A/N: Hello loves! This idea randomly popped into my head as I was trying to sleep one night and I literally had to jump out the blankets, start up my laptop, rush to find my charger because I had 1% remaining, and then I jotted this down before the idea left me. I don't know how this is gonna turn out, but I plan for the chapters to be pretty short. This isn't supposed to be a full blown story, just something short and sweet.

Tell me what you think! If this is a horrible idea and I need to stop, tell me now or forever hold your peace!

Part One

Just Grin and Bear It

It all started on a Tuesday afternoon. Hermione had just finished removing the decayed tissue on young Terry Boot's back molar - number fifteen to be exact - with her handy air abrasion tool. She proceeded to clean the tooth of any remaining debris and then managed to get the ceramic filling in place. Breathing softly through her blue, paper thin surgical mask, Hermione quickly cleaned and polished the tooth. She pushed away from the bored looking teen in her leather swivel chair to the counter, the wheels rolling against the smooth tiled floor, and set up a yellow mouth tray for a fluoride treatment. Swiveling back to her patient's side, Hermione placed the tray full of foam into his mouth.

"Bite," she told him gently and he immediately secured the tray in his mouth. While Terry laid on the reclined seat of the dental chair, Hermione flicked the large light off and pushed it away from his face. He blinked several times to adjust to loss of the blinding light and watched Hermione as she carefully put away all the tools and equipment she had used for this visit. After a couple minutes of briskly cleaning the station, Hermione returned her attention to Terry. He unclenched his jaw from the yellow tray and she removed it from his mouth, pointedly throwing it and his blue bib in the rubbish bin.

"You're all done here Terry," Hermione announced, removing the mask from her face, "The numbness in your gums will go away in an hour or so. Also, it would be best if you refrain from rinsing your mouth and eating or drinking anything for the next thirty minutes so the fluoride can set in."

The dark haired teen nodded in understanding. He was one of her older patients, so he knew the drill.

"And this is for you," she said, handing over a small plastic bag consisting of a brand new toothbrush, a travel sized bottle of spearmint toothpaste, and a container of waxed tooth floss, "Be sure to take care of your teeth, Terry! We don't want any more cavities, do we? Brush twice a day and remember to floss. Do this and we won't have to see you again for another six months."

Terry nodded again and quietly thanked her, leaving the room with his new teeth cleaning supplies in his hand.

Hermione sighed and left for her office to finish up some paperwork.

She loved her job. She really did. Following in her parent's footsteps, dentistry was an area that she found herself immensely interested and passionate about. Having good oral health was important and having a pretty smile never hurt anyone. Instead of taking over her parent's private practice in Connecticut, Hermione opened up her own in upstate New York where she had went to school. Hermione thought that this was the best decision she had ever made - her paychecks were bountiful, her hours were extremely flexible, and she was kept busy all day. It was definitely better than having her lovable, yet annoying perfectionist parents breathe down her neck, watching her every move, waiting for her to make a mistake.

Psshh.

As if Hermione Granger made mistakes!

Ha!

The absurdity!

But that's beside the point.

The point is that Hermione loved her job. Loved the busywork. And she loved that she got to set her own hours. She loved that from nine to five, she spends her time fixing people's smiles. The best part was that after five, she was free to clear her thoughts of work and enjoy the remainder of her evening.

Well, that used to be the best part.

Now, Hermione dreaded it.

For the past three weeks, she was forced to use the majority of her time after work helping one Miss Lavender Brown plan her wedding to Hermione's ex-boyfriend, Ronald Weasley. She liked to tell herself that she wasn't upset that Ronald was not even phased when she suggested they break up during one of their many arguments. Yeah, their on-again-off-again relationship could have only been described as destructive, but Hermione surely wasn't bitter that Lavender, someone she previously considered a friend, had slept with Ronald a month after their relationship ended and announced three months later that they were engaged to be married. Of course Hermione was simply ecstatic to congratulate the couple on their upcoming nuptials and was even more than stoked to find out that her lovely blonde bitch of a backstabbing friend wanted Hermione to be one of her bridesmaids.

Brilliant!

How marvelous!

How wonderfuly.

How magnificent.

Fantastic, truly.

Just. Fucking. Brilliant.

Being Lavender's good friend of two years, naturally, Hermione accepted the offer. As expected, Lavender was over the moon that Hermione had forgiven her and gotten over any ill-will towards her after she hid the fact that she was sleeping with her ex so soon after their breakup.

"Thanks Hermy!" the idiot blonde had squealed, crushing the wild haired woman in a tight hug, "I thought for sure you would say no since you and Ron had a thing not too long ago."

A thing? Well if you considered a four year relationship that started with passion and ended with disgust and anger just a thing, then yeah. They had a thing. But Hermione had had to remind herself that that thing was over now and that she was better off without it. Hell, she was the one who wanted to break up in the first place! It was just highly irritating that someone that she had considered a friend would hop on her ex so quickly and he would just forget ever being with her. It's not like she slaved over a stove every night to make him dinner before he got home even though she worked that morning too, or that she helped him pop those embarrassingly red puss filled pimples on his back because he couldn't reach, or dealt with his nosy mother who she caught trying to steal her birth control so that she could have grandkids by next year. It's not like he appreciated anything she ever did for him. It's not like she gave him her all only to receive 20% of his.

But once again, that is beside the point.

The point here is that Terry Boot was her last patient of the day and that in one hour she had to head over to The Burrow where Lavender required all of her bridesmaids to help her pick out color swatches for wedding.

Standing up from the cushioned leather of her desk chair, Hermione resigned herself to fact her evening was going to be spent deciding between regal rose with creamsicle and pink pirouette with mantis green. She shrugged out of her white coat and hung it on the coat rack in the corner of the room. Gathering her belongings on her desk, Hermione headed to reception. She stopped at the Formica countertop and her pretty receptionist, Cho Chang, looked up blankly from the mess of files on the desk.

"I'm heading out," Hermione informed her, adjusting her bag on her shoulder.

"Sorry, but you can't just yet," Cho replied, looking over her shoulder through the glass window that viewed the inside of the waiting room, "Some man just showed up and demanded to see you. He had no prior appointment and he's not on record."

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed, "But it's past five, didn't you lock up the front after Boot left?"

"I did," the woman insisted, "But he began pounding on the door and wouldn't go away. When I asked him what his issue was, he said that he was too flustered to explain and wasn't going to leave before seeing you. I tried to get him to just make an appointment but he refused so I let him into the waiting room until you were done. I couldn't quite catch his name either... It was something eccentric."

"Alright. Thanks Cho," Hermione smiled slightly. The woman nodded shortly and resumed flipping through files. Hermione always felt that Cho secretly loathed her, but her blank faces never gave anything away. Cho was a hard worker and beyond intelligent, which Hermione admired, so she ignored any sense of spite the woman had against her.

Hermione traveled the short distance around reception to the door leading to the waiting room. She entered, her gaze falling upon a man with shocking white blonde hair. He stood up and strode towards her, grabbing her hand to place a gentle kiss on her caramel skin.

"Finally!" he gasped in a proper English accent, bright eyes landing on her frame, "I've been waiting eons for you to show."

"I apologize, sir, but we're closed now. You can make an appointment with my reception-"

"Yeah, that's all well and good but you don't understand, this," the man opened his mouth and gestured towards his front tooth with a noticeable chip, "is a problem that must be fixed immediately!"

"I'm sorry, Mr...?"

"Abraxas," he supplied, "Abraxas Malfoy."

"Well, Abraxas, it is well after closing time and we open tomorrow at nine, so you're welcome to come back then. I'm sure spending one more night with your tooth won't kill you."

"But it will, luv! It will," he whined, eyes the size of saucers as he placed his hand on her shoulders and shook her, "You don't understand! I need this to be fixed noooooow!"

"Excuse me, sir! Unhand me!" Hermione barked, backing away from the crazy man, "You don't get to make the rules here; that's my job. Now, I have already told you that we aren't taking anymore people today-"

"Pleeaasssee! I have a really important date tonight and I can't show up like this!" he cried, "I'll pay you upfront. Bloody hell, I'll pay you double! You're the closest dentist I could find and I haven't been to one in four years. Please!"

Hermione was dumbfounded. Four years? That's ridiculous! She'd be surprised if the chipped tooth was the only problem he had. She bit her lip, weighing her options: Hermione didn't like that the lunatic showed up demanding things and had the nerve to manhandle her, but all the same, he looked pretty desperate and by helping him she had a valid excuse to show up late to her 'fun' night plans at The Burrow.

"Fine," she harrumphed, "But I swear I will kick your pretty ass out of here if you put your hands on me again."

"Deal!" He said, holding his hands up surrender and taking an extra step away from her.

Hermione led the blonde lunatic from the waiting room to the back rooms, stopping at the examination room Terry Boot was in earlier.

"Take a seat," she gestured towards the reclined chair.

"I really appreciate this, lass," Abraxas said as he settled down.

"I prefer to be called Dr. Granger," she corrected, pulling latex gloves over her hands. She looked down at him, realizing how attractive Abraxas was. He was deathly pale and in dire need of a tan, but she chalked that up to him being English. He had a long, slim form with taut muscles straining against the fabric of his white t-shirt.

"Whatever you say, luv," he grinned, teeth gleaming under the light she adjusted in front of him. Hermione huffed, pulling on her mask, and set to work. In addition to a chipped tooth, Abraxas had three cavities and she was pretty sure that one of them would require a root canal.

"What?" he had gasped in horror when she broke the news to him.

"That's what you get for waiting four years to go to the dentist! What is that about, anyway?" she scolded him.

"I moved to The States four years ago all by my lonesome and didn't have my mother breathing down my back, pressuring me to go. I bloody hate dentists. Sadistic ogres the lot of them."

She raised a brow at him.

"Oh, not you luv! You seem like an absolutely lovely bird. Proper fit, too."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You'd look even better if it weren't for that bushy hair. Don't you do anything to it?"

"Hey!"

"No offense, darling, but I'd say it could use a good deep conditioning."

The bushy haired dentist scoffed.

"Trust me, I've seen my fair share of split ends and breakage, but yours is horrid."

"What, are you a hairstylist, or something?" she snorted.

"Precisely so," he answered, examining his manicured nails, "Are you going to get started anytime soon? Time's a tickin' and my date is in an hour."

Hermione narrowed her eyebrows in annoyance and got to work on bonding his tooth. Abraxas was probably the only person that has ever told her to her face about the unruly state of her hair. Yeah, kids teased her about how big and bushy it was when she was in elementary school, but they never said it to her face. Hermione was a bit… unapproachable in school. Of course she had friends, but she's been told that she can be abrasive at times. She thought she should be offended by Abraxas' comment but instead found his honesty refreshing, especially since he claimed to be an actual hairstylist, so his opinion was valid.

Thirty minutes later, Hermione pulled the suction tool out of Abraxas' mouth and pulled her mask off.

"You're all set," she told him. Abraxas jumped up from the reclined chair and jetted to the mirror in front of the sink. Quickly examining his front tooth up close, Abraxas turned around and beamed at her.

"It's perfect! Thanks, doc! You are such a life saver!"

"Don't go thanking me just yet – I could only place a composite filling for now on such short notice. You can chew on it, but don't go munching away on anything hard, like candy, because it may become loose and fall out."

Abraxas frowned at this.

"We can, however, schedule an appointment for you in a week to get a permanent crown in place. And while you're here, we can also see about filling in some of those cavities and eventually perform a root canal on that one molar of yours in the back."

"Sounds all well and good, lassie," he smirked at her, "You know, I've been told in the past that I've got quite the panty-dropping smile.

"Please, Mr. Malfoy, refrain from being crude and must you insist on calling me these endearments? We are in a professional setting and must act like it."

"Sure, sure, lo-Dr. Granger," he quickly corrected, seeing the stern look on her face. Hermione escorted him out of the examination room and to the front desk, where Cho took down his personal information and insurance information. Hermione retrieved her bag from behind the desk and bid Cho a good night before exiting the building and heading towards her car.

"Hey doc! Wait up!" she heard the English accent from across the lot. She turned to face the crazy man.

"Once again, I really appreciate you taking me in."

"It's no problem, Mr. Malfoy. Just doing my job."

"Please, call me Abraxas, luv," he grinned, dimples denting in his cheeks, "And allow me to repay you in more ways than just my insurance number. I really am a hairstylist and–"

"Mr. Malfoy, if this has anything to do with the state of my hair, then you should stop while you are ahead."

"Don't be that way, lass! I could do wonders for you! Here, take my card. When you decide you want to finally tame that mane of yours, just pop on over. No appointment need. I usually work most days so feel obliged to swing on by," he offered, winking at her as he slid a business card into her hand.

Hermione sighed and accepted the card.

The blonde man offered her another one of his large toothy grins before cursing, "Shite! I'm late for my date! So long, doc!"

And with that, the oddball disappeared around the corner of the building and Hermione got into her car, braving herself for a long night ahead of fake smiles and restrained hatred for a certain redhead and his idiot bride.