Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Getting the Girl (Ernie Macmillan)

As some of you guessed, Ernie is the main character of this one shot. I know some of you miss Cedric (so do I!) but don't worry as he's one of the character's that have been requested. But I can't tell you when his next one shot is coming up ~

Before I go on to present the one shot, I'm going to apologise for the long delay between Adrian's and Ernie's one shot. I had a lot of deadlines that I needed to meet, but now that those have passed, I should have time to start posting more regularly again.

I decided to do something a little different for this one - the majority of the one shot is written from Ernie's POV. (I have no idea why, but it's always harder for me to write from a boy's POV and it probably would have been easier to write it as I normally do, but hey, I wanted to try something different). Anyway, I hope you enjoy it ~

Ernie's POV

The yule ball was a massive source of stress for every single male in the castle. Girls were complicated creatures and Merin, was that an understatement. How was I supposed to approach one and ask her to go with me to the yule ball? Especially when the only girl I wanted to ask was the one I'd secretly been crushing on since the start of the year. If she ever knew, she'd probably laugh.

Ok, maybe that was a bit of a stretch.

So she wouldn't laugh, but I'd probably get that smile she reserved for the first years that she found 'cute' in a younger brother sort of way. And Merlin, I did not want to be seen as a brother. What in Merlin's name was I supposed to do in this situation? How was I supposed to gather enough courage to speak her about something that was more than homework?

A hand clapped onto my shoulder with such force that I was pulled from my thoughts. Blinking quickly, I righted myself and looked at the older male who settled down into the seat across from me. Smiling cheekily at me, Cedric settled down into his seat, and gestured between me and the direction that I had been staring in.

She had been sitting there.

"Would you stop that," I hissed quietly, turning my eyes back to my open textbook in an attempt to hide my reddening cheeks.

"I will when you pluck up the courage to ask her to go to the yule ball with you," he responded with a chuckle, kicking my knee gently under the table.

"Courage is for the Gryffindors," I reminded him. "Not for us Hufflepuffs."

"Don't underestimate the badger." He rolled out a piece of parchment. "The honey badger is one of the most fearless creatures on the Earth. So pluck up the courage Macmillan, before one of the other blokes intervenes."

I made a face at him; he made it sound like it was so easy. But then again, for him it probably was. What did Cedric Diggory have to fear when it came to girls? The girls were lining up for even a second of his attention and if he had been any less of a good guy, then he would have played around with his fair share of girls. But he hadn't.

"You say that like it's so incredibly simple," I remarked as movement from the corner of my eye made me look away from him momentarily.

She had risen from her table, packing her stuff as she spoke to Hannah. Hannah, as if she could feel the weight of my eyes, looked up to give me a sly wink before leading her out of the library. I buried my face into my hands; was Hewitt the only person in the entire house who didn't know about my crush on her. I hated this bloody yule ball - whoever decided to make it a tradition could go and drown in the Black Lake.

"Don't be so overdramatic," Cedric admonished and I looked up to see the smile on his face. He was enjoying this. "Trust me this once and pluck up your courage. You never know what might happen."