#do i think the weasleys took the piss relentlessly for the rest of their lives? yes!

[whinlatter]

Heyyy I absolutely loooove your metas and fics and istg I've read all of them and I constantly keep reading them. Big fan, maam! Also I have a question, how do you think Ginny's family, especially each of her overprotective brothers reacted when they got to know that Harry and Ginny dated? And then broke up and the again got back together?

Thank you so so much for reading (and re-reading!!!!) all of my stuff, you absolute legend 💗💖💘

You will be unsurprised to hear that I've thought about this one a lot. The short version is: I'm Team The Weasleys Always Sort Of Knew Something Was Going On and Were Supportive (if a bit Amused). The longer version is below the cut!

(Also someone else kindly sent an ask about this a while ago, about Molly and Arthur knowing about the break-up, and I completely forgot to post my reply to that, so very sorry to that anon, and hope the too-long discussion of this Q under the cut makes up for it!)

I think there's a lot of evidence that throughout the series at least some of the Weasleys speculated something was going on or would one day go on between Harry and Ginny (especially the observant ones - Bill, Molly, Arthur, maybe even the twins, to some extent):

Ginny's historic crush on Harry in CoS is about as subtle as a brick through the window, visible both at the Burrow and at school with the Valentine, which the twins and Ron all know about (and rinse Harry for)

Ginny's romantic life is canonically the subject of some sibling speculation (see Fred and George at WWW in HBP), as are the love lives of all the siblings bar Charlie and the twins (Bill, Percy, Ron all get the sibling side-eye)

Starting in Christmas in OotP Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny begin to hang out a lot that Christmas as a foursome in ways that might invite some idle speculation about the pairings within…

By HBP, Harry does spend both the summer and Christmas holidays of 1996 either in cahoots with Ginny to tease Ron or staring at her or getting goosebumps whenever she got physically close to him (have you seen a teenage boy with a crush? Also criminally unsubtle)

When Harry and Ginny get together in HBP, I don't think Ginny would ever tell her parents or any brothers other than Ron that she's started dating Harry. But there may well have been clues her family might pick up on:

After Bill's attack by Greyback, Bill remains in the Hospital Wing. It's implied that Molly, Arthur and Fleur stay either in the castle or in Hogsmeade in the days between the attack on the Astronomy Tower and Dumbledore's funeral. Harry and Ginny are together at this point, spending all their time together with Ron and Hermione. Obviously Fleur, Molly and Arthur would be preoccupied with Bill's recovery, but I do think it would be noticeable that the trio had become a four, and that Harry and Ginny seemed much closer than they were previously - Fleur in particular I think might notice, given her affection for Harry, and likely pass on her speculation to Bill (hi sorry you got savaged by a werewolf but guess who your sister is smashing)

Many of the teachers close to Molly and Arthur (such as McGonagall and Hagrid) likely knew about Harry and Ginny (if Snape and Slughorn knew, the goodies knew too, I reckon). They would have had occasion to mention it to the family at least in passing in that interim period between the attack and the funeral (my money is on Hagrid)

At the funeral itself, Harry and Ginny sit together in public and interact quite intimately before the break up takes place (Ginny whispering in his ear, nudging him, then obviously staying sat alone together after the funeral is over). All her family are in attendance, and remain close by when the break-up happens, and likely travel back to London altogether (though I don't think they would necessarily witness the breakup or notice it happening in the moment). I think it would be clear that there was something going on between Harry and Ginny, even if it wasn't at all clear what that was

In DH, you have quite a few moments where there are even more little hints that Harry and Ginny was a bit of an open secret among the Weasleys:

In DH, Ron makes that comment about Ginny and the tattoo as they strip off in the seven Potters scene, in front of his dad, Bill, Fleur and the twins (Ginny's seen Harry shirtless because they're just very good pals, don't worry about it!)

Ok this one is a bit galaxy-brain take sleuthing on my part but during the wedding prep Molly is deliberately trying to separate the trio and convince them not to leave. She allocates the tasks and assigns them to combinations of people very deliberately. The evening after Molly corners Harry and tries to get him not to leave, she makes Harry and Ginny set the dinner table alone in the kitchen. Now, do we think Molly Weasley, Mastermind in Chief, might have put Harry and Ginny on a task together as she tries to persuade Harry not to go on the hunt... is this Molly pulling out the big guns...

At the wedding, Ginny winks at Harry in front of her entire assembled family when Muriel says she's showing too much boob (icon alert). And then Harry spends most of the reception leaning against a pillar staring at Ginny in front of her entire family. I mean, lads. You're killing me

When the DA summon the Order before the Battle in the Room of Requirement, Ginny is my petty queen has that infamous interaction with Cho over the diadem in front of the twins, showing she is giving precisely zero shits at this point

Harry and Ginny have that wordless interaction where Harry refuses to support her staying behind to fight in the battle, in front of all her family, where she at least appears to agree to go home only because Harry has said so, taking his direction over that of her family's. (I mean, we all know Ginny then tries to sneak off to fight because she's not only a petty queen but also a sneaky one but... still significant)

The big one for me is Ginny's reaction to Harry's death. She screams the loudest out of McGonagall, Hermione and Ron when she sees his body, in front of all the Weasleys and all combatants. I'm not saying this grieving war-ravaged family were thinking like huh weird that Ginny's so sad rn given the situation at hand, but I do think it was quite a telling moment for what Harry and Ginny had become by this point in the narrative

All this is to say I think many of the Weasleys might have suspected something was going on, but didn't know the full story, and have the discretion not to blame Harry for Ginny’s misery nor to pry too much after the breakup, especially when Ginny comes home from school heartbroken (which is partly why I had them trying to cheer Gin up somewhat ambiguously in think / hope - her parents can see she's extremely sad, they aren't entirely sure about why or about of the details, but I think they're attentive, loving parents who aren't stupid and might have their suspicions).

Overall, then, when Harry and Ginny get back together after the war, I think the family both sort-of suspect there's been this thing coming on between them for a while, and, while they'd perhaps be surprised by the extent of it (there is literally no chill way to say 'hey I thought of your sister as I died!'), I think Molly, Arthur and the brothers would just be happy for them, with a few jokes and 👀 comments here and there. I don’t think they’d be angry at Harry for the breakup or sincerely over-protective and territorial over Ginny. They love Harry like a brother, they'd love the idea of him being formally part of the family one day, and they trust him implicitly.

Honestly, I think it makes sense that Ron was the one who would have by far the most extreme reaction to the breakup in particular, and even his response is reasonably mature. It's worth noting that it's actually only Ron and the twins that ever openly actually discuss and try to pry/interfere in Ginny's romantic life - the twins in HBP to take the piss a bit (in a slightly slut-shamey way - 'you're going through boyfriends a bit fast, aren't you?'), and Ron both during in the infamous fight over the Dean kiss and during his angry conversations with Harry post break-up. I think this is peak big-brother-to-Ginny-but-actually-little-brother-to-everyone-else energy, playing up overprotective. I don't think Bill, being eleven years older than Gin would at any point be that interested in policing Ginny's romantic life, I think Charlie truly would notice very little and care even less. Percy's got bigger fish to fry and other issues to wrangle with after the war, not to mention a whole relationship with both Ginny and Harry to mend. I think, at most, Harry and Ginny get a bit of teasing from her brothers but that's about it (my dumb headcanon is the first time they hear Harry call Ginny 'Gin' they're like... excuse me? Who the fuck is that?) I think actually protective big brother energy, from the likes of Bill, would mean worrying about the two of them in terms of public media scrutiny, which must be relentless, and about their long-term safety from reprisal attacks more than anything else.

I also think it’s clear that Harry really doesn’t care all that much what the rest of the Weasleys think lol, and certainly doesn't fear them. He does fear the loss of Ron's friendship in HBP (wrongly, because Ron is an OG Hinny shipper), but that’s a fear specifically about Ron’s reaction, not that of his wider family. In DH, Harry’s fully about to go hold Ginny for a bit in front of Molly with zero qualms, and the two of them hold hands in the vicinity of Order members and family members twice (once entering the hospital wing in HBP, and once at the Burrow) - not an especially declaratory gesture, but one that suggests they don’t hugely fear discovery. I think both of them would accept the need to be braced for mockery but basically trust the family not to be dicks about it. The important thing to remember is that canonically Ginny Weasley can and will hex you if you step out of line