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: Hope this works; a couple of bits were trickier than I expected, but we're finally at the final confrontation between Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter/Daniel Jackson…
Truth and Revelations
For a moment, there was nothing but silence as the staff and eldest students of Hogwarts stared up at the Goa'uld ship hovering in the sky above them, the Hogwarts staff simply staring in shock at this thing they had never seen before while the various members of SG-1 and 'SG-M' were suddenly struck with apprehension at the possibility that they'd failed to do everything they could to protect the school.
If there'd been another way, Daniel would have taken it- he'd never wanted to bring this battle to Hogwarts, after everything else it had endured over the centuries even before he arrived there and endured chaos each year- but with all of Earth's ships elsewhere in the galaxy and no way to be sure where Voldemort's ha'tak would emerge, protecting Hogwarts was the first priority; calling in back-up would have taken too long and there had been no guarantees of a response.
The only question now was whether he'd predicted what Voldemort would do correctly…
"I have returned," the familiar voice said, at a volume that could have been the Sonorous spell or a Goa'uld loudspeaker that they'd never needed to use before. "I have been away for many years, rediscovering what I am and what I am capable of, but I have now returned to guide you all."
Daniel wasn't surprised at Voldemort's description of his transformation; only a Goa'uld-level ego combined with Voldemort's own natural arrogance could take the defeat he'd suffered last time and reinvent it to make it sound like he'd let himself lose to become better.
"Your leaders have fallen further from our former destiny," Voldemort continued, evidently uninterested in anyone trying to respond to him. "You are controlled by one who does not know our full history, you are encouraged to accept those who have no understanding of tradition, and those who have power are neglected and dismissed in the name of 'reconstruction'…"
Daniel briefly registered the sound of footsteps coming from the school doors as the rest of SG-1 and their new magical allies ran up to join him, but even if they hadn't come, he had already decided that they'd heard enough. Clearly, Voldemort's plan was nothing more sophisticated than showing up and shocking the world that had fought against him last time by showing off what he was capable of now, which might have been intimidating if he didn't know about Voldemort's return but as it was just seemed like stupid posturing. Raising his wand, Daniel cast a quick Sonorous charm and looked up at the ha'tak, already confident in what he was about to say.
"Is that the best you can do, Tom?" he retorted as he held his wand to his throat, glaring up at the ship containing his old nemesis. "Claim that you were just away resting until you were 'needed' and then go off on your rants about bringing back the 'good old days'?"
"Ah…" Voldemort said after a moment's pause, his tone sounding frustratingly satisfied; only Daniel's experience of Voldemort's inner moments allowed him to pick up on the edge of frustration in his tone. "Harry Potter… returned as well, I see?"
"How could I stay away when you were hanging around like the scum you are?" Daniel countered, deciding to draw on his inner Jack for the moment; if he was going to provoke Voldemort into a direct attack, attacking his ego was the best strategy he could think of. "Honestly, you get the chance to see things that so few people can even imagine… and all that you can think to do with that knowledge is come back to the world that already rejected you."
"I am the Heir of Slytherin, Harry; it is my destiny to rule-" Voldemort began.
"But you're not even that any more, Tom," Daniel said, glaring up at the ship. "Your original body died long ago and your spirit's been corrupted over the years since you started this; all you are is a parasite in another man's body that can't accept when his time's over. Your return was unexpected, but I've been dealing with things like you for almost a decade now, and you still don't really know what you're dealing with these days; is there any chance that we could just call this the end of it and you go off to rule some barren wasteland somewhere else?"
"No," Voldemort replied firmly.
"Had to try," Daniel said, removing his wand from his throat and cancelling the spell before turning to look at the assembled wizards. "OK, everyone get ready to fire; he's going to take a moment to decide what to do now that he knows I'm here, but once he starts firing, it's him or us."
"If we've got a moment, I have to ask, did he always spend that much time monologuing?" Mitchell asked, looking at Daniel with a slight smile.
"Trust me, he had a Goa'uld-sized ego even before he became a Goa'uld," Daniel said, smiling over at his team leader. "It was his main weakness, really; he passed up his best chance to kill me directly because he wanted to make sure that his followers knew I'd never have beaten him in a direct fight, and in our other confrontations he either wasn't at his peak, had to deal with someone else as well as me, or I just had the element of surprise."
"Mainly because he never expected you to be stupid enough to try and fight him in the first place," Hermione said, even as the teasing grin on her face as she looked at him made it clear that she was joking. Daniel would have replied, but the sound of the ha'tak's weapons preparing to fire immediately gave them all something else to think about, prompting the wizards present to raise their wands and launch their own attack.
The ha'tak's weapons might be more powerful, but the spells were released before it could fire, and it was soon clear that the school's barriers could cope with the assault slightly better than they had anticipated. Evidently, even if Voldemort was using naquadria to enhance his ship, he hadn't found a way to use magic in its weapons; most likely he had either assumed that he wouldn't need to defend against a magical attack or his Goa'uld acquired knowledge didn't extend to how to modify the shields to cope with such an assault. Add in the fact that the ha'tak was an older model with less power than other ships they'd encountered- most likely due to Hestia being fairly isolated by Goa'uld standards- along with Voldemort apparently trying not to cause too much damage to Hogwarts by using too much power, and Daniel had hope that they'd come through this fight more easily than he'd anticipated.
It was just a pity that they weren't delivering that much damage either; their spells were striking the shields, but magical combat had never been intended to go up against something this big…
"How long is this going to take?" Hermione asked, looking anxiously at Daniel as spells continued to fire at the ship, illuminating the shield without actually damaging it. "I mean, isn't there some limit to what they can take?"
"There's no way of knowing how they'll cope with magic; we just have to keep on trying and hope for the best!" Daniel said as their assault continued; he had his doubts, but he really didn't have any better idea.
"We can't just keep firing like this; even if we can damage the ship, the naquadria core could be dangerous!" Sam called over to Daniel.
"How dangerous are we walking here?" Fred asked.
"Daniel Jackson once disabled a naquadria bomb with the potential to blow up a significant portion of the planet that we were currently visiting!" Teal'c replied, looking grimly at the nearest twin.
"Then we need to disable the core before we get to a point where that's an issue…" Daniel said, looking grimly up at the ship for a moment before he came to an impulsive decision. Reaching over, he wrapped an arm around Sam- he was just taking the most expedient route; there was nothing behind this- focused…
Reappearing in the engine room of the Ha'tak, Daniel smiled as he took in the sight of only a few Death Eaters and Jaffa gathered around them; having to kill Jaffa might suck, but if they were still loyal to a Goa'uld this far into the rebellion, they probably wouldn't be swayed from their 'god' anyway. Quickly standing back-to-back with Sam, Daniel launched a series of rapid stunners from his wand while Sam fired her zat, quickly leaving the two of them the only people conscious in the room.
"That was… interesting," Sam said, looking back at him as she lowered her zat.
"I was guessing that Voldemort hadn't gotten around to installing anti-apparation wards on his ship yet; he is far too arrogant for his own good," Daniel said, smiling at his friend before he looked over at the core. "Right now, you just need to disable that thing; if we can take it out, we might have a chance."
"Right," Sam said, turning her attention to the core before her. Quickly checking over the controls, drawing on her years of experience of Goa'uld technology and naquadah research, she adjusted a few switches and removed a few of the more important control crystals before she stepped away.
"Done," she said, looking back at Daniel with a smile. "The ship's backup power core is still in operation, so we won't have to worry about it crashing or anything like that, but I've disabled its connection to the primary naquadria core, so it's operating on a more reasonable power level than it was before."
"Just what we needed," Daniel said, smiling gratefully at his friend before he placed his arm around her once more…
As they reappeared outside Hogwarts, a quick glance back at the ship confirmed what Sam had just said; more powerful spells were obviously making the ship shake as they struck the shields, and the return fire seemed to be slightly weaker, but there were no guarantees that the wizards wouldn't get tired first.
"OK, what just happened?" Mitchel asked, looking over at his teammates.
"We shut down the naquadria core," Sam clarified. "The ship's still got its original power supply to draw on, but that's not going to hold out as long as the naquadria would have; if we can hit it hard enough, it should go down soon."
"I believe I have something that will provide the required firepower," Teal'c said.
As Daniel looked over at his friend, Teal'c removed a staff cannon from a bag that Hermione had been carrying- he must have packed that at some point when they weren't looking- aimed it at the ha'tak, and fired the cannon at the heart of the ship. The cannon wasn't powerful enough to completely penetrate the ship's shielding, but it was still sufficient to knock the ship off-balance, as well as weakening the ship's shield even further. As the wizards' spells continued to strike shields that were never designed to take this kind of attack, regardless of their power, a second blast from the cannon dealt even more damage to the shield, with a third blast deactivating the shield long enough for some of the more powerful spells to penetrate the barrier and strike the ship's hull, sending chunks of it falling from the ship to hit the ground around them. As the shield continued to fluctuate, Teal'c aimed the staff cannon and fired once again, this new shot striking the ship in its centre, bypassing the flickering shields and penetrating the hull, evidently striking something important based on the subsequent explosion.
"SHIELDS!" Daniel, Sam and Hermione yelled simultaneously, the witches and wizards gathered around them raising shield charms as quickly as they could. As small explosions began to erupt around the ship, Death Eaters and Jaffa began to appear around the ground, clearly apparating to safety from the exploding ship, culminating in Voldemort appearing in the centre of the gathering as the ship finally exploded. The assembled shield charms were powerful enough to deflect the worst of the blast, and the ship's reactor was secure enough to prevent the naquadria or naquadah being destroyed in the blast, but there was only so much that they could do to deflect the worst of the explosion before the fires reached a level where the wizards could use charms to put out the worst of the fires.
As the last of the fires died down, Daniel's eyes narrowed as he glared at the sight of Voldemort standing in front of his small army of assembled Death Eaters and Jaffa warriors, dressed in elaborate black-and-gold robes that reminded him of some of Ba'al's less ostentatious outfits.
It had taken far too long for them to reach this point, but they were finally ready for the final fight…
"Take whoever you want," Daniel said, as he looked over at his friends. "Just remember; Voldemort is mine."
After exchanging a brief nod of understanding, the rest of SG-1 and the assembled wizarding allies charged towards the Death Eater and Jaffa forces, leaving Daniel to draw his wand and hurry towards Voldemort, the two men coming to a halt as they finally stood in front of each other.
"So," Voldemort said, looking mockingly at his opponent, "it has come to this…"
"I guess so," Daniel replied, looking firmly back at Voldemort, the battle now being waged around them irrelevant and unimportant as he glared at his enemy.
Voldemort had ruined so many lives over the years… killed so many people… cheated death in ways that made the Goa'uld look like saints…
He'd believed that he'd eliminated Voldemort once and failed; it was time to correct that mistake…
"Ironic, is it not?" Voldemort said, still smiling as he looked at Daniel. "We have fought against each other for so many years… and yet, I find that we have so much more in common than even I could have imagined."
"We have things in common?" Daniel repeated, looking incredulously at Voldemort; if this twisted monster thought that he could make Daniel sympathise with him, he'd have another thing coming, but it might be interesting to see how he came to that conclusion. "What could we possibly have in common?"
"Aside from our wands, our particular origins, our more individual talents, and our original similarity… have we not both moved on from the wizarding world to assume new names in a larger scheme?" Voldemort asked, indicating them both with that same infuriating smirk. "You have always mocked me for rejecting my past, but what have you done if it is not a rejection-?"
"I moved on," Daniel said, glaring firmly at his parents' murderer.
"'Moved on'?" Voldemort repeated, smirking as he stared at him, wand already raising in preparation for what was about to happen. "After all your talk of 'love', you moved on?"
"No," Daniel replied, still glaring resolutely at Voldemort. "That's one of the things you'll never understand, Tom; just because something hurts doesn't mean that you avoid it. I'll always remember what you took from me, and there isn't a day that goes by when I don't wish that I could do something to bring them back… but I'll also never stop cherishing every moment I ever spent with them, and trying to live a life that they'd be equally proud of."
"Excuses!" Voldemort said, laughing mockingly at Daniel. "You simply cannot accept the fact that we have so much in common; you would rather live in denial-"
"I would rather live away from all the crap you did to my life," Daniel corrected grimly, tightening his grip on his wand. "You made it impossible for me to have a normal life something as Harry Potter, so I moved on and tried to make a new life as someone else, away from what you did to me; you refused to accept that you could never be what you aspired to be even after the world made it clear that it didn't want you, no matter how many people you won over."
"I have become more-!" Voldemort began.
"You've just moved on to a different scale; what you're doing is still the same as it was back when I was at Hogwarts," Daniel corrected. "You don't even bother to think about what you're doing any more; at least you showed some subtlety as Tom Riddle, but nowadays all you do is dive in and stir up a panic. You aren't even trying to be subtle when you take action; your mad search for immortality just left you a complete mess-"
"Mess?" Voldemort repeated, staring incredulously at Daniel. "I have gone further than any wizard-!"
"Would want to," Daniel corrected, staring pityingly at his enemy. "Look at yourself; you've hi-jacked a parasite and now you think you're a god when you're just going back to doing what you did before. You could have been incredible, but all you are is a Goa'uld with some interesting new tricks and a focus on the planet that's thwarted bigger than you could ever be…"
Roaring in rage, Voldemort thrust one hand forward, but Daniel only needed to see the hand device to realise what was about to happen, quickly casting a shield charm that deflected Voldemort's attempt at a forceful shove off to one side. As another Death Eater was sent staggering long enough for another fighter to take him down, Daniel leapt back to launch a rapid series of spells at the Goa'uld wizard. Voldemort deflected most of them, but the strategy was enough for Daniel to pull out his gun and launch a few quick rounds in Voldemort's direction; his personal shield protected him from the bullets, but Voldemort's attempt to counter the attack by raising the hand device was just what Daniel was hoping for. Wand held out in front of him, Daniel summoned the hand device off Voldemort's hand, the rings practically tearing through the skin on Voldemort's fingers in the device's efforts to get away from him, a mid-air Reducto shattering the device before Voldemort could try and summon it back.
"You dare-!" Voldemort yelled at Daniel, clutching his now-injured hand under his other arm as he glared at the archaeologist, firing a rapid series of spells that did little against Daniel's reflexes.
"You can't win, Tom," Daniel said, allowing some of Harry's old sarcasm to come out as he confronted the man who'd ruined his life so many times, ducking and weaving around Voldemort's retaliating spells as he cautiously advanced towards his foe; what he was about to do was risky, but he had to try it at least once. "It doesn't matter what you try… it doesn't matter how powerful you are… because guess what? You missed the memo."
As he finally came in close enough, Daniel lashed out and punched Voldemort in the twisted snake-like mess that passed for his nose, smiling as Voldemort reeled back in shock, staring at the blood on his hands from where the assault had damaged his nose; all the enhanced reflexes in the world couldn't help if you weren't prepared for someone to hit you with their fist rather than a wand.
"These days, I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson," Daniel said, smiling at his parents' killer, enjoying the chance to talk back for a moment; this might not be Daniel's usual style, but he found that he wanted to enjoy this new chance to lay some demons to rest. "Not only have I picked up some new tricks since we last fought, but somewhere along the line, I forgot how to die."
"Then allow me to remind you!" Voldemort yelled, his voice in the familiar Goa'uld double-toned manner of speech as he lunged towards Daniel, the archaeologist only just managing to avoid the attack; as he'd noted earlier, Voldemort might have enhanced reflexes, but that didn't help if he had no clue what he was doing in a physical fight.
His initial point made, Daniel cast a quick Banishing Hex that threw Voldemort back a few feet before he managed to regain his balance, Daniel raising his wand to launch another spell as Voldmort fired a curse at him…
The spells collided…
Their wands linked…
There was a moment of nothing as they stared at each other, straining for control of their abruptly-formed connection…
Something struck the connecting line from off to the side…
There was an immense explosion of magical energy…
