SHIP Harry/Ginny (was:CHPDISC: HBP14, Felix Felicis)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 151892

> >>Potioncat:
> CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,      
> Chapter 14, Felix Felicis
> <snip> 
> Ron and Harry walk in on Ginny and Dean snogging behind a         
> tapestry. Ron and Ginny argue about her relationship and Ron's     
> lack of experience. Harry is conflicted between his attraction to 
> Ginny and his loyalty to Ron. He thinks it would be inappropriate 
> to date Ginny.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Okay, I'm going to do it; I'm going to touch the third rail.  Let's 
discuss the Ginny/Harry ship that sets sail in this chapter. ::evil 
chortling combined with diabolical hand rubbing::

There are three main things that happen in this scene, IMO:
1. Harry's "chest monster" is born (a thousand comic fanarts are 
launched).
2. Ginny and Ron throw down (and boy does it get ugly).
3. Ginny gets very, very, very angry (continues the rage into the 
quidditch game?).


So, to the first.  The chest monster analogy:  

"It was as though something large and scaly erupted into life in 
Harry's stomach, clawing at his insides: Hot blood seemed to flood 
his brain, so that all thought was extinguished, replaced by a 
savage urge to jinx Dean into jelly.  Wrestling with this sudden 
madness, he heard Ron's voice as though from a great distance away." 
(HBP scholastic p.286)  

When it's first used I think it's a good way to describe jealousy 
without linking the "green-eyed monster" with our green-eyed hero 
(which would have been confusing).  Plus it's not just a monster, 
there's boiling blood and madness   It's vivid and discriptive, and 
for me, it worked.

What pushed it into comedy, IMO, was the repetitiveness of the 
monster.  It roars approval, twice on the same page.  My goodness, 
it even purrs a page or two later.  That's too much action on the 
part of the chest monster.  I think it would have been better if 
boiling blood and madness shared some of the play time.  Or maybe, 
let Harry acknowledge that the monster is he.  *Harry* wants to kick 
Dean off the team.  *Harry* likes the idea of kissing Ginny.  Using 
the monster so often slipped it from clever to cute, unfortunately.

And it is unfortunate because I *loved* that it was jealousy that 
pushed Harry into a full on crush on Ginny.  It fit his character 
*perfectly*, IMO.  And it echoed his jealousy over Ron becoming 
Prefect, with all the temptations and wrestling with his conscience 
that issue raised.  I just think it could have been illustrated in a 
less silly manner.

So, let's talk about issue 2, The Fight.

My goodness this was a doozy.  I have sisters.  I'm incredibly 
familiar with the virgin vs. slut fight. (Um, to not shock anyone 
unfamiliar with such battles: it can be over how many boys you've 
held hands with if you're young enough.)  I wasn't aware boys took 
part in such battles, and I never knew it took place between 
brothers and sisters.  But there we are.

I will say that this fight struck me as very nasty.  (Virgin vs. 
slut fights usually are.  Hair-pulling generally follows.)  And I'm 
not entirely sure what started it.  I mean, yes, Ron and Harry walk 
in on Ginny making out with Dean in a hallway and Ron protests.

But I don't get the level of Ginny's anger.  She was making out with 
a guy in a hallway.  A corridor that is described as a "usual 
shortcut up to Gryffindor Tower".  So it's not like she isn't aware 
that she's exposing herself to comment.  Also, it's not like Ron has 
been policing Ginny.  He didn't realize she was dating Michael 
Corner.  And he didn't realize that she'd started dating Dean until 
she told him.

If Ron had been dogging Dean and Ginny's every move, I could 
understand the level of rage Ginny flies into at this moment.  But 
from what I've read, this is the first Ron says anything.  And he's 
not really out of bounds.  I can't see any big brother being happy 
with his sister making out in a public corridor.  (Big sisters 
generally don't approve of such things either. <g>)

And yet, Ginny turns it into a massive deal, pulls her wand, and 
then digs up everything she can think of to humiliate Ron with. 
(Screaming about his crush on their Aunt is bringing in the big 
guns, IMO.  There's no way Ron wanted that bit of information spread 
around.)  By the end of the fight Ginny is practically crying she's 
so angry.

The fight, taken in and of itself, does not make sense, IMO.  Even 
putting it into context does little to explain it.  And it doesn't 
do Ginny any favors.  No one looks good in the middle of a temper 
tantrum.  (Though it is funny to picture Harry seeing Ginny in soft-
focus, slow-mo while her face twists with vindictive rage.  I'm just 
not sure this is what JKR was going for.)

And that leads me to the final issue: Ginny's Rage.

Ginny is angry throughout this chapter.  And I can't find anything 
that might have set it off.  She's angry at the quidditch practice 
(snapping at Ron for no reason).  She's unreasonably furious in the 
corridor.  And her attack on Zacharius made no sense at all.  
Zacharius had only made derisive comments about Ginny at the 
beginning of the match.  By the end Ginny had played well enough, 
Zacharius couldn't say anything.  *And* Ginny's team won (thanks in 
part to some spectacular playing on Ginny's part).  Why does she 
feel the need to physically attack Zacharius at the end of the game?

If JKR hadn't given that interview to the Mugglenet folks, I'd 
consider this suspicious behavior pointing to some underlying 
problem.  Ginny's frightened by Voldemort's increasing power; Ginny 
is being bothered by strange dreams she's afraid are connected to 
Tom Riddle possessing her in CoS; Ginny really, really *hates* that 
Bill is getting married and is taking it badly.  IOWs, I'd think 
there was a mystery there.

But, having read JKR's interview I have a sinking feeling that this 
is JKR writing "spunky".  It doesn't work.  There's a difference 
between spunky and angry.  In this chapter, Ginny is angry.  She 
only calms down when Ron gets a girlfriend.  Ooh, maybe Ginny didn't 
like the idea of Hermione dating her brother?  Yeah, I don't buy it 
either.  

Betsy Hp (whose favorite "spunky girl" is Starbuck on Battlestar 
Galactica)