Raining Jaffa
Black Lodge, 2nd January 2004
“Tita? Odi? Nilo?” I call out cheerfully as soon as my feet touch the granite tiles of Black Lodge’s front porch. “I’m back! Wanna meet a new friend?”
Three pops between me and the front door herald the arrival of the house’s little, green caretakers, who beam up at me with their chocolate-coloured eyes bright with excitement.
“Where is the guest, Master Harry?” Nilo, Tita’s and Odi’s cousin, looks round after a beat. “Nilo doesn’t see or sense any.”
“In Master Harry’s trunk?” Tita hazards a hopeful guess. “Is Master Teal’c back?”
I shake my head. “No. We got some of his people with us, though. But we must be careful. So can I trust you to stay invisible and do nothing while I talk to them one by one?”
“What about if they attack Master Harry?” Odi protests anxiously.
I shake my head again. “Stay invisible and do nothing, just look,” I insist. “They’ll just freak out more if you show yourself or attack them back invisibly. Let me deal with them, all right?”
The three house-elves bow and say their yesses. But their cheerfulness and eagerness have turned into worry and anxiety, now, and it just helps raise my own trepidation, which I masked with some cheer, earlier.
Well, the fact is, if Neville didn’t nudge me two days ago, and somebody didn’t arrange all my folk to celebrate the changing of the year with me yesterday, I wouldn’t even have had the courage or the drive to confront the problem of the Jaffa today, especially without the solution for the Goa’uld dependence ready. I used the chance of everyone being there yesterday to announce that my friends – as a council – would act as me should I be unavailable for a long time for some reason, and that I was going to try something a little risky to see if I could add more to the family… and they welcomed the family bit heartily.
It’s a rather flimsy kind of courage and drive, and I’m proving how flimsy it is at present.
But still, I go on, making a beeline to the bedroom that Teal’c occupied while he was here, with three pairs of small feet pitter-pattering on the wooden floor of the house after me. Because I promised Teal’c to help his people, and Fawkes may be back whenever with more of them. I’m not going to be drowned by Jaffa, in any sense of the word!
“Shall we prepare something for Master Harry’s guest?” Nilo offers hesitantly while I enlarge my “Jaffa Express” – my repurposed, refurbished portable-flat trunk – on the open space inside the bedroom, between the bed and the dresser.
“Maybe a glass of water and some plain but sweetened bread?” I suggest. “Start with something small. Then he can ask for other things as he wishes. Don’t put those things on anything that can be used as a weapon, though. Teal’c said that his people are warriors, and we don’t know what they think of us, and how they’d react to us. I would rather not accidentally arm one of his people with anything weaponisable; not till we know each other better.”
“Unbreakable but cushionable glass and plate?” Tita joins in, while I unlatch the lid and carefully peek down and around into the dark interior of the trunk.
“Sure,” I agree. “Now, let’s see – Lumos.” I send a ball of not-so-bright sunlight-like illumination down the ladder and into the portable flat, enlarging it as it traverses the darkness. “Hmm. Seems like nobody got out of stasis, or managed not to be put in stasis…. I’ll have to come up with a better idea to check for them and their status next time. Make a note of it, would you, Odi?”
Then I jump in.
Portable Flat at Black Lodge, 2nd January 2004
I land on a crouch in the vestibule about ten feet below… which is full of crates that I didn’t put there. They don’t look like those I and others put in the mokeskin pouch, too.
“Ah, please, can any of you find out what’s inside one of these crates without disturbing them?” I whisper into the cold, dimly lit air in front of me.
“If there is no magical barrier, Master… and there is not, here,” Nilo whispers back. “But the things in the crates, Master Harry, they are so odd!”
I quirk a smile at his childish dramatics. “In what way?”
“Weird sticks, weird balls, weird food, weird armour, weird clothing,” Odi supplies, instead of his cousin.
“Personal things,” Tita adds. “Not many. Mostly not here, though. Shall I gather them up, Master?”
“No need,” I muse. “I wouldn’t want my things be bothered. If our first friend wants it, you can help him find and clean his things, as long as they’re not dangerous, but not before. Now, let’s hide these crates and free up some space, shall we? You could put the crates in storage, as long as you don’t think they’re dangerous.”
I can’t help but laugh a little when, without leaving the space behind me, the elves manage to transport the crates away. “Eager to see the new friend, are you?” I comment grinningly.
“We look after Master Harry, too,” Tita reminds me firmly, from her still-invisible position right behind me. “Wouldn’t be looking after if we’re away.”
Still grinning, I pivot round, drop to one knee and pull my tiny friends into a hug, one by one, with a sincere thanks for each.
These little ones already boost my mood greatly – just in time, too!
I make my way out of the vestibule into the “dormitory” area, and… the “Jaffa retrieval team’s” dilligence is readily apparent.
There are four “dorm rooms” that I repurposed from my potions lab, personal bedroom, storeroom/pantry and study, with two beds set in the former kitchen that is now a basic infirmary. And, from what I see as the elves and I are cautiously exploring the whole flat and peeking round every corner, all the space is full, literally up to the ceiling. Even the spaces that I thought weren’t humanely usable unless in desperate need, such as the bit of floor parallel to the walls outside of the rooms.
In the last count that I made, as I rigged hammocks in the spaces between the numerous bunk beds and put quite a few pieces of foam mattresses for just-in-case in the bathroom turned storeroom, I knew that the “dorm rooms” could hold twenty-one people, as they are roughly the same in size. And all the beds and hammocks are full of bodies garbed in a grey combo of tunic and trousers, now, with the stasis disk gleaming faintly on the chest of each rescuee.
Plus the ones placed in the “infirmary” and out in the hall, the… enthusiastic team apparently rescued… quite a few Jaffa.
Ninety-four, to be exact, after thrice rechecking my count and asking the elves to confirm it.
And Hermione admited yesterday that she sent a bigger portable flat along with many more stasis disks and other supplies with Fawkes when he flew back to Teal’c.
A portable flat that she configured to be as space-efficient as this one.
Oh. Damn. Hell.