Chapter Eight

The next day Harry woke up, somewhat groggy and somewhat unsure of where he was. Then it all came back to him, and he opened his eyes widely, pushing up off the wall of the den to stare around him. "Mum?!"

Lily appeared from the small entrance to the burrow, smiling at him and Harry felt his body relax. So not only was it all not a dream, but his mother really was with him! Whatever else happened, that was worth any price to him. He breathed a sigh of relief, then shivered a little, before renewing his heating charm with relief.

His stomach gurgled at him, indicating that it needed some fuel, which Harry began to fix while Lily told him that she hadn't seen anything move throughout the night. Afterwards she said "Like I said last night Harry, I think we need to move on quickly. I have no idea if that meat will give you anything your body actually needs to keep going, but we need to find some people if at all possible, and I have a spell that might help."

"It isn't normally used for such broad terms, but I hope it can work. Or no…" Lily said snapping her fingers. "We'll do something a little different." After Harry finished eating, he picked up the small crystal he had used as a knife, holding it flat on his palm. "Visualize the effect, then hold your other hand over it, and say 'point me another human'."

"Isn't that a little too unclear?" Harry asked looking up at his mother.

"Vague, and yes, but it's the best we can do. We could maybe do something like civilization if that doesn't work, or maybe the nearest habitation."

Harry tried the first two without success, but the third worked, and the piece of crystal spun for a second before it pointed South and West and slightly down. This meant that the civilization was around the planet slightly from the place they were currently in, though not directly down, which was good. Lily didn't think Harry would be able to make it if the only bit of civilization on the planet was on the other side from where they were currently.

"We might want to cancel it and triangulate once we reach the corpse of that beast from last night. That way we can see how far around the surface the nearest habitation is." She mused. "Though I'm already thinking of a theory about this planet since we haven't seen the sun yet, and yet there is life here..."

"What's your theory mum?" Harry asked as he crawled out of the burrow. He felt refreshed, really refreshed, and a little more energetic than he normally would really, though his body was still hungry.

With Lily bobbing along in front of Harry leading him towards the course she explained her theory. "Most planets have a diurnal cycle, which is night and day. But if this planet doesn't have that, if the planet has the same portion of the world facing the sun, then that face would become far too hot for civilization. But there would be a small area between the two different sections where life could be possible."

Harry nodded understanding, though he really only had a vague idea of what Lily was talking about. The two of them continued to walk for a time before finding the corpse, which was as Lily had left it for the most part. With Lily's advice Harry began to take the rest of the beast apart, taking all the furry bits and making a coat out of it that at least covered his shoulders and head. The armor he also took off, using it to cover his arms just in case.

Once done with the creature's corpse he cast the Point Me spell again, and the two of them began to move in the direction indicated. Despite not knowing how far he had to travel Harry was in a happy mood. He had a whole planet to explore, and he had his mother with him, which was more than he had ever dreamed possible. Lily too was happy, and smiled down at him through the light of his Lumos spell and her own glow, then began to tell him more about magic and the magical world.

Weeks later their happiness was fading because the two of them were becoming more and more worried. Harry had eked out the food from that first animal, and had slain another one for it's burrow and food using the Incendio spell Lily had taught him. Whatever natural defense the animals had against the effect of the Stupefy spell, it did not extend to being set on fire. Harry had winced the entire time, but this was a real survival situation, and he endured it.

Worse was the fact that he had to change the blood into water again, and the taste was still vile, almost making him throw up. But despite his transfiguration skills, both the meat and blood lacked something his body needed. Harry could feel in a way he couldn't quite describe that his magic was slowly taking over running his body. It was a bad thing because that left him with far less magic, and it was getting worse as time went on.

It had been fourteen sleep cycles since they had seen the last burrower when Lily, scouting ahead, finally spotted something ahead of them. Light on the horizon, more light than Harry had seen since arriving on this planet. It soon resolved itself into light shining over a mountain in the distance. In fact after last few 'weeks' in near total darkness the light positively blinded Harry, and he was forced to cover his eyes, tearing off a bit of his shirt to cover them for a moment.

Next to him Lily shook her head, for once grateful that she wasn't alive, since that meant her eyes were unaffected by the sunlight in the distance. "Well, at least we found the sun." she said lamely.