A/N: Thank you everyone for the reviews! I am always surprised at how many people respond and I love to here from you guys. I am glad that y'all like the start of the story. If you guys have questions, please let me know. I will do my best to answer through PM.
Happy Reading
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Stargate
It was not terribly long after Janus had retaken his place as an Ascended being when he and the others began to notice humans displaying powers much like they had. When Janus looked at the scans from his device he found that these humans were using only about twenty percent of their brains. He was shocked however, to find that the scans showed something new that had never existed in the Alteran race. Each of the humans that were able to manipulate vacuum energy seemed to have some type of inner core that actually stored the energy and it was from that core that they pulled the energy.
While not really sure what to think of this new development, Janus eventually decided that he would keep an eye on how these humans developed over time. He was fairly sure that this was how his people would have naturally evolved had they not collectively decided on Ascending. To see the people that were descended from those that had intermarried with the humans from Terra evolve this way was amazing.
He, along with some of the other Ascended that were watching Terra, were amused when the energy users began to call their ability magic; something that was so different from anything they would have thought of that they could not help but be anything but amused. It was obvious that they were looking at their abilities and deciding that it was magic when they had no way to explain it.
As time marched on, Janus watched as the magic users learned to manipulate energy in ways that he had a hard time understanding. It seemed that their lack of scientific knowledge or general knowledge about the laws of nature allowed them to do anything that they could imagine. More than a few conversations took place among the Ascended as to whether they would have been able to do something similar as humans had they not been held back by what they thought was impossible. Even as Ascended, they would never think of using the energy in the same ways as the magic users.
Over time one thing became clear to the ascended beings that were keeping watch on Terra; the new core that had been introduced allowed the magic users to have greater control over their abilities if they were able to find something that focused the energy correctly. It was undeniable when a Roman man by the name of Ollivander began to make what he called wands for the magic users to use as foci. Without a proper conduit for the energy to escape the body, the magic users struggled to use the energy on purpose. Generally they mainly had partial success at controlling their accidental outbursts.
Around the time that wands were coming in to common use Janus began to notice that there were quite a few creatures that were now populating Terra with odd abilities. The only thing that he and the other ascended could think of to account for the new creatures was that they must be descended from creatures that had been exposed to vast amounts of the vacuum energy used by their own descendants. Terra, or Earth as it was now being called, was providing much more entertainment for the ascended than they had thought possible.
More than four and a half centuries after Janus had watched Ollivander sell his first wand, Janus watched on in shocked horror as an idiot named Zaccaria Innocenti tried to use a spell called Tarantallegra to 'conjure a dance' while he was standing in the caldera of Janus's volcano. While the idiot danced around uncontrollably, the volcano erupted violently and killed thousands that made the base of the mountain home. It was this event that caused Janus to question whether or not it would be a good thing or not for his machines to pick up on an Alteran. Honestly, he was not all that inspired by their descendants ability to use common sense.
He waited until just shy of another one thousand years before he could no longer take the burning curiosity that seemed to saturate his entire being about these magic users that were now calling themselves witches and wizards. After waiting until no one was paying him any attention, he descended once again, this time to learn as much as he could about this new society that was developing.
Once he was back on Earth, it was fairly easy to pass himself off as a wizard. The wizards themselves had no idea how they were able to manipulate energy, so they thought of him as one of their own as soon as he used a bit of telekinesis. With his knowledge of chemistry he learned about Potions; he felt that it was the most scientific of Magical subjects available and he soon came to think of as one of the most interesting subjects he had ever studied. He was quickly well known as a Master in the field of Potions. The new creatures that had evolved on Earth as more and more vacuum energy was used gave him a lot of new avenues of study to keep himself busy.
He eventually met a few other witches and wizards that thought that they needed a central place to teach their children about their magic; apparently they thought that it was absolutely the most wonderful idea and it would cement them as a great society. He was surprised when many of the parents that were calling for a school to be built insisted that he be one of the teachers. This is how Janus, now called Salazar Slytherin, found himself building and founding a school for those that were capable of using magic.
Janus had not bothered getting to close to the humans that made up the new wizarding society, but he did like the two witches that were also asked to help with the building of the school. Helga was a lovely woman with blond hair that treated everyone the same. She was sweet and wanted to see everyone smiling; she was one of those people that you just could not help but like and admire simply because she was that wonderful of a person.
Where Janus had chosen to create a house that valued ambition, cleverness, cunning, resourcefulness (all things he wanted to see in any future Alterans); Helga had chosen for those in her house to value loyalty, hard work, dedication, honesty, and tolerance. He had never been more impressed with her as he had been at the moment that she had revealed her house traits.
Rowena was a little bit odd, always staring off into space and making predictions about the future, but she was also very smart. She loved to read and would debate on any subject given the chance. Janus had laughed until he cried when he first saw her make an idiot of a man that had decided that he would marry Rowena just so that she could 'behave as a woman should.' The man had left their new castle utterly humiliated. Rowena had chosen wit, creativity, and wisdom as her house traits as she wanted her students to think for themselves and find joy in both knowledge and creative pastimes.
The fourth founder, however, was not someone that Janus liked at all. To be completely honest, Godric reminded him a lot of Zaccaria Innocenti. He had absolutely no common sense and he was brash and abrasive when speaking to Janus and the others. He also had the annoying habit of calling him Sally, something that drove Janus absolutely nuts. Janus had been incredulous when Godric had announced that his house traits would be bravery, being daring, having nerve, and chivalry. Hogwarts was going to be a school…not a dragon reserve. Janus could think of absolutely no reason for those to be traits ever being needed or utilized in a school of all places. More than once Janus thought about inviting Godric to his mountain to see if he could trigger another eruption, but he was able to restrain himself…barely.
Janus had been teaching at Hogwarts with the others for five years when he did something that was completely new to him for any of his lifetimes as a human. He fell in love and got married. Helga was the perfect wife and he could honestly not imagine himself loving anyone as much he loved her. She, more than anything, made him glad that he had retaken a human for once more.
Two months after the birth of their daughter, Astrid Slytherin, Helga rushed in to Janus potions lab in tears and clutching a baby snake to her breast as she tried to catch her breath. Once he had calmed his wife down he learned that she had found the snake in the forest, still sitting in the nest with no other snakes in the area. Not wanting to leave the little one alone, the animal lover had brought the snake home only for it to petrify Godric's favorite horse with its gaze. She insisted that it had been an accident because the snake was so young to control it and that it would not happen again, but now she was scared that Godric would kill it if he found the poor thing. This was the moment that Janus learned that his wife could actually speak to snakes.
After debating on their options for a few hours Janus had an idea on how to keep the little snake safe. He had been planning on creating a secret lab here in the castle, but had never had time to actually set it up. It took very little time and effort to take his wife to the second floor entrance and have her set a vocal password for the unused lab space in the language she used to talk to the snake. Over the next few years, more than a few snakes would find their way into the chamber with the young basilisk. Eventually though, Helga had to find somewhere else for the other snakes to go as Cutie, her pet basilisk, kept eating them.
While he and Helga never had any other children, Janus could not have been more content in this life. His daughter grew up to be just as loving as her mother (she also had a love for all sorts of animals including Cutie) and one of the happiest days of his life was the day that his daughter married Melehan Peverell. The man clearly loved his daughter more than life itself and he had never seen his daughter shine as bright as the day she married.
After his daughter was married and living with her new husband he had another ten years living happily with his wife at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, Helga contracted Dragon Pox and died before he could come up with a way to cure her without taking her to the outpost at Mount Vesuvius. This was the first time that he had ever resented the ban that prevented him from showing the love of his existence the things that he could do with technology. The medical scanners would have been able to heal her in an instant, but he could not even tell her that such a thing existed.
Feeling that he would become bitter, or quite possibly kill Godric without his wife there to help him keep from losing his temper, Janus put his affairs in order and left Hogwarts behind. He could not find anything to keep him from ascending again as his daughter was happily married. His daughter seemed to know that she would never see her father again when he stopped by her new home to say goodbye. She told him that she loved him when she kissed his cheek goodbye for the last time. Hugging her tightly he whispered into her ear that he would always love and watch over her.
Only a few months' later people were talking about the disappearance of Salazar Slytherin.
After checking on his device, Janus spent most of his time watching over his grandson's. They were all exceptionally smart (when he checked on his device again Janus was proud that they showed some of the highest levels of brain activity within the magical community.) Watching them grow and start their own families made Janus feel as though it would not be all that disappointing for his Alteran legacy plan to fail. His daughter and these boys made him feel more pride than he had ever felt with his many experiments. It also looked like the boy's had inherited his need to be great as they each worked to push the boundaries of what they knew and could do from a young age.
The oldest of his grandson's became well known for his dueling abilities, remaining the champion for ten years before he was murdered by a crazy man that thought that Antioch's wand was unbeatable. Janus had been livid at the idiot and had not bothered to hide his satisfaction when the idiot was killed only three days later, having boasted that he had stolen the 'unbeatable wand.' As far as Janus was concerned the idiot got what he deserved.
Ignotus, the youngest of his grandson's proved his genius when he created a one of a kind invisibility cloak after killing a Lethifold and weaving Demiguise hair into the pelt. He had ended up passing it on to his son when it proved that the combination would not degrade over time because of the two opposing natures of the creatures used for the cloak.
It was the second grandson that caused Janus's pride to eventually be shaken. After an accident that had caused Cadmus to remain bedridden for three months while he recovered, he was never the same bright and happy boy that Janus remembered. He was still extremely smart, he just no longer seemed to think or feel the same way he had before the accident.
After years of experimentation, Cadmus had finally created what he felt was his crowning achievement. He called it the resurrection stone and told everyone that would listen that the stone could call forth the dead. He soon stopped telling people about the stone though as most thought it was some form of necromancy. Janus thought that this was for the best but was not all that happy when Cadmus started calling forth Salazar Slytherin.
It was at that point that Janus realized what the stone actually did. Obviously it was not calling forth Salazar Slytherin as Janus was right there watching as his grandson asked the oddest questions of the fake Salazar Slytherin. Apparently the stone would tell each person what they really wanted to hear, no matter how subconscious that thought may be. So when Cadmus asked why muggleborn children were allowed into Hogwarts (He had never gotten over being rejected by one of the muggleborn Hufflepuffs while in school) Stone Salazar told him that he never wanted the muggleborn to be allowed into the school and that they were a blight on wizarding society that needed to be eradicated. Eventually this conversation had Cadmus believing that his grandfather hatted muggleborn witches and wizards and that he had disappeared to kill them all.
Eventually the Peverell line disappeared as it married into other families. The granddaughter of Ignotus became a Potter, the great-grand daughter of Antioch decided that she did not want children at all, and unfortunately Cadmus's daughter had gone to Hogwarts and met someone just as anti-muggleborn as her father. She soon married Gregory Gaunt and together they would continue to spread their hate of muggleborn witches and wizards.
As proud of his youngest grandson's descendants as he was, Janus was equally, if not more so, horrified at what was happening to Cadmus's line. With every generation they became more and more bigoted and hateful, going so far in their delusions that they were beginning to inbreed with alarming frequency.
Eventually after close to five hundred years of watching the actions of his descendants, Janus had seen enough. Watching Gormlaith Gaunt, yet another descendant that seemed to embrace the madness that his grandson had started, kill her sister and brother-in-law and kidnap her niece only to later try and kill the poor girl after she had run away caused him unmeasurable pain. He just knew that he would only become more horrified at their actions and lunacy as time went on. He hoped that Helga, whatever plane she now existed on, could not see what had become of their middle grandson's madness.
At this point he had returned to his volcano fully intending to shut down the device that was constantly scanning for someone that could be the new start of the Alterans. However, he was completely shocked to see that the majority of the wizarding population was showing up on the scans as having fifty percent or more of their brains active. After double and triple checking the results, Janus was shocked to realize that the only reason no one had yet been chosen as a new Alteran was the Core that had developed in their descendants. The scan simply did not understand the Core and thus treated it as though it was an indication of being non-Alteran.
The witches and wizards could use vacuum energy with no trouble and their brains were active enough to use the technology of his people with no negative side effects, so the existence of the core was the only thing that made sense as to why the device was ignoring them. After debating within his mind for a while, he decided to leave the device active and continue to watch over the Potter line and over Isolt and her new family. Maybe in time humans would have another evolution, but he would not be holding his breath.
Only three and a half centuries later, Janus was once again horrified at Cadmus's descendants. He had kept a close eye on everyone as he felt that they would be his only chance at any kind of legacy. Isolt had given him hope that the Gaunt line could redeem itself, unfortunately the newest boy was a psychopath with delusions of grandeur and absolutely no moral code whatsoever. Helga would have had a fit to know that Cutie had been used to kill one of the students within Hogwarts.
To make matters worse, the current Headmaster was a little too involved in his descendants' lives for Janus to be comfortable. Albus Dumbledore had caught Janus's attention when James and Lilly Potter were inducted into the man's Order of the Phoenix. With his supposed history, Janus thought that the man should act a little bit more in the interest of others and less in the interest of his 'greater good.' Everything the man did though was pure manipulation and it caused Janus to worry.
Oddly enough, Dumbledore also seemed to be strangely obsessed with the two items that his grandsons had created and seemed to be under the impression that his wand used to belong to his other grandson. One look at the thing and anyone with any small amount of sense would know that the wand was not even close to being old enough to be Antioch's. Dumbledore's wand could only be five hundred years old at the max.
When he had seen the man start to manipulate the Potters by telling them that Harry was the focus of a prophecy made by a drunken nutcase Janus had released a wave of frustration large enough to cause a few of the other Ascended to turn their attention to him. They soon lost interest though and Janus was left to his on devices. While they never spoke about it, they all knew that Janus was watching over his family. Most of them had descended at some point or another on whatever planet they were fond of, so they were not bothered with his continued watching over them as long as he did not interfere.
Eventually it was decided that the Potters would go into hiding under a spell that would protect the secret of their home within Sirius Black, best friend of James Potter. Feeling like his descendants were safe for the moment as even Dumbledore was not supposed to learn the secret, Janus left to check on Isolt' s descendants in America. He would peek in on the potters periodically over the next year, but honestly, how much trouble can you get into when only one other person knows where you are?
Just over a year after Janus had moved his attention to his descendants in America (He had briefly thought about keeping an eye on Tom, but even he could only take so much crazy at one time) Janus was surprised to feel his device initiate the process to power up the outpost. He thought that his project would never find someone that could be called an Alteran and had even stopped checking on the device after he realized that the core would prevent the device from selecting anyone. The ability to use energy at all now seemed to only happen if the core was in existence, regardless of anything else, and there had been no indications of anyone else evolving with abilities and the needed activity in the brain.
After taking a moment to recover from his shock Janus made his way to his outpost to wait for everything to power up. While he was surprised that someone had actually been chosen by his device as having the characteristics of an Alteran, he was also excited to see what they would be like; he had no intention at all of missing this even if he had given up on it ever happening.
Four hours later Janus was ready. He had decided that he would take the place of the hologram he created so long ago so that he could greet and see the Alteran descendent for himself. When he heard the sound of the Alteran beaming into the hologram room he waited only a moment for the lights on the platform to come on before allowed his form to flicker and appear. With a serious expression he began the speech that he had recorded over many years during his second lifetime on Earth.
"Welcome, descendent of the Alteran race. You have been brought here so that you may access your inheritance. Great knowledge awa…"
The figure standing on the platform paused for a moment before his eyes began to scan the room, breaking his carefully planned cover as a hologram. Seeing no one, Janus finally moved so that he could look though the doorway, wondering all the while where this person was. He clearly heard the beaming technology activate, so someone had to be here.
A sound from the front of the platform caused him to once again stop all movement. When nothing happened and no one suddenly appeared, Janus took a few steps forward and then just stared at the floor in shock. Looking up at him were two sleepy green eyes.
"Harry?"
