DH reread CH 4-5

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186257

Alla:
> >
> > You know, totally did not remember that Ron's insecurities show up here. And frankly, find it, well annoying. I mean, really Ron it is not like you conduct things like this on the day to day basis. You participated in what? Two battles so far? Hermione isn't allowed to be surprised that you did something that Auror praises you for?
 
> sartoris22:
> 
> In my opinion, Ron's response is appropriate because Hermione consistenly underestimates him. She's not one who fills Ron with confidence. Early in the novels, she explains words to him that she thinks he doesn't know, and is always surprized when he has an idea, as in HBP when Ron tells Harry to take the lucky potion to get the information from Slughorn. Compare how Lavender treats Ron to how Hermione treats him. Clearly, Ron, at times, doesn't exhibit confidence (Quidditch is a prime example, but he has people around him--his brothers, Hermione, later even Ginny--who treat him badly and undermine his confidence. You know, it always bothered me that Harry never said anything to the twins about the way they treat Ron, because Ron would have said something if someone was mistreating Harry. And Ron consistenly sticks up for Hermione, too--remember the backfired slug attack against Malfoy in COS. In DH Ron knows he loves Hermione, but he also feels that she doesn't respect him. In fact, he thinks that she really likes Harry. Ron has to get the basilisk fangs and recognize the elves before Hermione thinks he is worthy. Funnily enough, Hermione doesn't have to do anything extra to gain Ron's love. So I think we can see why a weary, insecure Ron might finally say to Hermione, in effect, "get off my back."
>
Carol responds:
What annoyed me in the books was that Ron, who had been hailed as a Quidditch champion in OoP ("Weasley is our king") was back to the same old insecurities in HBP with the Felix Felicis episode. And, again, we have misunderstanding and miscommunication. Hermione thinks Ron could not have made those saves without the Felix Felicis (which is exactly what Ron thought himself), but then he gets angry with her for underestimating him when he finds out the truth, and Harry's plan fails miserably. At the time, I wondered why JKR was repeating the motif of Ron's insecurity when it seemed that the problem had been solved, but now I think that the HBP incident ties it in with what Ron wants Hermione to think of him. (I agree with Sartoris22 that she loves him but doesn't respect him. She seems, unconsciously, to compare him to Harry, and he almost always comes up short, and her apparent surprise (actually pleasure?) that he's done something well *would* be off-putting. (Hermione means well, but she, as a rather indulged only child, can't possibly understand what it's like to be the youngest of seven sons, constantly compared to brothers who are Prefects or Quidditch captains--or just a pair of clever rogues who constantly tease you--and, on top of that, to be best friends with the famous Harry Potter.)

Ron's insecurities have been building since SS/PS, and the brief remark that Alla refers to is meant, I think, to remind us of incidents in the later books (the Yule Ball, Quidditch, Lavender Brown, etc.) that reflect Ron's fears of inadequacy. We know he loves Hermione and forgives her for attacking her with her conjured birds in OoP. We know that she loves him and forgives him for Lavender Brown. But this little remark shows that they still don't really understand each other and prepares the way (as do all those other incidents and others that I didn't mention, such as Ron's reaction to Harry's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire) for Ron's triumph over his insecurities when he destroys the Horcrux, which he couldn't have done if he hadn't first saved Harry's life and proved himself worthy of retrieving and wielding the Sword of Gryffindor.

That little remark and Ron's behavior when he wears the Horcrux foreshadow that victory, which would be meaningless if his insecurity were not a terrible burden that he constantly bears and only occasionally reveals to his friends. 

So, yes, it's true that Hermione has the right to be surprised that Ron has done so well, but it's rather tactless of her to express it. Why not say, "Good job, Ron!" rather than "You did?" And, yes, Ron's insecurities have been presented so often that they're annoying, not only to us but probably to Harry and Hermione, but it's important that we (and HH) know about them to prepare us for Ron's triumph over the Horcrux later in DH.

In a way, he's like Snape, whose true self is concealed until "The Prince's Tale." For six and a half books, we've seen Ron only from the outside. We've never known exactly how he feels. The Horcrux scene enables us really to know Ron and to understand what he has suffered and why he has, on occasion, behaved less than admirably (and why he's annoyed by Hermione's apparent surprise at his Stunning a DE while he's flying on a broom--after all, he *is* a good flyer and, when his confidence is up, a Quidditch champion).

Carol, who sees a bit of herself in both Ron and Hermione but for some reason sympathizes more with Ron