Chapter 4
"Good Afternoon Miss Edwards."
Turning to the right after stepping out of the floo network I was greeted by a young, attractive witch in a grey dress with silver pumps. She smiled warmly as she extended her hand out to me, "My name is Kerry. I will be showing you to Mr. Malfoy's office." she states shaking my hand and beginning to move towards the hallway.
The lobby was breathtaking. Grey speckled marble floors, the reception desk was white with glass table tops. The walls were painted a sage color and had modern artwork hung down the hallway. I was impressed; it was sleek, modern and just a touch of masculinity. As we continued down the hall we were stopped at double doors where hired security checked her ID Badge and my visitor one.
Once through the doors I was greeted by an open spaced concept of cubicles. Inner office papers flew about and a low chatter could be heard. "This is the main floor that heads the Malfoy Company." Kerry answered when she glanced my way.
I followed her through another set of doors on the opposite end of the floor where the inner level elevators were located.
"I'll have your own ID badge ready on your departure today. You may continue to go through the main floo connection but after today we will have another set up so that you come right to the floor you'll be working on." Kerry remarks as the elevator doors opened to the top floor.
Once again, the same main colors and style was given to this floor. Instead of marble floors it was a grey checkered carpet and white walls instead of the green. There was another reception desk and two hired security strolling around before greeting Kerry warmly as we passed. This floor seemed to only hold maybe 3 to 4 large offices. We took a hallway to the left of the receptionist's desk, passing one office; a quick glance showed the name Zabbini on the name plate. I rolled my eyes, I should know that they would still be close friends. We stopped in front of the left corner office which had Malfoy on the name plate. She knocked and a shuffling of papers and muffled come in echoed from inside.
"Mr. Malfoy, I have Ms. Edwards here for her appointment."
"Yes, send her in Kerry."
I heard Draco respond and I tried to ignore how my stomach flipped as Kerry opened the door, allowing me to enter.
"I have given her all the background paperwork and I'll have her ID badge ready at her departure today sir." Kerry remarks before stepping out of the room and closing the door.
When the door shut I turned back to look at Draco. He was lounging in a high back chair behind a glass desk, observing me while oozing every ounce of wealth and confidence. I had the sudden urge to puke and run out the door like a teenager
"You hired good. She seems like she does a great job." I noted dumbly, trying to find my ability to speak.
"Yes. Kerry is also a new addition to the Company. I hired her shortly taking over and has done an amazing job." Draco remarks pulling his chair back, "Would you like something to drink?"
"A water perhaps."
I reply following him as he motioned me to take a seat at the table behind me. As I pulled off my cloak and began to pull out the paperwork, Draco busied himself with drinks as he continued to talk.
"Food will be brought up in about 20 minutes I hope you don't mind I picked for you."
"Thanks" I reply taking the glass as he settled into a chair next to me, "That's fine, I'm not a picky eater."
"Good. I had assumed as much from what I remembered." Draco drawls pausing to glance at me. A warm smile on his face, "I'm glad you agreed to come in today, did you get a chance to look at the documents?"
"Yes, I did. They are very thorough yet if you don't mind me saying, very vague at the same time." I remark taking a moment to take a sip of water, letting the cold water cool me down and focus me.
"I was hoping you would figure that out." Draco began before motioning his wand, summoning paperwork to the table, "I'm afraid there is a lot more I left out."
"Left out?"
"Yes." Draco remarks, his face turning serious before continuing, "Don't look so concerned, I do want you as our Gringotts investment handler but there's more. It's true that I want to disintegrate the current board but I've been noticing that one of our investments doesn't look exactly right. I want your help going through the paper work and to find out if one of my advisors has been swindling money."
Good god! I could already feel a headache coming. This…this was crazy. No wonder he didn't want to bring this up at Gringotts.
"Please tell me you're joking." I remark warily, searching his eyes for a sign that he wasn't serious, the chair squeaking as I leaned back.
"I wish it was a joke." Draco remarked taking a sip of his drink, "I've been keeping it under wraps before it gets spread all over the newspapers."
"This is insane!"
Leaning back into the chair I stared off at the wall trying to grasp the mess I just signed myself into. Handle his investments and now help him find out who's been money laundering! No wonder he was so cautious at Gringotts and why he was adamant about saying as little as possible.
"Does anyone else know this besides you?"
"Blaise. Him and I have been working on it for about a year now."
Fuck. "Did you just say you've working on this for a year?"
His eyes flashed as he responded, "Yes. I began to notice it and Blaise has been helping to try to solve this problem."
"Why wait so long to seek help?"
"We needed to make sure we could do this without raising suspicion. That takes time and planning."
Groaning I rub my forehead in frustration, "Okay tell me again what you're me hiring for?"
He rolled his eyes but answered none the less, "I want you to help solve this money laundering but under the disguise that I'm hiring you as my firm's investment consultant. I need to make sure Gringotts doesn't send you off to another potential investor while I'm having you help me. I need you here in London and working here."
"You do realize that I have to show Gringotts proof that I am your investment consultant."
"Yes. I'm going to make a case that by having you on my project only I will be the first participant in setting up a contract with the new Desmarais firm." he states taking another sip of his water.
"Which basically allows you to essentially rent my services out without questions." I state filling in the missing pieces.
"Exactly. Meanwhile I want you working on this problem alone."
"What if I don't find any leads to solving your problem?"
"I highly doubt that will ever be the problem." Draco remarks smirking at me, "If you agree I will be putting you on the companies' salary, although you won't have direct access to it. It would look suspicious that I'm paying you for a job you get paid for by Gringotts."
"What do you mean you are putting me on the companies' salary but I won't have access to it?"
"I will be putting money aside in a new account at Gringotts but currently it would be under my name." Draco replies sifting through the papers he brought to the table earlier.
He handed me a sheet and I glanced at him confused before finally taking it from him. On official letterhead the letter was a proposal of the intended scope of the employment and the starting pay. I blinked and looked back at the figure again. That couldn't be right.
"Draco, this- this is way too much, this has to be a mistake." I remark glancing up at him.
"It's no mistake."
"It's six figures!"
"A pay worthy of what is required of the job and of course the discretion that goes along with it." Draco replies.
I glanced once more at the figure, feeling a bit faint. It felt a bit unreal.
"So, do you accept the job?"
I glance back up him, forgetting that he was still waiting for a response. This was serious, more than what I first anticipated but again this was an opportunity I shouldn't pass up. Whether it was the outrageous pay or the challenge of solving the problem. His grey eyes boar into mine, searching for a hint at what my answer would me. He had to be desperate to be revealing this to me, all in the hopes that I would agree at the end.
"Fine. I accept."
He broke out into a grin of satisfaction, nodding his head in approval, "Excellent! I do require you to sign a few legally binding contracts before I can let you leave this room."
"Of course."
He nodded and soon we delved into the mundane job of paperwork. All had some form of confidentiality and magically binding my signature to the contracts. I had to swear that I would never utter or hint the real reason I was hired and so forth. My hand ached at the end and I was getting exhausted trying to absorb the insane amount of details he had just given me. Just then a knock interrupted our concentration.
"Mr. Malfoy, you lunch." a young girl remarks as hot trays floated in the air and settled in front of us on the table.
"Thank you." Draco replied dismissing the young witch who promptly left and shut the door.
Glancing at the covered trays of food in front of us my stomach rumbled. Making me realize just how much time had passed and how hungry I really was. I glanced over as Draco began to uncover the trays and had our papers tidied up and moved elsewhere.
"I hope you don't mind eating in my office instead of at a restaurant." Draco remarked handing a plate to me, "This was too sensitive to be spoken in public."
"No, its fine. Thank you for lunch."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Uh, sure." I remark as I continued to blow on my soup waiting to see what he wanted to ask.
"What made you leave Europe."
I look up at him sharply, the spoon filled with hot soup still dangling midair. My mouth agape in shock as I tried to register his question. Well. I wasn't expecting him to ask that. Sighing I finally put the spoon down at glance up at him.
"I needed to get away from Europe."
He nodded thoughtfully and I took the moment to taste the soup as he formulated a response. The soup was grain and veggie in a tomato based broth. It was perfect for lunch, filled you up but you wouldn't feel heavy afterwards. I couldn't help but wonder what spurred him to ask such a question.
"I suppose that is a just answer." Draco replied glancing over at me a curious glint in his eye, "Did it offer you what you sought."
I quirked an eye brow at his remark and wondered for a second if he was trying to hint at something, "In some way yes and in others no. I needed to leave but at the same time it was difficult to leave my friends and not help with picking up the Wizarding world after the war."
He nodded thoughtfully and we continued to eat in silence. I wasn't sure what to talk to him about and it had been so long I didn't know what he liked or disliked. His sudden interest in why I left was confusing. Was he generally that interested or what he just trying to make conversation?
"What made you come back?"
I smiled warmly at him, "My friends really. Harry sent me an owl that Ginny was pregnant and I knew it was time for me to come back. I wanted to be there for them and watch their kids grow up and go to Hogwarts. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I stayed in America. It worked out great. I moved back, found a great job at Gringotts and I was still able to travel. A few years later and now I'm sitting in front of you."
He chuckled softly at the ending remark, a thoughtful looked on his face. "Yes, now you are."
We continued to make idle chit chat as we ate and he had the food magically cleared away when we were finished. Bringing the paperwork back on the table I settled comfortably for the next step.
"I would like you to hand this paperwork to Mr. Grootpan so that we can begin our work here. I am assuming you are still finalizing the deal from Paris with your partner?'
"Sure, I can stop into the office tomorrow and hand them to him. Yes, Jacob sent over some more details on the finalization but there could still be remarks or adjustments made."
He nodded thoughtfully and continued to put the fake paperwork together. I was curious about his story as well. I had heard he had married Astoria Greengrass and they had one child together, Scorpius. Then a year ago I heard rumors that he had the marriage dissolved but the public never did find out about the cause the divorce. Many did not divorce in the wizarding world and it was rather difficult to have the magical bindings removed.
"After the fake paperwork gets cleared at Gringotts I want you working here." Draco began handing me the binder and motioning me to follow him out the door, "I have an office open that I would like you to use."
I followed him as we took a left outside of his door, passed the glass board room on the right that served as the divider for the two sides of the floor. On the opposite end, there was again another corner office adjacent to his. I walked parallel with Draco and wondered if there was something bigger planned in that head of his, as he opened the door.
"This will be your office while working on this project. If you need anything, all you need to do is ask and Kerry will make sure the room is to your liking." Draco states strolling into the room and allowing me a moment to look about the room.
It was set up almost identical to his, the same glass desk that had an L shaped attachment that went along the side and back of the desk. There were large fanning plants that were spread across the room. Again, on the opposite end of the room was a small table with chairs, against the wall there was a large bookcase that took up the entire wall. It was very beautiful and I could see all the small details that someone thought about to include. Making my Gringotts office look small and dreary.
"It's beautiful Draco. You really shouldn't have done this." I remark turning to finally meet his gaze.
He waved off my remark, "Nonsense. No one is occupying this room so naturally you should be the one using it."
"Only if you insist."
"I do. Shall we go back to my office and discuss the rest of the details?"
I nodded and followed him out the door than back across the hall and into his office. We spent the rest of the day deep in the paperwork as he tried to bring me up to speed. Everything was in place for the fake decoy that I would give to Gringotts and once it cleared I would then temporarily move to this office where I would begin to go over everything Draco had found so far.
The Malfoy Company had a long-standing tradition of doing business in investments and financing. For generations the company and the board would decide where the family money would get invested and which start up projects they would buy shares into. He went into details on how the board was a carefully chosen group that of course all held similar beliefs to those of the Malfoy family. For generations the board members passed down their position to a family member.
All of this ran smoothly even up until the end of the second wizarding war. However, after his father's sentence Draco became the sole heir of the Malfoy line, where he was then coached in everything that the board and the company handled. Logically those who worked for the company shared the belief about purebloods and supported the Malfoy's backing of Voldemort. Yet once Draco began to no longer need their guidance he found that many were disgruntled that he was never a true supporter of Voldemort and became suspicious when he began to push for investments for companies that were owned by non-pureblood families.
Then almost a year ago he spent time checking into the background of each investment that the company gave money to when he stumbled upon an error. Thus, it turned into a very serious problem, Draco explained that someone inside the company has been allocating money to an undisclosed source. He hopes that by bringing me into the folds I would be able to see into the investment paperwork and find the roots that would lead us to not only where the money was going but who is involved and what was the money being used for.
At the end of the day I had a lingering headache and about three steps away from a full-blown panic attack. This was a high stakes game I was playing in and anything could happen if anyone finds out about this.
"Go home, don't worry so much over this." Draco remarked as if sensing my panic. "I believe it will take about a week for Gringotts to approve my proposal; giving you plenty of time to finalize the end of your current job."
"I hope you right about this." I remark shaking my head in disbelief.
"A Malfoy is never wrong. I am expecting that I will be at Gringotts tomorrow for a meeting after you hand over the proposal. I shall see you tomorrow then and perhaps lunch?"
I glance up at him from buttoning my cloak, quirking an eye brow. A lunch date tomorrow as well?
"Sure?"
"You don't seem convinced about going to lunch. If you'd rather not-"
"No." I retort, cutting him off, "It's fine. We can do lunch tomorrow."
"Good." He states as a devilish grin appeared on his face, which only made my stomach flip.
We said goodbye and I was greeted by Kerry at the elevators who was showing me the way out and handing over my new ID badge. By the time I got home I was exhausted. It was almost dinner and I didn't even want to move from where I collapsed on my couch. The sound of my fireplace roaring to life, jolted me awake and I blinked in confusion.
"Hermione?"
"Why is it I hear my best friend is back in London and doesn't even have the decency to respond back to my owl!" Hermione exclaims glaring at me as she brushed the soot off her clothing.
"It's good to see you too." I rumbled, pushing myself into a sitting position, "I'm sorry everything has been last minute and I've spent the last two days back to back in business meetings with a new client."
"Business meetings? I thought you are just finishing one in Paris? You looked dreadful, have you eaten today?" Hermione questions over her shoulder as she walks into the kitchen.
"Yes, business meetings. Two days ago, Jacob and I just put the contract through for our Paris deal. Then my boss shows up demanding I come back to London to meet a new client that requested me."
"You didn't answer my second question."
I send her a glare, leaning against the doorway into the kitchen, "I haven't eaten since lunch."
"So, who is this new client that Gringotts pulled you off another one for?" Hermione questioned as she continued to busy herself around the kitchen, making dinner.
"Draco Malfoy." I reply watching in amusement as her spoon dropped, as she spun around to face me.
"Did you just say Malfoy?!"
"Yes. I just about had the same reaction you did when my boss told me."
She went back to stirring the pasta sauce as her brain tried to catch up, "Malfoy asked for you specifically? I thought that you guys haven spoken for years now."
"I know. We haven't and yet he still asked for me. Who's watching Rose right now?"
"Oh, I left Rose with Ron." She remarked pausing to look over at me, "So was your meetings with him? How did that go?"
"Yes, my meetings have been with him. It was nerve wracking, seeing him was strange. I felt like no time had passed but at the same time it did."
"So, what happened? Did he say why he asked for you? Was it weird having to interact?" Hermione blurted out. Good old Hermione even though we grew up it was times like these that reminded me of the know it all that became a sister to me at Hogwarts.
"It was odd at some points but for the most part it was comfortable, as if we had been talking to each other all these years. He asked for me because he said I was the only one he could truly trust at Gringotts and would keep their mouth shut. I had to sign a contract to promise I wouldn't talk about why I was hired. All I can say is that I'm supposed to be the sole investment advisor for his company."
I opened a wine bottle and poured two glasses for us as she made our plates and we headed into the dining room to continue talking. I missed having my best friend around, gossiping and talking about life.
"Hm." Hermione hummed thoughtfully handing me my plate, "What about the chemistry?"
"Hermione!"
"What! The two of you had some strong feelings for each other. I dare say that it wasn't something that just goes away." Hermione exclaims taking a bite of her food, raising an eye brow at me. Taunting me to prove that she was wrong.
"Ugh! Yes!" I exclaim throwing my hands up, "Yes all right! It doesn't matter though, this is strictly business and we both live different lives now."
She grinned at me in satisfaction, "I knew it! Oh, I dare to disagree. If anything, I think you two are in very similar situations. Most of the London's wizarding society married right after the war and all have kids. Yet you've decided that your career was more important, which is completely okay. Malfoy in turn, dated and ended up marrying Astoria Greengrass and shortly after the birth of their son he asked for a divorce."
"I still disagree with you." I remark earning an eye roll.
"Fine I'll let it drop for now but I still think I'm right about this. What now? Are you here in London long term with this new job?"
"For the most part yes."
"Good. So, you're free to have dinner with us tomorrow night? Harry and Ginny will be there with their two boys."
"Yes, I would love to come. It will be good to see all of you and the kids. Can't believe how old they're getting."
We finished off our glass of wine and I waved our plates away and they were now getting cleaned with the rest of the kitchen. We briefly talked about how work was going for her at the Ministry, promising to tell me more details of life when I came over tomorrow. Hugging her goodnight, I watched as the fireplace died.
