Menu elements not being links, just to create submenu?
I'm not sure how you'd get exactly that to work with the way Drupal's menus are structured.

Core provides a barebones page callback for handling the same sort of situation itself, the system_admin_menu_block_page() function. All it does for the page display is list the menu items that are underneath it in the hierarchy (like the node/add page). Think of it as a landing page for a menu item that doesn't need any other form/page data.

I believe if there are no sub-items under the parent, the menu link won't actually be displayed so that method should get you pretty close.

$items['admin/something'] = array(
  'title' =&gt; 'Something',
  'access arguments' =&gt; array('some permission'),
  'page callback' =&gt; 'system_admin_menu_block_page',
  'file' =&gt; 'system.admin.inc',
  'file path' =&gt; drupal_get_path('module', 'system'),
);


Then your other module can define paths like 'admin/something/something-else' and they'll appear underneath the parent