The world revolves around Ron Weasley. He is the chaotic spire in which the world is balanced upon.

Not in reality of course, although many teenage girls may damn me for saying so. Oh, and by the way, I've read seen the things you've posted online and you should all be very ashamed of yourselves! I won't subject these people to it, and only say that it involves the male characters in the Harry Potter series, a large tub of baby oil, and gay sex.

But I digress...

THE RON WEASLEY EFFECT

The best way to describe this effect is merely to watch it in action. Let's start with the first Ron Weasley appearance in the first book/movie.

Ron Weasley sits in Harry Potter's cabin, and starts up a nice conversation with him, introducing him to the world of magic further, and by practicing magic, draws the attention of Hermoine Granger, bringing the golden trio together for the first time. Had Ron not been there, Hermoine would have passed by, and do you know who the first person that Harry would meet would be?

Draco Malfoy. Imagine a version of the series where Harry made friends with Draco Malfoy instead of Ron. At that point, Harry was very impressionable, as Ron easily impresses upon him that Slytherin is bad (Slytherin is not that bad of course, not if it has alumni like Snape ^_^). Harry would have most likely joined Slytherin instead of Gryffindor, and the series would have taken a dramatic turn for the tragic. What prevented all this? Ron Weasley.

Although it's certainly not intentional, Ron Weasley is the driving force behind the Harry Potter universe. Every instance of Duex Machina is in fact RonEx Machina, as Ron is more than just a good, helpful friend, but a pawn of the powers that be, which could be anything from God, to fate, to destiny, or to simple unbridled chaos itself.

Now sure, Hermoine helps point the trio in the right direction, and Harry kills the monsters, but the important difference is that Ron does it all by accident. He'll wander into a scene, trip over something, and irrevocably change the fate of the universe.

If Harry never met Ron, then Ron would have never gotten Hermoine upset in the first book, which led her to be out when the troll was on the loose, which led to Harry and Ron fighting it, gaining valuable first hand experience in battle.

If Harry never met Ron, then who would rescue him from being a prisoner in his own home at the beginning of Chamber of Secrets? Even if Harry got a ride some other way, then the car definitely wouldn't have been there to save him in the woods, because Ron would never have stolen it, and he wouldn't have even lived to have his memories obliterated by Lockheart, who only failed because he was using Ron's broken wand! Also, the trip to diagon alley in the beginning wouldn't have involved the misuse of the floo powder, which meant that Harry wouldn't have seen Lucius there with Draco, and wouldn't have been there when Lucius palmed the book into Ginny's things. Let's not forget poor Dobby either. If Harry didn't see the palming of the book, he wouldn't have figured out the part that Lucius played in it, and Dobby would have never been freed...which might be a good thing. He's annoying.

Now, in the the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermoine gets more screen time than Ron, but then again, she wouldn't be friends with Harry if it weren't for Ron, which would have meant no connection to the Time Travel, which would mean the deaths of both Buckbeak and Black. Also, this is the book where we find out the truth about Scabbers...

...RON'S PET! That's right, by PURE CHANCE, Ron just happens to have been keeping the main villain of the movie as a pet for all these years, drawing Harry deeply in to the plot by association. Sirius Black knows this, which draws him closer to Harry as he tries to get to Scabbers. Without Scabbers looming near Harry, which could never have happened without Ron's association with him, thus severing Harry's connection to the subsequent events.

At this point, can we even imagine a series without Ron Weasley? Imagine Neville taking his place, helping in all the necessary ways, but causing none of the random events that Ron's responsible for. That golden trio is just doing their homework every night, passing classes, going to dances and utterly failing to save the world. They can't. They're too far removed from it all.

In book four it doesn't get any better. No Ron means Harry doesn't go to the Quidditch finals, doesn't get his wand stolen, doesn't become involved in any of those events, or give Barty Crutch several of his ideas. Also, no Ron means there's nothing to stop Krum from dating Hermoine and getting arrested for statuatory rape.

Yeah, I know that she just turned 15, and he's like 17 and a half, but I still think the whole Hermoine/Krum thing is creepy, especially in the movie, where she looks 15 and he looks 23. Besides, if she visited him over at "his place" during the summer, he'd be 18 and she'd still be jail-bait. It's like a senior dating a freshman in high school. It just isn't right.

In the fifth book, this swirling child of chaos takes more of a back seat, as Umbridge enforces order. Ron doesn't do as much, and I do blame this on Umbridge, an agent of cold order to counteract Ron's chaos. Ron does give Harry a connection to his father, who subsequently helps him when he's in trouble with the ministry, but this all happens BEFORE Umbridge shows up. As soon as we're in school and we meet the new teacher, the firey spirit of chance is snuffed out, as a smiling, sharp, block of ice in a pink sweater enforces her version of justice. Ron, having no ability to affect the plot, settles on becoming Gryffindor's hero on the Quidditch field, and waits for the next book.

There, Ron resumes his task as fortune's gopher, leading Harry to his brother's joke shop, allowing him to see Draco make off with the large 'mysterious object'. After this, Ron gets tied up pretty well in a giant heaping helping of 'teenage angst' that never fails to get me to turn the page. This angst helps drive Harry from the party at Slughorn's, allowing him to witness Draco being shadier than ever, wandering the corridor alone. Moreso than in the other novels, Harry's connection with Ron, and subsequently the Weasley family, gives him first hand sight into the inner workings of the ministry, and although this was partially prevented by Umbridge in the last book, there's nothing to stop him now!

It only gets worse when Ron accidentally drinks a love potion and has to be brought to Slughorn for help. There, Ron takes the poison that would have otherwise claimed Slughorn's life! No Slughorn=no information on Horcrux's. No information on Horcrux's=no way to stop Voldemort. At this moment, more than any other, Ron has literally saved the entire wizarding world...just by showing up. Just by being there. Just by doing what comes naturally.

Did he do all this on purpose? Of course not! He's Ron Weasly! Unwitting agent of chaos, accidental savior to billions, and the tool in which the invisible powers that govern the fate of the cosmos use each time they need things to go their way!

A single person, a simple brave fool, who's only purpose is to be there and accidentally save everyone, in a way that nobody would ever expect. Fate always intervenes in the Harry Potter universe, and it always intervenes through HIM. That is the Ron Weasley effect. All you need is one lucky fool, doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.

There are many factors that govern the universe: planning, choice, invention, alliances, destruction...but none of them are as powerful, and unpredictable, as chance. The world of wizards, chance has a name, and that name is Ron Weasley.

I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen in the last book, but my money's on Ron falling over, causing Voldemort to trip over him and fall into a bottomless pit. Either that or Harry uses the power of love, or Snape sacrifices himself to save everyone.

I figure Ron's got a 1 in 3 shot. ^_^