The Waterfords

The Waterford family was once very grand indeed, possessing a large estate in Cornwall and various Ministry seats. Over time, though, poor leadership and ill luck saw the family begin to dwindle, until, at the turn of the century, they were forced to sell their Cornish properties and move to London in a last ditch effort to cling to the lifestyle of which they were so proud. This failed, and by the time Wilfred Waterford was born, the only child in his generation to reach five years of age, the family was firmly middle class.

He, too, would be plagued by ill luck, with his wife struggling to deliver a living child, and those children she did bear successfully not lasting past their second birthday. George’s birth was dubbed a miracle, then, and—not expecting any further miracles to come along—Wilfred was determined to make the most of it.

Early Years

1874 | George Emerson Waterford is registered as male, in spite of the fact that the baby is quite clearly female. Uncertain he would ever get another child, Wilfrid made the controversial call with only slight support from his wife in an effort to buy the dying family one last generation. George, then, is dutifully swaddled in pink and given all the things expected of little boys, and Eleanor cares for the babe herself, rather than hire a nanny and risk her leaking the truth.

1877 | An inauspicious first act of magic see’s George change the colour of his blanket from pink to blue. His father is not thrilled.

1879 | Eleanor is pregnant once again, for the first time since George’s arrival. The family does not expect it to ‘take’, but hopes for the best. George begins his formal lessons in reading, writing, mathematics, history, and French.

1880 | A true son arrives to the Waterfords, called Alexander for his grandfather. On inspecting the infant, George discovers something that they do not have in common and asks his father about it. It is the first, and only, time that George’s father hits him. Their relationship has always been strained, but this latest development makes it even rougher still.

Hogwarts

1885 | George goes to Hogwarts and is sorted into Ravenclaw. He is fast friends with -----, a fellow first year eagle, and in inadvertently seeing the boy naked one day, realizes that he shares in common with Alexander what George does not. Over the Christmas holidays, George presses Eleanor this time, who quietly discloses the truth: George was born female, not male, and only a clerical decision and their father’s sheer force of will has seen any different. George is understandably shaken by this news.

1886 | Struggling with this new information, George spends the better part of the year struggling with exactly who they are—their natural form or their nurtured form? George quietly begins to think of herself as the girl she was born to be, and find this image lines up much better with her sense of self. Still, she cannot tell anyone, and for now is content to play the part her father has cast her in, though secretly dreams of the life she could someday have.

1887 | Going into her third year, George selects Ancient Studies and Ghoul Studies as electives for her OWL years.

1889 | George is horrified when Gretchen Lestrange learns her secret.

1890 | Thomas learns her secret as well.

1891 | The cruise ship Santa Antonina sinks, claiming the lives of George's parents. Though both she and her brother are looked after in the will, the particulars rather unexpectedly see the pair delivered to the St Mungo's Home for Inconvenient Children until George completes her studies.