Awaited Answers

January 18, 1945

When she arrived at Transfigurations that morning, most of the class was waiting in the hall for the fifth year class before them to finish. Rosemary spotted Faye easily in the small crowd and watched as she chatted amicably with Markus, Adam, and Becca.

Rose leaned back against the wall and waited for Warren to show up, painfully self-conscious and fully aware that she probably looked like a complete outcast to her classmates. She was so sick of feeling that she no longer belonged anywhere. But what was she waiting for? Clearly, it wasn't getting any better on its own.

With a sudden wave of courage, she strode over to the circle of her oldest friends and tapped Faye on the shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

There was an odd look on Faye's face as she turned around as well as a bit of uncomfortable eye contact that Rosemary caught between she and Adam.

Just then the classroom door opened and the fifth years began pouring out. "It looks like we're just about to go in. Maybe another time?" She tossed Rose a fake smile.

"O-kay," Rose said with sassy impatience. "Later today?"

Faye picked up her schoolbag and put it over her shoulder. "Sorry, I'm busy." Her voice was ice.

She and the others walked past Rosemary and into the classroom without another word. Rose could feel the heat rising to her face in anger and suddenly all she wanted to do was grab Faye by the shoulders, spin her around, and yell in her face to stop being such a bitch. Thankfully, she refrained. It was a small but notable victory.

Faye's standoffish response played over and over in Rosemary's head as she took a seat in the middle of the class and waited for the rest of the Ravenclaws and Slytherins to trickle in. She found herself wanting to cry, but there was absolutely no way that she would allow herself to do so in front of everyone else…that was the last thing she needed.

Warren and a few of his close mates came in at the last minute and filled in the chairs around her, while Professor Gunnilda Dumbledore cleared her throat to quiet the classroom. "Good morning, class."

"Good morning," they repeated back to her, half-groggily.

"Before we move on to discuss your assigned readings from this past weekend, I'm pleased to inform you that those sent to the infirmary on Saturday night have made a full recovery."

Rosemary let out a small sigh of relief at the news, feeling at least a bit of guilt lift from her shoulders. Apparently, sales of ECB were skyrocketing among Hogwarts students – it was the latest and greatest drug that they all wanted to get their hands on. It had extended past the Slytherins and on to the Hufflepuffs…now there were even some Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students using it. While Rosemary wasn't one to disapprove of a bit of partying here and there, it appeared that the drug had a barrage of nasty side effects if taken in excess. Several students the over past couple of weekends had discovered this the hard way. Some of the symptoms were mild, though potentially quite embarrassing nonetheless – a few cases involved the involuntary spewing of exceptionally crude insults at everyone they came into contact with, which had been quite a surprise to a few professors. Others were apparently quite painful and a number of students were found screaming, insisting that their heads had caught fire.

With all this going on, she couldn't help but wonder: could she have prevented all of these admissions by taking Jasper up on his offer? It had weighed heavily on her, particularly because of her unyielding desire to be a Healer. As Head Girl, how could she just stand by and let her students get hurt?

Of course, she also knew she should report Markus – but she couldn't. Not when she was in such a rocky place with all of her friends already; what hope of reconciliation would there be if she turned him in? Besides, wasn't Jasper right? Wouldn't the students who wanted the drug just find a way to make it themselves? A way that might be even more dangerous?

While it was a relief to hear that this round of students had recovered, she knew it would only be a matter of time until there were further admissions. The decision to stay out of things or get involved was overwhelmingly conflicting.

She was distracted from her thoughts as she saw her Premium Mind-Reading Quill rise and begin writing at the top of her notebook page. Rosemary frowned at it, suspecting that she must have bought another defective one from Scribbulus in Diagon Alley. Her last one had been a bit too in tune with her thoughts as well, and had taken the habit of copying down thoughts far too intimate for parchment without her command. It was just her luck to get two with the same exact problem in a row. Then again, she supposed she did remember hearing her father say that their quality had slipped quite a bit over the past few years…

Or perhaps she had been mistaken – her parchment read:

My dormitory. 6 p.m.

- F

When Rosemary finally knocked on the door to Faye's dormitory that evening, she was somewhat apprehensive of the prospect that Emily or Loretta might be inside, as she hadn't spoken to either of them since Emily's outburst regarding Rosemary's relationship with Warren earlier that year.

Thankfully, she was spared of this potentially awkward encounter; they were nowhere to be seen as Faye opened the door and stepped aside to let Rose in. Faye sat on her bed and Rosemary sat on the nearby windowsill – the same one that had been the venue for countless hours of heart-to-hearts, gossip, and spilled secrets between them over the years. It all seemed so long ago.

"So, what would you like to talk about?" Faye asked coolly, as though nothing at all had been off between them over the last several weeks.

There was no reason to beat around the bush; Rosemary was absolutely sick of the way things had been: "You've been acting distant toward me – you all have. I don't know what I did or why you're mad at me, but ever since I ended things with Tom it's like none of you want anything to do with me whatsoever." She felt herself growing a tad hysterical. "I mean, what the fucking hell happened, Faye? We've been friends for years and you just turn on me for no particular reason? Without any sort of attempt at an explanation?"

Faye suddenly looked very sad and her eyes dropped from Rose's face to the floor. "It's for your own good, Rose. I didn't want to be standoffish, but I was hoping you'd take the hint…"

"My own good? Don't you realize how fucking miserable I've been? Warren is the only person I even interact with on a normal basis at this point."

"You really don't know him at all, do you?"

"Warren?"

She shook her head. "Tom."

"What about him?" Rose was suddenly getting a very bad feeling about things; something told her that she was not going to like whatever Faye was going to tell her...

"Let's just say that I think it is extremely fortunate that he doesn't know you talked to Markus before ending things. For Markus' sake."

"Was he that angry afterward?" Rosemary knew he was furious at the time when she first told him, but by the time she saw him next he showed no evidence of ever having a history with her.

"I can only imagine," Faye snorted and crossed her arms. "It was made quite apparent to me that anyone that could even potentially come between the two of you was someone that needed to be, well, silenced."

It took Rosemary a bit to process these words, but when she finally did, everything began to click. Was this why there had been such a sudden, seemingly random shift in Faye's approval toward her relationship with Tom (and him, in general)? She crossed the room and sat next to Faye on her bed. "Faye…did he threaten you?"

She was quiet for a long time, during which Rosemary's stomach dropped repeatedly as she knew that the blonde witch's silence could only mean that she had guessed correctly. Then: "Well, not me, technically…But perhaps Adam if I didn't stay out of his way and keep my nose out of things."

"What?" Rosemary felt dizzy. "When did this happen?!"

"Quite a while ago…At the end of last year, around the time your parents found out that he was a half blood. I suppose he saw me as a threat, like maybe I was trying to talk you out of being with him or something."

Up until this moment, she had thought that the shift in Tom's demeanor was relatively recent and primarily due to his jealousy over Rose's involving Warren, not to mention the constant stress of her parents potentially discovering it. But no – now she knew that he had been this way for quite some time…months prior. And she had been completely blind to it. Who else had he threatened to ensure that he got his way when it came to her? It was far too terrifying to even speculate.

She might have felt like crying if she wasn't so busy being completely stunned. "Is he completely mad?"

Faye gave her a resigned, blank look. "Maybe. All I know is that he really loved you." Rosemary shook her head in disbelief. "Anyway, I don't know if you've noticed, but he's gotten far more intense these past few weeks. So, as awful as it is, we have to stay away from you, Rosie. He basically owns Slytherin house and anyone would be an idiot to cross him…"

The picture of her friends' sudden departure was quickly falling into place. "I know he's been behind all the anti-mudblood efforts," Rose said. "You are all part of that, aren't you?" She had been suspicious of this from the beginning, considering that Markus and Adam were two of his closest housemates.

Faye looked at her, eyes wide and completely dumbfounded: "You know he's leading it? How?"

Rosemary shrugged. "It was a hunch. He's probably the most blood elitist person I've ever met…although not many people outside of Slytherin know that of course. Especially not the staff."

"It's all a bit ironic if you ask me," Faye sighed. "Although, as we've discussed before, he's basically pureblood…plus, Adam and Markus revere him completely and I'm certainly not looking to get in the way of anything." Then her expression turned increasingly serious and she placed a hand on Rose's shoulder. "More importantly, you need to make sure you're not getting in the way of anything. We've been so distant not only to protect ourselves, but also to keep Tom from suspecting that you know about his involvement. Which you do, so now we'll have to be even more careful."

Rosemary attempted to sound casual and unfazed: "I doubt that he would actually do anything if he knew that I knew."

Faye raised an eyebrow at her. "Considering the fact that you're Head Girl and you technically have an obligation to inform the faculty about what he's doing, I find that highly unlikely. He has absolutely no reason to trust you. I have to believe you've thought this through, Rose. Otherwise, I'm sure you would have reported him already."

She was right – Rosemary had thought it through and her– apparently quite justified– fear of him and lack of any sort of actual evidence regarding his involvement had sufficiently deterred her. Even so, it obviously had not occurred to her that her friends might feel threatened by him as well and, regardless of all the things she had learned about him as of late, it had still come as a shock.

As much as she missed spending time with her friends, she couldn't exactly expect them to put themselves in potential danger just to speak to her. After all, wasn't it her fault that he had gone a bit off the rails to begin with? Surely he wouldn't be spending so much time and energy with these anti-muggle efforts if they were still together. She had brought all of this on herself and she would have to pay the price as a result.

"Hopefully this is a short-lived situation," Faye said. "I'm sure things will improve when he fully moves on from you. In fact, this might not be as far off as you think – he's been far less high strung lately and, dare I say, rather fun?"

That was something Rosemary had never expected to come out of Faye's mouth, as the entire reason that she didn't like Tom to begin with was that he rarely let loose or participated in their past shenanigans.

Faye smirked at Rosemary's look of pure surprise. "It was certainly unexpected when he suddenly began attending our parties just a couple of weeks ago. We've had a few since then – which have been quite something, I might add – and he's been at every single one…

By 'quite something', she was sure that Faye was referring to ECB and she couldn't help but wonder if Faye knew of Markus', or worse, Jasper's involvement. Though Rosemary would never dare to ask, of course.

"…Not only that, he's also snogged a number of the Slytherin girls. There was Gwen Carrow the weekend we came back from the holiday…"

So that was where the mark came from – the mark that she absolutely did not care about. Nor did she care to hear who he was kissing, or the fact that he was at all for that matter. Whether or not he was kissing Slytherin slags was his business. Rosemary put her hand up to stop Faye from continuing. "Let's just hope that things can return to normal soon enough."

He was well on his way to building what was essentially shaping up to be an empire at Hogwarts – that much was clear. His efforts to "relate" to his future pawns by showcasing a friendly façade had actually paid off quite well and rather quickly: it seemed as though wherever he went, at least one of them was there, just waiting for him to request something of them, even trivial things that he could just as easily do himself.

It was as though they thought some of his charm or girl-wooing abilities would simply rub off on them the more time they spent with him. Tom supposed he didn't mind their presence – the fact that they were following his orders was the only thing he actually cared about.

Even better, a select few had impressed him by warming up quickly to his eventual plans involving Grindelwald. These had become his most trusted Knights, his emerging inner circle: Lestrange, Rosier, Malfoy, Dolohov, and Mulciber. Avery would have made the cut as well, if he had not been so preoccupied in his attempts to get everyone at Hogwarts high. His close friendship with Horton certainly didn't help matters, either.

"Here are all the papers from 1920-1925…" Mulciber set down the tall stack of newspapers in front of Tom.

Rosier followed close behind him. "And here is the next five years' worth."

Tom nodded at them without glancing up from his April, 1936 monthly edition of The Daily Prophet.

"Should we start in on the next decade back?" Rosier asked.

He pretended he didn't hear the slight trace of apprehension in Eric's voice as he nodded again, folding up the paper and setting it aside before picking up the next in the pile. It was then that Tom felt Malfoy's eyes on him.

"Is there a problem?" he looked to his left at Abraxas, who was sitting beside him at the large, round table amongst the stacks and stacks of newspapers

"No," he said quickly. Then, hesitantly: "Sorry, I'm just wondering…what does MAGI have to do with Grindelwald?" Thankfully, Tom had booked an eavesdrop-proof study room for that evening's very task so there was no need for them to worry about speaking freely.

As he considered how he might respond to Malfoy's question, Tom supposed he could afford to be generous enough to expend a shred of patience, considering Malfoy had been helping him search through the papers for hours already – and they still had quite a ways to go. "It's a bit of a theory I have," Tom lied. "I'll explain later." In reality, it was just the first excuse that he had come up with to get them to help him in his search for any trace of a connection between MAGI and Beaumont or Dumbledore.

Fortunately, the answer seemed to suffice and Malfoy turned back to his reading.

Over the past two or three hours (or four? – he had been reading so long he really had no concept of time any longer), Tom had learned a considerable amount about MAGI: certainly enough for it to be baffling to him that he hadn't heard of it until quite recently. As over half the articles he had found were praises of the company's generous philosophy evidenced by donation after donation to various organizations, he was certain that it was one of the wealthiest (if not the single most wealthy) companies in Britain.

"Riddle, isn't this your Tournament sponsor?" Malfoy turned the newspaper toward him.

Raoul Beaumont, Head of Regulatory Affairs and Product Safety at MAGI, Resigns Citing Health Reasons

Tom's eyes lit up as he took the page from Malfoy's hands and studied it carefully. "Why yes, Abraxas. Yes it is."

The article itself contained very little of significance, but the title alone at least gave him a place to go from. Apparently, Raoul had actually worked for MAGI at some point. And he left for 'health reasons'?

Did Raoul have some sort of awful disease? Was that his secret? No. It wouldn't make any sense…what would that have to do with Dumbledore?

Despite the lack of any truly telling information in the headline, it certainly gave him renewed zeal for the search. He copied down the headline on a piece of parchment and set the folded paper aside. "Malfoy?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't you send for one of the kitchen elves to bring us up some dinner? By the looks of it, we have at least a few hours ahead of us."

Rosemary was glad that she had answers, not that it truly changed anything at all. She was still alone – well, mostly at least. She supposed she had Warren and her parents. And her friends…in spirit?

She began to undress in front of her bedroom mirror and suddenly the mental image of Tom snogging Gwen Carrow was plastered on the back of her mind. Before she knew it, there were all sorts of uncontrollable, ridiculous thoughts flying through her head:

Who else has he snogged? Did he enjoy kissing them more than kissing me?

Rosemary examined her profile in the mirror, first from the front and then from the side. Her waist could be considered rather svelte, but it could be thinner. Her hips and legs formed a shapely curve, but her thighs could be smaller. Her breasts were sizable, but they could be bigger. And then she thought of all the Slytherin girls that she knew lusted after him (which, of course, was essentially all of them) and how pretty they all were – and that wasn't even including their stick-thin, model-like figures. She frowned slightly at herself and hurriedly slipped on her nightgown, turning away from the mirror and reaching for the bottle of gin in her trunk. She drank and lost herself to her thoughts, while an unmistakable, disturbing feeling of jealousy crept up inside her. For a moment, everything that she had learned about him in the past couple of months was all but forgotten and only one question burned in her mind:

Had she made an awful, terrible mistake?

But then (thankfully) she realized that this Tom was far removed from the one she had fallen in love with – or at least thought she had fallen in love with. If the version of him she had loved was kissing other girls, it would have destroyed her. But this simply wasn't the case; judging from Faye's confession earlier that evening, the Tom that Rosemary loved had probably never even existed. She was thankful for this realization in a way, as it would give her strength and certainly give her even more of a reason to steer clear of him. But it was also completely devastating in and of itself: not only had she essentially gotten alienated from her entire friend group – it was all for absolutely nothing, as well. She couldn't even look back and appreciate the memories she had with him because they were clearly all a lie. How could she believe he ever loved her if he was going around threatening her friends behind her back?

Even worse, now through her own fear of him, she was essentially under his complete control and would undoubtedly continue to stay as far out of his way as possible until they finally graduated Hogwarts.

And still, regardless of this flood of sobering realization, she was still completely shaken by the thought of him kissing Gwen Carrow.

Rosemary took another shot straight from the bottle and flopped onto her bed, smashing her face against her pillow in frustration, deciding that she had a very long five months ahead of her. All she wanted was one thing she could do to distract herself from thinking of her barely-friends and Tom. One way to escape.

Well, she supposed there was one thing she could do. It was crazy…but, really, what did she have to lose at this point?

Quite a bit…your Head Girl position, for one.

The other side of her mind argued back: If I got caught. It's not as though I was ever truly been a model student to begin with…I'm used to getting away with this sort of thing.

Why not something more constructive?

Potentially preventing more students from getting injured seems quite constructive…

Before she allowed the opposing side of her mind to come up with another counterargument, she raced to her desk and scribbled on a piece of parchment:

Jasper,

I'll fine-tune it – you brew it.

- R.H.

He glanced up from the June, 1929 newspaper and raised an eyebrow at Rosier and Mulciber, who suddenly walked through the door of the study room with Eileen Prince and Sylvia Goyle, the boys looking half-amused while the girls seemed entirely alarmed.

Tom eyed the boys expectantly – they had better have a damn good excuse for bringing non-Knights around while working on strictly Knight-related business. Plus, they had distracted him from his search.

"Apparently there's a new ghost in the castle," Rosier told him with a shit-eating grin. "They just saw her upstairs." He nodded his head in the direction of Prince and Goyle.

"Her?" Malfoy asked.

"That mudblood that died two years ago…what was her name?"

"It started with an 'm', didn't it? Mary? Marge?"

"Myrtle," Tom breathed as his mouth bent into a scowl.

He supposed he was overdue for an onslaught of bad luck after things had been going so well the past couple of weeks. It just figured, given the improvement his Knights and his recent strides in uncovering Beaumont's secrets. Of course the only potential witness to his connection with the Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk, and her death suddenly reappeared out of seemingly nowhere. And why now?

That didn't matter, he decided. All that truly mattered was that she had either had lost part of her memory through death or hadn't actually known his secrets to begin with. If she did, it would mean very, very bad news for Tom – after all, he couldn't exactly just off her again.

"We're all of us haunted and haunting." ― Chuck Palahniuk

Guess what?! Finals are in less than two weeks. :D You really have no idea how excited I am for this stupid quarter to finish. Annddddd you'll be pleased to know that I'll be devoting much of my Christmas Break to TDLR!

A few notes:

1. Tom's part was short this time, but I'll switch it up again next chapter. The impression I've gotten is that many of you don't really like the chapters that stick to only one POV, which I totally understand! Please let me know if you like this setup better (even if it means one character has a shorter part), or if I should just go ahead and do single POV chapters. Either way, I'll continue doing my best at keeping it balanced between Tom and Rose overall. Also, please let me know what you thought of the fact that I switched POVs a few times this chapter. Does it get annoying, or is it a nice shift?

2. For those of you wondering why Myrtle didn't appear at Hogwarts until now, there will be an explanation a couple of chapters from this one!

Thank you to Queentakesjack, Oksanallex, and x2leoj for your reviews!(:

Just a reminder that the more reviews I get for a chapter, the more motivation I have to keep working on the next one and the less likely I'll be to put it at a low priority on my to-do list. Just something to keep in mind.(;