The Break Up

Taking a sip from the cup of tea in his hands, Harry turned the final page of the file in front of him before pushing it away. Leaning his head from side to side, Harry let out a satisfied groan as he felt the bones crack and the dull ache that had been forming from the positioning of his head slowly abated.

Reading the file had taken longer than Harry had expected which was something he hadn't really accounted for. There were some parts easily understandable and other parts that didn't make sense and so, Harry went back and reread those parts once more to see if it was just him missing something important. It was on maybe his fifth attempt that he realised that it wasn't him missing something, but the file purposefully having pieces of information omitted.

What he did know painted a very...interesting picture to say the least.

Turns out that the Unspeakable Department were more mysterious and dangerous than anyone gave them credit for. That wasn't saying much as not much was known about them other than it was believed all of them were researchers that studied ancient magics. Dumbledore had told him of them studying Love in the Love Chamber, Time in the Time Chamber where the Time-Turners were also stocked prior to his and his compatriots destruction of said room. There was even Thoughts in the Thought Chamber and Death in the Death Chamber which had been were the Veil was kept.

But what Harry had read painted a picture that both confirmed all these theories surrounding them and completely contradicted to them.

Unspeakables were researchers, or most of them were anyway. However, there was a sub-branch of the Department who's mandate was entirely different, they were Field Agents. Powerful and dangerous wizards and witches who dealt with any and all external threats to Britain.

From Dark Wizards to Dark Lords.

Werewolf Packs to Vampire Covens.

Obscurials to Dragons.

No matter who or what the threat to Britain were, the Unspeakable Field Agents were dispatched to deal with them. There was much more to it than that of course, but most of it had a great deal of information kept secret, specifically their total numbers, command structure and so on so forth.

All he had was enough to give him a basic picture of what the Field Agents could and would do, but not enough to know anything more than that.

'As dangerous as it sounds, it sounds interesting.' Harry thought, finishing off his cup of tea and rising out of his seat. As he did, he paused to take a look around at the quiet room. It was hard to believe that three years ago that this place had been used as the main headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.

Despite his best efforts and the efforts of the Weasleys and other members of the Order, Grimmauld Place was still a dark and dingy place. But Harry was fine with that, it was clean and a lot of the more questionable Black Family practises had been moved to the Black Vault in Gringotts, which was now being run by a mixture of both Magicals and the remnants of the Goblins.

It wasn't working overly well, Harry was only able to get all his affairs sorted out in short order because of who he was. Everyone else was stuck spending weeks even months just to get a simple withdrawal sorted out, Gringotts was in shambles and it looked to be a long way from recovering its former glory, if it ever would.

Placing his cup of tea into the sink, Harry cast a little cleaning charm that Andromeda had taught him and Harry left the kitchen to clean itself. Summoning the file to his hands, Harry made his way up the stairs, ignoring the deafening thuds of his footsteps against the old wooden stairs in the silent, ancestral home of House Black.

As he held onto the bannister, Harry pulled his hand away and rubbed his fingers together over the dust that he had on them. 'I really need to get a House Elf to help clean this place.' He thought, Kreacher had been the House Elf of House Black, but he had died less than two weeks ago and already Harry was noticing the difference.

Entering his room and chucking the file on his bed, Harry pulled of his shirt and trousers leaving himself in his boxers. Pulling back the covers, Harry slipped inside and pulled opened the drawer, placing the file inside and as he did, he paused. His hand reaching further inside and pulling out a little object. Laying down on his back, Harry looked up at the rhombus shaped stone of in his hand.

Clenching his fist around it, Harry put it back in the drawer an closed it before rolling over to go to sleep.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

"Is this another elaborate scheme of yours to show that you can get to me anytime, completely bypassing all my security measures?" Kingsley asked, not even looking up from the paperwork he was signing as the same, cloaked figure entered the room. "If so, you'll find I am not as scared or as intimidated as you might have hoped, Croaker."

There was sound of amusement that could almost be mistaken for a chuckle from the man, but Kingsley wasn't overly sure. "No, you'll find that I don't play those sort of games very well." Finally looking up, Kingsley for the first time got a good look at him.

Much like before he wore the same, all black robes that covered every inch of his body and now that he got a longer look - closer look as the man moved towards him - Kingsley realised that it was made of Dragon-Hide. But this wasn't Dragon-Hide commonly found in the Magical Worlds fashion, this was proper Dragon-Hide armour, thick and well-plated with the actual scales of a Dragon.

The biggest difference compared to before was that where his face had been shrouded by a mass of black shadows, now it was free revealing an aged and scarred face, the face of Saul Croaker. "Besides, what happened was a test."

"A test?" Leaning back, Kingsley set his quill into his ink pot, staring at Croaker with a raised brow. "What kind of test?"

"To see if you could be trusted." Croaker pulled out a seat and sat down. "It's not uncommon for some Ministers to know nothing of the Unspeakable Field Agents, usually it would require more subtle and longer periods of time to study the individuals in question however, we don't have time for that anymore."

"The werewolves?" Kingsley deduced, Croaker nodding his head. "So even you believe they are a threat."

"Oh most definitely." Croaker agreed. "Their numbers are growing rapidly and they've been taking more aggressive stances lately. I have no doubt that their intentions are war and we, whether we like it or not will be drawn into that war. As Minister I had to know whether you could be trusted to work alongside me or if I had to take more...extreme measures."

Kingsley recognised the unspoken threat and a prominent frown appeared on his face. "And the test was, what exactly? To see if I'll pass on the file to Harry? Is that your test? What does it show? What did it prove?"

"It was not a test of character, your history and past deeds already prove that you're a man of good character and stature. That was never in question. What was however, was whether agree to allow Harry to make his own decisions." Croaker replied.

"His own decisions?" Kingsley asked rhetorically. "What do you plan to do with him exactly?"

"What I've done with every Field Agent and has been done for centuries. I intend to make him Britain's sword and shield. I intend to make him a living weapon."

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The celebration was already in full swing at the Burrow, all around friends and those he considered family where laughing, drinking and eating to celebrate the end of the Second Blood War. They hadn't done so before they like many mourning the deaths of friends and loved ones.

But now, they were celebrating its end.

There was Weasley patriarch, Arthur and his wife, Molly.

There was their eldest son, Bill and his wife, Fleur.

Then the other children of the Weasley family, Charles, George, Ron, Ginny and even Percy was here, though he, much like Harry was sat away from the celebrations. There were others as well, such as Hermione and the surviving members of the Order of the Phoenix had also come for the party. These included Aberforth Dumbledore who had provided the drinks for the night, Arabella Figg, Dedalis Diggle, Elphias Doge, Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid, Hestia Jones and many more.

It was a large party and perhaps that was why Harry found himself so unable to get himself involved. His mind was clouded and his thoughts focused more on what he had read within the file on the Unspeakable Field Agents than on the party and enjoying himself.

He had been like this for the last few days, constantly leaning backwards and forwards on whether to become a Field Agent or not. But each time he felt sure in his choice, he would second guess it.

It was frustrating to say the least.

And, as he watched his friends laugh and be happy, Harry couldn't help but question why he couldn't just become an Auror? He knew from the limited information he had received from the file that an Unspeakable Field Agent's job was extremely dangerous, so much so that it was more likely die before you even reached half a century, than live. That, for a wizard and witch was an unheard of mortality rate.

Downing the rest of his beer, Harry stood up and made his way to the door on his left. Entering outside into the cold, blissful air, Harry took a deep breath in through his nose and released it out of his mouth slowly.

Sitting down, Harry looked up at the stars above, not turning around to see who else stepped outside, the sound of the party inside momentarily growing louder before the door closed once more. "Harry, what are you doing out here?" Ginny asked, sitting down beside him, resting her head upon his shoulder, Harry moving to wrap one arm around her shoulders.

"I just fancied getting some fresh air." He replied and Ginny hummed in response.

The two sat in comfortable silence for some time, neither saying anything.

"Have you decided on whether you're going to be repeating your seventh year at Hogwarts yet?" Ginny eventually asked.

Harry didn't answer straight away. "I don't think I'm going to be repeating my seventh year." Ginny nodded her head as if expecting that answer.

"Then you're going to be accepting Kingsley's offer and become an Auror? I guess it suits you with your saving people thing." She joked, but Harry didn't laugh, just remained silent and at first she just thought it was Harry being his usual self, he hadn't been the same after a war, a little more quieter than he used to be, so at first she brushed it off. But when he continued to be silent, almost as if deep in thought, Ginny looked to him. "Harry, is everything alright?"

"Ginny, I don't think I'm going to join the Auror's either." Harry admitted. "I got offered another job, I can't say where, but I think I'm going to take it."

Ginny noticed the tone in Harry's voice and frowned. "What else is there that you're not telling me?"

"My job, it's extremely dangerous and from what I know, it'll entail me going away for long periods of time." Harry said and Ginny instantly recognised where this was going. "I think you already know what I'm going to say next."

"You're breaking up with me?" Harry nodded his head. "We don't have to you know, we could make it work, right?" He didn't give an answer. "So that's it, after everything?"

"I'm sorry, Ginny. Really, I am, but I don't want to hurt you." Harry told her, slowly getting to his feet. He didn't turn back, he could already here the quiet sob escaping her and Harry could feel his own tears gathering. "I'm sorry." He said quietly though he knew it was only a partly thing to say and so, he turned on the spot, disappearing with a light pop.