Merge Animo - Chapter 11 - Unspeakable Acts

Vic Bennett had to admit. This was the strangest thing she had ever seen.

In her 17 years as an Unspeakable, she had seen a lot of strange things. She was even part of how some of those strange things got started, but that was part and parcel of the job. She was no stranger to the word strange.

Her days at Hogwarts was proof of that. Even though she was a Slytherin she rarely made herself be known by anybody at Hogwarts using the usual Slytherin notoriety. She spent her time reading and the only friends she had was those she made at Gobstones club. She was not a fan of Quidditch although she did enjoy watching a game that didn't involve her own house. In the end she ended her days at school as just another name in the list of former students.

However, Professor Flitwick, it seemed, did notice her. It was his recommendation that got her recruited straight out of Hogwarts. Even though the other Unspeakables were older than she was, a couple by nearly a century, they never looked down at her even though she was one of the youngest members of the Department of Mysteries when she joined.

Being an Unspeakable had it perks though. Sure, she couldn't share what she was working on with her parents or her older brother, but she was afforded a lot of freedom from scrutiny.

For example, the Unspeakables had a lot of respect for Muggle technology. No doubt some of her former Slytherin dorm mates would have given her grief about it, but she always admired that because Muggles couldn't use Patronuses, Floo or Familiars to communicate, they had come up with telegrams and telephones. They had recently started using computers to exchange information, and Hutchinson was working on a way to make one of them work in the Ministry building.

It helped that she was dating a Muggle who helped her understand the ways of the Muggle world. Sarah Drabble was an editor for Channel 4 and was very adept at Muggle technology. She was also a awed when Vic explained that she was a witch, and the relationship got even stronger due to the mutual curiosity of both their worlds.

Thus for a standard witch, Vic was considered strange. However this was much stranger.

Behind a green door at the end of one of the rarely used hallways of the department was a room. This room was rarely visited. It was full of odds and oddities that were probably once full of magic and were used for important events in the history of humanity. There were things from events such as Vesuvius, Krakatoa and the murder of Caesar and at one time or another these items were considered very dangerous. Over time though, the magic in them had dissipated and they were chucked into the room with the green door.

Once a year an Unspeakable would lose a bet and had to go into the room to make sure everything was in order, which was fancy talk for making sure the items were not covered in dust. Vic lost the annual Christmas Butterbeer tossing competition and after procrastinating for almost a year, she decided to get it done. She entered expecting the usual dimly lit room full of cobwebs, dust and boring old items.

She didn't expect to open the door to a room bathed in orange and purple light. It was quite a sight. She took her wand out and slowly approached the source of the light. It was a triangular stone, smaller than the size of a regular book, which seemed to be vibrating while emanating the light. A quick scan from her wand showed that there was no dark energy coming from it, so she approached it slowly. The small tag under the stone said "Rome. 347 BC".

On the stone these words were inscribed on them.

"Merge Animo

20081991

Hogsmaede

Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon

Privet Drive, Surrey"

"So let me get this straight", Saul Croaker started. "We have a stone tablet that's been dead for more than two thousand and three hundred years come to life three months ago that we only found out because you finally decided to give that room a clean. It has a couple of Latin words that mean 'soul merge', a date and location of three places."

"That's right", Vic said.

"And what do we know about soul mergers?" Saul asked.

"Not much. According to our books they occured during Roman times, but that's about it. It's pretty much dead magic. Nobody has studied it since." Vic replied.

"What about our Muggle scientific correspondent. Did you check if any of them know about science of the souls?" he asked.

Vic shook her head. "Professor O'Briain replied yesterday. There are scientists who study it, but in general they're considered Fringe scientists. They don't have the funding to study it comprehensively. I don't think we can look at the Muggles for answers."

Saul was silent for a long time.

"This worries me," he said finally. "Soul Mergers are technically not Horcruxes, because you don't actually split a soul. You merge it with another one. It still requires a death though."

"Shall I go and investigate?"

Saul nodded.

Vic pulled her hood up, both to shelter her from the Scottish cold and to mask herself from any on-lookers. Even though it was night time, she was always glad that no matter what Sarah said, she was considered very plain. It helped her blend in with the crowd. She was watching James Bond on the television the week before and wondered how such a beautiful man would be allowed to be a spy. He would have stood out like a sore thumb wherever he went.

Although she was there for work, she did always enjoy her visits to the town. The first time she kissed someone was on a Hogsmaede weekend in her third year. She had the best snowball fight she ever had a couple of years later just round the corner from the Three Broomsticks. Sarah also enjoyed her trips there the few times they decided to visit a magical town.

Snapping herself out of her daydreaming she felt the stone in her pocket. It had vibrated more the moment she had Apparated into Hogsmaede and she decided to walk around to see if any change of directions would have effected it. After about half an hour of wandering around, she changed direction and suddenly the vibrations of the stone got stronger. She decided to walk straight past some dark woods, her wand held tightly in her other hand.

After about ten minutes of walking she stopped and her mouth gaped open when she saw where she was heading to. After a few years as an Unspeakable she knew that about half the time, rumors of haunted places were just made up, either by Muggles who had been Obliviated wrongly or wizarding folk who were just bored and wanted more attention.

However the Shrieking Shack had such a reputation that she was not going in there alone if she could help it. She shook her head and Disapparated, deciding to leave the Shrieking Shack for another day and went to the second location that was mentioned on the stone.

Of course it didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. Ottery St. Catchpole was a small town with houses few and far inbetween. Her training, however, managed to get her to spot which houses were wizarding households and which were Muggle. It was mainly the shape of the houses. Wizards could certainly take some lessons from Muggles on how to build a house. Way less conspicuous. All she had to do was go near any of these houses and see if the stone reacted to it. She got a response when she approached a tall mismatched house. Making sure she kept out of sight, she observed the house, mainly to find out who lived there. She could easily go to the Ministry to view records of wizarding households but she didn't want anyone questioning why an Unspeakable was snooping around wizarding houses. After ten minutes she got her answer. A balding ginger man walked out of the house and made his way to a shed in his garden. She recognised him from a recent article about the capture of a hiding Death Eater. Something Weasley. Works at the Ministry for something with Muggles. She would check his records when she got back to the Ministry.

Satisfied that she at least got a confirmed location from the stone, she moved on the third location. What greeted her surprised her immensely.

Whereas Ottery St. Catchpole was a typical town where a few wizarding families could hide out in, Privet Drive was the exact opposite. The lawns were perfectly manicured, the cars were washed and clean and the few people milling about at that time of the night seemed to be the same kind of people who would give Vic and Sarah's relationship a sneer. Typical idiots who seemed to think it was ethically right to say unethical things about people who dated differently from them.

Shaking away her anger from the memory of the last time they met Sarah's idiotic uncle, she started walking around the street. She had just passed Number Two when the stone started vibrating strongly. She looked around, saw Number Four and squinted. Even though she could see the house clearly, it seemed normal and boring. She took a step towards it and suddenly had the urge to move away from it. That was the sign of one thing. A repelling charm was placed on it. It meant that there were one or more people residing in that house were given some sort of protection. Deciding not to take the risk, she walked away from it.

She was lost in her thoughts and was too late to realise that she had walked into something hard. She fell backwards and immediately got up and recovered herself, muttering an apology.

"Don't worry bout it," replied a man. She looked up.

Sirius Black was smiling at her.

Harry was very excited. This was something new and he was so looking forward to it.

He opened the door to the classroom and walked in. He chose a table, sat down and Ron, Hermione and Neville took seats the same row as him. The class filled up and when everyone had taken their seat Kingsley stood up from his desk.

"Good day everyone. My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. On to today's class. Who here knows how duels work?" He asked.

Hermione, naturally, was the first one with her hands up. As she started reciting what she had read, Harry thought back to the past weekend.

"Be firm but never shout unless it's completely necessary"

"Make them understand first. Then they'll get it"

"You need them to fear you the moment they meet you"

"Ignore Snape. They don't have to like you but don't make them hate you either."

"Listening is important. Make sure they learn what it means to listen to you."

"After a while lesson plans go out the window because you know the syllabus like the back of your hand"

"It's Professor Snape to you, Weasley"

"Oh shut up Snape Neville could out-teach you with his hands tied behind his back"

"Quiet!" Dumbledore said finally. He was clearly enjoying himself.

They had just concluded their weekly meeting. Ginny had just reported from the mirror on how Sirius and Remus had successfully gotten the locket from Grimmauld Place and it was now inside a magical safe at Number Seven Privet Drive. After it had ended, Kingsley had very unwisely asked about teaching tips.

Harry had taught both Dumbledore's Army and a few batches of newly recruited Aurors in his previous life. Nearing the end of her Quidditch Career Ginny had taken to coaching a few of the newer Harpies and found that she had enjoyed it. Snape was Snape. Thus all three of them were overloading Kingsley with advice for a solid fifteen minutes and by the end he looked like he had regretted even asking the question in the first place. Dumbledore, the most experienced teacher of the lot, decided to let it play out for his own enjoyment.

After Harry, Ginny and Snape had quieted down, although Snape was glaring at them, Dumbledore gave Kingsley his piece of advice.

"Read what you have, be yourself and share it. The rest comes naturally."

Apparently Kingsley had taken Dumbledore's advice very well. The class was fun and informative. He was teaching them on curses and techniques to dodge them, and dodging became the main focus of the class. He charmed some water balloons to fly around and students would dodge them if the balloons flew their way. At the end the class, the students were wet and laughing, but also appreciated his closing words.

"Wizards always think that you win duels with the spells you use. In reality, nearly all duels are won because one party is better at evading spells that are thrown at them. Dodging is as important as how powerful your spells are. Please read up on famous duels. Dismissed."

While Harry did enjoy his class with Kingsley, there was one upcoming one he was not looking forward to.

That night would be the foursomes first Occlumency class with Snape.

"Can't we get another teacher?" Ron asked as they walked towards the dungeons.

"No", Harry, Hermione and Neville responded.

"Can't we pretend to be sick?" Ron asked.

"No", Harry, Hermione and Neville responded.

"I'll pretend to break my leg!" Ron said.

"No", Harry, Hermione and Neville responded.

"I'll really break my leg!" Ron said.

Hermione stopped, turned to him and gave him a glare. He gulped and continued walking, muttering to himself. They reached the door to the Potions classroom and opened the door.

"Really, Amelia," Fudge pleaded. "This is just not necessary. You-Know-Who is gone and we have Pettigrew at Azkaban."

"You don't get it, do you Cornelius?" Amelia said through gritted teeth. She was usually a calm woman, but this stubborn man could challenge the temper of a saint. "This should not have happened in the first place. Black should have been given a fair trail. We should have really put our resources into investigating if You-Know-Who was really gone. Now you're refusing to even publicly admit that some form of him had come back and attacked students at Hogwarts. We need change."

"But-" Fudge started.

"No buts, Cornelius. My role gives me free autonomy and I do not take orders from you, only advisement. I am here to uphold the law, not to follow whatever you tell me to. I might even get kicked out of office for this but I will spend the rest of my days being able to live with myself."

Corruption Investigation in the Ministry.

By Rita Skeeter

In an unprecedented first for the Wizarding World, Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, has started a full blown internal investigation on claims of corruption, nepotism and failure to act responsibly in their duties aimed at several prominent members of the Ministry of Magic.

"The recent spate of incidents; the capture of Peter Pettigrew and the re-appearance of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at Hogwarts has led me to this difficult decision," Bones said during a press conference at the Ministry foyer. "I cannot in good conscience have a ministry that is broken, especially if the Dark Lord somehow finds another way to come back. This internal review will bring out skeletons out of closets, some I'm sure quite literally, but it will leave our world stronger in the end."

Although internal reviews are normal in Muggle governments, the British Ministry of Magic has not had anything close to it happen in it's 284 year history.

More information as this story unfolds.

A/N: Look out for new chapters this week. It's Chinese New Year Holidays in the country I live so writing galore. Gong Xi Fa Cai to all those celebrating it.

TroyWeb: Thank you! Ron is a great source of one-liners. They'll still have their childhood insecurities (I am a teacher so I can spot it right away in children and teenagers) but I'm sure Harry will help them out.

TheWateringWizard: Ah the Basilisk. If only you knew what evil plans I have with it.

Gin110881: If you notice, Harry doesn't exactly like fame. I'm making it worse for him. I'm in theatre I love a bit of fame but I know actors who win awards who run away from fame and Harry's a bit like that I reckon.

Meekerprincess9778: This story by my reckoning will be about 60 chapters or so. So you'll probably get your wish sooner or later.