Ron's stubbornness

[arabella at sugarquill.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 16401

> > Ron did TRY to make up with Harry before the first task. But Harry 
> > wasn't allowing him too. 
> 
> I don't believe that's true. 

Hmm. I do.  I think that the night Ron interrupted Harry's 
conversation with Sirius, there might have been a reconciliation 
coming - if the timing hadn't been so ridiculously bad.  I imagine 
that scenario for Ron.  It's very late.  Everyone has gone to bed.  
It's been weeks since he's spoken to his best friend, and everyone's 
present in his dormitory except for Harry.  Therefore I believe that 
Ron's objective in going downstairs was to find Harry.  Why on earth, 
in the middle of a fight, would he go to find Harry?  To fight some 
more?  I doubt it - the fight so far has been mostly passive on Ron's 
part.  Not so much at the very beginning, but since the first 
cutting remarks, the rest of it has all been cold-shouldering.  He 
hasn't been seeking Harry out and actively throwing cruelties his way. 
 So, if Ron *wasn't* going down for a fight, that leaves us one other 
option.  I think Ron was going downstairs in the hopes of finding a 
way back into the friendship (perhaps without a plain old "I'm sorry", 
probably something more in the way of "Hey, what's up?" just to get 
them talking.) 

>The way to do it is to say "Harry I 
> believe you now and I'm sorry I called you a liar" but he didn't do 
> that until after the first task, about a month after the fight 
began. 
> At that point Harry was very gracious about it and didn't even make 
> Ron finish saying it.    

Well... okay.  Ron didn't say it outright.  What he said was, "Harry, 
whoever put your name in that goblet - I - I reckon they're trying to 
do you in!"  Which, IMO, translates as: "Harry, I know I said you put 
your name in that goblet, but I realize now that you didn't."  That's 
the first part of your complaint taken care of - Ron realizes and 
admits where he was wrong in this instance.  (Granted, he does it a 
little backwards. But hey, he's young.)  The second part of your 
complaint is more complicated - you want a flat out "I'm sorry." And 
perhaps it was "gracious" on Harry's part not to make him say it 
outright. But IMO, Harry's not feeling "gracious" so much as he's 
being an introverted boy who doesn't want a whole lot of emotions to 
start getting out in the open. "Harry knew Ron was about to apologize 
and suddenly he found he didn't need to hear it."  To me personally, 
this says that Harry's not too interested in a big speechy apology and 
tears and handshaking.  Both boys are a little put off, actually, when 
Hermione tries to pull out the emotional side of the situation a 
moment later.  I think that whole apology-without-apology scene is 
tense and touching and great.  I cried like Hermione.  I'm a sucker 
for best friends.

> >JKR herself said that Harry's pride  was to blame for prolonging 
the
> >fight in the Dec. Times article
> 
> Yes, I read that too, but if that was Rowling's intention then she 
> needs to rewrite the book because that's not what comes across on 
the 
> page. 

To you.  It comes flying across to me.  Your wish that an author 
should "rewrite" her books simply because you did not interpret the 
written action in the way she intended, is... not a wish that I can 
understand.

> I doubt if there is one person in a thousand would be as easy 
> going about it as Harry was. Think about it, you're under enormous 
> stress and facing a potentially lethal situation and your best 
friend 
> just makes it worse. 

Ron definitely didn't show off his best colors during this fight.  But 
 neither did Harry.  "Easy going"?  Harry chucked a badge at Ron's 
head and said aloud the words that both of them had been thinking - 
harsher words between them, I can't find.  "You might even have a scar 
now, if you're lucky...That's what you want, isn't it?"  I know that 
Harry was under intense stress that night and I know that his impulse 
was born of absolute frustration.  But *what* a thing to do to your 
best friend.  He shot hard at the very root of Ron's insecurity - 
deliberately.  And maybe Ron needed to hear it, to know that he was 
being totally transparent - but it wasn't an easy going choice, on 
Harry's part.  

~Arabella

I said it before I'll say it again, I'd knock 
> Ron's block off.