the point of the quill on the paper and wrote: I must be respectful.
He immediately felt tingling sensation in the back of his hand. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining green ink. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of Danny's right hand, cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel - yet even as he stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had been slightly greener than before but quite smooth.
Yep, definitely blood, ectoplasm to be exact. That's why his writings were green. Under calm face, Danny was a little disturbed because of the possibility of blowing his cover.
"Is something wrong, Mr. Work?" She asked innocently.
"Nope, peachy"
It was already dark outside of the window, and Danny was still writing. Umbridge was waiting until writings would appear on his hand, but Phantom felt more pain before, so for him, as was said earlier, it was just tingly. That and he is half ghost with enchanced healing.
"Hand," Dolores said.
He extended it. She took it in her own. It felt uncomfortable, when she touched him with her thick, stubby fingers on which she wore a number of ugly old rings.
"Tut, tut, I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet," she said, smiling. "Well, we'll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won't we? You may go"
Danny left her office without a word, but with a huge smirk on his face. The school was quite deserted; it was surely past midnight. Too sad, that everyone was awaken by VERY loud shout of anger. In the end of the parchment Danny has written with big letters: "YOU ARE STILL A TOAD".
-Somewhere in England-
In Little Hangleton was a building. It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied. Or so people thought. Inside lived the man, who owned this place, Lord Voldemort. He was now sitting on his throne, listening to his follower and petting Nagini, his snake.
"Tell me, Lucius, what have your son found on this boy?" Dark Lord's voice sent shivers down Lucius' spine.
"Work clearly isn't the one to follow rules. In his first day he insulted DADA professor and was proving your return, my lord"
"Hm, it would be foolish to think that he wouldn't do that. Dumbledore wouldn't take some random boy all of a sudden. Any information about the rest of his family?"
"N-no, my lord. But there is a suspicion, that he is half-breed," Dark Lord raised his nonexistent eyebrow.
"And what makes you think so?" Lucius gulped.
"The boy snapped after Umbridge insulted them"
"So another noble family dirtied their blood. That's pity. What exactly is that boy?" Voldemort inquired.
"W-we don't know, we are trying to figure out"
"I'm not pleased, Malfoy. Don't return until you will learn more"
"Yes, my lord"
A.N. Guys, comment, please, but there is no need to mention spelling mistakes, my beta reader is very busy, even before I started this story. I'm trying to find someone to do the job in his absence.