AN: 'Insert Huffy Disclaimer Here'

Chapter two: Experimentation.

Harry swatted another alien mosquito with an annoyed grimace and, out of frustration, put up an insect repelling ward on the whole team. Rodney looked stuck between amused, relieved and jealous. Which was so funny Hermione laughed briefly before biting her lip to keep from continuing. Rodney huffed and brushed past a branch that was in his way.

"It's so utterly unfair that you can do that. I've wanted to be able to make bugs flee from me for decades."

Harry laughs and grins. "Would you believe we never learned that at school? I was utterly unprepared for the Mediterranean when we went to Rome, insects everywhere. Hermione found the spell about ten minutes after we landed out of self-defense from the blighters."

The scientist bites his lip and Harry bites back the urge to sigh out of frustration. That crush McKay had on Hermione had to die, fast. Perhaps sensing Harry's consternation Teyla pipes up in her calm and steady voice. "How are you two settling into the city?"

"Well the view is great" Hermione responds tartly and then sighs a bit. "It's lovely really, truly beautiful and… It's almost like she had been missing me, and I her, my entire life without knowing it."

John nods in agreement where he's trudging through the brush on Hermione's other side. "I know what you mean, it was like coming home getting onto the city for the first time. I had to really fight myself not to turn everything on immediately and go romping around looking for her."

Harry chuckles "Yeah it was a pretty heady experience, I've never quite felt anything like the feeling of… yeah, Home."

Teyla frowns at them with some consternation. "The city is alive?"

John makes a so-so gesture with the hand not on his weapon. "Not really, it's hard to explain." He shares a look with Harry who shrugs. Hermione pipes up from between them. "There's something alive about the way the city suits our needs. I've examined data about the Ancients, it's likely they needed a slight ammonia content in their air and water. But it's completely absent from the city and, based on the fact that none of you needed hospitalizing after reaching the city from ammonia poisoning, the city itself was… ready for you."

John raises an eyebrow at the short woman and mutters. "Well thank God for that."

She smiles winningly at him. "Indeed, you're all quite lucky not to have died outright really. I don't know who organized the provisions for the expedition, but they were… well not apt. Regardless, the city does match itself to the expedition in some incredible ways. It suggests a level of intuitive, or even predictive, intelligence beyond anything I've seen outside of some remarkable magical artifacts."

Teyla and Ronon both looked distinctly uncomfortable with that thought, John appeared pensive. Rodney seemed stuck somewhere between eager and horrified. Harry could just imagine the kinds of scenarios a man like Rodney would conjure up regarding AI.

Hermione flicked her coiffed hair with an adorable flounce and raised an eyebrow at the military commander of the expedition. "You've had the most interaction with the city via the Chair, what does she tell you when you're sitting in it John?"

He frowns back at her, more thoughtful than annoyed, and replies with careful words. "It's not so much a direct dialogue as a gentle prod towards information I need. Displays and readouts vital to a task at hand that I didn't know to ask for spring to life at the city's prompting. The jumpers do it too when I'm in atmosphere. But if I leave the planet via space or the gate that advantage vanishes. It is like being plugged into the universe's biggest supercomputer though. I know I can handle information quicker there."

Rodney stops and glares at John with some heat. "You mean to say I could have been in the chair the whole time learning at a faster rate?" John pats him on the back and prods him forward, ignoring the glare with the experience of long practice. "No, I'm not saying that at all. Your impression of the gene from the therapy isn't enough to get genuine connection with her like any of the natural gene carriers do. She does her best to help you where she can but it wouldn't be the same Rodney."

The scientist's lips thin to a barely visible line, fury darkening his cheeks before it bleeds away back to his usual pallor. "You're right. Which is… what one for a million? Not bad Sheppard."

John flicks the man the bird making both Ronon and Harry break out in laughter. Teyla and Hermione share an exasperated smile.

-:-

They'd found a decent clearing to set up a testing range on the uninhabited forest world. Rodney waves a hand downrange and glared lightly at Harry.

"Now, try not to blow up the entire forest Lieutenant. But seriously, show me some magic."

Harry grins at the scientist before flicking his wand into his hand.

"This is both a tool and a weapon. I can use it for utility and combat so don't assume I've seen a threat if I draw it. I'll be vocal about that. That said I'll rarely draw it at all for many tasks because." He flicks one hand a tree stump that promptly explodes sending wooden splinters everywhere. Those heading towards the team stop in midair and fall to the ground. "I can perform some of my magic wandless, and it's easier to disguise what I'm doing if there isn't a bit of wood people can look at and point to as being the weird thing in the room."

John coughs and Harry looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

"If that thing breaks are you going to lose your ability to do more complicated magic?"

Harry nods. "Yes, if, somehow, this were to break I'd not have the ability to cast high magical arts. However, it's almost impossible to break a wand. Their durability is tied to my magic. So, my magic would have to be suppressed or removed entirely for my wand to be in danger of damage. There aren't any magic users in this galaxy that could do that to me as far as I know. As such, it's functionally impossible for that to happen anymore."

The older man looks relived as Harry continues.

"I have a vast suite of offensive spells for handling other magic users. But in combat with mundanes, people without magic, I tend to stick to what's easy." He flicks his wand three times at another tree. The first flick detonates a branch, the second cuts off the stump of what was left of it. The third drills a hole through the trunk of the foot-thick tree, showing daylight on the other side.

"Slicing, blasting and piercing hexes. Magically inexpensive, efficient and powerful. I can cast these all day without tiring myself out." He swishes his wand and a pale shield of energy springs up in front of him. "Right, don't be alarmed now. Hermione?"

Without any kind of hesitation, she pulls out a 9mm handgun and fires three shots directly at her husband. The team starts a bit, but the bullets stop in midair, mushrooming against the shield and fall to the ground.

"In our experience the 'hardness' of a protego shield, that's what I just used, is equivalent to AR500 steel. It will block any small arms fire, anything up to a 50BMG and doesn't degrade over time. I have to feed the spell constantly with energy, but I don't have to give it additional energy based on the power of the incoming attack. We believe based on the data your people have already gathered about Wraith and Genii weapons that it won't have any trouble stopping projectiles from infantry attackers. I have a more powerful shield that will probably deflect attacks from a dart. But I doubt I could resist a hive ship."

Ronon grunts in amusement. "Well at least you're not invulnerable."

Harry nods "Far from it. My physiology is functionally identical to yours, though I do enjoy some resistances to blunt trauma. I do suffer from some illnesses you do not and am mostly immune to illnesses like the common cold. Hermione is much the same." He grins at her briefly before continuing. "Okay, right, transport. I can teleport short distances by line of sight. Or to anywhere I can visualize in my head, I can make it quiet, or as loud as overhead thunder. As such…" He apparates with a whisper of sound across the field making the entire team start from the shock of it.

"As you can see it can be quite disorienting in combat. I doubt there are any enemies in this galaxy that wouldn't be completely taken off guard by such a tactic."

Teyla nods emphatically. "Yes, this will be quite confusing for the Wraith and the Genii. The Genii consider themselves underdogs, but they are arrogant and confident in their own ability. The Wraith could not conceive of an enemy that can perform such actions. They will attempt to explain it away, especially if they take a loss against your tactics."

Hermione hums thoughtfully. "Could we get away with using our abilities openly against the Wraith?"

Ronon shakes his head bitterly. "They would catch on eventually, and then hunt you down for sport. The Wraith have destroyed entire worlds for the hint of them having some sort of advantage. The potential for humans with advanced powers would send them into a frenzy."

Huffing in what Harry probably figures is fury Hermione mutters with a frown; "You're going to kill all of those assholes extra hard." She blushes and crosses her arms as the entire group promptly bursts into laughter, even Teyla who looks more shocked than amused.

"But seriously, if I can't handle this on my own, I'll be calling for backup." Harry says directly to John. "I need you to believe that I take my task here extremely seriously Sheppard. I won't let the Wraith get to Earth."

John nods with a shaky motion and opens his mouth to speak when a sharp crack rings out and he grunts in pain, crimson blossoming up over his chest. John's entire team yells some variant of his name while scrambling for position, Harry spins on the spot, barking orders as he does.

"Hermione stabilize him right fucking now! Ronon, on my six, Teyla, keep McKay in one piece."

It's a testament to how close the bond already was between the two soldiers that Ronon darts in behind Harry as he pelts towards the tree line. More gunshots ring out from the tree line but the bullets mushroom against an invisible forcefield that seems to be preceding Harry as he dashes forwards. Teyla brings her weapon to bear just in time to see the two men vanish into the trees. She puts one hand out behind her to stop Rodney running forwards as she can already sense him bustling to do. "It must be the Genii Rodney, go help Doctor Potter, I will keep watch."

"Oh, it's no worry." Dr Potter's voice behind her sounded calm and collected. "You'll be right as rain in a moment Colonel. Do stay calm." She heard John huff and groan, the sound of it spoke eloquently to the pain he must be in. "Terribly sorry about that, just a moment."

Teyla twisted around at the sound of another groan from her commander and her eyes widened in shock at the sight of a bullet floating through the air away from Hermione's wand. She'd clearly just extracted the bloodied projectile from John's chest.

"I'm going to have to make this seamless Colonel, you can talk to Carson about it later and have him check it for you. But we can't let anyone on the base know we were ambushed. Harry will interrogate their commander when he catches them and kill whoever it was that was foolish enough to order you shot. There can't be any evidence that there was a fight here. We have to protect our abilities from prying eyes. Besides, there's every chance you have a spy."

Teyla looked on in shock as the woman rambles while her wand drifts back and forth over John's chest. Blood on his chest flows back into his body. The wound closes, even his vest and shirt stitch themselves back together looking none the worse for wear. Sheppard groans again and rests his head back against the ground. "That itches something fierce." He bitches with some humor. The British woman grins back at him; "Buck up, you've just had your muscles woven back together, of course it itches. Be thankful I didn't need to potion you, the potion for broken bones tastes like rancid yak shite."

-:-

In the darkness of the forest Ladon Radim sprints for his life. "Get the gate open to Veta Base right now! Call reinforcements!" He speaks frantically into his radio only for it to spit static back at him. He'd never seen anyone do the things the new Atlantean did but whatever it was they needed to get to safety before the man who wielded the power of the Ancestors caught up to them. The idiot who shot Sheppard was already dead, head separated from his body and his lifeblood pumping into the dirt.

They'd been setting up an observation post on the planet when the gate had activated. The ten men he had with him had dove into cover from what they assumed to be a wraith attack. When Sheppard, his team and two unknowns had walked through the gate Ladon had seen it as an unparalleled opportunity to spy on the Atlanteans who had been claiming their city was destroyed.

They'd watched in shocked silence as one of the newcomers demonstrated power they'd never seen before, and then some over excitable conscript had shot John Sheppard. Something told him their relationship with the Atlanteans was going to be severely restricted from now on.

If they survived.

The bear of a fighter, Ronon Dex, and the newcomer were hunting them through the forest. A scream echoed from Ladon's left and the Genii officer scrambled away from the sound. He was utterly lost, turned around repeatedly by the deadly progress of the two killers through the woods. He burst into a clearing, panting hard and almost immediately saw the dreadlocked head of the Satedan Runner on the other side of the glade. He bit back a curse and froze, hoping beyond hope that the other man hadn't heard him. Just as he was about to turn and run, he felt his limbs go rigid and unresponsive. Try as he might, he couldn't move them at all. Even his face was frozen in whatever ridiculous expression he'd had when he saw the Satedan's back.

"Now where are you running off to hmm?" The voice that crept out of the forest behind him sounded like all the nightmares he'd ever had as a child. Calm, implacable, cold.

The image of the Satedan ahead of him bled away like smoke and Ladon choked on the shock of it.

"Don't worry too much about that. It'll just make your head hurt."

The voice now was sibilant and soft. Seductive almost and as though the man's voice had reached into his head and turned off the thought. He forgot all about the vanishing image of the Satedan soldier, his mind floated like he was submerged in a pool of water and abruptly he didn't have a worry in the world. There was a sensation of pressure as something thin and hard pressed against his temple.

"Tell me Ladon. Why were you here." The voice came from just behind his ear and was conversational, no real force or viciousness to it but it still had that soft undertone that seemed to reverberate through his brain. Without really thinking about it. Ladon began to talk.

-:-

Harry dumps the unconscious Ladon down in the clearing where John was leaned up against a tree recovering from his near-death experience. Hermione frowns as she pokes the previously wounded man with her wand. "You don't react the same way a squib or muggle would to healing spells, more like a wizard but not… quite. It's bizarre. If it wouldn't be an imposition, I'd like to experiment with it later in a controlled environment. If you're going to react badly to a spell in the future, I'd rather know about it ahead of time than in a serious situation."

John nods tiredly and gestures at Ladon's prone form. "Whatever you like doc, Potter, what's the deal with the Genii. They aren't usually so overtly aggressive with us." Rodney huffs and Teyla shoots John a raised eyebrow. "I'm certain you aren't referring to the same lack of aggressiveness they showed when they invaded the city."

Rolling his eyes a bit, John waves a hand at Potter to get on with it as Ronon stomps into the clearing, a brace of weapons slung over his shoulder. Harry eyes the larger man with amusement before clearing his throat.

"Right, first, they didn't mean to shoot you. From what this chap here said when I juiced him up a bit, a rookie with a poorly trained trigger finger took a shot at you out of sheer excitement. It was terrible luck it hit you at all. They were here setting up an observation post and decided to spy on us when we came through the gate. I think the safest thing to do here is to make it look like the wraith abducted all but this guy and have him report back as such, having evaded capture. Now, I haven't actually seen a wraith attack myself, so I'll need to view memories of the event to form a proper memory to implant in his mind."

Rodney looks a little flabbergasted, all of them do really. Hermione sighs at him pointedly before explaining in more detail.

"Harry was trained extensively to handle memory modification to help preserve our secrecy on Earth. Not all situations he went into could be handled quietly, so he was trained to make magical events disappear in people's minds. He can do the same here. We hide the bodies of the dead Genii with magic, modify this man's memories and send him back through the Stargate under the impression that his men were abducted in a wraith attack."

Ronon nods, his shaggy locks bouncing slightly. "I like it, we can't really let it be known you two are anything other than… ordinary."

John looks thoughtful for a minute before nodding sharply. "Do it, how do you look at memories?"

Harry raises an eyebrow at Hermione when she starts to launch into another explanation. She blushes furiously and huffs before walking out of the circle of people muttering about stinginess. Harry draws his wand and leans forward, looking into John's eyes.

"Think hard about all the times you've seen wraith attacks; I'll copy the memories from your mind into mine." He looks up at John's team. "I'll do this with everyone to get a better idea of it. Not everyone perceives things the same way and I want to make sure none of you have misremembered details that would give the game away."

Turning back to John the other man can see Harry's face take on a focused expression. "Concentrate now, bring all the memories to the front of your mind. This won't hurt a bit."

-:-

"That hurt quite a lot!"

John, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon were all leaning against trees nursing headaches after Harry's rather thorough exploration of their memories. Rodney was bitching loudly about the experience. Grinning at all of them Harry touches his wand to Ladon's temple. The man's head seems threaded with silver for a second before the strange lines sink into his skull and the man gasps in his unconsciousness.

"Bet it gave him a worse headache. Right, he's going to wake up here in about an hour, thinking he ran from the attack and fell unconscious from a head wound. So…"

Without much ado Harry clouts the man on the side of the head with the stock of his gun and gestures to the clearing. "Do you mind cleaning this up love?"

Rodney and Teyla both look uncomfortable at the display of violence on an unarmed, unconscious man, and perhaps the power Harry had displayed, but the wizard didn't care to hold their hands about it. John got to his feet looking a little pale but otherwise fine. Harry flicks his wand at the man, an enervate washing over his chest with a red flush of energy that has him standing up straighter and the color returning to his cheeks. John huffs a bit in surprise before looking around.

"Did you clear up signs of fighting in the forest?"

Harry nods and waves in the vague direction of the trees. "Only our chap's footsteps will remain, every other part of our presence here will be erased by Hermione's spell. She's very talented with it. It'll cover the last ten hours of our activity so even DNA evidence we left in our rooms this morning, hairs and such, will vanish." John mouth drops a little in shock and Harry nods with a grin. "Yeah it's pretty great. She developed it for me for stealth work and to help us clean up after public scraps. No sense leaving the DNA of magical creatures laying around for just anyone to find."

Out of the corner of his eye Harry can see Rodney practically vibrating with questions but the man was in turns terrified of him and fascinated with him. So, Harry figured he only had an hour or two, at most, on that front. Hermione tucked into his side without fanfare as they moved back towards the Stargate.

"What kind of operational procedure do the Genii have? Are we likely to run into reinforcements at the gate from a missed check in?"

Ronon shakes his head a bit. "No, when they don't check in, the Genii will assume they were wiped out by the wraith and not send anyone else to get killed along with them. It plays well into your memory trick."

"I'd hoped that would be the case" Harry said by way of agreement.

A loud smack sounded from behind them and they all turned to see Rodney wiping at his neck. Apparently, the scientist's petrification only lasted until insects became involved because he immediately spoke up with a demanding voice.

"Insect repellant spell, right now Potter. I mean it."

Harry and Hermione shared a grin before both throwing one at him followed by a stinging hex. The yelp the man gave was incredibly satisfying and the exasperated look his wife gave him let Harry know exactly how she felt about Rodney's little crush. Harry jolted a bit from Ronon's friendly slap to the shoulder as he walks past.

"Come on then Potter. Night sets early on this planet."

-:-

They comes back through the gate like nothing serious had happened off world. John has a spring to his step and a healthy flush in his cheeks. Teyla and Ronon are as impassive as ever, though Teyla's lips are tugging at the corners of her mouth at John's latest attempt to introduce Earth humor into Ronon's life. Ronon just looked bemused.

Elizabeth isn't familiar enough with the Potters to know what their resting states are like, but they seem casual enough. Doctor Potter, Hermione, laughing openly at the expression on John's face, rather than his joke. The soldier, Harry, seems somewhere between resigned and amused.

Rodney though. Rodney looks like he's seen a ghost. His hands are shaking, and Elizabeth can see the billion questions he's holding back rush across his face like wildfire in the rapidly moving eyes and pinched lips. He's barely holding it together.

Something happened.

She walks down the steps of the gate room, greeting the group warmly as is her want. But before she can confront John about Rodney's state, he hooks a hand around her elbow and tugs her along with them. One eyebrow raised at him she follows without much protest. Out of the corner of his mouth as the rest of the team talks around them, she hears him mutter. "Not here."

He lets go of her elbow as they leave the room and head towards John's office. The implied instruction for her to follow without question rankles slightly but if the military arm of the leadership of the expedition is acting with such secrecy then it must be for a good reason. Her eyes lock with Rodney's and she cocks an eyebrow at him, and he shakily nods. Nothing world ending then. He whips out a tablet so fast it looks like magic and starts tapping away. Magic, she nearly chokes on the mental thought.

They pile into the room, his team spreading out and arranging themselves on various bits of furniture. Doctor Potter tucks under her husband's arm where he's leaning against the window. Elizabeth looks around the room and takes in their demeanors, they're tense. More so than when they were outside the room. She opens her mouth to speak but the male Potter raises a hand and a heavy feeling falls over the room, like a woolen blanket pressed hard against her skin. She gasps and then lets out the breath as the sensation abruptly vanishes. From the discomforted looks of the other Atlantis veterans she can only imagine they all felt it. Potter's voice is gruff as he speaks.

"We're safe from prying ears."

Understanding that it was a spell of secrecy or some other such bullshit she immediately snaps out her query.

"What the hell is going on here? John?"

He grimaces before answering. "We ran afoul of a Genii scouting party, led by Ladon. They were there for recon, it was bad luck. One of their over excited greenhorns shot me and Doctor Potter patched me up. The Lt. edited Ladon's memory and left him unconscious on the planet thinking his team had been culled by the wraith and he'd fallen while running and hit his head. We cleaned up after ourselves so the story should hold up."

Huffing in annoyance Elizabeth leans against the wall, arms crossed. "So, there was no diplomatic option? You couldn't have captured and interrogated them rather than killing them?"

John bristles a bit but before he can respond Ronon simply says; "No"

Before Elizabeth can figuratively explode with anger Potter steps in.

"It was a hostile fire environment. The colonel was down with a serious wound and I couldn't stop to take prisoners with two civilians in the field and only a single military asset to defend them. We couldn't hold our position and risk the Genii getting back through the gate with knowledge of my abilities. We had to hunt them and eliminate the threat to our secrecy and the safety of the civilians and wounded."

She looks at the man sharply. "I know for a fact Ronon's weapon can stun. And although I'm new to well, actual magic. I'm certain you have the ability to perform a non-lethal takedown. You killed those men and there was no need for it."

Potter seems to be struggling not to raise his voice as he replies.

"The standing orders I'm understood to have are weapons free against combatants firing lethal weapons at civilians. If you want this expedition's civilian population to dwindle, then by all means I'll begin to moderate my actions. But until that policy changes my wife stays on the city."

She bristles and speaks without thinking.

"I think you'll find I handle the civilian assignments for the city Lt. Potter."

Immediately she regrets her words, realizing too late he baited her with his lack of respect for her position on the city. Abruptly she remembers who she's talking to as Ronon of all people pushes up from where he's sitting and moves to stand in front of Potter. Speaking in low tones to him. The woman, Hermione, looks perfectly calm as she taps away at a tablet that very well may have arrived by literal magic. She risks a glance around the room and sees both Teyla and John looking at her with calculating expressions. Rodney just looks incredulous.

With a calm that Elizabeth didn't expect from the man Potter claps Ronon on the shoulder and gently pushes him in the direction of his seat as the wizard looks at her evenly.

"You should know Doctor Weir. That in no way am I or my wife under your command. You'll find that while I follow the military chain of command to preserve morale on the city and not undermine the Colonel's authority. Both my wife and I report directly to the IOA."

He pauses and she imagines a different man would have brushed a fleck of imaginary lint from his shoulder after that line. Potter however merely watches her with that same calm, even expression.

"Hermione and I are here to evaluate the Wraith and their threat to Earth. Your obstruction on that front is a direct obstruction of the IOA's goals in Pegasus."

He chuckles but there's no warmth in the sound, it's almost bitter.

"I would think a woman who got her position on this expedition because of her IOA contacts would be more cautious about fucking with the direct stated aims of her own boss."

The colour flushes out of Elizabeth's cheeks and she opens her mouth to protest but is sharply cut off.

"No Doctor Weir. You need to understand something very clearly. You might think that you've built yourself a little fiefdom out here with a sympathetic military commander to police your civilians and move towards your goals. But I've been informed under no uncertain terms that you were given a very explicit set of instructions regarding our stay on this city and you are impinging on those instructions with all the subtlety and regard as the proverbial bull. Tread carefully ma'am, the powers that be would replace you here in a heartbeat if they thought it served their ends. I know for a fact Jack O'Neil at the SGC would rather the Colonel head the expedition himself. He's proven himself an excellent and dedicated leader who would put his own life ahead of every single one of the civilians on this base. You've proved to me in ten sentences or less that you don't have any kind of respect for the risks the military assets on this base take to protect you and your civilians. You made it very clear to me that you have no understanding of the burdens they shoulder every time they eliminate a threat to a botanist or geologist out doing their jobs in the wider galaxy. It's profane for you to question the actions we take to protect you when your very life depends on them."

Elizabeth stutters slightly, she hadn't been dressed down like this in a long time.

"You've been warned Doctor Weir, repeatedly, about the threat of the Genii. I have it on good authority that you would prefer to trade with them given half the chance, despite their repeated and lethal aggression towards your expedition. At what point do you understand that they are a race of fanatics who want nothing more than the city they think you're squatting on? They don't care about what you have to trade, only what they can take from your corpse as spoils of war."

He's breathing hard but his face is still reasonably pale. She isn't sure if he goes pale when he's angry or if the lack of colour is an expression of hidden calm.

"They fired on the commanding officer of this base, nearly killed him. And you still want to trade with them."

John raises a hand and stands up, a hard expression on his face.

"That's enough Lieutenant."

Potter huffs a bit and leans back against the window his wife making a little sound of annoyance as her resting post shifts while she types on the tablet. John turns back to Elizabeth with a growing frown that mars his handsome features like a thundercloud.

"His disrespectful language aside. He's not wrong. I've held my tongue on the matter because I was under the impression that O'Neil hand-picked you for this position. That your goals lined up in the long run with ours. What do you want Elizabeth?"

Realizing abruptly that she's lost any semblance of ground to stand on Elizabeth turns to leave only for the door to fail to respond to her commands. She turns to John with a furious expression on her face.

"Let me out."

"No"

He returns evenly with his arms crossed over his chest. For the first time in the discussion Rodney looks utterly attentive, but not to John, to her. John's voice is cold and moving rapidly towards icy as he continues.

"If your mission objectives are divergent from mine then I deserve to know Elizabeth. Why are you here? What do you want?"

Elizabeth huffs at the man, utterly furious with the situation and her own loss of control.

"You don't have the clearance to know that Colonel."

John scoffs at her and she fights the urge to wince at the expression on his face.

"Lieutenant, wouldn't you say that a junior officer in a command structure must declare any clearance levels to their superior officer and the superior officer would be given acting clearance to handle mission particulars related to the clearance level of said junior officer?"

Potter nods, that same infuriatingly calm expression on his face.

"Sir yes sir."

John continues, a note of spiteful triumph in his tone.

"Would it be accurate Lieutenant, to say that you've disclosed your clearance level to me and that, as a result of this disclosure, I've been elevated over the course of your stay on this city, to the clearance level of top secret for the case of bearing knowledge about the magical world?"

"Yes sir, that's accurate."

"And in that case Lieutenant would it be accurate to say that my clearance level is now high enough to know whatever bullshit piece of information Doctor Weir is holding over our heads?"

"Yes sir, as far as NATO and IOA regulations are concerned you're privy to the highest levels of information due to my posting in your military installation."

John smiles beatifically and Elizabeth realizes rather suddenly that she'd fallen for his pretty boy look like most of their enemies.

"Right then. Doctor Weir, I believe you owe us an explanation."

Huffing in utter fury Elizabeth drops into a seat and glares at the man.

"I liked you better when you pretended to be an idiot."

John scoffs.

"Please, no son of Patrick Sheppard would ever be raised to be an idiot. It's frankly incredible you haven't figured out who I am yet."

Her glare shifts to an outright scowl.

"Yes, well not all of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths."

She sighs a bit and settles back into the chair.

"Right, my express orders from the IOA are to return the weapons platform known as Atlantis to Earth by any means possible and recruit a gene carrier to defend Earth against the Ori using the weapons platform known as Atlantis to action such defense. As a secondary goal I'm to identify if gene therapy can be utilized to enable the ascension of top-level government officials should the relocation of Atlantis be considered untenable."

She smiles smugly at John's shocked expression and then smiles wider as his expression becomes thunderous. He moves to stand, and she gestures back at the chair he's sitting in.

"None of that Colonel. As your XO pointed out I'm here because of the IOA. As long as I play by their rules regarding the Potters, I'm still the leader of this expedition and they'd throw you back to Earth in chains in an instant if you did something to jeopardize their mission objectives. Now, let me out of this room."

He looks furious but she can tell she has him trapped as the door slides open with a hiss. Before she can stand to leave, however. Doctor Potter leans forward out of her husband's loose hold and fixes her with an incredulous look.

"I'm sorry, did you say those feckless idiots want to ascend? Harry, you're hearing this right? How do I avoid getting that stupid when I'm older?"

The man in question shrugs and nods at her tablet.

"Keep reading love, the popcorn show is over."

She huffs and goes back to her tablet with a playful scowl at her husband. Elizabeth closes her mouth from where it hung open after her own words and glances at the man who looks amused. His voice is tinged with it as well.

"Run along Elizabeth. You're really of no consequence to this discussion anymore."

She huffs and leaves the room, as she does, she can feel the heavy blanket of magic flow over her body again and after turning around to check, she can tell not even the faintest sound is leaving the room. They're already talking as the door closes behind her, but she can't hear a thing. Frowning at the utter bullshit that is magic she starts the journey back to her office realizing belatedly that she was going to have to find a new gene carrier who could sit in the chair and run the city as a defense platform. She very much doubted John would be amenable to her goals now.

Decisions, decisions.

-:-

In the room behind Doctor Weir as she leaves it Rodney lets out a bemused snort.

"Did she just… forget the rest of us were there? I know I don't have clearance to know that shite."

Harry grins at them roguishly.

"Maybe not on her own, maybe I gave her some help focusing on a couple of important people."

Absently his wife swats him on the shoulder.

"Don't use mind tricks on muggles love, it's rude."

He grins down at her.

"Yes dear."

Rodney looks almost constipated at the effort it's taking not to demand all the information he can about the process. As John Ronon and Teyla seem uninterested in jumping into the conversation he eventually shifts his attention back to his tablet. Hermione's exasperated tone is obvious as she speaks into the silence.

"Oh, go on then, ask your questions, you get six! No more!"

"How do you teleport? How do you alter people's memories? How do you manipulate energy with wood? How do you do…. Any of the things your ridiculous people do? It's baffling!"

Hermione smirks at his instantaneous verbal outburst. She sounds deeply amused.

"That was only five."

His voice is almost snooty as he responds. Some of his usual snark returning.

"I'm saving the last one for later in case it becomes important. I don't know how stingy you are with answers but judging by the literal week of waiting I've had I think I need to be conservative."

Hermione quirks an eyebrow at him but raises her hand, ticking off fingers as she answers.

"We teleport by creating a microscopic wormhole between our current location and the location we're travelling to. It's quite like the Stargate really, just on a smaller scale. The bang that occurs is from displaced air and it's called Apparition. We squeeze ourselves through that wormhole and it's really rather uncomfortable. We alter people's memories by first sifting through their mind with a spell called Legilimency which allows us to do just that. It requires a great deal of skill and training. Frankly I find the whole experience of using the spell sickening, so I never progressed with it. But my husband is extremely talented with all the mind arts and has few qualms with fucking with people's heads. Both literally and figuratively."

She flicks her hand at a mug on John's desk, floating it to her hand. "Powerful mages don't actually need a wand to cast magic, the magic comes from us. Wands hold the core of a powerful magical creature and allow us to focus our magic much more easily. Like running electricity through a wire to a light, instead of arcing it at it. We can perform magic at all because of two things, a gene that we're born with, much like red hair or blue eyes, but also the express permission of the Lord of Magic. Our souls live multiple lifetimes you see, yours too. If in this lifetime I do something to raise His ire then I'll not have the privilege of being a mage in the next life. In our society we call people who've been born from magical families but cannot cast magic squibs and they're quite shameful. It was a practice not so long ago for magical families to cast out squibs into the muggle, non-magical, world. Families that bear squibs are considered to have offended the lord of magic in some way or another and that is almost a criminal offence in the wizarding world."

Rodney looks a little baffled, but she can see the light of academic curiosity in his eyes. He opens his mouth with what looks like a million retorts, but Hermione holds up one to interrupt him. "Do not think to tell me that the Lord of Magic doesn't exist. Suffice it to say my husband has met him and personally blessed his endeavors. He treats all beings as sacred so have no worry that you're outside his sight. The leading opinion on muggleborns, those of us born to non-magical folk. Is that the Lord of Magic sees the souls of Muggles who please him, and he gifts them with magic in the next life. Live a good life Rodney McKay, maybe you can manipulate teacups too."

-:-

"She's infuriating"

Rodney was currently storming about his lab yelling at the ceiling. Radek Zelenka was watching him from a chair with an amused expression.

"You got over your crush quickly Rodney. Good."

The larger man splutters a bit before rounding on his colleague.

"I did not have a crush on Hermione Potter."

The Czech scientist scoffs

"Of course you did, it's understandable; she's lovely and enthusiastic, beautiful and kind. I've not had the chance to talk to her yet, but who would not have a crush on such a woman. But you got over it, that's the important part. The new Lieutenant does not strike me as the kind of man to share."

Slumping back into another chair Rodney nods in agreement

"Yes, that's obvious. But still! She sits there, explaining to me like I'm a child!"

Radek frowns at the man

"What could she possibly explain to you? She's a middle grade astro physicist with very few published papers and almost no academic presence as a scientist. You're… you."

Flushing white at his slip Rodney shakes his head.

"That's not what I meant; she was just being obnoxious."

Nearly leaping from his chair in excitement Radek wags a finger at Rodney.

"No, you meant exactly what you said! And you can't tell me. That means it's classified. What could be more classified than this place I don't even know."

He begins to pace, and Rodney slumps a bit in defeat. Before he can open his mouth to speak however a cheerful voice sounds from the doorway.

"Oh, we haven't met. Rodney, do introduce us please."

Snapping his eyes up Rodney sees Hermione standing at the doorway with a smile on her face. Her eyes have a hard glint to them, which makes him think she knows exactly what he was about to admit.

He waves a hand at Radek

"Doctor Potter meet Doctor Radek Zelenka. Radek, meet Doctor Hermione Potter. Radek is an extremely skilled electrician and engineer with a bunch of degrees in Czech I can't pronounce. Dr Potter is an Astrophysicist from Rome, though she comes from Britain origionally."

Hermione walks forward and extends a hand with a warm smile on her face.

"Pleasure to meet you Dr Zelenka. I've heard excellent things about you on the city. Seems everyone I talk to has a nice thing to say about you and your tireless efforts to keep everyone safe. I hope to work with you soon."

Rodney has to choke back a laugh at the expression Radek's face, the older Czech man had gone bright red and was now flushing white. The handshake seemed to go right over his head with how the man's gaze had gone a little glassy. Rodney's eyes narrowed at Hermione as she smiled at the man.

"Do you think you could give us a minute Dr Zelenka? I need to have a confidential word with your colleague."

The other man nods dumbly and scuttles out of the room, so fast Rodney wasn't certain the man hadn't been hiding his own brand of East European magic. He rounds on the British woman with a frown.

"That is, not okay, using your, y, y…. Your magic" he whispers the word violently "to fuck with my colleagues!" he pauses a moment "Or anyone for that matter, at all!" he huffs and looks eminently proud of himself. Like that scolding was an imperative from God.

The woman laughs and Rodney, just for a moment, wants to strangle her.

"Oh, I don't need magic to make shy, sweet scientists stutter and run away Rodney. Women have been doing that since the dawn of time. I was going to come down here and apologize for being so harsh with you earlier. But I overheard the tail end of your conversation with Dr Zelenka just now. Look, I know what it's like to have something you want to tell someone so badly that you can't imagine keeping your mouth shut about it. But you have to. We were given clearance to tell your team and Weir about magic because you're all mission essential. But Radek never needs to know, at least not at the moment. We won't make you sign an NDA, because enforcing it would mean taking you to court. But if you breach the trust we've put in you we'll wipe your mind back to kindergarten, and anyone you've talked to about it, and dump you in an asylum in Rome with the other dozen or so people in your situation who couldn't keep your mouths shut."

Her voice until now had been relatively light and airy but it firms up into a hard tone now.

"But you'll get over the silly boyish feelings you've developed. My husband doesn't need to be worrying about you watching his back. He has to trust you out here Rodney, the entire Human race may literally depend on it."

She turned without another look and left the room. He sat down at his desk and moved a shaky hand to his coffee mug. She wasn't wrong, the new XO did need to be able to trust Rodney at his back or they'd probably just leave him memory wiped like an extra from The Men in Black. He really needed to get a handle on this whole thing. He'd dealt with, honestly, shadier shite in the SGC than literal magic. The Baal clones were up there with things that gave him nightmares on the regular.

He huffed and drained his mug. It was always the pretty ones that got him in trouble.

-:-

"Sir, are you certain about folding Lt Potter into AR1? It'd be good for morale if we had an officer on the city while you were on away missions."

Sheppard eyes Evan Lorne with barely concealed frustration. The man was fresh to the city and Sheppard didn't have enough knowledge of the man yet. Not enough to trust his advice out of hand. Lorne would be acting as third in command on the base after himself and Potter. He knew that, he knew that given half a chance Lorne, and probably Potter, would prefer he stayed on base. He just wasn't built for pencil pushing, and nothing he'd seen about Potter suggested anything different. Lorne shrugged a bit before dropping the last of the transcribed reports on the desk with a huff.

"You'd have never thought that I'd miss a printer. But there you go. Last thing they would have figured to bring through the gate I guess."

John chortled and sat back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "Look, I know you'd rather a senior officer stayed on base. So, would everyone else, me included, but Potter's new and neither my team nor the rest of you know him yet. He's ex SAS field operations and he has no admin experience. It'd be worse than useless to leave him on base to wrangle the privates. Ideally, I guess I'll end up sitting the desk, but I hate it."

Lorne frowns a bit "Permission to speak freely sir?"

"Go ahead, no sense hiding it if you've got something to say to me. And sit down for crissakes"

Evan grins wryly before sitting stiffly in the chair opposite John before relaxing a bit at the glare from his superior.

"The men respect Potter enough to follow his orders. Most of his file is black like a wraith's heart but the stuff the geeks spread around… it's impressive. I think we'd all understand if you wanted to keep running field ops and leave Potter behind, but I think the best thing you could do for him and the base would be to give him his own team."

John's glare softens to a frown.

"That still doesn't solve the admin problem. If we're both off world for days at a time, there's a hole in the roster. Or, if I end up staying here, that leaves a hole in AR1."

Evan winces a bit before responding. "Sir, I've got some experience with admin and logistics. At least until the two of you get settled in, I can handle the slack."

Eyeing him warily John asks with a dry tone; "Why exactly would you want to be saddled here at the city if you've tripped all the way out here in the first place?"

There was a vague hint of asperity in the younger man's tone as Lorne replied that John could easily brush off as frustration. "We've all been part of the chair force some time or other. It happens. If it lets you and the mustang get organized so we don't have a dick measuring contest when the shit hits the fan, I'm fine with it. Let me get settled in the city regardless before I need to go and defend it."

Leaning back in his chair John nods slowly. "All right. Sure. You sit around and babysit the rest of the rookies while I get shot at. Seems reasonable."

Lorne grins boyishly at him and John has to resist the urge to smack the kid upside the head

-:-

Hermione huffs and flops down on her side of the unreasonably comfortable bed she and Harry share on the city. Harry turns to look at her, eminently amused, from the desk where he's tapping away on a tablet. "If you're here as decoration I won't argue. You make the room much more attractive."

Hermione huffs and wiggles a bit so she can watch him as he regards her with that mixed look of amusement and affection she knows so well. "The stargate frustrates the hell out of me. Merlin's Pants, the whole city does. It raises so many questions about the differences between magic and technology I don't even know where to start. Never mind the fact that the SGC has been at war with honest to goodness aliens since we were still at Hogwarts. Didn't they ever think they could have used an entire group of ruddy mages to help them fight a planetary threat?"

She could see that Harry could barely contain his mirth at her venting, but he somehow managed it and stood from his chair. He stretched for a moment and she admired his physique shamelessly while he slid onto the bed with her and gathered her into his arms. His nose nuzzled against her throat and a smile lit upon her lips at his thoughtless affection. She heard his voice as a rumble against her neck that sent shivers through her whole body.

"I know what you mean, I'm going to be having the mother of all arguments with Hammond when we get back to Earth, I'll get O'Neil to set it up for me. He seems to type to be amused by uppity junior officers getting fresh with a superior."

She giggled into his hair at the thought, it was exactly the kind of thing she imagined Jack O'Neil would be terribly amused by. They'd been briefed by him before shipping out to Pegasus and she'd reflected that he and Harry shared a startling number of similarities. More personality than appearance she had to admit, but they were there regardless.

"Probably not a good idea to get your boss in trouble love."

She could feel his lips curl against her skin as he grinned. "Oh he's not my boss, and I figure Chapman won't be too fussed about an American general getting annoyed at him."

She turned in his arms, curling one hand over his shoulder and smoothing the other over his bearded cheek. "What do you think about the wraith love? You've had time to go over the reports by now. I've been dying to pick your brains about it but I wanted to give you enough time to get your head around it."

He grimaces and she can see his vivid green eyes go a little cold with whatever vicious thoughts had popped into his head. "They're no better than Vampires, worse probably. Parasitic in a strategic rather than personal way on a level I've never seen. An entire race whose infrastructure is built around capture and detain warfare for the sake of feeding. I imagine it'd be what the vampires would be like if they'd evolved in a Norwegian or Mongolian culture. An insectoid hierarchy that includes drones, probably a kind of larval stage, officers, most likely adult males, and queens that appear more as command units than breeding entities. It's disturbing that we have no information on how they reproduce, but I have to assume eggs of some kind based on their social structure and numbers. Telepathy that emulates a highly specialized kind of Legilimency and physical strength and endurance that suggests enhanced bone and muscle structure." He pauses and she rubs his shoulder, silently encouraging him to continue.

"There's been no autopsy done, and I can somewhat understand the reluctance to have one, even dead, on the city. But we need to organize an off world examination to get some hard evidence. Regardless their key weaknesses seem to be as straight forward as any other magical creature. They don't appear to imbibe water or other foodstuffs, existing solely on the human population for food. Three angles of attack; starvation, poisoning or Force Operation Maneuvers. We can evacuate the galaxy and allow the wraith to starve with no food source and no real way to find a new one. We could isolate the targets they are likely to target and leave them with a magical poison that can ravage the hives. Or, and I figure this is most likely. We can execute light strikes over time that will magically force them to infight until the situation resolves itself. If we had more of the warships the SGC is constructing, we could afford to meet them on an even front, but the production times are too vast."

He falls silent and she can tell it's less about thoughtfulness and more about fatigue. He'd barely been sleeping the last week. Today's encounter with the Genii had made him slow down and reassess his situation and she could tell his endurance was wearing thin. Her lips press against his softly and she nudges him away. He cooperates and gets up only to jerk in surprise as his clothes vanish to a nearby chair, hers follow and she slips under the covers, beckoning him in. He smiles wanly at her and slides in, cupping one of her breasts with a large hand as he spoons her against him, head nestled into the crook of her neck. She smiles softly and reaches behind herself to tangle one hand loosely in his hair as he sighs contentedly. "Sleep love. We can continue this in the morning, I've missed having you with me the last week."

He murmurs sleepily against her neck and she shivers at the sensation of his breath tickling her skin. His other hand settles loosely on her hip and she covers it with one of her own, closing her eyes and wiling the lights to dim, gratified as they smoothly dim to near complete darkness. She's almost asleep as she feels the familiar weight of the city press against her mind and she murmurs in thanks. She barely registers Harry's mutter against the back of her neck.

"Goodnight Hermione, Goodnight Atlanta"

Even more dimly she registers the city's response in a pleasant female voice in the back of her mind.

"Nox tutam sum regis et regina."

-:-

AN: I've got a tradition of replying to reviews in the post script of my stories so I'll do that here. I won't be replying to guest reviews, regardless of their content. If you're brave enough to review you can put your name to it if you want recognition.

kent-jensen: Well good!

Pianomouse: Hopefully we complete this one in a timely manner. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself with it.

He-Who-Shall-Live: Political discussions aside, a good old wraith burning isn't off the table.

Kossboss: I often find characters are empty and meaningless without showing a bit of emotion. Sometimes that's warm fuzzies, sometimes it's rage and murder. Both sides of the pendulum

SSSra: Thanks! I hope this lives up to the hype

SGM84: Thank you! I am in fact continuing, perhaps COVID19 will give me the time to crank out a couple more of these

Shadowedsoul2: Thanks! Here it is, haha

Mkoepp63026: They do have a rather horrible habit of not knowing which bits of which canon to follow, which I often find leaves them a little dull. Hopefully this avoids that. Thank you for your generous praise!

Repenter66: o7, yessir

Sfu: I acknowledge the tenses thing in my opening authors note. I'm terrible at it, I'm well aware I'm terrible at it. But unless you want to start paying me for this, or for an editor to fix it, suck it up. I established a magical population that is far higher than in canon on purpose. They're isolationist and not particularly interested in wiping out muggles, so there's no real force comparison. Most magical enclaves are pocket dimensions in this AU, so space concerns aren't very real. Ultimately you need to remember this is an AU, and I rather hope you give more writers the respect of reading more than a single chapter of a work before condemning it for having plot holes. Regardless, thankyou for your review. I always appreciate reading a more attentive look at my work, despite the annoyances that can come with that

D001X: High praise! I hope I continue to live up to it

: Thankyou! Yeah I've always been more interested in wizarding societies that have a bit more depth and competency. Not always been able to write them convincingly though. Also, you probably know this already but, interesting fact, did you know that Caeser is actually pronounced Kaiser in the original latin? C is always a hard 'K' sound.

Joe Lawyer: I rather hope my expression of the lore from both shows is pleasing to read. Enjoy!

Mattcun: Here it is!

Delta8: Thanks! And you'll have to wait and see hehehe

Mzad: Thank you, hopefully this is worthy of the wait!

AnimeA55Kicker: Strongly frowned upon by the UN that. Shame really

Aceofspades2255: Well thanks haha, here you go!

The Big Bad Wolf: Thanks! I love the characterization personally. If you enjoy this work, I strongly suggest you check out Keira Marcos' works, I draw heavily from her writing style in this.

Starboy454: Thank you!

Kelorus: Lovely to hear, thank you!

AlphaMikeFoxtrot975: Might be a bit premature, give it a few chapters before you lump it with the best. At least let me develop a plot! But thank you regardless

High Chancellor Tirpitz: Thanks!

Lagenius: Well thanks, hopes fulfilled!

That's all for now folks. I'll see you next time!