For the Greater Good || Tom Riddle ||

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Play

Winter came. Gwen sat in the nook of the window seat that was nestled in the corner of the Ravenclaw Common Room. She could feel the drafty kiss of the winter wind coming through the glass pane, it prickled her skin, but it was not yet nipping enough to make her feel uncomfortable.

The leaves had left all of the trees and taken up home as crumpled carcasses of the spring and summer on the ground. Tendrils of fog sat in the barren branches that resembled the antler racks of a seasoned stag, and a light dusting of snow could be seen on the ground. Not too long ago, a sweet mulchy scent hung in the air as the leaves began to decompose thanks to the misty and damp autumn weather —now the aroma of the outside world was frosty fumes of pine and ice.

 Gwen was lost in memories as her stare swept over the frost covered landscape of Hogwarts. Her breath coated the window pane in a cloud of moisture, and made Gwen recall the burning sensation that would sting the back of her throat whenever she took in a deep gulp of air as a child while playing in the garden.  

The winters in Norway had always been harsh. During Christmastime in the past, Gwen would travel to Albania to visit her father and step-mother, Lilith. Her grandmother never accompanied her, but occasionally, Grindelwald would show up to share a Christmas Eve meal. Her father was Grindelwald's closest advisor, besides her grandmother. On the occasion that he would show up for the holiday, the two men would always retreat to the private office quarters to discuss important matters.

As children, Gwen and Griffith would do their best to spy on the two. Griffith would even go so far as to try to pose as their father, Valdrin Gawmdrey, but Grindelwald always seemed to know that it was him and shoo him out of the room. Gwen always assumed that Griffith's real age gave him away, after all, he had been a seven year old trying to impersonate a full grown man. He was not yet mature enough to grasp the full persona of their father.

Her half-brother always seemed like he was up to something. When they were younger, Griffith would trick her by taking on their father's features and calling her in to eat supper. When she would finally come frantically racing toward the threshold of the door, Griffith would retake his own appearance and launch his attack. Icy snowballs would hurtle toward Gwen's face, often hitting their mark with cold fury.

Sometimes, Gwen would retaliate accidentally. Her magic would act out and suddenly make the snow atop the roof slide down and bury Griffith in a small avalanche. As she got older but still did not have her own wand, her magic became stronger and harder for her to control, and the game eventually was put to an end by Lilith, Griffith's mother. 

After one nasty incident where Griffith became sick with pneumonia, Gwen's holiday trip to Albania for Christmas ceased to exist.

But what Gwen wished ceased to exist at the moment was her part in the Yuletide play. Practice for the Fountain of Fair Fortune was every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour and a half and was growing to be a chore. Dealing with Professor Beery was enough as it was, but the fact that Lucretia Black sent her resentful looks every five minutes made it a much more trying experience than anything else. The girl had not yet abandoned her jealousy of Gwen's association with Tom Riddle.

As practice taxingly continued on week after week, Gwen had to admit that Audrey easily won the role of best actress. Her mother surely passed on the ability to give a pleasing performance down to her daughter. Archie was undoubtedly gifted at acting as well, but Gwen figured that he channeled more of his boisterous Gryffindor spirit than actual skill. Lucretia, on the other hand, was a horrible performer, plain and simple. Yet Professor Beery seemed impartial to her faults, which included repeatedly forgetting her lines and painful overdramatic tendencies, due her family's prominence in the wizarding community.