Dear Ron,

When Hermione first came to me and asked me to do this letter thing, I thought it was mental and extremely corny, but now that I'm actually about to do it, I'm thinking that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. I mean, maybe I'm better at writing all of my thoughts down instead of saying them to someone's face.

You were my first friend at Hogwarts. Actually, you were my first friend ever. I was fascinated by the fact that your entire family was made up of witches and wizards while I had grown up not knowing a thing about magic. You, along with Hermione were and still are the best friends I could have ever asked for. Your family has almost served as my unofficial one all these years.

I'm not sure if you know it, but you've done so much for me. You've helped to keep me sane, grounded, and laughing. You've driven me to my wit's end on more than one occasion, and I'm sure you can say the same about me, but thankfully our fights have never been permanent.

I know I've dragged you into a lot since we first met and it must have gotten a bit tiresome after a while. Or maybe not. I'm not sure. For me, everything seemed to blur together after a while and it became almost hard to distinguish adventures from real life. Whether you tired of it or not, I'm sorry for all of the trouble I got you into and all of the things I made you do, like following the spiders, which honestly seems pretty low now on the terror scale. Anyway, you were right; it should have been follow the butterflies. You know Hagrid, though; he's not a fan of innocent, pleasant creatures.

You're probably rolling your eyes at my apology, but I had to say it. I don't care if I've apologized fifty thousand times already, I wanted to do it again and I'm most likely going to keep doing it at random intervals until we die, so I'd prepare myself if I were you.

I know the time we spent on the hunt for Horcruxes was not fun for you. 'Not fun' is actually an understatement. I led you and Hermione on a wild goose chase for months and I wanted to thank you for coming with me in the first place. I'm not trying to remind you of when you walked out or anything. Like I've told you before, don't worry about it. I know you feel bad, but I'm just grateful you came back and that you came with me originally. You saved my life and your and Hermione's support really did mean everything to me, even though I tried to convince you not to come.

You know, it kind of seems funny in a way when I think about the year leading up to the final battle and all that we went through compared to our first and second years at Hogwarts. During our first year, our worries were about getting lost, our exams, and saving the stone from a version of Voldemort that had to share a body. That version of him wasn't as terrifying as the Voldemort with his own body with full power.

I think Hermione said something about the point of this letter being to tell each other what we never could, but I think you already know everything you need to know. At least, I hope you do. I could never have done a lot of what I did without you. One example was that chess game under Fluffy's trapdoor. If I had been in charge, we would have most definitely lost. And you sacrificed yourself for us. That helped me realize just how loyal and good of a friend you were. But chess isn't the only thing you're good at. You have a sense of humor that admittedly isn't as direct and obvious as Fred and George's but it's still there and I can't even count how many times you've made me laugh, even if you weren't trying to be funny.

Besides that, you have stuck by me through absolutely everything, which I must say is incredible. I'm sure anyone else would have run away screaming once they found out just how complicated being my friend really was. Thanks for not running away. We both know you had plenty of opportunities to, but you never did and that means a lot. Way more than I can probably ever tell you.

Our first day at Hogwarts seems like a lifetime away now and together we've been through more in eight years than most people go through in a lifetime. While I'm sure we're still going to get on each other's nerves (like now for instance, you're having a row with Hermione about the dish you just broke; I can hear you all the way from where I'm sitting in the other room), I don't think anything can ever really destroy our friendship. It looks like we're stuck with each other, mate.

So, here's to a future that will hopefully be a lot less hectic than the past eight years. I could do with some relaxation, couldn't you? And I don't ever want to see another tent, Horcrux, or, as hard as she tried, one of Hermione's attempts to make plants edible for as long as I live.

All in all, thanks for putting up with me and coming on many crazy journeys with me. I couldn't have gotten through it all without you.

-Harry