CHAPDISC: HBP30, The White Tomb

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165745

a_svirn wrote:
> <snip> Obviously, Rowling wanted the Trio to be always a Trio. But
speaking personally, as a reader, I would like to have it explained
from Harry's point of view. OK, he ended their romantic relationship
for "some stupid noble reason". But what was (is) the cause of her
constant exclusion? You (and me) may not see the reason to "change the
core of Trio", but it occurs to me that Harry might have thought of a
reason or two.
>
Carol responds:
I don't think it *can* be explained from Harry's pov because he
doesn't know himself exactly how he feels. I think it's enough, from
his standpoint, that he wants to protect Ginny. But I also think that
he doesn't quite appreciate her as a person yet. His (needless)
emotional conflict in HBP, thinking he had to choose between Ginny and
Ron, indicates that he still thinks of her as Ron's younger sister. He
has also noticed a clash between his own "elder brotherly" feelings
and his attraction to her. He knows that he's about to face Voldemort,
a final confrontation this time, not to mention unknown dangers in
hunting and destroying the Horcruxes.

I hate to say this for fear that the forces of feminism will attack
me, but Harry at not quite seventeen doesn't know any girls except
Hermione well and doesn't really understand them. He thinks of girls
in general as giggling creatures who run in packs. He could talk to
Cho about Quidditch, but her tearful desire to talk about Cedric was
beyond his comprehension. (He didn't want to talk, or even think,
about Cedric.) Really, they had nothing in common other than
Quidditch, and her continued loyalty to Marietta (which on one level
matched his to Hermione) was also beyond his comprehension.

So, rather like Ron, who suddenly realizes in GoF that Hermione is a
girl ("Oh, well spotted!" is my favorite Hermione line) but takes
another two and a half books to realize exactly how much and in what
way he cares about her, Harry is still just recognizing his attraction
to Ginny, whom he doesn't know nearly as well as Ron knows Hermione in
in HBP.

Ginny is in a different year from the others, so she doesn't share any
of their classes. She doesn't even share a dorm room with Hermione
(who's stuck with Parvati, Lavender, and the two unnamed Gryffindor
girls from Harry's year). The only time she's with Harry as part of
his circle is when he's staying at the Burrow or 12 GP. After that,
she's either excluded ("Go away, Ginny!") when the Trio need to talk
or deliberately goes off with her own friends.

In OoP, after Harry's implanted vision of Sirius Black ostensibly
being tortured by Voldemort, he classes her with Neville and Luna as
one of the last people he would choose to accompany him--and that's
after he's seen her performance in the DA and after he knows about her
Bat-Bogey Hex. It takes awhile for the experiences of OoP to sink in
(not just the MoM battle but seeing Neville's mother and Luna's
conversation with him about death), but Harry is finally starting to
see all three of them as people in HBP. But it's easier with Neville
because he's a boy like Harry and Harry's dormmate and with Luna
because there's no uncomfortable sexual attraction, no "monster"
raging inside him at the thought of some other boy "snogging" her.
Harry still thinks of Ginny in terms of the fragrance she wears and
imagines himself wrapped up in her arms Won Won/Wav Wav-style (only
somewhere private rather than in the Gryffindor common room). I don't
think that, despite his friendship with Hermione, who is not typical
of the girls Harry sees at his school any more than Luna is, that
Harry quite sees girls as people yet. So Ginny can play Quidditch. So
could Cho. So she's attractive. So was Cho. So she can throw a
Bat-Bogey Hex. So, probably, could Hermione, who can at any rate throw
a mean Oppugno with conjured birds. So she isn't a human hose pipe
like Cho. Neither is Hermione (though she does cry on occasion for
reasons Harry can't comprehend, like the boys becoming friends again
in GoF). So she has a rather nasty sense of humor. So do the Twins and
the HBP. Harry, a boy raised with a male cousin and male dormmates,
doesn't really "get" girls yet, even tomboys who play Quidditch well
and hex Zacharias Smith at every opportunity. He certainly doesn't
fully understand or appreciate Ginny, who hasn't accompanied him on
any of his adventures (except as the victim in CoS and one of several
companions in the MoM). She hasn't done homework with him or talked
about Voldemort and Horcruxes with him. She's not included in the
trusted few (make that two) in whom he's allowed by Dumbledore to
confide DD's secrets (the Prophecy, Horcruxes, etc.). 

I really can't imagine Ginny accompanying HRH in their adventures in
DH. three's company, four's a crowd, to alter the adage a little. I
think that Ginny, who's not of age yet, will be forced by her parents
to attend Hogwarts, where she can belatedly take her OWLs. And I think
she'll be Harry's contact at Hogwarts, where she'll use Sirius Black's
mirror  or a shard or it to communicate with the Trio.

Carol, who thinks that JKR does indeed have plans for Ginny, but they
don't include being part of the Horcrux Hunt (at least, I hope not,
not being a fan of post-GoF Ginny)