Black Magick

by Rhiannon Thanatos

Mihnea and Constance have spent their young lives growing up within the walls of the Hellsing Organization. When they receive an opportunity to attend a school of magic, they encounter more than they ever thought possible. Sequel to Blood Heritage. Trigger warning for sensitive readers, as some controversial/disturbing material is covered in later chapters.

54. Taking a Gamble

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

I'm sorry it's taken me a while to write back to you. Dad and I have been in Ireland searching for blue-toed wigglypinks. They're rare creatures that humans can only see when they sneeze. Finding them is problematic because everyone has trouble keeping their eyes open when they sneeze. While we were there, I happened to see a flash of pink and blue in the forest, but it went by so fast that I couldn't tell much about it. My dad was very excited about the close encounter and he believes that if we had been able to spend more time there, we would have found one and been able to study it.

Somehow, I knew you would let your parents read the last letter I sent, and I'm glad they liked it. I know my dad is very open-minded about things, but he's still my dad and he asks questions like anyone else. I couldn't tell him everything of course, since I promised not to, but I thought the best way to explain was to say that it was rather like I had found an older brother I didn't know I had before. I think he understood the idea I was trying to get across. In any case, yes, I've heard about 'heralds' before and I would be honored to wear one if you wanted me to. I had been wondering about that actually, but I wasn't sure if it was appropriate seeing as how you're just as human as vampire, and humans don't do things like that.

There is something I'd like to ask you about though. When dad and I got back home, we found out about there being some sort of attack by vampires in the area. Dad hasn't told me all the details, but it sounds like there were several deaths in the muggle village nearby. There are only two magical families living near us, and the Diggorys were away at the time just like we were. We haven't heard anything about the Weasleys. I know your cousin Constance is dating George Weasley and I remembered you saying something about her staying with them for a while before Christmas, so I thought you might know something. Their house is only a mile or so away from ours so I could go see for myself, but Dad said he didn't want me wandering around outside for long until we knew it was safe.

-Luna

I've never heard of these 'blue-toed wigglypinks' before, but I'm sure if they're out there, you'd be the one to find them. I have to ask though - how do you intend to catch one if you can only see them when you sneeze? It seems like you'd have a hard time learning about them if you can only see them for split seconds at a time. No searching for crumple horned snorkacks this trip?

Well, all I can say about that letter you sent is that it made my mother understand that you know what you're doing. I love her to death, but she worries about absolutely everything. I think she was impressed that you came up with it by yourself without me telling you what she was concerned about. Oh, by the way, both of my parents think this idea you have about flibbitigibbits is really interesting, so once you've finished that paper you're working on, they'd like to read it. My mom can't see auras so it's not something she's ever thought about, but my dad can and he says he's never considered the idea of the dark halo being caused by microscopic organisms before. They think you might be onto something.

This would be the first herald I've ever made, but my dad helped me come up with it and I like the way it turned out. I'm sending it along with this, so consider it my Christmas present to you. It's a little different than others I've seen before, but I thought it should fit your personality. I hope you like it.

I didn't know you lived so close to the Weasleys... Why didn't you tell me? I'm glad you were out of the country at the time because I would have to go hunting the bloody things down if something happened to you. As far as the rest goes... well, it's really complicated, but Connie and all of the Weasleys are fine. I can't say much else about it right now. Not that I don't trust you, but... it's just complicated. Just know that everyone is okay and they're safe. Your dad is right. Dont go wandering around by yourself - especially at night.

Let me know when you get this. And if you happen to hear anything new or interesting about this 'vampire thing' that happened, pass it on to me. I'm interested in what's going as much as you are.

- Mihnea

Oh my goodness! I opened the box the moment it arrived and it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! I love it, I love it, I love it! I put it on immediately and I'll never take it off!

I'm not surprised that you don't know what blue-toed wigglypinks are. As I said, they're extremely rare creatures, so not many people know about them. If you're interested, my dad published an article about them in the latest issue of the Quibbler. I can show it to you if you like. It's mostly theoretical, of course - nothing concrete - but it's a great introduction to them. The author is a man who's written several articles for the magazine before and all of them have been excellent reads. And we never intended to 'catch' one. I personally think it's more informative to watch how they behave in their natural environment. Being able to see them for only seconds at a time is part of the reason why I'm so interested in them. I'm sure once we've figured out exactly where they are, dad and I can experiment with different techniques to find something that allows us to view them for longer periods of time.

And of course we weren't looking for crumple horned snorkacks, silly. They're found in Sweden, not Ireland.

Do your parents really think that? That's wonderful! I wouldn't mind letting them read my paper at all. I'd like to do a bit more research so it's more fleshed out before I send it to anyone though.

I never thought it was important to mention that I lived close to the Weasleys because our families don't have much to do with each other. I get on well with Ginny at school of course, but we never go to each other's houses for visits or anything. I might not have noticed anything strange at all except that Dad took a walk not long after we got back home, and he said the door was torn off it's hinges and it looked like no one was there. I'm glad they're all alright. I understand not wanting to talk about other people's business, but you know I wouldn't say anything. People talk about me all the time, so I would never do it to someone else. In any case, I did ask my dad if he's learned anything else about what happened while we were away. There isn't anyone at the Ministry of Magic who's willing to talk to him about things like this, but he knows people who know people there. He couldn't get many details, but it sounded like the vampires hadn't been aiming to attack Ottery St. Mary at all. They only went there because it was close to their actual target. Aside from that, we don't know what they were doing. It seems to me that the Ministry is covering things up so no one can find out what really happened. Fudge has a habit of doing that, you know. The man has a personal army of heliopaths no one knows about because anyone who gets hard information on them is killed and baked into one of his pies.

Oh, by the way, I finally finished the dreamcatcher. I apologize for it being late, but I was having trouble figuring out how to finish off the final knots so they wouldn't show. I made something else as well. I already have a charm against nargles for myself, so I used the butterbeer corks you gave me to make one for you. I don't know if you have a problem with nargles at your house, but it never hurts to have a charm around this time of year. (In case you didn't know, they like to make nests in sprigs of mistletoe. I recommend you avoid standing beneath it if you can.)

-Luna

Mihnea couldn't help but grin at Luna's last letter. Fudge had a personal army of 'heliopaths' and she didn't want him standing under any mistletoe? How cute. Still, he wasn't surprised to hear that the Ministry was covering things up. He hadn't expected the girl to find out about the attacks to begin with, and had been shocked senseless when he learned she actually lived in the area. With her unusual degree of perception, he imagined that once they all got back to school, she would hit pretty close to the truth without him telling her anything.

That thought gave him pause. Luna knew a lot about him, but she didn't know everything. It was odd to find himself in a position where people he trusted less than her knew more than she did. Maybe... maybe when they got back to school, he'd come out and talk to her about his family. For once, he found that the idea wasn't worrisome. It was only fair, after all. All of Connie's friends knew about them now, so he should be able to do the same with his. He believed Luna was trustworthy and would keep it to herself.

After sending off the owl that brought the delivery, Mihnea readjusted himself more comfortably in his hammock by the window to open the box that came with the letter. Inside, wrapped in white tissue paper, were two objects. The first was the nargle charm - a collection of six brightly painted butterbeer corks strung on black cord. Mihnea paused to slip it over his head, then moved to unwrap the other. He had only seen Luna working on the dreamcatcher during it's beginning stages, so he had no idea what the finished product would look like. The outer hoop was wrapped with various shades of green, red, and blue ribbon. A simple, yet nicely woven web was knotted in the center with some of the strands bearing the occasional colorful glass bead. The ribbons that adorned the hoop were used again at the bottom, hanging at various lengths with the ends tied off with larger, painted wooden beads and feathers. Luna seriously miscalculated her talent, he thought. While it obviously wasn't made by a professional, it wasn't shabby looking in the least. In fact, this particular dreamcatcher had more character to it than some of the others he owned.

Down on the floor, Pixie was growing interested in what he was doing and leapt up into the hammock with him. When she sat down on his lap, Mihnea took a sip from his blood pack and held up the dreamcatcher for her appraisal.

"What do you think?"

The cat's head cocked to the side and she meowed, batting a paw at the dangling feathers and beads.

Mihnea scratched between her ears and smiled. "I like it too." he agreed. He gave her a pat to signal her to jump down, then climbed out of the hammock himself. "We need to find a good place for it."

There were more than forty dreamcatchers hanging from the ceiling above his bed, so he would have to find a space large enough for Luna's to hang without the others getting in the way. He spotted a good location, selected a screw-in hook from the top drawer of his dresser, then clenched the bag of medical blood between his teeth so he could climb up on his bed to hang it. Pixie leapt up to join him, sitting close enough to his right foot that he could feel her presence without actually getting in the way. He was working on turning the hook into place when a knock sounded on his door.

"Yeah?" he called out, not thinking much of it.

There was no audible response but the door slowly swung inward, revealing Hermione Granger standing there in her faded jeans and blue sweater. Her hair was wilder looking than usual - like she just rolled out of bed and decided not to tame it with a brush. She peered inside, trying to figure out where he was. Upon locating him, she blinked in surprise. Probably because he was standing on a bed trying to screw something into the ceiling.

"Oh." she said. "I didn't know you were busy. I can come bac..."

Her words dropped off and Mihnea noticed that her eyes had drifted down to his mouth. Or, more specifically, what was in his mouth. Shit. He thought. Shit shit shit. He never bothered switching the blood he drank into dark colored bottles while he was home because there was never a reason to hide. After all of Connie's buddies were brought to the manor, he responded by only drinking when he was in his room to avoid any awkwardness that might come from them seeing it. He hadn't expected any of them to come to his room for something - much less Granger. But there she was, staring at him while he had a bag of medical blood in his mouth, and for a moment, he had no idea what to do.

To hell with it. He thought. This was his room. If the girl didn't want to see something that made her uncomfortable, she should have thought twice about waltzing into his personal space. Mihnea reached up and took the blood pack from his mouth so he could speak properly.

"This will just take a second." he told her. "What did you want?"

Hermione blinked and shook her head. "I... wanted to see if you had any litter I could use for Crookshanks." she said. "You told me to ask if I needing anything..."

Oh, right. He'd forgotten about that. "Yeah, I have some." he replied. "Give me a mintue and I'll get it for you."

He made a sweeping gesture to the room - partly to invite her in so she could wait, but more out of morbid curiosity to see whether she'd do it or not. The girl gingerly stepped over the threshold and walked to the center of the room, peering around at everything. Mihnea grabbed the opening of the blood pack with his teeth again and went back to his work, but it wasn't long before he caught her watching him again.

"It's not polite to stare, Granger." he said.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her flinch. She didn't know he'd been watching her.

"I'm sorry." she said, embarrassed at being caught. "I just... didn't know you..."

Mihnea turned and arched a brow. "Drank blood?" he finished for her.

Granger flinched again, then frowned. "Yes." she replied, then shook herself like she were trying to regain her composure. "I suppose I should have known that, but I honestly hadn't thought about it much."

The boy's brow went a bit higher. She appeared more awkward and unsure rather than fearful. He supposed he should be thankful she didn't run away screaming or something equally obnoxious.

"Fancy that." he commented as he turned back to what he was doing. "I always took you to be the kind of person who thought about everything."

"Normally I do, but I've been... a bit out of sorts lately." she said. She cleared her throat. "Your arm seems better."

"It is." he replied. His fingers went numb when he used them for too long and he still had trouble with heavy objects, but at this rate, it would definitely be back to normal before school started. "I told you not to worry about it." When he saw her move to speak, he shot a look in her direction. "And don't you dare apologize again. It's annoying. Once was enough."

Granger's mouth snapped shut, indicating that his assumption of what she'd been about to say was correct. "Fine." she said. "I wont." She shuffled her feet and looked around again, honing in on something hanging on the wall near his desk. Her eyes widened in curious surprise. "Is that a sword?" she asked, rushing over to get a closer look. "Is it real?"

"Yes, it's rea..." Mihnea began, only to snap to attention when he saw what she was doing. "Dont touch it!"

Hermione froze and jerked her hand away from the metal before her fingers made contact. She looked horrified, and he realized just how harsh his words had come out. He forced himself to take a breath to calm down.

"It's old." he explained. "And it means something to me, so I don't want anyone messing with it."

The girl's lips formed a small 'o' of understanding and she took several steps back. "I'm sorry, I've just never seen one this close before. Aside from the sword of Gryffindor, that is." she turned back to peer at the weapon again. "How old is it?"

She was interested in swords now? "Late 1400's." Mihnea replied. "It was the sword my father used when he was human."

Alucard hadn't been able to retain much from his human life, so the fact that the sword had survived the centuries was amazing. Not that his dad was nostalgic or put great stock in things like family heirlooms, but the passing on of a weapon from father to son? Even the No Life King wasn't above that sort of tradition.

"Oh wow..." Hermione breathed, fascinated. "How on earth did he manage to keep it?"

"It laid up in his castle for centuries and he found it again." he told her with a shrug. "I thought it was cool, so he gave it to me."

"His castle?" she asked. "You mean Poenari? Wasn't it taken over by the government and made into a landmark?"

He'd heard how she had given everyone a history lesson after revealing she knew his dad's true identity, so it wasn't surprising she knew the name of one of his castles. Mihnea glanced at her sideways. "You're a smart girl, Granger. You don't really believe that's the only castle he had, do you? There were several of them scattered throughout the country. One was never identified as having an attachment to him, so there were a few things of his that were still there."

"Really?" she questioned with a gasp, looking excited by the idea. "Where is it?"

"It's a family secret." Mihnea said mysteriously. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Granger stared at him for a long moment, then finally realized he wasn't serious. "Be that way then. It was only a question." she said with a sniff. She paused thoughtfully. "You... make it sound like you've been there."

"I have." he replied. "Dad took me and mom there once when I was younger. It was fun, once you got past having no electricity or running water."

It had been in the middle of winter too, so his mother had gone on for ages about how she thought Alucard was trying to freeze her to death. His dad had a ton of fun torturing her about staying wrapped up in ten pounds of fur the whole time. Mihnea personally thought it had been like a camping trip - only with a big ass castle instead of a tent. And the gyspies in the area were still loyal to his father (albeit with a healthy dose of fear) so a few of them had been around to act as servants. They had been extremely weirded out by his and Syn's presence, but they firmly believed that if they spoke of it to anyone outside of their little group, Alucard would hunt them down and make them suffer for the betrayal of confidence. The fact they had had single handedly kept the castle in good repair for nearly six hundred years without the vampire being there to hand out orders spoke volumes of what they thought he was capable of when crossed.

Mihnea finished screwing the hook into place and carefully hung Luna's dreamcatcher upon it. Once he was satisfied with how it looked amongst the others, he nudged Pixie out of his way and climbed down. He had been drinking from the blood pack during their little conversation so it was nearly empty. After swallowing down what was left, he tossed it in the garbage and headed over to the cabinet that held all of his 'kitty keeping' supplies. He crouched down and pulled open the door.

"Was litter all you wanted, or do you need more food too?" he asked. He had asked Connie to give the girl some cat food days ago, but he wasn't sure how much she usually fed him.

Granger shook her head. "Just the litter." she said. "There's still enough food for several days." she stopped, as if thinking of something. "But... actually, now that I'm thinking about it, do you have anything I could use to cut his claws? They're getting long and he likes to scratch."

"Pixie hates clippers. She threw a fit every time I tried to use them, so I got rid of the only pair I had." he admitted. "But I have a scratching board you can use."

The girl's brows furrowed. "Scratching board?"

He pushed himself up from the floor and passed the bag of cat litter to her. "It's like a giant nail file." he explained. "You drop some catnip down through the holes and the cat goes crazy trying to get it. They do all the work themselves."

Hermione's eyes lit up with interest and she declared it was rather clever idea she hadn't thought of before. Mihnea looked around and found the board was laying on the floor across the room. However, when he went over to fetch it, Pixie seemed to realize what he was doing and leapt down from the bed to run over and lay on top of it before he could pick it up. She did not like having one of her precious possessions being taken away.

"For God's sake, Pixie!" he exclaimed with a huff. "Will you stop acting stupid?" he pointed back at Granger. "Let the nice girl borrow it for a while. It's not going away forever."

The feline rolled onto her back and wiggled around, looking up at him with a pleading expression.

"Or I can give it to her and you wont have anything at all." he threatened.

Pixie blinked at him, then sprang up to her feet with a tortured sounding meow. That was an unacceptable alternative.

Mihnea sniffed. "That's what I thought."

He picked up the board, then gathered the cat up into his free arm for good measure - just to make sure she didn't try to sabotage anything else. Pixie squirmed and meowed in displeasure when he went back to give the board to Granger.

"Sorry." he told her, readjusting the animal more comfortably in his arms. "She doesn't like sharing."

Hermione shook her head. "Oh, no, it's fine." she assured him. "I think Crookshanks would act the same way." She then turned her attention directly to Pixie. "I'll bring it right back, I promise."

The cat just pulled back her head to study her - as if she wasn't quite sure whether to believe it or not. Granger seemed to find the action cute and smiled softly at her before glancing back up.

"May I?" she asked.

From the way her hand was expectantly held out, Mihnea gathered she wanted to pet her. He lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. "If she'll let you." he replied. "She's picky about who she'll let touch her, so don't be surprised if she gets mad."

The girl nodded to show she understood then looked back at the animal and extended her hand a little further. His cat stared at it suspiciously for a long time, then began squirming backwards in his arms. When Hermione slowly moved it closer, Pixie let out a low, warning hiss and scuttled up his shoulder to jump down behind his back. She backed across the room, keeping her eyes on the girl until she encountered the large round cushion she used for a bed and sat down.

Mihnea shot a frown back at her then turned back with a sigh. "Told you." he said. "She's suspicious of everyone, so don't take it personally."

Granger looked a little down about the animal running away from her, but quickly shook it off. "Well, she knows Crookshanks is mine, so I suppose I should have expected that." she replied. "She is beautiful though. Did you get her at the Magical Menagerie?"

Mihnea shook his head. "No, it was a little place in Knockturn Alley." When he noticed her eyes start to widen at the mention of that place, he went on. "Mom and Uncle Ed use things that you can't find anywhere else, so we stop there for supplies every now and then. The people are obnoxious and they'll rob you blind if you let them, but being seen there keeps up my reputation with the Slytherins." he shrugged. "Anyway, Pixie's one of those breeds that's 'technically' illegal, so I wouldn't have been able to get her anywhere else. It's harder to control a domestic/wild mix than an animal with the wildness bred out of them, so most people get rid of them once the fun of having something exotic wears off." he gave her a meaningful look. "Don't tell anyone about that."

That wildness was exactly why he wanted Pixie in the first place. The owner of the store said that she was the only one of his cats that preferred to kill her own food, and she wasn't above attacking him when he stuck live rats into her cage. The sight of the kitten covered in so much blood that it looked like she'd taken a bath in her leftovers caused him to fall in love with her on the spot. And when Pixie first saw him, she immediately began clawing at the lock on her cage, wanting to get out. She had recognized that they were the same just like he did.

While Granger obviously didn't like the idea of the infamous Knockturn Alley, she understood the reason behind his request.

"Oh, no, I won't say anything." she promised. "I was only asking because Crookshanks lived in that store for years before I came along and I thought, with the way she acts around him, she might have seen him before. The owner said he used to cause trouble among the other cats a lot." she paused, caught up in a memory. "My parents finally agreed to let me get an owl, but he... came out of nowhere and jumped on me. I'd never seen an animal do that before and when I heard that no one else wanted him, I couldn't say no."

Mihnea hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe he was waiting for you." he offered.

The girl blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

He stepped back and shrugged again. "Cats are just as intellegent as people. Some of them are even more intellegent, if you ask me. They choose us just as much as we choose them. Maybe no one else seemed to want him because he didn't want them."

Granger appeared dumfounded by the statement, but thoughtful as well. Surely she was smart enough to realize that some cats out there weren't just ordinary animals. "I... never thought about it that way." she admitted.

She thanked him again and readjusted the objects he'd given her more comfortably in preparation to take them back to her room. But just as she was about to leave, Mihnea called out to stop her. He had something he wanted to say while there wasn't an audience around, and this seemed like the best time for it.

"Hey, Granger?" he waited until she was looking back at him to clear his throat. "I'm sorry about your family. If I had gotten there sooner, I would have been able to do more."

Hermione didn't immediately react. She just... stood there for a while, studying him - first in a silent sort of surprise, then a slow dawn of realization. He wasn't sure if she fully understood that he felt somewhat responsible for their deaths, but she could see that the apology was sincere.

"I believe you did everything you could have." she said at last. "And I don't blame you for anything. There's nothing to be sorry for."

Though it wasn't much, her words took a weight off of his shoulders. Mihnea blew out a long stream of air and felt his muscles relax. He hadn't realized how tense they had been before.

"Thank you." he said.

The girl shook her head in response. "No, thank you." she told him. She shuffled her feet and gestured to the things she was carrying. "I'll... bring the board back later?"

He told her to just keep it and he'd get it back tomorrow. There was no point in rushing her when Pixie wasn't in desperate need to have her claws tamed. Granger then nodded and stepped out, pulling the door closed behind her. The moment she was gone, a dark, silky voice spoke from somewhere behind him.

"I was beginning to wonder when you'd start entertaining female guests." Alucard commented. "Especially a female guest who isn't afraid to come to your bedroom."

Mihnea rolled his eyes at his father's tease and turned on his heel to face him. The master vampire had appeared out of nowhere and was lounging in a chair next to the small round table across the room.

"She wanted stuff for her cat." he told him.

Alucard lifted a brow and hummed. He crossed one leg over the other and clasped his hands in his lap. "I see now why you were having so much trouble before." he said, glancing toward the door. "She and the little redheaded girl smell particularly delicious."

The boy might have gotten embarrassed about the insuating statement, but he had endured enough goading and teasing on the subject that he felt justified more than anything else.

"It's worse when they're bleeding." he said with a sniff.

His dad chuckled. "I can imagine, but I'd hardly describe the sensation as 'worse'." His crimson eyes sparkled with mischief, then drifted down to the corks hanging around his neck. "You've gotten a response from your pet, I see."

Mihnea glanced down at his nargle charm, then nodded. "Yep." he pointed over toward his bed. "She sent a new dreamcatcher too."

The vampire peered in the direction he indicated and studied the new addition to his collection. "Ah, so she's an artisan as well?" he asked. "You simply must bring her home with you sometime. I'd like to see this interesting creature for myself."

The boy tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, trying to imagine how a meeting like that would go. With the way Luna was, he couldn't see her being afraid of anything. She'd probably wander around, looking at everyone and everything whilst dreamily talking about how interesting it was.

"Maybe I will." he conceeded. He glanced at the table. "Chess?"

"Indeed." his father agreed.

---

The rest of Christmas break went by like a blur. With so many new people in the house, there was always something to keep everyone entertained. The employees who had been off for the holidays began coming back a couple of days after Christmas and the Hellsing Organization began shifting back into it's usual level of operations. Connie's mother had meetings with the Round Table conference to attend, as well as all the paperwork that called for her attention. Her dad had business to take care of at his production factories, and aunt Syn had her schedule filled with modifying Mihnea's gun (which she wanted to get done before school started), building Alucard's new one, then all the regular inspections she had to do with the soldiers.

When Rebecca and Jackson got back to the manor, they were immediately introduced to everyone as being the most 'highly ranked', servants in the household, so to speak. There were families in the magical world who could afford to hire governesses for their children, so there was no need to explain what Rebecca did. Jackson's job description, however, proved more problematic. Connie finally resorted to saying that the man was like a 'jack of all trades' who primarily served as Integra's personal assistant, but also did anything else around the house she didn't trust anyone else to do right. Hermione tried to give a more detailed explanation of what a muggle valet was, but it wound up making the wizards more confused than before she started.

Constance's birthday wound up being a real treat. It was the first time she got an actual party with friends in attendance. Every other birthday she'd had at home had been with only her family and occasionally (when they happened to be in the country at the same time) the younger members of the royal family that she was close in age to. But the fact of the matter was that those were more 'social friendships'. They got along and were friendly with each other, but they weren't so close that they 'hung out' or did things together often. Having a large group of people around that she truly cared about meant a lot and even though it was nothing fancy, Connie thought it was the best birthday she'd had to date.

But then the matter of returning to school quickly came upon them, and they had to work out a battle strategy of sorts to make sure they were all on the same page about what could and couldn't be said if anyone asked questions. Mr. Weasley had started going back to work and he made it very clear that the people there were intent on figuring out exactly what was going on with them.

"It sounds to me like Fudge has been covering things up the best he can, but there are always things that get out to people." he told them one night over supper. "The Ministry believes we've been in a safehouse guarded by Hellsing, not the place that's their center of operations." he gave all of his children a meaningful look. "You can't say a word to Percy."

"Wait a minute." Syn interjected, holding up a hand. She looked back and forth between him and his wife. "Who's Percy?"

"He's our older brother." Fred and George replied together with mutual frowns on their faces. "Big-headed arrogant sot..."

Mrs. Weasley gave a start. "Don't talk about your brother that way!" she commanded, then calmed down a bit to address everyone else. "We're on the outs with Percy at the moment." she said, obviously torn up about it. "He's... well, he's always been ambitious, but ever since he took that internship with the Ministry..."

It appeared she couldn't bring herself to say much else. Her husband frowned and cleared his throat.

"Percy... hasn't quite figured out how the world works yet." he explained. "He worships the ground Fudge walks on and believes the man is infallible. I don't like saying something like this about my own son, but I wouldn't put it past him to act as a spy for him. If he found out about something important, he'd pass it along without being asked just to advance his position."

Poor Mrs. Weasley looked like she wanted to burst into tears. "Arthur, maybe... if we explained things." she said, wringing her hands anxiously. "Made him understand what's going on. If he knew how bad it would be for everyone..."

"I've seen him at work, Molly, and I know how he acts." Mr. Weasley interuppted. "Percy's gotten so caught up in making himself look good that he's forgotten that power and position isn't everything. He believes he's in the right and nothing anyone tells him will make him see reason. It's too dangerous." he gave his head a firm shake, looking upset, though there was a glint of regret in his eyes. "I hate it, but he's grown now and he's chosen his side. All we can do is hope he comes to his senses before he does something he'll regret."

There was a short span of uncomfortable silence where both of them looked unhappy with the situation, knowing there wasn't anything they could do about it. It was awful that they would have to put Percy off if he asked any questions, but realistically, all of his siblings had reached the point where it wouldn't bother them. He had a superiority complex and made a right arse of himself most of the time, so telling him to mind his own business wouldn't be that hard to do. In their group, Hermione was the one who had the most respect for him (due to his being Head Boy), but even she agreed that it was best to leave him out of it.

When the time came for them to depart for Hogwarts, everyone packed up their trunks and congregated in the garage. The new wards on the Burrow hadn't been placed yet, so Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would remain at the manor for a few more days. Jackson would drive them to the train station, and there would be a car with a couple of soldiers in civilian dress that would follow to make sure nothing happened. Connie's parents gave her and Mihnea a warning to keep a sharp eye out, since the moment they boarded the train, they'd be on their own. It had always been that way and it had come up before, but the situation felt much more serious this time around.

After everyone got their hugs and final goodbyes, they were on their way. Jackson got them to the station without incident. The man usually didn't stay to actually see them off, but this time he came in with them and kept a watchful eye out as they went through the portal to board the platform. Some students had returned to school early, so it wasn't as busy at had been when they left, providing them with plenty of time and room to get their luggage into the car at the back. Mihnea then headed off toward his section of the train, while the rest of them boarded the Gryffindor car. There was a plethora of seats available, so they were able to get one all of them could fit in.

The ride itself was uneventful aside from Fred and George shocking everyone senseless by pulling wads of muggle money out of their pockets to count up. It turned out that when Pip heard they were into gambling, he told them about how the soldiers liked to hold poker tournaments. Connie had taught George how to play and he must have turned around and taught Fred because they both felt confident enough to get involved. And to the men's surprise, the pair started winning. They even went so far as to request Captain Bernadette to keep an eye on them to make sure they weren't cheating. When the vampire couldn't locate any signs of deception, the soldiers demanded the two of them be present at every game to give them a chance at beating them. It sounded like the men back home had seen as a 'male pride' thing that they just couldn't back away from. Fred and George made an enormous profit from it. While there hadn't been much wagered in each individual game (compared to what the soldiers normally bet during tournaments), the sum total of their winnings came out to be nearly three thousand euros.

Everyone's eyes were bulging at the number, but Fred and George wanted something more specific.

"What's that mean in our money?" they asked.

"I don't know, but it's a lot. Um..." Connie said, then looked over at Hermione. "I don't have a quill and you're better at mental math than me."

It turned out that there hadn't been a need for her to ask. Hermione was already thinking it over. She pressed her lips together pensievely. "It would be... four hundred and two galleons, five sickles and ten knuts." she declared. "Give or take a few."

"Seriously?" the twins exclaimed in unison.

"I'm pretty sure." the girl replied. "Wizarding money has an odd exchange rate, so I'd need to work it out on paper to be certain... but that's close to what it would be." she paused to narrow her eyes at them. "Does your mother know you've been gambling?"

The question made both of them sober up extremely fast. "Don't go and be a spoiled sport, Granger." Fred said with a frown. "It was all in good fun. No one got mad and it was won fair and square. Right Georgie?"

His brother nodded. "You gonna rat us out then?" he asked. He stuck out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. "After we were so nice and did all that stuff for you?"

Hermione responded by crossing her arms over her chest like she were offended. "No, I'm not going to rat you out. I just hope you realize how irresponsible it is to play around with money that way. You could have lost everything you had 'fair and square'."

"But we didn't." George pointed out.

"And if we had, we wouldn't have complained since it would have been our fault." Fred said. He put on a serious expression and he glanced at his twin. "It's a wonder she wasn't born into our family. Sounds just like mom, doesn't she?"

"Just like her." George agreed, wearing the exact same look.

The rest of the trip was spent with everyone asking them what they planned to do with their winnings. Harry and Ron thought they'd be able to get a ton of supplies for their Wheezes with it, which was a good idea for building up a surplus. However, Constance chipped in and suggested that they not spent all of it in one place. If they were serious about this business idea of theirs, they would need money for marketing and a building to put a store in. Getting enough to pay for those things was going to take a while, so it would be best to start saving early. Fred and George thought that was a smashing idea and began thinking of the best ways to divide up what they already had, setting aside some for spending now, while the rest they would lock up somewhere and add to it when they could.

It was dark when the train finally pulled into Hogsmeade station and the air was colder than it had been in London. Since there were fewer students to worry about, there were only a handful of carriages waiting to take them to the castle. All of them were full except for the one at the end of the line. Constance was making her way toward it when she noticed the others had stopped. She turned around to see what was going on.

"What's wrong?"

The whole group of them had frozen in their tracks, staring at something in front of them. That was when it hit her. All of them had witnessed death - Hermione with her parents, and the rest with the vampires at the Burrow. They could see the thestrals now.

"Bloody hell, what are those things?" Ron asked, peering at them nervously.

"They're thestrals." Connie replied.

Harry looked away from the beasts long enough to blink at her. "What's a thestral?"

"It's a rare breed of carnivorous winged horse." Hermione said, putting her encyclopedia of a brain to the task. She spoke more slowly than usual, like she was disturbed by their presence too. "They're dark creatures that can only be seen by people who have witnessed death." She shook her head and peered at Constance. "The carriages were never spelled to pull themselves, were they? It's been thestrals the whole time."

She sounded more curious than genuinely upset and Connie nodded in response. To her left, Ron huffed.

"Seriously Connie, we need to talk about this 'not telling people stuff' thing you do." he said, looking irritated. "You don't think the carriages being pulled by blood drinking horses that look like skeletons is something worth mentioning to a person?"

"Shut up, Ron." George warned.

"Merlin, George, I'm just saying..."

The girl sighed. She had been dealing with this same issue so often over the past two weeks that she no longer had the energy to get upset about it anymore.

"You wouldn't have been able to see them before now." she pointed out. "Would you have believed me if I told you about them?"

The ginger haired boy studied her for a moment then deflated and looked down at the ground. He muttered something under his breath, but she couldn't make out what it was.

"Excuse me?" Connie asked.

"I said I probably would have thought you were going barmy." Ron repeated louder.

"Precisely." she said.

Making a declaration that she would like to get to the castle before her fingers and toes dropped off from frostbite, Constance began a forward march toward the carriage. Since there was nothing they could do about the travel arrangements, her friends followed. The other students had already gone, meaning that they would be the last ones to arrive at the school. As they approached the carriage, everyone gave the thestral at the front a wide birth. Connie figured that seeing a huge black horse that looked like it could eat you if it wanted would take some getting used to no matter how open minded you were, so she couldn't get too upset at their silliness.

When they finally reached their destination, each of them disembarked from the carriage and went through the main doors of the castle. Constance would have thought that everyone would be in the Great Hall having a spot of supper, but was surprised to see someone wandering around in the main entranceway.

"Luna?" she called, recognizing the girl from her short stature and long blonde hair. "What are you doing here?" Connie paused when she saw that she was holding Pixie's leash and the cat herself was sitting complacently at her feet. "And... why do you have Mihnea's cat?"

The girl turned from where she was absentmindedly studying a random section of ceiling. "Oh, hello everyone." she greeted with that dreamy looking smile of hers. "I was waiting for you, actually. Mihnea wanted me to tell you that he's sorry he didn't wait for you, but he had some important business to take care of." she shifted her arms, showing that she had his messenger bag and cloak with her as well. "I'm holding onto his things until he gets back. It shouldn't be too much longer."

The others looked amongst themselves in confusion. "Uh..." Harry began. "What business does he have to take care of? We just got back."

"He's doing something awful to Vincent Crabbe, I expect." Luna replied as if talking about something that wasn't worth worrying about. "He knocked me down while we were getting off the platform and said some not very nice things. I told Mihnea that it didn't bother me and he shouldn't worry about it, but he just doesn't listen to me sometimes."

Constance blinked. That meant that her cousin had probably dragged Crabbe into some dark, hidden corner of the castle to beat the ever living snot out of him. Down on the floor, Pixie had taken notice of Crookshanks, who was being held in Hermione's arms, and padded in front of Luna. She rubbed against her legs - almost like marking her territory - whilst shooting the feline equivilent of daggers in his direction. The blonde girl herself didn't seem to think much of it and looked down at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry, but you know I can't pick you up while my arms are full." she told her.

Hermione looked perplexed (and a teensy bit offended for some reason) and leaned forward to whisper into Connie's ear. "That's really odd." she said. "I tried to pet her once and she hissed at me."

Indeed, it was pretty astonishing that Pixie was acting the way she was. Mihnea was the only person she allowed to touch her whenever he wanted. She'd let the rest of the family pet her on occasion, but it was always on her own terms. Anyone outside of immediate family... was unheard of. Pixie just didn't do it. Ever.

Since all of them were there, they decided to speak to the girl for a moment. Realistically, the others were probably waiting around to hear about what horrors Mihnea had put Crabbe through, but since Luna was there, it would be rude not to include her in a conversation. Ginny, who knew her best, asked how her holiday had gone. Luna politely replied that it had been wonderful. She then revealed that she had heard about the vampires attacking Ottery St. Mary, and was glad to see that all of them were alright. That gave everyone a good shock until Ginny realized where her knowledge must have come from.

"Oh, that's right!" she exclaimed. "I forgot you live just over the hill from us."

"It's okay. I'm not surprised you forgot where I live." Luna replied passively. "I'm an easy sort of person to overlook."

Wow. Constance thought. That was a depressing thing to say about yourself. The atmosphere suddenly became uncomfortable, and looking around, she wondered if the others weren't sure of how to respond out of the knowledge that the girl was probably right. Hermione took it upon herself to make an attempt at easing the awkwardness.

"That's an interesting bracelet you're wearing." she commented, gesturing to the girl's left arm. "I've never noticed it before. Is it new?"

Luna gave a small start and looked down at her wrist. "Yes, it's new. Mihnea gave it to me for Christmas."

Constance blinked. Gave it to her for Chris... she thought. Oh. Oh! He'd been working on a herald for her during the break, so that had to be what it was.

"Why that stupid prat!" she exclaimed. She would have kicked him if he were there. "He told me he was working on something for you, but he never let me see it." She peered at Luna questioningly. "Do you mind if I have a look?"

The blonde smiled and shook her head. "Of course not." she said. Luna readjusted the things she was holding so she could hold out her left arm.

Connie was still getting used to this idea of her cousin having a 'pet', but she had to admit the piece of jewelry he'd come up with for her was gorgeous. The band consisted of oval, polished moonstones - the same color as Luna's eyes - set in silver. Silver charms hung between the individual stones, shaped in a wide variety of forms - from ladybugs, frogs, and tennis shoes, to crescent moons, thimbles, and feathers. At the top of her wrist, in the same position the face of a watch would sit, was a flat, oval shaped piece of silver engraved with the image of a dragon. It looked eerily similar to Mihnea's familiar. The wings outstretched and prepared for flight, while one of the forelimbs was slightly raised with claws extended. Between the dragon's open jaws was a star with rays radiating out from it's center. Mihnea had always had a thing for astronomy and studying the heavens, so it made perfect sense. The engraving was expertly done (which was to be expected if aunt Syn had been responsible) and the entire bracelet had been carefully thought out and crafted to suit the personality of the girl wearing it.

"It's beautiful." she complimented.

Luna beamed happily and Constance thought it was the first time she'd ever seen the girl wear an expression that didn't show any signs of spaceyness.

"Thank you." she said graciously, pulling her arm back. "I thought so too."

Connie studied at her thoughtfully for a moment. Brought down to it's simplest parts, this whole pet thing meant that Mihnea had made Luna a member of the family. Her notion of getting to know the girl better needed to be moved up.

"We should do something sometime." she offered. "I don't know you nearly as well as I should, and it needs to be fixed."

Luna's head cocked sideways a bit as she considered the proposal, then nodded as well. "I'd like to do that. It's important now, isn't it?"

"What's important?" Connie heard her cousin's voice question.

Everyone turned to see Mihnea striding toward them from one of the side hallways. Constance stepped toward Luna and gestured to her.

"Oh, I was just saying that Luna and I should hang out sometime." she told him. She glanced down at the girl's new piece of jewelry then back at him, knowing he would catch it. "Would you have a problem with that?"

He joined their little group and wrinkled his nose at her. "Oh please, Connie. Don't be stupid." he said with a small huff of annoyance. "Do whatever you want."

Fred and George exchanged an odd sort of look bewteen themselves as Mihnea began taking his things back from Luna. They obviously thought something weird was going on between them, but weren't quite sure of whether to ask outright. So Fred decided to switch topics entirely.

"Heard you had some... business to take care of." he commented meaningfully.

Mihnea paused in pulling his bag onto his shoulder and glanced sideways at him. "You could say that." He replied. His lips slowly curled into an evil looking smirk and he brought up his hand to lick a trail of blood off his fingers.

The action made everyone's eyes widen, wondering what he could have done. He had to be showing off for the sake of scaring them, because it wasn't very much blood. You could get the same amount from a deep papercut. Luna, however, took his display in an entirely different way. She watched him lick his fingers, then turned her gaze onto the rest of them in a strangely curious way. Like she were trying to figure something out. Then she seemed to come to an understanding of what was going on and looked back at him with her usual level of calmness.

"You didn't bite him, did you?" she asked. "I hope not, because that would be a hard thing to try to explain."

Mihnea chuckled at her. "No, Luna, I didn't bite him." he assured her. "I just broke his nose." he paused for a moment. "And a few fingers. And I might have knocked a couple of teeth loose." he waved a hand. "He'll live."

"Oh, well that's alright then." the girl stated. She glanced back down the hallway he had come from. "I suppose you intend to just leave him where you left him and let someone else find him? That's a terrible thing to do, you know."

"Yeah, well, he deserves it." Mihnea countered. He looked back at the others for a moment. "I'll catch up with you guys later." he said, then took Luna's hand and the two of them began walking off toward the Great Hall. "Now," he said to her. "Finish telling me about the wrackspurts."

Constance thought the image of how they interacted with each other to be sort of endearing in an odd sort of way. But her friends looked completely flabberghasted.

"Bite him?" Ron repeated. He pointed down the hallway they had disappeared down. "That Luna girl knows what Bassarab is?"

Connie nodded in response. "Yes, she knows." she replied. "I'm not sure about everything else, but she definitely knows about him."

She then said that they needed to get to the Great Hall before supper was gone. She didn't really want to be put in a position of having to explain what was going on between those two. It was her cousin's business. Besides, she was getting hungry and they probably needed to find a teacher and tell them that one of Malfoy's goons was laid out in a hallway somewhere with a broken nose and loose teeth.

---

Since they had gotten back to the castle later than everyone else, there weren't that many students down in the Great Hall. Everyone got to reunite with their fellow students and exchange the normal pleasantries of asking how the holidays had been. Whatever cover-up the Ministry put into place to keep the attacks from getting out appeared to be working. They had never been reported in the Daily Prophet, so no one was aware they had happened.

But when they got back to the Gryffindor common room for the night, they ran into Percy. And all hell broke loose.

It seemed that Percy either hadn't been told about Harry and Hermione's houses being hit, or he thought it was better to leave them out of the discussion he wanted to have. He only dragged his siblings over into a secluded corner to speak to. Harry, Hermione, and Constance tried to get as close as they could so they could hear what was going on, but Percy would continually stop everything and order them to move along. It was downright annoying. Several students had gone up to their dorms for the night, but when the talk going on between the Weasleys descended into an all out argument, the room quickly began to empty of those who had stayed up. Only a mere handful were left behind, talking behing their hands and shooting weird looks at the collection of redheads whispering furiously at each other. Eventually, the threesome left out of the argument gave up on trying to get involved and slumped on the sofa in front of the fireplace.

"I wonder what they told him?" Hermione asked worriedly, shooting a look over the back of the couch. "I've never seen Percy so out of sorts before."

Harry frowned and looked over at Connie. "Why wouldn't they have told him about us being involved too?" he questioned. "Everything happened because they were trying to get to me."

Constance shook her head. "The Ministry is probably trying to prevent a panic." she said quietly. "People are already nervous about Black being on the loose. Can you imagine how they'd react if they knew he might have large groups of vampires helping him? Chaos would break out."

It was the same reason Hellsing covered up vampire attacks from the general populace when they were able to. One or two people could be made to see reason. Even a small group was manageable. But dealing with people in massive numbers was an entirely different animal. The collective intellegence of any group went down exponentially the bigger it grew. Society as a whole didn't think logically or consider every factor of a situation. It acted on pure emotion. Which was why the few people at the top who were in the know had to carefully judge what was appropriate to tell them. Sometimes you could use the fear and outrage of large numbers of people to your advantage. Other times... it was just bad for everyone no matter how you looked at it.

The fight going on behind them had apparently turned to a more general topic because their voices were growing louder. Connie wondered if there might be some way of getting them to break it up, but her thoughts were interrupted.

"Hey guys." Neville said, walking over to speak to them. He peered at Connie for a moment. "Nice glasses."

God love Neville Longbottom. He hadn't been downstairs when they arrived, and he now provided the perfect distraction. Tuning out the angry chorus of sounds pouring forth from the corner, the three of them greeted him warmly.

"Hey Neville." Harry said. "Did you go home again this year?"

The boy nodded in response. "Yeah, gran wanted me to come back. She's been redecorating the house again so she needed help moving stuff around..."

"...don't have a bleeding thing to do with us if you can help it, so why do you care?" George shouted. "Go back to doing your important things with those important people you love so much and leave us low-lifes alone why don't you?"

"Dont talk to me that way! I'm your broth...!"

"Shove it up your arse, Percy!"

All four of them winced. Neville's face screwed up and his eyes shot down to the floor.

"Man, it sounds bad." he mumbled, glancing over at the Weasleys. He swallowed and looked back at them. "Do you know what's going on?"

Hermione frowned deeply. "There's no telling." she said. "They've been going at each other for a while now."

Connie was glad she kept it so general. Everyone would think this was just an explosion that had been in the making for a long time. She shook her head and focused on the boy in front of her.

"I got something for Christmas you're going to love." she told him, deciding to focus on something pleasant. "A full set of stones and crystals. We'll be able to experiment with influences without having to schedule with Professor Apophyll to use his."

Just as she thought, Neville's eyes lit up and went wide with excitement. "Really!" he exclaimed. "That's great! I actually had a few ideas I've been wanting to try out after that last lesson on Amazonite..." he sobered a bit and peered at her. "You wouldn't mind sharing?"

It was good to see him looking forward to something so much. Neville's stutter completely disappeared when he was happy or excited. "Of course not!" she said, reaching out to give him a playful shove. "I said 'we' didn't I?" She suddenly remembered something. "Did you see your grades? What did you have?"

The boy blinked at her for a moment. "Oh! Right." He took a step back and reached behind him to retrieve a slip of paper from his pocket. "I wanted to show you when you got back. I swear Gran was so happy she floated up off the floor a few inches."

Oh, it had to be good then. Constance took the peice of parchment Neville handed to her and opened it up. The other classes listed weren't that great, but there were two that immediately stuck out. He had O's in Herbology and Geomancy.

"What did I tell you?" Connie said with a proud grin. "I knew you could do it!"

Hermione and Harry leaned over to get a look for themselves. "Are those O's?" Hermione asked. Her eyes lit up as well. "Oh, Neville, that's wonderful!"

Neville's ears turned red, but he looked pleased all the same. Constance couldn't see what he was embarrassed about. He had done well and had every right to proud. As she handed his report card back to him, Percy let out a vicious sounding stream of insults. Neville screwed his eyes shut and flinched again.

"I think I'd better go before it gets nasty." he said. He slipped his report card back into his pocket, then appeared to think of something. He turned to Harry. "Oh yeah, you might want to take a look under the tree before you come upstairs for the night. You've got a present."

Harry turned back around on the sofa to blink at him. "A present?" he repeated, confused. "But..." he gestured back toward the Weasleys. "They're the only ones that ever send me anything, and I was with them. Where'd it come from?"

"Don't know." Neville replied with a shrug. "I just found out about it myself. Seamus was here, and he said it was under the tree Christmas morning. He figures the house elves brought it up. It's sort of..." his words trailed off when a loud bang rang out from the corner, making him jerk involuntarily. "You'll see. See you later."

With that, he cautiously made his way across the room with the other students who decided to get the hell out before they got hit with a stray spell. Ginny had pulled her wand on her brother and it looked like the loud sound had come from the hex she cast striking stone instead of flesh. Percy had ducked behind a column near staircase to avoid being hit by it.

"Go on then!" the girl shouted at him. "Run like a coward! That's all you ever do anyway!"

Percy stuck his head out from behind a column. "Ginny..." he began.

"Dont you dare!" she shot back before he could finish. "Don't talk to me! Don't even look at me! Just... just... leave before I blast your face off!"

Percy took the threat seriously and ducked back behind the column and ran upstairs to the dormitories. Constance thought it was pretty impressive that Ginny could chase off someone significantly older and bigger than her. But when the girl turned and she saw for herself how pissed off she was, she understood. Ginny looked pretty damn scary so Connie might have given serious thought to running away too.

With Percy gone, the seven of them were left alone in the common room. Harry shot a brief glance up at the landing of the staircase to make sure no one was hanging around to spy on them, then cleared his throat.

"What did he say?" he asked.

Ron shot a dirty look up toward the dorms. "He thinks we've been cursed."

Hermione's eyes widened in disbelief. "What?" she exclaimed. "But... anyone with half a brain could look at you and tell you haven't been!"

"Exactly." Fred and George said together. "He hasn't got half a brain."

They looked like they were going to explain the specifics of what had happened between them, but Constance quickly held up her hands to stop them.

"Come over here and sit down." she told them. She shot a look at the upper floors. "In case anyone decides to come back."

If they tried to talk to each other across a room, it would increase their chances of being overheard. Ron and the twins agreed and began walking over to join them, but Ginny held herself back. She was upset and didn't feel up to talking, so she said she'd rather just go up to her room and try to calm down. It honestly sounded like the best thing to do, since she could run interference and give them a heads up if she noticed any of their fellow housemates attempting to sneak back downstairs to see what the argument had been about. Her brothers just watched as she headed up to her dormitory, then let out mutual sighs of frustration. Fred and George plopped down in the loveseat sitting at an angle to the sofa Connie and the others were on, while Ron took a seat in the armchair across from them.

"So..." Constance began slowly. "Does... Fudge think we're manipulating you with magic or something?"

"No... Well, maybe." Ron said. He looked frustrated and confused by the whole thing. "Hell, we don't know. He didn't say anything about what Fudge thought. Percy wasn't making any sense at all. First he was going on about how Hellsing probably started the whole mess as a way of 'getting back at the Ministry' for something or other, then he started talking about how we must have been locked up and had our memories altered so we couldn't talk about anything."

Hermione's eyebrows knit together. "Locked up?" she repeated. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Why on earth would they lock us up, only to let us go without getting anything out of it? And if you did have your memories altered, then he has no room to get upset because you wouldn't be able to tell him anything. That's the whole point of modifying a person's memories!"

Fred and George both sniffed and crossed their arms over their chests. "Yeah, well obviously we could get around it if we wanted to, but won't because we don't like him." they said sarcastically.

"We all said the same thing dad's been telling people at work." George went on. "We didn't see anything spectacular, and the only thing we know about where we were is that it was near London. But that story isn't good enough for him, so he goes and makes up all this crazy stuff to make himself feel better about being left out. I'm surprised he he isn't ranting about how we were tortured."

Fred immediately moved to shush his twin. "Don't say that too loud, mate." he told him. "Perce' will start getting ideas."

Harry looked amongst all of them carefully. "How'd he find out in the first place?" he asked.

Ron pulled his feet up to sit cross-legged on the seat. "He says he got a letter from his boss." he told him. "But Barty Crouch is the head of the Department for International Cooperation, so I don't know how he would have known unless Fudge told him to pass word along to Percy since he's family."

Fred nodded. "After he got the letter from Crouch he started 'asking around' to see what he could find out. Dad says people at the Ministry intermingle a lot during breaks and stuff, so he probably knows people in other departments. There's no telling what he heard."

If the Ministry was anything like any muggle business or government agency, there would probably be gossip spreading around. And, as with any kind of rumor, the stories got bigger and more convoluted the further down the line they got. Percy might have caught wind of something that was so removed from the truth that it could scarely be recognized as referring to the same event. Next to her, Hermione fidgeted nervously.

"He's not going to go around talking about it, is he?" she asked. "Surely he's smart enough to know better than that."

George shook his head. "No, it sounds like Crouch told him that it was 'Ministry business' and he needed to keep his mouth shut." his face twisted up like he had a bad smell in his nose. "Percy's stupid, but he's not that stupid. If his boss told him to keep quiet, he's not going to gossip about it."

Constance felt herself release a long breath of air. At least that was one thing they didn't have to worry about. She didn't much like the idea of yet another fight breaking out on account of this whole mess... but she supposed that there wasn't much that could be done about it. Ron huffed again and decided to switch topics to something else so they didn't fall into brooding over it.

"What was Neville over here for?" he questioned.

Harry told him that they had just been talking. However, he remembered the last thing the boy had said before leaving and said he still couldn't figure out why he would have a present at school. The twins and Ron hadn't been present for that conversation, so they encouraged him to go take a look. Everyone got up from their seats and went to the Christmas tree that was standing in the far left corner of the room. It was a bit odd for it to still be up, but the house elves usually didn't remove them until all the presents were gone. Underneath, wrapped in plain brown paper, was a long, rectangular box - nearly the same length as the the loveseats in the room. Harry carefully pulled it out and lifted it into his lap.

"It's heavy." he commented, then looked around at them. "Who do you suppose it sent it?"

Constance frowned. "Is there a tag or anything?"

"No..." Harry replied.

He tilted the box in every direction to look, but the only thing he could find was a small slip of parchment attached that bore his name. There was nothing indicating who the box was from.

"That's really strange..." Hermione said in a low voice. She stared at the box for a long time, her eyes narrowing. "I don't like it, Harry. We just had to deal with vampires trying to hunt you down, and now a mysterious present pops out of nowhere?"

"It doesn't make much sense for them to send something to school when they knew he wasn't here." Fred pointed out.

Ron nodded. "Yeah, and Dumbledore gave him the invisibility cloak for Christmas first year." he reminded them. "That didn't have a tag saying who it was from either."

Hermione shook her head. "That was different." she said. "Given the situation, I would think that if Dumbledore meant to give him something, he would have just brought it to Hellsing manor. Why would he leave it here for him to find now when he came to see us just before Christmas?"

"Why the devil would I know? This is Dumbledore we're talking about!" Ron said. He gave Harry an insistent nudge. "Go on, mate. Open it."

Constance found the situation questionable as well but if the gift itself had been spelled to do something, it would have reacted upon being touched. Harry was balancing it in his lap and had put his hands all over it, so it obviously wasn't going to do anything. The boy ripped the paper off and tossed it to the side. Underneath, the box was plain and white. No writing or designs on it at all. Harry gripped both ends to pull off the cardboard lid and see what was inside. Everyone went very still when the contents were revealed.

"That's..." Connie said, peering inside. "That's a broom."

To her, all broomsticks looked about the same, but all of the boys' eyes bulged and they started getting excited for some reason.

"A broom?" George repeated, gaping at her in astonishment. "A broom, Connie? That's not just any old broomstick! That." he pointed at the object laying in the box. "Is a Firebolt!"

"Um..." she said, blinking at him. "Okay, so it's a Firebolt. Is that supposed to mean something?"

Hermione took hold of her arm. "It's the fastest broom ever made." she told her. "And it's so expensive that stores that sell them don't advertise the cost. They only reveal the price to serious buyers who ask for it. This is the closest thing the wizarding world has to that sports car Mihnea got from his parents."

Ron looked impressed that Hermione actually knew something about brooms. He recovered from the moment of surprise to look back at Connie.

"That's an international standard broom, that is." he said. "All the professional Quiddich teams are using them now." he turned to Harry with a wide grin. "Just wait until Malfoy sees this! He'll be sick as a pig!"

Oh. Constance thought. Well, it was no wonder the boys were practically drooling over it. But it also made it's appearance that much more suspect. Albus Dumbledore loved Harry to death, but she couldn't imagine him buying the boy an insanely priced broomstick no matter how much he was affected by the loss of his old one. She and Hermione looked at each other, both thinking the exact same thing. This stank of a trap. When they saw Harry reaching into the box to pull it out, they both instinctively reacted.

"No!" the girls shouted. Hermione actually grabbed Harry's arm and jerked it back. "Don't touch it!"

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you two?" Ron demanded.

Harry was scowling at them as well for interfering in his enjoyment of the moment. He pulled his arm free from Hermione's grip with a huff. "What's the problem?" he demanded. "I've been wanting a new broom since my Nimbus 2000 got broken! This is perfect!"

"That's the problem. It's a little too perfect." Connie told him. "What if it's cursed?"

"Don't be stupid. Why would it be curs...?"

"Have you forgotten everything that's been happening lately?" Hermione demanded before he could finish. "Sirius Black is looking for you, Harry! He's boken into the castle trying to get into your dormitory. Those vampires that attacked us were aiming to capture you. Now, after that failed, a mysterious box shows up with no name on it containing the best broomstick in the world? Things like that don't randomly happen! If Black knew you weren't at school over the break, you don't think he could have found out about your broomstick being broken? The fastest, easiest way to kill you would be to curse something he knows you would love to have, then send it along knowing that you'll use it."

Harry blinked at her, realization slowly dawning in his eyes. He had gotten so caught up in the wonder and excitement of recieving something amazing that he forgot about the danger. He slowly drew his hands away from the box, but looked down at the broom with a pained expression.

"So what am I supposed to do then? Just leave it alone?" he asked, upset. "It's a Firebolt, Hermione!"

"A Firebolt that could kill you." the girl said firmly.

Constance cleared her throat meaningfully. "We should tell one of the teachers." she told him. "They can check it out for any spells that might have been put on it. Maybe there's nothing wrong with it and they can give it right back. But if there is some kind of spell or curse meant to hurt you, they'd be able to find it and remove it before it can do any damage." she gave him an understanding frown. "I know this is an amazing thing to get, but we've gone to a lot of trouble to keep you safe, Harry. You can't just throw that away. We have to be careful about this."

Harry was listening to her, but still didn't like the idea of giving up the broomstick. And Ron and the twins all looked stricken.

"But..." Ron began. "Do you know the sorts of things they do to check for curses? They cast a whole hoard of spells that strip off any magic that's there! If they do that, the broom might not be able to fly when they're through with it!"

"A broomstick can be replaced, Ronald." Hermione told him with a frown. "Harry can't."

"I'd like to see you replace a bleeding Firebolt." Fred muttered at her.

George, rather than joining in with their arguing on whether to turn it in or not, appeared to be carefully thinking it over. His eyes lit up with an idea and he sat up straighter.

"You always go on about how sorcery can do things that witchcraft cant." he said, looking at Constance. "And your dad and aunt fixed Hermione's wand when our magic wouldn't have been able to. Could it find a curse and take it off without messing up the spells that are supposed to be there?"

Connie faltered. She could sense where he was going with that, and she did not like it. "Well... yes, but..."

"There you go." Harry said resolutely. He took up the box by it's edges to put it down on the floor, then pushed it toward her. "Have a look at it and see if you find anything."

"Now wait a minute!" she protested. "I'm not an expert at this sort of thing!"

Hermione's mouth dropped open as well. "You're not seriously going to push this off on Connie, are you? What's wrong with you!"

"I'm not trying to push it off on her." Harry said firmly, giving her a hard glance. "I'm asking for her help." He turned back to Constance and lowered his voice, making it calmer and more imploring. "Please? This is something you'd know about, so just... do whatever you have to do."

Constance leaned back away from him. "Harry..." she said slowly. "I really think this is something a teacher should do. I'm just a..."

"You're a Newsom is what you are." George said pointedly. "Their magic is stronger than ours and you've grown up learning it. That's something none of the teachers here can say."

"Yeah." Fred piped up. "Your family is one of the best there is at sorcery! They wouldn't have been booted out of the magical world otherwise. Now does that mean something or not?"

"Of course it means something!" she said. "But this is ser..."

"Please, Connie." Harry said again. "I'm not asking for a miracle. I just want you to look. That's all."

She went still and looked around, taking in all of their expressions. They were intent and full of trust. And Harry... he had that sincere, pleading look in his eyes that was impossible to turn away from. This was not fair. Being outnumbered and having all of them begging her for something at once. Constance looked back at the Firebolt still in it's box. It was an amazing magical object. Something rare that anyone would jump at the chance to see up close - much less own. It was normal to be protective and not want to risk damaging it. She thought everything over carefully, then blew out a long stream of air.

"Okay, fine." she conceeded. She pointed a finger at Harry when she saw his eyes begin to light up. "But if there's one tiny little thing out of place, you're taking it to a teacher, do you understand?"

"Absolutely." He agreed, nodding quickly. He pulled her into a tight hug. "You're awesome, Connie!"

Constance wrinkled up her nose and pushed him off. "Don't get ahead of yourself. I haven't done anything yet."

Hermione wasn't the least bit happy with the arrangement. She folded her arms over her chest and huffed at them. "This is a horrible idea." she muttered.

"Don't be sore 'cause you didn't think of it." Ron chastized. He looked back at Connie. "What do you need?"

The girl sat back on her heels and thought about her options. The biggest issue was how to get the broomstick out of the box without touching it. Fred suggested that they use a levitation spell, but she shot the idea down. They weren't sure of what had been done to the broom, and casting a spell might cause a reaction. It was safer, in her opinion, to use the dragonhide gloves required for Potions. Dragon skin had a strong natural resistance to magic, so it would protect her from any curses that might be present. Connie quickly ran upstairs to fetch them from her trunk, then came back down.

"Okay." she said, pulling them on. "Everybody move back and give me some room. And someone keep an eye on the stairs."

The boys and Hermione all obligingly scooted back, forming a semi-circle on the floor in front of her. George, who was at the end closest to the stairs, turned himself so he'd be able to act as a look-out. Constance pulled the box in front of her and carefully lifted the broom up out of it, making sure not to let it touch anything. Harry then pulled the box out from under it so she could set the Firebolt down on the ground. With that out of the way, the girl pulled off her gloves and pushed herself up onto her knees so she could comfortably lean forward for the examination.

Finding and identifying magical signatures was a relatively simple proceedure. Anything that required an expenditure of energy left a sign behind. Powerful wizards and sorcerers who knew what they were doing could make it extremely difficult for someone else to find a magical 'trail', but it took a great deal of effort. In the magical world, very few people ever checked for things like that, so most thought that covering their tracks was a waste of time. Constance started at the front of the broom over the handle. She held out her hands, allowing them to hover a few inches above the wood, then closed her eyes. With her vision blocked out, she could better focus on the energy patterns. There was a definite 'sizzle' of magic there. A warm, inviting thrum marking the broom as being something other than ordinary. The magic itself felt very tame and orderly. A hallmark of witchcraft. She slowly drifted her hands down the broom's length, meticulously searching the entire space for anything that seemed out of place.

"This is so weird." Ron said quietly, apparently thinking she couldn't hear him. "Her hair is floating..."

"Shut up, Ronald." Hermione hissed at him.

Constance cracked an eye open to peer at them. "Do you mind? I'm trying to focus here."

The pair of them simpered down and apologized for interrupting. Connie closed her eye again and resumed her movements. Inching her hands across the space over the leather bound seat, then back over the bristles. She didn't feel anything dark or malicious. Not even neutral energy that could cause something annoying rather than harmful. There was just... flight and speed. The girl sat back and opened her eyes.

"Huh."

Harry studied her expectantly. "Well?"

Constance looked at him. "I don't feel anything out of place..." she admitted slowly.

She glanced back down at the Firebolt and frowned thoughtfully. If there was a curse present, it obviously wasn't strong enough to kill or seriously injure someone. She would be able to sense something with the potential of causing that level of damage. Confident that wasn't dangerous, she reached out and pressed a hand against the seat. Hermione sucked in a sharp breath when she saw what she was doing, but nothing happened. She didn't even feel a spike in the energy - which would have occured if there were a spell meant to attack. But that didn't mean everything was alright. It was possible that there was some kind of malicious curse tuned specifically to Harry. Though Constance was a naturally suspicious person, she had to admit that something of that nature was extremely unlikely. Still, the threat was big enough that it warranted a test.

"I need something of yours, Harry." she told him. "Something you've been wearing today that's picked up your energy. Your cloak, a glove, a sock... anything like that will work."

Harry gave her an odd look, but moved to do as she asked. He had taken off his cloak and gloves when they first entered the castle, but he'd been wearing the same pair of socks all day. The boy kicked off his left shoe and peeled the sock off of his foot. Everyone watched intently as Constance moved her hands back into their hovering position above the Firebolt. She then directed Harry to drop the sock on top of it. There was no reaction. Deciding to take it one step further, she then asked Harry to pull out a strand of his hair and drop that. Since it was an actual part of his body, a curse would definitely respond to that. But when the hair landed onto the broom's seat, again, nothing happened. Not a damn thing. Constance drew her hands back and slumped in confusion. This was really strange.

"So..." Fred prodded. "Does that mean it's safe?"

Connie pulled her eyes away from studying the broom like it was a two-headed snake. "Well, keeping in mind that I'm a teenager and I'm not an authority on this by any stretch of the imagination..."

"Oh come off it already!" Ron huffed at her. "Is there something wrong with it or not?"

The girl shot a glare in his direction, then sighed. "I can't sense anything wrong with it." she said, then quickly added a caveat. "But that doesn't mean nothing's there. It's... possible that I've missed something."

George was starting to get exasperated. "Okay, fine Miss Perfectionist." he said. "What are the odds that it's totally fine and doesn't have any wonky spells on it?"

Trust him to want to put it into gambling terms. Constance actually had to stop and think about that. Considering her training and practice in identifying magical signatures, the results of the tests they performed...

"Maybe... eighty to eighty-five percent?" she offered.

The boys looked at each other consideringly. "That's a passing grade." Harry commented. His mouth pulled into a wide smile. "It's good enough for me."

He then jumped up and grabbed the broom, pulling it closer to study it for the first time. The first thing they all starting yammering about was when they'd get to ride it. They had classes in the morning, but it wouldn't be too much trouble to skip lunch and take it out for a spin then. And Fred, George, and Ron all badgered him about having a go once Harry took it out for it's first flight. Hermione stared at them in astonishement.

"You're not serious, are you?" she demanded. "Even with the odds Connie came up with, that still leaves up to a twenty percent chance of that broom having some kind of dangerous magic on it!"

Fred made a face at her. "Come on, Granger. At those odds, we're more likely to fall off our brooms and be horribly injured playing Quiddich."

"Which happens a lot, if you haven't noticed!"

"Exactly." he rebutted. "It's more likely to happen, but you don't see that stopping anyone, do you?"

Hermione continued to protest, but the four boys stopped listening to her at that point. They were too caught up in debating what order they should ride the damn broomstick in. Harry also wanted to show off his new prize and ran upstairs - Fred, George, and Ron in tow - to the boys' dormitories to let everyone have a look. The moment they were gone, Hermione whirled around to give Constance a stern look of disapproval.

"You could have made them lower odds!"

Yes, she could have, but then it wouldn't have been honest. Connie glanced over at the stairs and sighed. "Hermione, I really don't think anything's wrong with the broom. The only reason I made them as low as I did is because the circumstances are so suspicious."

"That's the whole point!" she said. She thrust a finger back toward where the boys had disappeared. "The likelihood of that Firebolt showing up by chance is so low that's it's practically impossible! There has to be a reason why Harry got it!"

"What do you want me to do, Hermione?" Constance asked. "Lie and say there's something wrong with it when there's not? I'm pretty sure that if there was a curse on that broom meant to kill him, I would have felt it. I think it randomly showing up is extremely weird and I don't like it at all, but I did everything I knew to do and came up with nothing. I honestly don't know if a teacher would come up with a different result. Maybe..." she paused and coughed. "I'm not saying I think it came from Dumbledore, because I find that a little hard to believe, but maybe it was just a secret present from someone here."

Hermione stared at her for a long time. It was an outrageous notion that even Connie had trouble with, but... she couldn't come up with any other explanation. The timing was suspicious, the lack of a tag identifying the sender was worrisome, and... the Firebolt itself was perfect. Devoid of any sort of manipulation. It didn't make a bit of sense, but there it was.

Maybe fate had provided a little touch of serendipity to lighten the load Harry had been carrying lately.

---

A.N: What's this? An update? And it hasn't been more than a month since the last one? Yeah guys, it shocked me too. O_o

In other news: Pottermore opens to the public in April! %&$*^%! ~passes out~

Reviews are beautiful, wonderful slices of happiness! Just like cookies. Or BROWNIES! Yum yum.