I do not own Harry Potter and make no money whatsoever with what I write and post.

This is my response to the Urban Decay Prompt Challenge; my prompt was "Abyss".

Hermione Granger stared at the ground, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. It was too much. Too many expectations on her and her friends, too much danger for three seventeen year olds to handle alone and to top it all failure would end in the death of not only the friends, but the whole magical Britain. Ron had given up. He had seen for the first time through the thin veil into the abyss and had given up. He had left, leaving her and Harry alone in the tent, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The smartest witch of her age had no idea what to do. The abyss was calling, luring her in, to give up, too, and travel over to Australia to look for her parents and restore their memories. She had no idea how Harry kept going, how he stood tall and proud, even after they had just seen Ron fall, raging that he didn't get enough food and that their effort didn't do anything good. The boy beside her merely shrugged and kept going. Neither fear nor uncertainty seemed to have any place in his life. She didn't know that Harry didn't sleep at nights because everything in him was calling for him more than even for Ron to give up, to go to sleep, for all eternity. To not wake up anymore and to let the people die who had condemned him to such a miserable life, celebrating something that would forever be the worst day in his memory. He had to fight himself day for day to wake up, break up the camp and travel again in hopes of finding a lead, smiling for his friends and to keep strong, no matter what ever should happen. It was driving him crazy. It was driving her crazy that he had no idea what happened while they were on the run. It was driving him nuts that his first friend ever had given up like that, turned around to probably never come back, screaming because of something that they couldn't change, because of the lack of food. They were the most wanted people in the magical world and Ron insulted everything by complaining about food of all things. It didn't surprise him; it shouldn't have, after all Ron had repeatedly shown them that he would abandon them at a moment's notice.

A startled laugh escaped him when he finally realised that he indeed was surprised. He shouldn't have been. It was clear as day that Ronald Weasley only thought of one thing, and that was him. The laugh got slightly hysterical, until he couldn't control it anymore. It felt good, oh so good, to finally let go and give in to the things that lurked in the shadows. Without Ron they would have no chance to really do what they had to do. They were going to fall, the abyss would take over. Even if they would go on, their hearts would linger forever here and wait for an unlikely return of a friend.

Meh, not my masterpiece, but I must admit it's at least a bit darker than what I normally write. So, have mercy on me. ^^