My dear LadyRhi used her lightsaber to clean up this chapter, thank you darling. Hong Kong is an overnight stay, so I split it into two chapters. Too much to tell ;) Stay safe and enjoy!

Day Sixty-Four

"How long can a bridge be, by Merlin's beard?"

After arriving in the port of Hong Kong, they'd departed from the Arcadia and the bus now took them through the city centre towards Landau Island. At the moment, they were riding over the subject of Draco's ire, an imposing suspension bridge carrying six lanes of traffic across its valcore-sized surface. Four more lanes were enclosed below, two reserved for railway transportation.

"I mean, we've been driving on this road for ages, it seems endless." He gestured towards the front window from his aisle seat halfway down the bus's rows.

"If you had paid attention to Ross, you would have heard that the Tsing Ma Bridge is over two kilometres long - a mile and a quarter - one of the longest in the world," Hermione cheekily quoted their guide's earlier spiel. Draco tapped her wiggling nose playfully in revenge. His witch was in lecture-mode once again, and moreover, she was correct, too. He had tuned out the guide, the nasal voice irking him for some unexplainable reason.

"Well love, I'm truly sorry for the lack of patience today," he apologized. "I didn't sleep so well last night." Seeking forgiveness, Draco tenderly rubbed his nose along the column of her neck.

Hermione purred at the gentle caress. "Perhaps if you'd kept to one less tumbler of whisky? You returned yesterday quite tipsy after your night out with the grandpa's." She couldn't help poking fun at his time with the older set he himself snarked about incessantly. After dinner, the group had split into two parties: the ladies went to the Globe for fun and dance. At the same time, the men gathered in the Rising Sun pub for a men-only assembly to watch a live game of cricket on the telly. Draco had shown up in their room well after her own arrival, sporting a tell-tale flush and giggling his arse off at some great joke he'd yet to explain beyond gasping false starts.

It had been quite an effort to get him into bed. He wouldn't drink a sober-up potion. Because I'm noooot thirsty for potions only for pussy, yoouur pussy, swotty-mine. Can I have some pussy-juice? Adding to her difficulties, he hadn't restricted himself to (what he seemed to imagine to be) seductive cajolery, alone. The young wizard groped her with shaky hands, more often than not squeezing next to the desired place than landing his mark. Despite his amorously slurred attempts, her arousal deflated at a whiff of his rank breath. The witch was, by now, familiar with the fact that her wizard didn't perform stellarly when drunk most of the time.

On top of his alcohol-soaked passion, his inebriation led him to spill some choice gossip about his family that had her in stitches. If Lucius knew the nonsense Draco told her, the older wizard would probably have hexxed his son right on the spot. The pretentious pureblood would have burst a blood vessel, especially about a specific episode in which Draco described catching his father in a compromising position with Narcissa around Draco's tenth birthday… booze really did turn her fiance into a Gabby Grindylow!

And left him a little delicate the next morning, as he was finding, sitting in his bus seat.

"Rossy Ross talks too much, and I'm still recovering from yesterday evening. It wasn't whisky for your information. It was Guinness. Again." When am I going to learn to stay away from the thrice-hexxed Irish drink? He had knocked back two sober-up potions this morning, but the effects from yesterday's splurge still lingered. Even despite the little white pill that Hermione called Aspirin, his energy wasn't at its usual level. Muggle alchemy, honestly.

Draco kept his eyes on the majestic bridge the entire time, trying to steady his swaying head by fixing his gaze on the horizon. The bus only just cleared the second concrete tower, the peak barely visible from the window. After all this time, it still baffled him how Muggles ingeniously came up with iron cables to suspend a platform, allowing people to travel over rivers. There were some clever Muggles out there, he had to admit. Though, wizards didn't need to cross bridges to get somewhere, thankfully. If apparating wasn't possible, then a portkey could always solve the problem. Between Muggles and Wizards and getting around, there are no winners, it's a draw.

-oOo-

"Oh my god!" Draco couldn't hide his amazement, eyes staring through the front window of the bus.

"What did you just say?" Hermione looked at him in surprise, eyes and mouth wide open.

"Grr, I'm speaking Mugglish, and it's your fault. You're corrupting me!" The blond grunted with a dismissive wave of his hand, but blushing all over. Quickly, he shed away the shame and revelled in the first perceptions of Tai O village. Its old, enchanting style, somehow evoking the archaic atmosphere of more familiar places like Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, made the wizard grin immediately as he stepped out of the bus.

The couple followed the guide through Tai O Market Street, a narrow pedestrian lane surrounded mostly by food shops, the stalls loaded with plastic containers offering salted fish and seafood of all types. The signs above each shop were in Chinese characters, thus incomprehensible to both wizard and witch.

Surveying the street from end to end, Draco didn't notice the dried, beheaded fish dangling on a wire until it was too late. He bumped into the pack, "Argh! What the hell?"

"A mackerel just tried to attack you. Beware of the salted fish!" Hermione mugged, continuing to follow the group, shaking with laughter. "Are you okay? Do you need me to heal your imaginary wound?"

Draco went all serious, grunting low. "Are you laughing at me?"

"I wouldn't dare. What if you tell your father all about it?" His faux-threatening face just sent her into a new peal of laughter.

"Hmm. Is it smart to challenge a serpent?" Her sudden twist in humor sent him almost off balance, but her soft hands on his cheeks, pulling his mouth down to her lips, steadied him.

"I fear the dragon more. He can spit fire." Hermione rubbed their noses and pulled him along behind her, lacing their fingers.

"Why are you so sassy this morning?" Draco pulled the witch back into him, trading places with her and effectively avoiding a new close encounter with more hanging fish.

"You confessed to me yesterday that you caught your parents in a compromising position. If I recall it right, it was in the dressing room." She kept giggling with a healthy, rosy blush brightening her cheeks. Slowly, he was returning to his usual self, playfully tickling her sides. Hermione jerked at a naughty pinch just above her shorts' waistband. "Oh, look! I can buy a husband for eighteen Hong Kong Dollars!" Hermione pointed to a sign on display, mischievously.

The blond paled on the spot, halting in the middle of the road. "If you love me at all, you will never repeat any of what I said to my parents, or you'll have to bury my avada'ed corpse in our gardens." He spoke with a finger stretched out in mock foreboding, but inched closer to study the husband sign with narrowed eyes. "You want to trade me for a food roll?" The price tag was actually referring to a boxed shrimp and pork pizza roll.

"I won't be hungry, at least." Hermione pinched him back, completing her revenge, drawing a groan from his lips. "Besides, don't you know my silence can be bought, my cute, harmless little dragon?" Hermione wiggled her eyebrows, enjoying his discomfort. "Tell me who would kill you? Your beloved mother or your annoying father? Oh, and by the way, I can't be bought with money or baubles." Hermione turned her head flirtatiously, curls bouncing freely around her face. The cheeky witch gave her hapless wizard a once-over for good measure.

"Shall we continue this conversation in our bedroom?" His grey gaze darkened in a fraction of a second, something mildly thunderous beneath his words. "I'd bet on my mother first." Draco grasped her hand and set a firm course to allow them to catch up with the group, intent on dissipating the erotic mood his witch was driving him into.

Unexpectedly, the entire party stilled in awe a few feet away.

Draco stared at the sight before them, equally astounded, "Are we in Venice without knowing it?"

Before them, an endless row of stilted houses rose above the tidal flats of the South China Sea's inlet and the river that flowed through the village. Many had small fishermen's boats anchored to a ladder, some of the vessels with a motor, others just a pair of rowing paddles. Oddly enough, a big Coca-Cola sign hung on the metal fence between two houses, a jarringly modern interruption in the soothing panorama of a bygone age.

"Only if this is the Venice of the Orient," Hermione blurted out. "I don't see gondolas or singing gondoliers." She noticed the guide behind her and covered her mouth, slightly ashamed.

Ross shrugged away her embarrassment with a smile. "Yes, Tai O is called the Venice of the East, as you might imagine. Without the famous singing gondoliers. But you see how Hong Kong used to look, centuries ago." The guide elaborated on his statement, the group hanging from the man's lips. "The majority of the citizens are of old age, the youth escape to the modern city in search of a better life. Those who remain behind stay true to this simple way of life." Many hummed in acknowledgement. "You probably have noticed many metal houses. They were built due to a massive fire three years ago that gutted a large portion of the village."

A motorised tourist boat navigated loudly through the channel, right beneath the drawbridge where the group halted. Several of its tourists shot picture after picture of the picturesque place, the worn and rustic-looking houses and even of the elder residents hanging their laundry outside, going about their lives. Some waved back, others turned their backs, visibly tired of being gaped at like some weird exhibit.

I would hex the hell out of those people in their place. I'm not an animal at the zoo. Draco shook his head, judging the tourists for their evident lack of respect.

"A stinging hex," Hermione commented.

"Did I say something out loud?" Abruptly, Draco turned his head towards his witch.

"No, but your look speaks volumes and mirrors my thoughts perfectly." The brunette rolled her eyes, climbing into the bus.

"Two mandrakes in a pod, my love." He pecked her in a blink of an eye. "We are becoming two mandrakes in a pod."

-oOo-

The only reason why Draco was happy to leave Tai O was the incessant smell of fish in the air, the village's famous speciality. Otherwise, he would gladly have spent more time, perusing between the shops for new herbs or a few curious bits and pieces from the temples. On one of the stalls, he recognised the Buddha image from the picture on their book. Immediately he thought of buying one for his father, to give him a new deity to worship.

Due to their guide's time table, however, buying the present was delayed to a later moment. Perhaps there'd be a better opportunity where they were visiting next, the Po Lin Monastery. In no time the bus took them to the big temple at the feet of the massive Tian Tan Buddha. Draco bent his neck back as far as possible to take it all in. "I feel as small as a bowtruckle."

"True, we're the size of an ant next to it, like we say it in Mugglish," Hermione quipped, pulling him by the elbow. "We need to follow Ross, Draco."

The monastery was on par with the Buddha statue, in terms of imposing appearance. The complex consisted of several temples, pagodas and courtyards. The largest pagoda was certainly the most magnificent. The Grand Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas rose between a sea of green trees, on the opposite side of the giant Buddha.

Hand in hand, Hermione and Draco walked beneath a ceiling of red paper lanterns, dangling in the wind on cords over the entire courtyard. Similar to the iron constructions at the French Lourdes sanctuary, several metal constructions stood before a stone cauldron with holes to cage the sticks, instead of pins. Pilgrims lit big incense sticks as offerings for their prayers. Others inserted the sticks directly into stone cauldrons on four legs.

But the smoke filled the air with a sweet, pleasant and relaxing scent that reminded them both of the incense Professor Trelawney used to light during Divination. Draco and Hermione took large breaths to fully experience the scent.

The Gryffindor found herself whispering, humility filtering within her spirit at the feet of stairs leading to the Great Temple, a sizable two-levelled pagoda. "This ritual is like the candle I lit in the church of Huatulco. Praying to a Buddha seems to be nothing different from the way Christians pray to God." They climbed the high flight of stairs, stopping at the entrance, awestruck.

The entire front of the temple was surrounded by stone-carved pillars depicting dragons rearing up between large open windows. The folded red wooden shutters were covered with yellow Ming period designs. The walls were a mixture of light blue, white and gold between the grey stone pillars.

With interlaced fingers, the couple entered an ample room full of golden hangings, lamps, and paintings on the walls or on the high ceilings. Yet, the most attention-demanding spectacle in that room were three golden Buddha's on top of a large granite shrine decorated with big lotus flower arrangements and baskets cradling fruit offerings.

Draco consulted the leaflet in his hand. "The one on the left is Bhai, huh, Bhaay… I'm sorry..." Slightly frustrated by his inability to pronounce the strange name, he skipped to the essential description. "So, the first is the Master of Healing, in the middle sits the Buddha of our World, and the one on the right is the Buddha of Unlimited Light and Life Spans." He studied the three sculptures, pensively. "If you have to choose between healing or unlimited life span, I honestly don't know who to worship the most."

Hermione smirked into his upper arm, restraining her giggles. After all, this temple wasn't the place to break into a peal of laughter. "I think you should pay your respects to the three, equally. In the end, what good does it do to have an unlimited life span and be sick the entire time?" She perched her chin on his shoulder, looking up with the sweetest little smile.

Draco rejoined with a smile that actually reached his sparkling eyes. "You make a good point, Hermione." They strolled for a few more moments, before mingling between the exiting crowds and heading to the most impressive statue on the site: The Tian Tan Buddha.

Sitting with crossed legs on the top of a three-storey, tiered altar high up on a hill, the impressive bronze statue overlooked China's mainland with a raised right hand. Draco quirked a brow. "Am I imagining things, or is he saying hello to us?"

This time, she did break into a fit of the snickers, "Yes, he's probably telling us, 'I come in peace!'" Draco frowned in confusion, the pureblood missing the easter egg in her answer. She'd quoted a line from the movie Volcano with Tommy Lee Jones, where Anne Heche dressed in a thermal protective suit, raised her hand and said into a tunnel, We come in peace. She had seen it in the theatre with her parents, a year before the war and thought the sentiment appropriate.

They crossed the courtyard and halted at the bottom of the hill. "Let's climb the flight of stairs from hell." Hermione took a deep breath of air and started climbing up more than two-hundred sixty stairs, all the way to the top. Draco had to make room for a tourist or two who clutched the mid-rail for dear on their descent.

"One of these days, you'll have to explain to me about this 'hell' of yours, my dear swot." The climb was steep, but at the moment, he had a glorious sight of her perky arse and his mind was contentedly creating all sorts of dirty daydreams. Catching himself, Draco stopped for a few seconds to gather his bearings. This isn't the place for a boner.

Puffing heavily, the two finally reached the summit. If the statue had looked impressive from below, then standing before it, at its feet was simply magnificent. The Buddha glowed in the sunlight, thanks to the mixture of bronze and gold in the head. The throne where the statue sat depicted an open lotus flower. The hand on his lap was open and relaxed, inviting even, the fingers slightly bent in a natural position. The hair was divided into curls, resembling small, round conch shells. Both the wizard and witch admired the level of detail inserted in this stunning statue.

"You know who would love to have a statue like this?" Draco leaned into Hermione's side, cajoling her with a detail from the past. "Your first Hogwarts crush, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart."

"He wasn't-... I mean, I hadn't... He was my teacher!" The brunette stammered, her cute denial feeding Draco's pleasure. She flushed all pink, hands covering her cheeks.

"Oh, puhlease. Even Pansy couldn't stop gushing about the gorgeous blond Professor." He mimicked the girl's fawning face. "How brave he was and how eloquent." Draco chortled, thinking about that episode in the dungeon's common room, "Every time she called him eloquent, I wondered if she knew the meaning of the word. Pansy's vocabulary wasn't so articulate, to be honest."

"He was eloquent." She bobbed her head slightly. "Until I discovered what a coward he was. He stole someone else's bravery and sold it as his own." Hermione snorted in a very un-feminine fashion. Draco sniggered. But then she pondered on his tone, catching onto what lay behind it. "Wait a minute, were you jealous of Lockhart's charm with the ladies?"

With a snap of a finger, the roles were reversed. "Of course not!" Apparently offended, the blond rolled his eyes. "I knew he was a fraud."

Hermione halted at the edge of the temple. "Oh, did you now? Did your father tell you so?" She tilted her head, brows hiding under the fringe of her bangs.

"No," Draco denied a tad too quickly to be believed, turning around and focussing on the sea without paying attention to the sightseeing. "I didn't need my father to recognise a tosser like Lockhart from miles away. Me, jealous? What an insult."

"You're so cute when you're trying to weasel away from the truth." Hermione snaked her arms around his waist and looked over his shoulder at the marvellous, expansive view. The Buddha was surrounded by green mountains, endless sea and bright blue sky. She felt the peace trickle down into her pores under the warm sunlight.

"Alright, I confess. I might have been somewhat envious that all the female attention went to that lying, sleazy tosser instead to me, the prince of Slytherin." Draco conceded, covering her hands on his waist with his own palms. Dissatisfied with their position, the blond pulled her around to his front so he became the bigger spoon, planting a kiss on her hair.

"Poor Draco Malfoy." Hermione rotated within the circle of his arms, wrapping her own around his neck. She met his pout with an ear-to-ear smile, shaking with laughter. "My blond git felt insecure."

"It's the second time you're daring your serpent, my love. You are asking for trouble." Instantly, their surroundings disappeared around them. Draco fixed his gaze intently on his witch, lowered his head slowly and caught her lips in a hungry kiss.

"I'm not afraid of snakes." She nibbled his bottom lip in retaliation and couldn't resist needling him further. "Dragons, on the other hand…" Taking a deep breath, the witch turned back towards the sea and sighed contentedly. "Look at how beautiful it is up here."

Draco smelled the saltiness of the sea in the air. "Yes, that's true. I only resent the lunch."

"I knew it." She centred the camera and photographed the extraordinary view. "Accept it as your payback for tricking me into a ride on the cable car. You volunteered for a rabbit food meal, I didn't force you."

The wizard bit tenderly at her earlobe. "Witch."

She grinned cheekily.

-oOo-

Ross gave the group a half hour to walk around Ngong Ping Village. Compared to the authenticity of Tai O beneath, this shopping village didn't impress Draco in the least. Too neat, too modern and not interesting at all.

Plus, when they found the Bodhi Tree, or as Ross explained, a wishing tree full of red placards pleading for the fulfilment of a wish, Draco was slightly bummed not to be allowed to hang one of his own. Yet, behind the groups back, including Hermione's, under the pretence of a sanitary stop, he conjured a similar placate, engraved his wish and levitated it onto the very top. Ross also mentioned that the higher the placate hung, the more likely it was for the wish to come true. He hooked his at the very top.

"You couldn't control yourself, could you?" Draco shook his head at Hermione's admonition, I should have known that this witch wasn't to be fooled by a lame pee break excuse.

"Nobody saw me. I concealed myself." The blond shrugged, lining up for the one event he longed to see the most out of today's trip.

"What did you wish for?" Hermione murmured, tensing the hold she had on his hand, involuntarily. The closer she got to the platform, the less self-assured she felt.

"I can't tell you. Otherwise, my wish will not be fulfilled." Feeling the stress boiling underneath her skin, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders for reassurance. Draco rubbed a thumb tantalisingly over her collarbone.

"Has said nobody, except Draco 'ferret' Malfoy." She grumped, thankful that it was almost their turn, with only two couples ahead of them.

"The next gondola is a Crystal cabin. Do you want to skip a turn and board the next normal gondola?" Studying the cable car's sequence, he suggested the alternative, meeting his promise to her.

I've come this far, already. Hermione hesitated and weighed her options. Instead of answering, she moved through the turnstile and readied to board the glass-floored gondola. "Don't you dare to release my hand." She entered, sat down and caught Draco's left hand in a vice grip.

The wizard withdrew his hand, though not an easy feat as she refused to let go. Barely a second later, the blond replaced his left hand with the right, to have his arm free to wrap around her shoulders. Grounding her. Reassuring her. "Remember? How I described to you the Amazon of St. Lucia inside the aerial tram?" He felt her nod against his neck, leaning in for reassurance. "That's how we'll do it. You won't look down. Instead, you'll listen to my voice."

As the cable car started its slow descent, Draco looked behind him, bent to grab the camera from her bag and hand it to his fiancee. "Take a picture of the Buddha, Hermione. It's so colossal that it looks as if he's sitting on the top of the trees. You can see the altar rising higher than the greenery."

Wholeheartedly agreeing with his assessment and eagerly accepting the offered distraction, she snapped a picture of the impressive view, handing the camera back afterwards.

Draco rubbed her arm calmly, studying the ground beneath their feet. He was dying to take a picture of the sights below, dangling the camera with one hand. But his restrained movements didn't facilitate the job. "Oh, Draco, just take the damn picture." Hermione scowled, knowing what he wanted and unwrapping the arm from around her shoulders.

Hearing the tell-tale click, she fixed her gaze on the wizard until he resumed his arm's earlier position. He continued his explanation, easing her frayed nerves. "Remember how the clouds encased the Three Sisters mountains in Australia? We'll be descending through a similar landscape."

His description awakened her curiosity. Hermione lifted her head from his shoulder, concluding that as long as she didn't look through the floor, the outside views were worth watching. Draco grinned, planting another kiss on her head, "Don't you agree with my opinion, love?"

"I guess so." Shifting in her seat, she leaned her back against this chest.

"Don't look down, but we could have hiked our way up." Draco saw people beneath trekking on a wooden path.

"That must be the Ngong Ping trail." Hermione kept her gaze glued forward. "If I knew it beforehand, I could have done that instead." She saw it mentioned on a leaflet from the Village, but by then she'd decided not to spoil Draco's growing excitement.

"I hope we have a few more hikes ahead on our cruise. I really enjoy discovering places that way." The Diamond Head trail came quickly to Draco's mind, longing after a similar adventure. The next part of the descent stilled his thoughts. "Merlin's beard, look at the contrast. We left a monastery behind us, all peace and quiet, and now I see a sea of glass and grey steel. One tower bigger than the next."

"You're starting to become more eloquent than Lockhart, Draco," Hermione quipped. The wizard described perfectly how their cable car approached modern Hong Kong ahead. A plane was about to land on the strip. She grinned at his arched eyebrow and the witch threw her arms in the air, "I couldn't have described it better!"

Yet, when they arrived closer to the airport, the sight beneath demanded the Gryffindor's attention with its brownish colours. The seawater was bright, and the bottom became a game of blue-green tones mixed with sandy brown, small river arms spreading between swathes of green trees.

"Nature at its finest, if you ask me," pleased with her interest and the liberation it brought. With both arms free, he angled the camera again to photograph the wetlands beneath. "I would have done this journey differently today if the excursion were up to me. Starting at the fishing village, hike the trail all the way up to the monastery. Descend as we're doing now."

"You should write an owl to P&O and suggest the new itinerary." By now, the gondola didn't descend anymore, but continued on a flat journey towards the Tung Chung terminal.

"Bah, no. Why would I? Would it bring profit to me?" He set the camera away, lacing their fingers together ahead of disembarking. The cable car clicked as it passed through the turning platform. "Will you call me lazy if I nap a little between this and our next tour? The mountain air has exhausted me a bit."

"We'll nap together." They had two hours before the next excursion, which included the Symphony of Lights.

-oOo-

Hermione threw her sweaty clothes into the hamper. "Mmm, Draco?"

A muted Yes? sounded through the closed bathroom doors.

"The rabbit's food lunch wasn't so bad, was it?" Hermione fell backwards on the bed with a sigh, arms extended wide, spread-eagle. She grinned when it remained dubiously silent. Draco wasn't able to deny that the vegetarian lunch at the Monastery had, in fact, been quite delicious.

When the Slytherin enjoyed a meal, he ate his plate empty unless his stomach got full, a habit avidly developed at the ever-full tables of Hogwarts's Great Hall. Otherwise, after a few bites, the wizard would shove the dish away, as soon as his hunger was satisfied. "The stir-fry with the sugar snaps, pak choi and big mushrooms was tasty. The crunchiness added an extra dimension too," she pressed.

She could almost hear him flush, the silence speaking louder than any words. Hermione continued to goad him, unable to resist. "I saw how you devoured the rice, so don't you dare to contradict me, either!"

Draco exited the bathroom dressed in his sleeping shorts, chest tantalizingly bare. "Yes, I enjoyed it," he bit out. "It was no rabbit food. I consider rabbit food those bowls filled with salad, shredded carrots, tomatoes, and Merlin knows what else, which just kills the hunger for about an hour." He climbed into the bed, lied on his back, claiming one of her arms as his personal pillow. He sighed in defeat. "It tasted delicious. The spring rolls were tasty, and even that mock-chicken thing you call tufu with lemon sauce was delectable."

Hermione gave a muffled squeak, as Draco had pinched her in the thigh to show his pique. "Hey, you're not playing fair." She furrowed her forehead, mock-pouting.

"You want me to admit I liked to eat a vegetarian meal, you wicked witch." Nibbling her jaw softly, he curled around her frame, finding on her chest a new fluffy pillow to rest his head on. "We can nap for an hour and a half, maximum. Fire up our Firebolts for tonight's spectacle." Draco flicked his wand to close the curtains, cast a Tempus charm to set up an awaking time, and supported on his arm one last time to kiss her. "Rest for now."

"Yes, old man…" Hermione nagged. In the end, she was the first to fall asleep.