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: A short chapter, but I feel it's important beyond being the penultimate one, as Daniel has a final meeting with some people he never thought he'd see again and puts a couple of issues to rest…
Truth and Revelations
For a moment, Daniel had no idea where he was. One minute he was fighting Voldemort outside Hogwarts, and then he was lying in a large white, open space, nobody in his immediate vicinity, a sudden pain in his chest from where he had been hit, no sign of anyone else around him…
What just happened?
For a moment, he thought he saw something small and black streak past him, screaming in agony at something in a voice that sounded like a strange combination of a snake's hiss and a Goa'uld's dual tones, but then the moment passed and he was left lying on the ground, still lost for what had just happened to him.
"Harry," a voice said.
Sitting up at the sound of his old name, Daniel's eyes widened as he took in the source.
"Professor Dumbledore?" he said, looking at his former headmaster in surprise. His old mentor was dressed in his usual long robes, these ones a dark blue, with a solemn, satisfied expression on his face and both hands far healthier than they had been when Daniel last saw him.
"Indeed," Dumbledore said, smiling back at him with the same warm, familiar manner he'd always used when they met just after the latest crisis had been resolved, when they could afford to talk almost as friends rather than headmaster and student. "It is… good to see you, Harry."
"It's Daniel now," Daniel began, before he suddenly felt awkward about correcting Dumbledore; the man might have kept secrets that he shouldn't have, but he'd never dared to tell the guy he was wrong before now. "Uh… sorry…"
"Quite all right, Daniel," Dumbledore said, smiling in understanding at the archaeologist. "You gave up a great deal over the course of your struggle with Voldemort, during and after your time at Hogwarts; it is only natural to want to start afresh after you have lost so much."
"Uh…" Daniel said, looking uncertainly at their surroundings, which seemed to be becoming more defined even if he still couldn't make them out; he could be at King's Cross or in the gateroom. "Where are we? And… am I… dead?"
"I assume you are asking that because you believe that I am?" Dumbledore said, still giving Daniel the same understanding smile. "A fair assumption, Daniel, but an incorrect one; what I am is… well, I believe you refer to what I am now as Ascended?"
"You… you Ascended?" Daniel repeated, looking at Dumbledore in shock; he didn't doubt that his headmaster could have achieved something like that, but it was still a shock to hear that his old life and his new one had come together in such an unexpected way. "But… but your body-!"
"A recreation I made in the seconds between when Severus killed me and when I would have hit the ground," Dumbledore explained with an indulgent smile. "A minor bit of interference in the grand scheme of things, particularly as it allowed knowledge of our kind to remain a secret; people would have been suspicious if only my clothes had landed with no sign of my body when you had heard Severus use the Killing Curse, after all."
"Right…" Daniel said, nodding at his former headmaster. "So… you Ascended?"
"I had spent the better part of the past year preparing for my death; add in my own efforts to avoid power, and what I had done to try and avoid killing except when necessary, and I was deemed… suitable… by a woman of your acquaintance," Dumbledore explained smiling at Daniel. "Her name was Oma Desala."
"Oma came to you?" Daniel said surprise. "You didn't seek to Ascend on purpose?"
"It is like any true position of power, Daniel; you are most worthy of it when you do not know what you seek," Dumbledore explained. "I was prepared to die, but when Oma came to me and offered me greater knowledge without the temptation of corruption- albeit because I would be unable to do anything with it- I felt that it was an offer I could not pass up."
"You didn't want to risk being tempted?" Daniel repeated. He recalled some rumours he'd heard about Rita Skeeter doing an autobiography of Dumbledore shortly after his death that hinted at Dumbledore's shady past, but he'd never gotten around to reading it and Hermione had the book removed from publication shortly after she started in the Ministry on the grounds that it was nothing but slander; he'd dismissed it as Rita making mountains out of molehills, but if Dumbledore was implying that there was something to it…
"In my past, I had… proven that I was not to be trusted with greater power," Dumbledore explained, an embarrassed aspect to his manner as he made that confession before he continued. "Ascension might offer greater power, but with the other Ascended to ensure that I would not use it, I was safe to focus on the acquisition of knowledge above all else. I deeply regret that I was unable to offer any further information to help you in your struggle against Voldemort, but you performed most admirably, and while I regret what you lost in the process, I am proud to see how far you have come on your own merits."
"Uh… thanks," Daniel said, lost for anything else to say to that.
It might be over two decades since he had last attended Hogwarts, but Dumbledore would always be the wise and powerful wizard who had done so much against Voldemort, even if Harry hadn't always agreed with his actions at the time; hearing his approval might not be something Daniel Jackson needed, but it was something that Harry Potter would always value…
"Well…" he said, taking a moment to think over what he could say next before he decided to focus on the most obvious question in front of him. "What happened to bring me here?"
"A fascinating convergence of events," Dumbledore said, smiling at him. "Are you aware that you yourself were a horcrux?"
"What?" Daniel said, eyes widening in shock at this news. "But… but how…?"
"It was the source of the connection that existed between you and Voldemort all those years ago," Dumbledore explained. "When Voldemort's curse rebounded on you back in Godric's Hollow, his already-fractured soul broke into further pieces, with one fragment latching on to the only other living object in the house at that time; you yourself."
"And… you knew?" Daniel said, staring at him in shock.
"As I said, I suspected it for a long time- how else to explain your access to Voldemort's mind and your shared ability to speak Parseltongue?- but I was reluctant to voice it," Dumbledore explained. "If the opportunity had arisen, I would have shared this information with you when the time was right-"
"When the time was right?" Daniel repeated, glaring in outrage at this news, his initial gratitude at the chance to see Dumbledore again forgotten in the face of his outrage at this omission. "Voldemort survived because of me-!"
"He survived because of you and the true seventh horcrux that he had created from the canopic jar containing a frozen Goa'uld symbiote; your own role was minor," Dumbledore corrected, his gaze becoming firmer as he looked at Daniel. "His followers went underground after his defeat and would not have been discovered even if he had died for good, and even without your horcrux, the one in the jar would have been sufficient to keep him tethered to our plane until he merged with it."
"OK, so I'm not uniquely responsible; what does that have to do with… with what just happened here?" Daniel asked, trying to focus back on the issue at hand.
"When you cast your last spell in your latest duel, the collision of your spell with Voldemort's triggered a significant… backlash," Dumbledore explained, evidently lost for words for an apt description. "The power of the spells involved, combined with your wands' ties to each other, triggered a significant explosion of magical energy; it would have been relatively contained, but it would still have been highly dangerous to anything in the blast radius."
"Ah," Daniel said, wondering if he should be reassured at how little Dumbledore had actually changed- a few of the terms weren't what he would have used back at Hogwarts, but the essential details were still the same- before he turned matters back to the most important question facing him right now. "So… am I dead?"
"After all the times that you have died over the years since I knew you?" Dumbledore asked, smiling slightly at Daniel's question. "No, my boy, you are not dead; the backlash would have been considerable, but it was closer to your adversary than it was to you, so he took the brunt of the blast."
"But… but the horcrux-?" Daniel began.
"You have died many times since I was your teacher, Harry; after all those times, I think we can safely assume that the horcrux that was within you has died by now," Dumbledore said, smiling reassuringly at him. "If nothing else, the horcrux would never have survived your own ascension; the purity of the process would have destroyed the darkness of the horcrux within you."
"That doesn't answer the question," Daniel said, looking at his former headmaster with a slightly amused yet frustrated grin. "If I'm not dead… how did I survive something that killed Voldemort?"
"You were far enough away from the blast radius to escape the more fatal consequences of the explosion," Dumbledore explained. "Combined with everything you have been exposed to and undergone over the years, your natural reaction to magic is… slightly unconventional."
"Unconventional?" Daniel repeated.
"Oh, direct spells will affect you normally, but if you are exposed to a magical blast such as the type that you just encountered- on the peripheral of the assault rather than a direct target, you know- or if you are simply a victim of a general magical assault that has not been specifically directed against you, your natural quantum state is just enough out of sync with that of the usual person that you will not react to it in the regular way," Dumbledore explained. "It's a subtle change, so deep in your system that even your new friends lack the ability to actually see it unless they somehow knew what to look for, but it was enough to protect you from this."
The explanation sounded plausible enough, Daniel supposed- as plausible as anything could be when considering that he was talking about magic and his body's natural quantum state with a man who should have died over two decades ago- but then Daniel noticed the twinkle in his old mentor's eye, with the kind of smile that reminded him of when Jack was being unusually tactful- or when General Hammond was doing it, as was more common- and taking care to say exactly what people wanted to hear in a situation where it was vital that people leave with a certain perspective on the situation…
Was it possible that Dumbledore was stretching the truth? That the blast he'd just been exposed to would have actually just knocked him out and Dumbledore was just using the opportunity to talk to him… or that the blast could have killed him and Dumbledore was using the loophole explanation of else had happened to him over the years to explain how he'd survived.
It was slightly unnerving to consider how close he might have just come to actually dying, but if it gave him the chance to have this last conversation…
"So… did you just come here to tell me that?" Daniel asked, deciding to leave that issue alone; regardless of which explanation was correct, it wasn't going to change anything about his current circumstances…
"Not just that," Dumbledore said, smiling at him. "When this opportunity arose… and thanks to a few strings being pulled and favours called in among those who know more than I do… there was someone else of our mutual acquaintance who wished to talk to you."
For a moment, Daniel was about to ask who, but then he felt something grab him in an enthusiastic hug and an achingly familiar scent hit his nostrils, prompting him to step back as he stared in shock at the girl before him, Dumbledore already vanishing from Daniel's peripheral vision to go to some other location.
He hadn't seen her for years, but her face remained vivid in his memory…
"Ginny?" Daniel said, feeling more like Harry Potter than he had for years. "But… how?"
"From what Professor Dumbledore told me, the line between where he is and where I am… well, it's thinner than the line between where I am and where you are; we had a chat, but I was able to win the right to talk to you right now," Ginny Weasley explained, smiling warmly at him for a moment before she assumed a more serious expression. "I've been watching you, Harry."
"Ah," Daniel said grimly, suddenly embarrassed at what the girl might have seen him do (He was not going to consider what else Ginny had said; even if he believed that knowledge should be shared, there were some things nobody should find out before their time). "That's… well-"
"It's all right, Harry," Ginny said, reaching out to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, the gesture still comforting despite the fact that it was from someone who seemed at least two decades younger than him. "I've seen what you've been through since I died, along with what you've done, and… well, I wouldn't want you to just keep missing me, no matter how morbidly romantic it might be."
"Yeah… I get that," Daniel said, smiling gratefully at her before he sighed awkwardly. "It's just… I never meant to move on the first time, and now…"
"You can try," Ginny said, smiling reassuringly at him. "We had our chance, Harry, and it didn't happen; a couple of bad experiences shouldn't stop you from trying again."
"Maybe…" Daniel said
"Hey, even Sha're agrees with me," Ginny added.
"Sha're?" Daniel repeated, staring at Ginny in shock. "She-"
"She's a lovely woman, Harry," Ginny said, smiling at him in a reassuring manner. "Trust me, we've talked it all out; there are a few details we'll need to work out when you get here, but if you can't work out problems here, where can you solve them?"
"Oh," Daniel said, once again resisting the temptation to ask for more information before he focused on the real issue. "Well, whatever else happens, I'm… I'd like to take this one slower than the last two."
"Considering that you've known each other for years as friends…" Ginny began, before she sighed and shook her head in amusement. "Still, whatever makes you happy, Harry."
"It's… more comfortable this way," Daniel corrected. "I just… well, she and Jack…"
"Had their moment," Ginny said firmly. "You've got a chance to be happy now, Harry; if Jack's your friend, regardless of how awkward it'll be at first, he'll accept that."
"Well… there's also what the last few weeks have revealed to her," Daniel pointed out; he wasn't ready to start thinking about how Jack would react to all this, even if it was ultimately Sam's choice who she ended up with. "Like you said, I've been friends with her for years, but that was when she just knew me as the archaeologist; she might know more about me now, but it's going to be difficult to… adapt to this shift in our relationship even if I do nothing else…"
"Fair point; learning that magic's real at this age would be a bit of a shock for any muggle…" Ginny said, smiling in new understanding at him before she shrugged. "Still, your call in the end."
"I thought-" Daniel began, noting Ginny's brief frown.
"I can be jealous, you know; I'm in Heaven, I'm not a saint," Ginny pointed out, before she smiled. "Anyway, since it's about time for you to be getting back, I just… well, just give me one thing…"
Daniel didn't even have time to ask what she was talking about before he found a beautiful redhead in his arms once more, their lips locked in a kiss that was just as Daniel remembered from those long-ago days at the end of his sixth year, when there was still hope that everything would work out and he'd come home to start the life and family he'd never been able to have growing up…
"Just wanted to give you something else to remember me by," Ginny explained as she stepped back, still grinning at him in that manner she always used when she was teasing him to improve his mood.
"Right…" Daniel said, smiling back at her before he looked over at Dumbledore, who had apparently reappeared while he was distracted and was now looking solemnly at Daniel. "So… it's over?"
"Oh yes," Dumbledore said, smiling reassuringly at him as Ginny vanished back to wherever she had appeared from. "You have destroyed all of Voldemort's horcruxes, and the backlash of his last spell will have eliminated him quite thoroughly; he is no longer a threat, I assure you."
"Good," Daniel said, suddenly remembering the strange thing he thought he'd seen when he was just waking up in this place; if Dumbledore was to be believed, that could have been Voldemort…
"There are still the Ori for you to contend with, of course," Dumbledore said, smiling apologetically at his old student, "but you are already aware of your next step on that particular path; all that I can do at this time is wish you luck."
"Thanks," Daniel said, lost for anything else to say as he began to feel something from what he could only describe as 'outside' starting to pull him away from his current location. "So… was this real, or is it all just… in my head?"
"Of course it is happening in your head, Harry," Dumbledore replied with a warm smile as the world began to fade around him. "Why should that mean that it is not real?"
Daniel couldn't deny that; his encounter with RepliCarter had mostly taken place inside his head, but that didn't mean that it hadn't been real…
