Out of All Characters, Why Ron Weasley?
Waking up in an unfamiliar bed wasn’t exactly on Ivan’s bucket list.
He stared into the mirror dumbly before letting out a silent scream in his head. His hair was gingerish red, like unnaturally ginger; he had a boatload of freckles; his eyes were blue; and his pajamas. Oh, goddamn it, those pajamas looked horrible. At least they were comfy. Not a huge plus in his opinion, but it was a plus nonetheless.
It was definitely nighttime, probably around 11pm. If it weren’t for the fact he died like 20 minutes ago, Ivan would’ve thought he was dreaming. For context, Ivan was an average American college student, majoring in computer science, which might as well be useless in this era, and just happened to get shot in a bank robbery. His last regret was not paying off his student debt and coming out of the closet to his family.
He was in his room alone and realized the body he inhabited was none other than Ron Weasley. He looked at himself mentally and wondered about his family. He wondered how his family were to react; he had no friends and not really much to say about himself. He was just a clear, boring guy. He wasn’t particularly close to his family, like his golden child sister, but it was fine. He knew that they’d get over it soon enough, despite all the thinking that they’d care a little bit more about him.
But hey, on the bright side, at least he didn’t have any more acne! Even though he might get them later as this body wasn’t going through puberty just yet. He shuddered just thinking about it. Just as he was about to go to sleep in hopes of dealing with this tomorrow. He suddenly had an idea, he slowly cleared his throat and then spoke in something smaller than a whisper. “Hello.”
He stood silently for a second and then nearly snickered. Oh god, he was so immature. Even something as small as an accent could get him cracking up. But he was slightly grateful for the fact that his voice changed; that means all he had to do was act like the body he had stolen, or not stolen; he wasn’t sure anymore.
He stared in the mirror a little bit longer and then whispered. “Oh god, Oh god no, why did I have to be Ron?” Ron Weasley wasn’t close to being his favorite; he was a character Ivan often overlooked because he was too busy obsessing over the other characters to notice the tall boy with the red hair.
For Ivan, the Harry Potter series was his lifeline; it was an escape from reality; he enjoyed reading much more than socializing; although he wasn’t an introvert, he’d much rather read, which heavily contradicts Ron Weasley’s personality now that he thought about it.
Ivan was now regretting it deeply that he didn’t look up on Ron’s character a little bit more than when he was back in his original body. He sighed and then looked at his frame a little bit longer. Then he could see some things he hadn’t seen before. Although, at this point, Ron wasn’t as lanky as he would’ve been still tall, but not as tall as he would be in a few years.
Ivan sighed quietly as he silently sat on the floor, wondering as to what he should do now. “I can’t breathe in this room.” He thought to himself, grabbing the standard book of spells that lay on the floor. When he looked inside, he was... Mesmerized, he hadn’t even thought of magic until now. He turned on a light and said to himself, “I’ll be fine; I can stop when I feel tired.”
By the time he was finished reading all the books in his room (which wasn’t a lot), it had already gotten to 2:00 AM. “Eh, I’ve slept later.” He said to himself and he continued on re-reading all the books
At 4:00 am, He stretched his arms and went to bed, hoping that tomorrow would be a better day
—-----------------
“RON WEASLEY, WAKE UP! DON’T YOU DARE BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!” Of course, the world seemed to never be on his side as an overly shrill voice woke him up. He was groggy and fell out of bed the moment he heard that scream. Yawning and stretching his arms, he got up and got dressed mechanically. Grabbing all the books in his room, he shoved all of them into a charmed trunk and put his robe and wand in. It was as if he knew what to do immediately; guess college did give him some good instincts.
He went downstairs to smell buttered toast and the sizzling of sausages. The rest of the Weasley family cluttered around getting ready for the school year. “I don’t belong here.” Ron thought to himself as he took a seat and ate breakfast alone.
“Ginny, Harry Potter himself will be on this train, and in the future you will be his bride, so you must make sure to leave a good impression on him, alright?” Molly said, Ron nearly dropped his fork as he looked at her blankly. “The fuck did she just say?” Ron wondered; his jaw was dropped. Did Molly just predict the future?
“I know, I will make sure that he looks at me and falls in love!” Ginerva stated confidently.
“And Ron, you have to be sorted in Gryffindor so you can befriend Harry and get on the same compartment as him, alright? We don’t want him thinking about all that nonsense on how Slytherins can be good; Hagrid’s already got Harry siding with Gryffindors, but I don’t trust that giant to get the job completely done.”
Ron was now sure that this family was completely insane. “Ron, you hear me?” Molly said again, “Oh, oh yeah.” He muttered, unsure of what to say next. Molly gave him a weird stare but said nothing more as she went back to washing the dishes. No one overheard them weird enough; he guessed they were too busy grabbing their items for school.
Ron ate, not bothering to process his food as he started wondering what Molly just said—was everything in the books like planned out by Molly? Wait no, it couldn’t possibly be Molly, then he had the sudden realization. “Is this a fanfic?”
Soon enough, after breakfast, he went back to his room. He grabbed all the other things he’d need and a spare notebook just in case. Because, by his intuition, the world he transmigrated into might not have been the original Harry Potter book. Lastly He grabbed the rat, stuffed the rat into his pocket, and made a mental reminder to get this rat a cage. He didn’t want Peter Pettigrew running around after all
They made it to Kings Cross soon enough, and then as he was about to run on the correct platform. Molly stopped him by putting her hand on his shoulder and glaring at him, and then said in an overly shrill voice once again. “What is the platform number?!”
“Nine and Three Quarters!” Ginny's voice was equally shrill, and Ron went a little pale. It was one thing to read about this moment, but quite another to be there. The second-hand embarrassment was too big for him to comprehend; even the rest of the Weasley family were looking at her as if she were crazy. She told them all to wait to see if anyone were to need help getting on the platform. Which was crazy to think about.
But even after a whole 10 minutes, no one was there to ask them anything. Molly looked around fearfully before sighing. “We better get on the train; you can find Harry’s compartment on your own.”
They went into the platform, and Ron looked at Kings Cross with sparkly eyes. “Wow.” He muttered, The movie underestimated the beauty of this platform by a landslide; everything looked so magical. He nearly pinched himself. The train was massive on it’s own, but it must’ve been charmed to house everyone; it was only right. Families were around, excitedly waving goodbye to their children, and student’s hurriedly got on the train. He was gazing blankly at everything; he unconsciously smiled at the scene.
But the happiness didn’t last long as he saw his siblings rushing onto the train. He looked one last time at the platform and hopped on the train with his luggage. He didn’t have to look long for a compartment until someone poked him on the shoulder.
“H-hi, ca-can I ask you a question?” A boy stuttered. He looked around nervously. “Oh, yeah, go for it.” He said nonchalantly, The boy had short, neat hair, and he looked anxious. “I lost my toad; Trevor is his name. I just wanted to ask if you had seen a toad anywhere." Oh, so this boy was Neville.
Neville was one of the characters he didn’t pay much attention to; Ron respected him, but not much until the later books.
“Not that I know of, sorry.” Ron said. Neville looked at him sadly but perked up when he heard Ron say. “How about this, I’ll help you find your toad Okay?” Neville nodded shyly, and they went around to different compartments, asking if they had seen a toad anywhere. Ron was too ashamed to say that he was only going to help him because he’d need quite the big supporter if he wanted to know more about this now probably unfamiliar world, and Augusta seemed like quite the match.
Soon enough, they reached a compartment and knocked. “You can open the door.” A cold voice answered. Ron opened the door and saw two people sitting in the compartment, but just as he did so. He felt something being penetrated into his mind. He barely had time to react before a voice called out. “What do you want?” An overly pompous voice said.
He looked a little bit closer and saw the blonde boy sitting in the compartment as probably Draco Malfoy, but the second person was someone he didn’t exactly recognize. He might’ve thought he was Crabbe or Goyle, but neither Crabbe nor Goyle was described in the book like that at all.
“Hello, I’m Ron Weasley-”
“Don’t even bother sitting with us. Red hair and a hand me down the robe; you must be a Weasley,” Draco said, eyeing him angrily. Ah, so there was his iconic quote. But honestly, experiencing firsthand made Ron just get slightly frustrated, but he was better than an 11-year-old. So he took a deep breath and held onto the rat in his pocket.
“H-hey, R-ron, I think we should go.” Neville said, holding his arm. It was obvious Neville was scared of Draco. “Being afraid of a blonde ferret is disgraceful; just punch him.” Ron desperately wanted to say, but his survival instincts shut him up.
All he could say was, "It's fine, Neville. Sorry to intrude, but have either of you seen a toad anywhere? Neville’s lost his.” The second boy in the compartment looked at him curiously before saying. "No, we haven't, but how about you two go to the prefect's compartment? One of the prefects can summon that toad to you. ”
Ron looked at him stunned before saying, “Why didn’t I think of that? Thanks! Oh, and, what’s your name?”
“I’m Riddle, Hadrian Riddle; pleasure to meet you, Ron.” The 2nd guy said cooly, and Ron was about to go to the Prefects compartment until he actually processed the name. ‘Hadrian Riddle’ “So it was one of those fanfics, ahhh. Got it.” He processed. Then he and Neville went to the prefect's compartment to accio that toad back into Neville's hands.
Ron took the initiative to say goodbye to Neville and told him that they’d meet up on the boat ride, then he managed to find an empty compartment. He sat down comfortably and then put his trunk in the overhead compartments. Not before taking out some of his spellbooks and his wand.
He ended up spending the entire time practicing spells, and he’s gotten okay; a few spells were done but not perfected. He grabbed his notebook and wrote down to make more reminders to practice spells. Soon enough, it was time to get out of the train and onto the boats.
Hogwarts, here he came