Chapter 4
Turn after turn, door after door, the Malfoy Manor seemed to be a labyrinth for Johanna. Her faith was completely gone by the time they stopped in the middle of a corridor. There was nobody and nothing around, just the plain, cold stone walls. She looked up in the man's face. The mask didn't let her see anything but his eyes, which were closed in concentration.
Then something changed. She felt magic flowing through the hand on her arm and the air around them seemed to be electric. She felt so much power around them, she wanted to back away from Loki. Because it was Loki, she had no doubt now. No deatheater had this amount of magic and she didn't know anyone who could use it without a wand - only rumours said that Dumbledore was able to do so.
The eyes suddenly opened and Jo found herself locked by the glance of those greyish emeralds. They stared at each other, she couldn't tell how long, until Loki pulled her along, through the stone wall.
They got to a dark corridor and walked towards the blinking green light at the end. They passed statutes of dark wizards from the past, Jo only recognised a few of them. The hallway became lighter as they got close to the creepy light. It came from a room, it's door was slightly open, but no voices were coming from inside. Suddenly the blinking stopped and the green light turned into an icy blue color.
Jo lost her balance as Loki pushed her behind the last statue - which portrayed Grindelwald - and had to cling on it's arm to prevent herself from falling.
- Stay here - he whispered and walked to the door without looking back to check if she was still there. He slipped into the room, not even touching the door, completely quiet and invisible.
Ever since they left their cell, he was following the scepter's magic, which he could feel from miles away. It was in front of him now, in the middle of the room, and still, he felt like something wasn't right.
He saw the magic around his scepter that formed a sort of protecting shield, but he felt that it wasn't threatening him at all. He still didn't understand this realm's magic completely, so he approached the circle of the spell with slow, careful steps - but nothing happened.
He was slightly surprised as he held his scepter in his hands, he didn't expect things to go so easily, without any difficulty. His plans usually didn't turn out the way he wanted.
- Turn around slowly and put your weapon on the ground! - came the familiar voice from right behind his back. He turned around just to face a wand, pointed at his heart.
- I said: Put. It. Down. - the other end of the wand was held by the teacher who brought him to this place. He was standing face to face with Severus Snape, who decided he waited enough and gave enough warnings to Loki already and wasn't going to wait any longer.
- Imperio! - he said, only moving his wrist slightly to complete the motion required for the spell. Loki prepared himself mentally to fight with it, but he didn't have to.
As soon as the spell left Snape's wand, it turned into green smoke and disappeared as fast as it came. First they both stared at the wand, but since it didn't do anything unusual that could have had this strange effect, they looked around, finally down to the ground and understood everything.
The circle of the spell, which Loki thought he already walked out of, was between them, going around Loki, like a personal shield. He moved the scepter and the circle moved with it. He pointed the scepter to the left, while keeping his hand in the same position and he circle sayed still.
The spell wasn't placed in the room, around the scepter. It was placed on the scepter, they must have realised that at the same time, because Snape took a step back, while a frightening smile appeared on Loki's face. He pointed his scepter towards Snape, who was stuck between the wall, Loki and the open door; with a cold laugh until it's edge slid through the shield and touche Snape's chest. The effect was immediate.
The other man's eyes turned black and while his face was showing his struggle, it slowly turned into the same icy blue as the scepter and his face became completely blank.
- Where's the trap? - Loki asked forcefully. He wasn't going to mess up this time, not when he got his weapon back.
- There's no trap. - the deatheter answered in a monotone voice.
- There has to be a trap, there's always one. They are not stupid enough to just let me walk out of here. - Loki said, even though he knew that the other man couldn't lie to him
while he was under the spell.
- Here is no trap. The spell on the staff only lets the caster and it's owner to touch it, the magic protects it from everything and everyone else. The Dark Lord thought he owned it since he made you hand it over to him. The spell ass supposed to knock you out. - his talking was really strange. The monotone voice was combined with random pauses between some words.
- It's a scepter, not a staff. - Loki raised the mentioned scepter (not staff) to "charge" it, he was just about to kill the man who was now useless for him, when something else flashed into his mind. - Is there any spell or protection on the exit of this castle?
- Yes.
- Can I get out unnoticed? - he asked quickly.
- No.
- Damn it! - he looked thoughtfully at the detheater - Can you get me out of here?
- Yes.
- Well then, let's go!