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A PERFECT MATCH

Chapter 36: The Maltese connection

They landed on a cold, hard floor of what seemed to be a passage inside a castle, filled with armours and paintings. Due to the impact, Snape had rolled away from them. Lucius stood up and pulled Hermione with him. He still had his arm around her neck and aimed his wand towards Snape.

“I’d say you’d better stay away, dear Severus.” He hissed.

“I hadn’t counted on you following me here, but it can be a nice bonus. You will be able to witness what I’m going to do to your mudblood.” His eyes scanned Hermione and rested on her bosom. He licked his lips. “Now I see why you keep her with you.” The flickering in his eye made Snape jump forwards.

“Bastard, don’t you dare touch her !”

“CRUCIO!” Lucius yelled.

Hermione wanted to cry out when she saw Snape cringing, but didn’t want to give Lucius the satisfaction.

“Now, dear Severus. STAY!” He ordered.

“She has nothing to do with it Lucius, leave her out of it. I know it’s me you want, and Draco of course.”

Malfoy’s eyes shot fire. “I will save my son after I have dealt with you. The spell you cast upon him will wear off once you’re dead and then he will come back to me.”

“Hah !” Hermione sneered. “You think he’ll come back to you, huh ? Let me tell you something about your ‘son’, Lucius Malfoy. Not only does he despise you and rejects you as his father, he is also in love with Ginny Weasley and will marry her. And now the best news of all: he will no longer use the Malfoy name. Your son will become a Weasley, how about that !”

She once had laughed thinking about Lucius’ reaction to the news. She hadn’t been far besides the truth. He did look like he was on the verge of exploding. Snape gave her an alarmed look and had tried to stop her from telling him, but she knew what she was doing. Consumed by his rage, Lucius loosened his grip, pushed her away from him and aimed his wand at her. Snape yelled “NO!” and tried to jump in front of her as Lucius raised his wand and began “AVADA …” but he never got to finish the curse.

Hermione had focused on his wand with all of her might and succeeded in performing a wandless Expelliarmus. Lucius’ wand flew across the passage and smashed against the wall, where it broke into a thousand pieces.

“I guess that makes up for us being unarmed, wouldn’t you say ?” she smiled as she looked at both wizards standing there with open mouths.

 

Lucius recovered first and headed for the nearest armour. He pulled the sword from it and headed for Hermione.

Snape followed his example and came to her defence. He raised his own sword to meet Lucius’ lunge. Steel met steel when both swords slammed against each other. The clattering was deafening and Hermione retreated to a safer place behind one of the armours. Snape had ward off Lucius’ attack successfully and was now making a thrust himself. The rattling went on and on and Hermione could barely watch. At one point, Snape had driven Lucius into a corner and his passes became more forceful when he noticed Lucius was starting to show signs of fatigue. Suddenly, Lucius managed to move aside and when he tried to follow his movements, Snapes’ cloak was caught on the stretched arm of an armour. He was pulled back and fell on the floor, the armour falling on top of him.

Lucius smiled menacingly and pointed his sword at Snape’s throat. Hermione tried to disarm Lucius like she had done before, but he kept moving the sword and she couldn’t get a lock on it.

Just in time recovered from his fall, Snape pulled his knees up and with one kick he mowed Lucius’s legs from under him, the sword flying through the air, landing at some distant pillar. Snape jumped up now the situation had been reversed and reached for his sword. Still, Lucius wouldn’t give himself up, raised on his feet and pulled a dagger from his boot, ready to throw it at Snape’s heart. In a reflex, Snape ran the sword through him and ducked to avoid the dagger.

Hermione screamed and ran towards him. She threw herself into his arms and smothered him with kisses. He held her tight, realising all too well how close he had come to loosing her.

“Are you all right ?” They asked simultaneously.

“I’m fine. Severus, you’re bleeding !”

Drops of blood were dripping out of a few cuts in his shirt. Still catching his breath after the strenuous fight, his hair hanging partly in front of his face, sweat on his brow and his cloak torn where it had been stuck … he looked every bit the sword-fighting hero he was.

“It’s nothing, I’ll live. Are you sure you are ok ?” He kept giving her an examining look.

“Yes, yes, I told you I’m fine.”

“Where did you learn to do that ?” he asked, referring to her wandless magic.

“I found out recently, but it doesn’t work when the object is moving, otherwise I could have helped you with the fight.”

“My, my, you really have it in you to be a Charms teacher, don’t you.” He looked incredibly proud at her and she felt on top of the world.

Hermione looked around.

“Any idea where we are ?”

“Yes, I’d recognise the place anywhere. We’re in the Grand Master’s Palace on Malta.”

“What ? He took us out of England ? Why ?”

He seemed to think for a while, but then his eyes lit.

“I guess he wanted to prevent you from disapparating. It’s impossible to apparate on Malta, much like Hogwarts really. As for what he had in mind, I guess we’ll never know.”

“Oh. But … how are we going to get out of here ? We have no wands to create a portkey and I don’t think the rope will be much help.”

“Aaah, good question. Let me see.” He started to walk up and down the passage, reading the signs that were on the doors.

“If  I remember correctly, the fireplace in the Tapestry Room is connected to the floo-network.”

“But isn’t the floo-network restricted to one country ? We’re even overseas !”

“Normally it would not be possible, but Malta is an exception.”

She wanted to ask more, he seemed to know so much about it, how come she did not ? She never even encountered references to Malta in her books and didn’t know there was a wizard population here.

“Er, Severus. If we are really in this Grand Master’s Palace … isn’t it the House of Parliament ? Shouldn’t we be hiding for the nightwatch ? We made a lot of noise !”

“Well, it’s the week before Christmas and the guards must have celebration on their minds, but you’re right, we better hurry. Come, let’s take Lucius into the Tapestry Room. Can you try a wandless Mobilicorpus ?”

Hermione tried, but succeeded only partly. She needed to stop a few times, resulting in Lucius’ body falling down on the floor every time she lost concentration. Finally they had him in the fireplace. Snape counted the bricks on the mantlepiece and took out the fourth one on the left. He inserted his hand and took out a small bottle. He looked disappointed.

“There’s not enough floo-powder left for the three of us. In fact, I’d say there’s barely enough for one.”

They looked at each other and at Lucius’ body.

“We will send him and I’ll attach a note to explain we will follow as soon as possible.”

“Where are you going to send him to ? The Ministry ?”

“Yes, straight into Arthur Weasley’s office. I assume Albus will be there at the moment.”

“But so will Draco, and he may resent his father, but it’s still his father and being confronted with his dead body like that …”

Snape sighed.

“I know, but I don’t see any other way, everyone is there, it’s the fastest way to let them know we’re all right. Besides, we cannot leave the Palace with a corpse.”

“Can’t someone take a supply of floo-powder and come to collect us ?”

He took a pen and a piece of paper from one of the desks and started writing.

“It would take too long and we must leave here as soon as possible, maybe security isn’t tight but that doesn’t mean they don’t do their rounds. I will write a note to inform them not to worry about us and that we will return to Hogwarts when we find some other means of transportation.”

After he finished, he slipped the paper between Lucius’ robe, took the floo-powder, threw it into the fireplace and yelled: “Ministry of Magic, England, Minister’s Office” and Lucius’ body disappeared into the flames.

Now they only needed to find a way out of the Palace. They returned to the passage, which looked like a tornado had gone through. He led her to a door at the back of the passage. They went down the stairs and ended up in an inner court. The gate was closed, but Snape didn’t have too much trouble to force the lock. When they got outside Hermione realised they must look very odd to the other people in the street.

“Our clothes !” she hissed.

“Never mind, they’ll think we are on our way to a party.” He scanned the street to see if anyone had seen them come out of the Palace, but apparently everyone was minding their own business.

He took her arm and they started walking. When she shivered he pulled her to him and threw his cloak around the both of them.

“I can’t believe it’s finally over.” She sighed and snuggled closer to him.

“I know. It all happened so fast it’s hard to believe it’s all behind us now. It will take some time to get used to.”

“Yes, with Malfoy dead, Voldemort in chains and the other Death Eaters living their lives as common muggles, a heavy weight has been lifted from our shoulders. I feel like I’m finally been given the chance to live my life the way it’s supposed to be.”

“I know what you mean.” He showed her his left arm. The mark had disappeared.

“Oh, Severus, it’s really gone now!” She kissed him on the cheek and they continued their way, feeling quite optimistic about the future.

Hermione noticed the street was very long and straight and had lots of sidestreets, which were also straight. Some were very steep and had stairs instead of pavements.

“Severus ? This city, the pattern of the streets I mean, it looks a lot like …”

“New York on a hill ?”

He grinned. “Imagine you’re a knight and you’re wearing one of those heavy armours we saw earlier and then the alarm-bell rings. Wouldn’t you prefer rushing down straight streets instead of finding your way through narrow, winding alleys ?”

“Right, very clever those Grand Masters.”

“Of course they were clever, after all, one of them was an ancestor of mine.”

“You mean they were wizards ?”

“Yes.”

“But wasn’t the Order of St John a Catholic one ?”

He chuckled. “Very much so, but the Grand Masters sure knew their magic.”

She looked astonished.

“I didn’t know you had Maltese roots.”

“My mother’s family has lived here for ages. That’s where we’re going by the way.”

“They live in this city ?”

“Not exactly. They live in Mdina, the Silent Town. We are going there by bus, I hope we didn’t miss the last one or we’ll have to find a taxi.”

“Oh.”

She needed some time to digest all this information. There was still so much to learn about him !

They had reached the busstation where another surprise awaited Hermione.

“Those things belong in a museum !”

“Hermione ! You are hurting my feelings. These busses are part of Maltese folklore. Look at them, every single one is a genuine piece of art! “ He laughed seeing she was trying to overcome her repulsion.

They got on the bus for Mdina. Like the others, it was painted yellow and the interior was decorated with a zillion pictures and little statues of the Virgin Mary. It was more a shrine than a means of transportation !

Suddenly she realised they had no money. When she reminded him, Snape stood up from his seat and went to talk to the driver. Hermione knew all Maltese spoke English, but she sure didn’t understand a word of what they were saying. It sounded like some obscure mixture of Arabic and Italian, very strange, but Snape seemed to know it very well. When he sat down next to her, he told her what they had discussed.

“I explained we are on our way to my family in Mdina and since they are well-known on the island, he knows he will get paid.”

“It’s as simple as that ?”

“Yes.”

Then another shock came when the engine started and the bus drove off. The noise was deafening and it seemed like there was no suspension system at all, making her bounce up and down during the whole ride.

She was more than happy when the bus stopped in front of a Medieval Gate and they had to get out.

“Only a limited amount of cars are allowed inside.” Snape explained, but he needn’t have to, because when they entered the town, Hermione noticed the streets were so narrow it had to be almost impossible for cars to drive through. Everywhere she looked, it seemed like time had stood still and she more or less expected to see knights in shining armour instead of 21st century people.

They didn’t have to go far. Snape stopped in front of what looked like a palacio from the Renaissance and raised his hand to knock.

Without any warning, the door flew open and a shorter, somewhat chubby version of Snape invited them in.

“Cousin Severus, Hermione, please come in, we’ve been waiting for you.”

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