The House Competition

Ravenclaw, DADA

Drabble

(action) learning to make Fudge

Word Count: 758

Thanks you, Ash and Bea, for betaing!

Fudge

"What are we going to do for the day after tomorrow?" Hermione asked, looking up from cuddling Crookshanks.

"Why? What's then?" Ron asked, dropping his quill. He had been looking for an excuse to stop doing his homework.

"In two days it's the-" Hermione sent a stern look at Fred and George who were experimenting in the middle of the common room. "It's the day Fudge had to clear Sirius of all charges. Everyone has a birthday, but Sirius has the day he got his life back. I think you should do something for him."

"A bottle of Firewhiskey?" Ron suggested.

Harry started thinking. "That might be hard for us to get, but if Hermione had a bunch of Polyjuice left then all we need is a hair of an adult."

"After our Ton-Tongue Toffees, we started working on a Fever Fudge," Fred said.

"We're good at causing fever but we haven't been able to cancel it," George added sheepishly.

"That's dangerous!" Hermione shook her head. "I was thinking more about baking a cake or something normal."

Ron laughed. "Fudge because of Fudge. I like it."

Hermione glared at Harry. He swallowed hard. "Sorry, I'm with Ron on that one."

She grumbled. "I don't know how to make Fudge."

She jumped up and ran out of the Common Room. Ron and Harry exchanged a glance shrugging.

The following morning an owl delivered a small parcel to Hermione. Ron and Harry looked at her expecting an explanation.

"I owled my parents asking how to make fudge and they mailed me back. My mom found a two-ingredient recipe for chocolate fudge. All I need to do is melt chocolate and add condensed milk. How hard could that be?"

Ron and Harry looked skeptically.

After their last lesson, they walked to the kitchen. The House Elves looked confused by their presence.

Hermione shot a glance at Fred and George. "What are you doing here?"

"Watching you."

She felt rather uncomfortable with so many eyes on her. Hermione grabbed a cauldron and filled it to a third with water. Using her wand she brought the water to the boiling point. She placed a pot above it and slowly melted the chocolate. With Diffendo she opened the can and added the condensed milk to the mix. Hermione kept stirring the mixture to make sure that nothing was burning.

Fred and George, both armed with spoons reached into the pot and tried her creation.

Hermione pointed with the wooden spoon at them. "This still needs to sit before it can be sliced up and eaten."

"We just need to give it a try." Ron and Harry had a spoonful of the hot mass as well.

George started opening the cupboards while Fred made espresso. George was towering over the pot with a lot of ingredients in his hand. He just added stuff to the mixture. "Just a pinch of salt, a bit vanilla-"

"-and a bit of coffee," Fred added, as he poured the espresso in.

"That wasn't in the recipe." Hermione flinched as she watched the twins add things.

Ron took another spoonful. With a full mouth, he commented, "It's better that way."

She looked at Harry but he was with the twins on that. Snarling, Hermione took her quill and added the other ingredients to the recipe. What kind of measurement is a pinch of salt? Couldn't they weigh their ingredients before adding?

Hermione transferred the mass to a prepared mold and cast a cooling charm. She turned it over. With a ruler, she measured the rectangle, trying to figure out how she was supposed to cut the fudge so that she would get cubic lumps.

Ron lost his patience with her and tore the knife out of her hand. He quickly cut the fudge. The pieces were neither cubical nor even.

"I have wrapping paper," Harry said, handing it to George.

Hermione wanted to protest but closed her mouth again when she saw the twin wrap the sweets all at once with a simple incantation.

Fascinated by that, she took the wooden spoon and placed it on the excess wrapping paper. She repeated the incantation and watched the paper wrap itself around the spoon packing it up neatly.

"Did you just learn a new spell from seeing it once?"

Hermione nodded. "But I failed at a two-ingredient recipe."

"Nah, it tastes great now, and Sirius will be happy that we thought about him," Harry said.

"We should meet up with him at Hogsmeade, so we can celebrate properly," Ron added.