Old Blood at Hogwarts

"We are late." The witch in the woolen dressing gown shook her head and said, "They have long since disapparated."

"I don't think so," a wizard with a short brown beard spoke - he was Amos Diggory, Cedric's father. "The stun spell just went through those trees... It is very possible to hit them..."

"Amos, be careful!" Several wizards warned in unison, and Mr. Digory puffed out his chest, raised his wand, strode across the open space, and disappeared into the darkness.Hermione nervously covered her mouth with her hands and looked at his disappearing back.

A few seconds later they heard Mr. Diggory's cry.

"It's done! Caught! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's - oh - my God..."

"You've got a man?" cried Mr. Crouch, in a tone of complete disbelief. "Who? Who is it?"

They heard the snapping of branches, the rustling of fallen leaves, and then the crunching of feet as Mr. Diggory emerged from behind the trees.He held a small, limp body in his arms.Aaron immediately recognized the tea towel as Twinkle.

Mr. Crouch watched Mr. Diggory place his house-elf at his feet. He did not move or speak.Other Ministry officials stared at Mr. Crouch.For several seconds, Crouch stood motionless, as if frozen, his flaming eyes on his pale face staring fiercely at Twinkle on the ground.Then he seemed to come to his senses again.

"This...impossible...impossible," he said repeatedly, "impossible!"

He walked quickly around Mr Diggory and strode towards the place where Winky had been discovered.

"It's no use, Mr. Crouch," Mr. Diggory shouted after him. "There's no one else there."

But Mr. Crouch didn't seem to want to heed his words.They heard him walking up and down and rustling the leaves as he parted the bushes in search.

"It's a bit embarrassing," said Mr. Diggory sternly, looking down at Winky's delirious figure. "Barty Crouch's house elf... I mean..."

"Stop talking nonsense, Amos." Mr. Weasley whispered, "Do you really think it was an elf? The Dark Mark is a wizarding symbol. It requires a wand."

"Yes," said Mr. Diggory. "She has a wand."

"What?" said Mr. Weasley.

"Here, look." Mr. Diggory raised a wand and handed it to Mr. Weasley, "She is holding it in her hand. This first violates the third rule of the Wand Rules: any non-human No creature may carry or use a wand."

At this moment, there was another pop, and Mr. Ludo Bagman apparated next to Mr. Weasley.Bagman was panting and looking dazed.He spun around in circles, staring at the green skeleton in the sky.

"The Dark Mark!" he gasped.Then he turned to look at his colleague questioningly, almost stepping on Winky.

Mr. Crouch returned empty-handed.His face was still horribly pale, and his hands and toothbrush-like mustache were twitching.

"Where have you been, Barty?" Bagman asked. "Why didn't you come to the game? Your house elf even saved a seat for you. Oh my God!" Bagman then He found Twinkle lying at his feet, "What's wrong with her?"

"I've been terribly busy, Ludo." Mr. Crouch still said every word, barely moving his lips, "My house elf has been cast a coma spell."

"A coma spell was cast on you? You mean, by you people? Why?"

Bagman's shiny round face suddenly showed a look of enlightenment.He looked up at the skeleton, then down at Winky, and finally his eyes fell on Mr. Crouch.

"Impossible!" Bagman said, "Twinkle? Conjured the Dark Mark? She doesn't know how to change it! First, she needs a wand!"

"She does need a wand," said Mr. Diggory. "I found her holding one in her hand, Ludo. If you have no objection, Mr. Crouch, I think we should hear how she defends herself. .”

Mr. Crouch showed no reaction, as if he had not heard what Mr. Diggory said.Mr. Diggory seemed to take his silence as acquiescence. He raised his wand, pointed at Winky and said: "Resuscitate quickly!"

Winky moved feebly.Those brown bell-like eyes opened, and she blinked hard, her expression blank.Under the silent gazes of the wizards, she sat up tremblingly.She saw Mr. Diggory's feet, then slowly and tremblingly she raised her eyes to his face, and then, still more slowly, to the night sky above.Aaron could see the floating skull image reflected in her two big, dull eyes.She gasped, looked confusedly at the people gathered around the clearing, and then suddenly started crying in fear.

"Elf!" Mr. Diggory asked sternly, "Do you know who I am? I'm from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures!"

Winky began to rock back and forth on the ground, her breathing interrupted by violent sobs.

"You saw it too, little goblin. Just now, someone conjured the Dark Mark here." Mr. Digory said, "A moment later, we found you, just under the mark! Please give us An explanation!”

"I...I...I didn't, sir!" Twinkle gasped, "I don't know how to change, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" growled Mr. Diggory, waving the wand in Winky's face.

But at this moment, Harry suddenly shouted: "Yeah - that's mine!"

Everyone in the clearing turned to look at him.

"Excuse me, what did you say?" Mr. Diggory asked in disbelief.

"That's my wand!" said Harry. "I lost it!"

"You lost it?" Mr. Diggory repeated suspiciously. "Are you confessing? You lost your wand when you conjured the Mark?"

"Amos, think about who you are talking to!" Mr. Weasley said angrily, "Can Harry Potter conjure the Dark Mark?"

"Oh - of course not," muttered Mr. Diggory vaguely. "I'm sorry... I'm so mad."

"I didn't throw it there." Harry pointed with his thumb toward the trees below the skull. "As soon as we entered the woods, my wand disappeared."

"So..." Mr. Digory said, turning his eyes to Winky, who was curled up at his feet, and his eyes became cold. "Little goblin, it was you who found this wand, wasn't it? You picked it up. Got up, thought you could have some fun with it, didn’t you?”

"I didn't do magic with it, sir!" Sparkle shrieked, tears running down the sides of her squashed, bulbous nose in rivulets. "I...I...I just picked it up." Get up, sir! I didn't conjure the Dark Mark, sir. I don't know how!"

"Not her!" Hermione said in front of the Ministry of Magic officials.She looked very nervous but didn't flinch.

"Winky spoke in a high-pitched voice. The voice we just heard chanting the spell was much deeper!" She turned to look at Aaron, Harry and Ron, asking for their approval. "It didn't sound like Winky at all. Is it right?"

"Yes." Harry nodded and said, "That voice is definitely not that of an elf."

"Yeah, that's a human voice," Ron said.

"And it's a man's voice," Aaron added.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough," growled Mr. Diggory. "There's a simple way to discover the last spell cast by a wand. Did you know, elf?"

Twinkle trembled all over, shook her head desperately, and flapped her ears.Mr. Diggory raised his wand and connected it with Harry's.

"Flashback!" shouted Mr. Diggory.

A very terrifying skeleton spitting out snakes appeared from the place where the two wands met. It was exactly the same as the green skeleton above their heads.However, it is made of thick gray smoke, like a magical ghost.

"Fade away without a trace!" Mr. Diggory shouted, and the smoke skeleton turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared.

"How do you say that?" Mr. Digory looked at Twinkle at his feet with a cruelly proud expression.

Winky was still shaking violently.

"It's not me!" she screamed, her eyes rolling in horror, "It's not me, it's not me, I don't know how! I'm a good elf, I don't have a wand, I don't know how!"

"Amos, think about it..." Mr. Weasley said loudly, "Only a very small number of wizards can cast that spell... Where did she learn it?"

"Perhaps Digory is implying..." said Mr. Crouch, with icy anger dripping from every syllable, "that I regularly teach my servants the Dark Mark?"