Doctor Snake (Harry Potter/Stargate: SG1)

[Winged One]

It's a ring platform, they don't get used by SGC AFAIK.

Click to shrink...

Well, SG teams use them, there just aren't any installed in Cheyenne Mountain.

 

[doomlord9]

Well, SG teams use them, there just aren't any installed in Cheyenne Mountain.

Click to shrink...

They're of limited use on the surface of a planet. They only project in a straight line and the energy stream can be intercepted, so I would guess that they either can't go through solid matter or have a limited amount before the matter disperses the stream.

 

[akitsu91]

2.3

"Harry!" Hermione called, watching the white mass fall onto Harry.

In the silence she eyed the cursed foam, a faint feeling of dread built in her chest at the silence after her friends burial. An anticlockwise twirl and a pointed jab of her wand, two formless slabs appeared, the slabs rippled transfigured into two grey and brown frog like statues standing either side of her, their weight sank them to their waists through the foam wonderland. A flick and a twirl she unleashed several animation charms.

A soft grinding filled the air, as the stone began to move, the throat sacks filled and emptied in fake breath, the lifeless eyes blinked turning to look at their conjurer.

"Help him," Pointing at the collapsed foam, the frog golems turned to look at the tunnel, small flakes of foam still falling loose from the roof, the necks movement smoother and quieter than before.

Moving slowly the stone statues stood from there crouch, their first steps were halting and hesitant the duo working to gain there balance on the soft and treacherous footing underneath, the second step was smoother the third even more so as they lumbered towards Harry's cave in.

Large webbed hands shovelled into the collapsed masses of foam excavating it in massive chunks. Mid shovel, Harry's head burst through the foam covering him, coughing and spluttering. Hermione sighed in relief.

"I'm fine," Harry called, a few foam flecks stuck to his cheek and chin, he eyed the frog golems, digging a path towards him, "Admittedly your way would have been a better idea,"

Hermione raised an eyebrow at his admission, walking along the golems cleared path towards him as Harry half swam half crawled towards Hermione and her golems. Occasionally sinking back below the foam as his footing gave way.

Stepping from the collapsed foam, a flood of white fell as he stepped out into the waist height foam. Eyes widening in suprise Harry ducked, dodging a shovel like hand of a frog golem coming in for another scoop.

Rolling under the sweeping arm, Harry stood correcting his glasses and shaking off the lodged foam in his hair, seeing Hermione's smile he scratched his neck in embarrassment, "The foam isn't packed as hard as I thought it was... nor as stable"

Shuffling his feet, Harry didn't make eye contact with Hermione.

"Accio," A particularly large pellet of shot into Harry's hand, enclosed with his fist the foam trembled but did not duplicate. Opening his hand Harry eyed the unduplicated foam, a suspicion forming, "Interesting..."

A quick jab of his wand at his outstretched hand he chanted, "Finite"

Like a small firework, the white foam pellet duplicated, multiplying rapidly his hand was enveloped in white, the instantly formed foam fell away from his hand in a shower of white. "We can't vanish it... but we can move it."

Shifting to look at the now motionless statues, "I think I have a plan,"

"Wait, what plan?" Hermione asked, hurrying to follow Harry as he swept through the waist high foam returning to the previous cave in. Breathing heavily as she reached Harry, she paused to regain her breath he was leaning against the animated golems, tapping the limbs and peering down its throat searching for something. "Plan Harry?"

"We can move the foam magically Hermione," Harry gestured to her frog statues, "We just need somewhere to move it to,"

Hermione nodded hesitantly, piecing together what Harry meant eyeing her frogs.

"Kneel," The first frog obeyed her order, dropping to all fours its mouth hung ajar.

Harry tapped the frogs lips, forgoing the use of anchoring the charm to a runic array to strengthen and stabilise the spell, he cast an Expansion Charm on the frogs hollow body.

As the spell began to affect the internal dimensions of the frog, its mouth bulged along with its hollowed body stretching to accommodate more space, externally the frogman sagged, the dissonance between the dimensions weakening the statues integrity. With the expansion, the spatial displacement sucked a gust of air inside to fill the frog's gullet, the backdraft drawing a stream of nearby loose foam as well.

The sagging statue shuddered slightly the overlapping enchantments conflicting, weakening the animation charms to a state of uselessness reducing the golem to a mere statue again.

Standing with his back to the still statue, Harry raised his wand pointed at the vast expanse of white in front of him, he visualised the foam and where he wanted it to go, with a massive overhead sweep he chanted the spell his wand pointed at the gapping frog's mouth, "Ad Traho!"

A soft breeze began to flow, ruffling through his hair past him into the mouth, turning to the still animated frog he wrapped his hands around its waist, he called to Hermione who was watching the now moving pseudo snow, "Grab on, it's going to get very windy soon."

Hermiones arm snaked around Harry's chest she gripped tight. Within the room, the floating foam specks falling from on high and those caught in the rooms drafts began to drift towards the crouched frog statues, the breeze began accelerate developing into a wind.

The air and foam began to visibly twist, spiralling forming into a massive vortex feeding into the front of the statue, the sound of their movement deafening. Drawn into the gaping mouths of the crouched frogs, torrents of foam stretching across the room from the mouth to the piled foam spun.

Clutching the backs of the statues, the two held on as hurricane winds tore through the room, the winds slamming them against the hard stone with each gust that tore past them. The speeding foam moving fast enough to feel like sandpaper as it rushed passed Harry.

The vortex grew, as more and more foam was ripped from the room adding to its growing mass, a white twister, as clumps of white were wrenched forth, the uncovered artefacts rattled, buffeted as the winds dragged foam off and passed them.

"Ad finem!" Harry shouted, clenching his wand tightly as the wind ripped wildly at his hand and wand, the roar of the gale drowning out his voice.

The winds tapering off Harry let out a groan of pain, his body aching from being pressed repeatedly against the rocky frog statue his hair stood in disarray, his clothes battered and ripped. Hermione let go of her bear like grip of his ribs, her hair in far worse condition but her clothes absent the damage of the statues abrasiveness.

Releasing his hold of the statue, he began stretching out the cramps in his arms from holding onto the rocky frog so hard, wincing at the soreness of his chest. The various Goa'uld technology sat spaced throughout the empty room, the wooden walls had large slivers of wood sliced from them, a result of the high velocity pellets impacting them.

Harry gave a low chuckle, running a hand through his hair. Regaining her balance, a slight wobble in her step Hermione walked across the wooden floor towards the crystal computer.

"I've got this, um..." Hermione struggled to pull out the notepad from her pocket the books sleeve catching on the pockets narrow opening, flipping through the pages she skimmed looking for the page she half remembered with the computers keys sketched. Giving a small grunt of satisfaction as she found the page she was looking for.

Comparing the two on paper and in front of her, she frowned touching the small ibis looking key, as the ibis glowed the entire block hummed. A triangular holographic screen appeared above the console, white and orange characters in Goa'uld filled the screen.

Glancing between the symbols on the holographic screen and the anoted translations on the page, Hermione tried to make sense of the interface. Behind her Harry accessed the stolen memories pertaining to basic Goa'uld, he blinked, "The Chappa'ai is in Egypt?"

"Egypt?" Hermione asked looking up from the Goa'uld writings, reaching over her shoulder Harry pointed at a series of numerical symbols in the corner of the screen.

"Maybe I spoke too soon," Tapping two buttons the screen shifted, a coloured picture of a silver ring surrounded by a massive desert filling the screen, hieroglyphs rolled down the screen next to the picture "Apparently he never found it, but Seth knew where it stood before the rebellion hid the ring,"

"Somehow the ring was hidden from him,"

"I see," Piecing together a few scattered words of Goa'uld, Hermione nodded, "Could it still be there?"

"Maybe" Harry shrugged.

-Scene Break-
​

The crack of Harry's apparition echoed across the sandy hill. Appearing in the evening light Harry gave a sad look around the sandy surroundings reminding him of Dobby's sacrifice and death. Smiling sadly at the bittersweet memories, he turned walking down the small path leading to Shell Cottage.

Framed by flowing trees and shrubs the small rounded windows shone from the lit rooms inside the small cottage. The cottage sat surrounded by a small white picket fence. Opening the small gate, its hinges squeaking as it moved under his hand.

Knocking softly, from within a gentle voice called out, "A minute!"

"'Arry!" The door swung open slamming into the wall. Fleur stood in the doorway dressed in a light dressing robe, her silver hair shone in the light, her aura-enhanced beauty stunning Harry momentarily.

Snapping back to himself, Fleur moved forward enveloping Harry into a hug, a sizeable bulge pressing into his abdomen. Harry returned the hug his arms tightening around her. "Hey Fleur, it's been too long,"

"How are you?" She smiled at the question, squeezing his shoulder she leant back loosening her grip, turning back to face the open door and the warm cottage behind her, she pulled Harry through the door.

"I've been good, it's been different, exciting and trying" Smiling she gestured at her belly, rubbing a hand over her sizeable bulge, "I'm on leave now, I've been working on getting the room ready for her. Gabby will be coming soon to enchant the rocker and the diaphragm, and Mumma as well is coming to set up the baby wards around the cottage,"

Harry rested a hand on the top of her stomach, "How far along are you?"

"Only a little over six months along" She rocked a little on her heels, smiling at her admission.

"We only told the family's not long ago," Fleur blushed as she waved her hand over her stretched stomach, eyes downcast her aura slammed into Harry again, her face beautiful in its embarrassment, "It was a bit difficult to hide the progress,"

Widening her eyes, she turned to Harry meeting his eyes, "We were trying to tell you to, but we couldn't get in touch, our owls just looked confused and refused to fly,"

"Sorry about that," Harrys hand rubbed the nape of his neck, jingling a small necklace set to ward of owl mail, "I had a few annoyingly persistent folks bothering me with mail,"

Walking past a small mantle he looked at the smiling and waving pictures of an only slightly pregnant Fleur on a beach sitting on Bill's lap, his arms wrapped around her small stomach bulge.

"You've been for a check-up?" Harry asked gesturing at her swollen stomach.

Fleur nodded, a faint smile on her lips as she looked at her stomach, "Yes, we go once a month to St Mungo's, she is very healthy my little Victoria,"

"It's a girl? That's good!" Fleur's smile widened, nodding in answer, "You know, it's not my speciality, pregnancy, but I can probably help you deal with the side effects; the soreness, the morning sickness and the swelling?"

Fleur's eyes widened, she clutched his shoulders staring into his eyes, "Magnifique! You can? With no foul potions?"

Harry nodded, feeling for his enchanted gloves in his pocket. "It shouldn't be too difficult, there is one other thing though, I, um, I dropped by to ask Bill a few things about Egypt,"

Letting go her grip on his shoulders, Fleur turned looking down the hallway.

"He is in the kitchen, making for me a de l'amour farine," Grabbing his arm Fleur pulled him out of the entry hall and into the cottage proper, excitedly her accent thickened "Come you must join us, you can ask him over dinner,"

Following a step behind Fleur, Harry followed in her wake, her robe fluttering as she stepped through the swinging door into the cottages kitchen. Stepping into the kitchen Harry took in the room's decorations, the table and dozens of candles lighted the dining room, a soft house music played in the background.

"Harry!" Came Bills shocked voice, his face looked from over the kitchen's bench, briefly he looked down at something out of Harry's view, his face paling, "...Hi?"

Ignoring Bills look of surprise, Fleur let go of Harry's forearm crossing the room, her arms crossed resting on her stomach meeting Bill's eyes.

"'Arry wanted to talk to you," She nodded, her silver hair swinging about her face, her eyes hardening as she spoke, "But, He will be joining us for dinner,"

Bill gulped, nodding hurriedly to avoid Fleur's hormone fuelled ire.

 

[Starfox5]

Good Chapter. I enjoyed the cursed foam scenes, funny and detailed. More information about Fleur and Bill looks promising too.

 

[akitsu91]

2.4

The sounds of knives and pans clattering in the kitchen filtered through the small window into the dining room, Harry and Fleur sitting opposite each other across a small red stained wooden table. A few dozen-candle sticks, releasing a faint incense waved gently on an invisible breeze.

A small bottle of wine sat within a levitating bucket of ice, drifting silently it moved towards Fleur's seat, gripping her wand lightly she waved it, its tip glowing an icy white. A thin tendril of red liquid flowed from the open bottle, looping and twirling it spread from the bottle, a liquid vine, the tendril split into three filling the ornate crystal wine glasses.

"Bill will be busy for a little while now, so tell me what have you been doing lately?" Her dark blue eyes watching him intently. Sipping her wine, Harry squirmed a little under her scrutiny.

"Well," Harry scratched his neck, "I have been travelling a bit in America, I visited the Magical district in Columbus, did you know they have their own version of butter beer? It was amazing... sweet, sour and bubbly, "

Harry shook his head remembering the sweet mead, "Their hospital did have a few interesting research articles on treating sleeping conditions..."

"It was a mostly fun trip," Harry shifted in his chair, brushing a hand against his pocket containing his gloves he gave Fleur a smile. "Towards the end I had a run in with a Dark Wizard, somehow he ran under the radar of both Muggle and Magical officials, kidnapping and controlling people off the streets essentially."

"It's sort of why I wanted to talk to Bill; Seth - the Dark wizard - stored some of his more dangerous items in Egypt..." Trailing off, Harry took a small sip of wine savouring the slightly fruity tinge. Sitting the cup on the table, the animated dragons and knights continued mock fighting around the cups lip, he pulled out his unicorn and Thestral gloves, "However, something in a little lighter vein, I did manage to finish a personal project that might interest you,"

Lifting his hands to the candle light, the gloves hanging between his fingers shimmered under the naked candle flame, "My own design, unicorn and Thestral weave, it's a healing foci,"

"Oh," Fleur reached across the table, tracing a pale finger along the stitched runic arrays, "This was what you meant earlier, to help with my pregnancy peiner?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, if I may?"

At Fleur's nod he slid the cool fabric over his hands, in place his hands tingled in contact with the magical components of the focus, cupping his hand he rested his gloved hand on top of Fleurs outstretched hand, the runes glowing faintly at the contact.

A flood of information came through as the diagnosis spells did their work, detailing everything on Fleur and by association the baby's condition. Numerous hormonal imbalances and stresses were immediately noticeable, several of which from what Harry could determine from the potion remnants within her system were being partially managed, but were persistent enough and minor enough that combined they made her life difficult.

A wave of transfiguration and healing magic swept from the gloves up her arm, through her back spreading to her limbs, the sensation eliciting a gasp from her and a surge of goose bumps along her back and legs following the wave.

Settling the slight chemical imbalance within her stomach exasperating her nausea, reversing the painful swelling of her chest, erasing stretchmarks and the water retention of her ankles, Harry moved onto the worse of Fleur's tensed and pained abdominal and back muscles. Fleur shivered as her muscles one by one began to relax, spreading the focus to other muscle groups, her entire body tingled feeling as if a masseuse had spent hours working on her body.

A dreamy expression crossed her face, her limbs feeling warm and weightless as if they were floating. Several conjured roses hovering above the candles began to shed their petals making a light shower of red.

"Merci 'Arry" Fleur said, her voice slightly slurred. Letting go of Harry's hand she stretched her arms above her head revelling in the sensation of moving her tingling limbs combined with the peculiar feeling of weightlessness. Harry ducked his head averting his eyes, her movements doing interesting things to her robes front.

A flash of pink caught his eye from a small bookcase. The rustling of knives and pans from within the kitchen faded, a brief lull of quiet and the kitchen door swung open, the smell of cooking meat drafted forth, pulling Harry's attention away from the flash of colour.

Fleur relaxed back in her chair, her hair glowing with a silver light, smiling as Bill walked into the dining room.

"What about Egypt?" Bill dressed in a dark blue robe asked, walking from the kitchen towards the set table, levitating three small plates behind him.

Adjusting a small ornate napkin before him on the table Harry nodded. "In America I came across something rather nasty, a wizard had in his possession an organic Imperious curse as well as a massive ego, lording around with a coterie of brainwashed muggles. From I found out they have some of their equipment hidden in Egypt. I wanted to ask about how archaeology works over there, more specifically the tomb-raiding, to stop anyone that Seth might have been working with from finding it by getting there first,"

Directing the plates to hover in front of each diner with a twitch of his wand, Bill glanced in Harry's direction in curiosity.

"I wanted to know if there were any unwritten rules, hidden customs, or conflicting interests or existing territories to be mindful of, that sort of thing. I don't want to be surprised by a local custom or law that Seth was relying on to help defend his hiding place," Harry shrugged, dislodging a few rose petals that had fallen onto his shoulder. "And well, I figured you would be the best person to ask,"

The levitating plates came to rest in front of them on the table, the faint smell of the entrée filling the room. Sliding into his seat next to Fleur and draping an arm around her, Bill paused in thought, "Egypt is home to some of the earliest recorded feats of magic, and it has a long and fairly bloody history. Wizards were just like the muggle Pharaohs wanting to take their precious things with them into the afterlife, or at least have them buried with them,"

"It is incredibly lucrative and dangerous to explore their tombs either for hidden repositories of knowledge – a scholarly wizard who wanted to experiment where no one could find them, - or to find caches of gold and jewels. Unfortunately the wizards of old have an annoying tendency to curse and jinx their burial mounds."

Harry lifted the warm oyster shell, tasting the sauce, "There are no permits or licenses for exploring old tombs per say in Egypt, and while the Goblin's are major players they do not control tomb-raiding,"

"It's actually all rather free for all - finders keepers in a way, wizard raiders occasionally follow muggle archaeologists and small wizard excursions, observe them and then obliviate them if they uncover something of interest," Fleur gave an appreciative hum of pleasure, as she tasted her oysters. "Leaving them thinking they found a tomb that had already been discovered,"

"They only Obliviate them?" Harry asked moving on to his second oyster, a hint of doubt in his voice.

Bill nodded, sipping from his wine cup, "I think I heard it described best as a sort of fishing analogy, they throw the archaeologists 'back' to possibly find another cache,"

"One thing though, travel is very slow outside of cities or big landmarks, you need to use camels or magical carpets to get around, Apparition and Portkeys are very, very dangerous to use." Resting his empty shells onto his plate, Bill leant back twirling his wine inside the cup. The knights steed rearing at the unstable ground, "The way the winds and the sand dunes can change the surroundings into something completely unrecognisable in hours, makes the sight unseen way of teleportation very hazardous, it's not unknown for tourists to bury themselves alive in a sand dune,"

"It's not like out here in England, and that's not even counting apparating into the centre of a raging sandstorm..." Bill shivered, his expression distant, "That is not fun, not at all..."

Harry nodded paling slightly at the thought of appearing with no warning in the middle of a raging sandstorm, slammed on all sides by a suffocating wind and choking on sand all while trying to focus enough to leave the sandstorm.

Glancing above Fleur's head at the small cuckoo clock, Harry blinked, a small violin was hovering hidden within the shadow of the clock.

"I... think I had better go," Noticing now a few more subtle signs that Bill had been planning something for tonight, Harry gave the few pink hearts hiding behind a picture frame a surreptitious glance, pulling off his enchanted gloves he turned to Fleur.

"'Arry are you sure?" Fleur lent forward her elbows on the table, and her chin resting on her hands a concerned look upon her face, "You have not tried the ice cream,"

"Yeah," Harry gave a tight smile, "Thanks for the help Bill,"

Pinching a small handful of green floo powder between his fingers Harry moved in front of the fireplace. Throwing the powder, the fireplace flared, throwing green flames up the chimney, illuminating the hallway.

"Grimmauld Place," Harry stated.

Watching Harry disappear into the green flames, Bill grabbed Fleur's hand, his other wrapping around her waist, whispering into her ear, "Suivre, mon amour"

-Scene Break-​

Harry let loose an explosive sigh in disappointment, reaching underneath his long coat, he pulled a a heavily folded and worn map from his breast pocket.

Crouching the small folded map in his hands crinkled against his thigh as he scratched it with a red-inked quill crossing out another failed area of investigation. Three weeks spent searching around the Giza Plateau and its neighbouring provinces and he had found no sign of the resting place of the Chappa'ai or anything related to the Goa'uld, even peering through the sands with his enchanted x-ray glasses, had yielded nothing.

Shaking sand out of his hair again he looked again around the desolate landscape, the sand and dunes shifting under the clairvoyant enchantments, becoming transparent to reveal more sand and rocky ridges below. Cancelling the vision augments Harry looked back towards the lightly glowing cities, fixed in the background of the sprawling cities the pyramids of Giza stood, marking the end of the horizon, the sun dipping behind them.

Where he stood was one of the last possible sites to search for any trace of the massive ring.

Turning to the camel behind him, his transfigured steed stood silently at the crest of the dune, its ears flicking away the few insects buzzing around it.

Harry flicked his wand silently chanting to cancel the inanimate to animate transfiguration. The camel slumped, its legs collapsing underneath as if it's strings were cut, falling to the ground its bodies hairs began to dissolve, shifting into a thin mist of sand trailing the falling camel. Hitting the dune beneath it, the camel's body shuddered before liquefying in a soundless explosion back into a formless mass of sand.

The building wind blowing through the valley pulled at the camel shaped lump, ripping away the loose sand and detailed features of the scultpure, wiping away any evidence of its former presence.

Pocketing his map Harry turned on his heel, disapparating with a muted crack away from the steadily increasing wind and cooling evening's air. Apparating back into his rented apartment in Cairo proper, leaving nothing behind but quickly collapsing footprints where Harry had stood.

Shedding his heavy cloak within the cooling charm layered room to the back of a nearby chair Harry turned to his desk, covered in scattered papers and journals.

Harry unfolded the map, affixing it to the corkboard above the desk. It was a detailed overview of Cairo and Giza the map was covered in two large areas of red ink. Sites Harry had spent weeks searching for any sign of the Chappa'ai or Seth's sibling's burial grounds.

Summoning a cooled butterbeer Harry swivelled in his chair, draining a mouthful of Rosmerta's finest, Harry glanced at the calendar hanging next to the map, it's occupants waving as they noticed his attention. Rubbing a thumb over his bottles condensation he mused it had been a week since he had had a proper drink. Idly he noted Jordan and his archaeology team should be back from their site survey by now, Harry glanced at the time it had been a while since he had heard a proper English accent.

 

[akitsu91]

2.5

Mumbling to himself Harry moved his legs trying to make himself more comfortable, shifting his legs between the sheets, a powerful, painful throbbing pulsed in his temple and the sound of blood pumping through his veins filled his ears. Pushing his head deeper into his pillow, he reached down pulling the sheet covering his waist higher, up to his chin, shifting himself around the warm weight on his shoulder to make himself more comfortable.

Twitching Harry stirred again, his eyelids fluttering open and closed as his sleep was disturbed by a soft and persistent squeaking noise close by.

Harry groaned, the snoring of his partner dragging his mind back into consciousness, his mouth feeling as if stuffed with cotton balls, and tasting like something foul had expired in there. Pulling his eyes lids open a fraction, his eyes moved looking around the room for the source of the noise, glancing at the window Harry winced in pain, the bright lights of the morning sun slamming into his hangover, exasperated the throbbing in his head.

Ignoring the sharp stabs of pain squeezing his head Harry looked down at the weight on his chest and arm. Blinking in surprise at the sight of the mane of red curly hair, Harry's mouth opened and closed at the familiar hair, the alcohol induced fuzziness affecting his recollections of the previous night beginning to clear.

Shaking his head, another wave of pain hit. Wincing Harry's eyes glanced around the room taking in anything to help jog his memory of last night after they had left the restaurant, his shirt missing a few button and with a new tear along the sleeves and his coat were hanging from the end of an opened cupboard door standing opposite the room's bed. His pants looking to have been thrown over the back of an ornate chair, and a frilly black bra, that was not his, topped the pants.

Harry frowned, looking around the room's floor for his wands wrist launcher, hopefully to cast a numbing spell to deal with the hangover. The movement provoking another painful throb in his temple, he didn't recognise the room. Beside him, Sarah shifted her body, he shoulders and arm pressing closer to Harry, loosing a small squeaking snore she pushed her face into his arm, simultaneously tightening her grip around his arm.

Running his tongue over dry cracked lips he moved to sit up, his vision wavering, a kaleidoscope of colour filling his vision as he lifted his head.

Gripping a hold of Sarah hand wrapped around his upper arm, he began to loosen her grip, prying her clenched fingers open one by one. Freeing his arm from Sarah, he leveraging the red head's body upward, Harry pulled his shoulder and arm from underneath her head and out from between her arms.

Dropping to the bed her head resting on a pillow she gave a soft snore, her empty hand flexed reaching for her missing cushion, his arm. Her breathing hitched as her hand scrambled across the empty bed, her hand slid across the sheet grabbing a hold of another pillow, pulling it tight to her chest.

Ignoring the cool breeze on his body, Harry's eyes searched the room for his wand.

A faint shimmer of distorted light, almost imperceptible was the only indication the sheathe was present on the floor resting atop a hastily scrunched flower top, Harry smiled wobbling slightly, his balance compromised as he walked across the room, leaning forward he picked his wand and it's holster of the messy floor.

Drawing the wooden focus, Harry rolled it between his fingers closing his eyes he enjoyed the usual sensation of euphoria of the wand connecting overriding the unpleasant throb of his hangover.

Crouching, he leant back on his haunches. Raising his arm, he tapping his forehead chanting his voice barely above a whisper, "Deleniov"

A soothing cool water like sensation washed over his head, the throbbing of his head and pressure behind his eyes faded. Sighing explosively, he threw his head back, thinking clearly now without the hangover making its presence known he glanced back, checking to see if Sarah was still sleeping.

Behind him on the bed the slim red head was still curled up, the sheets held under her chin and his previous pillow held tight against her chest, she was mumbling to herself her face twitching, his lips twitched at her expression.

"Accio," Flicking his wand, Harry summoned his clothes strewn across the room the summoned clothes launching into the air leaving their previous resting places rattling.

-Scene Break-​

Riding atop his transfigured camel, Harry swiped his sweating forehead, the roughness of his sleeve scratching against his skin, the sun's rays beating down on him were heating him even through his coats various cooling charms. The camel made its way up the sandy dune, its feet sinking as it struggled and found purchase to climb.

Swaying gently as the camel moved Harry watched the ground underneath him through his glasses spells, the layers of sand below him stripped away revealing to him only more sand, rocky ridges and the occasional water filled pocket, along the camel's trail its footprints collapsing as a faint breeze smoothed the landscape.

Cresting another dune Harry pulled back on the reigns, bringing the camel to a halt.

Slightly sick of the sight of sand, Harry slumped in the saddle blowing a heavy breath his sweaty fringe swayed under the wind. Reaching into his robes pocket, he pulled out the folded red scratched map, his written record of the search sites, manipulating the folded map Harry's head turned squinting as he inspected the horizon, looking back to the unfolded map, he tentatively positioned himself roughly at the centre of the last zone for him to search.

Around him as far as he could see, normally and with his enspelled glasses, he stood alone except for the camel underneath him. Twisting in the saddle, he removed his feet from the stirrups, throwing his leg over the camels back he dropped from the saddle to the sand below.

Palming his wand, Harry knelt in front of the camel, muttering a chant he tapped the sand. The ground below shuddered, a long spike of metal shot from the sand, partially buried within the sand. The emergence of the anchor startled the camel, it jerked pulling the reigns from his hands.

The anchor stopped its rise at near waist height. Harry stumbled, his balance screwed because of the camels panic, flailing he reached, grabbing the retreating camels reigns as he fell onto the sand. Pulling against Harry's firm grip on the reigns, the camel stepping nervously eyed the conjured rod.

Harry tied the camel's reigns to the transfigured anchor.

Eying the nearest dune crest, he twisted in the sand, disapparating from next to his camel with an echoing crack, the camel ignoring his disappearance walked around the metal anchor pulling its harness, feeling for some slack or weakness to exploit.

Apparating onto the nearby dune, Harry spared a glance back at the small figure of his camel tethered on top of the dune, testing its restraints.

Walking a small circle on the dunes crest his feet sunk into the soft sand leaving behind him a collapsing trail, tapping his glasses he again peered through the depths of the sand the clairvoyant magic showing only a rocky ridge hidden below.

Frowning a little in disappointment, Harry disapparated away again, appearing on another different nearby hill, again with his glasses he peered through the layers of ground, searching and again finding nothing.

Jumping to the nearby dunes within his line of sight Harry began travelling in a grid like pattern around his camel, stopping and looking for any sign of the buried temple, before moving on to the next dune to repeat the process.

Apparating onto another taller dune Harry shivered in the cooling evening air, the sun behind him dropping low in the sky, cooling the desert around him. Looking through the dune, he blinked in surprise at the sight of a large flat and very unnatural looking formation concealed underneath the mass of sand, Harry supressed a cheer.

Harry stumbled, sliding down the edge of the dune, to get closer to better see the temple. Halfway down the sprawling dune, Harry rolled his wand between his fingers, eying the sand between him and the unusual lump.

"Ventus!" Whipping his wand, a torrent of wind shot forth blasting into the side of the sandy hill, the vicious winds carving out a massive gouge the sand blasted away thrown high into the air, a sandy mist. Disapparating into the centre of the new hole Harry smiled, closer now he could see a wall standing under the slab, covered in hieroglyphs and painted murals.

Raising his wand to blow more sand away, Harry froze, the hairs on his neck standing on end, the slow drizzle of sand falling from above intensified, jumping back he avoided the wave of sand falling onto his position, flowing from the top of the gouge, the sand began to re-fill the crater, flowing like water downhill.

With a crack Harry apparated to the top of a nearby dune avoiding the heavy flow of sand, stepping forward he watched from the crest as the dune partially collapsed the sand dune slumping to fill in the magically created gouge.

As the flow of the sand down the dune slowed Harry reappeared on top of the filled hole. Scratching his head at the unstableness of sand Harry frowned. Drawing his wand, he twirled it between his fingers, watching a few small pebbles roll down past him he considered the sand.

Tilting his head at an idea he knelt down.

Muttering quietly he tapped his wand to the sand at his feet. Gathering momentum the sand below him shifted, faster and faster, the surrounding loose sand began condensing and hardening into slabs of sandstone.

A small passageway began to form in the centre of the transfigured sand, the transfiguration magic forming steps, a roof and walls, the loose sand in front of the created passageway bubbled appearing as a small puddle of moving sand. Stepping onto the creeping stairwell his footsteps echoed, small amounts of sand rained falling from the transfigured roof above, down onto Harry's head.

As the end of the stairwell moved digging its way deeper under the desert twisting like a snake, Harry looked between the changing sand and the buried temple, with his clairvoyant enchantments Harry guided the doorway on its way to the temples entrance, adjusting its path the narrow corridor twisted to meet the temple. A bubbling rectangle of sand filled the end of the corridor, the sand surrounding the tunnel drawn into the walls, strengthening them, feeding the transfiguration.

Squinting through the shadows he began to descend.

"Lumos," A small ball of light shot from his wand, hovering over his shoulder, illuminating the increasingly darkening tunnel. Moving deeper his footsteps reverberated on the transfigured stone stairs, the roof and walls began to creak under the increasing weight of the sand surrounding his small tunnel. Harry eyed the protesting walls.

Reaching the level of the entrance to the buried temple the tunnel began to widen, the bubbling sand stretching to encompass the doorway, forming an antechamber around the temples front.

Stepping off the last step Harry looked around the dimly lit chamber, the rough transfigured sandstone walls curving to form a large spherical chamber butting against the stone door.

Harry eyed the massive stone door in front of him, the magical light behind him throwing shadows over the various ornate carvings of serpents and hieroglyphs surrounding the edge of the door. Stepping across the floor, Harry gave the massive stone door a push, it didn't budge. Frowning he rapped a knuckled against the door listening to the echo of the dull thunk of his hand hitting the solid stone.

Rubbing his bruised knuckle, Harry pointed his wand at the door.

"Alohomora," A heavy clunk echoed from within the door, the locking mechanism twisting itself to allow the door to open. Pushing again the door it shifted an inch, grinding loudly against the sand underneath the door moved inwards, a puff of air escaping the chamber within.

Leveraging himself he pushed the door with his shoulder, Harry grunted at the exertion, his arms and legs protesting there treatment. As the door moved, sand and dust rained down, covering Harry's hair and shoulders, the sand fell from on high, displaced and knocked loose by the vibrations of the doors movement.

Panting softly Harry stopped his movement the door vibrations coming to a stop, the gap between the opened door and the wall was wide enough for him to squeeze through into the chamber beyond. Behind him, the orb of light bobbed following him into the chamber.

Stepping into the dusty temple of Isis and its uncharacteristically clean air, Harry froze as he took in the room, the hovering ball of light at his shoulder illuminating the room.

"Shit," The room was exactly as Seth had remembered it, except the dais that stood in the centre of the room, Osiris' and Isis' final resting place stood empty. The two canopic jars that should have stood on top of the dais were not there; only dust and long dead spider webs inhabited the room.

 

[akitsu91]

2.6

"This is not good, not good at all," Harry muttered, holding his wand at his side he moved towards the only item left of interest, the dais. Harry's lips quirked in amusement at a stray memory from Seth. The Goa'uld had been amused at the time by entombing his siblings in their own temples of worship, now it seemed like another had known where to find the temple..

Stepping across the room, he spared a glance at the Hieroglyphs decorating the walls between the columns, the carvings telling the story of Osiris' and Isis' betrayal of their father the Sun God and their subsequent imprisonment. Walking to the dais, his footsteps were muted by the thick layer of dust and sand underfoot, covering the temples floor.

Tracing a hand over the dais, the dust and sand crumbled underneath his roving fingers, raising his fingers to the light, Harry rubbed his dusty fingers together the particles falling, frowning, his eyes darted around the room the small orb of light illuminating only a short distance around Harry, leaving the massive columns bordering the chamber in shadow.

"Lumos" Another three balls of light shot forth from his wand, their lights leaving a comets tail, flying to the rooms corners. Digging his fingers into the loose sand Harry began scratching away the layers of dirt, scraping against something hard, a flash of yellow reflected off the gold as he lifted away the sediment.

"Of course it would be gold," Harry slid a finger over the uncovered glyphs, the movement removing the remnants of the dirt from the uncovered segment of the dais, frowning in annoyance Harry began widening the cleared area, his fingers scraping, revealing jewels and more glyphs.

Harry traced a finger around an indentation near the centre of the podium.

"A key hole?" Harry muttered in thought.

Tapping a finger to his glasses, he activated the glasses clairvoyance, the layers of sand and gold decorations on the podium fading away. Harry took in a breath of shock as the dais' internals revealed themselves, intricately carved crystals that looked suspiciously like the crystal computing technology the Goa'uld like to use and a kara'kesh were concealed within the hollowed dais.

Eying the indentation Harry considered whether testing an unlocking charm on something truly alien would be wise.

"Seth didn't know about this..." Turning on his heel, he shook his head, sweeping the chamber the glasses enchantments piercing through the walls, ceiling and floor, Harry looked for any other secrets or hidden places that Seth had not been privy too.

Harry's eyes widened as he saw a series of heavy circular rings embedded beneath the temple floor.

"A ring platform?" Kneeling Harry rested a hand on the floor above the concealed ring transporter, tentatively feeling for any outside sign of the rings presence.

Considered the hidden ring platform below his feet, Harry brushed away the layers of silt covering the ring transporters, cleared Harry looked at the unmarked floor, and it showed no signs of the concealed rings below. Harry frowned at the oddity, the Goa'uld did like to have the ring platforms located near the Chappa'ai for quick travel between ships in orbit and the ring.

Harry looked up at the ceiling, wondering why Osiris or Isis would have gone to this effort to hide the presence of rings in their temple. Maybe to access another chamber within the complex. He gave the hidden Kara'kesh a sad glance, with it he could have figured out if there had been a nearby matching ring platform.

Unfortunately, without Naquada within his bloodstream the Kara'kesh was for him nothing more than a shiny paperweight.

"What were you hiding?" Looking away from the ring transporter Harry scrutinized the walls and columns. Looking past the hieroglyphs and through the thick and sturdy stone walls all he could see was the sand outside, pressing against the buried temple.

"What have we here?" In the corner of the temple, a small shaft running vertically burying theough the bedrock that the temple sat on, was hidden, the entrance to it hidden underneath one of the rooms many columns.

Harry tapped the column resting on top of the concealed shaft it was solid. Looking up at the joinging of ceiling and column Harry's frown deepened the column was fitted snuggly between the floor and roof, with no room for it to move freely, fitted Harry assumed to conceal the tunnel's existence permanently.

Searching around the tunnel Harry looked and felt, tracing his hands over the column itself and the nearby walls for a loose symbol or a pressure switch to open an access into the shaft or to move the column.

Finding nothing Harry sighed pulled his hand away, brushing the grit of on his pants. Running his wand along the stone Harry muttered, chanting, the wands tip glowed cherry red. As the wand moved, the stone under the wand fell away, melting and reforming the stone opened like spider legs to reveal the shaft below.

It was narrow, the stony walls of the shaft were imbedded with old metal rungs, a makeshift ladder.

Darkness pooled in the bottom of the shaft, beyond the lights reach to illuminate. Dropping a conjured rock down the shaft, Harry counted, waiting for the rocks landing to tell him how deep the tunnel went, the wait grew longer and longer.

"That's not ominous at all," Harry mumbled, a faint clatter echoed up to him after what felt like a minute.

Sitting on the edge opposite the rungs, Harry threw his legs over the precipice, sending a wave of sand down the shaft. Resting a foot on a metal rung, bracing himself Harry began to add his weight to the rung, feeling for any movement or weakness.

No movement.

Placing his other foot on a lower rung he hesitated, feeling for and movement. Shifting all his weight onto his feet, Harry lent forward his hands grabbing the top rung. Holding the cool metal tight, he began to move his feet to a lower rung, straitening his body.

Taking a steadying breath to calm his beating heart Harry began to climb down the rungs. Clambering down the rungs, the rust from underneath his hands crunched faintly, the small flakes dislodged by his hands trickling down the shaft.

Stepping of the last rung and onto solid ground Harry, lent against the wall, his legs muscles wobbling from the climb.

Taking a soothing breath Harry looked down the tunnel he found himself in now, it was tall and narrow, barely wide enough to walk two people along. Old torch holders hung sporadically along the roughly hewn stone-walls. His hovering ball of light throwing shadows across the uneven walls.

Rubbing his thumb along his wand he started to move down the corridor, the hairs on his neck raised at the eerie silence, his footsteps on the uneven cobbles below him echoing, the only sound in the silence.

Eying the roughly carved passage in front of him, Harry walked cautiously his wand arm pointed forward, ready to react. A small stone sunk under the Harry's weight as he walked, moving minutely the pressure sensor underneath the floor activated, triggering the defences.

A soft hiss and two darts shot from the wall, sinking deep into Harry's out stretched arm, piercing through the reinforced leather of his jacket. A numb sensation rapidly began to travel up and down his arm. Loosing all sensation in his hand, his wand fell from his slack grip hitting the floor below with a clatter.

"Fuck," Wide-eyed Harry looked at the two black darts sticking from his arm. Leaning forward to grab his wand Harry froze, the movement having made his vision whirl. Bitting back the wave of nausea he tried to think of another option, already he couldn't move the entirety of his arm and his cheek was feeling a little too cold now.

Digging into his pocket his good hand he grabbed his medical gloves.

Pulling them out, he let one fall to the ground. With only a single hand to put on the gloves Harry froze, his other hand was useless to help. Bring the glove to his mouth Harry's teeth bit down on the gloves edge, holding the edge of the glove with his teeth, he pushed, wriggling his hand into the slim glove.

Loosening his jaw, Harry's vision split, his left eye losing control and focus its movement feeling like moving through molasses.

"Enervate!" Slapping his neck, the glove flared sending a surge of energy through his system, buying him time to properly deal with the sedative. Faint tingling sensations shot down his numb arm, uncontrolled his fist clenched. Spasming, control of his eye returned.

Holding the glove to his neck Harry waited, the gloves diagnostic array scanning the sedative and his bodies reaction to it. Tracking the spread of the sedative through his body, he purged it from his system. Pins and needles shot up and down his now unnumbed arm, opening and clenching his fist it tingled painfully.

Wrapping his gloved hand around one of the black darts, his arm burned from the movement. Gritting his teeth he wrenched the dart from his arm. Crying out, a sharp spasm of pain wracked his body, blinking Harry looked down at the bloody dart in his hand a chunk of his arm sitting at the darts tip, the barbed tip pulling out a small chunk of flesh from his arm with its removal.

"Episky," The gouged flesh knitted back together leaving only the bloodstain on his sleeve and the torn leather. Harry grimaced as he looked at the second dart still buried painfully, hooked within his arm.

Touching forefinger and thumb of his glove to the dart, he transfigured the dart, the barbs hooked into his arm withdrawing into the body of the main needle. Sliding the dart out, only a trickle of blood flowed from the wound.

Peering through the stone below waist Harry searched for any form of trip wire or sensor that could have set of the darts. Below his foot, resting under the stone floor he spotted a miniature black oval the size of his smallest fingernail, one of dozens within his sight alone, some form of wireless sensor.

Kneeling Harry reached for his dropped wand, his tingling arm protesting its early movement, warily he watched for any sign of activity from within the walls as he grabbed the wand in his grip.

Taking a few steps forward taking care to step between the ovals, Harry paused, touching a finger to his glasses, in front of him the corridor disappeared replaced by the transparent view of the walls and floor, searching he looked for any more booby-traps.

About three steps forward he could see a small black rectangular outline, opaque the shape covered nearly half of the floor's width, trying to peer through the shadowy shape nothing happened, his glasses failed to penetrate. Deactivating his glasses enchantments, his normal perceptions returned.

Conjuring a long stick, he prodded the suspect floor trying to determine the rectangles purpose. He kept an eye open for any swinging blades or rolling boulders.

Hitting the floor with a reverberating whack, he watched as nothing happened, no new darts or poisoned arrows shot forth. Frowning he hefted the stick, looking between it and the outline, tapping the pole with his wand he transfigured the stick, its mass shrinking, contracting itself into a large rock.

Throwing the rock underarm, it landed with a heavy thud in the centre of the outline.

A second later the floor underneath collapsed, falling into a black chasm. Harry edged towards the pits side, peering down the ball of light over his shoulder illuminated the pits sides, beyond the lights range all he could see was darkness.

Leaning against the wall Harry shuffled along the narrow ledge, his feet precariously close to the drop, he stepped passed the pit. "Definitely bringing a broomstick next time,"

Following the corridor dodging the traps triggers, Harry stoped as he approached a doorway, he eyed it warily, it was the first he had seen in this little maze, even with the hovering ball of light behind him throwing light forward, the doorway and everything beyond it was shrouded in shadow.

Briefly activating his glasses, he checked the floor and walls for any sign of trips wires, seeing nothing but the few concealed ovals under the floor he cautiously approached the doorway, his wand held tight.

A metre from the doorway a loud crack from above split the silence, glancing up Harry's eyes widened, dozens of large rocks were falling from the ceiling towards him. Diving from his location, he rolled, slamming into the doorway, aiming his wand up at the falling rocks.

"Protego!" An orange shield formed overhead, seconds later a heavy stream of rocks fell, smashing against the magical shield the impacts ringing through the hallway. Hunched under the protective shield Harry waited for the supply of rocks landing heavily against his shield to run dry.

Kicking his legs free of the knee-high rubble, he clambered on top of the thick layer of rocks. A few black darts glimmered from in between the rocks.

Partially buried, Harry climbed through the narrowed doorway, his feet kicking aside some of the smaller rubble as he looked at the room, his orb illuminating the vast space.

Brushing the dust from his jacket Harry stopped, staring across the room his eyes locked onto the small triangular spaceship sitting in the rooms centre, a Goa'uld scout ship, a Tel'tak.

Harry smiled as the grey metal body glinted of the hovering light behind him.

-Scene Break-​

Giving a snort Sarah twitched, tossing and turning, she flung her sheets away, stretching to fill the bed.

Hearing a muted bang Sarah shifted back into wakefulness, her mind still running slow, she blinked, blearily looking at the small light above her, not yet fully woken up, she closed her eyes again. Reaching overhead, she stretched her arms and legs to their fullest extension, a few of her sore muscles tingled at the activity.

Opening her mouth she yawned silently.

A few joints along her back and shoulder popped as she stretched, her back arcing of the bed, groaning, she smacked her lips, her eyes fluttering open. Turning she sat up, swinging a leg over the beds edge she pulled herself out of her warm spot.

Rising from her bed she blearily looked about her hotel room taking stock of her room and her guest, as her eyes settled on her guest she froze. Her jaw dropped a little as she watched, her eyes following Harry jumping quietly on her carpet, with one leg in his trousers Harry was focused on trying to push his foot through the second leg.

Running a dry tongue over her lips she watched the half-dressed jumping body move in interesting ways, she shook her head trying to focus.

"Morning Harry," She cleared her throat.

Startled Harry jerked his head to look at her, over balanced he tilted forward, his legs caught in his downed pants, flailing he grabbed hold of the opened cupboard door stopping his descent.

"Morning," Harry offered her a weak smile, letting go of the cupboard, his pants around his ankles.

 

[Starfox5]

Good dungeon cawl there, brought back memories of campaigns.

 

[akitsu91]

2.7

A/N: I am using the specifications for a normal Tel'tak and not the special one off Tel'tak used in the Episode 'Curse'. There is no information given aside from the brief exterior shot, but it is smaller and I don't want to imagine an original interior.

Taking in Harry's poleaxed expression Sarah threw her head back laughing, her red hair hanging loose whipped wildly about her head a full bodied laugh erupting from her lips, laughing hard enough her humour shook her body, collapsing backwards onto the bed she began to get a handle on her mirth, her full bodied laughs simmered down to mere giggling.

Propping herself up with one elbow she looked up at the shirtless Harry, turned askew he was now buttoning the top of his trousers his cheeks tinged red, shaking her head a wide smile split her face. "Oh Harry, your face, it was priceless,"

In an adult and measured response, Harry poked his tongue out at her.

"If only I had a camera," She muttered, tilting her head back to look up at the ceiling.

Pursing her lips she began to look about the room, searching for her clothes frowning she took in the messy room, last night's clothes laid scattered across the room.

Running her open hands across the cool sheets Sarah pulled herself upright, standing she winced at the pangs of protest from her muscles shot down her legs, protesting her movement so soon, glancing down, she frowned at her state of dress.

Peeking up through her fringe at Harry she asked, "Harry, would you be a dear and turn around?"

Twirling her white tipped fingernail, Harry jumped, her question pulling him out of his covert ogling, turning on his heel to look out the rooms window, Sarah smirked at Harry's back, "Thank you,"

Stepping lightly Sarah moved her feet tingling against the cold floor as she crossed the room, with a faint limp she slipped by Harrys turned form, stepping over and around the floors clutter she came to a stop beside the hotel room's desk. The desk was covered in magazines, small rectangular plastic wrappers, papers and a lone sandshoe.

Resting a hand on the desk chair, she lent over the chairs back, wrapping her fingers around the soft fabric she grabbed a hold of last night's bra. Lifting the lingerie between her fingers she held the garment to the light looking for any stains.

Bringing the lacy bra in front of her face Sarah gave an experimental sniff, scrunching her nose at the fabric sweaty smell she threw the bra overhead, the black lace crashing into the bed behind her with a quiet thump. Padding across the floor to the cupboard, she started poking through the cupboards contents, her fingers pushing through the coat hangers, knocking aside the hanging clothes, her eyes darted over the dresses, suits and other various outfits.

Her forehead crinkled in thought Sarah pulled out a short green and yellow floral sundress. Holding it between herself and the cupboards mirror she gave herself a brief inspection nodding in satisfaction, the dress would hang to at least her thighs, and the colour did offset her eyes quite well.

Sliding the dress over her head, she turned back to Harry, a hand shaking the dress to fall down her body properly, "Breakfast?"

-Scene Break-
​

Sitting in the centre of the chamber the Tel'tak stood silently, a shadowy and imposing rock, the shifting light hovering behind Harry reflecting off the main viewport.

Walking towards the ship Harry's boots hit the hard floor underfoot, his soles striking the hard stone echoed throughout the chamber. Approaching the ship he idly noted looking up at the ships bulk, the shadowy form of the Tel'tak was bigger than two London double decker buses, side by side.

Pressing a hand against the hull of the ships bulbous nose, the cool touch of the metal sent goose bumps along his arm, the metals pitted and scraped exterior a legacy of atmospheric re-entry and battle scraped against his fingertips.

Walking around the ship, away from the nose towards the ship entry bay, the light hovering over his shoulder illuminated more of the ship, walking he trailed his hand along the hull his fingers gliding over the hull feeling the imperfections in the hull scratching against his skin.

Looking along the metallic hull a large segment before the wings was bathed in shadow, approaching the shadow Harry took in the recessed wings, retracted they created a small cavity, the hovering light behind him lit up the shadowed recess revealing a closed side access door. Eying the eight-symbol pad next to the door, Harry narrowed his eyes in thought, "It can't be that easy,"

Pressing the top two buttons, they sunk under his fingers emitting a soft thrum, nearly inaudible. The button's glyphs began to glow with a pale green backlight, repeating he pressed one of the middle buttons.

With a metallic chime the backlight brightened.

The door split in two horizontally, a soft puff following the break in the pressure seal. The bottom half sank into the floor, the top retracting into the roof, the halves collapsed like a Russian Doll.

Harry blinked in amusement, his eyes moving from the opened doorway back to the keypad, the glowing keys dimmed, "It was that easy, no password..."

Stepping through the doorway into the ship proper, the hovering light behind him cast his shadow across the ships interior. Under the suspended lumos, light shone into the room's corners illuminated the interior of the ship. At the edge of his shadow sat the grey transport ring's platform centred in the compartment, two closed doors stood on opposite sides of the room, one to the ships front and the other to the rear and Harry supposed the engine room, glancing down Harry stepped around avoiding the rings platform he made his way towards the cockpit's door.

The door opened to reveal the ships cockpit.

Stepping through Harry eyed the ships small control panel, dozens of small indicators and switches covered the front control panel, they sat unpowered behind the dulled and bulbous neural interface.

Flicking his wand, Harry sank into the ships chair at the rudimentary scan for any sign of poison or energy. Harry reached out to take hold of the interface.

Touching a hand to the unlit red section of the interface Harry held his breath preparing to apparate, his eyes quickly looking for any sign of missed booby traps or delayed security measures. After a second of silence, the neural interface began to glow, relaxing in his seat at the lack of hostile reaction the orb turned a distinct red and blue.

The room shuddered, the vibrations shaking loose a soft rain of dust from overhead.

A dull whine from beyond the cockpit door filled the air, the ships internal generators internal systems began to work returning the online generators to peak performance, purging the few husks of insects and sand within the mechanisms. Above him the ceilings lights brightened, one by one the lights turned on, drowning out the magical light at Harry's shoulder, ridding the room of large shifting shadows cast by the magic light.

The ship gave an almost imperceptible hum, various buttons and toggles on the control panel began to light up, their systems returning from hibernation.

A triangular holographic projection shot from the furthest end of the control panel, filling the ships view port with its holographs. Various recognisable and unrecognisable hieroglyphs filled the screen, moving quickly the hieroglyphs crossed the projected screen as the ship reinitiated its systems.

Beeping twice the screen, blurred before displaying a two dimensional, rotating outline of the Tel'tak.

The image filled the centre of the screen, various underlined and coloured hieroglyphs linked to different segments of the ships systems began listing detailed information about the status and condition of the systems reactivation.

Squinting at the Hieroglyphs Harry quickly tried to contextualise some of the odd Hieroglyphs translations, making out the shields information, both environmental and travel were building up a charge to initiate external shields, the various life support systems were operating, but were running at diminished levels because of the long hibernation. The hyperdrive systems and stealth remained inaccessible, its information coloured red was mostly made of glyphs that translated with what he had learned from Seth made no sense to him.

A mental sideswipe and the display shifted, several lines shit forth from a half dozen glowing points on the ships diagram, the ends splitting forming into large circles. Within the viewing circles the points of light on the ships outline were zoomed in showing them in high definition, around them a short summary listed information about the auxiliary systems highlighted, life support, emergency escape pods, communications and the ring platforms.

Mildly curious, Harry skimmed through the systems.

"How did they get you in here?" Harry muttered, with a flurry of movement a dozen coloured glyphs emerged along the side of the screen to answer his question. Narrowing his eyes behind his glasses Harry tried to make sense of the new symbols. What knowledge he had obtained from Seth translating the Ancient Egyptian again into nonsense, gibberish without the surrounding context he had worked with some of the earlier systems.

"Blue Rise?" Harry mouthed the words. Resting his hands on the blue and red interface, Harry lent forward frowning at the nonsensical symbols.

A slow groan coming from outside the ship piercing the silence, above the ship large hydraulics initiated their opening sequences moving massive slabs of stone that made the roof of the underground chamber.

Pulling open the retractable roof, sand began to flood through the opening falling into the shuttle, it fell a steady staccato. The still narrow opening only allowing a light shower of sand to rain down onto the Tel'tak.

Jerking his head, Harry eyes widened as he looked through the ships front window, above the Tel'tak he could see the roof, it's split rapidly widening, allowing a waterfall of sand to cascade through, the small impacts banging against the ships hull began to get louder, and harder , as more and more sand fell. Turning his attention back to the controller his eyes swept the interfaces looking for the undo button, to put the genie back into the bottle.

"Shit, shit!" Sparing a glance at the 'Blue Rise' he ignored the nonsensical symbols, focusing on finding something helpful, pages and pages of symbols flooded the screen, some words making sense while others didn't; power, crescent blink, blizzard rising, sub-light engines, stealth, and shields.

"Shields!" Mentally focusing on the shields, the interface vibrated, on screen the shield icon flashed.

Outside the ship a pale orange light shot from the tail of the ship the burst of orange light travelled over the ship, trailing in its ecliptic arc a fluttering trail of glittering motes, rebounding back from the ships nose, the shields flared into operation, the orange light surrounding the Tel'tak in a bubble, pushing against the rising sand.

The shield flared as the sand from above fell a constant barrage onto the shield and slid along the curved barrier, pooling in a rapidly rising lake of sand. In the cockpit on the screen a pair of small orange glyphs flashed, behind them a small graph appeared, the glyphs warning of the under prepared shields in danger from growing and unsustainable energy drain.

 

[Tisaku]

The door split in two horizontally, a soft puff following the break in the pressure seal. The bottom half sank into the floor, the bottom half collapsing like a Russian doll, the top retracted into the roof, the halves collapsing like a Russian Doll.

Click to shrink...

This just hurt to read.

it fell a steady staccato

Click to shrink...

staccato is typically characterized by rapid individual impacts such as pebbles, sand would be more of a susurrus or hiss.

in a rapidly lake of sand

Click to shrink...

rapidly what?

 

[akitsu91]

2.8

Harry took a shaky breath, his limbs gave a slight tremor, his adrenaline pounding through his system. A glance at the holographic display, Harry's breathing hitched. The flashing warnings increasingly strident warnings a worrying sight. Several small beads of sweat began their descent, trickling from his forehead past his nose.

A mental flex and the warnings on screen shrank. Only a minimised graph of the power projections remained occupying a small corner of the display. Scrapping the memories and knowledge his brief mental battle with Seth he began to search for a way out. A way out that involved saving the ship.

Several large stones dislodged from the ships roof skittered down the hull, bouncing off the view port. At the unexpected sound Harry jumped, his heart pounding. Biting his lip Harry thought over his options. With a quick step outside the Tel'tak, he could transfigure a shield around the ship. A massive dome reinforced with magic to shield and protect the Tel'tak from its imminent burial. Harry shook his head dismissing the notion. He was quick on the draw. But he had no intention of finding out if the strength of his transfigurations could withstand the weight of several tonnes of sand. Nor did he want to find out if there were any side effects to magicing through a technological shield.

Foam was one thing to be buried in. Harry shivered, if he couldn't salvage the ship he would apparate out he promised himself.

On screen the shifting menus froze in their dance, his mind distracted.

Directly apparating something the size of a small building was the height of folly, if either so much as a fraction of the shuttle was lost to splinching… Harry shuddered.

But making the ship itself a portkey. Harry rubbed a hand against his chin his stubble crackling under his fingers, fiddling with a small hair he considered the idea. Recalling the nasty reaction the trace amounts of Naquada in Seth's bloodstream had, and the quantity of refined Naquada on board the ship made his stomach drop. Muttering a curse, Harry chewed his lip, promising to spend more time experimenting with Naquada and its interaction with magic.

Transporting the ship the same way he had the sarcophagus was out. The shield was the only thing keeping the sand at bay and something told him that the shields design was not designed to operate across warped dimensional boundaries. If he was quick enough catching the ship like a butterfly in a net and apparating out before the sand buried him – Harry shook his head dismissing the idea.

Pushing himself to relax - a basic Occulumancy exercise, the Tel'tak's sub-light engines were brought up on screen. His eyes lit up, shielded the ship would be able to rise through the sand like a bubble!

A glance at the retracting roofs information crushed that little faint bubble of hope. The mechanisms so old, were opening at a snail's pace - a boon and a pox. Long before the roof opened enough to allow the ship to fit through the roof, the sand would have long since buried the Tel'tak and overwhelmed its struggling shields.

Cursing softly, his fingers tapped against the blue interface.
A shrill beep pulled his from his musings, looking at the screen Harry felt his eyebrow raise in surprise. Staring at the hyperdrive's page Harry tapped his chin, a crude idea began to form. The report filled the screen, graphs and tables detailing the necessary power and the current time needed to be operational.

A memory, faint but dislocated and context less from Seth stirred tickling his tongue. Something important about the interaction between atmospheres and hyperdrives. Shaking his head he pushed it from his mind making a mental note to reference Hermione's journal after.

His heart bounding in his ears Harry eyed the computers power projections. With the encumbered shields drawing on the still rebooting generators there would only be enough to open a brief window and to sustain a short jump into hyperspace. Hijacking the planets rotation and a brief pulse from the sub-light engines would only go a short distance but it would be far enough to save the ship.

Smiling a toothy grin, Harry activated the sub-light engines. The Tel'tak's engines began to fire. The old hull lifted from the temples floor for the first time in a millennium, the small lights dimmed within the cockpit. The sudden power drain short-changing the lower priority systems.

Activating the Hyperdrive, the holographic screen flickered. Its display faded as the drive began to draw power, onscreen several small warnings opened.

"It doesn't need to go far," Tightening his grip, his knuckles whitened held onto the interface, Harry gave a mental wave and dismissed the prompts.

Outside the ship a crackle of blue and purple lightening formed at the front of the hovering ship. The sand and stone falling down the crafts nose and onto the forming hyperspace window disappeared with a small flash of light. Disappearing into another realm of existence.

The air around the distortion began to shake. With a thrum Harry could feel in his chest the small window expanded, stretching like taffy to form a rectangular window. The rear engines pulsed and the Tel'tak surged forward, the air and sand surrounding the ship sucked through with the backdraft.

Bracing himself, Harry felt the ship surge underneath him as it entered into hyperspace.

As the last of the ship left the chamber, the space time distortion collapsed in on itself. The now empty chamber shuddered violently the walls buckled from large displacement of air, the vacuum wreaking havoc on the ancient walls. With dry lips Harry watched the rapidly falling power readings.

Within the ship Harry watched, with more than a little bit of a sliver of awe as a kaleidoscope of colours stretched across, filling the Tel'tak's view port. A dozen hieroglyphs flashed on the screen a muted alarm blared, with a shudder and a lurch the ship dropped back into normal space.

Hurtling out from hyperspace the shuttle moved at a fast clip. Its outline shone a faint red, the friction from its unshielded hull scraping against the outer atmosphere.

Within the cockpit Harry was dropped into darkness, the holographic display collapsing out of view and the cockpit lights flickered out as the power gave out. Standing in an eerie silence, from his shadowed stand Harry looked through the viewport, his knees weak.

Entranced by the sight, Harry barely felt his feet leave the ground, the lack of gravity moving him away from the control panel.

Through the viewport the Earth hung suspended, in all its glory, beautiful, an orb of colour against a pitch black background. A crescent sliver of daylight illuminated the blue and green edge of the African continent, and thousands of stars filled the darkness across Europe.

Staring at the spectacle Harry committed the sight to memory. Around his immobile form the ship began to return to full power, the intense weight of the sand no longer hindering the generators.

A soft puff of air preceded the return of normal gravity. Falling to his feet, a clack of shoe on floor, Harry landed in a crouch, his hands shooting out to brace himself. Piece by piece the power returned to the various systems of the cockpit, lastly the lights illuminating the small room once more.

His view of the Earth interrupted by the return of the holographic screen and the cockpits lights, Harry took in his new position above the Earth. "Now how do I get down from here?"

The cockpit remaining silent, gave no answer.

The screen blurred, zooming onto London proper. As the screens movements stopped the small dank and uniform buildings of Grimmauld Way filled the screen. The heavily protected ancestral home of the Blacks did not appear on the ships viewport.

Harry let loose a small sigh of relief, magical protections could overcome something as advanced as the Goa'uld sensors was a surprise.

The computers targeting systems gave a soft chime of recognition, the sensors registering another set of active rings on the screen. Despite registering the rings nearby presence the system erred in determining the location giving only vague, contradictory and imprecise directional traces.

Harry's forehead crinkled in thought, it made sense from what he knew, the rings operated on a principle similar to the vanishing cabinets. Malfoy's pair had bypassed Hogwarts ancient defences easily. Swallowing a lump, Harry made a note to move the rings out of Grimmauld, or to set up some sort of defence against unwanted intruders. He very much didn't want a Goa'uld to ring into his home unannounced.

Unsure of the rings and the wards effects on anything transported through them, Harry conjured a small rabbit. He dropped the small critter in the centre of the ring platform. It half loped and half hopped towards him as he walked towards the rings control panel.

"Hold still," he said, conjuring a small green leaf to distract the white rabbit.

As the rabbit chewed on the conjured lettuce Harry activated the transporter.

Five thick metal rings shot from the floor, their bulk dwarfing the rabbit at their centre. The rings froze in their movement a hands span between them. With a flash the rabbit and lettuce were gone, the floor was empty.

As the platform returned to the floor Harry turned to the screen, he smiled the Earth rings still had a lock.

"Moment of truth," Again the rings surged from the floor. As the light faded and the rings returned to the floor Harry ducked a ruby red spell shooting through the space his head had occupied a moment ago. In the centre of the rings Hermione's wand glew a violent crimson. Her expression ready to dispense violence.

Seeing Harry she blinked.

"Harry?" A confused Hermione asked, her wand arm lowering and the tips light fading. In her other hand the conjured rabbit struggling within her grasp.

-Scene Break-​

Leaning back in the small sitting room chair, Harry sipped from his small cup of tea. Across the table, opposite Harry Sarah's bangles clicked as she moved. Closing his eyes Harry savoured the flavour, his thumb rubbing the cups rim.

Sparing a glance about Sarah's sitting room, Harry took in the sparse accommodation of the flat, aside from a small television and a small trio of pictures hanging on the far wall there was little decoration.

The largest, a faded black and white photo sat in the centre, a curly haired girl sitting on the shoulders of a burly bald man the two smiling at the camera holder. The smallest photo, a younger Sarah was dressed in black graduation robes and was hugging a bespecled man, a toothy grin split her face. The duo each held a small roll of paper in the air.

"It's hard to get over here, the tea I mean - but I've got my ways," Sarah said, watching Harry savour the tea she pulled Harry from his examination of the room. A small smile on her face, with a silver tong she began to add three small sugar cubes to her cup, dropping them in with a soft splash.

Stirring in her dissolving cubes, her spoon clinking against the cups sides.

"About Steven last night…" Drawing a deep breath Sarah bit her lip, "He's not that much of an arse, not normally"

The corners of Harry's lips quirked upwards, "A superstitious charlatan running around like the village idiot?"

She sighed, "He's normally charming, really. He likes to speak his mind… and he doesn't believe in some of the non-traditional methods of archaeology,"

"And you do?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Sarah sniffed, her nose crinkling in mock offence, "Water divining, Astrology, as far as I'm concerned it's all bubkiss I'm just polite about it!"

Harry chuckled as she poked her tongue out at him.

 

[Daeth]

I'm very glad to see this is continuing.

 

[Simonbob]

I'm not sure where this is going.

That's a complement, I might add. Fun, makes sense, within the canon's, and not quite predicable.

I like it!

 

[akitsu91]

3.1

Hermione held her wand aloft, her eyes and wand focusing through the narrow cockpit door, on to the form of her friend. She asked again a dozen spells on the tip of her tongue, "Harry?"

"Ah…" From his position beside the neural interface, Harry raised his palms upwards. A look of chastisement on his face, "Sorry about that, really. I didn't think anyone was in Grimmauld to be caught in the rings matter stream,"

Taking a step forward towards her, Hermiones wand tip emitting a faint red a warning. He froze, smiling a tight smile, his hands still raised his eyes looked between her wand and her eyes, he continued, "Are, are you feeling okay? Like everything was put back together the right way?"

Hermione blinked at the oddity and suddenness of the question. Glancing down, her eyes widened at the sight of the ring transporter on the floor below her. Her cheeks tinged a pale green at the nauseating implications. Stepping out of the ring quickly, her heels clicked against the metal floor.

Giving Harry a final evaluating look, neither his wand nor a Kara'kesh present in his grasp, she lowered her wand to her side. "I feel fine, a bit surprised but fine. Why wouldn't I?"

An icy cold fist of fear clenched in her chest at the direction of Harry's question. Lowering his hands Harry stepped away from beside the cockpit's neural interface. Walking quickly through to Hermione within the transportation room. Harry swallowed at the look of fear on Hermione's face.

"This ship has been under the ground, buried and inactive for thousands of years. I didn't know if after all that time the rings still worked. Nor was I sure of what affect the defences of Grimmauld place would have on the rings," Harry explained. He pointed at the rabbit hanging from her fingers. "He was my canary,"

Sniffing, her nose crinkled. She narrowed her eyes at Harry, "So what, I could have ended up here short a leg or two?"

"Or ended up with three legs and fingers for hair," Passing through the cockpits door he covered the distance between them fast. Entering her personal space, Harry pulled his foci gloves from his pockets. Pulling them over his hands he offered her a tight smile, not meeting her eyes, "Well… like I said the rabbit was supposed to be the guinea pig. I didn't expect anyone to be in Grimmauld,"

"Oh," Hermione said. Mollified slightly by Harrys calm she offered him a small smile. Within her chest the small fist of fear cooled, her veins feeling like ice, she watched Harry's pensive expression.

"What were you doing in Grimmauld anyway?" Harry asked, his question an attempt at diverting Hermione's attention from his own worry.

The squirming rabbit dropped from her grip, "I needed to build a power source for the anti-gravity systems. A muggle generator wouldn't have been able to sustain a big enough output without serious enchanting. So I was planning to pull a few of the liquid Naquada capsules from some of the Ma'Tok's; to build a Naquada reactor."

Harry pressed a gloved hand to her forehead, the fabric cool against her skin. Streams of information about her growing stress, her body and its health flowing through his gloves into his mind. "The Ma'Tok's were separated from the rings, on different floors weren't they?"

Hermione nodded, "I was, and they were."

"But when I was with the Ma'Tok's I heard a loud noise come from another room. I thought maybe the Doxies might have gotten into something of Seth's. So I went to check it out and then when I got down there all I saw was a small rabbit chewing a small leaf of lettuce where it shouldn't be," Hermione shrugged, lifting her empty palms. "I didn't realise you had the rings operating, hell I didn't even see the rings and I ended up here after I picked it up,"

Hermione's foot nudged the white critter sitting at her feet. After a final second of contact Harry sighed in relief. He smiled, as best as he could tell with the various medical charms he had cast her bits and pieces were all in their right spots. "You're fine Hermione,"

The fist of fear unclenched at the relief on Harry's face. Looking away from Harrys face she took in the golden room's decoration, the décor oddly familiar.

"Where are we? Egypt?" She asked, a suspicion forming.

Harry's hand dropped from her forehead. At her question Harry turned, smiling he pointed a finger towards the ships cockpit window. The blue and green orb filling its viewport, "Not quite Hermione, you could say we aren't in Kansas anymore,"

Her forehead crinkled in a frown at Harry's cryptic answer. Following the direction of his finger her eyes moved off the embossed golden walls to focus through the narrow doorway and onto the large triangular viewport. She let a small gasp of surprise at the sight through the glass, looming big Hermiones eyes widened at the Earth. The significance of the sight registering to her, "Harry am I in - "

"Space and a Spaceship," He completed for her, stepping into the cockpit he gestured with a sweeping arm to the Earth below them. Hermione ran a hand through her hair, clamping down on the budding excitement at being in space.

Wide eyed she stared at the green and blue orb suspended in the void outside the glass cockpits screen. Hermione walked forward through the narrow door and up to the glass, her heels clicking softly. Holding her hand to the cool transparent view screen she peered through to the Earth floating before her. Her nose almost touching the glass, "Oh Harry,"

Shaking her head Hermione gave a small giggle. "If you didn't find the Chappa'ai I thought we were going to have to build a ship from scratch, shields, life support, and hyperdrive. I already had a rudimentary antigravity cobbled together back in my workshop,"

Hermione traced a finger down the glass. The possibility of alien magic's hidden out in the depths of space, or creatures of legend whirring through her mind.

"Where did you find it? Is it ready to travel?" She asked, tearing her eyes off the sight of her planet below them. She turned to Harry her eyes focusing on him, "Seth knew nothing about any space ships still on Earth,"

Leaning against the viewport Harry's thumb traced a small circle on the golden ledge, "No, he didn't. To be honest I stumbled across it by chance while I was looking for the Chappa'ai, really, it was pure luck to find it,"

Looking away from Harry her eyes again sought the suspended planet. Several small flashes around it catching her attention. Squinting Hermione focused on the spark. She blinked at the realisation, she could see the suns light reflecting off the orbiting satellites below them. A worrying thought entering her mind "Harry, can the muggles satellites see us?"

Processing the question Harry's eyes widened. Darting a quick look through the view screen he pushed himself off the ledge moving back to the ships neural interface.

"I don't know," He muttered, as he connected to the neural interface.

The holographic computer screen again filled the viewport. Hermione recoiled from the sudden burst of light covering the viewport, blocking her view of the Earth. Goa'uld hieroglyphs filled the screen, the translatable and untranslatable glyphs streaming down the screen. Reading the holographic display Harry's shoulders slumped in relief, "No they can't see us. The ship's optic camouflage kicked in as soon as it registered we were outside the atmosphere, nothing muggle should be able to detect us,"

"That's good," Hermione nodded, "But why are you in space?"

"It was an accident really," Lifting a hand from the interface, he rubbed his neck in embarrassment. "I don't know what I did exactly, but I'm pretty sure I activated some sort of program to open an underground sunroof."

"Sand was pouring into the ships chamber and nothing I could do would close the roof." Hermiones lip twitched in amusement. "The ships shields were about to fail - Jumping up here was my only option, that or let the ship be buried and lost under the weight of the sand,"

"Jumping?" Hermiones forehead wrinkled, "You opened a hyperspace window in the atmosphere?"

Her face paled as she uttered her question. Her eyes squinted as she looked through the projected images on the screen trying to look through to the Earth below. Looking for any missed calamity. Her shoulders slumping she gave a short pitiful laugh. Harry's neck hairs rose at the sound. His mind recalling the stolen memories concerning hyperspace earlier wafting with a sense of familiarity.

Reaching over the neural interface, her hand shaking she grasped a hold of Harry's shoulder. A tone of panic in her voice, "Harry, please don't do that again. I-I like the atmosphere very much not on fire."

"Oh," Chastised Harry's foot traced a circle on the cockpits floor.

"I do have some more bad news," Harry said, her stomach sinking Hermione steeled herself, "The Chappa'ai is gone from its last known location, the plateau was empty. And Isis and Osiris Canopic jars were gone their temple, it looked like it was looted."

"So those two could be running around on Earth as well?" Hermione asked, her fingers massaging her temples warding off a migraine, "Damn,"

Harry shrugged, his eyes tracing the coast of wales, "Maybe their followers found and freed them I don't know. It's possible they are in some rich person's personnel collections. But if their followers found them I don't know why they didn't take this ship,"

"They had nowhere to go?" Harry shrugged again. Hermione started pacing across the cockpits floor her mind running through any possible reasons, "They were locked into the jars as punishment by Ra for planning to over throw him before Seth betrayed them. Maybe, they didn't want to leave Earth and risk discovering if Ra still held a grudge?"

Harry nodded. "Even still. Isn't space big enough for them to hide?"

"Maybe there was a second ship?" Hermione offered.

Turning from the window he stared at Hermione, "How exactly do you know all that?"

"Reading the journals about Seth's life, it's fairly scattered and fragmentary though. The narrative is spread throughout the pages, but what I've pieced together has a rough history of Seth's time here on Earth," Hermione shivered. "The sense of joy it got from its depravities, just from reading about it I needed a shower afterwards,"

Leaving the controls Harry draped an arm over her shoulder, giving her a one armed hug.

"Isis or Osiris wouldn't be brave enough to risk Ra's wrath. Especially with their powerbases already crushed by Ra's forces, the remnants would have been absorbed by the other Goa'uld. He is like a god to them Harry, I doubt they would think themselves capable of hiding from Ra out there," Hermione continued giving a tight smile.

She ran a finger over the golden serpent ornaments decorating the cockpits frame. Examining and analysing everything about the small Tel'tak's cockpit. "Seth believes a few Goa'uld have visited Earth you know. After whatever pushed them away from Egypt a few of them returned on the down low. Seth avoided them but they left signs of their presence behind; tribes disappearing, new religions. All things if you knew what to look for would be a signpost."

"I think I'll have to read the journals properly sooner than later," Harry said, breathing a tired sigh. Hermione lent into Harry's side.

"Well it's at about few thousand pages now…" Harry blinked at Hermiones estimate, "Wow,"

"Do they have any mention of anything about wizards and witches?"

Hermione shook her head, "As far as I can tell he didn't believe in magic as anything more than parlour tricks to frighten his slaves,"

She sighed, turning she looked at Harry, "We are going to have to head back down soon, there are so many things we need to organise. We need to decide on a plan of attack soon Harry,"

"You're right," He squeezed his hug a little tighter, "Come on,"

Breaking apart the two turned away from the viewport. Entering the transportation room they stepped into the rings. Inside the rings Hermione grabbed Harry's sleeve, "We can get back up here right?"

"Yeah, easy enough," The rings shot up from their berth, enveloping the two in light.

 

[akitsu91]

3.2

Picking up the small clipboard hanging from the beds end, Harry spared a glance at the rooms sole occupant. A small child near ten by his reckoning lay in the bed, sleeping. Her eyes sunken and grey were closed. The white hospital linen had been tucked by someone under her chin. Her eyes and cheeks sunken, her unnaturally pale skin and thin straw like wisps of blonde hair poking from underneath the sick girl's knitted cap, made for a macabre appearance.

Flipping through the medical papers his eyes skimmed the various orderly's notations about her progress and her prognosis. As he read the doctors hopeful estimates Harry stepped around the bed, sitting himself down on the mattress next to the sleeping child.

Turning from the messily scribbled notes Harry touched a gloved finger to the girl's sickly forehead. Near invisible the runes along the enchanted gloves began to glow, information about the girl and her condition began to flow through to Harry; Harry's Occulumancy shifting through the massive wave of information. The operation and treatments to remove a pea sized lump of cancerous tissue from behind the child's ear had left its mark on the girl.

He could trace the muggle doctor's path. From the surgeries initial entry site and it's neatly stitched line behind the girl's ear through to the now healing cavity the malign lump had been excised from. The dozens of needle marks and bruises pockmarking her soft tissue from the anaesthesia and the intravenous drip.

His magic swept through her body. Healing magic reinforcing the atrophied muscles, smoothing the after effects of the radiation treatment. He left the shallow entrance of the needle marks untouched, sealing the internal tears and bruising. Harry frowned, hidden within the girl's eye a small lump of cancer was growing. It was too small for the muggles to have detected, its absence from the medical charts reinforcing that supposition.

There would be no awkward questions if he removed it not like there would be if the girl miraculously returned to full health overnight. The muggles wouldn't know anything had changed, Harrys lips twitched. A mental flex and the cancerous growth became nothing more than a memory.

"Excuse me who -" A voice spoke up from behind Harry, the sudden question startling him from his magical examination.

Twisting on the bed Harry turned to face the source of the voice, a disapproving nurse stood beside the door, her arm holding the room's door ajar. Harry took in the heavy set nurse, from her position she looked at his form, sitting aside the child a gloved hand on her forehead. The nurse's lips pursed, a look of suspicion on her face.

Sighting the bedazzled badge on Harry chest the portly nurse trailed off. Her look of suspicion shifting to a look of recognition.

"Doctor Porter!" She exclaimed, stepping through the doorway into the room proper, a wide smile fixed itself across her face, "I didn't realise you were on shift this week,"

Subconsciously her hands moved down her front, smoothing the wrinkles from her uniform.

"Just finishing up –" Lifting his gloved hand from the young cancer patients forehead his eyes glanced down at the nurses small bronze name tag. He offered her a thin smile, "Nancy. Doctor Thompson wanted me to give her chart a once over,"

"Oh of course," She said, her eyes darting to the shrunken girl, "Poor dearie, she came in with a broken leg playing football of all things, like some wild chit,"

Her wrinkles deepened as she scowled, her disapproval clear on her face. She let loose an explosive sigh, "It's never good when they get the big C so young, it will hang like a spectre over her life, she'll probably never shake it,"

"Well, the good news is I doubt the cancer will return," Harry offered, Nancy resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his naiveté towards the realities of life, "She should be back kicking footballs or climbing trees soon,"

A shrill beep came from Nancy's belt cutting short Harry. Pulling her pager from her waist, Nancy's eyes widened at the numbers on the small black machines screen; she turned giving Harry not a second thought. Stepping quickly she pushed her way out of the room heading to the emergency leaving Harry in the room.

Through the door Harry could see silhouettes of rushing figures moving past the room, the clatter of feet on linoleum drifted through the slowly closing door. As the door clicked shut the room dropped into silence only the soft breathing of the girl beside him lifting the hush.

Pressing a finger again to the girl's forehead Harry dived again into his examination.

Having done what he could Harry stepped out from the isolated room.

Stepping down the hallway away from the room Harry weaved his way through the nurses and doctors sharing the corridor. Turning from the main thoroughfare into a quieter corridor Harry came to a stop in front of a familiar thin green door. A cautious glance either way for any onlookers Harry palmed his wand, the slender wood dropping from his wrist holster. Dropping an unstable notice-me-not on the door he opened the small janitorial closet door.

Stepping in he closed the closet door behind him. Surrounded by dusty shelves and the smell of bleach Harry twisted on his heel. Disappearing from the closet with a soft crack he left behind a rapidly collapsing ward.

-Scene Break-​

Her hair tied back in a messy bun Hermione lent over her workstation; a short bench pockmarked from past potions. A small silver cauldron simmered in front of her. In her hand she held a short golden spoon. With it she stirred the brewing potion, flashes of silver spreading like vines from the spoons wake. The colour sinking back into the crimson mixture.

Dipping her fingers into a small ceramic jar her fingers sank into the cold powdered root. Pinching her index and thumb together she pulled out a smacking of powder. Sprinkling a pinch of the golden flakes into the bubbling liquid, the cauldrons contents began to glow a soft gold; throwing off a golden aura.

A crack of apparition echoed from down the hall startling Hermione; Harry had returned.

"In a minute Harry," She said, the footsteps behind her stopping. Her eyes not moving from their laser like focus on the cauldron in front of her, "The Felix Felicis is at a very delicate stage. It needs my complete focus – unless you want it to become a bad luck potion that is,"

"Nope, carry on. Ignore me," Hermiones lip twitched in amusement. Behind her she heard the rustle of papers, Harry flipping through her notes on the table she assumed.

Picking her wand up from the bench she held it over the simmering potion. The crimson mixture still moving, the momentum from the earlier movements of the golden spoon driving the liquids movements. Spreading from the cauldrons rim the mixture began to take on a golden tinge, as the mixture bubbled the emerging gold began to solidify into thick lines of golden colour spreading like lattice.

Silver sparks fell from her wand. The sparkles falling, buffeted by invisible winds as they fell like autumn leaves. Landing on the mixtures surface they sat suspended on top of the potion. As she stirred again with each pass of the golden spoon the shimmering motes sunk into the potion. Silver flecks formed throughout the potions glowing golden aura.

Ceasing the rain of silver Hermione tapped her wand to the cauldrons rim with a silent incantation the liquid flashed. A shining beam of light erupted vertically from the potion, behind her she heard a muffled curse and a clatter as whatever Harry had been holding fell in his surprise.

Hermione blinked the spots from her vision, the intense light fading as quickly as it had erupted.

"Whiskey!" At her command the small house elf appeared on the bench, large wet eyes blinked at Hermione. The elf wore a thick and heavily stained leather apron over its miniature butler's outfit.

"Yeses Mistress?" It said, nodding its head. Bat like ears flopped as it moved.

Hermione pointed a finger at the now simmering potion. "Keep it in the second cool room and the heat at a low burn. It will need to be stirred every seven hours, forty nine rotations each time alternating clockwise and then anticlockwise,"

"I wills," Whiskey said, nodding. Withdrawing a small pad of paper the house elf scribbled a note on the paper. Bowing once to Hermione Whiskey's slim fingers clicked, the bubbling potion and the still dripping spoon disappeared from the bench and Hermiones fingers with an echoing clap. A second later its orders received the small elf flickered away.

Running her fingers through her hair Hermione let out a heavy sigh the intense focus required to work with such a volatile potion was tiring. Stretching her arms overhead she flexed her shoulders trying to uncramp her back and neck muscles; the knots tight after the past hours spent bent over the cauldron stirring.

Dropping her arms, her back muscles tingling from the new movement she spun herself on her stool to face Harry.

Sitting at a table in the room's centre opposite her work bench Harry's fingers turned over a small cragged lump formed of a blue substance, Hermiones failed attempt at magically duplicating Naquahdah. Now nothing more than an inert paperweight.

In front of him hundreds of papers annotated with her own messy scrawl lay scattered across the tabletop.

"A luck potion?" Harry asked, flipping the copied Naquahdah the misshapen blobbed cartwheeled through the air falling into his hands.

"Figured we might need the luck sooner or later," Standing from her stool, her knees creaked and popped, "It needs to brew at least until the solstice, it won't be ready for months yet…"

Hermione sat down on the empty chair at the table, her fingers began to gather together the scattered sheets sorting them into different piles.

"I started to put down some ideas on how to best set up some form of legitimate muggle front, to disseminate the technological advancements," Holding a piece of paper Hermione scowled a the messy scrawl, upending the sheet her eyes widened in comprehension she dropped it into its pile, her hands moving to grab another loose sheet. "Computers, Patents, Names those sort of things,"

Harry nodded, smoothing down a small smile. "Names? Like names for the muggle company?"

"How about Marauder Inc?" Harry offered, his expression offering nothing to hint at his sincerity

Hermione's eyes narrowed at Harry's guileless expression, slowly he poked his tongue out. The tips of her mouth twitched a note of amusement entering her voice, "Don't make me hit you Harry,"

 

[akitsu91]

3/3 Gathering

A/N: Montage!

"Harrison Porter?" Hermione frowned at Harry, "That's a terrible alias,"

"No no hear me out," Harry said raising his hand, "It's so obvious that no one would think that I would use it,"

"So security in audacity?" Hermione asked she remained unconvinced.

-Scene Break-​

"America?" Harry asked, a look of incredulity on his face.

"It's ideal Harry, The American Ministry's infrastructure has been in decline since the Wars, I know that Ruissie has had to send obliviators to help them police their territories, and more importantly you are not a celebrity over there," Hermione said, raising a finger with each point, "Over there nobody would blink twice at some nobody making something unique,"

-Scene Break-​

"A few thousand muggle pounds," Harry said, "A few people were feeling a little bit generous after I offered some assistance,"

Hermione scratched her nose, "That's no where near enough to do anything. Will the Goblins convert galleons to muggle money? I've got a fair sized stack in my vault,"

Harry shook his head, "Nope, best they'll give you is a few tenners for a sack of galleons, but not much more."

"That's... unfortunate. We might have to start smaller than I thought Harry," Hermione squeezed the bridge of her nose. She quickly flipped through the papers on the table, "Patents or something intangible like programing?"

-Scene Break-​

Harry eyed the five cards fanned in his hand. A wand, a Thestral, a Warlock and two Witches, only two cards shy from winning the round. He drew another card from the deck, pointedly he ignored Teddy's not so subtle glances at the card as he slid it across the table, his godson trying to see the underneath of his new card.

Transparent hands rose up to cover Teddy's eyes. Teddy gave an indignant grunt his brown hair greying and shortening. "Mum! I wasn't cheating!"

Teddy shivered as a transparent finger rubbed against his earlobe, "Sure you weren't honey,"

Ignoring Tonks and Teddy's by play Harry lifted the corner of the card. Harry resisted the urge to frown. Externally he smiled adding the useless Thestral to his losing hand.

"What's got you bothered Harry?" Andromeda asked, dark eyes watched him intently, feeling he had spent enough time avoiding what he had come to talk about she was fooled by neither his deception nor his stalling.

Harry discarded the Warlock atop the free pile, he glanced up, his gut wrenching as he saw the worried face of Teddy and Nymphadora. Nervous, Harry scratched the back of his neck. "Nothing bad Andy, I can't enjoy a game of Macbeth with my godson?"

Nymphadora smirked at the familiar faint twitch in her mothers cheek. Andromeda's lips pursed, "You don't like Macbeth Harry. Any other day Teddy has to near about twist your arm to get you to play with him, except today"

Teddy nodded in agreement with his grandmother, his light blue eyes shifting to a dark green.

Dropping his cards to the table face down, Harry sighed giving Teddy a glance, "Well, when you put it like that… Me and Hermione we found something big Andy. It's something I don't think you would believe me if I told you straight, you'd probably think I was crazy or something. You have to see it to believe,"

Andy ran her tongue along the inside of her teeth, "W-"

"It's not Merlin's underpants is it?" Tonks interjected, leaning forward in her excitement she phased partially into Teddy's back. Teddy shivered at the numbing sensation spreading down his body. "Because I could believe that,"

Tonks pulled back from Teddy whispering, "Sorry baby,"

"Nymphadora!" Andromeda snapped, Tonk's eyes widened at the rebuke, her lengthy hair curling into a tight perm.

"What?" She asked her mother. She batted her eyes at her mothers scowl, innocent and twice as big as normal and perfectly circular.

"That was disgusting and completely inappropriate," Andromeda's nose scrunched in disdain, relaxing her scowl she turned back to Harry. Hesitant she asked, "It's not that is it?"

"No," Harry said. "It's nothing to do with underpants,"

She nodded satisfied with his answer, she ignored Tonk's sound of disappointment, "When do you wish to show it? Not now is it?"

Harry shook his head, "Um no later in the week was the plan,"

"Is it close by?" Tonks asked, her hair shifting wildly between curly and straight. Harry hesitated trying to think of how to let her down gently.

"Not really, sorry Tonks," Her shoulders sagged slightly.

"S'kay Harry," Her white hair hung limp, "I guess I can stay here and watch Teddy,"

"Hey!" Teddy spoke up his hair spiked up and turned red, frowning he stared at his mother, "I'm not a baby anymore. Why can't I come?"

"Because Edward Remus Lupin I said so!" Teddy blanched his face whitening and hair drooping at Andromeda's shout.

Andy turned back to Harry, "I'll be there Harry,"

-Scene Break-​

Green fire swelled inside the ornate silver and brick fireplace. The coloured fire spilled over the grate Andromeda stepped from the swirling green flames with not a hair out of place. Brushing a thin layer of soot her eyes swept the sparsely decorated walls of her family home. The portraits, the few still affixed to the wall, no doubt protected by their owners own spells were covered in a heavy black cloth.

A well-dressed house elf popped in existence beside Andromeda, pulled from her musings she raised an eyebrow as she regarded the smartly dressed elf in a muggle suit.

Large wet eyes blinked at her, "Whiskey be tellings you Mr Potter on his way,"

Nodding, its message delivered Whiskey vanished with a pop leaving Andromeda alone again.

"Much nicer than mother's pillow," She muttered. Staring at the vacated spot the elf had stood she turned her head to the hallway as she heard an unusual pitched sound.

Unsure of whether to investigate the oddity or it ignore it, her ruminations were cut short as Harry stepped into the arrival room ending Andromeda's conundrum. Across the room Harry smiled, "Andy!"

"Harry," She said, nodding in Harry's direction. "I apologise for my slight earlyness,"

"No problem, this way," Harry gave her a one sided hug. He led her through the dark wood stained hallways, in the corner of the doorways small runes flashed. They stepped into what she recalled as the family dinner room. Andy blinked at the massive grey ring patterned onto the room's floor, the family meeting room she had attended many a Saturday lunch was devoid of the monstrously large familiar table and chairs only the unusual ring pattern painted to the floor occupied the room.

She raised a questioning eyebrow as Harry led her into the centre of the circle. Before she could ask the purpose of the circle was, the painted rings below let loose a scream. Four massive glowing rings shot forth from the floor surrounding them. As they reached her heads height, she felt everything disappear in a flash of light.

It had been years since she had cause to draw her wand but old instincts had her fingers wrapped around the comforting hilt of her wand as the light began to fade.

"Andy wait!" Harry yelled. Her wand grasped tight in her hand she froze in her draw at the sound of Harrys voice. Blinking she looked at the changed room the dark stained timber walls had been replaced by gaudy yellow and some sort of thick and bulky decoration.

Through a narrow corridor ahead of her between four imposing statues she could see a dozen or so other people, the majority of them sporting a familiar shade of red hair.

Her wand still held tight she narrowed her eyes at Harry, "This is some variation on the Room of Desires you mentioned in Hogwarts? An illusion?"

Harry shook his head keeping an eye on her partial drawn wand, "No, I'm sorry I didn't think to warn you, Whiskey was a little premature in his activation. It's a form of teleportation. We aren't in Grimmauld Place anymore."

Andy nodded.

"Much too comfortable to be a proper form of transport," She sniffed, pocketing her wand she stepped from within the rings and began to walk, her heels clicking, down the corridor and to whatever had the Weasley's all captivated so.

Harry sighed in relief before he followed behind her into the Tel'tak's cockpit.

As he entered the narrow passageway, behind him the rings flared to life again. Flashing a bright white light the brightness faded to reveal Hermione standing next to Bill and a heavily pregnant Fleur. Stepping over the rings Fleur rubbed her thin slippers against the embedded ring, nodding in satisfaction, she turned to join Hermione and Bill walking through the narrow corridor.

Bill's forehead crinkled as he looked at the raised hieroglyphs, "They don't make any sense Hermione, its an incoherent mess," He rested a hand on the wall," This section here is for protection for ear worms and night terrors. Then here it shifts to the history of some sort of water deity and their rise from a primordial soup,"

"At least a third of the symbols are nonsense," His frown deepened as he examined the walls, "The harmonics required to anchor any of the spells the walls list with the runes here… Frankly I'm surprised the walls haven't melted already,"

"I don't think the creators designed it for anything other than aesthetics," Hermione said, Bill shook his head muttering about rich idiots slapping together something that looks cool. Stepping into the cockpit Bill made his way towards his mother and sister standing at the bulbous controls. Fleur gave a sound of appreciation at the cockpits interior.

"No down a bit, more to the left Dad," George said as Andromeda approached behind the two arguing Weasley's. George and Arthur leant against the window trying to locate the Burrow.

Arthur shook his head, he tapped a finger to the glass, "Trust me it looks like one of those frozen muggle maps, the Burrow is more to the right, look near those green patches… Hello Andy"

She nodded to Arthur before peering through the viewport, her eyes widened at the suspended blue and green orb, "What, is that?"

"That," Arthur said, pointing towards the sight filling the window, "Is our planet,"

Andromeda raised an eyebrow. "Are you positive? It's really quite ugly,"

"Harry!" A voice said from behind him. A heavily pregnant Fleur wrapped Harry in a one armed hug, her protruding stomach pushing against his hip. "Hermione says you have found a spaceship!"

Andromeda sniffed sending a frown at Harry. Behind Fleur and Harry, Hermione offered an apologetic small smile, "She asked where the circle would take her,"

"Why didn't we think of that Dad?" George asked. Arthur shrugged he had no answer to Georges question. Molly shook her head and Ginny giggled.

Crossing the cockpit floor George sidled up to Bill, he faux whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Harry didn't tell us you know, said it was a big surprise that we wouldn't believe it then he shows us the window over there. What do we see but Bloody home floating away from us."

"And it's not a trick, I checked," He cut in before Bill could say anything tapping a small yellow spoon in his chest pocket.

"We aren't on the planet anymore, technically we are in an almost geosynchronous orbit," Hermione said, giving the golden spoon a curious look. The two Weasley's gave her a blank look, "We are a long, long way from Earth,"

"Oh!" Fleur exclaimed. Catching sight of the image of Earth behind Andromeda and Arthur, her eyes widened. She waddled over to the window a tight grip on his gloved hand she half pulled Harry behind her. She pushed her nose to the glass, "I know that beach, it has the most friendly mermaids,"

"They had the most wonderful full body massages,"

Slipping out of Fleur's embrace Harry pulled Hermione aside, his voice low he asked, "Ron?"

Hermione shook her head.

"Won't be able to make it, he was coming but something happened in the Ministry he hasn't been back since the Minister called him in," Her eyes focused on her shoes, she frowned "Something big is going on in the auror departments, something hush hush. Even Percy can't get away…"

Hermiones forehead wrinkled, she sighed, "I'll have to fill him in when he gets back,"

Harry nodded, bumping his shoulder to hers. They stepped back to the others by the blue and red controls.

"So Harry did you bring us up here to just show off your new toy?" George said, prompting a snort of laughter from Bill. Fleur jabbed a narrow elbow into Bills side.

"Not quite," Hermione said, "Remember how we said we found this space ship? Well there are Aliens out in space. And they are not at all friendly,"

"When you say you found it…" Molly said slowly, "You found it on Earth didn't you?"

Ginny gasped, "The aliens are on Earth?"

"Yep," Harry nodded, "We were wondering if we could get some help with that,"

 

[Simonbob]

Do you post this anywhere else?

I'd like to have a copy I can store for Off-Line reading.

 

[akitsu91]

Its mirrored [here] Using a FFnet fic downloader should give you a copy.