Disclaimer: There may be some larger time leaps in this story since, well it's supposed to be about Cursebreaking and Runes. So that doesn't make much sense for the first year.
Disclaimer 2: If you recognize it I do not own it.
Disclaimer 3: Bullying. I can't let Harry have an easy Hogwarts experience. It also explains or begins to explain why they bond so strongly

"Loser"

"Freak"

"Weirdo"

"What are you wearing?"

"Do you know how stupid you look?"

"Why are you such a freak."

"Useless just like your father."

Harry had hoped Hogwarts would be different but it wasn't. She wasn't settling in very well. The girls would mock her clothing, she dressed in robes during the week but people gave her hassle over always wearing the robes. The few times she wore something else...well that was worse. The only difference she seemed to find between the muggle and magical world was how she could eat here and only got beat up infrequently. She had not overspent from her vault since it had to do her all of Hogwarts. But people mocked her for not fitting in.

Then, one of the Slytherins had destroyed her book, the one Bill had lent her. She had one chance at a friend and she already destroyed it. He loved this book. And now it was destroyed and it was all her fault. She had so hoped she'd get a chance at different here but it was just more of the same. She knew she was missing curfew but she just didn't care. She didn't want to face him or her roommates.

Of course, she also seemed to completely forget that she was supposed to meet with Bill to go over some history homework and he would get worried when she did not show. He, of course, got his older brothers to tell him where she was since he knew of a handy map of the school they had and went to find her. Curfew not important to him when he found her in an old classroom with her head in her knees. She jumped up when he entered before being surprised at seeing him, stuttering until he stopped her.

He saw she had a split lip and touched it gently, "What happened Harry? I've been looking for you everywhere. What happened?"

Her eyes widened slightly and she stuttered trying to answer. "I...nothing I..."

"Harry," he said knowing it wasn't nothing. She was clearly hurt and he did not approve of his friend being injured. "What happened."

She couldn't lie to her only friend even though she was terrified of what he would say when he found out about the book. "I had a run-in with Pansy Parkinson," She admitted shaking slightly. "And Bulstrode."

It took a minute for Bill to recognize the names since they weren't in the same year. "Isn't she the Slytherin who looked like a troll." She nodded since that was very true, "she the one who split your lip?"

Harry nodded before blurting out, "and she destroyed your book, Bill I'm so sorry, I was careful with it I swear but..."

He stopped her, why on earth would he care about the book when she had a split lip and what appeared to be a bruise under her eye that he knew would end up as a black eye soon enough. "I don't care about some stupid book, that bint hit you," he said knowing that it had to hurt something awful. Books could be replaced, this was something else entirely.

She looked startled at him not understanding his reaction. "Y-you don't hate me," She asked shocked unable to believe that he wasn't mad at her.

Now it was his turn for not understanding, "Over a book that you didn't even break, of course, I don't hate you, Harry," Bill said. "It's just a book, it can be replaced. Someone attacked you, that is just wrong."

"That's not a big deal," she said still not understanding his worry. "I'm used to that..."

She shut her mouth not having meant to say that. "Wait, people have beaten you up before," Bill questioned. He had never witnessed it but now he was worried about what he could have missed. "Has it happened here?"

Harry didn't really know how to respond to that. "I..."

"Harry, we are friends, you can tell me," he said wanting to know. He would not let them get away with hurting his younger friend. She honestly appeared almost fragile at times. How could anyone want to hurt her?

She hesitated, she had never had a friend before. "I...yeah...I just don't really fit," she said finding the words. "Anywhere. I can't find a place to fit in anywhere. I thought magic would fix it. Everyone here has magic too but I'm just as much of a freak as I was in the muggle world."

'You are not a freak," Bill growled angrily, he was angry that she would think such a thing. "Whoever told you that is dead wrong."

She knew better. She was a freak everywhere. She had begun to accept it. "I don't even know anymore, everyone hates me and I don't know what I did wrong," She admitted. "I just...wanted to come here and learn magic and make friends but its as bad as muggle school."

Bill surprised her by pulling her into a hug, she froze for a moment before melting into her friend's arms breaking down. He just held her tightly until she stopped crying. "They are idiots," Bill said. "Your brilliant and you are not doing anything wrong Harry, your amazing just as you are."

It took a few minutes before he got her to sit down again and talk, with a bit of prompting she explained what was wrong. How a lot of her year mates were giving her a hard time for losing points in potions but she didn't know what she was doing wrong, the professor just seemed to hate her, always nitpicking and finding something wrong. Even taking points for breathing. The Slytherins had a tendency to copy the professor and would even pick at the same things as he did. Calling her a useless dunderhead. Even insulting her father which went way too far cause he was dead for over a decade. The girls in Gryffindor mocked the way she dressed and Hermione was always so annoyed because she could answer questions too and she got in a fight with others because she didn't know who Anthony Goldstein was before coming and didn't see the big deal.

Finally, she just grew silent and it took the 13-year-old a moment to process what he was told. "Snape is an arsehole," Bill said bluntly. "He picks on the Gryffindor's and always has an easy target each class, but if he's bringing up your dad...your parents may have been at school with him. I know some of the people who have a grudge against Charlie or Percy take it out on us. He's a dick, maybe talk to Professor McGonagall. The Slytherins, hex first question their motives later. That is what Fred and George taught me. If they are giving you a hard time, fight back, they stopped going at Fred and George after that. Charlie was a bit of a big shot so after he graduated it made them able to target us a lot more. There is absolutely nothing wrong with how you dress...must be a girl thing. I admit you could use cloths that fit you better but in the end...its just clothes. They do not mean anything. Hermione is a know it all who has no social skills and is a bitch if she is mad cause she isn't the smartest in the room and you should be proud you get answers right...and Anthony Goldstein is a spoiled little git who people worship for absolutely nothing important. Boy who is nothing important. I don't care what he supposedly did."

Harry gaped slightly but Bill wasn't done. "Hogwarts is like that. Stupid politics and power play. I hate that. It should be about the magic. Who cares if your muggle-born or half-blood or what. If your family has money or doesn't. Powers all that really matters. We all have magic, we are all the same...But I'll teach you some awesome hexes to teach those bints a lesson. I can't really hex a girl...if a guy is giving you a hard time like the golden boy, I'll punch him in the nose for you."

She couldn't believe he had just offered that. She had never expected him to side with her like that, or be so angry on her behalf. She definitely did not expect him to offer to defend her. "you would really do that?"

"Of course, you're my best friend," he said no hesitation in his voice just pure honesty.

"Thank you," She said gratefully.

"Oh I learned something really cool today," he said grabbing his ink bottle and a paintbrush. "Would you like me to show you?"

She nodded as he took her hand and painted on it before blowing on it so the ink would dry. "What does it mean," She asked seeing that it was a ruin which she recognized from her growing interest in the subject.

"Its the ruin for friendship," he said giving her a bright smile. "I learned it from a new book I'm using to teach runic script and how it use to be used for writing instead of just magic. Because though there are different types of runes, they went further than just languages, most used the same runic scripts. I thought you'd like this. And it will stay till you wash it off. We are friends. You need to remember that."

She grinned, "I do. I will," She promised looking at it amazed. "You are going to have to teach me how to draw one so I can put one on your hand too."

He gave her the paintbrush and pulled the parchment out of his bag and they got to work on it. For the moment, she could ignore everyone else. She had made a friend at Hogwarts. That at least was more than she ever had at privet drive. She didn't need much. One friend was more than enough for her and she found she was happy with that.