Percy Jackson. Hogwarts, Here She Comes

"She didn't do it."

~How true is that?~

"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 hear him moving around and the rustling of leaves as he pushed the bushes aside, searching. 

"Bit embarrassing," Mr. Diggory called after him. "There's no one else there."

But Mr. Crouch did not seem prepared to take his word for it. Seph scoffed to herself as she looked anywhere but the scene in front of her. She listened in, apparently the elf had a wand. She looked over to where she heard a pop, there Ludo Bagman stood looking breathless and disorientated he had turned to look up and face the giant green, floating space. He started demanding answers but Mr. Crouch had nothing. She looked around the forest, trying to noticed anything out of the ordinary. Nothing, hopefully. It's not like she spends her free hours sitting and mapping out a forest. She looked back over to Winky where they had unstunned her.

Seph was so used to taking the lead from the past years, it's odd watching someone else do it. But she bit her lip and hled back, sticking to her plan of just watching and observing as helping out where she could. She actually enjoyed it. It wasn't about her and the world didn't feel so much like it was on her shoulders. She could enjoy herself.

"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 doing 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. And as the wand caught the green light that was filling the clearing from it, Seph recognized it. Her eyebrows creasing together as she saw who's wand it was.

"Hey - that's mine!" Harry said.

Everyone turned to look at him.

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

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

Seph stared at the short elf, judging her.

"She didn't do it," Seph spoke out, interrupting them.

"Excuse me?" asked Mr. Diggory. Hermione turned to Seph with semi grateful eyes. She was going to say the same thing.

"Well, one. She's wouldn't know how to use a wand from the No non-human creature is permitted to carry or use a wand, the Code of Wand Use, how would would she know how to use wizard magic?" Seph started.

"Well," Hermione started and Seph put a finger up to her to tell her to stop.

"Don't help," Seph said in the same tone as she started talking with. "Second it was males voice who yelled, deeper than her squeaky high pitched one."

"It's true," Hermione agreed, looking slightly nervous.

"No," Harry started. "It definitely didn't sound like an elf."

"Yeah, it was a human voice," Ron said. Seph stared at the shaking elf as Mr. Digger explained a spell that could check the last spell used on a wand. She wondered how often the used that spell.

"Prior Incantato!" roared Mr. Diggory, and Seph couldn't think about how loud he was. It hurt her ears. She watched the two wands meet and a ghost of the dark mark appeared before fading. Seph couldn't help but take a step back at the sight. "Deletrius!" Mr. Diggory shouted and the skull vanished. "So," he started in a sort of savage triumph.

"I is not doing it!" Winky squealed, her eyes rolling in terror. "I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is 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," Mr. Weasley said loudly. "Think about it... precious few wizards know how to do that spell... Where would she have learned it?"

"Perhaps Amos is suggesting," 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. Seph watched as the rest interacted. How Winky found Harry's wand in the trees, and how she would be punished, something about clothes. She watched Hermione stand up for the small elf. She stayed silent, not really knowing how to add anything in. So she just waited until they left.

They walked out of the clearing, Hermione going on a short rant on how they were treating Winky. Seph walked next to Mr. Weasley, they were silent on their trek back to the tent.

"Mr. Weasley?" she asked him, he turned his head to face her. "Was that his symbol? I've heard of him but, I didn't really know."

"It was Seph," Arthur told her. "Anyway, we are almost there."

The conversation ended as soon as they saw the tent. She walked with them. She walked over to where the twins and Ginny sat - slightly shaken up - sitting on the ground near George's feet and she leaned against his leg in a tired manner. Arthur told them what happened and they asked a few questions. Though Seph's mind ran far from their conversation, well sort of. She wondered if it wasn't Winky and the elf was telling the truth, then who did it? Why? Well, she could give a guess. Looking back on the past few years from what she's been told it very possibly be him, but she doubted it would be him who conjured it. She couldn't help but give a little laugh at the name Death Eaters, eaters of death. Who would want to do that? Ginny gave her an odd look but looked to her father as he continued talking.

Arthur ended the conversation by telling everyone to go to bed. So she got up walking over to where she should've fallen asleep but her rind only raced with possibilities of things that could happen until it overpowered and wore her out until her mind was blank. 

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So...... how's everyone's day going? Or night? Or whatever time it is for you. 

I'm back. How bout that? After two months... heh.

Bye... I'll update soon. ~ Bella