Ireland won, of course, they did. And he did get his check from Lucius Malfoy before leaving the stadium.
Back in the tent though it was mayhem, with the Weasleys celebrating wildly, even Remus and Sirius seemed a little buzzed, but he wasn't sure if that was from the free bar or all the hype in the tent.
The twins sang merrily as they danced around the tent, and Ron daydreamed about Krum out loud, with his siblings mocking him playfully. Elijah could not help but stand back and take in the feeling the night brought.
Outside, however, there were loud crashes and the sound of fireworks going off. Elijah furrowed his brows and moved to peer out the curtain, Arthur and James following close behind. The loud singing had come to a stop and turned to screams of terror. Elijah slipped back inside, grabbing his rucksack and wand. Before Arthur and James could even begin to tell the other children.
"Everyone stop," Elijah instructed loud enough for only the people in the tent to hear. "Grab your wands and coats." He said calmly, looking to his left to see his father and Mr Weasley coming back inside, sharing a look with the other adults.
"What's going on?" Percy asked, "The Irish getting too rough?"
"It's not the Irish." Arthur said, looking to Elijah who had moved back to the exit.
"Children stay close together and head towards the woods, don't stop unless one of the adults here tells you to." James instructed, looking at the golden trio.
Elijah could barely make it out there appeared to be a group of wizards marching, sticking close together with their wands held high in the air, hoods, and masks covering their faces as they moved throughout the grounds. Above them were four figures being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked witches and wizards were puppeteering the poor souls.
More wizards joined the marching group, and they appeared to be laughing manically as they got closer, forcing tents out of their way, burning their path.
"We are going to help the Ministry, you guys start towards the woods." Arthur told them, following Bill, Charlie, and Percy. More ministry members coming from their tents to aid the cause. James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius followed closely behind.
Sirius turned back to Elijah and gripped his shoulders. "Please, don't do anything reckless and foolish. Just get yourself and your friends to safety. Promise me?"
Elijah rolled his eyes, "I promise, Sirius." He grumbled, earning a pat on his cheek before his godfather ran after his friends.
"Come on," Fred called, starting to run towards the woods with the others. Elijah threw a glance around the campsite to make sure no one he knew was left or hurt before catching up with the others.
Once they reached the trees they turned back, Elijah could see the Ministry members trying to break through the hooded figures to get the muggles down but they were hardly making a dent. He clutched his wand tightly, shaking his head, wishing he could be more useful.
They could hardly see a thing, and it appeared the twins had the same frustration he did as they all had their wands out and cast "Lumos." At the same time.
"Ron, why are you on the ground?" Ginny asked, looking at her brother.
"Well, I didn't do it on purpose did I?" He spat back, taking Harry's hand to get back to his feet.
Harry pat his pockets, "Guys, I think I dropped my wand.."
The other children all pulled out theirs lighting the ground to see if they could help Harry find it.
"It probably fell out of your pocket as you were running," Elijah said, mildly annoyed but he didn't let it show. "Once this dies down we can look for it."
"Will it die down?" Harry asked, looking up at his older brother.
"Time will tell."
"What if any of them get hurt? Or worse?" Harry questioned.
Elijah didn't have all the answers. He just knew that if it came down to it, he'd make sure Remus and Sirius got out alive.
"Everything will be fine, Harry."
"Come on, let's keep moving." The twins murmured, Fred still holding Ginny's hand.
They moved past families looking tired, and frantic, some had mud up their clothing, some had burn marks. Almost all the younger children were silently crying in a relative's arms. None of them knew what to do.
They headed into the heart of the woods, stopping when Fred and George found a place to sit with Ginny.
"We can wait it out here." George said, looking over at the others.
"That was insane." Ron sighed, sitting beside his brothers.
"Those poor Muggles," Ginny started, "Do you think they will get them down?"
"Of course they will." George reassured her.
"Given that the whole Ministry was here why would they even risk it? It's like they are asking to be caught." Hermione started.
"Wouldn't surprise me if half the Slytherin house was out there.. or at least their parents." Harry said bitterly.
"Lucius Malfoy is definitely one of them," Ron added. "Wouldn't surprise me if others were to be caught."
Elijah just sighed, moving himself slightly away from the group keeping a lookout, and trying to stay out of the conversation.
"At least we are safe here." Hermione sighed changing the subject as she looked the older Potter over sympathetically.
Everyone looked up abruptly at the sound of someone staggering towards their clearing. They all waited listening to the sounds of uneven steps behind the dark trees.
"Hello?" Harry called, and Elijah shot him a glare.
They didn't know who this person could be and Harry wanted to call them over. Sometimes he forgot how idiotic his brother could be.
There was silence. And Elijah slowly peered around the tree, it was far too dark to see anything too far out. But he knew someone was there. He knew someone was lurking. He just hoped they couldn't see them. Turning to face the others he gestured for them to lower their wands to hide the light from the tips.
"Who is there?" Harry called.
If he knew it wouldn't cost him over a year of being grounded he would have hit Harry then and there. But he composed himself, clenching his jaw and focusing on listening to the person nearby.
The silence was shattered by the sound of someone muttering a spell. A spell Elijah had never heard.
"MORSMORDRE!"
Something vast, green, and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness and Elijah got a quick glance at the person who cast the spell, but not enough to catch any telling features. His eyes followed the light, watching as it became a large colossal skull, composed 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.
Around them the silence was swallowed by screams, the only possible explanation being the skull that now lit the night sky like an overbearing neon sign. Elijah looked around for the man he'd only caught a small glimpse of but he was gone, his eyes darting around the forest to try and see if he could see anywhere he could have run to.
"Who is there?!" Harry called out again.
Hermione pulled him back, "Come on, Harry, let's move." She told him, pulling him by the back of his jacket.
Elijah looked back to the rest of them, all of them looked white as a sheet like they'd seen a ghost - which, they technically had. For him though, it just confirmed what he already knew. The Dark Lord was back, and this was just the beginning. The spark to start the war, if you will.
"What's wrong? What is it?" Harry asked.
He was met with silence as there were multiple small popping noises around them. They all turned to see around twenty wizards appear in the clearing, each of them had their wands out pointing them in their direction.
"Get down!" Elijah yelled, turning to pull the others down with him.
"STUPEFY!" roared twenty voices, and all they could do was watch as flashes of red flew around the clearing, rebounding off of trees. Creating waves of wind that made the hairs on his skin stand up, his grip tightening on Harry as he felt him trying to get free.
"Stay down." he told Harry before getting to his feet, "Stop! We are just kids!" he called out, but one of the wizards had already fired the spell, knocking him back against a tree with a loud thud.
"STOP! Those are our children!" he heard Arthur Weasley call as he ran into the clearing.
Remus was at Elijah's side in an instant with Sirius not far behind him, the other adults had gone to check on the others.
"Are you alright?" Remus asked.
"Out of the way, Lupin." A cold, curt voice muttered.
It was Crouch and behind him were the other Ministry wizards, closing in around him.
"Did you do it?" Crouch asked, his face full of rage as he looked down at Elijah.
"Are you fucking mad?" Elijah growled, pulling himself to his feet.
Crouch's wand was pointed out at the boy in warning. "Answer the question. Did you do it?"
"No, I didn't." The boy huffed.
"He didn't. None of us did." Hermione called, moving a little closer but still keeping her distance.
"Do not lie to us." Crouch said with a raised voice, his eyes drifting to Elijahs wand. "We've discovered you at the scene of the crime."
"What crime?" Harry called, now standing beside Hermione.
Elijah rolled his eyes, "They think we conjured the Dark Mark." he replied, looking up the mark floating above them.
"You seem to have a lot of knowledge on it for someone who didn't do the spell." One of the other Ministry members said, getting a lot of murmurs of agreement from the others.
"Anyone who has picked up a bloody book could tell you that.. I didn't cast the spell."
"Barty," whispered a witch in a long woollen dressing-gown, "he's just a kid, Barty, they all are. They'd never be able to-"
"Where did the Mark come from?" Arthur asked his children.
"Over there," Ginny said shakily, pointing to where the mystery man had stood.
"There was someone behind the trees.. they shouted words - an incantation-" Hermione added.
"Oh, stood over there, did they?" Crouch asked, gesturing to the spot that Ginny had pointed out. "Said an incarnation did they?"
"Morsemordre..." Elijah whispered, looking up at the others.
"You seem to be very well informed on how that Mark was summoned, boy." Crouch said lowly, glaring at Elijah.
"Perhaps because we were hidden over here and saw it happen." The boy bit back.
Crouch remained with his eyes locked on Elijah, but the other Ministry members must have agreed with the lady in the dressing-gown because their wands were now pointed in the direction of which Ginny had pointed out.
"We're too late," said the woman in the woollen dressing-gown, "they would have disapparated."
"I don't think so," A voice said from the back of the group, making his way to the front. It was Amos Diggory, of course it was. "Our stunners went right through those trees.. there is a good chance we got them.." The man made his way into the clearing with his wand held high.
"Amos, be careful." A few other wizards warned him, but he continued, disappearing into the dark.
"They disappeared pretty much immediately." Elijah said quietly.
"Seems like a pretty good coincidence, does it not?" Crouch hummed, raising a brow.
"For them, yeah.. For me and you, not really." The boy sighed.
Everyone around them stood uncomfortably, no one really knowing what to do or what to believe. But Crouch seemed to have his eyes locked on Elijah as if he were the one they needed to put in cuffs tonight.
A few moments later they could all hear Mr Diggory call out.
"Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's- but - blimey..."
"You've got someone?" Crouch shouted, looking over his shoulder. "Who? Who is it?"
They heard a few snaps of twigs, rustle of leaves, and crunching footsteps before Mr Diggory reemerged with a small limp figure in his arms. It was a house elf, one that had passed them when they were waiting by the tree line.
Crouch turned himself around properly now, staring down at the creature. It was his house elf, Winky. She'd been in the VIP box too, saving him a seat, but he never made it to the game. Right now though, Crouch was transfixed on his house elf, his face drained of colour.
"This - cannot - be," he stuttered, "No-"
He moved past Mr Diggory and strode over to the area where he had found Winky.
"No point, Mr Crouch," Amos called after him, "There was no one else there."
Crouch ignored him though, and they could all hear him searching in what sounded like panic. The rustling of leaves, and snaps of twigs as he pushed aside bushes and searched behind trees.
"Bit embarrassing," Amos said grimly, looking down at the unconscious house elf on the ground. "Barty Crouch's house elf... I mean to say..."
"Come off it, Amos," Arthur interrupted quietly, "you don't seriously think it was the elf? The Dark Mark is a wizards sign and requires a wand."
"Yeah," said Mr Diggory, "and she had a wand."
"What?" Arthur gasped, looking at the wand Amos held up.
"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."
"Why don't we just wake her and ask her what happened?" Arthur suggested, trying to break the tension.
Mr Diggory nodded, pointing his wand at the elf, and said, "Rennervate!"
Winky stirred feebly. Her great brown eyes flickering open, she blinked a few times as she slowly took in the scene around her. Elijah knelt to help her sit up, all the other wizards were silent as she came to. Looking up at the wizards that surrounded her and then up at the sky, her eyes widening as she saw the image, a small gasp leaving her lips. She looked around wildly before bursting into a series of terrified sobs. Elijah swallowed thickly, remaining at the elf's side putting a gentle hand on her shoulder to attempt to comfort her.
"Elf!" Diggory said sternly. "Do you know who I am? I am a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures!"
Winky began to rock back and forth on the ground, her breathing coming in short bursts. Elijah gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, making her look at him.
Elijah gave a small smile, "He just wants to ask a few questions." he whispered, and he could feel Amos glaring at him.
"As you see elf, the Dark Mark was conjured here not long ago," Diggory continued, his eyes flickering between Winky and Elijah, "And you were found 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!" Diggory barked, brandishing the wand in front of her.
Now that he had a better glimpse of it, Elijah knew exactly whose wand it was. "That's Harry's wand." he said quietly.
Diggory tilted his head, eyes narrowing on Elijah. "Excuse me?"
"That's my brother's wand." Elijah repeated.
Harry moved his way forward, standing beside Amos and Arthur. "That is my wand." he confirmed, "I dropped it running to the woods."
"You dropped your wand during a riot? Seems a bit foolish doesn't it?" Amos asked. "It would make more sense that you threw it after conjuring the Dark Mark, no?"
"What actually seems foolish is accusing house elves and children of conjuring the Dark Mark, but here we all are." Elijah replied, slowly getting up so he didn't startle Winky.
Amos opened his mouth to reply but Arthur interjected.
"Amos think about who you are accusing," Arthur said, "Is Harry Potter really likely to conjure this? Harry Potter of all people?"
"My son would have never cast this. Where would he even learn it?" James said, coming to stand next to Harry protectively.
Of course, he pipes up now. Now that Harry is accused, where was he when Crouch thought it was me. Elijah thought.
"Erm- Of course not," mumbled Amos, "Sorry, Harry."
"I didn't drop it there anyway. I dropped it on the run over here." Harry added.
"So," Mr Diggory started once more, his eyes hardening as he looked back at Winky, who was cowering at his feet. "you found this wand did you, elf? Picked it up and decided to have a bit of fun with it, did you?"
Elijah rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh, "It wasn't her-"
"Yes, it couldn't have been." Hermione said, panic evident in her voice, "Winky's voice is squeaky and high pitched, the voice that cast the spell was deeper. It was human."
"Definitely human." Ron added.
The other Weasley siblings nodded.
"Well, we'll soon see," Amos growled, not looking convinced. "There is a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?"
Winky shook her head, trembling once more and her ears flapping as she grew more and more emotional and nervous.
Amos raised his own wand once again, this time it was tip to tip with Harry's.
"Prior Incantato!"
Elijah heard the gasps of the other witches and wizards gasp, as a gigantic serpent-tongued skull erupted from the point where the two wands met. It was nowhere near the scale of the one that hung above them, this was just a mere ghost of the proper spell.
"Deletrius!" Amos shouted, and the smokey skull vanished into the wind. The man looked up triumphantly, Elijah decided then and there that he didn't like this man, he didn't like him before and didn't like him now. The man looked down at the elf, who was now quivering in fear.
"I is not doing it!" she squealed, "I is not knowing! I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how!"
"You've been caught red-handed, elf!" Mr Diggory growled, "Caught with the guilty wand!"
"Amos," Mr Weasley said loudly, "think about it... Precious few wizards know how to cast that spell... Where would she have learned it?"
"Perhaps Mr Diggory is suggesting that I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?" Crouch said coldly, venom dripping from each word.
There was a deeply unpleasant silence that filled the woods once again.
"Now that is not what-"
"You have come very close to accusing two people in this clearing who are the least likely to conjure that Mark!" Crouch barked, "Harry Potter - and myself! I suppose you are familiar with the boys story, Amos?"
Was he? Because just minutes ago Crouch thought he had conjured the damn Mark.
"Of course I am, everyone is." Amos muttered, looking utterly defeated.
"And I trust you remember the many proofs I have given over a long career, that I despise the Dark Arts and those who practice them." Mr Crouch shouted, a large vein bulging out on his forehead.
"Mr Crouch, I never suggested you had anything to do with it." Diggory explained, trying to dig himself out of his own grave.
"If you accuse my elf, you accuse me." Crouch spat.
"She - She might have picked it up anywhere-"
"Precisely, Amos," Arthur said, "she might have picked it up anywhere... Winky?" he asked kindly, turning to the house elf who was still trembling. "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.. There in the trees, sir."
"You see, Amos? Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Harry's wand behind. A very clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune of finding the wand moments later and picking it up." Arthur tried to reason with the other.
"Then she would have been feet away from the real culprit!" Amos sighed impatiently, turning back to Winky, "Elf! Did you see anyone?"
The poor elf started trembling worse than ever, her large brown eyes flickering from Diggory to Weasley to Crouch. Gulping before replying, "I is seeing no one, sir... no one."
"Amos," Crouch said curtly, "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you'd want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her."
Amos looked like he was trapped between a rock and a hard place, because the way Crouch had phrased the question, made it seem like it wasn't a question at all, more like an order.
"You may rest assured she will be punished," Mr Crouch continued.
"M-m-m-master..." Winky stammered, looking up to her master with teary eyes, "Master... Please.."
Mr Crouch stared back, his face holding no emotion. There was no pity. No sense of mercy. The man seemed to be a shell. "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 whilst I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes."
"No!" Winky screeched so loudly that Elijah thought his eardrum would burst, "No master, please!" he cried desperately falling at his feet and clinging to the bottom of his trench coat.
Elijah knew the only way to free a house-elf was to give them proper garments, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor creature.
"But she was scared!" Hermione burst out angrily. "We all were!"
Crouch stepped back freeing himself of the elves grasp on his coat, surveying her as she was something filthy and rotten that was contaminating his overshined 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."
Elijah had to stop himself from letting out a scoff. Fucking hypocrites. All of them.
Winky was still sobbing, her cries filling the clearing as all the wizards looked around uncomfortably. Another nasty silence fell upon them all, no one wanting to be the first to break it.
Finally Arthur spoke, "Well, I think we should be getting these children back to the tent, if nobody has any objections. Amos, I believe that wand has told all it can - if Harry could have it back, please-"
Mr Diggory handed Harry back his wand and the boy pocketed it.
"Come on everyone," Arthur called, leading the way back.
Everyone started following, but Elijah noticed Hermione lingering behind, her eyes locked on Winky. Stepping back he put an arm around her shoulder.
"I know." he whispered softly.
"What's going to happen to her?" she asked sadly as Elijah guided them out of the forest with the others.
"I don't know." he frowned, looking back over his shoulder, Crouch's eyes locked on him once again.
"The way they were treating her- Mr Diggory kept calling her 'Elf'- And Mr Crouch! He knows she didn't do it and he is still going to sack her! They didn't care how frightened she was or how scared she looked - it was like she wasn't human."
"Well... She isn't." Ron said without thinking.
Hermione rounded on him. "That doesn't mean she doesn't deserve rights, Ronald-"
"I agree with you, Hermione." Remus replied calmly, looking back behind them, "But this isn't the time or place to be discussing Elf Rights. Let's just get back to the tent as quickly as possible."
Hermione returned to Elijah's side with a huff. "I'm glad you were kind to her though," she murmured, looking at him with a small smile.
"Oh..." he hummed, not knowing what to say. He didn't give it much thought when doing it, it just sort of happened.
Once they got back to the tent they were met by Molly, Lily, Percy, Charlie, and Bill. All of them sat around the dining room table, looking restless as they all came through the door. Bill was sitting with a bedsheet on his arm, which was bleeding profusely, Charlie had a large rip in his shirt and Percy was sporting a bloody nose.
"What happened? Did they catch them?" Bill asked.
"No." Arthur sighed heavily, "Whoever it was Disapparated. All we found was Barty Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand. We are none of the wiser on who conjured the Mark."
"What?" The three eldest Weasley boys asked in unison.
"Harry's wand?" Charlie asked.
"Crouch's house elf?" Percy questioned, looking completely confused as if it was so far out of the realm of possibilities.
The Golden Trio helped Arthur explain to the others what happened in the woods, Elijah sat beside Bill, pulling a small medical kit out of his bag. It didn't hold a lot, but after getting into as many fights as he did at Hogwarts had inspired Alix to get him a little pouch of healing potions for one of his birthdays. It had actually become quite handy. He pulled out a vial he used to help with cuts, spraying a little on the others arm before bandaging the rest of it up.
"Thanks." Bill said softly, having let him work whilst he listened to the conversation.
"You might want to get my mum to look it over once she's done checking over everyone else, but that should be good." Elijah nodded, turning back to the others, trying to figure out where they were in the conversation now.
"Can someone just explain what that skull thing was?" Ron asked impatiently, "It wasn't hurting anyone, so whats the big deal?"
All the adults paused, sharing a look where it seemed like they were debating on how much to tell them all.
"It's the Dark Mark." Elijah finally said, breaking the silence.
"What does that mean?" Ron huffed, clearly frustrated at his lack of understanding.
"It's Vold-" he paused as the Weasleys tensed at the name, "It's You-Know-Who's symbol. It's not been seen in thirteen years since he disappeared. A lot of people were probably scared that it meant he is back."
"But he isn't, right?" Ron questioned, "I don't get it. I mean... It's just a skull."
"It wasn't though. It was the symbol the Death Eaters left in the sky whenever they killed someone." Elijah explained, everyone was watching him again with curiosity. "To us, it's just a skull in the sky. We aren't old enough to know the terror it must have brought, but.. Just picture coming home and finding that mark hanging over your house. You'd have just known that a Death Eater had been inside and someone was dead."
"You seem to know a lot on the subject." James muttered, not even looking up to meet his son's eyes.
"The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. It's a book. The rest I found in old newspaper clippings in our attic before we moved." the boy replied simply.
"What is a Death Eater?" Harry asked.
"It's what his followers called themselves." Bill replied. "I think we saw what is left of them tonight. The ones who kept themselves out of Azkaban anyway."
"We can't prove that, Bill." Arthur sighed, "But you are probably right." he added hopelessly.
"But what were they doing here tonight?" Harry sighed, "What was the point?"
"The point?" Sirius repeated with a hallow laugh, "There doesn't need to be one for them, Harry. Tonight was their idea of fun. They used to kill Muggles for fun back in the day, and that's all it would have been tonight."
"But if they were Death Eater why did they Disapparate after conjuring the Dark Mark?" Ron said, "They'd have been happy to see it wouldn't they?"
"Use your brains, Ron," Bill huffed, "If they really were Death Eaters, they worked really hard to keep out of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power, and told all sorts of lies about how he forced them to torture and kill people. I bet they'd be more frightened than the rest of us to see him come back. They denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers and went back to their daily lives... I don't think he'd be over-pleased with them, do you?"
"Or it could have been a warning," Elijah murmured, "that he was planning on coming back. It could have been a show of support."
Uncomfortable silence filled the tent as everyone tried to digest what he'd said.
"I think it's time we all head to bed." Molly finally said, tapping a half-asleep Ginny on the shoulder and guiding the younger children out and towards their beds.
"Elijah, it couldn't have been a warning." Arthur said, trying to reassure him.
"How can you be sure?" The boy asked, furrowing his brows.
"The Ministry would be all over it if there was even a whisper of him returning." Percy said, eyes narrowing at him.
"Oh yeah? Well, where were they in my second year when Harry and I had to fight for the Philosopher Stone? He was there. Or my third year when the Chamber of Secrets was opened and he was there?"
"That wasn't actually him, just fragments of the last of his magic." James sighed, staring at his son.
Elijah shook his head, "No, something is going on.. I don't think tonight was just for fun." he muttered, drumming his fingertips anxiously against the table.
"Maybe, you should get some sleep, love. You look like you need it." Lily said softly.
"Yeah, fine." The boy sighed, getting up from his seat and taking himself to his and Charlie's room.
He could hear them muttering from across the tent, his parents and the Weasleys thought he was crazy, but Remus and Sirius seemed to think there was some validity to his words. He lay in bed, staring up at the cloth, letting sleep take him.