First Impressions

June 27, 1944

"There I said it. He's not a pure-blood…he's a half-blood." Rose downed the rest of her beverage and felt as though she might promptly burst into tears. This wasn't exactly how she had envisioned saying it, in such a drunk and overemotional state, but at least she was getting it out. It had been torturing her to keep it only between her and Tom for so long, especially because for them it was such an off-limits topic. She had been quite relieved when he told her that he had changed his mind and that it was alright if she felt like she should tell Faye, given that she was facilitating their summer escapades.

Her friend's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "You're not serious." Rose nodded. "Shit. No wonder he didn't want anyone to know."

She sprawled out on Faye's bed and stared up at the ceiling. "Why else would my parents dislike him? He's perfect in every other way."

Faye stroked her hair in an attempt to comfort her. "Well, I don't know if I'd say that," she began to say, but stopped as she saw Rose turn her head and glare at her. "Sorry. I just never would have guessed."

"I don't see him that way. I never could."

"I understand." Faye sighed. "He certainly has the arrogance of a pure-blood."

"And the magical ability, among many other things," Rose said icily, annoyed that his arrogance was the first quality that had come to her friend's mind. "I'm sure you remember that the entire reason I'm visiting him is because he's competing in the Continental-"

"Wizarding Dueling Tournament. Yes, I know. How could I possibly forget? It's all I've heard about for the past few weeks." Another glare from Rose was swiftly sent her way. "Anyway, what are you going to do about it? I can't really see your parents changing your mind about him."

"That's what Tom wants..."

"And if that doesn't work?"

Rose bit her lip. It wasn't as though she had never thought of this, but that didn't mean it wasn't painful to do so. "He and I will have to discuss…options."

"Options?"

"You know…like an elopement or something."

"There are a lot of laws that restrict that sort of thing…have you even looked into them at all?"

"Yes, of course," Rose snapped defensively. "There's only one that really pertains to this situation anyway."

"And that is?

"It's illegal to marry without parent endorsement until one graduates from an accredited academy of magic. One year, Faye. That's all we need."

Faye was quiet for a long time, which made Rose uneasy. All she wanted was one of her closest friends to tell her she wasn't crazy; was that too much to ask? Finally, she said carefully: "Are you sure that's what you want to do?"

Perhaps it had been a great mistake to tell Faye anything at all. "Of course. I love him more than anything." She attempted to sound less defensive, but there was still an unfortunate hint of it in her voice.

"Do you love him enough to lose your family? Everything you have? They won't forgive you…"

"They're my family, I should know!"

"All I'm saying is that you should take some time to think about it. Really think it through. You don't have to decide today."

"What do you think I've been doing? For the past few months, this is all I've thought about," Rose snapped. "How else do you think I got only an E on three of my finals?"

"Yes, what a tragedy that must be." Faye rolled her eyes. "Anyway, with Tom, you know I'll support you with whatever you choose, but just be cautious Rosie. Don't just jump into something."

Rose shifted onto her side and closed her eyes, pretending to fall asleep. As good as it felt to get out everything that had been swirling in her mind for so long, she couldn't help but feel an overwhelmingly crushing sense of disappointment. She knew that Faye was just looking out for her, but that wasn't what she was asking for. All she wanted was for Faye to support her blindly and keep her advice to herself. Of course the one time that was all she wanted, Faye actually came up with rational advice that was rather hard to ignore.

Before speaking with her, Rose was sure that she needed Tom more than she needed her parents, who only seemed to care about her when she was doing something they didn't agree with. Now, her thoughts and emotions were jumbled up and confused. As much as she wanted to ignore every warning her friend had just voiced, she couldn't. Because if Faye was genuinely concerned, there was clearly something that she saw in the situation that Rose hadn't.

By the next morning, both of them were pretending as though the conversation the night before had never occurred.

"Do you want to take more Calming Draught? My mum has some in the medicine cabinet upstairs…"

Rose shook her head, which already felt a bit heavier than usual. "If I take any more, I'll fall off the broom."

"Well, have a good flight and have fun at the competition," Faye smiled at her warmly, but Rose couldn't be sure if she really meant it anymore.

It didn't change the fact that she had helped them, though. She owed Faye some gratitude at least. "Thank you for everything. I really appreciate it…we both do."

"Of course. Write me this summer, yeah? I'll be pretty miffed if you make me read about the tournament through the Prophet. We'll be back from New Zealand in late July, so let's plan on meeting up then."

Rose nodded. Perhaps she had been overly sensitive about the whole thing; Faye seemed to be perfectly supportive now, so maybe she just needed some time for things to sink in. She felt the worry that had abounded from their previous conversation quickly begin to fade away, though the Calming Draught she had taken was surely helping in that regard.

"Stay safe," her friend told her, giving her a quick hug before Rose mounted her broom and lifted into the air.

As the buildings beneath her grew smaller and smaller, she was increasingly thankful for the potion she took. Without it, her easily triggered motion sickness would have made the trip unbearable.

She ended up arriving in Paris later than expected, as her Calming Draught had begun to wear off in in the last fourth of the trip and she had to fly a bit slower to keep from becoming ill. She had hoped to meet up with Tom before the Opening Ceremony, but there wasn't enough time if she wanted to get herself cleaned up and tame her wind-blown hair.

Thankfully, if there was one thing her mother had taught her over the years, it was how to look completely put-together and polished in a very small amount of time. She looked around the busy streets and spotted a small tavern that looked relatively nice.

The bartender gave her a dirty look when she walked straight to the lavatory, but she was in too much of a rush to care. Rose locked the door behind her and pulled her trunk out of her pocket. It was quite a handy trick to shrink it; one that she hadn't really thought of before Tom suggested it, given that she rarely flew. She restored the trunk to its normal size and dug through it for one of her nicer dresses and a pair of heels. After throwing on her clothes and adding some quick make-up to cover her wind-ravaged skin, she detangled and curled her hair with a couple of charms. Then she piled everything, including the broom, back in her trunk and shrunk it back down to a pocket-sized form, tucking it inside her small clutch. All in five minutes flat.

On her way out, she paused to ask the bartender in French where the Tournament Center was, and the man grouchily informed her. Her mother had brought her to wizarding Paris quite a bit growing up; she could probably figure out where to go on her own, but the dinner was supposed to begin in twenty minutes and she didn't want to chance being late. At least, according to the bartender, it was only a few streets over.

When she arrived, she was slightly out of breath from how briskly she had been walking. She watched as elegantly dressed couples made their way inside. Rose composed herself and straightened her dress before walking gracefully to the door, where a man stood checking names off a list.

While she waited in line to gain entry, she felt eyes on the side of her face, and noticed that a tall man was staring at her from nearby, smoking a cigarette. Glancing at him was a mistake, as he promptly approached her with a smirk. In French, he said: "Your hair is exquisite; a truly beautiful shade."

"Thank you," she answered politely, a bit disturbed as the man looked old enough to be her father. Thankfully, she was nearing the front of the line and could escape him soon.

"Do you know what girls with red hair remind me of?"

"No," she said, quite sure she really didn't want to hear his answer.

"Firewhiskey…in many splendid ways."

He said it right when she reached the front of the line and the doorman said, "Name, please."

Meanwhile, her face had fallen into a scowl and she was searching her mind for some sort of biting remark when a familiar voice said, "Rose. Good, you made it. I see you've met Beaumont."

She looked up to see Tom and was too appalled at the unfolding situation to notice how handsome he looked in his suit.

"You're Miss Horton?" the man who was apparently Tom's sponsor suddenly switched to English and turned slightly red, but still held a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "Forgive me…the pleasure is all mine."

"Yes, it certainly is," she said bitingly.

"Did he say something to you?" Tom asked heatedly, catching on to her agitation as he stepped down the stairs to join them on the platform below. Rose was too disturbed by the whole thing to answer and his sponsor looked away from them both. This apparently served as a sufficient answer to his question, because Tom turned to Beaumont and demanded, "What is wrong with you?"

"My apologies, Tom. I-"

"Miss, could I get your name please? There are other people waiting behind you." The doorman was becoming increasingly impatient.

"Her name is Rosemary Horton. She's with me," Tom answered curtly for her and put his arm around her shoulder, leading her into the party. She glanced up and saw him toss one final dirty look at his sponsor. "I'm sorry about him. He's probably been drunk since nine this morning."

"It's alright," she told him, even though it sort of wasn't. She wasn't offended so much as disappointed that the rest of the tournament would now be exceedingly uncomfortable. But at that moment, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was there, with Tom. She craned her neck to kiss him lightly; because of her heels, she didn't have to stand on her toes for once to reach him. "I'm so glad to be here."

He smiled at her and she could tell how incredibly happy and how completely in his element he was. "I'm glad you're here too. Come, I'll introduce you to the rest of the lot."

A tray of champagne floated by; she lifted a glass off of it and the bubbles tickled her lips as she took a sip. Rose knew in an instant that it was real champagne, not the cheap knock-off that Faye bought on occasion. Classy; she was beginning to like the tournament scene quite a bit already.

It wasn't until then that she noticed just how many people were in the ballroom of the Center. There had to be at least a thousand, all clearly older than them (ranging from anywhere between a few years and a few decades older by her eye) and all dressed quite glamorously. She was glad she had worn one of her nicest dresses, because even she, with all her years of attending social functions, might have felt out of place otherwise. It all felt quite dreamlike until she noticed the small pin on the front of his suit that read 'Official Dueling Contender'.

"How many contenders are there?" she asked as he led her by the hand across the enormous room.

"Five hundred."

It was a staggering figure to wrap her head around. She had heard of the competition, of course, but didn't have the first clue about all the details as she hadn't really followed dueling before Tom. "You don't duel them all…right?"

"No, of course not," he smirked. "We're each randomly matched for five duels in the first round. Those who win three of the five progress to the second round and so on."

"Right, I see."

They reached a long banquet table and Tom stopped. His trainer, Curtis Jennings, was sitting on the end; she couldn't help but take it at least somewhat personally when his mouth remained firmly aligned with his frown lines after she said hello, even though Tom had assured her multiple times that he acted this way with everyone.

"Horton," he grunted, barely looking up from the table. Tom seemed not to notice, or, perhaps he had and had just grown accustomed to it.

"Please take your seats. Dinner service will begin shortly," a voice echoed throughout the hall.

"Well, I don't quite have time to introduce you now. You'll have to meet them all later this week," Tom said with a twinge of disappointment, as though he had been looking forward to it as much as she had. It was rather sweet. "I believe we're right here," he told her as he gestured to the two seats closest to Jennings. The place-card with her name in stylish lettering that rested on one of the plates proved him correct. Thankfully, Tom's spot was the one directly next to his trainer, so she'd at least have an opportunity for a good chat with someone else on the team.

She sat when he pulled out the chair for her and the rest of the table began to fill around them. A couple with friendly smiles, who looked to be in their early thirties, approached the two seats across from them. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tom tense up; it was barely perceptible, but she had gotten quite good at reading him over the months.

"Riddle, good to see you again," the man greeted him while they settled into their seats.

"Rookwood," Tom muttered politely.

The wife's voice was as warm as her husband's. "And who is this? I didn't know you were bringing a date."

Rose introduced herself, as it was clear that for some reason or another Tom didn't want to speak with them. "I'm Rosemary Horton, Tom's steady. It's lovely to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you as well," the woman smiled. "My name is Mara Rookwood and this is my husband, Augustus." Her husband gave Rose a nod and a smile and she smiled in return. It was then that she noticed he was wearing the same pin that Tom was. "You two make such a handsome pair," Mara said, "I'm sure people tell you that all the time."

It was true, they did. But Rose never really got tired of hearing it anyway. "Thank you," she smiled modestly.

"Are you a sixth year at Hogwarts as well?" Augustus asked her.

Rose nodded and proceeded to answer the couple's various questions about herself. She was puzzled by Tom's apparent dislike of them both; they seemed to be perfectly charming people. Then again, perhaps he was simply attempting to keep his distance from all the other competitors. She supposed she couldn't exactly blame him for that.

"Ah, long time no see."

Rose turned her head and watched in horror as none other than Raoul Beaumont slid into the seat next to her. She slowly looked the other way and exchanged glances with Tom, who was clenching his jaw in clear aggravation. Even so, neither he nor she would dare bring it up again in fear of making things even more uncomfortable, of course.

Raoul proved to be a different story: "My apologies for earlier," he said as he helped himself to a roll from the breadbaskets that had appeared in front of them. Then, as though nothing uncomfortable whatsoever had transpired, he picked up the basket and tilted it toward her. "Bread?"

"No thank you," she said formally, still keen to avoid any sort of further acknowledgement of their previous encounter. She'd get over it, or at least pretend to, to avoid creating any additional stress for Tom. Although, judging from the look on his face, his anger had progressed to a new level of seething.

"You young ladies are always trying to watch your figure," Beaumont chuckled.

She opened her mouth, readying a snappy quip to inform him that this, in fact, wasn't the case, but pursed her lips once more when he took out his wand and said "Ustulario." In response to the spell, the piece of bread he had taken turned a slightly darker shade of brown.

He smiled at her as though he hadn't violated one of the simplest table manners, and took a bite. "Much better."

If there was a personality trait that Rosemary disliked most extensively, it was certainly rudeness. To her, Raoul's apparent lack of social polish was rather disturbing, not to mention unexpected given his wealth. Flirting with her by accident was one thing, but toasting his bread to his particular liking and the comment about watching her figure was another altogether. Her mounting annoyance with him was beginning to make her blood boil in a way that made her wonder if she had suddenly developed a fever. Rose didn't dare look at Tom, who was surely just as annoyed as she was; part of her worried that it would only encourage him to say something.

Thankfully, they were both given a momentary distraction from Tom's bad-mannered sponsor when an aged wizard stepped onto the stage in the front of the room and began speaking.

"Good evening. My name is Wilbur Emery." He spoke energetically, or at least more so than she had expected given how ancient he appeared to be. "As this year's Tournament Coordinator, I would like to formally welcome you to the nine-hundred and sixty third Continental Wizarding Dueling Tournament, one of the oldest and most esteemed dueling competitions in the world." The room exploded in applause in such a way that made the excitement contagious. Emery began to speak once more and the crowd began to quiet. "After attending a few of the training sessions this week, I'm convinced that there will be no shortage of spectacular dueling talent in this year's competition. We owe much of that to the enormous dedication of each participant, trainer, and sponsor involved. But I would also like to take a moment to thank the family and friends of each competitor that have gathered here tonight to celebrate with us. Without your support, the tournament would not be where it is today." There was another bout of applause before he finished up his speech: "As I'm sure you are all sufficiently famished by now, we will begin dinner along with a performance by the Sorciers Orchestre de Paris."

An artfully plated dish soon appeared on every place setting in the room, which looked to be confit de canard served with red cabbage. The orchestra began to play as she glanced at Tom, giving him a small smile. He returned it with one of his own before starting on his dinner; their aggravation had faded nicely in all the excitement.

Just in time for Raoul to open his mouth once more, of course. "I went to their first performance actually, in 1910." He pointed at the band with his knife and Rose narrowed her eyes at it. At this rate, he was quickly becoming one of the most ill-mannered people she had ever met. "They're such an excellent, excellent group..." Then, as if the entire table would rather listen to his bottomless supply of trivia than the group itself, he proceeded to talk throughout nearly the entire performance.

"He's insufferable!" she hissed, as soon as the ceremony was over and they exited onto the street. "Honestly, the man is a compete prat. Couldn't he tell that nobody wanted to hear a damn thing he had to say about the Orchestra? And then there was the bread thing. Was it not good enough for him?" She would have continued her sulky rant if she hadn't noticed the look of amusement on Tom's face. "What? Now, all of a sudden, you're fine with it?!"

"It's not that," he smirked.

"What, then?" she demanded.

"It doesn't get any better, Rosemary," he said. "You'll see."

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength." ― Edmund Burke

Thank you to I thought I was the only one, RosiePosie15, CharlotteBlackwood, and Mrs. WaylandOdinsonBlack for reviewing the last chapter! The four of you are such awesome, dedicated reviewers. I hope you know how appreciated you are. This story has officially hit over 100 reviews, which is a first for me! Thank you again to ALL of you that have left a review on these first 27 chapters.

Also, thank you to my love for helping me come up with all of the ridiculously rude things that Beaumont does to piss off Rose.

I hope that this was at least a somewhat entertaining chapter to read! :D Next chapter will be in both POVs again, which means it probably won't take as long to write. Soo that's good! If my week goes according to plan, you'll be getting another update quite soon. Thank you for reading!(: