Title: Abandoned But Not Alone
Characters: Harry, Hermione
Rating: K+
Summary: Harry and Hermione after Ron leaves them during the Horcrux hunt.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling and publishers. No offense is meant by this fan fiction and this is made purely for fun.
Harry heard something outside his room in the tent and quickly whipped around with his wand in hand. He felt around for his glasses and put them on swiftly. When he looked it was just Hermione standing by the entrance nervously. He cast a Lumos and sat at the edge of the bed.
"Hermione?" he said, while he rubbed his eyes. Once she came closer, all the while fiddling with her sleeves, he noticed that her eyes were red. She must have been crying. "What's wrong?" She looked away from him and suddenly Harry felt like an idiot for even asking. Of course he knew what was wrong. Ron had left them the night before, they were on a hunt for Horcruxes that they had no idea how to find and there was a war going on and they did not know whether or not their friends and comrades were alive. Everything had gone to shit.
"I uh... it's nothing, I should – sorry," she stammered, before turning around.
"Wait, no. Hermione," he said, climbing out of the bed, "its fine. What's wrong?"
"I... I just can't believe that..." she turned back to him and took a deep breath. "He'll come back, right? He will..." she looked at him then, eyes brimming with tears and her expression desperate and pleading. Harry felt his chest ache and tighten and his eyes burned with the promise of tears but he blinked them away.
"I don't know, Hermione," he said sadly, truthfully. He had thought about going on this journey by himself so that his best friends would not have to go through all of this. Of course the war would still be there but they would not be fighting Dark artefacts and infiltrating the Ministry, putting their lives in more danger. But he did not know that not having them around would be this painful, worse so because Ron had left them on bad terms.
A few tears began to roll down her cheeks and she wiped them away quickly. "That's not good enough, Harry. It isn't. I-I-" she shook her head and turned her back to him. He watched as her shoulders shook and she wrapped her arms around herself.
Harry walked over to her and rested a hand on her back. "I know," he said softly, as he felt her tremble underneath his palm. He took a deep breath when he felt his throat tighten but could not stifle the staggered sigh that came out after. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault," she muttered, before inhaling deeply and turning to face him. Her cheeks were stained with tears and he wiped them away. It was the least he could do after everything she had gone through for him. "Ron chose to leave on his own. Don't- don't put all the blame on yourself. We all knew that we had little to no information when we left the Burrow." Hermione had started to cry again. "And, the war is putting enormous amounts of stress on us, on everyone. Th-this Horcrux hunt is just adding to it and... and," she let out a sob and he pulled her into an embrace, tears burning their way down his own face now.
"We can't know if he's alive any more Harry!" she sobbed, as she grabbed at his back, holding on to him tightly. "I don't even know if he's made it back home alive. We can't- we have no way of knowing. Not about Ron, or the rest of the Order, or our friends, my parents even."
Hermione was crying in earnest now and he could do nothing but hold her. She was right. There was no way for them to know how Ron and the others were doing but they had to carry on with the hunt either way. No matter how much it hurt. Otherwise even more people would die, Voldemort would win and all their struggles and their pain thus far would have been for nothing. Merlin knows that did not make it any easier though.
Harry let out a shaky breath. "If anyone has a chance of surviving, it's Ron," he muttered to her, partly to comfort her and partly to comfort himself. They stayed like that for a while, until Harry's chest no longer felt like Grawp was standing on it and Hermione's sobbing stopped. In the morning they would continue with their search for Horcruxes and hope that it was not all in vain.