Here's the next part of the story. Hope you enjoy.

I've written three chapters for the first two days of Harry and Millie's friendship, in which a few important circumstances take place. That's the first chapter, this chapter and the next, all of which are already written. After that, there will probably be four or so chapters relating their life before Hogwarts, before I go into their first year proper.

At the moment, neither Millie nor Harry knows about Harry's special status as the 'Boy-Who-Lived.' I will explain Millie's ignorance in a later chapter when they finally find out.

I already have plans on what will happen in their second year, which will show more differences from canon, but I'm not really sure how to change their first year in a reasonable way. Any suggestions would be welcome, though of course at this point it's a little early to be thinking of that.

Please read and review. I really want to know what you think of the story. If you have any problems at all with it, please tell me.

I'm not a seven year old, so if my characters are a bit more mature than they should be, tell me. I did try to point out their immaturity in a few places, but I don't know if it's enough. Still, I guess I can excuse their maturity on account of that they were both bullied for a long time and didn't really have any contact with their peers. That also explains their ability to interact with a member of the opposite gender, since they didn't have any peers to tell them about 'cooties' and all that.

Again, read, enjoy, and review.

Disclaimer: I own nothing…I see nothing…I know nothing of J.K. Rowling's work. (Courtesy of Sergeant Schultz—I'll give a Knut to anyone who recognizes the reference)

Millicent Bulstrode walked home from school that day in high spirits. She had just made a friend today! It was all she could do not to jump up and down and let out a whoop of joy that would carry all the way to Hogwarts.

In her previous three Muggle schools, each of which she had attended for a few months the previous year, she had never made a friend. It wasn't that she didn't try to make friends, or that she was a bully, though she was sometimes tempted to hit the other girls. There was just something about her that made people dislike her on sight, and something about others that made her not trust them. Perhaps it was her looks, for she knew she was not at all pretty like the other girls, or maybe it was that they could sense that she didn't trust them at all. Whatever the reason, she had never had a friend before.

And now she had one! Harry seemed much different than Millie, to be sure. He was small and rather scrawny where she was pretty big. He was certainly smarter than her, just as she was definitely more assertive. He had been bullied all his life, while she had long since realized that she could become a bully if she wished. She was a witch when he was a Muggle, though of course he had no idea about any of that.

And yet, they just seemed to be perfect friends. After only a day of knowing him, she felt like she had known him her whole life. Part of that was probably that neither of them had ever had a friend before, but it was more than that. It was also the ordeals they had shared together during the day. For her first day of school, it had definitely been exciting, though perhaps not in a good way. Despite that, she still felt it was the best day of her life.

First, of course, had been the fight in the school yard and the resulting punishment. She didn't really know why she had decided to stand up for the small boy when he had slammed into her running from that fat Dursley and his ratlike friend, but she had, and was happier for it. The punishment they had shared, even if it was humiliating to be forced to do dishes like a common house elf, had not been too awful. Then had come the classes, science and math, in which Harry's tormenter Dursley had teased the pair mercilessly. She had had a little trouble in the classes, just as she always did, but since it was their first day they hadn't had to learn much, fortunately.

After that had come lunch, when they had both been given more work to do. They had taken their lunch to a small corner of the cafeteria and ate and talked, before going to Miss Capon for their jobs. They had then proceeded to spend the rest of lunch hard at work in the kitchens, laughing and talking, if quietly, as they scrubbed more pots. This time, they had managed to finish four pots to Miss Capon' grudging acceptance, although she had rejected two more as being dirty.

Of course, another class followed, history this time, before the torment by that stupid Dursley was over. Of course, the shouting Harry had received from that dreadful Aunt of his for supposedly trying to get Dursley in trouble was no picnic either, but at least they had managed to get away from his relatives for the rest of the afternoon. Still, the Aunt seemed to blame Harry for that too, being mad that his Uncle would have to come and pick him up after school. But then Miss Capon had kept them only an hour after school, this time helping her wipe down tables in the main room of the cafeteria.

After that, Harry and Millie had hung out on the playground, acting like normal kids for the first time in their lives. They had nearly an hour of playing on the swings and laughing before Harry's Uncle had driven up and shouted for him to get in the car.

Millie frowned at that thought. She didn't really mind the bullying, especially now that she had a friend to share it, but having his family bully him? That was just awful. For all that her parents were often cold and unfeeling, Millie knew they never would dream of shouting at her in that angry, almost hating voice that Harry's Aunt had shouted at Harry with. Why would Harry's parents allow that? Come to think of it, Harry had spoken angrily about his Aunt and Uncle, but he had not even mentioned his parents to her during the hours they had spent talking.

Maybe his parents were just as bad to him? Millie couldn't really imagine any parents acting like that, but she supposed it was possible. Or, her imagination getting the better of her, maybe they were away all the time. Maybe they were dragon breeders like her Uncle Andre in Romania! Then they couldn't be home all the time and left him with his aunt and uncle.

But no, Millie thought, disappointed, that wasn't really possible. Harry was a Muggle, after all, and they couldn't be dragon breeders, since they thought that dragons didn't exist. She wondered if maybe there was a Muggle equivalent to a dragon breeder. Maybe an Oliphant master, she pondered, thinking of animals she had once seen in a Muggle zoo, or maybe a Gereff breeder?

Well, Millie thought, her face brightening, maybe Harry's parents were wizards. Then Harry was only pretending to be a Muggle because his aunt and uncle were. Then they could go to Hogwarts together in a few years! That would be brilliant!

Suddenly a shout from the shadowy perch of a house she was passing snapped her out of her pleasant daydreaming. "Hey, Bulltoad!" the voice jeered, "Where's your boyfriend the freak now, fatty?" It was a very unpleasant girl from school, who had started teasing her the moment she came to school. "Decided he doesn't like you? Does he realize what a failure you are and how ugly you are?"

With those words ringing in her ears, Millie lost much of the pleasant feeling she'd had all day, though she kept it from showing on her face. She just sneered back at the girl on the porch and didn't bother responding. She did walk a little faster to get past her insulter.

Still, the insults broke through her imagining and returned Millie to the real world. Harry was just a Muggle, after all, and when Millie left for Hogwarts, they'd both be alone again. She didn't want to think about that day, but she knew it was inevitable. Still, they'd have another three years before she turned eleven and got her letter.

In the meantime, she'd have fun with the first and only friend she'd ever had. Despite that stupid girl's words, she didn't think that Harry wouldn't like her anymore. Millie had always had a knack at reading people. She supposed that was one reason she'd never really tried to make friends before. But when she'd seen Harry running from those bullies, shooting a desperate look over his shoulder just before running into her, she'd known suddenly that he'd be a real friend.

She wouldn't be able to explain how she knew it, but she did know for sure and certain that they would help each other out. Her aunt, her father's sister who had dropped out of Hogwarts in her sixth year, had said it was a form of defensive magic. "Trust in those instincts," she had said, "and they'll serve you in good stead. My cousin, the one you were named for, made her way to Minister of Magic on those instincts, and hopefully they'll serve you just as well. And you'll need them, too, dearie. You're a half blood, and I have no doubt you'll be a Slytherin, so you'll have to be careful."

It was probably unusual that her instincts had blazed so fiercely over a Muggle, but Millie figured it was a side effect of being a half-blood, nearly a Mudblood, living amongst Muggles. Magic didn't usually work on non-magical folk, or if it did it was weakened as Millie's instincts usually were when at school, but this must be an exception.

Still, Millie thought over the girl's words again in her mind. She still didn't know why they had affected her so badly. She had already realized that Harry would be left behind when she went to Hogwarts, although she had tried to ignore that unpleasant fact. She also already knew that Harry wouldn't stop being her friend for no reason. Why then had the girl's shouts made her so angry, when she had always ignored them really well before? Maybe it was that she had insulted Millie's only friend too? Yes, that would explain it, for at the girl's calling Harry a freak, she had felt a surge of anger. Why that was, though, she still did not understand. Fortunately, her self-searching thoughts were cut off by the realization that she had arrived home. She pushed open the front door and walked inside.

From the outside, Number 23 Wilfram Road looked like any other house on the street. A small porch, a window on each side of the door, a balcony above with a door to the master bedroom—nothing looked out of place on the Muggle street. But the inside was another matter altogether. The entrance hall was lined with paintings, an unusual affectation but not remarkable. What set these paintings apart from the ordinary, however, was the fact that they moved, talking and eating as they travelled from picture to picture. A visitor would also have quickly noticed that the entrance hall from the inside looked far bigger than it possibly could. It seemed to be nearly as wide as the house itself, yet the visitor would easily see more rooms, and large ones at that, on either side of the hall.

Of course, that visitor would have to be a Muggle to find all of that in any way remarkable, for the seeming incongruity was a result of Expansion Charms. Any wizard or witch, on the other hand, would notice another thing that struck an equally jarring note. Everywhere there were signs that the Charms had been laid rather badly, what with the hallway abruptly narrowing at a few points and with the grand staircase to the upper stories seemingly encased in the walls, where if well placed the Expansion Charms would have kept them nearly ten feet from the staircase.

However, despite the mislaid Expansion Charms, the house was still rather impressive, with a large dining room, ostentatious if unused, as well as a smaller dining room for regular meals, a large kitchen adjoining both, a sitting room, and a huge library. The upstairs was less impressive and clearly showed the strain of weak Charms work, but still it held a huge master bedroom, a study for each of the older Bulstrodes as well as a smaller one for Millicent, and another library filled with appropriate reading materials, annexed to Millicent's room.

Of course, she wasn't very fond of reading, so that library was mostly unused, though she had on occasion browsed through it to find nasty jinxes. She could easily imagine using them on the pathetic girls in the schools she had gone to, and with a definite tinge of satisfaction. As a seven year old without a wand, it was impossible to actually do any of the curses, but it had been fun to look at the pictures and imagine some of her tormentors with rhino hide skin or with boils all over their faces.

As she walked through the door, Millie was greeted by the sight of her mother sitting in an armchair at the side of the hallway, obviously waiting for her. Millie gulped as she prepared for a confrontation she greatly dreaded.

"Good afternoon, Mother." Millicent dropped instinctively into courtesies to try to appease her mother. It didn't work.

"Millicent. What is this I hear about you getting into another fight like a common Muggle?" Although she was muggleborn herself, and her husband half-blooded, Millicent's mother was very contemptuous of Muggles. It may have had something to do with the shouting match that she and her Muggle sister had gotten into at their mother's funeral, though Millicent wasn't sure.

"Mother, I was protecting a friend."

"Millicent, do not lie to me. You have left your previous schools because you were unable to make friends. I hardly believe this school is any different. I am beginning to think that the chances of you ever learning to work hard on your schoolwork are no longer worth the bad habits you are learning at these Muggle schools."

"But Mother," Millie pleaded, "I promise I'll work hard and get good grades and try to stay out of fights now." She was desperate not to be pulled out of school just when she had made her first friend ever.

The older Bulstrode looked at her daughter suspiciously for a moment. "The last two schools you were eager to leave. What has changed, Millicent?"

"Mother, I told you already. I made a friend now." Millicent was getting more and more desperate.

"I find that rather unlikely." She looked at her daughter severely. "Now, Millicent, tell me the true reason you desire to remain at that Muggle school."

"But Mother, it's true." Millicent thought frantically to find a way to prove it to her disbelieving mother. How about… "See, Mother, here's the note Mr. Reilly wrote. It mentions Harry in it."

Millicent's mother took the proffered paper and read it through quickly. Millicent watched carefully, looking for a reaction. The reaction came, to be sure, but she was surprised by its intensity and the form it took. At first her mother had just skimmed it quickly, muttering to herself about Millicent's stupidity. Then, about halfway through her perusal, she had suddenly stiffened and Millicent grew very suspicious of the predatory look in her eyes. She went back to the top and read it through slowly, and when she had finished there was a rather satisfied look on her face.

"Millicent, you say your friends name is Harry?" At Millicent's nod her mother looked even more satisfied, enough so that the girl began to get rather nervous. "Well, get your father from his study! This is interesting news. Good job, Millicent."

Millicent scurried upstairs, thinking the whole way. Obviously, her mother had seen some advantage from that note, but what she could not see. She had asked about Harry's name, so maybe he was related to someone important? Whatever it was, Millie would be sure to let him know to be wary around her parents. Now that she had a friend, she didn't want him being used.

At the door to her father's study, she carefully knocked twice on the oak door post.

An irritable voice floated out. "Yes, what is it?"

"Father, Mother wants you downstairs."

"Why?" the voice asked, annoyance coloring it.

"She did not say, Father."

"Very well." The study opened and Millicent's father stomped out. Unlike her mid-sized mother, her father was clearly the source of Millicent's bulk. The half-blood had the broad shoulders and muscles of a fantastic Beater, though it had long since turned to fat. At one point he had been the reserve Beater for the Chudley Cannons, slated to start within a few years. But then with the rise of You-Know-Who, professional Quidditch teams had begun to drop players who were not pureblooded, leaving Antoine Bulstrode out of work and embittered. He had managed to scrape by, and even made enough Galleons to get this house, but the humiliation of his travail had never left him.

Millicent quickly followed her father down the stairs, deftly skipping a step where the failing Expansion Charm had created an unfortunate buckle, and returned to the sitting room where her mother was already sitting.

"Millicent, sit over there and wait a few moments. Your father and I will want to ask you a few questions."

Millicent obeyed as her father, still irritated, asked her mother what it was all about. The pair began whispering quietly, and Millicent's father grew more and more interested as the conversation went on. Finally, they straightened and gave Millicent an imperious gesture to come to them.

Millicent stood up straight before them, refusing to let either her curiosity or her anxiety for Harry escape to her body language.

"Now, Millicent, we are going to ask you a few questions about your new friend, Harry." She nodded to her father, wondering what they were plotting. "Firstly, does your friend have any distinguishing marks about him? A birthmark, perhaps, or a scar?"

Millicent nearly shook her head no, before she remembered. When they had been scrubbing a particularly large pot at lunch, Harry had bent down and the hair had fallen down from where it normally lay. Millie remembered seeing a scar, and she had asked him about it.

"Yes, Father. He has a scar from a car crash as a baby." Millicent thought about the conversation, and realized that Harry had been very reluctant to talk about the car crash. She wasn't sure exactly what a car crash was, but maybe his parents had been killed or injured by that? She supposed it was a reasonable explanation, but wondered why his aunt and uncle would be so awful to an orphan.

In the meantime, Millicent's response had exacted a great reaction from her parents. Her father had looked rather disappointed at the news about his scar, but her mother looked even more excited than she had before.

Millicent's mother was practically rubbing her hands together in glee as she asked her own question. "This scar…where is it and what does it look like?"

"It's like small lightning bolt on his forehead, Mother. Like this." Millicent traced a vague imitation of his distinctive scar on her own forehead.

If her previous answer had caused a sever reaction, this answer floored them. Her mother gasped, her smile so wide and so predatory as to cause fear in Millicent's stomach. Her father simply looked like a troll had hit him with a Beater's Bat and then shoved him off the top of a Quidditch hoop.

Excitedly, Millicent's mother asked another question. "And Harry … have you seen anything … odd … happen around him when he's angry or scared?"

"Like accidental magic?" Millie asked, too excited by the prospect too think about her parents' odd questions. "Harry's a wizard too?" She practically shouted in her excitement.

"Decorum, Millicent," her father barked. "Now, answer your mother's question."

"Sorry, Father. No, Mother, I have not seen any." Millicent responded, chastised and more subdued.

"And his grades? Is he smart?" her father asked.

Millicent responded with a certain measure of pride. "He's really, really smart. He helped me loads in science today. We just started today, though, so I don't know about his grades."

"What kind of boy is he, Millicent? Is he arrogant at all?" Millicent's mother asked, only to be interrupted by her husband.

"It doesn't matter. Millicent, I believe that your friend may in fact be a wizard like us. However, we cannot be certain until he does accidental magic. Until then, act as you have thus far, but when he does do magic, you may tell him about our world."

"You mean I can go back to school with Harry?" Millie asked, showing her excitement again.

"Decorum!" When Millicent calmed down, her mother continued. "Yes, Millicent, please try to keep up. For now you will return to school."

Millicent thanked her parents profusely, but she couldn't help but wonder what they were up to and how it affected Harry. They had asked some very odd questions about him and his scar, and she wondered how they had come to the conclusion that Harry was a wizard too. She would be sure to tell him everything, including her parents' odd actions and questions, because she would not let anyone harm her new friend. She was somewhat worried by their predatory expressions, as well as how easily they had decided to let her return home. And her mother's question … why would Harry of all people be arrogant? He was bullied by his own family, for Merlin's sake!

Despite all of that worry for her new friend, she was still absolutely ecstatic, and couldn't wait until she saw Harry doing accidental magic and could tell him about the wizarding world. He would be going to Hogwarts with her! She could scarcely believe her luck.

That night, she fell asleep with dreams of going to Hogwarts and playing with dragons and fighting monsters with Harry by her side. She slept with a smile on her face that night.