Author's Note: Written for…
Ultimate OTP Competition. Prompt: a failed attempt at baking.
The Big Four-Oh
Hermione made sure to drive as slow as legally possible on her way home from work on the nineteenth of September. She came to a complete stop at every stop sign, allowed everyone to pass her, and even stopped at a convenience store to pick up some completely non-essential items.
Even after all that, she was still pulling into her driveway at six-thirty with hours to spare until her birthday was over.
Normally Hermione didn't mind celebrating her birthday. Age had never been a concern of hers, even if she was turning forty. Any other year she would've been eagerly ripping open gift boxes and playing party games, but would be the first year she intended to spend her birthday alone.
She sat in the car for fifteen minutes, staring at the big house and pretending there was someone inside to wish her a happy birthday. Suddenly she regretted not accepting Severus' offer to move into his Hogwarts rooms for the school year. She thought she'd be fine, as she had been all the years before, only seeing him during weekends and holidays. She hadn't counted on sending her youngest off to school and leaving her with an empty house to come home to each night.
"Should've let Ginny take me to dinner," she grumbled, unlocking the front door and stepping inside.
The smell of something burning had Hermione running to the kitchen in seconds, worried she'd left the stove on from that morning. The sight of her husband, sans fire, relieved some of her worry and replaced it with confused.
Severus Snape standing in her kitchen wearing her best and brightest yellow apron, attempting to evenly coat an unfortunately darkened cake in pink frosting with all the concentration one might use to defuse a bomb. And on a school day too, no less.
"What on earth are you doing?" she asked, her husband so that a large glob of icing fell on the already-dirty countertop.
Severus quickly put down the spatula he'd been using and rushed around the island to greet her with icing on his hands and flour and batter down the front of the apron.
"I was trying to make you a birthday cake, but it didn't go well…"
"I can see that." She chuckled, looking at the mess of her kitchen. "How is it that you can be so perfect with potions but one little cake is too complicated, hmm?"
"It's not my fault. It's that ruddy cookbook," he defended, scowling at her grandmother's recipe book lying open on the counter. "The measurements are all wrong and don't get me started on the oven temperature."
Hermione laughed, hugging him and getting herself dirty in the process. "Thank you anyway, Severus. It's a wonderful surprise."
"Happy birthday, my love."