Old Blood at Hogwarts

After a very depressing silence, Mr. Digory said with some fear: "Mr. Crouch... no... absolutely not..."

"So far, you have made unfounded accusations against two people in this clearing in almost obvious language. They are the least likely to conjure up the mark!" Mr. Crouch roared, "Harry Potter ...and me! I think you should be familiar with this boy’s life experience, Amos?”

"Of course, everyone knows that," muttered Mr. Diggory, looking very alarmed.

"I'm sure you remember that throughout my long career there has been much evidence of my aversion and hatred of the Dark Arts and all those who practice them, don't you?" Mr. Crouch shouted, his eyes rolling. Exposed.

"Mr. Crouch, I...I in no way suggested that you had anything to do with this!" Amos Diggory muttered again.His face was flushed behind his brown beard.

"When you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Digory!" cried Mr. Crouch. "Where else could she learn to do such magic?"

"She...she may have learned it from somewhere else by accident."

"That's right, Amos," said Mr. Weasley. "Maybe she picked it up somewhere else by accident."

"Winky?" Mr. Weasley turned to Winky kindly, "Where did you pick up Harry's wand?"

Winky twisted the edge of the tea towel she was wearing, even unscrewing the thread.She shrank back in fear and whispered: "I... I picked it up... there, sir. There... in the woods, sir."

"You see, Amos?" said Mr. Weasley. "Whoever they were who created the Mark, they apparated away when they were done and dropped Harry's wand. What a clever thing they did. , without using his own wand, so as not to reveal his identity. A moment later, the unlucky Winky accidentally saw the wand and picked it up."

"So she was only a few steps away from the real criminal?" said Mr. Diggory impatiently. "Did you see anyone, goblin?"

Twinkle was shaking even more than before.Her eyes as big as lightbulbs looked at Mr. Diggory, then at Ludo Bagman, then at Mr. Crouch.Then she took a deep breath and said, "I saw no one, sir... no one."

"Amos," said Mr. Crouch stiffly, "I am fully aware that, according to normal procedure, you are to bring Winky to your department for questioning. However, I ask your permission to deal with her by me. "

Mr. Diggory didn't seem to agree with this suggestion, but he didn't seem to dare to offend Mr. Crouch, so he seemed very hesitant.

"Don't worry, she will be punished," Mr. Crouch added coldly.

"Lord... Lord... Master..." Twinkle looked up at Mr. Crouch, with tears in her eyes, and stammered, "Lord... Lord... Master, please... please... please... …”

Mr. Crouch stared at her, his face hardening, every line standing out, and there was no mercy in his eyes.He said slowly: "I was shocked by Winky's behavior tonight. I told her to stay in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to resolve the commotion. I found her disobeying me. This means ……clothing!"

"No!" Twinkle screamed and threw herself at Mr. Crouch's feet, "No, Master! No clothes, no clothes!"

"What do you mean by clothes?" Aaron asked in a low voice to Harry next to him.

"Freedom," Harry explained. "If a house elf's owner gives it a piece of clothing, it means it is free."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Aaron watched as Twinkle clutched her tea towel tightly and cried at Mr. Crouch's feet.That doesn't look like a slave gaining freedom.

"The house elves don't think so," Harry whispered. "They think it means they have been kicked out of their home by their master, which is a shame."

"Well, their ideas are really weird." Aaron said that he couldn't understand the ideas of house elves at all.

Harry agreed.

"She was terrified!" Hermione glared at Mr. Crouch and said angrily, "Your house elf is afraid of heights, and those masked wizards made people hang in the air. Stay! It’s understandable that she wants to escape from them, you can’t blame her!”

Mr. Crouch stepped back, freeing himself from the elf.He looked down at Twinkle as if she were some filthy, rotten thing staining his polished shoes.He looked at Hermione and said coldly: "I don't need a house elf who disobeys my orders. I don't need a servant who forgets to obey his master's wishes and uphold his honor."

Twinkle was crying so hard that her cries echoed in the clearing.

After another very embarrassing silence, Mr. Weasley said softly: "Well, if no one objects, I will take my people back to the tent. Amos, the wand has already known it We've all been told, if you can give it back to Harry, please..."

Mr. Diggory handed the wand to Harry, who pocketed it.

"Come on, you four," Mr. Weasley whispered.But Hermione seemed unwilling to move, her eyes still falling on the crying elf.

"Hermione!" Mr. Weasley's tone became more urgent.

Hermione turned and followed Aaron, Harry, and Ron out of the clearing and through the woods.

"What will happen to Winky?" Hermione asked once they had left the clearing.

"I don't know," said Mr. Weasley.

"Why did they treat her like that!" Hermione said angrily. "Mr. Diggory kept calling her a 'goblin'... and Mr. Crouch! He knew it wasn't her, but he still had to expel her. ! He doesn’t care how scared or sad she is... He doesn’t regard her as a human being at all!"

"Well, she's not human in the first place." Ron said.

Hermione immediately turned on him: "That doesn't mean she doesn't have feelings, Ron. They're disgusting, that..."

"Hermione, I agree with you." Mr. Weasley said quickly, motioning for her to move on, "but now is not the time to discuss the rights of elves. I hope we can get back to the tent as soon as possible. How about everyone else? Already?"

"We got separated from them in the dark," said Ron. "Dad, why is everyone so nervous about that skeleton?"

"I'll explain it to you when we get back to the tent," Mr. Weasley said anxiously.

But when they reached the edge of the woods, they encountered an obstacle.A large group of frightened wizards were gathering there. Seeing Mr. Weasley walking towards them, many people pushed forward.

"What's going on over there?"

"Who made that mark?"

"Arthur...could it be...him?"

"Of course it's not him," Mr. Weasley said impatiently. "We don't know who it is. It looks like they've disapparated. Okay, everyone, please get out of the way. Please, I want to go back to sleep."

He led Aaron, Harry, Ron and Hermione through the crowd and back to the camp.Now everything is quiet, there are no more shadows of the masked wizards, only a few destroyed tents are still smoking.

Charlie poked his head out of the boys' tent.He shouted in the darkness: "Dad, what's going on? Fred, George and Ginny are all back safely, but they..."

"I brought them all back," said Mr. Weasley, bending into the tent.

Aaron, Harry, Ron and Hermione followed him in.

Bill was sitting at the small dining table, with a sheet covering his arm, from where blood was bubbling.Charlie's shirt was torn wide, and Percy showed off his bleeding nose.Fred, George and Ginny appeared to be safe, but in shock.

"Did you catch them, Dad?" Bill asked. "The ones who made that mark?"

"No," said Mr. Weasley. "We discovered that Barty Crouch's house elf had Harry's wand, but we have no idea who conjured the mark."

"What?" Bill, Charlie and Percy asked in unison.

"Harry's wand?" said Fred.

"Mr. Crouch's house elf?" Percy sounded shocked.

Mr. Weasley, with the help of Aaron, Harry, Ron and Hermione, told everyone exactly what happened in the woods.

After they finished speaking, Percy gasped with anger: "If you ask me, Mr. Crouch should get rid of such a house elf! The master clearly told her to stay put, but she ran away...still there To embarrass the owner in front of so many Ministry officials... it would be too much if she was taken to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures for questioning..."

"She didn't do anything! She just shouldn't have been in that place at that time!" Hermione snapped back at Percy, surprising him.

"Hermione, a wizard in Mr. Crouch's position can't afford the responsibility if his house elf is running around with a wand!" Percy said arrogantly as he returned to normal.

"She wasn't messing around!" shouted Hermione, "she just picked up the wand off the floor!"

"Okay, okay, can anyone explain what that skeleton is?" Ron said impatiently, "It didn't hurt anyone...why is everyone making such a fuss?"

"Let me tell you, that's the symbol of You-Know-Who, Ron." Hermione replied before the others, "I read about it in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."

"It's been 13 years since we saw it." Mr. Weasley said softly. "People are naturally very nervous... It's almost like seeing the mysterious man again."

"I don't understand." Ron frowned and said, "I mean... after all, this is just a shadow in mid-air..."

"Ron, every time You-Know-Who and his followers kill someone, they have to display the Dark Mark in the air." Mr. Weasley said, "The fear it brings... you don't know, you are too young. You Imagine you come home and find the Dark Mark hovering over your house. You know what you will see when you go in." Mr. Weasley shuddered, "This is everyone's worst fear... is The most fearful thing..."

Then there was a silence.