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.

61. The Purgatorium Incident

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

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Infiltration and information retrieval with a moderate chance of a conflict breaking out. That was all. But somehow, it wound up being anything but simple.

The whole thing started with an unusual request for help from the London police department. They had been recieving reports of suspicious activity in and around a particular nightclub called Purgatorium for the past several months. There were few specific accusations leveled, but those that talked about the place all insisted that something was going on there that shouldn't be. At first, the claims came from the sort of people that the authorities didn't take too seriously. Street urchins, tramps, and prostitutes who had never been inside the establishment, but saw or overheard things going on in an alleyway behind the building. Considering that those were groups of people who were known for getting in trouble with the law and would willingly trade false information with the police to save their own skins, nothing much was done about it. But as the reports became more numerous, more and more people came out of the woodwork. Bleeders who had been to the club spoke of a noticible change in atmosphere since the new management had taken over. The current owner had been seen meeting with strange people who made the human patrons uncomfortable. That made the authorities finally sit up and pay attention. For as much as they were disliked and looked down upon by the general populace, bleeders weren't the sort to be squeamish or easily spooked. Anyone who spent large amounts of time around vampires would quickly be cured of those ailments. If something out there was rubbing them the wrong way, it was worth taking note of.

The final 'nail in the coffin' so to speak came in the form of a young woman named Anne Marie Pinkerton. She was a donor who belonged to a very old female vampire who was well known in the area. Miss Pinkerton had actually worked at Purgatorium and according to police reports, she claimed that the basement of the building had been used for storage for years. When the club switched hands to the new owner, he had everything cleared out of the space then declared it off limits to all employees. No explanation was given and those brave enough to question him about it were fired on the spot. One night after closing, she had been alone in the club finishing up with a spot of cleaning before going home. Thinking that everyone was gone, her boss came in with a group of 'weird people' and escorted them down to the basement. They appeared to be carrying large crates and black bags down there. The young woman couldn't explain why, but she had been afraid of some sort of backlash if they saw she was there. She hid herself behind the bar until they were out of sight, then attempted to make a break for it. In her haste, she wound up knocking over a chair. The sound alerted the owner and his companions to her presence and the whole lot of them came back upstairs and caught her before she was able to get out. They all demanded to know what she was doing there and how much she had seen. One of the men rather violently suggested that they 'take care of her' - which Miss Pinkerton interpreted to be a death threat. She swore to them that she had been about to leave and had only seen them pass by and nothing else. Her boss took this to be truthful and convinced the others to let her go; albeit with a strong warning to forget everything that happened and never return.

A sensible person would think the police would have put her into protective custody after hearing a story like that. Or sent an officer to keep an eye on her at the very least. But they did nothing of the sort. The authorities only assured her that they would look into the matter, then sent her on her way. Anne-Marie Pinkerton was found dead in her home less than twenty-four hours later. It was so sudden and shocking that one of the inspectors on the case decided to go back and search for the other witnesses who had come forward to check on them. He discovered that four of them were dead and three were missing - which he suspected meant they were dead as well but hadn't been found yet. The four they had bodies for, along with Miss Pinkerton, all displayed the same M.O. There were no signs of foul play and no discernable cause of death. It looked like they had simply dropped dead for no reason. After a lengthy investigation, the medical examiner decided to label the cause as a drug overdose in each case. All the lab work came back clean, but new drugs appeared on the street all the time. It wasn't unheard of for someone to die from something that didn't show up on a toxicology screen.

The general consensus at the police department was that this was a human issue. There was no evidence of vampires being involved in the deaths and all the facts suggested that Purgatorium had been taken over to serve as a front for some sort of illegal activity. Given the amount of organization and thought put into keeping everything hidden, some thought the Mafia might be involved. Whatever was going on, it wasn't the sort of thing Hellsing normally dealt with. Their job was to hunt monsters, not track down drug lords. But while the deaths of a few homeless people, prostitutes, and bleeders could be swept under the rug, the murder of a donor could not. A vampire had been deprived of her rightful blood source. Vampires were famous for being territorial when it came to their property (especially so with the females) and she would probably go on a bloody rampage when she found out who was responsible. Not only that, but Purgatorium was one of those places that served as a legal 'hunting ground' for vampires. Humans were only allowed in by invitation and if they arrived without a median escort, the understanding was that they were bleeders who were open to being fed from by any vampire who wanted to do business with them. If the police attempted to send in an undercover agent, they would quickly be sniffed out and forced to leave. Or, if by some miracle they avoided detection, would find themselves in the middle of a dangerous situation they had no training in how to handle.

After learning of the negligent manner in which they had done things thus far, Sir Integra was furious enough to spit nails. The entire situation could have been avoided and eight people would still be alive if they had only taken things seriously the first time a report was made. She declared that the human authorities efforts would only make the problem worse. Syn had many connections within the London nightlife scene and a glowing reputation as a DJ. The lady knight had used that to her advantage numerous times - sending her out to infiltrate various establishments that catered to vampires and their humans for surveillence purposes. They would do the same thing again; only this time, the information gathered would be passed along to the police so they could clean up the mess they'd made themselves.

Getting an invitation to Purgatorium wasn't that difficult. All Syn had to do was call up a few friends and ask them to drop her name to the right people. When the owner of the place heard about her spinning skills and talent for drawing in customers, he was more than happy to contact her to work out a contract for a guest engagement. When she met with him to discuss things in person, she understood why others were uncomfortable around him. Mr. Tiziano, as he introduced himself, was a perfectly pleasant, polite sort of person. However, there was just something about him that was... off. Syn kept every sense focused on him intently, searching for anything out of place, but couldn't put her finger on what it was. She eventually decided that her sixth sense was setting off warning bells in her head because he was acting too damn nice. The redhead had gotten so used to the owners of nightclubs being assholes that she automatically became suspicious of one who wasn't. After working out an agreement for what she would be paid for a one night engagement, Tiziano gave her a tour of the facilities, introduced her to his resident DJ, Ghost - who showed her his set up and where everything he used was - then they set a date for her to come on a Thursday night. It was a weird time for a guest spinner to be brought in. Most places that wanted to bring in customers would plan events over the weekend. Wednesday nights weren't bad in some places. Never in Syn's life had she ever heard of a Thursday being 'prime time' for a club. Doing something like that strongly implied that this new owner either didn't know what the hell he was doing or didn't care.

When Thursday made its way around, Syn found herself hounded by all the familiar things that came along with this sort of job. The attention from vampires was uncomfortable, but expected. They generally liked having her around because she smelled delicious. Alucard had a collar emblazoned with his herald made for her to wear during missions like this to serve as a warning to them that she was taken. (God knows if one of them bit her and dropped dead, everyone would be tipped off that she wasn't an ordinary human. If Alucard didn't rip them to pieces first, that is.) Of course, Syn had the ring he'd given her after their mating that symbolized the exact same thing, but no vampire would ever interpret it that way. If they did, they would probably find it incredibly odd that Alucard wore one too. That metal ring around her neck, combined with the fact that the No Life King always accompanied her on undercover assignments, gave bleeders and donors the impression that she was one of them. The redhead usually disliked being grouped in with their sort, but it sometimes proved useful. The human side of the 'vampire underground' was a very tight-knit community that was distrustful of outsiders. Being seen as a member made them more open and willing to talk to her about things they wouldn't say to anyone else.

Which was nice when they said things worth hearing. However, Syn often found she had to screen who she had conversations with to avoid listening to pretty women jealously declare how lucky she was to be 'chosen' by a vampire as sexy as Alucard. It was all she could do to restrain herself from saying that being chosen had nothing to do with it and they should keep their eyes and hands to themselves.

"You need a break yet?"

The redhead slid the large headphones she was wearing back off of her ears and pulled her eyes away from the dancefloor to see who had spoken. Ghost had come up to the DJ booth to check on her. He was a young looking guy - mid-twenties, by her estimation - with short, spiky black hair and bleached white bangs. She figured that's where he got his nickname. He had been addressing her in a civil, but chilly manner since she arrived. Syn couldn't tell if he was frosty because a woman he didn't know had taken over his turf for the night, or if it was just his personality and he treated everyone that way.

"I'm fine for now." she told him. She glanced back toward the boards, working a couple of switches to change the music, then turned back to him. "You have a nice set up here."

Ghost responded with an indifferent grunt and extended a bottle of water out toward her. "Your..." he shot a small look of reproach down at the choker around her neck. "Master sent this up for you."

Syn arched a brow. Hearing others refer to Alucard as her 'master' was something she was growing accustomed to (though she steadfastly refused to do it herself, regardless of the circumstances) but the attitude in which he said it was a bit surprising. She reached out to accept the water.

"Was he an ass to you?" she asked.

The young man gave her an odd look. Humans who were 'owned' by vampires treated them with the utmost respect and wouldn't dare refer to them in such a manner. Her question caught him off guard and he wasn't sure how to take it.

"No." he replied after a moment. "I don't like vampires."

The redhead's eyebrow went a notch higher. "It's a little strange for you to be working in a place like this then, isn't it?"

Ghost shrugged. "It pays the bills." he said. "I haven't been spinning for long, and this was the first place I found that had a steady gig."

Ah. She thought with interest. That was a useful piece of information. If she played her cards right, she might be able to use that to her advantage. Syn noticed that he was studying her with a guarded sense of curiosity as she unscrewed the cap of the bottle to take a sip.

"You know you're allowed to drink anything you want, right?" he offered. His blue eyes flicked down at her collar again and his upper lip twitched into the smallest of sneers. "But I guess that would be against your rules."

The bottle of water paused at her lips. "What makes you think I have rules?"

"That's one of those things about you people, isn't it?" he countered. "You all have your weird rules that make no sense and you have to ask permission for everything instead of making decisions for yourselves..."

The redhead continued to watch him blandly. "You don't like me very much, do you?"

Ghost looked a bit taken aback that she interrupted his lecture, then seemed to realize how he sounded. He took half a step back.

"I don't have a problem with you." he insisted. "I just don't understand why anyone would want to be..." he made a sweeping gesture toward the dancefloor they were overlooking. "Used like they use you."

Syn took another sip of water and set the bottle to the side. "Well personally, I don't understand why anyone would want to look like they have a skunk on their head, but I wasn't going to say anything about it." She fought back the urge to laugh at his befuddled and offended expression, and chose to give him a simple smirk instead. "You insulted me first, dude. You had it coming." When he still didn't respond, she reached down to pull her purse up into her lap and dug around for her cigarettes. "Do you mind if I smoke in here?"

Ghost blinked at her. "I don't care."

The redhead hummed at him and put one of her black cigarettes to her lips to light it. She expected as much, seeing as how smoking was allowed in the club, but this wasn't exactly her territory. She figured she should show a little respect and ask first. She didn't want to torture the guy that much. She took a long, deep drag and slowly blew the smoke out through her nose.

"I don't know where you heard that nonsense about people like me having 'rules', but it's not true." she told him. She shrugged toward the masses of people below them. "Maybe some of them do, but I don't. I've been working in clubs and bars since I was fifteen and I figured out pretty fast that drinking alcohol wasn't something I wanted to take up. Water is perfect."

One of Ghost's brows went up in interest. "Fifteen? How'd you manage that?"

Syn glanced at him meaningfully. "Fake ID's make the world go round."

Her ploy to shift the conversation into a more neutral area he would be familiar with worked. The young man's eyes lit up in amusement and he crossed his arms over his chest with a chuckle.

"Sounds like you were braver than I was." he commented. "I thought about getting one of those once but I figured with my luck, I'd get caught."

"Trust me, there were some policemen who knew I was underage, but they never gave me any trouble." Syn told him with a smile. "As long as you keep your nose clean, there's not much to worry about."

Ghost pointed at her. "That's the problem. I've never been good at keeping my nose clean."

She could imagine. If he treated everyone with the same attitude he'd used with her, it was a wonder that he hadn't said the wrong thing to the wrong person and wound up dead yet. Taking another pull from her cigarette, Syn decided to start fishing and see if he would take the bait.

"If you have trouble with authority, you sure picked an odd profession to get into." she said as she turned her attention back to the boards. "Club owners aren't the easiest people to deal with. Most are jackasses."

He leaned back to rest his weight against the wall. "I never said I have a problem with authority." he corrected. "I may have a talent for trouble, but I know how to keep my mouth shut and not ask too many questions." he paused to meaningfully look down his nose at her. "And I would be very careful what you say about Mr. Tiziano if I were you. If he overheard something like that, things could be very... bad for you."

"Oh, please." The redhead said with a snort and roll of her eyes. "I've been with a vampire for the past seventeen years and you think I'd be scared of a human?" She waved a hand at him. "I wasn't even talking about Tiziano. I'm only saying that in general, people who own and operate these types of businesses only care about making money. That will turn anyone into a jerk and it's stupid to pretend otherwise. As a matter of fact, I thought it was a little weird that your boss was so nice during that interview I had with him."

Ghost shrugged. "I got the impression he was being nicer to you than he usually is because you have an interesting reputation."

That got Syn's attention. She turned to give him a questioning look. "What 'interesting reputation' would that be?"

"People that have worked with you before say that vampires are attracted to you like flies to honey." he said bluntly. "That the bleeders and donors look up to you as some kind of standard they want to reach. That you wear a dragon herald, which supposedly is only used by members of Dracula's bloodline, and..." he tapped his chin in a mock display of thoughtfulness. "Oh, that's right. You've belonged to the same vampire for more than a decade when no other donor has ever lasted more than five years - and you don't look nearly old enough to have been around that long. That's a very interesting reputation to have, if you ask me."

She arched a brow challengingly. "So what? Your boss sent you up here to spy on me and milk me for information because my personal life is a little strange?"

"Mr. Tiziano doesn't give a damn about your personal life." Ghost told her. "He asked you to come because you being here makes him look good. I'm asking for myself because you look and act completely different from what I expected. When something or someone is 'different', I can't help but be interested." he looked her up and down for a second, then sniffed. "Besides, if he wanted to keep an eye on you, he wouldn't be sending me to do it."

Syn tapped her ashes off into an empty coffee cup left over from earlier in the night. "Not subtle enough to be a spy, huh?"

"No, I've made it clear from the moment he took over that I didn't want to be involved in any weird shit he has going on."

Jackpot. She thought. Putting on a mildly curious expression to hide how interested she was in what he had to say, the redhead pressed forward. "What 'weird shit'?"

"I have no idea." he replied. "I told you I know better than to ask too many questions."

That's what he said, but Syn could see a new sort of tension in his demeanor. He had to know something if he knew he didn't want to be a part of it.

"You seem like an observant type guy though." she commented, continuing to prod at him. "There must be something going on here that you've noticed."

Ghost went very still and studied her intently. His jaw was clenched tightly and his gaze was suspicious. "Why are you worried about it?" he challenged, then quickly glanced around as if to assure himself that no one had snuck up on them to listen to their conversation. "Are you working for the police?"

Syn crossed her arms over her chest. "No." she said simply, thinking that it wasn't really a lie.

The young man didn't look convinced. "Then what are you doing here asking all these questions?"

She took a moment to think about how to respond to that. Something that wouldn't put him off of talking to her. After a few seconds of silence, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Let's just say that I prefer to know about the people I'm working for so I can cover my ass later if I have to." she told him meaningfully. "And I'm here because my master wants me to be."

Almost like a switch was flipped, Alucard's voice poured into her mind the moment those words left her lips.

Did I just hear you call me your master, little goddess? he purred in delight. I believe I'll remind you that next time you complain about me being too bossy with you.

Shut up, jackass. she fired back at him. I was thinking of Integra.

Syn could almost see his lips pulling back into a sadistic smirk of amusement. Of course you were.

Something about the way he said it was so insinuating that it took a considerable force of will to keep from blushing. The redhead mentally grit her teeth at him.

Goddamn it Alucard, I am working here! I'm already doing two things at once so... go scare somebody or something and quit distracting me.

He didn't respond with words, but his deep chuckle of amusement danced through her brain before fading away into nothingness. She still felt him there, of course. Lurking about in her head to listen in on what she was doing no doubt, but at least he wasn't bothering her. Keeping track of the music she was playing and holding a conversation at the same time was challenging enough without the stupid vampire making side comments every five mintues.

Thankfully, Ghost didn't appear to notice her little internal debate with her other half. He wasn't looking at Syn at all, actually. His eyes were firmly fixed on the wall behind her and his face was set in an intent, yet anxious expression. This was seriously bothering him. He probably had every reason to be antsy about talking, but still... The redhead frowned.

"Would you talk to me if I gave you something in return?" she questioned.

The young man froze and pulled his gaze away from the wall to study her. "Like what?"

She shrugged lightly. "You don't like working here, right? I hear Orchis and The Citadel have openings now and are looking for good people..."

Ghost was momentarily stunned, but the look faded quickly. "Yeah right." he said with a snort. "Those are high profile places that don't accept just anyone. I'm not stupid enough to get my hopes up."

"But getting a good job is all about the people you know." Syn pointed out. "If you're as interested in my reputation as you claim to be, then you should already be aware that I know a lot of people." she stopped for a second to let her words sink in. "I can't promise you a job, but I can get you an interview and put in a good word for you. That should give you an edge, but you'll have to do the rest on your own. If you're able to carry a crowd like this by yourself, I don't see how you'd have any trouble."

He faltered a bit and slowly lowered his arms, though he still watched her with suspicion. "You can really do that?"

"Absolutely." the redhead replied without hesitation. "I wouldn't be offering if I couldn't."

Ghost continued to study her for a few moments, then took a deep breath and glanced out toward the main part of the club. "Okay." he said with a long exhale of breath. "But this had better not come back to bite me in the ass, got it?"

Syn nodded and made a quickly motion across her mouth as if she were zipping her lips closed. "Got it." she told him. "I heard nothing from you."

He inclined his head and leaned back against the wall again, letting himself slide down until he was sitting on the floor with his knees up in front of him. She wasn't sure why he chose to sit on the floor, but then figured he was probably doing it so that anyone who glanced up toward the DJ booth wouldn't spot him and wonder what he was doing in there with her so long.

"No one who works here likes Tiziano and most are downright scared of him." he began. "The last owner was a great guy. Opinionated as hell and he could sometimes be an ass, but otherwise alright. He genuinely liked this place and was making plans for an expansion - then one day he just up and left. We still don't know exactly what happened. He called a staff meeting one day to announce that he'd sold the place to this new guy without ever saying why. A couple of the girls have tried to get in contact with him since then, but he doesn't answer his phone and his house is empty. No one knows where the hell he's gone."

Syn pressed her lips together in a firm line. "Was he forced out the way or something?"

Ghost shrugged. "Last time I saw him, it didn't seem like he was afraid of anything. But he was definitely acting weird. He had this... blank, glassy-eyed stare and when he talked it was all monotone- like he was reading off a script. He had never acted that way before, so we all knew something wasn't right." he shifted his legs into a more comfortable position. "Anyway, when Tiziano took over he set up all these new conduct rules for employees. No one asks questions about what he's doing, no one contacts him unless he is in the main part of the building during business hours, and no one goes down to the basement. The ones that don't obey those rules are fired on the spot and we never hear from them again. Anne Marie..." he paused for a second. "We all tried to talk her out of it, but I heard she went to the police about something she saw. She's dead now. There's nothing you could do to convince me Tiziano didn't have something to do with it."

"Do you think the others who were fired are dead too?" the redhead prodded.

He shook his head. "I don't know. No one can find them so there's no way to be sure, but I wouldn't be surprised."

Syn filed that away for future reference. It sounded like the police were going to find more bodies attached to this case...

"Sounds like your boss might be running drugs out of his basement." she commented.

It was supposed to be a casual remark that would allow him to agree without actually saying anything. A safety net of sorts. But the redhead was beyond surprised when the young man sniffed in response.

"If he is, it's the weirdest drug I've ever heard of." he said. "I never knew you needed a special place filled with cages and medical stuff to be a dealer."

Her face went slack. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me right." Ghost confirmed. "Tiziano and his freaky looking buddies never noticed, but I saw a few things when they were moving it all in. There's surgical equipment, restraints, and at least three cages down there." he shifted up onto his knees to look around anxiously, then lowered his voice. There was no one around to overhear them, but he was nervous enough to not want to take a chance. "Like I said, I've been keeping my nose out of it because I don't really want to know what's going on... but if you ask me, it seriously looks like they're doing something to people down there."

Syn had been prepared to hear something bad, but hadn't thought it would be quite that bad. Illegal drugs or gambling was dangerous enough, but he made it sound like there might be human trafficking going on. That was an entirely different animal. Considering that it was going on inside a vampire centric establishment... well, it wasn't good no matter how you looked at it. She tried to question him further about it, but he continued to insist he didn't know any details. He had neither seen nor heard anything more specific that what he'd already told her - which he admitted he thought was too much. Since he had opened up and made good on his end of the deal, Syn figured that she should as well. She pulled out a pen and passed it over so she could get his number.

"Is leaving going to cause trouble for you?" she asked conversationally, though she gave him a sideways look of meaning that Ghost definitely caught.

"At this point, I'll take my chances." he replied as he scribbled on a scrap of paper. "To be honest, the boss knows I'm only here because I haven't found anything else. He won't be surprised if I quit. I figure as long as I don't go snooping around too much, he won't be worried about it."

The redhead hummed in acceptance and took the piece of paper he held out to her, then took back the pen to write down her own phone number. "I'll call around and set something up for you." she told him. "I don't know how busy these guys are, so it might take a couple of days to set a date. If you haven't heard back from me by the middle of next week, hit me up. But don't you dare think about calling me before ten in the morning or I'm going to be upset with you. I'm not a very pleasant person when I'm pissed off."

Ghost arched a brow but didn't say anything. When Syn finished writing out her number she capped the pen and stuck it back inside her purse before handing the paper over.

"If you have any problems," she said, gesturing to the space around them. "Let me know. I can have it taken care of."

The young man sitting on the floor before her studied her intently as he took the offered slip of paper. Like he was trying to figure something out but fell just short of doing it. Finally, he cleared his throat.

"You're really not like the others, are you?"

Syn sat back a bit and gave him an odd look. "Took you long enough to figure that out."

He gave her a small amused smile in response. "I guess I'm a little thick-headed sometimes." he told her, then looked her up and down with a new sort of interest. "So... this is probably going to come out the wrong way, but if..."

"Syn."

The redhead glanced up from him to find Alucard standing in the entrance to the booth with his arms crossed over his chest. Though she hadn't been keeping close tabs on his movements, she wasn't terribly surprised to see him. The vampire had a habit of appearing out of nowhere to check on her when he sensed something he didn't like. Ghost was so shocked by the interruption that he bolted up from the floor and whirled around to face him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Look dude, employees only. You're not allowed to be up here."

Alucard looked at him distainfully, as if he were a pathetic insect that wasn't even worth stepping on. "Don't presume to tell me what I'm allowed to do." he warned. His lips pulled back into a sneer that showed a hint of fang. "Dude."

The tone was so patronizing that Ghost got the hint and took a nervous step back. Syn rolled her eyes and cleared her throat.

"Yes?" she asked.

Alucard turned his burning eyes away from the young man to regard her more calmly. "Get your things and come with me."

The redhead blinked at him. "I'm kind of working right now."

"Your contract for this evening included two fifteen minute breaks which you haven't taken." he countered. "You're going to take them now. I have plans for you later and I don't want you too tired to participate."

She sighed internally. Trust Alucard to make a perverted comment in front of someone she was talking to just to show off.

Very smooth. She thought to him. Are you going to make me get down on my knees and give you a blowjob in front of God and everybody too?

One of the vampire's dark brows slowly went up. Don't tempt me or I might. he replied. While you've been playing mindgames with your little human boyfriend, I've discovered something interesting.

Under normal circumstances Syn might have made a snarky comment about the 'boyfriend' bit, but his mention of finding something stopped her. She studied him curiously.

"Alright, I'm coming." she told him. She pulled off the headphones and set them down as she pushed herself out of her chair. She then turned toward Ghost. "Do you mind taking over for a while?"

The young man was looking back and forth between the two of them like he wasn't sure how to take what was going on. He shook his head to bring himself back into the present.

"Sure." he said, then glanced at his watch. "Actually, we only have about half an hour until closing, so I can go ahead and finish out the set for you."

Syn smiled. That was perfect. She thanked him for the offer and gathered up her purse and coffee cup to get them out of his way. However, when she stepped sideways to allow him to switch places with her, she felt Ghost lightly brush his fingers against her arm as they passed each other. When he saw that he had her attention, he leaned in close and lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Hey... be careful."

Be careful? she wondered. The redhead opened her mouth to respond to but found herself quickly pulled in Alucard's direction. The vampire stepped forward to plant himself directly between them and fixed Ghost with a hard warning glare.

"She's fine." he said harshly.

Syn could tell from the look on the guy's face that he didn't appreciate being talked down to that way. Thankfully, he knew better than to pick a fight with a vampire. He was lucky that the No Life King was only mildly irritated as opposed to angry; otherwise he'd have been gutted alive already. The only option Ghost really had was to step back and hold up his hands defensively to show he wasn't going to be a problem. Alucard just snorted at the way he backed off so quickly and put a hand behind Syn's back to lead her out of the room. She thought she did a damn good job of keeping her mouth shut during the whole mess, but once they were outside and making their way down to the main floor of the club, she couldn't restrain herself anymore. She peered at him sideways.

"Wow, Alucard. Jealous much?"

The vampire didn't look at her or slow his pace. "The boy needed to be reminded of who you belong to."

Yep. He was jealous. Big time.

"Oh please." she said with a sniff. "He knew exactly who I 'belonged' to. The kid didn't even like me anyway."

Alucard glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "He liked you a great deal more than he was letting on."

Oh. she thought. So that whole acting like a jerk thing was some misguided attempt at flirting? Syn shook her head.

"Well, I didn't notice and even if I had, there isn't a damn thing a little boy like that could offer me that I'd be interested in." she told him. "If you knew what he thought about me, why'd you send him up to me anyway? You could have weasled all of that information out of him yourself."

The No Life King chuckled and gave her a devious looking smirk. "And miss the sight of you playing him like a fiddle to get what you wanted?" he asked. "You're developing quite the talent for manipulation, little goddess."

They had reached the bottom of the staircase leading to the main floor, so the redhead decided to respond mentally to keep anyone from overhearing the details of their conversation.

I've been living with you too damn long. she thought at him, then winced at the sudden increase in volume brought on by walking into a new space. So what was this thing you found that was so interesting you had to physically come upstairs to get me?

I located the mysterious basement room that makes everyone here so nervous.

Ah... so he'd been snooping around. And? Syn prodded. What's down there?

I don't know. he replied, shocking her. There was a barrier cast upon the room which I couldn't cross.

The redhead was so surprised by the information that she halted midstep and stared at him. There were few things in the world powerful enough to keep Alucard out of a place he wanted to go. Only two, to be more specific. One was the religious blessings used by the Iscariots to hem in the vampires they hunted to prevent them from escaping. The other was magic. And she sincerely doubted that the Vatican was running a human trafficking operation out of the basement of a vampire-centric nightclub.

Meaning there's a wizard involved.

Alucard turned to look down at her and quirked a brow. More than a wizard, little goddess. I cannot sense anything within the room itself, but the area outside the door was dripping with the stench of werewolves. Our orders have changed. The moment this place closes down, we hunt.

Her nice, simple mission that was wrapped up in a neat little bow suddenly wasn't so nice and simple anymore.

---

It was difficult to come up with accurate words to describe what they found there. 'Horrific' would have been one of them. 'Disturbing' was another good one. Of course, if you work at Hellsing long enough, you're going to see (and do) some pretty horrific and disturbing things, but there were still things out there that went far beyond the ordinary level of bad.

Since Purgatorium was right in the middle of London, they had to be careful not to cause too much of a scene. Alucard's strategy was to lie in wait until the werewolves and wizard arrived and went inside. He had already contacted Integra about what they had learned and a group of soldiers was stationed less than five minutes away to serve as backup if necessary. Because Syn's scent was so attractive to dark creatures and would give away their presence, she had to take up position on the roof of a nearby building and wait for the vampire to signal the all clear. When their targets finally showed up half an hour after closing, she had to watch the scene play out through Alucard's eyes to see what was going on.

There were four of them, all men, dressed in dark colored clothes to help them blend into the surrounding shadows. They waited in the alleyway until Tiziano opened a back door to let them in. The redhead caught sight of the No Life King's swirling tendrils of darkness phasing through the wall to follow, then she closed her eyes to focus on what he was seeing. They were arguing about something. It seemed the werewolves had picked up on the residual scent left behind by her being in the building. One of them - whom Syn picked out as probably being the wizard and leader of their little group - found this suspicious and began ruthlessly questioning Tiziano about any new people who had been around. The man admitted he had invited a new girl in for a one night engagement. When the redhead's name was dropped, the four newcomers all prompty grew agitated. The 'leader' drew out a wand from under his long coat, shoved it into Tiziano's face threateningly, and told him that she worked for Hellsing and had probably been sent as a spy. The owner of the club went several shades paler and insisted that there must be some mistake. He knew nothing of her being associated with Hellsing and spewed out dozens of excuses to save himself from their ire. None of it worked. The wizard shoved him backward and cast a spell that caused a jet of bright green light to hit him square in the chest. Tiziano crumpled to the floor and the man turned to his werewolf companions, telling them that they had 'cleaning up' to do. Leaving the body where it was, they turned to head down to the basement. The moment they were out of sight, Alucard stepped out into the open and signalled Syn to jump through their connection. The redhead did so and was at his side within moments. For confirmation's sake, she crouched down next to Tiziano to check for a pulse. There was none to be found.

A killing curse. she announced mentally, not yet daring to speak aloud. I guess that explains why they had trouble finding a cause of death for the other bodies.

Alucard narrowed his eyes at the body. Indeed.

When they moved downstairs to engage their targets, the group had already entered the basement room and put the wards back up behind them. Syn knew that breaking through them would announce their presence, so she drew her guns in preparation, then set to work identifying and breaking each of the spells placed on the door. The moment they were down, Alucard kicked down the door and sped inside to attack before they had time to react. The redhead ran in behind him and was shocked by the scene before her eyes.

It looked like something you'd expect to see in a slaughterhouse. Large sprays of blood decorated most of the walls and coated the floors. There was a stainless steel table and trays laid out with odd looking instruments - some surgical, and some obviously intended for a more magical purpose. Lined up against the walls were the cages Ghost mentioned, although there were a great deal more than three. Given his suspicion of them being used for people, she had expected them to be bigger than they were. They were actually quite small - bearly larger than dog kennels. Most looked like they had been empty for a while, but seven had obviously been recently occupied by children. Small children. Whatever disgusting purpose they had been locked up for Syn didn't know, but it looked like the werewolves had been tasked with killing them to get them out of the way. This must have been the cleaning up they had been talking about. The wizard was hurriedly shoving various objects and bottles into a large bag when they broke in. The moment he saw them, his face went a ghostly shade of white and he clutched the bag to his chest before vanishing with a loud pop. The coward apparated to get away from them and left the werewolves behind to do the dirty work. Alucard quickly shot down the nearest one, while Syn put a bullet into the head of the dark haired monster chomping down on the throat of a tiny little girl who was fighting to free herself from his clutches. It didn't take long for the third to figure out what was going on. He dropped the body of a young boy he had just eviscerated and bolted past them through the door to escape. The No Life King gave chase, leaving Syn behind to sort through the mess to see if any of the children were still alive.

The bastards had done a good job of killing them quickly. Six of the seven children had been sliced or ripped clean open to ensure they wouldn't survive. The only one who was currently breathing was the girl who had been bitten. Syn rushed over and dropped to her knees next to her, clamping her hands down on her throat in an attempt to slow the bleeding. She was such a tiny little thing... thin from malnourishment with long, stringy black hair that hadn't been washed in a long time. The sort of girl you could look at and and tell that if she were cleaned up, she would be quite pretty. Her skin had an olive undertone to it and her dark, chocolate colored eyes gave her an almost exotic sort of appearance. The redhead couldn't fathom why the bloody monster had bitten her in the first place. It was three days until the full moon and he had been in human form, so he wouldn't have been suffering from an animalistic need to kill. This was something done for the sheer enjoyment of causing harm. The fact that it was done to a little girl made the redhead's blood boil in fury. It was bad enough when adults were attacked, but children were absolutely defenseless.

When the girl felt Syn's hands on her neck, her dark eyes widened in shock and she began kicking and struggling to get away. Her movements were slow and weak from blood loss, but she still tried. She thought she was one of the monsters trying to finish what the werewolf had begun. The redhead felt her heart crawl up into her throat in sympathy. She had been in this position herself when she was little, so she knew exactly what this poor creature was feeling. God, she couldn't be more than five or six years old...

"Calm down, baby." she said to her as soothingly as possible. "I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you, but I need you to calm down."

The girl looked up at her with terrified, searching eyes, trying to determine whether or not to believe her. She stopped fighting and kicking, but her gaze remained fixed - almost like a silent plea to not let her die. Her lips parted as if to say something, but the only thing that came out was a wet, gurgling sound. As she was trying to come up with something to say to keep her calm, the redhead's eyes caught sight of something. The girl was wearing a necklace. It was very simple, looking almost like an old, antique charm that had been passed down through the years or something. Bracketed by tarnished metal beads was a flat silver disk engraved with the image of a dragon. Alucard's dragon. For as weird as it was, Syn didn't stop to think about all the hows and whys of the situation. All she recognized in that moment was that her responsibility to look after this child had just been amplified.

Shit, Alucard, this is one of your gypsies. She sent out to wherever he was.

He was still chasing down the last werewolf that had to be exterminated, but her declaration was so surprising to him that his mind went blank for a second. Syn felt the No Life King enter her head to peer through her eyes, getting a sense of things for himself, then his pondering as he made a decision.

Take her home with you. he said.

The redhead didn't argue or ask any questions. Knowing full well that no one was around to see it aside from the injured girl, she inclined her head in acceptance and readjusted her grip on the girl's throat so she could press a button on her earpiece. She radioed to the soldiers to instruct them to bring the truck so they could get her back to the manor. When she finished the call, she grabbed at the nearest piece of cloth she could find to help her apply pressure to the wound, then looked down at the girl's face again. She was still conscious, but the light in her eyes was fading.

"Baby, look at me." she instructed hurriedly. The girl blinked to clear away the confusion in her gaze and when Syn saw she had her full attention, she pointed to the choker around her neck to show that she wore the same symbol that was on her necklace. She hoped she would take it as a sign that she was trustworthy. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. The monsters are gone and help is coming, but you need to hold on. You're a very strong, brave girl and you're doing a great job. Just stay calm and keep fighting. Can you do that for me?"

The girl stared at Alucard's herald with wide eyes, then looked back up and gave her a small, tired nod. She was still terrified and in pain, but she believed her. As they laid there on the floor, Syn did everything in her power to keep the girl awake. She was afraid if she let her close her eyes, she would lose her. So she talked to keep the girl's mind occupied and kept her eyes on the door for any sign of the soldiers. It took only a few minutes, but to her, it felt like hours. When they got there and tried to move her onto a stretcher, the girl started freaking out again. Syn had to calmly talk her down and explain that they were good guys who were there to help and that she wasn't going anywhere. Throughout the ride home, she kept a firm grip on the girl's hand as the medical team worked, just so she would know that she wasn't alone. Transferring the girl to the surgical suite at the manor was more difficult because that was when Syn had to hand her off to others. By that point, the poor girl was so out of it that she was fading into unconsciousness, so she didn't have enough strength left to panic, but Syn didn't want to let her out of her sight. Before the doctors took her back to begin whatever repairs they had to do, the redhead made damn sure they knew the child was one of Alucard's gypsies and she would be watching their every move.

When Integra recieved the report that they had arrived with an injured party, she and Edmund immediately came down to the hospital wing to see what the hell was going on. Injured victims were usually sent to a local hospital for treatment, not brought back to the manor. Seras and Pip had been in the barracks with the soldiers who hadn't been deployed, so it wasn't long before they found about the whole mess and showed up as well. Syn reported what had happened at the club, giving all of them a full detailing of everything she knew, then explained the situation with the girl herself. The lady knight was surprised, to say the least. She ordered records to be searched to try to figure out exactly who all these children were and where they had come from. By the time Alucard finally got back from dealing with the final target, they had pulled together a fair bit of information, but Integra wasn't about to let him off the hook.

"Would you care to explain why a six year old girl is wearing your symbol, vampire?" she questioned in an icy tone.

The No Life King regarded his master casually. "It appears that she is descended from the gypsies of my homeland." he replied. "Many centuries ago I allowed those in my service to wear it as a reward for their loyalty. The heralds have been passed down through the generations so that the families of my original gypsies remain unmolested by any other vampires." he inclined his head to look at her over the tops of his sunglasses. "There is a reason why they have remained loyal to me for more than five hundred years, master."

Integra's brows furrowed. She already knew about him having gypsies that still jumped to obey him when called upon, so she chose to focus on something else.

"If she's a gypsy from Romania, then why is she here?" she wondered aloud. "That's an awful lot of trouble to go to unless they had a specific purpose for it."

"She may not be from Romania." Alucard pointed out. "You forget that gypsies are nomads, master. Some bands remain in certain areas for several generations, but others often move from place to place because they aren't wanted by the established population. It is possible her family moved to Britian years ago and she's lived here her entire life."

Syn was watching the girl being operated on through the glass of the observation room they were in, but was paying attention to the conversation. She glanced over to where they were having their discussion.

"She was too injured to say anything herself, but it looked like she understood me when I talked to her." she offered.

The No Life King leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't find it unreasonable to think she may have been in this country by chance." he said. "What I do find disturbing is that the herald she was wearing was ignored. Vampires only bestow heralds upon humans in which they find enough value to grant them protection and mark them as property. To ignore the meaning behind it is to invite death. There are few left in the world who would recognize my symbol as being the one I used as Dracula, but it is common knowledge that mine is the only bloodline that uses the dragon."

"But if they were werewolves, would they have known that?" Seras piped up.

Alucard shot her a sideways glance. "Even if they didn't recognize who the herald belonged to, they would still know what it meant." he replied. "The strength and power of a werewolf is significantly less than that of a vampire outside of the full moon. Most avoid interacting with our kind when they can because they know they would be outmatched in a fight. To do something like this implies that they're either looking to start a conflict, or they believe they are untouchable."

At that moment, Jackson entered the room with a stack of files in his arms. Edmund stood at attention and went over to take them from him. They were the reports they had requested on the children. The butler excused himself and Ed began rifling through the documents as he walked back over. His face twisted into a bewildered scowl.

"They're all cold cases." he said.

Integra gave a start and peered at him. "What?"

Edmund looked up from the files and divided them so that she could take half for herself. "The children that were there." he said. "According to these, they've been on the missing persons lists for several months. A few of them have been missing for more than a year."

Pip was sitting in a chair situated against the opposite wall. He frowned and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Eef zhis place waz only taken over zhree months ago, zhen zhey were 'olding zhem zomewhere else." he huffed and pushed himself up to his feet so he could get a closer look at the files for himself. "Eef zhey meant to juzt kill zhem, why were zhey keeping zhem around for zo long?"

Again, Syn pulled her eyes away from the glass to get involved in the conversation. "Killing them may not have been the point." she told them. "When Tiziano told them that I had been there, the wizard that was there knew I worked here and thought I had been sent as a spy. After they killed the bastard, he said something to the werewolves about 'cleaning up'. They were probably just killing them because it was the fastest way to hide what they were doing. He grabbed a bunch of stuff and took it with him when he apparated out, so there was obviously something there that he didn't want us to see."

Integra fixed her with an intent look. "Is there any magical reason to specifically target children?" she asked pointedly.

The redhead shuffled her feet uncomfortably and glanced at her cousin. He knew as well as she did that the reasons for it were never good. She carefully cleared her throat.

"Only very powerful, very dark magic would call for it." she began slowly. "Children are sometimes used by practioners of the Dark Arts whenever a virgin is needed because the younger they are, the easier it is to ensure their purity. As far as things that specifically require children as opposed to something else... there are dozens of different things it could be. There's no way to narrow it down without more information. But..." she paused to shove her hair back behind her ears. "I personally don't know of anything that calls for this many. One or two, maybe, but not large groups of them."

"Damn it." The knight swore under her breath. "So we have no idea what the purpose of all this was?"

Syn shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid not." she admitted.

Integra pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a long, tired sigh. "If the children were being held in a different location for months before being taken to that club, it's probably safe to assume there are others. I'll tell the police to notify us about anything unusual, and we'll need to keep an eye on the missing children's lists. This is Hellsing's problem now."

Werewolves being involved automatically moved the issue under their jurisdiction. The presence of a wizard made things more complicated. The Ministry of Magic would need to be notified at some point as well - though none of them expected that to turn out well. Integra handed out assignments to those who were free and they disbursed to carry them out. Only she, Syn, and Alucard were left in the room. As the knight turned to take her stack of files back to her office for study, the redhead stopped her.

"Sir Integra?" she questioned. "May I see her file?"

Integra slowly turned back around to regard her solemnly. Syn didn't usually handle things like that unless she were asked, so the request was a bit strange. However, she had just spent a good deal of time trying to keep that girl alive, so she would at least like to know who she was. Integra seemed to realize that and searched through the documents in her arms to locate the correct one. She silently passed it over. Syn accepted the papers and looked down to read. The girl's name was Ylenia. A bit odd sounding, but maybe that was a traditional name amongst gypsies. She hadn't been around enough of them to know for sure. And according to her record, she had gone missing immediately after the deaths of her parents. It had been a violent attack which was initially unsolved, then labeled as being due to wild animals. The redhead couldn't hold back her disapproving sniff. The damn werewolves had probably killed them. She placed all the papers back into the file and handed it back to Integra.

"It says her parents were killed before she went missing." she said somberly, then glanced back to the window looking into the room where the doctors were performing surgery on her throat. "Sir... what's going to happen to her?"

One of the knight's brows went up a hair, curious as to why she was asking. "We will attempt to locate any surviving family members. If none can be found, she'll probably be sent to an orphanage."

Syn's lips pressed together in a firm line as she descended into her thoughts. She was quiet for so long that Alucard's posture noticably straightened in interest.

What are you thinking, goddess? he questioned in her mind.

The exact same thing you are, and we both know it. she replied. Haven't you been saying you need a brunette to complete your collection?

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his eyes light up in understanding, then the tilt of his head as he considered it. Hmm... She does remind me of a younger version of you.

Integra noticed the exchange between them and narrowed her eye.

"Out with it." she said firmly. "You have that look."

Syn turned away from Alucard to blink at her. "What look?"

"The look you had on your face when he brought Mihnea home." the knight replied with a frown. "I will remind you that no matter what the circumstances were, he was biologically yours. A six year old girl isn't a stray puppy that can be taken in off the street whenever you please."

"But she was bitten, Integra." the redhead pointed out. "I've never heard of a werewolf biting someone while they're in human form before. There's no way of knowing if she's been infected, or to what degree until the full moon. If she has lycanthrophy, there's no way in hell she could go to an orphanage."

"That's assuming that she has no family to take her in." Integra said. "If her family was in Alucard's service, then they'll surely understand lycanthropy and may be willing to look after her."

Alucard chose that moment to get involved. "Gypsies have very close-knit societies which must follow strict standards." he told her. "If others believe that she's been tainted by a monster, she'll be shunned." he made a sweeping hand gesture. "She technically already belongs to me."

The lady knight's good eye narrowed. "That can't be legally enforced, Alucard."

"Any relatives she has would belong to me as well." he countered. "If there are any to be found, I can guarantee they wouldn't challenge it."

Integra slowly looked back and forth between the two of them, not angry or upset, but thoughtful. After studying the redhead for a moment, she turned her attention back to the vampire.

"I can understand Syn's reasoning, but what do you want with her?" she asked pointedly. "With the extent of her injuries, she may wind up being disabled for the rest of her life."

Alucard only chuckled. "What you humans view as disability, I see as opportunity." he said. "She displays the spirit of a fighter, master. And you know very well that I have a particular talent for taking so called 'damaged' little girls and molding them into powerful women."

Syn didn't like the No Life King implying that she had been a 'damaged little girl', but he had a point. For all of his faults, that was one thing he was really good at. Integra knew it too. After all, she had been a young girl herself once and even if she had been the master, she still spent her teenage years under his influence. The knight may have been a completely different person if Alucard hadn't been around to help her develop her backbone of steel. Integra reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, then sighed.

"Fine." she said. "I'll allow it." she dropped her hand from her face to point in their direction. "But this is the last time, do you understand? I'm not running an adoption agency here."

The redhead quickly nodded. "Absolutely, sir." she agreed. "Understood."

"Good." the lady knight said with a tone of finality. With that, she turned on her heel to walk out.

---

Hermione had no idea what was in that potion that Bassarab had given her, but it was positively miraculous. It worked so well that aside from a few short snatches of time where she woke up long enough to check the time and switch positions, she didn't actually get out of bed until Sunday afternoon. Surprisingly, the girl wasn't particularly bothered by being out for so long. She had experienced the most restful sleep she had had in months, and being deprived of the nightmares was an enormous relief. Feeling more like herself than she had in ages, Hermione came to a realization.

Her friends were right. She was doing too much. The girl still firmly believed that she was capable of carrying a large workload, but maybe... maybe now wasn't the right time. She was under a lot of stress and her health - and grades - were suffering for it. Perhaps it was better to stick with what she knew she could excel at rather than biting off more than she could chew and only be mediocre.

Repeating that as a sort of internal mantra, Hermione gathered up her resolve and headed down to Professor McGonagall's office. She hesitated outside the door and had to take a moment to talk herself out of leaving. This was the right thing to do. The girl took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, then knocked on the door. When her Head of House called out for her to enter, Hermione went inside and found the woman sitting at her desk rifling through paperwork. Probably working on a bit of grading before going down to supper. McGonagall looked up from her desk to see who it was, then instructed her to sit down in a calm, yet stern tone of voice. The girl should have known she would be upset about her skipping classes on Friday. It was something she had never done before, so there was no way it would have gone unnoticed. The professor didn't try to give her a lecture about her behavior. She only slipped off her reading glasses and sat back in her chair, saying that she was very disappointed in her and wanted an explanation. There was no need to go into specifics because they both knew what she was talking about. For a moment, Hermione wasn't really sure what to say. She didn't like the idea of making excuses for herself, and anything she came up with in her mind didn't feel like a good enough response. Finally, she decided to just spit it out and let the chips fall where they may. The girl didn't give any details about what had happened, but she told the woman that her parents had died over the holidays and she hadn't really allowed herself any time to process it. That, on top of her near constant worry for Harry's well being and her large course load had her at wits end, and she supposed that on Friday, she had 'snapped'.

Hermione was a little surprised that she didn't start crying. Maybe she had done that enough. But she was taken aback to see that McGonagall looked like she might start. Every trace of her displeasure faded into a quiet sort of understanding and sympathy. The moment she heard about her parents, the professor got up and came around to the front of her desk to sit in the chair next to her. She said she had thought the girl had been acting a little out of character lately, but hadn't known the reason - then gently chided her for not coming to her sooner. Of course, it would be no problem to change her schedule. The woman had been concerned that the number of classes she signed up for would be too much from the beginning. After a brief discussion, Hermione agreed to drop Divination and Muggle Studies. She didn't really like the idea of dropping one of her favorite classes, but McGonagall made her feel better about the decision by informing her that muggleborn students often took the Muggle Studies OWL without taking the class itself to give themselves an extra credit. The girl wasn't sure how she managed to do it, but she convinced the woman that she didn't need to drop anything else. Care of Magical Creatures was actually quite interesting, and there was no way she was going to give up Arithmancy or Ancient Runes. She would be able to keep her time-turner for the time being, however she agreed that if she felt overwhelmed, she would bring it to McGonagall's attention right away and they would change her schedule accordingly.

With that out of the way, Hermione headed down to the Great Hall for supper, feeling the weight on her shoulders considerably lightened. Connie would be proud of her, she thought. She would have searched her out straight away to tell her about it, but she was nowhere to be found. When the girl entered the hall, she only saw Harry and all the Weasleys (minus Percy) huddled together like they were having a serious conversation. Curious, she went over to join them.

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, his head shooting up when he saw her. "Bloody hell, we were starting to get worried about you!"

Harry immediately waved a hand to shush him, then looked her over as she sat down. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "Connie said you'd be fine, but you were out for a long time..."

"I'm fine." she said with a bright smile. "Wonderful, in fact. I can't remember the last time I slept so well." she paused to look around at the food laid out on the table. "Gosh, it all looks so good... I'm starving!"

Next to her, Ginny's lips pulled up into a small smile. "Well, I suppose you would be after sleeping for two days." she said.

She pushed a plate toward her and Hermione eagerly accepted it, leaning across the table to fill it with a selection from every dish she could reach. The boys and Ginny just watched silently as she sat back down to eat. After she took a few bites of roast beef, Harry cleared his throat.

"Hagrid asked about you." he said slowly. "He was a little worried because you never miss, but we told him you weren't feeling well."

The girl nodded absentmindedly and thanked him for taking care of that for her, then remembered something. Her fork paused halfway to her mouth. "Oh, that's right! Buckbeak's trial was on Friday, wasn't it? How did it go? Have you heard anything yet?"

Harry and Ron exchanged a look between themselves. "Well..." Ron began with a cough. "It... didn't go so great."

Hermione's face fell. "Oh no..." she muttered sadly. "Did he say why? Connie and I worked so hard on that defense and I was sure it was perfect."

"Hagrid said it had nothing to do with your defense." Harry assured her. "It was nothing you did. But Malfoy was there and he made out like Buckbeak was a bloodthirsty monster..."

Ron nodded. "Honestly, the sorry sot probably paid off the judges to get the verdict he wanted." he said with a derisive sniff. "They set an execution date in June. Hagrid's really torn up about it. We told him we'd come down to see him before... you know, for moral support. We figured you'd want to come too."

Oh, that was so sad. She'd worked so hard to help Buckbeak get off, and now to find out he was going to be killed anyway? It was heartbreaking. She quickly nodded to show that she would indeed go with them to be with Hagrid before the execution. He loved his animals fiercely, so he'd need it.

"Is that what you're all so somber about?" she asked as she picked up her fork again. "And where's Connie? Has she heard about this yet?"

Something about the question made all of them stiffen and look around nervously. Ginny shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "She's not here." she said.

Hermione blinked in confusion. "What?"

The twins, who had been unusually quiet and reserved, both leaned over. "She's gone." they said in unision.

"Bassarab too." Fred added. "Dumbledore came and pulled them out of Potions on Friday to go home."

Harry and Ron looked at each other again. "Then this was in the newspaper yesterday morning." Ron said, and passed over a copy of the Daily Prophet.

Needless to say, Hermione was a bit bewildered, and anxious, about their attitudes. It had to be something serious if all of them were acting so strangely. Silently, she took the newspaper to search for the article they were talking about. It didn't take much work to find it. It was plastered all over the front page.

Purgatorium Incident Raises Questions About the Hellsing Organization's Methods

In the early hours of Friday morning, the Hellsing Organization conducted a raid on Purgatorium - a London nightclub which is known to cater to members of the vampire underground. The muggle press is reporting that the event was prompted by a police investigation which showed the establishment was engaging in some form of illegal activity. Hellsing claims that their raid uncovered a human trafficking ring operating out of the club's basement. There were a number of children between the ages of five and eight years old which were found dead upon their arrival, and it appears they had been horribly mistreated and kept in cages for a number of months. Hellsing has also made the shocking declaration that it is not vampires who are responsible, but a group of werewolves.

These are the 'facts' as presented to the muggle population. The Prophet, however, has learned from a trusted source who was present during the raid that Hellsing's story doesn't match up with what actually happened. This witness has requested to remain anonymous and will henceforth be referred to as 'BG'.

"I don't know where this business about werewolves came from." BG is quoted as saying. "There wasn't a full moon that night, and it was a club for vampires. It should be obvious, even to ordinary people, who was responsible."

When questioned about the children discovered in the establishment's basement, he said: "There were definitely children there. That much is true. But what Hellsing isn't telling anyone is that all of those children were half-bloods that came from families with one magical parent. It was young wizards and witches being held captive there. Another thing they'll never admit is that they were very much alive before the Hellsing Organization arrived, but were dead by the time they left."

Chilling words. While there is no hard evidence showing that Hellsing is directly responsible for the deaths, the fact remains that the children were killed behind closed doors. With no witnesses to verify what happened, Hellsing can effective claim anything they want and it would be impossible to disprove it.

But if werewolves weren't involved, why is the Hellsing Organization going to such lengths to point the finger away from the most obvious suspects? A telling clue comes forward as the story grows stranger. BG reports that one Syn Newsom had not only been at the club earlier that night, but had actually been contracted by the owner to provide 'entertainment' for it's customers. One can only imagine the sort of questionable things a person must do to entertain vampires. He also claims that she was accompanied by a male vampire, was wearing a herald marking her as his property, and behaved in a manner which suggested that the pair had a physical relationship. This isn't the first time she's been connected with this vampire either. Miss Newsom has been seen in public with her unknown vampiric companion numerous times for the past several years and, in fact, has provided 'entertainment' for many other vampire clubs in that span of time. For those of our readership who aren't aware, Miss Newsom is the weapons master and magical authority for the Hellsing Organization and often serves as an advisor to Sir Integral Hellsing herself. This strongly implies that the rumors of Hellsing having vampires in their employ are true, or that Miss Newsom is engaged in a highly inappropriate relationship with one of the very creatures she is supposed to hunt. It should also be noted that Miss Newsom is a member of the powerful Newsom family - which has been exiled from the magical world due to their unnatural affinity for black sorcery. Both she and Sir Hellsing have openly displayed antagonistic attitudes toward magical society as a whole and have made violent threats against prominent members of the Ministry of Magic without provocation on numerous occasions.

When questioned as to whether he thought it were possible that Miss Newsom or her vampire companion were responsible for holding the children captive and Hellsing was placing the blame elsewhere to protect one of their own, BG grew quite nervous.

"Well, there's no way of knowing, is there?" he said. "They've set it up where everyone has to take them at their word. Hellsing is a muggle organization and that Newsom woman is exiled from our world. They aren't subject to magical law, and they're too powerful to be held accountable by the muggle government. That's one of the reasons I don't want my name printed. I wouldn't be surprised if they started saying wizards were involved, then use that to come after me for saying too much."

There was a good deal more to the article, but Hermione couldn't bring herself to read further. Her mouth fell open and she looked up at her friends in horror.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, tossing the paper down onto the table. "This... this is slander! They put this rubbish on the front page?" She whirled in her seat to face the twins head on. "Is this why they left?"

Fred and George both frowned in disgust. "They didn't say." they said together.

"Dumbledore just walked in and said they had to go home straight away." George said.

Fred nodded in agreement. "Neither of them knew what it was about."

"The paper says this mess happened early Friday morning." George pointed out. "Connie and Mihnea left later that same day, so that has to be the reason for it."

"But..." Hermione began, suddenly distraught. "They're coming back, aren't they?"

George opened his mouth to respond, but Ron beat him to it. "Connie sent George a letter yesterday." he reported. "Didn't she, George?"

"I was getting to that, if you'd shut up a minute!" George spat in irritation. He huffed at his brother, then turned back to Hermione. "Connie sent something to me saying that it would take too long to write out in a letter, but she would explain everything when she got back. She and Mihnea are supposed to come back sometime today."

Well, that was a relief, at least. After reading that article and hearing that the two of them had been pulled out of class, the girl had been worried that their parents might have pulled them out of school for some reason. With the Prophet essentially accusing their family of murdering magical children, there was no telling what steps they might take to ensure their safety. How the devil did something like this happen? The Daily Prophet was supposed to be a respectable publication, not a gossip rag! If they were going to make such huge unfounded accusations, how much of the rest of the story could be believed?

Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do but wonder until Connie and Mihnea got back. The six of them waited around in the Great Hall until supper was officially over and they no longer had an excuse to stay there. It was getting late, and students were expected to go back upstairs to prepare for class the next day. They hung back out of the crowds and walked very slowly, hoping to encounter them in the hallway. Sure enough, as they were about to reach the Grand Staircase, Ginny happened to catch sight of Constance and Mihnea rounding a corner side by side. She grabbed at the boys' arms to get their attention, then shouted over to them.

"Hey! We were starting to get worried!"

All of them stopped to allow them time to catch up to them. Bassarab stayed a few steps behind Connie, carrying one of her bags for her and absentmindedly browsing through a book as he walked. When the pair reached them, Constance let out a long, tired sigh and slumped her shoulders.

"Hey, I'm sorry for being late." she said as she greeted them. "We were doing stuff at home and didn't expect it to take so long. We just flooed into Professor Dumbledore's office."

As they were waiting for most of the other students to go on up so that they could talk without having to worry about being overheard, Bassarb came to a halt beside his cousin and looked up from his book. He peered over each of them for a second before focusing on Hermione.

"You look better, Granger." he commented.

Hermione blinked, surprised that he was addressing her first. "Um... thank you." she replied. "I feel better. I don't know what that stuff was, but it worked wonders. I slept all weekend."

He quirked a brow. "I told you it would knock you out on your ass." he reminded her. "Any problems?"

She shook her head. "None." she told him.

"Good." he said with a nod. "Let me know if you ever need more. I've got plenty."

She opened her mouth to thank him, but Ron - apparently finding their exchange weird - decided to butt in to figure out what was going on.

"What did you give her anyway?" he asked suspiciously.

Mihnea turned to look down his nose at him. "None of your damn business, Weasley." he replied.

The ginger haired boy immediately took a nervous step back. Hermione rolled her eyes and held up hands to get involved in the conversation.

"I haven't been sleeping well, so he gave me something to help." she told him. "I thought you knew that?"

Harry looked at her curiously. "All we knew was that before Connie left, she told Fred and George to tell us to leave you alone and you would be fine."

"Oh." Hermione said. Perhaps there hadn't been enough time to communicate the specifics of what was going on. "Well, now you know." She shook her head and finally noticed the title of the book Bassarab was reading. "Is that... a book about sign language?"

Mihnea looked down at the book, then back up at her. "Wow, Granger, you can read. Very impressive."

Hermione wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms over her chest. Did he have to be so abrasive all the time? "It was only a question." she said with a sniff. "You don't have to be a dumbass about it."

Bassarab didn't look the least bit upset about the jab, but did hold up a finger to correct her. "Smartass." he said. "I don't care what else you think of me, but I am not dumb."

Constance made a face at him and gave him a backhanded swat to the chest to make him shut up. In the midst of their little discussion, the rest of the students had gone ahead and they were now able to speak freely. Ginny cleared her throat to get back to their purpose.

"So what did you have to go home for?" she questioned.

"Yeah." Fred piped up. "Was it about that 'Purgatorium' thing?"

Connie and Mihnea both went very still. Bassarab narrowed his eyes at him consideringly.

"How did you know about that?" he demanded quietly.

George took step back in surprise. "It's all over the newspapers." he told him. He looked back and forth between the two of them. "You guys didn't know?"

"The magical newspaper?" Connie exclaimed in shock. "No, we didn't know!"

Since neither of them knew what they were talking about, Ron pulled out his copy of the Daily Prophet and extended it out to them. Constance quickly grabbed it and opened it to read. Her eyes grew wider and wider with every sentence.

"Oh, this is bad..." she whispered to herself, then touched her cousin's arm. "Mihnea, read this."

Bassarab obligingly leaned over to get a look at the paper over her shoulder. After a few moments of reading, his face darkened and he angrily snatched the newspaper away from her.

"Excuse me?" he demanded.

It was understandable that he would be angry after reading what they had written about his mother, but they didn't think his reaction would be as strong as it was. He was so violently upset by what he saw that Hermione was sure his eyes quickly shift from green to red and then back again. She aparently wasn't the only who noticed it either because their entire group took a healthy step back away from him. Connie was upset as well. Of course, they had every reason to be, but as it turned out, their reasons for it were a bit different than they were expecting.

"When was this published?" Constance asked them hurriedly.

Harry turned his nervous gaze away from Mihnea long enough to answer her. "It's the Saturday morning edition." he reported, then nudged Ron in the side. "That's when it came in, right?"

Ron nodded in confirmation and Connie and her cousin shared a long, meaningful look between themselves.

"Mom said there was a wizard there." Bassarab said quietly. "There's no way they know this much unless it's him."

Fred and George both gave a start. "Wait a minute!" they said in unison. "What are you on about?"

Constance took a deep breath to calm herself, then squared her shoulders. "This raid they're talking about took place after the club was closed. There were no witnesses." she told them. "The only ones in the building when we attacked were the owner, three werewolves, and a wizard. Aunt Syn said the wizard apparated out the moment he saw them and others didn't survive. We haven't told any muggle newspapers about werewolves being involved, so the only way the Prophet would have all this information is if this 'BG' person is the wizard who was there that night."

Ginny's eyes went wide. "Oh my g..." she stopped herself short and shook her head. "But if he was there, couldn't you guys just report it to the Ministry? Maybe they could make the Prophet do a retraction."

Bassarab shook his head. "It doesn't work that way." he said, then held up the newspaper. "People are more likely to believe the first thing they read - especially in a paper like this. That's why Hellsing never clears a release of information to the public until we're sure we have the facts straight. This guy just got himself a prime piece of real estate on the front page telling the world that we're going to blame wizards for this mess just to have an excuse to track him down. If we try to make them report what actually happened, everyone will see it as a confirmation that this bastard was right. It doesn't matter how much proof we give them. Hellsing will still be the bad guy and he'll still be the victim."

Connie frowned pointedly at the paper. "This is a political move. Giving the people just enough of the truth to make the story believable, then twisting the rest so it looks how they want it to." she looked thoughtful for a second, then glanced at Ron. "Do you mind if I send it home? This is something mom needs to see."

"Uh... sure." Ron replied with a nod. "Go ahead."

"I'll send it." Bassarab offered immediately. "I need to find Luna anyway." he took Connie's bag off of his shoulder and passed it to her. "You're going to tell them?"

Constance glanced at all of them sideways, then looked back at him. "I have to, Mihnea." she said quietly. "They're going to find out eventually."

Mihnea studied her for a long moment, then sniffed and shrugged. The newspaper and his book in hand, he turned on his heel to walk off without saying another word. Connie pulled the bag he had given her onto her shoulder and motioned toward the stairs.

"We can talk while we walk." she said.

No one put up an arguement, so they all fell into step around her as they made their way upstairs.

"So..." Harry prodded. "How much of that story is true?"

Hermione was interested in hearing that herself. Connie sighed deeply and moved to readjust the bag on her shoulder. George noticed and took hold of the strap to pull it off of her.

"Give me that thing." he said. Constance opened her mouth as if to say that she could carry it herself, but he thrust a finger into her face. "Don't argue, I'm carrying it. Just talk."

Her mouth snapped shut and she rolled her eyes at his actions, then turned back to Harry. She gave them a quick overview of the situation and what had been done about it. Everything about all the people who had mysteriously died, infiltrating the club for the police because they suspected drugs, discovering the werewolves and the children in a room that had been warded with magic... It sounded like the Prophet had actually gotten most of the details right, but hadn't interpreted them correctly.

"If that's the way of it, what on earth were werewolves doing in a place where vampires meet up?" Ron asked. "Don't vampires and werewolves avoid each other like the plague? And what did they want with little kids?"

"We're still trying to figure that out." Connie replied. "In all honestly, the werewolves may have set up in a vampire club because it was a great place to hide. No one would ever expect them to be there. But as for why a wizard was helping them and why they were targeting young children... we don't know. All we know is that those kids had been on missing persons lists for a long time, so it's not like they were just snatched and taken there. They were being held somewhere else and moved there recently. Mom thinks there are probably more out there that we haven't found yet."

Ginny gasped and put a hand to her mouth. "That's so awful..."

Constance pressed her lips into a firm line and nodded. "And it's not true that there weren't any survivors. The werewolves were killing them to keep us from finding out what they were doing, but aunt Syn and Alucard managed to break into the room in time to save one. A six year old girl." she noticeably paused like she found what she was about to say incredibly sad. "One of the werewolves tore out her throat with his teeth. She's alive, but there was too much damage to her vocal chords to fix. She'll never be able to talk again. Her parents were murdered before she was kidnapped and she doesn't have any other family willing to take her in, so mom agreed to let Alucard and aunt Syn keep her." she stopped walking to look at each of them in turn. "That's why we went home for the weekend. Mihnea has a new little sister now, and they thought it was best for us to go ahead and meet so that we could... get used to the idea before we come home for the summer."

Wow... having something like that sprung on you out of nowhere would certainly take some getting used to. Hermione was stunned. "So that's why Mihnea was reading that book about sign language?" she asked.

The girl before her nodded. "Since she won't be able to speak, Alucard and aunt Syn are going to teach her how to use sign language. It's something all of us will have to learn."

Everyone was taken aback by the story. It was incredibly touching to hear that they were taking in a little girl who had nowhere to go, but the circumstances made it absolutely astounding. Constance took in their amazed expressions and went on.

"We didn't know the children were witches and wizards either." she said. "Mom will be interested in hearing that. But... I guess it makes sense because Ylenia is a gypsy and most gypsies are magical. We just figured we'd have to wait until she was older to find out..."

"Ylenia?" George asked.

"She's the one Mihnea's parents are keeping." Connie explained. "Her name is Ylenia." She noticed all of them looking around at each other and cleared her throat. "Anyway, she was bitten by the werewolf while he was in human form, so we're not really sure if she's infected or not. I imagine they'll know for certain after the full moon tonight."

Ginny studied her for a moment. "Wow." she breathed. "So... you might have a werewolf in the family now?"

"Possibly." Constance replied with a shrug.

"Whoa..." Ron said.

Harry's face slowly lit up into a bright smile. "That's kind of cool." he declared.

"It's right wicked is what it is!" The twins said, then exchanged a mischevious look between themselves.

"Newsoms." Fred said.

George grinned. "Hellsings."

"Vampires."

"And werewolves."

They wiggled their fingers at each other. "Oh my!" they exclaimed in enthusiam, then started dancing a merry jig like they had come up with the cleverest play on the 'lions, tigers, and bears' rhyme that had ever been.

Fred did a little half turn and skidded to a halt. "Hey, since she's so little, do you think if she transforms she'll look like a puppy?"

Hermione's mouth fell open. "How could you say such a thing?" she asked in disapproval. "That's so insensitive!"

"Insensitive my left foot." he countered with a roll of his eyes. "Honestly, Granger, it's called 'humor'. You should try it sometime."

She personally thought there was a difference between having a sense of humor and poking fun at someone so soon after a terrible event. But then, Connie didn't seem to take it badly so maybe there wasn't much point in berating them for it. Fred and George made fun of almost everything, so it wasn't that unusual.

They finally got up to the Gryffidor dormitory and headed up to their respective rooms. As she and Constance climbed the stairs up to the room they shared, Hermione carefully cleared her throat.

"I talked to Professor McGonagall about my schedule today."

Connie's steps slowed and she turned to look at her. "You did?"

The girl nodded, then took a deep breath. "You guys were right. I've been working myself too hard and nothing good was coming of it, so I dropped two classes."

For a few seconds Constance only studied her, then her face slowly lit up with approval. "Oh, Hermione, that's wonderful!" she said. She reached over to give her hand a squeeze. "It's about time too! I was beginning to think I'd have to knock you over the head and drag you there myself."

Hermione smiled softly. "Well, you don't have to worry about it anymore." she told her, then became thoughtful. "You know... it's funny, but I don't think I realized how bad I felt until I woke up today feeling so great. How on earth did you guys put up with me?"

"Very carefully." Connie replied in a dead-pan tone. She smiled to show that she was joking, then looked her over. "Mihnea told me he gave you one of his potions. I don't know what made him do it, but I'm glad he did. You look so much better."

She was glad he had too. And perhaps now that she had given in and cut out some unnecessary stressers, things would start to get better. Not 'normal'... but better.

---

A.N: For all of you Mihnea fans out there, I have put up a drawing of him on my DeviantArt account. I've been working on designs for my other characters, but he's the first I've drawn that I'm actually happy with. So now you can know what he looks like and are free to go drool over him if you wish! YAY!

(Don't deny it. You know you want to.)

Review!