Maturity
Sans pigtails, Hannah reminds him of her mother.)
Disclaimer: I am not trying to say that I thought up Harry Potter and all of his adventures. If I was, this would be on FictionPress. As it isn't . . . well, duh. JK does.
Warning: Dead depressingness compressed into three one-hundred word drabbles, Hufflepuffs, and that seldom-used word "abettor."
They got the news late at night, which should not surprise. Darkness is an abettor to murderers. He had awoken from a strange dream involving a quill that unwrote words when he heard her scream. He had not heard her scream since fifth year ended, since the DA, but recognised it easily. But it was different from the panicky one that had escaped her before the OWLs, different from the giggly one that she had for a laugh, different from any scream from any person he could remember. She sounded as if her soul were being ripped out of her.
- - - - -
He knocked on the girls' dorm door as hard as he could, shouting her name, hoping to wake the whole house. Susan opened it with a shocked look on her face. Behind her, he saw Hannah steadily tearing apart a letter, giving a shuttering gasp at every shred. It took him a few times before he realised that she was repeating the same word over and over again, with growing desperation. When the letter pieces were too small for even the most obsessively avid puzzle-lover, she looked up at him, her face so pale and empty, and sobbed it. "Mum."
- - - - -
The couch seemed so large when Hannah was stretched out across it, with her head resting on his lap. They had run out of words very quickly, so quickly that he could not think of what they had even tried to say. Her hair seemed so long and mature, free from pigtails, tripping down his robes, brushing his feet in a motion that could've tickled if she wasn't in so much pain. He carefully took a hold of the hair that hung across her closed eyes and placed it so he could see her. She reminded him of her mother.
Yay! I now officially ship Ernie/Hannah. I know that it's unlikely that they sent her a letter to tell her that her mother died, but I guess not impossible. I like the rest of the story too well to make a go at changing the whole thing, so you'll have to accept it as is.
(Postscript: If you didn't notice, this drabble collection has a pattern in the which characters are at the center. A lesser-known character (Neville) -- Hermione/Ron -- Harry -- Hermione/Ron -- Lesser-known characters (Hannah/Ernie) Whee! Maybe now that I've got the hang of this thing, the next ones I post will get reviewed!)
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