The curtain rose and with it the ensemble before daring and marvelous acts of acrobatics, all glitter and glamor on the stage while the throne appeared, a somewhat less eager Tom Riddle sitting upon it.

"King Voldemort, emperor of the continent, is preparing to hear petitions," the Lead Player announced before walking towards the throne, perching on the arm rest next to Tom, and watching as Tom attempted to settle his court. A mob appeared before the throne, Tom's eyebrows raising as he watched them clamor in.

Finally, Tom declared, "Enough, you will be dealt with fairly and equally, but one at a time, if you please."

"Oh, sire," a man cried out, on his knees before the emperor, "I am a poor man…"

Tom rubbed a hand over his eyes, "Stand, you may stand, do not grovel in the dirt before me."

He looked down at the other kneeling subjects before him, motioning with a hand for them to stand, "You may all stand."

"Oh, thank you sire," the old man said as he awkwardly stood, ignoring the way Tom's eyes narrowed in distaste, "I'm a poor man, a muggle born, and I own not one millimeter of land on which I've worked, and it's not fair!"

With a sigh and a wave of his hand Tom said, clearly not invested at all in this, "Fine, then you shall own the land on which you work."

"King Voldemort, the just," the Lead Player announced next to him, ignoring the flicker of distaste that passed across Tom's face as he glanced towards her.

"Sire, now that you've given all of our land to the mudbloods," a noblewoman of pureblood stated, ignoring the outcry of the peasants, "We loyal purebloods have no source of income and therefore cannot pay taxes."

With another sigh and another flat look of distaste, Tom announced, "Then I shall abolish taxes!"

"King Voldemort, the generous," the Lead Player added with a musing look, a small smile appearing on her lips as she squeezed Tom's shoulders.

"With no taxes, sire, you will have no money to support an army," a German wizard announced from behind him, looking meaningfully at Tom as he did so.

"An army?" Tom asked, "Fine then, we won't have a bloody military, we won't have bloody peasants, we won't have bloody taxes, and we won't have a bloody army! Now, is that quite it? Is there anything else I can do for you people today?!"

"King Voldemort, the peaceful," the Lead Player amended.

"Voldemort, sire," a soldier cried out, dashing onto the stage and clearing his throat as he spoke his news, "It is my duty to inform you that the Soviet infidels have attacked in the east. They have destroyed three villages and murdered thousands of your royal subjects."

"Well, isn't that peachy," Tom said slowly.

"But, they will withdraw on one condition."

"What's the condition?"

"He demands your reproductive organs on a pike."

"Well, we're not doing that," Tom said slowly, "I suppose we'll have to send out the army."

The first German soldier, standing behind the throne, narrowed his eyes as he reminded Tom, "But sire, you have abolished the army."

"Right," Tom said slowly rubbing his face with a sigh, "Then I suppose we're going to need those taxes."

"But sire, without land we cannot pay your taxes!"

"Then I suppose we're enslaving the bloody mudbloods again, and if they disagree… hang them."

And the mob descended once again, Tom in the center of it all, trapped upon his throne and seething with every shouted complaint that was lobbed at him.

And as they surrounded him, demanding land, money, militaries, and more, the Lead Player smirking, announced, "King Voldemort, the unpopular."

"Get out!" Tom shouted, and when they did not, he looked out into the distance, almost haunted, as he announced, "I need to pray."

He stalked forward, banishing all his petitioners, and fell to his knees as if he truly was in prayer. The Lead Player followed, stalking behind him.

"Pray?" she asked, circling him, "But you're the king, what in the world would you pray for?"

"Strength," he said rather bitterly.

The Lead Player considered this, nodding slowly, "Alright, is there anything else you'd like?"

"Yes…" he said slowly then, the words torn out of him like teeth with plyers, he stated, "I would like my sword back out of Grindelwald's chest."

"You want it," the Lead Player cried with delight, "You got it!"

With a wave of her hands the stage darkened, a storm seemed to arise as she announced, "Illusion, fantasy to study."

And there, miraculously, as if he had never left at all, was Grindelwald seated upon the throne, the Hungarian warlord who had ground Europe almost entirely into dust. Tom stood, amazed, staring at the man in awe and perhaps a bit in fear.

For a moment, the two stared at each other, then the mob returned, descending upon Grindelwald, who took it all in with the same distaste Tom himself had shown. Tom watched as the throne and the rest retreated off stage, the Lead Player standing beside him.

"I have wasted my life," Tom said finally after they had at last disappeared. He threw the crown off his head with a laugh, "I have gotten everything I dreamed of, and none of it is fulfilling. My life is… meaningless. If there's something worthy of my pursuit then I don't think I'll ever find it."

"But you will, Tom," the Lead Player prophesized, "I promise you, comrade, you will."

A piano began to start playing in uneven time, the song almost staggering to its feet as Tom stood there, staring into a future that now seemed so very pointless.

"You may not believe this," the Lead Player said as she slung an arm around his shoulder, "But things are going exactly according to plan."

"What plan could that possibly be?" Tom asked, but before he could ask anything more, the Lead Player sat him down upon a stool and began the next number as she stared down at him.

"You look frenzied, you look frazzled," she ran a hand through his hair, musing as she did so, "Peaked as any alp."

She grinned, placed her head beside his ear as she further exclaimed, "Flushed and rushed and razzle-dazzled. Dry your lips, damp your scalp."

She moved to his other side, to face him fully, look him in the eyes as she said, "Now I can see you're in a rut, in disarray. And I'm not one to butt in, but in fact, I must say…"

She cupped his face in her pale hands and looked at him with a kind of tenderness that had been absent thus far, "If you'd take it easy, trust awhile, don't look blue, don't look back, you'll pull through in just a while, 'cause you're on the right track."

"On the right track," Tom repeated back, disbelief coloring his eyes as he looked at her, grabbed her thin wrists in his hands, "On the right track."

He pulled her hands away from his face, looked down at them, repeating again, "On the right track, on the right track."

"Take it easy, sonny," she said, standing from her crouched position so that, with him sitting, she was almost taller than him, "Take it easy, sonny. Take it easy…"

The music sped itself up as the two stared at each other, the Lead Player holding that leading note until she asked, "Why look flurried?"

"Flustered," Tom dully repeated.

"Keep those…"

"Hopes aloft," Tom finished for her with a desperation that was so foreign to himself.

"Keep cool as custard," the Lead Player added with delight, pulling him from his seat to stand with her.

"Trying hard," Tom started only for the Lead Player to finish, "Stepping soft."

Then, in tandem, looking at one another, they both sang out, "There's no trick to saying sensible, despite each cul-de-sac, 'cause each step's indispensable when you're on the right track."

Then as Tom repeated, with more hope this time, "On the right track," as the Lead Player with a shark like grin reminded him even as she danced, to "Take it easy."

Then, taking his hand in hers, she pulled him into a dance routine, his feet uncomfortable and ungraceful without knowing the steps she had clearly long since memorized as the music sped up once again. He watched the movements of her feet, how easily they slid between one step and the next and with an uncertain look on his face tried desperately to follow. Then, suddenly, he had it, and the spotlight fell upon them, watching them as he watched her and stepped in time.

A grin on his face, Tom continued, while the Lead Player moved off and narrated.

"And so, Tom went back to school, took his NEWT exams and took no pleasure from them, graduated with honors and took no pleasure in that either, watched as in 1945 Dumbledore took out Grindelwald and freed Europe. Tom decided to become a store clerk, and he discovered that…"

Tom shot them a rather dry look as he paused for a moment, "Customer service was even worse than being an unpopular tyrant."

As Tom continued through his dance routine the Lead Player continued, "He then returned to Hogwarts and attempted to become the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. However, he soon discovered that…"

"Even though he was the heir of Slytherin, he was still a mudblood orphan this whole time!" he shouted, his face no longer containing any optimism at all.

With that, the Lead Player entered the fray once again, standing next to him and pulling him along, "Many, when things get dank, will feel their grip go. We stay tranquil, spirits high, pulses low."

Tom interrupted her, eyes burning as he stepped forward, hands falling on her shoulders in desperation as a terrible conclusion snuck upon him, "But, what I've left behind looks trifling, what's ahead looks black! Am I doomed to spend my lingering on…"

"Lingering on," the Lead Player repeated for him.

"Just lingering on," Tom said in desperation, staring into his desolate future without purpose or direction.

And together they both said, "Malingering on the right…"

"Oh, I'll never find it!" Tom cried out backing away from her and looking out towards the black empty abyss that was the world beyond the stage, "Never, never, never!"

"Easy, comrade," the Lead Player said, taking his arm in hers and grinning across at him, "You're on the right track."

He sat down, placed his head in his hands, and the Lead Player considered him there for a moment, eyes lingering on him, and then, as he wasn't looking, she offered him a rather satisfied smile.

She moved towards the rear of the stage, towards a set of red curtains and cried out, "Enter, Lily!"

A drumroll, a cymbal crash, and nothing happened. The Lead Player, slightly more impatient, called out, "Enter, Lily!"

There was a curse from somewhere backstage, the shattering of glass, oddly the sound of cackling hens, then finally, the flustered, older version of the Lead Player, now with feathers in her hair and far less grace, and an outfit that belonged in a 1980's thrift store, offered the Lead Player an awkward grin as she stepped out from behind the curtains, "Would you believe that I didn't hear you the first time?"

However, the Lead Player herself, looked hardly amused. Instead, with predatory grace, she stepped forward as she asked, "How many years have you been playing this role?"

Lily opened her mouth to answer but couldn't get a word out as the Lead Player said, "It's alright, it's okay, we'll just do it again. Alright, we'll do it again…"

The Lead Player stalked out to where she had started, turning suddenly, and realizing Lily was still there staring at her with wide green eyes. The Lead Player stared until Lily, slowly and uncertainly, ducked back behind the curtain.

"Enter, Lily," the Lead Player announced, moving her hands to motion as Lily now burst through the curtains with a smile on her face. As she waved at the audience the Lead Player continued, "A lovely young time travelling school girl, who is otherwise a completely ordinary woman… It was the best we could do people, try to roll with it."

"I am a lovely young time travelling school girl," Lily repeated rather dumbly with wide eyes, clearly having been spoon-fed the line, finally she darted over towards Tom, who at some point during all of this had collapsed onto the stage itself.

"When I first saw Le… Tom, in this world, I found him lying on the side of a road," Lily narrated as she strolled, hands in pockets, towards him. Looking down at him, poking him with a shoe, she said, "There he was, he didn't know where he was, and he looked so lost and exhausted, you'd swear he was dead."

Lily paused, looked around, as if waiting for something to happen before a quick glance at the Lead Player had her looking back towards Tom, picking him up and dragging him off to a bed which appeared on the stage, "So I said: Pick him up, put him to bed. See that he's bathed and clothed and fed. As I said, how could I foretell he'd clean up, oh, so very well."

Then dumping him on the bed, watching as he woke up with a strange expression on her face, she continued, "Imagine my surprise, when I raised my eyes, and there he was."

Immediately, the first thing he did, was reach for a casket of wine.

"So, stranger in my bed," Lily enunciated with precision, as if, again, this title had been spoon-fed to her, "I'm sure you're curious about where you are, what you're doing here, who I am…"

"No," Tom answered shortly, and there in his eyes, was the lack of will to live that had left him collapsed on the side of the road.

"My name is Lily," she announced, "And I am a young, lovely, time travelling school girl… Who is otherwise rather ordinary."

Tom scoffed, clearly uninterested in anything she had to say even as she rambled onwards, "I own this bed, and this estate, through completely legal and ordinary means, of course. Ordinary, boring, legal means… Which you don't care about at all, good, because I've completely forgotten the backstory."

The keys on a piano were struck, Lily looked up, while Tom simply laid on his back, staring forlornly at the ceiling. Lily muttered to herself, "Right, the musical number, I keep forgetting about that."

Then, singing with a rather unconvincing smile on her face she announced, "I'm your average ordinary kind of woman. Competent and neat, making life a treat. Others as nice, you meet often, I know. At least once or twice, every lifetime or so."

Tom turned further from her, grabbed one of the pillows from the bed and held it over his ear as he turned on his side. Lily however, ignored this as she sat next to him on the bed, "I'm your everyday, customary, kind of woman. Practical as salt, modest to a fault, conservative with a budget, liberal with a meal, just your average ideal."

Then, Lily looked down at Tom, at his back turned from her, "My telling you this may seem sudden and strange. It may not interest you much at all right now, but things change, things change."

Then, looking away rather bitterly, a humorless smile on her lips, she added, "Still, I'll understand if I'm not your kind of woman. Anyone can make, one terrible mistake, and I've no special glamor, no bait I can twirl. For I'm just a plain, every day, commonplace, come-what-may, average, ordinary, wonderful girl."

She let the song end dramatically, standing now in the center of the spotlight and staring out the audience, then, sniffing, she turned back to Tom, "I'm required to sing that, by the way, it's part of the well… The role, I guess you'd call it."

Tom made no move, he laid there instead, as if he was already dead.

Lily took this in, eyebrows raised, and then she stated, "… You look like you're taking this all much too seriously."

She sat on the bed then, considered her words carefully, then said, "Lenin, it's a play."

At this Tom removed the pillow from his head and slowly turned to look at her as she continued, "All the world's a stage it's one great, dramatic… play. Not a very good one, but it's a play none the less."

"Are you daft?"

"No, just time travelling… and ordinary," Lily tacked on at the end, "I am required to consistently remind you of that, lest you forget."

"Forget that you are ordinary?" he asked.

"Yes, that I'm just your average ordinary kind of… Oh you know the song, I just sang it. The point being, I am not alarming at all… To be fair, they did try to get someone more… normal, but alas, it was either me or Hermione Jean Granger."

"Who?"

"She who is not appearing in this play," Lily quickly quipped back with a rather blank look on her face.

Lily sighed, looked at him, "Right, well, I'll leave you to it…"

She stood then, walked away for a little moment and announced to the audience, "And so Lily did wait, and wait, and realize that she had to cultivate Tom's interest in the world somehow. Unfortunately, she ran out of ideas before she even started."

"Tom," Lily said shortly, "You've been lying in this bed for seven days now, what is the matter?"

Tom sat up, glaring, "It is nothing you could possibly understand!"

"Oh, I think I'll be the judge of that," Lily said, he didn't answer and, sitting on the bed with a sigh, Lily then said blandly, "Let me guess, you've been searching for some meaning to your life, some significant action that you can take that makes life slightly less absurd, and though you have tried, and tried, and received everything you ever wanted, you have failed utterly."

He looked over towards her, eyes wide, as she looked back at him with raised eyebrows, "I often have the same issue myself, however, it's hardly worth getting worked up about."

"What?"

"Life, inherently, has no meaning, any attempt to pretend otherwise is simply sad," Lily said, looking at him pointedly, clearly stating, without stating at all, that she found him to be rather… sad.

"No, no, you have gone off script far enough, again," the Lead Player stepped in from off stage, sending a warning glare to Lily.

"Oh, right, was there something about dead Cedric in there, and how that made me sad, and I lay down for five days then got up on the sixth because I had shit to do? I just… I always forget it, it's not a very good line and… and not to him, they've never looked so much like him before and…"

"I don't care how good you think the line is!" the Lead Player exclaimed, running a hand through her hair, "All you have to do is say it, or do you really want us to go replacing you with, Hermione Granger, the time travelling encyclopedia."

"Oh, no, thank you, I am perfectly happy with my existence," Lily interrupted, "I will… Again, right, again."

She coughed, stood dramatically and looked Tom square in the eye, then, with a hand to her forehead she loudly declared, "I, Tom, too, know despair! For you see, when I was nothing but a not time-travelling school girl, Cedric Diggory, the love of my life, died! Slaughtered by a man who looked like a snake. And I wept, held him in my arms and wept, for five days I wept! But on the sixth, when he was still dead, and I was still crying, I got up and realized there were things that had to be done!"

Then, pausing, taking a breath, she straightened and said, "Tom, I'm all alone in this estate, I'm removed from my time, I can't make this work by myself, I need your help."

However, Tom was looking between her and the Lead Player, sitting up with a rather furrowed brow as his eyes darted from one to the other, "You two…"

"Oh, yes, we are technically the same person," Lily said with a nod, "It's… Try not to think about it too carefully."

"But how and… why?"

"That's none of your concern, comrade," the Lead Player interjected, "None of yours to tell either, Lily, you don't need to remind him of the state of the world at constant intervals. It will only confuse him, it is his first time after all."

Slowly then, with that predatory casualness, the Lead Player slunk off stage once again, leaving Lily and Tom supposedly alone, Lily staring off to where she'd disappeared with a strange look in her eyes. Finally, she turned back to Tom, who had seemed to have lost all interest in the world once again, and she let out a deep sigh.

Lily paused for a moment before clapping her hands together, "Right, off the bed, off to work, you have a song to sing about how great you are at… everything. Go off, do it, and I'll be here being… perfectly ordinary."

"A song?"

Lily pushed him off the bed, forcing him to stumble forward almost in a daze, as Lily began to narrate once again as the set changed dramatically, a farmland taking the place of the bedroom while the Lead Player strolled through and observed the set changes, "Well, Tom was finally out of bed, and working, and doing stuff on a farm for whatever inconceivable reason, and slowly he became part of everything."

Tom stood in the center of this ruckus, if possible, his eyes growing duller.

"A part of our everyday lives," Lily continued, offering Tom and the audience a rather forced grin.

Tom, emptying feed for the ducks, spared a glance towards Lily even as the Lead Player hung over his shoulder with a shark like grin, "How often do we do this?"

"Every day," Lily answered, again with that rather false enthusiasm.

"Every day?" Tom repeated, the look on his face saying more than enough.

"Every day," Lily repeated back, her smile, if possible, growing even further and more strained. Tom then wandered off, a rather murderous look on his face as Lily expanded, "At first, Tom didn't show much enthusiasm for the work, but as time went on…"

Tom threw down the silver bucket he had been carrying, kicking it across the stage in a rage, as Lily watched, her smile disappearing as she continued her narration, "He showed no enthusiasm."

Afterwards, clapping one of the working peasants on the back, Tom offered her a polite smile, "Was there anything else today, Lily?"

Lily stared at him dumbly for a moment, blinking, and then said, "Right, yes, there's… The… roof, on the chicken house, it's sprung a leak. Can you fix it?"

"Thanks Tom," Lily said, wandering off with a wave, not even giving him a chance to deny it or rage at her.

"Oh this," Tom said to himself, motioning to himself in front of all of the animals, "This is not who I am, this is… This is most certainly not what I have been looking for!"

With that the piano keys were struck once again, this time in a lilting almost self-ironic melody as Tom started in, "Patching the roof and pitching the hay is not my idea of a perfect day. When you're extraordinary gotta do extraordinary things."

Bitterly, turning towards where Lily had left, he sneered and continued, "I'm not the type who loses sleep over the size of the compost heap. When you're extraordinary you think about extraordinary things."

Motioning to himself again, as if to show to the audience just how grandiose he was, he continued, "That's the reason I'll never be the kind of man who dwells on how moths got into the tapestry or why the dungeon smells."

He sighed then, glaring at the animals surrounding him, "It's hard to feel special, it's hard to feel big, feeding the turtle and walking the pig. It's so secondary, to someone who is very extraordinary like me."

Then clawing at his hair in anger and despair at his surroundings he quickly spat out, "If the moat won't stop leaking, and the goat won't stop shrieking, and the griffin keeps losing its hair… If the west wing is rotting, and our best wine is clotting, well, I'm terribly sorry, but I don't care!"

Throwing his arms out to the audience in desperation he stated, "I've got to be someone who lives all of his life in superlatives! When you're extraordinary, you gotta do extraordinary things."

Tom turned to his surroundings, arms up, as if asking them how exactly Tom Riddle had ended up in this situation, "Every so often a man has a day he truly can call his. Well, here I am to seize my day, if someone would just tell me when the hell it is!"

With one final cry out he demanded, "Oh, give me my chance, and give me my wings, and don't make me think about every day things. They're unnecessary, to someone who is very extraordinary, like me!"

Standing, breathing heavily, staring out at the audience with a blank look on his face, Tom declared, "That's it, I am done, I am getting out of here."

Lily, at that moment, stepped back in with a rabbit in her hands, "And then, Lily's rabbit got sick!"

Tom stopped dead in his tracks, turned slowly, ever so slowly, to look at her and the white rabbit in her arms. He made no movement, no sound, and yet there seemed to be a wave of hatred pouring off of him.

"And it was no ordinary rabbit either, it was Lily's favorite rabbit in the entire universe, and it was the first time she had gone to Tom for help," here, Lily gave him a rather pointed look.

Finally, with a sneer, he asked, "And what, exactly, Lily, do you want me to do about it?"

Lily looked down at the unmoving rabbit in her arms, then across at him, "Say something hopeful, perhaps."

He looked down at the rabbit, back up at her, and said, flatly, "This is a very sick rabbit, Lily… I think it's going to die."

"Oh, that would be very bad," Lily said, her face paling rather dramatically, then coughing awkwardly, looking up at the ceiling, she said, "This is the uh… part where we have sex."

He stopped again, eyes wide, then asked, "What?"

"It's… rather sudden, I've frankly never liked this part," Lily confessed with a wince, "I think it's rage-sex, at first, or pity-sex for my pet Rabbit, it's something anyways!"

She stopped them looked at him, almost in awe, as she quietly remarked, "You know, I do believe you are the first Tom Riddle to complain, most just jump right in."

"We are not having sex," he said, rather flatly, but Lily looked away for a moment.

"Oh, Tom, you'll find… I don't think we have much of a choice," Lily leaned in, a look of warning on her face, "It's in the script, and besides, you've tried everything else. You've tried academics, battle, kingship, your horcrux even had a taste of love or else devotion. Sex is… it's all you've got left, comrade."

"Sex, sex is all I have left," he said slowly, almost uncertainly.

"Sex is all you have left," Lily repeated, and for a moment they stared at each other, waiting for the other to move, then he let out a great choking laugh.

"Don't worry, it's not actually sex," Lily said as his laughter died down, "It's a metaphor, they'll just spin us on a bed for a while, we'll hang out under the covers and ta-da, the illusion of intercourse. After all, it will make no difference to you."

"Make no difference to me? What do you mean?"

She gave him a rather pitying look, "Sex, Tom, is not your purpose."

She held out her hand to him, giving him what was likely supposed to be a sultry look, and motioned rather garishly towards the bed, "So, what do you say, lover?"

For a moment, he said nothing, merely raised his eyebrows, then, with a grin, he took her hand and replied, "Well, if I must then I suppose I must."

Lily pulled him to the bed, where they indeed disappeared under the covers as the bed whirled in place, a sexual act clearly implied to taking place until the pair emerged grinning from underneath the covers, Tom in hysterics and Lily laughing in delight with him.

Finally, the Lead Player arrived on stage once again with a look of amusement that she spared for the pair, "Look, I think we're gonna skip part of this, nothing much really happens, little bit of this, little bit of that…"

The Lead Player gave her nod to the hysterically laughing couple on the bed.

"But, the seasons changed," the Lead Player announced, "As they always do, and the days were filled with those every day things, seeds to be sown, fences to be mended, and finally, a love song to be sung…"

The Lead Player motioned to Tom then, who was giving Lily a rather curious look, as if he himself was not sure what he was feeling as Lily looked fondly back.

The piano began to softly play again, as Tom, almost in wonder sang out, "Sitting on the floor and talking 'til dawn."

"Candles and confidences," Lily finished for him.

"Trading old beliefs and humming old songs," Tom said, that puzzled look on his face only growing as he stared at her.

"And lowering old defenses," Lily finished.

"Singing a love song," they sang in tandem, both as surprised by this as the other, "Love song…"

"Private little jokes and silly pet names," Tom said with a fond disgust, as if he could not quite believe that he had somehow stooped to this of all things.

"Lavender soap and lotions," Lily finished, earning an amused smile from him.

With that same almost disgusted fondness he added, "All of the clichés and all of the games."

Only for Lily to finish, with a rather knowing look of her own, "And all of the strange emotions."

"Singing a love song," they sang in time again, "Love song…"

"They say the whole is greater than the sum of the parts it's made of," Tom noted, taking her hand in his, "Well, if it's true of anything it's true of love."

Looking at her, at her hand in his, he asked, "Because how can you define a look or a touch?"

"How can you weigh a feeling?" Lily asked in return, also looking down at their joined hands.

"Taken by themselves, now, they don't mean much," Tom said rather drily with that quirk of his lips.

"Together they send you reeling into a love song," they said together, "Love song…"

Quietly, softly, the song ended as soon as it had begun, the pair left staring at each other, searching for something ineffable in the other's eyes. Finally, abruptly, Lily announced, "You know, Tom, it's been a year now."

"Hm?" he asked, moving off the bed and placing his shoes onto his feet.

"A year, it's been a year since I found you and brought you here… My, how time flies," she stopped turned to look at him then said slowly, almost with desperation, "You know, you mean quite a bit to me, even in a setting like this you mean… You mean so very much."

"What are you talking about?"

Lily closed her eyes, breathed out, then said, "This has been a good year, for you, for me, I hope we'll have many more like it in this ordinary life we share."

He paused, it was as if he had been struck, a sword through his stomach, then abruptly, he stood, and said, "I must leave."

"Why?" but Lily asked it flatly, as if she had already asked it a thousand times before and already knew his answer long before he said it, as if it had been scripted down in a play whose part Tom had never read but acted out to the best of his ability.

"Because life must be more than this!" he hissed out, looking at her, "This… This ordinary world you live in! I will not waste my life doing the same damn thing every day!"

"And if there isn't, if this is it, if this is… life?" Lily asked but he only shook his head with a fierce desperation.

"No, there has to be," then, more confidently, looking her in the eyes, "I know there is."

He took her hands in his with a sigh, a slight regretful smile, then sang out his reprise, "Rivers belong where they can ramble, eagles belong where they can fly, I've got to be…"

Even as he sang though, Lily stood, closed her eyes and composed herself, shutting him out of mind and thought, but he was already walking off stage, already gone, and then Lily was left in the dark.

She let out a sour, bitter laugh, glanced up at the lights, and asked, "May I have a light, please?"

There was nothing, no sound, no movement, no spectacle on the stage, just Lily herself standing there. She repeated, more desperately this time, "Please?"

A single, solitary, bright spotlight shone down on her, she offered a slight smile in gratitude before shoving her hands into her pockets, staring off to where Tom had walked off the stage.

Then, slowly, softly and filled with regret and nostalgia, she sang out, "I guess I'll miss the man, explain it if you can. His face was far from fine, but still I'll miss his face, and wonder if he's missing mine."

Looking towards the audience, shaking her head, she continued, "Some days he wouldn't say a pleasant word all day, some days he'd scowl and curse, but there were other days when he was really even worse."

She offered a soft nostalgic and fond laugh, then, continuing, "Some men are heroes, some men outshine the sun. Some men are simple good men, this man wasn't one."

Walking slightly, the spotlight following her as she smiled, thinking back on Tom who had so recently occupied the stage with her, "And I won't miss his moods, his gloomy solitudes, his blunt abrasive style."

"But please don't get me wrong," she implored the audience, "He was the best to come along, in a long, long while…"

Lily stopped, shook her head, looked off where he had gone and shouted one last warning, "Oh, what fools these mortals be!"

And then, just like him, she walked off of the stage and out of her role once again even as Tom Riddle, walked on again, for the final time.

"Alright, what's next?" he asked, hands thrown in the sky as he paced the barren stage, "What do I try now?"

He laughed at the emptiness, a hand through his dark hair as he asked, "Didn't you promise me? Promise me something completely fulfilling? Well?"

No one answered, even as he walked and laughed and searched for someone or something that even he couldn't name.

"There must be something!" he cried out, and with that, he turned, as an ethereal humming took place, to the same haunting melody with which the Lead Player had first beckoned the audience into watching the show.

"There is something, Tom," the Lead Player stepped out from behind a green curtain, looking at him with green eyes that almost glowed, "And we've got it."

"The only completely perfect act in our repertoire," she expanded as she stepped closer, gesturing with wide arms as she explained with a grin, "The finale."

There was a great cheer from each of the cast members, ensemble and main cast, and then Tom watched as Grindelwald's old marching tune played again, in a haunting discordant key as the Lead Player and two cast members began their tap routine in celebration and showmanship, the music sped up, the dancing and acrobatics increased until it finally hit a climax, the cast yelling, "Sunup!"

Tom stared, his eyes empty, and finally he asked, "That's it? That's the finale?"

"No," the cast members all said, laughing, and the Lead Player walked towards him, "No, that was just the big build up."

Then, a finger pointed towards his chest, the Lead Player said, "You're the finale."

"Me?" Tom asked and the Lead Player nodded.

The horcrux appeared at the side of the stage, a flaming torch in hand, and looking towards the Lead Player he asked, "Now?"

"Now," the Lead Player confirmed with a nod, then, watched, as with a grin, the horcrux moved towards the center of the stage, joined by a member of the ensemble who also held a torch aloft. Tom backed away from it, face arrested in dull confusion, until he was standing once again next to the Lead Player.

"Tom," the Lead Player instructed, "You will leap from the highest height into the hottest fire."

"Become part of the fire, Tom!" a cast member shouted.

"Engulfed by the fire," another cast member added.

"Become fire itself!"

"And in the flame, you will become the gloriousness of life and death!"

"And light again!"

"Wait," Tom held up his hands, backing up from the cast members who now surrounded him, "You want me to jump and burn in fire."

"Tom," the Lead Player started, moving towards him, placing her hands on his shoulders, "You are an extraordinary human being with extraordinary aspirations and dreams. You, comrade, deserve an extraordinary climax."

"Like the sun, blazing in the sky!" the cast members cheered in unison while Tom, haunted, stared out into the dark pit of the audience.

She then moved next to him, placed her arm through his and looked out towards the audience with an inhuman spark in her green eyes, dramatic music began to play as she whispered in his ear, "The sun, at its zenith."

Then, singing, she beseeched him, "Think about the sun, Pippin, think about her golden glance. How she lights the world up, well, now it's your chance. With the guardian of splendor, inviting you to dance, Pippin, think about the sun."

The Lead Player walked from him while all about him the cast members chanted in excitement about the sun. He stared off into the distance, his eyes dead already.

"It is time, Tom, for you to do something truly extraordinary!" the Lead Player cried out towards him.

"Think how you'll shine!" Grindelwald said as he put a hand on Tom's shoulder, grinning at him.

"Like the glow of morning," Dumbledore finished for him with an equally eager look on his face.

"You will burn in our memories forever!" Slughorn declared as he pointed out towards the audience and the future that resided with them. The cast members echoed Slughorn's words, "Forever!"

"Think about your life, Pippin," the Lead Player continued, whirling back towards him, and taking his hand in hers.

"Days are tame and nights the same," Grindelwald sang into Tom's ear.

"Now think about the beauty," the Leading Player continued, stroking Tom's pale face with one hand, "In one perfect flame. And the angels of the morning are calling out your name…"

"Pippin," they all implored with the Lead Player finishing for them, "Think about the sun."

The music sped up as they all chimed in, circling him, watching as his confidence seemed to leave him entirely as he took in the pointlessness of life, "Think about your life Pippin, think of all the dreams you've had. Think about the moment that's so close at hand. When the power and the glory are there at your command, Pippin, think about your life."

They crowded closer to him, singing in his ears as he stood there, a perfect rag doll of a human being, "Think about the sun, Pippin, think about her golden glance. How she lights the world up, well, now it's your chance. With the guardian of splendor, inviting you to dance, Pippin, think about the sun."

Above him, the bright spotlight still shone, highlighting the paleness of his face and the emptiness of his blue eyes as he took in his surroundings and his fate, "Think about your life, Pippin, think about the dreams you've had. Think about the moment that's so close at hand. When the power and the glory are there at your command… When the power and the glory are there at your command, Pippin, think about your life."

Then, together, one final time, the cast member motioned towards Tom Riddle and everything he was, singing his own words in reprisal, "Rivers belong where they can ramble, eagles belong where they can fly!"

However, Tom, with that blank look on his face, took a step backwards, shaking his head as he sang, "I'm not a river, or a giant bird that soars to the sea. And if I'm never tied to anything, I'll never be free…"

He looked down, straight at the Lead Player, as if seeing her truly for the first time while she ducked her hat lower, as if to cover her face, "What are you looking at, comrade, get on with the finale!"

He grinned then, seeing something in her despite herself, looking around at the stage and his surroundings, "I wanted magic shows and miracles, mirages to touch. I wanted such a little thing from life, I wanted so much."

He stepped past the Leading Player, to where, in the shadows, Lily was waiting. He walked towards her, smile on his face, and took her hand in his, "I never came close, my love. We nearly came near."

He shook his head, still smiling even as she hopelessly smiled back, "It never was there, I think it was here."

"Alright," the Lead Player said slowly, "Alright, you'll see what it's like without us. Take down the tent!"

The crew began to dismantle the stage, the colored spotlights winked out, then, when this was done, the Lead Player turned back to the pair, "Well, that's not too flattering, is it Tom?"

However, Tom no longer seemed to care.

Tom motioned to the stage then, to what was left of it, pulling Lily in with him as, for the first time, he saw what she had always seen, "They showed me crimson, gold and lavender, a shining parade. But there's no color I can have on earth that won't finally fade."

"Fade? You don't even know what she is, you don't even know what play you're in!" the Lead Player scoffed, "Reality is a cold dark place, Tom, I guarantee that you won't like it."

"When I wanted worlds to paint," Tom continued, painting the stage with his hands alone, "And costumes to wear. I think it was here, because it never was there."

The Lead Player turned from them, a stony look in her eyes as she turned towards the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for our inability to bring you the finale we promised. It would seem our… extraordinary young man would like to compromise his aspirations!"

She shot a look of betrayal, of anger and bitterness towards Tom who stared coldly back, but then she turned a delighted eye towards her audience, "But I… I know… There are many of you out there, extraordinary, no, exceptional people, who would gladly trade your ordinary lives for the opportunity to do one perfect act!"

She laughed, grinned and laughed, looked the audience square in the eye as she declared, "And you know what? We will always be there for you, any time you want us. Why, we are right inside your heads. And we promise you sets, costumes, lights, magic!"

None took her hand, there was not even a murmur in the audience, so instead, the Lead Player nodded, looking about the dismantled stage, "So, that's it… That's it, show's over, everybody out."

She held out her hands, empty, as if in offering, "That's it, everybody out. Shut off the lights, pack up the orchestra…"

The Lead Player watched as the rest of the cast left, all but Tom and Lily, center stage in the sole remaining white spotlight. The Lead Player made to leave, then turned, glaring at the orchestra pit, "Hands off the damn keyboard!"

The music abruptly stopped mid chord, the stage emptier for it, the magic of the show now dismantled and only Tom, Lily, the Lead Player, and the haunting shadow of stark and bitter reality remaining.

Still, even without the lights, the music, the illusions, and the miracles, Tom smiled.

Author's Note: Well, that's that. Yes... We got through it, that's the important part.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, it's much appreciated, leave a review if you are so inclined.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Pippin