Disclaimer: 'Stargate' and 'Harry Potter' both belong to their respective creators, so I don't own them; I'm just borrowing them for the immediate moment in time and space

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Truth and Revelations

As soon as Harry stepped through the door of Grimmauld Place, his senses, already sharp before the war after nearly a lifetime of trying to avoid Dudley's gang, and now so sensitive that it was almost unbelievable, detected something wrong in the house.

He couldn't place exactly what it was, of course- somebody there who shouldn't be, something going on that shouldn't be, or something totally unexpected- but he was sure of one thing; things were not good in this house.

Quickly going over his possible options in his mind, Harry decided that the direct approach was probably the best in this situation. After all, nobody could have entered Grimmauld Place without him telling them where it was, so, if there was anyone here who'd arrived since his departure, it could only be one of the other members of the Order of the Phoenix. With that in mind, not even Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody could worry that any noise Harry made could hardly be defined as 'risky on the grounds that it could attract the enemy's attention'. Even given Moody's typical paranoia, there was no way for a potential enemy to gain access to the house in the first place, so it wasn't exactly a serious concern for him right now.

"Hello?" Harry called, scanning the doors in the main hall of the house in an attempt to spot any sign of someone responding to his call. "Anyone there?"

Nothing.

Wait… there was something out there.

Just above him, in an area that he recalled was one of the bedrooms, he could hear the slight sounds of footprints, as though someone- maybe two people- were struggling with each other in that room…

Harry didn't hesitate; pulling out his wand, he tore towards the stairs, taking them two at a time as he reached the floor in question. Spinning around, he hurried towards the door to the room in question, barely even stopping to think as he kicked it open…

His eyes widening in horror at the sight before him, as Wormtail stood above Ginny, his feet positioned on either side of her as she clutched her mouth, a small trickle of blood coming from her lip as she raised her hand to her mouth, panic in her eyes as she looked up at Wormtail.

Once again, Harry didn't give himself time to think about it; raising his wand, he wordlessly cast the Disarming Spell, sending Wormtail flying into the nearby wall. As Harry watched, Wormtail collapsed to the ground once more, evidently unconscious; his forehead was bruised, but he was still breathing.

Right now, Harry couldn't care less about Wormtail, however; his concern was all for Ginny.

"Ginny!" he yelled, sticking his wand into his pocket as he ran towards the fallen form of the girl he loved. As she turned to look at him, he sighed in relief; baring a black eye and a couple of small bruises, there didn't seem to be any serious injuries on her.

"Uh…" she muttered, reaching out to place a hand on Harry's shoulder as she hauled herself up to her feet. "H… Harry? You're back?"

"Yeah… I'm here…" Harry whispered, looking briefly over at Wormtail's fallen body, rage evident on his face at what the bastard had nearly done to Ginny, before he looked back at the beautiful young woman he held in his arms. "What happened?"

"After… after you left," Ginny said, looking up at Harry with tears in her eyes, evidently still afraid of what Wormtail had nearly done to her, "he… he attacked me… tried to touch me… he was insane… he kept on calling me 'Lily'… he said that you were as good as dead the moment you left here… all he wanted was me…"

Then, for a moment, the emotion and the terror of her recent experience seemed to overwhelm Ginny, and she simply collapsed into Harry's shoulder once more, her body heaving with deep sobs as she remembered what the former Marauder had nearly done to her. For a short while, Harry just stood there, holding her in his arms as he glared angrily in Wormtail's direction as he went over what he'd just been told.

In the end, he supposed it wasn't all that surprising that Wormtail seemed to have attacked Ginny because of her resemblance to his mother. Harry had spent some time talking with Remus over the last year or so, when the two of them had been able to spare some time in the search for the horcruxes and the fight against Voldemort, and Remus had mentioned that, on occasion, Wormtail had seemed to show a slightly greater interest in Lily than that of a simple 'friend'.

It hadn't been anything especially serious, of course- according to Remus, there had been quite a few people who'd had feelings for Lily when they were in school, and they'd just assumed that Wormtail's 'feelings' had faded when Lily started dating James. Hell, even Lupin had admitted to having a slight crush on Lily himself at one point, but that had easily gone away after he saw how much James was interested in her; the way Lupin reasoned it, a man wouldn't be prepared to put up with so many insults from one woman if he wasn't serious about her.

However, after they'd discovered the truth about what had happened the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, Remus had begun to speculate that Wormtail's actions had been more than partially motivated by jealousy of his friend's relationship with the woman he had 'loved'- or whatever he had felt for Lily- and he'd handed her over to Voldemort because he felt that, if he couldn't have her, nobody could. It was a pathetic excuse, true, but, since Wormtail was a pathetic excuse of a human being anyway, little details like that hardly mattered, as far as the two of them could see.

Harry generally had tried not to think about it; the concept of Wormtail having a thing for his mother was just way too disturbing for him to think about it on a long-term basis…

But, looking at Wormtail, and then at Ginny, he supposed he should have anticipated that Wormtail would go after Ginny to try and 'live out' his old fantasies; after all, she did look more than slightly like his mother, just as he had been said to resemble his father on occasion.

He supposed part of the reason he never really thought about that was that he only knew his mother from photographs; if he'd known her personally, he supposed that a part of him might have not wanted to get involved with Ginny as it might have seemed like some kind of screwed-up psychological incest. However, as he'd never really known his mother, that issue had never been a problem, and Harry had been content to just date Ginny without thinking about how much the two of them resembled his parents.

For a time, Harry was content to just stand there, holding Ginny tenderly in his arms as she released her fear and shock at what had nearly happened to her, but, eventually, as Ginny calmed down, he stepped back to look at her, an apologetic expression in his eyes.

"I'm… I'm sorry," he said, knowing that the words were inadequate, but knowing that they were also all that he could say. "If I hadn't left him here, he wouldn't have-"

Before he could finish, Ginny had placed a finger over his lips, glaring critically at him as she did so.

"Don't even think it, OK?" she said, staring at her boyfriend in a determined manner, despite the faint trace of tears that still glistened in the corners of her eyes.. "You had to stop Voldemort, and I told you I could handle myself if it came down to a fight; he took me by surprise and was a bit… tougher… than I expected, that's all."

Then a thought occurred to her, and she looked curiously at Harry once again, her earlier fear apparently pushed aside in light of her recent thought. "You did stop Voldemort, didn't you?"

"Yes," Harry said, nodding briefly; no matter what else happened between them, he would never tell Ginny how Voldemort had died.

He didn't regard himself as sexist, but he felt that there were just some things Ginny shouldn't have to know. Even for him, the memory of seeing Voldemort hurtling back through the air… striking the wall behind him… his neck snapping as cleanly as a dried stick…

He knew he would never forget it.

He knew that a part of him would always hate himself for doing it, even as another, smaller part of him actually enjoyed the memory of seeing his nemesis die…

He wouldn't force Ginny to have to think about it as well.

"C'mon," he said, indicating the door with a jerk of his head, anxious to stop any questions that she may have about the events in question. "Let's just get out of here; I'll send some aurors to take Wormtail away later."

Ginny smiled in agreement at Harry's assessment.

"Suits me," she said, a grim smile on her face as she studied her surroundings. "I'm certainly never coming back here myself…"

Turning around, the two of them began to walk towards the stairs, Harry's arm around Ginny's waist, smiling slightly as he looked at the young woman beside him.

He'd won.

It had cost him a lot, he knew, but, in the end, he had, at last, won

And, with Ginny beside him… as the two of them shared their lives together… made new memories to replace the bad ones that this bloody war had given them… he might actually be able to finally have some semblance of a normal life…

Then, as they were half-way down the stairs of Grimmauld Place, it happened.

"Expelliarmus!" a voice yelled from behind them, a burst of red light striking Ginny in the back and sending her tumbling forward, her feet leaving the stairs from the force and shock of the curse striking her back…

"GINNY!" Harry screamed, desperately dashing forward as Ginny fell, arms outstretched as he hoped and prayed he'd be in time…

But he wasn't.

He'd taken just a few seconds too long to react, shocked as he was by what had just taken place before his eyes.

Just as Voldemort had, mere minute ago, Ginny Weasley hit the bottom of the stairs head first, and a loud crack sounded throughout the halls of Grimmauld Place.

"NNNNOOOOOO!" Harry screamed as he saw the body lying before him, blood already spreading from where she had hit the ground head-first, a scream of denial and rage that gave voice to his thoughts about more than just this one death.

For one timeless, agonising moment of loss, his scream wasn't only at the loss of Ginny Weasley, the first and only woman he had ever truly loved, taken from him due to some bastard who couldn't get over being rejected over two decades ago…

It was at the loss of Ron Weasley, the young man who'd become like a brother to him over the seven years they had known each other, and had died trying to help Harry achieve his 'destiny'…

It was at the loss of Albus Dumbledore, his mentor and guide no matter what mistakes he may have made in his decisions about Harry's life, killed by someone he had thought he could trust after trying to help Harry find a horcrux…

It was at the loss of Sirius Black, the father/brother figure who had been in Harry's life for far too short a time, and had died because Harry was foolish enough to walk into a trap that Voldemort had set for him…

But, most of all, it was a scream of rage and frustration at the world that had forced him to put up with all this crap from practically the moment he was born, without even giving him a choice in the matter.

As Harry's scream died down, he heard a long, slightly wheezing laugh coming from the top of the stairs, and his grief instantly vanished, to be replaced by cold, hard rage.

Only one person could have done this.

Only one person was in a position to do this thing to Harry, for no other purpose than to make him suffer, when they were still inside Grimmauld Place.

Only one person could be such an absolute bastard as to do this to Harry when he had nothing left to lose and precious little to gain…

"WORMTAIL!" he roared, drawing his wand and charging up the stairs, taking them three at a time on this occasion, to punch Wormtail directly in the face with a powerful left hook that sent the older wizard staggering back in shock, as his wand slipped from his hands to hit the ground beside him.

Harry didn't even stop to think about what he was doing; tossing his wand towards the nearby wall, to enraged to even think about using spells, he punched Wormtail in the face once more, barely even registering the pain in his knuckles, unused as they were to contact like this.

Compared to the pain in his heart he felt at the knowledge of Ginny's loss, it might as well have been nothing.

"YOU BASTARD!" Harry yelled, as he launched punch after punch at Wormtail's face, sending the rat animagus staggering back further and further with each blow. "YOU KILLED HER! I LOVED HER, WORMTAIL; I ACTUALLY LOVED HER! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, YOU WALKING PIECE OF CRAP? WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO LOSE SOMEONE WHO'S PRACTICALLY A PART OF YOU, YOU LOVE THEM SO MUCH?

"AND YOU!" Harry continued, changing tactics as he grabbed Wormtail by the robe, hauled him off his feet, and began to hit him off the walls on either side of them, his vengeful rage tempered by the glee as he felt Voldemort's lackey beg for him to stop. "YOU TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME! SHE'S GONE FOREVER BECAUSE OF YOU

"FILTHY!" he yelled, as he punched Wormtail in the chest, sending him doubling over as he gasped for breath.

"WORM-EATING!" he added, as he hit Wormtail in the head, sending him collapsing to his knees as he gasped for air.

"SCUM!" he finished, as he stood over Wormtail, glaring at his foe.

"P-please…" Wormtail whispered, blood trickling from a corner of his mouth as he looked up at Harry; it looked as though Harry's initial blows had dislodged a tooth or two. "S-stop… i-it h-hurts…"

"It HURTS?" Harry yelled, yanking Wormtail's head close to his own so he could yell directly at the man who'd just killed the woman he loved. "Did you think it wouldn't hurt Ginny when you KILLED her like that? Did that thought stop YOU from KILLING her back then? WHY SHOULD IT STOP ME-"

Then, mid-sentence, Harry stopped speaking.

For a moment, he found himself remembering the last time he'd been present at a scene when Wormtail could have been killed.

For a moment, Harry was once again thirteen years old, standing in front of Wormtail in the Shrieking Shack as Sirius and Remus pointed their wands at their former friend, preparing to kill him for what he had done all those years ago, when he gave the location of Lily and James' hiding place to Voldemort…

And, in that moment, he remembered the reason why he hadn't wanted the two of them to kill Wormtail back then.

"I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because I don't reckon my dad would've wanted his best friends to become killers- just for you."

Would Ginny have wanted this? Harry asked himself, releasing Wormtail from his left hand to stare at the hand in question, flexing the fingers as he thought about it. Would she have wanted me to do this

It didn't take long; he knew the answer almost at once.

She wouldn't have wanted it.

No matter what the provocation was, she wouldn't have wanted Harry to become a murderer for her…

And, looking at Wormtail once again, Harry knew that this wasn't the way it should be.

Wormtail wasn't worth sacrificing his morals- more, he wasn't worth tarnishing Ginny's memory- for the sake of the momentary satisfaction Harry would feel at his death.

If he'd been forced to kill Wormtail in self-defence, Harry might have been able to excuse his actions, just like he felt that a part of himself would someday get over having caused the death of Voldemort.

But killing him like this… in a fit of blind rage because of what he'd done, when the man- if you could call him that, of course- was so terrified and battered that he couldn't even fight back…

Harry couldn't dishonour Ginny's memory like that.

Glaring at Wormtail once more for good measure, Harry harshly threw his parents' former friend back to the ground, before walking backwards, facing Wormtail all the while, to pick up his wand and point it at Wormtail.

"Get up," he said simply to the trembling animagus. "Under my authority as de facto leader of the Order of the Phoenix, I am arresting you for the murder of Ginerva Molly Weasley, and sentence you to be sent to Azkaban prison for your crime."

"Wh-what?" Wormtail muttered, staring incredulously up at Harry through his bruised and bleeding face.

"It's as I said when Sirius and Remus had the chance to kill you," Harry stated, glaring coldly down at the man who had once been his father's friend. "My dad wouldn't have wanted them to become murderers for him; Ginny wouldn't want me to become a murderer for you."

Reaching down, he grabbed Wormtail's arm and hauled the animagus to his feet, glaring angrily at the man who had been more rat than man even before he spent twelve whole years hiding away in his rat form.

"Just be grateful I'm not a believer in the death penalty," he said, glaring critically at Wormtai. "If I was, you'd probably be marching off to your execution, rather than just your imprisonment."

Wormtail didn't respond to that; he just stayed silent as Harry walked him out of the house, his wand pointing at Wormtail's back as he glared at the man who'd taken so much from him.

It was only after they stepped outside the house that things went wrong; before Harry could realise what was happening, Wormtail- who seemed to suddenly be in better shape than he'd appeared mere moments ago- rammed an elbow into Harry's chest. More from surprise than anything else, Harry doubled over as the elbow struck him, before he suddenly found himself shoved to the ground by his foe. Instantly, Harry moved to stand up once again, but his attempt was stopped by a sharp, painful kick to his chest, forcing all the air out of his lungs in one rapid moment.

"Sorry, Potter," Wormtail said, glaring at Harry as he stood above the temporarily-breathless Boy Who Lived, blood staining his teeth as he grinned wickedly at his stunned and gasping foe, "but I am not interested in going to Azkaban!"

Then, there was a loud popping sound, and Wormtail was gone, having apparated away to some other location, leaving Harry gasping for more air to fill his suddenly-depleted lungs.

"So, lemme guess, you caught your breath, got back to your feet, tore after that guy, captured him, and sent him off to Azkaban prison once more?" Mitchell asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel as the archaeologist briefly paused in his story. "And now he's back, apparently really hacked off for what you did to him, and you just totally lost it when you saw him out once again because you'd wanted him to stay in jail for the rest of his life?"

Looking at Mitchell for a moment, Daniel said nothing, as though trying to decide what his response should be, until, finally, he sighed and shook his head.

"Actually…" he said, as though still trying to figure out an alternate way of phrasing this, before he gave up and decided to just say it. "I just lay there for a few moments, trying to catch my breath, and then just apparrated off to the outskirts of Hogwarts so that I could be alone."

"What?" Sam said, staring incredulously at Daniel, unable to believe what she had just heard. "You let him go? But he-"

"I know what he did, Sam; I just couldn't really bring myself to truly care about doing something to him because of it," Daniel explained, a blank, almost neutral expression on his face. Either he literally didn't feel any emotion about the current topic- and Sam didn't believe that for a moment- or- which she found more likely- he had so many emotions about his current topic that he couldn't bring himself to let them out, otherwise he'd just start having a near-complete emotional breakdown and be unable to stop himself.

"You've got to understand…" he said, pausing for a moment as though trying to decide how to phrase this before finally continuing. "I was tired of it all. I'd spent the last six or so years with the shadow of Voldemort looming over me; ever since I'd faced him when he tried to get the Philosopher's Stone, there'd always been a part of me worried that, the next time I woke up, he'd be standing there over my bed, just waiting for me to wake up so he could see my reaction to him winning…

"When he actually got his body back- killing a young man who could have been a good friend if I'd had the time to know him- it just got even worse, knowing that he now had several followers who'd be perfectly willing to just kill or capture me for no other reason than to please him. I always felt like a part of me could never spare the time to properly relax and just let me be myself, because if it wasn't worrying about the Death Eaters who'd be trying to kill me, than it was the people who expected me to be some kind of big hero when all I wanted was to be a normal boy…"

He sighed deeply once again, before slumping back in his chair to stare at his friends. "I just couldn't see the point in keeping on trying once Voldemort was gone. After all, what would killing Wormtail have accomplished? Even if I managed to kill him, Ginny would still be dead…"

Then, for a moment, Sam was surprised to see a corner of Daniel's mouth turn up in a slight smile, as though at some slightly pleasant memory, as he looked at the rest of the team. "Besides, as it was, left alive, Wormtail would be constantly on the run; with the advantage his rat form had once given him now gone, he wouldn't even be able to stay with a wizarding family to keep up-to-date with the news, and, the state he was in, he would have been hard-pressed to find a muggle family that would be willing to take him…"

"I see," Teal'c said simply, as he looked at Daniel. "And it was then that you made the decision to depart the wizarding world and become Daniel Jackson?"

"Well… not quite," Daniel said, shaking his head slightly as he looked back at Teal'c. "Firstly, I went back to St Mungo's- in secret, of course; I didn't want anyone to see me going in and attract any questions- to see my last friend for the last time…"