The Unspeakables - Harry Potter fan fic

Rob Harding

Well-Known Member
So I started reading Harry Potter for the first time recently (having only ever seen the films). Several decades later than most of my peers I got the urge to write Harry Potter fan fic. There are some key questions that, having finished the books, I still wanted answering. Clear mysteries that would have fun to explore. I wanted a story of a different kind though and thought a police thriller/buddy cop/murder mystery would be fun in that universe. But how do you set up a villain that’s a more dangerous threat than Voldemort? Well…there’s never been a serious Muggle adversary. And then it all clicked. I wrote up character descriptions which spiralled into a loose plot structure (sans clear ending). And I quickly realised I just didn’t have the time to write it. But it seemed a waste to fit on a fun concept so figured, what the hey, I may as well share my thoughts. For mr own benefit when visualising characters I chose to cast the roles. It’s set around the time of/shortly after The Cursed Child (but relatively free of overlap as it doesn’t really connect to main HP protagonists). Anyway, The Unspeakables:



The Unspeakables
The most secretive department within the Ministry of Magic, governed by seven unrevealed ministers, the department is dedicated to answering the Unspeakable Question, a question so obvious that no witch or wizard has dared think it. Unspeakables are bound to hunt down, through any means necessary, whatever clue will help them to uncovered the answer to the question: ‘What Is Magic?’ While the potential to perform magic is clearly a genetic trait, the existence of Obscurials and the very nature of horcruxes, suggest magic itself is not dependent on a body and in fact, may be a far more primordial force than any care to admit.


HEROES

Tyrna Ogmore -
Georgina Campbell
A by-the-book, middlingly successful, competent but not celebrated auror who is afraid of ‘unnatural’ human inventions, particularly cars. Tyrna has a happy, if not remarkable, life with her loving bookish wife. But deep down, she knows something is missing. Some truth. Some answer. A question she has suppressed for years. Tyrna doesn’t know what happened to her parents. She was being babysat when a terrorist attack in London killed them. As an adult, she found a report stating her witch mother was in the driver’s seat when their car blew up. Her mum didn’t drive, leaving it to her Muggle father, and was adamant about road safety at all times. It made no sense that she was driving. This question, never faced head on, transformed into a desire for all answers. This makes Tyrna a good auror, unable to let go of any clue, impossible to satisfy until a case is closed. It also makes her hard to live with. More than that, it means that when she crossed paths with a volatile Obscurial, only to see them taken away by an Unspeakable without so much as an explanation, Tyrna wasn’t going to let the matter lie. Not without answers. Not till she knows everything. Hufflepuff. Tortoiseshell patronus

Boadicea ‘Bo’ Stumpp
(nee Beldamy - nicknamed Bo Bells by husband Manny)
Gwendoline Christie
Former auror, and top Unspeakable, hard-drinking and always ready for a scrap, Bo Stumpp prefers to work alone. Unfortunately, the department demands all agents work with a partner. Bo hates hers. The work Bo does is covertly capturing and clinically studying Obscurials, due to their unknown capacity to externalise magic as a separate force and their potential connections to the origins of magic. She has taken up the hunt for mentor Primus’ ‘white whale’, a fugitive Oscurial. Bo tends to act suspiciously around full moons, leading to certain questions regularly being asked. In actuality, this is due to the fact her husband had secretly been a werewolf and she got into the habit ‘cleaning up after him’ if things ever went wrong. She patrols on nights of full moons to help those who have turned, since she feels she failed Manny. She is fascinated by muggle stage ‘magic’ and has becoming something of an expert in escape artistry (helped in no small part by the fact she has a prehensile prosthetic silver hand, kept hidden by the fact that she almost always wears gloves). Slytherin. Wolf patronus

Ridhi Kaur -
Naomi Scott
The ‘White Whale Oscurial’. Ridhi accidentally killed her family as a child in London during her summer holidays home from Hogwarts. Considering not returning to the school, she spent the entire summer in shame and denial, eventually trying to suppress her own powers. This quickly caused an Obscurus parasite to develop. Confronted by a young Rappicinia Hearth, her powers violently erupted in a packed London street, killing her parents and many others. Ridhi then wiped her brother’s memory to forget he ever had that family and to spare him the pain. And, if she was being honest, to leave no witnesses. Somehow, whether during the attack or this spell, she transferred a portion of wild magic to her Muggle brother Nikesh, who’d been jealous of his witch sister for years. Since then, Ridhi lived in hiding from the Ministry. From that time she has been hunted by Bo Scrubb. At some point, Ridhi met Naomi Lambert to whom she explained as much as she could about the world of magic. Ridhi was still hunted by Bo and ultimately captured and experimented on. Ridhi is currently held in a cell below the Mind Room. However, this once immensely powerful Obscurial seems to now be completely devoid of all magic, even as the woman named Eurydice’s power grows.

Nikesh Kaur -
Sacha Dhawam
Thirty one years old, a Muggle and on the run. After getting caught up in the Obscurial capture that bought Tyrna and Bo together, Nik is now under Tyrna's protection, not initially by her choosing. He was saved by Tyrna and followed her to a Ministry entrance and waited for her return. He confronted her, confused and bewildered and knowing only she knew how to help him. Tyrna, unable to ignore a lead, took him under her wing. When Marcus Prendick attacked her, Nik exhibited accidental wandless magic…but still registered as a Muggle. He is grieving his recently deceased parents, unaware he was adopted. He has no idea why he is being hunted by…
 
VILLAINS

The Eye of Eurydice
A human terrorist cell using ‘wild magic’ to attack Magic strongholds, as well as luring and attacking prominent magical figures.


‘Eurydice’ Naomi Lambert -
Rosamund Pike
Creator of the Eyes of Eurydice. She was named Eurydice by newer followers who believed that their leader must be the Eurydice their group was named after, though initially never gave herself the title. Naomi understands the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to be one showing how a young woman saw the pits of Hades and the monsters who dwelt there, monsters believing themselves gods. Eurydice saw the truth of their callousness and how they toyed with human life and, unlike her lover, refused to look away from that truth, no matter the cost to herself. That is now Noami’s impetus - to confront the truth and in doing so, rob the gods of their power to control human life. Naomi was a geneticist before her life fell apart. Her son Ryan died of cancer in the summer before starting Hogwarts, only days after receiving his letter. Naomi was enraged but useless in the face of magic, unable to access their world to plead or pass judgment. She attempted to publish an article in a scientific journal revealing the truth about magic. An auror named Janus Thornt was assigned to the case. He had the story buried. He took both pride and joy in also seeing Lambert ridiculed and publicly shamed by the few colleagues who’d heard her theories. Mocked and voiceless, he then mind-wiped her. He’d not accounted on the fact she had created complex and detailed notes and recordings should those with magic try to silence her. She relearned all Thornt had taken from her. Naomi lost her husband to her anger and obsession. She was alone and powerless. Until she watched Bo attempt to capture the Obscurial Ridhi Kaur. Kaur helped Lambert who, through unknown means, somehow claimed magic from her. Perhaps it is because an Obscurus is born from a powerful desire to be rid of magic that it was able to latch on to one with a powerful desire to obtain it. Now determined in her mission, Lambert no longer seeks to expose the world of magic, but to usurp its power and break it into submission. Why should people die of starvation and disease? Why should so many suffer and know pain, when hidden from sight are unimaginable advancements that could bring hope and healing to so much of the world? And if witches and wizards will not share this power, she will take it from them by force. Then Ridhi was collected by Bo. Now Naomi is seeking Ridhi’s brother, Nikesh. Unlike most other members of the Eye, Lambert, like witches and wizards, focuses much of her magic through an artefact, in the same fashion a wand is traditionally used. Lambert uses a locket containing strands of Ryan’s hair. It is her magic, distributed amongst her followers, that powers the Eye. However, Tyrna and Bo come to learn a secret that rocks Naomi to her core. She is the six-times great granddaughter of famed witch Melcrecia Belaine, put to death in Naomi’s old home of Switchthorn & Gibbet. She is indeed born of magic. With her death, the Eye collapses, its members mind-wiped and rehabilitated.

Skollda Stumpp -
Noomi Rapace
Norwegian. Sister of Manny Stumpp. Muggle. When Manny died, the police found his body, two others, and Skollda standing over them. It seemed like a massacre. Skollda only remembers the monster that ‘killed’ Manny and the others found there. And she remembers Bo’s face. Skollda was locked in prison for years and it drove her mad, quietly swearing vengeance against her brother’s killer, the one she believed to be the true killer behind the attacks. Skollda taught herself, with much practice and constant pain, to generate an unstable formless wild patronus to strike fear into her enemies, just like the nightmare wolf that she witnessed that fateful night and that still haunts her dreams. Since escaping, she was approached by The Eye of Eurydice. They swayed Skollda to their cause by showing her a photo of their next target, Bo. Skollda believes Bo is the one that killed Manny. In Lambert’s final conflict with the Unspeakables, Skollda calls for Naomi to avenge Manny and Ryan. Naomi is disgusted by the comparison between her son and Skollda’s mongrel magic brother; claiming his death would now be classed as a triumph for the cause. In response, Skollda musters all her power to kill Naomi, destroyed herself in the process.


Marcus Prendick -
Mark Strong
A zealot commissioned with bringing in Ridhi. When Tyrna is first bumps into Bo, the pair are separately pursuing Prendick. Turns has been told to step down as the case is now an Unspeakable matter. But Tyrna is bad at letting go. She isn’t aware Prendick is himself hunting down a dangerous Obscurial. Tyrna is shocked to see the unstable magic Marcus employs. She’s more shocked when Bo uses the Killing Curse upon him. When Bo announces that Prendick was a Muggle, Tyrna’s world is rocked. Tyrna attempts to arrest Bo who laughs her off. Prendick’s legacy is bringing Tyrna and Bo together and Tyrna’s first contact with the Eye of Eurydice.

Blutus Thornt -
Harry Treadaway
Son of Janus and Circe Thornt. An auror and Tyrna’s former partner. Secretly he has been trying for years to uncover his parent’s dark magic secrets, claim magic solely for purebloods and gain control of the Unspeakable department. He kills Primus and passes Unspeakable secrets to the Heirs of Slytherin, though later he is incapacitated and arrested by Minimus. Slytherin. Stoat patronus
 
ALLIES
‘Primus’ Rappiccinia Hearth -
Julie Andrews
Head of the Unspeakables department and chief amongst the Seven. Under her command, agents of the department have been permitted, in extreme circumstances, to use Unforgivable Curses. Taciturn and stern she nevertheless cares for all those she is responsible for. Even if she doesn’t show it. She would die for what she believes in and what she believes in is her people. Twenty years ago, she had a theory about a connection between the origins of magic and ‘wild’ Obscurial magic. Her Primus at the time thought the idea dangerous and forbade her from pursuing it. Defying orders, she tracked an Obscurial to London and provoked them into releasing their Obscurus force for the first time. The effect was devastating. Many Muggles were injured or several killed. Including Tyrna’s parents. Tyrna’s father wounded in the initial blast, her mother, against her nature and all judgement, got behind the wheel to try and drive them to safety, ending in tragedy. The Obscurial got away and became Hearth’s own white whale. Regardless, her theory bore weight. This redirected the department away from academic theoretical studies and instead moved it toward active field operations. When Tyrna learns the truth and confronts Rappicinia, she tries to maintain a ‘greater good’ mantra, before Tyrna incapacitates her and frees Ridhi. Hearth’s final act was heroic, passing on all the sealed Unspeakable case files to Tyrna and Bo, including reports on the fledging wizard Ryan Lambert, enough information perhaps to connect with his mother. As long as the pair can decode the heavily encrypted message. Swiftly after this, she is murdered by Blutus Thornt, who successfully reroutes the message to the shadowy Heirs of Slytherin and creates a false memory in Primus’ mind of Bo and Tyrna murdering her. When The Seven find her, her life ebbing away, they withdraw the memory and an order is put out to bring Tyrna and Bo in, dead or alive. Ravenclaw. American badger patronus

‘Minimus’ Teddy Lupin -
Alex Lowther
Quiet, studious, not hugely good with social interactions and uneasy with duelling, young Teddy remains possibly the finest magical inventor in the world. Newly graduated from Hogwarts, the Ministry snapped him up and it was only a handful of months before the Unspeakable department laid claim to him. He now invents and bewitches the various tools of their trade. While technically not one of the Seven, he does have a seat at the table and is privy to all meetings…as keeper of the minutes (a duty he takes very seriously). He is far more sympathetic to the plight of Muggles than many of his contemporaries and after the death of Rappicinia Hearth, he is given the position of Primus- as much to his shock as anyone else’s. In truth, member of the Seven, Rubin Thisk forced the board’s hand in the matter, believing Lupin could be his puppet. But Lupin had more integrity than all but his dearest friends would believe. Once in the position, he immediately suspended all Obscurial capture activities and was ultimately successful in petitioning the Ministry to create the Department of Muggle Aid and Development. Hufflepuff. Common frog patronus

Brigid Ogmore -
Mary Wiseman
A remarkable combination of athlete and academic, Brigid is Tyrna’s wife. She’s also a hobbyist philologist and cryptographer. A pureblood from a rich family, at six years old, Brigid gave their house elf Winny a dress, freeing them. Winny has lived with Brigid and been her best friend ever since. Sarcastic and competitive, she was a Beater in school and still aggressively defends those she cares for and protects - especially Tyrna, Winny and her own students. As Ancient Studies and occasional substitute History of Magic Professor at Hogwarts, she dislikes whenever her Ancient Studies course is undersubscribed and she is forced to job-share with Professor Binns. Brigid becomes an invaluable expert for Bo and Tyrna when it comes to understanding the theory behind ancient wandless ‘wild’ magic and this guides them in determining how the Eye is utilising magic. She is also the one who cracks Primus’ encoded message. American. Thunderbird. Chaffinch patronus
 
OTHERS
(Those appearing in only a handful of sequences)

The Seven Sworn Unspeakables
The group charged with governance of the Unspeakable Department and responsible for maintaining its code of absolute secrecy. The identities of the members are known only to themselves and are recognised in all records only by their inherited monikers followed by the year of designation.


‘Secundus’ - Mitchell Ramstone
Idris Elba
Syltherin. Funnelweb spider patronus

‘Tertius’ - Claudetta Clearwater
Olivia Coleman
Gryffindor. Greater roadrunner patronus

‘Quartus’ - Barnethus Flamel
Derek Jacobi
Ravenclaw. Scarlet macaw patronus

‘Quintus’ - Patricia Roundtree
Charlotte Rampling
Gryffindor. Flemish giant rabbit patronus

‘Sextus’ - Siobhan Finnegan
Aisling Bea
Hufflepuff. Red squirrel patronus

‘Septimus Slytherin’ Rubin Nisk -
Hugh Grant
A bureaucrat of the highest order and one of the seven ministers charged with governance of the Unspeakables department. Seventh son of a seventh son and self-purported descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself. Septimus is secretly the charismatic and populist founder and head of the clandestine cabal of influential pureblood supremacists known as the Heirs of Slytherin, so named due to his claimed proud ancestry. Their ceremonial crest is a basilisk. Cobra patronus

Managma ‘Manny’ Stumpp -
Bjorn Hlyner Haraldsson
Bo’s deceased lover, fellow Unspeakable and former Auror. One night, Stumpp received a distress call from his estranged Muggle sister Skollda. He rushed to her house only to find it had been a ruse. Manny’s old partner from his days as an auror, Janus Thornt, along with Janus’ wife Circe, had laid a trap. The pair ambushed him. They revealed they were both now heavily practiced in the Dark Arts and had aligned themselves with a group of other dark witches and wizards, called the Heirs of Slytherin; a group dedicated to controlling magic itself and restoring it to pure bloodlines. Believing the Unspeakable department had the answers, they tied up Manny and tortured him for answers, putting spells on the house so that nobody could apporate in or out. However, they’d not account on Manny’s wife, the auror Bo, to come looking for him. Bo battled the couple and released Manny. But too late. The Thornts’ involvement had prevented Manny him getting to his potion in time before the moon appeared. They did not realise the reason Bo had followed his trail on this night was because Manny was a werewolf. Bo tried to prevent his transformation but it was no good. It began, even though only partly changed, he tore the Thornts apart. The Thornts dead on the floor, Manny turned on Bo. It was then that Skollda came home. Seeing the bodies of the Gaunts she screamed. The clouds shifted. To save her from the horror she was about to witness, Bo put Skollda to sleep right before her brother changed completely. Skollda fell unconscious. The last thing Skollda saw was two dead bodies, her brother in agony and Bo. With his final moment of clarity, Manny mustered all his strength and pleaded to Bo to stop him before he did something he could never forgive himself for. She refused. Then Manny changed. A monstrous beast, he lurched toward Bo. Still she wouldn’t do what he’d asked. Then he looked on his unconscious sister and saw only fresh helpless meat. To save Skollda’s life, unable to apparate any of them to safety, Bo was forced to kill her husband. His body reverted to human form. Muggle police arrived, called to the commotion by neighbours. They arrived before Bo could clear up the mess. But not before she could flee. Due to not wanting to document the specifics of Manny’s work, the Ministry didn’t interfere to cover up the murders and let Skollda take the blame. The unanswered questions around her husband’s death hardened Bo and led her to become an Unspeakable. Lamb patronus

Gowan Pendryn
Luke Evans
Self confident both in his role as an Unspeakable and as a lothario, Gowan has two goals in life. Firstly, bag Primus’ famed ‘white whale’ Obscurial before his partner and main rival for Most-Accomplished Unspeakable, Bo Stumpp. Secondly, woo Bo Stumpp. Who despises him. Charming, rakish and flirtatious with all, save only Primus, Gowan doesn’t have a chance to achieve either goal. Despite his glaring arrogance, Gowan is a remarkably good agent. He alone spotted connections between a string of large-scale accidents and came to the one conclusion others had overlooked: Muggles were behind them. Knowing he needed evidence, he tracked leads, followed clues and arrived at Marcus Prendick. Before he could close the case however, Prendick killed him. Bo was too late to stop it. Next time she met Prendick, they were both hunting the same Obscurial. Gryffindor. Wild boar patronus

Findus Gunch
Stephen Merchant
Half-giant black market peddler of Enchanted Muggle Artefacts and Ministry informant. After an initial encounter with ‘Eurydice’ and cut-off from Ministry resources, having been framed for Primus’ murder, Bo turns to her slippery occasional source of information, Findus. Weaseley, cowardly and not a fan of powers of authority, Gunch is a tough character to locate; but for the right price, or the slightest suggestion of financial inconvenience, you can wring him like a sponge. Having seen Eurydice channeling what appears to be Obscurial like magic via a locket, Bo puts pressure on Findus to reveal whether he’s ever seen similarly imbued objects. He only ever traded in one, and immediately had it taken - which he was glad about as it was far too dangerous to sell. It was like having a bomb on a shelf, he couldn’t even give it away. Frankly, he’s the only person alive who knew how to handle it without blowing himself to bits. Bo and Tyrna decide they need to retrieve it to look at it, Gunch believing it might be possible to determine how it worked and remove its power. The problem isn’t just handling it, it’s retrieving it. Because the person who took it from him years ago happened to be a young auror by the name of Gowan Pendryn and his partner at the time Siobhan Finnegan (a woman Gunch still mumbles the name of in his sleep after one too many red currant rums). The artefact is safely under lock, key and heavy guard in the Ministry of Magic. And they are not likely to give it up. Not least of all when Bo and Tyrna are on the run for the murder of Primus. With this knowledge, the two Unspeakables are forced to break into the Ministry to retrieve the item, dragging a highly reluctant Gunch in tow. They find the item has been stored in a shifting labyrinth, guarded by a rather protective mating pair of chimeras, desperate to find one another and kill all in their way. More surprisingly perhaps is the item hidden at the heart of the maze. This enchanted item, a sacred relic of the Muggle World, a technological cornerstone of Muggle culture, something so volatile and destructive that to manipulate it in anyway, to move any part of it even a whisker, would mean potential destruction of any and all within its vicinity: an unspooled Spice Girls cassette tape.

Paul Lambert -
Paul McGann
Naomi Lambert’s estranged husband. Remarried and with two children, Paul has had therapy to help him rebuild after losing both Ryan and Naomi. After Brigid decodes the information from Primus, they decide to visit the only person who might understand Naomi’s motivations, movements and possible whereabouts: Paul. Paul doesn’t believe he can help nor does he truly believe Tyrna and Bo are police, due to their strange questions and clothing. What’s more, if Naomi is dangerous then he wants to put his new family as far from her as possible. However, he does reveal the nature of Naomi’s locket and suggests that whenever she needed to get away to collect her thoughts, she visited her Ryan’s grave in their old home of Switchthorn & Gibbet (a place remembered in history only for its frequent persecution and murder of witches).
 
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