Why did JKR not explore H/Hr as canon?

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 168760

> 
> Magpie:
> Actually, I notice plenty of things Harry doesn't notice. And Harry
does 
> notice Ginny perfectly well before her personality change. It's not
like 
> she's invisible.

Ken:

Right, the Harry filter isn't absolute. The Narrator does clue us in
on some things that Harry misses. I only meant to say that compared to
the sledgehammer obvious way the things Harry does notice are driven
home to the reader Ginny's growth is quite subtle. To me it is
impossible to miss even so but I get the sense that a lot of readers
here feel that the "new" Ginny was sprung on them unawares. I don't
see that at all.

> Magpie:
> 
> I think I get the joke or the point. It's supposed to be funny how
the girl 
> is all starstruck and then when she blossoms Harry has to chase her
when she 
> used to be chasing him and she was shy so Harry didn't see her not-shy 
> personality and wow, this is what she was all the time etc. 

Ken:

I guess I can see that it is ironic. I'm not sure that Ginny is
entirely what she was all along though. The thing is that this is
completely normal and expected. People grow in exactly this way as
they mature. I don't need to "see" the process of Ginny maturing on
the pages of the novels because this kind of change in someone her age
is natural. It is still ironic that the chasee has to become the
chaser but it is a very common situation in both art and life. Many
real young men realize one day that their best friend's goofy little
hanger-on sister has become Something Else Entirely. Typically this
can happen as quickly as it happens on the pages of the Harry Potter
series. That is due in part because the change in the young woman can
happen that quickly. But it is also because it involves a perceptual
shift in the young man. He is locked into thinking of her one way and
this perception continues past the time when it is valid. One day his
perception catches up to reality and this can indeed happen in an
instant. I think that there is some degree of this in the Potter
novel's treatment of Ginny and that *is* the Harry filter in action.

I just don't have any problem with the way Ginny is developed or the
way in which the relationship between her and Harry is developed. It
never seems jarring, forced, or artificial to me. If it has any flaw
it is that it is a little obvious and trite in fact. I can easily
forgive that because it is hard to write any plot element for which a
55 year old reader *can't* cite dozens of previous examples.

Ken, who can also, in the context of the Potterverse, forgive the
occasional use of the Bat-Bogey Hex