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

Target practice was one of the things that both Mihnea and Constance used to blow off steam. There was nothing better for anger management than to mentally tack the face of a person you despised onto a target, then shoot it to pieces. Skeet shooting was even better. With that, you could actually aim at something that moved, imagining it was someone running (or flying, in this case) away from you. Neither of them had any clays, but things like that could be improvised. With a student body filled with young people who were known for being a bit careless, it wasn't unusual for dishware to get broken or chipped. The house elves who worked in the kitchens would only use pristine plates and cups to serve their food. It was easy to obtain rejects from them. The servile creatures were always happy to be rid of it and if you were polite, the house elves would do just about anything you wanted, no matter how odd or out of place it might seem to others.

"Pull!" Constance called out.

Mihnea pulled a large dinner plate out of the box they'd brought along with them and tossed it high into the air. His cousin took aim with her pistol and fired. The plate exploded into pieces. She was getting a lot better about hitting things at a distance. Of course, they had come out into the Forbidden Forest right after classes, so there was plenty of light for her to see by. The moment the first piece of dinner ware was destroyed, she called out for another. This time, he selected a smaller sized ceramic bowl. Connie made a direct hit on that one too. He let out a low whistle.

"Nice shot." he commented, then glanced at her sideways. "What's got you in such a tizzy?"

The girl huffed and shoved her long, light brown hair back behind her ears. "My Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a lunatic and my best friend is madly in love with him." she spat. "What kind of idiot sets loose a massive herd of pissed off pixies, then runs away?"

"Oh... So you got the pixie lesson?" Mihnea questioned. "Malfoy complained about that for a week."

Constance whirled around to face him. "Draco wasn't even in the room! The little coward screamed and ran away the moment they were let out!"

He didn't doubt that for a second, but it was still highly amusing to hear the young Slytherin tell his side of the story. Malfoy apparently didn't realize that spinning tales of murderous, bloody thirsty pixies trying to kill him made him sound like a weasel afraid of his own shadow.

"At least it's interesting." he said as he fished another plate out of the box. "Even if the classes are terrible."

He threw it up and to the left to give her a more challenging target to aim for. She'd have to turn and locate it first. Constance hit it, but only with a glancing shot. Most of the plate survived.

"What does Lockhart have you doing?" she asked.

The boy gave her a look. "He brought in a crate of garden gnomes."

Connie paused in the middle of changing out the clip in her gun. "Garden gnomes? Those ceramic statues people put in their yards?"

"No, these things are ugly little buggers that burrow under the ground like moles. They like to pop up and chew on people's ankles." Mihnea paused. "I don't think he meant to let them out, but he tripped over the crate and broke it open."

Connie stared at him. "What happened?"

"Lockhart screamed like a little girl and jumped up on his desk like he'd seen a mouse." he replied.

It had been funny as hell too. The man had danced around on top of his desk, kicking at the creatures as if they were going to pull him down and eat him alive. The boy threw up a smaller cup and shot it down himself.

"We had to use candlesticks and books to beat them unconscious." he went on. "The Weasley twins had Quiddich practice after class, so I wound up taking one of their bats to knock the little bastards out the window. I'm pretty sure they landed in the Black Lake. The giant squid probably ate them."

The girl's eyes widened. "You broke a window?"

She was more worried about a window getting broken than the idea of gnomes being devoured by a huge creature living in the lake. Mihnea shrugged. "I fixed it." he told her.

Constance seemed satisfied with his response and went back to her shooting. She always acted like that with him. No matter how much trouble she got into with him or by herself, if he did something on his own, she just had to make sure he took care of it so he wouldn't get in trouble. And their parents told him to keep an eye on her. She usually thought it was her job to babysit him. Bossy and controlling to the end.

They shot at their collection of dishware until there was nothing left. Since a mess of shattered plates and bowls laying in the forest was bound to catch someone's attention, they used magic to summon the pieces back into the box. It was done with concentration and a wave of the hand. They hardly ever used their wands outside of class. Those were mostly for show to prevent raising suspicion. The two of them didn't need wands to make their magic work.

"I think that's everything..." Connie said, examining the forest floor to be sure. "Should we get up the dust too?"

"I wouldn't worry about it." Mihnea replied. "It'll get mixed in with the dirt and no one will notice."

There was barely enough dust to draw attention anyway. Any that could be seen would be stirred up by the animals that lived there. Speaking of animals... He paused, noticing something on his right.

"What the hell...?"

His cousin blinked at him in confusion, then looked down to see what he was staring at. The moment she saw it, she quickly stepped back to get out of the way. There were hundreds of spiders of various sizes marching through the forest in straight, neat lines. Arachnids didn't behave that way. They sometimes formed nests, but various species didn't interact like that.

"What on earth?" she questioned. "That's... not normal, is it?"

Mihnea shook his head, keeping an eye on them. When he reached out mentally to see if he could control them, he found that they resisted. The ones he focused on would stop and do what he commanded, but they weren't the least bit happy about it. The moment he let go, they fell back into line and scuttled away. There was definitely something weird going on.

"They're running away from something." he decided. There was no other explanation for it. The only reason an animal would resist manipulation was if their fear of something else outweighed the one controlling them.

It looked like they were marching away from various places around the castle. Since they were heading in that direction anyway, Constance and Mihnea decided to trace their path backwards. He thought it was best to get out of the forest as quickly as possible. If the small spiders were reacting to something, then the bigger ones would too. With the way the tiny ones resisted him, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to protect Connie from a bunch of colossal spiders. When they exited the forest, they found that the first trail was coming from Hagrid's hut. The groundskeeper was off trying to get rid of flesh eating slugs that had infested one of the greenhouses. Mihnea picked up the scent of blood. Animal blood that smelled like it had been sitting out for a while. He held out an arm to stop Connie before they got too close. He'd never been in or around Hagrid's hut, but his cousin had.

"You've been down here before. What kind of animals does he keep around his house?" he asked her.

She paused, thinking. "Um... there's no telling what sorts of things he keeps hidden in there. But I know he has a dog..."

It definitely wasn't a dog. He knew what that smelled like. Blood was a funny thing. Ordinary humans couldn't pick up on it, but every creature's blood had a different scent. The only thing was that if he'd never encountered it before, it was hard to tell exactly what it was. There was only a vague idea of what it could be. This smelled like...

"Does he keep any birds?"

She gave a start. "Yes!" she replied, as if just remembering that. "There are chicken coops." she paused again. "Why? Do you smell something?"

He took a couple of steps forward and paid closer attention. It was more than just blood. There was the subtle stink of death as well. Not rot or decay, but something freshly killed. Less than an hour or so. And whatever had done it smelled... weird. Like nothing he'd ever been around before. He had absolutely no clue what was was, and that was worrisome.

"Something's killed them." he told her.

She gasped. "Are you sure?"

He gave her a look. "Yes, Constance, I'm sure."

It seemed that sometimes she forgot that he could pick up on things she couldn't. Questions like that were just stupid. She returned his look with a sharp one of her own, then glanced back at the hut.

"Maybe it was a fox?" she offered. "There has to be some of them in the forest..."

"It wasn't a fox." he interrupted. "I have no idea what it was, but the smell is everywhere. It was... big."

That was weird too. It was difficult to imagine something large being able to sneak around and kill things without being caught. Maybe this mysterious creature was what the spiders were running away from.

The other trails of arachnids were coming from Hogwarts castle itself. They came out of windows and open places, crawling down the walls to get to the ground and escape to the forest. The closer they got, the more of them they saw.

"Should we be worried?" Constance whispered.

"I don't know." he replied, giving her an honest answer. There was a possibility that this thing was only going after animals. But after what happened last year, he didn't want to make any assumptions. "I say we wait it out and see what happens. If it keeps going on, then I'll start worrying."

That was about all they could do. Without knowing what the hell was going on, there was no way to take action. Mihnea decided to keep a closer eye on things to see if he noticed anything else that was out of place.

Harry and Ron's detentions for the rest of term were served separately. It seemed that McGonagall thought if they weren't together, they were less likely to get into things they shouldn't. This meant that every time the boys came back to the common room, they got into competitions of who's detention was worse.

"McGonagall has me filing old test papers." Ron complained. "There's got to be a million of them!"

Constance and Hermione exchanged a look. "There's no way there's a million of them." Granger commented.

"You haven't seen the stacks!" the ginger headed boy went on. "They go back fifteen years! Do you know how many students have been through Hogwarts in fifteen years?"

Okay, maybe he had a point, Connie thought. There were thousands of students who had come and gone through the school in that amount of time, and several tests were taken in every class each year. That meant... wow. There was no possible way to get through that much material while working for an hour each night. He could work on it for years and not get it done.

Harry made a face. "At least you don't have to sit in a room with Lockhart all night. He has me answering his fan mail and signing pictures of him."

Ugh. That might just beat out Ron's detention for pure awfulness. From what the boy reported, Lockhart had a set of quills spelled to make everything written with them look like his handwriting. Harry usually wound up signing their professor's name on photographs of himself to be sent back with his responses. That was kind of pathetic. The man couldn't even be bothered to put his own signatures on things. Surprisingly, Hermione didn't make any comments in Lockhart's defense. After enduring several weeks of his classes, her adoration of him was shaken. She still stared and sighed when he walked past, but she would now admit that he wasn't as on top of things as he lead people to believe.

For as terrible as Ron made his detentions sound, McGonagall at least let him out on time. He always got down to the Great Hall for supper. Harry though, usually wound up staying in Lockhart's office for hours on end. The three of them normally had to set some food aside from the meal and take it up to the common room so he would have something to eat. When Harry didn't show up for supper that night, it wasn't terribly unusual.

"This is getting ridiculous." Connie commented as she moved her food around with her fork. "I mean, if he has to serve an hour every day, then hasn't he built up a surplus by now?"

"I don't think it works that way." Hermione replied. "But he should at least let him out to eat." she consulted her wristwatch. "He's been in detention for nearly four hours."

Constance had no idea how Harry managed. If it were her, she'd have shot herself in the head after four hours with that man.

"Do you think we should go get him?" she asked.

Ron paused, having just taken a bite of a dinner roll. "Break him out of detention?" he asked with his mouth full. "You really think we could get away with that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Lockhart is an idiot. If we went in there and said that one of the other teachers needed Harry for something, then maybe he'll realize what time it is and let him go."

Hermione turned toward her. "You know if he finds out we lied to him, we'll all get in trouble."

"Oh please. Since when does Lockhart ever check anything?" Constance asked.

It was the God's honest truth. The man never went back to check on the truthfulness of anything the students told him. As a matter of fact, several people had already found a way out of attending his class by telling him that another teacher needed them to 'do something important' for them. Lockhart was just stupid enough to take them at their word. The three of them finished up their meal, packed up the food they'd saved for Harry, then set off to rescue him.

It turned out that he had been released from detention just as they were coming to get him. They ran into him in one of the hallways. However, Harry didn't look at all relieved to be out. Rather, he looked... disturbed. Like he'd noticed something terrible that no one else did.

He shook his head when he saw them. "Do you hear that?"

The three of them immediately stopped and looked at each other. "Hear what?" Ron asked him.

"That voice." he told them. He kept his eyes fixed on the wall and started walking forward, his hand pressed to it like he were following something. "It's in the wall. I think it's going to kill someone!"

Constance thought that maybe being locked up in Lockhart's office for so long had finally made him go loopy. Hearing voices was never a good sign. Harry pushed past them and broke into a full run.

"Harry!" Hermione called out. "Harry, wait!"

But he made no move to stop or slow down. They all had to run to catch up with him. Finally, Harry skidded to a halt. It was so sudden, they almost ran right over him.

"Why is there water all over the floor?" he asked.

They all looked down. The floor of the hallway was flooded with water. Reflected on it's surface were red tinted words. When they glanced up to see what was casting the reflection, Ron stepped back, and Hermione gasped.

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware.

"It's... it's written in blood..." Hermione whispered.

Connie's first thought was to wonder if it had something to do with the slaughtered chickens at Hagrid's hut. If anyone around the castle had been killed, everyone would know about it. But an animal... it was relatively easy to get blood from an animal without too many people noticing. Something attached to the wall caught her attention and she glanced sideways at it.

"Oh God." she said, then pulled at the arm of Harry's robe. "It's Mrs. Norris."

Filch's cat was strung up by the tail. It seriously looked like she was dead and suffering from a severe case of rigor mortis. They heard the sound of footsteps closing in on them. The rest of the student body was released from supper and were heading to their dormitories for the night. It looked bad for them to be the only ones there. But surely... surely Dumbledore would know that they hadn't done this.

Oh, it was awful. Once the students showed up and saw it, several of them freaked out. It was to be expected after seeing the shocking sight of blood smeared across a wall. Then the teachers showed up to see what was going on. They looked just as shocked as everyone else. Filch took one look at his cat and blamed Harry for it. Why he had to focus on just him, she didn't know. Dumbledore assured him that Mrs. Norris wasn't dead, but petrified, and could be brought back once the mandrakes were ready for harvesting. He then sent all of the students back to their dormitories, except for the four of them. They had to explain what they had been doing there and why they weren't at supper. Lockhart actually proved useful for once. He provided an alibi for Harry. Finally, they were allowed to return to their dormitory with the rest of the students. Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked ahead, while Constance followed behind. As they rounded a corner, someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

She was fully prepared to knock someone's lights out and escape, but stopped herself when she saw who it was.

"Jesus, Mihnea!" she exclaimed. "You need to stop doing that! One of these days, I'm going to wind up hurting you by accident!"

"You couldn't seriously hurt me even if you wanted to." he replied. "You're too slow." he glanced back toward the hall where the blood message was, then gave her a look of absolute seriousness. "Do you remember what I said before about waiting this out?"

She nodded.

"Forget I said it. I think we should start worrying now."