Lunch Date

August 21, 1944

She turned the gleaming badge over in her palm several times before reading the accompanying letter:

Dear Miss Horton,

I would like to congratulate you once more for your selection as Head Girl of Hogwarts. You have always been an exceptional student and, as Head of Ravenclaw House, I was pleased to see one of our own chosen for a second year in a row. I have no doubt that you will serve the school well. Please do not hesitate to write if you have any questions regarding the procedures you will explain to the Prefects on the Hogwarts Express, as it has been a few months since your training with Mr. Bryan and Miss Duprie.

Sincerely,

Professor Flannigan

Even though Rosemary felt as though she had been well-suited to the role of Head Girl, she didn't know if she truly deserved her professor's praise. The letter seemed to paint her as the poster child of Ravenclaw and, although this was the persona she had sold to all the professors at Hogwarts over the years, it wasn't necessarily genuine. If anyone was the true embodiment of Ravenclaw, it was someone like Muriel Finkley, Rose's mousy-haired classmate that always had her nose in a book and followed every single rule that had ever existed at Hogwarts. Rosemary merely played the part around anyone of authority and then cast aside all semblance of responsibility whenever she pleased. This trait made her a bit nervous to take on her new role, as she would be held to a much higher standard. Gone were the days of hosting parties in the Slytherin Common Room every weekend…Although, perhaps one or two a month wouldn't hurt…

Her mind drifted to Tom and she smiled at the thought of how excited he would be to receive his badge in the post that morning as well. It had been three weeks since her visit to his flat and, because her family had returned to Weybridge early that summer, she no longer had Markus around to send and receive their letters. But now that things had cleared up between them significantly, their inability to communicate didn't bother her. In just a week and a half, she would be away from her parents and back on the train to Hogwarts with him anyway.

After returning home after her visit with Tom, she realized that it could have gone much, much worse. It had been quite foolish for Rosemary to surprise him, even though she meant well. She also felt extraordinarily guilty for allowing her petty jealousy to govern her actions – she had been quite nasty with him, commenting about the flat that he was very clearly ashamed of. Given these snags in their encounter, it was actually quite miraculous that things had worked out so well for them. Their tempers which had been aggravated by the tension surrounding them could have won out, but they didn't. If anything, she felt that they were just as close as they had ever been.

Things were looking up in another way, too: her father hadn't set her up on a date (yet). Although, he had continued to treat her like a criminal in their own home. In fact, now that they had returned from St. Ives, he had begun watching her even more carefully.

But perhaps there was an end to his overbearing behavior in sight: after weeks of the frost-bitten silence that had settled between them, Basil invited her to meet him for lunch.

The Comet Trading Company headquarters were situated on an expansive meadow outside of London. The fact that this international company and the vast building that housed it were in such a remote location might have looked strange to a visitor, but Rosemary had never given it a second thought. To her, it was simply obvious that the open space was necessary for test flying the new models. It wouldn't have been a stretch to say that, after all the time she had spent there as a child, Comet was essentially her second home (or perhaps her third, if she was counting their vacation house). And, although she wasn't a broom person per se, there were definitely perks to visiting the headquarters: she was treated like royalty, for one.

The pop that accompanied Rosemary as she Apparated to the front entrance of Comet turned a few heads in surprise. It wasn't exactly a noise that the employees were used to hearing at work – in fear of her father's disapproval, there were very of them who dared commuting in any other way than by broomstick. But, their looks of confusion quickly vanished as soon as they recognized her.

"Good morning, Miss Horton," several people greeted her as she strode inside and stopped at the front desk.

"Rosemary! It's so good to see you."

"Same to you, Holly," Rosemary smiled at the receptionist. "Do you happen to know if my father is ready to go to lunch?"

"He's been with the Experimental Models Division all morning," Holly told her apologetically before a look of confusion spread across her face. "I must have misunderstood. When he spoke to me earlier this morning, he informed me that you were coming here to meet someone for lunch, but he didn't mention that he'd be attending as well. I'll have to rearrange his meetings for this afternoon –"

Oh no.

Rosemary instantly understood exactly what this meant. Her father's invitation had not been an armistice; it had been a ploy. To send her on a date with someone.

She was in the process of coming up with an excuse to leave when Warren Cramer suddenly arrived at the front desk. "Long time no see, Miss Horton." He smiled. "Your father's finishing up a meeting with a potential investor, so he asked me to fetch you and show you some of our new projects while you're waiting."

She begrudgingly followed him down the hall, realizing that she had all but entirely forgotten that Warren had been working for Basil all summer as an intern.

"How's your summer been?" he asked her.

"Good," she lied. At least it wasn't a complete lie – the part where she had been in Paris for the Tournament had been quite extraordinary.

"And Tom's doing well, I'm sure?"

Her instant reaction was to give him a dirty look for asking. She quickly caught herself, though, remembering that there was no way that Warren knew about the situation between Tom and her parents. Basil would be far too mortified to admit that his daughter was dating a half-blood.

Unfortunately, she hadn't wiped away the look quite fast enough: "What?" he asked. "Even I read The Daily Prophet…"

"Oh, yes, of course. I'm very proud of him."

"It was quite an accomplishment, I have to admit. Although, if you ask me, Quidditch is much more dangerous…but I suppose I'm also a bit biased." Warren winked at her playfully.

Rosemary rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she had learned after Tom had exposed her to the world of dueling, it was that there was a sizable rivalry of manliness between those who played Quidditch and those who dueled. "You did read about how he was eliminated, right? He almost lost an arm…"

Warren shrugged her off. "Nothing a few potions and a Healer couldn't fix."

After walking through several corridors, they finally reached the doors that led to the Experimental Models Division. Warren muttered the password and brought her inside. "We've been working on a few new projects this summer…" He strode over to one of the room's many Storm-Boxes, in which a broom was suspended in mid-air. As she admittedly wasn't much of a broom person, the Storm-Boxes were one of Rosemary's favorite things to see when she visited Comet. They were enormous glass cases that were designed to test a broomstick's durability in the elements by alternating between various weather patterns: snow, ice, extreme heat, and thunderstorms (her personal favorite).

"There have been a few complaints that the latest model's handle splinters too easily, so we're testing out a new charmed protective coating that should be a bit more durable."

Rosemary stared at the dark storm that raged on inside the glass. "So, who's this new investor?" she finally asked him quietly.

She was puzzled when she didn't hear Warren respond and was about to turn and look at him when she heard her father's voice behind her. "Rosemary, I trust you remember Gil Pollack, as he was formerly your Ministry of Magic Apparition Instructor?"

Rose spun around. Apparently, she had been staring at the Storm-Box longer than she thought. Warren was no longer standing where he had been before: he was now busy at work, scribbling something on a clipboard about twenty meters away. Her father and Gil had even come in without her hearing.

He, of all people, was the investor? She knew that the Ministry of Magic didn't pay that well. "Of course," she said in the most pleasant voice she could manage.

It took every ounce of willpower she had not to cringe as Gil kissed the top of her hand. By the rather creepy way he was looking at her, she suspected that he had been in on Basil's plan from the beginning.

"My apologies, dear," started her father, "But I'm afraid I'm much too busy with work and will have to cancel our plans…However, Gil has graciously offered to –"

No. This could not happen. Going out with Gil would be nothing short of humiliating and she couldn't even imagine how furious Tom would be when he found out. In sheer panic, she glanced at Warren and then back to her father and Gil once more before the words tumbled out of her mouth: "That's quite alright – Warren just invited me for lunch, actually. I was just about to ask you if we could go another time."

Once again she looked at Warren (who looked rightfully confused) and then her father, who also looked rather confused. Rosemary held her breath, praying that Warren would go along with it and that Basil would give his approval. She wasn't naïve enough to think that her father was so thick that he wouldn't be at least a little suspicions that she was simply trying to get out of lunch with Gil. But, in his mind, Warren was probably just as good for her (if not better, given his much more fervent interest in Quidditch). And when it came down to it, whoever she was going to lunch with didn't really matter as long as it wasn't Tom.

"Well, I suppose that's alright," Basil said finally as Rosemary exhaled. Warren had thankfully stayed silent the entire time and so had Gil. In a way, he was forced to – it would have been seen as extraordinarily rude of him to question the word of her father.

As she and Warren left for lunch, Rosemary couldn't help but feel strangely appreciative of the way Basil had handled the situation. He could have forced her to go out with Gil, but he had clearly seen that she had been interested in going with Warren instead. This wouldn't have been significant if Gil wasn't an investor, as there was a good chance that going to lunch with him would have solidified his interest in putting money into the company. But, as painful as it was for her to admit it, that was how her father was: he did value her happiness more than another thousand Galleons...

It made her feel just a tad sentimental until she remembered that he was the entire reason she was in this situation in the first place. Although he might value her happiness more than money, he didn't value it more than his beliefs on blood (or, more precisely, his grudges from the past).

Rosemary and Warren said nothing to each other as they walked to the nearest town and into its only restaurant. Finally, when she could no longer take the silence, she said nonchalantly: "So, how has your internship gone? You can tell me the truth; I won't tell my father," she smirked.

She had hoped that he might let the whole thing go without asking any questions, but she should have known better. "What happened back there?" he asked her, ignoring her attempt to keep the conversation away form that very topic.

"Nothing…I just thought it would be nice to go to lunch with you instead of Mr. Pollack," she told him.

"It looked like your father was trying to set you up with him," he commented flatly.

Rosemary hesitated for a long time; while she did owe him an explanation, Tom certainly wouldn't be pleased that yet another person knew about their uncomfortable state of affairs. After a rather lengthy internal debate, she sighed. "There's a reason. Do you promise you won't tell anyone?"

Warren nodded.

"Well, long story short, my father doesn't approve of Tom…so he's trying to marry me off to someone else before I graduate from Hogwarts."

His light green eyes widened. "What? Why doesn't he approve of the amazing Tom Riddle?"

Rosemary noticed a bit of sarcasm in the way he had said the word 'amazing' but chose to ignore it. There were more pressing matters, after all. "I'd rather not discuss it," she told him.

"I see...Well, I'm sorry to hear your going through that. What are you going to do, though? You can't get out of dates with Gil or whoever else he comes up with forever…"

She sighed, resting her forehead in her hands. "I don't know."

But she did know that she desperately needed to figure something out. The fact that her father had gone so far as to trick her into a lunch date meant that he was beginning to get serious about setting her up with someone. She also knew that her mother's hesitation could only buy her so much time.

Unfortunately, all the solutions that had come to mind over the last few weeks sounded absolutely mad and required a drastic measure of some sort. Except for one: the one that she hadn't even thought of since she had suggested it to Markus and he promptly shot it down. The one that, in her mind, was the only way she could guarantee that her parents would leave her be until she graduated from Hogwarts.

But, without Markus, it obviously wouldn't work…Unless…

"You'll think I've gone mad for suggesting this…" Rosemary hesitated with a bit of disbelief of the words that were coming out of her own mouth, "But what would you say if I asked you to pretend to date me?"

Warren leaned forward in his chair and raised an eyebrow at her. "I'd say that you have, indeed, gone mental."

"We'd just convince my parents we're in love, eventually tell them we're engaged and set to be married after school ends, and then we'll go our separate ways. It's the only way I can think of to get my father to leave things alone…I know it's an enormous favor to ask…" It was then when she fully realized just how large of a favor it really was and she stopped herself. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

Warren looked at her for a long time and she felt herself turn bright red in embarrassment for suggesting such a thing. "I'll do it," he abruptly told her.

She didn't even try to hide the look of pure shock on her face. "Really?"

"Of course. I owe you a favor for putting in a good word for me to your father when I was applying for my internship." He said it as though this sort of favor was equivalent to something like allowing her to borrow his notes after missing class. She was too dumbfounded to respond and he must have known it because he continued: "It's not as though pretending to date you wouldn't come with a few perks for me as well. It might just help me land a job after graduation…as long your parents don't suspect that I was in on the entire thing, of course."

"They wouldn't. I'd make sure of it," she told him quickly.

"I'm surprised," Warren said suddenly with a grin, "Most of the girls in our year would have thrown themselves at a chance for a date with Gil Pollack. Especially now that he's rich…thanks to his late uncle."

Ah. So that was where his sudden influx of funds had come from.

"He's vile," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "He thought he was so important just because he was sent from the Ministry."

What Warren had said was true, though; she could only imagine how appalled Loretta would have been with her for turning down Gil's offer.

But in reality, Gil was the furthest thing from her mind. Her plan had solidified before she even had a chance to fully process what had happened. Although it clearly hadn't been a plan so much as a thoughtless impulse.

There were a few things that she realized instantly: for one, she knew that it would work. Not because she was confident in her ability to lie (at least not to her father), but because it had to. Rose had convinced herself that, unless Tom had recently thought of some other way around her family, this was truly the only viable option.

She also knew Tom wouldn't like it – obviously – but he would get over it. Eventually. Again, it wasn't as though he had thought of any sort of plan to get them out of the mess they were in. And the fact that she was pretending to be Warren's girlfriend to placate her parents would surely be less bothersome to him than if she were to get married off to Gil or someone that was even worse. They would be back at Hogwarts quite soon anyway, where there would be no need to pretend: as long as her parents weren't around, Rose and Tom were completely free to be together.

Still, even though she was increasingly sure with each passing moment that she had made the best possible decision, she couldn't help but dread the moment that she had to inform Tom. Perhaps it was for the best that they couldn't write each other again before school started.

"So she became impulsive, scared by her inaction into perpetual action." – John Green

Bet you can't wait until she finally tells Tom.(; That will be a fun ride...

Thank you soo very much to those of you who reviewed: AlishaCorral123, A regrettable decision, CharlotteBlackwood, RosiePosie15, MusicOfMyMind, Lucy Greenhill, two Guest users, How910, and destinykate! Thanks as well to those who have favorited/followed!

Sorry for the delay on the update...things were busier than I had anticipated this weekend. But I'm already starting on Chapter 40, so you should see it within a couple of days! At the end of next chapter I'll also be posting some more info about that little contest I mentioned.(:

Thanks for reading!