Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any character, story element or plot item originally published in the Harry Potter books or movies that I may refer to in this story. I'm merely playing in the sandbox.

Harry woke in the infirmary room he'd been in before. His head still throbbed, but he sat up slower this time. He remembered the last time, but the lamp was higher. This time had another surprise, someone met him with a mirror. "I think you'll like this." Harry stared at the image, first not noticing before he stared in awe. His scar was gone entirely. "Once the horcrux was removed, we were able to remove the flesh and heal it."

"What about my magic?"

"Intact and growing slightly. You're not Merlin, but you definitely will give the vast majority of the magical world a run for its money." The figure put the mirror aside. "There was an odd test I was asked to perform." The figure waved its wand, casting silently.

A black snake appeared, but Harry didn't know the type. He looked down at it and asked it a question, wondering whether it was hungry or not. It responded, "No." He looked up at the Unspeakable and said the snake could be banished.

"You're a Parselmouth."

Harry nodded. "Apparently more so than I was told. It was hinted that I had gotten it from my scar."

The figure nodded. "Now I understand. I have a mild pain reliever potion for your head and then you need to come with me. You have a briefing with the supervisor."

Harry laid his hand over his stomach. "What about food? I haven't eaten…I don't know how long I was out." How long had it been since lunch with Algernon and Luna?

"That will be taken care of."

Harry rose, already dressed in clothes that didn't look familiar, but he figured if that were the strangest thing he saw today, it would be much easier than the last few weeks. They walked down the labyrinthine corridors, Harry peering around. "This is huge."

"What you saw was a single facility. We have several." There was a pause. "I believe I'm allowed to tell you that the Department of Mysteries does not actually report to the British Ministry. We are part of the ICW itself, so are actually an international organization. That is why we have some powers that the Ministry may not…agree with." The medical Unspeakable shrugged. "That is fairly common knowledge outside of Great Britain, but not within the borders. The Ministry doesn't want anyone to know that something is out of their control."

Harry got the sense that he shouldn't ask more. "I really didn't want to do as much damage as I did."

"Relax, Mr. Potter," a male voice joined the conversation. Harry recognized the supervisor he had met before. "While I would not return to the Hall of Prophecy without a wand drawn in the near future, if I were you, most of the damage you did was repairable. Most, that is. Some prophecies were lost, but the Master of the Hall assures me that most that were lost are from the far past and have either failed or been completed."

Harry nodded. As he sat down, a bowl of soup appeared in front of him. "We're going to be here for a bit, so we might as well enjoy ourselves." Harry nodded, noting a similar bowl appearing before the man.

"What do I call you?"

"I would go with Supervisor; except I won't be yours and that might be confusing." He frowned. "How about Tim?"

By this point, Harry felt he could have called himself Merlin and he wouldn't care. "Okay, Tim. What's next?"

"Well, thanks to the intervention of your young friend, you are officially free and clear and alive, which we had begun to doubt during the ritual. Foolproof it may be, but only in the removal of the soul fragment. We should have waited. We were fortunate for the boons gained by removing the bindings on you."

Harry nodded, reaching for a piece of bread that appeared. "I was told I was more powerful."

"Not by any massive degree. You aren't quite the equal of Dumbledore or Voldemort, though with the right training, you might gain to that point. Your power is more in the ability to regenerate your core. If we view magical core regeneration as sand in an hourglass, your hourglass will fill in, say, fifteen minutes where ours would in an hour."

"So, I don't wear out as easily."

Tim nodded. "And when you do, you're ready to go much quicker. As far as this goes, you're not a power lifter, but you will lift the lighter weights long after your opponents pass out. In a fight, this is a massive advantage. Power like Voldemort's is only useful when you seek to do rituals. Being able to keep throwing spells at a lighter level, but for far longer means that you can outlast them."

Harry thought for a minute. "My reflexes are good."

"Yes, now you're seeing it. Not only do you have a Seeker's reflexes, but your hand-eye coordination is excellent. Now, to the hard part," he said as a platter of roast beef and potatoes appeared in front of each of them.

"Harry Potter is viewed as kidnapped by the greater populace. We're not telling Ms. Lovegood this, but we can't let this stand. You will need to write something to help convince them otherwise, or the general population may panic. The media is actually a double-edged sword, not the single edge aimed against you that you've experienced."

Harry frowned, then had an idea. "Maybe tell them why some things happened…a public outing of some of Dumbledore's abuses."

"That would fit with the story we're going to suggest to you, that you were leaving to seek sanctuary. You already laid the groundwork for us; we're going to make it look real."

Harry smiled slightly as he cut into the roast. "Good to know I had a good idea."

"Your ideas were mostly good, your handling was a little heavy handed, but we're going to teach you." He leaned forward. "I'm aware that you have expressed an interest in being an Auror. How would you like to work for us, instead?"

"For a permanent thing? I'd considered…" Harry paused. "Well, I had considered Healing after I treated Luna. I admit, other than being the most miserable experiences of my life, the ritual was interesting."

Tim laughed. "Consider it. At the very least, you will be a temporary agent of ours as you do this, as will Ms. Lovegood." He waved his wand and a notebook appeared before him. "This is your cover. You'll want to read it and learn it later. We wrote much of it with things in your past in mind and I will give you the short form of it now."

The older man began to speak, saying things that were familiar to Harry as he went along. His new name would be Brahm Evans and his parents died in a car accident when he was young. He was taken in by a family who had a little girl about his age who had been friends with his parents. He grew up knowing that he was not related to them but cared for all the same as one of their own. This summer, the family managed to cross some dark wizards who had attacked and killed the adults and took the girl. Brahm managed to rescue her, using what he'd learned from the girl's uncle.

He listened. "What was her name? You gave me a lot of details there, but no name for her."

"That is what we will test next. You will meet her, but you'll have to figure out who she is without her figuring out who you are. The agent playing her will do the same. We have a waiting area that you will wait in, but we will send several of our agents in and out at different times and you have to talk to them without raising suspicion."

"What if I fail?"

Tim shrugged. "You're not trained, so we'll have a laugh at you and be glad that there's something Harry Potter can't do."

"Who? My name is Brahm." Harry spoke, trying to sound confused.

Tim nodded. "I wondered if you'd think of that." He tossed a box across to him. Opening it, there was a leather bracelet. "Tie it around your wrist, it's a temporary anchor for your disguise. If it looks good and passes our observer's review, we'll do the version with a longer-term setup."

Harry nodded, having finished his food as the man spoke. He tied it on his left wrist, then stood and stretched, looking at the mirror that appeared in front of him. He now had longer sandy blonde hair. It was fairly straight and lay far neater than his had ever done. His eyes were a dark hazel now, just showing green flecks. His chin was more squared off, his build slightly heavier. "I look pretty good."

"Your strength won't be proportional to the form. That's one of the things you'll work on in your training with Algie."

Harry nodded. "So, when do we start?"

"Now." He gestured to a door that appeared. "Go through that and follow the corridor. You can't get lost in that one."

Harry stood, closing his eyes for a moment, then pocketed the book. "I am Brahm Evans."

He was sure several hours had passed and he was getting frustrated. Dozens of people had come through. Some wouldn't speak to him at all, some were obviously not the girl. Half a dozen had been the right age and general description he had of girl and about his age. He hadn't guessed on any of them because none seemed right. The conversations had been interesting, though. The one that propositioned him had been fairly obvious.

He considered this for a minute. I wonder if Luna's going to be the girl. He imagined Luna as his adopted sister for a minute, then shook his head. He knew they'd be working together, but he wasn't sure that she'd be part of this test. For all he knew, Tim was going to be portraying the girl. The image of him in a dress made him chuckle.

"Something funny?"

A young lady stood near him, finally sitting on the bench next to him. She had long black hair, tanned skin and bright blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with a bit of mischief. "I'm waiting on someone. They said something earlier today that led to a strange train of thought that ended up with me remembering an older guy in a dress."

She giggled. "A dress?"

Remembering the guy he'd seen at the Quidditch Cup, he went with that. "He didn't know how to dress muggle, so it went badly." He held out his hand, something he would never have done as Harry Potter. "I'm Brahm."

"Sarah." She smiled lightly, then looked to the door. They sat in polite silence for a while, Sarah eying the door with some anticipation. Harry was curious.

"Well, Sarah, what brings you to the wonderful world of the Unspeakables?"

"Hmm? Oh, I have family that works here. I'm allowed this far, but no further into this facility."

Brahm found himself wondering idly where they were, not knowing where that facility was. "Oh. Maybe I met them, not that I would know."

"They like their secrets in the Department of Mysteries." Her smile turned from puckish to a more genuine grin. "Why are you here?"

"Injured by a curse." Brahm remembered that the best stories were ones that were still true. Easier to keep track of.

"Shouldn't you have gone to St. Mungos?"

"I was too dangerous then. They had to put me through a few treatments. Some were pretty miserable."

"Oh." She looked away, playing with the pale blue skirt she was wearing. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm alive, that's all that matters. No one else was hurt, though they could have been." He thought of the half-remembered moment where Luna had rushed in and saved him. "I owe some people for what they did for me."

"You're going to be okay, though, right?"

"I think so, but I appreciate the concern. There didn't seem to be any lingering effects that they mentioned." He found himself staring at her for a moment, then wrenched his eyes away. Some instinct, the same one that made him run from Dumbledore, gave him a sense of peace about the young woman.

While her eyes stayed mostly on the door, they both watched people come in and out. None seemed to trip that same instinct in him. Finally, he looked back to her, speaking quietly. "So, how old are you?"

"Why? Looking for a date?" She raised an eyebrow, smirking at him.

"No, just finding out about a pretty girl." He grinned back, hoping to look sincere.

She blushed. "Sorry, not used to such attention."

This brought Harry a moment of pause. Suddenly, he leaned forward, hugging her. She started to push him back. "What are you doing?"

"I'm so glad you're safe, Luna. I worried when I saw you in that ritual circle."

"Harry?" The girl's protests stopped, and she fell still, body rigid in his arms. "How did you know?"

"Because you told me once that I was the only one to look past your act, to be a friend to you other than Ginny." He pulled back, hands on her shoulders as he met her gaze. "Ginny chases too many boys to give you that kind of attention and I'd never said anything like that to you."

A figure holding a newspaper seated near them closed it, setting it aside as he began to clap. "Mr. Potter, you have an exceptional eye for detail." The man in the suit's face blurred for a moment, revealing Algernon Taylor. "You didn't need much time to identify her."

"I failed."

"No, Luna, you held up against all but your closest friend. Most Unspeakables undercover would fail that test, at least they would with as little time as you were given to learn your cover." He turned to Harry. "Did you know Luna was part of the test?"

"I wondered. The thing that made me laugh was when I decided your supervisor could be the girl I was looking for and how would I know it. Visualizing him in a dress made me laugh."

Taylor flicked his wand at the pair, two formerly invisible leather straps snapping and falling to the floor. They looked at each other, both back to normal. "You did good, Harry." She nudged him.

"Thank you."

Author's note: So, the horcrux and Voldemort. I've seen these handled in a few ways. One indicated that each was an equal part of his soul, another saying that they were each a declining half, meaning that the first was half his soul, the second a fourth and so on. They both have their problems for me, so I go a slightly different way, one that I'm pretty sure hasn't been addressed. I think they are small fragments that act as anchors. The largest was in Book 1, the part that possessed Quirrel. This is not canon, but it works in my head.

Other than the diary, which may have evolved from it actually having been written in by Riddle before it's conversion, the each seemed to react situationally which would imply a connection to the greater consciousness, but only a small one. The diary had more information, but we don't know how much of that was it acting out the nature of its container, for Ginny was writing in it, too.

Also, I blame expositional author's notes on Howard Taylor. Look him up, Schlock Mercenary has some good content.