Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

109

"Duck!" Harry ordered as they fell to the ground just in time as the other wizards called out 'Stupefy'. Hermione shrieked as red flares flew around them. 

"Stop!" Yelled a voice they recognized, "STOP! That's my son!" 

Hermione tossed her head up to see Mr. Weasley running in the midst of the group. He hovered over them as he shield them from the other wizards that surrounded them. 

"Ron-- Harry-- Hermione are you all right?" He asked, his voice shaking in fear while he was helping them get to their feet. 

"Out of the way, Arthur!" a cold curt voice demanded. It was Mr. Crouch. He and a few other Ministry wizards were closing in on them. 

"Which of you did it? Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?" He asked them. 

"We didn't do that!" Harry shouted, gesturing to the skull. 

"Don't lie! You've been discovered at the scene of the crime!" Mr. Crouch demanded to them. 

"Barty! They're kids!" a witch in a long woolen dressing gown stated to him, "They'd never have been able to do--" 

"Where did the Mark come from?" Mr. Weasley asked them. 

"Over there!" Ron stated, pointing in the direction they had came from. 

"It was Barty!" Hermione blurted out. 

"I beg your pardon!?" Mr. Crouch asked. 

"Not you, sir! Your son! I saw him standing under the Mark! It had to be him!" Hermione stated to them. 

"Then we might be too late?" said the witch in woolen gown. 

"I don't thinks so," Amos Diggory suddenly spoke up while he went towards the darkness, "Our stunners went right through those trees... there's a good chance we got him..." 

Amos soon disappeared until...

"Blimey! There's someone here... but it's not Barty Crouch Jr." 

"Then who is it?" Mr. Crouch asked. Amos came walking out of the forest carrying a tiny limp figure in his arms. It was Winky. Hermione gasped as she feared something bad happened. 

"This cannot be--" Mr. Crouch mumbled. 

"There's no one else there-- I think the elf actually was the one--" Mr. Diggory started when Mr. Weasley cut him off. 

"Come off it, Amos! You don't seriously think an elf would do it? She would need a wand." 

"And she had a wand." Mr. Diggory claimed. 

"What?"  Mr. Weasley said. 

"Here," He said pulling out a wand and showed it off to everyone, "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." 

"But-- my house-elf? Know how to conjure the Dark Mark? Rubbish!" Mr. Crouch grumbled. 

"I think we should hear what she's got to say for herself," Mr. Diggory claimed as he proceeded to wake her up. 

"It wasn't here, Mr. Weasley," Hermione pleaded for him to know, "It was Barty Crouch Jr. who conjured the sign." 

Winky soon stirred feebly till her eyes widened. 

"Elf! Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. As you see, Elf, the Dark Mark has been conjured here in a short while ago and you were discovered moments later right beneath it, carrying this wand--"