DISCLAIMER: Still don't own it...just the plot

Sad the way we always seem to pass by one another. Hiding, so afraid of the things we might discover. Caught up in a moment that only you can live in. You never know who's giving the air that you might breathe in.

"Ordinary" by Saving Jane

Chapter 2: Meeting

Hermione walked down the familiar streets of Diagon Alley, taking in all the sights and sounds. Everyone smiled happily at her, the fear the Voldemort once instilled in them gone and their spirits were high once more. It was obvious just by the look everyone wore on their face that there had been a great shift in the wizarding world.

She glanced up and found that she was standing in front of the shop where she had once purchased Crookshanks who had sadly passed away from old age four and a half months ago. He had been her companion when she was lonely and now she was alone once more.

But not for long…

Hermione strode into the store with every intent on purchasing an owl but even her best plans fell awry. She was between two shelves of well behaved owls who were, Hermione thought, showing off when she heard a mangled cry and a woman shout.

"Get back here, you mangy cat, before I hex you clear into tomorrow," an older woman with greying hair and wrinkling skin screamed as she shot off spell after spell out of her wand.

Hermione briefly caught sight of a sleek calico cat as it dodged between owl cages, trying to evade the curses thrown at it. Hermione made up her mind in a split instant and shouted off a disarming spell as she jumped forward to pick up the cat.

"STOP!" Hermione cried desperately, shielding the cat with her arms.

The woman stopped and observed Hermione and the cat held in her arms. "That cat's a menace, I tell ya. Best to let me get rid of it and be done…"

"No!" Hermione interrupted. She looked down at the cat in her arms and found a pair of liquid gold eyes staring back at her, almost pleading. "How much?"

"Ey?" the woman asked disbelievingly. She shook her head as she crossed her arms. "You take that beast off my hands and you can have him for free," she said, walking away from Hermione and waving her hand in the air. "Just don't bring him back."

After nodding in agreement, Hermione re-entered Diagon Alley with the mischievous calico held tightly in her arms. She was trying to decide what she could call the miniature beast. She was going to call him "Hex" since the first time that she saw him, the woman was shooting hexes at him, but that name just didn't really sound right to her. With a smile, Hermione said, "Jinx, I'll call you Jinx."

The cat purred in her arms and rubbed his head against her arm. She took this as a sign that he liked the name and was, in fact, quite comfortable with having her for an owner. Hopefully he was house trained….

Hermione set off back towards the Leaky Cauldron with the intent on dropping her new familiar off before continuing her shopping. The plan, in itself, was good but Hermione's luck had never been good and her timing was even worse for as she rounded a corner, she ran smack into someone.

"Oomph," Hermione mumbled in surprise as she shielded the cat from harm as she went to fall, but two arms shot out and steadied her right before she went down. "Oh…, I'm so very sorr…," she broke off as she looked up and met the eyes of the person standing before her.

XoX

Mrs. Molly Weasley was proud to admit that she had raised seven wonderful children. Yes, she even considered Fred and George to be "well behaved" when they wanted to be and were rather endearing at times. She was also happy to say that she had two other children who she thought of as her own though they had their own families.

They were wonderful children throughout their seven years of Hogwarts, getting themselves into a spot of trouble every now and then. Why, not only had they graduated at the top of their class (Harry and Hermione, of course…Ron was a little ways down the list), but they had also managed to spare time to train other students in Defence Against the Dark Arts and save the world from a powerful and evil wizard.

Now her babies were all grown up and out of school, off chasing their own dreams and starting relationships. Bill and Fleur already had a small son and both Ginny and Ron were expecting children soon. And Harry, dear sweet Harry, was getting ready to be married…

She frowned slightly when she thought of Harry as she peeled a rather odd shaped potato. Yes, she loved Harry like he was her own son, but she rather disapproved of the way he was treating Hermione. Of course she didn't know the whole story, but she did know that, though Hermione fought not to show it, Harry was really hurting her. She only wondered why….

Molly sat the now skinless potato in a bowl of water and wiped her hands on her apron, staring out of the window of the Burrow. A lot had changed over the years, but the Burrow was the one thing that remained the same with only one exception: the children.

With a sigh, Molly took a seat at the knobbly old table and placed her hand under her chin, lost in thought. One day, she hoped, all of her children, biological or not, would return to her with smiles upon their faces…not bickering and ignoring each other. One day she hoped that they would return and become a family once more….

XoX

Harry had his arm in a vice-like grip by Cho as they exited the bridal boutique. While he was trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, she was shouting out and waving at everyone she knew and then some. She loved the attention, glorified in it, while he shrank from it. Popularity was never really his thing.

He sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand as they made their way around the shop, making their way to the Leaky Cauldron where they were going to have a quick drink before heading back to their different homes. However, they soon found that two people were blocking their path.

"Hermione?" Harry choked out as he caught sight of the all too familiar brown eyes and long dark brown hair. His eyes quickly scanned over her, noticing the changes she had gone through over the past year since he last saw her. She looked amazing.

She smiled softly and stepped up beside of her companion, something fuzzy tucked in her arms. "Hello Harry," she said quietly, nodding her head in acknowledgement. She glanced briefly over at Cho but elected not to address the girl whom she rather detested in school.

She let down the thing in her arms and Harry noticed it to be another cat. He briefly wondered what happened to Crookshanks and why she had a new cat…a mischievous looking one at the. But Hermione stopped his train of thought when she took another step closer to the man.

Hermione gestured to the guy standing beside of her. "You remember Blaise Zabini, don't you Harry?"

Harry nodded and cast a look over at the man standing beside of her. He remembered Blaise quite well actually, seeing as he was one of Draco's best friends and had served as best man at the wedding. He also remembered the fact that he had once mentioned he had a crush on Hermione.

Blaise stuck out his hand in a friendly gesture towards Harry. "How are you doing, Harry? Cho?"

Cho's grip, if possible, tightened on Harry as he shook the other man's hand. "We are actually holding up well," she answered for them, "with all the stress that the wedding is adding to our work load."

She got that look which said that she was planning on rambling on about wedding plans and, quite frankly, Harry didn't want to hear it. "What are you doing back in England, Hermione?"

She glanced at him, her gaze going from confusion to unemotional as she answered, "I'm here to visit Ron and Ginny. I told them that I'd come by sometime."

"Ron and Ginny?" he questioned.

"Yeah," she said, raising her chin up defiantly, "I thought I should visit those who thought enough of me to visit me in America."

Harry flinched as if she had slapped him. He knew he deserved her harsh words, probably would have deserved it if she had slapped him. But he couldn't bring himself to apologize to her…not now…

"So you came all the way back to England just to see Ron and Ginny," Cho said sweetly, too sweetly even for her. Harry glanced at her wearily. "How…convenient, for you I mean."

Harry noticed Hermione slowly cross her arms over her chest and take a stance she normally took when her and Ron would bicker. Cho, however, didn't know this simple fact about Hermione and would continue on until she made her point…whatever that may be.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Hermione asked slowly, raising a questioning brow.

Blaise and Harry merely looked back and forth between the two girls as Hermione's gaze grew harder during Cho's answer. "Well," Cho started, "it's just that you've been gone for…what, two years now and you've never bothered before now to visit and now you're here…just after we announced our engagement."

"Funny," Hermione replied dryly, "that you accuse me of coming home for your engagement when I haven't even received any announcement or had my best friend tell me."

"And yet you don't seem surprised," Cho returned with a large fake smile.

"In case you haven't noticed," Hermione spat harshly, "the wizarding community isn't exactly small around here. The Boy-Who-Lived getting married is big news. After all, he's famous and loved by all," she paused before adding, "even if the bride-to-be isn't."

Harry had never seen one of Cho's smiles fall off so quickly. She opened her mouth to retort but Hermione, ever the quick-witted one, beat her to it. "Quite frankly, I don't give a hippogriff's arse that you two are getting married, Cho. Like I said, I came to see Ron and Ginny."

Hermione smiled inwardly, proud that her lie wasn't obvious. She had came to see Harry, to confirm every doubt she held within her very bones. She needed to see that it was true to believe it….maybe she could start to mend her heart now…

"Now, I'm sure you're both very busy…with the wedding plans and all…so, if you'll excuse me, I must be going," Hermione stated before turning to look at Blaise. "Would you like to walk me back to the Leaky Cauldron?"

Blaise smiled at her and held out his arm for her to take. "It would be my pleasure." Hermione scooped up her new cat in one arm and took Blaise's with her other and walked off from the two, fighting every urge not to look back.

XoX

The fire was beginning to dwindle down to a mere flame as Harry sat in front of it, lost in thought, in the wee hours of the morning. He had begged off staying with Cho for the night, saying he had some work to finish and probably wouldn't make it to bed at all. The last part was true since he knew he had a lot to think about, while the first part was just an excuse.

Harry sat back in his chair with a hearty sigh. Hermione was back. It had been easy to avoid the truth when she was in America because he could avoid her. Though he had to suffer from the long and tedious speeches of various Weasley family members, Harry found it easier to just avoid the situation.

He remembered why he had started to avoid her so long ago. Though the truth of the matter had been staring him right in the face for well over five years. However, one night it had all came to light. He remembered it well….

It had been shortly after the defeat of Voldemort and roundup had began for the rogue Death Eater who had eluded capture. Harry had been out on one of those missions when he was confronted by Lucius Malfoy and about three others. The spells had flown and Harry had been hit before taking out them. The damage had been great and some feared if Harry would even make it through the night.

Ron, too, had been hurt so he was in St. Mungo's being treated as well. Hermione was the one who had stayed by his side. She had been the one to cry over him and hold his hand while the spasms of pain made him cry out. She had been the one that wiped the tears from his eyes.

He remembered drifting in and out of consciousness, listening as Hermione's sobs started, then subsided before starting all over again. And then she was there, on the bed beside him, grasping his hand tightly in her own.

"I know you can hear me, Harry," she whispered, "though you can't answer, you can listen. I'll never forgive you if you leave me now, Harry Potter. I can't live without you, I can't wake up and know you're not there. I need you Harry…"

He had tried to open his eyes to answer her, to reassure her, but she started again.

"Ron and I…we're family, but I think I can make it if he were too…well, you know. But you…Gods Harry, you're the blindest person I've ever known, you know that?" Her voice grew soft, serious. "I love you, Harry Potter, I have for a long time and even if I've just ruined our friendship, you need to live…so that I can live too…."

Harry had been released two weeks after that and he briefly registered that Hermione had stayed with him through it all, though she seemed to disappear during his periods of consciousness. He remembered her words, thought of them as he was healing, and avoiding speaking to or of her until he worked out his own feelings.

In the end, Harry had found it easier to just completely ignore the situation and pretend as if he had never even heard her confession. But she knew…he saw the way she looked at him and he took the cowardly way out by distancing himself from her and ultimately killing their friendship. He had hurt her and he was being a "bloody chicken," as Draco liked to say, by running.

Harry took his glasses off and ran a hand over his face. It was official, fate liked to play games with his life and screw him over. But he deserved it; he deserved a lot worse.

So, what were his feelings towards Hermione? He wasn't completely sure really. He, of course, had missed her when she had left, but he 'tried' to replace her with Cho, which had worked for a while….until she had to come back and remind him of all the reasons she had left.

She was his friend, he told himself, and that was why he was so lonely. So what was that weird emotion he felt when he saw her with Blaise?