“We thought you knew what you were doing! . . . We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!”

These are Ron’s angry words spoken in Chapter Fifteen, just before he abandons Harry and Hermione in the woods. They pierce Harry deeply, as they touch on Harry’s own insecurities, his feelings that if this truly was a viable quest and if Dumbledore truly did care for him, Dumbledore would have left him with a real plan. Harry does indeed feel like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, is acting without a plan, and is unworthy to be followed. But the words also express Ron’s own immaturity. He is on his own and fending for himself for the first time in his life, without a mother or house elves taking care of him, and without teachers or Harry telling him what to do. His statement expresses his own unwillingness to take responsibility for himself and for their plight, something he will need to accept before he can return to help Harry.