By the time they'd wandered the castle for an hour or so, Sam was ready to call a halt to the tour. She was tired of stairs, and none of them had had any breakfast that morning, and her stomach was growling. Daniel was ready to quit as well – even though it was obvious he was even more impressed by the place than Sam was.

As they headed back to Dumbledore's office, Sam mentioned that they hadn't had any breakfast, and Rubeus immediately invited them to his little cottage for a quick pick me up – as he called it.

"Well… I don't know…" Sam said, reluctantly. "We should probably be getting back to Colonel O'Neill… he's-"

"He'll come looking for you when he's ready," Sirius said, smiling. He wasn't in any hurry for the tour to end, either. "Come on, Hagrid makes the best treats – and you haven't even seen the castle grounds, yet."

"The Histories tell that Hagrid does not make appetizing snacks," Teal'c said.

"Who's Hagrid?" Daniel asked.

"Me." The giant, hairy guy said, looking surprised at the question.

Daniel frowned.

"I thought your name was Rubeus?"

"That's my given name. My surname is Hagrid – most everyone calls me that."

"Oh."

"Don't believe everything you've read in those books, Teal'c," Arthur said to the Jaffa. "Some things she wrote are simply to make a better story. Authors do that all the time, you know? Hagrid's cooking is really very tasty."

"Come on," Hagrid said, gesturing for them to follow him towards the great doors they had passed when they'd started the tour. "I'll introduce you ter Fang."

He headed for the door, but Daniel held back, looking worriedly at Sirius and Weasely.

"Fang?"

"Hagrid's dog," Arthur told him with a smile. "Don't worry, he's not as mean as he looks."

"Uh huh."

Sam looked at Sirius.

"You can change into a dog?"

He smiled.

"Wanna see?"

Sam nodded.

There was a look of concentration on Sirius' face for just a moment, and an instant later he was suddenly changing right before their eyes. It took only a moment, and there was a large black dog standing in front of them, wagging his tail and looking up at her cheerfully.

"Wow."

Daniel was staring at the dog in amazement – more surprised than the other two, although they were just as impressed. He knelt down and the dog came over to him, sniffing him and acting just like any other dog might.

"That's amazing," Sam said as Daniel ran his hands through the dog's fur for just a moment – checking to see if he really was a dog. After a moment of allowing this, the dog backed up a step or two, and changed back into the good-looking man.

"Impressed?" He asked, smiling at Sam.

"Yeah."

Sirius preened just a little, and Daniel couldn't help but roll his eyes as they all headed for the door to follow Hagrid. Yeah, sure. The guy could turn into a dog. It was impressive, but hardly earth shattering. She could do better.

The outside of the castle was just as impressive as the inside. They found themselves on a very green, very steep mountain, with a view that was absolutely amazing, and a lake off to the left that was as clear as the blue sky above them. Off to the right was a forest – Sam was pretty sure this was the Forbidden Forest, but she didn't ask, and Hagrid didn't allow them much of a chance to look around before heading down the side of the mountain towards the little cottage that stood off on its own.

Deep barking greeted them as they all reached his house, and Daniel looked at Arthur in concern. The louder the bark, the bigger the dog, right?

"Fang's a sweetheart. Really."

Hagrid opened the door, and the sweetheart turned out to be even bigger than Daniel had feared. Easily twice as big as Sirius had been when he'd changed into a dog, the creature had to weigh at least 200 pounds, and he looked like he was ready to tear off any hand that was extended toward him.

"Back, Fang."

Hagrid easily pushed the dog to the side when he came out and swarmed all over him, and Fang turned his attention to Daniel, who instantly stepped back behind Teal'c.

"He won't hurt ye, Daniel," Hagrid assured him, noticing the motion and grinning behind his bushy beard.

Teal'c reached out to pet the dog, and Fang responded to the touch with enthusiasm and cheer – which didn't look any less intimidating.

"I was cooking a stew for lunch when we left ter go fetch you lot," Hagrid said as he gestured for them to enter the cottage. "It should be more than ready by now."

Sure enough, the smell coming from the cooking pot in the middle of the fireplace was delicious and Sam wasn't the only one who breathed in deeply. Obviously Hagrid really could cook – no matter what the books said about him.

"Let's eat," Sirius said, heading for the large table. Of course, everything in Hagrid's place was large.

Sam couldn't help but nod her agreement, and she wasn't the only one.

OOOOOOOOO

Without realizing what he was doing, Jack found himself telling Minerva far more about Charlie than he'd planned on. The older woman was a good listener, for one thing, and more than willing to ask questions to get him to open up, but more importantly, Jack needed to talk about his son and purge the grief and guilt he'd been dealing with for so long. How Minerva managed it, he didn't know, but by sharing stories about Charlie, he was changing the memories he had of the boy from the guilt-ridden ones that he'd had into warm, loving ones that were filled with the boy's laughter and love of life.

He wasn't completely convinced that there wasn't anything he could have done to have kept his son from doing what he'd done, but he was able to reconcile the fact that there was the possibility that she was right – and it did help.

"He was a lucky boy," Minerva finally said when Jack finished talking.

He was surprised by that particular comment, and it showed.

"Yeah? How so?"

O'Neill didn't think he had been lucky at all. Look what had happened to him, after all.

Minerva smiled.

"He had parents who loved him very much – and a father who would have done anything for him. Not every child can say that, you know."

"It wasn't enough," Jack said.

"It was plenty." She sat down in her chair – while Jack had been talking, she'd been sitting on the edge of her desk in a very unladylike fashion, but now that he was over the worst of his grief she knew she didn't need to hover. "If he'd stepped off a curb and been hit by a car or something, would you have been able to tell yourself you loved him as much as you could have?"

He looked at her, his eyes still red and his face still pale, but he nodded.

"I tried to."

She nodded, too.

"Then you did everything you could."