No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

"What do you think you're doing, Tom?" Dumbledore questioned, not angrily, but curiously.

Tom Marvolo Riddle put down the Advanced Legilimancy book on the Hogwarts library table and looked at the man that had been his Transfiguration professor for the past six years. "Nothing, sir."

Dumbledore gazed at the mountain of books about the functions of the mind that was piled dangerously high on the table. "It seems like an awful lot to read about for 'nothing." His blue eyes twinkled.

Tom sighed. He was invariably uncomfortable with how he could deceive nearly everyone except for the old man. "Well, sir, I was trying to make sure that when I speak to my mother's family, the Gaunts I found out they are, that they can't keep things me..." Tom's voice trailed off. He did not want to discuss this at all, especially not with the only one of his teachers that didn't consider him the perfect model student.

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by
The rules of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes
And leap
It's time to try defying gravity
I think I'll try defying gravity
And you can't pull me down.

"Besides," Dumbledore went on when Tom failed to continue. "It is not possible to look in someone's mind and discover whatever you wish. You can tell if they're lying or see painful memories, but you can't find just any specific pieces of detailed information you want."

"Shouldn't I at least try?" asked Tom, almost defiantly.

Dumbledore frowned slightly. "I don't think that's wise. The wisest thing for you to do would be to go on with your life; don't worry about your parents. After all, you are almost of age, so you will no longer have to stay at the orphanage. Be happy. Everyone deserves a chance to fly and be happy."

Tom nodded, but he shrewdly doubted the hatred that had formed as a result of the absence of a family's love could merely be shoved aside and forgotten.

I'm through accepting limits
Cuz someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try I'll never know
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost
I'd sooner buy defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!

"If you need to talk you know where to find me." With that Dumbledore departed, still frowning. Despite the fact Dumbledore disliked Tom (he had ever since he framed Hagrid for the Chamber of Secrets incident) he feared that if Tom ignored his advice he would be doomed.

Tom could not concentrate anymore, not after talking to the infuriatingly insightful professor. He stormed back to the Slytherins' dungeon common room, not caring who he bumped into along the way.

"Tom, what's wrong?" asked a musical voice once he'd thrown himself moodily onto the leather settee.

"I told you, Aurora, I want all of my friends to call me Lord Voldemort," he muttered. By "friends" he meant the Slytherins that he spent time with because they admired him and allowed him to command them; he felt no affection for them.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Aurora replied, seating herself beside him. "You see I was under the impression that you and I were more than friends."

"And where would you get that idea?" He was unable to keep the smirk from appearing on his face.

Aurora smiled in return, leaned forward, and kissed him with her warm, yet pale lips. She used to glow with energy, but ever since she had been diagnosed with cancer the previous year she'd lost more and more of her glow. In Tom's opinion this caused her to be more attractive because it made her wan skin contrast beautifully with her sleek midnight black hair.

"May I interrupt?"

Pulling away from Aurora, Tom looked at his closest "friends," Eusebius Black and Abraxas Malfoy. It was impossible for Tom to tell which one had spoken; both of the boys' arrogant voices sounded alike. "If you must," Tom smoothly responded.

"Eusebius and I couldn't decide if we should have the party to celebrate you finding out who your mother was at his manor or mine. What do you think?"

"Eusebius'," answered Tom after a moment because he was fond of the House Elves' heads mounted on the wall in Grimmauld Place.

"You heard Lord Voldemort," said Eusebius cheerfully. Abraxas shrugged and they sauntered away.

"Now, where were we?" inquired Tom, snaking his arms around Aurora's fragile body.

***

Tom had never been a person for festivities, and Eusebius' celebration was no exception. He was barely there for five minutes before he bid everyone farewell and ambled out the door.

"Where are you going, Tom?" Aurora dashed out after him.

"Must you persist in calling me that?" he demanded.

"Yes, because you want to change your name to change who you are, and I like who you are," she replied conversationally. "I answered your question, so will you answer mine?"

"No," he immediately informed her. "There's just something I have to do. You don't need to worry about where I'm going."

From his grim expression Aurora could discern it was nothing simple and may be unsafe, however, she knew better than to argue with him once he set his mind to something. "Can I help you?"

"No...Look, go home and I'll see you later." This was not a request, but a command, and they both knew it.

Aurora nodded and she and Tom walked in opposite directions. "Oh, wait!"

Tom spun around on his heels and glowered at her. "WHAT IS IT NOW?" Euesebius or Abraxas would have cowered before Tom's fury, yet Aurora was never unnerved by it, which was one of the reasons why he grudgingly respected her and was attracted to her.

She serenely took a folded piece of parchment from her robes and handed it to him. "I made this for you last night when my pain kept me from sleeping." He offered her no sympathy as he took the parchment, though she did not want or expect him to.

When he unfolded it he saw a well-done sketch of a serpent emerging from a skull's mouth. Appreciatively, he grinned. One day his parseltongue would be legend, but at that point she was one of the only individuals that knew about it. She knew everything about him.

Aurora gave him a light kiss. "I'll go home now," she stated agreeably, and, as always, did as she promised.

Gaiting to the Gaunts' home, Tom thought he might conjure a small art studio for Aurora. She did not learn things by the book, which had made her schoolwork suffer and her artwork remarkable.

He was not welcomed into a great mansion by a powerful grandfather called Marvolo like he had imagined. Instead, to his disgust, Marvolo's son, Morfin, who was clearly deluded, greeted him. The only thing that mollified this disappointing visit was that Morfin had, inadvertently, informed him that his father was a Muggle that had deserted his mother and lived in "the big house over the way."

"Stupefy!" muttered Tom. Pocketing Morfin's wand, he went to the nearby town and easily spotted the large flat.

Briskly, Tom opened and strolled through the back door and into the dining room where the Muggle, Thomas Riddle, was eating supper with his parents. The three people looked up from their meals and stared at him.

"Who are you?" queried Thomas in a rather rude tone.

"Oh, me? I'm just your son," Tom told his father softly.

"I don't have a son," he said instantly, yet even as the words passed his lips he knew they were an untruth, for the resemblance was unmistakable.

Tom carelessly replied, "Of course you do. Remember the wife you abandoned when you found out she was a witch? Well, she had me, but she was weak and died, so I was put in a cold, heartless orphanage."

"That's all very sad, but what does it have to do with us?" Mrs. Riddle asked.

"Because of my father I am going to eliminate the world of people without pure magical blood," Tom stated calmly; his dark eyes acquired a manic red gleam. "Including you." His victims' faces showed their feelings of sheer terror. Tom did not wait for them to say anything in their defense; naught they could say would alter his resolve. Three cries of, "Avada Kedavra!" later he was gazing with satisfaction at the deceased Riddles, who still wore their expressions of complete horror.

He went back to the Gaunts' and without too much difficulty changed his unconscious uncle's memory so he would believe that he had murdered the Riddles; manipulation of the mind was Tom's specialty. After a moment of hesitation he slipped the elegant ring off of Morfin's finger since Morfin would no longer need it and was too mental to deserve it; it was all Tom had to represent the grandfather he had never known.

Then, Tom had to decide whether he ought to return to the orphanage or visit Aurora. He chose the latter and was unsurprised to note that her parents' magical car was gone, most likely to a business function, leaving Aurora alone for weeks at a time despite her illness, as usual.

Unannounced, he entered through the wooden door and did not witness Aurora patiently beginning her summer homework in the study as he had anticipated. Faintly worried, he wandered around in search of her. It wasn't long until he discovered her sprawled on the floor of the hall. He knelt down beside her and cradled her pretty face in his hands. Her flesh was icy and her dull, lifeless eyes were gazing into nothingness. At first the pure shock prevented Tom from making any motion or forming any thought; he nearly forgot to breathe. Then, all too suddenly, it sank in that his Aurora, his only streak of sunlight against an otherwise dark sky, had finally let her inevitable cancer get the better of her. In compensation for his lack of reaction previously, he recited almost every incantation that he knew and considered using every potion known to wizardkind to attempt to bring her back, though in his heart he knew it was hopeless.

Tom had rid the world of a few foul loathsome Muggles and this was how the world repaid him!

No good deed goes unpunished
No act of charity goes unresented
No good deed goes unpunished
That's my new creed
My road of good intentions
Led where such roads always lead
No good deed
Goes unpunished!

Damb the world! Instead of merely "purifying" the world as planned he would make it his own. Furthermore, it would be his forever; he would not die as Aurora had done. Never. How could she have died? Why did she leave him? He would rule the entire planet one day and she dared to have the audacity to leave him? Damb her too! The love he had felt for Aurora (Love is, indeed, what it was, even though Tom refused to admit to himself.) was replaced by hatred toward her for deserting him, thus condemning his soul to being unable to sustain love.

One question haunts and hurts
Too much, too much to mention
Was I really seeking good
Or just seeking attention?
Is that all good deeds are
When looked at with an ice-cold eye?
If that's all good deeds are
Maybe that's the reason why

No good deed goes unpunished
All helpful urges should be circumvented
No good deed goes unpunished
Sure, I meant well -
Well, look at what well-meant did.
All right, enough - so be it
So be it, then...
I'm wicked through and through
Since I can not succeed
...saving you
I promise no good deed
Will I attempt to do again
Ever again
No good deed
Will I do again!

Well, he thought, whether I'm alone or not the world will be mine.

As someone told me lately
Everyone deserves the chance to fly
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who ground me
Take a message back from me!

Tell them how I am defying gravity
I'm flying high, defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown...
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!

He stood up and needlessly dusted himself off. Without a glance at Aurora's corpse he went back to Grimmauld Place to tell Abraxas and Eusebius that the party was going to end because they had to meet with the Knights of Walpurgis to plan their first attack as a group on Muggles.

(Minerva's Note: For those of you who do not know Ms. Rowling has said in an interview that the Knights of Walpurgis were the group that became Voldemort's Death Eaters. Anyway, the centered words are lyrics. The lyrics in bold are part of the song "No Good Deed" and the lyrics not in bold are from the song "Defying Gravity." Stephen Schwarts wrote both songs, so I am not responsible for any mistakes or brilliance in the lyrics.)