A/N: I am hoping that I am not going to regret posting this one when I haven't finished up chapter three yet, but I guess I am just living dangerously right now, lol. Thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chatper! You can find me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter two and be on the look out for chapter three next week!
Hermione's fingers were shaking while she zipped up the black leather jacket that Sirius had found for her. It was a bit oversized, but he promised it was right for the part. "Are you sure it has to be me? Couldn't you ask Harry or Ron?" she asked the older man, looking at him with nervousness. "How does Remus do this every day?"
"'Fraid so, kitten," Sirius said, circling her to make sure that she looked the part and not like a fed going undercover. Which is exactly what she was.
"Are you sure I don't look silly? Maybe I should change," she suggested, trying to make a break for her closet, only to be stopped by Sirius.
"You look perfect, Hermione," he promised, looking at her fondly. "Trust me. This is my job."
Hermione whined, looking at herself in the mirror again. Tight black jeans and black leather ankle boots were complimented by more black — the worn leather jacket around her shoulders. Underneath, she just wore a simple white t-shirt that didn't give any hints as to the kind of person she really was. She was just a blank canvas.
"Hey, you'll do just fine, Hermione," Remus said, sensing her nerves. "Don't worry, I've put in a good word for you, and I'll be with you. Just do exactly what Greyback says and we won't have any problems, okay?" He pressed his hands to her shoulders, looking into her eyes from over her shoulder in the mirror.
"What if he asks me to kill someone?" she snarked back at her mentor.
Remus gave her a half smile. "Don't worry, he wouldn't expect that out of you," he promised. "But, don't forget, he isn't a nice man...and he can be a bit crude, so just...never forget who you are dealing with. He can be dangerous, but I will be with you. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise," he said it so earnestly, that Hermione was finding it quite easy to believe. It almost assuaged her fears...almost.
"It's important to remember that you aren't playing a role. You aren't someone else," Sirius added, imparting some of his wisdom gained from his years in the field. "This is just another version of yourself. We still want you to be your normal, bossy self."
"Git," Hermione said, scrunching her nose up at his assessment of her character. But, she knew that she could be pretty bossy. Maybe it would serve her well. She hoped being herself would serve her well.
Sirius turned to look at Remus. "Are you sure that we can't get a wire on her?" he asked, taking an assessing look at her attire. "Maybe in the boot, if we are careful. The sound quality is shite, but at least it's something."
Remus shook his head. "Greyback is way too careful for that," he said, with a frown. "We can't risk it."
Sirius returned his attention to her. "After today, you won't be able to come into the bureau," Sirius reminded her for the millionth time.
"Yes, I got it, I got it," Hermione said, feeling like he was babying her. "What, do you think I am just going to stop by sometime for a chance? Or stumble in drunk? Please, have a little more faith in me."
"I have absolute faith in you," he promised. "But, I just want to keep you safe. Your safety is in my hands for the duration of this mission. And, I am not going to lose an officer for a stupid reason."
"Well, there's your problem," Hermione said with a smirk. "Thinking that I would do anything stupid."
"You shouldn't return to your flat either. If there is anything that you need, you let me know and we can send someone to get it. The more removed you are from your former self, the better," he insisted, sharply.
Clearly he was thinking about the books. That had been a massive argument when they wouldn't move her entire library with her. The bureau was insisting on putting her up in a flat that was closer to Greyback's headquarters — a decrepit old warehouse, from the outside — which meant leaving her old flat behind. They had already moved over a fair number of things that she wanted, but they had drawn the line at the number of books she was requesting.
"I think it should be fine," she said with a sniff.
"There's a pub just around the corner from here," Sirius said. "I'll signal you when to meet and then you can give your reports to me there. Just sit at the bar and I'll meet you there."
"And if I should need you?" Hermione asked, thinking that something was sure to come up that wasn't on Sirius's time table.
"You can always signal for me if you need to. Or you can ask Remus," Sirius instructed, looking at his best friend. "He's got a few more ways of communicating with us."
Hermione glared at the pair of them, upset that they didn't trust her with more.
"We just wanted you to focus on your task and your task alone," Remus said, a tired look in his green eyes. "Just keep it simple."
Nodding, Hermione tried to calm her increasingly frayed nerves as her time as Hermione Granger, accountant, drew nearer. "Alright, let's go," she said to Remus, knowing that she was never going to feel more ready than she was. "Before I change my mind."
"This is where I say goodbye to you, kitten," Sirius said, wrapping her up in a tight hug. Hermione resisted for a minute, before returning the squeeze. "Just for a few days at least. Good luck."
Remus led her down the stairs of her building and out to an old beat up pick up truck that he was driving around while he was undercover, though truthfully she didn't think that the car he would have selected would have been much nicer. He always seemed to pick extremely frugal options.
The ride over to Greyback's headquarters was completed in silence. Remus must have known how pointless chitchat would do little to soothe her nerves or perhaps he just didn't have any additional advice to offer her, but by the time she stepped out of his old car, she was shaking with fear and she wished she would have had something to preoccupy her thoughts with instead of the impending doom that was consuming her mind.
She hid behind Remus as she walked into the building. The warehouse was actually much nicer in person than in the pictures she'd seen. It wasn't rundown at all, just sort of nondescript. As soon as Remus got out of the car, it was as if a completely different person inhabited his body. He walked in with a swagger she didn't know he possessed and headed off in the direction of Greyback's office. Knocking on the door, he entered after hearing a gruff voice call for them to come in.
Fenrir Greyback didn't look anything like his picture either. He was a beast of a man, much taller than Remus who is already quite tall, and strong looking. The picture she'd seen had given no indication of his height, but Hermione was immediately taken by how suffocating his presence was. He engaged Remus in a complicated handshake, and Hermione tried not to stare too much at the curve of his jaw, masculine and strong. He wore an easy smile and when his dark blue eyes settled on her form, they lit up with mischief. It made him seem playful, not like the serious killer that she expected him to be.
Smirking at her, he settled back into his chair before motioning for Remus to do the same. She was not offered a seat at the table, something that rankled her more than she'd care to admit. "When you told me you'd find me someone to help with my little problem, you didn't tell me it would be a little girl," he taunted, his eyes darting to her to see her reaction.
Remus shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Hermione's young, but she's still the best at what she does," he explained, careful not to sing her praises too much. "I met her when I was trying to deal with some cash tips. She's very...creative."
"Look at her," Fenrir said with amusement clear in his voice. "She looks like a little kitten, all angry and ready to sink her claws into me."
"She would appreciate it if you didn't talk about her like she wasn't standing right here," Hermione sniped at him, raising her jaw in defiance at his attitude. With her arms crossed over her chest and her hip out to one side, she rather felt like she was telling off Harry or Ron, not a seasoned criminal.
The smirk dropped from his face at the pushback. "You look ridiculous in that leather jacket," he said, his voice dangerous and low. "Did you think you'd score points with me if you came here wearing it?"
"Just wanted to look the part," Hermione countered with a sneer on her face. Curse Sirius! She knew that she shouldn't have trusted him for fashion advice. She gave Remus a little glare before returning her glaze to Greyback. "Didn't realize that a drug dealer expected me to show up in a blazer, skirt and heels."
For a moment, he just stared at her with a dark look in his eyes, his hands resting on the table in front of him. She stared down at those large hands, one or two tattoos peeking out from the sleeve of his cuffed button-down shirt, and wondered if she had already made a terrible miscalculation. It wouldn't be much bother at all for him to strangle the life right out of her with those, she thought. Then, he threw his head back and laughed.
Suddenly, it became very clear to Hermione that he very much enjoyed riling her up.
"I like how fierce you are," he said, still chuckling heartily. Remus was glaring at her from his spot opposite of Fenrir, trying to remind her with his eyes that she'd promised to do whatever it was that Fenrir said to her. Hermione suddenly felt very proud of herself, not being meek or backing down. She'd already made an impression on him. "But, maybe I ought to check you for a wire, just to be safe. Jacket off," he demanded, suddenly sounding more serious.
Hermione shrugged out of her leather jacket, tossing it to Remus, before turning to look back at Fenrir. He stood up from his spot behind the desk, immediately moving to invade her space. She swallowed thickly when she had to crane her neck just to maintain eye contact with the man. God, she'd known he was tall, but compared to her he seemed like a giant. She fought not to give him any indication of how much this was affecting her, his invasion of her space, or how it made her heart gallop in her chest.
She let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding when he pressed his large hands to the curve of her hips, giving her the most lascivious grin she'd ever seen. When his fingers pulled up the simple white cotton of her t-shirt to untuck it from her jeans, her heart stuttered at the first touch of his calloused hands to her bare skin, goose-flesh springing up on the parts of her that were exposed. Fenrir traced every dip and curve of her body, maintaining eye contact with her all the while, enjoying it. She thought she might die of embarrassment when he pressed his hands up underneath the cups of her bra to cup her breasts, her traitorous nipples turning to hard points at the feeling of being manhandled by him.
Blushing furiously, she broke eye contact, not at all trusting herself not to moan if she kept eye contact with his hungry blues for another moment longer. Instead, she leveled a glare at Remus, lips pulling back to bare clenched teeth, trying to telegraph her fury to him. He had given her absolutely no indication of how crude Greyback could be. At least he had the manners to look embarrassed.
Fenrir dropped to his knees in front of her, and Hermione was aghast to realize just how much she enjoyed the visual. But, she was quickly distracted when his hands began patting up one leg, then down the other, lingering to touch her center for only the briefest of — god, why did she wish he'd touched her there firmer? — moments. His fingers slipped down each of the sides of her boots, perfunctory. Then, his hands slid up the back of her thighs, stopping to cup her arse, giving it a suggestive squeeze.
Hermione huffed in annoyance, unbidden. "Enjoying yourself, are you?" she asked, wondering why she was enjoying it, too.
He gave her another one of those feral grins, showing off white teeth. "You didn't tell me that she was such a juicy little Peach, Remus," he said, knowing how much it bothered her to be ignored, but never lifting his eyes from her face, drinking in her reaction to his words.
Hermione felt her face burn red and her nostrils flare, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of responding to his jibes this time. Mostly, she wasn't sure if she trusted her voice at the moment. She was completely embarrassed at the way that she'd secretly enjoyed that — it was nothing that had ever crossed her mind.
Remus coughed, his eyes dropping to the concrete floor in front of him. "Oh, I suppose she's not really my...type," he said weakly, unwilling to make eye contact with Hermione.
Odd, Hermione thought with a frown. She wondered what that meant.
Fenrir laughed again, low and throaty, before standing to his full height once again. He smirked at the other man. "You are lying to yourself, Remus," he countered, not bothering to hide the way his eyes raked up her form. Once he'd had his fill, Fenrir returned to his spot behind the desk.
Hermione stilled, wondering if Greyback was right. Did Remus look at her that way? Shaking the thought from her head, she remembered why she was here in the first place.
"Now that that is finished," Hermione said primly, clearing her throat, desperately wanting to get this meeting back on track. "Can we please get down to business?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest again, a shield from Greyback's gaze. Internally, she was grateful that Remus had nixed Sirius's plan to have her wear a wire. He had felt every inch of her body and there was no way that he would have missed it.
"If you insist on ruining my fun," Fenrir said finally, pouting a bit.
"If you changed your mind, I can go," Hermione said, looking at him imperiously. "I can find other work. My skill set is evergreen." She actually had a very cushy desk job back at the bureau that she would be extremely happy to go back to.
"I'd hate to have you come all this way for nothing," he said, not willing to let her go now that he'd seen her. "We can talk business. I assume that Remus has filled you in on our needs. We need someone to clean our money," he told her, showing her that he was capable of being serious when the time called for it.
"Well, you've come to the right girl," she said, smartly, a smirk on her face, like she actually knew what she was doing. "I assure you, that won't be a problem."
Greyback was still a bit skeptical. "You're sure you can handle it all?" he asked, teasingly.
Hermione nibbled at her lower lip. "What, do you need references?" she asked, with a laugh. "I didn't realize that this was a corporate job. Remus can pull something together if you're not satisfied," she added, waving at her nearly forgotten co-conspirator. For a minute, it felt like there was no one in the room but her and Greyback.
"I'm sure you'll live up to the task," he answered, smirking.
She could feel herself relaxing as she quickly learned what Greyback liked. Maybe Sirius's advice about being her usual, bossy self wasn't so bad after all. He seemed to like arguing with her and the word play. "It would help if you could give me a little bit of an idea of what I'm going to be working with," she explained. Despite all of their discussions, Remus had never given her the grainier details. "So I can work on a bit of planning based on your current and future needs."
Greyback leaned back into his seat and gave her a broad overview of his current cash flow. Hermione had to force herself not to bat an eyelash at the absolutely eye watering sum that she was being asked to move around. She took a calming breath, so as not to launch into a tirade at Remus for downplaying what a little operation this was. But, Hermione was very good at what she did and she knew that she was able to accomplish the task, with a bit of creativity.
"So, do you still think you'll be able to handle it?" Greyback asked, this time no playfulness in his voice. He was serious about his business and he didn't joke around when money was at stake.
Pressing her hands on the table, she leaned forward, unable to stop her own smirk. "I think you will find that I am more than capable, Mr. Greyback," she breathed out, something sultry in her voice that she absolutely didn't expect. "Now, let's talk real estate."
She could see a corner of his mouth turning up into a grin at her forwardness. He leaned back into his chair, locking his fingers behind his head. "Call me Fenrir, Peach," he insisted. "I think that I am going to look forward to working with you."