A/N: I'm really sorry for the long wait, I was hoping to make the chapter longer but upon request I've decided to give you guys what I have and make an effort to work on this more often. When I started this I really didn't think it would gain as much traction as it has. Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews and to everyone that has followed/favorited this story!

CH. 2

Harry wasn't quite sure what exactly Phantom was, but he couldn't find it in himself to care at the moment. Phantom's statement rang through his head. Harry was trying to find the words to ask the creature to explain himself, but it seemed he was rendered speechless. 'What did he mean there's another person in my head? How could he even know that?' Some part of Harry's mind vaguely wondered how Phantom could stand halfway through the table and still be able to place his hand on Harry's forehead. Up until then, Phantom's entire body had been the same silvery, semi-transparent color of a ghost; but when his hand settled across Harry's scar, it had become opaque and obviously solid.

Hermione found her voice before the others. "That's not possible." Her voice had adopted a tone that Harry recognized to be the same one she used when Ron was being ridiculous. "How could you even know anything about his soul?" She crossed her arms and straightened her posture. Out of defiance or defense, Harry didn't know.

Phantom didn't appear to be put off by her response or know-it-all attitude; in fact, Harry thought he caught a fond look in the possible-ghost-thing's eye, but it was gone too quickly for him to be sure.

The bushy haired girl to Harry's right reminded Danny of Jazz. The way she carried herself, the way she refused to believe anything without an explanation or proof, she'd spoken all of two sentences to him and he could already tell he was going to have a difficult time convincing her he was only trying to help. "It's kind of hard to explain," Danny started, "I can sense when there are ghosts around. I guess you could say it's a sixth sense. As part of that, I'm also more sensitive to souls and magic," he paused for a second, "well… I think. I'm sort of new to this part of it. I've never really been around souls without bodies of their own, or living magic-users."

"W-what do you mean by 'living'?" The shaky, fear stricken question came from the red head to Harry's left.

Danny didn't hesitate in his response. "Most of my friends are ghosts. Come to think of it, most of my enemies are too." The people around the table stared at him, Danny nervously decided to fold his legs under him and hover above the table again, his color returning along with his tangibility.

Harry finally snapped out of his daze. "What do I do Phantom? Why are there two souls in my body?"

Danny held a contemplative look, trying to block out the curious gazes of the others while he thought of what to tell Harry. "I don't, uh… know much about it," Danny rubbed the back of his neck, "but, it feels like there's only a piece of a soul in there."

Harry watched Phantom's look darken into something almost menacing before he continued. "The only way for that to happen is for someone to perform a dark ritual. I can get it out, but you have to trust me." Harry didn't know what other options he had, nor did he care to consider them. He wanted the thing invading his body out of his head as soon as possible. If his godfather could trust this Phantom, then Harry figured he was alright.

Harry nodded, "Alright Phantom, get this thing out of my head." He caught Ron's weary look and didn't miss Hermione's silent warning, but he tried not to think about the possible consequences of trusting the entity.

When people were overshadowed normally, Danny could use a special type of ectoplasmic blast to push a ghost out of its host, but some part of him knew that wouldn't work on a soul shard, let alone one as dark as the one he sensed. He figured he would have to overshadow Harry himself and force the soul shard out.

As always, Danny hated the sensation of taking over someone else's body. He made an effort to keep himself from taking control of Harry and instead tried to infiltrate his mind in a way similar to that of entering a dream. He'd never attempted to do so to someone awake, but seeing as the soul was just in his head and not overpowering the boy's body, Danny figured the dream invasion tactic to be the best way to go about it.

Danny found that he didn't exactly have a body in this state, only a consciousness, a metaphysical presence. It unnerved him, but he quickly realized he could navigate Harry's mind easily enough even without a physical existence. It didn't take long for Danny to locate the soul shard, its presence in Harry's mind was overbearing, he was surprised that no one noticed it sooner.

Danny mentally reached towards the shard, forcing himself to push past the wave of negative emotions that tried to deter him. He wasn't quite sure what to do to get the thing out, but he couldn't give up without trying so he decided to force the soul out through will power and determination, the way he would have if a ghost tried to invade his human half's body. It didn't work.

He tried imagining his hands physically pushing the soul out, but that turned out to be a bust as well. The only thing Danny could think of was to imagine sending an ecto-blast at the thing. The familiar presence of ectoplasm seemed to fill Harry's mind, and the shard felt as if it had flinched and recoiled, but aside from that the 'blast' didn't do much.

The ectoplasmic based attack was the only one that had any effect on the thing, so Danny assumed that his ghost powers were the way to go about destroying it. He tried a larger blast but it didn't do much more damage than the first. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

'Oh man, poor Harry's going to have a killer headache after this.'Then Danny let out his strongest attack, the ghostly wail.

Harry came out of his dream like state and shook his head to get rid of the fog. The first thing he noticed was the awful migraine he was sporting. The second was Phantom, along with the rest of the people in the room, shooting him worried looks. Despite is nausea and pounding head, Harry felt lighter, like an invisible weight had been lifted.

"You should probably lie down," Phantom whispered.

Harry looked up at him, cringing at the light streaming in from the kitchen windows. "Yeah, good idea." With that Harry headed upstairs to rest.

Sirius watched as his godson as he fumbled his way out of the kitchen. "What did you do to him?" All eyes turned to a sheepish Danny.

"The thing wouldn't budge, so I had to get out the big guns." The ghost fiddled with his hair nervously, "I, uh... used this power that's basically a really loud scream. He probably has a migraine."

Molly looked furious, as did most of the table, but Sirius couldn't hold back his laugh. "You yelled at it?"

Danny shot his hands up in defense, "Hey, it worked, didn't it?" It certainly did, Sirius didn't think he was ever going to forget the smoke like apparition that flew out of Harry's scar, nor the shriek it let out. "That soul shard felt exactly like the one in the amulet I borrowed from you. I don't think I can get it out the same way though. The necklace is an object, it wasn't alive until the soul started living in it. Which means I can't overshadow it like I did to Harry. You're probably going to have to find some crazy powerful weapon to destroy it with. I can ask around the Zone about it, but I don't think I'll get anywhere."

Everyone in the room stared at Phantom, unsure what to make of him and the information he just provided.

Danny was exhausted, staying in ghost mode for several hours, teleporting long distance (twice!), and using his ghostly wait on top of that? It was a miracle he hadn't transformed back yet, he was just barely holding back the transformation rings. There was no way he could make it home in his state, Danny needed to rest. "Is there anywhere I could lay down? That took a lot out of me." He tried to share a meaningful look with his new friend, but Sirius didn't seem to understand how critical it was for Danny to get some rest in private.

It was the red headed woman who Sirius had called 'Molly', that spoke up first. "Of course, dear, there's a room upstairs you can use." Danny didn't wait for further instructions, he flew straight up through the ceiling and into the nearest empty room. He made sure to lock the door before letting himself pass out on the bed.

When Danny woke up a few hours later he checked the lock on the door before pulling out his Fenton Phone. He crossed his fingers and switched the device on. The Fentons had never tested the range on them, they never needed to; he figured if they could work across dimensions, then they could probably work on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

"Any one there? Mom? Dani?" His questions were met with silence. Danny reasoned that silence was better than static and came to the conclusion that no one had their comms on. He decided to leave his in, someone would notice the blinking light that signaled an open channel and contact him eventually. With a whispered "Going ghost", Fenton became Phantom once again. He unlocked the door and left to find Sirius.

He wasn't hard to locate, even if Danny ignored his newfound ability to sense a wizard and the smell of dog. Sirius wasn't exactly subtle. Danny heard shouting and bolted towards the source. He found the group outside, he didn't have time to assess the situation before his instincts screamed at him to duck. He dropped a few feet in the air and looked up just in time to see a ball flying through the place he'd been a moment ago. He shifted into a defensive stance and risked a glance around.

Danny let himself relax and float to the ground when he realized the wizards were playing a game of some sort. He watched idly as they flew through the air on brooms while throwing different sized balls around. Danny didn't even try to understand the rule of the game, instead resigning himself to waiting for the game to end so he could talk to Sirius.

Danny started making small ice constructs. He was almost through making a snow globe (with real snow) when the brunette that reminded him of Jazz startled him out of his concentrated state.

"How are you doing that?" Danny jumped at her sudden presence and lunged to catch the snow globe before it could hit the ground. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Danny smiled, "Don't worry about it," he paused before remembering her question. "It's one of my powers, I can make ice. The smaller, more detailed the sculptures help me to exercise control over my abilities and manage my energy consumption. It's a form of training." Danny watched her nod enthusiastically. "Sorry, I don't think I caught your name."

The girl flushed slightly and hurriedly introduced herself as Hermione. "What are you exactly? We all thought you were a ghost at first but you can touch things and you look solid, you even have color and these powers that I've never seen before. I can't think of any magical creature like that. I tried asking Sirius, but he just said to let you explain." Hermione took a breath and looked as if she was going to continue, but Danny took the opportunity to answer her question before she could go on theorizing.

"I'm a ghost. All the ghosts I've met are like me, but I've read about other types. For the most part ghosts are born from an obsession and form in the Ghost Zone. We all draw our energy from there. It sounds like they type of ghost you're talking about though is one of those anomalies. I don't know the proper name for them, but they were formed outside of the ghost zone, so they can't draw energy from it. That type is always intangible and colorless, some of them can turn invisible though." Danny didn't get to pause in his explanation for very long before Hermione was asking another question.

"What about poltergeists?"

"They're tied to a specific place, or object. They can pull energy from that in the same way normal ghosts pull from the Zone. It's not as powerful, so poltergeists are intangible unless they want to touch something." Danny glanced up and noticed the game was over, he decided to cut his conversation short so he could talk to Sirius. "I've got to go, but I have a ton of research and notes on this stuff. I'd be happy to get you copies if you'd like."

Hermione's hair bounced as she nodded her head vigorously. "I'd love that! Thank you so much, Phantom!"

Danny waved at her as he flew to Sirius. He caught the man just before he went inside. "Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to head home." Sirius looked upset, but nodded anyway, "I'll come back once I've figured out that amulet though, maybe next time I'll be able to meet everyone properly." Danny smiled at this new friend.

"Alright, I'll let Molly know you're leaving. Thanks again for bringing me back." If Danny had asked, he was sure that Sirius would deny the tears forming in his eyes.