I don't own Hellsing or Harry Potter, and I'm not making any money from this.
The remainder of summer was spent learning the methods for fending off dementors that Connie's dad and aunt Syn had come up with. Mihnea had already figured out how to summon his familiar, so the majority of their attention was focused on her while Alucard's lessons with her cousin centered around controlling and manipulating his familiar. Apparently, there were ways to make it smaller or larger depending on the circumstances. Constance couldn't imagine why Mihnea would ever need to make the thing bigger. A dragon was sizable enough on it's own without being forced to grow.
Her defense against the dementors would be a protective energy circle. It was a shield of living magical energy that surrounded the caster and formed a solid sphere around them, which would protect them on all sides. She gathered from her lessons that the shield held in all the emotions of the person or people within. Since dementors were blind and tracked their victims by the emotions they gave off, it would make her invisible to them.
"How is this supposed to help me fight them though?" she questioned during her final lesson on the subject. Constance would be going off to school tomorrow, and she still hadn't learned anything that could be used offensively.
"Don't get ahead of yourself." Her father said, giving her a serious look. "You aren't going to be fighting them. These circles are strictly for defense. They won't be able to sense your presence and they won't be able to cross it's boundaries." he told her. "It's not going to be easy for you to cast one with a dementor nearby. You'll need to block out your surroundings so you can focus."
Connie slumped a bit and nodded to show she understood. "Yes, sir." she said.
If dementors were as bad as she'd heard, then they were going to be a hell of a distraction. While she didn't like the idea of leaving them free to move about and do what they wished, maybe it was the best that she didn't try to fight them herself. They sounded right awful, and she hadn't heard of any specific way to kill one. Maybe they could only die naturally or something. That was an unnerving thought.
Edmund shut the large tome he had out on the table and pushed his chair back. "I think that's enough for tonight." he announced. "You need to get some sleep before leaving for school."
The girl blinked. They'd been up all night working on as much as they could before she had to go. It was nearly 3:30 in the morning. He wanted her to go to sleep now?
"I can sleep on the train." she said.
Her dad chuckled. "I know you can." he replied. "But you need to get a few hours of sleep in a bed. Train cars aren't very comfortable. You could sleep in one all day and not get any rest." he shot a passing glance back down at the books he'd been having her read from. "I think you're as prepared as you're going to be. Practice when you can and you'll be fine. Now go to bed."
She sighed at his shooing motion and got up from the table herself. "Yes, daddy."
Constance had managed to construct several large energy circles on her own many times. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could do it. But putting it into practice in a real world setting was going to be more challenging. If she wound up having to make a protective circle not long after arriving at school, she was going to need some rest so she'd have enough concentration for it.
Though she had gone to bed the moment she'd been told to, there wasn't much sleep to be had. Connie's brain was too full of thoughts and musings to allow it. The excitement of returning to school with the worry about an escaped criminal and the new responsibility of being a sort of 'spy' for her family kept the girl awake for several hours. Needless to say, when Rebecca came in to wake her up at 9:00, she wasn't the least bit happy about it. Only a few hours of sleep left her more exhausted than when she first went to bed. She rolled over and pulled her pillow over her head.
"Ten more minutes." she muttered.
She didn't have to look at her governess to know the woman probably had her hands on her hips and a deep frown on her face. "Absolutely not, Miss Hellsing." she said firmly. "You're going to get up right this instant. Have you even packed your trunk yet?"
Constance's eyes snapped open. No, she hadn't packed her truck yet. She intended to do it before going to bed last night, but forgot about it after her lesson. She bolted upright in bed, throwing off the covers as she went.
"I'm awake!" she exclaimed, then rolled out onto the floor and scuttled toward her trunk.
Rebecca sniffed. "That's what I thought. Do you need help with anything?"
"I think I've got everything..." the girl replied, looking around. Most of the things she needed for school were already laid out on and around her dresser. She'd just have to put them into her luggage. "Thank you, though."
The dark haired woman nodded. "Alright then. Hurry up with your packing, then come downstairs for some breakfast before you leave."
Rebecca pulled the door shut behind her and left Connie to her work. It honestly didn't take too long to toss all of her things into her trunk. The one thing she had to search for was her copy of Introductory Geomancy. She'd been glancing over the contents of the new textbook when she had free time. After a bit of a search, she found the tome laying just under the edge of her bed. She pulled it out and placed it into her trunk with the rest of the books and snapped it shut. The large piece of luggage was dragged off the bed and she grabbed Archimedes cage before heading out of her room to go downstairs.
She arrived at the kitchen for breakfast at precisely 9:27. Her adrenaline rush from waking up was beginning to fade by that point and it showed. The plate of toast and marmalade jam sitting in front of her was hardly touched.
"What time did you go to bed?" Her mother asked studying her with a frown.
Constance lifted her head from the table where she'd been resting it and attempted to blink the tiredness out of her eyes. "About four this morning..."
Integra's good eye narrowed. "Damn it, I told Edmund about keeping you up late." she said, sounding miffed.
Connie held up a hand to stifle a yawn. "I asked him to do some last minute stuff with me." she told her in a scratchy sounding voice. "And I can sleep on the train. We wont get to the school until late this afternoon."
The knight still didn't look happy about it, but finally relented. She pointed to the plate sitting in front of the girl. "Eat your breakfast, Constance. It'll be the last decent thing you have before supper, and I'm not going to have you starving yourself."
The girl had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes up to the ceiling. Was that some kind of parent thing? She had never once done something to give the impression she starved herself and yet, if she ever ate less than usual or skipped a meal, that was the first thing that came out of their mouths. She took a couple of bites of her toast to satisfy her.
When Mihnea came down with his trunk, he was shockingly chipper. It probably had something to do with him going out on a mission last night. Connie heard he had beheaded a vampire with that dragon of his, then commanded the creature to eat the remains. Alucard had been impressed by the ferocity of the action. Trust her cousin, with the blood running through his veins, to be put into a good mood by killing something that way.
Constance managed to get down half of her piece of toast before it was time for them to leave. Despite her current state of being half asleep, she had enough presence of mind to double check that her permission slip for Hogsmeade had been signed. (Not that not having one would stop her from going after George showed her the secret passage that led to Honeydukes.) Jackson came to collect them, and her mother wished them both a good school year and gave them an additional warning to look after themselves with that escaped wizard on the loose.
The ride to King's Cross itself seemed much shorter than usual – which probably had something to do with her dozing during most of it. The second they arrived at the station and stepped out of the car, she found herself tripping over something. Mihnea swore up and down there was nothing there, but Constance point blank refused to believe she was tripping over her own feet. She wasn't that damn clumsy.
"Give me that thing before you hurt yourself." he said, pulling the handle of her trunk out of her hands. "You worry about Archimedes and I'll handle the luggage."
Oh fine, she thought. She may as well let him, since he obviously wasn't leaving any room for argument. He went through the barrier first, pulling both trollies along with him, while Constance followed behind. When they were on the other side, Mihnea turned to drag their trunks over to the luggage car to get them loaded up. As he was passing things off to the man inside, someone leapt out from behind the other side of the car and startled the hell out of Connie.
"George!" she exclaimed when she identified who it was. "What the hell are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack?"
The boy grinned and put an arm around her waist. "Well, you looked like you were about to fall out, so you needed a good scare." he replied, then looked her over. "What's up? You not sleep last night?"
"I was busy." she replied with a yawn. "I only slept two hours. When we get on the train, I intend to pass out and not wake up until we get there."
George clucked his tongue at her. "Oh, poor thing." he said teasingly, then looked over at her cousin who had just handed off her trunk to be put with the rest of the luggage. "Mihnea."
"George." he greeted with a nod. "You have a good summer?"
The boy next to her shrugged. "Not bad. Yours?"
"I had an excellent summer." Mihnea said with a wide grin, showing off his unusual bright mood.
It was a bit odd to watch the two of them being nice to each other and actually using their proper names rather than 'Bassarab' and 'Weasley'. Constance knew they had come to some sort of agreement during their meeting at Diagon Alley to get supplies, but it was still going to take some getting used to. Mihnea didn't even say a word about George having his arm around her. The two boys engaged in idle chit chat until the whistle sounded to signal the students they needed to finish boarding. It was when they separated to head to their respective cars that George leaned down to whisper to her.
"That was kind of scary." he commented. "What's got him in such a merry mood today?"
Constance shrugged lightly. "He got to go hunting last night."
George froze mid-step. "Hunting?" he asked, then peered around to make sure no one was paying attention to their conversation. His voice dropped lower. "Like... hunting, hunting?"
"Yes, hunting, hunting." she said with a sniff, confirming she wasn't talking about an 'animal hunt'.
He looked thoroughly impressed and fascinated by the idea. "Wow... I didn't know they would let you guys do that yet. Isn't it dangerous?"
As they were walking down the aisle, looking for the compartment that Fred had taken over, Constance couldn't help but quirk a brow. Did she actually just hear George Weasley question whether something was dangerous?
"Of course it's dangerous." she replied. "And I'm not allowed to go out yet. Mom says my aim needs to get better first."
And Constance had been working on that as much as possible. Her and Mihnea's target practice sessions in the Forbidden Forest were a huge help. Her parents said that if she kept making progress, she might be able to go out on a mission once this school year was over. She sincerely hoped so, because being left behind all the time was starting to get annoying.
The conversation had to be dropped once they found the sitting area Fred had holed up in. Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson were there as well, and it looked like the two boys were in the middle of some sort of wizarding gambling game. There were brightly colored tiles strewn across a small conjured table, seemingly at random, and stacks of galleons, sickles, and knuts sat to the side. Constance imagined Angelina was there to serve as Fred's good luck charm. She didn't know exactly what the deal was, but they seemed to have a... 'slightly more than friends, but not quite dating' thing going on between them. Fred was the sort that wouldn't be tied down to any one girl for long, and Angelina didn't seem to mind him flitting about. He always wound up coming back to her in the end. Poor Lee had a raging crush on her, but Fred beat him out for her attention every time. It was a credit to the strength of their friendship that the two boys didn't get into any real fights or arguments over it.
"I play the winner!" George announced as they entered the compartment.
Fred and Lee both looked up from the table.
"Oh, hey guys!" Jordan greeted. He shot a sideways look at Fred, then cleared his throat. "I'm getting pummeled here. You mind if I borrow your girlfriend?" he asked.
"Borrow me?" she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "What for?"
"For luck, of course!" he said smartly. He held out a pair of dice. "Just blow on these for me."
What was the deal with people who gambled being so superstitious? Some of the Wild Geese were like that when they played poker. It didn't particularly matter who the girl was, but they seemed to think that just having a female near them while playing the game gave them an edge. Constance rolled her eyes, but sat down next to him all the same. There was no point in begrudging him the small request.
"Fine." she said, then pointed at George. "But if he winds up playing you, I'm switching sides."
George grinned and took a seat in the corner next to the window to watch the game's progression. "I get first dibs, mate."
Lee made a face as if he didn't like it, but didn't argue. "Fair enough." he thrust the dice toward her again. "Give us some luck, then."
Obligingly, Constance blew on the dice, and Lee tossed them onto the board. It was an odd sort of game to watch. The whole point was to match up the colors, shapes, and numbers of the tiles by moving them around – though the rules for moving them were beyond her. Everything looked haphazard to her eyes. While she didn't know exactly how one was supposed to keep score, it seemed that Lee was so far behind Fred that he stood no chance of winning, even with her 'good luck'. The other Weasley twin wound up scraping all the money to his side of the table once the game was over.
"Ready to lose some money, Georgie?" he asked with a grin as he set up the board again.
George and Lee traded places so he could sit across from his brother. "You're the one who'll be losing, Freddie." he said, then extended his hand to take the dice.
Angelina and Constance looked at each other. The older girl shook her head, looking just as bemused by their behavior as Connie felt.
With Fred and George knowing each other well enough to anticipate each other's movements, the game went on for ages. Every move they made was carefully calculated and considered before doing anything. Constance could almost see the gears in George's mind turning. He knows I'll probably do this, but I know he knows it... but he knows that I know he knows it... but then, I know that he knows that I know he knows it, so... Of course, that was all in her own imagination, but it was entirely possible that was what was running through both of their minds. She watched the game as long as she could, but her exhaustion from lack of sleep the night before finally won her over. About halfway through their epic battle of tiles and dice, she fell asleep.
A.N: I have brothers that are about the same age as Fred and George would be at this point, and here's their perception of how dating works - ~ahem~ You go 'shopping' on facebook and pick out the top five hottest girls and starting talking to them. You actually 'go with' the hottest one first, then when you get bored with her, move on to the next. Once you've worked your way through the 'hottness chain', you start over and go 'shopping' again. That way, if a girl ever breaks up with you, you have a new one on your arm quickly. If you find two or more girls who are of equal hottness, you 'go with' both/all of them at the same time and take care that they don't find out about it.
I keep telling myself that they're just teenaged boys and haven't learned yet. I'm all about being open and accepting of different types of relationships, but I can't understand how anyone can be madly in love with someone one minute, then when they break up with you be perfectly fine and find a new person to be madly in love with five minutes later.
This new generation is beyond my level of comprehension. O_o I feel old.