I disagree. Hermoine is always the one that casts the last minute, life-saving spell. She's always the one that comes up with the answer to the problem. She's always portrayed as being nearly flawless with magic and having all the answers. Even Harry looks like an incompetent goof next to her.
I was hoping that Rowling would have Ron "come into his own" in this book. Poor 'ol Ron never uses magic it seems. He's just kind of there.
Let's see. Ron saves Harry from drowning, fishes out the sword, destroys the locket, mimics Parseltongue to enter the Chamber of Secrets for the tooth so Hermione can destroy the cup, generally does well in battle including when separated from the others. He also learns how to treat witches well (the world needs a muggle version of THAT book!), learns to listen to Hermione and to support SPEW, earning what Rupert Grint hopes is the scene with the most retakes in the eventual movie. Ron came along great!
Someone else has already pointed out all of the neat things that Ron does in this book (I'll just add, figuring out how to use the Deluminator to find Harry and Hermione, all on his own). Ron was never going to outshine Harry or Hermione when it comes to spellcasting; his best qualities are in other areas. And its for those *other* qualities that Hermione falls for him: he's brave, he's faithful to his friends (mostly), he cares about what happens to innocent bystanders (remember the look Hermione gives Ron when he worries about the wizard he impersonated in the Ministry, and his wife), and he does come up with the occasional good idea (like getting into the Chamber of Secrets).
I was very struck by the scene of Ron overcoming his fears to destroy the locket; we see that not only is he jealous of Harry, and worries about losing Hermione to him (as would be expected) but he is also resentful of Ginny's place in the family, which is a brilliant bit of characterization on Ms. Rowling's part, I thought. And two little lines in the Epilogue show that Ron has overcome his anxieties: first, where he tells young Rose "Thank God you inherited your mother's brains", and later, when he says "I'm extremely famous", to explain why everyone on the train is staring.
I'm very impressed with Ms. Rowling's writing on this one, can you tell? :-)
Hermione has her magical flaws. She’s horrible at riding brooms. She had to be on a Thestral during the decoy operation. She can cast a patronus but as Harry says, “She always has trouble with that one.”
I disagree with your disagreement.
She herself tells Harry that her magic is a sort of book-magic, a matter of knowing answers. She doesn’t take the forefront in the real conflicts as prominently as in this book. She knows a lot, but when it comes time to teach a DADA praxis class, she turns to Harry. She’s always giving cautions and “don’t”s.
In this book, she kicks some butt — and saves some as well. If it weren’t for her, they’d all be dead.