Chapter 4
Harry awoke the next morning to the sound of snickering. He felt someone playing with his hair.
"Stahppit!" Harry said, gently swatting at his tormentor. This resulted in a cute giggle. He gave up on going back to sleep and rolled over looking at Seras.
"Good morning, love." Harry said.
"Good morning, Moe." Seras said laughing.
"Wha?" Harry asked. Seras laughed even harder and pointed at the mirror. Harry sat up and stared in shock at his reflection. Where he once had long, messy hair he now had a ridiculous bowl cut. His mind flashed back to the late-night discussion he had with Alucard who for some reason he'd invited to stay the night at his manor. He was now regretting it.
"Alucard..." Harry growled. He got up and rummaged through his potions supplies before producing a cloudy grey potion in an unusually large flask. He sighed, and tipped the flask into his mouth, gagging several times as he forced himself to swallow the ungodly concoction. He gasped for air after the last bit of it slid down his throat and struggled not to vomit.
"What's that?" Seras asked.
"Hair growth potion. Won't take effect for a couple hours I'm afraid." He said, stepping into their shower.
"Make sure nobody else gets caught in the crossfire." Seras said, putting a dressing gown on and walking to the shared door to the nursery, where Integra was feeding Regina.
"Good morning." Seras said, walking over to a fussing Nicole.
"Thanks for watching them." Seras asked.
"Thanks for remembering the muffling charm." Integra said with a smirk. Seras grinned.
"He was quite enthusiastic." Seras said, smiling contentedly.
"Yeah, good for you." Integra said, rolling her eyes.
"I really wish you would find someone." Seras said. Integra shrugged.
"I'm not quite ready for that just yet." Integra said, not meeting her gaze.
"Still?" Seras asked, not unkindly. Integra's shoulder slumped.
"I was just getting there, then we lost him and now he's come back to us... God I feel like such a fool." Integra said.
"The heart wants what the heart wants." Seras said sadly. Integra shrugged, looking dejected. Seras looked pensive.
"Integra... Um... Can I ask you a question?" Seras asked.
"Of course." Integra said.
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"Good morning, Mister Howard." Alucard said with a shit-eating grin while Pip laughed behind him as Harry arrived at the Hellsing manor. Harry's eyes narrowed. Faster than either could react, Harry withdrew his wand and slashed at it both of them. Alucard frowned and Pip looked panicked.
"Oh no..." Pip said, reaching up feeling the top of his head which now featured curly hair and a receeding hairline.
"You'd better not have..." Alucard said, slowly raising his hands to his head, and feeling nothing but smooth flesh where his hair used to be.
"Can it, Chowderheads." Harry said with a grin, before turning and running.
"WHY, I OUGHTTA!" Alucard shouted before taking off after them, just as Integra with Regina and Seras with Nicole stepped in from the Portal room.
"Well I'm glad two years in hell didn't dampen his sense of humor." Integra said, smiling as Harry dodged just out of Alucard's grasp.
"Seriously, Integra. Think about it, ok?" Seras said.
"I will..." Integra said.
"Ow!" Alucard cried, pressing his hands over his eyes.
"Nyuk nyuk nyuk!" Harry shouted. He took off and
almost made it past Pip who grabbed him in a full nelson and held him there while Alucard grinned savagely and stalked towards them. Harry struggled to free himself, but Pip was an accomplished grappler.
"Uh guys..." Harry said.
"Oh you've had this coming for a while, little wizard." Alucard said.
"And that's our cue. Bye Harry!" Integra said, leading Seras across the hall.
"Traitors!" Harry cried as he struggled to break free from Pip.
"Nothing permanent, Alucard..." Seras warned.
"No promises..." Alcuard said, menacingly as he closed in on Harry.
Seras and Integra stopped by Rip and Zorin's bedroom to collect their friends for a trip to Diagon Alley. Now that they were well and truly assured that Harry was back, they decided to treat themselves to ice cream. Zorin's emotional roller coaster of a pregnancy had only been made worse by Harry's six hour/two year departure, so they decided some normalcy would not go amiss.
They arrived at Florean Fortescue's which was unusually busy however Luna sent Helena over to take their order while she handled the line that had formed. The woman at the front of the line went to protest until she saw Zorin and paled. Zorin grumbled.
"Perhaps I should have the tattoos removed.." Zorin said.
"Don't you dare, they're part of who you are." Seras said.
"I should go over there and smack her..." Rip said.
"Not worth the paperwork." Integra said. Helena arrived with their order and placed it on their table.
"How much? I have both magical and muggle currency." Seras said.
"No charge." Helena said with a smile.
"I insist." Seras said.
"It's already been paid for." Helena said, gesturing towards the woman who was now slowly making her way over.
"Hello, I'm sorry to bother you. I just wanted to say thank you... During the battle of London you saved my children." The woman said, struggling not to cry.
"Oh..." Zorin said, looking surprised. The woman nodded.
"They were trapped in a school bus, just before Harry killed that monster, I believe you wrenched the door off of a burning bus and rescued the children inside." The woman said.
"They made it?! I couldn't track them down after the fight..." Zorin said. The woman nodded with a smile and tears welling up in her eyes.
"Every one of them. Thank you... Thank you so much!" The woman said. Zorin got to her feet and approached, taking the woman in her arms.
"It was my pleasure." Zorin said, her own eyes welling up.
"Make sure your baby knows its mommy is a hero." The woman said, pointing at her belly. Zorin broke off the embrace and smiled at her as she walked back to the counter to collect her own order. Zorin stared after her, vacantly.
"Are you okay, love?" Rip asked. Zorin sniffled.
"She called me a hero..." Zorin said. Integra smiled and reached into her clutch, retrieving a box of tissues, handing it to Zorin who burst out crying. Rip smiled and held her.
"Strange, isn't it? Not too long ago we were flying around in zeppelins wearing those awful uniforms..." Rip said.
"I'm sorry. These damn hormones..." Zorin said, wiping at her eyes.
"I'm not complaining about the hormones..." Rip said with a lecherous grin, laughing when Zorin elbowed her in the gut.
"Howdy, bitches!" Luna said, effortlessly tossing a knut over her shoulder, grinning when she heard it land in the jar.
"Luna, how are you?" Rip asked.
"I'm well." Luna said, her expression falling.
"Is Harry okay? I heard what happened." Luna said.
"I think he's still processing it. It took a couple of times for him to remember how to change Nicole, and that really upset him. He's just so glad it was only six hours on our side." Seras said.
"Speaking of Nicole..." Luna said. Seras grinned and handed the near-toddler to Luna who grunted when she felt how heavy she was.
"Merlin she's big." Luna said laughing as Nicole giggled and reached for Luna's trademark radish earrings.
"She should be ready for preschool next year." Seras said.
"Do dhampirs develop mentally as fast as they do physically?" Luna asked.
"According to Alucard, 'sort of'.' Their brains physically mature much faster but a lot of growing up is experience and learning. We'll have to push her to make sure she's ready, but given her daddy's intellect I doubt that will be much of a problem." Seras said.
"A-card!" Nicole said.
"Don't sell yourself short, Seras. I received your service record with the police force when you came aboard. Your competency tests were well above average, you had the highest scores in your precinct." Integra said. Seras blushed.
"She's saying Alucard's name now, eh? Harry must have loved that." Luna said with a grin.
"He pretended to be offended, but he knows that the reason she says Mama, Alucard and Integra is because He spends so much time with her, saying their names." Integra said.
"Is she on solids yet?" Luna asked.
"Yes, though I'm still breastfeeding her." Seras said.
"Excellent! One Harry vanilla ice cream coming up!" Helena said.
"How much blood did Harry leave here?" Seras asked. Luna opened the door in the back and grinned when Seras' jaw dropped. Harry had left and preserved a dozen plastic barrels labeled "Harry Juice" one of which was half-full.
"Enough." Luna said, closing the door.
"Bi-ches!" Nicole said. Seras laughed and dropped a knut in the jar.