Chapter Forty-Nine: The Dark Mark

With a sigh, Daphne lay down in her bed in the tent. Outside, the singing and laughing was still going on, but she wouldn't have been able to join in even if she'd wanted to. She was just too tired from getting up so early that morning and being active all day long, followed by the match… She wasn't even interested in talking to Hermione or Ginny.

Instead, she just closed her eyes and listened to the sounds outside. It was oddly soothing, though something in the back of her mind was nudging at her, as if she'd seen the events of the match before somewhere…

Then, and Daphne had no idea whether it was five minutes or five hours later, Mr. Weasley lifted up the tent flap and shouted, "Everyone up, now! Come on, grab a jacket and get outside!"

Daphne exchanged a quick, confused glance with Hermione and Ginny and listened to the noises outside, which seemed to have changed from singing into screaming and shouting.

The three of them quickly got up, shot into their coats, and left the tent, joining up with Harry, Ron, Fred, and George, who were staring over the field into the distance — where a group of masked and hooded wizards were moving closer, levitating four people in the air above them.

Daphne's insides ran cold. That was where that familiar feeling earlier had come from. She'd seen brooms and these masked people in the crystal ball during her Divination exam.

Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent, fully dressed and with their wands out.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over the noise. "You lot — get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

Fred pulled Ginny along with him, and the others fell in behind them, running towards the trees, along with many other people, who jostled and bumped into Daphne and the others as they tried to flee from the mob on the field.

Suddenly, Ron yelled with pain.

"What happened?" Hermione asked anxiously, and Daphne could hear Harry running into her because she'd stopped.

"Ron, where are you? Oh, this is stupid…Lumos!"

Hermione's wand lit up and she shone the light across the narrow path, where Ron lay sprawled.

"Tripped over a tree root," he said angrily, getting to his feet again.

"Well, with feet that size, hard not to," Malfoy's voice said from behind them. He stood nearby, leaning against a tree, not looking troubled in the least.

Ron told Malfoy to do something he'd never dare to say in front of Mrs. Weasley.

"Language, Weasley," Malfoy drawled. "Hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you?"

He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment a loud explosion sounded from the campsite, accompanied by a flash of green light.

"Attract their attention and I'm hexing you into next week," Daphne said angrily.

Malfoy smirked. "I'm sure they'll be perfectly nice to a blood traitor like you as well, Greengrass. You and that Mudblood Granger would fit right in, showing off your knickers to everyone…"

"I will bloody kill you, right now," Daphne said, reaching for her wand…and finding nothing in her pocket.

Before she could decide to simply attack Malfoy with her fists, however, a loud bang came from the other side of the trees, louder than anything they'd heard thus far. Several people nearby screamed.

Malfoy chuckled softly. "Scare easily, don't they?" he said. "I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to, trying to rescue the Muggles?"

"Where're your parents?" Harry asked angrily. "Out there wearing masks, are they?"

Malfoy turned to him, still smiling. "Well…if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"

"Oh, come on," Hermione said with a disgusted look at Malfoy. "Let's go and find the others."

"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger," Malfoy sneered.

"Keep your bloody mouth shut or I'll do it for you, Malfoy," Daphne said as Hermione pulled Harry and Ron away.

"I'll bet you anything his dad is one that masked lot!" Ron said angrily.

"Of course he is, but he'll just bribe his way out anyway," Daphne said. "Worthless git. He's lucky I lost my wand…"

"You lost your wand?" Harry asked.

Daphne nodded grimly. "It's not in my pocket anymore." She grimaced. "Should've gotten myself a holster too."

Harry and Ron lit their wands up, like Hermione had done, and shone across the forest floor, but Daphne couldn't find her wand anywhere.

"I must've lost it earlier," she said. "Either it's still in the tent, or at the stadium, but there's no time to look for it now."

She gritted her teeth. Her wand was probably her most valued possession, and not having it at a time like this made her feel extremely jumpy and vulnerable.

A rustling noise nearby made her jump back. Winky the House-Elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby, looking like something invisible was trying to hold her back.

"There is bad wizards about!" she squeaked as she kept trying to run away. "People high, high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"

"She must not have gotten permission to hide," Daphne said angrily. "Fudge said she belonged to Crouch, didn't he? Crouch isn't dark, but he's incredibly traditional all the same. He's…infamous for being hard on everyone, including himself. He's the kind of guy who would rather see his House-Elf get injured than getting to safety."

"How can this kind of slavery be accepted in the magical world?!" Hermione said indignantly.

"Hermione, not all people with House-Elves treat them as horribly as the Malfoys and Crouch do. You've met Finny, haven't you? Did she seem unhappy to you?" Daphne asked. "Anyway, we don't have time to discuss this right now; we need to move!"

They moved along, stumbling past a group of Veela, whose alluring radiance was hard to look away from, and who'd already snared the attention of a group of young wizards, but Daphne forced herself to keep on moving, and soon the sounds around them had died away…and then they ran into Ludo Bagman.

"Who's that?" Bagman asked. "What are you doing in here, all alone?"

"Well…there's a sort of riot going on," Ron said, sounding as surprised as Daphne felt.

Bagman stared at him. "What?"

"At the campsite…some people have got hold of a family of Muggles…"

Bagman swore loudly. "Damn them!" he said, and without another word he Disapparated.

"Not exactly on top of things, Mr. Bagman, is he?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"He was a great Beater, though," Ron said, leading the way off the path into a small clearing, and sitting down on a patch of dry grass at the foot of a tree. "The Wimbourne Wasps won the league three times in a row when he was with them."

Daphne looked around, trying to make out any other noises between the trees, but for now they seemed to be alone. She shivered. The night wasn't particularly cold, but her nightshirt was neither thick nor very long, ending just above her knees. She felt anxious, not having her wand there, and the silence seemed to become heavier by the minute…and then it sounded like someone was staggering toward their clearing. The uneven footsteps came to a sudden halt.

"Hello?" Harry called, but no one replied.

Daphne tried to see between the trees, but she couldn't make out anything at all in the darkness.

"Who's there?" Harry tried again.

The only answer he got, however, was a spell Daphne had never heard before.

"MORSMORDRE!"

Something huge, green, and glittering erupted from the darkness between the trees, flying up into the sky. Daphne saw that it was a colossal skull, comprised of glittering emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from the mouth. Even though Daphne was too young to have ever seen it, she knew it by description.

"The Dark Mark," she said softly.

The woods around them erupted with screams once more.

"The what?" Harry asked.

"It's Voldemort's symbol," Daphne said, feeling fear bubbling up inside of her, especially since she didn't have a wand. "Come on, we have to get out of here, now!"

Harry seemed startled, but turned around to run as well. Before they'd taken more than a few steps, however, Daphne heard the sound of people Apparating all around them.

"DUCK!" Harry yelled, and it was only thanks to her dueling training with Dad that Daphne was able to throw herself onto the forest floor.

"STUPEFY!" some twenty voices roared.

There was a blinding series of red flashes and Daphne felt the Stunners go right over her head, and she saw the beams hitting trees and rebounding all across the wood.

"Stop!" a voice Daphne recognized yelled. "STOP! That's my son!"

Mr. Weasley came striding out of the group, looking terrified. "Ron…Harry…Hermione, Daphne, are you all right?"

"Out of the way, Arthur," a cold, curt voice said.

An elderly wizard approached them, and by his expression Daphne guessed he was Mr. Crouch. "Which of you did it?" he snapped. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?" His eyes fell on Daphne. "You! You're Edmund Greengrass's daughter…an old Slytherin family…it was you, wasn't it?!"

Despite her earlier fear, Daphne got to her feet and looked Crouch straight in the eye.

"How would I know how to conjure that? Where would I have learned the spell?!" she shouted.

"Ha! You knew it was summoned with a spell! You seem awfully well-informed about–"

"Think for a second, you pompous old goat! Half the things we do are done with spells, so it wouldn't be a bad guess, but we literally heard the Mark being conjured. It happened right over there!" Daphne said, pointing between the trees.

Though Crouch kept scowling at her, the other witches and wizards didn't seem to think that Daphne or one of the others had conjured the Dark Mark at all, and they pointed their wands between the trees.

"We're too late," a witch in a woolen dressing gown said. "They'll have Disapparated."

"I don't think so," a wizard with a scrubby beard said. Daphne recognized him as Amos Diggory. "Our Stunners went right through those trees…there's a good chance we got them…"

Diggory held up his wand and strode into the darkness, and a few seconds later Daphne heard him shout, "Yes! We've got them! There's someone here, unconscious! It's…but…blimey…"

"You've got someone?" Crouch shouted disbelievingly. "Who? Who is it?"

Diggory returned with a small, limp figure in his arms, whom Daphne recognized as Winky. Crouch didn't move or speak while Diggory put the Elf down on the ground at his feet. The other Ministry wizards all stared at 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 Diggory and strode off toward the place where he had found Winky.

"No point, Mr. Crouch," Diggory called after him. "There's no one else there."

Crouch, however, clearly wasn't prepared to believe that, and Daphne heard him searching around between the bushes.

"Bit embarrassing," Diggory said grimly. "Barty Crouch's House-Elf…I mean to say…"

"Come off it, Amos," Mr. Weasley said quietly. "You don't seriously think it was the Elf? The Dark Mark's a wizard's sign. It requires a wand."

"Yeah," Diggory said. "And she had a wand."

"What?" Mr. Weasley said.

"Here, look." 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."

At that moment Bagman Apparated next to them, clearly still confused as to what was going on. After a short explanation, during which Crouch returned from his search, Diggory revived Winky to interrogate her.

"Elf!" Diggory said 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, breathing shallowly. Daphne frowned at Diggory. Even though he didn't know Winky hadn't cast the Dark Mark, he still seemed to presume her guilty immediately.

"As you see, Elf, the Dark Mark was conjured here a short while ago. And you were discovered moments later, right beneath it. An explanation, if you please!"

"I– I– I is not doing it, sir! I is not knowing how, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" Diggory barked, brandishing it at her. And now, in the green light from the Mark above, Daphne recognized it.

"Hey! That's mine!" she said.

Everyone in the clearing looked at her.

"Excuse me?" Diggory said incredulously.

"That's my wand," Daphne said. "I lost it."

"You lost it?" Diggory said in disbelief. "Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?"

Daphne sighed. "Again, how would I know how to conjure it?!" she asked angrily.

"Perhaps Amos is suggesting that we taught it to you."

Dad came striding into the clearing, followed by Mum. Fortunately, they looked normal again, although neither looked friendly.

"Well, Amos?" Dad pressed.

"Er, no, Edmund, I er, don't think your daughter conjured the Mark," Diggory stammered.

"And Winky didn't cast the spell either," Daphne said. "The voice we heard was human, and much deeper than hers."

Diggory didn't seem convinced. "Well, we'll soon see." He turned to Winky again. "There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, Elf, did you know that?"

Winky shook her head frantically and Diggory raised his wand, placing it tip-to-tip with Daphne's. "Prior Incantato!" he roared.

The shadow of another Dark Mark, looking as though it were made from smoke, erupted from the point where the two wands met.

"Deletrius!" Diggory shouted, and the shadowy skull vanished.

His eyes went from Winky to Daphne, then up to Dad, who frowned.

"I'd suggest you don't voice your current thoughts, Amos," Dad said icily.

"The Elf was caught red-handed with the wand," Diggory said. "And as she belongs to Mr. Crouch…"

"You naturally assume that the wealthy, pureblood, Slytherin family has something to do with it, after assuring me not moments ago you didn't," Dad finished.

Diggory said nothing, but Daphne knew that was exactly what he was thinking.

Dad smiled coldly. "I see. Amos, I seem to remember that Amaranth and I have always been rather supportive of your initiatives in the Wizengamot. And yet, for all the support we've given you over the years, you now repay us by accusing our daughter of conjuring You-Know-Who's mark. Hardly a shining example of that vaunted Hufflepuff loyalty, now is it?

"Or do you think House traits cease to matter after school? In that case, why assume it's any more likely that Daphne — who, need I remind you, is fourteen — cast that Mark than anyone else? Why not Ron, who is also a pureblood? Or perhaps the opposite, Hermione, who is Muggleborn? Or Harry, here, with whose story I'm sure you're familiar? Or perhaps you do think Mr. Crouch might have something to do with it. I know you said you don't, but you said the same thing about Daphne before reconsidering."

Diggory glanced at Crouch, whose eyes widened warningly.

"No, I, er…perhaps the Elf picked it up somewhere else…" he said.

"Precisely, Amos," Mr. Weasley said. "She could have picked it up anywhere. Winky? Where exactly did you find Daphne's wand?"

Winky twisted the hem of her tea towel so violently that it began to fray beneath her fingers.

"I– I is finding it…finding it there, sir…there…in the trees, sir," she said softly.

"You see, Amos?" Mr. Weasley said. "Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Daphne's wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up."

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

Winky began to tremble worse than ever, looking from Diggory, to Bagman, to Crouch. Then she gulped and said, "I is seeing no one, sir…no one…"

"Amos," Crouch said 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."

Diggory clearly didn't want to go along with this suggestion, but Daphne knew he wouldn't be able to refuse Crouch.

"You may rest assured that she will be punished," Crouch added coldly.

"M-m-master…" Winky stammered, looking up at Crouch with her eyes brimming with tears. "M-m-master, p-p-please…"

Crouch stared back without any pity in his expression. "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, throwing herself down at Crouch's feet. "No, master! Not clothes, not clothes!"

"But she was frightened!" Hermione said angrily. "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!"

Crouch stepped back, shaking off Winky like she was something repulsive.

"I have no use for a House-Elf who disobeys me," he said coldly. "I have no use for a servant who forgets what is due to her master, and to her master's reputation."

"Yes, we all know how important your reputation is to you," Mum said scathingly. "Winky should be happy to be rid of you, frankly."

Crouch gave her a withering look, but Mum wasn't impressed and glared back. A nasty silence filled the clearing, broken only by Winky's sobbing.

Eventually, Mr. Weasley said, "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 Daphne could have it back, please…"

Diggory reluctantly gave Daphne her wand. Daphne resolved to get herself a wand holster as soon as possible.

"Are you alright?" Dad asked Daphne as they began to walk back with Mr. Weasley. The ice was gone from his voice now.

Daphne nodded. "Yeah…but…those wizards…the Mark…I saw this in the crystal ball last year," she said.

"What's the deal with that skull, anyway?" Ron asked.

"I'll explain everything back at the tent," Mr. Weasley said.

Somehow, Daphne figured that, once again, Mrs. Weasley had seen fit not to tell her children about something they really should have known, if only for its historical significance.

"Voldemort and his followers shot that mark into the air whenever they'd murdered someone," Daphne said, not intending on keeping her friends in the dark even for a second longer. "You can imagine why people would be worried to see it now."

"And those masked wizards from before? They wore Death Eater robes. In other words, they were dressed like the Dark Lord's closest followers," Dad added. "Although in this case, the appearance of the Mark caused the Death Eaters to flee, so it's hard to say if it was meant to be a show of support…or a warning."

"Why would they be scared of their own symbol?" Harry asked.

"Because if those Death Eaters were here, it means they avoided Azkaban by lying about their allegiance to You-Know-Who," Mum said.

Mr. Weasley didn't seem too pleased that Mum and Dad were filling everyone in, but he didn't stop them like Daphne presumed Mrs. Weasley would have tried.

"And the Dark Lord was never very forgiving, so I imagine it scared them even more than it did everyone else."

They reached the edge of the forest clearing, where a large crowd of people accosted them. Seeing Mr. Weasley, they immediately turned to him for information, while a wizard with gray hair came up to Harry.

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked. "I saw the Dark Mark, but I was busy dealing with the Death Eaters…"

"We're okay, Sirius," Harry said. "What about you? Did you catch anyone?"

Sirius bitterly shook his head. "No. They all Disapparated when the Mark appeared and we had to take care of that Muggle family…I'm sure the Malfoys were there, but of course I can't prove anything…"

He angrily spat on the ground. "I need to get going again. I'll come over to the Burrow soon. We've got some things to talk about…or has someone already told you?"

Harry shook his head. "Not yet. Everyone's keeping it a secret," he said.

Sirius snorted. "Typical. Well, give me a day or two and I'll explain everything when I see you. I don't trust the things that are happening all of a sudden…"

Without saying another word, he turned around and marched back into the crowd.

"That was helpful," Daphne said.

"Daphne, we're going back to our tent as well," Mum said. "Stay close to your friends and Arthur. We'll write to you when you're back at school."

She pulled Daphne in close and hugged her. Moments later, Dad did the same.

"Daphne, if Draco Malfoy gets up to anything this year…do what you have to in order to stay safe," he said. "I don't care how many rules you break in the process."

Daphne nodded slowly. A year earlier, she would've been glad to hear that, but now, it only made her worry more. What madness would she get caught up in this year?

So another chapter that played out mostly like it did in canon. Honestly, I'm not too fond of it. I wanted to have a longer discussion in the clearing, but it just didn't work right. As in earlier chapters, though, I can't skip or compress this scene more than this without breaking the entire story structure for later. It'll have to do, for now.