Harry enters the clothing store to be measured for the first new clothes he's ever had. The store is empty.

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He follows the instructions written in his letter to get to the Platform, ignoring the loud family.

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Ron Weasley is the sixth of seven to attend Hogwarts, one of hundreds in his family line, and nothing special. He is good at chess. He is nice enough, he's sure his brothers must say, but the most boring of us all.

He is stifled under the family roof, and picks the first empty compartment he sees. He ignores the command to look for black-haired green-eyed girls.

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Hermione sits with the boy who fidgets, like her. He's lost his toad, he stammers out, and she suggests they look for it starting at the back of the train.

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Harry picks a compartment near the front. The first one to join him is a boy with a shock of white-blond hair and grey eyes.

When two boys and a girl come in search of a toad, the blond boy suggests a Summoning Charm.

"I'm going to be in Slytherin. They're cunning, and clever, and great." He performs the charm with ease and a toad shoots through the air.

Harry would very much like to be cunning, and clever, and great.

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Harry considers giving his birth name when they ask, but doesn't. The blond boy asks if he's Muggle-born.

"Er, no. My mum was, though, and I grew up with her family."

"Ah. Parents gone in the war?"

Harry nods.

Neville speaks up. "Mine too." And they all look at him. "My parents, they- they were to-tortured into insanity. I l-live with my grandmother." And hell if that isn't the most he's spoken the whole train ride.

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"Longbottom?" Malfoy-Draco-Malfoy asks. At Neville's sound of affirmation, he winces. "I... I'm related to the woman who did that to your family."

And he turns to look at them all. "I want you all to know that I don't condone it at all, and my family's political choice in the war won't affect the choices I make. It's been over for a decade, and I'm going to be your friend."

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As they cross the Lake, Harry asks Hermione if she knows how the dormitories work. Whether boys room separately from girls, and that sort of thing.

She tilts her head. "Well, there are common rooms and separate bedrooms for each House. Four or five per room during first and second year, and after that students can ask for roommate changes as they like. I think there are single rooms available for disabled students, but they aren't used often. And boys room with boys and girls room with girls."

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Hermione argues with the hat, who chooses to tell her that she won't be the only Muggle-born in Slytherin.

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Neville begs for Hufflepuff. The hat is torn between that and Gryffindor; it's a full three minutes before the decision is made.

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The hat barely brushes Draco's hair before shouting what he already knew to be true.

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Harry had worried, very briefly, that the hat would call out the wrong name. It would call Harriet Potter and everyone would know. Aunt Petunia had told him, told him that they considered him a war hero and she wasn't actually sure how advanced things were socially there- and he's been worried.

"Harry Evans!"

The hall is silent, bored.

"Well," the hat says. "There's no need to be worried, or ashamed, I can tell you that right now. There are others. Look up Salazaar Slytherin, when you get the chance."

"Can I be in Slytherin?" He thinks at it.

"Ah, yes. It would have been a toss-up between that and Gryffindor, just barely tipped into the snakes, if you hadn't said that. You're going to be Great."

The hat calls out Slytherin, and Harry walks off with a grin on his face.

.

"Ah, yes. You've got a keen mind. An eye for detail, hmm, Chessmaster?"

"I'm just the spare Weasley boy. I'm nothing. Just put me in Gryffindor-"

"So afraid to stand out. But you won't be, in a few years. SLYTHERIN!"

Ron Weasley walks to the snake pit, shaking.

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"Who's that?"

"Not sure who you're pointing at, but there's-" Cassius Warrington points at the turbaned man, "Professor Quirrel. He's our Defense teacher this year. Taught Muggle Studies last year, I didn't take it but I heard it was awful. That next to him is Professor Snape. He's our Head of House, you'll meet him after. There's Professor Sinistra, she teaches Astronomy..." Harry listens to the Head Boy talk, then returns to his meal.

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Professor Snape hands out the school rules in Muggle paper packets, reads them the list of Slytherin Rules.

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"Um, Professor?"

Severus looks at the child speaking to him, wishing he'd stop dawdling and get over whatever he had to ask. After Harriet Potter could not be found on the magically self-updating lists and it was found Dumbledore had told no one of where the girl was, the summer had been spent frantically coming up with explanations to the world when they all inevitably noticed their girl hero was, presumably, dead. Hagrid had been disconsolate, of course.

"Get on with it, child. You have less than half an hour before rooms are assigned."

"So, er, I was wondering..."

"What?" Severus knows it's unfair for him to glare the way he's doing so right now, and he tries to tone it down, but it's not successful in the least.

"Imtransgenderwheredoigowhatbathroomdoiuse."

"...Pardon?"

The first-year clears his throat. "I'm transgender, and I wasn't sure which dorms I go to or what toilet I use or anything."

"Male to female, female to male, or non-binary?"

The child blinks. "Female to male. I, I'm a boy." He seems to steel himself. "I've always been a boy, and that won't change even if I have to room with the girls. It's not going to change. I'm a boy."

Severus sighs, now in the position of having to calm down a child in the midst of mild anxiety: "You'll room with the boys. If you've been 'out,' as they say, for more than about three years, the magic in the girls' dormitory will not permit you to enter anyway." He eyes the boy, notes facial features uncomfortably like that of his childhood bully. A question forms in his mind and makes his way to his lips, unwillingly. "May I ask your pronouns, and your name?"

"He. And I'm Harry. Uh, Harry Evans."

He nods a dismissal.

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He is left reeling.