Ron Weasley: Biography, Loyalty and Secrets

Ron Weasley is the sixth of seven kids, wears hand-me-downs and owns a rat that does nothing. He is still Harry's first friend. The books treat him better than most readers do: he is funny, insecure, loyal and, when it counts, very brave.

Who he is

Harry meets him on the train, when Ron asks to sit down because every other compartment is full (Philosopher's Stone, ch. 6). His family is poor, and he knows it. That weighs on him. He lives in the shadow of five brothers who shone before he did, and he feels nothing he does measures up. He is excellent at wizard's chess and a lot smarter than he thinks.

Key moments

• Philosopher's Stone, ch. 16: on the giant chessboard, Ron sends Harry and Hermione ahead and lets himself be taken so they can win the game.
• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 15: he follows Harry to Aragog's lair despite his terror of spiders.
• Half-Blood Prince, ch. 18: he drinks poisoned mead that was meant for Dumbledore. Harry saves him with a bezoar.
• Deathly Hallows, ch. 15: he abandons Harry and Hermione during the Horcrux hunt, worn down by the locket and his own jealousy.
• Deathly Hallows, ch. 19: he comes back, guided by Dumbledore's Deluminator, and destroys the locket with the Sword of Gryffindor.

Relationships

With Harry it is a friendship that fights and mends. In Goblet of Fire (from ch. 17) Ron turns on him because he thinks Harry entered the Tournament without telling him, and it takes weeks to admit he was wrong. With Hermione there are years of bickering before either says what they feel. Fred and George tease him nonstop, but they look out for him. With Mrs. Weasley, the love is huge and loud.

What almost nobody notices

In Deathly Hallows (ch. 31), Ron comes up with the idea of going down to the Chamber of Secrets for basilisk fangs to destroy Horcruxes. And he is the one who opens the door: he imitates the hissing he heard Harry make, and it works. He never spoke Parseltongue before.

The same book (ch. 19) holds another moment of his. Harry dives into a frozen pool for the Sword of Gryffindor and the locket tries to strangle him. The one who jumps in and hauls him out is Ron. The kid who kept saying he was nothing saves the hero's life.

If you think your courage is quieter than Harry's, take the house quiz. And Regulus Black and Slytherin's Locket: The Forgotten Hero tells where that locket came from.