A Man's Promise
Part One: Regrets
It was cold, but he was numb already. A half moon hovered over the dark night, hidden behind thin smokey clouds that drifted eerily over the vast black ocean. Waves crashed against the rocky shore, getting louder and louder as the night grew older and the tide crept higher. The breezes were constant and heavily laden with a cold mist brought in from the north.
"What else did you take? Answer me! Crucio!"
"We didn't take anything! I swear!"
It all seemed like a horrible nightmare now, but Ron could only wish that it had been. Her screams still rang through him like a violent electric shock that pulsated through his nervous system. He had never felt so helpless, so useless and trapped. He had never been tortured before, and he had counted himself lucky, but he would have been more grateful if Bellatrix had abided by his pleas to take Hermione's place. Ron doubted the curse would have caused him any more pain than listening to Hermione's screams and have no way to help her or comfort her.
"What else did you take? What else have you got? Tell me the truth, or I swear I shall run you through with this knife!" The image of that knife against her neck and the blood the coursed from beneath the jagged blade came to him as clearly as though he was staring at it in present time. He shut his eyes tight, cupping his hands over his face and dropping back into the sand.
He opened his eyes after a moment and saw Harry stumbling down the rocky hill that lead from the cottage down the beach. Ron sat up slowly. Harry had said Voldemort's name even though he knew it was tabooed, even Ron had warned him Death Eaters would come the moment the name was spoken, but he had said it anyway. Suddenly burning with anger, Ron scrambled to his feet and bolted across the beach, stumbling slightly as his feet slid in the sand. "You didn't give a damn!" he bellowed as he reached Harry, "I told you they would come, and you went ahead and said his name anyway! Just because you're famous Harry Potter, you think you can do whatever the hell you want!" Ron grabbed Harry's shoulders and threw him to the ground furiously. "She could have died tonight because of you, you selfish bastard!"
"Ron, I'm sorry!" Harry begged, staring up at him with frightened.
Harry's apology passed right through him, leaving no trace of itself, like it wasn't even said. "'Ron, shut up, we need a plan! Shut up Ron!'" He continued, perusing Harry as he back away, "I wanted to help! I wanted to get her out! Comfort her! But you didn't care! All you cared about was the stupid house elf!"
"You know that's not true!" Harry shouted back, dodging Ron's fist, "Hermione's like my sister! Hearing her being tortured was just as bad for me-"
"To hell it was!" Ron growled loudly, "You don't love her like I do! You couldn't possibly understand what that was like for me to sit there and listen to her make sounds like that and be in pain like that and know you can't fix it!" Harry stepped back away from Ron, but Ron's surge of anger was fading, so he didn't go after him. "Why did you come down here?" he asked weakly.
Harry sighed shoving his hands in his pockets, "Just wanted to say I'm sorry."
Fear replaced the anger quickly as Ron search for a motive to Harry's own apology, "Why? Is she dead?" Harry immediately shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but Ron didn't really care about what he had to say. "Can I just be alone?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah, I guess," Harry said darkly, "But she'll be fine, and it wasn't you fault."
"Oh, I know," Ron muttered furiously, turning away slowly and walking back to the sand, where he fell to he knees and tried to sleep.