Title: In the Shadow of a Hero
Author name: Kelly Green
Author e-mail: kharris@stoneridge.org
Category: The Dark Arts
Keywords: Ron, Harry, sidekick, hero
Rating: PG
Spoilers: all the books
Summary: When you're lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, everything seems different.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Note: To my friends, who really have more shadow than they know. Read and Review. Enjoy.
Ron lay in bed, staring blankly at the stone ceiling, waiting for slumber. He thought about many things. Many, many things. And at night everything seems different.
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I suppose it is my fault, anyway. I befriended him, not him me. Stupid, really. I came to Hogwarts hoping, wishing to be recognized for me, not for Charlie or Bill or Percy or Fred and George, but for me. And then, idiot that I am, I go and make friends with Harry Potter, who will overshadow me more than my brothers all put together. Idiot, that's me. After all, I'm not some genius, like Hermione. Oh yes, of course. Not that it's bad enough that I'm living in the shadow of five brothers and Harry Potter, I have to go and be friends with Hermione Granger, genius extraordinaire. Ha. You'd think I'd learn, wouldn't you? No. But no, no, silly of you to think that. Ron's only good for chess and wisecracks. And to stick by your side and screw things up, of course.
So many shadows, you'd think all my freckles would be quite gone. No. I have to live with my red hair and frayed robes and freckles and those damned shadows. And I'm not even that great a person. Perfect Hermione is the top of our class, yet I'm barely scraping by. Harry may not be top of the class, but he's a good person. Damn. He's a damn hero. And Perfect Harry saw his parents in the mirror. He saw his family. Just perfect, yes? So sweet. So nice. And what did Sidekick Ron do? Ha. He saw himself. With the House Cup. Captain of the Quidditch team. Both things Ronnie's best friend gets. Or will get. Ha. Ironic. Irony, the bane of my life. And I'm just a selfish little prig standing next to Hermione Granger (who'll graduate top of the class and go on to invent…. Self spelling wands or something like that), and Harry Potter (who will defeat You-Know-Who and save the world, that savior, that picture of a hero, that good guy, best person I know).
Damn, life sucks. At least mine does. I can't do anything right, really. I could be good at Quidditch, but wait! Harry's the youngest seeker in a century, that's taken. Or I could be smart. Wait! Hermione's the top of our class, always getting over one hundred. Perhaps I could be a hero. Wait! Harry's taken that post as well. Brave? Nuh uh. Taken by everyone else in this house. Honorable? A good person? Way past those. So what impact will I make, besides being Harry's best friend, the sidekick boy. That's me. The sidekick boy. Oh, the irony. All my life I dreamed of being the hero. I scoffed at the hero's sidekick. And here I am, the very person I scoffed. Ron Weasley, Shadow Boy.