Mortified Harry (was Ginny ,what we don't know for sure)

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52328

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Amy Z 
<lupinesque at y...>" <lupinesque at y...> wrote:
> Pippin wrote:
> 
> >  If Ginny had sent a gushy valentine, Harry would have been 
> > utterly mortified, and Draco would probably have accused 
him of 
> > writing it to himself. As it is, Harry's only mortified until he
> > hears what the valentine says. Then he's able to laugh about 
it, 
> > and even puts up with  hearing "His eyes are as green" more 
> > than once before he gets tired of it and goes to bed. 
> 
> Harry is quite mortified by the content of the valentine.  I don't 
> have my book, so must paraphrase, but it specifically says that 
> Harry "forces" himself to laugh.  What does this mean other 
than that 
> he doesn't find it amusing?  It reads to me as if he is laughing 
> along to save face because it's even more embarrassing *not* 
to laugh  when everyone is laughing at you.  He also gets very 
sick of hearing  Fred and George singing--since, as you say, he 
goes to bed in order  to get away from it, I'm not sure how the text 
could be more explicit  about how much he's been embarrassed 
by the whole affair other than  have him actually hex their vocal 
chords into silence.<<<

Harry is "Hot all over at the thought of being given a valentine in 
front of a line of first years, which happened to include Ginny 
Weasley." Then he's even more upset because Draco and Percy 
show up--but this is all before he's heard the valentine. He loses 
his head and tries to run. After he's heard it--

"Harry would have given all the gold in Gringott's to evaporate on 
the spot. Trying to laugh along with everybody else..."

Well, he's embarrassed there, and everybody's laughing at him 
(some are crying with mirth)  but I submit it's not the content of 
the valentine so much as seeing the great hero pinned by dwarf 
in a Cupid costume, which was Harry's own fault for losing his 
head.

 He gets over it quickly enough, any way. He's perfectly happy 
once he's managed to one-up  Draco. And Ron, whose 
sympathies ought to lie with Harry if anyone's do, isn't mad at 
Ginny either. 

I'm sure the joke went farther than Ginny intended it to, but Harry 
seems to feel worse for her than he does for himself. The joke 
happens before the last afternoon class, and he hasn't heard 
more of "fresh pickled toad" than he can stand until after dinner.

  It's not like he had to go hide in the bathroom or tell Ron that if 
his sister ever does anything like that again he's going to hex her 
into the middle of next week. 

The wizards' sense of humor is rather robust. Consider the trick 
steps built into the staircases of Hogwarts itself. The point I was 
trying to make is that even the teachers were being teased and 
embarrassed that day, and that Ginny, including Harry in the 
"fun," was treating him like everyone else, which is what he 
wants.

I wonder if the  urge to put down Ginny may be a bit like the urge 
to create Evil!Cho, rooted in the readers' desire to consider Harry  
romantically available rather than on her portrayal in the text 
itself. 

Pippin