"Harry's relatives were poor caretakers and even poorer human beings," The Leewit said bluntly, "that's why I am taking care of him now."

Harry grinned and everyone could see he was very happy about that fact.

"Aren't you a little young for that?" Tonks asked doubtfully.

"No," The Leewit replied in a tone of voice that said the matter was settled.

"Most children need constant adult supervision in our society," Dumbledore noted as he considered how a society of seers would operate as opposed to their own.

"Having the majority of our people able to see the future does cause some major changes in how things run, for instance a lot of the time we'd probably seem to be very irresponsible when we are anything but," The Leewit explained as she ate.

Dumbledore started and quickly checked his occlumency shields, but found no cracks.

"So like, letting you go poke a bear with a stick since they know how things will turn out before you do it?" Tonks asked curiously.

"It's more knowing if it's going to be good or bad, not exactly what's going to happen," The Leewit explained. "The closer you look the less you see, so it's best just to concentrate on how you'll feel about things in the end. I wouldn't want to know how everything turns out in advance anyway, takes all the fun out of doing things."

"That… Hmmm." Tonks considered how different life would have been if she'd had that ability growing up.

"So, Fawkes retrieving Harry would be surprising, but not alarming," Albus said to himself.

"The world suddenly turning into warm welcoming flames was really surprising," Harry agreed cheerfully.

"Since it wasn't a bad thing you wouldn't see it coming," Tonks said with a grin. "At least you won't have any surprise parties spoiled that way."

The Leewit nodded.

"Is there some way I can get in contact with your people?" Dumbledore requested.

"No, if they felt the need to contact you, they would already have done so," the little red haired witch told him.

"Of course," Dumbledore said with a nod, as he considered if he'd been allowed to retrieve Harry to fulfill the prophecy by her people because they already knew how things would turn out.

"So your folks let you wander off for months at a time?" Tonks asked, wishing her folks were that understanding.

"Or years," The Leewit agreed. "It's not like they don't know where I am and what I'm doing, often before I do."

"And suddenly my parents don't seem so bad anymore," Tonks decided, thinking of all the things she got up to while at Hogwarts and how little of it she'd want parental supervision for.

"I suppose having parents who know your every move before you make them does tend to make one more responsible," Madame Pomfrey said, before taking a sip of tea.

"So you were just going to camp out for a few months?" Tonks asked.

The Leewit nodded. "Harry's never been camping before, never learned to swim or fish, or the rest of the things we learn as kids."

"Like wandless levitation?" Tonks joked with a grin.

"Exactly," The Leewit agreed. "Basic skills like that are things you learn while you are camping and hiking."

"But what about…" Madame Pomfrey's voice trained off. "No, you'd know that in advance so it doesn't really apply."

"Your parents were heroes who died protecting you," Dumbledore told Harry, trying to steer the conversation back to where they'd started and wanting him to know and be proud of them, "whatever your relatives told you was a lie."

Harry nodded. "I know, some friends of ours let me see my life from the start, so I got to see the first year of my life just a little while ago. The whole wand thing and turning into animals was surprising, but I always knew the Dursleys were lying about them."

"Turning into animals?" Tonks asked.

"Yeah, my dad and his friends often turned into animals," Harry replied. "That isn't a common ability? I was kinda looking forward to that."

"It's a rare ability and takes quite a bit of advanced study to achieve," Dumbledore informed him. "Our current Transfiguration Professor is an animagus and does offer it as an elective for the upper years who have the ability."

Tonks frowned. "So… you saw when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacked you."

"Who?" Harry asked, confused.

"Voldemort," Dumbledore said, ignoring the shudder that went through Tonks and Madame Pomfrey at the mention of the name.

"Bald guy, no nose, with a wand," Harry said with a nod. "His spell reflected back and kinda… vaporized him. The bucktooth friend of my parent's was there, he snatched up Voldemort's wand and fled."

"Pardon?" Dumbledore asked, his gaze sharpening.

"My parents' friend who turned into a rat snatched up the wand Voldemort dropped and ran off," Harry said. "A minute or so later some guy with black hair and a big nose showed up and cried over my mum for a minute, ignoring me, before running off too."

"I see," Dumbledore said slowly while stroking his beard, deep in thought.

"Sorry for bringing up bad memories, I wasn't thinking," Tonks apologized with a wince.

"It's not a bad memory," Harry told her, "it's proof my parents loved me and while I wish I could miss them, I can't remember them well enough to. If anything I miss the idea of them." Harry was glad he was a synth, as he felt like there was a wall between himself and Harry's memories… or maybe he was lying to himself and just using that as an excuse. At any rate he decided he was perfectly happy to claim to not be Harry for the purposes of having had a horrible life and be Harry for who he was now.

The Leewit and Harry looked at one another, thoughts about who they were and how much they could ignore as having not happened to 'them' while still being them went back and forth before they decided that they could simply claim all the things they liked and ignore the things they didn't until they were old enough for the adults to force them to be fully mature about things.

The two nodded to one another only to find that everyone was staring at them.

"Were you two just having an entire conversation in your heads?" Tonks asked wide eyed.

"It's faster than speaking sometimes," Harry offered.

Dumbledore held up his wand and gave it a small wave at the two, only to frown as The Leewit flicked her fingers and the spell fell apart.

"That's rude," the red haired witch told him, giving him a mild glare.

"I apologize," Dumbledore said, "it was rather rude of me. Would you mind if I checked for any magical bonds that may have formed between the two of you?"

The little witch simply nodded and Dumbledore cast the spell again causing the two to glow with an aura of red and gold that resembled Fawkes' flames with a thick red line connecting them together and pulsed gently like a heartbeat.

"That's thicker than my parents' marriage bond," Tonks exclaimed in shock, her hair turning platinum blonde for a moment, "and they've been married for nearly twenty years!"

Harry started laughing and The Leewit groaned.

"That's not the reaction I'd expect to such an announcement," Madame Pomfrey said.

The Leewit sighed. "He's laughing because some of my father's comments when we had dinner make a lot more sense now."

"I am really glad my parents aren't seers," Tonks said.

"Well… since I summoned you here without any of your camping supplies, I feel it's only right for me to insure you have a place to stay until I can replace them," Dumbledore offered. "This would also give you an opportunity to learn more about your parents' world and your place in it."

Harry's eyes lit up and The Leewit nodded to him. "That sounds good," Harry told him. "Are we going to stay here?"

"No," Dumbledore said, "we can discuss you attending school here later. I know a magical family who would be delighted to host you and show you around."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Harry awoke with a strange girl staring into his eyes from an inch away.

"I can't read you," she told him with a smile.

"Leewit has been helping me keep my mind from yelling out my thoughts to everyone," Harry said proudly.

"I'm River," she introduced herself.

"I'm Harry," he replied. "You need a bath."

River sniffed herself. "I don't think I smell that bad."

"You don't smell bad, you smell like you," Harry told her, "which means you need a bath, cause people don't like smelling other people."

"I only like the smell of a few people, and people get upset when I sniff them," River said thoughtfully.

Harry closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose to see if he could smell Leewit only to cough as she squeezed him, showing she was awake and was embarrassed by the idea of Harry sniffing her.

"Why were you pretending to be asleep?" River asked her curiously.

"I don't like waking up alone," Harry answered her, "so she waits for me."

"That's nice of her," River said.

"It really is," Harry agreed, knowing she didn't want him to make a big deal about it, but wanting her to know it meant a lot to him.

The Leewit unbuckled the belt holding them together, pretending she wasn't blushing. "Let's clean up and eat something, then we can work on your mental defenses."

"Do they have showers on spaceships?" Harry asked.

"Everyone would be pretty smelly if they didn't," River said, moving back so they could get up. "I'll show you where they are."

Jayne poked his head in the door. "Hey, Harry," he said, getting his attention, "any idea why my room is the size of the cargo bay? I don't recall a whole lot after the seventh beer, but I recall you doing something…"

Harry blinked and considered it. "Oh yeah, you were complaining that your cabin was a bit too small to get any target shooting done."

"I hope you didn't take out any walls needed for the ship's structural integrity," River said, "that would be bad when we tried to land."

"Nope, all the walls are in the same place they've always been, it was the first thing I checked," Jayne said, "the room is just… bigger somehow, but only on the inside."

Everyone turned to look at Harry.

"What?" he asked. "I'm a witch, I can do things like that."

"I can't, but it sounds impressive, let's go look," The Leewit said, wondering about what spell was used for it and if she could figure out how to do it herself, as it sounded really useful and Harry's thoughts on how he did it were really cloudy as he'd been very drunk at the time.

"Glad you remembered doing something, I was worried I'd slipped a gear or two," Jayne said cheerfully as they made their way to his room.

"Just because your room was magiced to be bigger doesn't mean you haven't slipped a gear or two," River told him, "it just means you haven't slipped it over that."

Jayne shrugged. "That was all I was worried about."

"Why don't you and Harry have hangovers?" The Leewit asked.

"No idea why Harry doesn't have one, but I don't have one because you have to stop drinking before you get one," Jayne said cheerfully.

"You've been up all night drinking?" The Leewit asked doubtfully, as Jayne didn't look to be in that bad a shape and the feel of his mind was of someone who was just slightly drunk.

"Nope, but I wake up to pee every couple of hours, so I simply grab another beer before hitting my bunk again," he explained. "I've got enough beer to keep myself from getting a hangover for at least another three days."

"I can hardly believe you at times," River said.

Jayne nodded. "I ain't one to put on airs, but no one has figured out this little workaround but me," he said proudly.

Everyone fell silent as they entered Jayne's room and took in the size of it.

"It's almost as large as the cargo bay," River decided. "Of course there is less stuff in here so it looks bigger."

"Yeah, didn't notice when I first woke up until I spent a minute walking to the bathroom rather than a couple of steps," Jayne offered. "Hey, if I put some sandbags and targets on one side of the room, would it unbalance the ship?"

"Part of the spell makes it so the weight in expanded spaces is reduced to almost nothing," Harry offered, "so you should be good."

"I expected you to have a hangover this morning that I'd have to nurse you through," The Leewit said as she stared up at the ceiling and tried to figure out what patterns or sigils would be needed to bend space like this and who might know it back on Karres, if anyone did, "not some amazing ability like this."

Harry could feel she was a bit disappointed that she wouldn't be nursing and teasing him as she'd planned, since apparently it had been done to her by her older sisters when she'd gotten into their father's whiskey just to see what the fuss was about when she was younger, and she'd wanted to share the experience with him. "Next stop we'll get some really strong alcohol so I'll be sure to get a hangover," he promised her.

"I know just the bar," Jayne said, wondering what he was going to do with all the extra room, "we'll get you too drunk to walk, that should guarantee a hangover."

"Thanks, that would be perfect," Harry said with a bright smile.

River briefly wondered if the world had slipped a gear. She decided to ask her brother while she listened to Jayne talk about some of the memorable hangovers he'd had while the two kids listened with obvious interest.

Typing by: Me!

Beta by: Abyssal Angel and Mist of Shadows