It was the lasted craze among their age group. The new Digimon game was selling like hotcakes since you could now have two different characters allowing households with more than one child to share the same game.
The end result was that parents bought just the one game so that their children would shut up. Of course there was the fact they would have to buy replacements if the disc was ever scratched.
It was to this end that Petunia bought her son two copies of the game so he would quit whining for a copy. Apparently all of his 'friends' were playing and he wasn't. Because there was nothing in the game that involved the dreaded 'M' word, only leveling up and completing quests to evolve the animals, it was allowed in the house.
At first things were fine...until Dudley made a mistake in the character creation resulting in the first account being female. Naturally he whined about it until his rather freakish cousin made him a deal.
In exchange for letting Harry play as well (he would willingly take the girl account), the boy would get his team up to the highest level he could and allow Dudley to take all the credit. Normally Vernon wouldn't allow it, but thanks to Harry's careful manipulation, he left the boy alone.
Besides, Dudley was very pleased when his 'friends' started complaining at how he 'beat' them every time in the arenas. Or how he had all the best Digimon on his team.
A few months later Dudley grew bored with the game, but Harry was still allowed to play it so long as he didn't perform any freakishness in the house and did the chores without complaint.
Apparently Vernon was so pleased that the brat was acting 'normal' for once (and he had something to legitimately' complain about) that he even gave the boy the second bedroom with it's own internet connect so he wouldn't contaminate Dudley's room anymore. In exchange Harry acted like a delinquent in front of the neighbors, got even worse grades and in general acted like a spoiled brat in public.
It was an arrangement that worked for both parties, seeing as how it made Harry's life much easier.
Everything seemed to settle down, until...
Harry blearily woke up to the blinking screen of his monitor, which he made a point to turn off each night along with the computer itself. He didn't want to ruin his agreement with his uncle after all.
(Who knew that the trick to getting Vernon to leave him alone was to draw attention away from Dudley's misdeeds?)
Getting up to turn the monitor off, again, he didn't see the odd device forming until after it clattered to the floor. Luckily his uncle was still sound asleep and Dudley was having a sleepover with Piers.
He never discovered the device until he went up to check his team the next evening.
"What on earth?"
It was awkwardly shaped, had red, blue, green and yellow coloring, a series of buttons, and a hook to loop a string through it like a necklace. (It was mostly blue, and the other colors were on the buttons or the frame around the screen, which was red.)
Pressing the buttons revealed that it had quite a few options available, but there were a few things still locked. Putting it in his pocket (the clothes were second hand, but part of the deal with Vernon meant he got a minimum of food and clothes that actually fit, even if they were cheap) he went downstairs to fix dinner for the family.
Once he was done with the dishes, he went back up and got back onto the Digimon server and began to play. It wasn't until he felt an odd vibration against his leg that he finally remembered the device.
The moment the screen was exposed to the open air and in view of the monitor, something odd happened. The monitor screen light up like a fireworks show.
Long experience with his uncle had kept the fact that his screen was on long past the acceptable hour a year ago. He learned from his mistakes and had the door fitted with a little slip that wouldn't attract attention by his aunt, but also kept the light from being seen from the other side of the door.
One minute he was there, the next, he was gone.
"Look! He's waking up!" said a voice. It was masculine and sounded fairly young.
"Remember what she told us, take it a step at a time or we'll frighten him!" said another. This one was female, and sounded a bit older than the first.
"Can we really leave this place Rena?" asked a childish voice, he couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl.
"If he lets us," said the second voice.
He opened his eyes to reveal...his entire Digimon team, at least the main ones anyway.
Renamon, Gabumon and a Guilmon that he had gotten from a rather cheap expansion pack that Vernon was all to happy to pay for since Harry stayed out of their way unless they needed him.
Being allowed to play on the computer and out of sight in exchange for being a cover for Dudley was something he didn't mind in the least. It was a good thing he didn't plan on staying in Surrey past eighteen, or things could get very awkward indeed.
It took him exactly ten seconds to put things together, which was why the first three questions were:
"Is this a dream or a hallucination?"
"No," said Renamon.
"Was the odd electronic device similar to the one in the game?"
"Yes," said Guilmon, pleased he wasn't freaking out.
"Will I be able to go between here and my room without any of my family the wiser?"
"If you find the access point, then yes. At least until you turn eleven, by which time you may want to purchase a special laptop. Fortunately one of the other teams told us who sells them and where the store is located," said Gabumon.
"Right. So what do we do first?" said Harry eagerly. If this wasn't a dream and he was given a real Digivice, no way was he going to turn this down!
"First we hit the town so you can get properly fitted. Unfortunately, first timers come in their actual clothes, so you need to find something to wear around here, otherwise you'll be stuck walking around in...that," said Renamon distastefully.
"Lead on!" said Harry cheerfully.
His life may have improved since he made that arrangement with Vernon and Petunia, but that didn't mean he liked it. Being able to explore the Digital World with his team first hand beat worrying whether or not his uncle would cut the internet off.
(He had done it twice, and that was enough for Harry to fear it. The game was the only thing that gave him good memories.)
Five hours later, Harry was tired but very happy.
To the pleasure of Renamon (the only female on his team, from the female avatar which was only kept around for trading purposes) Harry had used his bits (the currency of the game) to buy an entirely new wardrobe. Well, almost. It turned out that those lucky enough to be gifted with a Digivice also got to use their avatar's clothes. (And thanks to the fact Vernon didn't mind bribing him to stay out of their sights by letting him use a prepaid card once a month for some nice extras, he had a lot of good gear.)
"A pity I can't take the clothes with me," said Harry, looking at his awesome new outfit.
"Actually, there is a portal that lets you take your outfit with you, but we have to beat the gate guardian first," said Gabumon.
"Really?" said Harry, looking speculative. His team kicked ass with it was only NPC monsters. He couldn't wait to fight with his team for real.
"First things first, we need supplies," said Renamon firmly.
Harry tilted his head.
"I thought my bag was full of supplies?"
"Your avatar maybe, but now that you're here for real you need to restock. About the only real difference now that you can come here is that your avatar will actually look like you when you can't join us and we'll be able to talk to you through your Digivice. Coincidentally, thanks to the fact you have a newer Digivice you can take us with you outside the game. Just don't materialize us in public," said Renamon.
"Really?" said Harry. Finally, some friends he could talk to! An idea occurred to him, one that meant he could talk to his friends without Vernon taking his Digivice away when he finally found it. And he would, Harry had no doubt.
"Yes. The creators of the game don't want the fact that children such as yourself are able to make it here, so they made a rule that Digimon can't be brought out in public without being around those in the know," said Renamon.
"Sounds reasonable. By the way...would you guys happen to have the real locations of others who got a Digivice?" asked Harry hopefully.
"At least three, why?" asked Gabumon.
"I'll need to use them as examples once I put my plan into motion. By that time Vernon won't think to ask why I'm talking to a toy," said Harry.
"Why do you have to hide your real intelligence Harry?" asked Guilmon.
"For some reason my family hates me and they have some unreasonable fear about me or my parents. In exchange for covering for my thuggish cousin Dudley, they let me stay in the second bedroom and play games all night. Once I turn eighteen I'm leaving without looking back," said Harry flatly.
The fact he had ten more years to go until that glorious day had nothing to do with it.
"Anything else they fear?" asked Renamon, barely resisting the urge to growl.
"They've banned anything that is magical or even has the word 'magic' in it from the house. Dudley once tried to watch that Disney movie with the young King Arthur and Merlin, and my aunt nearly had a heart attack. Not to mention the time she found out he saw that movie with Mickey Mouse wearing a wizard's robe and getting the mops to move on their own."
That had been a fun month, since Dudley had been grounded for a week and Harry stayed in his room until his cousin was allowed to go back to his usual routine of bullying.
Best week ever! He leveled up his team nearly three times as fast!
Once he found the access point, Harry left the Digital World and went straight to bed.
He had to plan this carefully to avoid his Uncle throwing a fit.
Vernon saw the box with his nephew's name on it.
"BOY GET DOWN HERE!"
"Yes Uncle Vernon?" he said respectfully. It had been a real pain to arrange his Digivice to be sent to his house with a fake return address. He had to pay the postal manager ten pounds to insure he got the thing back if Vernon tried to send it away.
"What is this?" growled Vernon.
"I entered a free contest on the game. Winners got a recreation of the devices used to control the monsters...something about digital impulses or something. I got an e-mail saying I had won one of them," Harry lied with ease.
Vernon opened the box, saw nothing other than a fancy pager in a lot of colors and gave it to the boy.
"You can keep it, but remember our deal boy. You keep Dudley out of Juvie or else," said Vernon.
"Yes sir," said Harry.
Now he could wear it in public without Vernon causing a fuss.
Harry, age eleven
It had been a great three years, but like all good things, it had to come to an end.
In this case, the end came in the form of a letter.
Harry took one look at it and swore.
"Uncle Vernon, some crackpots are sending me fake letters!"
Vernon was right behind his nephew in cursing, because he had dreaded this day.
"Boy, what do you say to this nonsense?"
"I'm not giving up that second bedroom or my internet access without a fight," said Harry promptly. Internet was the only place he was free to be himself!
Vernon looked pleased by that admission.
"Good lad. So what do we say to these...lunatics?"
"Thanks but no thanks?" suggested Harry.
The nutjobs, whoever they were, were persistent. He was almost tempted to jump into the Digital World, but his team warned him that it was against the Admin's rules to do so when it was the near the end of August.
Fortunately his team decided to join him instead. He easily covered their conversations by telling his uncle that the 'toy' had a feature that let him talk to the Digimon on the game. That was all it took for Vernon to drop it. So long as the brat was more interested in those games and not magic, then all was good in the world according to Vernon.
At least right up until they sent someone to find out why the Harry Potter wasn't the least bit interested in learning magic.
Severus Snape was not happy to be the one stuck dragging the Potter brat to the school. He was even less happy to be dismissed by the brat playing some muggle toy.
"Who are you?"
"My name, you insufferable brat, is Severus Snape. I am here to see why you haven't been responding to the letters," he growled.
"Rude much? Uncle Vernon, it's one of those nutjobs who kept sending the owls!" he shouted.
"Dammit, we already said no!"
"Like it matters to me what you said. All you need to know is that the boy is going," snarled Snape. His day just kept getting worse.
It took him an hour and a near hexing, but he finally liberated the brat from the house. Before they called the Knight Bus, Harry spoke up.
"Sorry about all the rudeness earlier sir, but I had to keep up the act that I didn't care about magic to keep that fat oaf happy."
"What?" said Snape dumbfounded.
"In exchange for taking the blame for my cousin's bullying and crimes, they don't force me to sleep in the cupboard under the stair and actually feed me. Plus Vernon pays me to keep up the act and stay out of their sight until needed. It's an arrangement I have with them since neither of us wants to be stuck with the other."
"And that toy earlier?"
"That was my incentive to keep pretending to be the scapegoat for Dudley. I get to act like a normal kid at home, but outside I have to act like the delinquent they paint me as. It's only for another couple of years, and then I can finally ditch this hellhole and live my own life in another country."
"More like seven," said Snape. Now that the brat was actually behaving and showed some Slytherin traits, he was actually bearable.
That, and the agreement also brought memories of his own father, Tobias Snape. He had not been too pleased with a magical child either.
"Hmm?"
"Wizards are considered adults when they reach seventeen in our world," said Snape.
"Sweet. Only six more years and I can say good bye to this prison. Not like Vernon would bother to report me missing in any event. Is there someplace I can stay for a while, since I don't want him to use this event as a reason to break our agreement?"
"You can stay at the Leaky Cauldron for all I care," said Snape flatly.