Sam hesitated, surprised at the question, and then shrugged.

"Kind of."

"Yeah?"

Was there a little disappointment in the wizard's response? She wasn't sure.

"Well… kind of…"

Sirius frowned, uncertain.

"What does that mean, exactly?"

Floundering for a reply that would be enough to allow them to change the subject, Sam hesitated.

"It means that… I'm kind of seeing someone… but not really."

"So you're not?"

"Well, I am… it's just…"

"Kind of."

"Yeah."

"Oh."

There was an awkward moment, which was interrupted a moment later by Daniel's return.

"The bartender said he was waiting to use the phone, and then walked outside. He wasn't sure if he came back or not – since he got busy and wasn't watching the door…"

"That's odd…" Sam said, her eyes a little worried.

"Yeah."

"I'll try paging him," she said, pulling out her phone.

OOOOOOOOOO

The woman was tall – easily as tall as Jack – and had probably at one time been a real beauty. Now, however, she was gaunt and wasted, with black hair that hung low, and an evil look in her expression that was a match for anything Jack had seen on a Goa'uld. She was holding a wand pointed at him, and behind her Jack could see several other dark shapes moving in. These proved to be other people, dressed in black robes with their hoods thrown back. None of them looked any better than the woman, and all of them bore than fanatical look in their expressions that told Jack there was no dealing with any of them.

He stood a little straighter – no sense trying to hide when they knew he was there – and once more wished he had a gun. Or Teal'c, for that matter.

The woman smirked, well aware that she had the upper hand.

"What a pleasure to finally meet you, Colonel O'Neill."

"Yeah? And you would be…?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange."

Obviously that was supposed to mean something, because she was waiting for a reaction from him, but Jack didn't know the name, and it showed.

"Ah."

"You've never heard of me? Not even from Harry?" She shook her head, pretending to be injured. "I'm sorry to hear that. I thought he'd have had more-"

"Let's cut the crap," Jack said, hoping devoutly that Harry had actually returned to the house and wasn't lurking around the bushes somewhere. "What do you want?"

"I already have it."

"What?"

"The Dark Lord wishes to see you."

Jack made a show of looking around.

"Here I am."

She lost just a little of her cool façade.

"The Dark Lord does not come to those he wants to see. They go to him."

"You know, I was sort of in the middle of dinner…"

"Where's Potter?"

Jack shrugged.

"Who?"

"Don't play games with me, Jack. I-"

"My friends call me Jack," he said, interrupting her. "You can call me Colonel."

She snorted derisively.

"Where's Potter?" She repeated. "The Dark Lord would be pleased to have him join us as well."

"Who?"

She started to say something else, but there was suddenly a flash of light around her hand, and she dropped her wand with a startled, pain-filled curse. All the others behind her were instantly on the alert, looking around, and Jack took advantage of the distraction to fling the stone he had in his hand, hitting the guy directly behind Bellatrix in the side of the head with a well-practiced throw. He went down without a sound, but now the others were on the offensive, and with several different muttered phrases, there were suddenly several jets of different colored lights all heading his direction.

"Gah!"

He dove to the ground, and a beam of light barely missed his head, while another bounced off a tree close by with a small bang. One other was deflected by a jet of light coming from the opposite direction, and Jack decided that he owed Dobby big time, because that one would have hit him.

He rolled to his right, reaching for yet another stone, and heard two voices at the same time.

"Don't kill him you idiots!"

That one was the woman. The voice was filled with fear and fury and Jack had just the slightest glimmer of hope that he'd be able to get away. If they weren't going to kill him, then they'd have to catch him, after all, and he was going to try and make that as difficult as possible. The next voice was even better.

"This way, Jack O'Neill!"

That one was Dobby, and Jack rolled that direction, flinging the rock behind him without even looking. More flashes of light, and then a stunning pain that told him someone had scored a hit. He gasped, biting back a curse as he crumpled into a ball of misery. At that moment, he heard the pager in his pocket go off, and the oddity of the situation managed to bring him back from the very edge of the shock that he was falling into.

"O'Neill!"

Dobby must have seen the hit, because the shout took on a different tone, and Jack forced his head around, despite the pain.

"Get out of here!" He yelled. "Go tell-"

There was another shouted word he didn't understand, and then another flash of light, and this one surrounded him completely. And knocked him out cold.

Dobby slid back into the bushes that had hidden him from the Deatheaters and watched silently as a couple of them ran up to the fallen Muggle, kneeling down and checking him to make sure he was still breathing but wasn't going to cause them any more trouble – at least for the moment. He debated trying to do something else to help the man, but it would be him against far too many, and he was only one house elf. Even though he'd managed to disarm one and knock another out, it wasn't going to do to be captured or killed as well. He had to tell Harry Potter what had happened, and had to have him warn the others that the Deatheaters were around.

As the others ran towards the bushes he was hiding in – obviously looking for the person who had been helping O'Neill – Dobby snapped his fingers and with a loud crack was gone.