Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also references to canon child abuse and inadvertent outing. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Was just thinking about the crappy stairs in Gryffindor the other day and then couldn't help but wonder if anyone had ever been outed because of them. And I got it done in time for International Fanworks Day. ...even if I didn't actually get it up in time for that.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts 2.0 (T02); RAVEN (2024); MC4A (Wi-Yr6)
Individual Challenges: Red Instead; Condiment Shelf; Pie Day; Pet Food; Goblet Flames; Vegetable Broth; Coupons; Fruit Stand; Purple Scholar; Feather Head; Sap Bath; Gryffindor MC [x4]; Magical MC [x4]; Sandbox (Y); Reader; Cinematic; Singer; Gamer; Dreamers [x4]; Ethnic & Present [x2]; Neuordivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion [x3]; Rowl in Her Grave; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Two Cakes (Y); 3rd Rule; Bi Bi Bi; Zukes of Hazard; Castle Time; Bedtime; Lunar Era; Rainbow Connection; Finders; Hold the Mayo
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Assignment: T02 As04
Subject [Task (Prompt)]: Archaeology [Task#1 (Write about someone making an accidental discovery.)]
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Gather [Paladin (05 - Glory)](ALT - Gold); Case [Demiguise](Cozy); Web (Harry Potter & Parvati Patil)[Extra STR Arachnid Needles (Safe/Secure)]; Library [The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin](Nonbinary)
RAVEN Challenges: Actions [57](Outing Someone); Character Traits [53](Nonbinary); Colors [76](Ruby); Items [94](Vest/Waistcoat); Settings [80](School)
Other MC4A Challenges: Chim [Bugwort]("The Anonymous Ones" – Dear Evan Hansen; Turned Left Instead AU; Race Bend); Hunt [Fa Con (Hot Beverage; Pie/Tart); Wi Con (Venison/Deer)]; Fire [x3](Troll Bait); Garden [Herbs (Smooth); Statuary (Vest); Aya's Blend (Pie/Tart); Moar Tropes (Epiphany); Bait (Royal Purple); Remember (Queer Character)]; TWT [NB Harry Potter; Golden Era; Task#x (Prompt)]; Harvest [A&B (Accepting; Falling); F&G (HPverse); Items (Kameez; Venison; Vest); R&E (Friends; Sapphic; QPR); Settings (Castle)]; Hang [Phrase#2](n/a); Soup [F (Falling); A (Arguing); I (Ignorant); R (Red); Y (Yelling)]; Shop [GSRM (Trans)]; Swap [Dishes (Elephant Teapot)]
Representation(s): NB & Desi Harry Potter; Background Lavender Brown/Parvati Patil QPR; Ignorant is Bliss (Hermione & Ron); The Gryffindor Stairs; Public Confrontation & Outing
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Horrible Love; Gingersnap; Tootsies; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Mother Hen; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Brooms Only; Car in a Tutu; Clio's Conclusion; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Muck & Slime; Casper's House; Corvid Brain; Bad Beans; Over the Hills); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Fire Song; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus; In the Trench; Suprise!; Turtle-Duck; Forked Path; Sitting Hummingbird; Jet Fuel; Hot Stuff; Mermaid)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Tether); SN (Rail; Intercept); FR (Satisfaction; Liberation); O3 (Orator; Oath); SS (Schooner; Sanctuary); RoIL (Satisfaction; Exuviation); SHoE (Oblique); AD (Assumption); War (Orator; Sanctuary); TY (Enfant); Mea (Ennui; Rampant); Share (Ameliorate; Dragoman; Augur)
Space Address (Prompt): FaB [3A](Fireplace); Set [5D](Tournament); WiB [2D](Pie/Tart); Vocab [2B](Egregious);
Word Count: 1630 words
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Endings
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Harry hadn't given it much thought. All of the Weasleys had been pulled into a meeting in the headmaster's office, something that McGonagall has assured them was not anything to worry about. That left Hermione and him at loose ends for at least an hour. The common room was busy with students giving a parody of studying. Neither had wanted to make the trek to the quieter library. As first-years, neither had known about the unspoken tradition of students taking over one of the spare classrooms that filled the castle.
So Hermione had suggested studying in her dorm room, because the girls dorm had desks for each resident. Harry had simply followed her up the stairs. Neither had noticed how a few of the older students had frowned at his back when nothing had happened.
He had jumped a few hours later when Lavender and Parvati had entered the room. The two girls had been surprised to see him, nearly dropping the mini meat pies they had been sneaking into the dorm. He wouldn't have blamed them even if those pies had been some of the rare venison ones. He was fairly certain that boys weren't supposed to be in the girls dorm and vice versus. The girls had exchanged a silent look with each other before Lavender had given a small shrug and Parvati had sprung forward to engage Hermione in a passionate discussion of spell categorization.
That had been the end of any doubt about his place among them.
And so it became a thing. Whenever Ron was busy elsewhere, Hermione and Harry would go up to her dorm to study. Lavender and Parvati would usually arrive with smuggled food at some point and the studying would shift topics. More than once, they would pile onto Lavender and Parvati's bed (they had pushed theirs together) to spend a cozy afternoon cuddling as they talked or took turns reading aloud to the others. Lavender was particularly adept at the charms necessary to make tea brew itself in the bone china teapot shaped like an elephant that Parvati had gotten her for her birthday their first year at Hogwarts.
Increasingly, Lavender and Parvati began seeking Harry out on their own. Parvati was especially interested in talking to Harry about topics that Harry had to anxiously tell her that he didn't actually know anything about. She had seemed confused for a long moment before something like horror had dawned on her fine features. Like a fire growing from a single spark, rage had briefly shown in her dark eyes.
"We will fix that," she had declared before setting out to teach him everything she had known about being Hindu. Like always, Hermione had latched onto the new topic as well. Occasionally, Lavender would pull Hermione away to the library so that Parvati could focus on only Harry.
One of those times during the disaster that was their fourth year (when the tournament had been in full swing and most people weren't even acknowledging Harry unless it was to flash a Potter Stinks badge at him) was the first time Parvati helped Harry into a salwar suit that she had asked her mother to send her. The kameez was deep royal purple with only a simple solid edge of silver along the bottom and neckline. The salwar were a brighter violet with pinstripes of silver running the length of the legs. By contrast, the chunni that Parvati had carefully draped over Harry's arms was a gauzy lilac where wasn't thickly embroidered with silver stars shot through with threads of gold and bronze.
Somehow the purple had just made his eyes seem even more green when he had looked at his reflection. He couldn't really believe what he had seen. Words had left both of them. Thankfully, the mirrors at Hogwarts were enchanted to not have that problem.
"You're beautiful," the mirror declared in no uncertain terms.
And that had been the end of his uncertainty about his appearance.
Harry might have graduated without ever thinking about the implication of going into the girls dorm if it hadn't been for Ron. There had been a notice announcing that all clubs were required to get Umbridge's permission to hold meetings on the corkboard next to the common room's largest fireplace. Ron had immediately went to run up the stairs to the girls dormitory in order to tell Hermione the egregious news. Because he had longer legs, Ron had reached the stairs far ahead of Harry.
Barely a handful of steps upwards, a loud klaxon sounded. The stone stairs melted into each other until they were a smooth slide. Ron flailed his hands out to grab the sides but his hands slipped on the smooth stones. He ended up falling onto his belly and sliding back down into the common room. He rolled over onto his back after he came to a stop. He laid there for a long moment, just blinking at the ceiling.
Lavender came down the slide in the next moment. She hopped up to her feet at the bottom, easily dodging Ron entirely. Without missing a beat, she reached back and helped Parvati do the same. The latter put her hands on her hips to glare down at Ron. Dressed a ruby red kameez with a black vest over it and burgundy salwar, she looked like a burning ember.
"Don't you know that boys aren't allowed in the girls dorm?" Parvati scolded. Ron blinked up at her.
"Harry goes up all the time," he said. Both Lavender and Parvati rolled their eyes.
"So?" Parvati asked. Suddenly, she glanced at Harry nervously. Lavender looked between them before glancing around at the interested crowd that had gathered to watch the drama. She laid her hand on the small of Parvati's back. Parvati nodded sharply before continuing. "Right. Maybe we shouldn't talk about this here."
Ron didn't take the hint, though he did get up off the floor.
"Harry's a boy," Ron continued in the same tone that he used when he thought something wasn't fair. Harry had heard it a lot during their third year when Ron and Hermione had been fighting about Crookshanks chasing Scabbers so much. (Harry personally agreed that expecting a cat to not be a cat was ridiculous, and he was baffled at the lack of pet care shown by the students in general.) Because of how quiet the common room had gotten, Ron's voice carried.
Harry squirmed where he was standing nearby. He couldn't argue with the declaration. He slept in the boys dorm. He wore Dudley's handed down clothes in the same way that he sometimes wore Parvati's. He had a penis, even if he wasn't growing obsessed with it like the other boys in the dorm seem to have around the end of their third year. The word boy still had the same itchy feeling that it always had when any of the Dursleys had snapped it out as if it was Harry's name.
"I'm not a girl," Harry tried, his tone rising slightly at the end like a question. That sounded more true that claiming to be a boy. Ever since writing the line so often that it scarred onto the back of his hand, Harry had been struggling to say aloud anything that he wasn't certain was true. That was its own basket of weirdness that he was still trying to figure out.
"That's okay," Parvati replied in the same patient voice that she had used when explaining what it meant to be Desi and all of the traditions that he should have grown up knowing.
Harry couldn't help but stare at her in a silent plea that she continue explaining what this meant. She bit her bottom lip before exchanging another one of those conversational looks with Lavender. Then she gave a sharp nod. She met Harry's eyes once more.
"You don't have to be," Parvati continued, much gentler than how she had been talked to Ron just moments prior. Her eyes were dark pools that he could drown in. "You don't have to be anything that you don't want to be."
Harry shook his head. She didn't understand. No one ever did. His entire life had been a series of being things that he didn't want to be or not being things that he wanted to be. It had been that way at the Dursleys. It was that way here at Hogwarts, too.
Parvati's hands reached towards him as if she wanted to touch him. Harry drew his arms tight around himself. If she touched him right then, the magic prickling under his skin might explode. Of all the things that had happened already, he didn't think he could handle another person getting hurt because of him. She stopped advancing on him.
"I promise you that it is true," she told him in careful Tamil. She had been teaching him the language but his understanding was still limited, especially if the speaker went too fast. "There are more than just two options. You do not have to be either."
"That's…" Harry trailed off as much because he didn't know what the words were in Tamil as not knowing what the words were at all.
His eyes darted around the common room and the crowd that was watching him. Ron had been joined by Hermione at some point. Both looked equally confused. Nearby, Seamus stood beside Dean and Neville. None of them looked even a smidgen confused. Somehow, it was that lack which gave Harry the boost of confidence that he needed to actually say the thought he had been circling around.
"I'm not a girl, but I'm also not a boy."
He said the words aloud.
And the world did not end.