Where in the World is Harry Potter

July 31, 2001

"Tell me again Carter, why I agreed to fetch pictures of rocks and notes for Daniel." Jack requested as the elevator doors slid open to let them out onto the third floor.

"Because SG-7 needs the translation by the end of the week, if we want to have a hope of establishing that trade agreement." Carter told him. "Given that Daniel is currently laid up in the Infirmary with a broken leg, he can't exactly come get them himself, now can he."

"Don't rub it in, Carter," her CO ordered.

As they headed down the hall to Daniel's apartment, Teal'c calmly pointed out. "O'Neill, you were the one who accidentally knocked DanielJackson down the hill on P94X27 and you did agree to pick up the items he needed."

"My foot got caught in a rabbit hole or whatever the local equivalent is, Teal'c" Jack started to defend himself, but quickly held up his hand for silence when he noticed a slight gap between the door and the doorframe of Daniel's apartment.

As he pulled his pistol out of its holster in the small of his back, he gestured for Carter to take up a position on the other side of the door. Teal'c moved so that he could cover either one of them if needed.

As Jack slowly pushed the door open, they could hear a man and a woman talking.

"Have you found his wand yet, Lily?" The male voice asked.

"Not yet, but the tracking charm Dumbledore put on this is indicating that it's here, somewhere." The female who must be Lily reported. "Harry would have changed its shape, but he couldn't have changed the core inside it."

At the mention of the name 'Harry', O'Neill's level of worry went up a few more notches. The only Harry he knew Daniel was acquainted with was Maybourne, and a more devious man, you couldn't find. If Maybourne had hidden some 'wand' thing in Daniel's apartment, with or without his knowledge, Jack was going to kill the bastard for putting Daniel in danger.

The door being opened went unnoticed by the intruders, who were apparently very intent on their search for this wand thing. From the sound of their voices, they were on opposite sides of the room. Using hand motions, O'Neill indicated he would take the one on the right, leaving the one on the left for her.

Once they were both in position, Jack pointed his gun at the dark haired man and asked, "Didn't your mother teach you that it was wrong to break into someone else's home?"

Startled, the man dropped the picture frame he was holding, shattering the glass. He turned, pulling a stick out of his belt, but before he could get it pointed at anything, O'Neill moved in and removed it with one hand while he kept his gun at the other man's temple. Jack tossed the stick to Teal'c who was now standing in front of a closed door, knowing the Jaffa would catch it. While it didn't look like much of a weapon, the fact that the man reached for that first, clearly showed he thought of it as one. Out of the corner of his eye, O'Neill saw that Carter had removed a similar stick from the red-headed woman's grasp, and tossed it to Teal'c. O'Neill frisked the man and confiscated a wallet and a pouch that jingled like it had coins in it. He let him keep the wedding ring for now.

Once he was sure the man had nothing else on him, O'Neill motioned toward the sofa and ordered. "Have a seat."

Carter brought the woman over to join her companion a few moments later, then took the male intruder's stuff from O'Neill and headed into the kitchen to find a Ziploc bag, big enough to carry their things, including the sticks. She also made a quick call on her cell phone to get some SF troops over here to take custody of their unexpected company.

When she returned to the living room, she nodded silently to O'Neill indicating the troops were on their way.

Jack sat down across from the couple, keeping his gun trained on them. "You know, you two have bought yourselves a shitload of trouble. You broke into the home of a scientist working on a government project and that means you are looking at some serious Federal jail time for possible espionage. Not to mention what Dr. Jackson is going to do to you Mister for damaging the only picture he has of his wife. Now would one of you like to tell me just why you broke in and ransacked the apartment of a government employee?"

The couple looked at each other for several minutes as if they were having a silent conversation, before the woman said, "we're looking for information on our missing son."

"And you expected to find him hiding out among Dr. Jackson's artifacts?" Jack stared at them in disbelief. Surely they could've come up with a better story than that.

"No, we didn't expect to find him among the Doctor's artifacts." The man looked as though he was visibly restraining his temper. "And we would have put everything back the way we found it, when we were finished. What we were hoping to find, was some clue that would tell us where our son is now. Our sources indicated that Dr. Jackson has been in contact with him and that he may still be in contact with him also that he has some of our son's things."

"and you couldn't just wait to ask him in person, or send him a letter asking him to provide you with the information you're after.?" Jack was finding it harder and harder to swallow their story.

The woman looked up at Jack, her green eyes filled with sorrow and determination. It almost made Jack want to believe them but he hardened his heart, remembering they might be spies, or worse, NID. "Our son has been missing for 3 years. The people we spoke with in this building who know this Dr. Jackson, all said the same thing: 'When Dr. Jackson goes out of town, he is gone for days, if not weeks'. We couldn't afford to wait for him to return. We couldn't afford the delay if we are to find our son."

"What's your son's name?" Carter asked.

"Harry James Potter," the man, no Mr. Potter, said with no small trace of pride.

"And how old is your son?" Teal'c inquired form his position in front of the door.

"He will be twenty-one today." For some reason Mrs. Potter looked sad at that thought. Jack assumed she was Mrs. Potter, though in this day and age you never could be sure.

Jack walked into the infirmary, carrying a folder and a legal pad, closely followed by Sam and Teal'c. "Here's your stuff."

"Thank you," Daniel's gratitude was heartfelt as he reached for the pad and folder of photos. "I was going out of my mind with nothing to do."

Jack waited a few minutes before telling Daniel about his unexpected guests. He knew that Daniel sometimes gave unguarded answers, when his mind was occupied with something else. "We also found a surprise waiting in your apartment."

"Oh, what?" Daniel looked up briefly before returning his attention to the photo he was holding.

"You had a couple of intruders. They said they were looking for their son… Harry Potter." Jack was watching the linguist closely, and while his face gave nothing away, the hand holding the photograph, shook slightly. "Something you want to tell us about Danny boy?"

"Do you know the young man they are looking for, DanielJackson?" Teal'c put in.

Daniel kept his attention on the photos, his mind racing furiously, as he tried to come up with an answer. He had never expected to hear that name again. He wondered how Dumbledore had found someone to pretend to be his parents when the whole wizarding world knew they were dead. He also wondered how they managed to find the spell that opened the portal, let alone the world he had come to. When he looked up he realized his friends were waiting for an answer to Jack and Teal'c's questions. Meeting their gaze, he carefully replied, "I know a Harry Potter, but he's an orphan. His parents died before he was two years old."

"Could he have been lying?" Cater wanted to know. "We got the impression from the Potter's that he ran away for some reason. When did you meet him?"

"I met him when I was coming back from Chicago, after that business with Osiris." Daniel told them. "We both had long layovers before our flights and we kept running into each other, literally; in the coffee shop, the book store, and a few other places. So to save ourselves possible injury, we found a sit down restaurant, and spent most of the evening talking. We found we had quite a few things in common and a few shared interests."

It wasn't exactly a lie. He had met someone during the wait to get back to Colorado Springs. He and the lady had spent several enjoyable hours discussing places they had been and things they had seen in their travels around the world.

He met Sam's eye and told her. "No he wasn't lying about being an orphan or unwanted by the people who were taking care of him. Believe me, the habits and behaviors left over from that, can't be easily faked. Especially not to someone who was also in the system."

"What's a wand?" Jack asked suddenly.

"What kind of wand, sir? A magic wand? A fairy wand?" Sam couldn't understand why he had suddenly changed the topic.

"This couple, calling themselves the Potters were looking for something called a wand at your place, Daniel."

"Well the only thing that comes to my mind, just like Sam's is either a magic wand. You know like magician's use in their stage shows. Or the wands mentioned in fairy tales that supposedly could do real magic. I certainly don't own one of those, and," he spoke up quickly, anticipating Jack, "nobody has left a wand in my care, or sent me one."

Before Jack could say anything further, an airman came in with a piece of paper that he handed to O'Neill. After he read it, O'Neill handed it off to Sam.

"What is it?" Daniel asked as Sam passed the paper to Teal'c.

"It appears as though we have been talking about and are currently detaining a couple of ghosts." Teal'c stated.

"Come again?" Daniel requested.

"James, Lily, and Harry Potter all died in a car accident in England, on October 31, 1981." Jack told him. "They were killed by a drunk driver named Tom Riddle."

Daniel paled at the thought that Tom Riddle had managed to kill his parents in this world as well and this time had managed to kill him as well.

(AN: I hadn't meant to write that last part, but it just crept in and fit like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle. I also hadn't meant to stop this chapter so abruptly, but after Riddle contributed his bit, everyone shut up, and I couldn't get them to say another word.)

(AN: Answers to questions asked in the reviews can be found in the Loprogue. Usually after the next update.)