Ahh...So I meant to update yesterday, but I was traveling for spring break all day and didn't have internet access :(. I'll update a little early next week (Wednesday or Thursday) to make up for it! Thanks to everyone who has followed and favorited my story! Also, I owe a special thank you to Guest, Whisper May, and TheRealTayler13 for your reviews! Some of you may have noticed that this Tom doesn't seem all that dark and that the story focuses primarily on the blossoming relationship between him and Rose. At this point in the story, Tom is curious of the dark arts and definitely power-hungry to some degree, but his mind definitely hasn't been completely consumed with darkness…yet. It may seem somewhat out of character for him at first, but I'll develop his darkness and the complexities between our main characters in time. Like I said, this will be quite a long story, so stay tuned!

Moth, Meet Flame

December 4, 1943

"Ah, Miss Horton and Mr. Avery! I'm so pleased you could join us this evening." Professor Slughorn's jolly face beamed at them as he let them into his office. It was their second Slug Club meeting of the year and many of the other students had already arrived for dinner: Lestrange, Duprie, Scout, Cramer, and of course, Riddle. "Please join us, we'll be eating shortly."

Rose's eyes rested on Riddle and she had to admit that he looked exceptionally dapper in his well-fitting suit. She led the couple's way to the table to take the seat to Tom's left and Markus sat on her other side.

"Evening, Tom," she greeted him.

"Good evening, Miss Horton." Even though she had told him weeks ago that he could call her by her first name, he had yet to. In a way, she rather liked his formality. He was the perfect gentleman in all of the ways that Markus was not, and it was refreshing.

At the same time, though, she found it frustrating. It was impossible to know what he was thinking and it seemed as though he was always guarded. This hadn't bothered her until recently as she realized she wanted to know more about him. His mystery fascinated her and while she would never admit it to Faye or her other close friends, she thought of him frequently.

Indeed, she had begun to think of him even more than the annoyance of Rebecca and Markus' fling. He became a place of refuge in her mind, one made up of wonderful and seemingly-endless distraction. She increasingly looked forward to their Potions lessons on Mondays, when they worked together over a steaming cauldron in their usual efficient flow. They had clearly proven to be the best team in the class. But in the past few weeks, her original curiosities of him had made room for even more thoughts, like his dark eyes and tall frame.

Admittedly, she had developed a bit of a crush. How could she not? He was handsome, mysterious, and brilliant; his perfect manners were merely the cherry on top. It wasn't as though other girls hadn't taken note. She watched as they gazed in his direction when he passed in the hallways. It simply added to his mystery that he seemed politely disinterested; Rosemary owed it to his dedication to his schoolwork.

They were both unavailable for completely different reasons, but this did not stop him from his nightly appearances in her dreams, which were mostly innocent, but occasionally explicit in nature. Sometimes she would dream that he bring her to Hogsmeade or send love letters by owl up to her dormitory in the Ravenclaw tower. Only sometimes would she dream of his hands in her hair or inching their way up her skirt, all while pressing his lips against hers. It made her guilty to think of these simple pleasures, even with Avery's indiscretion, but sometimes she simply couldn't help herself.

Professor Slughorn joined them at the table and asked one of Hogwarts' house elves to fill their glasses: one with water and the other with pumpkin juice. Then they were served their first course: a pea soup. The food was often Rosemary's favorite part of these gatherings, unless Slughorn happened to invite an exceptionally interesting guest. This time, though, the guests were all fellow Hogwarts students.

"Miss Scout, what are your plans after graduation this year?" Slughorn asked the slightly pudgy –but pretty nonetheless–Gryffindor.

"Well, I'd love to work at the Ministry in the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"You'll be a shoe-in with your father's position!" Slughorn declared.

"He's an ambassador, isn't he? Where is he working now?" Warren Cramer asked her.

"He was placed in the United States last year, working with the American Magic Council," she said, her eyes dancing with delight at being the center of attention. This was what Slughorn did: mercilessly stroking their egos until it was all his students craved. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this if she was being honest, he was Rose's favorite professor. At least he took an interest in their lives.

Though, sometimes it was too much interest; Slughorn had turned to Markus and Rose and declared "And then there are Avery and Horton; I'm very interested to see what the two of you go on to accomplish together. I'll bet your parents are so proud that you two ended up together. There's just a sort of magnetism there, don't you all agree?"

He looked around at the other students and they nodded their heads in agreement. Rosemary felt her face turn bright red and she looked down at her soup for a moment, wishing to crawl beneath the table in embarrassment. Markus didn't make matters any better. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips and kissed it once softly. "Well, Sir, I'll dare to say that I'm never happier than when this girl is by my side." Her stomach dropped in an awful way at his two-faced words, but she forced herself to smile and meet his convincingly loving gaze.

He was so smooth, such a good actor when he was trying to be. Mary-Ann Scout and Josephine Duprie mouthed "Aww!" to her and smiled as though she was the most fortunate girl at Hogwarts. If only they, and everyone else, knew what she did.

The one person who did know turned out to be her savior. Tom cleared his throat and said "Sir, won't you tell us the potion you used to win the Most Potent Potions contest when you were at Hogwarts?"

She made a mental note to thank him later for his subject change. It made her heart beat faster to think that it had been intentional, that he had sensed her discomfort and wanted to spare her from it. His distraction worked; Slughorn launched into the story of his one of his many successes and the attention shifted from her and Avery. She could breathe freely once more.

Their dinner course was served: pork chops with cherry demi-glace. It was delicious, but Rosemary found herself eating little of it. Markus was really beginning to make her sick with all of his charades. At the same time, she still felt a bit lightheaded from Tom's interjection. She snuck a look at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was listening intently to Slughorn and hadn't touched a speck of his dinner.

He glanced down at her unexpectedly and they locked gazes for a moment. He gave her a small smile, but his dark eyes seemed to hold some sort of sadness that she had never seen before. She wondered if her eyes also betrayed a kind of sadness, instead regarding her seemingly hopeless situation with Avery. The emotion drained from him as quickly as it had appeared and he looked back at Professor Slughorn with a neutral expression.

Oh, how his mystery plagued her mind. Why did he look so sad? Would she ever know him? She was faced with the prospect that she had met someone that might hold more secrets than even she did. Another thought crossed her mind: if Slughorn thought that she and Avery were a power couple of sorts, what would he think if, hypothetically of course, she and Riddle were together? She knew for a fact that they were the most brilliant at Hogwarts and Slughorn's favorite students.

People just seemed to assume that she and Markus were meant to be because they grew up together; they really weren't alike in the ways that mattered to Rose. He didn't care about school or entertain his own ambitions; he was completely comfortable inheriting his father's fortune. It was likely that he would never have to work a day in his life. Rose wanted exactly the opposite.

Inevitably, though, her parents were going to auction her off to the highest bidder – which happened to be the Avery family at the time– and she was supposed to live a comfortable life and bear children to carry on their pureblood heritage. When she spoke of having a career after Hogwarts, they wouldn't tolerate it; there wasn't a place for women in the workplace, at least when considering the fact that she was from a prosperous pureblood family. Yet for years, she stayed her course and earned her marks, hoping that one day they would change her mind. For this reason, she was envious of girls like Scout who would be permitted to do more than sitting around, eating bonbons and hosting the inescapable social functions of adulthood.

Dessert came just in time, allowing her to eat her feelings as she entered a new low in terms of cynicism, knowing that the thoughts inside of her would continue to stew. It wasn't as though she had anyone to confide in on the matter. Every other witch she knew would say that she was lucky to be in such a position: guaranteed an easy life full of material comforts. And then most wizards would claim that she was spoiled and ungrateful. Perhaps, she thought, it was true: that she was foolish, spoiled, and ungrateful for wanting anything more from life.

Tom gazed at her as she turned her attention back to Professor Slughorn. He took her in the way that you inhale after being underwater for a couple of minutes. Every aspect of her flooded into his consciousness and it was overwhelming. It was the sort of thing that had begun to happen whenever he was within a five-foot radius of her. Tonight, she wore a navy blue lace cocktail dress that made her eyes appear to be an even deeper blue and her long, red hair fell over her shoulders in loose curls. An expensive-looking pearl necklace was draped around her collar bone and he could smell her characteristic warm, spicy blend of ginger and vanilla.

They had finished eating and her delicate hands were folded in her lap. He remembered how she had clenched them into fists when Slughorn spoke of her and Avery's relationship and how sadly she had looked at him afterward. The aging wizard's comments had also made him rather queasy and saddened him to some degree; it certainly wasn't easy for Tom to listen to their professor praise Avery and Horton as though they were destiny-bound lovers. He couldn't take it and had to change the subject, hoping that his discomfort wasn't obvious. It had made him lose his appetite entirely.

Actually, he hadn't been eating much at all as of late. His obsession of her grew stronger and increasingly unbearable each time he saw her, but he was at least getting better at hiding it. Everything that didn't involve her had fallen off his radar, even sleeping to some degree. Tom would lay awake, hating Markus for taking her for granted while also envisioning how he would take her for granted in a different sort of way and relish her small, tantalizing body if given the chance.

That was another recent development; for a couple of weeks after their chess game, he had resisted examining the rest of her and restricted himself to gazing only at her face. During one Potions lesson, he had given in and it proved to be a terrible mistake. He noticed that she seemed to have a shapely figure: not the stick-thin body type that nearly all the Hogwarts girls longed for, but she had curves in all of the places he would most like to place his hands. Their robes limited his view to some degree, which was really for the best, but he remained curious as to what she looked like without such interference. Then, at the first Quidditch match of the year, he saw her out of uniform and in regular clothes and his suspicions of her shapely figure were confirmed.

He tried to look at her as little as possible because when he did, it led to inevitable blood flow to an area beneath his pants and this tended to be uncomfortable in public settings. Tonight, though, he couldn't control himself. Her dress was tight against her body and a fair amount of cleavage sprouted from the top. He wondered how every part of her would feel against his tongue.

And then he wondered how he could possibly escape this torture. He hated himself for his weakness, for giving in to such primitive urges. At the same time, he knew that there was nothing he could have done to stop his feelings from growing; it was simply hopeless. He knew, because he had tried to push her away from his mind countless times. But Tom still felt that unyielding desire to know everything about her. He was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

But was there an alternative to getting burned?

He couldn't simply tell her what he felt; if he did, there was still the problem of Avery. It bothered him at times that she didn't just break things off with him, but he understood her position. He knew enough about the wizarding world to realize how pureblood families operated. If she and Avery ended, another wizard would surely crop up in his place. Even if she felt the same about Tom, there was no way for him to fake his blood status to her parents. They would know, of course, as soon as they heard his last name and failed to recognize it, as all pureblood families seemed to know each other. Because of this, he would be deemed an unsuitable match and they would likely end as quickly as they began. He felt ashamed just thinking about it and silently cursed his dead parents for his impurity. Another thought crossed his mind: did she know he was a half-blood? Perhaps she wouldn't have been so quick to engage him in friendship if she did. He felt hopeful in spite of these potential setbacks; he trusted himself to find a way around them, maybe even lying to her if he had to.

It wasn't as though he had been able to focus on any of his other ambitions…He knew that he couldn't until she was his. This was the sort of torture he had endured for weeks and he was growing impatient. When Tom set his sights on something, he impatiently pursued it with unyielding ferocity, unwilling to accept defeat. Waiting for things to come his way was not his forte, but he didn't have the slightest idea of where to start with this particular challenge. Regardless, he wanted her and he would have her, eventually. He would find a way to gain approval of her parents when the time came. One step at a time, he kept telling himself.

Later, after they finished up at Slug Club for the evening, Tom was working on an essay in the common room. He was mid-sentence when he was interrupted from his thoughts by Rebecca Orion's annoyingly high-pitched voice.

"Hi Markus!"

Tom assumed that he had just returned from escorting Rosemary back to the Ravenclaw tower. Avery smiled warmly at her and looked as though he were going to walk over and sit with her.

It was purely impulsive when Tom rose from his seat and said curtly, "Avery, a word."

A glimmer of fear flashed across Avery's eyes. Tom had threatened him before, as he had found that fear was the easiest way to gain respect. "Sure, of course Riddle," he responded without a moment's hesitation, though it was clear that he was trying to sound casual. Tom strode confidently from the common room and led them outside, into the hallways of the dungeons. He then stood facing Avery, realizing that he didn't actually have a plan of what he was going to say to him.

Thankfully, Markus seemed to take care of it for him. "Erm, well…You seem sorta pissed…Did Rose and I keep you up or something last night? Sorry Riddle, I told her to quiet down…"

"Well, I was woken up," he glared at Avery menacingly. "But I know that it wasn't Horton," Tom hissed, remembering the night before. In reality, he had completely forgotten it until Avery brought it up.

Avery looked surprised for a moment and then his face twisted into a perverse grin and put up his hands as though surrendering. "Alright, you caught me. I mean Becca is much louder in bed so I'm not too surprised you could tell the difference. I'll have to thank her for giving it away. Sorry, won't happen again."

How could Avery take Rose for granted so enormously? She was the girl that seeped into Tom's consciousness nearly every waking moment and he couldn't bear to think of anyone treating her with such blatant disrespect. His defensiveness for her caught him a bit off-guard; it took all of Tom's willpower to contain himself. He wanted to send Avery to the floor with a few bouts of the Cruciatus Curse. Unfortunately, the corridor was somewhat crowded; there would be too many witnesses if he let his temper get the best of him. "Getting woken up is the least of my concerns, you stupid git," was all he trusted himself to say, genuinely worried that he might let a 'Crucio' slip from his mouth.

Avery gave him a puzzled look, but a few moments later his eyes widened. "Oh! You fancy her, don't you Riddle? I mean I know she used to fancy you, but I think she gave up a long time ago because you didn't seem interested-"

"What are you talking about?" Tom spat defensively.

"If I would have known you cared about her, I wouldn't have started anything…"

Tom realized there had been a terrible misunderstanding. "I don't want your whore," he said coldly with an air of repulsion as he narrowed his eyes.

"Rosie, then?" Avery asked with even greater disbelief.

The conversation had sapped too much of Tom's energy to bother with further defensiveness. Besides, Avery had responded before he even had the chance: "Bloody hell." Avery was quiet for a moment and then started to laugh.

"What's so amusing Avery? Are you really that thick? Dim enough to think that Orion is actually the better choice?" Words were falling from his mouth without his consent given his nearly uncontrollable temper.

Avery stopped smiling and began to speak defensively. "I didn't mean it that way. But I think it depends on your definition of better. I did love her at one point, but the more I fell for her, the more difficult she got. There's no pleasing Rose; she always wanted more from me. She always wanted to have these long conversations about things a teenage girl shouldn't care about and I just wasn't in to it. She wants something a little more intellectual and I just wanted to have fun. Becca may not be as clever, but at least she's easy to please." He paused for a moment and added, "I guess I laughed because you two really are alike in a lot of ways and I didn't really see it until now."

To say that Tom was surprised at his answer would be a drastic understatement; Avery seemed much too shallow for this level of introspection, while it still wasn't necessarily "deep" by any means. It had surprised him in another way, too: the way he had described what Rose wanted was exactly what Tom wanted from her, hopefully with the addition of a physical aspect as well.

"Why didn't you just end things instead of insulting her by sleeping around with the easiest girl at Hogwarts?"

Avery didn't take offense, which Tom was rather disappointed by. He merely shrugged. "Our parents can be quite…persuasive. My parents wanted a share into her father's broom company and hers wanted her to have an easy life with plenty of financial security. My parents will get over it, though; they don't care nearly as much as hers. I knew I would tell her about Becca and that we should end things at some point, but I never got around to it, I guess."

"I think it's time you got around to it," Tom told him, with a threatening look in case he suggested otherwise.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow," Avery said quickly, as Tom recognized that glimmer of fear once more. They began walking back to the common room. "I should wish you luck. Rose's parents have known me for years and her father still loves to threaten me on occasion."

Tom wasn't sure if he was just being paranoid about Avery's comment, but he wondered if Markus was thinking about the fact that he was a half-blood and that surely Tom would have a more difficult time with her parents. Avery was one of the few Hogwarts students that knew of his blood status. Whether or not it was truly what Avery was suggesting, it was clear that he didn't dare to mention it directly. Regardless, Tom was too taken by the reality that Rose was so close to his grasp now to bother feeling insulted.

The entire situation with Markus had tested his boundaries to some degree. He loathed the fact that he had to reveal something personal to someone so inferior to get closer to what he wanted. Even so, he was certain that eventually, the ends would justify his means. It still struck him as ridiculous at times that this was all for a girl, but as he fell faster and faster for her, nothing seemed out of the realm of possibilities if it were to win her affections.

"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once." – John Green

Hope you enjoyed it! The story is moving right along now. If there's anything specific you'd like me to incorporate into the story, please let me know! Because of the review from Whisper May, I'll be adding in some elements of Hogwarts dueling!