Harry Potter/Stargate XOver
by Corwalch
Finally!
July 30, 1998
Harry Potter kept his eyes firmly fixed on the repaired alarm clock as it counted down the remaining minutes until his 18th birthday. He had been waiting for this day for a very long time. In just a few minutes, he would be considered an adult in both the muggle and wizarding worlds. Given that the Dursley’s had never paid that much attention to his birthday, they had probably forgotten that he would be eighteen soon and allowed to do magic without getting in trouble for it. If they had remembered, they certainly wouldn’t have let him back into their ‘precious’ home when Dumbledore insisted he had to return there until his 18th birthday.
He wasn’t going to call the Dursley’s house a home, because he considered it a prison, not a home. To him, a home was some place where you were loved and wanted. #4 Privet drive had never fit that description. Personally, he couldn’t see why he had to return to the Dursleys. It wasn’t like Voldemort or his Deatheaters were going to be after him any more. Voldemort was finally gone, destroyed by him before the end of his final year at Hogwarts. And those Deatheaters still alive after the final battle were now in Azkaban, guarded by Aurors instead of Dementors.
When he’d asked Dumbledore to give him a good reason for why he had to go back to the Dursley’s, instead of getting himself a place in Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, or even Muggle London, given that Voldemort was no longer a threat, all the manipulative old bastard would say was that the blood bond would continue to protect him until he was able to legally use magic.
He hadn’t called the old man on it then, but Harry still wondered what Dumbledore would have said, if he told him that the protection provided by living with the Dursley’s was practically worthless. During his sixth year, when Harry was wandering around the castle without his friends, he had found a hidden room in the oldest part of Hogwarts, that looked like a cross between a study and a library that would have had Hermione in ecstasy, if she’d been able to see the room at all. Harry had found a number of old books in there, including one on protection magic. One thing that had been emphasised in the section on blood bonds and protection was that the strength of the protection depended a lot on the amount of love the protector; Aunt Petunia, had for the protectee; him. It also indicated that if the protector hated the protectee, then the blood bond, instead of providing protection would leave the one being protected, vulnerable to attack from their enemies. He supposed he should be grateful that Aunt Petunia didn’t hate him enough to wish him dead, otherwise he would’ve had a target on his back for any Deatheater who wished to find him.
His silence regarding the truth about the ‘blood bond’ hadn’t been out of respect for the Headmaster. He’d lost all respect for Dumbledore after Sirius’ death, when he found out the scheming old bastard had deliberately kept secrets from him and claimed he’d done it to protect him. And yet all the while, he had been manipulating events from behind the screens, so that Harry and those around him were forced into dangerous situations. He’d only remained silent because the ‘blood magic’ supposedly providing protection to him was very old magic and Dumbledore might not have known that Petunia had to care about him for it to work properly.
Harry was fairly certain that the reason Dumbledore wanted him where he could lay his hands on him was because the conniving old bastard had some great scheme he wanted Harry to play a major role in, or else he had another one of those “I’ve been keeping something from you” secrets that he was going to show up and reveal, yet again ruining Harry’s life.
Harry smirked. Whatever Dumbledore had planned this time, the old wizard was going to be in for a helluva a surprise. He was no longer that man’s puppet. Harry had been making his own plans for what he was going to do with the rest of his life and none of them involved Dumbledore or the wizarding world in any way. That hidden chamber had turned out to be a gold mine of information and spell books left by the remaining three Founders of Hogwarts for their descendants to use in times of trouble. From what he had learned in that room, Harry knew the other part of the reason, that Voldemort wanted his family dead and it was something even Dumbledore didn’t know. Through his mother, who wasn’t a muggle-born as many thought, but a descendant of squibs, he was a descendant of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor. And through his father, though he doubted that James Potter had known it, he was a descendant of Slytherin. Those books had allowed him to come up with plans for what he would do if he survived his battle with Voldemort.
Those plans and the need to do some research before they were carried out, were part of the reason he hadn’t made such a fuss about being sent back to the Dursley’s, even though this was the last place he wanted to be. He wouldn’t have been able to keep any of his activities secret if he’d stayed at the Burrow, even if they had invited him to come this year. And he definitely didn’t want to deal with the wizarding press, or the stares and whispers that would’ve followed him if he were staying in the wizarding world.
That didn’t mean he was ignorant about what was going on in the wizarding world, far from it. Moony had been keeping him very well informed, especially concerning Fudge’s scheme to make him appear to be the next Dark Lord. One thing he had noticed about the letters from his ‘supposed’ friends, was that none of them mentioned Fudge’s actions or the lies appearing in Daily Prophet, not even as a passing comment on the assumption that he already knew. Nor had Lupin made any mention of Hermione, the Weasley’s, Dumbledore, or any of the Order members, who knew him well, speaking up to defend him in the press.
While he wasn’t really surprised that Dumbledore hadn’t defended him, after all his usefulness as a tool against Voldemort had ended with the Dark Lord’s demise, he would have thought that Hermione, with her passion for justice and truth, or the Weasley’s would’ve spoken up on his behalf. Moony had intended to, until Harry talked him out of it. It had taken him reminding the last Marauder that the wizarding world saw him as a werewolf and therefore a Dark creature to stop him. His speaking out wouldn’t have helped Harry, all it would have done was cement in the mind of the wizarding public that Fudge’s lies were true. Harry also didn’t want Lupin to become a target for the Wizarding world’s wrath when he was gone.
12:00am
Harry watched as a red mist poured out of his wand and vanished. The monitoring spell on his wand was gone and if he wanted to he could now work magic with it. Not that he needed a wand to work magic. About the same time he’d discovered the hidden chamber of the three remaining founders, Harry had found out that he could do magic without a wand. He kept that fact to himself, having learned the bitter lesson of the Wizarding world in his second, fourth, and fifth years: not to appear too different, or else you would be treated with suspicion and thought of as evil. From what he had learned in the chamber of the remaining three Founders, Harry had gotten real good at glamours and other spells. He realised that in the summer before his final year at Hogwarts that as long as the magic he did wandlessly, wasn’t extreme, like when he blew up Vernon’s sister Marge, then the Ministry of Magic wouldn’t detect it and he could be free of the Dursley’s at least for a while. He’d spent time in Diagon and Knockturn Alleys among other places over the last two summers acquiring things he was going to need when he left.
Using his wand Harry cast a silencing charm on himself then shrank his trunk and put it in the pocket of one of the pairs of Dudley’s old pants, thinking to himself that this would be the last time ever he had to wear them. He had other clothes waiting for him in his trunk that he would change into once he was away from the Dursley’s. Harry waited another ten minutes before completing his preparations to leave, to see if there were going to be any owls arriving from his friends with gifts for his birthday, but none did. Moony had sent his a few days ago with Hedwig, since tonight was gong to be a full moon.
He picked up a stack of letters, checking to make sure he had all of them, before giving the top one to Hedwig. “You know what you’re supposed to do?”
Her head bobbed, then Hedwig gave a sad little hoot.
“I know girl, but we’ve been through this. I wish I could take you with me, but I can’t.” Harry stroked her feathered chest gently, tears filling his eyes. Other than Moony, Hedwig was the only one he was really going to miss. She had been his constant companion for the past seven years and one of the few real friends he had. “From all I’ve read, this trip through the portal is not going to be easy and I don’t want you hurt. Moony will give you a good home and take care of you.”
Hedwig gently nipped his fingers, then her amber eyes locked with his as if she were trying to make him change his mind either about going, or about taking her with him.
“Ready to go, girl?” Harry extended his arm.
Hedwig realising she couldn’t stop him from doing this, reluctantly stepped on to his arm and let him drape the invisibility cloak over them, before they left the Dursley house forever.
############
Exit Harry Potter, Stage Left
July 31, 1998
It was still fairly early in the morning when three people suddenly appeared in front of #4 Privet Drive. If any of the other residents of the neighbourhood had been looking out of their windows or standing outside, the unusual trio would have caused them to stop whatever they were doing and stare.
Two of the people were in hooded cloaks and while that was unusual enough, the third with his long white beard and bright pink robe with unicorns and maidens on it, definitely didn’t fit into this very normal neighbourhood.
“I can’t believe you left him here, Albus.” A female voice chastised him. “He was supposed to be raised by Sirius.”
“That wasn’t possible.” Dumbledore countered, without giving any details. “This was the safest place for him, given that Petunia is his blood kin. She provided protection…”
“But no love.” The unseen woman interrupted. “Knowing Petunia, she would’ve treated him like a werewolf is by the wizarding world, or even worse as a house elf.”
“That wasn’t as important as his safety.” Dumbledore pointed out. “He was fine and I saw to it he had at least one friend on his way to Hogwarts. He made more friends among his yearmates.”
“We can sort this out later, dear.” The other unseen cloaked figure spoke up. “We’ll make this up to him, you’ll see. Right now, I just want to collect Harry and get out of here.”
They walked up to the front door of #4 and knocked. An extremely overweight young man opened the door and after taking one look at Dumbledore, he slammed the door shut and they heard him through the door shouting, “Dad, some of those freaks are here.”
“Freaks?” The cloaked man looked at his companions. “That boy is as big as a troll and we’re freaks?”
Before either of his companions could comment, the door flew open and a man with a gun was filling the doorway. His face was red as he pointed the gun at them and demanded. “Get the hell off my property!”
“We’ve come for Harry Potter.” Dumbledore told him, seemingly unphased by the sight of the weapon.
“Well, he’s not here.” Vernon Dursley bellowed, not moving from the doorway.
“What are you talking about?” Dumbledore asked. “I know this is #4 Privet Drive and I personally instructed Harry to remain with you until his eighteenth birthday.”
“Well the ungrateful brat left sometime in the night and good riddance to him I say.”
“You don’t care that your nephew has disappeared without a word?” The cloaked man inquired.
Angry at these weirdoes for displaying their freakishness in front of his home and for daring to argue with him, Vernon Dursley didn’t hear the ice in the man’s voice, as he retorted. “Why should I? That brat’s not my responsibility. We didn’t ask to have him dumped on us and he’s been nothing but trouble since he showed up.”
Before the cloaked man could say anything else, an owl flew over and dropped a letter in front of Dumbledore.
The sight of the owl and the letter seemed to infuriate Dursley even more. “Take that,” he gestured at the letter lying on the mat with his gun, “and get out of here! We don’t hold with your freakishness here.”
Without another word, he slammed the door hard, sending the letter flying, and they heard the locks click.
“Rude,” the cloaked man commented as he went over and picked up the letter.
“Dursley always was a narrow-minded bigot.” The woman told him as she and Dumbledore moved to join him. “Where is Harry? Could, Dursley have been lying about him being there?”
Before the older wizard could reply, the cloaked man asked, “Albus, who knew you were coming here today?”
“No one. I wanted Harry to be the first to get the news that you both were alive.”
Dumbledore stared in surprise at the address on the envelope he’d been handed. The handwriting was unfamiliar.
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore
#4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The headmaster opened the letter cautiously, and when he saw the signature, he announced. “It’s from Harry!”
“Does it say where he is?” The woman wanted to know. She appeared to be restraining herself from yanking the letter out of his hands and he skimmed the letter then re-read it more slowly.
“What does it say, Albus?” The man asked, pushing back the hood of his cloak to reveal a dark head of messy hair.
Dumbledore handed the letter to him, and both he and the woman who had also pushed the hood of her cloak back to reveal a head of red hair, crowded together to read it.
Dumbledore,
If you’re reading this, then I was right & the only reason you wanted me to go back to the Dursley’s, was so that you could spring another one of those secrets that you’ve been keeping from me all my life. As a result you’ve no doubt met my wonderful relatives, (Note the sarcasm!) who probably greeted you with either a gun, threats, or both & told you I wasn’t there. Don’t worry, nothing’s happened to me (not that you care) & I didn’t break my promise. I did stay with my obnoxious relatives, until my 18th birthday, but I left shortly after it arrived.
You’re probably asking yourself “Why didn’t Harry tell anyone that he was leaving or even where he was going?”, so you could stop me from going or else show up early & drop your little bombshell, further ruining my life.
I didn’t tell the Weasley family for two reasons. As your other spies in my life, they definitely would have told you my plans. You’re probably wondering how & when I figured out that the Weasley’s had taken me into their family on your orders, well it was during the summer after Sirius died. I had a lot of time to think, given that you’d imprisoned me at the Dursley’s again!!!
The other reason, why I didn’t tell any of the Weasley’s or even Hermione what my plans were, is quite simple. While they wrote to me several times after I returned to the Dursley’s, none of them saw fit to tell me what Fudge was up to: Setting me up in the wizarding press & public opinion as the next Dark Lord. Nor did they speak up in my defence. (Neither did you come to think of it.)
For people who claimed to care about me during all the years I was going to Hogwarts, I find it a bit odd that it would stop now, but I guess since my purpose has been served, neither you nor they felt the need to keep me informed of things that directly affect my life. Especially given that you all KNOW that I have no direct contact with the Wizarding world when I’m stuck at the Dursley’s, other than my so called ‘friends’. Was I supposed to find out about Fudge’s accusations when he showed up on the Dursley’s doorstep with a squad of Aurors? I do wonder who Fudge is going to set up as the enemy, so that he can retain his position as Minister, now that I’m going?
The reason I didn’t mention it to Remus, was not because I didn’t trust him, -- I do with my life. He was the only one who saw to it that I was FULLY informed about what was going on in the wizarding world since I had to go back to the Dursley’s. I know Remus wouldn’t have betrayed my plans to you, because he knows I don’t trust you & that I haven’t since the end of my 5th year, but he might have accidentally let something slip to the Weasley’s. He didn’t know that I found out they were just keeping an eye on me on your orders, so he would’ve assumed they already knew, & tried to discuss this matter with them or Hermione.
You know you & Ron should play chess sometime. You’re probably the only one who could beat him. I can personally attest to your skill as a tactician, as well as your ability to misdirect & manipulate people & events, given that I was your pawn for the last 17 years. You orchestrated all the major aspects of my life; from forcing me to live a hellish life with the Dursley’s. (For which by the way you should get down on your knees & thank the deity of your choice that your actions, didn’t wind up creating another Dark Lord. While you claimed at the end of fifth year that you knew you were condemning me to 10 dark and difficult years BEFORE I got my Hogwarts letter, you were wrong they weren’t dark and difficult, THEY WERE HELL ON EARTH!!! The treatment I received at the hands of my so-called relatives was very similar to what Tom Riddle went through at the orphanage & no I am not going into details. You never bothered to check on how I was being treated while I was living there, so you DAMN well don’t deserve to know now!)
By the way on the subject of the Dursley’s & Blood protection magic, I have some information for you. Next time you feel compelled to hide a child with blood kin for ‘their’ protection, make sure the relations want the child. I found a very old book in a hidden library at Hogwarts that detailed the advantages & disadvantages of Blood protection magic. (And no I am not going to tell you where it is. You couldn’t get into it anyway, since you aren’t related to any of the Founders. Bet you didn’t know that I’d found out another one of the secrets you’d been keeping from me) I wonder if that’s where my mum found the spell she used, seeing as how she was related to 3 of the 4 Founders (She was apparently descended from squib lines of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, & Ravenclaw). I also found out part of the reason Riddle wanted to kill me & my family. He didn’t want any pureblood competition for the Heir of Slytherin. The Potter family were some of the last descendants of Salazar Slytherin. I wonder if my dad knew. (This means my parselmouth ability didn’t come from Voldemort as you claimed, it came from the Potter line, though I doubt any of them were aware of it.)
Anyway back to the subject of blood protection magic, I would get rid of whatever book you got that information out of because it’s all WRONG! The one point I found very interesting in the book I read (and since it was an ancient book and you claimed this was ancient magic, I believe it over you, given that you having been lying to me for most of my life) about it was that in order for the protection to work the way you claimed it should, the Dursley’s had to CARE about me. Well, we both know they didn’t. They barely tolerated my existence. It did work, but because they were unwilling and only took me in to protect their own sorry arses, if Voldemort had REALLY wanted to he could have penetrated the very fragile wards that you CLAIMED was the STRONGEST PROTECTION I could have. And I won’t even go into the fact that you SHOULD have removed me from their care after Tom got hold of my blood and therefore the protection that my mother left in me. That meant he could’ve walked right through those DAMN wards that were supposed to be protecting me. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that the Dursleys didn’t want me dead, and that the Deatheaters didn’t know where to find me, otherwise I probably would’ve been dead a long time ago.
Anyway, back to the subject of how you controlled my life. I have no doubt that you arranged my 1st meeting with the Weasley family at King’s Cross Station though it took me a while to realise it. (Nearly 6 years) Mrs. Weasley’s not so subtle comment about “packed with muggles” & her asking her children for the number of the Platform, was meant to get my attention.. Mrs. Weasley is not a scatter-brained woman. She’s always managed to be on top of things. (She had to be raising Fred & George.) And given the fact that she had sent 5 children to Hogwarts prior to Ron, not to mention the fact that she had gone herself, meant that she wouldn’t have forgotten the number of the Platform. Assuming that was the way they usually got on it. All that was done so that I could meet a wizarding family you approved of & one you already had under your control, given that, I have no doubt, Mr. Weasley was a member of the Order the first time Voldemort was around.
I also have no doubt, that during my 3rd year, if it hadn’t been so important for you to retain my trust, you would have let Sirius be Kissed. But you had to keep control of your pawn, so you helped me to arrange Sirius’ escape. On the run he couldn’t interfere with how you were having me raised, so you were quite content with how things were. Not to mention, you had someone who could, if necessary, go into the dark parts of the wizarding world to act as a spy for you. I will not say that you arranged for Sirius’ death during my 5th year but you did nothing to stop it once things were set in motion.
As I said earlier Dumbledore, I don’t trust you & haven’t since the end of my 5th year when you dropped the first of your “I’ve been keeping a secret” bombshells after Sirius was killed. It was at that point I began to realize that I was nothing more than a pawn in your war against Voldemort. Your protests & claims that you only kept silent so long because you’d began to care too much for me were just for show & to try & keep me under your thumb. If I’d had any options left open to me that didn’t involve joining Riddle, you would have lost me right then, but you’d already made sure that there weren’t any.
Well Voldemort is defeated & now you can all go back to your safe little hypocritical lives. I’ll bet it was your intention after you dropped your bombshell, to put Wizard Harry back in his box so that you’d know where to find him in case you or someone else needed him to defend the wizarding world from some other dark menace. Well now you know that’s not going to happen. This pawn’s battle is done. He has defeated the opposing King & he is leaving the board for good.
You no longer control my life, Dumbledore.
I am leaving the wizarding world, TODAY. I intend to go somewhere where you won’t be able to find me or interfere in my life ever again. I will finally have a chance to live my own life & make my own decisions.
Your former pawn,
Harry Potter
PS: You don’t have to worry about what to do with #12 Grimmauld Place. Since it is now mine, I took care of it this morning & the muggles in the area never heard a thing.
“Dumbledore, what happened to our son? I can almost feel his rage toward you and the rest of the wizarding world. Just how much hell did he have to go through?” The dark-haired man growled as soon as he finished reading the letter. He had a lot more questions he wanted answered, but right now he just wanted to find his son. “Where would he have gone, Albus?”
“I don’t know, James. If he hadn’t mentioned no longer trusting the Weasley’s, I would have said we should try the Burrow.” Dumbledore told him calmly, not pleased with the way his plans had been disrupted. “We should be able to try a locator spell in just a little while. While the Blood protection magic has now failed, since Harry no longer views this place as home…”
“If he ever did.” Lilly muttered.
Dumbledore looked at her reproachfully before continuing,. “The general protection spells, that were placed on him to keep a locater spell from working, are not due to go down until eight. So assuming Harry hasn’t put up a blocking spell of his own, we should be able to find him.”
Dumbledore could tell from the expressions on James and Lily’s faces that they were not happy with this turn of events. It had taken a lot of persuasion and promises on his part, to convince the Potters to entrust their infant son into his care, when word had come that Voldemort intended to kill them. While he hadn’t wanted to lose the services of a talented witch and wizard in the fight against Voldemort, he definitely couldn’t afford to lose track of either child who fit the prophecy.
When the Potters had agreed reluctantly to leave Harry in his care, it had been with the understanding that, if he wasn’t the child the prophecy spoke of, he would be returned to them. And if he was the child of the prophecy spoke of, they insisted on being reunited with him, after he defeated Voldemort.
The problem now was to find Harry so he could keep his promise to reunite them. He hadn’t expected the boy to pull this disappearing act. He had thought young Potter was still under his control, but it appeared as though the boy had managed to fool him. Not an easy thing to do, he admitted to himself, but then he hadn’t tried to delve into the boy’s mind to find out what he was thinking after the end of his fifth year. Partly because he hadn’t wanted to deal with the anger and fury Harry was feeling toward the wizarding world and him in particular, and partly because he didn’t want to risk leaving himself open to attack. If Voldemort became aware of his intrusion into the boy’s mind he might decide to attack, using Harry’s mind as the battleground.
By the time Harry had returned to Hogwarts for his sixth year, everything seemed to be back to normal, so he had ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ as the muggles would say. Young Potter had been somewhat subdued, but Dumbledore had expected that, given how much Harry had loved his godfather for the all too brief time he had him.
The openness and friendliness that young Potter had shown toward others had also been noticeably absent. Dumbledore had missed the easy rapport he had shared with Harry. The young man no longer sought him out with problems or questions and whenever they had met, Harry was civil to him, but that was all. Any attempts by the Headmaster to find out how Potter was doing were met with ‘fine’ and an expressionless face. It had irritated him that Snape got more of a reaction out of the boy than he did.
He had even noticed a definite distance between Harry and his best friends, but had put down to the growing attraction between Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger that was leaving Harry more and more on the outside, as well as Harry’s well-known desire not to have anyone else made a target because of him.
Dumbledore hadn’t done anything to discourage him from isolating himself because he knew that in the end young Potter would be facing Voldemort alone and needed Harry to rely only on himself.
“Did you really arrange the first meeting between the Weasley’s and my son just so they could spy on him?” Lily wanted to know.
“Yes, I did arrange the first meeting between them, but not with the intent of having them spy on Harry. And I wouldn’t call it spying, more like keeping an eye on him. He is a lot like you, James, in one respect. If there is trouble around he would find it or it would find him. It was useful having extra eyes and ears on your son, but that came later.” The old wizard admitted. “You see, I knew Harry was going to be a powerful wizard and with the dark magic he had absorbed from Voldemort the night he survived the Killing Curse, I knew there was a chance the Sorting Hat might put him in Slytherin. While I couldn’t influence the hat directly, I know that to a certain extent, students can, if there is more than one house that would be right for them so I wanted Harry to decide against Slytherin. I arranged for Hagrid to take him to get his supplies the first time, knowing that Hagrid would make him very aware of the dark tendencies of Slytherin house, as well as who supposedly killed you. I also arranged for the Weasley’s to ‘accidentally’ encounter Harry at King’s Cross and insured that at least one of them would ride up on the train with him. That turned out to be Ron who was also starting his first year. The thing that insured he didn’t wind up in Slytherin though, was Draco Malfoy and the bigotry he was spouting about Muggles and certain wizarding families like Ron’s. Molly and Arthur only began keeping an eye on him over the summers and through the rest of the year after the Weasley boys rescued Harry from the Dursley’s the summer before his second year. Molly let me know what the boys had done and wanted to know what she should do. Since she was willing to take Harry in, I arranged things so they could keep Harry at least part of the summer and paid them for the extra expenses they incurred by having Harry in their home and in return they kept an eye on him for me when he was away from Hogwarts and let me know what he was up to.”
“What does Harry mean when he says Fudge is setting him up as the next Dark Lord?” Lily inquired.
“I forgot you don’t get the Daily Prophet in America,” Dumbledore commented, “As you may or may not know, Fudge became Minister of Magic shortly after Voldemort’s first defeat by Harry. He’s up for re-election and has a rather precarious hold on his power and position. Because of his denial of Voldemort’s return, his popularity isn’t all that great, so now he trying to be seen as doing something to stop another potential Dark Lord from rising. Since Harry’s second year, when it was discovered he was a parselmouth, there have been a number of rumours floating around about him being a possibly Dark Wizard and Fudge has been playing on the people’s fears in the Wizarding press, to convince them that Harry intends to become the next Dark Lord and pick up where Voldemort left off.”
He looked apologetic. “I’m afraid, I’m partly to blame for his success in destroying Harry’s reputation. By insisting that Harry return here, so that I would be able to bring you three together without an audience, he seemed to disappear from sight. Only those who knew his location were able to contact him. With the spells that were placed around the Dursley house when he was a baby, Harry is not traceable while he is residing here, nor is he really able to have much contact with the wizarding world. Fudge knew that and took advantage of it. When the wizarding public couldn’t see or contact their hero, it made Fudge’s lies and half-truths more believable.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” James demanded to know. “You knew what Fudge was up to, so why didn’t you defend Harry?”
“I meant to,” Dumbledore admitted, “but events got away from me.”
“We’ll deal with the Fudge issue later.” Lily promised her husband and from the look on her face Dumbledore almost felt sorry for Fudge. Almost. Lily’s temper was much worse than her son’s when she let go, because like him she would put up with a lot, before finally exploding. Dumbledore quickly hid the small smile he had at the thought of Lilly tearing into Fudge, when she turned her attention back to him. “I have a few more questions for you old man. Did you really just leave Harry with my sister and never bother to check up on him. You knew she hated anything to do with the Wizarding world, so what made you think she was going to treat my son with anything but contempt.”
“We didn’t dare risk anyone from the wizarding world knowing where the boy was being kept and regular or even irregular visits by the Order or even the Ministry would have tipped someone off whether it was the press, or Deatheaters, because sooner or later they would have figured it out that something important was being hidden in a muggle neighbourhood in Surrey. And at that time there was only one really big secret in the Wizarding world ‘Where is Harry Potter?’.” Dumbledore defended his actions. “I had Arabella Figg in the area to keep an eye on him. She would have told me if there were anything wrong or if the Dursley’s were mistreating the boy.”
“A squib!” Lily yelled. “While I have nothing against Arabella, she would’ve had no legitimate reason to spend time in the house and no magical way to get in to check on him. Petunia and Vernon are very good at hiding things they don’t want seen. If no one from the wizarding world ever bothered to check up on my son in the light of day, or even the dark of night, then after a while, they would have felt safe and convinced that they could do anything they wanted to Harry and you would do nothing to stop them. And it’s quite clear from my son’s letter that he went through hell in that house. Why didn’t you check on him, Dumbledore?! We trusted you with our son and now we find out you literally abandoned him to a family of bigoted muggles, until it was time for him to go to Hogwarts!”
“Lily, while I would love to settle this with Dumbledore right now, we need to find Harry, before he does disappear somewhere where we can never find him.” James spoke up before Dumbledore could say anything, trying to calm his wife’s formidable temper. The last thing they needed right now was a blatant display of magic on a muggle street.
“We aren’t done with this, Dumbledore.” Lily promised. “Now are the wards down?”
Dumbledore checked his watch. “They should be.”
Lily tapped the back of the envelope that Harry’s letter had come in with her wand and said, “Locus Harry James Potter.”
A few moments later two words appeared: Diagon Alley. After James and Lily pulled up the hoods of their cloaks, three faint popping noises were heard, as the magical visitors left Privet Drive for Diagon Alley.
######
Diagon Alley
Dumbledore and the Potters apparated into the small courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron that was the entrance to Diagon Alley. Lily impatiently tapped the bricks to open the wall. It was extremely crowded today, with parents and children buying their things for Hogwarts.
“It’ll take too long if we go store by store, considering this crowd, so where do you want to start?” Dumbledore asked.
“Gringotts.” Lily replied without hesitation. “If I were leaving, I would want money to travel on. He’s probably going to empty the vaults we left here for his needs.”
“He also has the monies he inherited from Sirius.” Dumbledore told her. “If he really has no intention of ever returning to the wizarding world, then he would want to make sure those were dealt with as well. Harry will no doubt be making arrangements for Remus’ needs, since he values the man as both teacher and friend, but that would take a little time to set up, even for the goblins.”
“Let’s go,” James started toward the white marble building at the other end of Diagon Alley.
They were halfway to Gringotts when a strong wind blew up causing the debris to swirl around and dark clouds filled the sky so that it almost looked like night. A few moments later lightening began forking across the sky and there were rumbles of thunder. The only thing missing was the rain.
“People of the wizarding world, may I have your attention please?” A magically magnified voice called through Diagon Alley.
“That’s Harry!” Dumbledore stopped stunned for a moment.
“But where is he?” Lily demanded. She couldn’t find the source because of the way it was echoing in the narrow confines of the Alley.
“Gringotts.” James announced, looking at the people who were beginning to crowd around in front of it.
They tried to make their way to the front of the crowd, but were making no headway against the sudden swell of people, so James pulled out his wand and pointing it in front of him, muttered, “Creo Illac.”
A small path opened up. Lily and Dumbledore followed him as he moved quickly toward the front. What they found when they got to the front, was The-Boy-Who-Lived standing on the steps of Gringotts, and the area around him seemed to be free of wind and lightening. The closer you got to the steps the more intense the wind and lightening became and most people were having a hard time staying on their feet. Dumbledore knew the storm was intended to keep the Aurors who were trying to reach Harry at bay, until he finished what he had come to do.
“I am leaving this world today, but before I go, I wanted to leave a present for all the prejudiced, hypocritical, narrow-minded, people who have made my life hell for the last 17 years.” Harry announced his voice still magically magnified. “A gift to remind you of the truth you would all prefer to forget. You cling to your prejudices, never bothering to find out about the people you hurt with them. You prefer to live in your nice safe little cocoons and believing you’re better than muggles because you have magic. Well you’re not. In fact you are partly to blame for Voldemort’s existence in the first place.”
There was a huge flinch in the crowd at the mention of Voldemort’s name that made Harry sneer at them. “Oh, please, the bastard is dead and this time he won’t be coming back, but he might not have existed if someone in the wizarding world had bothered to take an orphaned half-blood boy into their home and show him some love. Instead what did the wizarding world do, they sent Tom Riddle or should I say Voldemort back to the orphanage he lived at every year after he finished Hogwarts. Secure in their belief that a half-blood was not their problem even though he had no family claiming him. .Let the Muggle world take of him, why should we. In that muggle orphanage, he was beaten and abused because he was different. Because he could do Magic. You also ignored my situation, preferring to believe the Ministry lies and the wizarding press. I mean it’s not like they ever lied about anybody or anything. Oh no the Ministry and the Daily Prophet are all shining examples of truth and honour.” You could practically hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice “But God forbid, any of you or your Ministry should ever bother to check up on the Bloody Boy-Who-Lived. No you preferred to keep your cosy little assumptions, that my life was perfect, that I had everything I wanted handed to me on a silver platter by my Muggle relations, so that nothing would disturb your nice ordered little world. But I’m here to tell you, my life was almost exactly like Tom’s. I had no love from my family, only contempt, beatings, and abuse and every year I was sent back to that hell. You preferred to believe the lies and half truths you were fed by the Ministry and papers like the Daily Prophet, instead of thinking and figuring out the truth for yourselves. Voldemort was alive and wreaking havoc a year before Fudge finally admitted the truth, and it took Voldemort practically getting in his face for that to happen. Instead Fudge spent a year trying to destroy me even going so far as to allow one of his aides; Delores Umbridge to set two dementors on me in hopes of either killing me with the Kiss, or getting me expelled for using magic to defend myself. I won’t even begin to go into all the lies that Fudge has been telling about me this past summer to try and keep his job as Minister. Well you all deserve each other. And I have no doubt that you will create another Dark Lord within the next 20-30 years, because you won’t have learned your lessons from this one, but at least I won’t be here to have to worry about it.”
“Harry,” Dumbledore spoke up his voice also now magnified. “This isn’t necessary. You don’t have to leave us.”
Harry just clapped his hands before saying, “well if it isn’t the master manipulator, Albus Dumbledore. Did you get my letter?”
“Yes, I did, and I’m sorry for all you went through, but you don’t have to leave the wizarding world.” Dumbledore tried to delay him long enough so that the storm spell would cease. It couldn’t be maintained for much longer and once it was down they could get Harry out of here and things could get back on track. “We need to talk, Harry. There are things you need to know. You have a place here.”
“I am tired of your lies, your secrets, and your manipulations, old man. There is nothing you have to say that I want to hear.” Harry countered. “As for having a place here, no I don’t. You, Fudge, and the narrow-minded wizarding world have seen to that.”
The clock on tower of Gringotts began striking nine.
“Time for me to go.” Harry pointed his wand toward his throat and said, “quietus.” Then he pointed his wand toward the ground on his left and said words that none of them could hear because of the wind.
A glowing archway appeared and Harry started to step through it, but turned back and cancelled the storm, before pointing his wand at the ground in front of the steps leading to Gringotts and saying, “Monimentum, Verax Sentio, Aveus.”
The ground rumbled slightly as Harry stepped through the archway and before James could reach him, it vanished. A moment later a gleaming white monument appeared, where Harry had pointed his wand.
Creo Illac - make path
Monimentum - Monument
Verax Sentio - speaking and feeling the truth
Aveus – eternity
##############
So Long, Farewell, auf Wiedersehen, Good-bye
Remus opened his eyes blearily. He really didn’t want to wake up right now because last night’s transformation had been very difficult, even with the wolfsbane potion, but whoever was tapping at his bedroom window refused to go away. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw it was Hedwig. He hadn’t expected to see her for another few days.
“Is there something wrong with Harry?” He asked as he let the snowy owl in.
Hedwig shook her head and extended her leg to show the attached letter. Recognizing Harry’s handwriting, he removed it.
After reading the first few lines, Remus had to sit down. He started reading the letter again, a little slower, trying to understand what was going on.
Moony,
This is proving to be the hardest letter of all to write. Partly because you have been like another father to me, in addition to being a very good friend & partly because you are the only person still living that I am really going to miss, besides Hedwig. Don’t worry, I’m not thinking about committing suicide. I’m just leaving the wizarding world for good.
I’ll bet you just sat down & are now staring at the wall wondering why I’m doing this. It’s very simple, I will never have a chance at the life I want in the wizarding world or anywhere they can find me.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about this, especially after Sirius’ death. The Wizarding world is fickle. To them I will always be either a hero or a scapegoat. This past month has proven that beyond reasonable doubt, even if the last 7 years of my life hadn’t. At first I’m viewed as a hero for saving the wizarding world from the threat of Voldemort, but then because I refuse to allow myself to be controlled or used by those in power (Fudge), they start a smear campaign, claiming that I am becoming the next Dark Lord. Added to that is that fact that the wizarding public, who should have no reason to believe or trust the lying bastard any farther than they could throw Hogwarts, is swallowing his tales, as if they were gospel. What’s really amazed me is the fact that no Aurors showed up at the Dursley’s to arrest me, but then I forgot that a large portion of the Wizarding world is made up of cowards. I mean even though they know he’s dead & never coming back, they still won’t say Voldemort’s name – not even Ron, who should know better. I’m going to stop right here on this subject before I say something I will regret.
You’re probably wondering where in this world can I go that the wizarding community won’t be able to find me. The answer is nowhere in this world. I found a very old spell at Hogwarts though, that in the simplest terms will open a portal to a world where I will belong. I wish I could take you with me, but a world that would be right for me, might not be right for you.
I know I said it before, but you & Hedwig are the only ones I will really miss, once I leave this world. I deeply regret that I am leaving you alone, but I can’t see any other way for me to have any kind of life of my own. You know separate from the Boy-Who-Lived & “Destroyer of Voldemort” crap, or if for those who believe Fudge’s lies the “Newest Dark Lord Out To Destroy Wizardkind”.
I told Hedwig to stay with you. She’ll be a great friend to you as she has been to me these past 7 years. Look after her for me, & yourself as well.
On the subject of looking after yourself, you might want to stop by Gringotts some time in the next week or so. Since I consider you one of my Godfathers & as a surrogate father, I wanted to make sure you were taken care of. You’re probably thinking ‘I’m not going to take it’, but I’m asking you not to do that. You are the only family I have left with Sirius gone. I can’t bear the thought of you suffering because of a lack of funds & I know Sirius would feel the same way. Just because the Wizarding world doesn’t want to see past the label of ‘Werewolf’ doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to have some good things happen to you. Please, Moony, let me do this for you.
Who knows, since you are a good teacher, maybe there’s enough for you to start a magic school for those children that the regular magical schools won’t take, like werewolves. That would be a nice thing to do, & if she were aware of it, I’m certain it would put Ms. Black’s knickers in a twist, if she knew some of her family’s money is being used to teach the magical children the wizarding world ignores. Think about it.
I also want you to know one other thing, Moony. I love you like I loved Sirius & no matter what happens to me in my life, that will never change & you will always have a place in my heart right next to Sirius & my mum & dad.
Harry
Remus folded the letter carefully and put it under a box on his dresser. He didn’t quite know what to feel at this moment. On the one hand, he was sad to be losing his last link to his past with the Marauders and Lily as well as his surrogate son. On the other hand he could fully understand Harry’s need to leave and get a fresh start.
If Harry remained in the Wizarding world, the wizarding public would never let him live the quiet, unassuming life he wanted. They would always try and force Harry to fit their conception of what and who he should be, rather than letting him be who he really was.
“Has he gone yet, Hedwig?” Remus asked, knowing that the owl would know if her first master was no longer in this world.
After a few moments, the snowy owl’s head bobbed slowly up and down. Remus could almost feel her sadness over the fact that her master had gone somewhere where she couldn’t follow him.
Sighing, Remus reached out and stroked her chest feathers. “I know how you feel, girl. I’m going to miss him too.”
########
Severus Snape looked up from his lunch in surprise as a horned owl flew in the open window from his garden, carrying a large package. He wasn’t expecting any deliveries, so he was instantly suspicious and pulled out his wand. Given that the children of the remaining Deatheaters, who were now locked up in Azkaban, knew he’d been a spy for the Light side, they might want to take revenge on him for his part in bringing down their parents and Voldemort.
The owl set the box down instead of dropping it on the table as they usually did, then took off.
The plain brown wrapper revealed nothing about the sender or the contents of the package. He cast several detection spells at the box and they revealed nothing harmful about he box or it’s contents. Still cautious and suspicious, Snape got a pair of dragonhide gloves from his potions work room and put them on before opening the package.
Inside he found an envelope, addressed simply: Snape and a pensieve filled with swirling silver mist. He opened the envelope and pulled out a letter.
Snape,
Bet you never expected to hear from me after you finally saw the back of me at graduation. Well, I won’t keep you in suspense.
In the Muggle world there is a story about a man confronted with 2 doors. Behind one of them was a beautiful lady whom he could have for his wife. However behind the other, there was a very hungry tiger who would eat him. He basically had to chose between love or death & open one of the doors.
In your case the choice isn’t quite that hard. Before you is a Pensieve with memories of my life at the Dursleys. Now you’re probably saying to yourself what does that have to do with a Muggle fairy tale? It’s really quite simple. You always claimed my life was so perfect at the Dursleys, that I was waited on hand & foot, given anything I wanted, etc. The choice is now before you. Do you have the courage to look into the Pensieve & see the truth, which may or may not destroy all your fantasies about my life, or would you prefer to live with your fantasies & never know.
You should know you don’t have a whole lot of time to decide. I put a timer spell on the pensieve & whether you’ve looked in it or not, the memories will disappear from it within 12 hours.
The choice is yours. Either way it won’t matter to me because by the time you get this pensieve I will be gone.
H. Potter
(AN: I’ll leave it to you to decide for yourself whether Snape looked in the pensieve or not. I personally believe he would but he would wait until almost the last minute to do it.)
#######
When Ron came downstairs for breakfast, he found his mother and fiancée, Hermione Granger sitting at the table staring at a letter, a shocked look on their faces.
What's up, Mum?" he asked, feeling slightly worried that something might've happened to Bill or Charlie, since they both did have slightly dangerous jobs.
Hermione handed him the letter, without saying a word.
Weasleys & Granger;
By the time you get this, I should be gone. Given how well I was defended by my friends & surrogate family from Fudge's attacks in the press, I'm wondering if you'll even care that I'm gone, or just say 'good riddance'. Bet you all thought I didn't know about Fudge's attempts to make me into the next Dark Lord. You sure as hell never saw fit to tell me what that moron was up to & it directly affected me!
Well I am happy to report that I now know who my true friends are, or to be more specific, who my true friend is. Out of all the people I know in the wizarding world who are more than a passing acquaintance (that number is only a handful) only one individual chose to tell me what Fudge was up to & it sure as hell wasn't anyone in the Weasley or Granger families.
If Ron sees this letter, then I have no doubt that he will probably have one of two reactions: He's either upset, because he will no longer be able to claim the title of being the "Best Friend" of The-Boy-Who-Lived-And- Destroyed-Voldemort; or he is dancing (at least on the inside) at the thought that he might have a chance at the spotlight (that I never wanted). I'll leave you this one piece of advice, Ronald, (not that you'll believe it). If you do manage to get the spotlight, you will quickly find out it is not the place you want to be but by then it will be too late to get out of it.
Given Ron's jealousy of me, (even though he claimed to be my friend), Mrs. Weasley, you must really have had a hard time trying to get him to apologise to me during the 1st task of the TriWizard Tournament. I mean given the fact that Dumbledore was paying you to keep an eye on me (or perhaps we should call it by its proper name - you were spying on me for Dumbledore). I mean after all if he hadn't, it would've blown your cover as the muggles would say, if you'd tried to maintain contact with your son's ex-best friend when he clearly wanted nothing to do with me.
I do hope you were paid well by Dumbledore, for all your efforts on his behalf. I would congratulate you on your skill at fooling me, but it didn't require much skill or effort to fool someone who to all intents & purposes was little better than a Muggle-born with regards to knowledge of the wizarding world. Especially given that at that time I was looking for someone who cared about me & didn't think I was a freak, so I was willing to trust someone who showed me a little care & concern.
On a final note, Hermione, I was kind of disappointed that you didn't even bother to tell me what Fudge was up to. I guess your devotion to fairness & justice now only applies to the Weasley family & house elves, but not to those you claimed were your friends.
"Tell me it isn't true. That your family wasn't spying on Harry." Hermione begged of her boyfriend.
"We were just keeping an eye on him," Molly told her, "for Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore needed all the help he could get." Ron added without thinking. "Potter could find trouble in an empty room. We had to keep him alive so that he could take on You-Know-Who and get rid of him once and for all."
"Ron, after all this time, you still won't call Voldemort by his name. " She sighed in exasperation as Ron flinched when she said the Dark Lord's name. "I don't know why you're still afraid of him. He's dead. it's not like he can punish you for using it."
Ron nodded, hiding his pleasure at having diverted her from the subject of Potter's letter, but his relief was short-lived as she returned to it like a dog with a bone. "I can't believe your family was spying on Harry. How could you do something like that?"
"Hermione, dear, we were just trying to keep Harry safe." Molly tried to explain. "We weren't spying on him."
"But you reported on his activities to Dumbledore, didn't you?" Hermione questioned.
"Only when he was doing something that might get him or others hurt." Molly defended her actions. "He needed to be protected, not only from Deatheaters, but from himself."
"That's called spying, Mrs. Weasley!" Hermione pointed out. "Even though you and Dumbledore both had Harry's safety in mind, you had no right to betray his trust like that and Dumbledore had no right to ask you to do it."
She remembered something else that Harry had put in the letter. She knew all too well about Ron's short temper and how it led him to making accusations on little or no evidence and that once he had his mind made up about something it was next to impossible to get him to change his mind without overwhelming evidence to the contrary. "Was Harry right about you forcing Ron to apologise to Harry?"
"No. I didn't even know they'd had a fight. Ron never mentioned it in his letters." Molly told her.
Ron started backing up and heading for the stairs as Hermione rounded on him. "Was Harry right? Did someone make you apologise to him?"
"No!" Ron denied hotly.
Hermione had noticed a long time ago that when Ron was lying or under stress, his ears had a tendency to turn red like they were doing now, and that he while he was trying to maintain eye contact with her, he wasn't succeeding very well. "Don't you dare lie to me Ronald Weasley! Who made you apologise to Harry, during the first task of the TriWizard tournament?!"
Ron mumbled something that Hermione couldn't hear.
"What was that?" She demanded moving closer.
"Dumbledore!" Ron almost shouted.
"Why?" Hermione couldn't understand why Dumbledore would get involved in a schoolboy spat or why Ron would listen to him.
"He said he needed someone he could trust who was Harry's age to keep an eye on him and that since Harry trusted me, I would be the perfect one for the job." The floodgates opened as all the venom Ron had hidden away came pouring out. "He promised that I would be the fifth year prefect, if I would get Harry to trust me again and let him know what Harry was up to. Harry was my only serious competition for the spot and Dumbledore assured me that Harry wouldn't snatch that away from me as he had every other piece of glory that had come our way. I was tired of just being the friend of The-Boy-Who-Lived. He also said he would help me get into whatever job I wanted, once Voldemort was destroyed by Harry."
"Oh Ron." Hermione and his mother stared at the red head in disbelief.
"Don't 'Oh Ron' me, mum." Ron glared at her. "You were using Harry too. We have things in this house now that we never would've been able to afford before Dumbledore started paying you for keeping an eye on Harry."
Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. The person standing before her was someone she didn't know. She had never seen this side of Ron before. She didn't know he could be so hateful toward anyone other than maybe Malfoy. "Why would you want to use Harry like that. All he ever wanted to be was your friend. You know he never wanted the spotlight."
"Well, he certainly never got out of it once he was in it." Ron countered with a sneer. "And you're a fine one to talk about friendship. I notice that you didn't bother to tell him what Fudge was up to. Is that the action of a true friend?"
"I may not have been as good a friend to Harry as I should’ve been, and I may have been too caught up in what was going on between us for the last couple of months, but at least I never set out to use him! That's not what real friends do to each other." Hermione shot back, before pulling her engagement ring off her finger and setting it on the table. "I realise now that I don't know you at all, Ron. I believe we need to rethink getting married."
Before he could stop her, Hermione grabbed some floo powder and threw it in the fire then stepped in and said, "Leaky Cauldron."
########
The crowd parted slightly, allowing Dumbledore and his hooded companions to move to the front of the crowd standing around the monument, Harry Potter had created. It appeared as though the same message was carved on both sides, so that people would have to see it whether they were coming or going from Gringotts.
THIS MEMORIAL IS HERE TO SERVE AS A PERMAMENT REMINDER OF HOW YOUR ACTIONS & ATTITUDE TOWARD THOSE AROUND YOU, DROVE OFF THE-BOY-WHO-LIVED & THE-DESTROYER-OF-VOLDEMORT.
MEMBERS OF THE WIZARDING COMMUNITY NO DOUBT CONSIDER THEMSLEVES VERY OPEN-MINDED, WHEN IN FACT FOR THE MAJORITY OF YOU THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE. A LARGE PORTION OF THE WIZARDING COMMUNITY IS QUITE CONTENT TO BE LED LIKE SHEEP & TOLD WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO THINK BY ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE MINISTRY & PRESS LIKE THE DAILY PROPHET. YOU DON’T BOTHER TO THINK FOR YOURSELVES. THIS MAKES YOU EXTREMELY NARROW-MINDED THOUGH YOU ARE PROBABLY SHAKING YOUR HEADS TRYING TO DENY IT. BY DEFINITION -- A NARROW-MINDED PERSON IS ONE WHO IS LACKING IN TOLERANCE TOWARD PEOPLE & THINGS THAT DON’T FIT THEIR VIEW OF WHAT THE WORLD SHOULD BE, OR WHO SHOW A DISTINCT LACK OF FLEXIBILITY IN THEIR THINKING.
IN MANY WAYS, THE WIZARDING COMMUNITY IS A LOT LIKE A GROUP OF YOUNG CHILDREN. TO YOU THINGS ARE EITHER: BLACK OR WHITE; LIGHT OR DARK; GOOD OR EVIL. THERE ISN’T ANY MIDDLE GROUND OR GREY AREA FOR YOU (OR AT LEAST NOT MUCH OF ONE). MAGIC IN & OF ITSELF IS NEITHER GOOD OR EVIL. IT IS ONLY THE USE TO WHICH IT IS PUT THAT DETERMINES WHETHER IT IS GOOD OR EVIL.
THE WIZARDING COMMUNITY ALSO TENDS TO BE EXTREMELY JUDGMENTAL. YOU HAVE A TENDENCY TO TREAT PEOPLE BASED ON WHAT THEY ARE RATHER THAN WHO THEY ARE. NOW BEFORE YOU SAY THAT ISN’T TRUE, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING GROUPS; MUGGLE-BORN, SQUIB, GRYFFINDOR, SLYTHERIN, WEREWOLF, PARSELMOUTH.
TO A PURE BLOOD WIZARD, WHO IS OBSESSED WITH KEEPING THE WIZARDING WORLD PURE, A MUGGLE-BORN WITCH/WIZARD IS CONSIDERED AN ABOMINATION. THEY DON’T STOP TO REALISE THAT WITHOUT THE INFUSION OF THE MUGGLE-BORNS & HALF-BLOODS INTO THE WIZARDING WORLD, WIZARDS AS A RACE WOULD HAVE DIED OUT A LONG TIME AGO FROM IN-BREEDING.
A SQUIB IS TREATED WITH CONTEMPT BY MOST WITCHES/WIZARDS BECAUSE THEY HAVE VERY LITTLE MAGIC. THE REASON THE WIZARDING WORLD TREATS THEM THIS WAY IS BECAUSE THEY ARE A CONSTANT REMINDER THAT MAGIC CAN BE BRED OUT OF A FAMILY AS EASILY AS IT CAN BE BRED IN & YOU DON’T WANT TO FACE THAT.
GRYFFINDOR - EVERYONE INSTANTLY THINKS OF THOSE IN GRYFFINDOR HOUSE AS GOOD & ON THE SIDE OF LIGHT & RIGHT, BUT THAT’S NOT ALWAYS THE CASE. THE MOST RECENT EXAMPLE OF A DARK GRYFFINDOR WAS PETER PETTIGREW WHO JOINED VOLDEMORT & HIS TREACHERY BROUGHT ABOUT THE DEATHS OF MANY INCLUDING LILY & JAMES POTTER.
SLYTHERIN - EVERYONE INSTANTLY THINKS OF THOSE IN SLYTHERIN AS EVIL & THAT THEY’RE ALL DARK WIZARDS. HARRY POTTER WAS ONCE TOLD: ‘THERE WASN’T A WITCH OR WIZARD WHO WENT BAD WHO WASN’T IN SLYTHERIN’. THAT IS NOT ENTIRELY CORRECT. WHILE THERE ARE MORE DARK WIZARDS OUT OF THAT HOUSE, IF IT WERE NOT FOR SLYTHERIN’S LIKE SEVERUS SNAPE, VOLDEMORT MIGHT HAVE TAKEN OVER THE WIZARDING WORLD ON HIS FIRST ATTEMPT & WITHOUT SNAPE’S & DRACO MALFOY’S ASSISTANCE, HE MIGHT HAVE SUCCEEDED ON HIS SECOND.
WHEN A WITCH/WIZARD HEARS THE WORD “WEREWOLF”, THEY IMMEDIATELY THINK “DARK CREATURE, GET AWAY!”. YOU NEVER STOP TO CONSIDER THE HUMAN BEING WHO WAS UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BE BITTEN. THEY DID NOT ASK FOR IT TO HAPPEN & YET THEY ARE SHUNNED OR TREATED AS SOMETHING LESS THAN HUMAN BY THOSE AROUND THEM INCLUDING SOMETIMES THEIR FAMILY. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A FEW DAYS AROUND THE FULL MOON, A LYCANTHROPE IS A HUMAN BEING & SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH, BUT VERY FEW WILL TAKE THE RISK OF GETTING TO KNOW THE PERSON OUT OF A FEAR OF BEING LABELLED ‘DARK’.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, WE COME TO PARSELMOUTH. I’M CERTAIN THAT EVERY WITCH/WIZARD READING THIS INSTANTLY THOUGHT ‘DARK WIZARD’ OR ‘EVIL’. JUST BECAUSE A WITCH/WIZARD CAN SPEAK TO SNAKES, IT DOESN’T AUTOMATICALLY MAKE THEM EVIL. IT IS A MAGICAL GIFT LIKE BEING A SEER OR ABLE TO DO WANDLESS MAGIC. AND AS FINAL PROOF IN CASE YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW -- HARRY POTTER, THE WIZARD WHO DESTROYED VOLDEMORT, IS A PARSELMOUTH & MOST DEFINITELY IS NOT DARK OR AN EVIL WIZARD.
THESE FEW EXAMPLES HAVE BEEN LISTED TO MAKE A POINT. THE WIZARDING WORLD BY ITS OWN ACTIONS CREATED THE DARK LORD VOLDEMORT, BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T BE BOTHERED TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF AN ORPHAN HALF-BLOOD WIZARD NAMED TOM RIDDLE. WHO KNOWS YOU MAY HAVE ALSO CREATED THE DARK LORD GRINDELWALD AS WELL. THE ONLY ONES WHO WOULD KNOW THE TRUTH OF THAT ARE MOST LIKELY DEAD.
CONSIDER THIS AS A WARNING, & PROBABLY THE ONLY ONE YOU ARE LIKELY TO GET. IF THE WIZARDING WORLD DOESN’T CHANGE ITS BEHAVIOUR TOWARD OTHERS, THEN SOONER OR LATER YOU WILL CREATE ANOTHER DARK LORD, ONLY THIS TIME THERE MAY BE NO HERO TO SAVE YOU BECAUSE YOU WILL HAVE PROBABLY DRIVEN THEM OFF, THE SAME WAY YOU DID HARRY POTTER ON JULY 31, 1998.
As Dumbledore and his companions stepped away from the monument, a wizard standing nearby heard a female voice from within one of the hoods say, “You know his accusations against the wizarding community are true. All of us in one way or another are prejudiced.”
“That is unfortunately very true,” Dumbledore agreed, as they continued to walk away, “but until parents teach their children...”
#######
#4 Privet Drive, August 1, 1998
The Dursley family was enjoying the first full day of their new Potter-free, wizard-free life and as Petunia Dursley was setting breakfast in front of her son, she heard the clink of the mail falling through the mail slot. Since Vernon was busy with the paper, she went to get the mail.
As she picked up the mail, a pale green parchment envelope caught her eye. Pulling it free of the stack, she saw it was addressed in the most elegant calligraphy she had ever seen to:
Mr & Mrs. Vernon Dursley
#4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
She thought to herself. Whoever sent this must have quite a bit of money. She opened it quickly, expecting to find an invitation to a party or an elegant dinner.
The shriek that tore through the house, startled Vernon so badly he dropped his paper into his breakfast.
He headed into the hallway to find his wife standing there a letter clenched in her fist, swearing. He had never heard her use such foul language before. Cautiously, he asked, “What’s wrong, Pet?”
“This!” she shoved the crumpled letter at him and then resumed her swearing.
Vernon smoothed it out and began reading:
Dear Aunt Petunia & Uncle Vernon,
While I have left your home for good, I felt I should do something to repay you both for your care and many kindness to me over the past 17 years.
I know for example, Uncle Vernon that you constantly worry about losing your job at Grunnings & I wanted to let you know that from now on you will never have to worry about that again. You will always have a job at Grunnings & no I didn’t use magic to achieve it either. I now own the company. I bought it with some of the funds left to me by my parents when they died. You were wrong Uncle Vernon, my parents did have money. In fact between what they left me and what my Godfather left me, I’m now as rich as the Queen.
Anyway back to business. I must tell you though Uncle Vernon, you will no longer be the Managing Director. You see as soon as I acquired the company, I had the accountants at my parent’s bank go over the books for the last 20 years & they uncovered your creative bookkeeping. I must say they were quite impressed by it. They thought it was very good, not quite up to Goblin standards, but quite ingenious for a Human. Anyhow, as I was saying the job you will have from this day forward, will be enough to supply you and Aunt Petunia with food, clothing, & other BASIC necessities of life, but not quite at the standard you are used to now. However since that salary is just for you & Aunt Petunia you should both make out fine.
In case you didn’t understand what I just said, I will spell out it for you. None of the money you will receive for your new job at Grunnings is intended for Dudley’s use or to supply him with food or clothing. He is old enough now so he is going to have to go to work & if he wants to he can go to work right along side you. I have made provision for that, but he won’t be able to skive off, he’ll have to really work. Be warned if you or Aunt Petunia try & use any of the salary you are paid, to purchase things for Dudley, I will know & my bankers have orders to cut your salary in half at once.
You can of course choose to refuse the job, but if you do, then be aware that the Goblins at Gringotts have orders to notify Inland Revenue & provide them as well as the prior owners of Grunnings with the proof of your embezzlement. Which means dear Uncle Vernon you will be the one going to prison, not I. I would also recommend you not go looking to DEAR Aunt Marge for help. I also decided to repay her for her many kind compliments about my parents, and after having some people check into her business as well as her past, she is currently under arrest for cruelty to animals as well as for training some of her dogs so that they were a danger to the children in the community.
Aunt Petunia, I’m afraid that you will have to start looking for another place to live. The salary Uncle Vernon will now be bringing home will not be enough to maintain the house in the standards you are used to, especially since you never did any of the work to maintain it, once I was old enough to follow orders.
Besides the house doesn’t really belong to you. It belongs to me. The money your parents loaned you so you two could buy this house actually came from my parents. My mother knew you would never accept it if it came from her, so she let you think your parents lent you the money at no interest as a wedding present. Your one big mistake was to stop paying the money back when your parents died. The agreement you signed was actually a magically binding contract & the mortgage has been in default for years, so the house is MINE!
All those years you claimed I was living off your generosity, you were living off mine, we just didn’t know it. You & your family have until September 1, 1998 to find somewhere else to live, or you will be evicted & I’m sure the neighbours would love to see that, especially since it won’t be anyone ‘normal’ who will be removing you and your things from the house.
Again I want to thank you, for all the love & care you showed me while I was living in your house & feel that I have repaid it adequately & in kind. Enjoy your magic free lives.
Your nephew,
Harry Potter
“That ungrateful whelp.” Vernon growled, ripping the letter to shreds. “After all we did for him. We fed and clothed him, but was he grateful? No.”
Petunia had calmed down somewhat. “What are we going to do, Vernon?”
“What can we do? He’s left us with no choice.” Vernon glared at her. “I warned you not to take that brat in.”
“We didn’t have a choice, Vernon and you know it.” Petunia countered hotly. “If we hadn’t then the ones who had killed my worthless sister would have been able to find and kill us. We had to do it to protect Dudley and ourselves. I didn’t give a damn about Lily’s brat, but those wizards were after anyone even remotely connected to the Potters and that meant us. The only way we were safe was because he was here, hiding us from them.”
“Well maybe we should’ve taken our chances.” Vernon disagreed. “We’ve lost everything, Petunia and it’s all the fault of that Potter brat.”
#########
Where in the World is Harry Potter
July 31, 2001
“Tell me again Carter, why I agreed to fetch pictures of rocks and notes for Daniel.” Jack requested as the elevator doors slid open to let them out onto the third floor.
“Because SG-7 needs the translation by the end of the week, if we want to have a hope of establishing that trade agreement.” Carter told him. “Given that Daniel is currently laid up in the Infirmary with a broken leg, he can’t exactly come get them himself, now can he.”
“Don’t rub it in, Carter,” her CO ordered.
As they headed down the hall to Daniel’s apartment, Teal’c calmly pointed out. “O’Neill, you were the one who accidentally knocked DanielJackson down the hill on P94X27 and you did agree to pick up the items he needed.”
“My foot got caught in a rabbit hole or whatever the local equivalent is, Teal’c” Jack started to defend himself, but quickly held up his hand for silence when he noticed a slight gap between the door and the doorframe of Daniel’s apartment.
As he pulled his pistol out of its holster in the small of his back, he gestured for Carter to take up a position on the other side of the door. Teal’c moved so that he could cover either one of them if needed.
As Jack slowly pushed the door open, they could hear a man and a woman talking.
“Have you found his wand yet, Lily?” The male voice asked.
“Not yet, but the tracking charm Dumbledore put on this is indicating that it’s here, somewhere.” The female who must be Lily reported. “Harry would have changed its shape, but he couldn’t have changed the core inside it.”
At the mention of the name ‘Harry’, O’Neill’s level of worry went up a few more notches. The only Harry he knew Daniel was acquainted with was Maybourne, and a more devious man, you couldn’t find. If Maybourne had hidden some ‘wand’ thing in Daniel’s apartment, with or without his knowledge, Jack was going to kill the bastard for putting Daniel in danger.
The door being opened went unnoticed by the intruders, who were apparently very intent on their search for this wand thing. From the sound of their voices, they were on opposite sides of the room. Using hand motions, O’Neill indicated he would take the one on the right, leaving the one on the left for her.
Once they were both in position, Jack pointed his gun at the dark haired man and asked, “Didn’t your mother teach you that it was wrong to break into someone else’s home?”
Startled, the man dropped the picture frame he was holding, shattering the glass. He turned, pulling a stick out of his belt, but before he could get it pointed at anything, O’Neill moved in and removed it with one hand while he kept his gun at the other man’s temple. Jack tossed the stick to Teal’c who was now standing in front of a closed door, knowing the Jaffa would catch it. While it didn’t look like much of a weapon, the fact that the man reached for that first, clearly showed he thought of it as one. Out of the corner of his eye, O’Neill saw that Carter had removed a similar stick from the red-headed woman’s grasp, and tossed it to Teal’c. O’Neill frisked the man and confiscated a wallet and a pouch that jingled like it had coins in it. He let him keep the wedding ring for now.
Once he was sure the man had nothing else on him, O’Neill motioned toward the sofa and ordered. “Have a seat.”
Carter brought the woman over to join her companion a few moments later, then took the male intruder’s stuff from O’Neill and headed into the kitchen to find a Ziploc bag, big enough to carry their things, including the sticks. She also made a quick call on her cell phone to get some SF troops over here to take custody of their unexpected company.
When she returned to the living room, she nodded silently to O’Neill indicating the troops were on their way.
Jack sat down across from the couple, keeping his gun trained on them. “You know, you two have bought yourselves a shitload of trouble. You broke into the home of a scientist working on a government project and that means you are looking at some serious Federal jail time for possible espionage. Not to mention what Dr. Jackson is going to do to you Mister for damaging the only picture he has of his wife. Now would one of you like to tell me just why you broke in and ransacked the apartment of a government employee?”
The couple looked at each other for several minutes as if they were having a silent conversation, before the woman said, “we’re looking for information on our missing son.”
“And you expected to find him hiding out among Dr. Jackson’s artifacts?” Jack stared at them in disbelief. Surely they could’ve come up with a better story than that.
“No, we didn’t expect to find him among the Doctor’s artifacts.” The man looked as though he was visibly restraining his temper. “And we would have put everything back the way we found it, when we were finished. What we were hoping to find, was some clue that would tell us where our son is now. Our sources indicated that Dr. Jackson has been in contact with him and that he may still be in contact with him also that he has some of our son’s things.”
“And you couldn’t just wait to ask him in person, or send him a letter asking him to provide you with the information you’re after.?” Jack was finding it harder and harder to swallow their story.
The woman looked up at Jack, her green eyes filled with sorrow and determination. It almost made Jack want to believe them but he hardened his heart, remembering they might be spies, or worse, NID. “Our son has been missing for three years. The people we spoke with in this building who know this Dr. Jackson, all said the same thing: ‘When Dr. Jackson goes out of town, he is gone for days, if not weeks’. We couldn’t afford to wait for him to return. We couldn’t afford the delay if we are to find our son.”
“What’s your son’s name?” Carter asked.
“Harry James Potter,” the man, no Mr. Potter, said with no small trace of pride.
“And how old is your son?” Teal’c inquired form his position in front of the door.
“He will be twenty-one today.” For some reason Mrs. Potter looked sad at that thought. Jack assumed she was Mrs. Potter, though in this day and age you never could be sure.
#########
Jack walked into the infirmary, carrying a folder and a legal pad, closely followed by Sam and Teal’c. “Here’s your stuff.”
“Thank you,” Daniel’s gratitude was heartfelt as he reached for the pad and folder of photos. “I was going out of my mind with nothing to do.”
Jack waited a few minutes before telling Daniel about his unexpected guests. He knew that Daniel sometimes gave unguarded answers, when his mind was occupied with something else. “We also found a surprise waiting in your apartment.”
“Oh, what?” Daniel looked up briefly before returning his attention to the photo he was holding.
“You had a couple of intruders. They said they were looking for their son… Harry Potter.” Jack was watching the linguist closely, and while his face gave nothing away, the hand holding the photograph, shook slightly. “Something you want to tell us about Danny boy?”
“Do you know the young man they are looking for, DanielJackson?” Teal’c put in.
Daniel kept his attention on the photos, his mind racing furiously, as he tried to come up with an answer. He had never expected to hear that name again. He wondered how Dumbledore had found someone to pretend to be his parents when the whole wizarding world knew they were dead. He also wondered how they managed to find the spell that opened the portal, let alone the world he had come to. When he looked up he realized his friends were waiting for an answer to Jack and Teal’c’s questions. Meeting their gaze, he carefully replied, “I know a Harry Potter, but he’s an orphan. His parents died before he was two years old.”
“Could he have been lying?” Cater wanted to know. “We got the impression from the Potter’s that he ran away for some reason. When did you meet him?”
“I met him when I was coming back from Chicago, after that business with Osiris.” Daniel told them. “We both had long layovers before our flights and we kept running into each other, literally; in the coffee shop, the book store, and a few other places. So to save ourselves possible injury, we found a sit down restaurant, and spent most of the evening talking. We found we had quite a few things in common and a few shared interests.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. He had met someone during the wait to get back to Colorado Springs. He and the lady had spent several enjoyable hours discussing places they had been and things they had seen in their travels around the world.
He met Sam’s eye and told her. “No he wasn’t lying about being an orphan or unwanted by the people who were taking care of him. Believe me, the habits and behaviors left over from that, can’t be easily faked. Especially not to someone who was also in the system.”
“What’s a wand?” Jack asked suddenly.
“What kind of wand, sir? A magic wand? A fairy wand?” Sam couldn’t understand why he had suddenly changed the topic.
“This couple, calling themselves the Potters were looking for something called a wand at your place, Daniel.”
“Well the only thing that comes to my mind, just like Sam’s is either a magic wand. You know like magician’s use in their stage shows. Or the wands mentioned in fairy tales that supposedly could do real magic. I certainly don’t own one of those, and,” he spoke up quickly, anticipating Jack, “nobody has left a wand in my care, or sent me one.”
Before Jack could say anything further, an airman came in with a piece of paper that he handed to O’Neill. After he read it, O’Neill handed it off to Sam.
“What is it?” Daniel asked as Sam passed the paper to Teal’c.
“It appears as though we have been talking about and are currently detaining a couple of ghosts.” Teal’c stated.
“Come again?” Daniel requested.
“James, Lily, and Harry Potter all died in a car accident in England, on October 31, 1981.” Jack told him. “They were killed by a drunk driver named Tom Riddle.”
Daniel paled at the thought that Tom Riddle had managed to kill his parents in this world as well and this time had managed to kill him as well.
###############
You Look Pretty Good for a Corpse
SCG Infirmary July 31, 2001
Daniel stared at the door, his friends had just left through, stunned.
He had never given any thought to the fact that their might be or in this case had been a Harry Potter and a Tom Riddle in this universe. It should have occurred to him, especially after he’d visited two alternate universes through that mirror. It finally occurred to him that the only reason he hadn’t given it any thought, even back in the ‘80s when they were alive was because by then he’d thought of himself only as Daniel Jackson, the son of Claire and Melburn Jackson. It wasn’t that he’d forgotten who he had been, it was just that it had no bearing on his current life until someone had brought it up today. He still even did wandless magic occasionally and brewed a few of the more useful potions he’d learned in potions class, like the pepper-up one for when he had to be awake for long periods of time.
In hindsight, he realized that the bad headaches he’d suffered in 1980 and ’81, while on that dig with Dr. Jordan, hadn’t been because of eyestrain, or his needing a new prescription, but because of entropic cascade failure. He had probably been protected from the worst of it, because he carried within him the essence of Daniel Jackson, a boy who had died with his parents in 1973.
#######
New York Museum of Art
January 18, 1973
Even though he was near the back of the tomb display, where it would not be easy for anyone to see him, Harry stayed under his invisibility cloak, watching as the Jacksons worked on erecting the columns for the tomb display that was to be set up in the New York Museum of Art. This was going to require precise timing to pull off.
It had taken him several months of research to find a suitable life to assume, not mention get the potions he was going to use brewed correctly. He was just thankful that he’d had enough foresight to purchase plenty of the ingredients he would need for the potions. That old library of the founders had been a treasure trove. The spells he was going to use and the potions that he’d had to make had once been part of a very old binding ritual between a master and apprentice, back in the days when there were no magic schools. The spells and potions insured that no knowledge would be lost, if the master died before the apprentice completed his training. Per the spell’s explanation, assuming the apprentice had no direct hand in the master’s death, then all the master’s knowledge and skill would’ve passed on to the apprentice so that that knowledge and those skills would not be lost. There had also been potions in there that would allow one to permanently alter their appearance, right down to the DNA Those had been used to assure that bastard children and unwanted magical babies from muggle families, would share the traits of the wizarding families they were taken into.
Harry had taken great care in choosing the life he was going to assume. It was going to be a child and not an adult, but it had to be one who was going to die anyway and not from disease. The child also had to be an orphan and preferably one new to the country he intended to make his home, that way the child wouldn’t have that many friends to start off with so he wouldn’t have to explain away any changes in behavior.
According to the articles he’d read, Dr’s Claire and Melburn Jackson along with their 7 year old son, Daniel, had been killed the stone roof of the tomb display they were setting up, slipped and came crashing down on them. The authorities hadn’t known about the child until they got to the back of tomb display. He was found crushed by a section of column. The only thing they had concluded was he had somehow gotten back there without his parents, or any of the other adults in the area, seeing him.
Using the time turner he’d swiped from Dumbledore’s office, during his last year at Hogwarts, Harry went back in time, each time in a slightly different position so he would have a good idea where everyone was and what they were doing the moment the accident happened. Right now there were five of him here, each had remained stationary, so there was little chance he would bump into himself. He only had one more to go after this one and he wouldn’t be hiding then.
Over the past few days, Harry had deliberately encountered the boy several times, to insure all the potions and spells were in place. He had been surprised to find the boy had some magical ability of his own. It was enough to save Harry the trouble of having to link himself to the boy so that his magic could power the spells. He regretted having to use an Imperious curse on the boy to get him to drink the potions and then say the spells that bound them together with the boy in the place of master rather than apprentice. Then he’d used an Obliviate curse to make the boy forget they had met.
He checked his watch. It would be happening any time now.
He heard the cable snap and then a scream from Dr. Claire Jackson. He located the tracker spell he had put on the boy and wandlessly transfigured him into a heart shaped locket, that he moved over near Dr. Claire Jackson. It had a picture of the boy inside, so they would assume it was torn off in the accident. The real Daniel would be buried with his mother. A quick single turn of the time turner and he was now back one hour.
Now to that unoccupied office he’d found during one of his first few trips with the time turner to take the potions, that would complete the setup of his new life….
########
“Dr. Jackson,” a nurse’s voice pulled him out of his memories.
“I’m fine,” Daniel was quick to assure her. “My mind just went wandering for a bit. I’d better get back to work though and stop daydreaming. SG-7 needs this information a.s.a.p.”
The nurse smiled, “I’ll leave you to your work then.”
As Daniel returned his attention to the photographs in front of him, his mind really wasn’t on the translation. It wanted to be down in the brig with the rest of SG-1, trying to find out who the people impersonating his parents were. He briefly considered the idea that they might really be Lily and James Potter and felt a surge of anger at the thought of his parents abandoning him and letting their friends think they were dead.
########
SGC Holding, July 31, 2001
Lilly Potter was sitting on one of the cots in the cell, staring at the far wall through the bars, while her husband paced.
They had already exhausted the topic of trying to escape. She had managed to convince James that it wasn’t a good idea, especially if they wanted to find out what Dr. Daniel Jackson knew about their son. Not to mention that they really didn’t need the military chasing them.
This was the closest they’d been to Harry so far. Lily just hoped that when they finally met this Dr. Jackson, he would be willing to share the information he had. She didn’t know what she would do if Dr. Jackson acted like Remus Lupin and refused to tell them what he knew.
She still shuddered when she remembered the anger that Moony had displayed, when they’d apparated to his home after Harry’s disappearance three years ago. If it had been nighttime and the moon had been out she was fairly certain that Moony would have ripped them to shreds.
It had taken several months of repeated attempts, before Remus would even listen to their explanations of why they had let their friends think they were dead instead of in hiding and why they’d apparently abandoned their son. Once he had heard their story, Remus proceeded to verbally rip them to shreds for abandoning Harry and condemning Sirius to Azkaban by their silence. The last thing Remus had said to them, before shoving them out the door was ‘he was glad Harry had gone to another world so he didn’t have to find out about his parents betrayal’. He hadn’t spoken to them since that day and all James’ attempts to try and see his old friend had failed. While Lily was hurt that Remus no longer considered himself their friend, unlike James she could understand why.
Even though the werewolf was only evident during the full moon, the wolf’s instincts still guided a lot of Remus’ behavior. To the wolf part of Moony, the pack was everything and all he could see was that two members of the pack had abandoned their cub and the pack. Unless the cub or wolf was sick and couldn’t keep up with the pack, that was not considered acceptable behavior in a wolf pack, especially the abandonment of one’s own cub. Such wolves could not be allowed back into the pack, even if the pack now only consisted of two and one was far away.
The information that Harry had used a portal spell to take him to another world, combined with the knowledge that their son must have found the spell at Hogwarts, sent them on a quest to find the hidden library of the Founders.
#####
The arrival of the three people who had interrupted their search of Dr. Jackson’s flat, pulled Lily’s thoughts back to the present.
James and the grey-haired man who had the name ‘O’Neill’ on his jacket above the pocket engaged in a staring contest before the grey-haired man spoke. “Would you two care to change your story any?”
“What do you mean, change our story?” James growled. “We told you the truth. I am James Potter. This is my wife, Lily Evans Potter. And we are looking for information regarding our son Harry Potter who went missing three years ago on his eighteenth birthday.”
“Well, then I must say you to look very good for a couple of twenty year old corpses.” O’Neill congratulated them.
“What are you talking about?” Lily knew she sounded confused as she joined her husband at the cell bars
“Did you think we wouldn’t check your story out?” The grey-haired man wanted to know. “According to the records, James and Lily potter, along with their son Harry were killed by a drunk driver named Tom Riddle on October 31, 1981.”
O’Neill watched as the prisoner’s faces turned pasty white. Either they hadn’t expected the truth to be uncovered so fast or they had been surprised to hear the fate of the people they were impersonating. “Now would you like to try telling your story again and this time stick to the truth, it works a lot better.”
Lily looked at her husband, then said, “we really are the Potters… just not the ones from this dimension or reality if you prefer the term. We came here through a portal that was created using a very old spell. Our son used the same spell three years ago to come here and we came to bring him home.”
“Oh, come on now, do you really expect us to believe that you came here through a ‘magic’ portal from an alternate reality where magic is real?” He turned his attention to his companions and asked. “Carter, when did we wander into the middle of an episode of ‘Charmed’ or ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’?”
“I’m kind of surprised that you know about those shows, sir.” The blonde woman, whom Lily assumed was Carter, commented with a smile. “I wouldn’t have thought either one of them was your kind of show.”
“They aren’t,” O’Neill was quick to defend himself. “Cassie conned me into taping them for her while she was on that school trip to DC last week. I caught bits and pieces of it while I was recording it for her.”
“Unh huh,” Carter smirked
“We’re getting off the subject here,” O’Neill quickly put in.
“Which is, is magic real and can it be used to create a portal between realities?” The black man with the gold tattoo on his forehead put in.
“Exactly, Teal’c,” O’Neill agreed.
“DanielJackson once showed me a tape of a magic show and explained that stage magicians rely heavily on misdirection and sleight of hand to accomplish their stage tricks.” Teal’c commented. “Is there such a thing as real magic, Major Carter?”
“It depends on who you ask, Teal’c.” She told him. “A Wiccan would tell you ‘yes’. Others would say ‘no, it’s all fakery and tricks’.”
“I think I can settle this debate for you,” James told them, “but I’ll need a little more room than I’ve got in this cell.”
O’Neill was instantly suspicious. “What are you planning to do?”
“I am an animagus.” Seeing the blank looks, he added, “An animagus can shift into the form of an animal. In my case it’s a stag.”
“If you do indeed change into such a large creature, then it is understandable that you would need more room to accomplish it.” Teal’c observed.
O’Neill looked at James Potter consideringly for several minutes before walking to the door and having a whispered conversation with one of the guards outside. A few minutes later another person appeared and handed him an odd looking gun. O’Neill pressed something on the side and the gun changed shape with a whine. Weapon in hand, he unlocked the cell door and gestured for James to move out of the cell and to the far side of the room.
“Go ahead,” O’Neill told him.
James purposely did the transformation in slow motion, as if it were the first time he’d done it, so they could see it wasn’t some kind of trick. Once the transformation was completed, he moved slowly and carefully, turning around as if modeling for them. The reaction of the three people standing on the other side of the room was rewarding. The older man, O’Neill was staring at him mouth opened in amazement. The black man with the odd name of Teal’c had shown no reaction other than a raised eyebrow, as if strange things happened around him all the time and this was nothing new. The woman, Carter, had a look on her face that reminded him a lot of Lily when she was trying to figure out a new spell.
The woman moved up carefully and touched his neck and lower antlers. “They’re real, sir and there’s no way he could’ve disappeared from this corner without us seeing him go.”
“Change back now, Potter.” O’Neill instructed.
Once he was back in human form, James Potter asked, “Do you believe us now?”
“That you can work “real” magic,” O’Neill commented, “yeah. That you came through a magic portal from an alternate reality, maybe.”
“Look,” Lily spoke up before her husband could open his mouth and stick his foot in it, “all we want to do is find our son. He doesn’t belong here any more than we do. We just want to bring him home. Just let us talk with Dr. Jackson, get what Harry left with him and we’ll be on our way.”
“Once you’ve given us back our personal possessions, including our wands,” James added.
“You’ve still got questions to answers before any of your possessions will be returned, or before you will be going anywhere.” O’Neill countered. “And according to Dr. Jackson, the Harry Potter he met is an orphan and he left nothing with him. So, if that young man was indeed your son, why does he think you’re dead?”
“And are you sure you found the right reality? After all Potter and Harry are both common names, so how can you be sure your son is here?” Carter put in. “There are thousands of alternate realities out there, if not millions of them.”
“Can we at least discuss these matters someplace a little more comfortable?” James requested.
#####
“Daniel,” Jack’s voice interrupted his train of thought, just as he was getting to the most interesting part of the stele carving that SG-7 needed translated.
Daniel looked up and saw his friend standing there, nervously shifting from foot to foot. “What is it, Jack?”
“Well, there are a couple of people outside who would like to talk with you. The General said it was okay.”
While he was fairly certain he didn’t want to know the answer, Daniel asked anyway. “Who wants to see me?”
“James and Lily Potter.”
Daniel gave him the expected look of disbelief. “I thought they were dead.”
“The ones from this reality are,” his friend agreed. “These two are from an alternate reality only they didn’t get here by traveling through a mirror like that one you fussed with on 233. According to them they came here through a portal created by a magic spell. The Harry Potter you met apparently did too.”
“And why do they want to see me?” Daniel interrupted.
“They want to talk with you about the Harry Potter you met in Chicago.” O’Neill told him. “They said they came to bring him home.”
“The Harry Potter, I met, is an orphan, remember?” Daniel put in, really wanting to avoid this.
“Yeah,” Jack scratched his head, “well it seems that may not be the case. The Potters faked their death somehow. Anyway, the General said it was okay for them to talk to you about him.”
Daniel sighed, not wanting to deal with this right now, but then again, he didn’t want to have to deal with it later either. Finally he said, “Let’s get this over with.’
As Jack left the room to fetch the Potters, Daniel took several deep breaths to calm and center himself so he could strengthen his mental barriers, in case either of the people coming in was a skilled legilimens.
As his teammates led the couple in, he did a quick bit of wandless magic to check for glamours, but detected nothing. When he caught sight of the couple’s faces, he hoped that his expression of polite indifference hadn’t slipped. Though they looked older than the pictures he had of them, it was quick clear that James and Lily Potter were indeed alive. An absurd argument began in his head. Unless I’m very much mistaken there’s now only a few years separating our ages. I wonder what they would say if I told them I was their son? Not that I will. They’d probably stare at me like I was crazy. And then there’s Jack, what would he do? I don’t want to be forced to leave. l love my job here and I don’t want to lose it. I’m making a difference here and I am protecting my home. I won’t lose it, just because these two somehow managed to reappear in the world and find me.
Not knowing the thoughts going through the man’s head, Lily Potter was the first to break the awkward silence that had filled the room. “Dr. Jackson, I want to thank you for agreeing to see us.”
“I only did it to stop you from breaking into my apartment again.” Daniel told her flatly.
“Yes, we’re sorry about that.” Lily sounded apologetic.
“That doesn’t excuse what you did.” Daniel’s response surprised his friends. With the possible exception of the Goa’uld and a certain Senator, the archeologist/linguist was usually willing to extend the hand of friendship to just about anyone, as well as give them a second chance. “According to Jack, you claim to be the parents of a young man I met two or three years ago.”
“We are his parents,” James growled.
Lily put a hand on her husband’s arm, silencing whatever else he intended to say and stepped forward, holding out a small photo to Daniel. “This is the most recent picture we were able to find of Harry, before we came here. We’re fairly certain he wouldn’t have been wearing any glamour charms when you met him, since he wouldn’t have expected anyone else to be able to follow him here.”
“Glamour charm?” Sam asked.
“It’s a disguise spell.” Lily told her. “It’s visual disguise only. It’s not tactile.”
Daniel took the picture reluctantly, wondering which one it was. In his sixth year because he was tired of the wizarding press and Colin Creevy taking pictures of him without his knowledge or consent, Harry gone through the Hogwarts library looking for a spell that would blur his image. His last two years were relatively free of those trying to get his picture without his consent, because all they got was a fuzzy image in his place.
The picture, Lily Potter had handed to him, was one of the ones he had allowed Molly Weasley to take of him at his Hogwarts graduation, except this one was still. He was standing, unsmiling, behind Ron and Hermione who had their arms around each other.
Daniel didn’t have much time to dwell on thoughts of his former friends as Lily said, “as you can see, he looks a lot like James, though he has my eyes. Dr. Jackson, we just need to know anything you can tell us about our son. Please help us find him.”
Daniel briefly considered lying and saying that the person in this photograph looked nothing like the Harry Potter he had met, but aside from the fact that they probably would think he had just worn a glamour, he wanted some answers from his ‘parents’, “Before I tell you anything, and understand this, what I do decide to tell you will be based on how honest you are with me, I want some answers first.”
“Now you listen here!” James spat. “Harry is our son…”
“No, you listen,” Daniel overrode whatever he had been about to say. “You claim to be Harry’s mother and father, but the young man I met, believed himself to be an orphan because he parents died when he was still a baby and the relatives he was left with treated him like a cross between a slave and a leper. Having lost my parents at the age of seven and spent time in fosters homes, I think I can say I know how Harry might feel if his parents who he thought were dead suddenly turned up, so before I say one word about him to you or anybody else, I will be the one determining if you have the right to that information.”
“He is our son, Dr. Jackson,” Lily pointed out.
“Whom you apparently abandoned, Mrs. Potter.” Daniel countered. “Why was that?”
############
I’m the one who decides, not you
“It’s complicated.” Lily told him.
“Well, as you can see,” he gestured toward the cast on his leg, “I’m not going anywhere. And you aren’t going to get anything from me until I’m satisfied that you aren’t going to be causing that young man any more pain.”
“Who are you to dictate terms to us?” James Potter demanded. “He’s our son and we have the right to see him and bring him home.”
“You have no rights Mr. Potter.” Daniel countered. “You gave up those rights when you abandoned your son. Also, if I remember correctly Harry Potter must be at least twenty years old now, right?”
“Twenty-one,” Lily murmured, but Daniel heard her.
“Twenty-one then, that makes him a legal adult in any country you would care to name. It is his rights that matter now, not yours.” Daniel looked James Potter in the eye. “That means he has the right to decide what he wants to do and I’d say he’s already made that choice, seeing as how he is here and not in the reality where he was born. After all, he left your reality of his own volition. No one held a gun to his head, so there must have been something there that drove him away. Making a trip through any kind of portal to an alternate reality is dangerous, whether it is one created by technology or magic. You risk entropic cascade failure, especially if the you in this reality is still alive.”
“What is en… entro…”
“Entropic cascade failure?” Sam put in when James seemed to be having trouble finishing the word.
James nodded.
“In simplest terms, two of the same person can not exist in the same reality at the same time.” Sam told them. “If the James Potter that really did belong in this universe were still alive, then this universe would begin rejecting you about 48 hours after your arrival here, because you don’t belong. It’s similar in a way to what sometimes used to happen with donated organs. If the donor organ wasn’t an exact or close enough match to the removed one, then the body would reject it and try to destroy it because it didn’t belong. We’ve seen it happen and it’s not a pleasant experience to go through.”
“Dr. Jackson,” Lily spoke up again. “We just want to see him. Talk with him and try and convince him to come home.”
“And what would you say to him, Mrs. Potter, about why you abandoned him?” Daniel repeated his earlier question. “How would you explain your choices that left him living with people who hated the fact he existed in the first place?” He took a deep breath, trying to get his temper under control. He couldn’t let them suspect who he really was, or he’d never get rid of them. “I’m the one you have to convince first, Mrs. Potter. Because I think I can say with certainty that if my parents showed up today and told me they’d been alive for the last 30 years, after I saw them die right in front of me when I was seven and knowing that they’d abandoned me, I’d tell them to go to hell and take the shortest route to get there. You see as far as I’m concerned they would be telling me that whatever they had to do or were hiding from was more important than me and that I didn’t matter one damn bit to them. Looking at them standing there expecting me to forgive forget, because we were going to be a family again, would probably make me go postal.”
“Daniel?” Jack couldn’t understand why his friend was so angry with these people who just wanted to find their son. He knew that if Charlie were still alive and had gone missing, he would turn the world over and shake it trying to find him.
“Think about it, Jack. If you and Sarah had left Charlie,” Daniel held up his hand. “I know you wouldn’t, but just for the sake of argument, say you and Sarah left Charlie alone, but did it in such a way that he believed you were dead and then he was raised by people who loathed you and hated the fact that he even existed. Now take it forward to where Charlie is an adult, and you suddenly reappeared expecting everything would go back to where you were all one big happy family. Would you really be surprised if Charlie wanted nothing to do with you and Sarah?”
Jack gave the scenario that had been laid out by Daniel serious consideration and had to finally admit. “No, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I would hope that, one day we might manage to at least be friends, if not family again.”
“Exactly,” Daniel agreed. “And since the younger Mr. Potter is not here and I am the one who has the information they want, I’m the one who gets to decide whether they deserve to have it or not.”
Daniel returned his attention to the Potters, who were now looking somewhat worried. He wondered if it was because of what he’d said about how their son might react toward them, or at the thought that he might not tell them what they wanted to know. “Now for the third time, why did you abandon your son, Mrs. Potter?”
“How much did our son tell you about where he came from?” Lily wanted to know.
“Nothing,” Daniel replied. “I didn’t even know he was from an alternate reality until now. All we did discuss of his childhood, was that his parents like mine had been killed, only he lost his while he was still a baby. He was raised by an Aunt and Uncle who hated the very ground he stood on and if they could have figured out a legal way to get rid of him, they probably would have in a heartbeat. He also told me he came into his trust fund that year and was going to do some traveling. See places he’d only read about. Now it is your turn, ma’am.”
“To understand what happened, you will need a little history first.” Lily told him. “About forty maybe fifty years ago is when it all started. A young wizard named Tom Riddle, who was a very powerful wizard, went dark or I suppose you would say he started using his power for evil. He was the heir of an ancient wizarding bloodline that was descended from a man who was obsessed with keeping the magical race pure. To most in the wizarding world, the five main groups of people are broken down like this; pure bloods, half-bloods, muggle-born, squibs, and muggles. A Muggle is a person with no magical ability at all. Half-bloods are those with one magical parent and one muggle parent. A muggle-born is a person with magical ability who is born into a muggle family. Pure bloods are those whose lineage is only made up of those with magical ability, going back at least several hundred years if not more. And a squib is the opposite of a muggle-born, someone born itno a magical family, but unable to do magic. Anyway, after he graduated from Hogwarts, that’s a school where young wizards and witches go to learn to use magic, he changed his name to Voldemort.”
Daniel wasn’t surprised at the pause, but he noticed she didn’t flinch or have trouble saying Riddle’s other name. A moment later she continued. “Voldemort had started gathering followers mostly from among the purebloods, while he was still in school. He convinced them he could give them more power and that they would no longer have to hide in the shadows. He also convinced them he had the same goal as they did, purifying the wizarding world by getting rid of the muggle-borns and half-bloods.”
“Shades of Adolph Hitler,” Jack commented.
“Tom Riddle as Voldemort was originally know did grow up during the era of Hitler and WWII, so it is possible that he got some of his racist ideas from the man and combined them with his loathing for the muggles who had mistreated him while he was growing up in an orphanage.” Lily agreed, before continuing with her history lesson. “Voldemort kept on gaining power and sowing fear. It reached the point where people were afraid to say his name and referred to him as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, among others.”
She shook her head at the foolishness of those in the wizarding world. They were still afraid to said Voldemort’s name, as if saying it would make him reappear from beyond the grave. “Anyway, shortly before Harry was born, a seer made a prophecy that foretold of a child being born as the seventh month ended who would have the power to defeat Voldemort. This child was to be born to parents who had defied the Dark Lord three times. The prophecy also said the child would be marked as Voldemort’s equal, but that he would have a power the Dark Lord didn’t know about. There were only two children who were born at the end of July who met the criteria of having parents who had defied Voldemort three times: a boy named Neville Longbottom and our son Harry. Originally it was thought that only Dumbledore knew about the prophecy, but one of Voldemort’s agents heard at least part of it, enough to tell the Dark lord which children needed to be dealt with. It finally became clear our son was the one spoken of by the prophecy, when Voldemort tried to kill Harry and failed, leaving him with a curse scar in the shape of a lightening bolt.”
“As fascinating as I’m sure this little history lesson is, you still haven’t answered Daniel’s question.” Jack put in.
Daniel had to look down for a moment to hide the smirk that had appeared on his face at Jack’s totally predictable interruption. His friend had no patience for long winded explanations. He always wanted to get to the heart of the matter in the shortest possible time, without all the history that led up to the situation in the first place.
Lily just glared at the man and that made Daniel have to choke back a laugh.
“I was just getting to that,” Lily said primly, in a manner that reminded Daniel of McGonagall when she was offended by something. “Dumbledore is the Headmaster of Hogwarts as well as the leader of the Order of Phoenix, a group that was dedicated to stopping Voldemort. Through various sources, he learned of Voldemort’s plans to kill us; James, Harry and I,” she added for clarification. “We knew that Voldemort had a spy in the Order and we were discussing our plans to go into hiding using the Fidelius Charm to protect our location, when Dumbledore told us about the prophecy and of Harry’s possible role in it.”
Lily looked at her husband and he took up the tale. “We were going to have to go into hiding no matter what, but what we had to decide was, would it be right of us to deny the wizarding world a chance to be free of Voldemort by taking Harry with us, if he was indeed the child who was meant to defeat Voldemort. Dumbledore finally convinced us that it would be better for all of us, if we went into hiding without Harry and he assured us that if Harry wasn’t the one spoken of in the prophecy, he would see to it that Harry was sent to us. If Harry was the one spoken of in the prophecy, he assured us that he would watch over Harry and make sure he was happy and that once Voldemort was finally defeated, we would be reunited.”
“Did it not occur to you, that if your son were indeed the one spoken of in the prophecy, that he would have defeated this Voldemort person whether he remained with you or not?” Teal’c asked, before Daniel could.
From the expressions on the Potter’s faces, that thought had occurred to them and James finally confirmed it. “Yes, it did. But a lot more people might have died before that happened and we felt, we didn’t have the right to place the rest of the wizarding world in additional peril, because we wanted to keep our son with us. We thought if anything happened to the doubles, we had created to take our place, that Harry would be living with Sirius....”
“So in essence,” Daniel cut in, “you placed the welfare of others above that of your infant son. Would that be a correct assessment to make?”
“We love our son!” Lily countered hotly.
“Not enough, apparently,” Jack muttered.
“Did you and your husband have any other children, Mrs. Potter?” Daniel asked.
“No,” Lily looked confused by the question. “We tried, but it just never happened.”
“So that means that you never got to see your only child grow up, go to school, play sports with him, celebrate birthdays, or do any of the other normal things that parents get to see and do.” Daniel met her eyes calmly. None of the rage he was feeling was showing on his face. “You basically threw the precious gift of your child back in the face of whatever higher power gave him to you when you left him in the hands of this Dumbledore person. Who apparently took your son and left him with relatives who loathed him.” He paused for a moment. “My wife and I never got to have a child, Mrs. Potter, but if we had, I would never have left him without a damn good reason, and I damn well wouldn’t have left him with people who hated me. You weren’t thinking of your child! You were thinking of yourselves! By your own words, you chose to put the fate of a world on a pair of infant shoulders that should not have had to bear that burden and then you deserted him, instead of helping him learn to deal with it.”
Daniel took several deep breaths before continuing, “The Harry Potter I met in Chicago, was a very angry young man. He had been betrayed by those closest to him; friends and those he considered family, shortly before he left home. Did you give any thought at all to how your son might feel about you suddenly showing up in his life? I mean I know from what he told me, that for the first ten years that Harry lived with his Aunt and Uncle, he was told you died in a car crash and that you, Mr. Potter, were the one responsible for killing yourself and your wife because you were driving drunk. Have either of you considered how your son is going to react, if you suddenly show up on his doorstep and say, ‘Hi son, we’re your parents. We didn’t really die, it was all an elaborate hoax.’ or words to that effect. Did you expect him to pretend the last eighteen or twenty years had never happened? To want to get to know you?”
Sam could tell from the expressions on their faces that the Potters had never even given that a moment’s consideration. Apparently they had expected their son would be so glad to see them alive he would just ignore what they’d done. While her own family had been far from perfect, especially with her father being in the military and away a lot, she had always had that foundation to build on and their love to fall back on. It sounded as if the young man, Daniel seemed to have gotten to know very well in a few hours, hadn’t had that foundation and she felt sorry for him because of it.
Daniel asked another question before they’d had a chance to answer the last ones. “Jack told me that you intend to try and take your son back. Is that correct?”
“He doesn’t belong here.” James told him. “He belongs at home among his family and friends.”
“From what he told me, it doesn’t sound like he had either one back where he came from.” Daniel countered.
“How did you get to know our son so well, Dr. Jackson?” Lily asked. “Dumbledore told us he was always a very private person, keeping things bottled up inside.”
“Daniel has always had a knack for getting things out of people.” Jack told them proudly. “He’s gotten quite a few people to open up, who you would have thought were silent as the grave. He also hates to see people in pain, any kind of pain.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Potter,” Daniel looked very serious now. “If you do find your son and he tells you to go to hell and that he has no intention of coming back with you, what are you going to do? Will you use some magic spell to force him to comply with your wishes?”
Lily and James looked at each other aghast at the idea of using the Imperious Curse on their son then Lily cried. “NO! We would never use magic to compel our son to do what he didn’t want to do.”
“But you didn’t rule out other means of trying to persuade him.” Jack observed.
“Harry doesn’t belong in your world,” James repeated.
“He doesn’t appear to belong in yours either, since he chose to leave it “ Sam observed. “Taking a portal to another world and not knowing if what lies on the other side of it, is better or worse than what you left, implies that it was preferable to take the risk than remain where he was.”
“There were some problems back home,” Lily admitted, “but they’ve been taken care of. The people of the wizarding world just want him to come home. They have been waiting a long time to honor their hero.”
“Hero’s welcomes are overrated.” Jack groused, having been on the receiving end of a number of them since starting to work for the SGC. The only welcomes he truly enjoyed, were those that came from the other members of the SGC, because they understood the dangers they faced and what was going on.
“Please, Dr. Jackson, we just want to find our son.” Lily looked at the linguist an expression of longing on her face. “We haven’t seen him for over twenty years.”
“And whose fault is that?” Daniel inquired, causing her face to fall. “I have one more question for you?”
“What?” James demanded
“Is there a magically binding oath, that I can make you take?” Daniel already knew the answer but he wanted to see what they had to say.
“There are a couple of them.” Lily told him.
“Why do you want to know?” James asked.
“Because I want you both to swear a magically binding oath, that if you do find your son, you will not use any kind of force or trickery to force him to go back to your world.” Daniel told them. “It must be his choice and only his choice to go back.”
###############
Is there something you want to tell us, Dannyboy?
Oct 29, 2001
The gate shut off with a woosh, as SG-1 stepped onto the surface of P6X547. This was their first mission back together, since Daniel had gotten rid of his cast and finished physical therapy.
The linguist had been kind of quiet and a little moody, since the departure of the Potters on their quest to find their son. All attempts by his friends and co-workers to try and cheer him up and get him interested in what was going on around him, while not exactly a failure, hadn’t exactly been a rousing success either.
Jack figured that what Daniel needed to get himself back to normal was a few days on some alien world poking around some interesting ruins. So once Janet had declared the archeologist fit to go off-world again, he’d started looking for a likely world. When the MALP and UAV flyovers had revealed the unusual ruins on this planet, Jack had spoken to the General and convinced him to let SG-1 have the mission.
As Daniel started to head toward the hill that the ruins were on the other side of, Jack couldn’t resist saying, “Remember Daniel, the General only gave us a couple of days for you to play with your rocks.”
Glaring at his friend, Daniel strongly resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at the older man.
“Teal’c, I’ll take point.” O’Neill smirked as he moved quickly to get in front of the archeologist, before Daniel could get too far ahead.
While the MALP and UAV hadn’t shown any potential sentient life on this world, Jack swore that sometimes Daniel could find trouble in an empty room. He didn’t do it deliberately, Jack was certain of that, but no matter how innocent looking a situation was, it was like the universe had decided to make Daniel a magnet for whatever disasters happened to be lurking in the area waiting to happen.
General Hammond had commented to him more than once that the rest of SG-1 was just as bad as Dr. Jackson. And when he was being honest with himself, Jack had to admit there was a grain of truth in that statement, but Daniel was far worse at attracting trouble than he, Sam, and Teal’c put together.
#######
It took about an hour to reach the ruins, and Jack was pleased to discover on the outskirts of the complex of ruins that there were still a couple of building that were intact that they could use for shelter. And from either one they had a good view of the area, leading up to the complex from the gate.
He looked over at Daniel and was pleased by the expression on his face. The younger man looked like a kid in a toy store, not knowing where to go first. He nudged Carter, and gestured with his head toward the archeologist, who was oblivious to them.
Sam smiled, relieved to see that expression on Daniel’s face. She knew very well that the Colonel had gotten this mission for Daniel, to try and get him out of his funk. She had no doubt that O’Neill would be bored out of his mind for the next couple of days, but he was willing to endure it for Daniel. Sometimes, at least in the privacy of her own mind, Sam thought the Colonel considered Daniel like a cross between a younger brother and the son he still missed even after the time that had passed since Charlie’s death, and he would do almost anything for him as long as it didn’t compromise the safety of Earth or the team.
“Daniel.” Jack called and when the other man didn’t respond he repeated the call a little louder, “Daniel!”
“Huh,” he could tell the archeologist was only half listening as he looked at the carvings on the pylon nearest him.
“Daniel, we need to set up camp.” Jack told him. “There’s a building over here that’s intact and we’re gonna use it.”
“Ok,” Daniel agreed, not turning his attention from the pylon as he got out his camera, so he could record the carvings.
Not having the heart to drag the younger man away, since this had been the whole purpose in coming to this world in the first place, Jack just said, “Teal’c...”
“I will keep any eye on DanielJackson, while you and Major Carter set up camp.” Teal’c correctly interpreted his request before he had a chance to voice it.
########
Oct 31, 2001 3:00pm
Daniel popped the tape out of his video camera and put in a new one, so he could finish recording the carvings on the walls of the temple, at least that’s what he assumed this building was. Jack had already been by twice to remind him they were leaving at 6pm.
Before starting on the final wall, Daniel shook his head at O’Neill’s antics. The Colonel must have been bored out of his mind for the last two and a half days, given that so far there had been nothing here for him to shoot at or blow up. He was still amazed at his friend’s thoughtfulness some times. While he may have only been going through the motions over the last couple of months since the Potters left, Daniel knew that O’Neill had chosen this mission solely because of him. Only a real friend would choose to do something that would bore them to death, in an effort to try and cheer someone else up. Even after all this time in this universe and at the SGC, it still surprised Daniel when someone actually went out of their way to do something for him, without thinking about what they were going to get in return.
When he was living in the Wizarding world, with very few exceptions, the people he came into contact with and those who befriended him fell into the category of either users or ‘fair weather’ friends, who disappeared the moment he was labeled Dark or evil by those in power. Ron had been a prime example of a user. The youngest Weasley son had been his friend as long as he could share the spotlight or gain something from being Harry’s friend. Daniel conceded that Ron’s friendship with him had put the other boy in danger and that Ron had followed him into danger, but doing so still kept him in the spotlight. Ron had shown his true colors during the first part of the Triwizard Tournament, when it appeared that Harry was trying to get the spotlight to himself, by not even being willing to listen to him.
Unlike those in the Wizarding world, who viewed him as either hero or the next Dark Lord, depending on their own warped standard or what those in the press or power had to say, Jack, Sam, and Teal’c had stuck by him through the good and bad. And, he acknowledged, some of the bad had been pretty bad, like when he was addicted to the sarcophagus. In fact, the whole of the SGC had stood by him at one time or another, even when he had done things that angered The-Powers-That-Be, simply because it had been the right thing to do.
As he continued to video tape the 3 different sets of carvings, Daniel mentally thanked the Founders, yet again, for the Portal spell. It was thanks to them that he now had a family, not one of blood true, but it was one of spirit. Those families were by far the strongest and most enduring.
Over the last few months he had been very grateful for the undemanding presence of his ‘family’ as he tried to work through the knowledge that: A) his parents were really alive and B) had left him to fend for himself in the wizarding world with one of the darkest wizards out to kill him. While none of them had pressured to talk about what had made him go quiet and moody most of the time, his teammates had silently let him know that they were there if he wanted to talk and that they would stand by any decision he made regarding his problem. Daniel also knew that as long as introspective mood didn’t start affecting their teamwork, they would never pry into it. Their belief seemed to be that he had a right to his secrets as much as they had a right to theirs and that was the exact opposite of how his former friends Ron and Hermione would have acted. They seemed to feel they had some right to know everything he was thinking and feeling while they could keep secrets from him, because they weren’t the-boy-who-lived. From the summer of his fifth year at Hogwarts on, Harry had had the feeling that Ron and Hermione regarded him as more of an icon or maybe possession would be a more accurate term. One that had little or no right to keeping his own thoughts and feelings private and that they and the rest of the wizarding world had the right to decide how he was supposed to act and what he was supposed to do.
The sound of an explosion pulled Daniel’s thoughts quickly back to the present. He heard the distinctive sound of several staff blasts, followed by the crackle of the radio in his vest.
“Daniel,” He heard jack saying through the sound of gunfire and staff blasts, “we’re pinned down by Jaffa. We didn’t hear the gate, so they must’ve come in a cloaked ship. Get back to the gate…”
Jack’s voice was suddenly cut off by a whine and Daniel saw a bright flash of light from the doorway of the temple. Having heard that whine and seen that flash in conjunction with it a few times before, Daniel knew that his teammates had been taken out by a Goa’uld stun grenade. Given that he and his teammates were very well known by all the System Lords, unless they’d been living under a rock, he knew it wouldn’t be long before the Jaffa started looking for him. If Jack was right, and they hadn’t come through the gate, then they undoubtedly had a ship in orbit. He needed to get to his friends, before they could be moved off-world, but he needed to do it without being seen.
Daniel quickly gathered up his pack and cast a quick notice-me-not spell and a silencing spell so hopefully they wouldn’t see or hear him and got out of the temple before they could head this way. While the spells he’d cast would prevent the Jaffa from detecting him, he didn’t know if they would work with the symbiotes they carried or a host.
Since becoming Daniel Jackson, he had only done small bits of magic and then only when absolutely necessary. He used spells that didn’t require obvious gestures and that worked just as well if it were muttered instead of said out loud. He’d continued this practice upon joining the SGC, especially when he was around the Goa’uld, or someone he didn’t know that well at the base.
To a certain extent, it was because he didn’t want to become dependent on using magic to solve every problem they were confronted with, but the main reason was he didn’t want to attract the attention of either the NID. If the NID or those in power found out what he could do, he would be whisked away to a hidden lab somewhere to be poked and prodded til they figured out how he could do it. And God help him if the System Lords found out what he could do. He knew if that happened, he would instantly become the most desirable Tau’ri to have as a host. He supposed that after Shifu’s visit he could have done more visible magic, and passed it off as stuff the boy had taught him, but he hadn’t wanted to. If the General had known what he could do, the man would never let him off-world, except in the direst emergencies and he loved visiting other worlds and meeting other people.
Daniel made it out of the temple just a few minutes before the Jaffa reached it. While he was fairly certain the Notice-Me-Not spell would hold, Daniel still moved slowly between the ruins that made up the temple complex. There was no point in taking foolish risks while trying to get to his teammates. Given that the Jaffa had used a stun grenade, he felt fairly confident that their master had given orders to capture rather than kill anyone they found and that meant they were going to be taken off-world, wither through the gate or to a ship.
He couldn’t help wondering why the Jaffa had come to P6X547. It couldn’t have been because of them, not matter how much the Goa’uld wanted to get rid of them, they couldn’t have known SG-1 would be there. This planet was off the beaten track as far as the System Lords were concerned and as far as the SGC’s sweeps with UAV and MALP had been able to determine, there were no other signs of habitation, except these ruins. The only thing Daniel could assume was that they had come looking for something, and given that at least part of the text carved into the walls had been in the language of the Ancients, he would bet a month’s pay, that the Goa’uld these Jaffa worked for was probably Anubis, or one of his underlings.
No one at the SGC had reported meeting Anubis yet, but after that Goa’uld summit earlier in the year, they knew he had managed to somehow get back into the ranks of the System Lords. From what information the Tok’ra had been able to provide and rumors that were out there, they knew the other System Lords were acting very cautious about Anubis’ return and that this as yet unseen Goa’uld was absolutely obsessed with locating technology left behind by the Ancients and in some cases an absolutely uncanny knack for finding those sites.
He reached his teammates, who were sprawled unconscious on the dirt with two Jaffa standing guard over them and their packs. A quick glance at the symbols on their foreheads confirmed his guess that these Jaffa worked for one of Anubis’ underlings; Osiris, and one of them was her First Prime.
The first Prime pulled out a communicator and spoke, “My Lord Osiris, we found intruders in the ruins and have captured them.”
“Are they natives?” Daniel shuddered at hearing the harsh tone of a host in Sarah’s voice as she responded.
“No, my lord,” The first prime told her, “They appear to be Tau’ri. And given that the shol’va who was once First Prime of Apophis is among our prisoners, I believe we have captured SG-1.”
“Indeed,” Osiris sounded interested. “Do you have all four?”
“Not yet, my lord,” Osiris’ First Prime sounded regretful. “From the descriptions we have been given, we have captured O’Neill, Carter, as well as the Shol’va. I have men out now looking for the one called Jackson.”
When there was no scathing remark from his god about failing to capture the fourth Tau’ri, he breathed a sigh of relief. He really didn’t want to die just now, especially not for failing his god. Far better to die in battle for the glory of Osiris. That was the way a Jaffa should die.
There was a few more moments of silence and he began to get a little worried, when Osiris spoke again. “I trust you already have the Chapa’ai guarded?”
“Yes, My Lord,” the First Prime was quick to assure her. “I sent sever Jaffa to secure it, as soon as I realized it was the tau’ri we were facing.”
“The Tau’ri, Jackson, is known to us. He is almost as much trouble as the others combined.” Osiris told her First Prime. “So I will be sending down additional Jaffa to help in the search. Once they arrive, send the three prisoners up, then concentrate your search on finding Jackson. He may have already found the Sola Inga.”
Daniel felt a little offended by Osiris’ comment. It wasn’t true. Jack caused way more trouble than he ever did, simply by not listening when he or Sam tried to tell him things.
His argument with himself was interrupted by the sound of rings descending. When the rings had finished transporting down the additional troops, he thought that there were at least twenty additional Jaffa awaiting orders. In a way, he felt absurdly pleased by the unintended compliment Osiris had paid him. She considered one archeologist enough of a threat that she would send down that many Jaffa, just to find and contain him. He couldn’t help wondering what the Goa’uld would do if she knew just how dangerous he really could be if he put his mind to it. Not that these Jaffa would have the chance to find that out, since he intended on ringing up to Osiris’ ship with his teammates.
The rings would normally only hold three or four adults at a time. If he was going to have any chance of getting on that ship he was going to have to go up with the smallest group where there would be less chance one of them would bump into to him. The notice-me-not charm only prevented them from seeing him. It didn’t mean they wouldn’t be able to feel him, if they got close enough. In the end, he transported up with a single Jaffa, who was bringing up the gear they had taken from his teammates.
He quickly moved away from the rings and checked the area out. His friends were nowhere in sight, but he hadn’t expected them to be. He had a good idea of where they were being held, given that they’d spent a lot of time on Goa’uld ships, he was pretty familiar with the layout. One thing he knew about the System Lords, for a parasitic race with delusions of godhood, most of them were very slow to change what worked for them in the past.
Daniel followed the group of Jaffa that were taking the team’s gear away. He needed to know where they were going to store it. They would need it once he’d gotten the others free. If nothing else, he needed to make sure he got the GDO’s out of there.
Daniel waited in a corner out of the way until the Jaffa had left the store room, then with a quick wave of his hand, he sealed the store room door, so he wouldn’t be disturbed while he got the most important equipment, out of the packs. Grabbing some granola and protein bars out of his pack, that he kept there for emergencies, Daniel quickly transfigured them into non-working GDO’s. He didn’t want the Jaffa or Osiris figuring out they’d picked up an unexpected passenger too soon and they would if any of the equipment went missing, before he had the chance to get back here with the others. Once he had the GDO’s, Daniel collected a few of the zat’s from Osiris’ stores. He wouldn’t have to worry about running out of ammo with these.
Once he felt sufficiently armed, Daniel debated for a moment on whether or not to leave the store room by the vents, but that decision was taken out of his hands, when the door started sliding open. Quickly ducking behind a storage container, Daniel recast the notice-me-not and silencing spells, before moving out into the corridor, behind a pair of Jaffa who’d come into get one of the containers.
Even with the spells in place, Daniel still moved slowly and cautiously through the corridors of Osiris’ ship. The way his luck usually ran, if he got cocky and counted on those spells to get him through everything, they would wear off right when he was next to a large group of Jaffa.
############
It took him the better part of an hour to locate his teammates. It surprised him that Osiris would only have a couple of Jaffa on guard. Surely she knew the reputation SG-1 had among the System Lords. She must be extremely overconfident, if she thought that two Jaffa would be able to contain the unpredictable Tau’ri group known as SG-1. He quickly raised the zat and fired twice at the Jaffa guarding the cell door, then fired it a third time toward each corpse, getting rid of the bodies. Quickly dispelling the silencing and notice-me-not spells, Daniel turned his attention to the keypad by the door. After studying it for a moment, he touched several keys in sequence. The cell door opened to reveal a hand raised to strike.
When Teal’c had come to, he had found himself alone in the cell and worried about the fate of his companions. He hadn’t heard the sound of weapons fire, but he had heard two thuds, and quickly realized that something was up. He had no idea what was going on outside his solitary cell, but he prepared himself, in case this was his chance to escape. As the door slid open, he raised his hand for a killing blow. As the person on the other side of the door back-pedaled, he realized who it was and pulled the blow before it could reach its intended target.
“DanielJackson!” Teal’c stared at the archeologist, stunned. He looked around, trying to see if the other two were with him. “Are O’Neill and Major Carter also free?”
“Aren’t they in that cell with you?” Daniel asked.
“No, they aren’t,” Teal’c told him. “I woke up in the cell alone.”
Daniel groaned. It would seem that Osiris had learned something from the failures of other System Lords: If you capture the Tau’ri team known as SG-1, do not leave them together in the same cell or disaster will befall you when they escape. The rescue had gotten much more difficult, because unless they got very lucky there was no way to get the other two, before someone found out one or more were free and figured out he had to be on the ship and not the planet.
“How did you manage to get on the ship, DanielJackson?” Teal’c wanted to know. “I heard no alarms indicating a prisoner had escaped.”
Daniel knew he had to come up with a good story and fast. “I wasn’t captured Teal’c. After I got Jack’s warning, I spent some time avoiding Osiris’ goons before getting lucky enough to take out one of them. They’d already sent you guys up and he had one of the ring controls on him.” He reached into his pocket and quickly transfigured his money clip into one of the ring controls and pulled it out of his pocket. He’d have to make sure to lose it somewhere along the way, since it was a non-functional one. “So I it to get to her ship and real fortunate there was no one in the ring room when I ringed up. Inbetween avoiding Osiris’ Jaffa, I’ve been looking for you guys. You’re the first one I found and we need to find the others, before Osiris starts to get bored and wants to have some fun torturing you.”
Teal’c looked at the archeologist carefully for a few moments. Something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was, but something about the archeologist’s story did ring true. The only thing he did know for certain was that Daniel wasn’t a host. He didn’t feel like the Goa’uld. He put the mystery aside resolving to come back to it later and said, “I concur.”
“There were only two guards here, so I don’t think the others could be in cells in this area.” Daniel told him, handing over one of the zats he taken. “And I’ve already checked out the rest of this level and there are no more holding cells in it.”
Teal’c took the lead as the two men set out for the level. They had to go down another two levels before they found another guarded cell. This one held only O’Neill and he too had awoken in his cell alone and wondering what had happened to the others. They wasted no time on explanations, because all three men knew time was running out. They needed to find Sam and get off this ship before Osiris realized they were loose. They had just started searching the next level, when an alarm started sounding and a voice started speaking in Goa’uld.
“Daniel, what is he saying?” Jack wanted to know as they continued to move through the ship.
“Teal’c escape has been noticed, and they’ve ordered the Jaffa guarding the cells containing the two Tau’ri prisoners to check in.” Daniel replied after a few moments.
A few minutes later there was another order given in a strident, demanding tone.
Without being prompted Daniel reported. “Sam’s guards have checked in but yours have not, so Jaffa are heading this way to check on you.”
“It won’t be long before they use the ship’s internal sensors to try and locate us.” Teal’c advised O’Neill.
“I know,” O’Neill agreed. “Teal’c, what’s the quickest way to the peltak, from here?”
“That way, O’Neill,” Teal’c pointing to a corridor going off the right after he checked their surroundings.
“Why the peltak, Jack?” Daniel asked.
“Because if I was Osiris, I would have my one remaining prisoner to where I could keep an eye on her, especially if I knew her companions would not want to leave with out her.” Jack told him. “Osiris will undoubtedly be on the peltak, overseeing the search.”
“Sound thinking.” Daniel commented.
“Besides which, she’ll definitely have the ring room guarded, so we’re going to need a hostage to get out of here and if we can get the drop on Osiris...” Jack’s voice trailed off.
Their pace through the corridors of the ship was reduced to a crawl as they started having to dodge the Jaffa who were searching for them. They couldn’t afford to get pinned down in a firefight, just now.
They were still a short distance away from the peltak, when they encountered a large squad of Jaffa, led by Osiris’. Standing almost directly in front of Osiris, was Sam with the Goa’uld’s hand gripping her throat. There was no way that they fire at her, without risking her final muscle spasm be the one that crushed Sam’s throat.
“Ah, Dr. Jackson, I see you decided to join your friends.” Osiris commented as if they were discussing the weather. “You have always been more trouble than you are worth. However before I kill you, I would like to know how you got on board my ship without being detected.”
“Well, I don’t feel like enlightening you.” Daniel countered.
A quick glance behind confirmed that they were surrounded.
“Rather imagine, I can persuade you to talk,” Osiris disagreed. “It all depends on how much pain you are willing to endure before you do. Now, since you are currently surrounded, I suggest you co-operate by putting your weapons on the deck, or I will kill Major Carter. There is no way for you to escape.”
O’Neill glanced at his companions and nodded. As he was kneeling down to put his weapon on the deck, Daniel silently cursed the fates for putting him in this position. Before he could change his mind, he quickly extended his empty right hand and hollered, “Accio, Sam.”
Osiris was surprised as an unseen force attempted to pull the female Tau’ri out of her grasp and her attempt to retain her hold on her prisoner resulted in them both being pulled to the ground. As her grip on Major Carter’s throat came loose, the unseen force pulled the woman toward her companions.
Before the Jaffa could make a move to fire on them, Daniel shouted, “Crucio!” his hand pointed at Osiris.
The Goa’uld began writhing in pain, but it took several minutes before screams could be heard and they sounded strange in that double-echo voice. Daniel hated having to do this to Sara’s body, but there really was no choice, if they were to get out of here. At least here, he didn’t have to worry about being sent to Azkaban for casting an Unforgivable.
“You said something about pain and how much someone was willing to endure.” Jackson’s voice sounded like ice. “I wonder how much pain a parasite like you would be willing to endure.”
“You will pay for this.” Osiris just managed to grate out. “Jaffa attack!”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Daniel advised them calmly, “unless you want your god to be reduced to a vegetable.”
“I’m.... your.... god... and... I... command...!” Osiris screamed again as the wave of pain intensified in the host body, faster than he could overcome it.
The Jaffa quickly recovered and raised their weapons to fire.
Daniel raised his hand from Osiris, then quickly turning sideways pointed his hands toward both groups of Jaffa and shouted. “Expelliarmus!”
SG-1 watched as the Jaffa were flung down the corridor, by an invisible force.
O’Neill just stared at his archeologist in stunned amazement, but before he could say anything, he saw that Osiris had gotten to her knees and swaying, the Goa’uld raised her hand. The crystal in the hand weapon was glowing and aimed right at Daniel. Seeing that Daniel’s attention was focused on the Jaffa and not the Goa’uld, he shouted, “Daniel! Osiris!”
Returning his attention to the Goa’uld, Daniel pointed his hand at Osiris and said, “Incendio Astrum.”
The anger behind the spell created a ball of fire so bright that they had to close their eyes as it flew toward the kneeling figure, engulfing it. The flames didn’t last very long and what was left when they were done was a pile of fine white ash and melted depression in the deck.
“Is there something you want to tell us Daniel?” Jack inquired. He didn’t like surprises. In fact he hated them and finding out one of your team had the power to turn a Goa’uld into a pile of ash and melt part of a ship’s deck while they were at, was something he felt should not have been kept secret.
“I suppose.” Daniel commented resignedly, then as more Jaffa appeared in the corridor, and they began firing their staff weapons, he added. “I think this discussion should wait til later, when people aren’t trying to kill us, don’t you, Jack?”
Firing their zats, the four members of SG-1 retreated toward the ring room.
Incendio Astrum - Star fire
#############
I’m a Wizard, Jack
SGC 5:00pm
“Unscheduled off-world activation,” Airman Harris called as the alarm began sounding
SF soldiers raced into the Gate room, weapons at the ready, as General Hammond came into the control room. The iris, protecting the stargate, was closed.
“Receiving ID signal, sir.” Harris told the general. “It’s SG-1, sir.”
“Open the iris,” Hammond ordered, surprised that they were returning early.
They must’ve run into trouble... again. Because knowing Dr. Jackson as well as he did, Hammond had expected to see O’Neill dragging the younger man back through the gate by the scruff of his neck.
The SF soldiers prepared themselves, in case SG-1 followed their usual habit and brought back unwanted guests.
A few moments later, Daniel and Sam came through the gate at a run and collapsed at the bottom of the ramp. O’Neill and Teal’c were close on their heels.
As he was coming down the ramp, O’Neill shouted, “Close the Iris!”
Once he heard the iris close with a clang, Jack sank to his knees by his teammates, breathing heavily. Hammond joined them in the gateroom a few minutes later as they were getting back to their feet. There were a couple of thuds a moment later, followed by the gate disengaging.
“Colonel O’Neill, what happened?” Hammond wanted to know. “You weren’t expected back for another hour.”
“Some of Osiris’ goons decided to crash our party earlier today.” Jack avoided looking at Daniel, keeping his face expressionless. “We’ve spent the last couple of hours trying to avoid them as we made our way to the gate. Had a bit of a firefight at the gate.” Jack hooked his thumb over his shoulder at the gate, “And as you heard a couple of the party crashers decided to try and join us here.”
After looking the team over and seeing no immediate injuries and knowing that the post-mission checkup would take a couple of hours, Hammond told them, “We’ll debrief tomorrow morning. After your check-ups, consider yourselves off-duty til tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you, sir.” Jack started herding the rest of his team toward the infirmary. The sooner they got the check-ups out of the way, the sooner he and the others could start grilling Daniel. That young man had some serious explaining to do.
O’Neill had no idea how long he had been able to do stuff like they’d seen on Osiris’ ship. Had he learned it on Kheb, or was it something Shifu had taught him when he visited Earth and knocked Daniel out? The boy had said he was teaching Daniel, but what had the linguist been taught? O’Neill knew that the NID would’ve loved to get their hands on Daniel, if they had known he could wield this kind of power, but surely he could have told them about this ability he’d acquired. Or, another thought occurred to Jack as he remembered the visit of the Potters a couple of months ago, did Daniel have the ability to do magic? If so, then the only one who could have taught him how to use it would have been the Potter’s son which meant that Daniel had lied to the Potters. He did know where their son was.
#############
Janet studied SG-1 intently. Something wasn’t quite right, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. All four members of SG-1 seemed to behaving normally, so why did she have a feeling something more had happened on P6X547 than they were letting on. After running every test twice and double checking each set of results, and finding nothing wrong, she could she could only assume that it was something to do with the team itself. She couldn’t help wondering what could have happened on a mission that was supposed to help Daniel get himself back together.
“Let’s get some Chinese and head to my place.” Jack said as they left the infirmary.
“Better go to mine, Jack,” she heard Daniel disagree before they got out of earshot.
Sighing Janet hoped that whatever it was, they worked it out before the SG-1 was torn apart. Whether the rest of the world knew it or not, SG-1 was needed to keep the world safe.
##########
They had finished dinner. Empty containers of chinese takeout, lay scattered on the living room table. It had been a largely silent meal, not like their usual get together’s. Daniel knew the others wanted it over quickly so they could get to the questions that were bursting to get out. Jack had almost asked a couple of them while in the infirmary, and he knew it had been a look from Sam that silenced the older man both times. For Jack that was showing remarkable patience, but he knew it wouldn’t last much longer.
“All right, Daniel,” It was Jack who spoke first no surprise there.
“Just wait a couple of minutes, Jack,” he requested, before the older man could say anything. He cast a quick wandless silencing charm, as well as something to block any electronic bugs that might be around.
“You can go ahead now, Jack,” he told O’Neill. “I just had to make sure no one could overhear this conversation.”
“How did you do that?” Sam spoke up before Jack could. “How did you yank me out of Osiris’ hands?”
“More importantly,” Jack added, having taken a few deep breaths to calm himself. “How did you reduce a Goa’uld to a pile of ash, in less than five seconds? And why didn’t you let us know you could do this before?”
Jack watched as Daniel got up a retrieved the puzzle box, he always kept next to Sha’re’s picture. He knew it was one of Daniel’s most prized possessions. The one time he’d asked about it, Daniel had told him that he’d gotten it when he was eleven and with it the first friend he’d had since his parents had died.
As Daniel turned the puzzle box over in his hand, he told them, “I need to you to listen to this all the way through, before you ask any questions. It’s a rather long and involved tale and I’d rather not get side tracked along the way.”
At the nods from the other three, Daniel took a deep breath and began, “My name is Harry Potter, and I was born July 31, 1980, and spent the first year of my life in a place called Godric’s Hollow. On October 31, 1981, or so I was told, much later, a wizard named Tom Riddle, who was going by the name of Lord Voldemort by then, killed my parents and then tried but failed to kill me...”
As Daniel laid out the story of his life as Harry Potter, he placed the puzzle box on the floor and gestured at it with his hand. It slowly grew larger and changed to resemble a travelers trunk. He didn’t go into a whole lot of detail, not wanting to have to dredge up a life he’d thought buried to him at least thirty years ago. There were also some events he really didn’t want to think about, like Sirius’ death.
Once he was finished, O’Neill asked the first question, his expression serious. “Where is the real Daniel Jackson?”
The young man before him, and he didn’t whether to think of him as Daniel or Harry, was silent for a moment, before saying, “To all intents and purposes, I am the real Daniel Jackson, and have been for almost thirty years, but if you mean the son of Claire and Melbourne Jackson, he’s dead.”
“So you stole someone’s identity,” Jack accused.
“Stole is the wrong word, it implies he was still using it. The real Daniel Jackson died in 1973 at the age of seven.” He paused a moment, before softly adding. “He was at the back of the tomb display, examining the hieroglyphs on the walls and no one saw him there. He was crushed under a column when the roof came down.”
Sam spoke up before anyone else could. “You say you’ve been Daniel Jackson for almost thirty years, how is that possible? According to your parents, you only arrived here three years ago.”
“They’re not my parents,” Daniel disagreed, then held up his hand to stop the obvious counter-argument. “Yes, I know Lily Potter gave birth to me, but except for the first year of my life, they weren’t there. They did none of the things that go into raising a child. The way I look at it, my parents died on Halloween in 1981, just like everyone always told me. I don’t know the Potters and I don’t want to know them.”
There was a pause as Daniel, at least for the moment, Jack decided to think of him as Daniel, it was less confusing that way, rummaged around in the trunk and pulled a thin stick that looked like one of the wands the Potters had carried. “You wanted to know how I could have been Daniel Jackson for over thirty years, when to the Potters, I’ve only been here three, it’s quite simple, I used magic. Before I even stepped through the portal from my home reality, I had decided that I was going to have a new life here, one not as Harry Potter. I was fairly confident that no one would be able to follow me from the reality I had left, at least not right away. I had hoped that no one would be stupid enough to follow me but I wasn’t going to count on that, knowing Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic like I do.. They all thought they had the right to decide what my life should be and how I should live it. I knew if they got me back, I would be used by them to get what they wanted out of the wizarding community. I never suspected that Dumbledore would send the Potters.”
“What makes you so sure this Dumbledore person sent them?” Jack questioned. “Maybe they came on their own. From the impression I got of them, they really wanted to find you.”
“And bring me back,” Daniel added. “While they may have wanted to find me, lord only knows why, given that they left me to essentially fend for myself for twenty years, but the bring me back part has Dumbledore written all over it. He’s a master manipulator. His philosophy is; ‘get people to do what I want them to do because I know what’s best for them and to hell with what they may want!’”
“Is that why you didn’t tell them who you are?” Teal’c asked.
“Partly, because if they’d known who I really was, the Potters would have done their damndest to bring me back to that world, even though I never want to go back.” he agreed. “I also didn’t want them hanging around, trying to make up for twenty years that can never be gotten back or made up for. They left me, whether it was because of Dumbledore’s manipulations or not, they chose to abandon me! Because of their actions, I was treated as a slave and a leper, while I lived with the Dursleys, and my godfather was left to rot in the wizard prison of Azkaban. The Goa’uld have no idea what Hell is. They should try having to stay in a prison guarded by dementors. As far as I’m concerned, the Potters can never make up for any of that.”
“Why and how did you become Daniel?” Sam saw that this topic was painful for Daniel/Harry and decided to change the subject slightly.
Relieved by the change of subject, Daniel told her. “Shortly after I got here, I started researching past obituary’s, looking for someone to become, because even in my home reality, you can’t simply create an identity out of thin air. I chose to become a child again, so I could get to know my new home. I was looking for a boy who would have no close kin so I wouldn’t have to worry about having to cover up any mistakes I might make as I got used to my new life and one who was essentially a stranger in whatever country I was going to be living in.”
“But what about Nick?” Jack interrupted. “He was Daniel Jackson’s grandfather. You couldn’t known that he wouldn’t take Daniel in.”
Daniel smiled a sad smile. “Ah, but you see the first time around, Nick died a short time after his daughter and her family did. I guess the first time around he had no reason to live with his remaining family dead. The fact that his grandson survived, was apparently enough to keep him alive the second time around, even though he didn’t take me in.”
“First time around?” Sam pounced on those words.
Daniel nodded. “Among the spells I brought with me, Sam, was a very old spell that allows a person to travel back to a specific point in time, but not go forward.”
“So you knew time travel was possible.” Sam accused remembering the surprise he showed when they had gone back to 1969.
“I’ve known it was possible to travel back in time by magical means, since I was thirteen in my home reality, but I didn’t know it was possible through technology.” Daniel told her. “Even wizards and witches don’t do it lightly though and normally they can only go back a few hours or maybe days. Their most important rule is; ‘to not be seen’.”
“I think we’re wandering off topic here, kids.” Jack spoke up quickly before their conversation could wander off into techno-babble where he was lucky if he understood every tenth word. “Why choose Daniel Jackson? Why go back in time that far to create this new identity for yourself? Why couldn’t you have done it in a little closer to when you actually arrived?”
Daniel looked thoughtful. “There were a number of reasons. I wanted to make it harder for anyone to track me, if Dumbledore did managed to con someone into coming after me. But the main reason besides him being new to America was be cause his parents were archeologists and it had been noted in the article about them that Daniel had a gift with languages and had wanted to be an archeologist like his parents. One of my ‘former’ friends back where I came from had a brother who was a curse breaker. I used to love to listen to his stories about Egypt and other exotic places he visited. I wanted to do something similar and so I chose to become Daniel Jackson.”
“You mean when you stole his identity.” Jack put in again.
“He wasn’t going to be using it any more, Jack.” Daniel pointed out again. “And as weird as it may sound, Jack, I think my becoming Daniel Jackson was a part of what was supposed to happen, at least in this reality. I mean out of all the kids who died accidentally, that fit the criteria I had decided on before ever stepping through the portal, he was the one I selected. And it seems as though the alternate realities we have heard about where there was no Daniel Jackson at the SGC, Apophis was able to invade the Earth and take over. Maybe I was meant to come here once Voldemort was defeated. Maybe I was meant to take Catherine up on her offer. I think the only reason that I could see what other archeologists couldn’t about Ancient Egyptian is because I’m a parselmouth.”
“Come again?” That term made absolutely no sense to Jack.
“It means I can talk to snake and understand what they’re saying.” Daniel told him. “When you come right down to it, that’s all a Goa’uld is anyway, an ugly parasitic snake. Ancient Egyptian evolved from the Goa’uld language, or else the Goa’uld stole it from them, but there are very subtle differences between Ancient Egyptian and Goa’uld.”
“Why did you wait until now to show us what you could do?” Jack asked. “I mean it would’ve been nice to know that we had someone who could turn a Goa’uld into a crispy critter.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know,” Daniel told him, “and if the situation hadn’t been so desperate, you wouldn’t know now.”
“Why?” Teal’c asked. “Do you not trust us, DanielJackson?”
“Of course I trust you.” Daniel was quick to assure them, “It’s the people we have to deal with outside the SGC that I don’t trust. If the NID found out what I could do, how long do you think it would be before I suddenly disappeared and would up in a hidden lab somewhere? As long as the Wiccans don’t appear to have any real magical ability, they are left alone, but they ever showed any signs of real power, you know the government would have them put away somewhere so they could control that power. I also wanted to avoid becoming more of a target for the Goa’ulds than I already am. If they knew that I had these powers, I would go right to the top of their list as the most desired Tau’ri to have as a host. And I’d probably move to the top of the Tok’ra one as well, even if they don’t take unwilling hosts.”
“Well, that still doesn’t explain why you never told us.” Sam looked a little hurt.
“Sam, let me ask you something,” Daniel looked at her his expression serious. “If you were to put what I did today in a report, how would you explain to the General and from there to the Joint Chiefs?
“I... I,” Sam tried to come up with an answer, but couldn’t really think of any that would explain a Goa’uld turned into a pile of ash in less than a minute.
Daniel continued “I mean even if you danced around the topic, sooner or later the General would figure out something was going on and then both of you would have been labeled a security risk. And once the General knew he would bar me from gate travel, because he couldn’t afford to put a one of a kind weapon at risk.”
“You are not a weapon, DanielJackson.” Teal’c was quick to say.
“My ability to do magic could be considered that way, Teal’c.” Daniel countered. “it’s not the first time I’ve been considered a weapon. That’s what Dumbledore saw me as. A weapon he molded and aimed at Voldemort. Magic can do a lot of things, but there’s a lot it can’t do. The thing is the destructive things I can do with it, would make me a very desirable prize for anyone.”
His team mates were silent.
Daniel added one final comment. “I don’t want to leave the SGC. I’ve spent my whole life looking for a place to belong. First in my own reality, then in the academic world. I thought I found it with Sha’re, but that was taken away. I don’t want to lose you and the SGC as well. I’m making a difference here and I don’t want it to stop. I’m asking you not to tell the General or anybody else about who I used to be or what I can do.”
“That’s asking an awful lot, Daniel.” Jack told him after a few more minutes silence.
“I know,” was all Daniel said.
###########
I am your son, Harry
O’Neill’s office, SGC, February 8, 2002
Jack picked up his phone on the first ring and barked, “O’Neill.”
“Colonel, this is Sergeant Tomlinson at the main gate.” The voice on the other end of the phone nervously identified itself. “Sorry to disturb you, sir, but there’s a couple here by the name of Potter and they are asking to speak with Dr. Jackson.”
O’Neill pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. I really don’t need this today. He could understand why the Sergeant sounded nervous. Ever since the disastrous mission to Kelona a few weeks ago, everyone at the SGC had been treading carefully around the remaining members of SG-1.
“Colonel... Colonel O’Neill,” Tomlinson’s voice pulled him back to the present.
“Sorry, Sergeant,” O’Neill apologized, “my mind wandered for a moment.”
“Understandable, sir,” Tomlinson told him, then got back to the matter at hand. “Sir, what do you want done with the Potters?”
As much as he wanted to tell the Potters to go jump in a lake, or maybe down an active volcano, he had to honor his friend’s last request, so he told the sergeant, “Have them escorted to the visitor’s room on level twelve and make sure there’s a VCR in there.”
“Yes, sir,” Tomlinson sounded relieved.
O’Neill hung up the phone and stared at the top of his desk for moment before picking up the phone and dialing a number.
Once the phone on the other end was picked up, he asked, “Carter, am I interrupting anything critical?”
After a pause for her comments, he told her, “The Potters are here.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. After waiting a few minutes to see if his 2IC was going to say anything, he added, “I wanted to see if you wanted to go with me when I told them.”
After listening to her apologetic refusal, he assured her. “It’s okay, Carter. Believe me, if I hadn’t promised Daniel I’d do this, I wouldn’t go either.”
There were a few more minutes of small talk, before O’Neill realized, he was just delaying the inevitable, and he hung up the phone. Pulling a video cassette out of a side drawer, he stared at it, remembering the day it had been made.
#######
Flashback
Daniel was sitting on the edge of his bed in the isolation room, his hands heavily bandaged.
Jack listened in horrified silence as Daniel matter-of-factly listed what was going to happen to him as he died a very painful death from a lethal dose of radiation, probably before the sun rose tomorrow. Even the slightly sarcastic note in his voice as he ended with, “and there is no medical treatment to prevent that,” didn’t reassure the older man.
He had tried to offer hope. “Maybe not that we know of.”
Daniel quickly shot that idea down. “Jack, we don’t go running to our off-world allies every time an individual’s life is at stake.”
Jack started to disagree, but Daniel hurriedly continued, “and don’t go telling me this is any different, because my life is no more valuable than anybody else’s.”
There was nothing he could say that would change Daniel’s mind and though he was angry about it, Jack didn’t let it show on his face. Daniel didn’t need that right now. The thing that bothered him most was that Daniel didn’t realize how important he was. The younger man always fought so passionately for others, but never would for himself.
The people that Jack was the most angry with were the people of Daniel’s home reality. It was their treatment of Harry that gave Daniel, even now after having a chance to live a whole new life, such a poor sense of self worth. That poor sense of worth, had probably only been enhanced in this reality by his being passed from foster family to foster family, because his grandfather, Nick Ballard, would never release full custody so he could be adopted.
O’Neill was determined not to give up though and right now he had a job to do. He needed to find out what happened on Kelona. Meeting Daniel’s gaze he asked, “what happened?”
Daniel looked away, saying, “It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes it does,” Jack disagreed.
Daniel looked at him in disbelief.
“You didn’t try and sabotage anything.” Jack stated confidently.
The older man’s certainty was enough to get Daniel to say, “There was an accident. I guess the scientist’s figured the government would hold them responsible. I guess they figured it would be easier to blame me.”
“And you’re okay with this?” Jack didn’t believe that for a moment.
Daniel confirmed his belief by saying, “ no... but there’s not much I can do about that.”
“Yes, there is.” Jack wanted to scream ‘fight Daniel, don’t let them destroy you.’
Daniel calmly pointed out. “If they really want to blame me, denying it isn’t going to change anything.” He went on to explain his reasoning. “Ten thousand years ago, a Goa’uld tried the same experiments that they’re trying and he nearly blew the entire planet to bits. When I tried telling them that, they wouldn’t listen. They’re gonna build that bomb and nothing we say is going to stop them.”
There was nothing Jack could say to disagree with Daniel’s logic. He desperately wanted to be able to give his friend some hope that his sacrifice, whatever it had been, hadn’t been in vain, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Daniel had always been the one who was good with words, not him.
Before the silence between them could become uncomfortable, Daniel asked, “Jack, could you or Sam set up a video camera for me as soon as possible?”
“Why?”
Jack was hoping his teammate was going to say that he was going to record a message to the Kelonan government, but Daniel told him, “I need to record a message for the Potters. In case they come back here.”
End Flashback
#############
O’Neill entered the visitor’s room on level twelve, to find Lily and James Potter seated at the table.
“Colonel O’Neill,” Lily spoke up surprised. “We asked to see Dr. Jackson. We went by his apartment, hoping he might have heard from our son recently and found the apartment empty. The other tenants didn’t know what had happened to him, so we thought we’d try here.”
“Do you have your wands?” O’Neill asked.
“Yes,” James told him.
O’Neill opened the door and called, “guard.”
The soldier came into the room.
“Give them to the guard.” O’Neill ordered. “You’ll get them back when you leave, just like last time.”
“Why should we do that.” James demanded. “We just want to see Dr. Jackson. We don’t intend to harm the man.”
O’Neill just stared at him, poker-faced. “If you want to hear what I have to say, you will give your wands to the guard. Otherwise, he will escort you out of here and you will not be allowed back in.”
The Potters just stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.
Jack looked at his watch. “I have things I need to do, so you have one minute to hand those wands over, or I’m out of here.”
“You can’t be serious.” Lily protested. “We don’t intend to harm you.”
“Thirty seconds.”
Seeing the man was serious, they pulled their wands out of their sleeves and handed them to the guard.
The guard took up his position back outside the door, their wands tucked into his belt.
“See that wasn’t so hard.” Jack’s voice took on a patronizing air.
“Now, can we see Dr. Jackson?” Lily requested.
“I’m afraid not.” O’Neill told them. “You see Dr. Jackson died a few weeks ago.”
“Oh, I am sorry.” Lily said and strangely enough O’Neill believed she was.
“He did leave a message for you two, though,” O’Neill held up the video cassette, “just in case you came back here.”
He popped the video cassette into the VCR that was hooked to the flat paneled monitor and pushing the play button, stepped out of the way so they would have a clear view of the screen.
The screen went blue and then an image of Dr. Daniel Jackson appeared. They could see what looked like cuts on his face and he appeared to be dressed in a hospital gown.
The man on the screen rubbed his nose a moment and then began speaking. “This message is for Mr. and Mrs. James Potter. If you are hearing this message, then despite the attempts of my friends to prevent it, I am now dead. I know that Jack and the others would have tried right up to the moment I took my last breath, but I doubt that even Madame Pomfrey could have cured this. And I strongly doubt that Snape could brew a potion to counteract it.”
Lily and James looked at each other stunned. How did this man know anything about Madame Pomfrey or Professor Snape, both of whom were still at Hogwarts? Just how much had Harry told him about their world?
“In case you haven’t figured it out, by those two names I just dropped, I will make it a little clearer for you.” The eyes on the screen seemed to bore into them almost as if he were right there in the room. “I am or rather I was Harry James Potter, son of Lily and James Potter.”
The couple sat down in the nearest chairs, staring at the screen in disbelief. How could this man be their son?
Their son’s voice continued on. “If you’re wondering how I can look so different and it not be a glamour, I’ll tell you. Among the spells in the Founder’s Library was one for making an adopted child a genetic match to the family that took them in. I simply used it to create a life for myself, in the past. You’re also probably wondering why I didn’t tell you, remember what I told you that day in the infirmary: ‘If I found out that my parents had had been alive all this time, while I thought they’d been dead, I would tell them to go to hell and take the shortest route to get there’. Well, welcome to hell.”
There was a pause as a nurse injected something into a tube they could see behind Daniel/Harry’s shoulder.
“It took me a little while, to figure out how you managed to convince others you were dead, when you really had run away.” The man on the screen continued once the nurse was out of sight. “You must have created a couple of simulacrums to take your place. They were the ones who died, not you, which means that Dumbledore lied to me again when he told me it was my mother’s love that protected me from the Killing Curse. You weren’t there, Mrs. Potter, so how could your love have protected me? Instead it was the love of your double that protected me, if a construct is capable of love. I don’t know why I should be so surprised by that. My life as Harry Potter was all one big lie, almost from the day I was born.”
There was another pause, as Daniel/Harry took a drink of water and the voice of an unseen woman asked, “Are you okay, Daniel?”
He nodded and then turned his attention back to his unseen audience. “I’ll tell you how I see things, Mr. and Mrs. Potter. You may have given birth to me, Mrs. Potter, and you and your husband may have looked after me for the first thirteen months of my life, but I don’t consider you my parents, or even family. You weren’t there when I needed you most and I did need you. I needed someone there to give me the love and encouragement all kids are supposed to get as they grow up. I needed someone I could go to with my problems. After all I was the one that I had a big fat target painted on my butt courtesy of Voldemort and a prophecy made by batty old Trelawney. Instead I learned that the only person I could ever rely on was me. I learned very quickly not to depend on anyone else, because every time I did, it was used against me. Why weren’t you there? Why did you choose Dumbledore over me? I was your son for god’s sake. That surely should have meant something to you. Apparently it didn’t though. Instead, you ran away and let everybody in the wizarding world think you were dead. I bet you never even bothered to check on me. You probably told yourselves it was for the best and that you would make it all up to me, once we were back together again. I’m willing to bet that Dumbledore never told you half the stuff, he put me through, in order to forge the weapon he needed to take out Voldemort.”
Daniel/Harry looked away for a moment. When he looked back his face was implacable. “Well, I’m here to tell you that even if you had figured out who I was that day in the infirmary, nothing you could have done would have ever made up for the fact that you deserted me, leaving me in a hell of Dumbledore’s design. And lest we forget one other important fact, you, James Potter, left your best friend Sirius Black, to rot in Azkaban prison, for the crime of killing you and your wife along with thirteen other people on a normal London street. I can’t help wondering if Sirius had been alive today, would he have forgiven you for that? I certainly can’t.”
There was another pause, as their son looked down at something they couldn’t see. “I’ve been told that when you’re dying, you should forgive those who have wronged you and not take that anger into the afterlife, but I can’t do that with you two. This may sound crass, but I just wanted you know that the child you gave birth to, and then abandoned, is dead. I was your son, your responsibility and yet you chose Dumbledore and the wizarding world over me. You and you husband can return to the world you chose over your own son, secure in the knowledge that the only child you ever had and then discarded like unwanted trash, is now beyond your reach. You are dead to me. You have no right to me or anything I might have possessed. If god is merciful, then I hope that I am now with my wife, Sha’re.”
The screen became blue again at that point and O’Neill used the remote to shut off the tape.
James turned to look at O’Neill, his expression one of contained rage. “Did you know that Dr. Jackson was our son, when we were here in July?”
“No.” Jack told him. “I and several others found out around the end of October.”
“And you didn’t bother to tell us, that he had been found.” Lily sounded upset.
“Why? Daniel’s wishes were what counted in this matter, not yours.” Jack told her matter-of-factly. “As he said, you have no say in any decisions he made.”
“His name was Harry Potter.” James said through gritted teeth.
“No, his name was Daniel Jackson.” O’Neill disagreed. “He went by that name a lot longer than he went by the name Harry Potter. He took that name when he took on the life of a boy who died at age seven.”
“How did my son die, Colonel O’Neill?” Lily wanted to know.
“He died from radiation poisoning” Jack told the story he and Sam had come up with in case the Potters ever did come back. “We were on a diplomatic mission to a underdeveloped nation and Daniel was being shown through some of the labs. Unfortunately we didn’t know that they were working with a very unstable radioactive material there and intended to build a bomb. Something went wrong when they were putting the thing together and if it hadn’t been for Daniel’s quick actions in separating the radioactive core from the bomb the whole city, if not the whole country would have been destroyed.”
O’Neill moved over to take the tape out of the VCR. “We brought him back here as quick as we could, but it was too late. The best we could do was make him comfortable as he died. Though we did try everything humanly possible.”
“Where is my son’s body?” James wanted to know.
“He is buried with his wife.” Jack told them. “As he wanted to be.”
“Where?” James repeated.
“I’m not going to tell you.” O’Neill countered.
“He’s our son.” Lily pleaded. “We have the right to take him home.”
“No you don’t.” O’Neill shook his head. “You heard it from his own lips. Get it through your heads, you have no rights. You gave up those rights when you left him, so don’t you talk about your rights. He found the place where he belonged and it was here.”
“This is why you had us give up our wands, isn’t it?” James asked. “Harry told you about the Imperious Curse and you were afraid we’d use it on you to force you to take us to our son’s grave.”
“That was part of the reason.” O’Neill agreed, then added. “Not that I could take you to his grave. He is buried with his wife in her home country. His father-in-law handled all the arrangements, so even I don’t know where he is buried. That was the way Daniel wanted it. He wanted there to be no way, for you to ever take him back to that reality, living or dead. He didn’t want to become a public spectacle and from the way he talked, he surely would become one if you got your way.”
Mrs. Potter looked shell-shocked at the realization that her only son was dead and that he died, hating them. And that now they would have no way to ever make it up to him.
Jack felt a slight amount of sympathy for them. He had been where they were sort of. It was never easy to bury a child. They were supposed to outlive you, not you them. He had to stay strong for Daniel’s sake. He had to honor his friend’s last wish with regards to them.
Gently, he told them, “Go home, Mr. and Mrs. Potter. Just go home. There’s nothing here for you now. Your son is gone and he will never return. You will never be able to make up for what you did. Just go home and get on with your lives. And let us get on with ours.”
########
Lupin’s Home, February 8, 2002, 11pm.
“Hello Remus,” A man Lupin had never seen before greeted him.
He was dressed all in white and there was an almost blinding light behind him. It faded after a few moments, and Lupin was able to get a better look at the man. He appeared to be in his early thirties, with brown hair and blue eyes.
“Hello,” Remus returned the stranger’s greeting, then asked. “Who are you?”
The stranger scratched his chin for a moment before saying, “It has been a long time old friend and my appearance has changed quite a bit since you last saw me. How about I give you a hint? You taught me how to cast the Patronus Charm when I was thirteen.”
“Harry,” Lupin couldn’t believe it. “It is really you, Harry?”
“Yes, Moony, it’s really me.”
Remus found it odd to be looking into blue eyes rather than the emerald green he was used to, but everything he knew told him this was indeed Harry Potter. “You look completely different.”
“I can thank the Founder’s for that.” Harry told him. “One of the spells I took with me was one that could permanently change a person’s appearance, right down to the DNA. I’m sort of an amalgam of Harry and a boy named Daniel Jackson who died when he was seven. I took his identity to give myself a new life.”
“What are you doing here?” Remus questioned suspicious.
“I came to give you some news and a gift of sorts.” Harry told him. “You have no idea how much trouble I had finding the right reality again.”
“What news?” Remus was now even more suspicious.
“The Potters will be returning to this reality soon.” Harry announced.
“So they found you.” Remus concluded. “I didn’t know they were alive Harry, believe me I didn’t.”
“I know you didn’t, Moony,” Harry was quick to reassure him. “They didn’t get what they wanted though. They’re also probably going to be pretty mad at Dumbledore, if he’s still around. I just wanted you to know that when they come back they are going to be announcing my death.”
“Your... death?” Remus went suddenly pale. “You’re a ghost?”
“No... no old friend.” Harry hastened to assure him. “I’m quite alive. I’m just in a different form now.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I was dying, Remus,” Harry stated, “but somehow I knew my work wasn’t finished yet. A being named Oma Desala, helped me transcend beyond my dying physical body, to a form of pure energy. I just wanted you to know the truth before the Potters returned.”
“And you want me to keep it a secret, don’t you?” Remus guessed.
“I would prefer that, yes.” Harry admitted, “but I can’t force you to keep silent.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t breath a word... to anyone.” Remus promised him.
“Thank you, Moony,” Harry smiled “And now before I go, I have a present for you.”
Harry reached out and touched Remus’ chest with a glowing hand. The werewolf felt energy coursing through him and found he couldn’t move until Harry’s hand left his chest.
“What did you do to me?” Remus asked after a few moments.
“Among the gifts I’ve acquired in my new form, is the ability to heal.” Harry told him. “I asked for and received permission from my mentor, to free you from your curse.”
“Free me...” Remus whispered.
“Yes, my very dear friend,” Harry nodded. “You are no longer a werewolf. You will no longer have to fear the full moon.”
As Harry began to fade from sight, the former werewolf heard, “Enjoy your life, Moony.”