Harry and Ginny

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 136113

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
 
> Geoff:
> I have to begin by saying that I have rarely read the "shipping 
> forecasts" as, in general they do not interest me but, much to my 
> surprise - in  view of the massive number of posts coming in and 
the 
> difficulty for me in even keeping up with two or three threads, I 
> found myself glancing at one earlier today and feeling the need to 
> say something about the Harry-Ginny set up.
> 
> I felt that it was unfair for some posters to suggest that 
> Harry "dumped" Ginny at the end of the book. He felt that it was 
> necessary for the relationship to stop because of the danger 
involved.
> 
> This is not dissimilar to the real life situations of the two World 
> Wars when guys not more than a year or so older than Harry went off 
> to the war and many of them felt that it was only right and proper 
> that links with girl friends and sweethearts had to go on the back 
> burner because of the uncertainty of the future. Agreed, some of 
them 
> got married before they went (I'm not suggesting that with Harry 
and 
> Ginny by the way) but that was fraught with potential difficulties. 
> To give a (fictional) example, one of my favourite books is "To 
serve 
> them all my days" by R.D. Delderfield which charts the life of a 
> young man invalided out of the First World War who goes to teach at 
a 
> boarding school on Exmoor. In the early 1920s, a woman teacher 
comes 
> to the school and confides in the hero that she had been married 
> during the war and her husband had had to return to the front; she 
> further tells him that they had enjoyed a week of marriage before 
he 
> left and that he was now a shell, wounded, not knowing her and 
> permanently hospitalised.
> 
> These were the problems facing wartime budding romances. And they 
> still face Wizarding World relationships during the current state 
of 
> war.
> 
> Perhaps Ginny doesn't see the whole picture; she seems to think 
that 
> Harry is withdrawing on a whim.
> 
<snip> 
> Not all of the guys  came home after the two World Wars -  but some 
> did. Hopefully, there may yet be a time and place for the ship to 
> weigh anchor again


Hickengruendler:

Geoff, I find your example a bit problematic, in a sense that it 
doesn't really fit the situation. First of all, I'm not sure if 
really anyone said that Harry dumped Ginny. But I won't argue about 
this, maybe I just didn't saw it. IMO, it is clear that the break-up 
was just temporary and that they will reunite, if both survive book 7.

However, I find Harry's reasoning a lot of nonsense.

The thing is, that Ginny is in no way any safer now. And how can 
Harry be that foolish to think that she is? As you already stated in 
a part that I snipped, Voldemort already used her as a bait to lure 
Harry into a trap, and this was long before Harry even thought about 
Ginny in a romantic way. Ginny is in big danger of becoming a victim 
from Voldemort and his followers, and she is this no matter if she's 
Harry's girlfriend or not. She is a member of a "blood traitor" 
family, who already fought the Death Eaters twice. She is also close 
to Harry, no matter if as a love interest, a friend or just as a 
member of his very favourite family. So there are countless reasons 
for the Death Eaters to attack Ginny again. The fact that Harry and 
Ginny broke up changes nothing at all. 

The war parallel therefore doesn't really fit, since the girl who 
stays behind is as much in danger as the "soldier", and both of them 
are IMO idiots not to decide to enjoy the time together they have. 
Also, it bothers me a bit, that the safety of Harry's two best 
friends, one of them also a girl, doesn't seem to matter very much, 
since Harry doesn't seem to have any problems with them accompanying 
him. 

Not that I think that Ginny would have a chance of accompanying Harry 
anyway. In contrast to the Trio she is still 16 and has to do what 
Molly wants, in other words, very likely going to Hogwarts.

Hickengruendler