"Scott, your father loves you very much. He's doing his best." 

"That's why." 

He pets his rat. 

"What about you, Sadde, where are you from?"

"I was born in Knutsford, but we moved closer to London when my parents divorced."

"How do you like it there?"

"Knutsford? Haven't been since I was a baby. Watford's alright, I guess, but kids don't like me much at school."

"Why not? Are they mean?" 

"They're mean and I'm transgender."

"What's transgender?" 

"Scott, I think that's rude to ask." 

"It's not, don't worry," he reassures her. "It means my gender's not the same as the one people thought it was when I was born. In my case it's because it changes sometimes."

"How does it change? I thought you were just whatever you were born as, no one told me there were transgender people." 

"Well it just—does. Has since I can remember. But my first show of magic was—"

"—this."

"Oh. Cool. But then how do you know if you're a boy or a girl? You can just tell?" 

"Yeah—"

"—some days I just wake up feeling like one, some days the other. Some days neither."

"So I would know by now, if I was." 

"Maybe? I think some people take longer to know, but I always knew."

"Do wizards know about it? More than Muggles?"

"...Do they?" 

"Your guess is as good as ours. They apparently have gendered dormitories; I predict some awkwardness."

"I'll try my best to help, but I don't think they take Muggles very seriously." 

"That seems silly, not to care what parents think."

"Yes, magical law has... something to be desired... when it comes to its treatment of Muggles."