Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches: Lessons from Ron's Wooing of Hermione

On Ron's seventeenth birthday he received the book Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Ron was obviously impressed with the book; he gave a copy of it to Harry on Harry's 17th birthday five months later. This presentation speculates – humorously – about what Ron might have learned from the book by comparing his behavior before and after he read it. Ron seems to have learned such classic fail-safe charms as listening, complimenting, flirting, faithfulness, and being a shoulder to cry on. A book that can get those lessons through to a 17 year-old boy is "pure gold" indeed. If it worked for Ron, maybe it would work for some of us other clueless males as well.