The Houses Competition

House: Hufflepuff

Position: Head of House

Drabble/Standard: Standard

Theme: Family

Prompt: (action) baking a cake

Additional Prompt (word) happiness

Word Count: 1,742

Warning for extreme fluff! I would like to thank everyone who beta read this story for me. It truly means a lot that you would take the time to help me like this. So, thank you all very much! I would also like to thank Hufflepuff for being one of the best teams that I've been a part of. You guys are all fantastic writers and a joy to work with. Without further ado, I hope you all enjoy A Cake Full of Surprises.

I smiled to myself as I took out the baking supplies that I would need to make the cake I was going to surprise my husband Neville with tonight. In a way, it was going to hold more than just one surprise, seeing as I was using it to reveal not only that I was pregnant but also that I knew the gender of our child.

I hummed as I began to measure out the wet ingredients. I beat the two eggs in the bowl then added the vanilla extract. I smiled as I remembered Neville saying something about peppermint being one of his favorite flavors. So I added a few teaspoons of that to the liquid in front of me. Then I walked to the fridge only to find that the milk was gone.

I looked all over the fridge and then with a sigh I closed the door. I would have to ask Neville to get some milk and pray to Merlin he didn't ask why I needed it. As I walked out to where Neville sat grading the papers that his students had written, I tried to come up with an excuse for if he asked why I needed the milk.

"Everything alright, Hannah?" he asked, setting his papers aside and looking at me in concern. I knew he was anxious because of my recent bout of illness, but he didn't need to look as concerned as he did every time I walked into the room. "Do you need anything?"

"As a matter of fact…."

"What is it? I'll go and get it right now."

"I need some more milk," I said, grinning at his blush and the way he averted his eyes like a guilty child. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"Yes, honey," he said, jumping out of his seat and forgetting he'd put his papers in his lap.

I couldn't help the tiny giggle that escaped my lips as the papers went fluttering through the air in an almost dramatic way. I helped him gather them back together, still trying to stifle the giggles that threatened to bubble up from my chest.

"Have you done something different with your hair, Han?" Neville asked me, looking closely at me. "Something seems different about you."

"I haven't done anything different with my hair," I said, folding my arms over my chest and raising an eyebrow. "Do you think that I should? And what do you mean that I look different? Good different or bad?"

Neville raised his hands in surrender. "I didn't mean anything bad by the comment," he said, putting his papers on the side table. "I only meant that something is different about you in a good way. I just don't know what it is."

"Oh," I said, feeling a blush cross my cheeks. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so defensive. But could you please, please, please, get the milk? I really need it."

"Why?"

"For cereal, Neville," I said, nodding in confirmation. "Why in the world would anyone want to eat dry cereal?"

"But breakfast was hours ago, and…." I could see sweat form on his brow as I shot him a look that brokered no arguments. He walked towards his coat and was soon walking out the door.

I knew it wouldn't take him long to come back. In the meantime, I would get the rest of the ingredients ready and have them waiting for when Neville returned.

I looked around my kitchen with pride. This was the room where I spent most of my time and I had made sure that it was a pleasant-looking place. The walls were painted in a cheery buttercream tone. The cabinets were a light shade of oak and abundant. The stove wasn't top of the line, but it didn't need to be. As long as it would cook the food it was fine. The oven got a lot of use because out of all the cooking, I enjoyed baking the most. Which led to the idea of surprising Neville with both a pregnancy and gender reveal at the same time.

By the time Neville got back, I had measured out all the dry ingredients for my cake and had them all mixed and sifted together. I was waiting for the last wet ingredient to be added so that I could mix the contents of the two bowls together.

"Is that going to be one of your delicious baking concoctions?" Neville asked, putting his arms around my waist and kissing me. "You know that I love it when you bake, don't you?"

"I do," I said, turning his arms and kissing the tip of his nose. "But if you don't let me finish up with mixing the ingredients together you won't find out what it is."

"A surprise treat then?" Neville said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you need any help out here?"

I shake my head. "No," I said, grinning at him. "I don't, but thank you for asking anyway."

"You know I'd do anything for you, don't you, Han?" Nevile asked, kissing the tip of my nose as I had done to him.

I nodded.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then," he said, walking back out of the kitchen to more than likely go back to his grading.

I turned back to my task at hand and measured out the milk and then mixed it in with the wet ingredients. When everything was well mixed in, I combined the two bowls and mixed them up until they were smooth.

"Now for the finishing touch," I whispered, dividing the batter of the cake into the two separate bowls again. "Won't your father be really surprised to see this little secret?"

I giggled as I added pink food coloring into one bowl and blue into the other one. This was going to be the most fun surprise ever. I couldn't wait to see the shocked look on Neville's face when he figured out what I was trying to tell him.

After I had put the cake into two different pans and put them in the oven to cook, I turned to make the icing which was one of Neville's favorite parts of the cake. It was a simple vanilla buttercream icing that didn't take long at all to make. I looked at it and started to debate on whether my secret should be a surprise until Neville cut into the cake or if I should let him know before that.

"Let it be a surprise," I whispered to myself, feeling quite mischievous about the whole enterprise. "That was the idea after all, wasn't it?"

While the cake was baking in the oven, I went out to the living room to see if I could help Neville with his grading. I knew Herbology as well as he did and he readily accepted my help.

The time seemed to pass very swiftly as I graded through my stack of Neville's essays and tests. I could hear the timer going off in the kitchen as I finished the last one in my pile. Handing back the pile, I went into the kitchen and took the cakes out of the oven. They looked perfect and when I tested them with a toothpick to see their doneness, it came out clean. All that was left was the icing and that would be done once the cakes cooled down a bit. I didn't want the icing running off the cake and ruining the surprise. That would be absolutely horrible and not fun at all.

The day seemed to pass more quickly once I had put the finishing touches on the cake, and we soon found ourselves finishing up dinner. I watched as Neville put his napkin down beside his plate and smiled over at me.

"Hannah, you are an absolute genius when it comes to cooking. Has anyone ever told you that?" he asked, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"You tell me about three times a day and twice more on the weekend," I said, grinning and getting up from the table. "I hope you saved some room for our surprise dessert."

"Of course I did," he said, sitting up straight and watching as I went into the kitchen.

I grinned as I quickly piped Congratulations on the top of the cake. I then walked out of the kitchen back first so that he wouldn't be able to see the cake until I was ready for him too.

"Are you ready for the surprise?" I asked, excitement clear in my voice.

"Yes," he said, I could tell that he was grinning broadly by the tone of his voice.

"Can I get a drumroll, please?" I asked,

Neville obliged and beat out a drumroll on the table. When he was done I turned around and watched confusion spread across his face. I could see him mouthing the word Congratulations to himself over and over again.

"Is there something that I should know?" Neville asked, the confusion still plain on his features.

"You know how we've been talking about children a lot lately?" I asked and when he nodded I smiled and continued. "We're going to be our own little family soon, Neville."

"You're…." he looked at my belly and then my face as I nodded. "I'm going to be a father! We're going to be parents!"

"Yes," I said, grinning as I handed him the kitchen knife to cut the cake. "Would you do me the honors of cutting the first slice of cake?"

"Of course," he said, taking the knife and cutting a slice for each of us. The confusion returned to his face. "Did you make a strawberry and blueberry cake?"

"No," I said, shaking my head.

"Are you saying?"

I nod my head. "I found out the day that I found out I was pregnant," I told him. "They were sort of shocked that I hadn't noticed for that long."

Neville pulled me into his arms and kissed me softly. "This is the best surprise ever," he told me as we settled in to enjoy our cake. "I can't wait for our little family to grow bigger by two."

"I can't wait either," I said. I knew that neither one of us was going to forget the night of the surprise cake and the start of our little family in earnest.

I hope you all enjoyed a Cake Full of Surprises as much as I enjoyed writing it.