"die, ron, die"

[Robert Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 87924

JKR has said that death is a major theme of the series and I think 
one of the big three will die.  And I think it will be Ron.  Here is 
the summary of the theory.

(1) Galadriel Waters has a rule that Ron is always wrong except when 
he is telling a joke.  And in OOTP 31, he expresses his dislike with 
Divination by saying that he would not believe tea leaves even if 
they spelled out "Die, Ron, die" (p. 718 US ed.).

Interestingly, JKR repeats the joke in her "Fantastic Beast" book: 
on the back of the first page, Harry and Ron are playing a game of 
Hangman when one of them writes "You die Weasley."  (Obviously that 
should be Harry saying that, but I am not sure whose handwriting is 
whose.)

(2) The main clue is the chess game at the end of PS/SS (ch. 16).  
Ron had already demonstrated his skill at Wizards Chess, and in the 
game at the end of the book he commands the pieces and sacrifices 
himself so that Harry can get to the stone and defeat LV.  Ron 
says "It's the only way . . . I've got to be taken."  I think in 
Book 7 this will be repeated for real: Ron will be a leader in the 
DA and he will have to intentionally sacrifice himself so that Harry 
can get to LV and defeat him.  This time he will be killed for 
real.  

Chess skills are not always transferable to the real world, since 
the game is so abstract and analytical, but JKR did say in Book 1 
when Ron was teaching Harry how to play that Wizards Chess was like 
regular chess "except that the figures were alive, which made it a 
lot like directing troops in battle" (PS/SS 12, p. 199).  That it 
was like "directing troops in battle" shows what JKR thinks of the 
skill.  He got his troops to trust him and to follow him without 
question (p. 199).  Ron's skill in Wizards Chess is repeated in all 
the books; so JKR keeps reminding us of it.  Indeed, it is the only 
still Ron apparently has until Quidditch half way through OOTP.  
(But Ron definitely still needs to develop this leadership skill, 
his fighting skills, and in general must mature; in OOTP, both Harry 
and Hermione seem much more mature.)

In chess, Knights usually don't last to the end of the game, but are 
sacrificed.  Why didn't JKR put Ron on the King or Queen where he 
would be relatively safe rather than on a minor piece between his 
friends?  It is a foreshadowing of what is to come.

How much the PS/SS chess game can be worked out as a fuller analogy 
of what is to come is not clear.  The faceless white pieces may 
represent the masked DE's, with the Queen (Bellatrix) being the one 
who kills Ron.  (The DE's are white because white always makes the 
first move in chess.)  Ron won't be a commander in the Order at his 
age.  It is his willing sacrifice to help Harry that is important.

(3) In POA, Ron says that Sirius will have to kill him if he is 
going to kill Harry.  That reiterates the "sacrifice to the death" 
theme.

(4) In the Christmas scene in POA 11, Trelawney brings the idea that 
when 13 people sit down to dine, the first one to get up dies.  
Together Harry and Ron are the first to get up.

(5) The Lexicon under "Wands" notes that Ron, like Cedric, has a 
wand with a unicorn hair.  In PS/SS, Hagrid says a unicorn is hurt 
to which the centaur Ronan replies that "Always the innocent are the 
first victims."  The Lexicon then asks if Ron is next.

(6) Other things indirectly support this idea.  At the end of Books 
1, 3, and 5, Ron gets hurt badly.  If this pattern continues, he is 
safe in Book 6, but in danger at the end of Book 7.

JKR also seems to be preparing Molly Weasley for the death of at 
least one of her children by the Boggart scene in OOTP 9.

Nobody wants to see Ron die, but those are the clues.  He is not 
just another goofy sidekick who always gets killed off in the 
movies.  His death would be even more of tragic if he gets the 
things he wanted from the Mirror of Erised scene in Book 1 (ch. 12)
—
 Quidditch captain and Head Boy — and then dies.  He is already 
outshining his brothers in one respect: he got an award for service 
to Hogwarts in COS.