For the Greater Good || Tom Riddle ||

Chapter Nineteen: Death

Gwen hurriedly rushed down the moving staircases of Hogwarts. It was now twilight, the shifting from daylight to night, and the sky was a luscious blend of lilac and coral. Through the towering glass windows that lined the halls, Gwen could catch glimpses of the soft glowing light from the sky where the sun dipped below the horizon.

It was autumn and night often wrapped its blankets of darkness quite early around the school. The amount of daylight present seemed to become shorter with each passing day as the world inched closer and closer to the winter season. It was only five o'clock in the evening but the moon already dangled like an opalized jewel in the sky.

Gwen's conversations with Dumbledore and Tom had carried on for much longer than she had intended. Simon was supposedly waiting for her down in the Hospital Wing, but now, Gwen was not sure she would find him there.

She urged her feet to move faster as she skipped down the stairs to the Infirmary, knowing she was late for her visit to check up on Jane. The girl had been in the Hospital Wing for three weeks now, and the Mandrake Restorative Draught Professor Beery was preparing with the help of Professor Slughorn would be ready very soon.

It seemed that life would return to normal and Gwen would no longer carry the burden of having extra responsibilities tacked on to her already challenging task. It was to be a relief.

As she approached the first floor, her footsteps echoed off the ancient stone walls. The corridors were very quiet, most students were in the Great Hall eating dinner.

She had not seen any Ministry employees around the castle during the afternoon. Gwen wondered briefly if Headmaster Dippet had them all entertained up in his office, drinking scotch and Firewhiskey as they laughed and jested at the modern politics of the English Parliament.

The British Ministry of Magic was much more concerned with international policies than the Ministry back home in Norway. After the Nazi invasion three years prior, the Ministry up north had remained underground, but had taken considerable steps to fight the German occupation even after the muggle government had fled.

Therefore, international affairs were far off concerns and the Statute of Secrecy had been pushed to the brink of destruction with the continued wizard involvement in the Muggle War. Because of this, Durmstrang Institute was extremely secretive of its location. If the Statute of Secrecy was compromised, surely Durmstrang's existence would be threatened.

However, the relaxed enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy due to the Ministry's involvement in the war allowed for Grindelwald to make Norway one of the first countries to capture his attention. His plan to lead a Wizarding revolution with the aim of ending the International Statute of Secrecy and creating a benevolent global order led by wise and powerful witches and wizards that would dominate muggles began to flourish in Eastern Europe.

Gwen, who had been raised by her grandmother in Norway after her father remarried Griffith's mother, Lilith, had been exposed to her grandfather's Court from a very young age. She was accustomed to being surrounded by powerful pure blood leaders, who despised muggles and believed the mixing magical and muggle blood was akin to a sin.

Although Grindelwald had been expelled from Durmstang, he was still determined that Gwen be educated at the school so she would not be surrounded by the corruption of muggle-borns. Durmstrang was the only Wizarding school in the European continent that did not permit the enrollment of students born to two non-magical parents, and therefore, was in favor in the eyes of prominent pure blood families.

At Durmstrang, Gwen excelled at magic and absorbed much of the strength-obsessed and Darkness-flavored school culture. She learned to carry her head high and carry a demeanor of righteous class.