Fanfic / Weasley Girl

"First-years... in the forest..." the icy voice hissed. "And look who it is... how very pleasant to see you here, Harry Potter..."

So many stories have asked the question: "What if Harry Potter was a girl?" Few stories, however, seem to bother with the question "What if Ron Weasley was a girl?" So, just to be contrary, this story will. Everyone else here is going to be their canon genders, but Ron's going to be a girl, and then we'll see how this might change the story.

— Author's intro

Weasley Girl is a Gender Flip Harry Potter Alternate Universe Fic trilogy-in-the-works, written by Hyaroo, the Secret Identity of Troper Roo.

In this Alternate Universe, the second youngest Weasley child was born a girl, and so the first friend Harry Potter makes on the Hogwarts Express is not Ronald "Ron" Weasley, but the decidedly female (if somewhat tomboyish) Veronica "Ronnie" Weasley. She's much like her male counterpart, in that she's an often blunt and insensitive Deadpan Snarker and Quidditch fanatic with a nasty temper, but she has slightly different talents, priorities and hang-ups. The most obvious difference is that she's absolutely rubbish at chess but has a strange affinity with animals.

Thanks to the Weasley dynamic being slightly different (Fred, George and Percy are a lot more overprotective towards Ronnie than they were towards canon Ron) and Ronnie herself making a few different choices, the Butterfly Effect kicks off full-force and things turn out very differently than in canon.

For one thing, since Harry's first meeting with Neville and Hermione turns out very different, he befriends them much more quickly, and as a result the canon trio has become a quartet — nicknamed "Potter's Gang" by a spiteful Snape, who unjustly sees the four as a next-generation version of the Marauders. This leads to Harry and friends having an even worse relationship with Snape in this story than in canon, and this again kicks off a few plot points somewhat early and leaves Harry confronting things he might not be ready for yet.

At the time of writing, the second story in the trilogy has been finished, and is titled Weasley Girl: Secrets of the Past.

The third story, which is being planned, will be called Weasley Girl: War of the Prophecy.

There's also a one-shot prelude about Ronnie's birth, called The Leapling.

In addition, Ronnie appears in the very metafictional story Hermione Granger's Guide to Gender-Flip Fanfiction, where Hermione holds a lecture on Gender Flip stories and uses Ronnie as one of the examples.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: A variant in Secrets of the Past. Ronnie, after having learned about Sherlock Holmes from Colin and Hermione, misremembers the name and at one point when satisfied with herself for having figured something out, likens herself to "that Muggle girl, Shirley Holes!" Since she is talking to Dobby at the time, he ends up calling her "Miss Shirley Holes."
• A Boy and His X: In Secrets of the Past, Ronnie obtains Crookshanks, who serves as her sort-of familiar and companion.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Harry Potter had very many admirable qualities. He was brave, he was resourceful, he was good at thinking on his feet in a crisis, he was one of the most talented broomstick fliers Hogwarts had seen in a century, and he had pretty nice hair."
• Ascended Extra:
  • Colin Creevey in Secrets of the Past gets a larger role than he had in canon. The same fic also features Crookshanks as a semi-major character. Fawkes too is notably more involved in the story than he was in canon, partly because he, like most animals, takes a particular liking to Ronnie.
  • Secrets of the Past also introduces Luna much earlier than in canon; she's a semi-major character in the story and plays a vital part in the plot. By the end of the story, she seems to have become an unofficial auxiliary member of Potter's Gang.
• Ascended Fanboy: Colin, again. He starts as a huge fan of Harry and of "the famous Potter's Gang" in general. By the end of Secrets of the Past he's a part of the Gang himself.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The Weasleys. They bicker a lot, call one another names, tease and prank one another... and ultimately are always there for one another when it really counts.
  • Fred names the trope when Ronnie hugs Hermione to make up for their earlier fight:
    Fred: Aw; look, they wuv each other.
    Ronnie: Shut up, Fred.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The Warning Fangs given to Potter's Gang by Mad-Eye Moody are magically-enhanced fangs to be worn around the neck, and which grow hot whenever danger or potential danger gets too close. Problem is, sometimes the warning comes just a little too late — and even when they do give ample warning they don't give the wearer any clue as to what the danger is, or how serious it is; they'll grow just as hot for annoying pranksters as they will for murderous monsters.
  • Being under the Animal Talk Charm allows you to communicate effortlessly with any animal of your choice. But while you're under the charm, you can only speak the language of that animal, even losing the ability to talk in any human languages.
• Big-Breast Pride: It's only mentioned in passing, but according to Ronnie, Lavender has "driven all her dorm-mates insane with her silly pride over being the first girl in their year who needed a bra".
• Big Brother Instinct: Percy, Fred and George are very protective of their little sister. She doesn't like it, thinking they're treating her like a baby.
• Big Damn Heroes: Happens four times so far:
  • Neville, almost accidentally, saves Harry and Ronnie from their first encounter with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, riding a herd of invisible Thestrals.
  • Harry, Ronnie and Hermione show up just in time to save Neville from the cave troll at Halloween. Played with, as they end up unintentionally dragging him, and themselves, into far worse trouble.
  • Fawkes and Dumbledore come to the rescue when Voldemort assaults Potter's Gang.
  • Potter's Gang, together with Fred, George and Percy (and Crookshanks), show up in the nick of time, with fireworks and fake rooster crows, just in time to save Harry and Ronnie from being eaten by the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
• Big Eater: Ronnie shares this trait with her canon-counterpart, enough that everyone gets worried when she can't bring herself to eat at dinner.
• Blessed with Suck: After Quirrell's first somewhat ham-fisted attempt at killing Harry, trying to arrange an "accident" with potentially lethal potions, Harry, Ronnie, Hermione and Neville all end up completely immune to all potions, elixirs and magical liquids — both harmful ones and beneficial ones. This immunity does mean that Quirrell/Voldemort's attempt at kidnapping Ronnie ends up failing because Potter's Gang are immune to the sleeping potion he smuggled into their food, and later on Harry and Ronnie survive being bit by the basilisk because they're immune to its venom. However, Neville spends much of the summer between first and second year sick and bed-ridden because healing potions have no affect on him, Ronnie suffers from nightmares in Secrets of the Past because she can't take Dreamless Sleep potions... and, though it never really comes to it, Hermione does solemnly point out that if either of them ever got Petrified, the Mandrake potion would not be able to revive them. Quirrell/Voldemort ends up with the same immunity, when it's revealed Snape has managed to recreate the mixture of potions that caused the immunity and managed to give it to Quirrell/Voldemort — meaning that neither unicorn blood nor the Elixir of Life will work on them.
• Brick Joke: In Chapter 9 of Secrets of the Past, Lockhart jokes that his most closely guarded secret is whether or not he's a natural blond. In Chapter 13, when asked if she thinks there's anything strange about Lockhart, Luna's first response is "I don't think that's his natural hair colour."
• The Bus Came Back: After leaving Hogwarts at the end of Weasley Girl, Snape makes a surprise return in the first epilogue of Secrets Of The Past, hinting that he'll come back in a larger role again in War of the Prophecy.
• Canon Immigrant: If you can call it "canon". In Hermione Granger's Guide To Gender-Flip Fanfiction, Ron tells Harry and Hermione of his male-to-female transgender cousin, Jaqueline "Jack" Weasley. In Secrets of the Past, Ronnie and Ginny briefly mention a "cousin Jackie", which the author's notes confirm to be the same character, brought into the Weasley Girl universe.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Like owner, like pet; Crookshanks is almost as snarky as Ronnie. Usually, since he can't talk, he just plays Silent Snarker — but when Ronnie uses the Animal Talk charm to communicate with him, he's far more verbal with his sarcasms.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Hermione tends to say "That's not funny" or otherwise reprimand people when she thinks they joke about things that shouldn't be joked about; a tendency she seems to share with her mother.
  • In Chapter 14 of Secrets of the Past, Ronnie-via-the-narrative comments that "That was so cool!" seems to be turning into Colin's new catchphrase, after he's said it twice in the same chapter.
  • Colin's brother Dennis is only in one scene so far, but he manages to say "I'm Dennis!" five times during that scene.
  • Peter Pettigrew seems rather fond of telling people that "this is all just a terrible misunderstanding."
• Character Tics: Ronnie turns pink when she's embarrassed or uncomfortable about something. This happens roughly once a chapter.
• Chekhov's Gun: A few, some taken from canon and some original to this story. Against all probability, the fifty-pence coin Harry got from the Dursleys for Christmas ends up playing a small but significant part in the confrontation with Voldemort.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • The Lovegoods, of course. Xenophilius and Luna make their first appearance in Secrets of the Past at King's Cross, Xenophilius pulling the trolley instead of pushing it because it's "terrible bad luck to push things around on a Wednesday", Luna riding the trolley and singing the Hogwarts school song instead of saying hello, and both of them wearing incredibly loud purple clothes. Eleven-year-old Luna may, if that's even possible, be slightly weirder than the fourteen-year-old version we're first introduced to in canon.
  • Colin has traces of this, mixed with Constantly Curious, meaning that he asks some of the weirder questions and comes up with some of the more outrageous theories.
• Combat Pragmatist: Mad-Eye Moody encourages students to be this, to use what skills or items they have at hands, and not be afraid of fighting dirty, especially if their lives depend on it. Harry and Hermione use this approach when Quirrell/Voldemort attacks during Christmas dinner and they, lacking any actual combat spells, employ Wingardium Leviosa in order to hurl the turkeys, potatoes and drinking goblets at their adversary. Voldemort calls it a "glorified food fight", but it does slow him down enough for Dumbledore to come to the rescue.
• The Comically Serious:
  • Percy, to an even bigger degree than in canon. He tends to get stuck as the Straight Man whenever Fred and George drag him into a Straight Man And Wiseguy routine (though on a few rare occasions he manages to get in a couple of digs at their expense).
• Constantly Curious: Colin asks a lot of questions.
• Cuddle Bug: Ronnie's very cuddly and big on physical displays of affection. Hermione is most often the one getting hugged, but Harry's a close second.
• Curse Cut Short: Usually, the author doesn't bother to censor swear words, especially when Ronnie is the POV character, but there are a couple of instances.
  • From Secrets of the Past, when Lavender and Parvati are being giggly about Gilderoy Lockhart, to Ronnie's annoyance:
    Ronnie: Why can't you two think with your brains instead of with your pus—
    Percy: Ronnie, if you finish that sentence, I'm taking twenty points off Gryffindor!
  • Also, from an unidentified Gryffindor, during the big Muggle argument:
    "If you love Muggles so much, why don't you just go and f—"
• Deadpan Snarker: Ronnie, like Ron, can get very sarcastic at times.
  Malfoy: You are going to pay for that, Potter. You and your little gang. Especially those two ugly girlfriends of yours.
  Ronnie: What are you going to do, hide behind Crabbe and Goyle and try to sneer us to death?
  [...]
  George: One day, you'll look back on this and realize that your time with us was the happiest time of your life.
  Ronnie: Only if the rest of my life consists of being tortured by vicious hags.
  [...]
  Dumbledore: Love is a very powerful force. It goes beyond any magic, and far beyond Voldemort's comprehension. You see, Voldemort loves and trusts no-one but himself. If he had known the true meaning of love, of sacrifice, he would not have been the Dark Lord he is.
  Ronnie: Great, just great. So the next time we meet a Dark Lord we should just start snogging.
  [...]
  Dudley: What are you doing here? We don't like freaks in this house!
  Ronnie: Self-loathers, are you?
  [...]
  Molly: You take good care of yourself now. Mind your brothers, look after your sister, and please, don't go rushing off into trouble this year.
  Ronnie: You mean I should cancel my plans to wrestle trolls in the Forbidden Forest on Saturdays?
• Demoted to Extra: Having been Put on a Bus at the end of the first story, Snape is almost entirely absent from Secrets of the Past. He only shows up for a brief cameo towards the end.
• Deuteragonist:
  • Ronnie in the first Weasley Girl story, with Harry as The Protagonist. Just as in canon, the story is told from Harry's point of view, and the plot largely centers around him — but Ronnie is by far the most important supporting character; she gets more attention and dialogue than any other non-Harry character, she kicks off a number of plot threads, and her skills with animals is vital to the story.
  • In Secrets of the Past, Ronnie has moved up to Protagonist status, with Harry now playing the Deuteragonist: while this story is told from Ronnie's point of view and she is more important to the plot overall, Harry still plays a central role and of course gets more in-universe attention from friends and foes alike.
• Dirty Kid: It doesn't really move beyond talk, but puberty has definitely hit Lavender in Secrets of the Past. She's not only crushing on Lockhart like so many of the other students, she's openly ogling handsome boys, delights in using innuendoes and is very open about how she thinks Guy on Guy Is Hot.
• Disney Death: Fawkes is hit by a Killing Curse, but thanks to being a phoenix, it just triggers his rebirth. Harry, not knowing this details about phoenixes, thinks Fawkes has died.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Harry's reason for not telling anyone the details of his life with the Dursleys; he doesn't think he could stand the pity.
• Dope Slap: George gives one to Fred, after Fred accidentally and in a roundabout way reveals to Snape that they have several secret illegal joke items stashed around Hogwarts.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Thestrals, Cedric Diggory, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Fawkes and the entire Weasley family (except Bill) all make on-screen appearances, in larger or smaller roles, before Harry has even finished his first term at Hogwarts. Bellatrix, still in Azkaban, makes a very small cameo towards the end of Secrets of the Past.
• The Eeyore: Mild case, but Neville is the biggest pessimist in Potter's Gang. If any of them dreads the future or makes gloomy predictions, it's him.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Ronnie really doesn't like her middle name and doesn't want anyone to know what it is. It's Muriel.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Crookshanks, of the cat variant as in canon. He likes all the Weasleys, but takes an instant dislike to the Malfoys.
• Fantastic Racism: As with canon, wizards towards Muggles — but it gets taken up a level. After the gritty details of Harry's mistreatment at the hands of his Muggle relatives comes to light, the Wizarding World — thanks to a xenophobic sensationalized article by Rita Skeeter — starts letting out some rather severe anti-Muggle sentiment. Heck, an unnamed wizard accosts Hermione's parents just because they happen to be there and has the gall to blame them for Harry's circumstances, even patronizing Hermione when she tries to defend them. Ronnie, and all the Weasleys for that matter, are understandably peeved by this attitude.
• Fiery Redhead: Ronnie, of course — and, as in canon, most of the other Weasleys are also this to varying degrees.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse:
  • Hagrid, of all people, furiously calls Snape out for going on a rant about his miserable home life and being a jerk to Harry.
    Hagrid: All right, that's enough! This is my house! I let yeh stay here ter rest, I made yeh supper an' breakfast, an' I don't even mind that I never heard a word o' thanks, but yeh don't talk ter Harry like that while yer under my roof! An' I've bin makin' excuses fer yeh all year, too —!
    Snape: I don't recall asking you to do that.
    Hagrid: Cuttin' yeh some slack here, cause yer still sick, an' yeh've bin with You-Know-Who, an workin' against 'im, mighty brave o' yeh an' all that, yer a true hero, but GROW UP! Yeh had a rotten life? Well, guess what, other people had rotten lives too, an' they don't go around sneerin' at everyone! NOW SHUT UP AN' EAT YER RUDDY EGGS!
  • The same goes for Peter Pettigrew in the sequel, when he tries to defend his actions by pointing out what a horrible situation he was in, how bigger and badder people forced his hand, how he was too weak to resist. He paints a pretty bleak picture of his own life, only to have it come crashing down on him with one question from Harry:
    Harry: What about the twelve Muggles?
    Peter: Wh-what?
    Harry: The twelve Muggles you killed when faking your own death.
    Peter: They were just Muggles...
    [pause]
    Harry: And to think I was actually starting to feel sorry for you.
• Friend to All Living Things: Though hardly the epitome of sweetness and light often associated with this trope, Ronnie loves animals — and the majority of animals, in turn, love her. It's revealed that she takes after Charlie, who has the same ability to charm almost any animal he meets.
  • This turns out not to only be a blessing, as some of the animals who love her are scary — and when Voldemort finds out that she can tame the vicious three-headed dog guarding the Philosopher's Stone, he begins targeting her.
  • The author was actually quite clever about this — according to the author's notes, this is a form of Flanderisation to turn a minor running gag from the books (that animals actually seem to like Ron quite a bit, with Fang always licking him and the like) into a character trait that helped distinguish Ronnie from canon Ron (in turn, she's been made to be rubbish at chess in order to compensate for her increased talent there, among other things).
• Fluffy Tamer: Ronnie and Charlie both have this ability, as a perk to being a Friend to All Living Things.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble:
  • Potter's Gang is made up of two boys (Harry and Neville) and two girls (Ronnie and Hermione).
  • In Secrets of the Past, the Gang grows a little with the addition of Ginny and Colin, meaning that now it consists of three boys and three girls. Though towards the end of it, Luna seems to take on a sort of Sixth Ranger role, meaning that the girls outnumber the boys.
• Gender Flip: The entire point of the fic was to do a Gender Flip for Ron rather than Harry.
• Gen Fic: Sort of. The author has not ruled out the possibility of romance, but it's not the focus of the story — Character Development, friendship and narrative are the utmost priorities.
• Get Out!: Percy does a polite version when Petunia is doing a rant at the Burrow after Harry is rescued by Ronnie and Ginny.
• The Ghost: Remus Lupin in Secrets of the Past. He is discussed a number of times, and he directly influences the plot both through the letters he sends Harry and the off-screen conversation he has with Dumbledore where he admits that Wormtail was an animagus — but he never appears in person. Sirius narrowly averts the trope; while he is the subject of many discussions and his backstory is presented, he only appears in the last epilogue when Dumbledore, Fudge and Kingsley visit Azkaban to set him free.
• Groin Attack: Ronnie repeatedly threatens to do this, particularly to Malfoy. During Mad-Eye Moody's Defense lesson, she mentions it as an alternate way to deal with Dark wizards. In Secrets of the Past, it's revealed that she's never actually done it to anyone — though in that story, she does get to do it for the first time ever, her victim being Vernon Dursley. She does it again later on to a creepy wizard in Knockturn Alley.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Towards the climax of Weasley Girl, Fawkes shows up to stop Quirrell from dragging off an Imperiused Ronnie, as well as return Harry's Invisibility Cloak to him, but gets hit by a Killing Curse. Luckily, since he's a phoenix, it doesn't stick, though it does put him out of commission for the rest of the fight.
• Huge Schoolgirl: Ronnie is as tall as canon Ron, making her this. She doesn't seem to mind too much, though she doesn't appreciate being called "Beanstalk" either.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Ronnie tries this tactic with Lucius Malfoy about Riddle's diary, but it doesn't quite work since he immediately provides fairly plausible reasons for why he "jumped to conclusions".
• In-Series Nickname:
  • "Potter's Gang" for Harry, Ronnie, Neville and Hermione. Coined by Snape, who meant it as an insult, but it caught on with the Hogwarts students (and the narration) who kept it.
  • The Terrible Trio of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle get a much-less-used collective nickname, "The Trolls". Tends to be used mostly by Ronnie.
• Irrational Hatred: Petunia's attitude towards Harry and magic in general which borders on Insane Troll Logic.
• It's All About Me: Professor Binns has a moment like this in Secrets of the Past when all the other ghosts apart from him and Moaning Myrtle have been Petrified. His only reaction is to complain how selfish they all were to be Petrified without considering that he might need to consult any of them for his history lessons.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Snape is a terrible teacher who plays favourite and bullies students he doesn't like, but he did risk his life to resist Voldemort, is forced to reveal himself as Dumbledore's spy in the process, and almost dies for his efforts. However, when Harry tries to thank him for this, and even apologise for his (justified) dislike against the Potions professor, Snape accuses him for lying and continues to be a surly grump who refuses to let go of his bitterness.
• Keet: Colin, as in canon, though after his camera is destroyed he does seem to calm down a little.
• Kid Detective: Ronnie (and to a lesser extent Harry and the rest of Potter's Gang) tries to be this in Secrets of the Past, though while some of her deductions are spot-on, just as often she's completely wrong.
• The Killjoy: Hermione, to some extent. It's a mild case, but she is by far the one most frequently annoyed by the other members' shenanigans, she says "that's not funny!" so often it's become her in-series Character Catchphrase, and she tends to play spoilsport when the others get carried away with something.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Mad-Eye Moody mentions "glazed, milky eyes" as one of the symptoms of a poorly- or hastily-cast Imperius curse. When Ronnie is placed under the Imperius by Quirrell, her eyes are described as glazed and blankly staring.
• Mistaken for Gay: A rather spectacular jump to the wrong conclusions in Secrets of the Past leads Ronnie to think that Gilderoy Lockhart and Wormtail are gay lovers. Later on, she speculates whether James Potter and Sirius Black were lovers, causing Harry to ask why she's so obsessed with gay people.
  "I'm not obsessed! Occasionally wondering if someone might be gay is not obsessed!"
  • Of course, the same fic does heavily hint (and the author confirms) that Ronnie is in fact gay herself, and just hasn't realized this yet... so this might have something to do with it.
• Motor Mouth: Colin can talk anyone's ear off if given the chance. The second epilogue to Secrets of the Past reveals that his brother Dennis is even worse.
• Mythology Gag: While the fic is very plainly based on the books, a few sly references to the movies do make it in:
  • At one point, Ronnie misremembers Ravenclaw's house mascot as a raven, whereupon Hermione points out that it's an eagle. In the movies, Ravenclaw's house animal is indeed a raven.
  • When Potter's Gang learn about Animagi, they spend a few moments speculating what animals they might turn into. Ginny insists that she'd be a horse, but doesn't give any reasons why she thinks so. This is in fact a reference to the movies, where her Patronus takes the form of a horse.
• Not His Sled: Following Snape's resignation at the end of the first story, it's pretty damn obvious to the readers that Horace Slughorn will be his replacement. Nope! The new Potions Master turns out to be Nicholas Flamel who, thanks to changed events, has elected to not die yet and continue assisting Dumbledore for a while longer.
• Oblivious to Love: Downplayed; Harry isn't aware of Ginny's crush on him at first, but once Ronnie mentions it at Christmas he knows it's there... but given his aversion to fame and special treatment, he's baffled by how badly it affects her when he's in proximity (or praising her). For her part, Ronnie's relatively patient with him despite her temper, but she's completely exasperated by her little sister's Hero-Worshipper traits and hopes that she'll eventually start talking to Harry more normally.
• Once an Episode: Every single chapter has one scene where Ronnie turns pink from embarrassment. She even Lampshades it in Hermione Granger's Guide to Gender-Flip Fanfiction, calling it a "stupid running gag." In Secrets of the Past every single chapter also has at least one scene of her not wanting to think about the Imperius curse — though she stops doing this after she's had a heart-to-heart with Neville about it in Chapter 15 (which is even titled "All Right, Let's Talk About the Imperius".)
• One Dose Fits All: Discussed and averted.
  • Ginny, who is the youngest and smallest person present, is the one hardest affected by the sleeping potion the Hogwarts Christmas dinner was spiked with. Even when everyone else has been revived, Ginny remains half-asleep and drowsy for quite some time. Until she realizes that she kissed Harry in her sleepy stupor.
  • Meanwhile, Hagrid, who wasn't at the Christmas dinner because of happenings in the Forbidden Forest later muses that Voldemort might have specifically tried to arrange for him to be busy in the Forest, so he'd be out of the way — because Hagrid is so big and strong that the sleeping potion wouldn't have taken him out like it did the others.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Neville Longbottom gets angry and begins delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, you know someone's stepped over the line.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Nobody except Luna calls Ronnie "Veronica".
  • As it turns out, Crookshanks tells Ronnie that "Crookshanks" is just a nickname, and his real name is actually "Meow". Because that was what his mother called him.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Harry and Ronnie have shades of this — in the first fic, it is noted that while Harry's glad to have a close male friend in Neville (as boys of his age tend to do), he feels closest to Ronnie despite their differences. Given that she still shares many traits with Ron (like his sense of humor), which are what drew them together so closely, this is unsurprising. Despite a couple of Ship Tease moments, and both of them admit to having had at least one "I wonder if..." moment, by the end of Secrets of the Past it's pretty clear that their love for one another is purely platonic a and nothing romantic will come of it. The ship is definitely sunk by Ronnie's reluctant discovery that she likes girls and not boys.
• The Power of Friendship: In full force. After leaving Quirrell's body, the ghostly Voldemort tries a last, desperate attack on Harry, but fails because Ronnie, Hermione and Neville shield their friend. In Secrets of the Past, Harry specifically mentions The Power of Friendship to the resurrected Tom Riddle, who not surprisingly completely rejects the idea.
• Plucky Comic Relief:
  • Fred and George, pretty consistently with their canon roles. They make some minor contributions to the plots, but their main roles is mainly to relieve tension with a lot of jokes and Seinfeldian Conversations.
  • In Secrets of the Past, Colin pretty quickly settles into this role within Potter's Gang, being the source of a lot of outrageous ideas and comments.
  • Luna's a borderline example. Her scenes tend to be played for laughs, but unlike Fred, George and Colin, none of her appearances are just about the comedy. Since she's not in the same house as the others, she tends to only show up in order to further the plot in some way.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Ronnie swears a bit, though in the first story (which is from Harry's POV and has notably milder language), she doesn't use any stronger words than "arse". At least until very late in the story, when she lets loose a spectacular F-bomb just after Harry manages to snap her out of the Imperius curse Quirrell put her under: "I'LL KILL THAT FUCKING BASTARD!"
  • A Precision B-Strike comes from Moaning Myrtle to Ginny in Secrets of the Past, when Ginny tries faking sympathy in order to get information about the Petrifications. "YOU MANIPULATIVE LITTLE BITCH! Trying to trick me, are you? Pour on the fake sympathy, and fool stupid Myrtle into doing anything you want! IS THAT IT?!"
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • After a disastrous first Potions lesson, Hermione writes a "The Reason Snape Sucks" letter to Dumbledore. Which, at first, doesn't seem to accomplish anything apart from escalating Snape's hatred for Potter's Gang. Turns out he really got into trouble with the other teachers over the letter.
  • Dumbledore delivers one to Voldemort when they confront one another, calling into question the latter's ham-fisted methods and pointing out that he used to be more subtle.
  • After he reveals that he's leaving Hogwarts, Snape delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Harry, in which he chides Harry's tendency to jump to conclusions and thinking he knows more than he actually does.
    • This directly leads to Snape getting another "The Reason You Suck" Speech, by Hagrid, of all people — though Hagrid does later on tell Harry that he doesn't think Snape is a bad person, just consumed by his own bitterness.
  • Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon both deliver one, on separate occasions, to Harry and the Weasleys about wizard-kind in general, though Petunia's is the more passionate and ranty one.
  • To everyone's surprise, Neville delivers a very short, but angry one to a common room full of Gryffindors in Secrets of the Past when a fight breaks out at an extremely inopportune moment and several Gryffindors (no doubt influenced by the above-mentioned xenophobic Rita Skeeter article) have displayed some disturbing anti-Muggle sentiments. He manages to stun the entire room into silence because Neville Longbottom does not get angry and yell at people.
• Rejected Apology: When Harry learns that Snape has been working against Voldemort the entire time and that his actions may have saved the lives of Potter's Gang, he feels bad for thinking so ill of the man and seeks to apologize. Snape refuses to believe the apology is sincere and launches into the above-mentioned "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Colin Creevey, "to whom sarcasm was just a seven-letter word".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Snape resigns from Hogwarts after having blown his cover with Voldemort, citing that he can "no longer be of use to Dumbledore". Word of God is that we haven't seen the last of this character in the story, though.
  • Draco Malfoy's first meeting with Luna Lovegood ended up with him getting weirded out and leaving without managing to intimidate Potter's gang.
• Shipper on Deck: Played with; Ronnie hasn't shown any signs of disliking her sister's crush on Harry, but it's more because she wants her to be able to speak to him properly rather than a shipping inclination.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Ronnie. According to the author, one reason why Secrets of the Past is rated T rather than the K+ of the first story is that much of it is from Ronnie's POV, and "the girl likes to swear".
• Ship Tease:
  • Ronnie/Neville has been getting a few hints since Year 1, with Neville showing the makings of a crush on the girl who tries to help him learn to fly. On Ronnie's end, Neville is "suddenly a calming presence" in Chapter 6 of SOTP, when she's panicking over Riddle's diary going missing.
  • Harry/Ronnie gets a clear-cut one when Harry buys Crookshanks for her, justifying it as a Christmas present when he sees how badly she wants him (she's a little embarrassed afterwards). Also qualifies as a Friendship Moment.
  • Ronnie and Hermione are very affectionate towards each others, in no small part due to the boys not being big on PDA. Ronnie grabs Hermione and starts spinning/dancing with her in sheer exhilaration after they hear that Snape has resigned.
  • And of course, Harry/Ginny on the latter's end.
• Shout-Out:
  • Dean Thomas makes a few to Superman, Star Wars and Monty Python, but his jokes tend to go over the heads of the wizarding-raised kids.
    Dean: I need more Muggle-born friends.
  • Hermione name-drops The Beano and Bunty when the conversation briefly touches on comic books.
  • It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference (in Secrets of the Past Chapter 4) but apparently Hermione's father used to play "some dungeon-centered game" when he was younger, which gave him a couple of misconceptions about magic.
  • Hermione also alludes to The Worst Witch at one point, mentioning that her father used to read the books to her when she was little.
  • As mentioned above, in Secrets of the Past, Hermione and Colin mention Sherlock Holmes to the rest of Potter's Gang, and Ronnie later misremembers the name as "Shirley Holes".
  • In Secrets of the Past, Ronnie at one point comes over a book entitled SILENT SPELLS — Learn Non-Verbal Magic in Three Easy Lessons and Eighteen Hard Lessons.
  • Crookshanks, when Ronnie uses the Animal Talk charm to understand what he says, turns out to have a pronounced London accent closely modeled on that of the Artful Dodger. More precisely, the author claims that his dialogue is heavily inspired by Luke O'Loughlin's portrayal of the character, from the TV series Escape of the Artful Dodger. Crookshanks even calls Ronnie "Princess" the way the Dodger does with Hannah in that series.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Ronnie and Draco Malfoy engage in this from time to time, though frequently one of them manages to hit a nerve so that the other one is incapable of responding with anything other than "shut up" — or "you'll pay for that" threats (in Malfoy's case) or threats of/attempts at violence (in Ronnie's case).
• Speaks Fluent Animal:
  • In Secrets Of The Past, Potter's Gang discover Animaloqui, the Animal Talk Charm, which allows you to communicate with any animal of your choice. The Animal Talk trope is subverted and complicated in that for as long s you're under the Charm, you can only speak the language of that particular animal and even lose the ability to talk to fellow humans.
  • The trope is discussed at one point, when Parseltongue is brought up and Colin wonders if all the Founders could talk to their house's respective animal.
• Straight Gay: Ronnie. For all her tomboyish qualities, nobody (including Ronnie herself) initially suspected that she was gay. Then she noticed just how pretty Luna looked when she smiled...
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: To a much bigger extent than in canon, Percy and the twins have this dynamic, with Percy frequently playing the Straight Man to Fred and George's collective Wise Guy.
• Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard:
  • Hermione's reaction to Fred and George's theory on students vs. teachers.
  • Later on, Ronnie has the same reaction to Dumbledore's claims about The Power of Friendship and The Power of Love.
  • In Secrets of the Past, Cormac McLaggen says it about Tom Riddle's diary.
• Suddenly Sober: A sleeping potion variant. Ginny is still groggy and half asleep after recovering from a sleeping potion. In her sleepy stupor, and overcome with gratitude for Harry because he saved Ronnie from Voldemort, she repeatedly kisses him — and then, it dawns on her what she's doing and she is immediately wide awake and completely mortified.
  Ginny suddenly looked a lot more awake. As only now realising what she was doing, she let go of him, her face the color of a tomato.
  "Are you okay?" said Harry carefully.
  "Squeak!" said Ginny. And then ran to hide under the table.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: As you might expect from a girl with five older brothers, Ronnie is pretty tomboyish; she's brash, physical, Quidditch-obsessed, temperamental and an occasionally insensitive Deadpan Snarker who really likes to swear, much like her canon male counterpart. However, she's also rather cuddly and is almost always the one initializing hugs between Potter's Gang, she coos and fawns over animals (who adore her in return), she wears pink pajamas (which are said to clash horribly with her hair) and judging by her vision in the Mirror of Erised, she wouldn't mind being prettier, and if Fred and George are to be believed, she also used to hold tea parties for her dolls when she was younger. At one point, she claims she wishes she was a boy — though it's more because she's tired of Percy, Fred and George being overprotective than of any actual dislike of traditionally girly things, and she changes her mind when she realizes that boys her age (at least Harry and Neville) are awkward about hugging and showing affection in public.
• Tongue-Tied: Ginny, when Harry gives her any amount of attention, is unable to say anything but "Squeak!" She's got over it by the end of Secrets of the Past, and is even able to give Harry a hug without squeaking.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • While they bicker significantly less than canon Ron and Hermione, Ronnie and Hermione deliver these to one another on several occasions.
    Hermione: Where do you keep your brains, Veronica Weasley? Because wherever they are, they're obviously not in your head!
    [...]
    Ronnie: How can someone be so smart and so stupid at the same time?
  • Moaning Myrtle chews Ginny out after Ginny has made a fairly blatant attempt at sucking up to the ghost in order to get her to cooperate.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Hinted at in Secrets of the Past, when Ronnie overhears Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel talking:
  Dumbledore: I am glad you and Penerelle decided to remain among the living for a while longer. Your advice has always helped me greatly... and I do think that, with Voldemort still out there, the world might still need you.
  Flamel: The world will always need us. Always there will be some new catastrophe, some new evil to be defeated, some new problem that needs to be solved. When will it end? When are we allowed to rest?
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Thanks to differing clues, an unfortunately-timed joke from George, and a misunderstanding, Harry spends a couple of chapters thinking that Fluffy is in fact guarding the Resurrection Stone, and that he might use that to call his parents back to life.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Hermione gives one of these to Neville, combined with Don't Say Such Stupid Things!, when he laments his bad memory. She insists that Neville has a good memory, and to demonstrate she has him give examples of his encyclopedic knowledge of plants.
  Neville: But that's just plants, that's easy. It's not like it's anything import—
  Hermione: Don't you dare say it's not important! When Lavender is revived from her Petrification thanks to Mandrakes, you can ask her how important she thinks plants are!

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