WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR OOTP! READ IF YOU DARE!

I. Introduction

Before you begin to read I just want to point out that this essay is entirely biased in which I will be ranting off my personal opinions. If you, whatsoever, feel sensitive to what I am about to say (particularly on Cho) then please feel free to not read this. Other than that, then read on. 

Before I begin, I just want to say that I have finished reading The Order of The Phoenix and I think it's marvelous! The entire book is nearly 900 pages and instead of taking a century to finish it, I read the book in three days. Really, I'm impressed and am ready to read the sixth, but unfortunately Rowling has not yet finished it, though I have no desire to rush her. She did say that each of her novels have "no deadlines". I don't blame her for that because who would want to be rushed when writing a world famous novel series.

Now to the subject at hand. Well basically, this essay is meant to both examine and compare two popular ships which are Harry/Cho and Harry/Ginny (mind you that Harry/Hermoine is more popular than Harry/Cho but Rowling has already buried that possibility). I have OOTP to help me on this issue (OOTP= Order of the Pheonix) since there are a lot of incidences in where H/C and H/G can be compared.

II. S.S. Harry/Cho

Honestly, this ship sunk before it ever set sail. There was nothing solid in the relationship to make it even last in the first place. First, of course, this relationship (or lack off) started with Cho stalking Harry on the train after he was covered in Stinksap. If she had had a camera, she would have been another Colin Creevey. Anyways, further into OOTP we see Cho coming up to Harry to say "Hi" and later on they eventually have a conversation in the owlry where she tells him that she thinks he brave and blady blah. Well, excuse me, but where is Cedric in all of this? I thought that she was supposed to have loved him, but it only took her...what...a month to supposedly get over him? Well of course she hasn't, given the times she's cried whenever Cedric was brought up in conversation, which I might add, she brought him up. This is when I feel sorry for the girl because it appears that her love for Cedric was genuine, despite how it caused friction on Harry's and hers 'relationship'. Cho's lingering love for Cedric is addressed by Hermoine when she says, "Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling very confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it as an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing at Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway...Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Quidditch team because she's flying so badly (459)". 

Poor Cho, she must be suffering so badly that she doesn't really know how to sort out her thoughts. I understand her devastation, but I don't understand why she would addle her already devastated mind by starting something with Harry. He resembled more of a rebound then anything else which is exampled in Chapter 25 (The Beelte at Bay) when she and Harry go to a coffee shop where I think she hopes that something physical will happen given the inviting environment. I mean, what do you expect in a place that's decorated in lurid Valentine hearts, confetti, and people smooching all over the place? Cho pointed out that Roger Davis (Qudditch team captain for Ravenclaw) had asked her out but she had turned him down, then again shifted the subject to Cedric (561). I mean honestly, what guy in his right mind would want to go to a hang-out that was a special place to the girl he's with and her ex-boyfriend? Not to mention that the ex-boyfriend Harry knew was the one he saw die. Of course it bothers Harry that he's out with the girl Cedric dated but it is Cho who makes the advances on him. My point is demonstrated on how she gets Harry to ask her to Hogsmeade Valentine's Day weekend (528):

Cho: Hi, Harry 

Harry: Oh, Hi.

Cho: Erm...there's another Hogsmeade trip next month, did you see the notice?

Harry: What? Oh, no, I haven't checked the notice board since I got back...

Cho: Yes, it's on Valentine's Day...

Harry: Right...Well I suppose you want to-?

Cho: Only if you do!

Harry: "I suppose you want to know when the next DA meeting is?

The girl practically sets him up but the biggest example of her using Harry as bate is when they kiss (*pukes*) (456):

Cho (crying): Mistletoe...

Harry: Yeah...It's probably full of nargles, though (Good save my boy :oD)

Cho: What are nargles?

Harry: "No idea."

Cho (stepping closer and saying between a 'sob and a laugh'): I really like you, Harry. 

Well of course Rowling does us the favor of cutting it off because I wouldn't want to read something like that. Harry describes the kiss as 'wet' because the girl doesn't know how to clog her gushing eyelashes, I mean, even Ron finds this funny...but then again there are some people who cry when they kiss and think it's romantic...however my point is that she might have also been thinking about Cedric when she kissed Harry, I mean after all she was just talking about Cedric before she laid her grubby lips on our favorite main character. *Sigh*, and I thought Harry's first kiss would be Ginny.

Anyway, nothing really worked out between them. Harry was too upset with her 'friend' and turned off by Cho's reminiscences of Cedric to like her even more. After all, it was just an infatuation he had, given that Cho who had always been nice, hardly ever talked to him before book 5. Honestly, the girl has her priorities to work out and it came as a relief to me when she decided to go out with another student. I mean, go ahead, fine. Let her cry about Cedric to the next guy, at least Harry doesn't have to endure the frustrations she causes any longer. After all, his feelings finally die for her when she smiles at him on the way back from Hogwarts, and his reaction is simply that he "was surprised that to find that [Cho, who had a new boyfriend] did not hurt him at all" (865). He basically shrugs the matter aside, along with the girl who has Niagra Falls for eyes in the end.

Basically, Cho is a tart, hence a flirt, seeing how she had tried to grab Harry's attention in the beginning. Not to mention her lack of tact for spells: "Expelliarmious...I mean, Expellimellius!" The correct way is Expelliarmus. Such a wasted effort on such a great spell...I mean she minus well just say "Expell-my-pus". Yeah, well that's the end of my rant on Cho. Now to Harry and *don don don dooooooooooooooooon* GINNY!

II S.S. Harry/Ginny

God I love this girl! She knows how to put Harry in his place, and who better than to remind the Boy-Who-Lived that there is also a Girl-Who-Lived. Ahahah, I love the ring to that. Ahem (499-500):

Harry: "I don't want anyone to talk to me..."

Ginny: "Well that was stupid of you...seeing as you don't know anyone but me who's been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels."

Harry ('remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him. Then he wheeled around.'): I forgot.

Ginny: "Lucky you."

Harry: "I'm sorry"...And he meant it.

*Jumps on the table and dances* Go Ginny! I love the fact that she's herself now because at least we get to see into her personality and now, besides the fact that she's sweet, quiet (not anymore), kind, brave, and strong she's also determined and has the ability to earn respect...even from our dear Harry. And speaking of Harry, the boy has actually noticed her. Don't get what I mean? Then please feel free to refer to page 479, "Ginny curled like a cat on her chair, but her eyes were open; Harry could see them reflecting the firelight". Ohhhhhh, such detail! Has he looked at anyone like that lately...I mean notice specifics? Well of course he has but when he's supposed to be giving Cho the eye, he notices something in Ginny as well. Then again this maybe purely out of observation but you definitely can't ignore what happens in page 655, during the first time that Harry and Ginny have a real personal conversation. Ginny says "The thing about growing up with Fred and George...is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got the nerve." And thus Harry's reaction: 'Harry looked at her. Perhaps it was the effect of the chocolate- Lupin had always advised eating some after encounters with dementors- or simply  because he had finally spoken aloud the wish that had been burning inside of him for a week'. Ahah! Who can ignore that?! Harry was able to open up to someone rather than Hermoine and Ron and it was Ginny that he told that he really wanted to contact Sirius. Thanks to Ginny, Harry was able to talk to Sirius plus have her brothers escape from the hell-hole that Hogwarts became to go off and live their dreams. What a sweet, baby sister!

Now to the best part...the very end ;oP. Oh I love this (783):

Bella: You need more persuasion? Very well- the smallest one...Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it.

"Harry felt the others close in around Ginny. He stepped sideways so that he was right in front of her, the prophecy held to his chest."

SWOON...the hero saving a heroine! A classic scene to a classic story...need I say more?

Now onto something I've been dying to address while reading OOTP. Did you notice, as you read, that Rowling was putting up a bit of a competition between Ginny and Cho? It's not as if both the characters were knowingly competing against each other for Harry. I mean, knowing Ginny, she wouldn't put up a fight when it came to winning his feelings; she can pretty much do that on her own now, seeing how Harry has noticed her, though in a non-romantic way, but he still identifies her among his friends. However, the subject at hand...Ginny verses Cho. Remember the first DA meeting and how the members were about coming up with the names. Gee, I wonder who came up with the name? Lets refer back (392):

Hermoine: I was thinking...more of a name that didn't tell everyone we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings.

Cho: The Defense Associaiton? The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about.

Ginny: Yeah, the D.A.'s good...Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?

And wala, the name stuck! Thanks Ginny!

Now we got a shocking revelation when Harry was banned 'for life' off the Qudditch team. Tryouts were held and guess who got the position of seeker? Yes, our dear Ginny Weasley. And might I quote Harry gapping at Katie Bell when he heard this (453). Looks like there's more to Ginny than some people presumed in the first place. Anyways, now that Gryffindor has a new seeker, they will have to play against other houses, hence Ravenclaw? Heh Heh, Ginny played her second game against Ravenclaw and though Gryffindor won against Ravenclaw because of Ron Weasley (a great character mind you), it was Ginny who caught the snitch. And who can forget when Ron said, "Did you see the look on Chang's face when Ginny got the snitch right from under her nose?" Harry said, 'I suppose she cried, didn't she?', and Ron answers, 'Well, yeah- more out of temper than anything, though...but you saw her chuck her broom away when she got back to the ground, didn't you? (704). Heh heh , take that H/G haters! The quote speaks for itself. Ahahahah and might I not forget to mention something else? It so happens that house seekers have knack for going out with each other, starting with Cedric and Cho, then Harry and Cho, and finally (as we shall soon see) Harry and Ginny!  I have no idea why, but it seems a likely pattern. After all, Ginny plans to play the role of Chaser next term so that means, if she makes the team, she will not only see Harry before school, but also during summer, Quidditch practices, and mealtimes...excluding the snogging they might do in the dark :oP (joking). 

Well now that I pointed that out, its quite obvious that Rowling is doing implied comparisons between Harry's girls. It's quite likely that he would pick someone whose "a bit more cheerful" (866) and who came make him laugh (hence Ginny's impersonation of Umbridge's hem-hem that made everyone crack up). It's obvious who Rowling wants Harry's girl to be, and although Ginny did not get Harry in the end (not yet of course), she did gain a positive opinion from him as well as a fortified friendship and a clear possibility of romantic interest. Part of this could reside in the fact that Ginny, unlike Cho, doesn't annoy Harry with conversations dealing with dead ex-boyfriends. Ginny keeps her love-life personal and tells no one else about it except for Hermione. And who can't deny the sisterly relationship that has evolved between them? As for Cho...well lets just say that the only think she took was Ginny's boyfriend in the end, which is joke really since she's only helping herself to leftovers.

*Sigh* Harry and Ginny. It's going to happen at last. I've never been so up in the clouds during my adventures in reading the Harry Potter series. I can't wait for the sixth book, although Rowling wishes to spend her time and make the best out of her work. Well, all I have to say is write on! Take your time as we patiently wait for your sixth installment. In the meantime Miss Rowling, thanks for giving us something wonderful to read!

Best of luck to all of you and Happy Reading,

Lady Arisa

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