Thanks to Vanessa85, Yaw613, scrumptiousinternetllama, maraudersextra, and lamia for reviewing the last chapter!
Also, if you get triggered, in this chapter: I write Lucius Malfoy as an extremely wealthy and abusive man, as he was in the books...but don't worry too much, Tonks, Diane and Tiffany are going to kick his arse when they finally get to meet him. Actually, there's probably going to be plenty of asskicking once they get infiltrate the club :)
This chapter also takes place about a week later from where the last chapter was
Chapter 11: While the Cats away, the Mice will Play!
Lucius grinned as he stepped inside the doors of the Consortium. This was exactly the type of place he liked: first class, ridiculously expensive, and he got treated like a king. Quite literally, but then he was one of the wealthiest and highest paying customers to frequent the private club. So quite rightfully, they treated him like royalty; if they ever crossed him, he might even use his vast connections to shut the illegal operation down.
Luckily, they were very compliant and gave him whatever he wanted.
"May I help you, Lord Malfoy?"
His lips twisted into a smug grin as one of the witchy women at the entrance, dressed in a tight gold dress, ushered him inside the temple of sin.
"Yes," he drawled while he let his eyes travel all over her. "I believe you can. I'd like to gamble a bit on the tables, and then I would like you to bring me some of your finer witches," he grinned. "For company."
"As you wish, Lord Malfoy," the witch squeaked and bowed her head slightly.
Yes, this was exactly his type of place.
He grinned wider, like a fox in a chicken's den, as she turned around to lead the way and he placed a hand on the witch's bottom as she walked in front of him.
The witch, while not one of the escorts, dared not complain. She'd surely lose her job if she tried to complain about the Consortium's most highest paying customer.
Oh, he loved the power.
Once he was within the highly warded underground casino, which had high vaulted, gold ceilings and waterfalls like the glitziest Las Vegas hotel, Lucius took a breath of deep air. This was the life. He swung his silver and diamond snake cane by the handle as he confidently strode towards one of the blackjack tables where the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, and other important men were already playing.
He was greeted by familiar, important faces that ruled the Wizarding World by day, and played blackjack, Russian roulette and other illegal gambles by night. He was very much a regular in this elite club.
"Gentleman, may I join you?"
Rufus Scrimgeour chuckled and puffed at his cigar, a sly grin on the rascally minister's face. "Depends on how much galleons you want to lose."
"Oh, but you know I'm a good loser."
Another wizard seated at the table, Charles Greengrass, one of the senior judges of the Wizengamot, laughed and greedily placed his thick, chubby hands over his tokens. "Good. I'm planning to recuperate my losses tonight!"
Lucius sat down in satisfaction. "Don't be so sure, Greengrass," he warned the older gentleman. "I play for keeps." He raised a hand to the dealer, "I'll have 10,000," he drawled smoothly and watched as the men around him gasped in shock.
"Pour the golden champagne!"
~o~
"Okay, ground rules," Tonks said. "No touching, no fondling and no explicit language."
They'd already gone through the rules several times, but with a loose canon like Sirius on board, it seemed like a good idea to go over the rules as many times as possible.
Especially because she was sure Sirius had absolutely no intentions of following any of the rules of their mission.
"Can I ask a question?" asked Sirius, who was leaning back in his chair by his haunches.
"You just did." Tonks tried to not get too snappy at him, though it was getting harder and harder when they were arguing more than ever. Especially now that Sirius spent more than half his time polyjuiced as Tiffany and prancing around in heels and short skirts that made every man, including Remus, stare at him. Luckily, Sirius was just his normal man-self right now and not polyjuiced...though he was still irritating.
"Well, can I ask another question?"
Tonks grit her teeth. "Again, you just did ask a question." She huffed. "So why don't you just ask the question and get it over with?"
Sirius grinned, satisfied that she was annoyed. "Okay, I will, if you insist. Well..." he said and his silver eyes stared off at the ceiling. "Theoretically speaking, what if Lucius wanted to do something more with me, because Tiffany is quite irresistible, how am I going to wheedle my way out of that without breaking the rules?"
Tonks clenched her fist under the table while staring at her cousin. Why did she get the feeling, Tiffany was actually going to do everything to seduce Lucius and break all the rules?
She tried to control her temper. "Again, Tiffany," she said the name ironically. "No touching, no fondling and no illicit language, unless specifically requested by Lucius and there's no way out of it without blowing our cover. This is a classy club, so the escorts are there mostly just to chat and look pretty. Yes, in revealing outfits, but actually a lot of the wizards like to take the escorts out to wine and dine them like they would any ordinary date."
Remus coughed uncomfortably. "Some of them have any married escorts. Which is why the club insists on pureblooded escorts only."
Tonk's eyes watered. "Yeah, I'm trying not to think about that. Though you'd have to be a pretty crazy millionaire to want to marry an escort."
"Hey, don't put down our profession!" Sirius said superciliously.
"Don't make me swat you." Tonks felt her hair turning red. "I know this is like the first real job you've had in practically all your life, but it does NOT make you a professional escort!"
Sirius flicked his hair back. "My options are open! Don't underestimate me."
"Grrrr." Tonks literally growled.
Remus interrupted before she started arguing with her annoying, smart-arse cousin Sirius again.
"Okay, back on topic," the werewolf said evenly and calmly, though the bags under his eyes betrayed that he actually was tired. "Our goal is to be classy and charming enough for Lucius to want to take us out and then, once he's inebriated enough, back to Malfoy Manor. His wife is going to be away for a whole week in France and from what our sources tell us, Lucius Malfoy, even when his wife is home, likes to take his female companions back to the sprawling mansion. Malfoy Manor is big enough that what's happening in one room or floor won't be heard throughout the other hundred rooms and four-floors. Basically, it's like a labyrinth and highly warded. Once you get in, you can't get out."
"That's reassuring," Sirius snorted. "Sounds like a mouse trap. I say we need a backup plan and portkey to get out of there in case!"
Tonks rolled her eyes. "Sirius, in case you haven't been paying attention, the whole point of this mission is to break the wards from the inside so that we can unlock it anytime after using a special portkey."
Sirius scowled. "Who's going to do that?"
"Tonks is." Remus beamed at her proudly and Tonks felt brightened to be admired by his amber eyes.
"You know about wards?" Sirius asked incredulously.
Tonks felt like slapping him on the upside of the head. "Yes, I do. It was part of my auror training."
Sirius narrowed his eyes at her, clearly jealous that Remus had given her attention.
"Tonks, why don't we focus back on the club? What do you know of it?" Remus asked and he seemed tense. Well, he had been on edge and rather tired around the eyes the last few days. and considering it wasn't anytime near the full moon, Tonks guessed it might just be the nerves of performing as a woman on a dangerous mission. Merlin knows, she was also starting to lose sleep about it. Because if anything went wrong, it could get very...complicated.
"Right. Good point." Tonks nodded and pointed her hand at Mundungus, who happened to be attending their meeting, just for this purpose. "Dung has been watching and infiltrating the Consortium club for weeks now, Dung why don't you take it from here?"
She sat back down at the worn Order of the Phoenix kitchen table and let out a sigh of relief. Not that she had much faith in Dung to be a reliable informant. Yet, if there ever was a dodgy place in London or wizarding England, Mundungus Fletcher knew about it. So to that extent, he was somewhat trustworthy or at least useful.
The scruffy redhead got up from his place at the table and his grubby hands fiddled with the edge of his hat, as he stared at them through through baleful blue eyes.
'Well?" Remus and Tonks both asked him at the same time. Tonks blushed that her and Remus were now on speaking at the same time, they were on the same wavelength. "Never mind you go ahead," she whispered in embarrassment at Remus.
Remus chuckled. "Right, well Mundungus, why don't you start by telling us what you know about the clientele?"
"All spiffy and elite, I've seen some of the richest wizards in all of Britain, step in there."
"Good, who have you seen there?"
Mundungus scratched at his beard and grunted. "Besides Lucius, there are actually several men, some of whom have Death Eater connections, including that Scrimgroer fella, Greengrass from the Wizegamot and Lord Nott."
"Lord Nott?" Sirius asked. "I think I'm related to him..."
"Nevermind Nott," Tonks gulped shakily. "You saw the Minister of Magic at the club?"
Oh this mission could fuck up in some many ways...
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a/n - Thanks for reading, fav and following :D
BTW I know my updates tend to be sporadic, sorry, but if you're looking to read a really good, funny remus/tonks story in the mean time, I can't highly recommend enough: "Fun & Games at Grimmauld Place" by gemini-victoria It's already completed and that story made me laugh so much and has Remus, Tonks and Sirius in it competing in a prank war like the Olympics. Perfect now that the real olympics are going on! Do give it a read, she has a crazy sense of humour!