Author's Note: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the reviews! I am so glad you seem to like it! I had to respond...

Thank you Lady Game; now tell me truthfully and tell me please: how did you know I love Terry Pratchett? Did I steal anything from him?? I haven't read anything by him for a while, now, so if something has worked its way into my story, please tell me so that I can kill myself, resurrect my decaying body, and go fix it! And thanks again! Thanks you bamfbabe; that's some encouragement! Thank you Juxtaposed1; I'm glad you liked it, and I really am having so much fun, despite being a cliché kid! If I could write original character stories that flowed out as easily as this one, I would be one happy girl! Thank you Bena Glinney; you signed up just for this story?? You're joking... Thank you! Thank you Isabell Klein; I'm really thrilled you took the time to email me! Thank you Lisa Meunier; even though you didn't write a review, getting to be on your favorites list is an honor!

As for notes about this chapter: this might be A LITTLE PG-13, due to the death of innocents, for anyone who is really disturbed by that. It's not very graphic. Also, I may have made a few un-English mistakes, so I apologize for that. And I think I put the Dark Mark on the wrong place on the arm... if this is confirmed, I'll just go back and change it. Lastly, I want to bow down to JK Rowling and her Ron Weasley, who of course originated the broken wand plot point... You'll see. That's not to say I don't realize that all of this is really her idea, but some things need extra thanks and such.

FINALLY, after all that blabbing, here is chapter 5 of The Darkest Mark.

***

The sharpness of the burning sensation faded away as Lucius and Snape hurried down the dirt road, but the Dark Mark upon each one's arm yet pulsated with a faint pain. Lord Voldemort would not be kept waiting for long, but if they were in luck, he would allow them enough time to arrive at the meeting place.

"Do- you- know where it is- we're supposed to- go?" Snape panted, breathless, as he rushed along behind Malfoy. If he was correct, they would be near the apparition point any moment now, and it was good to be prepared.

"Yes-" Malfoy returned, his breath entering and exiting loudly through his nose. He was trying to run with dignity, but it was difficult for a Malfoy to do anything remotely physical without appearing very out of his element; even silly. His white-blond hair did not look nearly so refined when it was blowing out behind him like a comet's trail. "Knockturn Alley-we'll apparate... everyone else will already be-there."

Snape did not answer, since he was too busy dealing with the cramp in his side. He didn't think he'd ever had to run like this before. And to top it all off, he was looking even more stupid than Malfoy. Snape's black robes, for one thing, were not of the billowy sort. They had their own particular way of flapping about the wearer's knees as he dragged himself along, and the effect made him look less like a debonair pureblood than a skulking bogeyman who was about to trip over his own shuffling feet.

In fact, he was about to trip. He did. His foot caught in the hem of his robes and he toppled, catching himself ungracefully just before his nose could smash into the packed earth. He heard a faint "crack," and hoped that he had not just broken a rib. That would have made breathing even more unpleasant.

"Really, Severus," Lucius puffed, drawing to a dusty halt and smoothing back his ruffled hair. It was remarkable, the way he could still achieve such a condescending tone even as he stood there, panting. Snape, coughing as the dirt swirled into his throat and sinuses, looked up angrily.

"Don't you think-we're out of range by now?" he demanded with a slight wheeze, looking daggers at Malfoy.

"I suppose we're close," sniffed Lucius, his breath coming in gulps, the fair skin of his face a blotchy red.

Snape's face was nearly as pale as ever, except for the thinnest touch of color in his sallow cheeks, but he still looked worse off than the other man. "Better try then, hadn't we?" he choked. Now his arm and his lungs were both burning.

"Well, all right then." Malfoy raised his wand and looked disgustedly at Snape, who was still seated on the ground. "I hope you don't expect to appear at a Death Eater's meeting like... that!" he exclaimed.

"My wand; I don't believe it," hissed Snape, staring at a splintered mess in his hand. "I don't believe it!" he rose immediately, forgetting how much his muscles ached. "I've been cruciatified, knocked down, thrown about, and generally humiliated and now-now!-One insignificant fall and the damned thing breaks into pieces!" he snarled, gesturing angrily towards Malfoy with the ruined wand.

"For God's sake, Severus! You've never had any luck, so don't think of blaming it on me!" Lucius snapped.

"And how am I to apparate to this meeting, if I don't have a wand?!" Snape demanded through his yellowed, clenched teeth. His dark brows overshadowed his frighteningly enraged face, but Malfoy was obviously unimpressed, and he merely glared back.

"Severus, you fool! I'll apparate you there myself." He grabbed Snape roughly by the arm and flicked his wand slightly. Nothing happened, and Malfoy wrinkled his nose. "I suppose this requires actual words, then," he said. "Aparecia Duo!" he shouted, repeating the motion with his wand, but nothing happened. Malfoy looked puzzled.

"Obviously we haven't yet cleared the anti-apparition field," Snape said rudely, freeing himself from Lucius' grip.

"On the contrary; I remember that forked tree in the distance. Crabbe was saying something crass about the way it was shaped..." Malfoy stopped there, the good breeding kicking in. Snape was hardly surprised to hear that the bulky Crabbe from Slytherin house had been there, and was mostly certain that it had been he, Crabbe, who sat on his legs. "We apparated even a bit further up the path, slightly closer to the Yard."

"With two sharing the spell instead of one, even proximity to the field might have an effect," Snape angrily thought aloud.

"Damn! How perfect," spat Malfoy, narrowing his light eyes angrily. "Come on then, Severus!" he commanded, taking off at a jog. Snape's stomach fell at the prospect of more unpleasant muscle activity, but he quickly followed, watching his robes to be certain they did not get in his way again.

A few moments onward, Lucius called for a halt, and both men stopped short. "Aparecia Duo!" shouted Malfoy, wand held high. But again, nothing happened. "It should be working!" Snape growled angrily. "Malfoy, release my arm! It's bad enough already with the mark burning as it is."

"Would you rather I took you by neck?" Lucius said threateningly.

"If I had my wand, Malfoy, you albino toad...!"

"If you hadn't crushed it, you clumsy, slimy little maggot, you would have it! If you hadn't destroyed it, I tell you, we'd have already disapparated!" Lucius growled and wrung his hands, looking both angry and worried. "We've already taken too long! The Dark Lord will be livid."

"There isn't anything else we can do," Snape said with defensive ferocity, suddenly aware of the danger. "Just shut our mouths and get going. Come on!" Now the thought of facing the Dark Lord's wrath gave his feet wings, and he ignored the complaints of his legs as he fell behind Lucius, who was quicker, and crested the next low hill over which ran the dirt road.

Coming down the other side, Snape was startled to see a muggle man at the side of the road, leaning on some sort of rusty muggle vehicle and eating some kind of sandwich. Beside him, two shaggy sheep hounds lay in the stubbly grass, the brown one scratching an itch on its foreleg with its teeth, the gray one lolling its tongue out of its mouth and watching them with interest. Through unspoken agreement, both Snape and Malfoy stopped dead.

"A muggle!" said Malfoy with vicious delight, not bothering to speak quietly. The msn looked up at them. "And all alone. Watch me, Severus. Have you ever attempted the Imperiatus curse?"

"I know it," Snape said, "but I haven't used it."

Malfoy smiled in response and pointed his wand at the farmer. "Imperio!" he shouted forcefully. The bolt from his wand struck the man, but seemed to have little effect other than to clear his face of expression. Snape watched intently.

"Kill the mut," Malfoy told the empty-eyed man. "The... grey one. Doesn't matter how, really," he looked at Snape conciliatorily.

The man turned with a naturalness that made it appear it had all been his own idea, and from the back of the vehicle took a long muggle gun. He cocked the trigger and aimed it at the head of the unsuspecting dog, which had turned its head to watch its master and to sniff the scent of the weapon.

Snape winced at the "blam!" of the gun going of. When he refocused upon the scene, he saw that the grey dog was lying still upon the ground. The other had fled to a few meters off, and had turned to watch with its ears flattened and its tail between its legs.

"Don't move!" Lucius called quickly while the farmer still had the gun to his shoulder. "It isn't really any fun," he grinned at Snape, "unless you say the counter-curse just after and allow them to see what they've done." He waved his wand and mumbled something, and the farmer began to move again, lowering the gun instantly and stepping back.

"What's this?" he said, just loudly enough for the dark wizards to hear. "What the bloody hell just happened??" A pool of red was beginning to spread beneath the dog's head, and the man covered his mouth in bewilderment. For a moment he looked at the gun in his hand, but then, seeming to have realized something, he rounded on the two black-robed men on the hill.

"You've done somethin', I know yeh have!" he cried, pointing a shaky finger at the dog. "you two... some ov 'em blasted sorcerer things!" He raised his gun to shoot at them, but apparently there had been only a single bullet loaded, for there was no result when he pulled the trigger. He looked at it in anger as Malfoy laughed airily at his misfortune. Snape merely observed.

"Dorian, sic 'em!" he called to the remaining dog, who had mostly recovered from his fright and now came racing back towards the two wizards.

" 'Sic em?' " repeated Malfoy carefully, his brow wrinkled thoughtfully. "Oh my. It appears I've been using the wrong spell. It wasn't 'Aparecia duo.' It should have been "ApareCICUM.' "

"Well, then.!" prompted Snape, glaring venomously.

"Just a moment," said Lucius calmly, pointing his wand at the dog. "Avada Kedavra!" he shouted, releasing a red bolt that caused the beast to keel over in mid-stride. Before the farmer could speak, Malfoy turned his wand upon him-"Avada Kedavra!"-and felled him with the killing curse as well.

The natural silence of faint birds and softly rustling plant life lasted for only a moment before Malfoy spoke.

"I'd have let you give it a try, but strange things can happen when one uses another wizard's wand," he explained. "I would be interested to know if you were able to perform the killing curse in a non life-threatening situation. As would our master."

"That's quite all right," Severus said, his emotions unsure of what to be. He had expected to experience remorse at the muggle's death, but it had been so easy! He felt sorrier for the first dog than he did for the farmer. And he didn't feel terrible about that. "I tried it once before, on Orpheus. The cat. You remember him, I trust?"

Malfoy smiled, amused. "Yes! The scraggly little bugger. I seem to recall wondering what had become of him. Germanicus Hiverd's sparrow had grown suspiciously fearless."

"Yes. Though he was dying anyway; that might have made it a bit easier." Snape looked back towards the farmer, then towards the bloodied grey dog, but could conjure no regret. He hadn't known them; they might never have lived, and what would have been the difference to him?

"It should matter," he said aloud, thoughtfully, as though gently chastising his own lack of emotion.

"What's this?" Malfoy asked, tilting his head.

"Talking to myself," said Snape firmly, stowing the useless wand that he had thus far neglected to put away. "Shall we go on?" He clapped a hand to Malfoy's shoulder in preparation.

"Certainly. Aperecicum Duo!" Lucius shouted, and with a crack, they disapparated, leaving nothing behind but a dead man and his dogs lying quietly in the road.

***

What do you think? This chapter is slightly weird, I know. It's especially strange to think of Snape and Lucius actually running. But when you've got the Dark Lord for a boss, you learn to shake a leg when he tells you to hurry up.

By next chapter they are at last going to be attending the Death Eaters meeting. If I've screwed up the characters or anything, tell me what it is I've done and I will try to write the next chapter better and then fix this one. Thanks!