Disclaimer: 'Stargate' and 'Harry Potter' both belong to their respective creators, so I don't own them; I'm just borrowing them for the immediate moment in time and space
Feedback: I'd like it, believe me
AN: Just to escape any confusion, when I'm writing from the point of view of any wizarding characters, Daniel Jackson will be referred to as 'Harry', but will still be known as Daniel to the Stargate personnel; the wizards know him as Harry, so they'll continue to think of him that way, just as the SGC personnel will think of him by the name they've known him as for longest
Truth and Revelations
The next day, as Lupin stepped out of the jeep that had taken them from the airport to the mountain base that Harry- he still couldn't think of the man he'd met yesterday at the airport as anything but Harry, even if everyone else called him Daniel- had worked in for the past decade or so, he could only think of one word to describe the facility before him.
Remarkable.
Glancing over at the Weasley twins, his wife, Hagrid and Hermione, Lupin noticed that they, at least, looked just as awed at the sight of the mountain facility before them as he did; they'd mostly taken the opportunity to catch up on their sleep on the flight over here, and they'd been in separate cars from Harry and his new friends on the trip down here, so they hadn't had much chance to really talk with Harry about where he actually worked or what it was like.
Now that they were here, however…
Lupin had to admit, it was discoveries like this that helped him understand exactly why Arthur Weasley found muggles so fascinating. The thought that they could create an entire facility inside this mountain on their own, without any magical assistance, using only time, patience, and muggle mining technology…
It's hard not to be impressed at what they're capable of when they try, Lupin mused to himself, as he studied the tunnels that their cars had entered the facility by. They may not have magic, but that doesn't make them weak by any stretch of the imagination.
"Incredible, huh?" a voice said from behind him; glancing around, Lupin saw Harry's commanding officer- Cameron Mitchell, he believed the name was- standing behind him, looking at Lupin with a small smile. "Trust me; you wait 'til you see the stuff from the storeroom."
"Pardon?" Hermione put in, looking over at Mitchell in confusion. "Why would we be looking at stuff from a storeroom?"
"It's got some examples of the technology we've uncovered in the years since we started using the Stargate, Hermione," Harry put in from off to the side; Lupin had been so busy taking in his surroundings that he hadn't noticed Harry and the other members of… SG-1, he believed the name was… joining them as they waited for the elevators down to the main facility. "If you're going to be helping us deal with this new… alliance Voldemort seems to have set up with Hestia, it's best you know what her forces will probably be capable of in a fight."
"I contacted General Landry and asked him and Doctor Lee to prepare some of our alien technology for a demonstration for you all in the main briefing room," Samantha Carter put in, smiling slightly over at the group as the lift doors finally opened, allowing the group to step in; fortunately, it was large enough to accommodate all ten of them relatively easily, although Hagrid had to crouch slightly to fit. "You'll only get the essential details of what they use, but that should be enough to prepare you for what to expect."
"Only the essential details?" Hermione asked, looking somewhat apprehensively over at Samantha. "No offence, but the last time I went into a situation where I only knew the essentials, I ended up in a coma-"
"And on an occasion when we travelled to a Stargate address that Daniel Jackson had discovered was the location of a Goa'uld invasion of Earth, we knew nothing about what we would encounter at the other end, and yet we succeeded in averting the destruction of Earth while escaping from both ships," Teal'c put in, smiling slightly over at the wizards in a reassuring manner. "You may be assured that, in the situations we face on a regular basis, we are used to surviving confrontations even when we begin with only basic knowledge of the dangers we shall face on the other side; I am sure that the essential information shall be enough."
"Oh," Hermione said simply, after a moment's pause to take in what Teal'c had just said to her.
Then her eyes widened slightly as she looked back at Harry.
"Hold on a minute; you found the location of an alien invasion?" she asked, looking at him in confusion. "I thought you said you were just the archaeologist on this team; how did-"
"Firstly," Harry interrupted, glaring critically at Hermione with an intensity that Lupin had never seen on his face back in the old days, "I've become a more than competent soldier in my time here, and have taken part in a variety of field missions; just because my official role is to translate languages and look at artefacts doesn't mean that's all I do."
Then his serious expression faded and he just smiled casually at her. "Secondly, you have a point; it was rather unexpected for me to acquire that particular information. However, it was hardly a straightforward mission that gave me that information; long story short, I was accidentally sent into an alternate universe where I was never a member of the Stargate program and Earth was being attacked by the Goa'uld, found some information that included the Stargate address that the invasion had come from in the first place, and got back to this universe in time to avert the same invasion here."
"Uh… alternate universe?" Fred put in, looking over at Harry in confusion. "What's that all about?"
"Basically," Samantha interjected, looking over at Fred, "it ties into this theory held by many scientists that there are an infinite number of dimensions, each containing a different possibility of the reality we live in, diverging at every choice we make like forks in a road; say, for example, in some reality out there there's probably a reality where Ron and Ginny Weasley didn't die fighting this 'Voldemort' person, or a world where Daniel didn't decide to leave the… wizarding world," (Lupin noted that she was still clearly uncomfortable with the concept of magic, but was prepared to accept it for the moment) "or maybe even a world where some of you came with him and ended up working on the Program with us a long time ago. Somewhere out there, every decision we don't make in this world has been made, and, as a result, events in that world turned out very differently than they have in this one."
"In the first year of the program, Daniel Jackson discovered a device that we came to know as the Quantum Mirror, which allowed the user to travel to an alternate universe," Teal'c explained, taking up the story as the elevator neared its destination of the twelfth floor; if Lupin remembered correctly, they'd need to leave their current elevator here to change elevators for the rest of the descent down into the complex. "As he told you, when he came in contact with this mirror, he was sent to another world where he had never joined the Stargate Program, and eventually came back here with the Stargate address for the location where two Goa'uld motherships were waiting to launch an invasion against the Tau'ri."
"The wha?" George asked, looking at Teal'c in renewed confusion as the elevator finally stopped.
"The Tau'ri is the name given to your people by the Goa'uld," Teal'c explained, as the elevator stopped and they stepped out into the corridor that would take them to the other elevator. "In your language, the closest translation would be 'The First Ones'; your people originate on the first planet where the Goa'uld discovered the human race, and you have thus attained a somewhat legendary status among the Goa'uld even before Earth once again became involved in galactic affairs."
"Wait; we're legends?" Fred interjected, looking over at Teal'c with a broad smile on his face. "Cool!"
"Indeed," Teal'c said, nodding briefly at Fred before continuing. "With the information provided by Daniel Jackson, SG-1 was able to travel to that address and, with the aid of my teacher Bra'tac, we successfully destroyed both ships."
"Really?" Hermione said, looking over at Harry with a smile on her face. "Even after all these years, you're still saving the world?"
"Well… it's not exactly the same," Harry said, looking back at Hermione as he spoke. "For one thing… I chose to do it this time around."
"Eh?" Hagrid said, looking over at Harry in confusion. "What do yer mean by that?"
"Well… back when I fought Voldemort, I may have wanted to kill him even without the prophecy, but I still had to do it," Harry explained, as he looked back at his old friends while they stepped into the second elevator. "Some talks I had with Dumbledore helped me deal with my resentment of that fact, but I still felt as though I didn't really have a choice in the matter: Voldemort wanted to kill me, so I had to kill him; I'd been given that link with Voldemort without actually wanting it; I'd acquired this reputation as a great wizard without actually doing anything to earn it…"
He sighed, placing one hand against the elevator wall as he spoke- Lupin noted that they were heading down to level Twenty-Seven- and then glanced back at his old Hogwarts friends. "But here, at the SGC…"
He shrugged slightly as he smiled over at Samantha and Teal'c. "It may be just as hard, if not harder, than fighting Voldemort, but at least I chose to do it this time around, rather than having someone else make me do it."
"Oh," Hermione said, in a small, quiet voice as she looked at Harry.
Lupin had to admit, he thought he could understand how she felt; in all the time he'd known Harry, he'd never guessed that Harry felt like that about his role as the 'saviour of the wizarding world'. He knew that Harry was never exactly happy about the fact that he never had the chance to live a normal life, but he'd always assumed that Harry had come to accept it in the end; if nothing else, he hadn't seemed to complain much about what he'd had to do after Dumbledore's funeral.
Still… it made sense that Harry would have come to resent it, Lupin supposed; after all, as he'd said, he hadn't had much choice in the matter.
"So… what kind of people do you encounter in this kind of work?" Hermione asked, looking curiously at Harry. "I mean, apart from the obvious detail of those parasitic aliens posing as gods you told us about?"
"Well, we defeated them last year- we've got about one major Goa'uld left active and that's it- but we do still have the Asgard running about," Mitchell put in, casually grinning over in her direction, evidently enjoying the sight of her jaw dropping in shock as she stared at him.
"Wait; the Asgard?" she said, staring incredulously at SG-1's new commanding officer. "As in, the home of the Norse Gods? You're saying that the Norse Gods EXIST?"
"Well, 'Asgard' is actually the name of their species, rather than the name of their home- their planet's called Orilla- and they look like the stereotypical little grey big-eyed aliens rather than massive humans- that image was just a hologram they used until they knew a species was 'mature' enough to perceive their real form- but otherwise you're pretty much right," Mitchell replied, continuing to smile at Hermione's incredulous expression. "Actually, this entire program's on good terms with the Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet, who's commonly known to us on Earth as Thor; we've helped him out on-."
"Thor?" Fred and George yelled in surprise, surprised yet eager grins on their faces as they looked at Mitchell; somehow, the Lieutenant Colonel doubted they'd actually been paying much attention to anything he'd said after that name.
"You're telling us our esteemed financial backer is friends with an alien so advanced he was able to pose as the God of Thunder?" Fred said, looking over at Daniel with an increasingly broad grin on his face.
"Well, we're not close friends; Jack O'Neill- our commanding officer before Cameron- was the one who really made contact with them originally-" Daniel tried to interrupt.
"Daniel, they named their most advanced class of ship after you," Sam said, smiling over at him as the elevator drew ever closer to the meeting floor. "I think it's pretty clear that they hold you in just as high esteem as they do Jack these days."
"They named a ship after you?" Hermione said, staring at Daniel in ever-growing incredulity.
"Well, it's not like I asked them to do it…" Daniel said, smiling awkwardly at his old friend as the elevator stopped on the twenty-seventh floor and the doors opened. "Anyway, we're here now; let's go."
Casually attempting to ignore Fred and George's repeated attempts to ask for further information about the Asgard- he'd bring the matter up again if it was relevant, but not before- Daniel joined Sam as she opened the door to the main briefing room. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait for General Landry to show up; he was already sitting at the head of the table, looking patiently at them as they entered the room.
"Ah, there you are," he said, a small smile on his face as he stood up. "I heard from the entrance staff that you were coming and thought I should be here. I presume these are your old friends, Doctor Jackson?"
"Yes, they are," Daniel said, smiling slightly as he turned to look at his Hogwarts 'gang'. "General Landry, this Hermione Granger, Minister of Magic, Fred and George Weasley, pranksters extraordinaire, Rubeus Hagrid, gamekeeper and expert on any magic-related animal, and Remus and Tonks Lupin, expert dark-wizard-catchers- Lupin's also a werewolf, but that's neither here nor there."
Nothing Landry's somewhat sceptical look, Daniel smiled in a reassuring-yet-sheepish manner. "They're a mis-matched bunch, I know, but trust me; they're good at what they do."
"Doctor Jackson…" Landry sighed, as he looked critically at the younger man, "I don't doubt that they're competent, but we might have a problem in terms of them actually having anything to do here."
Daniel blinked.
"What?" he said, looking in surprise at his superior. "What do you mean?"
"I just got off the phone with Agent Woolsey before you all got back," Landry explained, Daniel opened his mouth to speak, but Landry raised a hand to stop him. "Don't worry, I didn't tell him about the wizard thing; I just said that we'd had a break-in by an Earth cult that you'd encountered in the past who'd discovered about the Stargate via unknown means- I made it clear that we're working on how that happened- and you'd contacted some old friends who knew that cult to help us deal with the problem…"
"And, in a nutshell, he told you that we need to focus on the Priors rather than some dumb human cult that thinks it can make an alliance with the remaining Goa'uld?" Mitchell put in, sighing in frustration as he glanced over at Sam and Daniel. "Some things never change; that guy never listens to us until it's too late…"
"Eh… who are we talkin' 'bout here?" Hagrid asked, looking in confusion at Daniel. "Woolsey? Priors?"
"Oh, Woolsey's a representative of the IOA- International Oversight Advisory, if you want to know- which was set up a few years back to monitor Stargate operations and ensure that we share any technology we acquire via the Stargate with the other countries involved," Sam explained, a slightly frustrated expression on her face. "Woolsey's the US member of the IOA, which essentially exists to review the actions we take in the field without actually understanding the risks we take in such a situation; they once insisted we keep a human who'd been genetically engineered into the ultimate soldier by an old enemy of ours on the base instead of just freezing him because they thought he might teach us how to counter the Priors in the field
"As for the Priors…" Mitchell said, sighing slightly as he looked at the wizards, "Well, with the fall of the Goa'uld, they're our new bad guys; Jackson can probably give you more info than I can."
His old friends glanced over inquiringly at him, and Daniel sighed as he began to explain.
"To put it simply," he said, as he looked around at them, "the Priors are enhanced humans with highly evolved brains- thus giving them access to enhanced mental abilities- who originate from another galaxy, and are now attempting to convince the entire Milky Way galaxy to follow their religion. The main 'catch' of this is that their religion involves worshipping beings of pure energy who draw power from the faith of their worshippers and kill anybody who doesn't believe they're the gods they claim to be."
Despite himself, Daniel couldn't help but once again enjoy the stunned look on Hermione's face as she stared incredulously at him; evidently she was finding it hard to believe, but was prepared to accept it at least for the moment.
Classic Hermione, Daniel thought to himself, smiling slightly. Can't really believe anything until she's got actual proof it exists…
"Fortunately," he continued, deciding he might as well put their minds at rest on the matter of the Priors, silently resolving to tell Hermione more about the Ori when the time was right, "there aren't that many of them- the Ori can only send one Prior to a world at a time, and we haven't seen any sign of them sending armies through the Stargates- but they're still a matter for concern. We've developed a means of briefly negating a Prior's powers, but they're still a very real threat to the post-Goa'uld galaxy, and we've been working on finding ways to stop them permanently for the last few months."
He sighed slightly as he leaned over a seat, staring at the wall before him. "But, right now, given that he's actually got a small army- both Death Eater and Jaffa- following him, coupled with the fact that he'll only be building it up by working with any Goa'uld he manages to find out there, Voldemort's got to be our more immediate priority."
"Agreed," Teal'c said, nodding as he looked at Daniel. "The Priors are dangerous, but they are only individuals; eliminating them serves to eliminate the danger they may pose, and that is the end of the matter. By contrast, if he is not dealt with soon, with his powers and followers, Voldemort may go on to become as great a threat as any Goa'uld; we cannot allow that to take place."
"Plus, there's the danger of what could happen if this sucker actually met a Prior…" Mitchell muttered to himself, before his eyes widened and he looked up rapidly at the others. "Sorry; shouldn't have said that; no point in giving us maybes to worry about…"
"No… as unpleasant a prospect as it is, it's something we need to consider, which makes it all the more apparent we ensure that Woolsey can't criticise us for 'wasting time' going after him," Daniel said, sighing as he looked over at Hermione. "Think we can use some of your Ministry contacts to make Woolsey see sense about the Voldemort situation? You know, convince him that Voldemort's an immediate threat who has to be dealt with, that we'll get back to the Priors as soon as possible, that kind of thing?"
Hermione shrugged. "Shouldn't be too difficult," she said nonchalantly as she looked over at Landry. "All you need to do, General, is tell this 'Woolsey' guy to ask the President to let the AMD- those exact words; the AMD- know that Hermione Granger of the BMM is giving this mission her full approval, as well as being prepared to vouch for its authenticity, and everything should be OK."
"Sorry; can we back up a bit here?" Mitchell interjected, looking inquiringly at Hermione. "Who or what are the BMM and the AMD?"
"The British Ministry of Magic and the American Magical Division respectively," Hermione replied, looking back at Mitchell. "Unlike the British Ministry of Magic, which formed long before the muggle one and has remained a separate entity ever since, the American wizarding government is incorporated directly into the muggle government. One of the founding fathers was a wizard- I can't say who, unfortunately; it's one of those things that the history books of the time fail to talk about much, probably because the Ministry of the time hated to give the impression that they were less than perfect- included a department of the government devoted to running the wizarding world without getting into conflict with the muggle President. In large scale magic-related matters in America, the AMD has full authority to make the final decision regardless of what the President thinks, but in general they try to cooperate with him while otherwise staying in the shadows; they won't make any official moves to interfere with his decisions, and he won't ask them for help unless he's sure he needs it."
"Oh, is that why we've never heard of them until now?" Sam put in, looking at Hermione with that eagerly curious expression that Daniel recognised whenever they made a prominent scientific discovery. "We've never needed to know about them, so they've never contacted us to offer their assistance?"
"Exactly," Hermione said, before looking over at Daniel with a small smile. "Though in all fairness, not even Harry here could have told you about them if he thought they were needed, for the simple reason that, up until I took office, the Ministry preferred to pretend to the general British wizarding public that the AMD didn't exist, so it's only American wizards who actually know anything about them."
She sighed in frustration. "Personally, I think some of the pure-blood families back then were just afraid that some of the muggle-borns would move over to America and try a reformation movement of some sort; the American wizard population mainly consists of those witches and wizards who resented some of the restrictions in the British wizarding world."
Noting the curious glances of the rest of SG-1, Hermione shrugged. "It's like racism and sexism in the muggle world, really; just because there weren't any actual rules against muggle-borns getting anywhere back in the old days didn't mean that some people didn't pass over muggle-borns in favour of 'pure-bloods' when the time came to promote people to better positions. I've been working on reformation programs since I started my career as Minister, but there's some way to go before I stamp out all the corruption that had taken over the Ministry prior to me taking office."
"Ah," Mitchell said, before he shrugged and turned back to Landry. "Anyway, now that we've got that out the way, shall we get on with the demonstrations?"
"Of course," Landry said, smiling casually at the wizards. "With Colonel carter away, we've had the second-in-command of our science department- a Doctor Bill Lee- prepare a brief explanation of the traditional Goa'uld weaponry you're likely to be facing; he'll be here in a minute or two, so feel free to take your seats."
The wizards had only just sat down in the various chairs- Hagrid had to remain standing, but otherwise everybody, wizard and SG-1 member alike, was sitting around the table- when the briefing room door opened, admitting the short, slightly overweight form of Doctor Lee walked into the briefing room, carrying the default weapons of the Goa'uld in his hands.
"Ah, good to meet you all," he said, nodding briefly at the new arrivals before he took up his position at the end of the table. "General Landry has already explained the essential details of the situation to me; I understand you're some old friends of Doctor Jackson, here to help us deal with an Earth cult who've allied themselves with the remaining Goa'uld?"
"Essentially, yes," Lupin said, nodding in the affirmative at the man before him, privately noting that the man hadn't specifically mentioned the 'wizard' part of their presence; either he didn't know, or he was just not thinking about it.
Of course, given that he kept on looking at their wands, placed on the tables before them, with a mixture of disbelief and awe, the odds seemed good that this 'Doctor Lee' did know what they were…
"So, what can you tell us about the weapons we're likely to be dealing with?" Tonks put in, breaking off Lupin's train of thought; for all her clumsiness, when it came to combat, Tonks could cut straight to the point like few people of Lupin's acquaintance.
"Well, SG-1 can probably give you just as good an idea, but I'll do what I can at the moment" Doctor Lee said, placing the smaller weapons on the table and picking up a long staff. "This is a staff weapon, the default Goa'uld weapon of choice. This weapon uses a sample of liquid naquadah- a rare mineral that serves as the power source for many Goa'uld technology- to fire concentrated bursts of plasma at the target, rarely causing a wound that is less than fatal. Admittedly, it lacks the accuracy of our weapons, but it's still a dangerous weapon, pretty much unable to run down in a fight situation.
"Zat guns, on the other hand," Lee continued, placing the staff down and picking up the zat, "have the general advantages of being smaller, more compact, and being debilitating wherever they hit you; one shot knocks you out, the second kills, and the third disintegrates your body."
"Charming," Tonks muttered, wincing slightly as she looked at the admittedly rather stylish-looking gun.
"Then, of course, there's this," Doctor Lee continued, picking up "While not exactly a weapon, the hand device is the customary personal weapon of the Goa'uld themselves; when used properly, the hand device can torture people by probing their minds, emit a shockwave that sends people flying, generate a shield that deflects most weapons, and serve as a remote activator for most Goa'uld technology. As mentioned, it can only be used by anybody who's been a host to a Goa'uld symbiote- or, of course, is a host at present- but their rarity doesn't make them any less dangerous."
"We also have the various assorted Goa'uld ships, but since we'll be handling that side of things, we won't go into too much detail there; you needed to know what the hand-held weapons can do, and you've got that," Mitchell finished, smiling casually at the wizards sitting around him. "So, what do you think?"
Staring at the weapons before her for a moment, her chin in her hand as she nodded thoughtfully, Hermione finally glanced over at Daniel with an inquiring expression.
"Have you ever tried using magic against these?" she asked, indicating the weapons lying before them. "The Shield Charm for the staff blasts, Stunners for the hand device, that kind of thing?"
Daniel shook his head.
"No, never; I never really needed to use magic before Voldemort showed up, to be honest," he said, before he noticed Sam's expression- a critical-yet-amused glare in his direction- and amended his earlier sentence. "I mean, I never actually had my wand on me before now- I was trying to get on in the world without my magic, after all- so I haven't really had the chance to see what effect charms would actually have on Goa'uld technology."
"Right then," Hermione said, nodding briefly as she looked back at Landry. "Any chance we could borrow a couple of those to see how our spells work against them?"
"Of course," Landry said, before glancing over at Daniel, Teal'c and Carter. "Colonel Carter, Teal'c, you three help them out with that; Colonel Mitchell, Doctor Jackson, once they're finished, you're in charge of giving our new friends a quick 'crash course' in working on an SG team."
"Check," Mitchell said, nodding in confirmation as he glanced over at his teammates. "That OK with you?"
"Seems fine," Daniel said, nodding in agreement as he turned to look at his old friends. "Fine with you?"
"Sure thing," Hermione said, backed up by supporting nods from the other wizards. Then she smiled casually as she glanced over at Carter. "Plus, I wouldn't mind learning more about what Harry's been up to over the last few years…"
Somehow, when he saw the grin on Hermione's face, the man once known as Harry Potter wasn't sure if he should be more concerned about Hermione and Sam exchanging stories about him than he should be concerned about Voldemort's resurrection; at lest Voldemort couldn't potentially humiliate him to the woman he-
Not going to think about that, remember? Daniel criticised himself, as he and the others stood up, ready to leave the briefing room. He had enough issues on his plate with his oldest enemy coming back to life; he did not need to start thinking about something that he could never achieve on top of everything else.
"Well, let's go," Mitchell said casually as he looked around at the others. "Only got time to give you the basics- I doubt we want to give this Voldemort guy any more time than we have to- so we'll just take a couple of hours and then be off, OK?"
"Agreed," Landry said, nodding in affirmative at the various men and women before him. "I'll have the gate ready to be dialled in a couple of hours; I'll let you know when we're ready for you."