Ron had believed he was dead, Harry could tell that much. He could see it in his friend's expression, the shock and relief and god only knew what else. He had a feeling he was going to become very familiar with that expression soon enough.
And oh, he was so relieved to see that Ron, at least, seemed relatively unhurt. The tight hug made Harry's whole right side ache, especially his ribs, but he didn't care; it wasn't going to kill him, there was no way he could die from a hug after everything he'd just survived.
"I'm sorry," he said, returning the hug just as tightly, though his right arm was weaker than his left. God, he had thought he would never see Ron again either, even if he hadn't anticipated being alive to face that possibility. "I had to, I didn't have a choice - what's happened to Hermione?"
The sentences came out pressed together without a pause, the explanation and the question. Neither was more important than the other, it was just luck that they'd come out in a semi-coherent train of thought. When she wakes up, Ron had said. Oh, god, she had to wake up, he couldn't handle the thought of anything else.