Harry Potter: Keeper of the Lost Cities (crossover)

Nexus

When Harry returned from his personal field trip, he snuck in the back door. The Dursleys were in the living room, watching the television. He crept back to his room. Cupboard might be a more accurate description, really.

Looking around, he wondered what he would want in the Lost Cities. The answer was nothing. Nothing to remind him of the dusty closet, or the hideous house, or the unhappy years with the Dursleys- with humans. There wasn't anything that would belong there, either. Harry wasn't even entirely sure he belonged there. Yet.

The faded gray backpack was slung off his shoulders, and a couple outfits were tossed in. He would need something to wear, at the very least. The paperback book(Percy Jackson) he had found in a free library went in as well. And the white knight chess piece, all that remained of the chess set Dudley had angrily received last year, his most treasured possession(it was his only toy, besides Dudley's old, very dead electronics).

Then, Harry wandered to the kitchen. It was his job to make dinner.

That night he dreamed of glittering castles.

Dudley's heavy footsteps woke Harry up in the morning. His adopted brother/cousin's yell helped, too.

"Harry! Make me breakfast! I want eggs and bacon and toast and jam!"

"Coming Dudley, the Pig." Harry mumbled the last two words. His only breakfast that day would be bread crust and spoilt jam.

"The Lost Cities..." he whispered, throwing on fresh Dudley-sized clothes.

Harry's morning passed in a daze of glancing out the window, hoping for a glance of the elvish girl. Luckily, it was Saturday, so there was no school.

Finally, he caught a glimpse of movement in the yard. Hermione!

He padded out of the room, then rushed to grab his backpack. From there, he followed the path he had used to sneak in the day before. If Vernon or Petunia saw him, he would never get out.

But when he reached the front yard, there was only a scraggly white dog, and a jogger.

"Sorry,"the jogger said. "Fi-fi keeps escaping. Could you help me catch her?"

"Um, yeah." Harry didn't know what to do. He wouldn't usually help strangers, but there was much to do in this situation.

"Fi-fi, come here," he told the dog. The only response was angry yapping.

Please? He asked mentally, imagining a dog bone.

Fi-fi stopped barking, and warily came over to him. In the silence, he realized that the jogger's thoughts weren't blaring inside his head.

Did that mean the jogger was an elf?

"What are you doing here!" A familiar voice shouted. "Get off their property!"

Mrs. Figg, Harry's elderly next door neighbor, came charging onto the scene, cane, bonnet, dirty-foot stench, and all.

"Harry, you put down that dog right now!"

You kids, don't know how to stay away from strangers nowadays. Harry winced at the old woman's screechy mental voice.

"Y- yes, ma'am." The cane was almost as dangerous as Dudley's fists, despite Mrs. Figg's far more caring intentions.

Fi-fi disappeared down the street when Harry let her go. The jogger cursed and ran after.

"You kids, you need to learn to be safe," she grumbled. 'You kids' were her favorite words.

"Sorry, ma'am," the boy apologized. "I was looking for a friend, and then he showed up."

"A friend? Well, I never thought you would have one. Go along and play now. Shoo!"

This left me now choice but to wander farther up the street, and hope Hermione would find me there. A few minutes later, she did.

"Waiting for me?" A grin twitched at the corner's of the elf's lips.

"My neighbor made me come outside and play," Harry mumbled, looking at his shoes.

"Good. That makes this easier."

Hermione offered her hand, and he took it. A second later, she ripped hers away.

"Wait! I almost forgot. Dad was furious when he found out that I leaped you without one of these."

She held up a metal bracelet, with sapphire swirls set into it. Runes connected the two ends of the pattern, interrupted in the center by a blank square.

"What is it? And what does 'leaping' mean?"

"This is a nexus. It helps you hold yourself together when you leap. Light leaping is the way elves travel, like we did yesterday."