A/N: Written for Hogwarts Challenge Assignment # 4: Muggle Music
Task #8: "Be My Guest" (Beauty and the Beast): Write about being invited.

Additional prompts:
365 Challenge: 76. Creature - Niffler
Insane House Challenge: 823. Song - Summer Lovin' - Grease

Word Count: 2,528

As always, find me on tumblr at crochetawayhpff. And drop a line if you like this!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Ma chere Mademoiselle, it is with deepest pride
and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight.
And now we invite you to relax, let us pull up a
chair as the dining room proudly presents -
your dinner!
-"Be My Guest" - Beauty and the Beast

Hermione huffed a sigh and the tendril of brown-wavy hair hanging on her forehead puffed outward, before settling once more in her eyes. She swiped her hand across her forehead, absentmindedly, pushing the hair aside as she continued reading. It was way past the time she should have been leaving work, but since she had nothing to go home to, she was burning the midnight oil. She turned the page to continue reading. It was a complicated case between a Troll camp and a Centaur hunting ground and Hermione wanted to be sure she was current on all of the legislation that had been passed in the last three hundred years in regards to both species.

"Still here, Granger?"

Looking up from her desk, Hermione's cheeks burned, Draco Malfoy was leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. His sleeves were rolled up and Hermione licked her bottom lip at seeing the muscles in his forearms flex.

"Granger?"

Shaking her head, she continued her perusal finally looking Malfoy in the face. He looked good. Better than good. His features had hardened over the years, his chin less pointy and now boasted a square jaw. He had a day or two of stubble on his face and his grey eyes were bright and clear. Best of all, his white-blond hair was cut short, he wore it in a small coif to the left side of his head.

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Complicated case. I'm meeting with the Troll coalition tomorrow. So I need to know all the legislation that's been passed in regards to Trolls."

"You're only halfway through that book," Malfoy stated with a frown on his face, indicating the book on Hermione's desk.

"Oh, this is my second read through," Hermione said vaguely, she looked down, hoping to hide her blush from him. He made her so bloody nervous.

"Oh."

Hermione stole a peek at him, he was rubbing the back of his head with one hand now, looking like he wanted to say something. His lips were moving as if he were going over what he wanted to say in his mind. When he started to look back up at her, she quickly dropped her gaze back down to her book. Completely missing the look of longing that crossed his face.

"Granger," Malfoy said as if he were trying to get her attention. Like she could absorb anything she was reading with him standing so close.

"Hmm," she raised her head to meet his gaze once more. She was a Gryffindor, dammit. She shouldn't be so cowardly.

"Would you… that is… blast it… would you like to grab dinner sometime?" Malfoy asked in a rush.

The light in Hermione's office was dim, but she thought she could make out two spots of pink tinting his cheeks. Hermione's own cheeks were hot as color suffused them. Draco Malfoy had just asked her out. It was a scenario she had wished for, had hoped for, and yet, having it happen, she was rendered speechless. She stared at him in shock, her eyes wide and her mouth parted.

Nobody said anything for a moment and Draco's cheeks darkened.

"I mean, we don't have—"

"No!" Hermione cut him off. "No, I… er… I want to. Um, yes. I'd like to get dinner sometime." Hermione stated with a firm nod and a deep exhale.

His whole face lightened up with a bright smile, "Brilliant. Friday then? There's a place in Diagon that just opened up, the Olive Grove, I think it's called."

Hermione smiled tentatively, "Sure, I think Friday will work.

"Brilliant," Malfoy said again. "Don't stay too late, yeah?"

Hermione nodded and Malfoy left with a brief, "Good night," called over his shoulder.

As soon as he was out of eyesight, Hermione twirled around in her office chair doing a little happy dance. She'd had a crush on Malfoy for at least two years now. Ever since they became colleagues in the Magical Law Enforcement office as solicitors. He wasn't the boy he was during the war, the war was long over and for the most part, Malfoy had been accepted back into society. It helped that his parents had taken off for the continent and not been seen in Britain since the end of their house arrest.

Hermione grinned as she looked back down at her book on Troll legislation. She closed it with a whump. She had read it already, she was as prepared as she was going to be for her meeting tomorrow. And now, she had a date to prepare for in just four days. Her head made a thunking sound as it hit the desk before her. She was going to have to ask for help.

Popular, you're gonna be popular
I'll teach you the proper poise when you talk to boys
Little ways to flirt and flounce, ooh!
I'll show you what shoes to wear, how to fix your hair
Everything that really counts to be—
-"Popular" - Wicked

"Not this one, or that. Dear Merlin, why in the world would you have ever bought that?" Ginny Weasley was muttering to herself as she went through Hermione's closet. "You have absolutely nothing to wear," Ginny pronounced turning to her friend.

"What? That's not true! That blue dress is perfectly fine!" Hermione protested picking up the dress that Ginny had tossed carelessly to the floor.

"Hermione, you bought that dress to wear to the Yule Ball your eighth year of school. I don't even know why you still have it," Ginny's nose wrinkled in disgust, grabbing the dress from Hermione's hands, holding it out of reach.

Hermione's floor was littered with the remnants of Ginny tearing through her closet at lightning speed, trying to help her find something to wear on her date with Malfoy. It had looked as if a niffler had been left alone for an hour or two.

"It was a two hundred pound dress, Gin! It's perfectly—"

"Put it on then, you'll see," Ginny said, thrusting the dress back at her hands.

Hermione glared at her, then flounced to her bathroom, not bothering to shut the door.

"Honestly, Ginny. It's a perfectly… huh…" she looked at herself in the mirror. Apparently, she had grown breasts since her eighth year at Hogwarts. She slumped out of the bathroom to see Ginny standing in the mess of Hermione's bedroom with her hands on her hips.

"I told you," Ginny said.

And she was right, Hermione stood in front of the full-length mirror in the corner of the room, the dress didn't fit at all around her chest. She couldn't even pull it down over her breasts all the way. It gapped ridiculously above her breasts and then pulled tight over them. She turned around and because of the poor fit, it barely covered her bum.

"You need new clothes, 'Mione," Ginny said. "It's Wednesday already, and the shops are all closed for the evening already. I'm picking you up at four sharp tomorrow afternoon and we're going shopping."

"I can't go shopping in Diagon Alley," Hermione pleaded. "He'll find out and know I bought something for the date!"

"Fine, let's go to that place you took me to a few years ago. Parrots or whatever."

"Harrods," Hermione corrected. "I guess that's acceptable. Have you been to the Olive Grove? How glamorous is it?"

"Blaise Zabini owns it, so that means it's about the trendiest, most exclusive place in Diagon Alley."

"Great," Hermione said quietly. The last thing she wanted to do was make a fool of herself in front of Malfoy in the poshest place in town.

"It'll be fine. Especially once we go shopping. And I'll help you get ready on Friday night. Do your hair, your makeup, it'll be great."

"I don't need help doing my hair and makeup," Hermione told Ginny. She loved her friend, really she did, but sometimes Ginny's ideas of makeup were truly atrocious.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Honestly, I'll go light on the makeup. I promise."

Hermione looked at her skeptically, but finally, she nodded. In truth, she wanted a distraction before her date. Otherwise, she'd worry herself sick before he even showed up at her door. Oh, Merlin, she was going on a date with Draco Malfoy in two days.

Ginny was as harsh at Harrods as she had been at Hermione's closet. It was half past six and Hermione was tired, her feet hurt, and she was hungry. And Ginny had just rejected another dress.

"There aren't that many left," Hermione said waspishly as she pulled the rejected dress off her body and hung it back up.

"We'll find something, don't worry," Ginny told her through the door. "But it is Draco Malfoy, so it has to be spectacular."

"But I'm not spectacular," Hermione muttered to herself. She didn't know why she had agreed to this. The date or shopping with Ginny. The knots in her stomach were growing tighter by the day, she wasn't sure she could go through with it.

Hermione threw her denims and long-sleeved t-shirt back on before trudging back to the racks to look at more dresses. The problem was that she and Ginny didn't have the same taste. If it wasn't too tight, too short, and too low-cut, Ginny rejected it. Hermione had tried on dozens of dresses and honestly, almost every one of them would have been fine in her opinion.

Finally, near the back of a rack on the wall, Hermione spotted a dress she thought even Ginny would like. It was bottle-green and had sequins on it, set in a wavy pattern, almost snake-like, Hermione thought as she looked at it. It was short, but not low-cut, she grabbed the hanger and turned it around, but it was backless. She wouldn't be able to wear a bra in it. But if she wore her hair up, it could be stunning. She grabbed it and headed back to the changing room.

As she was sliding her denims off once more, Ginny tossed a few more dresses over the door. "Here," she grunted and Hermione scrambled to grab them before they landed on the floor.

She slid into the brilliant green dress and marveled at the perfect fit. She'd forgotten to check the size and hadn't seen any others like it. At first, she hadn't been sure of the color, green was a very hit or miss color for any woman, but the moment Hermione looked at herself in the mirror, she'd felt beautiful. She smiled and turned to show Ginny. Throwing open the door to her dressing room, she found Ginny waiting, but her head was turned away.

"Hem-hem," Hermione said in a little joke about Umbridge that still went around and Ginny turned to face her. Ginny's jaw dropped.

"That's the dress. Bloody hell! Where did you find it? It's perfect!"

Hermione laughed, feeling better than she had in days. "It was at the back of a rack, the only one left."

"Well, it's gorgeous. You're buying it right?"

"Absolutely," Hermione grinned and did a little twirl.

"Excellent, I'm starving, let's go eat."

Hermione nodded her agreement and left to change back into her clothes. She almost couldn't wait to see Malfoy's face when he saw that dress.

"I'm not going. I can't," Hermione moaned.

"Merlin, you'd think you were dying or something. It's just cramps. Here," Ginny waved her wand and suddenly, Hermione's cramps disappeared.

"What was that?" Hermione asked as she looked up at her friend. She had been curled in a ball on her bed, refusing to move. Of course, she would start her period on the day she was due to go out with Draco Malfoy. Hermione had never been as lucky as Harry had been.

"A period-pain charm," Ginny said blithely.

"A what?"

"You've never heard of a period-pain charm?" Ginny asked incredulously.

Hermione shook her head.

"Nimue, we should sit you down with Mum sometime. She has all sorts of things like that. I can't believe Madam Pomfrey never went over it with you."

"I never went to Madam Pomfrey for period stuff," Hermione shrugged. She'd just always taken a couple of ibuprofen and went about her day.

Ginny shook her head, "You should have. Could have made your life a whole lot easier. Now, let's get you ready! I'm thinking we should do an up-do, and then…"

Hermione tuned her out and glanced at her watch, Malfoy would be there in two hours to pick her up for their date.

Summer lovin', had me a blast
Summer lovin', happened so fast
I met a girl crazy for me
Met a boy cute as can be
Summer days drifting away
To, uh oh, those summer nights
-"Summer Nights" - Grease

Hermione and Draco's dinner date turned into dancing at a nearby club. Dancing turned into breakfast at an all hours pancake house on the Muggle side of town. Breakfast turned into coffee at Hermione's flat off of Diagon Alley.

The day after their date, Draco showed back up at Hermione's flat, with a small bunch of lavender in his hands. She was delighted to see him and invited him in for a drink. A drink turned into dinner. And dinner turned into showing Draco the delights of a Muggle film. The Muggle film turned into snuggling and canoodling on Hermione's sofa.

On the Sunday following their date, Draco woke up in Hermione's bed. Waking up in bed turned to breakfast of coffee and frozen waffles, the only breakfast food Hermione had in the flat. Breakfast turned into grocery shopping for more food that was actually fit for wizard consumption, in Draco's words. Grocery shopping turned into making dinner for each other and drinking a bottle of wine together.

Monday morning, Hermione woke up to see Draco coming out of her bathroom with a towel around his waist. Hermione admired the view that afforded her.

"Gotta go home and get a change of clothes," he told her, stalking closer, the towel becoming dangerously loose.

She smiled up at him, "Alright."

"I'll see you in a few hours at work," he breathed as he leaned over to kiss her goodbye. Their kiss very nearly made them both late for work when it turned into something more.

Draco spent the rest of the summer in and out of Hermione's flat. Taking her on dates, cooking dinner with her, watching Muggle films. It was the best summer of Hermione's life. And when the weather turned colder, Draco started inviting Hermione to his flat. His flat had a working fireplace, and they spent the autumn snuggled on the couch under a blanket, in front of his fireplace. It was the best autumn of Draco's life.

By the time the new year rolled around, Draco had proposed. Hermione said yes. And in the spring, they married.