[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP: Ron

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 55279

>From the Scholastic summary:
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> Add this to a host of other worries for Harry:
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> *    A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like
> poisoned honey
> *    A venomous, disgruntled house-elf
> *    Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
> *    And of course, what every student dreads: end-of-term Ordinary
> Wizarding Level exams

I've read with interest everyone's theories on just why Ron as keeper might worry Harry -- he might fail, or argue with Harry over strategy, or he might let success go to his head, and agree that any one of them might be plausible.  To tell the truth, all of the conflict between Harry and Ron in GoF would seem pointless if there were not a continuing Ron subplot in OoP.

But I'm going to throw a monkey wrench into this because my reaction on reading this was that the summary never actually *says* that Ron becomes keeper.  Couldn't Harry be worrying about the mere possibility?  In fact, Harry might well be worrying about every one of the issues named by Scholastic before he ever arrives at Hogwarts for his fifth year.  DADA teacher with a personality like poisoned honey?  Arabella Figg *did* feed him stale cake.  There's no reason why he couldn't visit her over the summer and learn she's the new DADA professor.  Ditto the venomous house-elf, the OWLs and WW politics.  Indeed, I wouldn't expect a summary to include anything specific that went beyond the first 4 or 5 chapters.  And in GoF 5 chapters doesn't even get us to the QWC.

I agree with Barb when she suggested that:

JKR may have omitted the 
> resolution between Harry and Ron from GoF because she was saving it 
> for this book--or at least, I certainly hope so.

Someone suggested, very plausibly, that Harry might be named captain and be worried about having to choose between Ron and someone else.   What if Harry chose a younger player over Ron?  How would Ron react and what would that do to their friendship?  Ron already suffers from an inferiority complex, and a rejection like that could be very difficult for Ron to deal with.  It seems to me that this might be an equally plausible way of having the rift play out as if Ron made the team.

Or not.  Though I'm not willing to *assume* that Ron will become keeper because of the way the summary is written, even I have to acknowledge at this point that it's more likely than not that the language means Ron *will* become keeper.  And that's ok, too, since I think Ron is Harry's metaphorical keeper, in the sense of being his last line of defense.  

In addition to the not-quite-resolved Rift, GoF also differed from earlier books in that Ron had no opportunity to support Harry in the way he does best.  Ron couldn't offer to die for Harry, use his chess skills, etc.  In fact, JKR left Ron without anything useful to do.  Ron being passed over for the Quidditch team (or his making the team and having adjustment problems) would be another way of continuing the unresolved subplot of what is Ron's role in the Trio which, as Barb suggests, should be resolved in OoP.

Whichever way it happens, I think that resolution is implied by the Scholastic summary itself:

>Despite this (or perhaps because of it) Harry finds depth and strength in
> his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty, and unbearable
> sacrifice. 
> 
Boundless loyalty and unbearable sacrifice.  No, I don't think Ron will die.  I think that instead he will be called upon to sacrifice something intangible that he *thought* was integrally a part of himself.  Often this kind of sacrifice or letting go can be so difficult that offering to die seems simple in comparison.  What the nature of Ron's sacrifice could be, I could only speculate wildly (though I have some ideas).  But through this kind of sacrifice, Ron will begin to discover what it really means to be Ron Weasley, friend of Harry Potter.  In other words, I think we'll see Ron finally start growing up by the end of OoP.

Debbie
who has asserted in the past that Ron *shouldn't* make the Quidditch team and so obviously read the Scholastic summary with a view to defending her own biases (humble pie being baked, to be ready to eat June 21)


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