Chapter 26
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"If it wasn't so impossible to find out anything about any of them, I'd want the woman and the old man investigated to see if they intended to harm or kill Rodney, and why they targeted him," John reported.
"We have the co-ordinates you were transported from, it would be easy enough to send a team down there to arrest the woman, we're still in range for another hour," Colonel Ellis said.
"Keep in mind that most if not all of her children will be armed with a wand. We don't know what offensive or defensive capabilities those wands have and we wouldn't want to have to shoot her and the children," John cautioned, even though he was all for causing as much distress to the family as possible if it turned out she'd known of Rodney's allergies.
"We could send a platoon armed with Zat guns, and orders to stun only, we need to know their motives and who they were working for. The Brig will hold the lot of them until they've been questioned. We might get a more honest response from one of the kids and we'd be justified taking them all into custody if they're armed as you say," Ellis suggested.
-o0o-
"Where are my children? You can't just take us hostage like this?" Molly screeched.
"You tried to poison one of the saviours of the world, Mrs. That comes with serious consequences even if we can't charge you with treason since you're not American or Canadian, but we do have an extradition treaty with Britain and believe you me, we're investigating this as a form of terrorist attack. You have no rights but the one's we allow you to have, we can detain you and your family until we know exactly the extent of the plot, who you are working for, who else is involved and why you tried to kill him." Colonel Ellis said severely.
"Harry wasn't allergic to the food. We would never have tried to harm Harry," Molly retorted, shocked that they might think she could harm any child, much less The-Boy-Who-Lived.
"I don't know what you're talking about woman. The man you tried to murder, Dr M Rodney McKay, has saved the planet more times than I could count," Colonel Ellis replied.
"You don't think that murdering his Papa in front of him would harm a child. Are you a psychopath?" Colonel Cameron Mitchell asked. He'd taken an interest in the boy's wellbeing since the night when he'd agreed to offer Harry a home and met the infant Sheppard. The child had grown from a cheerful little scamp into an intelligent and inquisitive child and Cam had spent plenty of time answering his and Torren's questions over the years. While Cam couldn't understand the attraction John had for the Atlantis CSO it was obvious to anyone who met the family that Harry adored Rodney and John.
"That man isn't Harry's father," Molly declared.
"Legally he is, and more to the point, emotionally he's one of the only two parents that Harry has ever known. He has no memories of his biological mother or father. John and Rodney are Harry's parents in every way that matters," Cam growled. The fact that John wasn't actually his son's biological father had been well buried and this woman was risking betraying him to the trust with her insistence on telling everyone that Harry was James and Lily Potter's son. At least Ellis could be relied on to keep his mouth shut about it.
Molly started to yell at him again.
"Shut your mouth woman or I'll shut it for you. The only thing we want to hear from you is how much you were paid to attempt to murder Doctor McKay and who paid you," Cam yelled back forcefully. As the member of an equally large and opinionated family himself as well as years of drilling junior airmen and marines it wouldn't surprise any of the men and women under his command that he was able to shut the redhead up, though her family and most of the people who knew Molly would have been astonished to see it happen.
"I wasn't paid a knut! And I wasn't trying to murder anyone!" Molly declared indignantly.
"You admitted that you knew Harry wasn't allergic too citrus, that means you knew enough to know he wasn't but his father was," Colonel Ellis said suspiciously.
"No. I knew Harry as a child and both his parents, he had no allergies," Molly insisted.
"He wasn't old enough to know what he would be allergic to before he was given to the Brigadier General, and if you were friends with his parents why didn't you do something to arrange care for him when they were killed. He was abandoned on a doorstep in the middle of winter, he could have died. Where was your supposed care for Harry then?" Cam said derisively.
"Funny how you're more insistent that you weren't being paid than that you didn't deliberately try to harm Dr McKay. I'll believe that you didn't receive money for this, but you were trying to seriously harm or kill Dr McKay. Why? You'd never met him before. So why would a seemingly respectable housewife and mother suddenly decide to kill someone with her cooking, in front of all her children? Either you'd gone completely round the twist and need to be permanently locked up for the safety of the population, or there was some massive benefit to you," Colonel Ellis asked.
"I wasn't trying to kill him. Just to get him to leave Harry with us. Albus said that he'd need to see a healer and that would help him learn to trust us if we healed him," Molly said.
"Do you know how to heal someone having an anaphylactic reaction?" Colonel Ellis asked.
"A what?" Molly asked hesitantly. "I wasn't going to heal him, Albus was going to take him to St Mungo's."
"An Anaphylactic reaction, that's when the allergic reaction causes the throat to swell so the person isn't able to breathe, their blood pressure drops suddenly and they go into shock. Death is imminent if the appropriate treatment isn't applied within seconds," Colonel Ellis explained, exaggerating only slightly. "There would have been no time to take him elsewhere to seek help. Do you know how to treat an anaphylactic reaction so that Rodney wouldn't have died?"
Molly paled. It was obvious that she had no idea that McKay's reaction would be that bad or how to treat it.
"Well if you and Albus were trying to manipulate him and his family into trusting you, then you failed miserably. Rodney, John and Harry all believe you were trying to kill Rodney. Harry sent his formal rejection to Hogwarts as soon as he stopped crying over the near death of his Papa. I doubt he will ever set foot in Diagon Alley or any other magical part of England again," Cameron smirked.
Molly flushed with anger again but the two men cut off her impending rant.
"Care to offer an explanation why Harry Sheppard is so important to the old man that he'd try this ridiculous stunt?" Cam demanded.
"Where are my children? What have you done with them?" Molly demanded.
"Relax woman. We're not the ones trying to torture children by committing murder in front of them," Colonel Ellis stated. "What could be so important that you'd be willing to traumatise all your children by risking killing someone in front of them?"
"I wasn't trying to kill him," Molly refuted.
"So you've said. But if Harry hadn't reacted as quickly and decisively as he had that would have been the outcome, Dr McKay would be dead and Earth would've been in twice as much danger as it is now. The sooner you tell us why you did it the less questions we will have to ask your children," Colonel Ellis pointed out.
"You leave my children alone!" Molly yelled.
"Then stop yelling and start answering our questions," Cameron bellowed back.
"Harry Potter is very important to our world. He saved us all from You-Know-Who as a baby. It's important for morale that he returns to the magical world and attends Hogwarts as his parents intended," Molly said.
"And this is the way you thank an orphan who saved your lives? By trying to kill one of his adopted parents? What was going to happen next? Were you going to threaten the safety of his other parent too if he didn't do what you and that Dumbledore dude wanted?" Cameron asked disgustedly.
"No of course not, we didn't mean to harm him or his new guardians," Molly insisted.
"Then what did you intend exactly?" Cameron growled.
"Albus had hoped that John and Rodney would leave Harry with us for long enough for Harry to see what a proper light wizarding family is like and to make friends with my sons who are at Hogwarts so he would feel less anxious about going to school," Molly replied.
"You may not have known this but Dr Rodney McKay and Brigadier General John Shepard also saved your life, your children's lives and the lives of every single human being on the entire planet, and you deliberately tried to harm them and kidnap their son? Be grateful you didn't succeed or you would be imprisoned off world, beyond Albus Dumbledore's reach for the rest of your lives."
"We were trying to help Harry!" Molly insisted.
"By attacking his father and making him feel unsafe in the wizarding world where even harmless looking housewives are plotting his parent's murder?" Colonel Ellis asked sarcastically.
"Harry didn't feel anxious about attending the school. He was concerned that they don't teach all of the subjects he wants and needs to learn, it was his parents that were concerned about his safety at Hogwarts and you've just confirmed that they were right to be concerned. The old man has been a little too blatant in his attempts to manipulate Harry and his fathers and lost their trust, even before the attempted manslaughter masquerading as a dinner," Cam retorted.
"Brigadier General Sheppard said to warn the flaming bird creature, if he brings Albus Dumbledore or anyone else near Harry, he will be shot. Harry insisted on it being warned because he doesn't want to see the creature killed if it can be avoided but if they can't trust its owner, they can't trust it. Please pass the message on to the bird since Harry doesn't believe he can trust Dumbledore to tell it," Colonel Ellis stated.
"What are you going to do to me?" Molly asked finally realising how precarious her position was. If they were willing to harm a phoenix a creature of the light then they were capable of anything.
"That's up to Brigadier General Sheppard and his husband," Cameron stated coolly. "You'll be returned to your holding cell while we question your family to get the whole truth."
"They're children! I've told you the truth, there's no need to talk to them," Molly protested.
"They're witnesses to a potential terrorist attack, and attempted murder. Most of them were old enough for you to arm them for the confrontation. If you hadn't wanted them to be investigated and questioned then perhaps you shouldn't have plotted to harm a parent in order to kidnap their child in front of your children," Cameron refuted calmly.
None of the younger Weasleys could add any information, Percy seemed fixated on the idea that wizards weren't subject to muggle laws, the twins thought it was all a huge joke, Ron whined about his missing dinner and the little girl cried that Harry wouldn't be staying with her family so she could get to know him and get him to ask her out before he met any other witches.
Mr Weasley while a lot more pleasant and polite than his wife or any of his children could also add very little to their knowledge of the incident. He hadn't had anything to do with the choice of menu and claimed he had no idea that allergies that severe even existed. He'd said that he'd been told that Harry's guardians were happy to have him stay with them for a few weeks since travel to and from their own home was so difficult without magic. He also claimed to have known Harry's parents and met Harry as a baby and was looking forward to seeing him again.
Albus Dumbledore was another issue entirely, the man's amiable attitude almost looked sincere. But Ronon and Teyla had both informed Colonel's Ellis and General Mitchell about his broken promise to show them the school so they could assess the security and quality of the education offered for themselves and how his statements seemed if not dishonest, perhaps intentionally misleading. He wouldn't give them a straight answer about anything claiming that the statute of secrecy was more important than any muggle laws and that they should trust him, that he was Harry Potter's magical guardian and that it was his decision that the child should attend Hogwarts just as his parents had intended.
General Mitchell prided himself that he was a fairly even tempered man, a skill which had been invaluable as the leader of SG-1 dealing with allies and trading partners off world but the elderly wizards sense of superiority and entitlement had him wanting to space the man.
The old man also acted as if he were indulging them by answering their questions at all and suggested that he could leave at any time if they didn't produce Harry to apologise for losing his temper at lunch and either return the items he'd vanished or reimburse Mrs Weasley for the loss of an heirloom tablecloth and dishes. It was actually this that convinced Cameron and Steven that Molly Weasley hadn't been intending to murder Rodney. Who would use precious heirlooms in a murder attempt when cheap every day or plastic dishes and cloths could have been used instead? The woman had been genuinely distraught when told Harry would not be able to bring them back from wherever he had sent them.
"Harry is still highly traumatised from the casual attempted murder of his father in front of him and has retired for the night with his family," General Mitchell said, not giving away the fact the Sheppard family were no longer aboard the Daedalus having been transported first to the infirmary in the mountain to be checked over and then to John's family home in Virginia. "He will certainly not be asked to apologise for acting to save his Papa's life nor will he be offering a monetary compensation to the woman who endangered it. Neither he nor his parents ever want to speak with you or any of that family again."
-o0o-
Patrick and Dave watched the small family holding each other close as John gave them a short description of what had happened. They were horrified that this woman would so casually threaten murder and destroy their son and grandson's happiness like that.
Patrick was immediately suspicious that this was a kidnapping attempt against Harry and tightened security around the house and contacted the firm he used to provide armed escort to accompany Charli and Annaliese to school and other activities outside the estate.
"I think that the girls will be safe. It was Harry specifically that they want. They claimed to have known his birth parents," Rodney said.
"Did they offer any proof of that?" Dave asked suspiciously.
"Not proof. They claimed that cousin Lily was Harry's mother," John replied.
"I'll have that looked into again. I haven't heard from Lily or Petunia since at least six months before Harry arrived on the doorstep, and the private investigator I hired could find no trace Lily or her husband and son, though Petunia's passport did show she and her husband and son were in the U.S. the week that Harry arrived on our doorstep, so it's possible she delivered the child. From there they flew to Suriname where her husband was working for the next eight or nine months then returned to England where something occurred and she was admitted to hospital as a Jane Doe with an extensive brain injury for over a week before being identified. She now resides in a permanent care home. Her son entered the foster system and was adopted. He is alive and well though I've not contacted him or his adoptive parents," Patrick said.
"Dumb-as-a-door mentioned Petunia, he seemed disappointed Harry wasn't living with her," Rodney said.
"Yeah, but he wasn't surprised Harry wasn't, he said that he'd been looking for Harry," John added.
"You think that he's responsible for giving Harry to Petunia?" Patrick asked.
"He seemed very invested in controlling where Harry went to school and what books he bought. I wouldn't put it past him to have left Harry with someone who would limit Harry's understanding of the magical world until he was ready to introduce him to it," John said.
"Lily and Petunia never seemed to get along, I'm surprised that she would leave custody of her child to Petunia unless there was no other choice," Dave said.
"I'm surprised that Petunia and her husband would accept bringing up Lily's son, particularly if they knew he might have magic, she was never one to accept anything out of the ordinary," Patrick said.
"She didn't, did she? He was left on your doorstep by someone who didn't want him," Dave reminded his father.
"Perhaps she didn't want to take him in and whoever left him with them forced the issue. It might explain Petunia going to all the effort of bringing Harry here, if she felt she didn't have any other choice to get rid of him. Dumbledore isn't the sort to take no for an answer," John added thoughtfully.
"I'll look into that too, but Petunia isn't able to communicate so answers might be difficult to find," Patrick said. "In the meantime, your room is made up and I'll put you in the guest suite next to your father, Harry, unless you'd prefer the room opposite. Whichever you choose will be your room going forwards. Let me know how you like it to be decorated and Stevens will arrange it. Ronon and Teyla can take the other two guest rooms in that wing."
"Opposite might be best," John said which made Rodney blush slightly.
Dave grinned but Patrick just nodded his acceptance.
Harry checked out both of the rooms then stood hesitating in the doorway of the room opposite, John realised the problem, he was still unwilling to let Harry or Rodney out of his sight and wasn't surprised that his son who knew less about the regular risks they faced off world was feeling the same.
"You can sleep in with us tonight if you want, then you can make your choice in the daylight," John offered, giving Harry a reason to stay with them without admitting he was scared.
Harry picked up his bags and scampered into his parents' room, quickly putting on his pyjamas and getting ready for bed. Rodney came out of the bathroom and they tucked Harry in between them without discussion, holding hands with his husband over Harry's stomach.
-o0o-
After much discussion and support, Harry admitted that while he never wanted to go to Hogwarts or even back to Diagon Alley, he was curious about learning more about magic and what he could do, though he was also adamant that he wasn't going to Hogwarts or anywhere else those murderers were involved in.
"Dumb-as-a-door called his school the premier school of magic but that doesn't mean it is the best, Harvard and Yale and a few other colleges would tell you that their programs are the best in the world and while they might be right about at least one particular course the colleges as a whole don't have much between them, there have to be other schools of magic," John said, adopting Rodney's name for the headmaster, making Rodney and Harry grin.
"How are we supposed to find out about the American school of magic if it's so classified nobody can tell us about it? How do they find their students?" Rodney grumbled.
"They must have a way of detecting who has magic and can be told about their society. The Grangers said that nobody else in their family has had magic but they still knew to contact Hermione about attending Hogwarts," John said.
"They might have a way to be monitoring for magic," Ronon suggested.
"So, what, we find a private place and let the kid start making magic and see what happens?" Rodney scoffed.
"Well, it can't hurt," John said. "There's plenty of places on the trails at Dave's where he wouldn't be seen."
"We get to go riding," Harry cheered, high fiving his father.
"Yes of course, the trick will be getting out without Charli and Liesi," John replied.
"You know she wants to be called Annaliese, these days," Harry said.
"Yeah, but she'll forgive me," John replied smirking.
Harry just rolled his eyes knowing it was true. All of his cousins on both sides of the family adored their Uncle John.
-o0o-
They went out in the early morning, Rodney insisted on accompanying them though he wasn't fond of riding horses and complained bitterly about the time of morning before civilised people even thought of leaving their beds.
They reached a place where the path wound narrowly between tall trees and had several sharp bends, they couldn't be seen for more than a dozen feet in any direction and they'd hear someone coming long before they saw him. They tethered the horses a short distance away to avoid spooking them.
"What should I do? I'm sure that I've used magic while I was here last time and nobody came," Harry asked. He'd been thinking about it but he still wasn't sure what he wanted.
"I think they'll be looking for an uncontrolled burst of magic," Rodney suggested.
"Yeah, but most uncontrolled bursts are violent, I don't want to hurt you or the horses or take something away from the path that will be missed," Harry said.
"You could try to shield yourself from projectiles," John suggested smirking. "Rodney and I could throw mud at you to make sure your reaction seems instinctual and strong enough to attract attention."
Harry laughed.
How about you move that big rock that's fallen into the river and is obstructing the flow, is anyone notices they'll just assume that the force of the recent rains softened the support or something," Rodney suggested.
"I'll try that first. That rock ruined the swimming hole," Harry agreed. "I think I need to be above it though." He started climbing up the rocks.
Harry gave the rock a big push with his magic, using as much as he could. The rock went flying and crashed its way down the river breaking into pieces as it went. The water gushed down and started to refill the small deep pond area at the side of the stream that the Sheppard boys had enjoyed swimming in since John was young.
Three men armed with wands drawn popped into sight in a fighting formation each facing outwards. Rodney and John remained seated with their hands in sight as the men dismissed them as a threat or the source of the magic and turned to approach Harry.
"Are you alright?" they asked.
"Yes of course, I was just fixing the stream," Harry replied.
"We weren't aware of any magic users in this area," the first said.
"I don't live here, we're visiting Grandfather and my uncle and cousins," Harry said.
"Where do you live, son?"
"I'm not your son and you haven't introduced yourselves. You're also trespassing on my family property. What are you doing here?" Harry asked to distract them, hoping they wouldn't insist on an answer.
"We came in response to the outburst of accidental magic, I'm Alan Rustin from Wizarding child protection, and with me is Lloyd Colbert and Stuart Myles whose job it is to manage witnesses and protect the Statute of Secrecy," Alan introduced.
"By that do you mean that you're going to take away my Dads' memories of me doing magic?" Harry asked in a panic.
"You know about the statute?" Lloyd asked. "Then you know you shouldn't have used magic to move that rock."
"It was wrecking the swimming hole," Harry replied, as if that was a perfectly reasonable exception to the statute.
"Everyone will just assume that my father had someone have it moved or that the build up of water behind it dislodged the blockage and it broke up on its way down the hill," John said.
"You must be his brother?" Alan said questioningly. "Did you ask your brother to use magic to move the stone. Such a large force of magic could have hurt him."
"Did it hurt? Are you okay?" Rodney asked immediately.
"No of course it didn't hurt, I used as much magic as I could all at once but it felt fine," Harry replied.
"Did you ask him to move that stone?" Alan asked Rodney.
"We introduced ourselves and you are?" Stuart asked.
"I'm John Sheppard, this is my husband Rodney McKay and our son Harry. We asked Harry to try to use a lot of magic to try to attract attention because we didn't know how else to contact a witch or wizard in America to ask about an American school of magic or how to hire Harry a magical tutor. He decided that the best use of powerful magic would be to fix the swimming hole, rather than destroy something," John said.
"But you've heard of the wizarding world, you know what magic is?" Alan asked confused.
"Harry was born in England and we've mostly lived overseas. He received an invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but we weren't impressed with the lack of nonmagical education offered there," John replied.
"Does your grandfather know about magic, Harry?" Stuart asked.
"I've done magic in front of him," Harry replied misleadingly. It was true he'd done small amounts of magic in front of Patrick Sheppard but nothing his grandfather had noticed was abnormal.
"My father is used to dealing with classified information, both keeping the secrets he does know and understanding that he's not allowed to know the details of our work. He won't be a threat to your statute," John replied.
"We're not needed here then," Lloyd stated.
"No, thanks for accompanying me but I've got this," Alan replied.
Stuart and Lloyd nodded and apparated away as Alan pulled a briefcase out of his pocket and approached John and Rodney and Harry who'd now joined his parents.
"The American school of magic is called Illvermorny, and there are several magical shopping districts in America, the closest would be Boston," he said handing over several brochures.
John handed Rodney the brochure for the school and looked over the others they'd been given. A pamphlet about magical laws about interacting with mundanes, and directions to the entrances to magical shopping districts or travel portals. "Mundanes?" he said.
"The American Wizarding term for people without magic," Alan replied.
"It's just as insulting as muggle. I assure you that there's nothing mundane about my mind," Rodney huffed.
John and Harry laughed. "No we know, you're the smartest man on the planet, Papa," Harry replied.
"The shopping districts are Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. There's a travel portal in Washington DC and one in Denver," John said reading.
"Illvermorney has classes on English Literature, American History Latin, but only one Math class per year level and no nonmagical sciences," Rodney said looking at the school curriculum. "They do have tours though if you're curious enough to want to look at the school."
"How do we go about hiring a tutor?" John asked.
"You're not even going to consider Illvermorney?" Alan asked surprised.
"Rodney has PhD's in Engineering and Astrophysics from MIT and I have a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Stanford. Harry has been home schooled all his life, speaks four languages and is years ahead of his age group in sciences, technology and mathematics. He currently wants to be an Aeronautical Engineer. We may go and look at Illvermorny for curiosity's sake but from what I'm reading, the school isn't going to get him into MIT or Stanford even as a legacy student, or any other decent college. I'm happy for him to study magic, but not at the expense of the rest of his education," John replied.
Alan handed over another pamphlet, "Personally I believe Harry would benefit from spending some time at school to get to know other witches and wizards his age, but it is your choice. This is a magically updating list of the registered magical tutors who are available to take on another student. It you tap on the name you'll see a brief bio of their affinities and tutoring experience and the hours they're available. Many of them tutor part time around another position. It isn't unusual for a family to hire more than one tutor if a child has gifts in more than one area, but a general tutor would suit him best for first year to see where his strengths lie."
"Will it tell us whether they're comfortable moving in the nonmagical world?" John asked.
"Yes, those willing to travel to tutor their students in their own homes, especially mundane homes, will include that information," Alan replied.
"Thank you," Harry said.
"You're welcome, Harry, but next time you have questions, use one of the portals to the ministry or the department of education or the magical hospital, okay," Alan said.
"Okay Mr Rustin, now that we know about them, we can do that," Harry agreed smiling.
Alan nodded and apparated away and the Harry and his fathers collected the horses to ride home for breakfast.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited or gave Kudos to this story for your support.
