[HPforGrownups] Re: I still hate Ginny Weasley!!!

[heather the buzzard]

No: HPFGUIDX 131782

Pippin:

>If Ginny had really changed from a shrinking wallflower to a bold and 
>cunning wench, we might  expect to see her doing it. But most of 
>the change was in her perception of Harry and Harry's perception
>of her. The talks a lot clue tells us that normally she's not 
>shy. 
>
>We know she's a powerful witch because as a second year
>she made a singing greeting card that nobody could shut up,
>though we learn in GoF that that kind of spell wears out
>very quickly as a rule. We know she has a sense of humor
>because she sent that singing valentine to Harry. We know
>she was interested in Quidditch because she went to the QWC...
>I can tell you that  I'd have rather gone
>shopping with Molly in Diagon Alley any day.
>
>We know that she's not too dainty to steal --she stole
>the diary from Harry, and no one ever suspected it was her.
>We know she can be deceptive -- look at her saying that
>she didn't know the diary was dangerous...balderdash!
>She threw it away, didn't she?
>
heather now:

I agree with Pippin in this case.

Ginny was definitely in the background in the first few books, but 
that's because she was... well, in the background!  There were a few 
hints but nothing obvious, because she was in the background.  She was 
the little sister, who had her own personality and strengths and 
weaknesses, but would just be seen as 'the little sister' until she came 
into her own a couple years later. 

By OoTP, she has come out from the shadow of her brothers and is her own 
self.  Her mischievous side, always present but probably generally kept 
under 'control', has now emerged and blossomed.  Just because we weren't 
there to see it all happen doesn't make it less legitimate.  I've 
enjoyed her behind-the-scenes development, and was never surprised by 
it, really.

Something I haven't seen yet brought to this discussion, though, is the 
fact that for her whole first year she was basically possessed by 
Voldemort.  The boys do notice that she's acting 'strange', but don't 
really pursue the matter.  Her life this whole year is kidnapped by this 
secret she is carrying, this guilt over what's she's doing, this 
obsession over continuing it (and then the guilt over the obsessions)... 
it's almost like an addiction.  The way she flings it away in anger, 
then later steals it back in desperation, smacks of addiction.

All this is to say, she was *not herself* for that whole year.  Any 
'character development' is shunned to the side because of forces beyond 
her control.  Her first year at Hogwarts (when she's most likely to be 
more timid than usual anyway) is a 'lost year'.

The following year (PoA) probably had her, at least at first, still 
recuperating from that experience.  Then she sets out to make friends 
and lead a normal student's life, which she was certainly NOT doing the 
previous year, because she was possessed by Tom Riddle and her diary 
addiction.  She's off making her own life, she's not interacting with 
the main story characters much. 

So the next year she starts to be seen a bit more.  She has fully 
recovered from the diary, she has grown into a teenager (age 13 now), 
and her latent mischievous and brash and bold tendencies are starting to 
flower.  I see this as perfectly normal timing, considering her first 
year was totally lost, and so her 2nd year was like most students' first 
year, their time of 'finding themselves'.  Not until her 3rd year does 
she start to really SHOW this self.

Anyway, that's my bit on the matter.  :)

heather the buzzard