Chapter 28 The Dark Mark, a Farce in the Woods

On the dark forest road, Clark was in front, Hermione and Neville were behind, running in a hurry.

"The direction where the Dark Lord's mark appeared just now seems to be Harry and the others..."

Before Hermione finished asking her question, Clark shook his head, "It's not clear yet, let's go over and have a look first."

Because of the riots in the camp, the path in the forest was densely packed with people.

But at this moment, they all raised their heads nervously, looking at the huge skull above the forest. It had risen high now, lighting up the woods like a terrifying neon sign.

The three of Clark continued to walk deeper and deeper into the woods along the dark path, looking for traces of Red, George, Ginny, Ron and Harry.

On the way, they saw a group of goblins fighting against a bag of gold coins in front of them. The Dark Mark in the sky seemed to frighten them and instructed them to divide up the gold coins quickly so that they could break up.

They walked a little further, into a silvery soft light.

Looking through the trees, they saw three slender and beautiful veela standing in a clearing, looking up at the sky with horror on their faces.

Beside the Veela was a group of young wizards, although they were also quite frightened, they were still speaking in very loud voices.

"Don't be afraid, I'm on the Hazardous Creatures Committee and I specialize in killing dragons!" cried one of the young wizards.

"Bah! You're not!" cried his friend. "You wash dishes at the Leaky Cauldron... and I'm a vampire hunter, and I've killed over ninety... Don't worry, I will protect you."

Clark and the others had no intention of exposing these lies, and continued to speed up their pace, going deep into the forest.

On the way, they also ran into Draco Malfoy and his group. This little bully seemed to be frightened by the thing above his head. When he saw Clark and the others, he wanted to come to him for help, but he refused.

After getting rid of the entanglement of Malfoy and the others, they walked for a short time, and finally came not far below the Dark Mark, and saw a clearing in the forest.

However, the situation in the open space at this time does not seem to be very good.

More than 20 tall and burly wizards are forming a circle aggressively, holding wands in their hands and pointing at the open space ahead, as if they are worried that some dangerous figures will rush out there to attack them.

However, in their siege, there were only Harry, Ron, and Sirius Black. Facing the circle of wizards around them, they could only hold their heads in their hands, lie on the ground, and looked at them in disgrace. He looked very embarrassed.

"Stop!" A familiar voice sounded, "Stop! That's my son!"

Some of the wizards in the circle put down their wands upon hearing this. It turned out that Mr. Weasley had strode into the middle of the open space and stood in front of Harry and the others.

"Ron—Harry—" His voice trembled a little, and his expression was terrified, "Sirius—are you all alright?"

"Get out of the way, Arthur," said a cold, emotionless voice.

It was Barty Crouch. He and other wizard officials in the ministry surrounded him, but the wand in his hand was still pointed at Sirius and did not put it down.

"Sirius! Appeared at the scene of the Dark Mark! I knew it, you did it, right?"

he snapped, his piercing eyes flicking between the three of them until they settled on Sirius' face.

"It wasn't my godfather!" Harry said, pointing to the skull above his head.

"We didn't do anything!" Ron stood up with Harry, rubbing his elbows, and looked at his father angrily, "Why are you attacking us?"

"Don't lie, sir!" Crouch was still pointing his wand at Sirius, his eyeballs were about to burst out—he looked a little crazy, "You were found at the crime scene!"

"King Kong is not bad for the Great Walled Lord"

"Especially you,

Sirius, an ex-Death Eater..."

"Mr. Crouch," Clark said, leading Hermione and Neville into the open space, "about the fact that Sirius is not a Death Eater, the Minister has already identified it and published it in the newspaper. You say that, but It's slander!"

"Barty," whispered a witch in a woolen dressing gown, "there are two of them, Batty, there's no way they—"

Barty Crouch snorted angrily, and put down the wand in his hand.

At this time, in order to clear Harry and the others from their suspicions, Mr. Wesley asked anxiously, "You three, where did this mark come from?"

"Over there," Sirius calmly pointed to the grove behind them, "There is someone behind that tree... it should be his spell. Of course, if there is no accident, he should be hit by your spell." fainted."

"Oh, he's just standing there, isn't he?"

Barty Crouch still looked at Sirius with his bulging eyes, doubt written all over his face.

"He said a spell, didn't he? How do you know it so well? Maybe that spell, you must be familiar, Sirius—"

Harry glared at Crouch, and some of the Ministry's wizarding officials frowned.

It seemed that everyone except Crouch thought it was absolutely impossible for Harry, Ron, and Sirius to conjure a skeleton.

After hearing what Sirius said, they raised their wands one by one again, pointed in the direction he pointed, and squinted into the dark bushes.

"Perhaps we're late," said the witch in the wool dressing gown, shaking her head. "There are so many of us. In this case, he should have apparated long ago."

"I don't think so."

A wizard with a short brown beard and a stubble spoke—it was Amos Diggory, Cedric's father.

"We weren't too late, and we fired the Stunning Spell just in time, the guy was probably hit... we might be able to catch him...

"Amos, be careful!"

Several wizards reminded him kindly, and saw Mr. Diggory puffed out his chest, raised his wand, strode across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness.

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

"It's done! Got it! There's a man here! Unconscious! It's—ouch—Jesus . . . "

Mr. Diggory's yelling made everyone outside tense up.

"You caught someone?" Crouch's tone was full of disbelief, "Who? Who is it?"

They heard the snapping of branches, the rustling of fallen leaves, and the creaking of feet, and then Mr. Diggory came out from behind the bushes.

In his arms, still holding a small limp body, Clark recognized the tea towel at a glance. It was the house elf they had seen in the top box of the Quidditch field - Winky.

Harry and the others didn't know what was going on, and watched curiously as Mr. Diggory put the house elf at Barty Crouch's feet.

Mr. Crouch, who has always been known for being strict and disciplined, neither moved nor spoke at the moment.

The other officials of the Ministry of Magic stared at him strangely, which made the atmosphere in the open space even more depressing, and even the insects in the forest were silent.

For a few seconds, Clark thought Crouch had passed out.

After all, he stood there motionless, as if frozen, only the fire-breathing eyes on his pale face were still staring fiercely at Shining on the ground.

Then, he seemed to come back to himself.

"It's—impossible—impossible," he paused, "impossible—"

Crouch no longer had the calmness and composure of the past, and his back, which had been kept straight, also bent down.

He walked around Mr. Diggory in a hurry, not caring that the branches in the forest would tear his clothes and mess up his appearance, and strode towards the place where Shining was found.

"It's no use, Barty," Mr. Diggory called after him, "there's no one else there."

But Crouch didn't seem to pay him any heed, he seemed mortified by the presence of his house-elf at the scene of the crime.

The wizarding officials of the Ministry of Magic in the clearing, together with Clark, heard Crouch walking up and down in the woods, and heard him rustling the leaves as he parted the bushes to look for them.

"It's kind of embarrassing," Mr. Diggory looked down at Winky's delirious figure, "Barty Crouch's house-elf...I mean..."

Harry and the others pricked up their ears.

"Stop that nonsense, Amos," retorted Mr. Wesley in a low voice. "Do you really think the elves did it? The Dark Mark is a wizard's symbol. You need a wand."

"But she also has a wand." Mr. Diggory said helplessly, spreading his hands.

"What?" Mr. Weasley's eyes widened.

"Here it is, you see," Mr. Diggory held up a wand, and handed it to Mr. Wesley. "When I found her, she had this in her hand."

"Then this violates the third rule of the "Guidelines for the Use of Wands": No non-human creature may carry or use a wand." Hermione whispered the legal terms.

Ron gloated from the side and said, "So, Mr. Crouch, who Percy admires the most, the elf in his family broke the law? Is this a cover for criminals?"

Clark glanced at him. This big mouth accidentally told the truth of the matter.

It's a pity that Crouch's character set is so strong that even if Ron guessed the truth, no one would believe him.

While the melon-eaters were secretly observing the development of the situation, there was another puff in the air, and the panting Ludo Bagman apparated next to Mr. Weasley.

As soon as he appeared, he was taken aback by the Dark Mark in the sky, but before he could ask his colleagues around him what was going on, Crouch happened to come back empty-handed.

The chief's face was still terribly pale, his hands and mustache were twitching, and he didn't know whether it was from anger or fear.

"Where have you been, Buddy?" Bagman asked. "Why didn't you come to the game? And your house-elf got you a seat—Jesus!"

Only then did Bagman realize that Winky was lying at his feet, "What's wrong with her?"

Crouch looked at his house elf with a gloomy face, and said word by word, "She was stunned."

"Stunned? You mean, you guys? Why—"

Bagman's shiny round face suddenly showed an expression of enlightenment, his eyes scanned back and forth on the green skull and Winky in the sky, and finally fell on Crouch.

"Impossible!" he said. "Winky? Conjured the Dark Mark? She doesn't know how! First of all, she needs a wand!"

"But she does have a wand," said Mr Diggory, "and I see she has one in her hand, Ludo. If you have no objection, Crouch, I think we ought to hear how she defends herself." .”

Crouch was unresponsive, and seemed not to have heard Mr. Diggory.

And Mr. Diggory seemed to take his silence for acquiescence, so he raised his wand, pointed at Winky, and said, "Resuscitate quickly!"

Shining lying on the ground was hit by the green light, and his body trembled weakly, and then those brown eyes like copper bells opened.

It's just that the expression on her face is still blank, as if she hasn't recovered yet.

"Elf!" said Mr Diggory sharply, "do you know who I am? I am a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Fantastic Creatures!"

Winky was startled by Mr. Diggory's stern voice and trembled a little before realizing where she was at the moment.

She sat up tremblingly, and as soon as she looked up she saw Mr Diggory's feet, and then slowly, tremblingly, she moved her eyes up, over Mr Diggory's face, and put the floating skeleton The image was reflected in her big glassy eyes.

"Hiss~" Winky gasped, looked dazedly at the people surrounding the open space, especially Mr. Crouch with a livid face, and then suddenly burst into tears of fear.

However, Mr. Diggory didn't care about these things. "You saw it too, goblin. Someone conjured the Dark Mark here just now, and you were found under the mark! Do you have anything to explain now?"

"I-I-I didn't, sir!" Winky's voice was full of fear, "I don't know how to change, sir!"

"Don't try to lie to me, you had a wand in your hand when you were found!" growled Mr. Diggory, waving the wand in front of Winky.

At this moment, a weak voice suddenly sounded from the side.

"That wand, sir, it seems to be mine!"

As soon as the words came out, everyone in the open space turned their faces and looked at the person who made the sound.

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

Harry raised his hand in embarrassment under the watchful eyes of everyone, "Sorry, sir, if I'm not mistaken, it should be my wand, I lost it!"