[HP] Guardian

Screams erupted from the woods around them.Harry turned around and glanced at Malfoy, whose face was as white as paper and eyes full of horror, he didn't say anything, he put his arms around Malfoy's shoulders, and led him away from the place.

"Go, it's the Dark Mark!" Harry yelled at Hermione who had already reacted, "Voldemort's symbol!"

Malfoy shook his body, Harry pulled him back and didn't speak anymore, the brooch on his chest was shining with silver light, Harry knew it was Sirius and he didn't care, he couldn't drag Sirius who just came out of Azkaban into this place thing.Ron hurriedly picked up his Krum figurine from the ground, and the four of them started across the clearing.But they only took a few steps in a panic when they heard a series of popping sounds, and twenty wizards descended from the sky and surrounded them.

Harry took a quick glance. It was the Ministry of Magic, and the wizards had all drawn their wands, each pointing at them.

"Get away" without thinking, he quickly yelled, he pushed Malfoy away, grabbed the other two, and dragged them to the ground.

"Damned!" Twenty voices shouted at the same time.Then there was a series of blinding flashes, and Harry felt his hair move and heave, like a strong wind blowing across the clearing.He gritted his teeth and resisted not fighting back. He raised his head slightly and saw streaks of burning red light shoot out from the wizard's wand, crossed each other above their heads, hit the tree trunk, and were bounced into the darkness again.

"Stop!" cried a familiar voice. "Stop! That's my son!"

Harry was relieved when he heard Arthur's voice. He got up from the ground and pulled Malfoy up by the way. The platinum bird's clothes were torn and his face was dirty. He obviously didn't respond. Coming over, looking at him with a blank mind, Harry saw his stupid face holding back a smile and didn't speak.Arthur came striding towards them, looking terrified.

"Ron, Harry," his voice trembled, "Hermione, are you all right?"

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

It's Barty Crouch.He and the other wizarding officials of the Ministry surrounded him, and Crouch scowled with rage.

"Which of you did this?" he snapped, his piercing eyes flicking between the four of them. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't do anything!" said Ron, rubbing his elbows and looking at his father angrily. "Why are you attacking us?"

"Don't lie, sir!" Crouch said.He was still pointing his wand at Ron, his eyes were about to pop out, and he looked a little crazy. "You were found at the crime scene!"

"Barty," whispered a witch in a long woolen dressing gown "they're children, Batty, there's no way they'll be"

"You four, where did this mark come from?" Arthur asked anxiously.

"Over there," said Hermione in a trembling voice, pointing to where they had just seen "there was a man behind the tree... he spoke loudly and said a spell"

"Oh, they're standing there, aren't they?" said Crouch, turning his bulging eyes to Hermione again, suspicion written all over his face. "And they cast a spell, didn't they? Mark knows it very well, miss"

"Yes, sir." Harry said gently to help Hermione out, "We all saw that a man cast a spell and quickly ran away wearing an invisibility cloak."

Crouch's face changed, apparently thinking of his son, he rushed up alone, and several people from the Ministry of Magic followed him into the woods.

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

"It's done! Got it! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's... ouch... God..."

"You caught someone?" Crouch came out from the forest and hurriedly shouted, "Who is who?"

They heard the snapping of branches, the rustling of fallen leaves, and the crunch of footsteps as Diggory came out from behind the bushes.He held a small limp body in his arms.It's Winky.

Crouch watched Digory put his house-elf at his feet, and he didn't move or speak.The rest of the Ministry officials stared at Crouch.For several seconds, Crouch stood motionless, as if frozen, his pale face staring intently at Winky on the ground with fire-breathing eyes.Then, he seemed to come back to himself.

"This...impossible...impossible" he said after a pause, "impossible..."

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

"It's no use, Mr. Crouch," Digory called after him, "there's no one else there"

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

"It's kind of embarrassing," Digory said sternly, looking down at Winky's delirious figure. "Barty Crouch's house-elf...I mean..."

"Stop talking nonsense, Amos," Arthur whispered, "Do you really think that the Dark Mark made by an elf is a wizard's symbol. It requires a wand."

"Yes, she has a wand!"

"What?" said Arthur.

"Here, you see" Mr. Diggory raised a wand and handed it to Arthur. Do not carry or use wands"

Malfoy clearly recognized his wand, biting his lip and shaking his hands.Just then, with another poof, Bagman apparated next to Arthur.Bagman was out of breath and looked dazed.He turned around on the spot, staring at the emerald green skeleton in the air.

"The Dark Mark!" he gasped, turning to look at his colleague questioningly, almost stepping on top of Winky.

Crouch returned empty-handed.His face was still ghastly white, and his hands and toothbrush mustache were twitching.

"Where have you been, Buddy?" Bagman asked. "Why didn't you come to the game, and your house elf took a seat for you... oh my god!" Lying at his feet "what's the matter with her"

"I've been busy as hell, Ludo," Crouch continued, his lips barely moving. "My house-elf was stunned."

"Being stunned by someone, you mean, why are you people..."

A look of sudden enlightenment came over Bagman's round shiny face.He looked up at the skeleton, then down at Winky, and finally his eyes fell on Crouch.

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

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

Crouch was unresponsive, as if he hadn't heard Digory, and Digory seemed to take his silence for acquiescence.He raised his wand, pointed at Winky and said, "Resuscitate!"

Winky moved feebly.The bell-like brown eyes opened, and she blinked hard, dazed.Under the silent eyes of the wizards, she sat up tremblingly.She saw Diggory's feet, and slowly, tremblingly, she raised her eyes to his face, and then, more slowly, to the night sky above.The image of the floating skeleton was reflected in her two big dull eyes.She gasped, looked dazedly at the people gathered in the open space, and then suddenly cried out of fear.

"Elf!" said Digory sternly. "Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Fantastic 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," Digory said. "After a while, we found you, just under the mark! Please give us an explanation!" "

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

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

"Ah...that's ours, someone stole our wand before!" said Harry.Everyone in the clearing turned to look at him.

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

"That's my friend's wand!" said Harry.Malfoy's face paled even more, and he lowered his head and took a step back, obviously horrified by Harry's pointing out.Harry noticed the situation, he reached out and pulled Malfoy to his side, patted his arm as a reassurance, "I saw someone stealing the wand, that's why the three of us will protect him all the way"

"Someone stole it?" Diggory repeated suspiciously. "Are you sure he didn't throw away the wand after conjuring the mark?"

"Of course not, sir. We've been together, and we've all seen it, a grown man cast a spell, I thought he was going to attack us, so I cast a disarming spell on him, he stole my friend's wand" ha Leigh squinted at Diggory, "Do you think I'm lying, sir? Or are the three of us hallucinating? But it's a pity that when we came over, we met Beauxbaton's students. They all knew about my friend's wand. lost, if necessary, you can ask in person”

"Amos! That's enough, you think Harry Potter would cover up a man who conjures the Dark Mark" Arthur interrupted his pressing question.

"I'm just afraid that they will be deceived because they are young." Diggory glanced at Malfoy, apparently weighing the cost of offending the Malfoy family, and finally just pursed his lips.Turning his eyes to Shining curled up at his feet again, his eyes became cold.

"So. Goblin, you stole this wand?" Diggory inspected Winky, completely ignoring Harry's words.

"I didn't steal...I...I just picked it up" Winky cried anxiously, it is illegal for elves to steal wands.

"Whether it's stolen or not, you can tell at a glance, flash back and flash the curse!" Digory yelled as he linked his wand with Malfoy's.At the same time, I saw a very terrifying skeleton spitting out snake letters emerging from the place where the two magic wands joined. It was a magical ghost.

"Disappear without a trace!" Digory yelled, and the skeleton made of smoke turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared.Then he took Harry's wand and cast the Flashback Charm in the same way, making sure it was Harry's wand that had disarmed Draco's wand.

"How do you say that?" Digory looked at Winky under his feet with a cruelly smug expression.Winky was still shaking violently. "You were caught red-handed, goblin! Caught with this criminal wand in your hand!"

"Amos," Arthur said aloud, "they said they saw a grown man, and you see... the wizard who could cast that spell was a very rare one... Where did she learn it?"

"Perhaps Digory is suggesting," said Crouch, with icy anger in every syllable, "that I regularly teach my servants to make the Dark Mark."

There was a very oppressive silence.Digory seemed frightened. "Mr. Crouch... no... definitely not..."

"Until now, you have used almost obvious language to accuse me for no reason, and you have determined that the grown man they saw was me? Amos" Crouch said angrily.

"I'm sure you remember that throughout my long career, there's been plenty of evidence that I've always loathed and hated the Dark Arts, and all those who practice them, don't you?" cried Crouch, his eyes bulging again. come out.

"Crouch, I... I never suggested you had anything to do with it!" muttered Diggory, his face flushed from behind his brown beard.

"You're accusing my elf, you're accusing me, Digory!" cried Crouch, "otherwise where would she learn such magic?"

Harry watched them dog-eat-dog with cold eyes. This group of high-level officials in the Ministry of Magic had no other skills, and it was very powerful to criticize each other for digging holes.

As an innocent victim, Winky was eventually expelled by Crouch. Winky cried so sadly that her cries echoed in the open space.There was another embarrassing silence.

"Well, if there's no objection, I'll take my men back to the tent. Amos, the wand has told us all it knows... If you can return it to them, please..." Digory handed them both wands, which Harry put back in his sleeve and Malfoy pocketed.

"Come on, you four," Arthur whispered.But Hermione seemed unwilling to move, her eyes still on the weeping elf. "Hermione!" said Arthur, more urgently.Hermione turned and followed them out of the clearing, through the woods.

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

"I don't know," Arthur said.

"How they treated her like that!" said Hermione angrily. "Mr. Diggory keeps calling her a 'goblin'... and Mr. Crouch! He knows she didn't do it, and yet he's going to fire her! He No matter how scared and sad she is...he doesn't treat her as a human being at all!"

"Well, isn't she a human?" said Ron.Hermione immediately turned to attack him.

"That doesn't mean she doesn't have feelings, Ron. It's disgusting that they're like that, and..."

"Hermione, I agree with you," Arthur said quickly, motioning her to move on, "but now is not the time to discuss the rights of elves. I hope we get back to the tent as soon as possible. What about the others?"

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

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

But when they reached the edge of the wood, they encountered obstacles.A large crowd of wizards with terrified faces gathered there, and many of them pushed forward when they saw Arthur coming towards them.

"What's going on over there?"

"Who made that mark?"

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

"Of course not him," Arthur said impatiently, "we don't know who it is, it looks like they've disapparated. Well, please move away, please, I want to go back to sleep"

He led the four of them through the crowd and back to the camp.Now everything is quiet, there are no shadows of those masked wizards anymore, only a few destroyed tents are still smoking.

Charlie poked his head out of the boys' tent.

"Dad, what's going on?" he called out in the dark. "Sirius brought Fred, George, and Ginny back safely, but they..."

"Harry! Are you all right!" Sirius burst out of the tent, clearly horrified at the loss of his godson.

"I brought them all back, go in and say," said Mr. Weasley, stooping into the tent.

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.

They were about to ask, only to find that there was one more person.Then everyone shut their mouths, and the atmosphere seemed a little weird.

"Where is your tent? Or tell your father to come and pick you up?" Arthur was dizzy and realized that he had brought an extra child back.

"No, I'll go back by myself." Malfoy calmed down and returned to his obnoxious look. He looked at the crowded tent with a disgusted expression on his face.

"Mr. Weasley, please contact his father to lead the people. Malfoy will go to my tent to rest first." Harry interrupted Malfoy's refusal. "Your face is so dirty that you can't tell. Are you sure you go back like this, Your parents still recognize you"

Amidst the laughter in the tent, Malfoy blushed and was dragged into his tent by Harry.

Harry went back to his tent and found a new handkerchief, and used a charm to heat the water in the pot. Now that the venue is in a mess, no one can control minors using charms.

Harry handed Malfoy the handkerchief, pointed to the mirror, and told him to wipe it himself.He poured two more glasses of milk to heat up, took one for himself, and put one on the table for Malfoy.

"Thank you" Malfoy thanked him stiffly, he peeked at Harry's expression in the mirror with a troubled face, as if he was ready to fight back his ridicule at any time.

"Yes," Harry replied, as usual, without any response.Malfoy's face in the mirror bit his lower lip unhappily, and opened his mouth as if to say something, but his pride made him feel good enough to say thank you.

Not long after, Sirius, who was obviously worried about him, followed.Malfoy was here, and he didn't say anything, Harry didn't bother to pay attention to the big and small eyes of the two of them, and continued to read the book by himself.This awkward atmosphere didn't stop until later, when Lucius came to pick him up in person.Harry didn't intend to send Malfoy off, so he went back to sleep in the back room while snorting alone. Although Sirius had something to ask, he knew it was too late, so he packed up and went back to rest.