I Hate Ginny Weasley!!!!

[quigonginger]

No: HPFGUIDX 122380


phoenixgod2000 wrote:
> 
> Ummn...Hi.
> 
> Now that I have your attention, I just wanted to start a debate 
about 
> a character that wasn't Snape, Harry, or Dumbledore.  That 
character 
> is OOTP!Ginny.  I separate her from Ginny in the rest of the series 
> because she bears no resemblance to book 1-4 Ginny. Am I the only 
> person who was annoyed by her sudden prominence in OOTP?  She burst 
> onto the scene like a bad fanfic character, suddenly good at 
> everything without a cohensive explanation and it certainly 
detracted 
> from my enjoyment of the book.  Was I the only who felt that way?
> 
> Phoenixgod2000

Ginger:
Oh, no, you're not the only one who felt that way.  Right after the 
release of OoP, there was a whole herd of Anti-change-in-OoP Ginny 
posts.  Funnily enough, there were a bunch of us who weren't 
surprised at all.

So, to defend my girl (one of my faves, right up there with Snape, 
Sirius and Lupin):
 
When we meet her, she's a kid.  A bit sheltered as the youngest 
child.  She's about 10 years old.  She has the typical "star crush" 
on Harry.  Had you caught me at that age around Chad Everett, I'd 
have been the same way.  Heck, I'm still like that about Barry 
Manilow and Ozzy Ozbourne.  Just being in the same building...but I 
digress.  

Quite a few on the list saw this as a weakness on her part.  But, 
really, she's a home-schooled (per JKR) 10 year old, and she acts 
like one. 

In CoS, she's 11.  Away from home for the first time.  Sure, she's 
got brothers, but she's a girl starting to come of age.  She writes 
in a diary.  Now we get to the heart of things.  It may be really 
easy to get sucked into a magical diary, but what does it take to get 
out?  She throws the thing away!  And when Harry finds it, she breaks 
into his stuff and gets it back!  Not the shy timid child we've seen 
through Harry's eyes.  

We don't know what the heck made her start writing again, of even if 
she did.  Just having the diary back may have been enough for Tom's 
power over her to hook her in again.  Her earlier courage in throwing 
the diary away is overshadowed by her reaction after the rescue.  If 
anyone has ever been in a situation where death was a very real and 
probable outcome, you know that after the shock wears off, you get a 
bit hysterical.  You cry.  Some people saw this as a weakness in her 
too, but I remember vividly being pulled out of a wrecked car, 
thinking that my dad had to be dead too, and finding out that we were 
both alive, and bawling like a baby.  I'd been a right trooper up to 
then, due to shock.

So Ginny cries, and we see the little girl we have come to know.  
She's only 11, and she's been through hell, but all we see is the 
crying in the end.  

In PoA, she's pretty much silent, but a lot has been going on in the 
background.  She's had a full year of growing experiences; we just 
don't know what they are.  

By the time we get to the Yule Ball, signs are showing of her 
increasing maturity.  She accepts a date from Neville, and keeps it, 
even though she receives the offer of her dreams.  Pretty mature.  I 
remember girls in High School who waffled on what to do in a 
situation like that.  Not our girl Ginny!

As OoP rolls around, she's been out of our sight for over two years, 
barring the Quidditch Cup and the Yule Ball, where she was a bit 
player at best.  She's now 14.  She's been possessed and fought it.  
She's been morally tested and came out showing her maturity.  At 14, 
she's coming into her own.  Was it jarring to us?  Mostly.  Was it 
jarring to Harry?  Oh, yeah!  Was Hermione shocked?  Nope, not at 
all.  Why?  Because she knew her better than Harry or we did.  She 
even trusted her with the big Victor secret.  Even Ron commented once 
to Harry that when Ginny was crushing on him (Harry) that she wasn't 
her usual self.  "Usually she never shuts up" he said.

I'd be willing to bet that had we followed Ginny around for 
the "silent years" that we'd have seen her go from little girl to 
awakening young woman.  (Now you see why I'm not a writer; that was 
SAPPY!)

Me?  I saw it in her.  I was waiting for it.  I admit a lot of that 
had to do with the fact that I didn't think JKR would make such a big 
deal out of her just to leave her on the back burner.  She's being 
developed for something.  What that is remains to be seen. 

I bet in book 6, she transfigures the giant squid into a Muggle for 
eating her new broomstick, falls in love with it (the squid), and 
begets the halfblood prince, who timeturns back to the founding where 
he possesses Salazar Slytherin, who leaves the basilik, who, 
unbeknownst to us, had fallen in love with Ginny during her 
possession, and left her a secret present in the chamber, which turns 
out to be a new broomstick.  (Now you see why I don't write fanfic.)

I'd love to hear others' thoughts on Ginny.
Ginger (yeah, it's a coincidence)