August 1998

Minerva McGonagall stood by a charred portion of the castle's gate, watching a carriage appearing from behind the horizon. Behind her, and around her, Hogwarts was rebuilding itself. Not quite as speedy and miraculous as a Phoenix rising from the ashes; but slow and painstaking, as slow as magic burdened by exhaustion and sadness would allow. There were flashes of defiance in the face of adversity, but wounds were still too raw, and the damage too extensive for anyone to be completely unmoved.

She doubted this Hogwarts looked much better than the ruins the Muggles would see.

The carriage was no longer a speck of black in the distance, and soon it halted in front of her. The thestrals were dark and solid in her vision, and one looked her straight in the eye. The door opened and the sole occupant stepped out to greet her.

"Professor!" the girl exclaimed, hurrying over as much as dignity would allow.

"Well, look at you, lass," Professor McGonagall greeted warmly. "Welcome back, Miss Hellsing."

"It is Sir Integra now," came the answer. "But I suppose..."

"Och, don't worry your head about it. We've all came a long way since. We're not the same as we were, I doubt," Minerva said as she led her former student up to the castle. "I don't suppose you're here to take up what you've left off?"

"No, oh nothing like that, I'm sure," Integra said, watching a wizard deftly closing up patches of gouged earth along the path.

"But of course," Minerva replied, as she cast a silent reparo at a pot of flowers one elf accidentally dropped.

The war against Voldemort (or Tom Riddle, or the many creative monikers people gave, now that they were no longer frightened) and his Death Eaters had stretched the barriers between the wizarding and muggle worlds. More magical creatures found their way to the other side, not all of them harmless, and many of them used to be part of Riddle's forces now scattered and completely displeased.

They walked inside the caste in silence. It had been years since Integra was a student here, before she left for her summer holidays and did not return to sit her fourth year, but everything seemed oddly familiar. Even with pockmarked walls, charred flagstones, and slightly pale shadows on a wall that used to hold a portrait or two.

"How are you, Professor?" Integra asked, as they passed the Great Hall; house elves, wizards and witches scurrying around the room that looked like a gaping hole devoid of almost anything she recognised. "I heard you're Headmistress, now. After... you know," she made a small gesture even as she noticed Minerva had stiffened slightly.

"As fine as any of us could be, I suppose. And how are you? You were such a wee, bonnie lass back then."

"Sometimes I forgot what it was ever like," Integra replied, suddenly subdued as she reached out to touch a particularly harsh scar on a far wall.

Minerva sighed heavily as she led them forward, up the stairs and into her office. Some days she'd forget what life was like prior to these few years, so many things happening at once, life and death in one huge whirlwind that left her drained most times.

"Is... Is Professor Flitwick still, you know, around? Professor Sprout?" Integra asked as she took the proferred seat in front of the Professor's cluttered desk (scrolls of things to do, building plans, maps and Merlin knows what else). She resolutely avoided looking at the portraits on the wall, feeling slightly uneasy. She ought not to feel this way really, not when she'd spent her life living the odd life, being born a Hellsing, having been a student here for all of three years... and recently, having lived with an irritating vampire.

"Indeed they are," Minerva answered, as she summoned tea things onto her desk. "You were sorted Ravenclaw, weren't you?"

"I suppose so," she replied, smiling slightly at a resurfacing memory. She had forgotten much about her days here, she found, then surprising herself by knowing that she wouldn't mind reliving the nicer ones while she's here.


...tbc

End Note
Well, just an odd story that came up almost out of nowhere. Not sure about where the plot's going or anything, but then I'm always clueless like that. What I know is that I'm playing with timelines a bit, a lot of suppositions and stuff.

This happens in 1998, not long after V-Day. Millennium won't be a serious threat for another year (From what I'm able to glean from the mangas, it'll only start somewhere mid-1999). Integra is 22 in 1998 (counting back from her being 13 in 1989 when her dad passed away -well the manga said she's 12 in 1989, but I chose to use her TV-series/OAV age to give her more school time in Hogwarts; although the storyline will follow the manga more closely).

So that means, she started her 1st year at Hogwarts in 1987. Her father passed away in the summer before her 4th year, and she elected not to return to Hogwarts following that.