For the Greater Good || Tom Riddle ||

Chapter Twelve: The Girl's Lavatory

The day passed.

Gwen peered through the lens of her telescope in wonder. The stars hung like tiny crystals in the sky, spelling out secret messages from millions of miles away. She admired the sheer beauty of the vast galaxy which seemed so undisturbed, suspended in the inky blackness of space.

At that moment, Gwen thought nothing could ever change the universe. It was ancient and constant and peaceful. How was it that something so ethereal could be the mother of something so chaotic? Earth was a place of destruction and disorder.

The entire globe was fighting against each other. The Second Muggle War was tearing the world limb from limb. Nearly every continent was covered in blood. Soldiers waited to shoot off the enemy's head when he peeked around the corner. An iron curtain was being drawn. People were dying, and the grave diggers were running out of dirt.

Even at Durmstrang, military planes flew overhead on a daily basis. While the institute was established in an extremely secluded location, it was still necessary to place enchantments around the grounds to disguise the school from curious muggles. But as the war tolled on, professors had to fortify the charms. Barriers were put in place to protect the building from bombings. Bedazzling hexes were performed every hour to ensure that the institute was invisible to the non-magical eye.

For the first time, Gwen had felt the effects of a completely muggle-born issue.

That is, until Jane was petrified.

A sudden cold gust of wind wrapped itself around Gwen's body. She pulled her robes to tightly cover her shivering frame, and her fingers brushed against an unfamiliar piece of metal.

Professor Hollingshead had given her a Prefect badge during dinner in the Great Hall. Now, it was pinned to Gwen's chest along with a heavy sense of guilt. While she knew that she was not above taking Jane's place to further her task, Gwen did not care for the uneasy feeling that sat on her heart for becoming the temporary Ravenclaw Prefect.

It felt wrong. Jane did not voluntarily give up her position as a prefect. It meant so much to her. However, Simon supported the decision to have Gwen fill her role until Jane was cured by the Mandrake Restoration Draught. He was her closest friend, after all. Wouldn't he know what Jane would have wanted?

Gwen felt her lip twitch.

She wouldn't have wanted to be petrified in the first place...

Across the Astronomy Tower, Professor Fancourt's mystic voice spoke of old myths that she loved to tell aloud as if they were fact. The plump woman absolutely adored astrology, almost more so than the academic side of staring at the stars. She raved on and on for the majority of class.

Finally, as the midnight lesson came to an end, she assigned a two page essay on the relationship between zodiac signs and wand cores. If one had to weigh having an assignment to do after class or listening to the lady dramatically retell the story behind Scorpio on the scales of justice, homework was the lesser of the two evils.

Especially since Gwen's thoughts automatically drifted toward Slytherin seventh years, Walburga and Lucretia Black when Professor Fancourt got to the part about how a goddess had sent a scorpion to sting the mighty hunter Orion, in order to punish him for being too boastful.

Fitting that Lucretia's brother would be named after a character that was killed for being too prideful... Lucretia isn't very humble herself.

It was even more ironic that Walburga was engaged to him.

Gwen made her way to exit the Astronomy Tower. It was now one o'clock in the morning, and she was to begin her first round of prefect duties. Just as she was about to step down into the stairway, a fleeing line of spiders obstructed her path.