Ginny in HBP and a little SHIP Harry/Ginny WAS: Re: First potions lesson

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 146018

> > >>kchuplis: 
> > Was she supposed to be a complete dweeb?
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> A flaw or two might have been nice.  An acknowledged flaw, anyway.  
> She does have an enormous chip on her shoulder and can go from quiet 
> to raging fury in sixty seconds, but I get the sense that's supposed 
> to be a plus in JKR's eyes.  (If it's a left over Voldemort piece 
> and it turns out her personality changes were from her brush with a 
> horcrux I will take everything I said about her and JKR's handling 
> of her back.  I will also be thrilled beyond measure.  But I fear 
> this will not happen.)

Pippin:
It's not time for Harry to notice her flaws. He's infatuated. If JKR makes
Ginny's flaws obvious to the reader, then Harry will look like a lovestruck
dolt  for not noticing them (cough*Tonks*cough.)

 But I think there could be some serious (not insurmountable) 
problems on the horizon. Ginny is secretive and so
is Harry. They *think* they understand each other so well they don't
need to talk things out. That could be a problem all by itself. But
there's also something I'm a little suspicious about. 

Tom tells us that Ginny was very much ashamed to come to school
in second hand robes.  She stole the diary from Harry's room. She 
"borrowed"  the Twins' brooms. Ron has to scrape for dress robes 
and a Quidditch broom, Ginny's come out of nowhere. Luna's things 
are stolen during the year and turn up again at the end of term. 

I'm wondering if Ginny hasn't got a streak of Mundungus in her. 
Maybe not, but it could certainly be a problem if people started to 
think she did, especially if one of them is Harry.


> 
> > >>kchuplis: 
> > What was the "change"?? I have now read these books three times    
> > and I do not see this huge character discrepancy some of you refer 
> > to.
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> She goes from ho-hum about quidditch in GoF to super quidditch 
> genius.  She goes from amused from afar by the twins to more twin 
> than the twins.  And she goes from loving Ron to hating him.  I've 
> catalogued all this before here:
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/144816

Pippin:
The other way of looking at her behavior at the QWC is that she was
so enrapt that she forced herself to stay awake past the point of 
physical exhaustion and it was that, not boredom, that put her to 
sleep.  

Ginny was  keeping her Quidditch fascination a secret from her family,
so if she suddenly started making astute comments, they'd notice.
And then the Twins would start keeping a better eye on their brooms.

Ginny cried as the twins went back to school in PS/SS and they promised
to send her a toilet seat (evidently their highest accolade, since they 
try to give Harry one at the end of the book.) They've always been close,
in other words. Her puckish sense of humor came out in those greeting
cards, along with her power as a witch. Harry couldn't make her 
PoA card stop screeching. There's a touch of Ron's antagonism in "She
never shuts up normally" about a girl who turns out not to be a chatterbox 
but  is in the habit of telling her brother exactly what she thinks of him.

The moment when it dawns on her that Harry pulls on his jeans
one leg at a time is shown to us in GoF, where she discovers that talking 
to Harry is no harder than talking to Ron. She actually tells Harry to shut 
up, then announces to the whole common room that he's been turned 
down by the girl he asked to the ball. 

Of course she's not happy to realize that she could have had a date with 
Harry if she hadn't accepted Neville. But that's the point.  She
realizes she actually could have a date with Harry one day -- 
he's not famous wonderful TBWL whom she can only worship from 
afar, he's a teenage boy who gets turned down and worries that he'll 
have to date a troll. 

We find out why she wasn't in the hospital wing in GoF when we learn
about the six visitors rule in HBP.   Ginny's been handled very sneakily, 
but not badly, I'd say. I did get a little tired of hearing about the monster in 
Harry's chest, but it's as clever a way as any of indicating to the 
older readers what Harry is going through without offending the 
sensibilities of the younger ones (or their parents.)

Pippin