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: OK, at this point I would just like to clarify that everything you don't witness taking place here- such as Daniel and Bra'tac's meeting with Maz'rai or Teal'c's confrontations with Ba'al (Voldemort's still getting used to thinking on a galactic scale and hasn't learned everything about the Jaffa yet- his 'genetic knowledge' from the symbiote is a few centuries out of date- so he's not involved in this particular crisis at all)- happened the same way it did in the original episode; I'll reference it where it's needed, but I just couldn't be bothered rewriting everything after how long it took to finish this chapter
Truth and Revelations
Daniel had to give this for the SGC; he might become frustrated that they had to answer to the IOA these days, but he couldn't deny that they got things done a lot faster than the wizarding government had once done. While he acknowledged that his professional reputation had more of an impact here than his fame had back then- coupled with the obvious fact that the government didn't 'need' to ignore him to look good for the general public as the Stargate program's existence was restricted-, the fact remained that, for all their faults, the IOA were at least quicker to respond to a more definite threat than the Ministry had been to respond to Voldemort back in the day.
They might spend more time debating about finding someone to blame when things went wrong, but at least they took more action to make sure things went right…
"I've recalled Colonel Carter and SG-3 from Chulak," General Landry said, breaking into Daniel's train of thought as he turned back to look at the SGC's current commander. "Do we have any idea how widespread this brainwashing might be?"
"It is not possible to tell," Bra'tac said regretfully. "But it explains how many alliances have drifted so dramatically over the course of the last three weeks."
"For all we know, half the High Council may have been compromised," Daniel continued, looking grimly around the room at the small group of people present; Mitchell was still away doing whatever he was up to while on leave, but Hagrid, Fred, George and Tonks had joined the meeting after they'd been woken up and filled in on what had taken place during the last few hours (As well as Fred and George being warned not to try and give Bra'tac anything until the current crisis was resolved; Harry doubted the Jaffa master would appreciate being temporarily turned into a canary no matter how amusing the twins thought it might be).
"And you think these 'Goa'uld' suckers are the ones behind this?" Fred asked, looking curiously back at Daniel.
"Fairly sure, anyway; Voldemort hasn't been out in the galaxy long enough to get a real feel for the political situation out there, so I don't think he's the one responsible," Daniel said, before he shrugged slightly. "Besides, we've all seen people under the Imperius curse; they might be good agents if you want someone to attend to basic tasks or the like, but I don't see them being able to make eloquent speeches about their actions like what we've been hearing from these people."
"And the people involved have been doing that?" Tonks asked curiously.
"If we are to assume that all who have turned against our cause have done so against their will, that would indeed appear to be the case," Bra'tac said, nodding in confirmation at Tonks.
"Well… that's somethin', righ'?" Hagrid said, looking over at Daniel. "I mean, if they ain't doin' this because they want ter…?"
"The last time we encountered this sort of thing, Teal'c only broke his conditioning by being taken to the point of death, and that was when he had a symbiote we could use to help him recover after he snapped out of it," Daniel explained, looking solemnly over at the half-giant. "With his symbiote gone now, the chances of us pulling it off again aren't going to be easy…"
"Do not despair, Daniel Jackson," Bra'tac said, directing a reassuring gaze at the archaeologist. "That Teal'c overcame such manipulation in the past will hopefully aid him in his efforts to resist its effects on this occasion."
"Which could actually put his life at greater risk," General Landry added, looking pointedly over at the Jaffa leader.
Daniel didn't need to ask what his superior meant by that; if whoever was behind this- even if the evidence suggested that it wasn't Voldemort; he was fairly certain that the Imperius Curse was generally harder to detect in this kind of situation, given that brainwashing required a long-term effort while the curse was a simple case of 'point-and-say-it' when it worked- thought that Teal'c was being too difficult to control, he could very easily decide to kill the Jaffa warrior as being more trouble than he was worth.
"Look, you said that other people had done a rapid change on their original opinions on the situation; isn't it possible you could get them to break their… conditioning?" Tonks asked, looking uncertainly at the Jaffa master. "I mean, I know it's a long shot, but right now anything you could do to help right now would be great; we're operating at a serious disadvantage here…"
For a moment Bra'tac merely sat in silence, evidently lost in thought at the possibilities offered by Tonks' suggestion, before he nodded resolutely.
"It is as good a strategy as any," he said at last. "I will first consult the hall of records, and then I must confront those who have been affected."
Daniel could only hope this paid off; his memories of Teal'c's state when he'd gone through the Rite they were planning to 'encourage' the Jaffa involved in this plot to endure were not pleasant…
As Hermione walked down the corridor towards the hospital room where Mitchell was currently staying, she couldn't help but wonder why she was doing this.
With Harry- or Daniel; she still wasn't certain what she should call him, even if he didn't seem to object to either name; she was just sticking with Harry when she was alone with him for familiarity's sake- currently visiting this Jaffa councillor with Bra'tac in the hopes of finding more information about what had happened to Teal'c, the rest of the wizarding group had decided to give the SG teams a few more pointers about fighting Death Eaters.
Hermione, however, had decided against the combat training- mainly because she was a little out of practise herself; her magic use the last few years had been in other matters than conflict, ranging from her period as the new Transfiguration teacher after McGonagall's promotion to Headmistress to her efforts in re-organising the Ministry-, instead deciding to try and drop in on Colonel Mitchell. With what she'd heard about his old friend's injury- shrapnel to the brain causing an aneurysm; definitely not a pleasant thing to happen to anybody-, she had decided to find out more about the wound in case magic could provide the help that alien technology apparently hadn't been able to so far.
That's not the only reason, though, is it…? a voice said from the back of her mind.
Hermione pushed that thought off; it had been years since she'd given… that… any thought- trying to rebuild an entire government from practically the ground up didn't exactly leave room for a social life-, given that she'd never really found the time to commit to anybody after Ron had died, but this was not the time to start thinking about that.
Still… she couldn't deny, there was something about Colonel Mitchell's casual humour in the face of danger and upheaval- Harry's revelation about his real past had essentially turned his world upside-down- that she couldn't help but find somewhat appealing.
Besides, after spending so long establishing herself in the wizarding world, it was rather refreshing to meet someone who didn't have any preconceptions about what she was like as a person…
Turning into the room that the hospital staff had told her was the room where Mitchell's friend was currently residing, Hermione smiled slightly at the sight of Mitchell lying on the bed nearest the door with an Air Force magazine draped over his chest- she was unable to stop herself briefly remembering the times Ron had dozed off reading something while they were dating-, before her eyes shifted to his roommate, who was currently talking to Mitchell about something.
"…point is," the man was saying, so focused on his friend he was apparently unaware of her arrival, "I know that whatever you're into, it's big ... I mean it's bigger than we ever dreamed of back when we were cadets and we swore that blood oath that we would make it into the Space Programme or die trying…"
Apparently having only just registered Hermione's presence- not that she could blame him; from what she'd heard about his condition the poor man probably had trouble just focusing on one line of thoughtsometimes-, the man turned to look at her, apparently following Mitchell's gaze (Hermione briefly felt underdressed in her simple black shirt and loose jeans, but shook that off; why should she care about her appearance?).
"Well, hello there," the other man said, smiling slightly at her. "Captain Bryce Ferguson- technically, anyway; been out of action for so long it probably doesn't count any more-; you are?"
"Oh… Hermione Granger," Hermione said, walking over to shake the man's hand, smiling back at him before reminding herself that the man before her didn't actually know what Mitchell did for a living and anything she'd heard earlier could have been nothing but speculation on his part at best. "I'm… well, I'm technically working with Colonel Mitchell here at the moment; I'm temporarily working with him at his… project…"
"You mean with the alien thing, huh?" Ferguson said, smiling slightly at her.
"The… the what?" Hermione asked, after a brief glance at Mitchell- who was urgently waving one hand at her in a 'no' gesture- confirmed that the other man was only guessing about the alien thing. "I… look, I really don't know what you're talking about…"
"Eh, don't worry about it; Official Secrets and all that, huh?" Ferguson said, smiling nonchalantly at her before he glanced back over at Mitchell. "Hey, what are you still doing here when there's a hot bird hanging around?"
"What?" Hermione and Mitchell yelled simultaneously, only to cut themselves off when Ferguson simply smiled at them.
"Joke," he said simply, before he indicated the door to his room. "Anyway, now that you're here, maybe you could convince this nut to get out of here and eat something?"
"Ferguson…" Mitchell began.
"Cam," Ferguson replied, looking solemnly over at his old friend. "Burning yourself out while waiting for me to die isn't going to help anything. At least try and eat something, OK?"
Hermione hated the resigned tone in the other man's voice- the concept of someone just… waiting for death seemed so wrong to her after everything she'd done to stop people dying in her lifetime-, but right now there wasn't anything she could do about that; the best thing she could do was make sure Mitchell did what his friend had asked and tried to eat something. Glancing over at Mitchell, Hermione jerked a thumb over to the door of the room, prompting Mitchell to get up with a slight smile and walk out of the room with her.
"So… what are you doing here?" he asked as they stepped out into the corridor, a sceptical look on his face. "I mean, not that it's not nice to know some kind of government official likes me- even if it's not in my government-, but don't you have… other things… to do?"
"Oh, the rest of my… group… are dealing with that side of things well enough; I haven't done much fighting since I was younger anyway," Hermione said, shrugging slightly as she looked at the colonel. "Since I didn't think I'd contribute much at that end, I thought I'd check up on how things were going here, see if there was anything I could do at this end…"
Noting Mitchell's quizzical expression, she shrugged. "Well, I studied a bit to become a Healer before I settled into a Ministry career; I thought that I might be able to use something I learned back then to help Ferguson if I got a better idea of what was wrong with him."
"Oh," Mitchell said, pausing for a moment before he smiled slightly uncertainly at her. "Thanks; I appreciate it."
"Everything OK here?" a woman's voice suddenly asked, prompting Mitchell and Hermione to turn around, the speaker swiftly revealing herself to be a woman about Hermione's age dressed in a white doctor's coat and turquiose 'scrubs' (Hermione thought that was the expression, anyway; most of the people she knew who had suffered injuries in the last few years had been treated in St Mungo's), with light brown skin and a slightly weathered-looking face.
"Uh… fine, thanks," Mitchell confirmed, nodding at the woman.
"I see," the woman replied- Hermione noted an accent that she thought was Indian in the woman's voice- before she turned to look at Hermione. "Doctor Kelly; you are?"
"Hermione Granger," Hermione said, shaking the other woman's hand. "I'm…"
"She's a consultant," Mitchell said, stepping forward slightly to take up the explanations, evidently realising that Hermione wasn't certain what Doctor Kelly might or might not be aware of (She knew that the staff here were aware of the Stargate Program, but that was about it) and stepping in with a cover story. "We recently ran into some… well, a rather tricky new situation out there, and Miss Granger was brought in because she… has some experience with what we're dealing with; she heard about Ferguson and came down to get a better idea of what's wrong with him."
"Ah," Doctor Kelly said, nodding slightly at Hermione in understanding- evidently she was used to not knowing the full details of situations involving the Stargate- before turning back to Mitchell. "Well, since we all seem to be here for Mr Ferguson, now's as good a time as any to tell you this; I got the results back from the CAT scan."
"And?" Mitchell asked, unable to conceal the apprehension he clearly felt about the news he was about to hear (Hermione almost reached over to take his hand and attempt to offer some kind of comfort before stopping herself; she'd barely known the man for a week, it wasn't her place to try something like that).
"Well," Doctor Kelly began, her tone a neutral one that clearly delivered the information without lending any clues as to whether the final result would be positive or negative, "it pretty much confirmed Mr Ferguson's own doctor's findings; the shrapnel originally lodged itself across an intra-cranial artery, and, over the course of the next few years, formed the aneurysm. Given its size and relative position…"
Doctor Kelly paused for a brief moment, clearly wishing there was another answer she could give to Mitchell's earnest expression, before continuing. "We risk causing more damage if we attack it surgically. Even an inter-vascular approach would likely cause a major rupture."
"OK," Mitchell said after a moment's pause, his voice low as he spoke; Hermione was briefly reminded of Ron's voice when someone gave him knew that left him feeling ready to cry when he didn't want to. "So what's the plan?"
"I know you were hoping for better news, Colonel," Kelly said, looking solemnly at the lieutenant colonel before her. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid ... there are no options. It's only a matter of time."
Hermione couldn't help but swear slightly under her breath as Mitchell turned and walked away- his body language making it clear that he wanted to be alone at the moment; she could only imagine what he might have done if he'd been alone already-, only briefly nodding at Kelly to confirm that she wanted some privacy herself before she walked off in another direction; even with her somewhat out-of-date knowledge of magical healing- particularly how it dealt with non-magic-related injuries-, she was fairly sure that there wasn't anything she could contribute that might help Ferguson either.
The problem with magical medicine was that, more often than not, it was only developed to cope with magical injuries… and, since the wizards had practically never been involved in muggle wars to any significant scale, they'd never developed anything that could treat a wound like this. In some similar cases wzards had been known to deal with the problem by deliberately splinching themselves while apparating- 'positioning' themselves so that the only things that went missing were the foreign objects-, but even without the fact that Ferguson wasn't a wizard himself, the location of the shrapnel meant that any attempt at splinching would have probably taken a not insignificant chunk of his brain away into the bargain.
Damnit… Hermione muttered, making a mental note to get in touch with some of her people at St Mungo's to work on treatment for that kind of injury in the future (It might be too late for Ferguson, but she could use this as encouragement not to let herself be in this position again); what was the point of her encouraging magic/muggle interaction and cooperation if she couldn't provide a friend with a treatment for something like this…?
Hermione paused.
Friend…
Had she really just considered Cameron Mitchell a friend?
It wasn't that she didn't like him, of course, but after losing Ron, Ginny and Harry in such rapid succession in the last days of the Second War against Voldemort- even if Harry had still been alive she hadn't actually spoken to him until he'd arrived in her office those few days ago-, she'd stopped herself growing too attached to new people too quickly; normally after this kind of time frame having elapsed since meeting someone she'd still be thinking of them as an 'acquaintance' at best.
Thinking of Mitchell as a friend…
It opened up further possibilities along the lines that she'd been thinking earlier… areas that she didn't entirely want to explore even if-
Any further exploration of that train of thought was cut off when Hermione's mobile phone- she'd picked one up on the way to the SGC; if she was going to spending more time in the muggle world to tackle this crisis she wanted to be prepared- rang, prompting her to walk down a nearby corridor into an empty room- Mitchell was already returning to Ferguson's room- and pull it out.
"Yes?" she asked, grateful for the chance to think about something else other than the impending death of a man she'd only met a few minutes ago.
"Hermione," Harry's voice said at the other end- she still couldn't quite get used to how he sounded; he'd actually picked up something of an American accent in his time away-, "we've got something."
"What, you mean you found… Murray?" Hermione asked, only just remembering that she was still in a somewhat-public location; the doctor she'd spoken to might know about the Stargate program, but she couldn't be certain if that applied for everyone here, and she wasn't certain whether or not Harry was calling her on a secure line (She'd spent too long worrying about owls being intercepted to ever feel comfortable talking with someone long-distance).
"Not… entirely," Harry replied, clearly uncomfortable with the current topic. "We confronted one of the people… Murray's mentor… thought might be involved, and… well, he did what we were afraid of and… he didn't make it."
Even without knowing the full details of what Harry was talking about- she was still learning about Jaffa culture at the moment, and even that was only to a limited degree; she just didn't have the time in the current situation to ask about them-, Hermione had already gathered the relevant information; the Jaffa they'd gone to question had performed that 'ritual' Harry had told her about- something about the Jaffa taking themselves to the point of death to explore the 'truth' about themselves-, and he hadn't survived it.
"He was able to give us the name of a location that they're hopeful will lead us to Murray- either it's where he is or where he's been-, but beyond that there's no way to know how things are going to go from here," Harry continued, drawing Hermione's attention away from her reflections and onto the matter at hand. "Sam's putting together a rescue party for when we know, but right now the only thing we can really do is hope for the best and hope that Murray can hold on until we get there."
"Right," Hermione said, nodding in understanding. "I'll let Mitchell know what's up; see you soon."
"Sure," Harry said, before he terminated the call, leaving her standing alone in the hall before she turned to head for Mitchell's room, only to run into the lieutenant-colonel in question before she reached it.
"Oh… hey," Mitchell said, nodding briefly at her.
"Hi," Hermione replied, smiling back at him. "Look, sorry to interrupt, but I just got a call from the SGC; they-"
"Found a clue about where Teal'c's being kept and are preparing a rescue team to get him out as soon as we know what we're dealing with, right?" Mitchell finished, looking at her with a brief smile at her incredulity. "Just got off the phone with General Landry; he filled me in on everything."
"Oh," Hermione said, before another matter occurred to her. "And… you're not going?"
"Not yet," Mitchell replied, shaking his head grimly at her. "I've… well, I'm having Sam bring something over that I think might do something for Ferguson- won't heal him, but might make everyone feel a bit better-; you can leave with her when she gets here."
Hermione briefly opened her mouth to assure him that she'd be happy to stay, but stopped herself before she could actually say it; in the end, it wasn't like she had anything practical to contribute at this point, so there was no real reason for her to remain here…
As she accompanied Mitchell back to Ferguson's room to wait for Carter to get here, she just wished she could ignore the small voice in the back of her mind that told her she did have a reason for sticking around; with the most feared dark wizard for three centuries having come back to life with access to alien technology, this was not the time to be thinking about asking a guy out…