The very first question he asked me, when I finally admitted to him how I felt, was, "Why me?" The fact that he would ask that question just made me love him all the more.

I don't think he's ever quite known his worth; I don't know that he does even now, despite everything he has shown himself to be. It must not have been easy to grow up in the shadow of his brothers, to be known simply as "Charlie's little brother"--you know, the tall one--or "Fred and George's little brother," the one who isn't on the house team.

By the time he had become "Famous Harry Potter's best friend," I think he had truly come to believe that that's all he was--or ever would be.

He never complained, though, not really. There was that brief period in our fourth year when the unacknowledged resentment and pain at having been shunted aside all his life spilled onto the surface, but it was quickly resolved and forgotten, and he once again took his place at Harry's side, having made his peace with it.

If he thought his ultimate legacy was to be the sidekick everyone saw but wouldn't hear, he was wrong. Because to me, he was always so much more than that.

It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment when I began to fall in love with Ron Weasley. Looking back, I think I had loved him from the very beginning, as if he had always carried around a piece of my heart that was lost and finally found the day we met.

I still remember that awkward eleven year old aboard the Hogwarts Express, with dirt on his nose and that annoyed expression on his face when I had interrupted his spell. Perhaps I knew it even then, but didn't realize I did, not until years later, when I looked back on the many times he had come to my defense whenever someone threw an insult at me, or rushed to my side when I was hurt.

That is his greatest gift of all, an unwavering sense of loyalty and devotion. In a moment of danger, he is the first to jump into the fray, and he would and move heaven and earth--even lay down his life--for those he loves.

He is also the first to make you laugh when the world is gray, or bring you out of your shell when all you want to do is retreat into a corner. All he has to do is flash that brilliant smile.

People would ask me, when it became known that we had become a couple, why I had chosen him and not Harry. It was a question I had never once pondered.

To me, Harry Potter was like my long-lost twin, a brother with whom it seemed as if I had been reunited; at times he seemed like a son to me as well.

I watched over him, protected him, guided him, and allowed him to do the same for me, but it was Ron who had captured my heart. It was Ron who found my spirit, challenged me, engaged me, gave me a reason to laugh, to fight, to love.

To believe.

It has not been an easy road for us; it was paved with misunderstandings, broken hearts, strained friendships, and sometimes even danger. Still, the road never diverged far from him. Wherever I was, I knew where my home would be: with him.

I was a little girl when we met, but it was with him that I became a woman. It was with him that I became a wife, and now a mother. And the little boy I had encountered that day on the train, the one with so many insecurities and doubts about who he was and who he would be, grew into a strong, noble, selfless, and compassionate man. I watched it happen with my own eyes.

I don't know if Ron will ever realize just how incredible a person he is--how big a difference he has made in my life, in Harry's. I don't know that I'll ever be able to find the words to tell him everything he is to me.

But one thing is for certain. The world is a better place because Ron Weasley is in it, and I will love him till the day I die.