Alteran Mage : HP/SGA Crossover Fic

Rated M for Language (yes that IS a capital "L"), and some adult situations later on. Will be Slash, pairing TBD. (Harry/John; Harry/Rodney; Harry/Carson; John/Rodney are all on the table)

This story will be set starting just after Harry's rampage in Dumbledore's office at the end of fifth year, and in order to get the timelines to properly align, this will be in June 2002. Let's just pretend that Voldemort attacked the Potters on Halloween 1987 and Harry was born July 31st, 1986. Also, we will be using the HP canon (or what I approximate to be canon) timeline for Merlin's character. I think SG1 Canon has Merlin and Camelot based around the 14th Century, I wrote it for the 8th Century since Hogwarts was founded after Merlin's time, and also somewhere in the late 900's. SGA Begins in late 2004 at which point Harry will be 18, and after the universes merge, it won't matter so much what year things are happening in.

All recognizable characters, places, events and ideas belong to the owners of their respective canon. I own nothing and stand to make nothing from this except reviews. Too bad reviews don't pay the bills.

/`/`/`/`

Harry Potter had been wandering for what seemed like hours. Well, it may have been hours, but it also could have only been a few minutes for all that Harry were aware of the passage of time or the bricks under his feet.

Stupid! STUPID OLD GOAT FUCKER! Harry screamed within the confines of his own mind. Sirius died because that MISERABLE OLD MAN decided that I didn't need to know about the Prophecy. PSHAW! I'm more inclined to trust a tea leaf reading from Dobby than a Prophecy made by Trelawney of all people! Dumbledore seems more than willing to rest the weight of the world on MY shoulders on her word, all without actually DOING anything to prepare me for this.

All of this and an overwhelming sense of guilt for getting the only person in the world who didn't want to use him killed brought Harry to the breaking point. He was about to turn around to give the old manipulative fool a few more pieces of his mind when a voice broke him from his reverie.

"Bad day, childe?"

He spun on his heal to face the portrait hanging on the wall.

"Bay day, sure. Definitely had one of those. Bad week, sure! Why not! Bad year? But of course! BAD LIFE THAT THAT SHITHEAD HAS FORCED ME INTO?! You bet your arse!" Harry was nearly shaking with repressed rage and guilt.

"Well, then. Now that that is out of the way, would you mind terribly following me? I have somewhere very important that YOU need to be."

"Excuse me? I'm not going anywhere with you. Think that I don't know that all the portraits in this place obey that meddlesome berk of a Headmaster? Piss off!"

At this the portrait seemed to be amused which just angered Harry further. Before he could completely blow his top, the portrait hastened to explain.

"That would normally be true, childe. However, I am not just any portrait. Are the history classes being taught now a days so inept that you do not recognize me? Come now, how many wizards carry a staff, childe?" Harry deflated a bit at this while he paused to think. The history classes being offered at Hogwarts really were rather overly focused on Goblin Rebellions and tended to discount historical wizards. However by thinking about the situation logically Harry could only think of one wizard who stood out enough magically to even need a staff. Merlin.

"Lord Merlin Emrys?" Harry asked with a shaking voice. There weren't supposed to be any portraits of this man, but he was talking to one. Or at least someone who claimed to be him. However upon hearing the appellation Harry bestowed upon him, Merlin's forehead wrinkled (rather a large accomplishment considering how much of it was already in such a state) and he spoke again.

"Merlin will do just fine for now, thank you. The things you wizards come up with! Honestly! Lord Emrys. How ridiculous."

"Sorry, sir. I didn't realize that was a posthumous title. If… uh you don't mind my asking much, sir. What did you mean by 'you wizards'? Aren't you a wizard? And didn't you refer to yourself as one a moment ago?" At this, Merlin began to laugh.

"Oh you are a quick one Harry. I'm glad that I'm finally able to meet you. Tell me, do you know of the Room of Requirement?" at seeing Harry nod he continued, "Well, I seem to have a requirement for a body for a few hours. Meet me there would you?" And with that he exited the frame, but did not reappear in the next like most portraits did when they moved around.

Harry looked around himself for the first time since stopping to talk with the portrait and he realized that he was on the third floor corridor where Fluffy had been kept during his first year. Good times he thought to himself, all I had to worry about then were three headed dogs and disembodied Dark Lords. Harry sighed and started off for the seventh floor.

The door was already present when he rounded the corner of the corridor that house the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy. He entered into a room that was unlike anything he had ever seen before. He expected something from Merlin's mind to have been set out in a small hut, or perhaps a room from Camelot or some such. But this room was large and spacy and seemed to be made out of an almost organic mixture of metal, wood and glass pieces set at strange angles. It almost looked, futuristic which made no sense since Merlin was born in the far distant past. At the end of a large conference table, which looked like an elongated hexagon, sat the man himself. Harry just gaped at him for a long while before finally managing to ask

"How? I mean what? HOW?" Seeing Harry about to have a fit Merlin cast a calming charm on him and then gestured to the chair across from him at the same narrow end of the hexagon shaped table. Harry began again.

"You can still cast magic? Aren't you just… I don't know a portrait body or something?" Merlin's next answer confused Harry even more.

"No. I cannot cast magic. Neither can you. And no I'm not just some portrait body thing" Merlin replied with a wry grin at the end. Merlin noticed Harry was about to call him batty for not believing in the magic he had just cast so Merlin cut him off.

"Harry, I know you have a lot of questions, and for once in your life I will give you the complete and honest truth, but I don't want any questions until I'm done and I ask you to keep an open mind. A lot of the things I have to tell you are going to seem completely mad, but once I get to the end I think you will understand most of what I have to tell you. Alright?" Harry's only response was a suspicious half nod. He had been keeping a firm hand on his wand since he realized that whatever this Merlin/Portrait thing was he could cast magic. Not that Harry had any chance if this really was Merlin, he thought grimly. Merlin continued.

"Alright then. First things first, I could not come to you to tell you any of this until you were aware of your destiny. Well, a part of your destiny that is. Destroying Voldemort is very important in the here and now but in the grand scheme of the universe, it's a very small drop in the ocean. The story of my people, or what evolved to be your people starts over 50 million years ago in a completely different galaxy. My people had developed space travel and populated a number of inhabitable worlds all across our galaxy. Those that were not, we made so through the use of advanced terraforming technology. After a while, it became inconvenient to use a ship to travel from world to world so we created the Astria Porta, which opened a stable wormhole between corresponding rings on different planets. This allowed nearly instantaneous travel across the galaxy to any number of worlds, which you could dial using a system not unlike a modern telephone, just with many more options than 0-9.

"Our people flourished for many millennia and then we began to change. Our evolution was progressing to the point where we developed certain abilities. Some were telekinetic, others could heal themselves or others very rapidly. We began to study our own evolution and came to the conclusion that eventually, our brains would possess the necessary power to not only be able to effect the world around us but be able to ascend beyond it into another level of existence. Do you understand so far?"

Halfway through what Merlin had told him so far Harry's eyes had gone wide and his hand dropped away from his wand. It sounded like something that his cousin Dudley would watch on television. Most of the words a wizard wouldn't even know much less be able string together into an elaborate lie. He understood what was being said, just now how Merlin of all people would. He just nodded.

"Good. This began what I can only equate to a religious revolution that swept through our people. They called it Origin and they believed that once we ascended we would become gods who ruled over the lower planes. They used the psychic energy that is emitted during prayer to push along the evolution of a few, often breaking thousands of minds in the process when they were left drained, with the promise that they would be saved once the Ori had become gods. That time never came. Some of our people saw this movement for what it was and began to prepare. When the Ori ascended they razed the galaxy of most technology and within a generation a great space-faring race had regressed to simple farmers who worship the Ori and don't understand what they worship. One city-ship out of an armada of thousands survived the purge because it was hidden by those Alterans who knew the threat the Ori and Origin represented. Atlantis, she was called and she fled our home galaxy with all those she could carry away from the madness of the Ori.

"Our people traveled for many years, until they were here, in this galaxy, where they made a new home. We terraformed thousands of planets and seeded them with life that could evolve on its own, and erected a new network of Astria Porta. We made friends with three other races that were nearly as advanced as we were and formed The Alliance of the Great Races. These other species were The Nox, who have a pacifistic society and will not raise a hand against an enemy, even when faced with death by their hands. You might think them naïve for this, but they are a very wise people, and quite capable of avoiding such situations in the first place. The next was a race of beings called The Furlings. They had very different technology than we did, and seemed to experience the universe in more than the usual four spatial dimensions, which affected how they evolved technologically. The last was the youngest race of The Four and they were called The Asgard. They most closely resemble what your culture would associate with the word 'alien' or 'grey' and their weapons and biological technologies are very impressive. The Four Races looked over things both in this galaxy, which we called Avalon and shared with the Nox, as well as the Andromeda and Ida galaxies where the Furlings and Asgard dwelt.

"Things changed again 5 million years ago when a plague struck Avalon. It evaded cure by even our not inconsiderable healing technologies. Eventually nearly everything in the galaxy was dead or dying and Atlantis was the only place that was still untouched by plague. Our allies had been warned to not enter our space until such time as the plague could be eradicated or a cure found. The Nox disassembled their Astria Porta and didn't rejoin the network for many millennia. The Alterans decided to leave this galaxy, but before doing so activated a device which simultaneously dialed every Astra Porta in the galaxy, destroyed all life on those planets and then reseeded each planet with life from an energy pulse sent through the Astria Porta from Earth. It was the only way to purge the plague from the stars. Earth itself was reseeded with a form of humanoid life that the original Alterans descended from. It was their hope that given enough time another great civilization would evolve like theirs did. The Alterans did not travel nearly as far this time.

"They ended up in a dwarf galaxy not far from here where they once again erected a new version of the Astria Porta Network (APN) and seeded the galaxy again with a slightly more advanced form of humanoid life than they left behind on Earth. This had an unforeseen repercussion. On one world in this dwarf galaxy, life had already evolved when our people arrived and when the planet was seeded, these two disparate DNA profiles, one humanoid/one insect, merged into one being. A Wraith. They are vile creatures who over the course of a few thousand years developed a form of interstellar travel and who feed on your very life-force by sucking it out of your chest with their hands. A particularly horrible way to die, if you ask me. In any case, our people naturally felt responsible for the thousands upon thousands of humans that we had seeded these planets with dying every day, so we waged a long a bloody war with the wraith. We had superior technology, but the Wraith are part insect, which means they have a hive mind and are quite capable of producing Drones in huge quantities. We simply could not keep up with how quickly they were reproducing and they laid siege to Atlantis, which was for the third time our people's only safe harbor, where before there were hundreds of settlements and research outposts. When the future was hopeless and the war already lost, what was left of us sank Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean and left through the Astria Porta to Earth to live out the remainder of our days. That was 10,000 years ago. If you'll remember, a few million years had passed since we seeded life through this galaxy, so while we were still more genetically advanced, we could and did marry into the local population. That is where your so called magic comes from. 50 million years of evolution culminated in us, and then later you to produce the abilities you have now, abilities which remained even after a few generations when all of the technological knowledge our race once held was lost. Now do you have any questions?"

Harry's eyes rolled up into his head as he lost consciousness. The only question on his mind was I'm an alien?!

/`/`/`/`/`

Sometime later a very groggy Harry lifted his head from the couch he was laying on and immediately shut his eyes and slammed backwards onto the couch. No. Had to be a dream. Still obviously dreaming. Only dreams here! He continued this mantra in his mind for a while before a chuckle broke his concentration. He sat up suddenly.

"Would you mind! I'm trying to forget you exist at the moment and your chuckles certainly aren't helping matters!" yelled Harry.

"Sorry lad, but I can't just cease to exist because you say so. And I couldn't lie to you if I wanted to so trying to convince yourself the truth was a dream is a fruitless exercise"

"You were reading my mind?!" After the disastrous year with Snape on Occlumency Harry was very wary of anyone penetrating what measly defenses he could muster. Merlin however seemed very nonplussed about Harry's indignation, which only made him angrier.

"Of course I was. It's nearly impossible for someone like me not to read an unprotected mind. Asking me not to read your mind is rather like asking me to stop seeing the color blue. It just isn't going to happen." Merlin replied.

"Someone like you?" Harry posed in response.

"Yes Harry, someone like me. I'm sure you can puzzle it out if you think about it long enough based on the information I've already given you." Once Merlin had said that it only took a moment for Harry to put it together.

"You're ascended?"

"Of course I am. Although the branch of the Alterans that we hail from denounced the fanatical ways of the Ori, we still sought ascension. And we managed it in our own way, without sacrificing others and raping their prayers."

"So when did you ascend?"

Merlin laughed. "That's a rather impertinent question Harry. You should never ask someone their age. But to answer you I ascended just before the siege of Atlantis." This answer however, just raised more questions for Harry.

"Then how were you on Earth during the eighth century helping Arthur to raise Camelot to glory and all that?" At this point Merlin actually began to look a bit sheepish and glanced around to a few corners in the room, almost as if he was asking someone permission to answer Harry's query. After another moment he replied.

"Well, you see our branch of the Alteran race call themselves Lantians because of their long history with the city ship Atlantis. When the Lantian people began to ascend they agreed on a set of rules that we would live the rest of our existence under. Most of them don't apply to you, and wouldn't make sense to you if I was to try to explain them, but the biggest one is a non-interference policy. We are not allowed to interact with or alter the mortal plane without permission from all of the other ascended Lantians. This permission has never really been given before. You see, I was on Earth during your 8th Century doing research the others didn't want me to do into how to eradicate the Ori. But that is an entirely different tale for a different time." Again, his answers only seemed to deepen Harry's confusion.

"Aren't you interfering right now by telling me all of this?"

"No. Because while we have sworn not to interfere with the lower planes, all of us agree that certain steps must still be taken. There are many enemies that the Lantians have left in their wake, and all of them will eventually move to take Earth. We may not want to interfere in the affairs of the lower planes but we have no intention of letting the Ori raze the galaxy either. The Ori are unaware of this galaxy or its neighbors, but it will not always be that way. The others have agreed to interfere, as you say, at this time because we believe that the only way to save this and nearby galaxies from total destruction or subjugation of the harshest kind is to raise the Alteran Empire from the ashes in which it has lain in for the last 10,000 years."

"And you what, want me to do this? Are you mad? I only just found out that I have an entire Wizarding World depending on me to become a murderer to save them, mere hours after I lost one of the only adults who ever gave a shit about me. I can barely handle the pressure of saving 100,000 wizards and witches in Britain, much less what must be TRILLIONS of people spread out across three goddam galaxies! This is impossible!"

"No Harry, we don't expect you to do this. That weight is too much for the combined people of Earth to bear. It will take the concerted effort of many peoples and many species to bring about peace in this corner of the universe. What we are asking you to do is to learn. To allow us to transport you somewhere where you will be able to train to harness your powers as they were meant to be harnessed. We can give you the tools to be able to defeat Voldemort without much issue. I honestly wouldn't worry about it. But what we would like is for you to begin the process of awakening our people from their slumber. Every year thousands of people register as being 'magical' enough to warrant a place in a school like Hogwarts. If only a small percentage of those genetically advanced individuals decide instead to embrace their Alteran heritage, then it will not take very long to repopulate Atlantis with enough people to begin clearing the way for war."

"So you are still asking me to fight a war and free three galaxies!"

"Not directly, not right away. Hell, probably not during your lifetime will those galaxies be completely free. However I think that helping your people to walk amongst the stars again is an admirable goal, and that is all we seek from you. Return the Alterans to the stars, and drag the Wizarding World kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, and then beyond."

To Harry it still seemed like they were just piling people to save in front of him, but he was willing to get Merlin the benefit of the doubt for now, especially if he could receive training. This manipulative bastard was at least willing to give him the tools to accomplish the goals he set out. That was enough to put Merlin several steps ahead of Dumbledore. He could just imagine how having technology that wouldn't explode at Hogwarts would be incredibly useful, alien technology to boot. That technology that would give him a definite edge against old Moldy-Voldy.

"What kind of training would I be receiving if I agreed to go with you to wherever it is you want to take me?"

Merlin stood and began making his way towards the door and out into the hallway. Harry quickly followed. He was still amazed by the level of detail that the room was producing at the moment. He had never seen it create a series of rooms and staircases before. It was almost like it was recreating a whole building. He supposed that since the Room responded to the person who required it, and Merlin's mind was literally too large for his body, the complexity the Room was showing made a certain level of sense.

"The Room is currently taking the shape of Atlantis. To come here will be your eventual goal, but many things must be accomplished first. The very first of which is for you to understand the basics of our language, both written and spoken, as well as a crash course in physics and mathematics so that you can begin to understand our technology. Understand that everything we have created up to this point had 50 million years of science and technology behind it, so it might be awhile before you can catch up."

By the time Merlin had spoken they had left the conference room where they began talking and moved down three levels. They entered a room that was empty except for the large, glowing blue chair in the center of the room.

"Now the Room cannot reproduce this place so exactly that this chair would be operational, but it will still do for an explanation. These chairs are how our people control quite a few of the systems that we have designed. It allows one person to take the place of many crew members by interacting with the system mentally, but it is also able to reverse the flow, and instead of receiving commands from you, it will download information directly into your mind. This obviously must be done in stages so that your mind can absorb the material that it is presented with, but you will find that it is a useful learning tool. Would you like to receive this training?"

Harry thought about the war that he was going to have to fight. Not the intergalactic one, the jury was still out on if he would take up the mantle of returning his people to the stars. But he was destined to fight one with Voldemort, and any help he could get would… well… help.

"Yes I'll go with you to receive this training."

And with that Harry Potter disappeared from Hogwarts in a flash of white.

AN: Well… that's chapter 1. I know it was mostly really dry, but I wanted to set down my own canon history right at the beginning. I know some of the Alteran history is inaccurate and over simplified. So are the origins of the Wraith, exactly what kind of life got seeded where and when, and some other things, but they will not be all that significant to the story, and if they become so I can edit them later. I'm also just completely turning HP canon on its head at this point, but that's ok, because Harry won't be in England for very much longer ;) . I have Chapter 2 ready to go, and with enough reviews I could be convinced to post it before I have Chapter 3 done.