"I'm sorry," Harry said, meaning it. It ached to see how much he had hurt her, and he knew that everyone else was probably hurting from thinking he was lost, too. Ron and Hermione - god, they were going to kill him for sneaking off and then dying, even though he wasn't dead. That thought almost made him smile, but not quite. "I'm sorry, I had to. It couldn't have happened any other way, he wouldn't have died if-"
It wasn't really possible to explain it all now, he wasn't even sure if anything he was saying was getting through. He didn't let go of her, though her sadness was making the guilt he felt increase about a hundredfold; he needed to find people, to tell them that he was alive.