Facing Betrayal

"Nothing was established, Minister, nothing at all. Using emergency powers, the ministry of the day flung my godfather into Azkaban - without a trial - and forgot about him."

Turning his attention onto Dumbledore, Harry wanted to know his part in this farce. "Is it true Snape only escaped going to Azkaban because you vouched for him?"

Hearing that Harry had somehow become head of House Potter, and noticing the rings both he and the Granger girl were wearing, Albus was trying to figure out how he was going to deal with these developments when he was suddenly faced with the Snape question. Since the Minister of Magic was standing there, Albus felt he was left with no other option but to answer honestly. "Yes, I vouched that Severus was not a Death Eater…"

Harry interrupted again. "Well, you were wrong. Did you also know it was your precious Snape who sent his master after me - causing my parents to be murdered trying to protect their baby son? Why didn't you vouch for Sirius, or at least see he got a fair trial?"

While this certainly shocked Poppy and Cornelius, Albus reaction couldn't have been any more dramatic if he'd been kicked in the stones by a centaur. All trace of the kindly grandfather act was gone as he grabbed Harry by either shoulder and shouted at him. "Where did you hear that? I demand you tell me?"

Harry knocked both his hands away before getting right in Dumbledore's face. "Demand all you like, I don't care. Your involvement in my life is over - I'm making my own decisions from now on."

"You can't do that. You must tell me what you heard - and from who?"

Turning his back on Dumbledore, Harry faced a now shocked Cornelius Fudge. "Minister, we're in a position to help each other here. You don't want to have 'Mass Murderer Escapes Again' all over tomorrow's Prophet, and I want my godfather to get a fair trial. If Sirius is guilty of betraying my parents, and murdering all those muggles, I'll stand beside you as you pass sentence on him. 'Case being further investigated as dramatic new evidence comes to light' is a far better headline for all of us."

Standing there being ignored, inside Hogwarts too, was not something Albus was used to. It was bad enough that Harry seemed determined to slip from his control but sensing Cornelius was seriously considering Harry's suggestion lent a whole different degree of urgency to the situation.

Although he hated doing things in haste, Albus felt there was no other option left open to him but to act at once. it was imperative for his plans that Albus stop this information leaving the room, and discover just who else knew about his secrets. In a matter of seconds he had obliviated Cornelius of the last few minutes, spelled him into a deep sleep while levitating his body onto one of the spare hospital beds.

Pomfrey was shocked into silence but - for Harry and Hermione - this behaviour only confirmed what Lily Potter had told them earlier, this Albus Dumbledore was certainly not their friend.

Hermione just had to comment, her almost religious deference to figures of authority had crashed and burned tonight. "So much for not being able to overrule the Minister of Magic! You really are a lying old bastard."

"Needs must, Miss Granger, and I need to know where you heard what is effectively a state secret. It's so secret, the state doesn't even know about it - and that's the way we will be keeping it. One way or another, I will know that information tonight - and you won't remember any of it." His wand flicked again and a now sleeping Poppy was soon lying on one of her own beds. Seeing nothing but defiance coming from both the teens facing him, Albus let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Very well, we shall do this the hard way. Ligilimens."

Harry and Hermione felt as if something was trying to invade what they'd so recently discovered and shared, though both already cherished. The young couple reacted instantly and in perfect synchronisation to protect that precious connection to each other, trying their hardest to push the unwelcome intruder out. Powerful blasts of magic shot from both of their left hands, hitting a totally unprepared Dumbledore.

Since he was only a matter of feet away from both teens, there simply wasn't time for Albus to defend himself against their unexpected and powerful magical retaliation. The old wizard was blasted across the room and slammed into the infirmary wall, sliding down unconscious to the floor.

"Hermione, what just happened?"

"I don't know, Harry. It felt as if I had my wand in my left hand, but it's sitting on top of the bedside cabinet."

Thinking about it, Harry agreed. "I just wanted to blast him away, and that's what happened. I wonder if these rings have a magical core in them?"

"Well, considering what they do for us, I wouldn't be surprised. I thought for a moment we'd both just performed wandless magic but using our rings to focus our magic instead of our wands makes more sense. This is something we'll need to test and practice…"

"Hermione, we need to deal with this situation first."

She lifted her wand and revived Madam Pomfrey. The healer hadn't been obliviated, though Poppy certainly didn't believe her memories would have survived the night. Her anger was mighty. "We need to contact the aurors, get the old fraud charged with what he did here tonight."

Harry actually stood in front of the healer as she was heading for the fireplace to floo for help.

"Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore will spin some story and none of us will be believed - just like earlier tonight. The Minister has already been obliviated and won't remember what we spoke about."

"We can't let him get away with this. Watching how familiar the old goat was with the process, and how quick he was to implement it, you can bet this wasn't the first time he's done something like this."

"I'm suggesting we play him at his own game. Obliviate the knowledge of tonight from Dumbledore and dump him in his own bed. He'll wake up in the morning and not know anything - let's see how he likes it. Obliviate the knowledge that Hermione and I are betrothed from him, give us time to hide our rings."

This answered something that had bothered Hermione. "I wondered why you had mentioned that, after deciding we were going to keep it quiet. The only problem is that Snape knows…'

"We say he must have been the victim of a Confundus Charm?"