Author's Note: So, time to get back to this story before the last book comes out and I lose all chance at being original! You'll probably have to go back and re-read the rest of it. I did.

OOOOOOOOOO

Daniel barely looked at Zip; his gaze was transfixed on the room they were in.

"This is incredible!"

Jack had to agree – although he wasn't quite as impressed as Daniel.

The centaur smiled, looking proud and pleased at their awe.

"Who built this?" Daniel asked, walking over to the nearest wall and reaching out to touch one of the shelves. It shivered under his touch, and he jerked his hand back, startled.

Bane walked over and touched the same shelf, and Jack was positive he heard the damned thing purr at the touch.

"Our ancestors built it."

"It must have taken years."

"Centuries," Zip corrected, walking over as well. "They took centuries."

Jack frowned.

"How does it work?"

"What do you mean?"

Unlike the rest of SG-1, the centaurs weren't used to the way Jack would change the subject at the drop of a hat and move on to another one.

"How do we use it?" Jack asked, reaching for one of the shelves like Daniel had. Sure enough, the thing shivered at his touch, but he didn't pull away. "Is there a Dewey Decimal system?"

"A what?"

"A way to categorize the information," Daniel explained, surprised that Jack had asked that particular question before he'd even considered the matter of finding the information they needed. "Something to make it easier to find what we're looking for…"

"Just speak your need…" Bane replied. "The room will know the scroll you seek."

Jack frowned, and looked over at Daniel – who shrugged.

Looking up at the room in general – and feeling more than a little ridiculous – spoke.

"Yeah, uh… We need to know about the Path of the Stars…"

"No," Daniel corrected, looking around as well. "We need to know about the Course of the Blood."

Jack scowled.

"Same thing."

Before Daniel could reply, the walls of the sanctuary lit up from within, emitting a soft glow that grew brighter in an area to their left, drawing their attention that way. As humans and centaurs all watched, a single shelf lit up even lighter than the walls around it, and on that shelf a scroll shone brightly.

"There is the information we seek," Bane said, his deep gravelly voice a little subdued. "Retrieve it."

Jack looked over at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"You sought the information, you must retrieve it."

Jack looked over at Daniel, who looked suddenly pale.

"You heard him. Go get it."

He was the one who had corrected him, after all.

Daniel swallowed, but nodded, and walked slowly over to the shelf and reached out his hand. The scroll in question glowed brightly, but looked so ancient that he was certain it was going to crumble the moment he touched it. Daniel knew all about old scrolls, after all. When he picked it up, however, it felt like it was new. There wasn't even so much as a crinkling noise. It certainly didn't fall apart in his hand.

He turned to Jack, who was watching, concerned.

"I'm okay."

"Is it hot?"

"No. It's fine."

The scroll was held closed by a scruffy-looking piece of cloth that looked like nothing more than a simple rag. Unless you looked closely at it as Daniel did as he started to slide it off the rolled paper. The cloth was earth colored, covered in symbols that looked somewhat familiar to Daniel – although he wasn't certain where they were from or what they meant. Of course, it was hardly new for him to run across things that seemed familiar, considering his background in all things ancient. Like this scroll obviously was. Since the wizard world was from Earth, there was no reason Daniel wouldn't have run across something connected with them in his many years of digging. Hidden or not, no people who had been around so long could completely hide themselves from others. That was where myths came from, after all.

He didn't really have time to examine the cloth, however. Jack and the centaurs were watching and waiting, and he was well aware that Jack was in a hurry to start looking for Harry.

Sure enough, Jack spoke up almost immediately.

"What does it say?"

"I don't know…"

He unrolled the scroll carefully, but the writing on the paper was complete gibberish to him.

"What the hell is that?"

Jack had come up beside him and was looking over his shoulder.

"I'm not sure…" Daniel admitted. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Is it some ancient wizard language?"

Daniel shook his head.

"I'd at least recognize something. Symbols or something. I recognize some of the symbols on the cloth that held it closed, after all, even though I'm not sure what they say. This…" he held up the scroll, "is completely foreign to me."

Bane had walked over as well, easily peering over Daniel's head to look at the scroll as well.

"It isn't a language," he said. "It's a code."

Jack looked up at him surprised.

"What kind of code?"

Daniel sighed.

"Probably a way to make sure that no one reads this that shouldn't."

"Well, what do we do now?" Jack asked.

"Hand the scroll to O'Neill," Bane told Daniel.

"What?"

"Give the scroll to Jack. Perhaps he is one who it is meant for…"

Daniel frowned, but handed the scroll over to Jack, who took it gingerly.

"What am I supposed to – whoa!"

Even as they watched, the symbols on the scroll changed. The letters were still small and cramped, and not very neatly written, but it was definitely written in a version of English that even Jack could decipher.

Bane gave a satisfied nod.

"As I suspected."

"What?"

"Jack O'Neill carries the blood of Godric Gryffindor, and yet is not a wizard himself. The scroll has been waiting for someone of the blood and hiding its message from all others."

"But no one can get in here," Daniel said. "What's the point?"

Jack answered first.

"Because no place is completely secure, Daniel. No matter how much it may seem to be."

"The question is," Zip said, moving close, too. "What is so important that it must remain hidden so?"