"Hey, hey, calm down." Harry tried to summon as soothing and harmless a voice he could while staying completely still.

"Who are you?" The voice repeated menacingly, and Harry winced as the man adjusted the blade until it dug into the crook of his neck.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter." After a thought, he added on, "-One of the refugees."

There was a silence.

"This isn't a good time to be lying."

"I'm not! Really!"

"No refugee can kill a Titan." The voice stated flatly. Harry bristled. Who did this guy think he was, disregarding the lives of so many in one casual, sweeping statement?

"I- I didn't do it on my own. This soldier helped me." Harry inclined his jaw towards the body, taking special care to avoid slicing his neck on the edge of the blade.

"What happened to him?"

"He got...trapped by the Titan, and then hit by it again."

"His uniform is tattered. A little burnt. Stop lying. And I saw - you had a weapon."

Harry looked at the body. Burnt? It must have been the curse. The edges of the man's torn uniform were singed - the curse must have hit part of him by accident.

"Now, are you going to tell me the truth, or am I going to have to lop off your shitty head?"

Harry remained silent, but his hand had found his wand, and he was going to turn around and Stupefy-

The same whirring sound of retracting cables broke the silence, and Harry paused, looking up at the new arrival. It was a female soldier, an exuberant grin on her face. She sported a ridiculous pair of glasses - Harry knew his own glasses weren't all that great, but her pair just reminded him of one of those strange muggle accessories - it had a thick, rectangular frame that belonged more to goggles rather than spectacles. "Hey!"

The man behind Harry made a tch sound. Harry dared to have hope - if the man was distracted by the woman, Stupefying both of them would be an easy task.

"You're not supposed to be here. Erwin said only a few soldiers." The man sounded annoyed, but his tone was still flat, every word a deadpan.

The woman walked nearer, still grinning. She cast a look at the dead soldier in front of Harry, and her smile faded for a few seconds. Then she considered Harry, and looked up at the man behind him, and her smile returned. "Yes, but I couldn't resist. There were so many. You can't believe how tempting it was."

Harry prepared himself, fingers tightening around his wand, legs tensing, words on the edge of his lips.

"And why are you threatening this poor kid, Levi? All he's got is a stick to protect himself with." The focus turned to Harry, and he grimaced. Disappointment washed over him - he couldn't act now.

The man behind him - Levi, was it? - said, "He killed a Titan, probably one of our soldiers too. I'd hardly call him a 'poor kid'. I was going to get answers - before you crashed in and proceeded to shove your shit-eating grin up all our asses."

The woman looked at Harry in surprise. "A Titan? On your own?" Harry kept his mouth pressed into a grim line.

She suddenly laughed. Or cackled, really. She clapped her hands in glee. "That's wonderful! Levi, we can't kill him! He could be an asset. Can you imagine, if he killed a Titan god knows how on his own - what could he do with a 3dmg of his own?"

Levi's tone turned affronted. His sword stayed resolutely on Harry's shoulder. "If with every Titan he takes down, he kills another of our soldiers, then taking him back would be the crappiest idea that's ever come out of your mouth. Which is saying something."

Harry had to admit: This woman had some thick skin. She brushed off the insult like he'd just complimented her. "Aw, come on. You could always whip him into complete submission - I'm sure he'd get the importance of preserving lives." She bent over and regarded Harry from a totally respectable distance of about three inches away. Startled, Harry drew his face back and avoided her gaze. This woman seemed half insane. Then - "He looks like he could do with some cleaning up." She announced. Harry looked up at her. A crafty glint flashed in her eyes.

A moment of hesitation.

"True." The sword was lifted off Harry's shoulder.

Harry immediately rolled to the side. "Stupef-" Before he could completely cast the spell, a massive impact was dealt to his chest, causing all the air to gush out of him and leaving him coughing and gasping, sprawled across the ground. What the hell was that?

Levi had kicked him from behind - at warp speed, apparently. Harry hadn't even seen him coming. His wand was yanked out of his grasp, and he was effortlessly hauled to his feet.

As he set eyes on Levi, only one thing really registered during the first few seconds.

Levi was short.

For the first time in ages, Harry had finally met another man who was shorter than himself. Not by much, but still shorter, nevertheless.

He barely had time to rejoice at this, before he made eye contact with the most intimidating, steely pair of eyes ever. Levi had a death glare that could probably scare a Titan off course.

"If you try that again, I'll change my mind and you'll find yourself shitting blood." He deftly twisted Harry's arm around and pinned it against his back, rendering him largely immobile.

Thoroughly indignant, Harry struggled - but Levi's grip was unmovable.

"Give me my wand back." Harry winced inwards, imagining how his words would be construed. That was a bad decision. If anything, it probably confirmed his insanity in these people's eyes. He'd be killed, tossed in a loony bin, sacrificed to some pagan God of war.

"Wand?" The lady piped up in an incredulous voice. Oh no.

"Oh how absolutely - intriguing! Does that mean there's some sort of power in that stick?" She cackled again, then declared, "Levi, I'm so glad you found him for me! How fun!"

What?

Then Harry realised that insanity and weirdness would just bounce off this woman, because she herself was clearly not all there. But he took his chances at survival - besides, in the first place, it had been in one of his plans to somehow breach the government and get his hands on their secret technology that would get him back. Back to home.

It'd been far, far too long - a pang of nostalgia and empty pain gnawed at his stomach as he wondered if everything was okay back home, if anyone had tried to find him, if time even passed the same way there because if it did, his son would have already been born, and he would have abandoned Ginny to be an estranged single mother.

He was yanked out of the torturous ramblings of his mind by Levi pushing him from behind, making him stumble forward. The woman picked up the body of the soldier and started walking, not even bothering that the soldier's blood was staining her uniform.

They were on the move - they kept to streets that the Titans couldn't fit through or see them in. The route seemed pre-planned, for the soldiers turned automatically and confidently at every juncture or split in the paths. The journey was eerily quiet, save for the woman's occasional humming and lighthearted remarks, the light taps of their footsteps against the cobblestone, and the distant thumps of the Titan's massive feet.

With a dead feeling, Harry said, "They're all gone, aren't they?"

The woman gave a noncommittal hum and continued walking jauntily. "Mm... Who?"

"The refugees. They're all eaten. All dead."

"Well, yes, I suppose."

Her apathy angered Harry, and he felt himself tense against Levi's grip. He was thoroughly riled up, thinking about all the innocent people that were now stewing in the bellies of Titans. He burst out, "Why don't you care at all? They were people - like you and I! And there were so many of them! Why were they even sent here in the first place - Titan fodder?-"

Levi kneed him from behind, and Harry buckled, cutting off his loud rant mid-sentence. Before he hit the ground, there was a flash, and he barely managed to raise his arms to brace himself before he was dealt another kick to the face that sent him reeling.

"You're just a whiny brat with shit for brains. If you shout loud enough, I'm sure all the Titans will come here, sit down and applaud your little speech. Shut up."

Aggravated, Harry stood up shakily, and touched his raw face gingerly. His fingers came away stained red, and he tasted blood. He was ready to hit Levi back, do something. "You-" He started to shout, but before he could fully steady himself, another punch smashed into his temple, and his vision exploded into sparks of colour and pain.

Harry vaguely registered the impact of crumbling against the ground, before his senses numbed completely and a curtain of darkness fell across his vision.

He opened his eyes to the shadowed ceiling of his home.

It… It was a dream?

He turned his face to the side. Ginny was sleeping soundly, a peaceful hint of a smile on her lips. He raised a palm and touched her cheek lightly, disbelievingly. Sleepily, she opened her eyes and smiled at Harry. "What's wrong, Harry? Go back to sleep."

"I… I had a crazy dream." Harry muttered, cradling Ginny's face gently, even a little bit fearfully, as if she would disappear under his touch.

Ginny kissed him on the forehead, and yawned. Harry closed his eyes, relaxing under her touch. Home.

When he opened them again, Ginny was grinning widely at him. He chuckled. "What?" His eyes traced the familiar angles and bright eyes that he'd missed for so long in the hellish dream-world.

"Was it a dream where you abandoned us, Harry?"

A chill ran down his spine. Harry stared at her, speechless.

Ginny sat up, throwing the covers away. Under her nightgown, there was no telltale bump. "Did you throw us away, Harry? Leave us forever?" Her smile vanished.

Harry sat up too, bewildered. Explanations tried to force their way out his mouth, but they jumbled on his tongue. "N-No… What?-Ginny, I- I didn't-"

"Don't you love us, Harry? Don't you?" Her voice began to rise in volume. The air around her buzzed with a mysterious, malicious energy, and made the hairs on Harry's nape stand on end. "Harry Potter, answer me!" She shrieked.

A high-pitched wail rent the air - but it didn't come from Ginny.

They both automatically turned their heads towards the source of the cry. There was a crib against the wall, and a tiny, moving bundle lay within. A lump formed in Harry's throat. No - No! It can't be.

"See what you've done, Harry?" Ginny screamed, drowning out the baby's cries. "You left us! You don't love us anymore!"

Harry woke up with Ginny's name on his lips. He was sitting on an uncomfortably hard wood chair, and his arms and legs were tightly bound with rope to it. Eyes swimming a little and a dull ache still hammering at his skull, he struggled against the binds, to no avail.

His face hurt, and as he licked his lips, there was a stinging pain and an accompanying taste of blood.

"Good, you're awake." A deep, male voice said.

Harry stopped struggling and looked up. A long desk with a lamp at one end and neat piles of paperwork at the other separated him from a blond man, whose gaze bored into his face. Harry found himself looking at the man's thick, intense eyebrows to avoid looking at his even more intense, searching gaze.

"Where am I?" Harry asked guardedly.

"You're in the headquarters of the Survey Corps."

"And... Why?"

The man's eyes pierced at Harry - they were a bright blue.

"Lance Corporal Levi and Squad Leader Hange brought you here." The man paused, an inscrutable expression on his face.

Then the memories came rushing back all at once - the running, the Titan, the soldier, being knocked out. Stunned, he stared downwards, gaze unconsciously following the minute twisting and curling grain of the wood desk. "Let me out."

"I'm afraid not." Dismissed. Just like that. "Hange tells me you killed a Titan on your own. Did you?"

Harry glared at him, and stayed resolutely, stubbornly silent. Was it a thing amongst the soldiers to be completely arrogant pricks? And where was his wand? Who was this guy anyway?

His wand... Harry felt a tinge of uncertainty. If it was destroyed or thrown away, he didn't know what he would do.

It would mean a definite loss of his magical identity, a removal of another tangible link to the wizarding world. And it spelled a certain condemnation to this dark world. Without a medium for his magic, there was a near-zero possibility he could get out of this place on his own.

Perhaps he should cooperate, then. To a certain degree.

The man was most surely about to comment on his lack of reply, but Harry cut in and nodded, smoothing out his face into a stoic expression. "Yes. But I had help."

The man regarded him indifferently, but Harry could feel a vague underlying curiosity in his eyes.

"I'm sure you're highly confused about your current… predicament." The man said. "Which is why I believe we should start with introductions, to clear things up." He inclined his head expectantly at Harry, indicating him to start first.

Warily, Harry said his name. "Harry Potter."

There was a pregnant silence, as the man waited for him to elaborate.

"I'm from the… Shiganshina District. Lived there all eighteen years of my life." Harry figured that making himself a couple of years younger would put him under a more forgiving light. And, though he hated to admit, he looked the part, anyway. "We were moved to the refugee camp when the Titans attacked, and we stayed there for a year, before orders were sent for us to retake Wall Maria." And sacrifice ourselves for nothing! He silently added on, bristling with anger. He clenched his jaw tightly to stop the accusatory words from escaping.

The man leaned backwards against his chair.

"And I am Erwin Smith of the Survey Corps." He finally said. "That being said, I don't believe your story. We operate on the truth here, Harry, and it would serve us both better to reinforce that."

Harry scoffed. "Right. Tell that to the thousands of innocent refugees the Survey Corps sent on a suicide mission - for no reason!"

"It wasn't a pointless endeavor. The camps were overflowing, and the rations were running out - it was a necessary evil. With those thousands of people gone, there's now enough food to sustain the human population." Erwin explained. He spoke as if he were analysing a military strategy, as if the people were merely pawns. It made perfect, logical sense, but the moral side of Harry still vehemently protested.

"That doesn't justify killing them. You lied to them - you took away their choice!" Harry insisted, straining against his binds. If only he had his wand.

"Their honorable sacrifice ensured the survival of hundreds of thousands of others.' Erwin stated firmly. "And you can help make their deaths mean something, if you tell me the truth about yourself. Where do you come from?"

Harry hesitated. He couldn't tell if he could trust this man or not. At this point, he'd been so used to keeping his history a secret that it went against all the warning alarms for self-preservation that rang in his brain. He was going to seem like a complete lunatic freak. But was there a better option? If it could help him, it was worth a try...

"It's a long, far-fetched story." He warned. "And I'm not insane." He tacked on as an afterthought.

Erwin nodded his head solemnly, but his steely blue eyes seemed to gleam even brighter. "We operate on the truth," He affirmed.

And so Harry started the story, words tumbling out in awkward clauses and unfinished sentences. "I… I'm not from around here. As - as in, not from this world, even. It sounds crazy, but I've spent more than twenty years in a different Earth, one without Titans. I came here completely by accident."

Erwin barely looked disbelieving. He said nothing, but his face of interest merely grew in intensity, completely intent on his every word.

As he spoke, his confidence grew, and he told of Hogwarts and magic, Dumbledore and his parents, of Voldemort and the Wizarding War. Occasionally, he stopped as memories and nostalgia inundated him, but Erwin never questioned his silence, and waited for him to regain his composure. Then, Harry explained about Tom Riddle's lair and how he woke up in Shiganshina District, and traced his steps since, from the refugee camp to slaying the Titan with the soldier. It felt unbelievably freeing to speak his mind after months of unbearable silence and secrecy.

"...And here I am." Harry ended, throat dry and lips cracked from the long speech and the dried blood from earlier. Erwin had barely moved from his position. His expression betrayed no emotion, but Harry could sense he was deep in thought.

His story had taken nearly an hour to recite, even while skimming over the many things he deemed unimportant, but as exhausting as it was, he felt more alive than he'd been since his arrival to this world.

Now, he could only hope.

"Fair enough." Erwin finally said. "I believe your story, as fantastical as you claim it to be."

"Well, that's good." Harry said awkwardly.

"However, I cannot promise that the Survey Corps will be able to help you return to your world. We do not have the benefit of possessing the "magic" you speak of." Erwin paused for a moment. "I have a preposition. Will you hear it?"

Hearing no objection from Harry, Erwin continued. "I can grant you certain freedom, and make sure that you get your, ah, wand back. I can even promise to have our most outstanding scientists work tirelessly on your case, though with no guarantee of success."

It was very tempting, and Erwin's terms were highly convincing and persuasive. Harry nearly agreed immediately once he heard he would be returned his wand, but he made himself stop. "And what will I have to do in return?"

Erwin leant forward and regarded Harry seriously. "Will you join the Survey Corps?"