What does "Right little ray of sunshine" mean?

Question

There's no way any of the other tasks are going to be that dangerous, how could they be?” Ron went on as he carried Pigwidgeon to the window. “You know what? I reckon you could win this tournament, Harry, I'm serious.”

Harry knew that Ron was only saying this to make up for his behavior of the last few weeks, but he appreciated it all the same. Hermione, however, leaned against the Owlery wall, folded her arms, and frowned at Ron.

“Harry's got a long way to go before he finishes this tournament,” she said seriously. “If that was the first task, I hate to think what's coming next.”

“Right little ray of sunshine, aren't you?” said Ron. “You and Professor Trelawney should get together sometime.”

I don't fully understand the phrase "Right little ray of sunshine" here. From dictionaries, I can get the meaning of "a ray of sunshine" (a person or thing that makes somebody’s life happier), but I don't quite get "right little". Does it mean "just small" or something? What does the whole phrase mean exactly?

Answer 1

"right" in this case just means, well, right. Proper. Very. "you are a right question asker" means you just really asked a question.

However, it is usually used sarcastically and in this case that is amplified by the "little", usually it denotes cuteness or adorableness as in "you are a little puppy". But it can also mean to belittle someone, make them less than the are.

So in this case Ron literally says "Hermoine is an adorable person who really brightens the day" but from the context (Hermoine being pessimistic) you would know he is being sarcastic.

(note, this combination of words is only ever used sarcastically. Although you could use it in the literal sense, try at your own risk, you right little ray of sunshine)

Answer 2

A synonym for right there would be "proper".

A proper little ray of sunshine, you are!

Paraphrases:

You're truly a little ray of sunshine.

You're a veritable little ray of sunshine.

As Borgh says, it's a sarcastic comment.

Here it is "right {little ray of sunshine}" not "right little {ray of sunshine}".

But in other contexts "right" could modify "little". In the US this would be a southernism:

His new car is right little.

His new car is very small indeed.