I owns nothing *sigh*, but Marley my OC.

Please enjoy!

Harry Potter had always been an unusual child. Sometimes, without meaning to, he would make things happen. On this particular day, with a shadowy overcast of grey clouds, Dudley, Harry's beefy cousin, had taken his workbook and scribbled all over it. Now Harry had nothing to color because all of his creations were ruined. Dudley always tried his best to make Harry angry. So really, it was not Harry's fault that all of Dudley's crayons had mysteriously broken. Really, it was all stupid Dudley's fault, but Ms. Walker thought differently and made Harry give all his crayons to Dudley and then sent him to wait outside of the classroom as punishment. So now, Harry had no pages to color and no crayons to color with.

Outside of the classroom, he sat and fumed silently, caught up in his thoughts that he did not hear the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Why are you sitting all by yourself?"

Harry's head snapped up to find a young girl with wavy red hair and greyish-shiny eyes staring at him with a cocked head.

"I got in trouble."

At first, Harry thought that the girl would shrug her shoulders and leave, but much to his surprise, she laughed.

"Oh yea? Me too, I got angry because Marcus said that I couldn't play with him since I was a girl. So I punched him."

Harry's eyes widened, feeling as if he were facing another Dudley at the moment. Hopefully she wouldn't punch him!

The girl grinned at Harry, "You're that boy who always sits in the corner of the school yard right? Dudley's brother?"

Harry felt heat go to his cheeks at her proclamation; he did not now that he was being watched.

"We are cousins actually. He likes to pick on me."

The girl let out a low whistle eyeing Harry's scrawny body up and down. "Did you deserve it? Why are you out here?"

Guilt made its way into his belly and he scratched his head sheepishly, "I mean, most of the time I don't. He thinks I'm a freak. I broke all his crayons today by accident after he colored all over my colouring book."

The girl pursed her lips, "I love colouring books."

Harry laughed, feeling a lot better all of a sudden. He outstretched his hand and the girl took it in a surprisingly strong grip.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter. What is your name?"

"Marlene Black," the girl, Marlene paused. "Does this mean that we are friends now?"

Harry nodded thoughtfully; even though he had just met her, he had never had a friend before.

"Oh great!" Marlene grinned, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I've never had a friend before; this is my first week here."

That is why Harry had never seen the girl before, most of the kids lived in the area, and most of the kids were Dudley's friends and therefore Harry's enemy.

"Where did you come from?"

Marlene frowned, "St. Westfallen's home for girls, before that I was in Foster care."

"What happened to your parents?" Harry blurted out before he could stop himself. A dark shadow passed across Marlene's face before she shrugged her shoulders innocently, she didn't know why she decided to talk to the boy, and perhaps it was because he wanted to be her friend. She had never had a friend before. She moved far too often to make friends, and when she did, they left as soon as they found out what she could do.

"I dunno. Christie told me that kids only end up in the orphanage when their parents don't want them. But in my old orphanage, before Foster care, there was a girl whose mom loved her, but couldn't keep her because she had no money. I bet that my parents are out there somewhere."

Harry sent Marlene a sympathetic look, he had never been in an orphanage, he vaguely wondered if it would be better than living with the Dursley's, but he dismissed the idea immediately at Marlene's expression. "My parents are dead," he offered instead.

It was Marlene's turn to send Harry a sympathetic expression, "Is that why you live with your cousin? It must be nice having a family."

Harry chuckled bitterly, the Dursley's been what he would call family; except by blood.

He was about to open his mouth to voice his opinion of his family when a teacher yelled out Marlene's name. She sent him an apologetic smile, waving at him as she spun around, "hey, maybe I dunno if you would want to. But we should hang out, that that we are friends and all."

Harry felt himself grin as he watched red hair fly down the hallway like a butterfly. It made him so happy that he finally had a friend, when the teacher finally called him back into the classroom, he even apologized to Dudley.