A/N: I'm sorry. Really, I am. I just had to put these four in here because no Independent!Harry fic is complete without some kind of cameo from these guys! Sigh... at least I updated early this time...
Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing, Underworld, or Harry Potter. Damn Nazis…
Chapter 10: Familiar Faces
At first she didn't believe it was the Harry Potter she knew, and this was just a big coincidence, but then she looked at the attached picture, and knew it to be true. Sure, he didn't have that scar anymore, and his face was a bit fuller, but besides those minor details, it was Harry through and through.
She checked the date and found that it was almost two years old, and had probably gotten into her pile by mistake. She read it through anyways, though, because she knew next to nothing about Harry besides the fact that he had been abused by his guardians and left for dead before Selene and Michael found him.
What she found amazed and disgusted her. Apparently, the boy had been no stranger to the supernatural before he met his current guardians; hell, he was actually supposed to be the savior of the so-called Magical World, a society she was well aware of and had contacts within. The file had been from one of said contacts, and had been about Harry's disappearance. According to the file, when he disappeared, the magical authorities only spent three days looking for him, using only minimal resources, before declaring him dead. Several days later, they had declared him a fake, and that the real Boy-Who-Lived- as he had been called- was a boy named Neville Longbottom. Most shocking of all was the fact that Harry's biggest supporter, Albus Dumbledore, had supported the outrageous claims, citing Harry's ignorance of the wizarding world as evidence. They had basically dumped him as soon as he became too much of a bother!
After reading the file, Integra had sudden urge to petition to Parliament and, if she had to, the Queen of England, to storm the wizarding world, disband their Ministry of Magic, and put the magical community of Britain under good-old, iron-fisted, British rule for a couple centuries to teach them a lesson (preferably under the Agency's authority; they could whip these spineless bastards into shape in no time!); to hell with this Wizen-whatchamacallit crap! How could they pile up all these expectations and responsibilities on a little boy, then drop him when it was no longer convenient? That was just… disgusting!
'I wonder if Harry knows about this,' she thought. Well, if she told him, and he didn't know, at least he knew now, and if he already knew, then there really was no harm done… hopefully. Not to mention that if he was a half-trained wizard, he needed to be taught the rest of his lessons before he lost control of his powers. Good thing she had just the people for that…
With that thought, she picked up the phone that was always keyed into a receiver Alucard always had on his trench coat collar. "Alucard?"
"Yes, Integra?"
"Is Harry with you?"
"Of course. He's currently practicing his flying."
"…Flying?" Integra blinked; that was news to her.
"Yes. I take it you haven't seen his new form? It's really quite magnificent."
"He has a new form?" Yes, definitely news to her.
"Yes, but I think you didn't call me for that. What do you want with Harry?"
"I've just recently uncovered some… disturbing information on him. Can you bring him to my office?"
"…Disturbing information? Is he a danger to Hellsing?"
"No, nothing like that! It's… well, just bring him here."
"Alright then. We'll be right there."
Integra thanked the vampire and hung up. She sighed and sipped at her now lukewarm coffee. 'How am I going to tell him…?' she wondered.
Fifteen minutes later, Alucard entered her office… alone.
"Alucard, where's Harry?" She asked.
In response, Alucard pointed to the window behind her. She turned around, and nearly jumped back in shock; there, hovering in the air, four massive black wings flapping alternately, was Harry in his human form. He grinned and waved, then gestured for her to unlock her window. She hurried to do just that, the whole time cursing Alucard's sense of humor; surely he had put Harry up to this!
When Harry was inside and the window was closed again, Integra asked, "Harry, how…?"
"Zylo has been teaching me how to control my transformation to a greater degree than just changing whenever I want," Harry responded with a shrug.
"Ah. Well, if you don't mind me saying so, you look incredible with those wings of yours; like an archangel from God, as it were." Integra said.
"Thank you, Sir Hellsing."
"Ahem…?"
Sigh. "Integra."
"Better." Integra smiled; she'd been trying to get him to call her by her given name. Like Alucard, he hadn't immediately taken to it, but he was getting it faster then her vampiric familiar had.
Alucard cleared his throat. "Integra, why did you call us up here?" he asked.
Integra's smile dropped, and in a grave look she held out her file to Alucard, who skimmed it and handed it back to her. "Harry," she began, "did you ever find out what happened in the wizarding world after your 'disappearance'?"
Harry's eyes, which had been positively shining with life, went dead with a speed that, quite frankly, scared her a bit; no child should be able to do that. Integra knew her answer before Harry even spoke. "Yeah, I found out a few weeks after I joined up with Selene and Michael," he growled.
"And… how have you been coping?" she asked rather lamely; she hadn't really planned on him already knowing.
"It's been more then two years, Si-… Integra. Right now, I just don't like them very much."
Integra nodded in understanding; she really didn't like them right now, too, though she never really did like them in the first place, with their high and mighty attitude and all.
"If I may ask, Sir… err.. I mean, Integra, how do you know of the magical world?" Harry asked.
"I have my sources, but that's not important right now. What's important is that you quit that wizard school Hogwarts while you still needed training to control your growing powers. Now, I'm not saying I'm sending you back to the school," she quickly said when she saw the look of pure loathing and horror he had on his face, "but you do need to continue your training. Luckily, I have some superb teachers right here. Alucard," She turned to the vampire, "how is his training going?"
"Pretty much done, Integra. All he needs now is to hone his skills. Are you going to do what I think you're going to do?"
"Wake them up? Yes."
"They told me to wake them in two thousand years, you know. It's only been half that time."
"Yes, well, I'm sure they're getting bored, not to mention I have a feeling they're going to like this."
Harry, who had been following the conversation back and forth like a tennis match, finally spoke up. "Wait! Who's 'they'?"
Alucard just grinned at him in that rather scary manner of his. "You'll see, kid, you'll see. Right then, c'mon!" Alucard turned around and walked out of the office, his trench coat billowing in such a dramatic way that Harry was convinced it was on purpose.
He turned to Integra, who shooed him out of her office, but not before saying, "And yes, he does that on purpose." Harry blinked, and followed Alucard out the door, leaving Integra alone in her office once more.
'I hope they're not too mad…' she thought before returning to her files.
Alucard led Harry through headquarters and straight to the stairs leading to the basement. Harry faltered. "Umm… Alucard? I thought the basements were used for storage."
Alucard stopped and grinned at Harry. "They are. The people we want are currently in a type of ancient cryonic sleep, and so were stored here to wait for the year A.D. 3000. Of course, that was before you arrived, so their nap is going to have to be cut a bit short."
"Err… I don't want to be of any trouble to anyone, Alucard."
"You won't be, kid. It was about time they got off their fat asses anyway. Now c'mon." Alucard turned around and started down the stairs, Harry in tow.
Fifteen minutes of twisting and turning corridors later, they came upon an old, iron-wrought door. Alucard laid a hand on the center of the door, and the whole thing sank into the ground. They entered and Harry's mouth fell open in surprise. Inside the room were four stone caskets, with…
Harry's mind started reeling. On each of the caskets were stone statues of some familiar mascots… more specifically, a lion, a raven, a badger, and a snake. "It... can't be…" Harry muttered.
Alucard chuckled at seeing Harry's face. "You guess who they are yet?" he asked. Without waiting for a reply, he went to a stone altar in the middle of the room and laid both of his hands on it. It started glowing, and a hiss of escaping air came from the four caskets.
"Now we wait for them to wake up," Alucard said cheerfully. Harry could only nod dumbly as the caskets started glowing a light blue.
Ten minutes of suspenseful waiting later, the casket tops opened and steam billowed out. The first to sit up was a girl that didn't look more then eighteen. She had long, dark blue hair… and was as naked as the day she was born. Harry quickly turned his eyes away, his face as red as a tomato.
She rubbed tiredly at her eyes and yawned. "Argh… has it been two thousand years already?" she asked sleepily.
"I don't know, but we are most definitely not where we were before," said a red-haired young man who had to be about the same age as the bluette. He was the second to sit up, and Harry made a mental note never to get into a fist fight with him; he had broad, defined shoulders, pointing at great physical strength.
"Hmm… guess Vlad forgot about us…" a blond girl, same age, and just as naked as the first, muttered. She was the third to sit up.
"If he did, we wouldn't be awake right now, love," a young man with long, black hair growled. He was the last to get up, and was about the same age as the other three. Harry noticed that though he was skinny, he was in no way scrawny, and instead gave off the aura of somebody not to be messed with.
Alucard chose the moment to speak up. "Good to see the spell worked. Godric, Rowena, Sal, Helga… glad to have you back." He nodded to each in turn.
"Wha…? Dracula? You're still alive?" the blond girl, Helga, mumbled sleepily.
"Well, technically, no. After all, I'm undead."
"Of course, silly me." Helga gave a light laugh, yawned and stretched, causing Harry to gulp and cover his eyes. He was jealous to see that Alucard didn't even flinch; damn teenage hormones! Damn them and these uncomfortably tight pants!
"As much as I'm enjoying the show, I think you all might want to magic up some clothes before my friend here has an aneurysm." The vampire said, grinning. Harry made a mental note to damn his taller companion when the blood started rushing back to his brain.
"Huh? Wha- Eep!" Rowena, the bluette, quickly dove back into the casket, before emerging again in some positively ANCIENT robes. The other's, when they noticed their own states of undress, followed. Soon, there were four robed and ready people standing outside their caskets… well, almost standing, anyway; they more wobbled then stood.
"Harry, may I introduce to you Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin, the four founders of the wizarding school Hogwarts." Alucard said, sweeping his arms grandly towards the unsteady group.
The shock was too much for his already just-up-until-recently-oxygen-starved brain. Saying so, it was no surprise when Harry fainted at the announcement.
A/N: The Founders are back! And they're young and hot! I'm surprised nobody's tried this approach before... well... at least, I haven't run into anybody trying this approach before... anyway, More about them in the next chapter!
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