The first day after Easter break of her fourth year at Hogwarts, Lily Luna Potter was caught transfiguring the choir's sheet music into tiny lizards during the lunch period. While most of the chorus members were delighted that something interesting was happening during their practice for a change, Flitwick was not so pleased. Her brother James discretely levitating one of the reptiles onto the diminutive professor's head and pointing at her certainly did not do anything to improve the situation. The chorus didn't get much practice in that day.

As she skulked up to the seventh floor five hours later to meet a somewhat irate Flitwick for a well-earned detention, she heard something from inside one of the stairwells. She came to a halt, then tried to quietly sneak closer to the source of the noise - obviously unsuccessfully, as whatever she was hearing immediately ceased.

"H-hello?" she called out, forgetting all about her detention. This seemed far more interesting than writing lines anyway.

There was a scuffling sound, followed by a congested "I swear I'm not doing anything wrong." A disheveled Slytherin appeared from directly behind the staircase.

She blinked hard. The skinny kid had bruises covering his neck and jaw, and his right cheekbone was puffy and swollen. A few tears escaped from his eyes and slid down his nose.

"What's your name?"

The boy fidgeted. "Anthony. Anthony Zabini." He hesitated. "Why are you up here after classes are over, anyway?"

"My name's, um, it's Lily, but I go by El. I was heading up for a detention."

They stared at the floor. El noticed with a bit of surprise that Anthony was wearing lovely black leather shoes; she had already assumed a backstory of a tormented, impoverished life. Zabini, Zabini… wait. Doesn't Dad know a Zabini from the Ministry?

"I know your name already. You should probably get going." The somber voice broke her train of thought and she glanced at her watch, cursing quietly when she realized Flitwick was expecting her in three minutes.

"Yeah, I guess I should. Um… I guess I'll see y -" Before she could finish her sentence, Anthony brushed past her and headed down the previous flight of stairs. At the bottom of the flight he looked back up toward her.

"We're in Potions together. See you tomorrow."

El watched him disappear and then shook herself. If they had a class together that meant that he was a fourth-year, too. How was it that he knew her, but she had no idea who he was? Her year had a lot of students in it, but it was still really weird that she had never talked to or heard of him before, even if they were in different houses. Oh well. There would be plenty of time to find out more about him later, but in the meantime she had to hustle before she got in even more trouble for being late. Flitwick despised lack of punctuality, and she had even heard that his office door was charmed to repeatedly, albeit lightly, smack entrants who were late for an appointment or meeting with him. Fortunately she reached the seventh floor just before her watch hit 5:30 and slipped into his office without incident.

Although Flitwick was terribly fond of his choir and was quite upset about having to herd up 73 adolescent green anoles instead of conducting, he was also terribly fond of dinner, and therefore cut the detention off at 6:15 sharp. El helped him sort through sheet music and organize submitted homework assignments by grade until he dismissed her to the Great Hall with an exasperated "don't do that ever again." When she got to the Gryffindor table and sat down, she scanned the Slytherins opposite her for Anthony, but did not spot him. Whatever, she thought, I'll see him around. And with that she completely put aside their encounter and set to the pot roast and cucumber soda in front of her.

The next day, El's first class was Potions, so she left the dorm with all manner of questions to ask Anthony should they run into each other. Who had hit him? Why was he so jumpy when she found him? If he was hiding from someone, not to be harsh but… why wasn't he hiding better? She wandered absent-mindedly toward Slughorn's classroom and was nearing the door when someone pulled her into the shadows to the side.

"Wanna skip this shit?" It was Anthony. His face was noticeably less puffy, and the skin where the bruises had been yesterday now was unblemished. She shook his hand off of her arm.

"I've never skipped a class before," she said uncertainly.

He rolled his eyes. "They won't notice the first few times. Do it a lot and you'll get in trouble. But once won't hurt. Besides, I wanna talk to you."

El followed him to the closest girl's bathroom, which to her surprise he was able to enter. What the heck? She went inside after him and sat with him in the open area outside the stalls. The tiles were cold, and there was a small puddle of liquid next to her leg. Behind them she heard the tinny drip-drip of a leaky toilet pipe.

Anthony rested his chin on his knees and winced a little. "It's just a cover-up charm," he explained. "I was trying to do one yesterday when you found me but it wasn't working. That's why I was crying." He leaned over to her. "I'm trans. Nobody else really knows. That's why the charms let me in here but not into the men's room. If I'd introduced myself as Alicia would you have recognized me?"

She did a double take. "Oh! Yeah. That makes more sense, I was racking my brain for why I didn't know you. Should I still call you that around other people?"

"Please. I'm not really ready for anyone else to know. I don't even know why I told you, you just… seemed okay for some reason."

El laughed. "Yeah, I get that from a lot of people. Everybody comes out to me. I give off a vibe, apparently." She sighed. "Let me guess, you got beat up because of that?"

A flush rose to his dark ears. "That's, uh. Yeah. Yeah it was because of that."

She patted his shoulder tentatively. "If it's any help, I never would've known you if you hadn't told me. I thought you were just some guy I hadn't met before. And if anyone else gives you a hard time I'll set my older brother on them."

Anthony hesitated, drawing his foot along the tile lines. "It's not exactly anyone here that's the problem."

The redheaded girl's heart sank. She knew of other kids who had been beaten by their parents and even kicked out for being gay or trans, but she'd been hoping that wasn't his case. "Your family?"

"My dad's a piece of shit. He beats all of us but I've gotten it the worst since I tried coming out to him. Family services won't do anything because he's well-known and it would look bad."

The two fourth-years talked for the rest of the class period, glossing over the clearly uncomfortable topic of Anthony's family and instead discussing hobbies, music, and El's ridiculously overweight cat, Jalapeno. When the clock struck 9 they looked at each other with mutual expressions of surprise at how quickly an hour had gone by. El got up first and helped her new friend to his feet, handing him his bag, and they left the bathroom together.

"See you tomorrow?" Anthony asked.

"Definitely," El responded.

They parted ways at the doors, one feeling like a rebel and the other like he finally had someone to trust.