AU!
Written for Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
House: Thunderbird.
Class/Task Number: Apparition. 2. Determination: ambition
Bonus Prompts:
(trait) perfectionist
(relationship) male-female platonic
Word Count: 1701/4500
Ambitious Baking
Hermione's goal: to bake the best brownies Victoire and her classmates had ever eaten.
Harry helps her out.
Hermione sobbed when the brownies came out of the oven super fudgy, moist, with crispy edges and crackly tops, and filled with rich chocolate flavour.
This was it! She'd finally reached perfection.
She whirled around and threw her arms around Harry's shoulders and cried, "Oh, thank you so much, Harry! You're the best! I love you! Thank you so much!"
Harry laughed as he hugged her back, amused by her reaction to a simple batch of brownies.
But he knew how long the perfect batch of brownies had taken.
"Will you help me bake more?" Hermione asked hopefully.
Harry almost shuddered at the thought but he loved his best friend and would do anything for her. She was his family; and family wasn't an important thing—it was everything.
Flashback
Harry entered Hermione's flat with Ron and almost choked on the smoke that completely enshrouded the room.
"Merlin, what's going on here?!" Ron gasped as he waved his hand in front of his face to clear the smoke.
"Hermione! Hermione! Where are you?! Are you okay?!" Harry yelled, terrified something terrible had happened to his best friend.
"I'm here! In the kitchen!" Hermione yelled back but they couldn't see her in the smoke.
"Merlin, Hermione, is there a fire in here?" Ron coughed as he stumbled into the kitchen with Harry.
"Clear the smoke, will you?" Hermione called out as she tried to look at them over her shoulder.
Harry cast a few spells to see which would work. One of them finally did and the smoke cleared.
The boys found Hermione in front of the oven wearing a chef's hat and a frilly pink apron that was three sizes too big on her.
"What on earth are you wearing?" Ron blurted out with disbelief.
"Oh, this… Hagrid gave it to me…"
"It's… nice," Harry awkwardly said and shifted on his feet.
"Oh, shut up, Harry. It's hideous, yes, but Hagrid gave it to me and I wanted to use it. I don't want to hurt his feelings," Hermione muttered as she turned back to the oven.
"What are you doing? Did you start a fire here?" Ron asked as he jumped up on the counter and started to kick his feet back and forth.
"No, Ron. I'm trying to… bake brownies," Hermione admitted quietly as she wiped her hands on the apron.
"For what?" Harry questioned as he jumped up on the counter beside Ron to watch Hermione work.
"Get off the counter, boys. Can't you two sit at the table like normal human beings? Oh, and for Victoire's bake sale," Hermione explained after she admonished them.
"Victoire's bake sale? You mean she's asked you too?" Ron Accioed the leftovers from the fridge and grinned.
"Stop stealing my food, Ronald! Get your own!" Hermione whined as she tried to yank the plate of leftover fried rice from Ron but to no avail.
"Leave him, Hermione. But why are you baking brownies? You can just buy some from a bakery and give it to Tori. It's not like her classmates will understand the difference between homemade and store-bought," Harry said as he munched on the food with Ron.
He knew how she would react to that. He'd known her for almost thirteen years and he was aware of her mindset.
"What?! No! That's cheating! And I promised Tori I would bake them myself—I don't want to disappoint her!" Hermione cried, aghast at Harry's suggestion.
And there it was! He had known she would say that. She was too predictable.
"You can buy the brownies and wrap them in aluminium foil so Tori won't know you bought them," Ron added.
"Are you two doing that?" Hermione snarled.
"Of course! We'll buy a box of biscuits and some muffins from the supermarket and give them to her to sell at a higher rate," Ron said with a mischievous grin.
Hermione shrieked, "You two are preposterous! That's cheating and you two know it! I can't believe you would stoop so low to increase the rates for a child's bake sale! I—"
Before she could continue her rant, Harry quickly interrupted her, "Hermione, it's for charity."
That was her weakness. She could never refuse doing anything to overcome social injustices. She'd always been a huge advocate for equality and justice.
"Doesn't mean you can just—"
"He's right, Mione, it's for charity. The more money Tori earns, the more she can help the poor. You do want her to help the poor, right?"
Ron knew her weakness too, but it was Harry who knew Hermione better. Harry always knew what to say to convince Hermione.
Hermione bristled at their emotional manipulation but she always fell prey to it; this time was no different.
She sighed and mumbled, "Fine, I won't stop you from buying the items… but I want to give her homemade brownies. And they need to be absolutely perfect! I want everyone to eat the brownies and have a chocolate-induced heart attack! That's the level of perfection I want to reach!"
"Woah! That's really ambitious… hold on, Mione, how many batches have you tried already?!" Ron gasped loudly when he saw the dustbin overflowing with brownies.
"I lost count!" Hermione sobbed as she suddenly threw herself at the boys.
"There, there," Ron muttered as he awkwardly patted Hermione's back.
Harry rolled his eyes and nudged Ron away so he could hug Hermione instead.
Despite growing up with the Dursleys, he knew how to calm himself and others down.
Harry wrapped his arms around her shoulders and said gently, "It's okay. What seems to be the problem? Maybe I could help you."
Hermione sniffled and wiped her snot on Harry's shirt. Harry didn't even flinch; he was used to Hermione's sudden changes in emotion.
"I don't know what goes wrong! All I want to make are brownies that are soft, moist and rich with chocolate flavour! And the tops need to be crunchy! But it also needs to be fudgy! All the batches I made were either too soft or too crispy! I can't seem to find the perfect balance!"
Ron gaped at Hermione and jumped off the counter to rush towards the dustbin. Without flinching, he pulled out the brownie visible on top and popped it into his mouth.
Harry almost gagged at the sight; Ron could eat anything!
"What's the verdict?" Harry asked.
"Mione! These are good! Why would you throw these away?!" Ron cried as he scrambled to grab a storage container from the cabinet.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked as she turned around to look at him.
"Saving your brownies, Mione! These are already so good! Why would you throw them away?!" Ron cried as he started to pull out the brownies from the dustbin.
"Please tell me you're not going to eat those," Harry said cautiously.
"Mate, all these brownies need is a bit of cleaning and they're good to go straight into my mouth!" Ron declared as he started to clean the brownies with a Tergeo.
"Give me one when you're done cleaning," Harry said suddenly.
"Sure, mate, hold on," Ron said as he finished cleaning all the brownies.
Harry took a bite of the brownie and gasped. It was one of the best he'd ever tasted!
"Hermione, these are brilliant! Why would you throw them away?" Harry shoved the brownie in his mouth and savoured the chocolate melting on his tongue.
He knew the answer to that. They weren't as perfect as she wanted them to be. He knew how ambitious she was; he knew she wouldn't stop baking until she reached the level of perfection she wished the brownies to be.
"Because these aren't perfect! I want brownies that—"
"Yes, yes, we heard. Moist, fudgy, chocolaty," Ron interrupted her quickly as he started to pack the brownies in different boxes.
"I'm going to hide these from the twins or else they'll steal them from me," Ron said as he walked towards the door.
"Come on, Hermione, I'll help you bake the brownies, okay?" Harry said as he walked towards the fridge to gather the ingredients.
"I've tried so many recipes, Harry! None of them works for me!" Hermione grumbled as she walked up to Harry.
"How about we try my recipe?" Harry asked.
Hermione was one of the few people who knew Harry liked to bake. It helped him relieve stress after a long day of work.
"Sure, wouldn't hurt, I guess," she mumbled.
"But for that, we'll need the best chocolate chips we can find," Harry said.
"I'll go to the supermarket and buy more. I'm all out," Hermione admitted sheepishly as she headed to the door.
"Bring some Hershey's cocoa powder too! And more vanilla extract!" Harry called out to her before she left.
Ten minutes later, Hermione arrived with the ingredients he'd asked for.
"What do we do now?" Hermione asked as she stood beside him.
"First, I'll mix powdered and granulated sugar, cocoa powder, flour, chocolate chips and a little bit of salt. You whisk two eggs, water, vanilla and canola oil together. Then we'll sprinkle the dry mixture over the wet one and fold," Harry instructed her as he Accioed two bowls and handed one of them to her.
He showed her how to whisk the ingredients properly and teased her for her bad form.
She smacked him with her whisk and went back to work.
She watched in awe as Harry carefully folded the dry mixture into the eggs. 'He looks like a professional,' she thought, amused.
"Now, pour the batter in the pan and bake them for 40 or 45 minutes," Harry instructed.
"Now, we wait?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"Yes, don't worry, they'll be perfect, okay?" Harry encouraged her.
And he'd been right!
Victoire came home excitedly chattering about how everyone in her class had praised the brownies and how they had disappeared in a matter of seconds.
Victoire beamed up at her Aunt Hermione and asked, "Could you make muffins next week, Aunt Mione?"
Hermione swelled with pride and immediately agreed to the five-year-old's request.
"Harry, will you help me?" Hermione asked him hopefully.
As he agreed to his best friend's request, Harry thought, 'Merlin, here we go again!'
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