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
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Truth and Revelations
As the familiar forms of SG-1 came back through the Stargate, followed closely by the less-familiar-but-nevertheless-friendly forms of Doctor Jackson/Harry Potter/whatever he wanted to be called these days' friends (With people literally floating around them in varying states of unconsciousness), Landry made a mental note that his next report to Homeworld Security would definitely require him to ask one of their wizarding allies for the name of a magical contact in the government. He might have been able to get away with allowing the wizards through the Stargate- he'd managed to bypass the usual procedures to grant clearance due to the apparent lack of paperwork on the wizarding world's inhabitants; how could he grant clearance to people who didn't seem to officially exist?- but keeping this many prisoners in the SGC would definitely require him to make contact with somebody who knew about the magical world already.
Minister Granger may be out of commission- he'd seen her being carried by the red-haired twins as he'd entered the 'gate room- but he was pretty sure that 'Tonks'- who seemed to have a slightly different hair style or colour every time he saw her; he'd have to ask her about that- would be able to tell him what he needed to know when the time came; from what he'd gathered she was another member of the British branch of the wizarding government.
"Colonel Carter," he said, turning his attention towards the highest-ranking conscious member of SG-1; he may trust the wizards, but he'd still prefer to rely on his own team to deliver an accurate assessment of what had just taken place. "Based on the fact that I see no sign of this 'Voldemort' person you all described in your last report, I take it that the mission didn't go as well as we could have hoped?"
"Up to a point, sir," Sam replied, as she placed the unconscious Doctor Jackson onto a stretcher provided by one of the medical teams before turning back to him. "We managed to take out most of the Death Eaters and Jaffa who came after us- the wizards used Shield Charms to deflect the worst of the blasts while we fought back- but Daniel, Cam and Miss Granger went on ahead to check out the temple and were apparently ambushed by that Death Eater over there." She briefly indicated the unconscious form of a man around Doctor Jackson's age, with almost white hair and bruises all over. "From what we saw, it looks like he managed to take them by surprise in the temple where Voldemort and Hestia were earlier; he's apparently not a very competent duellist, so Tonks doubts that he could have taken them on in a fair fight."
"I see…" Landry said, nodding thoughtfully at the head of his science department as he glanced over at the body before turning to look at Tonks, who was now standing beside Sam and looking at him. "You're saying you and your associates all know this man who attacked Doctor Jackson?"
Tonks nodded. "Pretty well, really; his father was in Voldemort's inner circle during his initial reign of terror, and he was pretty much Harry's 'counterpart'- you know, everything Harry was for Gryffindor House while they were in school, he was or tried to be the same for Slytherin- for the duration of their school career," she explained. "Guy lacked the killing instinct to really do anything at the time- he once had a perfect opportunity to kill Voldemort's main opponent back then and didn't take it-, but he seems to have acquired a few more guts judging by the damage he did to them in the temple; it's possible he's more competent and ruthless than we remember him being, although it seems that Harry's still the better fighter of the two."
"Right then," Landry said, nodding briefly at Tonks before he turned to look at Lupin. "Did you or your associates recognise anybody else among the Death Eaters' ranks at the time of the attack as being a potentially prominent member of the organisation? If we're going to start asking questions, the higher-ranking a member we can interrogate the better."
Lupin shook his head. "No, Malfoy seems to be the highest-ranking member of the old guard in this team; none of the Death Eaters here had even left school at the time of Voldemort's last war, and at least half of them don't even have any family ties to the original group," he explained, as he indicated Mafloy once again. "From everything we've seen, it looks like Malfoy's the most likely candidate to question if we want to learn anything more about what we're dealing with."
"Interrogate Malfoy?" Fred- or George; Landry was still getting his head around just how alike those two looked, never mind how to figure out a way to tell them apart- said, grinning broadly as he looked at the general; he and his twin had come through the Stargate while Landry was talking to Carter, Lupin and Tonks, but the other one and Hagrid had apparently gone with Teal'c to take the rest of the temporarily expanded SG-1 to the medical bay. "I'd be willing to give that a shot, sir!"
"No," Lupin said, glaring over at 'Fred' with narrow eyes. "You are not going to interrogate anybody, Fred; you're not a professional investigator, you're totally unqualified-"
"And I believe such a decision is my choice to make?" Landry interrupted, looking critically at Lupin as he spoke, causing the three wizards to turn back to look at him. "I acknowledge your superior knowledge of our latest enemy in the field, gentlemen, but when it comes to matters within the base itself, the final decision on any action we take in this current campaing is mine. As long as you're working with us, you'll adhere to the rules and chain of command of the Stargate program, understood?"
"Uh… sure thing," Fred said, nodding slightly uncertainly at Landry before he glanced over at Lupin, as though waiting for a cue or hint of what he should do next. Lupin, however, seemed perfectly relaxed about the whole thing; he simply nodded in acknowledgement of Landry's point, not even offering a token resistance to the idea of taking orders from him.
"A reasonable request, General Landry; we shall remember that," the werewolf said, shooting a brief glare at Malfoy before he looked back at Landry. "However, if you are going to interrogate Mr Malfoy, I have a recommendation for something that might help your staff get the answers we need from him if he initially proves to be… uncooperative to your interrogation."
For a moment, Landry paused, and then nodded in acceptance.
"All right," he said, nodding at the werewolf. "Just so long as nothing you have to recommend will cause any long-term damage to our prisoners' health, I'll accept your suggestions. Clear?"
"Of course," Lupin nodded in response. "I'll explain everything, I assure you."
An hour or so later, Sam stood outside the interrogation room where they'd placed Malfoy, quickly going over everything she needed to ask him if they were going to further their knowledge of this situation. The guards were stationed outside the room in the event that Malfoy tried anything, his wand had been removed, their wizarding allies had provided potions to treat the worst of the injuries so that he could answer any questions they had without trying to get out on the grounds that he was in too much pain, and, if he refused to answer any of her questions…
Well, thanks to the supplies Lupin had offered them, they had an insurance policy if things didn't go the way they'd planned.
Sam didn't like it, but there it was; if he wouldn't give them anything useful willingly, thanks to their wizard allies, they had other means they could resort to.
Nodding briefly at the guards on either side of her, she stepped forward and opened the door in front of her, revealing Malfoy on the other side, handcuffed to a chair as he stared at the door, his eyes narrowed in rage.
"Draco Malfoy of the Death Eaters, correct?" Sam asked, looking inquiringly at him as she shut the door. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, of the United States Air Force-"
"And Potter's bit on the side, am I right?" the wizard interrupted, glaring spitefully up at her, his expression making it clear that he felt as though he was talking to a trained ape rather than a human being.
Sam blinked.
"Excuse me?" she said, wondering if she'd misheard or misinterpreted his statement. He couldn't honestly have thought that Daniel and her were… involved… in that sense; he must have just defaulted to a naturally hostile state due to his current condition.
"You heard me; his reaction about losing people he loves suggests he must have somebody else he feels that way about," Malfoy stated, his voice practically dripping contempt as he looked at her. "I don't know how he can stand it; first that Chinese idiot who wouldn't stop crying over a pathetic blood traitor, than the blood-traitor redhead, and now a lowly muggle? What kind of pathetic wizard-"
"From what I've heard, that 'pathetic wizard' has already defeated your so-called 'Dark Lord' twice where everybody else failed," Sam retorted, glaring at the man before she as she tried to restrain herself from punching him in the face; she may not like him, but she still had to stick to the rules during this interrogation, no matter how much she may hate this moron for what he was implying about her friend.
"Correction; he defeated the Dark Lord when the Dark Lord had yet to fully ascend to the status that was his right," Malfoy retorted, looking up at her with an almost fanatical gleam in his eyes, of the kind she hadn't seen since they'd first started to travel through the Stargates and seen the devotion some people had to their 'gods'. "Now that he has returned from the netherworld that Potter foolishly tried to banish him to, the Dark Lord has at last ascended to the godhood and authority that he long deserved, and there is nothing that-"
"Wait a minute; godhood?" Sam interrupted, looking at Malfoy inquiringly. She had a pretty good idea where this avenue of inquiry would lead, of course- if Voldemort had somehow become a Goa'uld, it seemed likely that he would have absorbed the Goa'uld genetic arrogance, as well as at least some of their knowledge- but she wanted to have a bit more to go on with before she knew either way. "What do you mean by that?"
"What else could I mean by that, mudblood?" Malfoy said, a broad, fanatical grin on his face as he looked up at her. "No man can return from death, but the Dark Lord has achieved it- twice, I might add- no matter what fate befell him after his last appearance in battle! He has knowledge that no other wizard has ever possessed, and powers beyond anything even that fool Dumbledore dreamed of! He is-"
"An alien parasite," Sam interjected once again, her eyes narrowed as she glared at the man before her. "He's not a god, Mr Malfoy; he's just an alien slug who hides in people's bodies because he doesn't have one of his own. Maybe he's mentally the same person he was, but I can assure you of one thing; Voldemort has not returned from the dead because he suddenly became a god."
Malfoy snorted at her as though he was trying to stop himself from laughing.
"Do you truly expect me to believe that demented story, you dirty little mudblood?" he asked, staring at her as though she was nothing more than something unpleasant he'd found on his shoe. "Aliens do not exist; they are simply the pathetic delusions of mudbloods who cannot accept that there is something they cannot understand on this pathetic planet, and so turn to the stars of all things for answers-"
"Then how do you explain your little 'trip' to where we captured you?" Sam retorted, leaning forward, hoping that she'd manage to intimidate this moron through sheer force of will if nothing else. "You weren't anywhere on Earth after you stepped through the Stargate-"
"There are tales of mystical realms where the gods-" Malfoy began.
Sam punched him once in the face, stood up, and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
"Get Lupin down here with that… potion… he said we could use if interrogation didn't work," she said, trying to maintain an authorative attitude; she was here to get a job done, not to pummel that… idiot… into the ground for being unable to accept anything that didn't seem to fit with what he'd been told. "He's proving uncooperative at the moment; hopefully, if he has to tell the truth, we'll be able to get something useful out of him instead."
Nodding in confirmation, one of the guards walked away from the door, leaving Sam standing in front of the makeshift 'cell' in his place, her gaze fixed grimly on the door in front of her. According to their wizarding allies, they'd installed magical 'wards' around the base that would prevent their captives from escaping whenever they wanted- Sam had already made a mental note to try and find out whether those wards could block transporter technology as well as… magical… means of moving about when this crisis was over-, so all she had to worry about was him trying to break out of the base the normal way.
Of course, she strongly doubted that he'd actually manage that- Malfoy didn't really strike her as the type who regularly engaged in any kind of physical activity, no matter how much he may brag about his own superiority to her in every way-, but even amateurs could sometimes land a lucky blow in an escape attempt.
A few moments later, the soldier came back, carrying a phial of clear liquid in one hand and a zat gun and a smaller green bottle in the other one. The clear liquid was undoubtably the truth potion Lupin had offered them, but Sam wasn't entirely sure what the contents of the green bottle were for.
"Mr Lupin told me that you'd probably need these if you're going to make him take the potion," the man explained as he passed the objects to Sam. "The contents of the green bottle should apparently revive the prisoner after he's been knocked out by the zat gun, and you can give him the truth serum while he's unconscious; just a few drops should do the trick."
"Thanks," Sam said, nodding briefly as she took the offered objects, slipping the phials into her pockets as she stared grimly at the zat gun in her hand.
She knew that her job was important, but there were definitely times when she wished that somebody else could make the trickier moral decisions for her. Sometimes, the hardest part of being a hero wasn't witnessing other people die physically; it was having to run the risk of letting yourself die morally, as you committed all kinds of morally questionable actions in the name of victory. No matter how good your motives were, the fact remained that you were often committing the very actions you condemned the other side for just to further your own agenda; the fact that you were doing this to save people rather than hurt them didn't quite make up for it, as far as Sam was concerned.
But, with Daniel currently in the medical bay having sustained some potentially serious head trauma, she found it surprising easy to push her morals to the side for the moment.
As soon as she re-entered the room, Malfoy still sitting casually behind the chair where he'd been when she'd left him, Sam didn't hesitate; she raised the zat gun, activated it, and fired it at him, her face grim as he slumped down in the chair, unconscious. Walking up to stand beside him, Sam tipped a few small drops of the clear liquid into his mouth, waited a few moments to allow the potion to take effect, and subsequently tipped the other potion down the man's throat.
As he blinked his eyes open, his expression now somewhat vague, as though he was only dimly aware of where he was, Sam sat down opposite him, going over her questions once more. She had to admit to herself that, given his apparent fanatical devotion to Voldemort, it was unlikely that he really knew the truth about Voldemort's resurrection- he genuinely seemed to have believed all that talk about Voldemort being a god-, but it couldn't hurt to try.
"Right then, Mr Malfoy," she said, staring authoritively at him as she made herself comfortable in her chair. "Can you tell me how and when Voldemort made contact with you after his last… death?"
"He came to my mansion one night, around two years ago, when I was alone and contemplating my next move," Malfoy replied, his voice almost blank; Sam had encountered robots who displayed more emotion than he was displaying at the moment. "He told me that he had discovered ancient lost creations by the wisest of wizards, and intended to use them to make us greater and more feared than ever before. All he required of me was my service, along with those of us who remained faithful to him after his last defeat, and in exchange he would grant us power and authority over more mudbloods and inferiors than we could ever have imagined even existed in our last campaign."
"I see," Sam said, trying to contain her disgust at his attitude; as much as she hated what this guy was talking about right now, she didn't want to find out what would happen if she started yelling at him about how she really felt about his attitude given his current state. "What 'lost creations' were these?"
"Magical artefacts that could do things none of us had ever dreamed possible," Malfoy continued, his mouth twitching slightly into a smile as he spoke. "Some of them lacked power, but he assures us that he will restore them to use when the time is right. They include a glove that can restore whoever the wearer wishes to full health, while its counterpart can cause extreme pain… a cabinet that can bring anyone inside back from death… massive wands capable of delivering death at a far greater distance…"
"I see," Sam said, raising one hand to stop him; the descriptions all matched some of the more traditional examples of Goa'uld technology, so she doubted that Vodlemort had access to anything they hadn't seen already. "Can you tell us where Voldemort went after he departed the… temple?"
"He and the other god- a lesser one to him, of course, but she was a goddess nevertheless- travelled to another location through the great ring, taking some of his army with him and leaving us to secure the new centre of our great rule," Malfoy continued, once again looking supremely satisfied with himself as he spoke. "Once he has achieved his destiny, we shall join him at his side and shall be honoured by him beyond the dreams of any wizards before or since."
"Can you show us the symbols he used to make the 'great ring' work?" Sam asked, pushing a piece of paper and a pencil towards him.
"Of course," Malfoy replied, nonchalantly drawing the symbols on the piece of paper in front of him in a matter of seconds, with no hesitation or uncertainty. Sam was prepared to bet that this potion he'd been given was permitting him to directly access his subconscious memories of the symbols that Voldemort had dialle dinto the DHD, as it was the only explanation for how he was able to do such detailed sketches of the symbols when he could only have seen them briefly.
"Thank you," Sam said once he'd finished, taking the picture back from him and briefly glancing over it. The seventh symbol could obviously be discarded as being the point of origin, but otherwise it looked like they were well on their way to making progress in tracking their new villain; if they had the address of the planet he went to after departing his first destination, they at least had a good chance of catching some more of his followers.
Of course, the fact that Malfoy still clearly believed that Voldemort was actually a god made it a bit harder for them to determine how he'd come back from his last battle with Daniel- or Harry, as he'd been known back then-, but Sam was confident that they'd find that out eventually.
All she could do right now was hope that, when they discovered the reason for his apparent resurrection, it wasn't too late to do them some good in the fight…
AN: OK then, if anyone has any particular planet they'd like Voldemort to have travelled to- preferably one that featured something prominent involving the Goa'uld-, just let me know in the reviews and I'll see what I can do