Becoming Ron Weasley: Prefect #MNBHP

No one in their right mind would make Ron a prefect  .  .  .”

OotP

When I first read this line, delivered by Fred, I did not disagree. I had thought for sure that Harry would have been made prefect. But he wasn’t. Ron was.

Why would Dumbledore choose Ron? Even if he didn’t want to put the pressure on Harry, there was still Seamus, Dean, and Neville to choose from. But he chose Ron, and I think I know why. Sure, Ron has his faults, but he is the one who went through the trapdoor with Harry and won the battle against McGonagall’s chess set by sacrificing himself. He was the one who ventured into the Chamber of Secrets to fight Voldemort and the Basilisk with Harry. And he will be the one who trumps off to the Ministry to help Harry save Sirius; and who will stick with Harry, for the most part, to find and destroy Horcruxes with little guarantee that he’ll survive the journey.

Ron, if we look past his faults to his heart, is a perfect choice for prefect. He many not be a rule monger like Percy, but are prefects really supposed to be legalistic disciplinarians? Or are they supposed to protect and lead the other students? I think a prefect is supposed to be the latter of the two, and Ron’s proven he’s up for the task.

CHALLENGE

Sometimes we judge people based on their faults—of which we all have a fair few. But what if we got past all the outside baggage and looked to the heart? Perhaps then we would see others as Dumbledore sees them—Ron as a great prefect, Hagrid as someone to be trusted to the highest degree, Lupin as the perfect DADA teacher. Dumbledore may not be in his right mind according to everyone else, but he is in his right heart. And, in that heart, he sees Ron as a prefect.

Perhaps this post should have been titled, Becoming Dumbledore: A person in the right heart if not always in the right mind. The challenge: Look at people’s insides, not their outsides. On what they could be and not what they are. Don’t judge a book by its cover; you could miss the story that will radically change your life for the better.

Next Week: Becoming Remus Lupin: Friend of Strangers