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LEVEL 28: A special note from yours truly...

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I'm sorry to say this is not PART THIRTY, though you can read a small excerpt from it at the end. This is actually a temporary chapter meant to explain why I haven't been writing the last two months. No, I have not abandoned the story, merely set it aside as I write me a new masterpiece, one whose fan base has more than quadrupled this one. I'm ridiculously excited about it.

If you're interested in Harry Potter FanFiction and still want to pursue my writing, join The Quarter Moon Gamble right here on FanFiction. Go to my userpage and click "Homepage" or look me up under my new name: NeuroticMuse413.

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Thank you all who have followed me this far and know that Level 28 will be continued in a few weeks, at which time you'll be able to see through the eyes of Adrienne into the future and her voyage through time, desperate to find home... as Jack and Sam grow to love and mourn, as Teal'c marries and grow the spawn of a lost romance, and as Daniel learns how to move on to find a new love and a new life only to see the return of an old foe.

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AND NOW! An excerpt from PART THIRTY: "The Evil Duck"
In this scene, Daniel and Jack are having a conversation about their last mission, celebrating in a restaurant the end of SG-1.

"How was the mission?" Daniel asked. "See anything special?"

"Nope," Jack began. "Just a duck by a lake, a really lame duck. Not like the metaphorical lame duck. I mean an actual duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something."

"Was it an evil duck at least?" Daniel asked hopefully.

"Oh yes. You could hear its cackle in the next valley. An evil, lame cackle," Jack said, greeting Sam with as smile as she walked in. Jack had been complaining about the lame duck since they'd first seen it by the lake.

She raised an eyebrow, trying very hard not to laugh. "Actually, a duck's quack doesn't echo."

"How could anyone possibly know that?" Jack asked, kissing her hello and watching her sit across from them.

"I dunno. Take a duck to a cave if you don't believe me."

"There aren't exactly a lot of caves around here."

Daniel squinted his eyes deviously at Jack and Sam's confliction of a goddamned duck. "Make one."

"Huh," Jack said, taking the bottle from Daniel. "Yeah no more beer for you."

"You keep saying that but the six-packs just keep on coming."

"Well… I buy in bulk. I find it an excellent substitute for…food."

Sam nodded along. "Oh yes, it's true."

"Oh yes, we know," Daniel nodded back with great enthusiasm.

"How could you tell?" he responded, slightly hurt.

"Well from what we noticed, your mind was once a steel trap -- only after years of booze and hot dogs, it's begun to rust shut."

"Hey, Simpsons paraphernalia still manages through," he said defensively.

"And at times random words like paraphernalia." Sam smiled at him and his stomach fluttered but stopped suddenly. He felt sick. All he saw was her face as he slid down to the floor, Daniel's words the last to sound before he fell: "And stories of lame ducks."

And then he was gone...

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TO BE CONTINUED...

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