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Ron slowly returned to awareness, and the first thing that registered was the pain. His entire body ached, and his eyelids felt like they had bludgers dragging them down. Finally, he was startled into opening his eyes when something sliced into his arm, bringing forth a sharp new pain.
Jolting into full awareness, Ron looked around. He quickly realized he was bound to a large stone altar, and Hermione appeared to be in the same predicament. She had been gagged, he realized, as she looked over at him. Her face contorted repeatedly, but he just couldn't work out what she was trying to tell him, despite her expressions and muffled words.
The sharp pain hit his other arm, and Ron turned his head away from her, seeing the Dark Lord himself standing there, holding a bloody knife over him. Ron wanted to faint at the sight — and the pain from the long cuts in both his arms — but he bit his lip and did his best to hold on. As the snake-faced man shifted towards Ron's head, he caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure in the shadows behind him.
The figure raised its head and Ron realized it was Harry. Harry held a finger to his lips, and Ron gave the tiniest of nods. Harry was here — and unbound — and he would surely rescue them! Harry slipped closer, sticking to the shadows, pausing for reasons Ron couldn't guess, but he figured there were probably Death Eaters or snakes or any number of things lurking beyond the meager light from the candles floating over his head.
As he slipped closer, the Dark Lord sliced down both of Ron's legs, and then did the same to Hermione. Suddenly, he stopped, standing between the two stone altars they were bound to, and smirked. "Well well, do step into the light, young Mister Potter," he hissed out, then glanced into the darkness where Ron had last seen Harry.
"Harry!" Ron cried, now that there was no point in being stealthy.
"Sacrificing my two best friends in a ritual, Voldemort?" Harry's voice echoed strangely, and he didn't step out of the darkness. "You'll have to go through me first."
Suddenly Harry appeared, right at Ron's feet. "Is that what you expected me to say, Ronniekins?" he asked, pushing back his hood and smirking. Hermione growled something and squirmed, trying to break the magical ropes that bound her, but Ron didn't understand.
"Harry, mate…"
"Oh, I'm not your mate, Ronniekins," Harry said, his eyes glittering coldly. "Mates don't take money from old coots to spy on their friends. Mates don't feed their friends love potions to let their little sister rape them. Mates don't plot to steal their friends' inheritance when they tragically die in battle."
Before Ron could open his mouth — not to protest because it wasn't true, but because he wanted to know how Harry had found out, he too was hit with a gag from the Dark Lord.
"So, as I said, I know you expect me to tell Voldemort that if he wants to hurt you, he'd have to go through me first, but I only say things like that about my mates, and as we've established, you and I are nothing of the sort, Ronniekins." Harry chuckled darkly. "Besides, I went to all the trouble of drugging you and portkeying you here so that we could complete this ritual; why would I want to stop it now that I have you right where I want you?"
Harry stepped up to the Dark Lord and accepted the bloody knife from him. Then, to Ron's appalled shock, he tugged the older man down into a bruising kiss. When they finally broke apart, Snake face slipped behind Harry and wrapped his arms around his waist, resting his chin on Harry's shoulder.
"Think of it this way, Ronniekins," Harry said, holding the knife up over his heart. "You're finally going to get your picture on the front page of the Daily Prophet tomorrow. Not that you'll be around to appreciate the fame you've always wanted, but, heh, it's the thought that counts, right?"
Then the knife was descending, and Ron screamed around his gag before the pain and darkness took him.