Ron as prefect?

[slgazit]

No: HPFGUIDX 105948

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mcmaxslb" <McGregorMax at e...> wrote:

>   Ron became a prefect only because Dumbledore didn't want to give it 
> to Harry, not because Dumbledore thought Ron would make a good 
> prefect. And this was one of the mistakes that he admits to at the 
> end of OotP.  McMax.

DD did the right thing in giving Ron a chance to grow away from
Harry's shadow using a fairly manageable task - supervising first
years' at breaks, hanging Christmas decorations, etc. - that also
carries a lot of status and prestige - just what Ron needed.

Suppose Harry had been given the badge. Can you picture him trying to
gather the first years after the first night's reception? Remember his
image in the WW at the time as a dangerous and unbalanced liar. The
first years were *terrified* of him. And he was emotionally at the
breaking point for the first few weeks at Hogwarts - witness his
outbursts with his friends, later on with Seamus, Umbridge, etc. He
needed the time to learn and deal with his emotions and putting him in
a supervisory position just then would have been a mistake.

He did really well as the DA teacher, but that happened later with
hand selected students who came to him because they believed and
respected him enough to overcome their concerns and the bad publicity.
 This would not have been the case with the prefect position. There
he'd have to deal with all the prejudice against him on a daily basis.

Incidentally I think the right person for the prefect position was
Neville. He has as much if not more moral integrity than Ron and would
have taken his responsibility as prefect a lot more seriously than Ron
did, but then DD wanted to give Ron a hand at reaching his most
cherished ambition (seen in the Mirror of Erised incident) and also
Ron was a better student than Neville after all.

Salit