Chapter 82: The Dark Mark

"Stop!" yelled Mr Weasley. "STOP! That's my son!"

As he and Chris ran towards the place from where the green light just flashed and made the skull mark on the sky. As they cane close the wizard in front of Harry, Ron and Hermione had lowered his wand.

"Ron — Harry," his voice sounded shaky "Hermione — are you all right?"

"Out of the way, Arthur," said a cold, curt voice.

It was Mr. Crouch. He and the other Ministry wizards were clos­ing in on Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Which of you did it?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting be­tween them. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't do that!" said Harry, gesturing up at the skull.

"We didn't do anything!" said Ron, who was rubbing his elbow and looking indignantly at his father. "What did you want to at­tack us for?"

"Do not lie, sir!" shouted Mr. Crouch. His wand was still point­ing directly at Ron, and his eyes were popping — he looked slightly mad. "You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"Barty," whispered a witch in a long woolen dressing gown, "they're kids, Barty, they'd never have been able to —"

"Where did the Mark come from, you three?" said Mr. Weasley quickly.

"Over there," said Hermione shakily, pointing at the place where they had heard the voice. "There was someone behind the trees … they shouted words — an incantation —"

"Oh, stood over there, did they?" said Mr. Crouch, turning his popping eyes on Hermione now, disbelief etched all over his face. "Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, missy —"

"Because she reads books and she saw what happened." Chris said sharply.

"Is it?" Mr Crouch looked at Chris angrily.

But none of the Ministry wizards apart from Mr. Crouch seemed to think it remotely likely that Harry, Ron, or Hermione had conjured the skull; on the contrary, at Hermione's words, they had all raised their wands again and were pointing in the direction she had indicated, squinting through the dark trees.

"We're too late," said the witch in the woolen dressing gown, shaking her head. "They'll have Disapparated."

"I don't think so," said a wizard with a scrubby brown beard. It was Amos Diggory, Cedric's father. "Our Stunners went right through those trees. … There's a good chance we got them. …"

"Amos, be careful!" said a few of the wizards warningly as Mr. Diggory squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness. Chris watched him vanish behind the trees.

"Where's Fred? He was with you." Chris asked Harry.

"No idea." Harry replied.

A few seconds later, they heard Mr. Diggory shout.

"Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's — but — blimey …"

"You've got someone?" shouted Mr. Crouch, sounding highly disbelieving. "Who? Who is it?"

They heard snapping twigs, the rustling of leaves, and then crunching footsteps as Mr. Diggory reemerged from behind the trees. He was carrying a tiny, limp figure in his arms. Chris recog­nized the the figure, it was the same house-elf she saw sometime ago. It was Winky.

Mr. Crouch did not move or speak as Mr. Diggory deposited his elf on the ground at his feet. The other Ministry wizards were all staring at Mr. Crouch. For a few seconds Crouch remained trans­fixed, his eyes blazing in his white face as he stared down at Winky. Then he appeared to come to life again.

"This — cannot — be," he said jerkily. "No —"

He moved quickly around Mr. Diggory and strode off toward the place where he had found Winky.

"No point, Mr. Crouch," Mr. Diggory called after him. "There's no one else there."

But Mr. Crouch did not seem prepared to take his word for it. They could hear him moving around and the rustling of leaves as he pushed the bushes aside, searching.

"Bit embarrassing," Mr. Diggory said grimly, looking down at Winky's unconscious form. "Barty Crouch's house-elf … I mean to say …"

"Come off it, Amos," said Mr. Weasley quietly, "you don't seriously think it was the elf? The Dark Mark's a wizard's sign. It requires a wand."

"Yeah," said Mr. Diggory, "and she had a wand."

"What?" said Mr. Weasley.

"Here, look." Mr. Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Mr. Weasley. "Had it in her hand. So that's clause three of the Code of Wand Use broken, for a start. No non-human creature is permitted to carry or use a wand."

Just then there was another pop, and Ludo Bagman Apparated right next to Mr. Weasley. Looking breathless and disorientated, he spun on the spot, goggling upward at the emerald-green skull.

"The Dark Mark!" he panted, almost trampling Winky as he turned inquiringly to his colleagues. "Who did it? Did you get them? Barty! What's going on?"

Mr. Crouch had returned empty-handed. His face was still ghostly white, and his hands and his toothbrush mustache were both twitching.

"Where have you been, Barty?" said Bagman. "Why weren't you at the match? Your elf was saving you a seat too — gulping gar­goyles!" Bagman had just noticed Winky lying at his feet. "What happened to her?"

"I have been busy, Ludo," said Mr. Crouch, still talking in the same jerky fashion, barely moving his lips. "And my elf has been stunned."

"Stunned? By you lot, you mean? But why — ?"

Comprehension dawned suddenly on Bagman's round, shiny face; he looked up at the skull, down at Winky, and then at Mr. Crouch.

"No!" he said. "Winky? Conjure the Dark Mark? She wouldn't know how! She'd need a wand, for a start!"

"And she had one," said Mr. Diggory. "I found her holding one, Ludo. If it's all right with you, Mr. Crouch, I think we should hear what she's got to say for herself."

Crouch gave no sign that he had heard Mr. Diggory, but Mr. Diggory seemed to take his silence for assent. He raised his own wand, pointed it at Winky, and said, "Rennervate!"

Winky stirred feebly. Her great brown eyes opened and she blinked several times in a bemused sort of way. Watched by the silent wizards, she raised herself shakily into a sitting position. She caught sight of Mr. Diggory's feet, and slowly, tremulously, raised her eyes to stare up into his face; then, more slowly still, she looked up into the sky. Chris could see the floating skull reflected twice in her enormous, glassy eyes. She gave a gasp, looked wildly around the crowded clearing, and burst into terrified sobs.

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

Winky began to rock backward and forward on the ground, her breath coming in sharp bursts.

"As you see, elf, the Dark Mark was conjured here a short while ago," said Mr. Diggory. "And you were discovered moments later, right beneath it! An explanation, if you please!"

"I — I — I is not doing it, sir!" Winky gasped. "I is not know­ing how, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" barked Mr. Dig­gory, brandishing it in front of her.

Chris was about to say something but Harry interrupted suddenly, "Hey — that's mine!"

Everyone in the clearing looked at him.

"Excuse me?" said Mr. Diggory, incredulously.

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

"You dropped it?" repeated Mr. Diggory in disbelief. "Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?"

"Excuse me Mr Diggory but he said he dropped it, which is true. He lost the wand when we were running from our tents." Chris said with a straight face and a bold voice.

"And Amos, think who you're talking to!" said Mr. Weasley, very an­grily. "Is Harry Potter likely to conjure the Dark Mark?"

"Er — of course not," mumbled Mr. Diggory. "Sorry … car­ried away … so... You found this wand, eh, elf? And you picked it up and thought you'd have some fun with it, did you?"

"I is not doing magic with it, sir!" squealed Winky, tears stream­ing down the sides of her squashed and bulbous nose. "I is … I is … I is just picking it up, sir! I is not making the Dark Mark, sir, I is not knowing how!"

"It wasn't her!" said Hermione. She looked very nervous, speak­ing up in front of all these Ministry wizards, yet determined all the same. "Winky's got a squeaky little voice, and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!" She looked around at Harry and Ron, appealing for their support. "It didn't sound any­thing like Winky, did it?"

"No," said Harry, shaking his head. "It definitely didn't sound like an elf."

"Yeah, it was a human voice," said Ron.

"Well, we'll soon see," growled Mr. Diggory, looking unim­pressed. "There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?"

Winky trembled and shook her head frantically, her ears flap­ping, as Mr. Diggory raised his own wand again and placed it tip to tip with Harry's.

"Prior Incantato!" roared Mr. Diggory.

Chris heard Hermione gasp, horrified, as a gigantic serpent-tongued skull erupted from the point where the two wands met, but it was a mere shadow of the green skull high above them; it looked as though it were made of thick gray smoke: the ghost of a spell.

"Deletrius!" Mr. Diggory shouted, and the smoky skull vanished in a wisp of smoke.

"So," said Mr. Diggory with a kind of savage triumph, looking down upon Winky, who was still shaking convulsively.

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"I is not doing it!" she squealed, her eyes rolling in terror. "I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is a good elf, I isn't using wands, I isn't knowing how!"

"You've been caught red-handed, elf!" Mr. Diggory roared. "Caught with the guilty wand in your hand!"

"Amos," said Mr. Weasley loudly, "think about it … precious few wizards know how to do that spell. … Where would she have learned it?"

"Perhaps Amos is suggesting," said Mr. Crouch, cold anger in every syllable, "that I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?"

There was a deeply unpleasant silence. Amos Diggory looked horrified. "Mr. Crouch … not … not at all …"

"You have now come very close to accusing the two people in this clearing who are least likely to conjure that Mark!" barked Mr. Crouch. "Harry Potter — and myself! I suppose you are familiar with the boy's story, Amos?"

"Of course — everyone knows —" muttered Mr. Diggory, look­ing highly discomforted.

"And I trust you remember the many proofs I have given, over a long career, that I despise and detest the Dark Arts and those who practice them?" Mr. Crouch shouted, his eyes bulging again.

"Mr. Crouch, I — I never suggested you had anything to do with it!" Amos Diggory muttered again, now reddening behind his scrubby brown beard.

"If you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory!" shouted Mr. Crouch. "Where else would she have learned to conjure it?"

"She — she might've picked it up anywhere —"

"Precisely, Amos," said Mr. Weasley. "She might have picked it up anywhere. … Winky?" he said kindly, turning to the elf, but she flinched as though he too was shouting at her. "Where exactly did you find Harry's wand?"

Winky was twisting the hem of her tea towel so violently that it was fraying beneath her fingers.

"I — I is finding it … finding it there, sir. …" she whispered, "there … in the trees, sir. …"

"You see, Amos?" said Mr. Weasley. "Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Harry's wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up."

"But then, she'd have been only a few feet away from the real culprit!" said Mr. Diggory impatiently. "Elf? Did you see anyone?"

Winky began to tremble worse than ever. Her giant eyes flick­ered from Mr. Diggory, to Ludo Bagman, and onto Mr. Crouch. Then she gulped and said, "I is seeing no one, sir … no one …"

"Amos," said Mr. Crouch curtly, "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her."

Mr. Diggory looked as though he didn't think much of this sug­gestion at all, but it was clear to Chris that Mr. Crouch was such an important member of the Ministry that he did not dare refuse him.

"You may rest assured that she will be punished," Mr. Crouch added coldly.

"M-m-master …" Winky stammered, looking up at Mr. Crouch, her eyes brimming with tears. "M-m-master, p-p-please …"

Mr. Crouch stared back, his face somehow sharpened, each line upon it more deeply etched. There was no pity in his gaze.

"Winky has behaved tonight in a manner I would not have be­lieved possible," he said slowly. "I told her to remain in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes."

"No!" shrieked Winky, prostrating herself at Mr. Crouch's feet. "No, master! Not clothes, not clothes!"

Chris knew that the only way to turn a house-elf free was to pre­sent it with proper garments. It was pitiful to see the way Winky clutched at her tea towel as she sobbed over Mr. Crouch's feet.

"But she was frightened!" Hermione burst out angrily, glaring at Mr. Crouch. "Your elf's scared of heights, and those wizards in masks were levitating people! You can't blame her for wanting to get out of their way!"

Mr. Crouch took a step backward, freeing himself from contact with the elf, whom he was surveying as though she were something filthy and rotten that was contaminating his over-shined shoes.

"I have no use for a house-elf who disobeys me," he said coldly, looking over at Hermione. "I have no use for a servant who forgets what is due to her master, and to her master's reputation."

Hermione clenched her fist tightly seeing Winky sobbing like that.

"He's just wanted to get rid of Winky, Hermione. There's nothing we can do about it." Chris said.

"What?" Hermione looked at her so as the others.

"Well it's clear, isn't? Mr Crouch asked Winky to stay in the tent and the masked wizards were burning the tents but Winky tried to save her life and maybe for the first time she disobeyed him." Chris said calmly. "But now Mr Crouch is disowning her because she tried to save her life rather than obeying her master. It's clear that Winky didn't conjured that dark mark but she is still getting punishment so that no one can think that Mr Crouch supported his house-elf, anyhow."

Hearing this everyone looked at Chris in disbelief. There was only Winky's sobbing sounds.

"Did you just accused me, girl?" Mr Crouch barked in rage.

"No. I said what I understood." Chris said so calmly that no one able to speak against it. Not even Mr Crouch. Chris knew it because of her aura, she was starting to understand her aura and it's effect on others.

There was a very nasty silence, which was ended by Mr. Weasley, who said quietly, "Well, I think I'll take my lot back to the tent, if nobody's got any objections. Amos, that wand's told us all it can — if Harry could have it back, please —"

Mr. Diggory handed Harry his wand and Harry pocketed it.

"Come on," Mr. Weasley said quietly. But Hermione didn't seem to want to move; her eyes were still upon the sobbing elf. "Hermione!" Mr. Weasley said, more urgently. She turned and followed Chris, Harry and Ron out of the clearing and off through the trees.

Chris felt the gazes of those Ministry people, on her as she walked away.

"What's going to happen to Winky?" said Hermione, the mo­ment they had left the clearing.

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

"The way they were treating her! I think Chris is right." said Hermione furiously. "Mr. Diggory, calling her 'elf' all the time … and Mr. Crouch! He knows she didn't do it and he's still going to sack her! He didn't care how frightened she'd been, or how upset she was — it was like she wasn't even human!"

"Well, she's not," said Ron.

Hermione rounded on him.

"That doesn't mean she hasn't got feelings, Ron. It's disgusting the way —"

"Hermione, I agree with you," said Mr. Weasley quickly, beck­oning her on, "but now is not the time to discuss elf rights. I want to get back to the tent as fast as we can and... Chris!"

Chris knew what Mr Weasley was going to say so she quickly said, "I'm sorry Mr Weasley. I know Mr Crouch is an important member of the Ministry. But I couldn't help after observing his behaviour. Sorry about that."

Mr Weasley nodded and they walked towards the tent in complete silence.

___________________________________

After a long conversation about the dark mark in the sky, which was actually Voldemort's signature mark; and about Winky and the Death Eaters; Chris, Ginny and Hermione went back to there tent.

"I'm not falling asleep after this." Ginny said sitting on a bed.

"Me too." Hermione replied sinking beside her.

It was nearly three in the morning.

"Do you know where Riddle got the idea of the skull and snake thing?" Chris said sitting on a chair.

Hermione and Ginny looked at her, surprised.

"Do you've to call him Riddle?" Ginny's asked, uncomfortably.

"Yeah because I'm out of option. You asked me to not to call his original name and You-Know-Who sounds like giving him too much importance. So Tom Riddle is perfect to piss him off. You know it's his muggle father's name." Chris said. "You should've seen his face in Chamber of Secrets when he told us this."

Ginny sighed, "Only you can think like this. Go on."

"So how he got the idea?" Hermione asked curiously.

"I think he got the idea when he first time saw the Basilisk coming out from the mouth of the Salazar Slytherin's statue." Chris replied casually.

"You mean which was in the Chamber of Secrets?" Ginny asked.

"I think so."

"Chris what do think? Why did someone or some Death Eater conjured that dark mark?" Hermione asked.

"Well... I guess... someone was trying to know if the other Death Eaters who lied to the Ministry to save themselves after Riddle's downfall; were still loyal to Riddle or not." Chris said thinking. "But it's just my personal opinion."

Hermione nodded, then sighed; "I still can't believe, Mr Crouch did that to Winky. It hurts to see the house-elves like this."

"I know I felt bad for Winky too. But the more I think about it... I found Mr Crouch as a suspicious character." Chris said absent-mindedly.

"Why?" Ginny asked. "The way Percy describes him.. He seems a Perfect person."

"That's the actual problem, Ginny." Chris said with a sigh. "It's impossible. No one can be perfect. We all make some bad decisions in our life, we all do mistakes, we all have our flaws, we all are imperfect and that's normal. And if someone seems like absolutely perfect that means that person is faking it.. which is more dangerous."

Hermione and Ginny stared at Chris for a long time.

But Chris was determined this time, she was not going to ignore her feelings. Last time she ignored it, thinking Pettigrew as a rat which was a big mistake. She wasn't going to repeat her mistakes.

With a sigh Chris climbed in her bed, "I'm taking a little rest. I think you should too."

Laying in bed, while staring the canvas ceiling of the tent; she thought about that cold scary voice.

'Can it be the same person who conjured that dark mark and grabbed her in the wood? Or was it Voldemort himself? If not then who was it? Who wants Harry dead more than Voldemort? But then why Voldemort wants her to be dead too? Of course Voldemort wants to kill every person who is potential threat to him; but why that warning? Why warn her like that? It's not like he cared about anyone else other than himself.' Lots and lots of thoughts filled Chris's brain as she closed her eyes.