"Tom." Gwen whispered as she rushed to his side. She knelt on the ground next to him and cradled his head. She gasped when she saw the dark stain of blood on his chest and the various cuts on his smooth face.

"What have you done?!" she hissed at Voldemort who was watching the scene with a blank mask.

He raised a bald eyebrow, "Grown to care about your parent's murderer?"

Gwen flinched and looked away, she pulled out her wand and began muttering words under her breathe. She relaxed when the cuts slowly started to close up leaving faint pink lines.

"Tom.. Tom..." she gently shook him. He didn't respond, panic began to swell inside of her and this time she didn't crush it down. When the first tear slid, the dam broke and she was soon sobbing while holding on to Tom's limp body. His pulse was very weak, and his body was cold to touch. She feared for the worse.

"Why?!" Gwen shouted at Voldemort. He stared at her for a while before he smirked. A cruel smirk, that made his red eyes darken.

"He cared." he answered simply.

"So any emotion is consider weakness is it? How could you do this to him? He didn't deserve it!" her whole body was trembling. She gently lowered Tom to the ground and stood up to face Voldemort.

"Oh he more then deserved it. Had he been anybody else, he would have suffered a slow painful death at my hand. It's all your fault Gwenyth Potter, it's your fault he is like this."

Gwen shook her head frantically. No it couldn't have been her fault, she did nothing wrong. But neither did Tom, all he did was follow orders.

"Did you know that when he found out you were slowly going insane he tried to defy me."

Gwen's eyes snapped up to his, her eyes widened. Her going insane? It couldn't be.

Voldemort seemed to read her thoughts as he slowly smiled, "Yes Potter. The Dark and Light magic are battling at this very moment. The nature of your magic is in conflict, and the spells Dumbledore cast on you aren't helping the matter. Don't you see, all these bursts of dark hunger is the insanity settling in. Soon Potter you will have to choose. And that is why dear Tom here, is in this state. He planned to betray me, to help you."

Gwen's face was a mask of no emotion but her brain was flying miles per minute. He had to be lying. But no, she had experience these burst. Like Hermione, in the Chamber, what was that all about. Yes, the happy Gryffindor mask was just that, a mask. But that mask had bled into her. She was much happier and less cruel then when she was a child but that is because she never knew how to be happy. At Hogwarts she learned laughter, genuine happiness and real smiles. She would not lie, she was still able to become that cruel child when she wanted to, but did she really want to be just that? And live a life like Voldemort's? She wasn't sure, and now this information that she was slowly becoming insane scared her. She didn't know what to do.

"You must choose Potter." Voldemort interrupted her inner thoughts, "You must choose, join me in the Dark, where you will feel right at home. Your family roots will sing to it's rightful magic. The Light has betrayed you, in ways even the sliest of Slytherins wouldn't understand."

"Gwen..." a low moan reminded her of the injured Tom. She rushed to his side and let out a sigh of relief when she met his dark blue eyes.

"I'm here, Tom. Don't worry you'll be fine."

She assured him while running her hands through his silky dark hair. Tom smiled before losing consciousness.

"Take him." Voldemort told her, "Take him and take this."

He levitated a package to her. Gwen plucked it out of the air in confusion. Seeing that he wasn't kidding, she placed the package in her robe and lifted Tom with a wave of her wand.

She walked out of the throne room without glancing back.


"You'll be fine here Tom. You're safe now."

She rummaged around the room looking for anything to help Tom. 5 minutes without finding a thing she let out a frustrated growl.

"Kreacher!" she called out and in a crack Kreacher was standing before her, grumbling like he usually did.

"Mistress call?" he asked her in his croaky voice while adding a few things under his breath.

Gwen ignored them, "I need potions and other medical things. Blood-replenishing, bruise salves, bandages, towels, warm water, post-cruciatus potion, and a dreamless sleep one. Hurry!"

Kreacher gave a jerky bow before disappearing, when he returned she got set to work.

She lifted Tom's head and made him drink the post-cruciatus potion, that stopped his random spasm attacks. Next, the blood-replenishing potion, that gave him his color back and a bit of warmth. She carefully removed his bloody shirt and dipping the towels in the warm water she cleaned him up. She winced at the obvious bruised ribs, and gently rubbed the bruise salve before wrapping them in bandages. Tom had been floating in and out of consciousness during the process. She rummaged around Sirius' brother's old things and found gray silky pajamas. She changed Tom with a flick of her wand before giving him the dreamless sleep potion and tucking him in bed.

"Kreacher."

Kreacher arrived once again, with commands to inform her when Tom woke up and to look after him, she headed back to Hogwarts with Kreacher's help. In her distracted state she forgot to clean her bloody robe.


Gwen arrived at the exact moment that Neville was about to tilt back a potion and drink. He let out a gasp and dropped it.

"Gwen?"

When she didn't respond, he burst out of the room and brought back a grumpy Ron and a fizzy Hermione.

They both gasped when they saw the state of her.

"Gwen what happened? Where did you go?" Hermione asked while rushing to Gwen's side to check for injuries.

"It's not my blood." Gwen told her in a blank voice, Hermione stopped her examination and gaped at her. They all gaped at her. Gwen hated when people gaped at her, without a word she rushed into the bathroom for a bath.

In hot steamy shower, Gwen allowed her thoughts to roam free.

She had to choose, what if he was lying? But Gwen knew he wasn't, she really did. Sirius had presented Gwen with a journal that had belonged to her father, in it he spoke of a choice every Potter made. It usually only occurred to the male Potters. Was this the choice? Did her father choose the Light? Was she suppose to choose the Light as well. Sighing, she sank deeper into the bath before sitting up. With a flick of her wand the package zoomed to her. It 5 minutes and many detection spells later that she opened the flap to the thick envelope.

She pulled out what looked like a book without a cover. Curious, she began to read.

Gwenyth Jane Potter

Born: 31st of July 1980

Birth Parents: Lily Guinevere Potter (Evans) & James Charles Potter

Magic Type: Dark

Gwen skipped all this information and hurriedly read the page that mention spells placed on her.

Basic Toddler Binding Spell :James Potter (faded away)

Magical Eyesight Blocker: Lily Potter (activated)

Blood Protection Shield: Lily Potter (weak; active)

Magical Core Binding Lvl 4: Albus Dumbledore (weak; dormant)

Magical Core Binding Lvl 6: Albus Dumbledore (active)

Memory Charm: Albus Dumbledore

Memory Charm: Albus Dumbledore

Memory Charm: Albus Dumbledore

Memory Charm: Albus Dumbledore

Memory Charm: Albus Dumbledore

Memory Charm: Severus Snape

Memory Charm: Albus Dumbledore

20% of wild Light Magic: Albus Dumbledore

That one made Gwen pause. What the hell does that mean? Did they cast some weird spell on her? Or did pump it in like how muggle doctors pump in blood.

She mentally remembered to research that, maybe that's why her magic was in conflict. Unknown power, it must be it.

She stepped out of the tub and wrapped a towel around her.

Sighing she got dressed for her last day of school before the Yule Break.


School dragged on and on. Nobody mention Gwen's rather odd mood. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until Charms class rolled in.

Professor Flitwick was excitably talking about the Avis charm when there was a rather loud pop that interrupted him. Kreacher, there he was looking a bit smug if Gwen knew any better. She tried to discreetly shake her head but it seemed Kreacher wasn't one for understanding such things.

"Mistress, Master has awakened and is asking for you." he croaked out rather loudly. Gwen smacked herself on the forehead with the palm of her hand. The whole class was staring at her. Cursing herself for not telling Kreacher to only find her when she was alone. She gathered her things and without saying a goodbye she ran out of the classroom, Kreacher cackling behind her.

It wasn't until she was in her dorm did she stop running. She wearily sighed as she plopped herself on the bed. Kreacher was staring at her with his bulging eyes.

"How is he?" she asked him.

"Master has awoken and is complaining about soreness and lack of attention."

Gwen smiled at that, Tom didn't seemed to have changed. She never exactly figured out when she stopped referring to him as Ezra and when he became Tom to her. She quickly packed her belongings with a swish of her holly wand and wrote a quick note for Hermione.

Nodding to Kreacher, she left Hogwarts with a crack.


Tom nearly jumped at the sound of the loud crack. He was mildly surprised to see Gwen with the odd house-elf. With narrowed eyes he saw the trunk that she had with her. Of course, today was the last day of school for the Yule Break.

He stood there resisting the urge of fidgeting, the heir of Slytherin did not do fidgeting. Gwen finally sighed, "Feeling better?"

He gave her a quick nod, unable to produce a verbal response.

"Hungry?" she asked. He once again nodded and followed her when she left the room. He was quite shocked when she entered the rather large kitchen and began preparing food. He thought she would just have asked her house-elf to do it.

"Sit" she motioned with the knife she was holding to one of the vacant chairs. He did so.

"Voldemort told me." she began, "I know what is happening to me and to be honest, I'm scared Tom. I really am."

He could only stare at her as the vulnerability of her tone reached him. He wanted to do nothing more then stand up and hold her. But he didn't know where they stood at this moment.

"I tried to help, tried to find a solution but..."

"But this happened. He told me that bit too, and I am so grateful. To be honest, when I saw them drag in your body my hear stopped, you just looked so, so... dead." she finished so lightly, he had to strain his ears to hear her. His mood slightly lifted and he gave her a sad smile which she returned.

"So what now?" he asked her.

Gwen turned back to her cooking, he could tell she was in deep thought and was mindlessly adding ingredients to the pan. Not bothering to turn around she answered him with a sad, "I don't know."

"It's a good thing you have me then, right?" he tried to lighten the mood. Gwen turned to give him a blank stare and he found himself inwardly flinching at her blank eyes. He missed the way her eyes sparkled with life, the way they darkened when she was angered or the way her emotions flashed for a second before she concealed them.

"I have a solution to your magic problem."

Her eyes seemed to gain a small speckle of spark at the sound of that.

"What is it?"

"Simple, we go and try out both magics and the one that doesn't feel strained will be the one."

She shook her head and whipped out her wand, Tom was surprised to see a package zoom towards her. She quickly flipped through pages before showing him.

There written on the sheet was:

20% of wild Light magic pumped – age 10.

He stared at her with wide eyes, no, this couldn't be. What the hell were they thinking?! This could have killed her, no wonder she was becoming unbalanced. Forced and foreign magic was never a good thing but to force one's nature was an entirely different thing. He scanned his brain for any solutions, blood magic would work, any dark or light magic might end up destroying her mind. The solution came from the depths of his brain – soul magic.

"Horcruxes." he whispered out loud. Gwen gazed at him with a puzzled expression. He didn't want her to do this, it would crush her but at the same time make her stronger.

"You need a Horcrux! The thing is that I can't seem to remember how they are made."

He frowned, this must be a result of Voldemort bringing him here. His 16 year old memories were a blur.

"What's a Horcrux? Sounds a bit dodgy."

Tom snorted, only Gwen would call a horcrux dodgy.

"You're going to have to ask Slughorn."

Gwen pulled a face, "Him? He's a creep!"

Tom raised an eyebrow, making Gwen sigh.

"Fine, I'll ask him on his Christmas party."