I'd been thinking of something like this for a while, and, given the current season, when I recently saw a DH time line, I just had to write it. ~ pfeil, December 2009
"He's gone! I can't find him anywhere."
Harry watched dismayed as Hermione slunk off to her room in the tent.
Putting on the locket, he went outside to keep watch. As he did, he couldn't help but think, Why do things like this always happen on Hallowe'en?
Harry pushed his spoon around tiredly.
Another silent supper of mushroom soup. It sure feels like it's been more than a month since Ron left.
The locket felt heavier than ever.
"You were right, Hermione. It looked like the snake was waiting for us. He knew I'd go back to Godric's Hollow."
"Um, Harry?" she asked timidly.
Uhoh. "Yes?"
"During the battle… it looks lie … well…"
She pulled out the broken pieces of his wand.
"I'm sorry, Harry."
"It's alright; You got us out of there. We can just share yours for now. Go get some sleep. I'll take first watch."
"Alright", she responded, passing over her wand.
As they separated again, both thought, Gee, what a great Christmas Eve.
The next morning Hermione decided it was time for them to move on.
After she finished removing all the protections, thy were surprised to see a white owl flying toward them.
"No… It can't be…"
It swooped down and landed on Harry's out-stretched arm.
"Hedwig? It is you! I can't believe you're alright."
"Harry, be careful. This is probabably a trick from Voldemort."
"But she was right here! No person could have found us with all your spells. Hedwig always knew where I was, though."
"Well at least let me be careful taking the letter from her."
When Hermione couldn't find any magic on it, they both read it quickly:
To whomever receives this,
Sadly it's now time for me to say goodbye to this remarkable bird.
She quite literally fell into my life almost 5 months ago now. I found her with a broken wing trapped in a ruined cage on my hedge, clearly the victim of a grave injustice. Apparently the metal of the cage bore the brunt of it, but I've never seen a spell that does such ghastly damage.
While initially I was seething that someone would lock her in a cage during a situation in which such spells were being thrown around, rather than letting her fly, her obvious desire to get back to you suggests you might not be as malicious as I thought. I do hope you treat her better in the future.
Hoping for the best,
A friend.
"I'm so sorry, Hedwig. I'll never let anyone cage you again."
She barked in happiness at that, and nuzzled his hand.
"Come on Hermione; It's time we did something different."
With that he grabbed one of his girls with each hand and apparated the three of them away.
At the same time in the Burrow, Ron was sulking.
Even though the food is good, I can't handle Mum for much longer.
Hey, what's that? Dumbledore's useless thing is actually doing something? Oh, so that's where they are!
"Mum, I'm going back to help Harry and Hermione!" he yelled, before apparating to the forest.
Back in the forest, the snatchers were rather frustrated too.
"Dammit, why can't they tell us more quickly? Half the time people are gone by the time we show up. There's not even anything good to take, here."
Hearing the pop of an apparition, they all spun around and shot stunners.
One hit the deluminator, which made a strange hissing sound and let off some purple smoke.
Luckily for Ron, the rest all missed or hit trees. He dove to the ground, his heart hammering away. He tried to concentrate, but knew that trying to apparate would just splinch himself.
He managed to graze one snatcher with a reducto, but that made them switch to Killing Curses, and it wasn't long before he was hit.
Not that anyone would realise he was dead for another few months.
As they reappeared, Hermione was surprised to see a muggle city.
"Why on earth were we doing this the silly Wizard way, Hermione? It's getting freezing cold, we were almost out of food, and we weren't getting any sleep. No wonder things weren't going well.
"Ron's gone—don't look at me like that, it's been almost two months already—so there's no reason not to just live muggle for a while. We can find a bank and put this gaudy locket in a safety deposit box, have a real meal in a proper resaurant, and get a hotel room for some warmth and a decent sleep.
"It's Christmas; Let's enjoy it."
A/N: My theory is that the horcrux quickly realized that Ron was the most susceptible, and concentrated its efforts on him. Once he left, though, it knew it couldn't control or manipulate Harry or Hermione in the same way, so it settled on just amplifying their foreboding. Hedwig coming back might be enough to snap them out of it, though.