Ron came to my attention through CCF, during some of the exercises I came to assist with. There are students who are natural leaders, able through the power of their natural charisma to persuade other students to follow their instructions. Those students rarely lack for would-be mentors, and are seldom terribly impressed with the adults who choose them.
What I looked for, and found in Ron, was a student who was able to persuade others to follow his lead because of his ideas, because of his strategy and nerve, because of his ability to think a few steps ahead of anyone else.
'Ambition' is a trait strongly identified with Slytherin House, but of course it's found everywhere, and Ron exemplified the sort of ambition we often see in Gryffindors, where they wish to excel in certain skills for their own sake. That is a type of ambition I'd long since come to value.
Ron was also a youngest son whose brothers had been, hmm, let's call them 'shining stars within the walls of Hogwarts,' does that describe it? Two Head Boys, some impressive number of star Quidditch players, and of course the Twins got endless attention with their various shenanigans. When one takes a flower that has only ever grown in a crowded bed, places it in a pot and moves it to a sunny windowsill, it will reward that sort of cultivation with blooms you'll rarely see from a flower that has spent its whole life in a hothouse pot.
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Date: 2015-09-04 04:44 pm (UTC)What I looked for, and found in Ron, was a student who was able to persuade others to follow his lead because of his ideas, because of his strategy and nerve, because of his ability to think a few steps ahead of anyone else.
'Ambition' is a trait strongly identified with Slytherin House, but of course it's found everywhere, and Ron exemplified the sort of ambition we often see in Gryffindors, where they wish to excel in certain skills for their own sake. That is a type of ambition I'd long since come to value.
Ron was also a youngest son whose brothers had been, hmm, let's call them 'shining stars within the walls of Hogwarts,' does that describe it? Two Head Boys, some impressive number of star Quidditch players, and of course the Twins got endless attention with their various shenanigans. When one takes a flower that has only ever grown in a crowded bed, places it in a pot and moves it to a sunny windowsill, it will reward that sort of cultivation with blooms you'll rarely see from a flower that has spent its whole life in a hothouse pot.