Ginny

Behind in my Harry Potter reading before the movie, but that's okay. Just a quick thought—


Harry first meets the Dementors on the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of his third year. The conversation in the train after they leave reads as follows:

'I thought you were having a fit or something,' said Ron, who still looked scared. 'You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching' . . . 'I felt weird . . . like I'd never be cheerful again ...'

Ginny, who was huddled in her corner looking nearly as bad as Harry felt, gave a small sob; Hermione went over and put a comforting arm around her.

'But didn't any of you — fall off your seats?' asked Harry awkwardly.

'No,' said Ron, looking anxiously at Harry again. 'Ginny was shaking like mad, though ...'

Lupin later explains that Harry passed out because he has things in his past worse than anyone else's, so the Dementors have a stronger affect on him than on his friends. What I never fully understood in past reads was Ginny's reaction. I always thought she took it horribly because she was a little girl and afraid, but that isn't true. Just a few months before, she was being possessed and controlled by Lord Voldemort via Tom Riddle's diary. She almost died in the Chamber of Secrets. So what she remembers when she's near the Dementors is pretty bad, too. No wonder she was shaking like mad.

Learn something new every time.