Authors Notes: Sorry for the slow update, blame my sister who is my beta, once she gets started, she gets it done quick, the problem is getting her to start it. I hope you all enjoy the latest chapter, this one starts following the first book but with some obvious changes, if its not obvious go click on the chapter selection scroll and click on chapter 1. Thanks for the continued support, every time I look at the story stats I am blown away, never expected to do this well. Thanks to all those who have reviewed and please keep reviewing, hopefully the next chapter will be out soon.

Please Note: When I am talking about unspeakables, I plan to call them by their actual names when they don't have the cloaks and hoods on to conceal their identity. If they do, I will refer to them by their unspeakable name. I will quite possibly change this soon.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, he never would have gone to live with the Dursleys. Also thanks to HP Lexicon for providing some of the details about the Harry Potter world.

Chapter 4: Letters, Zoos, and Unspeakables

"Shadow, watch out on your left." Fire attacked the incoming men. They were surrounded and trapped in a building. Their cover was destroyed leaving them in the open.

"Got him, duck!" Shadow hit the man trying to flank him before firing at an opponent behind her. Fire threw up a shield to block the incoming curses. Shadow jumped over her slashing at the spells with his sword, the spells dissipating as his sword hit them.

"Cover your ears." He held his wand before him and waited for her to prepare. Without question, Fire covered her ear.

"Concussus!" Shadow shot out the concussion spell. A loud bang rang through the room, his eardrums only protected by the nature of the charm. His attacks covered his ears only to be knocked back as the shockwave slammed into them. The force was too much and the front wall tore open.

"Reducto!" Fire shot a blast of red light that struck the ground near the few standing men. The blast sending them flying off their feet and out of the fight.

"Watch out." Shadow sent his sword back and surveyed the nearby area using his Mage Sight. "There are eight of them on the roof and a dozen waiting outside. We also have dementors coming in from the north."

"You distract the men on the ground, I take out the ones on the roof."

"We need to hurry before the dementors get here." The pair shot forward in sync with the other. Shadow quickly shot out a smokescreen causing smoke to bellow out of the room.

Fire quickly rolled out of the makeshift hole before sending another Reducator curse at the rooftop. Panicked shouts came from above followed by two thumps nearby by.

Shadow dove after her and shot another Concussion Spell at the other group. Four of the magical signals dimmed as they lost consciousness. He summoned his sword as the group started to shot blindly into the cloud of smoke.

Fire ducked a curse before send a gray spell at the wall. The stone structure slowly started to decay and part of it crumbled it. Two more shouts rang out as another two were taken down.

Shadow shot out the quicksand charm and hit right in the middle of the ground forces. Screams were heard as the men struggled to break free. He prepared to attack when a charm hit his robes. The bright red spell faded as the cloak protected him. He shot the same spell making the struggling men sink faster.

Fire shot a large stream of flames at the wall. This proved too much after the spell-induced decay. The front half of the building began to crumble and with a quick spell the rubble directed inward. The four that remained on the roof fell with the rubble and three were crushed. A quick spell from Shadow took care of the fourth.

Fire turned her attention to the other forces and started to see them sinking through the dissipating haze. When they were covered from the neck down Shadow quickly made the ground solid again trapping the last of them.

The area began to grow cold and dark as the dementors moved in to attack. With two calls of 'Expecto Patronum' two patronuses charged at the dementors. Shadow's panther patronus reached them first quickly followed by Fire's Phoenix. They shared a quick smile at the forms before focusing on the battle. With the two guardians the dark creatures were quickly stopped and then pushed back. Two blast of fire suddenly shot off nearby causing the creatures to flee. They dropped the charm as the dementors flew too far away to influence them.

A buzzer sounded and the bodies around them disappeared. The building behind them began to vanish rubble and all. Their training room began to appear replacing the landscape of the battlefield. A door opened up and Silver and Gold walked out.

As his instructors came, Harry reflected on the past month and how drastically his life had change. It was hard to believe a month ago Silver came to him with the invitation. It had changed his life drastically. Now he had hoped for a better future and even a few friends. He was also a lot better equipped to protect others and fulfill his role in the war.

He thought about the intense training regime they had to go through. Every day they went into the chamber covered about two weeks. So they only had to work during the weekdays in order to finish their training. After the daily runs and sparing he was in much better shape and could no longer be consider scrawny. He now had a healthy glow and muscles.

They had spent the first few weeks going over the basics of magic. Magical theory along with the basic Hogwarts curriculum. They also had to study the history of the magical world and various books on theory during the night. They then moved into the more advanced spells, cloaking spells, restricted Spells, Auror and Unspeakable spells, this was followed by learning about the dark arts.

At this point, their nightly studies focused on the history of magical creatures and wizarding laws in effect, both present and ancient. They also began on Occlumency.

They then worked on their magical abilities. They were both led through the animagus training and surprising to Gold both had forms. Harry was able to turn into a Phoenix while Ginny was able to turn into a Panther. Gold also worked them through metamorphmagus training in hopes they had the skill, surprising her again Harry was able to learn but Ginny couldn't do any of the skill. Silver worked on Ginny on developing her empathic ability and her healing skills. Harry then perfected his mage sight.

Then began the dueling training. This was done through a series of drills of scenarios they had to work together to get through.

"You've both done well." Silver walked over in front of them. "You've now completed the training. You're now officially Unspeakables."

Gold raised her wand and a silver trimming runes appeared along the edges of their cloaks. "These indicate your status as Unspeakables. It shows your mastery of the each aspect of the training. If you accomplish more and move up in the ranks more shall be added. When you are in the field you can remove the markings the same way you change the colors."

They both lowered their hoods and motioned for them to do the same. Remus then stepped up "Everything we set up will be reset next week so be warned. Keep your gear hidden and don't tell anyone. Continue to be careful so no one notices anything. You're both welcome in the department at any time but make sure you are not missed elsewhere."

"Now for your current assignments. Harry, you will need to play along with Dumbledore for the moment. We can't let him catch on this early. He'll send you your Hogwarts letter in a month so be ready for someone to come and take you to get your school things. Send a message when you get your letter and we'll send someone to get your wand. Just act like you don't know a thing."

"Ginny, yours is easier, you just need to stay under the radar. Make sure your family doesn't know about this, some of them will go straight to Dumbledore if they found out. After Hogwarts starts there won't be as much for your mother to ask you to do so we might have another assignment, but its being looked into right now."

Tonks handed them both a roll of parchment. "These have been charmed into portkeys and will take you both back in a minutes. Make sure to keep in touch."

Remus and Tonks bowed to them and walked out of the room.

"Good luck with the Dursleys." Ginny wrapped him in a hug.

"Thanks." Harry smiled at her concern.

"If we don't have a chance to meet up here I'll see you at Kings Cross."

"Okay" they pulled away and both disappeared with a pop.

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The next day Harry woke up to his Aunt rapping her knuckles on the cupboard door. He groaned as he rolled over and tried to cover his head.

"Up! Get Up! Now!"

A loud thumping was heard as someone started coming down the stairs. He identified it as Dudley when he started jumping on the yelling at him to get up.

He got out of bed and slowly got dressed. He groaned as he remembered that today was Dudley's birthday. His heard his Aunt walk back over to the door.

"Are you up yet?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Well, get a move on. I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Dudley's birthday."

He wearily made his way out of the cupboard and walked down the hall into the kitchen. He wasn't surprised to see the dining table buried in presents. It looked like Dudley had gotten the new computer as well as another T.V., and a racing bike. He moved over to the stove as his uncle wobbled in.

"Comb your hair!" Was the only thing his uncle said to him as he made his way to the table. He subtly used magic to make the pan automatically moved the food and began to go through the motions. He heard a set of loud thumps as his cousin came into the room.

He moved the food onto plates and began to carry them over as Dudley began to count his presents.

"Thirty-six," Dudley looked up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from mommy and Daddy."

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, lifted his plate off the table and place it on his lap in case Dudley flipped the table over.

"We'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. Two more presents." His aunt tried to appease his cousin.

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. Harry just rolled his eyes at all of it. "All right then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!"

The telephone rang and his Aunt moved to answer it, Harry was forced to watch the proceedings bored out of his mind. She came back a few minutes later looking angry and worried. "Bad news Vernon, Mrs. Figg has broken her leg, she can't take him."

Dudley had a look of horror on his face while Harry perked up. Every year when they took Dudley somewhere they would leave him with Mrs. Figg. If she couldn't take him they might leave him home and he could go to the department or hang out with Ginny.

"Now what." Harry noticed she was looking at him like it was his fault.

"We could phone Marge." Harry grimaced at that.

"Don't be silly Vernon she hates the boy." Harry thought that was understating it.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca."

"You could leave me here," Harry put in hoping he could go see Ginny.

"And come back to find the house in ruins" She looked appalled. Harry rolled his eyes at that. "I suppose we could take him to the zoo and leave him in the car."

"The car's new, he is not sitting in it alone."

Harry suppressed his laughter as his cousin began his fake crying. The two immediately stopped and moved over to him.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!"

"I… don't… want… him… to… come… he always spoils everything." Harry rolled his eyes as Dudley shot him a nasty look.

He immediately stopped as the doorbell rang and Petunia let his best friend Piers Polkiss in.

An hour, an argument, a tantrum, and a warning later, Harry was unhappily walking into the zoo. He spent the day giving Dudley a wide berth and admiring the animals. Ginny wished she could have joined him, but her mother had her working all day. He enjoyed the change of scenery but that ended once Dudley and Piers began to grow bored with the animals.

Near the end of the day, the group walked into the reptile house. Harry smiled at the small reptiles having recently obtaining a faint fondness for them. Dudley wasted no time in finding the biggest snake in the place; unfortunately for him it was asleep.

"Make it move!" Uncle Vernon started to rap his hand on the glass but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again." The second time wasn't anymore successful and Dudley moved on in boredom.

"Sorry about my cousin. He's annoying isn't he?" Harry moved in front of the tank. The snake looked up at him and nodded.

"Though unfortunately you are probably used to it?"

The snake nodded again.

"So where are you from." The snake jabbed his tail at the sign.

'Boa Constrictor, Brazil This specimen was bred in the zoo."

"So you've never been home?" The snake shook his head.

Further conversation stopped as Piers ran up shouting for the others. Dudley quickly came up and punched him out of the way. In his surprise he fell off balance and landed on the ground. He narrowed his eyes before softly snapping his fingers.

The two boys who had their faces pressed against the glass suddenly fell forward as the glass disappeared. They screamed as the snake slithered pass them and out of the habitat.

The giant snake moved past Harry and quickly made his way out of the zoo. "Brazil here I come … Thanks Amigo."

Harry, and Ginny who was listening in, struggled to hold their amusement at the next hour. The zoo manager was apologizing over and over again for the incident while the two friends kept repeating their tale, each time it go more dangerous. Their amusement was short-lived when Piers mentioned Harry was talking to it.

That was how he ended up locked in his cupboard a few hours later once again not getting any food from the Dursleys. He nearly jumped when a plate of food had appeared on his bed. He smiled when he figured out it was from Ginny.

The next few weeks were only pleasant because of Ginny. Everyday after school he was sent straight to his cupboard where he immediately flamed over to the burrow. He found he could use his animagus appeared to teleport from place to place in his human form and was putting it to good use.

The two talked quietly in her room usually but occasionally did other things if they could get away with it. She also continued to sneak him food; which helped him from starving since he relatives barely gave him anything.

As summer began, the routine they had set up ended. Now Harry was in the cupboard full time, his longest punishment ever. Ginny's brothers also came home from Hogwarts and with the full house there was no way they could meet up. Her brothers have not learned about privacy. They were known to just walk in instead of knocking.

After a day of that, they decided to go to the department. Since her brother had come home Mrs. Weasley had allowed her to just play during the weekdays.

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With twin pops the two appeared in the bottom floor of the ministry. Walking in sync the two made their way down the dark hallway to the door at the end. The room began to spin as soon as they entered and when it stopped they asked to go to the barracks where most unspeakables were at if they were there off duty.

Walking into the room the conversation suddenly stopped as the various figures stopped to look at them. Harry grew slightly nervous at their gaze and even more when one stood up and walked over to them.

"So you two are the new recruits?" The man reached out his hand.

"Yep." Ginny spoke up.

"Welcome then." He began dragging the both of them to the chairs in the center. "As per tradition you will have to go through the introductions. You don't need to state your unspeakable names we already know them, you'll learn ours later, but for now introduced your names and we will do the same."

"I thought we were supposed to keep our identities a secret." Harry asked concerned.

"A secret from others not us." A woman spoke up.

The people in the room gathered around them. Everyone looked at them waiting. "Its tradition for you to start."

"I'm Harry Potter." He decided to just say it, but he heard enough from Ginny to brace for the reaction.

"Really!" Someone in the crowd said as heads turned to his forehead. He moved his bangs out of the way as he lowered his hood.

"Better be careful." Another added. "Some of the researchers want to get a hold of you to study what happened."

Harry shuddered at that.

"Ginny Weasley." Harry saw her lower her hood with a bright look on her face.

"Ginny!" They heard from the back. Two figures moved to the front.

"You're an unspeakable?" The other man questioned.

"Do I know you?" Ginny prepared to hex them.

"Put your wand away sis." The first one lowered his hood to reveal a young face surrounded by red hair.

"Bill!" She squealed hugging him. She looked up as the other chuckled, he lowered his hood to reveal a similar looking face but with short red hair. "Charlie!"

"Good to see you Snapdragon." Her brother said getting a hug.

"How long have you been here?" She asked backing away slightly.

"Right out of Hogwarts for both of us."

"We will continue this later but for now there are others who want to introduce themselves." Bill and Charlie both backed away.

The man who first spoke to them took his hood off. He had reddish brown hair that was styled. He wore glasses that covered dim green eyes. He had a slight scholar type look to him. "The names Quentin Wood but you can call me Q. Nice to meet ya. I work with the field branch. I also work for the Department of Magical Equipment Control"

The girl from before stepped up along with another. "Mary Jonas." She held her hand out.

"Jamie Lee." The second took her hood off.

"We are both in charge of anything to do with music."

"We are also DJs for the WWN"

Quentin stood beside Harry. "Do yourself a favor mate, don't get them started."

Harry spun around as he heard a clunking noise. A man beside him took off his hood to reveal a scar up face that was missing a few pieces. "Alastor Moody, but they call me Mad-Eye," as if to emphasize that his replacement eye started to spin like crazy. "I'm on the Warrior Branch. I'm also Head Auror."

They began to go around the room. Elphias Doge was an old man who was retired he was a researcher. Orsino Thurston was under Mary and Jamie and played drums for the weird sisters. Damocles Belby was a potions expert and also a researcher. Horace Slughorn was an old potions professor at Hogwarts and worked with Belby.

Harry was amazed at the warm welcome that he received at the department. No one had ever treated him as a regular person. He was always given a wide berth because he was different during his childhood and from what he was told, he was going to stand out in Hogwarts.

This went on; Harry went over to the Department as often as he could both to relax and to get away from Dudley's gang. Two weeks into the summer, the Dursleys finally decided he had enough and let him out of his cupboard. He was immediately put to work but it wasn't as bad as before thanks to a few charms here and there. He used his spare time getting to know the others.

Quentin was an academic guy like he thought but he wasn't stuffy. He was always willing to share stories about his work. Mary and Jamie were always getting excited about some band and would go on and on about them if given the chance. Moody turned out to be not as bad as his gruff exterior suggested and had even given him tips on surveillance.

Among the ones he met on the first day, he also met a few more. About a week later he meet a man with a deep voice named Kingsley Shacklebolt, also an auror. Ginny was surprised at another one, Amelia Bones.

The first month of summer flew by and the second was going at the same pace. Ginny had already started to plan for his birthday; which was just over a week away.

The Dursleys hadn't paid him much attention since he was getting his work done, but had taken to ignoring him more. He noticed his Aunt and Uncle slightly nervous every morning, but it was quickly squashed as they continued to plan for Dudley going to Smeltings.

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Harry walked out of his cupboard to a horrid smell. He slowly walked into the room trying to cover his nose as much as possible. On the stove was a giant pot with a gray liquid; there were some clothes in the pot as well. It smelled horrible.

"What's this?" He saw his Aunt walk into the room.

"Your new school uniforms." Her lips tightened as she walked over to the stove. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I'm finished.

He quickly moved over to the table as he heard the other two coming down the stairs. He was thankful he was going to Hogwarts; he didn't want to think about having to wear those.

Vernon and Dudley wrinkled their noses as they walked into the room. Vernon just opened is newspaper while Dudley beat things with his smelting stick. He looked up as he heard the mail slot click.

"Get the mail Dudley." Vernon didn't look up.

"Make Harry get it." Dudley managed to get himself into one of the chairs.

"Get the mail Harry."

"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke him with your Smelting Stick Dudley." His cousin jabbed the stick out but Harry dodged it before subtly sending it back into him. As he walked to the door, he heard a small. He found a postcard, bill, and a strange brown envelope. He turned it over to reveal a seal he had been waiting for, the Hogwarts Seal.

He laughed at how it was addressed to his cupboard remembering how Silver said they used self-addressing quills. He handed the rest of the mail over and pulled out his letter, holding it so Dudley would definitely see it.

"Dad!" Dudley snatched the letter. "Harry's got something!"

Vernon took the letter out of Dudley's hands.

"That's mine!" He shouted trying to keep the act.

His uncle laughed, "Who would be writing to you?" He shook the letter open and read it quickly his face quickly paled at what he read. "P-P-Petunia"

His aunt grabbed the letter and began to read a horrified look came over her. "Vernon! O my goodness! Vernon!" Both boys were being ignored and Dudley was hitting his dad over the head with his stick. Harry sat back and suppressed laughter.

"I want to read that letter." Dudley started to make a mess.

"I want to read it its mine." Harry got back into it.

"Get out both of you!" Vernon yelled grabbing them roughly and shoving them out the door. They had a short scuffle to see who would listen at the keyhole. Dudley looked dumbly from the floor as Harry put his ear on the keyhole. He smirked, Dudley would never admit getting beaten by him.

"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address- how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"

"Watching- spying- might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.

"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want-"

"No," he stopped pacing "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…"

"But-"

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"

He walked out of the door barely miss both of them. He immediately sent Harry to the cupboard and Dudley to his room. He calmly walked into the cramped cupboard and relaxed on his bead. He shook his sleeve out of the way revealing his watch.

"Shadow to Fire come in Fire." There was a click signaling she heard.

"This is Fire go ahead." He heard a few minutes later.

"Letter received. Part 1 completed." He snickered as he heard more yelling.

"Did they suspect anything?"

"Nothing went off without a hitch. The pig is mad at not being told."

"Bout time he didn't get his way."

"Anything new on your side?"

"My brother made prefect."

"Expected that."

"Got to go Shadow, mum is calling." Another click signaled the line was cut.

During training the issue of how he would officially get to Diagon Alley was raised. The Dursleys would never have taken him and he didn't want them to see any of his vaults. This left someone from Hogwarts. Normally someone would be sent with the letter and if that happened the plan wouldn't matter.

But if they didn't they expected the student to get everything themselves. Silver told them how they put a charm on each letter to see if it was opened. The student would then be put on the roster unless they received a letter saying the student wouldn't be attending. If it wasn't opened an alarm went off and more was sent.

If his letter wasn't opened, then Hogwarts would eventually send someone, Dumbledore wouldn't allow him not to go. He just had to wait until someone came to take him.

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That night Harry tried to go to sleep on his new bed. His uncle had visited him in his cupboard and gave him Dudley's second bedroom. His cousin had just recently stopped whining about it. But he was also snoring. Ginny was excited that he finally had his own room. Things were continuing to look up.

The next day another letter came and his uncle refused to let either of them read it. The third day, after receiving three letters, he nailed the mail slot shut. The fourth day there were twelve letters and he ended up mailing the door shut whistling all the way. The fifth day all 24 of the eggs his aunt had contained a letter inside. His uncle started to go slightly crazy at this and called half a dozen people to complain. The sixth day Vernon was going on about it being Sunday until about 30 letters came shooting out of the fireplace. Within the hour they were on the road going in random directions. Eventually they ended up at a hotel.

Ginny got a kick out of the situation and Harry wasn't doing much better. The next day after about a hundred letters showed up at the hotel they drove to the coast where his uncle rented a boat.

A few hours later, found him lying on a cold dirt floor while his cousin slept on a couch and a mountain of blankets. His aunt and uncle were in the other room. He put a cushioning and warming charm on the ground before trying to get comfortable. He eyes had just been closed for a moment when they shot open. He had heard something nearby and he could sense a magical presence nearby, though it was different than any he had felt.

He slowed moved towards the couch as he heard another thump. He looked at his watch and saw it was thirty seconds to his birthday. He quickly turned down the communicator function just in case. Ten seconds and another series of thumps, Harry got ready to defend himself. Five Seconds and what ever it is it's right outside the door.

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BOOM.