Rosie ⎮ Tom Riddle

Seventeen

Abandonment (The fear of)

As it turned out, Tom was completely wrong about any assumption Lily's confession had given him. He thought that Rosalie being Gellert Grindelwalds daughter made it different; worse. But no, somehow it made it better.

As the effects of the Veritaserum wore off, Tom's gaze burned with intensity as he posed a direct question to Rosalie.

"Do you still want to kill me?" His voice carried an edge of challenge.

Rosalie shook her head, feeling the lingering effects of the immobilisation spell gradually fading. She reached out, clasping Tom's hand tightly as if her very existence depended on it.

"Not in the slightest," she affirmed, her gaze fixed on him with a hint of longing she hadn't allowed herself to acknowledge before. There was a shift within her after revealing the truth, something intangible yet profound, which had altered her need to get closer to him.

Tom's eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. "Why?" he pressed, his curiosity piqued.

Tom's response caught Rosalie off guard.

"By all accounts, you should still hate me. I embody everything you despise. You understand my ambitions, my methods." He pressed at her.

Rosalie swallowed, looking deep into his eyes, allowing herself to admire his face, and admire the good she hoped to find in him, because she had seen it before.

"I suppose I'm holding onto the hope that I can help make a brighter path for the choices you make," she confessed.

Tom's mouth widened and he shook his head, suppressing a laugh as he pushed his tongue to the bottom of his mouth.

"Making a brighter path?" He asked her to reiterate, though he saw on her growing lively face that she was completely serious.

Rosalie offered him a soft smile, her thoughts drifting to the moments when she had witnessed Tom's humanity, glimpses of goodness that contradicted his role as the leader of Death Eaters. Despite knowing Tom's resistance to change, she felt a compelling desire to influence him for the better.

Despite her lingering feelings for him, Rosalie was determined to carve her own path, guided by her own decisions rather than those of her fathers. Tom was what she was given, and she was sick of denying it.

"Rosie, I hope you know what comes with you saying this." He grabbed ahold of Rosie's other hand, and gave it the same attention. His eyes were careful not to leave hers. His heart bet faster than he had ever felt it, and flickers of his own future desires rushed through his head.

Alone, they were a force to be reckoned with, but together...

Together they could burn the world and rebuild it as their own.

Tom caught his breath and leant up to cup Rosie's face in his hand.

"You're saying that you want me, truthfully. You would follow me to the end. You would never once leave my side no matter what. You would be mine, not anyone else's, not your fathers." Tom swallowed.

"You know I don't deal with betrayal." He finally finished.

Rosalie covered his entire face with her gaze, leaning into his touch, she placed her own hand on the back of his neck.

"Tommy, I bent my greatest moral for you. Out of two greater evils I will choose you over my father any day. I would rather end my own life than have it another way." She spoke the words slowly and with purpose.