Ginny Weasley

Ginevra "Ginny" Molly Weasley (born 11 August 1981) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series. She is the youngest of Arthur Weasley and Molly Weasley's seven children. She is small, with vivid red hair and bright brown eyes, and is occasionally likened to a cat. She is a deceptively talented magic user in spite of her size, noted especially for her skill with the Bat-Bogey Hex. According to author J.K. Rowling, she is also the first female born into the Weasley line in "several generations."

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Ginny is introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She is, in fact, the first girl of about Harry's age properly introduced in the series. She only makes two appearances in Philosopher's Stone, both at King's Cross Station. The first is an extended cameo when Harry and her brothers leave for Hogwarts; she is shown interacting with her family, and then running down the platform chasing the train as it leaves the station. The second is a brief appearance at the end of the book where she is excited to catch a glimpse of Harry when he returns from Hogwarts.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Ginny becomes more involved in the storyline when she starts attending Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a year after Harry and her brother Ron. While she appears to play a mostly behind-the-scenes role in the book — looking mysteriously ill every once in a while and providing light comic relief with her painfully obvious crush on Harry — she turns out to be the key to the year's biggest mystery, a series of unexplained attacks that leave several Muggle-born students petrified. Harry eventually discovers that a magical school diary made by Tom Riddle (the young Lord Voldemort) had been taking advantage of her insecurities and innocence, possessing her in order to access the Chamber of Secrets and unleash a Basilisk on the school.

It turns out that Lucius Malfoy was responsible for making sure that Ginny found the diary; he hoped to use her actions to discredit her father, who had proposed a Muggle Protection Act that Lucius opposed, and to have Dumbledore thrown out of Hogwarts. After Ginny tells "Tom" about Harry's survival and the destruction of Voldemort, though, Riddle puts his own twist on the plan. Instead of using Ginny to attack Muggle-borns, he decides to bring her down to the Chamber and kill her by absorbing her life energy, restoring himself to full life in the process. More importantly, he hopes her abduction will lure Harry into the Chamber as well. Riddle is very curious about how Harry "defeated" him, and wants to kill him in revenge. Harry does in fact enter the Chamber, but with help from Fawkes and the Sorting Hat manages to destroy both Riddle and the Basilisk and save Ginny's life.

The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire

Ginny is not involved in the main storylines of Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, and she only directly interacts with Harry three times. In book 3 she catches his eye and they share a laugh at the train station. In book 4 they exchange grins and talk briefly when Harry first arrives at the Burrow. A few months later, in an impressive display of integrity, she turns down a chance to go to the Yule Ball with Harry, whom she still fancies, because she had already agreed to go with Neville Longbottom. She often appears in the background in these two books, however, interacting with other characters or just being mentioned in passing. She is badly affected by the Dementors on the train in Prisoner of Azkaban (likely remembering her experiences of being possessed by Riddle the previous year), and on another occasion she stands up for Neville, demanding that Ron and Harry stop laughing at him.

In the first four books, Ginny's overall portrayal has a streak of a Damsel in Distress to it, an impression created chiefly from her role in Chamber of Secrets where the adhesion to this formula goes as far as her heroic rescuer slaying the proverbial dragon to save her. (Steve Kloves compares this to the legend of St. George and the dragon in the script of the Chamber of Secrets movie; see princess and dragon). Her background appearances, however, especially in book 4, give the reader glimpses of her real personality when she isn't hamstrung by her crush on Harry. These glimpses are in stark contrast to the "Damsel in Distress" stereotype, and foreshadow the more fully-developed character she becomes in book five and beyond.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix develops Ginny's character in ways only hinted at through the first four books. No longer letting a crush affect her behaviour around Harry, she emerges as a forceful personality, fiercely independent, with good magical and acting ability, a great sense of humour, and a talent for Quidditch. She is also proud almost to a fault (sometimes refusing help even when she clearly needs it) and shows a nasty temper when upset.

Ginny is the only character among Harry's peers who can address him calmly during his worst moods. Others (notably Hermione Granger, and to a lesser extent Ronald Weasley) do confront Harry and address him during these moods, but do not take the 'cool' tone that Ginny and a few adults (like Phineas Nigellus and Albus Dumbledore) are able to employ. In one scene, Harry wallows in miserable thoughts of himself being a weapon Voldemort might use to attack people, "contaminated" and unworthy of the company of his friends. He forgot that Ginny was also once posessed by Voldemort, and that she could provide insight on his situation. When she forcefully reminds him of her experience, he sincerely apologises to her for not remembering.

When Dolores Umbridge gives Harry a "lifetime" ban from playing Quidditch, Ginny replaces him as Gryffindor's Seeker. She is successful, though everyone (including herself) admits that she is not nearly as good as Harry. She also joins (and names) Dumbledore's Army, a group started by Harry, Hermione, and Ron to provide students with practical instruction in Defence Against the Dark Arts. She is one of the DA members who joins Harry's attempt to rescue Sirius Black from the Department of Mysteries at the end of the year. Unfortunately she gets knocked out of the fight early with a broken ankle.

Hermione tells Harry in Order of The Phoenix that Ginny 'used to' like him, but 'gave up' on him quite awhile ago. She met Michael Corner at the Yule Ball and began dating him at the end of Goblet of Fire. They remain a couple for most of the fifth book, but eventually break up when he becomes sulky over Gryffindor beating Ravenclaw at Quidditch.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In Half-Blood Prince, Ginny is primarily involved in the romance subplots. Harry learns at the end of Book 5 that she has started going out with Dean Thomas. Also, it is revealed that by her fifth year (Harry's sixth), she has become one of the more popular girls at Hogwarts. She does not become a prefect (the only other person in her family besides the Twins who isn't named a prefect), but she is widely considered attractive and Horace Slughorn respects her magical abilites enough (after seeing her bat-bogey hex Zacharias Smith) to invite her to join his "Slug Club." She also becomes a superb Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, alongside Katie Bell and Demelza Robins, though she returns to playing Seeker for the last match of the year when Harry is stuck in detention with Snape.

As Harry witnesses Ginny repeatedly refuse his company in favor of Dean's, he starts feeling odd, unexplained twinges of annoyance. During Professor Slughorn's first potions lesson, Harry notices the scent of "something flowery he might have smelled at the Burrow" coming from a love potion (one which smells different for each person, according to what attracts them). Later in the chapter, he notices the same flowery scent when Ginny joins them in conversation - though he again fails to make the connection. He finally realizes his feelings for her during an incident in November where he and Ron find Ginny and Dean kissing in a corridor. Ron is outraged because he feels over-protective of his sister, while Harry is seized by the urge to "jinx Dean into a jelly." Afterwards, Harry initially tries to convince himself that his feelings are just brotherly, but eventually accepts that he is attracted to Ginny as a romantic interest and struggles with a major crush on her from then on, alternating between fantasizing about her and worrying about how Ron would react if he knew Harry liked his sister.

Ginny and Dean's relationship turns sour after Christmas, and they finally break up in April (with a helpful "nudge" from Harry's Felix Felicis lucky potion). Though still worried about Ron's reaction, Harry can't help but take advantage of the chance to spend more time with her. After Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup, she and Harry spontaneously kiss during the post-match celebration, to almost everyone's surprise. Hermione beams with approval. Ron is stunned, but gives them his reluctant blessing.

When the Death Eaters attack Hogwarts, aided by Draco Malfoy, Ginny joins the fight, along with Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and several members of the Order of the Phoenix. She is much more effective in combat than she was the previous year, holding her own against the Death Eaters and escaping without injury, though this can be partly credited to small doses of Felix Felicis that she and the others took just before the battle.

After the death of Albus Dumbledore, Harry decides to break off their relationship, as he believes Lord Voldemort would target her if he learns they are a couple. Ginny accepts this decision, noting that given Harry's priorities she expected something like that to happen, and that his hero-complex might even be one of the reasons she likes him so much. She also confides that she never really gave up on him noticing her, crediting Hermione with giving her advice in that area, and seems hopeful for their future after Voldemort is killed.

Ginny in the films

Ginny is played by Bonnie Wright in the film adaptions. Only her first cameo in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone appears in the film, as it ended with the Hogwarts Express leaving Hogwarts and not with its arrival at King's Cross station.

Ginny's role in the second film is larger, but only marginally so. Her crush on Harry, which is very obvious in the book, is only hinted at and most of the hints about her involvement with the Chamber are left out. Since Ginny doesn't play a major role in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, she only appears in the third film as an extra, though she has one line.

After those sporadic appearances in the first three films, Ginny becomes much more visible in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She still only has a handful of lines, but she is a frequent presence in the background (and sometimes the foreground) through most of the movie. While she seldom deals directly with Harry, she spends quite a bit of time in the company of Hermione, Ron, Fred and George, and Neville Longbottom (her date to the Yule Ball), and both her friendship with Hermione from the books and her relationship with her brothers are clearly shown for the first time in the films. Subtly, she also displays some of the qualities that Ginny shows in the fifth and sixth books, and it has been suggested that Steve Kloves was steadily building up both Ginny and Neville for their larger roles in the fifth film.

Ginny's portrayal in fan fiction prior to The Order of the Phoenix varied greatly, but she was most often depicted as either a naive, fresh-faced ingénue or a rugged tomboy. Since the fifth book came out she has been almost exclusively depicted as the latter, often to an extent exceeding the actual books. She is usually paired with either Harry or Draco Malfoy, or, in the context of femslash fanfiction, with Hermione.

Fan reaction to Ginny's portrayal in The Order of the Phoenix and especially The Half-Blood Prince has been mixed. While some fans applaud Ginny as a good example of a strong female character, others believe her portrayal has many aspects of a Mary Sue. Proponents of the latter view, while often acknowledging that Ginny has flaws (unlike a traditional Mary Sue, which is by definition a totally flawless character), argue that J.K. Rowling glosses over or excuses Ginny's flaws, while playing up her apparent beauty, popularity, and athletic talent. Those who do not think Ginny is a Mary Sue argue that this is a product of seeing her only through Harry's third-person limited point of view. He is totally infatuated with Ginny in HBP, so naturally (like with Cho Chang in books 3 and 4) he focuses on how beautiful and wonderful she is and doesn't pay much attention to her flaws. Opponents also point out that a true Mary Sue is normally the author herself in fictional form, and that Rowling has said many times that Hermione (also a common target of Mary Sue accusations) is the character most like herself, not Ginny.

Another reason why some fans have started to dislike Ginny after the release of HBP is that in it, the flaws she does demonstrate are very unsympathetic. An example would be when she mocks her brother for his lack of experience with girls in front of her boyfriend and Harry.

It was fanon for many years that Ginny's full name was Virginia, as the name Ginny is usually short for Virginia, but J. K. Rowling revealed this not the case on her website and has said that her name is Ginevra. Since then, use of Virginia as Ginny's first name has been abandoned by fans.

Ref: Wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginny_Weasley