A/N: Hey everybody! Yay! My first fic! Read on, and tell me what you think! Flames are welcome, just please tell me specifically what you didn't like.. Thanx and enjoy!

New Neighbor

Chapter 1

"Kira, I really need you to finish unloading your boxes, dear. Your aunt and uncle will be here tomorrow, and I don't want your room looking like you're moving out!" said Mrs. Sanden from the doorway.

Her mother went back downstairs and a very grumpy Kira left the comfy armchair in the corner and began lugging a box containing her precious things out from under her bed.

Even though the Sanden's had lived in their new house for almost two weeks now, Kira still hadn't finished moving into her new room. It wasn't as though Kira Sanden was reluctant to settle into her new home, but now that she and her family had arrived at their new home in Little Winging, she still didn't feel any sense of satisfaction. All her life Kira had felt out of place, as though she stuck out like a sore thumb. When her parents had announced that they would be moving, she had been excited! She had hoped that for just once in her life, she would feel like she belonged. No such luck.

The new neighborhood was so stuffy! Every house was the same, all lined up in a row. Perfectly manicured lawns, newly washed cars in the driveway. The people were polite, but seemed judgmental and distant.

Kira had been adopted when she was an infant, and so her unnatural appearance most likely did not help her acceptance into the snobby and oppressive neighborhood. Her hair was the most shocking tone of honey-blonde, which she had attempted to dye black, brown, or any color for that matter that would help tone down the striking color of her hair. She had tried multiple times, though every time she tried, it never worked. Somehow, the black dye seemed to fade away only a few hours after she finished coloring it. Her eyes were also what everyone in her new neighborhood would call, "abnormal." Her eyes were an exaggerated almond shape, with extremely long, full lashes. Her pupils were quite large, and oval-shaped. The coloring in her eyes was a shocking shade of purple, with small blue specks.

No doctor had ever been able to determine why in the world her appearance was so shockingly different. Doctors had attempted to find out about her birth parents, thinking that they could find some sort of explanation, but oddly enough, all records of her birth parents were missing or had been erased for some reason.

Kira sighed as she opened up the box, and saw that it contained various school trinkets, yearbooks, and old photos. The photos were of a mixture of relatives and past events, such as birthday parties and various family gatherings, none of which involved her with any friends. Kira was almost 17, but had always been considered a social outcast amongst the students of her old high school. Her odd looks and disinterest in every school subject didn't help either. She simply found no fulfillment in learning algebra or researching WWII. She did, however, have a passion for music and dance. Kira could simply dance for hours in her bedroom! Hip hop, ballet, jazz, the list went on and on. Too bad a high school student couldn't receive decent grades with just music-related grades alone, or Kira would have excelled in school.

She finished unloading the box onto her shelves, quickly changed into a white camisole, black workout shorts, and tennis shoes, and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. She went downstairs to find her mother putting some unidentified object, which would probably end up being dinner, in the oven. There was just one thing people needed to know before having dinner at the Sanden's, Kira's mother was a horrible cook. Though she was such a kindly woman, that Kira and her Dad simply put up with the new experiments and odd lumps Mrs. Sanden made, and silently hoped one day, her mother would follow a recipe correctly.

"Mum, I think I'll take a little run down to the park."

"Alright dear, but please be home before dinner, I really think it's going to be scrumptious tonight!" her mother said excitedly.

"I'm sure, Mum," Kira answered before grabbing her water bottle and heading out the door.

If there was anything Kira appreciated more than music and dance, it would have to be running. Running was a way for Kira to ignore social problems at school and get in touch with her self. Not to mention it kept her body firm and fit, and kept her skin a nice golden tan, due to all the time in the sun.

She took off at a slow jog from her #9 Privet Drive home, and picked up pace as she ran down the street. The park was a few blocks down the road, just the perfect distance for her to relax and enjoy the peaceful evening.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Better watch it Potter," Dudley hissed, "We don't care what you can do with that little stick of yours, 'cause we got these!" Dudley pointed to his big burly arms as if indicating he had some sort of muscular strength amidst all the fat covering his body.

Dudley's cronies grunted as if in agreement.

"Oh my! Well in that case, I guess I really do have reason to be scared, don't I?" Harry said sarcastically, "Unless of course you do not comprehend the minute quantity of intellectual intelligence within your brain, in which case you would not be capable of grasping the fact that I, in fact, could effortlessly thwart your tactics to pummel myself by merely running away. You, my dear cousin, with all the excess obesity on your massive body, would not be able to follow, because, of course, you resemble the likes of an rotund cow."

Dudley and his friends blinked stupidly at Harry, before deciding amongst themselves that instead of deciphering what he had just said, they could instead just beat his brains out. As they turned to Harry, they realized he had already gone, and was a good quarter-mile across the park.

"ARGH!!!" bellowed Dudley and began running-- er-- waddling after his cousin.

But before they could even see what was happening, Harry had moved out of their line of vision and had simply moved on to enjoying his quiet walk in the park.

After having returned from Hogwarts a few weeks prior, long walks in the park were the only way Harry could sort out his thoughts. What an insane year it had been. Voldemort had been defeated, thanks to Harry and the Order, and the wizarding world had begun to continue life without the constant threat of the Dark Side. There had been much rejoicing, but Harry had been almost thankful when Dumbledore had sent him to live with the Dursley's for the summer rather than the Burrow. Even though he knew he should probably feel so proud, honored and good about himself, he didn't. He felt lost. After Sirius fell behind the veiled curtain in the Ministry of Magic in his 5th year, he'd never felt complete. He never had anyone to turn to, to confide in. Of course he had Ron and Hermione, but no one to truly love and care for. Sirius had been like a father to him. Without him, Harry felt so alone all the time.

As he rounded a corner near the playground, he was suddenly jarred out of his wary thoughts. There stood a girl with the most stunning honey-blonde hair he had ever seen. She had her back to him, and was apparently stretching out her legs using a bench. From the side, he could tell she had quite a nice body, very shapely and thin. He was rather surprised because he had rarely ever seen anyone around his age on Privet Drive before besides Dudley and his cronies, and certainly not a good-looking one at that. He walked up to the girl, who had finished her stretching. She appeared to have heard him approaching, and turned around.

"Um, hi. I'm Har--" Harry said, stopping mid-sentence. The girl's eyes startled him for a second, as they were huge, oval-shaped, and-- well, purple!

Harry quickly shook his head, realizing he WAS trying to introduce himself, and said, "Hi, I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

XXXXXXXXXX

Having heard someone approaching from behind, Kira turned around quickly and saw a young man talking towards her. He had on rather shabby looking clothes, but not too bad. He was very tall and thin, with extremely messy black hair, which stood up at all different angles. He was not at all unsightly, in fact, his looks weren't half bad. He had on rather peculiar glasses though, and Kira noticed a very strange looking scar on his forehead. It resembled a lightening bolt.

She took note of his mishap at introducing himself, and she knew it was obviously because of her eyes. However he recovered rather quickly, which she was thankful for, and introduced himself nicely.

"Hello, I'm Kira," she replied.

"I uh, haven't seen you around here at all… Are you new? Just moved here?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, we moved into #9 a couple weeks ago."

"Oh cool," Harry said. But as soon as he opened his mouth to say more, they heard a gruff, "There he is!" from behind Harry.

Harry whirled around, recognizing the voice, and saw to his disgust his cousin Dudley, followed by his loyal band of neighborhood bullies.

"Oh my gosh, run!" Harry yelled to Kira. At first she thought he was frightened, but when he looked up at him, he had a grin on his face.

"C'mon," he told her, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the playground.

They ran through playground quickly, stopping only once to laugh as Dudley's friend Jed tripped clumsily over a step.

It was quite fun to Kira, running away from a band of extremely fat boys, with the biggest one in front waving his arm after them like a baton and yelling, "GET EM!!!" After a little while, Kira and Harry were still running, and Kira was surprised that such portly guys could chase after them for so long. When they reached some trees, Harry quickly jumped into the bushed, dragging Kira along with him. He put his finger to his lips and they waited for about a minute until they heard a big huffing and puffing Dudley run right past. A minute later and they both burst out laughing.

"Who was that?!" Kira giggled.

"Just my ole cousin Dudley," Harry replied, "Kinda ticked em off earlier when I foiled their plans of beating me up. Don't worry, as long as you can run, he'll never catch you, too much extra weight." Harry winked at her, then laughed.

Kira suddenly realized how close she was sitting to Harry and quickly stood up. She then also remembered what her mother had said to her.

"Oh no, I better get going, I'm supposed to be home for dinner any minute." She said hurriedly. Harry stood up, brushed off his pants and together they started off towards the street.

"Hey that was quite fun, if I do say so myself," Harry said, "Are you doing anything tomorrow by chance?"

"Um, no, I'm sure we can get together to hang out," Kira replied, "How bout at noon? I have something planned tomorrow evening."

Harry grinned. "Great! Until tomorrow then."

"Yeah, gotta run though!" Kira said, mentally reminding herself she was supposed to be at dinner RIGHT now. "Bye!"

She took off running towards her house and when she glanced back, Harry flashed her a smile and waved. As she continued on, she felt an odd feeling. Acceptance? Maybe, but the thought that surprised her the most was that she didn't feel like she blew another chance for a friend. It was the first time she felt… well, good around someone her own age.

'Well Mr. Harry Potter, maybe this neighborhood won't turn out that bad after all,' she thought and with the quick memory of his genuine smile in her mind, she continued running towards her house.

A/N: So did you absolutely hate it? Sorry, not much happened in this chapter, but I had to give some background on them and have them meet each other. Don't worry I'll explain why she looks different… and by the way, the story is supposed to start at the beginning of summer after Harry's 6th year. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!!!!