Disclaimer: It really is all Ms Rowling's except Jenny, she's mine.

A/N: Big thanks to Chantal J and Sam, Data Soong, SpikesDreamer and Peanuts107 for reviewing this exceptionally dull story, it means a lot to me to find people reading my stuff. But, and this may just be me being greedy, I only got four reviews for the last chapter. So I was just wondering if people are bored with this story, if so, is there anything I can do to keep your attention, any thoughts on what you might like to happen with this story. Hope you all like this chapter.

A New Friendship Builds New Strengths

Almost two months had passed since that night Hermione and Oliver had met up again and a very strong friendship had formed between them. He was there when she had her days of staying in bed; he would simply climb right in there with her and talk with her, telling her that this isn't how Ron would want her to live. She was there for him on the days where he remained stonily silent about Catherine; she was someone he had loved very much and part of his past, she would tell him it would do him good to talk about his memories of her. It was also an arrangement that Harry and Jenny couldn't be more than happy about. They were hoping that something more would come out of it but Hermione and Oliver made it very clear that would never be the case.

They both had spent hours talking about many things with the subject of how their loved ones had died taking up most of those hours. Ron had been killed by a former Death Eater who had been trying to gain power for himself. Hermione was right there when it happened, she saw him point his wand at him, right in the middle of the crowd. Ron had seen too and was ready to try the new spell Hermione had been working on, but it never worked and before she could blink, Ron was on the floor never to get up again. The whole thing had taken her love away and created her fear of crowds. She couldn't stand the fact that anyone could do something to her without her knowing, 'senses were never at their best with too many people around' as she had once told Oliver.

Catherine had been taken away by something you couldn't really fight, not even magic could help; a brain tumour. Oliver had taken her to all the best medical people he could find, even in the Muggle world, but nothing could be done. Oliver told Hermione how she would cry nearly every day when she woke up, not wanting to die, but then she would dry her tears and carry on with her day. She'd even made a list of the things she had to do in her time left, and she'd done them too. From the day she was buried, Oliver had been so angry at her for leaving him behind, he refused to talk about her, not even the time they had together before her illness. Everyone around him tried to get him to talk but he would blank them if they did, they all soon learnt that Catherine was now a mute subject.

This friendship was all about setting each other tasks to getting back on their feet fully. No more hiding themselves away or building walls around them. It was time to move on and mend their hearts. They each wrote a list of things they wanted to do but fear and pain had stopped them and they swapped the lists. Hermione would pick something off Oliver's list each week, and vice versa, and they had to do it, no matter how hard it was to do. For this week Hermione had to go out and put herself in the middle of a crowd everyday for at least half an hour. Oliver had to visit all the places he used to go to with Catherine, the ones that were just theirs as a couple and that he had avoided like the plague when she died.

The task was definitely the hardest one for Hermione off the list she had made, but she had to do it, if not for herself, then to at least show Oliver that she was strong and could get through this. Today was the first day and she was shaking like a leaf. If there had ever been a time she had to go out for things such as food or toiletries then she would go at times there would be barely any people, like when the shops were literally opening or closing. Or there would always be a way of getting the things she needed without stepping a foot outside.

She took a breath and stood up, then sat back down. She was being silly, it wasn't like she had never been in a crowd since Ron had died. She'd done it a couple of times but she'd been bordering on a panic attack and gone straight home. She stood up and walked over to the living room door but turned back and sat down once more.

"Hermione!" Oliver called from down the hallway, "I'm going to be right by your side the whole time!" Hermione nodded to herself while constantly twisting her hands around one another. She stood up and almost made it to Oliver but turned back round, he dashed over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Come on, you can do this."

"Can't we just walk around Wimbledon for an hour then come back?" she asked as she turned to face him. The look on his face said it all for her, "I thought not," she took a couple of deep breaths before taking his hand, "take me now before I go back into the living room." Hermione felt the familiar sensation of Apparition and then there was noise; lots of it. She opened her eyes to find herself surround by hundreds of people in Diagon Alley. She instantly felt her breath catch in her throat, her heart started to race and her grip tightened dramatically around Oliver's hands.

"I'm not going anywhere," Oliver whispered reassuringly into her ear as she wildly looked around at the people pressing in around her. She found herself searching at everyone's hands, looking to see if they held a wand or if they were reaching for one and if so was it aimed at her? "Hermione, look at me," she slowly turned to her gaze to him, "talk to me about something."

"W-what about?" she asked, her throat dry. She tried to swallow but her throat didn't want to co-operate.

"Anything, think of something," he instructed with a warm smile. She watched his warm brown eyes and made her mind stay on the task Oliver had just set her. She found herself mentally flicking through conversation topics.

"There's, er, a thing I didn't, er, put on the, um, list," she stumbled over the sentence while using all her strength to ignore the people surrounding her and keep her gaze on Oliver's smiling features.

"What is it?" he asked just loud enough for her to hear. Hermione tried to swallow against the roughness but it wasn't helping. Her hands were starting to sweat and she became very aware that Oliver was still holding her hands. She let go of his hands and nervously rubbed her hands dry on her jeans.

"Sorry," she mumbled. He laughed and took her hands back.

"It's okay, now what is it you missed off your list?" She couldn't do it; she began to look around again. She could feel her body begin to shudder with each beat of her heart, she could hear the blood pounding in her ears. Her legs began to shake as she started to fidget on the spot. Oliver pulled on her hands and she glanced back at him. "Your list, Hermione, what's missing off it?" he persisted in his question.

"I c-can't do this, Oliver," she told him, her breath catching with each word, "It's too much."

"I'm not taking you back, I refuse to let you have this fear take you over," he told her in a hard tone. She shook her head as she looked down at their feet. "What is it you need to do that isn't on the list, Hermione?" She ignored him as she took her hands away from him.

"Oliver……this is….." she was gasping for breath now; a panic attack was coming, she could feel it. She started fumbling for her wand but before she could take it out of her pocket Oliver had wrapped her up in a tight hug, her head buried in his chest.

"I'm not letting you go back, not yet anyway," he told her. She could feel him shaking, was it anger? No, that wasn't it, he was shaking because she was. She clung on to him with all her might and took in his scent; it was sweet.

"I…h-haven't……" she felt her breathing begin to slow down, "I haven't seen my parents since Ron's death," she finally managed to tell him. Oliver smiled as he felt her relaxing a little in his arms. He stroked her hair while she kept her face buried in his chest. "I miss them so much but I found it was too painfully to keep them close." He pushed Hermione away and held her at arms length.

"Why?" he asked, making sure Hermione kept her eyes on him.

"Because I was close to Ron and I lost him," she told him tearfully. "Harry and Jenny stayed close because they had magic. I couldn't lock them out, I could with my parents."

"What about Ron's family?" he asked another question. She shook her head, she'd had enough. Her eyes were beginning to wander back to the passing people who were finding them a nuisance just standing there. He nodded in understanding and took her back to her flat.

"How long was that?" Hermione asked with immense relief as soon as she was back in the safety of her living room. Oliver laughed as he looked at his watch.

"Fifteen minutes, nearly," he told her before going into the kitchen to get them some drinks.

"That's fourteen minutes longer than I thought I could stay," she half joked to him. But deep down her fear still had a tight hold of her, every second had felt like a lifetime. Anyone could have hurt them without them being able to protect themselves. And she had to do it again the next day; would she be able to go through all that again?

"I'm very proud of you," Oliver told her proudly as he walked back into the living room and handed her a glass of water. She sat down as she looked at his face and she felt the fear loosen its grip slightly; she would be able to do it again tomorrow because Oliver had faith in her being able to get back into her old life.

"How is that you managed to get me out there at the busiest time in Diagon Alley when Harry couldn't?" she asked him rhetorically, neither one of them could answer that question. "Between him and Jenny, they'd tried at least a dozen times to help me get over this silly fear, but each time Harry ended up with some sort of injury while Jenny would hide before I could get her."

"Wow, you really are one to watch in a temper, aren't you?" he joked as they both settled back on the couch. They sat in a comfortable silence, each making patterns in the condensation on the glass. "You don't think that all this is Catherine and Ron intervening, do you?" Oliver asked uncertainly. Hermione glanced at him thoughtfully while mulling the question over.

"I don't know, to be honest, I've never really thought about things like that," she told him honestly.

"It's just, what are the chances of us meeting up again, even though Harry and I had been on the same team all that time yet we hadn't met before, and having gone through the same sort of experience?" he spoke quickly in a tone that told Hermione he had made up his mind about this.

"I don't know, but you sound like you definitely believe it was down to them," she said with a small smile. He nodded with a goofy grin.

"It makes sense to me because we've really helped each other where the people closest to us couldn't," he spoke excitedly, like he'd just won the Quidditch World cup. She smiled, feeling deep down that maybe he had a point. Oliver leant over and kissed her on the forehead before getting up. "It's time for me to go…..are you sure I still can't get you to come with me?" She nodded.

"These places are something that should stay between you and Catherine, I'd feel like I would be intruding," she explained to him. He gave her a small nod before Disapparating. She slouched down with a sigh hoping that he would be okay by himself. If it had been anything else, she would have been by his side in a heartbeat, but this had to be just his to go through.

An hour later, while Hermione had been making dinner in the kitchen, Oliver had Apparated into her living. She walked in to find him sat on Crookshanks' chair leaning forward with his head in his hands.

"Oliver, what's the matter?" she asked as she rushed over to him and knelt down. He didn't move or answer her. She tried to pull his hands away from his face but his strength overpowered her and he knocked her over so that she was flat on the floor. "Oliver!" she cried as she pushed herself back up onto her knees. It shocked her that he had just done that. Finally he looked at her and she found his face red and damp from crying, she had never seen him like that. She scrambled up to him and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"I miss her so much it feels like I'm being torn in two," he cried into her shoulder. She winced as his arms wrapped painfully tight around her small frame. "I didn't know how much I had locked up until I saw the place I met her."

"Shhh!" she comforted him. She rocked him a little like she would with a child hoping that she could help through this period. She knew it might have brought up some pain, she just didn't realise it would be this bad. Maybe it was just a case of moving backwards before going forwards again.

"Can I stay with you for a bit?" he pleaded with her as he pulled away. She nodded the moment she saw the need in his eyes that were usually so warm but now held nothing but heart wrenching pain. She leant back so that she sat with her legs under her and held on to his hands.

"I…..you….." she couldn't find any words to say to him, "Don't lock it up again," she finally managed to say to him. He nodded slowly, feeling like he was watching himself rather than being there.

"But it was three years ago she died…….three years ago, I shouldn't feel like this now," he told her while the last few sobs left him.

"I don't know why it's hurt you like this, Oliver, maybe it was because you didn't allow yourself to miss her the past three years, I just don't know," she told him dejectedly. She would have given anything right now to help him get through this quickly, but she was lost herself.

"Help me," he begged her. Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes as she knelt back up to hug him.

"We made a deal to stick together, and that's what we're going to do," she reminded him with an extra squeeze.