Ron Weasley is Harry Potter's best friend. They first meet on the train to Hogwarts Academy in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". As befitting best friends, Harry and Ron get into most of their trouble together.
Ron is the second youngest child of Molly and Arthur Weasley. He has five older brothers and one younger sister. His older brothers are Charlie, a dragon-wrangler (who was one of the best Quidditch players at Hogwarts in his day); Bill, who works for Gringotts Bank (Bill was Head Boy while at Hogwarts); Percy, who is first Prefect at Hogwarts, then Head Boy, then graduates to work with Mr. Crouch at the Ministry of Magic; and Fred and George, twins whose only goal in life seems to be getting in trouble and making magical trick toys. Ginny Weasley, Ron's only sister, is a year behind Ron and Harry at Hogwarts.
Ron is a Gryffindor, like all his brothers and sister. He is tall and gangly, has red hair and lots of freckles. As his family is very poor, he usually gets all of the hand-me-downs from his siblings. He had a pet rat, Scabbers, who turned out to be the Animagus Peter Pettigrew, who betrayed Harry's parents to Lord Voldemort.
Ron some times feels insecure, having to live up to all that his brothers have done before him, and even to Harry. During "Goblet of Fire", Harry and Ron have a major difference of opinion where Ron is jealous of all the attention that Harry is getting when he inadvertently becomes a Triwizard Champion.
An interesting character development in "Goblet of Fire" is that Ron develops a bit of an interest in their friend, Hermione Granger. A personal suspicion of mine is that J.K. Rowling will expand on this in later books.
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