SHIP Harry & Ginny?

[Kimberly]

No: HPFGUIDX 15443

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., cassandraclaire at m... wrote:

> 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. 

Definitely.  I'm not advocating immediate relationship development, 
just hoping for the eventual.

> 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?  

Ok, I get that the language used was rather... picturesque <g>, but I 
don't see why a woman can't be nurturing to a man and still be strong, 
and still be equal.  Ginny has demonstrated no tendency to treat Harry 
like his mother.  I don't see the sin in being supportive of someone 
you love.  It doesn't mean you do nothing else, and it doesn't mean 
you don't have your own issues and struggles and adventures and 
ambitions, it just means you *also* nurture and support the person you 
care for, and I think it's an important aspect of any relationship.  I 
hope we all get to spend some time around such boring wimps in our 
lifetimes.  In fact, I aspire to be just that kind of boring wimp for 
someone someday (well, maybe not in so many words - being a balm 
sounds messy!).  And I don't have any intention of sacrificing my 
integrity, my interests or my dreams to do so.

Now, I think it can be argued that Ginny might not actually be that 
kind of person, as we don't know her well enough yet to be sure of 
such things, but to fault her for being that way if she is is rather 
harsh.  

Oh!  And for the record I don't think Ginny's a boring wimp in canon, 
your factual-looking statement above notwithstanding <bg> - there's an 
outside possibility that there are others who might agree with me, I'm 
guessing.

> 
> 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. 

Again, I can't know what kind of love Ginny can offer, but I don't 
think unconditional love is something to be scorned, and I don't think 
offering it prevents someone from being 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 shaking with shock at the idea that unconditional love is weak.  
It's the strongest kind of love there is.  It's the kind of love that 
allows a person to lay down his or her life, it's the kind of love 
that allows a person to move mountains.  It's anything but weak, and 
it's what I aspire to above all else, although so far I suck at it.  
Whether Ginny can manage it or not I don't know, but if she does, then 
Harry (or whoever she ends up with) will be one lucky person, and 
they'll sure hear about it if they're doing something stupid or 
dangerous.
 
> 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. 

This I agree with, and I'm as anxious as anyone to see it.  I doubt 
you'll get too much dissention from H/Gers that we need to see what 
Ginny's really all about.  It's just we're *hoping* for the good, 
strong, corageous Ginny we think we are going to find.  

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.

Patience is all I can suggest for that.  Please don't rule out the 
possibility that she can be a fully developped character just because 
she isn't yet.  We're only halfway through!

> 
> 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.

I agree with this as well.  He doesn't have to, I just want him to 
anyway! :D

kimberly