Hogwarts Homecoming

Cedric Diggory's father, Mr. Amos Diggory, proposed to have a look in the box, but strangely, Mr. Crouch, who had looked jealous before, was not very enthusiastic about his proposal. Interested, and the witch in the dressing gown shook her head to clear Harry's confusion,

"Don't bother, Amos. The guy who made this thing must have disapparated long ago."

"I don't think so," said Mr. Diggory, staring at the box with interest.

"If you wanted to leave, the guy who pulled this prank should have left long ago. I guess he was seriously injured and couldn't leave, or he just woke up from a coma."

Mr. Diggory moved his wrist. He seemed to feel that the stairs leading to the box were not safe, so he apparated up. Harry narrowed his eyes and noticed Mr. Diggory appearing on the outside of the box. He pulled the twisted railing with one hand and pointed his radiant wand at the dark box.

No one in the box cast magic spells at Mr. Digory. After a brief observation, he held the wand in his mouth and carefully climbed over the railing.

"Ouch!"

Mr. Diggory's frightened cry suddenly sounded in the quiet Quidditch field. The expressions of the Ministry of Magic officials waiting on the ground suddenly became tense. They all pointed their wands at the box. Mr. Weasley shouted shouted,

"What's going on, Amos, do you need backup?"

"It's okay, I stepped on a hole and almost fell to the next floor--" Mr. Digory came from the box, he said in a loud voice, "Don't come up, Arthur, we can't bear more people here." weight!"

Screeching and piercing sounds continued to come from the box. Mr. Diggory seemed to be searching the box. The officials of the Ministry of Magic relaxed a little, but they still maintained a high degree of attention there. Harry wanted to ask Mr. Diggory to pay a little attention to his wand, but considering the situation, he said nothing.

"Hey, I caught it. There is one. Hey, he passed out. Hiss. Oh my god!"

The three Harrys looked at each other, while Mr. Crouch shouted in a tone of complete disbelief,

"You caught someone? Who, who?"

boom!

Mr. Crouch's shout was still echoing in the Quidditch field, and the air in front of them suddenly exploded. Mr. Diggory appeared with a puff of smoke and dust, holding a small child in his arms. Harry immediately recognized who it was through the big bat-like ears. When the smoke and dust covering Mr. Diggory dissipated and Harry could see the situation more clearly, Harry held his breath. She stopped breathing, her heart beat hard several times, and Hermione covered her mouth and took a few steps back.

Mr. Crouch watched Mr. Diggory place his house-elf at his feet. He did not move or speak. Other Ministry officials stared at Mr. Crouch. For several seconds, Crouch stood motionless, as if frozen, his flaming eyes on his pale face staring hard at the twinkle on the ground.

When Mr. Diggory found Winky, it should have been lying on the ground, which preserved the skin on its front, and its back was not much better than the unlucky wizard he saw in the woods before.

The elf's back was burned to pieces by Professor Blaine's magic, and the wound was covered with blood scabs. Judging from the normal time, the wound should not have healed to this extent. Obviously, the little guy should have woken up midway and taken some measures. Some ways to prevent your own death.

"This - it's impossible - it's impossible," Barty Crouch finally came back to his senses, and he kept saying, "Impossible!"

boom!

Crouch didn't give others a chance to dissuade him. In full view of everyone, he apparated to the upper floor and plunged into the box.

"It's useless, Mr. Crouch -" Digory shouted upwards, "I've seen it all, there's no one else there!"

Mr. Diggory's shouting had no effect, and there was another creaking sound in the box. Obviously, Mr. Crouch could not accept this result.

"It's a bit embarrassing," said Mr. Diggory sternly, looking down at Winky's delirious figure. "Barty Crouch's House Elf I mean."

"No way, Amos," Mr. Weasley whispered, "Do you really think it was an elf who did it? The Dark Mark is a wizard's symbol and requires the use of a wand."

"Yes," Mr. Diggory looked up at Harry and took out a wand from his pocket. "It was holding this when I found it."

"It's my wand!" Harry took the wand and looked back and forth in surprise, "I thought it must be dead!"

Mr. Diggory shrugged at Mr. Weasley.

"Look, the elf is holding a wand. Arthur, you understand, this first violates the third clause of the "Code of Wand Use": No non-human creature is allowed to carry or use a wand."

At this moment, there was another pop, and Mr. Barty Crouch apparated to Mr. Weasley. He obviously didn't notice anything. His face was pale, and his hands and toothbrush-shaped mustache were twitching. .

The situation seemed to be clear. The officials of the Ministry of Magic all turned their attention to the fainted Winky on the ground, and some hidden eyes were directed at Mr. Crouch.

Mr. Diggory seemed to think that he was the hero of this matter. He smiled slightly complacently and said,

"If you have no problem with that, Mr. Crouch, I think we should wake him up and hear how he defends himself."

Mr. Crouch showed no reaction, but Hermione looked at Mr. Diggory in surprise.

"But this elf is seriously injured. Should you treat it first? I mean, it can't answer questions like this."

Mr. Diggory raised his eyebrows, as if he heard a joke, but perhaps taking Mr. Crouch's mood into consideration, he said pleasantly,

"This is the normal procedure, miss, but tonight, we suffered heavy losses. We must find out as soon as possible whether this elf is an accomplice."

As he spoke, Mr. Diggory pointed his wand at Winky.

"Resuscitate quickly!"

Twinkle moved feebly, as if it wanted to turn over, but this movement affected the wound on its back, and Twinkle suddenly began to wail, the pain making its cries tremble.

Mr. Diggory didn't wait for Winky to slowly come to his senses. He 'helped' Winky again and waved his wand to make Winky turn over and float slightly.

When it realized who were around it, Twinkle's cry was cut off. Its eyes were wide and dull, and its expression was stiff as if someone had strangled its throat.

Harry suddenly felt someone grabbing his arm, and when he turned around, he saw it was Hermione. She had an unbearable look on her face, and her thin body was swaying under the night wind. Harry pursed his lips. He looked at Winky being interrogated and wanted to lend a helping hand but didn't know how.

"I can't believe Barty Crouch would do that!"

Outside Sirius' tent, Mr. Weasley gave them a stern warning and hurried away with his colleagues.

Hermione immediately shouted angrily

"There is no real evidence to prove that Winky cast that magic, but Barty Crouch actually fired it like this. He was not even willing to treat the injuries that had been serving him. What did he regard the elf as, a slave? ?”

"You're on to something, Hermione -"

Ron seemed to have a very open mind about what happened to the house elf, and he said calmly

"House elves are slaves to their masters. To be honest, it would be a good thing for Crouch to expel them. If they are really taken back to the Ministry of Magic for interrogation, my father told me something before. With the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures' methods, it probably wouldn't be able to get out of there alive."

Hermione stared at Ron with a look of shock on her face, as if she didn't expect the Ministry of Magic's treatment of non-human magical creatures to be so harsh.

"I really hope this won't be the end of Dobby."

Harry looked up at the deep night sky and sighed deeply.