Unbroken

Monday, Week 2 (3)

Ron POV

"HOW COULD YOU NOT EVEN COME TO SEE YOUR BEST FRIEND IN THE HOSPITAL?"

That's easy, Herms, he's not my best friend anymore. I really want to say that to her but what would be the point? She's already pissed at me as it is. It's not like the idiot's dead or anything, he's just doing what he does best. Getting hurt so people can worry about him. People like Hermione, my wife.

"I'll just visit him tomorrow, I don't know why you've got your knickers in a twist," I tell her nonchalantly. I had work today, what the hell was I supposed to do? Take off work?

"HONESTLY, I SOMETIMES DOUBT IF YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT HARRY," she bellows at me. Before I can care about losing my temper, it's off the rails.

"THAT'S BECAUSE I DON'T," I holler back at her. Ah shit, if she was pissed before, she's furious now.

"OF COURSE YOU BLOODY DON'T. DON'T THINK I HAVEN'T NOTICED HOW YOU ACT AROUND HIM."

I cringe at her yell and the fact that she saw the deterioration of my relationship with her—once our—best friend. I know she must have seen it because, after all, she's the smartest person I know. I just wish things weren't so bloody difficult or she wasn't so attached to Harry. You'd think that after he abandoned her during her recovery period, she'd resent him. But no, she doesn't. If anything, she loves him even more.

"He's my best friend, Ronald, and I'm always going to be there for him. I don't know what's been going on with you two but I don't care. I don't bloody care about your relationship with him. I don't even know why I asked you to come."

She's about to storm off and end the fight but I have more to say to her. Damn it, I'm going to get everything off my chest. When is this fucking obsession going to end? She doesn't remember a damn thing about her love with Harry so I don't understand why she's still so bloody attached to him.

"YOU'RE MY WIFE. I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'RE SO DAMN ATTACHED TO HIM. HE'S NOTHING TO YOU," I scream at her, watching as she stops dead in her tracks. The room's air has gotten thicker and her hair is flying out wildly while her magic flares out. I'm reminded that she is probably second to Harry in terms of raw magical power by the sight in front of me, but I don't back down.

I watch as she turns to me with this cold, almost dead, look in her eyes. Then, she's stalking over to me like I'm prey and I have this instinctive urge to run but I'm frozen in fear. She's right in front of me now and I'm forced to stare into her eyes, finding pure rage and what looks like anguish in them. I'm completely still and unknowing of what to do.

"Harry Potter is everything to me."

Harry POV

Dream

"You're dead," I tell the man standing in front of me who's looking down at the place he was buried. There was no headstone because he didn't deserve one. There wasn't anything nice to say about him so, really, what was the point in putting one up? Everyone was glad to be rid of the fucker.

"No need to remind, young Harry." The fucker laughs at me as he says it and then turns to meet me. I stare dead into his blood red eyes and regard him with no fear, no respect.

"What do you want, Tom?" I ask the bastard.

"That's not the question you should be asking, boy," he shoots me an evil grin, "you should be asking yourself what you want from me."

I tilt my head and squint at him in confusion. I feel my lips turn up in askance but I say nothing, instead waiting for him to elaborate.

"You must know you're dreaming, right?" I do know, this happens every time I'm unconscious. "Then why, out of all people, would you dream about me?"

How the fuck am I supposed to know that? I just know when I'm dreaming, I don't have any control as to what I see. But of course, Tom doesn't know that. I look at him and fully take in his noseless face and smirk at him.

"I suppose I just wanted to tell you that I beat you, that none of your plans worked or will work after your death," I brag to him. Really, I don't know why this fucker is in my head but I'm going to say what I've always wanted to say to him.

"Yes, quite right. You are The Man-Who-Conquered after all. I suppose I should regard you with respect." The bastard is being sarcastic but I don't care, I can tell there's truth to his words and that he's more than a little pissed.

"But for all you've conquered, you've never been able to get at one thing. For everything you are, Harry, you seem to forget yourself when it comes to matters of the heart. You wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't lost focus during your battle. And remind me again, why did you lose focus?"

My mood has changed and I'm clenching my fists at my side. I feel my nails dig into my palm but I don't feel a thing except my searing rage directed to the arsehole.

"Right, you lost focus because of Hermione Granger or should I say Hermione Weasley."

Before I stop myself, I level a wicked punch into Snakeface's jaw and send him flying to the floor. Of course, he just brushes it off and reappears in front of me unscathed.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Harry. Still your blind spot after all this time."

Bastard won't shut the hell up and I know there's nothing I can do because it's not yet time for me to wake. I have no choice but to listen.

"It is humorous to me that you still try to find happiness even after everything I've warned you about. You and me, Harry, we're the same. You know it, I know it, and you can try to deny it all you want but, really, all that's different between us is you being too weak to take what you want."

I have no choice but to pay attention and listen to him. It's just him and I.

"So tell me, Harry? What will you do when you find Dolohov? What happens after that?" He waits as if giving me a chance to answer but I say nothing. I know him well enough to know that the question is rhetorical. "You'll just find another case right? You'll find another bastard to drown your sorrows out. You'll continue being a good Auror."

The words bite at me like piranhas but I don't say a word. Deep down, I know he's right. All my work is, is a method in which I use to ignore my pain. I find that the only way I can achieve some semblance of peace is when I'm working.

"You're weak, Harry Potter. Those who call you a legend, a warrior, a hero, will never see you like I do. They'll never see the coward that hides behind that gold Auror badge. They'll never see the weakling who's unable to take what he wants. You will always be that same boy locked in that cupboard waiting for respite that is never going to come."

Dream End