Sorry this took a little longer. I have exams right now, so I didn't have a lot of time to type this up. As it happens, I actually had this chapter, and the next, written out, but I had to copy it from paper onto the computer. Yes, in case you ask, I do actually write my stories in pen.
Anyway, just one more exam left until school's over until after New Years.
Thank you for the reviews, and for all the people who put a story alert on it. I hope to be able to write a lot more of this.
In response to goldenfightergirl, I believe that Millicent Bulstrode is actually a half-blood according to canon. I haven't actually read the J.K. Rowling interviews where I understand a lot of background information is imparted, but that's what I understand second-hand.
Of course, I think I've diluted her blood a bit, making her the product of a half-blood and a Muggleborn. I think that if anything her parents would be a half-blood and a pure-blood, or maybe two half-bloods in canon. However, I couldn't very well have her go to a Muggle school in that case, could I? So, I've diluted her blood so she's very nearly a Mudblood, and added a bit of back story to justify her wanting to be in Slytherin. I haven't stated the reasoning behind that, or even the fact that she wants to outright, but if you read between the lines you can see a bit of the reasons.
To Penseln, thanks. I like stories where neglected characters are fleshed out a bit, and this is my attempt at one like that. It's a bit of an unconventional pairing, obviously, but I think it should be interesting. Anyway, I really don't like it when people decide to do a fanfiction starting in fifth year with a random relationship with a random character. Instead, I've decided to give a fairly unknown character a chance with Harry, but I'd like to think it's a far more reasonable and interesting one.
Anyway, enough with my ranting, on with the story.
Disclaimer: In case you haven't realized already, I'm not J.K. Rowling.
When Harry Potter returned to school the next morning, he did so in great spirits. This was not dampened by his Uncle's yelling, or his sorely reduced meals, or even by Dudley's constant hitting in the car. He had a friend! Of course, Harry was careful not to show his excitement to his relatives, who would only punish him, but he was absolutely ecstatic.
The moment the car stopped, Harry grabbed his bag, one with a broken strap that Dudley had used two years before, and ran out to the school. He soon saw Millie sitting on a wooden picnic bench out on the playground. He ran nearly all the way to her perch before stopping.
What if she doesn't like me anymore, he thought, what if she found another friend, one who's not a freak like me? He walked cautiously over to where Millie was sitting, looking at her hopefully.
He broke out into a sigh of relief when Millie, seeing him, grinned wildly and beckoned to him.
"Hi Millie," he said as he approached, sitting next to her on the bench.
"Hi Harry!" Millie looked happier today than the day before. As the day had gone on, she had become more and more worried, though their playing after school had seemed to break some of her gloom. Now, though, she looked in a much better mood.
"What happened?" he asked curiously, "you look happier today."
"Yeah! My father and mother said I could stay in school. They were this close to pulling me out and homeschooling me." She held her thumb and index finger less than a centimeter apart.
"Why would they do that?" Harry asked, appalled. "They won't pull you out now, would they?" Harry was frightened beyond measure at the thought of losing his new friend.
Millie smiled, revealing a chipped tooth. "Don't worry, Harry. Now that I told them I had a friend they said I could stay." Her face darkened for a moment and she looked like she was about to say something, but she shook her head and instead pointed to the wooden table. "Look at that, Harry. Isn't it cool?"
Harry looked to where she was pointing and saw a spider about the size of his thumb with its legs stuck in some spilled honey. It was surrounded by ants, who apparently decided that the spider would make a good meal. Harry watched as the ants crawled up its legs while it flailed in vain to get out of the trap.
"Yeah, it's really wicked!" Harry said. He watched the spider as it managed to pull one of its legs out of the honey and flick away some of the ants. "Look at that. It's brilliant!"
"But it's still stuck, isn't it? No point in being so much bigger if it's gonna get itself stuck, is there?" Millie asked.
"I guess so. But it still is really cool."
"Yeah. Hey, look at that ant." They watched as the ant Millie pointed out stuck its feelers in the honey and began walking in circles. The pair of friends giggled at its antics as they watched.
Their fun was spoiled, however, by a loud bell summoning the students for the beginning of the day. Millie and Harry hurried inside to a classroom, ready to face another day of torment and boredom.
Their first class passed peacefully enough. Of course, Dudley had fun throwing pencils at Harry's head, which the teacher willfully ignored, but besides that normal occurrence it was fine. Harry didn't really pay attention to the lesson anyway, because he knew that if he did he'd get a better grade than Dudley. That would only result in punishment, so he usually just ignored the teacher and daydreamed. Now, though, he had fun watching his friend in class. Millie was trying and failing to pay attention. She would listen to the teacher drone on about French, then slowly her eyes would glaze over, and then she would shake herself and start again. Harry found it quite entertaining, which earned him a glare when they walked back outside.
"It's not funny!" she said. "If I don't do well enough, mother might pull me from school. Learning how to pay attention and work is the only reason she sent me to," she hesitated a moment, "school here. Besides, you aren't even trying to pay attention."
Harry was worried by the thought that she might be pulled out of school, but ignored the thought for a moment. Rather than asking about it, he explained why he never paid attention. "I can't work hard cuz if I do, I get punished for getting a better grade than Dudley."
To Harry's surprise, for he felt that it was the natural order of things, Millie grew angry at that and began walking to Harry's fat cousin. He pulled her back and asked what she was doing.
"I'm going to beat that fat pig up," she swore, her eyes blazing in anger. "You are so much smarter than me and it's not fair that you can't get good grades just because your cousin's an idiot."
"No, Millie," Harry pleaded. "If you go beat him up, you'll just get in trouble with the teachers. Then Dudley will tell Uncle Vernon it was me and I'll get in trouble too."
At that Millie looked even angrier for some reason, but she relented and didn't attack Dudley, though she obviously wanted to.
Harry, trying desperately to distract Millie from her thoughts of vengeance, pulled her over to the wood bench where they had sat before. "What did you say before about being pulled out?" He asked.
Millie still looked slightly angry, but answered his question. "Oh yeah. If I don't get good enough grades, my mother might decide it's not worth it for me to come to school anymore."
"What?" Harry asked, frightened by the thought. "Is that going to happen, do you think?" He desperately hoped she would say no.
"I don't know," Millie replied, looking unsure. "I would have said it would definitely happen before I met you, but I think my mother has decided to let me stay now that I have a friend. Unless I get really bad grades, I mean really bad."
Harry replied. "We'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen." Harry knew he could help Millie with her work. He was a bit worried about being punished for getting good grades, but it would be worth it to keep his friend in school.
Millie brightened at that, and was about to respond when the pair was rudely interrupted. Dudley and Piers, along with two other kids, were making their way over to them. Dudley's waddling would have been funny if he hadn't had a very mean expression on his face, which his gang matched.
"Hey, look Piers. It's the Freak and the Bulltoad!" he called.
"Yeah," Piers responded, "I guess weirdoes flock together."
Millie looked like she was going to respond to their taunts, but Harry shook his head at her. "Dudley wants us to fight back so we can get in trouble again."
Harry's friend obeyed his words and turned back to the wooden table with him. Dudley, however, had other ideas. He walked to their bench, his gang following closely behind. Harry stood up, trying to pull Millie with him to run away from the bullies.
She had begun to follow him when Dudley called out, "Scared, are you, Bulltoad?"
This became the first time in Harry's life up to that point when he stood up to his cousin. He couldn't very well let the bully taunt his first ever friend, could he? This was a turning point in Harry's life, though it didn't seem it at the time. This was the time when he stopped being a passive victim of Dudley's bullying and taunts. From that time on, he stopped running away, and started fighting back.
Still, his first defiance took the form of a simple scornful comment: "She isn't the coward, Dudley. You are."
Harry felt his innards tremble at his foolishness and he knew he would be punished for it. Still, he stood his ground as Dudley stared in stupid incomprehension at him. "What?" Dudley asked, unused to Harry standing up to him. "I'm going to get you for that, freak."
Dudley rushed at Harry, his fists raised. Harry got ready to take the blow or run away, but his decision was interrupted by a blur in front of his vision. Millie had rushed at Dudley, pushing him away from Harry. Dudley pushed back, and Piers, faithful as always, pushed Millie from behind, making her stumble and nearly fall.
At that sight, Harry did another thing he had never done before; he physically attacked Dudley. He ran over to the spot where Millie was trying to stay up between Dudley and Piers and rushed at his cousin.
"Stay away from her!" he shouted, surprised again by his newfound courage.
Of course, that courage did him no good, as one of Dudley's other friends, who until then had stayed out of the fray, punched him in the stomach. Harry curled up and, barely staying on his feet, began grasping desperately for breath. However, despite the pain, he still managed to force himself back up and push at Piers as he tried to hit Millie from behind. Millie was grappling with Dudley, and Harry could see that she seemed to have the upper hand, despite Dudley's greater bulk. Dudley almost never had to deal with people actually fighting back, and was unused to physical exertion. Of course, that did not help Harry when the fourth bully kicked out his legs, leaving him spitting out wood chips as his stomach lay on the ground. Millie joined him there a moment later when Piers finally managed to pull her off of Dudley.
The two friends, lying on the ground as they were surrounded by Dudley and his gang, began to feel shoes hitting their arms and legs. They vainly tried to protect themselves, but they continued to receive blows on their entire bodies.
They finally received rescue of a sort from Mr. Reilly, though just as the time before it was not much of a rescue. He took one look at the scene, with the two dirty students on the ground surrounded by four larger boys and quickly made his decision.
"Mr. Dursley, what did Mr. Potter and Ms. Bulstrode do this time?" he asked, scorn coloring his voice.
Dudley quickly thought of a lie to tell. "Well, sir, me and my mates were just walking along. Then Bulltoad over there decided to attack us with no warning at all, and the Freak followed her."
Millie looking vengefully at the fat boy as she spat a small wood chip from her lip, asked "Why were we on the ground, then, eh Dursley?"
"Well," Piers responded, "they tried to slide tackle us, and we were just about to start walking away when they began kicking at us. Then you came, sir."
"Ms. Bulstrode, I am ashamed of you. Attacking another student without warning! You will be working in the cafeteria every day at lunch for the next three weeks. Mr. Potter, for following her bad example, you will be there with her for the first two weeks." He looked back gleefully as the pair stared in disbelief. "In addition, for trying to lie to a teacher, Ms. Bulstrode, you will also be held two hours after school today to think on your actions."
Harry very rarely got angry. He was so used to being treated unfairly that it was not worth getting upset over anymore. Normally, he would have just nodded and walked away when a teacher favored Dudley over him. This time, though, the teacher had not picked Harry, at least not too much. No, Mr. Reilly had picked on Harry's friend this time, his only friend. With the loyalty that, despite Dudley's best efforts, was still an integral part of him, Harry protested Mr. Reilly's unfairness.
"But Mr. Reilly! Dudley is lying. He attacked Millie from behind and then all four of them pushed us to the ground and were kicking at us." Harry had just lied to the teacher too, of course, but however justified Millie's attacking Dudley was, he didn't think that Mr. Reilly would agree with that assessment.
"Very well, Mr. Potter." Harry looked at Mr. Reilly, startled. His temporary hope vanished with the teacher's next words. "You may join your friend after school today as well."
At that dismissal, Harry felt real anger for the first time. He had occasionally gotten upset or irritated before, but never had his anger been as all-consuming as it was now. His blood began pulsing in his veins, and he felt an irrational, desire to punch the teacher.
"Mr. Reilly! That's completely unfair! Why won't you listen to us? Millie did nothing wrong!" Harry shouted at the teacher.
"Another two weeks of work in the cafeteria for both of you." Mr. Reilly signaled his dismissal and walked away.
Harry stared at the teacher's retreating back vengefully, wishing he could push the unfair man into the puddle he was walking past. His anger rose inside him, and he clenched his fists tightly. Suddenly, Harry felt a little dizzy and tired, and he felt a sort of release inside of him.
Before Harry's eyes, Mr. Reilly's shoelaces seemed to take on a life of their own, attaching to each other and tying together. At the same time his tie swung around his shoulders and across his arms, tying them to his sides. His suit began sprouting odd rips, and his hair turned a bright blue.
Happening too fast to really understand what was happening, Mr. Reilly fell down and, without his arms to stop his fall, fell into the puddle on his back with a splash. He lay there, staring up at the sky, with a shredded blazer, his tie around his arms, and his hair bright blue.
Dudley and his gang stared in fright, glancing from where Harry stood panting heavily to Mr. Reilly's humiliated position. Of all the spectators, only Millie retained any presence of mind. She quickly grabbed hold of Harry's arm and dragged him away, leading him beneath a tree just inside the school's limits.
"That was brilliant, Harry," she cried. "the look on his face…priceless." She was laughing hard as she said this, leaning against the tree.
Harry stared in disbelief to where Mr. Reilly, still visible, lay squirming in the puddle striving to free himself from his tie. "What just happened?" he asked dimly.
"That was an incredibly strong bit of accidental magic." Millie continued. "I bet you'll be a really strong wizard when she grow up." She was still smiling wildly at the humiliation the teacher had received.
"Wizard? Magic?" Harry just stared blankly at Millie. She must be having him on. There was no such thing as magic, right?
"Yeah Harry, that was magic you just did. Was it your first?" she asked curiously, the novelty of seeing a teacher fall in a puddle having died down a bit.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, growing a little angry. The joke was getting old now.
Millie was still smiling at him. "I know you're a wizard, Harry. You don't have to pretend to be a Muggle to me anymore."
"What?" Harry asked again. She hadn't answered any of his questions, still. "Wizard? Muggle? Millie, I don't know what you're talking about."
His friend sighed in exasperation and a little bit of confusion. "You don't know anything, do you?" At Harry's gesture of impatience, she settled down for an explanation. "Okay," she said, "first off, magic exists. That was what happened to Mr. Reilly."
"I did that?" asked Harry, half appalled and half excited by the thought.
"Yeah," Millie responded. "Like I said, that was really impressive. The only bit of accidental magic I've ever had was the ability to kind of read people. It's like I can see if their trustworthy and stuff."
Harry gaped at there. "You can tell if people are good? That's so much better than anything I did."
Millie responded to that rather bitterly. "No it isn't," she said. "My father just says that it shows I'm not much better than a Squib."
"What's a Squib?" Harry asked, confused, "and anyway, your ability is so much more useful than mine. You can tell if Dudley is going to attack us. Maybe you can even tell if a teacher will favor Dudley like Mr. Reilly does."
Stubbornly, Millie repeated herself. "What you did is so much better than what I can do."
Just as stubborn, Harry argued back. "Just cuz it's cool looking doesn't make it good. How often am I going to want to turn someone's hair blue? Anyway, you didn't answer my question. What's a Squib?"
"A Squib is someone born of magical parents who doesn't have any magical ability," Millie replied, sounding like she was quoting a dictionary.
Harry could tell Millie hadn't accepted his reassurances, but he let her change the subject anyway. "So magic ability is passed down from parents?" Harry asked, growing excited. "So my parents were wizards too?" He was beyond ecstatic to maybe learn something about his parents, whom he had never known.
"Maybe," Millie said. "I dunno. Some wizards are born of Muggles too, like my mother. Then again, my mother did seem to recognize your name, so maybe your parents were magical too."
"Muggles?" Harry asked puzzled by the term. Then the impact of the other thing Millie had said struck him like a hammer. "Your mum recognized my name? Why?"
"Muggles are non-magical people. People like Dudley and Miss Capon and Mr. Reailly." Millie explained. "And I have no idea why my mother would recognize your name. Still, you should watch out around her. My father too. I think they're up to something."
Harry was stunned. He had received so many shocks in the last ten minutes that his head spun. He was a wizard and could turn people's hair blue and make their shoelaces tie together from fifteen feet away. His new friend was a witch, one who could basically read minds. Harry's parents were magical, and his name had been recognized by his friend's parents. Those same parents were apparently planning something to do with him.
Millie laughed at his expression. "If you think the ideas crazy now, just wait 'till you get your wand and get to go to Hogwarts with me."
Harry looked at her, too shell-shocked to wonder about any new terms.
His friend laughed louder. "Come on, Harry. Class is about to start. How about this: If you help me with my work, I'll tell you all about the magical world."
Harry could do nothing but nod to that, and followed his friend back inside for their next class.
After the class, where the teacher had taught geography for the first fifty minutes and then history for another fifty, the duo walked to the cafeteria. They waited in line for their food, a mushy mess that was supposedly chicken casserole, and took it to the small table in the corner where they had sat the day before. When they had finished the unappetizing meal with a little help from some orange juice, they quietly walked back to the kitchens, where Miss Capon stood cleaning dishes.
She scowled at them. "You two again?" she snarled, "What did you do this time?" As their mouths opened to protest, she cut them off. "Never mind, I don't want to hear it. Start scrubbing that pot." She pointed to a huge pot which had the remains of their just eaten meal clinging to its metal sides.
The friends did not argue with the cafeteria lady but merely scurried over to the dirty pot and began scrubbing, taking turns to delve into its depths. As they worked, they talked in whispers. Millie told Harry all about the wizarding world, or at least as much of it as she knew from her parents. She explained that, despite her parent's status as wizards, she had not been immersed in the wizarding world the way other half-bloods and purebloods may have been. She had to explain those terms too, of course, which led to some speculation about Harry's own blood status. They then began talking about Hogwarts, and all the things Millie hoped to do when she got there.
Harry was completely fascinated by this strange and fabulous world, a world of dragons and castles and magic. Still, as he laughed and talked and listened to Millie, he could not help but wonder where his parents fit into this world. Were they wizards? If they were, why hadn't Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia ever told him about it? And if they weren't, why had Millie's parents recognized his name?