Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to the proverbial Duchess of Magic, JK Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros and some other high falutin' companies. No matter how much I whine about not owning anything related to the HP universe, other than a few fanfic plots, I do not profess to own - and would never dream of making any money off - JKR's wonderful world... Damn it!
A/N: As my regular follows know, I don't often do this, but... what the hey. I've managed to read some of the reviews - a rare feat, indeed - and will address some of the general topics.
1) Yes, this is a crossover, but it won't be a major crossover. SG-1 is just a vehicle to get Harry back on Earth and will soon 'bow out'. You will see what I mean when we get there. There's another crossover coming into it to aid that bowing out. Virtual cookies to those who near-instantly figure out who Sir John is when you 'meet' him.
2) Posting schedule will be Saturday/Sundays and Wednesdays; and when I have time around then to post. 24 chapters (210k words) = 12 weeks to post.
3) For those who whine about it; yes, I post approximate 10k word chapters. Deal with it. I'm comfortable with it, so... neener neener nyah nyah! :)
4) Why did I pick Luna as Harry's partner? The same reason I've written a cross-over; I've not done it before. It's as simple as that.
5) And... yes... Hermione is gone, just not as gone as you might yet think.
Chapter Four - Thank You and See-ya!
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After Harry was divested of his Goa'uld technology, backpack and anything else that could be considered a weapon - or so SG-1 thought - Jackson redialed the Gate for the return to Earth. Harry took careful note of which six buttons, what he now knew represented constellations, the bespectacled man pressed. The final one, the inverted 'V' with a small circle on top, meant he now knew which constellation represented Earth.
What the four SG-1 members did not know was that Harry had long ago, soon after he first began to get attacked by the Jaffa with their Goa'uld master, had put hiding charms on both his wand holster and his mokeskin pouch Hagrid had given him. The mokeskin pouch contained his invisibility cloak and a few other items he didn't want to risk losing. That was attached by way of a belt made of a thick leather tied directly to the skin around his waist; made from the hide of one of the lizard rats that formed his near-sole meat diet during his early days on the planet.
He wanted to argue the loss of his two hand devices, one for his left and one for his right, he'd 'souvenired' off the Goa'uld host as they weren't actually weapons. However, 'Call me Jack' insisted. He was not, of course, worried about them taking his staff weapon; as that was obviously a weapon.
Then taken through the gate - Jack and Teal'c leading, then him, then Sam and Daniel - he came out into a room clearly inside a military installation and onto a metal grid and railed ramp leading down to the floor.
He spotted a team of about half a dozen fully armed and armoured soldiers pointing weapons at him in a 'ready-to-shoot' wide formation; three to four each side and well spaced apart. He heard someone call something over a loud speaker and looked up to see a quite wide glass window, behind which looked like a control room of some form. There were soldiers... no, air force personnel... looking out of it and to him.
The speaker crackled again as Sam, then Daniel, stepped out of the event horizon of the Stargate and it shut off. "Welcome back, SG-1! And welcome to our guest!" the speaker announced. "Everyone stand down."
As the soldiers before him all relaxed and withdrew, he saw it was the overweight balding older man he could see through the glass of the window who had spoken into a microphone on a 'bendy-stick'.
"As you can see, General," called Jack to the window. "We've brought back our guest."
"As per protocol, take him to the Infirmary," ordered the General.
Harry groaned. "Yup; it's Hallowe'en."
When Sam looked to him in slight confusion, he explained, "I always end up in the Infirmary on Hallowe'en."
She and the other two non-Jaffa of SG-1 all grinned while Teal'c, yet again, just cocked an eyebrow at him. However and up closer, Harry could now see the well-hidden mirth behind his eyes.
With an open hand gesture indicating the huge sliding metal door on the left-hand side wall that appeared to be the only way out of the room, Sam said, "This way, Mister Potter."
"Yes, Ma'am," he sighed, beginning to walk further down the ramp. "And, it's Harry."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
"Luna Bug!" called one Xenophilius Lovegood up the stairs from the sitting room of the Lovegood home. "Are you sure you don't want to come with me to Norway to hunt for Snorkacks?"
Up in her room, where she was checking through her half dozen scrapbooks, Luna called back, "Yes, Daddy! It's important I be here for the next couple of months!"
"Alright, then!" he called back. "I'll just go and organise an international portkey for one then?"
"Yes, Daddy!" she called back. "You do that!"
"Expect me back just before Yule!" he called.
"Yes, Daddy!" she immediately called back.
She carefully listened and heard the whoosh of the floo activating and her father cry, "Diagon Alley!"
With a satisfied nod she returned to her work.
Luna was now eighteen years old and had graduated from Hogwarts a little over a year earlier with NEWTs in Potions, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, Enchanting, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. She graduated top of her year with Outstandings in every subject.
Back from when she was part of the Ministry Six, when she was a young fifteen year old teenage girl, she had since grown up and filled out. She now moved with an athletic grace, while still maintaining a willowy figure. Her grace was because Lord Black, Sirius, had been training her in combat magics.
On graduating, and even just before, she was sought after by the Ministry and Gringotts to come and work for them once she completed her education. However, she turned them all down; because, on the sly, she was working for Lord Black. Through the use of her knowledge in Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Charms and -secretly - Enchanting, she was designing wards; all while also secretly undertaking a mastery in the subjects of Warding and Enchanting paid for by Sirius.
She knew she would very soon have to take a sabbatical from those.
Dumbledore had approached her almost as soon as Hogwarts started for the 1996/97 year with how he 'thought it might be nice' if she developed a friendship with Neville Longbottom. She liked Neville; however, her Seer ability had already alerted her to how Dumbledore was trying to mould him to replace Harry in facing Voldemort. And she wanted no part of that.
She turned him down.
When he pushed, she turned him down flat. Then asked him, "What makes you think Neville makes a suitable replacement for Harry? Furthermore, what makes you think I'll willingly be a replacement for Hermione?"
He backed right off then, worried about how accurate she was in developing an understanding of his plans, but still tried his 'I'm so disappointed with you' shtick
Luna simply smirked at him and said, "I will not be a party to your Machiavellian shenanigans, Headmaster. If you attempt to push it, I will go and speak with Director Scrimgeour about my concern that an old man... you... is trying to manipulate me for... nefarious purposes."
That shocked Dumbledore so much, he stuttered, "I would never..."
"Maybe not," she replied. "However, that is what I will tell Mister Scrimgeour if you do not leave me alone. It will, after all, be the truth."
He left her completely alone after that until after she turned seventeen and graduated.
Within the first week afterwards, he tried to force-visit her at the Rookery. However, he couldn't get through the wards; even with Fawkes. He'd found himself harshly 'bounced' into the Weasleys' pond.
Working with Sirius and using her Seer ability she'd created a set of war wards that, after that first attempt, would have fried the old man if he'd tried again. And had immediately sent him a messenger Patronus rabbit while he floundered in the pond, telling him that.
Instead, he was left with having to floo-call her and trying to intimidate her into letting him through. He failed.
That left him with trying to talk to her via an Order member's established 'friendship' connection.
"I believe you would make a wonderful asset for my organisation, Miss Lovegood," he said. "I urge you to reconsider. If you do, you will be working hard for the light."
"Actually, I'd be a pawn for you, Albus," she retorted. "That does not interest me. Neither do I have an interest in being a prison guard for Neville Longbottom, or supping from the unholy font of Albus Dumbledore."
He scowled back and said, "Be careful, Miss Lovegood. You're going... dark."
"Be careful, Albus," she shot back. "You're showing yourself to be... an idiot."
He scowled even harder and silently withdrew. He never tried to personally contact her again. However, he did convince others to contact her and try. They all failed.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
At the SGC, Harry had been shown into the infirmary and the short middle-aged muggle doctor, Janet, had immediately ordered him to strip, dress in the light cotton clothes she was carrying and climb into bed.
'Sweet Merlin!' he thought. 'She's another Madam Pomfrey!'
However, after she pulled the curtains closed around the bed, which both gave him privacy and no chance to disagree, she left him alone to disrobe and put on the, what looked like, hospital scrubs.
With a sigh, he did just that. However, he left his leather belt with his pouch hanging from it around his waist and under the loose top and his wand holster on his left wrist. Only he knew they were there.
She came back in only a few moments later.
He suspected she either had remote monitoring on him, or it was simply from experience.
That then led to him being, unlike Pomfrey's wand-waving, poked and prodded; ordered to give urine, saliva and blood samples; questioned about his diet; questioned about the healed injuries she'd discovered; and a raft more. After two 'gruelling' hours, she finally left him alone. He'd had a plain meal delivered by a uniformed orderly only fifteen minutes later. The food, to him, tasted glorious.
Twenty minutes after that, just as he was polishing off the last of the food, the SG-1 'team' walked in and made themselves at home around his bed.
Harry took one look at Teal'c and burst into laughter. Then, every time he looked in his direction again, he'd lose it to laughter again.
"Oh, please!" he finally begged; tears in his eyes and on the verge of developing hiccups, while waving in Teal'c's direction. "Can someone give the Jaffa a decent shirt to wear?!"
The team had obviously decided to change into muggle as a way to probably get him to open up. Jack was wearing trainers, stone-washed blue jeans, a white T-shirt and a lightweight unadorned bomber jacket. A dark blue baseball cap was shoved under an epaulette. Daniel was wearing similar below the waist, but was wearing a plaid shirt with a University of Chicago zippered, but unzipped, windcheater instead of a bomber jacket. Sam was wearing mid-heel pumps, a skirt and blouse, looking a bit 'businessy'. But Teal'c was wearing olive green combat pants, black boots and... a bright baby pink 'Hello Kitty' T-shirt.
Again, the Jaffa had only cocked an eyebrow back at Harry's reaction, but again Harry could see the amusement behind his eyes.
Finally, Daniel walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a plain black T-shirt and offered it to Teal'c. "We don't want to see our new friend die from laughter; do we?" he wryly explained.
Teal'c gave a short bow and said, "Indeed." He then popped behind a curtain and changed T-shirts; back only a minute later.
Teal'c silently handed it to Jack, who rolled his eyes and said, "Well, it was funny, wasn't it?"
What followed after that was the SG-1 team engaging Harry in what, on the surface, appeared to be just conversation. However, Harry could see it for what it was; a mild interrogation.
One example was, Jack said, "So, back on C1S-204 you said―"
"C1 what?" Harry interrupted.
"C1S-204," replied Sam. "We give systems designations. It just makes things easier."
"As I was saying," said Jack. "Back on... the planet... You said something about how you had just finished exams when you got hit with that light, right before you ended up on C1... the planet?"
"Yup," nodded Harry.
"Looking at you," he said, "And that you said you'd been there since June 1996, that would have been your... middle school final exams?"
Harry shook his head and replied. "British schools only have two levels of mandatory education; Primary and High; six years in Primary and six in High. I was not that far off my sixteenth birthday when... whatever happened, happened."
"Oh?" said Jack, sitting forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "So, when's your birthday? Have we just missed it, or is it coming up?"
"Missed," smiled Harry. "I was born on the thirty-first of July, 1980."
"It's funny how you Brits put the date before the month," said Daniel, immediately distracting him; or, at least trying to.
Turning to him, Harry said, "Actually, we think the opposite. Think about it; the way we do it is in the correct order - day, date, month, year. I never could figure out why you Americans do it the other way around."
That had the three non-Jaffa all grin.
Daniel added, "They do it the other way around in the military, too."
Harry noticed Jack frown just slightly at the younger man, which confirmed for him that the change of clothes into 'civilian' was deliberate. They were trying to get his mind off the fact they were military.
Already, they'd got his name, including his middle name now, his date of birth, his true age and his country of residence. Behind his Occlumency shields he was highly amused.
"So," he said. "Once your healer... doctor... learns I'm not carrying any contagious alien parasite, disease or other illness... when can I get out of here?"
"We'elll... we need to properly debrief you, first," replied Jack. "Then we need to go through all this paperwork... You have been missing for over three years, after all. People are going to be thinking you're dead."
'You got that right,' thought Harry. 'And I happen to like that idea.'
"Then we need to be careful about how you are returned to the 'real' world..."
"For a start," said Sam, smoothly cutting in. "I'm sure your family miss you." As if suddenly realising something, she asked, "Actually, can you tell us who your parents are? We'll see what we can do to let them know, right away, that you're safe."
Harry gave scoffing snort and said, "My parents are dead. They were killed soon after my first birthday."
That shut everyone up. Daniel even gave a wince before he quietly said, "I can relate. I lost both my parents when I was eight."
"Sorry," Sam quietly said by way of apology to Harry, she'd lost her mother to a car accident when she was twelve. Then she perked up a little and said, "What about who raised you? Surely, they'd want to know you were safe."
Harry gave a self-deprecating chuckle and said, "Actually, they'd probably be disappointed. They never wanted me. I was thrust on them and they believed they had no choice, but to raise me. To them, I was nothing but a non-paid indentured servant; good enough only for keeping their house clean, cooking, doing the laundry, etcetera."
Again, that shut them up. His 'interrogators' were caught flat-footed with that one.
Sam was the first to rally and ask, "Still... they were your guardians at the time you disappeared, yes?"
Harry thought about it and what it would mean for him to give these people that information. 'Oh, yes. They deserve it.'
"Well," he began. "I'm an adult now, right? At least, I'm an adult in Britain. I don't know when you decide when someone reaches adulthood here."
"Eighteen, in most States" said Daniel. "Twenty-one in others."
"Still..." pressed Sam. "We need to look through your missing persons report... there'd have been one filed―"
"I doubt it," said Harry. "If anything, I'm sure my relatives would have had a party when they were told I'd gone missing."
"Someone would have still filed one," said Jack.
Harry sighed and pretended to give up. "Fiiiinnnneee..." he sulked. "They were Vernon and Petunia Dursley."
"Address?" pressed Jack.
With another sigh, this time one of faux-annoyance, Harry replied, "Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey... England... United Kingdom, Earth, Sol System, the Milky Way―"
Jack burst into laughter, shutting Harry up.
"I think it appropriate, adding the rest, given where I've just been," grinned Harry.
"Well, you didn't actually leave the Milky Way Galaxy..." said Sam, also amused and smiling. "So, I think we can drop that last one off; yes?"
Harry just shrugged with a smile.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
The soft interrogation went on for a couple hours and only stopped when Doctor Frasier, Janet, walked in and ordered the SG-1 team out. She was also carrying a 'perfectly', military-style folded set of clothes with a pair of boots on top.
However, Harry had already figured out that the security camera in the corner of the room, currently focused on him, was being carefully monitored and must have seen a sign from, likely, Jack that they were done.
When he thought back on it using his Occlumency-enhanced near-perfect memory, she had walked in less than a minute after Jack had donned his baseball-cap - which, until then, remained stuffed under the epaulette on his jacket. Again, Harry was amused.
"Alright, Mister Potter," said Janet, dropping the folded pile of clothes on the foot of his bed with the boots on top. "Your blood work shows no immediate sign of any disease or anything like that; so, you can hop up and get dressed.
"Once you've done that, this young man here," she gestured to where a clearly Air Force soldier had stepped in after she did, "Will show you to one of the sets of suites we have for visiting dignitaries.
"I'm afraid I still need to do a few tests, yet, to see if you're contagious with anything. So, I need to hold onto you for a while. We can't have you leaving here with a disease that might infect the entire population of Earth, can we?"
'Ooooh,' thought Harry. 'One huge serving of Dumbledoresque "Guilt Trip Pudding", coming right up. Niiiice!'
Then she stepped away and re-closed the curtains around the bed, before he heard her walk off. She clearly did not want him asking her any questions. Those were just as clearly being left to SG-1.
When Harry hopped up and checked out the stack of clothing he found he'd been provided with olive green 'combat' pants, a black T-shirt, black boxers, olive upper-calf-length long socks and a pair of black combat boots. It was a 'match' for what Teal'c wore.
He quickly dressed and looked around for the doctor, only to find there was only he and the air force sold― airman in the room.
"Ready, Sir?" asked the airman.
"Do you know what happened to my stuff?" he asked, looking around.
"They're checking through it to ensure there's nothing dangerous mixed in with it," the airman replied, before he gestured to the door. The flat way the airman replied told Harry it was a 'rehearsed' response. Obviously, Harry wasn't going to be getting any of his Goa'uld 'technology' back.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
The airman escorted Harry down a couple of different vacant corridors before he turned to a door and opened it.
'A busy military establishment like this and we pass no one in the corridors?' he thought. "I don't think that's coincidental.'
"Here you are, Sir," the airman genially said, gesturing Harry within.
After Harry entered the airman indicated a door to the right and said, "Bedroom, shower and toilet are in there, Sir." Then added, "You'll find soaps, shampoos, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a couple of towels, that sort of thing. Everything you need. The bed's been made up with spare blankets and pillows available and at hand."
Before Harry could say anything the airman then indicated the coffee table and said, "Magazines, newspapers and a couple of books in case you might get bored. I doubt that'll happen though."
Then he turned back and said, "If you need anything, someone will be right outside the door to see to your needs."
Then he walked out, closing the door behind him, without waiting for Harry to say anything. Again, Harry realised that had to be deliberate.
'Right outside my door to see to my needs?' he thought. 'Clearly a guard.'
Then he grinned and thought, 'Won't do them any good, though.'
He looked around and saw the camera in the corner of the room up near the ceiling and chose to ignore it.
"Hang on," he muttered, loud enough for any nearby microphones he expected in the room to pick up. "He said there's a shower in there."
He then hurried through the door to the bedroom and on into the en-suite bathroom.
"Woohoo!" he exclaimed, for the benefit of the microphones and cameras.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Up in the briefing room, Hammond turned off the wide flat screen monitor and turned back to the full table as Jack and Daniel were laughing at Harry's 'Woohoo!' exclamation.
"Well, peoples?" said Hammond. "What do we know?"
"I think I'd go 'Woohoo!', too; if I hadn't had a proper shower in over three years, General," grinned Jack.
The General looked on with amusement for a moment before he quietly replied, "Me too." Then he visibly straightened himself up and asked, "What do we have on our young, apparently, Brit?"
One of those still in Air Force Service Dress Uniform, a major, immediately replied, "Mister Harry James Potter, no indication of whether or not 'Harry' is a diminutive of his first name; male and in fine health; born thirty-first of July 1980, making him nineteen years old; supposedly last known address to be Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England, United Kingdom.
"Medical signs show him to have suffered from neglect as a child, with scars and healed broken bones supporting that belief; he is covered in scars under his clothing, with at least two scars from where Jaffa staff weapons have 'clipped' him. Other significant scars include one on his inside right forearm up near the elbow, with a corresponding smaller scar directly on the other, outside, side of the same arm; it appears to have been a major puncture wound of something pointed and likely conical that... punched... right through and between the ulna and radius.
"Alien-wise, his body seems to contain some form of energy similar to that of what remained when Jolinar left Major Carter and is identified by a certain protein marker. If I was to posit a hypothesis, I would initially state that he once hosted a symbiote. However, there are other indicators that contradict that belief."
The major then looked to the next, a captain.
The man gave a nod and said, "Of his clothing and what he was apparently carrying when met by SG-1, he had on his left hand and forearm what Major Carter has identified as properly called a kara kesh and what we call a hand device. Apparently, only Goa'uld have them. That it is gold also identifies it as once belonging to a senior System Lord. The other device, another hand device, Major Carter tells us it is a hajar alshifa' healing device. Again, it can only be used by someone who has the Goa'uld protein marker Major Wilkins spoke of.
"The staff weapon is a simple staff weapon, but is running low in naquadah reserves. There's nothing otherwise special about it.
"The same could also be said for the rest of what he was wearing: Jaffa boots and greaves, bracers and under-robes. Clearly, they're scavenged from when he battled the Jaffa and defeated the Goa'uld, Imhotep. The hat has us scratching our heads, though."
"Why?" demanded Hammond.
"While it is clearly battered from many years of long-term use, it also appears to be almost new," replied the Captain. "It's well weathered, but there's no fraying or similar as you'd expect."
"We'll see if we can find an answer for you to that conundrum from our guest," said the general, before he turned to the next officer, a woman. "Captain?"
"Psychologically, he does not seem to display many signs of having been in life and death combat. If anything, he's quite apathetic. Though he seems to be quite open with communicating to SG-1 he's very wary of Teal'c, though not afraid of him. I get the impression he views Teal'c as a possible enemy - from the way he at least once referred to him as 'the Jaffa' - but does not consider him a threat, even when completely unarmed.
"He's also holding back on a lot of information. His outward behaviour and motion shows him to be happy to be back on Earth and grateful to SG-1 for bringing him back. However, it's a carefully constructed... façade. Behind what he says and does, he's carefully weighing whether or not we're a threat to him."
"Keep watching him," ordered the General.
The next, another female captain, said, "The information he's provided all checks out. There was a boy who lived at the address in Surrey. However, he disappeared at around the time the house, apparently, suffered what the local forensics report states was a 'gas main' explosion. However, the photos of the scene do not gel with that. Digging deeper we believe it to have been some sort of terrorist attack, possibly from a splinter group of the IRA. However, there's nothing to link the residents to that organisation.
"The occupants were a Vernon Patrick Dursley, his wife Petunia Heather Dursley née Evans, their son Dudley Vernon Dursley... and one Harry James Potter, reportedly the nephew of the wife. All four were reportedly killed in the explosion. However, the body of the Potter boy, supposedly sixteen at the time, was never found.
"Both boys attended the local Primary school as children, a Little Whinging Primary School. At eleven both boys were withdrawn from the school, with the Dursley boy sent to a private school called Smeltings College for Honoured Sons; the Potter boy, rumour has it, was sent to Saint Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys."
"What?" exclaimed the Psychologist Captain, who had given the immediately previous report. "That's nonsense! There's no such place!"
"I'm aware," the other flatly replied. "However, the Dursleys were known to have told all their neighbours that is where the boy was sent for nine months of the year since shortly after his eleventh birthday."
"The Dursleys lied," said the psychologist. "It also ties in with what our Mister Potter said to SG-1 about them while he was in the infirmary. They abused him; physically, emotionally and psychologically. It also explains why he displays that façade and 'wears' it as if it's completely normal for him to do so."
Getting things back on track, the general stared right at the last captain and asked, "Anything else, Captain?"
"Yes, Sir," she replied. "While our Mister Potter did not attend some patently obvious fake school, I can find no record of him having attended any other school from the time he was eleven.
"Further, I've found records concerning his mother, Lily Primrose Potter née Evans, including her date and place of birth, and the primary school she attended with her sister in the industrial town of Cokeworth in Northern England. However, like her son, she was pulled from the public schooling system at aged eleven and there's no sign she attended another afterwards. Actually, there's no further sign of her in the government records, at all; except for a public Notice of Death related to the thirty-first of October, 1981.
"Today's the anniversary of his parent's death!?" exclaimed Daniel. "No wonder he hates Hallowe'en!"
That had a few murmurs of sympathy and whispered conversation before the captain spoke over the top of them all, shutting them up. "I also have no record of his supposed father, James Fleamont Potter, anywhere in the government systems except his Notice of Death on the same day as his wife and as a registered holder of a significant share portfolio on the British Stock Exchange. With the security systems the Brits employ, that should not be possible; yet, it is.
"I've checked the systems thoroughly and our young Mister Potter is now recognised as the sole beneficiary of all those investments. In investments alone, he's quite wealthy. However, all my searching through the financial databases as to where the dividends flow all end at a bank called 'Gringotts'. However, no such bank apparently exists beyond that name."
"I'm sure it's a puzzle you'll be working hard to solve, Captain," said the general. "What I want to know is; does what our supposed Mister Potter tell us ring true?"
"Oh, yes-Sir," said the captain, coming out of her deep thoughts. She then slid a 5"x7" laser-copier printed photo up the table and said, "This is a copy of the only school photo ever taken of the Potter boy, back when he was ten years old."
When it was slid up the table to Hammond, he picked it up to have a look at it before he passed it to Jack. You could easily see the resemblance. All that was missing of the current Mister Potter was the aviator style glasses similar to what Daniel used to wear back in 1995 when they went to Abydos; and the scar on his forehead was no longer as... pronounced.
"That's him, alright," said Jack, passing the photo to Sam.
"He was a cute kid," murmured Sam.
"Bit skinny, though," said Jack
Captain Janet Frasier scowled and said, "Not skinny; malnourished, Sir."
Jack nodded back in silent apology. "He's obviously recovered from it now, though."
Frasier nodded back. "Yes, Sir. Scars aside, he's quite fit and healthy... now. I'd say living on a 105% Earth-normal gravity planet for just over three years has helped with that."
"Who's next?" asked Hammond.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After what had felt like a two hour shower, Harry finally dragged himself out from under it. His skin was beginning to 'prune'.
On Hadrian, Harry's home 'Safe Haven' was not huge, but was a lot bigger than that original Flintstone-esque cottage he'd built for himself near the Chappa'ai - Stargate, as the Americans called it. Though it only ever had one bedroom, it also had a sitting room, a bathroom, a mock-kitchen, and a toilet. His water and drainage facilities had been as the result of magically digging a ten foot deep circular hole, transfiguring the dirt into concrete to line the sides of it, no bottom; then laying a huge slab over it. Then topping it with a further four foot thick layer of dirt to bring the top back to 'ground' level, before then building his house on top of that.
His draining from his toilet, sinks, hand basin, laundry trough and shower all travelled down through the floor, then through S-bends - he learned the need for the latter of those pretty quick - then into the unbottomed circular underground tank to drain away.
Water, together with water pressure, was done by building a thirty foot tall tower with a huge stone tank on top. That led to pipes into the house to the kitchen, laundry and bathroom taps and the toilet cistern he'd fashioned up for himself. Water pressure was as a result of gravity feed from the tank.
The only annoyance for him was the occasional need to climb the tower and stand on a platform he'd built onto it, while then aiming his wand into the tank and massively overpowering an Aguamenti Charm to fill it. However, if he didn't do it often enough, he'd magically exhaust himself and sleep for two days afterwards.
Due to the near constant heat on the planet, he'd quickly figured out that if it had an axial tilt it was nowhere near as much as Earth's because of the lack of recognisable seasons, the water was always a little above lukewarm. The size of the tank meant it rarely dropped more than a few degrees overnight, which was why it was so big, unless it was starting to run low of water.
The lack of proper seasons was also one of the reasons he believed he'd lost track of time for how long it had been he'd been on the planet. However, he was wrong about that.
While Earth had a one day rotation around its own axis and a one year orbit around the sun, the same was not true for Hadrian. Comparative to Earth, Hadrian had a twenty five and a half hour day and it took fourteen Earth months for the planet to orbit its sun, Sirius A.
After his very much appreciated long and, quite frankly, deliciously decadent shower Harry redressed in his supplied clothes and began to better explore his VIP suite.
As the airman had assured him, everything he needed was at hand - except, of course, freedom.
He'd been reading a copy of the Denver Post, Colorado's main daily newspaper, when he had a knock on the door.
Amused, as he knew that whoever was on the other side of that door already knew he was sitting on the provided couch reading the provided newspaper and was fully dressed, he went to the door and answered it.
Standing on the other side was Jack.
Jack grinned and waved. "Howdy pardner!" he mocked in a fake 'cowboy' accent. "I's headed fer the vit'lin shed and was a-wonderin' if yer of a mind to join me fer some chow."
Harry couldn't help himself. He grinned back. For a supposed colonel in the US Air Force Harry found the man quite amusing. However, he also realised the man couldn't have become an officer, let alone attained the rank of colonel, if he couldn't also be quite serious when he needed to be.
Trying to affect his own fake accent, this time as a 'Noble' of the British aristocracy, Harry returned, "Thank you for the invitation, my good man. I would be de-lighted to join you."
That had Jack grinning back. "Come on, then."
As Jack led the way, Harry followed. And, as he stepped out the door, he saw that there was, indeed, an armed airman standing guard on his door. The man was even obviously doing that, as he was standing at what Harry thought of as the 'at ease' stance and almost ramrod straight.
This time, as Harry walked, there were more personnel in the corridors; with quite a few soldiers armoured and armed and with their 'serious faces' on. He also saw, from the same lab coat Janet wore, that there were also doctors or, simply, scientists mixed in, deep in discussion as they walked in pairs or more.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After they entered what was clearly a pretty decently sized 'cafeteria', but only about half the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, Jack led him straight to the 'chow line', showing him how to get a plate and load up with what he wanted to eat.
Because he'd never managed to transfigure lizard rat or any of the other meats into something as complex as a curry, as soon as he saw and smelled that, he took some of it for himself. However, he avoided the rice. Rice was one of those things he could easily transfigure the local flora on Hadrian into and, therefore, had done so a lot. Instead, he added roast veggies to the side.
Sitting down at a basic Formica-topped table for four with plain wooden chairs, Harry sat opposite Jack as they both began to eat. Harry also noticed the centre of the table was loaded with condiments, something he'd not had on Hadrian. Happily, he immediately picked up the pepper to sprinkle over his veggies, then the table salt.
Then, while Jack was trying to dig further information out of Harry, Harry began to do the same with Jack. However, Harry was only trying to discover one piece of information. And that was the location of the base; besides it being in, as he suspected, Colorado in the United States.
When he'd asked why he couldn't see any windows, Jack replied, "We're underground."
"Hunh!" he replied. "Funnily enough, I was underground when I was hit with that light."
As Jack tensed up while trying to appear nonchalant, Harry asked, "That might be something common, you know. How far down are we?"
Jack, was about to ignore the question when they were joined by Daniel.
"Hi!" he chirpily said, sitting down next to Jack. "What're we talking about?"
"How deep we are below ground?" Harry immediately replied.
"Approximately three thousand five hundred and twenty feet at the Stargate," Daniel immediately replied.
Harry saw Jack wince, but not say anything.
"Wow! For real!?" said Harry, appearing shocked. "I think I was only about... a hundred feet down when whatever happened, happened."
"What?" asked Daniel. "You couldn't have been on the Underground, then. At least I don't think so. That's the name of the subway railway in London, right? The Underground?"
"The Underground, yes," replied Harry. "But that's not where we were."
"We?" asked Jack.
Harry shrugged and replied, "I was there with friends from school. But, I'm not going to tell you who they were. I don't want them to get in trouble."
"That was three years ago, Harry," said Jack. "I doubt they'd get into trouble for something that happened that long ago."
Harry appeared to think about that, but was actually thinking of something else. He knew he shouldn't say anything due to the Statute of Secrecy, but... Merlin damn it... these people had helped him get home; or, at least back to Earth. Besides, this was clearly a secret military installation, so these people knew how to keep a secret. And he wanted a bit of revenge against the magical world for how he was treated for all of both fourth year by the school and fifth year by the entire society.
He leaned forward and made sure no-one was listening in and quietly asked, "You two can keep a secret, right?"
Harry saw as both also eagerly leaned forward and nodded, with Jack unconsciously letting his finger touch a lapel pin in his bomber jacket. Behind his shields, Harry smirked. He'd read enough of Dean Thomas's James Bond books to quickly figure out the pin was likely a listening bug.
"We weren't in the Underground, but we were underground. We were somewhere where we'd snuck in during the early hours of the morning," he 'confessed'.
"Under where?" asked Daniel.
Again Harry looked around before he turned back and quietly replied, "Under Whitehall. Under the Old War Office Building. You should see what's under there! It's huuuuge!"
Sitting back again, he watched as both SG-1 members also sat back. While Jack looked a little pleased and was trying to hide it, Daniel was looking a little confused and pensive.
"No need to look so worried, Daniel," said Harry. "Look, Jack knows. It was a school challenge prank. I just got hit by something that did something to me."
Jumping on it, Jack said, "He's right. The Old War Office Building was where the Brits Command headquartered during World War Two. They shouldn't have been there, but what is done is done."
Daniel only glanced at Jack before he clearly dropped it. That spoke to Harry of a long familiarity.
"Your school was in London, was it?" asked Jack.
"No, south western Scotland," Harry replied. "We'd only finished our exams that early afternoon and raced straight to London. That's why it was so late at night before we got there. It must have been well after midnight as we were sneaking around down there."
Frowning a little in confusion, Daniel asked, "What's the name of the school?" Then said, "Oh! Silly me, I was thinking of Universities considering your current age. So, which high school?"
"A very private one," Harry fondly smiled. "It was the alma mater, I think is the term, my parents attended. Hogwarts. They'd paid for me to attend within weeks after I was born. Therefore, my aunt and uncle couldn't stop me attending; though they certainly tried."
"Hog what?" blinked Jack.
Harry chuckled and said, "I know!" As if they were sharing a joke. "However, believe it or not, Hogwarts is the name of a flower."
After dinner, or what the Americans called 'supper', Harry returned to his room, claiming he was looking forward to sleeping in a proper bed.
Obviously Jack felt he'd got enough out of Harry for one session and happily escorted him back.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
The next morning, Harry rose and meditated on the floor of the sitting room, fully dressed, waiting to be 'shown' to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. He was, once again, sorting memories in his fully-formed mindscape and tweaking it to improve it.
This time he was collected by Sam.
Again, the questions were subtle and again they were joined by another member of the SG-1 team. This time it was Teal'c.
"Major Carter, Mister Potter," he said with a slight bow to each of them while holding one of the metal serving trays they used in military establishments between his two hands. "May I join you?"
"Yes; of course, Teal'c," replied Sam.
As Teal'c sat and carefully laid out his breakfast, Sam continued with her soft interrogation. "So, Harry," she over-nonchalantly said. "Did you leave behind a girlfriend?"
That almost immediately put him off his breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and baked beans on toast. Pausing for a moment while he forced the pain he suddenly felt down - he believed Hermione had died, that night - he quietly replied, "No. There was one girl..." and sighed.
"Loved her from afar?" asked a clearly compassionate Sam.
"Yes," he sadly replied, looking down at his breakfast. "I have no idea what happened to her."
"People move on, Harry," she said. "She was, what, sixteen at the time?"
"Yes," he sighed. "Nearly seventeen. Because the age of adulthood is seventeen in Scotland, she was only a few months off being recognised as an adult. Her birthday was... is... the thirteenth of September. She was born in 1979, so she would have turned twenty almost seven weeks ago."
"What was her name?" she kindly asked.
"Hermione," he replied. "Hermione Granger. Her name was supposed to be in a play by William Shakespeare. I don't know the significance of that, though. I'd not had the chance to ask, as she was quite touchy about her name."
"Her name's from Shakespeare's A Winters Tale," said Sam. "It's a beautiful name."
"I thought so, too," he smiled.
After breakfast, Sam escorted him back to his VIP suite and told him she'd come back and collect him 'in about an hour'.
Harry just smiled at her and said, "Thank you."
He returned to his meditation, interrupted by breakfast, as he now had all the information he needed to make his getaway. He actually had that once Daniel had both confirmed for him that they were underground and that the depth was somewhere near three thousand five hundred feet.
He was going to pull a trick he figured out how to do on Hadrian. He was going to apparate, but not laterally. It was how he'd been able to quickly scout around on Hadrian once he figured out how to do it.
Once twenty minutes had passed, he stood and, with his back shielding what he was doing from the camera, carefully drew his wand from his hidden holster. Then, still with it out of sight, he pointed it straight down and, with the exact dimensions of the suite firmly in his mind, firmly incanted in his mindscape his 'Super' Cleaning Charm. 'Clean!' he firmly thought, while pumping maximum magic in one burst out his wand and into the parquetry-wood floor.
As soon as the magic pulse did its cleaning job on the suite, he immediately turned his head to look at the camera. The little almost unnoticeable red light had gone out and there was a tiny wisp of smoke rising from behind its lens.
Grinning to himself, he gave one last check of himself while listening to an muted alarm go off out the door somewhere, pictured in his mind where he needed to be and mentally incanted, 'Beee THERE!' And apparated on 'there', disappearing with a clearly audible crack of displaced air.
As he knew he had to apparate through three thousand five hundred plus feet of rock, power-wise he held nothing back; hence the loud crack and the amount of will he pumped into it.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
In the command base's monitoring room, the two airmen and sergeant manning the 'post' at the time were alerted to the main camera, plus all the listening bugs, suddenly go on the fritz in the 'VIP Brit's' suite. At the same time, the EMP alarm, signalling an electromagnetic pulse had gone off inside the base, sounded its alert.
"Shhhhit!" said the Sergeant. He immediately reached over and hit the Command-wide alert signifying an EMP burst within the complex.
However, most of the command staff had already known something major had happened when their live camera and audio feed of Harry's suite suddenly turned to, respectively, nothing but snow and static noise.
Jack and Teal'c immediately ran for Harry's suite, while the rest of the staff tried to find out what had happened.
They arrived at the door within a half-minute, to find the airman on guard duty already had the door open and was scanning the room from just within the doorway with the barrel of his side arm up and pointed everywhere he looked.
Both Jack and Teal'c slipped right past him and started to look through the rooms themselves. Within a few seconds, Jack came out of the en-suite and looked to the airman. "He's gone! Did he pass you?"
"No, Sir!" the airman immediately replied, lowering his weapon to the ready position.
Teal'c asked, "Did the door open, seemingly of its own accord?"
"No, Sir!" the airman more calmly replied.
"Damn!" muttered Jack. Looking to the airman he more firmly said, "Alright, airman. Out. And lock this door until I send someone to figure out what happened."
"Yes, Sir," the airman replied, as Jack and Teal'c quickly left the room to return to the command centre.
The airman was quick to pull the door close, fish a set of keys out of his pockets and lock the door.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Six thousand feet up from where he was, but approximately two and half thousand feet above the upper slopes of a mountain - of what appeared to be a mountain range - Harry appeared in mid-air
He quickly looked down to make sure he would be a while before he hit the ground, as he was now falling, and then scanned his surroundings. It took him only seconds to spot a small city, or large town, only about twenty miles away.
He stared at what he could see of a large grove of trees near the city and apparated a second time.
He appeared within the grove and almost immediately fell over. "Oof!" he quietly muttered, staggering, before putting his off hand out to rest against a tree trunk. 'Now, that's what I call line of sight apparation!' he thought.
Looking about to make sure he hadn't been spotted, Harry quickly transfigured his 'military' clothing into what Daniel had been wearing. He'd actually used Daniel's attire of what he was wearing while Harry was in the infirmary, as his model.
Now he needed to carefully make his way back to England.
He quickly hurried from the grove of trees and briskly walked to the city. It might end up being a mile he needed to 'hike', but he got very used to walking while on Hadrian. Besides, with the five percent less gravity, since he'd returned to Earth Harry felt as if he was almost walking on air.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
It did not take the SGC long to know Harry was no longer within the mountain triple command complex, let alone the SGC-only complex. They had that figured out as Harry was picking up a 'free' map of the area, by way of a copy charm, from the city's main library.
A search team was immediately sent out to look for him in the surrounding hills, heading to try and cut him off. However, he was already beyond that point.
Once he had confirmed he was in Colorado, located that on the magically copied map of the United States he'd picked up from the library, then figured out a place to hide as his magical reserves were now quite depleted, he headed directly there with one last apparation jump.
Here, he was sneaky. As it was on his way to New York, he apparated to Wichita in Kansas. It was not quite five hundred miles east from where he was.
Once there, he found an out of the way motel and used his invisibility cloak to see just how busy they were. Surprisingly, considering it was only a day after Hallowe'en and it was a big festive holiday in the United States, the motel was only three-quarters full.
He 'acquired' a room for himself, temporarily pinched the room key for it and then placed the room under a hiding charm.
Once set, he laid down and went to sleep.
He knew that, when you were in the sort of situation he was in at the moment where he might need to run at any time - he had no idea if or how fast the US Air Force could find him - then you got sleep and ate when you could.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
He needn't have worried himself too much, though. US Air Force Security Forces and members of the SGC restricted their search, at first, to the area outside the base, then moved directly to the outskirts of Colorado Springs and searched back to the mountain complex. That took them over a day.
By that time, Harry had gotten a good fifteen hours sleep - needed to replenish his magical reserves due to apparating through so much solid rock - and was on the move again, starting during the early morning hours that night.
Magically recharged, he apparated directly into the air, five thousand feet above the Statue of Liberty, looked down and saw a spot that was currently free of anyone - it was early morning, after all - and apparated to that point. And donned his invisibility cloak before hiding on the grounds of the island.
He could have immediately apparated to Manhattan Island as he had direct sight of it. However, he also knew New York to be absolutely chock full of people twenty-four hours a day. He feared he'd be immediately spotted by far too many people to obliviate of knowledge they'd seen him pop out of thin air.
Under his invisibility cloak and in his hidey-hole he started to pass the time by lightly meditating. However, the stench of the air, after being used to clean air for so long, almost burned his sinuses and lungs.
It would take him a while to again get used to one of those banes of civilisation, air pollution.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
With the US Air Force security personnel still focusing on the area around the Cheyenne mountains, Harry was calmly sitting cross-legged under the shadow of 'Lady Liberty'.
Once the sun came up and people were once more visiting the island, Harry waited only about an hour before calmly casting a Notice-me-Not charm on himself, removing his invisibility cloak and stuffing it in his mokeskin pouch.
Then he rose and went to the jetty to catch the next ferry heading back to Manhattan Island.
From there he found a local travel agency and found details on where he could catch a passenger-carrying ship to the English Isles. He was surprised to discover they still did so and that one, a Norwegian cruise liner, was leaving in two days from the New York Passenger Ship Terminal not far from his current location.
Though much colder than he was used to, it was still a nice day so he decided to walk it. Hell, it was only four and a half miles up the west side of the island up 12th Avenue. He set a brisk pace.
Knowing to stick to the main thoroughfares he was fine with the trip. Foot traffic was, to him, tremendous though. He'd never seen so many people in his life! And he certainly was no longer used to it.
However, none of these people gawked at him. If anything, they flatly refused to make eye contact with anyone, including him. And that was... marvelous!
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
An annoyed General Hammond was back in the briefing room, listening to reports flow in and around him. The SGC had never been created with the idea of staging a massive 'operations' from within, so there was no suitable venue within the complex to handle one. Other than the 'mess', the briefing room was the largest space they had, so that's where it was set up.
And that massive operation had only one target; 'Find Harry Potter.'
The electronic intelligence specialist captain from the previous day walked in and said, "Sir. We've found Hermione Granger."
"And?" he irritably asked.
"Sir, she's in America."
That had the general perk up. "Where?" he demanded.
"Massachusetts, Sir," replied the captain, handing over a slim file. "Her parents immigrated here from England back in mid July, 1996. Apparently, that was about a month after whatever it was that allegedly happened to Mister Potter under Whitehall."
As Hammond flicked open the file, he was given the relevant physical information of the girl right on top. Of course, one of those pieces of data was the home address of her parents. There were still quite a number of blanks, though; but the photo wasn't one of them. The girl had picked up a Massachusetts driver's license only eighteen months earlier. The address on the license was the same as her parents.
"Keep working on this," said Hammond. "If they're here it means we don't have to go through so many diplomatic channels to talk to them. The Granger woman should be able to confirm a lot of what our Mister Potter told us."
"Yes, Sir," replied the captain with a nod before she walked out.
Hammond caught the attention of a security forces sergeant and said, "Call in SG-1 and tell them I want to speak with them. We've got a lead I want them to chase up."
"Yes, Sir," said the sergeant before hurrying off.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Harry found the right ship and, after casting a Notice-me-Not on himself, boarded it to check it out.
He found the personnel, crew, of the ship in a major cleaning frenzy as if it hadn't long returned from a voyage. Which made sense, since a passenger ship wasn't making any money sitting alongside a dock between cruises.
On board, he found a pamphlet that had a map of the ship layout of the passenger areas and disembarked again.
With that in hand he went and found a café and pilfered some food - some to eat now, some to put under stasis and eat later - before taking it to a park across 12th Avenue from the Terminal to eat. As he sat there, enjoying his food, he was building a list within his mind of what he should have been paying for everything. He did not consider himself a thief; so would be paying each of the people he took something from, including for the use of the motel room he stayed at in Wichita, once he got to Gringotts.
He could, of course, have made his way back to magical Britain by magical means. However, he had no idea whether or not Voldemort had taken control of the country while he was off-planet. And did not want to trigger any alerts the man or his people had set up in the meantime.
That meant sneaking in to the country a muggle way. And, knowing security was going to be much tougher at international airports, decided he'd try to get in via ship.
He was quite willing to travel on a cargo ship. However, on a passenger liner he'd have access to good food. His asking the travel agent general questions told him that, as long as he didn't eat within the restaurants on the ship, nor drank any alcohol at any of the on-board bars, all the food in the main cafeterias on-board were included in the cost of the ticket.
After eating his fill, he went to a local 'inn' and found himself a room he could use until he'd be able to board the next afternoon. He used the same methods to secure his room as the one in the Wichita motel.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
The next day, after eating his kept-under-stasis food for breakfast and meditating for most of the remainder of the morning, Harry let himself out of his room and walked back across 12th Avenue to the Terminal. He wanted to be early, but not too early in case someone noticed anything. He had no idea whether or not a security camera could see through a Notice-me-Not and wasn't willing to find out the hard way.
One of the first things he did, once on-board, he used his map to walk to the area on the ship he thought would most suit. He avoided the elevators and used the stairs as it would not do for someone to notice a lift operate without anyone, apparently, in it.
On the right floor he then found a utility compartment that didn't appear to get used for much and let himself in. Then he employed his magics.
First, he cast a powerful hiding charm on the compartment. He then cast muggle avoidance, wizard avoidance, Notice-me-Not on the door, an illusion over the outside of the door to even hide it from security cameras... he hoped... plus others.
Once that was done he muttered, "Right." Then, inside, set to work with transfiguration.
He wizard-spaced the crap out of the compartment until it was huge. Then he set-to with transfiguring what was already in there into what he'd need for a two week voyage, comfort-wise.
He'd actually already looked into a similar stateroom for that floor and made his transfigured utility compartment somewhat match. He even successfully hooked into the water and sewerage systems simply by using his now 'tried and true' method of employing sheer willpower and intent to make it happen. However, as he had no electrical devices and he didn't want to screw around with transfiguring electricity wires anyway, he didn't hook the compartment up to any of that. He already knew electricity and magic didn't play well together and wasn't prepared to experiment here to see if he could figure out a way to get around it.
Once done he settled in to wait.
All that transfiguration work had again tired him out. So, after first making sure his hiding and security charms were doing their job, he laid down on his bed and went to sleep.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ