To say Harry Potter was nervous would be the understatement of the century. It was his first day of year five, and whilst for a normal child this would be exciting, for Harry it was something else completely.

Dudley had warned him before school that his gang of friends would pummel him silly, just as they had been doing for the last few years. Harry had to be the only boy in the school who could honestly say that he never wanted lessons to end, even though he never paid attention in them.

Fortunately, they arrived to school late, which meant that they were able to go straight into the classroom.

The Year Five classroom seemed to be the same as the Year Four one, only with slightly more grown up posters on the wall, and not as many toys scattered around the room. The only real difference seemed to be that there was a new girl, who had big bushy hair and buckteeth. She was standing in the front of the room, looking around nervously.

Harry sat down near the front of the class, on his own. He didn't have any friends, because everyone was too afraid of Dudley to do as much as smile at him.

Soon the lesson begun and the girl was introduced to the class. She had a funny name, Hermione Granger. She told the class that it was Shakespearian, but no-one knew what that meant.

She sat down next to him, and gave him a nervous smile. Harry hoped that she wouldn't get in trouble with Dudley for it.

It wasn't long before the lessons ended, and it was playtime. Harry dashed out of the classroom as quickly as he could, and found his hiding spot on top of the bins. He had been hiding there since Year Three, and Dudley still hadn't spotted him.

It was quite a nice spot. You could see the entire playground. The boys playing football in the field, the girls sitting in groups giggling, the crazy children pretending to be aeroplanes.

You could even see Dudley's group, looking around for someone new to torture.

Unfortunately, they seemed to have picked Hermione Granger. Harry watched as they began to circle around her, they looked like vultures preying on rotten meat.

Harry knew that he shouldn't have let her sit next to him in class. When anyone was nice to him, they always ended up in trouble.

Dudley's group seemed to have made their move, one of them had pushed her over. Harry knew the routine well enough that this was where the name calling began. Harry couldn't let that happen

Harry jumped down from the bins, and walked up right behind Dudley. The gang of boys were all looking at him in shock, and he was a little shocked at him, but he knew that he couldn't stop what he was doing.

"Dudley, pick on someone your own size." Harry said. "Leave her alone."

Dudley turned around to face Harry. It was hard to believe they were the same age, as Dudley seemed to tower over him.

"Come here to defend your girlfriend? You two are perfect for each other, buckteeth Granger and hand-me-down Potter. How romantic."

Dudley raised his fist, and Harry braced himself for the pain. He saw Dudley's fist get closer and closer until-

Dudley was pushed back, as if by an invisible force. Harry watched as his face turned more and more purple, but he wasn't silly enough to wait until the bigger boy stood up. Harry grabbed Hermione's wrist and ran and ran until eventually, he was back onto the bins.

Except he wasn't. Somehow, the two of them had managed to get themselves onto the roof. He wasn't sure how it happened, but he was used to strange things happening to him. Hermione, on the other hand, wasn't.

"We're on the roof! How on earth did we get onto the roof?" She half-shouted, "We're going to get in so much trouble. What will my parents say? We'll have to go to the headmaster's office. I think I'm going to die."

"Calm down, I don't think that anyone will notice we're up here." He said.

"I can't calm down at a time like this; I don't in trouble. I've never even been told off before." Hermione sobbed

"Calm down, if we do get caught, I'll take the blame; I don't mind getting told off, I'm in trouble all of the time."

Hearing this, Hermione sniffed loudly. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course." Harry said, before asking nervously. "Do you want to be my friend?"

"You want to be friends with me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Most people think I'm very bossy." Hermione said "And a know it all."

"Well, I think you're the nicest person I've ever met."

For a while they sat there in silence, Harry peered over the edge to see if Dudley was looking for them. He was talking to the teacher, whilst the rest of his gang seemed to have formed a search party. It was funny, because even though they had seen him run off, all of them had gone in the wrong direction.

Harry and Hermione climbed carefully off the roof, and sat behind the bins.

"I've never seen such a nasty boy in my life! I bet his parents are horrible."

"They are." Harry said lowly. "They're awful."

"Oh, you've met them before?

"I live with them; they're my aunt and uncle." Harry looked at the roof tiles "They both hate me; they make me sleep in a cupboard."

"Harry, that's horrible!" She exclaimed, "I have to say, it does explain a lot of Dudley's behaviour though, most children with nasty parents act like them for at least the first ten to eleven years of their lives."

"Well, he definitely acts like Uncle Vernon." Harry said, "They are practically the same person, right down to the weight. They both look like a pair of elephants."

Before Hermione had a chance to laugh, they were both grabbed by a teacher, who dragged them both by the arm, right up to Dudley.

"Apologise to him." The teacher said, "Being violent towards others is completely unacceptable."

"Sorry Dudley." Harry murmured.

He tried to tell the teacher that Hermione had nothing to do with it, but he seemed adamant to ignore them, and dragged the two of them straight off to the Head's office.

Mr Nightingale was the new headmaster at the school. He had been promoted after only two years as a Year Six teacher.

He had been informed that Harry Potter was a problem student by both his guardians and the Year Four teacher. Apparently he had been tormenting Dudley for years.

However, as soon as Harry was brought in front of him, he could not believe it. The boy was tiny, and looked as if he were completely underfed, which was not helped by the fact that he was wearing clothes that were massively too large for him.

"Explain to me what happened." He said, trying to sound strict.

"Sir, Hermione had absolutely nothing to do with it-"

"Mr Potter, as I understand it, you have been in trouble repeatedly over the years for behaviour like this. I do not want to have to expel you."

The girl spoke up, sounding petrified, "Sir it isn't Harry's fault, Dudley and his friends are the ones who cause all of the problems."

"Excuse me Miss Granger?"

The girl looked at him, seeming almost shocked at herself. Mr Nightingale nodded at her to continue.

"Sir, this is what really happened; I was in the playground when an enormous group of started circling around me. They were Dudley and his friends. They called me all sorts of horrid names like bucktooth, geek, and chipmunk and know it all. Harry came over to try and help me."

"is this true, Mr Potter?" He asked the young boy.

"Yes, sir."

"Anyway, Dudley turned around, and was just about to punch Harry when I pushed him over, just to try and stop him. After that, we both ran and hid behind the bins."

"I see, Miss Granger. I have to trust that you're telling the truth."

"I am, sir."

"However, you should have just told the teacher, rather than hiding in a place that you aren't allowed to go." He paused, and then said, "But don't worry about Mr Dursley. I will make sure that he understands that bullying is absolutely not acceptable."

"Sir, please don't." Harry said quietly

"Why not?"

"If you tell Dudley off, he will punch me even harder. Please don't say anything." Harry begged.

That meant that this sort of behaviour must have been going on for a long time. He could not understand how the other teachers could have missed it, although Harry must have been too afraid to say anything. He would need to intervene quite seriously.

"Harry, I think I will talk to you and Dudley tomorrow. I shall send someone to your classroom to collect the two of you." Mr Nightingale said softly.

"Mr Nightingale, would it be alright if we went back to our classroom? Sorry if that sounded rude, but I don't want to miss any more of the lesson."

"Yes Hermione, the two of you may go." Mr Nightingale said, with a small laugh.