For the Greater Good || Tom Riddle ||

Chapter Three: The Knights

"So someone here told me about your duel. Heard it went quite well. "

Benedict peered at Gwen over his glass of pumpkin juice with an impish smile. Yasmin Chana sat at his side, laughing lightly as Benedict's eyes slyly cut toward her and he prodded her with his elbow. The girl crumbled into laughter and tried to scoot away, but Benedict merely continued to tickle her.

Gwen sighed and rolled her eyes. This topic had been exhausted by the time she had reached the Great Hall-she had been attacked around every corner of the corridors by a posse of peers wanting to know about her duel against Quillish Selwyn. It was the most the student body had shown interest in her since the Ashwinder incident, and it was frankly the last thing she wanted to discuss at this point in the night.

"Yeah, Gwen! I heard Isabel Yarrow say that you used Dark Magic?" Jane asked with wide, questioning eyes as she scooped some potatoes onto her plate. Her voice wasn't judgmental, but it was laced with a hint of surprise. Her tone irked Gwen.

"Hardly," the blonde haired girl scoffed.

"Really?" Jane countered skeptically with a raise brow. "I heard it was a Stinging Jinx. You do know that's considered a Dark Charm, right? I don't think Professor Merrythought would approve-"

"Jane, if you already knew it was a Stinging Jinx, why would you ask if I used Dark Magic?" Gwen interrupted dryly as she forcefully cut into her chicken breast, her knife squeaking and groaning against the china. She stabbed a piece with her fork rather aggressively and shoved the tender bite into her mouth.

Jane looked at her with her mouth agape and her sentence unfinished. When Gwen continued to eat her meal in annoyance, Jane shook her head disapprovingly and frowned.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" she asked under her breath as Gwen garnered the stares of several nosey Ravenclaws who looked up from enjoying their dinner to see what the fuss was about.

Even Simon had looked at her strangely before continuing to tuck into his shepherd's pie. Gwen furrowed her brow and shook her head, placing her silverware back onto the Ravenclaw table as gently as she could while refusing to look up from her plate.

"Nothing's wrong. I didn't even realize what I was doing."

Jane raised a brow but didn't say anything more.

The truth was that Gwen was extremely anxious. She wasn't sure what she had just gotten herself into when agreeing to train the 'Slytherin Horde' in martial magic, but anything associated with Tom's gang didn't seem to be good news.

Her mind mulled over every little detail that she could possibly plan for. Part of her worried that Tom was not actually going to show up, and she would be left alone, lost in the Forbidden Forest after dark. An even more paranoid part of her thought that, perhaps, Tom released the Basilisk from its deep slumber in the Chamber of Secrets in order to kill her and protect his reputation.

She shivered, but it went unnoticed by her friends. In order to get rid of the disturbing thought, Gwen hurriedly ate her peas and carrots before pushing away her plate and leaving the Ravenclaw table without saying goodbye. Jane and Simon exchanged looks at her sudden departure, but neither made a move to catch her before she left the Great Hall.

Gwen quickly made her way up the staircase and passed the large gilded picture frames housing portraits of famous witches and wizards. Her braid thumped against her back, her curly hair gather into a heavy whip that repeatedly slashed against her skin as she took every step.

When she finally made it to the girls' dormitories, Gwen was relieved to find that her two loud roommates, Camila and Ruth, were still eating dinner down in the Great Hall and wouldn't being bothering her anytime soon. She had the room to herself. Gwen flopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, her heart pounding inside of her chest.