A/N: For the If You Dare Challenge, level DARK, prompt#050 – a crawl space, for the plethora of phrases challenge, prompt – laughing stock, and (naturally), for the Harry Potter Crossover Boot Camp, prompt#041 – glitter.

The Things Hagrid Brings

Version 1: Guardian Lion
(A Harry Potter and Digimon general crossover)

Harry was running from his cousin again. It was an activity he found himself very often engaged, but he enjoyed it no more than the first time he had been forced to flee from the clumsy yet heavy fists. He'd tried complaining to Aunt Petunia, but it had been a wasted effort and so he knew the only way to avoid injury on such afternoons (wherein Dudley was bored of everything around him and resorted to playing his favourite game – Harry Hunting) was to avoid said cousin at all costs.

Sadly, while he was fast on his feet and small enough to slip through cracks otherwise inaccessible, it was still a difficult feat, particularly when Dudley enlisted the help of his little gang and Harry found himself vastly outnumbered.

The breath was starting to catch in his throat as lungs painfully expanded, propelling fuel into his legs to keep him going. He'd gladly collapse on the park bench if he couldn't see Pier Polkin's bulky frame near the water taps; weeding Aunt Petunia's garden all day never got him into such states, nor did scrubbing Uncle Vernon's car with nothing but a little dishrag. They were unfortunately a stubborn bunch too, albeit not very bright, but it meant they wouldn't be giving up until dinner time, which wouldn't be for a half hour yet.

In other words, Harry was at his wit's end.

He squinted around, the prescription of his glasses years out-dated and thus a rather poor aid (although without his glasses he couldn't even make out a pedestrian on the road). A convenient escape route was just what he needed, a corner to crawl into or a space between dimensions to vanish into for another half hour, until stomach and the spicy aroma of food sent the others to their homes and he could trail behind for his bread and butter and a scolding for being late. But he could find no such exit-point –

He blinked suddenly, catching a glitter of gold in a street corner. It vanished as soon as it came, but then came a stronger glint, wavering and flickering like a candle but beckoning all the same. Quickly, Harry looked about; the road was clouded, and he'd easily be able to slip past. Taking a deep breath and begging his legs to hold out a little more, he followed.

Once he reached the spot, he found the notch in the wall hid him perfectly from sight, and when no heavy footholds followed, he breathed a sigh of relief. But try as he might, he could not see the source of the golden glint; in fact, there was nothing clean and gold to be found at all.

He arrived home that night for an extra helping of scolds due to the state of his clothes, but it was well worth the absence of bruises…and the thought that there might be someone out there willing to help him.

Harry jumped.

He had little choice; the teachers never did much about school-yard bullying, which led Dudley to treat him as a punching bag to his heart's content – when the other couldn't avoid him. And as no-one dared to cross Dudley and his gang, Harry found himself pretty much alone on the issue.

Which led him to his current endeavour, to jump behind the bins in order to give his cousin the slip.

He hadn't expected the sudden coolness to wrap around his feet, as though the wind were coddling them, and nor had he expected to land cleanly on the roof of the school kitchen, well out of reach of his cousin. It was a partial relief though; he had never seen the world so high before, and somehow he found he was very comfortable up at that height. Wistfully, he wondered what it would be like to leap from building to building with nothing but air to propel him, or to fly with the barest flap of wings, above the rest of the world and evading all sorts of danger and prey before swooping down to make the catch –

A glint of gold caught his attention and he blinked, but it was gone before he could catch the shadow that followed it.

Harry looked pitiably at the snake. In truth, he was barely in a position to be giving such pity, but it was pitiable nonetheless, though he could see how someone like Dudley enjoyed watching the caged animals.

He had thought he had gotten lucky, but now he would much rather have been at Mrs Figg's place. At least her cats were happy and not simply some attraction to be oogled at. The poor zoo animals were stuck in cages all their lives, fed enough but without any sort of freedom and always under someone's ridicule and scrutiny.

And Dudley had returned, seeing the snake looking at Harry, and was now pounding viciously at the glass. Furiously, Harry wished it would break and his dear cousin would wind up inside instead, but it was wistful thinking really since the glass was engineered to withstand such fists.

But then the glass did shatter, and while everyone shrieked at the snake slithering free and the boy fallen in the containment, Harry stared at the glint of gold reflecting off the numerous shards of glass.

And stared harder when the gold was accompanied with the face of a lion with an orange mane. He winked at Harry, and then vanished, taking the source of the glint, a drill-like appendage, along with it.

Several bystanders couldn't hold in their laughter at the unsightly sight, the boy so humiliated in the middle of a small artificial lake of water spitting out weed while the snake slithered over his thighs. They weren't laughing when the large python slipped past them and into the outside world though.

The zookeeper, after a flurry of apologies, concluded a drill had broken through the glass, though he could fathom where it had come from or how it had succeeded without anyone's notice.

Harry blew out the candles of his birthday cake, wishing himself many happy returns. The clock had struck midnight seconds ago, but all he had to show for it was Dudley's old watch, tweaked with much trial and error so it ran again. His cake was a diagram in the dust of the floor of a little boathouse, the latest stop on their little escape from…someone. Really, all Harry knew was that this someone was anxious to contact him, and his Aunt and Uncle were just as anxious to not allow it.

He wished he had had the foresight to hide the first and open it where no-one would see, but Dudley had seen it immediately, and everything had gone downhill from there.

Just like the weather apparently. A very dreary start to his birthday. Boom. Boom.

He blinked, sitting up and feeling about for his glasses. That didn't sound like thunder.

Crash.

The door fell in as soon as he set his glasses upon his nose, revealing a giant of a man – or what appeared to be a man.

Later, after the being introduced himself as Hagrid, gave him an electronic hand-held device called a Digivice and told off his guardians, Harry had to wonder if it was a dream.

But it wasn't, because Hagrid was still there the following day, ready to take him to a friend who had, until then, been watching out for him from a distance.

It was the Digivice that makes it official, Hagrid explained, and Professor Dumbledore's been keeping this one for him ever since your parents died. The one that was now in Harry's tight grip, red with a gold rim around the screen and gold buttons.

'Dorul'mon's waiting at the docks,' Hagrid said once they were in the boat after a quick but filling breakfast. 'With that drillin' tail of 'is, not a good idea to mix with lightnin' and a lotta water.'

'Dorulumon,' Harry repeated, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Now he know what the glint that guided him away from Dudley's gang. What had propelled him onto the kitchen roof and away from harm. What had drilled through the glass at the zoo and caused his cousin to get his just desserts.

'And I think it's about time yer read yer letter a'well.' And Hagrid handed Harry a slightly damp envelope, that the latter carefully took, finally breaking its seal.