Chapter 9

Samantha Carter, the one from the alternate timeline, was sitting in a bar in Harmony, drinking a magical cocktail in her newly constructed body. The body seemed fine, but there were a few inaccuracies and Pansy informed her that Harry didn't want to go into too much detail or actually clone the Sam from this reality, so she had handled the finer details. She had been invited to join them, since her body just happened to be located in Hermione's Lab and she had just switched into it from her reality, when the rest of the girls showed up to drag Hermione away from her research. The group of girls, all apparently Harry Blacks' fiancées, sat around chatting about what they had been up to lately.

The beautiful blond French girl, Fleur, was apparently in construction and property design. Her latest job was to build a floating mansion, or at least she said that's what it would end up looking like. Apparently there was a difference between suspension magic and levitation and she'd ended up using the suspension magic and a few tricks to make it look like the house was floating on a cloud. She was not finished with the job, but delighted in getting input from her friends about things that she could try.

Another blond, Luna, was talking about her plans to bring out a series of movies that told the story of Harry Black. The problem with telling that story, apparently, was that there was no real antagonists in the world, strong enough to create any sense of tension. She wanted the movies to do well, but couldn't see her way around that problem. One of the girls suggested that she simply make a documentary, but Luna didn't like that idea. Apparently, she wanted to release the movie in the mundane world, in preparation for some sort of big reveal. The other girls shushed the girl shortly after that and Samantha didn't press for details, seeing the looks on the other girls' faces.

The curly-haired brunette, Hermione, was apparently making some sort of progress with a project she was working on alone and was pleased to be doing something completely new. She didn't give any details, but her eyes shone with delight when someone mentioned that she could finally hold something over Harry's head, if she succeeded. Apparently the other girls knew what she was working on, but Hermione wasn't going to talk about it in a bar.

One of the Indian girls, Padma, was working with Harry on a similarly hush-hush project, while apparently she and Hermione were usually lab-partners. From the bits of discussion she heard, it seemed that Padma was not telling Hermione what she was working on and it was driving the brunette up the wall with curiosity. Whenever she huffed, the other girls smiled fondly. Apparently this was an expected reaction.

Her twin, Parvati, was a world-famous fashion designer. The girl didn't seem like anything special, since she was wearing jeans and a flattering top, but that was it. Her hair didn't seem like a lot of effort had gone into it and she wore minimalistic make-up. When she asked after it, carefully, she was informed that Parvati wanted nothing more than to be seen as one of the girls, when they met. She already spent all day working with clothing and fashion. When she saw her friends, all she wanted was to not think about more clothing. It wasn't that she didn't like her chosen profession, it was just that she didn't want to bring it home with her.

Another brunette, Pansy, apparently one of the most learned healers in all of Harmony, was busy with her own research into the effects of Naquadah and its properties in her field. Apparently the alien element was very versatile and she'd had some major success with replacement limbs with the stuff, as something about the element made it perfect for permanent Transfigurations, or at least very long-lived ones, since they'd discovered that it wasn't actually permanent, it just kept the transformations for a very long time and, in a highly magical location, it could sustain it and make it semi-permanent. Apparently Samantha's current body was completely constructed of the stuff, meaning she'd need to stay in Harmony when coming to this reality, or risk her body slowly turning back to the basic metallic form.

Susan, the athletically built auburn-haired girl, with the feel of a soldier about her, had come as a bit of a surprise. Samantha didn't know why, but she had thought the girl would be the least intelligent of the group, but she seemed to keep up with everyone easily and even offered some suggestions that the other girls hadn't thought of. She was a very positive person and shone with a sort of wild confidence and comradery that made Samantha think that she had a sort of magical allure, like the French girl. Finding out that she was a part of the wolves, an organization that used to consist of mostly werewolves, made her think differently. Perhaps it was the wolf thing. She'd been warned about not insinuating that they were werewolves, since that was a dark part of wolf history.

The last of Harry's girls was the last blond of the group and also the one she had seen the most. Daphne was the girl who usually accompanied Harry when he wasn't on a mission. She had wondered if there was something between Harry and Daphne the few times that she had seen them together. The secretary had affronted her with how flirtatious she had been with her seeming employer. Finding out that the position had come after the relationship, helped settle that feeling down, but she still chafed every time she saw the girl press up to Harry. It wasn't that she was jealous, since she was still very much in mourning for the man she had lost. Rather, it had to do with the fact that Harry acted like it was normal and she worried about the message that was sending to anyone that saw it.

She didn't realise, just yet, how central Harry really was to everything happening in the town of Harmony. People would see Daphne flirt with Harry and just smile, because everyone knew that they were in a serious relationship. It wasn't giving anyone a negative image either, since everyone was aware that Daphne did it around people specifically to frustrate her man. It was just another game.

When asked about her own work, Samantha started talking about recent happenings in her SGC. She had permission to discuss things, in general, as long as it stayed on the other side of the mirror. From the responses she got, it seemed that the SGC of this reality had moved much further than they, themselves had. Literally and figuratively. Harry's plans were also much larger than just the one galaxy. He was apparently working on something that would open the universe up to him, but he wasn't telling anyone of his progress, likely to surprise everyone. It was also a low-priority task for him and he was currently much more engrossed in the project he was working on with Padma.

The evening went fine and Harry's girls succeeded in keeping Samantha out of her head for most of it, the melancholy she normally felt these days slipping away as the drinks lifted her spirits. She thanked the group of young women for the company, by the end of the evening, and Hermione took her back to her lab. Samantha got into the pod, which looked like a large egg with dark round windows and a comfortable seat, and the door dropped down, closing behind her and sent her back to her own body, where she woke up dead sober, but tired. It really wasn't as if she had been sleeping.

She had hoped to see Jack at some point, but also didn't, knowing it would only hurt, so she was both saddened and glad he had not turned up. That being said, she was not looking forward to writing up a report on everything she had learned. It was going to take hours. She just knew her General Hammond would be badgering her with questions. Then she'd be sent back with more questions and a list of things to request.

OOO

"This is why Harry keeps Voldemort locked up away from people." Victor said, while they were discussing their last mission.

"Who?" Jack asked.

"Never mind." Victor said quickly, before resolving to be quiet for a while.

They had come to a planet, where people seemed to have lost all their memories past a certain point, approximately a year prior. They found out that one of the prisoners that had been let go from the underground prison location, where SG1 had been sent more than a year ago, had found her way here. She was apparently a very smart scientist, but her reason for being in prison was very valid.

She'd apparently destroyed half of her own civilization with a virus she had created. The fact that she had escaped whatever prison the Wolves had sent her to, since they didn't keep all the prisoners of the universe in their own cells, meant that she'd likely have been upgraded to a cell on Mars… or would have been, if her memories hadn't also been wiped. On the bright side, the memory loss was only a side effect of a treatment she had created to reverse aging, which had gone wrong and spread like a plague. There were no old people on the planet, since they had all returned to their prime. Unfortunately it seemed that there was significant damage done to the planet prior to the woman even coming to the planet and there were no young people, since everyone was infertile.

On the grand scale, the woman, Ke'ra (called Linea, or 'Destroyer of Worlds' before the memory loss), had likely given the inhabitants enough time to reverse the damage, saving an entire race of people. When a solution to the memory loss was devised, Ke'ra decided not to take the serum, since she did not want to become that person again, opting rather to stay with the people and continuing to support them. General Hammond decided to allow it, but only on the condition that a ward be placed which would not allow her to enter the Stargate, which was done.

Fortunately Linea was the only escapee, when the wolves followed up on the prison where the actual wrongdoers had been delivered. The people found to have been innocent, but still punished by the Taldor, were allowed to return to their own worlds or any world of their choosing from the list of explored Stargates on their system. Doing this had actually revealed a few safe addresses and the gratitude of the people, whose explorers and traders were returned to them, had meant that friendly channels of communication were opened up, with trade soon following. Knowledge of safe addresses and information about the known Stargate system was collected and so their network continued to grow.

"Harry has been keeping secret prisoners?" Daniel asked, but Victor remained silent.

"You know he'll tell us anyway, right?" Sam asked, as she wondered if this had something to do with the story he had told the people of Cimmeria, about the man he had 'banished to the farthest reaches of Yggdrasil'.

"Then ask him." was all Victor said in reply. He'd been sworn to secrecy many years ago, to keep the location of the monster from anyone, including his own family. He only knew because Harry considered him a close friend. It was actually while Victor was visiting his family in Harmony, when he saw the Plutus take off for the first time. Since then, he'd been working towards a place with the wolves, so that he could one day pilot one of those himself. Harry had tested his skills himself and knew he'd be perfect for a post with the wolves, but the other wolves who had been working toward the position would not be happy if Harry skipped them for a friend. Victor could respect that.

"Leave this one be." Bill said. He was still their designated pilot and joined them on occasion, when they relaxed. Especially when something big like their last mission happened, which left them all with a need for some relaxation in the Officers Mess. Mind you, this was the higher ranking Wolves' designated relaxation area, but the SG teams and their partners had been given permission to use it, for the purposes of fostering stronger bonds.

"This have to do with what we heard in Cimmeria?" Jack asked, having drawn the same conclusion as Sam.

"Yes." Bill said. "It's not something Harry likes to talk about. You saw how he acted after telling that story. It's not something anyone who cares for Harry, wants to see."

"This won't come back and bite us in the ass, will it?" Jack asked.

"Why did you have to go and say that?" Harry asked as he walked through the door. "You know how you just affected probability, right?"

"How long were you listening?" Victor asked.

"The whole time." Harry said. "You should learn how to switch off your monitoring system."

Victor reached up and removed the invisible communicator which was still in his ear, with a sigh. He'd completely forgotten that it was there. Besides audio between team members, this model also collected magical visual footage, for their records. The SGC had access, but it was in a protected location on Harmony, for obvious reasons… it was a very large diamond. The file system on it was what Pike had adapted from Harry's original attempt. Harry's version had worked, but apparently he'd not considered the best forms of compression, using none.

Adding compression and one or two other processes had increased the amount of space available on the diamonds thousands of times, since the processes were adapted magical ones, which Padma and Hermione had helped her with a while back already, when she was still working on replacing parts of computer systems with magical alternatives. That project had been completed already and the computer system was both the fastest, most reliable piece of computing equipment on Harmony and the most used one, since it was the server for most all the other computing requirements in the whole settlement. Pike had not taken the time to write any new operating systems or anything, but settled on hiring programmers to design the software that they used.

Harry sat down at the bar and lifted a finger at the barman, who placed a single shot of firewhiskey on the counter for him a second later. Harry downed the shot and just looked at the glass, while he thought about it. When he looked up, it was to see a few questioning looks directed his way. "Fine, but this does not go on any official documentation, okay?" he asked. When he saw nods all around, he sighed and stood up, leaving the Mess without so much as a backward glance. It didn't take long for the others to join him.

Five minutes later, the SG1 team, including Victor Krum and Bill Weasley, were sitting in the Sphere flying over the surface of the Moon, with Harry piloting them to the Fidelius protected location of Tom Marvolo Riddle. He would normally take people to the house, and through the basement where he had set up a connection for people to see Tom and visa-versa, but he had decided that it was high time for a personal visit, having been years.

Harry didn't speak much, even as the team discussed where they were, and how easily it was achieved. No matter how many times you travelled to foreign planets, coming to the moon on a whim, within minutes of deciding to, was still impressive.

They soon slowed and stopped shortly after arriving on location. This specific location was not large, so they parked outside it. "We're going by side-along." Harry announced, as he stood up.

"Everyone hold onto him." Bill translated as he put a hand on Harry's wrist and lifted the arm for the others to grab hold.

When everyone was holding on, Harry apparated them through the barrier and into the room, where Tom was kept. Harry looked around and saw nothing, except the television playing in front of the empty black throne.

"Where is he?" Bill asked.

"He's being shy." Harry said, with a bit of a smirk.

"I am not shy." Tom said with a frown, as he became visible on the throne, touching a finger to the built-in remote to mute the volume of what Harry was surprised to see was on a nature channel. The SG team was not shocked per-se, as they'd seen stranger. The wolves became invisible on a daily basis, usually one of them did so just before they went through the Stargate. "I have not seen that vessel before." Tom explained, waving a hand in the direction of the Sphere. "I will not risk my existence on the off chance that it was some sort of unfriendly alien."

"Alien?" Harry asked.

Tom looked like he wanted to sneer for a moment, before he changed the channel to one of the Harmony live feeds, showing the current status and following the teams in the Paintball Dungeon. It was a new addition to the selections on Harmony. A few of the bars in Harmony loved showing those channels and sometimes showed recordings of popular teams in action. "I have learned much from the Quibbler Station and this one." That made sense. The Quibbler news teams had conducted a few interviews with visiting aliens.

"I did not know I had you on that list of channels." Harry said, with a frown.

Bill didn't need prompting. He took out his personal Comm and pressed a button, making it float in front of him, before gesturing and bringing up what he laughably called his Comm Workstation. It was a projection of a circular desk with multiple screens and controls around it. He called up a list of Indexes and accessed the Station Index. It was the one connected to all the mundane and magical channels which was on offer for their magical television boxes, with all the corresponding connections and clients, listed by name or description. "Which connection is he piggy-backing from?" he asked Harry. He knew enough about Harry's methods to realise how he had likely set this connection up.

"Moon house." Harry said, shaking his head at the man in amusement.

Bill nodded, in understanding before he went to the VIP section. The VIP section was simply the list of people that the founders had set up for people with free access. It wasn't a long list. Bill soon had Moon House selected and changed its package to one of the minimal, child-friendly mundane options.

"You are an unkind man, William Weasley." Tom said with a look of disappointment, as the channel suddenly showed a logo, stating that he didn't have the correct package and to call Marauders Inc. for upgrade and package options.

"You are a psychopathic terrorist and a murderer." Bill flung back. He realised that Tom was considered quite the intellect and it didn't surprise him that he recognized him. "Talk about kindness to someone else."

Tom said nothing to that, but turned back to Harry. "What are you here for?" he asked. "Surely my only form of entertainment isn't of such importance to you?"

"You keep on coming up in conversation, as an example of how to handle dangerous aliens." Harry said.

"Ah." Tom nodded. "Very well. Ask your questions, muggles." he said, looking at the obvious muggles. He had said the word with no emotional inflection, whatsoever.

"Who are you?" Daniel started. The man looked like a reasonably attractive, but normal-looking, middle-aged man. There was a feeling about him, though, that had Daniel resolve not to approach him. Not even Apophis had ever given him that feeling.

"My name is Lord-" Tom started.

"His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. He called himself Lord Voldemort." Bill said. Few people knew Tom's real story, but everyone in Harry's inner circle counted themselves among the informed.

"Flight of Death?" Daniel translated.

"Yes. I was the most feared-" Tom tried again.

"He was responsible for a civil war that almost brought the British magical world to its knees." Bill interrupted, ignoring the man's scowl.

"Actually, the civil war was probably going to happen, one way or another." Harry argued. "The Purebloods had already realised that the muggleborns were starting to outnumber them and they were desperate to keep power. With the muggleborns bringing in their own ideas and perspectives, the Purebloods would have done something at some point."

"Exactly." Tom agreed. "I merely used the opportunity I was given."

"Taking advantage of a desperate people and making yourself into the new Grindelwald, leading through both charisma and fear." Harry nodded. "If not you, someone else would have done it. Maybe even someone more competent."

"Don't insult me!" Tom shouted then, standing from his seat and stalking toward Harry. Teal'c took up position in front of Harry, his staff weapon levelled on him, but Tom walked through it as if Teal'c and his staff were insubstantial. "I was not just feared because of happenstance! I took control and led armies against my foes! If not for you and your damned technology, I'd be in control right now!"

"What are you?" Sam asked, in shock, looking at where Teal'c��s staff was still sticking through Tom.

"He's a spirit." Harry said. "His soul is trapped in a phylactery."

"His soul?" Daniel asked, a look of dawning understanding on his face. Trapped on the moon, with only a television to keep him company. He couldn't die, nor could he live. What a terrible existence. "Monstrous." he said, under his breath, looking at Harry.

"He didn't do this to me." Tom said, looking at Daniel. "He doesn't have what it takes to do this. I'm the one who strove for immortality and succeeded." He didn't know these people, but he didn't want them trying to convince Harry to set him free. If they did that, he'd truly be gone forever. "He may have trapped me, but I still prefer this, over death."

"Only until the Goa'uld showed up." Jack said, getting back on the topic of what would happen if Tom was in charge. Everyone looked at him. "What? If this guy was in charge, I think it would be safe to say, Harry wouldn't be part of our lives and the Goa'uld would have been able to wipe him out." he said, indicating toward Tom.

"I could not be defeated by just anyone." Tom said, almost proudly. "Harry Potter is not-"

"Black." Harry interrupted. "I'm Harry Black."

Tom actually rolled his eyes at that. It looked comical on his face. "He's the only one that was able to ever defeat me. It was no fluke and it took effort and planning. Without knowing my capabilities, your alien overlords would have fallen before me easily."

"Even if you could somehow find your way to one of them, the next one would simply have bombed the surface of the planet wiping away all life." Sam said. "You can't win against the Goa'uld, without some sort of inter-stellar travel and more advanced weapons."

"There are magics-" Tom tried.

"Magic can't reach into space." Bill said.

"But-" Tom said, indicating toward the Television.

"That was a new development." Harry said. "You were actually one of the first 'people' in existence to benefit from it. The only way you are connected to the TV, is through a magical technology, which didn't exist ten years ago."

"If you had won, it would have been short-lived." Bill said, with a vicious grin on his face.

"I don't know." Harry said. "I may have stepped in to be certain, but I suspect that the SGC would have done pretty well without me."

"Harry, I don't-" Sam started denying. She doubted they'd be in as strong a position as they were currently, if not for Harry.

"Yeah, I know." Harry said, interrupting her. "I bring a lot of stuff to the mix and magic is awesome at that kind of thing, but don't count yourself short. The scientists studying the Mirror tell me that on most of the alternate timelines, you're doing pretty damn well, in some cases even running the SGC."

Sam was dumbfounded. She was not aware that they had been looking into the alternate timelines. "Since when…" she started.

"Not now." Harry interrupted again, indicating the spirit, who was starting to get upset for being ignored again.

"Right." Sam said, allowing the change of subject.

The rest of the conversation was about the lunar prisoner. They asked questions and Tom stopped answering, when Bill took vindictive pleasure in interrupting him whenever he seemed to latch onto a juicy subject. By the time they left, Tom had decided to just disappear. Just because he was a spirit, didn't mean he needed to subject himself to such treatment, when he could help it.

Bill wasn't finished, though, and would be changing the television package for the Moon House to the same one the prisoners on Mars were allowed, before the end of the day. He'd then start messing with the man in any way he could. Maybe he'd set him up with a list of series or movies and leave him with cliff-hangers, never allowing the man any sort of satisfaction.

When they were done with their questions, Harry took them back to the Sphere and then back to Harmony.

"That must have been difficult for you." Jack said, as he walked next to Harry, when they disembarked. Harry had looked sad since they left.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Not torturing that man, or destroying him." Jack said.

"He's not a man." Harry said. "He's a monster. He doesn't even feel like he's being punished. Intellectually, I know he knows it, but he's a sociopath. He doesn't feel much of anything, except for some sort of self-preservation, but I think that's more of an instinct, rather than any real emotion."

"Still." Jack said after a moment. "The man who murdered so many people, including your parents. I don't think I'd be able to do something like that."

Harry didn't say anything to that. If he had anything to do with it Tom would spend the rest of eternity on the moon. If he found a place where he'd know the horcruxes would exist safely after the destruction of the universe, he'd send him there. Harry felt very little shame in being vindictive about that point.

The visit itself wasn't what was on Harry's mind, though. What was bothering him was something much more sinister. He had checked on the horcruxes as he normally did, but in doing so, he had discovered something that bothered him; a connection. Two, in fact.

Through his years of studying and manipulating connections, he'd developed a bit of an affinity in sensing them, for when he worked with them and needed to consider how they might affect each other. When he sensed himself connected to the two Hallows he kept stored with the horcruxes, it both shocked and annoyed him. He'd very specifically avoided making contact with the stone and handled the wand without ever casting a spell through it. He didn't feel he needed to justify keeping the invisibility cloak, since it was a family heirloom, not that he ever used it.

"Harry?" Sam asked. Harry realised that they were standing on his balcony, drinks in hand. Apparently he'd been in such deep thought that he'd blocked everything out and carried on in autopilot.

"Sorry?" Harry asked.

"I asked about the Mirror…" Sam tried again.

Harry looked at her in incomprehension, until his short-term memory quickly replayed the last couple of minutes that had occurred around him. "Oh, right." he said in realisation. "Um, it wasn't my idea. Doctor Pike set that up with the scientists once we had Samantha's connection isolated and connected permanently for her."

"She doesn't use the Mirror to move between realities?" Sam asked.

"She used to." Harry said. "Pike and I figured out how to create one stable permanent connection, which allows only what we want through, just in case something else wanted to use the connection."

"So, we can't go to her side?" Sam asked.

"If we want to, we can establish a different connection through the one we made." Harry said. "Then we can take anything we want through, including larger things, like the Prometheus, should we need to."

"I still don't think it's fair how he can just do whatever he likes, but we have to ask permission to come here." Samantha said, as she joined them. She'd only just arrived. Hermione had sent her a message on the Comm she had been gifted. It was their way of contacting Harmony, should they ever need assistance.

"I still think seeing you both together is weird." Jack said, looking between the two Carters.

"Deal with it." both Carters said, before looking at each other. Sam had said it with some humour. Samantha had said it exasperatedly, before her melancholy had soured her mood again. Seeing Jack still hurt. She just wanted to kiss him and drag him off to spend some time alone, but she knew, intellectually, that it would only hurt her in the long run, because Jack would not leave his world for hers. For her. He was an Airman. Loyal and committed to his country, as he always had been.

"Please don't start doing the twin thing?" Harry begged, seeing Samantha's reaction and trying for some humour.

"You never finished answering my question." Sam pointed out, also trying to change the subject. "Why are your people monitoring the alternate timelines?"

"You know the reason, Sam." Harry said, turning to look out over Harmony again.

"He's using it to gather information." Samantha said for him. She knew what was going on, since she had discussed it with Doctor Pike, who she liked quite a bit, even if she sometimes scared the hell out of her for how her mind worked. "The more he knows, the better prepared he can be." she added.

Sam thought about it for a bit as she took a sip of her drink. "So, you've been using it as a way to prepare, or learn? What have you learnt, if that's okay to ask?"

"Ascension." Harry said. "That's what we've learned."

"Ascension?" Sam asked, looking at Samantha, who shook her head, not having heard of it before.

"The Alterans used some sort of process to turn themselves into beings of energy and they live in a higher or alternate plane of existence." Harry said.

"I don't understand." Sam said.

"The ancients were having trouble with a plague, which was slowly killing their people." Harry said. "To save their race they decided to change themselves into energy." he looked up into the sky. "They can apparently see anything, go anywhere and help anyone, but they refuse to help us mere mortals because they are so much better than us." he finished snidely, disgust playing on his face.

Sam looked confused. Both of them. Daniel, however, was intrigued. "Do you know how they did it?" Sha're was there with him, carrying her baby, who was sleeping peacefully in her arms. The little tyke was getting big.

"No." Harry said, after greeting her. "We only just found out about this. I'll be inspecting it in further detail at some point."

"But, don't you want to know what they know?" Daniel asked, confusion showing plainly on his face.

"Harry doesn't like the idea of being handed the answers." Luna said, as she joined their group.

"But, the scientists monitoring through the mirror-" Daniel tried to argue.

"Are looking for threats." Harry said. "I'm not as stupid as to decline knowledge like that, simply because I like discovering things for myself. Nor would I keep people from learning what they wanted, just because I have an interest in something similar."

"He wouldn't like being unable to help people either." Sirius said, as he joined them. "Goes against his personality. Did I ever tell you the story of how he saved me from prison when he was only five years old?" The story had evolved a bit, so that Harrys secrets were kept, but Sirius twisted events in such a way that the story was still mostly correct, but Harry just came off as a precocious child with a few memories that proved Sirius' innocence, with the help of the former werewolf and current alpha of the wolf pack, Remus.

The gathering was slowly growing and Dobby was having the time of his life seeing to so many guests, telling the other elves where to be and assigning them like waiters to groups of people, while he helped in the kitchen, when he wasn't monitoring on his own video feed of the balcony and attached rooms, where the people were gathering.

In attendance were many of Harry's childhood friends, some of his old professors (some of whom now worked in Harmony's school for magic), some of the heads of the research departments, his own family and some guests he wasn't certain he even knew.

Harry turned to Luna and whispered, "Did I miss something? Is it someone's birthday?" Luna rolled her eyes at him and pointed above the doorway, where a large sign congratulated Harry on his twentieth birthday. "What?" Harry asked, still looking at the sign. "That can't be right. I was only eighteen last time I checked."

"You didn't know it was your birthday?" Jack asked, frowning at Harry.

"Is it?" Harry asked. He was looking around, only now realising that there was food and drink on platters, floating around with people in smart clothing all mingling, while soft music played in the background. He pulled out his Comm and looked at the date. Son of a bitch! It was his birthday! "How did that happen?" he asked.

"We were off-world last year during your birthday, spending time with the Asgard?" Luna reminded him. "We had a couple of slices of cake and sang for you and everything." she tried.

"Now that you mention it…" Harry said, as the memory came back to him. Thor had tried a piece of cake, but it had not been compatible with his physiology and Pansy had needed to help him settle his stomach. "Wow, time just flies doesn't it?" he asked nobody in particular.

"That has not been conclusively proven yet." Pandora Lovegood, Luna's mum, said, as she walked up to Harry with her husband to hug Harry. Xenophilius pulled him into a hug as well, which would look funny to people who knew that they weren't related, but the Lovegoods were always a strange bunch, and Xenophilius was no exception. "The research was in progress as I recall, but then the researcher in charge of the project suddenly disappeared. We never did find out what happened to him. The only thing ever found was a note stating that time was a bubble suspended in a four-dimensional illusion, but that was never proven either."

"Pandora, it's good to see you as always." Harry said. "But please do stop trying to break my scientifically inclined friend's minds." he said, indicating the Carters who were looking at Pandora like she had grown a second head. "You and I both know we're not allowed to divulge the secrets of time-travel with people outside the organization…" Harry stage whispered, winking at the woman.

"Nice try young man." Xenophilius stated. "But I know for a fact that the organization only hires men if they have conclusive proof of being their own grandfather."

"Aren't you a member?" Harry asked, seeing the Carters' eyes starting to glaze over.

"Yes, but I'm not supposed to tell myself, or I could end up not bringing myself into existence." Xenophilius said, sadly.

"It is the price you pay." Harry said, nodding. He liked the Lovegoods. They had a twisted sense of humour, but it was always fun, as long as you knew you were in on the joke.

"Wait, what about the women they hire?" Luna asked.

"They all have the potential of procreating with their grandchildren to produce one of their parents." Xenophilius said. "It's a flimsy excuse, because a man can claim the same thing."

"Personally, I think it's the mini-skirts." Harry said. "The person who set the uniforms was obviously a man who just wanted all the women to himself."

Both Carters were led off at that point. So many things were said in those last few sentences and it would take a while for them to put it all together.

"You guys are not nice." Jack said, from where he stood with a beer in one hand and a plate of snacks in the other. Apparently he'd followed all of that. Either he was smart enough to follow the possibilities of the conversation, crazy enough to believe it after hearing it once, or he realised they were just messing with the Carters.

"You're special." Luna said, smiling at the man.

"Thank you?" Jack said/asked. "Wait, do you call him Great Grandpa, or dad?" he asked indicating her father.

"Depends on the time of day." Luna said, not missing a beat.

Jack nodded. "Makes sense." He then stood there in the silence that followed, before turning on the spot and walking away.

"Is your friend okay?" Pandora asked. He couldn't have followed all that and be sane, right?

"He's had a bunch of stuff happen to him on missions." Harry explained. Pandora nodded, like that explained it all. She'd seen some stuff in her life as a magical researcher, after all.

Unfortunately, the distraction the Lovegoods had provided only worked for a while, and Sam was back asking questions in the next hour. Harry ended up giving the team more information about their recent discoveries, which included the location of one Oma Desala, the ascended Ancient who spent her time helping others achieve the same feat.

"And you don't want us there because…?" Jack asked.

"It has to do with something I can't talk about freely." Harry said. If they were watching, listening, there was very little he could tell the team. It was also partially why he was working so hard on his current project with Padma. Once completed, he'd be just about ready for a very interesting conversation.

"Does this have something to do with the project you've been working on recently?" Hermione asked, having joined the group as well, when they inevitably formed around Harry again.

"Maybe." Harry said, smirking at her. "Why?" he added.

"No reason." Hermione said, trying to act nonchalant.

"You're just dying to find out what we've been working on, aren't you?" Padma asked, smugly.

Hermione just huffed, before taking another sip of her drink and refusing to make eye-contact. Her own project was finally completed, and she was going to love showing Harry what she had accomplished.

"She's hoping that Harry slips up, so that he doesn't have leverage over her when he asks how her project works." Pansy said easily. She'd seen these kinds of games played enough.

"How's your project coming along?" Harry asked Pansy. She'd been working on several things, but she'd alluded to nearing the completion of one of them, recently.

"Oh, right!" Pansy exclaimed happily, as she stuck her hand into her purse and pulled out what looked like a large glass vial of some sort and handed it to Harry. The undulating green and red substance inside the sealed vial looked alive. "Happy birthday, Harry." she said sweetly.

"Please tell me I don't need to drink this?" Harry asked, hopefully, as he looked at the undulating sludge, which he now noted was not mixing at all.

"Don't be silly." Pansy said. "You hold it in your hand and focus your magic into it and it will synchronize with you."

"And do what?" Harry asked.

"Just trust me, okay?" Pansy pleaded.

Harry took a deep breath, before he closed his eyes and allowed his magic to enter the container. If he had his eyes open, he'd have seen a faint glow starting in the vial and the substance seemed to change somehow, as it synchronized with him, rearranging and taking a static shape, in the shape of a spiral, inside the sealed container. He did feel the container heat up for a moment when it was done, before it cooled back down.

Even before he opened his eyes, he realised something had changed. The people around them seemed to be talking more loudly, and he could hear the music as if he was sitting next to the magical speaker. When he opened his eyes, he realised something else had changed. Everything seemed to be in much clearer focus, like he'd never seen before. Everything seemed brighter too.

"Wow." he said as he looked around, those present noting that his green eyes had gained golden lines in the pupils. "What is happening?" he asked.

"Congratulations, Harry." Pansy said. "You are now the first wolf-enhanced human."

"What?" Harry asked, stunned.

Pansy smirked at him victoriously. "Temporary Hybridization." she said proudly. "You're technically a chimera, while you have it active."

It turned out that Pansy had been working on a solution to the issue of Harry not joining the wolves. She had seen how much it had hurt both him and them. She had even alluded to working on a solution to that situation, but nobody had known that she had been working on something like this.

The container housed multiple functions, which would modify the connected person in a series of ways. It got pretty complicated, since it worked on a genetic level, but the short of it was that it gave the person who used it, certain traits of the animal in question. To ensure the safety of the person who used it, they needed to will the change and want it to affect them. The moment they went to sleep, or were knocked unconscious, they'd revert back. The container also needed to stay within a certain distance of the user to work. She was working on a gene therapy that would apply the same changes permanently, but testing with temporary changes was a breakthrough nobody saw coming.

Being able to test things like modifying the human genome without the risk of permanent damage, would not only be a game-changer, it would save so many lives. Genetic diseases and flaws could finally be targeted directly. Nobody had seen that coming when Harry got her all the knowledge she might need from a doctor who was an expert in genetic disorders, but they should have. Little did they know that the Asgard had played a large part in her current success, having taught her much of their own techniques for genetic manipulation.

As Pansy explained the functions and advantages of the Transformation Module (her name for it) she never even noticed that half the wolves in attendance were listening to the conversation in awe. The biggest problem with recruiting new people for the wolves, was the permanent nature of the transformation. If there was a temporary option, to give people all the advantages, which would allow them to see for themselves what they'd be gaining, that would be a very useful tool in growing their ranks.

"Does this affect the mind, like the wolves of the pack?" Harry asked, when Pansy was finished. He needed to be certain that he'd not be affected by this in the long run.

"I've not noticed any lingering effects, while I was testing it." Pansy said. "I did have Thor's people check the cadaver I used as a test subject for changes before and after the change and everything reverted properly."

"I thought you said a person needed to will the change?" Daniel asked.

"I used a different unit on the cadaver." Pansy said easily. "Don't get stuck on the testing phases. Just know I followed sound medical procedures and ensured that everything worked as it should, having our more advanced allies test my results."

"Pansy would rather die than give Harry a gift that might harm him." Luna defended her friend, when Sam looked like she still wanted to object.

To be fair, it wasn't very difficult to understand why she was worried. Genetic manipulation was not something to play with. At least it seemed that she wasn't acting like a child and doing things without following safety protocols.

Harry hadn't been worried at all and started taking full advantage of his newly enhanced senses. He was sniffing his girls' hair and looking into their eyes, noticing lines and patterns in their irises, which his normal human eyes never could. When he came to Pansy, he impulsively pulled her into a hug.

"Ow!" Pansy complained. Harry instantly let her go, but she pulled him back into a hug and whispered in his ear. "Be careful. You're much stronger in that form than you were before."

"You're amazing." Harry whispered back. "I don't deserve you."

"Only realised that now, did you?" Pansy joked easily, even as Remus showed up with a huge smile on his face.

"You really did it?" he asked. He'd been listening since shortly after Harry had activated the device and had cut his conversation with Mad-Eye short, to investigate what was suddenly drawing so much attention.

"Well, it's not perfected." Pansy conceded, as Harry let her go, so that she could address Remus directly. "The instincts are not there, yet. It's difficult to isolate that and incorporate it without affecting the subject in a fundamental way. On the bright side, I was able to enhance some of the other features, to give Harry just a bit more protection."

"Like what?" Harry asked, wondering what he hadn't noticed.

"Tougher skin, more durable bones, enhanced physical strength. Things like that." Pansy said.

"Wolves don't have tougher skin." Remus stated.

"Harry isn't a wolf. He's enhanced." Pansy explained. "There are also one or two other additions, since I was able to isolate them in the genome. Some things are impossible, though, since I need to maintain his humanity first."

"And the wolf transformation?" Remus asked.

"I'm afraid that's a purely magical process." Pansy said. "If he wants to become an Animagus, he'd still be able to learn that, but chances of him becoming a wolf is small."

"But, he can already do that." Daniel pointed out.

"He turned into a bear that one time." Sam agreed.

"No, Pansy turned me into a bear." Harry countered.

"But, you were able to use magic and turned yourself back, and you were in control." Daniel said. "Couldn't you use the same magic to become a bear, or a wolf, or anything really?"

Harry frowned at that. When applied from outside, you could turn anything into anything else, if you had enough power and the correct knowledge. Normal Animagus transformations happened through internal magic, never needing a wand and internalizing the change. Then you were in an animal form, which your body accepted. You could stay in that form as long as you wanted.

With his wandless magic, however, he could change things about himself with just the application of will and power. Healing a wound was, after all, a manipulation of the physical form with external magic, even if it originated from the body that it was affecting.

Concentrating on his hand, Harry focussed his wandless magic to modify it from the outside, much like he would do if he was modifying someone else. It came as no shock to him, when his hand was quickly replaced by a wolf's paw. Harry looked up at Remus incredulously. "It took a mundane to figure this out! We should be able to turn into anything!" he exclaimed.

"Well…" Remus tried. He wanted to argue that it would not work, but having followed the train of thought, he frowned, realising that the theory was very sound. "Why didn't we think of that?" he asked.

"Because you didn't have someone smart enough to point it out to you." Jack said smugly, like he'd been the one to point it out.

"The only problem with that, is that it will only work for people with extensive wandless magic, and it won't be a true Animagus transformation." McGonagall said, from the next group over. She had been chatting with Albus, who was jealous of Minerva's position as the head of the department of education and being in charge of the magic school of Harmony. "A true Animagus learns to be the animal, not just to emulate it. That includes things like an instinctive understanding of the world around it and how to use its body."

"But I could still run with the pack if I wanted to." Harry countered, as she and Dumbledore walked over, followed by Flitwick, who had been staying in Harmony, since it was school holiday, back on Earth.

"I don't think there would be any complaints about that." Daniels said, as he joined them with someone that looked very familiar to Harry. She was in her thirties, by Harry's estimate, but she looked like…

"Madam Pomfrey?!" Harry exclaimed. The woman looked like she'd been de-aged till her prime. "Is that you?"

"Don't look at me like that, young man." she reprimanded, even as she smiled at Harry. "Healer Parkinson has been busy with more than one project, as you may recall. De-aging was one I was helping her with."

"You did more on that project than myself." Pansy said. "Your name will be the primary one associated with this particular breakthrough." The genetic knowledge had come from her, but Madam Pomfrey had done the work into restoring the cells and their genome to a more vital stage.

"How did I miss this?" Harry asked, still in shock.

"You've been busy saving the universe." Daniels said. Harry noticed that the man seemed to look a bit younger as well. Not quite as young as Madam Pomfrey, but he had considerably less grey in his hair.

"And other timelines." Sam added, thinking of Samantha and the work Harry had done in that timeline.

"Multiverse?" Daniel tried, with a smile as Sha're returned to his side, with a fresh drink she had snagged off a floating tray for him.

"I think Multiverse implies other dimensions, not just different timelines." Sam countered. "It's also a word used in fantasy, not reality."

"Well, there is Subspace and Hyperspace." Harry pointed out, once he'd stopped staring at his Aunty Poppy. He'd never admit out loud that she suddenly looked like a woman, rather than just his elderly aunt. She and Minerva were already moving off and talking. Harry didn't want to think about that, so he'd re-joined the conversation. "Both are considered different dimensions."

"But you're not saving Subspace or Hyperspace." Sam said.

The conversation turned less serious, and as the evening progressed, more and more people started congregating around Madam Pomfrey and her boyfriend, Daniels. Turning back the ravages of time was definitely something that people would want to hear about. Apparently the process was still in the testing phases and Madam Pomfrey was unwilling to use it on people, without confirming that the tests they had run on animals and themselves didn't start having negative effects. Her own situation, and that of Daniels, was apparently just another application of a Transformation Module. The change was applied temporarily, but after enough time, they'd know if the change could be made permanent.

If their current tests succeeded, they could potentially try to modify the Jaffa race into humans again with some sort of gene therapy. Unfortunately, not many Jaffa were going for the conversion, especially with Hathor's larval Goa'uld becoming available to them.

Speaking of which, Hathor was actually in attendance, carrying a tray and taking people's empty glasses away to the kitchen. Dobby wasn't really bothered with having the woman around, but he never trusted her to do something that the house elves could do better. He considered her just another chore, but he loved those, so he didn't mind in the slightest.

Harry enjoyed the evening, catching up with people and re-affirming his goals and what he was working for. Frankly, it caught him as a surprise that it had been some time since he'd last seen Professor Babbling. Professor Flitwick was already pestering him with questions about his latest projects. Apparently they had heard about the upgrades to the Prometheus and were dying to check out the Hyperdrives and to see Hyperspace for themselves.

They didn't know about the Clone, now being used as his body for the more dangerous testing he was doing. It was because of that development, that Harry had finally been able to get some distance from his overprotective family. He didn't mind that people cared for him, but the little bit of oversight they had imposed on Remus had turned into a long-term relationship. Sirius was constantly slipping his minders and laughing about it when they caught up with him and the girls never had to worry about such things since they were all working on things that could be considered tame, next to his own experiments, all while in the safety of Harmony.

With Harry taking a step back from the team, to work on Prometheus while Bill kept a strict eye, Harry was finally able to disconnect the constant feeds to the girls. If they wanted to see him, they could call him, like anybody else. While he was on the ship, he was also at their secondary testing site with Padma helping him remotely, working on their communal project. It was almost time.