Happy Birthday, Lucius Malfoy

The sun streamed in through the breaks in the curtains and fell delicately on the pale skin of Narcissa Malfoy's face. She opened her bright blue eyes and stretched. It was July 3rd. She smiled when she remembered the date. Stretching again, Narcissa rolled over in the king bed to look at her husband. Lucius was still sleeping, his mouth slightly agape and tiny, almost inaudible snore was issuing from him. She smiled and brushed a piece of long, blond hair from his face, causing him to wake. Lucius Malfoy fixed his ash grey eyes on his wife, and then smiled, "Happy Birthday," Narcissa said as she scooted closer to her husband, putting her arms around him and giving him a big 40th birthday hug.

"Thanks love," He chuckled as he accepted the hug with a smile.

"Congratulations on being old," Narcissa smiled as she kicked the covers off and stood to get ready for the day.

"Hey, you're not far behind!" Lucius argued playfully and followed her lead, standing and stretching.

"Yes, but the difference between you and me is that you never get to call me old or tell people that I am." She said as she ran the jewel-encrusted hairbrush he'd bought for her in their fourth year through her long, silvery-blond hair. Lucius just rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like, 'of course not'. Narcissa laughed and disappeared into the closet. She picked a slim, black dress robe and slipped delicately into it, then pulled her hair into a high ponytail; the curled tendrils of her ice blond hair flowing down her back.

When she went back into the bedroom, Lucius was pulling his favorite white shirt on. When his head popped out, Narcissa asked, "So, what do you want for your birthday, Your Majesty?"

"Your Majesty? Where did that come from?" Lucius asked, cocking his head in confusion.

Narcissa blushed, "Doesn't everyone get to be royalty on their birthday?"

Smiling, Lucius considered the suggestion, "I like it. And I'm not sure what I want." He went back to buttoning his shirt, thinking hard, "Cake," he finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"Huh?" Narcissa, having lost track of the previous conversation, was confused.

"I want a cake for my birthday. A chocolate one. Homemade. That sounds nice." Lucius smiled, he really liked chocolate cake.

Narcissa bit her lip; she'd never made a cake the muggle-way before. She knew that he hadn't meant that she do it, but it just seemed right for his wife to be the one to make his birthday cake, "Alright. You got it," Narcissa promised, and she slipped out of the bedroom and went down to the kitchen.

Draco, their fourteen year-old son, was sitting at the table eating breakfast, "Morning, Mum." He said through a mouthful of eggs.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Draco." Narcissa said as she took a mug of coffee from the tiny house-elf.

Draco swallowed hard, "Sorry."

"Keep your father busy today. I'm going to make him a cake and I need him out of the kitchen all day." Narcissa flicked her wand and a house-elf Apparated to her side with a loud, 'crack', "I need a chocolate cake recipe and all the necessary ingredients. I'm baking a cake." There was nervous twinge in her voice. How on Earth was she going to make this cake?

Twenty minutes later, Narcissa was covered in flour, with egg yolks in her hair and cake batter on her hands. And to top it all off, she couldn't find her wand and the stupid house-elf wouldn't shut up! Every time Narcissa went to put an ingredient into the bowl, the squeaky little vermin would say, "No, miss!"

"Shut up!" Narcissa finally roared. "I can read, you know! And this is what the directions say to do!" The house-elf shrunk back and stopped talking the rest of Narcissa's time in the kitchen. Rolling her eyes, she went back to trying to read the instructions. Two minutes onto baking, she'd spilled milk and flour on the recipe and now it was hard to read them.

But, the cake was now in a brown, doughy state and was ready to go in the oven. The kitchen was a mess; flour on the ceiling, the cupboards, and the counters, while the floor was splattered in egg yolks, sugar, and cocoa powder. Narcissa closed the oven door and turned on the heat. She set the timer for thirty minutes and turned to go upstairs to get cleaned up. As she turned, however, she slipped on the egg and cocoa powder mixture and fell down onto the floor. Her nice black dress robe tangled around her feet, Narcissa whimpered faintly.

She stood up and tried to look dignified, but it was hard to do so when one looked like a cake in the beginning stages, "Get this place cleaned up!" She snapped at the house-elf, losing her patience.

"Yes, Mrs. Malfoy" The house-elf squeaked and with a loud 'crack', a broom appeared in the hands of the elf.

Narcissa went up to the bathroom and whimpered again when she saw her appearance. She had yellow egg in her perfect blond hair and chocolate batter streaks on her perfect pale face. Her dress robe was ruined and she pulled it off and tossed it to the side. She pulled the scrunchie out of her hair and got into the shower.

Fifteen minutes later, she was her elegant and composed self again. Dressed in a dark green and silver dress, Lucius's two favorite colors, Narcissa returned to the kitchen to take her cake out. Surprisingly, it looked aright, "Mum?" Draco stuck his head in the kitchen, "We're home. Is the cake ready?"

"Yeah," Narcissa said, trying to get it out of the pan and onto a plate, "Go sit at the table." Draco left and went to get sat down with his father. The cake was out of the pan and Narcissa accidently touched the pan with her bare hand, "Ouch!" She hollered, her bad mood returning. She hoped and prayed Lucius would never want another cake again.

She picked up the cake plate, her wand still missing, and went to serve it to her two favorite men, "Happy Birthday!" She exclaimed when she walked into the room, still a little frazzled by the effort it took to make the cake, the fact that her wand wasn't anywhere to be found, and that her hand was throbbing where she'd burned it.

Narcissa placed the cake on the table in front of her husband andshe smiled and said, "Thank you, dearest! Wait, why'd you carry it in? Where's your wand?"

Her eyes started to water, "I don't know." She started crying, "This was a disaster! There were cake ingredients everywhere and now I can't find my wand!" Narcissa was so upset, that the boys' attention was on her, and not the vibrating cake.

Lucius opened his mouth to comfort her, when the cake in front of him exploded, revealing the wand inside. Narcissa's wand was emitting a shower of red sparks from its master's distress. Everyone went silent. There was chocolate cake splattered all over the three family members and the wand finally went still. Then, Lucius started to laugh, followed by Draco and finally, Narcissa laughed too. The three laughed and laughed until they were out of breath. As they gasped for breath, Narcissa pulled both the boys into a hug and said, "Happy Birthday, Lucius Malfoy."