Different

It starts when I refuse to let Eloise Midgen see my Transfiguration notes. I'm not sure why that should be the start of something like this, but that's all I can figure. But why should I give her my notes? That's what I don't understand. Eloise and her little Hufflepuff friends, with their lipstick and their boyfriends and their giggling. They never invite me to do anything, they ignore me until they want something, and they'll ignore me after they get what they want. Why does that make them better than me? They weren't paying attention in class and I was, so why should I share? They're the bad students, not me. No one expects Hufflepuffs to do well anyway, she might as well just keep getting low grades like she always does. But the next morning things start to go all funny.

The first thing is my tie. I put it on in the morning, after my shirt and my socks and skirt, just like I always do. But while I brush my hair the red disappears, and then the gold. I can see it in the mirror, like it just leaked out. It's just grey after that, the whole thing, not even a bit of a stain on the seams to show where it was once brightly coloured. A dull grey tie like a lump of lead around my throat, threatening to drown me, strangle me.

At first I figure it's a joke someone is playing on me. I think there will be ink all over my shirt and someone will come in and laugh. April fools, or Got you! But there's nothing; my shirt is still clean, and no one comes in. So I pull out another tie from the closet and put that one on. I look down at it and watch the colours bleed out even faster than the first one.

So I go to class without a tie on, I mean, what else can I do? I'm quiet, I sit in the back. No one needs to notice, no one needs to know. But of course McGonagall notices, and right off too. She gives me a look.

"They're all dirty," I say, looking as innocent as I can. "I'm sorry." She just nods and goes on with the lesson. I'm really scared, but I'm more scared to have anyone find out.

The next day when I'm still not wearing a tie, I get detention. But that's okay really, because during detention I figure out how to charm an ordinary grey tie of Ron's into one that looks red and gold stripped. I have to make sure no one looks too close, cause the red is a bit off, and the gold is kind of watery. The stripes look okay, but they're off centre and the borders don't match quite right. Good thing no one normally looks at me anyway.

After dinner I notice that my Gryffindor crest is suddenly missing its lion. I have an empty crest on all my robes, it's like the lion just got tired of looking at me. That's easy enough to hide, though; I just pin my robes back. No one wears their robes all done up anyway, except for Malfoy, and I think he just likes showing off that godawful snake on his. No one ever inspects our uniforms anyway, so I just keep quiet. After hours I'm working on embroidering a new lion on mine, but I'm not very good at that. I'll ask my mom to help, and just tell her it's a gift for Percy.

But it's still not that easy. Everyone thinks that all you need to get past the portrait of the fat lady is the password. Well, they're wrong. I always know the password, I always know it, but the fat lady just gives me a funny look.

"You don't really belong here, do you dear," she says. She won't let me in unless I'm with someone else, so I just tag along after Harry. Even then she gives me a bit of a look. None of her business, I say. I know the password, it's not fair.

And then I go to dinner a little late, I'm running into the Great Hall hoping to get there before the food appears, and there's no seat for me at the Gryffindor table. Harry sees me standing there and looks confused, he gets up and pulls a chair from along the wall and puts it next to him.

"Here, Ginny," he says, patting the seat. "Sit here."

The moment I touch the back of the chair it slides back against the wall. The Gryffindor table doesn't want me sitting there anymore.

I get called into the headmaster's office after that. He sees the crest, the tie, he asks me about the portrait and I tell him the truth. What else can I do? Maybe I'm just sick. Maybe something's wrong with me. Maybe I'm turning into a squib.

He says something about how unusual it is, and never in all my days and all that. He calls McGonagall in and they talk in whispers. I know they're looking at me but I just look down at my hands. My hands still look the same. Same freckles, same too-white skin. My fingernails are clean, I'm a good student, I am. I can cast spells just like everyone else in my class. I'm not the best at it, but I’m not the worst either.

Why is Gryffindor rejecting me?

They take out the sorting hat and put it on my head. McGonagall says that sometimes people change, the need to be resorted partway through their Hogwarts career, but even I know she's lying to make me feel better. This hasn't happened to anyone else. It only happens to me.

The hat doesn't do anything. It doesn't say anything at all. It just sits on my head like a hat, like an ordinary hat.

"Oh dear," McGonagall says.

So they give me my own room. I eat dinner by myself there, too, because it's too embarrassing to sit at a little table by myself in the Great Hall. The Slytherins think it's funny and it upsets Ron. Mum cries when I tell her. Percy says I've always been the odd one out and Dad tells him to shush.

My name is Ginny Weasley. I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, not loyal enough to be in Hufflepuff, not smart enough to be in Ravenclaw, and not sly enough to be in Slytherin.

I'm different than the rest of you.