Chapter 5: The Bonds of Friendship

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

"Hermione? Hermione, please talk to me. You've been in here all afternoon."

Connie had no idea what was wrong, but it had to have something to do with Charms. Ever since they finished their levitation lesson, the girl had locked herself up in the bathroom to bawl her eyes out. She had seen her running down the hallway, and followed to see what was going on. Inside the stall, she heard her sniff.

"Go away."

Constance narrowed her eyes. This had been going on long enough. "Hermione Granger, if you don't come out, I'll kick the door down and come in there with you." she threatened.

"No you wont." her sad voice replied. "Just leave me alone."

She had no intentions to leave. One of her friends was upset and she wanted to know why. Constance pushed herself up from the floor, straightened her shoulders, and gave the latch of the door a solid kick. The flimsy metal lock snapped and the door swung inward. Hermione's tear filled eyes went wide in shock.

"What are you doing!" she exclaimed. "You just broke a door!"

Connie stepped inside the bathroom stall and pushed the door closed behind her. "I told you if you wouldn't come out, I was coming in." she said, repeating her previous statement. "So I came in. Now what's wrong?"

She looked awful. Her entire face was wet with tears, and her eyes were red and swollen from hours of crying. She had reached that stage where she couldn't speak for very long without her voice breaking so she could fight for breath.

"I don't want to talk about it." she said.

Okay, well, if she was going to play that game, Connie could wait it out. She lowered herself down to sit cross-legged on the floor, pinning the door of the stall closed with her back.

"I can sit in here all night." she told her.

Hermione blinked at her, looking surprised that she was actually going to follow through with her words. She let out a deep sigh and sniffled.

"Harry and Ron were making fun of me."

Constance blinked. Surely she hadn't heard that right. Ron and Harry weren't the brightest bulbs in the box, but they weren't the sort to be mean to someone just for fun.

"When?" she asked.

"When we were leaving Charms." Hermione replied haltingly. "I heard them talking. Ron said I didn't have any friends because I was a nightmare..." she started crying all over again. "I'm not a nightmare, am I? I mean, I know I come off as bossy sometimes, but I wasn't trying to be mean. I was just trying to help..."

Oh, the next time she saw Harry and Ron, she was going to give both of them a good punch in the nose. How dare they say something like that? She reached out and touched Hermione's shoulder.

"No, you're not a nightmare." she soothed. "And you do have friends. I'm your friend, aren't I?"

The girl sniffled again and rubbed her nose on the sleeve of her robe. "Yes..." she said, then shook her head. "I just don't understand why they said it..."

Constance frowned. "What exactly did they say?"

"It was all about that spell we were doing in class." Hermione replied, looking at her through her swollen eyes. "I kept telling them it was 'levi-O-sa', not 'levio-SA'. And I promise I wasn't trying to be snotty about it, but Ron was about to put someone's eye out with the way he was swinging his wand around, and I just couldn't stand it!"

She probably didn't intend to sound snotty, but she did sometimes come off way, Connie thought. But that was still no reason for them to go and make fun of her for it.

"Well, if you ask me, I think you had a right to tell them they were doing something wrong." she told her. "I mean, you saw what happened to Seamus."

Seamus had been saying the spell wrong and using the wrong wand motion. After three attempts, the feather he was supposed to be levitating blew up in his face. He was lucky it had been a feather and not something bigger and heavier. Someone could get hurt making stupid mistakes like that.

"That's what I was thinking." Hermione said. "But I can't say anything without someone calling me a teacher's pet or a know-it-all. I don't really sound that way, do I?"

She was looking at her like she expected an answer, and Constance didn't like lying. She took a deep breath.

"I think... sometimes you say things without realizing how they sound to other people." she said as gently as possible. "But... that's just part of who you are. None of us is perfect. And I think that people get annoyed with that because they know you're smarter than them and they don't like it." she paused. "Harry and Ron are boys Hermione. They can't help being stupid."

That got a small laugh out of her, and her lips pulled into a small smile. "I suppose they can't, can they?"

Connie nodded. "Next time, maybe you should let the feathers blow up in their faces so they'll learn to listen when you tell them something."

The girl laughed again. "I don't know if I can do that." she told her. "But I think I'll stop letting them copy my essays for History of Magic."

She was surprised that Hermione, being the stickler for rules that she was, actually let them do that. But then, Professor Binns was a ghost, and didn't really pay attention to small details like that as long as his students turned something in that halfway resembled the assignment. She fished a pack of tissues out of her pocket and passed them to her.

"The Halloween feast is tonight. Are you going to come down?" she asked.

Hermione pulled out one of the tissues and blew her nose. "I don't know. It's mostly candy and sweets, isn't it? I'm not supposed to eat much of those things..."

Her parents were dentists, so they didn't like the thought of their daughter eating things filled with sugar that could rot out her teeth.

"It's Halloween, Hermione." Constance prodded. "Eating candy is the best part about it!" she simpered down a bit. "And maybe they'll have something there that's not pure sugar. I mean, surely they would have something in case a student was diabetic..."

She didn't know if there were any wizards or witches with diabetes, but there had to be some sort of allowances made for them if there were. Sending someone into diabetic shock from loading them up with a bunch of stuff they weren't supposed to have would make the school look bad. If anything, they should have something for people on special diets. In front of her, Hermione was still wiping her nose.

"Maybe so." she said quietly. "I'll come down later. I promise. I just... think I want to be alone for a while." she gave Connie a small smile. "At least until I look better. I don't want anyone to see me like this."

Constance could certainly understand that. "Are you going to be okay?" she questioned.

"I'll be fine." Hermione replied, waving her off. "You go on and have fun. I'll come down in a little while."

She nodded. With as upset as she was, she deserved a little alone time to recover. Now that she was assured that everything was okay and knew what it had all been about, she felt better about leaving her there. She told Hermione to keep the tissues, then pushed herself up off the floor to head down to the Great Hall.

When she took her place at the Gryffindor table, Harry and Ron looked completely dumbfounded as to why Hermione wasn't there yet.

"She's not coming down?" Weasley questioned. "But it's Halloween! All the good stuff will be gone if she waits too long!"

Constance gave him a sharp look. "No, she's not coming down yet. She's been in the girl's bathroom crying for hours because of you. Where do you get off telling her she has no friends? You had no right!"

Ron winced and exchanged a look with Harry. "Oh come on, I didn't mean it that way. You know how mental she gets. It's downright annoying sometimes..."

"Hermione is not mental. She was trying to help you avoid having a spell blow up in your face. How would you feel if someone told you no one wanted to be your friend because you're a red-haired, freckled idiot with no common sense?" she demanded. "You'd be holed up in a bathroom crying like a baby too. You had better to apologize to her, or I'll kick your sorry arse myself." she gave Harry a hard look. "You too."

Potter gave a start. "Me? I didn't do anything!"

"Exactly. You didn't do anything. You should have told him to shut his mouth." Connie said, pissed off. "The two of you may not care how people treat your friends, but I do. Hermione is my friend, and I'm not going to listen to people tearing her down no matter who they are. If you can't say something nice, then just keep your bloody mouth shut."

Fred and George were a couple of seats down from them, but they were listening. "I'd do what she says, Ron." Fred told his brother. "She looks right scary."

"Oh, shut it." Constance snapped, turning their way. She was mad, and it was going to come out at everyone now. "I'm pissed at both of you too. I earned us twenty points in Potions today, and you guys had to go and lose them. Again."

Both of the twins blinked and pointed at each other. "It was him." they both said.

She sighed. One of them was no worse than the other. She was sure that if they weren't working together, they wouldn't go losing so many points. The two boys fed off of each other like leeches. She wasted no time in telling them so.

"So, if you want us to split up, does that mean you'll be my partner in potions?" George asked, looking hopeful.

"No." she said firmly. "I'm happy with the partner I have now, thank you."

George made a face, and Fred elbowed him the side and whispered something in his ear. "I am not!" he protested, while his brother just snickered.

"What are you two on about now?" she demanded.

"Nothing." they said in unison.

They were doing that irritating twin thing, so Constance decided to ignore them. Since she was there for the feast, she turned her attention to examining what was laid out. Most of it was candy and other confections. Cookies, cakes, brownies, and tarts... But there were a few small selections of sliced fruit that looked like they weren't going to last very long. She picked out a few pieces to save for later. If Hermione didn't make it down before they were gone, she would at least have something other than pure sugar to eat. She put a napkin over the plate and set it to the side so she could start picking things out for herself. She didn't particularly like really sweet things, but there were some pieces of peanut brittle and iced gingerbread that looked promising. She was flaking off black icing in the shape of a bat off of a gingerbread cookie when Professor Quirrel ran in through the main doors of the Great Hall.

"TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!"

It took only a few seconds for all hell to break loose.

Connie didn't know much about mountain trolls aside from them being big, ugly, and extremely stupid. It was one of those things you didn't really worry about knowing because you never thought you'd ever have to actually deal with one. But there they were, a troll having somehow invaded the lower levels of the castle, and all the students herded up to their dormitories for their own safety while the teachers went to fend it off before it did too much damage.

There was just one problem. Three problems, to be more exact. Once everything in the Gryffindor common room was settled down enough to not be considered complete chaos, Constance noticed that Hermione, Harry, and Ron weren't there.

"What do you mean, they ran off?" she exclaimed when Neville said he had seen them leave the group.

The boy looked like he was afraid she was going to do something to him. "I heard them say something about Hermione not knowing about it." he stuttered in his nervousness. "I think they went to the girl's bathroom to get her."

She felt foolish for not doing something similar herself. She had hoped that Hermione would be on her way down to the feast, and would see everyone being taken up to the dorms. But at least the boys were thinking about her safety. With the troll in the dungeons, it wouldn't be like there was any immediate danger on the main floors of the castle anyway... But it wasn't long before McGonagall came in, dragging all three of them behind her by the ears. How she managed to do that, Connie wasn't sure, but it was an impressive feat.

"Do you three realize how lucky you are?" she demanded. "There aren't many first year students who could face a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell about it." she gave Hermione a stern look. "I expected better of you, Miss Granger. I am severely disappointed in your lack of judgment."

Wait a second. Constance thought. What?

It was inexplicable why Hermione would have points taken away from her for 'running off to hunt down the troll' while Harry and Ron got points added for being lucky enough to beat the damn thing. No one had any idea what had happened. But Connie got an earful about it once the excitement died down and they all went to bed for the night.

"I was still in the bathroom when it came in." the girl told her, dressed out in pajamas and sitting on the edge of her bed. "I didn't know what to do! It was all so sudden. But Harry and Ron came in and rescued me."

"They rescued you?" she asked, astonished. She didn't know the boys had it in them.

"Well, it was all a jumbled up mess, to be honest, but they did most of the work." the girl amended. "Harry jumped up on top of it, and Ron levitated it's club to hit it on the head! Connie, he said the spell right and everything!"

Wow... So Ron actually managed to perform a spell without it blowing up in his face. That was impressive. Constance couldn't help but smile.

"I guess they wont be complaining about you lecturing them on pronunciation anymore, will they?"

"I should hope not." Hermione replied with a sniff. "If they do, I have something to hold over their heads now." she quieted and became thoughtful. "They apologized while McGonagall was bringing us back up, by the way. What on earth did you say to them? They sounded like you made them nervous."

She blinked, then remembered the conversation they had over the Halloween feast. "Oh. I... um... might have told them that I would kick their arses if they didn't say they were sorry."

Hermione studied her for a moment, then burst out laughing. "You must have been scary about it, because they still looked frightened, even after the troll!"

"Well, I don't think I could do much worse than a troll, but I'll take that as a compliment." Constance replied, finding that a bit funny herself. Maybe she had finally gotten her mother's 'icy death glare' down. "So are you still going to let them copy you after this?"

The girl simpered down and let out a deep sigh. "I suppose I have to, don't I? I can't very well tell them no after they practically saved my life..." she paused and seemed to think it over. "I'll give them a week, then I'll stop letting them copy."

That's what she said now but she would still let them do it, Constance imagined. For the same reason that she let Fred and George look over her potions notes when they weren't under the watchful eye of Professor Snape. Because they were friends, and that's what friends did for each other.

A.N: Okay, I've gotten some questions in reviews, and I figured I should address them here, just in case other people were wondering about the same things.

1. What are the changes in the timeline and how where the aurors involved/not involved in the Battle of London? In this story, the Battle of London took place about 2 years before the 'final' defeat of Voldemort. At the time, the Ministry and the magical world at large was so busy fighting him and his followers that they couldn't spare additional forces to deal with the muggle war with vampires. There were muggle organizations around the world that were supposed to handle monster attacks like that, so they probably figured that those agencies would deal with the muggle world, and they would focus on the magical world. After the war with Millennium was over, it wasn't like the magical world could erase the memory of everyone on the planet. There was too much damage done.

2. Will this story be entirely from Connie's POV? Nope. This story is not going to be entirely from Connie's POV. She just happens to be in the middle of the most important things going on at the moment. There will be some chapters from Mihnea's POV, some from various Hellsing members POV, some from the trio's... etc. Don't worry. You guys will get to have a glimpse inside of Mihnea's head. :)

3. Is there a connection between Syn and Lilly? Syn Newsom and Lily Potter have no personal connection to each other whatsoever. They just both happen to have red hair and green eyes. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the Weasley family with red har and green eyes too. However, there is somewhat of a connection between the Newsoms and the Potters - which I'm not going to say any more about right now, but it will be important. Feel free to guess.

4. Why does Syn take the Bassarab name, and why can't she use wigs/contact lenses to move around in the magical world without being recognized? This is a bit more complicated, and might take longer to explain: Syn and Alucard are mated, not married. Mihnea uses Bassarab as his last name to go to Hogwarts, but Syn still goes by 'Miss Newsom'. Mihnea would have been a Newsom before he got his acceptance letter. Since Alucard is a vampire who techinically isn't supposed to exist (everyone believes that VanHelsing killed him, not kept him as a pet) he would have no real need for a surname. There is no way Mihnea could have used 'Dracula' without raising eyebrows, so Alucard had to go further back in history to find something more appropriate for him to use.

As for why Mihnea's mother can't wear disguises to get around the magical world without being recognized - the Newsom's magic is different, and witches and wizards are able to sense it. There are some types of magical creatures who give people a strange feeling when they're around, and this works in a similar way. Syn could disguise herself, use a different name, or even take a potion to change her appearance entirely and witches and wizards would still be able to sense that she used a type of magic that scares the hell out of them. If Edmund is a Newsom, then why is he able to get around that? This is something that wasn't explicitly stated in Blood Heritage, but Edmund's mother was a Newsom who married a Stryker. His father came from a family who didn't use magic, so in the magical world, he would be considered a half blood. That muggle blood dampens the effect and makes it less noticiable. Edmund is so friendly and outgoing with people, they would probably think they were just imagining things once they started talking to him. Syn, on the other hand, would be a pure blood. She has no idea who her father is, but my thoughts are that it was a wizard who abandoned her mother once he found out he got her pregnant. The 'pure' magical blood makes that sensation she gives off impossible to hide, so there would be no point in even attempting to hide behind disguises or a different name.

So anyway, there are the answers for you. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask and I'll answer them for you!

I know I've been going crazy with the daily updates, but this will be the last one. From now on, I'll be updating on an every other day/every two days schedule. I apologize for anyone getting overloaded with chapters. :)