XIV
Shut Up, Kiss Me.

-x- Ernie McMillan & Hannah Abbott –x-

'I want to take you far
From the cynics in this town
And kiss you on the mouth
We'll cut our bodies free
From the tethers of this scene
Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change.'

As she sat miserably alone by the smouldering Common Room fire, twisting bits of parchment into semi-interesting shapes before flicking them into the dying flames, Hannah let loose an almighty sigh, shivering slightly in the bitter cold that was closing in around her. Not bothering to even pull her wand out to restart the fire, she hung her head, letting her limply curling blonde hair fall over her face, hiding her wet eyes from view.

She was just getting herself worked up for a good cry when someone plonked themselves down beside her to her right, draping a blanket around her shoulders. Looking up through her long blonde tendrils, she saw a concerned looking Ernie McMillan watching her intently, waiting for the right moment to speak.

'What do you want?' she asked abruptly, turning away from him and wiping her eyes embarrassedly.

A little taken aback, he dithered for a moment; words of comfort weren't his strong point, but he could tell she so desperately needed some kind of reassurance…

'I just… I just wanted to make sure you were all right,' he said quietly with an abrupt little cough, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

'I just got dumped by my boyfriend Ernie, but I'm fine. Really,' she said roughly, in a tone that was hard to decipher.

Cringing, Ernie made to speak, but the words flew right out of his head and he was left with a stupid sounding 'Oh?'

Sighing, she turned away again, really not up to coping with Ernie and his pompous but awkward ways. He noticed this and felt his stomach wrench a little. It was pathetic, he was a Prefect and most likely in line for Head Boy next year and yet he couldn't even find some simple words to comfort his best-friend.

'H-Hannah… I'm sorry,' he said trying again, stammering slightly, and apologising not only for her having been ditched by Justin Finch-Fletchley, but also for his lack of decent comforting skills.

Smiling wryly, she took the blanket and with shaking fingers, wrapped half of it around his shoulders so that they were sharing it – a silent gesture of thanks. They sat like that for what felt like ages, ages in which he seemed to be fighting some sort of urge he couldn't quite place… it was strong, that much he knew, and it seemed to have something to do with the girl he now had his arm around, but exactly what it was, he couldn't quite tell.

Quite frankly, it was unnerving.

Ernie was the sort of person that liked to have everything just-so and in order; liked to have everything make sense and seem logical… and whatever this urge was, it was definitely not making sense and didn't seem to be following the rules of even the simplest of logic.

'He… he said he thought we'd be better off as friends,' Hannah whispered hoarsely after a while with a hearty sniff, 'he said that he didn't think he liked me as anything more than a friend, that he never really had…'

Ernie frowned.
'He really said that?'

'Mmhmm,' she mumbled tearfully, before beginning to sob loudly into his shoulder, her long fingers gripping his robes so tightly that her slender knuckles turned white.

Aghast, unsure and feeling rather like an idiot, he looked down at her head of soft blonde waves, wishing like he had so many times before, that he wasn't such a complete novice when it came to girls. Instinct seemed to tell him to let her cry it out on his shoulder, however, so he merely sat there, his arm still around her awkwardly as she howled miserably.

'I-I.. what k-kind of b-boy s-says th-that kind of th-thing to a g-g-girl he's b-been with fo-for a y-year?' she sobbed in a somewhat muffled fashion into his shoulder.

'Hannah, he's just a pathetic excuse for a man, honestly, you're better off without him,' Ernie replied without thinking, starting with surprise when he'd finished letting his mouth run away with him.

'B-but what if-if it's me?' she wailed, pulling away from him and facing him with a blotchy, tear-stained face, her blue eyes swollen and puffy, 'W-what if I'm ju-just too ugly or s-something?'

'Ugly?' he cried, astounded, 'why on earth would you think that? You're beautiful!'

Again, Ernie had let his mouth run away with him… it was starting to become a real problem. Or so he thought…

'Y-you really th-think so?' she hiccoughed, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her robes and blushing slightly.

'Erm, yes, yes I do,' he said with a small smile, and encouraged to see that she seemed to be slightly more cheerful, he decided to just say whatever came to his head, 'look, Finch-Fletchley's an idiot if he doesn't realise how wonderful you are, honestly Hannah, its his loss, I promise you. Why, if I was dating you I wouldn't want to let you go.'

So maybe that hadn't been such a good idea after all…

Hannah stared at him, her jaw dropped and cheeks decidedly red.
'Ernie, I… I don't know what to say.'

'Nothing,' he replied firmly, finally managing to get a grip on himself, 'no, best to say nothing at all, do excuse me by the way, I don't know what came over me.'

Horrified, he immediately wished he hadn't said that either when her face crumpled and she began to cry again, howling something about being so ugly that even he took back his own confession.

'No! No! That's not what I meant!' he cried, panicking now, 'I meant it, I just didn't want to sound as if I was coming on too strong, after all you've only just broken up with Justin!'

Her howls quietened down a little after he'd said this and she looked at him with a curious expression, made slightly more hard to read by the blotchiness of her face. And then, to his complete and total astonishment, she leant forward and pressed her lips to his in a salty, albeit slightly wet, collision, that was ironically the sweetest moment of his life to date.

She held him there for a moment before pulling away, her face flushed but with pleasure, not embarrassment… there was no regret on her face at all, much to his amazement.

He stared at her, flabbergasted, before stammering pathetically.
'I well, I just… well, I say!'

'No, don't,' she said quietly as she leant forwards again, 'there's no need to say anything at all…'

A/N: lyrics used - "Brand New Colony" by the Postal Service.