A/N: This is just a one-shot because I often wonder about the intricate parts of the wizarding world and how they would deal with problems that are common in our world. I've always noticed a complete dearth of well written fanfiction that touches on this issue. If anyone knows any good ones, then please, point me in that direction.

I considered naming the character, but in a way I think it's more important that they could be anyone, because it's just a miniscule part of anyone's identity. For that reason there's no time scale for this, other than a Weasley was prefect, but I'm not saying whether it was Ron, Percy, Charlie or Bill. I don't even know myself. Heck, it could have been a Weasley generations back for all I know.

-o0o-

As soon as the prefect announced that the boys' dormitory was up and down the staircase to the left, and that the girls' dormitory was up and down the staircase on the right, my stomach twisted itself into one big, giant knot. Seemingly gender segregation was still going to plague me here, maybe more than ever. It had been bad enough in the Muggle world; I'd been kicked out of public bathrooms and stared at in school changing rooms for long enough, without the added complication of having to live in a completely separate dormitory.

Not that it wasn't something I expected. If boys and girls were to mix there would clearly be rampant sex occurring everywhere. Obviously. And truth be told, these witches and wizards were a little archaic to say the least. It could be worse though, I consoled myself, at least the uniform's gender neutral. My eyes narrowed at the memory of having to wear a skirt, of all things. The sports teams were mixed too, maybe I'd actually get to prove that I was just as good as the boys for once.

Someone tugged on the sleeve of my robe, and grumpily I shook them off, snapping back, "What?"

I recognised it as the overly cheerful girl in my carriage on the train. I'd spent the whole time scowling into my book, hoping she wouldn't notice me, least of all that I was a girl, but it hadn't seemed to work. "Let's go and see our dorm!" She enthused, "I bet it'll be great!"

Did I really have to tag along? What was really that exciting about a bed? I hoped that there would be no pink in there at least, it was a hideous colour; I had no idea why everyone thought that I would like it. There was no 'boy' colour in the same way that pink was for girls, and why couldn't I like green and blue and brown and black just as much? Actually, I wasn't supposed to like green either, that was the colour of Slytherin, and apparently that was bad.

"Pleeeeeaaaase?" The girl wheedled at me, and I sighed, following her towards the staircase on the right.

It was on the sixth step that it happened. The first thing that I knew was that my ears were ringing, the noise was deafening, ten times worse than the old fire alarms at school, and they'd been pretty unbearable. The second thing I noticed was that there was no longer a staircase; instead there was a very slippery and very steep slide beneath me. I hit the slide heavily, landing almost face first on it before landing at the bottom in a heap, where fortunately the siren stopped.

As I turned around I half wished that the siren would come back on. The new noise or lack of rather, was much more deafening. In silence the entire common room was staring at me, something had to be wrong; it wasn't just the stupid staircase playing a trick on me like they did in the rest of the castle. Something was actually wrong.

Soon I found out what that wrong thing was, the circular room was filled with hushed whispers and muffled laughter, but not quite quiet enough to not be heard. "Is it a boy?" seemed to be the most common whisper.

It. It. I hated that word. I wasn't an it. Fury welled up in me, much worse than it had ever done before, and the rug on the floor burst into flames, roaring just as wildly as my anger. They were quickly quelled by a jet of water coming from the prefect's wand, and the room fell quiet again.

"I think you'd better follow me." They said with no emotion in their voice or face.

I still had no idea what was going on, or what had just happened, but I nodded, following the older boy out of the common room, back through the portrait hole, and down six flights of stairs. Finally we stopped outside an oak door which looked exactly the same as any other. I had no clue how I was ever going to find my way around when it came so naturally to the older boy. Of course, that was assuming that I would still be here to find out.

"Wait here." He said shortly, rapping on the door and entering when it swung open.

There must have been some magic on the door, because I couldn't hear a word through it, not even the faintest muffled sound. Part of me contemplated running away, would they ever find me again in this maze of a school? The other part of me was trying to do everything except wonder why I was here, what had gone wrong when I stepped on the staircase. Could it have been that it was enchanted to make sure that no... I ordered myself to stop. That wasn't a sentence that I was supposed to finish, that I would let myself finish.

A wrinkled face appeared at the door. Not harsh, but not kindly either. "Come in."

Involuntarily I swallowed, and followed her into the room. It was only a small room, with a desk in front of the window, and not much else other than several bookcases lining the walls. She motioned for me to take a seat on a spindly wooden chair, covered by a green tartan blanket. Nervously I perched on the edge as she sat at her desk. I looked around to see the prefect standing against the wall, hands clasped behind his back.

"Mr Weasley here tells me that you set off the caterwauling charm as you tried to enter the girls' dormitory." She said bluntly, and I couldn't read her emotions any better than I had the prefects. "Do you have any idea why this may have happened?"

I shook my head; not wanting to voice what I thought was the reason. Maybe they'd just think that there was something wrong with the charm, maybe there wouldn't be a reason for them to find out what was wrong with me, that I was a freak. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Or maybe they'd think I was a pervert and expel me from school. That had to be some sort of record, surely? Not even getting to spend a night in the castle. Although if I was allowed to stay where I would spend a night was another matter if I couldn't get to my bed.

Professor McGonagall lent back to talk around me and asked for the prefect to fetch Professor Dumbledore and my heart started pounding harder against my ribcage than it had before. I felt faint, I was going to be expelled and that was that. My first chance to get away and be myself and it was all ruined. Maybe my only chance. How was I ever going to learn magic if they wouldn't let me go to school? There weren't any other schools in the country, that's what they'd told my parents when they came and explained it all to them. I'd blown it all.

It must have been only moments before Professor Dumbledore was silently entering the room, but it felt like an age. Neither I nor the Scottish teacher spoke and the room was heavy with awkward silence by the time he stepped inside. Drawing his wand, he conjured a plush pink stool out of thin air and sat down. At the appearance of the stool I jumped, this was all wrong, a stool couldn't just come out of nowhere.

"Would anyone care for a sherbet lemon?" Suddenly a paper tube of sweets was held out in front of me, and I could have burst out laughing, maybe this wasn't immediate expulsion.

Professor McGonagall wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips, pulling a face almost as hilarious as the situation that was now taking place. "No. Thank you." She said curtly, "I assume Mr Weasley informed you of the situation."

The headmaster focused on me over his half-moon glasses as if seeing me there for the first time. "Ah, yes. So you set off the caterwauling charm... well it has been a fair few years since we've had that happen in Gryffindor, has it not Minerva?"

It had happened before? The staircase could have malfunctioned then, it didn't necessarily mean that there was anything wrong with me then...

The witch nodded, "Five years if I remember rightly. Pomona has had a couple recently though."

"I assume you realise what the purpose of the charms are?" He was addressing me.

Did I know what it did? Not really. Something to do with keeping boys out I assumed, but I wasn't sure. "No Professor, not really. They said something about boys in the common room."

The wizard nodded towards Professor McGonagall, who seemed to settle in her seat and clasped her hands in front of her. "The school was built by the four founders of Hogwarts, Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw – which the houses are named after, as you must realise. The two women, being suspicious of the nature of the male members of the community – quite rightly so in those times if I must add – decided that it would be prudent to give some form of protection to the young women residing in this walls. They convinced the two other founders, and Gryffindor performed similar enchantments to safeguard those in his own tower, which you encountered today.

"Together the caterwauling and glisseo charms protect those in the girls' dormitories from any untrustworthy boy who seeks to enter them. Of course, it's apparent now that boys are no more likely to be untrustworthy than girls, however it would be rather a shame to lose part of the original founders work. Of course, the girls are free to enter the boys any time they desire, much to my protests to the headmaster," She shot the older man a glance, "that they can be just as troublesome."

My hands squirmed uncontrollably in my lap. Slowly and hesitantly I spoke. "You're saying that the charm thinks I'm a... boy?"

Professor Dumbledore leaned towards me, looking and speaking to me gently. "It sees what is deep inside you. I think you already know the truth of this situation, there's no shame to admit it to the world; rather the only shame should be from keeping it inside and being content to live a lie. A lie not only to the people around you, but also to yourself. The world isn't always the kindest to those like you, but it's vital to remember that you're not alone, the steps you're walking have been taken by so many before."

His words sunk deep and hit hard. They hit me hard in my chest, grabbed my heart and wrenched it around. No matter how uncomfortable it was I knew that he knew the thoughts I'd hidden deep and dark in the back of my head. He knew the thoughts that I'd kept so far out of mind that I hadn't come to terms with them; I'd never voiced them, or even strung them into a sentence in my head. Somehow I knew that too. Could all magical folk do that? It was a more than a little scary.

My head nodded entirely of its own accord even though my mind was still screaming at me to run, run far away and not ever let anyone know that I was a freak. Even in this weird place it couldn't be that normal... or could it? They hadn't seemed particularly shocked, and they'd said that someone with a funny name had a couple recently. Actually, they'd never said what Pomona had a couple of.

"What am I then?"

There was a faint smile, and his eyes glistened, giving away the depths of wisdom of them. "It's quite simple, you're a boy."

A boy. My stomach lurched, but the ecstasy hadn't seemed to reach my mouth. "No. You're wrong. I know I'm a g—" The final word caught in my throat and I couldn't force it out.

"A girl?" He said mildly, "You really think that's you?"

Something had happened when that word had got stuck in my throat, and I knew I'd finally been able to voice the truth, or rather, not voice the lies. The lies that had been plaguing me since my birth were finally gone, and finally the truth was out, exposed and naked. And certainly that summed up my emotions, raw and naked. There was no protection from what their reactions were going to be.

Much to my surprise, neither of them flinched when my silence answered. I'd been wrong about the magical community being backwards in their beliefs.

"Minerva, I think it best to take him to the hospital wing. I shall instruct Severus to bring a batch of the necessary potions up as soon as possible. Oh, and please inform me of the name he chooses."

With those final words and what could have almost been classed as a wink, the mysterious headmaster was gone as quickly and silently as he had arrived. He left the lingering sound of two words behind him. Two words so short and seemingly insignificant that to anyone else they wouldn't matter, but to me they meant everything, I'd just never known it before.

Him. He.

Me.