J.K. Rowling on Harry and Ginny

Will Harry ever notice the long-suffering Ginny Weasley?
JKR: You’ll see… poor Ginny, eh?

- Red Nose Day Chat

And what about Ginny (Ron’s younger sister?)
JKR: Poor Ginny, languishing in love for Harry, and he’s merrily asking out other girls right under her nose! But that’s just a boy thing.

- Time Magazine Interview, 2000

Do you plan for Ginny to take on a major character role in the next two books?
JKR: Well, now that Ginny has stopped being mute in Harry’s presence I think you can see that she is a fairly forceful personality (and she always has been, remember Ron saying that she ‘never shuts up’ in Chamber of Secrets)?

- Online Chat, 2004

MA: Did Ginny send Harry the valentine?
JKR: Yeah, bless her.
MA: Was it a Tom Riddle thing, or Ginny Weasley?
JKR: No, Ginny Weasley.
MA: Well, she got paid back for it.
JKR: [laughs] Eventually.
MA: I think you set that up from the train compartment scene [in book one], where he was watching — all the relationships, that scene probably set it up.
JKR: I think so. I hope so. So you liked Harry/Ginny, did you, when it happened?
ES: We’ve been waiting for this for years!
JKR: Oh, I’m so glad.
MA: Oh my gosh, that kiss!
JKR: Yeah.
ES: It actually materialized!
JKR: It actually happened, I know! I felt a little bit like that.
MA: Had you been trying to get them —
JKR: Well I always knew that that was going to happen, that they were going to come together and then part.
ES: Were you always —–ing it? [We can’t figure out what Emerson actually said here.]
JKR: Well, no, not really, because the plan was, which I really hope I fulfilled, is that the reader, like Harry, would gradually discover Ginny as pretty much the ideal girl for Harry. She’s tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she’s gutsy. He needs to be with someone who can stand the demands of being with Harry Potter, because he’s a scary boyfriend in a lot of ways. He’s a marked man. I think she’s funny, and I think that she’s very warm and compassionate. These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman. But, I felt — and I’m talking years ago when all this was planned — initially, she’s terrified by his image. I mean, he’s a bit of a rock god to her when she sees him first, at 10 or 11, and he’s this famous boy. So Ginny had to go through a journey as well. And rather like with Ron, I didn’t want Ginny to be the first girl that Harry ever kissed. That’s something I meant to say, and it’s kind of tied in.
One of the ways in which I tried to show that Harry has done a lot of growing up — in “Phoenix,” remember when Cho comes into the compartment, and he thinks, ‘I wish I could have been discovered sitting with better people,’ basically? He’s with Luna and Neville. So literally the identical thing happens in “Prince,” and he’s with Luna and Neville again, but this time, he has grown up, and as far as he’s concerned he is with two of the coolest people on the train. They may not look that cool. Harry has really grown. And I feel that Ginny and Harry, in this book, they are total equals. They are worthy of each other. They’ve both gone through a big emotional journey, and they’ve really got over a lot of delusions, to use your word, together. So, I enjoyed writing that. I really like Ginny as a character.

- Mugglenet/Leaky Cauldron, 2005

Leaky Cauldron: What, if anything, did the wizarding world learn, and how did society change, as a direct result of the war with voldemort? (i.E., not as a result of harry, ron and hermione’s future careers.)
J.K. Rowling: The Ministry of Magic was de-corrupted, and with Kingsley at the helm the discrimination that was always latent there was eradicated.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny et al would of course play a significant part in the re-building of wizarding society through their future careers.
Ryan Love: From your fans at thesnitch.Co.Uk. Weren’t we supposed to see ginny display powerful magical abilities in “deathly hallows” and find out why it’s significant that she’s the seventh child? Was her main role in the books only to be harry’s love interest?
J.K. Rowling: Hi Ryan! Well, I think Ginny demonstrated powerful magic in the final battle, and that for a sixteen year old witch she acquitted herself pretty well. I don’t remember ever saying that her ‘seventh child’ status would prove particularly important in the last book, though – are you sure I said that?!
Blodeuwedd: Hi J.K., first of all, thank you for all the books I have enjoyed each and every one of them, could you tell us what professions Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Luna go on to have did the trio do their final year at school and take their NEWTS?
J.K. Rowling: Harry did so (just because Voldemort was gone, it didn’t mean that there would not be other Dark witches and wizards in the coming years).
I’ve already answered about Hermione. Kingsley became permanent Minister for Magic, and naturally he wanted Harry to head up his new Auror department.
Ron joined George at Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes, which became an enormous money-spinner..
After a few years as a celebrated player for the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny retired to have her family and to become the Senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet!

- Bloomsbury WebChat, 2007

We know that Harry marries Ginny and has three kids, essentially, as Rowling explains, creating the family and the peace and calm he never had as a child.
As for his occupation, Harry, along with Ron, is working at the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is now the department head.
“Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,” Rowling said. “They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.” [...]
Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at odds with for years; they revolutionize it and the ministry evolves into a “really good place to be.”
“They made a new world,” Rowling said.

- Today’s Show, 2007

Fans might think that’s even more reason why Hermione should end up with Harry — but Rowling said she always knew that Ron and Hermione were meant to be together, just as she thought Harry and Ginny were meant to be together. “I thought it was obvious”
“Harry and Ginny are real soul mates,” she said. “They’re both very strong and very passionate. That’s their connection, and they’re remarkable together.

- Open Book Tour at Carnegie Hall, NY, October 19 2007