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1000ways_huffle General Character Fanfiction Challenge.
Title: Dinner for Two
Prompt: Hufflepuff girl/Ravenclaw girl/candlelight (I had a friend give me numbers over the YIM so that I could play, too!)
Characters for prompt: Rose Zeller, Luna Lovegood
Word Count: 1343
Rating: PG
Author’s Note: I wanted to pair Rose (someone we know next to nothing about) with Ernie (of whom we know a lot) but had to take some license with the couple. For instance, I know that Ernie’s Seventh Year probably won’t be a time to sit around and talk about Quidditch but I’m going to assume that it is. In my world, it’s not creepy that an 18 year old finds a 13 year old interesting but it’s still creepy that a teacher would cope a feel. ‘Nuff said.
Rose hated being shy. Ernie Macmillan had once told her that a good Hufflepuff, while being loyal, patient and true, also needed to be able to talk. She had wanted to trip him at the time, still did as a matter of fact, but had just sank lower in the cushions of her favorite chair. Every time she sat on that particular sofa, she thought of his words. It was the exact moment she fell in love with Ernie.
Of course, it was also the moment she grew so painfully shy of him that she could barely breath when he was nearby. When he’d been a prefect, she’d been able to duck away in time so that she didn’t swoon at his feet with… well, lust, really. This year, his last year, he was Head Boy and seemed to be everywhere she was. At lunch today, he’d sat down across from her and smiled, asking how her day was going. She’d come up with an appropriate response, but not before choking on her soup.
Now she was in the library, attempting to study while not paying attention to Ernie. She had thought she was getting away from him but he’d walked in fifteen minutes ago, dropped his book bag on the bench next to Justin and proceeded to talk non-stop about the Quidditch match coming up. From what she could tell from her vantage point through her lowered lashes, no one was listening to him. Oddly enough, he didn’t seem to care.
“Ernie likes girls who are quiet,” Luna Lovegood announced as she sat down next to Rose at the Hufflepuff table. “That’s probably why he’s obsessed with you.”
Rose thought about asking Luna about her statements but instead went with the important question. “You do know this is the Hufflepuff table, don’t you?”
Luna’s giggle was chilling; the halting trill running through Rose’s ears, around her brain and down into the pit of her stomach where it sat up camp for the duration of the evening. “Of course I know what table this is. I’ve been here long enough to figure that out without needing a map. Would you like help with your answer to number 3? You got it wrong.”
Pushing the papers under her book, Rose tried to figure out what she’d done wrong to deserve this kind of torment. She’d done all her homework this week, she’d been polite to Professor Flitwick when he’d bumped into her yesterday (that little man gave her the willies by putting his hands on parts of her that weren’t at all appropriate but she was willing to call it an accident if he was), and she’d actually thanked the house elf who’d brought in the wood for the common room fire this morning.
“I know a lot about Ernie Macmillan,” Luna sighed, tilting her head as if she was trying to get a different view of life just by changing her perspective. “We had a thing a couple of years ago but it’s over now. We’re better at being friends than dating, which is nice because he’s a very good friend.”
“That’s great.” Rose tried edging away slowly but Luna just followed her down the bench. If she kept going, she was going to run into Wayne. He was another silent type, same as her, but he was also a friend of Ernie’s. Now was not the time to do something stupid and call attention to herself. She already felt silly with Luna sitting beside her like they were the best of friends. It might look as if she wanted to get information from Luna about Ernie. That would never do.
“Do you like him?” Luna asked, catching her off guard once again. No one else asked these kinds of questions. Not normal people, anyway.
Decency made her answer, though. It would have been impolite to say nothing. “He’s a nice boy.”
“Nice?” Luna laughed this time, replacing her irritating giggle with something resembling a normal person’s laugh but still failing to live up to the sound. “He’s a prideful prick with a god complex. He’ll talk most people into a coma before they can run away fast enough and then-“
Rose clamped a hand on Luna’s arm, frightened of her own anger toward the girl. “I don’t generally allow people to talk about my friends that way. He may be all those things but he’s still a Hufflepuff. Only we can call him a prick with a god complex.”
“And we do,” Justin chuckled from behind her. “Let go of the Ravenclaw, Rose. She didn’t mean it.”
Rose’s blood ran cold as she realized she’d succeeded in making a scene. Her voice, usually low and unobtrusive, had been a little louder this time. Okay, a lot louder. Turning around slowly, she saw that Justin and Wayne were grinning at her as if she’d just done the funniest thing they’d ever seen. Ernie was nowhere to be found. She didn’t wait around to see how everyone else reacted.
It didn’t take long to find out just how fast the story of her outburst was traveling around the school. Gillie and Margaret walked into the room and promptly ran over to her hiding place to make sure she was okay. Of course, she wasn’t okay. A Third Year doesn’t yell at a Sixth Year because of a Seventh Year. If that wasn’t an offense to bring the Head Girl after her (because she firmly believed that Ernie would never want anything to do with her ever again), she didn’t know what was. Frankly, she deserved whatever happened.
She let the rest of the house go to dinner before she dared leave her room again. It was safer that way. The common room was dark except for the flickering fire in the grate.
“I wonder if I can convince a house elf to bring me a sandwich,” she murmured to herself. She had heard there was pot roast tonight. She loved pot roast.
“Wouldn’t you rather have something a little more substantial?”
Candlelight suddenly flickered from the table in the corner and Rose found herself hiccupping as her body attempted to regulate her breathing once again. “What do you have?”
Ernie grinned as he walked over to her, taking her hand in his as she refused to move on her own. “I heard you like pot roast.”
Rose didn’t remember much about the next half hour except that the plate of food was still warm and the candles were blue. When she didn’t say anything, Ernie started talking about Quidditch and didn’t stop until she pushed the plate away with a sigh of satisfaction.
“Had enough?”
She blushed as she dabbed at her lips with her napkin. “Yes, thank you. How did you find out I liked pot roast?”
“I know a lot about you.” When he smiled, Ernie looked older. It was odd to notice that for the first time but he no longer looked like a Head Boy with pimply skin and instead like a man completely at peace with his surroundings.
“I’m only thirteen,” she reminded him, wishing she wasn’t. If her parents had gotten married five years earlier, they would have had her older brother sooner which means that her conception would have been bumped up as well. How she wanted to find a way to travel through time and convince a couple of fourteen year olds that marriage could be a wonderful thing at that early age.
Ernie nodded solemnly, his smile disappearing and the Head Boy coming back. “And I’m a lot older. But I think we can be friends.”
“Interesting. Friends who have candlelight dinners?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Rose decided then and there that she owed Luna – big time. While she didn’t know exactly what the other girl would accept as a present for her role in this strange and lovely experience, she wanted it to be special. And while she was shopping, she’d make sure to get some yellow candles so that Luna could have hers back.
1000ways_huffle General Character Fanfiction Challenge.Title: Dinner for Two
Prompt: Hufflepuff girl/Ravenclaw girl/candlelight (I had a friend give me numbers over the YIM so that I could play, too!)
Characters for prompt: Rose Zeller, Luna Lovegood
Word Count: 1343
Rating: PG
Author’s Note: I wanted to pair Rose (someone we know next to nothing about) with Ernie (of whom we know a lot) but had to take some license with the couple. For instance, I know that Ernie’s Seventh Year probably won’t be a time to sit around and talk about Quidditch but I’m going to assume that it is. In my world, it’s not creepy that an 18 year old finds a 13 year old interesting but it’s still creepy that a teacher would cope a feel. ‘Nuff said.
Rose hated being shy. Ernie Macmillan had once told her that a good Hufflepuff, while being loyal, patient and true, also needed to be able to talk. She had wanted to trip him at the time, still did as a matter of fact, but had just sank lower in the cushions of her favorite chair. Every time she sat on that particular sofa, she thought of his words. It was the exact moment she fell in love with Ernie.
Of course, it was also the moment she grew so painfully shy of him that she could barely breath when he was nearby. When he’d been a prefect, she’d been able to duck away in time so that she didn’t swoon at his feet with… well, lust, really. This year, his last year, he was Head Boy and seemed to be everywhere she was. At lunch today, he’d sat down across from her and smiled, asking how her day was going. She’d come up with an appropriate response, but not before choking on her soup.
Now she was in the library, attempting to study while not paying attention to Ernie. She had thought she was getting away from him but he’d walked in fifteen minutes ago, dropped his book bag on the bench next to Justin and proceeded to talk non-stop about the Quidditch match coming up. From what she could tell from her vantage point through her lowered lashes, no one was listening to him. Oddly enough, he didn’t seem to care.
“Ernie likes girls who are quiet,” Luna Lovegood announced as she sat down next to Rose at the Hufflepuff table. “That’s probably why he’s obsessed with you.”
Rose thought about asking Luna about her statements but instead went with the important question. “You do know this is the Hufflepuff table, don’t you?”
Luna’s giggle was chilling; the halting trill running through Rose’s ears, around her brain and down into the pit of her stomach where it sat up camp for the duration of the evening. “Of course I know what table this is. I’ve been here long enough to figure that out without needing a map. Would you like help with your answer to number 3? You got it wrong.”
Pushing the papers under her book, Rose tried to figure out what she’d done wrong to deserve this kind of torment. She’d done all her homework this week, she’d been polite to Professor Flitwick when he’d bumped into her yesterday (that little man gave her the willies by putting his hands on parts of her that weren’t at all appropriate but she was willing to call it an accident if he was), and she’d actually thanked the house elf who’d brought in the wood for the common room fire this morning.
“I know a lot about Ernie Macmillan,” Luna sighed, tilting her head as if she was trying to get a different view of life just by changing her perspective. “We had a thing a couple of years ago but it’s over now. We’re better at being friends than dating, which is nice because he’s a very good friend.”
“That’s great.” Rose tried edging away slowly but Luna just followed her down the bench. If she kept going, she was going to run into Wayne. He was another silent type, same as her, but he was also a friend of Ernie’s. Now was not the time to do something stupid and call attention to herself. She already felt silly with Luna sitting beside her like they were the best of friends. It might look as if she wanted to get information from Luna about Ernie. That would never do.
“Do you like him?” Luna asked, catching her off guard once again. No one else asked these kinds of questions. Not normal people, anyway.
Decency made her answer, though. It would have been impolite to say nothing. “He’s a nice boy.”
“Nice?” Luna laughed this time, replacing her irritating giggle with something resembling a normal person’s laugh but still failing to live up to the sound. “He’s a prideful prick with a god complex. He’ll talk most people into a coma before they can run away fast enough and then-“
Rose clamped a hand on Luna’s arm, frightened of her own anger toward the girl. “I don’t generally allow people to talk about my friends that way. He may be all those things but he’s still a Hufflepuff. Only we can call him a prick with a god complex.”
“And we do,” Justin chuckled from behind her. “Let go of the Ravenclaw, Rose. She didn’t mean it.”
Rose’s blood ran cold as she realized she’d succeeded in making a scene. Her voice, usually low and unobtrusive, had been a little louder this time. Okay, a lot louder. Turning around slowly, she saw that Justin and Wayne were grinning at her as if she’d just done the funniest thing they’d ever seen. Ernie was nowhere to be found. She didn’t wait around to see how everyone else reacted.
It didn’t take long to find out just how fast the story of her outburst was traveling around the school. Gillie and Margaret walked into the room and promptly ran over to her hiding place to make sure she was okay. Of course, she wasn’t okay. A Third Year doesn’t yell at a Sixth Year because of a Seventh Year. If that wasn’t an offense to bring the Head Girl after her (because she firmly believed that Ernie would never want anything to do with her ever again), she didn’t know what was. Frankly, she deserved whatever happened.
She let the rest of the house go to dinner before she dared leave her room again. It was safer that way. The common room was dark except for the flickering fire in the grate.
“I wonder if I can convince a house elf to bring me a sandwich,” she murmured to herself. She had heard there was pot roast tonight. She loved pot roast.
“Wouldn’t you rather have something a little more substantial?”
Candlelight suddenly flickered from the table in the corner and Rose found herself hiccupping as her body attempted to regulate her breathing once again. “What do you have?”
Ernie grinned as he walked over to her, taking her hand in his as she refused to move on her own. “I heard you like pot roast.”
Rose didn’t remember much about the next half hour except that the plate of food was still warm and the candles were blue. When she didn’t say anything, Ernie started talking about Quidditch and didn’t stop until she pushed the plate away with a sigh of satisfaction.
“Had enough?”
She blushed as she dabbed at her lips with her napkin. “Yes, thank you. How did you find out I liked pot roast?”
“I know a lot about you.” When he smiled, Ernie looked older. It was odd to notice that for the first time but he no longer looked like a Head Boy with pimply skin and instead like a man completely at peace with his surroundings.
“I’m only thirteen,” she reminded him, wishing she wasn’t. If her parents had gotten married five years earlier, they would have had her older brother sooner which means that her conception would have been bumped up as well. How she wanted to find a way to travel through time and convince a couple of fourteen year olds that marriage could be a wonderful thing at that early age.
Ernie nodded solemnly, his smile disappearing and the Head Boy coming back. “And I’m a lot older. But I think we can be friends.”
“Interesting. Friends who have candlelight dinners?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Rose decided then and there that she owed Luna – big time. While she didn’t know exactly what the other girl would accept as a present for her role in this strange and lovely experience, she wanted it to be special. And while she was shopping, she’d make sure to get some yellow candles so that Luna could have hers back.
