McGonagall hurried through the corridors towards the Headmaster's office. She wanted to speak to him before he went down to the feast.

Dumbledore was feeding his phoenix when McGonagall came into his office. She was out of breath, and collapsed into one of his chairs.

Dumbledore looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Everything okay, Minerva?" he asked.

McGonagall panted as she tried to get her breath back. It was difficult to speak, but she tried anyway. "It's... Dursley..." she said. "He just came to tell me... that he's trans male."

Dumbledore sighed and shook his head. "Rose Dursley is a girl," he said. "I don't know where she has got these foolish ideas from."

"It's he," said McGonagall. "And we know exactly where he has got those ideas from."

"Not this again," said Dumbledore. "The transfiguration spell I cast completely changed her into a girl."

"That was just the physical body which you changed," said McGonagall. "Self-knowledge and self-identity are not a physical part of the body. It can not be transfigured by magic."

"Bah. This is more muggle science and psychology," said Dumbledore.

McGonagall shook her head. "I might have learned this from muggles, but it doesn't mean that it is wrong," she said.

Dumbledore sat at his desk with a dismissive grunt. "So she wants to be a boy now, does she?" he said.

"Yes, his sense of self-knowledge tells him that he is male," said McGonagall. "So you need to use male pronouns when you refer to him."

Dumbledore rolled his eyes.

"And he has changed his name to Rob," said McGonagall.

Dumbledore sat silently for a while before speaking again. He did not agree with the idea of someone deciding their own gender. He would need to discourage this.

"Leave it with me," said Dumbledore. "Go down to the Great Hall. I'll meet you down there soon. There are some matters I need to attend to first."

McGonagall nodded, then left Dumbledore's office. She walked down to the Great Hall, and took her seat at the staff table. After she had been waiting for ten minutes, Dumbledore entered the hall. He walked over to the podium and waited for everyone to quiet down.

"Welcome back to those of you who went home for Christmas," said Dumbledore. "It is good to see you again.

"Now, it is unusual for the New Year Feast, but I have an announcement," Dumbledore continued. "We have a new student, Rob Dursley. He is a fourth year, and he has been sorted into Gryffindor. I hope you will all make him feel welcome."

McGonagall scowled at what Dumbledore was saying. Rob shifted uneasily in his seat as loads of people turned to stare at him. All around the whispering grew louder.

Hermione whispered angrily to Rob and Ron. "I don't know what he is talking about, you're not a new student."

"Yeah, that's a bit odd," said Ron.

Rob blushed at all the attention he was getting. "Just ignore it," he said. "It will be fine when everyone accepts it."

After Dumbledore finished talking, the food appeared. Soon everyone was distracted by eating. They stopped being interested in what Rob was doing.

As Rob was helping himself to a plate of food, Dean Thomas got up and walked towards him.

"Hey," said Dean. "I just wanted to say, I thought it was really brave the way you have come out."

"Thanks, Dean," said Rob.

"Yes, I agree," said Parvati Patil. "It is a brave thing you are doing."

"I don't know if it's brave," said Rob. "I'm just being myself."

The feast carried on for a while longer. Once everyone had finished eating, they started to head back to their common rooms.

Rob and Hermione were waiting for Ron to finish his second helping of dessert. As they sat patiently, Draco Malfoy walked past them.

"Hi, Draco," said Rob. "Did you have a good Christmas?"

Draco turned and looked at Rob with a sneer. "Leave me alone, mudblood," he said.

Rob was shocked, he had never heard Draco use that word before. "Draco, wait. What's wrong," he said. "We're friends."

Crabbe and Goyle snickered between themselves. "Ooooh, Draco, you're my friend," said Crabbe in a high pitched, mocking voice.

"Yeah, Draco, let's be friends," said Goyle in the same mocking voice.

Draco's face turned red, first with embarrassment, and then with anger. "We're not friends, you filthy mudblood," he said. "You're disgusting, stay away from me."

Rob felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He could not believe the way Draco had turned on him.

"That's enough," said a loud voice from behind them.

They turned to see Professor Snape walking through the hall with an angry expression.

"We will have no more talk like that, Mr Malfoy," said Snape. "Ten points from Slytherin."

"My father will hear about this," said Draco.

Then Draco walked off angrily towards the dungeons, followed by Crabbe and Goyle.

Snape looked down at Rob to see if he was okay. When he did, he was struck by a feeling of awkwardness. He found he could not look Rob in the eyes. "Err, perhaps if you go to your common room," he said. "Give everyone time to adjust to the news."

"Yes, Sir," said Rob. "We were just waiting for Ron to finish eating first."

"Err, well, okay," said Snape.

After Snape left, Ron finished eating his food. Then the three of them walked up to the Gryffindor common room.

Hermione yawned as they entered the common room. "I'm tired. I'm going to have an early night," she said. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah, I'm quite tired too," said Rob.

"I was going to stay up and play chess with Neville," said Ron. "I'll see you in the morning."

Hermione and Rob headed towards the staircase. Hermione went up first, with Rob following her. But as Rob stepped on the first stair, he felt some kind of invisible force holding him back.

"Woah, I can't get on the stairs," said Rob. "It's like something is pushing against me."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Is it the anti-boys charm?" said Neville. "There's a charm to stop boys going into the girl's dormitory. I, err, found out by accident in the first year when I got the stairs mixed up."

"Oh wow, that's so cool," said Hermione. "It means that the castle has accepted your new gender identity."

"Err, yeah. I guess," said Rob.

"Are you not pleased about that?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, I am pleased. It's just that I'm not sure where I will be sleeping now," said Rob.

"I guess it means we are sharing again," said Ron.

"Again?" Hermione said with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, over Christmas. We both slept in Ron's room," said Rob.

"Oh. You didn't mention that part when you told me you stayed with the Weasleys," said Hermione.

"I guess I forgot to mention it," said Rob.

"Anyway, do you want to try going up the stairs to the boys dormitory," said Hermione. "See if the charm stops you or not."

Rob slowly walked over to the other staircase. He put his foot on the first step and tentatively tried to climb up. He didn't feel any resistance, so climbed up a few more steps.

"The charm is not stopping me," said Rob. "I guess it means I have to sleep in the boys dormitory now."

Rob kept climbing up the stairs and went into the room. He looked around and saw that it was similar to the girls dormitory. It was just more untidy and had a funny smell. Also, he noticed Dean was by his bed and getting changed into his pajamas.

As Dean took off his top, he turned around to see Rob standing by the door. Dean froze and looked around nervously. "Oh, hey," he said. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Err, yeah. Neither was I," said Rob.

Dean quickly grabbed his pajama top, while Rob turned to look the other way. When Rob had turned, he noticed that his trunk was in front of one of the beds.

"That's my stuff," said Rob.

"Oh, yeah," said Dean. "That was the spare bed before. I guess it's your bed now."

Rob went to his trunk and took out his pajamas. "I'm just going into the bathroom to get changed," he said.

When Rob finished putting on his pajamas, he went back into the dormitory. Dean was in bed and reading a book.

Rob thought about saying something, but wasn't sure what. Instead he climbed into bed and tried to go to sleep.

As he was just starting to relax and close his eyes, Ron came into the dormitory. Rob quickly shut his eyes tight and pretended to be asleep.

Ron walked over to his bed and looked around. He saw Dean was in bed with a book, and it seemed that Rob was asleep already. As Rob was asleep, Ron grabbed his pajamas and got ready for bed.

Soon all the boys were in bed and going to sleep. Rob was happy that the other boys seemed to have accepted him being there. But still, he did feel a little odd sharing the room with them. It was because he had the wrong body that he felt uncomfortable with anyone seeing it.

Rob rolled over in bed and tried to clear his mind. Soon he had settled down and dropped off to sleep.