For the Greater Good || Tom Riddle ||

Chapter Thirty-One: Darkness Unveiled

Gwen sat atop her bed and stared down at the small piece of paper she clutched between her shaking fingertips. It was happening. She realized at that moment she was doomed. Grindelwald's army was approaching from across the sea, and she was not ready in the slightest. She was supposed to be a soldier for the Greater Good, yet she was nothing but a sorry excuse for a granddaughter.

"No," Gwen whispered like a plea to the night. "No, no, no!" she repeated frantically, underneath her breath as her gaze raced to the window.

The night greeted her in all its temperate coolness. A thin layer of frost covered the grounds. Gwen stared out over the expanse of land.

"I need more time," she breathed.

She wanted to lunge at the dusty brown Barn Owl who delivered the letter; she wanted to shove the piece of paper into its talons and make it fly off into the unknown, forever tied to wander the wild realms of the wilderness without any human contact.

Gwen rashly crumpled the note and threw it with all her might against the glass pane. Her chest heaved up and down with panic. Still, the other girls did not awaken from their slumbers.

She sat on her bed for a long time, staring at the velvet hat box that she had dug up from underneath her bedframe in an effort to gain a grasp on how she was going to approach Dumbledore. Hours seemed to pass by as she sat idly in silence; she was numb on the inside yet her mind moved a million miles per minute. She did not feel the weight of her eyelids becoming heavy. She did not feel the lull of sleep pulling at her bones. She only felt the burning pressure of her task.

A task that seemed so unreachable.

Gwen did not fall asleep that night. She stared up at the ceiling, unmoving as a corpse, as fear and humiliation began to eat away at her and occupy all of her thoughts. She reckoned she was a pathetic, sputtering flame of what once could have been the spark that could have ignited the entire world. Instead, she had been extinguished as soon she started to spread the light.

The darkness soon enveloped the Ravenclaw Tower. No moon hung in the sky. The wind howled against her window and the silence that surrounded the outside world could only indicate one thing—snowfall.

***

It was an eternity before the sun peeked above the horizon. The soft hue of lavender told Gwen that it was finally morning. She stiffly sat up and was immediately hit by a wave of exhaustion. Small excited whispers met her ears as she shakily rose to stand.

Across the room, the other girls had already awoken and paid no mind to Gwen as they busied themselves with a small basket full of hair ribbons that Ruth's parents had sent her as an early Christmas gift. Gwen watched with weary eyes as Jane bashfully took a beautiful maroon bow.

"Thank you, Ruth. It's lovely," the dark haired girl smiled.

"My pleasure, Jane. It's always nice to have pretty things. I'm sure that with everything going on that it's been hard for you. Not to mention the fact that you were basically a statue for about a fourth of the school year!" Ruth said, obviously trying to do her best to say "You're welcome" but failing miserably.

Jane smiled tightly and let out a short laugh. Ruth's comment about the disadvantages of being a Jew at the moment were not taken in stride. Even timid Loucille noticed the discomfort of the situation.

Suddenly, Camila looked up and locked gazes with Gwen in an awkward exchange. Ever since the incident with the Ashwinder, the red haired girl and her muggle-born friend had done their best to avoid chance run-ins with the Parselmouth.