Who is Ginny Weasley?
Ginny Weasley. The youngest Weasley and the only daughter. She has the famous Weasley red hair and freckles, along with brown eyes and a great Bat-Bogey Hex. But her personality is a mystery to us all. In the first, second and third books (although we only saw her once in the first book), she was portrayed as a shy little girl with a big crush on Harry Potter. She often did clumsy things in his presence, and blushed every time he entered the room. In the fourth book, she began to develop more of a personality. She is seen comforting Ron after he asks Fleur Delacour to the Yule Ball, but hiding a smile, which is possibly a precursor to her bolder personality. This is probably her biggest scene in Book IV, and contains one of the early, more “subtle” hints of the Harry/Ginny ship. Page 399 American edition:
"I asked [Cho Chang] to go [to the ball] with me just now," Harry said dully, "and she told me."
Ginny had suddenly stopped smiling.
This, as I stated before, is one of the premature hints of the mature H/G ship. In the first three books, Ginny is obviously attracted to Harry, but it’s only a little-girl crush. After that, the H/G hints are much subtler and easier to miss (personally, I believe it’s a sign that Ginny’s crush is slowly developing into something more – maybe a mutual feeling – but being an H/G shipper, I’m biased). Continuing on with the scene, while Ginny is still blushing and bashful, her more outgoing side is beginning to show.
In Book V, Ginny’s personality changes drastically. Timidity and red face forgotten, her character is expanded much differently in this novel. She is now confident and brassy, able to lie “unblushingly” – and completely over Harry (or so she says). By the middle of the book, she’s already got a boyfriend and is a bit of a chatterbox. She shows her true Gryffindor colors as one of the Department of Mysteries team. And before that, in Umbridge’s office, she helps Ron, Luna, Neville and herself to escape by hexing Malfoy. In the conclusion of the book, she provides some (much-needed) humor by announcing that she and her boyfriend had broken up, and she had moved onto Dean Thomas, prompting a very pro-H/G reaction from Ron.
Many fans were disappointed by the difference between OotP Ginny and pre-OotP Ginny. They considered it a bad reflection on JK Rowling’s writing style – that she couldn’t give Ginny a straightforward and continuous personality. Conversely, other fans took the change in stride and embraced the new Ginny. I stood between the two extremes. I did like how self-assured and sassy Ginny now was, but I think the change could have been more gradual. Perhaps she did need to have shown her braver side to help at the Department of Mysteries, but that shift in attributes could have easily been documented throughout the book. However, I predict that Ginny is going to become a more important character in the next two books, and her outspokenness may come in handy.
To me, it seems like Ginny needed to have these two personalities in order to make books II and V work. In Book II, she had to be shy and vulnerable so that she could spill her troubles to Riddle’s diary and pour enough life in it to bring him back. She wouldn’t have done this with her Book V personality. Speaking of Book II, though, I would have thought that being possessed by an evil wizard would have caused her to have some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Maybe there is a magical remedy to counteract this sort of thing, but that doesn’t quite gel with the books – magic can only cure so much, after all. This might be brought up again in future books, but I doubt it; it’s more likely to just have gone off into the sunset with the rest of Ginny’s introversion.
All in all, Ginny Weasley is an interesting character and one that should be watched. Although she has been revealed to be audacious and honest, her personality is still somewhat of an enigma. Keep an eye on her – she could very well be the key to the whole series.