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: This takes place a few hours after the last chapter, as the Prometheus and its crew begin their journey home; information about what happened on Tegalus after the last chapter's conclusion will be revealed, I assure you
AN 2: Not my longest chapter, but it contains some geological speculation about the presence and development of naquadah that will play a more interesting role in later plot development
Truth and Revelations
"Well," Mitchell said, as he and the rest of SG-1 and SG-M sat around in the half-empty Prometheus dining hall the following evening, Earth's first ship on its way home after the Rand/Caledonian situation had been resolved. "All in all, I'd say we just had a good day's work, eh?"
"Tell me about it; we saved a whole planet," Hermione said, before her smile faded as she thought about what she'd just said. "And all we had to do was lie..."
"You're still feeling guilty about that?" Fred asked, looking at his almost-sister-in-law incredulously. "Hermione, they were ready to blow themselves to pieces-"
"I know that it was the only thing we could do that would stop anyone else on that planet blowing themselves to pieces for a pointless war that shouldn't have happened; that doesn't mean that I have to like the fact that we lied about it!" Hermione retorted, standing up and leaning over the table to glare at Fred. "Merlin, I've dedicated my whole career to not being the kind of politician we had to deal with back at Hogwarts, and now-"
"You've kept that rule, Hermione," Daniel interjected, looking over at his old friend with a pointed yet reassuring smile. "Fudge and Scrimogeur lied because they wanted everyone to think that they were in control so that they could stay in power even when they weren't; your lie in no way benefited you and will help other people to remain in power."
"Trust me; compared to most of the politicians we've met over the years, you're definitely head and shoulders above them when it comes to honesty," Mitchell confirmed with another nod.
It hadn't been the easiest mission they'd had, but after they'd managed to effectively subdue Hestia/Bellatrix with a sufficient supply of drugs to prevent her from focusing enough to use her magic- while still leaving her aware enough for the symbiote to be in control-, they'd managed to use a low-level Imperious Curse- cast by Tonks as the only person remotely qualified to use something like that in her job- to 'convince' her to confess that she and other Goa'uld had been involved in inspiring Soren's attack on Tegalus last year, with the Ori having 'stepped in' after they had been driven off by SG-1's interference in their original plans.
Fortunately, since the Goa'uld's very nature meant that there wouldn't have been that many official records of their activities on Tegalus, Sam and Jared had been able to support their claims with only the minimal amount of doctored evidence- a few creature comforts sent to a part of the city that had been destroyed when the first bombs fell, implied reference to meetings of a small cult dedicated to worship of a known minor Goa'uld who had fallen off the grid before the final battle around Dakara-, limiting the chance of anyone tracing something back to its original origin while still giving both sides enough evidence that they'd been eliminated.
It was far from a permanent solution, but Rand had agreed to block the Stargate using a basic Iris that the Prometheus had been able to provide them with while the two sides worked on negotiating over their various differences in order to prevent the possibility that a Prior would come back and start the conflict all over again. They'd agreed to remain in touch with Earth in case any outside mediators were required to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion, but in general Daniel and the others had a reasonable amount of faith that things were going to progress far more smoothly on Tegalus now than they had done in the past.
"Look, what's the big deal?" Mitchell asked, drawing their thoughts away from Tegalus and back to the present conversation. "We've got Hestia captive, those stunners of yours seem to be doing a good job keeping her down without risking her trying to kill herself, we'll get in touch with the Tok'ra when we get back to see what the host can tell us about whatever Voldy's up to, and from there..."
He shrugged. "Well, as they say, Robert's your mom's brother, huh?"
"There's still the increased magical power Hestia's displayed compared to what Bellatrix was capable of to take into account," Hermione added, her expression grim as she looked over at Tonks and Daniel.
"Increased power?" Sam asked, looking curiously at Hermione.
"I may not have made magical theory and strength my area of study," Hermione said- Daniel wondered if he should feel more shocked at the idea of Hermione not knowing about something, but quickly concluded that this wasn't the time to worry about it; they all had other things to worry about right now-, "but that doesn't mean that I don't know the limits of what the average- or not-so-average- witch or wizard is capable of... and I know for a fact that even the most powerful witch or wizard cannot apparate into deep space and still have enough power to blow up something as big as that satellite, even without taking into account the fact that she managed to get back afterwards with only a leg missing."
"Really?" Sam asked, looking at Hermione in surprise. "You mean... there's an actual limit on how much magic people can use? I'd... well, I'd assumed the only real limit was what you knew how to do..."
"Oh, it's like everything, really; some people just have a more natural talent in some areas than others and can do more with their magic than the rest of us," Hermione replied with a slight smile. "Back when we were at school, Voldemort and Dumbledore were generally regarded as the two most powerful magic-wielders alive, and Harry had a particular knack for Defence Against the Dark Arts-related spells- he learnt the Patronus Charm at thirteen in a few months when most adult wizards take around a year to master it-"
"Patronus?" Mitchell repeated, looking over at Daniel slightly quizzically. "What's that?"
"Well... look, has anyone told you about dementors yet?" Daniel asked.
"We are aware of their existence, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c confirmed with a polite nod at his friend.
"Right..." Daniel said, shifting his position slightly so that he could better address his SG-1 teammates. "Well, the Patronus is basically the only real defence against dementors; by focusing on your most positive experiences and emotions, you're able to generate a kind of 'guardian' against the dementor that can attack it without sustaining damage itself. Remus taught me the spell when I was thirteen during my first dealings with the dementors, and I've done an OK job with it whenever I've needed it."
"What does it look like?" Sam asked.
"Well, everyone's is unique to the person who conjures it, but in my case..." Daniel said, smiling slightly as he drew his wand, thought back to some of the times he'd spent with Ginny, Sha're and Sam over the years, and pointed it at an empty part of the mess (Most of the SGC had been briefed on the essential details of the current situation, and at the current angle it would be hard for anyone to see who had cast the spell, so Daniel wouldn't have to answer any more questions from those crewmembers who might not know about his abilities yet unless he wanted to). "Expecto Patronum!"
Much to the surprise of the people sitting near that area, a large silvery-white stag appeared, running around the large area for a moment before it ran over to the tables where the two groups were sitting. Taking up a position close to Sam's seat, the stag lowered its head with what almost looked like a slight smile around its muzzle, but Sam had only just started to raise her hand to try and touch the stag's antlers before it vanished.
"It's based on my father's animagus form," Daniel explained, as Sam looked over at him with an eager, inquiringly smile. "He, Wormtail and Sirius learned how to turn into animals so that they could keep Remus company when he turned into a werewolf while they were at school- werewolf bites are only dangerous to humans, and my father and Sirius turned into such large animals that they could keep him under control relatively easily-, and it manifested as my Patronus despite the fact that I didn't actually know what he turned in to when I originally cast the spell."
"That was... I mean, wow," Sam whispered, wishing she had something more intelligent to say as she looked over at her friend. "And you did... that... for the first time when you were only thirteen?"
"Yeah, I was pretty proud of it too; it was the first time I really felt like I was good at something in school apart from Quidditch," Daniel said, smiling slightly at the expression on her face before he became more serious. "Anyway, getting back to the original point of this whole conversation, I did have another idea that it might be worth thinking about regarding Hestia's apparent 'power boost'."
"Really?" Hermione asked, looking at Daniel with an eager smile. "What is it?"
"Well, it's just a basic idea- I'd need to look into a few things before I know if it's right-, but it fits what I can think of off the top of my head..." Daniel said, his voice trailing off as he looked contemplatively upwards before he glanced over at the team's scientist. "Sam, did we ever discover any geological evidence of naquadah on Earth?"
"What?" Sam asked, looking at Daniel in surprise for a moment, before she paused in thought. "Well... actually, that's a good point; we haven't found anything..."
"Huh?" Mitchell repeated, looking at Sam in surprise. "What are you talking about; of course there's been naquadah on Earth. From what I remember, the Ancients built their first Stargate in this galaxy on Earth, they'd kinda need naquadah for that-"
"That's the point, Cam," Sam explained, as she turned to look at her friend. "We know that naquadah was on Earth at one point, we know that the Goa'uld mined it, but we've never encountered any actual geological evidence that naquadah existed on Earth in the past."
"Never?" Hermione asked, looking at her new friend in surprise. "I mean, I know that geology isn't my strong point, but that doesn't exactly seem likely; if the Goa'uld abandoned Earth as long ago as you say they did, even if they'd mined our... naquadah... virtually dry, there should have been at least some fragments left behind that could allow it to develop to some extent after they stopped mining it..."
"My point exactly," Daniel confirmed, nodding at Hermione as he looked back at Sam. "It's a bit of a stretch, but it's just something that I've been thinking about; if most of the planets we've visited- apart from Earth- have at least some traces of naquadah on them, and the only thing that distinguishes Earth from them is the fact that we have magic and they have naquadah, well..."
He shrugged slightly uncertainly as he looked at his friends. "It's a bit of a stretch, I know, but it doesn't seem impossible to speculate that our lack of naquadah is connected to the fact that we have magic where no other planet in the galaxy does."
The group looked at each other in contemplation for a moment, turning over the implications of Daniel's suggestion, before Fred voiced their thoughts.
"You're saying... somebody, what, blew up our naquadah and turned it into magic?" he asked uncertainly.
"Well, 'blew up' might not be a strictly accurate assessment- I'm more inclined to think that someone did something that caused our naquadah to 'disperse' in our atmosphere so that the raw energy it's capable of generating is spread out around the world-, but... basically, yeah," Daniel said with a nod.
"So... magic is just us manipulating the environment around us because we can access the energy of this 'naquadah'?" Hermione asked.
"And the various magical creatures on Earth that we've encountered are based around people and creatures being mutated by that energy in various ways according to the circumstances under which they were exposed to it..." Sam continued, a slight smile on her face for a moment before her expression faded as she looked over at her friend. "Uh... what magical creatures are there, anyway?"
"Oh, a few things," Daniel said, smiling slightly at the thought of Sam's reaction to this latest news. "You already know about phoenixes and giants, but there's also mermaids- although they're not as attractive as the traditional idea of them-, unicorns, centaurs- there was one teaching at Hogwarts the last time I was there-, goblins, elves, dragons-"
"Back up a minute; dragons?" Mitchell interjected, his eyes wide as he looked at Daniel. "As in, wings, fire-breathing, nigh-on-indestructible lizards?"
"Yeah, that's one part that actually still surprises me; how can we not know about something as big as dragons being real?" Sam asked, looking uncertainly at Daniel. "I mean, everything else I can understand- phoenixes probably don't look that different from other birds at long-distance, unicorns and centaurs could be mistaken for horses from the right angle, and other things like that-, but surely dragons are a bit... well, large to be mistaken for anything else?"
"Well, the Ministry tends to keep an eye on a few dragon-populated areas so that they make any non-wizards who find out about them forget before they give anything away, but it helps that they're not that common anyway," Tonks said with a slightly nonchalant smile over at the older woman.
"Oh," Sam said, clearly uncertain about how to react to the news of a culture where erasing memories was a regular occurrence- no matter how much she agreed with the motives for doing it-, before she continued. "Anyway, getting back to the original topic, do you think that the naquadah energy is responsible for those creatures existing as the result of... well, of a mutation?"
"They were exposed to naquadah energy under certain circumstances when they were still just normal animals and it made them into what they are?" Daniel responded, nodding thoughtfully at the idea. "It's a bit of a stretch, but it fits everything we know so far; we'd need to do a bit more research before we can figure out whether that's even possible..."
"Hold on a minute," George put in, raising a hand uncertainly. "I admit that this isn't my field, but couldn't that mean that we... well, if we can access magic because of some unique experiment that was carried out on Earth in the past, wouldn't that mean that we... well, need to stay there in order to use it?"
"What?" Mitchell asked, looking over at George uncertainly.
"Well, if we've only got magic because we grew up on Earth, doesn't that mean that we won't be able to use it if we go to other planets?" George continued. "I mean, I get that we have our own magic, but if Earth's the only planet where we can use that, isn't it possible that we'd 'run out' if we're off-planet too long...?"
"I don't think so, George," Sam said, shaking her head at him. "It's an interesting idea, don't get me wrong, but that doesn't work; from what I've seen so far, magic in human beings is based on a fixed level of ability for each person, much like we're all capable of reaching a certain degree of physical potential according to any training we've received. It might be more difficult for people to use magic off-world if they're deprived from Earth's magically-charged environment for too long- although we'd need to study that theory in more detail to know it's accurate-, but that doesn't mean it's impossible."
"So, no chance of the Death Eaters 'running down', huh?" Fred asked, shaking his head in exasperation. "So much for that hope..."
"And that's before taking into account the fact that Hestia's power boost suggests that the natural naquadah in hosts' bodies amplifies a host's magical abilities," Mitchell noted, shaking his head in exasperation. "In other words, if Voldemort works it out, he could have the perfect means to amp up their power level before we can do anything...
"I doubt it," Daniel said, shaking his head at Mitchell. "It's a possibility, but I don't think it's likely; Voldemort was arrogant enough back when he was human, and add in the Goa'uld's usual arrogance- coupled with the fact that I wouldn't be surprised if he genuinely believes he's a 'god' now; what Malfoy said in his interrogation suggests that he's at least claiming that the Stargates are portals to other dimensions rather than to other planets- he probably thinks that his new power is simply a natural 'evolution'."
"It's not exactly like we use blood transplants that much either, so there's no way it would occur to him to 'share' his power boost with anyone by giving them samples of his blood," Hermione added, tapping her chin in a contemplative manner for a moment before she shrugged. "It's an interesting discovery, but right now we don't really have the time to explore it; we've got more... immediate issues to deal with at the moment."
"Such as?" Fred asked.
"Well," Hermione said, smiling slightly as she looked over at Daniel, "personally, once we get back to Earth, I'm more interested in seeing what we'll find at that Stargate address Cam and Tonks discovered recently..."