Ron's experience in MoM

[dcyasser]

No: HPFGUIDX 81508

My Dear Ravenclaw Bookworm,
Let me join the "oops" club, because I thought I had posted this 
thought in my original response to your question about what exactly 
happened to Ron at the MoM, especially regarding the brain and its 
scars. Alas, I had only reposted your post. Bad list member.
So let me try again

 "According to Madame Pomfrey,
thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else, 
though since she had started applying copious amounts of Dr. Ubbly's 
Oblivious Unction, there seemed to be some improvement." (US 
hardcover p.847)

What a feast! 

First off I'll admit that I have not been properly able to sort 
through all that happened to Ron at the Department of Mysteries and 
its significance; I find it rather dizzying to contemplate what was 
meant by showing him in such an addled (and eventually dangerous) 
state. Both there and in Madame Pomfrey's comment, I wonder does 
Ron in this instance represent the wizarding world or human nature
– easily confused, attacked and overwhelmed by the opinions of 
others (Daily Prophet and Ministry)? We don't know what kind of curse
he is under, therefore we don't know why he is behaving the way he
is, but he doesn't make sense. Shown to be without common sense or 
judgment, he recklessly calls the brain out of the tank, and it 
attacks him, and even though he fights it, it leaves him with the 
deep scars of someone else's thoughts. Wow, sounds like the 
cultural media coloring our unconscious perception even when we try 
to avoid it; or sounds like the entire wizarding world believing 
Harry is a nutter because the Daily Prophet says so. 
Now that Harry is proved right, will the WW forget they ever doubted 
him? Yup – copious amounts of oblivious unction – one part
time, one part revisionist history, will absolve them!

Then there's a completely different take: maybe Ron's
difficulties and this specific curse, making him giggle and lurch 
and tell juvenile jokes, was to show that Harry and Hermione had 
matured beyond Ron in terms of action and responsibility, 
particularly when they ditched Quidditch for the more pressing 
matter of Grawp, while Ron was finally achieving Quidditch glory. I 
don't really like this thought so don't try to back it up much. 

Back to the deeper scarring, it could lead us back to Brooding!
Harry, as if he isn't scarred enough already, being further
scarred by his thoughts of guilt over Sirius, anger at Snape and 
Dumbledore, and angst about the future in general. Harry is stubborn 
in his opinions, after all; they have certainly marked him. Do they 
open him up to, er, persuasions from LV?

Or perhaps, for the Ron-is-an-evil-betrayer theorists, Ron is the 
one who has physically been scarred by someone else's
thoughts
 will these unknown thoughts, or his own brooding, leave 
him scarred enough to do the unthinkable? 

So many theories, so little time to type! 
Cheers
dc