For Fanfiction Idol Round 2. Inspired by song lyrics from Toy Story 2. Reviews appreciated :)
He should have known how things would go. He should have known from the moment they pinky swore that night in his backyard. But they were seven and naïve and they had not yet learned that promises were made to be broken.
Ernie and Hannah were lying on the ground in the yard looking up at the stars while the grownups finished their wine in the house. They had gotten bored and decided to go out and see if there were any shooting stars to wish upon. Then Ernie made his mistake. He turned to Hannah and said, "Promise that this won't ever change. Promise that you'll always be my best friend."
She held out her hand and they promised with their pinkies and sealed their fate.
It seemed that they would be inseparable from then on. Summer holidays were spent at each other's houses. Their parents got on well and so it was very often that Hannah would be at Ernie's house for dinner or Ernie would be at Hannah's house for tea. And whenever it got dark they would stargaze and talk about what Hogwarts would be like and Chocolate Frog cards and what they wanted to be when they grew up.
They went on to go to Hogwarts and they were even in the same house. And it appeared that they would both keep their promise to each other. Or rather that Hannah would keep her promise to him. But perhaps Ernie was a wishful thinker.
Perhaps walking together to Herbology meant more to him than it did to her. Perhaps she thought he was only offering to help with her homework as a friend. Perhaps she never realized that he thought of her as more than a friend, or even a best friend.
They went to the Yule Ball together after all. One would think she would suspect something. But the night off rather well and she didn't seem to take too much notice of how he complimented her dress, or the nervous way he asked her to dance, or the way he almost leaned in to kiss her cheek goodnight but then thought better of it. What if he had?
Maybe then she would forget all about Cedric Diggory and his good looks. Then later she would forget all about how Cedric died bravely and at his funeral Ernie would have his arm around her as her boyfriend and not her friend who was consoling her while she mourned the boy she had a crush on.
After that year, things weren't the same. They still had class together. They went to Dumbledore's Army meetings together too. But Ernie thought that perhaps part of Hannah had broken that night she saw Cedric's lifeless face on the ground. Summer holidays were no longer spent at each other's houses. They exchanged letters but hers became shorter and shorter.
Their sixth year came and tragedy struck. After she had been taken out of Herbology and never came back, he found her in the common room with her things packed, waiting for someone to take her back home. He let her grieve on his shoulder. But when she went home to bury her mother, she never responded to his letters save for a yearly Christmas card.
He should have known, he thought bitterly. He looked down at the wedding invitation. Her wedding invitation. To Longbottom.
He sighed in frustration and resisted the urge to crumple up the fancy stationary and throw it into the trash. Instead he tied his R.S.V.P. to his owl's leg and let it go.
He would go to her wedding no matter how much it might hurt him, because he just couldn't stay away. He would sit by the aisle and he wouldn't even look at her while she walked down it. He'd be watching Longbottom's face and wonder if he knew what a lucky bastard he really was. Then he would watch Hannah make a promise that she would keep this time.
Because wedding vows are forever and pinky swears only matter when you're seven.