Happy Friday! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your review, averagepoptart!

Charming Checkmate

October 22, 1943

Tom's classes were finished for the week and finally, he would have the entire weekend to do whatever he pleased. This would likely involve scheming ways he could gain more control over the student body and staff, or perhaps perusing the restricted section of the library. He nearly smiled with content at the thought; these sorts of things were the only things he could think of that made him genuinely happy.

Better yet, it had been several weeks since the thought of Rosemary Horton had distracted him. His curiosity of her had subsided and it seemed to be business as usual.

Alas, of course, he was faced with the inexhaustible irony of life when he entered the Slytherin common room after dinner and saw Horton lounging on one of the long couches with a book in her hands. When she saw him enter she set down her book and smiled up at him. "Hello, Riddle."

Always one to avoid social interaction if at all possible, Tom would have pretended not to see her and headed for the staircase that led to his dormitory if she hadn't acknowledged him. But now that she had, he felt obligated to stay and speak with her, if only for a few minutes.

"Miss Horton." He sent her a polite smile in return and walked to sit in a nearby chair. "I'm surprised to see you here without Avery. Have you finally realized that Slytherin is the superior house and begged Dippet to allow you to switch?" At times, Tom surprised even himself with his natural charm; he certainly hadn't expected something so playful to come from his mouth.

Her responding laugh suggested that she had liked it. For a moment, he noticed that she had a pleasant laugh. There was a quality about that he couldn't quite describe, perhaps some type of warmth; it was enjoyable regardless of his inability to describe it.

"Not quite. Markus is at Quidditch practice for another hour. He said I could wait here until he returns because Loretta is practicing for The Frog Choir auditions in our dormitory and I can't stand hearing it. I realize that makes me sound like a terrible friend, but it's just too high pitched to listen to for hours."

"Quite right." He smirked at her. Merlin, he was in rare form that day.

"If I'm not keeping you from anything, perhaps you could keep me company while I wait? I've been in the mood for a game of wizard's chess lately."

Tom paused. He had planned to get certain things done that afternoon, but he supposed there wasn't any dire urgency. Surely they could wait until later, or even another day. He did enjoy besting his peers at wizard's chess and he was intrigued to see if she was a worthy opponent. "Best two of three, Miss Horton?"

She smiled excitedly and he rose from his chair to retrieve the board from one of the bookshelves in a corner of the common room. Rosemary moved to sit on the floor with her back against the couch and he sat across from her with the board between them. He waved his wand over the board and the pieces moved into their staring positions.

"You know, you can call me Rose if you'd like" she told him after ordering a pawn onto the board.

He knew that was what most of her friends called her, but seeing as he didn't really consider himself her friend, he hadn't even considered it before. Thinking about it further, he wondered if this meant that they were supposed friends, at least in her eyes. He wasn't sure what to say or think about the prospect of that, so after a bit of hesitation, he decided to respond with: "Well, you can call me Tom, if you'd like."

Each of them took a few turns, back and forth. After an attack on one of her bishops left a few shattered stone pieces on the board, she leaned toward him to sweep them off into her hand. She was so close he caught a bit of her scent: strong, sweet vanilla with a hint of something rather spicy, perhaps ginger. It overwhelmed him for a moment and he felt a bit lightheaded.

"Checkmate." She beamed at him with satisfaction and he looked down just in time to see her remaining knight destroy his king. "Would you fancy a rematch? Didn't you say best two of three?"

Apparently, she was a better strategist than he had given her credit for. He wasn't used to defeat, and when he did lose to someone else, he was rarely gracious. However, with Rosemary, it was interestingly different. As they worked together week after week in Potions and he had taken note of her performance in other classes, he was taken aback by her natural abilities which paralleled even his own. Except in Defense Against the Dark Arts, where he was clearly the best in the class.

Regardless, it was perhaps the first time that he had cultivated genuine respect for someone his own age. He didn't think that it was too much of a stretch to assume that she might end up as Head Girl next year. If his plans went the way he wanted and he became Head Boy, they would probably have to work together quite often. With that in mind, he supposed that cultivating a friendship with her wasn't such a terrible thing to consider and, surprisingly enough, it didn't seem like it would be too painful or exhausting.

He looked down and reset the board. "Don't get too excited; I was just learning your strategy. You'll have to brace yourself for this next round," he warned her with a smirk.

"We'll just see about that."

Tom could barely believe it, but he was actually enjoying her company. It was a new feeling, of calm and contentment. His earlier plans for the afternoon were the furthest thing from his mind. For once, he felt entirely drawn into the present moment and didn't feel his usual instinctive desire to escape from whomever he was dealing with at the time. Certainly, he thought, this had to be what it felt like to have a friend.

During their second round, he didn't allow himself to get distracted. He chose each maneuver carefully and was taking her pieces left and right. Eventually, he was one move away from delivering a 'checkmate'. She clearly saw her dilemma because she sat back and stared at the board, weighing each option carefully. Tom watched her as she thought and wondered what it would be like to peer inside her clever mind. He had his suspicions that it would be much like looking inward at his own thought processes.

"Fucking hell!" She exclaimed suddenly and looked up at him with a glare. Apparently, she had realized there was no way for her to move without losing within a couple of turns. Then her face softened just as quickly as her temper had sparked. She averted her eyes and bit her bright pink bottom lip while a slight blush spread over her features. "Excuse my language…"

Tom couldn't help but smirk at her embarrassment. He realized that he rather liked seeing the flare of her temper; it was actually endearing in an odd sort of way. It both amused and pleased him to see such a drastic departure from the proper young lady she was around their classmates.

She seemed to have recovered from her embarrassment as they set up the chess board one last time for the tie-breaking match. It was her turn to go first this time. For a few minutes, he focused entirely on the game, but his mind began to wander once more…

He felt as though he was truly beginning to see her; observing her temper, sinister tendencies, and cynical thinking had drastically changed his view of her and strengthened his theory that she was similar to him in many ways. He was once again captivated by his curiosity of her.

Tom looked up at her with his dark eyes as she contemplated her next move. When he looked at her, he got a feeling that was similar to that of cold air hitting his lungs in the dead of winter, a sort of satisfying burn. Her long, dark red hair framed her face with bangs that brushed the tops of her eyebrows. Then, of course, were her deep blue eyes and long eyelashes. Now he simply couldn't stop looking at her. Her skin was reminiscent of porcelain, but with a nice touch of color around the cheeks. She was quite pretty, and it had taken him quite some time to notice.

He didn't dare allow his eyes to venture over the rest of her. It had become rather difficult to breathe; this was an entirely new sensation, focused mainly in the pit of his stomach. His mind was flooded with thoughts that he couldn't control and seemed to intensify the harder he tried to push them away. Most surprisingly, at the forefront of these thoughts was the curiosity of what it would be like to feel her lips against his.

He realized that he didn't have much (or any) experience in the area of genuine friendship, but this wasn't quite what he had envisioned just a few minutes before.

Tom was at first reassured by the fact that at least his new-found desires could be rationalized. He knew that sexual contact of any kind was a primal urge at its base and he had anticipated experiencing these feelings at some point, although that afternoon was the first time it had really occurred. He tried to convince himself that it was purely coincidental that Rosemary had brought this out in him. It could have been anyone, he told himself. But deep inside, as he remembered his curiosity of her, there was a nagging realization that it was more than mere attraction.

So much for avoiding distractions…

Then she was smiling again shook her head slightly. "You almost had me…" She evaded his potential checkmate and two moves later, she had cornered his king and won the game.

He was in a state of blatant disbelief. Not regarding her win; he could care less about a trivial game of wizard's chess at that point. Rather, he was consumed with thoughts of her and the ways she was affecting him. He broke out of his daze long enough to say "Good game, Miss Horton."

She smiled and used his first name for the first time: "Good game, Tom. You almost won. Almost."

Clearly she was teasing him, but with his mind spinning, he was in no condition to entertain her further. He needed to get away from her so he could quiet his thoughts. With every passing moment they seemed to intensify and he felt them constricting his chest, making it difficult to breathe. His confident tone faltered for a moment as he stammered "There's something I need to do, you'll have to excuse me."

"Of course. Thank you for entertaining me while I wait for Markus. Perhaps I'll see you again this weekend? If not, then in Potions on Monday." She sent him another of her smiles that made his stomach turn in a pleasant way.

Tom nodded with a small smile and withdrew to his dormitory. Thankfully, none of his dorm-mates were present. He closed the door behind him and stretched out on his bed, heaving a long sigh. Though it had become easier to breathe, his mind was still spinning with thoughts of her. He had an amalgam of emotions swirling inside of him, all at once. He felt queasy, exhilarated, terrified, and enchanted. But most of all, he felt alive.

Once more, he was consumed with curiosity of her. He wanted to know all of her thoughts, all of the secrets behind the brooding looks she displayed only on occasion, and all of the quirks, like her swearing, that no one else got to see. He stared up at the ceiling, rather appalled and in a state of disbelief. He told himself that he needed to stop; he simply didn't have the time for these kinds of thoughts. But it was proven hopeless: when he tried to distract himself with thoughts of anything else, they flowed back to her in an endless cascade. He knew, then, that there was no turning back and nothing he could do to fight it. When his mind got stuck on something, it became an obsession and he knew that this would be no different.

I fancy Rosemary Horton. Fuck.

As Tom left the common room, Rosemary hoped she hadn't offended him somehow. He suddenly seemed withdrawn and hoped it wasn't simply because she had beaten him and proceeded to tease him about it. Sometimes she took things a little too far. Or, perhaps, she had offended him with her swearing. Given the fact that he seemed proper and adult-like so much of the time, this didn't seem too far-fetched.

She cringed inwardly, still reeling with embarrassment. It had just slipped out for some reason; she wished desperately that there wasn't such a stigma attached to women who swore. Whycouldn't she have a filthy mouth, but be a respectable lady at the same time? She hadn't even had the courage to look at him after it happened to gauge his reaction.

Rose forced these thoughts from her mind. In the very least, she was happy that he had spent the time with her. She had enjoyed his company and she had gotten to see somewhat of a new side of him. The fact that he had been teasing her was quite a departure from his usual, stoic appearance and she rather liked it. Perhaps she would find a friend in him after all.

Surely, it would be short-lived, though. She doubted that she would spend any time with him outside of class after she ended things with Avery, an inevitability that she had yet to gain the courage for.

The events of the weekend prior didn't do her any favors in that particular area. Her father had visited the Ravenclaw Quidditch team for the day and brought along her mother, who bombarded her with all sorts of questions regarding her relationship with Markus during their trip to Hogsmeade. Rose had given lukewarm answers, saying things were "fine". Evelyn had picked up on her lack of enthusiasm and countered, saying that Rose didn't quite understand how lucky she was and that perhaps she would rather get married off to Randolph Keitch, her father's balding close friend and co-founder of his broom company.

It certainly quieted her for the time being. Rose had considered telling her mother of Rebecca Orion, but knew it wouldn't have changed anything. She could envision her mother saying something like: "Oh Rosemary, don't be so dramatic; it's not as though your father was entirely faithful for our entire marriage. But it is because of him that you have a gorgeous house to come home to with all of your nice things and a pure bloodline."

Rose also pondered the possibility of breaking things off without telling her parents, but knew that the Avery's would inform them as soon as they got word from Markus. Until she came up with a better solution, she was trapped.

Avery and Lestrange walked into the common room, both of them sweaty from Quidditch practice. "Hey Rose," he came over and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm sorry you've waited for me, but I won't be able to spend time with you tonight like we planned."

"He earned a week of detention for hexing the Gryffindor brooms so they would fly backwards, and Professor Stuart caught him," Lestrange said amusedly.

"Maybe I wanted to tell her the story myself," said Markus in an annoyed voice. She knew that he loved to brag about his delinquencies, especially to girls.

Lestrange rolled his eyes and went upstairs to their dormitory. Rose stood up to leave and said calmly "Well, that's perfect, because Faye wanted to talk to me about something."

He gave her a puzzled look and grabbed her arm as she headed for the door. "You don't seem upset...and usually something like this makes you cross with me." He paused. "Come to think of it, you've been acting a bit odd ever since your parents visited."

"I'm not cross and I haven't been acting odd," she said coolly, removing her arm from his grasp. "I'll see you later." If anything, she was relieved that she didn't have to spend her Friday night pretending that she was enjoying her time with him. They had been friends for years, but the lies were all too much for her and they had made her see him a different way entirely.

Rose returned to her Ravenclaw dormitory and found Faye and their dorm-mates, Emily Springer and Loretta Ashcroft, sitting in a circle on Faye's bed and drinking firewhiskey.

"Rose, we thought you were spending the night with Avery." Emily spoke his name with a mocking voice. Rose knew that Emily disapproved of her relationship with him, primarily because he was a Slytherin and the kind of pureblood that actually cared about blood status. Emily, on the other hand, was a half-blood and subjected to his occasional mocking. Thankfully, she hadn't held this against Rose and simply berated her choice in men. Emily must have assumed that Rose was too sweet to share his views.

But in reality, blood status was of some importance to Rose. Though she at least concealed her opinions and tried not to let it affect her relationships with others to a huge degree, she somewhat drew the line at being close friends with the muggle-born students. It was yet another thing about herself that she chose to hide from nearly everyone.

"No, he earned detention…again. So I probably won't be seeing much of him this weekend."

"What a little prat. Well, join us! We're playing truth or drink," Faye told her.

Rosemary grinned, retrieved her bottle of gin from the trunk under her bed, and sat with them.

"You have to catch up since you've missed out on the first three rounds," Loretta said pointedly.

"I'm not about to give up three truths just like that…Drinking it is." She raised the bottle to her lips and swallowed the equivalent of three shots.

"Emily's turn! Loretta, you ask her something."

"Alright, well what do you think of Warren Cramer?" It was always entertaining to ask Emily about boys because she was painfully shy.

"Too easy! He's only the dreamiest Quidditch player for Ravenclaw," Faye protested.

"I wasn't asking you."

"Well she's right, he's quite dreamy," Emily said in a quiet voice with a small smile.

They laughed and continued in the circle. Faye chose to drink on her turn and Loretta divulged that she would snog Professor Thomson if she had to choose someone from the staff. They carried on for a while, until it was late. Thankfully, Rose didn't have to face any truths regarding her relationship, though if they asked her anything she would have lied anyway.

Emily and Loretta went off to bed and Faye and Rose sat on their window seat, sipping the beverages of their choice.

"So, did Adam say anything about me while you were there?" Faye asked.

Rosemary shook her head. "I only saw him for a few minutes before he went upstairs."

"Don't forget, you promised that we'd go on a double date to Hogsmeade this year."

"We will," Rose promised again, although she had completely forgotten her original promise because of her preoccupation with avoiding Markus at all cost. They looked out the window into the darkness. She wasn't sure what made her say it, but she found herself say "I played a couple of games of wizard's chess with Riddle today while waiting for Markus to get back from practice."

Faye gave her a disapproving look. "I know you want Avery's friends to like you, but I think he's rather a waste of your time. He's so serious and quite frankly, boring. Didn't I mention that he was creepy before? Besides, you too are completely the opposite, except in terms of your class marks…Speaking of, he's quite arrogant."

"How do you know that we're completely the opposite if you don't know him at all?" Rose pointed out. There was something else, a simple fact about herself that she hid from everyone: Rose was extremely arrogant about her performance in classes. The fact that she saw this in Tom actually made her like him more. She knew that it was an odd quality to desire in a friend, but it made her think that he might understand her in some ways that other people couldn't.

Faye clearly didn't know how to respond, so she tried to make another point. "You've been dating Markus for two years – what does it matter what his friends think of you now?"

Rose was rather offended at her friend's simplistic outlook. "I don't care what Avery's friends think of me. Maybe I just want to be friends with him because I don't think he's boring."

"No need to get defensive. I'm just saying, I think Avery might see it the wrong way. Do you want to give him the idea that you and Riddle are involved or something? It's probably a bad idea to spend time with him alone…"

"Well, we aren't 'involved', so I don't know why Markus would ever get that idea." Rosemary said curtly. She didn't mention that Avery's opinion on the matter was the last thing she cared about because she still hadn't told anyone but Tom about Markus and Rebecca.

"Bloody hell. You are so strange sometimes, Rose. You had better be careful; you know how quickly rumors travel through these halls. There are a lot of girls that would love to have their chance at Avery; I think you should feel a bit more fortunate, though I suppose you'll just say it's none of my business." Faye stood from the window seat and stretched. "I'm off to bed. Enjoy dreaming of your beloved Tom Riddle."

Rose glared at her friend, who could be infuriating so much of the time. Why couldn't Faye just keep her damned opinions to herself? Still, Rose would inevitably forgive her. She would never be able to expect people to entirely understand her because she was too accustomed to providing only versions of the truth. How could she truly blame anyone but herself for that?

She retired to bed as well, still slightly fuming from her conversation with Faye and the situation with Markus in general. There was a faint realization that the happiest she had been all day was when she was with Tom. She hadn't felt the usual pressures to hide her inner self away and put on an exhaustively charming act. It had been surprisingly comfortable and relaxed, and she had liked their teasing back and forth. Her last thought before falling asleep was that even if she and Avery were to end things, she would somehow want to try and preserve her friendship with Riddle.

"When I'm with you, I don't breathe quite right." – F. Scott Fitzgerald

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