*This chapter of our story takes place in our world, but as we know, this world has many secrets too.*

Harry Potter followed his mother quickly through the dim circles of flickering amber, cast from the rough brackets high on the walls of dark, jagged stone. The lights here were not powerful neon globes, like in the rest of the city, but flaming sconces that crackled and spat as they passed. Lily hadn't said where she was taking him, but Harry knew that they must be going deeper into the Earth than he'd ever been.

And in a city already seven miles beneath the surface, that was curious enough in itself.

But the fact that Lily hadn't told Harry a single thing about where they were going was yet more curious. They never had secrets between them, they always told the absolute truth. But the deeper they went, along what was clearly a practiced route, Harry came to realise that his mother hadn't been as honest with him as she could have been.

"Mum? Where are we going?" Harry whispered as he hurried along in her slipstream. He wasn't sure why he had whispered, it just seemed the thing to do, as though to disturb the silence down here would be an insult to nature.

"Don't talk now, just try to keep up. And stay behind me, no matter what."

It wasn't a request. It was an order ... and that was new, too. Lily never ordered Harry to do anything, not even to clean his room or to finish the learning assignments she had set him. Their relationship was one of trust and respect, and Harry knew that if his mother asked him to do something it was because it was worth doing, or that it needed to be done. So he did it without question.

But this was different. His mother was telling him to follow her instructions, but there was more to it than that. Lily sounded taut and tense, her voice laced with a sharp emotion that Harry hadn't heard there before, but recognised all the same.

It was the sound of fear.

That was alien in and of itself. Lily was never afraid, and neither was Harry. Down here, in the dark city of Annwn, there was nothing to be afraid of. Apart from the perpetual dark, and even Harry knew that, as a fear, it was totally irrational. There was nothing inherently scary about the dark itself, but more perhaps of the things it might be hiding, or even the idea of being blind, which Harry ranked near the very top of his personal list of terrors.

But down here, secreted away from the world above, there was nothing to hide ... or so Harry had always believed. Though tonight, he was going to find out just how wrong he was about all that.

The first hint came when they rounded a corner in the crude passageway to find a location blocked by two burly guards. Lily had to cup Harry's mouth to muffle his gasp of surprise. Then she pushed him into a recess in the tunnel wall, crept up silently to the guards and took out a small stick from inside her jacket pocket.

Two flashes of red light later, and both guards slumped to the floor. Lily kicked away their rifles and beckoned Harry forwards.

"Come on, Harry. It's safe now."

"Safe! What did you just do?" Harry cried, breathily. "What happening, Mum? What's going on?"

"I'll explain it all shortly, I promise," Lily vowed. "We're going to meet your father. We have some questions we need to ask you then we'll discuss all this as a family."

"But Mum ..."

"Not now, Harry!" Lily snapped. "Come on, we don't have much time."

Harry closed his jaw and pocketed the dozen burning questions he had about all this. He never was one for patience, but now he had to show some. So he hurried along, keeping pace with his mother's quick stride as they moved deeper and deeper into the bowels of Annwn.

They reached a wall at the end of the corridor without Harry really noticing it, as even the torches didn't stretch this far from the city. Harry's mouth fell open in shock as his mother took out a small knife from her pocket, pricked her finger, and ran the blood along a shallow groove in the rock face. The rock melted away with a fizzing sound and Harry found himself looking at the most astonishing sight he'd ever laid eyes on.

For he was now staring at a huge, brilliantly silver-white pyramid. It was taking up most of the space of a huge hollow in the earth that it had been built within. Harry had no words with which to describe it. But one aspect struck him straight away, something that made him think immediately of the supernatural.

For the pyramid was upside down, as if built from the ceiling down, with the apex lost deep under the dark, still waters of an enormous black lake. An angular network of canals of that black water splintered out from the lake in a clearly deliberate design, divided by wide causeways of gleaming marble between walls of the same stone reaching varying heights, though what any of this might be used for Harry couldn't perceive.

"What is that?" Harry managed to puff out.

"We call it The Inverted Pyramid," Lily replied, quietly. "It is the reason that Annwn was built here in the first place ... to study it, to try and learn its secrets. The Inverted Pyramid was built thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of years ago, but the identity of the builders has been lost to time. We think it connects to deep reserves of natural energy that flow around the Earth ... and harnessing that energy is the mission of Annwn."

"Alright, but why are we here?" Harry pressed.

Lily turned to her son with an inscrutable expression. She sighed heavily before she spoke.

"We're here to see if the people running this mission are using this energy ... to try and kill you."

Harry blinked as he tried to process that. Kill him? Why would anyone want to do that? He'd never so much as returned a library book late. He asked his mother that very question.

"You should know by now Harry that you aren't a regular little boy," Lily replied gently. "If being the only child in this city didn't give that away, then the things that have been happening to you lately should have. Things like you've been experiencing ... they don't happen to most children. You wouldn't know that, having never been around others of your age, but what you do isn't ordinary.

"You are special, Harry, and I'm not just saying that as a doting mother. We have to see how far that special nature goes ... and if it's going to put you at risk, we need to decide what next to do with you, to keep you safe."

"Mum, you're confusing me ... and scaring me a bit," Harry mumbled. "Please, what's going on?"

"I'll explain, as soon as we get to your father," Lily promised. "Follow me, and be careful ... it's a long way down if you fall over the edge."

Lily then led the way down towards the centre of the chasm. The path was made up of enormous, single blocks of marble and limestone, descending in height as they circled the edge of the chamber. Harry followed his mother down this vast staircase, that looked like it was built for giants rather than people, not there was such a thing as giants of course.

Then they reached the web of canals and causeways at the bottom of the room. The construction was clearly artificial; right angles, perfect lines, considered geometry in every step. Harry and Lily made their way along it, soon reaching the shores of that perfectly circular lake where the apex of the pyramid disappeared into the depths.

And there too was James Potter, looking agitated and fraught. He hurried to them and hugged Harry first. That was odd, as was the relief in his tone when he spoke.

"Thank goodness. When I heard about the fire, I feared the worst," James breathed, squeezing Harry tight.

"Fire? What fire?" Harry quizzed, pulling clear of his father's death-grip.

"The Institute where they have been studying you, The Balneum, is in flames as we speak," James explained. "I'm just glad you got out in time."

"It's on fire!" Harry cried. "Is that why you brought me here, Mum? To keep me safe from it?"

Lily nodded in reply.

Then Harry frowned. "But ... that would mean you knew it was going to happen? Did you?"

"Yes," Lily nodded. "And we didn't want you to be there when it did."

"To stop me from being burnt alive?"

"No ... to stop you being blamed for it when you survived."

Harry felt his jaw fall open. "I don't understand any of this."

Lily knelt down and took her son's hands gently in her own. Then she looked at him, kindly but with a firmness that spoke of how serious this all was.

"Harry ... listen to me, and listen very carefully," Lily began. She reached out and cupped Harry's cheek. "I didn't want to have to tell you this, but it may not be safe for you down here with us much longer. These strange things that have been happening to you ... we've been expecting them ... actually, we've been trying to prevent them. But they've still happened ... and if they keep happening we're terrified that you'll be taken away, taken somewhere we can't follow ... and I don't know what will happen to you then. I don't even want to think about it!"

Lily suddenly snatched her arms around Harry, squeezing the breath out of him. Harry didn't even have to think about what his mother meant. When the scientists had shaved his head to perform tests on his hair, his messy locks had grown back overnight; then, when they tried to force a restraining jacket on him to take a blood sample, it shrank so much that it might have fitted a glove-puppet when it was done, but it certainly wasn't going to fit Harry, despite how skinny he was. Harry was eager to explain that he couldn't explain how these things had happened. But nobody seemed to want to listen to him.

Now, if his mother was to be believed, this meant something dangerous. Harry shuddered as this new understanding settled on him. But Harry had a more pressing concern to address first.

"How do you know about all that?" Harry demanded, looking from his mother to his father and back again. "Doctor Pfieffer told me explicitly that I wasn't to say a word about any of it."

"And that right there is the problem," James replied. "The fact that we weren't told only increases our suspicions."

"Suspicions about what?" Harry pressed.

"That the scientists and doctors have been testing you ... for latent magic," Lily whispered, dramatically.

"What?" Harry breathed. "There's no such thing as magic, and if there was it would be classed as the occult and illegal down here. You both know that ... so what are you talking about?"

"Oh, magic is very real," James argued. "But more than that, it is very real for you, Harry."

"Me? Why?"

"Because, son ... you're a wizard."

Harry stopped dead with the shock. "I'm a ... what? Can you say that again? Only it sounded like you said that I'm a wizard."

"That is what your father said, Harry," Lily smiled, gently. "You're a wizard ... just like your father and mother before you."

Harry opened and closed his mouth again in rapid succession, as though trying to swallow through his mouth the nonsense words that his brain refused to accept.

"How can I be ... how can you be ... what is all this?" Harry stuttered. "Wizards, really? Is this some sort of late birthday prank? He's ten years old now so let's all tease Harry, is that it? Well it isn't very funny, if this is what you're doing."

"This is no joke, son ... we're a family of wizards," James replied honestly. Harry just blinked at his unflinching expression. He was telling the truth!

"Well, technically, I'm a witch," Lily added, thoughtfully. "But it's the same thing. We can do magic, cast spells and brew potions, that sort of thing. We attended a school for Witchcraft and Wizardry, that's where we learnt it all."

"A school?" Harry breathed. "Where you learned magic? Where is this school?"

"It's on the surface, in the highlands of Scotland," Lily replied. "It's a very special school and, as we've failed to prevent magic flourishing in you, we really think you ought to attend it."

"Me?" Harry blurted out. A school on the surface? Harry shuddered at the very notion. He felt a thrill of cold fear race along his spine in icy spikes. "But, Mum ... I don't want to go. I want to stay here with you two. Don't make me go ... please. You told me they were all savages who lived up there. How can they have any sort of schools, let alone ones that teach magic tricks?"

"We only told you that so you wouldn't ask questions," Lily replied guiltily. "Try not to feel too angry at us, Harry. We only did what we thought was best."

"But why?" Harry pushed.

"Because we did something ... something very bad," Lily cut across quietly. "That's why your father and I came down here in the first place. It wasn't safe for us amongst the other wizards and witches anymore."

"There are others?" Harry hushed.

"Yes, thousands of them, in countries all over the globe," James confirmed. "That world has been kept a secret for hundreds of years, because regular people would want magical solutions to all their problem if they knew about it. So, when we came down here, we had to pretend we were just like everyone else and knew nothing about magic at all."

"And so we might have been able to stay, were it not for these recent developments with you," Lily took over. "You're growing up so quickly, and the closer you get to school age the stronger the signs are that are starting to show ... and we cant protect you from these accidents you keep having. We may have to send you to our old school ... a place called Hogwarts ... just so you are safe from the forces down here, even from your own power. Seven years there and you wont know yourself."

"Seven years?" Harry whined. "No, Mum, don't say that!"

"Hey, don't be afraid," Lily soothed kindly. She leant over and kissed Harry's head. "We'll see you every Christmas and Summer. We'll just tell everyone that you are going to Eton or somewhere. Your father has been going to the surface, discussing the cover story with the headmaster of Hogwarts and making other arrangements for you. Being down here, see, the Hogwarts registrar wouldn't know about you. You wouldn't get an invite, but your Dad has sorted it."

"But Mum, I don't understand any of this," Harry moaned. "Why did you have to come underground in the first place? You said the world up there is full of dangers. What did you do that was so terrible?"

"We broke a lot of laws, used some old and outlawed magic to help end a war that was going on when you were just a baby," Lily confessed. "It would have landed us in so much trouble with the authorities if we'd ever been caught, but we had no choice. We had to save you, no matter what it took."

"There was a wizard, you see, who went bad ... as bad as you can go," James took over. "And he got it into his head that you were a threat to him, became obsessed with you to the point that all he could think about was finding you and killing you, even though you were just a baby."

"Me?" Harry muttered, a thrill of cold terror creeping along his pimply neck as he listened to the story. "How could I be a threat? I don't know any m-magic ... or anything like that."

"I know, but there was a prophecy made about you," Lily went on. "It said that you had a mysterious and unnamed power, one that could ... if harnessed properly ... be a threat to, and actually defeat, this Dark Lord."

"So he wanted to get you out of the way first, before you had a chance to develop it," James continued. "But before he could come for you, we came up with a strategy with my best mate Sirius Black, and the Headmaster of Hogwarts, a wizard called Dumbledore. We used these illegal spells to lure the Dark Lord, who went by the name Voldemort, to us ... and then we killed him."

Harry gasped in his surprise. "You're a murderer!"

"Well, actually it was Sirius who did the final act," James confessed. "We did a deal with the leaders of Annwn ... non-magical people that Magical society call Muggles ... for sanctuary. Then, once the trap for Voldemort was set, Sirius pretended to blow us up in the street, as he faked being on the side of the Dark Lord. In the melee, your mother and I escaped with you to here, where we'd be safe away from the Magical authorities pursuing us. And, as Voldemort's last know movements were to go and kill you, magical society believes that we have some connection to his disappearance a decade ago ... though the stories are mostly wild and inaccurate.

"But what it does mean is that, in the Magical world on the surface, the name Potter is rather famous."

Harry gasped out loud as he tried to process that. "And what happened to thisSirius person?"

"They threw him into wizard prison," Lily revealed. "But he escaped. He is the only person ever to manage it. You'll meet him soon enough, and you can trust him to look after you."

"But how can anyone look after me up there!?" Harry cried hotly. "You said this Dark Wizard wants to kill me! What if he has friends that want revenge or something?"

"Lord Voldemort is long dead, Harry, and any supporters he had were rounded up years ago," Lily answered. "Sirius and the Hogwarts Headmaster took care of that, as your father just said. Even to this day we don't know the exact details of how they did it. All we do know is that, if you stay down here with us, the Muggles - the non-magic folk - will stop at nothing to find out your secrets. I cant let that happen to my beautiful boy ... I wont."

"But I don't want to go, Mum!" Harry squealed. "Please don't make me!"

"Wouldn't you want to learn magic?" James asked. "I would have thought, considering all those fantasy books that you read, that you'd jump at the chance."

"I would have," Harry replied honestly. "But not without you and Mum. I don't want to go away and leave you behind."

"We wish there was another way, too, sweetheart," Lily cooed, hugging Harry tenderly close. "But the risk is too imminent to think of another solution. That's why we have to get you safe as soon as possible."

"But cant you come? Why do you have to stay?"

"We told you, the Magical authorities will arrest us on sight if we just show up," James replied. "The punishment for what we did doesn't even bear thinking about."

Both James and Lily shuddered at the thought. Harry, though having no idea what it was about, saw enough in their fraught expressions to know that he was glad of his ignorance about this.

"In any case, Harry, this is one of the most secretive Government facilities in the country," Lily continued after a moment. "This is where the highest classified Black Project research takes place. You don't just leave if you decide you've had enough. You commit to this for life. But you, you're just a boy. And there are programmes at Eton that are tied into what we do here. Pretending to send you there wont raise suspicions, if we do it quickly."

"And what about when I don't turn up there?" Harry pointed out fairly.

"Oh, Harry Potter, will enrol at Eton, it just won't be you. Don't ask questions, Harry. Just trust us. We'll take care of everything."

"Yeah, except for me," Harry spat, bitterly.

Lily frowned at her son. "Do you have a better idea? This is the only way to keep you safe from the Muggles."

Harry railed against the misery of the situation, but he couldn't think of an alternative. He turned to his mother. "Will I still be able to contact you?"

"We'll find a way," Lily promised faithfully.

"And I'll see you at Christmas and Summer?"

Lily nodded.

"And this Sirius character will help me, too?"

"If he doesn't, he'll have me to answer to!" Lily grinned.

"And I get to learn magic?"

For the first time, the spark of adventure flickered in Harry's chest. Lily smiled broadly as she saw it move up and cross his eyes.

"Lots and lots of it," she confirmed.

Harry took a steadying breath. "Okay. I'll do it. But tell me something first ... you said you were trying to stop me doing magic. Why?"

"We thought it would be safer that way," James explained. "When we came here we had no idea of ever returning to the Magical world. We can control our magic, choose to use it or not, but we knew that you wouldn't be able to do the same without training.

"So we agreed to help the Muggles develop their technology ... to suppress magic. We thought that we could shroud you under the cloak of that research."

"Please understand ... and try not to hold this against us later ... but your father and I have survived by helping the Muggles in such ways," Lily took over. "And these activities would land us in even greater trouble with the Magical World if the authorities there ever found out about it. The Muggles only use their machines on the people who work down here, but we suspect that they want to use it on the surface world in the future. So we do all we can to delay the research.

"The Rusakov Field is the name they give to energy waves that they send out of the giant Tesla coils dotted around Annwn. It stops people down here developing any sort of magical skill. Your father and I were already Magical, so we aren't affected by Rusakov Particles, but you came down here so early in life that we weren't sure how you would develop at all."

"We weren't sure how it would impact you, seeing as you were born on the surface," James went on. "And the Muggles let you stay with us because we said you were part of the research and experiment. So, as long as you didn't show any signs of magic, we could say the suppression systems were working, and they wouldn't take you away from us."

"But I've been having these accidents?" Harry argued.

"Exactly," Lily agreed. "Despite living under the Rusakov Field, your magic has still blossomed. And it will only continue to do so, placing you in the firing line of the Muggle scientists who want to study you. Your magical potential is just too strong, Harry."

"You aren't like other children, even magical ones, son," James added. "You have a uniquely dense adroitness to magic, and a resistance to all sorts of magical suppression. That prophecy was made about you for good reason, Harry ... and it wont be safe for you here for much longer, so Hogwarts is really the only option."

"And the pyramid? Why have we met here?"

"To give you a little test," James grinned. "Annwn is full of probes that pick up on all sorts of magical activity. But the pyramid produces a natural field of intense magic, one that will provide an effective screen against the sensors. We aren't supposed to be in here unsupervised, that's why there were guards outside. But if you step close to the pyramid it will instantly clear you of any lingering effects of the Rusakov Restriction and allow your magic to flow freely. Stand over there, inside that purple line."

James pointed to a painted ring on the marble-tiled floor that Harry hadn't noticed earlier. He moved into it ... and immediately felt ... something. He couldn't have said what it was, beyond a warmth that raced up from his toes to his hair, leaving him giddy and heady with the sensation a moment.

Lily moved close and motioned to a table nearby. On it, a single sheet of emerald-green glass lay silent and waiting. She nodded to it, and Harry picked it up.

"What is it?" Harry asked. He could feel a low hum of energy coursing through it, warming his trembling fingers where he held it up. He saw how it caught and diffracted the light, which came from somewhere high up in the chamber, from a source Harry couldn't make out.

"It is a very special artefact," Lily answered. "To those with the skill to use it, it can answer any question you could possibly think to ask it."

"Wow!" Harry breathed. He thought of a question ... what's going to happen to me? ... and immediately the sheet of glass swirled and danced and melted, and eventually congealed into strange symbols and markings. Harry couldn't make them out at all, but he could sense a sort of meaning, hidden deep beneath the bizarre swirls and ridges. It was tantalisingly frustrating, as though the answer was just there, maddeningly out of reach.

"What are you seeing?" Lily asked, curiously.

"Symbols, markings, I cant read them," Harry hushed back. "But it means something ... I can feel it ... what is it?"

"They are called Runes," Lily explained. "And understanding them can take a lifetime, maybe more."

"Runes," Harry repeated. "What do they mean?"

"They are a language ... and the answer to your question."

Harry frowned. "What good is that, if I cant understand it?"

"If you want the answer, you will strive to learn," Lily smiled.

"Is it a magical language then?" Harry breathed reverently.

"Only the very most powerful one there is," James grinned. "Look."

He nodded towards the pyramid and Harry let out another gasp of surprise. For the silvery surface of the inverted structure was now replete with more of these strange markings, hundreds of them, all glowing in dazzling gold. Harry looked down at green crystal sheet in his hand, then back at the pyramid ... and an astonishing idea came to him.

"Am ... am I doing that?" he hushed out.

Lily nodded with a smile. "The power of the pyramid is reaching out to you. Natural magic that flows around the Earth will seek out other magic wherever it finds it ... and now it is seeking out you."

"But why?"

"Because, you are special, Harry Potter," Lily smiled, kneeling down and taking his hands again. "Not every wizard has magic powerful enough to bring runic scripture out on an Emerald Tablet, nor to activate the latent force of the magic of Nature as contained within this pyramid. I think we must expect great things from you, Harry ... for the ability to master the Runic power of the Emerald Tablet is a great one ... potentially terrible, too ... but great nonetheless.

"So come along, my son ... we have so much to do, and so little time."