I don't own Hellsing or Harry Potter, and I'm not making any money from this.

Mihnea was sitting on the bed in his room looking over his Astrology notes. The nocturnal subject of Astronomy had always been his favorite and at the end of his second year, his grades were high enough to allow him to advance to the class that actually covered the magical influences of heavenly bodies rather than just their names and locations. It was the only time the rules allowed for being up and about late at night. Not that it stopped him of course, but it was nice to not have to worry about sneaking around every once in a while. Their final exam was scheduled to take place in a week. He had no doubt he'd be able to do it with no trouble, but it was still best to look over all his star maps to prepare. Unfortunately, his private study session was interrupted by something he never would have expected.

"Mihnea!" a female voice, almost dainty sounding, called out of nowhere. "Didn't your mother ever teach you about keeping a mirror around!"

The boy sat up straighter and blinked. The Slytherins all had private bedrooms with locking doors. Having roommates opened up the chance of being attacked while sleeping – which the members of his house had a habit of doing when they were upset with someone. The door was to his left, and there was no way a girl could have gotten that close to his room without him noticing. He couldn't smell anything that would indicate a person was nearby...

"Damn it, Mihnea!" the voice said, sounding like it was getting irritated. "Find a goddamn mirror so I can talk to you!"

It had to be one of his mother's spirits. All the guns she made had them. It was one of the magical effects she had on things she built that came out whether she wanted it to or not. Now that he had Venom... it had to be the spirit of his gun. Mihnea set his star maps to the side, and stood up.

"There's a mirror in the bathroom." he said, not knowing exactly where the spirit was.

"Well, go in there then!"

He glanced sideways to make sure his bedroom door was locked, then went into the bathroom. It took only a few seconds for the spirit that had been talking to him to appear. His eyes went wide when he saw it.

"You have got to be kidding me." he said, trying to resist the urge to drop his mouth open. "You're my gun spirit?"

It was a girl. A very pretty girl with curly blonde hair pulled up into an elegant looking coif. Diamond pins were placed in it at various points to catch the light, making her look like a princess who didn't want to bother with a tiara. And she was wearing a frilly looking pink dress. His mother always told him that the spirit of someone's gun was a manifestation of a part of the owner's personality. So how in the hell did he wind up with a fucking princess? In a gun name Venom? The girl placed her hands on her hips and gave him a hard look.

"What, do you have a problem with girls, your highness?"

He wondered why on earth she was addressing him that way, then was hit with realization. His dad was the No Life King, so he was a prince... sort of. That didn't fully explain the frilly, over-feminine figure standing in his mirror though.

"Um... no." he replied carefully. "I just didn't expect you to look this way..."

"Were you expecting Lara Croft to show up or something?" she asked, still looking upset with him.

"Well..." He began. Lara Croft would have made a bit more sense to him, but he probably would have been shocked either way. "It's just... you're wearing pink."

The spirit looked down at her dress and sighed. "Oh, fine." she huffed, and her dress changed to a less frilly design made out of light green silk. "Is this more to your taste, your highness?"

Mihnea made a face. "Please don't call me that."

"Why?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "It's what you are. Would you prefer I called you Min-Min?"

"Jesus Christ, no!" he exclaimed. His mother's spirit called him that, and he hated it.

"Well, you're just going to have to put up with 'your highness' then, aren't you?" she said prissily. "My name is Belladonna by the way, but you can call me Bella."

The boy blinked at her. "Um... could I call you Donna instead? Bella reminds me of Twilight too much."

The female spirit gave a start. "Oh, hell, I didn't think of that! Yes, call me Donna then. I don't want to run around being associated with that nit-wit."

Thank God. He thought. At least his spirit had some sense about her. He cleared his throat.

"So... what is this about?" he asked. "Did you randomly decide to come introduce yourself or something?"

Donna pulled a nail file out of nowhere and started working on her nails. "Actually, I came here to tell you something." she said. "Connie and her little friends think that your creepy Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is going to steal the philosopher's stone tonight, so they've run off to find it."

Mihnea's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"

"Yep." the girl said as she blew dust from her fingers. "They had to sneak past a huge three-headed dog that could have eaten them, got caught in some Devil's Snare that tried to strangle them to death, and they were playing as pieces in a massive game of wizard's chess when I decided to come back and tell you." she shrugged, as though it was a small thing. "Persephone told me to butt out, but when Connie nearly got her head lopped off by a pawn, I thought you'd want to know about it."

Damn straight, he wanted to know! It sounded like they had gotten into something that could get them killed.

"Where are they now?" he asked, fully intending to go drag Constance's ass out of whatever mess she'd gotten into before she got hurt or worse.

"Um..." the spirit put her nail file away and tapped her chin with a finger, thinking. "It's somewhere below that room with the big cerberus on the third floor."

Mihnea didn't ask any more questions. He immediately left the bathroom and pulled open his bedroom door to go find them. He paused when he heard Snape barking at someone down in the common room. A couple of Slytherins had gotten into a fight and it sounded like he was trying to break them up. Getting a teacher involved could be a good thing. If he had to get past a cerberus, he'd probably wind up having to kill it. That would raise too many questions and get the whole lot of them expelled. So rather than sneaking out as he usually would have done, he headed straight for the middle of the common room.

"Professor Snape!"

The Potions Master looked over from the two boys he was giving a lecture to. "I hope this is important, Mr Bassarab." he drawled. "As you can see, I'm a bit busy."

Damn. Mihnea thought. With other Slytherins around, he couldn't come out and say it where they could hear. None of them knew the reason why the third floor was off limits.

"It's important." he said, then glanced at the two younger boys, hoping he would catch that he didn't want to say anything in front of them. "Very important."

His head of house arched a brow, then gave the boys he was lecturing a hard look. "Get back up to your rooms." he commanded harshly. "If there's any more fighting, I'll have you both transferred to Hufflepuff."

The two Slytherins looked horrified by the threat and immediately scampered off to do as they were told. Snape smoothly walked over to Mihnea and grabbed his arm to pull him out of the common room.

"This had better be good, Mr. Bassarab." he warned once they were in the hallway outside the dormitory. "What is it?"

Mihnea took a deep breath. "You know that very important thing that I know absolutely nothing about that's hidden on the third floor?"

The Potions Master narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything. He probably already knew Mihnea had an idea of what was up there after listening in on the meeting he'd had with the other teachers in his office. He simply motioned for him to continue.

"Well... there could possibly be a group of Gryffindors up there trying to stop a certain teacher from getting it."

Snape gave him a serious look. "You know that for a fact, Mr. Bassarab?"

"I don't know anything about it, sir." he said, meaning the exact opposite. "I just have a very strong suspicion." Mihnea paused and finally broke down. "If my cousin gets hurt, my parents will kill me."

Severus studied him for a moment, then pointed at the wall leading back to the common room. "Stay here." he told him, then ran off.

Like hell Mihnea was going to stay there. If Constance got hurt, aunt Integra and uncle Ed would kill him. Then his mother would raise him from the grave so she and his dad could kill him all over again. He had to make sure Connie was alright. So he waited until Snape was out of sight, then went out himself.

The trio of pre-teens ran into Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape on their way to the hospital wing. The two heads of houses must have figured out they had gone after the stone and sent word to Dumbledore so he would return to the castle.

"Mr. Potter isn't with you?" The headmaster asked.

Hermione shook her head. "He's still down there. There was only enough potion left for one person to go on..."

It looked like he knew what that meant and he didn't wait around to ask any more questions. The elderly wizard rushed off toward the third floor corridor with Snape following right behind. McGonagall took over escorting them to the hospital wing. They were lectured about their poor behavior and lack of judgment the whole way. But surprisingly, she didn't take any house points away. Not yet, at least. She was probably too worried about the health of one of her students to think about it.

When they finally got to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey took one look at Ron and declared that he had a concussion. She confined him to bed rest and gave him a potion to help him sleep. Constance and Hermione didn't have any injuries aside from a few scrapes and bruises, but they still had to sit through being examined and having them bandaged up.

"Do you think Harry will be alright?" Hermione asked when the medi-witch finally left them to check on Ron.

Constance looked worried. "I really hope so. There's no telling what else was left..."

She was interrupted by the curtain separating the two girls from the rest of the room being violently drawn open. Connie found herself facing a set of extremely green, very upset looking eyes.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" her cousin hissed.

Hermione gasped loudly at his sudden appearance and Constance had to clamp a hand over her mouth. "Be quiet." she whispered, then looked at Mihnea. "How did you get in here? It's after hours!"

"That didn't stop you, did it?" he questioned, still looking pissed. "A cerberus, Devil's Snare, and wizard's chess, Connie? Do you know how many different ways you could have been killed!"

Hermione's eyes went wide and she pushed Connie's hand away from her mouth. "How did you know about all that?"

"Because I know everything." Mihnea snapped, giving her only a momentary glance before turning all his anger back onto Constance. "God damn it, you know if something happens to you, I'd be skinned alive for it. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it was very sudden and there was no reason to tell you about it." the girl said quietly, trying not to draw attention to the fact he was there. "Nothing bad happened..."

"Why is Weasley laid up in bed looking half dead then?" he demanded. "And I suppose Snape and Dumbledore are dragging Potter's unconscious arse up here because he decided to take a nap?"

Both of the girls stared at him in horror. Harry was unconscious? What on earth happened to him? They were about to ask when the sound of the hospital wing's doors opening made Mihnea quickly step back behind a section of fabric covering the back wall so he wouldn't be seen. Connie pushed open the front curtain so they could see what was happening. Sure enough, Snape and Dumbledore were carrying Harry between them as they brought him to a bed for Madam Pomfrey to examine. The boy looked awful. His face was pale, and he had cuts and scrapes from some kind of fight. When the headmaster caught them peering out, he gave them a reassuring look.

"I believe Mr. Potter will be perfectly fine once he wakes up." he told them. He shot a glance over their shoulders then cleared his throat. "Thank you for your assistance, Severus. Perhaps it would be best for you and Minerva to oversee cleanup upstairs."

Snape looked like he thought something was odd about the sudden request, but he didn't make any comment about it. He and McGonagall nodded and left to go do whatever 'cleanup' the headmaster was talking about. Once they were gone, Dumbledore looked pointedly over the girl's shoulders again.

"I am going to check on Mr Weasley." he said, as if he were speaking to them. "In the meantime, I believe it would be advisable for anyone else who may be present to find their way back to their dormitory before they are seen."

With that, he turned his back and Mihnea ducked out from behind the curtain to make sure he wasn't looking.

"You're sure you're alright?" he whispered to Connie.

"I'm fine." she replied just as quietly. "You need to go back before you're spotted."

He nodded. "Please don't scare me like that again." he told her, then quickly stepped past Dumbledore and rushed out before anyone had the chance to turn around and see he had been there.

Hermione blinked at the door. "How on earth does he do that?" she asked. "I've never seen anyone move so fast without making any sound..."

Constance shrugged. "He's always been that way. I think he's just light-footed."

They both grew quiet when the headmaster walked over to them.

"You both are very lucky to have come out of this with only a few scrapes and bumps." he commented, then smiled knowingly. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley were fortunate to have you watching out for them. I imagine it could have been much worse if you hadn't been there."

They nodded in thanks. Neither of them was really sure what to say after everyone knew they had been out doing some serious rule breaking. Dumbledore smiled again, then pulled something very small from the pocket of his robes. He cast a spell to make it large again, and Connie saw it was her violin.

"I believe this is yours, Miss Stryker." he said, holding it out to her. "I found it tangled up in the Devil's Snare. It would be a shame to lose such a lovely instrument."

Constance took it carefully. When she'd lost track of it while caught up in the plant, she thought she might not ever get it back. Now she didn't have to worry about explaining to her parents why she suddenly didn't have her new and very expensive violin.

"Thank you, sir." she said, truly grateful. "And... thank you for not getting Mihnea in trouble. I know he wasn't supposed to be in here after hours..."

The headmaster cocked his head to the side. "Why, I have no idea what you're talking about, Miss Stryker. I haven't seen anyone here other than yourselves."

Ah, so that was the way of it, Connie thought. There were times when Dumbledore acted so strange that it seemed he might not be completely together. But it was at times like this when she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he knew a lot more than anyone would ever expect. Perhaps that was why he was so eccentric in the first place. Knowing things could do that to a person.

A.N: I am totally not Twilight bashing. That was all Mihnea right there, not me. ~quickly runs away~

P.S. I think Mihnea's gun spirit likes being over dramatic to scare people into paying attention to her. I didn't intend for her to come out that way, but Belladonna took over and did her own thing. Those pesky spirits tend to do things like that. I hope Connie's spirit isn't as overbearing and pushy as Mihnea's is. O_o