The Light Brigade by Ravenfur

AN: Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone. As always, I don't own Stargate: Atlantis or the Harry Potter series. I merely like to borrow when I can.

Chapter One

Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard hated his dreams. Memories that he could ignore during the day would invariably surface during his slumber. Every ugly thing he had encountered would plague his subconscious. His time at Atlantis was represented, but equal time was given to before he had joined the Air Force, before he had been called John Sheppard. That night's nightmare had been one of the worst. He sat up in bed, knowing he would never get back to sleep, mind drifting back to the time before he had been John Sheppard.

Ron Weasley, his brother by blood rite, had been killed by Severus Snape before the former Potions professor had been targeted with an explosive. Seamus Finnegan had been working as an impromptu explosives expert for the Brigade - there was more demand for that than was to be expected - and was killed by Antonin Dolohov protecting his fiancé Susan. Susan Bones herself followed her fiancé to the afterlife soon after that, sending many of her enemies before her to lead the way.

At least this Light Brigade still had survivors, unlike the six-hundred men that were the namesake of Harry's followers and friends.

Hermione, his sister by the same blood rite that he had done with Ron, had been directing troops from the command post, hovering over a large map not unlike the one made by James Potter and the Marauders. She had been injured, taken by surprise when the command post had been attacked, but didn't get wounded badly. She was left with a weakness in her left leg that would require her to use a cane for the rest of her life.

Neville Longbottom was still alive, although somewhat by luck. The young man had a chance to shine when he was tapped to be the potions expert within the Brigade, and his new confidence helped him become one of the Brigade's fiercest duelists. Neville had been watching over Luna healing one of the Light Brigade's members and caught a cutting curse in the back. He still had full mobility- the only reminder was a large scar down one side of his back.

Fred and George had developed many of the deadly weapons that had turned the tide in favor of the Light Brigade. They had been shot off their broom by Rodolphus Lestrange. The Death Eater hadn't been prepared for the ingenuity of the two redheads. When the twins were done, all that was left of Rodolphus was a pink stain on the green grass.

John, back when he was still Harry Potter, had been injured and almost bled out on the field of battle. Luckily Luna Lovegood, fully accredited mediwitch and commander of the healers of the Light Brigade had pumped him full of restoratives and stopped the bleeding. His wounds healed without a physical scar, though his mental scars were deep.

Two of the most notable deaths occurred before the battle. Draco Black, one of Voldemort's most trusted men and a spy for the Light Brigade was killed by the Dark Lord after transmitting the coordinates of Voldemort's headquarters to the Brigade.

On the light side, Ginerva Weasley was killed by violating a blood oath she signed when she joined the Light Brigade. The blood oath, something every Brigade member signed, made sending information to Voldemort a death sentence. Luckily only John knew the exact numbers of their forces, and the attack against Voldemort had been successful.

John sighed, rubbing his face. After the clean-up, the British Wizarding World and more specifically the Ministry itself had wanted to drum the entire Brigade into government service. The Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was particularly determined to take control of the ready-made army. When the Ministry began trying coercion and spells to influence the Brigade members, John had decided he had enough.

As a group those who wished to get away from it all decided to fade into the Muggle world. A large chunk of the Light Brigade decided to do so as well. John decided to leave England altogether and go to the United States. He felt that there was more room to disappear into a crowd. The Secretary of Magic and special advisor to the President of the United States, Herman Juno, had been especially helpful getting set up in California.

John Sheppard had been one of the aliases he had used in the Muggle world before Voldemort was killed and it was easy enough to get used to calling and being called that. After picking a name, finally getting the prominent scar on his forehead removed and having his Wizarding money transferred to United States dollars, he had gone to do the one thing he enjoyed - fly. Enlisting in the Air Force had seemed like the best use of his abilities and it hadn't been hard to learn the technology and weaponry. The Air Force paid for college and he got a degree in mathematics. After working arithmatical equations and creating several spells, Muggle mathematics was surprisingly simple. Once he finished getting his doctorate he shipped out to basic training.

At times John wondered how Hermione, Luna, Neville and some of his other friends were doing but even he didn't know the new names they chose for each other. All he knew was that Hermione had went to France to study at one of their universities, Luna had made her way to the United States to study medicine and Neville had joined the armed forces somewhere. That was after they had finally gotten married, though. Personally, John hadn't told anyone where he was going or what he was going to do, though they knew that his assumed first name would be John.

Rubbing his right shoulder, John pictured the tattoo there. Everyone in the Light Brigade who had disappeared into the Muggle world had gotten the same image on various parts of their body. The tattoo was part representation of the fight they had gone through and part a way to identify each other.

The blue saber and grey staff crossed in front of a gold sunburst, their symbol for the Light Brigade, was supernaturally clear - magic being much more accurate than needle and ink. Nobody had seen the tattoo even if he had gone shirtless. The magic in it only allowed others with the matching tattoo to view it. Surrounding the Brigade's symbol was a string of small purple stars, marking him as the commander. His command group, consisting of Hermione, Ron, Neville and Luna, had gray stars surrounding the sunburst. Normal ranked Brigade members had blue stars.

The Colonel hadn't told anyone on Atlantis about his Wizarding past. Rodney, however, knew some. John had given in to the need to confide in someone after swearing McKay to secrecy. Rodney knew that his parents had been murdered when he was a child and that he had grown up with despicable relatives. He knew that John had gone to a school for the 'gifted' in Scotland and that he had come over from the United Kingdom after tracking down the man who had killed his parents. Rodney suspected that what was left of the murderer wasn't pretty, but he didn't comment on that. The scientist was also the only person to know that he hadn't always been called John Sheppard, though he didn't know what his original name had been. McKay understood that there were some things he couldn't tell anyone about his past.

Rodney had been an unexpected - yet welcome - development in Atlantis. When he first met the grouchy scientist in Antarctica they had hit it off, becoming fast friends. That all changed after the hurricane that hit Atlantis. They bonded closer than ever that night, becoming lovers after spending most of the next week talking about their shared experiences. This relationship was the only reason that he had told Rodney about his past instead of keeping him in the dark like the rest of his coworkers.

John closed his eyes as he felt a presence touch his mind. -Worry/curiosity/love/comfort- flooded his mind and he grinned.

"Don't worry, I'm alright. I'm just not going to get any more sleep tonight," John told the empty room. -Agreement/love/comfort- sent by Atlantis brushed his mind.

When he left Earth, John hadn't been expecting to find a sentient city awaiting him. He hadn't expected to form a bond with the city close enough that he could feel her even in the Milky Way galaxy. Atlantis was the other half of his mind. She knew his moods, what he wanted and could help him with anything if she was able. Atlantis was closer to him than almost anyone he had ever met. They were almost two parts to a whole. -Agreement/love- washed over his mind after that thought.

John grumbled quietly to himself but got out of bed and pulled on a reasonably clean uniform. He donned the little headset radio, holstered his pistol - never go anywhere unarmed in the Pegasus Galaxy - and exited his room.

Wandering through the halls John passed the occasional Marine on a security patrol and a night owl scurrying somewhere, probably to the nearest coffee pot. The majority of the night owls out wore the blue on tan jacket of the science division, so it was understandable that they were up at four AM Earth time. They were practically nocturnal.

John eventually made it to the mess hall and was somewhat surprised to see Rodney McKay sitting at a table near a window, typing away on a laptop. The Colonel collected a sandwich and a rare treat - a fresh apple, possibly the last in Atlantis until tomorrow's supply trip by the Daedalus.

John joined the distracted scientist, sitting down next to him. There were other night-owls in the mess hall so he didn't kiss Rodney like he wanted to, merely leaning against him. "I thought you were going to sleep tonight?" John questioned as he bit into his turkey sandwich.

"Yes, yes, yes, sleep," Rodney muttered as he continued work on his computer. The dark circles under his eyes showed he had not gotten any sleep yet. He could tell Rodney was detached from the world around him by the focus he was giving the laptop screen.

John sighed and shoved the coffee he had grabbed towards Rodney. The dazed look on the scientist's face showed that he needed it a lot more than John did. After half the mug was drained Rodney looked more coherent. "What are we working on now?" John asked.

"Just going over a program that Kavanagh fouled up," McKay said as he made several edits to the programming code. He followed with several phrases aimed at the long-haired scientist, none of them pleasant or suited for polite company.

"Why haven't we shipped him back to Earth in a packing crate yet?" Sheppard mused aloud as he cut his apple in half. One half was offered to Rodney, who took it with a nod.

Rodney grinned. "I'll add it to the list of things to do when we have a quiet day. Even if the SGC sends him back, it'll be hilarious."

They talked about miscellaneous things, as they always did. Armageddon with Bruce Willis was voted on unanimously for the next movie shown at the next possible chance. The merits of Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard versus William Shatner as Captain Kirk were debated. An entire hour was dedicated to the ways they could discreetly - and not so discreetly - get rid of Kavanagh. Time was also spent discussing the next mission that their team would go on when Teyla got back from visiting her people on the mainland. All together too soon the sun rose and people began filtering into the mess hall.

Two hours later found the senior staff of the Atlantis expedition waiting for the Daedalus to land. John, Rodney and Carson Beckett, CMO at Atlantis, all had new recruits making their way to the floating city.

-Warning/expectation/greeting- brushed John's mind and a second later the Daedalus landed. Some of the grunts began unloading the Daedalus's cargo while the passengers disembarked.

Elizabeth Weir smiled at the crowd of newbies, welcomed them and divided everyone by specialty. John took the new Marines to a meeting room while Carson took his new nurses and doctors on a tour of the infirmary and Rodney took the new scientists to the labs.

In the meeting room, John sat down and got comfortably slouched before beginning his speech. "Welcome to Atlantis. As you probably know, I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and I'm in charge of everything military here, as well as being second in command to Dr Weir. I'd just like to remind you that Dr Weir is in charge overall, for you people who hadn't worked under a civilian before that means that yes, you do follow her orders, even if she wants you to get her coffee." There were a few laughs at that.

"We do things differently here than most other military bases. I'm a pretty relaxed CO in most things, so if follow your orders and listen to the veterans here we won't have any problems." As much as he hated making speeches, Sheppard knew that this was important to say.

John thought on the hologram generator that was Atlantis' version of a projector and double checked that its system had the images loaded. After that he began the who's who of the Pegasus galaxy, geared to those of a military mindset. Rodney and Carson would be giving the same speech to their rookies, with different things emphasized.

Aided by holograms, the Colonel introduced the Marines to the Wraith. John brought up a hologram of the Wraith he had named Steve. "This is the enemy. It's called a Wraith, the Pegasus galaxy's version of a vampire. They feed by sucking the life-force of a human out of their body through glands in their hands. Depending on how much it feeds, the victim can be aged to the point of death. After a Wraith feeds its strength and regenerative capabilities is increases. If you've got a recently fed Wraith, you better have extra clips."

John went into detail about the Queens, the workers and the warriors, then spoke about the weapons used. "You'll have the chance to get familiar with some of the Wraith weaponry later in the afternoon.

After going over almost everything that Atlantis knew about the Wraith, John began to speak about the Genii. He was sure to specify that although they were currently at a cease-fire with them, the Genii were not to be trusted and were always out for their own interests. Holograms of their on again, off again allies were displayed and John spoke on how to identify a Genii soldier.

When he was done going on about the various enemies that they had made, John began to talk about their allies. Most of his time was spent talking about the Athosians, the very first people they had met in the Pegasus galaxy. Sadly they had made more enemies than allies, so that portion of the discussion was short.

When he was done, John thought off the generator and opened the floor to questions. Hands raised, and John randomly picked one. "Sir, Captain Frank Willows, sir," the Marine barked out and saluted. John paused - Frank Willows looked familiar, felt familiar to his senses. John couldn't tell why. "What exactly is our assignment going to be sir?"

John grinned. "Well, mostly you guys are going to be providing security here on Atlantis as well as being reinforcements when the shit hits the fan off Atlantis. If you're lucky, you might be chosen for a Stargate team."

Questions were answered - it seemed like every new Marine had at least one question, some silly and some serious. When the question and answer session was done, John grabbed the tablet PC showing the list of new recruits and led the way to the different storage rooms.

It took twenty minutes to get the new recruits kitted out. Headset radios, handguns and tac vests were handed out. If they were due to go off-base they would grab a P-90, but the handguns were all that was needed while on Atlantis. The next stop on the tour was the firing range to teach them how to handle the various weapons found in the Pegasus galaxy. It got a little hairy when target practice with Wraith rifle-sized stunners and their handheld cousins began.

"This is a Wraith stunning weapon. They use these to bring in their prey with the least amount of effort. They paralyze the stunned person so they can be brought aboard the hive ship to be fed upon. It takes some time for the paralysis to wear off after you've woken up from being stunned. We'll be going over using these more in the coming days, but I thought you'd like to try them out today," John said as he demonstrated the rifle-sized version of the stunner. The blue energy blast tore a hole in a picture of a Wraith Queen that had been pinned up at the end of the range.

Two Marines almost got stunned by each other's weapons when they first picked them up. After controlling his laughter, John got them lined up and blue stunner fire flew towards the targets. Major Evan Lorne wandered in at that point, joining the Colonel. "How are they doing?" he questioned.

John looked at his 2IC. "Some can't shoot stunners worth shit, but we'll work on that. What's up?"

"I was just curious to see if you had decided to send any back yet," Lorne replied, remembering how two of the first batch of reinforcements had been sent back to the SGC the day of their arrival.

"Not yet, but we'll see," John said, then was interrupted by a voice in his headset.

"John? Can you come to the control room?" Elizabeth Weir's voice asked him.

"I'll be right there," John told Elizabeth and shut off the connection. He turned to Lorne. "I've got to get to the control room. You're in charge here. Supervise a little more practice then hand out both room and security team assignments. Take them to the mess after that. The lists are on that PC on the table. Keep an eye on them, will you?" Lorne nodded as Sheppard walked out of the room.

Evan Lorne picked up the tablet PC and looked over the room assignments before setting it back down. "Alright everyone, I'm Major Evan Lorne, 2IC to Colonel Sheppard. I've got your room assignments, all the new arrivals are going to be in the same area even if you're in different fields, but I'll go over those in a second."

Lorne paused and looked over the rookies. "Okay, first order of business, now that Colonel Sheppard's not in the room. The unwritten rules of Atlantis and the Pegasus Galaxy.

"Number one: Don't get between the scientists and their coffee. Most of the time they need it to stay awake while figuring out how to keep us alive, so if there's one cup left give it to a scientist." There were a few laughs at that.

"Number two: Don't tease the scientists. They're the ones who maintain everything here, and can get their revenge creatively. If you do prank the scientists," here Lorne smirked at the recruits, "because you're going to want to, you'd better be at least two hundred percent sure it can't be traced back to you. They'll find out."

There was another pause, and then the Major looked around. "How many of you have the ATA gene?" Five hands raised - Captain Frank Willows, Lieutenant Judith Marks, Captain George Fischer, Major Greg Caryle and Lieutenant Hannah Anderson. "Rule number three applies to you five. Don't advertise the fact that you have the ATA gene. The scientists will want to use you as a light switch and Colonel Sheppard will offer your services to them so he doesn't have to do it himself." The five mentioned nodded while the rest of the new recruits smirked.

"Number four," Lorne continued, "The city of Atlantis is sentient. If you want to have, for example, hot water, don't insult her. She controls everything technological here and she'll make it known if she doesn't like you." The Major knew this for a fact - after three years, Kavanagh still couldn't get any hot water. Even if he went to someone else's bathroom the water would still be ice cold. The scientist had given up trying to fix it. "If you ask her to do something she might do it, but the only one she listens to is Colonel Sheppard." There was a bit of confusion on the Marine's faces, so he expounded on the odd relationship between city and soldier.

"Colonel Sheppard is bonded to Atlantis. I don't know the extent of their bond, but I do know that he could communicate with Atlantis from as far away from the city as Earth." There were the expected murmurs of surprise at the sheer distance that the bond would have to pass to reach Earth.

There was another pause before Lorne got back on track with the unwritten rules. "Anyways, the last rule. Pay attention to this one, folks. For the love of any God, Goddess or Supreme Being that there might be, don't touch anything if you don't know what it does! I don't want to be scraping up your remains when you're blown to hell by a disguised weapon, or having to replace you if you're killed by a virus hidden in an artifact." Lorne looked at the new recruits. "Don't. Touch. Anything." All of the unwritten rules seemed like sense to the new recruits.

Evan Lorne took a few questions that they were a bit too nervous to ask their new CO and then got them lined up and firing stunners again.

John walked up the steps to the control room to find Elizabeth looking over the shoulder of Chuck the technician. When Elizabeth saw him she patted the gate technician's shoulder and left him to his work.

"Major Jordan and his team aren't back yet. They're the ones sent to M9X-288."

"The watermelon planet?" John asked, referring to the main crop the indigenous people farmed and traded. Elizabeth nodded. "They shipped out yesterday morning. Think they were captured?" This statement got a sigh and a nod from Dr Weir. "What's their level of development?"

"Similar to the Athosians," Elizabeth said. "At his last check in, the Major didn't say anything was wrong, but they're overdue for their return. We've dialed the gate and can't reach them on radio. I hate to drag you away from your new soldiers," she began but John was nodding.

"I'll grab Ronon," the Colonel said with a grin. "Lorne will keep an eye on the newbies." He changed his focus, looking at the ceiling slightly. Elizabeth recognized this communication with the city. After a moment he turned back to her. "Let me know if you hear anything from Major Jordan's team."

"I'll get Major Lorne to round up some Marines for you. Oh, and John?" The Colonel turned back at Elizabeth's voice. "Take Rodney with you."

John grinned. "Rodney's being Rodney again?"

"Radek radioed me, wondered if we could get him out of the lab for a while. Say it's a team thing," Elizabeth suggested. This got a nod from the Colonel and he departed the control room.

John ran off to one of the training rooms, the first place that he would have looked for Ronon even if Atlantis hadn't shown him an image of the Satedan. The training room that Ronon was currently throwing Marines around in was equidistant from the mess, the infirmary and his quarters, making it his favorite.

The Colonel reached the training room as Captain Jarvis hit the mat loudly. John winced in sympathy at the angle the man impacted the vinyl. When Ronon took a second to look around the room John got the big man's attention. "Hey," Ronon grunted as he wiped his face with a towel.

"Gear up and meet me in the gate room as soon as possible," John said. "Major Jordan's team is way overdue and we haven't heard anything."

Ronon interpreted this as potential fun and departed to his room to pull on something more suitable than a thin shirt. John looked at the man who was lying motionless on the mat. "You okay, Loren?"

Loren Jarvis nodded slightly. "I think I'll just lay here for a minute, sir," he said.

"You do that," John replied as he turned and walked out of the training room. He thought an inquiry to Atlantis and an image bloomed in his mind. -Rodney yelling and scribbling on a whiteboard. The equation he was diagramming looked like something for the naquadah generators, given the sketch above it. The image panned out to show Lab 3.-

The third lab was some distance away, the one where the scientists did most of their… touchy… experiments. This distance was purely a safety measure, and did not reflect on the scientists themselves. The fact that Lab 3 was where Zelenka stored his distillery and where some of the scientists held their strip Halo 2 tournaments certainly didn't factor into its position.

After taking a transporter to the nearest spot to the lab, John ran the rest of the way. He could have made the trip blindfolded, Rodney's shouts were so loud.

Looking into the lab, John could see Rodney frantically scribbling on a whiteboard while yelling at full volume. There was a smudge of black marker on the sleeve of the lab coat of the poor rookie he was shouting at. The Colonel could tell that the crowd of new scientists were already questioning their decision to come to Atlantis.

Interrupting a rather spectacular description of what the irritated would like to do to the quaking scientist, John shouted Rodney's name several times. That got no response, so he pulled out his secret weapon. "Coffee," he whispered.

"Coffee?" Rodney said before looking over. Almost immediately after seeing John leaning casually in the doorway he calmed from his rant and sighed. "That's a dirty trick, Colonel," Rodney smirked.

John grinned smugly. "Then you should stop falling for it. I could hear you all the way down at the transporter. What'd that one do to earn that?" he asked, gesturing to the petrified rookie.

Rodney grumbled and went back to scribbling a long string of mathematics on the board. "He leaned against my board."

"The same board you were up until three AM four nights in a row working on?" John asked, then winced. No wonder Rodney had gone all out in his bellowing. The equations were for maximizing the energy output of the ZPMs left behind by the Replicators. If the Colonel hadn't interrupted the Canadian he probably wouldn't have stopped until dinner.

"What's up? Normally I can't get you down to a lab unless I promise there's either turkey sandwiches or any DVD's we haven't seen yet," Rodney commented as he finished his thought on the board.

"Major Jordan's team is a day overdue. Elizabeth wants us to go check it out. Get suited up and pass the rookies to Radek."

Rodney sighed and returned the marker he was using to the board. "Alright, but I get to choose the next movie after Armageddon then." He turned to Radek Zelenka who had been watching the exchange. "Do... something with them," Rodney gestured to the new scientists. Radek nodded and shooed Rodney out of the lab.

"What's wrong with my movie choices?" John questioned as they walked out of the lab.

"We've seen The Fifth Element too many times," Rodney complained.

"It's a good movie!"

"Yeah, once, maybe twice. Not thirteen!"

It took ten minutes for the two to get kitted up, arguing all the way, and made their way to the gate room. They met up with a fully armed Ronon - for him, fully armed meant enough weaponry hidden on him to be spread out over a platoon. The three quarters of what was known on Atlantis as AR-1, short for Atlantis Reconnaissance Team 1, joined up with the four Marines that Lorne had rounded up. It took another two minutes before Elizabeth had given the mission a "go" and the gate dialed. An instant later they disappeared through the event horizon.

The Atlantis mess was filled with all three groups of rookies. They were pretty well polarized: grunts with grunts, geeks with geeks and docs with docs. Radek Zelenka, Carson Beckett and Evan Lorne were sitting at a separate table, keeping a weather eye on their charges. All three remembered the first meal that the second group of reinforcements shared together. It took two weeks for the residual stains to fade from the ceiling and that was only after extremely caustic cleaning treatments.

There was one table that wasn't separated by specialty. Sitting together with the ease of experience was Dr Sophie St. Claire, one of the scientists recruited from Area 51, Captain Frank Willows and Dr Kamaria Willows, wife to the Captain and physician specializing in trauma surgery. They had been friends before their Atlantis assignment.

"How are you two liking your new supervisors?" Sophie asked, making a grab for her cane before it fell. She spoke with a slight French accent.

"Colonel Sheppard seems alright. The other men," Frank began and spoke over Sophie's predictable interjection, "and women would do anything for him. You should have heard the tales some of the more experienced soldiers were telling. One story was how he single-handedly defeated an entire Genii invasion force when a hurricane was threatening Atlantis. We got interrupted before Sgt. Stackhouse could continue. Sheppard seems like a good CO."

Kamaria smiled. "I think I'll like working with Dr Beckett. He seems very nice, much better than some of the other CMO's I've had to work with. He's got the best Scottish accent..." she trailed off, smirking.

"Should I be worried?" Frank asked his wife, matching his smirk to hers. The trio laughed.

Sophie sighed and looked at her plate, at what could possibly be called meatloaf. "I'm glad you two like your bosses. Dr McKay probably hit a world record decibel level with his shouting today. Richard Wythe brushed up against one of the whiteboards in his lab and McKay went ballistic. Shouted for fifteen minutes before he was interrupted. I really hope I'm going to be working under Dr Zelenka."

"Is he really as unpleasant as Colonel Carter complains?" Captain Willows asked.

"He seems so. I'm surprised how nobody's killed him yet. How he got onto the flagship team and everyone's put up with him is beyond me."

Any further discussion was interrupted by Carson's raised voice. "Alright, we've got a wee bit of an emergency so let's get back to the infirmary and you'll see how we do things here." This announcement prompted the medical staff to abandon their meals and hurry back to the infirmary.

The Atlantis infirmary was crowded. The four members of AR-4 had been rescued from M9X-288 and had come out of being held captive by the natives with only one arrow wound, four broken bones and a dislocated shoulder between the four of them. Their rescuers were fine.

Then there was John Sheppard. He had been watching the group's 'six' after they had pulled Major Jordan's team out of the pit they were being held in. The natives were not happy that their sacrifice to the Wraith would be disturbed and aimed their first retaliatory volley at him specifically. John had two arrows in his back, an arrow in his left arm and four more in his chest.

What worried Carson was the possible punctured lung caused by an arrow in his chest. Sheppard's breathing was more difficult than usual, even for having seven arrows sticking out of him and scans were too inconclusive for Carson's liking. Not to mention the amount of blood coming from the wound, too much for merely getting shot with an arrow.

The Scottish CMO immediately scrubbed for surgery and wheeled the Colonel into one of the operating rooms. The experienced surgical team went to work with the ease that came from three years of working together.

Kamaria and the rest of the new doctors were put to work under Dr Biro's eye setting the various breaks and removing the arrow in Sgt. Canning's shoulder. The dislocated shoulder was easy to pop back into place. The uninjured members, mostly the rescue team, were given a standard after-mission physical to make sure they didn't bring anything back with them. One by one they were cleared to leave.

Not that they all did. Dr Unpleasant and his companion Mr Lurking only left as far as the two hospital beds closest to the operating room. Kamaria Willows and the rest of the new recruits were confused. "Dr Biro? Should we get them to leave?" This was asked by, in Kamaria's opinion, one of the denser new doctors.

Biro snorted. "The day you can get Colonel Sheppard's team to leave when one of them is in the infirmary is the day you get a one million dollar bonus. They're all too damn stubborn."

Fifteen minutes passed before Elizabeth Weir made it down from the briefing with the soldiers who didn't refuse to leave the infirmary. The CO of Atlantis Base was all too used to AR-1's concern for their injured teammates and accommodated them. She understood.

"So what happened out there, Rodney?" she asked as she perched in one of the visitors chairs near the two beds.

"Pretty much a standard search and rescue. We arrived in the village about a kilometer from the Stargate. We got Sgt. Canning on the radio - he was the only one who still had his - and he told us they were being held in a pit near the tree line in their city.

"We snuck in and stunned the guards with Wraith stunners. Unfortunately we were doing a jailbreak a couple of minutes before the first set of guards were going to be relieved. The Colonel and Ronon had just hauled the last member of the pit and the replacements arrived."

Rodney stopped talking and was looking towards the operating room with a tired expression on his face. Ronon took over when he could see that the Chief Scientist's attention had shifted. "The new guards sounded the alarm, we bolted for the gate and Sheppard got hit with the first volley, he was covering our rear."

"The bastard shoved me out of the way of one of the bolts," Rodney interjected, sounding supremely irritated in Kamaria's opinion. She didn't know what he had to be irritated about, McKay looked fine.

"We got to the gate, dialed while Sheppard tried not to pass out on us and we held off the natives. After we dialed we got back here and you know the rest." The intimidating large man went back to sharpening several knives that he had produced from his clothes (and three he had pulled from his dreadlocks).

Time passed without much being said until Carson Beckett came out of the operating room. He still was gowned and gloved, but he disrobed from the protection. "Well, the Colonel is an incredibly lucky lad. The arrow I was worried about just barely missed his right lung. He's got two broken ribs from the arrows in his chest, but that seems to be all. We removed the arrows and patched him back up. We had a bit of a bleeder, the arrow nicked an artery but we closed that quick enough." Carson could still see that Rodney looked worried, so he firmly said, "He'll be fine."

Rodney muttered something that could have possibly contained the words voodoo and sheep, but nodded to Carson thankfully. The CMO ignored this, used to Rodney's way of expressing worry and then turned to the idling new doctors. "Alright, you three," he pointed at three doctors at random, "the operating room needs a bit of a scrub. Don't get rid of the arrowheads we pulled from the Colonel, he normally hangs onto anything he was shot with. God knows why..." he mumbled the last bit, rubbing his eyes.

After a moment the OR doors opened again and John was wheeled out. He was unconscious and pale, but no longer looked like a porcupine. Carson went over to help shift him off the gurney and onto a bed. When this was accomplished he turned back to the new doctors. "You," he pointed at random again, "get the Colonel into some scrub bottoms. Get him cleaned up as well. The rest of you, I've got a closet of drugs that needs to be inventoried and organized. Dr Biro, can you show them the supply lists?" This got a nod and the gaggle broke up.

Kamaria walked over to where the scrubs were stored and pulled out a pair, then headed over to the Colonel's bed and pulled the privacy screens. The Colonel was gauzed and bandaged and had a thick ace bandage wrapped around his chest to support his ribs. One of the first things she noticed were the large number of scars decorating his body. In some parts of his body he seemed to be more scar tissue than flesh. He was very fit, as was to be expected for a man of his position. She was a married woman, very happily married, but Kamaria Willows had to admit he was handsome.

When she approached closer and began to unfold the scrubs she got a better look at her patient. John Sheppard looked rather familiar. Then she saw it, the tattoo on his right arm. A golden sunburst, with a blue saber and grey staff crossed in front of it. Tiny purple stars encircled it.

It felt like her heart stopped. She inspected the tattoo closely and could tell that it was a genuine Light Brigade tattoo. The purple stars... "Harry," Kamaria whispered, surprised at the true identity of Colonel John Sheppard. Kamaria put her hand on the tattoo, testing it with her magic, almost hoping that it was just a muggle tattoo and this was an amazing coincidence. The magic inherent in the Light Brigade's mark pushed back at her, a familiar feeling.

Somehow the Pegasus Galaxy felt a little safer knowing that Harry was there.

She looked closer at the scars decorating Harry's - no, he was Sheppard now - body. There was the fang puncture from the basilisk in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. The long one going down his arm was from the Voldemort's rebirthing ceremony. Several were wounds that she had healed after various battles in the Wizarding world. His trademark lightning bolt scar was gone, but that could have been removed by muggle surgery.

Kamaria was brought back to her senses as Sheppard mumbled and tried to turn over. She quickly changed him into the scrubs and got him underneath the blankets. Opening the privacy screen she saw that Dr Unpleasant and Mr Lurking were still here, but they moved over and took up spots around the Colonel's bed. The scientist actually pushed (although gently) Sheppard to the side a bit and sat down next to the Colonel's uninjured side.

John leaned against Rodney's side and let out something that might have been "Rodney," save for his mumbled voice and the way his face was pressed against the Chief Scientist's side.

Shrugging - at least her first friend had people that cared about him here - Kamaria retreated to where the rest of her coworkers were standing. Carson had walked over to her previous position near Sheppard's bed and was staring at Rodney with a Look on his face. "I'm going to keep the Colonel overnight. If you go in on his escape attempts, Rodney, I'm going to chain you to a bed the next time you're in here. I should do the same to him."

Rodney had a look of supreme innocence on his face, one that Kamaria recognized - it had the Weasley Twins' brand of 'I didn't do it' written all over it. "No, don't say anything," Carson interjected over whatever Rodney would have said. "Just do as I say this time." His expression promised hell to pay if the scientist didn't comply.

Kamaria didn't hear any more conversation between the CMO and the two members of Colonel Sheppard's team. The small crowd of new doctors had been split up, half to work the first shift tonight and half to work tomorrow morning. Kamaria was part of the second shift, and was dismissed, sent off with a map and an "Ask for directions, you'll probably need it," to find their quarters. It wasn't that hard once you got the hang of it, all the corridors and rooms had been numbered (although it seemed purely arbitrary how the numbers were assigned,) and Kamaria found the room she would share with her husband eventually.

Inside were both Sophie and Frank, telling jokes. They both looked up as Kamaria entered and smiled to her. This smile froze on their faces as they noticed how unnerved she looked. Kamaria sat down on the bed and sighed. "The emergency was Colonel Sheppard's team coming back from a rescue mission. Colonel Sheppard is in the infirmary but he'll be fine. But you'll never guess what I found out while I was there..." She paused. "The Colonel..."

Kamaria trailed off and Sophie asked, "What about Colonel Sheppard?"

"He's Harry." This statement shocked her two companions as much as the discovery shocked herself.

"Harry?" Sophie and Frank echoed, turning to more face the sitting Kamaria.

"I was told by Dr Beckett to change him into some scrubs after his surgery - he came back from a mission looking like a porcupine with seven arrows in him - and I saw his Brigade tattoo. I took a closer look and he's got the same scars that I remember, including the mark from the basilisk fang and wounds I healed. Did either of you have an idea that Harry was going to be here?"

Frank shook his head no but Sophie paused. "I knew that one of our group was going to be here. The Secretary of Magic gave me a letter to pass on but he didn't tell me who to give it to. All the man said was that I'd know who to deliver the letter to."

"He's going to be okay?" Frank inquired of his wife, concern for his old friend coming through in his voice.

Kamaria smiled. "Yeah, the Colonel will be fine. Dr Beckett was worried about a possible punctured lung but it turns out he barely avoided that. He just had a couple of broken ribs and the seven arrow wounds."

The room was silent for quite some time. Finally Sophie spoke. "Harry's here..." she trailed off, surprised. Harry - Colonel Sheppard, she reminded herself - had been the one member of the Light Brigade to disappear entirely. Other members had occasionally looked for him but no matter what they had tried everything came up blank.

"We'll talk to him tomorrow morning," Frank stated.

AN: I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this. I have a rough idea on where I want to take it, so if it gets read and responded to, I'll keep going with it. It won't be long, probably only two or three parts. Thanks for reading and please review so I know to keep going.

-Ravenfur