Nothing is as Simple as We Hope it Will Be
Summary: HPxStargate Atlantis crossover. After the replicators have damaged Atlantis, and the crew is continuing out into deep space John must do everything in his powers to stay alive, even if does mean using magic again. not season 4 compliant.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter characters or original world ideas Nor do I own Stargate characters or original world ideas. The plot for this story however is mine.
Chapter Four: Dealings with Protocol.
John walked into the briefing room where McKay, Zelenka and Keller sat along with General Landry. With the exception of McKay, they all stared at him, and a few of them looked down at the report before looking back over at him. McKay being the only one that did not find his eyes glued on John was sitting uncomfortably between Zelenka and Keller. "Sorry I'm late." John said, trying to shake off their stares.
Everyone that had been on Atlantis had been brought down to Earth yesterday and John had asked that Gen. Landry hold off on the briefing until the next afternoon so that everyone would have a chance to read the report and get a good nights sleep. The General had agreed and John had nervously handed over his report before quickly retreating to his own room.
Now, by the look on everyone's faces, they had read the report and it was time for the confrontation. John took a deep breath and sat down on the opposite side of the table from his three companions. He sat and waited until someone made the first move. After an uncomfortable silence Gen. Landry finally broke the silence.
"What the hell is this?" The General asked angrily as he tapped down on the report that was sitting in front of him as he stared at John.
"The truth, sir." John said jumping a bit at the anger in the General's voice.
"The truth?" Landry repeated in disbelief. "You want me to believe that you are a british citizen from a magical land and you just decided one day that you would like to be part of the AmericanAir Force?"
"Yes, Sir." John repeated as he bravely faced the red faced general.
"You realize that I will have to put you into custody for questioning if you continue to state this as the truth, and might possibly have to recommend you to a psychiatrist."
John took a deep breath and looked down at his hands briefly before he looked back up at the General. "I understand, Sir. I just want you to understand that I only wanted to get my people home."
"Um, General Landry, Sir." Rodney said nervously as he rose his hand to draw the General's attention. "Um, Hi." Rodney choked out quickly. "I would just like to say that I don't think that Shepherd needs a psychiatrist, at least, um, not for the...wizarding part."
Landry turned to stare at Rodney. "I think I might recommend it for you also then." the general snapped out making Rodney quickly lower his hands to his lap and look down at the table.
"Sorry, Sir." Rodney said quietly as glanced over to look at John.
The General looked up at one of the airman. "Take Major Shepherd here to a holding cell." Landry said as a look of discomfort passed over his face. "The rest of you are dismissed for the moment. We will continue this later after Major Shepherd has been questioned." The general stood up and left the other three Atlantis members sitting at the table.
"Well, I guess there is nothing the rest of us can do for the moment." Rodney said in disappointment as he glanced over at the door that John had left through. Rodney stood up and began picking up his things.
"Do you believe him?" Zelenka asked quietly as he flipped through the report.
"Of course I do." Rodney said quickly as he looked over at Radek.
"It seems a bit preposterous, really." Dr. Keller said as she looked over at the two scientist. "I mean, magic?"
"I saw him do it." Rodney said simply.
"I know." Jennifer said as she tapped her report. "But are you sure that it wasn't just a trick of the light or something?"
"I am positive." Rodney said, getting annoyed now that they were not believing him.
"I must say that when I first saw the second ZPM I thought that you and John had been stealing ZPMs and not telling anyone that you had extra ones. I mean, you two were the ones that primarily went out on missions."
"You thought we were stealing ZPMs?! Now that is preposterous!" Rodney exclaimed as he looked between Zelenka and Keller.
"It would make more sense than magic." Keller explained with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I suppose, if you had not seen him actually do it." Rodney said, cooling down a bit. "What do you think they will do with him?" Rodney asked in worry.
"Who knows." Zelenka said as he also glanced over at the door that John had left through. "They aren't happy with him though, that's for sure."
"Of course there not. He has been in the air-force for seven years now, and no one figured out that he wasn't even American. He'll be lucky if they don't lock him up and throw away the key." Keller said as she picked up her things and stood up.
Zelenka just nodded in agreement.
"We have to do something." Rodney said.
"There's nothing we can do." Zelenka said as he also stood up. "Were not even American ourselves." And with that Zelenka gave Rodney a reassuring pat on the shoulder as he walked away.
"Don't worry, Rodney" Keller said trying to cheer Rodney up. "I am sure that they will have to remember all the good things that John did on the Atlantis mission."
"Yeah." Rodney responded, although he didn't sound reassured at all.
"Well, I got to go. See you later, Rodney."
"See you." Rodney said as he watched Dr. Keller walk away too.
After hours of questioning, and more than a few phone calls the United States was ready to wash its hands of John Sheppard. Everything that he had told them (with the exception of magic) had turned out to be supported by files held both in the United States and the United Kingdom. The only problem seemed to be that John thought he was a wizard and that he had come illegally into the United States in order to join the American Air Force.
That was something that the United States just couldn't abide by.
General Landry sat in the small holding cell with John Sheppard. "We have come to a decision." He said slowly. "You are going to be deported from the U.S. back to Britain where we are going to give you leave to re-apply for a position on the Atlantis base if you want to. The only conditions that we have set for you in that regard is that you are going to have to apply using your given name and through your own government." The general paused.
"That sounds more than reasonable." John replied as he looked at the folder that the general was holding in his hands.
"In here is a plane ticket for you and a letter to an American residence in London that you are being given permission to reside in for a week. The plane leaves today. There is an airman outside this door that is going to escort you to the airport to make sure you get on your plane."
"I don't get to say goodbye to anyone?" John asked angrily.
"No, I am afraid not." The general said calmly as he stood.
John wanted to kick and scream about the unfairness of that, but knew it would not get him anywhere. It was fair punishment he suppose, after lying to the United States for so long. He looked up at the General.
"Good bye, John." Landry said as he handed over the ticket.
"Good bye, sir." John replied as he took the ticket in hand and walked out the door, wondering if he would ever see the general again.
A notice that one Harry Potter was being deported back into Britain was received at a dull looking office building in the middle of London. Nothing out of the ordinary. The office building got deport letters all the time. It was a simple matter or recording who and why and leaving it at that. And the name Harry Potter was nothing out of the ordinary. No reason to to fret.
Rodney was the one to break the news to both of the off-worlders that their friend had been carted away the day before without a chance to say goodbye to either of them. Teyla and Ronan had both looked at Rodney in shock. "They just took him away?" Teyla asked, concern and hurt lacing her voice.
"Yes. Apparently he can reapply for a position through the British, but who knows if they'll even want anything to do with him."
"Did they tell the British about his. . .um, magic?" Ronan asked.
"You guys still don't believe me do you?" Rodney huffed as he looked between Ronan and Teyla who both had looks of disbelief on their faces.
"I have travelled the galaxy far and wide. I have never run into anything quite so strange as what you or John describe." Teyla replied, trying to calm Rodney.
"No one believes me." Rodney said more to himself than his two companions.
"But did they tell the British?" Ronan asked again.
"Yes, I think so." Rodney replied.
"Well, then it's settled. We won't be seeing him ever again." Ronan said as he sat down heavily in one of the briefing room chairs.
"What?" Rodney asked, surprised that they had decided his fate so easily.
"You can't honestly expect the British Government to believe John more than the American government did, can you?" Teyla asked.
"No, I suppose not."
"Do we at least have contact information for John?" Teyla asked in concern.
"Um. I think he is staying at an American funded housing in london for a week or so until he gets his affairs settled since he has been off world for the past three years. Other than that..." Rodney trailed off looking slightly put off that he didn't even know how to reach his friend.
John had arrived in London from Heathrow with no problems. He had taken a cab to the American residency where he had found he had been assigned a single room for the next week. And then he took the stairs up to his room and found that he felt like screaming.
The past seven years that he had spent creating and perfecting his identity as John Sheppard were wasted. He could never truly be John Sheppard again. He had, had an inkling of what he was going to put himself through when he had written up that report and had fully expected the United States to imprison him. In some ways John thought this was almost worse. They had almost flat out told him to go back to Britain and then get his butt back to Atlantis as fast as he could.
But, he almost couldn't see the point in that. His reputation would be ruined. He was not a scientist. Nearly all of the military personnel on Atlantis were American and had until very recently been under his command. Go back and he would have to fight to gain back any respect he had most likely lost.
Sighing, John sat down on his bed and looked out the window. No use worrying about it at the moment. First he had to deal with the now.
Rodney was sitting in the room that him and Zelenka had been assigned until all of the repairs on Atlantis were fixed when Zelenka finally broke him out of his thoughts.
"Just call him already." Zelenka blurted out in agitation.
"What?"
"John. Call him."
"Why would I do that?" Rodney asked in confusion.
"Because I cant stand you sitting there. You are dampening everything."
"Oh," was Rodney's only reply to that. He had truthfully been thinking about it. It was now four days since John had been shipped off to Britain and none of them had heard anything. Rodney was actually considering taking some off time since they were on earth to go and make sure that John was alright, but first he would have to get up the nerve to call him.
"Call him." Zelenka prompted again, dragging out every syllable.
"Fine!" Rodney said jumping off his bed, before he realized that he wouldn't be able to not call John now. Grumbling Rodney left the room to go find the nearest empty room with a telephone.
John sat in his room looking at the wall hard in though. Since yesterday evening he had been contemplating if he should convert his dollars to pounds or his galleons to pounds. If he ever managed to get back into the United States he didn't want to have to convert anything back to dollars, but at the same time he didn't want to have to go into wizarding London.
Both ways seemed problematic in John's head. It was then, when he was contemplating this that the phone that was sitting on the desk next to the bed rang. A bit confused about who would be calling him so late at night he picked up the phone.
"Hello?" He asked.
"Hello, this is Mindy from the front desk. I am forwarding a call from the United States, should I put him through to you?" the woman's voice asked.
"Um, yeah." John replied as he wondered who was calling him.
"Hello?" The nervous voice of Rodney McKay came floating through the phone.
"Rodney?" John asked happily. He had not been expecting any of them to try and contact him.
"John? Yeah, it's me. I'm calling to,...well,...How are you?"
John laughed as Rodney spoke. "Good, better now that you've called. What about everyone over there?"
"Oh everyone is fine. I would tell you more, but they told us not to tell you anything because well, you know, your security clearance got revoked and everything..." Rodney trailed off awkwardly not really knowing what to say after that.
"Yeah." John replied understandingly. "Tell everyone that I am sorry about not being able to give them all a proper good-bye?"
"Alright. But, really how is everything going over there? You are going to reapply right?" Rodney asked nervously.
"I really haven't decided yet." John replied, his voice gaining a more thoughtful tone as their discussion took a turn for the more serious.
"Look, Sheppard, I have some time off and since we are on earth...well," Rodney trailed off not knowing exactly how he was going to phrase it.
"You want to come check in on me." John said understandingly.
"Yeah. And convince you to reapply in Britain for Atlantis."
"When were you thinking?" John asked easily.
"After I go up the nerve to call you." Rodney replied truthfully. "Are you still going to be in the American housing thing tomorrow or the next day? I don't know how quickly I am going to be able to get off and get an airline ticket."
"You know what, I don't think so. I think I am going to air out my house." John replied in a spur of the moment decision.
"You have a house?" Rodney asked surprised.
"Of course I have a house. When you come, I'll pick you up at the airport whenever you get in and then we can head back to my place." John replied, excitement creeping into his voice.
"Alright. Do you have a phone number besides this one?" Rodney asked.
"Yeah, here let me get it for you..." John replied. And with that plans were set in motion. Rodney was coming to visit John in Britain to make sure that he was alright, and John was going to go back to Godric's Hollow.
John woke up early the next morning in order to go back to Godric's Hollow. Not trusting himself to apparate there without his wand after so many years, John called a cab to take him out of London and down to Godric's Hollow. It took over an hour for the taxi to finally make it's way into the small town and a large wad of bills from John's pocket to appease the driver. Left at the edge of town, John walked slowly through the streets memories of time he had spent here with Ginny flooding back to him.
He passed cafes that they used to eat at and the small locally owned grocery that they had shopped at, as they had filled their home with food for the first time. It all brought back memories the John was slowly coming to terms with.
Then John finally reached a small street that climbed up hill, trees lining either side of it. John smiled to himself as he walked up the cobble stone road until he reached the top of the hill and what would appear to any muggle a well forested empty lot, but what John saw was much different. Sitting in the middle of tall and aging oaks and maples was a house that he had built from the ground up, using the memories of Remus Lupin as his blueprints.
It was the reincarnation of his parent's home with the dark brown brick exterior and slate roof with ivy crawling it's way up the chimney. All the room's inside were replicated from the memories that Remus Lupin had showed him of his parent's house. It was the house that was suppose to be the home of every Potter that was to come after him.
John stood there staring at it wondering how he had been able to so easily leave such a beautiful home for seven years. Unlatching the gate he walked up the path, not paying any mind that it was uncared for. Reaching the front door John pushed out his magical signature and unlocked it. He opened the door and walked in. Harry Potter was home.
A/N: Special little thanks for wolfey141 for giving me a much needed poke about continuing this story.