章 5: Unspeakable Department
Looking up at the setting sun, Croaker raised his right arm and checked the watch to see that it was nearing nine o'clock. He looked back to see that Harry had yet to come up yet and then back to his watch. It was nearing the time limit for the third test, he'd already been down there for near eight hours.
Now he had an hour left before his time was up, if he failed to come up by that time then he'd fail the initiation. 'Though considering his potential and the current situation in Europe I might have to make an exception. I'll see how much longer it takes him to come up after his time is...'
Before he could finish that thought, he heard the grunting and groaning of effort and turned to see Harry pulling himself up. His face was red with exertion and dripping with sweat, he'd discarded himself of his jacket and he still wore his shirt that was covered in blood and more like a rag. Eventually he pulled himself up fully and rolled onto his back, away from the canyon.
"Congratulations, mister Potter, you pass with fifty-eight minutes and thirty-one seconds left. You are officially a member of the Unspeakable Field Agent, a recruit. Now the training begins." Croaker smirked, almost looking forward to what was to come.
Harry didn't respond straight away, still taking time to recover his breath. His body ached and stung from the various cuts, bites and bruises littering his body, his head felt light from all the blood he had lost and his magic was exhausted from creating his path up from the bottom of the canyon to where he was now. All of it compiled to make one big mess that was currently called, Harry James Potter.
"That's it?" He paused once more, slowly sitting up. "No more tests?"
Croaker seemed amused by the sarcasm. "No more tests." From his robe, he pulled out a glass flask with an orange liquid inside. "Take this, it's an Invigoration Potion. It'll help you, we've still got a lot to do and so little time."
Taking it, Harry pulled off the top and down the Potion in a single go, suddenly he was filled with a bout of energy. The drowsiness that had been filling him was suddenly gone and Harry rose to his feet to look at Croaker and then at himself, pulling at his clothes. Despite the energy, his injuries were still there and they were still irritating.
"You wouldn't happen to have any healing potions or something like that, would you?" Harry asked.
"You're an Unspeakable Field Agent now, mister Potter, you're going to have to learn to deal with worse injuries than those if you want to survive. I've seen agents fight with one arm missing, their hearts pierced, bodies burnt and broken and despite all that, continuing to fight till their last breath. An agent does not let insignificant injuries like yours stop them from completing their mission. That's something you'll have to learn." Croaker pulled out a ring and threw it at Harry who, thanks to his reflexes honed as a Seeker was able to catch it.
Looking at it, Harry noticed some sort of symbol upon it, three spirals converging and merging into one another.
"What is this?"
"That is the Celtic symbol, the Triskelion. It signals action, cycles, progress, revolution and competition. It is the symbol of the Unspeakable Field Agents." Croaker explained. "It signifies our never-ending will to continue fighting, to never give up and always move forwards. When others would retreat, we move forwards. When others surrender, we fight. Where others live to fight another day, we die to save tomorrow. Britain and those in it, live on the backs of our sacrifice."
As Croaker spoke, Harry put the ring upon his ring finger and Croaker nodded his head.
"You're an Unspeakable Agent, you'll need to embody that mentality if you wish to survive." Then his smirk returned. "Ready?"
"Ready for..."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"...what?" Harry suddenly found himself dropping to his knees as the sudden pull on his navel as a Portkey activated. "Asshole." He cursed, looking up to see Croaker already walking through the black-tiled walled corridor with no windows of any kind and only a single door at the end with the corridor only being given light by torches. "Where are we?"
"You already know where, mister Potter, I can't hold your hand all the time. You'll need to start thinking for yourself. Stop asking simple questions and try figure out the answer for yourself. If you do that, then you'll be much better off in the future." Croaker told him and Harry rose to his feet, speeding up slightly to match pace with Croaker.
He recognised the area as the Department of Mysteries, he'd just wanted to clarify to make sure that he wasn't mistaken. But instead of walking towards the door, Croaker instead came to a stop a few paces before the door and tapped his wand against the tiled-wall to his right.
He had questions of course, but he kept them to himself.
Croaker had already made it clear that if he didn't have serious questions then he wasn't to ask them and instead, figure them out for himself. And as the wall shifted and separated, Harry's question was answered as it revealed another corridor.
"Welcome, to the real, Department of Mysteries." Croaker announced.
"The real Department of Mysteries? Then, the other is..."
Croaker nodded his head. "Correct, a coverup. It's filled with failed and disbanded experiments and other less...important research. In here our research takes us down a path that if anyone discovered wouldn't be accepted due its...immoral nature."
As they started walking down, Harry looked at the numerous doors dotting each side of the corridor. Each of them were made completely of black wood, engraved with numerous runes that he could just barely make out.
"Each of these doors lead to various rooms where Unspeakables are expanding their own chosen area of research which can range from creating new spells to trying to cure the Vampiric Virus. The latter requires...live subjects upon which to experiment. A dangerous and risky business that many would frown upon. They like the results, not the method used to get them." Here Croaker gave a short humourless chuckle.
Harry remained silent at first, before asking the question that had been on his mind. "The file that you gave me said that the Unspeakable Field Agents dealt with creatures and wizards that threaten Britain. Then where were they when Voldemort was at large?"
"Thats simple, they were gone." Croaker didn't elaborate straight away, instead pushing open a door that led to a small office.
It was pretty simple in its appearance, a simple wooden mahogany desk with a leather chair, two chairs in front of it. There were even a few plants and paintings to give the room some colour, but overall it looked very much like a muggle office for an executive of a big business corporation.
The two moved across towards the desk, Croaker sitting behind it while Harry took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of it. "You're aware of Grindelwald, aren't you?" Harry nodded his head. "Well, when Grindelwald first started making his mark upon Europe, I at most only sent a single squad to deal with him. They were killed instantly, but they weren't the best, they'd only just finished training a few months before it happened."
Harry sat listening in rapt attention.
"After that, I decided to take a wait and see approach. I watched and studied Grindelwald's learned his strengths and weaknesses, waited for a moment in which we had the advantage. Then the Americans captured him, I was fine with that, saved me the trouble and allowed me to deal with more pressing matters. Then the pompous fools let him slip right through the fingers like thin air."
Here Croaker laughed and Harry got the idea that he didn't like the Americans all that much.
"The Americans, always touting off that they're the best. All they do is bark, but have no bite to back it. They were relatively knew to the political scene and still are, only just recovering from the civil war. The muggles managed to sort out that little scuffle over a century ago. America may have a large population, but they don't have history. In the magical world, all that matters in politics is history, history denotes power and power makes the world move."
The Croaker seemed to give another short laugh and this only further proved to Harry that he really didn't like America at all.
"After that we were left cleaning up their mess and Grindelwald managed to get his hands on a stable Obscurial. Those two combined proved too much for our forces and they wiped out a quarter in the first year. By the end of it, we'd lost more two thirds of our overall forces. And Tom Riddle, he finished them off in the First Blood War."
"But how?" Harry asked. "I thought dealing with powerful Dark Lords were what Field Agents dealt with?"
"They are, but what you have to understand is that Wizards and Witches like Dumbledore, Grindelwald and Riddle, are rare. When they do come around, which they rarely do or are supposed to do, they break every rule, every law, every belief you held simply through sheer power. There's a title for them, Archmagus. Magical talents that come about every millennia." Croaker shook his head, remembering the sight of Grindelwald and Dumbledore's duel, he'd been there, witnessed it and watched as hundreds of wizards were killed simply because they got caught in the crosshairs.
"They're really that powerful."
"Oh yes, they're powerful. In the last two centuries, we've had four of them, three of which are dead and all that remains, is you. You have the power and potential to rival them, all that you need, is training. I'd like to give you months of dedicated and brutal training just like every other Field Agent but certain situations dictate that doing so is no longer viable."
"How so?"
"What do you know about Fenrir Greyback?"
The name sparked a moment of realisation as he remembered the sight of the Alpha werewolf feasting upon the body of Lavender Brown. "He's dead, isn't he? He wasn't captured and his body was thrown off Viaduct along with all the other Death Eaters."
"So we believed." Croaker murmured. "It seems he somehow survived and has come back stronger than ever. The Lycanthropy virus seems to be stabilised to the point it's one hundred percent effective. Everyone that's bitten will turn and his numbers have grown considerably. And he's been making moves in Eastern Europe. It's not a question of what if, it's an inevitability."
Croaker sighed.
"Wars coming to Europe once more, mister Potter." He said. "You best put your heart and soul into training because we can't afford to lose. It's more than just Europe's survival on the line, how well we do in this war will dictate Britain's position in the magical world.
クリエイターの想い 
Carrots123
Carrots123 Just want to clarify that Croaker's view of America doesn't resemble mine at all. This is something in keeping with the character I'm building for Croaker and something that will be expanded upon further. I repeat, his views do not resemble mine in anyway.
Do I believe America has problems? Yes, but I'm aware that every country has serious problems they need to deal with so it's not just America. I also won't be using the overused and cliche trope of shitting on Britain. I'm British so I'm not going to do that, but I also think it's been done to death.
If there's going to be bashing of an entire country, it's going to be either a single characters viewpoint or for a reason that makes sense in universe.
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