Ron's dirt-smudged nose

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 111497

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, macfotuk at y... wrote:
> Someone MUST have posted on this because you are mostly very clever 
> and mostly very observant but it isn't something I've seen anything 
> on:
> 
> Please tell me if I'm being thick and/or have missed something (a 
> joke for example), but exactly why is Ron's nose smudged when Harry 
> first meets him on the Hogwart's express (SS/PS)? Mrs Weasley makes 
> a point of noticing it and so does Hermione (also meeting Ron for 
> the very first time) and it was in the film (sorry spit I hate 
them -
>  well, no I don't actually, but yes they're not 'canon'). 

<snip>
 
> Any comments or theories about Ron's dirt-smudged nose would be 
> appreciated here. Is it just, perhaps, that JKR is saying 'typical 
> boy doesn't even know his nose is dirty because he doesn't care 
> about his appearance'? Or something else?

Geoff:
I am inclined to agree with many of the other posters who say that it 
is a way for Jo Rowling to point up Hermione's superior attitude. 
There are several other instances of her using this to patronise and 
belittle others - Ron for instance over the "Wingardium Leviosa" 
practice in Professor Flitwick's lesson in PS and Ron and Harry after 
their first encounter with Fluffy.

And remember, on the occasion when Snape calls her an insufferable 
know-it-all (in POA I think), the Gryffindors are sympathetic to her 
although it is pointed out that most of them had thought the same on 
occasions.

If you recall, after the spell incident, mentioned above, Hermione 
goes off and we are told that she is in the toilet crying after 
barging past the boys - unhappiness or frustration or both? It is 
only then, after Ron and Harry save her from the troll, that their 
friendship really begins to flourish and she begins to mellow a 
little.

Excuse me for not being my usual Hermione-like self and showering 
everyone with canon. I am in a foreign country [Wales :-)] using a 
friend's computer and separated from my books by 25 miles as the crow 
flies and 110 miles by road.

Geoff:
Who invites everyone to find out about Exmoor and its scenery at 
www.aspectsofexmoor.com