Well, they were going to get straight to the point then, Ernie supposed. Which was undoubtedly for the best. Lingering outside the common rooms, even if it seemed to be perfectly legal, was still something to be careful of.
"I didn't," he replied, his voice equally quiet as he turned the page in his Herbology text slowly, having been picked specifically as a logical alibi. He wasn't bad in Herbology by any means, but there was no doubting that Neville was better. In retrospect, he probably should have charmed that note to look like Herbology notes, rather than Muggle Studies, to make the whole thing a touch more flawless.
Really, he should learn to think things through sometime.
"But I found my holiday to be helpful, which I suppose ties in." Ernie didn't really want to say what he'd done, as sleeping for days to avoid nervous breakdown frankly sounded pathetic. But he was silent for another moment, trying to find non-incriminating words to say incriminating things.
Finally, he gave up. "I want to do something. I need to do something helpful." Well, it wasn't perhaps the most subtle of things to say, but at least he tried to compensate by keeping his volume very low.