Reckoning Night

Chapter 4

"Padfoot, I need to talk to you."

"Do you know what time it is?" A grumpy-looking Sirius blinked sleepily at Remus through the green flames of the fireplace, but his frown of annoyance turned into one of worry when he noticed Remus' sombre expression. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Not yet, at least. Can you come over?"

Sirius studied him for a moment as if he wanted to find out whether he should be concerned or not. Then his face disappeared from the fireplace, and a moment later his full body materialized in its place and stepped out of the green flames.

"You look pale, Remus And it's not even full moon yet."

Remus found himself being steered towards the nearby couch and only noticed now how weak his legs were feeling.

"It will be, soon," he said, trying to keep his voice steady. "Tomorrow night, to be precise."

Sirius had settled down beside him, still looking at him intently. "So ... where's the problem? Well, apart from the obvious, of course."

Remus took a deep breath, trying to bring the jumbled thoughts in his mind into some kind of order. "I just talked with Snape. He hinted at some kind of attack that is apparently being planned." He paused briefly, then pulled himself together. "Tomorrow night, when it happens to be full moon."

Sirius let out a small laugh. "That's all? I mean, why is this a problem all of a sudden? Do you think they are trying to attack the wolf?"

Remus wondered why Sirius, who had such a bright mind, could be so slow sometimes. Or maybe he just didn't *want* to see it. "No, not them. I ... the wolf could attack someone."

Sirius grabbed him by the shoulders, clearly trying to talk sense into him. "You take your Wolfsbane Potion, lock yourself in, and sleep through the night. Nothing is going to happen, okay?" He looked at Remus sharply, waiting for him to acknowledge this fact.

But Remus wasn't that optimistic. "You don't understand. Don't you remembered what happened with Hermione's cat?"

"You mean--" Understanding finally dawned on Sirius' face and he let go of him. He was thoughtful, absently rubbing his neck. "I don't think you need to worry about that. We all know the wolf can't be controlled by the Imperius Curse."

"Not under normal circumstances, no."

"Just because they controlled the cat--"

"They got through all of the protection spells around Hogwarts!" Remus said, jumping up from the couch abruptly, looking for something to vent his frustration on. He started pacing. "There is something going on that makes the Dark magic stronger than ever. Can you say for sure it isn't strong enough to control a werewolf?"

Sirius said nothing for a while, just staring into space blankly. He finally blinked, shook his head, and looked up to his friend. "Do you really think Voldemort would go that far? To try something like this?"

Remus stopped pacing. "Why not? He has nothing to lose. Even if I didn't take the Wolfsbane Potion, the most it would cost him are some of his minions."

"Well--" Sirius let out a small sigh. "I suppose you're right. And if Voldemort is really host of this alien ... thing, this creature, like the Muggle said--"

"Daniel."

"--Like Daniel said, it would certainly explain his sudden rise of confidence."

Some small part of Remus had still been hoping for Sirius to disagree, to find some reason why all his fears were unnecessary. In a way, he was disappointed to see Sirius give up that easily. He let himself fall back on the couch before his legs decided to go all wobbly on him again.

"And we still don't know what this new weapon of his really does," Sirius finished grimly.

"Dumbledore said, Daniel and the rest of his team could possibly help us, since they know more about the Goa'uld and alien technology than we do. Daniel wanted to try and move to a hotel in a town near Hogsmeade."

"Let's just hope they know what they're doing."

-----

Jack still didn't know what to make of Daniel's ramblings. Yesterday, he had told them something about wizards and magic and their Goa'uld in between, and insisted that the end of the world would come if Lord Voldythingy wasn't eliminated. Carter thought all this was intriguing. Teal'c looked as if he was skeptical, but with him you could never tell for sure. In the end, the decision was Jack's, who had blocked off right from the beginning because he thought the whole thing was fishy.

"I want nothing to do with witchcraft," he said firmly. "No offense, Daniel, but to me it sounds very much like you've been brainwashed by some obscure cult to fulfill one of their evil schemes."

"Please trust me for once, okay?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, you know I do. It's that I don't trust your new buddies. They claimed you had life-threatening injuries the night before, and now you are standing here with nothing more than a headache and a few bruises. Even Dr Fraiser couldn't heal you that fast. You know what I think? You never had that skull fracture and broken rib in the first place, it was just part of the scheme."

"Oh, come on, Jack. I've personally been raised from death or near-death a number of times already. You of all people should know that there are ways to heal a lot more efficiently than our medicine can."

"Yes. On *other planets*."

Daniel sighed. "Fine, if you don't want, I'm doing the whole thing on my own if necessary."

In the end, Jack had decided to go along with him, after all, even if it was only to keep an eye on him. If it turned out to be true what Daniel had told, or rather, what Daniel had been told by the 'wizards', they could still decide on a course of action. It all seemed a bit far-fetched right now. But so was the idea of the Egyptian pyramids as landing platforms for alien spaceships. Birds of a feather.

Jack informed General Hammond that they had found a new hint to the Goa'uld's whereabouts and were following him up to Scotland, hence their change of location. It took them nearly a whole day until they had settled down, found a room, and unpacked their things. Now, in the glow of the setting sun, Jack was staring at the silhouette of the old dilapidated building on the hill several klicks away. It seemed to be nothing more than a ruin. "Are you sure you haven't been hallucinating all of this?" he asked doubtfully.

Daniel looked offended. "No, that is where the castle is supposed to be. Maybe it's the same as it was with the hospital that looked like a department store from the outside."

They were about to return to their new room at the *Spider's Web* inn, when someone approached them from behind. Jack only noticed them when he was spoken to.

"Colonel O'Neill?"

Jack spun around and was facing two unknown men dressed in black, who introduced themselves as Agent Devlin and Agent Moschella from the NID.

"Hey, didn't Carter mention you two? Are you following us around or what?" Jack didn't feel like putting on a show of politeness.

"That is none of your concern. We'd like to know where Dr Jackson disappeared to yesterday."

"That," Jack replied, speaking slowly and carefully, "is none of *your* concern. I take my orders from my superiors, not from you, thank you very much. Now if you'll excuse us..." He turned to go.

"Maybe you have forgotten that there is a Goa'uld on the loose."

Jack sighed and turned back, exasperated. From his friends' expressions, they weren't feeling any different. "So what?"

"You have an interest in locating him, as do we," said Moschella. "You know better than anyone what kind of risk he is. We might have a better chance of success if we work together on this."

"Or maybe you don't have a clue about his whereabouts and hope we've come here because we're following a trail," Daniel shot back, saying out loud what Jack and probably Carter and Teal'c, too, were thinking.

"Well, we know your so-called 'vacation' trip is a ruse," said Devlin. "You *are* here because of the Goa'uld. Do you know how much damage he has already done, unbeknown to you? Do you know how much damage he will do? Do you really want to be responsible for what happens when he infiltrates a position of power?"

Before Jack could say anything, Daniel jumped in again. His voice was quiet and collected, but still carried over quite well. "You have *no* idea how much power he already has. There is so much more behind this than just a simple Goa'uld, and there is so much more at stake than you think."

"Which is exactly why we don't want the NID, of all people, to know about this," Jack added, effectively ending the conversation. This time he really did walk away, the rest of his team following him. He could almost feel the hostile glares of the two men on his back.

"We'll make sure your *superiors* hear about your incompetence," they heard Moschella call after them. "This will have consequences!"

-----

Snape watched the headmaster pace up and down in front of the huge fireplace in Hogwarts' staff room, which provided the only illumination in the room, casting an eerie orange glow on the faces of Professor McGonagall and Sirius Black who were gathered around it along with Snape himself. It was not a typical sort of habit for Dumbledore, and Snape had to admit to himself that it unnerved him more than if Dumbledore had been discussing their situation while sitting in an armchair, appearing calm and collected.

"The recent events have shown clearly that it is only the light magic that is losing strength," said Dumbledore gravely, "while the Dark magic seems to be growing stronger. We know the Dark magic has always derived much of its power from the negative dimension, but could only be as strong as the negative feelings the caster could bring up."

"Then what does this have to do with the new weapon everyone is talking about?" Professor McGonagall inquired.

"There has always been a slight imbalance, but the rapid decline of the light magic spells has only begun on the same day Lord Voldemort got his hands on this weapon, which is a originally a creation of a highly advanced extraterrestrial race if we are to believe the explanations of Daniel Jackson. He said the inscriptions might mean something along the lines of 'gate' or 'portal'."

"And you believe that?" Snape wasn't sure he liked where this was going. He was very suspicious of these Muggles who had apparently come all the way from the other side of the world just to poke their noses into someone else's business.

"Daniel Jackson also believes a parasitic being has invaded Lord Voldemort's mind in search for a position of power."

"Position of power indeed," Black muttered. "As if a regular Voldemort wasn't enough trouble already."

"And this being, the Goa'uld, supposedly knows how to operate the device, which would explain why it looked different from its original state in the museum. He has probably activated it already," Dumbledore concluded.

Silence filled the room as everyone thought about this.

"So what does this have to do with the imbalance of magic?" Black finally asked, leaning slightly forward to rest his arms on his thighs, looking expectant. Dumbledore stopped his pacing, standing as a dark silhouette in front of the fiery glow.

"When we take into account the writings on the weapon that Dr Jackson translated, we need to consider the possibility that this weapon is not a weapon in the true sense of the word, but perhaps a sort of gate."

"I have seen it, it's not nearly big enough to be a gate. It has about the same size as a tin can. You can't walk through it," Snape said immediately.

"He means a gate for the negative energy, you dimwit," Black said.

Before Snape could utter a scathing reply, Professor McGonagall interrupted them. "If this is true, is there a way to close the gate? We have to stop or reverse this."

"Even if the device itself is not a magical item -- and we don't know if it is -- it does appear to influence the negative energies which in turn have an influence on the Dark magic," Dumbledore said. "Severus, do you know if the device responds to spells at all?"

Snape sighed. "The Dark Lord guards it like a treasure, so I could only take a closer look when he was distracted, which doesn't happen very often. So far it hasn't responded to light magic at all, and Dark magic seems to only worsen the situation. If it's really some sort of portal to the negative dimension, it would make sense that a Dark spell cast directly on the gate will feel immensely more powerful when it can draw energy directly from the source." He looked at the small gathering. "The Dark Lord activated this thing. If anyone knows how to turn it off, it's him. And I don't think he's about to tell," he finished bitterly.

Professor McGonagall looked like she had a hard time coming to terms with this. "That means..."

"We're doomed," said Black, glaring at Snape as if he was responsible for all this.

"Not yet," Dumbledore said. Everyone's gaze turned to him. "You forgot that there is a third type of magic, which could very well be the key to bringing the balance of light and Dark magic back." He made a pause that Snape could have sworn was just for effect. "I am, of course, talking about the ancient magic."

"But..." said Black, trailing off.

"No one knows how to use this old magic," Professor McGonagall said. "It's been lost literally for ages, for centuries, if not longer."

"Unfortunately, you are right," Dumbledore said. "The old ways have been forgotten and neglected for too long. We can only use the magical energies with the help of wands, merely tapping into the raw power that lies within us. I have done much research in this field, but there are just not enough resources. The ancient magic might be powerful enough to close the gate, but no one is sufficiently skilled at ancient magic, not even myself, not even Lord Voldemort."

For a few beats, there was silence. "But," Black said, hesitating for a moment, then going on. "Isn't there a chance that there is, somewhere on this world, still someone around who can use the ancient magic? Or maybe a book about it, anything that helps us learn it?"

Dumbledore sighed, sounding almost painfully resigned. "It isn't that easy, Sirius. Ancient magic is not something that can be learned like a Levitation spell. I fear we just don't have the time." He turned to Snape. "Severus, do you have any idea how long we still have? Anything about future plans?"

"Nothing concrete, yet. Maybe there is, but he won't share it with anyone who doesn't need to know. I did hear something about an attack planned tonight, but I already told you about it. I don't think it will be followed through, anyway."

"Oh, damn right you told us." Black cradled his head in his hands as if this had brought him to the end of his tether. "Remus even called me late last night because he was so upset about it. He's been angsting about it all day. This is giving me a bloody headache."

"Why do you think it won't happen?" Dumbledore asked.

"As far as I understood, it's about these Muggles, Daniel Jackson and his associates," Snape said. "There has been talk that they might be a risk to the Dark Lord, but I don't think we need to worry, especially if Lupin has taken his Wolfsbane Potion and locked himself up somewhere. It just isn't the Dark Lord's style to bother with Muggles."

Black looked up, thoughtful. "I hate to say it, but you have a point. If he admits that he's afraid of them, he's showing weakness. Which, of course, is quite definitely not his style."

"I'm inclined to agree," said Professor McGonagall.

Dumbledore nodded. "I have a meeting with the Minister for Magic in half an hour, so I'm actually more concerned about an attack on the castle while I'm away."

"You mean it's a ploy, and he doesn't actually plan anything with the Muggles at all?" Black said, abruptly sitting up straight.

"I'm not saying it is, but the timing coincides strangely with my absence from Hogwarts."

"We will keep our guard up," Professor McGonagall assured him. "If anything suspicious is going on, we will alert you immediately."

"Very well. I will ask Cornelius to have someone contact the International Confederation of Wizards regarding the use of ancient magic. I doubt it will bring up anything useful, but it's always worth a try."

If only they had enough time.

-----

Ron and Harry were on their way to the staff room, hidden by the Invisibility Cloak, in the hopes of finding any notes about tomorrow's NEWTs exam in Transfiguration that Professor McGonagall might have conveniently forgot.

"There's someone in there," Harry whispered, pointing to the light that fell through under the door.

"Maybe we should come back later," Ron suggested. "I told you we're too early."

"Or maybe we should just keep studying like Hermione does," Harry said. Ron looked at him but couldn't see his face in the darkness.

"You're not serious, are you?"

"Nah. Listen, someone is talking in there. Maybe they are discussing the exams."

They both edged closer to the door, straining to hear what was being said. Ron felt slightly guilty for eavesdropping like that, but he couldn't afford to flunk the exam, and if they weren't caught, no one would be the wiser.

It was hard to hear the conversation through the thick wooden door. At first, Ron wasn't even sure if he had understood correctly. "This is Professor Dumbledore," he whispered. "We should have brought the Extendable Ears. Is it just me or was he just talking about ancient magic?"

Even though he couldn't see him, he could feel Harry staring at him in horror. "The exam will be about ancient magic? They can't do this!"

"Isn't this the thing with life debts and stuff?"

"I don't know, maybe we shouldn't have slept through so many History of Magic lessons."

"Shhh, I think this is Snape talking!"

This wasn't about the exams anymore. Professor Snape was clearly speaking about some kind of attack on someone. Tonight. Then Sirius' voice complaining about Snape having upset Remus. Then Snape said it was about 'these Muggles'. Then everyone agreeing that it had to be a ruse, and that it was far more likely it was going to be Hogwarts, not the Muggles.

"C'mon, we need to get away from here!" Harry pulled him along, the two of them hiding behind the next corner just before Professor Dumbledore came out of the staff room and walked off in the opposite direction. Even though the Invisibility Cloak was handy for general purposes, they could never be sure with Dumbledore.

When the coast was clear, Harry set off in the general direction of the stairs. Ron had no choice but to tag along if he didn't want to lose the protection of the Cloak.

"Hey, where're you going?"

"The tunnel to Honeydukes. We have to get out of grounds so we can Apparate. I'll tell you everything when we are out of earshot."

Mystified, Ron followed Harry. He trusted his friend to do the right thing, whatever it was. And he was curious what it was that Harry knew that he didn't. When they had climbed into the tunnel, and the entrance had closed behind them, Harry explained what Sirius had told him -- how someone named Daniel Jackson, who had played the run-of-the-mill American tourist had important information regarding Voldemort's strategies and was suddenly much more than a regular Muggle. "He's now in Hogs Grove with three other folks, who he says are part of his 'team'."

"So ... what are you going to do now?" Ron asked, still puzzled. The glowing light of their wands cast spooky shadows on the walls, making the whole trip seem slightly surreal.

"Warn them of course!" Harry sounded like he was convinced he was pointing out the obvious.

"Why?" Ron asked. Even to his own ears, the question sounded slightly dumb. "I mean, even Dumbledore was convinced there was more chance of an attack on Hogwarts than on these Muggles."

Harry stopped and turned around so abruptly that Ron nearly bumped into him. The light of their wands illuminated his face in a spooky way from below. "What if there isn't? What if this is not a ruse? D'you think they stand a chance against a horde of Death Eaters if they don't see them coming?"

Ron wasn't sure if they would have a chance even if they did see them coming. "Are you sure it's a good idea that *we* go there? I mean, shouldn't we have asked the teachers to do something?"

Harry stared at him as if he had just grown a second head in a place where heads weren't supposed to grow. "You're not seriously suggesting we walk in there and tell *Snape* we've been eavesdropping on him, are you?"

Oops. "You have a point," Ron had to admit.

"Besides, we're both of age and no stupid schoolkids anymore. I don't think we will meet any Death Eaters at all, I only want to give the team a heads-up, just in case."

They exited the tunnel and the shop unseen before they Apparated away. They were both still too inexperienced with this to risk Apparating from the confined space of the tunnel, especially since they didn't know if the house had anti-Apparition charms that extended below the cellar. The trip to Hogsmeade had taken its time, and until they had found the *Spider's Web* inn, where the team had moved to according to Sirius, it was pretty late. The sky was clear and the cold light of the full moon was so strong that they didn't need any wand lights. They should have left their cloaks in the castle, Ron thought suddenly. If any Muggles saw them like that, they might get curious.

The inn was dark, except for two windows in the upper floor. The front door was locked, but they got in with a simple *Alohomora*. They entered an empty, dark bar room with stairs at one end leading to the upper floor. The moonlight falling through the windows provided enough illumination for them not to trip over anything. They climbed up the stairs and found themselves in a short corridor with two doors on each side. From one door on the right side and another on the left, light was falling through the gap under them.

"Let's try this one first," Harry said and walked over to the right one. He knocked tentatively. The voice that had been talking fell silent, and there was a brief pause. Then they heard steps and the door was opened a crack. A middle-aged man with slightly greying hair was eyeing them suspiciously.

"Uh, hi," Harry said, suddenly at a loss for words. Ron didn't really know how to start, either.

"Jack, who's there?" came a voice from inside the room. The man who was probably Jack turned around and said, "I think these are friends of yours."

The door opened wider to reveal a younger man with collar-length brown hair and glasses. "Hello," he said, hesitating a bit. "I'm Daniel Jackson. Have we met?"

Ron and Harry looked at each other, feeling uncomfortable. Harry seemed to be waiting for Ron to continue, which Ron thought was a bit unfair since it had been Harry's idea to come here. "Erm, no, I don't think so. Sorry for bothering you this late but it's really important. I'm Ron, this is Harry. We're from Hogwarts."

Jack seemed to relax slightly when he realized there was no immediate threat. "And -- what is it that is so important?" he asked, one eyebrow raised inquiringly. Harry told them in a few words what they had learned. The other two members of the team, who were introduced to them as Sam Carter and Teal'c, had now stepped to the door as well.

"Do you have any idea when exactly this attack is supposed to happen?" asked the woman.

Harry shook his head and then said, "No, well, from what we heard it's going to be some time tonight, but we don't even know for sure if it's going to happen at all. We came here to warn you, just in case."

"Thank you," Daniel said. "Uh, no offence but you two look rather young. Are you students at this Hogwarts ... er, school?" When they both nodded, he said, "Are you allowed to be here at all? I mean, in the middle of the night? Maybe you should go back, we don't want you to get in trouble." He didn't say if he meant trouble with the teachers or trouble with the Death Eaters.

Ron seized Harry's elbow. "Actually, I think he's right. We should go, Harry. Someone might notice our absence." He was about to steer Harry towards the staircase. He nearly jumped when suddenly the door behind him opened. The man who appeared was dressed in black, but Muggle style, not Death Eater. He also had an American accent. There had to be a nest of them somewhere around here, Ron thought.

"Are these your friends, Colonel? Don't you want to introduce us?"

Jack glared at the other man with a mixture of surprise and unveiled distaste. "What are *you* doing here? We thought the other rooms were not occupied."

"They weren't -- until this evening." The man stepped into the corridor, eyeing Ron and Harry with obvious interest. Ron noticed there was now a second man standing in the door, too. The two clearly belonged together somehow. "Who are these two?" the first man asked again.

"We can speak for ourselves very well," said Harry with a scowl. He didn't get any further.

Odd, and very ominous, clicking type of sounds were coming from the direction of the staircase. Everyone seemed to hear them, as there was a sudden hush, and heads turned towards the stairs. A seemingly bodiless pair of eyes reflected the light falling through the open doors, and just a second later, a shadow emerged from the darkness, shaping the body of a large animal, its claws clicking on the wooden floor.

At first, it was too much shrouded in darkness for Ron to be able to make out anything specific, and for a moment, he thought it was Padfoot. But then the creature gave a chilling, deep growl, and came close enough to the light for Ron to recognize it. He'd seen it before.

The werewolf.

-----