Became good friends with the Boy Who Lived

Mr. Weasley walked over quickly, looking horrified. "Ron, Ginny...are you all right?" Mr. Weasley asked in a trembling voice, "And you, Aries, Harry, Hermione...are you all okay?"

Ron shouted in dissatisfaction: "Why attack us for no reason?"

"Shut up, kid..." A cold voice came, and a well-dressed middle-aged wizard walked over, "You are now a criminal suspect..."

"Battie!" said Mr. Weasley, "My son, daughter and these children will never do such a thing. I can guarantee them with the Weasley family name..."

"That's right, Mr. Crouch..." Mr. Diggory stood up and said in great shock, "This kid used the Vulcan spell, the real Vulcan spell, Merlin's beard, even among us old guys, who can use the Vulcan spell?"

"That doesn't exonerate them, Amos!" said Mr. Crouch. "One of them cast the Dark Mark!"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" said Mr. Diggory, pulling Harry away from the group. "This is Harry, Harry Potter! There is absolutely no way he could have anything to do with You-Know-Who."

"Amos is right," said one witch. "Barty, they are just children..."

Mr. Crouch held his forehead and closed his eyes, as if forcing himself to calm down. He softened his voice and asked, "Did you see who released the Dark Mark?"

The others all shook their heads, but Aeris pointed in a direction thoughtfully and said, "A green light rose into the sky from that direction, and then exploded in the air and became that thing..."

A dozen wizards, led by Mr. Diggory, raised their wands vigilantly in that direction, as if something dangerous would jump out of the forest in that direction in the next moment.

Mr. Diggory took a deep breath and said loudly, "I want to see who is hiding his head and showing his tail..."

After saying that, Mr. Diggory strode towards the forest. Several wizards warned him worriedly, "Be careful, Amos!"

After a while, Mr. Diggory's excited voice was heard: "Aha! There really is someone... No, why is it a house-elf? Barty... Barty... Mr. Crouch, you need to come and see..."

Mr. Crouch also strode over, and a group of wizards followed in a mighty manner. Aris, Harry and the others looked at each other, nodded to each other, and followed silently.

The forest became even darker. Several wizards cast fluorescent spells, and the bright white light tore through the darkness in the forest.

The wizards formed an encirclement and surrounded the thin figure in a small open space in the forest.

Mr. Crouch's face was as ugly as it could be. The thin figure was holding a wand tightly in his hand. It was Harry's wand. The thin figure was: Winky, the house-elf.

Harry was about to say something when Aeris pulled his arm and shook his head at him, signaling him not to say anything more.

Mr. Diggory said, "I didn't wreck the scene, Barty. You know, even if she didn't cast the Dark Mark, she still violated the third law of the "Wand Use Code": No non-human creature may carry or use a wand..."

"Thanks for the heads up, Amos!" said Mr. Crouch irritably. "No one knows the laws better than I do..."

Mr. Crouch pointed his wand at the unconscious Winky and chanted through gritted teeth: "Wake up quickly~"

Winky woke up and looked around with confused eyes. Noticing that many wizards were staring at her, she stood up tremblingly, looked at the expressionless Mr. Crouch, then looked at the wand in her hand. She felt as if she was burned by the wand. She threw the wand away in horror and burst into tears.

As luck would have it, the wand fell at Harry's feet. Harry picked up his wand with joy and heartache, and wiped it again and again with the hem of his clothes.

Mr. Diggory came to Harry and said, "My child, this wand is already a piece of evidence. Please give it to me..."

"But... this... this is my wand..." Harry said weakly, and took a step back to protect the wand in his arms.

"Your wand?" said Mr. Diggory, surprised. "This...this..."

"We had a brief contact with Miss Winky in the box," said Aris, "but after the Quidditch game, Harry's wand disappeared, and now it appears in Miss Winky's hand again..."

"Aha!" said Mr. Diggory, as if suddenly realizing something. "Winky stole Harry's wand..."

"Not necessarily, Mr. Diggory," said Aris. "Perhaps someone used a magic like the Disillusionment Charm to sneak up on Harry and take away Harry's wand, and then put the wand into Miss Winky's hand while she was unconscious..."

"Have you cried enough?" Mr. Crouch's extremely angry voice came, interrupting Aris's words, "Explain! I asked you to stay in our tent, why are you here? Why are you running around without my order? Why do you have Harry Potter's wand in your hand? Why did the Dark Mark shoot out in your direction? Why didn't you listen to me? I agreed to your plea, I trusted you so much! I trusted you so much! Is this how you repay me? Is this how you repay me? You bring shame to your master! You embarrass your master in front of his colleagues! You also make your mistress die with regrets!"

Winky was terrified and could only sob quietly. Mr. Crouch's eyes were red and he was breathing heavily. He grabbed the front of his clothes and took a long time to calm down. Everyone looked at Mr. Crouch worriedly.

"Amos!" Mr. Crouch said weakly, "And everyone, I guarantee on the honor of the Crouch family that Winky will never cast the Dark Mark. As for the wand issue, as that young gentleman said, someone may have stuffed the wand into Winky's hand while she was unconscious. You know, there are many people who want to laugh at me. I beg you to let me deal with my house-elf."

"Of course," said Mr. Diggory, "I have no objection, Barty, of course . . . "

Mr. Crouch took off his suit jacket like crazy and threw it at Winky. Winky held Mr. Crouch's jacket in his hand in a daze. After coming to his senses, he hugged Mr. Crouch's legs and cried miserably:

“No… Master… don’t… don’t…”

"This is unfair!" Hermione, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. "Winky did nothing wrong, but she was punished in a way she shouldn't be..."

"Miss, this is my family business," said Mr. Crouch indifferently, "I won't bother you with it."

"Wind!" Mr. Crouch sighed to the sky, "This is the last order I give you. Get out of my sight. Don't embarrass me anymore. Get out!!!" Mr. Crouch roared.

Winky let go of Mr. Crouch's legs, with a look of despair on her face. She held her coat and bowed deeply to Mr. Crouch. With a "snap" sound, like the sound of a whip, Winky disappeared.

"Well," said Mr. Weasley, "there's nothing I can do here. My children are frightened. I'm going to take them back to my tent. Come on, children."

Aries and the other five followed Mr. Weasley and left. Hermione looked back frequently, as if she wanted to say something. Aries put his arm around her shoulders, sighed, and shook his head, signaling her not to say anything and to hurry up and follow.

"How can this be?" Hermione whispered indignantly, "This is not right..."

Aris raised his chin towards Mr. Weasley and said quietly, "Hermione, you should be more worried about the safety of your companions than the house-elves. Can't you see that Mr. Weasley is almost going crazy? The lives of several of his sons are still unknown..."

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I...I neglected that..." Hermione said with a blushing face, "You...you...how long are you going to hold me..."

Aris coughed awkwardly twice, calmly took back his arm from Hermione's shoulders, smiled and said, "I'm just afraid that you will get impulsive and go back to argue with Mr. Crouch. I feel that he is not the kind of person who would reason with a little girl..."