NO GOOD DEED

By Bribles

"HARRY!"

Hermione's shriek would have been heard throughout the whole Gryffindor Tower were it not abandoned. Her shredded black robes were whipping around her by the wind coming through the broken windows. The broken stones and rubble from the busted walls and ceiling surrounded Hermione where she stood in the middle of what used to be the Gryffindor Common Room, bent over a simmering black cauldron.

"Eleka Nahmen Nahmen
Ah tum ah tum Eleka Nahmen
Eleka Nahmen Nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka Nahmen!"

She stood chanting, no one left to see the crazy look in her eyes. A book was hovering in the air next to her, a magical wind flipping the pages while Hermione added a mysterious lump into the cauldrons. Suddenly, the pages in the book were still, the wind dying down as fast as they started up. Hermione whipped around and stared at the book. She let out a grim smile, then resumed her chanting.

"Let his flesh not be torn, let his blood leave no stain. When they beat him, let him feel no pain! Let his bones never break and however they try to destroy him, let him never die. Let him never die!"

She made three counter-clockwise stirs in the cauldron, then casted a powerful Incendio to increase the heat of the fire underneath.

"Eleka Nahmen Nahmen
Ah tum ah tum Eleka Nahmen
Eleka Nahmen Nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka...meleka-"

Hermione stumbled and caught her balance on one of the ripped stuffed arm chairs that decorated the once beautiful Common Room. She looked down, and ironically it was the chair that Harry first kissed her in. Tears filled her eyes before the fury returned.

"What good is this chanting? I don't even know what I'm reading! I don't even know what trick I ought to try. Harry, where are you? Already dead or bleeding? One more disaster I can add to my generous supply!"

Chuckling darkly to herself, Hermione turned her attention back to the cauldron, which was now boiling dangerously. She continued stirring and adding unknown ingredients to the potion.

"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 lead where such roads always lead! No good deed…goes unpunished!"

Thoughts of all those lost flashed through Hermione's mind as she prepared the final ingredients for the potion she was making. For all those people who flashed through her mind, only a couple stood out.

"Neville….. Professor Dumbledore…..Harry...HARRY!"

The scream came unbidden out of her throat. She coughed, choking back the tears that were welling up. She refused to cry about it. She refused to show any more weakness. Weakness made her lose her best friend. Her confidant. Her lover. Never again would she allow weakness into her life.

"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….."

Trailing off, she filled a glass vial with some of the potion, which was now a thick, blood red color. Staring at it, Hermione could not stop the last flashes of memories that came to the front of her mind.

Ron and Ginny's forced smiles when Hermione and Harry announced they were dating. Ron, cornering her and forcing Hermione to kiss him, before Harry punched him and told him that he was not welcome back in the Tower. Ginny's smile while she was brewing love potions and obedience potions, not knowing Hermione was invisible in a corner, watching her every move. Harry's smiles as she accepted Ron's apology and the Golden Trio was, once again, restored.

"No good deed goes unpunished. All helpful urges should be circumvented! No good deed goes unpunished. Sure I meant well, but look at what well-meant did….."

Harry, fighting Voldemort, buying time for Hermione, Neville, and Luna to run. Neville, stopping when a Crucio had Luna writhing on the floor in pain. Poor, poor Neville decapitating that insane bitch, Lestrange, before Pettigrew shot an Avada Kedavra and took him down.

Harry, her brave Harry, telling her to run and save herself after the Death Eaters caught up to them and bound Harry. Ron and Ginny's faces visible to her while she tossed the Invisibility Cloak over herself. And, finally, seeing Harry's blood flowing from two cuts across his chest as she took the Portkey out of her bag, and ran as Harry wanted her to do.

"All right enough! So be it, so be it then. Let all Hogwarts be agreed, I'm wicked through and through, since I could not succeed, Harry, saving you! I promise no good deed will I attempt to do again. Ever again!"

Breathing hard, Hermione swallowed the vial before dropping it. The glass shattered on the floor, but Hermione took no notice. She looked around, as if waiting for something. Suddenly, she turned toward the hole in the wall, searching the visible part of the sky. As if appearing out of night sky, a flock of birds was flying towards Hogwarts Gryffindor Tower.

But they weren't the normal owls that were known to come and go. Hermione was hard pressed to know what they were, until they got closer. It was a flock of crows. Crows, flying straight towards her. And leading them all, was a gorgeous black bird, whose feathers' reflected the full moon's rays into her eyes. A creature thought to be extinct.

It was a Phoenix of Death.

Laughing ironically, Hermione allowed the bird to land on her shoulder. Looking around at the crows surrounding her on the overturned furniture and broken rafters, she saw more creatures emerging from the Forbidden Forest. The thestrals and a pack of werewolves were only some of the creatures that were visible. Giant footsteps were causing the floor of the forest to shake. Hermione smiled wickedly before spreading her arms, commanding all the animals to stop and await her orders. She would get her revenge. They would rue the day that they destroyed everything Hermione Granger ever cared about.

"No good deed will I do again!"

Author's Note: This is a story I originally wrote a few years ago, but removed. I've since lost the original story and the idea kept bugging me so I decided to re post it. It's not the exact same story, but the general idea is. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the song or the characters. Those rights belong to the writers of the lyrics to "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" from the Broadway play Wicked, and to J.K. Rowling respectively. I also give credit to the Harry Potter Wiki for the information about phoenixes, though I'm not sure if there is such a thing as the Death Phoenix.