In a blur of lovemaking, grocery shopping, and packing for Ron's trip to France, Saturday became Sunday and it was time for Ron to leave. Before dinner on Sunday, Hermione apparated with Ron to the international port key location in Diagon Alley and saw him off. Usually, a wizard could apparate anywhere but over great distances it was a draining spell, so Hermione convinced Ron to take the port key. The port key did cost a bit of gold, but Ron's health was invaluable to Hermione.

As she walked from Diagon Alley to a point where she could apparate back home, she had the distinct feeling of being followed. Ever since Lockhart had ambushed her, she had become much more cautious of unusual figures around her, particularly at apparation points and had heightened her magical awareness.

It was a cloaked figure that she suspected, someone who always walked a certain distance behind her since she entered Diagon Alley for the day. She could see that the figure wasn't as tall as Lockhart, so it couldn't be him, but it reminded her of the henchmen Lockhart had with him. It was eerie, yet the figure never made any hostile movements. Hermione almost wanted to preemptively attack first, but somehow it didn't seem right to attack when there was no evidence of any wrongdoing. When she finally apparated home, she felt the figure's presence disappear. Maybe it was just my imagination, Hermione thought. Hermione tried to shake off the feeling and went into her flat.

—

The next day at work, Hermione had young Eric divest all of their fund's investments in quill companies and made a recommendation to invest in Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, Firebolt, and a new muggle venture in cell phones, a company called Nokia. Afterwards, she looked up a spell to store memories, and created a vial of what happened at the factory 2 days earlier.

Twirling the vial in her one hand, resting her head against her other, Hermione sat at her desk and thought of what to do. If she gave up the vial to the Ministry, there would be an investigation into Lockhart, Wendel, Malew and Yaxley. It was hard to say what the end result would be, but likely all of them would have charges pressed against them.

There was only one way to fairly tie up this situation, and Hermione knew she had to have the resolve to see her decision through to the end.

A knock on the door broke her out of her reverie. It was Eric, saying, "Ms. Granger, Ragnuk wants a meeting with you."

Hermione wasn't surprised, most likely the goblins wanted to see how the Wendel Cauldron Factory deal had come along. Hermione nodded to Eric and answered, "I'll be right there."

—

When Hermione entered the conference room, the goblins there were already in a heated discussion about how to best proceed with the Wendel matter.

"With the current payout to stakeholder's, I'm afraid that the only option is to sell our stake to Thickbottom's Cauldrons." Zineek said.

Ragnuk didn't look pleased.

"Ah, Hermione! Just the person we wanted to see." Grizek said as Hermione sat down. "How are the negotiations coming along?"

Hermione hesitated for a second, but Zineek cut in, "I've visited some of the employees, but without Malew's approval they do not want to sell their stake."

"In this situation, would you agree that we should sell our stake to Thickbottom's?" Zineek asked Hermione.

Hermione could tell Zineek was leading her on, but Hermione could feel Ragnuk's attention on her, so she had to answer.

"Wendel's is a good opportunity for us, I think the sales will return eventually, so we should invest a little more time to see what happens." Hermione said carefully.

"The return is simply too low, if we wait any longer we are essentially losing money…" Zineek said sharply.

Ragnuk suddenly spoke, directly to Hermione and not to the other goblins, "Hermione, you have charge of this project. There will always be times when you have to cut your losses, and you have to have the resolve to commit to such a decision. What will you do?"

Hermione's eyes went from Zineek to Ragnuk, and said slowly, "I can get a sale, but I have a condition…"

—

They came into her office towards the end of the day, as Hermione expected. Malew looked totally fine but Wendel was sporting a crutch. Earlier, when Hermione got back to her office she had Eric send a patronus to both Wendel and Malew, requesting a meeting immediately. Hermione knew they would have no choice but to come, but now that they were here Hermione couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

As Eric showed the two of them in, Wendel was silent, only giving Hermione a venomous look as he entered, whereas Malew gave no hint of any emotion. Neither bothered to greet Hermione. Hermione broke the silence immediately, saying, "I've called you here finish negotiating the sale of Wendel Cauldron Factory to gringotts. As you know, the sales have been low for several consecutive months." Eric was recording notes so she couldn't say publicly that the reason the sales were low was that Wendel and Malew had been exporting them off the books illegally.

"Gringott's is wiling to pay double the original price from 2 years ago, for the remainder 50% stake owned by Wendel's Cauldrons. The same offer as before."

Wendel's face turned red, as he sputtered in anger, "Ridiculous, I will never sell the factory, much less to some filthy goblins…"

Hermione ignored him, it was Malew that she wanted to speak to. "I have persuaded Gringott's executives to agree to some additional contract conditions, the most important of which I will detail to you. The personnel at Wendel's will remain unchanged for at least the next 5 years, Malew will retain his position as the manager, so long as factory sales and profits meet this minimum quota." Eric handed out some figures. Wendel crumpled his in his chubby fist but Hermione noticed Malew glance over the numbers.

"Both of you will retain a small amount of non-voting stock, most of it will be Wendel's, around 2% of the value of the company, and after 5 years you will have the option to buyback more shares. If you don't agree to this offer, I'll have to restore sales using a more… direct method…"

Hermione pulled out the vial she had created. Hermione could almost taste the tension in the air. She saw Eric shifting in his seat, looking uneasily from Hermione to Wendel. Part of Hermione felt absolutely disgusted with herself, as she was basically resorting to blackmail, but somewhere within her she knew that unless she took this route of action, it was hard to punish Wendel without punishing Malew. Hermione wanted to pay him back for letting her go from the factory, and this was the only way.

"You goblin whore, I'll never agree to this!" Wendel said angrily, rising. He steadied himself against his crutch and pulled out a wand.

Hermione didn't expect that Wendel would try anything, so she hadn't prepared herself against the possibility that Wendel would try to attack her right in the middle of Gringotts. She didn't get her wand out in time, but Eric realizing what was going on stood hastily. He rushed to stand in front of Hermione, positioning himself in front of Wendel's wand.

But Malew suddenly kicked out Wendel's crutch, making him fall heavily back into his seat, and said "I accept your terms."

Hermione could see Wendel turn white, then red again, as he hissed in anger, "You traitor!"

Malew paid no attention to Wendel, saying to Hermione, "I'll sign the documents now, and call in the senior employees now to give their signatures."

Wendel got back up, breathing hard, his face taut with fury, saying "This isn't over" and stormed out of the room.

As Malew signed each closing document, Hermione grew more regretful. Wendel would hold a grudge against her forever, but Hermione consoled herself by making herself remember that Wendel did vote for killing her that day at the factory.

When Malew had finished, Hermione looked at Malew and said, "I'm sorry it had to come to this…"

Malew gave Hermione a shrewd look. "You certainly know how to pick your allies. How did you know I'd throw in with you?"

Hermione looked at Malew, "I didn't. How did you know I wouldn't just report you and Wendel?"

Malew suddenly smiled for the first time since Hermione had met him. "I didn't. But it would seem good deeds are justly rewarded. I couldn't have lived with myself if I let Wendel kill a young woman like you… and now that I know what kind of man he is, I can't work for him any longer either…"

—

As Hermione went home that day, she had a sudden doubt that it might have be better to put Wendel behind bars. But once the factory was sold there would be no reason for him to resort to drastic measures to protect his non-existent factory. Hermione knew that the money Wendel would get should be enough to start a new factory, and she thought that getting sent to Azkaban just to get revenge was something Wendel probably wouldn't do.

Suddenly Yaxley crept back into her mind. Yaxley was the one who probably orchestrated the cauldron smuggling, but according to Lockhart it would be hard to do something about him. But, again, once the factory sold, Yaxley would have no more motive to do anything harmful to Hermione.

That night, sleeping alone never felt more uncomfortable to Hermione. She missed Ron already, she wanted to tell him about the Yaxley and Wendel, but she was afraid somehow it would lead to Ron knowing about Lockhart. As Hermione fell asleep, she remembered that she could tell George first.

—

Next Chapter 15