Monday, July 27, 2009

Ginny Weasley

Ginevra Molly "Ginny" Weasley is the youngest of the seven Weasley children and "the first girl to be born into the Weasley clan for several generations."[25] She is introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in which she appears when Harry and four of her brothers leave for Hogwarts, and at the conclusion, in which she is excited to catch a glimpse of Harry upon his return.[26]
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny is a first-year Hogwarts student, having been sorted into Gryffindor. While she initially plays a behind-the-scenes role, looking mysteriously ill and having a crush on Harry, it is revealed in the climax that Tom Riddle's diary is possessing Ginny as a means to access the Chamber of Secrets and unleash a basilisk within the school grounds. Riddle's memory residing inside the diary brings her to the Chamber, intending to restore himself to full life by killing her.[27] Harry foils this plot by destroying the basilisk and the diary, thus saving Ginny's life. It is later revealed that Lucius Malfoy was responsible for planting the diary amongst Ginny's school books,[28] in hopes that her actions would discredit her father and lead to Dumbledore's removal from Hogwarts.[29] Ginny has little involvement in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Ginny has "given up on Harry months ago" in Order of the Phoenix,[30], and it is revealed that she has a boyfriend, Michael Corner, whom she met at the Yule Ball. When Umbridge punishes Harry with a "lifetime" Quidditch ban, Ginny replaces him as Gryffindor Seeker. She joins the D.A. and is one of five members who join Harry during his attempt to rescue Sirius Black from the Department of Mysteries. During the last part of the book, Ginny breaks up with Michael because of his sulking over Ravenclaw losing the Quidditch Cup final to Gryffindor, and starts dating Dean Thomas.
In Half-Blood Prince, after she casts the Bat-Bogey Hex on Zacharias Smith, new Potions professor Horace Slughorn respects her magical abilities enough to invite her to join his "Slug Club". Ginny becomes a Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and substitutes for Harry as Seeker when Snape puts him in detention during the Quidditch Cup final. After witnessing Ginny fiercely kissing Dean in a private hallway, Harry eventually accepts the fact that he fancies Ginny, but since Ron vocally objects to Dean dating his sister, Harry interprets this as his not wanting any of his friends to date her. Ginny's relationship with Dean ends altogether in April following an accidental "nudge" from Harry under the effects of Felix Felicis, which Ginny interprets as Dean unnecessarily trying to help her through the portrait hole.[31] Ginny and Harry share their first kiss after Gryffindor again wins the Quidditch Cup over Ravenclaw, thus initiating their relationship. Ginny joins the other D.A. members from the battle of Department of Mysteries to protect Hogwarts from Death Eaters who entered the school, but after Dumbledore's death, Harry decides to end their relationship as he fears his feelings for Ginny would place her in danger; he is surprised at how well Ginny handles his decision.
Propelled by the revelation that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are leaving to seek the remaining Horcruxes in Deathly Hallows, Ginny gives Harry a passionate kiss in her bedroom, which is interrupted after Ron "accidentally" walks in on the moment. She returns to Hogwarts for her sixth year, where she works with Neville and Luna on reuniting Dumbledore's Army, participates in a plot to steal Gryffindor's sword from Snape's office, and is banned from Hogsmeade for an unknown offence. Because Ron is on the run with Harry and Hermione, Ginny is forced to go into hiding with her family, but she returns to school before the Battle of Hogwarts takes place. Though underage, she eagerly takes part in the battle despite her mother's and Harry's disapproval.[32] After Harry's supposed death, she, Hermione, and Luna take on Bellatrix Lestrange, who nearly strikes Ginny with a Killing Curse, causing Mrs. Weasley to step in and slay Bellatrix herself.[33] When the battle ends and Voldemort is defeated, Harry sees Ginny with her mother and decides to not interrupt, thinking that there would be time to talk later.
In the epilogue, set nineteen years after the events of Deathly Hallows, Harry and Ginny are married and have three children: sons James Sirius and Albus Severus, and daughter Lily Luna. Rowling extrapolated on Ginny's future after the release of the book, saying that after leaving Hogwarts, she joined the Holyhead Harpies and, after spending a few years as a celebrated player, retired to become the senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet.[34]
Ginny has been played by Bonnie Wright in all of the Harry Potter films to date.

Fred and George Weasley

Fred and George Weasley are the older identical[22] twin brothers of Ron. Born on April Fools' Day, they first appear in Philosopher's Stone as third-years and are the class clowns and troublemakers, more interested in inventing new pranks than studying. Despite their meagre number of O.W.L.s, the twins are proficient wizards capable of sophisticated magic. In addition, they served as Beaters for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
The pair often comes to Harry's assistance throughout the series; in Chamber of Secrets, they and Ron help him escape his house arrest from Privet Drive, and give Harry the Marauder's Map during his third year. In Goblet of Fire, they begin selling their novelties under the name "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes" and test their products on impressionable first-years and once on Dudley Dursley at the beginning of the book. The twins aspire to own a joke shop, and Harry provides their start-up capital by donating his winnings from the Triwizard Tournament. In Order of the Phoenix, the twins are banned from Quidditch after a postmatch brawl with Malfoy, and later eschew the remainder of their seventh year by taking part in a student uprising against Umbridge led by Harry, during which they light off a mass of fireworks and conjure up a Portable Swamp in a corridor before abandoning their education; a small amount of the swamp is later kept and cordoned off by Filius Flitwick as a tribute. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Fred and George continue to run their joke shop despite the unrest in Diagon Alley.
In Deathly Hallows, the twins are Order of the Phoenix members and serve as two of Harry's six decoys when he escapes Privet Drive. However, George's ear is severed by a stray Sectumsempra curse from Snape originally aimed at a Death Eater, an injury that is irreparable. Meanwhile, the twins are forced to abandon their shop due to the Death Eater-helmed Ministry of Magic's surveillance of the Weasley family, and instead operate another owl-order business out of their Auntie Muriel's house. Fred and George return to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, during which George and Lee Jordan defeat Death Eater Yaxley, but Fred is killed in an explosion. Rowling said in an MSNBC interview that she always knew that Fred would be the one of the twins who would die, though she could not specify a particular reason.[23] She revealed in a web chat after the release of Deathly Hallows that George never fully got over Fred's death, but succeeded in turning Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes into a "money spinner" with Ron, who eventually quit to become an Auror.[24] George marries Angelina Johnson, with whom he has two children, Fred and Roxanne.[8]
James and Oliver Phelps play Fred and George in all of the Harry Potter films to date. The Phelps twins are natural brunettes; their hair is dyed red for the films.

Dean Thomas

Dean Thomas is a Gryffindor student in Harry's year who is described as "a Black boy even taller than Ron". He is best friends with Seamus Finnigan and a football fan, which leads to his confusion about the complexities of Quidditch. Dean's mother is a Muggle and his father was a wizard who kept his blood status a secret and abandoned his family when Dean was very young as a measure of protection for his family against the Death Eaters, and was slain when he refused to join them. Dean was subsequently raised by his mother and stepfather, and has several half-brothers and sisters.[21]
Dean joins the D.A. in his fifth year, and also believes Harry and Dumbledore when they insist that Voldemort has returned, but when Harry and Seamus engage in a heated row over the Daily Prophet's allegations that Harry had merely fabricated the story, Dean refuses to take sides. At the end of the term, he begins dating Ginny, and temporarily fills in for Katie Bell on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in Half-Blood Prince after she is hospitalised. The relationship eventually ends after Ginny becomes annoyed with Dean when he tries to help her through The Fat Lady's portrait hole. Harry, though jealous of the relationship from the start, is accidentally responsible for the split: under the Invisibility Cloak and the influence of Felix Felicis, he accidentally brushes Ginny as she and Dean pass through the portrait hole. Ginny thinks that Dean is being pushy and overprotective, which leads to the fight that ends their relationship.
Dean's role is expanded in Deathly Hallows. Unable to prove that he is actually a half-blood, he does not return to Hogwarts and goes on the run from the Ministry, who are rounding up Muggle-borns upon Voldemort's orders. Harry, Ron, and Hermione first come across him during their mission as they eavesdrop on his conversation with fellow runaways Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, and the goblins Griphook and Gornuk. Snatchers soon viciously attack the group; Dean and Griphook are the lone survivors but are captured along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione and taken to Malfoy Manor. They are all rescued by Dobby, who transports them to Bill and Fleur's Shell Cottage for protection. Dean returns to Hogwarts towards the end of the book and fights in the Battle of Hogwarts, in which he uses a Stunning Spell on an unnamed Death Eater, and when Dolohov attempts to retaliate against Dean, Parvati attacks Dolohov with a Body-Bind Curse.
Alfred Enoch has played Dean in all of the Harry Potter movies to date, and voiced the character in the Order of the Phoenix video game.

Alicia Spinnet

Alicia Spinnet first joined the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a reserve and moves up to the first team the next season (Harry's first year). Alicia is most often the Chaser who takes penalties when the other team commits an infraction. In her seventh year, she is jinxed by Slytherin Keeper Miles Bletchley in the library prior to the Gryffindor-Slytherin match, causing her eyebrows to grow long enough that they obstruct her face; Snape deliberately ignores the accounts of fourteen eyewitnesses, instead passing the incident off as her errant attempt at a Hair-Thickening Charm. Alicia joined the D.A. in her final year, and is not seen in Half-Blood Prince because she is no longer a student, but returns in the final book to defend the school in the Battle of Hogwarts.
Alicia was portrayed by Leilah Sutherland in Philosopher's Stone, and by Rochelle Douglas in Chamber of Secrets.

Zacharias Smith

Zacharias Smith is a Chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Unlike the majority of his housemates, Zacharias does not appear at all likeable, and his behaviour irritates most people, especially the series' main protagonists. He makes his first appearance in the debut meeting of the D.A. in Order of the Phoenix, but was the most skeptical of Harry's claims. Hermione later admits to Harry and Ron that she only invited him because he overheard her talking with Ernie and Hannah about joining. Later in the year, however, Zacharias is as eager for more D.A. lessons as the other members.
In Half-Blood Prince, Zacharias is first mentioned as being on the receiving end of one of Ginny's famed Bat-Bogey Hexes. He also splits Quidditch match commentary duties with Luna during the term; however, his jeering at the Gryffindor team is highly unpopular, to the point where Ginny deliberately crashes into the announcer's pit following Gryffindor's win over Slytherin. He is not seen again until the day after Dumbledore's death, when his haughty-looking father escorted him from Hogwarts before the funeral, implying that he was not supportive of Dumbledore and his policies. In Deathly Hallows, Zacharias attends Hogwarts under Snape's rule as headmaster. Before the Battle of Hogwarts, he is seen pushing past younger students for the evacuation point rather than staying to fight alongside the D.A.
Nick Shirm briefly appeared as Zacharias in the film adaptation of Order of the Phoenix, but was not mentioned by name; he was identified as "Somewhat Doubtful Boy" in the closing credits. Shirm also voiced the character in the video game adaptation of Order of the Phoenix

Parvati Patil

Parvati Patil is a Gryffindor student in Harry's year and the identical twin sister of Ravenclaw student Padma Patil. Her best friend is Lavender Brown; they are particularly fond of Trelawney's Divination class, and share many common interests. In Philosopher's Stone, she sticks up for the hapless Neville after Malfoy mocks him and steals his Remembrall during the first year students' flying class, and is then teased by Pansy Parkinson, who laughed at Parvati's supposed love for "fat little crybabies." Parvati attends the Yule Ball with Harry in Goblet of Fire, but her evening is a disappointment as Harry spends the evening jealously preoccupied with Cho Chang's date with Cedric Diggory and disdains dancing with Parvati; she eventually abandons him to dance with some Beauxbatons boys.
In her fifth year, Parvati joins Dumbledore's Army along with her sister. In Half-Blood Prince, the twins are almost removed from Hogwarts by their parents, and ultimately do return home after Dumbledore's death. However, the Patil twins return to their seventh year at Hogwarts, and they are first seen in the final book before the Battle of Hogwarts. Parvati duels with the Death Eater Travers during the battle, and attacks Antonin Dolohov with a Body-Bind Curse after he attempts to retaliate at Dean for stunning another Death Eater.
The Patils' names and appearance in the films imply that they are of Indian descent. Patil is a common Marathi surname in the state of Maharashtra. Rowling originally intended the twins' first names to begin with Ma, and on her classlist from Harry Potter and Me, their last name was spelled as Patel.[3] Parvati is also the name of one of the three primary Hindu goddesses.
Parvati was portrayed by Sitara Shah in Prisoner of Azkaban. Shefali Chowdhury took over the part for Goblet of Fire, along with the film and game versions of Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince

Parvati Patil

Parvati Patil is a Gryffindor student in Harry's year and the identical twin sister of Ravenclaw student Padma Patil. Her best friend is Lavender Brown; they are particularly fond of Trelawney's Divination class, and share many common interests. In Philosopher's Stone, she sticks up for the hapless Neville after Malfoy mocks him and steals his Remembrall during the first year students' flying class, and is then teased by Pansy Parkinson, who laughed at Parvati's supposed love for "fat little crybabies." Parvati attends the Yule Ball with Harry in Goblet of Fire, but her evening is a disappointment as Harry spends the evening jealously preoccupied with Cho Chang's date with Cedric Diggory and disdains dancing with Parvati; she eventually abandons him to dance with some Beauxbatons boys.
In her fifth year, Parvati joins Dumbledore's Army along with her sister. In Half-Blood Prince, the twins are almost removed from Hogwarts by their parents, and ultimately do return home after Dumbledore's death. However, the Patil twins return to their seventh year at Hogwarts, and they are first seen in the final book before the Battle of Hogwarts. Parvati duels with the Death Eater Travers during the battle, and attacks Antonin Dolohov with a Body-Bind Curse after he attempts to retaliate at Dean for stunning another Death Eater.
The Patils' names and appearance in the films imply that they are of Indian descent. Patil is a common Marathi surname in the state of Maharashtra. Rowling originally intended the twins' first names to begin with Ma, and on her classlist from Harry Potter and Me, their last name was spelled as Patel.[3] Parvati is also the name of one of the three primary Hindu goddesses.
Parvati was portrayed by Sitara Shah in Prisoner of Azkaban. Shefali Chowdhury took over the part for Goblet of Fire, along with the film and game versions of Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince