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?)

Feedback: Please; I'd really like to know that somebody's reading this

AN: Another, more collaborative chapter as the Hogwarts Guardians work with the Patronus Force, and some questions are answered; hope you like it

Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Guardians

"Harry, Ginny-," the other boy said, his voice betraying his mixture of surprise and relief as he sat down in an empty chair at their table, "where in the hell have you guys been? We've been looking everywhere for you guys! Where's Ron, Fred, and Hermione? Are they with you?"

Exchanging curious looks with his friends, Harry was relieved to note that the other Rangers were already tensed in case things took a turn for the worse; they might not understand what was happening here, but at least they were ready if things turned ugly on them.

"Um..." Harry said, looking awkwardly at the other boy, hoping that a direct approach might provide them with what they were after, "I'm sorry, but... who are you?"

"I'm Alan." the other boy said after a moment's pause, evidently waiting for Harry to explain why he'd made such a (From his perspective) bizarre statement. "Alan Black. You know; the guy who's been dating your sister since Sixth Year?"

Harry's instinctive glance over at Ginny was at least enough to assure him that she was just as shocked at this latest news as he was; the idea of them being known in Angel Grove at the age they were in their time was confusing enough, but the news that he had a sister in this reality was so far outside anything he'd been expecting to hear that he didn't know how to respond to it.

"Is... is something wrong?" Alan asked, looking uncertainly between Harry and Ginny as he registered the obvious confusion on their faces. "I mean- what happened to you?" he continued, his gaze fixed on Harry's scar.

"Huh?" Harry said, his attention suddenly drawn to this new reaction to his scar; people being surprised and looking at it when they first realised who he was had become almost expected over the years, but Alan's complete ignorance of it was something else.

"Harry's... well, we're not sure what happened to him recently; it's all been a bit... confusing," Kira said, noting the confusion of her new friends and deciding to try a straightforward bluff and hope for the best. "We've established some obvious details like his name and his time at Hogwarts, but-"

"You know about Hogwarts?" Alan said, looking sharply over at Connor and Kira, his eyes flickering over them as though he'd only just realised that he didn't know them. "But-"

"Connor and Kira helped us out after... whatever happened..., and we ended up telling them a few things before we remembered why we shouldn't normally do that," Ginny said, crossing her fingers under the table as she looked urgently at Alan; if he didn't accept their initial explanation for why they'd violated the Statue of Secrecy and told muggles about magic, things were going to get complicated. "I know it's... unorthodox... but trust us; you can trust them."

For a long moment, Alan sat and stared silently at the two Dino Thunder Rangers, until he seemed to come to a decision as he reached into his jacket pocket and took out a small crystal ball, holding it up as he looked directly at the other two Rangers.

"As much as I really want to believe that you're as trustworthy as Ginny says you are," Alan said (Ginny and Harry could only exchange brief glances at that; it was slightly weird having someone they'd never met have this much faith in them), "I have to make sure. This crystal is enchanted to act in the manner of a lie detector, except you can't fool it."

With that statement, Alan placed on the table between Connor and Kira, looking solemnly between them as he continued speaking. "Here's what we're going to do. I need you both to each place a hand on the crystal and I want you to look me in the eye when you answer the question I'm about to ask of you. But if you lie... that crystal's going to make you regret doing so."

Even as Harry and Ginny exchanged worried glances- the possibility of Alan asking questions they couldn't answer without giving away their real history wasn't entirely encouraging-, Connor and Kira had already placed their hands on the crystal, Alan leaning over to stare them both directly in the eye.

"Do you, Connor... and you, Kira... solemnly swear that you can be entrusted with the secrets of the magical world... never to betray us as long as you both shall live?" he said

"I swear," Connor replied, his gaze steady as he looked back at Alan.

"Absolutely," Kira confirmed. Alan stared back at them for a few moments, and then nodded and took back the crystal.

"I'm convinced," he said casually.

"Just out of curiosity," Kira asked, indicating the ball in Alan's hand, "what would that thing have done to us if we had been lying?"

"This?" Alan said, grinning casually as he held up the ball. "It wouldn't have done anything to you; it's just a crystal paperweight I bought my mom for Christmas on my way over here."

"You made us swear... on a paperweight?" Connor said, his tone incredulous as Kira tried to restrain the urge to giggle. "Dude... that is just so uncool!"

"Maybe," Alan said dismissively. "I just wanted you to look me in the eye when you voiced your answers; the paperweight was just a reinforcement tool."

"So..." Harry asked, smiling hopefully at Alan- if they were going to learn more about this world, working out where their other selves were might be a step in the right direction-, "as long as we're talking about lost memories... when did we... vanish?"

"It's been almost five months," Alan replied, sighing grimly at the memory as he looked at his two friends. "From what George said, you were in Hogsmeade looking at the new shop Fred and George had just bought and a bolt of lightning just took you away. For the longest time, we thought that Ze..um... Death Eaters had taken you."

For a moment, Harry wondered what Alan had been about to say- could their disappearance in this world have something to do with Lord Zedd?-, but then Alan continued talking. "Anyways, now that we've gotten the two of you back; did Hermione, Ron, and Fred get away as well?"

"We... we don't know," Ginny said, the brief glance she shared with Harry confirming that they were both thinking the same thing; they might not encounter this 'Alan' guy again, and it wouldn't help their apparently-missing counterparts if Alan was convinced to relax any attempt to search for them if he thought they'd already been found. "We don't even know what happened to us after... well, after that."

"We found them wandering around the city," Kira volunteered, clearly deciding to stick with their currently-impulsive story unless something else came up. "We thought it would be best if they stayed with us until their memories cleared up."

"Thank god that you did!" Alan told her "And I happen to know two red-haired women who will be extremely happy to have these two back; as a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Ginny's mom insists on feeding you enough food to feed an army! And Aunt Lily-,"

"Aunt Lily?" Harry questioned suddenly, giving Alan his full attention.

"Yeah." Alan nodded, giving Harry a curious look "That's what my sister and I have always called your mom, seeing as how she helped our mother raise us."

"You... you mean she's alive?" Harry asked, all thoughts of trying to think about things from his counterpart's perspective forgotten with this new news. "My mum, I mean?"

"The last time I checked," Alan replied, apparently ignorant of Harry's emotional shock as he sat in silence, barely even aware of Ginny holding his hand beside him.

Alive...

God, his mother was alive in this world.

He didn't what had changed to result in that particular twist on the history he knew- and the lack of reference to his dad at least suggested that he was still dead-, but a part of him almost didn't care; for the first time since he could remember, he was in a place where a parent was alive...

"If you don't mind my asking, Alan," Ginny asked after a long moment of silence, giving him a small smile to distract him from Harry's obvious shock, "how did an American like you end up in a magic school in Scotland?"

"That's a long story." Alan answered, his tone suggesting a desire to be helpful even if he was clearly somewhat confused by the question. "But in the interest of time, I suppose I could give an abridged version of my life's story. It all started when Voldemort attacked the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow."

That statement attracted Harry's attention more than anything else Alan could have said; the possibility of knowing how his mother had survived in this world was something he couldn't ignore.

"When Aunt Lily escaped with Harry here," Alan explained, nodding his head in Harry's direction as he spoke "Old Mold-In-His-Shorts-" Ginny and Connor both snorted in amusement at the nickname, and Harry noted that Kira was fighting the urge to smile herself, "flew into a rage that caused the house to collapse on him, and by the time he managed to dig himself out, he found over half the Order waiting for him and he was sent to Azkaban to serve a life sentence."

Harry didn't need to know the rest of the story to know that it hadn't ended there, but Alan paused for a moment to let them take it in before he continued. "But somehow, Voldemort was able to direct his Death Eaters from his cell and things got so bad, Dumbledore had to go to the International Confederation for help. My mother was part of the first group of Enforcers sent by the Department of Magical Justice; even though my biological father had been killed in action and she herself was seven months pregnant at the time."

"Wait!" Kira interrupted, looking with obvious outrage at Alan. "They sent a pregnant woman to fight some deranged dark wizard? How could they do something that stupid?"

"My mom was the Chief Liaison between the Order and the Department of Magical Justice." Alan explained, before smiling a wistful smile as he continued "That's how she met my stepfather- they married when my sister and I were two."

"It sounds like you and your sister are twins." Ginny noted, smiling encouragingly at him; he didn't seem to be questioning the scale of their amnesia so far, but if she seemed interested he might not ask too many questions about it.

"That's because we are," Alan explained, indicating the walls of the Surf Spot with a wave of his arms as he continued speaking. "When her due date came, mom decided that she wanted us to be born in her hometown; here in Angel Grove... and, since America allows students to practice magic outside of school, mom would bring us over every summer to put us through her own personal boot camp."

"What House were you in?" Ginny asked. "The way you act, I'd have to say Gryffindor!"

"Actually," Alan said with a slight smile, "the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Gryffindor but I asked it to put me in Slytherin."

Harry wasn't sure how to react to that, and the fact that Ginny looked equally stunned was only slightly reassuring; the thought that someone had chosen to be in that

"W...What?" he said at last, looking incredulously at the other boy. "Why would you want to be in Slytherin?"

"I felt that I could do more good in Slytherin than in the other Houses," Alan said, shrugging slightly before he leaned forward as he explained his reasoning to them in a lower voice. "You see... I felt that if I tried to be a Light wizard in one of the other Houses, it wouldn't have had any real meaning. But in Slytherin, I discovered that most of the students in that House are actually a bunch of kids who had more reason to be afraid than the students of the other Houses. I mean... there were students who were the offspring of Death Eaters and that was what scared the other Slytherin students into obeying. Imagine if you were a Slytherin student who actually despised everything Voldemort stood for but felt that they couldn't voice their opinions for fear that a Death Eater's child might overhear them and tell their parents; who would- in turn- tell Voldemort. I thought that being a member of one the more prominent wizarding families, I could provide some encouragement; to show them that they didn't have to be afraid."

"I've never thought of that," Ginny said, her voice a thoughtful whisper.

"Well," Alan smiled at the red haired girl, "now you've-,"

Alan suddenly stopped talking as something beeped on his wrist, prompting him to glance down at his arm before he looked apologetically back at them. "I'm sorry; I was so overwhelmed by seeing you two again that I forgot that I had to drop by the high school to help with a weekend school project."

"Waitaminute!" Connor said, raising a hand as he looked at Alan. "You actually go to high school?"

"Yeah, I'm a Senior at Angel Grove High," Alan said, shrugging slightly casually before he glanced at his watch again. "Tell you what...you guys stay here and wait until I get back and I'll take you to the Potter's new house. While you're waiting, I'll tell Danielle to give you guys as much food and drink as you want. Trust me, I'll have her put it on my employee's tab."

"Wait," Ginny said, looking urgently at him as he began to stand up. "Just one more question; why are you attending a Muggle high school instead of Hogwarts?"

"Because," Alan replied, with a sigh that suggested he didn't like to think about what he was currently talking about, "Voldemort's cronies damaged the school pretty heavily when he launched an all-out assault on it. According to Dumbledore, it's going to take at least two years to repair the damage."

"And Voldemort?" Ginny asked, exchanging apprehensive glances with Harry out of the corner of their eyes; if Voldemort had done something like that in this reality without Rita's wand, what could he do to Hogwarts in their reality with that kind of power?"

"Snake-Face is dead. He got finished off by Dumbledore," Alan said, his expression grim before that same beeping sound was heard once again. "I really have to get going."

As Alan rushed to the door, Harry, Ginny, Connor and Kira could only sit and exchange glances with each other before Harry finally broke the silence.

"Did... did he really...?" he said at last, looking over at Ginny with an expression that looked like he was about to start crying.

"Say that your mum's alive?" Ginny finished for him, smiling tremulously at her boyfriend. "Yeah, he did."

"That's... not the case back home, I take it?" Kira asked, looking sympathetically at the other Red Ranger.

"No," Ginny said, shaking her head briefly as she looked at the other two Rangers. "In our world, Harry's mother... well, she sacrificed herself to save Harry from a curse when he was barely a year old."

"She died in our version of that 'Godric's Hollow' attack Alan mentioned; a friend of theirs betrayed them to Voldemort, and they were both killed before they could do anything to get away," Harry said, swallowing slightly tremulously at the thought of what might have happened in this reality to allow Lilly Potter to escape the fate that she had suffered in his.

God... she was alive...

"Uh... hate to sound cold, but... this doesn't change anything, does it?" Connor asked, looking awkwardly at his fellow Red Ranger. "I mean, I get that this is a big thing for you, but she's still not your mom; she's-"

"She's got her own Harry and my world still needs me and my friends back there; I know," Harry said, glaring briefly at Connor before he sighed and lowered his head. "Sorry... it's just that... well..."

"I know," Ginny said, smiling weakly at him as she reached over to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "If we could do anything else, we would, but we've got to focus on what's in front of us."

"Still," Kira said, smiling slightly at the other Ranger. "That's not to say you couldn't... visit her later, right?"

"But-" Harry began.

"I'm not saying you have to actually let her know you're there- probably best we minimise the amount of people who know that we're here in case they stop looking for the other yous-, but maybe you could... I dunno, disguise yourself and drop in for a quick visit or something?" Kira said, shrugging slightly uncertainly, only to be cut off as their earlier waitress came up to them, prompting the team to fall silent as they looked at her.

"Hi," she said, looking over at Harry and Ginny with a slight smile. "I'm Danielle; Alan told me that any more food you wanted should be put on his tab, and since you never got your food, I wondered if you'd just like to get you a second dish?"

"Uh... just the same as the last one would be fine," Harry said, after exchanging a brief glance with Ginny to confirm what they both wanted.

"By the way," Connor asked, looking curiously at the waitress as she made a note on her pad, "just out of curiosity- we've been a little out of touch with the guy; trying to work out where he's been since we last saw him, you know-, when did Alan start working here?"

"Oh, just a few months ago, really; he and his family moved here a little before the Patronus Force Rangers took the place of the originals, if that's any help," Danielle said, smiling politely at Connor.

"Took the place of the originals?" Kira repeated, looking curiously at the waitress, a slight edge to her voice that prompted an amused exchange of smiles between Harry and Ginny. "As in... the first team with the Pink and White Ranger vanished, and these guys took their place?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Danielle said, sighing slightly as she glanced upwards for a moment. "I mean, the Patronus Force do a great job, but... well, you get used to seeing familiar costumes saving the day, you know?"

As Danielle walked away, she was unaware of the private glances the four teens were sharing at this latest news.

Harry might want to double-check his latest theory with Hermione to see if she'd discovered anything that might contradict it, but it was looking like they might be able to find out who the Patronus Force were with relatively little effort...