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Remus was always a romantic. She couldn't really blame him. He idolized married couples who were together for decades and still loved each other dearly. He wanted something similar.
That's how he found himself in the kitchen with her beside him, both of them covered in flour and grinning like idiots. Baking sheet full of wonky dough circles and a jam-stained kitchen counter — arguably the best Valentine's Day ever. Jazz music and a couple of lit candles were just adding to the ambiance.
"You think this is going to be edible?" Remus laughed as he put the jam into heart-shaped cavities in the dough.
"I sure do hope so." She admitted. "If not, I guess the plus side is we'll have food poisoning together."
"That's one way to put it." He snickered, then proceeded to do another heart-shaped cookie, making an even bigger mess around the kitchen. "I don't think we'd get that sick though." He said. "I mean it's just dough and jam. Unless the jam is secretly expired for a year."
She picked up the jar out of his hands, turning it in search of an expiration date. "I hope not." She turned it some more until her eyes landed on a date. "Still good for a few more months, we're safe on that part."
"Whew." He breathed a sign of relief. "Then all that's left is trying to put these into the oven. With luck, they won't burn. Or better yet, catch on fire."
She made a face full of nervousness. "Let's just focus on the decorating for now. Is that a heart or a square?" She asked him as she peeked over his shoulder at the cookies he was currently working on as she set the jam jar back down.
"Heart." Remus assured her, although he wasn't all that sure himself. His handiwork when it came to cooking and baking wasn't exactly top notch. In fact, it was usually a disaster waiting to happen. "I might have put a bit too much jam in some of them." He said, slightly concerned. The jam was definitely spilling out of the dough cavities. "They might explode in the oven."
She squinted her eyes at the cookies, "They could even be rectangles."
He shrugged. "They might turn into a different shape by the time they're done baking." He said optimistically, trying to avoid the looming disaster. "I've never tried to make shaped cookies before. Maybe just plain old regular ones would have been a better idea."
She picked up the piece of parchment that held the recipe and read over it again. "Right... I preheated the oven. So whenever you are done, they need to bake for ten, no wait — fifteen minutes."
"Fifteen it is!" Remus said, trying to sound confident despite being clueless. He filled up all the hearts with jam and rearranged them on the baking sheet. The cookies looked very wonky and some of them had quite a lot of filling. "You think they are going to turn out fine?" He asked, eyeing the cookies for the hundredth time before placing them into the oven. "Or should we start preparing some fire extinguishers?"
She shrugged. "Don't ask me, I'm not — what do they call them... firefighters!"
"I meant preparing the fire extinguishers in case those cookies catch on fire and the whole kitchen goes up in flames." He spoke. "But I guess firefighters would come too. Still don't think it'll be that bad."
"Let's just hope we continue to have a safe place to sleep tonight." She laughed softly as she perched herself on-top of the counter nearest to the oven.
"If it all goes well, we might even have some delicious cookies to eat." He shrugged with a grin. The kitchen was a big mess and the air was already full of the smell of freshly baked cookies. He grabbed the timer and set it for fifteen minutes. "Hopefully they'll turn out good." He spoke as he eyed the oven cautiously.
"Actually, check on them in ten minutes, will you please? I'm not sure I copied the recipe correctly." She muttered as she chewed on her bottom lip nervously.
Remus raised an eyebrow, slightly concerned by the girl's nervousness. "You really think this is going to go horribly wrong?" He chuckled. "Come on, I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, how could we mess up some simple cookies with strawberry jam?" He teased as he looked at her with a smile.
"I'm starting to think we should have just gotten cookies from the store." She said absentmindedly as she fiddled with her fingers as her eyes darted from her hands to the oven.
"Store-bought?" He shook his head. "No." He said, almost offended by the suggestion. "Store-bought cookies are never as good as homemade ones. Not to mention, overpriced. These ones are going to be much better tastier, I'm sure." He glanced up at the oven and then back at her, realizing she was quite nervous. "Just relax. Everything's going to go fine. Trust me."
She sent him a nod and sad in silence until the timer went off. It felt like an hour until the chime of the timer filled the room. She jumped down from the counter and opened up the oven. "Okay... they look good!"
Remus felt relieved by the sight of the cookies. They didn't look as horrible as he expected them to. The strawberry jam was oozing out of most of the holes but hey, that was the beauty of homemade cookies. They had a little bit of their own personalities.
"They actually look pretty good, don't they?" He said as he looked at her with a grin. "But we should let them cool down before we try them, otherwise we're going to burn our tongues."
She carefully took them out of the oven in her oversized mitts and set them down on top of the stove before admiring them. "We shouldn't have tried to go for heart-shaped, they turned out more like ovals."
"Maybe if we squint and imagine a bit harder, they will look like hearts." Remus suggested, grabbing a cookie from the tray minutes later to try it. It was indeed delicious. "But you know what? Who cares if they look like ovals? Taste matters much more than how they look."
Her eyes scanned him carefully as if it ensure that he wasn't messing with her. "We actually did it?"
"Yep, looks like it." He snorted as he glanced at the tray covered with misshapen cookies. "They do look wonky as hell but they taste really good. I'll take taste over looks any day."
He picked up another cookie, stuffing it in his mouth. The dough was soft and tasted slightly sweet, while the strawberry jam was tart and added an interesting flavor to it.
Her body filled with glee as she clapped her mitten hands together. "I'm so pleased with the outcome." She spoke excitedly as a big grin covered her lips.
"Me too." Remus beamed at the sight of her excitement. He was so glad she was pleased with the outcome of their little project.
They spent the next hour eating the cookies, drinking hot chocolate, slow dancing, and just simply enjoying each other's company. The entire thing might have started with a failed attempt at the cookies but their Valentine's Day ended up a resounding success.
