Ron Weasley

Ronald Bilius Weasley is the son of Molly and Arthur Weasley, two wizards who are among the most loyal allies to Harry Potter and his cause of defeating the Dark Lord Voldemort. Ron is Harry’s best friend, and they continue to remain best friends from the time they first met at King’s Cross station to the last time they are shown together in King’s Cross station in the epilogue.

Ron is one of the most supportive and understanding friends Harry has other than Hermione. He helps out Harry through most of his ordeals and is in his own right, the protagonist of the story himself. Despite Harry Potter being ‘The Chosen One,’ it is not too far-fetched to claim that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are ‘The Chosen Ones’. Ron is one of the most humorous characters whose retorts are what makes the Harry Potter series such a thrill to read.

Ronald Weasley Profile

Ronald Weasley – A Timeline

Ronald Weasley – Who is he really?  

Ron Weasley is definitely one of the most important characters in the Harry Potter series. He becomes friends with Harry almost instantly and the reader cannot help but assume they will remain friends forever because of how well their first meeting is portrayed in the book. Ron’s character is to an extent, that of one who has constantly been in the shadow of a sibling or a friend who always got more attention.

It is evident from some of the events in the books and the actions of Ron himself from his desire of wanting to become a Quidditch Captain and Head boy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to being angry with Harry and assuming that he put his name in the Goblet of Fire deliberately. His mother, Molly Weasley too, can sometimes seem to be caring a lot about Harry, enough for Ron to feel left out, despite Molly’s love for Harry probably being a way to account for his orphaned childhood. 

However, despite these odds, Ron is easily one of the most cheerful and interesting characters within the Harry Potter universe. Furthermore, he is always very supportive, kind, and nice to Harry and is constantly very nurturing to Harry, a role almost portraying an extension of his parents’ kindness towards Harry.

Ron is a brave and “thick-skinned” individual as is evident from his constant run-ins with Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Ron isn’t even scared of Severus Snape as is evident from his retorts and his fierce support to Harry whenever Snape is being abusive to him. 

Another highlight of Ron’s life is his bittersweet relationship with Hermione Granger. Despite there being ample love between the two, since the beginning of the series, there have also been constant tussles between the two. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, they start off hating each other, with Ron’s misguided retort making Hermione skip dinner and end up crying in the girls’ bathroom. However, as a troll enters the castle, this very event also causes their friendship to develop and the three properly form the trio. 

Ron ends up being one of the most important wizards in the series, helping his friends Harry and Hermione hunt down Horcruxes and eventually bring down the age of a Dark Wizard so feared in Magical History, that his death brings about a new age of reform. Ron himself destroys one of the Horcruxes after he heroically saves Harry from a chilling lake, retrieves the Sword of Gryffindor from the bottom of the lake, and slams it across the Slytherin Locket, destroying a part of Lord Voldemort once and for all.

Ron and Hogwarts – The First Three Years 

Ron Weasley is first seen in the Harry Potter books when he and his family are trying to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters when a confused Harry decides to ask them for directions. Ron’s mother Molly Weasley helps Harry and then later, Ron finds the same compartment that Harry is in and the two become friends. Eventually, Malfoy comes to the compartment and tries to become friends with Harry. He also tells off Harry from Ron and claims to be ‘superior’ to Ron. However, Harry does not pay heed to these claims and continues to be friends with Ron. 

Ron, Hermione, and Harry all become good friends even though they start out with some animosity and play a major role in preventing Lord Voldemort from stealing the Philosopher’s Stone. First in the Forbidden Forest and then through the third-floor corridor where Fluffy, the three-headed dog guards the trapdoor, they make their way to the stone, and Ron plays a major role in saving both Hermione and Harry by sacrificing himself in a game of Wizard Chess. However, Ron suffers no mortal harm and is the prime reason for Harry to eventually reach the Philosopher’s Stone and stop Professor Quirell and Voldemort from stealing the Philosopher’s Stone through the Mirror of Erised.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron embarks on one of the boldest adventures when both he and Harry agree on taking Mr Weasley’s Ford Anglia to Hogwarts after they miss the Hogwarts Express. This episode ends violently after they accidentally land on the Whomping Willow, and Ron breaks his wand in the process. His mother sends him a Howler which scares him a lot. He also accidentally ends up bewitching himself to eat slugs after his broken wand backfires a curse he actually meant for Malfoy for calling Hermione a Mudblood. Hagrid helps Ron come out of this state. Eventually, the Ford Anglia does become very useful when Ron and Harry have to escape Aragog and his family of giant spiders as the car comes to their rescue and safely takes them out of the Forbidden Forest. For once, Ron’s broken wand is also very useful as it backfires the curse that Gilderoy Lockhart intended for Ron, making him an Amnesiac instead of Ron. 

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron goes to Egypt with his family and then comes to Hogwarts as the year begins with the notorious prisoner Sirius Black escaping from Azkaban. It is found out from Ron’s boggart being a spider, that Ron has arachnophobia. Professor Snape once calls Hermione an insufferable know-it-all, to which Ron remarks to Harry, “He’s got a point you know?” in the movie adaptations, but in the books, he calls out Snape for being rude and gets detention.

As the year goes on, Ron’s pet rat, Scabbers is continuously chased around by Hermione’s new pet cat Crookshanks, something that Ron resents, but eventually, the reason is revealed. It is found out that this rat is a man in Animagus form named Peter Pettigrew, and that he was responsible for the death of Harry’s parents. Ron is dragged along by Sirius in his dog form into the Shrieking Shack and later, Harry, Hermione, Remus Lupin, and eventually Severus Snape join them there. Since Ron is injured in this episode, he is carried back to the Hospital Wing and cannot accompany Harry and Hermione to save Sirius and Buckbeak by traveling back in time.

Ron and Hogwarts – The Last Four Years 

A lot of things change for Ron in the Fourth Year. After Scabbers is found to be Peter Pettigrew, Ron gets a new pet owl name Pigwidgeon, who is called Pig in short. Firstly, the events after the Quidditch World Cup where some Death Eaters torture a muggle family, and one of them eventually conjures the Dark Mark over the place, makes Ron and everyone else a bit unsettled. Secondly, it is found out that the Triwizard Championship is going to be held in Hogwarts that year, and to Ron’s surprise, his favorite Quidditch player, Viktor Krum also arrives as a contender for the title.

In the meantime, Ron and Harry have a tussle after Harry is accidentally chosen as the fourth contender for the Triwizard Tournament as Ron believes that Harry must have secretly put his name in the Goblet of Fire. Ron is sent dress robes for the Yule Ball by his mother, which he resents as they are not to his liking.

Ron’s brother Charlie comes from Romania with four dragons which are to be used for the tournament. These disagreements are eventually back to normal and things move at their usual pace as the trio is back together. Together, they try to figure out the cause of Harry’s mysterious addition to the tournament. After the tournament ends with Cedric Diggory’s death, it is found out that the culprit was Barty Crouch Jr disguised as Alastor Moody. It is also revealed that Voldemort has returned, and Albus Dumbledore gathers everyone including Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Bill Weasley, and the others gathered around Harry’s hospital bed to prepare for the dark times that lie ahead.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius Black’s place is used as headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix and the most members of the Weasley Family including Mr and Mrs Weasley, Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron himself stay there until Harry too gets to stay there for a while before they leave to Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione are made prefects for Gryffindor. Percy has a falling out with his family because he takes the Ministry’s stand that Harry is lying about Voldemort’s return.

Ron is also selected as the Quidditch keeper for Gryffindor, almost falls off the broom in the beginning, but eventually helps them win a match that Harry couldn’t play because of Dolores Umbridge’s detention. Ron and Hermione convince Harry to form the Dumbledore’s Army after Dolores Umbridge decides to change the curriculum leaving the students defenseless against the Dark Arts. In the meantime, Harry also dreams of Mr Weasley being attacked by Voldemort’s snake Nagini, but luckily Ron hears about it and immediately takes Harry to Professor McGonagall who later takes them to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore sends Ron, Fred,  George, and Ginny Weasley through Portkey when they realize that Harry’s dream was indeed a real incident. A similar dream about Sirius causes Ron, Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Ginny to go to the Department of Mysteries where a fight ensues between them and the Death Eaters, and Ron is hit by a curse from one of the Death Eaters, which causes him to be light-headed and he eventually gets entangled by a brain like material in one of the rooms, which almost tries to choke him. He is eventually freed from it as the fight ensues, and Sirius Black eventually dies.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Ron starts dating Lavender Brown, one of his Gryffindor classmates. He and Hermione stop talking to each other properly. Eventually, Ron eats some sweets laced with a love potion and starts talking about how much he loves Romilda Vane. Harry immediately takes him to Professor Slughorn who cures him. However, Ron gets accidentally poisoned by oak matured mead that was intended for Dumbledore and Harry quickly saves Ron by putting a Bezoar in his mouth. When Ron is in the Hospital Wing recovering from the poisoning, he starts chanting Hermione’s name, which eventually causes them to get together and start dating. Harry has the Felix Felicis and collects the memory of Voldemort talking about Horcruxes from Slughorn and then goes to Dumbledore. When Dumbledore and Harry go out to a cave to find the Horcrux, several Death Eaters attack Hogwarts and one of them casts the Dark Mark on top of Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione and other members of the Order fight back against the Death Eaters, some of them get heavily injured, Ron’s brother Bill is bitten by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback and Dumbledore is killed.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Ron, Hermione, and Harry go on a journey evading Death Eaters and looking for Horcruxes. They infiltrate the Ministry and retrieve the locket that is also a Horcrux from Umbridge and then disapparate from there into the Forest of Dean. Ron gets splinched in the process but Hermione’s quick treatment with the Essence of Dittany cures Ron of his pain. Eventually, due to wearing the Horcrux around their necks the entire day, tensions run high between Harry and Ron and despite Hermione’s repeated requests to stay, Ron leaves them.

After a long while, around Christmas, Ron finds his way back after being magically transported by the Deluminator. Ron destroys a Horcrux after saving Harry from drowning in the lake. They all make peace and go to Xenophilius Lovegood’s house to figure out the symbol they want to know about. It is found to be the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. They are caught by some snatchers who take them to Malfoy Manor. There, Hermione is tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange after finding the Sword of Gryffindor in their possession. They escape from there with the help of Dobby and go to Ron’s brother Bill’s house, inherited from an aunt. They then head to Gringotts, steal the Horcrux from Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault and escape on top of a dragon. They then leave for Hogsmeade and eventually, the Battle of Hogwarts erupts. Ron helps Hermione destroy the Horcrux they took from Gringotts in the Chamber of Secrets using Basilisk’s fangs. Eventually, they defeat Voldemort and peace is restored in the wizarding world.

Ron is later seen in the epilogue, nineteen years after the events of the Battle of Hogwarts where he is married to Hermione and has two children, Rose Granger-Weasley and Hugo Granger-Weasley. Also, in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is found out that Ron eventually decided to manage the Weasley Wizard Wheezes, the Joke Shop that his brothers Fred and George Weasley founded. In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, we also see several versions of Ron since it has elements of time travel in it.

We see a Ron is married to Padma Patil instead of Hermione. He has a son called Panju instead of his two children Rose and Hugo. Another version of Ron from the world where Voldemort’s Augurey rule the world, is a rebel who is one of the few left in the resistance. He, along with Snape and Hermione helps Scorpius Malfoy change the timeline, and eventually, both Ron and Hermione die together in this world because of the dementors finally catching them. In the end, Ron helps Harry stop Delphini from bringing back Voldemort. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Malfoy, with the help of Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter together stop Delphini and put an end to the constant time-traveling.

Ron in the Movies 

The character of Ronald Bilius Weasley was played by child actor Rupert Grint in the movie adaptations of Harry Potter along with Daniel Radcliffe playing Harry James Potter and Emma Watson playing Hermione Jean Granger. Rupert did a great job and is considered to have portrayed Ron very accurately. However, some critics do think that the script and plot of the movies were significantly different from the books, making Ron from the movies, a very different adaptation.

Rupert Grint is best known for his role as Ron in the eight Harry Potter movies. He has not acted in a lot of movies after that but has appeared in some movies and TV shows including Sick Note (2017-2018), Snatch (2017-2018), Cherrybomb (2009), Wild Target (2009), and Into the White (2012). He is also popular for appearing in the music video of Ed Sheeran’s Lego House (2011).

Ron and the Best Friend Trope – An Analysis

The trope of the best friend to a protagonist is an age-old trope that has been outdone in several works of literature. From Samwise Gamgee of the Lord of the Rings to Prince Caspian from the Narnia Series, even children’s fantasy novels have had characters that have stood by the protagonist as friends or allies. Sometimes, there are situations in the plot that make them a protagonist in their own right. However, Ron is an ideal example of this trope and has several qualities and characteristics that define this trope well.

Firstly, Ron has several siblings, five brothers, and a sister. Naturally, it can sometimes be very difficult to have a lot of pressure and expectations attached to someone when they are the youngest brother in the family and every other brother is quite talented and performs well. Even when Ron looked at the Mirror of Erised, it showed him how he had all the achievements and trophies that his brothers had garnered over the years, making him feel successful in the quest to grow out of their shadow. These burdening expectations that were inherently attached to Ron’s mind over the years made it difficult for him to sometimes let go and do what he truly wanted. However, he eventually proved to be every bit a man on his own who had outgrown the shadows. 

The fact that Harry Potter is extremely famous and ‘The Chosen One’ just added to this situation that Ron was in. However, Ron was exceptional in maintaining his side of the friendship which is what drew Harry to him in the first place. Ever since Ron and Harry became friends, Ron had been an exceptional friend, always helping Harry whenever he needed it, and trying to understand Harry’s perspective as much as possible. Harry’s friendship with Ron gave Harry a lot of things he really wanted, including a family, motherly love and affection, brotherhood, and time spent happily in the holidays. Despite the few disagreements that Harry and Ron had sometimes, which eventually got mended, the friendship between Ron and Harry is an exceptional one.

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