Eleven

Falsehood

  "Rose, there's a letter on the table for you, I picked it up from the owlery this morning with my stuff." 

  Rosalie looked up from her pile of books from the sofa, first looking at Lily with a look of surprise then to the table in front of her, which did indeed have an envelope with her name on it. Before letting go of her things she scanned the letter over, almost immediately recognising the handwriting.

  Lily was fixing her hair in the mirror by the fireplace, curling plaits through her hair effortlessly. Rose took one more look at her to make sure she was fully occupied before pushing her schoolwork to the side and leaning over to grab the letter.

  The seal wax of a 'G' on the front of the letter confirmed Rosalie's suspicions. She held the letter in hand, tapping it against her fingers with thoughts flying across her mind.

  What did her father want? 

  She knew what her father wanted.

  He wanted an answer, he wanted his daughter to come home. He probably never even intended Rosalie to stay so long, the task was simple, not complicated.

  Find out if Tom Riddle was a threat; he was.

  But if she told him that she'd be told to kill him and be brought straight home to live under her father's conditions, to be groomed to become just like him. It was not the cards she wanted, but the cards she was given. 

  A few nights past, Rosalie had resolved to rid herself of Tom Riddle, not as a mere pawn in her father's twisted game, but the answer to her own freedom. The puzzle of it all was still incomplete, yet she sensed that Tom Riddle was the key to something profoundly important. As her gaze fixed upon the fireplace where Lily stood, Rosalie swiftly directed and released the envelope into the flames. Mesmerised, she observed as the paper charred.

  "Why'd you do that?" Lily looked down with a perplexed composure, her eyebrow raised.

  "It was just junk."

---

  "How about this one?" Rosalie came out of the changing room in a short white dress, frilly and pretty with blue colours splashing against the canvas of the material. 

  Lily, however, didn't like the look of it. She shook her head on the stool that she sat, waving her hand at Rose. 

  "No, doesn't work. It makes you look washed out." 

  Rosalie emitted a groan, tilting her head back in annoyance. The rejection of the fourth dress by Lily seemed to be pushing the limits of her tolerance, Rosalie was sure her head would soon explode from sheer boredom.

  She walked back into the changing room, reaching for the final, dark green dress that Rose had picked out herself by the darkness of the colour. Rosalie took it off the handle, first pressing it to her body to get a glimpse of what it would look like.

  "I hate him, I can't even hold it in anymore Lily." Rose exploded, dropping the dress onto the chair beside her. She spoke to her friend through the curtain, her head exploding with thoughts of Tom that she had desperately been trying to repress.

  "Yes well, you talk about hating him every few minutes, Rose." Lily yelled from outside the dressing room, hearing the flick of a magazine follow her words. Her boredom of the topic wasn't a comfort to Rose.

  "He's insane. Terrifically insane." Her voice broke into something higher as she began taking off her clothes, begging for something else to take up the occupation in her mind.

  "And how is this time different?" Lily asked, still uninterested.

  Rosalie thought about it for a moment, feeling the desperate need to blab everything do her dear friend. Her anger and tiredness from the long day of shopping got to her rather quickly, and her mouth opened like a collapsing dam.

  "I made it to the inner circle. Half the things that go on in there- I can't even think to speak about." 

  Rose heard Lily's magazine close rather quickly.

  "And why in the world would you join such a thing? It hurts me enough knowing William's stuck in that mess! I can only guess they're plotting some way to get rid of all muggle and half borns from the school." 

  Rose began taking the last dress off, getting herself prepared to try on the dress lay messily half off the chair.

  "It's even worse than that." Rosalie sighed, staring to the floor as the fabric dropped to the floor.

  "How? What do you even talk about in there? You only joined because you were curious right?" Lily's voice was gaining on fanatic, Rose could only imagine the look of worry that was sure to be settling on her brow.

  Rosalie shook her head, as if her friend could see for herself. "Of course, you know about my healthy desire to be aware of things, but I don't even know what to do with the information I now know."

  The magazine from outside was put harshly to the floor.

  "What information? What are they doing?" Lily called out desperately. Rose slid the new dress up her body, the shine of the fabric taking her out of her little trance.

  "I can't tell you, but just know it's depraved."

  Silence fell upon the two of them. Lily, who had quickly gotten up from her chair at all the excitement of the conversation, once again sat down, slouching herself against the wood with an assessing face of disappointment. Rose bit her bottom lip, to her own experiences, she knew what it was like to be left out of knowing things.

  "I'm sorry Lily, I would tell you if I could, but I just can't. I do hate it, because I think right now you're the only person in the world that I do trust." Rosalie spoke again, a sensible amount of kindness passing through her words. She looked through the fabric of the changing room to where she imagined Lily to be sitting.

  "It's alright Rose, really."

  Rosalie felt her heart sink a little further.

  "I can't do what Tom wants. It would be devastating for the war effort- for my father." Rose managed to choke out the last words, not because it was a lie, but because it was the truth. Even though she didn't like the man, she couldn't be the one responsible for his death.

  He was still her father.

  When it came down to it, Rosalie would never be able to do something to hurt him.

  Lily slumped her shoulders, letting out a short and cold breath. "I'm sorry, it must be hard with him away, fighting Grindelwald. He's a brave man, Rose, really."

  Rosalie felt her bottom jaw quiver, she closed her eyes then looked to the ceiling. The hardest part about lying was lying to the one you trusted the most. 

  Even after a few moments she couldn't put together any words to respond with, so, instead, she zipped up the back of the dress and stepped out from behind the curtain, putting on a brave smile for her friend. 

  Lily looked her up and down, her mouth initially fell open at one look at Rose's body. She closed it quickly, swallowing.

  "Wow." She chuckled, meeting back with Rose's eyes. 

  "Now that's the dress." 

  Lily walked around her friend, admiring the fabric. 

  "If you go to a Slug Club party again with Riddle, wear that, it'll shut him up in a millisecond."

  Rosalie scoffed, not believing a word of the compliment.

  "You'll also have to defeat the 300 jealous girls who are in love with him, because he'll be drooling at your feet all night long." Lily snickered.

  Rosalie tilted her head at her friend, sick of her spewed words.

  "Please, I would rather throw myself from the astronomy tower than let that happen."

  Rose gripped at the fabric around her, feeling like it was too tight, too much to let anyone see. Though her friends raving review of it gave her some confidence. Against her pale skin, the colour balanced out all impurities, it made her glow in a way she had never seen.

  "Are you sure?" Lily started, a sarcastic, cheeky tone hiding behind her words. "He may be insane, but he is, I'll admit, rather good looking."

  "And what does that have to do with anything?" Rosalie snapped back quickly, keeping her eye on Lily as she walked back to her seat.

  "Are you sure you hate him? I mean with the amount you talk about him it sounds like his snide remarks don't make you mad but instead make your panties we-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Lillian Rowle."

  Rosalie and Lily kept their eyes linked in a battle for vital information, information that Lily suspected and Rosalie denied with every shard of her soul.

  Lily folded first, looking over her shoulder at the woman behind the counter.

  "We'll take this one, thanks."

---

  As the sun slowly faded behind the mountains, the light of the moon became the most prominent thing in the sky. Rosalie found herself, once again, in the black lake.

  Submerged in the water, Rosalie's mind drifted towards ideas that were as black as the water she swam in. Her hair lifted towards the surface, bubbles left her mouth slowly, but she remained under as possibilities swam through her head.

  "Bring the prisoners in, I want to speak with them one by one." She spoke from the end of an ominously long metal table. Her hair was slicked back, her eyes slivered down so thin that none of her followers in the room could tell what she was looking at.

  The first to be brought in was a young brunette girl, shivering so quietly she looked like she might break if you even poked her. Rosalie stood to the side of the chair she sat at.

  "What is your name?" Rose asked.

  "Nancy, my lady." Her voice shivered as much as her body, Rosalie sneered at the girls weekness, taking dauntingly large steps towards her. She slowed herself before she got too close.

  "And do you know why you are here, Nancy?"  Rose tilted her head, her small steps taking her ever closer to the girl, who still refused to look Rosalie directly in the face.

  "You're here, Nancy, because you're a liability." Rosalie happily answered for her. She now stood directly in front of her, staring into eyes that couldn't bare to look back.

  The people in the room murmured, Rose only had to hold her hand out for them all to close their mouths, obedience drained off of every one of them.

  "I'm sorry-" Nancy's voice finally broke. She looked, only for a split second into Rose's face. Suddenly, Rose felt an urgent need to see the fear coming from the girls face once again.

  "Look at me, Nancy." Rosalie shook, a kind of intensity behind her gaze. 

  Nancy's gaze was weak, it didn't suit Rose.

  "Look at me." Rosalie said in such a low  and sharp tone it cut through the cold air of the room. It was then that Nancy looked at her, really looked at her.

  "You will die, Nancy, for what you have done." 

  Rosalie smiled.

  A tear dripped from Nancy's eye, the only noise in the room was the raw swallow she took, leaving the rest of the deathly silence up to Rose.

  "Avada Kedavra"

  Rosalie pulled herself from the water in an instant, her breathing quick paced and unsteady. The air itself felt dirty, she felt dirty. 

  She looked out over the black lake, swallowing, just as Nancy had before she had taken her last breaths. Concern was written all over Rosalie's face from the nightmare of a daydream. Rosalie had a healthy imagination, but nothing of this sort had ever happened to her.

  It was as if she was thinking what it would be like if she really was her father's daughter.

  After a few moments, Rosalie's breaths began to slow, finally finding her steps back into the real world once again. The serenity of the night fell back on her bare and cold shoulders. She submerged herself further into the warmth of the water, pushing her hair back out of her face.

  Was this how Tom Riddle started? A dream to take over the world? Was that really the only push he needed? She was so perplexed by him, he was a walking chess piece that she couldn't figure out how to move.

  And just as she thought it, she heard the grass rustle behind her from the shore. She flicked her head back quickly and sharply, her face exposed in the cold air in comparison to her naked body in the cold water.

  "Tom?" She said too quickly for a thought, forgetting she was meant to be calling him Riddle.

  Tom stood rather silently on the bank of the lake, one hand running through his hair, the other at his side, fist softly clenched into a ball. 

  "Rosie." He replied, looking at her entirely. His lips barely moved as his words left them.

  Rose looked around him, not even thinking about the simple fact that she was completely naked in the moment, the proof of it lay at Tom's feet, her clothes sprawled out across the very grass he stood on.

  He looked down himself, her white blouse catching his attention against the darkness of the night. Tom looked back at her, ever so slightly giving the impression that he was amused by the situation.

  "What are you doing out so late?" He asked, stepping over her pile of clothes and closer to the line of water that barely separated them. The closer he got, the more acutely aware Rosalie became at how bare she was.

  "Swimming." She said obviously, smiling slightly.

  "Is that so?" Tom played along with her, unlike his usual self.

  "Mmm, you're a real detective, Riddle." Rosalie spoke slowly, in a sultry tone that wouldn't wash out of Tom's head for days.

  He sighed, biting the inside of his own cheek. "If you call me Tom, I might consider not writing you up for being outside of castle grounds so late at night." His head tilted, he couldn't see anything under the black water that Rosie hid herself behind.

  "And if you leave right now, I might forget that you followed me out here."

  There was a pause in Rose's thoughts, and she took the chance with a full force to tease at him.

  "How much did you see? Did you even look away when I took my clothes off? I bet you didn't." Rose swayed herself in the water, looking Tom up and down with a grin.

  Tom frowned at the accusation of such a thing.

  "I can assure you I have no desire to see you-" He breathed, looking down at the grass, thinking about the idea.

  "Bare." He finished, resuming to look back at her.

  Rosalie laughed. Tom acted like a typical boy, anxious to see a woman naked. Rosalie turned away from Tom, leaving him to admire the back of her wet head.

  "You must really have no life then if you can be bothered to come all the way out here just to write me up." Rose shook herself.

  Tom walked closer to the water. "I'll have you know, I only used Appare Vestigium on a whim because I didn't see you at dinner."

  Rosalie turned around to face him again, a confused and amused look on her face. "You tracked me? You need a different hobby, Riddle, really." 

  Tom seemed to think about the words that he said next.

  "I don't trust you Rosie. Well, I do, but I don't trust myself to trust you." Tom looked at Rosalie in a colder manner than he had before, like he had just locked out a part of his heart.

  Rosalie blinked at him, at the words he had heard time and time over again. He said that he didn't trust her, but she was in a place she could only get if he did.

  "That's quite the predicament you have yourself in, then." 

  "Don't joke about it, I know you're hiding something, I just can't seem to figure out what." Tom walked closer and closer, he walked so close to the water that he could feel the water soaking through his shoes.

  Rosalie was tied of letting lies out of her mouth, it was a job she rather hated.

  "I am hiding something from you." She shrugged her shoulders, letting her collarbones into the air. Tom watched her, amazed she had admitted to it.

  "And I will continue to do so, because I can." She admitted again, unafraid for what his answer could be. She gave Tom no time to think about what she had said before she spoke again.

  "But, I will still do everything in my power to do what you want. You can't have a problem with that." 

  Rose stood up straight from where she floated in the water, her chest slowly became exposed, the water only reaching to her waist, with a determined gaze, she made eye contact with Tom, who refused to look anywhere but her eyes.

  "What are you doing." Tom tutted, huffing slightly, wondering if he dared to look away from her.

  "I'm at war with myself, Tom." The name slipped from her lips again and Tom wondered if he was dreaming as she began walking closer to him, exposing herself fully.

  "I don't know what to do." Rosalie spoke truthfully, fed up with her own constant moving web of lies. It felt nice to tell the truth, however vague and distressing for Tom to hear.

  Eventually, Rosalie got so close to Tom that he didn't have to worry about his eyes wandering somewhere they shouldn't, because when he looked down, all he could focus on was her face. Her eyelashes swept over her light blue eyes, her skin held droplets of water that threatened to tip off of her cheeks.

  Tom couldn't make out what she was trying to tell him. She was teasing him with her own knowledge that she knew something he didn't. If he looked away from her for just a minute, he felt that he would surely be stabbed in the back.

  Tom's hand wrapped around Rosalie's cheek, wiping away the droplets that were beginning to annoy him.

  Whatever form of hatred they felt for each other in that moment washed away like the soft waves of the black lake. In that moment there was only pure attraction for one another, it was magnetised, positive and negative.

  Rosalie found herself reaching for Tom's touch, his cold fingers were a form of comfort for her, his being was the only one that could understand her love for darkness, and her hesitance to dip herself into it.

  To Tom, Rosalie was the only woman he couldn't break. So fragile yet so unbreakable, it was a deadly combination that he wanted to wield. She was useful to him, and he convinced himself that that was all there was to it.

  "I'm disgusted by the way you make me feel, Rosie." Tom breathed on her face, his lips hovering above hers. His words seemed to rip her out of her own imagination, and she took a slight step back from him, trying to remember who he was.

  "I should kill you right here and now for your disrespect, for your inability to do as I say." His hand slipped off of her cheek, and he took one last long and cold stare into her soul before he couldn't bare it any longer, and turned to walk away from her.

---

  The Slytherin common room was quieter then usual, and Tom, Coriolanus, William, and Rosalie were each on their own side of a squared table, heads tucked into their studies. William looked up occasionally, tired of what he considered to be working too hard.

  Coriolanus sometimes peered across the table to look at Rose who sat opposite, she scribbled on her paper furiously, still refusing to look for a single second in both Tom and his directions. He didn't catch the occasional glances she sent to Tom when she was sure he wasn't looking, disgust written all over her face.

  Tom was the only one out of the four who never looked up from his paper even once, not even to look at his beloved Rosie. He had focused all of his attention on his potions paper, which was due in a week. He refused to let it get behind him.

  Eventually, Coriolanus grew sick of the silence.

  "William and I have decided that I'll be hosting this year," Coriolanus took a short glance around the common room to check if anyone was there to eavesdrop. On a clear sign, he continued, "my lord."

  Tom nodded his head shortly, his eyes still glued to his parchment. Rosalie finally gave Coriolanus the light of day, but not without a quick glare to an unsuspecting Tom. She was still upset about the events that had unfolded but two days ago.

  "And what exactly will you be hosting?" She enquired casually. Coriolanus looked thrilled she had even decided to look at him.

  "Every year, one of us host all of us for the winter break. You've been to mine before, I'm sure It'll feel homely." Corio replied rather happily, but Rosalie's smile faltered, not remembering if she had told Tom that she knew Coriolanus before coming to Hogwarts.

  Tom looked up slowly, and Rosalie had her answer given to her. She swallowed, cursing at Coriolanus's simpleness.

  "You've been to Coriolanus's home before, Evans?" He asked with a certain coldness she was familiar with. His knee accidentally scraped hers under the table, and she shivered from the touch.

  Neither went to move their legs away.

  "Yes," She began, her brain searching for anything to come up with an excuse. 

  "It was such a long time ago, when my father came to Britain, it was how our families met actually, it was how the- engagement first was thought of. Unknown to me, obviously." Rosalie spoke quickly.

  Tom moved his leg away finally, placing his quill back down to the table.

  "Your engagement, right, I almost forgot." Tom spoke with a slight tut, only looking at Rosalie even when he spoke to Coriolanus as well.

  "We use the time to do things that can't be done during school." Coriolanus added, to Tom's sarcastic delight, from beside him. 

  Tom sighed, clicking his jaw to voice some form of annoyance, Rosalie calculated every peculiar movement he made. She would remember every few moments how close they had gotten the other night, how he had refused to look at her body. She wasn't sure if she should feel rejected or respected.

  "Can Lily come?" 

  Tom moved to reject her question, but William happily bet him to speaking.

  "Of course." William said, nodding happily at Rosalie, who he had still been keeping his distance from till this moment. He held a reluctance about Rosalie's intentions, for a cause that he supported.

  "Just because she is your girlfriend doesn't mean that you can bring her along to these things." Tom spoke, rather annoyed at his eagerness of the situation.

  William scoffed at the irony, he glanced at Rosalie, trying not to suggest what he was thinking. Tom kept his mouth shut, choosing to ignore what he was trying to say.

  "Fine, bring her." He waved his hand away at him, sinking into the back of his chair.

  William nodded with an aura of gratitude.

  "My parents will be excited to see you, Rose." Coriolanus leant himself, cross armed, onto the table. She looked at him with reluctance, thinking over his choice of words, while trying not to read into the look of exhaustion on Tom's face.

  A sudden chill went down her spine when she finally realised what Coriolanus had said. Coriolanus's family might've been the only people privy to the knowledge that she was a Grindelwald. If they spoke, or let anything slip that she wasn't who she said she was, her whole disguise would be compromised.

  The blood pact her and Tom had was the only semblance of protection she had, but even that wasn't a defence against the manipulation of secrets, or Tom getting someone else to do his dirty work to kill her.

  Tom searched over Rosalie's features, detecting her unease in the situation. It was another crack in her character, letting him see into what she feared and what could be used against her. Coriolanus's family had something to do with it.

  This vulnerability was an insight for Tom, but against his instinct he didn't listen to it. Instead, he wondered if her fright could be because of her engagement to Coriolanus. From what he had understood, she wasn't a willing participant in the arrangement.

  Rosalie felt sick at the threat of all her lies being unfolded, how she wasn't really engaged to Coriolanus, her identity as Grindelwalds daughter, and her intention by being at Hogwarts. It was all sufficient evidence for Tom to have her blown up or worse.

  "Rosie, take a walk with me, will you?" Tom suddenly spoke, standing from his seat. Coriolanus looked hesitant at the offer Tom had given to his fiancee. 

  Rosalie searched slowly over his face and stood up without little thought, turning her back to Coriolanus the second she had the chance to. 

  "Excuse us." Tom spoke to the other two boys. Coriolanus gritted his teeth together, William noticed his friend's tense reaction to all of it, and gave a polite nod back to Tom.

  The two of them began to walk out of the room, circling round into the lower levels of the dungeon, a rather cold and depressing place to be at this time of the year. Riddle found the area cold enough to collect his thoughts.

  The pair walked in silence for a long collection of minutes, Riddle kept his hands neatly behind his back as usual, and Rosalie made a good effort to keep up with his long strides. She began to wonder when he would speak, for she certainly wouldn't be the one to start a conversation he asked to have.

  It was only when they were far enough to the centre of the castle, where no one passed, not even the caretaker, until Tom stopped in his steps. Rosalie took a moment to notice the sudden lack of movement from the man she walked with.

  She looked back at Tom, who had a sensibly charming look on his face. And she knew, that anything that would then come out of his mouth could only mean for trouble.

  "I think you should leave Coriolanus." He spoke softly, his eyebrow lifting as he spoke, the softness of his mouth remaining.

  Rosalie breathed, "Pardon?" She asked, the conversation having turned in a way she never expected.

  Tom stared at her with amazement. He wondered all at once how someone could be so smart, so clever and intelligent, yet so perfectly stupid. He wondered how his Rosie could stand there, and taunt him with such a pretty face that it would surely haunt him for the rest of his days on the planet, long as he intended them to be.

  "Leave him, for me."

  "Falsely."

   The long pause Tom took between the words kept Rose on her toes.

  Rosalie scrunched her face. "Falsely?" She asked, not catching on to what he was so sketchily suggesting.

  "Yes." Tom said simply, his body remained still. For some reason, his mind was reluctant to say more than he already had. In his mind it already made perfect sense.

  "I don't know what you're trying to say, Tom." Rosalie said after another moment, clinging on to the fair amount of distance they had between them. She was sure she wouldn't act herself if he took a step closer.

  "Must I explain everything in such meticulous detail?" He asked, getting slightly frustrated. Rosalie simply laughed at him as if he were a madman.

  "Yes." She said simply, and sharply.

  Tom looked at the spot above her to gain back his confidence. 

  "Tell your fiancé that you're leaving him for me, and Coriolanus won't dare try anything with you again. We will fake being a couple. You'll be free of some old fashioned notion of an arranged marriage to do as you please, people will stop bothering me, and I'll have more stability than I need from it."

  Rosalie coughed at the idea, her throat dried and her brain turned to mush. 

  Date him?

  Date someone who had committed such unthinkable deeds?

  It was bad enough she was born from someone just like him.

  "No?" She said simply.

  "Why would you have stability from it?" She queried understanding everything but that line he had spoken.

  Tom took a breath, thinking about the sheer power she held, and how she was so immune to seeing what she had the ability to come if she just put aside her ridiculous notions.

  "You're more powerful than you know, you're likely just as charismatic as me. You and I are quite the match. Two great people are a lot more respected and feared than one." Tom couldn't help but find himself happy at the idea, even if it was a falsehood. A girl like Rosalie at his side was more than he could ask for. 

  It was a pity she wasn't devoted to him. It would've made him even more Impenetrable.

  Tom looked back at her with a sense of reluctance, and he knew what the answer would be if she spoke now. So, he worked further to change her mind.

  "What other way out of this arrangement do you have that is so simple?" He asked.

  Rosalie found herself stuck on her tongue. She had pulled herself down into quicksand, and Tom, however horrible he was, was offering her a rope. 

  "It's for your benefit as well as mine, Rosie." His smile and words were so sweet she could almost smell it in the air, his charisma really was something to be reckoned with.

  Should she agree to Tom's scheme, it might make Coriolanus too ashamed to divulge the full extent of their situation to his parents when they were to meet again in the holidays. In all likelihood, he would simply inform them of their breakup, and given his family's judgemental personality, they would likely maintain a stony silence towards her throughout her stay.

  In other words, she would be completely left alone, hated by people she once considered the closest thing to family, but completely left alone.

  It was weak, but it was the closest thing she had to protection.

  "You have some crazy ideas sometimes Tommy." Rosalie finally spoke. 

  Tom grinned with his eyes.

  "Tommy?" He asked not sure if he was disgusted or elated.

  "You've given me a nickname, would it be entirely wrong to give my fake lover a nickname as well?"