Characters

Age: 17. Born March 1, 1980. Next>>

House: Gryffindor.

Special Abilities: Ron seems to be average to mediocre in many. He is not a fabulous student, usually copying all of Hermione's notes just prior to exam time, but he does manage to get decent grades and earned seven O.W.L.S. at the end of his fifth year, more than Fred and George combined. Ron is a decent Quidditch Keeper when he doesn't allow his nerves to get the better of him. In many areas, Ron is greatly overshadowed by his older brothers and is hindered by his lacking self-confidence. Ron is, however, an excellent friend. He is loyal and protective to the point of endangering himself. Ron is also a wonderful strategist, making him nearly impossible to beat at chess. Additionally, Ron has an uncanny knack for being correct when he is merely joking around.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Bright red hair, blue eyes, and hand-me-down robes. Ron is tall, thin, and gangling. He has rather large hands and feet and a long nose; his face is covered with freckles. Like most of the Weasleys, Ron is quick tempered and turns red whenever he is about to lose his cool. He is very afraid of spiders and has a definite inferiority complex.

Heritage: Pureblood.

Family: The second-youngest child of Arthur and Molly Weasley, Ron is the youngest son. He has five older brothers, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred and George (twins), and a younger sister, Ginny.

First Mention: Philosopher's Stone / Sorcerer's Stone, chapter 6.

General: Ron is the youngest boy (and second youngest child overall) of the seven Weasley children. The Weasleys are a close-knit pureblood wizarding family, but one that is about as far removed from the traditional, elitist pureblood ethic of the Malfoys or the Blacks as it is possible to get. Granted, they know very little about the Muggle world and get hopelessly confused by even the simplest Muggle devices, but Arthur Weasley in particular has a deep-seated fascination with non-magical people. He collects plugs and batteries, and he worked for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office in the Ministry of Magic until 1996 when he was promoted, and even went as far as to invite Hermione Granger's Muggle parents to the Leaky Cauldron for drinks. While not as fascinated with the ins and outs of Muggle life as his father, Ron is best friends with half-blood Harry Potter and Muggle-born Hermione, a girl he is also interested in on a romantic level. The Weasleys are, in short, the worst kind of blood-traitors as far as people such as Lucius Malfoy are concerned; pureblood wizards who fight against the Dark Arts and put no faith in the so-called purity of blood.

Harry first met Ron at King's Cross Station as they were both about to make their first trip to Hogwarts. Harry didn't know how to get on to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and had been abandoned by a sniggering Uncle Vernon who was convinced no such place existed. Luckily for Harry, he overheard the Weasley family talking about how to get onto the secret platform. Ron's mother, Molly, helped him out.

It was Fred and George who first realized who Harry was, and although Molly instructed her children not to bother Harry, he ended up sitting in the same train compartment as Ron. They started talking and became friends from that point on. This process was no doubt helped by Harry's rejection of Draco Malfoy in favor of Ron during the journey.

Ron, like all of the Weasley children, was sorted into Gryffindor. This allowed his friendship with Harry to develop. Hermione Granger was also sorted into Gryffindor - much to Ron's dismay - and he and Harry quickly joined the rest of the school in regarding her as a bossy know-it-all. This all changed on Halloween 1991, however, when Ron insulted Hermione after she'd been particularly smug and annoying in a Charms lesson. She took his words to heart and disappeared to the toilets in tears, only for a Troll to break into the castle and trap her there.

Displaying their Gryffindor courage (and a little stupidity with it), Ron and Harry went to Hermione's rescue and knocked the Troll unconscious. Hermione lied to Professor McGonagall to cover for them and her friendship with Ron and Harry began. As Hermione became less irritating and more useful, Ron started to like her more and more. By their fourth year, he had started to like her rather a lot in fact.

During the 1994-1995 school year, Hogwarts hosted a Yule Ball. Ron, in his usual blunderingly direct manner, told Hermione he wanted to go to the ball with the most attractive girl possible, outraging Hermione. Slightly after this insensitive revelation, he had the most shocking epiphany that Hermione is indeed female, pointing this fact out to her in a less than flattering manner. He suggested almost jokingly that she go to the ball with either he or Harry and didn't believe her when she said she already had a date. When Ron realized Hermione was not only telling the truth about having a date, but that her date was Bulgarian Quidditch star Viktor Krum, he was filled with jealousy. Throughout the ball he acted hostile towards Hermione and Krum (whom he had previously admired) and completely ignored his own date, Padma Patil, in favor of casting surly looks in Hermione's direction. The argument Ron and Hermione had after the ball proved that Hermione understood better than Ron the significance of his reaction to seeing her with Krum. She informed him that the next time there was a ball he should ask her first and not as a last resort if he didn't like the idea of her going with somebody else.

During the 1996-1997 school year, Ron came the closest to actually admitting his feelings for Hermione. He was both happy and pleased with himself when she confided that she had planned on asking him to Professor Slughorn's Christmas Party. This happiness was short-lived, though, ending abruptly when Ron caught his younger sister, Ginny, kissing her boyfriend in a deserted corridor. In the ensuing argument, Ginny belittled Ron for his complete lack of experience where girls were concerned. Always self-conscious, Ron took Ginny's words to heart, and embarked immediately in a purely physical relationship with fellow Gryffindor sixth-year, Lavender Brown.

Ron's impromptu relationship with Lavender, and the extremely public displays of affection it yielded, caused perhaps the biggest fight Hermione and Ron ever had. In her hurt and anger, Hermione sent a flock of conjured canaries to attack Ron. The two then refused to speak to each other, placing Harry in the middle of yet another of their fights. While Ron feigned indifference, pretending Hermione didn't matter to him, it was obvious this was not the case. Hermione, in an attempt to make Ron jealous, went with Cormac McLaggen (Ron's rival for Quidditch Keeper) to Slughorn's party. The stunt worked, though Ron wouldn't admit it, and his relationship with Lavender started to decline.

Ron and Hermione reconciled on Ron's seventeenth birthday, when Ron was inadvertently poisoned by some oak-matured mead intended for Dumbledore. Luckily, Harry was able to force a bezoar down Ron's throat in time to save him, but the near-fatal poisoning caused Hermione to put aside her hard feelings as she waited tearfully by Ron's bedside. For his part, Ron mumbled Hermione's name in his sleep, showing that it was she, and not Lavender, who was on his mind. In addition, he would pretend to be asleep every time Lavender tried to visit him in the hospital wing so he could avoid talking to her. Ron and Lavender broke up not long afterwards, and although Ron and Hermione did not start dating before the end of the school year, it seems obvious that a relationship between the two is inevitable.

Aside from his romantic interests, Ron's a keen Quidditch fan (supporting the Chudley Cannons) but is not as skilled as he would like to be. All of his brothers (with the exception of Percy) were on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, but Ron didn't feel he had much of a chance. Then, in his fifth year, Ron was made a prefect. As a reward, his parents bought him a new Cleansweep 11 broomstick. As he had often complained that his old broomstick, a Shooting Star, was frequently overtaken by passing butterflies, this new broomstick gave Ron fighting chance. Sure enough, that year Ron managed to get on to the Gryffindor team in the position of Keeper. A nervous player, he faired poorly to begin with, his nerves made all the worse by Fred and George's constant teasing. Ron would have quit the team had then-Captain Angelina Johnson allowed it, but she would not. Despite all odds, Ron managed a spectacular performance in his third and final match that season, helping his team win the Quidditch Cup. With that game, Ron proved he could play well as long as he kept his nervousness under control. Ron's biggest problem, both on and off the Quidditch pitch, is his own lacking self-confidence.

In Ron's sixth year, Harry was made Quidditch Captain. Ron returned to the Quidditch team as Keeper, but it should be noted that Hermione helped out by Confunding the only real competition Ron had in the tryouts, Cormac McLaggen. Ron remains unaware of that fact. Getting slightly more confident, Ron fared well as Keeper that year, again helping his team win the coveted Quidditch Cup.

The Weasleys are not a rich family, and so Ron has been hampered by having virtually everything second-hand. The youngest son, Ron came to Hogwarts bearing Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old pet rat, Scabbers (who, of course, wasn't really a rat but the Animagus Peter Pettigrew in disguise). For his first two years of schooling, Ron used his second-hand wand, a serious handicap for a wizard - especially when the wand in question is broken and held together with Spellotape. Admittedly, Ron was guilty of breaking the wand; the damage was the result of a rather nasty encounter with the Whomping Willow after he and Harry flew Mr. Weasley's flying Ford Anglia straight into the violent tree at the start of their second year. Still, with the amount of damage the wand suffered, it's hardly any wonder the Slug Curse Ron intended for Malfoy during their second year rebounded and caused him to burp up slugs for some time afterwards. One can only wonder what detrimental effect this broken wand had on his magic lessons. Regardless, Ron did receive a special reward for Services to the School during the 1992-1993 school year, something none of his brothers had achieved. He was finally given a wand of his own for the start of the 1993-1994 school year. His former wand was ultimately retired after it put Gilderoy Lockhart into the permanent residents ward of St. Mungo's with irreversible amnesia.

It was at the end of the 1993-1994 school year that events led to the unmasking of Scabbers as Pettigrew in disguise. When Sirius Black, a disheveled and emaciated escaped convict, told Ron that the pet he'd known for twelve years was actually a traitorous Animagus in disguise, Ron was understandably less than convinced. However, the explanation given by Black and Remus Lupin in the Shrieking Shack was finally enough to make him hand Scabbers over to them, and Peter's time as Ron's pet was finally at an end. Ron was given a new owl during the summer, ironically by Black, who said it was his fault Ron no longer had a rat. Ginny named the owl (which resembled a feathery, hyperactive tennis ball) Pigwidgeon. Ron hated the name but couldn't get the owl to answer to anything else, and so he was stuck with it - calling the miniscule owl "Pig" for short. At least he ended up with a vastly superior pet to Scabbers, despite his complaints of Pigwidgeon being "rubbish."

During their fourth year at Hogwarts, Ron and Harry had a serious falling out when Harry was named a Hogwarts Champion. Ron was upset at first, but quickly reconciled with Harry after the first Triwizard Task, agreeing to help Harry as best he could with the remaining obstacles. After the rebirth of Voldemort in June 1995, Ron stood by Harry despite the nasty rumors surrounding Harry and the Ministry's attempt to hide the truth. With Hermione, Ron convinced Harry to start a secret Defense Against the Dark Arts Club that was later named Dumbledore's Army (DA for short). When Harry went to the Department of Mysteries at the end of the 1995-1996 school year, Ron was among the group of DA members that went with him. Ron was incapacitated in the ensuing fight; first by a Death Eater's spell, then by a brain that attacked him and had to spend some time in the hospital wing. All through these trials, though, Ron remained loyal to Harry and his friends.

Ron is tall, thin and angular, and a very loyal - if occasionally hot-tempered - friend. He's had major fall-outs with both Harry and Hermione in his time, but has gotten over them on each occasion. He's also fiercely protective of his sister Ginny and desperate for her to get together with Harry. When the two do start dating during Harry and Ron's sixth year, Ron gives his blessing. Since their first year at Hogwarts, Ron has stood by Harry, even when Harry was less-than-receptive. Knowing the prophecy and Harry's plans to find and conquer Voldemort, Ron has decided to continue standing by his friend, no matter what.