For xAccioDramionex on the Drabble Request Thread.

Prompts: ErnieHannah & Pinky Promise

She was ranting - she was always ranting. Even at the young age of eleven, Hannah thrived on her rants. Mostly, they were on pointless issues and Ernie tuned himself out with a roll of his eyes. Occasionally, they were on Muggle issues and Ernie, being a curious young bloke, would attempt to console her in order to ask a few questions. Never, however, were they of much concern to him. Her rants, he decided, were just a part of her.

"... and I've told her so many times to get her stuff off my bed," Hannah growled, her fists pounding against the library desk in frustration. She looked up at Ernie, who was absentmindedly flicking through a book, and sighed. "Have you even been listening to me?"

"What?" At this, Ernie shut the book quickly and smiled wryly at her. "Of course I have."

She bit her lip, hoping that the tears wouldn't fall. Why wouldn't anyone ever listen to her? "No, you haven't."

"No, I haven't."

Twirling her pen in her nimble fingers, she gulped. "Well, at least you're nice enough to sit here with me. Susan always tells me to shut up."

Ernie cocked his head to the side. Like any self-respecting boy, he'd always wondered what went on in the girls' dormitories. A part of him had always imagined the exciting option of pillow fights and lacy underwear, or at least, that's what the older boys had told him. But now, half-listening to Hannah, he simply imagined an annoyed Hannah flinging Susan's clothing back her face as Susan screeched at her. Not exactly paradise.

"Susan says that no one will ever be able to put up with me and I'll grow up and be lonely," Hannah continued. "She reckons that no good, money-making bloke will ever take a fancy to me."

"I put up with you."

The words were innocent, yet Hannah's eyes lit up like lanterns. "Ernie, if I grow up and nobody fancies me, you'll marry me, won't you? So that I'm not lonely. And you won't be lonely either. We can get married, have lots of money and live happily ever after."

"Of course I'll marry you," Ernie said. With a look of disgust he added, "All the other girls here are gross - wouldn't want to marry them."

"You pinky promise?" To emphasize her question, she stuck out her pinky and held it in front of him, looking expectantly at him. "Ernie, you have to pinky promise."

Hooking his pinky into hers, he smiled. "I pinky promise."

"And you swear that you won't put all your clothes on my bed?"

He looked confused. "But if we're married, won't we be sharing the same bed?"

"We don't actually have to do that," Hannah compromised. Looking down at their still intertwined fingers, she prompted, "Do you pinky promise?"

"I'll be the best husband ever," Ernie said with a firm nod and determined look on his face.

And then their pinkies dropped, a child's promise hovering in the air.