He felt useless.
As he softly stroked her hair, waiting for her to regain consciousness, he gazed upon her pale face.
The events of the past hour flashed through his mind. Being captured after speaking Voldemort's name out loud, being separated from Hermione as she was roughly dragged away like a common criminal to be interrogated by Bellatrix. Hearing the stuttered answers as she tried to stop the interrogation, and the fear in her voice as she tried to stop the pain was enough to make him want to give up and cry for them. The screams. Those had been the worst to take, as images appeared in front of him, caused by his own fearful thinking. Hermione beaten, bruises and cuts appearing all over her limp body. Her body twitching in uncontrollable spasms of pain as the cruciatus curse attacked her weakened defenses.
Yet all he was able to do was hoarsely yell out her name repeatedly. He still felt useless, even now after he had first staggered into the safe shelter of the house with her lying weakly in his arms. The guilt was still there, ready to make an unwelcome appearance. And he knew that late at night, he was likely to sit up in bed, sweating and shaking whilst trying to get the horrible nightmares out of his system.
He was brought out of his thoughts by a soft moan emitting from Hermione's mouth. Her eyes fluttered weakly open, and she focused on him. His hand softly carried on stroking her hair whilst he looked into her eyes, smiling in relief.
"Ron..." She started, but could not finish due to lack of energy. He clasped her hand in his.
"Just rest." Ron whispered soothingly, smoothing the skin on her slightly smaller hand with his thumb. She complied, her eyes drifting back down as she was lulled into a peaceful sleep. He heard footsteps outside the door, and pulled away from her gently, so as to not disturb her peaceful slumber.
"You're alright." He muttered, placing a soft kiss on her forehead before quietly leaving the room. "You're actually alright".
It was only as he was walking out he noticed the tears running down his face.