No Good Deed

Destiny. Fate.

Dirty words, sullied by stinging tears and the etenal stains of crusted brown blood. (Blood of the innocent is a powerful magic.)

And children here are not pure, or innocent, or free to take their own paths. Not in the Wizarding world, where all are held under the curse of divination.

Ignatius Nott was born under an ill-omened star.

The midwife knew. His mother knew. His father was not told.

All had seen that there would be no other children.

And so the words of the Seer went disregarded, but festered in the hearts of both women like rotting carrion.

Pain was predicted.

Suffering for a multitude.

An eternity of agony for unsullied souls, cast down to hell with others of varying guilt.

But Lady Nott refused to see her sweet child condemmed for power, for what-if's, for the words of an old, blind women.

The midwife had no love, as yet, for the unformed child of her employer. Only principles, and pride. (Only Muggles were so foolish as to use the fire and the stake. And the screams of her own three children, burned for what they could have done, echoed in her ears, and she found she could not harm a babe. She was no savage, no child-killer, and the words of no Seer would convince her otherwise.)

Lady Nott raised her son to be honest, and fair, and compassionate.

Her husband distrusted such women-like attributes, but the midwife whispered, "The Seer said it must be so." (And was truthful, after a fashion. She was not yet wise enough to know that this was the expected path.)

Ignatius Nott grew up to posess all these qualities.

The village Seer came to visit occasionsally, despite the uncomfortable looks from both women. She always had a kind word for the boy, who didn't quite understand why she was so feared.

He sat at her feet and listened to stories while other children threw stones at cats.

He cried at her funeral.

He went to Hogwarts at the age of eleven, and was Sorted into Hufflepuff.

He graduated thirteenth in his class.

Ignatius Nott came to visit his mother the week before she died.

It was then that she told him the prophecy.

"You will be a good boy, won't you, dear?"

He'd never seen his mother plead before. "Of course," he whispered.

She closed her eyes.

Ignatius Nott was an honorable man.

He was not cruel.

He had many friends, true friends he cared for deeply.

He was kind to Muggles even as they burned more of his kind.

Four months after his mother died, he decided to go into spell reasearch. To fight the Dark Arts.

Ignatius Nott invented the Patronus Charm.
The Patronus Charm, which was invented several centuries ago by prominent wizard Ignatius Nott, draws its power from a happy memory to create a mystical guardian, useful for protection against such wholly Dark creatures as Lethifolds and Dementors. Unlike many other "defensive" spells, this charm will never harm the castor or any other wizard, even when cast incorrectly. Indeed, the Patronus, which is the only spell to significantly affect Dementors and Lethifolds, can never be used to harm anything else, making it unique in its category. It made the isolation of Dementors onto Azkaban island possible, less than thirty years after its creation.

Today, it has done more for our current prison system than any amount of containment spells, and every Ministry Auror is required to know the Patronus Charm.

-a short excerpt from A Heavy Book of Light Spells
True evil does not have to be committed by truly evil people.