The Three Rings

Chapter Four
The Potter Solution

Published 26 November 2010

Harry stared at Shacklebolt and the Green Ring glowing brightly on his finger. "I — I can't believe it's come to this, Minister," he said in his deep, adult voice. "I thought you trusted us."

Shacklebolt wore an expression of disappointment. "Trust is for small children and fools, Harry," he said, shaking his head. "You should be old enough, and experienced enough, to know that by now."

Harry looked over at Hermione, who was still staring at him, shaking her head and mouthing the words "I'm sorry," over and over again. He shook his head slightly — it's not your fault, his look said, before he turned back to Shacklebolt. "Maybe," he said, grudgingly. "But maybe I just misjudged you, Minister — I thought you were going to be different than Fudge or Scrimgeour. Obviously, I was wrong about that, too."

Shacklebolt's eyes narrowed. "No, Harry, you weren't wrong — we were both naïve when we got into this Ministry business. I quickly discovered that being Minister of Magic is not for the timid, nor for the indecisive. I had hoped to usher in a new era for the Ministry, a new beginning to build upon the Dark Lord's ending.

"But that was a fool's errand. It will take a long time, even with the Rings, to change things in Britain so we can live safely among the Muggles, who encroach closer and closer on our lives every day. Soon we may have to leave the cities entirely and take up a permanently rustic lifestyle, or find ways to hide ourselves even more securely than we do now." At Harry's skeptical expression Shacklebolt remarked, "You don't believe me? You would be surprised to learn how many Muggles witnessed the Battle of Hogwarts alone. I'm still getting reports from the surrounding countryside of them reporting having seen strange occurrences or fantastic-looking humanoids, even giants."

"Do you think that gives you the right to imprison us?" Harry asked. By now he was sure that Shacklebolt would eventually tire of debating him, and would try to take the rings — he hoped he would be able to seize an opportunity to take the Green Ring away from the Minister before then. But the Green Ring's power probably exceeded his own — he would be hard pressed to win this duel.

Shacklebolt probably sensed Harry's impromptu plan as well, for instead of answering Harry's question, he said, "Harry, this becomes tedious. It is nearly time to begin the work day, and I have a government to run. So, if you would please hand over the Ring, now…"

Harry reached slowly for the Lighting Ring on his finger, then stopped. "What time is it?" he asked.

"A few minutes before eight," Shacklebolt said. He held out his hand, palm open, waiting. "Come on, Harry, you cannot win… hand over the rings."

"I think," Harry said slowly, moving his hands apart; he had not removed either ring. "You will have to try and take them from me, Minister."

Shacklebolt stared at him, sighing. Then his hand closed and the Ring flashed, sending a beam of green energy at him, which Harry barely dodged. He leapt toward the door, smashing through it into Auror headquarters. The beam followed and caught up with him before he reached the corridor, it slammed into him, throwing into and through the corridor into the wall beyond.

Being underground, Harry expected to find only ground or rock on the other side of the corridor, but he'd crashed through a wall into an unexpected area of the Ministry, a storage room filled with old desks and ancient filing cabinets. It wasn't lighted, but the light coming from the hole he'd just made, along with the green beam itself, allowed him to see enough to dodge behind a row of desks, for a moment's respite.

"You can't hide from the power of the Green Ring, Harry," Shacklebolt's voice came from the corridor, moving closer as the Minister strode across the floor of Auror HQ toward the hole. The tip of the beam rose upward, toward the ceiling, then suddenly shone brightly, illuminating the entire storage area. "It will let me see anywhere in the room," Shacklebolt continued. He willed the green energy to make the objects in the room turn partially transparent. Most of the desks and cabinets, made from wood, began to fade, though a few metal ones resisted.

"Hmm," Shacklebolt noted, idly. "Ollivander didn't mention this — the Ring's energy does not seem to affect metal objects. No matter, though," he shrugged. "There are only a few objects you can be hiding behind, now."

Another green beam shot out from the ring, its tip forming a giant hand. The hand upended several metal cabinets and desks before Kingsley's attention settled on the final metal desk in the room. He strode over to the desk, flipping it out of the way — to reveal a hole in the floor beneath it.

"Clever, Harry," Shacklebolt muttered. "But down is the wrong direction." He stepped into the hole, floating down into it.

With the power of Zeus and the full strength of Hercules, boring straight down into the earth was much like flying into a strong wind in a Quidditch match for Harry — it was slow going but not hard. Harry was disadvantaged by not being able to see where he was going. He'd decided to go downward a ways, hoping to cross into one of the lower floors of the Ministry, then find the elevator shafts and make it to the Atrium. From there he could make a dash to the telephone box that would take him back to the surface. His wand was broken, but he had a spare back at Grimmauld Place. And if he could keep Shacklebolt chasing him long enough…

Harry suddenly broke through into a dark, open space. He floated downward, unable to see, though there was an increasingly green glow coming from the hole he had just come through — Shacklebolt would be right behind him.

That was confirmed when a green, glowing hand suddenly appeared from the hole, groping toward Harry. But the room was now lit as well, and Harry saw a lone door on one wall of the oddly-shaped room. He sped toward the door, wrenching it open and slipping through it as the hand reached for him, then slamming it shut behind him.

Harry turned and caught his breath. He was in a large, circular room with many doors spaced along the curving wall. He recognized this room — it led to numerous other rooms in the Department of Mysteries. At least there were lights in here, Harry thought, but a moment later he regretted slamming the door shut behind him, because the room had begun spinning. Harry watched the blue-flamed candles whirling around him, glad for a moment to think — at least the room's spinning seemed to be keeping Shacklebolt from pursuing him.

But once it came to a halt, what would he do? Should he fight Shacklebolt here? It didn't seem wise — the green energy exceeded even his strength, and Shacklebolt, much like Hermione, seemed to immediately understand how to use the Ring. He would have to keep moving.

As soon as the room stopped spinning, Harry lurched toward one of the doors at random, slipping through it as quickly as possible in the hope Shacklebolt would not be able to tell which one he used. He turned, seeing that he had entered the room with the archway and veil on the large, stone dais at its sunken center. This was the room where Sirius had been lost, two years ago.

Harry looked around quickly. This was not a place he wanted to stay — it was too painful, even now, to dwell upon. That, and the idea that he, Ron and Hermione could end up following Sirius through the veil, if the Ministry really wanted to be rid of them — and if he failed to stop Shacklebolt.

At that moment the door glowed green and disappeared, and Kingsley Shacklebolt entered the room, the Ring still glowing brightly on his finger as he advanced toward Harry. "Enough of this, now," he said, in a commanding tone. A green energy hand shot from the ring, pressing against Harry's chest and pushing him back, through the air and onto the dais. He seemed to have the same idea Harry had, about the veil. "You have the Ring of Hercules and the Lightning Ring, Harry, but neither of those are necessary for my plan. If you do not agree to give them up, immediately, I will send you through the veil." The green hand had pressed Harry back, right up to the archway, where Harry put out his arms, catching either side of the ancient, stone arch. He was anchored like this, his back against the veil itself, his arms shaking with exertion as he held himself against the green energy, while Shacklebolt approached.

With each step the Minister took, the pressure of the hand increased against his chest. "I…won't!" Harry growled, through gritted teeth.

Shacklebolt looked disappointed, but not surprised. "I'm sorry it has come to this, Harry," he said. "You did us a great service, ridding Britain of Voldemort. I just wish you hadn't let that go to you head…" Harry felt the hand against his chest flex for a final, powerful shove, and he braced his legs and arms for the shove that was sure to come —

— and the green hand suddenly faded to nothingness. With the pressure on his chest removed, Harry stumbled forward, even as Shacklebolt stared in shock at the now-powerless Ring.

"What the hell?" Shacklebolt sputtered, then looked up into the eyes of a frowning, six-and-a-half foot adult Harry Potter, who had reached out and taken hold of him.

"I guess Ollivander forgot to mention a couple of things about that Ring, didn't he?" Harry said, cuffing the Minister into unconsciousness. Lowering him to the floor, Harry felt through his robes until he found the Minister's wand, taking it and removing the Green Ring from his finger. When Kingsley had mentioned earlier that it was a little before eight, Harry remembered that the Ring only worked for 24 hours before needing to be recharged. He gambled that he could hold off Shacklebolt until the time limit ran out and the Ring stopped functioning. He had just barely won that bet — a few more seconds and he would have been forced through the veil into whatever was on "the other side."

Now, what to do next? Harry pondered, looking at the Green Ring. It was as useless to him as it had been to Kingsley — his only advantage was he still wore the Lightning Ring as well as the Ring of Hercules. Not enough of an advantage to storm Auror headquarters and risk Ron or Hermione getting hurt. He would need to use stealth, and have a strategy. That meant returning to Grimmauld Place and retrieving his Invisibility Cloak. Fortunately, with Kingsley's wand in his possession he didn't have to try and fight his way out through the Atrium and main entrance.

Almost as an afterthought, he pointed Kingsley's wand at him and said, "Incarcerous!" causing ropes to shoot from the wand's tip and wrap themselves round the Minister's body. Reaching down, Harry pulled one Shacklebolt's boots off and after concentrating for a moment on his destination, tapped it with the wand saying, "Portus." The boot glowed a light blue for a moment — Harry frowned as magical alarms went off; he'd apparently tripped a detection spell with his unauthorized use of the Portkey Charm. A Portkey's destination couldn't be traced, but they might guess where he'd go — he would have to act quickly. Just in case Kreacher saw him before he saw the fiercely protective house-elf, Harry raised the Lightning Ring in the air, shouting "Sha-Za-Mo!" to allow the magic lightning to strike him once again, transforming him back to teenaged Harry. He touched the boot and felt the familiar hook-like pull draw him into a swirl of color and sound, taking him home.

=ooo=

Harry arrived in the entrance hall of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, just inside the front door. The hall was dark but at his sudden appearance the gas lamps along the walls began lighting, one after another, until the room was lit with dim, bluish light. Even as Harry began to call out, "Kreacher!" the ancient house-elf appeared with a crack, bowing before him.

"Master Harry is home, finally!" Kreacher said, bowing obsequiously, though there was a hint of impatience in his voice. "Kreacher expected Master home long before now!"

"So did I, Kreacher," Harry said, distractedly. "I'll need you to bring me the Green Lantern I had you put away the other day."
"Yes, Master Harry. Does Master wish anything to eat —?"

"No — well, yeah, I am a bit hungry…" Harry shook his head. "But I don't have time! I also need my Invisibility Cloak, but I'll get that." When Kreacher just stared at him quizzically, Harry added, "Hurry!" With another loud crack, Kreacher disappeared.

Harry ran up the staircase to his bedroom on the first floor. Getting into his old school trunk, he pulled out the Invisibility Cloak, then dashed back downstairs to where he'd met Kreacher at the front door. He'd no sooner skidded to a halt there than Kreacher reappeared, holding the Green Lantern.

"Here is the lamp, Master Harry," Kreacher handed him the Lantern. Taking the Green Ring from his pocket, Harry pressed the face of the ring against the glowing green orb in the lantern, counting to ten to make sure he gave it its full charge. "That should do it," he said, handing the lantern back to the house-elf. "You'd better put that back where you had it, there may be Aurors coming to look through my stuff. I don't want them to find this!"

"Very well, Master Harry," Kreacher said, picking up the lantern. "Kreacher will hide the lamp, and no one will make Kreacher tell where it is hidden! Not even if they kill Kreacher will he —"

"Wait a minute," Harry said, putting up a hand. Kreacher stopped talking. Harry was staring at the Green Ring, now glowing in his palm. "If this Ring can do so much, maybe I can figure out a way for it to make Grimmauld Place more secure, so the Aurors can't even enter it." He picked up the Ring, considering the idea for several seconds, then quickly slipped it onto his middle finger. For a moment he stood, frozen with surprise, as the Green Ring revealed itself to him.

Harry smiled. It would be easy, he realized. He started issuing orders to the ring.

It took less than a minute for Harry to finish upgrading the magical protections on Grimmauld Place. "I won't be long," he told Kreacher, as he covered himself with his Invisibility Cloak. "Hermione and Ron should be joining me for dinner tonight. And you won't have to worry about Aurors, now — no one can locate Grimmauld Place unless I will it. Put the Lantern up in my room, it will be safe there." Kreacher began to bow and reply, but Harry covered up completely with the Cloak and willed the Ring to return him to Shacklebolt's offices on the first level of the Ministry.

He arrived, invisible, in a corner of the room out of the way of any potential traffic from the door. Along another wall, Ron and Hermione were both bound to chairs, both looking nervous and scared. Two Aurors, one male and one female, were standing nearby, watching them expressionlessly. The door, Harry noticed, had been repaired from when he'd burst through it, earlier. The room was otherwise empty. The two captives' heads were leaning together, and Harry moved slowly behind Shacklebolt's desk to the opposite corner, to hear what they were saying.

" —don't know if he has a plan or not," Hermione was saying, quietly but with obvious intensity. "But the fact remains that Harry left us here!"

"You've got to give him a chance," Ron replied, just as quietly. "He couldn't just rush up here and try to free us, you know. No telling what these — Aurors — might do." He'd said the word "Auror" with an obvious contempt Hermione had never heard in his voice before.

The male Auror stepped over, putting the tip of his wand on Ron's neck. Ron tried to flinch away, but the Auror pressed the tip against his neck. "Enough of that talk, boy," he said, roughly. "Or you'll find out what we can do!"

Ron nodded, and the Auror stepped away, glaring at him for several moments, then lost interest once again. After a while Ron turned toward Hermione and said, very quietly, "Anyway, you should have known not to give Shacklebolt that Ring!"

"I know," she agreed, "but what he was saying about the Ministry needing it to help defend the Wizarding community against incursion from Muggles just seemed to make so much sense at the time!"

Ron made a disparaging noise, shaking his head. The male Auror looked at Ron again, then took a step toward him. Then fell over, unconscious. The female Auror stared at him in surprise; then she, too, fell over on top of him. Ron and Hermione looked at one another in surprise. After a moment Ron asked, "What do you think?"

Hermione glanced around the room. "I'm guessing Harry is in the room somewhere," she said.

"Good guess," a voice said, followed a moment later by the appearance of Harry's head. The head floated over to the door of the office and a click was heard as Harry magically locked it. The rest of him appeared from beneath the Invisibility Cloak, which Harry quickly folded and put away. He held out his hand, the Green Ring flashed, and the ropes binding Ron and Hermione disappeared in flashes of green.

"Thanks," Ron said, standing and helping Hermione to her feet as well, then suddenly hissed in pain.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, anxiously.

"Urgh, it's that bloody finger," Ron said, holding up his hand, which was still heavily bandaged. "They never would bring in a Healer to reattach it!"

"Let me see!" Hermione demanded. Ron gave her his hand. After a moment she turned to Harry. "Let me have the Green Ring," she told him. "We need to fix this right away!"

Harry handed her the Ring, though he looked doubtful. "I know the Ring can do some amazing stuff — I used it to set up protections around Grimmauld Place — but can it really restore Ron's finger?"

"I think so," Hermione said. She pointed the Ring at Ron's hand. A green glow emanated from the Ring, enveloping Ron's hand. The bandages on it faded away, leaving his hand glowing green. Slowly, the stump of his ring finger began to extend, until the green glow faded, leaving his hand looking perfectly normal once again. Ron's ring finger was restored.

"Wow," Ron said, looking at the regenerated finger. "It feels good as new — doesn't hurt at all! Thanks, Hermione!" She nodded, smiling, then suddenly hugged him tightly.

He was beaming at her when she finally stepped back. "Remind me to thank you more often," he said.

She nodded, but then turned back to Harry. "How did you escape?" she asked him.

Harry briefly recounted his duel with Shacklebolt after escaping his office. "I wasn't leaving you behind," he added, afterwards. "I had to go get my Cloak and recharge your Ring."

"I realize that now," Hermione nodded, looking abashed. "It was just so — so scary, thinking we'd been left here… I mean, I know all the times in the past when I told you to run away from danger, Harry, not at it — but all I could think of was that this might be the time you decided to listen to me!"

"I would never, ever leave you or Ron behind," Harry told her, seriously.

"Harry, I am so, so sorry I gave up the Ring to Shacklebolt," Hermione said. "I was telling Ron earlier I don't know why, but what he was saying sounded so reasonable, I could help myse —" she stopped, hearing her own words. "I wonder…" she said, then stared into the Green Ring on her finger. A light shone upon her face for several moments, and as Harry and Ron watched her expression changed to one of horror. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "He Imperiused me!"

"What?" both Ron and Harry looked at each other, dumbfounded. "No!"

"Yes — yes, it's all there," she insisted, her voice hardening with anger. "Somehow, he put an Imperius Curse on me, to make me believe giving him the Ring would be doing the right thing! That bastard!"

"I knew there had to be a reason why you would give up the Ring to him," Harry nodded grimly. "This situation has gone completely out of control."

"We have to clear our names," Hermione said. "Otherwise we'll never be able to work effectively within the Wizarding world again."

"The question is, what are we going to do about it?" Ron pointed out. "I mean, even my father seems to be on the Ministry's side, and if he's been Imperiused then we don't know who we can trust." He looked at Hermione's ring. "Maybe you could use that, make everybody forget that we have these rings in the first place?"

Hermione considered that for a moment, but shook her head, frowning. "You mean Obliviate everyone who might know about these Rings? Like Lockhart did to all those people whose experiences and accomplishments he pretended to have done, himself? I don't want to take people's memories from them, Ron!"

"That's not the way to do it," Harry agreed. "We hated that Lockhart did that to so many people."

"I guess so," Ron agreed. "But it's too bad we can't change even a few minds, the important people — they might persuade everyone else that we're okay."

"Yeah…" Harry said slowly, then looked up at Ron in surprise. "Wait a minute — what would happen, d'you think, if the Minister all of a sudden decided to let us go, and said we'd reached an agreement on the Rings?"

"Why would he do that?" Hermione asked.

"Other than the fact that we saved his and the Ministry's arses several times over?" Ron added, sarcastically. "That hasn't seemed to carry much weight lately, has it?"

"I suppose it depends on who made the decision to confiscate the Rings in the first place — Shacklebolt, the Wizengamot, or…someone else," Harry pondered, suddenly having an idea who that "someone else" might be. "We need to find out who's at the bottom of this push to have us removed from the Auror Department and gain control of these Rings."

Hermione crossed her arms. "How do you suggest we do that?"

Harry looked around the room, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Well…" he pointed at the unconscious Aurors. "What if you and Ron change places with these two, then? You can pretend to stand guard over them — you can say they were causing trouble and you had to Stun both of them. I don't think anyone will question that, given what's been going on around here for the past day.

"I'll remain under the Invisibility Cloak. With any luck Shacklebolt will be back up here before long, and when he's alone we can have a 'discussion' with him about the situation," Harry finished outlining his "plan."

Hermione made a face. "I could drive a lorry through the holes in that idea, Harry," she told him, then shrugged. "But I can't think of anything better, so…"

"So we'll try it," Ron agreed. "Well, in the worst case," he added, "Hermione can pull us out of here with the Green Ring if anyone rumbles to us."

Hermione pointed her ring at the two unconscious Aurors, who floated into the air and were seated on the two chairs in Ron and Hermione's place. A pair of green tentacles flowed from the ring, touching Ron and the male Auror, and an amazing transformation began to take place — both Ron's and the Auror's features began to flow and meld, reforming so that the person in the chair looked like Ron and he, like that Auror. A few moments later the same transformation was accomplished between Hermione and the female Auror.

"There," Hermione said, in the female Auror's voice. "That was easy enough. I also extracted each Auror name and today's duties from their minds and put it in mine and Ron's. I'm Auror Cahill and he's Auror Smithson." She suddenly glanced at the door of the office. "The Ring is warning me someone's coming!" she said in a hushed voice. "Harry, get under your Cloak!"

Harry pulled the Cloak over himself and stepped back into a corner, invisible, and Hermione quickly rebound their unconscious doppelgangers with ropes once again, as they had been. At the last moment a flash of green from her ring touched the door handle, unlocking, just as it sprung upon and Minister Shacklebolt stormed into the room, hobbling on one boot, followed by Dolores Umbridge and Aurors Savage and Proudfoot. Shacklebolt was obviously enraged; he strode directly to his desk, sat down and began writing an order on a new sheet of Ministry letterhead.

"Unbelievable," he muttered as he wrote, "that Ollivander managed to keep so much information about the Rings from us!"

Umbridge wasn't quite smiling, but there was a quirk on her thin, toadlike lips as she said, "Perhaps next time, Minister, you will allow me to handle the interrogation." She glanced at the two Aurors with her. "Having been a headmistress, I know a few techniques that your men obviously do not." Neither Proudfoot nor Savage looked pleased at this comment, but they said nothing.

"That may be true, Madam Umbridge," Shacklebolt said distractedly, still writing. "But there's no use crying over spilt potion." He finished writing, then tapped the parchment three times with the pen he'd been writing with. The parchment folded itself twice; Shackebolt then picked up a stick of red sealing wax, holding it over the letter until a bit of it melted onto the parchment, forming a Ministry seal. He handed the parchment to Savage.

"This is the Portkey authorization to transport Ollivander to Azkaban, to be held there until further notice." Beneath his Cloak, Harry silently gritted his teeth. He was not going to let Ollivander be taken to that prison!

"Bring him here before you leave," Shacklebolt told the Aurors. "I want a final word with him before he goes. Cahill, you go with them and provide backup." Savage and Proudfoot nodded and left the room, followed by Hermione, ,leaving Ron staring uneasily at the corner where he believed Harry was listening.

"And what of these other two?" Umbridge asked, gesturing toward the unconscious figures bound nearby. "Will you question them some more as well?"

The Minister looked over at them for a long moment. "In due time," he said at last, taking another piece of parchment and beginning to write on it as well. "I think they should go to Azkaban as well — it is more defensible than the Ministry; if Potter decides to try and rescue them.

"We're going to have to get a clearer picture of the capabilities and limitation of that Green Ring, however," the Minister continued. "Having worn it, I was made privy to some of its secrets, but it did not tell me about the 24-hour time limit, something Potter obviously knew — he forced me to chase him until the Ring's power ran out, then ambushed me."

Harry nearly snorted with anger at Shacklebolt's lie. In reality, he'd been only seconds from being pushed through the veil by Shacklebolt!

"What's your plan for when Potter is found, then?" Umbridge asked, curtly. "Azkaban as well?"

Shacklebolt gazed at her for several moments, trying to decide if she was serious or merely mocking hm. "Harry is the Chosen One," he said at last. "He defeated Lord Voldemort!"

"Yes, and now the Dark Lord is dead, his usefulness to the Ministry is ended," Umbridge pointed out, bluntly.

"That much is true," the Minister agreed. "But I am reluctant to simply cast him aside so quickly, when he might be a useful…well, selling point for students in their final years at Hogwarts wanting to pursue a career in the Ministry, especially the Auror Department."

"You threw away Sirius Black," Umbridge pointed out. Beneath the Cloak, Harry stopped breathing and began listening intently.

"That was different," Shacklebolt demurred. "Black would have been an ongoing problem if he'd remained free after James and Lily Potter were killed. He might have fought placing Harry with his Muggle relatives, the Dursleys. Dumbledore had hoped to keep him completely out of the Wizarding World until it was time for him to attend Hogwarts. I was a new Auror back when Black and Pettigrew confronted each other that morning in November 1981 — I knew the headmaster was trying to locate Black, afraid of what might happen if he found Peter first. I'm afraid I and the other Aurors jumped to the wrong conclusion."

Harry stood stock-still beneath the Cloak, trembling with rage. Before he could do anything, however, the door opened and Proudfoot and Savage entered the room, escorting Ollivander, followed by Cahill, the Auror Hermione was impersonating, and a final Auror Harry didn't recognize. Ollivander looked wild and disheveled; his hair was uncombed and he had a frightened look on his large, moonlike eyes. He did not speak, however, even when Shacklebolt offered him one last chance; he kept shaking his head emphatically no.

Harry, who believed the old man was frightened out of his wits at the prospect of going to Azkaban, was taking out Shacklebolt's captured wand, preparing to stop them, when he saw Hermione's Auror staring directly at him. As their eyes locked, she shook her head slightly, no, not yet, her signal said. Harry relaxed a bit, knowing she must have done something about the situation when they were out of the room.

"After you drop the old man off," Shacklebolt told the two men, "come back for these two. We'll have them ready by the time you return." Savage nodded, and threw a malicious grin at the two bound figures as the authorization order glowed blue momentarily and he, Proudfoot, and Ollivander disappeared.

"That's one problem solved," Umbridge said, smugly. She glanced at Shacklebolt. "But you've still got three to go, and I won't be happy until we have Harry Potter standing here before us."

Harry, who'd barely been able to contain himself once the Aurors had gone, threw the Invisibility Cloak off himself and shouted, "Hope you're happy now!"

There was a stunned moment when neither Umbridge nor the Minister could believe what had happened. Shacklebolt jumped up from his desk, reaching for his wand until, mid-gesture, he realized he no longer had it — then he pointed frantically at Harry, shouting "Get him!" at the Aurors in the room, as Umbridge hastily drew her own wand.

Harry's wand was faster, though. "Expelliarmus!" he shouted, and Umbridge's wand flew through the air. Harry reached up and deftly caught it, then pointed it at Shacklebolt. "Hello, Minister," he said conversationally.

"What's wrong with you?" Shacklebolt shouted at the Aurors in the room. They looked at him, then held up their hands, showing their Rings to Shacklebolt. The three Aurors shimmered green for a moment, returning to the forms of Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Mr. Ollivander. "Oh," Shacklebolt squeaked, thoroughly surprised.

"HEEEEEEEELP!" Umbridge suddenly screeched, running to the door of the office and trying to open it, then pounding desperately on it when it did not open. "POTTER'S KIDNAPPED THE MINISTER! ALARM! ALARM!" After pounding on the door for a while longer she stopped, turned around, and looked at the others in the room.

"I made the door Imperturbable," Hermione told her, coldly. "You can bang away on it all day, no one on the other side will hear you. I've also put a sign on the other side saying the Minister's in an important meeting, not to be disturbed. So, unless you want to end up like these two —" she pointed to the two bound figures next to her "— you'll quiet down and listen."

"Impudent little girl!" Umbridge snarled, but she stepped away from the door, walking around in a wide circle to stand beside (actually slightly behind) Shacklebolt at the desk.

"I've already heard enough," Harry said, slowly, "to know we were never going to get a fair hearing over these Rings. But I want to hear what happened to you," he asked, turning to Ollivander. "It appears they asked you questions about these Rings, sir."

"They did, Harry," Ollivander nodded. His voice was shakier than Harry had ever heard it, even when they found him in Malfoy Manor over the Easter holidays, earlier that year, after being held captive there for almost two years — they had found his shop in Diagon Alley empty in July of 1996. "They were not v-very pleasant about it, however." He went on to describe what they had done to him, and Harry and the others winced as he told of spells used to trick him into thinking he was being held by Voldemort once again, in Malfoy's dungeon,

When he finished, Harry turned to Shacklebolt, who had listened to Ollivander's story with a look of growing consternation on his face. "I did not authorize that level of interrogation, Harry," he said quickly, as Harry stared at him. He turned to Umbridge. "I warned you not to be that harsh with him!"

"We needed the information!" Umbridge objected. "You know how important those Rings are!"

"So important," Hermione broke in, angrily, "that you were willing to destroy lives to get them?"

"What do you know about running a government, girl?" Umbridge snapped at her.

"I know it's supposed to be about serving people, not controlling them!" Hermione fired back.

Umbridge practically cackled at her. "How naïve you are! Government has always been about controlling people! The privileged have always controlled the masses!"

"How well do you think you're going to control anyone from Azkaban?" Harry asked, his voice hard with anger.

Umbridge smirked at him. "Try not to sound as thick as you are, Potter! You can't send anyone to Azkaban — the Wizengamot would reverse that in a heartbeat, and you would be declared outlaw! You've already done irreparable harm to your reputation as it is — defying the Head Auror and the Minister of Magic, and tearing up the Ministry, all in one day! The Minister would be hard-pressed to excuse you for all that now!"

"Maybe," Harry agreed. "If all that wasn't trumped by something even worse that someone else did." He'd suddenly realized something concerning what Hermione had said earlier, about Shacklebolt Imperiusing her. "Hermione, check the Minister and see if any spells are currently cast on him. A green beam from her Ring passed over Shacklebolt, and Hermione looked at Harry in surprise.

"He's been Imperiused, too!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Shacklebolt shouted. "Who?"

Hermione nodded toward Umbridge. "It was her!"

"I thought so," Harry said, nodding. "The Kingsley Shacklebolt I know would not have used the Imperius Curse on any of us without a very good reason; I suspected an external cause for him to have turned it against Hermione to get the Ring.

"You Imperiused me?" Shacklebolt looked at Umbridge, outraged. "Your Minister?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Umbridge shook her head. "They are trying to turn you against me, Minister!"

"The Ring isn't wrong," Hermione said, holding up her hand with the Green Ring glowing on her finger. "You put the curse on him!"

"Yeah, I'm convinced," Harry said, before Umbridge could protest further. He looked at Shacklebolt. "If there's anyone who ought to go to Azkaban, it's her!"

Umbridge spun toward him, but with her mouth half-open she suddenly smiled, a leer that looked more painful then happy, and said, "Harry, surely you realize that it would do no good to send me to prison. I know more about the people who are really out to stop the Minister's efforts to succeed, that's why I've been trying to help him — it's been for his own good, really —"

Hermione stepped forward, shaking a finger at her. "You wicked, evil, lying woman! You may think you can fool Harry, but you can't fool the Ring! It knows you're lying to us all! You want to control the Ministry yourself!"

Harry turned to Shacklebolt. "Here's the deal: Obviously, you were taken in by Umbridge." She opened her mouth to protest but Harry put up a hand, stopping her. "She Imperiused you and will continue to abuse her position and her power as long as someone lets her.

"On the one hand, Hermione, Ron and I don't know a lot about how the government works, but I've seen it abused often enough, first by Fudge and then by Scrimgeour, to believe that you at least intended to do things right.

"And on the other hand, I think we have pretty good idea how things ought to run, if we want a government that's working for people and not to control them. So I propose that we create an agreement between the four of us — you, Hermione, Ron and myself — to run the Ministry, with you staying on as Minister of Magic and we three as your 'personal advisors.' If anyone is going to use these Rings to help the Wizarding community, it may as well be us!"

Shacklebolt looked wary. "What would you do in this capacity, as my advisors? I have Secretaries and Under-secretaries for such duties, like Madam Umbridge here."

"Yeah, and look where that got you," Ron pointed out.

"Madam Umbridge," Harry added, "is going to Azkaban. If you really think that's unfair, Minister, after everything she's done, then I think you're past saving as well and may as well go with her." Harry shrugged. "The choice is up to you."

Shacklebolt stood still for several seconds, staring at Harry, then shrugged and sat down at his desk, took out a fresh piece of parchment and began writing on it. He signed it and folded it, then handed it to Umbridge. "Sorry, Dolores," he said, flatly. "But it's business."

Umbridge looked at the order, horror-struck for a moment. Then her face turned purple with rage as she sputtered at him. "You ungrateful bastard! I helped make you Minister! I'll protest my innocence to the full Wizengamot! Don't think for a moment you've heard the last —" her ranting cut off in mid sentence as a green beam struck her and she disappeared.

"She can wait her turn before the Wizengamot in Azkaban," Hermione said, lowering her arm again. She looked at Harry. "Now, I suppose we'll need a magical contract for us to sign, Harry?"

Over the next few hours the three Ring-bearers crafted a binding magical contract, one involving oaths of loyalty to them and to the people of the Wizarding world, along with the Fidelius Charm so that only the people in the room, Mr. Ollivander included, would know of its creation, with Hermione as the Secret Keeper. When finally signed, it gave the de facto power of the Wizarding government of Great Britain to the Privy Council of the Three Rings, all decisions made by a majority vote of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

"I hope you three know what you're doing," Shacklebolt said, as Hermione placed the signed document in her beaded purse. "I've tried to warn you, running a government is not as simple as you think."

"Or perhaps it's simpler than you think," Harry countered. "In any case, you take orders from us, now." He turned to the other two Ring-bearers. "I think this calls for a celebration tonight, don't you?"

"Agreed!" Ron beamed. "Too bad we can't tell anyone what we're really celebrating, eh?"

"I should be going back to my shop," Ollivander said. "I wish you success in this endeavor, Harry. Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley." With a small bow, Ollivander took the Portkey authorization Shacklebolt hastily scratched out for him, and disappeared, reappearing in his shop moments later.

The old man took a deep breath, wondering whether he had just witnessed the beginning of a golden age for the Wizarding world, or this was the curse that had been foretold…