SHIP Harry & Ginny?

[cassandraclaire at mail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 15412

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Alexandra Y. Kwan" <litalex at y...> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> > > Always good to hear someone else likes H/G!
> 
> Oh, the problems with being a slasher...  The first time I've read 
this, I
> thought it was Hermione/Ginny!
> 
> But, back to the unfortunate reality, I don't want to see 
Harry/Ginny until  Ginny is a) more grown-up, and b) more developed 
as a character.  And both  together, too.  I want to see how she'd 
act as a teenager before supporting any ships.  Also, anyone know if 
there are *any* magical colleges?
> 
> little Alex

Didn't JKR say that there are no magical colleges; that once you've 
graduated Hogwarts, that's it? And as for Ginny, I'm in complete 
agreement. She needs to be more grown-up and more developed as a 
character before she can be considered as a romantic partner for 
Harry. As to the argument that she will be able to smother Harry with 
the pure, unconditional healing balm of her love....YUCK. <g> Harry's 
a lovely little boy, and he's been through some of the worst things 
life can throw at anyone, and I'm the last person to deny him love, 
but "She will always be there for him, a healing balm, a safe harbor; 
and Harry will be good for her because he won't take her for 
granted" --- is mildly terrifying, especially following on the heels 
of the recent discussions of the lack of strong female characters in 
HP. The scenario makes it sound like Ginny will remain the boring 
wimp she is in canon (and she is a boring wimp in canon, Molly 
Weasley's daughter or not), and sit around at home with a pile of 
enchanted bandages, waiting for Harry to come home from fighting the 
Dark Lord so that she can patch up his wounds and tell him how very 
very brave and heroic he is and how he's so very clever and she'll 
always love him no matter what stupid things he does...*shudders* 
Also I don't see where we're getting that Harry wouldn't take her for 
granted. Why not, if she's just going to sit around being a safe 
harbor and a healing balm and basically acting like his mother?  

I think a lot of my support for H/H comes from the fact that I don't 
think that what Harry needs is to be smothered in blind, 
unconditional love from his romantic partner; I think he needs an 
equal. The kind of love he's missing in his life is parental love. He 
can get that from Sirius, and from Molly and Arthur Weasley, who I do 
believe care for him very much. It is a very bad idea for Harry to be 
getting the unconditional "parental" love he's missing in his life 
from his romantic partner. He needs someone strong for that; someone 
who will tell him when he's doing something stupid and dangerous, 
which he often does, someone who can help him, assist him, and be an 
equal partner to him. Just as Harry has chosen for best friends two 
people who are brave, strong and intelligent, so I believe that he 
would want the same thing in a romantic partner. 

I'm not saying Ginny isn't brave or strong or intelligent, just that 
we've *never* seen it in the books if she is. IMHO, we'd need to see 
this in canon before an H/G matchup would be believable. Even Fleur 
has had more character development than Ginny, and I'd rather see her 
with Harry, because at least she has a personality. I don't think 
this has anything much to do with being an H/H shipper either; many 
of the book reviews of the HP series I've read have noted Ginny's 
extremely shadowy, vacant characterization. I'm *perfectly* happy for 
Harry to end up with someone other than Hermione as long as that 
person is a strong, intelligent female character (or a male 
character. I'm not picky. I'd rather see him with Ron than Ginny; at 
least Ron would be an equal partner). And Ginny just 
isn't yet. We can extrapolate from the fact that Molly is a strong 
woman to say that Ginny might grow up to be one as well, but IMHO 
that's a poor substitute for actual character development.

I quite agree that the loving, close-knit Weasleys are a blessing in 
Harry's life. I just don't agree that he has to marry or date or be 
interested in Ginny to be a part of that family. One of the things I 
love about the Weasleys is how they have opened their home to Harry. 
I honestly believe that Mrs. Weasley truly loves Harry as if he were 
a child of her own, and that he doesn't need the crowbar of a 
relationship with Ginny to shoehorn him into the bosom of the Weasley 
family; he's already there.

Cassandra