New defense for Ron?/Mirror of Erised

[allyse1138]

No: HPFGUIDX 37791

Long time in lurkdom, but I hope my resurgence doesn't alarm 
anyone. :)

I rarely have time to sit down and actually read nowadays, but the 
audio versions are a real pleasure. Sorting laundry goes quite 
quickly with Jim Dale narrating in my ears! Interestingly, an audio 
retelling of a story you know very well sometimes brings little 
details to light that you might not have noticed otherwise. I catch 
extra bits of Tolkien all the time that way (even if Rob Inglis 
speaks rather slowly <g>), and it works for Harry, too.

The other day, I was listing to PS when a sudden thought struck me. 
It probably would *not* have occurred to me if I wasn't a member of 
this group, but there you go. ;) 

Those who choose to believe that Ron might act against Harry, either 
by choice or against his will, often cite his weakness towards the 
Imperious curse as a sign of his vulnerability against manipulation. 
I personally do *not* agree with that assessment, as the text in GoF 
makes it clear (to me) that Harry is the unusual one in his reaction, 
not Ron. Be that as it may, we have a clear, canon proof from way 
back in their first year that Ron does, indeed, have strength of 
will - in some ways, stronger than Harry's.

Harry was so entranced by the Mirror of Erised that after a single 
visit, he was already plagued by a lack of appetite and an obsession 
to see it again. 

   "'...Have some bacon, or something. Why aren't you eating 
anything?'

   "Harry couldn't eat. He had seen his parents and would be seeing 
them again tonight. He had almost forgotten about Flamel..."

Ron, on the other hand, while willing to push and shove equally with 
Harry for a better view while actually standing in front of the 
mirror, had the strength of character to recognize that there is 
something not quite right about the MoE. 

   "...And Ron pulled Harry out of the room. ...

   "'Want to play chess, Harry?' said Ron.

   "'No.'

   "'Why don't we go down to visit Hagrid?'

   "'No, you go.'

   "'I know what you're thinking about, Harry, that mirror. Don't go 
back tonight.'

   "'Why not?'

   "'I don't know, I've just got a bad feeling about it...I'm 
serious, Harry! Don't go.'

   "But Harry had only one thought in his head, which was to get back 
in front of the mirror, and Ron wasn't going to stop him."

These are direct quotes from "The Mirror of Erised," with the caveat 
that I typed them while listening to the audio version, rather than 
citing the actual text. Sorry, but the books aren't available at the 
moment. :)

Now, I suppose we can argue easily enough that Harry has more to 
desire, just as the dementors have a greater well of torment to draw 
upon with Harry. But if the MoE realy shows the deepest desires of a 
human being, the subject matter should have little to do with the 
intensity of that desire. So here we have Ron, facing the triumph 
against what many assert to be his greatest weakness - his longing 
for the spotlight (and I wonder how many noticed that Ron doesn't 
seem to see himself in designer wizarding robes?) - yet having the 
strength of character to walk away.

The threads speculating on a potential betrayal by Ron are many and 
varied, but I did try to do a search before making this post, and I 
could not find any mention of this aspect. Has anyone discussed this 
before? If so, I'd love to have a pointer towards the discussion.

As a final observation on the MoE, it also dawned on me that 
Dumbledore's smug explanation of why Quirrel couldn't get the Stone 
makes little sense. Dumbledore claimed that only a person who wanted 
to find the Stone, but not actually use it for themselves, could get 
it out of the Mirror. But isn't that exactly what Quirrel was trying 
to do? He was attempting to get the Stone, but for Voldemort, *not* 
for himself!

Hmmm. Another Flint? :)

Allyse