Spawned from the discussion of two plot outlines by Mishie and myself.

The divergence point starts with the Chamber of Secrets debacle; Ginny awakens to see Harry heroically saving her, and comes to believe that he's the perfect hero.

Yes, I do believe that some nay-sayers will moan that this is the atypical set-up for a shitty Ginny/Harry angst-fest/romance.

But this is where it gets interesting; she sees him as the perfect hero, and herself as being imperfect.

Damaged.

Tainted.

Unworthy.

She may or may not have been fucked-up by the lingering presence of the Diary, or it could just be in her head. (Ambiguous?)

So...well, if you've read the above iRC chat, you know what's going to happen.

Onwards to fourth year; the ripple effect has caused Harry to start dating, say, a relatively underused character. Perhaps Katie Bell?

The initial characterization we get of Fleur, from the books, is that she's a spoiled brat; she sees herself as beautiful and perfect, and she knows it.

We only really see her growing up post-Second Task, when her sister was rescued by Harry.

Eventually, she becomes the 'nice' Fleur we see later on in the series.

But what if the Second Task didn't happen as it did in canon? What if it didn't cause her to grow, and she still remained spoiled?

After hearing tales about the 'Boy Who Lived' and 'other things'. Fleur becomes curious; trying to learn about him, etc.

She doesn't believe (at that time) that Harry's "perfect", but after he saves Gabrielle (with much personal risk), she buys into it, and begins to shamelessly flirt with him/hit on him, much to his discomfort.

She didn't have a 'maturity' spurt, like she did in canon; he's perfect, she's perfect - a match surely made in Heaven, despite his hesitations and avoidances of her.

Because Ginny believes that she herself is imperfect, and Fleur is perfect, she subtly begins to try and nudge them together...and break Harry/Katie(?) apart.

Ginny also deals with his 'distractions' in various ways and with various methods, such as Hermione and Ron's closeness with him, etc.

With his continuous rejections, however, Fleur begins to go creepy/stalker on him, even trying to follow him when he's back at Privet Drive.

So, yeah. Stalker!Fleur, Ginny...well, not sure what to label her as, but fucked-up would be a good bet.

So, any takers?

 

Just wanted to add that if you do want to have katie involved, just say that it was due to Ginny pushing her on since she wanted to make Harry happy or something.

 

Also that these could be broken up into two separate concepts, but meh, do as you wish.

 

I think by taking this interpretation of Fleur's character you're destroying a significant part of her complexity. It's not that Fleur was a bitch then became nice. It's that she's both simultaneously. Which side you see depends on who you are and what she thinks of you.

 

Hmm... I didn't think of her like that; I just saw direct character evolution from bitch to decent. Then again, it has been years since I've read any of the books...

I think your interpretation would work better than my original prompt, then.