Red Water, Blue Fire

Amber Penglass

A/N: It seems this fic is to be my 'bored in class' fic, heh. Here you go!

Chapter Two

Jack looked at the man for a moment, then replied with the most eloquent response that came to mind, "Huh?"

Sirius, as he had named himself, glanced away from the distant Stargate to look at the Colonel with a disdainful frown. "You heard me," he replied, that British lilt exentuated by his apparent annoyance.

"We're not helping you with anything til you stop pulling all that..." Jack waved a fluttering hand towards the stick he held then his frozen companions. "...stuff."

Sirius snorted, but with a flick of his wand SG-1 went stumbling, falling with various cries to the cold ground, rubbing limbs that had gone numb. Keeping on eye on the stick-wielding fiend, Jack went to his teammates. Sam was holding her head and blinking, while Daniel was rubbing a roughened elbow. Teal'c seemed unharmed, and his face was a mask of concentration as he worked on getting back to his feet, despite how his legs seemed to want to imitate jelly in the most annoying way.

"You all right there, T?" Jack asked as he gave Sam a hand up.

"I am unharmed, O'Neil," Teal'c replied, still focued on getting standing. Daniel was muttering something about the man's english accent, then pigs and warts, a very incredulous look on his face. Jack put it from his mind, for the moment, wrapping his hands around Sam's elbows and hauling his Major to her unsteady feet. Automatically she placed a hand on his upper arm, steadying herself with one hand pressed to her forehead. He ignored the flash of heat that raced down the limb at the contact. This wasn't the time for that.

"How you feeling?" He asked.

"Ow..." she murmured. Then, "My legs feel like they're being attacked by a phalanx of pigmies and spears, but other than that, sir, I think I'm fine."

"Well, just let me know when you've kicked those pigmies, a'right?" He patted her shoulder in a comaradie-esq way, and when she returned his comment with a fleeting, reassuring smile, he turned to fully face their -captor? attackor? rescuer?- whatever he was.

"All right," Jack told him. "You've got our ears. What do you want?"

"I told you," the man replied. "I want to know how you fellow Earth humans got here. And I want to know how to work that...gateway," he waved to the Stargate, "And come back with you."

"Who says we're from this Urth place?" Jack said, his face completely blank as he deliberately misprounounced their planet's name. Sirius scowled.

"Listen, you ancient Yank, I don't have time for this! Voldemort is rising at home, my godson may be dead, and I've got to get back! Or does that two-faced snake already rule?"

"Moldie-whatsit?" Jack responded. Behind him, Daniel and Sam were exchanging calculating glances as they leaned on each other for support, their legs still trembling a bit. Teal'c seemed fully fine. Sirius looked Jack over, scowling.

"I suppose that's a good thing," he said with a snort,though what was a good thing, Jack couldn't quite say. Sirius's frown deepened. "Let me see your arms," he demanded, his voice hoarse. Jack's eyes widened.

"Excuse me?"

"He's looking for a Mark, Jack," Daniel spoke suddenly. "Something that would mark us as followers of this Voldemort." All eyes turned to the archeologist, and with a sigh he adjusted his glasses and removed his hand from Sam's shoulder, standing on his own. Shaky, but standing.

"Daniel." Jack spoke the name with a questioning, overly pleasant drawl. "Elaboration, por favor?"

"Remember a few years ago, when we were tracking down Seth and his cult?" Daniel was still rubbing his elbow, and it was beginning to color. Jack nodded, with a mental note to have his friend get that checked when they got back.

"Well, during my cult search I naturally came across a few...other things," He winced. "One of them being a site claiming that witches and wizards were real. I checked it out because the site master's screename was 'Seth's Son.' While in chatroom on the site I started talking to a girl who claimed she was a graduate of the 'Salem Institution,' a school for magic. Eventually, I started hearing about somebody that no one would name, supposedly some talented wizard, graduated from a European school called 'Hogwarts,' who went bad a few years back, something about how a kid managed to defeat him. There were rumors that this guy was coming back."

"They weren't rumors," Sirius broke in. "Voldemort has indeed risen, and that 'kid' is my godson, Harry Potter." He said the name as if he half expected some sort of reaction, but all he got were a few blinks and an exchanged glance between SG-1's members. Sirius sighed.

"I don't expect you muggles to believe me-" he started.

"Non-magic persons," Daniel translated. Sirius threw him an annoyed look, but said nothing.

"Good," Jack said when Sirius opened his mouth to begin again. "Because we don't. Believe you, that is. Now, to rewind, you're telling us that you came through the Stargate? Cuz buddy, that's kinda hard to believe from our standpoint." He didn't mention that the reason for that was the fact that the only working Stargate had been under impecable surveilance, unless one was invisible, and this guy was definately visible. Besides, if he had come through the Stargate, he wouldn't be asking how to work it.

"I didn't say that," Sirius countered, annnoyance featured prominently on his countenance. "During a fight with some Deatheaters-" He pasued. "I still haven't seen your arm," he said, his voice cold stone. SG-1 exchanged glacnes, then Jack nodded. He rolled up his sleeves, clearly displaying every inch of both arms, raising them a bit and twisting themat the elbow. Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c did likewise. Sirius's gaze fixated on Teal'c's emblem.

"What's that?" He asked.

"A mark of slavery," was Teal'c's simple answer. Sirius held the bigger man's steady gaze for a moment, then nodded and looked back to Jack.

"Very well," he continued. "I never said I came through that thing," he jerked his head towards the 'Gate. "I fell through a similar one a few months ago. We called it the Veil of Memories."

All eyes turned to Daniel, who shrugged, looking partially annoyed at the automatic reaction. "Never heard of it," he confessed. Jack blew out a long breath.

"What does it look like?" Sam asked, taking the initiative. Sirius looked at her, and answered, describing it in what little detail he could remember- he hadn't exactly stopped and examined the thing with that bitch on his tail... If only he hadn't been quite so cocky...

"It looks like a mirror, filled with intangible strips of..." he paused, looking for the word. "Fabric, I suppose. Wispy silk and smoke. It's been said that if you look into it long enough, you can hear the voices of those whose memories are held in there, people who are long gone. Or even maybe people who have fallen in."

"Sounds like..." Sam furrowed her browm, then shook her head. Jack gave her a curious look, but she only shook her head again, her gaze delivering another message; 'later, sir.' He nodded in return, then looked back to Sirius.

"Look, Serious-"

"Sirius."

"Yeah, that. Listen, I can't just tote you back home through the gate and hope my superiors will let me keep you," Jack ignored the smoldering glare delivered by the dishevled Brit. "So, how about I go on home, get my General's ok, and then we'll be back in a jiffy?"

"And risk you're leaving me here to rot for eternity?" Sirius raised his wand again. "I'm not quite sure I'm entirely ok with that."

"I'll stay with you," Daniel volunteered, and Jack cursed his not seeing the blonde doing that very thing. With a reserved sigh, Jack nodded.

"What he said," the Colonel said with reluctance. "He'll stay, we go, and when we come back..." he rockedon his heels a bit, drawing a breath into his cheeks before releasing with a breathy, "Well, we'll deal with that bridge when we get to it. I'll put in a good word to my superior,and meanwhile you boys can sit here making smores and telling campfire stories. How's that sound?"

The air was tense for a moment, then Sirius nodded, slowly.

"Acceptable," he said. He raised his wand a slight bit, and SG-1 tensed an equal slight bit. "On one condition," the wizard added. At Jack's raised eyebrow he said, "I'll be putting a -for now- harmless hex on the other three of you."

"Excuse me?" Sam blanched, clearly disbelieving. Jack raised his hand.

"Hey, there, there'll be no hexing of my team," he said, his voice far firmer than it had been previously. Sirius considered for a moment.

Then, "Very well, then. Just you." And he branded the wooden thing like a miniature sword, letting loose a short string of decidedly latin sound words, all aimed at Jack. A spark of sickly yellow-green light spurted out of the top, sludging through the air to plaster over Jack as he yelped, taking a step back and raising his hand to shield himself. Teal'c, Daniel, and Sam all stepped forward to help out of reflex, Sam and Teal'c keeping one eye each on the stranger...

But then, all on its own, the urky light vanished, and Jack stood free of the illumination muck. He lowered his hands, cautiously.

"What," he said in a slow, strangled voice. "the hell was that?"

"Something I made up in my lovely free time here," Sirius replied flatly. "If you don't return within forty-eight hours, you'll be having fly larvae hatch beneath your skin."

"That's..." Jack trailed off, glancing at the flesh of his arm with sudden suspicion.

"Disgusting? I know. I got bored trying to interbreed new kinds of flowers." Sirius's reply was riddled with disdain.

"Na, I was gonna say that's absolutely, sparkingly brilliant and thank you oh so much for my own winged-ant colony!" Jack snapped back, every gritted-out syllable dripping with sarcasm. The two men glared for an eternity encased in a few moments. Then, "Forty-eight hours, you'll take the...the hectic-whatsit off?"

Sirius nodded. "Forty-eight hours."

Jack looked him up and down one last time, then nodded to Daniel, who moved to stand with the shaggy man. Jack looked back to Sirius, giving him one last appraising look before moving off with the other two members of his team in tow, out of the clearing and towards the Stargate.

To Be Continued...

Please excuse any spelling errors- I'm writing this in the online 'QuickEdit' thing on , which doesn't have spellcheck. So, until my next couple spiels of boredom in the comp lab...

-Amber Penglass