Just Another Book About Harry Potter Ships

Hinny (Harry/Ginny)

SHIP NAMES: Hinny, Ginarry, Garry, Harry/Ginny, H/G, HP/GW, H.M.S. Emerald Flame, H.M.S. Orange Crush

THOUGHTS: My feelings about Hinny have fluctuated a lot over the years, but in the end, even as I've given it multiple chances, I just don't like this ship very much. For what it's worth, I think that it has a lot of potential, but the way that it was set up leaves a lot to be desired (and don't even get me started on movie!Hinny, which was an absolute disaster — I'm gonna ignore the movies completely and only go off the books for this, which are better in my opinion, anyway.)

Perhaps surprisingly, my feelings towards Hinny have nothing to do with my love of other ships for Harry and Ginny and everything to do with the ship itself. Even if I didn't ship Harry and Ginny with other people, I still would not see them working together, at least not with how its execution stands now.

At the end of the day, I believe that Ginny didn't like Harry for Harry. Rather, she liked the image that she'd built up in her head over years of crushing on him from afar. Remember when Harry broke up with her at the end of book six? Her response was, "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." Ginny clearly doesn't understand him, because he isn't "happy unless he's hunting Voldemort"! He's only doing it because he thinks he has to. He would much rather live a normal life, and he admits to this when he says that dating her was "like something out of someone else's life." Harry craves normalcy. Yet Ginny "knows" that he won't be happy unless he's saving the wizarding world, and she admits that's why she likes him. She likes him for something that isn't even true. How are they going to have a healthy, long-term relationship if she doesn't even know or understand who he is?

Beyond that, what do they have in common? They both like Quidditch, sure, but they don't have any other shared interests (at least, none that we're shown, which is one of the biggest problems with this ship in the first place: how little we're actually shown of WHY they're supposedly perfect for each other). The things that they do have in common, like their fiery natures or thickheadedness, would either clash enormously or become an unhealthy echo chamber. For example, Ginny fiercely defends Harry for using Sectumsempra against Draco, but Hermione is absolutely right that it was foolish of him to use a spell without any knowledge of it. Ginny reinforces some of Harry's worst behavior. And can you imagine if the two of them were to ever disagree about anything, with how pigheaded both of them are?

Not to mention that Ginny is an underdeveloped character. There, I said it! And yes, this includes all the books. We see comparatively little of her, and then suddenly she's this fiery, amazing, brave, super talented beautiful witch and a great Quidditch player, so great that she beats Cho when she plays against her, even though Ginny is usually a Chaser and Cho has been a successful Seeker for YEARS — and even though none of her six nosy brothers even knew that she played Quidditch somehow! It's just so unrealistic and comes out of nowhere.

To put it bluntly, Ginny is a Mary-Sue. She was an unnoticed shy wallflower for years, and then boom! now she's pretty and popular and has guys falling all over her and even Pansy is jealous of how pretty she is, while all her flaws are glossed over (for example, hexing people without getting in trouble, and people supporting her actions and even calling her hexes "impressive"? Calling Fleur "phlegm" and a "cow" behind her back? Being really snippy towards Cho, which culminated in insisting that Luna show Harry where the diadem of Ravenclaw was during the Battle of Hogwarts, as if she couldn't trust Cho and Harry to go together? Dating unassuming guys who were into her while she still had feelings for Harry, and not at all feeling guilty about that?) Ginny is amazing and perfect for Harry, apparently, but we don't see her develop into that. It just happens.

And as I mentioned at the very beginning of this chapter, the lack of development between her and Harry is extremely disappointing. Their relationship falls flat. Whether you love, hate, or fall somewhere in between with regards to Romione, pretty much everyone can agree that they had a lot of development over the series. But Harry's interest in Ginny comes out of nowhere, after years of seeing her as nothing but Ron's younger sister, and as readers, we see almost zero evidence that her and Harry have chemistry beyond the physical. What is there to hold them together besides physical attraction? How are we supposed to believe that they got married so soon after the war and stayed that way for over twenty years? Honestly, it just doesn't make sense.

Also, while people tend to focus on why Ginny is not good for Harry, to be fair, Harry isn't good for her, either. He doesn't trust her or think of her as an equal. He breaks up with her for a "stupid, noble reason," as Ginny aptly puts it, and he doesn't trust her to take care of herself. Harry babies her. Frankly, it's insulting. I can't see someone as fiery and stubborn as Ginny staying with someone who treats her like that. Not to mention that they have seemingly opposite goals in life: Harry wants to settle down and no longer have such an exciting life (which is why I don't think he'd become an Auror, even though I love to read fics where he becomes one), and I could never see Ginny becoming a housewife like her mother. On top of all of that, do y'all remember the time that Harry literally FORGOT that Ginny was possessed by Voldemort during her entire first year?! You know, a traumatic situation that he was personally involved in?! What the fuck, Harry? Self-centered much?

I'm also low-key SO mad that JKR didn't do more with Ginny's character. Ginny is supposedly amazing, blah blah blah, but why couldn't we have seen that developing? Why did none of her brothers know that she was practicing Quidditch in her free time? How come nobody knew, not her family or any of her friends or even random people who could've caught her practicing on the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch in her free time? Why couldn't we have seen more hints, even small ones, toward Ginny's development into a strong fierce young woman when books four, five, six, and seven were so lengthy? And why didn't Harry involve Ginny with the Horcrux hunt when she was the only other person who knew what it was like to be possessed by a Horcrux and had a personal stake in getting rid of them? THAT COULD HAVE BEEN SO GOOD. WHY DIDN'T THAT HAPPEN??? WHERE IS ALL THE FANFIC FOR THIS SCENARIO??? Y'ALL ARE SLACKING.

Anyway, I could keep going on about this forever, but I'll stop here. Suffice to say, I tried really hard to like Hinny, but I'm majorly frustrated by how it was orchestrated in the books, and I ship them more with other people. I'm definitely not against reading fanfic about them and I will read it if it's well-written, but this ship is just meh to me. They're much better as friends, at least with how their in-universe execution stands.

RATING: 5/10: This ship's pros (its potential) and cons (its execution) leave me meh.

FANDOM RANK (AS OF JUNE 2022): #6

Thoughts? Let me know in the comment section!

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