Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Mark?’
    There was a deeply unpleasant silence.
    Amos Diggory looked horrified. ‘Mr Crouch … not … not at all …’
    ‘You have now come very close to accusing the two people in this clearing who are least likely to conjure that Mark!’ barked Mr Crouch. ‘Harry Potter – and myself! I suppose you are familiar with the boy’s story, Amos?’
    ‘Of course – everyone knows –’ muttered Mr Diggory, looking highly discomfited.
    ‘And 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 practise them?’ Mr Crouch shouted, his eyes bulging again.
    ‘Mr Crouch, I – I never suggested you had anything to do with it!’ muttered Amos Diggory, now reddening behind his scrubby brown beard.
    ‘If you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory!’ shouted Mr Crouch. ‘Where else would she have learnt to conjure it?’
    ‘She – she might’ve picked it up anywhere –’
    ‘Precisely, Amos,’ said Mr Weasley. ‘ She might have picked it up anywhere … Winky?’ he said kindly, 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, Amos?’ said Mr Weasley. ‘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. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up.’
    ‘But then, she’d have been feet away from the real culprit!’ said Mr Diggory impatiently. ‘Elf? Did you see anyone?’
    Winky began to tremble worse than ever. Her giant eyes flickered from Mr Diggory to Ludo Bagman, and on to Mr Crouch.
    Then she gulped, and said, ‘I is seeing no one, sir … no one…’
    ‘Amos,’ said Mr Crouch 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.’
    Mr Diggory looked as though he didn’t think much of this suggestion at all, but it was clear to Harry that Mr Crouch was such an important member of the Ministry that he did not dare refuse him.
    ‘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. And 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!’
    Harry 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!’
    Mr Crouch took a step backwards, freeing himself from contact with the elf, whom he was surveying as though she was something filthy and rotten that was contaminating his over-shined shoes.
    ‘I have no use for a house-elf who disobeys me,’ he said coldly, looking up at Hermione. ‘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 Mr Weasley, who said quietly, ‘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 Harry could have it back, please –’
    Mr Diggory handed Harry his wand and Harry pocketed it.
    ‘Come on, you three,’ Mr Weasley said quietly. But Hermione didn’t seem to want to move; her eyes were still upon the sobbing