What If?

Chapter 5

The Terror at the Quidditch World Cup

Harry had gone with the Weasley Family and Hermione to the Quidditch World Cup Finals which was held between Bulgaria and Ireland. Sirius in his capacity as the Lord Black and One of the Auror's on duty was already there since the past week. The Match ended with Ireland winning but Bulgaria's star seeker Victor Krum catching the Snitch. As the revelry was going on, everyone heard screams of terror going throughout the camp.
A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. Harry squinted at them. . . . They didn’t seem to have faces. . . . Then he realized that their heads were hooded and their faces masked. High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers,
and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.
More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice Harry saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder. Suddenly one of the men saw him and yelled,"There's Potter!" And raised his wand to curse him before being blasted back into his comrades with a wide arc Stunner sent wordlessly by Harry. The entire group was down and before anything else could happen, with a sweeping motion of his wand, Harry summoned all the portkeys and their wands to him. For good measure, Hermione and Ron sent several Petrification jinxes and Incarcerous jinxes into the crowd. Once they checked the stunned group, the trio stunned them again for good measure, they sat down. There was silence. Harry got to his feet and peered around the tree. It was too dark to see very far, but he could sense somebody standing just beyond the range of his vision.
“Who’s there?” he said.
And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood; and it uttered, not a panicked
shout, but what sounded like a spell.
“MORSMORDRE!”
And something vast, green, and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness Harry’s eyes had been struggling to penetrate; it
flew up over the treetops and into the sky.
“What the — ?” gasped Ron as he sprang to his feet again, staring up at the thing that had appeared. For a split second, Harry thought it was another leprechaun formation. Then he realized that it was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher,
blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation. Several popping noises sounded near them. Harry registered about 20 people pointing their wands at them. "Get down!" Yelled Harry as several stunners attacked them. "Stop! That's my Godson!" Yelled Sirius.
“Out of the way, Black ,” said a cold, curt voice. It was Mr. Crouch. He and the other Ministry wizards were closing in on them. Harry got to his feet to face them. Mr. Crouch’s face was taut with rage.
“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 and Sirius
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 —” "Mister Crouch. Careful about whom you're accusing, Sir." Said Harry. "That Lady with me is Heiress Apparent to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Daggworth -  Granger. And you're accusing her and me, the Heir Apparent of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter along with a Scion of the Most Noble House of Weasley of casting the Dark Mark. Think carefully." Warned Harry. Crouch came to his senses as Harry spoke. "We've got a gift for you lot." Said Ron as he motioned towards the group the trio had stunned. "If I were you Mr Crouch, I'd pump them full with Veritaserum. Find out their secrets." Said Harry as he sent his wand back into the holster on his right arm. "Hang on. I can't find my other wand." 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. Hermione watched him vanish with her hands over her mouth. 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. Harry recognized the tea towel at once. 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 Sirius. “Here, look.” Mr. Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Sirius. “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.