"Yep, must be one of those cities covered in snow and ice," The Leewit said, "or it could just be one of the ones that gets heavy snowfall and there's no one around to clear it out anymore."
"There are places on Earth that get four stories of snow and people lived there?" Harry asked in disbelief.
The Leewit nodded. "The people who lived on Earth could be really stubborn that way."
"Weird," Harry decided.
"They were that too," The Leewit agreed. "Well, let's go up a level and see where we are."
The pair climbed the freezing stairs to the next landing, Harry lit the way and The Leewit used a blanket covered hand to open the door to the next level.
"It's warmer… and they have lights," Harry said, gesturing to the dimly lit panels overhead and noticing his breath was no longer fogging the air as they stepped out into the hall.
"Yep," The Leewit agreed, amused that he was stating the obvious as she laid a hand over the lock plate for the apartment nearest the stairs, forcing it open. "I'm guessing each level has its own separate environmental control system and draws at least some of its power from the sunlight it gets."
They entered the apartment, discovering it bare of furniture and brightly lit from the sunlight streaming in through the sliding glass door leading to a snow-covered balcony.
Harry's ball of light vanished as they raced to look outside, seeing a landscape covered in a layer of snow and with a massive black building across from them that stretched as far as they could see in every direction, balconies covered in snow marking the location of apartments.
"We'd probably get a better view out on the balcony," The Leewit said, "but I don't feel like seeing how cold it is outside just yet."
Harry nodded in agreement wondering how many people these buildings used to hold.
"You could probably fit the entire population of Karres in one of these buildings," The Leewit said, "the Earth had somewhere over fifty billion people when they discovered faster than light travel."
Harry turned to stare at the young witch in disbelief.
"It's true," she assured him, "the cities on Earth were just that massive before everyone left."
"Huh," Harry said, looking around the empty apartment with new eyes, noting it was a little bit smaller than he'd thought, the ceiling being at least half a foot shorter and the doorways maybe a third smaller than he was used to. "I guess I can see why they left, this isn't really that big an apartment and we don't know how many people lived in it."
"Spaceships have more room," The Leewit said. "I know I'd be unhappy crammed in here; there's no room to do anything."
"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked.
"Climb a few floors and see if they have more power," The Leewit replied. "While this level is just above the snow that could change from day to day while the upper levels probably stay clear of it so they'd have more power."
"Okay," Harry agreed and followed her out into the hall.
"Make us another ball of light, unless you don't mind climbing stairs in the dark," she told him.
"Sure," Harry said, eager to try and use magic again. He held out a hand and felt for the power within himself. "Lumos," he incanted and a ball of light sprang into existence much easier than it had last time making him grin.
"I don't think I relled it right," The Leewit said, "but let's see if I can copy it."
The blonde witch held out a hand, palm facing upwards with a look of concentration on her face. "Lumos," she said firmly, drawing klatha from their surroundings to her hand and giving it a small twist, a ball of flickering red and yellow forming above her palm.
"You did it," Harry said with a smile.
"No," The Leewit disagreed, shaking her head, "you created light, this is a ball of fire."
Harry stepped closer, the ball of light he'd been holding floating up above him as he held his hands near the small sphere of flame she'd created, enjoying the warmth. "Still awesome," he decided.
"Yeah," The Leewit said, facing brightening up in a smile before she let the ball evaporate. "Well, let's climb a few floors and see what we've got."
"Okay," Harry agreed, leading the way.
They quickly climbed to the sixth floor and found it was much warmer and well lit when they stepped out into the hall.
"I like being right," The Leewit told Harry with a smirk, "that's why I try and do it as much as possible."
Harry couldn't help but laugh as she opened another door to yet another empty apartment, though this one was warm enough not to need them to keep wearing the blankets.
"Another empty apartment, not even a couch this time," The Leewit noted as they took off their blankets and packs before walking to the sliding glass door and looking out.
"Still nothing but snow and a giant black building," Harry said.
"There's a bird's nest," The Leewit pointed at the corner of the balcony where a number of small sticks stuck up out of the snow covering them in a rough circle.
"Okay, and a bird's nest," Harry replied, wondering why she'd brought it up, though it did seem out of place.
"It means the city is warm enough for birds at least part of the year," she explained, "so it's not eternal winter or at one of the poles."
"Oh," Harry said, seeing the sense in it and impressed she'd gotten all that from just a collection of twigs. "So… now what?"
"So, now we relax and go through our packs to see what I've actually remembered to bring," The Leewit replied. "We can make plans after we know what we have to work with."
"You don't know what you packed?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Well, I know mainly what's in my pack, I'd just gotten back from hunting, but I didn't have much time to get everything prepared for this trip before we had to leave," she explained.
"Makes sense," Harry said before the two emptied their packs.
"Some of my clothes need to be washed," The Leewit noted, "and I forgot my torch and bow."
"I've just got clothes including a lot of panties," Harry said with a frown.
"Everything should fit you, they were Goth's or mine," she explained.
"And the panties?"
"You need underwear and they've all been washed," the young witch assured him.
"Um," Harry bit his lower lip.
"They are simple white underwear," she told him. "It's just the two of us on the entire planet, so no one is going to make fun of you for wearing them. It's a step up from what you have on now."
"True," Harry agreed, realizing they were better than wearing Dudley's cast offs.
"So, we have a warm place to sleep with mostly clean clothes, but no hunting gear, not that there's anything to hunt, and no food," The Leewit said. "Yeah, I think we can safely say I screwed this one up."
"It's not that bad," Harry quickly said, thinking it was still loads better than being locked in a cupboard and a little while without food wasn't so bad now that he had a friend.
The Leewit turned and looked at him, her eyes a little moist. "I have some trail mix with me, which should do for today, but tomorrow we'll head back and pack properly."
"Okay," Harry agreed.
"For now… let's pack all this back up and climb some more stairs; I want to see how much power the upper floors have."
"Sure," Harry said cheerfully. He turned to start packing when he felt a pair of arms around him and stiffened for a moment in shock.
"This is a lot more fun with a friend," The Leewit said quietly, before releasing him and packing her own bag.
0o0o0o0o0o
"Fourteenth floor," The Leewit said as they reach the landing, "should be high enough to tell if there's any difference in power and I'm bored climbing stairs."
"It is kinda boring," Harry agreed, "plus a little tiring."
The Leewit looked Harry over, cursing herself for forgetting he was still recovering and wondering why he hadn't complained, before she realized that after everything he'd been through he'd probably collapse from exhaustion long before he'd voice a single complaint and made a mental note to do a better job looking out for him. "Well I think we've climbed enough stairs for the day, let's grab an apartment."
"Okay," Harry agreed, wondering if this one would have furniture. 'I mean, they can't all be empty, can they?'
"The ones on the lower floors and nearest the stairs and elevators were probably the easiest ones to strip," The Leewit said, answering his unvoiced question, "if we want a furnished apartment we'd have better luck further in."
"Makes sense," Harry agreed, following her into a brightly lit hall.
"Lots more power on this floor," The Leewit noted, "looks like I was right."
Harry grinned at the satisfaction in her tone as they walked down the hall. 'She really loves being right.'
"This should be far enough in," she decided after a few minutes of walking down the empty black corridor with its endless matching doors, "we're a bit away from both the stairs and the elevator."
The door opened easily and they stepped into a warm, well lit apartment with both a couch and a coffee table. The ever present black rectangle set into the wall was lit up, showing a bunch of colorful fish swimming about as if it was a fish tank.
"Now we're talking," The Leewit said, dropping her pack and blanket on the floor and almost skipping over to the screen.
Harry followed her example and watched as she tapped the fish tank with her finger, causing it to change into a series of white symbols on a blue background.
"And we're," she said tapping a symbol and bringing up an overhead view of a snow covered insanely large city, "in… Canada. Not that knowing that really helps."
"So, we're in North America, the colonies," Harry said, staring at the black buildings that stuck out of the snow in uniform rows.
"I have zero knowledge of Earth geography," The Leewit admitted, "so I'll just have to take your word for it, but what I do know is that this place is a lousy place to hang out in; there's no hunting, at least at this time of year and nothing but snow to see outside. We're going to have to swim back home and pack sensibly before coming back, preferably to some place warmer."
"I wouldn't like to try swimming in this weather," Harry said, picturing himself standing on the surface of a frozen swimming pool wearing swim trunks and shivering in the cold. His stomach suddenly growled, much to his embarrassment.
The Leewit tapped several glyphs and the view changed to a snow-covered intersection between matching black buildings. "Let's get you some trail mix, Calla told me to stuff you full of food as often as possible, but trail mix will have to do for the moment." She returned to her bag and dug out a leather pouch.
Harry felt a bit of guilt, not wanting to put her to any trouble, but she waved a hand in his direction and gave him a smile that all but dismissed any of those thoughts from his head as he sat next to her and accepted the small pouch.
"This should tide you over till we can get back and I can cook you a proper meal," she told him. "I need a bit of rest before I can swim us again."
"It's okay," Harry quickly assured her, "I like exploring like this."
"It is fun," The Leewit agreed, "but it'll be better once you're all healed up and we're properly outfitted. Something I really should have thought of in advance."
Harry just shrugged and ate some trail mix, as far as he was concerned today was pretty amazing, he had a friend, got to explore a building on the empty Earth, and had learned to cast an actual spell. He wasn't sure how much better it could get than that.
"There's bound to be lots of stuff to find in some of the other cities," The Leewit told him, "more than empty buildings and endless snow anyway."
"Is swimming the Egger Route really tiring?" Harry asked. He didn't remember much about when he'd done it and The Leewit didn't seem tired to him.
"It's not tiring exactly, but it makes it harder to grasp klatha for a little while," she said thoughtfully, "at least for me it does. Not a lot, just enough to make swimming again harder to aim. If I tried to swim us out right now I'm not sure I'd even hit the right continent, so while I could get us back to Karres there's no telling where we'd end up on it."
"How'd you know to come here?" Harry asked. "I mean, I didn't think you'd been here before."
The Leewit nodded. "I was aiming for someplace out of the weather and safe, not an actual place. If I had taken the time I could have used far sight to look for a place and aimed for that, but since I'd never been here before, I figured one place was as good as another."
"Far sight?" Harry asked curiously.
"It's exactly what it sounds like," she told him, "seeing someplace you aren't."
"So, you could explore someplace without actually going there?"
"Unless you've got the gift for it, it can be a bit tiring," she explained, "so the most I do is look at one place at a time. Now my oldest sister has a gift for it, and nearly everything else, so she could probably scan the entire city in an hour and tell you where everything is."
"Cool," Harry said, impressed. "How do I tell if I have the gift?"
"Well…" she considered the steps involved while taking a seat next to him on the couch and turning towards him, "the first thing we should do is teach you how to control your mind. The more you can control yourself, the easier it is to do everything else."
"I have to mind control myself?" Harry asked, confused.
"Exactly," The Leewit agreed. "It's a bit difficult to start with, but it comes in handy for remembering things and not shouting out your thoughts to everyone nearby."
Harry froze and his eyes widened. "Have I been doing that?"
"As long as I've known you," The Leewit said, "which hasn't been that long. So, do you want to learn?"
"Yes!" Harry exclaimed, worried about what he'd been thinking to everyone around him since he'd arrived on Karres.
"Relax," The Leewit told him with a smile, "you're a good person and nothing you've been shouting has been offensive."
Harry's mind seemed determined to embarrass him however as it immediately focused on how cute she looked smiling and how much he enjoyed having her smile at him. Harry groaned and buried his face in his hands.
The Leewit giggled despite herself. "I'm going to tag you with a line so I can show you how to keep from shouting, so only people with a line on you can hear your thoughts, ok?"
"Please," Harry said, suddenly glad he hadn't gone through puberty yet as he thought about how some of the older boys talked when they thought no one was listening and imagined his mind shouting out things like that and how embarrassing it would be.
The Leewit forced down her own amusement and carefully spun a dozen threads of Klatha into a solid line before extending it towards Harry who instinctively batted it away causing her to pause in surprise. "Looks like you've got a gift for protecting your mind. I need you to relax and concentrate on accepting me in your thoughts."
Harry had just barely been aware of what he'd done and bit his lips while trying to figure out how to do that. Closing his eyes he focused on how much he'd enjoyed having Leewit as a friend. She'd fed him when he was hungry, got him the best clothes he'd ever had, and had held him while he slept to make sure he didn't end up back at the Dursleys.
"Done," The Leewit said, as he felt her satisfaction in his own mind as well as a trace of embarrassment laden affection from her. "I'm not known for being the touchy-feely type," she explained, wanting him to understand why she felt the way she did.
Harry, who hadn't been able to recall being hugged or held by anyone except for her, found that a bit confusing, as she was the most kind and caring person he'd ever met.
The Leewit leaned forward and hugged him, flooding him with warmth and protective emotions without even thinking about it.
Harry, who normally would have stiffened at being touched, relaxed and hugged her back, feeling the emotions behind her actions… as well as a large ball of anger and rage directed at his relatives.
The Leewit slowly released him. "Your relatives suck," she told him, "and I guess compared to what you've been through, I am touchy-feely. Now that's a strange thought."
Harry laughed at the amusement in her tone and thoughts.
"Okay, let's start with showing you how to shield a wall around your mind, so you aren't leaking all over the place."
"Alright," Harry agreed, trying not to miss the warmth of her arms around him and failing.
"You are going to completely ruin my reputation," The Leewit complained, though her thoughts showed she really didn't care as she pulled him in for a hug.
This time she didn't release him as she began instructing him…
Typing by: fyrewolf5