This little one-shot was inspired by an image I saw online; It was of a red umbrella laying by itself in the snow.

The world was white as he crunched through the snow, looking about him as he took in the tall trees devoid of all their leaves, the barks standing out black against the crisp snow. Even the sky was white as he raised his eyes to look at it while filling his ears was the steady crunch of his feet as he took step after step.

He shouldn't be there. He should be home by the fire with Bellatrix with him, opening the presents they bought each other before eating too much and drinking too much. Today was Christmas day, but his wife was still missing.

It was at the end of the summer that they had fought their last battle and witnessed each other's death.. only they weren't dead. Hours after the order had won and left the bodies where they lay as they began to bury them he had gasped in a breath and sat up, wincing at the pains in his chest as his lungs once again inflated. While everyone was busy he had slipped away and gone to find his wife's body on the pyre.. but she wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere.

He had heard the celebration, heard how Molly had killed her with only a simple stunning spell.. but where was her body?

Before the last battle, they'd stayed awake long into the night, caressing each other after hours spent love making and talking, promising each other that if separated they would meet in the dark forest afterwards, a little known wizarding town. He'd gone there and waited. He'd waited two months there before word had reached him of a brunette found wandering on her own with only a torn dress and her wand.

He had followed after her of course. Asking around each town, entering each tavern he found. He was no better attired. His suit was torn and in tatters, his tie burnt into only a charred parody of what it was. Everywhere he went he was treated as no better than a beggar.. and everywhere he went he missed her. He'd earned himself the name of 'the searcher' and everywhere he went it's how people knew who he was.

How long had he been wandering in this forest now? He looked up at the sky, seeing the moon full in it. Eight moons had come and gone since he had followed her to this forsaken place. Everywhere he looked was just the dead trees than four moons ago it had snowed.

Coming to a large clearing he fell to his knees, he didn't know how much longer the chase would continue. Though he knew he would continue until his last breath to search for her.

Picking up two rocks he placed them beside each other than used his wand to transfigure them into a thick black fur coat and a red umbrella. With tears glinting in his blue eyes, his anguish no longer as tightly controlled as it had been he got to his feet and looked around, then started. Was that a flash of something in the trees?

The caw of a raven flying up out of the trees had him turning away. He'd hoped it had been her hair he'd seen. Swearing his love to her he apparated away, ready to start over again to find her.

He didn't see the bedraggled woman appear out of the tree line and run to the umbrella, pick up the coat and scream his name even as a blizzard started and tore the umbrella away from her. The red umbrella they had always left each other as a sign. She was too late.