A/N: So, a lot of you have questions about Harry giving the whole Ancient Database to the SGC like he apparently did in the last chapter. That's a good thing, it means you're paying attention. I mean, Harry would never do something so rash, and I've put effort into making that part of his character readily apparent, so it definitely shouldn't seem right that he just gives a fledgeling race barely starting their information age all the knowledge of a race that was on the verge of ascending into godhood.

But don't worry, everything is not what it seems, and Harry didn't quite give them access to all the knowledge of the Ancients. He didn't steal the database, either, which is a point I could have made more clear in the last chapter, but I'm lazy so I'm just stating it outright here. Harry downloaded a copy, he didn't steal the Ancient Database.

Now, let's get back to the story!

Harry had only been studying the Ancient Database for 12 hours so far. Of course, he'd also only had access to the Database for 12 hours. Even with all of his Occlumency, however, he'd barely gotten through 1,000 terabytes of the stored data. According to a quick calculation that meant it would take him around a million and a half years to get through it all, and he wasn't sure he could process the data any faster without overloading his brain and effectively killing himself.

He needed to change tactics, or he would be too old to care by the time he found what he was looking for. So, instead of trying to learn it all for himself, he decided to let his interface, who he had rather lazily christened 'Inter,' do most of the work.

Inter, he thought, activating the interface, I'm definitely going to need your help with this one.

I was wondering how long it would take you to realize that, boss. I mean, you're good, but no one's good enough to take in 6 trillion terabytes of data all at once.

Harry wasn't sure whether or not his interface was mocking him. No one but you, I presume? The wizard asked.

Not even me, boss. Sure, I can call up any of the data off of the DTG drive at a moment's notice, but even I can't actually process it all. I really am just a living Google in your head now. Back when it was just your thoughts in here I could process everything, sure. But this isn't just the next level up from there, it's the difference between the width of a planet and the width of the entire observable universe. This 'Database' is big.

Harry grimaced. Apparently this wasn't going to be easy. All right then, just call up everything you can find on the ways their technology uses what I'd call magic, and anything on their circuitry that looks like runes.

Inter stayed suspiciously silent.

Inter? What's going on in there?

Boss…that pulled up about 10,000 hits, and I'm pretty sure they're all relevant to your research.

Great, Harry thought to himself. Well, it's not like he'd expected this to be easy. Right then, feed them to me in random order. We've gotta start somewhere.

And so Harry began the very, very slow process of learning the particulars of Ancient hardware and circuitry.

24 hours after later, General Hammond received a phone call informing him that he'd been reassigned. After making a few arrangements of his own and going through the lengthy process of informing all of his senior staff of the impending change in command, Hammond decided to make a personal stop by Harry's lab to inform the wizard of the changing hierarchy.

What he found was surprising, to say the least. Harry sat cross-legged on a low table, facing a wall. The wall was absolutely covered in some strange writing that Hammond had never encountered, and he'd seen samples of all the alien writings his SG teams had come across. Even more intriguing, several metallic components were floating in midair in front of the wizard, assembling and disassembling themselves into various circuit-like shapes that the general couldn't make any sense of.

Hammond was so completely caught off guard by the display that he stood there, watching the writing flicker and change as the bits of metal fitted themselves into more and less complex structures for nearly five minutes. Then, remembering why he'd come in the first place, he cleared his throat to get Harry's attention.

The effect was instantaneous. The writing on the wall flickered and disappeared, the metallic pieces fell to the floor with a smash, and Harry himself tried to jump off of the table. Unfortunately for the wizard, he caught his foot on something and he fell to the floor with a painful-sounding thud.

General Hammond suddenly felt as though he'd walked in on a newbie doing something he knew his CO would disapprove of, and felt his mouth twitch with amusement.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked, bemused.

"…owwwwwww…" Harry groaned. The wizard's body lifted slightly off the ground, allowing him to look at Hammond. "Whaddaya want?"

Hammond raised an eyebrow. "Well, I came down here to talk, but I suppose I could call you later if I've come at a bad time."

Harry eyed Hammond blearily for several seconds, and then began picking himself off of the floor. "No, no. I can talk now. I was just…a bit caught up in my research."

"That was some pretty interesting research," Hammond commented.

Harry shrugged, but didn't offer an explanation.

Resolving to make a note of the incident for his replacement, Hammond got back to the matter at hand. "Well, I just came down to inform you that I'm being reassigned. There's a lot of complex politics involved, but my replacement is a civilian doctor, a woman named Elizabeth Weir. I don't know much about her, but I hear she was appointed at the President's recommendation, so she should be all right."

Harry took that in carefully. "So…they're replacing an air force general…with a civilian?"

"Yes, they are."

"Why?"

Hammond hesitated. He really didn't want to get into the delicate political situation. "I'm not sure as of yet. There's been a bit of upheaval lately, as we've only just begun to inform other major world powers of our Stargate operations. I suspect this may be related, but I won't know more until I get to Washington."

Harry's eyes pierced deep into Hammond's as the wizard stared the General down. Remembering that Harry had said he could read minds, Hammond felt a flicker of worry, but then he dismissed it. If the wizard wanted to read his mind, he'd already had ample opportunity.

Finally, Harry's stare abated, and the wizard extended a hand. "Well General Hammond, it's been a pleasure working with you."

Hammond shook it. "The pleasure was all mine, I assure you. I hope my reassignment doesn't affect relations between Stargate Command and yourself, but understand that I will still do my utmost to keep your friendship, even from Washington. You saved the lives of two of my men, one of whom heads arguably the most important team on this base. I won't forget that."

Harry smiled. "That means a lot to me, General. Thank you for taking the time to say goodbye in person."

As Hammond left, he considered everything that he knew about the wizard who called himself Harry Potter. Harry seemed quite nice, open, and honest, but underneath that the man had secrets. What research he'd been doing when Hammond had interrupted, for example. Hammond was a fair judge of character, and every instinct he had screamed that the wizard meant them no harm, but the military man in him still had to wonder what, exactly, Harry's secrets were.

Harry Potter was a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, hiding behind a wizard's robe. Still, the question remained; who was he underneath it all?

…

As the General left, Harry cursed to himself. He'd been so caught up in the Ancient Database that he'd forgotten to ensure his privacy. Quickly inserting a mental bookmark in the database, Harry set about cleaning up his lab and setting up several wards that he could use to ensure his privacy the next time he wanted to study the Database.

Then he hightailed it to the cafeteria. He hadn't stopped to eat in 36 hours, and he was starving.

It was 9:37 on the Monday after General Hammond had told Harry he'd be leaving. Harry stood outside of what had been the General's door, which didn't yet have a new nameplate. He'd set up a very minor trip-wire ward to detect the first female presence to enter the office. It wasn't foolproof, but he suspected given the timing that he'd detected his new 'boss,' and that the woman had only just arrived. Harry's more mischievous side hoped that his uncanny timing would knock the woman off-guard and allow him to play up his 'mysterious wizard' persona. All while maintaining the utmost respect for his new superior, of course.

Harry knocked gently on the door.

"What is it?" a voice asked from within.

"Your resident wizard, just here to say hello," Harry said, unable to resist a grin.

The sound of feet approaching the door was followed by said door opening, revealing a rather surprised blonde. "Our resident what?!"

Through the door, Harry glimpsed many as-yet-unpacked boxes. "Your resident wizard, madam. Harry Potter, at your service." He offered his hand to shake.

Slowly, as if in a daze, she reached out and shook it, letting out a slightly shaky laugh. "And I thought aliens were the strangest secret the government was keeping from us…"

Good Lord, she was still getting over aliens being real? What on Earth was she doing heading the SGC? Quickly collecting himself and suppressing his shock, Harry offered a cordial reply. "Actually Doctor Weir, I'm a fairly recent addition to this base. If you're still getting over the aliens, I'm not surprised that you hadn't gotten to hearing about me yet."

Weir stiffened. "Did you just read my mind?"

What? Oh… "No, of course not. General Hammond, your predecessor, told me about you. Not much, mind you, but that's how I knew your name."

"Oh…"

"Well," Harry said, "I've introduced myself, and I can see you've got a lot on your plate. If you have any problem that seem like they need a wizarding touch, just give me a call. I'm sure someone around here knows where I live. I hope you enjoy your stay!" And with that Harry disapparated, reappearing in his lab. The SGC hadn't known yet that he could teleport, but he figured that Weir would find that one of the least interesting things about their conversation, so he was probably safe. Besides, Harry was the son of a marauder at heart, and he never could resist the opportunity to surprise someone by dissapearing into thin air.

Harry didn't even notice the unscheduled off-world activation alarm blaring throughout the base. He was neck-deep in the ancient database, still trying to find out how the bloody hell the Ancients had managed to make technology channel magical energy. What he did notice was the proximity intent wards he'd set up getting tripped. They notified him any time someone got too close to his lab with the intent of visiting him, so that he wouldn't get caught off guard again like he had with General Hammond. He also kept a minor aversion ward on the door, but he'd had that in place before acquiring the Ancient Database, and had simply forgotten to close the door in his excitement.

Quickly coming out of his meditative state, Harry stood and walked over to the fried dialing device. To his surprise, he recognized most of the systems inside of it, and even what was wrong with them, but he didn't have time to think about that as a knock sounded on his door.

"Come in," he called, staring curiously at the dialing device.

The door opened, and Sam walked in. After a brief pause, she said, "Harry…we've just received word that in three days, Anubis will arrive at our location and destroy the Earth. We don't have any way to stop him unless we find one of those potentia before then, and I haven't had any luck with that so far."

Harry turned to face her. "You've come to ask me to build you a potentia."

Sam didn't blink at his blunt attitude. "If we don't get to the lost city and find some way to stop Anubis, Earth will be destroyed."

Harry considered that. So far, no one at the SGC had outright lied to him, and he didn't see why they would start now. Given time, they would be able to acquire their own potentia without owing him anything. Unfortunately, he'd done a bit more study on the potentia and discovered a small problem.

"I can't build you a potentia. Even if I understood how they work, and I only kind of grasp that, I still don't know how to create the actual source of their power, what I would call a node of pure magic. You might think of it as something like…"

"A pocket of isolated, artificial space-time that's capable generating vast amounts of vacuum energy."

Harry was impressed. "You've been doing your research."

Sam shrugged. "The search for gate addresses is mostly automatic once the dialing computer has a list of candidates. I needed something to do to pass the time."

"Right," Harry said, "well, that's nice and all, but unless you have an idea about how to make an isolated, artificial pocket of space-time and put it into a potentia, we're out of luck. I've come across a couple of magical anomalies in my travels that might have been able to help, but unfortunately I can't control exactly where I go when I travel between universes, so going back and finding them is out of the question. It'll be much easier to just keep running through addresses here. I'll see what I can do about making your system run faster."

Harry made to leave, but Sam hesitated.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"It's...complicated. There's a politician, Kinsey, and he's trying to shut down the Stargate program for review. We're not sure yet, but we think that General Hammond's reassignment might have something to do with it."

"He's trying to…now? Is he unaware of the magnitude of the threat coming our way?" Harry again entertained the idea that Sam might be lying about Anubis's impending attack, but dismissed the notion. She may have been a military woman, but she wasn't the type to exaggerate like so many military jocks were wont to.

Sam sighed. "This isn't the first time he's tried to shut us down. He wants to take control of the SGC and use it for…well, probably not for anything good. He likes to accuse us of creating threats to keep our funding from being cut."

"Lovely," Harry said. He considered the problem. "Are you still allowed to search for potentia?"

"No," Sam said, "all gate activity has been suspended until further notice. All I can do is eliminate the addresses we dialed before all of this happened, but I already did that."

Great. "So, what do we do?"

"There's going to be a meeting with Kinsey and Dr. Weir, the new head of the SGC. If Dr. Weir decides not to resume gate activity at this meeting…"

"Bad things," Harry finished succinctly. "All right then, when's this meeting set to take place?"

…

As Harry and Sam walked into the briefing room, O'Neill was speaking.

"Three days from now is a Thursday. Thursday's no good for us!"

Harry smiled. "Well, it could be worse. He could be coming on a Monday." Harry noticed a man in full Jaffa armor that he hadn't met before. He raised an eyebrow.

Noticing his look, Sam said, "Harry, this is Master Bra'tac, a freedom fighter and revered leader among the Jaffa. Bra'tac, this is Harry Potter, a…well, it might be better to let him describe himself."

Harry's lips quirked in amusement. "I'm a wizard, a researcher, and I also make a mean dish of Karrentian Soufflé. Harry Potter, at your service." Deciding not to risk looking like a fool by offering a handshake to a non-Earth-native, Harry settled for a respectful half-bow with his head lowered. When he came out of the bow, Bra'tac was giving him a heavily scrutinous look, but the man returned the bow with a courteous nod.

O'Neill spoke up. "Harry here's the one that got all the Ancient knowledge outta my noggin, and probably saved my ass in the process. He's an alright guy, even if he is a bit…wizard-y." The colonel's eyes drifted heavily over Harry's clichéd wizarding robe.

Harry sighed. "Everyone's a critic. I just figured that if I go around claiming to be a wizard and doing magic, I should at least look the part." Realizing that Bra'tac still hadn't said anything, Harry stopped talking and waited for him to speak up, but they were interrupted by a nasally voice from across the room.

"Well, some people just don't know when to leave, do they?"

Harry looked toward the source of the voice and saw a white-haired politician standing next to Dr. Weir. He nodded to the woman, and she returned the gesture.

Weir looked around at the others gathered in the briefing room. "Major Carter, Colonel O'Neill, Doctor Jackson," she said, greeting each with a slight nod. "Teal'c," she added, acknowledging the Big Black Muscle Man who stood nearly directly opposite her. Said Muscle Man gave the barest hint of inclining his head toward her. Harry hoped that was just because the man didn't like Kinsey. Dr. Weir had seemed alright when they'd spoken earlier.

"So, shall we sit?" Harry asked. A general consensus of acknowledgement met his question, and everyone settled into a seat. Harry, unfortunately, was left to sit directly to Kinsey's left, between the politician and Bra'tac. The former was glaring at the SGC personnel, and the latter rested a highly suspicious gaze on Dr. Weir. Feeling rather like he was trapped between two oncoming storms, Harry sought a way to break the tension.

"So," he said lightly, "I hear Earth is about to be destroyed. Are we going to sit here and talk about it, or did someone come up with a plan for stopping that?"

All eyes in the room slowly made their way to him. From Bra'tac and the SGC personnel, he was met mostly with surprise, and Dr. Weir looked distinctly uncertain. Kinsey, on the other hand, was eyeing him with nearly outright hostility.

"I don't know who you've been listening too," the politician began hotly, "but I find it highly convenient that as soon as Stargate operations were ceased, an imminent attack on the Earth was unveiled which necessitates their immediate resumption."

"That's funny," Harry said, "because I was under the impression that Anubis was planning on destroying the Earth long before Dr. Weir's assignment here shook things up. In fact, one might even say that the cessation of Stargate activities was rather suspiciously timed, almost as though someone was trying to cripple Earth's defenses right before the final attack."

Kinsey reddened. "I don't know what you're suggesting, mister, but-"

"I'm suggesting," Harry interrupted the man, "that you are in league with Anubis and actively seeking to sabotage this planet's defenses in order to see it destroyed. I'm sorry, did that accusation strike a little too close to home?"

If looks could kill, the look that Kinsey gave Harry then would have liquefied him where he sat. "Are you suggesting," the politician said dangerously, "that the Vice President of the United States of America is trying to destroy the very country that just elected him?"

Vice President? Why had no one told Harry that this guy was that high up the food chain? Oh well, nothing to it but to stick to his guns, at this point. "I wasn't aware that you were the Vice President. But yes, that is exactly what I'm suggesting. I mean, who better? You likely had a hand in the reassignment of the former commander of this base, and even if Dr. Weir is competent, she's only just been read into the classified operations that go on around here. If I wanted to sabotage Earth's defenses, I can't think of too many better ways to go about it without being noticed."

Kinsey's face nearly twisted in fury, before a mask of forced calm descended on his face. "Your accusations are completely baseless." he said, scorn filling his voice, "Who are you to make such accusations of the Vice President of the United States?"

Harry smiled. "Oh, just an outsider giving his opinion of the situation. But if you want to talk about baseless accusations, what evidence do you have to support your own accusations that the SGC fabricated the impending attack on Earth?"

"Gentlemen, please," Dr. Weir said, cutting off any response, "Since it seems that neither of you have evidence to support your claims, we'll have to ignore said claims until you can provide a more convincing case. Now, Harry, I'm aware of your contributions to this matter, but Vice President Kinsey brings up a good point. What gives you the right to be at this meeting?"

"The right?" Harry thought about that. "Nothing really. But I think I've earned the privilege to weigh in on matters relating to Anubis's impending attack. Among other things, I can probably offer some decent advice on how to defend your world. I've been traveling for…well, longer than you're likely to believe, and this isn't the first, or even the tenth time I've been in the position of having to aid planetary defense efforts against a large-scale attack with less than a week's forewarning."

"Really?" Weir asked, "How many of those planets survived the attacks?"

Harry sighed. "Six out of twelve. But of the planets that were destroyed, only one wasn't evacuated in time, and that was…an unusual circumstance." A bit of an understatement, but if Harry told them that a literal god had been hell-bent on destroying that planet, it would raise more questions than he felt like answering. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure Earth has the resources right now to effect an evacuation, so if you want my advice, you should focus all of your efforts on a defensive. The SGC even has a plan that's already well in the works, but Sam could explain that better than I could."

Taking that as her cue, Sam said, "We believe that we know the location of a lost city of the Ancients. The only problem is that the city is located in another galaxy, and we'd need a massive supply of power to sustain an intergalactic Stargate connection. Fortunately, due to our recent acquisition of the Ancient Repository, we have a list of possible gate addresses where we can look for such a suitable power source. All we need to continue looking is permission to resume gate activity."

Kinsey scoffed. "Well, isn't that just incredibly convenient. You need permission to resume gate activity right after we took it away."

Sam frowned thoughtfully. "Actually…if you check the gate logs, I started the search more than a day before gate activity was suspended. As Harry said, it wasn't news that Anubis wanted to destroy the Earth, and we've been looking for a way to stop him for quite some time."

Harry smiled. He'd been about to suggest checking the gate logs himself, only to be reminded that Sam practically made a sport out of exceeding all possible expectations.

Dr. Weir and Kinsey exchanged a look. Kinsey's expression was one of warning, but Weir's face stayed carefully neutral, and she broke eye contact with the politician to look at Sam. "Do you think you'll be able to find a power source in time?"

Sam faltered. Harry knew that there was no way she could make any such guarantee. Clearing his throat, he spoke up.

"You might also take inventory of your own defenses. I mean, from what I understand they'll be nuclear based weapons, and nukes are useless against most energy shields. Still, you never know what you might find." Harry gave Sam a meaningful look as he said that. He'd come across the designs for drone launchers in his search of the Ancient Database, and Inter had pointed out a listing of all known installations of drone launchers that included a small outpost near Earth's south pole. Harry could help them power it, as the launcher didn't require nearly as much energy to function as an intergalactic wormhole. But weapons like that were something that the people of Earth needed to discover on their own.

Besides, if the native Earthlings made it to the Ancients' city without him, who knew how long it would be before they let him check it out? No, it was much better to be sure somehow that he would be a part of the initial expedition. Forcing the SGC into a confrontation that was already inevitable in a way that ensured their victory would have happy the side-benefit of offering him ample opportunities to show his trustworthiness. Hopefully enough trustworthiness that they would accept him as an expedition member as they explored one of their most significant discoveries…well, ever.

As the conversation continued without Harry noticing too much, he hid the dreamy expression that wanted to take over his face. They were discussing the fate of their planet, after all. Wizard or no, he couldn't look like he was fantasizing, even if his fantasy was a simple daydream about all of the Ancient technology he hoped to someday study.

After the meeting broke up, Harry noticed Kinsey rather rudely following Weir into her office, nearly slamming the door behind him. Curious, but not wanting to eavesdrop, Harry waited for the man to come back out. After enduring the Vice President's glare for several seconds, Harry decided to ignore the man and walked right past him to Weir's office.

"You did the right thing, back there." Harry's daydream had ended before the end of the meeting, and so he'd seen Weir approve Sam's plan to continue dialing addresses from her list. There was no guarantee that they would find anything before Anubis attacked, but they didn't have many other options at the moment.

Weir, who had been staring out of her door with a lost expression on her face, looked at Harry with mild surprise. "I suppose you've made your position on the matter clear. And though I didn't quite realize it, so have I."

Harry nodded. "I suspect that in Kinsey's world, you're either with him or against him. There's no middle ground."

"Yes," Weir said, "I got that impression. He's made it clear that he's not a man to be crossed."

Harry smiled, putting on his cheekiest expression. "Well Dr. Weir, if it's any comfort, I'll let you in on a secret."

A ghost of a laugh danced in Weir's eyes. "I seem to be hearing a lot of secrets, these past few days."

"Indeed," Harry said. "So, here's another one for you." He leaned in very closely and whispered in her ear, "I'm not a man to be crossed either." Standing normally, Harrry continued, "but that didn't stop Kinsey, now did it?"

Weir just stared at him, not sure what to say.

A/N: I just want to take a moment to thank all of the people who left brief, succinct reviews along the lines of "I like it," or "Nice chapter." This website doesn't allow you to 'like' a story or individual chapters as such, but that's the next best thing, and the extra effort it takes just makes it all the more heartwarming.

So, thank you to everyone who did that. It's a huge motivator to keep writing. You guys may not have told me what I did that you liked so much, but you're still a huge help towards writing this story, and I can't thank you enough.

I did say once that I would get a good night's sleep before posting a chapter, didn't I? I think I did, but I can't seem to remember right. Oh well, I'll just retcon it later if it's a problem.

~feauxen