Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.
Chapter Eighty
Dark Mark
"And that first feint! Did you see it?!" Ron shouted for what seemed liked the hundredth time that night. The Quidditch Final had ended with the Irish side winning by ten points, but, the Bulgarian Seeker Krum caught the Snitch. It had been three hours since then and everyone was still talking excitedly about it. "Lynch didn't have a chance against Krum."
"Yeah, it really was a brilliant play," Harry beamed, "I can't wait until I can try that for myself."
"I don't know if that would be such a great idea," Hermione fretted and Harry rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry, Hermione, Harry can't really practices that play without someone to go against," Fred said, who was ecstatic after winning the bet against Ludo Bagman, who was the man that had gotten the Weasleys such good tickets for the box office. "All he can do is dive as fast as he can at the ground and try to pull up before he crashes into it."
"Oh thanks, Fred, that makes me feel so much better," Hermione said shaking her head.
"You're welcome," Fred grinned back at her.
"You do realize that one of the most important parts of Krum's feint in the beginning of the game was so that he could make Lynch hesitate when he really did see the Snitch," Charlie said, knowledgeably.
"I don't understand why you keep saying that … Lynch was the one that saw the Snitch first," Bill pointed out to his brother again.
"It doesn't matter! You have to understand the psychological reason for the move," Charlie huffed.
"I didn't even know you knew the word psychological," Bill said in mock surprise and Charlie glared at his brother.
"Harry, you understand what I'm saying, right," Charlie appealed to the other Seeker in the room. "Getting inside your opponent's head is important."
"I don't usually have to deal with that," Harry admitted, he never faced a Seeker that challenged him all that much, though he did think about his talk with Cedric earlier that morning and thought that it was time he did start thinking about that. "But I can see the value in it."
"Good man, Harry," Charlie said clapping him on the back.
"I really think it's getting late," Arthur said looking at his watch and then up at the pleading faces of his children.
"Come on Dad, just a little while longer!" Ron asked.
"Ah … I knew you guys would still be up," Sirius said as he looked into their tent, "I was just down with the Irish side … Merlin they know how to party, but they didn't seem to like it when I said that they got away with murder when the ref didn't call the foul against Krum."
"Sirius! Why would you say that to the Irish fans, of all people?" Harry said.
"What, it was true!" Sirius said. "If they can't take it then that's their problem. I was just saying that if the ref called that foul the Bulgarians would have had a free shout and the game would have been tied!"
"I wish I could have seen their face when you said that," Charlie chuckled.
"Don't encourage him," Harry said.
"It seems like I'm going be out voted," Arthur sighed to himself as everyone continued talking with enthusiasm. He shrugged his shoulder and joined the talk … losing all track of time and not caring anymore. It was hours later and several people had drifted off to sleep, that found Arthur, Charlie and Sirius talking about a play when there was a disturbance from outside of the tent.
Sirius was the first to get up, even though he had plenty to drink that night, he still let his Auror training take over. He held out his hand to the others, knowing that the sound coming from outside wasn't the normal party sounds. Having plenty of experience with both battles and parties, it was easy for him to tell the difference. Once he got out of the tent, he looked toward the direction where the first noise came from and though it was silent at the moment, there was a charge in the air that made him sure something else was going to happen.
"What is it?" Arthur asked, he was standing next to Sirius and looking almost as wary as the Auror.
"Not sure yet, but it's trouble," Sirius said frowning. "Arthur, can you perform the sobering charm … I'd do it, but it's better when someone else does it on me."
"I'll do it," Bill said before his dad could answer and preformed the charmed. Sirius eyes slid out of focus for a second and then went back to normal.
"Thanks," Sirius said pinching the bridge of his nose. "And you got rid of most of my hangover too."
"Yeah, well I don't always have hangover potions with me in Egypt so I worked on including that in my sobering charmed … you should be completely fine in ten minutes or so," Bill explained.
"Even better," Sirius speared a smile at Bill before he grimaced. "However, we have to …" there was an explosion from outside that interrupted Sirius, which was soon followed by screams from the crowd of people. Sirius ran back outside followed by Arthur and though they couldn't see what had made the noise, there were now lights and shouts that directed their attention to the problem area.
"I'm going to have to go," Sirius said, biting his lip, he didn't like the idea of leaving Harry when things were this disturbing, but it was clear the problem was elsewhere and this was his job.
"So am I," Arthur said. "They're going to need every hand available here."
Sirius let out a breath at Arthur's words because they were true.
"Dad, what's going on," Percy said coming out of the tent. Sirius looked back into the tent and could see Bill and Charlie were waking those that had fallen asleep.
"What are they doing?" Arthur said looking in the direction of the trouble and this time the lights were bright enough to show everyone what was going on. There seemed to be figures floating above the crowd and at the base were a group of people that were all too familiar to Arthur.
"I can bet you it's not anything we're going to like," Sirius grimaced. "Bloody Death Eaters … what the hell are they doing out here like this."
"Death Eaters?" Ron questioned, the rest of the group behind him. "What are Death Eaters?"
"I'll explain later, right now we don't have time for that," Arthur said and, as if to make his point, people started to run by them with more quickly following them. "We're going to have to try and help … I'm going to need you Fred and George to take the others to someplace safe."
"And make sure that you stay close together … no matter what!" Sirius added his eyes on Harry and then moved to the two older boys. "Things are going to be crazy and confusing but don't panic. As long as you're in a crowd of people it will be unlikely that you'll be attacked. Do you hear me?"
"Yes," Harry and the twins said, all of whom thought Sirius was talking to them. Sirius nodded, as satisfied as he was going to get about this situation and ran towards the trouble ahead of them. Once he got to the scene he saw that there wasn't much that he could do. The Death Eaters were using the Muggle in charge of running the camp and his family as a shield to stop anyone for attacking … and if that wasn't bad enough, the Death Eaters also seemed to be torturing the Muggles while they were at it.
Sirius wordlessly motioned for Bill to follow him as he made his way to the back of the Death Eaters, trying to find a weakness they might have. There was none. However, he was able to catch the eye of the Auror that was supposed to be the head of security for the game and let him know that he was there.
"What's the plan?" Bill said in a voice that was only audible to Sirius.
"To wait," Sirius said just as quietly. "I think we're in catching duty."
Bill looked up at the Muggles above them, showing that he understood what Sirius had meant. Though Sirius had warned Bill, he was still trying to see if he could do more than just standing around. However nothing happened. He felt like he was standing around without being of any use until the sky lit up and the Dark Mark was showed.
"Bill … Levitate the corner of that tent," Sirius said immediately upon seeing it and pointed at the tent closest to them, knowing what was going to happen next. He ran to the other side of the tent and did the same, causing it to spread just in time to catch the Muggles that had been released from the spells they were under and fell towards the ground.
"Damnit!" Sirius growled at the next moment because he had to watch as the Death Eaters turned on the spot and vanished.
"Sirius, come here," Dawlish, the Auror in charge of security for the Quidditch Cup said. Sirius lowered his wand slowly so that the Muggles could land easily on the floor before turning to the other Auror. "I need you to go with the others to see who it was that sent up that blasted Dark Mark … They're going to need an Auror out there but I have to stay and make sure the others don't come back."
"I understand," Sirius said and then Disapparated only seconds after the other Ministry employees had arrived.
"There's no one here?" someone said grumpily.
"They probably Disapp …" another person started to say.
"I need you all to turn around and send a stunning charm out in the direction you're facing," Sirius ordered and his tone made it clear that he was to be obeyed. Soon the group of twenty or so people had cast the charmed and then turned to look at Sirius. "Right. There is every chance that whoever had sent the Dark Mark has already left. It would be the smart thing to do, however, now that we've sent out stunners for this general area there is a chance that we have hit the guy. So make pairs of two and search to woods to see if you can find something."
To Sirius's relief everyone did as he asked without questioning him. However, before he could make the search himself, Barty Crouch came up to him. Sirius was sure that the other man just wanted to take over the searching … it seemed like something the other man would do but Sirius just smiled at him and tried to behave.
"That was quick thinking Black," Crouch said in a very official tone that made Sirius have to struggle from rolling his eyes. "Do you really think that the man stayed around?"
"We got here only a few minutes after the Mark went up," Sirius said, trying to mirror the older man's tone. "There's a chance that the man didn't realize that we would response so quickly … or they were trying to watch the other Death Eaters flee from the scene down there."
"So you think that whoever set this off, was trying to let the Death Eaters get away," Crouch said thoughtfully.
"No, sir, I don't," Sirius said with a mirthless smile. "Only Death Eaters know how to cast the Dark Mark. However, there's not a chance that any of the scumbags Death Eater that stayed out of Azkaban would have the nerve to use the Dark Mark in a matter like this."
"Hmph," Crouch said and Sirius was shocked to see that the older man looked unnerved by what he said. Crouch also didn't seem to want to look at him as he turned his head towards the woods off to Sirius's left and looked like he was thinking fast.
"Is there …?" Sirius started to say because something was telling him Crouch wasn't saying something. However, before he could ask, there was a shout from one of the groups.
"I think I found something!" Amos Diggory exclaimed. "Merlin's bread … that's … that's …"
"What the bloody hell is it already …? Oh!" Sirius said coming over to where Amos was and looked down and saw an unconscious house elf.
"It's Crouch's elf," Amos said in a whisper to Sirius before the others joined them. Sirius looked back at the older man and felt an uncomfortable chill go through him. Did Crouch know that his elf was here? What would that mean? And why did he look so pale all of a sudden? Sirius had known the older man for years and he was always control and cold to everyone.
Sirius didn't say anything all through the investigation of the elf; he let Amos Diggory ask most of the question because the man was a part of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creature. Sirius didn't particularly like the way that Diggory asked question to the elf, and appreciated Arthur's interventions on the elf's behave, but he didn't focus on any of that at the time. He was watching Crouch's reactions to what had happened to see if the older man acted even more oddly as they talked. The only thing he noticed that was odd was the fact that Crouch seemed to be looking at the ground … as if he was hoping there was someone else there to take the fall for his elf.
Sirius didn't really understand why he would care about that, it's not like anyone in their right mind would ever think a house elf cast the Dark Mark. Maybe it was just the fact that someone tied to his family was accused of associating with the Death Eaters and after what happened with his son, it might be understandable. Sirius knew there was something wrong here, he could feel it, but he couldn't figure out what it was. And before he could think of anything, something distracted him from his train of thoughts.
Amos was holding the wand that Crouch's elf, Winky, was found holding and to his shock, he recognized it.
"That's Harry's wand!" Sirius said, his eyes wide in shock.
"Harry … Harry who?" Amos said excitedly as if he had just found a lead to his mystery.
"Harry Potter," Sirius answered. "And if you think he had anything to with …. He's not here is he? Has anyone seen him?"
"No … there's no one else here," one of the other people near them said.
"Where did you get this wand, Winky?" Sirius asked as fear filled him, how did Harry's wand get here? Does this mean that whoever cast the Dark Mark, took Harry …?
"Winky was finding it here, sir," Winky answered. "Winky was not seeing Harry Potter here sir. Winky is just finding his wand."
Sirius had the feeling that the elf was trying to tell him that Harry had not been in this clearing but he wasn't going to be appeased until he saw Harry for himself. Sirius snatched the wand from Amos and turned to leave.
"Sirius you can't go … we still have to find out what …?" Amos called after him.
"I don't care what happened, I've got to make sure that nothing happened to Harry," Sirius hissed.
"Wait up, I'm coming with you," Arthur said, looking pale and Sirius knew he was worried about his own kids, seeing as they should be with Harry.
The two of them left the clearing at a run and Sirius decided to turn into a dog so that he would be better at tracking Harry out if he happened to pass the boy's scent. Though it was difficult with all of the people that had been in and out of the forest during the day, whether that was because of meeting and talking with friends during the day or the panic that was caused by the attack. Final he picked up a spot that Harry had seemed to be standing for a while.
"What is … what did you find?" Arthur asked the dog that instantly turned into a man.
"Harry and the others were here," Sirius said in a sigh. "Their trail only comes from one direction … I think they came here from camp and then returned from it … come on, let's get back there."
"If Harry's okay … then how did his wand end up in that clearing … especially if he hadn't been in the clearing?" Arthur asked.
"Can't answer anything until I see him," Sirius said moving quickly back to the campsite and sighed in relief when he saw the group of kids going into it. "Harry!"
Harry walked back out of the tent and looked confused as he watched Sirius run up to him, grinning like he hadn't seen Harry in months. "What …?"
Sirius hugged him and then dragged him into the tent, waiting for Arthur to follow him before he put up protective spells on the tent that would also prevent anyone from overhearing them.
"What's going on?" Percy asked looking indignantly at Sirius, as if he should have known what was happening already.
"We found this at the clearing where the Dark Mark was cast," Sirius said holding out Harry's wand.
"What is the Dark Mark," Ron asked at the same time as Harry exclaimed, "My wand!"
"I thought you might have been taken," Sirius explained.
"No … I lost it," Harry said. "Ron fell down when we were running away and I noticed then that I didn't have my wand."
"So you never wander off on your own …" Sirius started to say.
"No … you said it was safer staying near other people," Harry said. "It's true that we got separated for a little while, but we were able to find each other again."
"That's good," Arthur said, he seemed to only barely be listening to the story as he looked at each of his children to make sure they were okay. The only one that showed any signs of injure was Charlie and Percy and neither one was serious.
"Yeah, and it was all thanks to the crow that that happened," Harry said smiling.
"Crow?" Arthur asked, raising an eyebrow at his son.
"Yeah, Harry said it attacked Draco Malfoy when he was bugging them," Fred said still smiling.
"It's true … the git was saying that Hermione was in more danger than us because she's Muggle-born … as if that matters … and then this crow came out of nowhere and attacked Malfoy," Ron said, he was smiling too now and for a reason that Sirius was starting to understand, the smile was directed at Fred. "When the crow flew off we sort of followed it and … well it lead us to the others."
"That was … lucky," Arthur said uncertainly, he was sure that he was missing something, but he decided that it was better not to ask.
"Yeah … but you should have heard the way Malfoy was talking … he made it pretty bloody clear that his parents where the gits torturing those poor Muggles," Ron said, grumbling this time. "Tell me you caught them Dad."
"No," Sirius was the one to answer. "As soon as the Dark Mark went up, they Disapparated … we couldn't do anything other than make sure the Muggles weren't hurt. Harry, about your wand, when was the last time that you remembering using it."
"I was thinking about that earlier," Harry said grimacing. "I don't remember using it any time today."
"So it could have been taken at any time," Sirius sighed. "I've got to go back out there and see what else Amos got from Winky …"
"Winky? Mr. Crouch's house elf!" Percy asked in shock. "What are you talking about?"
Sirius then told them all what happened in the clearing, though he kept his suspicious about Crouch to himself, realizing that Percy would defend his boss and he didn't want to argue right now. After he finished and calmed his panic over Harry's safety he left the tent to try to find out more about what happened and to try and help the people from the Ministry to organize.