It’s 2016 and I am still trying to figure out why in God’s name so many people hate Ronald Weasley.
Because just-
For a moment, just think.
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley both have what the other desperately wants and needs. It’s right there in the Mirror of Erised from the VERY FIRST BOOK.
Harry is desperate for a family, a loving, caring FAMILY.
Ron is desperate to just be freaking NOTICED for once.
Ron is a part of the most incredible loving family ever.
Harry is famous before he can walk and talk, and gets bowed to by strangers in a shop.
One of the things that makes their friendship so beautiful is this stupid IRONY, and how they are friends despite this.
But Harry cannot ever give Ron what Ron needs. All Harry can do is make the matter WORSE, however hard he tries to do the opposite, because he’s HARRY JAMES POTTER and any friend of his is not going to get a look in, no matter whether they deserve it.
And then we have Ron, who is able to provide for Harry the next best thing to a family of his own, a chance to become part of a family who will treat him as if the only difference between them and him is red hair and freckles.
And Ron knows that if he does this, if he gives Harry what he needs, it will make his own need EVEN MORE UNATTAINABLE.
Because the fact that he has so many brothers and sisters is what gives him that need in the first place.
And welcoming ANOTHER damn brother?
An extraordinarily FAMOUS extra brother?
Can we just consider how selfless an action that is?
And yet he still does it, he still writes to his mum for a Christmas present for Harry, he still invites him to his overcrowded, rickety house ever summer, he STILL flies a car to SURREY just to give his friend a family, the thing he so desperately needs.
Just-
How can you hate someone like that?
How?
Yes!!!
So now let’s talk about the event that most Ron-haters use against him, his leaving during the horcrux hunt.
Now, as much as Steve Kloves wants you to think that it was because of a warped love triangle, it was not.
Ron has shared his family with Harry, the most precious thing, the only thing, he has. This action has put them in even more jeopardy than they might have been in. Ron is sick with worry about them, but Harry seems to not share this concern (he does, but he is not showing it at the moment for a myriad of reasons).
To Ron this is the ultimate betrayal. Here is Harry, who risked his own life, and the lives of others, to save Sirius when he thought he was in danger, but now he is doing nothing to ensure the safety of their family. They are making no progress and Harry seems not to have no urgency to do so.
Does Ron have insecurities? Yes (who doesn’t? especially at 17?)! But he has always dealt with them far better than most; it is only under the influence of the darkest magic that he falters. But, despite it all, he returns. How can you not love someone who would do all that?
I LOVE MY SON
So people who are mad that Ron left… like, totally missed the point of that whole sequence? Like, the feeling of Ron leaving was not at all, “Ron, how dare you leave.” It was, “Ron, please come back.” The entire purpose of that whole business is to show how indispensable Ron is. To show that Ron is wrong to undervalue himself. Everything Harry and Hermione undertake in his absence is doomed. Without him they are brittle and prone to despair. When he comes back, hope comes back.
Depriving Harry of Ron is an incredibly successful attack by the Horcrux; he can’t be held responsible any more than Ginny is responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets. But we hold him responsible, because he holds himself responsible, and sets out to atone.
Ron comes through like a Gryffindor in that entire business. Coming back and making amends is one of the bravest actions in the entire series.
