A/N: Hello! This is an expansion of a previously written one-shot. I'm hoping to get 1-2 chapters out a week and I am currently thinking it will be around 25 chapters, but we will see. I want to say thank you to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter! You can find me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter one and be on the lookout for chapter two soon!

Hermione tapped away at the keys on her computer, hating the awkward recoil she was experiencing on the ten keys at the side, wondering if someone had spilled something sticky on it. The number three had only recently started sticking, but it meant that she had to go back over her work, rows and rows of spreadsheets with more numerical values than she knew what to do with. It was imperative that they were correct though. Cases were won off of her work, after all.

Yes, of course the field agents were invaluable, doing amazing work to investigate and uncover the ins and outs of the criminal gangs that ran their city, selling drugs and protection and other things. They were the ones who were catching people in their bad acts, finding enough evidence to get them arrested. But when it came to proving who was profiting off of these schemes, a random dime bag purchased by an undercover was simply not enough evidence. It was Hermione's job to follow the money and see where the financial evidence would lead. That was where the big jail sentences would stem from.

"Granger!" a barking voice called her from the side of the pen — the big area full of cubicles where all the analysts worked. "We need your help."

"Sirius," Hermione muttered under her breath. "What does he want with me this time?"

Fairly recently Sirius had been an undercover officer himself, but he'd transitioned to a training role by the time she'd joined the bureau. In fact, the only reason she was aware of him in the first place was personal because he was Harry's godfather and he'd of course been the one who trained Harry and Ron. She didn't really have any reason to interface with him at the office, except for sometimes when he asked her for a functional consult (aka, he needed help setting up some formula or macro in his spreadsheet).

While standing up, she grabbed her tea and walked over to the conference room where Sirius Black was waving her in. Remus Lupin was already inside, sitting at the table, with a projector set up in the middle of the big oak table.

Immediately, Hermione narrowed her eyes. This just got a lot more confusing. Remus Lupin was still an undercover officer, but he didn't work in the financial crimes division. As far as she knew, he was still with vice.

"Afternoon," she said curtly. "What can I help you with?"

"I'm so glad you asked," Sirius said with a grin, shutting the door to the conference room behind her. "Take a seat."

That was ominous, Hermione decided.

Remus cleared his throat and started the projector up, bringing up a photograph of a man. He looked surprisingly ordinary, Hermione decided, if not just a bit handsome. Dark brown hair and blue eyes, a strong jaw, and an arrogant smirk that all the criminals they followed seemed to have. "This is Fenrir Greyback," he said simply. "Until recently, he has been just a local drug dealer. He had his hand in a protection racket and some gambling, fixing, too."

"Okay," Hermione said, scribbling down a few notes, still not really sure what this all would have to do with her. They didn't usually expend her resources on small time dealers. "Something has changed?"

"Yes, he has been expanding his territory over the years," Remus explained. "But about a year ago he linked up with someone higher level, a man called Dolohov."

The picture on the screen changed and Hermione realized that she'd seen him before. Dolohov had brown hair and an angry glint in his brown eyes, like he was out to destroy anyone who crossed his path. "I think I remember him," Hermione said, tapping on her chin. "Is he working with Voldemort?"

Voldemort was by far the most dangerous cartel leader they had seen, and he'd had a stranglehold on the country for more than a decade. Everytime that they thought they were close to catching him, he slipped out of their grasp, the webs of his influence seemingly knowing no bounds. He'd surely corrupted more government officials than they even knew about. He was as ubiquitous as the air itself.

"We are almost certain," Sirius agreed. "Though we don't have anything concrete yet. Nothing that we could actually take to trial."

"Try as we might, we cannot pin him down," Remus said. "But Fenrir is the best lead that we've had in years."

Hermione nodded, knowing how long these things took to set up. Everything had to be believable and have a solid history or the undercover officer could be found out. "And, you've been working on Greyback?"

Remus nodded, pleased that she was following and catching on so quickly. "I've been embedded with his gang for almost a year at this point," he explained. "I joined right after he linked up with Dolohov and I have done a good job of making myself invaluable to him. He trusts me fully."

"That's a long time," Hermione said, sympathetically, knowing that any amount of undercover work quickly grew to be exhausting, being someone that you weren't.

"I'm ready to bring the whole thing to the ground," he said, finitely.

"Great!" she said cheerfully. "So, you are going to be bringing me his books when you make the arrest, then? And I'll analyze them?"

Sirius gave her a pained look. "Not exactly," he said.

"So what do you need with me?" Hermione asked, absolutely confused about why they had called her in if she wasn't going to be working on this.

"Well, actually, Greyback doesn't even have books, not really," Remus said, looking down at the table in anticipation of her reaction. "He's looking for an accountant and well, I've offered to find him one. There is no one else he trusts more for the task."

The gears slowly started to work as Hermione realized that they were asking her to step in and be Fenrir Greyback's accountant. "No, no, no, no, no," she said, fiercely. "Absolutely not!"

"Please, Hermione. You don't understand, the opportunity is rife," Remus argued with her. "His gang is more profitable than ever. They have so much dirty money on their hands, they don't even know what to do with it. They are going to have to launder it if they want to use it and Greyback is clueless.

"You do it then!" Hermione said, firmly, crossing her arms over her chest petulantly. "I seem to remember that you had some aptitude for accounting yourself." Anything to keep herself out of the field.

When Hermione had joined the authorities, she had never expected to do any field work. After all, it wasn't as if she was an agent. Not a real one anyway. But, Harry and Ron had joined the program to become field agents, and she hadn't wanted to be left behind by her two best friends since secondary school, and so she'd joined up. With her background in accounting and maths, it had been an easy decision to join up with the financial crimes division, investigating money laundering and the like.

But, she was meant to be kept tucked behind a desk, not trying to infiltrate a notorious gang to help them launder their money.

"It would blow my cover. Fenrir doesn't think that I would have the skills to even sniff around their books," he explained, roughly. "And if I were to offer, it would be suspicious. But, I am a fixer and so I told him I'd find him someone trustworthy."

"Can't you just ask Harry or Ron to do it?" Hermione begged, her heart already thudding away against her ribcage as she thought over what they were asking her to do. "I'm not undercover material."

She was certain that she was going to mess this up. She wasn't trained for it and she got so nervous. Fenrir Greyback was almost certain to realize that she was not who she said she was and then that could leave her in an extremely vulnerable position. Better to send Harry or Ron, who actually wanted to go undercover.

"Even if we could get one of them in there, they wouldn't be able to do anything with the books," Remus explained with a frown. "We really need your expertise, Hermione."

Hermione frowned as well. She could rarely think of an instance where being good with numbers would somehow make her more useful in the field than two agents who were specifically trained to go in the field, but she supposed this might be it.

"Please, Hermione," Sirius said with a pleading look. "It shouldn't be that long — a couple months tops."

"A couple—" she cut herself off before she said something that she would regret. "Okay, what do you need me to do?"

Remus looked as though he could kiss her, thrilled to have her on-board. "It should be very simple as far as you are concerned," he explained. "All you need to do is come in and help him set up some avenues to launder money," he explained.

"All sanctioned by us, of course," Sirius reassured her, realizing that they were asking her to do something illegal.

"Good to know," she said, rolling her eyes.

"What you are really going to be doing is observing," Remus continued, once that was out of the way. "You will be in a unique position of trust. Greyback will have to trust you, if he is letting you move his money."

"And once I get him to trust me?" Hermione asked, thinking that this was probably easier said than done. Greyback hadn't gotten where he was without being shrewd and careful. She didn't have to read his file to know that he was not a nice man, that he wouldn't think twice about killing her if he knew what she really was.

And was she going to be able to hide who she really was? When people thought about Hermione Granger, they thought of her as a rule follower — a goody two-shoes. No one would ever mistake her for someone who would join up with a gang. Or someone who would launder money. Surely Greyback would be able to see right through her and where would that leave her?

"After you get him to trust you, then you just have to observe," Sirius said, hoping that it was going to be reassuring. "Just make a note of anything you think we might find even remotely interesting."

"I'm hoping that you will have a better chance of figuring out how exactly Fenrir is integrating with Dolohov and Voldemort," Remus said. "I'm privy to the day to day, but not some of those higher level specifics. But, you'll be able to watch the money, and I am sure you'd be able to find connections and suss out things that we can't."

Hermione dropped her head back, looking at the crumbling drop ceiling and wondered if she was really agreeing to this. It was by far the craziest thing that she'd ever done in her life and she'd done a lot with Harry and Ron. But, she knew that this was more important than her and they all needed to do their part if they were finally going to take Voldemort down. She would be okay, and she would have Remus there.

"You'll be there with me?" Hermione asked, looking to Remus to be certain.

"As much as I can be," he promised. "But, you understand that we have to keep things up so that Greyback doesn't suspect anything is amiss."

"Fine, I'll do it," Hermione agreed, hoping that she was making the right choice.

They spent the rest of the afternoon bringing Hermione up to speed on everything that they knew about Greyback so far. Early 30s, ruthless, and fierce. If you thought that he was all brawn and no brains, though, you'd be sorely mistaken. He wasn't book smart, but he was very smart and very streetwise. After all, you didn't get to where he did by being a slouch.

When the day was over, they promised her a further week of training before she would go to see Greyback for the first time. Hermione already felt her stomach turning, dreading what she was walking into. But, then she was released and Hermione wanted nothing more than to forget this was all happening.

Unfortunately, that was not to be. She was immediately intercepted by Harry and Ron as she left the conference room. "What did Sirius and Remus want with you?" Harry asked, eager for any information that she would feed her.

"You'll have to buy me a drink first," she answered, her shoulders sagging in defeat.

Her two friends were only too happy to kick off work a little bit early, and they quickly steered her towards the bar around the corner. It was pretty dead at this time of day and she and Ron found a booth while Harry got them a round from the bartender.

"So, are you going to tell us or what?" Ron asked, impatient as always.

Hermione drank half of her beer in one go to steel herself, knowing that this was going to have to be a delicate conversation with her friends, who were both itching to get out in the field. "Remus has asked me..." she trailed off, unsure of how to break the news. "To join him on his undercover assignment."

"What?" Ron asked, his face already going a bit red. "How could they ask you? How could you be getting out into the field before us?"

"Yeah, no offense, Hermione, but you aren't even trained for it," Harry said, looking at her apologetically at the skeptical tone that Ron gave her.

"If I have my way, it will be my last," she snapped at them, annoyed that they couldn't see how scared she was by the prospect. "I don't want to be doing this, but they've asked me and I've agreed."

Harry immediately softened, seeing the stress that she was already feeling. "Oh course, Hermione," he said, reaching across the table to give her hand an awkward pat. "It's not your doing that you've been given this assignment. It's not like you've asked for it. Our disappointment rests solely with Sirius, doesn't it, Ron?"

Ron rolled his eyes at Harry's pointed book. "Yeah, whatever," he said, still clearly upset with her. "What do you have that's so special for this assignment? Tits? Do you have to pretend to be Remus's girl or something like that?"

Hermione started laughing, before crossing her arms over said tits. "You've let your imagination run off with you," she teased. "No, it's not that I'm a woman. It's that I have an understanding of accounting. They want me to help move some dirty money for the gang Remus is with so that I can better understand where it's coming from."

Once again, her redheaded friend was full of scorn. "I think they are just trying to set you up, Hermione," he said with a snort. "They are asking you to become a money launderer."

"An accountant," Hermione insisted, squaring her shoulders. "And Sirius told me it's sanctioned, so I think that I will be okay." She hoped that she would be okay, but maybe she should get it in writing, just to be safe. She did want to make sure that she had all her ducks in a row.

"Sirius wouldn't tell you to do anything if it wasn't okay," Harry agreed, always thinking very highly of his godfather. In fact, he seemed to think that Sirius Black could do no wrong, while Hermione felt like she saw through him. She'd had more than her fair share of dust ups with him to prove it.

"Well, honestly that actually sounds pretty fucking boring," Ron said, with a fake yawn. "I'm glad this isn't my first assignment or I'm sure that I'd be bored to death. Doing stupid shite in spreadsheets. No thanks."

Hermione suddenly felt like she had something to prove about it and gave him a haughty sort of look. "Well, actually, Greyback has connections to Dolohov and Voldemort," she said with a fierce whisper. "So really, they are lucky that they have someone like me who can fulfill this role. They need someone with a little more sophistication than your run of the mill undercover agent. Even Remus couldn't do it himself and you know he's had more undercover details than anyone else in the department."

Ron looked at her, his sour mood only deepening at the thought of her getting any sort of glory before him. "Sounds dangerous," he said, sulking back into the booth.

"Yeah, it is going to be dangerous," Hermione said, breezily, enjoying getting under his skin. If she couldn't stand up to Ron Weasley, how was she meant to stand up to Fenrir Greyback, who was a million times scarier. All of her previous fears about this mission had gone out of her head, replaced with the intense need to prove Ronald wrong. "But, I know how to handle myself."

Harry looked at her with a worried sort of look. "Voldemort is dangerous," he reminded her gently. "He's got people everywhere. Promise me that you'll be safe? We still want our friend back at the end of this."

Pleased to have such a caring friend, Hermione nodded. It was her turn to give Harry's hand a gentle squeeze. "Of course I will. I've got great survival instincts," she promised. "But, this is the last time that I can meet with you. Once my role starts, I can't even come back into the office in case anyone is looking for me. So this will be goodbye for a while."

That caught Ron's attention. Suddenly all the bitterness that he was feeling flew at the window at the thought of not seeing his best friend every day. "Really?" he asked, dismay on his face. "For how long?"

"They promised me that it should only be a few months at most," she explained. "But I'll be interfacing with Sirius, so I am sure that he could pass along a message to me if you wanted."

Both of the boys eagerly nodded, knowing that it would be hard not to talk to Hermione for that long.

"Well, I think this calls for a proper night out," Ron said, pressing his hands to the table. "Let's get pissed!"

Knowing that it was the last time in a long time she'd be hanging out with them, Hermione agreed readily, heading to the bar to get a round of snakebites, hoping that the night wouldn't kick her arse too hard.