Cover Story

June 11, 1944

Rose leaned against his shoulder, propping her Charms textbook up on her knees. She scanned the pages in front of her, though her thoughts were wandering elsewhere. This was a rather unfortunate dilemma as finals were to begin the very next day. She felt nowhere near ready and was probably spending more time worrying about them than actually studying.

Tom, on the other hand, was functioning at maximal efficiency; he had barely left their study room in the library over the course of the entire weekend. The only time he bothered to eat was if she brought him back something from the Great Hall and he probably hadn't slept more than five hours in the last three nights. Even their interactions had dwindled to one or two-word responses.

She thought it may all be a bit excessive, but at least he had a good reason. As he had decided through owl post with Beaumont, he would begin his training tomorrow afternoon, and would have a session nearly every day until the tournament. It was quite intensive, but she supposed that was to be expected given the caliber of the competitors. Plus, he was having an additional meeting with Beaumont later that evening. Obviously with all of this going on, he would have little time to continue studying for finals during the week, so it was understandable that he was attempting to get as much of it out of the way as possible.

Watching him work so hard made her feel incredibly lazy for her lack of focus, but she couldn't help it. She was much too excited for their upcoming trip to think of anything else. It was all so surreal; the fact that they had found a solution to their summer dilemma had only begun to sink in. Well, sort of. There was still the issue of satisfying her parents with some sort of lie.

She had begun to doze off when Tom suddenly closed his books and started packing his things to leave. "I should be off," he told her, sounding quite eager to meet with Beaumont

Rose smiled at him and rubbed her eyes in an attempt to wake herself. "Have a good meeting."

"Thank you." He kissed the top of her head and stood to leave. "I likely won't see you until our Charms final tomorrow morning."

"That's fine," she nodded. Then he turned to leave and she stood, catching his arm. "Wait a moment. I have to ask you something."

"What is it?"

She took a deep breath, a bit nervous as to how he would respond to her suggestion. But, it was the only one she had come up with over the course of the week that seemed at least somewhat realistic:

"Well, I was thinking of what I should tell my parents about what I'm doing this summer…I wasn't sure if you'd thought of anything, but the best option I came up with is to say that I'm spending it with Faye. Her family usually goes out of the country over the summer, so it's unlikely that my parents will run into hers and ask about me."

Tom looked hesitant.

"I can trust her," Rose continued. "I won't even need to tell her why I'm lying to my parents about spending time with you."

Not that it would be easy to avoid telling her. As soon as she caught wind of any sort of drama, Rose knew that Faye would be extremely persistent in finding out what exactly it was. But, she would just have to deal with being left out of the loop, at least for the time being. Tom certainly wouldn't go for the plan if it meant telling another person he was a half-blood.

He considered her words for a moment. "That is probably the best option," he told her slowly. His eyes showed a glimmer of worry and it made her feel guilty for bringing it all up when he had been so excited and eager for his meeting just moments ago.

"I'll take care of everything," she told him quickly, hoping to get her suggestion off his mind. "You should just focus on training and finals."

He nodded and gave her a half-smile before turning to leave once more. Her stomach sank a bit, knowing that regardless of her attempts at reassurance, he was still worried about it.

Rose returned to her dormitory after Tom left the library, as it was doubtful she would make much more progress in terms of finals preparation that evening. When she arrived, she saw the unopened letter from her parents sitting on her nightstand. She had received it earlier in the week, but had been hesitant to open it in fear that it would ruin her good mood following Tom's news. But, she had to get it over with sooner or later.

Who knew, maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all…In a stroke of sheer optimism, she allowed herself to hope that her parents had been at least somewhat impressed by Tom's recent success at the dueling championship. There was no way that her father had missed the article in the Daily Prophet; he read the paper religiously in order to keep up with the world events that might alter the broom market.

She opened the letter and immediately recognized her mother's flawless cursive:

Dear Rosemary,

Your father and I wish you well on your finals this coming week. We are certainly looking forward to your return from Hogwarts. As you may already know, the Avery's are planning to meet us in St. Ives a day or two after you arrive home. Regrettably, I'm under the impression that Markus is planning to bring that little toad…Rebecca, isn't it?

Anyway, it's likely you won't have to spend much time with them at all. I ran into Julianne Vipond and her husband at the Wizards for Wildlife Conservation Gala last weekend. Apparently, Xavier has been asking about you quite a bit. It sounds as though he is truly looking forward to getting to know you better this summer.

She shifted uncomfortably, remembering Julianne's annoying, overly coddled son Xavier, who was a seventh-year student at Beauxbatons. Clearly, her parents were becoming increasingly desperate to rid her of Tom. On several occasions, she had heard her father suggest that male students at Beauxbatons were not real men at all, which Rose assumed had something to do with their lack of a proper Quidditch team. Regardless of the reason, the fact that her parents were now suggesting Xavier as a suitable replacement was a harsh reality check which meant that Tom's dueling talents had done little to impress them. It had been naïve to be so optimistic that they would think otherwise.

While this was a bit of a disappointment, she was rather surprised and relieved that her mother hadn't mentioned Tom at all. Rose had expected at least one or two acerbic remarks, but as she scanned the rest of the letter, there were none to be found. In fact, when she thought more about it, the reactions of her parents to Tom's blood status had been completely the opposite of what she was expecting. She had thought that her mother would be the one to overreact and her father would be the one to sit back and watch it happen with little comment. Until recently, her father had no problem handing off the unpleasant tasks of parenthood to her mother. But things were entirely different now. Her mother seemed to be staying as far from the situation as possible while her father was becoming more overbearing by the day.

Rose took out her wand and suspended the letter in mid-air, bringing the tip of her wand to the corner of the parchment, and lighting it on fire. There was no real need to burn the letters her parents sent, but it was oddly satisfying to see it shrivel up into ash nonetheless.

"Stop starting fires!" Loretta scolded her from across the room. "The smell of that ink burning gives me a headache and some of us actually need to study for our finals"

Admittedly, her parents' ink did smell pretty awful when it was burning. This was probably because they always bought it with the pricey addition of extract from the Aurum hook-tailed beetle, which turned the ink gold and shiny. She blushed at Loretta's reproach and opened a window, as it had nearly finished burning anyway.

Faye and Emily entered the dormitory a few minutes later, in the midst of a squabble about the correct number of salamander tongues to add in order to make a burn-healing paste. Loretta and Emily had only begrudgingly begun speaking with Faye again after Rose and Faye recovered from their fight. Things had been a bit tense for a while, and the stress of finals seemed to have an intensifying effect. Rose, who felt as though she had much more important things to worry about, was quickly growing tired of their constant bickering.

"It's three," Rose answered automatically.

"Hah!" Emily exclaimed happily. "I knew it."

Faye glared at her and opened her mouth to say something that would undoubtedly begin another spat, so Rose interjected once more, heading for the door that led to the common room. "Faye, want to take a walk? I could use a study break."

It was a lie, of course. If anything, she needed to sit down and actually study. On the other hand, it would certainly be a relief to get the conversation with Faye out of the way and figure out a concrete plan. Maybe then she would be able to focus on her schoolwork once more.

They exited the castle and walked across the Hogwarts lawn. "Merlin, I need a cigarette after dealing with that girl," Faye grumbled, lighting one from her pack. "Honestly, though, I'm completely screwed for finals."

"You're telling me," Rose sighed and lit a cigarette of her own. After a moment or two of silence, she said, "Faye, I have a favor to ask you, and it's kind of a big one. But before I do, you have to understand that I won't be able to answer all of your questions."

"Okay…" Faye shot her a puzzled look.

She realized that she didn't know exactly where to start, so she just began talking: "Well, it's amazing really. Tom is going to be competing in the Continental Wizarding Dueling Tournament this summer and I'm going to go and watch him. The only problem is…" Rose hesitated, struggling to find the right words. It ached to think about admitting out loud that her parents disapproved of him.

"Your parents, right?" Faye said. Apparently, Rose didn't have to worry about finding the right words after all.

"Yes…How did you know?" she asked in surprise.

"Why else would you need a favor to visit him?" Faye explained hastily. "It was also a bit strange that you never said anything about when he met them for the first time. I wouldn't have put it past you to boast about how much they loved him."

Rose marveled for a moment at her friend's perception of the situation. Faye really was quite clever, even if she didn't like to show it.

"Anyway," Faye continued. "I'll cover for you, though it will probably be easier if you spend at least a few days at my place. You know, just in case your parents thank mine for letting you stay or something. There might be a bit of confusion, but I can handle it."

Rose didn't doubt that she could. Jasper, Faye's older brother, was constantly doing something under their parents' noses when he was still living at home and she had always covered for him; even now, her parents still thought he had always been an entirely straight arrow.

"Thank you. You're amazing," Rose felt herself tear up in relief and she threw her arms around Faye's neck.

"Anything for my best friend. I'm happy if you are."

It was rather shocking that Faye hadn't asked why. Rose had prepared herself for the influx of questions that she had been sure was going to come. When they didn't, it came with an unexpected feeling of disappointment. Rose couldn't have told her friend the real reason behind her parents' dislike as she had given Tom her word, but in an odd way, she wished she could.

Tom entered The Three Broomsticks and spotted Beaumont at the bar, saying something in the ear of Madam Lark, the curly-haired bartender. She blushed and smiled, and it was then that Tom realized he had never actually seen her smile before. The expression on her face was almost always one of disdain.

He didn't know quite what to do with himself. He thought it might be uncomfortable to intrude on their conversation. But, a couple of seconds later, Beaumont spotted him and waved him over.

"I'll have another." He tapped the rim of his empty glass. "Pick your poison, Mr. Riddle."

"Scotch, please. Neat," he said to the bartender.

Madam Lark turned to prepare their drinks.

"What a doll," Raoul said, making no attempt to hide the fact that he was admiring her backside. She threw a smile over her shoulder.

Tom cleared his throat; he had no desire to watch their flirtation unfold. "Did you bring the paperwork?" he asked.

"Right to business, I see," Beaumont smirked as he began to rummage through his bag. "I have your papers right here."

He withdrew what had to be a hundred or so pages of paperwork and set the pile on the bar in front of Tom. "Most of them are liability forms and the like, just to make sure you won't sue the tournament foundation if you lose an arm or something." Madam Lark set their drinks down on the counter. "Thank you, lovely."

Raoul continued to chat her up as Tom got to work on the papers. Most of them only required a signature at the bottom, until he reached page fifty-five, which was the beginning of the questions section. He had just finished writing his age when he hesitated, eyeing the line underneath it.

If under the age of seventeen, please include parent signatures below.

Raoul noticed his hesitation. "Skip it," he said. "I'll take care of it."

Tom glared up at him. How did he know?

"I did my homework, Tom. You should know that part of my job is to make sure you are who you say you are and that you aren't some fugitive from Azkaban or something. Don't worry, it's completely confidential…As sponsors, we're given special access to birth certificates and that sort of thing…"

It didn't do much to reassure him, but Tom sighed, continuing with the forms anyway. There was bound to be a tradeoff at some point for being a part of something as incredible as the tournament.

Beaumont changed the subject. "Will Miss Horton be joining you?"

"Yes, it looks as though she will." His annoyance with Raoul diminished slightly as he thought about her.

"Well, you may regret inviting her along once you arrive at the competition. You'll see what I mean." Beaumont winked at him. "I'm sure she's lovely, though. I've always liked the name Rose; the girls who have it are almost always beautiful enough to live up to it."

It made Tom uncomfortable to think about Beaumont meeting Rosemary after seeing the way he had eyed Madam Lark.

"Is she by chance any relation to the Horton of Comet Trading Co.? I don't know him that well, but I thought Basil had a daughter..."

He should have been more prepared for the question, but he wasn't. Tom didn't answer, electing to down his drink in one swift motion instead.

"I thought so," Raoul nodded. "That makes for a tricky situation, I'm sure."

It shouldn't have surprised him that, judging by his last comment, Beaumont knew of Tom's blood status. Especially considering the fact that he already knew about Tom's deceased parents. His irritation was growing exponentially; he hated that someone knew all this about him and was speaking about it as though it were some trivial conversation topic.

"I'd rather not discuss it," he said through gritted teeth.

"My apologies...It's regrettable that I never seemed to learn the concept of boundaries. Although, sometimes that can be a good thing." Raoul winked at the bartender and Tom rolled his eyes. He turned to Tom once more. "It doesn't bother me that you're a half-blood, in case you're wondering. All I care about is that you duel like a pure-blood, which you do."

He was still angry that Raoul had delved into all this without his knowledge, but the man's words were also a pleasant validation of what Rosemary had always told him: that people truly did see him as a pure-blood. Besides, even if he was angry, he wasn't about to say anything that would potentially threaten his entry into the tournament.

Tom returned to the papers and approached a question asking about his type of wand.

"Phoenix feather, right?" Beaumont asked, leaning over his shoulder.

"Did you make a trip to Ollivander's too?" Tom snapped angrily. "What's the use of me filling all this out if you know the answers? I have a final tomorrow, you know. I could use this time to study instead."

"It's part of the rules. And no, I didn't go to Ollivander's," he shook his head, and a look of amusement rested on his face. "When you've been doing this as long as I have, you sort of get an eye for it."

Tom might have admitted that he was impressed if he wasn't so aggravated at the same time.

Finally, after another twenty minutes or so, he finished the paperwork and handed it over to Beaumont. "Excellent. And you received permission from Headmaster Dippet to begin your trainings?"

Tom nodded.

"Well, then we should be all set. Jennings informed me that he will meet you in the east courtyard tomorrow after you've finished with exams. I'd walk you to the gates of the school, but I have some…unfinished business to attend to." He smirked at Madam Lark. "I'll see you at the end of this month. Don't hesitate to write if you have any questions." He extended a hand and Tom shook it before leaving the pub.

When he arrived back at Hogwarts, he walked briskly to the dungeons to fetch his books for some late-night studying. He was nearly to the common room when he saw Faye stepping out of it. As they walked toward each other in the corridor, Tom trained his eyes straight ahead as though he hadn't seen her at all, all in hope that she would do the same.

He had no such luck, unfortunately. "Just the person I was hoping to find," she said in a sickly sweet voice as she approached him. "Mind if I speak with you for a moment?"

Tom might have ignored her if there weren't several people walking through the corridor around them, but the last thing he wanted was to cause suspicion that things were tense between them and for that information to travel back to Rosemary somehow. "Of course," he answered coolly. "Shall we go somewhere a bit more private?"

"No, this is just fine, actually." Faye smirked and put a hand on her hip "I'm sure you know that Rose spoke to me earlier today about her summer plans-"

"We're definitely going to go somewhere a bit more private," Tom snarled as he cut her off. He glanced around the corridor to ensure that nobody was watching as he grabbed her wrist, pulling her along to the nearest classroom. "Out!" he barked to a few Slytherin second years that had chosen it as their place to study.

They left and Faye crossed her arms. "As I was saying, I kept to our agreement and I didn't breathe a word to her about our last little chat. I agreed to help her, and by extension, help you. But there's a catch, I'm afraid. You have to tell Rosemary that she can tell me why her parents disapproved of you."

"And why would I do that?" He straightened his frame so he towered above her even more.

"Because I won't help her if you don't," she shrugged. "And I'll let you explain why I've revoked my offer."

Apparently, allowing Rose to involve Faye had been a terrible mistake. He thought he had sufficiently scared her before, but it was clearly not quite enough. "We don't need you to make it happen," he told her. "There are plenty of options. You were just the one Rosemary chose."

"Oh, so you do care about her happiness then? I couldn't tell," Faye sassed.

"Excuse me?" he glared at her as intensely as he possibly could.

"Well, first off, you're putting her through the stress of unhappy parents just to be with you. And, judging from my interaction with her today, you aren't allowing her to talk about it with anyone either. She would have told me about it. She wanted to; I could see it on her face. I mean, I get it, you're ego is much larger than the average person's and whatever it is, you probably don't want everyone to know. But I can guarantee you're going to make her miserable if she has to keep bottling this up. I've been doing a bit of thinking about your threats and honestly, I don't buy it. What are you really going to do that will prevent me from telling her everything?" She sighed. "Admittedly, you do make her quite happy. I don't have a problem with you two being together as long as you're fair to her."

His anger ebbed away as she spoke and was replaced by sickening guilt. Faye was right and he knew it: his growing selfish and possessive tendencies had prevented him from truly looking at it from Rosemary's view. It was only a matter of time before she began to feel alienated and he knew that by then it would be too late; a wedge would have be driven between them. And, seeing as Faye was now resolute in speaking with her about it, he was a bit trapped anyway. He would never say it aloud, but Faye's bold defiance and her protectiveness of Rose made him respect her just slightly more. It also made him realize that she would be much more useful as an asset rather than an enemy.

Well played, Donohue.

"Fine," he told her.

"Selfish people are, in a way, terribly capable of great loves." ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hey everyone! I have a really big announcement so keep on reading.(:

But first, I'd love to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter! It was the most reviews I've received for a chapter so far. :D Thank you sooo much to Mrs. TomMarvoloRiddle, I thought I was the only one, I. Am. Thalote, DIFFERENT IS GOOD, silverfox1611, CharlotteBlackwood, WingsOfThePhoenix205, and s8xyvriska.

Now for my big announcement! After giving it quite a bit of thought and planning, I've decided that putting this story in five parts will not allow me to write it as well as I'd like. Soooo it's now going to be SEVEN parts with fifty chapters each! I'm so excited to keep writing. I hope you're looking forward to reading it and will join me for the entire journey! :D