466 Chapter 466 Winky's Testimony

Amelia Bones showed a surprised expression, the monocle on her face was about to slip off, so she took it off and wiped the lenses.

"Dumbledore, if I'm not mistaken, neither of them has a master ..."

Winky who had been standing in place with a blank expression until then, suddenly exclaimed in a sharp voice: "No - Winky belongs to the Crouch family! Winky has her own master! His name is Barty Crouch-"

"Not at all!" Dobby retorted, "Wizards, Mr. Barty Crouch gave Winky freedom! Dobby saw it with Dobby's eyes!" Winky closed her eyes and shouted at the top of her lungs, "No! No! No!" Dobby shouted in an even louder voice, "Now Winky is a free elf, just like Dobby!" He puffed out his chest with pride, making the wizards around him stare blankly.

Never before they had seen such a strange elf, no, some had - in the 'Future World' company, and they turned their heads towards Felix.

Felix said calmly, "Dobby used to serve some big family, then he was freed, and I gave him a job," he said emphatically, "just a job."

"I've heard that 'Future World' Inc. has a bunch of quirky house-elves." A wizard muttered.

Winky continued to scream when Fudge interrupted her nonchalantly, "Elf! Your name is Winky? A former house-elf of Barty Crouch?"

"No... no... no..." Winky continued to cry, and she started to roll around on the floor, with Tears and snot poured out of her face, and Dobby tried to pull her up, but he undoubtedly failed, he stood in front of Winky and waved his slim arms helplessly, "Yes! Her name is Winky, my name is Dobby."

"Dumbledore, you want them to testify? House-elves cannot be trusted--"

"I don't think so," Dumbledore said with a smile, "as you can see by the clothes they wear, their will is entirely their own, and there is no need to worry that they will be bound by a magical contract that cannot be broken."

Fudge stared at Winky, who still rolled on the floor, "Are you sure? She's no different from any other house-elf, except for the extra piece of clothes."

"Dobby, you can start by telling us what happened that night," Felix said, "limited to what you saw at Crouch's old mansion."

"Oh, certainly! Dobby would love to!" Dobby quickly went over the events of that night, mentioning only the grim voice and Crouch's perverse behaviour, but those present bought most of it, or at least they almost confirmed that Crouch was indeed being controlled and that it was not by Crouch Jr. - who was at Hogwarts at that time.

While Dobby was talking, Winky gradually quieted down and whimpered.

"He didn't mention that person." Amelia Bones said, glancing quickly at the file before looking up and asking.

"Dobby is an outsider who had absolutely nothing to do with the whole incident if it wasn't for the purpose of inviting his friends to join him for Christmas," Felix said, "and as for more information-" He looked at the elf sitting on the floor and said gently, "Winky, your testimony is very valuable, at least to prove that Mr. Barty Crouch is not an evil lunatic."

"The master is not a lunatic!" Winky shouted hoarsely, " The master was under a dreadful spell!"

"So - Winky? Is that your name? Can you be specific?" Amelia Bones asked. "If the truth is something else, I might consider re-arraigning Barty Crouch."

"Will Master be freed?" Winky asked excitedly, as she finally stopped freaking out.

"No way!" Fudge shouted, "Impossible." He said it again, and Ms. Bones gave him a reproachful look and turned to Winky, "An acquittal ... is unlikely, but we will reconsider his sentence, you must know that he is supposed to be sentenced to life."

Winky's eyes shone with a hopeful light, " Winky ... Winky is willing to testify."

"A year ago ... master was still at work when a man broke in, he subdued me and freed young master Barty-"

"Who was that man?" Mrs. Bones asked seriously.

"It is a man named 'Peter', who can turn into a mouse, which Winky once witnessed!" Winky exclaimed dramatically as the wizards in the room exchanged glances and someone whispered, "Peter Pettigrew." Winky continued to describe his appearance, "short, fat, somewhat bald ... with small eyes ..." She stole a glance at Fudge and whispered. "A little like this Lord Wizard."

Fudge's chest rose and fell violently, like an old bellow that would explode soon.

"Short, fat ... and somewhat bald ..." Ms. Bones repeated with a stifled smile, her wand outlining a man in the air, " Is that him?" The portrait in midair is none other than Peter Pettigrew.

"It's him!" Winky confirmed, and mentioned an important piece of information, "He was carrying an ugly baby, and called that baby his Master!"

A loud gasp rang out in the conference room.

"Are you sure it was a baby?" Ms. Bones asked gravely.

"Ye-es!" Winky stammered, not daring to look at her, "It was a very, very ... very ugly baby!"

" When Master returned in the evening, Young Master Barty who had long since acquired his wand, hid under the invisibility cloak and sneaked up on when Master pulled up his clothes--" Winky gasped in agony, "Oh, Barty that bad boy, he brought back a rotten friend!"

"We know that, and after that?"

"After that, after that the Master ... was controlled, and went to work as usual, and Winky felt it was no problem, for Lord's sake!" Winky let out a sad cry, tears fell like beans, " Winky also took care of them, cooked for them ..."

"It could be a Confundus Charm." Felix said.

"Later, they inadvertently mentioned that they are going to sneak up on someone to enter the school in his place and complete some dangerous mission-"

"What kind of mission?"

Winky's eyes widened. "Winky dunno! While they were discussing things, Winky was ordered to go back to Winky's place, and Winky is a good little elf who follows orders, Winky is a very, very good little elf!"

"Good, we can guess who it is in general, Alastor was unlucky. Keep going, what else do you know?"

"The man named Peter disappeared and was said to have been captured. After that young master Barty also left and only came back once in ten days, Winky was in charge of taking care of that baby, Winky ..." she suddenly showed a horrified expression, "Winky sometimes saw that baby tormenting the master! Winky just watched it! Oh, my Lord!"

She covered her face as teardrops flowed through her fingers.

" That's it." Felix said, gesturing toward Dobby, who nodded and departed with a "poof", pulling Winky with him.

The office became overwhelmed with an oppressive silence.

"You should have let her finish her sentence." Amelia Bones looked at Felix with displeasure and said.

"Everything that needs to be said has been said, and if you wanted to hear someone's name or the whole plan, unfortunately, as you heard, she has limited knowledge. In fact, you did have a chance once, and that would be Peter Pettigrew ... who, not coincidentally, had his soul sucked out by a Dementor."

Fudge stared at him and said, word by word, "That little elf, she-was-under-a-spell-too."

"We can't pretend it didn't happen," Felix said, "It was supposed to be a Confundus Charm, and Voldemort seemed to have underestimated the house-elf, thinking that a Confundus Charm would be enough, or maybe she was meant to be disposed of in the end and wasn't worth the effort. But all in all, Winky has not had her memory tampered with, and that's something you always can examine by St. Mungo's healers if there's any disagreement."

Fudge froze for a moment and suddenly threw a temper tantrum, "Again another flimsy evidence! All of it! I don't know what the point of our discussion today is!"

"Cornelius," Dumbledore said somewhat wearily, "I raise this issue not to prove anything, or subvert anything, but to remind something. We have discussed this matter privately, but you - for some reason, refused to believe the evidence available, you should know how much we lost in the last war, do you want to go through another war where we were caught off guard?"

"I - you - are not - " Fudge's jaw dropped.

"A key question is, do you know exactly what you're dealing with, Minister Fudge?" Felix asked in a soft tone.

"You are - what - mean?" Fudge's face turned to the colour of a pig's liver.

"We might as well make a hypothesis." Felix tilted his head in the direction of Amelia Bones with interest in a manner that explored the matter, "And have Ms. Bones, and those present, to bear witness-"

Ms. Bones fiddled with her monocle to give herself a better view of Felix.

"We've heard two polar opposite views today, at odds with each other, but time will tell who is right. Just there's... a question we need to ask ourselves if war does happen, does someone need to be held accountable for it-"

"What a load of bollocks!" Fudge shouted, "Do you know what you're talking about? Accusing a Minister of Magic, who instructed you to do that?" He looked at Felix menacingly, his eyes moving between him and Dumbledore.

"Still, Minister Fudge ... I know exactly what I'm talking about, but you don't seem to understand what you're dealing with." Felix smiled, "The above is just hypothetical, discussing a possibility for the future, isn't it?"

"And I really don't have the ability to get a serving Minister of Magic to step down, or to be punished." He said dismissively, Fudge is about to die of anger now, no one has ever threatened him so blatantly, and yes, he took Felix's words as a naked threat.

"... But everyone is responsible for what he says and does, especially those in power." Felix said, "Therefore, I would ask everyone here to keep in mind the views of both sides of today's debate, and you may well keep your thoughts to yourselves, and when everything comes to light, you will naturally know who to support, as well as, who to oppose."

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