Penny wasn't sure what was going on. There was an incredible pressure on her chest that made it hard to breath. Her head was killing her. She tried to open her eyes, but everything was blurred. She coughed, turning her head to the side.

"Relax."

Penny jumped internally at the sound of the voice, then relaxed once she realized it was Artie's voice. Her fingers twitched, trying to find where he was.

"Don't worry. I'm right here."

"My... my mom..." Penny felt like her mouth was filled with cotton.

"Relax." He repeated.

"No..." Penny tried to sit up, but the weight on her chest was too strong. "I have to... to..."

"It's okay." Artie said. "Just relax and stay still. Someone will be here soon."

"What?" Penny shook her head side to side, rolling it on the ground. She stretched her fingers out, then tapped them on the ground, searching for her wand. There wasn't anything there. Frantically she started to move her hand out, covering more ground. She jolted upright, tossing Artie's hand which had been holding her down aside. "Where'd it go!"

"Where did what go?" Artie asked.

Penny rubbed her eyes, forcing the blurriness to go away. When she started to be able to see straight, she gasped. "I'm... I'm at home?"

"Yeah." Artie looked around. They were both on the floor just inside her front door. He had actually climbed down out of his wheelchair to sit next to her. "Just breath, relax."

Penny looked all over the floor, searching for her wand. She'd dropped it before she passed out. "Where-" Then she remembered the last thing she heard before she blacked out. Her head snapped up and she quickly searched around the room. "Mom!"

"Penny, you need to relax."

"Mom!" Penny got up to her feet, pushing Artie away without even thinking. She raced to her mother's bedroom. Panicking, she ran to each room in the house, but her mother wasn't there. "Mom!"

"Penny!"

She stopped in the living room, looking down at Artie. He'd gotten back in his wheelchair to chase her down.

"I'd promised to keep you calm when you woke up. Now just relax."

"What's going on?" Penny asked. "I-I-I was at the school. Marcus... he.. he threatened my... I... I can't remember anything."

"You ran home." Artie said, talking as soothingly as he could. "You ran all the way. Finn and I chased after you, but you were fast. I was slowing him down so he took off. Finn got here first. He tried to call, but your phone wasn't working. When I got here, I told him to go use my phone. I promised to keep you calm."

"But... but..." Penny looked down at her empty hand. "Where did Marcus go?"

Artie shrugged. "He probably went to Finn's house."

Penny started to run towards the door, but Artie grabbed her wrist. "Don't."

His voice was so sincere that Penny felt her heart tremble. "I have to go." She said. "I can't find my mom."

"When I got here, I found you out cold." Artie said. His voice trembled slightly. "We thought you might be dead."

Penny knelt down in front of Artie's chair, looking him in the eyes. Before she ran off, she had to know what she was facing. "I need you to answer me three questions, and you have to just trust me that these are incredibly important questions."

"Penny-"

"No, Artie." Penny shook her head. "I'm dead serious."

"Alright."

"Did you leave the school before or after Marcus?"

"I don't-"

"Artie!" Penny paused, letting the frustration cool off before speaking again. "I need you to answer these questions as if your life depends on them." 'Because they just might,' she thought.

"No." Artie shook his head. "He was still there. I think he was yelling at Finn or something."

"What did he say?"

"I don't know. Uh..." Artie closed his eyes. "Something about loving a soulless being."

Penny leaned back for a moment. Her mind tried to process this, but she wasn't sure. It might have to do with the Dementors getting to her mother. Marcus was yelling at her, not Finn. "Ok. Who was Finn going to call when you sent him to your house?"

"The paramedics." Artie said. "We... we thought you were dead."

Penny bit her lip. They had to get out of there fast. She got to her feet and walked around behind him to push him. "We need to leave."

"No! I promised-"

"Artie, do you trust me?"

Artie turned his head to look at her. "You threatened Finn's cousin."

"But you helped me when you saw me unconscious." Penny said, pushing him out her back door. They had to get out of there fast.

"I don't know." Artie sighed. "Before I would have said yes, but I've never seen you act like that before. You were so angry. And at someone you didn't even know."

Sirens floated in from down the street. Penny pushed faster, but trying to wheel Artie over the grass was much harder than she thought it would be.

"Wait! We have to go back!" Artie said. "Where are you going?"

She pushed him up onto the sidewalk, then started down the road. Half a block ahead she saw her destination. The park. It was already starting to get dark outside. Cold, too, but that wasn't something she could worry about now. Now they just needed to hide. Then she'd go get Marcus.

"Penny." Artie said. "You ask me to trust you and you don't even answer me."

"To the park." She said quietly.

When they reached the park, she headed over towards the giant dome. It was a strange thing. A giant plastic dome with three holes in it that kids could tunnel into. Penny had noticed it once on the way to school on morning. She had no idea what brought her to remember it, but it was the perfect place to hide.

The one hole on the backside of the dome was large enough to wheel Artie in. Penny was thankful for that. If she had to ask him to crawl in, she doubted he would go along with her.

"Now," Penny knelt down in front of him again, grasping both of his hands. "Artie, this is my third and most important question. I can't have you ask any questions. Just tell me what I need to know, ok?"

Artie nodded slowly. He was a little unnerved by the interior of the dome, which had been vandalized so many times over it nothing was recognizable. Penny's voice echoed slightly inside of it.

"At the school, I had my totem. That girl scout totem, remember?" Penny spoke as softly as she could, but the anticipation was eating her up inside. "It must have fallen out of my hand there. I remember dropping down to my knees, and then nothing."

"You jumped back up then ran out." Artie said.

"Artie," Penny squeezed his hands in hers. "Please, I need to know what happened to that stick. Did Marcus take it?" The question hung in the dome, repeating her worst fear over and over in her mind.

After a short pause, Artie shook his head. "While Finn was asking Marcus what happened, I picked it up for you. I figured it was important." He leaned off to the side, then miraculously pulled her wand out of his pocket.

Penny leaped forward, hugging him as tightly as she could. He flinched at first, but she didn't care. He had no idea what his small act had done. He literally had saved everyone's life. If it wasn't too late yet.

She leaned back. "We need to go. Now. We have to find Marcus before he gets to anyone." Since she hadn't found her mother at home laying unconscious, Penny was staying optimistic. That was the only way she could do this. She had to imagine her mother was out grocery shopping or something.

"No." Artie replied.

His words caught Penny off guard. "What? We have to hurry!"

Artie shook his head. "Not until you tell me what's going on."

"Artie!" Penny tried to stand up, but the dome was too short and she had to hunch over. "This isn't a game! We have to find Marcus before... before he does something bad!"

"Like what?" Artie folded his arms, emphasizing the fact that he wasn't going anywhere.

Penny bit her lip. Now what? She couldn't tell him the truth, but she couldn't just leave him here. Not without knowing exactly where Marcus was. Artie was one of the few people she needed to keep safe.

She let out another sigh. If she felt like he was one of the most important people to keep safe, wasn't it kind of hypocritical not to tell him? It was for his own safety, really. If he knew about her... what? Penny shuddered at the thought. 'Then he might hate me.'

"I like you, Artie." Penny said, kneeling back down in front of him. "But there are a few things I haven't told you. I can't tell you everything, but I can …." Penny stopped. She could what? She couldn't tell him she was a witch. Nor could she tell him that she was being hunted by a group of Death Eaters.

"Penny," Artie spoke up, saving her from needing to say something right away. "I like you, too, but things have been a bit odd today. I see you threatening Finn's cousin, then you run home only to pass out. I don't know how to make sense of it."

"I'm not from Idaho." Penny spoke up, letting her true voice shine through. She knew dropping the American accent might lose his trust completely, but it was one of the few truthful things she could tell him. "And I've met Marcus before. We went to school together."

"What?" Artie blinked. "You... you're British?"

Penny nodded. "Listen, I can't tell you much, but you have to understand that Marcus is no good. He's evil. I don't mean evil like some of the footballs players here in school, I mean evil. He's the kind of person that...that... that is in movies." She had no idea what to say. "I'm pretty sure he's responsible for killing quite a few people." Penny twitched at this, holding back her true feelings. Even though she doubted Marcus was the one who literally killed her sister, she was holding him responsible.

"Kill?" Artie shook his head. "There's no way Finn's cousin could have killed someone. You can't get away with something like that."

"I can't-" Penny stopped, looking off the the side. She needed to explain it differently.

"Why didn't you just tell me you were from England?"

"I couldn't." Penny said. "I couldn't let them find me. I couldn't..."

She lost it. There was too much hidden emotion and blame and hate and fear and Penny just broke down. She started crying, placing her head in Artie's lap. Every time she tried to toughen up and stop crying, she started to sob harder. When she thought about how big of a fool she was making herself into, it only made her feel worse. At this rate, she'd end up curling into a ball and letting the Death Eaters kill everyone.

She felt Artie's hand pat her on the back and she stopped crying. She leaned back up, looking away from him to hide her embarrassment. But she had stopped crying. And how? Just because he touched her? Somehow that reminded her that she needed to keep going. She couldn't stop and be afraid. She had to find Marcus.

"I can't do this alone." Penny said, realizing that as she said it, it was true.

"You don't have to." Artie said. "I'll come with you. We'll confront Marcus and call the authorities."

"We can't." Penny shook her head. "We can't tell anyone."

"If he's a murderer-"

"So you believe me?" Penny looked at him, her embarrassment replaced with shock.

"Not really." He admitted. "But I'm willing to stick with you."

"Even thought I lied about where I'm from?"

"I don't know why you did, but I'm sure you have your reasons, right?"

Penny nodded. Did she ever.

"And you'll tell me one day, right?"

"I-" Before Penny could answer, a crack of thunder echoed throughout the sky, rumbling the dome. Penny's eyes grew wide.

"A storm?" Artie asked, looking over Penny's shoulder.

"That's not thunder." Penny whispered. She'd recognize that sound anywhere. She scrambled out of the dome, bumping her head several times as she did so.

Outside, the darkening sky was filled with green clouds. In the highest point, large enough to be seen cities away, was a cloud of a skull with a snake coming out of it's mouth. The cloud was illuminated with green lightning.

Penny felt a scream stick in her throat. The Death Mark only meant one thing.

Marcus had killed someone.

DUN DUN DUUUNNNNNNN! Yeah, I know, it's a bit of an ender. I wasn't expecting any deaths but it seems they are in store. Dang. Sorry to all those that have read this far in favor that no one would die! I must admit, it wasn't an original intention, but those pesky Death Eaters! They just ruin everything! Thank you to all the wonderful reviewers. I appreciate it so much and I will continue to write this if you keep reading!