Getting Some Answers

It was another Saturday morning. Jadin lay on his bed, digivice in hand. The LCD screen flashed a message to which he'd grown wearily accustomed to seeing: "Connection Denied".

"Impmon, aren't you ever coming back?", he asked his ceiling.

"Jadin, I thought you'd gotten over Impmon?", it was Dirk, his father.

"Just checkin' something out, that's all".

"Well, come out: you have a guest".

"Who?", Jadin wasn't expecting anyone.

"A girl - a really pretty girl".

Jadin was up instantly, checked his breathe, slicked back his hair. As he entered the main living area, he saw that his Dad wasn't exaggerating. He searched his memory: he was certain that he'd never seen her at his school. Someone from a local store? That wasn't it. Someone from back home? There was one girl, close, but not her either.

"I'm Jadin... you asked to see me? I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage here... damn this is embarrassing..."

She extended a hand: "I'm Hermione Granger. Took me a good long while to track you down, or I'd've been here a lot sooner. We have a lot to talk about".

Mercifully, Dirk and Jadin's mother Cecilia intervened: "Your mother and I are going out for a bit". This bought Jadin time to think of something before he made a complete ass of himself.

"I was just gonna get some iced tea, care for some?", he asked.

"Please", Hermione replied.

Jadin went to the kitchenette to fetch two tumblers, and ice. "Hermione", he thought to himself, "a proper English name". However, the only "Grainger" he was familiar with was the catalog of that industrial supply outfit that sold lots of really cool stuff, but to commercial accounts only. As he was pouring the tea from the pitcher kept in the 'fridge, he decided honesty was the best policy.

He placed two coasters on the table, and set the glass before Hermione, before sitting across the table from her.

"I don't exactly consider myself a ladykiller, and I've had a pretty girl or two pursue me, but usually that happened after we'd met somehow. I would remember if I'd ever met someone like you. How do you know my name? What did you mean 'track me down'?"

She took a sip before setting the glass on the coaster: "There are some things you need to know, and that you will probably find unbelievable. All I ask is that you hear me out".

"Did Draco put you up to this? It's not the least bit funny".

"Draco Malfoy? No, he didn't..."

"I didn't mention a last name", he said, suspiciously.

"I know Draco Malfoy, we used to go to the same school until he transferred. I didn't like him or that crowd he ran with. It's not a joke, Jadin. I know quite a bit about you, and I can prove it".

"Go on"

"Well, I know you are one of a select group who call themselves the 'Digimon Mentors', your partner was Impmon, his Champion form is Youkomon". Jadin wondered if Hermione had been a Mentor before the digimon left.

"You partnered when you were fourteen; it was an afternoon after school, and your scientific calculator glowed with a bright white light as it transformed into a digivice. Then your room filled with a thick white smoke. A dark figure walked out of it, and when the 'smoke' cleared, Impmon was there. You took him downstairs, holding his hand, to meet your parents...

"How could you possibly know that! I never told anyone!"

"You told me that story yourself", Hermione insisted. "Here..." She opened the beaded handbag she carried, and reached far into its nonexistent depths. ("Where are you...?") She pulled out a few sheets of brown paper, and handed the pages to Jadin. The texture was peculiar, the color, sort of brownish, creme, odd looking, the lines thick looking as though made with a sloppy fountain pen.

"You recognize your own handwriting?"

It was undeniably his, if this were a forgery, but what sort of prank... He could only nod.

Hermione continued: "You wrote that for me because I was interested in the perspective of someone who had experience with non-human intelligences who treated them as equals. Jadin, you don't remember writing that, I can see it in your expression, because they obliviated your memory. Everything you think you remember from a few days after your arrival from America till now are false memories. I know it's a lot to take in, but you once told me that the best way is to come straight out with it, and I don't know any better way to tell you. How long have you been living in this flat?"

"Ever since we arrived?"

"You didn't. You were living in a small town called Little Whinging, in a cottage your dad leased. It was there where you and Impmon fought what you thought were two rogue digimon, what you referred to as 'Wild Ones'. However, you saw something you weren't supposed to see, or even know existed. This brought you to the attention of other folks you're not supposed to know about".

Jadin sat there, head swimming. How could everything he remembered be so thoroughly falsified? Who would go to such lengths for a practical joke? Who would have any stake in selling him such a cock and bull story, using a pretty, strange girl he knew he'd never met? Did it have anything to do with his having been a Mentor? Yet still... would MI-6 do such a thing? Why not use someone he knew and trusted? Why not just ask? He would tell them whatever they wanted to know, after all, digimon are pretty much harmless.

"I need to show you something", he excused himself. He returned to his bedroom to retrieve his digivice. He was still thinking Hermione was either a Mentor or was somehow connected with the Mentors and their digimon.

He sat next to Hermione. "I keep getting this strange message...", he clicked on the menu item, bringing it up.

"Do you remember entering me?" it read.

"I was there when you programmed it to do that. After I mentioned they might pull something like this".

"It asks that every Saturday", he showed her the long line of "NO", and the few "YES" replies. "The 'NO' answers started about that time last spring, the big storm. Impmon supposedly died, but digimon don't die like that. They discorporate into unorganized data".

"They didn't know any better. They just assumed. What do you know about the storm?"

"I had the folks drive up there, near Dufftown to ask around. I didn't know what else to do, if it might have had something to do with Impmon's leaving. Asked around, but no one said anything different from what was on the Beeb. Lots of red lights in the sky, sounds like explosions, thick black clouds, but not a drop of rain.

"Then we drove to where the storm supposedly struck. Lots of trees down, but it didn't look like any sort of storm damage I'd ever seen. Nothing seemed to be like they were reporting, that's when I found the old ruins"

"Old ruins?"

"Yes, why..."

"Did anything out of the ordinary happen when you were up there?", he wondered why she'd ask that.

"No", he began... "Wait... Yeah... I coulda sworn I saw something rise above the trees, big and black, then drop back out of sight. Mom and Dad said they didn't see anything, but how could they miss it? We were all looking in the same direction?"

"Where were you?", she asked.

"Off the side of the road, overlooking the ruins".

"I see", she replied. "To some, that is known as the 'Forbidden Forest', and you weren't imagining it. What you saw was probably a thestral..."

"A thesta... what?"

"Thestral. Head of a dorugremon, without the blade, wings of a devidramon, and the body of an emaciated horse", Hermione replied.

"Strange way of putting it... You're a Mentor? Who was your partner?"

"That's how you described them. There's about a hundred thestrals living in that forest, and you used to get along with them really well. And, no, I'm not a Mentor, though I did have a friendship with Dorugamon, but not a full partnership, no digivice".

"OK, you know your digimon, and you don't claim to be a Mentor. What about the rest? Why would you ask if anything happened up there? Like you were almost expecting that something did happen?"

"Does 'Grimmauld Place' mean anything to you?", she asked.

Jadin took a big gulp of iced tea, and immediately felt it coming back up. He barely made it to the bathroom before retching it back up. He gripped the edge of the basin tightly trying to control the shaking. He splashed water over his face.

"You OK?", Hermione asked.

"No, I am damn well not OK! Just what the FUCK is going on here? How do you know so much? Who is this 'they'?"

"You, your parents, and Impmon lived for nearly a year at the house on 12 Grimmauld Place..."

"An old Victorian house?"

"Yes, you do remember bits and pieces?"

"None of it makes any sense... Just who are you?"

"Jadin, I am a magician. Though I can't show you any wand-magic, I can show you this". With that, Hermione set her beaded bag on the table, and proceeded to pull an impossible amount of bric-a-brac from it until the whole table top was covered.

"How..."

"The handbag is enchanted. You would say that we can warp space-time", Hermione explained.

"Can I see that?", he asked.

"Sure", she handed over the beaded bag. He looked inside, but it didn't look any larger inside than outside. She answered before he could ask: "since you're a muggle, it won't look the least bit out of the ordinary".

"Muggle?"

"That's our term for people like you who don't have any magical abilities. Of course, if you did have such abilities, you would have been invited to attend a wizarding school like Hogwart's: the school I attend, and where Draco used to go", he handed the bag back to her.

"Here's something you might find interesting". She handed him a couple pieces of tarnished silver she picked out from the pile on the coffee table. it looked like some old tiara. Somehow it broke, and he pieced the two ends together.

"Seems something's written here...", he rubbed off some of the tarnish: "Wit beyond... I guess the next word's... measure?"

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure", she completed the saying. "What you have there is the Lost Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, and that's the motto of House Ravenclaw"

"What is a 'House Ravenclaw'?", he asked.

"House Ravenclaw at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry... You and Impmon were in House Ravenclaw..."

"Is an eagle somehow related to it?"

"That's the coat of arms, yes, a bronze eagle..."

"On a blue background..."

"Exactly, and you're right, it wasn't a freak storm. It was a battle".

"So we did fight digimon..."

"No. Digimon did fight, but you weren't fighting digimon. You were fighting a very powerful, and quite nasty, Dark Wizard who called himself 'Lord Voldemort'. You and the other Mentors and their digimon. Then - I can never get this name right - Z, H, U..."

"Zhuqiaomon", he said it for her.

"That's right. Anyway he and his digimon army came and won the battle against Voldemort's forces. He came because you, Impmon, and some friends of ours asked for his help when you went to the Digital World".

"What the hell have I been doing? Who were these other Mentors?"

"Their names were: Rita Knowles, Henry Wright, Terry Kaminsky, Yvonne Innis, and Aberforth Dumbledore... I saved these for you. It will explain everything. She handed over a newspaper. He looked at the title: The Quibbler. "I think you'll find The Quibbler most enlightening. I think Luna Lovegood had a thing for you, and her father, Xenophilius, is the publisher".

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I had a thing for you - a very serious thing, and I still do".

"We were serious?", he asked.

"Very. I have to be going. I'm supposed to be at Hogwart's", Hermione said as she put everything back into the beaded bag. Jadin handed over the Lost Diadem... "No you can have that, consider it a keep sake. I have something else for you"

The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore: "I used to think he was a great man, a great wizard, until I realized what he was really like. Rita Skeeter was too kind, as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, it has some interesting background, and Dumbledore played a key role in bringing you to our attention, and to Hogwart's".

As she was leaving: "By the way, you might want to check your digivice for something called the 'Marauder's Map', if you didn't delete it, that is".

"Will I see you again?", he asked.

"You can count on it", Hermione replied.

Jadin sat down, unfolded The Quibbler. Half the front page was taken up with the headline: "DIGIMON MENTORS FUCKED OVER!". A sub-heading in smaller print: "Minister Thicknesse Disgraces Wizarding World!"

A Personal Note From the Publisher:

Forgive the language, but as I write these words I can barely control my rage. These words will probably land me in Azkaban, but I don't care. There is more honour within those black walls than without these days.

As you all know by now, the Dark Lord, Voldemort, has been defeated once and for all. The Chosen One, the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, has finally fulfilled his destiny. Voldemort lies dead in an unmarked grave where he will never be seen nor heard from ever again.

Harry Potter would NEVER have succeeded in saving our world, were it not for five courageous young muggles. Their names are: Jadin Weston, Rita Knowles, Henry Wright, Terry Kaminsky, and Yvonne Innis: the Digimon Mentors. Their partner digimon are: Impmon, Renamon, Terriermon, Augomon, and Hawkmon. Never forget these names. They risked their lives to save our world. They did so of their own accord. Jadin arranged the alliance with Lord Zhuqiaomon that smashed Voldemort's army of Death Eaters, renegade centaurs, mountain trolls, and giants. If they had not come, Hogwart's would have fallen within an hour of Voldemort's assault, if not sooner.

How did Minister Thicknesse show his gratitude, and as the Minister of Magic, the representative of all magi of the UK? He ordered them taken to Azkaban and their memories obliviated! As a further consequence, the Mentors lost the digimon partners who had become integral parts of their lives. (Lord Qinglongmon's decree inside) They have NO IDEA why that happened.

I thought ex-Minister Fudge was a disgrace, as faithful readers are no doubt well aware. Ex-Minister Scrimgeour preferred playing political games and burnishing his image instead of taking decisive action. I thought they were bad enough, but at least they harmed no one but themselves, and nothing but their careers. Minister Thicknesse has out done them all in INFAMY, and blackened forever the reputations of each and every one of us. But what does he care? They were just a handful of filthy muggles, weren't they? Voldemort would heartily agree.

Has the price of hiding our identities behind a veil of ignorance become too high? I say it has!

DOWN WITH THE INTERNATIONAL LAW OF SECRECY!

DOWN WITH MINISTER THICKNESSE!

Signed

Xenophilius Lovegood

Inside the thick edition, he read all about his exploits. There was an interview with a Remus Lupin and his wife, Tonks, describing in detail their visit to the Digital World, and the audience with Zhuqiaomon. The Holy Beast digimon had also forced Lupin to change into a werewolf, in the mistaken belief this was another digivolution. Arthur and Molly Weasley told of how he and Impmon took a house elf named "Kreacher" to the Digital World to escape enslavement. Of Hermione's approval for this, and something she evidently created: The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, known by its acronym: SPEW.

Testimonies of friendship from other names he could not recall, chief amoung these: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Neville Longbottom, and one he recognized: Hermione Granger. He and Hermione had been quite close, or so they said.

Expressions of pride that Jadin had been in House Ravenclaw from Luna Lovegood, and the faculty head of Ravenclaw, Filius Flitwick. It would seem he had a roommate: Horace Sedgewick. Praise from the Deputy Headmisress, Minerva McGonagall, and head of House Gryffindor. McGonagall described in detail of how he and Youkomon had saved the school from more of these Death Eaters, on the occasion of the assassination of Albus Dumbledore. Her view that Jadin and Impmon belonged in House Gryffindor.

Praise from the game keeper, Rubeus Hagrid, who talked about how good Jadin and Impmon had been with magical creatures, including the aforementioned thestrals. Gratitude from Ginny Weasley for opening her eyes to see that these creatures have feelings too.

The decree from Qinglongmon of the closure of the Frontier, and the recall of all digimon from the Material World. The reason being that it wasn't up to digimon to decide if the Wizarding World would be revealed to those he now understood to be the "muggles".

Next, Jadin turned his attention to his digivice. What could he have hidden in there, he wondered. He clicked through the menu screens, seeing no "Marauder's Map". One of the last items was "MISC", maybe? He saw the listing below the main menu heading, and clicked on it. The holographic display appeared:

"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers, are proud to present the Marauder's Map"

This appeared first, a splash screen. Then a floor plan of some sort appeared. There were moving dots with names besides them. Some recognizable as the ones mentioned in The Quibbler. So this was Hogwart's? How did this come to be running on his digivice? He couldn't remember. He clicked it off.

A white hot rage swelled inside. These bastards had not only stolen Impmon from him, they stole a life. The Mentors' partners, even those who had absolutely nothing to do with it lost theirs as well. The promise of an opening between worlds dashed, for who knows how long? He seethed in silent rage; his parents assumed his date hadn't gone so swell.

As he lay in bed, not sleeping, a plan began to develop...