A clank. A thud.

Hermione's eyes slowly opened from her slumber. She squinted her eyes to see in the dark and saw that her bedside clock was proclaiming it was half past midnight.

Her fortieth birthday was over, she mused.

She was forty.

Forty!

Merlin, she wasn't even sure she would see her twentieth year. And yet here she was at forty.

She sank back into her pillows and thought of her night. A smile grew on her face when she recalled the events of the party her husband threw for her. Her children were there as were her parents and her closest friends. The party was held in the Ministry's library. In her own wing. And it was named after her. It was her husband's gift for her, her own library wing. He said she loved books so much that it was fitting. It was the best birthday anyone could ever ask for. She also had cake. And then some when they arrived home.

Another noise cut through the silence in the bedroom and Hermione frowned. The space beside her was empty and she narrowed her eyes wondering what in the world her husband was up to. It could only be him since her children were staying at her parents' for the night. She rose from the bed, wrapped a robe around her naked body, and padded out of the bedroom.

She found him in the kitchen. He was dressed in nothing but his boxers holding a fork speared with cake.

Her cake.

"Isn't it a little late for sweets, love?" She asked, amused.

His head raised from the dessert and he gave her an ear-splitting grin. Hermione felt her heart thud. At thirty-nine, Harry Potter was a fine looking man. His perpetually messy hair was starting to salt and pepper and he had grown a beard that had many witches whispering conspiratorially at the Ministry. The laugh lines around his bright emerald eyes became more pronounced as he watched her slyly.

"It's never too late for cake," he replied. Teasingly, he led the fork into his mouth. He made a show of savouring the taste before he swallowed the piece of chocolate sponge with an obscene moan. "Unless… you'd rather I have something else right now?"

Hermione raised one eyebrow in a perfect arch. Wordlessly her hands went to the sash of her robe and untied the knot. She let the material pool around her body and drop to the floor. She smiled when she saw his eyes darken and she walked towards him with a sway on her hips that had been perfected over the years.

"You are magnificent," Harry whispered as he took her in his arms.

"So are you," Hermione replied. Her hands rested on his chest and she sighed when his lips met hers. She savoured the taste of chocolate. "You taste delicious," she said when they parted.

"But you taste better," he said. His lips trailed kisses down her neck and his hands grasped her hips. Hermione squealed when she was suddenly hoisted on top of the marble island with her bum resting on the edge.

"Harry! It's cold!" She said with a laugh.

"Mmm… I'll warm you up," He replied mischievously. Harry settled himself in between her legs and resumed his ministrations.

His hot kisses were all over her. Her mouth, her cheek, her neck, her breasts. Hermione was so heated that she didn't feel the coldness on her back when Harry laid her down fully onto the marble. Her legs were suddenly on his shoulders, his mouth suddenly on her core, and Hermione was lost. Her hands tangled themselves in his hair and her moans filled the air.

She begged for him to not stop and he didn't. He brought her to the edge with his mouth and her body arched from the surface as she came. As she was falling, she felt his hardness enter her. Hermione was brought to the brink again as he thrusted into her, hard and fast.

They climaxed together. Harry was so far gone from worshipping her body that he came with a loud groan. Hermione cried his name and it echoed around their home.

"That was…" Hermione started, at a loss for words after they had settled. "I can't even begin to describe what that was."

She felt her husband's chest rumble below her in laughter since they had slid off of the kitchen island and was now on the floor. He apparated them with a bang straight into their bed and Hermione snuggled into his warmth.

"Was it a good birthday?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded her head against his chest. "The best," she replied. "Thank you, Harry. For the party, for the cake, for the library, for everything."

He squeezed her tighter. "Anything for you, love."

They drifted off to sleep with the half-eaten slice of chocolate birthday cake left on the kitchen counter.