Chapter 236 The Dark Mark

Bagman, as the commentator for this Quidditch World Cup, was also in the top box.

He had just packed up the manuscripts on the commentary table, and before he could escape, he was surrounded by two redheads.

Fred and George jumped directly over the backs of the rows of chairs. Almost without warning, the Weslai family and the others arrived in front of Ludo Bagman.

The two men smiled happily and extended their open palms to Bagman.

"Uh... How much should I give you for this?" His passionate explanation just now made his voice hoarse.

"This number." Fred held out three fingers.

"Oh, three hundred galleons..." Bagman breathed a sigh of relief, "Fortunately, it's not too much. Let me see..."

"Don't forget Professor Dracula's Galleons." George added next to him, "You set very high odds at that time. I guess Professor Dracula's share won't be too small. .”

Bagman thought of the large sack of gold galleons that Dracula threw to him, and his originally relaxed expression completely stiffened, as if a powerful petrification spell had been cast on him.

"Quickly, give us our share first," Fred urged.

"Um...I can't get that much cash for the time being, so you need to give me some time." Bagman's face turned a little pale and he said with force.

"But I always feel that you have a lot of cash here." George glanced suspiciously at the bag hanging on Bagman's waist. He often jingled the bag when he was in the camp.

"Are you trying to renege on your debt?" Fred looked alert.

"How could it be? I am the Director of the Sports Department of the Ministry of Magic. How could I deceive you two little wizards?"

Bagman laughed in embarrassment, then took out the same number of gold coins from his bag as the Galleons bet by Fred and George, and returned the strange homemade wands they made. go back.

"This is your principal," he vowed. "As for the galleons you have won, I will personally deliver them to you when I have raised the funds."

After saying these words, Bagman hurriedly slipped out of the box and fled the scene like a frightened rabbit.

Fred and George looked at Bagman's fleeing back, spread their hands with each other, and decided to leave the debt collection matter to professionals like Professor Dracula, so they climbed over a few rows of chairs and returned to Weiss. On the seat of a family.

The group of people walked down from the box, and soon they were surrounded by a flood of people leaving the gymnasium and returning to the camp.

As the crowd moved forward, rough singing came from the air, and the little leprechauns as the mascots of the Irish team kept flying back and forth above their heads, waving streamers in their hands, laughing loudly, and to express their joy at victory.

This game actually didn't take long. It officially started near noon and was over before the afternoon was over. This was the fastest final in the history of the Quidditch World Cup.

Although the schedule has ended, after the break, there will be celebrations, player and fan symposiums, interviews with newspapers and reporters and other activities in the evening.

Therefore, most fans who come to watch the Quidditch World Cup will not choose to leave now, but will wait for nightfall and try their luck to see if they can find a chance to take a photo with their idol.

After squeezing among the crowded crowd for who knows how long, the Weiss family, Harry, and Sirius finally arrived at the tent in the camp. However, no one felt tired. Instead, they were in high spirits.

The surroundings were also very noisy, with many fans talking about the match just now.

Some people are arguing about the collision foul, some are discussing who is the best player in this game, and some are blushing and arguing about whose idol is more powerful.

In the distance on the other side of the camp, many passionate songs and loud knocking sounds emerged one after another, echoing in the restless air for a long time.

"Oh, fortunately it's not my turn to be on duty today..." Listening to the noisy noise outside the tent, Mr. Weasley muttered with contentment, "Fortunately there is no need for me to tell the Irish to stop celebrating victory, otherwise it would be really difficult. Imagine.”

As Harry ate the dinner that Sirius bought for him from a passing vendor, some of Viktor Krum's wonderful moves came to mind unknowingly.

He fantasized about riding on his Firebolt and trying out Krum's beautiful Wronsky feint... Although Oliver Wood, the former captain of Gryffindor, also designed a lot of messy schematics, somehow he He was never taught how to do this kind of fake move.

Of course, it's more likely that Wood himself doesn't know these moves...

Harry imagined that he saw himself wearing a robe with his name printed on the back, and imagined hearing the deafening cheers of a hundred thousand spectators, and his mood couldn't help but become a little excited.

"Harry, Harry! Listen to if there's anything going on outside?"

Just as Harry was immersed in his imagination, Ginny's voice suddenly rang in his ears.

"What...what happened?" He suddenly woke up from his imagination, turned around and asked.

Harry noticed that Ginny's face was a little flustered, and a pair of hands were holding his sleeves tightly.

He suddenly felt that something was wrong.

The sounds in the camp changed, the singing stopped, and there were constant screams and the sounds of people running in panic.

Harry quickly put down his unfinished rice bowl and wanted to ask what was going on outside.

At this time, Sirius took the lead in opening the tent curtain and said eagerly: "It's too late, Harry! You younger ones, hurry up and follow us, hurry up!"

The adults were having a few drinks outside around the campfire. The underage wizards were not allowed to drink, so they all stayed in the tent to have dinner.

Sirius and several other adult wizards were also the first to discover the chaos in the distance.

Harry obeyed, picked up Ginny, and hurried out of the tent, with Ron and Hermione following behind him.

It was dusk now, the sky was getting dark, and there was no time to light the torches in the camp, so their eyes could not clearly see what was happening in the distance.

Standing next to the tent, Harry could only see wizards running towards the woods next to the camp, as if escaping from a group of people chasing them.

From time to time, lights flashed in the group of people, and from time to time there were sounds of "crackling" - loud sneers, wild laughter, and drunken shouting, all of which became closer as the group of people moved.

Then, a bright green light flashed, illuminating everything around it.

Harry saw that the group of people was a group of wizards in black cloaks huddled tightly together. Everyone pointed their wands upward and moved forward together, slowly moving through the camp.

The men's heads were covered with hoods and their faces were covered with masks. Above their heads, four struggling figures floated in the air, twisted into various weird shapes, as if these masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes. Controlled by an invisible rope extending from the wand into the air.

As the group advanced, more wizards joined the procession, laughing loudly and pointing their wands at the floating bodies above.

As the parade continued to grow, tents continued to be collapsed, and even wizards during the parade used their wands to set tents passing by on fire.

As the fire spread, many tents burned. The screams in the camp grew louder.

"That's the Muggle Roberts family who manage the tents in the camp!" Mr. Weasley's face looked a little ugly. "Damn it, how could there be such a large group of terrorists at the World Cup?"

"Their dress and behavior... look familiar." Sirius narrowed his eyes and stared coldly at the group of people who controlled the Muggle family.

The next moment, his eyes suddenly sharpened, "I know, those people are Death Eaters!"

"Death Eaters?" Mr. Weasley turned his head to look at Sirius in astonishment, "Haven't they disappeared for a long time? Why do they have to come out today?"

"Who knows, just catch him and ask!" Sirius clutched his wand tightly in his hand and was about to rush towards the group of thugs.

His hatred for the Death Eaters and Voldemort was unforgettable, and when he saw this group of people brazenly causing havoc at the Quidditch World Cup finals, he couldn't suppress the anger in his heart.

"Sirius, you can't go!" Mr. Weasley suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed the impulsive Sirius, "You have just cleared away the suspicion that you are a Death Eater, and now you appear with those Death Eaters. Fudge and Umbridge will definitely seize the opportunity to frame you!"

"Then just leave those Death Eaters alone?" Sirius frowned tightly.

"Of course we can't ignore it." Mr. Weasley said solemnly, while rolling up his sleeves, "There are many upright Ministry of Magic members here, and we will help maintain order."

Then, he turned to look at Harry and the other little wizards, "You little guys, go into the woods quickly, walk together, don't separate! I'll come find you after the matter is resolved!"

"Harry, watch your godfather and don't let him do anything impulsive!"

After explaining this, Mr. Weasley hurriedly joined several other Ministry of Magic members who were not on duty, and together they rushed to the place where the Death Eaters gathered.

Harry nodded, grabbed Sirius' arm hard, and went into the woods with Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, avoiding the path of the group of Death Eaters.

As time goes by, the sun gets lower and lower, and the sky becomes darker and darker.

When the sun completely sank into the horizon and the sky turned completely black, a huge green light suddenly jumped onto the treetops and flew into the night sky.

"What is this-" Ron said nervously. He raised his head and stared anxiously at the bright light that had just appeared.

Harry looked up as well.

At first he thought it was a pattern made up of leprechauns, the Irish mascots, but then he discovered that it was a huge skeleton, composed of countless green star-like light spots, with a large python emerging from the skull. What appeared to be a tongue came out of the mouth.

As they watched, the skeleton rose higher and higher, glowing dazzlingly in a cloud of green smoke, like a new constellation against the dark night sky.

Suddenly, the woods around them erupted with screams of terror.

Harry didn't understand the origin of the cry. He only knew that the only possible reason was the sudden appearance of the skeleton. Now the skull had risen high, lighting up the entire forest like a terrifying neon sign.

"The Dark Mark."

Sirius said suddenly.

"What?" Harry asked without hearing clearly.

"The Dark Mark is the signal used by Death Eaters to contact their associates." Sirius said, suddenly laughing disdainfully, "These people in the forest only now know that those tightly wrapped wizards are Death Eaters. , I didn’t feel scared until now.”

"If you ask me, these people are also a bunch of cowards. The Death Eaters have disappeared for more than ten years and I can still scare them, haha."

Sirius sneered and shook his head, and then said to Harry: "Harry, just stay here, I'll go over there and have a look. The Death Eater who cast the Dark Mark shouldn't be too far away from our location." Far."

"No!" Harry subconsciously pulled Sirius, "Mr. Weiss told me to keep an eye on you and prevent you from doing impulsive things."

"Isn't this an impulsive thing?" Sirius smiled, "I just went to take a look. You can't just let a Death Eater go like this, right? If it were your parents, they wouldn't do it at this time. Hold back, Harry."

Harry hesitated upon hearing Sirius' words.

When Harry hesitated, Sirius took a few quick steps and ran towards the location corresponding to the Dark Mark before Harry could agree.

"Time waits for no one, I will go back quickly." Before leaving, he shouted back.

After leaving Harry and the other young wizards, Sirius first cast a Disillusionment Curse on himself, then pointed at the Dark Mark in the sky and walked quickly in the woods.

After a while, he reached the forest below the Dark Mark.

However, he did not find any traces of Death Eaters here, but instead saw two unexpected people.

Dracula with his iconic silver hair, and the other one is Barty Crouch, the director of the Department of International Magical Exchange and Cooperation.

At this time, Dracula and Barty Crouch were standing face to face in a clearing in the woods, looking at each other.

Dracula had a somewhat unclear smile on his lips, while Crouch had a dazed look on his face.

"Mr. Crouch, please explain why you are here." Dracula spoke first to break the silence.

At the same time, he glanced meaningfully in Sirius' direction and waved his hand slightly.

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