Cool!Ginny; Ginny a Marked Woman?

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 69168

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pennylin" <pennylin at s...> 
wrote:

> Yes, Rachel makes the same basic "Harry's POV" point, but the 
problem with that from my perspective is that all this coolness 
isn't so much *noticed by* Harry as much as it is *told to* Harry 
through other characters.  We don't see Harry interacting with Ginny 
as much as we see Harry (and the readers) having these tidbits of 
Ginny thrown at us.  So, the characterization still seems like 
cheating to me.  And, I just found the whole "oh, I can make Ginny 
into anything I want because Harry never noticed her in the previous 
4 books" line to be lame.  Even without making Ginny into a fully 
developed character in earlier books we could have been given some 
*hints* about her.  Rowling supposedly has all the characters fully 
worked out in her notes .......so it shouldn't have been hard to 
throw in a little reference to Fred and George having noticed that 
Ginny plays Quidditch alot during the summers, unbeknownst to their 
parents.  Or something. 


Well, actually Ginny turned out pretty close to the way I expected 
her to be, based entirely on the *hints* that JKR put in the 
previous books. For having very little page-time in GoF, I thought 
there were several strong hints toward the "real" Ginny.

For starters, there was the "Back to the Burrow" chapter, where we 
see that she has named Ron's owl for him (over his objections, which 
don't seem to bother her at all), and made the name stick in spite 
of Ron's efforts to change it.  She isn't perturbed at all by the 
explosions coming from Fred & George's room, even though she knows 
how much her mother objects to what they're doing. Most 
significantly for me, she finds Bill and Charlie's mid-air table 
duel, hilarious, while poor Hermione hovers near the hedge, 
apparently torn between amusement and anxiety. On a side note, I 
really felt sorry for Hermione here.  She is apparently so humor-
impaired that she can't even enjoy something that anyone else (ok, 
maybe not Molly ;-))would find extremely funny.

In addition, she argues with her mother over Bill's hair and is 
apparently avidly interested in TWC quidditch.  Later on, in The 
Unexpected Task, Ginny is found kindly comforting Ron, although it's 
obvious that she finds his situation amusing, since she's fighting 
back a smile at the time.  Again, contrasting her reaction to 
Hermione, who isn't amused at all. Hmmmm..(but I digress)
She tartly puts Ron & Harry in their place for the unkind remarks 
about Neville, and (most importantly IMO) refuses to dump Neville 
for Harry, when given an opening to do so.  Although it's not 
explicitly stated in the book, I think that it's at this point she 
decides she's pined for Harry long enough and makes a decision to 
move on, without making a fuss about it. 

I really loved OOP Ginny, and didn't find her inconsistant with her 
earlier characterization at all.  She doesn't get much page time in 
earlier books because she's making her own way at Hogwarts and 
finding her own friends, without tagging along behind her older 
brothers and their friends.  What's wrong with that?

I won't be boarding the H/G ship at this time, though because I do 
believe that she *is* over her crush.  Anyway, at this point she's 
far too cool for the likes of Harry (could he and Ron *be* any lamer 
as far as girls are concerned?)

IMO, the only way H/G is ever going to happen is if Harry decides to 
seriously pursue Ginny.  If he does, I still think he's really going 
to have to work for it, before her lands her.  Which is as it should 
be.

Jo Serenadust