So, I know I said it would be a week before I posted again, but I couldn't help myself! I ended up with more time to write than I expected. Enjoy(:

Oh and thank you, mysterious guest user, for the first review of this story!

Only Joking

September 6, 1943

Rosemary was finishing getting ready for class when Faye finally woke up. She was the only one in her dormitory that was taking sixth-year Herbology, so her roommates got extra time to sleep in on Mondays. Rose didn't mind – she had always been an early riser.

"So, last night was interesting," Faye said groggily after a momentous yawn.

"How so? I lost track of you and Lestrange," Rose said, while the memories of the previous evening came flooding back.

"Well I noticed that you were with Tom Riddle more than you were with Avery. That was certainly odd. Since when are you friends?"

It was true, she had spent most of it talking to Tom; he hadn't stayed at the party for long, but she ended up going back to her dormitory when he went back upstairs to bed. Avery and Rebecca wouldn't stop flirting and she was tired of it being pushed in her face. Suddenly, her stomach dropped with embarrassment when she remembered that she had told Tom about her relationship issues. She realized that she had never even told Faye something that personal. Rose recognized that she would have to be a bit more cautious in the future when combining drinking with a pondering mood. Still, even with the fact that Tom was one of her boyfriend's best friends, he had at least listened to her and hadn't seemed too bothered by her. "He was actually really good to talk to."

"Please stop," Faye rolled her eyes. "Mr. Tom Stick-Up-His-Arse Riddle was 'really good to talk to'? You may as well have been talking to a wall. He's too quiet...Come to think of it, it's kind of creepy."

"Well I think that it was a pleasant surprise. Maybe he's just shy," Rose shrugged, not putting much weight into her friend's words. She finished gathering the books she would need that day. "Anyway, I've got to get going. I'll see you in Potions later."

On the way to Herbology, Markus stopped her in the hall. "Good morning, beautiful." He sounded jumpy and nervous and she suspected that he likely had sneaked away from the party to fool around with Rebecca after Rose went back to the Ravenclaw dormitories. He leaned in to kiss her and she returned it with the smallest peck she could without tipping him off to the fact that she knew of his deception. "Why did you leave so early last night?"

He didn't even wait for her to respond before running a hand through his dark blonde hair and saying, "Ah, sorry. I have to get going. I'll save you a spot in Potions later; hopefully Slughorn puts us together." He smiled at her and kissed her again. He hurried away as she sighed, annoyed with him once again. She pushed it from her mind and continued her trek outside to the Herbology greenhouses. The early-morning mist had yet to dissipate and she enjoyed the feeling of the cool fall air against her skin.

By contrast, the greenhouse was positively stuffy and borderline suffocating. Rose looked around for a familiar face and saw Warren Cramer, a fellow Raveclaw Prefect that also happened to be the Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. He looked in her direction and gave her a somewhat groggy smile and a wave, so she went to sit next to him.

"It's much too early to concern ourselves with shrubbery, don't you think?" He said with a yawn.

She laughed. "Well you managed to make it here on time; early, in fact." Many of their classmates had yet to arrive and one or two would trickle in with each passing minute. "So, how was your summer Cramer?"

He seemed to brighten immediately. "I interned in the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry. It was bloody amazing." He launched into a lengthy account of his various experiences in the department and Rosemary listened intently.

Soon, though, they were interrupted by Professor Beery. He spoke in his usual, overly-theatrical way, announcing that they would be working with the Sopophorous plants that morning in an annoyingly grandiose way. Beery explained that they would work in partners to procure the beans from the plant in an exacting procedure to prevent their damage. The beans they acquired would be used to stock the Potions storeroom.

Warren retrieved a plant for the two of them to share while Rose gathered their tools. First, the plant had to be sprayed with a Calming Draught. After that, they would have to work quickly with a pair of tweezers to locate and pluck the miniscule beans. Then there was another process entirely to clean and preserve the picked beans.

"You may have to handle the tweezers," he told her. He could barely hold them in his large hands. "I'll make sure the plant has enough Calming Draught. I swear, I'm not a complete oaf all of the time."

She laughed and took the tweezers in her comparably dainty fingers, appreciating his amusing nature. It was a pleasant distraction from her thoughts of Markus and Rebecca, which had plagued her mind all morning.

They worked rapidly and efficiently, and ended up being the first pair to finish in the entire class. Professor Beery approached to check their work before he dismissed them. He lifted their small container of beans and examined their color and plumpness. "Excellent work Miss Horton and Mr. Cramer," he beamed. "Ten points to Ravenclaw."

"Oh I do loathe that class," Warren decried as they left the greenhouse. They strode across the lawn toward the castle. "My parents are making me take it since I didn't place into Potions." She gave him a sympathetic look and then he changed the subject. "Speaking of parents, do you think your father will be able to make it to any of our Quidditch practices or games this year? I'd love to ask him what he thinks of some new formations I drew up over the summer."

The Quidditch enthusiasts at Hogwarts were constantly asking her things like this. Her father, Basil Horton, was a retired Keeper for the Falmouth Falcons and had also co-founded the Comet Trading Co. a couple of years after she was born. Not to mention the fact that he was a substantial benefactor to the Hogwarts Quidditch program; he donated a brand new broom from his company to every Quidditch player at Hogwarts last year. Of course, as a Ravenclaw alumnus, he was exceptionally partial to Rosemary's House. He often made appearances throughout the season to drop in and "guest coach" during their practices or to give a motivating speech during the Quidditch Cup. If someone with extraordinary talent caught his eye, he was even known to introduce them to recruiters for professional Quidditch teams. She remembered that over the summer he had coached Avery, who was a Beater, almost daily. Thinking about Avery brought back a flood of unpleasant thoughts and she pushed them from her mind long enough to say "I think he mentioned something about coming to a practice in October. I'll be sure to ask the next time I write."

"Excellent, thanks Horton," he smiled at her. "That reminds me, I have to stop at the pitch to pick something up. I'll see you later."

Rose waved at him as he departed. She stopped near a tree, not quite ready to go inside. There was still a pleasant chill in the air and now that thoughts of Avery and Orion had infected her mind once more, she wasn't in the mood to return to the castle and potentially see either of them just yet. Rosemary opened her bag and dug out her carton of Lucky Strike's. She lit one and took a long drag, letting the smoke soothe her as she thought about what she should do.

Rose knew how disappointed her parents would be if she and Markus were to end things. They would likely force her into some type of arranged marriage at some point anyway to ensure that she ended up with a pureblood. If that was the case, then she believed she was much better off with Markus than some of the other – potentially much older – single pureblood men they knew of.

Then again, she couldn't handle being outwardly disrespected. She leaned against the tree and brought the cigarette to her lips once more. Orion kept parading around, touching Markus's arm flirtatiously and laughing at all of his jokes as though she wanted Rose to know. It was this obvious display that bothered her the most; if they simply tried to conceal their involvement, she probably wouldn't have minded. Rose was much too proud to play the scorned woman, though.

She turned around to look up at the castle, noticing how beautiful it was with the morning sun reflecting off of the stone walls. She wished she could stand there for hours, admiring the view with a lit cigarette. It filled her with dread to know that when she finally went inside, she would have to go to Potions and put on a charming charade for Markus all the while acknowledging that it could not be sustained. Someday soon, something would have to be said.

Tom had been so engrossed with their first Ancient Runes lesson that he hadn't checked the time once. Before he knew it, Professor Viesey was sending them on their way. Tom stood to pack his belongings into his bag and glanced out the window. Through the fog, dark red hair caught his eye and he knew immediately that it belonged to Miss Horton, even though her back was to the castle and he couldn't see her face. There wasn't anyone else at Hogwarts that sported the same shade.

He saw that she was holding a cigarette and watched as she tilted her head upward slightly and blew smoke from her mouth. She turned to face the castle and looked up to nearly the exact window at which he was standing. For a moment, he forgot where he was supposed to be going as he observed her puzzling expression. She looked so vastly unhappy, just as she had the night before when she was confiding in him about Avery.

"Did you have a question about something, Tom?" Professor Viesey walked up from behind him and Tom's mind came back to the present moment.

"No, but thank you for the fascinating lesson this morning Professor," Tom smiled and resumed his typical level of charm. The professor grinned with pride and patted him on the shoulder while wishing him a pleasant day.

Tom glanced out the window once more and saw that she had gone from beside the tree, presumably to Potions, which is exactly where he was supposed to be. He briskly left the room and made his way to the dungeons. Most of his classmates had arrived by the time he got there, but thankfully there was a vacant seat next to Lestrange. He took his place and settled in.

For some reason, he couldn't resist glancing in the direction of Horton and Avery, who were sitting at the table next to theirs. They were giggling together and talking in hushed voices as though they were happy as ever. Once again, he couldn't help his curiosity at her stark transition from just a few minutes prior.

Slughorn greeted the class and Tom turned his attention from them. "Good morning, class! I hope you all had a relaxing summer while keeping up with the readings I assigned."

There was a bit of grumbling from the class in this regard. Not even Tom had expected Slughorn to assign three full books of Potions theory for them to read. He had finished, of course, but suspected that many in the room had not.

"We'll be testing your dedication to the course first thing this morning. Books and notes away please, and take out your quills. You'll each have ten minutes to complete the exam, and I'll grade it as you hand it in."

Tom began writing furiously as soon as Slughorn handed him an exam. It was only one question: Please explain the theory behind the development of Golpalott's Third Law as applied to the development of antidotes. Thanks to the tip off from Horton, he had brushed up on his knowledge of antidotes before going to bed.

He finished writing in five minutes and set down his quill; surely he was the first to finish. But as he was about to stand, he noticed that Rosemary had already handed Slughorn her paper and was on her way back to her seat. It may have annoyed him on a typical day because of his competitive nature, but found that this time, it did not. He remembered that she was always at the top of the class with him, but had forgotten the extent of her natural aptitude for Potions. Perhaps the fact that she was dating Avery, whom Tom typically regarded as a mere pawn in his many plots to gain power within the student body, had somehow caused him to view her as airheaded and vain, like many of the Hogwarts girls. He realized that seeing another side to her the night before had shown him that she didn't simply follow Avery around as blindly and lovesick as he may have expected. Tom handed in his paper and returned to his seat and found it odd that she was on his mind so frequently that day. Normally, he was immersed in his own thoughts and plans for the future or perhaps his studies at Hogwarts. He never really bothered with day-to-day concerns, especially not of the social variety.

The remainder of the class finished and Slughorn took a few minutes to grade all of the exams. They waited anxiously, unsure of who they would be stuck working with for the rest of the term. Finally, Professor Slughorn stood in front of the class. "So, as you may have heard, I will be pairing you on the basis of your performance on the evaluation you just completed. Adam Lestrange, I'll start with you. You'll be working with Emily Springer. Then we'll have Faye Donohue and Loretta Ashcroft, Rebecca Orion and Markus Avery…" For a moment, Tom wondered what Rosemary would think about Rebecca and Markus getting paired up. Slughorn worked his way through the list of names. "Finally, Tom Riddle and Rosemary Horton…I suppose there's no surprise there." He chuckled a bit; Tom knew that the two of them were his favorite sixth-year students. They would receive an invitation to the first Slug Club meeting in a few weeks, no doubt. "Go ahead and rearrange yourselves and we'll begin."

Lestrange left to sit by his new partner and Rosemary took his spot. "Miss Horton," Tom greeted politely.

"Riddle," she returned, brandishing a small smile. Working with her was the inevitable outcome if it was truly based on merit. Admittedly, he was relieved. It was infinitely preferable to working with some dolt that hadn't the first clue about what they were doing.

"Alright class, let's begin. Today we'll be preparing a Swelling Solution. The ingredients and scales are on either side of the room."

He told Horton that he would go retrieve their supplies as she prepared their cauldron. For a while, they worked in complete silence and precision. Then they had to wait while their solution had to boil for about twenty minutes with minimal stirring. She stared at the potion and began to talk to him in a barely audible voice. "Thank you again for listening to me last night, I hope I wasn't too much of a bore. I've found that I apparently divulge my secrets when I'm plastered."

Tom was rather surprised she brought it up again and wasn't sure what to say when she looked up at him. He settled on a smile that he meant to look reassuring, but it felt more awkward than anything.

"Anyway, I'm happy you decided to come down and join us. It was rather nice to sit and talk."

"Thank you for the invitation," he offered, hoping it was a polite enough response. He didn't really know what to think of their talk, but nice probably wasn't the right word. Intriguing, perhaps? He had never gotten close enough with anyone for them to tell him their intimate thoughts. It was ironic because this had clearly happened, but the two of them certainly couldn't be described as close. They barely knew each other at all.

"Well you should join us more often. Maybe even drink a little more next time." She smirked at him and gave their potion a stir. Her smirk vanished as Orion's high pitched laugh filled the room in response to some brainless thing that Avery said. Rosemary's voice was quiet again when she spoke: "Do you think Slughorn would notice if I smuggled some of this Swelling Solution out of class? I'm thinking it would make a great addition to Rebecca's morning tea." He was a bit taken aback when she looked up at him with an almost sinister smile, something he had definitely never witnessed from her before. Then her features softened and she added, "I'm only joking, of course."

He didn't find it very believable that she was joking, and he found it amusing. He could see in her deep blue eyes that the sinister look was genuine and it made him wonder how she was sorted into Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin. In a way, the look was similar to what he had seen the night before and that morning as she stood alone outside. The overachiever persona she showed everyone showcased a formulated blend of amicability, confidence, and lightheartedness. For the third time, he had seen the shadow of her inner darkness. Now, for the first time, he saw the cunning and mischievousness that might go along with it. The more he thought about it, the more it intrigued him: he had never met someone that seemed to mirror his own complexities. He began to wonder if they were similar in other ways that he had not yet discovered. At the same time, other parts of his mind fought against his curiosity and warned him to avoid developing any sort of friendship or emotional ties at all cost – it would only lead to an inevitable weakness in his otherwise invulnerability. Not to mention the fact that he was far too busy bolstering his reputation at Hogwarts to be bothered by such distractions.

"You know, you're a little complicated after all."
"Oh no," she assured him hastily. "No, I'm not really - I'm just a whole lot of different simple people." – F Scott. Fitzgerald

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it. I know we're starting out a bit slow, but things will pick up soon and become much more complicated! You'll see(;

Please review! I'll be back soon with Chapter 3: Charming Checkmate