Ron's (and others') vulnerabilities (was Quidditch/ jealousy)

[dk59us]

No: HPFGUIDX 91396

After Eustace_Scrubb opined:
And I also guess that as we get closer and closer to
the last page of Book 7, the stakes are going to be considerably
higher than they were in Book 4 and small errors in judgement may
have greater fallout.

Then Susanne wrote:
Yes, most likely.
But why does Ron have to be the one who is seen as
the most likely catalyst (it comes up so often, it seems
he's the only one considered to be prone to this)?

Harry has already made several mistakes of this kind, and
might make more, and so has Hermione.

I guess it just irks me that, whenever this topic comes up,
Ron is the automatic pick ;)
As if he were ready to throw in his lot with LV, for a sack
full of galleons and some fame.
Eve when he *was* angry with Harry, he didn't show any signs
of trying to sabotage him.

Eustace_Scrubb again:
No, Ron's not the only candidate for making a critical error of
judgement.

In fact, I would agree that so far he's avoided any such thing, while
others have made hugely disastrous mistakes (Dumbledore keeping Harry
in the dark about the prophecy, maybe Dumbledore's decision to have
Snape teach Harry occlumency (though I think there may have been a
purpose to that we don't know about yet), Harry's and Snape's joint
failure to continue the lessons, Harry's unquestioning belief in his
dream despite his knowledge that LV likely had access to his mind,
Sirius' underestimation of Kreacher's malevolence and the harm he
could do to the Order...I'm sure there are others (I can't right at
this moment think of a similar mistake on Hermione's part either--one
that had really negative consequences...please let me know if I've
missed one)

And as I've said before, I highly doubt that Ron would ever pull a
Pettigrew and openly join LV.  But, we know that LV is able to exploit
small weaknesses in the armor of Harry and the Order.  If he has
sources of information that suggest that there are ways to get to
Harry's supporters, he's shown that he will make use of them.  All of
this is rank speculation, we know that--in Hermione's case, there's
the idea that LV may go after her parents; in Harry's, that somehow LV
might be able to get something damaging out of the Dursleys (possibly
by depriving Harry of the refuge that Lily's sacrifice and
Dumbledore's magic provided him).  I would guess that LV has known
that Ron and Hermione are Harry's closest friends at least since
Pettigrew returned to him between POA and GOF.  He's not much of a
Dark Lord if he hasn't been seeking (in his spare time, at least) to
learn all he can about them--from the end of GOF until his recent
incarceration, I would expect that Lucius Malfoy would have been
pumping Draco for just such information.  He surely knows that Ron is
important enough to Harry that he was used in the Second Task of the
Triwizard Tournament.  What vulnerabilities would he see in Ron or
Hermione?  Whatever they are, he's not likely to just pop up and try
to tempt or threaten them personally.  He'll do it through agents
whose loyalties may not be obvious.

Anyway, please realize I'm not beating on Ron...but he's been one of
the key characters from the first book, which is why so many are
focused on him.

And he's not going to turn out evil (nor is he going to turn out to be
Dumbledore, I hope), but he's human, which is why it's not surprising
that many wonder whether he may make a fateful misstep in one of these
next two books.  If he does, I expect that he will also have a chance
to redeem himself before the end. 

Cheers, 

Eustace_Scrubb