A/N: Thank you Skade (beta-reader, everyone say 'hi'), Josephine, civateteo, Sache8, Elektra, gibson girl, and Fredrick. Hope I got everyone there.

Okay, it took a little while to get this one out, but it's here now :). I've been hearing a lot of comparisons to "A Beautiful Mind", or a movie I've never gotten around to seeing. Tell me more. Anyway, I've been very busy with the revision of my other story (which was probably a waste of time, since there's still no one reading), but I've decided to just put up what I have and continue on it after I finish this story. BTW, if you reviewed it before, I kind of, er...lost the reviews. Sorry about that.

Well, in this chapter, we have some angsty!Ginny. Fun, fun, fun! But all is well with the world when Harry knocks on her dormitory door...okay, 'all' might be a strong word... And you know how I love those cliffhangers. And how I love feedback. He he, Enjoy.

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Chapter Four
Born under a Bad Star

"She's in our dormitory," said Ginny, as though it were obvious. "She sleeps in the bed next to mine."

"Oh, you mean Stephanie?" suggested Daphne. Ginny shook her head.

"The other bed."

Daphne blinked. "Er, Gin, no one's in that bed."

"No, you don't understand," she responded. "Rebecca sleeps in that bed. She transferred here this year from Shannon, remember?"

"No," said Daphne, looking at Ginny carefully.

"Well, she gets sick a lot," she explained. "Maybe that's why you don't see her that much --"

"There's still only four girls in our dormitory, and there were no transfers this year. I don't know who this Rebecca is, but she's not a fourth-year Gryffindor."

Ginny could see this was going nowhere fast. Looking back at her with a curious expression of her own, she said, "Never mind," and headed back to her dormitory to see if Rebecca had returned. Arriving there, she slowly creaked open the door and peeked inside. Her brow furrowed.

Okay, that was weird.

She could see Rebecca lying in bed, as clear as day. Awfully pale, she shielded her face from the light coming in through the window.

Perhaps it was just Daphne, she thought.

She walked up to Becky's bedside, looked down on her carefully. She didn't look well at all.

"Becky?" whispered Ginny as she gently shook her awake, noting how cold her skin was. Rebecca stirred and groaned, a grimace on her face. After she rubbed some of the sleep out of her eyes, she slowly opened her eyes to look at Ginny. She then squeezed them back shut against the light.

"Hey, Gin," she said in a scratchy, almost incoherent voice.

"Hey," she said softly. "How you feeling?"

Ginny could make out her shrugging shoulders from beneath the sheets.

"My annual winter cold has kicked in," she said in a slightly clearer tone. She stopped short of her last word and coughed a little.

"You weren't here a few moments ago when I can in to find you," said Ginny.

"Bathroom," said Becky shortly. She squinted up at Ginny again.

"You look well today," she commented, seeing how Ginny's face still glowed.

"Yeah," she said, turning a bit more red but calming immediately. "But I have something else to tell you. It's about Daphne."

Rebecca's eyebrow scrunched. Ginny continued.

"I was looking for you and I asked you where you were... And she's never heard of you."

Becky's eyebrows briefly rose and lowered. "Why doesn't this surprise me?" she muttered bitterly.

"Not what you think, not exactly. She's never heard of you, she's never seen you. In her opinion, you don't exist."

Eyebrow scrunched again, she stared at Ginny.

"As in, she can't see me?"

Ginny nodded.

"How bizarre," said Rebecca quietly. "I remember existing the last time I checked."

"I know," said Ginny in agreement. "I think maybe she's seeing things. Or not seeing things, for that matter. Do you think she might be...I don't know...sick?"

Ginny watched silently as Becky managed to sit up, depending wholly on the headboard of her bed.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Like, some kind of neurological problem. I was going to ask her more questions, but I heard those people can sometimes, you know...lash out at you if you make the wrong move... You remember, we had to read that long chapter on psychological disorders? Wow, that was only - what, a last week or so? What a coincidence. And she was normal last year."

Becky stared at her for a moment before responding.

"Delusional, perhaps?"

Ginny thought for a moment, shrugging. In the back of her mind, she hoped so and believed so, but this might have been influenced by her overall dislike of her. Besides, she wasn't really sure. It was very implausible, but maybe Rebecca was simply overlooked.

It's Daphne, after all, too narcissistic and too popular to really care, thought Ginny bitterly.

"Maybe you were just overlooked," she said quietly. "Daphne has a way of doing that." She gave Becky a sympathetic smile. Becky stared back at her dubiously.

"Yeah, but I've been here for half the year already..." It was silent for a moment before she spoke again. "Well, I know enough to see you don't like Daphne very much --"

"I don't like her at all," said Ginny icily.

"Well, I know why I don't like her," said Becky matter-of-factly, "but I've never been able to figure out why you didn't like her."

"Oh, yes, I'm sure it's hard not to like brilliant, lovely, popular, date-able, Prefect Daphne with her deep blue eyes and her full, blond hair. As opposed to my freckled skin, flaming red hair and my lovely secondhand robes," she finished sarcastically.

Becky smirked. "I see your point. Perfect people are so annoying."

"Here, here. And you know," said Ginny, getting worked up over the new topic, "I worked so damn hard last year for that damn Prefect title. What good did it do? I'm the runner-up. If anything should happen to Daphne - which I doubt anything will - I take over." She scoffed. "I'm sure the girl's never broken a bone in her perfect little body." She stopped and sighed, absently fiddling with a strand of her hair. Becky looked at her in wonder.

"Wow," she said in awe. "Rarely do I see a display of your colorful vocabulary. You really don't like her, do you?"

"I hate her," she said, her tone darker. "It's as if she overshadows every little thing I do, every little thing anyone does. Sometimes I wish she would just...gracefully step aside and let someone else have a try. And when that happens, I want people to see me for what I am and not...not for what I should be, you know?"

Rebecca's gaze on her changed slightly on the last line, becoming somewhat softer. She knew what she meant. Oh, she knew too well. After a moment, she responded.

"I think someone already does," she said softly. "You left him back in Hogsmeade." Ginny stared at her curiously.

"You weren't born under a bad star like me," Becky continued faintly with a small note of sadness. "Your day will come one day."

Ginny smiled softly. So now she was convinced that Daphne was the one with the problem.

"So will yours, Beck," she said kindly. "Someday."

Becky smiled back as well.

"So do you want anything for that cold?" said Ginny, getting up from her bed.

Becky shook her head modestly. "I'll be fine. Just tell me how your day with Harry is so far."

Ginny looked at her with a bewildered expression. "How do you do that?" she said, now completely puzzled to how she was so predictable all of a sudden.

"It's all in the face," said Becky simply. "You were practically glowing just a few minutes ago: well, before Daphne was brought up. Really, I haven't seen you that happy since... Well, I've never seen you this happy."

"Probably because I've never been this happy," said Ginny, distantly staring out of the window.

"Today was good?"

"Today was great. Let's see... First, I went to Zonko's to get Harry's present, looking for the Canary Creams. Then, out of nowhere, there he is, standing behind me --" Ginny stopped suddenly, her expression turning to one of slight panic.

She looked across her bed and realized something was missing. Quickly, she dropped to the ground and looked under the bed. Rebecca looked at her, concerned.

"What is it?" she asked curiously.

"The Canary Creams..." said Ginny incoherently, coming back up to look on her bed again. "Oh, no. I must have left them at the Three Broomsticks! I paid two Galleons for that --"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Ginny and Rebecca glanced at each other, listening to the faint shuffling outside.

The person knocked again.

"Maybe you should get that," said Rebecca with raised eyebrows.

"Do you think it's...him?" she whispered. Rebecca just shrugged and stared at the door.

"Ginny?" said a voice outside the door. "Are you there?"

Yeah, it's him.

"Er - yeah," said Ginny in a strangled sort of tone, smiling broadly and walking toward the door. "Just a moment."

Hurriedly, she straightened out her shirt and smoothed down her hair. With a deep sigh, she cautiously opened the door. Outside it she found Harry there, holding her discarded shopping bag that contained the Canary Creams and smiling warmly.

"You forgot something," he said quietly, handing her the bag.

"I thought so," she said, her tone matching his. Glancing once more back at Becky (who was giving her an excited thumbs-up), she blushed slightly and took a step outside the dormitory and closed the door behind her.

"Thanks," she murmured, looking absently into the bag at the yellow box.

"You're welcome."

What to say, what to say... Ginny smiled slightly as her eyes darted from the bag to Harry, from him to the floor. She was aware that he was staring; could feel his eyes on her. She cleared her throat somewhat and looked up to meet his eyes.

"You already know who's getting these, right?" she asked, brandishing the bag a bit.

"I'm guessing it was me," he responded with a smirk.

"Right you are. So you can just keep them, I suppose," she said, handing the bag back.

"No, just give them to me on Christmas," he insisted, returning the bag to her yet again. "I told you before: I'm getting better at acting surprised."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, since you already know what you're getting," she said suggestively, "could you tell me what I'm getting?"

Harry chuckled. "I can't do that."

"Why not? You know what you're getting."

"Well, yours is still a surprise, and I intend on keeping it that way."

"Please?" whined Ginny. "I can act surprised, too, you know."

"That's great, Gin," he said teasingly, about to head down the stairs. "See you at dinner."

"See you," she replied, smiling after his retreating back. When he was out of sight, she reentered her dormitory and grinned widely at Becky, who was looking somewhat healthier all of a sudden.

Maybe from the realization, after Ginny had shaken her awake, that she was no longer intangible.

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Well...what did that mean? We shall find out later in the story, but for now, I must leave you, for I haven't eaten yet and I'm desperately hungry. Thanks for reading.