HBP Chapter Fourteen: "Felix Felicis"
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deathtocapslock* First up, I’m not sure what the name “felix felicis” is about. It’s Latin for “happy of happy”, but that makes no sense whatsoever. If I were in a particularly cynical mood, I might suggest she looked up happy in a Latin dictionary, found felix felicis, and didn’t realise that the second word was just the genitive singular of the first.
* Ron correctly points out that Harry’s lessons with Dumbledore aren’t actually teaching him anything useful, although once again we’re probably expected to judge him for his lack of blind faith in whatever his superiors say ought to be done.
* Hermione’s defence, that the lessons help to find out Voldemort’s weaknesses, might be more convincing if Harry ever actually uses something from Voldemort’s childhood against him.
* I’m not sure why Harry’s so averse to attending Slug Club meetings. Yeah, Slughorn’s a bit obsequious, but not so bad as to justify Potter’s constant attempts to avoid him.
* This scene perfectly captures Ron and Hermione’s dynamic: Ron sneers at Hermione for being better than him, and Hermione puts Ron down and makes him feel jealous. If this is JKR’s idea of romance, I’d hate to be her husband.
* Still, at least Harry’s got his priorities right: how will he be affected if they start going out?
* “Under the influence of Butterbeer” makes it sound like an alcoholic drink, but I’m pretty sure we’ve seen no-one (or at least no-one human) get drunk off it before, and there’s never been any indication of an age limit for drinking it. Oh dear, continuity.
* Seamus slams his books and looks sour when Dean gets a place on the team instead of him. For all that fandom has Slytherins down as the Hogwarts drama queens, I think that Gryffindors are definitely the most stroppy.
* I can’t imagine where the rest of Gryffindor house gets the idea that Harry plays favourites from. Except perhaps from the fact that he chose his best friend Ron two years in a row, despite the fact that Ron always goes to pieces whenever there’s a game on. Perhaps that has something to do with it.
* Still, it’s a pity JKR had to resurrect nervouskeeper!Ron. Not only was it tedious enough in the last book, its inclusion here just makes the Quidditch scenes in Phoenix seem even more pointless, and Ron even more needlessly pathetic.
* Ginny, of course, looks even better than usual in this scene: not only does she score most of the goals against Ron (which is probably meant to increase his emasculation – even his little sister is better than him), but she also makes Harry laugh with her sassy put-downs. When she and Harry get married they can both bond over their mutual enjoyment of other people’s discomfort.
* And… here comes the chest monster! Honestly, Harry and his chest monster must be the second-worst romance I’ve ever read (the first, of course, is Ron and Hermione).
* We know Ginny’s going to be awesome in this scene when she begins by “tossing her long red hair and glaring at Ron”. Somebody kill me now.
* What’s with all this “let’s get this straight once and for all” business? Ginny’s choice of words seems to imply that Ron keeps prying into her love life, but we’ve never been given any indication that this is the case.
* I presume the thing Ron doesn’t want people calling Ginny is “slut”? I wish they would. Not because I think it’s true, but because Ginny’s just so irritating that anything which would annoy her is OK by me.
* Ginny has a go at Ron for not having enough experience. Because obviously, modern society isn’t nearly sexualised enough, we need a series of popular books telling children that anybody who hasn’t had enough sexual experience is pathetic.
* Man, Ginny’s just a total bitch in this scene. Yes, Ron was rude to her, but her response is really disproportionate and uncalled-for.
* It’s odd, but Ginny seems to get most worked up about the way Ron tries to get Fleur’s attention. She sounds rather like a spurned lover here. Hmm, maybe all that Weasleycest fic isn’t quite so out there as I’d assumed.
* No, Harry, don’t stop Ron from cursing her! Let Ginny get zapped for once!
* So Ginny flounces off, leaving Ron behind. I suppose he should count himself lucky she didn’t whip out her wand and perform a super-sassy Bat-Bogey Hex on him.
* “She’s Ron’s sister, Harry told himself firmly. Ron’s sister. She’s out of bounds.” Even though Ron practically threw her at him at the end of the last book. Plot-induced amnesia strikes again.
* Harry feels “dazed and confused” the next morning. So do I, after trying to make sense of this book.
* Hermione’s feeling “hurt and bewildered” by Ron’s “icy, sneering indifference”. If this was a semi-believable book, I’d say that Ron had finally had enough of Hermione’s constant passive aggressiveness and undermining, but as it is I think we’re supposed to assume he’s just upset at finding out Hermione had snogged Krum two years ago.
* Incidentally, why is this supposed to be such a big and shocking revelation? Surely when two teenagers go out, the natural assumption is that they’ll end up snogging?
* Luckily for Ron, he’s got no need to worry: Hermione’s just getting her necessary practice in to hone her technique for her true man.
* FOR GOD’S SAKE ROWLING SHUT UP ABOUT THAT SODDING BAT-BOGEY HEX GINNY IS COOL AND SASSY WE GET IT ALREADY STOP RAMMING IT DOWN OUR THROATS AAARGH… *takes deep breaths*
* Lavender’s trying to make Ron feel better. Keep away from him, you hussy! Ron doesn’t need a nice, friendly girlfriend, he needs a scornful and contemptuous one to keep him down in his rightful place.
* Well, at least the Slytherins are sensible enough to have substitute players.
* Harry gets his hand crushed by the Slytherin captain, and I seem to recall Flint used to do the same thing to Oliver Wood. Is hand-crushing a typical Slytherin trait then? Maybe all their parents told them about the importance of a good firm handshake, and they just take it a bit too far.
* Harry dislikes Zacharias heartily… presumably because he can just sense the latent evil in the boy, even though he hasn’t done anything yet which would merit such dislike. If anything, surely Harry ought to feel friendly towards a fellow DA member?
* Ginny scores four of Gryffindor’s six goals. Colour me shocked.
* The game goes pretty much unremarkably: Gryffindor score a few goals, and then Harry’s broom wins the game, rendering everything which came before totally pointless.
* “Oi, Harper! How much did Malfoy pay you to make you come on instead of him?” I’d say that distracting an opposing seeker like this was a very Slytherin thing to do, were it not for the fact that we hardly ever see Slytherins actually doing cunning and sneaky things like this.
* Not that playing on superior brooms and deliberately psyching out opponents makes the Gryffindors any less chivalrous, you understand.
* Ginny flies into Zach for his insufficiently fawning commentary, placing the crowning turd on the mountain of raw sewage that is this Quidditch game.
* “I never said you couldn’t [save goals]!” No, Hermione, you just implied it really, really strongly, such that nobody could miss that that was what you were thinking.
* Ron “looks like he’s eating [Lavender’s face],” unlike Ginny, who daintily glues herself to her boyfriend’s mouth.
* Unfortunately Ginny’s probably right: most first romances in these books seem to be for people to “refine their technique” before moving on to their true love.
* Hermione seems rather surprised that Ron got tired of her hectoring and decided to hook up with somebody who actually respects him instead. Maybe she’s been getting all her dating advice from The Game or whatever the wizarding equivalent is.
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 03:59 am (UTC)She dates Michael. Then, when she dumps him, she *immediately* switches to Dean. There's no mention of delays or intervals of reflection. Nor any of 'love' or attraction. No, she's dumped Michael and she's decided to move on RIGHT AWAY to Dean. She is Ginny Weasley, the Girl Who Dates.
In HBP Pansy tells us that Ginny is well known, 'a lot of boys like her'. She's seen 'cozily closeted' with Dean at the very public Madam Puddifoot's. She tells Ron that "everyone else does it", it's not "something disgusting". That's Ginny, age 15, telling us that she's okay with 'everyone kissing'. Then, following a very brief interval after she breaks up with Dean, she throws herself at Harry in front of the entire populace of Gryffindor Tower. The fact that she's now dating Harry interests "a great number of people".
You might not find it comfortable, but canon Ginny Weasley views dating as something she's just got to do. It's a very large part of all we ever see her doing. She declares that it's something that 'everyone does' (consistent with her feeling the pressing need to have a boyfriend). She takes no real pains to keep her dalliances private. In fact she delights in making her liaisons with Harry very public - throwing herself at him, then encouraging the girls who ask her for Harry gossip (re Romilda Vane and the tattoo). Not asking them for privacy. Ginny Weasley is The Girl Who Dates and the public are all agog about her latest conquest. And she has absolutely no problems about that; she plays along with it, if not encourage it.
I don't like it either. A not-very-nice girl like Ginny shouldn't be promoted as the love interest of the 'hero'. But that's what Rowling did.
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Date: 2013-04-07 04:42 am (UTC)At the end of OotP, she's commenting on having dumped him after the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch match -- which was before people were gearing up for OWLs, which themselves were spread out over two weeks. Then there appears to be another week between OWLs and the trip home where Ginny mentions all of this:
The journey home on the Hogwarts Express next day was eventful in several ways. Firstly Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush Harry halfway down the train as he made his way back from the toilet.
There's no information on when she got together with Dean, so we have no particular reason to believe that she "*immediately* switches to Dean." You know, after being with the same boyfriend for a year and a half.
Then Ginny is with Dean for all of HBP until *well* into spring. So, nearly a year. After we see her break up with Dean, and *before* she gets together with Harry, we have this line:
The following fortnight saw the best Quidditch practices Harry had known as Captain.
That's two weeks right there, and that isn't *all* of the time between the two relationships. Is that a "very brief interval," in your book? I suppose considering that she'd been with Dean for nearly a year, it's pretty brief.
I'm sorry, but while the character might be defined by her boyfriends in these books because we're told so little else about her, none of the above is exactly *outrageous.*
There's plenty to dislike about Ginny. It isn't necessary to make everything she does something to be held against her.
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Date: 2013-04-07 05:37 am (UTC)Wow, really? I'd remembered various things about that but I've never picked up on the canon prose that supported it. Okay, I'll take that as written. Wow. Yet another boyfriend for the Girl Who Dates.
The 'immediacy' of Ginny's switch from Michael to Dean was my impression from the book - we learn about her dumping Michael in the same announcement in which Ginny proclaims she's moving onto Dean. But I'll happily accept what you've said. Because, yes, two-three weeks is pretty much immediate compared with a dating span of 1.5 years.
And then the Oh-my-God-I've-got-to-DATE 'immediacy' again with the next switch:
That's two weeks right there, and that isn't *all* of the time between the two relationships. Is that a "very brief interval," in your book?
Yes. That's why I said "very brief interval"; in this latest switch for the Girl Who Dates I knew there were a few weeks interval between dumping Dean and throwing herself at Harry.
while the character might be defined by her boyfriends in these books -
Right. Which is why I'm calling her a serial dater, the Girl Who Dates.
It isn't necessary to make everything she does something to be held against her.
I think a girl who's defined largely/only by her boyfriends - as you've admitted yourself - is a pretty sad state of affairs.
Hermione Granger - a girl who saved Harry Potter on numerous occasions, strived to save Buckbeak, launched a campaign to rescue house elves from despicable conditions, set up the D.A., top of her class, prefect.
Ginny Weasley - oh, she dated Neville, abandoned/rebuffed him for Michael, dumped him and hooked up with Dean Thomas, dumped him and threw herself at HARRY POTTER, a lot of Hogwarts boys like her don't you know - yeah, nothing greatly admirable there.
We wouldn't be "holding it against her" if it wasn't for the fact that Rowling clearly - from canon and interviews - expects us to laud Ginny. And that the character ends up with her prize, Harry Potter himself.
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Date: 2013-04-07 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 08:18 am (UTC)While I think I understand those terms I don't know what you're on about here.
Ginny seems happy to 'be herself', 'never give up' on her crush target, while being very busy making sure she's dating boys.
None of the textual references (from the 'book'???) are contested by Ginny. None of them are in dispute.
???
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Date: 2013-04-07 04:56 am (UTC)It's bad characterization that there isn't more to her as far as we know - because what we know is what Harry knows. He wants her, but he can't really love her because he knows nothing about her. What is her favorite subject? What electives did she take? Does she ever talk to anyone besides the trio? (I suppose she sometimes talked to whoever she was dating, and she must have said the word 'yes' or something similar to Neville when he asked her to the Yule Ball.) Does she have any hobbies? Harry has no idea. The only saving grace is that 19 years after the war James Jr is only 12 or 13, so one can imagine Harry and Ginny getting to know one another at some point.
But specifically regarding her love life, my only criticism is where she was using Mike and Dean to become less awkward around Harry, not that she dated them per se.
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Date: 2013-04-07 05:43 am (UTC)I think there could have been some middle ground between 'prude' and girl-who-felt-she-should-be-continuously-dating which a nicer, more interesting, more rounded girl could have occupied, yes.
Being a girl whose primary goal is BOYS BOYS BOYS just isn't very admirable, in my opinion.
my only criticism is where she was using Mike and Dean to become less awkward around Harry, not that she dated them per se.
I didn't want to get into that, but yes, that too. The moment that Ginny tells Harry that she 'never gave up' on him ... that meant that whenever she was kissing Michael, or kissing Dean ... she was hoping that, one day, she'd be kissing Harry. Which ... cheapens ... the amorous activities of the Girl Who Dates even more.
And then Ginny tells us that Hermione's invaluable advice was to 'be herself'. (Okay, no one has ever suggested that Ginny should be in Ravenclaw.) So the amorous activity of the Girl Who Dates was her 'being herself'. The girl 'a lot of boys like'.
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Date: 2013-04-07 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-09 12:19 pm (UTC)Well, it's a bigger 'wrong', on that we both agree, even if you think the other 'lesser wrongs' are valued at zero and I think they're 0.5 on the not-nice scale.
The motivation and insincerity thing also *compounds* those lesser wrongs, strengthens them. Is Ginny Weasley *really* a Girl Who Dates? Well, we've got it from the lass herself - she was 'being herself'. And yet doing it with the hope of snaring her crush-hero. Wrong in two separate ways!
The lack of any other aspects to her reflects badly on Harry (for never getting to know her) rather than on her, because it is his POV.
I don't think that's a good reason. Maybe that works *before* he - or his monster - got interested in Ginny. After all, that's supposed to be one of the clever things that Rowling did in writing the pairing, it's supposed to justify Ginny's transformation into the belle of Hogwarts overnight - Harry just hadn't noticed her before.
Uh huh.
I don't swallow it; Ginny rises too far, too fast. The time of her rocketing to stardom is too compressed, the contrived and artificial manner in which Rowling writes it, desperate to get it all done in just one novel, breaks the boundaries of reality, reason and respectability.
Anyway, you can't use that "Harry didn't notice POV" excuse for our present topic. Because he *did* notice her in books 6 & 7. His monster was out and prowling, dear Ginny was firmly on his radar.
And what does Harry notice?
Ginny dating Dean.
Ginny playing quidditch.
And that's it.
Another reason why the "she could have been a rocket scientist and we/Harry never know!" excuse doesn't work.
And if you're saying "she had many redeeming qualities and Harry just never notices them AT ALL", well, that's just a variation of conjuring your own dream canon out of the blank lines between the paragraphs. I don't think that's a legitimate method of literary analysis, for reasons I've stated earlier.
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Date: 2013-04-07 05:03 pm (UTC)Look, I'm tired of tiptoeing around this: that's a misogynist opinion to hold. It's a misogynist view no matter who is holding the opinion, because it asserts that a woman whose number of relationships and attitude toward sexuality don't neatly fit into a box defined for her by society is inherently tainted or less-than. (And no, when discussing these things in context you can't separate sexuality and 'dating' so neatly as you try to do, but even if you could it wouldn't make your opinion not misogynistic.)
There's valid reason to criticize the way Ginny handles some of her relationships as relationships, yes - when she's using them in an attempt to get at Harry. That would be equally unacceptable if it was Harry doing it to Ginny, Harry doing it to Draco, or Ginny doing it to Luna. It's unacceptable because it reduces the other person to a means, an object, rather than a person. And her characterization is poorly written in that we don't get to *see* other sides of her. But to criticize her simply for the number of relationships she has or how long she goes between relationships is a very traditional way of shaming women rooted in notions of 'purity' and women belonging to men rather than to themselves. If Ginny enjoys being in relationships rather than going it alone, there is nothing inherently wrong or less than admirable in that, as long as she treats her partners as people. But as soon as any given relationship ends, nobody but Ginny has any rightful claim to dictate what she does with her body or who she chooses to date next or when. There's no amount of time that Ginny should have to leave between partners for any reason other than that she did not want to be in a relationship at that moment.
Talking about women's "amorous activities" as if they had exchangable value like money - which is precisely what the word "cheapens" does - is also misogynistic, another classic misogynistic trope in fact. Women's "amorous activities" are not currency or goods up for barter, and she does not owe them to anyone such that she must give them to one person but not another/not too many people. A woman is not a vending machine or a set of sexual/"amorous" goods that are somehow up for sale or exchange. A woman engages in amorous activities for the same reason and with the same rights that a man does: because she enjoys it and her partner is willing. Period. Full stop. The fucking END.
I'm not telling you this just because I'm trying to change your mind, though a part of me hopes you will actually listen and consider what I am saying. I am saying this because I refuse to stand by silently while women get shamed over and over again in exactly the same fucking way as they have been for centuries, and I refuse to be drawn into even passively supporting it through silence just because it's a character I don't particularly like and who fandom loves to hate. I would say the same thing if it was Umbridge being discussed, and she's one of the few characters I despise almost as much as Dumbledore. You are free to hold whatever opinion you want, but be aware exactly what sort of opinion it is.
Tired, stale, misogyny.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 05:59 pm (UTC)Yes, THANK YOU! You've just supplied the missing link for me. Madderbrad's problem is that he has madonna/whore attitudes towards women. Hermione is his madonna, so no matter how egregious her behavior, it's always completely justified by the horribleness of her victims, who are only getting exactly what they deserve. Ginny is his whore, so her every behavior has to be cast in the most negative possible light, with no extenuating circumstances, ever. He really is irrational regarding these two characters.
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Date: 2013-04-07 06:11 pm (UTC)Thank you. I am frankly sick and tired of seeing this attitude in fandom that Ginny is such a horrible person because she has the gall to date people. In fact I initially really liked this about Ginny. When I first read the books I liked that it seemed to be sending the subtle message that sometimes you just get over people. When Ginny looked like she had gotten over her crush on Harry and realized that she could go out and see other people and enjoy being with them. I was glad to see that someone at Hogwarts could apparently date people and not horribly screw it up like Harry with Cho and the obvious Ron Hermione crap.
The problem as you say comes when it's reveled that Ginny never got over Harry. That everyone else were basically stepping stones to her one true love, because the people she dates aren't people to her; they're tools. And that since she bases her behavior on getting a specific partner, along with her 'spunky' put-downs so people will be impressed with her, implies that she may seek validation for herself not from her own internal self-love, but from what others think of her.
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Date: 2013-04-07 08:16 pm (UTC)I'm concerned that maybe Ginny thinks she needs to be in a relationship because that seems like a pressure that exists in the wizarding world as well as ours. But that's concern for her sake, for being put in the bind of on the one hand being pressured into "getting a man" but on the other hand being shamed for getting another one if the first doesn't work out. (You just can't win there.) And we can't guarantee that she does actually think that rather than just being fortunate in having a selection of guys she wants to date at the time.
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Date: 2013-04-09 12:36 pm (UTC)And no, when discussing these things in context you can't separate sexuality and 'dating' so neatly as you try to do -
Yes I can. What *you* can't do is say "oh, Brad can't say that, what he *meant* was this", construct a strawman and then call it (not me) misogynistic. Shame!
that's a misogynist opinion to hold.
No it isn't. Nothing I've said applies only to women; only, in this case, to Ginny Weasley.
If you wanted to prove me a misogynist you'd have to find a case where I've deliberately passed over a boy doing the same thing. Harry dating multiple girls, say. Brad's a misogynistic hypocrite who hates women, he measures their behaviour differently!
But you can't say that. Because I didn't do that.
... is a very traditional way of shaming women ...
More strawmen.
I didn't 'shame women' in my posts. If I had done so, fine, call me a misogynist.
But saying "people who have shamed women say things like Brad!!" doesn't mean Brad is shaming women. What they do is say things *like* what I've said *and then add to it*, extend it, leverage it onto women-only attacks or whatever.
Seeing a *faint resemblance* between what I've said and the utterances of a misogynist means you've skipped over the traffic island and you're in the wrong lane, that's all.
Talking about women's "amorous activities" as if they had exchangable value like money -
Good grief. We're not talking about the same thing at all, are we?
Tired, stale, misogyny.
No. That topic is next door. This one is about Ginny Weasley's paucity of character, how all she does is date. But the proximity of the two topics is apparently confusing you.
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Date: 2013-04-07 05:07 am (UTC)A lot of boys may like her, but all that means is that they've noticed her in the Gryffindor common room and the Quidditch pitch making her jokes and whatnot, not that she's been encouraging them all. (Not that some guys can tell the difference. There's always those few who think the fact that you're in public, talking to people and having fun, and not wearing a burlap sack means you're totally coming on to them, and there's those few girls like Pansy who agree, or at least will say they do if they don't like you...) Going to a restaurant with your boyfriend and being obviously affectionate is, again, not exactly noteworthy. Why would she "keep her dalliances private"? Is there some new teenager code I'm unaware of where you not only shouldn't tell anyone you're dating, but make sure never to be seen within three feet of each other in public? And people are very interested that she and Harry are dating? She's one of, what, maybe ten attractive single girls in a three or four year age range when she jumps on Harry? Of course people are watching her. And also watching Harry, super-famous Boy Who Lived who's suddenly gotten very handsome that year, according to Hermione.
I say this as someone who went to a small high school. You know exactly who's dating whom, who's currently single, and who looks like someone you might find interesting even if you aren't consciously paying attention or planning to date, never mind whether a particular person has shown the slightest sign of interest in you.
I think Ginny's changes of partners seems more frequent than it is because that's practically the only time Harry feels a need to point her out to readers. Which is a problem with him and/or JKR's perception of what's important about Ginny, and a serious problem, but it's a different kind of problem.
She does, however, move on very rapidly, which does seem to point to either her deliberately using the guys or to feeling that she always has to be with someone (or both). Which is also a problem.
Rowling could have done something interesting if she'd noticed that in the world she set up, there is a very small pool of eligible future marriage partners and appears to be a lot of societal pressure to marry young, which ought to influence dating patterns, and could very well account for why pureblood, wizard-raised Ginny thinks this way (and why Pansy appears to have tried to latch on to Draco as early as third year, for that matter). She didn't, of course. Nor did it occur to her to figure out whether young wizards might also be concerned about snagging a suitable girl before it was too late and they were left with nothing but girls like Pansy Parkinson or Moaning Myrtle to choose from.
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Date: 2013-04-07 05:24 am (UTC)Frankly, it could also be that Ginny avoids breaking up with her boyfriends until it's *really* not working out. I don't see enough evidence to show that that's *true*, but I don't think it's ruled out, either.
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Date: 2013-04-07 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 07:22 pm (UTC)There was also something about Ginny not seeming enthusiastic about going over to talk to Dean as early as right after Christmas. But then, Harry's eager for any sign of a breakup, so he'd notice any tiny thing that might give him hope. I wouldn't call it decisive, either way, but this possibility certainly isn't ruled out.
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Date: 2013-04-07 08:32 am (UTC)Including Neville, four boys in three years. More than one a year. That seems frequent to me.
But I guess this is a subjective term. If you decide it's not 'frequent', for you, then fine. This is one of those terms/topics where we won't be able to go to a dictionary and find an objective yardstick.
'Frequency' wasn't my strongest argument anyway. The 'serial and a shocking lack of down time' that you accept were more important. Ginny clearly felt a pressing need to have a boyfriend. She hopped very quickly into another boy's arms once she jettisoned his predecessor.
A lot of boys may like her, but all that means is that they've noticed her -
True. Pansy's quote is more debilitating when it's used to highlight Rowling's desperate and contrived bootstrapping of Ginny into the stratosphere of Hogwarts student society and onto Harry's radar.
Going to a restaurant with your boyfriend and being obviously affectionate is, again, not exactly noteworthy. Why would she "keep her dalliances private"?
Just going to show that Ginny was The Girl Who Dates, and that everyone could see it. The 'Girl Who Dates' tag wouldn't be as much fun to use if only we readers knew of her drive to have boyfriends. :-)
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Date: 2013-04-07 12:21 pm (UTC)Personally, I wouldn't include Neville- they weren't dating, really, they just attended the Yule Ball together. She wasn't romantically interested in him, nor was he interested in her, given she was his second choice! They were just going together as friends and y'know, GoF!Ginny was a time when I actually liked her - because she agreed to accompany a friend as his date and then even when her crush was an option, the boy she's been head-over-heels for over the past couple books, she declined to embarrass Neville. That was pretty admirable to me (I admit, in that situation, I would've been less noble and gone to the person in question and begged them to release me from my agreement so I could go with my love interest!)
It's a shame that girl didn't show up in the later books.
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Date: 2013-04-07 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-09 11:49 am (UTC)I speak as a hardened warrior of the HP shipping debates of old, where Ginny's four boyfriends would be routinely trotted out against Hermione's three. That way the pro-Ginny or anti-Ginny crowd got the closest they could with parity between the two girls.
Otherwise is was Ginny's three versus Hermione's one, which had Ginny look worse.
So, to be fair, I tend to start from the Yule ball. Which was, as you say, a *date*.
And Ginny's hopping straight over to Michael, at the very ball apparently - others have said that here, I'd forgotten that canon fact - is a beautiful example of the actions of The Girl Who Dates. So I'm glad I included the Ball. :-)
It's a shame that girl didn't show up in the later books.
Agreed!
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From:no subject
Date: 2013-04-07 07:10 pm (UTC)The difference is that Harry isn't paying attention to those other couples. Harry only pays attention when Ginny is involved in something date-related - or, eventually, Quidditch. This doesn't say anything good about Harry.
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Date: 2013-04-07 07:30 pm (UTC)She's seen 'cozily closeted' with Dean at the very public Madam Puddifoot's.
Appears to be traced back to the following and nothing more, because this is the only time Madam Puddifoot's is mentioned in the entire book, outside of a location Ron tried to Apparate to:
Harry's thoughts strayed to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts through the frozen slush. They had not met up with her, undoubtedly, thought Harry, because she and Dean were cozily closeted in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, that haunt of happy couples. Scowling, he bowed his head against the swirling sleet and trudged on.
So, you know, in addition to it being a totally reasonable and unremarkable thing for anyone to be doing, all we have is Harry grumpily thinking that the girl he wants to go out with is probably "cozily closeted" with another boy.
So if anyone wants to make anything of the *wording*, or something, keep in mind that that wording reflects on Harry and no one else.
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