Seeing as how almost every Harmione devolves into exactly that then no, I don't think it would be hilarious. It would be just another generic H/Hr only instead of Ron the traitor we have Ron the dearly departed.

 

...I wonder if there's a fic out there that has Harry following Hermione's lead, but doesn't have him/the story degenerating in such a way?

That'd be as rare as seeing a non-slash story, with the primary characters being 'Harry P.' and 'Draco M.', right?

 

There are non slash stories with Harry P and Draco M?!?!

 

I am sure there is one out there. Of course it is also probably a story that has 5 awesome chapters and then for unknown reasons the author stopped writing, leaving us to see only the beginning of the one good story with that premise out there.

 

Hey if we're still talking about Ron dying I'd like to point out that at one point in the fourth book he was trapped at the bottom of a lake, defenceless, with only an easily dispelled charm keeping him from drowning and a death eater in the form of Crouch Jr. nearby.
But if we're talking about shipping instead that's cool too. I think Harry likes girls personally.

 

Yeeshk, nvm then. I don't want to revive that.

I am sorry if that brought back any painful memories for anyone. >...>

 

"Easily dispelled?" Where are you pulling this from? IIRC, Dumbledore put all the 'hostages' in an enchanted sleep, obviously with some form of water breathing spell weaved into it. Dumbledore...you know, the most powerful wizard in HP canon wielding the Elder Wand? Stop talking out of your ass please.

 

Doesn't matter if it's a charm casted by wizard Jesus using his own pubic hair as a core, it's still a charm. And charms can be countered with sufficient enough knowledge. While I doubt a simple finite incantatem will work (kinda, I mean you never know), we've got a Death Eater in an incredibly good position to sabotage the event, who's skilled enough to imitate Mad Eye Moody for a year in a teaching job.

I mean come on, the guy created a portkey in the middle of a magical maze supervised by both Dumbledore and the ministry, using the trophy of the tournament Dumbledore was hosting, that he'd entered Harry into despite Dumbledore's protections and you don't think he can get Ron Weasley to drown at the bottom of a lake?

Dumbledore is good but he's not infallible. That much is a vital part of his character. I honestly don't think someone with Crouch Jr's skill would have much trouble getting water into Ron's lungs. The guy is like the reverse of plot armor.

 

Is it a charm? I thought it was an enchantment, which is implied to be much more difficult to cast and probably a lot harder to break as well.

 

First of all, the past-tense of "cast" is, shockingly, still "cast." As far as I am aware, "casted" is not a word. Unless we're talking about a caste system, in which case I'll admit I'm not sure.

Second, I'll point you to the early chapters of DH - specifically, to the part where Scrimgeour belatedly hands over (most of) the items bequeathed by Dumbledore to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Two of those items are the Deluminator and a Snitch, and Scrimgeour flatly states that despite being pored over by everyone at the Ministry for a month (give or take), he and the rest of the Ministry have no idea what those items do or how to make the items reveal their purposes.

TL;DR - If Dumbledore decides to Charm something, odds are it'll stay fucking Charmed.

 

Sorry about the typo, it's 8am and I'm arguing about how easy it is to kill Ron because that's the best kind of sleeping medicine.

As for your second point, I agree, when Dumbledore is in a war time scenario that requires healthy paranoia, knows his spellwork is going to be heavily checked, and doesn't have a psychopathic Death Eater helping supervise his work, he's good at ensuring his shit stays in place.

But come on, Ron's in an awfully precarious position, what with an entire fucking lake filled with magical creatures right on top of his comatose head. Is it seriously such a stretch that somehow, someone kills him that way? Rowling can be sometimes pointlessly vindictive with her deaths, this just seems like a believable time for it.

 

I'd have to agree that, if he really, really wanted to, Crouch probably could have worked out some way of killing off Ron during the Second Task.

The bigger question is, why would he want to? There's no real benefit to his plans in doing so, and killing Ron risks blowing his cover and compromising his much more important objectives.

 

Hallelujah!

Ah, but they weren't trying to get rid of those enchantments/charms, they were trying to figure out what they did without ruining them.

Scrimgeour watched Harry, Ron, and Hermione when he grudgingly handed over the items they were bequeathed, hoping to see if the items reacted in any way. He was desperately hoping the objects might help in the fight against Voldemort; that and being an officious dick are the reasons he didn't hand over the sword, since its value was (for the most part) obvious.

Had they wanted to disable the magic on the snitch and deluminator, it's possible they could have done so. It's also possible they could have determined the purposes of both objects, had they used more aggressive methods that would have destroyed the spells/items in the process.

However, they were probably being extra careful not to 'brick' the artifacts. Scrimgeour was terribly desperate for anything that could help fight Voldemort and, considering what happened to him a single chapter later, he had every reason to be. Accidentally ruining the potentially helpful artifacts Dumbledore was specifically passing down to the only person who had defeated or escaped Voldemort on multiple occasions, and his known wingmen, would not have been an option.

 

Oh God! Why didn't you kill Ron!? Why?! I'd rather have Dobby than Ron!

 

Uh, because it would have been weird having Ron's headstone read, "HERE LIES RON, A FREE ELF".

Duh...

 

"Here lies Ron, a lover of food."

"Here lies Ron, a ginger twat."

"Here lies Ron; he shouldn't have eaten Hermione's cooking."

 

The epilogue would have been a little bit more awkward than it already is.

On the other hand, a true victory for SPEW.

 

As much as I like Ron, I think it would have been very interesting if he had died.
Personally, I think the best time, as has been mentioned repeatedly, is in OotP. Maybe his death replacing that of Sirius?
Alternatively, he could have died of an injury caused by the brains. In canon, they just made him go a bit funny for a while so a more serious consequence may have been better.
I'd love to see a decent fanfic author have a go at re-doing HBP and DH in light of Ron dieing in OotP. Obviously a lot would change, it wouldn't just be the two books minus Ron. For one thing, it would almost certainly result in a H/Hr pairing - I can't see Ginny being too chuffed about Harry having a hand in Ron's death.

 

You don't happen to be a H/Hr shipper, do you? Because there really isn't much of a reason to assume Ginny would blame Harry for Ron's death. She knows Ron chose to go the the MoM himself and she never blamed Harry for Bill's mutilation, George's ear or Fred's death. And, even if she did, not-H/G does not equal H/Hr. If anything, the grief and loss of the big brother hurtle will probably propel the two lovebirds to each other faster than ever.

Either way, Harry's relationship really is one of the least interesting changes that might follow from Ron's death.

 

Didn't we have the "Wouldn't if be interesting if Ron died?" convo a few pages back?