Harry sat on his end of the bench in the park, slowly nibbling on the corner of deli sandwich he'd been given, casting attentive glances at his bench mate who practically forced the food on him as she spoke, telling him all sorts of stories.

The lady was an older woman, looking about the same age, if a bit younger, as his aunt Petunia but was far more prettier and shapely in his opinion. But then, he was only six years old, what did he know about womanly beauty? While she wasn't the tallest lady he'd ever seen, she certainly wasn't short, and had her long blond hair that was always pulled and braided into a pair low pigtails. She tended to wear clothes that allowed free movement that earned her looks of jealousy and lust, from women and men respectively; simple shirts or halter-tops and such, shorts and mini skirts, always wore boots (combat boots or hiking), and occasionally a small jacket.

They had met about a month ago, on a warm mid-April afternoon, in the very same spot they were currently sitting, Harry had been nursing a badly scraped and bloodied knee after his cousin, Dudley, and his gang decided to play another round of 'Harry Hunting'. He had managed to outwit and out run them, it didn't take much to do it either since Harry was rather a good sprint runner and was actually smarter than he let on, but had taken a rather nasty fall along the way. He had hid in the park and stayed there most of the afternoon before she had seen and came over to him.

The little five year-old had been taken completely by surprise when she had suddenly appeared in front of him from nowhere.

She was rather scary looking back then too, standing there with the evening sun at her back, shadowing her face, wearing a long, high collared, cloak-like red duster and matching beret. When she kneeled down, spying his tensed, frightened look, he saw her partly concealed heart shaped and scarred face. Her wide, intense blues eyes peered out at Harry in friendly concern. When she asked what had happened to him he merely said he'd fallen while playing and that she needn't concern herself with him.

Apparently he said something wrong because he saw her sharp brows crease and her eyes narrow in disbelief. Before he knew it, the woman had sat him down on a bench before reaching into a black duffle back she had been carrying, pulling out a small First-Aid kit and preceded to clean his wound while admonishing him. "You're not very good at fibbing, child." she had said, "You were being chased around the neighborhood by a pack of little ruffians." when he gave a wide eyed gasp, she replied with a knowing smirk. "You ran right by me down the street earlier."

Harry blushed at the memory and shifted awkwardly. That had been the first time he could remember anyone had ever fussed over him in such a way.

He'd managed to get her name, Cammy White, and found out she lived by herself just two blocks away from Privet Drive, recently moved in. From that day, Harry had met Miss. White everyday on her days off. Each time they had met the woman would bring sandwiches and juice to have for lunch, talking about anything that came to mind, from Harry's days in first grade to Cammy's travels around the world. Sometimes they would even go out and do something fun like catch a movie if he managed to finish his chores early enough or sit and read books together.

There were a few things about her he'd been curious about, like why most of the neighborhood looked at her with fear and anger or would shy away from her altogether just after she moved in, but had the courtesy to not nose around her business like aunt Petunia tried to. Also, Harry loved hearing about her trips around the world and all the friends she made. It made his already active imagination run wild and made him wish he could travel to all those places she'd been to. Who knows, maybe one day he'd get to travel too?

----

Cammy looked down at the little boy seated at her side as he gave her his undivided attention. She had to smirk at the situation she had repeatedly found herself in. Her, Cammy White, former brainwashed Shadowloo assassin and current member of the Delta Red group, spending her free afternoons entertaining a kid of all things. One would think she had no care for children, not with the kind of life she had, but apparently she did have just enough for this little one.

When she had moved to quiet little Surrey, it was not by her own volition. Her commanding officers had said that the base's barracks wasn't her permanent residence, despite the fact she'd been living in them for a little more than three years, and that they needed to conserve the extra spaces for the new trainees coming in. So they had her and about several dozen others packed and booted out, setting them up in different government owned houses and apartments all around London, within a thirty minute drive to base. Rather than an apartment, Cammy was given a one story house with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen/sitting room, and a basement. Though the house was nice looking, it and the rest of the community was too uniformed for her tastes. Everything was nearly identical; all the houses and fences were white, had perfectly trimmed lawns and gardens -- even the flower selection and placement was the same--, and nearly everyone had same car model and color of black or some other dark color. The only thing truly different was the house sizes, and even then they were in a standardized cookie cutter range; every three blocks was two rows of either one story homes meant for two, two story home meant for three, or wider two story homes meant for four. Almost everything was routine here!

In Cammy's honest to goodness opinion, Surrey was pure suburbia hell!

Within the two first months, Cammy White, hardened solider/assassin of Delta Red and veteran Street Fighter, was ready to crack. And then one day, like a bolt of the blue, she'd seen little Harold James Potter. Cammy had noticed the boy around the neighborhood every other day, often times out in front of his house tending to the garden or mowing the lawn unsupervised, or at the park swings sitting alone. When she'd spot him, she paid little to no further attention to him and continued on with her business, ignoring him a little less every time. It was like the boy simply radiated with this unconscious 'Like Me, Protect Me' aura of innocence around himself and merely looking at his feeble and meager appearance had every latent maternal instinct in her kicking in a little more stronger with each sighting until the day came she finally relented and approached him. He was positively irresistible.

Harry was certainly an interesting find, to say the least. While he was a child, he wasn't very childish; he was well behaved and mild-mannered, suspiciously to the point of having near subservient behavior, he wasn't loud and rambunctious, and was very astute. His abnormal pre-adult-like behavior was marred somewhat by his natural, but well hidden, juvenile tendencies. His eyes, which were a pretty shade of emerald green, were dull as they periodically inspected the park warily and held barely any of the naïve light that was common in most children his age. The boy also showed signs that almost literally screamed abuse and/or neglect.

It made Cammy suspicious of his home.

She had shadowed Harry to his place of residence one afternoon when his school had let out, finally getting fed up with his constant street urchin looks. Somehow, the blond had hoped the his family were simply on hard times and wasn't neglecting him, but then that was wistful thinking. Surrey was considered part of the upper middle-class, everyone had some stash of pounds secreted away here or there.

The boy's family reminded Cammy of zoo creatures. They disgusted the blond and left her with many dangerous thoughts.

Harry's uncle, Vernon Dursley, was an overweight man with no real neck to speak of, had a handlebar mustache and balding head of hair, and beady dark eyes, looking like a human sized walrus in tailored designer-casual clothes as he waddled with thunderous steps to his car, his aunt, Petunia Dursley, was right behind her husband, lingering only to lock up after their son and nephew. She was just as tall as Cammy was and the similarities between them ended there. She had on a nice dress that did not compliment her lanky figure well and was also a blond, but it was more a dyed pale blond than natural, had a long neck like a giraffe -- perfect for looking over fences and unwanted snooping --, and had shifty blue eyes. Then there was the couple's son, Dudley, who was just as morbidly obese as his father, only he resembled a baby whale dressed in his Sunday's best. His dirty blond hair was laid flat against his skull, looking more like a toupee than anything, and had watery blue eyes. Even from a distance Cammy heard the brat's insistent whining over the most trivial things as he played on the newest handheld game that even Cammy, who was stunted in the ways of child's play, could tell from her position in a tree across the street was mint and had to squash the urge to wince. The horrid boy was insanely spoiled.

Cammy had heard the child's 'family' talk loudly, tauntingly, when they saw their neighbors about how they were getting ready to leave to catch a morning flick at the cinema, then to a Major League Cricket game, and finishing the night by going out to eat at some swank restaurant in Downtown London for Dudley's seventh birthday. Vernon gave Harry a cuff to the head, warning him viciously against any 'freakishness' with a beating and no food for a week before leaving him behind at the next door neighbor's house. Mrs. Arabella Figg, the neighbor, had more cats living in her home than necessary and harbored what appeared to be a detached neutrality for the young Potter… at least, that was what one would see if you weren't looking closely enough. In actuality the woman genuinely cared for Harry and showed it after the Dursleys had driven off. The display of nonchalant dismissal and nepotism of one child for another, even if it was their son, left Cammy in a black mood the rest of the day.

After witnessing the Dursleys' mistreatment of Harry, the lady Street fighter had been inspired to put her ear to the grapevine, as it were, since her new place of residence seemed to practically thrive off gossip to learn more of her impromptu not-quite charge. She found Surrey to truly be a haven for fools. The word going around the neighborhood said that Harry was disobedient and showed signs of being some kind of criminally incurable delinquent. At least that's what the adults think, the children had other thoughts. According to them, Harry was a lonely boy but couldn't have any friends because Dudley and his gang, the real delinquents, would bully them away.

The blond decided a change was needed, and when Cammy put her foot down, she really brought it down, hard and fast.

----

"Miss. Cammy…?" Harry looked up at the blond who seemed to be in deep thought. When her blue eyes met his green he asked in concern, "Are you okay? You stopped your story."

Cammy smiled and answered, "Oh, sorry! Of course I'm fine, poppet," she gave his black hair a gentle pat before noticing his half eaten sandwich. "Now, finish your food. I've something important to ask you."

Harry nodded, setting back to finish his food at a faster pace. The tiny green eyed boy quickly polished off the last of his sandwich and downed the juice box Cammy gave him in four long gulps. Harry self-consciously wiped the crumbs from around his mouth with the end of his sleeve and looked up at his friend curiously.

The blond grinned and said, "Now that we're fed, there is something I wanted to ask you," she started. "Now I know how badly your cousin and his friends pick on you, and I also know how badly you aunt and uncle treat you- no, no, let me finish." She said just as Harry opened his mouth to say something. "I know how curious you are about what I do that makes everyone in Surrey shy away from me, but are too polite to ask so I'll ask, do you know what a Street Fighter is?"

Harry shrugged his small shoulders and said, "Kind of, Uncle Vernon says the lot of them are a bunch of good for nothing, penniless bums and worthless hobos who've got nothing better to do but fight like wild hooligans and destroy hard working people's property. He said they should all be thrown in jail for disturbing everyone's lives." He noticed how Cammy's brow ticked with each slandering word he recited and her eyes narrow ever so slightly with heat before her continued, "But I think some of them are brilliant! Like that Masters bloke from America or that lady with the fast kicks from China, Chan Lee I think her name was…?"

Cammy giggled at the boy's butchering of her friends name. "Chun Li, Harry, her name is Chun Li. I know them personally you know, I talk to them often whenever they decide to pop in town."

Green eyes widened in awe. "Wicked!" he breathed, star-struck.

The blond nodded, then she grew serious again, "Now Harry, I'm also a Street Fighter myself," she informed, gaining a gasp of admiration from her petite friend, "and I want to teach you how to defend yourself."

"R-really?" Harry asked. "You'll show me how to be a Street Fighter?"

"Certainly, I like you and trust you. There comes a time in every warrior's life when they decide to pass on their style to newer generations for different reasons." Cammy took Harry's hand into her own and said, "Listen to me, love, I'm only 25, so I'm not an old fighter. However, with my dangerous line of work for the government I doubt I'll have any time to find a good man whom is not scared of me and settle down and have loads of kids. Something might happen and I may not ever come back, so I want to pass on my techniques while I still have time to." Now that she thought about it, Cammy was the only one in her innermost circle of friends who didn't have a protégé to train. She thought of her friends and how most of them already had a disciple or more; Ryu had Sakura, Ken had Sean and soon enough his own son, Mel, Dan and Blanka had opened their own martial arts school, Chun Li was teaching five or six children in her village, Guile had his trainees in the U.S. military, Dhalsim had been a Yoga instructor already for years, and E-Honda was the head of a sumo stable. Cammy gave a mental nod, it was about time she picked a apprentice. Coincidentally there was a potential one sitting next to her. "So what do you say? Care to learn from a pro?"

Harry smiled and nodded vigorously. "When do we start?!"

"Tomorrow afternoon, after your chores."