More on the Weasleys (Molly & Ginny)

[lupinesque]

No: HPFGUIDX 36099

I wrote:

 <<<Hear, hear!  I don't think Molly is perfect, and I would 
especially like 
> to see a few more warm moments between her and Ron, but some of the 
> indictments of her have read like He-Whose-Book-Must-Not-Be-Named's 
> descriptions of Arthur as a criminal, hypocrite, and terrible father 
and 
> husband.  Thanks for the voice of moderation.>>>>

Penny wrote:
 
> Now, now.  I hope my posts don't fall into this category. 

We can always hope <bg>.  

Penny on whether Ginny is still taken with Harry because of his fame:

> I dunno -- 
> you can counter with the scene in the bookstore in CoS where she 
seems to 
> know that Harry didn't ask for the attention & adulation Lockhart 
gives him. 
>   But, the diary entries later in the book do mention "famous" (of 
course, I 
> suppose Riddle might not be trustworthy in that regard).
> 
> I think it's impossible to judge what her crush is based on at this 
stage.

I agree, there really isn't much canon.  Her initial fascination must 
be with his fame, because she doesn't know anything else about him.  
Maybe Ron's letters home fueled the fire and gave her more details 
about Harry to seize upon; there's no way to know.  I do think that by 
GF,  (a) she still fancies him and (b) it's because of their 
face-to-face encounters, not because he's Famous Harry Potter.  My 
only basis for this conclusion is comparing their interactions with 
the many Harry has with people who can't resist at least glancing at 
his forehead (it is so pointed in GF):  Diggory Sr., Bagman, Colin and 
Dennis, Karkaroff.  In contrast, we never see Ginny referring to his 
fame in any way.  I realize I can't build a case on a negative, but if 
we can say Fred and George treat him as a regular guy, we can say the 
same about Ginny.  They like him; she has a crush on him; there's no 
reason to think either of these reactions has to do with his fame.  
The Burrow scenes are all about Harry fitting in to a family.  One 
reason, stated in canon, that he feels at home there is that "everyone 
there seem[s] to like him"; another, not stated but IMO a clear 
subtext because of the contrast with others in the wizarding world, is 
that they don't treat him as if he's set apart.  JKR could show with a 
gesture here or there that there is one Weasley who does; but she 
doesn't.  Ginny acts like a girl with a crush on her brother's best 
friend, period.

I suppose the scene in the bookstore is a point in Ginny's favor, a 
small one anyway.  The diary doesn't weigh much one way or the other 
either, I would say.  I don't imagine for a moment that she really 
wrote the words "good, great, famous Harry Potter" in her diary; that 
is Riddle's sneering.  We know that she wrote about what he had done 
that made him famous, but that was in a conversation.  It might be 
that she did write page after voluntary page about how famous he is, 
but OTOH it might easily have been a scenario like this:  

Ginny:  "I have a crush on this friend of my brother's, but he'll 
never pay any attention to me."
Tom, making nice:  "Why not?  You're such a sweet girl."
Ginny:  "Oh, I'm just plain me, and he's really famous."
Tom:  "Really?  Why's he famous?"  

and the story comes out.

Amy Z

----------------------------------------------------------------------
   "What is this thing?" said Moody, drawing the Marauder's Map out 
 of his pocket and unfolding it.
   "Map of Hogwarts," said Harry. . . .
   "Merlin's beard," Moody whispered, staring at the map, his magical 
 eye going haywire.  "This . . . this is some map, Potter!" 
   "Yeah, it's . . . quite useful," Harry said. 
                                         -HP and the Goblet of Fire
----------------------------------------------------------------------