Disclaimer: sigh The shopping I could do, the places I could see, the life I could lead if it all belonged to me but it doesn't, they're Ms Rowling's.

A/N: Here be my thank yous to the delightful people who give me a reason to write this. SnapeSeraphin - Here be an update for you. I try my best with Oliver, but I'm never happy. I'm glad you like the way I write him. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Nutto -Do mine eyne deceive me? Was that a review off you? I'm glad you like this pairing and thanks for being such a love and being my beta. w1cked angel - I know it's a horrible way to connect but it does happen sometimes, hope you like this chappy. Lady Norskstar - Here's a relatively speedy update from me, hope you continue to like. Chantal J - I updated it and it was quite quick for me:-) SongOfStars - I hurried, it's here for you. Hope you like. SpikesDreamer - I'm glad you like this story and may you continue to like. Isis3110 - I'm glad you like, of course, Oliver is always on loan to you as you saw him first;-).

I can now confirm that updates will definitely be more often as the story is now finished and I'm becoming more and more happy with the work I've been doing on the chapters. I just hope I don't disappoint you all. And I have to say another big thanks to Peanuts107 aka Nutto for beta-ering this story and so quickly as well. I urge you all to go read her wonderful ficcies, her Hufflepuff one is amazing. Anyway, enjoy!

Discovering Each Other

Hermione slowly sat up to look Oliver in the face; one tear fell down his cheek as he looked down at his crossed legs. She didn't know what to say or do, she was feeling awful about bringing it up, but then how was she supposed to know? At least she could understand what he was feeling, maybe that could be of some comfort to him.

"Oliver, I'm so-" she started.

"Don't you dare apologise! You didn't know," he half sniffed half snapped. Hermione jumped at the hint of harshness to his voice. That wasn't fair, she'd just told him the exact same thing. She started to stand up feeling uneasy being there with him. "Where are you going?"

"I think it's best that I go," she told him. He frowned but before he could say anything she had Apparated away. She appeared in her living room and as soon as she did she was being shaken roughly by the shoulders.

"Where on earth have you been!" Harry demanded with his voice changing pitch with every word, "I thought you were dead!" Hermione finally got a grip on things and swept Harry off his feet with a flick of her wand. She looked to Jenny on the couch, who was reading a magazine, for an explanation.

"His imagination's had him doing a merry dance…..again," she told Hermione without looking up at her. Hermione nodded in understanding before helping Harry back up.

"I went to get something to eat with Oliver," she explained glumly her absence to Harry. She had this niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach, it was like it had really hurt her the way Oliver had spoken to her. She ignored it; all it could be is that she knew where he was coming from.

"But I thought you two were in the middle of a raging war with each other?" Harry asked with confusion etched across his face. Hermione shrugged her shoulders with a sigh before sitting down next to Jenny. "Which reminds me, why are you two arguing?"

"Long story," Hermione spoke softly, not really in the mood to talk.

"But how can it be a long story? You hadn't seen him in years and then within moments you're arguing. My god, is my head hurting trying to work this one out," he stomped his foot like a petulant child, "Start from the beginning, Hermione, or the man will be murder to train with," he snappily instructed before sitting on the other side of Hermione.

"Ignore him, it's quite obvious why you two were arguing from the moment you clapped eyes on each other last night," Jenny told Hermione flippantly.

"It is?" Hermione and Harry asked in unison. Jenny smiled as she snapped the magazine shut and threw it on to the small coffee table by her side.

"Yes, it is. You're both so alike in many aspects that an argument was inevitable," she explained to them as though it was the most obvious thing to have known. Hermione scrunched her freckled nose at the theory while Harry shook his head in disagreement.

"I've known Hermione for more than half my life and there isn't the remotest similarity or shared interest between them. Anyway, when did you get to know Oliver so well?" Harry asked.

"After all this time you still don't believe that I have a job, and friends, and a life," Jenny mocked him.

"You have a……no I can't bear to say it…..you have a life!" Harry played along with the joke. "But that didn't answer my question."

"There's thing called a lunch break, Harry, it's where people with dull jobs, like me, have a rest in the middle of the day so that they can get food," Jenny spoke with such a sarcasm that it was like she was telling a three year old the ways of the world.

"Oh stop, please before I die from laughter," Harry instructed her sarcastically.

"Now, now, children, don't make me put you in separate rooms," Hermione told them causing them to remember who was sat between them. "Don't you two ever get tired of doing that to each other?" she asked them with intrigue.

"Never, it's one of the things that I love most about him," Jenny told her with a big grin. Hermione laughed as she realised that Harry was changing with each year that aged him. Then it dawned on her, it wasn't Harry that had changed, it was her. What Harry had with Jenny was what she had with Ron, then it was all cruelly snatched away from her. That was the exact thing that had made her a different Hermione, the one that Oliver and Harry once knew was barely there.

"What happened to Oliver's fiancée?" she suddenly asked them causing them to instantly drop there silly squabbling.

"He told you?" Harry asked in shock. "When did he tell you?"

"About ten minutes ago," she told them as she picked at one of her nails. She waited for them to tell her but only silence came to her ears. She looked to Jenny and then Harry, both their expressions unreadable. "Why won't you tell me?"

"I think that's something you should ask Oliver about," Jenny was almost whispering. "But you should know, Hermione, we went to her funeral and he's refused to speak about her since. He doesn't even tell anyone new that he was engaged."

"You told him about Ron, didn't you?" Harry asked but knew the answer already. She glanced at him.

"I didn't tell him it was Ron, just that I'd lost my fiancé. We were starting afresh; it was silly that we were arguing like that. So we began asking questions about each other," she paused as she got up and began to tidy the living room. As quick as she had started, she stopped with a photo frame in her hand, "I actually feel like it's time for me to move on properly, and Oliver helped do that in a short space of time."

"Hermione, that's great news!" Harry exclaimed excitedly before jumping up to give her a hug.

"Then why do I feel so guilty? Why was it Oliver that helped me so much when he doesn't even know me? Why him and not you two, or my family, or the Weasleys?" she took a breath from the questions that kept flooding her. So many questions needed answering and she didn't know where to start. Her feelings were every where, they had been since last night, and she couldn't work out how to put them in order.

"I think you need some time alone, Hermione," Jenny suggested to her, "You know where we are." Hermione smiled at them and gave them both a hug before they left her. And just as soon as they were gone, Crookshanks picked that moment to stroll into the room. She watched him idly as he snaked his way through her legs and then went to sit on the chair that he had claimed as his own.

"I wish I was you, I bet you've never felt heartbreak," she spoke to the cat softly as she knelt down next to the chair and began lazily stroking him. He simply answered her with a purr of contentment.

It had been twelve days since Hermione had left Oliver on the roof of that building. Everyday she would get up the minute her alarm clock began to ring and jump in the shower. It was the first time in months she'd gotten her morning routine back, but that was as far as she had gotten on the road of living her old life again. Her days were spent thinking things through until it hurt to think and when she got like that, she would begin to write everything down. It was like she was trying to plan out her thoughts, search for answers to questions in them.

Then one thought came swimming into her mind so clearly and strong that she was terrified of losing it. She was sat in a chair by the window, basking in the warmth of the sun while she scribbled things down on some parchment. She needed to start with the very thing, or person in her case, that had caused this confusion within her. Without a minute to lose, she was in Harry's kitchen and calling for him.

"Harry! Are you in?" she called through to the living room. She heard voices before she saw Harry coming to the kitchen.

"Hermione, what is it? What's the matter? We were getting worried, it'd been that long," Harry frantically quizzed her. She held her hand up to stop him.

"I need Oliver's address, I have to see him," Hermione urgently told him. But Harry didn't have to say anything as Oliver walked into the kitchen. "Can I talk to you?"

"I'll be in the living room," Harry told them before leaving and closing the door behind him. They both moved to sit at the table in silence. She felt nervous about what she was ready to tell him. She just hoped it might help him, just like he'd helped her without him realising it.

"My fiancé's name was Ron Weasley and he'll have been for a year next month. When he died, I lost interest in life. I never went back to my job, I would spend days in bed, I still do. But, since that night we met up again, I haven't spent one single day in bed feeling like that life was this unbearable agony to live through," Hermione finally took a breath and stopped fiddling with the loose thread on her t-shirt to look up at him.

Oliver had watched her nimble fingers the whole time, twisting the little thread around one finger and then removing it to only then twist it round the next finger. He was still staring at that thread that lay motionless until it moved, Hermione had stood up. He glanced up to find tears streaming down her face but she had a small smile on her face.

"Why did you tell me that?" he asked with no hint of emotion in his voice as to what was going on inside him.

"I'm not sure really, something just felt right and that it was time to start talking about it with people," she explained to him. She turned to leave through the backdoor into Harry and Jenny's vast garden. But before she went, she turned back to Oliver. "It had to be you I told first because you helped me move on a little, I don't know how you did, but you did. But please don't think of this as me trying to get you to talk about it too; I wouldn't expect that," she opened the door, "Thank you." She walked out of the door and had reached the end of the garden and was nearing to that spot she loved so much when she heard a shout behind her. She spun round to find Oliver running towards her.

"I remember Ron, he was a nice lad," Oliver told her breathlessly. She watched him with intrigue as he took a deep breath before continuing. She took his hand as he stood straight and led him into the forest that lined the end of the garden. After a couple of twists and turns they came to a small clearing with a tiny lake. She let go of his hand and sat down to take her shoes off. Oliver frowned but without thought, he copied her.

Together they shuffled over to the edge of the lake and dipped their feet in. Oliver looked over the lake to the forest that curved around it, he watched as birds flittered in and out of the trees finding it therapeutic. After a few moments had passed he peered at Hermione to find her leaning back on her elbows with her eyes closed, just enjoying the warmth of the sun on her. Oliver leant back on to his elbows while keeping his gaze on her and took a breath.

"Her name was Catherine Williams; the anniversary of her death was two months ago. I'd thought my heart had been ripped out, but I did the opposite to you. I threw myself into my life, didn't give my heart time to grieve and mend. And to be honest, it's still very much in pieces. I thought that if I didn't talk about it, I would forget," Oliver stopped talking, feeling that if he carried on then tears would arrive. Hermione had opened her eyes to look at him.

"On that day I left you after you'd told me, Jenny said that we'd gotten off to such a bad start because we were so alike. But if you ask me, it seems we're nothing but opposites," Hermione pointed out to him, "I spoke about Ron to Harry and Jenny and went through the day he was killed over and over again in my mind because I never wanted to forget."

Oliver finally looked away from the intense gaze Hermione gave him and lay flat on his back. Hermione followed suit while flick the water with her feet. She had found this spot the day Harry and Jenny moved into the house nearly five years ago and she hadn't been here since Ron's funeral.

"Isn't it funny how we've picked each other to talk about it? Why not our families?" Oliver asked without expecting an answer.

"I've been thinking the same thing too," she told him honestly. "Maybe it was our defensive attitude to each other that made us do it."

"You could have a point there," Oliver agreed. He rolled on his side to look at Hermione. "Maybe we shouldn't just leave it here. It seems that we've both through the mill a bit and know what the other is going through. So maybe we should stick together you and me." Hermione closed her eyes for a moment before opening her eyes again to look at him.

"I'd like that; I could always do with another friend. Harry and Jenny don't need me dragging them down any more. They'll have a baby to worry about soon," she told him with a shy smile. "How about we start with me cooking you dinner?"

"Only if we continue with the plan we started on that roof," he bargained with her. She mulled it over before offering her hand to him.

"Deal!"