So the only bit of this that doesn't scan for me is, if he does feel this way, then why didn't he ask her to the Ball? If he feels that he liked her for herself, etc, and sees this as rejection—I mean, what did he think she was doing? Who did he think she was going with? Was it simply that he had so firmly put her in the "girls that don't" box that he couldn't imagine that anyone else would see her any differently? If he had been successful in asking someone else to the ball, what would he have expected from Hermione then?
And while I can totally see Ron dividing girls into "these and those", does he think that boys only date "those"? My error might be in trying to follow his reasoning to its logical conclusion when that's never what he does; Ron is remarkably unquestioning about things. But it seems to me that if Ron wants to be all, "I like you for you" then he should have asked her in the first place.
But you know, I'm notorious for not letting Ron off the hook; I suppose I'm like Hermione in that way. I feel like the narrative itself lets him off the hook all the time (except for whatever Hermione might have to say) in a way that it never does for Hermione—and certainly Harry is much more likely to call Hermione to task for her actions than Ron.
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So the only bit of this that doesn't scan for me is, if he does feel this way, then why didn't he ask her to the Ball? If he feels that he liked her for herself, etc, and sees this as rejection—I mean, what did he think she was doing? Who did he think she was going with? Was it simply that he had so firmly put her in the "girls that don't" box that he couldn't imagine that anyone else would see her any differently? If he had been successful in asking someone else to the ball, what would he have expected from Hermione then?
And while I can totally see Ron dividing girls into "these and those", does he think that boys only date "those"? My error might be in trying to follow his reasoning to its logical conclusion when that's never what he does; Ron is remarkably unquestioning about things. But it seems to me that if Ron wants to be all, "I like you for you" then he should have asked her in the first place.
But you know, I'm notorious for not letting Ron off the hook; I suppose I'm like Hermione in that way. I feel like the narrative itself lets him off the hook all the time (except for whatever Hermione might have to say) in a way that it never does for Hermione—and certainly Harry is much more likely to call Hermione to task for her actions than Ron.
(hee, a canon reason to use the Ron/Padma icon!)