Ron was not the Chosen One, neither did he shine bright academically; he does not have the best of inputs to give for situations other than humour or a cutting sarcastic jibe; he won’t be the first you’d call to salvage a situation; but he is also the one who has time and again stood shoulder to shoulder with his friends, helping them when they least expected help to arrive. 

Remember when he totally bowled us all over by his brilliant game of chess in Philosopher’s Stone?

Who would have bloody thought! When they are faced with a chess game as a riddle to move further in, Harry and Hermione were not the people who were in the best form when it came to chess. 

Ron not only helped them get through with his brilliant moves, he was later praised for the same by Dumbledore who called it, “the best-played game of chess that Hogwarts has seen these many years”. He was not the hero who’d be praised for taking a hit for his friend, yet he had the good sense to be the bigger person and save the rest. 

He had a big heart and never once did he fawn over his pureblood as a privilege.

As Harry went about looking for a place to sit on his first train journey, Ron wholeheartedly invited him into his cabin, offering sandwiches his mother had packed for the way. There were no particular ‘type’ that he consciously made a choice to hang out with, he made friends like we do in a new place – by striking random conversations; he went on to fight Malfoy with a broken wand in the Chamber Of Secrets when he viciously called Hermione a ‘Mudblood’. Race, riches, and social standards were not criteria on which Ronald Weasley’s friendships were made.

Ron was the guy who taught us to keep our ego aside. His mistakes were our learning curves too.

All of us, at some point, have envied a friend doing better than us. Ron who’d never enjoyed the limelight accused Harry of putting his own name up for the Triwizard Tournament. He was also quick to apologise when he realised how dangerous the tasks were. The moment Harry returns after collecting the dragon’s egg, we see an apologetic Ron who no longer cares how Harry got into the tournament. 

He was just happy Harry survived. When he temporarily deserts them while hunting for Horcruxes, he comes back saying that Dumbledore left him the deluminator knowing he’d leave. But Harry had an observation too:

“He must’ve always known you’d always want to come back.” 

We’re sure he most definitely did.

Unlike Peter Pettigrew, Ron did not pawn off his soul to make a glorious name for himself.

There’s always a hypothesis, in my head, of what could’ve happened when I look at how both James’ and Harry’s friends turned out. Even with them all being Gryffindors, James’ friend Pettigrew, in his desire to gain a name in the wizarding world betrays his friends, gets them killed and orphans their child. In Ron we see an arch opposite. Ron was the character through whom we, the laymen, could learn about choices and loyalty. There’s a slight repetition of history when Pettigrew cheats James and Lily, whereas Ron finds a way back to Harry and Hermione. 

Ron was the best thing next to a brother that Harry could have.

Harry found a family through Ron. The friendship did not keep itself limited to two individuals, it also made its way into the Weasley household. He’s rescued from his uncle’s house by Ron and his brothers on the flying car during their summer vacation, a risk that could have landed everyone involved in trouble; whenever Molly Weasley sent Christmas pullovers to Hogwarts, there was always one with an ‘H’ woven on it for Harry. 

In fact, throughout the books, Harry seems to have been the only friend who was a consistent visitor. We find complete validation for what Harry had become for the Weasleys when Molly is completely against Harry joining the Order of the Phoenix. When Sirius refutes her rights over Potter, we see a very different Mrs Weasley hiss back, 

“He’s as good as.” 

She dons the complete version of that anger next when she confronts Bellatrix. Through Ron, Harry became family to her.

After having wanted to be in the limelight forever, after having parted ways with them over a spat, he found people he could place above petty things. He was not the larger-than-life protagonist and his falls gave us major life lessons. Every time he made his way back, he gave us hope for being better. Thanks, Ron. You made the world a better place.