Third Year

Harry.: "Ron! The dog, where is it?"

Ron.: "Harry, it's a trap; he's the dog! He's an Animagus!"

— Ron after he was taken by a transformed Sirius Black to the Shrieking Shack

In the summer following Ron's second year at Hogwarts, the Weasleys won the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. Ron and his family used the money to travel to Egypt to visit Ron's eldest brother, Bill. News of their lucky break made the Daily Prophet, and Ron sent that newspaper clipping and aSneakoscope to Harry for his birthday. They met on the last day of the summer, when Ron and his family visited Diagon Alley with Harry andHermione and took up rooms in the Leaky Cauldron in preparation for catching the Hogwarts Express. During thier stay at the leaky Cauldron, Ron shared a room with his older brother Percy. Unfortunately, this led to a fight. Percy believed that Ron had taken his Prefect Badge, which had actually been stolen by Fred and George. Harry found the clever twins hiding, enchanting the badge to say, BigHead Boy. Later, Ron was also accused of smudging a picture of Percy's girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater. Whether Ron did this or not, we will never know. Although, knowing Fred and George, they were probably the guilty party. Also that summer, Sirius Black, the most notorious prisoner in Azkaban, escaped, and in light of this incident, security was stepped up at Hogwarts which Ron and his friends first noticed when the Hogwarts Express was stopped and searched. Once at the school, Dumbledore announced that Dementors would be stationed around the school to prevent Black from entering the school. This was done under the assumption that Harry was the target of Sirius Black's future misdeeds. 

Upon starting the term, the third years began taking new classes. Ron and Harry had chosen Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, while Hermione decided to take every possible class offered and began to exhibit strange behaviour that neither Ron nor Harry could figure out. The pair quickly decided that Divination was not a class they particularly liked and that the professor, Sybill Trelawney, was a fake. Ron's first Care of Magical Creatures was an outright disaster. Hagrid, the new Care of Magical Creatures professor, had planned what he thought to be a spectacular lesson on hippogriffs, when a hippogriff named Buckbeak attacked Draco Malfoy after Malfoy had insulted the proud creature causing Malfoy to promise revenge. Also during that week, Ron had his first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with the new professor, Remus Lupin, and in short order Ron thought that Lupin was an excellent professor. On Halloween, Ron and Hermione went on their first Hogsmeade trip. Harry, however, could not join them as hisUncle Vernon refused to sign his permission slip and had to remain in the castle. Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione visited every building in the village and brought back loads of sweets for Harry. They saw the Visitor of the Three Broomsticks Inn there, believing him to be an ogre. That night while the students were in the Great Hall, Sirius Black snuck into the castle, and the students were forced to spend the evening in the Great Hall. Just prior to Christmas, Hagrid received a formal complaint from the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures about Buckbeak. When he shared this with Ron, Harry, and Hermione, the trio promised to do everything in their power to help defend Buckbeak. Ron and Harry put the defence of Buckbeak on the back-burner when on Christmas Day, Harry received a Firebolt from a mysterious benefactor. When Hermione, fearing for Harry's safety, turned the broomstick in, Ron stopped talking to Hermione. The Firebolt fiasco only added to the tension between the two, as Hermione's new cat Crookshanks had been continually trying to attack Ron's rat, Scabbers. A few weeks later, when the two were on the verge of reconciliation, Scabbers disappeared and Ron blamed Crookshanks, perpetuating the row between them.

In the meantime, Black had yet to be found, and the night following the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw Quidditch match, he slipped into Gryffindor tower. Hearing the sound of shredding curtains, Ron awoke with a start to see Black standing over him brandishing a knife. He screamed, and Black fled. This incident made Ron temporarily famous within the walls of Hogwarts, but he came back down to Earth when Hagrid scolded him and Harry about their treatment of Hermione, who Hagrid told them was in over her head with all of her classes and the work she was doing for Buckbeak. Abashed, the pair patched it up with her a few days later, when they got a letter from Hagrid saying that Buckbeak had been convicted and sentenced to death. With exams bearing down upon them, the trio set about studying and attempting to help Hagrid with Buckbeak's appeal. The appeal took place on the last day of their exams. Upon hearing that Buckbeak was to be executed, Ron and his friends went to visit Hagrid in the evening just before the execution. They offered to help set the record straight, but Hagrid told them that they would be in more trouble if they were seen. While helping the sobbing Hagrid with some milk, Hermione found Scabbers. Soon they were ushered out the back of the hut, all the while they continued to lobby for a chance to set the record straight. When they heard what sounded like the execution, Ron and his friends set off for the castle in a slight state of shock.

Before they made it back there, Scabbers began to squirm in Ron's hands and escaped. Not wanting to lose his pet again, Ron chased after him with Harry and Hermione at his heels. He caught up to the rat, but not before they were in the shadow of theWhomping Willow. He looked up to see a large black dog bearing down upon him. The dog lunged at Ron and ensnaring Ron's arm in its mouth, it dragged him into the tunnel underneath the Willow. To try and prevent the dog from pulling him further underground, Ron hooks his foot around a tree root but this causes his leg to break. Considering the circumstances surrounding his injury we can assume he broke his ankle. When the dog reached its destination, it released Ron and revealed itself to be Sirius Black, an Animagus. Hearing footsteps approaching, Ron called out a warning for his friends, but it was too late.

Black ambushed Harry and Hermione, disarming them when they entered the room where Ron was being held. Upon seeing him, Harry physically attacked Black with Hermione and the injured Ron helping in any way they could, but Harry could not bring himself to finish the job when he had Black in his power, and he was disarmed by Professor Lupin. Initially relieved at the sight of Lupin, Ron quickly became worried when Lupin and Black embraced like brothers and demanded that Ron turn over his rat, Scabbers. After Ron baulked at the suggestion and Hermione accused Lupin of many terrible things including being a werewolf, Sirius and Professor Lupin began spinning a long tale of their youth at Hogwarts and how a wizard named Peter Pettigrew, who most believed dead, actually betrayed James and Lily Potter. Partially convinced, Ron handed over Scabbers when Lupin promised that if it were actually a rat, no harm would come to it, and Scabbers was revealed to be Pettigrew who confessed and begged for the mercy of his former friends. When it was decided that Pettigrew was to be turned over to the Dementors, Lupin splinted Ron's leg, and the assembled company left for the castle. Along the way, the full moon broke through the clouds, and Lupin began to transform. In the confusion, Pettigrew stole Lupin's wand, attacked Ron, and escaped. Hours later in the hospital wing where he is recovering from his leg injury, Ron was told that his friends had managed to save Sirius and Buckbeak from their fates. For some reason, Madam Pomfrey who, in the Chamber of Secrets claimed that she can "mend bones in a heartbeat..." however Ron remains in the Hospital Wing with his leg heavily bandaged despite the Nurse's previous claims. Perhaps there were complications with his injury considering that he spent a long time in the very dirty Shrieking Shack then outsite while Remus Lupin transformed into a werewolf and his leg was harmed even further over the course of the evening; for example "Ron yelled with pain as Black's weight fell on his broken leg." As a replacement for his lost pet, Sirius sent Ron Pigwidgeon, a tiny owl, which Ron nicknames "Pig".