Ron Weasley
Throughout his long life, Harry Potter had many friends, but perhaps no one was a better friend to my dad than Ronald Bilius Weasley.
Harry and Ron met on platform 9¾ when they were both eleven years old. Ron quickly became the first and best friend Harry had ever had. My dad always tells me that bumping into the large Weasley clan was the best thing to ever happen to him. On the train that day, my dad bought Ron candy from the trolley, and in return, Ron gave Harry a family.
“Ron and I just clicked,” Dad told me. “I had never really had anyone make me laugh the way Ron did.”
Over the years, many have accused my Uncle Ron of being a “fake” friend, someone who only befriended the boy who lived for fame and popularity, not because he actually cared about him. When I read statements like this, I cannot help but to scoff.
Someone who only wanted fame would not have stolen their father’s car to rescue Harry from an abusive household simply because they had not received a letter. Someone who only wanted popularity would not have stood by him when the entire school believed he was petrifying other students or when the entire school believed he was lying about Voldemort’s return. Someone who only wanted recognition would not have risked his life countless times to assist Harry on dangerous missions, even when Harry begged him not to.
“Ron was ridiculously brave for being so scared. I’ll never forget this one time in second year. We were investigating the Chamber of Secrets. We had snuck into Hagrid’s hut to ask him some questions and he told us to follow the spiders. Ron is absolutely terrified of spiders, but he came along with me anyway. He was always doing stuff like that,” Harry said, “I wouldn’t be alive without him. I mean, I really can’t thank Ron enough for everything he has done for me. When we met, I had no one, and now I’ve got this huge family and tons of friends. I don’t think I would have any of that without Ron,” Harry said, “He let me—this person with a huge reputation--be a part of his family, a family he already felt overlooked in.
I once asked Grandma Weasley how she came to care so deeply for Harry. She told me,
“That first year they were at Hogwarts, Ron and Harry that is, Ron wrote me a letter every week and without fail, every week the name Harry appeared. ‘Harry said this,’ ‘me and Harry went here,’ ‘Harry’s family doesn’t want him home for Christmas,’ ‘Harry and I got detention,’ and other ramblings like that. From those letters, It was immediately clear that Ron loved Harry like a brother, so what could I do besides love Harry like a son.”
Despite already having seven children of their own to care for, the Weasleys took Harry in as one of their own. They invited him over for the holidays, gave him Christmas presents, and helped him through some pretty dark times. They even let him marry their only daughter. On the day of my dad’s wedding to mum, someone asked him if he was ready to be a Weasley. Before my dad could respond, Ron interrupted saying,
“This git has been a Weasley since the day he bought me chocolate frogs on the Hogwarts Express. Really, I think mum likes him more than me.”
So yes, Ron and Harry are not just best friends. They are brothers, and not just through marriage. They were brothers long before mum said I do.
Most of you probably know the basic biography of Ron Weasley. He is the sixth of seven children, he was integral in the defeat of Lord Voldemort, he is married to retired Minister of Magic Hermione Granger, he worked at WWWs, and he, like all the Weasley bunch, has fiery red hair.
While the attributes listed above are quite admirable (especially the red hair), those qualities are not the reasons Harry Potter loved Ron Weasley. Harry loved Ron because he was stubborn; because he was reckless when it came to protecting his friends; because he sometimes let his emotions get the better of him; because he is a sore winner (especially when it comes to Wizard’s chess); because he values love above all else; because he steals food off of his niece’s plate at family dinner, etc., etc... I could go on for hours.
Harry always spoke about Ron with such a sense of pride. If someone would make a remark about one of Ron’s accomplishments, my father would smile and say “that’s my best friend, you know.”
Now, things were not always perfect between the two boys. Harry refused to ever speak ill of Ron, but I have been able to gain some intel into their lesser moments from my uncle.
“We had some pretty bad fights back in Hogwarts,” Ron told me. “Most were my fault. I get that now.”
“Tell me about one,” I said. Ron looked at me. He took a breath.
“I still hate myself for this, Lily. Please…” he struggled to continue, “just try to understand for me.” Ron then launched into the story.
He talked about a huge fight my dad and him had during the year they were on the run trying to take down Voldemort. He talked about how he said some pretty nasty things, things he really didn’t mean. He talked about how he left Harry and Hermione. Mostly, he talked about the guilt. I could tell he really hated what he had done.
“I went back though,” that’s what I keep telling myself. “I went back,” Ron said.
After my conversations with Ron, I went back to my dad and asked him to share a few thoughts.
“Ron still apologizes for that,” he said, “I mean we will be sitting playing a game of chess in silence and he’ll just blurt out ‘you know I’m still sorry.’” Harry took a breath, “I never blamed him though. A lot of people don’t understand how hard it was for us during that year. We were starving, injured, and had no clue what we were doing. We were grasping at straws trying to find those bloody horcruxes and at the same time we are trading off wearing one around our neck. Its influence is screaming at us that we are angry and that our friends hate us and blame us for everything going on. We were only seventeen. It was a lot. I wanted to leave all the time; I probably would have if I had the choice. So, I don’t blame him. Plus, the one time he left doesn’t erase the thousands of times he stayed.”
Ron and my father clearly had some low moments, but those come in every friendship. And the friendships that can survive the low moments, the friendships that persevere through dislike, misunderstanding, and anger, those are undoubtedly real. And you can trust those people to stand by you.
When my mum first found out she was pregnant with me, Harry was away on week one of a three-week auror mission. Ginny was already taking care of two kids under five, training for quidditch, and now she was dealing with extreme bouts of nausea, hormones, and pain (sorry mum). Ron had been stopping by daily to help her out wherever he could. One morning he arrived to find her slouched over the toilet, pregnancy potion on the counter, and two kids screaming in her ear. Ron settled the kids, and then returned to the loo to hold her hair back. He spent the next two weeks by her side. Cooking, cleaning, bringing her to the doctor, watching the kids, etc. My dad couldn’t be there, so he was.
“He was so much like his mother,” Harry said, “Always felt the need to take care of everyone. ‘Have you eaten enough?’; ‘How many hours did you sleep last night?’; ‘When’s the last time you’ve taken a proper shower?’ He would probably hate me saying that he nags like Molly, but it’s true.”
The media loves to paint Ron as a selfish, fame-digging, gold-digging, annoying, cruel man, but Uncle Ron is the best person I know. He was the first person to hold me (and all my siblings) after my parents. He was there at all my graduations (including the ones at muggle schools where he stuck out like a sore thumb). He danced with me at my wedding. He was one of the first people I told of my own pregnancy. He is truly the best uncle a girl could ask for.
I want the world to remember Ron Weasley as a good, brave man who wore his heart on his sleeve.
Hermione Granger wants Ron to be remembered as “An excellent and empathetic wizard. Someone who stood by Harry Potter always and who was necessary in the defeat of Voldemort.”
Harry wants the world to remember Ron Weasley as “The best wizard’s chess player of all time.”
Ron Weasley wants the world to remember him as “Harry Potter’s best friend.”