Disclaimer: All rights to Harry Potter and its Characters belong to J. K. Rowling. I make no money with this story.

A/N: In this chapter Harrys childhood will be described and how he got to know Meridiana Black. I hope you enjoy the chapter and with no further ado have fun and R&R.

Chapter 1

"Wake up Freak! And make breakfast." Said an angry Voice from behind the closed door of the cupboard under the stairs. Harry slowly opened his emerald green eyes and put on the glasses his Aunt had bought him last month. He was now Seven years old and went to school for 2 years. Since he was four years old, he had to cook every day and make other chores like gardening or cleaning the house. Today was Saturday so at least he didn't have to go to school, instead he had to plant his Aunts flowers and weed the garden.

His Uncle Vernom unlocked the door of his cupboard and pushed open the door. Harry had to shield his eyes from the sudden light that came into his normally dark "room". But he could already feel Vernom glaring at him, so he stumbled out of the cupboard and made his way in to the perfectly clean and tidy kitchen.

He took out the needed ingredients and started making breakfast. It didn't take long, and he was finished and brought the food to the table, his Uncle was glaring at him, his Aunt refused to look him in the face and his cousin Dudley was probably still sleeping.

His Aunt handed him a slice of bread and a glass of water. "Eat it and then go out and weed my garden I want to have the best garden in the neighborhood! Understood?"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia" Harry said and went out of the room.

It took Harry hours to finally finish weeding his Aunts garden, it was probably already afternoon. But when he was, he put back the gardening tools and made his way to the nearest playground. It wasn't a big playground and there were normally no other kids around, but it was away from his "Family" and that was always a plus in his mind.

He sat himself on a bench that stood in the shadow of a big tree and tried to relax. His arms were Hurting from all the work and a bruise on his ribs that his Cousin Dudley gave him two days ago was aching too. After a while he was able to ignore his aching rips and relaxed for the first time in days. He could never relax while at school because Dudley and other classmates were always trying to do something to him. Sometimes, they would steal his schoolbooks and damage them or they would simply beat him, so he would come late to his classes.

Harry didn't know how long he simply sat there in the shadow of the big tree by the playground, but suddenly someone or something tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a scare. He jumped from the bench and promptly lost balance and fell to the ground.

Behind him he could hear soft laugher. "Probably Dudley or one of his Friends" he thought to himself. He just couldn't have one day were Dudley wouldn't find him he thought sadly.

Because he didn't want to get a beating from whomever scared him, he scrambled to his feet and looked behind himself to see from whom he had to run from today. But what he saw surprised him, standing there behind the bench was a thin girl with long black hair that reached just below her shoulders and grey eyes. He recognized her as one of the girls he went to school with, but he had never interacted with her. Not that he interacted with a lot of people and especially not with girls. She had one hand before her mouth and was giggling.

"Why did you sneak up on me?" He asked her hesitantly not comfortable with speaking to a stranger.

She just grinned at him. "Because I thought it would be funny."

"I don't go around and scare people just because its funny" Harry replied and crossed his arms before his chest.

"Well you don't go around and do anything to anyone. I have never heard you speak to anyone besides the teacher."

"Then you should know that I probably don't want to speak to you either. Don't you have something better to do?" He asked her with a glare that clearly meant "go away".

But she didn't seem impressed by his glare and walked around the bench and sat down. "I was bored, and you were the only one aside from Auntie Figg that I could speak with. So, are you going to tell me your name or are you going to stand there forever?"

Harry thought about just running away back to his cupboard and try to get comfortable there but he didn't want to deal with his Aunts disapproving glare and words, so he decided he could talk to her and tell her his name.

"My name is Harry Potter" He told her while offering her his hand.

She shook his hand. "My name is Meridiana Black"

Harry smiled at her shily. "I only ever saw you at school do you live here on Privet Drive?"

"No, I live on Wisteria Walk that's two streets away from here."

"I live in the 4rd house here on Privet Drive"

"I know I`ve seen you working in the garden a few times. Is that a hobby of yours?" Meridiana asked curiously.

"No, my Aunt always wants a nice garden and she doesn't have time to do it herself" Harry admitted reluctantly.

She smiled at him. "Its very nice of you to that for you Aunt."

Harry looked away from her and sighed. "Yeah nice of me… I am sure she thinks so too."

The girl looked at him strangely. "Well I don't like my Aunts cats either, but it makes her happy if I feed them"

"You live with your Aunt too?"

"She isn't really my Aunt she was just a good friend of my parents"

"Okay, so why do you live with her and not your parents?"

Meridiana suddenly looked sad and mumbled. "My mom was killed by an evil woman and I don't know what happened to my father"

"Oh, I'm sorry" Harry consoled her.

Harry tried to distract her. "I live with my Aunt because my parents died in a car crash."

The girl looked at him sympathetically. "We should stop speaking about sad things, tell me what you got for your last birthday."

Harry had to think about it because he couldn't tell her that he got nothing that would be bad, so he told her. "I got a remote-controlled play car." That was one of the 15 presents Dudley had gotten.

"That sounds nice, I only got a book with strange fairytales."

"You don't like books very much?"

"Its not that. I was just disappointed because I wanted a puppy."

"Didn't you say that your Aunt had cats?"

"Well yes but what has that to with it?"

Harry replied. "Cats and dogs normally don't like each other."

Meridiana insisted "My sweet puppy would never hurt anything"

Harry laughed at her and teased. "I'm sure your puppy wouldn't hurt anything but what about when it is grown up?"

The girl didn't seem to have an answer and glared at him. "Well I'm going home now." Meridiana stood up and started walking away.

Harry was still grinning at her and chuckled. "Well bye then perhaps we will see each other again"

She turned around and replied with a faint smile." If you want, we can sit beside each other in class if my best friend Sarah still be mad at me after the weekend."

"Okay"

"Bye Harry" She shouted happily while running out of the park.

Harry couldn't quite believe it. He had a conversation with someone without Dudley trying to intervene, it was nice. And it was the first time someone had said his Name with any positive emotion in their voice. He really hoped that Dudley won't find out about it or he would probably tell Meridiana that he was a freak and she never again speak to him like all the others he tried to befriend.

The next Monday Meridiana held true to her promise and sat beside him during class. He was glad to have someone to talk to and was even able to help her in Math class while she helped him understand English class better. After the school ended Dudley and two of his friends tried to catch him on the way to Privet Drive, but he was able to hide behind a bush while the three stupid boys ran past him.

And so, the weeks went by and Meridiana still sat beside him in school even after she made up with her best friend. When he asked her why she just laughed and told him that her best friend was even worse than her at Math and that it was great that he could help her with it and that he was good company. He had smiled widely at her then and said that it was only fair that he helped her with Math since she helped him in English class.

And while his chores and the low amount of food he got still annoyed him, it really helped to have someone to talk to after he was done with his chores. They always met at the playground were they first met each other at least thrice a week and talked about their days or did their homework together. And sometimes Meridiana brought the book she got as a birthday present with her. In it were stories about Wizards, Witches, Unicorns and Dragons.

It had been going on like this the whole summer and Meridiana had even given him a necklace out of flowers she made for him on his birthday. It was nothing special, but it was the first time someone made something for him so to him it was very special, and he had worn it until the flowers had dried out.

It was in the middle of August now and they were sitting together under the largest tree in the playground on Privet Drive. Meridiana was drawing something on a piece of paper and Harry was reading "Babbitty Rabbitty And Her Cackling Stump" a story in the Fairytale book Meridiana got for her birthday. But the peaceful atmosphere was shattered when Harrys Cousin Dudley and four other mean looking boys walked into the playground and made their way to the Tree Harry and Meridiana were sitting under.

"Hey Freak, we have not shown you your place for too long I think we need to teach you a lesson" threatened Dudley with a stupid grin on his face, while his companions nodded along with him and made threatening motions with their hands.

Were he alone Harry would have just run away, and he would probably have been able to escape them, but he didn't want to leave his friend Meridiana here alone with them and he knew she couldn't run as fast as him. He whispered to her that she should run away and stood up hoping to give Meridiana time to run away and give himself time to escape.

"Didn't you listen to our teacher Dudley, she said to teach someone a proper lesson you have to know more than them" Harry said to them trying to stall the confrontation.

"Let's see who's right then, eh?" One of Dudley's friends said as they started to advance on him.

Since Meridiana had run away now Harry himself turned around and started running only to crash into the chest of Piers, Dudley's best friend, and falling to the ground. When Harry looked up from the ground again, he saw that the five boys had surrounded him and were closing the circle around him now.

He didn't know the last time he had been completely at Dudley's mercy like this, but it had been years ago and since then he and his gang had only grown bigger, stronger and meaner.

The first one to kick him was Dudley and that seemed to be a signal since the other four started kicking him too then. It hurt but it wasn't the worst pain he ever endured at least that was until they rolled him over and started kicking him in the belly. He suddenly couldn't breathe anymore, and the pain was ten times worse than the one he got from being kicked on the back. He was slowly suffocating now because he couldn't get new air in his lungs and he struck his arms out in hopes that they would protect him from the kicks and wished that his tormentors would be pushed away from him.

Suddenly all the pain seemed to go away for a second as some kind of energy or force traveled trough his body and up his arms until it reached his hands. There was a sound similar to an explosion and a few startled cries and when Harry opened his eyes again and sat up his tormentors where easily 10 feet away from him and lying on the ground.

Dudley was the first to stand up and the others soon followed him and gathered behind his Cousin, but they didn't seem to have any interest in attacking him again instead they all looked at him in fear and then ran out of the playground. He liked that look in their eyes.

Harry stood up and went back to his Aunts house, he still had to clean the kitchen. And on the way home he contemplated how he had pushed five boys who where all stronger than him away with enough strength to throw them 10 feet. It wasn't the first time something strange happened around him when he wished for it, but it was by far the most extreme thing that ever happened.

I hope this was a good look into Harrys early life and the interactions between him and Meridiana were acceptable because I had a really hard time coming up with things seven/eight-year-old kids could talk about and they probably still speak way to clearly for their age, but I hope it was not too bad. Next chapter will be Harry and Meridiana exploring their Magic and using it to do things and in the chapter after that the real plot should start with them getting their Hogwarts letters.