InsaneJournal

[FICLET] Changes. EM, HA. [PG]
TITLE: Changes.
AUTHOR: Jessi, princessjessia (Disclaimer)
FANDOM: Harry Potter
CHARACTERS: Ernie, Hannah
PROMPT: 096. Writer‘s Choice - Change.
SUMMARY: Even platonic best friends can be hormonal boys too. Mid-90s.
RATING: PG
WORD COUNT: 360
NOTES: Inspired by a brief convo dani_forever and I were having, just something random and cute based on our RP characters. 100 Fic Prompt Table


It is at the feast when the Hat is sorting the newest batch of first years that Ernie Macmillan realizes everything is about to change.

Hannah has always loved Sortings, bouncing with impatience for it to begin, sitting eagerly forward to watch each first year and clapping happily for each new Hufflepuff. In the years before, it was never really a problem if she leaned across him to do it. He's happy to let her do whatever makes her happy, as he likes to see her smile.

This year, though, she is suddenly different. He's not sure how he missed it before this, on the train or in the carriage up to the school, but now he is aware, for the warm weight of that difference brushes his arm and makes his skin jump as thought he were just touched by some spell. Hannah's not a girl anymore, not judging by the curves now under her robes. For the rest of the Sorting, he has to keep very still because she brushes his arm with them three more times.

The meal goes by in a blur of distraction because he keeps looking over at her when he's certain she is looking away, stolen little glances at this change in his very best friend. At one point, he realizes Hannah must have been speaking to him and he wasn't answering the right way, because she is smiling at him in a quizzical way.

"Ernie, may I have the pumpkin juice, please?" she asks and he knows then it must not have been the first time she asked the question. He reaches for the jug and moves to fill her glass, but his hands shake a bit and suddenly, the front of her robes are absorbing the juice he has spilled, clinging to her body in a way that makes his mouth feel far too dry.

"I'm s-sorry, Hannah, I really am," he stammers, but she waves it off with a sweet smile and her open forgiveness. Deep down, though? There's a part of him that isn't sorry at all, not until she starts drying her robes.