A Reason to Live

Author’s note: If you wish to see a different angle or three of a scene in this story, or something in-between scenes in this story, you might like the titbits that I posted to the companion piece that is so “originally” titled Omakes for A Reason to Live. It’s just as the tin says: extra or deleted scenes from this – the main story. I’d welcome suggested scenes, too. - Rey

Black Island, 24th May 2004

In the end, despite the many properties available for the settlement, the choice came back again to Black Island, after some back-and-forth arguments and opinions pro and contra from my little group. And the back-and-forth ran  all throughout the night, indeed, as now the said little group is not so little anymore, with the permanent addition of Sai’yo and Daniel, and the need-to-know advice from Catherine Langford, Janet Fraiser and Justin’s fiancé Milla, and the mostly unlooked-for, mostly unwanted addition from Tony Stark, who additionally told me most seriously that he hasn’t forgiven me for leaving him in Egypt.

Is it a wonder, then, that all I can and wish to do presently is just lying about under the sun on a bobbing raft in the calm water of the beach?

I even took an accidental nap, I think, as now I’m feeling fresher and lighter, if drowsy.

I’ve formed an accidental shield against too much sunlight and heat, too, apparently, since I don’t feel like a grilled piece of steak.

After the hecticness of moving five hundred and sixty-four Jaffa to this island, instructing them on what to do and not to do for the sake of their own survival in this remote, magically saturated place, introducing them to the hundred wizarding tents that they are going to live in for the foreseeable future, and establishing a communication line with me as well as some basic rules to avoid infighting, this respite is a welcome surprise. There’s nothing immediate for me to do, too, from what I remember. So, for once in a long time, I am free of any obligation.

Nice.

And with that thought in mind, I deliberately go for a raft-born, sun-warmed, breeze-cradled nap.

O-O-O-O

Daniel is already integrating into the newly formed community, it seems, judging from how comfortably he is ensconced at the common fire – which is currently unlit – that the Jaffa have built on the centre of their encampment. From this distance and obscured by the sounds of other conversations and activities round the recently planted settlement, it’s hard to gauge what he’s talking about, but he seems passionate about it, all the same, judging from his enthusiastic gesticulation.

I pad along the path between the uniform tents, making my indirect way towards him and the few Jaffa who sit nearby and seem to be listening to him, greeting the Jaffa that happen to notice me with a hopefully friendly and welcoming smile.

I only have time to notice the haphazard stack of notebooks and pencils lying round Daniel, though, before the Jaffa who have been paying attention to him suddenly slide from the crates that they use as seats and kneel to me.

I swallow back a sigh and many, many uncomplimentary words about the Goa’uld and wave a hand. “As you were, please,” I implore them, wincing inwardly at the tired and irritated note that leaks through. But I’m indeed fed up with this cautious and reverent treatment from the Jaffa, which even Sai’yo is barely weened off, after nearly half a year of interaction with me and my fellow outcasts and being inducted into the family proper. It just makes me miss Teal’c and his “ordinary guy” treatment of me even more, sometimes.

But, well, I’m here not to gripe, am I not? Not now, anyway. I just want to continue my impromptu holiday from earlier!

It’s ever so hard to relax, still, as I suddenly notice that, in so short a time and with nary a sound, so many Jaffa have been drawn to this place, packed together into a circle round us and the unlit fire.

Worse, this impromptu congregation has the feel of a military briefing such as what I held with Neville and his resistance movement in my would-be seventh year at Hogwarts, instead of a bunch of newcomers nosing about in a neighbourly manner.

I do let out a gusty sigh, this time.

“You need me for something, Harry?” Daniel prods gently, breaking the lengthy, anticipatory, charged silence in which I just… look round rather helplessly at the many blank faces surrounding us.

“I….” I shake my head, sigh again, and steel myself to plod stubbornly to get what I came here for. “Justin always said he can’t get people to play cricket with him. I thought we could play cricket or the like, to wind down, then get him to watch or play when we thoroughly got the game. Well, I’d rather watch, really, but… well… I’d rather play than do nothing worthwhile.”

“Perhaps table tennis, first, if you don’t want to run around everywhere?” he suggests, smiling. “Erm, what do you think, guys?” He looks round at the surrounding Jaffa, rather belatedly. “What kind of sport do you play, usually?”

No answer.

The only audible sounds are the leaves rustling softly and the far-off rumbling of the waves.

Daniel nudges me discreetly, now that I’ve backed myself to stand beside the crate he’s seated on.

I start.

The throng shifts.

Uh-oh.

I see little to no visible arms about the Jaffa, but I haven’t forgotten how Teal’c defeated Arga so handily while being naked, without additional weapons but his own self, and fresh after being healed from debilitating injuries. Now there are five hundred and sixty-four of him here: certainly not naked, fresh and healthy, and with possible additional arms secreted somewhere on their persons.

Uh-oh.

Damn. I thought I was going to have a holiday that’d last for more than just a few hours!

I sigh for the third time, then force myself to address the Jaffa in my firmest voice, for my own sake and Daniel’s, “All right, people, we’re equals, here and now. I’m asking you for your honest opinions of what you’d like to do – fun things you’d like to do – while we’re trying to settle everyone and rescue those in need.” Better not say anything about their dependency on the Goa’uld larvae, though. I’m trying to salvage my holiday and make it a holiday for us all at the same time, after all, and that touchy subject will just ruin it further. “So, who’d like to start? And please take a seat. Oh, and don’t be surprised, please; I’ve got snacks and drinks for us all. – Tita, ice chocolate, please? And if you’d like to join us here, feel free.”

Many of the blank faces crack, showing confusion. Some show interest. A few show uncertainty. All of them take a seat on the grass in an almost synchronised motion, though.

Still, I allow myself to relax only when mugs of plain ice chocolate appear before each of my guests, with the last handed personally to me by a beaming Tita.

“Should Tita be fetching snackies, Master Harry? Tita baked lots of biscuits when Master Harry said more like Master Teal’c would join us!” she offers hopefully as I take my mug from her with a grateful smile.

“We try each of the biscuits, then?” I suggest. “Don’t go overboard, though. It’s dinner soon, right?”

“Righty!” she chirps, courtsying with another beaming smile. Then, with an unnecessary but oh-so-excited hop, she vanishes into… the Black Lodge, maybe, or Grimauld.

And I am left with everyone somehow gawking at me.

“Ah, um, eh, Harry, who’s that?” Daniel’s the one who expresses what must be running in all of their minds, at length, probably taking pity on my squirming self.

Oh, damn. I forgot that he knows so little of magic and the magical world! And, having spent some time with the unflappable Teal’c and so long with the curious Sai’yo, I took it for granted that the Jaffa would accept the presence of magic readily.

And Daniel is a US citizen.

I am going to get in so much trouble with MACUSA and ICW for introducing an unrelated non-magical person to life in a magical community.

And all for a wish of at least a few more hours of holiday, spent with hopefully soon-to-be friends with the bribe of some snacks.

While my existing troubles on so many fronts haven’t been solved yet.

Okay, Potter, time for damage control. Don’t wait, secrecy contracts first, explanations second, freak out later.

“All right, everyone, before we talk about fun things, there’s something – well, a few things, really – that you need to know….”

O-O-O-O

“Ah. Only you, Harry.” Arga sounds and looks floored.

“What did you do?” Hermione is just as flummoxed.

“You put Cheering Charms on them?” an intrigued George hazards a guess, but he doesn’t wait for my answer before taking off to join a few Jaffa down on the shallows of the beach, who are jousting with paddles on newly made kayaks in teams of two and humorously heckling each other.

I shrug. “I got them all on secrecy contract about magic, then we had snacktime with the house-elves while I explained about magic and the magical world, then Nilo asked if I were going to fish like I did with Teal’c back at the Lodge, then Odi said I might feel better if I went canoeing instead of fishing if I felt antsy, then Nida suggested playing kite for something in-between ‘cause I need finesse for that as well as running around….” I throw an amused look at Daniel – who is running around doing just that on the grass at a distance, who is apparently teaching a trio of Jaffa how to do battle with their kites – then add a nod at the same figure in emphasis. “Daniel took over, after that. He explained about all those activities, and I guess his excitement’s catching, ‘cause then some of them asked about other kinds of war games. I tried to say we don’t consider those war games, but Daniel said there’s lots of modern games which began as troop exercise or the like. The rest is… well, you’re seeing it for yourself. Guess you can take the Jaffa out of battles but you can’t take battling out of them.”

“They have been long conditioned for that very purpose,” Arga agrees. “It does not help that Teal’c sent you the old warriors among them, mostly. They are too used to being soldiers to do anything else, by this point.”

“Well, at least it looks like they’re settling in,” Bill offers, with amusement thick in his voice. “I might teach them chess and the like, when they’re tired of running round.”

Arga laughs. “You will have to wait for a very long time, then, William,” she remarks. “Your time would be better spent joining them like your younger brother, or devising more means of entertainment for them aside from ‘chess and the like’.”

He snorts. “Nah. Still got to deal with the goblins about the ‘disappearing pyramid’. They’re still not convinced. If they want me to swear by my magic, I’m screwed.”

“Ah,” I wince. “Sorry ‘bout that, Bill. They’re stubborn and suspicious buggers, aren’t they?”

“Too clever by half, too,” he huffs. “Better me quitting the job than them getting a hold on that ship and what’s in it. Your money’s not with Gringotts any longer, right, Harry?”

“Nope,” I snort. “Not since that break-in. If not for Andy, I would’ve lost everything. They don’t know I’ve taken everything, though, so please be careful with your words and thoughts when you’re outside of here.”

“Eh, it’s been some time since I last talked about anything to anyone outside of job-related things.” He waves a hand vaguely at me, then at the dusk-shadowed island vista all round us. “Might even get the missus and kid to live here, when you’re established as a community. That is, when you’ve settled the refugees in here, too, not just these soldiers.”

“So you think I needn’t search anywhere else for them to live in?” I inquire, perking up. It’s always been Black’s dream for this island to be populated by his family, for them to live well and safely, and I do like the concept of a single, well-stocked, well-defended place for the beginning of this weird community of outcasts.

Haven Island sounds nice, for a start.