Gwen sat with her head in her hands, elbows leaned over her desk. She was too shocked to cry, to angry to respond to any consoling. She could only think again and again, why has this happened?
As if taking her father and then her mother wasn�t enough. As if torturing her, Harry, Graves and many other wizards and witches wasn�t enough. As if the entire world in agony wasn�t enough for Lord Voldemort. There was a quiet rage brewing in Gwen�s belly and it would only be a matter of time before it swelled close enough to her heart to spurn her on to action.
Minerva and Anthony sat silently in the chairs across from her. They didn�t dare speak or move until she made some signal that she knew they were there. She cleared her throat, lifted her head from her hand and sighed.
�Do you know if this is true?� She said, pushing the letter to Anthony. She couldn�t bear to say it out loud.
Anthony read quickly and passed the parchment to Minerva. He shook his head. �No, I�ve heard nothing.�
Minerva looked between them. Before Gwen�s package drop she had received her usual mail, a copy of the Daily Prophet morning edition. She had been reading a headline about wizard�s body being discovered. She pulled the copy out of her robe pocket and looked very closely at the picture.
She didn�t have a photographic memory, but there were some students whose faces were very unforgettable. Corwin Graves had one of those faces. Minerva�s hopes fell as she recognized the lifeless corpse on the cover of the newspaper. She passed it to Gwen, unable to make the words work for her.
Gwen inhaled deeply as she reviewed the evidence before her. She couldn�t deny it any longer. Corwin Graves, like many wizards before him was dead and for what price? How much did his life cost to the Order? Was his work so important that he had to die for it?
There was nothing left to do but open the package resting on the edge of her desk. She reached out a timid hand, pulled back the plain brown paper and tore at the tape, some of her anger relieved on the task of ripping at the flimsy wrapping.
She opened the lid.