19TH AUGUST 1994

"STUPEFY!" multiple voices roared. Cedric and Meera shaded their eyes as they saw a blinding flash of lights. Evie rose an eyebrow at her best friend after she finally caught up to them. Meera shook her head. Harris frowned puzzled by the exchange between the two girls.

"We should go help them." Evie said quickly diverting the attention back to the matter at hand.

"Stop!" a voice yelled as they made our way over. Arthur Weasley frantically pushed through the throng of wizards. "STOP! That's my son!"

Meera, Evie, Harris, and Cedric went around the other way and joined them. The ministry wizards tried to push them away but Mr Diggory quickly gathered them at his side.

"Ron - Harry" Mr Weasley's voice sounded shaky. "Hermione - are you all right?"

"Out of the way, Arthur," a voice interrupted coldly. An elderly man in a dark, neat suit and tie emerged his face taut with rage.

"Which of you did it?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting be­tween Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't do that" Harry exclaimed, gesturing up at the skull.

"We didn't do anything!" Ron said heatedly, who was rubbing his elbow and looking indignantly at his father. "What did you want to at­tack us for?"

"Do not lie, sir!" Mr. Crouch shouted. His wand was still point­ing directly at Ron, and his eyes were popping - he looked quite mad. "You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"Circumstantial!" Meera muttered under her breath. Harris nudged her and shook his head. Meera rolled her eyes.

"She's right though." Evie agreed quietly.

"Barty," a witch in a long woollen dressing gown whispered , "they're kids, Barty, they'd never have been able to -"

"Where did the Mark come from, you three?" Mr. Weasley interjected quickly.

"Over there," Hermione said shakily, pointing at the place where we'd seen the mark. "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 -"

Thankfully, the other ministry wizards were sceptical of Mr Crouch's accusations and were warily squinting at the area she'd pointed to they're wands raised.

"We're too late," said the witch in the woollen dressing gown, shaking her head. "They'll have Disapparated."

"I don't think so," Mr Diggory disagreed. "Our Stunners went right through those trees. ... There's a good chance we got them. ..."

"Amos, be careful!" a few wizards called warningly as Mr Diggory squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness.

Cedric had become quite tense, worry evident in his grey eyes. Meera nudged him. "He'll be okay, Diggory. They're probably stunned senseless and sprawled out like a startled toad." Cedric chuckled and her smiling gratefully.

A few seconds later, they heard a shout from Mr. Diggory. "Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's - but - blimey..."

"You've got someone?" Mr. Crouch demanded, sounding highly disbelieving. "Who? Who is it?" They heard snapping twigs, the rustling of leaves, and then crunching footsteps as Mr. Diggory re-emerged from behind the trees.

He was carrying a tiny, limp figure in his arms. Meera's eyes widened...Winky. Harris was holding Evie back as she tried to go over to help her.

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 he remained trans­fixed, his eyes blazing in his blanched face as he stared down at Winky.Then he appeared to come to life again. "This - cannot - be," he spluttered. "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 ..."

Cedric sighed shaking his head. I frowned at him. "My dad does this thing...he has to point out the obvious or..."

"Yeah I get it...the Quidditch match..." Meera muttered. He nodded.

"Come off it, Amos," Mr. Weasley told him 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?"

"Here, look." Mr. Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Mr. Weasley. "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."

Pop

Ludo Bagman Apparated right next to Mr. Weasley. Looking breathless and disorientated, he spun on the spot, goggling upward at the emerald-green skull.

"The Dark Mark!" he panted, almost trampling Winky as he turned inquiringly to his colleagues. "Who did it? Did you get them? Barty! What's going on?"

Mr. Crouch had returned empty-handed. His face was still ghostly white, and his hands were shaking and his mustache was twitching.

"Where have you been, Barty?" said Bagman. "Why weren't you at the match? Your elf was saving you a seat too - gulping gar­goyles!"

Bagman had just noticed Winky lying at his feet. "What happened to her?"

"I have been busy, Ludo," said Mr. Crouch, talking in the same jerky fashion, barely moving his lips. "And my elf has been stunned."

"Stunned? By you lot, you mean? But why - ?"

Then it dawned on him. He looked up at the skull, down at Winky, and then at Mr. Crouch. "No!" he said.

"Winky? Conjure the Dark Mark? She wouldn't know how! She'd need a wand, for a start!"

"And she had one," said Mr. Diggory. "I found her holding one, Ludo. If it's all right with you, Mr. Crouch, I think we should hear what she's got to say for herself."

Mr Crouch said nothing, seeming to ignore the other man.

Mr Diggory took his silent as assent and raised his wand, pointed it at Winky, and said, "Rennervate!"

Winky stirred feebly. Her great brown eyes opened and she blinked several times in a bemused sort of way.

The little house elf slowly pushed herself up into a seated position and soon caught sight of Mr. Diggory's feet. Tremulously, she raised her eyes to stare up into his face; then, more slowly still, she looked up into the sky. Her glassy eyes reflected the enormous emerald skull. She gave a gasp, her eyes flitting frantically around the crowded clearing, and burst into terrified sobs.

"Elf!" said Mr. Diggory sternly. "Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures!"

Winky began to rock backward and forward on the ground, her breath coming in sharp bursts. Harris was firmly pulling Evie back as she tried to run over to her.

"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!"

"Circumstantial!" Evie and Meera muttered under their breaths.

"Besides she's got a squeaky little voice. The voice we all heard was definitely human." Meera added.

"I - I - I is not doing it, sir!" Winky gasped. "I is not know­ing how, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" Mr. Dig­gory barked, brandishing it in front of her.

"Ok that's it..." Evie muttered but Harris pulled her back. She glared at him.

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

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

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

"You dropped it?" Mr. Diggory repeated in disbelief. "Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?"

Meera and Cedric face palmed in sync.

"Amos, think who you're talking to!" Mr. Weasley questioned an­grily. "Is Harry Potter likely to conjure the Dark Mark?"

"Er - of course not," mumbled Mr. Diggory. "Sorry ... car­ried away ..."

"Yeah, just like you got carried away with little Winky over there!" Evie burst out fiercely. "Why do you keep screaming at her? She's terrified..."

Before she could say anymore Harris pulled her back. Some of the Ministry wizards and witches shook their heads disapprovingly. Evie maintained eye contact and gave them a sullen glare.

"I didn't drop it there, anyway," Harry said, jerking his thumb violently toward the trees beneath the skull. "I missed it right after we got into the wood."

"So," said Mr. Diggory, his eyes hardening as he turned to look at Winky again. She was shaking and cowering in front of the tall wizard. "You found this wand, eh, elf? And you picked it up and thought you'd have some fun with it, did you?"

"I is not doing magic with it, sir!" Winky squealed, tears stream­ing down the sides of her bulbous nose. "I is ... I is ... I is just picking it up, sir! I is not making the Dark Mark, sir, I is not knowing how!"

"It wasn't her!" Hermione said nervously as she looked at the wizards around her, but continued. "Winky's got a squeaky little voice, and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!" She looked around at Harry and Ron, appealing for their support. "It didn't sound any­thing like Winky, did it?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "It definitely didn't sound like an elf."

"Yeah, it was a human voice," Ron said.

"We can vouch for them." Meera said quickly, gesturing to herself, Evie, Harris, and Cedric. "We all heard it."

"Well, we'll soon see," Mr. Diggory growled, looking unim­pressed. "There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?"

Winky trembled violently and shook her head frantically, her ears flap­ping faster than a pigeon's wings.

Mr. Diggory raised his own wand again and placed it tip to tip with Harry's.

"Prior Incantato!" Mr. Diggory roared.

A shadow of the skull above us appeared in front of us. It looked as though it was made of thick grey smoke: the ghost of a spell.

"Deletrius!" Mr. Diggory shouted, and the smoky skull vanished in a wisp of smoke.

"So," said Mr. Diggory with savage triumph, looking down upon Winky, who was still shaking convulsively.

"I is not doing it!" she squeaked, her eyes rolling in terror. "I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is a good elf, I isn't using wands, I isn't knowing how!"

"You've been caught red-handed, elf!" Mr. Diggory yelled down at her. "Caught with the guilty wand in your hand!"

Evie glared at Cedric's father her fists clenched with rage. Meera knew her well enough to know that all she wanted to do was scoop the sobbing elf into her arms and comfort her. Harris looked at her with sympathy and Meera could have sworn he muttered. "I feel you."

Cedric's grey eyes were agates as he watched his father's treatment of the elf. His jaw was clenched and he glared at him.

"Amos," said Mr. Weasley 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 spat sourly, "that I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?"

There was an unpleasant silence. Amos Diggory looked horrified. "Mr. Crouch... not...not at all..."

"You have now come very close to accusing the two people in this clearing who are least likely to conjure that Mark!" Mr. Crouch snapped. "Harry Potter - and myself! I suppose you are familiar with the boy's story, Amos?"

"Didn't he himself almost accuse Harry once?" Meera murmured to Harris.

"I guess we don't talk about that." Harris replied quietly.

"Of course - everyone knows -" muttered Mr. Diggory, look­ing highly discomforted. "And I trust you remember the many proofs I have given, over a long career, that I despise and detest the Dark Arts and those who practice them?" Mr. Crouch shouted, his eyes bulging again.

"Mr. Crouch, I - I never suggested you had anything to do with it!" Mr Diggory muttered again, now reddening behind his scrubby brown beard. "If you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory!" Mr. Crouch retorted acidly. "Where else would she have learned to conjure it?"

"She - she might've picked it up anywhere -"

"Precisely, Amos," said Mr. Weasley. "She might have picked it up anywhere. ..." He turned to the brown eyed elf.

"Winky?" he said kindly. She flinched as though he too was shouting at her however. "Where exactly did you find Harry's wand?"

Winky twisted the hem of her tea towel so violently that it was fraying beneath her fingers. "I - I is finding it ... finding it there, sir. ..." she replied her timidly her voice barely over a whisper as she refused to make eye contact, "there ... in the trees, sir. ..."

"You see, Amos?" Mr. Weasley said calmly. Evie glanced at him gratefully. "Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Harry's wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them..."

"...and unfortunately Winky here came across the wand moments later and picked it up...probably didn't realise what it was." Meera cut in quickly.

"But then, she'd have been only a few feet away from the real culprit!" Mr. Diggory persisted impatiently. "Elf? Did you see anyone?"

"She has a name!" Evie exclaimed hotly. "Do you want me to spell it out for you?"

Mr Diggory ignored her however and Mr Weasley looked at her warningly, pleading silently for her patience.

Winky began to tremble worse than ever. Her giant eyes flick­ered from Mr. Diggory, to Ludo Bagman, and onto Mr. Crouch. Then she gulped and said, "I is seeing no one, sir ... no one ..."

"Amos," said Mr. Crouch curtly, "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her."

Mr. Diggory looked as though he didn't think much of this sug­gestion at all. However, Mr. Crouch appeared to be an important member of the Ministry that he did not dare refuse him. "You may rest assured that she will be punished," Mr. Crouch added coldly.

"M-m-master ..." Winky stammered, looking up at Mr. Crouch, her eyes brimming with tears. "M-m-master, p-p-please ..." Mr. Crouch stared back, his face somehow sharpened, each line upon it more deeply etched.

There was no pity in his gaze.

"Winky has behaved tonight in a manner I would not have be­lieved possible," he said slowly. "I told her to remain in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes."

"No!" Winky shrieked desperately, prostrating herself at Mr. Crouch's feet. "No, master! Not clothes, not clothes!"

It was pitiful to see the way Winky clutched at her tea towel as she sobbed over Mr. Crouch's feet.

"But she was frightened!" Hermione exclaimed angrily, glaring at Mr. Crouch. "Your elf's scared of heights, and those wizards in masks were levitating people! You can't blame her for wanting to get out of their way!"

Mr. Crouch took a step backward, freeing himself from contact with the elf, whom he was surveying quite repulsively; as though she were something filthy and rotten that was contaminating his over-shined shoes.

"I have no use for a house-elf who disobeys me," he said coldly, looking over at Hermione. "I have no use for a servant who forgets what is due to her master, and to her master's reputation."

A nasty silence settled in the only thing breaking it were the echoes of Winky's loud sobs as she lay curled in a ball.

Finally, Mr Weasley broke the silence. "Well, I think I'll take my lot back to the tent, if nobody's got any objections. Amos, that wand's told us all it can - if Harry could have it back, please -" Mr. Diggory handed Harry his wand and Harry pocketed it.

The other wizards began walking away or disapparated. Mr Diggory quickly gathered us and led the four back to their tent.

"Can I say something?" Evie asked as we walked towards the edge of the woods.

"What is it Evie?" Mr Diggory asked her.

"I think the way you treated Winky was quite cruel." She stated matter of factly.

"She was a suspect for a heinous crime Evie. You don't know what terror the dark mark once struck. It hasn't been seen in 13 years." He explained.

"I'm sure it did." Evie dismissed. "But she was already terrified...terrified because she was surrounded by 20 or so witches and wizards who were all looking down at her...you didn't have to literally scream in her face after that."

"Mr Weasley feared the mark as much as you did...he didn't feel the need to shout at her or strip her of her identity. You knew her name was Winky. Why not call her that? It's not going to change anything. And Mr Crouch firing her like that! I'm sorry, she probably did everything for him...everything...and he doesn't even show her a little sympathy. The way she was treated was unacceptable..." Meera protested.

"It was as if she had no feelings! Insensitive and cruel!" Evie declared adamantly.

"They're right." Cedric agreed.

The elder man regarded each of us silently. Finally he said. "Well I'm sorry. I was way out of line."

He then nodded to himself and began walking away towards the tents. We followed silently.

"Who did it, Amos? Was it Him?" Mrs Diggory asked as we entered the tent.

"No...we couldn't find them." Mr Diggory replied shaking his head regretfully.

"I was with the eldest of the Weasley boys and some other wizards. We were quite close to unmasking the Death Eaters. But they disapparated as soon as the mask was conjured." She informed.

Then Meera noticed that she was holding a cloth to a wound on her left arm. Cedric's eyes widened and he quickly went to her side.

"Couldn't you just use episkey? How deep is it??" Evie asked quickly.

"It didn't work. The bleeding's stopped though." Mrs Diggory replied.

Harris was pensive and appeared to be quite far away in his thoughts.

They can wait.

Meera snapped her fingers in front of his face and he blinked startledly. "First aid kit. Now."

He looked between Meera and Evie with a frown, but complied.

"Cedric, can you move please?" Meera asked quietly. He looked at her then back at his mum. "Evie needs to clean it and tie it up."

He nodded and moved away to allow her to crouch next to Mrs Diggory. Slowly, she moved the cloth away and passed it to Evie who regarded it disapprovingly as she passed the antiseptic to me.

"This will sting." she warned her. Mrs Diggory nodded and hissed a little as the Hufflepuff placed the antiseptic around the wound.

"Would you say that's a quarter of an inch?" Evie asked her friend. Meera shook her head.

"No? Ok then. a bandage would do."

Evie quickly gathered the necessary equipment and passed the rest to Meera.

The others watched silently as Evie carefully wrapped the bandage over Mrs Diggory's wound and secured it with tape. "Is that ok?" she asked finally. Mrs Diggory nodded.

"Why did the Death Eaters come out today?" Harris asked.

"Death Eaters?" Evie frowned.

"You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves that...the masked figures." Meera explained.

"Those were probably the ones who managed to keep out of Azkaban." Cedric added.

"We can't prove it was them. We don't have any evidence. Like your mum said, we couldn't unmask any of them." Mr Diggory sighed hopelessly.

"What did you mean by 'keep out of Azkaban'?" Evie asked.

"Many lied that You-Know-Who forced them to do all the horrible things they did...denied that they were ever involved with him after the fall. " Mrs Diggory replied.

"That's why they fled at the Dark Mark...because its appearance symbolises that Vol..." she cut off when she noticed Cedric look up at her sharply. "You-Know-Who's back and they betrayed him..."

Mrs Diggory nodded.

"So ... whoever conjured the Dark Mark ..." Evie said slowly, "Were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

Mr Diggory shrugged and spread his hands. An uncomfortable silence settled in the tent.

Meera had never given much credit to divination and fortune telling. Hence, she always thought divination would be a useless subject choice. However, her opinion of the subject has been changed by the fact that two out of three things that she...saw in her dreams...no...visions? Came true...

At the mention of Death Eaters, Meera remembered the two figures in the woods. "Mr Diggory, are any of the Death Eaters, women?"

"Yes...Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the most notable ones." He replied. "Why?"

"I saw a woman wearing similar clothes to the Death Eaters in the woods. She didn't seem too bothered by the chaos...maybe she cast the Dark Mark..." She shrugged.

"What did she look like?" Mr Diggory asked urgently.

"Dark curly hair, pale skin, blue eyes and a frayed black dress." Meera listed counting on her hand. Harris' eyes widened and he visibly paled. He and Evie exchanged glances, before the latter turned to meera

Evie rose her eyebrows at her friend. "Wait? When did you see them?"

"When you lost me in the woods." Meera said.

Harris' eyes widened and he visibly paled. "Why did you stop?"

"No...I...I stopped because..." Meera wasn't sure why she'd stopped...it didn't make any rational sense to her. All she had heard were some voices and she decided it was a splendid idea to stop and find their source in the middle of everything happenning apparently.

"She'd stopped to tie her laces." Cedric said quickly, noticing the Ravenclaw struggling. "When she looked up she saw them arguing."

"Tie your laces...Meera we were running away from death eaters, and you stopped to tie your laces! Without telling anyone?" Evie exclaimed exasperatedly. "I swear to God you actually have a death wish. She could have killed you, you idiotic bitch!"

Harris took Evie's arm to calm her. "Evie, just breathe okay, she's fine. We're all okay."

Evie released the fist that she'd formed with her right hand and allowed Harris to take interlace his fingers with hers. Meera looked at Cedric who shrugged.

"Have there been any recent escapes from Azkaban Mr Diggory?" Harris asked.

"No...the only person who's escaped is Sirius Black." Mr Diggory replied. "Why?"

"It sounded like a description Bellatrix Lestrange..." Harris said nonchalantly.

"Well...I saw her talking with another person...they appeared to be arguing. Maybe one of them fired the mark." Meera said.

"Maybe..." Mr Diggory mused.

"They could've stolen Harry's wand and then dumped it with Winky." Evie said enthusiastically.

"We're getting nowhere with this, Amos. The kids should sleep." Mrs Diggory said. "Let's all stay in one tent, I don't want you four to be alone if things take a turn for the worst again.

The Diggory's tent was far larger and even had several rooms however, all of them stayed in the large entrance/living room. Mr and Mrs Diggory had put two of the duvets on the floor to make the ground easier to sleep on. Meera was currently in between Evie and Cedric staring up at the canvas of the tent pensively. Although she was exhausted by the nights events she was scared of falling asleep as she didn't want to get caught in that loop again.

Maybe it was just a dream...she had been reading and watching some strange things over the holidays. Crime shows and a strange fantasy book. It was actually about something about the Arthurian Legends. Harris let her borrow it.

Meera looked at him for a moment but looked away quickly. Maybe she saw him in the dream with medieval clothes because of that book. Meera did associate him with it...it is his book.

At some point in time she heard soft snores from someone...the only sound except the tick tock of the large analogue alarm clock and Meera's eyes felt heavy, so she closed them, still thinking.

Was it real?