Ginny Molly Weasley

"The thing about growing up with Fred and George is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
     -- Ginny Weasley to Harry Potter (OP29)

"I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Sorcerer's Stone, and it's because of me Malfoy's stuck back in Umbridge's office with giant flying bogeys attacking him -"
     -- Ginny Weasley to Harry and Ron (OP33)

Ginny Weasley is the youngest child and only daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley. Her first name is Ginevra (JKR) and her middle name is Molly (WBD). She is currently attending Hogwarts; she entered in 1992 and was sorted into Gryffindor. She and Hermione Granger seem to be close friends -- each has confided in the other about matters that they've kept quiet from Hermione's other close friends, Harry Potter and Ginny's brother Ron.

Ginny is very determined; since her brothers wouldn't let her play Quidditch with them when she was little, she broke into the family broom shed and took out each of their brooms in turn when they weren't looking, starting at the age of six. She was never caught by Fred, George, or Ron, who were startled by this information after she got on the Gryffindor team at the age of fourteen (OP26). Harry has only seen her Seek in one match: Gryffindor-Hufflepuff, which Gryffindor lost despite her capture of the Snitch -- but was quite impressed by her performance and told her so. For her part, she plans to try out for Chaser in her fifth year instead, as she says she prefers goal-scoring to seeking.

Neville Longbottom is a friend of Ginny's; he took her to the Yule Ball after Hermione turned him down (GF22). Apparently Ginny was never exactly Neville's girlfriend; she accepted his invitation because she likes him, and because she couldn't go to the ball otherwise, being only in third year at the time. To her credit, she did not consider repudiating Neville as her escort when Ron tried to set Harry up with her for the ball, although she had been very taken with Harry from their first meeting. (For his part, Neville was picked up by Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad a year and a half later because he tried to interfere when they dragged Ginny to Umbridge's office (OP32).)

According to Hermione, Ginny "gave up" on Harry sometime during her third year. Until then, Ginny had always been rather shy when face-to-face with Harry, although we've been led to believe that she anonymously sent him a singing Valentine during her first year. Of late, far from being too tongue-tied to speak in front of Harry, Ginny has been noteworthy among his friends for having the guts to confront him when she thinks he's out of order, despite knowing full well that he's been under pressure and likely to fly off the handle quite easily. She refused flatly to be left behind either at Hogwarts or as a lookout on the night of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, and if possible would have refused help after a Death Eater had broken her ankle (OP33,34).

Ginny met Ravenclaw Michael Corner at the Yule Ball, and at the end of the 1995 school year began dating him -- being careful not to let on to her brothers, particularly Ron, knowing that Ron, for one, would start hovering (OP16). It was through Ginny that Michael and his friends joined the D.A. -- without Ginny, the D.A. might have been somewhat short on Ravenclaws, apart from the fifth-year prefects, Cho Chang, and Marietta Edgecombe.

Ginny appears to have shown pretty good judgement in Michael; it was through Cho's friend rather than any of Michael's that the D.A. came to grief. Fred and George harassed Zacharias in D.A. meetings for being rude to Harry, but left Michael alone. In the end, Ginny dumped Michael because after Gryffindor upset Ravenclaw in the Quidditch final of 1995-1996, Michael started sulking. (For his part, having been dropped by Gryffindor's Seeker, he seems to have taken up with the Seeker for his own House team, Cho Chang.)

Ginny likes cats (CS), and gets along very well with Crookshanks; she can lure him out of hiding to play with her (OP5).

Biographical facts:
Full name: Ginevra Molly Weasley
Born: August 11th 1981 (JKR), to Arthur Weasley and Molly Weasley, seventh child and only daughter (SS6, CS3) and first female Weasley child born for several generations (JKR)
Hogwarts: Sept 1, 1992 - present, Gryffindor House
Quidditch: Seeker for Gryffindor House team 1995-1996 after the first match; plans to try out for Chaser in 1996-1997 (OP)
Eyes: bright brown (CS3)
Hair: vivid red, worn as a long mane (OP4, very apt for a lion-hearted Gryffindor)
Build: the short Weasley variation (like the twins rather than Ron)
distinguishing features: when her jaw is set, her facial resemblance to Fred and George is striking (OP33)
field: even Fred and George are impressed by her power, particularly her Bat-Bogey Hex (OP6)
unusual abilities: the only person Harry knows who survived being possessed by Voldemort (CS, OP); also has considerable acting ability (OP4, 16, 32 - able to convince Mrs. Weasley that Crookshanks was responsible for the Dungbombs outside the kitchen in Grimmauld Place; imitating Umbridge; the Garroting Gas scam)
house: Gryffindor
broomstick: none of her own