Liberal use of the confundus charm got the pair of them out of the country without anybody the wiser. A couple more when they touched down at Heathrow, and they were permitted to leave the airport and take the limo that was waiting for them to Buckingham, where the Queen had called a Round Table Conference.
Harry opened the door to see that the 'Round Table Conference' was in fact taking place at a long, rectangular table. Integra was at the head of the table, with the other knights seated at the long side to her right, and... Harry barely kept from sneering. Maxwell of Iscariot was seated half-way down the other side. He had an older clergy with him, as well as a younger bodyguard.
Seras and Walter both stood by Integra, one on each side of her chair. Harry would ask who's idea it was to let Walter out again later, since this wasn't the best time or place for it.
The Queen was on the throne atop the dais at the further end of the room, looking out over them all. Harry bowed to her before he entered the room.
"Hello Love," Harry greeted with a smile, and moved comfortably up to Integra's side to kiss her cheek before he took the empty chair that had been waiting for him at her side.
"Hello Harry," Integra answered with a smile of her own. "Alucard, take off your sunglasses," she ordered lightly. "You're in the presence of the Queen."
Alucard smiled a gentle smile and obeyed.
"Present yourself to Her Majesty," Integra instructed.
Alucard nodded and walked up to the throne, where he knelt before the Queen.
"Still so young, Vampire," the Queen said softly, a smile on her wrinkled face as she cupped his in her weathered hands. "And look at me? I'm old now."
"You're still beautiful to my eyes, your Majesty," Alucard answered with a smile.
The Queen chuckled, and dropped her hands. "You're still a flirt, I see," she observed. "Give your report please."
Alucard nodded, stood, and descended from the dais. "Fifty-five years ago, an insane Nazi major tried to make an army of vampires. Walter and I put an end to his plans, but they never gave up. His research is about to be completed. They are the last remaining soldiers of the Third Reich: the Last Battalion. That is Millennium's true identity," Alucard reported.
"I see, you found out through Tubalcain's blood," a young voice said from just before the closed doors of the conference room. "The Major sure blew that one!"
Harry glared at the cat-eared child dressed in the uniform of the 'Hitler Youth' as he smiled at them all. Even when the Iscariot bodyguard and Seras both levelled their weapons at the boy.
"Hold your horses! I'm just the messenger! I have no intention to fight," the boy said, hands raised and visibly empty as he slowly walked towards the foot of the table.
"Who was in charge of security in my absence?" Harry asked lowly.
"My deepest apologies, my Lord," Walter answered, his voice shaking very slightly. "I truly don't know how he got in. Our defences were perfect, and are showing no signs of a breach."
"This boy standing in this room is a sign of a breach," Harry growled at the man.
"I couldn't exactly get Hermione in to raise a ward for us. She's much too busy," Integra said softly.
Harry shook his head. "Not her field anyway," he answered her. "I'm going to have to introduce you to a few other of my old associates. I really have been meaning to for quite some time, but something always seems to come up."
"Whatever your security measures, they won't do you any good," the boy said happily. "I am everywhere, and nowhere."
"And at will, I suppose?" Harry queried dryly.
The boy grinned, extremely cheeky and very toothy, and that seemed to answer that. "Dear people of England and the Vatican, our commander, the esteemed Major, has an announcement," he declared, and set an odd contraption down on the table. "Please hear it," he added, and pulled a remote control out of his pocket.
It took a few moments, but eventually the device was made to work. The device peaked Harry's interest, as it seemed to be a technological version of the two-way mirrors available in the magical world.
"What is your objective?" Integra asked, once Alucard and the Major had exchanged pleasantries.
"Hm? Oh! You must be Lady Integra Fairbrook Windgates Potter Hellsing, commander of the Hellsing Organisation. What a pleasure to finally meet you!" the Major said with a delighted grin.
"What is it you're after?" Integra demanded sharply. "What is your objective?"
Harry lay a calming hand over his wife's. "Now now Love," he said softly. "We already know what they want. They want war."
"Ah, and that must be Lord Hellsing," the Major said with a happy sigh. "Yes, we want war. To ask our objective... it is truly a silly question, Frau Hellsing. An objective ceases to exist among us. We are among the 'idiots' in this world who don't care about objectives, as long as we can make our own path," he explained.
"You're insane," Maxwell said flatly as the display switched from showing the major to showing some of his vampire soldiers feasting on some old men who were wearing decorated Nazi uniforms.
"And who are you to say that, Iscariot of the Vatican?" the Major countered with a smile.
"He's one who speaks from personal experience," Harry cut across simply. "Though I'm sure there are any number of psychologists who would agree with him on this particular point."
"Haha! Very clever, Lord Hellsing," the Major congratulated as Maxwell became furiously, silently incensed in his seat. "We are the Schutzstaffel of the Third Reich. How many do you think we've killed up until now? 'Insane'? After all this time? You're fifty years too late to call us that. Alright, fine. Then stop me Iscariot, with your self-professed 'normal' ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately, you are not my enemy. My enemy is England! Hellsing! No, the man standing there laughing!" the Major declared eagerly.
"Tepes, a little decorum," Harry requested blandly before the ancient vampire's low chuckles, carefully suppressed until that moment, could be unleashed in rapturous laughter. "If you please."
Alucard coughed as he forced his laughter back under control. "Yes, my Lord," he answered, but he was still grinning. He turned to the little device once more, and his grin stretched a little wider across his face. "That's a splendid declaration of war," he congratulated. "And I will be glad to annihilate you as many times as you want," he added, raising a hand to clench it into a fist, the binding runes on the back of the glove glowing brightly.
"We will never give up," the Major informed Alucard mildly, a smug grin on his own face. "We will turn around such trifling outcomes as many times as it takes. Herr und Frau Hellsing, I look forward to seeing you on the battlefield," he said, and gave them a last wave before the picture cut out.
The boy, Warrant Officer Schrodinger, according to the Major, then collected up the device, gave them all a cheeky, irreverent salute, and vanished where he stood.
"Lord and Lady Hellsing, Alucard," the Queen said, and looked over to Seras. "Seras Victoria," she added with a smile.
All four stood to attention before her, knowing that orders were about to be issued. Alucard was the only one smiling at the prospect though.
"This is an order," the Queen said, as if there had been any doubt. Her kind eyes flashed with coldness and the lines of age around her eyes tightened. Her voice was sharp and hard when she gave the order. "Shoot. Them. Down."
~oOo~
"Have you ever heard of the concept that a vampire must be invited in, before they can enter another's home?" Harry asked Integra as he studied again the plans of the Hellsing Estate – including both the grounds and the building.
"Heard of it," Integra agreed. "It's a load of trollop though," she added unhappily.
"Mm," Harry acknowledged. "What if, though, what if I could set up a ward around the property that would keep out uninvited guests?" he asked.
Integra raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Is it even possible for a ward to make such a distinction?" she queried in return.
Harry sighed in frustration. "I don't know," he admitted. "I'm going to have to talk to Bill, and maybe the goblins."
Integra blinked. "Goblins?" she asked.
Harry chuckled. "All these years, and I can still surprise you when I talk about every-day matters of the magical world," he said with a smile. "Yes, goblins, Love. They run Gringotts Bank, and are very restricted by the Ministry in what they may and may not do, but they know a thing or fifty about security measures. Bill's a friend of mine, worked for the goblins as a curse-breaker for a while. He may not be the best at putting wards up, but he knows about weak points and pulling them down, so he'll be able to test what I put up, and chances are good he'll have a few ideas to help me improve the wards at the same time."
"I look forward to meeting him," Integra decided.
Harry chuckled. "Forewarned, he might bring his wife Fleur with him, when I get him here," he said. Despite numerous suggestions over the years, Fleur and Integra had still not met. The couple hadn't even been able to come to the wedding, as they'd been relocated temporarily for a dig. "She knows her way around wards and security measures too, so I'll welcome the extra help, but, Integra, remember that you have my heart, when you meet her, and Fleur is completely besotted with her own husband."
Integra frowned. "Harry?" she asked lowly. "Why are you telling me this?"
"You'll know when you meet her," Harry said. "It's difficult to explain... and actually, now that I think about it, maybe Seras would benefit from meeting her."
"Do I even want to know where that line of thinking is coming from, or going?" Integra queried warily.
Harry chuckled. "A glass of Fleur might help the young draculina better handle Tepes," he said, amused at the idea of Seras smiling and controlling her master with the allure of a veela. The girl already had a lovely body (even half-blind, Harry could see that), and Alucard was fond of the girl already...
Harry chuckled again at the thought.
"Harry, you're not exactly inspiring confidence right now," Integra informed her husband flatly.
"Sorry Love," he answered with an utterly unrepentant smile. "Onto other matters, I was surprised to see Walter at the meeting yesterday."
"I was surprised to learn my butler had been strapped to his bed by Alucard under your orders," Integra countered. "Though the reasons for that action being taken surprised and disturbed me even more," she added in unhappy admission.
Harry kissed his wife tenderly. "Sorry Love," he said softly.
Integra nodded in acceptance. "You were right," she answered, her own voice quiet. "But Alucard made a start straightening him out before you left, and Seras and I finished what he started. Walter has been providing us with a bit more information as well."
"That's good," Harry allowed. "But can he be trusted?"
"He can," Integra asserted with a gentle smile. "He doesn't particularly want to get on your bad side again, now that you finally crumbled and revealed your status as a wizard to him."
"Fortunately, this estate is my home, and the Ministry doesn't track the use of magic in the home of a wizard, even if it is also frequently trafficked by people who don't know about magic. That we run an anti-vampire organisation also gives me a good deal more lee-way."
Integra chuckled.
Harry kissed her lips lightly. "You're going to be busy in London until this is over, aren't you Love?" he asked, a little sadly.
Integra nodded. "I'm afraid so. I received news already that we've lost contact with the aircraft carrier Eagle, just off Wales."
"Probably them," Harry noted.
Integra nodded in agreement. "But Walter's loyalty is guaranteed now, and both you and Alucard can come to me without any difficulty if it should be needed."
Harry sighed, but accepted this as truth. "Well, go to London in the morning, stay with your husband tonight," he requested.
Integra smiled, but shook her head. "I have to be there in an hour."
Harry pouted.
Integra chuckled. "You're going to have your hands full while I'm gone," she pointed out. "You're going to have to warn the magical community of the vampire invasion, after all."
Harry groaned at the reminder.
"Best make the most of the time until then," Integra suggested in a whisper against his ear, a sultry smile on her face.
Harry laughed and swept her up into his arms, kissing her soundly, much to Integra's delight.
~oOo~
Harry picked up the phone in his office.
"Harry, can an aircraft be spelled to withstand artillery?" Integra's voice asked intently.
"That depends on the weight of the artillery," Harry answered, not wasting time with flirting with his wife. Bill and Fleur were also seated at his desk, going over plans and ideas of how the estate's wards could be further enhanced, with Alucard and Seras occasionally joining in the conversation with questions and ideas of their own – while Seras slowly sipped at a glass of Fleur's blood, and Alucard indulged in some of Bill's.
"We need to get Alucard onto the Eagle, but of course it has all the ordinance of an aircraft carrier, as well as a 'magic bullet'," Integra explained.
"Magic bullet?" Harry repeated lowly, curious and wary all at once.
"One shot from a musket and two choppers were shot down from a rather considerable distance. Unfortunately, we can't just leave them alone," Integra further expounded.
"Love, if we have exact co-ordinates, I can apparate Alucard out there," Harry pointed out.
"No," Integra insisted. "That would put you at unnecessary risk while Alucard deals with the problem."
"Oh, fine. Pick a good, fast plane and have it on our landing strip in half an hour, along with co-ordinates. I'll see that Alucard will be on the Eagle in no more than an hour," Harry promised.
"Thank you Harry," Integra said gratefully.
"Love you," Harry farewelled, and hung up when she did.
"I'm going where?" Alucard asked.
"Aircraft carrier off Wales," Harry answered shortly. "Do try not to revel in the nostalgia too much when you bring another ghost-ship up the Thames, Tepes," he added with a smirk.
Alucard threw back his head and laughed with manic delight.
Another call came, an hour after Alucard had left for the aircraft carrier.
"Yes?" Harry asked.
"Harry, make sure the queen gets out."
"Of course Love," he answered easily. "But I thought that was someone else's job."
"It is, but I want you to make sure," Integra replied. "Harry... it's begun."
"What's the latest?"
"A fleet of airships have been sighted, heading for London."
Harry winced. "That's a bloodbath waiting to happen," he pointed out.
"How are the estate defences?"
"As perfect as we can make them," was Harry's prompt response.
"Any word from Alucard?"
"Tepes should be bringing the Eagle up the river within the next couple of hours. Do you want me to tell him to step on it?"
"Please. And... Harry, if I don't make it out of this alive..."
"Integra, you will make it out of this alive," Harry insisted flatly. "You have your emergency portkey, don't you? If you need to come back to the estate, use that. If you need to return to London after you've come, then I'll apparate us there. It's that simple."
Integra sighed down the line. "I love you, Harry."
"Love you too, Integra."
She hung up, and Harry did the same, then conjured his patronus. "Tell Tepes he's missing the war," he requested of the pearly-white stag.
The great beast nodded shortly, turned and leapt at the wall, where it vanished, gone with its message.
"Seras!" Harry called out as he stood from his desk.
The girl had long ago gone to make sure her weapons were clean and all of her ammunition for them was at the ready.
"Sir!" she said, as she rose from the shadows before his desk, rigid in a sharp and business-like salute.
"It's begun," Harry informed her shortly. "I'm going to raise the anti-vampire wards Bill and Fleur helped me lay down earlier this evening. It will be a little uncomfortable for you to stay here while they're up."
"Awaiting orders, Sir," Seras stated plainly.
"You are going to London. Take the men and all the munitions you can carry. Your task is to mete out mercy and justice. Lay ghouls to rest and kill the enemy. Defend the living if you can."
"Yessir."
"Tepes will join you before long," Harry added.
Seras smiled happily at the prospect. She hadn't gotten to fight alongside her master very much at all really. She was looking forward to getting the chance to finally do so.
Harry chuckled. "I'll hold down the fort here, just in case, but the building should be secure. All the same, if I come to London, you'll know about it."
"Sir, yessir," Seras agreed.
"Go."
Seras grinned with cheeky confidence. Yep, Fleur's blood had been good for the girl, just as Harry had known it would be. "Gone, Sir," she said, and sank back down through the floor, still smiling.
~oOo~
Harry sighed. He was the only person left on the ancestral property of his wife's family now. A truly rare occurrence. He pushed himself away from his desk and strolled through the building at a sedate pace. A pace that let him spell each window-pane to be unbreakable as he walked. Without quite meaning to, Harry travelled the halls until he reached the nursery.
It was a commonly held misconception that the conference room was the best defended room in the whole building. In fact, while it was very easily turned into a safe-room against intruders, the safest room was the nursery.
The nursery that, in ten years, had never been filled.
At first, they'd thought themselves too young, too close to being children themselves to be able to be ready to be parents, though Harry had a godson. Teddy lived with Andromeda though, and Harry visited with the boy every other weekend, work-permitting. The boy would be in his first year at Hogwarts by now.
Five years ago though, they'd started trying. Integra had miscarried twice, so there was some periods where Integra couldn't even stand to be touched, let alone to try again.
They'd picked out names for the little ones that hadn't made it. Gender neutral names, since they hadn't lived long enough to develop tells.
The first miscarry was called Robin Fairbrook Windgates Potter Hellsing. The child wouldn't have been given such a name if it had come to term. 'Robin' was a nice name, but it didn't carry the weight that a Hellsing needed. Morgan Fairbrook Wingates Potter Hellsing, the name they had given to the second miscarry, had more weight to it, but it still wasn't quite right for a living scion of the Hellsing name.
An explosion beyond the walls drew Harry's attention from thoughts of the children he and Integra had not been able to yet bring into this world. From the fears that she may yet die out there, without an heir to carry on the bond that Hellsing had over Alucard.
Harry's friendship with the vampires might be enough until he could forge a new bond of blood and magic, but he did not want to think of what would have to come after if Integra fell out there.
Fortunately, there was a distraction at the front gates, trying to get in.
Harry smirked as he looked out the window.
Trying, and failing.
~oOo~
"Harry?" Integra called, her voice breathy.
Harry turned sharply from where he'd been watching the futile attempts of the enemy to breach the ward-line. Not even their bullets made it across. Hell, their bullets bounced back at them.
"Integra!" he answered, and moved quickly to wrap his arms around her. "Are you alright?" he asked as he ran his hands up and down her, seeking out any holes in her clothes, any tears, any damp or sticky patches.
"I'm fine," Integra said. "Just a broken nose from when the car crashed."
Harry stepped back and brought his wand up. A quick flick and the break was straightened, healed, and the blood cleaned away.
"Crashed?" he repeated carefully.
"Walter asked me to take the wheel while he faced one of the enemy... I think he may have decided to defect completely... and then the enemy tracked me. I killed one of them as soon as I stepped out of the car, and I would have killed more of them, but then Anderson was there as well, laughing in my face and declaring me a 'worthy' enemy. I felt it safer to make myself scarce when they started talking about taking me into custody after they'd finished killing the vampires in the area and turned their guns on me. How are things here?"
"There'll be dessert for Tepes when he's done gorging on the war in London," Harry replied wryly with a gesture to the view out the window. "But otherwise, all quiet on the home front. They can't get in, and I haven't cared to cull them yet."
Integra nodded. "I think the major will most likely land in London," she said. "I mean, he probably intends to come here, but somehow I think he won't make it," she added with a slight smile. "Our men, under Seras, are making excellent work of protecting the Londoners and killing the two armies that have invaded the city. Alucard still hadn't reached the fighting, last I knew."
"Two?" Harry echoed back, a little incredulous.
"Iscariot, Maxwell, has brought several companies worth of Catholic soldiers," Integra explained softly. "They're killing 'heathens' as gladly as they're killing the vampires, so it's two armies against us, and those two armies are only very slightly against each other."
Harry took a deep breath. "Time to get out the dragon-hide and have our Dracula force them all into submission then, hmm?" he suggested.
"Indeed," Integra agreed. "He'll want me to yell 'search and destroy' at him... and I need more bullets," she added.
Harry kissed her temple. "Of course you do," he said with amusement.
~oOo~
"Lord Harry, Lady Integra," Seras greeted.
Harry had apparated the two of them to Trafalgar Square, and the young draculina had arrived seconds after, quickly clearing the square of the enemy vampires that were having a snack there.
"Report," Harry requested.
"Master is, at this very moment, coming up the River Thames," Seras said happily, but then the smile slipped away. "Unfortunately, though the men had improved, they were still overwhelmed by sheer numbers. We saved and evacuated as many as we could, and the Queen is confirmed safe," she added with a look to Integra, "but all that remains of Hellsing, all that remains of any Englisher alive still in London, are the four of us," she explained, and pulled a face. "And two of us don't quite count..." she added.
Harry nodded in acceptance, a hint of a smile on his face, even despite the circumstances.
"Very well," Integra said solemnly. "Seras, you stay with us until Alucard -"
"My Lord, Harry Hellsing! My Master, Integra Hellsing! Give me your orders!" Alucard's voice echoed and resonated through all three of them.
Integra smirked. "Take heed, Alucard," she said softly, knowing that he would still hear her. "Here are your orders: your silver gun shall stain the white army crimson. Your iron gun shall stain the black army scarlet. I would know my foes by the stains of red you leave upon their chests!" she declared, slowly building up to a furious yell. "Now search and destroy! Search and destroy! Run them down! Do not let any of them leave the island alive!"
"My Master," Alucard's voice seemed to purr, and Harry could hear the content smile – content, not crazed or satisfied or eager, but content. "It shall be done as you command."
"Release control-art restriction: zero! Say the words and release your full power! Now!" Integra barked out across London.
"Go to him," Harry said softly to Seras. "And recite Invictus as you go," he added with a cheeky smirk. "We'll be fine."
Seras nodded, and leapt away.
"I am the bird of Hermes," the soft words echoed out across the silent battlefield. A great groaning came from the ship he had ridden up the Thames, and a weight fell over everybody as they felt the coming of the inevitable – and then they realised that they had to stop it, somehow.
"Here standeth the bird of Hermes! Eating my own wings!" Alucard declared.
And then the battlefield, which had been tensely silent before as his words echoed out, erupted, led by a yell from Anderson.
"... To keep... myself tame..." Alucard finished softly, but still, those of Hellsing all heard him.
"My love," Harry said, calling Integra's attention to his person. "Is that the Major Idiot's blimp?" he asked, and pointed to the black-and-red thing in the sky.
"It is," Integra answered.
Harry nodded in satisfaction and whipped up his wand. A blasting curse on his lips.
~oOo~
Soon, the streets were emptied of the living. Pikes were raised with the dead hanging from them, blocking out the coming dawn.
Alucard and Seras came before Harry and Integra with solemnity. Alucard was truly and only himself for the first time in centuries, and Seras had been among the army he had sent out, slaughtering all in her path as she repeated, over and over, the famous words of William Ernest Henley.
"Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever God may be, for my unconquerable soul," Seras murmured softly as she knelt in front of Harry.
"In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloody, but unbowed," Harry answered her, claiming the next verse as his own.
Alucard, no, Vlad Tepes, picked up the next verse. "Beyond this place of wrath and tears, looms but the Horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds, and shall find, me unafraid," he recited with quiet gravity and the accent of his homeland.
"It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul," Integra finished. "My count," she greeted. "You have returned."
"At your pleasure, my Lady," the armour-wearing No-Life-King replied.
"Alucard!" a new voice yelled in fury.
"Ah!" Harry chirped, a grin on his face as he whipped up his wand. "Anderson! What excellent timing!" he declared as he froze the man in mid-air, and directed him to the ground some ten feet from the rest of them. "Would you be so good as to officiate a marriage, before you continue with making war? You were Catholic, weren't you, Tepes?" Harry asked lightly.
"Yes, my Lord," the Nosferatu answered, and rose slowly to his feet. He then turned to Seras and offered her both of his hands, to help her also stand. "Seras," he said softly. "My Seras Victoria. Will you honour me?"
Seras smiled. "You've grown a moustache, Master," she told him.
Integra raised an eyebrow. "What has that to do with anything?" she asked.
Seras shook her head, still smiling happily. "Not a thing," she replied. "Yes, my Master," she told him.
"Excellent!" Harry declared. "Father Anderson, if you please?"
"Er..." Anderson hesitated as the spell over his person was lifted, and allowed him to move his limbs once again. First he had to regain his balance, having been set down on the ground still mid-jump. "It's not exactly..."
"Please, Father," Dracula requested softly.
"Damn it all ta Hell," Anderson grumbled, and pulled out a bible. "I'm killin' you as soon as I've finished marryin' you an' Seras," he informed the ancient vampire.
He chuckled, nodded in understanding, and wrapped an armour-clad arm around Seras' waist as gently as it was possible to, pulling her up to stand at his side in front of the priest.
"I blame you for this," Integra informed Harry, her words light and her voice soft as the impromptu wedding was concluded and the fight begun once more.
Harry shrugged easily with a smile on his face. "I don't mind that," he allowed as he watched the incredible battle unfolding before him.
Tepes fought Anderson, the many bloody souls of his collection gathered around them, and Walter arrived, but he wasn't the old butler he had been. He had defected.
"Shall I kill him as well, my Master?" Alucard asked softly as the fighting paused a moment at this arrival. "It is what he has wanted these past sixty years, to fight against me, to try to kill and in turn be killed by me."
"Yes," Integra answered simply. "Kill what is left of Walter as well."
Harry conjured a goblet and bled himself into it. "No gorging, Tepes," he ordered lightly when the No-Life-King looked just about to do exactly that. "Snacks only until the war is over, and dessert should be waiting at the estate."
"Spoil-sport," Alucard quipped with a chuckle, but ducked out of the fight to accept the cup, rather than simply forcing a halt so that he could drain all the blood out of London.
Seras picked up the fight where her master, and now husband, had left it. She took on both Walter and Anderson while Alucard drained the goblet Harry had filled, making sure they wouldn't be bored with waiting.
Then the original fight resumed once more: Walter and Anderson both against the ancient Nosferatu, fighting each other only as they got in the way of the one they wanted to kill.
Integra took her turn to bleed into the goblet Harry had conjured. When it was full again, Seras slipped in to take over the fight again while Alucard drank deeply of the blood of the one whose family line had for so long held him in bondage.
Harry subtly wandered over to the nearest pike, topped as it was by a still bleeding Catholic, and diverted those red drops into the cup. The great vampire had a great appetite. Two goblets of blood would not satisfy him.
Things got real fun when the remains of Iscariot showed up to provided Anderson with back-up. The army of blood had a few of its members cut down, and Walter's left arm was cut off at the elbow by a large-calibre bullet he hadn't seen coming.
And the Lord and Lady Hellsing were invited into the crashed airship that Walter had exited from.
"Tepes, recall your army," Harry instructed as he conjured a comfortable couch and tugged Integra down to sit on it, blatantly refusing the invitation from the Major. As far as Harry was concerned, he could come to them if he wanted to chat before the fighting on the streets was over. "Do not replenish the ranks until I give leave, but level zero is no longer required. Level two will suffice."
"Understood, my Lord," Alucard answered.
Harry nodded in satisfaction, and summoned some of Walter's dripping blood into the goblet while Alucard obeyed orders – and Anderson surrendered his humanity for the power to possibly defeat the ancient monster. Slowly, Alucard consumed goblet after goblet of carefully chosen blood as he and Seras fought, and the vampires laid waste to all before them until only four remained: Alucard, Seras, Harry and Integra.
Harry stood and stepped up to the monster that was crouched over a destroyed torso, crying tears of blood.
"Tepes," Harry said softly, and lay a hand on the vampire's shoulder. "What do you want?"
"An urn, my Lord, for the Paladin's remains," Alucard answered softly. "An urn with his last words to me written on them."
Don't cry, Demon. Are the children hiding under your bed? Don't cry, Demon. You became a monster because you didn't want to cry. When humans cry and their tears dry up, they become monsters, dried up inside. So laugh. Laugh with pride and arrogance, like you always do. I will pass on now. You will survive. How long will you be doomed to wander this Earth? You mustn't cry. Remember your prayers before bed. Amen.
Harry transfigured one of Anderson's bayonets into an urn of steel, with the words pressed into the sides in red glass. This urn was then tucked into one of his pockets that was bigger on the inside than the outside.
"Thank you," Alucard said softly.
Harry nodded, and quickly performed another spell.
"Time to face the Major?" Harry suggested lightly as he passed over a goblet full of blood to each of the vampires.
"It is," Integra confirmed. "They are the last few rabid dogs that must be put down."
"You mean apart from the ones we're keeping for Tepes' dessert back at the estate," Harry quipped.
"I admit, I'd forgotten about them," Integra said with a chuckle.
~oOo~
There were more on the airship than just the Major, and the quartet destroyed every pathetic, created vampire that opened fire upon them.
And then there was another, one tall, silent figure that simply stood there as the ship erupted around them. A figure that Alucard knew.
"Something different about this one," Harry noted calmly.
"A werewolf, instead of a vampire," Alucard supplied.
The tall, white-haired and silent nodded at the assessment.
"Huh," Harry grunted. "I know some people who would be very interested to see if they could reverse-engineer the process that made him then, and see if they could then use it to find a cure for true lycanthropy."
"So you look for the laboratory, and I'll confront the Major," Integra suggested.
The soldier lifted a hand to point to a small sign, indicating that they should go a particular direction.
"Such a helpful dog," Integra commented wryly.
"You're due a new dog, aren't you Tepes? Walter was rather unkind to Baskerville," Harry quipped.
Alucard laughed. "What a wonderful idea, my Lord!" he crowed.
"Seras, with Integra. Tepes, you come find me when you've added his soul to your collection," Harry instructed firmly, and stepped up to the little sign. He nodded to himself and headed down the hall opposite the direction Integra would need to go.
"Harry..." Integra said warningly.
"I promise I won't blow up the ship while you're still in it," he answered easily.
"Men," Integra complained fondly. "Seras, why do we put up with them?" she asked the draculina at her side, only half-seriously.
Seras smirked. "Because they're handsome," she answered, completely straight save for the cant of her lips.
Alucard laughed.
~oOo~
"Lord Hellsing," a young voice greeted.
"Schrodinger," Harry answered neutrally.
"Mm," Schrodinger murmured with a shake of his head. "I am only called 'Schrodinger' by the Major and the others, Lord Potter," the boy said, emphasising Harry's name. His words were sad and soft, and his accent seemed to be changing as he spoke.
For a moment, he hesitated, and then started again.
"We were given new names, according to what the Doctor was able to turn us into. I developed cat ears quite accidentally, even as I also suddenly had the ability to be everywhere, and nowhere, simply by observing myself. I must observe myself, or I cease to exist. Just like Schrodinger's cat. Imagine, Lord Potter, what would happen if my blood, my soul, this curse, was collected up by Alucard in a gorge," the boy said, his German accent now completely gone, the accent of the upper-class Londoner in its place.
"Why are you telling me this?" Harry asked the boy. "What is your real name?"
"Harry... the Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries is a very strange thing," the boy said with a sad chuckle. "I went from being your favourite old mutt to being a nuisance kitten who couldn't remember his own past, thanks to the manipulations of the Nazi's. Well... until he saw his godson's face again, older though, since the last time I saw it."
Harry's eyes went wide. "Sirius?" Harry breathed in shock.
Schrodinger nodded sadly. "I am sorry for all the trouble, Pup," he offered. "But come on, the Doc's lab is just over this way, I'll help you spirit everything away, and then we should really get back to... Sweet Merlin, your wife! Integra's more of a spit-fire than Lily ever was. How ever did you find her? I'd have figured you'd end up with Hermione or Ginny."
Harry chuckled weakly. "The Queen arranged it," he admitted. "But I've had no cause to complain about it since."
"As long as you're happy, Pup."
"You can't call me that any more," Harry teased, and tweaked one of his godfather's cat-ears. "I'm the one who looks older of the two of us."
"Ah, but I've looked like this since World War Two. It's been horrible! No-one will sell me alcohol!"
Harry laughed.
"And that's not even the worst of it! My part in the Major's crazy plan was to sacrifice myself so that Alucard would get this curse the Doc landed me with! I'm willing to die to protect you, to protect your family, but to smile and slide a knife into my own throat just to kill a warmonger you've got under control? No."
"Hear that, Tepes?" Harry called over his shoulder. "This one's off limits for you."
"Yes, my Lord," Alucard answered as he appeared behind them.
"You have a new dog now?" Harry asked.
Alucard grinned. "Yes, my Lord," he repeated.
"Here's the lab," Sirius said, and pushed the door open.
Harry shrank everything and summoned it into a conjured bag. Then he set the room on fire.
"The war is over now, Tepes," Harry said softly as the trio left the room. "You go and gorge yourself on London until there is not one drop of blood left in it. It will make the clean-up that much easier."
"And Integra? Seras?" Alucard asked.
"I'll send Seras to you, she should have something to eat as well. Integra and I will deal with the Major. Sirius? Can you kill the Doc?"
Sirius nodded his little blonde head. "Won't be hard," he answered. "Consider it done Pup. I'll see you back at Hellsing?"
"If I've made the wards right, you won't be able to get in," Harry returned with a smirk. "You're welcome to piss off the detachment that is still there, waiting to be turned into Alucard's dessert though."
Sirius laughed, gave a cheeky salute, and vanished.
Harry arrived in the same room as Integra in time to vanish the glass between her and the Major, allowing her sword to cut straight through his head.
"Seras, your husband started his meal without you," Harry told her. "And don't forget that dessert is waiting at the estate."
"Yessir!" Seras answered with a grin, and left the Lord and Lady Hellsing alone with the dying Major.
"Come along m'dear," Harry urged Integra as he wrapped an arm around her waist. "We've got three to mind now, they've got their dessert to eat, and I think it's time we try again to bring in a new generation of Hellsings."
"Three?" Integra asked.
Harry sighed. "Schrodinger, he used to be my godfather, before he fell into the Veil of Death, and apparently fell into a Nazi camp as a little blonde boy during the war. Only remembered who he was after seeing me," Harry explained.
"If that's true, then -"
"It's true," Harry insisted. "Some things... some things can't be faked or found out, Love."
Integra nodded. "Alright," she agreed softly. "Three then."
~oOo~
"Arthur James Hellsing!" Integra snapped, her voice echoing through the mansion. "You get back here right this second young man!"
"Can't catch me, Mummy!" chanted back a red-faced five-year-old boy with white-blonde hair and hazel eyes, and then he crashed into another body.
"Oh, but I can," Harry informed his son as he scooped the boy up over his shoulder. "What have you done now?"
"He gave Seras tomato soup," Integra said darkly as she reached her husband. "Alucard is comforting her. She was terrified for a while there that she suddenly couldn't even eat blood any more."
"That was not a nice thing to do A.J.," Harry said sternly. "You're going to apologise to Seras, and you're going to give her a glass full of your blood, and I'll take it from you as she watches. Am I understood?"
"Yes Daddy," Arthur capitulated apologetically.
A giggle came from behind Harry.
"Why did you ever want to give me a younger sibling?" a girl's voice asked, amused. "I thought I was enough of a holy terror to put you both off the idea."
"Jacqueline," Integra greeted with a slight smile and a hint of a sigh. "Back from Teddy's already?"
"Some of Uncle Teddy's Hogwarts friends showed up unexpectedly," Jacqueline answered easily as she stepped away from the wall, revealing a young girl that, as she grew, would undoubtedly land the part of Snow White in any theatrical production, if she cared for the theatre. Pale, with long black hair, and her mother's blue eyes. She was only nine, but Harry could tell already that he was going to end up being a very protective father.
And Alucard and Sirius would probably back him up.
Jacqueline Fairbrook Windgates Potter Hellsing would be very irritated with the men in her life by the time she reached sweet sixteen. For now though, she enjoyed having her father and Sirius wrapped around her little fingers, and Alucard willing to accommodate her if she asked politely.
"Integra, my love, shall we traumatise our children into being good for a little while?" Harry suggested with a hint of a leer.
Integra laughed happily, and smiled as her husband kissed her.
"Ewwww!" both the children yelled.
~The End~