Ron's Alleged Jealousy

[dicentra63 <dicentra@xmission.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52871

I said earlier:

Ron found "Harry's abandoned me" easier to believe than "Someone's
after Harry" because when something odd happens, projecting your worst
fears onto the situation is the path of *least* resistance, not
greatest.  It's easier to see a situation as "here we go again" than
as something unfamiliar.  I know whereof I speak. 

And Melissa queried:

But why should thinking that Harry's abandoned him be easier for Ron
to believe. Harry's never abandoned him before that I can recall.  On
the other hand Ron has been present often enough for the "Someone's
after Harry" scenario to be perfectly plausible so it shouldn't be
unfamiliar.

So I answer:

When you think about it, "Someone's after Harry" is much more
plausible to us as readers than it would be to Ron.  In Book 1,
someone was after the Philosopher's Stone, not Harry, and Quirrellmort
made only one attempt on Harry's life.  In Book 2, someone was after
the muggle-borns, not Harry, and even though Tom Riddle said he had
focused his attention on Harry, his life was in jeopardy only when he
went to rescue Ginny, not during the whole year.  In Book 3, "someone
was after Harry" the whole year, but it turned out that he wasn't,
really.  As readers, we know that Harry's going to end up in mortal
peril by the end of the book, if not sooner, but Ron doesn't know he's
in a serial novel, so he wouldn't relate to that.

However, being left in the dust or lost in the shuffle is the story of
Ron's life. With Harry "destined for greatness" Potter as his best
friend, Ron must have in the back of his mind the fear that Harry will
move on without Ron "just another Weasley."  

The context of trying to figure out how to bypass the Age Line and get
into the tournament contributes heavily to Ron's interpretation, too.
 Harry knew Ron wanted to find out how to get in, so when Harry seems
to have found a way to get in (as everyone but Dumbledore, Hermione,
Bagman, Imperioed!Crouch, and Hagrid believes), Ron's worst fears seem
to be coming true.

--Dicentra, who tends to fear broccoli more than anything