There's no time to worry about why Lucius and Harry have become friends. The urgent matter before them now is to catch the Dark Wizard who released the Dark Mark.
"I'll go have a look."
Vivi drew her magic wand and used Apparition Displacement to leave the spot.
Little Sirius, who was about to stop her, was dumbfounded.
Are kids nowadays so wild?
Appariting to places they've never been? Is that spell your invention?
But on second thought, he let go of his astonishment, after all, Vivi is a Legendary Wizard from a century ago.
However, what they didn't expect was that although they thought Vivi could quickly capture the Dark Wizard who released the Dark Mark, she returned to them soon and came back empty-handed.
"Where's the person?" Mr. Weasley asked anxiously.
"Ran away." Vivi glanced at Harry, then quickly said, "He must have escaped using a Door Key, and I have no way to track where exactly he's gone."
"Well, they are certainly cunning!" Mr. Weasley cursed.
"Alright, let's go home first." Little Sirius raised an eyebrow. He had some immature guesses but didn't voice them.
The carriage soon arrived at the open field, and they hopped on, heading back to the Black Family Mansion.
Even after such tension and excitement, the Weasley Twins' attention was still on the Quidditch World Cup.
For the two of them, nothing, not a Dark Wizard attack or a Dark Mark, could be more exciting than the World Cup final.
The reason for their excitement was more because they placed a quirky bet and won a substantial amount of money.
"Mr. Bagman was absolutely ecstatic," George said with a chuckle. "I bet even that upcoming—yeah, that event won't prevent Mr. Bagman from reminiscing about the extremely exciting World Cup finale."
"Yeah, since he won money, after all." Fred laughed as he spoke.
At this point, Mrs. Weasley finally noticed the conversation between the two brothers.
"Listen, you two!" she threatened in a harsh tone, "If I find out that either of you—I'm saying, anyone dares to gamble, I'll drown you both in the Black Lake! Do you hear me?"
Threatened by their mother, the twins exchanged a glance and swallowed.
"Alright, we definitely won't do that."
Ron initially thought about stoking the fire, but seeing his mother's expression that didn't look like she was joking, he thought better of it.
After all, the twins' lives were at stake. He had no doubt that if their mother found out what the pair had done, she might very well wring their necks.
Terrifying, mom.
"Don't worry, Molly," Mr. Weasley was by their side, defending his sons. "How could they be such people? I think it's getting late now. We should rest early rather than wasting this good time for rest here, don't you think?"
"Yes, Dad is right!" The twins eagerly agreed with their father's opinion; after all, the more they talked, the more loopholes there were. What if their mother found out?
Fortunately, Percy didn't know about this—oh, speaking of which, where is Percy?
He raised the question.
"Where's Percy?" Fred asked.
"Percy said he was going to find Mr. Crouch." When he mentioned this, Mr. Weasley wasn't very happy.
Mr. Crouch, Mr. Crouch—others who don't know might think Mr. Crouch is Percy's real father.
"Forget it, we won't bother with him." Mr. Weasley waved his hand and said, "Your urgent task now is to get a good night's sleep and rest, understand?"
"Yes, Dad." The children spoke in unison.
Harry initially thought Vivi would join him for rest, but Vivi indicated she had other things to attend to today.
"Listen to me." Vivi gave Harry a light kiss on the face. "I have an urgent matter to deal with."
"What is it?" Harry asked urgently.
Vivi thought for a moment and ultimately decided not to hide it from him.
"I can tell you, but..."
Vivi paused mid-sentence.
"Do you trust me?" she asked.
"Of course." Harry said without hesitation.
Vivi smiled happily, reached out to ruffle Harry's hair, and said, "In the forest, I didn't return empty-handed. Just now... well, when someone released the Dark Mark in the forest, do you remember?"
"Of course, I remember." Harry said, "What did you discover?"
"Well..." Vivi said softly, "That house-elf, the one named Shanshan—"
"Shanshan?" Harry recalled, the house-elf who escaped.
"Do house-elves also use such dark magic?" he asked.
"No, it's not quite related to her." Vivi said with a smile, "She's the house-elf of the Crouch family, which is the family of the head of the International Magical Cooperation Affairs Department, Batty Crouch."
"What's that got to do with the Dark Mark?" Harry asked, puzzled. "Could it be—could it be that Batty Crouch authorized it?"
"No." Vivi replied with a smile, "I don't know if it's related to Old Batty Crouch, but at the scene, I found a young man. That house-elf named Shanshan called him young master— I think maybe it has something to do with this young man— do you have any guesses who he might be?"