Gender Male
Hair colour Red
Eye colour Unknown
House Gryffindor
Parentage Pure-blood
Loyalty Dumbledore's Army
Film portrayer Rupert Grint
First appearance Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone

Ronald "Ron" Bilius Weasley (born March 1, 1980) is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of children's books. His two best friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

All characters (except Luna Lovegood) call him "Ron" rather than "Ronald". Ron is the son of Arthur and Molly Weasley, and brother of Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George and Ginny.

Ron's father is the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, but doesn't earn much. Consequently, most of Ron's possessions are second-hand, a fact he is sensitive about.

Ron and Harry meet while Harry is searching for Platform 9 3/4. They share a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, where Ron shows Harry his pet rat Scabbers and Harry shares some sweets with Ron.

Ron likes to play Wizard's Chess and teaches Harry how to play. Ron suffers from arachnophobia from when his brother Fred turned his teddy bear into a spider when he was a small child. He shares his dormitory at Hogwarts with Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Ron's love of — and skill in — chess prove useful when one of the defences guarding the philosopher's stone is a giant Wizard's Chess board. Ron sacrifices himself (he later recovers) to win the game.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron's wand is broken when he crashes his father's flying car into the Whomping Willow. The wand later backfires at crucial moments: first when Ron tries to curse Draco Malfoy for calling Hermione a mudblood, and later when Professor Lockhart tries to use it to modify Ron's and Harry's memories. Ron also faces his fear of spiders when he and Harry encounter a colony of the giant acromantula in the Forbidden Forest.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron's rat Scabbers is revealed to be the animagus Peter Pettigrew. (Sirius sends him an owl as compensation, which his sister Ginny names Pigwidgeon).

For the first time in the series Ron and Harry have a monumental fight in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and dissociate for several weeks. Ron gets a taste of fame after the second task in which he took part because of being Harry's most prized possession.

Ron becomes keeper of the Gryffindor quidditch team in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; though not initially successful, he later overcomes his fear of performing in front of others to secure the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor.

Ron shows jealousy about his friend Hermione, which some argue is a proof that she is his romantic interest. Whether she returns these feelings is debated, but most of the evidence suggests that she does: she has shown jealousy over Ron's interest in Fleur Delacour and seems quite happy to argue with him constantly throughout the books despite their strong friendship, which is seen by many fans as unresolved sexual tension.

Ron in the films

As of 2005, Rupert Grint plays Ron in the three released Harry Potter films and the upcoming Harry Potter movie. Though Ron is no doubt a humorous character in the books, in the films his role seems more geared towards providing comic relief than it is in the novels. This is especially evident in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which features Ron as an archetypical sidekick.

In the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron is even more so the sidekick, serving no purpose past helping Harry on his way. This is partly due to the fact that in the original novel, Ron's role was fairly small, but it should also be noted the film created several gags involving Ron, in contrast to how Harry and Hermione seem to be becoming more "serious" characters.

It is yet to be seen how the director, Mike Newell — new to directing a Harry Potter film — will handle Ron's characterization in the fourth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

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