I don't own Hellsing or Harry Potter, and I'm not making any money from this.
Constance noticed that Mihnea was acting weird again. He didn't come down to meals and he had practically moved up to the Astronomy Tower. Every hour he wasn't sleeping, he stared out at the night sky, taking notes and drawing out his star maps. For the time being, she left him alone. But if this went on for much longer, she was going to start worrying. The one thing she did bother him about was coming to the Christmas feast. If she couldn't be home, she at least wanted one member of her family around to share it with. She went up to the Astronomy Tower the night before to ask him to come. Her cousin didn't look particularly happy about it, but he agreed.
The afternoon of the feast, everyone was excited. It wasn't just about the special Christmas dishes that would be served, but the promise of gifts delivered from home to be opened as they ate. Hermione said she had to finish something up in the library before joining the festivities, so Connie, Ginny and all the boys went down the Great Hall without her. It was surprisingly entertaining. All the teachers took up the far end of the table and Dumbledore had all of them popping crackers. There was nothing funnier than watching Snape be forced to pull something open that showered him with confetti and glitter. Confetti was pesky enough to clean up on it's own, but the glitter... he'd probably have traces of that in his hair for weeks.
The level of excitement grew when the owls came in to deliver packages. Several of them were so large that groups of the birds had to work together to carry them. Constance noticed Archimedes leading a whole flock of owls charged with delivering a particularly large box. If it came from home, then their parents would have put hers and Mihnea's presents in the same package for simplicity's sake.
"Another sweater?" Ron moaned upon opening his present. "You'd think mom would know we have enough of them already!"
Connie thought the Weasley's hand-knitted sweaters were quite charming. They had a personal touch you just couldn't get with something bought from a store. Harry's Aunt and Uncle didn't bother sending him anything, but he got a sweater from Mrs. Weasley as well. It seemed that the woman liked the boy enough that she did the same for him as she would do for her own sons. Ginny's box contained a simple, yet lovely looking dress. She wouldn't be able to wear it until it warmed up a bit of course, but she fawned over it like it was the most wonderful thing in the world.
She noticed that their brother Percy was sitting with the Prefects rather than with them. That was a bit odd, considering the holiday they were celebrating.
"Percy isn't coming over here?" she asked.
All of the Weasley's made identical faces of dislike.
"He thinks he's better than us for some reason." Fred reported. He made a 'quotes' gesture with his fingers. "Perfect prefect Percy has to sit with the important people instead of bothering with his ordinary family."
"He got offered an internship with the Ministry and has been acting stuck up ever since." Ron piped up. "Dad says to leave him alone and he'll get over it eventually."
Wow... Connie thought. She'd never thought about one of their siblings acting like such a prat. The twins pushed their own sweaters to the side and studied the large box that had been dropped in front of her.
"What did you get then?" George asked.
Constance blinked and turned her attention back to her present. She had to fight with the tape to get the damn thing open. They sealed the box shut like they intended for no one to ever get into it. She finally resorted to cutting through it with a dinner knife, then pulled the flaps open. She stared at what lay inside.
"Sweet holy Jesus, I've never seen one that big in person before..." she whispered, more to herself than the others.
Harry's brows furrowed. "What is it?"
Connie reached into the box to carefully remove her gift. It was a sizable cauldron plated with pure silver. The cauldrons all the students used in class were standard pewter. This was something that would be used to brew special, more highly advanced potions that required the influence of a specific metal. All of her friends eyes went wide.
"Bloody hell, Connie, is that silver?" Ron questioned.
Both of the twins whistled. "It's huge." they said together, then exchanged a glance between themselves.. "Looks expensive."
She shot both of them a look. They knew she didn't like anyone making a big deal out of her family having money. Attached to the cauldron's handle was a small note. It looked like Aunt Syn's handwriting.
The potion used to cure people who have been petrified requires a silver cauldron for brewing. I imagine you'll find a way to use it. And it will be seeing a lot of use when you get home as well. Hugs and Kisses.
Connie hadn't known that a silver cauldron had to be used for that particular potion. It would indeed be a handy thing to have. Inside the box, there were a few other things addressed to her. A few novels she'd indicated she had an interest in reading, and a large tome on calculus and trigonometry from her dad. He was never going to give up on that, was he? At least he finally caved in and sent a calculator for her to use. It would be extremely difficult to do those sorts of problems without one. The rest of the presents in the box were for Mihnea, so she left them alone. After pulling out all of her things and pushing the package to the side, the others started rifling through them to see what they were. Ginny seemed to be having fun pressing all the buttons on her calculator to see what they did.
"The Picture of Dorian Gray?" George asked, reading off the title of one of the books. "What is that?"
"Oh my God, you got The Picture of Dorian Gray!"
It was Hermione's voice. Apparently, she had finished whatever she was doing and had finally come down. She rushed over to join them at the table and stared at the book like it was an object to be worshiped. George quirked a brow at the intensity of her reaction to it. He passed it over and Hermione took it carefully, lovingly running her fingers over the hard cover.
"It's a first edition too!" she went on, gushing over it. She looked at Connie pleadingly. "Oh... can I read it when you're finished? I promise I wont let anything happen to it."
"Of course." she replied. She gestured to the rest of the books she had stacked up. "If there's anything else you want to read, have at it."
The bushy haired girl looked absolutely delighted at the offer and immediately began searching through them to see what she was going to borrow. As Hermione was wrapped up in indulging the bibliophile side of herself, Connie took the opportunity to look around. Mihnea hadn't arrived yet. He promised her he would at least show up. If he didn't, she was going to be upset with him. Just as she was running through all the possible ways she could lecture him about his absence, she caught sight of him coming in from a side door behind her. She paused to study the sight he presented.
Her cousin looked awful. Like he'd just rolled out of bed and hadn't bothered to worry about his appearance. He was still wearing his black pajama bottoms and it looked like he threw on a loose red sweater as an afterthought. His shoulder length hair was wild and messy, and his eyes... When he got a bit closer, Connie could see there were dark circles around his eyes, and the rims of them were red. It looked like he hadn't slept in days. She hadn't seen that when she searched him out the night before. It had been too dark to make out small details like that. What the hell was wrong with him to make him look that way?
Everyone went silent as he walked up behind Constance. Mihnea didn't pay them any attention.
"I'm here." he said in an voice smothered with exhaustion. "Are you happy now?"
Constance couldn't do much more than stare up at him. "Are... you okay?"
His emerald eyes narrowed, making him look like he was about to go off on her for asking a stupid question. "I'm fine." he told her. He glanced at the box she had pushed out of the way. "Is that from home?"
She shook her head to clear it of all the questions she wanted to ask, but couldn't around all of her friends. "Yes." she replied. "I got all of my presents out of it. Everything else is yours."
Without saying another word, he leaned over to pick it up. Harry and the twins, who were sitting nearby, all scooted over to get out of his way. As he moved to take the box with him further down the table, Hermione cleared her throat.
"Um... Mihnea?" she questioned, sounding a bit nervous. "I never got to thank you. For what you did the other day."
The boy paused mid-step, but didn't turn around. After a long stretch of silence that bordered on being awkward, he turned his head slightly.
"You're welcome." he said in an emotionless voice, then returned to his march down the table.
Every single one of them stared at his back as he left.
"Bassarab looks rough." George commented, still watching him as he dropped the box nearly ten feet away from them.
Yes, he did, Connie thought. And it was worrisome with the way he'd been acting the past few days. She put her hands on the table to push herself up.
"Excuse me for a minute." she said, then headed down to see if she could talk to him.
Mihnea didn't raise his head to look at her when she sat down next to him. He was too occupied with rifling through his presents in the box. It looked like he was searching for something specific.
"Mihnea, what's wrong?" she prodded.
Her comment didn't get much of a reaction. Mihnea found what he was looking for. A small bottle filled with some type of fluid. Even with the tinted bottle, she could tell it was too light to be blood.
"I told you, I'm fine." he said, sticking the bottle in his pocket. He didn't look particularly concerned with the other presents.
This was infuriating. She was trying to figure out what was wrong so she could help if she could, and he wasn't even going to admit something was going on.
"Damn it, Mihnea!" she snapped. "You are not fine. You look like death warmed over. Now what is wrong with you?"
He finally glanced up at her, and the look in his eyes was a warning not to push him too far.
"I haven't slept in six days, Connie." he said in a low voice. "I feel like shit and I do not want to be here right now."
She blinked at him. He wasn't sleeping? She couldn't think of any reason he would be having problems with that, unless...
The girl leaned forward. "Are you having nightmares again?" she asked quietly.
Mihnea glared at her. "I don't want to talk about it."
That was pretty much a resounding 'yes'. It was no wonder he couldn't sleep. He'd had nightmares a lot more often when he was younger, and he always looked terrible afterwards. She cleared her throat.
"Maybe you could ask Snape for help?" she suggested. "I'm sure he would have something..."
"I did." he said harshly. "It's not working. Mom's potions are the only ones that do anything."
That must have been what he was looking for. Hopefully, if he started taking something Aunt Syn had made, then he would get over it in a day or two. But something needed to be done now to make him feel a little better.
"You should eat something." she decided. "You could come down and sit with us..."
"I am not sitting anywhere near Granger or the Weasley girl." he replied, giving her a serious look. "They smell like blood, and I can not handle that right now."
Now, that was just confusing. "How on earth could they smell like blood? There's nothing wrong with either of them."
He gave her another of those 'you just said something really dumb' looks. "They're girls, Connie."
She frowned. "What does that have to do with anythi..." she went still, realizing what he meant. "Oh. Oh."
Jesus, was that why Alucard told him to drink blood more often? Because the smell of a girl's period made him hungry? Constance couldn't help it. That was the most disgusting thing she could imagine. Eww...
Mihnea's eyes became hard as he took in her change of expression. "Just go away, Connie. Go sit with your little boyfriend and all your buddies and leave me alone."
Connie gaped at him. Okay, she could understand being a little moody because of a lack of sleep, but there was no reason to get snippy about her friends. He had no business going and acting like a complete ass when she was trying to help him. Her eyes narrowed.
"You know what your problem is?" she asked, feeling her ire grow. "You're jealous that I actually have friends and you don't. It's not my problem if you are too scared of people finding out that you're a monster to let anyone get close to you."
Mihnea's face went completely blank. There was no expression at all, not even in his eyes. Then his mouth pressed into a thin, strained line and his eyes flashed with anger. It was then that she realized the weight of what she had said.
"That's what you think, is it?" he asked, then abruptly stood up and walked away.
Oh God, she'd made a huge mistake and had royally pissed him off. Constance had practically called him a monster. Her cousin was going to hate her now. She got up from the table as well to follow after him.
"Mihnea, wait!" she called out, hoping she could stop him so she could apologize. "I didn't mean it!"
She got close enough to grab the sleeve of his sweater, but he violently jerked his arm away. He whirled around and gave her the most terrifying, hateful look she'd ever seen. The edges of his green eyes started to shift to a deep, crimson red. A distinctly inhuman sound rumbled in the back of his throat – the growl of an angry animal. When his lips parted to speak, a hint of fang showed.
"Fuck you." he spat, then turned and marched out.
Ohhh, he was extremely upset and it was all her fault. Why had she gone and said something she knew he was sensitive about? Constance didn't know what to do. She just stood there and watched as he disappeared through the doorway.
What had she just done?
A.N: So, as I was working on editing this chapter, I discovered that a two foot long garter snake has decided to move into my house. Not just in any part of the house either. This thing has moved into MY BEDROOM. And it's too damn fast for me to catch so I can take its little snake butt back outside. My parents think it might have crawled up through the pipes and came out of the toilet.
Just think about that for a minute. And then add to that thought that it could have been something poisonous like a water moccasin. ~shiver~ I think this is a sign I might need to move.