Mean Ron?/Passive Harry? [Was: The Youngest and Most Impressive WeasleyMan]

[arabella at sugarquill.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 16412

Hi!

Kathy wrote:
> > And I think Harry has a mean streak sometimes. Only Harry does 
just come out and say it. He gets quiet and passive-aggressive about 
it. He doesn't fight with Hermione in PoA, oh no, he just lets the 
fight go on and doesn't do anything about it (until it's convenient, 
and then he halfheartedly tries to patch things up). Ron's no meaner 
than Harry; he's just more honest about his feelings.

Penny wrote: 
>Oh?
> 
> 1.  In PoA, Harry was more than half-heartedly trying to make up 
>with Hermione.  I don't know where you get half-heartedly out of the 
>language in that scene.  He approaches her on his own & quietly sets 
>about trying to make up with her.  Ron interrupts that with his loud 
>& mean-spirited comment about Scabbers.

Re: Harry - I don't think that the first attempt at reconciliation was 
half-hearted.  I do, however, question Harry's timing.  Harry waited 
until that Firebolt was safe-in-hand before approaching Hermione to 
make up with her - up until that point he was more than willing to 
double-team cold-shoulder her.  And I don't have PoA in front of me, 
but when he does approach her, I don't remember an I'm sorry.  More 
like "Nothing was wrong with the broom," wasn't it?  (I can't be 
positive.)  And then, when Scabbers goes missing and the ginger hairs 
are found, Harry sticks with Ron.  *Right* with Ron.  Until the second 
possible reconciliation, which is when he approaches Hermione after 
his Quidditch match for a moment, asking to see if she watched him 
play.  I do think that one was halfhearted.  He says something to Ron 
about cutting Hermione a break, for as much good as that does 
Hermione, who is out of the room.  And then there's pretty much 
no effort, until Hagrid loses the Buckbeak case.  

Re: Ron - Ron absolutely throws in the comment about Scabbers being 
eaten, and IMO it's a deliberate "I hope you feel bad."  But I think 
he jabs at her because he too is feeling pretty bad, and he's fishing 
for sympathy and apology.  I have to look at his motivation in the 
context of the story - it's not just arbitrary meanness.  I think that 
Ron wants his pet back, and if he can't have that, then he wants a 
little consolation for the loss of it.  He goes about getting that 
consolation in a very insensitive way.  But he's not mature enough at 
that point to say, "Look, Hermione, I need you to give a little here - 
please admit that your cat might have eaten my rat so that we can move 
on with this."  He's lost a pet he loved and she doesn't ever give him 
a touch of sympathy.  "All cats chase rats, Ron!" and other comments, 
are hardly what he wants to hear.  Not that it's Hermione's fault that 
Crookshanks was after Scabbers, and not that Scabbers was dead in any 
case - and YES my heart is with Hermione during that estrangement from 
her friends - but given the evidence, if I were Ron, I'd want just a 
little tiny "Oh, that's awful.  I wish that hadn't happened."  Which 
she won't give him.  So he jabs for it. And in the end, Ron gives in 
first, doesn't he?  "You won't have to do all the work alone this 
time, Hermione.  I'll help."  (Yeah, so I have some parts memorized 
better than others. <g> What were you excpecting from the 
SugarQuiller?)  Only then does Hermione stop being stubborn and say 
she's sorry about Scabbers.

Penny wrote:
> 2.  <snip>But Ron ignored him.  ..... Ron watched her go with a 
mixture of anger & satisfaction on his face.  *Satisfaction.*  He 
enjoyed reducing her to tears.

Oh... but IMO, again, Ron just wants her to feel as bad as he feels.  
He's helpless right there.  The girl he likes (IMO) is dancing with 
another boy.  Horrible, horrible feeling.  Of course he tries to ruin 
any fun she might have with Viktor - without even realizing why he's 
doing it.  I don't think that his choice is right, or condone it, but 
I can't go to a place where I believe that dear, abruptly emotional 
Ron has a "mean streak" and that he "enjoys" being mean because of 
this instance.  I think Ron is a frustrated teenaged boy with hormones 
he doesn't understand and he has no way of relieving his current 
tension, other than to strike out.  When he does strike out, and sees 
that his hit has taken effect, it satisfies him.  Maybe because he got 
to have *his* moment, in Hermione's big night.  Reaction and attention 
(granted, negative attention), much more than deliberate cruelty, was 
his aim, IMO. 

~Arabella