Ron to follow Voldemort?

[sienna291973]

No: HPFGUIDX 93088

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "JoAnna" <pt4ever at y...> wrote:

> I have to agree with fauntine on this one.  I have a horrible 
> suspicion that Ron will die in book 7 - more specifically, I 
believe 
> he will sacrifice himself to save Harry and/or Hermione.  
> 
> This suspicion comes from two clues presented thus far in canon:
> 
> 1.  Ron's new wand has a unicorn hair for a core.  Cedric's wand 
> also had a unicorn hair.  In SS, one of the centaurs (Ronan?) says 
> in reply to Hagrid's query about hurt/dead unicorns:  "Always the 
> innocent are the first to die."  Cedric, an innocent, has already 
> died.  Ron may be next.  (Yes, I originally read this at the 
> Lexicon; thanks, Steve.)  :)

I was going to post this as a new topic then saw this thread (just 
in time). There is some additional information that I've been 
looking at in connection with Ron's possible demise, his wand and 
the Whomping Willow.  What possible connection is there between 
these seemingly unconnected themes?  Take this with a pinch of salt -
 but it certainly is food for thought:

We are first introduced to the Whomping Willow in Chapter 5 of CoS:
 
Ron let go of the steering wheel completely and pulled his wand out 
of his back pocket.
`STOP! STOP!' he yelled, whacking the dashboard and the
windscreen, but they were still plummeting, the ground flying up 
towards them

`MIND THAT TREE!' Harry bellowed, lunging for the steering
wheel, but too late –
CRUNCH.
CoS, pg 59

So we see that the very first time we are introduced to the Whomping 
Willow is as Ron and Harry are attempting to land the car. Ron has 
taken out his wand and thus does not see the tree looming before 
him. Harry tries to warn him, but is too late.


`Are you OK?' Harry said urgently.
`My wand,' said Ron, in a shaky voice.  `Look at my
wand.'
It had snapped, almost in two; the tip was dangling limply, held on 
by a few splinters


 Ron gasped, staring through the windscreen, and Harry looked 
around just in time to see a branch as thick as a python smash into 
it.
CoS, pg 59

Later we see Professor Sprout taking care of the Willow:


with another twinge of guilt, Harry spotted the Whomping Willow
in the distance, several of its branches now in slings.
CoS, pg 70

The year after, during the struggle with Sirius Black, we see Ron 
being injured in turn by the same tree he injured:

All they could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked 
around a root in an effort to stop the dog pulling him further 
underground.  Then a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; 
Ron's leg had broken, and the next second, his foot had vanished 
from sight.
PoA, pg 246

I won't add each mention of the willow in this post. I'll
only put one last one which is important here:

`Look at this,' said Ron, pulling a long thing box out of a
bag and opening it.  `Brand-new wand.  Fourteen inches, willow,
containing one unicorn-tail hair
'
PoA, pg 47


OK. So now that we've established that Ron and Willow seem to
come together quite a bit, we can look at the symbolism of the 
willow tree.

The Willow tree (Salix alba) has long associations with Wicca and is 
present in the mythology of many cultures. The botanical name of the 
Willow comes from the Celtic word `sal' – meaning near,
and `lis' – meaning water. It grows rapidly and has deep, tough 
roots and is therefore often found on moist ground and near bodies 
of water. It is very much associated with water.

It is associated with many gods and goddesses such as Prosperina, 
Hecate, Circe, Belenus, Artemis, Ceridwen, Morrigan, Morgan Le Fay, 
Dana and Mercury.

The Willow symbolizes forsaken love, mourning, grief and death, 
healing protection, fertility magic, strife and self-imposed 
chastity. It is associated with the Sea Serpent, Cat or Hare, 
Intuition, the Moon, and the fire festival of Beltane. 

In Celtic mythology, the Willow was said to hide two scarlet sea 
serpent eggs which contained the Sun and Earth. Those eggs were 
hidden in the boughs of the willow tree until they hatched, thus 
bringing forth earthly life.

The Willow is also associated with poetry and inspiration. Orpheus 
the Greek poet, is said to have received his gifts of eloquence from 
the Willow by carrying it with him to his journey to the Underworld.

The darker side to the willow is its association with grief and 
death. The Greek sorceress Circe is said to have had a riverside 
cemetery planted with Willow trees dedicated to Hecate and her moon 
magic. Here male corpses were wrapped in ox-hides and left exposed 
in the tops of the trees for the elements to claim. Old folklore 
advises that to plant a young willow and watch it grow would ease 
the passage of your soul at death.

Willow wands (taken from a Wicca site whose URL I lost - sorry!) are 
also used (apparently) to connect with intuition, dreams, seer-ship 
and visions. They are used to deal with emotional numbness or excess 
or where there are negative feelings to work through.

So what does this mean for Ron?

1. Willow tree – associated with water
The Whomping Willow is of course near the lake. The same lake that 
Ron gets submerged in, in GoF, during the second task. In addition, 
Ron is a Pisces, a water sign. This sign is ruled by Neptune –
more commonly known as Poseidon – god of the Sea.

2. The willow grows rapidly and has deep, tough roots
There are many references throughout the books to how much Ron has 
grown over the summer. In each book we have references to Ron 
becoming even taller and ganglier. In addition, you could argue that 
Ron has his `deep, tough roots' embedded in the close-knit
and talented Weasley family.

3. Associated with Circe
It may be reaching, but near the beginning of PS/SS, Ron and Harry 
are bonding over sweets and Chocolate Frog Cards. Amongst the first 
cards that Harry collects (due to the fact that Ron already has 500 
of them) is Circe - who is of course associated in mythology with 
the Willow.

4. The Willow was said to hide two scarlet sea serpent eggs which 
contained the Sun and Earth
My first thoughts on reading this were that the Sun represents Harry 
(whose sign Leo is ruled by the Sun) and that Earth represents 
Hermione (whose sign Virgo is an earth sign and whose name 
means `earthly'). Is Ron supporting and nourishing his
friends until such time as they can `hatch' and `bring forth earthly
life' (the new order after the demise of Voldemort perhaps)?

5. Notice that the willow is associated with the sea serpent
and that JKR describes the Whomping Willows branches as being as 
thick as a `python' (a snake that lives in tropical and
sub-tropical climates).

6. The Willow symbolizes forsaken love
If the willow does indeed represent Ron in some way, does this point 
to unrequited love for Ron? People born under the influence of the 
willow in Celtic astrology (i.e. in March) are said to be beautiful 
but full of melancholy. They are empathic, dreamers and restless. 
They are also capricious and honest but will suffer in love.

7. The Willow's connection with water links it directly with
the moon goddess.  Possible connection between Ron and Luna?

8. The Willow is associated with grief and death
Here is the most important part of the whole analysis.  I found it 
particularly interesting that it was Sirius Black who pulled Ron 
into the Whomping Willow - Sirius Black who takes on the form of a 
big black dog (grim?) and later dies in OoTP. The Willow is commonly 
planted in cemeteries around Britain, particularly those near water. 
The imagery here is quite startling – Sirius Black (the dead man/ 
grim) pulling Ron into the `cemetery'?

9. Willow wands are also used to connect with intuition, dreams, 
seer-ship and visions
Many people have theorised that Ron may have some latent seer 
ability. Does his Willow wand confirm this?

I'm not sure how far we should rely on such symbolism but, along 
with several other signs (his middle name, his jokes, the chess 
game) it doesn't look promising does it?

Sienna
(Who quite like Ron now that she thinks about it and doesn't really 
want to see him die)