Harry's Past, Present, and Future -- DRAFT
mrs_bombadil nudged me to do the "Ten Things I Like About H/G" meme invented by prongssr. So don't click on the cut if you don't want to see ...
When it comes to H/G, my history is kind of funny. You could say that H/G was my first Harry Potter ship, because I started expecting it early in my first reading of PS/SS (long before the final chapter when I had my first fugitive wish for SS/HG -- yes, I now see that that would never do -- Hermione totally doesn't deserve him!). But you could also say it's my newest HP ship, because I never fell in love with it the way I did with R/Hr until HBP and this picture by seviet. So I am dividing my ten reasons into three categories -- why I liked H/G before HBP, why I like H/G now, and why I suspect I'll like H/G still more in the future:
MY PAST REASONS
1. I like H/G because I wanted Harry to experience romance.
When I read the first book I knew that this would be a series where Harry would grow and develop. I happen to like "kissing books," as the grandson puts it in The Princess Bride, and I was eagerly scanning the first book for cues about whether or not this series (which I could already tell was going to be important to me) would contain that much-desired element. When Ginny was introduced, I strongly suspected it would. This made me happy.
2. I like H/G because I saw the search for family as Harry's primary quest.
I mean, this is made crystal clear in his Mirror of Erised vision -- Harry wants to be part of a large, loving family. That, not to save society or whatever, is why he has to defeat Voldemort. He wants to live. I have written elsewhere about why Ginny is the perfect symbolic resolution of Harry's central dilemma -- longing for a family he can never have back (yes, I was serious about that part!).
3. I like H/G because I knew Ginny had the right personality to make Harry happy.
Since CoS, it has become steadily more obvious that Ginny has every quality that Harry would ever want or need in a girlfriend. She's warm and encouraging, fun-loving, emotionally resilient, quick-witted, courageous, perceptive, buoyant, loyal, openly affectionate, active, empathetic, and sexually responsive. She's outgoing and friendly enough to open Harry's shell, but she knows when not to talk. She has Ron's emotional lability and intuitiveness, but lacks his insecurity and frequent tactlessness. She's other-oriented, but confident enough to stand up for herself and her own needs. And she's a challenge -- an attractive, self-possessed, popular girl who gives Harry something desirable to strive for.
Here's something I wrote on this subject in February of 2003 (pre-OotP):It is fairly easy for me to see the ways JKR has portrayed Hermione as NOT a suitable partner for Harry, and to hypothesize the qualities that the girl who IS a suitable partner for Harry will have. She will be, for instance, less bossy and argumentative than Hermione is, and will have a subtler, more continuously-active sense of humor. She will be a better listener and less judgmental than Hermione is, and will be able to get Harry to confide in her about the feelings and fears he currently keeps secret from both Ron and Hermione. Harry will feel entertained and comforted around her in a way he does not feel with Hermione (see the Ron-Harry fight in GoF, for instance). And Harry will find her far more sexually attractive than he finds Hermione.
And, come on, let's state the obvious -- her name will be Ginny Weasley.
MY PRESENT REASONS
4. I like H/G because it is funny.
Honestly, I didn't expect H/G to be funny. R/Hr is funny, and that's one of the reasons I love it so much. I expected H/G to be treated with seriousness and depth of feeling. And it WAS -- but Rowling also found a way to make it funny. She did this in HBP by concentrating not so much on them as a happy couple, but by emphasizing Harry's bumbling feelings of jealousy and desire before they got together. Harry's chest monster is funny. Harry shivering because Ginny picked a maggot from his hair is funny. Harry wanting to kick Dean off the Quidditch team is funny. Harry fantasizing about Ginny hanging over his hospital bed and tearfully confessing her attraction to him is funny. Ron signaling "well, if you must" is funny. I LOVE teh funny.
5. I like H/G because it is sexy.
These may be children's books, but Rowling manages to convey a real libidinous charge in Harry's feelings for Ginny. The whole purring roaring monster is a masterful metaphor that is humorous and kid-friendly but can easily be understood by adults as conveying strong sexual feelings. A touch here about Harry's half-waking fantasies, an allusion there to him remembering an hour by the lake, and we who care about such things can feel the heat between them. I LIKE sexual attraction in love stories. Plus I think Ginny is hot.
6. I like H/G because it is sweet.
Ginny makes Harry happy, and it warms my heart to read about it. I love the way she makes him laugh -- at Quidditch practices, about the dragon tattoo, about Fleur. I love how she's his "best source of comfort" and kissing her feels like "several sunlit days" and time spent with her by the lake is "a perfect hour." I love the way she gives him a little elbow nudge when he needs to pay attention at the funeral, and her twisted smile when he tells her he has to break up with her, and her small warm hand pulling him away from tragedy and exhaustion and back toward life and warmth and comfort. Their love story is gentle and harmonious; they communicate effortlessly; they're comfortable with each other; they're both self-sacrificing and "noble"; their interactions have a mellow, almost lyrical quality almost completely lacking in the spiky sparring of Ron and Hermione. Harry and Ginny are two good people who are good to and good for each other.
7. I like H/G because it is NOT sappy.
Even though I love stories that include romance and sex, I have a very low tolerance for icky fluffy touchy-feely stuff. J.K. Rowling never makes me squirm with embarrassment at a sentimental or cloying or melodramatic or grandiose love scene, like so many other writers -- even ones I enjoy -- sometimes do. I like my romances lively, sexy, humorous, and intercut with plenty of action, suspense, and other stuff. I enjoy romances more when they're only glimpsed rather than dwelled upon, when you have to WORK for them. Harry/Ginny fits this very well -- thanks to being targeted to kids and to Rowling's own decidedly unsappy aesthetic. It moves at a brisk pace with only glancing indulgences in shippiness so far and, at the present moment, the would-be lovers are parted (always a plus when you have one more whole book to go!). H/G feels in perspective and correctly-weighted in proportion to the story as a whole.
MY FUTURE REASONS
8. I like H/G because it's barely begun.
There's a reason why Harry and Ginny have already parted, with only the sketchiest portrayal of them being happy together, and without a big subplot of how they got together. The reason is that they're going to have a big subplot of getting back together. All we've done so far is establish that Harry wants to be with Ginny, and indicate why. Book 7 will have the bulk of their romantic subplot -- an Odysseus/Penelope (or Orpheus/Euridice-but-with-a-happy-ending) one rather than a how-they-got-together one. That's why Rowling always knew she was going to get them together and then part them in Book 6.
9. I like H/G because it's going to be entwined with the Voldemort plot
All the cards are in place, and Rowling has only to play them: Ginny's connection with Tom Riddle through the diary, Ginny's still-undiscussed commonality with Harry as the only two survivors (well, besides Nagini) of Voldemortian possession; Ginny's resemblance to the archtypal maiden who discovers where the villain's heart is in the external soul story pattern; Harry's and Ginny's broken-off romantic relationship; Ginny's seventh-child powerful magic. If there's anything I like to see in a love story, it's a lot of nice juicy non-romantic plot complications. I can't wait to see how Rowling pulls this all together.
10. I like H/G because it is part of the proper comedic resolution to allow Harry to live, and live happily ever after.
Harry will marry Ginny and become part of a complicated web of family bonds tying him to many characters in the story -- all the Weasleys, Fleur and Hermione -- symbolically binding the fractured wizarding world back together, restoring the damaged fabric of society, new vows to replace broken ones, new births to replace much-mourned deaths, hope and joy to replace hatred and terror.
First, in this forest, let us do those ends
That here were well begun and well begot:
And after, every of this happy number,
That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us,
Shall share the good of our returned fortune,
According to the measure of their states.
Meantime, forget this new-fall'n dignity,
And fall into our rustic revelry:--
Play, music!--and you brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall.
When it comes to H/G, my history is kind of funny. You could say that H/G was my first Harry Potter ship, because I started expecting it early in my first reading of PS/SS (long before the final chapter when I had my first fugitive wish for SS/HG -- yes, I now see that that would never do -- Hermione totally doesn't deserve him!). But you could also say it's my newest HP ship, because I never fell in love with it the way I did with R/Hr until HBP and this picture by seviet. So I am dividing my ten reasons into three categories -- why I liked H/G before HBP, why I like H/G now, and why I suspect I'll like H/G still more in the future:
MY PAST REASONS
1. I like H/G because I wanted Harry to experience romance.
When I read the first book I knew that this would be a series where Harry would grow and develop. I happen to like "kissing books," as the grandson puts it in The Princess Bride, and I was eagerly scanning the first book for cues about whether or not this series (which I could already tell was going to be important to me) would contain that much-desired element. When Ginny was introduced, I strongly suspected it would. This made me happy.
2. I like H/G because I saw the search for family as Harry's primary quest.
I mean, this is made crystal clear in his Mirror of Erised vision -- Harry wants to be part of a large, loving family. That, not to save society or whatever, is why he has to defeat Voldemort. He wants to live. I have written elsewhere about why Ginny is the perfect symbolic resolution of Harry's central dilemma -- longing for a family he can never have back (yes, I was serious about that part!).
3. I like H/G because I knew Ginny had the right personality to make Harry happy.
Since CoS, it has become steadily more obvious that Ginny has every quality that Harry would ever want or need in a girlfriend. She's warm and encouraging, fun-loving, emotionally resilient, quick-witted, courageous, perceptive, buoyant, loyal, openly affectionate, active, empathetic, and sexually responsive. She's outgoing and friendly enough to open Harry's shell, but she knows when not to talk. She has Ron's emotional lability and intuitiveness, but lacks his insecurity and frequent tactlessness. She's other-oriented, but confident enough to stand up for herself and her own needs. And she's a challenge -- an attractive, self-possessed, popular girl who gives Harry something desirable to strive for.
Here's something I wrote on this subject in February of 2003 (pre-OotP):It is fairly easy for me to see the ways JKR has portrayed Hermione as NOT a suitable partner for Harry, and to hypothesize the qualities that the girl who IS a suitable partner for Harry will have. She will be, for instance, less bossy and argumentative than Hermione is, and will have a subtler, more continuously-active sense of humor. She will be a better listener and less judgmental than Hermione is, and will be able to get Harry to confide in her about the feelings and fears he currently keeps secret from both Ron and Hermione. Harry will feel entertained and comforted around her in a way he does not feel with Hermione (see the Ron-Harry fight in GoF, for instance). And Harry will find her far more sexually attractive than he finds Hermione.
And, come on, let's state the obvious -- her name will be Ginny Weasley.
MY PRESENT REASONS
4. I like H/G because it is funny.
Honestly, I didn't expect H/G to be funny. R/Hr is funny, and that's one of the reasons I love it so much. I expected H/G to be treated with seriousness and depth of feeling. And it WAS -- but Rowling also found a way to make it funny. She did this in HBP by concentrating not so much on them as a happy couple, but by emphasizing Harry's bumbling feelings of jealousy and desire before they got together. Harry's chest monster is funny. Harry shivering because Ginny picked a maggot from his hair is funny. Harry wanting to kick Dean off the Quidditch team is funny. Harry fantasizing about Ginny hanging over his hospital bed and tearfully confessing her attraction to him is funny. Ron signaling "well, if you must" is funny. I LOVE teh funny.
5. I like H/G because it is sexy.
These may be children's books, but Rowling manages to convey a real libidinous charge in Harry's feelings for Ginny. The whole purring roaring monster is a masterful metaphor that is humorous and kid-friendly but can easily be understood by adults as conveying strong sexual feelings. A touch here about Harry's half-waking fantasies, an allusion there to him remembering an hour by the lake, and we who care about such things can feel the heat between them. I LIKE sexual attraction in love stories. Plus I think Ginny is hot.
6. I like H/G because it is sweet.
Ginny makes Harry happy, and it warms my heart to read about it. I love the way she makes him laugh -- at Quidditch practices, about the dragon tattoo, about Fleur. I love how she's his "best source of comfort" and kissing her feels like "several sunlit days" and time spent with her by the lake is "a perfect hour." I love the way she gives him a little elbow nudge when he needs to pay attention at the funeral, and her twisted smile when he tells her he has to break up with her, and her small warm hand pulling him away from tragedy and exhaustion and back toward life and warmth and comfort. Their love story is gentle and harmonious; they communicate effortlessly; they're comfortable with each other; they're both self-sacrificing and "noble"; their interactions have a mellow, almost lyrical quality almost completely lacking in the spiky sparring of Ron and Hermione. Harry and Ginny are two good people who are good to and good for each other.
7. I like H/G because it is NOT sappy.
Even though I love stories that include romance and sex, I have a very low tolerance for icky fluffy touchy-feely stuff. J.K. Rowling never makes me squirm with embarrassment at a sentimental or cloying or melodramatic or grandiose love scene, like so many other writers -- even ones I enjoy -- sometimes do. I like my romances lively, sexy, humorous, and intercut with plenty of action, suspense, and other stuff. I enjoy romances more when they're only glimpsed rather than dwelled upon, when you have to WORK for them. Harry/Ginny fits this very well -- thanks to being targeted to kids and to Rowling's own decidedly unsappy aesthetic. It moves at a brisk pace with only glancing indulgences in shippiness so far and, at the present moment, the would-be lovers are parted (always a plus when you have one more whole book to go!). H/G feels in perspective and correctly-weighted in proportion to the story as a whole.
MY FUTURE REASONS
8. I like H/G because it's barely begun.
There's a reason why Harry and Ginny have already parted, with only the sketchiest portrayal of them being happy together, and without a big subplot of how they got together. The reason is that they're going to have a big subplot of getting back together. All we've done so far is establish that Harry wants to be with Ginny, and indicate why. Book 7 will have the bulk of their romantic subplot -- an Odysseus/Penelope (or Orpheus/Euridice-but-with-a-happy-ending) one rather than a how-they-got-together one. That's why Rowling always knew she was going to get them together and then part them in Book 6.
9. I like H/G because it's going to be entwined with the Voldemort plot
All the cards are in place, and Rowling has only to play them: Ginny's connection with Tom Riddle through the diary, Ginny's still-undiscussed commonality with Harry as the only two survivors (well, besides Nagini) of Voldemortian possession; Ginny's resemblance to the archtypal maiden who discovers where the villain's heart is in the external soul story pattern; Harry's and Ginny's broken-off romantic relationship; Ginny's seventh-child powerful magic. If there's anything I like to see in a love story, it's a lot of nice juicy non-romantic plot complications. I can't wait to see how Rowling pulls this all together.
10. I like H/G because it is part of the proper comedic resolution to allow Harry to live, and live happily ever after.
Harry will marry Ginny and become part of a complicated web of family bonds tying him to many characters in the story -- all the Weasleys, Fleur and Hermione -- symbolically binding the fractured wizarding world back together, restoring the damaged fabric of society, new vows to replace broken ones, new births to replace much-mourned deaths, hope and joy to replace hatred and terror.
First, in this forest, let us do those ends
That here were well begun and well begot:
And after, every of this happy number,
That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us,
Shall share the good of our returned fortune,
According to the measure of their states.
Meantime, forget this new-fall'n dignity,
And fall into our rustic revelry:--
Play, music!--and you brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall.