Prefect Ron
One of the things that I almost never see Ron fans complain about as much as I think they could is the whole Prefect subplot that he has in OoTP. Cause pretty much, when Prefect letters come out before the start of the school year, legit EVERYONE is shocked when Ron gets the badge instead of Harry. It’s honestly a really interesting scene character-wise because NO ONE comes out of the situation looking good. The twins literally say the words “we thought that it would’ve been Harry,” and Molly takes a full page before she’s even able to comprehend that Ron has actually been singled out for having done something good. Even Hermione, who had been ecstatic when she thought that it was Harry who had got the letter, then has to do a bunch of backtracking and stuttering when she realizes that no, her fellow Gryffindor Prefect will in fact be Ron. It’s a really telling moment for Harry’s character as well, since it’s pretty much the only time when he gets a taste of Ron’s side of things. He’s jealous of his best friend for essentially the first time ever, and really struggles with how he feels about Ron “besting” him.
It’s honestly one of my favorite moments in the whole series, not only because it features something good happening for Ron, (not to mention that this is one of the only occasions outside of Philosopher’s Stone where Dumbledore formally acknowledges Ron’s badass-ery), but because it makes clear that there are other measures of bravery besides just *being Harry Potter*, a fact which can sometimes get a little lost in the kerfuffle of everything.
But then at the end of OoTP, R*wling just goes LMAO FUCK ALL OF THAT DEEP INTROSPECTION AND MEANING, because it turns out that in actuality, the only reason that Ron was made a Prefect was because Dumbledore thought that Harry “had enough on his plate already” and didn’t want to give him any more pressure. So Harry really was the worthier Gryffindor all along and had no reason to be jealous because obviously Ron is stupid and incompetent and can never once be better in anything.
Um...Excuse me, Joanne? WHY DID YOU RUIN THAT ABSOLUTELY PERFECT SCENE WITH SOME HALF-ASSED BULLSHIT????????
Ron Weasley deserved better.
