Meh. For Harry, Sirius represented freedom from the Dursleys and, perhaps, a vague link to his parents.

Beyond that, Harry only knew Sirius well enough to say, "Hey, it's that half-crazed innocent guy."

Hard to get too terribly emotional about that, once you're old enough that your shitty relatives don't mean much to you, threat-wise.

I'm sure if Harry, at age six, had been told that the person who could have taken him away from #4 Privet Drive had just karked it, he'd have bawled his eyes out; and, that's without even hearing the person's name.

Frankly, I just can't imagine Harry getting too dewy-eyed over Dumbledore, either. Even in canon, I think Harry thought him to be as much a jailer as a mentor... It was only JKR's strange mental illness that made her think Harry would be block-headed enough to name his son after two of his biggest tormentors.

Or maybe it was a nigh genius-level nod to just how damaged Harry was, that his Stockholm-esque reaction to his trauma is naming his kid Albus Severus.

Ron, on the other hand (even if he was an immature, obstructionist douche, with jealousy issues, who insisted on belittling Harry's other best friend) was much closer to Harry, and one of the only close friends he'd ever had, in his entire life. As such, I believe his death would have had a much more profound effect on Harry than those of Sirius and Dumbledore combined.

Of course, Harry literally attached himself to the first kid his age that he spoke to, who didn't seem like a Dursley. Ron was Harry's friend out of sheer desperation for a companion, so the impact of his death would probably be magnified for Harry, compared to, say, a normal person losing a friend.

 

..."which means that you will have to pay the 4,000 galleon, 300 sickles and 22 knuts debt he incurred with Gringotts."

Griphook explained as he pulled a folder out of his pocket.

"And if you're wondering how, the answer is hookers, hookers, drugs, more hookers, porn, and even more hookers."

Harry finally regained his voice.

"What the fuck."

 

"Fucking Ron could of at least left me his quidditch books. Thoughtless bastard."

 

TBH , the movie makers emphasized H/Hr more than anything else. The chemistry between Radcliffe & Watson was simply too good to pass up . The chemistry between Grint & Watson and Radcliffe & Bonnie was pretty bad.

Amen to that.

 

This is possibly the best thing I have ever read.

 

You should read more.

 

I think it's pretty likely Ron was possibly intended to die in GoF. In each of the major moments of the book, he plays a pretty significant part.

Well, duh, he's the sidekick.

I mean less his presence and more his interaction with Harry. First, leading up to the First Task, we have Ron being a dumbass. Then, leading up to the Second Task, Ron apologizes, Harry forgives Ron, gets him a date, and eventually they reconcile to the point where Harry's Best Friend is what he'd miss the most. Then, in the third and final act, everything's all gone to hell, but it's okay, Harry has his best friends to stand by him-except that Ron gets killed, to finish up the subplot of "Why Ron and the Triwizard Tournament don't get along."

 

Should've been killed in the first book, or second, if you ask me. Then Harry would lose his stupid laziness (which he picked up from Ron), which he didn't have before Hogwarts. Ron dying would have made a big impact on him early in the books.

 

Do we really know how Harry was before Hogwarts? It's fairly common in fanon for him to have done very well at school but then purposely lowered his marks so as not to outperform Dudley, and then for this to carry on in regards to Ron at Hogwarts, but I don't remember anything in the books that would contradict his laziness and mediocre intelligence.

 

The Sorting Hat wanted him in Slytherin due to his "thirst to prove himself", and his ambition. I'd say that counts. He only went into Gryf because 2 people he barely met said "Slytherin = Evil".

 

Pretty much - he did get sort of stupider when he started to hang around with Ron.

Being in Gryffindor, where bravery is favoured over intelligence, didn't help things either.

Then again, if he went into Ravenclaw, for example, there would have been a good chance that he wouldn't of done a lot of the 'heroic' things in the books, that required 'Gryffindor bravery'.

 

Strange as it is to say it, I think having Hermione as a best friend contributed to his problem of academic laziness too; he had a bad habit of relying on her to do all the mental heavy lifting, not to mention copying homework from her instead of doing it himself.

 

I'd love to read a Gryffindor Harry story where Ron dies early in the story (preferably 1st or 2nd year) and starts to realise that he shouldn't be so lazy, nor rely on Hermione either.

 

I think that if you're going to do it that early, the point where he was knocked out by the Queen on McGonagall's chessboard would be the time to do it. Keep the whole ending as it is, but instead of Ron just getting knocked out as Hermione and Harry think, he actually gets a traumatic brain injury that kills him before anyone can stop it.

 

lol Well that'd be fine with me. I don't know any good stories with that plot line though.

 

Perhaps Ron could suffer from a crippling injury, like a memory problem or brain damage, or being unable to walk again?

 

End PS with Ron in a coma, open CoS with a funeral and get a flashback of someone (Weasley's or McGonagall) finding Harry living as a prisoner at the Dursley's. Give's the twin's and Percy an excuse for not noticing that their sister is being possessed.

 

The whole idea that Ron somehow dragged Harry down is just silly to me. There really is nothing in the books that implies that Harry was more studious than Ron. And him being ambitious enough for Slytherin says nothing at all. First of all, Crabbe and Goyle got into Slytherin and their coup in DH shows they had plenty of ambition themselves. Second of all, Harry was ambitious because he wanted to show his worth. It was never said that he wanted to show his worth through his acadamic skills. Making some good friends, being awesome at Quidditch and standing up against evil were his ways of being great. And if anything, Ron helped him with that. If Harry thought his grades were a way to show his worth, he wouldn't have mooched off of Hermione so much.

Furthermore, I seriously doubt Hermione and Harry would have stayed friends if Ron had died so early. Hermione is a very intense person and while Harry would definitely have his moments as well when it came down to Voldemort and brooding, he and Ron generally were much more laid back. It isn't strange that when he spent time alone with just one of his friends, it almost always was Ron. They sort of needed each other to handle Hermione sometimes overbearing personality and that's after she toned it down a bit following the troll incident.

Secondly, Harry and Hermione would have been twelve or thirteen years old if Ron died so early. They would not have been old enough to deal with a death like that and still uphold their friendship. If Hermione had died, Ron and Harry might still have a chance, because they probably would have evaded the subject as much as they could. But there's no way Hermione could have done that and soon enough the only thing Harry and Hermione would remember each other off is the death of their best friend. There's no way such a young friendship could survive that.

So yeah, if you really want a more studious Harry, you'll either have to make him different from the get go or slowly and forcefully change him over time. But being studious just doesn't come natural to Harry and killing off one of his friends won't easily change that. It might make him brood more and maybe learn and practice a couple specific spells, but diving into his books and studies simply isn't his kind of solution.

 

THIS. I love when the H/Hr crowd starts spewing the 'Ron made Harry a stupid jackass' spiel. I mean honestly, Harry was a stupid jackass long before he and Ron met on the train.

"I know some things," [Harry] said. "I can, you know, do maths and stuff."

Case in point.

 

If anything, it was the Dursley's that made Harry lazy and stupid, if he wasn't naturally inclined to be that way. To know that putting any effort in would only result in punishment is bound to make one pretty lazy, and you'd miss out on a lot of development.