Time Away - What happened when Ron left?

Prologue

'Yeah you're right!' said Harry; and he felt even more cheered at the thought that Dumbledore had some reservations, however faint, about Snape's trustworthiness. 'So, would he have hidden the sword well away from Hogsmeade, then? What d'you reckon, Ron? Ron?'

Harry looked around. For one bewildered moment he thought that Ron had left the tent, then realised that Ron was lying in the shadow of a lower bunk, looking stony.

'Oh, remembered me, have you?' he said.

'What?'

Ron snorted as he stared up at the underside of the upper bunk.

'You two carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun.'

Perplexed, Harry looked to Hermione for help, but she shook her head, apparently as nonplussed as he was.

'What's the problem?' asked Harry.

'Problem? There's no problem,' said Ron, still refusing to look at Harry. 'Not according to you, anyway.'

There were several plunks on the canvas over their heads. It had started to rain.

'Well, you've obviously got a problem, said Harry. 'Spit it out, will you?'

Ron swung his long legs off the bed and sat up. He looked mean, unlike himself.

'All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know.'

'I don't know?' repeated Harry. 'I don't know?'

Plunk, plunk, plunk: the rain was falling harder and heavier; it pattered on the leaf-strewn bank all around them and into the river chattering through the dark. Dread doused Harry's jubilation: Ron was saying exactly what he had suspected and feared him to be thinking.

'It's not like I'm having the time of my life here,' said Ron, 'you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round for a few weeks, we'd have achieved something.'

'Ron,' Hermione said, but in such a quiet voice that Ron could pretend not to have heard it over the loud tattoo the rain was now beating on the tent.

'I thought you knew what you'd signed up for,' said Harry.

'Yeah, I thought I did too.'

'So what part of this isn't living up to your expectations?' asked Harry. Anger was coming to his defense now. 'Did you think we'd be staying in five star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?'

'We thought you knew what you were doing!' shouted Ron, standing up; and his words pierced Harry like scalding knives. 'We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!'

'Ron!' said Hermione, this time clearly audible over the rain thundering on the tent roof, but again, he ignored her.

'Well, sorry to let you down,' said Harry, his voice quite calm even though he felt hollow, inadequate. 'I've been straight with you from the start, I told you everything Dumbledore told me. And in case you haven't noticed, we've found one Horcrux-'

'Yeah, and we are about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them - nowhere effing near, in other words!'

'Take off the locket, Ron,' Hermione said, her voice unusually high. 'Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day.'

'Yeah he would,' said Harry, who did not want excuses to be made for Ron. 'D'you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? D'you you think I didn't guess you were thinking this stuff?'

'Harry, we weren't -'

'Don't lie!' Ron hurled at her. 'You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than -'

'I didn't say it like that - Harry, I didn't!' she cried.

The rain was pounding on the tent, tears were pouring down Hermione's face, and the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been, a short lived firework that had flared and died, leaving everything dark, wet and cold. The sword of Griffindor was hidden they knew not where, and they were three teenagers who's only achievement was not, yet, to be dead.

'So why are you still here?' Harry asked Ron.

'Search me,' said Ron.

'Go home then,' said Harry.

'Yeah, maybe I will!' Ron shouted back, and he took several steps towards Harry, who did not back away. 'Didn't you hear what they said about my sister?But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Face-Worse Potter doesn't care what happens to her in there, well, I do, all right, giant spiders and mental stuff -'

'I was only saying - she was with the others, they were with Hagrid -'

'- yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, "the Weasleys don't need another kid injures', did you hear that?'

'Yeah, I-'

'Not bothered by what it meant, though?'

'Ron!' said Hermione, forcing her way between the, 'I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scarred, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant -'

Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about it then. It's alright for you two, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way -'

'My parents are dead!' Harry bellowed.

'And mine could be going the same way!' yelled Ron.

'Then GO!' roared Harry. 'Go back to them, pretend you've got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and -'

Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner's pocket, Hermione had raised her own.

'Protego!' she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron on the other; all of them were forced backwards a few steps by the strength of the spell and Harry and Ron glared from either side of the transparent barrier as though they were seeing each other clearly for the first time. Harry felt a corrosive hatred towards Ron: Something had broken between them.

'Leave the Horcrux,' Harry said.

Ron wrenched the chain from over his head and cast the locket into a nearby chair. He turned to Hermione.

'What are you doing?'

'What do you mean?'

'Are you staying, or what?'

'I...' She looked anguished. 'Yes - yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry, we said we'd help -'

'I get it. You choose him.'

'Ron, no - please - come back, come back!'

She was impede by her own Shield Charm; by the time she had removed it, he had already stormed into the night.