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
Feedback: I'd like it, believe me
AN: This chapter's set a couple of days after the last one; in the intervening time, the characters have returned to Earth, been debriefed about events on Tegalus- where the situation has remained a lot more stable than it was in the series, I assure you; with the Goa'uld as a convenient 'scapegoat' nobody's accusing anybody of anything now-, and now they're on the planet whose address they acquired from Merlin's device; Hestia's fate will be covered
Truth and Revelations
"So," Fred asked, as the group walked along the field that had initially greeted them as they emerged from the Stargate, SG-1's weapons raised while 'SG-M'- this time including Lupin and Hagrid, given that the planet's lunar cycle had been confirmed as not being near the full moon and the space available to them was sufficient for Hagrid to walk comfortably- kept their wands out in preparation for whatever might be waiting for them, "I get that we're new, but does anyone have any ideas how this 'weapon' thing we're looking for is actually meant to work?"
"Yeah, I've been wondering that myself," Mitchell added with an awkward shrug. He wished that they had a better idea of what they were looking for right now, but at the same time it wasn't like they had much else to do right now; with the Tok'ra yet to answer their calls regarding the possibility of extracting Helia from Bellatrix, the only sensible thing to do with their time had been to follow up the recently-discovered gate address to see what information the planet in question had to tell them about Merlin's weapon. "I mean, we're talking about something made of pure energy; how do you kill that?"
"Technically, Merlin's research didn't refer to the weapon as killing Ascended beings," Daniel pointed out, as they began to walk along the outskirts of a forest that the path they had taken went alongside. He might only have theories about how this kind of weapon they were looking for would work, but even that kind of speculation was better than sitting around at the SGC while wondering if they'd manage to get anything out of Bellatrix Hestia was extracted; their current attempt to keep her immobilised with a full Body-Bind curse cast by all of their wizarding teammates were keeping her secure, but it wasn't like that was a practical long-term solution. "A better term for what I was able to translate would be neutralising, or maybe 'cancelling out'..."
"Still don't get how yer meant te aim this thing at something that you say don't live in the world that we see," Hagrid muttered, looking over at Harry in confusion. "I mean, ye saw what happened ter Nick when he saw the basilisk; ye can't exactly kill somethin' that's not even got a real body anymore. 'Course, if I unnerstood what yer said earlier right, these 'Ori' may have reached their state before dyin' while Nick's already dead, but-"
"Hold on; 'Nick'?" Sam said, looking over at Daniel in confusion. "What Nick are we talking about, and how is he already dead?"
"Oh, Nearly Headless Nick's the Gryffindor House Ghost- he hangs around the tower and offers some advice if he can-; he was attacked by that basilisk I told you about in second year when he caught the full blast of its gaze, but it just left him in a frozen state until we could supply him with the antidote because he naturally couldn't die again," Daniel clarified, smiling slightly at his SG-1 teammates' suddenly-incredulous expressions.
"How is it that this 'Nick' of whom you speak merits the name 'Nearly Headless Nick'?" Teal'c inquired after a moment's uncertain pause, evidently trying to focus on the most relatively straightforward question facing him.
"He was hit forty-seven and a half times in the neck with a blunt axe when he was executed by nobles for doing some improper Transfiguration on a nobleman's wife in the fifteenth century," Hermione explained. "The result is that he was left with about half an inch of skin and sinew holding his head onto his neck even in his ghostly state; it's left him a bit frustrated at his inability to join the Headless Hunt- a group of headless ghosts who spend their spare time playing various games with their missing heads-, even after he's been dead for over five hundred years."
"Five hundred?" Sam said, her eyes wide at the implications of someone existing in that kind of state for that long.
"Uh... are ghosts... common?" Mitchell asked, looking over at Hermione.
"Not as common as you'd think, actually; only wizards can become ghosts, and they only tend to do that when they fear finding out what comes afterwards so much that they'd rather remain here than... well, than take that route themselves," Hermione replied with a slight shrug. "As Harry said, there were a few ghosts at Hogwarts who tended to haunt specific houses- and History of Magic was taught by a ghost, although there was always some debate about whether Professor Binns even noticed that he was dead; apart from arriving through the blackboard he never really seemed to act like a ghost-, but that aside it's really rather rare; getting stuck like that isn't exactly pleasant when you know you can't move on..."
"Anyway," Daniel said, looking over at Hagrid as he tried to bring the conversation back to its original point, "getting back on topic, the Sangraal probably works by transcending ordinary space-time as we know it in the same way that the Ascended do..."
He trailed off, trying to think of an appropriate analogy for what he thought the device would do- he had a kind of image in his mind, but the difficulty was working out how to express it-, but Fred beat him to it.
"In other words, you don't have a clue, huh?" he said with a slight smile at Daniel.
"Well, apart from having faith that it should work, not really," Daniel confirmed.
"Whoa," Sam said, as they walked around the edge of the forest to find a medieval-looking village in front of them, surrounded by a high wall with a single path leading into it, "this looks promising."
"You can say that again," Tonks said, taking in the sight in front of them with a smile. "Simple set-up, but I guess it works if you're living here."
"Well, no point waiting around outside," Lupin said, smiling over at his teammates as he indicated the small village. "Let's see what we can find, shall we?"
Nodding in confirmation at the werewolf, Mitchell led the group through the main entrance and into the main village. As the villagers turned to look at the new arrivals in surprise, Daniel tried not to feel too uncomfortable at the attention they were attracting as the villagers slowed in their daily activities to look at the two Stargate teams.
"Well," Sam said, glancing around at the various carts in the open square that they were currently standing in, "it certainly looks like a place where Merlin might have lived... no offence meant, I'm not saying I encourage stereotypes-"
"Eh, don't worry 'bout it; back in the middle ages we pretty much lived the same way as the average muggle, includin' Merlin," Hagrid said, nodding reassuringly at Sam.
"Wouldn't get excited yet," Mitchell pointed out, glancing briefly at his shoe- most likely checking that he hadn't stepped in anything unpleasant- as he spoke. "There could be dozens of villages in the area just like this one; no way to know for sure this is the right one."
"Apart from that, of course," Hermione added, indicating to their right. Turning around, it was virtually immediately obvious what she was indicating; a simple silver sword sticking out of a large grey block of stone, standing in the middle of the village, somehow presenting a sense of importance despite the lack of any decoration to indicate that it was held in particular status by its inhabitants.
"Whoa..." Fred said as the teams gathered around the object. "Neat..."
"Travellers," a voice said, prompting the team to look up at the sight of a small group of people leaving a door behind the stone, the speaker and apparent leader of the group dressed in deep reddish-brown robes.
"I am Meurik," the original speaker continued, his voice stumbling slightly even as he tried to project an air of confidence, "governor of this village. Welcome to Camelot."
Glancing at the rest of the expanded team, Daniel wondered if he should smile at this latest twist of events or wonder at it himself.
On the one hand, they'd only just arrived here, and they'd already found a couple of fairly obvious clues that they were on the right track, but on the other hand, with VOldemort still out there somewhere, he couldn't overlook the possibility that they were dealing with a situation that was too good to be true...
As the group sat in the village tavern a few minutes later- Daniel had to admit that he preferred the casual informality of places like this to the more formal environment of a village hall or something like that-, food and drink laid out in front of them as they talked with the still-seemingly-awkward Meurik, Daniel wondered if he was being unrealistic in allowing himself to get his hopes up about how this 'mission' was going so far; the planet had the right name, the sword in the stone seemed like an encouraging discovery, and without any natives accusing them of being enemy agents or running in fear from the Ori, Jaffa, or Death Eaters, he liked to think that things could be a lot worse so far.
"These must be the strangers that everyone is speaking of," a new arrival said as he walked up behind Meurik, this man wearing an oddly-shaped hat with a wider circular top and simpler red robes over a cream-coloured top and trousers.
"This is Antonius, our village historian," Meurik explained.
"Welcome to Camelot," Antonius said, smiling around at the team, "past and future home of King Arthur and his round table."
"Sorry; future home?" Sam asked.
"I assume you know the history of the battle of Camlann?" Meurik asked, smiling slightly indulgently at Sam, as though she'd asked something that she should have learned long ago.
"That's... where Arthur was mortally wounded in battle, right?" Hermione asked, looking between Meurik and Daniel for confirmation.
"Arthur?" Meurik repeated, his smile becoming a slightly more amused one that put Hermione in mind of Snape pointing out a supposedly obvious flaw in a potion they'd just completed. "Mortally wounded?"
Before Hermione could ask him what he meant herself, Meurik simply gestured at Antonius. "Speak."
"Arthur defeated Mordred at the battle of Camlann," Antonius began to explain, "after which he and his fellow Knights set off to find the Sangraal."
"The what?" George asked in a low voice.
"The Holy Grail," Daniel clarified.
"That was long ago," Antonius continued, apparently unconcerned about the interruption, "but we know in our hearts that one day he will return to us."
"Uhm... what happened to Merlin when he left?" Daniel asked.
The effect of his question was subtle, but nevertheless abrupt, Antonius's slight smile fading as Meurik put down the cup he'd been drinking from only moments ago.
"I have matters to attend to," the village governor said, standing up. "It's best I take my leave now. Enjoy your stay with us."
"Did I... offend him?" Daniel asked, looking awkwardly at Antonius.
"Not at all," the historian said, waving his hands dismissing as he sat down in Meurik's vacated seat. "It's just that... Merlin's name is rarely mentioned in public."
"Why's that?" Lupin asked.
"Well, many believe that he was a wizard of darkness," Antonius explained solemnly. "He may have tried to do good, but... there was always potential for great mischief in his heart. Thankfully, he has neither been seen nor heard of since Arthur's departure; the library where he practised his strange arts remains sealed to this day."
"Merlin had a library here?" Hermione said, beating anyone else's opportunity to make a comment about this new development.
"Of course," Antonius said. "It was his private sanctuary here in Camelot."
"Any chance we could... take a look?" Fred asked, his eyebrows raised in what he hoped would be an encouraging manner.
"I'm afraid that's impossible," Antonius replied, with a solemn shake of his head. "The library is protected by a powerful curse. It is said that all those who enter Merlin's sanctuary forfeit their lives to its guardian, the Black Knight."
As SG-1 exchanged glances with each other in recollection of the last 'black knight' they'd encountered, Daniel had little doubt that the wizarding members of their current group were already considering how to find and break whatever curse was keeping them from the information they'd come here to collect.
However things went from here, at least he knew that they were about to get very interesting...
"OK," Mitchell said, as the two SG teams walked out of the tavern, heading back towards the village centre, "so, best case scenario, this 'curse of the Black Knight' is a story Merlin made up to scare off the locals; worst case scenario, he's got another holographic Knight protecting his goods like he did back in England. Either way, I don't see a big problem."
"Uh... could you get back to that bit about the Knight guarding Merlin's 'goods' in England?" Hermione asked, mentally cursing her lack of preparation; she'd tried to cut down on her habit of reading to excess since leaving Hogwarts to stop herself becoming overwhelmed with information while she was doing research, but that meant she had a greater chance of missing relevant facts like that.
"Oh, when we were checking out the location of the storage area in Glastonbury where Merlin left that device of his, I ended up having to fight this holographic knight as part of the defences; damn thing nearly killed me and Teal'c before I managed to stab it with this sword I'd found earlier," Mitchell explained dismissively. "The point is, we dealt with that thing, and I'm pretty sure-"
Teal'c made a slight murmur of disapproval as he glanced around the square.
"What?" Mitchell asked, looking back at his Jaffa teammate.
"Given your victory over the Knight in the Avalon cave," the Jaffa commented even as they continued walking, "it would seem your over-confidence is ill-advised."
"Did I say anything about me doing the fighting?" Mitchell asked, indicating the group around them. "We've got a lot more firepower on our side this time around-"
"The point is," Daniel said, hoping that he could cut this conversation off before things became too involved, "last time, it was a test designed to measure a challenger's worth; this time, it sounds more like a defence mechanism set up to protect Merlin's research, which means it could be a lot tougher and the same rules might not apply."
"I think we should split up and look around," Sam said, her walk ending as she looked around at the rest of the group.
"Sounds like a plan," Tonks said with an approving smile.
"Indeed," Teal'c added.
With that agreement, the group split up to head in various directions, Mitchell, Hermione, Fred, George and Teal'c taking one path while Daniel, Sam, Hagrid, Lupin and Tonks went back the way they'd originally come.
His group had only spent a few moments walking before Daniel realised that he and Sam were walking at a slightly slower pace than the others, an inquiringly expression on Sam's face even as she kept an eye on their associates; recognition that they were professionals themselves only got them so much respect when Sam knew so comparatively little about their pasts.
"Is something wrong?" he asked, turning to look at her.
"No... nothing's wrong, really; I just..." Sam said, pausing for a moment before she looked at him with a slight smile. "It's... interesting... to see this side of you, I guess."
"This side of me?" Daniel repeated.
"I mean, for as long as I've known you, your own past has never been something you've liked to share unless you had to, and now... here we are, working alongside people you've known since you were a kid," Sam clarified, indicating the group of three in front of her with a slight wave of her hand. "It's just... surprising, I guess."
"Bit of a contrast to the geek you thought I was before I went to Abydos, huh?" Daniel said with a smile.
"I couldn't have exactly thought of you as a 'geek' without thinking of myself that way as well, Daniel," Sam said, smiling back at him before she shook her head and looked more seriously at him. "But... well, I admit, you didn't exactly seem to be the 'take charge' type; even when you were talking with the rest of the Abydonians after Sha're and Skaara were abducted, they only really seemed to be listening because they knew you knew what you were talking about..."
"If it's any consolation, that was a pretty accurate description of most of the times I spent as a leader back at Hogwarts as well," Daniel replied, a part of his attention still focused on studying his surroundings for some trace of Merlin's library even if the rest of him was focused on his current conversation with Sam. "Most of the time when I 'took charge' I only did it because I had experience that the rest of the year didn't- like the time I ended up teaching a Defence Against the Dark Arts class because our official teacher was focusing on the theory-"
"Hold on; you taught a class while you were at school?" Sam said, looking over at Daniel in surprise. "I mean, I know you were a teaching assistant at college, but you were a teacher- actually in charge of the class- when you were a teenager?"
"Well, it was only unofficial, but I actually attracted a decent amount of attention; after spending the last four years managing to fight off the worst that Voldemort had to throw at me, as well as my training for the Triwizard Tournament the previous year, I'd picked up a few interesting tricks over the years, and our current official teacher was just Umbridge, who I've already told you about," Daniel replied with a slight shrug even as Sam nodded grimly in confirmation; evidently she remembered his tales of the worst Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher he'd ever had. "As I said, it was all pretty straightforward stuff; I started out with Disarming spells and went from there to work on a few more elaborate combat spells until we were working on Patronuses before we were discovered, even if my actual real-world combat experience was a bit limited..."
"You taught them Patronuses?" Sam said, looking at her friend in approval as she remembered the brilliant white stag she'd seen earlier. "You were teaching people how to do those at fifteen?"
"The theory's straightforward enough once you know how to do it; it's finding the right memory that's hard, really," Daniel replied, smiling slightly at the memory of his old lessons as he indicated the three wizards ahead of them. "Actually, Remus was the one who taught me how to do it originally; it took me a few months to get it right, but I finally managed to pull it off when I was facing an army of Dementors who were trying to kill Sirius."
"Pulling off a classic last-minute save?" Sam asked with a slight smile.
"It was the kind of student I was back then, really; the practical aspect of actually casting the spells was more interesting to me than the theoretical issues of how each spell accomplished the goal I needed to use it for," Daniel said, smiling slightly in recollection. "Of course, my focus shifted more to the theory side of things after I started my life as Daniel Jackson, but at least it was something that I found interesting; I enjoyed the research when I was at school if the topic I was researching was interesting in itself..."
"Uh... Harry?" Tonks's voice suddenly said from up ahead of them, looking back at the archaeologist and the astrophysicist with a slightly questioning expression.
"Yeah?" Daniel replied, glancing back at his old associate (He liked Tonks, but he'd never really spent enough time with her to consider her a friend, even if her connection to Remus and Sirius helped improve his social opinion of her).
"Might not be quite what you're looking for, but that building over... well, a few of Remus's magic detection charms are showing that the area's giving off some kind of energy, even if it's not magic the way we know it..." the metamorphagus explained, shrugging awkwardly.
"It's more than what we've got at the moment," Daniel said with a resolute nod. "Let's see what's in there."
Even as he walked towards the library, however, a part of him couldn't help but wonder how what Sam was learning about his real past was affecting her actual opinion of him.
She might have been shocked at the idea that he'd killed someone as a teenager, but she seemed to be coping with that well enough now- although the fact that Voldemort had definitely deserved it probably helped-, but the idea of him as a leader of what was essentially a paramilitary campaign back when he was a teenager was a bit of a difference from killing someone in self-defence...
Groaning briefly in frustration at himself, Daniel turned his attention back to the more immediate matter of the mystery currently facing them; he could worry about what Sam thought of what he'd been as Harry once this whole mess was over.
The fact that she might actually like what he'd been back then wasn't something he wanted to examine too closely; after everything that being Harry Potter had done to his life, he didn't want to go back to that state unless he had to (And it wasn't like he had Jack's kind of understanding of what Sam did anyway)...