AN: Okay, I know that I didn't post this by the time I promised…forgive me. I thought I could get it done by that time. It was finals week at KU and finals have a way of shoving their butts into your face and saying "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" Anyway, finals are over and here is the promised conclusion. Oh, just a note, I write all of these on my ipod, so if you see any words with / around them, it means I meant to italicize them and didn't spot them during the computer edit.
"Time's up, master. If you dance with the dead, be prepared to join their ranks." The hand twisted her head to the side painfully and the great maw gaped wide, allowing deadly fangs to race towards Integra's bare throat while she struggled helplessly and Seras pulled impotently at his arms.
"My betrayal of Hellsing is your greatest fear, interesting. But not unexpected," another, slightly different, low voice echoed through the great hall sounding thoroughly amused.
Seras looked up frantically searching for the second voice. A second Alucard appeared, wrapping his arms around the torso of the attacking Alucard and sunk his fangs deep into the pale throat of his doppelganger.
The doppelganger shrieked and dispersed into a cloud of ash as the great hall returned to its normal state. The candles relit and the eyes and shadows receded into the nothingness that they came from. Then, surprisingly, the severe looking lady with long blond hair also dissipated into nothingness as if she had never been there.
Seras looked to the new Alucard and shrieked happily, "Master!"
"I did not anticipate you encountering a boggart, and was waiting in my office for you."
"A what?" Seras' visibly swallowed her apprehension.
"A boggart. They are basic magical creatures that portray your greatest fears. Although, I would have expected you to know me better than to be fooled by a simple copy like that." Seras tensed slightly, anticipating a scolding. Alucard continued, "Surely you realize that if I had truly been seeking vengeance I would not have allowed her death to be as quick and painless as a vampire bite."
Seras nodded and ran up to hug Alucard forcefully enough to knock a human off of their feet, but Alucard simply accepted the childish act, ignoring it but for a slight fond flicker of his gaze towards his fledgling.
"Also," he continued as if his busty fledgling had not just forcefully attached herself to him, "I do not believe that I have ever given you any reason to think that I believe that you are worthless. I would like you to drink your blood. But, I, myself, decided to escort you into the darkness and I stand by my decision, though whimsy it may have been."
The students couldn't help but smile at the strange relationship regardless of their recent scare.
Seras detached herself from Alucard and skipped up to the teachers' table to in a chair that Dumbledore summoned beside Alucard's. Alucard gazed around to the students with a completely expressionless facade. "We covered boggarts in class. Two days ago. And nobody could identify a boggart? Completely hopeless. All of you."
He looked around again and his gaze settled on Hermione. "Bookworm," Hermione snapped to attention looking fearful at the thought of personal attention from the disappointed professor, "Good job. Had that been an average vampire attack, or even a boggart copying an average vampire, that spell would have worked. Ten points." Alucard stalked to the teachers' table to assume his spot beside Seras and sipped at his crystal goblet as breakfast slowly returned to normal and the students recovered from their fright.
The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws chatted happily after exiting DADA class and the golden trio was looking forward to a better class after exiting another grueling potions lesson with Snape in a sour mood. Neville had managed to melt his cauldron and Ron had turned his potion completely solid. Snape was breathing down their necks taking points right and left. DADA had to be an improvement if the exiting students were in such high spirits.
The first thing the students noticed as they entered the classroom was the girl with short blond hair that had all of the boys drooling. She bounced in the middle of the class as Alucard watched from the corner that he had decided to haunt. Once everybody had arrived he nodded to Seras signaling for her to start.
"Um, hello. My name is Seras, and I'm a vampire." Malfoy burst out laughing at this statement and Seras looked embarrassed.
"Sure," Malfoy sneered, "If you're a vampire, I'm the king of England."
Alucard stepped forward menacingly, "Do not insult my fledgling. She may be weak, but she is still a vampire."
Malfoy nodded numbly and backed away weary of angering the master vampire. The rest of the class noted the protectiveness Alucard showed for the girl and decided it would be safest to be very respectful of the cheery, bouncy girl.
The girl started up speaking again, and there were no interruptions, "Right. We will be going over magical defenses against vampires. Well, really, only one magical defense. Master invited me to help with this class because I am much closer to an average vampire's power than he is, so practicing spells with me will be much more productive for you."
Alucard stepped forward and Seras watched him, "Yes Master?"
"We will have a demonstration before this class," he said with no introduction, "come in Severus."
Snape entered and sneered towards the Gryffindors. Then, for some mysterious reason, also towards the Slytherins.
"Are you ready," Alucard asked.
"Anytime," Snape stated without expression and the students wondered what they were talking about.
The students jumped as Alucard snarled and stalked towards Snape with fangs bared and claws extended. He jumped forward, beginning to move faster than the eye could follow and Snape raised his wand "Inferre Beatudinis." A blindingly bright green orb hit Alucard's chest and seemed to disperse around the torso.
Snape wore an expression of intense concentration and Alucard wilted, losing all momentum as he slumped and relaxed where he stood. The students swore they heard a deep guttural purr as Alucard swayed on his feet. Snape lowered his wand and Alucard reanimated maintaining the calm relaxed state that the spell seemed to cause. "Thank you Severus," Alucard practically purred. Snape smirked then nodded and stood by the door for a moment before leaving.
Hermione looked shocked as she realized the true intent of the spell that Professor Alucard had told them to practice.
Alucard rolled his neck slowly before he started speaking again, "Has anybody realized how this spell can help stop a vampire attack?" Hermione's hand shot up. "No hands," he said lazily.
Hermione lowered her hand slowly, "Vampiric senses are far beyond that of a human. They can't be harmed by magic, but their increased sensitivity means that they are much more affected by relaxation spells than humans are. This spell takes away the vampires drive to attack by causing the vampire to enter a blissful state. This nullifies the bloodlust and allows the wizard to walk away as the vampire is left dazed."
"Very good. Are there any problems with this tactic?"
Harry nodded immediately, "The main problem is simply hitting a vampire as they move too fast for humans to follow. Also, it cannot harm the vampire. The spell cannot be maintained as somebody walks away from the vampire. If somebody were to attack the vampire, even when dazed, it would immediately become hostile again."
Alucard nodded, "Continue."
Hermione continued, "Also, the spell must overcome the vampire's ire and bloodlust. A powerful vampire will take a stronger spell because it has more control over itself and its emotions thus it can resist the spell. If the vampire is angry or hungry enough this spell will not be successful. I doubt Snape's spell would have had any effect if you truly intended to harm him."
"Very good. You are correct." He turned to the class, making them tense in their seats, "Keep in mind that inferre beatudinis will not work for a truly enraged vampire. It only works because the eternal thirst of a vampire is physically painful and by dulling that you destroy the vampires drive to attack you. If the vampire is attacking you for reasons other than thirst, this spell will not work."
Malfoy sneered again, "So, we're supposed to just walk away from a vampire after making it happy. What if we want to kill the damned beast? Is there any trick for that? Or are you protecting your kind and hanging us out to dry?"
Alucard chuckled darkly, "I exterminate vampires for the Hellsing family. I have no such attachment to the vampires you find on the street. They are rats, any vampire careless enough to get caught deserves its fate. You are always welcome to try to stake them if you like. You are so very good at that." He paused, allowing enough time for Malfoy to blush and look away, "Unfortunately for you, there is no magical means to kill a vampire that humans are capable of." He turned to Seras, "Please continue the lesson. Ah, they have this thing called points. The teams are sorted by the color of their ties. You can verbally give them points if they do well and subtract them if they are disruptive." Alucard finished and stalked back to his corner to quietly haunt the class from the shadows.
Seras nodded, "Right then," she bounced to the middle of the classroom, "How many of you practiced the spell before coming to class?" Nearly all the students raised their hands and Seras looked pleased.
"Tell the truth," Alucard's voice rumbled from the corner and half of the hands went back down causing Seras to chuckle at the students' nervous obedience.
"Master," Seras chastised playfully, "Don't scare the students. I would know when they started practicing anyway."
"Of course," Alucard purred and leaned comfortably against the wall.
Seras giggled and looked back to the class, "Everybody who thinks they can properly cast the spell please pair up together and practice on each other. The spell won't cause any harm, but it will be easy to tell if it works. Everybody else practice casting the spell at Master. He'll tell you when you can move on to practicing in pairs. Once you feel you're ready, I'll mock attack you and you will try to stop me. Make sure you learn this spell well though; in a real vampire attack you are not likely to get more than one opening to cast the spell. You have to make it count."
The class broke into their assigned groups and "inferre beatudinis" echoed throughout the classroom. The group surrounding Alucard rarely even produced the green spark indicative of the spell.
Harry slumped as Hermione hit him with a particularly powerful spell and Hermione looked proud. "How was that, Harry?"
Harry jerked back up, still looking dazed, "Really weird. Pleasant, but really weird."
"Aren't you glad you practiced?" She asked while glancing towards Ron casting ineffective spells towards Alucard getting more and more frustrated.
"Yea, thanks for the help. Inferre beatudinis" a green spark flew towards Hermione and hit her chest squarely. She visibly relaxed but not to the extent that Harry had.
She perked back up, "You're right, that was really weird. Like somebody took all the tension and strength out of my muscles."
An explosion sounded from the group surrounding Alucard and Ron tripped as he stumbled backwards from surprise. The tip of one boy's wand was smoking slightly and Alucard stepped off of the smoldering spot on the floor completely unaffected by the blast. The group stood still for a moment before cautiously resuming their spell casting.
"How typical, a Gryffindor yet again fails to cast a decent spell. At least I managed to come to class prepared. What else would you expect from a house full of filthy mudbloods," Malfoy stated haughtily.
"Five points from green ties," Seras responded almost immediately and Malfoy looked affronted.
"Another sympathizer, I should have known." Malfoy sneered, "If I can hit you with the spell, can I leave? I don't even know why I've been practicing if the final trial is just hitting you. It won't even be a challenge."
Alucard looked towards the new development, but simply kept silent in the corner as he watched his fledgling teach the class.
"Five more points from green ties." Seras stated coldly.
"It's Slytherin," Malfoy retorted.
"Fine, another five points from Slytherin, and yes, if you can hit me, you can leave. Ready?"
"Infer-" Seras zipped out of his vision and he stopped abruptly, spinning around with wide eyes to try to locate her again. He yelped as she firmly kicked him in the butt and he staggered forward trying to face her. She paused slightly; Malfoy pounced, holding his wand threateningly. If he could just finish the spell, he'd win. "Inferre Bea-" and she zipped out of sight, only to reappear and flick his forehead, knocking him out cold. He folded and slumped to the floor.
Seras looked embarrassed, "I didn't mean to flick him that hard," she mumbled as she looked at his prone form. And she moved to set him against the wall. "He'll wake up soon… I hope," she said as she leaned him against the wall next to the door.
Class continued as if Malfoy had not just humiliated himself. Alucard had, by this time, sent all of the students who had been casting spells towards him to practice in groups of two. The groups had varying success. Ron's spells were dimly green and had little effect on his partner while Hermione's spells were beginning to look legitimately powerful with a bright green glowing orb nearly three inches in diameter instead of a spark like the other students. The most recent hit had sent Harry slumping to the floor.
Hermione rushed to his side, "Are you okay?"
"Mmmm," Harry hummed incoherently, still under the effects of the spell.
"He's fine," Seras approached Hermione, "You should probably try casting against me now."
Hermione nodded but looked nervous.
"Ready?" Seras asked sinking to a fighting stance.
"Yes," Hermione said, trying to summon her courage.
Seras sprang forward, nearly invisibly fast. Hermione attentively watched for a pause her eyes flickering from side to side. She saw a pause as Seras reversed direction and pointed her wand, "Inferre beatudinis!" She shouted and the green orb barely grazed Seras' arm. Seras swayed as her knees buckled and she slumped to the floor with a goofy smile and half lidded eyes.
Malfoy woke just in time to see Hermione land a successful spell and turn red in embarrassment before standing to rejoin the rest of the class.
Hermione cut off the spell looking intensely proud of her success. Alucard stepped forward and offered Seras a hand. She took it and he helped her stand up.
"Very good. That's how well you need to perform the spell for it to be successful. And as you have clearly seen, the main problem is not the spell, but managing to hit a vampire." Seras kindly lectured the class, sparing only the briefest glances for Malfoy.
"Keep that in mind as you practice this spell." Alucard rumbled to the class. "You may need this spell in the future. If you ever encounter a vampire you will need this spell to be perfected. Class dismissed."