| Pumpkins and Spice and Everything Nice |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|12:33 pm] |
Title: Pumpkins and Spice and Everything Nice
Author: Josh Summers
Main Characters: Remus Lupin and Severus Snape
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: Dumbledore holds a Halloween contest.
Word Count: 1741
Disclaimer: The characters herein are owned by J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringements are intended. No profit is made from this writing.
Beta: ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sweetmelodykiss (proud mom)
Note: The names of the places that Remus visited to find his ingredients were made up by Josh.
The staff and students of Hogwarts were very excited to learn of Headmaster Dumbledore's Halloween contest that was to be held over the weekend. The contest was to honor the witch or wizard who prepared the most delicious dessert in the history of Hogwarts. It had to be made by the contestants own hands, and could not be magically created. Thusly, the house elves were not allowed to help the participants in any way. Students as well as teachers would be allowed to enter the contest, all except Dumbledore himself. He would be the lone judge of the competition and declare the winner of the best dessert contest.
Snape looked upon the proceedings with a critical eye. He knew his services would be needed soon, if these fools were going to actually cook. In a swirl of black robes, Severus hurried off to his lab to start brewing several batches of stomach potion. Dumbledore and his bright ideas always made more work for Severus.
Harry was excited about the contest. He had his aunt's Caramel Apple Cake recipe. He'd made it many times, and on the occasions that he'd been allowed to eat it, he found it very delicious. Hermione entered her grandmother's Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe and Ron entered his mum's famous Apple Butterscotch Pie. Some of the staff members entered recipes as well.
One wizard fancied himself quite a good cook. Remus cooked all the time, and as much as he loved chocolate, there was one dessert that he loved even more. He entered that recipe into the contest. It was not a traditional dessert, but it had exquisite flavor and texture. In Remus' mind, this was the best dessert ever invented.
Remus determined that to make the best dessert, you needed the best and freshest ingredients. So, Remus started out on his quest to collect the best ingredients in the land.
He Apparated to the rich farmland of Cead and scoured the area for the perfect pumpkins. He came upon a farmer, who boasted that his pumpkins were the grandest in the world. Remus picked the perfect pumpkins for his dessert, fat, round and the brightest orange that Remus had ever seen. They seemed to have a magical energy all their own as he shrunk them and put them into his pocket.
Next he traveled to the Isle of Spice and searched for the freshest spices to bake into his cake. He met an old woman along the road. She pushed a little cart and sang the praises of her wares. Remus sniffed the spices, and had to agree, they were indeed the best spices.
As Remus purchased the spices and put them in his pocket, the old woman smiled and said, "Use my spice. Make your cake nice. Don’t eat too much, or you may become mice."
"Ha, ha," Remus chuckled as he thanked the old woman one more time and Apparated away.
Remus' last stop was in the land of Chobutt, where he searched for the freshest cream cheese. He went to the largest dairy farmer in the land and purchased a newly made vat of cream cheese. The farmer assured him that he would not find a better quality cheese anywhere. Remus smiled and thanked the farmer. He now had everything he needed to bake the perfect pumpkin cheesecake.
Remus entered the Hogwarts kitchen and was overwhelmed by all the activity going on. The other contestants were already busy creating their masterpieces. The smells emanating from the kitchen were heavenly.
Minerva smiled and waved Remus over to an empty work station next to hers.
"What are you making for the contest?" Remus asked curiously.
"This is my mother's Lemon Posset recipe. It's tart, sweet, and quite delicious."
"I'm sure it is, Minerva. It smells divine."
"Thank you, dear, and good luck with your desert. What are you making?"
"A recipe I found a few years ago, Pumpkin Cheesecake. I love it even more than chocolate," Remus said with a grin.
"It sounds delectable. I can not wait to try a piece."
Remus smiled and got busy working on his confection. He grabbed a large knife and began to gut and cut up the pumpkins. He heard a tiny little squeak as he made the first cut. As he plunged the knife deeper the noise grew louder. Remus finally realized that the sound was coming from the pumpkin. He picked up the pumpkin he'd been working with and held it up to his ear.
"Please don’t eat us. Let us go," the pumpkin pleaded.
"I'm so sorry, but I haven't the time to gather more pumpkins. I really must use the ones that I have."
"If you eat us there will be a price to pay," the pumpkin warned. "Eat a pumpkin, a pumpkin you shall be."
"Right," Remus laughed and continued cutting the pumpkin into small chunks.
He mashed all the pumpkins in a large mixing bowl, added the finely ground spices, and then the cream cheese. He stirred the batter until it was smooth and then poured it into the graham crackers crusts that he'd prepared earlier. He placed his cheesecakes in a water bath inside the ovens and set the timer. Perfect, Remus thought. His pumpkin cheesecake would surely be the best dessert in the history of Hogwarts.
The time had finally come for the judging. Desserts lined the head table in the Great Hall. Dumbledore stood before them licking his lips. This was the greatest idea he'd ever come up with. The first dessert was Minerva's Lemon Posset. Albus smiled and hummed in appreciation as the lemon melted in his mouth. "Very nice, Minerva," Albus said as he moved on to the next dessert.
Dumbledore cut a piece of Ron Weasley's Apple Butterscotch Pie. The knife showed a bit of resistance as it cut into the solid mass. "Hmm, interesting, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said with a smile. He didn't think that this was quite how Molly had intended the pie to taste.
Next was Luna Lovegood's Sugar Plum Pudding Cake. Unfortunately, the cake was so light that it simply floated away, but Albus gave her an honorable mention for her effort. Albus smiled with delight as he tasted Hermione's Sticky Toffee Pudding. It seemed she was the front runner so far. The pudding was sinfully delicious.
Harry waited anxiously as Albus bit into his Caramel Apple Cake. It was good, very good, Albus thought, but not quite as tasty as Miss Granger's. However, it could very well take second place.
Professor Flitwick paced nervously as Albus put a large spoonful of his Chyryse into his mouth. Albus smiled. The Chyryse was rich and decadent. Hmm, he wasn't sure now about first place. Filius' dessert was very good.
Hagrid grinned broadly as Albus got to his dessert. He'd taken such care with his Treacle Tart. He cooked the molasses, and cooked the molasses, and cooked the molasses. Albus had all he could do just to swallow the rock-hard mess. "Fine job, Hagrid," Albus coughed as he tried to expel the burnt taste from his mouth. He stopped and quickly swallowed down a glass of water before going on.
Finally, Albus came to Remus' pumpkin cheesecake. He swirled the confection around in his mouth. The seasoning was delicate, texture creamy, and the pumpkin flavor was simply divine. Albus ate the entire piece before declaring Remus the winner.
"We have our winner, ladies and gentlemen. Remus J. Lupin is our Halloween dessert contest champion."
Everyone applauded as Dumbledore pinned the gold medal on Remus' blazer.
"Thank you, Headmaster," Remus beamed. He just knew his dessert would take first place.
Severus stood off to the side watching with disdain. He had his stomach potions all ready. He smirked, and thought that this should be a spectacular fiasco as Albus distributed the rest of the desserts among the staff and students.
People gorged themselves on pumpkin cheesecake. Indeed, it was the best dessert in all the land. Remus was glad he'd made extra cheesecakes. When the feast was over not a crumb of his cheesecakes were left.
Remus was surprised when pumpkins started popping up all over the Great Hall, but wait; no they weren't just appearing out of thin air. Students and teachers were turning into pumpkins, and people who ate more then one piece were changing into mice. Ron Weasley morphed before Remus' eyes into an especially fat rat.
"Dear Merlin," Albus croaked as he suddenly became a bright orange pumpkin.
It's a good thing that Remus hadn't eaten any of the dessert. He'd wanted to let everyone else try his cheesecake first. Remus gazed across the room in panic and locked eyes with Severus.
Severus shook his head and stepped forward. He was going to need a lot more than stomach potions to fix this.
"Very good, Lupin, you've just managed to turn the entire student body and staff of Hogwarts into either pumpkins or mice. You must be so proud."
"Blast it, Severus, can you do something?"
"I do not know. What exactly was in those cheesecakes?"
Then Remus suddenly remembered the warnings: 'Use my spice. Make your cake nice. Don’t eat too much, or you may become mice. Eat a pumpkin, a pumpkin you shall be.'
"Oh bother," Remus muttered under his breath.
"I hate to interrupt your thought process, Lupin, but I believe we have a problem."
Remus looked up just in time to see the Ron-rat grow to huge proportions. Fangs elongated and it growled menacingly as it advanced on the two wizards.
"Do you have any ideas, Severus?" Remus asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid not."
The Ron-rat roared and opened its giant maw. At that moment, Severus knew exactly how Captain Ahab must have felt.
"Severus, Severus, wake up," Remus yelled.
"What…" Severus sputtered and sat bolt upright.
"That sure was some nightmare you were having. You were shouting something about pumpkins and mice, and Captain Ahab, or something like that."
Severus composed himself, shaking off the bizarre dream. He hadn't had one that strange since the fall of the Dark Lord.
"Come on, Severus, nap time is over. We're going to be late for the Halloween Feast. The house elves are trying a new recipe. It's one of my favorite desserts. They're serving pumpkin cheesecake. We don't want to miss it."
Severus jumped up wide-eyed and screamed, "Noooooo, don't eat the cheesecake!"
The end |
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