Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Mary!" the petite blonde girl sitting in the largest chair in the common room jumped when she heard her name. "Y- yes?"
Jack, the boy who chose her, grinned widely.
"Truth or dare,"
"T- truth.?" He looked disappointedly at the floor. "Oh, why are you always such a dry biscuit?" The other two girls looked at each other and collapsed into a heap of giggles. The tallest one let her long hair fall across her face, covering her "Jewish nose" she had always been bullied for. Now, in Hogwarts she wasn't bullied, but she still wasn't used to it, even after over four years.

"All right then, Mary," Jack said loudly, he winked at the giggling girls in the corner, spiralling them into even more laughter. The two lads sharing the squishy sofa looked at each other despairing, their friend was a terrible flirt with more confidence than there are stones in the Great Wall of China, it didn't help that he was already terribly attractive.

"Is it true..." he paused dramatically and stared at the ceiling as if deep in thought. "... that you..." she shifted uncomfortably in hef seat, Annie and Catherine whispered to each other, fawning over his exaggerated sentences. "Have a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic hidden under your mattress?" Mary squirmed in her seat, trying to cover her cheeks, which were blushing bright red. She darted a glance around at her laughing friends. "N- no. Of c- course not," it sounded more like a question than an answer.

Jack looked at her knowingly but snapped out of it almost immediately and said, in his usual chipper tone, "Well, if you say so it must be true!" he jerked his head, flicking his sandy-brown mop to the side, "Alright then, Mary, you're turn!".

She squinted, looking around at everyone, searching for her victim. Finally her eyes rested upon Thomas Couture, who's family were of self proclaimed 'unknown origin' but refused to admit they were French.

He was a very regular looking boy, aside from his eye, which were sunk into his head, like a boy who hadn't slept in his life. And his hair, it was impossible to tell what colour it was, as it was cut so short, but no matter how often his parents cut it, he still always managed to dye it some outrageous colour.
Apparently it was some sort of rebellion, in retaliation to the punishment of shaving it almost completely off.
No one knew why they did it, and no one asked, they knew it was a tentative subject, even the bullies could sense that they should leave it.

Mary side-eyed him slyly, "Tommy..?" he looked at her with his dead looking eyes, "Mary?" "Umm, t- truth or dare?" He suddenly held himself up in a terribly respectable manner and spoke grandly "I shall be brave, my dear lady, as you were not," her cheeks blushed again, after having only just gone back to normal "And I shall say 'dare',". a few mocking 'oohs' echoed and they all laughed.

Poor little Mary was furious. 𝘌𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 she thought 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘳, 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘫𝘰𝘬𝘦. Determined to think of a good prank, she furrowed her eybrows and pouted, concentration written all over her face.
After a solid two minutes of this, and her friends begging ger to hurry up, her face lit up in realisation. "I've got one! Tommy, I dare you to try to climb the staircase to the girls dorm," she nodded her head contentedly.

The rest of the group stared at her as if she were mad, "But Mary," Catherine said "Don't you remember when that OWL year lad tried to go up to see Emmie Colman?" her features twisted into worry "Yes, Cat, that's why I chose that particular adventure,".

Peter broke his long silence to beg her "But, Mary, he'd be humiliated, and merlin knows he's the last person who wants it, even if it's a sm-" he was cut short when Jack jabbed his arm, in warning, he pointed at Tommy "Oh, yes, umm sorry, please May, be nice,".
But she was determined "Guys, it's not that bad, he's only going to fall, no one will even notice!" they still looked worried until Tommy himself piped up and said cherrfully "I don't see what the problem is, just like she said, I'm only going to fall, a minor thing. It's just a game, for goodness sakes". They had to give in to that, but the four shared a knowing look, as if something awful was to come.

The group drifted, unwilling to leave the comfortable seats, towards the stairs. Tommy took a deep breath, Jack patted him on the back and whispered "Good luck, mate," "Thanks," he whispered back.
He lifted his foot, shoelaces undone, and placed it down on the first step. Nothing happened. Eyes darted around. His next foot on the second step. Still nothing. And then the third step, and the fourth, and on and on until he had reached the top.

He looked down at the girls who'd climbed up behind him. He looked at Annie, his eyes shining with something, was it sorrow? Was it joy? It was impossible to tell. He tilted his head back, and screamed at the top of his lungs "I'm the king of the world!" before slumping next to the doorway with a grin on his face a mile wide. "I knew it," he croaked happily. Annie hurried up and sat next to him "Tommy, I can't believe it. You were right," "Well of course I was right, Annie, I'm always right, aren't I?" She slapped his shoulder mockingly "Yes you are,".

Mary was still confused "What's going on? I don't understand. You guys knew this was going to happen?". Catherine put a hand on her back "Here, come with me, I'll explain,". She walked her down the stairs. Once at the bottom, reunited with Jack and Peter, Mary asked again "What happened?" before Catherine could answer, Jack asked "So it worked? He really made it all the way up?" the girls nodded. "Oh Merlin! He did it!" Peter looked as surprised as him.

"Ok, Mary. So, Tommy isn't really a boy," the other gurl looked at her in surprise "What?! So you mean he doesn't ha-" "No, Mary! of course that's not what it means!" she blushed again, embarrassed, again. "Well, what do you mean?" "I don't know how to explain this, but Tommy, he doesn't feel like a boy, he doesn't feel like he should be one,"

Mary still looked confused. She opened her mouth to ask another question but was stopped before she could start by a scream from up the stairs. They hurried up to see.
Two of the fourth year girls were standing in the open door, staring at Tommy. Tommy was staring back, looking just as scared. "I can explain!" he pleaded, but they just screamed again and ran down, pushing roughly past the girls on their way.

"They're going to tell someone, aren't they? A teacher or someone. And my parents are going to find out. They'll tan my hide if they ever catch wind of this!" Catherine looked at him sympathetically. "We won't let them find out, I promise,". He looked at ehr, the joy in his eyes, gone.

Once they managed to track down the two girls, they'd already told a prefect, who'd told a teacher, who was on her way to tell the headmistress. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no," "It's going to be fine, Tommo," Jack assured him "I promise,".

Later that afternoon, they were all sitting in uncomfortable silence in the boys dorm, waiting for something to happen. Finally, the headboy came up to find them, he looked extremely concerned and confused. "They headmistress wants to see you in her office, Tommy, immediately," he bit his lip and spoke again "What did you do? The headmistress, I always had you lot down as generally rule abiding. I can't say anything if I don't know what you've done, but if it's really that terrible, you had us all fooled,". It seemed a very serious thing to say. Proffesor Mcgonagall must have been terribly angry for him to act so worried.

The six friends slowly got up and walked towards the door. Tommy turned around anxiously "You should probably stay here or something, she asked for me, not you," None of them moved a muscle "We're going with you, Tommy. We're your friends, that's what we're for," Jack said, his voice steely and determined. Tommy had to give in, he continued out and into the common room. The other Gryffindor students stared at them all, but especially their short haired friend. Whispers were thrown around and some daring students even pointed. Their mutterings were mostly stopped by Jack and Annie glaring at them.

Finally they made it out through the portrait. A long sigh burst out from all six of them. "What are you doing, going out this late in the evening?" A voice sounded behind them, made them all jump. They turned around, it was the potrait of The Fat Lady on the entrance to their common room. Catherine put her hand on her heart and yelped "Oh, it's you!" "Of course it's me, you silly girl! Now what are you doing, curfew is not far away, I don't want you getting caught out of bed, not my favoutite students," They all blushed slightly.

Peter looked at her and said "We have to see the headmistress, see?" She nodded and let them off. Wandering the mostly empty corridors was an eery experience, to say the least. None knew what to expect. They could see Tommy was growing increasingly anxious. "I'm sure it'll be fine, mate! Old MacGee' wouldn't be the sort to punish you for it, now would she?" Tommy looked at Jack and smiled weakly. Jack's own enthusiastic grin fell at his friend's sorrow.

Finally they reached the entance to her office, but she was already waiting for them in the corridor. "Proffesor," they said in unison. "Ah, I see you brought all if you're housemates with you, Mr. Couture, if you will follow me please. Your friends may come if they wish. I won't be docking points if they miss the curfew," They shared a mischievous grin and Proffesor Mcgonagall could have sworn she heard Mary whisper "Wicked!", this made her smile ever so slightly.

The band of six followed their headmistress down the corridors to the hospital wing. She knocked twice on the door loudly. The door opened a fraction as a tired looking Madam Pomfrey peered out at them. "Oh! Headmistress, it's you. Do come in,"
She opened it wider and they entered timidly.

"Now, Poppy, can I speak to you privately first please?" Professor Mcgonagall said, giving a pointed look. "Yes, umm, go ahead into my office. I'll get the students something first, all right?" she flustered in response.

Once the friends were sitting at a table with trays of sandwiches and pumpkin juice Madame Pomfrey hurried off to her office, being careful to close the door behind her. Jack glanced at his friend, "It's going to be fine Tommy, you'll see. McGonagall didn't seem angry," they nodded weakly in response. A few minutes passed and the group had said nothing between them. Annie was about to say something when the Professor Mcgonagall came back out of the office. "Mr. Couture, Madame Pomfrey will speak to you in private now," she motioned to the office. They stood up and started to slowly make his way to the door. "Now," she addressed the remaining five Gryffindor's "You lot can sit in the library and talk if you want. Go to the kitchen if needs be, I trust you know by now where it is," she peered at them down her glasses knowingly "I shall come and bring you back here or to my office when your friend is ready. Off you pop!" they looked at each other, giggles overtaking them before they hurried off to the library,"

"Now, Thomas," they nodded mutely "I heard about your adventure, do you want to tell me what happened,"
"Well, n- not really..."
"That's fine then. You know, you're not the first student under my care to ever befall this predicament. And not the last I'd wager. My point is, everything will be fine, I promise," she smiled at them reassuringly.

She stood up and took a small book from a shelf behind her head "Here, read this over the next month or so. Take your time, there's no rush. Whenever you're ready we can start with little things, even simple things like painting your nails," they looked happy at that but still upset.

Madame Pomfrey put her hand on Tommy's, "Oh, dear. It's not all bad..." but she never said any more.

The door opened, Professor McGonagall walked in. "Come on, I think your friends are going to eat the kitchen empty if we dont get them to bed," as she smiled gently.

As she walked him to the tower she spoke in a more urgent, matter-of-factly tone "I've taken the situation up with the Head of Protection for Young Wizards and Witches-"
"Quite a mouthful that," a painting interrupted her "Excuse you!" she shook her head
"As I was saying, I contacted them and hopefully I'll be able to keep you here or you could go home with a friend if they think the situation with your parents - and your uncle - is bad enough,"
Tommy looked ahead in silence.

She regarded them, "Don't think about it tonight. Go to sleep, dream happily and we'll think about it in the morning,"