OOP: Ron

[derannimer]

No: HPFGUIDX 55105

Gail wrote: 

>First of all...I'm so happy for Ron! Congratulations! New Keeper! 
>That's just wonderful. He really deserves the position. But the 
>burning question in my mind is this:

>Why in the world is this information (of Ron being the new Keeper 
>for the Gryffindor Quidditch team) one of the items listed under the 
>heading; "Add this to a host of other worries for Harry..." ? Why 
>would Ron being the new Keeper be a worry for Harry?

<slow, evil smile>

Penny and I were talking about this off-list last night--by the way 
Gail, I sympathize with your unsuccessful attempt at a spoiler-free 
life, as I did the same thing myself--but anyway, Penny and I were 
talking, and I asked her the exact same question--I had a couple of 
vague hunches myself, but I wanted to see what she had to say. 

And she had an idea--paraphrased: 

"What if Harry's Gryffindor *Captain*? What if Harry and Ron disagree 
about how the team should be run?" 

Now, this theory makes a lot of sense in some ways, I think. 

After all, as Ron is Harry's best friend, and would be a valuable 
player, as Keeper, and *is* good at strategy, he might well feel like 
he's got the right to raise some criticisms. But if Harry thinks 
*he's* right, and as, ultimately, the team *does* have to follow the 
Captain's orders, then Harry might well insist that Ron *play* 
according to his orders. And insist that Ron stop always arguing with 
his calls. 

Now, let's apply this:

What if this becomes crucially important during a game? What if Ron, 
as Keeper, as a strategy guy, thinks that he should be doing one sort 
of manouveur, but what if this runs counter to the game plan? What if 
Harry calls a time-out, as Captain, and tells Ron that he's got to 
stop this and follow the plan? What if Ron says: "We'll lose," but 
Harry doesn't listen to him. 

What if they lose?

Or *worse.*

*What if they win.*

See, if they lose, Ron won't mind, because he will have been *right,* 
and there is a certain gloomy degree of satisfaction in "I told you 
so." And Harry will probably just feel guilty and basically abdicate 
in favor of Ron's judgement. So there won't really be a long term 
problem. 

But if they *win,* then Ron will probably be kind of mad, because, 
although Gryff losing will have proven Harry wrong, Gryff winning 
*doesn't* necessarily prove Ron wrong, especially if they win 
narrowly--say, through a last-minute Snitch capture? So Ron won't be 
sure he was wrong *anyway,* and he'll be on the defensive, and if 
Harry does *anything* stupid like grinning and saying: "Look, we 
won!" (Much like Ron did to Hermione with the Firebolt Incident) then 
we could be looking at a major blow-up between Harry and Ron. 

And a blow-up of a similar *kind* to the one in GOF--Ron thinking 
Harry has a big head, Harry thinking--perhaps with some   
justification--that Ron is jealous. 

And, you know, I agree with Eb on this one: the strains on the Trio's 
friendship are not yet over. 




Derannimer (who wonders where Hermione would fall, and who concedes 
that Gail's theory could easily be right as well, but who prefers 
this one. : ) And who thanks Penny for encouraging her to read the 
spoilers. ; ))