- It is hard to envision exactly how [Harry] and [Ginny] dealt with
their varied issues, including their relationship, after the war. There
are so many thorny unknowns to navigate, and many of them deal with
crucial questions about exactly understanding who precisely [Ginny] is
as a person, something that Mrs. Rowling largely omitted from the books.
The following list more or less summarises these questions, and the
difficult nature of them in turn is why I am largely dissatisfied with
fan fiction attempting to either augment or replace the official ending
to the series.
- In book seven, we see [Harry] watching her dot on the map to “make sure she was safe.”1 He would have to face the fact that she wasn’t. This might have nothing to do with her being either his current or ex girlfriend, but rather that [Neville] tells us that the students were being chained, starved, and used as test subjects for the dark arts.2
- [Ginny] may have understood why he broke up with her, that does not mean she accepts his decision to enter the forest and turn himself in. She may not do so even after learning about the horcrux that [Dumbledore] believed [Harry] to be.
- [Ginny] appears to have accepted his decisions as the battle became immanent, asking her to stay in the Room of Requirement. On the other hand, she ran off to join the battle as soon as he gave her an excuse to do so. His over protectiveness may come up further.
- Both of them need to process their grief and survivor’s guilt. Would this make them cling to each other more, or push each other away? Would each react the same way, or would each react differently?
- This list basically boils down to how well would they communicate
when [Harry] has a history of bottling his thoughts and feelings up
until he explodes, while [Ginny] is known for hexing people who annoy
her? The fight could be epic - and easily form a rift between them.
- Would she want to tell him about her traumatic year? She would certainly want credit for it, but that is not at all the same thing.
- If she does tell him anything of her traumatic year, would he get defensive, more depressed, or both? My guess is more depressed, but not defensive. However, my guess is that she would face denial from other family members and might take that out on [Harry].
- How much patience would she show in dealing with his issues surrounding the walk to the forest? No matter how patient she is inclined to be, the rest of the world won’t be patient and she also won’t like hearing about things from other people (or worse, the news) all the time.
In addition to the legitimate unanswered difficult questions that an author attempting to tackle this period of the fictional universe, there are also some pet peeves I have where I think authors frequently go wrong.
- One of the more popular ideas, I have no clue where it comes from, is that [Harry] slept for 36 hours straight following the scene with [Dumbledore]’s portrait in office for the headmaster/headmistress. They forget his badder capacity is limited. I do not doubt he was dehydrated that morning, and that would have extended the amount of time he could sleep, but not by that much. I expect he would have topped out at 12 or 13 hours.
- There are several different common misconceptions of [Ginny]
floating around.
- One version of [Ginny] has her as utterly hurt and angry over the breakup. This version ignores the various statements in books six and seven, the few places that Mrs. Rowling does give us a glimpse into their relationship, where it states just how much insight [Ginny] has into [Harry]. I do not doubt that [Ginny] was hurt and upset, I am firmly of the belief that the few scenes we have of them interacting in book seven clearly demonstrate that she did not blame [Harry] for the separation.
- A second version of [Ginny] falls back on the fan girl stereotype. This rarely results in a worthwhile story.
- A third version presents [Ginny] as hopelessly dominated by her family. This never rings very true.
- The inverse is equally wierd. [Ginny] is fiercely independent, but equally fiercely loves her family.
[Dumbledore]: </Harrypedia/people/Dumbledore/Albus Percival Wulfric Brian/>/ [Harry]: </Harrypedia/people/Potter/Harry James/>/ [Ginny]: </Harrypedia/people/Weasley/Ginevra Molly/>/ [Hogwarts]: /Harrypedia/Hogwarts// [Neville]: /Harrypedia/people/Longbottom/Neville/
Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows better citation needed.↩︎
Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows better citation needed.↩︎