Re: Ron/Azazel/Captives
Harry wasn't in good shape to say the least. One of his eyes was almost swollen shut, all the fingers in his right hands were crushed to bone dust, and he was pretty sure if he tried walking, he would just keel over again. He was in a sorry shape and it hurt to even think. But he pushed past the pain, thinking as hard as he could on his escape plan to keep himself from blacking out again. He had been in pain before, he had been hexed, bruised, and cut. He had lived with the pain of his scare for a lifetime. But this...well, this was torture beyond anything he had ever been through before. He had been able to make relatively fast escapes before.
Not this time.
His original plan was that when he had reached the address that Azazel had given him, he would wait until he was with Hermione, grab her, and then Apparate out of there. It had been simple. Yet, everything had gone wrong from the get go because Azazel hadn't brought Hermione along. So he let himself be taken instead of Apparating out of there. What choice did he have? He couldn't risk Hermione dying because of him. He had wanted to bring along Ron. He had every intention of bringing along Ron. Except Harry didn't know how demons worked. He didn't know if they could sense if he was lying or if he somehow broke his word. It was another risk. He couldn't take Ron with him.
Which was the only thing that was giving him any peace of mind. At least Ron was safe. The thought comforted Harry a little, it helped him push past the pain, but then he would remember Hermione was still here and that Azazel was still not ready to let her go. So he worked on his plan, which basically consisted of trying to will himself strong enough to Apparate. Apparate, find Hermione, and Apparate out with her. He already had a good idea of where she was and the only thing left for him to do was gather his strength. Which was really, really hard when you hurt all over.