The head coach of one of the very best professional Quidditch teams in the league, a team that consistently placed in the top eight every year and was very likely to finish in the top five or even the top three, had personally come to offer a tryout. Anyone else present, including Oliver Wood, who already had a team, would probably have accepted.
But Ron refused. Not only did he refuse, he did so without the slightest hesitation.
Ron did not refuse Professor McGonagall and Professor Slughorn's tests of his Charms and Potions skills, but after completing all of them, he frankly told Colin Angsay that he would not join the Bats.
Most of those present found this very difficult to understand, but Harry and Ron, who knew him best, along with his roommates Dean and Seamus, had an inkling of the reason.
Sure enough, when Colin Angsay asked Ron in bewilderment why he had refused, Ron said as though it were only natural:
"I'm a loyal supporter of the Chudley Cannons. Although the team I support hasn't done well these past two years, I still love them. If I play competitively, I'll only play for them."
Ron's reason came as no surprise to Harry and the others. In fact, the moment Ron had voiced his refusal, Harry had already guessed that this would be why.
Ron loved the Chudley Cannons so much that his old room at The Burrow had been covered with posters of the Cannons' star players through the years.
And after the Weasley family moved back to their Ancestral Home, he had brought those posters to his new room and put them up in the most conspicuous places.
For a Ron like that, refusing the Ballycastle Bats seemed entirely understandable.
"Are you sure you won't reconsider?"