Jack O’Neill had been gone for almost twenty hours and the remaining members of his team were beginning to get worried. They had been so hopeful that Jack had been putting together a device that would help him and from what little Daniel had understood of the Ancient language that was Jack had told him it would do, but so far he hadn’t returned.

As Teal’c meditated in the corner of the General’s briefing room, to try and alleviate his worries, Sam and Daniel were taking turns pacing. Every now and then they would stop and go over the plans Jack had drawn or the conversations they had had, trying to see if they had missed something or if they could figure out what exactly Jack had done.

Suddenly an alarm began blaring "Unauthorized Stargate Activation" and then they heard Harriman’s voice call out over the intercom, "Incoming Wormhole! All Security teams to the Gateroom!"

Daniel and Sam dropped their papers onto the table and raced for the control room with Teal’c only a few steps behind them.

They got there in time to hear General Hammond ask. "Is there an IDC?"

"No sir." Harriman told him, his hand over the button that would seal the iris.

"Close the Iris" Hammond’s eyes never strayed from the gate or the men waiting below weapons ready.

Daniel spoke up, "but sir, it could be Jack. He didn’t have a GDO."

"I know that son," Hammond looked briefly at the younger man, before turning his attention back to the scene below, "But it’s not a risk I’m prepared to take. Nor would Colonel O’Neill expect me to." Hammond didn’t look that pleased with his decision. "We don’t need a horde of Jaffa in the gateroom. Colonel O’Neill knew the risks when he left."

"Sir," Harriman’s concerned voice interrupted before Daniel could say anything more. "The Iris won’t close."

Harriman’s fingers were moving rapidly over his keyboard trying to get control of the iris back.

Carter moved quickly to the nearest computer console and started typing in commands to see if she could figure out what had happened.

Hammond waited impatiently to hear what she’d found out.

"We’ve been locked out," she finally announced but that didn’t stop her from continuing to try and get past whatever had taken control of their computers.

"Could it have been something put in by Colonel O’Neill before he left?" Hammond asked. If it had been, he was going to have words with the Colonel when he got back.

"No sir," Carter stated with certainty. "Whatever has us locked out, is originating from outside our system. It is preventing the command from reaching the Iris."

Before Hammond could ask another question, a figure stumbled through the gate and down the ramp a few paces. As soon as the person was clear of the gate it disengaged.

"It is O’Neill!" Teal’c recognized the weary person sinking to his knees on to the gate ramp.

Before anyone could react and stop him, Daniel raced out of the control room and toward the gateroom, quickly followed by Carter and Teal’c.

As Daniel started to push through the cordon of SF troops that filled the entrance to the gateroom, Hammond called through the mike in the control room, "Colonel O’Neill, how did you prevent the iris from closing?"

O’Neill remained on his knees but wearily raised his head to meet his commander’s gaze in the control room. "It wasn’t me, sir." O’Neill stated in a pain-filled voice as he remained where he was. His head still felt someone had been using it for a kettledrum. "It was the Asgard… sir."

Daniel came to a stop at the bottom of the ramp as Jack was talking to the General. He was quick to make the connection with the race that protected Cimmeria. "Thor’s people?"

"Yep and they look like the Roswell greys." Jack added helpfully, then mumbled to himself. "Forgot to ask them why they ended up in Roswell."

The alarm continued to blare until Jack shouted. "Could somebody please shut that damn thing off? My head is killing me." He quickly regretted that shout though as his head found new levels of pain to express its displeasure at the noise. He curled on his side on the ramp, his head held firmly in his hands

Harriman shut off the alarm and without being prompted by the General then called through the intercom system. "Medical team to the gateroom. Medical team to the gateroom."

"A little quieter next time please," Jack begged as he lowered his head back into his hands. His head was beginning to feel like his last ten hangovers were coming back to hit him all at once.

Dr. Frasier and her team came into the gateroom and quickly knelt near Jack and began to check him over.

As she shined a penlight in his eyes to see how his pupils were reacting, Jack jerked his head away. "Watch it with the light Doc. An ice pick in the head would’ve been kinder than that."

"Well, you’re going to have to put up with a lot worse." Janet reminded him. "You know the drill, Colonel."

"Yeah," Jack sighed as a couple of orderlies helped him to his feet. "Spending quality time with Vampires R Us is something I always love to do."

"And we’re going to be enjoying each other’s company for quite awhile. You are going to be confined to the base until I am certain that you are fully recovered from the effect of that Ancient device, not to mention what was done to you to correct it."

"Oh come on Doc, I’m fine," Jack told her.

"Colonel, that device implanted knowledge in your head that was in the process of remapping your brain among other things." Frasier countered stiffly. "You won’t be allowed off base any time in the near future."

Dr. Frasier gestured for the orderlies tried to help him to his feet so they could get him on a gurney, but Jack shook himself free of their grip. "And I can walk all by myself. I don’t need to ride on that thing. I just have one hell of a headache, that’s all."

"You can walk under your own steam, can you? Well prove it." Having dealt with Colonel O’Neill’s stubbornness before, Janet motioned for the orderlies to step back a moment. She also gave his team mates a look indicating they were not to help. "If you can make it down to the infirmary on your own two feet, without help from anyone, I’ll let you stay in VIP quarters after your tests. At least that way it will be easier for your friends to smuggle you the foods I won’t be letting you eat. Otherwise, you spend the night in infirmary, without a single complaint. Agreed?"

Jack nodded carefully. Taking a deep breath, he pulled himself to his feet. He stood there for several moments then began a slow and careful walk to the door. He stayed close to the wall, leaning against it every now and then for support. Daniel, Carter, and Teal’c followed close behind.

Jack’s legs were starting to get a bit wobbly as he reached the elevator and punched the button for the medical level.

Janet eyed him as he leaned up against the wall, not liking the pallor of his skin. "Ready to give in yet, Colonel?"

"A deals a deal, Doc." Jack told her, leaning his head back against the wall to rest a little as the elevator moved up several floors.

On the medical level, the five people riding with him, waited for Jack to leave first, then followed behind him once more.

As he reached the door of the infirmary, Jack’s legs finally gave out on him and he sank down to his knees, making sure he was on the other side of the doorway.

"Made it!" he crowed weakly.

Janet just shook her head. "Help him into a bed, please Teal’c."

Teal’c nodded and with Daniel’s assistance, O’Neill was settled into the nearest bed.

"Now, you all might as well go get yourselves something to eat." Janet advised the rest of SG-1, even though she knew she was probably wasting her breath. "These tests are going to take a while."

#######

"Well, how am I doing, doc?" Jack asked Janet.

"Other than a slightly higher that normal brain function and exhaustion, you seem to be ok." Janet told him.

"So I can get out of here?" Jack wanted to know.

"Only as far as the VIP suites on the next level. I’ve already had one made up for you." Janet told him.

"Ah come on doc, you just said I was fine." Jack protested.

"And I told you," Janet countered, "you’re not leaving the base until I am certain you suffered no lasting damage from what happened to you."

"Well Janet, are you ready to throw Jack out the door yet?" Daniel asked coming up to the bed. "Or should we just save you the trouble and take him out of here for you?"

"You can have him, Daniel," Frasier told him. "But you are not to take him any further than the VIP suite on the next level and I expect a member of SG-1 to stay with him at all times. You might spot something wrong quicker than one of the monitoring nurses or the guard outside the door will. You’re going to be on Candid Camera for a while Colonel so remember to keep it clean."

#########

A burst of green light came toward him and he instinctively ducked, knowing that if it touched him it would kill him. A moment later he saw his younger cousin Tonks topple down the stone steps from about halfway up.

When his demented cousin Bellatrix appeared at the top of the stairs and hurried down to join in the battle, he growled like a dog. Moving to intercept Bella, he saw Harry off to one side and ordered him. "Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville and run!"

He lost sight of Harry as he got between Bella and his godson.

"It’s been a long time, cousin," Bella commented in a sickly childish voice as she sent a cutting hex his way.

"Not long enough," he commented, nimbly dodging the curse and then sent a 'Reducto' curse her way.

Their battle went on for several minutes and he was beginning to enjoy the thrill of battle again. He’d missed this! He wished for a moment that James were here to share this with him. They’d always made such a good team.

As he dodged another cutting hex, he couldn’t resist shouting, "Come on, you can do better than that!"

Bella’s face became red with rage and she did do better as her next spell hit him right in the chest and he fell backwards through something made of cloth into blackness.

######

Jack sat up with a gasp and looked around the room as if trying to reassure himself that he was no longer in that strange dream world. Over at the table Daniel was asleep with his head pillowed on some books. Some watchdog he is. Janet will probably take his coffee away tomorrow.

Jack rubbed his chest absentmindedly where Bella had shot him. He could still feel the sting of the stunning curse. Bella’s curses always did pack quite a punch, he thought absently. Then realizing that he was acting as if what had happened in that dream world were real, he stopped and stared at his hand, wanting to make sure it was still his and not the one he’d seen holding the stick in his dream. As if he were this Sirius Black but he couldn’t be. I was born in 1956 not 1960, so it is impossible isn’t it? Why would I dream that I died as someone else. That makes no sense?

Jack realized he was sweating after the exertion of that dream battle and he also had an overwhelming urge to make sure that he was still in his own body and not that one from the dream.

He moved quietly into the bathroom to avoid waking Daniel and stripped out of the sweaty hospital pajamas. He studied his face in the mirror. Yep, that’s me!

Once he had the shower set the way he wanted it, Jack stepped in and let the water sluice down his body trying to work out the kinks the dream had left behind. As he moved this way and that his mind wandered back to the time he and James had pranked the shampoo in girl’s shower with a potion that made their hair turn different colors depending on their mood. Lily had not been impressed even though it was a very good potion. She had gotten them back though by hitting them with a spell that had them spouting complimentary things about the Slytherins for almost two weeks.

Jack stopped moving. James! He didn’t know anyone named James, at least not anyone he would’ve played jokes with, but the Sirius from his strange dream did. What the hell is going on? It can’t be reincarnation, because that is reliving past life, not one that comes after yours. How could I be this Sirius?

As he stepped back out of the bathroom looking for a pair of underwear and pajamas, Jack saw a calendar tacked up on the wall and out of habit glanced at it. It took several moments for his thoughts to catch up with his eyes as he looked at the date. It was May 5th or 6th but Sirius died on June 4th. How could he dream about the death of someone who hadn’t died yet? And if he was in some very weird way remembering a past life as this Sirius how could he be alive at the same time the other man, that wasn’t the way it was supposed to work, was it? And last but certainly not least, if the dream was real and he did somehow prevent this Sirius Black from dying, would he cease to be? God, I hate metaphysical stuff!

"Mr. Maybourne," Vernon Dursley began, smiling the seedy smile of a used car salesman, as he held out a beefy hand to the dapper silver-haired gentleman. " It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Mr. Dursley," Maybourne said, just as smoothly, as he shook the portly man's hand.

"Would you care for any tea or coffee," Dursley asked, as he directed Maybourne towards the chair in front of his antique oak desk.

"No, thank you," Maybourne replied politely. "I prefer to get right down to business."

"Ah of course," Vernon replied with a smile. "So how can Grunnings be of service to you?"

Maybourne leaned back in his chair, his legs crossed as he eyes Dursley with a cold calculating look. "Actually my business isn't with Grunnings, it's with you, Vernon. I can call you Vernon, can't I?"

"Of course," Dursley replied nervously.

"You see Vernon, some very interesting information has reached the ears of certain individuals across the pond as you Brits say," Maybourne said.

"Information," Vernon nervously played with a pen. "What kind of information?

"Before we discuss that, we need to discuss the funds missing from the account set up to provide for your nephew's well-being. You know the one that you and your wife have access to," Maybourne replied.

"Excuse me," Vernon drew himself up, "Those funds were spent on the boy just as they should have been!"

"Oh really. You and your family took a vacation in Majorca and your nephew didn’t accompany you there. You’ve managed to purchase a new car about every 18 months. Then there’s your many business trips to Dublin and the Merrion Casino," Maybourne stated. "And let’s not even go into the expensive presents and clothes you’ve bought for your son while providing young Mr. Potter with your son’s cast-offs. I’m sure that those responsible for his trust would consider that money properly spent."

"We're entitled to it!" Vernon snapped. "We didn’t want anything to do with his family, but we took the brat in anyway and gave him a home. Why shouldn't we be entitled to some compensation for that."

"Because I believe most people call it embezzlement," Maybourne countered. "And you can go to jail for it."

Vernon leaned back into his chair, a smirk on his face. "Of course you do realize that the laws here are different than those in America."

"Of course," Maybourne said with a smile of his own.

"Besides I plan on returning the funds," Vernon stated.

"Of course you will," Maybourne’s smile grew slightly. "Just as soon as your luck changes, you'll pay all the money back that you took from the account meant to provide for Potter’s needs. Maybe you should ask your son Dudley for a loan. I mean when you consider how successful his business has been, he should be able to lend you the money."

"Dudley?"

Maybourne nodded his head. "From what I’ve managed to find out, the British Mafia is fairly impressed with him. I understand he's starting to branch out into prostitution and illegal drugs."

"You’re a ruddy liar!" Vernon spat. "My son... my son would never be involved in anything illegal!"

"Of course, Vernon. You're probably right. I mean Dudley Dursley has to be a very common name," Maybourne’s grin was similar to that of a shark. "I'm sure that when Dudley Dursley is arrested for whatever they call racketeering over here, the press won't link you or your family to him. Nor will they find about you taking money that you weren’t entitled to, from the trust fund intended to pay for your poor nephew's needs. And I'm sure Grunnings will also be very understanding. After all a little bad press about their Managing Director being caught borrowing funds from his underage ward, and his only son’s involvement in organized crime should be nothing for a company like Grunnings. And then, there is the abuse you have heaped on Mr. Potter. Treating him as one would a slave."

Vernon licked his lips nervously. This man knew way too much for Vernon’s comfort "So how much do you want?"

"I knew you were a smart man, Vernon," Maybourne replied, "but I’m not here for money. I represent a group that is very interested in acquiring in something that you will have in your custody in a few days time."

"The boy," Vernon whispered, his eyes growing wide. "You want the boy."

"See I knew you were a smart man," Maybourne crowed with pride.

"You know about the boy. What he is?" Vernon looked around his office as if expecting someone to suddenly appear and go boo. Sweat appearing on his pudgy face. "You know that they watch him," he whispered.

Maybourne leaned forward in his chair. "We know exactly what Potter is, Vernon. That’s why we want him. And we both know exactly how well they watch him and your family, don't we Vernon."

Vernon licked his lips nervously. "They'll find him and bring him back. They've done it before." Seeing Maybourne’s questioning look, Vernon explained. "We couldn't take it any longer. We left him at a church in Shrewsbury but they brought him back, forced us to take him back. We never wanted to be involved with any of that, but that old coot that seems to run things amongst his kind didn’t give us a choice."

Maybourne nodded his head. "You give Potter to us and I'll guarantee that you will never see him again."

"What about his money?" Vernon wanted to know.

Maybourne leaned back in his chair. "That's not our concern. All we care about is getting the boy."

"Never to return?" Vernon asked.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Maybourne said with a wicked smile.

Vernon looked down at the pen he was playing with, lost in thought.

"So have we got a deal Vernon?" Maybourne asked as Vernon continued to remain silent.

Vernon looked up at Maybourne as he thumb pressed the button at then end of the pen. "Where do I sign?"

~*~

With his head resting against the window, Harry watched the countryside speed past as the Hogwarts Express made its way back to London.

"Harry," Ginny nudged him with her shoulder.

"Hmmm," Harry mumbled looking away from the countryside and at the concerned faces of his friends.

"Do you want to play Exploding Snap with us?" Ginny asked, picking at the seam of her shirt.

Harry smiled softly at her. "No. Not right now," he replied before turning his attention once again to the world outside the train.

"Harry," Hermione said in a commanding tone.

Harry turned once again from the window and looked at Hermione in confusion.

"You know…" Hermione hesitantly began, "You know we all miss him," she finished hastily.

Harry nodded his head. "I know, but you didn't get him killed," Harry replied. "Or lead you…. all of you injured." Harry's eyes roamed over those in the compartment.

"You can't blame yourself, Harry," Luna said with a dreamy expression. "We decided to follow you. Even if you tried you could not have left us behind. And your godfather… perhaps he was needed someplace else?"

Harry smiled at Luna kindly as he accepted her oddities and her kind words. "But I need him here."

Luna nodded her head. "Perhaps he'll come back for you then."

"I can only hope," Harry turned his attention back to the countryside as he brushed the back of his hand against his eyes.

"Harry," Ron said, trying to draw his friend back to them.

Standing up suddenly, Harry told his friends. "I… I need to go to the loo."

"Of course, Harry," Hermione said as the group rearranged themselves to let him pass.

Closing the compartment door behind him, Harry let out a sigh as he ran a shaking hand through his hair. Taking a breath Harry walked down the narrow hall towards the loo at the far end of the passenger car.

Entering the magically enlarged compartment, Harry quickly glanced at the two empty stalls before closing the door behind him wanting to make sure he was alone. "Why can't they let me be?" Harry asked himself. Shaking his head in disgust, Harry walked up to a stall and shut the door. The sound of someone taking a piss along with a relieved sigh filled the small room.

A few minutes later a slightly more relaxed Harry opened the stall door. Walking up to the sink, Harry stared at himself in the mirror above it. "Why did you have to die, Sirius," Harry asked as a single tear rolled down his cheek.

A soft whine was heard a heartbeat before Harry's eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed on the floor.

Dropping from the ceiling, a figure dressed in black robes and wearing a white mask landed next to Harry, a snake-like weapon in his hand instead of a wand. Quickly the man checked the boy over before pocketing Harry's wand.

Hoisting Harry up with a grunt and throwing him over his shoulder, the man opened the door a crack and looked out into the passageway. Seeing no one he stepped out of the loo and moved quickly to the door leading to the next passenger car. The man and unconscious boy exited through the door, but never arrived in the next car.

~*~

Draco stood silently in the doorway of his compartment, watching wide-eyed as the Death Eater kidnapped Potter.

"Draco," Pansy's voice called out from inside the compartment. "Is there something wrong?"

"No. No everything is perfect," Draco replied as an evil grin appeared on his face.

~*~

"He's not on the train," Tonks reported to Moody as they were surrounded by Harry's friends and their parents.

"Any sign of magic being used?" Moody demanded.

Tonks shook her head. "Nothing that you wouldn’t expect to find. Childish hexes and pranks."

"What about his family?" Moody growled as he turned his attention to Shacklebolt.

"His uncle is still waiting for him," Shacklebolt replied, how brow furrowed in thought. "He was demanding that we give him Harry immediately."

Moody narrowed his eyes as he stared at Shacklebolt. "Was there something else?"

A distant look came to Shacklebolt's eyes as he reviewed his meeting with Mr. Dursley. "He seemed nervous."

"They hate Harry," Ron chimed in. "They hate everyone and anything to do with magic, so they're probably not real happy waiting on Harry, and with all of us magical folks wandering around them."

Shacklebolt shrugged his shoulder. "It's a possibility."

"But you don't think so," Moody stated to which Shacklebolt nodded his head. "Find out what the family’s so nervous about."

With a quiet nod of his head Shacklebolt left the small group.

Turning to the students, Moody growled, "Tell me what happened again."

Hermione started the story once again. "Harry was depressed about Sirius' death."

"He was staring out the window the whole time," Ron chimed in.

Hermione shot a nasty glare at Ron for interrupting her. "A couple hours into the trip Harry left to use the loo and never returned. Of course we searched the train and Harry's usual hiding spots but like Shacklebolt and Tonks said, there was no sign of him."

Moody nodded his head. "And you're sure he was on the train?"

"Of course we are," Hermione exclaimed in outrage. "Do you think we don't know our own friend."

"Harry's scent was in the compartment the kids shared," Lupin supplied. "I don't believe anyone was impersonating him. He smelled sad, depressed."

"So Potter got on the train, went to the loo and vanished," Moody said as he summoned up the facts as simply as possible. "So the question is, did he leave willingly or not. And with whom?"

~*~

It was closed to 3 in the morning when bangs and curses from the Malfoy library woke Draco from a sound sleep.

With wide eyes Draco hid in the shadows of the landing as he watch the library door, listening to the sounds coming from inside the room. His wand firmly grasped in his hand, Draco darted through the lighted section of the landing to the room on the other side.

Opening the door slowly, to avoid making any noise, Draco slipped in and went to the large clear crystal that the Malfoy heir had been taught to use to spy upon those in the manor.

Placing his hand on the crystal Draco mentally directed the device to look into the library. The magic that was embedded in the crystal quickly showed the interior of the room, which contained only three people: Draco's mother Narcissa Malfoy, his aunt Bellatrix, and Severus Snape.

Bellatrix’s voice came from the crystal. "Have you found it yet?" she demanded as she leaned back in her chair her feet on the desk. "The Dark Lord wants that spell before dawn or he will be very displeased."

"Well it would go faster if you help," Snape snarled as he grabbed a leather bound book and quickly looked through the contents.

"Books are not exactly my thing," Bellatrix commented as she waved her hand to dismiss Snape's suggestion.

"Yes," Narcissa said bitterly. "We all know how well you and books get along."

Bellatrix just smiled smugly at her sister as she picked at her nails with a knife. "Well we all can't be perfect like you dear sister." Allowing her feet to fall off the desk and hit the floor with a thump, Bellatrix stood up. "What about Draco? Could he find this book we're looking for. After all while Lucy is in Azkaban, he is the head of the household."

Draco's eyes widen at what Bellatrix had just said. "Head of the household," he whispered in confusion.

"Shut your mouth," Narcissa snarled as she swung around to face her sister, her face filled with rage. "That is not to be spoken of."

Snape raised an eyebrow at Narcissa's comment, but wisely remained silent.

"Oh so the little dragon doesn’t know, does he, my sister. How very Slytherin of you, keeping your son ignorant of his duties, of the fact he controls the Malfoy's fortunes while you keep control of everything," Bellatrix cooed. "Are you already making plans on what gifts to give to your court of lovers since he won't know he can stop you? Does he even know his dear mother has lovers?"

Draco's eyes narrowed at his aunt's words.

"No, and he’d better not find out about any of this dear sister, if you know what is best for you," Narcissa said evilly.

Bellatrix gasped in mock terror as she placed both hands over her chest. "Are you threatening me, dear sweet little sister."

Raising her nose slightly in the air Narcissa turned her back on her sister and resumed the search while Bella cackled wildly.

As mischievous glint appeared in his eyes, Draco deactivated the crystal before proceeding towards the library.

As he arrived at the door, Draco let his eyes droop so they had the 'just woke up' look to them. "Mother?" Draco said around a yawn as he opened the door.

"Draco," Narcissa said as she whirled around, hiding the book she was looking through behind her, as if to try to hide her guilt. "What are you doing up?"

"I heard voices," Draco explained simply as he rubbed his eyes with his left hand, "so I came to see who was here.

The sound of a book being slammed shut drew everyone's attention to where Snape stood. "That was very unwise of you Draco," he said. "You entered a room half asleep with no knowledge of who was in here and without your wand. What would you have done if you had found someone here who was trying to kidnap you and your mother, so they could use you against your father? Or, what if it had been Aurors here to raid the manor for twisted reason? With the announcement of the return of our Lord, you may be assured that they are wand happy right now and your sudden appearance would be a perfect reason to remove you as the Malfoy heir."

Draco tried to take on a properly chastened air as he looked down at the floor. "I didn't think of that. I was hoping there might be some word of father."

"Do not worry about your father," Snape said as he placed the book he was holding back on the shelf, "I'm sure the Dark Lord has plans to rescue those loyal to him from the accursed island."

Draco looked up at his godfather with a smile. "I hope it’s soon. I do miss him."

Sighing wearily, Narcissa opened the book she had and began to flip through the pages. "Go to bed Draco. You have lessons in the morning."

Ignoring his mother comments, Draco sat down in his father's favorite chair. "What are you looking for?" he asked after watching his mother and Professor Snape search through books while keeping an eye on his Aunt Bellatrix, who was amusing herself, by balancing a knife, point down, in the palm of her hand.

"The Dark Lord asked your father for a book but he never had a chance to deliver it," Snape stated as he picked up another book.

"What was the book?" Draco asked innocently, "Perhaps I can help you find it."

With a sigh Snape looked at Draco. "It was a books of spells and charms to find one's hidden enemies. Unfortunately, neither the Dark Lord, nor anyone else knows the title of the book since this was a recent acquisition of your father’s."

Draco nodded his head silently in thought before rising from his seat and walking over to a black box that rested on a stand near the fireplace.

Removing the lid of the box, Draco placed it down on the table before removing the sides and placing them next to the lid. In the place where the box had been, was a human skull, covered with ancient runes in black ink. 

Picking up a silver knife that lay to the skull, he pricked his finger, then smeared the welling blood onto the forehead of the skull.

"You are not the head of the Malfoy line," replied a disembodied voice.

"My father has been imprisoned and until he is freed I must honor the Malfoy line and lead in his absence," Draco replied as his eyes rested on the skull.

Narcissa hissed softly as her hands clinched into fists at Draco's words, while Bellatrix glanced at her sister smugly.

"Yes. Yes I see," the voice said. "So how may I be of service young Lord."

Draco seemed to stand taller at the use of the title. "I am searching for a book my father recently acquired, which contains spells for locating one's hidden enemies."

"Do you wish for a book on finding your enemies who appear to be your friends and allies, or a book on finding the location of a hidden enemy and their loved ones?" the voice asked.

Draco turns to Snape, an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Location of enemies," Snape replies. "The Dark Lord wished to discover where Potter is hiding for the summer."

Draco's eyes widened slightly. "You mean he escaped!"

All eyes immediately snapped to Draco.

"What do you mean, escaped?" Bellatrix asked as she caught the knife in her hand after flipping it into the air.

"That Potter has escaped from the Dark Lord," Draco replied, confusion evident in his voice.

"And what gave you the idea that the Dark Lord had Potter," Snape asked as he walked over to Draco.

Draco looked back and forth between the adults in the room. "I saw Potter being taken from the train by a Death Eater."

The eyes of the three adults, loyal to the Dark Lord, met over Draco's head, reflecting their shock and confusion.

Disclaimer: This fit of madness if from the twisted minds of Corwalch and Lady FoxFire. If you recognize something from Stargate SG-1 or from Harry Potter then you better believe we don't own it or make any money from it.

Author Notes: The writing styles of Corwalch and Lady FoxFire don't mesh very well therefore we decided that one of us would write one chapter and the other would write the next chapter. So here's Corwalch 's chapter…

Post "The Fifth Race"

by Lady Foxfire and Corwalch

Major Carter knocked on the door that led to General Hammond’s office.

"Come," the General’s voice barked from inside.

When he saw who was there, Hammond asked, "What can I do for you Major?"

"I was just wondering if you knew where Colonel O’Neill might be. Janet said she released him last night, but he’s not on the base and he’s not answering his home phone."

"I would be surprised if he were." Hammond told her. "When Dr. Frasier released him last night, Jack came by and asked to take some time off. Said something about wanting to spend some time fishing and relaxing."

"So he’s gone to his lake cabin." Carter commented.

"If you and Dr. Jackson would like to join him, I’m sure he won’t mind, Major," Hammond told her. "I’ve put you all on downtime until he gets back. I think Teal’c mentioned something about going to see his son for a few days when I told him about the Colonel taking some time off."

"Ah, no thank you, sir," Carter told him quickly. "I have a few projects I can work on while he’s away. I’ll pass the message on to Daniel though, he may want to go."

Hammond quickly hid a smile. He had a feeling that Dr. Jackson would rather face Apophis than go fishing with Jack, if he had a choice.

~*~*~*~

After returning from the Land of Light and completing his necessary physical, Teal’c went down to DanielJackson’s office; fairly certain he would find the younger man there.

Looking in the open doorway, he saw that his guess was confirmed. The younger man was scratching out some text on the chalkboard and comparing it to the picture taped up there. There were open books and old tomes scattered about over every available surface. Teal’c took in all the candy wrappers scattered on the desk and a trashcan over flowing with them. A plate containing a half eaten sandwich and a half-filled cup of coffee sitting near it that the Jaffa was willing to bet was stone cold was on the table near the door. An airman had probably brought that by because Teal’c could tell that the linguist was very absorbed in his work, because he hadn’t been greeted yet

Teal’c stood there for several minutes watching Daniel Jackson as he moved around the office. He never ceased to be amazed at the younger man who preferred to settled things peacefully if possible but could fight like a Gornash if needed in defense of his friends. What amazed him the most was how DanielJackson could move around this tiny cluttered room with his attention totally focused on the book he was reading, yet not strike any of the objects or books scattered about.

"Greetings DanielJackson," Teal’c spoke up once Daniel was stationary back at the chalkboard.

The chalk screeched on the board for a moment as Daniel turned in surprise. "Teal’c, I thought you weren’t coming back until Friday."

"It is Friday, DanielJackson." Teal’c told him. "Have you not been out of this office since I left a few days ago?"

"Well, this research needed to be done, so that SG-11 had all the information they needed for that treaty negotiation they are going to next week on PX8734." Daniel told him feeling slightly defensive. "The leaders of the Sarnai are very touchy on protocol. We can’t afford to get anything wrong."

"Surely O’Neill would have seen to it that you left your office at least once in the last five days." Teal’c stated somewhat surprised.

"Well, he’s up at his cabin fishing." Daniel told him. "Once Janet released him, he requested time off, telling General Hammond he had some things he wanted to think about."

"And has no one heard from him since he left?" Teal’c wanted to know. He had known that O’Neill was up at his cabin, but had thought he would be back by now since he hadn’t been able to talk anyone into going with him.

"I haven’t, but Sam might’ve. He’s been trying to get her to go fishing for a while now." Daniel told him his mind wandering back to the contents of the chalkboard.

Before Teal’c could try and question him further, the phone in Daniel’s office rang. Seeing the other man was engrossed once more in his translation, Teal’c picked up the phone. "DanielJackson’s office."

"Teal’c?" The Jaffa recognized General Hammond’s voice. "Is Dr. Jackson there?"

"He is working on a translation for SG-11 so he told me," Teal’c advised the General.

"Bring him up to my office as soon as possible." Hammond ordered. "We seem to have a missing Colonel on our hands."

"We will be right there," Teal’c told him. Putting down the phone, he informed Daniel that General Hammond wanted them in his office as soon as possible. "It seems something may have happened to Colonel O’Neill."

That got Daniel’s attention away from the chalkboard. Putting down the book he was holding, Daniel followed Teal’c out the door.

~*~*~*~

They met up with Sam on the stairs leading to the General’s office. She looked as worried as Daniel felt.

"Come in and close the door behind you." Hammond instructed as soon as he saw Carter standing in the doorway.

"Sir, you said something about the Colonel being missing?" Carter spoke up as soon as the door was closed.

"Yes," Hammond gestured to the seats around his desk. "I received a call from the Sheriff of Stillwater, Minnesota."

"That’s where Jack’s cabin is!" Daniel announced unnecessarily.

Hammond glared at him for a moment before returning to the matter at hand when Daniel remained silent. "I had a call from Sheriff Breitmeir in Stillwater. He informed me that the Colonel’s cabin was broken into and vandalized last night before the jeep he keeps there was stolen by four teenagers for a joyride."

"And what of O’Neill? Did he make no move to stop the intruders?" Teal’c found this hard to believe. He also didn’t believe these teenagers could’ve taken O’Neill out.

"Apparently the Colonel wasn’t there when it happened." Hammond told the trio seated in front of his desk. "The Sheriff called here, because he thought Colonel O’Neill was at the base and he wanted to let him know about the break-in."

"Why would he think Jack was here?" Daniel asked puzzled. "He’s been at his cabin most of the week."

"Apparently not," Hammond told them. "I spoke with Mr. Jamison, the man Colonel O’Neill has kept an eye on his cabin when he is not there and he reported that he hasn’t seen O’Neill in several months. At first I thought maybe he just hadn’t seen the Colonel arrive, but I was informed that O’Neill always calls when he is going to the cabin, so that Mr. Jamison will know when to meet his plane. And that’s only if the Colonel hasn’t made prior arrangements for another ride, then he just lets him know when he will be arriving, so he will know not to call the police if he sees lights at the Colonel’s cabin. The man is retire military and takes his job very seriously."

"I'm assuming the sheriff has questioned the kids about Jack's whereabouts?" Daniel asked.

Hammond nods his head. "The teens claim to have found the Jeep on Jack's property, the front door was open and the keys were on a hook by the door. They deny vandalizing the house though or even seeing O’Neill. According to the kids there were no lights on in the house when they got there."

"Does he believe them?" Carter wanted to know.

"The Sheriff says they have never been in trouble before." Hammond told them. "According to him the teenagers were celebrating the fact that school was out. About the only crimes he intends to charge them with as of right now is underage drinking and trespass. The blood tests done at the hospital at the time they were admitted came back showing the teens were well over the legal limit even for an adult. I’ll leave it to your imaginations just how drunk they were by the time his deputy caught up with them. The trespass charge is because they admitted to entering O’Neill’s cabin and drinking his beer. Fortunately they didn’t make it very far in the Colonel’s jeep. He says they were lucky because they nearly flipped the jeep into a nearby river."

"Jack is going to kill them," Daniel muttered. Actually on further reflection Daniel thought that Jack wouldn’t kill them. He’d want them to suffer and from what he’d been told Jack’s cabin sometimes needed a lot of work to maintain it, especially after some of the storms that went through his area. He could see a lot of hard labor in the teenager’s immediate future.

"Did they say what they were doing out there?" Carter wanted to know. "According to the Colonel his place is kind of off the beaten track."

"According to the Sheriff, the kids were apparently looking for somewhere new to drink, since all the usual places are so well known and frequently patrolled." Hammond told her.

Teal’c asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. "Could the NID have taken O’Neill due to the knowledge downloaded into his brain by the Ancient’s repository?"

Hammond told them. "That is the most obvious possibility. I need SG-1 to go to Stillwater and see if you can figure out what happened to Colonel O’Neill. If he was taken by the NID or someone associated with them there should be traces somewhere."

~*~*~*~

As they turned into the entrance road that led to Colonel O’Neill’s cabin, the remaining members of SG-1 saw that a Sheriff’s car was parked across the road, blocking the entrance. The deputy got out of his car as they pulled to a stop.

"Sorry folks, but this road is closed," the deputy told them.

Getting out of the car, Carter gave her ID the deputy, telling him, "My name is Captain Samantha Carter, United States Air Force. I believe Sheriff Breitmeir told you to expect us."

"Yes, ma’am, he did." The deputy checked her identification and then recorded it and their arrival time on a clipboard he had in his squad car. "May I see some identification, gentlemen?"

Daniel handed over the ID that identified him as a civilian working for the Department of Defense. That one usually raised less questions with outsiders than the ID he had to wear around the SGC. Teal’c also handed over his civilian DOD identification as well.

Returning their identification the deputy requested. "Please check in with me when you leave ma’am and sirs. Also since General Hammond informed the Sheriff that Colonel O’Neill was missing, we are treating this as a crime scene. We were going to have the CSI team from Beaumont come in, until he told us he was sending you to check on things first, since the Colonel was working on a top secret project. So if you remove anything from the property I will need to make a list of it, so it can be accounted for later."

"If we find anything that needs to be removed in the interests of National Security we will let you know Deputy," Carter assured him.

As they pulled up in front of the cabin, they saw that O’Neill’s jeep had been returned. They saw that the left front bumper of the jeep was crumpled up and away from the wheel well. There were also long gouges down the left side to the rear quarter panel.

"I hope those kids parents have filed the insurance claim for this, or Jack may just take it out of those kid’s hides." Daniel commented.

"Should not the ones who caused the damage be required to atone for it?" Teal’c wondered.

"If they don’t have a driver’s license it will be up to their parents to pay for the damage and then work out a method for their kids to pay them back." Carter told him. "If they did have a driver’s license and therefore auto insurance it will pay for this rather expensive damage and then they will be required to pay the insurance company higher rates because this accident will be on their records for at least seven years."

Getting out of the car and checking the immediate area, they saw that the front door was closed and everything appeared undisturbed.

"Do you have the keys the Sheriff gave us?" Carter asked Daniel.

"Right here," Daniel held up a key ring.

"Should we check inside or outside first?" Teal’c wanted to know.

"Let’s start with the outside." Sam suggested. "Daniel, you check the carport and the area around it, while Teal’c and I check to see if there are any signs of a struggle outside. We’ll meet back at the front door in fifteen minutes."

When they met back up at the front door, Carter reported, "I found a lot of cigarette butts and beer cans and bottles near the pond."

"I found the same on the far side of the house." Teal’c reported.

"There wasn’t anything in the carport." Daniel reported. "The kids must’ve done all their drinking where they could make a quick break for it if they were found."

Daniel unlocked the front door, and they entered what might politely be described as the aftermath of a hurricane. Stuff was scattered all over the living room. Magazines were thrown about on the floor along with some file folders and seat cushions and chairs were overturned. The kitchen was worse. Things had been pulled out of the cabinets and some of the packages were open with their contents strewn over the counter.

As they started to move into what looked like an office, Teal’c heard a crash from one of the back rooms. He quickly held up his hand for silence. The other two looked at him wondering what was going on, when he motioned toward the back.

Pulling her pistol out of the holster in the small of her back and nodded indicating she would follow Teal’c’s lead. Daniel also pulled out a pistol but stayed further back to cover them in case the intruder got past Sam and Teal’c, though the chances of that were very slim.

With Carter covering him, Teal’c entered the office quietly, expecting to be attacked by whoever was involved with O’Neill’s disappearance. Instead the sight that greeted him was someone’s rear end as they tried to wriggle out of the narrow but not impassable window. The intruder was about halfway through, when Teal’c grabbed the flailing legs and dragged him back into the room.

The man twisted in mid-air trying to recover from his rather abrupt removal from the window only to land on his butt. A familiar voice started swearing. "Damnit! There’s no need to be so rough." He looked up and smiled weakly when he saw it wasn’t who he expected it to be.

"Maybourne." Teal’c growled. "Where is O’Neill?"

Maybourne looked back and forth between Carter and Teal’c and noticed neither looked pleased to see him. He also couldn’t help noticing that Carter’s gun was pointed slightly lower than his heart toward some other important equipment. Gulping noisily, Maybourne decided that the truth was the safest course for now if he wanted to keep the important pieces of his anatomy intact. "I don’t know. I thought you were Jack."

"You really expect us to believe that?" Carter commented as Teal’c pulled the NID agent off the floor.

"It’s the truth." Maybourne insisted.

Daniel had come into the room in time to hear the last comment. "Maybourne, you wouldn’t know the truth if it danced naked in front of you."

"Yes, I would," Maybourne managed to look slightly insulted.

"Why are you here?" Carter demanded, her eyes betraying her need to know.

Suspecting that something had happened to O’Neill and that they thought he had something to do with it, Maybourne knew the only way he would get out of the room if not the house intact, was to come clean. "I was sent to talk with O’Neill. My superiors wanted to see what information he retained from that Ancient database that was downloaded into his head."

"And what would you have done, if he did remember any of it?" Teal’c leaned in threateningly.

"I was told to bring him in to talk with them." Maybourne had to fight the urge to cower back from the threatening Jaffa. "I was kind of surprised to find he wasn’t here, not to mention the place looking like a hurricane had gone through it."

"So you don’t know where Jack is either?" Daniel burst out in surprise.

Maybourne shrugged one shoulder, given that the other was being held in the iron grip of Teal’c and said truthfully. "Not a clue."

Carter pulled out her cell phone and hit the speed dial for General Hammond’s office. When she got through to Hammond, she told him, "Sir, you are not going to believe who we found at Colonel O’Neill’s."

Betaed by :: SeulWolfe

"Daniel," Sam never took her eyes off Maybourne. "Would you call General Hammond and let him know who we found here."

"This is going to make his day." Daniel commented pulling out his cell phone.

A few moments later, Daniel said, "General Hammond we found someone or maybe I should say something at Jack’s cabin."

"Hey!" Maybourne took offense at being called a thing.

"Be silent." Teal’c growled into Maybourne’s ear.

"We found Maybourne poking around. He claims that his superiors sent him to talk Jack about the Ancient Repository." Daniel responded to an unheard question.

Daniel listened to the voice on the other end of the line for a few more minutes and repeated, "Yes sir." a few times. As he put his phone away, Daniel gave Maybourne an almost sympathetic look.

"Well?" Sam glanced briefly at Daniel before returning her attention to Maybourne.

"The General’s sending Ferretti out here by jet. He wants us to bring Maybourne back to the SGC for questioning once Ferretti gets here." Daniel told his teammates. "Ferretti is going to be to keeping an eye on the place and see who else shows up. Until Ferretti arrives, General Hammond wants us to finish going through the cabin to see if Jack might have left us a clue about what happened or where he’s been taken."

"Well we’re gonna need someway to keep him confined." Sam commented, her gun never wavering.

"The deputy’s cuffs?" Daniel suggested.

Sam shook her head. "He would ask too many questions about how Maybourne got here and why we aren’t taking him to jail. I’m fairly certain General Hammond is going to want to keep Maybourne’s presence here a secret."

"So how are we going to get him out past the Deputy?" Daniel wanted to know.

"The trunk of the car should be big enough to hold him, especially if we gag him." Sam commented.

"And render him unconscious," Teal’c added leaning menacingly over Maybourne, "so that he is unable to make any other kind of noise."

Maybourne paled and gulped realizing the Jaffa was serious about knocking him out.

"Daniel, can you see if the Colonel has any zip ties or something like them around here so we can try and keep Maybourne out of our hair?" Sam requested.

Daniel glanced at Sam and Teal’c then gave Maybourne a slightly pitying look before leaving the room.

Turning to face Maybourne, Sam asked, "Now are we going to do this the easy way or should I let Teal’c fulfill a few of the darker fantasies he has about you?"

"They involve you screaming in agony." Teal’c put in helpfully, a slight smile on his face. Those who knew the Jaffa well, upon seeing that expression, would’ve been the first to advise Maybourne to co-operate since the thought of torturing Maybourne appeared to make him happy.

Maybourne barely kept a whimper from escaping as he looked at the almost expressionless Jaffa and wished Jack O’Neill were here. At least he knew what that man was capable of.

"Captain," Maybourne said earnestly. "I really don’t have any more information I can give you. And that is the absolute truth. All I was told to do was come talk to O’Neill, find out how much he remembered from that alien database and if he remembered anything, to bring him in to talk to my bosses."

Seeing she still didn’t believe him, he hurried on. "When I got here this morning, I had to wait until the Sheriff left, then sneak past the Deputy and that wasn’t easy let me tell you, that young man takes his job very seriously. When I got inside this place was already a mess and there was no sign of O’Neill. Since I hadn’t seen any ambulances leave, and Jack wasn’t here, I figured he’d been called back to the SGC. While I hadn’t heard of anything that would require him to be recalled, I figured it must’ve been a serious emergency that made him bug out and leave this mess behind."

"Then what were you doing in here, if you thought he was gone?" Teal’c growled.

Maybourne flinched back from him. "I was checking to see if O’Neill might’ve written down what he remembered, so I’d have something to take back to my superiors, but you got here before I had a chance to do a thorough search."

Daniel walked in as he finished speaking and Maybourne clammed up unwilling to say any more and appear weak in front of a civilian. In his opinion Jackson had no business being at the SGC or at least no business going off-world. They were in a war and civilians only made war messier.

"All I could find were these?" Daniel held up a strip of plastic lawn and leaf garbage bag ties. "I figured we could join several of them together to fit around his wrists. They shouldn’t break easy."

Sam examined them for a minute and then pulled several off the strip. "These will work fine Daniel."

"Teal’c can you take care of securing Maybourne in the trunk of the car?" Sam requested after she’d secured Maybourne’s wrists behind him with the strung to together plastic ties. "While you do that Daniel and I will go through the papers here and see if we can get an idea of what happened to the Colonel."

"It will be my pleasure." Teal’c sounded menacing as he looked around for something to use as a gag and something to tie Maybourne’s feet together.

An electrical cord that had been ripped out of a lamp by whoever had messed up O’Neill’s cabin served very well to insure the felnick Maybourne’s immobility. And Teal’c used a t-shirt from O’Neill’s laundry basket to fashion a gag.

#######

By the time Ferretti arrived they had gone through all the papers in the house and most of them had nothing of interest. The only oddity had been a badly burned scrap of paper in the fireplace.

Both Sam and Daniel recognized the writing as O’Neill’s but the several lines of text or code made no sense to either of them. Sam bagged it to take back to the SGC to see if someone there could figure out the code and what the initials meant

#######

Post Note:

Felnick - an insulting Jaffa word for something lower than a cockroach

Jack steered the car down the down the long driveway to his cabin. "Welcome to my hide…" he said as the cabin came into view only to slam on the brakes suddenly. "What the hell!"

"I take it you don't normally decorate with police tape?" Harry commented as he eyed the police tape strung around the porch of the cabin.

"No," Jack replied a touch of steel in his voice as he put the car in reverse turned in his seat so he could see out the rear window.

Slamming his foot on the accelerator Jack steered the car down the wavy driveway until he got to a spot were he could turn the car around, putting the car in drive once again Jack, gravel kicking up as he sped out of there.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as he held on to his seat.

"To find a phone. Someplace where there's lots of people," Jack commented. "I need to call a friend who normally watches the place for me. He'll be able to tell us if it's safe or not."

"And if it's not?" Harry asked as he clutched his wand.

Jack took his eyes off the road and glanced over at Harry. "You're not going back there. I swear."

Harry nodded his head, looking more like the scared boy he really was.

~*~

Ferretti lowered the binoculars from his eyes. "Damn it Jack! What the fuck are you mixed up in?" he asked himself.

Opening a snap on his vest Lou pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. Pressing the phone against his ear, Ferretti waited for an answer. "Sir?" he said when the other end was picked up. "Colonel O'Neill was just here with another person."

"No, sir. The other person in the car appeared to be male however I'm not positive on that, sir," he replied to a question from the person on the other end.

"No sir," Ferretti replied to yet another unheard question. "I guess when Jack saw the police tape he figured the place wasn't safe and high tailed it out of here."

Lou nodded his head, agreeing with whatever the person on the other end of the phone was saying. "Well, sir, if I were to make a guess since he doesn't want SGC involved he'll try to contact Jamison."

Ferretti listened to whatever the other person was saying. "Yes, sir. Understood." He said before closing the cell phone and returning it to the pocket on his vest.

With a sigh he settled down in the spot where he could watch the cabin and the road that led up to it. "You better have a damn good explanation Jack."

~*~

"This place is big!" Harry commented with wide eyes as he looked around the Wal-Mart store.

"Yeap but evil," Jack commented as he dragged Harry deeper into the store.

"Evil?" Harry frowned. The place didn't look evil or feel evil.

Jack nodded his head. "They come in with promises of low prices, force the mom and pop stores out of business and then start to raise their prices. And if you don't like what they carry then you're S.O.L."

"S.O.L?" Harry asked, still frowning and little bit confused.

"Shit out of luck," Jack replied as he pulled Harry to the payphones located next to the restrooms and layaway department in the back of the store.

Fishing some coins out of his pockets, Jack was soon waiting for the other end of the phone to be picked up.

A faint "Jamison" so came out of the ear piece of the phone handset.

"Corey?" Jack replied.

"Jack? Hell Jack I've been trying to get a hold of you for the past couple of days," the voice at the other end of the phone replied.

"Yeah well something came up Corey," Jack replied.

"Well it better have been damn important for you to not tell me you're up here," Corey replied.

Jack glance over at Harry who was looking over some junk near the layaway department. "Yeah it was important," he replied. "So what happened at my place?"

"Well it turns out that the local kids…." Corey gave Jack the run down on what happened at his cabin and his Jeep and how the sheriff and SGC had been called in.

"They drank all of my beer?" Jack growled.

Corey's laughter rang out from the receiver. "Damn Jack I thought you would be more upset about them smashing up your Jeep than over your beer."

"It was a case of Heiniken," Jack whined. "Those brats wouldn't know how to appreciate a good beer if it sat up and kissed them."

Corey chucked. "Of course not Jack," he replied. "Of course when you were their age you knew how to appreciate a good beer."

"That I did, Corey. That I did," Jack replied, "but I could never appreciate a good Tequila."

"It's 'To Kill Ya', Jack, not to Tequila," Corey snarled. "And you promised never to mention that blasted drink again."

"Right you are Corey. Right you are," Jack replied smugly. "Look I'm going to be at the cabin for the next few days and I would appreciate it if you don't mention to anyone you heard from me."

Jack request was meet by silence before Corey finally asked. "You in trouble Jack?"

Jack once again glance over at Harry. "Only if they find us first. Talk to you later Corey. And thanks," Jack replied before hanging up the phone.

"Everything okay?" Harry asked as he put the item he was looking at back on the shelf.

"Yeah," Jack replied as he shoved his hands into his pants pocket. "Some teens busted into my place. That’s all."

Harry raised an eyebrow at Jack's comment, at how he dismissed it. "So?"

"So I was thinking since you need some more clothes and since we're here," Jack said, waving his hand in the general direction of surrounding store.

Harry sighed his shoulders slumping. "I hate shopping for clothes."

Jack threw an arm over Harry's shoulder and dragged him closer. "Every guy hates shopping for clothes. It's in our genes," Jack explained. "Now women. Some women love it and some would rather have a root canal done then go shopping for clothes."

Carter called the tower at the Air Force Academy and got clearance for them to land. General Hammond had already made arrangements for a car to meet them near the private hangers, which were used to store the non-military jets. These civilian jets were used to shuttle military and civilians attached to the Academy and or Cheyenne Mountain to locations where there was no military airbase nearby or when the matter required secrecy.

The only regret voiced during the trip back to Colorado, was from Teal’c who had been disappointed that they hadn’t been able to give Maybourne a more uncomfortable ride.

Daniel had used the time, they were in the air, going over what Jack had written down while he had the ancient database in his head and the partially burnt scrap of paper that they’d found in the fireplace at Jack’s cabin. Daniel flipped back and forth between the papers Jack had written on and the bits of Ancient knowledge he had been able to accumulate on his own, to see if he could figure out what any of it meant. However it was the intriguing code Jack had used on the burnt scrap of paper that captured the majority of Daniel’s attention. He was fairly certain that the letters were initials and at one point he had called Hammond to forward that information to him. He hoped that the General would be able to get someone to go over Jack’s military records to see if they could find any matches for those initials.

"Buckle up, Daniel, we’re about to land." Carter ordered through the cockpit door, when she saw he was still leaning over the table in front of him.

Sighing, Daniel put the papers away and fastened his seatbelt. When he saw Maybourne eyeing the papers, Daniel made a mental note to get them put into Hammond’s safe as soon as possible. The last thing they needed was Maybourne’s people getting hold of these pages and figuring out how to read the Ancient’s language. He was fairly certain there had to be at least one mole at the SGC. Somehow the NID had learned about Jack having the ancient database stuffed into his head, a fact that hadn’t even been reported to the Pentagon yet. The General was still sanitizing the information to make sure that Kinsey and those who worked with him didn’t learn more than they needed to.

########

The MP’s at the base had been alerted to the fact that SG-1 was bringing in a prisoner and that they needed to get to General Hammond’s office as quickly as possible. As soon as they had cleared the main entrance for Cheyenne Mountain, they were met at the bank of elevators by an SF who had the keys to override the elevators normal functions and turn it into an express elevator straight to the floor the General’s office was on.

The Special Forces soldier wisely made no comment about Maybourne’s roughed up appearance nor the fact that he was bound. The soldier fought to conceal a smirk as SG-1 paraded Colonel Maybourne past him into the elevator. It was a well-known fact among those stationed at the SGC that whenever Colonel Maybourne appeared or was known to be in the area, trouble would soon follow on his heels usually aimed right at the SGC and SG-1 in particular. The soldier hoped that this time SG-1, even without Colonel O’Neill, had gotten to him before the trouble could start.

When the elevator doors opened, a pair of guards were there to meet them and escort them to General Hammond’s office.

"Enter," they heard Hammond’s muffled voice bark through the closed door after the senior SF soldier’s knocked on his office door.

"SG-1 is back with their prisoner sir."

"Thank you, Lt. Jennings," Hammond looked up from his desk. "Please escort Colonel Maybourne to the conference room and make sure to put a double guard on him."

"Yes, sir." Jennings and his companion took custody of the prisoner and left SG-1 standing in the open doorway.

"Come in," Hammond ordered, "and close the door behind you."

Once the door was closed, Hammond smiled at them. "You will be pleased to know that Colonel O’Neill turned up at the cabin a couple of hours after you left. It seems that the police tape around the cabin made him suspicious though and he took off before Major Ferretti had a chance to make contact. The Major believes that he will return as soon as he has made contact with Jamison, the man who takes care of his cabin to find out what happened there."

"Was he all right?" Carter asked.

"Major Ferretti reported he appeared to be ok and that he had a companion." Hammond told them.

"Companion, sir?" Carter queried. "Any idea who?"

"Afraid not." Hammond told them. "Major Ferretti thinks his companion was male but he wasn’t one hundred percent certain of that."

"So if Ferretti is right, the police tape really spooked Jack, or possibly his companion. And given he bugged out so fast, it is most likely his companion that Jack is trying to protect." Daniel concluded. "Which may mean must be someone he feels is in danger if they are found or he would’ve gone on in."

"Or possibly his companion is the one that requested they depart." Teal’c put in.

Before Hammond could comment, the phone rang.

Since it wasn’t the red phone, the General barked, "Hammond!" into it.

After listening for a moment, Hammond said, "Give me a moment to put you on speaker Major. SG-1 is here and they should hear this as well."

Hammond punched a couple of buttons on his phone and then set the hand set back in its cradle. "Okay, Major, would you repeat what you just told me."

The three remaining members of SG-1 heard Ferretti say, "I said the Colonel is back sir, along with a friend."

Hammond asked. "Does the Colonel appear to be a prisoner of his companion?"

"No, sir, the Colonel appears to be free and mobile," was Ferretti’s response

O’Neill’s teammates sighed in relief then Daniel asked. "Lou, is he ok?"

"Yeah Dr J. He looks good, tired but good."

"What can you tell us about his companion, Major?" Hammond returned to business now that they were assured of O’Neill’s apparent good health.

"Caucasian male. Early to mid teens. Dark hair possibly black." Ferretti provided a description of the person with O’Neill.

"Is the young man with the Colonel confined or injured in any way?" Hammond inquired, puzzled as to who the youngster might be. O’Neill had no close kin still living.

"No sir, the kid appears to be fine. They appear to be kidding around right now." Ferretti then added, "However the kid appears to be nervous about something… And so is the Colonel."

"Any indications about what they might be nervous about?" Hammond wondered what O’Neill had gotten himself into.

There was a pause before Ferretti said, "No sir, but I don't think the kid trusts the Colonel completely."

"What makes you say that, Major Ferretti?" Teal’c asked.

"From what I can see the kid is on edge and looks ready either to fight the Colonel or run." Came the response.

"All right Major. I want you to watch over the Colonel and his guest." Hammond ordered. "I’m sending SG-1 back to your location so we can try and get a handle on what’s going on. Call me if the situation changes."

"Yes sir," Ferretti hung up.

"SG-1, I want you to return to Colonel O’Neill’s cabin and bring him and his guest back to base." Hammond ordered.

"Bring an unknown civilian onto the base sir?" Carter questioned. "Are you sure that is a good idea?"

"We should be able to keep the young man from finding out things he shouldn’t." Hammond seemed certain. "Right now, the most important thing is to get Colonel O’Neill back here where he will be safe from the people Maybourne works for and I have a feeling that he may not come without this young man. I want Colonel O’Neill back here as soon as possible."

"Yes sir." Carter saluted him while Daniel and Teal’c nodded in understanding.

"So here we are again," Jack said as he put the rental car into park and turned off the engine.

"Yeah we are," Harry eyed the crime scene tape across the front door of the cabin warily.

"Nervous?" Jack asked noticing the unease in Harry’s voice.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I’m thinking of some of the horror movies my cousin Dudley likes to watch. Isolated place. Some kids from town come out to party. One of the girl's drags their boyfriend out to the woods to have sex, and hiding in the building is some type of monster or a really creepy guy with a big knife. Thus begins the bloodshed."

Jack chuckled at Harry. "I wouldn’t worry about that. We’re completely safe here."

"Really?" There was a sarcastic hint to Harry’s voice.

"Yeap. There isn’t a big chested blond on hand to be the first to die. Also we’re missing the traditional nerdy virgin who will be the sole survivor," Jack replied as he opened his door and climbed out.

"That’s only for slasher movies," Harry countered. "In monster movies, it’s the older male character gets eaten first and it’s the handsome younger male character who survives."

Jack looked over at the car roof at Harry. "Love you too," he snarled teasingly.

"Now that’s a totally different type of movie and we won’t get into those," Harry said with a smirk before grabbing the plastic bags out of the back seat.

"Just for that I’m going to find the worst movie ever made and have you watch it," Jack threatened.

"And here I thought you kidnapped me to protect me, not torture me," Harry countered.

"If I wanted to torture you I would have you eat Carter’s cooking or have Daniel tell you all about his rocks,"

Harry let out a snort. "I’ll keep that in mind," he said before looking at the forest surrounding the cabin. "Jack? Are you sure we’re safe here?"

Jack looked up from where he was examining his mangle up Jeep. "Yeah, we are. No one in England knows that I have you and the name I used will have them on a wild goose chase long enough for us to get everything straightened out."

Harry inhales nervously; the teasing and joking air vanished. "So why did you kidnap me? How did you know my parents and… and Sirius?" he whispered.

"It’s kind of complicated," Jack said as he ran a hand through his hair. "Look, let’s get everything straightened up and then I’ll explain everything to you."

Harry eyed Jack with distrust.

"Look, it’s complicated. I hardly know where to begin and as it is, I have trouble believing half of it myself," Jack said. "I’m not going to lie to you or tell you half truths or keep things from you because I don’t think you’re old enough. I promise you that!"

"You'd better not!" Harry threatened, angrily, before turning and striding toward the cabin, the bags in his hands swaying dangerously, in perfect juxtaposition to how afraid he actually was.

Jack stood there and watched as Harry disappeared into the cabin. "Damn."

~*~

"I said the Colonel is back sir," Ferretti said as he held a set of binoculars to his eyes with one hand and made sure the bluetooth headset volume was loud enough so he could hear everything coming through the other phone, "along with a friend."

Lou focused the binoculars on the Colonel’s friend. "No, sir, the Colonel appears to be free and mobile," he replied to General Hammond's question.

A smirk came to his face at the sound of SG-1's obvious relief reached his ears.

When Daniel's question of whether or not Jack was 'ok' was spoken, Lou immediately turned his focus onto O'Neill. "Yeah Dr J. He looks good, tired but good," he replied.

"What can you tell us about his companion, Major?" Hammond voice came over the headset.

Lou located O'Neill's guest and adjusted the binoculars focus. "Caucasian male. Early to mid teens. Dark hair, possibly black."

Ferretti continue to focus on the teen as Jack walked the kid walk around. "No sir, the kid appears to be fine. They appear to be kidding around right now," he replied. Pulling his eyes from the binoculars, Major Ferretti looked at the scene before him. "However, the kid appears to be nervous about something… And so is the Colonel."

"Any indications about what they might be nervous about?"

Lou raised the binoculars to his eyes once again to study the area beyond O’Neill’s cabin then returned to Jack and the kid. "No sir, but I don't think the kid trusts the Colonel completely."

"What makes you say that, MajorFerretti?" Teal’c’s voice came over the headset.

"From what I can see the kid is on edge and looks ready either to fight the Colonel or run." Lou replied as he watched the kid threaten Jack before marching off towards the cabin leaving a dejected O'Neill behind.

Lou nodded his head at what the General said next before saying, "Yes sir," and disconnected the call.

Focusing the binoculars solely on Jack, Lou said, "What the fuck are you mixed up in this time, Jack?"

~*~

Jack and Harry settled down on the front porch of the cabin, cold cut sandwiches and drink in hand.

"Thanks for helping clean up," Jack said between bites.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I’m used to it."

Jack glanced over at him. "Yeah I imagine so."

"So…" Harry said glancing inquiringly at Jack.

"So…" Jack replied before taking a drink.

Harry raised a single eyebrow at Jack’s avoidance of Harry’s unspoken question.

"Right," Jack said with a glum smile. "I guess you want to know what this is all about."

"It would be nice," Harry said before take a bite of his sandwich.

"Well I guess you could say it all started with my job," Jack said. "If you haven’t figured it out I’m in the US military, the United States Air Force, to be exact and most of what I do is classified so I can't go into too much detail."

Harry nodded his head, accepting the condition of what he's going to be told.

"Well," Jack began, waving a hand around, "I was in an incident with this highly technical thingamabob that… well it downloaded all the knowledge of a long dead civilization into my head," Jack explained.

"Was it magic?" Harry asked. "This thingamabob? Was it a magical creation? I mean, you know that magic exists. So was it?"

"No…Yeah… maybe. It's was beyond what we, I mean non-magic people can make and magical people can make." Jack took a bite of his sandwich while he gathered his thoughts. "It might be a combination of the two, magic and technology."

"So what happened?"

"Well, I had all this stuff in my head and it was killing me. My brain wasn't made to be crammed full of information. Luckily for me the information included how to contact a race that could help," Jack said.

"Goblins, High Elves, vampires?" Harry asked.

"None of the above," Jack replied with a smirk. "It's a race that has been pretty much forgotten about. I mean they're still around but they're so good at hiding that almost no one remembers them and any that claim to have met them are look upon as crazy."

"Luna might have met them," Harry said around the bit of sandwich he was chewing.

"The blond?"

Harry nodded his head. "Yeah she's always looking for this or that creature." Harry let out a snort. "Maybe she's not as crazy as everyone thinks she is."

"With everything I've seen I wouldn't doubt that she's seen something," Jack commented.

"So since you're still alive, I'm assuming you were able to contact your mysterious race?"

"Right," Jack said. "So they were about to un-cram my brain and send me home but well… they seem to have unlocked something in my brain."

"They unlocked something in your brain," Harry said with a smirk. "What did that do?"

"Well it seems to let me remember things. Things I wasn't meant to ever remember," the nervousness he was feeling suddenly evident in his voice.

"Remember what?" Harry asked as he set his half-eaten sandwich down.

"My past life," Jack said quietly. "I remember everything of my past life."

"So who were you?"

Jack took a deep breath and look Harry directly in the eyes. "Sirius Black."

Disclaimer: This fit of madness if from the twisted minds of Corwalch and Lady FoxFire. If you recognize something from Stargate SG-1 or from Harry Potter then you better believe we don't own it or make any money from it.

Author Notes: The writing styles of Corwalch and Lady FoxFire don't mesh very well and since this is the first chapter we wrote together you'll have to forgive us for taking so long to get it out. We were able to write it in one day and then edited it 4 times before we arrived here.

You Can’t Keep An Old Dog Down

Post "The Fifth Race"

by Lady Foxfire and Corwalch

Harry let out a bitter chuckle as he put his glass down on the table in between Jack and himself. "Yeah right. That's not possible. You're too old to be Sirius."

Jack looked down at the glass in his hand, then back at Harry "When I fell through the Veil, I was transported back into time. Somehow, I was reborn as Jonathan O'Neill."

Harry’s eyes narrowed, becoming harder. Rising from his chair, he stepped back, getting out of range of Jack. "Prove it," he demanded.

"At Christmas… This past Christmas, Dumbledore in his infinite wisdom and love allowedus to spend time together in that fucking hell hole that was my prison," Jack ran his hand through his hair. "Fuck… I was so messed up from Azkaban. I sometimes had trouble remembering you weren't James, that everything that had happened to me, really did happen and it wasn’t all some sick twisted nightmare."

Harry stared at Jack, his jaw clenched tight; his wand in his hand as his eyes demanded more proof from the man seated in front of him.

Jack let out a weary sigh. "The day after Christmas, you'd found me in Buckbeak's room. I usually went up there to escape… to escape them, myself, that damned house… everything, even if only for a little while. We ended up talking. I told you how everything had gone wrong the day James tried to ask Lily to marry him; how in the end Lily asked him to marry her." Jack smile fondly at the memory. "I remember telling you how as a baby, you seem to have this uncanny ability to pee in any man's face with the exception of yours truly when they changed your diaper. Oh and there was this one time that rat had you and somehow your diaper came undone and you let it rip with both guns all over his new robes and then finished up with puking up on the only clean spot left."

Harry looked at Jack with wide eyes; his hand shook slightly as Jack's words rang with truth.

"I always figured it was James pulling a prank on Peter," Jack commented, "but I guess you knew more than we did about that little rat."

Harry backed up one more step; he shook his head violently. "No. That’s not proof," Harry had trouble speaking, given the painful emotions rising up in him and looking for an outlet. "No, you could have used Occulmency to learn those things."

Jack shook his head. "You know perfectly well that I didn't Harry," he replied. "You would’ve felt me. I was never very good at Occlumency. My teachers always said I left them with a headache, even if I did it while they were asleep."

As Jack got up and moved toward Harry intending to comfort him, Harry snarled and backed away from him, his wand out and pointed at Jack’s chest. "No. No! This is some kind of sick trick! You're working for Voldemort. Or… or you're working Fudge, trying to get me expelled."

Jack snorted. "I'm not a Deatheater and Fudge is too stupid to come up with an idea like that."

"You could be a sympathizer," Harry countered, grasping at any possible reason for why this man would be making these outrageous claims. "You might be one of those who believes that Voldemort and his followers are right… that all the Muggleborn should be killed."

"And if I were, then you would have already been in Moldywart's hands, if not dead," Jack pointed out, throwing his hands up in the air. "Hell, your mother was a Muggleborn, Harry!  If I believed in that crap, or the crap my parent's spouted, I would never have been her friend, let alone your Godfather."

"You're not my Godfather!" Harry shouted, tears running down his cheeks. "Sirius is my Godfather… was my Godfather, but he's dead… And it's my fault!"

"I. Am. Sirius." Jack repeated emphasizing each word.

"You're not! You can't be Sirius! " Harry insisted wiping his tears away angrily. "Sirius would… Sirius would never have left me with the Dursley's, if he could’ve helped it."

Jack rocked back oh his feet as if he had been struck. Collapsing back in his chair, the older man tried to explain. "That night… the night when James and Lily were killed… I admit it… I wasn't thinking straight. I was thinking about how it was my fault that they were gone. If I hadn't thought up the idea of switching secret keepers, they would have still been alive," Jack admitted softly his head bowed. "When I saw you with Hagrid, I knew he would take you to Hogwarts, to Dumbledore. I knew you would be safe there until I was able to deal with Peter. I was going to catch that rat and send him off to Azkaban. I only let you go so you would be safe."

Harry stared at Jack in silence.

"When I ended up becoming Jack, reincarnation...whatever happened to me…who I am now," Jack said haltingly, "I didn't remember anything about being Sirius, about you, or Lily or James. But as soon as my memories started to come back, I made plans to come and get you, to rescue you. I remembered how much you hated living with the Dursley's."

Harry shook his head in disbelief. "No. That… everything you’ve said doesn't prove anything!" Harry snapped. "You’re in the military, for all I know you're working for some government agency that wants to use me, to turn me into some type of weapon. You'll say anything to make me believe in you, …to trust you."

Jack shook his head sadly, but before he could say anything their attention was diverted by a black Hummer as it drove down the driveway toward the cabin.

As Jack rose to his feet, his hand slid toward the small of his back where he kept his gun. Pulling it out, he brought it down beside his right leg, slightly out of sight, alert for danger.

Harry’s eyes widened at the sight of the gun, not to mention the black Hummer coming toward them. It was all the confirmation he needed that this man wasn’t to be trusted. "I knew it! I was right! You were lying to me! This was all a setup!"

Turning on his heels, Harry took off into the woods surrounding the cabin. Jack took a moment to snarl, "Damn!" before taking off after Harry while trying to keep one eye on the Hummer.

~*~

The headlights of the Hummer illuminated the porch briefly as Sam started to round the curve of the cabin’s driveway. All three in the Hummer saw Jack seated on the porch and the teen that Ferretti had reported as being with Jack, was standing a few feet away. It looked as though the pair were arguing about something.

As the headlights slid past the pair, they saw the teen look in their direction and then take off around the back of the house. They saw Jack’s shadowed form following a moment later.

"Ferretti!" Daniel called into his radio, "Jack and the kid have bolted around to the back of the house. We seemed to have spooked them. Can you try to intercept them from your side and we will split up and search for them from this side of the house?"

"I’m on it, Dr. J. " Ferretti’s reply came over the radio.

Once Sam had the Hummer parked near the porch, she went to the rear of it and pulling a flashlight out of the emergency kit, she handed it to Teal’c.

"Daniel and I will get a couple of flashlights from the cabin and be right behind you." Sam told Teal’c, nodding toward the cabin.

Taking the flashlight, Teal’c nodded before heading in the direction O’Neill and the young man had gone. Pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket, he covered the lens of the flashlight with it so the glare wouldn’t be quite so obvious but it would still give him enough light to see by.

A few feet into the woods, Teal’c stopped and knelt down to examine some strange tracks. At first they had been the size of an adult tennis shoe, obviously O’Neill’s, but then those tracks had suddenly stopped and from that point on, the tracks continued as those of a large canine. There was no pause between one set of tracks and the other. He checked the surrounding area for other footprints and while he found a number of sets, they appeared to be older tracks. He couldn’t find any more recent sets of tracks for O’Neill. How was this possible?Where had O’Neill gone?

Looking down at the unexpected animal tracks, Teal’c radioed the others to alert them. "Captain Carter, I do not believe we are out here alone. O’Neill’s tracks have suddenly stopped and seemed to have been replaced by a large dog’s."

"Did you say dog, Teal’c?" Sam queried.

"Yes, Captain Carter," Teal’c confirmed his earlier report. "And from the size of the print and length of stride I would say it is a very large dog."

"Ferretti, did you hear that?" Sam wanted to know.

"Yea, I did," Ferretti called back.

"Be careful, there’s no telling what that dog’s been trained to do." Sam warned both men. "We are just leaving the cabin now with more flashlights, so Daniel and I will be joining you shortly."

~*~

Ferretti had already been moving to intercept the boy when he'd taken off like a rabbit. The team had split up to search, and the appearance of the Hummer had clearly spooked the boy. It was a good thing Jackson had radio'd him that they'd split into teams to search for the Colonel and the boy.

"Captain Carter. I do not believe we are out here alone. O’Neill’s tracks have suddenly stopped and seemed to have been replaced by a large dog’s," Teal'c voice came through the small earpiece that Lou had in his left ear.

Lou moved silently through the forest in the directions of what sounded like someone one blindly running though the woods.

Captain Carter's voice came from the earpiece next. "Did you say dog, Teal’c?"

Ferretti froze in place so not to give way his position as his mind replayed exactly what Teal'c had said.

"Ferretti, did you hear that?" Captain Carter's voice said into his ear.

Lou licked his lips as he touched the button that allowed him to transmit. "Yea, I did," he replied softly.

Carter's reply came back immediately. "Be careful, there’s no telling what that dog’s been trained to do. We're just leaving the cabin now with more flashlights, so Daniel and I will be joining you both shortly."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Lou said softly to himself as he glanced at the nearly full moon in the sky. "What did they do to you Jack?"

The sounds of someone stumbling blindly though the forest in a hurry, snapped Ferretti out of his study of the moon. With skill that had been drilled into him for years, Lou started to move silently towards his target using the shadows to hide his presence.

Silently, he positioned himself so that the target would pass him if it continued on the same hurried path from Jack's cabin. A mumbled curse from what sounded like the young teen alerted the Major to the target’s position.

Holding his breath, Lou waited for the boy to be slightly in front of his hiding position before grabbing and pulling the boy towards him.

The boy didn't shout or call for help as Lou had expected him to do when caught by an unknown. Instead the boy went limp for a moment before suddenly starting to fight like a demon against Ferretti’s hold; biting, kicking, scratching, doing whatever he need to make Lou let go.

"Hold still, kid," Ferretti growled as he tried to restrain the teen without hurting him. "I'm not going to hurt you."

A menacing growl from the left of their position caused Major Ferretti and the kid to freeze in place. Almost as one they turned and looked in the direction the noise had come from. They saw a pair of glowing blue eyes about two and a half to three feet off the ground and slightly below them were a set of shiny white teeth. The creature growled once again at them

"Oh shit," Lou exclaimed as he pushed the boy behind him and drew his gun.

~*~

Daniel and Sam moved slowly through the woods around Jack’s cabin. The flashlights in their hands allowed them to keep track of each other’s positions. Teal’c kept them apprised of what he had found so far as he followed the dog’s tracks. What worried Daniel was that Teal’c was still reporting no sign of any tracks for Jack and the animal tracks seemed to be following the kid. They were able to hear the faint sounds of someone moving hastily through the woods. They also heard someone swearing as they apparently encountered an unexpected obstacle. Daniel kept moving in the direction of those sounds and noted out of the corner of his eye, Sam was doing the same thing.

All of a sudden the sounds they were following ceased, causing Daniel to freeze in place, uncertain of what was going on. A moment later he heard something growl and then he heard the words ‘oh shit’. The voice sounded like Lou’s. He started moving in Lou’s direction worried that the animal Teal’c reported tracking, had found Ferretti. A moment later his fears were confirmed by the sound of gunfire.

Another growl followed by a shout galvanized Daniel and had him rushing toward the sound shouting "Lou!"

~*~

As the words 'Oh shit' escaped him mouth a number of things happened at once. The first being that Ferretti pulled his gun and was swinging it around to face the creature.

The second thing to happen between heartbeats was for the creature to crouch down and then spring at Lou as a mass of black fur and teeth.

With the creature attacking him, Lou swung his gun up into firing position, hoping to get a shot off before it could complete its attack. The boy Ferretti was trying to protect suddenly grabbed hold of Ferretti's arm, pulling the gun away from the creature.

With a 'Oof' the black beast landed on Lou, forcing him to the ground, and his finger twitched on the trigger sending a single bullet into the night sky.

As Ferretti slammed into the ground with the massive weight of the dog on his chest, knocking the breath out of him, his gun slipped out of his fingers to land someplace unseen.

"Lou!"

The shout of Lou's name cause the beast to stop, its teeth just inches away from Ferretti's face and the boy to take off once again into the forest.

The creature remained on Lou's chest as it looked in the direction the voice had come from and then in the direction the boy has gone. The dog looked back again to where the voice had come from and heard the sounds of more people coming closer. Letting out a pitiful whine, the dog bounded off after the boy.

Coughing weakly, Lou forced air back into his lungs as he watched the beast go after the helpless kid.

~*~

Daniel found Lou a few moments later, still trying to get to his feet. Teal’c and Sam found them, just as Daniel had gotten Ferretti back on his feet.

Still trying to recover his breath, Ferretti coughed out "Teal’c, when you said it was a big dog you weren’t kidding. That thing felt like a car when it landed on me and it has big teeth… lots of big teeth."

"What happened, Major?" Carter wanted to know.

"I caught the kid, and he was fighting me, when we both heard something growl. Saw a pair of glowing blue eyes looking at us." Ferretti told them. "I shoved the kid behind me and reached for my gun when that thing growled again. I started to take a shot as soon as it came out of the shadows, but the kid jerked my arm, spoiling my chance at getting a shot off. Then Cujo landed me before I had a chance to get another shot off. It felt like I’d been hit by a car when it knocked me to the ground. The kid took off and the dog followed him."

"Then we need to find the kid before that dog does." Daniel commented. "Whoever Jack is protecting that kid from probably trained it to go after him."

"We need to find the Colonel as well." Carter reminded them, scanning the surrounding forest all senses on alert. "Did any of you see him?"

All three men shook their heads.

"I think we need to find the kid first. Jack knows how to take care of himself and it looks like the kid doesn’t." Daniel reminded them. "Once we find him, we can keep him with us as we search for Jack."

"I agree," Teal’c nodded. "At the moment it would appear as though the child is in more danger from the dog. Once we have him where we can keep an eye on him, we can concentrate our search on O’Neill instead of having to split our resources."

Carter and Ferretti nodded. It was the most sensible thing to do, since they had no idea where O’Neill was, but Ferretti did have a direction on where the unknown teen had gone.

~*~

It was a tree root that finally stopped Harry's mad escape through the forest, catching his foot and sending him to the ground, twisting his ankle even further. Fortunately, for him, it wasn’t broken, even though it was painful to put any weight on it.

Hobbling along the best he could, Harry tried to put as much distance between the man who’d grabbed him in the woods and the creature he was afraid to name.

Unfortunately any further hopes of escape were dashed when he stepped wrong and his twisted ankle gave out on him, sending him crashing to the ground again.

Harry sat on the ground his hands wrapped around the bruised ankle, rocking back and forth, as if to beg for it to get better now. His breath hitched with a mix of frustration and pain.

Not one to give up, Harry started looking around for branch or something to help him continue his escape before someone or something found him. Unfortunately, the something found him first. He heard it whine.

In the shadow of a massive tree was the same pair of blue eyes of the creature that had attacked the stranger who had grabbed him. Harry started to madly grab around for anything he could use to defend himself, while his eyes never strayed from the creature.

As Harry's hand wrapped around a rock he could use as a weapon the creature slowly stepped out of the shadows revealing itself to be a huge grim-like dog.

Harry sat motionless as he stared at a creature that was almost identical to the Sirius' Animagus form.

The Grim lowered it's front legs so that only it's hind end was up in the air, it's tail wagging madly almost like the beast was trying to say 'come play with me'.

"Siri… Sirius?" Harry whispered softly as if afraid that this is only a dream.

The creature replied with a friendly sort of bark.

Harry stared at the creature in shock as the color drained from his face; the rock tumbled out of his hand onto the ground.

With a concerned whine the dog lowered it's rear end and crawled over to Harry. Licking Harry's hand, it whined for him to respond.

"Sirius?" Harry said once again his voice breaking with unshed tears as he started to touch the animal as if to make sure it was not a dream.

The dog whined once again as it pressed its cold nose against Harry's cheek before giving him a slobbery kiss on the same cheek.

"Sirius!" Harry cried out as he wrapped his arms around the massive dog, burying his face in the black fur as his body was wracked with muffled sobs.

Harry let out all the emotions he had buried since his godfather's death, while the animal suffered through it silently. The only time the animal moved was when Teal'c stepped out of the sheltering shadows.

~*~

"Is your dog’s name Sirius?" Teal’c made no move to come closer to the pair, not wanting to arouse the dog’s protective instincts. "He is a very determined protector and seems to be very loyal to you."

The large shaggy dog looked up at Teal’c and sneezed.

Harry started in surprised at Teal’c’s low rumbly voice. He couldn’t let this man take him or Sirius. How could he have forgotten they were in danger? He had to get Sirius out of here!

"Captain Carter, Major Ferretti, DanielJackson," Teal’c contacted the others who were out there searching. "I have located the boy and the dog. The dog apparently belongs to him as it seems to be protecting him."

"Any sign of Colonel O’Neill?" Carter wanted to know.

"No," Teal’c told them as he watched the boy and dog. "The boy appears to be injured. I do not believe he will be able to keep up with us. I suggest we return him to the cabin. Then Major Ferretti and I can continue searching for O’Neill."

Hearing the big man’s intentions towards him, Harry tugged on Sirius’ fur trying to get the dog’s attention. Once he had it, he hissed, "We have to get out of here. We can’t let them take you."

Sirius pulled away from him and took up a position halfway between Teal’c and Harry. He then did something that totally surprised Harry. Lowering the front half of his body to the ground while keeping his rear end in the air the dog yipped at the black man and wagged his tail as begging the man to play with him.

"Sirius!" Harry hissed unable to believe that Sirius could be this foolish. They didn’t know who this man was. Why was he acting like he could trust him.

"I mean you no harm," Teal’c told the young man. "Colonel O’Neill brought you here to protect you from something and that is all I and my companions want to do as well."

Harry looked back and forth between Teal'c and Sirius. "Jack lied to me. He told me something that I know perfectly well now is a lie," Harry said. "He kidnapped me from my home, from my country. Why should I trust you?"

"I know O’Neill very well." Teal’c countered, seemingly unperturbed by the boy’s anger. "While he has been known to lie on occasion, it is never without good reason. Also while I do not know what it is you think he lied to you about, I do believe he brought you here for your protection. Maybe you should give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves unworthy of your trust."

"I've been told that before." Harry hissed. "I'm been told to trust people for my own good before and you know what happened? I'm the one who ends up fighting for my life, or getting tortured by people who are supposed to be my allies"

Teal’c decided he needed to make a show of trust on his part in an effort to get the boy to believe him. Kneeling down he extended his hand toward the dog and waited to see what it would do. The dog the boy had called Sirius, trotted over without hesitation and licked Teal’c’s hand. Then he leapt forward and gave the man a sloppy doggie kiss.

"If you will not trust my words, will you not trust your dog’s instincts?" Teal’c inquired.

Harry chewed on his bottom lip as he looked back and forth between the unnamed man and Sirius. "I don't like this," Harry said. "I don't like being at a disadvantage. Too many unknowns."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at Harry's statement. "I do not know anyone who would be comfortable if they were in a situation similar to yours," Teal'c replied.

Harry snorted.

Sirius looked back and forth between Teal'c and Harry before grabbing the sleeve of Teal'c shirt and started to drag him to Harry.

"It appears that your dog wishes us to be friends," Teal'c said as he allowed the dog to drag him closer to the boy.

Harry scooted back a few inches. "One word, Sirius… Wormtail."

As Harry said that one word, Sirius released Teal'c shirt and dropped to his belly. Whining the whole way, Sirius crawled towards Harry his blue eyes seem to have grow wider as they begged for forgiveness.

When the dog was within reach Harry pulled it towards him, holding on tight. "I'm sorry, Sirius. I shouldn’t have said that but I don't know what to do. I don't know who to trust anymore; not after what the Dumbledore told me."

At the mention of Dumbledore's name Sirius began to growl; Harry pulled back in alarm. Seeing that had scared Harry, Sirius started to whine once again and gently licked Harry's face, asking for forgiveness.

Harry pulled Sirius towards him once again like a small child holding his stuffed animal when upset. Looking over at the man, Harry said, "What's your name?"

"I go by many names," Teal'c replied. "Many know me as Murray however you can call me Teal'c."

"Teal'c?" Harry said to which the man simply nodded his head.

"And what may I address you as?" Teal'c asked as if he knew the boy would probably not give him his real name.

"James," Harry said tentatively.

Teal'c nodded his head. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance, James," he said. "However, I think it would be best if we returned to O'Neill's cabin at this time. Your ankle may need medical attention and it appears that O'Neill is missing."

Sirius sneezed once again and then let out a whine.

Teal'c and Harry both looked at Sirius questioningly.

"Your dog is very intelligent," Teal'c said as he studied the animal. "Do you think it's possible he could lead me to O'Neill?"

"Sirius, do you know where Jack is?" Harry asked.

Sirius lay down on the ground and covered his eyes with his paws.

Before either of them could figure Sirius’ strange actions out, three others stepped out of the trees.

"I see you found the kid," Ferretti commented.

Teal’c rose to his feet and said, "I found James and his dog Sirius."

"Hello James," Daniel knelt so he was on a level with the seated teenager. "We heard a little of your conversation with Teal’c and while I understand that you don’t trust us or Jack right now, I hope you will give us a chance to earn your trust, because we really don’t mean you any harm. My name is Daniel Jackson by the way. That’s Major Ferretti," he pointed out the other unknown man. "And," pointing to the blond woman, he said, "That is Captain Samantha Carter."

"Hello," Harry nodded cautiously to them.

"So the devil dog belongs to you huh, James?" Ferretti couldn’t resist commenting. The dog was bigger than he’d thought and might be the stuff of nightmares if someone were drunk enough.

"No, actually, Sirius belongs to my godfather, who’s an escaped mass murderer." Harry countered, glaring at Ferretti for his devil dog comment.

"And you are actually proud that your godfather is a mass murderer?" Daniel questioned certain the teenager was joking.

Harry shrugged. "Everyone needs a hobby."

Daniel stood there staring at the teenager still waiting for the punchline to the joke, and when it didn’t come he started to get a little worried.

"How many people is he supposed to have killed?" Ferretti asked also certain the kid was joking.

"Thirteen, unless you count my parents." Harry told them matter-of-factly. "He likes things that go bang. Me, I’ve only got two to my name, almost had three. Give me enough time and I will probably beat his record. At least that’s what people keep telling me."

Sirius whimpered and covered his eyes again. The last thing he wanted was for his teammates to think he was a crazed mass murderer. He was going to have a hard enough time trying to explain to them how he could turn into a dog. He’d forgotten he could do it, until he had set off in pursuit of Harry, and now he was stuck because he couldn’t remember how to transform back. The switch to his Grim form had been instinctive, but he had yet to regain the memories of how to get back to his human form.

"It would appear that Sirius knows where O’Neill is." Teal’c commented diverting their attention from the prospect that the boy was claiming to be a serial killer in training.

"He does?" the blond haired man looked pleased by that news from what Harry could tell.

Harry shrugged again. "I’m not sure. He whimpers every time Jack’s name is mentioned. He may know something, then again he may not."

Sirius gave a doggie sigh and nudged Harry slightly so that he rolled onto his side. Before Harry could recover, Sirius grabbed Harry’s wand with his teeth and pulled it out of the back pocket of his jeans.

Harry batted him on the nose making him drop it. "What are you thinking? You know the rules."

Sirius whimpered at the pain from the swat on the nose before nudging the wand with his nose.

"What rules are you talking about?" Carter demanded. "What is that stick? Does it have something to do with Jack’s disappearance?"

Harry glared at the dog. "Now you’ve done it. What am I supposed to do now?"

Sirius nudged the wand again.

Harry looked from the wand to the people around him gauging the distances and trying to figure out how many stunning curses he could get off.

Sirius growled as if reading his mind and shook his shaggy head.

"Then what?" Harry snapped.

Sirius nudged the wand again, while whining pitifully.

"I don't get it, Sirius," Harry said. "What do you want me to do?"

"Maybe he wants you to throw the stick," Lou commented as he watched the kid warily.

Harry just rolled his eyes in typically teenage fashion.

Sirius let out a frustrated snort before touching Harry's hand with his nose then touching his paw and then once again Harry's hand, finally he touched the wand.

Harry looked at the spot on his hand that Sirius had touched then at Sirius then back at his hand.

"You're stuck?" Harry asked cautiously.

Sirius immediately started barking and bouncing around happily.

"How in hell did you get stuck?" Harry asked in confusion as he watched the dog act like a hyperactive Chihuahua.

Harry's question had the same effect as a bucket of cold water. Sirius immediately sat down on his hindquarters; his tail tucked in between his legs and a forlorn expression on his face.

Harry simply shook his head at the sudden change in the dog's behavior before looking down at his wand and then at those gathered around them.

"I can't…"

The words had hardly left Harry's lip before Sirius was on his feet, his lips curled back as he snarled at the teen. The members of SGC reached for their weapons as the teen tried to back away from the snarling beast.

"I can't Sirius," Harry said in his defense. "It's against the rules."

The dog started to bark and growl at the boy almost as if he was chewing the boy out.

"Okay! Okay!" Harry shouted, holding his hands out. "I'll do it!"

Sirius immediately settled down and actually let out a snort of satisfaction.

Harry looked over at the four strangers, then down at the dog. Pointing the wand at the dog, Harry said, "If I get expelled for this you are in so much trouble! And I don't want to think what Moony is going to do to you. And don’t think I won't tell him! Restituo Ut Humanus."

"Restore to human?" Daniel automatically translated what the teenager had said. "Why would you say that to a dog?"

As the four adults watched, a beam of light shot from the stick, striking Sirius who hadn’t moved out of the way. The next thing the people from SGC saw was a sight that they would not quickly forget. The dog seemed to melt and grow at the same time. A few moments later the dog was gone and Colonel Jack O’Neill was standing before his team.

Daniel had fallen on his butt with a thump, while Carter simply stared at him saying, "That’s not possible."

"Of course it is Carter. It’s magic," O’Neill said with a smirk, enjoying the sight of Daniel rendered speechless.

~*~

Post Notes: Due to readers' demand, we have now included the Magic 8 Ball of Doom to our writing tools. So when we have to decide the fate of a character or if we should end the chapter at a nasty cliffie, we will turn to the Magic 8 Ball of Doom (unless the Magic 8 Ball of Doom can't decide and then we'll use the All Knowing Coin)

And yes people the Magic 8 Ball of Doom decided to leave you with this chapter's cliffie.

And I think both are gonna drive the Beta to distraction.. with their Magic Ball and Coin.

Daniel had fallen on his butt with a thump, while Carter simply stared at him saying, "That’s not possible."

"Of course it is Carter. It’s magic," O’Neill said with a smirk, enjoying the sight of Daniel being rendered speechless.

"So you're a werewolf now?" Lou said as he watched Jack wearily.

Jack rolled his eyes. "No, but if you want, I can introduce you to Moony. Isn't that right kid," Jack said as he turned his attention to Harry who was staring up at him with wide eyes.

"Moony?"

"Yep," Jack replied with a fond smile. "One of my best friends from before."

"Before what, Jack?" Daniel asked as he climbed to him feet brushing leaves and dirt from his clothes.

"Before Jack," Jack told them as he knelt down so he was could look Harry in the eyes easier. "So do you believe me now?"

Harry stared at Jack for a moment. "Moony is so going to kill you."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Jack shrugged his shoulders before he checked out Harry's twisted ankle.

"O'Neill." Teal'c spoke up from where he was standing guard to make sure nothing snuck up on their group. "I am confused. Several people have told me about the legends of someone cursed to change from a human to a canine are just stories to scare people and yet you appear to be able to do so though you claim that you are not a werewolf. How is this possible?"

Harry spoke up before Jack had a chance to reply. "The stories are true, though werewolves only change under the light of the full moon and they don’t have any control over their actions. Besides Sirius… I mean Jack is more like a Grim than a werewolf. And since there is no full moon, we don’t have to worry about it."

"Grim?" Lou asked nervously as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other while trying to keep an eye on O’Neill and the surrounding woods at the same time. "For some reason that doesn't fill me with a warm and comfortable feeling."

"In European mythology, a Grim was said to be a large spectral hound. Sometimes reported to have large glowing eyes and sometimes not, but one thing all the legends agree on is that a Grim is somehow a guardian of the underworld. That distinction is probably linked to the legends of Anubis, who was said to be guardian of the Underworld and who is depicted in wall paintings in Egypt as a jackal or dog. To some the Grim was even considered to be a protector or a sign of good luck while others saw its appearance as a sign of a death… often a violent death." Daniel informed the group. "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is believed to have modeled the Hound of the Baskervilles on the legend of the Grim."

"So… Jack is a death hound," Lou reduced all that information down into simpler terms.

"Nope, I can just look like one, when I want to." Jack said as he cradled Harry in his arms and picked him up. Stumbling slightly because he’d overestimated Harry’s weight, Jack looked at his godson and commented, "Kiddo we really need to fatten you up."

"But how?" Sam sputtered. "It's physically impossible. The mass difference alone would make impossible."

"Fattening Harry up?" Jack looked at Carter in disbelief. "I’m sure a few good meals would be a start."

"No Sir. I mean yes Sir." Captain Carter stumbled over her words, realizing that she and the Colonel were thinking of two different things. "I was referring to the mass difference involved in changing from a human to a canine. You can’t just lose mass and suddenly gain it back, sir. It’s scientifically impossible to do."

"What can I say," Jack said with a shrug as he started to the cabin. "They did it in Transformers."

"That’s a cartoon show, Sir," Sam exclaimed in disgust. "You can hardly base real life on things you see in a child's cartoon."

"Just like the Star Trek transporter is similar to a ring device." Jack pointed out reasonably. "Or how about "The Mirror" and that show you like so much, what was the name of it…"

"I believe you mean Sliders, O’Neill." Teal’c supplied the name of the show as he walked behind the rest of SG-1 watching their six.

"But that's completely different, Sir," Carter countered. "I mean at least those shows are partially based on reality. They are based on credible science, not the imagination of some writers."

"What about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?" Daniel pointed out reasonably. "She introduced the idea of organ transplants long before they were made reality. And what about Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea? He introduced the world to the electronic submarine and deep sea diving suit."

"Those things existed beforehand or were being theorized by the scientists of the day." Carter countered. "The writers only borrowed those ideas for their books."

"They’re worse than Ron and Hermione." Harry grumbled softly as he was carried along.

Jack simply nodded his head as he started to hum the Transformer theme song.

"DanielJackson," Teal'c said. "What is this TV show called Transformers?"

~*~

As Daniel held the cabin door open, Jack carried Harry inside and set him down on the old couch, in the main room of the cabin. Putting his hands in the small of his back, Jack straightened up with a groan. "You may be underweight but you're still heavy."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Harry glared up at Jack. "Well, you were the one who decided to carry me the whole way," he pointed out. "I could have walked back to the cabin."

Jack let out a snort before walking over to the kitchen cabinet where he kept his first aid kit. "And if Poppy or Janet heard that I let you walk on an injured ankle I would be a dead man."

"Who's Poppy?" Daniel asked, looking back and forth between Harry and Jack.

"An evil evil woman," Jack answered as he carried the first aid kit over to Harry.

Harry looked over at Daniel and the others. "My school’s nurse."

"Jack, you're scared of a school nurse," Lou said teasingly as he sat down slowly in the nearest chair, favoring his left side.

A shiver ran through both Harry and Jack. "Yes!" They said in unison.

"Try to imagine an older version of Janet, who just happens to have more disturbing ways of treating her patients than simple needles." Jack explained as he tossed Lou a bottle of Tylenol.

"Poppy even scares Snape and most of the school is convinced he's a day-walking vampire," Harry chimed in.

"Vampires are real?" Lou asked nervously as he tried to swallow the Tylenol dry.

"Why Lou, I didn't know you were superstitious," Jack said teasingly as he wrapped an ace bandage around Harry's ankle.

Major Ferretti rolled his eyes. "I'm not," he stated. "I just want to be prepared for the unknown, especially when you're involved. All the really weird shit happens to you."

"I haven't met a vampire yet but I know they exist," Harry chimed in. "So do werewolves, ghost, trolls…"

Carter snorted in disgust finally reaching the point where she could no longer remain silent. "Those are all misidentified creatures or peoples who are suffer from some unnamed disease or genetic condition."

Jack and Harry looked at each other, identical smiles on their faces. Anyone who had known Sirius Black and James Potter during their time at Hogwarts would have been very worried that they had just been pranked. Especially if they had seen those twin smiles.

"Moony?" Harry wondered, nodding towards the blonde Captain.

"Moony," Jack quickly agreed with his choice. "Possibly Hagrid."

Harry nodded in agreement then with an evil grin, he suggested "Could introduce her to Peeves?" Let’s see her try to rationalize a poltergeist.

Jack tapped his fingers against his chin, looking thoughtful. "Tempting. Very tempting, but I’m not sure Peeves would be the best choice. Though I would love to introduce Peeves to Kinsey."

"And who are these people, O'Neill," Teal'c said as he eyed O'Neill warily, no longer completely sure he could trust the man he once considered to be his friend, his shield brother.

Colonel O'Neill looked up at his old friend having caught the undertones of distrust in Teal'c voice and understanding the reasons behind them even if he did not like them. "They're people I know from before, back when I was Sirius," Jack explained. "They're people I would trust with Harry's life, even Charlie's, if he were still alive... Well maybe not Peeves."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at O'Neill's words. "And why would you not trust Peeves?"

"Dumblejerk too much of a threat to Peeves for him to risk pissing the old man off," Jack replied. "And the fact that he's a practical joking poltergeist with a weirder sense of humor than me or rather Sirius doesn't help either."

"I didn't think anyone but the Bloody Baron could truly control Peeves," Harry commented. "At least that’s what I always heard around school."

Jack nodded his head. "Dumblejerk normally lets him get away with stuff but Peeves knows if he pushes it too far the old man can always exorcise him."

"Ghosts and poltergeist don't exist," Sam stated with conviction, not understanding why her commanding officer was continuing to play this stupid joke. "Besides we need to return to SGC immediately. General Hammond's orders. We were able to learn from Maybourne that the NID are veryinterested in talking to you, Sir."

"Maybourne? What does he have to do with this?" Jack demanded.

Daniel rubbed his nose for a moment before saying, "After the Sheriff reported your cabin was vandalized and your jeep was wrecked, Hammond sent us up here to check on you. We found Maybourne here, going through your stuff."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "And why was he looking for me?"

"His employers were curious to see how much you remembered…" Daniel glanced over at Harry, "from that trip you took last month."

Jack's eyes narrowed, his hands curled into fist at the thought of Maybourne or any member of NID going through his cabin. "I see," he said before starting to move around the cabin gathering up the few unpacked things and the shopping bags full of things he’d bought for Harry.

"Colonel," Carter chose her next words carefully. "There is also the matter of," Carter glanced over to where Harry sat on the couch, "of the young man?"

O'Neill looked at his friends immediately on the defensive. "What do you mean?"

"We can't take the kid to the base, Jack. You remember this little thing call security." Lou stated bluntly with a nod of his head toward Harry, who was watching them silently. "There's also the problem of you kidnapping him from the land of tea and crumpets, not to mention god awful tweed suits."

"I didn't kidnap him," Jack snapped.

"Yes you did!" Harry snapped. "You kidnapped me from the train. You shot me with something while I was in the loo!"

Jack walked over to a travel bag that was sitting next to the door. He quickly opened it and pulled some papers out. "I didn't kidnap you," he said smugly as he held the papers out to Harry.

Snatching the papers, Harry quickly began reading them. His eyes opened wider and wider as he realized what the papers meant. Once he reread the last sentence for the third time, Harry sat there in stunned silence before saying in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "You're my guardian… really?"

Jack nodded his head, a hopeful smile on his face. "But only if you want me kid. If you don't, I'm sure we can find someone who's willing to take you in. Someone who is not under Dumblejerk's thumb."

Stealing the papers from Harry, Lou gave them a quick once over. "Right, so you’re the kid’s legal guardian, but that doesn't change the fact that we can't take him to the base."

"I know," Jack growled as he ran his hand through his hair. "But I don't have anyplace safe to leave him. Right now if Dumblejerk finds Harry he'll hide him so I can't find him again or worse."

"I can take care of myself." Harry mumbled to himself, just like any rebellious teen.

"Why not take him to my house?" Lou offered, noting but ignoring Harry’s mumbling like he occasionally did with his own kids. If they wanted it heard they would say it again and louder. "He'll be safe there plus he would have Sara and the kids."

"I don’t think that would be a good idea unless you want them dead." Harry said softly.

Ferretti's hands curled into fists, his eyes changing from a kind prankster to that of a hardened killer. "And what do you mean by that?"

Jack sighed as he sat down next to Harry on the couch. "Exactly what he meant. There are a number of people after Harry. There’s Dumblejerk and his Order who just want to control him and turn him into some type of weapon. And then there the other group that just wants to kill him… in the slowest most painful way imaginable."

"And let’s not forget the Ministry who just wants me to disappear," Harry commented. "Permanently."

"Fuck kid! Don't you have anyone of your side?" Lou asked.

Jack raised his hand.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Plus a couple friends at school but they're more than likely to listen to Dumbledore first."

"Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?" Carter asked, unable to wrap her mind around what the Colonel and Harry were saying.

"I wish it were," Jack sighed. "Ever since he defeated Moldyshorts when he was still a baby, his life has been controlled by either Dumblejerk or the Ministry. And then you have his life being threaten almost daily by Moldyshorts and his merry band of psychos."

"Moldyshorts?" Daniel‘s eyebrow shot up at the odd name. "What kind of name is that? Why would he or she attack Harry when he was a baby?"

"Look," Jack said as he rubbed his forehead as if to stave off a headache, "why doesn't someone call Hammond to see what he can do about providing a safe place for Harry. Once we're at the base, I'll explain everything."

"I'll do it." Lou got out of his chair with a hiss. Shooting Jack a look that promised revenge later, he headed for the door of Jack's cabin office.

The members of SG-1 looked at Harry and Jack with different levels of curiosity, but they restrained themselves since Jack had promised to explain everything later.

Sighing, Jack turned to Harry and asked. "So what happened after my death?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on Bella but it didn't work. Got possessed by Voldemort. Dumbledore finally decided to tell me the prophecy. Not much, just the usual crap fest."

Jack nodded his head, not really surprised by what Harry told him. He’d sort of expected it. He’d noticed some time ago that the Karma Fairies seemed to spend a lot of time crapping on his life and those of his friends and family Then he asked curious, "Has the Ministry at least gotten off its bloody fucking ass and declared me innocent yet?"

Harry shook his head no.

Jack sighed. "Good thing I went to Gringotts then."

"Why is that, Jack?" Daniel finally gave into his curiosity.

Jack shook his head. "I'll explain at SGC, Daniel."

"A bit like Hermione?" Harry whispered with a slight nod toward Daniel.

"More like Moony. Carter," Jack nodded toward the blond woman who even now was jotting down notes on a piece of paper, "is more like Hermione."

"Right. Scary but brilliant," Harry replied as he watched the Captain.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at the young man's accurate description of Major Carter even though he had never met her before today.

As Jack and Harry spoke quietly to each other, Lou slipped back into the room. "The General didn't like it but he agreed to let Harry come to the base but he's going to be under guard the whole time."

Jack nodded his head, not really surprised by that condition. Harry was an unknown after all. He would’ve insisted on it himself, If someone else had tried to do the same thing. At least Harry wasn’t going to be too far away and that’s what counted. "Alright."

"The General also said that both of you are restricted to the visitor and medical levels," he announced. "You're security clearance has been rescinded until you're been cleared by the Doc."

Jack let out a wearily sigh. "Yeah, I kind of figured on that."

"I believe it would be best if we left as soon as possible," Teal'c suggested. "Those after O'Neill and HarryPotter would most likely use the hours of darkness to try to retrieve them."

"Can't disagree with you on that Teal'c," Jack said with a smile. "I guess it's time to load up campers."

~*~

"Colonel O'Neill, back so soon." Dr. Janet Fraiser did not look happy as the man walked into Fraiser's territory.

It was a well-known fact that Dr. Frasier hated working with minimal information. She was therefore understandably annoyed by General Hammond’s order to give Colonel O’Neill and the young man accompanying him the same level of physical that someone returning from off-world would receive. She couldn’t understand what kind of trouble O’Neill could have gotten into on Earth that would require a complete check-up to determine if he were now a threat to the people of the Earth.

"And what have you been up to that require you to be given a complete physical?" she demanded as she nodded her head towards one of the beds.

"You're right," a young voice came from behind the Colonel. "She is a younger version of Madam Pomfrey."

"But with needles," Jack added giving the doctor his most charming smile in hopes of avoiding said needles. "Big honking needles."

"And you must be Harry Potter," Fraiser said in a kinder softer tone as she looked the thin boy over with a professional eye.

"Yes ma'am," Harry said a slight blush on his check.

A quick smile flashed across Fraiser's face. "Up on the bed, young man."

Harry nodded his head before hobbling past her.

"What happened to your leg, Harry?" Janet said as she glared at the M.P. who had accompanied the Colonel and the boy for not aiding the young man.

"Just twisted my ankle, ma’am," Harry replied as he seem to curl up on himself. "It's nothing to be concerned about."

"I'll be the one to make that decision, Mr. Potter," Fraiser replied.

~*~

"Jack," There was a warning note in Hammond’s voice as he walked into the room. "You have a lot of explaining to do and it better be good."

Jack rocked back and forth on his feet. "Yes sir, I realize that."

Hammond nodded his head at Jack's comment. "Be seated," he orders as he sits down at the head of the table. "Now before you begin, Colonel, I think it might be best if Dr. Fraiser gives her report."

If Dr. Fraiser's eyes were weapons at this moment they would be set on kill instead of stun. "First, I would like to know if the Colonel knows where Harry's guardians are, sir?"

Hammond eyes widened slightly at the anger in the doctor's voice. "And why would you like to know that Doctor?"

"Because the boy shows all the classic signs of physical, emotional and mental abuse," the doctor growled. "And I intend to report those animals if no one else ever has."

"It has been reported before," Colonel O'Neill said softly, "but the reports were quietly covered up. Can't mold a weapon if it's happy and well centered."

Everyone in the room could hear Dr. Fraiser's teeth grind against each other. "And you had knowledge of this?" she said in a deadly calm voice.

"Yes and no," Colonel replied.

"I think you better explain right now, Colonel," General Hammond warned, feeling just as angry as the good doctor toward someone who would abuse a child, not to mention the animals that would allow it to be covered up.

"It's all pretty confusing Sir, so I think it might be best if I started at the very beginning," Jack said.

Hammond nodded his head. "That might be a good idea, son."

"It all began back on June 4, 1960 when Sirius Black was born…." Jack started his tale.

It was nearly an hour later when Colonel O'Neill was finishing his tale of Sirius Black. "… and he fell through the Veil of Death."

"While that is very interesting I don't see how that pertain to the matter at hand," Hammond commented.

"I'm getting there, Sir," Jack assured the General as he ran a hand through his short hair.

"O'Neill, at the cabin you mentioned that you trusted certain people when you were serious," Teal'c said. "Am I correct in assuming you mean when you were this Sirius Black?"

Jack smiled at the old joke as he nodded his head. "I think the Veil might be an Ancient device, sir," he said as he turned to Hammond. "I was reborn as Jonathan O'Neill and until I returned from the Asgaurd home planet I never had any memories of being Sirius Black."

Hammond sat back in his seat and stared at his 2nd in command. "And that is why you retrieved Mr. Potter from the United Kingdom."

"Yes sir. Along with securing my... I mean Sirius's vaults," O'Neill replied.

"And why was that important?" General Hammond demanded.

"Sirius was the head of the Black family and therefore had control of the family's money and valuables," Jack explained. "I didn't want my cousin getting control over the money and using it for the war. There was also the fact that one of my ancestors was very interested in Egyptian artifacts."

Like a puppy hearing the word play, Daniel perked up just at the words Egyptian artifacts. "Artifacts? Do you know from what period in Egyptian history? What about their conditions? Are they in an environmentally controlled area?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "They're fine, Daniel. I know for a fact that the Blacks pay extra to make sure nothing happens to any of the items in the vaults."

"When was the last time you checked on them?" Daniel ignored his reassurance, given that Jack’s idea of fine and his were miles apart. "It's always possible that one of the people taking care of them may not be doing it properly."

"The one thing I know for sure about the goblins, is they never screw things up when it comes to money," Jack commented. "If they said it would be safe then it will be. Besides some of the stuff is over 5000 years old, Daniel and I'm sure if it can survive in hot and dry Egypt then it can survive in dark and dank England."

Daniel let out a whimper of pain at the words dark and dank.

"Goblins? You mean like in Lord of the Rings goblins" Lou interrupted before Dr Jackson could start his rant over the care some people took with the world’s antiquities.

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Besides being fierce but honorable warriors, they run the banks in the wizarding world. One thing every witch and wizard knows is that you can't cheat or fool a goblin and if you are stupid enough to try, you won’t live for very long afterwards."

"Are they Aliens?" Hammond asked with a thoughtful expression.

Jack stopped and thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, sir. Everything I remember points to them being from Earth but I guess it’s possible."

"O'Neill if you say it is not possible to fool these creature then how did you convince them that you are SiriusBlack reborn," Teal'c asked.

A shiver ran through Jack's body. "Pain. Lots of pain."

~*~

Whistling softly, Colonel Jack O'Neill jogged up the stone steps to Gringotts. Passing a guard at the door, Jack nodded his head happily to the goblin before getting in line.

After what seemed like eternity Jack finally found himself facing the goblin teller. "Hiya," Jack said cheerfully earning himself a goblin’s scowl. "I have some private business I need to conduct."

The goblin half heartily glared at Jack for a moment before raising his hand into the air and waved it around for a moment. Lowering his hand, the goblin asked with contempt, "What do you want, human?"

"I need to access my vaults," Jack said with a cocky grin.

The goblin sighed wearily, "Key," he asked as he held out his hand.

Jack rubbed the back of his head. "Well you see I don't have my key. And this isn't my original body."

"Do tell," the goblin replied dryly.

"Well you see I kind of died, I guess, and then I was reborn in this body," Jack replied.

"And how did you kind of die?" There was no emotion evident in the goblin’s voice.

"Umm," Jack shuffled in place under the goblin's stare, "well I was kind of fighting my cousin and I kindofgotknockedbackintotheVeil."

The goblin stared at Jack for a moment before sighing once again. "Follow me," he ordered, leaving his desk.

Jack trailed behind as the goblin lead him to a door on the fall wall. Knocking only once the goblin opened the door and stepped in, leaving it open for Jack to step through.

"What do you want?" an older goblin demanded, never looking up from the papers he was bent over.

"This wizard claims to have been reborn and he wants access to his previous vaults," the goblin explained.

The older looked up from the papers, his beady eyes targeting immediately onto Jack. "Really," he said in a drawn out tone. "We haven't had a case like that since that Ed Becera who claimed to be Lancelot du Lac reincarnated. Very interesting fellow for a human."

Jack shuffled in place as the older goblin continued to stare at him.

After what seems like forever the older goblin turned his attention back to his papers. "I'm assuming you wish to have you soul and magic tested."

"Umm… tested?" Jack asks nervously.

The goblin glanced up briefly. "You do want access to the vaults you are claiming to be yours, do you not?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do," Jack licked his lips, "so how do we go about it?"

Much later, Jack sat in the only chair in the room, a heavy blanket wrapped around him as he shivered violently.

"Congratulation on surviving, Mr. O'Neill or do you prefer Mr. Black," the older goblin asked as he bared his teeth at Jack in a form that was meant to be a smile.

"O'Neill will do," Jack replied as he huddled under the blanket.

The goblin nodded his head, accepting Jack's decision. "We have some matters to discuss before you can visit the Black vaults."

"Matters? What matters?" Jack asked through his shivering blue lips. "And can I get something warm to drink? Please."

"Of course," the goblin replied before nodding to a very young goblin who quickly scuttled away. "Now there is the matter of your will or I should say that of Sirius Black's will."

"Yeah," Jack said as he accepted a cup of hot cider from the young goblin that appeared next to him, "I left almost everything to Harry and Moony. Moony helped me update it. He got it to you after all. But I take it that it hasn't been read yet?"

"Not yet. However Dumbledore has requested that the will would be read as soon as possible," the older goblin replied.

"Right," Jack said to himself, "so I have to rewrite my will… I can do that can't I? I mean rewrite my will and back date it?"

"For a fee, of course," the goblin replied with grin full of sharp pointed teeth.

"Right. Umm, I'm going to need a pen and paper," Jack commented. "And can we do anything to delay its being read?"

The goblin's grin grew larger.

~*~

"Colonel O'Neill," Hammond said in a carefully measured tone, "let me make sure I understand this. Not only do you claim to have the memories of Sirius Black, a man who was at least twenty years your junior but you also have custody of Harry Potter, Black's godson, the Black family vaults and all the items they contain. It also appears as if you have Black's powers since you are able to change into the form of a dog."

"And got stuck as a dog, too, sir," Ferretti put in with a smirk on his face. He knew he would be able to milk that little incident for months, if not years to come.

Jack shot Lou a look that promised revenge before turning his attention back to where it belonged. "Yes sir, however I don't know exactly how I did it. It seems more instinctive then a conscious decision. After Harry ran off, I knew I had to find him fast and I guess you could say Padfoot took over."

Hammond stare hardens. "And what's to stop Padfoot from taking over at other times?"

The Colonel looked the General straight in the eyes. "Training. I need to get my abilities, …my magic back under my control."

Hammond nodded his head. "And how to you propose to do that Colonel? After all you did mention that we are under unfriendly terms with the school that teaches it."

"Only in England, sir," Jack answered. "The American schools shouldn't be a problem. Beside I was thinking of training with Harry. Dumbledore made damn sure that the kid was undereducated so that he was easier to control. By working together, both of us should be up to at least 5th years, after that we might have to look for someone to train us."

"Witchcraft at Stargate Command," Lou mumbled under his breath. "Kinsey's going to have a fit if he hears about this."

Jack smirk at Lou's mumbled comment. "Yeah but now I can turn him into the jackass he is."

"Jack," Daniel chastised the Colonel, "don't insult the poor jackass. Kinsey is much lower than that."

General Hammond closed his eyes as he struggled to maintain his composure. Taking a deep breath he opened his eyes once again. "Major Ferretti has brought up an interesting point, Colonel. How to you propose to keep people like the Senator and this Dumbledore from finding out about you and Mr. Potter? Especially given that we seem to have a mole in our ranks at the moment."

O'Neill opened his mouth to replied. Closed it. Opened. Closed. "I'm still working on that sir."

"Could the goblins you had mentioned earlier be of any use, O’Neill?" Teal'c asked.

Jack nodded his head slowly. "Maybe. Maybe. I'll have to get with DOM and get everything cleared with them concerning Harry and me. And they can keep Kinsey in line. Maybe get some goblins wards put in place around the mountain, which isn't be a bad idea anyway."

"Dom?"

"Department of Magic. US version of the Ministry," Jack answered. "I can get them to declare Harry and me to be US citizens. That would keep the Ministry off of our backs. The wards would delay Dumbledore long enough to escape through the Stargate if Dumbledore tries to enter."

"Colonel, are you proposing to take a child who just happens to be a citizen of a foreign nation through the Stargate," Hammond asked.

"Sir, I honestly believe that once we explain the situation to the President he would agree to it," Jack replied with confidence. "In many ways, Harry is like the second coming of Christ at least to the magical community. If he was to die while in our hands it could be all out war."

Everyone was startled by the level of importance that the magical community had put on this young man's shoulders.

"I'll see what I can do," Hammond replied.

"Thank you, Sir," Jack replied.

"Colonel, there is one thing I would like to know," Dr Frasier said.

"And what would that be?"

"What do you plan to do about Harry's previous guardians?"

And almost evil smile appeared on Jack's face. "Oh, I have something planned. Something, I think you'll love."

That look alone always promised pain. Lots of pain.

In the kitchen of number twelve Grimmauld Place, London, the members of the Order of the Phoenix were gathered along with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Everyone was waiting for Headmaster Dumbledore to arrive to start the meeting.

"Does anyone want some tea or biscuits?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she tried to remain busy without breaking down into tears.

"No, thank you," a number of people murmured in reply.

Standing up from the table, Arthur Weasley took a hold of his wife's hand and pulled her towards the table. "Why don't you take a seat, dear," Arthur said softly as he gently pushed his wife into his chair.

"I have to do something," Molly whined as she clutched at the fabric of her robes. "I’m so worried about him. I can't imagine what they're doing to that poor boy. I keep seeing him… seeing his body all broken and dead." Tears started to well up in her eyes.

"There. There my dear," Arthur said patting his wife on the shoulder. "I'm sure we'll be able to rescue the lad shortly. The Headmaster probably has a plan already."

"Do you really think so?" Molly asked hopefully, looking up at her husband as she wiped at her tears.

Arthur smiled reassuringly but the smile did not reach his eyes. "Of course I do my dear."

"And don't forget Mum, Harry's gotten out of worse," Ron chimed in as he ate a biscuit. "He's faced off against You Know Who before."

"Don't speak with your mouth full," Molly chided her youngest son.

"The lad got a point," Moody commented from where he sat, his magical eye spinning in all directions looking for danger. "I'm sure that no matter how badly the lad is injured, he won't give in right away."

At Moody's words Molly took a shuddering breath before she began to sob quietly.

"Good work, Moody," Tonks chimed in. "Very reassuring."

With his arms cross over his chest, Moody replied, "It's better that we faced the facts then to build up false hope. If the lad is in hands of the Death Eaters then we need to expect the worst."

"If he's in the hand of the Death Eaters?" Hermione parroted. "Is there a reason to not expect him to be their prisoner?"

"Just because he vanished from the Hogwarts Express doesn't mean that the lad was kidnapped," Moody pointed out as he fixed the girl with his remaining eye. "The lad has just lost his godfather and was returning to a place he didn't want to return to. I would say that was enough of a reason for the lad to disappear on his own."

"Harry wouldn't do that," Ron spoke up in defense of his friend as he grabbed another biscuit from the plate. "At least he wouldn't do that without telling us before-hand or sending a message afterwards."

Moody nodded his head in acceptance of the facts that Ron pointed out. "Even if the lad was kidnapped there are other out there besides Death Eaters who would like to get their hands on the lad."

Molly dabbed at her eyes. "But who would want the poor boy?"

"The Ministry for one," Hermione pointed out. "Harry told them about You Know Who after the Tournament and insisted that he was back all year long no matter what Professor Umbridge did to him. And then there was the fact that Harry insisted that Sirius was innocent. I can't imagine the Ministry would like the public learning the truth about all of that."

Tonks snorted. "I can't see that happening. One thing I've learned as an Auror, is that there are no secrets inside the Ministry. If the Ministry had Harry, someone would definitely be talking and I can't imagine that Dumbledore wouldn't find out."

"So if the Death Eaters didn't take Harry and neither did the Ministry, who else would want to kidnap him," Ron demanded.

"Foreign governments. People who want to marry Harry or have him father a child," Moody suggested. "Those after fame or fortune."

"So we're talking about the majority of the wizarding world," Dung commented as he played with a piece of silverware before it vanished into his robes.

Moody shook his head. "No, if we assume that the lad didn't leave on his own then we'll be after someone who has access to the Express. Someone, who has talent on a broom, concealment charms or was trained to apparate from a moving vehicle. We need someone who can silently take down the lad without alerting anyone else. The lad may not be fully trained but he's smart enough to call for help."

"They could have warded the loo," Hermione commented. "Plus we can't assume it was just one person. A group of people could have kidnapped Harry."

"There was no signs of any warding in the loo aside from the usual ones," Flitwick chimed in as the charms master poured himself a cup of tea.

"We're assuming that Harry was taken from the train, what if he was kidnapped earlier?" Tonks suggested as her hair changed from hot pink neon green and then back again.

"At which case anyone could have taken him, even Muggles," Moody commented thoughtfully.

"Hedwig!" Hermione said suddenly drawing everyone's attention to her. "She could help us find Harry."

"Hermione's right. I'm sure she could find Harry no matter who has him or where," Ron said excitedly.

"Hedwig? Potter's owl?" Moody asked to which the two Gryffindors nodded their heads. "Could work. Of course that's assuming that is Potter's owl and wasn't switch with another owl before hand."

"I'm sure Hagrid could tell if she wasn't Hedwig," Hermione pointed out. "I know he bought her for Harry and that she would visit him from time to time. I'm sure he would be able to tell."

Moody nodded his head. "We'll mention that to Dumbledore when he finally arrives."

As if by magic Headmaster Dumbledore arrived in the doorway with Professor Snape a few steps behind him.

"I'm sorry I'm late," the Headmaster said as he sat down at the head of the table. "I was delayed at the Ministry."

"Fudge asking you to save his sorry ass from all his screw ups," Tonks snickered.

"Something like that, my dear," Dumbledore replied with a twinkle in his eyes. "Now that we're all there I think it would be best to begin with Severus' report."

"The Dark Lord does not have Potter however it appears that one of the Death Eaters or someone dressed up as one does," Snape reported simply with a snarl on his face.

"And how to do you know that, boy," Moody growled as he glared at Snape.

"First because the Dark Lord has every available Death Eater looking for Potter. And the second because Draco saw Potter being taken from the train," Snape answered.

"You can't believe that slimy snake," Ron exclaimed. "He probably helped them kidnap Harry!"

Snape glared in Ron's direction. "I highly doubt that. For one thing Mr. Malfoy was very much surprised to learn that Potter was not in the hands of our Lord since he witnessed Potter being taken by someone dressed as a Death Eater. And for another thing it would not be to his advantage to help kidnap Potter at this time. Malfoy knows of the importance to waiting until the time is right to strike at his enemies though at time he can be a bit impatient."

"Why would a Death Eater kidnap Harry and not bring him to Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked more to himself than those in the room.

"Someone wishing to gain favor with the Dark Lord, who is not a Death Eater," Snape suggested. "Or to study the boy to see how he survive the killing curse for their own benefits. That is assuming that the person was a Death Eater. If the mutt was still alive I would say it was him; pulling one of his childish pranks on us."

"I'm assuming that the Dark Lord knows about what the Malfoy brat saw?" Moody asked. "Or were you able to Obliviate the brat before he was able to tell anyone else?"

Snape shook his head. "Draco unfortunately informed me about what he saw in front of his mother and Bellatrix. I had no choice but to report it to him."

"So some of the Death Eaters will be answering some interesting questions soon," Moody said with an evil smirk.

"Undoubtedly," Snape replied with narrowed eyes at Moody's pleasure at hearing someone would be tortured.

"Who do you think could have pulled something like this off, Severus?" Dumbledore asked as he leaned forward in his chair, his hand clasped in front of him.

"Lucius would have been my first choice however since he's in Azkaban we can discount him," Snape answered. "While Bellatrix has the skills I doubt she could have done it without turning the train into a bloodbath not to mention that she is completely loyal to the Dark Lord and would have turned Potter over to him immediately. Rodolphus and his brother Rabastan could perhaps do it however they are still recovering from their stay in Azkaban."

"So it's probably someone else who kidnapped Harry," Hermione pointed out.

"Does anyone know where the Lupin was at the time or even where he is right now?" Snape asked.

Everyone looked around the rest of the group hoping one of them might have the answer.

"I know he was upset over Sirius's death," McGonagall supplied. "I assumed he was wandering around Hogwarts at the time."

"Or perhaps he was kidnapping the cause of death for his last best friend," Snape suggested with an almost malicious glee.

"That's enough Severus," Dumbledore snapped. "I'm confidant that Remus would never willingly harm Harry in any fashion."

"He might have stolen Harry if he thought he was protecting him," Tonks suggested with a shrug of her shoulders.

McGonagall shook her head. "He barely passed flying class. He always told me his wolf had a fear of flying."

"Could Harry has faked his disappearance and flown off on his own?" Ron said as he chewed his bottom lip. "Maybe he teamed up with Remus to disappear for a while."

"Possible but very unlikely," Dumbledore finally spoke up. "I know for a fact that Remus has gone on a little mission for me and that he's been out of contact with Harry since a week ago."

"Why didn't you mention that before," McGonagall snapped.

"I believe the Muggle term is brainstorming," Albus said with a smile. "I wanted to see what ideas we could come up with to explain Harry's disappearance."

"And what haven't you told us about Harry's disappearance," McGonagall demanded, reminding them all why she was not a woman to be crossed.

"Nothing my dear Minerva. Nothing at all," Dumbledore replied sweetly. "But perhaps someone else has the key to our dear Mr. Potter's vanishing."

McGonagall crossed her arms over her chest and glared fierily at the Headmaster.

"Was there anything else to report, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"Only that the Dark Lord is in possession of a book that contains spells used to track one's enemies," Snape supplied. "He plans of finding and capturing Potter as soon as possible."

Dumbledore nodded his head. "Moody?"

"There was no sign of spell or charms in the loo or in the walkway Potter would have taken if he had in fact gone to the loo aside from the ones that you would expect to find there," Moody stated.

"Draco claims the Death Eater carried Potter from the loo and through the door to the next car," Snape supplied.

Moody nodded his head as the considered this new information. "In which case we're at a dead end as far as the train is concerned," Moody stated. "However the girl," he nodded towards Hermione, "might have an idea."

"I was thinking we could put a tracking charm on Hedwig and then follow her to Harry, sir," Hermione stated.

"An excellent idea my dear but it is one I have already tried when I had his things brought back to Hogwarts," Dumbledore replied. "The poor dear flew around for a bit before returning to roost. Either Harry is well hidden or he a long way from here."

"Or Hedwig thought it would be better that we didn't know were Harry was at," Ron commented softly.

"Why would you say that Ron?" his mother demanded.

"Maybe she knew that Harry was safer wherever he was instead of with the Dursley's," Ron stated.

Noticing the confused looks from his parents and the other members of the Order, Ron growled, "Don't tell me you never noticed! How could you not see how much thinner Harry is at the beginning of the school year or how he shies away from being touched? Or how about how he dresses or how he's been wearing to same glasses since I meet him. What about the bars over his windows!"

His parents blinked at him in confusion. "I thought it was a Muggle thing," Molly said. "Like those people who wear an earring in their eyebrows and different color spiky haircut."

A few of the younger more Muggle knowledgeable members of the Order shook their heads sadly.

"No Mum. It was not some Muggle thing. It's more of a hide a problem away and hopes it dies type of thing," Ron growled at his mother.

"I'm sure you exaggerating what was really going on young Ronald," Dumbledore said in a grandfatherly fashion as he tried to reassure everyone.

Ron stared at the Headmaster in shock. He opened his mouth to reply only to be stopped by Hermione as she squeezed his hand from under the table, hard. Ron turned to Hermione and looked at her. Hermione quietly shook her head. In response Ron's eyes narrowed at his friend before turning back to the Headmaster.

"With all due respect, sir, I think the lemon drops have warped your brain," Ron stated calmly as he hid his wincing when Hermione dug her nails into his hand in order to make him shut up. "Did you know that before Hogwarts Harry's room was the cupboard under the stairs? Or that the Dursley's have four bedrooms? One for Mr. and Mrs. Dudley's, two for their son and one for guests?" Ron ripped his hand free of Hermione's, her nails gouging strips of skin from his hand. "Did you know he took care of most of the chores plus cooking and cleaning of the house? Or that the Dursley's allowed their son to beat and torment Harry?"

"Boys will be boys," Dumbledore replied simply as he smile indulgently at Ron. "And beside a little hard work never harmed anyone."

Ron ground his teeth together. "As the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot can you tell me why Sirius Black was denied a trial as is the law?"

Dumbledore blinked for a moment at the sudden change of subjects. "You must understand young Mr. Weasley at the time, it was very chaotic and mistakes were make," Dumbledore said in his defense.

"Like Malfoy and all of his Death Eater friends buying their freedom," Ron commented. "But why didn't you order a trial after you found out about Sirius's innocence? Or overturn Fudge's order for him to be Kissed on sight? After all how could the Minister overrule the judgement of the Wizengamot?"

"Ronald Bilius Weasley that is enough of that behavior!" Molly Weasley exclaimed in outrage. "We are here to find poor Harry, not to attack the Headmaster."

"You're right mum," Ron said with a slight nod of his head. "We're here to find Harry and protect him from whoever would harm him," Ron turned to stare at the Headmaster with narrowed eyes. "However everyone keeps ignoring a threat to Harry and to the rest of the students at Hogwarts."

"And you consider the Headmaster to be a threat?" Shacklebolt spoke out as he looked back and forth between the Headmaster and the youngest male Weasley.

Ron turned to look at Shacklebolt. "The facts seem to be pointing that way."

"And what facts are those lad?" Moody demanded.

"In our first year Dumbledore had the Philosopher's Stone brought to Hogwarts and series of traps layered to protect it," Ron explained. "Of course three first year students were able to get through all the traps easily as was Professor Quirrell, who at the time was possessed by the spirit of You Know Who."

"By exceptionally bright students who followed the path Quirrell has left before them," Dumbledore stated with a smile. "I'm positive that Voldemort would not have been able to discover the secret to the last trap without the help of Mr. Potter. If it wasn't for Harry's actions I'm sure that I would have been able to save poor Quirrell and vanquish Voldemort when I returned to the school."

Ron narrowed his eyes at the Headmaster when he laid the blame for what happened on Harry's shoulders.

Turning to look at the other members of the other, Ron continued. "Second year we had to face a giant Basilisk that was traveling throughout the school turning everyone to stone," Ron pointed out. "And yet the only time someone came to help deal with this threat, they drag Hagrid away! I'm curious," Ron said looking pointedly at Tonks, Shacklebolt and Moody, "were the Aurors ordered to not to come or did you just not care about what happened to any of us?"

"I never heard about it until everything had already been dealt with," Shacklebolt replied. "Seems the higher ups wanted to keep everything mum. Didn't want to frighten the parents and have them pull their kiddies out."

Ron turned and looked at Hermione. "And how did you parents feel about you being turned to stone? Or how about when you were attacked by a troll? Or did they even know it happened?"

"Mister Weasley," Dumbledore said in a commanding voice, "That is enough!"

"Why?" Ron snapped back. "Are you afraid of people finding out the truth? Of them questioning you or somehow finding out you're less perfect than they think you are?"

"If you don't stop this line of questioning, of sowing the seeds of dissent then I will have to ask you to leave the room," Dumbledore said.

Ron rose out of his chair. Standing tall he looked down at the Headmaster. "I'm afraid that you'll find it's already too late Headmaster especially when you ignored the fact that Umbridge was torturing the students. People are starting to open their eyes and see the real you. And let me tell you Headmaster from what I can see you're not that much different from the You Know Who."

Ron started for the door before anyone can say anything. Stopping in the doorway, Ron called out. "I wonder if I'll find myself in Azkaban like Sirius did since I'm a thorn in your plans, Dumbledore." And with that Ron left the room.

The room sat in shocked silence as slowly everyone's attention drifted back to the Headmaster, who was gritting his teeth, his eyes flaming with anger. Taking a deep breath, Dumbledore appeared to calm himself. "Shacklebolt do you have anything to report," he demanded.

Shacklebolt glanced at the door Ron had just exited through. "Not at this time, sir," he replied respectfully. "However I would like permission to question the Dursley's further. I believe that they may know something more about Potter's disappearance."

Dumbledore nodded his head. "Do whatever you feel is necessary. Just bring me answers."

Shacklebolt nodded his head once again. "Yes, sir."

~*~

"Wakey wakey, Dursley," Moody said in a menacing tone as he smacked Vernon across the head.

With a pig like snort Vernon Dursley opened his eyes for a moment only to close them once again and roll over in bed. The deep rumbling sound of snoring filled the room.

Moody looked over at Shacklebolt, who was trying his best not to laugh at Moody's disgusted expression over the Muggle's lack of 'constant vigilance'.

"Ice water?" Shacklebolt suggested with a smirk in a normal tone of voice.

Moody shook his head. "Too nice for this fat slob." Moody's face twisted up into an evil grin as he aimed his wand at the figure under the blankets. "Teum!"

Vernon seems to jump three feet above the mattress when the spell hit him, shrieking to the heavens like a pig that is being dragged to the slaughter.

"New version of the stinging hex?" Shacklebolt asked with professional interest.

"Not really," Moody replied smugly as he watched the Muggle flounder about on his bed. "It's not used very often anymore since it can be blocked by most shields. The only people who use it anymore are those who work with livestock."

"What the hell is going on? Who are you people!" Vernon demanded furious and not yet realizing the danger his mouth was placing him in since his brain hadn't fully woken up to his peril. "What are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?"

"Twenty-five after two," Shacklebolt replied with a cheeky smirk.

Dursley blinked a couple of time in confusion. "What?"

"It's Twenty-five minutes after two in the morning," Shacklebolt said slowly as if talking to a small child. "You asked what time it was and I told you."

" Twenty-five after two?" Vernon repeated to himself in bewilderment.

Turning to Moody, Shacklebolt said, "I think you fried his brain."

"I don't think there was anything there to begin with," Moody said as he glared at Dursley.

Then as if someone had thrown all the shutters open in Vernon's mind; the overweight man turned towards Shacklebolt and pointed a finger at him. "You," he said as he tried to be menacing in his baby blue pajamas. "You're one of them! One of those freaks. You were at the train station."

Moody lean forwards so that his face was inches from Vernon's. "That’s right, Dursley. And we're here to talk to you about Harry."

Dursley leaned back from Moody in fear. "What about him? I don't know where the brat is. He wasn't at the train station."

"We know that Vernon, that's why we came to talk to you," Shacklebolt said respectfully as he pulled Moody back from Dursley.

"At two in the morning?" Dursley said in confusion when he suddenly turned around to look at the bed, realizing that someone was missing. "Where's Petunia? What have you done to her? If you've hurt her or Dudley, I promise you, you will pay!"

Moody crossed his arms over his chest, his wand clearly visible. "You're wife is fine. She's asleep in the guestroom. And we have no idea where you son is. He wasn't in his room when we checked."

"Why should I believe you?" Dursley demanded. "I know your kind. Lay abouts and scoundrels the whole lot of you. Wouldn't know an honest days work if it was forced upon you."

Moody snarled at Vernon. "A word of warning Dursley, you're rapidly losing any good feelings we have for you."

Dursley snorted. "It's not like you can do anything to me. Your kind is forbidden to do magic outside of that blasted school of yours."

A truly evil smile appeared on Moody's face. "That would be true Dursley, if we were students but since we're not," he said as he pointed his wand directly in Vernon's' face.

"Hold on Moody," Shacklebolt said coming to Vernon's defense. "I don't think he meant anything by that. Just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, that’s all."

"Yeah. Yeah that all," Vernon sputter as his crossed eyes stared at the tip of the glowing wand.

With a snort of disgust Moody flicked his wand away then sat down in a reading chair Petunia had insisted be put in the room.

"Sorry about that," Shacklebolt apologized. "Moody just gets a bit high strung when he hasn't been allowed to kill anyone in a week."

Vernon's' eyes grew wide as his brain finally realized what Shacklebolt had just said. "That… that’s ok," he sputtered as he stared at the deranged man sitting in his bedroom. "What… what did you want to know?"

"Not much Mr. Dursley," Shacklebolt said smoothly. "But when I met you at the train station you seemed kind of nervous and we were wondering why."

Dursley turned and looked at Shacklebolt. "Ner… nervous?"

Shacklebolt nodded his head. "And you seemed really upset when I told you that Harry was missing."

"Of… of course I was," Vernon answered swallowing nervously. "He's…he's my nephew."

"And I'm sure that you're a good uncle to the boy, Mr. Dursley." Shacklebolt patted Vernon on the back reassuringly. "But you do know that there are some dangerous people after Harry and they might be trying to get to him through you. You haven't been visited by anyone recently, have you?"

Dursley licked his lips nervously. "No… no. No one's been asking about the boy."

"Don't lie, Dursley," Moody snarled. "We know you hate Harry. We know that you despise the boy and that you've abused him. And we know you're lying about someone asking about Harry."

Vernon looked bad and forth between the nice wizard and the demented bastard in the chair. Vernon opened his mouth. Closed it. Open. Closed.

"If you talk to me. Tell me everything, I can protect you," Shacklebolt said gently. "I can protect your whole family."

Vernon looked over at Moody before turning back to Shacklebolt. "He came to my office. He threatened my family."

"Who threatened you family, Dursley," Moody demanded as he leaned forward in the chair.

"A Yank. Said his name was Maybourne," Dursley said. "He wanted me to sign Harry over to them."

"To the Yank?" Shacklebolt asked.

Vernon nodded his head. "I didn't have a choice. I was to take the boy to them after I picked him up from the train."

"Where were they going to take him, Dursley," Moody demanded. "What did they want him for?"

"I don't know," Vernon squealed. "I didn't want to know. We never wanted the boy in the first place!"

"What did this Yank look like?" Shacklebolt demanded.

"I don’t remember. It was weeks ago," Vernon sputtered.

"Was he tall, short, fat or thin?" Shacklebolt pressed. "Was he white, black? What color was his hair or eyes?"

"White. He was white," Vernon answered. "Short hair, grey. He was thin, stuck me that he was a soldier or had been one."

"What else Dursley," Moody snarled.

"That's it!" Dursley exclaimed. "If I knew any more I would tell you!"

Moody and Shacklebolt shared a look before Shacklebolt raised his wand and fired a spell at Dursley who then collapsed to the ground.

"Think he was telling the truth?" Shacklebolt asked as he looked down at the bloated man.

Moody nodded his head as he looked down at Vernon in disgust. "Unfortunately. The fat bastard would probably sell his own mother to save his skin."

"The Yank?" Shacklebolt said as he looked up at his partner.

"A decoy most likely," Moody replied. "Either that or that boy has more people after him then we know."

"I just one question," Shacklebolt said.

"And what that?" Moody asked as he made his way to the bedroom door.

"What's a Yank?"

With a weary sigh General Hammond picked up the red phone that sat in the right hand corner of his desk.  "I need to speak to the President," he said to the person on the other end of the phone.

A moment later he said, "Mr. President, a matter of possible national, perhaps world security has come to my attention."

~*~

Harry sat on the bed in the VIP room watching the Simpsons on TV.  His ankle was wrapped and sitting on a pillow.  Two sharp knocks on the door pulled his attention away from the mischief of Bart Simpson.

"Yes?" Harry frowned as he called out cautiously.

The door opened slight and Jack's head popped in.  "You decent?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Harry asked.

"Well I remember being a teen at your age… and well…. Umm…." Jack mumbled.  "I didn't know if you were busy or not."

"Busy?" Harry replied in confusion.

"Yeah," Jack said as he slipped the rest of the way into the room while signaling someone to wait before shutting the door.  "With everything going on I figured you probably needed a visit from Rosie and her 4 sisters."

Harry slowly shook his head.  "I don't know anyone named Rosie or anyone with 4 sisters."

"Harry palm?  Spank your Monkey? Choke your Chicken?" Jack said to which Harry shook his head.  "Mangle the Midget."

Finally in frustration Jack said, "I'll just let Janet explain all of that to you." The older man turned, opening the door, Jack hollered, "Daniel get your ass in here."

"Everything okay?" Daniel wondered, poking his head in the doorway.

"Fine with a side of dandy," Jack grumbled.

Harry just shrugged his shoulders.

Daniel looked at Jack then at Harry then back at Jack.  "Okay," he said slowly.  "Teal'c is getting snacks and a pizza I think."

"Snacks?" Harry glanced over at Jack.

"Movie night," Jack explained.  "And since we knew you weren’t doing anything we figured that you might want to join us."

"But if you don't feel like watching a movie, I'm sure we can do something else," Daniel babbled.  "Maybe Monopoly or Clue?"

A touch of color appeared on Harry's face at the idea that someone beside Sirius… Jack would want to do something with him.  "A movie would be nice."

"Then lets go," Jack said as he held out the crutches to Harry.  "Teal'c has the best TV in his rooms.  Surround sound and everything."

Grabbing the crutches, Harry followed the older men out of the room and down the hall towards Teal'c’s room.

Knocking on the door, Jack opened it without waiting for an answer.  "It's show time!" he called out merrily.

Teal'c gave Jack a tolerant look.  "HarryPotter welcome to my quarters," he said with a slight bow of his head towards the teen.

"Thank you Mr. Teal'c for including me," Harry said nervously as he sat down in one of the chairs placed in front of the TV.

"It is my pleasure," Teal'c replied.  "I always enjoy sharing Earth's cinema with others."

"So what's the movie of the night?" Jack asked excitedly.  "Horror, adventure, comedy?"

"Since HarryPotter is the guest here I believe it should be his choice," Teal'c said.

Harry shrugged his shoulders.  "I don't know any movies. The Dursley's never really allowed me to see a movie."

"You never go wrong with Mel Brooks," Jack suggested dragging Harry's attention away from Teal'c and his reaction to Harry's comment. 

"I think that Mel Brooks might be a bit racy for Harry," Daniel commented.

"There’s nothing racy in Young Frankenstein… okay there is but I'm sure it's nothing a growing young many like Harry can't hand…," Jack said before glancing over at Harry.  "Maybe… Indiana Jones?"

"Jurassic Park?" Daniel suggested.  "Or Terminator."

"No to the Terminator," Jack said with a shake of his head.  "Lethal Weapon?  Alien?"

"Star Trek or Star Wars?" Daniel suggested.

"Perhaps it would be best if we allowed Harry to look through the movies and select one," Teal'c suggested.

"I don't really care," Harry seemed to shrink in on himself under the men's attention.  "Whatever you want is fine with me."
 

Teal'c, Daniel and Jack looked at each other before Jack said, "Indiana?"

Teal'c nodded his head before turning to his collection of movies to find it.

"I almost forgot, Harry," Jack said drawing Harry's attention to him.  "I have to visit the US Department of Magic tomorrow to register us.  I also wanted to see about getting you citizenship here so that you can't be forced to return if you don't want to.  I know I didn't ask you about that but I hope it's ok."

"Do I have to go with you?" Harry asked as he tried to absorb everything.

"No," Jack shook his head.  "I'm not sure how long I'll be gone and Janet wants you to stay off that foot as much as possible.  Besides, I don't want word of you’re being here get back to Dumbledore so soon."

"Okay," Harry said softly as he played with the edge of his shirt.

"If you want you can join me in my office," Daniel suggested.  "I mean it won't be too exciting but you won't be stuck in your room, or the dining hall or the infirmary."

"Oh okay.  That would be nice," Harry replied carefully, not sure of how he should respond.

"Daniel here's an Egyptologist," Jack supplied. "He studies the stuff Bill usual digs up for Gringotts."

Daniel turned to Jack.  "What stuff?"

"You know," Jack said.  "Rocks and stuff."

Daniel turned to Harry.  "What kind of stuff?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders.  "I don't know.  Ron did say that they got to visit tombs that had some skeletons of some Muggles who had broken in and end up growing extra heads."

Daniel's head whipped back to Jack.  "You mean there are tombs out there that we don't know about!"

Jack shrugged his shoulder.  "Appears so," he said in a dismissive tone.  "Cheetos?" he passed the bag of chips to Harry as the movie started.

~*~

"And then little scamp looked up at me and said in the sweetest most innocent voice that he loved me," the old woman said as she walked into the office of Department of Magical Registration on Colonel O'Neill's arm.

"So what did you do, Helen?" Jack asked

"Why I swatted his bottom of course," Helen replied as if it was the most obvious thing.   "My boy may believe that butter won't melt in his mouth but as his mother I know better."

"But isn't that true for every boy?" O'Neill said teasingly.  "After all we need that skill to catch wily young ladies like your husband did long ago."

"Oh you," Helen giggled as she gently swatted O'Neill

The wizard behind the counter rolled his eyes at the antics of Helen and O'Neill.

"Oh stop that Maxwell," Helen scolded as she glared at the young wizard.  "I saw you rolling your eyes at me."

"Yes, Dame McKnight," Maxwell sighed in a bored tone.

Helen sighed in frustration as she shook her head.  "You'll have to forgive young Maxwell," she said turning to Jack, "he has very little patience with us old timers."  Helen leaned towards Jack as if she were going to him a great secret but spoke in her normal voice.  "The silly thing seems to think that being descended from one of the First Colonist's is important."

"First Colonist?" Jack said as he watched Maxwell warily.

"There's some sillies out there who believe there is something important to the order in which your ancestors arrived in the New World," Helen explained.  "Maxwell's family arrived some time in the early 17th century when the British first settled here."

"It was in the year 1608 and my ancestors came over to America on the Sea Venture," Maxwell said with snotty pride.

"You see what I mean," Helen said.  "They're a bit like those silly things in Britain who believe that blood is important.  Of course when you point out that there were people here before they arrived they get all flustered.  They just can't stand to have the truth pointed out to them."

"So what can I do for you Helen," Maxwell growled through clenched teeth, "or have you simply come to torment me?"

Helen shook her head sadly.  "This poor young man wandered in my office looking for help," Helen said as she pulled Colonel O'Neill to counter.  "It turns out he's one of the Lost Ones."

"The Lost Ones?" Maxwell looked over at Jack who shrugged his shoulders as if to say he didn't know either.

"What do they teach you young people at that school of yours," Helen made a tisking sound.  "It's obvious they don't teach you History anymore."

"I graduated with a perfect score in History as you well know Dame McKnight," Maxwell replied.

"And yet you don't know about the Lost Ones," Helen shot back.

Maxwell closed his eyes, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.  Opening his eyes once again he asked, "And who or what is a Lost one?"   

"Well since you asked," Helen said before dropping into a lecture tone of voice.  "It started after World War 2 and ended during the Sexual Revolution; that was a grand time I can tell you.  Anyway this time period was call the Red Scare where Americans were living in fear of communism.  Everyone watched everyone else in case they acted in a way that was un-American.  No one knew who might be the next one to be named as an evil communist.  It was a time when the American government was very paranoid."

"Now imagine what would happen if you were a Normal born witch or wizard during that time?" Helen said.  "You couldn’t go to a wizard school since people would investigate the family if a middle class child suddenly was invited to a private boarding school.  It was even worse for a child who wasn't white or was of German descent.  You couldn't trust anyone who was keeping secrets and that is one thing our society depends on is that we keep our existence a secret."

Maxwell snorted.  "If he's a Lost One then how does he know about magic?" he demanded.

Helen looked over at Jack questioningly.

"My mother was a squib," Jack explained.

"A war bride," Helen squealed happily recognizing the term squib as one used only in England

Jack nodded his head.  "My dad fell in love with her when he was over in England during the war.  Since the family was killed during the bombing, mom inherited everything, all the books and stuff.  I know she was confused when I didn't get a letter when I was 11 but she figured it was because dad was still in the military and we moved around a lot.  She ended up teaching me from what was in the books she’d inherited and what she remembered seeing her brothers and sisters doing."

"You poor dear," Helen said as she patted Jack's arm in a comforting manner.  "We really did fail you."

With a snort Maxwell crossed his arms over his chest.  "Still doesn't explain how he knows where here is," he pointed out.  "A British girl wouldn’t know how to get into one of our government buildings."

"The Goblins told me," Jack explained with a sigh.  "They explained that I had to register Harry as my ward when I arrived back in the States.  And to see if I could get him American citizenship."

"With what I've been hearing about what’s going on over there that’s a very good idea," Helen chimed in.

"Fine. Fine," Maxwell said in disgust as he started to pull out forms.  "I'm assuming that you will need to be registered also."

"Afraid so," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Name?" Maxwell said his head bowed over the papers as he started to fill things in with a fountain pen.

"Mine or Harry's?" Jack asked.

"Yours," Maxwell sighed.

"Colonel Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill, United States Air Force," Jack said very formally.

Maxwell froze in mid sweep of the pen stroke.  Tilting his head up slightly so that he could look at Jack he said, "Normal Air Force?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders.  "Didn't know there was a magical one."

"They don't do very much, dear," Helen said.  "They're bogged down in political squabbles.  Most of the lads who want to join end up serving in the Normal Air Force.  I hear they have more fun in it than they would have on silly old brooms."

"Yes but brooms would have their uses to especially when you're trying to sneak into an area undetected," Jack said thoughtfully.  "Any chance I can get a list of who's in the military and which branch."

Helen tapped her chin thoughtfully.  "Probably not but it might be possible to post something in the U. S. M. M. S. newsletter."

"U. S. M. M. S.?" Jack asked

"United States Magical Military Service," Helen replied.  "It was primarily for those who served in the magical military but after World War 2 they opened their doors to anyone who served in the US military, normal or magical."

"Excuse me but can we get back to what's really important," Maxwell requested, waving his hand at the forms.

An hour later they finished Jack's paperwork. It took a half hour longer than usual because of Jack and Helen's verbal sparring.

Maxwell sighed in relief as he straightened up the pile of forms before putting them in the Out box from which they vanished into thin air.  He picked up his pen and placed the tip onto the paper once again.  "Ward's name?" 

"Harry James Potter," Jack said as he glanced first at Maxwell and then at Helen to see if either one reacted to the name.  Only Helen reacted to the name and she simply raised an eyebrow questioningly.  Jack ducked his head like a little boy who knew he was in trouble.

"Birth date?' Maxwell demanded never noticing anything amiss.

"July 31, 1981," Jack replied.

"Birthplace?" Maxwell continued.

"Someplace in Britain.  Not really sure," Jack said.

"Parents?"

"Lily and James Potter," Jack said as he once again glanced over at Helen.

"Schooling?"

"Umm… I think he finished his 5th year at Hogwarts," Jack replied.

"That's a shame," Maxwell said as he pulled out some more forms and started to fill those in.  "He'll have to be retest before he can enter any of the American schools."

"Why?

Maxwell sighed wearily as he set his pen down.  "Unfortunately many of the European schools have fallen behind the times and are not teaching the things today's students need to learn."

"You mean like computers and advanced mathematics?" Jack asked.

"Mathematics, yes.  It's important that any young witch or wizard learn how to balance their own books instead of depending on the goblins to do it for them.  As for computers," Maxwell made a dismissive noise, "they're simply Normal toys.  No doubt a passing fad just like the Poodle skirt.  I could never figure out why anyone would want to wear poodle skins as a dress."

Jack stared at Maxwell in silence for a moment.  "I think I'm going to home school Harry."

Maxwell shook his head as he pulled out more forms.  "More and more Normal born are doing that."

An hour later this time without Jack and Helen's verbal sparring, the paper work on Harry Potter was dropped into the Outbox.

"So what happens to those forms?" Jack asked.

"They're automatically filed with all the correct departments," Maxwell said absentmindedly as he started to straighten his counter for the next person to visit here.

"So no one ever see those files?" Jack asked.

"No.  Of course not.  As long as the files were filled in correctly, which they were since they are no longer in the Outbox, there should be no reason why anyone would want to see them," Maxwell said.

Helen threaded her arm through Jack.  "If Harry decides to move back to Britain someday he can have the Ministry review his forms to help speed up the process."

"He doesn’t have duel citizenship?" Jack asked Helen as she steered him out of the office.

"No.  There would be too much confusion over what a person was allowed to do," Helen explained.  "Did you know that over in Britain that Normal borns are not allowed to practice magic even in their homes?"

"And they're allowed to here?"

"Of course.  As long as it is not seen by, or done to a Normal who is not in the know, it's acceptable.  In fact it's highly encouraged," Helen explained.

Jack opened the office door for Helen.

"You know my dear Colonel, you remind me quite a bit of my son." Helen said.

"How so?" Jack replied.

"He believed butter wouldn't melt in his mouth either," she replied as she walked out the door.

~*~

Daniel walked slowly beside Harry as they went down to his office with the guards following close behind. He knew from experience how difficult it could be to walk on crutches and it wasn’t like Harry had a cast to protect him from injuring his sprained ankle even further.

Opening the door to his office, Daniel waved the young man in. "I know it’s a bit cluttered, which will make it a little hard for you to move around, but I moved all the really fragile stuff to a table against the back wall."

Harry’s head swiveled from side to side taking in the clutter of books and artifacts. The first thought that came to mind was: Hermione would probably offer to carry Daniel’s first child for a chance to look at these books. While he was no expert on books, a lot of them looked old… very old. And there were a few tablets that looked like they had runes right out of Hermione’s Ancient Runes class carved on them.

The desk was covered in papers and sitting on the far corner of it was a computer that looked like it had a screensaver of ancient Egyptians walking across stone walls on it.

Daniel ran his hand through hair feeling a little nervous, before gesturing toward the couch against the opposite wall. Having no idea what Harry’s hobbies or interests were, Daniel just hoped that the things he had gotten to keep the teenager occupied would work. Bored teens were almost as dangerous as a bored Jack "Just make yourself comfortable. I have a little work to do, but Teal’c loaned me his Gameboy and some the games he plays on it for you to use and I borrowed some fiction books of various types in case you want to read."

Harry nodded as he hobbled over to the couch. The guards had already taken up a position outside the door. And closed it.

~*~

Harry looked at the Gameboy and the selection of games. Super Mario and Tetris were about the only ones he recognized and that was only because they were in the pile of games Dudley had rejected and therefore they had been consigned to Harry’s bedroom.

As Harry set the box with the rest of the game cartridges on the table in front of him, he accidentally knocked over a stack of paper and most of it slid to the floor.

Daniel looked up hearing the thud of paper hitting the floor and saw Harry awkwardly move off the couch onto the floor intending to pick up the pages. He immediately hurried over to help. Jack and Janet would both have his head if Harry injured that ankle any further.

"I’m sorry," Harry hastily apologized as he saw Daniel come over.

"It’s ok," Daniel was quick to reassure him. "Nothing has been damaged. These are just copies of things I intend to work on when I have time."

Harry took a look at one of the pages curious about what he was working on. "Are you writing a book?"

"Not really," Daniel chuckled. "Everything I work on here is top secret."

"I doubt this would be," Harry looked back at the piece of paper in his hand. "I think Jack may have intended to play a joke on you, cause this looks like the opening to a science fiction story."

"What do you mean?" Daniel recognized the squiggly symbols that were on the back of the page. Those symbols had come from a wall on a planet where the Goa’uld had destroyed an entire race with a plague more than a thousand years before. According to the warning plaque that had been there, the entire race had been viewed as a threat to the Goa’uld race, but not even Teal’c knew why. He had been hoping to find out why from the rubbings he’d made of the wall but so far he’d not found a comparable language from which to work.

"It says ‘Greetings, if you can read this, then I welcome you home, for you are a child of this place, even though your ancestor had to be taken from here by Moros to preserve some of our race because the Serpent Lords wanted to kill us all’." Harry read the first paragraph. 

"You can read that?" Daniel couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice.

"Of course I can, it’s English after all." Harry told him, but as soon as he saw the expression on Daniel’s face he had a feeling it wasn’t English he was reading. "From the expression on your face, this isn’t English so what is it?"

"I can’t tell you that right now." Daniel regretted having to say that. He knew from the little Harry had said the night before that people had been keeping secrets from him his whole life, but this secret wasn’t Daniel’s alone to tell. "Harry, this involves the work Jack does here and it is top secret. We will have to wait until he gets back since he is responsible for you to see if he can get the ok for you to be told."

"You promise," Harry wanted a guarantee.

"Yes." Daniel assured him. "If Jack gets the General’s permission for you to be told, I will explain it to you. Besides, I want to know what the rest of the document says and so far you are the only one who can read it."

Harry smiled for the first time that morning.

"Now let’s get you back up on the couch before Jack and Janet have my head for letting you strain your ankle." Daniel slid a hand under Harry’s arm to help him to his feet and back on to the couch.

~*~

In a well-to-do neighborhood in South London, a black Lexus rolled to a stop in front of a detached home that only had one car, and a Land Rover parked in front of it.

As soon as the car stopped the passenger side door opened and several men built along the lines of a bodybuilder and exuding a menacing air exited the cars.  The men checked the area for danger before signaling to those in the car that they could get out.

"So is this the place?" a rat face man asked as he looked at the house with a disquieting expression.

"Indeed it is my dear, Benjamin," the well-dressed blond said with pride.  "This is my little bird house."

"Bird house, cute name," Benjamin replied with a snort.  "So how many little birds do you have in residence here, Steven?"

"Currently about a dozen but we're expecting to pick up a few exotic birds in the coming week," Steven replied with a leer.  "Shall we take a look at my birds?  After all a good owner should always take care of their pets."

"Why not," Benjamin replied with an air of disinterest.

Steven led Benjamin into the home through the security system.  "One should always protect their pets.  After all you wouldn’t want them to disappear or be found by a snake, now would you?"

Benjamin looked at Steven with a curious expression.  "Never heard of them referred to as snakes before."

"But that's exactly what they are," Steven explained.  "They catch any of my little birds and I’ll never see them again.  All gobbled up by the system."

With a snort Benjamin shook his head.  "That's an interesting way to put things."

Steven chuckled.  "What can I say my mother forced me to read classical literature in the hopes I’d become something besides a street thug and look what happened," he said as he waved his hand at the impressive interior and at some of the women leaning cautiously around the doorway to see who was here.

"Mr. McMaster?" a young blond man who slightly resembled a pig walked into the room.

"Ahhh Double D.  Come and meet my new associate," Steven said as he waved the younger man over.  "Benjamin allow me to introduce you to Double D, an up and comer in the business field."

"Is that so," Benjamin said as he studied the young man before him.  "What type of business?"

Double D glanced over at Benjamin.  "Mostly debt collection and security but Mr. McMaster has me branching out into bird watching and… high altitude flying."

Benjamin chuckled.  "High altitude flying!  I'll have to remember that."

Double D smiled at that.  "If you don't mind I need to speak to Mr. McMaster for a moment privately."

Steven nodded his head.  "Why don't you look around Benjamin," he suggested.  "I'm sure you can find a little bird to entertain you for a bit."

Benjamin nodded his head before wandering off.

"What is it?" Steven demanded when Benjamin has disappeared into an adjacent room.

"Got word from one of my men that the Coppers are planning to raid the warehouse in North London," Double D explained.

"How soon?" Steven demanded.

"3 days," Double D replied.  "I've already ordered them to move what they can and to torch the rest.

Steven looked curiously at Double D.

"That way if they track the building back to you, you can say it was an investment and you had no knowledge that someone had been making drugs in it," Double D explained.  "Besides you can collect the insurance off if it then, so it's not a total loss."

Steven laughed out loud.  "I like the way you think!" he said.  "You'll go far in the business with a mind like that."

Double D smiled.  "Learned it off my old man," he said.  "When life gives you trash beat the shit out of it until it makes you a profit."

~*~

The room Benjamin had wandered into contained two preteen girls who had a very submissive air about them as if they no longer held out any hope that things would get better for them.

"Girls," he said with a nod of his head.

The girls looked at each other then one of them rose from her seat and walked towards him in what she thought was a seductive way.

Benjamin shook his head.  "Not interested," he said with a smirk.  "My old lady would cut them off if I ever thought of it."

The girls looked at him in surprise.  "Then what are you here for?"

Benjamin glanced towards the door where he could barely hear Steven talking to his employee.  With a smirk he say, "Just laying in the grass."

~*~

"POLICE!"

The front door was knocked off its hinges as the police used a battering ram against it.  As soon as the way was clear they swarmed in like an army of invading ants.  They spread everywhere quickly arresting the men who were in the house and escorting the girls and young women out to a waiting van from social services.

The police in the rear of the house wound up having to use their nightsticks on a blond young man when he tried to charge through them like an enraged elephant.

"You're under arrest," a police officer said as he put the cuffs on the suspect.

"My arm!" the young man cried.  "My arm!  You broke my arm."

"Tough break for you lad," the officer said as he haul the man on to his feet and dragged him to the waiting transport will news reported snapped photos and filmed the action for the morning news.

~*~

The next morning Vernon Dursley sat down to his breakfast with his morning paper.  Opening the paper he began to read as he ate his toast. 

"There was a fire in North London," he announced.  "Drug related.  Probably some damn foreigner."

"You're probably right, dear," Petunia agreed as she read the entertainment section of the paper. 

"Hmmm… police raid in London.  Page 3" Vernon said to himself as he turned the page.

The phone started to ring

"I'll get it," Petunia setting her section of the paper down.

"Dursley residence," she spoke into the phone.

"Mummy," Dudley's voice came from the other end.  

"Dudley where are…?" she said in a slight panic as she turned to look at Vernon who was staring at the paper with a lost expression.  "I thought you were upstairs."

"I ran into a little trouble last night, mummy," Dudley said.

Madam Bones jotted notes down as she read the blackmail material that the Black family had collected along with the information Malfoy had paid for with the money granted to his wife.  Occasionally she would jot something down in the Muggle notebook.

“So that’s how that bastard did it,” Bones mumbled to herself.  “All these years and I would never have expected Abraxas Malfoy to dress in women’s clothing to avoid arrest.  I wonder where he…” Bones turned the page and stopped talking to herself as she read over the information.  She tuned the page back and reread the report again before breaking down into a girlish giggle.  “He was a cross-dresser.  Abraxas Malfoy liked to dress in women’s clothing!  Oh!  Oh, that explains so much about Lucius! It really is true the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Still giggling to herself Madam Bones continued reviewing the documents until she was interrupted by a knock on her office door.  Touching her wand to the picture of her niece Susan, Madam Bones watched as the door to her office became see-through.  She growled softly when she saw that the person on the other side of the door was Dumbledore.

As he knocked again, Bones stared at the much respected older man, her brow furrowed in thought.  When Dumbledore knocked a third time, this time more forcefully and impatiently, Bones wrote a note and placed it in her out-box.  As soon as the parchment touched her out-box it vanished with a puff.

Bones watched as Dumbledore scowled at the door separating them, knowing full well that the man could not see her.  She studied him carefully as one of her newly graduated Aurors came up behind him.

“Excuse me, Headmaster,” the Auror said respectfully, “But Madam Bones has asked not to be disturbed.”

“Ah Timothy,” Dumbledore said as he turned to face the Auror.  “I see congratulations are in order.  I knew you would become an Auror.”

A slight blush came to Timothy’s face.  “Thank you, sir, but it was your good word that gave me the chance to get into the academy.  I doubt they would have accepted me without it.”

Bones’ eyes narrowed as she took in what was being said.

“Nonsense, my boy.  All I did was make sure the right people saw the reports on you,” Dumbledore replied.  “It was your hard work that won you your spot.”

“That may be, sir but I’m still sure that your recommendation made the difference,” Timothy stated.

Dumbledore nodded his head with a grandfatherly smile on his face, the type of smile one sees when a grandson follows his grandfather’s instructions exactly and the results are as the grandfather predicted.

Dumbledore glanced over to the door that led to Bones’ office.  “I need to speak to Madam Bones about some important business,” he said.  “Do you think it’s possible for you to help me my dear boy?”

Auror Timothy glanced at the same door before shaking his head.  “I’m sorry, Headmaster but Madam Bones left strict orders that no one, not even the Minister was allowed to interrupt her while she reviews the information that Black family had collected.  She wants to separate the information that might be important to the Ministry from that which is simply embarrassing for some family.”

Dumbledore nodded his head.  “A noble effort to protect the innocent in such matter but I need her aid in an important matter, one that could be the deciding factor in the war against Voldemort and his followers.”

Timothy flinched at the name of the Dark Lord.  “And…and what’s that, sir?”

Dumbledore sighed wearily as he took a step closer to the young Auror.  “Son, what I am about to tell you must be kept in strict confidence.”

Timothy nodded his head.  “I understand, sir.  I promise not to tell a soul.”

Dumbledore smiled kindly at the young man as he patted him on the shoulder.  “I know you won’t, son,” he said.  Taking a deep breath, Dumbledore told him, “Harry Potter is missing.”

“Missing!” Timothy gasped.

Dumbledore nodded his head.  “He was kidnapped and spirited away from our fair land.  I need Madam Bones’ help…I need the help of the Aurors’ to rescue Harry from the grasp of his kidnappers.”

Timothy glanced over at the closed office door then back at Dumbledore.  “I…I can send a message to Madam Bones telling her that you’re here and the reason why, sir.”

Dumbledore nodded his thanks.  “If you would, it would be a great help.”

Timothy nodded his head before hurrying off to send the message to Madam Bones.

Madam Bones sat at her desk watching Dumbledore pop a lemon drop into his mouth with a satisfied expression on his face.  When she heard a pop she turned her attention to her in-box.  Picking up the folded sheet of paper she unfolded it and read over the message written on it.

Picking up her quill she wrote a quick message on paper before tossing it in her out-box where it vanished with a puff.

Leaning back in her chair Bones waited patiently for Auror Timothy to return to Dumbledore’s side with her reply.

“Headmaster Dumbledore,” Timothy nervously clutched the paper that had the Madam Bones’ reply on it.

Dumbledore turned towards Timothy with a grandfatherly smile.  “Timothy, so when did Madam Bones say she would see me?” he asked.

“Umm…she hasn’t,” the Auror replied.  “Madam Bones replied that she trusts Sirius Black’s choice of guardian for Harry Potter.  She also says she can not speak to you due to the ongoing investigation into your misconduct as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and as the Headmaster of Hogwarts.  She doesn’t want anyone to claim she showed favoritism to you or denied you a thorough investigation, sir.”

The sound of the lemon drop being crushed could clearly be heard. After a moment Dumbledore replied, “I see.”

“Uhh…sir…May I ask what Madam Bones was talking about?  The misconduct, I mean,” Timothy asked.

“It’s nothing, my boy.  Just a misunderstanding, that’s all,” Dumbledore replied.

“Yes, sir,” Timothy replied with a nod of his head, however the narrowing of his eyes spoke of his doubt in the Headmaster’s words as his Auror trained instincts kicked in.  The young Auror watched as the Headmaster walked quickly towards the exit, his every movement expressing the anger he would not voice.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Madam Bones’ lips as she watch her Auror learn the first rule in police work; question everything and believe nothing without proof and even then question the proof.

Madam Bones continued to stare at her one-way door after Dumbledore and her young Auror had left; her brow furrowed with thought.  “Too many secrets,” she commented softly as she looked at the piles of paper on her desk that she had been reviewing then at the door to her office.  “Dumbledore wants Potter for some reason.  And Black had him spirited away but where do you hide someone…”

Madam Bones allowed her eyes to wander around her room mumbling to herself, “Where in the world do you hide someone who’s being hunted.  Where do you hide…”  Bones stopped what she was saying as her eyes centered on the picture of her niece Susan.  “In plain sight.”

“If Potter is no longer in the United Kingdom and is still practicing magic then he has to have registered with the ministry of magic for the country he is now living in,” Bones said to herself.  “Which means they would have reported that our Department of Magical Registration.”

With a determined stride, Madam Bones left her office and headed in the direction of the elevators.  Auror Shacklebolt soon joined her matching her stride easily.

“Dumbledore was here,” Shacklebolt said.  “He wanted to speak to you about Harry Potter.”

Madam Bones nodded her head in reply.

“He’s requesting our help in locating Potter and returning him to his home,” Shacklebolt explained.

Bones snorted.  “What Dumbledore wants is irrelevant after all the man is not Potter’s guardian.  In fact Potter’s legal guardian arranged for someone he trusted to become the boy’s guardian in the event of his death.”

“Yes…well…”  Shacklebolt stammered.

“Which reminds me Auror Shacklebolt, when did you learn of Black’s innocence and when were you planning on informing me?” Madam Bones demanded, stopping and turning to face Shacklebolt.

Shacklebolt took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “I was informed of Black’s innocence shortly after his escape from Hogwarts.”

“And how did you learn this?” Bones demanded.

“The Headmaster informed me,” Shacklebolt answered.

Bones nodded her head.  “And you were told not to inform anyone of this fact.”

“Dumbledore thought that if we kept it a secret that it might lull Pettigrew into a false sense of security so that we could capture him easier,” Shacklebolt replied.

“And as a result we have at least one child murdered by the man who really betrayed the Potters, the return of the Dark Lord who has had a year to consolidate his forces,” Bones snarled, “And on top of all that, the man who you were assigned to capture, a man who you knew was innocent of all crimes, is now dead when he tried to defend the Ministry from Death Eaters.”

Shacklebolt cringed at Madam Bones’ words.  “In my defense, Madam Bones, Dumbledore wasn’t sure who he could trust with information about Black’s innocence.  He felt it was better that we have Pettigrew in custody before we announced Black’s innocence.”

“Of course,” Bones replied.  “What better way for Dumbledore to have everyone ignore his part in sending an innocent man to Azkaban than to parade around the real criminal.”

Shacklebolt’s jaw muscles tightened at Madam Bones’ harsh words.  “I’m sure that is not the real reason, Madam Bones,” he snarled.

Madam Bones stared at Shacklebolt for a moment studying him before saying, “Tell me Auror Shacklebolt, who do you work for?”

“Pardon?” Shacklebolt replied in confusion.

“Who…do…you…work…for?” Bones spoke slowly as if to a child.  “The people or Dumbledore? You see I’ve discovered some things recently and I realized that Dumbledore is the mirror image of the Dark Lord, just in the Light instead of the Dark.  So tell me are you a servant of the people…or one of Dumbledore’s version of Death Eaters?”

With his hands clenched, Shacklebolt glared at Madam Bones.  “I am not a Death Eater.”

“True but you did put what Dumbledore wanted before the rights and needs of the people, namely Black,” Bones replied.  “If you had done your job and brought me this information, Black could very well be alive right now and as a free man.  Instead he died as a wanted man for crimes he didn’t commit.  I suggest you should think long and hard about your actions Auror Shacklebolt and about where exactly your loyalty lies.”

And with that Madam Bones left Shacklebolt behind and entered the elevator.

Shacklebolt stared at the elevator door with a blank expression on his eyes.  Slowly his eyes drifted up to the arrow that indicated what floor the elevator was at.

Blinking a couple times, Shacklebolt cocked his head to the side.  “Why would she be on that floor?” he mumbled to himself.  “All that there is on that level is the Department of Registration and the Department for regulation and Control of Magical Animals.”

Shacklebolt suddenly inhaled sharply, his eyes widening in surprise.  “Of course!” he gasped

~*~

“What do you mean they won’t allow bail?” Vernon snarled at the person on the other end of the phone.  “This is my son we’re talking about!”

Vernon grounded his teeth together as he listened to the reply

“Well they’re lying!  My son would never do anything like that,” Vernon stated with a firm conviction.  “It’s police entrapment, that’s what it is!  They needed someone to pin a crime on, to show people that they were doing their job instead of lolling around and they picked on my son.  Well I can tell you I won’t stand for it!  I’ll fight them and prove my son innocent.  And I’ll see them hang for what they’ve done!”

Vernon nodded his head in agreement with whatever the person on the other end of the line said.

“Yes.  Yes, that would be fine,” Vernon answered some unheard question from his caller.  “Just do whatever it takes to get my son out of that prison.  Thank you.  Good-bye.”

“Vernon?” Petunia asked softly as he hung up the phone.

“They denied him bail,” Vernon said softly.

“My baby,” Petunia sobbed.

“There, there, Pet.” Vernon gathered his wife in his arms.  “It will be alright, you’ll see.  Dudley will be home soon, where he belongs.”

Petunia sobbed into her husband’s chest.  “But my baby… They have him locked up with all those…criminals!  Who knows what they’ll do to my baby.”

“He’ll be alright, Pet.  They won’t lock him up with adult criminals; he’s under age after all.  Besides Dudley is a strong boy, he’ll be able to survive until we can get him out,” Vernon tried to soothe his wife.  “I’m more worried about who set him up.”

Petunia raised her tear stained face to look at her husband.  “What?”

Vernon wiped the tears away from Petunia’s eyes with his thumb.  “We both know that Dudley is a good boy and would never do anything like what they’re claiming, so someone had to have set Dudley up.”

“But who,” Petunia said as she pulled away from her husband.  “Who would do such a thing?”

“The boy or one of his kind,” Vernon answered.

“But why?  Why would they do such a thing?” Petunia demanded.

“Why do they do anything?” Vernon replied.  “They’re not good people, Pet.  I mean what type of people leave a child on someone’s doorstep like a bottle of milk in November.  They never asked if we would take him in, they forced him upon us.  No.  The only explanation is that they used their…abilities to make it so Dudley was arrested.”

Petunia nodded her head.  “They probably did it to make sure we took Harry back once they find wherever he ran off too.”

Vernon nodded his head, his eyes not quite meeting hers.  “You’re probably right.  They are the type to blackmail good hard working people into doing what they want.  Either that or using their magic against them.”

“So what are we going to do, Vernon?” Petunia asked as she chewed on her bottom lip.

“What we have to,” Vernon replied.

Petunia wiped the tears from her eyes with the palm of her hand.  “You’re right.  You’re absolutely right.”

Just then the mailman slipped some letters through the mail slot.

“Oh, that mailman!” Petunia snapped.  “I wish our old mailman hasn’t retired, this new one just does it completely wrong.  He starts at the wrong end of the street and we don’t get our mail til nearly lunch.  I don’t know what is wrong with him after all everyone knows to start with our end of the street first.”

Petunia knelt down and picked up the mail.  Sorting through the letters she stopped to stare at one of them.  “Vernon,” she said with a slight tremor to her voice.

“Yes, Pet,” Vernon answered.

“I think this one is for you,” she held out one letter to her husband.

Taking the letter, Vernon looked at the return address and said softly, “It’s from the Inland Revenue.  What do they want with us?” Vernon looked up at Petunia in confusion.

“Open it,” Petunia ordered with dread.

Vernon opened the envelope and read the letter.  “We’re being audited.”

#####

“Unauthorized Stargate Activation!”The computerized female voice warned over and over again.

O’Neill and Hammond quickly headed for the control room that was situated above the gate room as Special Forces soldiers raced into the gate room readying their weapons, in case they were needed.

The event horizon of the wormhole whooshed out and back, settling into a rippling pool of light.

“Do we have an ID coming through?” Hammond asked Carter and Harriman who were monitoring the computers that would receive the GDO code and for activity through the wormhole.

Walter rechecked his systems. “Nothing as yet sir.”

“Anything registering on your systems, Carter?” O’Neill asked.

“Not yet, sir.” She told him

The soldiers in the gate room kept their weapons trained on the gate as they waited for someone or something to come through the wormhole; while up in the control room, Hammond and O’Neill watched as the techs continued to type commands into their systems in an effort to get an idea of what if anything was coming through the gate or why nothing had yet. After a few more minutes passed with nothing coming through and everyone watching it getting more and more edgy, the wormhole suddenly shut down.

Jack looked at the now empty Stargate and quipped. “I would’ve thought we would’ve at least gotten whatever the galactic equivalent of a bag of flaming dog poop is, thrown through so they could watch us try and put it out. Instead we just get someone ringing the doorbell and running away.”

Hammond just gave Jack a look that shut him up without another word. The Special Forces troops didn’t relax their guard though. If anything a few of them clustered more tightly around the doorways in case something invisible had come through the gate.

"Major Carter, do we have any idea why the gate activated or where it was activated from?" Hammond wanted to know.

Carter typed in several strings of commands and waited for the results. Hammond and O’Neill stood nearby.

“Just before the gate shut down a short message came through and it appears to be from the Tok’ra sir. It’s in one of the codes they gave us.” Carter told them after nearly ten minutes of work. “It was sent on a very low frequency band. If the frequency band had been any lower, we wouldn’t have gotten it. They want to arrange a meeting and specifically requested SG-1 be the contact.”

“So instead of pranking us, they are asking us out on a date?” Jack crossed his arms over his chest.  "For some odd reason the theme song from Jaws just started going through my head. da duh da duh da duh da duh da duh da duh."

Carter gave him a sour look. “The gate address for the site they want to meet us at is for a location we’ve already been to, sir. The only things on the planet are the gate and some ruins.”

“When are they wanting to meet with SG-1?”Hammond asked.

“About two days from now, planetary time which is about sixty hours from now.” Carter told him.

Jack sighed and looked up silently toward heaven even though he couldn’t see it. Does somebody up there hate me? This was going to complicate things. He had just gotten his godson back and now even though he didn’t have anything in place for his safety yet, he was going to have to leave for lord knew how long.

The big problem he had was that if the Goblins had held the will reading as they should have then both Bones and Dumbledore knew about an unknown person named Jack who should have Harry in his custody and neither of them were stupid. It wouldn’t take them long to think of checking the Department of Registration.

“Sir, can I speak with you privately for a couple of minutes?” Jack asked. “It’s about that item Daniel is currently working on.”

Hammond nodded. Conversations about Harry Potter were not something that should happen in the control room. Wild rumors were already making the rounds of the base since SG-1 had brought Jack, the boy and Maybourne back. The rumors ran the gamut from the Potter boy being Jack’s child by a previously unknown woman, an alien that had been placed in Jack’s custody but then was kidnapped by the NID, or that the boy was really O’Neill’s previously thought deceased son Charley, though that one was not being spread anywhere near O’Neill or a member of SG-1. While some of the people on the base might be gossips, they weren’t suicidal.

Once they were in Hammond’s office with the door closed, Jack told him "Sir, I would say we have a couple of problems."

Hammond turned and looked at his second in command  "You mean Harry?"

“Among other things,” Jack agreed with a nod. "Given how I had to get him out of Britain, I don't think it's in his best interests or the base’s, if I leave him. As far as I know I'm the only magic user on base aside from Harry and he's not fully trained yet. While Harry is a little more skilled than your average fifth year, he wouldn’t be able to stand up to a number of wizards given he is injured and neither would anyone else on the base. There is also something a little odd about how the Tok'ra asked us out on this…date…it’s got my spidey sense tingling. Why would they ask for us specifically instead of going to their own people? I mean except for Jacob, I think most of the others view us as the children who should be seen and not heard."

"So you think the message is a trap?" Hammond asked.

Jack shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know. If it wasn't for the fact that non magical British government didn’t know about the Stargate program I would suspect that it was a wizard trick to separate Harry and me."

Hammond eyes widened.  "Could they do that?  Influence the gate like that?"

Once again Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Yes. No. Maybe.  There is a department in the Ministry of Magic called the Department of Mysteries. Along with the Hall of Prophecies, it’s where all the unusual, dangerous, or not fully understood magical items are kept once they’ve been confiscated by the Unspeakables.”

“Unspeakables?” Hammond asked.

“They are kind of the magical version of Special Ops and the NID.” Jack told him. “The Dept of Mysteries is also where the Veil room is. In my other life as Sirius I fell through the veil and through a round circle that looked an awful lot like the Stargate. I have no idea, if it was one or not. If it was it wasn’t a typical gate, because I don’t remember it having any glyphs for the gate addresses."

Hammond ran his hand over his bald head. "Then we need to figure out an alternate way to protect Harry and ourselves." He went on before Jack could interrupt. "I know you want to stay and protect Harry but I need you to go especially if it's a trap. Your team is one of the best at getting out of traps, not to mention thinking outside the box. I have a feeling we are going to need that in the next few days."

Jack shoulders slumped as he nodded his head.

"You said that when you were taking care of getting Mr. Potter registered at the Dept of Magic, a Dame McKnight told you there were people with magic serving in the regular armed forces?” Hammond paced a little “Could she put you in contact with someone who might be serving near here or someone we could contact directly?"

Jack shrugged, “I don’t know. She gave me an address to write to if I wanted to get a listing of those currently serving, apparently they maintain a newsletter for them, but that would take too long since the meeting with the Tok’ra is in a couple of days and the address is a PO Box.”

“I agree we do not have the time to wait for regular mail,” Hammond concurred. “I know we have been working on the assumption that you and Harry are the only magic users at the SGC, but is there any way for you to tell if someone else is capable of doing magic?”

Jack shook his head. “While I know that there are spells that can detect those capable of doing magic, I have no idea what those spells are or how to do them. And most of those spells are limited to the birth of the child or the spells placed on clocks that allow a family to keep track of the health and safety of its members. I kind of wish we could come up with something similar to help us keep track of Daniel. It would spare me a lot of gray hairs.”

“One of those would be useful to keep track of your entire team, Colonel.” Hammond couldn’t resist commenting.

O’Neill tried to look offended at the implication that his whole team was trouble magnets, then his mind returned to the problem at hand. “Hogwarts has a book that tracks them from birth until they're eleven after that the magic seems to fade. I’ve often thought it was because the tracking spell placed on the wands obscured the results of the spell either that or once they were enrolled in a magical school the spell no longer worked, because its purpose was to make sure they were found and received a magical education.”

Hammond sighed. “Then I can see only one option.  If you believe you can trust her, contact this Dame McKnight and see if she can suggest someone, who might be in the Colorado Springs area?”

“It would have to be someone on leave, if they aren’t already at the SGC, because there would be awkward questions about why we were bringing them on to the base on such short notice.” Jack commented, thinking out loud, “Or someone who could move around freely without questions being asked.”

Before Hammond could comment his office phone rang. Picking it up, Hammond barked into the phone. “Hammond.”

After listening for a few minutes, Hammond nodded. “He will be up in a few minutes to find out what your visitor wants.”

Once the phone was returned to its cradle, Hammond fixed Jack with a gimlet stare that had O’Neill trying to figure out if he’d done something wrong that he’d forgotten about.

“It looks like you won’t have to make that call to Dame McKnight after all.” Hammond told him. “She is currently waiting in one of the visitor’s area near the main gate. She asked to speak to you.”

“You’re kidding!” Jack wondered for a moment if Dame McKnight might not be a seer. “I wonder how she found us?”

“So do I.” Hammond fixed him with another gimlet stare.

Jack held up his hand. “I didn’t tell her I was stationed here. I just listed my place of residence as Colorado Springs and told her I worked for the Air Force.”

“So she might’ve checked the airbase and the Academy and not finding you there thought you were stationed at NORAD.” Hammond concluded.

“I’ll find out once I’ve talked to her.” Jack told him before heading out of the room and to the elevators that would take him up to ground level.

####

As the computerized female voice warned over and over again. “Unauthorized Stargate Activation!”Daniel looked at Harry for a moment, debating on what to do. He quickly realized that the injured boy would not be able to move quickly on crutches if it became necessary to evacuate the base. Going to his office door, he spoke to the SF soldier standing guard outside requesting that a wheelchair be brought down to his office as quickly as possible, for Harry.

The soldier spoke into his radio and passed on the request, then listened for a minute before telling Daniel. “It should be down here in about ten minutes Dr. Jackson.”

“Thanks,” Daniel turned back to face Harry who was up on his crutches.

“What is going on?” Harry wanted to know.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you.” Daniel told him, then when he saw Harry was going to protest, he went on, “It involves what Jack does for a living and unfortunately it's top secret or Jack would have told you.”

Harry rolled his eyes as his face took on a stubborn expression. “Adults always say that when they do not want to answer a question. I am not a child you know.”

Daniel sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I know this is hard for you. You grew up like I did having to rely solely on yourself and not really being able to trust others, but I promise you Harry that Jack and I will tell you what we can but there are some things we can't tell you. And what Jack and I do for a living is one of those secrets. Jack and I work for the military, and the military has things that have to stay secret. Just like the fact that you are here has to be kept secret from those outside this base, or they might try and take you away or accidentally tell this Dumbledore person, that you and Jack are worried about, where you are.”

Harry didn’t respond to that. Instead he chose to turn away from Daniel and picked up one of the nearby books that he could reach without too much of a struggle given he had to use crutches to remain upright.

“Harry, one thing I can tell you is that warning means you and I may have to evacuate the base.” Daniel advised him gently. “I’ve made arrangements for a wheelchair to be brought down so we can get you out of here quickly if we need to leave.”

“What about Jack?” Harry wanted to know. “Will we be waiting for him?”

“No,” Daniel told him gently. “He is a few floors further down into the base and if he has to evacuate he will go out a different way than we will, but we should see him topside. My primary responsibility is to get you out. And yours, at least for now, as much as I know you don’t want to hear it, is to follow my lead.”

Harry looked like he was going to argue the point, but Daniel hurried on. “Just think of how Jack would feel once he was topside and couldn’t find you.”

That shut Harry up as he remembered the last time he had rushed into a situation without thinking things through. He had lost Sirius. And while it was true he had him back now if in a different body, Harry wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

#######

When Jack got topside, he found Helen McKnight waiting in the guard shack. She had apparently managed to convince one of them to let her wait in there.

“Helen,” Jack greeted her. "Not that I'm not happy to see you but what are you doing here?"

“Your ward’s file has been looked at.” Helen told him, no longer playing the dotty but kindly old lady. “And unlike Maxwell, I know who and what he is, so I had it flagged so I would know if it was accessed.”

“Someone in Britain?” Jack wanted to know.

“Yes,” Helen gave no further details.

Jack studied her for several minutes then led her away from the guardhouse to an isolated area a short distance away from the main entrance to both NORAD and the SGC. Once they were far enough away from those who as far as Jack knew were not magical, he asked, “What department do you really work for, Helen?”

Helen sighed wearily.  "While we originally had a different name, thanks to one of my predecessors who had a fascination for cartoons we wound up being given the name... Mystery, Inc by the other departments."

Jack bit back a snicker as he asked, “And do you have a talking dog as well?”

“No, thank goodness,” Helen sighed again.

“So what exactly is Mystery, Inc?" Jack asked.

"Think of it as a cross between the British Department of Mysteries and the CIA?” Helen explained.

“Magical spies,” Jack nodded. “Only you do more than watch.”

“Exactly,” Helen replied.  “Our charter is to protect the United States from magical threats no matter what the source and by whatever means are necessary. I’m the head of it. Colonel O’Neill, we need to talk about your time in Britain. And I also need to speak with Mr. Potter. I need to find out exactly what is happening in Britain, and not the pabulum that Minster Fudge is trying to feed his magical allies.”

Jack could understand the need for information.

Every nation in the world, whether magical or non-magical, needed information to keep their people safe. They needed to figure out who their allies and who their enemies were. If you tried to bury your head in the sand and pretend that the rest of the world would make nice with you if you just made nice with them then one day you would wake up in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust or the magical equivalent of it. And right now the other magical countries needed to prepare for what might be coming, even if the British magical government was still trying to bury its heads in the sand. Jack was willing to bet that just about every other magical government was making plans on what to do if Voldemort managed to spread his tentacles beyond Britain. And there was no doubt that if they knew Harry was out from under Dumbledore’s control, the magical governments of the world would be scrambling to find him and get him under their control.

Of course Jack wasn't planning on allow anyone to use Harry or himself in their plans without having a say in the matter. However before he would allow Helen McKnight or anyone else anywhere near Harry, he was going to get some guarantees as to his godson’s safety. He would allow no one to manipulate or control Harry any longer. “Are you planning to take us into protective custody?”

“No,” Helen met his gaze steadily.

“You said you want information, what are you willing to trade for it?” Jack asked her.

“Nothing that will betray the security of magical or normal Americans.” Helen told him crisply.

“What about some of your time?” Jack asked. He had a feeling that anyone who’d managed to become head of a department like the Dept of Mysteries, would be able to take care of Harry for him while he dealt with the Tok’ra. “I will also need an oath from you that what you are going to see while you are with me will remain between you, me and my CO, unless we release you from the oath.”

“And what will I get in return?” Helen McKnight wanted to know.

“The answers to your questions about what is going on in Britain and if this partnership works out, we may be of use to each other later.” Jack told her.

After Jack had Dame McKnight’s oath, he pulled out his cell phone and called Hammond. “Sir, you remember that matter we were discussing earlier? I think that the person we were talking about can take care of it for us, while I handle that other matter. Can I bring her down to discuss it?”

There were a few moments of silence, before he told Hammond. “She swore an oath to keep it confidential and if she breaks it the results wouldn’t be good for her. I think we can trust her at least for now.”

Jack escorted Helen back to the security gate and got her a visitor’s badge, before escorting her into the SGC.

#####

When Jack escorted the elderly lady into Hammond’s office the General got to his feet to greet her.
Hammond looked at the woman puzzled. She looked familiar though he couldn’t quite place her yet.

Jack performed the introductions "General Hammond may I introduce Dame McKnight head of the magical department known as Mystery Inc. Dame McKnight, this is General Hammond."

"A pleasure to meet you General Hammond," she held out her hand.

Hammond puzzled look became more pronounced as he finally figured out where he had met her before. “Miss Helen?”

“Miss Helen?” Jack glanced back and forth between the two of them.

“Miss Helen was my 4th grade teacher.” Hammond told him. “And she doesn’t look any older than when I was in her class.”

“You taught in non-magical school?” Jack raised an eyebrow in question. “Given that General Hammond would have been in elementary school in the early 50’s how did you manage it?”

Helen remembered George Hammond as a honest and forthright child who would do what was right even if it came at a cost to him and since he obviously knew that O’Neill was magical, it was safe to trust him with this as well…at least for now. When O’Neill wandered into her office by mistake, she had had the same impression about him. He would fight to the death to do what was right even if it cost him.

“Since the founding of this country,” she told the pair, “we have always had people in place to keep abreast of developments in the normal world. It was easier before the age of computers, to move around and build a new identity, or have someone else assume a previously existing identity in another place. We refused to be like the rest of the magical world and ignore what our normal counterparts were doing. Normals are very clever when they want or need to be as evidenced by the development of the electric light and the telephone. They have also shown they are willing to do whatever is necessary to preserve their world as evidenced by the first atomic bomb that was dropped from an airplane and used to end World War II. Because of that it became even more important to keep up with the developments going on around us so we could deal with them on an equal footing and if worst came to worst we would know if they ever became a threat to us and how so we could come up with a way to save ourselves. We were not willing to be like those in Europe who for some reason isolate themselves and think that the normals are backward idiots.”

Jack had to swallow a smile as he agreed, “The ones I encountered in Britain seemed to be stuck in the 16th or 17th century. They still write with quills instead of ballpoint pens and they still write on parchment paper rolls. Who does that any more except for those who participate in historical re-enactments? What surprised me though was that none of the normal born ever seemed to think of bringing a pen or pencil and spiral notebooks to that school Harry went to…Hogwarts, I think it was.”

“There are a couple of reasons for that.” Helen told him. “The first is because of the spell placed on the letter each normal-born receives from the teacher who goes to explain about magic to them. The magical’s in Europe need to separate the normal-born from their old lives and keep them from ever thinking of going back to that world. They begin the process with the packet they receive explaining the magical world to them and their families. How well it works will depend on how desperately the normal-born wants to fit in. Sometimes small things will slip through, like a cherished book or maybe a picture, but none of the things that are used in daily life like ballpoint pens and regular paper. The separation spell is reinforced with each letter they are sent from Hogwarts. Eventually though the spell combined with several years of immersion in the magical world, will pull them away from that thing. A lot of normal born tend to want to fit in so badly and that’s what makes the spell take hold so hard. It works until they are no longer receiving correspondence from Hogwarts and they are trying to find a job in the magical world and can’t. Unless they have married into a magical family, they either return to the normal world or they leave for another country with a magical population, where they might have a chance of fitting in.”

“And that is not done here?” Hammond wanted to know.

Helen shook her head. “After the Red Scare died down, the magical schools listed themselves as very select private schools. And if they wished to continue functioning as a school in magical America they had to teach normal classes as well as magical ones. We even have a few magical universities for those who want to continue on with their magical education, but American magical’s can move easily between the magical and normal worlds without standing out or attracting attention because they even know how to use a telephone.”

Helen looked at both men. "Gentlemen, I know you have more questions but every moment we delay is more time Dumbledore and Voldemort have to further their plans.  For the security of the United States both the normal and magical worlds, I need to speak to Mr. Potter as soon as possible." Helen turned to look at Jack. "And I have a feeling you'll be able to provide a lot more information on those things Mr. Potter doesn’t know about regarding the state of affairs in Britain."

“I don’t know what I will be able to tell you,” Jack told her. “But you are welcome to whatever information I was given by Sirius Black when he asked for my help in getting Harry out of Britain, before more harm was done to him. I do have one request though. Treat Harry very carefully. Between how Sirius told me the Dursley’s treated him and what he went through every year at Hogwarts he is not a very trusting person right now. I think the only reason he trusts me at all is because I was able to convince him that Sirius asked me to help him.”

Helen nodded acceptance of that condition, but Jack continued. “I would also suggest you don’t try and act like you are a harmless old lady, from what Sirius told me that was Dumbledore’s biggest trick and given his behavior led to Sirius’ death because he refused to share information with Harry when he needed it most, I doubt he will trust anyone else who tries it on him…no matter who they are.”

Helen nodded in agreement. “And what exactly do you want from me, Colonel?”

Jack raised an eyebrow in a questioning gesture. “What do you mean?”

“You are acting too agreeable, though I am fairly certain that the last thing you want to do is allow me access to Mr. Potter. You are even telling me how to handle him so that I do not get on his bad side. What do you want in exchange for this? On the surface you asked for my time. Why? And for what reason?”

“I have a mission that will take a few days.” Jack chose his words with care. “From what Sirius’ letters told me about the Supreme Mugwump and Harry has confirmed, I think that Dumbledore will try to get him back since he now has an idea about where he is.” There was a note of contempt in O’Neill’s voice, which had Helen wondering just what Sirius Black had told him and if she could get her hands on those letters. “My read on the man is that he uses cat’s paws to do his wet work. While he may not be willing to do the dirty work himself, my concern is he may be able to convince the British Ministry to try and retrieve Harry so they will bear the blame if it blows up. And if the Ministry gets involved then their current Dark Lord might also be able to find Harry. Sirius’ letter told me he had spies in the Ministry. I really don’t think we want their Dark Lord over here possibly killing innocent people in his quest to get his hands on Harry. I need someone who is magically capable to keep an eye on Harry and protect him in case either of those events happens. As far as I know there isn’t anyone on the base who fits that bill. What I would like from you if you are willing is to have you and maybe some of your people watch over Harry for a few days while I am gone.”

“Do you have a safe house in the area? One not in your name O’Neill?” McKnight asked as she made a mental note of whom she would need to contact to arrange for guard duty. “I don’t know the level of resources that Dumbledore has available to him that he can use in finding properties connected to you.”

Jack was silent for a couple of minutes and then he remembered the house he’d put in Sara’s name when they’d divorced. Wizards in Britain from what he remembered of his time as Sirius, only looked at the surface of things and never really dug very deep, and if he based things off his only other magical contact in America so far…the Percy clone in the Dept of magical records, most American magical’s weren’t that much different from their British counterparts. Only being nosey when it suited them or they had something to gain. That meant Sara’s house should be safe at least for the short term and they should be able to wrap things up with the Tok’ra in a few days.

“My ex…”  Jack coughed, “Sara is out of town for a few weeks. I have the key to her place. We could put you and Harry up there along with your people.”

“Is it in your name or hers?” McKnight asked.

“It’s been put in her maiden name.” Jack told her.

McKnight nodded. “It should work, then. Especially if it’s in a neighborhood that is one of those quiet types. British magical’s will stand out a mile, since they have no concept of how to blend in to a normal neighborhood.”

“And your people won’t?” Hammond asked.

McKnight shook her head. “All Mystery Inc operatives have to spend at least two months every two years living as a normal in a different location. That means living in a non-magical area and using no magic. That way they can blend in, even if they may be a little out of fashion and keep current on what is being used by Normals.”

########

“Harry,” Jack’s voice brought a smile to Harry’s face as his guardian walked through the door to Daniel’s office.

“What was that alarm about?” Harry wanted to know. “Jack, you are all right?”

“I’m fine, but that alarm was a request from one of our allies for help.” Jack told him cautiously.

“Help?” Daniel questioned.

“The group Jacob is staying with.” Jack told him obliquely, hoping that would clue him in.

Daniel nodded in understanding. The Tok’ra had contacted them and were asking for their help.

“And that means what?” Harry had a feeling judging by the serious expression on Jack’s face he wasn’t going to like the answer to this.

Jack sat down next to Harry on the couch in Daniel’s office. "It means as much as I wish I didn’t have to, I am going to have to leave you in the care of someone else for a few days, while I take care of this.”

“So I’ll be staying with Daniel? Or Mr. Ferretti?” Harry asked.

“I’m afraid not?” Jack told him. “When I went to the US Ministry yesterday to register you, I met the Head of the American version of the Unspeakables. She recognized your name and put a monitor on your file. Apparently they have been monitoring events in Britain and unlike Fudge they weren’t going to assume you were lying. She came to warn me that someone in Britain has accessed your file. Someone at the Ministry knows you are in America though I don’t know who and fortunately for us, they don’t know where.”

“And she conveniently offered to watch me while you are sent off on this unexpected mission.” Jack could see the distrust and suspicion in Harry’s eyes.

Jack shook his head as Daniel started to speak. This was between him and Harry. He had a slight idea of how rough the boy’s life had been and how little trust he had in adults and cursed Dumbledore for creating the situation. “No, I asked her to take care of you. The mission is separate from her. The mission has to do with my job here. My team was asked for specifically so there isn’t another team that can take it.”

“She could have arranged it.” Harry countered.

“No, she couldn’t have.” Jack shook his head. “One of these days when you are a little older, if you choose to work here, I will explain exactly what it is we do here but I give you my word on my magic, that Dame McKnight’s arrival has nothing to do with why I have to go even if it is only for a few days. I also give you my word that if this mission wasn’t important to the safety of everyone here, I wouldn’t go. You are that important to me.”

“Then why is she here?” Harry demanded. “What does she want in exchange for watching over me for you?”

“She wanted to talk to you about Voldemort and what is going on in Britain.” Jack told him. “I want you to tell her everything you know about him and what has happened to you over the last five years. All of it.”

“She is willing to take the word of an under-aged wizard?” Harry didn’t bother to hide the skepticism in his voice.

“Yes,” Jack assured him. “She’s not like Dumbledore or Fudge.”

#######

The first meeting between Harry and Dame Helen had been rather stiff and formal. Jack’s worries that she would treat him like a small child were eased though, because he could see that Helen had picked up on the defensive armor Harry had wrapped around him. While she didn’t treat him as an adult, she did speak to him as a person.

The ride to Sara’s was done in silence, even though Helen had tried to engage Harry in conversation by asking about his hobbies and the subjects he’d liked at school.

Once they were at Sara’s, Jack loaned Helen his cell phone so she could call some of her people and get them out to where she would be staying until Jack came back to pick up Harry.

After making sure that Harry was taken care of even if his godson wasn’t completely happy with the situation, Jack said good-bye to Dame Helen and as he was going out the door, he heard her ask Harry, “What can you tell me about Voldemort and his rebirth?”

#######

As Jack stepped outside his home and toward his truck, he couldn’t help wondering if he would find Sara’s house still standing, since it had taken longer than he originally figured to wrap things up on the last mission.

What had supposedly been a simple contact mission with the Tok’ra had turned out to be a trap in a way. The Tok’ra it appeared had a spy in their midst who had betrayed their codes and the news that they were allies with the Tau’ri to Apophis who had wanted their help to hide him from Sokar and they’d had to bring him back to earth at least for a while, placing Earth in danger yet again. About the only thing that Jack had been grateful for in that whole mess was that Harry wasn’t there. There was no telling how Apophis would have reacted to Harry and his ability to speak to snakes. Not to mention how the Tok’ra who had come to chide them for taking Apophis to Earth would have reacted.

Everything was resolved now though with Apophis off to spend some quality time with Sokar and the Tok’ra off doing whatever it was they were doing. Personally Jack thought they were about as useful as the Order of the Phoenix when it came to dealing with the Goa’uld.

Jack was just getting in his car when he heard a popping sound and a female voice say, “Colonel Jonathan, O’Neill, you are a hard man to locate.”

Jack turned around and found himself face to face with Amelia Bones Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Jack was just getting in his car when he heard a popping sound and a female voice say, “Colonel Jonathan, O’Neill, you are a hard man to locate.”

“And you are?” Jack asked as he leaned back against his truck, crossing his arms.

“My name is Amelia Bones and I am Head of the British Department of Magical Law Enforcement,” Amelia introduced herself

“Ah yes, Sirius mentioned you a few times.  Called you fair and just,” Jack snorted as he looked her over.  “Personally I think you’re blind and deaf after learning what’s been going on in that hellhole you Brits call a school.”

Amelia bristled at the implication that she had failed in her duty to the people of magical Britain, and she felt personally insulted, because it was a well-known fact that she was one of the few incorruptible members of the Ministry. "Well if that were the case then why would he have left all of his family's blackmail material to me to use as I saw fit?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders.  “Maybe he thought if he rubbed your face in the dirt you’d turn into the guard dog he knew you could be instead of being one of those yippy lap dogs that you have been.  Of course you never reacted to any of the dangers your niece was in before so I don’t think the stuff Sirius left you will make any difference.”

Amelia stiffened as if she'd been slapped. She had never failed to protect her niece! "What exactly are you talking about?" she growled. "My niece never mentioned any problems to me in or out of Hogwarts."

Jack snorted.  “I guess you never actually asked her about school.  I’m sure your niece would have told you about the rumors of attempted murder, the death of a teacher, the giant snake that turned people to stone, the Dementors attacking the Quidditch field, the teacher that tortured the students with blood quill and more shit than I want to get into.  Or if she did tell you it went in one ear and out the other as you nodded your head like a bobble head doll while saying ‘that’s nice’.”

"How dare you?!" Amelia Bones sputtered. "I have always done the very best to protect my niece!"

Jack pushed himself off of his truck before stalking over to Bones.  “And yet you never investigated shit.  You never asked how Sirius escaped and now you have a whole bunch of nut cases running around following Mold in the Pants and killing people.  You never investigated how that kid died during the Tournament or how Harry, a very much under aged student was forced into it.  Have you ever actually looked into how things are run at that school?  Have you ever actually questioned anything that old goat fucker ever said or do you worship the ground he walks on because he’s Albus Fucking Dumbledore?”

Amelia forced herself to stand her ground against the American wizard who had suddenly gone from mild to threatening, while unobtrusively making sure her wand was still easily accessible in its sheath up her sleeve. "I had someone investigating the circumstances surrounding Black's escape, but found out only recently he was reporting to someone else and taking orders from him on what to tell me. As for the Tri-Wizard tournament, while it was not my area of responsibility, there was someone there I trusted to tell me if he found anything fishy... Alastair Moody. As for the mass escape, Fudge appointed a panel to look into it and I was forbidden to interfere or face the loss of my magic, because of the magical oath I swore when I took over as head of the DMLE. And I did try and keep up with what went on at the school given my niece was going there, but if you know anything about Albus Dumbledore, you know how well he controls what information goes in and out of that school. His staff is very loyal to him and would die before betraying him because of how they view him.”

“Yep.  Mind control is a wonderful thing. I’m assuming you didn’t know that Moody was a fake and that the real one was locked away for the whole year while the fake one had easy access to your niece and all the other kids.” Jack pointed out.  “And actually I’m surprised you haven’t lost your magic yet after all you swore to uphold the law but then again from what I understand in the British Wizard community, Dumbledore is the law.  After all he says jump and just about everyone in magical Britain says how high on the way up.  And yet for some reason you left your niece in that hell hole instead of transferring her to a different school.”

Amelia again felt herself bristling at the implication that she was under Dumbledore's control. This man had no idea how things worked in Britain. She had always done her best behind the scenes to curb Dumbledore's power. She was quite proud of the fact that everyone knew that she was one of the few who would stand against the Chief Warlock if she felt he was in the wrong.  He was a very well respected wizard among a large portion of the population of magical Britain for his defeat of Grindelwald and for his stands against You-Know-Who. Or, he had been until Fudge had done his smear campaign against the Headmaster and Potter but that trend was reversing now that the truth was out that the Dark Lord was indeed back.

Even though she knew it was going to sound like a weak defense, Amelia told him. “I was never informed of the things that went on at Hogwarts, even by my niece. The teachers at Hogwarts have always thought the Headmaster could walk up to a dragon and steal its egg and the dragon would let him and I’m afraid most of the children have been brought up with the idea that he was as great as Merlin. Believe me when I say that if I had known there was anything like what you have claimed going on, I would have had Susan transferred to Beauxbatons so fast everyone would think she had apparated out of the Hufflepuff dorms and I would have had Dumbledore and his staff up on charges.”

“For some reason that doesn’t fill me with much hope.  The British magical community keeps promising to clean up their messes but all you do is keep making bigger and bigger messes.  The last time Mold in the Pants was taken out, you Brits promised that you would get all his followers.  And you did. But they paid you off and then went on their merry way until he came back.  Wonder how many people they killed in secret while everyone looked the other way?” Jack commented.

There was nothing that Amelia could say to those charges, since they were mostly true. Though most of that occurred under her predecessor. She needed to get things back on track, because she had no idea how long it would be before Dumbledore reached the same conclusion she had about where Harry Potter had to be. "I am not here to talk about the past Colonel O'Neill. I need to discuss Mr. Potter with you. Based on the will that was read at Gringotts, you were chosen by his Godfather Lord Black as Mr. Potter’s guardian. I needed to speak to you and Mr. Potter and make sure that you both understand that Albus Dumbledore is not going to stop trying to get the boy back from you.”

“Oh I know what that goat fucker will do and exactly what he’s capable of doing and he has no clue about what I can do and how far I’ll go to protect Harry from him, Mold in the Pants or the rest of your inbred morons,” Jack growled.

Amelia shook her head. "I don't think you understand Colonel O'Neill, just how much power Dumbledore can bring to bear in his attempts to try and retrieve Mr. Potter. I don't know how much Lord Black told you about the positions Dumbledore holds, but as Supreme Mugwump he can exercise power over magical citizens in any country if there is sufficient need and I have a feeling that he is going to try and use them to get Mr. Potter back from you, because from what I have observed he for some reason seems to think that Potter is needed to defeat You-Know-Who.”

Jack smirked.  “And I think you give the old goat fucker too much credit.  Don’t worry, Harry will be completely safe and then I’ll deal with Dumbledore.”  Jack turned his back on Amelia as he pulled his keys out of his pocket.  As he climbed in the truck he said.  “And don’t forget Ms. Bones there are others who would want a crack at Mold in the Pants and Dumbledore.  I’m sure that the French, Germans and so many others would like to help destroy them for you.”

As he pulled away Madam Bones stared after the truck, speechless.

~*~

Fortunately for Shacklebolt the days follow his meeting with Madam Bones kept him too busy to report back to Dumbledore since it gave him time to think about what she had said.  Who exactly did he work for?  The people or Dumbledore and who exactly did Dumbledore work for?

Dumbledore said he was working for the benefit of all but when Shacklebolt sat down and reviewed everything he knew he began to have some doubts. 

Why would Dumbledore stop him from bringing Black to Madam Bones and having him dosed with Veritaserum?  Why did he keep Snape at Hogwarts when the man hated children?  Why would Black give Potter to a complete stranger instead of giving someone he knew his guardianship over Potter?

Shacklebolt kept swinging back and forth between his duty to the people and his duty to Dumbledore.  The one thing that finally forced him to decide was when he heard a young Auror talking about a quote he saw on the wall of memories.

‘When we place our duty to our faith, our family, our alliances above our oath to the law and to justice we dirty the name of Auror and everything we stand for.’

It was with this new belief in his duty as an Auror that Shacklebolt attended the Order of the Phoenix meeting at number 12, Grimmauld Place.

“Ah Nymphadora and Kingsley, it’s good you can join us,” Dumbledore said in greeting as the two Auror walking to Grimmauld Place.

“Headmaster,” Tonks said with a nod of her head and grimace at the fact that he had used her first name.  “And it’s Tonks, sir.  Things have been busy thanks to Sirius giving all the blackmail information he had to Madam Bones.”

“Yes,” Dumbledore said grimly.  “Unfortunately by doing so, Sirius made it much more difficult for us to gather information.”

“I don’t understand, sir.” Tonks gave the two men a confused look.

“He means we can’t blackmail or use the same scum as we did before since they're now in jail,” Shacklebolt told her.

Dumbledore nodded his head.  “It would have been better for all if Sirius had left the information in our hands.  After the war it would have been handed over to the proper authority.”

Shacklebolt made an agreeing noise as he looked around the House of Black.  “Where are the children?”

“Upstairs.  Confined to their rooms for the duration of the meeting,” Dumbledore answered as he walked towards the kitchen where the normal held the meeting.

Shacklebolt glanced up the stairs as he walked past them.  “Good.  I have some questions for young Mr. Weasley.”

“What questions?” Dumbledore turned to look at younger man.

Shacklebolt waved off Dumbledore’s concern.  “Just some questions about Mr. Potter.  Nothing too important; just hoping for a better understanding of the young man.”

“I’m sure Miss Granger could answer them,” Dumbledore suggested.

Shacklebolt shrugged his shoulders.  “Maybe but there are some things boys just won’t tell a girl.”

As Shacklebolt took his seat at the table next to Moody, the older Aurors softly said, “And the fact you wanted to make sure that the boy didn’t suddenly disappear into the bowels of that hell hole?”

“The boy did raise some interesting points,” Shacklebolt commented in the same soft voice.

“That he did,” Moody replied as Dumbledore started the meeting.

Dumbledore stood at the head of the table, looking down at those gathered around it.  “Thank you all for attending.  As you can see Nymphadora…”

“It’s Tonks!” the pink haired woman growled.

“And Kingsley were able to take a few minutes away from their busy schedule as Aurors to join us,” Dumbledore said as he ignored the conversation between Moody and Shacklebolt.  “I think its best that we begin with my search for Mr. Potter.  I have contacted a number of my colleagues across the globe in the hope that they might find Mr. Potter or this mysterious Jack person that Sirius left Mr. Potter with.  From what I been able to determine, I believe that Jack is a wizard Sirius met shortly after escaping Hogwarts.  Because of the type of birds Sirius used to communicate with Harry at that time I think it would be best for us to concentrate our efforts in locations close to the Equator; perhaps Brazil with its strong wizard community.”

“That’s a large area to search and not all of it is friendly to British wizards thanks to Grindelwald and You Know Who,” one of the members commented.  “This Jack person probably is someplace that would be more accepting to Harry and himself if this Jack person is British.  I suggest we look first on at places that once were ruled by the British Empire.  They’re more likely to accept him.”

“You mean like India?” Another member chimed in.  “I’m pretty sure that they would stand out against the natives there.”

“What about Australia and New Zealand,” a third Order of the Phoenix suggested.  “They would be able to blend in better.”

“The wizard community in Australia is a very tight group.  They would spot an outsider in a minute and they would gossip about them,” Moody commented.  “As for the New Zealand wizard community… they’re a bit… touchy.  Outsiders are generally not welcome.”

“This Jack character could be an Aussie or an American,” someone suggested.

“You’re of course assuming that Jack is his given name and not a nickname or a perhaps has something to do with his profession,” Shacklebolt suggested.

“Excellent points, all of them” Dumbledore declared.  “So now I think it would be best to look in areas that have wizard communities that were once or still are under the control of the Muggle British government.”

Dumbledore looked around at the nodding heads.  “Severus perhaps you would enlighten us about Voldemort’s actions and if he has an idea where Mr. Potter might be hiding.”

“At this time the Dark Lord is of the belief that Potter has been kidnapped by an outside party.  He is of the opinion that a foreign government kidnapped Potter.” Snape stated.  “However a few of the inner circle believe Potter vanished for other reasons.”

“Such as?”

“Money comes to mind.  The Potter family was well off and since Potter was the sole heir any child born to him would stand to collect upon his death.  Some think he’s ran away to save his own hide.”  Snape let out a snort.  “One of the lesser Death Eaters claims that Potter was spirited away by the love child of Death and Chaos.  When the Dark Lord heard of this, he dealt with him... severely.”

“Who does Voldemort suspect kidnapped young Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore asked.

“The French,” Snape answered.

“Why the French?” someone asked.

Snape gave the person who asked the question a look of disgust.  “Because Potter rescued Gabrielle Delacour during the second task.  And while her father Maurice Delacour is a simple businessman, his father is well known as one of the rebel leaders against Grindelwald.”

“So Voldemort thinks that the Delacours had Potter kidnapped in order to train him as a way to repay the debt they think they owe him for rescuing their daughter,” Dumbledore concluded.

Snape nodded his head in agreement.  “He has his contacts in France looking for wherever the Delacours have hidden Potter.”

“And if Potter isn’t in France?” Shacklebolt asked.

“Bulgaria would be his next choice,” Snape replied.

“Viktor Krum.  The other champion,” Moody supplied.  “I doubt that the Delacours would be so foolish to use such an obvious choice.”

“But sometimes the most obvious choices are the best,” Dumbledore commented.  “Bulgaria is a mountainous area with access to the Black Sea.  It would easy to hide in the mountains and if necessary escape by sea.”

A number of Order members nodded their heads in agreement.

“Arthur, I would like you to contact Bill and see if he can learn Harry’s location from Fleur,” Dumbledore ordered.

Arthur Weasley blinked a couple times before saying, “I’m not sure that would a good idea.  I wouldn’t want to endanger their relationship.  Young love and all that.  Besides I don’t think her father or grandfather would have told her anything in order to protect her and Harry.”

“Never the less, we need your son to find out what he can as soon as possible,” Dumbledore replied before turning this attention back to Snape.  “What else can you tell us about the Dark Lord’s plans, Severus?”

Snape shook his head.  “The Dark Lord is keeping any plans he has to himself,” he admitted.

Dumbledore nodded his head.  “Kingsley, Nymphadora…”

“It’s Tonks,” Tonks growled.

“Do you either of you have anything to report?” Dumbledore asked.

“Only if writer’s cramp counts,” Tonks commented massaging her hand.  “With the information Sirius left Madam Bones, we’re been able to solve a number of old cases no one ever thought that we would figure out.  The robbery of Smithy’s Jewelry that happened during the early part of the war.  You know how everyone thought it was Death Eaters… well it turned out it was the owner’s wife who committed the crime.  She wanted to get her lover a gift but didn’t want her husband to find out or to realize that their children weren’t his.”

A number of people gasped at the information.

“I always knew there was something not right with those children.  They look nothing at all like Walter,” one of the older male Order member said.

“But a couple days ago you swore that Walter’s eldest was the spitting image of him,” another Order member declared.

“I did not,” the Order man who had made the comment exclaimed.

“I was there.  You said it.”

Dumbledore sighed wearily as the two Phoenix member continued to argue.  It was only after the member who started the argument called the other person a ‘son of a drunk albatross’ that Dumbledore interrupted the argument.

“While this debate is very interesting we do have some business to conduct,” He said before turning his attention back to Tonks.  “Do you have anything else to report, Nymphadora?”

“It’s Tonks,” Tonks replied automatically.  “There’s a rumor about Madam Bones wanting to raid Knockturn Alley but no one knows when or if it will happen.”

Moody snorted.  “There have been rumors about a raid on Knockturn Alley since before I joined the Aurors.”

Tonks simply shrugged her shoulders.

“Kingsley, do you have anything to report?” Dumbledore asked.

Shacklebolt looked at Dumbledore.  “No, sir,” he answered.  “Everything is more or less like Tonks reported.”

Dumbledore’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Shacklebolt.  “And what about Potter?” he asked.

“I’m sorry to say that there is nothing new to report.  Madam Bones is of the opinion that Black undoubtedly picked someone he could trust with Mr. Potter, someone who could protect him and that by searching for him we could endanger him,” Shacklebolt answered.

“And what is your opinion on the matter?” Dumbledore’s nostrils flared slightly.

Shacklebolt paused for a moment.  “That’s Mr. Potter’s safety should be our primary goal.”

“So is that why you decided not to tell us that Madam Bones has located Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore snapped.

“What?” Shacklebolt gave him a confused look.

“You know where Harry is?” Molly exclaimed.  “Where is he?  We have to go rescue him!”

“And we will, Molly,” Dumbledore said, “But first I need to visit the Department of Registration to learn what country Sirius’s friend has taken Harry to.”

Shacklebolt stared at Dumbledore in surprise for a moment. “You used Legilimency on me!”

“Only because it’s necessary,” Dumbledore replied in a grandfatherly tone of voice.  “The smallest detail, something you view as insignificant might be the one thing that wins the war against the Voldemort and this Death Eaters.”

“And that gives you the right to poke around in our heads, to invade our private thoughts, without our permission!”  Shacklebolt snarled.

“Voldemort be must be stopped at any cost,” Dumbledore let out a tired sigh.  “But perhaps you are right.  I have allowed my desire to rid the world of this monster to cloud my judgment.”

Those gathered about the table were silent for a moment.

“We understand, Dumbledore,” one of the older members of the Order said.  “We don’t like it but we understand.”

“But I don’t,” Shacklebolt growled as he stood up and walked to the door.  He stopped at the door and turned back.  “When I was a cadet I was taught that there was a thin line between right and wrong and that as an Auror I would have to walk that thin line every day.  More than once I wanted to cross that line, to take out the monsters that threaten our world but there was one thing that stopped me each and every time….  My oath to the law.  I swore I would uphold the law to the best of my abilities.  I joined the Order in the hopes of fighting the corruption in the Ministry that allowed those monsters to walk free.  Imagine my surprise when I found that same corruption exists inside the Order.  Guess I owe Madam Bones an apology.”

And with that Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt walked out the door, leaving the Order of the Phoenix behind some with very thoughtful expressions on the member’s faces.

The group was silent for a moment before one of the members says, “A rather prickly person that one.  After all it wasn’t like Dumbledore was checking to see what bird the dear fellow last enjoyed.”

“Oh shut up, Jonathan!” another member replied.  “We really don’t need to hear your opinion on the matter.  We just lost a major source of information from inside the Ministry.”

“Now. Now. There is no need to fight,” Dumbledore said calmly with a twinkle in his eye.  “Kingsley is under a great deal of stress right now and reacted without thinking.  In a couple days I’ll talk to him and I’m sure he will rejoin us.”

“Not without apologizing first,” Molly chimed in.  “If he was my son I would scourgify his mouth for how rude he was to you.”

Dumbledore nodded his head.  “I’m sure he will, Molly.  I sure he will.”

Leaning back in his chair, Moody watched silently those who agreed with Dumbledore and those whose faces showed that they didn’t but respected Dumbledore too much to speak against him.  “Some days even the kings must fall,” he said softly to himself.

Remus’s eyes flickered over to Moody.

~*~

Jack pulled into the driveway of his ex-wife’s home.  As he climbed out of this truck, Dame McKnight met him.

“I think I pissed off the British Ministry,” Jack said as he faced the older woman.

Helen sighed.  “What did you do?”

“I let out my inner Sirius,” Jack answered.

“You’re inner Sirius?” Helen replied with a confused look.

Jack nodded his head.  “You know that little voice in your head that tells you right from wrong?”

Helen nodded her head.  “That’s your inner Sirius?”

“Not exactly.  He’s more like the voice in my head that tells me when I should keep my mouth shut and then to open fire with both barrels.  Which he seems to like to do a lot,” Jack admitted.  “Anyways he was kind of pissed when he met Madam Bones and he kind of let it loose and then reloaded a couple of times.”

Helen snorted.  “There is no such things as overkill.  There is only ‘open fire’ and ‘I need to reload.’”

Jack blinked a couple of times in surprise.

“Yes. Yes I read Schlock Mercenary,” Helen said.  “Wisdom comes from many places even from a Muggle online comic.”

“The Evil Overlord list,” Jack suggested.

Helen chuckled.  “I’m so happy that the Dark Lords and Ladies never read that list.  They might actually win if they ever did,” she replied.

Jack snorted.  “That is one thing you never have to worry about at least if A Dark Lord or Lady is anything like that clerk at the Department of Magical Registration.  They’re too arrogant to believe that people outside their little world might have a better idea than them,” he commented. 

Helen chuckled.  “Yes. That is one person I can’t see reading the list or even asking a 5 year old if there are any flaws in his master plan.

Jack cocked his head to the side with a thoughtful look on his face.  “I always wondered if the good guys could bribe the 5 year old to not point out the problems with a plan?”

Helen shook her head.  “It never worked for me when my children were that age.  Somehow they always knew what to say and when to say it to create the most embarrassment possible.”

“What’s the Evil Overload List?” Harry chimed in after having snuck out of the house to join Helen and Jack.

“I thought I told you to stay inside,” Helen said as she looked at Harry with a stern expression.

“Your team needs more training?” Jack asked.

“Never send a minion to do the really important work because they are easily distracted,” Helen said as she took hold of Harry’s arm and started to walk back towards the house.

“Why do you have minions, Dame Helen? I thought that only bad guys had them.  And what is the Evil Overload List?” Harry demanded as he allowed Dame McKnight to drag him back to the house as Jack followed.

“It’s a very important list you need to read. I’ll have to try to find the heroes list and have you read that one too,” Jack followed them inside.  “That list saved my life a number of times.”