A Harry Potter fanfic by ReisMacleod.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, told from Ginny's perspective. How her relationship with Dean Thomas went, how it ended, and how her feelings for Harry blossomed.
Can be found here.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: The Death Eaters kidnap Luna because her father is "writing nasty lies." Luna politely explains that her father owns the Quibbler, not the Prophet. One of the Death Eaters genuinely finds this hilarious.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed with Dean, who despite clearly not meshing with Ginny is consistently treated as a well-meaning guy; even his worst moments in their relationship feel natural for a teenager feeling relationship dissatisfaction. With that said, however, his behavior following the Quidditch World Cup win, prior to Ginny's kiss with Harry, takes a step up in petty jealousy and cruelty.
- Bad Date: Ginny's date with Dean at Madam Puddifoot's gives Harry's date with Cho Chang a run for its money with how badly it goes. Poor girl falls asleep mid-kiss with Dean thanks to all the vapor in the air.
- Chekhov's Skill: Subverted. When Harry gets knocked out mid-game, Ginny assures everyone she can play both Chaser and Seeker because she's used to playing two-a-side Quidditch with her brothers. Of course, earlier we saw that two-a-side Quidditch is a horrible, confusing mess, and her team loses the game badly.Dean: ...how do you play two-a-side Quidditch?
Ginny: [grimly] You can't. - Funny Background Event: Luna can be counted on to be off doing her own thing if she's not the focus of a scene.
- Like Brother and Sister: Ginny's recurring fear is that Harry sees her as nothing more than "Ron's little sister." Dean, in a moment of cruelty, reminds her of this right before she tries one last time to get with Harry. Turns out Dean was wrong.
- Parental Substitute: Tonks names Ginny her son's godmother right before the final battle. Since Remus named Harry godfather, Harry and Ginny realize after that this means that they'll both be responsible for Teddy, rather than just one of them dragging the other along.
- Romantic False Lead: Dean is treated fairly sympathetically, but the narrative makes it clear that he just isn't the right guy for Ginny.
- Side Bet: The entire Weasley family except Ginny (who had no money) bet on when Ron and Hermione would get together. Fred won, which puts a damper on things.
- Fred and George also made one to see
- Skewed Priorities:
- Ginny doesn't appreciate Cho trying to get back together with Harry in the middle of a siege, and makes sure to sabotage the attempt.
- Ginny also lampshades the fact that Ron and Hermione having their First Kiss in the middle of said siege—due to a comment Ron made regarding house elves, no less—is bizarre.
- Smells Sexy:
- As in canon, Amortentia, the world's strongest love potion, smells like whatever attracts you. However, it's recontextualized a bit. Harry doesn't smell Ginny's hair, but a new perfume that Fleur had given Ginny. It also takes Ginny a long time to identify the third thing she smells. It turns out to be phoenix tears. In her case (and presumably Harry's) the third smell is a memory; Harry's is apparently the first time he saw her as a potential Love Interest (which happened to be when she wore the new perfume), and for her it's when Harry carried her out of the Chamber of Secrets.
- Ron wonders why he smelled ink in the potion. Ginny immediately looks over to Hermione who is, as always, covered in ink stains.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Fleur is dismissive of her own beauty, seeing it as something that she never had to work for and therefore something she didn't earn. All it does is make people ignore all her other skills and accomplishments. She got a job at Gringotts not to be close to Bill (though that was a nice bonus) but because goblins consider her to be just as ugly as all other humans, and so any advancements are purely on her merit.
- You Are in Command Now: When Harry gets knocked out of the game by one of his own teammates, everyone turns to Ginny as the most senior member of the Gryffindor team left. Later, when he gets removed due to his detentions, she gets elected (despite Katie and Ron being back on the team by this point) as being the best choice for replacement captain.
