Wow! I wrote this when I was in high school! Seven years later, after graduating college, I discovered this in my archives, and you know what? I'm posting it.

The words in bold are from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 15: The Goblin's Revenge. I don't own anything.

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"...even Hermione said it, she's disappointed in you, thinks it's too slow. I agree with her. And here we are, freezing to death, starving, and I have no effing idea about my family, if they're alive, if they're hurt, if --"

"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-"

"Maybe I will, then!" retaliated Ron. "I said I'd stay with you, but if you think I'm just too 'useless' to stay I won't bother you."

"No one's calling you useless!" shouted Harry. "You're talking about how disappointed you are, how you expect things to be better, so I'm telling you to do exactly what I know you want to do!"

"You know why I listen to that radio, don't you? No wait, you don't." Ron said. "You don't know why."

He started to lob clothes onto his rucksack across the room, clearly packing to leave.

"I don't?" asked Harry, inwardly hurt by this.

"No, you don't!" yelled Ron. " I listen to that radio to keep up and make sure my family is okay! Your parents are dead, you don't have a family, unless you count those Muggles, and they sure didn't give a damn -"

"Ron!" Hermione broke in, knowing this was going too far.

"- about you," Ron continued, "and as you don't know what a family is you wouldn't know how it feels to constantly worry about them!"

He had done it. He had hit Harry's soft spot. But he was too angry, and too controlled by the Horcrux, to realize the damage he had just inflicted on his poor friend.

Harry shot Ron one look, and it wasn't an angry look. It was a look of pain, sadness. It said How could you? He stood up quietly and walked out of the tent into the pouring rain.

Hermione immediately went to Ron and started pleading with him.

"Take off the locket, Ron," Hermione said, her voice unusually high. "Can't you see what you did to him? He's hurt."

She reached up and took the locket off of his neck.

"Are you really going to leave us after everything we've been through? That's selfish of you. We wouldn't leave you, and has Harryeverlet you down since you two met?" she asked, unshed tears swimming in her eyes.

Ron stood dumbstruck for a moment, and for that minute all that could be heard was the rain falling onto the tent, which reminded Ron. His best friend was out there, hurt, not crying, because Ron knew he wasn't a cryer, but hurt nevertheless. It would be hard to ever forget the look on Harry's face.

He grabbed an umbrella and ran out after his best friend.

At first he couldn't find him because the rain was too heavy. Then he spotted him, sitting under a tree, soaking wet and staring off into the distance, looking at something only he could see.

He ran to where Harry was and knelt beside him.

"Harry?" Ron said.

No response.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just...sort of lost control and got angry. You know I have a bad temper. The Horcrux didn't help. I'm really sorry, mate."

Still nothing. Ron knew what that meant. Whenever Harry was depressed, he wouldn't talk, move, or do anything. He had enough on his plate to worry about without his most "loyal" friend shouting insults at him.

"C'mon, we need to get inside. It's pouring out here and you're going to end up sick. Let's go."

Hermione came out then, with another umbrella, and helped Ron to pick Harry off the ground and force him to walk to the tent.

Once inside the tent, Hermione dried Harry's sopping clothes with a charm and conjured some extra blankets to put around him. Then she gave Ron a meaningful look that clearly meant You did this yourself, so you've got to solve this yourself.

Ron nodded, knowing she was right.

Hermione disappeared into the bathroom, while Ron began putting back the clothes he had "packed" before.

Ron sat down next to Harry on Harry's bunk in an attempt to get him to talk.

"I'm really sorry, mate," he tried again.

This time, Harry looked at him. His eyes were dry and his face was completely expressionless.

'You have no idea how bad that hurt me," Harry told him. "It's bad enough to remind me of the Dursleys, and my parents dying. But to tell me that I don't know what a family is? That's just...no. I've lost every parent figure who actually gave a shite about me. You really don't need to rub it in."

Hearing Harry swear wasn't what made him shocked. Ron had had no idea how Harry felt; the latter always found it best to keep his problems inside.

"My mum and dad give a lot more than a shite about you. They care about you," Ron told him.

For a minute, nothing happened. Then Harry said, "If you want to leave, I won't stop you. I've disappointed both of you."

"I'm not going to leave. And I'm sure Hermione's going to stay. I'm sorry I said that, it was the Horcrux inside me mixed with the worry I had for Ginny and the rest - the rest -"

"- of your family?" Harry finished for him.

"No. Of our family. You've been family for years."

Hermione chose to come out of the bathroom then, wearing several thick sweaters over her pajamas. Harry, who was starting to look a lot better, stood up.

"I'll take first watch."

"No - Harry - are you sure?" cried Hermione. "You've already got caught in the rain once; you might end up sick!"

"I'm sure," Harry said in that calm voice he used when he was trying to hint finality.

Ron and Hermione knew stopping him was pointless, so, after Hermione forced Harry to put on two more sweaters, they allowed him to go outside for first watch.

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Once Harry was outside and out of earshot, Hermione rounded on Ron.

"Ron, you're such an insensitive idiot! How could you say such a thing to him?!"

"Look, I apologised and he accepted it. He knew why I said it, I reckon he knows me as well as he knows himself."

"Still, Ronald, that gave you no right to say that to him. That was just rude and cruel."

"But you know what, Hermione?" Ron asked her.

"What?"

"He knows he's got a family now. "

Outside, Harry was listening to the pattering of the rain, lost in thought. Ron's words kept echoing in his head.

"Our family."

Harry smiled to himself, knowing that Ron and Hermione weren't going anywhere, that Ginny was safe, and that he was finally accepted into a family for the first time in his life.