J.K. Rowling

My favorite image of Ginny, from the HP Lexicon.

I’ve always found Ginny Weasley fascinating, given her ever evolving role in the story and the lives of other characters.  In 2004, Rowling hedged her bets on Ginny in an online chat session:

Field: Do you plan for Ginny to take on a major character role in the next two books?

JK Rowling replies -> Well, now that Ginny has stopped being mute in Harry’s presence I think you can see that she is a fairly forceful personality (and she always has been, remember Ron saying that she ‘never shuts up’ in Chamber of Secrets)?

And the Anelli/Spartz interview generated this series of statements:

the plan was, which I really hope I fulfilled, is that the reader, like Harry, would gradually discover Ginny as pretty much the ideal girl for Harry. She’s tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she’s gutsy. He needs to be with someone who can stand the demands of being with Harry Potter, because he’s a scary boyfriend in a lot of ways. He’s a marked man. I think she’s funny, and I think that she’s very warm and compassionate. These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman. But, I felt — and I’m talking years ago when all this was planned — initially, she’s terrified by his image. I mean, he’s a bit of a rock god to her when she sees him first, at 10 or 11, and he’s this famous boy. So Ginny had to go through a journey as well. And rather like with Ron, I didn’t want Ginny to be the first girl that Harry ever kissed. That’s something I meant to say, and it’s kind of tied in. [click to continue…]

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