Disclaimer: None of it mine. All of it Ms Rowling's bar Jenny.
A/N: Just a quick thanks to Gabi, SnapeSeraphin, Data Soong, SongOfStars, Chantal J and Sam and Lady Norskstar. Sorry it's brief but I'm not allowed to say thank you properly due to the new rule. Hope you all enjoy this chapter.
A Hidden Blessing
Oliver was sat in his large, country style kitchen, basking in the sunlight that poured through the large window. They were coming to the end of May and they'd been having glorious weather since April, perfect Quidditch conditions in his opinion. He leant forward on the large oak table mulling things over, he'd been doing a lot of that the past couple of months. He still hadn't been to see Hermione and was still missing her company. He sat back and pulled out a very ragged piece of parchment from his shirt pocket; it was the very same letter Hermione had sent him a while ago.
Every time he had some time to himself, Oliver would pull the letter out and reread what she had put. The letter had stayed with him ever since he'd received it, it was like her words would give him that extra willpower to stay away from her when he felt it was time to go and see her. He couldn't see her yet, even after all this time.
He sighed as he folded it back up and put it away, it had worked again but it wasn't taking away the ever growing guilt anymore. He felt bad that she thought she'd done something wrong, in fact it was cruel to continue to let her think that. If anything, Hermione had been the only right thing in his life since Catherine. No, it was time to put things right with her. But first he had to visit a place he hadn't been to since Catherine's funeral.
Within minutes Oliver was at Catherine's grave and laying some flowers down on it. He felt tears prickle at his eyes as he looked at the dates inscribed into the tombstone. She'd been so young and had barely started her life. He sat down cross legged against the tombstone while trying to keep the tears from falling.
"I'm sorry I never visited," he sobbed while pulling at blades of grass by his side. Now that he was here, he wasn't sure what he wanted to say. He looked around the graveyard and found a couple in the distance walking with their heads bowed. He wondered if they missed whoever they were visiting as much as he missed Catherine. "I'm sorry I've been ignoring you," he whispered as he looked back down at the grass.
After nearly half an hour of sitting in silence and watching insects live their lives in the grass he turned to face the tombstone. He took a breath before talking again, "I still love you and always will, but I need your blessing on something," he started fidgeting again, picking at the flowers he'd put there, "I feel like I'm betraying you, but please understand that I will never ignore you again till the day I die." Oliver sighed as he stopped twisting petals on a daisy, "Is it possible to love two people?"
"Of course it is, Oliver," a female voice he hadn't heard in a while told him from behind him. He spun round on his knees on shock to find Catherine's younger sister there. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" she grinned as she knelt beside him with her own flowers.
"How've you been, Janey?" he asked sincerely as they both sat down cross legged. She shrugged her shoulders with a sad smile. "I'm sorry I never visited, it's just-"
"Don't worry, honey, we all understood. People react to death in different ways," Janey reassured him as she ran a hand through her short blonde hair, "Just try not to be a stranger with us for much longer, you're family too you know." She nudged him in the ribs to reiterate her point. "So who's stole your heart away, Olly?" she asked him with a wink.
"Who said someone had?" Oliver answered her question with a question. She chuckled while leaning forward to pull a dandelion out of the ground. "I feel like I'm doing something wrong," he admitted to her. She looked at him as she shook her head gently.
"Put it this way, if your role was reversed with Cathy, would you want her to never move on and keep mourning you?" Janey asked him rhetorically and continued before he could say anything. "She's probably watching you now and screaming outrageously at you to move on." Oliver smirked slightly as he took in what she was saying.
"So how've you been? How's everyone?" he asked her, not feeling entirely comfortable staying on that subject. Janey took the bait with a smile before answering.
"We're good, Mum and Dad have bought a house in France for the winter months. You know how they moan about how cold it gets here," she looked up to the sky trying to think of everything that had happened in Oliver's absence, "Felicity had a baby two months ago," she remembered suddenly.
"Really? What she had?" Oliver asked, surprised that Catherine's older sister had had a child. When he had last seen her, she refused point blank to be in the same room as a child never mind even having one herself.
"She had a girl. She's called Hermione and she's the tiniest thing I've seen," Janey told him excitedly as she continued to think about other news to report to him. She hadn't even realised that Oliver was gawping at her in mid grass-pulling pose. "Oh, and Albert's getting married – what? Do I have something on my face?" Janey asked while wiping at nothing on her cheeks.
"W-why's the baby called Hermione?" Oliver gulped thinking that it wasn't possible; this couldn't just be a coincidence. Janey frowned at him as she stopped rubbing at her face.
"Oh, erm, wait, I know this, I asked the same thing when I heard the name, it's so unusual," Janey kept 'uming' and 'ahing' while she thought about the reason and then it hit her. "I remember now, there was someone in her work who left a while ago called Hermione and she loved the name. Why'd you ask?" Oliver swallowed against his dry throat thinking that it couldn't be the Hermione he knew.
"Does Felicity still work at the Ministry?" he asked not sure whether to be hopeful or scared. Janey nodded vigorously.
"Of course, she loves that job – Oliver, what is it? You've gone pale," Janey told him with worry coming out in her voice.
"I don't think you would believe me if I told you, but all I'll say is that I think Catherine has just told me to move on," he told her softly before standing up.
"She has?" Janey asked confused as she stood up with him. Oliver hugged her tightly.
"It was good to see you again, Janey, tell everyone I said hello and I'll be visiting soon," he instructed her while she tried to say something, anything to him but he was gone before she could blink.
Hermione sighed while trying to concentrate on her book but was losing the battle. It was extremely warm and outside was calling to her. She placed her bookmark into the joint of the page and snapped her book shut before going to get herself a drink. She needed to do something that exerted her energy or she would be like this all day.
She drummed her fingers on the kitchen counter while she thought about what she could do. She looked around at the cupboards thinking that maybe she should spring clean the flat. Or maybe she could go shopping for Jenny's baby now that it was easier for her to get out and about in large crowds. But those tasks wouldn't be enough to rid her of this excess energy.
Then she remembered the list she'd written for Oliver a while ago, the one where they had to do things that they stopped doing when Ron and Catherine had died. Hermione had done herself a copy even though Oliver was going to be choosing which tasks she did and when, but then he wasn't around to help anymore. Maybe there would be something on there she could do.
With some trepidation, Hermione went to her bedroom and took the list out of the jewellery box that held no jewellery. She couldn't remember what she had put on the list but there were definitely things on it that she wasn't sure if she was ready to do. She sat on the bed, to Crookshanks annoyance, and scanned the list for the easiest thing to do, but then doing everything on it was never going to be easy. She spent a few minutes looking at the parchment and found that her eyes kept returning to the very first thing on it; visit it the Weasleys. Only it wasn't the Weasleys she had in mind, not yet anyway; it was her parents.
After Ron had died, Hermione had literally kept everyone close to her away for fear of feeling that immense pain again. Harry and Jenny had managed to sneak past those barriers but it was only because they had the ability of magic to get to her. Yes, it was time she brought her parents back into her life and she found excitement rushing through her. She had missed them as much as Ron and couldn't wait to see them again.
Making sure that the letter was tucked safely back in its original place and that she looked presentable, Hermione Apparated to her parents' house. She appeared in the living room and instantly heard the familiar ticking of the miniature grandfather clock that sat on the fireplace. She glanced at it to find the time showing that it was ten minutes before they were due home. To while away the time she walked through the house and reacquainted herself with all its characteristics.
She was in her old bedroom looking over all the shelves that filled every available space on the wall when she heard the front door open and their voices floated up the stairs to her. Hermione smiled as she listen to them chat about the patients they had seen through the day as they made their way to the kitchen. She slowly made her way down the stairs, through the living room and stopped at the doorway to the kitchen. She stayed silent as her dad stared into the fridge while her mum took two mugs from the cupboard.
"Tell me, why is it – oh dear lord!" Mr Granger exclaimed once he'd turned and saw Hermione. Time seemed to freeze as Hermione smiled shyly at him.
"What is it?" Mrs Granger asked without turning to see, "It's not another spider, is it? Because you really need to sort that silly fear out," she continued while waiting for the kettle to finish boiling.
"No, honey, it's…." he couldn't continue as he raced over to his daughter and pulled her into a tight hug. Mrs Granger sighed before turning round.
"This is…." her voice trailed off once she saw her husband hugging Hermione.
"Mum!" Hermione wailed as she let go of her dad and hurried to her mother. Mrs Granger hugged her numbly, not really believing that she was back. They'd tried everything to get in touch with her, to be there for her while her heart healed, but she had refused them. And now she was here. Hermione started to cry once her mum's arms wrapped even more tightly around her and her dad joined them.
"See, I knew it! I just knew it!" Jenny bragged excitedly in her husband's face while they were sat at the kitchen table with Oliver. "And I didn't even have to do anything from my plan."
"You see what you've done, Oliver? You've made her impossible to live with," Harry told him sulkily while Jenny bounced like a child in her seat, "And will you keep still before the baby gets dizzy." She immediately stopped and leant in close to Oliver.
"So when does Hermione get to know?" she demanded before flicking her wand and conjuring up three glasses of ice cold pumpkin juice. Oliver gratefully took a long gulp of his drink before answering.
"I don't know, I'm really nervous," he told them honestly and then downed the rest of his drink, "I know I wouldn't talk about Catherine and then I met up with Hermione after all these years and she somehow made me talk about her," he took a deep breath before continuing to babble, "But she had also made me realise that, even though I still miss Catherine and would give anything to have her back, that I've also moved on." He was now gasping and Harry timidly handed him his own drink.
"Oliver, you need to breathe before you collapse from lack of oxygen," Harry instructed but sympathised with him. That was exactly how he had felt when he was ready to ask Jenny to marry him. "It was only going to be a matter of time before someone else came along that you were ready to love."
"Harry's right," Jenny conceded, "that was quite deep for you, by the way," she told Harry as a side note before turning back to Oliver while Harry shook his head in disbelief, "But what's making you really nervous about telling Hermione?"
"He's worried that Hermione isn't quite ready to move on," Harry spoke for him before he could even open his mouth.
"What the man said," Oliver simply said before moving on to Jenny's untouched drink. Jenny frowned as she turned to Harry.
"Where's my husband and what have you done to him?" she asked jokingly. Harry mocked outrage at her before looking back at Oliver.
"All I can say to you, Oliver, is that these past few months we've slowly gotten the old Hermione back. I can't tell you if she is or isn't ready to love someone other than Ron. But all you can do is talk to her," Harry advised him with an encouraging smile.
"However, we can safely say that the Hermione we have back is thanks to you being there for her a while ago," Jenny added while nodding wildly. Oliver smiled weakly while scanning the kitchen for something. "Oliver, we don't drink anything stronger than Butterbeer so stop looking."
"You know this would have been easier for you if you hadn't stopped talking to her. She still thinks she did something wrong," Harry scolded gently and then suddenly snapped his fingers at him. "Is that what you were trying to tell me that time? That you were falling for Hermione and it felt like you were betraying Catherine?" he asked excitedly while Jenny had frozen on the spot to stare at him.
"Really, Harry, all these years together and this is the first time I see this side of you?" Jenny questioned him with a suspicious look. Oliver laughed at the couple, he loved how they interacted with each other, it could always put a smile on his face.
"There's never been a situation like this where you've needed to see this side of me," Harry protested earnestly. Jenny pouted at him before turning back to the matter at hand; Oliver.
"Do we get to know why you suddenly stopped talking to Hermione?" she asked quickly hoping that the question would catch him off guard and she'd finally get to know. She wrinkled her nose when he shook his head at her.
"I need to speak with Hermione before I tell you anymore about what happened," Oliver told her while pointing at the three empty glasses. Jenny flicked her wand causing them to fill up again.
"She's missed you," Harry informed him while quickly taking his, now full again, glass back. Jenny pointed a nodded to show Oliver that it was true what he was saying. Oliver blushed while mumbling something to the table. "Don't feel bad, just go and talk to her. She'd love to just see you, never mind your proclamations of love for her – OMPH!" A sharp elbow has just gone into his side.
"Harry, you're meant to be persuading him to tell her, not give him other things to do before he builds up the courage to tell Hermione," Jenny hissed at him. Oliver dropped his head to the table with a loud bang. "For crying out loud, sit up!" she instructed him sharply, he instantly sat up straight, "You've had enough time to mull this over. Now you tell her or I will continue with my Hermione side of the plan."
"Oliver, get out of my house now before you start up this nonsense," Harry told him while pointing at the backdoor. Oliver sighed, stood up, gulped down his drink and Disapparated. "You'll be the death of me, Jen," he sighed before kissing her on the cheek.