I was having a major writing block on my other story, A Potter's Story, and I had this plot bunny appear in my head at around Thanksgiving break. Due to exams and various other factors, (including having to get articles for, format, and publish a newspaper in less than two days) I haven't had time to do this until now.

I just thought of this story after reading the interesting series by ShadeDancer, Blood Prince. In it, besides other interesting happenings, Harry and a girl Blaise Zabini are beaters for the Slytherin team.

I was thinking that that was a very interesting idea, and I started wondering how Harry could become a beater less AU way. I decided that the two most important things would be, firstly his general scrawniness, and secondly having a friend to act as beater.

Both of these could be accomplished without taking Harry away from the Dursleys. Instead, he could have a friend come to him.

I'm basically operating on the butterfly affect principle. Any tiny change can send huge ripples through the future. In this case, having Millicent Bulstrode start attendance at Harry's elementary school will lead to very large changes in the future. It starts out canon, and then when he is seven it will start being AU, and then will increase in differences from canon throughout the rest of the series. I want to do the whole seven books, but I don't know if I will have time.

Oh yeah, I apologize for any discrepancies from British culture in the story. I realize that they don't call first graders by the same name, but I'm not sure how the English school system works.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its ideas.

The scene was one that could be found in any school anywhere in the world. It was recess, and the seven and eight year olds of the first grade at the local elementary school in Surrey, England, streamed out of their classes after their first class of the school year, desperate for a break. Just as at any school, there was a pecking order on the playground, where the strong ruled and the weak could do nothing more than run from their tormentors. One of the weakest on the playground that day, a scrawny seven year old with messy black hair and broken glasses, was at that moment trying to run from a bully. He desperately scrambled over a small wooden fence, ran under a yellow slide and sprinted past a group of younger kids and girls waiting at the slides. Harry Potter was running from his cousin

But all of his efforts seemed pointless. Behind him, Dudley and his gang kept up with the running boy, making up for their lower speed pushing through people in the way without a qualm. The boy, seeing that he would soon run into a tall metal fence if he did not stop, glanced from side to side nervously, hoping for an escape route to present itself. He could see no such thing, no door or side path he could run to. Even more desperate now, he glanced again over his shoulder. He saw Piers, his rat like face grinning in triumph, and Dudley waddling like a pig behind him, pushing smaller kids to the ground in his haste to get to Harry. Behind the two of them came a crowd, eager to see the little boy beaten up again in that marvelous game, "Harry Hunting."

At this point, the boy's head was swimming in terror. In a few seconds he would be caught and Dudley and Piers would hit him with sticks and fists, just to show they could. They were gaining now, as Harry slowed to—

BANG!

Harry suddenly found himself on the ground, staring blearily at the sky. There was no intervening moment, no explanation for this strange phenomenon. One second he had been running and the next he was staring up at the sky, with no recollection of how he had gotten in that position.

Dimly, the boy realized he could hear voices.

"We got him now!" That was his cousin, Dudley.

"Yeah, let's beat him up extra for all that running he made us do." There was Piers.

"Sure, and let's stick him in a trash can, too." That was Dudley again, and the voices were getting closer.

"Wait, who are you?" That was Piers this time, and his voice sounded suspicious, scared even. Harry was confused by that. Surely Piers knew who he was? And why would the bully be scared of him?

Another voice answered Piers, one Harry had never heard before. "Who are you?" it responded, with a tone of contempt. This voice confused Harry even more, as he tried to force his muddled thought processes to work. That was a girl's voice, but all the girls were over by the swings. None of the girls joined in on the bullying, at least not physically, but none of them tried to stop it either, for fear that Dudley would hit them. So what was a girl doing near Dudley and his gang?

A second girl's voice joined in. "Don't mind her, Dudley. She's just Bulltoad. 'Cuz she looks like a toad." At that, several other girls were heard laughing at the first girl as well. Harry suddenly realized how there were girls there. He had ran past the swings when trying to escape Dudley and Piers, and when he had run into a brick wall or something, he had not been much past the swings.

Starting to get his senses back, Harry blinked several times before looking around to find his glasses, which apparently weren't on his head anymore, before someone stepped on them. Because of the noise he made rolling over to his stomach on the wood chips, he missed the beginning of the next comment.

"—so just go and play by yourself, Bulltoad. We get to hit this one ourselves." Piers seemed to have recovered his courage as he got back to what he knew best, bullying, and added a sneer to the epithet the girl seemed to have received.

"No." It was just one word, but from the silence that ensued, you would have thought that this unknown girl, Bulltoad, had just declared she worshipped the Devil. Of course, Harry was just as astonished, so much so that he stopped looking for his glasses and instead turned to stare at the blob in his vision which was the girl.

Almost no one could say "no" to Piers Poltkiss, especially not another kid and a girl at that! Piers' parents and sometimes the teachers would say no to him, but as far as Harry knew no one else had ever had the guts to tell him no.

At this, Dudley grew angry. "Move away now, Bulltoad! I want to beat the freak up!"

"No." Again it was just a word, and again the silence was deafening. Not even his teachers could say no to Dudley, and his parents would never dream of it. His tantrums were legendary, and the boy could inflict his punishment on anyone who crossed him, by brute force if a peer, and by his parents if an adult or a teacher.

"What?" The boy on the ground winced as he could sense a Dudley tantrum coming. Dudley had been known to hit girls, and Harry felt sorry for the girl who had decided to stand up for him.

"I said no." There was a note of danger in the girl's voice, one which Harry had often heard in Uncle Vernon's voice when he was about to be punished for his freakishness or for dropping a plate in the kitchen.

Apparently Dudley had never been on the receiving end of that voice, and he did not notice the warning sign in her tone, for he proceeded to throw even more of a tantrum. "Move! I'm going to beat the little freak up! And you too!"

Harry turned to the confrontation. Without his glasses, he could not see clearly. All he could see was two misshapen blobs, one standing in front of him, the other beyond the first. He saw some movement from the second blob and winced instinctively. He waited for the blow to fall on the girl and for her to run off crying, as had happened to every girl, or boy for that matter, who had ever tried to defend him from his cousin's torment.

Just as he expected, he could hear Dudley's fist hitting the girl who was standing up for him. To Harry's surprise, however, that was not followed by a girl's tears but instead by another loud smack. He wished dearly that he still had his glasses as he heard gasps from the spectators who had gathered to enjoy the entertainment provided by their confrontation.

Turning away, Harry carefully searched the ground for his glasses, crawling along the wood chips with his hands sweeping the ground in front of him. Abruptly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and, turning to look at the hand's owner, felt his glasses being placed back onto his head. He was startled by the abrupt change from near blindness to regular vision, so it took a few seconds to process the scene before him.

Directly in front of him, her hand still on his shoulder as he sat on the ground, stood a girl unlike any he had ever seen before. Most of the girls at the school were very girly, always tittering and gossiping. They wore pink and pigtails and would never dream of getting dirty. This girl, though, looked nothing like them. Her face held a slight smile, but it seemed completely genuine, completely unlike the fake similes all the other girls wore. She had dirt on her clothing, and it certainly wasn't as carefully selected as Harry was sure that the other girls' were. Her shoulders were broader and her bearing more imposing than any of them, and she looked like she could hold her own against a boy in a fight. Still, Harry couldn't exactly call her fat. As it was, she really just looked, well, boyish.

Despite all that, her voice came out as high as any of the girls', surprising from someone who looked like she did. "Are you alright?" She asked, kindly.

Harry had no chance to respond as, before he could, he saw over the girl's shoulder Dudley running up, looking furious. "Behind you!" Harry shouted.

The girl turned just in time for Dudley's clenched fist to hit her on the arm instead of the back. Abruptly, they both went down into the woodchips, fists and legs flying to shouts of "fight! Fight!" from the spectators around. The pair rolled back and forth across the wood of the playground, as Harry stood, uncomprehending, watching the fight before his eyes.

Someone had defended him? Had gotten into a fight for him? Why would anyone do something like that? He was just a freak, and a waste of space, and an idiotic boy. No one could ever want to defend someone like him.

And yet…here was a girl he had never met before, new to the school, whom Harry had only seen before ever in his life in the class that they had just left. And she was defending him, the unwanted freak no one liked. Harry could not understand why anyone would do something like that, let alone a girl who everyone already made fun of. Didn't she realize that the taunts of "bulltoad" and "fatty" would only get worse after she helped him?

Fortunately for the quality of the boy's thoughts, which were turning in an unsavory direction that indicated his low self-esteem, rescue arrived in the form of a teacher. Of course, that rescue was less a rescue than a punishment for Harry and his savior, but it still was a rescue in some form. Teachers usually turned a blind eye to Dudley's antics, lest they be fired like his teacher the year before had been when she tried to restrain his bullying. However, this could not be ignored as this was not mere bullying and hits, but a full fight and one with a girl.

"Mister Dursley! Miss Bulstrode! What is going on here?" The chanting children fell silent as the two wrestling kids on the ground stopped as well. It was Mr. Reilly, Harry's least favorite teacher. His Uncle Vernon had invited the teacher over to their house several times, ostensibly to "get to know little Dudder's teacher's." Of course, it was really a bribe to make sure he gave Dudley good grades, but whatever the reason, the boy's relatives had imparted their hatred of him to the teacher as well.

Piers spoke up, eager to defend his friend from trouble. "Bulstrode attacked Dudley for no reason! He was just walking along when she hit him and tackled him."

"Is this true, Mr. Dursley?" Mr. Reilly asked.

Harry rarely got angry, since he knew that it would only result in him being beat up and punished. This time, though, he could not resist complaining at the unfairness of it all. "No! Mr. Reilly, she didn't do anything wrong! Dudley hit her from behind!"

The teacher looked at him distastefully. "Trying to get your cousin in trouble, are you, Mr. Potter? I don't know how your family puts up with you. Petunia really has a heart of gold to look after an ungrateful wretch like you."

"But he's telling the truth, sir," protested Bulstrode. "And Dudley was trying to beat him up, too."

Mr. Reilly looked contemptuously at the girl. "I find it hard to believe that a nice boy like Mr. Dursley here would ever do something like that. You and Mr. Potter, on the other hand, clearly thought this little ambush up to get him in trouble. You two will be spending the rest of recess, lunch, and after school helping Miss Capon clean the cafeteria."

Harry stared at the teacher in astonishment. He should have known by now that the teachers would always side with Dudley rather than him, but cleaning the cafeteria? He had never heard of a student receiving that particular punishment. Besides him, Bulstrode was staring at Mr. Reilly too, with an expression that Harry could not read.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Follow me." The teacher ordered, leading them to the cafeteria.

As they walked, Harry though he heard the girl mutter something to herself. "Got a detention my first day here...and for fighting again! Mother's not going to like this."

Harry felt a sharp spike of jealousy at the girl who, even if she was also disliked by her classmates, at least had a mother who cared for her. He had to go back to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and his cupboard every day after school. However, even as he had these envious thoughts, the girl's mutterings became more frightened sounding.

"She's gonna pull me out of school…and now I'll be homeschooled…and I won't be smart enough to go to Hogwarts and I'll be like Auntie Barker and never have a job…and I'll die alone with thirty cats and I'll never have any friends and—"

Harry's jealousy vanished as he walked shyly over to the bigger girl. "It can't be that bad, can it?" he asked, trying to comfort the girl like he'd seen people do sometimes on his Aunt's soap operas.

The girl turned to Harry and nearly shouted at him. "Yes it can be that bad! Mother said she'd pull me out of school if I got in more trouble, and I would have to be homeschooled!"

Harry flinched away, confident that another person had decided to dislike him like they always did for his freakishness. However, seeing his flinch took all the combativeness out of Bulstrode's stance and she looked at Harry with concern.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I'm not really smart and I always get pulled out of school and no one likes me."

Harry smiled shyly at the girl. "I like you. You saved me from Dudley and his gang."

Mr. Reilly turned back to them and said rudely, "No talking. This is supposed to be a punishment."

Bulstrode made a face at Mr. Reilly's back as he turned away. Harry smiled at that, desperately holding in his giggles so the teacher didn't get mad at him again.

The girl leaned over and whispered in Harry's ear. "I'm Millie Bulstrode. Do you want to be friends?"

Harry smiled excitedly at that. A real friend! It seemed almost too good to be true. "Definitely! I'm Harry Potter."

Millie whispered back, "You know, you're my first friend ever."

"Well, you're my first friend too." Harry responded quietly.

The pair didn't notice that Mr. Reilly had stopped until they nearly ran into his back. "In there," he said. "In fifteen minutes, you'll go to class. Remember, you're going to come here ate lunch and after school too. Do whatever Miss Capon wants you to do. I'm going to send a note to your parents and guardians as well." Harry though the teacher was looking particularly at him when he said that, and he shivered as he thought of the punishment his uncle would give him.

Harry and Millie walked inside, looking for Miss Capon to assign them work. Miss Capon was an old woman who constantly looked like she was sucking a prune. Harry had always wondered why a woman who obviously hated children was working in the kitchens at a school. Maybe she wanted to poison them and take a few of the hated kids out of the world?

He chuckled slightly at the thought and Millie, hearing his chuckle, asked what was funny. Harry responded cautiously, expecting to be laughed at his thoughts called idiotic, only to be utterly surprised when she laughed as well. No one had ever laughed at anything he said before.

Of course, Miss Capon, looking disapprovingly at the two of them, came to spoil their fun.

"What are you doing here?" she asked suspiciously. "Come to steal food, have you? Nasty kids these days."

Millie responded for them both. "No, Miss Capon. Mr. Reilly said we had to help you clean the cafeteria."

"Why would I want your filthy little hands grubbing up my cafeteria?" Miss Capon asked.

Again, Millie answered for them. "I don't know, Miss Capon. But Mr. Reilly said we have to help you today at recess, at lunch and after school."

The cafeteria lady grudgingly agreed. "Very well. You two can scrub the pots in that corner over there." She pointed to a tall pile of incredibly dirty kitchen objects. "I've been planning to throw them out because I don't have enough time to clean them, so I suppose you can't do anything worse to them."

Millie looked appalled, but Harry was happy that he had a job to do which he was good at and could freely excel at without fear of punishment. At home, he scrubbed dishes every day for the entire family, so this was nothing new. Millie was unused to such labor, but with Harry's help she managed a passable job.

They spent the rest of recess scrubbing the dirty pots, and managed to successfully clean two medium sized ones before recess ended. Miss Capon just looked at the pots and grunted "acceptable, I suppose," before waving them off to class.

The pair of children left their work that morning happier than either had been for as long as they could remember. They had both found their very first friends ever, and had had a fun time, even if it was in the process of cleaning scum encrusted pots.

Harry had asked why Millie had decided to defend him, but she just shrugged and responded, "I dunno why. I just felt like I should."

Harry had thanked her profusely and then they had talked a bit, and made fun of Mr. Reilly, Dudley and Miss Capon. They quickly made the decision to sit together in every class and to do their homework together after school.

On such occasions, worlds turn. The friendship that was forged there, in the cafeteria of that small elementary school in Surrey, would shape their lives and the fate of the wizarding world. There is an old saying that a butterfly flapping in China can start a tornado in the colonies. In this case, that simple act of friendship when Millicent Bulstrode attempted to defend a small boy in a school playground, would have untold numbers of consequences for the future.