It was a nice, warm day at the beach where this story begins. There were dozens of people that were there to enjoy the nice, cool water and to relax as they spend time with families and friends. One group of friends had just entered the sandy beach, most of them were happy and hoping to have a merry time with each other. This group consisted of two males and five females. They were all talking.

"Oh yeah?! Well at least I'm not flat-chested at twenty years old!" A blue-haired succubus known as Kurumu Kuruno snapped at a black-haired witch, Yukari Sendo.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!" Yukari snapped as she kicked Kurumu in the shin.

"Agh! You little-" A black-haired male, Tsukune Aono, stepped between them to try to break up the fight.

"Hey, hey, come on you two, we're here to have fun, not argue!" He said.

"She started it!" Both women said at the same time, pointing at one another.

"Some things never change." A pink-haired vampire, Moka Akashiya, sighed with a smile.

However, one of the females of the group, a young women with light purple hair and beautiful blue eyes that showed the misery and despair that clouded her heart. Her name was Mizore Shirayuki, a Yuki-Onna or snow woman, and her current disposition could be traced back to the day she turned 24 years old.

It had been six months.

Six months since Mizore Shirayuki had reached 24 years of age, and became unable to conceive a child.

She was upset, of course. At first, she thought it was because she had wanted to contribute to the preservation of her species. However, she eventually realized that the other females in her species had successfully given birth to more than a few strong, healthy children, so their species was safe for now.

However, when she watched her fellow snow women interacting with their children, she felt... bitter, jealous and angry. She didn't know why at first, but she soon realized...

She wanted a child. She wanted a little boy or girl of her own to love and cuddle and care for... but she couldn't.

Mizore looked around the beach, and felt a clench in her heart every time she saw a parent interacting with their child. She couldn't bear to watch it, and had to snap her head away every time.

Her friends all gave her a sympathetic look, then decided that they needed to distract her...

"Hey, everybody, let's go play volleyball, okay? Okay!" A black-haired werewolf named Gin said quickly as he pushed the group away from a nearby family and towards a spot they could play.

Mizore just sighed and walked a few steps away so she could set up the umbrella and towel. She sat down under the umbrella and looked around. The young woman saw a mother hugging her little daughter. Mizore's face fell, and she didn't notice that her friends were walking towards her after seeing that she was sad.

"What's wrong?" Yukari asked her with worry as she stopped right next to where she was laying.

Mizore didn't look at her, too busy wistfully staring at the woman and child interacting.

"...I want one..." She said softly.

Everyone looked at her in sympathy, knowing how much the fact that she can't bear her own children was affecting her. So without a word, Yukari bent over and hugged her long time friend. Then one by one Moka, Tsukune, Kurumu, Gin, and a witch named Ruby, the latter of whom gave her boyfriend Gin a scolding glare that basically said "Don't you dare try anything", hugged their sad friend.

The group wordlessly stayed in that pose...then, Yukari's eyes brightened and she smiled widely.

"Why didn't I think of this before?!" She exclaimed loudly, smacking herself on the side of the head.

"What?" Mizore said miserably.

"You can adopt a child!" Mizore blinked.

"A...dopt?" She said with a confused look. Snow women valued the few children they had, and there had never been a case where a child lost their parent, so the concept of adoption was foreign to her.

"That's a great idea, Yukari!" Tsukune agreed.

"I just feel stupid for not thinking of that." Kurumu said.

"Um...I'm sorry, but...what does "adopt" mean?" Mizore asked.

"You don't know what adopt means?" Moka asked. Mizore explained the whole "no child lost their parent in her village" thing.

"Oh, well adoption is when you take in a child that has nowhere else to go." Ruby explained.

'Adopt a child...and...raise it as my own...' Mizore questioned to herself as her eyes widened in excitement. 'I..still have a chance to be a mother.' Mizore thought while a smile grew on her face, liking the prospect of still being able to raise a child even though she could no longer bear one for herself.

She looked up to her friends, beaming with happiness. "Yes. I want to adopt a child." She told them.

They all smiled, happy that they were able to help a friend in need. "All right, I know a nearby orphanage. We can take a look at it tomorrow." Tsukune told her. Mizore smiled and rose to her feet.

"Yeah...thank you all for this. It means a lot to me." She admitted to them. The whole gang was happy that they had solved their friend's problem, and then decided to play volleyball for a while, not knowing that at this moment in a beach house not that far from the beach, Something horrible was happening.

Meanwhile...

Harry James Potter was amongst the most miserable children on the planet. He had never gotten to know his parents. He was bullied by his cousin. And he had been experiencing the full horrors of child abuse since the ripe, tender age of two.

The five-year old wizard was currently being held by the throat by his fat uncle.

"BURN OUR BREAKFAST, WILL YOU, FREAK?!" Vernon roared. "I'LL TEACH YOU!"

Harry gritted his teeth in preparation for the punch his uncle gave him to his already tender stomach from the kick that he earned from night before. After being punched a few more times, his uncle decided to be merciful today and didn't hit him again. He stormed over to a closet and threw him inside, then slammed it shut. "You stay in there until we get back from our nice trip to the beach. When we get back, you will make dinner and you better not mess up again you little freak or you'll be given no mercy." Vernon said maliciously as he locked the door.

The three Dursley's then got ready and left the house and headed towards the beach, leaving Harry behind to whimper in pain.

The little boy curled up into a ball, hugging his knees tightly against his chest. He didn't want to live with the Dursleys anymore...They hurt him, hated him and made sure he knew that nobody loved him.

But he wanted to be loved. He didn't want to be hated anymore. He wished someone would take him away, and take care of him and...love him...

Harry had to suppress the urge to cry because he would be punished if his relatives returned and found out he was crying. Crying would get him an even worse beating. So instead, he whimpered as he dreamed of being rescued from his horrible situation.

Back on the beach

For the first time in months, Mizore was happy and having fun. She was playing volleyball with Kurumu verses Moka and Tsukune. Ruby and Yukari were splashing around in the water while Gin was ogling them from the beach, drooling and snapping pictures while they were distracted.

Everyone was having such a nice time until they were interrupted by loud screaming. "I WANT ICE CREAM!"

"Ugh. What was that annoying sound?" Kurumu said in distaste.

"Is...that a walking beach ball or something?" Everyone looked as Gin pointed to a boy who did, in fact, look like a walking beach ball hanging around a bipedal walrus and horse. Aforementioned walrus and horse were currently in the midst of cheerfully walking to the nearest ice cream stand to buy the morbidly obese child an ice cream cone.

Everyone in the group cringed at how annoying the obese child is. "That child is annoying!" Moka commented to Tsukune, with him nodding in agreement.

"And his parents! How could they be alright with his behavior? Yukari asked out loud, with Kurumu scoffing.

"Whatever, that child is just a loud brat." Kurumu stated loudly, loud enough for Petunia to hear what she said and look back at her angrily.

"What did you say about my little, sweet Duddeykins?!" Petunia demanded as she stormed over and stopped inches from the the blue haired Succubus's face.

Tsukune's eyes widened, and he waved his hands nervously.

"Hey, come on now, we're not looking for any trouble-"

"No no no no no no no." Kurumu quieted Tsukune. She glared deeply into Petunia's eyes. "I said he was a brat. Wanna do something about it?"

"How dare you?!" Petunia screeched. "You better apologize right now!" Kurumu scoffed.

"Piss of, horse face."

Petunia gasped as Kurumu smirked. Then without warning, Petunia reared back her arm and open palm slapped Kurumu right in her face. Everyone that was present and saw this sucked in air with shock. Petunia was now the one that was smirking while Kurumu looked shocked. Then her eyes narrowed as she turned her head back to glare Petunia in the eyes.

Kurumu wasn't going to take that sitting down, so she wordlessly slapped back as hard as she could, causing the thin woman to stagger back. Petunia was shocked once more as she looked at Kurumu, then her eyes narrowed viciously, and she slapped the succubus again.

Soon, the two women were rapidly exchanging slaps, screaming and cursing at one another all the while.

"We...should probably stop them." Moka said as she went to try and interfere.

"Yeah, they'll end up hurting each other bad at this rate." Tsukune said, then made a move to step forward to stop them, only for Gin to stop him. Tsukune gave Gin a confused look

"Trust me Tsukune, you do not want to get in the middle of a cat fight...you might not make it back out." Gin said wisely.

Moka approached the two fighting women.

"Come on, now, you don't want to hurt each other, do-" She was interrupted as Kurumu accidentally slapped her, causing her to stumble back and fall. She ended up burying her head in the sand.

"Look what you made me do, you bitch!" Kurumu snapped as she punched Petunia in the stomach.

Petunia bends over in pain, but still willing to fight. "It's your own fault you blue bimbo."Petunia wheezed out, causing tick marks to form on Kurumu as she angrily shook with her eyes and fist closed.

"Oh, oh, oh! You're dead now, bitch!" Kurumu said as she was prepared to strike Petunia hard.

However, before she could do so, Yukari put her arm behind her back and summoned her wand. She then summoned two washtubs above both the angry women's heads. They dropped and made an audible clanging noise on impact, knocking both of them unconscious.

"Gee, where'd those come from?" The witch said, feigning innocence. Tsukune, Gin, Ruby and Mizore all gave her flat looks. Yukari looked away from them, whistling innocently.

"PETUNIA!" Vernon roared as he charged over to his unconscious wife. He glared at the group. "Who do you think you are?! What did you do?!"

"Nothing!" Gin raised his hands innocently. "Calm down, gramps!"

"GRAMPS?! WHY YOU..." Vernon took a deep breath. He looked at the washtubs. "Where the bloody hell did those come from?!"

"Dunno." Yukari said innocently. Vernon scowled.

"I know who's responsible for this, and he's not getting away with it!" And with that, the obese man cradled his unconscious wife and made his way back to their cabin.

They all watched as they left with the living beach ball waddling behind, complaining the whole time about not getting his ice cream.

"Well...that was definitely interesting." Ruby said with a raised eyebrow.

"At least they're gone now." Moka, having pulled her head out of the sand, said, happy that they wouldn't completely ruin their fun day.

"I could have taken her." Kurumu said, still dazed.

Mizore didn't say anything, remembering what Vernon said before they left. 'I know who's responsible for this, and he's not getting away with it!' Mizore recited in her mind, becoming worried. What did he mean by it? Who was 'He'?

She managed to catch a glimpse of the obese man's eyes, and she noticed that he was glaring at the cabin with a look of absolute hatred and fury in his eyes. She felt a chill go down her spine, and a sense of foreboding, like something awful was going to happen. Her gaze turned to one of suspicion as she watched the fat man enter the cabin, and then she managed to vaguely hear the beach ball speak.

"So we're gonna beat the freak, dad?"

Even from a distance, Mizore could hear him say, "Of course Dudders, the freak needs to play for this." before he slammed the door shut. Mizore knew that she couldn't just stand there while they could be hurting someone innocent. So she took off running while her friends started yelling after her.

"I'll be back! Don't worry!" She called back, not stopping.

The snow woman saw a nearby window, and hid in some bushes, then pulled out her favourite pair of binoculars. Looking into the spying tool, she looked through the window to see the fat man [the beach ball must have gone to his room] throw open a closet door.

Inside the closet was a little boy, and Mizore couldn't help but smile warmly at how cute he was. She hoped she could find a child like him at the orphanage the next day.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Vernon grab the boy by the throat, strangle him for roughly five seconds, and then slam his head against the wall three times, all while audibly yelling.

"HOW DARE YOU ATTACK PETUNIA WITH YOUR FREAKY POWERS YOU LITTLE BASTARD FREAK!" Vernon yelled as he threw him into the kitchen and slammed his head on the side of the table.

Mizore was shocked beyond belief as she witnessed such brutality, the kind of violence only the worst of monsters would use, and on a frail looking young child at that.

She wasted no time in dashing towards the door, freezing it and smashing through it to get inside. Despite him being busy harming the young child, Vernon heard the door being broken down and looked over towards the doorway to see something he never expected to see... a woman with ice hair, and bright, glowing white eyes glaring at him.

Vernon could only cower in a corner and hope she didn't kill him. Mizore gave him a glare before looking towards the child and seeing that he was still on the stovetop, burning. 'Oh dear God!' Mizore thought as she rushed over to him and got him off the stove. She slowly turned him to his stomach to see that his back was charred black with 3rd degree burns.

Harry flinched at the physical contact, his soft skin still tender from the burns.

Mizore shot Vernon a glare that quite clearly said "You are so dead", then looked down at the burns with a sad expression. She had to find a way to ease the pain...And she knew just what to do. Gently, she placed her hands on his back. He cringed at the pain.

"Shhh...It's okay." She whispered soothingly. She then channelled some ice into her hands, just enough to be cool, and used it to soothe the burns all along the little boy's back.

The pain from her hand making contact slowly subsided as coolness of her hand soothed his back. Before long, the pain was numbed enough for him to enjoy the first kind contact he had in years. When she saw that the pain was gone, she noticed that there was a lot of blood leaking out of his charred back. 'This is awful...He has to get treated soon or it'll get infected...' Mizore thought to herself in worry as she started to walk out of the kitchen before remembering Vernon was in the corner.

Mizore shot the obese man a glare, and with a quick flick of her wrist, he was almost instantly encased in a block of ice, blinking occasionally. She took a deep breath, and the ice that was covering the house began to melt. Without another word, she carried the little boy out of the house, holding him tightly against her chest to offer as much comfort as she could.

Harry was about to fall unconscious after the horrible injuries he had sustained. He weakly looked up at the woman carrying him.

'Sh-She's pretty...Why is she helping me...?' were his last thoughts before he drifted off into unconsciousness. Mizore stepped out of the beach house.

Mizore turned to glare at the cabin.

The rest of the group was still doing their beach activities, when they heard a noise. They looked over to see a massive pillar of ice spring up in the distance.

"...Oh, Mizore..." Tsukune shook his head as the group ran to see what was going on.

It only took them a minute to locate Mizore ,who was walking towards them.

"MIZORE! WHAT'S WITH THE ICE SHOW, HU-!" Kurumu started to yell until she was silenced by an ice kunai that pierced her head courtesy of Mizore, who looked at her in her normal, stoic expression. "Shut up loud mouth, you'll wake him." Mizore calmly said to her now downed friend.

"Mizore, you froze a cabin!" Moka scolded. "Are you trying to expose yourself?"

"It might thaw out eventually." Mizore shrugged.

"Why'd you freeze it, anyway?" Gin asked. Mizore frowned, and gestured to the little boy in her arms.

They looked at Harry in surprise because none of them realized that she was carrying a small child. Then they became horrified at the state he was in. "Wh-What happened to him?!" Tsukune asked, horrified by the fact that the child had severe injuries all over his body.

Mizore scowled. "You remember horse face, walrus and beach ball, right?"

"Of course." Kurumu said as she stood. "Hard to forget people as annoying as that."

"They're not just annoying, they're evil." Mizore all but spat. "The walrus was the one that did this to him."

All of them were shocked beyond belief at the evil that these people were willing to commit. All of them wished that they were able to get into the house so they could personally kill them themselves.

"Those evil assholes." Kurumu said softly as she shakily got up and removed the kunai from her head. "I knew I should have that killed horse-face bitch while I had the chance." She said before rubbing the spot that the kunai penetrated her head with a mutter of "you really need to stop that Mizore, they hurt."

Tsukune glared at the house for several moments, then adopted a serious expression.

"We need to get this guy medical attention right away." He said.

"Ooh! I know!" Yukari said enthusiatically. "I've been practicing my magic, and I managed to get the hang of my healing spells!"

"What!? I can't even get my healing spells to work properly!" Ruby moaned.

Yukari stuck her tongue out. "It was easy once you get the hnag of it." Yukari said jokingly before becoming serious and bringing out her wand. "Alright then, I'll start the healing spell." Yukari told them as she spinned her wand around until it glowed green. Then she pointed it at Harry, and the green aura shot at him and hit his injured back and head.

After a few moments of watching the magic, it started to take effect and heal his injuries. When the magic died out, it was revealed that it healed most of his injuries alright but there was still some remaining, though they were less serious then what was healed. It was this moment when Harry woke up.

Harry's eyes fluttered open, his vision blurry. He felt oddly comfortable. He was being held by something cool and soft and comfy...He snuggled closer into whatever was holding him, his eyes closed in content, at the moment unaware that a stranger was holding him.

'This is nice...I like this a lot...' Harry thought to himself in content. 'I don't even...hurt...anymore...' With that thought, Harry realized that he wasn't in pain despite what he just went through with the stovetop. Harry's eyes snapped open to see the pretty lady that he saw before falling unconscious.

Mizore was smiling widely at the little boy in her arms.

"Hi there." She said kindly. Harry realized he had been seen by a stranger. He was not supposed to be seen by anyone. Fearfully, the little boy began to struggle in the woman's grip, whimpering as he did so.

Mizore had to tighten her grip on him so he didn't fall and hurt himself. Her eyes were wide with concern as the others tried to calm him with words. 'How do I calm him down...?' Mizore thought to herself as she racked her brain for a solution.

Then she started to remember how, long ago, when she was upset, her mother would hug her and sing to her to calm her down. 'Hmm...Worth a shot...]Mizore though as she adjusted Harry so his head was over her heart and hugged him to her tightly. Then she started to hum a folk song that was popular in her village.

Harry slowly relaxed. She wasn't hurting him...She was being nice to him. It was better than he ever could have dreamed...Her hug was soothing, as was her song.

The little boy snuggled closer to the woman holding him...only to shiver, as her body temperature was unnaturally cold.

She frowned at the fact that her naturally cold body was causing Harry discomfort. "Hey guys, can I borrow one of your towels?" Mizore asked.

Tsukune stepped forward and offered his. "Here you go Mizore." Tsukune said as Mizore took his towel with a grateful smile.

"Thanks Tsukune." Mizore then quickly wrapped Harry in the Towel and placed him back in her embrace, only now he was warmer.

Harry smiled in content, feeling much more comfortable now that he was cocooned in a towel. He rested his head on the woman's chest, listening to the beating of her heart. The combination of her heartbeat and the soft lullaby made his eyes heavy. The little boy yawned cutely, then closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Mizore could only smile at the heartwarming moment. Then she started to feel something...something she never felt before. 'Is...Is this what being a mother feels like...?' Mizore thought to herself as she continued to watch Harry sleep. '...I love it.'

Everyone else gave each other knowing smiles as they watched Mizore interact with the little boy.

It looked like their snow woman had found the child she had always wanted.

And she couldn't be any happier.