Chapter 4: Family Ties

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

Sure enough, her first experience with third year potions proved to be interesting.

When Constance arrived at the potions classroom, several other students were already there. The Weasley twins were set up together at a table near the back, but they looked prepared to split up in case she chose to work with one of them. Everywhere else, the students were divided into pairs based on house. Gryffindors worked with Gryffindors and Slytherins worked with Slytherins. They even sat on opposite sides of the room, as if wanting to keep as much space between themselves as possible. Every class the two groups had together was like that. All the other houses had no problem intermingling, but no one wanted to mess with the Slytherins. It was the stupidest thing in the world.

Mihnea was sitting at a table at the very front with a boy who was apparently his lab partner. From the expression on his face, it was clear her cousin didn't like him at all. When he caught sight of her, his face brightened. He gave his companion a hard push, knocking him right out of his seat. He jerked his thumb toward the back of the room.

"Beat it, Yaxley."

The Slytherin boy blinked, then scuttled to the back of the room to find a different table. Mihnea smiled and pulled out the chair as Connie approached.

"You really do have all of them scared of you." she commented as she sat down.

"It comes in handy." he said with a shrug. "And it's funny as hell." he paused and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "I overheard Snape and McGonagall talking. He said you act like a Slytherin. I think he likes you."

The girl stared at him. Professor Snape acted like he didn't like anyone. She opened her mouth to say something about it, then noticed everyone was staring at them in shock. Fred and George's mouths were hanging so far open it looked like their jaws were going to pop off and fall onto the floor.

"Why are they all looking at us like that?" she whispered.

"Because you're sitting on the Slytherin side of the room, and I'm being nice to you." he responded, then gave her a mischievous look. "They probably think the apocalypse is about to happen."

Constance couldn't help it. The entire situation was so ridiculous she just had to laugh. That seemed to freak out the entire class even more. When everyone had come in and taken their seats, Professor Snape entered to begin the lesson. He paused and arched a brow when he saw the two of them sitting together, then cleared his throat to give them their assignments.

It was then that she understood why Snape moved her up. Third year potions seemed to be the students' first introduction to ingredient substitutions. It was much more complex than exchanging one ingredient for another. In the collection of materials the Potions Master provided, there were some things that were too old to be used, some he hadn't given them enough of, and a handful of things they hadn't gotten at all. The potion itself was simple, but so many elements had to be changed that they couldn't afford to get something wrong. She and Mihnea put their heads together and started brainstorming.

"There's only one ounce of foxglove." Connie said. "Maybe we should use jimsonweed?"

Her cousin shook his head. "That will make the fumes poisonous. We need agrimony."

And so on it went until they'd developed a full list of new ingredients they would need. As Mihnea went off to retrieve them from the storeroom, someone's cauldron exploded. Constance jumped and looked around to see who's it was. It was a pair of Gryffindors she didn't know. Snape marched over to give them a lecture about how stupid they were, then cleaned up the mess with a wave of his wand and made them start over. It looked like every table had started brewing something except for theirs. However, most of the other students were just throwing random things into their cauldrons to see if they would do anything. It was the most shockingly haphazard way of working she'd ever seen, and she couldn't understand how so many people could be that foolish. It was no wonder Snape didn't like the Gryffindors. They were the ones who made the most mistakes and did the most damage to the classroom.

When she and Mihnea finally got started on brewing, they were the last ones to begin. But with the carefully constructed plan they came up with in advance, they had no trouble with it at all. It wasn't like they were on the losing end of some sort of race anyway. Just about everyone had to start over at some point. A couple of groups had to redo all of their work several times. Constance and her cousin once had to scoot their chairs back and lift their feet to avoid a nasty, vomit green potion oozing across the floor. The Slytherins who made it had horrid looking boils and pustules all over their faces from the back-splash. The girl felt a rush of relief when they finally finished. She was ready to get out of there before she got sprayed with some god-awful concoction someone else came up with.

Snape walked over to inspect their work and studied it in silent appraisal.

"Well done." he said, inclining his head. "Ten points to Slytherin and Gryffindor for being the only ones to not make a god-forsaken mess of my classroom." he pointed toward the front. "Leave a bottle on my desk, and you may go."

Neither of them had to be told twice. They cleaned up their work area and Constance poured a measured amount of their potion into a bottle for grading. Mihnea met her at the front carrying both of their bags. He was pulling the door shut behind them when another cauldron exploded.

"Ten points each from Gryffindor, Weasley!" they heard Snape shout.

Connie sighed. She had actually gotten points added by the Potions Master and the twins had to go and lose them again.

It went on that way for weeks. She and Mihnea would work together in potions class, trying to avoid all the exploding cauldrons, then would separate to go to their other classes. She didn't think anything of it. They had grown up together, and she was used to spending a lot more time with him than they got at Hogwarts. But the other students thought something really weird and freaky was going on.

"What's with you and Bassarab?" one of the twins asked her at dinner one night.

Constance glanced over and saw it was Fred. He had a particular freckle on his nose that George didn't have. Discovering that made telling the two of them apart much easier.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said.

Ron looked aghast. "Bassarab? Mihnea Bassarab?" he looked over at her. "What are you doing with him?"

Connie shrugged. "We're lab partners."

"You should see the two of them in class." George piped up, looking like he found the whole thing to be some kind of terrible sin. "They talk, they laugh, he carries her bloody books..." he paused and gave her a serious look. "You don't have a thing going with him, do you?"

A thing? She wondered. What the bloody he... Her eyes went wide when she realized what he meant.

"Oh my god!" she sputtered. "That's disgusting! No, we don't have a 'thing'. We're cousins."

Everyone stopped and stared at her.

"Cousins?" Harry repeated. "You never said anything about that before!"

"Well, you didn't ask, did you?" she said smartly. "We grew up together, so he's like my older brother."

"But he's a Slytherin!" Ron stated, looking horrified. "And he's scary. Even the Slytherins are scared of him."

Oh, for the love of... "Mihnea is not scary." Connie said. When she saw their unconvinced looks, she sighed. "Okay, fine. Sometimes he's scary. But most of the time he's nice, polite, and a perfect gentleman. What's your problem anyway? Has he ever actually done anything to you?"

They all paused. "No..." the twins said in unison. "But he's still creepy."

Constance was about to comment that they were being silly and ignorant about the whole thing, but stopped when she felt a tug on her leg. Pixie was down there batting at her with a clawed paw. She probably heard who they were talking about. Mihnea's cat was a strikingly intelligent animal, and she tended to show up and snoop around when she heard someone say her owner's name. Once Pixie saw she had Connie's attention, she crouched down into pounce position then jumped up into her lap. The cat stayed there only a second before she caught sight of the chicken on Ron's plate. She leapt up onto the surface of the table, shocking everybody there.

"That's the biggest cat I've ever seen!" Hermione exclaimed.

Pixie stalked across the table and snatched a chicken leg off of Ron's plate.

"Hey!" the boy shouted. He started rolling up his copy of the Daily Prophet as if he were going to give her a swat with it.

"If you hit my cat with that thing, I'll beat the snot out of you with it and see how much you like it."

Ron froze and dropped the newspaper. Mihnea was standing at the end of the table eating an apple. He shot Weasley a look, then pointed at Pixie.

"Bad girl." he admonished. "We don't take things off of other people's plates. Put it down."

The cat hesitated, then lowered her head to set the chicken down on the table. She then sat down and slumped like she was ashamed of herself.

"Now apologize." Mihnea told her.

Pixie sat up a bit straighter and looked over at Ron. She batted a paw at him and meowed. All the Gryffindors sitting nearby looked between Mihnea and his cat in absolute astonishment. Constance couldn't tell if they were shocked by a Slytherin telling his cat to apologize to a Gryffindor, or just surprised that Pixie was smart enough to actually do it. Hermione elbowed Ron in the ribs.

"Say thank you." she hissed.

The boy grimaced and rubbed his side where she hit him, then looked at Bassarab nervously.

"Uh... thank you."

Mihnea slowly arched a brow. "You're welcome." he replied with a small nod of acceptance. "And I apologize for that. Pixie likes to steal people's food. If she does it again, just tell her to stop. She'll understand what you're saying."

Ron looked stunned he had apologized to him. Mihnea was crooking his finger at the cat to get her to come with him when Malfoy and his goons came in and saw the lot of them sitting together.

"Well, if it isn't Potter and his gang of mudbloods, half-breeds, and muggle lovers!" he taunted.

Mihnea went very still. Connie was sure the 'half-breed' jab had been directed at her, but that was a word her cousin didn't like hearing no matter who it was said to. His back was turned, so Draco couldn't tell it was him who was standing there. If he had known, he wouldn't have dared to say it. When she saw him put his apple down and start rolling up his sleeves like he was going to kick the boy's ass, Constance grabbed his arm.

"Not here." she told him, giving him a pleading look. "There are too many teachers around."

Up at the teacher's table, the professors couldn't hear everything that was said below, but if they saw a fight, he'd get a detention or worse. Mihnea looked up at them and made a face.

"Goddamn it." he swore. He looked at his cat. "Attack position, Pixie."

She immediately dropped into a low crouch, looking every bit like a miniature leopard preparing to take down it's prey. Mihnea waited until Draco was close enough, then pointed.

"Go get him."

Pixie ran down the table and gave a flying leap through the air, landing right on Malfoy's head. The blonde boy let out a shrill scream and hit the ground. The cat clawed and bit at him while he rolled around, struggling to pry her off. Up at the teacher's table Snape was standing up, trying to figure out what was going on with his students.

"Mr. Bassarab!" he bellowed. "Get your cat off of Malfoy's face!"

"Yes sir!" Mihnea called out. He picked up his apple and bit into it. "Let him go, Pixie. You don't know where he's been."

She stopped chewing on Malfoy's nose and looked up at her owner. Pixie jumped off of the squealing boy to leap back up onto the Gryffindor table. Draco stayed on the ground, moaning like the scratches on his face were going to kill him or something.

Mihnea fed Pixie a piece of his fruit. "Good girl." he praised, then gathered her up into his arms like she was a baby. He walked over to the blonde boy laid out on the floor and nudged him with his foot.

"You scream like a little girl, Malfoy."

Everyone sitting around Connie just stared as he walked away, cooing at his cat.

"Did that just happen?" the twins questioned, both of them blinking.

"Yes." she replied with a wide smile. "See? I told you he could be nice."

Nice in his own way, at least.