"Ernie come on! Climb up here!"

Five-year-old Ernie pulled himself up the tree as fast as he could. He squeezed himself between two branches and toppled onto the platform of the big tree house. Susan and Hannah yanked him up and all three of them stood on the platform, laughing happily.

"Ernie! Susan! Hannah! Get down here this instant!"

The children stuck their tongues out at the girl who'd yelled at them. "We can see much better from up here Stella," Susan called out to her.

"You little imps, come down right now. You know you're supposed to be on your best behaviour for your Cousin Anne's wedding, Susan," Stella shouted. She glanced nervously over her shoulder. At fifteen, she'd been considered old enough to be put in charge of minding the children until the ceremony was over but they'd run off into the grounds surrounding the Bones' mansion as soon as they'd got the chance.

"Get up here and take us down then," Hannah taunted.

Stella stomped her foot impatiently. "I can't ruin my dress. You wait till your mother sees the state of your clothes, Hannah Abbott, you'll have it then."

"But it's so much fun up here, Stella. You should climb up. Who cares about clothes?" Ernie sounded genuinely confused as to why clothes were more important than the amazing feeling of being in a treehouse to Stella.

"There are more important things than just having fun when you grow up!" Stella shouted. She turned and hurried away in search of an adult to help her with the children.

All three of them looked at each other, horrified by Stella's words. Ernie held out his hand to the two girls, his face solemn. "Let's promise never to grow up. It sounds awful."

Susan and Hannah took his hand, equally solemnly. "I promise," they said together.

Susan and Hannah ran down the meadow, racing each other to the stables at the bottom of the Abbott family grounds. The girls squealed as Ernie tackled them both from behind and sent all of them tumbling through the grass. They came to a stop as a tangled mess of little limbs in a patch of daisies, laughing hard.

"I saw David Gardner giving Stella a rose yesterday," Susan said as she ran her hand over a daisy. "She blushed like mad and kissed him." She wrinkled her nose.

Hannah and Ernie shuddered. "That's weird. Why do grown-ups do that?" Ernie asked with the disgust only an eight year old boy can muster up at the mention of kissing.

"Because it was Val-en-tynes Day yesterday. Stella told me." Susan looked proud of herself for having pronounced the big word correctly.

"What's that mean?" Hannah asked.

"I think all the grown-ups have to kiss if they like each other and give each other flowers and dress up and go out for dinner."

"It's a good thing we're not grown-ups then," Ernie declared.

"I think it's their way of having fun," Hannah said wisely.

Ernie picked two daisies and handed one to each girl. "Here, I like you both so we should celebrate Val-en-tynes Day too. Maybe friends can have their own things to do on that day. Let's play tag! It's a lot better than dressing up and going out for dinner."

"Okay!" Susan agreed, getting to her feet and bouncing on the balls of her feet, ready to run.

"We should do this every Val-en-tynes Day," Hannah declared as she shoved Ernie. "Tag! You're it!"

A shriek of laughter rose over the din in the Three Broomsticks. Susan and Hannah clutched each other while Ernie grinned at them, his Butterbeer moustache curling elegantly at the corners of his mouth.

"Look at this one," he said, dipping his finger into the drink and drawing on his face. The girls laughed harder as he twisted his face into a series of hilarious expressions, each one supplemented by a moustache more ridiculous than the previous.

Finally, he wiped his face and took a sip of his Butterbeer. Hannah wiped her eyes while Susan subsided into quiet, occasional giggles. "Oh that was lovely, Ernie," Hannah said. "I needed that laugh."

"Me too," Susan agreed. "What with Umbridge and everything else going on these days, it was nice to act like silly kids again."

"We made a promise never to grow up, remember?" Ernie said, smiling. "We're always going to act like little kids, no matter how old we are."

"Even though we don't think kissing is gross anymore?" Hannah said, smirking.

"Yeah I guess there are some parts to growing up that aren't so bad."

"Hey, I brought this for you."

Hannah looked up at the daisy that Ernie was holding out to her. She took it slowly, turning it over and over in her fingers.

Ernie sat down beside her and cleared his throat. "How are you?"

She shrugged.

"You didn't miss much," he continued. "Charms has been easy and you should find Herbology fine too. Defence has been pretty awful though. Snape's just proving that he can make us hate just about any subject."

"Hmm," was Hannah's reply.

"You missed the Gryffindor's Quidditch tryouts. They were quite funny really, but Potter's a good leader. He proved that last year though, didn't he? Put together a good team though. He's been getting a lot of attention from the girls this year. I think he doesn't quite know what to do with it. He looks more confused than ever," Ernie said, hoping to make Hannah smile.

She simply nodded.

Ernie sighed mentally. He didn't know what to say to make her feel better. What could you possibly say to someone whose mother had been killed by Death Eaters? "I was thinking," he said, "this summer, we can all go to that cabin my parents have in Scotland. Just you, me and Susan. It'll be just like the old times; we can have some fun, get our mind off things, be kids again for a while – "

"It's not Valentine's Day," Hannah interrupted him abruptly. Ernie looked confused so she elaborated. "Why'd you bring me a daisy?"

"I don't know. I thought it might cheer you up, you know? I thought it might remind you of better times and that I still like you very much. You're still my best friend. I figured you'd be feeling like everything's changed now and I thought this would be something familiar – something to remind you that some things don't have to change, they can be the same way they were when we were kids."

"We were, weren't we? Kids I mean." Hannah looked at him and Ernie was surprised at the cold, steeliness of her eyes. "We were silly, Ernie. We can't stay kids forever. At some point, just ignoring everything and doing something silly doesn't change reality. It's getting tough out there. I'm going to be of age next summer and so is Susan. If you think we're going to be relaxing somewhere in Scotland instead of fighting, you're in for a surprise."

She stood up and walked to the door that led to the girls' dormitories. "We can't be kids forever," she said before disappearing into the passage.

Ernie sighed and ran his and through his hair. Childhood friends, that's what they'd been. Hannah, Susan and he had known each other since they were old enough to run around. But Hannah had left the daisy on the table. She'd refused to take a reminder of her childhood; she'd left it behind.

And she'd left Ernie behind with her childhood too. She'd grown up.

Maybe it was time he did too.

Please review :)

This is for the semifinals of the Quidditch League fanfiction competition. The prompts used were: Valentine's Day, The three broomsticks and "we were, weren't we?"