Vernon Dursley had just returned home from a horrible day at work. After being denied the promotion he wanted and his clumsy assistant spilt hot coffee on him... to say that he was angry would be an understatement. The only way to improve his mood at this point was engaging in his favorite pastime... Beat the Freak. With a mighty slam of his front door, Vernon went to the little cupboard under the stair and undid the latch, then threw it open, to reveal a small frightened boy with wide terrified eyes by the name of Harry Potter.

"Boy!" Vernon growled out as he grabbed the little boy by his neck and lifted him out of the cupboard. "I had a horrible day at work... You know what that means, RIGHT?!" Vernon asked rhetorically as he threw the boy into the living room before he even had the chance to answer. The obese man snarled, and followed him, anxious to start beating him with his large, beefy fists.

Harry whimpered softly as his uncle brought his huge, beefy fists down on him again and again, bloodying and bruising the tiny little boy. "SHUT UP, FREAK!" Vernon roared as he kicked the child hard in the stomach. "DON'T MAKE A SOUND!" Harry bit his lip to prevent any noise from coming out. 'I wish I was somewhere else...' He thought desperately. 'I don't care where...Anywhere but here...' Then, quite suddenly, Harry and Vernon were surrounded by mystical sparks. In a flash of bright light, they were gone.

Vernon cursed angrily when the flash of light faded. He glared at Harry, ready to beat him for doing that...FREAKY FILTH again...but his eyes widened when he realized they were no longer in his home. They now found themselves standing in the middle of a large forest. Vernon gaped at Harry, his face purple with rage. "WHAT...HAVE YOU...DONE?!" Vernon grabbed Harry by the throat, hoisting the terrified little boy off the ground in the process. "TAKE ME BACK RIGHT THIS INSTANT, YOU HEAR ME?!" Vernon planted his free fist firmly into Harry's face, knocking a few teeth loose. "YOU TAKE ME RIGHT! BACK!" Harry was too terrified to keep his tears at bay. His freaky stuff had really done it this time... He was going to die...

Half a mile away, minutes before Harry and Vernon are teleported...

With precise grace that was developed from years of training, Annie landed on the forest floor after moving from tree to tree for twelve minutes with the help of the 3S Maneuver Gear that she 'borrowed' from the storage area where the instructors from the boot camp were storing the gears. She still couldn't believe that they would put someone so lazy to guard the maneuver gears. It was so easy to snatch one right under the guard's nose while he was dosing off that she almost laughed after the deed was done. She stole the gears from the guards on a frequent basis for one simple reason: she enjoyed the freedom of swinging through the trees, alone with her thoughts.

Said thoughts were interrupted by a sound... It was faint at first, and she paid it no mind, it was probably just some wild animal...But as she got closer to it, she could clearly make out what it was... It was the sound of a yelling man. She shook her head. 'That idiot's gonna get the titans' attention if he keeps that up...' She mused. Still, she was slightly curious...What was he yelling about? She decided to get a closer look, and swung off in the direction of the yelling.

When she got there, she wasn't sure what she was expecting to see, but it certainly wasn't an anthropomorphic walrus holding a kid in the air by his throat and punching him as hard as he could while the poor little boy struggled to breathe, tears streaming down his face.

She blinked in shock, stunned by the fact that such a huge man would be willing to hurt a child that was so small and fragile looking. She shook off her shock and started at him with a cold gaze as she raised her thin blades and dashed to the man, ready to save the child from this man's cruelty. When she was upon him, she swung in a large, vertical arc and removed his arm which was holding the child with a single slash.

Vernon felt something going through his arm... a catastophically large amount of pain, and the sensation of his arm falling off. Slowly, he turned his head to where his arm used to be and saw that it wasn't there. He remained silent for a moment, the realization slowly kicking in... then he gave a loud bellow of pain as he clutched the stump where his arm was previously.

Annie decided to put the huge lump out of his misery, and almost casually drove her blade through his throat. With a small gurgling sound, Vernon collapsed, the life leaving his eyes.

Annie kicked the body to the side, then turned to the child with a cool gaze. Vernon's detached arm was still holding his throat, and he was trembling as he weakly tried to pry it off.

Annie's eyes softened slightly as she watched him struggling so hard to get the man's hand off of him. She walked over to the child and leaned down enough so that she could get to the fingers on the hand. Harry, who had seen her approaching, trembled and squeezed his eyes shut, thinking that she was going to do to him what she did to his uncle.

Annie raised a brow at the child's behaviour. Could he not tell he had only killed the man to save him? Shaking her head, she pried the disembodied arm's fingers off of the little boy's neck, then stood as he gasped for breath.

Harry took in rapid, grateful breaths as air returned to his lungs, and he looked up at the woman who had pried the fingers off of his windpipe. She wasn't making any move to hurt him. She was just...looking at him. Harry looked at her with huge, confused eyes. Wasn't she going to kill him?

Annie shook her head, and turned to leave...but froze in her tracks, and turned to look back at the child, who was still staring in confusion.

Annie felt conflicted about leaving a small, hurt child alone in the forest, especially when Titans might be coming to their current location because of all the noise the walrus made. "Shouldn't you get home before the Titans come?" Annie asked.

Harry's eyes widened even more as he fully processed that he was now in the middle of nowhere, with no idea where the Dursley's home was...He looked down at the ground sadly.

"I...I don't know where home is..." He said softly. "...What's a t-titan?"

Annie's eyebrow rose at his question. 'How can anyone not know what a titan is?' Annie thought to herself. But before she could question him about it, the ground shook loudly. Then it shook again but harder and louder this time. Harry looked around in confusion and fear while Annie stiffened, eyes wide as she knew exactly what was happening.

Annie decided at that very moment that she absolutely could not leave him here alone. Without another word, she bent over and scooped Harry into her arms, then sprinted away from the clearing as fast as her legs would carry her. Harry was now more scared that ever. What was going on? Why was the woman running away?

Then, he saw it. A large, humanoid figure lumbered out from the trees, and approached Vernon's corpse. It stared at the limp body for a few moments, as if mulling it over, then slowly raised its massive foot and brought it back down on top of the dead body, crushing it into pulp.

Harry's eyes widened and his mouth opened wide in horror as he watched the titan take what remained of his uncle and put it in it's mouth. 'Wh-What is it? I-It's so big and scary...' Harry thought to himself as he wordlessly watch the giant, naked monster eat his uncle's remains. By the time the titan was finished, Annie and Harry was too far away for it to care about their existence, so the beast walked back towards the direction it came from.

Annie eventually came to a cave near the outskirts of the city, and decided to duck into it to hide. Once inside, she propped herself against the wall, panting heavily. That had been an extremely close call...It would have been a pain to have to shift in front of the kid... 'Oh yeah...The kid...' Annie looked down at the child in her arms...and saw that his eyes were wide with horror, he was shaking horribly, and his mouth was hanging open.

Annie's eyes widened as she realized that he must have seen the titan eating that fat bastard. Without thinking, she hugged the terrified boy and started rubbing the back of his head.

Harry's trembling gradually ceased at the gesture of affection. When he was done shaking entirely, he slowly raised his head to look up at the blonde holding him with wide eyes.

Annie was stunned with herself. What the hell was she doing?! She wasn't supposed to be the type of person who went around hugging crying children! She looked down at Harry coldly... but the look on his face was that of a child experiencing love for the first time ever...

After seeing that look on his face, all Annie could do is think about how adorable he is. She continued her motions of care for a couple of minutes until she sat down and placed him snugly on her lap. "Are you feeling better?" Annie asked him with her lips going ever so slightly upwards.

Harry was slightly disappointed when she stopped stroking him. He wanted to be loved some more... Still, it had been a nice feeling regardless. He looked up at the blonde with a small smile.

"Y-Yes...Th-Thank you...Um..."

"Annie."

"Thank you, Miss Annie..."

"You're welcome." Annie said with a nod. "...Do you have a name, little guy?"

"M-My name is Harry." Harry said timidly.

"It's nice to meet you Harry." Annie replied as she rubbed his head.

Harry leaned into the touch, and snuggled up into the woman's chest. He felt safe around her. He knew that she could protect him should anything go bad... But...would she be willing to put up with him much longer? Harry felt a small sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. When would she realize he was too much of a freak to be around and feed him to one of those scary giants?

Annie, for her part, couldn't believe the way she was acting at the moment. She had done stuff that she never dreamed she'd had it in her to be doing, and it was all because of the small child in her arms.

He had caused her to act comforting. He had caused her to come to someone else's aid. He had caused her to think something was ADORABLE. This was unbelievable...The walls she had built around herself were about to start crumbling down, all because of one child.

Then, she got to thinking...He said he wasn't sure where his home was. What was she going to do with him? Frowning thoughtfully, she gazed at the little boy in her arms.

He looked like he was about to fall asleep, was resting his head on her chest. Suddenly, he lifted his head up at her and smiled. Annie smiled back as she returned to her thoughts.

Then, Harry spoke.

"Um...M-Miss Annie?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"Wh-What's gonna happen to me now?"

Annie frowned, then sighed.

"Well, I can't really leave you all alone...I guess you're gonna have to...stay with me until we can find someone better to take care of you..."

The second those words left her mouth, Harry's eyes brightened up like stars as he looked at her happily.

"R-Really?! You'll let me stay with you?" Harry asked, hoping that this was all real and that he would get to stay with this kind lady that had done so much for him in such little time.

Annie nodded. "Yeah. I'll let you stay with me. But only until we can find someone who can take proper care of you. I'm...not fit to take care of any kids." Harry nodded in understanding.

"It's okay, Miss Annie...I know you actually hate me...'Cause I'm a freak..."

Everything went silent as Annie processed his words.

"What did you say?" Annie said in a slightly higher pitch then normal.

Harry adopted a crestfallen facial expression as he replied. "I-I'm a freak and you don't like me."

Annie stared at the little boy in her arms in shock, before her eyes narrowed.

"...Who told you that lie?"

"M-My uncle..."

"Your uncle?" Annie raised a brow.

"Y-You killed him..."

Annie snarled. So the fat bastard wasn't satisfied with physical abuse...He had to emotionally drain the poor kid too?!

If only she had made his death more painful before she stabbed him in the throat. She stopped that train of thought when she felt her arms shaking. Frowning, she looked down to see Harry shaking in fright, most likely from her snarling. Annie breathed in and out to calm herself, and looked down at Harry.

"I'm sorry for scaring you. Your uncle was a horrible person to put you through all that." Annie told him.

Harry looked up at her. "N-No...It's okay, Miss Annie...Really. I deserved all of it...I'm just a freak...I'm a stupid, ugly, worthless freak, and no one will ever want me...That's how it's always been, and that's how it's always gonna be..." His uncle had made him memorize every word of that, and made sure that he recited it every night before his beatings.

Annie was at a loss for words. She had never met an adult so broken before, much less a child this young... Wasting not a moment, she wrapped him up gently in her arms and embraced him tightly against her chest. Harry was confused as to why she suddenly started hugging him again... but he wasn't complaining.

The young woman was gritting her teeth in anger, trembling with barely concealed rage. How DARE that fat bastard...Who the HELL did he think he was, treating a little boy like that?! She wished she could have tortured him a little more before his death...Her enraged expression gradually gave way to a sadistic smirk as she imagined all the horrible things she could have done to the obese man.

These thoughts were interrupted when she felt Harry's two small arms wrapping around her. She looked down to witness Harry burying his head into her chest and yawning softly.

Her eyes widened. 'Kid, why are you so adorable?' She thought as she felt the corners of her lips turn upwards.

"...You tired, kid?" Harry nodded sleepily, not looking up from his comfortable position. He had had a taxing day...He had taken a beating, teleported himself and his uncle to another part of the world with the freaky stuff, been rescued by a pretty blonde lady who wanted to take care of him, and seen a scary giant. He needed some rest... Annie smirked. "Well, if you wanna sleep, I'm not gonna stop you." Harry let out a soft, content cooing sound...and then his soft snores filled the cave.

She smiled at the snoring little boy, and decided that it would probably be a good idea to keep watch for titans while he sleeps. So with piercing eyes, she watched over her new charge while he rested, safe and secure in his new guardian's arms.