Ron's Fate?

[Shannon]

No: HPFGUIDX 109485

I've been thinking about the various people reasoning why Ron will die. 
But something has occurred to me when I think about all the things 
people point to as foreshadowing for his eventual death. In every 
instance that I can think of, there is something that indicates a 
negation, or an element of uncertainty of some sort.  Let me try to make 
sense of this.  

In SS, we have the chess game.  Many have speculated that Ron's 
sacrifice of himself in that game foreshadows a more final sacrifice 
later. But...Ron wasn't dead, of course. The key here was that Harry 
didn't know. He didn't stop to check if Ron was alive or not.

In PoA, there's the thing at the Christmas dinner. Trelawney is 
reluctant to join the table because it would be 13 then, and the first 
person to get up would be the first to die. Ron and Harry get up at the 
same time. A death omen that seemed to come true for Sirius, but here 
again, uncertainty. Neither Ron nor Harry knew which of them got up 
first, and it's possible they stood at the exact same time.

In GoF, Harry thinks that if he can't get to Ron in time in the second 
task, Ron is going to die.  Of course, we learn later that Ron was in no 
real danger.  But once again, Harry is left in uncertainty regarding 
Ron's fate, and Ron turns out fine.

The other that comes to mind, thanks to a post earlier to this list, is 
a couple of incidents in OoP, one being Harry calling Ron's name, 
thinking he hears Ron's voice from behind the veil.  But Ron simply 
steps around from the other side of it, saying, "I'm here." That to me 
seems to follow the same pattern  Then there is the "die Ron die" quote, 
which Ron himself negates, in a way, by claiming if he ever saw that in 
his tea leaves he'd ignore it completely.  He never has done that, I 
don't think, with any of his other seemingly prophetic jokes.

So here's what I think. I think that something is going to happen to Ron 
to make Harry believe that he is dead.  Or at the least, be uncertain of 
whether he is alive or dead.  The belief that Ron is dead will be just 
as effective, to Harry, as Ron actually being dead.  The quote from JKR 
(which I cannot find at the moment) that said "As if I'd kill Harry's 
best friend" just won't let me believe she's actually going to kill 
him.  Those are just a few examples that came to mind, but it seems like 
quite an unusual pattern.   Is this just a product of my desperation for 
Ron to live or does anyone else see something in this?

Shannon