Author's Note: Nope, I've never been to a Harry Potter convention – so I'm pretty much guessing what they'd have workshops on and the like. If you have been to one, feel free to email me and tell me what you did – I might need some ideas if this story goes much longer!

OOOOOOO

They ended up in the large banquet room of the hotel. The tables that normally would have been there were all gone – save a few that were set up with all sorts of papers and books on them – and it was filled with youngsters and their folks, almost all of them still wearing the colored cloaks and scarves that indicated which group they belonged to. Houses, Carter had called them.

Jack and Daniel walked in just in time to hear the person in charge – who was a portly man dressed in a brilliant blue robe and a pointed hat – start telling the various groups which tables to go to, and then telling those who might have missed the earlier sorting that they were going to be grouped together at a couple of other tables along the far wall.

"That would be us," Daniel said, taking hold of Jack's arm to keep him from escaping while they worked their way through the crowd of kids and towards the back wall. They saw Sam and Teal'c – well, Teal'c was easy to spot anyways – and made a beeline for him and Carter.

Sam smiled when they approached, but she was flanked by several children, and didn't have a chance to do much more than say hello before a woman dressed in a similar outfit to the one the man had been wearing walked up to the table with a welcoming smile on her face.

"You all look so eager," she said – obviously not noticing that Jack didn't look eager at all. "Shall we get started then?"

Jack stepped back just a little as the youngsters around him surged towards the table, although he wasn't able to get away completely. Sam was watching him – as was Daniel – and both of them were obviously prepared to come find him if he tried to slip away. He scowled, but turned his attention to the matter at hand.

"Who can tell me what a centaur is?" The woman asked the group – which was comprise of about a dozen children, and about that many adults, including SG-1.

Automatically, Daniel spoke up.

"A centaur is a mythological creature, said to be a horse with the upper body of a human. Although no one actually knows when the first usage of the phrase came from, or where the first rumors of the Centaurs originated, illustrations of centaurs date back to Assyria – around 2000 BC, and India – around 3000 BC. The Greek centaur is sometimes traced back to the Gandharvas, who in Vedic mythology drove the horses from the Sun but it is now accepted that they were a primitive and rough population of horsed shepherds from Thessalony. According to Greek tradition, there are two families of centaurs. The more numerous and unruly centaurs are those born of the union of Ixion, King of the Lapithae and a cloud which Zeus disguised as his own wife, Hera…"

Daniel trailed off, aware that everyone in the area was staring at him. Sam had an amused smile on her face, and Jack's expression was priceless, but the kids had that glassy-eyed look that he was so used to seeing on O'Neill when he tried to explain something, and the woman who had asked the question looked both annoyed and amazed.

"Um… sorry."

"Let me guess. You're a teacher?" The woman asked with a smile, now, obviously trying to smooth over the moment.

"Archeologist."

"That's fascinating," she said, and it looked like she was going to say more, but the children and the rest of the group were all watching them as well. She cleared her throat, smiling. "Okay. So we know a centaur is a half horse and half man. Does anyone know what a unicorn is?"

Her look plainly said that what she'd wanted to ask was if anyone besides him knew what a unicorn was, but she was too nice to actually say it.

Jack smiled. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, after all. At least the beginning of the workshop had been amusing.

An hour and a half later, he wasn't smiling, and he was more than ready to call a quit to this particular workshop. He now knew far more about the Forbidden Forest – which was apparently a forest right on the outskirts of Hogwarts – than he really wanted to know. Than anyone should ever know, Jack thought grumpily. He had learned all sorts of creatures lived there – and that the place was off limits to Hogwarts students because of the dangers involved in going in there. Which led Jack to wonder why they'd have such a forest right beside a school filled with young people – some of whom were almost certainly going to sneak into that forest and find themselves in trouble – in the first place.

He didn't say anything, though. As a matter of fact, he didn't say anything through out the entire workshop. Of course, Daniel didn't, either, although Jack could see that the archeologist was actually finding some of the descriptions of creatures that lived in the forest quite interesting – and he hoped that Daniel didn't have some odd idea that they were going to go check the place out to actually get a look at these creatures. Because they weren't.

"That was fun," Sam said to the others as the group was dismissed – along with the other groups – for dinner and whatever free time they were going to be given. The convention would meet again that evening to watch all the Harry Potter movies in the large banquet room once more – and Jack absolutely wasn't going to go see them, no matter who tried to talk him into it.

"It was, indeed, fascinating," Teal'c said, looking down at the papers he had been handed. These were descriptions and drawings of all the creatures that they knew (so far) were living in the forest. Although there was always the chance that more would be added as more books came along. "I would be interested in meeting a centaur."

Jack frowned – because he had no intention of going anywhere near that forest.

"We don't know that centaurs are real," he said as they headed out the banquet room door and started down the hall towards the elevators. Along with half the convention, of course.

"They are in the Histories, O'Neill," Teal'c said, reasonably, reminding Jack that the things in the Histories so far were true.

"But remember," Sam said. "We were told that some of the things in the books were simply made up by this Rowling woman – for added interest in the story, I suppose. Like Hagrid's cooking." Just because Teal'c had been right about it being real, she didn't want him to start believing everything in the books were.

"That is true…"

"Well, it certainly explains why there have been sightings of these creatures often enough in the past to keep the legends going," Daniel said.

Jack scowled.

"There are legends about dragons, too, Daniel, but I don't see any flying around…"

Sam smiled.

"Actually, sir…"

He turned and looked at her.

"Don't tell me… there are some in these books?"

She shrugged, trying very hard not to tell him that, while at the same time making it very clear that was exactly what she was doing.

Jack sighed.

"I'm going to go find some aspirin. Come get me when you're ready for dinner."

OOOOOOOOO

Author's note (again) the centaur description Daniel used was paraphrased from a monster web site – just so you guys don't think I'm too much of a genius. I actually had to go look it up!