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

"You dropped Astronomy for Geomancy?" Ron questioned as he read over Connie's schedule. "Why?"

"It sounded interesting." the girl replied as she pulled the parchment out of his fingers. "My dad wanted me to take Arithmancy and I already promised Hermione I would take Ancient Runes with her. I really wanted the class, so something had to go. The letter from McGonagall said she would approve dropping one primary class if your grades were high enough..."

"Yeah, but for Geomancy?" the ginger headed boy repeated, looking completely befuddled by the idea. "No one uses it anymore! Who needs to know anything about a bunch of rocks?"

Constance sighed. "It's the study of earth magic and the magical properties of rocks and crystals, Ron. And there are obviously still some people that use it, or there wouldn't be a class in it would there?" she said with a roll of her eyes. She sat forward and peered down the table. "You're taking it too, aren't you, Neville?"

Neville looked up from his breakfast and nodded. "Professor Sprout said with how I'm doing in Herbology, I might be good at it. My gran says I need to find something I can do..."

The poor boy had awful grades in every one of his classes except for Herbology. If he had a green thumb, then elemental earth magic would be right up his alley. It would be good for him to finally find his niche.

After the awful events that had taken place during their journey to school, everyone was looking forward to getting back into the normal routine of classes again. Of course, there was still a dark cloud that hung over them. At the start of term feast the night before, Dumbledore gave a formal announcement about the dementors of Azkaban guarding the school until Sirius Black was caught. They technically weren't supposed to come onto the grounds proper, but the threat of them was still enough to make everyone feel nervous.

Despite that, there were a few lighter pieces of information given out during the feast. The mysterious man who'd given out chocolate after their encounter with the dementors was indeed a new professor. Remus Lupin would be taking over the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Constance found herself actually looking forward to it this year. The man had demonstrated that he knew his stuff and after the last two teachers she'd been forced to endure, he would have to be a drastic improvement. To everyone's surprise, Hagrid would be serving as a teacher this year as well. Constance wasn't taking Care of Magical Creatures like many of the other students were, but if that man was in charge of lessons, then they were guaranteed to be interesting. Dangerous too, most likely. Hagrid was a wonderful, loveable person, but he did have a bad habit of misjudging how wild some of his most beloved creatures could be. Constance would have to wait until after classes to hear about it. Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't have Care of Magical Creatures until the block right after lunch. Speaking of Hermione's classes... Connie glanced sideways at her.

"What class did you wind up dropping?" she asked.

The girl blinked at her for a moment as if she didn't understand what she was talking about. "I didn't drop anything."

"How on earth are you taking all these classes, then?" Constance questioned, confused. "You're already in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes with me, so how are you able to take Care of Magical Creatures as well?"

Harry and Ron exchanged a look, seeming to notice the strangeness of it as well.

"You're supposed to be in Divination with me and Ron too." Harry said. "That's four new classes!"

Ron frowned. "Divination and Ancient Runes are held at the same time. There's no way you could take both unless you were in two places at once..."

Hermione sniffed at the pair of them. "Oh, honestly! How on earth can a person be in two places at once?" she asked. "I discussed everything with Professor McGonagall over the summer and she worked out a special schedule for me."

Special schedule? Constance wondered. Maybe they had come up with a way for her to work on the assignments like a correspondence course or something. She started to ask about it, but was interrupted before any words could come out of her mouth.

"Hey, Potter! Is it true?"

All four of them immediately stopped what they were doing and peered over at the Slytherin table. Malfoy was sitting there grinning like an idiot. What the hell did he want this early in the morning? Harry narrowed his eyes.

"Is what true?" he asked.

"What everyone is saying about what happened on the train." Draco replied. "You fainted, Potter? I mean, you actually fainted?"

On either side of him, Crabbe and Goyle put their hands to their foreheads to imitate feminine looking faints. The action sent all of the Slytherins sitting nearby into titters of amusement. Ron gave Draco a hateful glare and grabbed Harry's shoulder to pull him back around.

"Shove off, Malfoy." he spat.

Draco's expression changed to one of offense. "Not very friendly this morning are you, Weaselby?" he said harshly, deliberately botching his name. "It's not my fault your friend there faints like a girl at the smallest thing. What, does he scream when he sees someone wrapped in a bedsheet too?"

Harry and Ron both got so pissed they jumped up from the table, looking like they were going to beat Draco's sorry ass right there. Thankfully, someone stepped in to diffuse the fight before it got ugly.

"That's rich coming from a coward like you, Malfoy."

Constance looked over to see her cousin walking up with his bag of books hanging from his shoulder. Fred and George were only a few steps behind. It looked like they had all been heading to class, but stopped when they heard the altercation. Mihnea came to a halt just to the left of where Connie and the others were sitting. Draco stared at him, open-mouthed, then glared.

"Excuse me, Bassarab?" he questioned in a low tone.

Mihnea just quirked a brow. "You suddenly don't understand English? I said you're a coward. What were you doing when the dementors showed up?" he tapped his finger against his chin like he was thinking. "Oh, that's right. You were cowering under a table crying for your mommmy, weren't you? That leaves you loads of room to be making fun of someone else."

Malfoy went white in the face and peered all around him. He looked completely mortified. Then his eyes turned hard again and he opened his mouth to speak.

Mihnea crossed his arms over his chest and glared him down. "Say something, Malfoy. I dare you."

Draco looked pissed beyond belief, but he still seemed to recognize that a getting into a fight with him wasn't the best thing for his health. He pushed himself up from the table in an angry flourish.

"Crabbe? Goyle? We're leaving."

Bassarab kept glaring at the three boys, making sure they weren't going to try anything else as they marched out of the Great Hall. Behind him, George nudged Fred in the side.

"See? I told you." he said. "Right handy to have around in a pinch, isn't he?"

Fred silently nodded in agreement, looking impressed by how quickly Mihnea got Draco to shut up. He gave both of them a passing sideways glance, then turned his attention to Harry.

"Malfoy is all bark and no bite, Potter." he told him. "You alright there?"

Harry blinked, taken aback that he was actually talking to him. "Uh... yeah. I'm fine."

Mihnea inclined his head. "I don't like the dementors either. With what they're capable of, one of them making a person pass out is nothing to laugh at."

Wow. Constance thought. Her cousin was in one of his 'nice' moods. But his mention of the dementors caught her attention. She had no idea what had happened in his section of the train, and this was the first time they'd been able to speak since arrving at school. She cleared her throat.

"Did they give you any trouble, by the way?" she asked.

Mihnea glanced at her and shook his head. "The dementors? Nope. None at all. They came in, looked around, and left." he paused to give her a meaningful look. "Quickly."

Ah. So his familiar being awakened must have succeded in scaring them off. That was good to know. She then turned her attention to the twins. It was a bit weird to see the three of them walking together. Not that she was going to complain about Mihnea not threatening to kick George's ass over the smallest thing. Ron seemed to think it was strange as well.

"Do... you three have class together or something?" he questioned, keeping a nervous eye on Mihnea to make sure he wasn't overstepping his boundaries by asking.

"Yep." The twins said together. "Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Should be loads of fun with the new teacher." Fred said.

"We'll let you know how it goes." George added. He shot Constance a knowing grin. "We're supposed to cover vampires this term."

Mihnea rolled his eyes, sensing what the boy was doing. "The syllabus says we're working on Hags first."

Fred waved a hand through the air like it didn't mean much to him either way. "Well, whatever lesson we're doing is going to start in ten minutes, so we need to get a move on if we want to be there for it."

Connie's eyes widened in shock. Ten minutes? The Geomancy classroom was on the fifth floor of the South Tower! The trek up there would take nearly that long, and then they would have to get all their books and supplies out... She sprang up from the table.

"Come on Neville!" she said, grabbing his arm to pull him away from his plate. "We've got to go or we'll be late!"

His eyes widened in realization as he checked the time himself and he sprang up to his feet, holding a piece of toast in his mouth as he gathered up his things.

"Catch up with you later!" Connie called back as they rushed out.

Geomancy was taught by Professor Perun Apophyll. He was an older man with short, silver hair and a pointed goatee that was a couple of shades darker. He gave off a serious air, but his voice held a note of welcoming warmth in it. From the sparseness of the classroom, it appeared that this wasn't a very popular class. There were only three other students present aside from Neville and herself. Two Ravenclaw girls Connie wasn't familiar with, and a lone Slytherin boy. Her eyes narrowed when she recognized him. Blaise Zabini. Well, that was just what she needed. A Slytherin with a superiority complex. She and Neville chose seats next to each other at the front of the room – far, far away from him.

"Well, this is better than I hoped." Professor Apophyll announced once the five of them were seated. "It's nice to see a couple of young men in the room. I usually have only girls in my classes." He shot a serious look toward the back of the room. "I hope you don't believe sitting back there will make me overlook you, Mr. Zabini. I'll leave it alone for now, but if this arrangement affects your participation in class, I will institute a seating chart."

Connie didn't bother turning around to see what the look on Blaise's face was, but his voice, while respectful, held a small note of dislike. "Yes, Professor."

She sincerely hoped that if the professor decided a seating chart was necessary, he wouldn't put that cad anywhere near her or Neville. From her experiences in other classes with Zabini, she knew he was on the quiet side. He normally didn't bother others all that much aside from glaring down his nose like he was the God of the universe and found it insulting that other human beings were sharing the same air as him. However, he seemed to make a special exception for Constance. Ever since their confrontation during Lockhart's 'dueling lesson' last year, Blaise made a point of openly expressing how much he despised her. Connie honestly didn't care how much he hated her guts. If he tried anything, she'd just kick him in the balls like last time.

The man at the front of the room nodded, then went back to calling roll. Connie finally learned the names of the two Ravenclaw girls. The blonde one was Clarence Greenlock and the girl with short black hair and glasses was Prudence Mitchell.

"Now then, I imagine with as large as most of the other classes here are you have little, if any, experience with the freedom provided by a small classroom." the professor said once he'd gotten through the short list of names. "I'm not one to bother with that 'raising hands for permission to speak' nonsense. Geomancy is a unique and singular art form. It can be used in a thousand different ways and what works for one may or may not work for another. I expect intelligent discussion and debate in my classroom, not just regurgitation of things you've read in a book. If any of you believe you'll have trouble with that, I suggest you leave now to prevent wasting everyone else's time."

One long, almost bony looking finger extended toward the door. Everyone seemed so entranced by his manner of speaking that no one moved a muscle.

"Good. Now, I also expect any and all conflicts between houses to be left at the door." he went on smoothly. "I have little patience for that meaningless drivel. You don't have to like each other, but you will respect each other. There are philosophical topics present within the realm of Geomancy that provoke strong opinions and we will discuss them all. I encourage open debate, but I don't tolerate arguments. If you find yourself in disagreement with anything you hear in my class, even if it comes from myself, feel free to voice your opinion. However, if you can't express yourself in a thoughtful, intelligent manner, you will be asked to leave. Do we all understand each other?"

The more he spoke, the more Constance found herself liking this man. Again, not a soul in the room moved. Apophyll then clapped his hands together in a businesslike manner and began the lesson in earnest. Since it was the first class of term, the professor spent the majority of his time presenting various stones and crystals to them to see how many they could identify without consulting their books. It was refreshing, participating in a lesson where the first instruction given was to leave the textbook closed – especially on the first day. After going through a short list of relatively basic stones that anyone would be able to recognize, Apophyll held up a bright, golden orange stone.

"Can any of you tell me what this is?" he questioned, peering around at the five of them. "Mr. Longbottom?"

Neville looked taken aback at hearing his name called, then studied the small object held between his fingers. "That's... amber?"

"Very good." the professor said with a nod. "And what can you tell me about it?"

The boy sitting next to Constance shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat. "It's... formed from tree resin..." he began haltingly. "and it... gives off electricity when it's rubbed with something..."

Apophyll lowered his hand slightly and frowned. "You don't seem very certain, Mr. Longbottom." he commented. "Are you sure about that?"

Neville immediately faltered, like he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. Everything he'd said so far was true, he just labored under the fallacy that having a teacher question his statement meant he'd gotten something wrong. Connie gave him a gentle nudge in the ribs. The boy shook himself.

"Yes sir." he said in a slightly stronger voice. "I'm sure."

The professor looked at him for a long moment, then inclined his head. "You are correct. Ten points to Gryffindor." he paused to give him a sideways glance. "Speak with confidence, Mr. Longbottom! Cowering when questioned only makes you look foolish."

Though the comment could have been taken as a jab had the situation been different, Apophyll made it sound more like an instructive observation. It took a while, but Neville gradually warmed up and grew accustomed to the unfamiliar structure of the lesson. It was almost awe inspiring to watch the transformation he underwent. Neville Longbottom, the boy who was known for being thick in the head and slow to understanding, was actually jumping up and answering questions correctly. Hell, he even caught a small mistake made by Greenlock and corrected her on it. He corrected a Ravenclaw.

Once they got through an initial quiz of how many stones and their properties they could identify without consulting their books, the discussion turned to how concepts in Geomancy actually worked. Constance knew some of the basics from lessons she'd had at home. Rocks, stones, and crystals all gave off a particular power signature that could be used to bolster a witch or wizard's personal power, or to add strength to a particular spell or potion. Because all living things had an individual power signature, some stones and crystals worked better for some people and less for others. It was very similar to certain concepts found in muggle science. Apparently, the Ravenclaw girls picked up on that as well. Mitchell mentioned something about energy wavelengths and how they could be strengthened or canceled out by others. Connie personally couldn't recall ever participating in a class discussion where students talked about how things in magic were so similar to things found in the muggle world.

But there was one person who didn't like where the conversation was going, and he made sure everyone knew about it.

At the back of the room, Zabini let out a derisive snort. "A muggle could never understand anything as complicated as what you're talking about."

The comment made Constance bristle with indignation. What right did he have to say something like that?

"Muggles aren't as stupid as everyone makes them out to be." she said in a firm tone, turning around to face the boy. "There are very few things in magic that muggles can't do with their science, and there are plenty of things muggles have figured out how to do that magic isn't capable of. If you don't believe that, then I'd like to see a form of magical transportation that can move large numbers of people around the world as efficiently as an airplane can."

Mitchell and Greenlock exchanged a look between themselves. "She's right." Clarence said. "Did you know that muggles have actually figured out how to make things invisible?"

Prudence nodded. "My dad says that there are some scientists now who are working on teleportation devices. I don't think they've managed to move large objects around yet, but if they do muggles could apparate just as easily as a witch or wizard could!"

If those two girls knew about things like that, then they had to have at least one parent who was muggle. A pure blooded witch wouldn't have heard about those sorts of experiments. Hell, there were a lot of muggles who weren't aware of those particular advancements in science and physics.

Blaise looked outrageously offended by it all. It appeared that he thought muggles were on the same level as animals and any implication of them being more than that was blasphemous to his ears. However, he made a pointed display of keeping his mouth shut. If he attempted to say something, it would probably come out as a curse and get him thrown out of class. Their professor took notice of the growing tension in the room and immediately took steps to dissipate it.

"It it truly awe inspiring, the things muggles have managed to create with their sciences, but that's not why we're here." he announced. "Now that we've gotten the preliminaries out of the way, I want you to read chapter one of your textbook and write a three foot scroll on the properties and uses of amber. Original thoughts, ladies and gentlemen! I have seen every possible way the phrases used in your books can be re-written, so don't even try it."

Had the entire class gone by so quickly? It honestly didn't feel like they had been in there for an hour. Since they hadn't been allowed to use their books, there was no packing up to be done. After being excused, they all picked up their bags and headed for the door. Once out in the hallway, Connie felt a small tug on her robe. She paused and turned her head to find Neville there.

"Would you... work with me on this?" he asked, looking a bit nervous. "The scroll, I mean."

Constance blinked at him. "Of course!" she replied. "We're the only Gryffindors in there and I'm going to need a study buddy."

Neville let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks." he said. "It sounds like it's going to be interesting in there, but I don't want to screw up on the first go..."

There was that nervous, uncertain side of him coming out again. Constance gave him a reassuring look. "I think you're going to do great, Neville." she told him. "You answered questions right and got loads of points for us! On the first day!"

The boy paused as if just realizing that. "I... I did, didn't I?" he asked, sounding like he didn't quite believe it.

"You sure did." she said. "It was impressive." she locked her arm into his and pulled him down the hallway toward their next class. "You know, I think if we work hard enough, you could get the highest grade in there."

"There's no way!" he exclaimed, shocked. "Connie, I'm stupid. Ravenclaws are the smartest ones at Hogwarts and even if there weren't any in Geomancy, you'll still do better than me."

Constance made a face at him and slapped his shoulder. "Come off it, Neville. You are not stupid. You just need to learn how to be more confident, is all. Don't worry about the Ravenclaws. I'll work with you on assignments, help you study, then at the end of the year, we'll share the highest grade. How about that?"

Neville still looked unsure. "Connie..."

"Oh, come on." she prodded. "Just say it to make me happy. Please?"

Constance gave her best attempt at George's puppy dog eyes, and Neville slumped in defeat. "Fine." he said. "I'll share the highest grade with you."

"That's the spirit!" she said, beaming at him.

He might only be saying it to get her off his back, but the girl had a feeling that he would do a lot better in the class than he thought he would.

A.N. You get cyber brownie points if you can tell what the Geomancy Professor's name means. :)

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