The Wager

March 4, 1944

"Now, let's repeat the Three D's of Apparition once more," Gil Pollack, their Apparition instructor cued.

In unison, the class spoke: "Destination, Deliberation, and Determination."

"Excellent!" Gil praised them. He was young, perhaps in his early thirties, and had been sent from the Ministry. Many of the girls in the class found him quite handsome and they flirted with him incessantly, asking for personal tutoring and the like.

Rose wished they would all leave him alone. As they were giving up hours every weekend to take part in the class, she would like to be spending class time actually learning to Apparate rather than listening to the back-and-forth flirtation.

He ran a hand through his sandy blonde hair and she could nearly hear the sighs around her. Rose glanced at Tom from across the room and rolled her eyes. He met her gaze with his trademark smirk.

"I know you're all eager for your outing to Hogsmeade, so we'll end class early today."

A few students clapped appreciatively as the class began to trickle out of the room. Rose fought her way through the crowd to Tom. She stood on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. "That was bloody excruciating," she said. "I can't wait until we can just take the test and get this class over it."

He smirked in agreement. "Mr. Pollack will have nothing to look forward to when it's over; what will he do without the constant affections from every sixth-year girl at Hogwarts?"

"Not every sixth-year girl," she corrected him with her own smirk. They began walking toward the exit, where Loretta and Emily were waiting for her. "I wish you could come to Hogsmeade with us," she said sadly. It would have been their first opportunity to go as a couple, but Tom was put on prefect duty.

"Next time," he promised. "I have to get a few things done after I've finished my rounds anyway."

She wondered what those things were; they had done their homework together earlier that morning, so she didn't think it was anything related to class. In fact, their workload had lightened significantly as of late, but Tom somehow seemed busier than ever. Rose often wondered what he was doing, but never asked him. This was mostly in fear of seeming too nosy, or worse, clingy. She knew him well enough by now to know that he enjoyed his independence; certainly he would loathe any indication of having an overly possessive girlfriend.

"Well, I wish you a productive Saturday then." She smiled at him once more, dismissing the curiosities from her mind. "I'll see you later."

He returned her smile and gave a polite wave to her friends before turning to leave. She was disappointed that they wouldn't spend the afternoon and evening together, but knew it was good that she had the chance to catch up with Emily and Loretta. After her row with Faye, they were essentially her only friends and she didn't want them to feel as though she was constantly abandoning them for Tom.

"I'm so happy you dumped Markus for him," Emily sighed when he was out of earshot. "He's much more polite and not nearly as thick."

"Well that isn't exactly what happened…" Rosemary said. There had definitely been a solid month between the time she and Markus broke up and when she began going steady with Tom. The fact that Emily had ignored this discrepancy didn't come as much of a surprise to her. Springer was a notoriously poor listener and had a peculiar habit of altering any gossip she heard to her liking, all while seeming to forget the original story. The quizzical look on Emily's face convinced Rose that it was clearly one of those moments.

"Nevermind." Rose glanced at Loretta and rolled her eyes slightly. "Let's go."

It was a fifteen minute walk to The Three Broomsticks and it was packed when they arrived. Rose spoke briefly with Madam Lark, the pub's regular bartender, to add their names to the waiting list for a table. She rejoined the other two witches, who were outside smoking.

Rose took a cigarette from her own carton and brought it to her lips, igniting it without the use of her wand. It was a trick that Tom had taught her a little over a week ago and it had certainly taken a bit of practice. Wandless magic was no easy feat, after all.

Admittedly, she had done it in front of her friends to show off, and was rather annoyed when she looked up and realized they hadn't even noticed. They were too busy staring at Gil Pollack, who was immersed in a gaggle of girls. The group headed past them and went into The Three Broomsticks, presumably to add their name to the growing list as well.

"Bloody brilliant," Loretta sighed. "I told you we should have invited him." She turned to Rose to explain. "Emily thought it would be strange to ask him along." Throwing another glare at Emily, she added, "What was it you said? That he was too professional to come out with a group of teenage girls?"

"Clearly you don't know men very well," Rose snorted, looking at Emily. What man in his early thirties didn't find it a thrill to be around teenage girls?

Their friend was not amused with their remarks: "Well sorry that I didn't want to send the wrong message to Warren," she snapped.

"If this is about him, we definitely should've invited Gil. You could have made Cramer jealous!" Loretta pointed out.

Their conversation was brought to an abrupt halt when he and his posse of Hogwarts girls stepped outside to wait for their table. "Hello ladies," he greeted them with a confident smile that was full of perfectly straight, white teeth. He looked between the three of them and Rose couldn't help but notice that his eyes lingered on hers for a few uncomfortable milliseconds longer than the other two girls'. She greeted him politely in return and looked away, fixing her gaze on the cluster of shops in the distance.

Rose was aware of the fact that if Gil had looked at her that way some months ago she would have swooned for him. Now it seemed impossible to desire anyone but Tom, even in terms of faint, objective attraction. This was quite a dramatic change for her and she certainly hadn't anticipated it; after all, she had been quite a flirt in the past, even while she was dating Markus. Even so, she increasingly found that she much preferred the changes in her mind that Tom had brought about. Whenever she used to go out, she would always find herself competing to be the most desirable girl in the room. Now she only cared about Tom's opinion and there was a definite sense of security in that.

Her thoughts quickly dissipated as she looked up and was completely horrified at what she saw: Loretta was standing close to Gil, reaching up to feel his scarf while his posse of the other Hogwarts girls stared daggers at her. "This is so soft," Rose heard Loretta say. "Did you get it at Ralston's in Diagon Alley?"

Rose had to give her credit; Loretta knew a remarkable amount about clothing. But did she really feel the need to throw herself at him? In that moment, it was rather mortifying to be associated with her. Gil chortled, clearly loving the attention. "Yes, it's from Ralston's. Very impressive Miss Ashcroft." He offered her a cigarette and she took it, even though she had just finished her own.

Finally, Rose heard Madam Lark call her name: "Horton, party of three!"

Let's make it two and leave Loretta with her new flame, Rose thought.

"That's us!" Loretta batted her eyelashes at Gil and tossed a smile over her shoulder. "We'll see you later Gil."

"You made a complete fool of yourself," Emily said sharply as they were seated at their table.

"You're just upset that you ruined your chance to make Warren jealous." Loretta dismissed her with a wave of her hand.

Madam Lark looked at the two of them impatiently, her mouth following the path of her frown lines that had undoubtedly been formed by years of dealing with drunken prats. Rosemary had already ordered a Butterbeer while Springer and Ashcroft carried on their spat. They requested two Butterbeers as well, each of them looking slightly embarrassed.

The bartender left to fetch their drinks and the three witches scanned the pub, waving at the students they recognized. Rose followed Emily's trance-like gaze and saw that Warren was sitting at a table with a few of his Ravenclaw Quidditch teammates.

"You're right," Springer whined in a defeated voice. "We should have invited Gil so I could make him jealous."

Madam Lark brought their Butterbeer and Rosemary paid for the round. It wasn't unlike her to flaunt her family's wealth at times; though the pompousness was certainly a fault of hers, she was proud of where she came from. Even if her family couldn't be considered close-knit, they were still her family.

The other two witches thanked her before returning to the matter at hand. "Have you spent time with him since the Ball?" Rose asked.

"Barely. He's always busy!"

Judging from all the times that Rose had seen him lounging around Hogwarts, she didn't think this was the case, but she bit her tongue and said nothing. It initially surprised her that Warren seemed to be avoiding Emily, but it began to make sense the more she thought about it. Emily had always been a bit awkward around boys and this was quite the opposite of Warren's easy-going demeanor. In fact, the discomfort between them had been nearly palpable at the Sweethearts Ball. Perhaps she hadn't thought anything of it until now because she had been so wrapped up in Tom that night to truly process much else.

Rose wasn't sure what to say; should she encourage her friend even though the object of her affection seemed rather disinterested? Rose glanced at Loretta, who was giving her a look that suggested she was on the same page.

They were distracted from the dilemma with Emily as an all-too-familiar group suddenly entered The Three Broomsticks. "Oh, bloody perfect." Rosemary let out a long exhale and told herself to stay calm, composed, and lady-like.

The girls watched as Markus and Adam walked through the pub, with Rebecca and Faye filing in behind them. "How did they get seated already?" Loretta asked. "Gil and the other girls are still waiting outside."

The group of four approached a table of a few third-year Gryffindor students. Rose couldn't hear what was said over the noise of the packed pub, but she did see the third-years' scared looks as they suddenly got up and headed for the exit. Clearly, they had bullied the younger students into giving their seats away. "Oh," Loretta said; the scene had answered her question for them all.

"How nice," Rose scowled. "It's good to know they can't even pretend to have any semblance of decency." She was still throwing a dirty look their way when Faye suddenly glanced up in their direction. They locked eyes for a moment, and Rose's glare intensified, challenging her ex-best friend to shoot her one in return. Instead, Faye tossed her a satisfied smirk that made her anger grow even stronger. Rose looked away as Faye slid into the seat next to Adam with her back toward them.

"On the bright side, we don't have to pretend to like her anymore. It's a bit of a comfort," Emily began. "As far as I'm concerned, she became an entirely different person the moment she began dating Lestrange."

Rose nodded, attempting to remain calm and took a sip of her Butterbeer.

"I just don't understand. You didn't act like that with Markus, or Tom," she said to Rose

"Let's not speak of it further," Rose said. Her temper was flaring dangerously and she wanted to extinguish it before she got out of her chair and did or said something to Faye she might regret. "She's not worth dwelling on."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before a mischievous smile spread across Loretta's face. "Well, perhaps you can help us settle a little wager we've made."

"Oh yes! The wager!" Emily clapped her hands together in excitement.

"What is it?"

"It's about how far things have…progressed," Loretta said carefully, her smile still dancing on her face.

"What?" Rose was clearly missing something.

"You and Tom!" Emily hit her arm playfully. "You've given absolutely no details!"

Oh. Rosemary rolled her eyes at their curiosity of her love life. But who was she kidding? She loved the attention. It wasn't very lady-like to kiss and tell, of course, but at least she could trust Loretta and Emily not to tell the entire school.

"I mean, you've snogged, right?" Loretta smirked.

"Obviously! You saw us kiss today after Apparition Lessons!"

"A peck on the lips is not snogging." Emily crossed her arms across her chest.

"Yes," Rosemary sighed, "we've snogged…Many times."

"Well excuse us for starting small," Loretta said sassily. "Tom Riddle isn't exactly known as a sybarite…Well, as far as we know anyway…" She raised her eyebrow suggestively. "He's so mysterious that I wouldn't be surprised if he's had a secret lover or two that none of us knows about."

"I-I don't know," Rose stuttered, losing her composure. It made her sick to her stomach to think of Tom with anyone else.

Emily must have detected her discomfort because she quickly resumed their interrogation game. "Okay, next question: have you seen him starkers?"

"No," Rose said hastily. Unfortunately, she added mentally.

"Has he seen you starkers?"

Her instant blush and hesitation to respond was a dead giveaway.

"You owe me a forty of Ogden's Old!" Emily gloated to Loretta.

"I should have known that our little Rosemary Horton would try to corrupt him," Loretta teased, shaking her head back and forth slightly. "Undressing for Mr. Riddle…tsk, tsk."

Emily sipped the foam from her Butterbeer and looked equally amused. "It's so odd to think of Tom Riddle even snogging anyone. I mean, it had to happen sometime; every girl at Hogwarts has had a crush on him at some point. But he was always so serious!"

It always felt odd whenever someone brought up the fact that basically every girl in Hogwarts had fancied Tom. She knew it was true; hell, she knew it was true long before she had fallen for him. But, until that fateful year, everyone's attraction toward him was something she had merely accepted at face value; it was as common to see girls blush as he passed by in the hall as it was to see dew on her windowsill in the morning. To her, Tom had always only been Markus' unfailingly courteous, overachieving friend and occasionally a source of competition when it came to classwork. Oh, how things had changed; her stomach fluttered pleasantly at the thought.

"Faye didn't seem to like him very much," Rose pointed out.

Emily rolled her eyes. "She was probably just jealous. I'm sure she knew that you were bound to receive a loads of attention as soon as you went steady."

Loretta chimed in once more: "So he's a virgin, right?" It reminded Rose of the comment regarding his potential 'secret lovers' and she became instantly irritable.

"I don't know," Rose snapped, "and if I did, I wouldn't tell you because it's really none of your business."

"Sorry," Loretta said, clearly sensing her annoyance. "Does he know that you and Markus…?"

"I'm sure he assumes as much," Emily interrupted to point out, as though Rose wasn't there to speak for herself. "They were dating for more than two years, after all."

It was something that Rose hadn't thought much on before their comments, primarily because she didn't know that it was something people had assumed about her. In fact, she and Markus hadn't gone that far. Not even close, in fact. It was like there was always something pulling her back; she had known all along she didn't love him that way and it just felt momentously wrong to share her first time with him. At least she could always play it off as though she wished to wait until they were married.

It bothered her quite a bit, knowing that Tom probably assumed the same thing her friends did. Was that why he hadn't taken things further with her? Rose wondered if it bothered him to think about and she tried to think of a way to clear up the misconception without making things too uncomfortable between them. Or, even worse, perhaps it actually didn't bother him at all because he had already gone all the way with someone. She knew that it would plague her mind until she could uncover the truth, but didn't feel as though they had progressed to the point where they were comfortable enough to discuss sex outright.

She hoped she could force herself to put it to rest for the time being; there was no use worrying about it if their snogging sessions stuck to the same pace for a while. Sure, he had triggered her orgasm for the first time a couple of weeks before, but that didn't mean they were ready to go all the way. Rose didn't mind. It was rather nice that he seemed to want to take things slow, which was quite different from Markus' constant pressuring when they were together.

A subject change soon took place and the three girls launched into the other gossip at Hogwarts. Rosemary was having a nice time with them, but even through her anger at Faye, she knew it wasn't nearly as fun as it would have been with her best friend. It made her reminiscent and gloomy, and for the first time a startling thought occurred to her: what if they didn't make up from this fight?

Of course, Rose and Faye had been several through little spats here and there over the years, but this seemed different somehow. Faye seemed resolved and quite happy to leave her Ravenclaw friends behind her. She had expected Faye to apologize for her betrayal and friendship with Rebecca, but there was a nagging thought in her head that told her that this wasn't going to happen. Rose felt as though a heavy weight were sinking inside her at the thought.

She withdrew from the conversation with Loretta and Emily, staring down at her Butterbeer. Memories of the past six and a half years flowed through her mind. She remembered the first time she had met Faye, on Platform 9 ¾. Their parents had gone to Hogwarts together and hadn't seen each other for years, so they were busy catching up. The first thing Faye said to her was that she liked Rose's hair. Rosemary remembered thinking that because of the girl's outgoing nature, she would probably make a lot of friends. Rose had always been quite shy and had thought it would be a smart move to tag along; perhaps she too would make some friends by association.

After a somewhat sappy goodbye from their parents, they had boarded the Hogwarts Express and found a compartment together. Rose felt herself open up to the young blonde witch slowly over the course of the train ride, and by the time they reached Hogwarts, they were giggling and talking incessantly. Then there was the sorting; Rose hoped they would be placed in the same house because they had hit it off so well and she couldn't believe her luck when they were both chosen for Ravenclaw. Soon after, she had introduced Faye to Markus, one of her few childhood friends. Through Markus they had met Adam, Tom, and many of their other Slytherin friends. As much as Rose loathed admitting it, it was because of Faye's outgoing personality that Rosemary had gained the confidence to begin developing her own extroversion. It started to become easier and easier for Rose to make friends, and soon she was as outgoing as Faye was.

They got closer with Emily and Loretta during their third year and spent more time with the Slytherin boys when Rose and Markus began dating. She remembered the first time they had gotten drunk and how much of a disaster it had been: Faye had wasted her first kiss on Bobby Tove, a rather unattractive beater for the Slytherin Quidditch team, who was a year or two older. She had been such a wreck about it that Rose couldn't bring herself to tease her. The night had been a bit of a fiasco for Rose as well: five shots in and she had gotten terribly ill. She remembered sitting on the floor of the lavatory with Faye, attempting to comfort her in the aftermath of the kiss between fits of her own retching. The next morning, each of them had sworn never to speak of the night again.

A year later, during the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup final match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, they had been exiled from their own stands for wearing green and silver in support of the other house. They had found it hilarious at the time, even though their entire house didn't speak to them for a few weeks after Slytherin won.

Especially in the beginning, it was always Faye and Rose. Everyone else was merely an acquaintance. She was her partner in crime as well as the closest thing Rose ever had to a sister. Rosemary supposed that slowly, over the years, they had started to grow apart. Perhaps this was her own fault; Rose seemed to accumulate more and more secrets, especially when she was dating Markus. She was so used to putting on a phony, happy appearance around him that she had forgotten how to display the one underneath to her closest friend. As she reflected on this, it occurred to her that maybe Faye also felt betrayed after being left out of all Rosemary's secrets. Still, that didn't excuse what she did: befriending Rebecca and voicing her judgmental comments of Rose's new relationship. Regardless of how it really happened, everything they had built felt shattered. Their friend groups had split entirely; it wasn't at all what she had had in mind for this year.

She was beginning to feel quite ill from all the nostalgia. "I'm not feeling well," she told the other girls. "I'm going to head back to Hogwarts. You're free to finish this off." She gestured to her half-finished Butterbeer.

"Suit yourself," Loretta shrugged.

"Do feel better. We'll let you know if they decide to terrorize any other third years," Emily said, nodding her head slightly in the direction of Faye's table.

Her stomach turned. "I'd rather you didn't." She forced herself to smile at Springer and Ashcroft. "Well, this was quite fun. I'll see you both later." Rose excused herself and headed to the exit, glancing over her shoulder at Faye one last time before walking out the door. Faye had turned her head toward her at the last moment and they made eye contact once more. This time, Rose was too sad to even attempt the threatening glare she had flashed before. She was somewhat surprised when Faye looked back at her with an equally blank look. It made her feel irrationally hopeful, as though they were sharing the same, reminiscing thoughts. Rose turned away in disappointment, knowing that this couldn't be; Faye was not one to bother with reflection, after all.

"Nostalgia: it's delicate, but potent … In Greek, 'nostalgia' literally means 'the pain from an old wound.' It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards … it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel, it's called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels — around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved." – Matthew Weiner

So, a few important updates! First of all, as I'm sure you noticed, I'm going to put each chapter quote at the bottom from now on instead of at the top; I think it just makes wayy more sense this way. I'll probably go through and edit the other chapters with this change as well.

Also, I was planning on updating every Thursday and Sunday, but I'm kind of leaning against that now. I've been writing chapters much faster than I've been publishing and I'd rather just publish as I finish each one. I think it will help to keep me really in tune with what's happening in the story so I don't get carried away with future chapters and whatnot. Plus, if I write too far ahead, it will become more difficult to adapt to feedback, which is ALWAYS appreciated, by the way!(:

Thank you to NoneOfYourBusiness101, silverfox1611, and danceegirl92 for your reviews!

I know there wasn't much of Tom in this chapter, but I wanted to spend some time on Rose since I gave Tom his own chapter. The next chapter will be split between the two of them again, like usual!(: