For the Greater Good || Tom Riddle ||

Chapter Nineteen: Cat's Tongue

"Gwen, you want a bite?"

Jane extended what looked to be a glorious croissant stuffed with apricot filling and dusted with crunchy sugar clusters on top in Gwen's direction. Even though Gwen was tired from the night before, she could recognize a sweet she would like in a blink of an eye. Graciously, she tore off a piece and popped it in her mouth.

"Thanks!" she said, not regretting her choice one bit as the sweetness of the apricot met her tongue.

Jane smiled. They had been on much better terms since the Valentine's Day ball. Gwen could understand that she had been under a lot of stress. While she wasn't exactly forgetting the things Jane had said to her, she did forgive her. It was best to live life that way.

Next to Jane, Simon was steering spoonfuls of beans into his mouth. Some plunked to his plate before making it to his mouth. Benedict sat to his right, stealing lamenting peeks at Yasmin, who had now decided to sit next to Camila, Ruth, Loucille, and Esmerelda in the mornings.

Gwen had to admit, Benedict was stupid to break up with her. She was easily one of the prettiest girls in the year with her thick black eyelashes, caramel skin, and midnight black hair. It seemed that the Hufflepuff boy, Marshall Von Bargen, had taken genuine interest in her, often waiting outside the Alchemy classroom to walk her to the library to "study".

"You should just go talk to her," Jane urged in her bossy manner as she evaluated Benedict's desperate staring.

Benedict shook his head, quickly turning away and taking a bite out of an apple. "No way. She's moved on."

Jane stuck her neck out, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised. "Well, of course, you broke up with her. What do you expect? Women aren't just going to sit around and mope forever!"

Simon took a slurping sip of his coffee. It looked like he was down with his breakfast beans. "Once, I was reading a muggle tabloid, and they said girls feel breakups more harshly in the beginning than men, but after a while, women move passed it as boys begin to really start to feel lousy."

Benedict glared at him, but Simon merely tipped his coffee mug in his direction.

"That's definitely what's happening to you, mate."

Benedict looked desperate for a conversation change. He bitterly bit his apple and swallowed. "So, Gwen, I heard you went on a date with McKinnon. That was unexpected. How'd it go?"

Gwen froze for split second as she was reaching for her tea, but recovered quickly. She raised it up to her lips and took a sip before replying.

"It went well. I had to leave early to finish a Midnight Astronomy paper before it was due," she lied.

She definitely could not say that she had left him to spend time with Tom. Or that they had kissed. She was just beginning to rectify her friendship with Jane.

The dark-haired girl's eyes narrowed slightly in disbelief. "You're sure that you didn't leave early just because it was going horribly? McKinnon doesn't really seem like your type."

The two girls had never really talked about boys, it just wasn't the dynamic of their relationship, but Jane was perceptive. Gwen turned her head to look at the Gryffindor table and scouted out Archie. His orange hair was a dead giveaway and she watched as he laughed and elbowed his friends from the Quidditch team.

He was a completely different kind of charismatic than Tom. Archie McKinnon was a golden boy, the type that was more of a childhood crush than anything. He was nice, funny, and had a big heart. Maybe in an alternate dimension, if Gwen had grown up with a normal life, she might have considered him more seriously.