Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Co. belong to J.K. Rowling, while Power Rangers and all related concepts belong to Saban/Disney/Jetix/whoever (Who does own the broadcasting rights to the series these days anyway?)

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Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Guardians

As soon as the words were out of their mouths, two loud roars, a screech and a hiss were heard from the direction of the castle. Spinning around, the four new Rangers watched in awe and surprise as their four Zords leapt from their respective hiding locations on the castle, each one clearly displaying the power and majesty that had made them the symbol of the four greatest wizards and witches of the age.

The Ravenclaw Eagle, its brilliant blue standing out again the clouded sky, leapt into the air from a tall tower, emitting a piercing screech as it spun around to fly towards the tenga.

The Hufflepuff Badger's distinctive yellow form, with lighter patches of yellow around its face, pounded out from Hagrid's hut and the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, unceasing despite its slower pace compared to the other zords.

The Slytherin Serpent burst from the ground, as though it had been hidden in the Chamber of Secrets itself, and hissed at the tenga, its dark green form somehow all the more threatening for how well it blended in with the grass around it.

The brilliant red form of the Gryffindor Lion, roaring from the battlements as though in a declaration of war, dived from the roof of the Great Hall towards the ground, joining the others as they faced the wrath of the giant tenga warrior.

"All right, everyone," Harry said, as the four Rangers instinctively bent their knees, "let's show this guy we were given this job!"

Nodding, all four Rangers launched themselves into the air towards their respective Zord, and, in a few moments, each one found themselves sitting in an elaborate cockpit, located directly between the eyes of each Zord.

Glancing around the control room, Harry was pleased to find that the controls seemed simple enough; several buttons to fire weapons and combine Zords, and two large levers to steer the Zords when each one was working individually.

Reaching over, Harry tapped the buttons to activate the communication systems, and smiled as Ginny, Ron and Hermione's voices came over the speakers.

"This is Harry," he said, drawing their attention back to the matter at hand. "All systems activated!"

"Ginny speaking; Serpent locked and ready to go!"

"Ron here… whoa, nice setup!"

"Hermione, ready for action!"

"Right then," Harry said, as he glanced down at the controls. "Let's show this guy what we're made of. Everyone, initiate Megazord sequence!"

"Uh… Mega-what?" Ron's voice broke in, sounding suddenly confused.

Hermione sighed over the speaker system. "Ron, pay attention for ONCE, will you?" she asked. "The Megazord is the name of the human-shaped machine formed by combining all the Rangers' individual zords into one! Honestly, it's obvious when you think about it!"

"Oh, right!" Ron said, chuckling sheepishly. Harry allowed himself a brief laugh as he turned back to his console and pressed some illuminated buttons; why he pressed those, he couldn't say, but he was beginning to guess that the Gem was telling him what to do.

In any case, the 'hunch' seemed to be correct; instantly, an image appeared in front of him of the four zords as they were currently, before the four of them leapt up into the air. The Lion positioned itself in the centre of the resulting formation as the Serpent and the Eagle linked onto its right and left respectively, and the Badger connected itself to the underside of the Lion. On the image before Harry's eyes, the Badger's hindquarters extended out behind it, and then turned a complete 180 degrees before lowering themselves down to the ground to form legs. Simultaneously, the Serpent and the Eagle opened their mouth/beak and two hands emerged from the zords, as excess metal from the Badger flew up to form shoulder pads to keep the two zords more firmly attached. Then, as the final stage, a head popped up from a hatch in the Lion's body, and the Lion's tail curled around it to form a visor.

"Guardian Megazord, activated," a mechanical-sounding voice suddenly said over the speakers.

As soon as the voice had finished giving its brief announcement, Harry felt his seat pull back and move upwards until he was sitting in a larger control room with the others. The Hogwarts crest was located at the back of the room, and Ron sat just in front of it, Harry sitting in front of Ron with Ginny on his right and Hermione on the left.

"Wicked!" Ron smiled as he looked around at the Zord control room.

"Ron? Could you focus, if you don't mind?" Harry asked, indicating the tenga that was already turning to look at them. "We've got a massive human-like bird to stop right now; we can admire the new equipment later."

"Oh, right… sorry," Ron said sheepishly, as Harry turned the Guardian Megazord towards the tenga and charged, lashing out with a powerful punch that sent the tenga staggering backwards. However, the bird didn't seem badly injured by the strike; it just got back up and glared at the Megazord.

"Good shot, but you're not getting another one!" it roared, before it leapt up into the sky and dived towards the Megazord, sending the large machine staggering back.

"Ha HA!" the tenga cawed, as he turned around to look mockingly at the Megazord. "Ready to give in yet?"

"Not a chance!" Hermione replied as she turned to a control panel near her.

"Ravenclaw Boomerang, Attivare!" she said, as she leaned forward and quickly tapped two buttons in front of her, once again apparently on instinct. As the Rangers studied the diagram before them in awe, the Eagle zord's right wing separated from the main Eagle, took on a boomerang shape, and was then hurled in the direction of the tenga.

The bird screamed as the blue boomerang slashed a sizeable chunk of flesh out of its shoulder, and then collapsed to the ground in front of the Guardian Megazord.

Inside the control room, Harry smiled beneath his helmet and turned around to give Hermione a brief thumbs-up before turning back to look at the tenga.

"Time to end this," he said, as he reached over and tapped some switches that seemed to him to be right. "Guardian Sabre, attivare!"

As the Guardians stared in amazement at the screen before them, the Eagle's other wing separated from the blue zord, joining the other one as the two straightened out to form a long, electric-blue sword, three feathers on a lower wing spreading out to form the hilt of the powerful-looking weapon.

Clutching the sword in its green right arm, the Guardian Megazord drew the powerful weapon back, and then, before the tenga could retreat, it had slashed down with the blade, sending out sparks of brilliant blue lightning as it struck the bird-like monster. The tenga let out a terrified caw that reminded the four young wizards of a dying raven, before it collapsed to the ground and exploded. Only a faint singe on the grass told that it had even been there in the first place.

"Whoa…" Ron muttered to himself, as the Guardian Megazord just stood looking ahead of itself, the sword glowing in its right hand. No words passed between the four Guardians other than Ron's comment, but no words were necessary.

They had done it.

They had assumed the mantle of the Power Rangers for a new generation, and they had kicked ass in their first fight.

Harry chuckled.

Be afraid, Tom Riddle… he silently vowed.

Be very afraid.

A few moments later, the four students were standing back in Dumbledore's office, their zords now returned to their hiding places in the castle and their costumes back to normal. Ron and Ginny had sent Hedwig to the Weasleys with a note to assure them that they were all fine, but otherwise they'd come straight back here once the fight with the tenga was over.

"Congratulations, Rangers," Dimitria said, nodding in approval at the four teens. "You have faced your first task as Power Rangers, and you have acquitted yourself well, both in hand-to-hand and in using your zords."

"Yeah, tell me about it; that was bloody wicked!" Ron said, grinning broadly as he looked around at the others. "Come on, can you three honestly say that the zords weren't the most awesome things you've ever seen in your lives?"

Harry smiled slightly. "Yeah, they were pretty impressive…" he said, nodding thoughtfully.

"They were designed that way," Dumbledore's portrait smiled at them, before the smile faded and his expression became more businesslike. "However, you must remember that the zords are not toys; unless the situation calls for it, you should never use them in battle."

"Oh, so we can't just bring out the Megazord and stomp all over the little monsters?" Ginny asked, pouting slightly. "And I was really looking forward to that too…"

Then a thought occurred to her, and she looked at Dumbledore curiously.

"By the way," she said, her voice with a slightly accusing tone to it, "can you explain how, according to Voldemort-" she didn't even notice Ron flinch slightly at the name "- Snape knows about the existence of the Gems?"

"Really?" Dumbledore asked, raising one eyebrow. He sighed slightly as he stared up at the top frame. "I should have known he was up to something…"

"What?" Hermione asked, looking rather confused by this new turn of events. "What do you mean, you should have known he was up to something?"

"Oh, on some occasions I found him in my office when I had briefly been called away for some reason or another, but he always claimed that he had only arrived a minute or so before me and merely been waiting," Dumbledore explained, looking around at the four students regretfully. "I should have known he must have been looking around my office in secret at the time, but-"

"You wanted to believe the best in your appointed staff member, correct?" Dimitria said, looking at him inquiringly. When Dumbledore nodded, Dimitria merely smiled beneath her veil. "In that case, it can hardly be a bad thing to wish to believe the best in someone you felt you could trust, can it?"

"Yes, probably…" Dumbledore mused thoughtfully to himself for a moment, before smiling gratefully at Dimitria. "Thank you, my dear."

"You're welcome, Albus," Dimitria replied.

"So," Harry said, looking at Dumbledore inquiringly, "what do we do now?"

Dumbledore sighed as he looked at Harry. "Harry…" he began, regret evident on his face, "I'm sorry for this, but…"

"I have to go to the Dursleys, huh?" Harry asked, sighing and glancing briefly up at the ceiling. "Ah well; I'll manage, I guess."

"What? NO!" Ginny cried, glaring at Dumbledore. Ron and Hermione had an idea, of course, but due to the time they'd spent together over the last few months, she was the only person who had any real idea what the Dursleys had put Harry through during the nine or so years prior to Hogwarts.

"You can't make him go back there!" she yelled at the portrait, apparently uncaring of Harry's embarrassment or the stares she was drawing from the other three people in the room. "Do you even know what they did to him all that time?"

"Uh… Ginny?" Ron asked, looking at his sister slightly nervously. "They… uh… they can't be that bad…"

Ginny rounded on Ron in anger. "Not that bad!" she roared at him. "He once drank cleaning fluid because he wanted to get away from them and maybe- maybe­- be with his parents, and he was seven years old at the time!"

Ron and Hermione's eyes widened in horror, while Harry just pretended to be distracted by something outside the window. He knew that Ginny was only trying to help him, of course- after all, with the horcruxes and their new Guardian powers, he had enough on his plate without having to deal with abusive relatives- but he still wished she wouldn't tell Ron and Hermione the dirty details of his life before Hogwarts…

Suddenly, Dumbledore chuckled.

"Tell me, Miss Weasley," he asked casually, leaning on the arm of his chair in the portrait, "do you really think that I would expect Harry to go back to the Dursleys, now possessing the ability to use magic on them any time he sees fit, and not take the opportunity to get even?"

Harry suddenly turned back to look at Dumbledore, an eager gleam in his eyes.

"You… you mean…?" he asked, his eyes flicking down to the gem on his wrist.

"Indeed, Harry," Dumbledore nodded, before looking over at Ron, Hermione and Ginny. "And, of course, the three of you are at liberty to join him in his residence for the next month or so; after all, it would hardly be fair to divide the four of you before you have fully mastered your new abilities, now, would it?"

Harry and Ginny looked over at each other briefly, an eager grin on their faces, and then Harry glanced over to Ron and Hermione.

"What do you say?" he asked, grinning. "Shall we give them a lesson they'll never forget?"

Ron and Hermione merely nodded as they pulled out their wands.

Noting Dimitria's critical expression, Harry sighed and looked over at her.

"Don't worry, Dimitria; we're not going to overdo it," he assured her. "They might get a bit of a shock, but I'm not going to turn them into cockroaches and squash them, or anything extreme like that."

"It'd be an improvement…" Ginny muttered to herself, but she was so quiet that nobody else heard her.

"Anyway, you had best be off," Dumbledore said, the portrait's eyes briefly flicking to the window. "It would appear that the others are returning from wherever they retreated to; it would probably be best if you informed them of your new… plans for the first month or so of the holidays."

"And… after that?" Harry asked, looking at Dumbledore inquiringly.

"Well, with the protection of the wards exhausted, I would strongly recommend that you leave as soon as possible and begin searching for the remaining horcruxes," Dumbledore replied. "However, Dimitria and I have a few things we need to investigate in that time; she shall inform you if something comes up that will necessitate a change of plan."

"Such as?" Ginny asked, raising a critical eyebrow.

Dumbledore merely smiled at her. "You shall know when the time comes, Miss Weasley, I assure you," he said.

The four teenagers looked at their two new mentors for a few moments, but when neither of them chose to elaborate, Harry just sighed and looked back at the others.

"Well, we'd better go; your families aren't going to wait forever," he said, glancing down at the 'bracelets' that held the Gems. "Don't forget; we should probably cover our gems with our sleeves."

"Oh yeah; avoid awkward questions, right?" Ron said, as he and the girls took Harry's advice and slid the bracelets further up their sleeves.

Harry nodded briefly at Ron and then began to walk down the stairs to the main school, followed by the others.

As soon as the door had closed behind the four Rangers, Dumbledore looked over at Dimitria.

"Are you sure your course of action is a wise one?" he asked, leaning back slightly in his chair to look at her. "While I acknowledge the point Zordon was making when he took that step, the difficulty lies in finding someone who meets the appropriate qualifications…"

Dimitra shook her head reassuringly. "You have no need to worry, Albus; I have already selected the candidate," she replied to him. "He has already proven himself to be a good choice in this situation, and, even after a decade of near-inactivity, he is still prepared to fight for this world. I am sure that he will acquit himself well with the others, and provide the new team with the experience needed to overcome this new challenge."

Dumbledore sighed and nodded. "I only hope that you are correct," he said, nodding briefly at Dimitria. "If we fail, Harry fails… and that must not happen."

Dimitria nodded briefly, and then vanished in another brilliant burst of white light as Dumbledore settled back into his portrait and began to sleep.