An Ally. An Enemy.

September 4, 1944

"I've been meaning to say – your performance in the Tournament was most impressive, my boy."

"Thank you, Sir." Tom attempted to smile modestly.

He was sitting in Professor Slughorn's office on the first day of class, after receiving an invitation to catch up over breakfast.

"Do you plan to make a career of it?"

"Perhaps," he answered nonchalantly. "I'm not quite sure at the moment."

Slughorn nodded slightly. "Well, you've always been an exceptionally talented young man. I'm sure you'll find tremendous success in whatever you choose to do."

Tom didn't need Slughorn to tell him that for him to know it, of course. But it was still nice to hear.

The professor leaned back in his chair and took a sip of tea before he suddenly said: "I was sorry to hear about you and Miss Horton."

Tom was slightly taken aback; he hadn't expected anyone to dare bring up the subject to him. Then again, Slughorn's intrusiveness and lack of any discernible filter were two of his most well-known traits. So really he shouldn't have been all that surprised.

"It just didn't work out," Tom attempted to sound indifferent (which was rather easy considering the fact that he and Rosemary were still very much a couple).

There was an uncomfortable few seconds of silence before Slughorn spoke again. "You're still seeing her, aren't you?"

Tom's pulse quickened at the accusation. There was no doubt in his mind that Slughorn was one of the professors that Rosemary's father had spoken to and he was therefore not to be trusted.

"No, I'm not seeing her any longer." He shook his head as he answered, hoping his tone was flat enough to be convincing.

Slughorn let out a small chuckle and his eyes twinkled in amusement. "You can trust me, Riddle."

He seriously doubted that. He had no idea what Basil had promised to reward the professor with for keeping an eye on them all year, but he could only imagine: Quidditch tickets? Perhaps even stock in Comet? Tom knew that Slughorn was at least a little greedy (if his thinly veiled motives behind the Slug Club meetings were any indication), which meant that it would be quite difficult for Tom to compete with Mr. Horton for his loyalty.

Even so, Tom knew how much Slughorn adored him (and Rosemary, as well) – could he genuinely be greedy enough to screw over two of his favorite students so profoundly?

He supposed there was only one way to find out. Tom cleared his mind and he casted the spell nonverbally:

Legilimens.

He knew it was rather risky– Slughorn was a great wizard, after all –but he had improved his technique significantly over the past few weeks. Besides, the fact that the matter in question would be at the forefront of Slughorn's mind made things all the easier; there was no need for Tom to delve into the depths of it to find what he required.

As Tom's spell deepened and he slowly began to gain awareness of Slughorn's conscious thoughts, a single, vivid memory hit him forcefully. And from it, he ended up getting much more information than he had bargained for:

He could suddenly see the Great Hall, which had been rearranged into a ballroom. It was decorated in a way that was quite similar to the way the Hogwarts Annual Sweethearts Ball had been the year prior. Tom tried to spot himself or Rosemary, but his vision instead focused on a slightly plump young man who was leading a witch with mousy brown hair outside into a nearby courtyard.

He couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why this was on Slughorn's mind.

Tom continued to watch as the young, plain-looking couple stepped through the courtyard, quickly growing impatient due to the apparent lack of information that the memory contained.

He was just about to pull himself out of the memory when he caught a glimpse of dark red hair.

Rosemary?

Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn't her. But the girl and Rose did look nearly identical, with the exception of a few minor details in their features. It didn't take him long to determine that he was, in fact, looking at a young Evelyn Horton…Evelyn Cantrell, rather.

But the boy who stood close to her, holding her hands sandwiched between his own while speaking to her in hushed tones, bore no resemblance whatsoever to Basil Horton. The boy was taller and lankier, with blondish-brown hair.

It had to be him. Tom quickly scoured his mind in search for the name Rosemary had told him weeks and weeks ago upon their first discovery of her parents' time at Hogwarts – Pierce, wasn't it?

The original couple he had seen, who had entered the courtyard through the ballroom only to stumble upon Evelyn and the boy he assumed was Pierce, suddenly ducked behind a bush to avoid being seen by them. It dawned on him suddenly that he had been following none other than a young Professor Slughorn. He supposed he wasn't exactly surprised: it was Slughorn's memory, after all – if Tom had gotten a better look at him in the first place, he surely would have realized it all sooner.

Nor was he surprised that the teenage Horace Slughorn wouldn't hesitate to eavesdrop on someone. Tom could make out only a snippet of their conversation (presumably, the parts of it that Slughorn had heard and remembered):

"Basil will be looking for you, Eve…" the boy told her sadly.

"Let him find me, then," she said defiantly, pulling herself closer to him.

He put his hands on her arms as though he might push her away, but didn't. As though his lack of a struggle to move away from her had been an invitation, she craned her neck and kissed him on the lips. He kissed her back for a few moments before pulling away with a rather pained expression on his face.

"Pierce…" she suddenly sounded as though she were about to cry.

"You're engaged." He said this resolutely and took a small step away from her.

"For now."

Tom couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment of this reminder that Evelyn had married Basil instead. If she hadn't, Rosemary and Tom would have never been in such a mess in the first place. Then again, if that were the case, she wouldn't have been a pure-blood…and he probably wouldn't have even fallen in love with her.

"You've been changing your mind nearly every day about what your choice is, Eve. If you won't decide, I will for you. We have to stop this…I can't…"

"No." She pleadingly whimpered the word.

"We have to," he repeated. "I won't let you lose your entire family for me."

Hearing this made Tom feel as though a cloud of guilt was passing over his conscience, casting a shadow upon many of the things he had rarely (if at all) called into question. Most significantly, did it make him a selfish, terrible person if he didn't discourage Rosemary from choosing him?

Tom would much rather accept the fact that he was a selfish person than accept that he had lost Rosemary forever. This was not a true flaw in his eyes; if anything, he considered himself to be strong in a way that Pierce had been ultimately weak. Besides, it wasn't as though he was forcing Rosemary to choose him – she was perfectly capable of acting on her on accord.

Evelyn wiped away a couple of tears that had begun streaming down her cheeks. "I'll never love him."

"You'll learn to." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

The memory faded to black and Tom pulled himself back out of Slughorn's mind and into reality once more; only two or three seconds had passed since he had first casted the spell. It was unfortunate that, although he had gained some information, there wasn't quite enough to conclude whether or not Slughorn was actually trustworthy.

Tom was still grappling with how to respond to him when the professor said with an amused smirk, "It's sort of funny how history has a way of repeating itself, isn't it?"

Tom's mouth went dry and his heart skipped a beat at the same time. He had been caught. Performing Legilimency...This alone was enough for expulsion. And performing it on a professor? He might as well turn over his wand right then and there.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Pierce Jordan was one of my closest friends…" Slughorn said with a sad twinge in his voice. "A brilliant wizard. Something changed in him after Evelyn and Basil were married, though. He was never quite the same after that. He went a bit barmy, really…ended up with a muggle girl. It's a shame; I rarely see him anymore."

"That's a shame," Tom mumbled, though he was barely listening to anything that the professor was saying. He was too busy panicking about the fact that his Legilimency talents had been discovered.

"Don't misunderstand – Basil has grown to be a close friend of mine over the years. He's a good man…but sometimes I can't help but think that if Evelyn had been given a fair choice and Pierce would have allowed her to take a chance, they would have ended up together. And there is no doubt in my mind that, in time, her parents would have forgiven her." Tom recovered marginally from his panic, enough to listen to what Slughorn was telling him. "Miss Horton is perhaps the most talented witch that I've ever taught Potions to. I have a great deal of respect for her…and you as well, of course. You both deserve to decide on your own whatever it is that you choose to do. I don't think I could truly forgive myself if I didn't help in any way that I could."

It was a kind gesture, he supposed, but he honestly would rather Slughorn not to be involved in the first place. Things were already complicated enough – the last thing they needed was his meddling. "Thank you, Sir…but I doubt her father will listen to reason at this point."

Slughorn let out a light laugh. "Of course, not. Basil is much too stubborn. But there are some things he doesn't need to know…for instance, the way I run my classes."

Tom took the hint immediately: Slughorn would be making them Potions partners.

A clock chimed in the corner of the room, which meant that he had exactly fifteen minutes to arrive at Defense Against the Dark Arts for his first class of the term. "I should be going," Tom announced. He thought about thanking the professor, but thought that it might just make things even more uncomfortable. Slughorn nodded and Tom stood to leave. "Thank you for breakfast," he finally decided on.

As he started toward the door, Slughorn said: "It's always more challenging to find the answers to a question you're emotionally connected to without being detected. You have to keep your mind clear and avoid trying to process anything you see until you're back in your own head." He then sent Tom a half-amused, half-warning look. "…Not that you'll be trying that out again."

"Of course not, Sir," Tom said, leaving the room with a giant smirk on his face.

"You really should just talk to her and get it over with," Faye told her, while spreading some jam on a piece of toast.

Rose picked at her eggs with her fork. "And say what, exactly?"

"The truth," Faye shrugged. "She'll be pissed off at first, but she'll come around."

"I can't. Tom doesn't want it getting out…"

"Surprising," her friend said sarcastically.

"I agree with him, though. Telling more people means a higher probability of a professor and therefore my father finding out."

"Even if it means losing one of your close friends?"

"Emily and I aren't that close," Rose said defensively, attempting to ignore the guilty ache of her conscience inside her chest.

"I suppose it's not much of a loss anyway. She's always been rather annoying…and painfully unashamed of the fact that she's a half-blood."

Rosemary attempted to feel some sort of comfort at these words, but failed. Her conscience was still eating away at her when she glanced up and saw Emily and Loretta enter the Great Hall. As they grew closer and closer to the Ravenclaw table, Rosemary realized that they were glaring at her.

Faye must have noticed, too, because she said: "Well, here's your chance. It certainly looks as though she has something to say to you…" Apparently, she didn't want to be caught in the middle of things (which was rather unusual for someone who practiced the art of gossip as religiously as she did), because she suddenly stood from the table and gathered her books. "I'll see you in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Rosemary nodded, gradually becoming more and more nauseous at the thought of the impending confrontation. They were quite close – perhaps only twenty feet at most – and she was truly beginning to panic.

Just leave. Wait until Emily has calmed down a bit and talk to her about it then…

Another part of her chimed in:

No. Stay and get it over with. It's only going to get worse the longer you put this off.

She knew the second voice in her head was correct, but it was so very tempting to continue to avoid the situation (even though there was no way she could avoid it forever).

Yes, she decided firmly. She would stay and attempt to sort things out with Emily – that was the mature thing to do.

It was at this precise moment that she saw Warren stride into the Great Hall. She became even more filled with dread at the sight of him, realizing how exponentially more uncomfortable such a confrontation would be if he were anywhere near the vicinity. Clearly this was not the right time to talk.

Rose left the table just as Emily and Loretta reached it, pretending as though she hadn't seen either of them. She could feel their eyes on her back as she made her escape.

There was still an hour to kill before the first class of the term, so she decided she might as well return to her dormitory…or perhaps visit Tom across the hall. She knocked on his door hopefully, realizing that he might be a good distraction from her shameful lack of courage. She waited and pressed her ear against the door to see if she might hear any evidence of his presence, but no luck – perhaps he had just gone down for breakfast and she had missed him.

Rose sighed and entered her own room, looking around for something to occupy her. Reviewing her pile of schoolbooks was always an option…though it seemed like such a dreadfully unattractive one at the time. All she really felt like doing was to sprawl out on her bed and wait for the twisting feeling in her stomach to subside.

So that was exactly what she did – well, for about fifteen minutes anyway. Then she sat up, unable to take it any longer. She had to get it over with.

Rosemary waited for a good fifteen minutes outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom before her peers finally began trickling in. She nervously played with a string that had frayed on her robes and attempted not to make eye contact with Tom as he strode past her into the room, just in case there was anyone watching them.

Next to come down the corridor was Warren. "Contemplating whether or not to skip on the first day?" he smirked.

She might have humored him with a smirk of her own, but was too absorbed in her anxiety to bother with an attempt. "I'll be in in just a moment," she told him.

He looked at her curiously for a moment. He must have made the correct assumption that she was not about to divulge the real reasons for her hesitation, though, because his face soon broke into its usual, relaxed smile. "Alright…Well, I'll be sure to save you a seat."

Rosemary glanced inside the room at the clock on the wall: five minutes until class was supposed to start. She found part of herself wishing that Emily would be late so that she could once again postpone their conversation, but then the blonde and her brunette best friend promptly turned the corner.

This time, however, she was not met with their glares. In fact, they were about to ignore her and walk right past her into the room.

"Emily – a moment?" she heard herself ask. Her insides felt as though they were suddenly made of a wet rag that someone was wringing out to dry.

The pair stopped and looked at Rose. Emily seemed to be at a loss for words, so Loretta came to her rescue: "What makes you think she wants to talk to you?" she snapped.

"I know you don't want to," Rose said, ignoring Loretta and speaking directly to Emily. "But we really should talk about this."

"Oh yes, I'm sure that will make things loads better."

Loretta had responded again, which irritated Rosemary quite a bit. Couldn't she just let Emily speak for herself? "Well then what do you suggest, Loretta? That I just allow years of friendship to go down the drain?"

"That's what you're calling it?" Loretta scoffed. "I was under the impression that friendship has an entirely different definition, which certainly doesn't include stealing the other's love interest."

"That's a bit of an unfair simplification," Rosemary said defensively. She wanted to continue on and explain as much as her promise of secrecy to Tom would permit, but was aware that she had all but run out of time: she could hear Professor Merrythought's weak, geriatric voice drift out into the corridor as she began to address the class. "It's very complicated, really."

Loretta opened her mouth once more to deliver another retort, but Emily was suddenly no longer silent: "There's nothing complicated about this at all – the entire school knows what happened!"

"Yeah," Loretta chimed in again. "Everyone knows about how you and Warren spent all summer together while he was working for your father at Comet. I mean, it was already clear that you didn't care about friendships when you jumped from Markus to Tom."

Rosemary's eyes widened slightly in disbelief of what Loretta was clearly insinuating. "But they're still friends!" she protested.

Loretta rolled her eyes in response, as though the subject were open to interpretation. Emily looked down at her shoes and said quietly, "A lot of people are saying you were dating Warren before you even broke up with Riddle…"

"And do you honestly believe that?" she demanded.

Emily shrugged.

Rosemary clenched her jaw and glared at her, suddenly enraged. How dare they preach to her about friendship, when they failed to give her even the slightest benefit of the doubt? Now that her temper had been set off, there was little she could do to prevent the words that flowed out of her mouth next. She unconsciously straightened her spine so that she towered above Emily's petite frame and said, "I wasn't the one that ruined your chances with Warren. He knew that you fancied him all of last year, but never really made a move, did he? And that's simply not my fault."

It took Rosemary a second to realize that these words and their cruel accompanying tone had come from her very own mouth. She instantly felt terrible, of course. But at the same time, she couldn't help but think that she was at least partially in the right – sure, she could have said it a bit more gently, but was it really her fault that Emily wasn't in touch with reality?

The other girls' reactions were nothing less than shocked. Loretta's mouth had fallen open slightly and she was looking at Emily with concern, whose face had become unreadable. Silence fell between the three of them for a few seconds and she could once again hear Merrythought's voice floating out from the classroom and into the corridor where they all stood. Somehow, she had completely forgotten that they were now at least five minutes late for class.

The corridor was suddenly filled with such an abrupt outburst that Rosemary nearly flinched: "YOU ARE A COMPLETE BITCH AND A TRULY AWFUL PERSON!" Emily screamed at her, tears streaming down her pale cheeks, before storming past her in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower. Rose looked at Loretta, expecting her to say something cruel, but it was clear that she too had yet to recover from the shock of the quiet Ravenclaw's outburst.

Rosemary swallowed, feeling the heavy weight of silence that had fallen upon both the corridor and the nearby classroom. Though she told herself she shouldn't dare to, she glanced inside and saw the entire class (including Professor Merrythought) staring back at her. She contemplated running away to her dormitory like Emily had, but decided against it. That would look weak. And if the rumors about herself that she had just heard from Emily and Loretta were any indication, the last thing she needed was to look weak.

Her face was bright red as she slowly stepped into the classroom and took the seat next to Warren that he had saved for her, all while the eyes of the entire class followed her every step.

What did they all think of her, now? She didn't dare glance at a single one of them, especially not Tom. It was certainly less than ideal that this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts class had paired up Ravenclaw and Slytherin, the two houses whose opinions obviously mattered the most to her in this very moment.

Merrythought finally broke the silence. "Well, erm…let's continue our discussion of what is required to produce a full counter-curse…"

She had truly wished that the queasy feeling she had felt all morning in anticipation to speaking with Emily would have gone away after doing so, but it had instead grown even worse than before. Not only that; her eyes were beginning to sting with tears. Was she truly a bad person now? She tried her best to tell herself she wasn't. After all, the only thing she even really wanted was to be with Tom. How could that be a bad thing? Was it so selfish of her to want that?

Again and again she tried convincing herself that she had done the right thing, but she couldn't quite forget the cruel way in which she had spoken to Emily and her now-former friend's tearful response. She struggled against the urge to cry, knowing that a good majority of the class was still staring at her.

It was only the first day of class and things had completely gone to shit. When would she catch a break?

Her only consolation was her firm belief that things couldn't possibly get much worse.

"Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." – Marilyn Monroe

Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. :D

I want to thank everyone for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing (a special shout-out to Mrs. TomMarvoloRiddle, CharlotteBlackwood, AlishaCorral123, A regrettable decision, How910, and RosiePosie15 for your reviews of last chapter)! I'm trying to get these last few chapters of Part I out as fast as possible, as I'm leaving for a vacation in mid-August and want to finish it before then, so hopefully you'll see some really rapid updates from me in the next couple of weeks.(: