Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended.
Sugarquills and Chivalry
This story is dedicated to Midnight Moonfly, who suggested I write a Justin/Ernie fic and who is wicked nice x)
Justin had learned about many wondrous things when he entered the wizarding world, but it took until third year to find out about the most amazing thing of all.
Sugarquills.
Now, Justin would never call it an addiction, per say. But Ernie would.
It wasn't that Justin ate them that often, it was more the ridiculous amount of money he spent on them at Hogsmeade visits, and the bizarre glee with which he ate them. Ernie swore no one should smile that much while eating candy—there had to be some way you could choke as as result of it.
And now Ernie was poking around the ever over-crowded Honeydukes while Hannah was off at the Magical Menagerie, helping Susan pick out a new owl. He didn't want to be there, really—not because he disliked Honeydukes, or Hogsmeade, in the least, more because he'd rather be at Hogwarts. Justin was ill, and really shouldn't have been out of bed at all, except that morning he was up before anyone in the Hufflepuff common room, ready to head off to Hogsmeade.
"Morning Ernie!"
"Justin, what on earth are you doing awake at this hour?"
"What? It's only six!"
"You're ill!"
"Yeah?"
"Well, it's not exactly something most people ignore!"
"I'm not ignoring it! I was in bed all day yesterday, hardly ate a thing!"
"Exactly! That's how you should spend today, too!"
Justin feigned an offended look. "Hardly eating anything? Ernie, do you think I'm fat?"
Ernie rolled his eyes, "Shut it, Justin. You're perfect, except that you're ill."
"I'm perfect?" Justin repeated this in a small voice, and Ernie couldn't tell if he was mocking him, or genuinely that flattered.
"Yeah, and ill. Now get off to bed."
"But Erns, it's Hogsmeade, remember?" Justin turned away smiling, as if that ended the conversation.
"Justin, nothings more important than your health!" Ernie heard a mutter in reply, but couldn't distinguish the words themselves. "Pardon?"
"Sugarquills, I said."
Ernie argued that Justin should stay at Hogwarts while he looked after him all day, but Justin thought they both ought to go and enjoy some sugarquills. This ended in a compromise, with Ernie offering to go out and buy loads of sugarquills on the condition that Justin stayed behind and rested.
"Right, that'll be ten packs of ice mice, three fizzing whizbees, a tin of strawberry caramel cauldrons, a set of honeycrunch grindylows, and..." the man behind the counter looked at the massive pile of sugarquills. "And..." he tried again, then looked helplessly at Ernie. "I've—I've lost count. D'you remember how many sugarquills that is?"
It was funny, just by wearing his Hufflepuff tie, strangers seemed to trust him more. He wondered if Slytherins were ever jealous.
"Sixty seven, I think. Had to be half the display, so if you remember however many you put out..." Ernie offered.
"Right, that's actually only sixty six, but I'll only charge for fifty, on account of you being so honest."
Ernie thanked the man genuinely and they ended up having a short discussion over why on earth Ernie was buying to many sugarquills before the girl behind him in line coughed a little too loudly, and he bid the man good day.
Justin had told Ernie to stay in Hogsmeade with their friends at long as he wanted, but really Ernie just wanted to be back at the castle. Hogsmeade lost a little magic without Justin there, especially when he was worrying about his condition.
As the large Honeydukes bag levitated beside him, Ernie made his way back to Hogwarts with a smile on his face, remembering his first trip to Hogsmeade in third year.
"There's so much candy!" Hannah said in amazement, her tone soft with awe.
"How're we going to try everything?" Wayne (or "Hoppy," as Hannah had fondly named him) asked a little helplessly.
The group of Hufflepuffs decided each of them would shop in a different section of the store, and buy a bit of whatever looked best. Then they'd all meet up in the Three Broomsticks and pool the candy so everyone could try a bit.
Hannah had accidentally only bought five sugarquills and looked near to tears as Ernie and Justin tried to convince each other to eat the last one.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize, I wouldn't have eaten mine, I'm so sorry..." she kept mumbling and Hoppy and Zacharias consoled her.
"You should have it, I'm practically already full anyway," Justin said with a shrug.
"Justin, you don't have to lie. We've each only had around two candies each anyway, you can't be full. Besides, you like candy better anyway, you should have it," Ernie insisted.
"Why don't you just snap it in half?" Susan offered. The table went silent, except for Hannah, who sniffed a little.
"Why didn't we think of that?" Hoppy said as they all began to giggle.
"Because we're Hufflepuffs?" Susan offered with a crooked smile.
"We aren't stupid," Zacharias pointed out, nose turned up indignantly.
"Yeah, we're just chivalrous," Ernie said, grinning.
"Speaking of which, want to have a row about who gets the top half of the quill?"
Ernie had entered the common room, but it felt a bit like traveling back in time, or at least into some odd dimension where everyone was eleven or twelve. Surely he'd never been that short, he marveled.
"Ernie, what're you doing back?" asked Jin, one of the first years, a little boy with curly black hair.
"Baring gifts, Jin," Ernie said with a grin. The boy looked a bit confused until he pulled the ten packs of ice mice out of his bag and placed them on the dark wooden table in the middle of the common room.
Ernie had to practically pry himself out of the hugs that came from a couple of the more outgoing little Hufflepuffs in order to get to the staircase to the dormitories, but he was still smiling nearly as much as they all were.
When he finally got to the dormitories he had to endure another hug, though this one was a little more welcome and a little less bone-crushing.
"Ernie, you're back so soon! You're not sick too, are you?" Justin pulled back, his hand still on Ernie's arm, studying him up and down with concern.
"No, Hogsmeade was just a bit boring today," he answered, adding 'without you' to the end of the sentence in his head.
"Oh," Justin said, "Sorry to hear that. Did you—did you remember the sugarquills, though? It's alright if you didn't, there's still time for me to go back myself and-"
"You're not going anywhere, Justin, sit back down."
"You remembered?"
"Course I did," Ernie laughed, "You're practically obsessed with the things, how could I forget?"
"I am not obsessed with sugarquills," Justin huffed.
"Well, shame then, I don't know what I'm going to do with sixty six sugarquills," Ernie said with a sigh.
Justin repeated, "Sixty six?" breathlessly, then practically tackled Ernie again with another hug.
After Ernie announced he couldn't breath, and Justin pointed out that talking requires air, they both sat on Justin's bed and began eating the day's spoils.
"You know, you're allowed to have some of the sugarquills," Justin said seriously to Ernie, "I really do love you that much."
Ernie quickly stuffed another strawberry caramel cauldron into his mouth as he felt his cheeks burn a little.
"It's fine," Ernie said once he'd swallowed and the blush had faded, "They're alright, but I like the cauldrons better. Why d'you like them so much, anyway? Half the time they're just pure sugar."
Justin murmured, "'Cause they remind me of you."
Ernie started laughing, but stopped abruptly when he realized Justin hadn't been kidding, and saw that he'd gone a little red.
"Really?"
Justin shrugged, and looked down at his pile of sugarquills. "Ernie I... I know it's a little weird, and... and you can hate me, if you want, I just sort of... sort of 'like' like you, yanno? I don't mean to..." He looked up, hesitantly meeting Ernie's eyes, now red as Ron Weasley, "You understand, don't you? I—I hope we can still be friends."
Ernie laughed again, this time because he realized Justin wasn't joking. "Well, I never thought you'd say that," he said, unable to keep a smile from his face. Justin looked down, ashamed, but Ernie put a hand under his chin and tilted it up.
"Because," he continued, pointedly, "I like you, too." Justin looked at him in disbelief. "And even if I didn't, I'd still be friends with you."
"Honest?" Justin asked, looking a little more assured, but still skeptical.
Ernie pointed at his tie in response. Justin beamed.
Ernie leaned forward and was within about an inch of kissing him when Justin quickly pulled away.
"You—you weren't," Ernie couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence, feeling his cheeks burn.
"No," Justin finished quickly, throwing up his arms, "No, it's just—I'm ill, remember?" Ernie felt the corner of his lips turning up into a smile again. "I don't want to get you sick," Justin added in a small voice.
Ernie said something like, "Worth it," and quickly pecked Justin on the lips before he could protest.
"It's a shame you only bought a few caramel cauldrons," Justin murmured once they'd parted.
"Why?"
"They really do taste nicer."
"Not by much. And anyway, sugarquills remind me of you."
~x~