Ginny, Riddle's Diary and Cracking

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 35064

Something that has always bothered me about Ginny is the fact that 
after recovering Riddle's diary from Harry, instead of destroying it 
she opens it up again, leading to 2 more Petrefications and her own 
near-death.  How could anyone be so dumb?  But I was flipping through 
CoS and noticed that Harry, when he had the diary in his possession, 
spent a lot of time flipping through the pages trying to figure it 
out, and even carried it around with him in his backpack though it 
had nothing to do with his classes.  Is it possible that Riddle's 
presence in the diary is so powerful that it lured Harry into these 
actions?  If that's how the diary's magic begins, it's not so 
surprising that Ginny was enchanted by it, or that Riddle had put so 
much of himself into her that he could make her open it up again 
against her wishes.  

Now, would Ginny crack?  If Ginny was already caught by Riddle's 
diary -- not once but twice -- doesn't this make her a prime 
candidate for cracking?  After all, she's already cracked twice.  But 
maybe we're missing one point.  If Riddle's diary exerts such control 
over the possessor, how was Ginny able to throw it away?  Doesn't 
this demonstrate that she had developed some ability to resist?  And 
after she got the diary back, and it began exerting its power over 
her, she tried to confess to Ron, but lost her nerve when Percy 
showed up.  So maybe the diary wasn't in complete control of her, 
after all.  Now that she's 
older, more experienced and more wary, I think it might be much 
harder to make her crack a third time.

Debbie (warming to Ginny, but not quite prepared to bring a 
GIANTCUSHION to the hearthside)