TBAY: Gryffindor Keeper Issues (WAS: TBAY/SHIP: SHIP-Speak)

[portia288]

No: HPFGUIDX 58914

A somewhat disheveled girl fell onto the deck with a thud, and Cindy, 
Derannimer and Serena look up in surprise. 
"Sorry," said the girl breathlessly. "I'm Portia, and I heard you 
talking, and I just had to de-lurk. You were saying:"
 
> "Hmmmm," Cindy said, interested.  "I dunno.  That might be a bit of 
> a stretch.  To the extent Ron has ever been successful at something 
> in Harry's presence, I don't recall Harry every showing signs of 
> jealousy.  Like during the chess match in PS/SS.  I think it is 
more 
> likely that Ron is the Keeper and Ron isn't as good as Oliver Wood, 
> and Harry is irritated at Ron for that reason.  That would create a 
> lot of tension, don't you think?"  
> 
> Cindy began pacing back and forth across the deck, deep in 
> thought.  "And besides, the books often show Ron being less than 
> competent at various bits of magic, so having Ron be worse at 
> Quidditch would fit that pattern.  Ron can't throw off the Imperius 
> Curse, for instance.  Ron can't turn Scabbers yellow.  Ron can't 
> banish his cushion."

"And...so?" asked Cindy.

"Well," said Portia, "We can't say that Ron is less than competent at 
magic. Just compare him to Harry and the other kids. Ron can't turn 
Scabbers yellow because he was using a dud spell that Fred and George 
gave him. True, he had trouble banishing his cushion, but look at how 
long it took Harry to grasp the Summoning Charm, whereas we don't 
hear about Ron having trouble with that. If JKR had wanted to show 
Ron as being not so great at magic, she could have easily thrown in a 
line about Harry getting some vindictive pleasure out of watching Ron 
struggle with Accio, since it was during the Rift."

"Hmm," said Cindy, sounding unconvinced. "And the Imperius curse?"

Portia sighed. "No one can throw off the Imperius curse except Harry. 
And speaking of Harry, he doesn't excel at anything except DADA, does 
he? We know that he's quite bad at Potions, in fact, while in PoA we 
hear of Ron's roots being 'beautifully cut.' And Snape doesn't 
criticize Ron nearly as much as Harry and Hermione and Neville 
(unless Ron's mouthing off at him). Could it be that Ron is actually 
good at Potions? Maybe. Anyway, you can't say that he's incompetent 
at magic. There's just no basis."

"And your point is?" snapped Cindy. "Are you one of those sappy Ron-
defenders, just waiting to go into a monologue about how wonderful 
Ron is?"

"Ron IS wonderful," sniffed Portia, " but that's not the point. The 
point is, I don't think the tension over the Gryffindor Keeper is 
going to come because Ron is bad at it. I think it'll be because 
Quidditch is such an excellent opportunity for Ron to get *hurt*. 
What if a rogue Bludger starts following *Ron* around? What if the 
Slytherin Chasers start banging into him a little more than usual 
when they fly up to the hoops? It would crush the Muggle-loving 
Weasleys if Ron were seriously injured. And it would thoroughly 
devastate Harry, and everyone knows it because of the Second Task. 
Quidditch would be the perfect opportunity to do it, since everyone's 
outside the walls of the castle, and it's a dangerous sport by 
definition. You could make it look like an 'accident' to those who 
don't look too closely at it."   

Cindy, Derannimer and Serena still did not look convinced, but Portia 
smiled and thought, "just wait and see." 

~Portia