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

Harry woke up about three hours after they were let into the hospital wing to see him. He winced at the smallest bit of light and had a pounding headache, but otherwise he seemed himself. In fact, the thing he was most worried about was who had won the game. Cedric Diggory wound up catching the snitch while everyone else was distracted by his fall, which put Hufflepuff in the lead. Connie personally thought that it wasn't a fair way to win, but the score stood firm. Harry was disappointed by the news, but Hermione not so gently reminded him that he was lucky to be alive.

Unfortunately for him, there was more bad news to be had. After Harry was brought to the hospital wing, Mihnea and Luna had decided to stay out in the rain to search for his broomstick. No one else had cared about the object at the time, but her cousin noticed which direction it had flown off in and had followed. The pair of them showed up in the hospital wing still drenched from the storm, with Luna carrying a mass of what looked like twisted branches and broken twigs in her arms.

"After what happened, I figured you'd want this back." Mihnea said upon seeing that Harry was awake. He gave him a sympathetic frown. "The wind knocked your broom into the Whomping Willow."

Harry stared at the broken pieces of his precious broomstick in dismay. It looked like he felt that a part of himself had been shattered. Hermione, meanwhile, blinked at their story in disbelief.

"How on earth did you manage to find all the pieces in the rain?" she questioned, sounding like she found it suspicious.

Constance found herself wondering the exact same thing. Her cousin was brilliant about being able to track things down by scent, but the wind and rain would surely have thrown it off.

Luna glanced at Mihnea and cleared her throat. "Oh, it was very clever actually. Rhabdomancy can help you find anything you're looking for..."

"Rhabdomancy?" Hermione interrupted. She sniffed as if she found the idea silly. "You mean dowsing? Everyone knows that's a bunch of rubbish, just like Divination."

Mihnea bristled and gave the girl a sharp look. "Rhabdomancy happens to be one of my favorite classes, thank you." he said in a short tone. "And Divination isn't complete rubbish. You don't have to get snippy and rip something apart just because you don't understand how it works."

The girl looked offended by the statement, but closed her mouth and said nothing more. Harry looked back and forth between her and Mihnea, sensing the growing tension, and cleared his throat.

"Thank you for bringing it back." he told him, genuinely meaning it. "I guess..." he paused and glanced over at Fred and George. "Does the team have any spare broomsticks I could use to play?"

Fred thought about it. "Madam Hooch has that broom cupboard of old Cleansweeps for the first year flying lessons." he reported. "You could use one of those. It won't be nearly as fast though..."

Harry didn't look the least bit pleased about that. His Nimbus 2000 was one of the fastest on the pitch, and using a slower broom might affect his playing. But there was really nothing else that could be done until he was able to acquire a new one.

Next to Mihnea, the tiny blonde girl with protuberant eyes studied Harry's downtrodden expression. "You should take good care of yourself for the next few days." she announced. "Loser's Lurgy is a terrible ailment that can sneak up on you without warning. It will send you into a deep depression if you aren't careful."

Everyone blinked at her in confusion. What the devil was she talking about?

"Loser's... Lurgy?" Ron questioned.

The girl looked like she was about to explain, but Mihnea let out a loud cough to distract her. "Luna, I think we should leave and give Potter some time to recover."

She paused thoughtfully, then nodded. "Oh, yes, of course." she agreed. "Rest is very important in fending off the Lurgy. Do try to get some sleep."

With that, they both said their farewells and turned to leave. Connie, however, had something she really needed to talk to Mihnea about while she knew where he was. She excused herself from the bewildered group around Harry's bedside and ran over before her cousin and his companion got through the door. Mihnea noticed her approach and halted mid-step, telling Luna to go ahead without him.

"Yes?" he asked once she reached him.

Constance shot a curious glance outside where Luna was skipping down the hall and around a corner. "Mihnea... who is she?"

"Who, Luna?" he asked. "She's a friend." when he noticed one of her brows arch in interest, he gave her a look. "Just a friend. She's my pet."

Connie stared at him in disbelief. The entire concept of keeping a human being as a 'pet' was distinctly vampiric in nature – and it was something that usually only very old and powerful ones did.

"A pet is a hell of a lot more than 'just a friend', isn't it?" she asked pointedly.

"Well yeah, but I can't exactly go around explaining that to normal people, can I?" he said.

"Mihnea!" she whispered, not daring to speak any louder than she had to. "You... you can't do that! I mean... how long have you known her?"

Her cousin shrugged. "Since a couple of weeks after school started."

"That's way too fast!"

Mihnea arched a brow. "I only saw Pixie for a few minutes before I decided to keep her."

Constance stared at him. He wasn't actually going to compare a person to an animal, was he?

"Mihnea, Pixie is a cat." she said firmly. One of her fingers stretched out toward the hall where Luna had disappeared. "That girl is human."

"So?" he questioned. "It doesn't matter whether it's a human or animal involved. It means the same thing."

"So?" Connie repeated, incredulous. "Human beings don't think about things the same way vampires do! You can't do that to a person without them understanding what it means!"

He glanced back toward the bed where the others had gone back to talking amongst themselves, then dropped his voice. "She understands and she agreed to it." he told her. "She knows, Connie. About me."

The girl's eyes widened a hair. "She knows?" she repeated, shocked. "You actually came out and told someone?"

Her cousin shook his head. "No, I didn't tell her anything. Luna figured it out for herself." He looked like he found it just as strange as she did. "I just found out about it a few days ago." he paused and looked back at the others in the room again. "This really isn't the sort of conversation we need to be having with people around, so can we drop it now?"

He was right, of course. The subject wasn't one that was safe to talk about where others might hear. But... this was an incredibly odd situation. Constance had never imagined that Mihnea would do something like this. Not that it was bad... it was just... weird. Vampires formed completely different relationships than humans did. They were almost primal and instinctual – with seemingly little conscious thought put into them – and had levels running so deep that human beings had difficulty understanding what they meant. A vampire keeping a human as a pet was the equivalent of a human keeping an animal as one – which was part of the reason why only the older ones did it. They had usually developed enough respect for humans to actually take care of them, rather than just using them. But it was still strange to think of a person being in that position... Maybe she just felt off balance about it because she had just met Luna and didn't know anything about her. After all, if Seras had remained human rather than becoming Alucard's fledgling, she probably would have been considered his pet. She was going to have to at least talk to this girl and learn more about the sort of person she was.

"Fine." she said, relenting. "I'll drop it. That's not what I wanted to talk to you about anyway." she saw his curious look and cleared her throat. "I need your help with something."

One of Mihnea's brows went up. "What is it?"

Constance took a deep breath and explained the situation at hand. Mihnea listened intently and when she was finished, he blew out a long stream of air. There was a long moment where he didn't say anything at all, choosing instead to stare thoughtfully at the door behind her.

"You realize this is completely bat-shit insane, right?" he questioned, finally looking back at her.

"I know." the girl admitted. "But if we're going to do this, then we're going to do it right. No cutting corners." she quirked a brow almost challengingly. "Since when do you care about something being 'bat-shit insane' anyway?"

"I don't." Mihnea replied. "I was just pointing it out." He glanced back toward the others for a final time, turning everything over in his mind, then sighed. "Okay, fine." he told her. "I'm in."

Because sorcery was such a complex and advanced form of magic, there were very specific stages one had to go through in order to learn it. George Weasley had told Constance he wanted to learn, so he was going to have to go through the same stages the two of them had. Why Connie had agreed to teach him when they had no books available was beyond Mihnea. They kept everything at home to prevent snoopy house-mates finding something they didn't need to see. Writing home and asking their parents to send some by owl wasn't going to happen. Getting them to go along with the idea of a couple of teenagers teaching sorcery to an untrained novice without adult supervision would be an uphill battle. And God forbid if they relented and then something happened to Archimedes on the flight back. There would be an extremely powerful, potentially dangerous, and priceless volume of knowledge damaged, destroyed, or lost forever. Mihnea's mother was more than a little over-protective of her books, so it was highly unlikely she would let the tomes out of her sight.

That meant that he and Constance were going to have to give lessons from memory. It was doable, seeing as how everything had been ingrained into their psyches since they were small. If one of them forgot to mention something important, the other would be there to make sure it was covered. The problem was that when you had been working with a philosophical concept so much that it became an integral part of your mental process, you didn't have to consciously think about it. Intricate explanations of every tiny little thing weren't necessary. It just... was the way it was. Mihnea and Constance had been introduced to sorcery as blank slates – 'untainted' by any other magical theory. Weasley, on the other hand, was going to have to completely reprogram his brain in order for this to work.

Since everything had to be a closely guarded secret, Mihnea thought it was best for them to meet up in the Astronomy Tower late at night. Students never went up there outside of class, and while the Bloody Baron sometimes liked to haunt the corridor leading up to it, he never entered the observation deck itself. Since the tower lay abandoned most of the time, the teachers and Filch rarely bothered to check it unless they knew for a fact that someone was sneaking up there. The room was open, but spelled to protect against the elements and provided a clear view of the night sky. That would be useful later on.

Mihnea had been perched on one of the window ledges, waiting for about half an hour when he heard footsteps approaching. His eyes turned away from the stars and toward the entrance, where Connie and George were quietly stepping inside.

"You're late." he commented.

"That's my fault." Connie said as they walked over. "Hermione has been staying up late working on that legal defense for Buckbeak's hearing. I had to wait for her to fall asleep."

One of the other problems they would have to deal with, Mihnea thought. He didn't share a room with anyone, so it wasn't a big deal for him to sneak out. But the two of them would have to slip out from under the noses of their house-mates. Gryffindors were famous for not leaving something alone if they found it interesting. Connie turned on her heel to ward the doors so no one could hear or come inside, while George studied him.

"I didn't expect to see you up here." he said. "Did she rope you into this?"

Mihnea shrugged. "If you guys are going to do this the right way, then you'll need me later on. I figured I might as well get involved now."

When Weasley cocked his head to the side curiously, Mihnea quirked a brow. He looked over to where his cousin was finishing up with her wards.

"You haven't explained anything to him yet?"

Connie dropped her hand and turned back around. "I haven't had much of a chance to." she admitted. "I figured we could just do everything in one go. At least then you'll know what I've told him."

Ah. He thought. That would make things simpler in the long run. Mihnea leapt down from the window ledge and the three of them took up seats on the floor nearest to the window that provided the most moonlight. Connie had brought a small lantern with her to provide accessory light to see by. Once all three of them were ready, Mihnea cleared his throat and looked at George intently.

"You do realize that what we're about to do is illegal and if we get caught, all of us will be expelled and sent to Azkaban?" he asked him. "This isn't a game or something you do on a whim."

Weasley studied him, his expression a rare show of solemness. "Contrary to popular belief, I can be serious about something." he said. "And if you two can do this sorcery stuff with no trouble, then I don't see why I can't."

Constance shot Mihnea a meaningful look, then cleared her throat. "That's why I wanted us to have this little meeting before we started, actually." she announced, readjusting her legs more comfortably. "George, sorcery is completely different from witchcraft and Mihnea and I have been working with it since we were little. It's going to be harder for you to learn, because you're already a wizard."

George blinked at her. "How do you mean?"

"She means that if you want to learn sorcery, you're going to have to forget everything you've ever been taught about magic." Mihnea spoke up. "All the rules you've spent your whole life learning don't apply here. Witchcraft is simple, non-living energy that anyone with magical ability can use. Sorcery is alive. It has a mind of it's own and can think for itself. If you approach it the same way you would with your magic, you'll fail every time and wind up either insane or dead."

That little tidbit of information was the primary reason why the magical world was so intimidated by it. If you didn't treat sorcery as a living thing, it would get offended and turn on you. Most witches and wizards couldn't wrap their brains around the idea, so those that attempted it wound up paying the price for their ignorance. Weasley shot a look at Constance that was almost accusing.

"You told me that people dying from doing this stuff was an exaggeration." he said.

"No, what I said was that people dying at the smallest mistake was an exaggeration." she corrected. "Every time there's been a death due to performing sorcery, it's been a person who didn't go through all the steps to learn it right." She paused, thinking about the best way to explain. "Witchcraft is easy to do once you've got it figured out. The energy is the same for everyone and the strength of a spell is only determined by the willpower and focus of the person casting it. If three different people wanted to levitate something, for example, all of them would use the same spell. Sorcery isn't like that. It's very complex and everything is based upon the sorcerer's unique way of interacting with the magic. You can't just point your wand, say a spell, and expect it to work for you. You have to learn how to communicate with it first. The energy has to... get used to you, and you have to get used to it. Once you've done that, then you can learn how to actually use it. It's the people who don't take the time to do that first who wind up doing something stupid that gets them killed."

George just stared at her for a long time. Mihnea noted that he looked confused, but wasn't making fun of anything. That was a good sign, at least. Finally, he cleared his throat.

"Okay..." he said, drawing out the word. "So... no using magic until you've figured out how to... 'talk' to it?"

"That's it in a nutshell, yes." Connie replied with a nod.

"And just how are you supposed to do that?"

"You have to work your way through levels." Mihnea piped up, drawing Weasley's attention to him. "As a novice, you'll have to learn basic theory first. Once you understand the most important elements you need, you'll move on to initiate level. You go through a ritual of initiation which introduces you to the magic as a student, then you go through lessons in how to recognize living magical energy, how to communicate with it, how to draw from various sources and send it back, grounding and centering yourself... basically all the practical ways to apply the theory you've learned. Once you've got all of that down, then you move on to actually using the magic to do things." He paused to point at his cousin. "Connie can teach you all the theory herself, but once you get to initiate level, you'll have to learn the basic practical stuff from me until we're sure you know what you're doing."

George studied him. "Why do I have to learn the practical stuff from you?" he questioned, then winced, apparently realized how it sounded. "Not that there's a problem with that, but that's going to mean more sneaking around than if I learned it from Connie, since we're in different houses."

Constance shook her head. "I'm a girl, George. I can't teach you anything in the initiate level."

His brows furrowed. "What does your being a girl have to do with anything?"

Mihnea cleared his throat. "This is one of those things about sorcery that's different from witchcraft." he explained. "Living magic interacts with males and females in different ways. You have to learn all the practical basics from someone of the same gender." he gave Weasley a serious look. "The first few times you try to draw up living magic, it wont be easy to control. It's very easy for things to get out of hand. If that happens, Constance wouldn't be able to do a damn thing to stop it no matter how much she wanted to. Until you've learned how to control it, everything you do will be considered wild magic with a masculine energy signature. Her feminine magic would throw the energy off balance and send it spiraling out of control. But we're both guys, so anything you draw up would recognize me as being able to use the same type of energy as you and it wont be as likely to go haywire. If it does, I'll be able to calm things down and get it back under control because I know how to manipulate it."

Constance bobbed her head in agreement. "When we were first starting out, I had to go through my initiate level with Aunt Syn, and Mihnea did his with my dad. After we got all the basics figured out, we could switch back and forth between them without any problems."

Weasley took in all the information and sat back thoughtfully. It was obvious that he hadn't expected it to be quite this involved. Finally, after a long moment of silence, he looked between the pair of them.

"How long does this 'initiate level' take?" he asked.

Mihnea gave Connie a look, signaling that she could take over answering. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth.

"It depends on the person." she finally settled on saying. "I got through mine and was able to start actually using sorcery in little over a week." she stopped to shoot a jealous glare at Mihnea. "And Mr. Grand-Master Overachiever over there got through his in three days."

He couldn't help it. Connie always got so upset about him taking to magic faster than she did. Mihnea stuck his tongue out at her.

"Don't hate on me because I'm better than you." he teased.

The girl crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "I still think you only managed that because of who your mother is."

"Think what you want." he said, sticking his nose high into the air. "I'm still better."

Connie glared at him in warning. "Shut up before I hurt you, Mihnea." she hissed at him. She gave a small kick at his legs, then turned back to George, who looked like he found their little spat highly amusing. "Anyway, all we know about it is people who have been raised in our family – not people who used witchcraft first. And we both had intense daily lessons..."

Jesus, she was making it sound like it would take forever for George to manage it. Mihnea figured it might take him a bit longer than it had for the two of them, but not more than a couple of months at the longest. It would depend on how much he wanted it.

"That really doesn't mean much, though." he said, cutting her off. He jerked a thumb toward her. "Connie's grandmother didn't use magic all that much, and Uncle Ed had to learn everything from our Great-Uncle Jonas. He got only a couple of lessons a week and he got through with his initiate level in about three weeks. It all depends on how much effort you put into it. It's not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't take forever." he paused to work out a few mental calculations. "If Connie runs through all the basic theory with you and we get a solid schedule worked out, we could aim for doing energy pulls by Christmas holidays."

Weasley seemed to find that acceptable. Now that he knew all of the risks and work involved, he could actually make an informed decision about whether or not to proceed with these lessons. Surprisingly enough, he didn't take very long to think it over. Mihnea should have expected that from a someone like him. The rest of their little meeting was spent discussing the best times to hold these lessons. George could get his theory work with Constance done in their common room after everyone had gone to bed for the night – but with Mihnea, they'd have to meet up at the Astronomy Tower. Upon coming up with something that was workable for the two boys, they all dispersed and headed back to their respective dormitories.

For the next couple of weeks, George and Constance spent every night and small snatches of time during the day going over the essentials he had to learn. There were the different categories and alignments of magical energy and how they behaved. The use of symbolism as a type of language their magic understood better than words. The idea of rituals and ceremonies being a way to convey the specific meaning of what you wanted. It was a lot to absorb in such a short period of time. However, when George Weasley was interested in something, he devoted all of his attention to it. Connie found herself hit with tons of questions – some of which weren't very easy to come up with answers for.

"You know, all of this stuff about rituals and magic being alive make it sound like sorcery is a religion to you guys." he commented one night after everyone had gone to bed.

Constance had to take a moment to carefully consider her response. She'd never heard anyone suggest such a thing before, but it was easy to see how someone could jump to that conclusion.

"You have to be careful about thinking things like that, George." she told him in a lowered voice. "The magic we work with isn't a God, and sorcery isn't meant to be a religion. It's a tool. Or... I suppose you could call it a 'life philosophy' in a way. We recognize that living magic is a very powerful, natural force that is greater and bigger than us. It deserves to be respected, so that's what we do."

Giving such a response felt like a cop-out, but that was the best she could come up with. All of his more probing questions went like that. Why didn't they have to use wands with their magic? She told him that it was because a wand is just a tool to amplify non-living magical energy to make it useable. Because living magic was naturally more powerful, sorcery bypasses that and works directly with the energy itself. Then he asked if ritual was so important, how was she able to cast a protective circle on the train without using one? Constance explained that some things – like certain types of protective circles – could be performed with an internalized, mental ritual. Everything had to be done exactly the same way, only it was kept within the mind rather than physically performing it. Most higher level rituals required the caster to actually perform the ceremony, however there were a few exceptions. When living magic was used often enough, it became intimately familiar with the sorcerer and how they worked, allowing certain aspects of rituals to be performed mentally. Connie figured that once he went through his initiation, George would understand everything better due to his having experienced it for himself. But the time leading up to that point was somewhat frustrating.

But finally, finally, the girl felt that he had absorbed all of the most important pieces of information. George had a word with Mihnea after one of their DADA classes and the two boys set up a time for the ceremony. Their best bet would be to do it on a weekend. The ritual of initiation was very individual. Depending on the strength of the magic's reaction, it could take anywhere from a few minutes, to a few hours. Since there was no way to tell how long it would last, they figured that performing the ceremony on Saturday night would give them plenty of leeway. The students weren't as rowdy and likely to be out and about as they were on Friday evenings. If something happened that kept them out later than expected, they wouldn't have to worry about classes being held the next day. George was both excited and nervous about it. This would be his first big step into the realm of sorcery. Constance was glad to see that he was looking forward to it, but she was still put off by the fact that she couldn't be there to witness it. She would have to learn about everything second-hand.

When the scheduled night arrived, the two of them waited for everyone in their dorms to fall asleep before heading down to the common room. Constance had already changed into her pajamas since she wouldn't be going out with him.

"You have any shining words of wisdom for me?" George asked as he glanced toward the portrait hole exit.

The girl shook her head. "Just be yourself." she told him. "Follow Mihnea's instructions. And I should go ahead and tell you that it's going to feel really weird."

There was no other way to describe the sensations that ran through you during this ceremony. It was different for everyone, and the closest explanation anyone could come up with didn't make much sense to someone who hadn't been through it.

"Got it." George said, then turned his gaze away from the door to look at her. "Are you going to wait up for me?"

Connie nodded. "I'll probably go back up to the dorm just in case Hermione wakes up during the night, but otherwise, I imagine I'll be awake." she told him. "Mihnea told me he'd send Pixie so I'd know when you were finished."

"That weird cat of his is the damnedest thing I've ever seen." the boy commented with a shake of his head. He paused then and gave her a questioning look. "Would you do something for me?"

Bewildered, Constance inclined her head. "Of course. What is it?"

George reached to draw his wand from his back pocket. "Mihnea said I couldn't have my wand during this ritual thing." he told her. "I don't feel right about leaving it in a drawer upstairs, so would you keep it with you until I get back?"

Connie blinked in surprise. A wizard's wand was like a part of them. They didn't hand it over to someone else without a damn good reason for it, and even then it was hard to do because they were so protective of it. She swallowed and took the carved length of wood from him.

"I'll make sure nothing happens to it." sh e promised.

George nodded, then leaned down to kiss her. It was smooth and sweet – and it lasted longer than Connie expected it to. Not that she was complaining, but he had somewhere to be. She put her hands up to his shoulders to push him back.

"You need to go." she told him. "You're going to make yourself late, and Mihnea will get pissed if he finds out why."

He gave her those damn puppy dog eyes and pouted at her. "Who says we have to tell him why I'm late?" he asked. "It's none of his business."

Connie rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and sighed. "For God's sake George, I'll be here when you get back." she told him with a huff. She gave him a push toward the door. "Now go."

He laughed at the firmness of her tone, but finally turned and went out. Now there was nothing for her to do except wait. She tucked George's wand into one of the pockets of her robe and headed back upstairs.

Constance dozed lightly in bed for a couple of hours before she felt something leap up next to her. Her eyes slid open to find Pixie pawing at her leg. Immediately, she pushed herself upright and glanced down toward the floor to search for her slippers. As she worked her feet inside of them, she cautiously looked around at the other beds in the room. All of the other girls were still asleep, and there was no sign they would be waking up any time soon. However, she did notice that Crookshanks had lifted his head from Hermione's arm and was looking at her intently. Almost like he was trying to figure out what she was doing. His intelligent feline eyes then turned toward Pixie, and he let out a soft, questioning meow. Pixie, who was still sitting on Connie's bed, looked over at him and made an equally quiet noise, though it didn't sound particularly happy. The girl swore up and down that Crookshanks had just asked Pixie what she was doing there, and Mihnea's cat told him to mind his own business. Once she got her slippers on her feet, Connie grabbed her robe and pulled it on as she tip toed out.

When she got down to the common room, Mihnea and George were just coming in. Constance halted mid-step at the sight of them. Mihnea had one of the boy's arms draped over his shoulders, and George looked unsteady on his feet – keeping his eyes to the ground as if to make sure he was stepping on something solid. What on earth was going on? She ran over to give them a hand.

"What happened?" she demanded.

Mihnea shifted his weight a bit when she slid George's free arm over her shoulder to help him. "We got a stronger response than I expected." he told her.

In-between them, George raised his head so she was able to see his face. His eyes were hazy and he had that weird grin people get when their drunk.

"That was so awesome." he said in a slightly slurred voice. "I was playing hide and go seek with something I couldn't see! Can I do that again?"

"Oh no." Mihnea said firmly. "We're not doing anything else until you get over this." he glanced at Connie over the top of George's head. "He's power high. It should wear off in a few hours."

A power high was something that could happen to anyone in the early learning stages of sorcery. Living magic was incredibly powerful, and the feel of it could send you into an altered state – just like being high or drunk. Connie had warned George that it was a possibility, but she hadn't expected it to be quite this strong. Working together, she and Mihnea got George over to one of the nearby couches so he could lay down.

"So... is this a good thing, or a bad thing?" she asked her cousin.

"I'd say it's a good thing." Mihnea replied. He looked like he was taken aback by something. "You should have seen it, Connie. I thought it might take a while for the magic to show itself since he's so new to all of this, but we got a reaction the second we started."

The girl's brows furrowed. "What took you so long, then?"

He extended a finger toward the boy laying on the couch. "He was playing with it." he told her. "He's not lying about the hide and go seek. We'd get this crest of energy and whenever he got close to touching it, it would move around to make him chase after it. I've never seen magic act so playful before. It took me a while to talk both of them down so we could finish."

Huh. Connie thought. That was an interesting reaction to get. But considering George's playful personality, it sort of made since for the magic to respond to him that way. As long as it hadn't been bad, it wasn't something to worry about. On the couch, George was running his fingers along the pattern in the fabric like it was something he'd never noticed before and found incredibly interesting. Connie cleared her throat.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

George stopped poking at the couch and pushed himself upright. "Yeah." he said. "I feel great!" he paused then and studied her intently. "Have I ever told you how gorgeous you are? You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen." He blinked for a second, like he was trying to clear the fuzziness out of his head, then turned his gaze onto Mihnea. "And you... if you were a girl, you'd be gorgeous too. But it's a good thing you're not a girl because you are waaaayyy too tall."

Yep, he was definitely as high as a kite. Connie snorted and had to put a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing too hard at what had just come out of his mouth. Mihnea just stared at him, looking uncomfortable.

"Okay..." he said, drawing the word out. He shook his head. "I think I'm going to leave before this gets more awkward than it already is." he glanced sideways at her. "Do you think you can handle him without my help?"

The girl shook herself out of her amusement and nodded. "Everyone's asleep, so we'll be fine as long as we stay down here." she told him.

She figured it would be unlikely for anyone to wake up and come downstairs at 2am. They would have a couple of hours at least to get him back to normal. Mihnea inclined his head in understanding, then scooped Pixie up into his arms and went out the way he'd come in. Connie settled herself down next to George on the couch and reached to pour him a glass of water from the pitcher set out on the table.

"How does he get past the knight?" he asked, referring to the portrait that had taken the Fat Lady's place as the guard of Gryffindor tower.

Constance shrugged. "Mihnea goes wherever he wants to go." she said simply. She passed the cup to him. "Drink this."

George's obediently took the cup and took small sips of the water. Keeping him hydrated was really the only thing to be done for his state. It took a good thirty minutes or so, but eventually he started acting more like himself.

"Merlin's beard, this almost feels like that time me and Fred stole firewhiskey from our Aunt Muriel's liquor cabinet." he said, rubbing his temples.

The girl had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. That sounded like something he and his brother would do.

"You look like it too." she told him. A thought suddenly popped into her head. It was a truly horrible thing to do, but just had to do it. "You do realize that you told my cousin he would be gorgeous if he was a girl, right?"

George went very still and gave her a look of absolute horror. "I did not."

"Yep. You did."

He just kept staring at her with his eyes wide with shock. Constance couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his face. He had just done something that he would never live down. If Mihnea didn't remind him of it, she would.

A.N: Okie dokie peoples, I have a few announcements for you! Please attend carefully. ~clears throat~

1. I hate this chapter. I had a hell of a time writing it and I got tired of starting over every five minutes, so I'm putting it out there as is. If you have any desire whatsoever to flame me, please feel free to do so. I'll probably agree with you.

2. I have worked my way through my surplus of chapters and finally caught up to myself. Therefore, until I get another surplus built up, there might be longer stretches of time between updates than usual. Do not panic if week goes by without any new stuff put up. I swear upon my immortal soul that I am working on new material for you guys.

3. The next chapter will have Hellsing characters in it. Meaning that Hogwarts' winter break is upon us, and we're going to be spending some time in Hellsing land for a while. And trust me, it's going to be interesting for all involved. ~dun dun DUN~

So, without further adieu, I will repeat my usual demand for reviews – whether they be good or bad. Cheers!