AN: I changed some minor details in the first part of the chapter that I published earlier, so I recommend reading the whole thing again.
Ten
The man standing in the foyer was very tall. He had long, auburn hair and a beard to match, although there was more gray embedded in it than she remembered. His eyes were blue and had quite a pervasive quality about them. Rosaline recognized him immediately.
"Professor Dumbledore," she breathed.
She was instantly taken back to a long-buried memory from her seventh year at Hogwarts, the last time she'd seen the teacher. She had been called to Dumbledore's office on the last day of her last year at school. She had been very irritated by this. Due to Tom's frequent ranting about how awful he thought Dumbledore to be, Rosaline had developed somewhat of a disliking for the teacher. She was sure that this meeting would put a damper on the excitement she felt knowing that Tom Riddle would be waiting for her when she arrived back in London.
When she walked up to the door of his office and knocked, she heard a voice from inside the room say, "Enter."
She opened the door and walked gingerly into the room.
"Good afternoon, Miss Bordenave."
"Good afternoon, Professor."
"I am sure you're wondering why I have called you here on your last day of school."
"Well, yes sir, I rather am," she answered honestly and somewhat shortly.
Dumbledore considered her for a moment, his eyes searching her face, as though looking through her, and then continued. "I have called you here, Miss Bordenave, to talk about Tom Riddle."
Rosaline was taken aback, but not completely surprised, as she had felt that since she had been going out with Tom, Dumbledore's attitude towards her had changed and that he had been paying her more attention than usual. Even during her seventh year, during which Tom was absent, save his letters to her, as he had graduated the year before, Dumbledore had been watching her.
"And what of him, sir?" she said in a bored voice.
"Well, I happen to know that Mr. Riddle will be waiting for you when you arrive at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters tomorrow."
This did surprise her. "How did you know that?"
"You have been wearing Mr. Riddle's ring," he nodded towards Tom's black and gold one she wore on her left ring-finger, "for quite some time now. And, if I'm not mistaken, you wear it on your engagement finger."
Rosaline said nothing, just glared her icy glare at him. He did not seem fazed.
"Let me not stall any longer, Miss Bordenave. I have called you here to warn you."
At this, Rosaline smirked. She was again, not entirely surprised.
"Against Tom, I presume?" she said.
"Yes," Dumbledore said simply. "I believe that Tom Riddle is an extremely dangerous man and that it would be in you best interest to sever ties with him as soon as possible."
"Well, Professor, I am sure that will never happen."
"That is exactly what I fear, Miss Bordenave," he replied quietly. "I am afraid that Tom Riddle is accustomed to getting his way. He is capable of unimaginable atrocities and I fear that even someone as strong-willed as yourself will eventually be overpowered by him."
Rosaline began to feel uneasy, but her voice did not betray it. "I know Tom. I know exactly what I am doing."
"You might think so…" he trailed off and stared at her with his penetrating gaze. After a few moments, he continued. "Rosaline, you are exceptionally intelligent. You are a prefect, and I know for a fact that you were second only to one student for Head Girl. I believe you achieved ten O.W.L.s?"
"Eleven," she replied in a small voice. For some reason, she felt close to tears.
"I see. You'd be well suited for anything you wanted to pursue, and yet you choose to set your sights upon a life with Tom Riddle."
Rosaline glared for a moment longer and then spoke in a voice that was not nearly as resolute as before; "I know exactly what I'm doing."
"Well, Rosaline," Dumbledore said sadly, his eyes showing what was unmistakably sympathy. "I hope so. I dearly hope so."
---
Rosaline blinked and snapped back to reality. She walked down the stairs and into the foyer, where she shook the older Dumbledore's hand.
"Not so much your Professor anymore, Miss Bor—I'm sorry, isn't it Mrs. Riddle now?"
"Yes, it is," she replied tonelessly. "Congratulations on your being made Headmaster."
"Thank you, thank you. Tom will have told you?"
"I overheard him speak of it, yes," she said skeptically.
"Of course," he said, nodding omnisciently.
She eyed him suspiciously for a moment longer and then said, "Won't you come in and sit down? Would you like some tea?"
"Yes, tea would be wonderful, thank you," he replied, following her into the sun-filled sitting room.
"Tom has done well for himself, I see. You have a lovely home," Dumbledore said, looking around from where he sat after the house elf had brought the tea.
"Thank you," she replied, wishing him to explain the nature of his visit, although she already had an inkling of what it was.
"And congratulations on your baby! You must be thrilled," he said, looking at her with the same penetrating gaze she had seen almost ten years earlier.
"Yes, thank you, I am most thrilled," she said still tonelessly, although not entirely untruthfully. She had begun, over the past six months, to enjoy and become attached to the idea of having a child.
"Well, allow me to make my intentions for being here clear, Rosaline. I come to bring you the same warning I gave you on your last day at Hogwarts."
He paused to consider her and to give her time to respond. When she did not, he continued. "I do not entirely expect you to heed it, as you are much more deeply involved with Tom Riddle than you were when I last saw you, but upon hearing that you are with child, an innocent child at that, I felt that I needed to try once more to convince you of the grave danger in which you and your child undoubtedly are."
Rosaline sighed, unable to meet his eyes. She stared down at her pale hands in her lap, noticing how much her bump had expanded over the past few months. She considered the warning. Had Dumbledore visited six months earlier, before she had become pregnant, she would have felt the same as she'd felt in school about it. However, she knew that he was right about the child. She knew by now that Tom was far from the ideal man for raising a child and she knew in her heart that Tom did not feel the same way she did about their child. She began to feel uneasy, just as she had on that day in Dumbledore's office in school.
Of course she knew that Tom was a dangerous man. Hadn't that been part of the reason she'd been attracted to him in the first place? And she did not, of course, want her loyalty to him to waver. And then there was her pride…having to admit that she, Rosaline Riddle, once so formidable and desirable, had made a mistake…
Everything, however, came down to the matter of the child. She couldn't believe that Tom would harm her or the baby without good reason…would he?
No, she thought. He would never. She pushed all doubtful thoughts from her mind and resolved that Tom wouldn't harm the only heir to the Slytherin bloodline, if for no other reason than that. She believed, despite her crippling doubts, that she had control of the situation, at least enough to protect her child.
Dumbledore seemed to notice her internal battle. "You are not perfect, I know. I can only imagine what you have done under Tom's influence, nothing of which you are proud, I'm sure. My concern, however, is your child. If you were to come with me I could offer you both powerful protection at Hogwarts. You can…"
"What?" Rosaline said, shocked, cutting him off. She had never considered leaving Tom, despite anything he had done. "No. No, certainly the situation could never be so dire."
"I'm afraid it is, Rosaline. I know things about your husband that would surely shock and appall you."
"I'm not so sure," she said quietly.
They stared at each other, their eyes locked, for a few long moments. Then, Dumbledore stood.
"Well, Mrs. Riddle, I've said all I can, and yet you stay resolute. Your loyalty, despite to whom you are loyal, is admirable."
Rosaline stood as well, saying nothing, feeling once more like a schoolgirl.
"I shall be going now; Tom would be most displeased to find that I've been here and spoken to you. If you need anything, or if you should change your mind, you know where to find me," he said in the same sad voice as he had in his office so long ago.
"Farewell, my dear." The last three words he said were with such finality that they left Rosaline shaken.
"Thank you for your concern, sir," she said quietly, again unable to meet his eyes. She walked him to the door as the house elf watched from behind a table, as if awaiting orders.
---
Rosaline spent the next fourteen days trying and failing to push the meeting with Dumbledore from her mind. She didn't even realize that on the same day exactly two weeks later, Tom would arrive home.
The sky had been steadily darkening since that morning, with sporadic rumblings of thunder in the distance. When Tom arrived back on his own doorstep, the rain began to fall so heavily that he was drenched in the few moments he spent outside. Upon entering, he dried himself with his wand and looked around. As he didn't see Rosaline in her usual chair in the sitting room, he assumed she was sleeping, as she had been so frequently ever since she'd given him the news of her pregnancy. He felt a stab of annoyance at the thought, but walked silently to his study.
There, he sat in his dark leather chair behind his desk and raised a hand to his pale brow, rubbing it gently as if trying to relieve the tension he felt.
For the past six months, his child had been growing inside of Rosaline. It was a fact that he could neither deny nor escape. His feelings on the subject were mixed. He knew that the child would be a hindrance for everything towards which he had worked; there was no doubt about that. The only positive that he could come up with, and which repeatedly did, was that he would be given an Heir of Slytherin.
However… he thought to himself, standing up and beginning to pace the small room once more. Another Heir of Slytherin…that just will not do. Paranoia seized him with a deadly grip. The child will surely discover my secret. What if it decides to turn against me? No, no, that will not do.
He concluded with deciding that he must distance himself and his secrets and his powers from the child as much as possible. It would be sent to a school far away, surely not Hogwarts, for the obvious reason of being able to associate with the children of his followers, or Durmstrang for that matter. Beauxbatons was a possibility. Perhaps he could send Rosaline there along with the child, he was sure she wouldn't object…And even if she did, she would have no choice. These thoughts calmed him, and he sank back into his chair, feeling slightly more at ease.
Suddenly, there was a tiny knock on the door, too soft to be Rosaline.
"Enter."
The small house elf timidly walked into his study. At first, Tom was taken aback, but then he remembered what he had asked the house elf to do. On the eve of his first leave of absence since Rosaline had become pregnant, Tom realized that someone might try to interfere with Rosaline while he was away. He had asked the house elf to, in essence, spy on his wife and on anyone who entered the house in his absence. Upon remembering this, Tom leaned forward over his desk towards the elf.
"What have you?" he said eagerly.
"Master will not be happy," the house elf squeaked, obviously terrified.
"Why?" Tom asked, his hands clenching into fists.
"Mistress had a visitor only the day you is leaving," the nervous elf continued.
"Who was it? Get on with it!" he growled, growing more agitated by the second.
"I is knowing it could be none other than Albus D-Dumbledore," the elf said in barely a whisper, his eyes wide with terror.
At this, Tom stood up, violently pushing back his chair.
"And what did Dumbledore say?" he said, barely able to contain his rage.
"He…he says you is dangerous…that you will bring harm to Mistress and Mistress' baby. He is offering to take Mistress and Mistress' baby away, to keep them safe…"
"She's still here?" Tom growled threateningly, his eyes darkening.
"Y-yes," the house elf stammered, growing even more terrified under his master's deadly glare.
Tom could hear no more. He stormed from the room, the house elf leaping out of his way, and into the hall. He did not hear the elf calling from behind him, "But Mistress is saying 'No!' Mistress is refusing to go, Master!"
He bounded up the stairs, seemingly rumbling the entire house. "ROSALINE!" he bellowed, rage coursing through his blood.
He remembered when, a year after his graduation from Hogwarts, a younger follower of his had informed him of a meeting Rosaline had had with Dumbledore on her last day. At first, Tom was very suspicious, but the follower told him that Rosaline had a look of outrage upon leaving Dumbledore's office and was sure there was nothing threatening about the meeting. Thinking back now, Tom knew he should have investigated further into the situation. They've probably been conspiring against me all along. How could I have missed it? The more he thought about it, the more it enraged him. Especially after he'd shown her the mark.
He flung open the bedroom door with such force it made a dent in the wall behind it.
He walked over to the bed to find Rosaline bleary-eyed and sitting up.
She turned to look at him and as soon as she saw him, the color drained from her face. She did not speak.
"So…" he said angrily, grabbing her arm and pulling her roughly from the bed to stand and face him. "So…you're having meetings with Dumbledore now? Thinking of going to live at Hogwarts and reveal everything you know about me, which, thankfully, isn't very much…at least nothing important…" he ranted madly as he dragged her from the room.
"Tom, I—"
"And then you get yourself pregnant," he hissed viciously, ignoring her protests and he dragged her down the stairs. "Was that part of the conspiracy, or just your own brilliant improvisation?"
"Tom, I never—"
"Crucio!" he yelled, pointing his wand at her as they were halfway down the stairs.
And it was pain such as she'd never felt before. Knives were stabbing her, her whole body was engulfed in searing flames. Without knowing it, she lost her footing.
It seemed as though time itself had slowed. Rosaline's arm slipped out of Tom's grasp and she fell away from him, down the stairs behind her. Tom, taken aback, had lifted the curse as he watched her fall with a look of terror and loathing on her face.
He was unaware if a minute or an hour had passed as he watched her lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. Finally, he descended the last few steps to her, bent down to check if she was breathing. She was. He noticed, however, that a pool of blood had begun to form near her legs.
He blinked, his faced devoid of any expression, and stepped over her limp form and walked towards the hallway that lead back to his study.
---
Rosaline woke what felt like days later in the guest bedroom farthest removed from the rest of the house, a room which had only one small window. Her head throbbed with pain and for a moment, she did not know where she was or how she had gotten there. Then, the horrible memories flooded her mind.
She remembered in streams of consciousness the events of that afternoon; Tom's rage, falling down the stairs, and then a period of perpetual darkness. She remembered being barely conscious as she hauled herself painfully up the stairs and into the farthest removed room she could find with a bed.
The worst feeling of all, including the pain in her head and all over her body, was an evil emptiness, a void that went beyond the physical. She knew that she had lost her child. She also knew that it was her own fault, not Tom's for cursing her, but solely her own for not heeding Dumbledore's warning.
She lay her aching head back down upon her pillow, unable even to cry. She felt it was a constant effort, a hindrance, really, to inhale and exhale, and wondered why she forced herself to do so anymore.
AN: It was very upsetting to write this chapter, and now I'm really sad, so please don't think I'm sadistic, because I'm really not. I think this is the only way to keep Tom in character and show how cruel and paranoid he really is as he furthers his transformation into Voldemort. Just the epilogue is left. I haven't started writing it yet, but I'll have it up as soon as I can.