The Truth Behind the name and the lies Pt 4

by KusanoSaku

An abused boy finds out he's a wizard and a hero; his tormented mind rebels. One person sees through the misconceptions to the real Harry and treats him the way he deserves. How does this change them both and those around them?

4. Chapter 4 The Riot

Title: Truth behind the name and the lies pt.4
Pairing: DracoxHarry, OliverxPercy, twincest, growing RemusxSeverus,
Fandom : HP
Notes: An abused boy finds out he's a wizard and a hero; his tormented mind rebels. One person sees through the misconceptions to the real Harry and treats him the way he deserves. How does this change them both and those around them
Pairings: DracoxHarry, twincest, OliverxPercy, RemusxSeverus, BlaisexCharlie, future BillxFleur, Stalker Ginny! Implied Seamus and Colin *hides* new pairing coming in chapter 17?

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Chapter 4- The riot

Blaisé was sitting in Charlie's lap, everyone else had gone to bed they had been tired.

Or had Remus just wanted to take Severus to bed? They had been getting more affectionate. Secretly, Blaisé wondered if the shy Deputy Headmaster had finally lost his virginity yet.

Charlie had snuck over to see him after his family had fallen asleep.

Blaisé ran his talons over the man's chest, "I'm glad you came."

Charlie grinned, "Couldn't stay away. Feels a bit like a spell."

Blaisé kissed him, "Don't have to cast a spell. You're my mate, your heart knows it."

Raucous singing was borne toward them on the night air, leprechauns had been shooting over their heads, cackling and waving their lanterns.

Hours ago, Lucius had said they could all have one last cup of cocoa together before turning in.

They were soon arguing enjoyably about the match; Draco had gotten drawn into a disagreement about cobbing with Remus, and it was only when Harry fell asleep right at the table and spilled hot chocolate all over the floor that Lucius called a halt to the verbal replays and insisted that everyone go to bed. They all went to their own rooms to get ready for bed.

Blaisé had stayed up; sure that Charlie wouldn't stay away and had dashed to the living room when the first crush of grass in their campsite reached his ears.

From the other side of the campsite they could still hear singing and the odd echoing bang.

Blaisé leaned to kiss Charlie, not caring one newt's eyeball about the seven years difference in their ages. He wanted Charlie, needed him, and the misfortune of his mate being related to Ron didn't matter in the slightest.

Then dimly, through his heat-filled mind, he could tell that something was wrong. The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. He could hear screams, and the sound of people running.

Lucius and Severus barged out of their room clutching their wands.

A sleepy Remus behind Severus.

Severus glanced at his old friend, "You don't think?"

Lucius scowled, "I hope not. We better wake up the children."

Severus snapped, "Dobby."

There was a loud pop.

"Go get Harry and Draco."

"Yes Master Severus."

"Dippy!"

There was a loud pop.

"Go get Hermione."

"Yes Master Severus."

"Blaisé!" Lucius had finally noticed him, he pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't have time to deal with you right now. You're going to have to look after the others. Promise me."

Severus clutched his wand, "It's them isn't it."

Lucius nodded, "Has to be."

"I'm going to help the Ministry."

Remus' face took on a panicked expression, "You can't. Please."

"I already choose Harry over them. Let me do this." Severus glared.

Remus cupped his cheek, "I don't want you hurt. Please. Let Lucius and I take care of it."

Charlie piped up, "I'll go too."

Blaisé clutched his shirt.

"I'll come back. I promise. Look after your friends alright?" Charlie kissed his forehead.

Blaisé was worried for him.

Hermione, Draco and Harry stumbled out of their rooms, pushed by Dippy and Dobby.

"Blaisé, get them to the woods. Look after them." Lucius said grabbing his cloak.

"I'm coming too.' Severus insisted, following him.

Remus went after them, seeming in a panic.

Charlie kissed Blaisé before leaving.

The pungent smell of fear was filling the air, Blaisé snapped, "Let's go. Hurry."

Harry did as he was told and hurried out of the tent, Hermione at his heels. By the light of the few fires that were still burning, he could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire.

Loud jeering, roars of laughter, and drunken yells were drifting toward them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene. A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field.

Harry squinted at them as he was dragged along…

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.

The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent.

It looked like one of the Muggle campground managers and his family.

One of the marchers turned the woman upside down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.

"That's sick," Draco muttered angrily, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. "That is really sick…"

Hermione was still pulling a coat over her nightdress.

At the same moment, Fred, George, Ginny and Ron came out wearing coats over their night clothes. While Bill and Mr. Weasley emerged from the Weasleys' tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.

Percy kissed Oliver, "Be safe. I'm going to find Lord Malfoy and try to help."

Oliver nodded, grabbed his parents and Apparating out.

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

Bill and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers; Mr. Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Muggle family was coming ever closer.

"C'mon," said Fred, grabbing one of Ginny's hands and George grabbed the other. They started to pull her toward the wood. Ron followed them grumpily.

Harry, Draco, Hermione, and Blaisé followed.

They all looked back as they reached the trees. The crowd beneath the airborne Muggle family was larger than ever; they could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the center, but they were having great difficulty. It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Muggles fall.

Dark figures were blundering through the trees; children were crying; anxious shouts and panicked voices were reverberating around them in the cold night air.

Draco felt himself being pushed hither and thither by people whose faces he could not see. Then he heard Harry yell with pain.

"What happened?" said Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Draco walked into her. "Harry, where are you? Oh this is stupid - Lumos!"

Blaisé grumbled, "I told you to stay close. Don't point that wand at my face. I've already been blinded once today already."

She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path.

Harry was lying sprawled on the ground, "I tripped over a tree root after I got shoved," he said angrily, getting to his feet again.

"Well, with an ego that size, it'd hard not to fall," said a drawling voice from behind them.

Harry, Draco, Blaisé, and Hermione turned sharply.

Ron was standing alone nearby, leaning against a tree, and looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees. Ron told Malfoy to do something that Harry hoped he would never have dared say in front of Mrs. Weasley.

Harry glared, "Don't talk like that to Draco."

"Language, Weasley," came a voice out of the shadows; standing there sneering was Theodore Nott. "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 blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione defiantly.

"Granger, they're after Muggles," Nott said. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around… they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."

"Hermione's a witch," Harry glared.

"Have it your own way, Potter," Nott said, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."

"You watch your mouth!" Blaisé growled, his fists turning into talons.

Everybody present knew that "Mudblood" was a very offensive term for a witch or wizard of Muggle parentage.

"Never mind, Blaisé," said Hermione quickly, seizing Blaisé's arm to restrain him as he took a step toward his housemate.

There came a bang from the other side of the trees that was louder than anything they had heard several people nearby screamed.

Nott chuckled softly. "Scare easily, don't they?" he said lazily. "Draco, my old friend, I suppose your traitor father told you all to hide? What's he up to? Is he trying to rescue the Muggles?"

"Where is your father?" Draco said, his temper rising. "Out there wearing a mask, is he?"

Nott turned his face to Draco, still smiling maliciously. "Well if he was, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Draco?"

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

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

"Fred and George can't have gone that far," Draco said, pulling out his wand, lighting it like Hermione's, and squinting up the path.

Blaisé grumbled, at least he half-Veela could see in the dark.

Harry dug in the pockets of his jacket for his own wand - but it wasn't there. The only thing he could find was his Omnoculars. "Draco. It's gone. I've lost my wand!"

"You're kidding!" Blaisé muttered in shock.

Draco and Hermione raised their wands high enough to spread the narrow beams of light farther on the ground; Harry looked all around him, but his wand was nowhere to be seen.

"It's probably back in the tent," Draco said, hoping theirs hadn't been burned or trampled.

"Could it have fallen out of your pocket when we were running?" Hermione suggested anxiously.

"Yeah," said Harry, "maybe…" he always kept his wand with him at all times in the Wizarding World, and finding himself without it right now made him feel very vulnerable.

A rustling noise nearby made the four of them jump.

Winky was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby, she was moving strangely, as if with great difficulty; almost as if someone invisible were trying to hold her back.

"There is bad wizards about!" she squeaked distractedly as she leaned forward and labored to keep running. "People high - high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"

And she disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path, panting and squeaking as though she was fighting someone.

Another loud bang echoed from the edge of the wood.

"Let's just keep moving, shall we?" Blaise said, as he was charged with keeping them all safe.

Harry saw him glance edgily at Hermione. Perhaps there was truth in what Nott had said; perhaps Hermione was in more danger than they were. They set off again, Harry still searching his pockets, even though he knew his wand wasn't there.

They followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still keeping an eye out for Fred, George, and Ginny- Ron too unfortunately who had disappeared. They passed a group of goblins that were cackling over a sack of gold that they had undoubtedly won betting on the match, and who seemed quite unperturbed by the trouble at the campsite. Farther still along the path, they walked into a patch of silvery light, and when they looked through the trees, they saw three tall and beautiful Veela standing in a clearing, surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.

"I'm about to be made the youngest Minister for Magic ever."

Hermione snorted with laughter at the lot of them, she recognized the pimply wizard: His name was Stan Shunpike, and he was in fact a conductor on the triple-decker Knight Bus that she had ridden to rescue Harry from his evil Muggle relatives.

Blaisé snarled, "Seriously, honestly. Can you ladies stop using your allure? You're giving me a headache."

"Male Veela?' one of the women asked.

"But he's so dark."

"Not light and glowing like us."

"Unnatural he is."

Blaisé growled, "My mate finds me attractive. I don't have to use my allure on him. He wants me without it."

The female Veela turned their back on him.

"Honestly!" Hermione said, walking off.

As Draco and Harry grabbed Blaisé firmly by the arms, dragging the irritated Veela who was probably worried about his mate, and marched him away.

By the time the sounds of the Veela and their admirers had faded completely, they were in the very heart of the wood. They seemed to be alone now; everything was much quieter.

Until there was loud cracks from stepping on dead wood.

Draco and Blaisé looked quickly around too. It sounded as though someone was staggering toward their clearing. They waited, listening to the sounds of the uneven steps behind the dark trees. But the footsteps came to a sudden halt.

"Hello?" Draco called out, holding Harry close.

There was silence. Blaisé got to his feet and peered around the tree. It was too dark for his friends to see very far but be could make out the shape of a person at the edge of the range of his vision. "Who's there?" he said.

And then, without warning, the current 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!"

Draco stiffened.

Then something vast, green, and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness their human eyes had been struggling to penetrate; where it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.

"What the?" Blaisé gasped 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.

Suddenly, the wood all around them erupted with screams.

Harry didn't understand why, but the only possible cause was the sudden appearance of the skull, which reminded him Benia's description the basilisk emerging from the mouth of Salazar's statue had now. The formation risen high enough to illuminate the entire wood like some grisly neon sign.

Blaisé scanned the darkness for the person who had conjured the skull, but he couldn't see anyone anymore. "Who's there?" he called again.

"Harry, come on, move!" Draco seized the collar of his jacket and was tugging him backward.

"What's the matter? Draco talk to me" Harry said, startled to see Hermione' face so white and terrified while Draco looked defiant.

"It's the Dark Mark, Harry!" Hermione moaned, pulling him as hard as she could. "You-Know-Who's sign!"

"The Dark Lord's-" Draco whispered.

"Harry, come on!"

Harry turned.

The four of them started across the clearing but before they had taken a few hurried steps, a series of popping noises announced the arrival of twenty wizards, appearing from thin air, surrounding them.

Harry whirled around, and in an instant, he registered one fact: Each of these wizards had his wand out, and every wand was pointing right at himself, Draco and Blaisé, and Hermione.

Without pausing to think, Blaisé yelled, "DUCK!" He seized the other three and pulled them down onto the ground. His wings exploding from his back, tearing his clothes and covering them.

"STUPEFY!" roared twenty voices.

There was a blinding series of flashes and Blaisé felt the power of the spells racing over his wings as though a powerful wind had swept the clearing. Raising his head a fraction of an inch he saw jets of fiery red light flying over them from the wizards' wands, crossing one another, bouncing off tree trunks, rebounding into the darkness—

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

Severus limped up, Remus at his side.

Blaisé's wings stopped feeling the spells blowing about and he raised his head a little higher.

The wizard in front of him had lowered his wand.

He rolled over and saw Severus striding toward them, looking terrified.

"Blaisé? Is that you? Where's Harry?" his voice sounded shaky

Blaisé moved slowly folding his wings, "We're all here. I did as Lucius said. I kept them safe."

Severus and Remus hugged Harry.

"Thank god you're safe."

Draco tried to rub out a sore spot on his back from hitting the ground.

"Draco? Hermione? Are you all right?"

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

The 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? Was it you Malfoy?"

"We didn't do that!" Harry said with a shaking voice from his papa's arms, gesturing up at the skull.

"We didn't do anything!" Blaisé glared, who was rubbing his elbow and looking indignantly at them. "I'm a Veela! What makes you think I'd be part of that lot? Why did you want to attack us?"

"Do not lie, to me!" the leader of them shouted. His wand was still pointing at them wavering between Draco and Blaisé, 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?" Remus asked quickly.

"Over there," said Hermione shakily, pointing at the place where they had heard the voice.

Draco nodded, "There was someone behind the trees. They shouted words, it sounded like an incantation."

"Oh, stood over there, did they?" said Mr. Crouch, turning his popping eyes on Draco now, disbelief etched all over his face. "Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, young Malfoy."

"My father went to help you lot. He didn't want anyone hurt. What makes you think I'd know that spell? When I'm best friends with Harry Potter, a Veela, a Muggleborn and two Weasleys?"

But none of the Ministry wizards apart from Mr. Crouch seemed to think it remotely likely that Harry, Draco, Blaise, or Hermione had conjured the skull; on the contrary, 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," Remus said, rubbing Severus' shoulder, "Our Stunners went right through those trees…there's a good chance we got them…

"Remus, be careful!" Severus said warningly as Remus squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness.

Blaisé's eyes narrowed watching him.

A few seconds later, they heard Remus shout.

"Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's…oh dear."

"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 Remus 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 Remus 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 Remus and strode off toward the place where he had found Winky.

"No point, Mr. Crouch," Remus 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.

If Remus, a werewolf who had superior senses said there was no one there, then there was no one.

Not that they could explain that to the assembled wizards.

"Bit embarrassing," Severus said grimly, looking down at Winky's unconscious form. "Barty Crouch's house-elf…I mean to say…"

"Hush Sev," Remus said quietly, "you don't seriously think it was the elf?"

Severus glared at him, "Don't you think I know the Dark Mark's a wizard's sign and that it requires a wand." he could cast in but he wouldn't, never again

"Yeah," Remus sighed, "but she had a wand."

"What?" Severus blinked, a house elf? With a wand? It was forbidden for non-humans to have wands.

"Here, look." Remus held up a wand and showed it to his lover. "Had it in her hand. I know 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." well he sort of broke that himself, but he wasn't considering that really. He was human most of the time right? When he wasn't human, Severus had his wand.

Just then there was another pop, and Lucius Apparated right next to Severus.

Looking breathless and disorientated, Lucius spun on the spot, goggling upward at the emerald-green skull. "No. No one died. I'm sure of it. No one cast an unforgivable. We finally got those poor people down. I left the Obliviators to handle it after that." He hadn't expected to find his friend and former fellow Death Eater Severus, Remus, Blaisé, Hermione and their sons with a host of wizards. "So why did someone cast that?"

Remus sighed, "To cause a panic most likely. It would be like walking into Hogsmeade and saying Greyback's been spotted. Hide your children."

A Ministry wizard beside them staggered, "That's not funny."

Remus nodded, "Of course it wasn't. But both actions are heinous and would cause a panic."

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

"Where have you been, Barty?" Lucius asked. "Why weren't you at the match? Your elf was saving you a seat too - gulping gargoyles!" he had just noticed Winky lying at his feet. "What happened to her?"

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

"Stunned? By you, you mean? But why?" as master of over a score of house elves, he could hardly believe it. "No!" Lucius said. "Winky? Conjure the Dark Mark? She wouldn't know how! She'd need a wand, for a start!" surely, Barty Jr. never taught her, where would she have gotten a wand?

"Lucius, she had one," Remus interrupted him. "I found her holding one, if it's all right with you, Mr. Crouch, I think we should hear what she's got to say for herself."

Crouch gave no sign that he had heard Remus, but Remus seemed to take his silence for assent. He raised his own wand, pointed it at Winky, and said, "Ennervate!"

Winky stirred feebly. Her great brown eyes opened and she blinked several times in a bemused sort of way. Watched by the silent wizards, she raised herself shakily into a sitting position. She caught sight of Remus' feet, and slowly, tremulously, raised her eyes to stare up into his face; then, more slowly still, she looked up into the sky.

She gave a gasp, looked wildly around the crowded clearing, and burst into terrified sobs.

"Elf!" Lucius said sternly. "My name is Lord Lucius Malfoy, member of the Wizengamot."

Winky began to rock backward and forward on the ground, her breath coming in sharp bursts.

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

"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!" Remus barked, brandishing it in front of her.

And as the wand caught the green light that was filling the clearing from the skull above, Harry recognized it.

He stammered, "Wait! Remus…I think that's my wand. I dropped when we were running."

Everyone in the clearing looked at him.

"What did you say Harry pup?" Remus asked, incredulously.

Draco nodded, "It's Harry's. We have brother wands. I'd recognize his anywhere."

Crouch woke up then. "The wand found beneath the Dark Mark is yours? So, you admit that you cast it?"

"Crouch, think who you're talking to." Severus shook, very angrily. "Is Harry Potter likely to conjure the Dark Mark?"

"Depends. Did you teach him?" Crouch glared.

Severus' glamour covered crooked fingers clenched into a fist, "I would never teach my son that. I was a spy for the Order. I work at Hogwarts'. I'm the Deputy Headmaster. I take my responsibilities seriously."

"Then perhaps, young Mr. Malfoy did it…" Crouch continued.

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

"So," Lucius' eyes hardening as he turned to look at Winky again, cowering at his feet. "You found this wand, eh, elf? And you picked it up and thought you'd have some fun with it, did you?" yes, he was ignoring Crouch. Honestly, he'd never liked either Barty Crouch.

"I is not doing magic with it, sir!" squealed Winky, tears streaming down the sides of her squashed and 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, looking very nervous, speaking up in front of all these Ministry wizards, yet determined all the same. "Winky's got a squeaky little voice, and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!" She looked around at Draco, Harry and Blaisé, appealing for their support. "It didn't sound anything like Winky, did it?"

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

"Yeah, it was a human voice," Blaisé put in his two Knuts. "Deep. Like a man's but they said the words like an endearment."

Crouch glared at Blaisé, "Why should we believe you?"

"I'm someone they wouldn't like either. I'm not a pureblood wizard. I have better hearing them most." Blaisé flexed his wings a bit. "I'm Half-Veela, remember?"

"Well, we'll soon see," Crouch, looking unimpressed.

Lucius caressed the head of his cane, "There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?"

Winky trembled and shook her head frantically, her ears flapping.

As Remus raised his own wand again and placed it tip to tip with Harry's, which he'd handed to Severus

"Prior Incantato!" Remus uttered clearly.

Harry heard Hermione gasp, horrified, as a gigantic serpent-tongued skull erupted from the point where the two wands met, but it was a mere shadow of the green skull high above them; it looked as though it were made of thick gray smoke: the ghost of a spell.

"Deletrius!" Remus growled, and the smoky skull vanished in a wisp of smoke. He was furious someone used his pup's wand to cast the Dark Mark.

"So," Lucius glared at Winky, who was still shaking convulsively.

"I is not doing it!" she squealed, 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!"

"Then explain why the wand you were holding cast the Dark Mark?" Lucius gripped the head of his staff tight, "When you know you are never to touch a wand."

Severus tried to calm his friend, "Relax, few wizards know how to do that spell. Where would she have learned it?"

"Perhaps Lord Malfoy is suggesting," said Mr. Crouch, cold anger in every syllable, "that I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?"

"Of course not. If she had learned it from a Crouch, it wouldn't have been you would it? It would have been your son."

"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? I disowned and imprisoned my own son" Mr. Crouch shouted, his eyes bulging again. The hatred in his eyes was directed at Lucius.

"Winky?" Remus asked quietly, turning to the elf, but she flinched as though he too was shouting at her. "Where exactly did you find Harry's wand?"

Winky was twisting 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 whispered, "there…in the trees, sir.

"You see, Lucius?" Remus said. "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. 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!" Lucius snapped impatiently. "Elf? Did you see anyone?"

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

Mr. Crouch curtly, "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into the Department of the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her."

Lucius sighed, "Very well. Since we can't prove she did anything beside touch a wand."

"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. Now I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes."

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

Draco knew that the only way to turn a house-elf free was to present it with proper garments. 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 burst out 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!"

"Be quiet child! I'll handle my elf the way I see fit! I have no use for a servant who forgets what is due to her master, and to her master's reputation"

Winky was crying so hard that her sobs echoed around the clearing.

There was a very nasty silence, which was ended by Lucius, who said uncomfortably, "Well, I think I'll take those I attended the World Cup with back to the tent, if nobody's got any objections."

Severus nodded, "Remus, that wand's told us all it can. We can give it back to Harry right?"

Remus nodded, "Hold onto this better from now on Harry pup. Let's go back to the tent and try to sleep."

Lucius looked at Blaise as they headed back towards the campground, "You protected the other children. Thank you."

"No problem. Veela wings can protect against stunners." Blaise was tired and agitated. He wanted Charlie…

Lucius said quickly, beckoning them on, "I want to get back to the tent as fast as we can. What happened to the others?"

"We lost them in the dark," Draco said staying close

Harry tugged on Severus' sleeve, "Papa, why was everyone so upset about that skull thing?"

"I'll explain everything back at the tent," Severus muttered tensely.

But when they reached the edge of the wood, their progress was impeded. A large crowd of frightened-looking witches and wizards was congregated there, and when they saw the group coming toward them, many of them surged forward.

"What's going on in there?"

"Who conjured it?"

"Lord Malfoy - it's not - Him?"

"Of course it's not Him," Lucius impatiently. "We don't know who it was; it looks like they DisApparated. Now excuse me, please, I want to get to bed." He led Harry, Draco, Remus, Severus, Blaisé and Hermione through the crowd and back into the campsite.

All was quiet now; there was no sign of the masked wizards, though several ruined tents were still smoking.

Charlie, Fred and George were outside their own tent with Percy.

Charlie pulled Blaisé into his arms, holding him close, "I was so worried when I saw the Dark Mark."

Blaisé clung to his mate, "Don't let go." he whispered, honestly he'd been terrified for all of them but mostly Charlie.

"Did you get them, Lord Malfoy?" Percy asked sharply. "The person who conjured the Mark?"

"No," Lucius said shivering slightly. "We found Barty Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but we're none the wiser about who actually conjured the Mark."

"What?" said Fred, George, Charlie, and Percy together.

"Harry's wand?" said Fred.

"Mr. Crouch's elf?" said Percy, sounding thunderstruck.

With some assistance from Draco, Blaisé, and Hermione, the story was explained about what had happened in the woods.

"I'll tell you this…" Lucius shifted uncomfortably, "Only the Death Eaters knew how to conjure it. I'd be very surprised if the person who did it hadn't been a Death Eater once, even if they're not now. Obviously, it wasn't Severus or myself. We were with the Ministry. Listen, it's very late, Draco if your mother hears what's happened she'll be worried sick. We'll get a few more hours sleep and then try to get an early Portkey out of here."

XoooooX

Harry got back into bed with Draco his head buzzing. He knew he ought to feel exhausted: It was nearly three in the morning after all.

Draco rubbed his back, "Relax Adder you're safe.'

XoooooX

A few doors down, Remus was trying to calm Severus.

"I…can't believe I publicly stood up to the Death Eaters."

"Sevy, you would have done it eventually. We're all proud of you for doing the right thing. Even if I would have preferred you were with the children protecting them." Remus said holding him and kissing his neck. "Hush now."

XoooooX

Charlie was trying to calm Blaise down as well. "Blaise, you're safe."

"I outed myself as a Veela to the Ministry!"

"You were protecting your friends." He had to admit, Blaise with wings was sexy. He traced circles on Blaise's wings. "I like seeing your wings. I just wish the circumstances were better."

Blaise felt his face warm, and snuggled, "Thank you…for staying with me."

Soon the tent was filled with soft snores.