Ginny Weasley Has the Best Arc in the Harry Potter Series
There are two types of people in this world: Those that see Ginny Weasley as the amazing badass she is, or those who only remember Ginny as a thrown together character in the movies. And to those with no opinions on Ginny Weasley, why are you even reading this?
Now I offer no defense of Movie Ginny (beyond that Bonnie Wright deserved better), but Book Ginny is what it is all about. Sure, sure, people will fuss all over the Boy Who Lived, but Ginny Weasley ultimately has the strongest arc in terms of growth in the Harry Potter fandom. Now, I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to put together this piece. No. I went through and systematically tracked every single mention of Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter books and compiled it into a 99 page document. What can I say, I’m a bit of a Hermione.
While Ginny may not be one of the most forward facing characters in the series, her narrative is that of a beautifully nuanced character and the story of a woman coming into her own power not just in spite of her past trauma, but because of it.
So what makes Ginny Weasley’s arc so satisfying?
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Our first Ginny mention occurs when we hear a small, red-headed girl pipe up “Nine and three-quarters!” when her mom asks for the number of the Hogwarts Express Platform. Immediately she starts begging to go to Hogwarts with her brothers, and then to see the famous Harry Potter (who her brother mentions is on the train).
Now let’s unpack that for a moment. As the youngest of 7 children this will be her first time ever without all of her brothers (as Ron is starting school this year). You can see this tender relationship when Ginny begins to cry as her brothers say goodbye. On page 77 (using an online PDF, so page numbers may vary), JK Rowling further drives home this point by stating, “The train began to move. Harry saw the boys’ mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.”
This initial depiction of Ginny on the platform is an exact ring composition match to the final depiction of Ginny in the Harry Potter series. Both her first and last mention occur on Platform 9 3/4. While her character introduction includes her wish to see Harry Potter on the train, at the end of the series she is sending off her children that she and Harry raised. This is further mirrored when in the final chapter of Sorcerer’s Stone (and only other mention of Ginny in the book) closes out with her again on the Hogwarts Express platform pointing out Harry to her mother.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
We first see Ginny in Chamber of Secrets when Ron and Fred are making fun of her crush on Harry (to Harry!). She makes quite the fool out of herself in front of Harry, including knocking over her porridge bowl and putting her elbow in the butter dish. Anyone who has ever embarrassed themselves in front of their crush knows how absolutely mortifying it can be.
We further see deeper into the Weasley family dynamic, who are rich in love and family, but poor in galleons. To drive home the point that the Weasley family is poor, Mrs. Weasley takes Ginny to get second hand supplies and robes in Diagon Alley, and Harry gives Ginny his extra set of school books which were gifted to him by Lockhart. While this impact of these second hand items is skated over initially, it will reappear later in Ginny’s messages to Tom Riddle.
The first time Ginny even speaks in front of Harry in this book is to yell at Draco Malfoy for making fun of Harry, embarrassing herself in the process and ultimately providing a catalyst for the fight between Lucious Malfoy and Arthur Weasley during which Ginny receives the Horcrux diary. Not a good day for Ginny.
On page 44 of Chamber of Secrets we first hear of Ginny’s dairy when she panics that she forgot it at the Burrow and the family returns home to get it, contributing to their late timing for the Hogwarts Express. This is the same diary which Voldemort uses to possess Ginny. Before Ginny has even arrived at Hogwarts she has already formed an emotionally intimate connection with Tom Riddle’s Horcrux Diary.
Over the course of the next several chapters we receive several indicators that something is not quite right with Ginny, such as Percy having her take Pepper Up potion in October when she is described as “exceptionally pale” and Ron’s reference to her crying her eyes out. When Mrs. Norris is petrified (which we later will discover Ginny is behind), Ron blows off her feelings stating “ They’ll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here.” Additional Note: Ginny loves cats as witnessed with her relationship with Crookshanks later in the books which makes this all the more traumatic! She also is described in a cat-like way in future books, including hissing like a cat and being curled on a chair like a cat.
Ginny is also responsible for petrifying Colin Creevy, who sits next to her in Charms class. Imagine finding out that you are responsible for trying to murder someone who sits next to you in class but having no memory of doing so! Further, she has to endure Fred and George trying to cheer her up by covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statues, adding to her current living nightmare.
Adding insult to humiliation of her crush. Ginny sends a singing valentine to Harry which he brushes off in front of her and Ginny has to endure Draco yelling at her in front of her classmates, “ I don’t think Potter liked your valentine much!”
When Ginny finally gets up the strength to try and tell Harry and Ron about Tom Riddle’s Diary, Percy interrupts the moment and brushes off her fearfulness as her having seen him snog someone (which let’s face it, is a bit conceited). Soon after, Tom Riddle convinces her to sign her own death warrant by writing ‘Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever’ in paint and disappearing into the Chamber of Secrets as she sobs and begs it to stop.
It isn’t until page 203 (remember we heard about it on page 44) that Tom Riddle describes how Ginny was being possessed by the diary. He talks about the things she poured into the diary, opening her heart and talking about her brother’s teasing her, having to wear second hand robes to school, and how the boy she likes will never like her back.
Tom Riddle describes exactly how he manipulated Ginny stating, “So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted… I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…”
Ginny, who trusted her secrets to Tom Riddle like a best friend, was manipulated into strangling roosters and trying to murder her classmates, as well as at lure her crush, Harry Potter, into a death trap. While obviously the main storyline here is Harry (after all the book is named after him), can we just take a moment to realize the trauma that an 11 year old girl went through absolutely on her own? In addition, Ron started going crazy after wearing the Horcrux for one day, Ginny carried one with her FOR A YEAR.
ALSO NONE OF HER FAMILY NOTICED SHE WAS POSSESSED BY THE DARK LORD FOR A WHOLE YEAR.
When Ginny wakes up from the trance, she immediately worries not only about everything she has done, but also that Hogwarts, the thing she has been dreaming about her entire life, will be taken away and she will be expelled. When she is reunited with her parents they are overwhelmed with joy to see her, but Mr. Weasley also victim-blames her state, “ Haven’t I taught you anything. What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain? Why didn’t you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic!”
Despite this, on the train ride home we see our first real glance of Ginny’s personality beginning to shine through as she plays Exploding Snap with her brothers and the trio.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Despite the trauma that Ginny endured in Chamber of Secrets, it is brushed off and forgotten about for much of Prisoner of Azkaban. The main indicator of the trauma she has experienced is when the Dementor appears in Hogwarts express carriage. While Harry receives the main attention here (as he fainted), Ginny is described as pale, shaking, and crying. Why you ask? Because Dementors cause you to relive your worst memories. For Ginny that would be her possession by Voldemort.
Beyond that incident, Ginny’s name is barely mentioned in Prisoner of Azkaban. She is forgotten.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Take a moment to think of your worst experience. Now take a moment to think of a violent crowd wanting to make your re-live that experience.
While the Dark Mark appearing at the Quidditch World Cup leads the reader to follow the trio as they flee the chaos, Ginny separated and is with Fred and George. Of all of her brothers, Ginny knows most of all what Voldemort and his followers are capable of. While Harry has felt second hand Voldemort’s power (through attacks on him), Ginny has been forced to commit those acts against her own will while possessed. While the text merely describes Ginny and her brothers as “unhurt, though shaken” we can imply more. Ginny is seeing first hand Voldemort’s supporters torturing muggles and reveling in the street only 2 short years after her experience in the Chamber. For her brothers this is a frightening experience, but for her it is personal.
At Hogwarts, it is she that consoles Ron after he asks Fleur Delacour to the Yule Ball. Immediately after, Ron insults Neville (who Ron doesn’t know has asked Ginny to the ball), and offers Ginny to be Harry’s date (without her consent). Not only does Ginny get pawned off here, but she has to tell the boy she likes she won’t be going with him. While Ginny is described as looking “extremely miserable” when telling Ron and Harry she is going with Neville, this can be read alternatively as having her only shot with Harry be a missed opportunity.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Order of the Phoenix is the first book which opens with Ginny’s interaction with Harry having nothing to do with embarrassment. It is in this book that we see her demonstrate that she is an amazing wizard in her own right.
While staying at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Ginny is seen as having female friendships with Tonks (who taught her how to see if a door has been Imperturbed) and Hermione. Even still, she is treated like a child by her worried mother who calls “ Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please.” She is the only Weasley who is banned from hearing about the Order of the Phoenix, but doesn’t let that stop her from finding out exactly what the adults were talking about as soon as the meeting is over.
While Shakespeare may the initiator of the quote “though she be but little, she is fierce,” Fred and George paraphrase this by stating that size is no guarantee of power and Ginny is exceptionally talented at hexing in spite of her size (specifically the Bat-Bogey Hex which will get her into the Slug Club).
Order of the Phoenix is also the first book where we see Ginny displaying a social life outside of her brothers and the trio. She turns up to the initial DA meeting, convincing her boyfriend Michael Corner and his friends to join the DA, and scares the living bejeezus out of people with a spot-on Umbridge impersonation. Ginny is actually the person who names Dumbledore’s Army.
And who replaces Harry as seeker on the Qudditch team when he can’t hold his temper around Umbridge? Ginny. Freaking. Weasley. And how did she get so good as Quidditch? After her brothers wouldn’t let her play Quidditch with them, starting at age 6 she would sneak into the broomshed, borrow their brooms, and practice on her own without them knowing.
When Arthur Weasley is attacked, Ginny is the one who suggest they go to the hospital and takes a productive approach, while her brothers are still in their pajamas. When Harry feels like he is being possessed by Voldemort when he sees Nagini attack Mr. Weasley, it is Ginny who states, “ You don’t know anyone but me who’s been possessed by You-Know- Who, and I can tell you how it feels.” How does Harry respond? By saying he forgot she had been possessed. Ginny replies, “Lucky You.” While everyone in the series has been able to move past the events of the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny has been constantly reliving them.
When it comes to breaking into Umbridge’s Office to allow Harry to talk to Sirius, Ginny is the one who orchestrates the plan even though she knows the danger of doing so. After they are captured by Umbridge, Ginny is the one who takes down Malfoy with her Bat-Bogey Hex. She is the one who insists that she, Neville, and Luna join the trio at the Department of Mysteries (where they almost certainly would have been killed otherwise). Despite breaking her ankle and being cursed by the Death Eaters, Ginny demonstrates her skill with a wand throughout the fight.
Finally, we close out with Ginny dumping a boy who couldn’t handle the fact that she beat Ravenclaw at Quidditch and choosing to date Dean Thomas instead (and refusing to be slut shamed by Ron for it!).
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Continuing on the theme of Ginny being a badass woman who is in control of her own life, she also stands up to Fred and George who try and slut shame her by asking “ You’re moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren’t you?” When Ron catches her and Dean snogging later in the book and yells “ I don’t want to find my own sister snogging people in public!” Ginny doesn't hold back stating, “This was a deserted corridor till you came butting in!” She further elaborates, “Let’s get this straight once and for all. It is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them, Ron — ”
Harry begins to develop feelings for Ginny, but she has moved past the boy who had no interest in her. When Harry asks her to find a carriage on the Hogwarts Express, she tells him she is meeting Dean and walks away. She finds herself in Slughorn’s carriage and an official member of the Slug Club after Slughorn witnesses her perform her signature Bat-Bogey Hex on a Hufflepuff who kept demanding to know what happened at the Department of Mysteries. Why does that matter? Every other person who was invited to the initial meeting of the Slug Club was invited because they were related to someone important or influential. Everyone except Ginny, who was brought in purely because of her talent at hexes.
We further hear about Ginny’s Quidditch prowess, when during tryouts “Ginny Weasley, [outflew] all the competition and scored seventeen goals to boot.” When Zacharias Smith commentated one of the matches and publicly stated that Ginny and Ron were only on the team because Harry liked them, Ginny intentionally collided with the podium to knock Zacharias over proving that she wouldn’t take kindly to someone brushing off her well-earned skill.
While Ginny initially may receive heat from calling Luna Lovegood Looney Lovegood in Book 5, she clearly has a change of heart, including stopping two boys in Transfiguration and Ron from calling her Looney.
This is also the book where Ginny and Harry finally get together. While we hear a ton about Harry’s pining for Ginny in this book, Ginny is just going on in her life none the wiser. It is only after a successful Quidditch game that the two of them even kiss, and even then it is on Ginny’s terms.
During the battle at the Astronomy Tower, Ginny goes head to head with one of the Death Eaters. It is Ginny who leads Harry away from Dumbledore’s dead body and Ginny informs people in the hospital wing of Dumbledore’s death.
The ultimate Ginny Weasley example can be found in his excerpt from page 423–424 when Harry breaks up with Ginny to go pursue Voldemort.
“Ginny, listen…” he said very quietly, as the buzz of conversation grew louder around them and people began to get to their feet. “I can’t be involved with you anymore. We’ve got to stop seeing each other. We can’t be together.”
She said, with an oddly twisted smile, “It’s for some stupid, noble reason, isn’t it?”
“It’s been like… like something out of someone else’s life, these last few weeks with you,” said Harry. “But I can’t… we can’t… I’ve got things to do alone now.”
She did not cry, she simply looked at him,
“Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He’s already used you as bait once, and that was just because you’re my best friend’s sister. Think how much danger you’ll be in if we keep this up. He’ll know, he’ll find out. He’ll try and get to me through you.”
“What if I don’t care?” said Ginny fiercely.
“I care,” said Harry. “How do you think I’d feel if this was your funeral… and it was my fault…”
She looked away from him, over the lake.
“I never really gave up on you,” she said. “Not really. I always hoped… Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more — myself.”
“Smart girl, that Hermione,” said Harry, trying to smile. “I just wish I’d asked you sooner. We could ‘ve had ages… months… years maybe…”
“But you’ve been too busy saving the wizarding world,” said Ginny, half-laughing. “Well… I can’t say I’m surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn’t be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that’s why I like you so much.”
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Despite Dumbledore’s death and the flight of the trio, Ginny returns to Hogwarts where her, Neville, and Luna have taken over leading the DA . Even with Death Eaters running the school they would sneak out at night and graffiti Dumbledore’s Army, Still Recruiting on the walls as an act of civil disobedience. She participates in a scheme to break into Snape’s office and steal to Sword of Gryffindor in immense risk to herself.
Despite Mrs. Weasley’s order that Ginny stay in the Room of Requirement during the Battle of Hogwarts she sneaks off and joins the fray. Even at 16 years old, she comforts a severely injured girl and later fights Bellatrix Lestrange.
Post Hogwarts
According to Rowling, Ginny went on to play Quidditch professionally for the Holyhead Harpies, later retiring and settling down as the Quidditch Senior Editor for the Daily Prophet.
So why does Ginny have the most satisfying arc in the Harry Potter series?
Not only does she go from a shy 10 year old in love with her celebrity crush to eventually becoming the love of his life and marrying him, but she has her own entirely nuanced arc. She is possessed by the Dark Lord at 11 years old, made to do horrible things, and overcomes it psychologically pretty much on her own. She throws herself into her own life, making her own friends, dating who she wants (and owning it), and becoming such a supremely talented hexer that she becomes part of the Slug Club purely on merit. She is an exceptional Quidditch player and goes on to play professionally before choosing to settle down when she is ready for the next stage of her life, which includes being an amazing mom.
While she may not have all the glory of the other Harry Potter characters, I am Ginny Weasley all the way!
Who do you think has the best arc in the Harry Potter series?