Preface: I apologize for not updating this as much as I could have. Life has been kinda throwing me a lot of unpleasant curveballs in the past few moons and I just haven't had as much time, or motivation, as I'd have liked to continue this story. However, this is beginning to change, so with any luck, I'll be able to do more with this story.

Harry Potter and the Next Great Adventure

Chapter Three: Missing Artifacts

Harry blinked a few seconds after reading the red note on his desk. An urgent memo, one of an utterly confidential nature, wasn't something that he'd received since Lucius Malfoy had attempted to sneak back into England and destroy the manor the Ministry had seized after his trial in absentia had concluded when he'd left the country following the Battle of Hogwarts. I need to see what this is about, NOW, he thought as he hurried out of the office, only pausing for a moment to grab his wand.

As he entered the lift, he muttered "Department of Mysteries." A few moments later, he had been whisked away to the land of Unspeakables, a land that currently looked much like a kicked-over ant hill.

"Harry, you're here," Senior Auror Weasley said as he let out a sigh of relief. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Percy had requested a move from the Department of International Magical Cooperation to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and had risen in the ranks even faster than Harry.

"What's the situation, Perce?" Harry had never seen Unspeakables run before, let alone so many. Normally, it'd be a rather amusing sight, but given Percy's grave look, he knew it wasn't without damn good reason.

"You've been to the Veil Chamber before, yes?" Percy asked, quickly getting to the matter at hand.

"Yeah, when the Dark Bastard nearly tricked me into getting the prophecy for him and where Sirius died." No, Harry didn't have any fond memories of the place, other than giving Bella a small taste of the pain she'd inflicted on Neville's parents.

"Normally, problems here are handled by the Unspeakables, but they've called the DMLE in because..." Percy paused, something clearly disturbing him. "Harry, you really need to see it for yourself, follow me."

Harry and Percy walked, at a pace bordering on a brisk jog, through the confusing series of doors that led to the Veil Chamber. How the Unspeakables managed to navigate this labyrinth was still beyond him, but such was the way of the Department of Mysteries, it seemed. When, at last, he entered the Veil Chamber, Harry was almost certain his heart would stop.

The Veil was gone.

"Wha..." Harry began, at an almost complete loss for words. "What the hell happened here, Percy?"

"We don't know, we're supposed to be briefed by an Unspeakable on the subject, but..." Percy paused for a moment, visibly attempting to gather himself. "The Veil looks like it has been simply...scooped up and taken away. There's no signs of how it was done, the Anti-Apparition wards in the area are undisturbed. This shouldn't be possible."

As if following unheard cues, Kingsley Shacklebolt appeared next to them and cleared his throat. "Ahem, Aurors Potter and Weasley, I need to speak with you immediately. We've secured Courtroom Ten for a private meeting to discuss what's happened."

They walked swiftly from the Veil Chamber down the atrium that led to Courtroom Ten. Harry had once been tried here when he'd saved his and his cousin's souls from demetors that the toad, Umbridge, had sicced on them. As they entered the room, it had changed noticeably: instead of the courtroom he'd remembered, the single chair in the centre had been replaced by a small, round table with give chairs, two of which were already occupied.

Two Unspeakables, one in a gold-trimmed version of the normal Unspeakable robes, were comparing notes as Minister Shacklebolt, Harry, and Percy found their seats. As they finished revising, the commander of the two cleared her throat and began to address the small gathering.

"Gentlemen, we have a very serious situation." Her face took on an even more grave expression. "As of one minute past midnight today, the Veil is no longer within the Ministry of Magic."

Getting the obvious out of the way, Percy leaned slightly forward, his chin resting on his hands, and asked, "Ignoring the obvious theft of Ministry property, why would someone want to steal an artifact whose purpose is completely unknown?"

The other Unspeakable then spoke up, in a matter-of-fact tone, "The Veil isn't a normal magical artifact, but that much should be obvious even to you. To understand the full extent of the theft, you must be briefed on the nature of some of our operations."

The commander then spoke, "It should go without saying that what we say in this room will never leave this room. You are to speak of this to no one except the people currently in this room. Not your commanding officers, no girlfriends, no wives, no friends, not even Merlin himself is allowed to know about any of that, is that understood?"

The three men there nodded in agreement and the male Unspeakable began his explanation.

"You all are more than familiar with the normal three classes of artifacts: muggle, or non-magical, artifacts, magical artifacts, and dark artifacts." He paused to note the looks of recognition on the faces of the three men before him. "However, my colleagues and I study, amongst other magical mysteries, two other forms of magical artifacts: fey artifacts and eldritch artifacts."

Harry's head went up slightly, he'd never heard of these kinds of artifacts before, but that was no surprise; the Department of Mysteries reported only to those within its own department and to the Minister himself.

As if sensing the question forming in Harry's mouth, the male Unspeakable continued, "These artifacts are of a … different magical nature than what's created by the hands of wizards and witches. First off, they are much, much older than anything else we've been able to study. The second thing of note about them is their power: they are far more powerful than normal magical artifacts, capable of bending the known rules of magic, and even reality."

It was now the turn for the female Unspeakable to continue where her partner had left off, "Fey artifacts are ancient items of immense magical power. Typically, they are noted to bend or even outright change, albeit temporarily, the laws of nature, but their magical auras are merely different from our own, and such artifacts are often capricious and temperamental. Duplicating them is incredibly difficult, but not impossible. Time turners, for example, are based off an ancient fey artifact the Ministry discovered nearly two centuries ago."

Her face took on a darker look as she went into the next part of her explanation, and her voice took on an even more gravely serious tone. "Eldritch artifacts, however, are more akin to dark artifacts. Their auras are sinister and completely alien in nature. This makes them very, very difficult to study and impossible to duplicate. They are older than even fey artifacts, and they almost always exude an aura of...wrongness about them. The power behind them is incomprehensibly vast and etheric dating on some of the older relics see them being created long before the sun had flared into existence. The Veil...is an eldritch artifact, and one we barely understand."

"What we do know," the male Unspeakable began. "Is that it goes...somewhere, and that once every 50 years, it enters a period of instability for a week. Its power fluctuates and magic in the Veil Chamber simply refuses to work. The last such change occurred two months before Dumbledore battled Voldemort in the Ministry atrium."

"Wait..." Harry began, completely confused now. "I thought the Veil killed people. Before I killed Voldemort, I saw the shade of my godfather who'd fallen through the Veil."

The female Unspeakable looked Harry directly in the eyes. "That is because you used the Resurrection Stone." She held her hand up as Harry sputtered; he'd not told anyone he'd had, let alone used, any of Death's own Hallows. "We know, it is our job to know. We do not want your Cloak. We already understand how the Resurrection Stone and Elder Wand work, and we have more important things to do than to take a family heirloom from you. The Resurrection Stone does not summon a person's shade, it merely creates the illusion of doing so; being a fey artifact, it can gather the personalities of people that died in the past, or that the user thinks died, and present them to the user."

"So Sirius could be alive?!" Harry asked, completely astonished by the news.

"Maybe. According to you, he fell through the Veil after it'd changed, so wherever it goes to currently, he might well be there and simply unable to come back," the female Unspeakable said, not wanting to give the young man any false hopes.

"So," Minister Shacklebolt said after clearing his throat. "We have a missing artifact of unknown origin and immense power. Are there any leads as to who might be responsible for this?"

"As of yet, no," the female Unspeakable said, a thoughtful frown appearing on her face. "However, we do know that we're not looking for one person, we're looking for an organization. The Veil required a team of two dozen of the Ministry's finest to move when we acquired it nearly four hundred years ago. It'd take power at least equal to that to not only move the thing, but to do so in a way that doesn't interact with our wards. This means that the individuals behind this, or at least one of them, has knowledge of some form of eldritch sorcery. Where the person, or persons, in question could've learned this is beyond me, but that they did learn it is one of the only logical ways we can explain how the event took place to begin with."

"Great," Percy sighed as he digested all this. "So not only do we have to deal with a group obviously interested in powerful artifacts that have existed since before humans themselves evolved, but they likely have knowledge of a branch of magic with which we have no experience."

"And one with knowledge of the Ministry's defenses," Harry added. "My guess, probably a former Unspeakable. What do you lot think?"

As Minister Shacklebolt frowned, he spoke, "That seems likely. They're the only ones with knowledge of the Veil, aside from the three of us now, and what it is."

"I'll compile a list of known Unspeakables who have either resigned or been dismissed," the female Unspeakable stated in a firm voice.

"However," Minister Shacklebolt added as an important detail hit him. "Aren't Unspeakables forced to commit their memories to the Hall of Records and be obliviated when they either resign or are dismissed?"

The female Unspeakable nodded. "Yes. However, it is possible that one of them might have had their memories restored. We take pride in our wandwork, but memory charms are fickle things, and one of us might have forgotten to cross a 't' or dot an 'I' during their work. If that's so, then we're also going to be dealing with at least one highly unstable individual; reversing a powerful, far-reaching memory charm is almost always damaging to one's mental health."

"Wonderful," Harry added flatly. "So we're potentially dealing with a nutcase of a former Unspeakable with followers and potential access to magic we, ourselves, barely understand. I doubt they're going to be throwing an interdimensional tea party with their new 'portal to somewhere we don't know that could, for all we know, be filled with abominations we can scarcely comprehend.' Am I the only one here who has a really bad feeling about all of this?"

"In as many words, yes." the male Unspeakable stated in a slightly irate tone. "We need to find out who took the Veil as quickly as possible. As Auror Potter pointed out, these people are a threat and should be treated as such when we find out who they are and take them down."

"Indeed," Minister Shacklebolt said. "If that is all, then I believe we should all go our separate ways to unravel this mess."

"If any of you, or us, have anything to report, we'll be in touch," said the female Unspeakable as she stood up with the rest of them.

As Harry left the room, a pall of dread fell over him. An old, familiar feeling was coming to the forefront of his mind. We've got another powerful lunatic on the loose. He thought, making his way to his office to handle the other business to which he'd been attending. Hopefully, we'll put an end to this crazy bastard before he can do any real damage.

Author's Notes:

Its finally here! Yes, the main plot is finally getting underway; the pieces are in place, the players ready, and the stage is set. Before you ask, yes, I am drawing a good bit of inspiration from Lovecraft's works with the Veil and the nature of other eldritch artifacts, that's why the "horror" tag is there.

To answer other questions that might pop up: Sirius may be alive, but he might also not be alive. The destination of the Veil is a total unknown so, for all we know, he could've ended up in Eberron or in the frozen wastelands of Hoth.

Also, the way I see it, an artifact, no matter how powerful, would be hard-pressed to rip a spirit from the afterworld, even one of fey power like the Resurrection Stone. The shades Harry saw during his first fight with Voldemort during Goblet of Fire were echoes of Voldemort's victims, not their actual spirits; they possessed an inkling of the personality of those people the wand had killed, but their actual spirits were still living it up in the afterlife. After all, if you could tear a spirit out of the afterworld, what's to stop a skilled wizard from putting that spirit into a living, but soulless body? Resurrection is supposed to be impossible, and here, the dead are staying dead.