The Wonderful Ronald Weasley

I realize I haven't posted much about the actual Harry Potter series.  So, here is a sort of persuasive essay-ish thing that I wrote for my fellow blogger, She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, because she called Ron a 'pimply redhead' and also said something about how he isn't brave.  I hope this proves her wrong.  (By the way, you can disregard any comments about fanfiction, they're a reference to one of our many fanfiction conversations.)

I'm putting this picture in because I feel like it... and because I love Ron's expression when he's looking at Hermione. <3

Those Are Freckles, Not Pimples!

(or, A Biography/Persuasive Essay of the Life of Ron Weasley that Shows Why He is So Brave and Just Generally Awesome)

                Ronald Weasley was born on March 1, 1980 to Arthur and Molly Weasley.  He lived in the Burrow with several brothers, (and, by sometime next year, a sister,) doing whatever it is magical children do.  Actually, I really don’t know much about his early life, so we’re just going to skip to the important part: his Hogwarts years!

                Ron began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at age 11 in 1991.  He quickly befriended the one and only Harry Potter, and conflicted with the one and only Hermione Granger.  He was sorted into Gryffindor House, the house of the brave and chivalrous, so you already know he’s going to be great.  Ron’s first act of bravery was on Halloween night when he and Harry went to save Hermione from the troll in the castle.  She was crying in the bathroom because Ron made fun of her, but the key thing here is that he rescued her when he didn’t have to.  And thus an amazing friendship was born.

                Later in the year, Ron went with Harry along with Hermione to stop Quirrell (or Snape, as they believed at the time) from stealing the Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s, etc.) Stone.  He took charge during the game on the giant chess board, even going so far as to sacrifice himself in order for Harry and Hermione to be able to move on.  If that’s not heroic, I don’t know what is.

                Moving on to second year, this was the year the Chamber of Secrets was reopened and students (plus a cat and a ghost) were turning up Petrified.  Eventually Hermione was Petrified as well (sadness).  So, when Hagrid was accused of being the one opening the chamber, Harry and Ron followed the spiders into the Forbidden Forest to find out what was going on.  As if it wasn’t bad enough to have to go into the FORBIDDEN FOREST, Ron was mortally afraid of spiders due to an incident in his childhood.  Yet he went anyway, faced his fears, and was nearly killed when he and Harry encountered a group of giant arachnids known as Acromantula.  Keep in mind he’s only 12 or 13 years old at this point.

                Ron also went down into the Chamber of Secrets with Harry when they figured out how to open it so he could help save his sister Ginny.  They didn’t really know what to expect down there, but they still went.

                Third year!  Ron’s bravery is best shown in a single quote from the book: “‘If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too!’ he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke.”  He said this when they still believed Sirius Black was a mad murderer, so it shows that Ron was willing to die for his friend.

                Fourth year was admittedly not one of Ron’s better years.  First he argued with Harry when he thought Harry put his name into the Goblet of Fire, which really wasn’t that logical.  Did he really think Harry would say to himself, “Hey, I’ve almost died like, four times in my life!  I’M GONNA GO ENTER A DANGEROUS, POTENTIALLY LIFE-THREATENING TOURNAMENT!”  Um, no.  Then he clashed with Hermione when she went to the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum.  That was probably out of jealously though.  And let’s be honest, if Ron was perfect, he’d be an unrealistic character.

                On to fifth year, Voldemort’s back and Umbridge has arrived at Hogwarts, so of course this means the formation of Dumbledore’s Army.  The D.A. was a secret group of students led by Harry, who taught them defensive magic since they weren’t learning any in Defense Against the Dark Arts class.  And of course, Ron joined.  He was practically a founder of the group.  He also stood by Harry when other students like Seamus Finnigan didn’t believe that Voldemort was back.  (Incidentally, I’m sad Seamus didn’t believe Harry at first.  I love him!)  Then, he took part in the battle at the Department of Mysteries.  He went a little crazy there, but so would you if you’d been attacked by brains.  That’s not an everyday occurrence.

                Sixth year, again, not the best year.  Ron got together with Lavender Brown – honestly, where did SHE come from?!  How many times did they actually talk to each other before they got together?  However, it was sort of Ginny’s fault Ron wanted a girlfriend so desperately.  She said to him, “If you went out and got a bit of snogging done yourself, you wouldn’t mind so much that everyone else does it!”  If there’s anything positive that came out of Ron and Lavender’s relationship, it showed that Ron was indeed able to find a girl to date on his own who wasn’t Hermione, despite the beliefs of a certain fanfiction author I told you about…  Anyway, on a slightly related note, there was an adorable Ron/Hermione scene in the Half-Blood Prince movie in the hospital wing after Ron was poisoned, and I was very disappointed when I went back into the book to read it and discovered it wasn’t there.  (“He’s been poisoned, you daft dimbo!  And for the record, I’ve always found him interesting!”)

                Finally, we have seventh year, or at least, what was supposed to be seventh year.  Ron was part of the rescue mission to get Harry safely to the Burrow; he was one of the seven Potters used to try to confuse any Death Eaters they encountered.  He and Hermione also went with Harry on his quest to track down and destroy the remainder of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, a quest with many risks and dangers.  At one point, under the influence of one of the Horcruxes they’d found, he argued with Harry and left for a while, a decision he’d immediately regret.  Eventually, though, he managed to find his way back, saving Harry from drowning in the process.  He was brought back by the Deluminator, and as he believed, it was given to him by Dumbledore because Dumbledore “…must’ve known [he’d] run out on [them].”  Harry disagreed and corrected him, saying, “He must’ve known you’d always want to come back.”

                Once, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were captured by Snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor when the Snatchers realized who they’d caught.  In the manor occurred (in my opinion) one of the best Ron/Hermione moments in the series, and one of Ron’s best moments in general.  When Narcissa Malfoy told Fenrir Greyback to take the prisoners to the cellar and Bellatrix ordered him to leave Hermione, Ron said, “You can have me, keep me!”  He was willing to sacrifice himself in order to save Hermione, which was a very loving, selfless act.

                At last came the Battle of Hogwarts.  Ron participated in the battle, and really, anyone who fights in a war is very brave.  I don’t think I would’ve stayed for the battle if I’d had the option.  He survived the battle (in which he got to kiss Hermione right in the thick of it – very romantic! – and also lost his brother Fred – very tragic) and went on to marry Hermione.  The pair had two children, Rose and Hugo.

                Which brings me to the final point of this biography/essay.  If everything I’ve written still hasn’t convinced you of Ron’s bravery, then look at Hermione.  Unless you’re like the aforementioned fanfiction author, would someone like Hermione really marry Ron if she didn’t think he was good enough for her?  You decide.

                That concludes my paper on Ron Weasley.  I’m sure I could go more in depth here, these were just reasons I thought of off the top of my head.  I hope this has convinced you that Ron is indeed very brave and just an awesome person all around.