Hermione was worried, when she read about the dorms at Hogwarts. Her parents had supported her since she’d first started questioning, researching themselves to answer her questions and helping her pick out a new name. Her letter had the right name, which was reassuring. Surely that meant everything would be fine? The professor who had come to explain about magic hadn’t acted strangely about it at all, already knowing Hermione’s name, and not the one she’d abandoned.
Even so, Hermione was worried. The dorms were divided, Hogwarts:A History has taught her. By gender.
That didn’t make sense on a lot of levels- she knew a lot more about gender identity than the average ten year old, having learnt a lot about it whilst she was trying to work out what it meant, her being a girl when her parents had thought she was a boy. She knew there were more than two genders, but the book made no mention of them.
Unknown to Hermione, there were multiple people worrying on the train that year. That didn’t help her. Even when she spoke to Neville Longbottom, who was nervous for many reasons, not just gender, neither of them realised that they shared that fear.
Neville had realised they were bigender only a few months ago, in discussion with one of his uncles. The man in question had been discussing his partner, and Neville had been amazed to learn that you could be more than one gender at once.
They went through the sorting, hoping that within their house there would be acceptance. Then they were guided up to the common room.
Three perfects stood before them.
“Right,” Percy Weasley said. “Those who have any nonbinary identity, follow me.”
Another prefect, Lucille Peterson, smiled. “Girls, follow me.”
A third, Francis Smith, finished off with, “Any boys, this way.”
The nonbinary dorm could be confusing- after all, there were many different nonbinary identities. But Hogwarts had not yet created individual rooms, and so for now it had to do. Ron glanced at Percy for reassurance before following Francis Smith to the boys dormitory. Hermione hid her hesitation well, moving smoothly to fall in behind Lucille and hiding her nerves. Neville Longbottom followed Percy Weasley up the stairs.
They were all relieved to find themselves accepted. But Hogwarts would never turn away those who needed it.
(And when Harry Potter, half way through Third year, moved to the nonbinary dorms after realising that ‘the boy who lived’ wasn’t quite right, Hogwarts accepted them, too.)
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