A Vent Comes to Haunt

Summary: This fiction is inspired directly from Youre-not-so-big's two-shot crossover of Danny Phantom and Harry Potter in her fic entitled "A Vent for ADD." It is dark, it is scary, but I think I can swing it. Thank you so much for the jump-start.

It happens some time after TUE, but before Kindred Spirits. It is an AU year six in Hogwarts.

Disclaimer: I do not own either Danny Phantom or Harry Potter.

Chapter 1

Danny couldn't believe it. He was beyond shocked, hurt… There was nothing to describe what he was feeling. Everything – well, almost everything – Clockwork helped him fix was destroyed. But this time, his evil future self from an alternate timeline wasn't the cause.

But there would be time to deal with these thoughts later. Now he had an impossible task ahead of him. Or, at least, it felt that way: he had to knock on Vlad's door. He closed his eyes, wrinkled his brow, and knocked.

Within seconds, Vlad opened the door. "Daniel, what do you think you are doing here?" he demanded.

Danny looked up at him tearfully. "Vlad… I have nowhere else to go." Wait a minute. Daniel was crying? He'd spied on the boy for months, and this is something he'd never seen. But more to the point, he was showing this weakness before his arch-nemesis? Something was up.

Giving him a side-long look, Vlad asked, "What are you talking about?"

The boy closed his eyes, allowing the tears to flow freely. After a moment, he opened them again and tried to center himself. "Vlad… they… these people came to Amity Park and they killed… everyone! My parents, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, other people in town…"

Vlad's expression changed immediately from challenging to sympathetic. It was then that Vlad looked down and noticed Danny's luggage. Two medium-sized suitcases and a dufflebag held as much as Danny thought to bring with him. Vlad would send someone to get them later. Now he had other things to deal with.

Taking Danny's hand, he led the boy into his mansion in Wisconsin into a sitting room. "Daniel, what people are you talking about? What happened?"

Danny was surprised. He never heard this sincere, gentle tone from Vlad, ever. Still, he trembled as he answered Vlad's questions, tears still flowing freely. "Lots of people wearing black robes and freaky white masks showed up out of nowhere. They stalked around and shouted nonsense words, pointing sticks, and people ended up dead. I don't know what happened.

"I went ghost and started blasting back, but the damage was already done. I didn't sense them. They weren't ghosts. They were human and they did this." Danny couldn't go on, for sobs overtook him.

Vlad was quiet, reflecting over Danny's words. Jack was dead. Even though he taunted both Jack and Daniel about this often enough, he never expected Jack to die. At least, not by any hand other than his. Maddie was dead. This was something he could not deal with. Not yet, anyway. The love of his life was gone! And so…senselessly, it seemed.

But Daniel… without either of his parents, or even his responsible sister Jasmine to watch him, the guardianship of the boy would naturally fall to him, the long-time family friend whom the children sometimes called "Uncle." He always wanted Danny to be his, but not this way. And now he had to deal with a hysterical child. He would sort through his own feelings of loss later.

Vlad stood and walked up to where Danny was sitting. He put what he intended to be a comforting hand on Danny's shoulder. He had trouble pulling his thoughts together. What could he possibly say that Daniel might find comforting? The child had always considered him an arch-enemy, and with good reason. So how was he supposed to give succor to the boy whom he was sure didn't trust him?

Another knock came at his door. "Oh, Cheese Doodles! I'll be right back, Daniel." He evaporated and teleported to the front door. He prepared a rant to direct at anyone business related, or some such. He expected no one today, and he had his hands full! However, he was honestly not prepared for the sight that greeted him when he opened his door.

A man dressed in periwinkle robes with long white hair and a long white beard (looking like what he assumed Clockwork to look like in 'old-man' form) stood and said, "Good afternoon, Vladimir Masters is it? I'm afraid I owe you and the poor boy who came here an explanation."