Warning for implied death

Part One: Fox

The idea of Familiars was nothing new to Makino Ruki. The idea of losing your Familiar was completely unfounded to her. You didn't simply lose your Digimon partner. They did not merely float away for no reason. That was fact, as far as she knew. As far as Renamon had told her anyway. You only lost your partner if they died, you got too sick to supply them, or you died. Everyone knew the story of the 'child' who had died.

Ruki wasn't sure it was all the way they had said it, but something must have happened.

So, as she sat in the courtyard, eating smuggled eggs and toast from breakfast (she missed rice, but this had to do, she certainly wasn't going to eat that sausage crap, or whatever they called it), she heard the whispers of gossip like she always did. Some of it was about her, her unapproachable frown, or the fact that one of the wayward ghosts talked to her when no one else did. Some of it was about the boy who summered in Romania, with garish goggles and a hero-worship ideal a mile wide. Some of it was about a boy who had supposedly used someone else's wand to break their kneecaps without a spell and had nearly gotten expelled.

A little niche of it, however, was talking about dead familiars, and despite her better judgment, she was paying attention. Renamon wasn't, but then, Renamon hated being at this school period. She only got joy out of beating up things in the Forbidden Forest, and even that wasn't allowed anymore. Not after that digimon dragon incident.

A lot of strange things happened at Hogwarts, even with the legendary Harry Potter gone. The Legendary Chosen Children were here, she'd met a few, one was her classmate. For whatever reason, none of them went to Mahotokuro (she assumed because of the Digimon), and they in turn were the cause and effect of their own legacy. Minerva McGonagall must be pulling her hair out. Hah.

Hence why Ruki was thinking about dead familiars.

In the past few weeks, the topic came up. A Familiar. Her Digimon. They weren't the same, Ruki knew. But either way, you weren't supposed to lose them. That was like losing your soul to a Dementor's Kiss. Close enough to the same that the loss ruined something, took away something desperately yearned for.

Just like a Dementor's kiss, the loss was final. The rumor was that somebody had. How weird. And also annoying. Leave the kid some dignity at least and stop talking about it.

They don't even have the guts to say who it is...

"Renamon." She tossed the remains of her breakfast high and they vanished, practically into the aether. No matter how dignified she was the fox was still a fox. She stood and strode from her spot, a coil of satisfaction rising up in her as they all scattered like frightened cats. Shouldn't be so entertaining, but it said something. More than the Digimon Queen, she was a mistress of clever duels and spellwork.

Ravenclaws are just good for tomes and toys my kidney.

If there was anything that should have changed after all this time (really, it was only six years but it felt like so much longer) after those Wizarding Wars, it should have been this. But, no crying over spilled milk.

"Anyone by the lake, Renamon?"

There was a pause for air, giving Ruki time to hitch up her bag and feel her D-Arc in her pocket. She glanced around. There was no sign of the resident lover of magical creatures scary and fierce, nor the pacifist Slytherin both of whom, like it or not, were two close and decent friends. It was hard not to be after being chased by Digimon together through the Forbidden Forest and surviving.

Ruki took a moment to shake her head in fond exasperation. Of course, why they had all been there in the first place was kind of ridiculous… and her own fault.

"Kato Juri is there."

If it had been anyone else, they would have jumped a foot in the air. As it was, Ruki only nodded. "Right..."

Takato's best friend, overly cheerful Digimon player Katou Juri who had a cat familiar. Purchased right from the Diagon Alley pet store, had found some of the rare cards even Ruki would want, and she had long since learned to never underestimate a common card.

Still, it wasn't like they got along very well. Juri was too much excitement for Ruki to handle in one sitting, and she had dealt with Ryo for the one year they'd been stuck together.

Just thinking of that made her head ache.

"We could return to the common room." Renamon's eventual suggestion was met with a small scoff.

"You hate the common room." And so do I. "She'll… it'll be fine. I'm just looking over my homework." She hated quills.

Renamon didn't answer aloud, but Ruki swore she heard the swish of a tail, and she held back a snort. Renamon could be really opinionated for someone who hardly spoke.

Kato Juri, when Ruki arrived, didn't even react to her, no matter how loudly her feet crunched on fallen leaves and grass. The reason for that being that… anticlimactically, she was fast asleep. It was that not peaceful kind even, the one where your brows were knitted and your face was pinched and couldn't be comfortable on the grass, not in this weather.

On first glance, it appeared to be a nightmare, judging by the normal breathing and her distinct lack of a reaction. Then, Ruki caught a glimpse of a familiar something trailing from her fingertips. It swayed and flowed about as the grass drank it in. Magic. Raw magic, falling out of her like she had taken a bath in it. But how would that be the case?

Well… she'd have to think about it later, when her heart wasn't thumping in her chest, when instinct wasn't clawing at her gut. When she couldn't help but try to remember those rumors. But it was impossible for Juri to have a familiar. Takato, the poor boy who can't keep a secret, would have blurted it out by now.

No, no, don't think about this now. Get her help. Get her help, just like that day with grandma, hurry up-

Her hands could still reach this one.

Takato was beside them in the speed it took his Guilmon to eat a loaf of bread. "Kato-san!"

"Shut up," Ruki managed to grumble, nursing a headache. What she hadn't known when she went to pick Juri up to even try and carry her was one, people were a lot heavier than it looked on television and two, picking up someone who had lost their familiar apparnetly led to something like bleeding magic and sucking it out in turn from whoever was foolish enough to pick you up. Lucky for her that Digimon were immune to such a thing and Renamon got them all the way to the hospital wing in no time flat. "How'd you even find out we were here anyway?"

"Rumors travel fast," Jenrya stated. His young, dark face was comically grim. "People think you've done something to her. Ryo-san's got detention already. Charms 'teacher caught him dangling three fifth years from the ceiling.

Innocent Hufflepuff my ass.

"Great," she said dryly. "Wonderful. That light ray is going to be the death of me and my reputation. Mark my words."

"Pretty sure you do that to yourself, Ruki." Takato immediately covered his mouth on fear of death and only heard and acknowledging grunt. And he had not used the honorific this time. There were miracles in this world after all, including his own lion courage to say that with a straight face. If only he had kept that up.

"He's got a po-oint," singsonged Jenrya's hood. "Keep saving maidens like this and you'll be outed as a sweetheart in no time flat!"

Ruki ignored the sassy little rabbit and rubbed her eyes. She did not need this right now.

Then Takato stood right in front of her, potion vial in hand. "Magic restorer," he said with a small smile. "I can't touch it while you're holding it but..."

Ruki pinched the top with her thumb and forefinger. "Thanks."

Takato managed a smile and looked at the sleeping, or rather, unconscious, Juri. Her cheeks looked sunken in, like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Ruki downed it in a single gulp and then gagged.

"What did you make that out of? Guilmon's tongue? Merlin..."

"I have my tongue!" Guilmon's voice was a squeak underneath the bed. Ruki resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"That was an expression, bread for brains." She winced at the steady flow of sensation (like reheating half-frozen fingertips) back into her head and body. It only made the headache worse really, but it was better than nothing. "Thanks, Takato."

"Un." He still hadn't looked away. Then again, it made sense, Juri was his childhood friend from back home. They'd been in class together since kindergarten. That wasn't easy to let go of. Not that anyone actually expected them to. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah. Where's the nurse?"

"Coming back from Hogsmeade." Jenrya spun his staff (how he was allowed to have a staff and she couldn't have two wands escaped her, maybe because it was more like a cane) and tapped it to the floor with a clank. There was a shimmering of green and yellow sparks. "Supposedly someone sells artifacts there to stem magic leak."

"Depending on the cause, magic leak is from loss of a magical being, grief over unchanging circumstances, heartbreak, spell casting, misuse of potions, uncontrolled inheritance or magical puberty being a nightmare," Ruki explained at the look on Takato's face of utter fear. Magic leak sounded, and was, deadly. "I think tendencies for it can be genetic, but that's some of the reading I'm not near yet."

She didn't want to be near it either. That went into the dark magic of this place and the West and Dark Arts legitimately made no sense on a good day. It was like they wanted people to look up the forbidden stupid things. Still, she doubted that was Juri's problem.

It was, quite possibly, like the past had come back to haunt them all.

"Yes, her familiar is dead."

Familiars aren't easy to kill. By default their magic links with their human. By default, they should be able to live on magic alone. The problem arises when they consume too much magic and start harming the user. Something has to give. It's usually the familiar, which is so dependent and causes so many of the problems. This is the truth even now. The familiar would die if the human did if the contract wasn't changed in twenty-nine minutes following that death.

Somehow, these words were not helping Ruki calm her racing heart. She couldn't imagine how that was.

The healer was still looking at her though, so that couldn't be all. Juri's parents hadn't been called, but hers had. "Ookay… are you telling me this so I'll go?" She didn't mean to sound so acidic but something didn't seem right. Also, Juri still hadn't woken. "Are her parents coming?"

Takato and Jenrya move beside her, in front of Juri. Noble idiots. It couldn't be as serious as all that.

The nurse, the nurse whose name Ruki didn't bother to remember, looked pitying.. She had learned healing spells her first year because no one else could do them. No one else could do it as well.

"When magic is cut off from what it's feeding and cycling, it instinctively latches onto another point of cycling power. When you tried to carry her here, her magic latched onto you. You have..." She coughed, looking away politely. "In essence you have bonded your souls."

For a moment, Ruki just stared. Then she picked up her jaw.

"I did what."

A/N: This has been sitting on my to-do list for a couple of years now but look! I'm well in! THank you challenge events! Anyway, ten chapters to look forward to here. Please enjoy them as they come out!

Challenges: Novel Challenged Big Bang, Pairing Diversity Boot Camp prompt body, Crossover Boot Camp - fragile, I Kissed a Girl challenge (prompt frog), Hat Challenge, Novella Masterclass (Crossover) 5. Alternate Timelines, Advent Calendar 2014, Advent Calendar 2016.