Mikhail was the one to find him, driving down the road that led toward Las Vegas. Out here in the sun and desert, it was relatively easy to hide their existence from the muggle world. A few carefully placed spells, and the complex looked like any other expensively furnished and well-kept house, bordering on a mansion. Surprisingly, those weren't as uncommon out in the blistering desert heat as one might expect.

Of course, he preferred it here, in the head and the solitude. Some of his people didn't, said they missed the weather of England. And they rarely left the Complex, for everything they could ever need was held within its walls. Not only a building of earth and stone, it held gardens and pools inside, descending down in to the earth rather than stretching up in to the sky.

Of course, any outsider looking at it would see only a mansion of expensive marble and wood, an expensive pool in the backgrounds and an arrangement of desert flora decorating its exterior. Those plants were carefully tended to, and soil imported from other regions for the flora that was not native to a desert atmosphere.

The gardens inside were much more grand, with a better variety of flowers and herbs. Unseen by the muggle eye were the reflective ceilings that lowed sunlight to stream through, down countless floors to reach all of the plant life. Most of the surfaces inside were reflective, allowing sunlight in but letting nothing escape. Only certain sections were made of wood or the marble the muggle eye could easily see from a distance – these rooms and sections were closer to the edge of the complex, while those down below were carved directly from the earth, reinforced with stone and wood.

The further down you went, the more different it became – less grand, more homey. Central, of course, were the gardens, fed by the light that streamed down from above. It was kind of like a tube, carved out of the complex, stretching down as far as the complex went, sunlight running through that tube to feed the plants, one level after another. The plants and flowers existed on the edges of the tube, and on the edges of the gardens the rest of the community flourished – apartments and offices, businesses and community centers. There were several community pools, as well, often filled with the laughter of its occupants.

The only thing missing was the laughter of children. Unable to remain with their parents past their first year of life, they had to be sent away, into the Human World. Some, like Lily and James, would raise their children for even that first year, in the Human World as well, before leaving them with friends and family. Lily and James had been different, of course, falling victim to Lord Voldemort, forced to leave their son before they had to.

And now that son was in the back of his car, shivering as if from cold, while his skin burned to the touch. His reaction was more severe than any of the other Younglings Mikahil had encountered, and most certainly worse than his own reaction had been. He considered himself lucky, that he had not Changed on his birthday – what a way to spend what was normally such a joyous occasion! His Change had come several weeks after his birthday, long enough that it had given his parents and relatives quite the scare.

Fishing his ακούστε from the pocket of his jeans, Mikhail quickly flipped it open, scrolling down until he found the number of Lily Potter.

He would much rather speak to Lily than her husband, the ingrained hatred in him for those people being almost too much to bear, sometimes. And there were so many of them in the Complex, now! Harry wasn't so bad, simply because he had the blood of both people running through his veins. That was enough to stem the tide of his hatred. But James Potter …

Shuddering slightly at the thought of the older man, Mikhail forced himself to concentrate as Lily picked up on the other end.

"Hello?"

"I've found him, Ma'am. He was on the road heading out to Vegas."

Lily drew in a shuddering breath, and Mikkhail waited patiently, realizing she must have been expecting the worst. "Thank-you, Mikhail. I'll let James know to call off the search. Bring him directly to the observation room, do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm on my way."

Mikahil glanced back at his young charge as he flipped the ακούστε closed, dark eyes taking in the state of the boy. He had to have some 'ole power, to be reacting to the Change this way.

It was … frightening to contemplate, just what Harry Potter could do, given the chance.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief as Mikhail carried Harry inside, pursing her lips together as she took in the sight of her son.

He was too weak for this – all this movement could very well have killed him, if he hadn't been found soon enough. He was still burning with fever, only now this over exertion had added other complications to his condition.

Usually, a child could work through the Change on their own, given enough time. True, they were usually frightened, not understanding why they had been brought her. And sometimes, that confusion gave way to anger, and a need to escape. But they were always too weak to do anything about it, until after the Change was completed.

Harry, though … Harry was different. His power was extraordinary, surpassing that of any child they had seen before. The mixing of the blood …. She hadn't expected it to result in somebody quite so powerful. None of them had. But when that prophesy had first appeared in the archives ….

James' people had been the ones to discover it, to realize its importance. For none of their people – either of the two races – had ever been implicated in a prophesy before. It was believed to have something to do with the magic that was part of their very being, their very soul. Yet somehow, the mixing of the blood had resulted in a child that could be governed by prophesies and fate. The magic of their peoples had not been enough to protect him from that.

And James' people were the ones who worked in the Ministry, down in the bowels where all the secrets and artifacts were kept. They were the ones who protected the prophesies, who dealt with people, who interacted with humans. She had never understood their need to be part of their world. Her people were more than happy with this world they had created for themselves, venturing out only every once in a while, and certainly not taking jobs Outside.

James seemed content to stay out of their affairs, although that might have been because he had been proclaimed dead when they had found the shell of his body.

That was the most problematic part of the Change – the shell that was left behind as the Younglings left behind their old, human bodies and took on new ones. Their appearance didn't change overmuch – sometimes small differences could be found, but for the most part they remained the same. Those old bodies were dead, however, mere shells that they had been forced to discard.

It was getting harder and harder to discard of the shells, as muggles became more and more advanced in their technologies.

And that was why such pains had been taken to create Harry – decades of planning, all to create a child from both races, who could represent them to the muggle world, when the time came that they would no longer be able to hide their presence from the world.

For that day was fast approaching.

But the burning hatred their people felt for each other was too much for any on either side to contemplate actually sleeping with one from the opposing side – the time of war between their two powerful factions was long gone, but the hatred still persisted, ingrained into their very being. And so, they had compromised.

A child, from each side, each half human, raised in the human world with human parents, and even, in the case of Lily, human siblings. Their marriage had been planned out in advance, and each had known it. But they had liked each other anyway, and had, after a fashion, fallen in love. Lily had given birth before her 17th birthday, and although the old hatred had come upon them both when they turned 17, it was alright, because they had Harry to focus on. That, and they had separate bedrooms after that.

They had been the vessels to bring this child into the world, and for that, they were honored. And the fact that they were royalty among their own people just helped.

Harry had to have some sort of power, it was decided. Some sort of leverage over their people, to be able to speak for all of them. And what better way to insure that, than to have him be the son and grandson of their rulers?

Lily watched as Mikhail gently placed her son down on the bed in the middle of the room, smoothing his hair back as she stared down into unfocused green eyes. Already those eyes were losing their luster, fading into a more normalized version of green. Soon, they would not even be green anymore, but brown, or perhaps blue. Blue was uncommon for her people, but not for James. Her eyes had remained green, perhaps because of the human blood running through her veins, a constant reminder of her human ancestry. James, of course, showed no such indication of his human parentage, his eyes a quite common brown in color.

She hoped Harry would retain his green eyes, or at least move on to a blue eye color. Should his eyes move to brown, as she feared they would, there would be almost nothing to distinguish him from his father. And that would cause problems among her people, she was sure.

Mikhail hesitated a second after he had stepped away from Harry, worrying his lower lip as he watched Lily in indecision.

Royalty among his people meant something different than it did to the Muggles. Lily held power, yes, but it was not absolute. Should she break the laws of their people, she would be treated as any other who had done the same. However, she held the power to change what would sometimes need to be changed, to enact new laws for the safety of her people. And she was the mother of Harry, which granted her an extra measure of respect, and honor.

But she was just a woman, and a woman he admired for her strength and courage. And right now, she looked lost, as any mother would when faced with such a trying time.

It was not his place to comfort her, however, but the place of her husband, of Harry's father. Of James Potter.

Lily turned to him just as he was about to leave, and Mikhail offered a small smile at her far too sad face, that smile widening as she reached over, laying a hand gently on his arm. "Thank you, Mikhail. Please, stay with me."

Mikahil nodded, taking up a place beside Lily as she continued her bed-side vigilance beside her son, who now slept fitfully on the bed, head tossing and turning and legs twitching every once in a while.

Authors Note: I feel an extended explanation is required for the ακούστε, since they are a bit different in design and functionality than the mirrors that James and Sirius, and later Sirius and Harry, would use. Small, and similar in design to that of a cell phone, they were actually modified in recent years to be used outside the Complex, and in the presence of muggles. They are squarer than a cell phone, however, and cannot be used to place calls to anything other than another ακούστε. There are no logos upon them, and have the appearance of stone, although they were not created from such a material. They are light-weight and slim, although with a rough texture to them.

Authors Note II: Well, It didn't take me as long to get this chapter out as I had thought it would – certainly not as long as the last one! It did take me several tries to get the chapter close to the way I wanted it, however, and I got to introduce Mikhail, something I had hoped to do in, if not this chapter, than the next couple of ones. Mikahil is my creation, and will become important later on. Please, feel free to review – reviews help me to update, and if I am not mistaken, not as many people are interested in this story as when I first began it. Where did I go wrong? Or is it just a lack of people reviewing, but not a lack of people reading? I'm not psychic here, people! Those reviews let me know how many people are reading the story! The more I get, the more I write! So, if you read this story, please review!