Summer passed and Sadie was in Diagon Alley with her ma and Lily and Lily's mum. The older women were well meaning in asking Sadie if she wanted to wear witch's robes but she was nervous. The Gryffindor boys had been awful to her when she presented as a boy. How would they be with another strike against her? But she did want to look pretty on weekends and have a skirt to swirl in between classes as she'd seen some other girls doing. It looked like so much fun.
Smashing her pale, thin lips together, she nodded aggressively to her Ma's question. SHe would start her second year openly as a girl. She would prove that bravery wasnt just for the gold and red wearing students, but all students.
Her ma bought two secondhand school uniforms and with the limited funds she had saved and exchanged at Gringotts, she bought two secondhand skirts in decent shape and a cheap but well made robe in lilac and she had a few knuts left over so she could actually buy a snack on the express.
The ladies finished school shopping and Sadie's ma led the charge to floo back to the house on Spinner's End. Mrs Evans was impressed by the speediness and time saving ability of floo but dismayed at the soot left over. Eileen laughed and said it'd be the next great invention, flooring without ash getting on your clothes.
The days leading up to to the 1st were agonizingly slow. Her da was getting better about she name and pronouns but he'd have a whole year to get un-used to it. She still hadn't told her grandparents, afraid they would hate her. But she still had Lily and her Ma. Her ma had actually written to the school to get her permission to sleep in the Slytherin girls' dorm. Professor McGonnagal had written back that she would be accommodated but how would depend on the other Slytherin girls.
Sadie hoped they'd agree and not be weird. She was unsure how many wizards and witches were gender betwixt as Madame Pomphrey had put it but maybe it was common knowledge. She was also worried about being a half-blood. It was different in the boys' dorm where it didnt matter as much what you looked like so long as you had talent, but the girls…She'd have to learn beauty spells and be smart and be talented. From hanging out around Lily's old primary school friends, she knew girls could be cutthroat. Her ma had tried to teach her some beauty spells she remembered, but Eileen had never been the most talented witch with a wand. Her skills lay in brewing and arithmancy calculations. So Sadie was worried.
Finally the first came and the Evans and Snapes were on the way to the Express. Tobias had decided to go this time, taking his beat up truck and loading it with Sadie, her Ma, and her school trunk. He was still struggling with accepting magic but admitted he'd been quick to judge based on his father's Catholic teachings warring with his mother's subdued Judaism.
The girls waved goodbye to their parents and boarded the train. Sadie was wearing her new uniform and loved how the skirt tickled her knees when she walked. Lily pulled her along and into a compartment with the other Gryffindor girls.
Lily stood in the door defiantly and said boldly, "This is Sadie. She's going to be sitting with us."
Mary and Alice looked at Sadie, noticing she looked familiar. But Marlene scowled. "That's Snape. What's he wearing a skirt for? Is this a joke, Lily?"
Lily scowled even fiercer. "Marlene. This. Is. Sadie. Yes, she was previously Severus, but she has changed all that and deserves to be respected. I thought my friends would at least be respectful and nice to her since she's new to openly being a girl, but we can go sit somewhere else if you're going to be rude."
"Lily, I'm not meaning to be rude, I was just saying it's different."
"Do you have an issue with me or not, McKinnon?" Sadie asked, arching a thin eyebrow.
She huffed and shook her head. That settled, the girls stored their trunks and sat down to catch up on summer activities.
As the sun set, a sign the train was approaching Hogwarts, the door opened and revealed Potter and Black.
"Lily love~ I've come to ask…Is that Snape in a dress? Would you look at how skinny his legs are!"
Sadie scowled and Lily pulled her wand out, ready to defend her friend.
"It's none of your business what my friends wear or not, you stinker."
The boys laughed and, thankfully for Sadie, left saying they had to inform the rest of their group,
She knew it wasn't over but hopefully she'd have time to get the other Slytherin girls on her side as allies.
The train conductor gave the 5 minute warning for Hogsmeade Station and she steeled herself for more comments and stares. She could be tough and cunning enough to take names of all those who supported her and all those who laughed and remember for a time in the future though. With a nervous flip of her still growing hair (it had gotten to her collar bones and she was so proud!), she got off the train and into a carriage with Lily and her friends.