Ginny Weasley: Biography, Grit and Secrets
Anything Is Possible If You Have Enough Nerve
- Born
- August 11, 1981
- Patronus
- Horse
- Blood
- Pure-Blood
- Specialty
- Quidditch — Chaser; Bat-Bogey Hex
- Key Year
- Possessed by Riddle's diary, Year 1
- Later Life
- Holyhead Harpies; Daily Prophet
Ginny Weasley is the only girl in the family and the youngest of seven. She spends her first year at Hogwarts possessed by Voldemort without knowing it, and comes back stronger. The series takes a while to give her the spotlight, but once it does, she holds it.
Who she is
She first appears on Platform 9¾, begging to go to school with her brothers (Philosopher's Stone, ch. 6). She is still too young, and starts Hogwarts a year later. She is funny, determined and a very good Quidditch player. With six older brothers, she learned early how to hold her own.
Key moments
- Chamber of Secrets, chs. 17 and 18: it comes out that Ginny had been writing in Tom Riddle's diary and that the diary had been manipulating her. Dumbledore tells her it was not her fault.
- Order of the Phoenix, ch. 16: she signs the sign-up list for the future Dumbledore's Army at the Hog's Head.
- Order of the Phoenix, ch. 34: she goes with Harry to the Department of Mysteries and ends up with a broken ankle, but keeps fighting.
- Deathly Hallows, ch. 29: with Neville and Luna she keeps Dumbledore's Army alive at Hogwarts, and they wait for Harry in the Room of Requirement.
- Deathly Hallows, ch. 36: in the battle, Bellatrix nearly hits her with a curse and Molly Weasley steps in to duel her. Molly wins.
Relationships
With Harry it is a long road. As a girl she admires him in silence, then gets over the shyness, and only in Half-Blood Prince do they start dating. Ron protects her more than she asks. Fred and George tease her and defend her in equal measure. Molly and Arthur love her without smothering her. With Luna and Neville she builds, in the last year, a small but real resistance inside the school.
What almost nobody notices
When Harry fears he is possessed by Voldemort in Order of the Phoenix, Ginny is the one who tells him she knows how that feels. Nobody else around him can say it. What happened with the diary stops being her shameful secret and becomes what lets her understand Harry better than anyone.
And in Deathly Hallows (ch. 29), Neville explains that Ginny, Luna and he tried to steal the Sword of Gryffindor from Snape's office and were punished for it. The punishment did not stop them. With Harry far away, Ginny keeps fighting for him without expecting thanks.
If your courage looks like hers, take the house quiz. And Tom Riddle's Diary: Voldemort's First Horcrux Explained tells why that diary was so dangerous.
Content created with AI assistance, reviewed and edited by our editorial team.
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