The Ginny Weasley Quotient

[Penny Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 44920

Hi all --

Better late than never perhaps......my thoughts on some of the Ginny & shipping issues of late --

Pippin noted:

<<<<<<<<And even Harry at age fourteen is so self-conscious that he 
dreads anyone finding out how he feels about Cho, and thinks it 
would sound melodramatic to tell Ron that someone is trying to 
kill him. (That's often overlooked, BTW. Harry *did* lie to Ron.)>>>>>>>

I would consider that more an "omission" than an "outright lie" as Hermione would say.  If he lied to Ron though, he also lied to Hermione and virtually everyone else on that same point.  And actually, if this is the incident I'm remembering, it's Hermione's feelings he's concerned about, not Ron's:

*********************

"I can't remember all of it now, but they were plotting to kill ... someone."

He'd teetered for a moment on the verge of saying 'me,' but couldn't bring himself to make Hermione look any more horrified than she already did.

(GoF, Chapter 10)

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Judy had said:

<<<<<<<[Ginny]asks how he managed to kill the Basilisk, then cries 
about the  possibility of being expelled, but she never once asks 
if he is hurt or manages a stammering thank you, even after she 
is safe with her  parents and absolved. Don't you find that the 
least bit odd?>>>>>>>>>>

Pippin:

<<<<<<<<<<<Not really. How do you thank someone for something like that? 
Especially at age eleven. I don't recall that Hermione ever 
thanked the boys for saving her from the Troll....<snip>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

L.O.O.N. point:

**********************

".... Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them.  There was a very embarrassed pause.  Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said, "Thanks," and hurried off to get their plates."

(PS, Chapter 10)

***********************

> Judy had previously said:
> > If she is the chatterbox Ron says she is, and brave enough to 
be  sorted into Gryffindor, why not stammer, stumble and 
mumble her way  through asking Harry to take her  to the Yule 
Ball as Harry did Cho  and Ron did Fleur?  Even a Hufflepuff girl 
managed it. 
> 
>  and Pippin responded:
> > Because she was a third year. She couldn't invite *anyone* to 
the  ball. It'd be pretty pushy to ask Harry or anyone else to invite 
> her to a function she wouldn't otherwise be entitled to attend.
> 
> Judy responds:
> JKR makes a point of mentioning that the Hufflepuff girl who 
asked  Harry was also a THIRD YEAR Ch, 22 Pg 389 (American 
edition) and that she hadn't spoken a word to him in her life.  <snip>

Pippin goes on: 
<<<<We may be impressed by that Hufflepuff's gumption, but Harry isn't. He turns her down. And he doesn't look her up again, even 
after Cho's turned *him* down and he's desperate.  Plus he got 
teased about it by Dean, Seamus and Ron (but not Neville, 
interestingly.) Why would they have teased him, if  she weren't 
doing something a bit gauche? I can just imagine the ribbing 
both Harry and Ginny would have gotten if she'd asked him, 
particularly if he'd said no. I'd say it showed good manners and 
sensitivity on her part, not a lack of guts.>>>>>>>>>>

Actually, Harry got teased because Ron was apparently present when said Hufflepuff girl asked Harry to the Ball (he was definitely present when the 5th year asked Harry a few days later).  I strongly suspect if Ginny *had* worked up the courage to ask Harry to the Ball, she'd have done so in private, and there would have been no teasing of either of them because noone would have been privy to it.  

Pippin:

<<<<<<<<Right now, Ginny seems to be a giggly girl who was duped by 
Voldemort. And for nearly all of PoA, we thought Sirius Black was 
a homicidal maniac who was serving Voldemort. It didn't take 
long for JKR to undo that impression, did it?>>>>>>>

Fair enough.  <g>  But, she had a plot purpose for giving us the wrong impression of Sirius.  Not to say that she *can't* undo her heretofore skeletal development of Ginny, but I suppose my question is: if she does intend Ginny to be Harry's eventual love interest, why on earth has she kept Ginny so poorly-developed for the last 2 books?  What's the *plot* point to this?  She's certainly made no secret of Ron's burgeoning romantic interest in Hermione or of Ginny's crush on Harry?

Penny


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