Ginny (was Re: Why it took Percy so long to be with the good guys.)

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 192090

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Lynda Cordova <lynde4 at ...> wrote:

Lynda:
> She was not "expressing her freedom". The whole thing about "guarding the
> room" as you put it, was just something her overprotective mother had
> established to keep her only daughter out of the fight, using the excuse
> that she was underage. When Ginny stepped out of the room, Harry, along
> with the other people in the room, knew what she would do, join the
> fighting. And, I might add, she did not need to be there anymore, to keep
> it open. The room was then needed for another purpose, to become the
> storage room for the diadem, so that Harry et al. could find it. Still no
> abandonment and betrayal on Ginny's part. Just youthful exuberance and
> stubborness.

Geoff:
I'm not sure that Harry did realise that Ginny would join in:

'"Ginny," said Harry, "I'm sorry, but we need you to leave too. Just for a bit. 
Then you can come back in"

Ginny looked simply delighted to leave her sanctuary.

"And then you can come back in!" he shouted after her, as she ran up the 
steps after Tonks. "You've got to come back in!"

(DH  "The Battle of Hogwarts" p.502 UK edition)

'"They'll be all right," said Harry though he knew they were empty words. 
"Ginny, we'll be back in a moment, just keep out of the way, keep safe - 
come on!" he said to Ron and Hermione...'

(ibid. p.504)

'Harry staggered to his feet when the Headless Hunt had passed and 
looked around: the battle was still going on all around him. He could 
hear more screams than those of the retreating ghosts. Panic flared 
within him.

"Where's Ginny?" he said sharply. "She was here. She was supposed to 
be going back into the Room of Requirement."

(ibid. p.510)

The first section of canon implies that Harry did NOT expect Ginny to 
join the fight. When he shouts after her, he gives me the impression 
that he suddenly realises that she is going off regardless of his request. 

In the second quote, he re-emphasises the fact that he wants her out 
of danger.

In the last quote, his concern becomes very much at the forefront of his 
thoughts.

I don't agree that Ginny was betraying Harry. However, what she was 
doing was displaying the stubbornness and pigheadedness of a 
Weasley female. By going off to do "her own thing" despite being 
instructed by Harry to stay out of things she comes dangerously near 
to seriously distracting him at a crucial point in the battle which I 
believe was selfish and thoughtless towards the person she apparently 
loves.