A/N: Thank you for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I am excited to see that some other people haven't forgotten about this fic either — it has been clanging around in my mind for years now. Huge thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter three and be on the lookout for chapter four soon!
It seemed that Fenrir kept to a time table of his own making and wouldn't allow anyone else to dictate to him how to do things and when to do them. During their first meeting, Hermione had suggested they get right down to business and begin talking about what he needed to do to properly launder his money. Instead of eagerly agreeing (as she imagined he would — after all, he considered her to be a professional), he dismissed her rather rudely, telling her to come back when he was ready for her.
Then, he just began talking to Remus as though she weren't even there, unbothered to share details of a rather large drug shipment that they had to move for some of Dolohov's people. Apparently Remus was in charge of handling the truck drivers, making sure that they didn't fuck up.
Hermione huffed and puffed, but eventually left the warehouse and made the walk back to her new fake flat by herself. She wasn't going to wait around for Remus like some kind of limpet. But, maybe she should ask Sirius about getting her some kind of vehicle to get around.
When she returned to her brand new flat, she realized that she didn't have much to do but wait around for Fenrir or Remus or Sirius to ask for her. Disappointingly, Sirius had not signaled for a meeting. Hermione supposed that was smart. It wouldn't do to raise any red flags immediately when she began her operation.
So, for the next four days — four bloody useless days — Hermione waited around her flat, looking for anything to do. She explored her new grocery store and stocked up for the week, making elaborate meals for herself that she never had time for when she was working her regular job (they never turned out that great... the recipes never seemed quite right, but she didn't have the confidence to make tweaks). She caught up on some of her reading (she knew she was right to demand the books be moved). And, she watched a lot of television, something she usually didn't have time for.
Just when she began to think about taking up jogging — jogging for fuck's sake! — her phone rang. Not the mobile that had all of her friends' numbers in it that had been confiscated by Sirius so she didn't blow her cover. No, the other one, that only had Remus's number in it.
Hermione picked up the phone and looked down, only to see that it was an unknown number. She chewed on her lower lip while she waffled on if she should answer it or not, before finally deciding that she was so bored it would be wrong not to answer.
"Hello?" she asked, after accepting the call.
There was a satisfied sigh on the other line. "Peach," Fenrir's voice breathed out. "It really is you. I thought Remus might be fucking around with me."
"Hello Fenrir," Hermione said, before slipping into her little window seat, trying to keep her tone casual. Her stomach tightened while she remembered how dangerous this whole situation was. One little slip up and she could be in real trouble, especially since she didn't have any Remus training wheels this time. "Do you need something?"
"Oh, I need several things," he said, with a low throaty chuckle. "I am ready for you now, if you come around to my warehouse."
Hermione rolled her eyes, even though he couldn't see her. "I thought the crudeness was just an act," she told him.
"Well, if I've scared you off—"
"No!" Hermione cut him off before he could finish the sentence. "You haven't, you can't scare me off that easily, Fenrir, even though you seem determined to try to."
"It's just because I like seeing how flustered you get, Peach," he said.
Hermione bit her lip again and realized that she was flirting with him. God, get a grip, Hermione, she scolded herself, trying to remember what kind of person he was. "I don't seem to recall you flustering me at all," she retorted, thinking that she'd done a rather admirable job of keeping her cool, despite him putting his hands all over her. "Alright, what do you actually need, Fenrir?" she asked. "Because I am very busy and I have other things that I could be working on."
"Swing by the warehouse and we can discuss it," he said, not willing to give her any more details than he already had.
She wondered if there should be alarm bells sounding in her mind, but she just felt excitement at actually being free to do something for a change. "Fine, I'll be there in, um... half an hour," she promised, before hanging up the phone, not bothering to say goodbye.
Once she was suitably dressed, Hermione pulled on some boots and made the walk to Fenrir's warehouse, showing up just when she said that she would. She knocked on the door, only to be let in by a scrawny kid with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. Waving him off, she walked down the hallway towards Fenrir's office.
"Hey," she greeted the overly large man, announcing her presence. "Are you going to tell me what you needed now or just keep me in suspense a bit longer?"
Fenrir grinned at her, showing off his white teeth. "Well, when we last spoke you were ready to talk real estate," he said. "And now that I've finished my last shipment, I've got even more cash on hand than before, so what can I say, I'm itching to get started."
Hermione pursed her lips, wondering how much more money he'd gotten through his illegal means. "Well, it will be nice to actually use some of that money, so I certainly don't blame you," she said, hoping that was diplomatic enough.
"And lessens the risk of it being stolen," Fenrir said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Exactly," Hermione agreed. "I'll get you sorted, don't worry."
"Well, do you want to see it?" he asked, standing up from behind his desk. Again, Hermione was amazed by his height, so much taller than she was.
"You keep it all here?" Hermione squeaked, wondering how it hadn't all been stolen before. Of course, she wouldn't want to go up against someone like Fenrir, but that didn't mean that other people wouldn't try. He was in a line of work that brought out those kind of people, after all.
"Most of it," he said with a smirk. "But, I do have some at home, too."
"I guess... where else would you keep it?" Hermione asked, though she could think of about fifteen ways to keep it better hidden.
Fenrir led her down one of the hallways and then another and another. The warehouse was quite the labyrinth, she thought, and she doubted that she could get back to this room very easily if she wanted. Eventually, they came to a locked door — thick steel with a key that Fenrir had. He opened the door and flicked the light on for her.
Hermione stepped inside and saw stacks of neatly banded notes, all brand new and pristine. She felt like the floor had dropped out from under her as she quickly began calculating how much money it was. In the movies, they always made large sums of money seem like they needed to be equally large piles, but Hermione knew better. A ten thousand band was maybe half an inch thick. Still, she knew that what Fenrir had here in his horde was easily over a million.
"Have you ever seen one so large?" he quipped, leaning back against the wall, obviously feeling rather proud of himself. "Do you think you'll be able to handle it?"
"Oh, I can handle all of it," Hermione said, whirling around to face him, eyes narrowed. "I thought that I told you that you weren't going to scare me off with innuendo."
"And I thought I told you that I like seeing your face flush," he countered, making no secret of the way that he was appreciating her form. "So what do you think? What do you really think?" he asked, suddenly all business.
"I think you are like a dragon, sitting on top of your treasure, all shiny and new," Hermione said, chewing her lower lip. "And, I'm going to need a dryer."
"A dryer?" he asked, incredulous. "Like for clothes."
"The very same," Hermione agreed. "Your money is too clean. We need to dirty it up a little bit, make it look like it's actually been in circulation. Otherwise, it won't be believable when it's deposited."
"Does this have to do with the real estate?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered, eager to explain the process to him if he was willing to learn. She knew that she shouldn't enjoy teaching a criminal how to be a better criminal, but she was so rarely in a position where someone was interested in what she actually did, that it was too good to pass up. "The easiest way to launder money is to own a cash-intensive business. You mix your dirty money in with the clean money and then you can deposit it like usual."
"Cash-intensive?" he asked. "Like a bar or something?"
"Yes, or a strip club or a restaurant or something like that," she explained. "So, we need to look at purchasing one of those or maybe like a controlling stake in one that you can start funneling your funds through. But, you'd have to be sure that you could trust the other owners implicitly."
Fenrir brought his hand up to scratch at some of the light stubble on his jaw. Hermione's eyes were drawn to the edges of his rolled up sleeves, revealing a bit of black ink that was undoubtedly a tattoo, but she couldn't tell what of. "I have some things in mind," he said. "A strip club and a mechanics shop. They are mostly all cash."
"Of course you do," Hermione said, thinking that he would of course know of a strip club. What else would she expect from someone like Fenrir Greyback?
"Are there any other ways?" he asked, eager to learn more.
"Yeah, we could structure smaller deposits to not hit any reporting requirements," she said, before returning her gaze to the large pile of money. "But that would take a really long time with how much you have. You could disguise some of it as gambling winnings. Or you could always buy a controlling stake in a bank, then you make the rules for yourself."
"That does sound significantly more complicated," Fenrir conceded. "Alright, if you are the expert, I will listen to you. Remus says you're the best, after all."
Hermione crossed her arms over her chest. "He better say I'm the best," she sassed, thinking about all she was risking for him.
"Let me talk to my people and then I will call you again. Maybe a few more days, and I can get them in here," he explained, obviously having some businesses in mind.
"Oh, I don't need to meet them," she assured him. "Just tell me where to direct the funds."
"Well, you'll be working with them. You might as well meet them," he said. "And maybe you'll get the itch to moonlight in a second career." He smirked at her again, teasing.
"Oh? As a mechanic?" she quipped, thoroughly annoyed that he would suggest that she take up stripping. He had absolutely no idea who he was working with.
"Exactly," he said with a chuckle. "I can just imagine you all covered in oil now."
"Ugh," Hermione said, wondering how he could possibly make everything sound dirty. This man was absolutely ridiculous! She can't believe that she had actually agreed to put up with this for months. And, that Remus and Sirius had given her so little warning of how he'd be. They had been so focused on the dangerous, violent side of him that they didn't even bother to mention how cheeky and crass he could be. All they had said was to just let him do what he wanted. Didn't they know what that meant for her?
And did they possibly know that she would secretly be enjoying herself?
"Alright, I think we are done here," she snapped, needing to put a bit of distance between herself and Fenrir or else she was going to do something she'd regret. "Call me when you're ready to move forward."
She didn't bother to give him a chance to try to keep her there any longer, knowing that she just might stay if he asked. Instead, she found her way out of the maze of a warehouse and into the fresh air, completely ignoring the skinny guy at the door. Making the walk back to her apartment, she was surprised to see that Sirius had flagged for her to meet.
Changing course, she headed to the agreed upon pub down the road. When she got there, she made her way to the bar and ordered a pint of whatever draught lager was cheapest and settled into her seat. She was maybe a quarter of the way through her beer when someone slid into the stool next to her.
"Good of you to finally reach out," she said bitterly, hating the way that she'd be floundering without anything to do.
"Heard that you got a call in today," Sirius said, before ordering the same as her. "What did Fenrir want?"
Hermione's eyes darted to the barman and she wondered how much she could say just out in the open like that. Sirius must have noticed too, because he was waving away her concerns, then. "Don't worry about Gary," he said, giving the man a big smile. "He doesn't talk."
"He showed me his horde," Hermione explained. "And made all sorts of crude innuendo, with the whole point of it being if it was too big for me to handle. I am not amused."
"Is it too big for you to handle?" Sirius asked, as they had only just gotten a true sense of how much money he actually needed to move when he first met Hermione. She supposed that Remus would have told him the number.
"Please," she scoffed. "Would you have picked me for this job if it was?"
"Good girl," he said, giving her a clap on the back. "What's the play?"
"Apparently he has got someone in mind for a cash intensive that he can run money through," she explained. "Well, two people I guess. A strip club and a mechanic. I have no idea who they are yet, but I will be meeting with them soon."
"Good, good," he said, mentally taking notes on everything that she had brought to him. "Anything else?"
"He's going to need to buy me a dryer," Hermione said.
"How domestic," he quipped.
"That's what's honestly going to take the most time," she explained, thinking about how reasonably she'd be able to run through Fenrir's money. "It's a lot of bills. I don't think that I've ever seen that much in person. And he has more coming in all the time, sounds like. Sounds like Remus just helped him move a bunch more."
It felt wrong to help the criminals do their job easier, but if it was the best way to get them behind bars, she supposed she could trust the higher ups.
"Hey, don't be so hard on Remus," Sirius said. "You are only beginning to understand how difficult the undercover work really is. He's been in a long time and he's had to do things that he certainly isn't proud of. Besides—"
"Besides what?" she demanded, wanting him to finish what he was going to say.
"Besides, Remus said that it looked like you were really enjoying yourself," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
That had Hermione's rage bubbling up even more. "Oh, Remus can fuck right the hell off," she said, furious at the other man. She was going to have words with him for sure the next time that she saw him. "I did not enjoy having Fenrir manhandle me — grope me — okay? And you guys just told me to stand there and do whatever he said so what the hell was I supposed to do?"
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Sirius said, recognizing that she was highly offended at this point. "We all have to do whatever we can to get through these assignments, okay?"
"Well, it would have been nice if you guys could have given me a heads up that that was going to be a possibility," she seethed. "I can't believe Remus — thinks that I was enjoying myself? God, what an idiot." She was protesting very fiercely and a part of her wondered if she wasn't quite so indigent because she had been enjoying herself. She did secretly, deep down enjoy the banter and the flirting with Fenrir Greyback. She did remember the phantom touch of his hands on her body, even though it had been nearly a week ago. "And what's it to Remus if I did enjoy myself, hm? He's not my father, he's not my boyfriend."
"Alright, alright, Kitten," Sirius said, amused at her tirade. "I will let Remus know that you definitely did not enjoy it at all and even if you did that it's none of his fucking business."
"Thanks," Hermione said tersely. "Well, now that that's settled, give me some news from the outside. I'm dying of boredom."
Sirius barked a laugh and started to tell her a few details about Harry and Ron. One bonus of her being given this undercover assignment seemed to be that they were suddenly taking their own training very seriously. It was no secret that they wanted to go into the field, too, but now they'd been passed over for not being ready; they were buckling down so that next time they wouldn't be passed up. It was good to hear about, but it made Hermione miss them terribly.
Once she finished her beer, she and Sirius reluctantly went their separate ways, paying Gary on the way out. Then Hermione returned to her lonely flat, embarrassed to say that she was waiting with baited breath for Fenrir's next call.