"I'm not so sure about this…"
Harry looked over his shoulder at Jack and smiled.
"Relax, Jack. One thing I can do is cook."
"It doesn't mention that in the books…" Sam pointed out.
She and Jack were sitting at the table in O'Neill's house, watching as Harry snooped through the fridge.
"They mention that Hagrid's a lousy cook, too," Harry reminded her. "And you've had his cooking, right?"
She nodded.
"Yes."
"Well, he taught me."
"Really?"
"Yep."
Daniel had dropped the four of them at Jack's, promising he'd come back for dinner if he had time after dropping Teal'c at the base, but he'd called them only a short time later telling them that he'd been called to check on some things that one of the teams had brought back with them. He'd be by later to take Sam home – or if she was having trouble with her ankle she was to call Fraiser who would come and check on her. Until then, they were on their own.
Which was fine. They figured they'd have dinner and maybe continue the poker game. And that was when Harry had offered to make dinner for them all.
"Hagrid's a great cook, Colonel…" Sam told Jack with a smile.
He scowled – mainly because he'd missed the opportunity to try Hagrid's cooking and he hated missing out on anything – but threw up his hands in acceptance.
"Just don't burn down my kitchen."
Sirius smiled.
"Don't worry, Jack. I'll help him."
Jack just rolled his eyes, causing Sam to choke on her glass of tea.
OOOOOOOOOO
They never actually had a chance to find out just how good of a cook Harry was. Right before he and Sirius started cutting vegetables for a salad, there was an explosion of noise from the living room, causing all of them jump – and Sirius to almost cut his thumb off.
"What the he-"
Jack wasn't the only one to turn, but before any of them could say or do anything, a plume of ash burst from his unlit fireplace, and a moment later a figure emerged, dusting off his robes and looking about.
Sam recognized him first.
"Dumbledore!"
The old wizard smiled, pushing his hat back into position from where it had slipped during his floo powder trip.
"Sam, it is wonderful to see you again. What happened to you?"
The headmaster had immediately noticed the bandaged ankle and the way she favored that leg when she'd stood up.
Harry flushed guiltily, but Sam merely smiled.
"Nothing serious, just a sprain."
"What are you doing here?" Jack asked, unable to sit through small talk. You never knew what might be going on, after all, and he thought it must be something serious in itself in order to have pulled Dumbledore out of Hogwarts.
"Looking for Harry…" Dumbledore told him, not at all offended by the abrupt question. In fact, he understood completely why Jack had asked. How could it be otherwise, when every time he'd seen Dumbledore so far something bad or dangerous had happened?
"He's right here," Sirius said.
Harry smiled a nervous greeting.
Jack frowned.
"Why would you be looking for him?"
"Because no one knew where he was…"
"That's not true," Sirius said, quickly. "I told Remus where we were going."
Dumbledore's expression turned bland.
"You did?"
"Yes."
"He didn't mention that, Sirius."
The younger wizard flushed, and rubbed the back of his neck – which was getting red.
"Well… he might have been in werewolf form at the time…"
"You didn't tell anyone you were coming?" Sam asked, surprised.
"It's not that big of a deal," Sirius told them all – but mainly Dumbledore. "I was here, after all – and so were Jack and Sam."
"Voldemort is-"
"I know," Sirius interrupted. "But Harry deserves a chance at a little normalcy – and he's not going to get it with every wizard in the world either looking for him or breathing down his neck guarding him."
Dumbledore frowned, but he didn't actually disagree with him. He knew as much as anyone, after all, just how much Harry had been through in the past few years.
"It was reckless, Sirius. You could have asked-"
"He's my godson. And my responsibility."
"And if Voldemort came?"
"I thought he couldn't find this place…" Jack said, interrupting.
Dumbledore looked over at Jack, his expression one of annoyance – although when he spoke next his voice was deceptively calm.
"He shouldn't be able to," the old wizard agreed. "But I have been unpleasantly surprised more than once by Voldemort doing something he shouldn't be able to do and I would prefer to not take the chance with Harry's life."
"I'm old enough to decide for myself," Harry said, quickly.
"No you're not."
This was from Jack, and everyone in the room turned to look at him.
"Jack…"
"No, Sirius," O'Neill said. "I'm not willing to risk Harry's life, either. This Voldemort guy is a sneaky son of a bitch, and he could be anywhere."
"And if he isn't, then one of the Deatheaters could be," Sam added. "They've already proven that."
They'd kidnapped Jack, after all, hadn't they? Twice when you counted the time they'd kidnapped all of SG-1.
"But they're not around here," Harry protested.
"Not right now," Jack agreed, hoping he was right. "But what if they'd been out at the airfield today? Or on the golf course? What if they'd tried something? I wasn't carrying a weapon and neither was Carter."
"Sirius had his wand – and I had mine."
Jack shook his head, knowing he didn't need to tell Harry that that wasn't enough. The boy obviously already knew.
"It was reckless, Sirius."
Black scowled. He hated the reprimand – even when he was well aware that it was probably deserved.
Sam nodded her agreement.
"It would have been safer to bring us to Harry…"
She could tell from the chagrined look on his face that Sirius hadn't even thought of that.
