Chapter 11 The Long Walk

The mood was thick with sarcasm as Harry reluctantly walked Jon thru the corridors. The twisting halls of Hogwarts seemed to calm Harry mentally as he rambled on about where Jon could find various classrooms.

"Over there and down the hall you can find the Potions Classrooms. Make sure you're early, that slimy git Professor Snape..." Harry's voice trailed off as he realized Professor Severus Snape wasn't teaching this year. "What I mean is that normally Professor Snape likes to torture Gryffindors and takes points away if you were late in any way."

"Ah I see" Jon replied. "And what is your first impression on the new potions professor? I already know you are cautious about me."

This threw Harry for a loop. He blinked his eyes and looked like he had been blindsided by a Hippogriff.

Harry started to sputter, "Well, first off, we haven't had any classes with her yet. So I dunno yet. You know what I mean. She is a Snape and I don't trust her due to her nature." Harry then took command of the conversation, "And what do you mean I'm cautious about you. I should bloody hope I would be." Then Harry's voice sounded of accusation; "You're a Riddle!"

Harry's retort didn't go unregistered. Jon calmly turned to Harry in a manner that gave Harry chills down his back. "Don't think Harry that just because of my family name, that I don't know what power and fear that carries."

"You think everything is grand. You think that just because you're inside of these honored halls that evil cannot touch you." Jon drew his voice lower, "I know you know better than that."

Harry swallowed hard and looked defiant, "So what now, I'm a sworn enemy to Voldermort, Tom Riddle, or whatever he stands for. He is in my blood and haunts my dreams. If you even think about standing for…"

Jon simply folded his arms; "Do you trust the sorting hat Harry?"

Harry remembered the problems the hat had sorting himself, but because he decided not Slytherin, the hat put him in Gryffindor, "Well that is a bit more complex of an answer. If you can read minds then you should know what happened there."

Jon turned to Harry and said, "My Uncle is Tom Riddle. Lord Voldermort is the evil he became as he lost his ability to deal with the power inside of him. It is a lot like Jekyll and Hyde. You do know the story don't you or maybe you would like to be more defiant and argue about that too."

And with that Harry's entire mood changed. Jon's arms unfolded. The tone Jon's voice carried was different.

"You see Harry; it all started long ago when Tom was a student here at Hogwarts. He was so very gifted in Potions and the Lot. My mother was a squib, or at least that is what they thought she was. When Tom was 15 was when my family and my grandfather started to notice the change inside of Tom. Tom was spending more and more time here at school. He was naturally a born leader but his desire for power carried him further and further into the madness of his work. He had been close to a few teachers here, but the majority of what he learned was thru The Papyrus of Ani."

Harry muter the words, "The Papyrus of Ani, isn't that the Egyptian Book of the Dead?"

Jon lightened up as he realized Harry was listening, "You are quite right Harry. My Uncle Tom spent weeks and years flipping the pages muttering the incantations to himself. He believed in 'I'm yesterday, I know to-day.' When I was a baby my mother used to chant that to me. You see Harry, I never knew my uncle. I only carry the curse of his name. I have been just like you, in hiding until the time was right for me to fulfill my place at school."

Harry stared at Jon in disbelief. "Harry there is more." Harry only could nod for Jon to continue. They took a seat under the window in a main hallway as Jon's passion grew in the story; "There is a night. The night that everything would be changed for me, for my family, forever. When Tom stared his studies in the Papyrus of Ani, there were countless pages describing the transformation of a human into becoming various creatures. Creatures Harry, you and I can only imagine. There is one transformation of the Serpent Satan that I'm sure you know of quite well. The Basilisk Harry is the one creature you tangled with during your second year here. You need to understand who Lord Voldermort is Harry, the chapter of the Serpent Satan says, I am the Serpent Satan, whose years are infinite. I lie down dead. I am born daily. I am the serpent Sa-n-tan, the dweller in the uttermost parts of the earth. I lie down in death. I am born, I become new, I renew my youth everyday."

Harry stared in disbelief as the sickness inside of his stomach grew and he began to rise from his position, "My god, the Basilisk can be reborn. The students will be in trouble again, I got to tell Dumbledore."

"No Harry. Sit down. The students are safe. You killed the Basilisk the correct way. By killing the diary, in which the Basilisk lived, you killed any chance for the return of that Basilisk." Harry began to sit down as he asked Jon to continue, "But I'm getting ahead of myself Harry. Do you know what Sa-n-ta means?"

Harry shook his head and just as if a bad case of Deja vu happened. Jon waved the letters in front of Harry, the letters changed and shifted in front of them both and formed the word, SATAN. "My god. He sold his soul to the devil." Harry whispered.

"Nah Harry, Voldermort wants to become something. He is becoming the devil." Jon answered.

All the color fell out of Harry's face as he realized what Jon was talking about. The devil, the darkest most evil force on earth was the ultimate power Voldermort was after. Becoming immortal and ruling the earth in terror would be the one thing Voldermort lusted after. "I just never would have guessed that Voldermort would want to become the ultimate evil."

Jon smirked, "Yeah well, try having the name Riddle. It's like being called Satan, without even being given a choice."

Harry felt his throat tighten as he realized how rude he was to Jon only because his last name was Riddle.

Sensing Harry's tension Jon joked, "It is okay though. You kind of get used to it after a while."
"But, when Voldermort decided to battle Tom for possession of his body and soul, a mistake happened." Jon's voice turned serious again as Harry's widened, "Harry, according to the book he had to defeat the one who stood in his way before he could be reborn into the next stage. You are the one he had to defeat. You see Harry you are the key. The ancient magic your mother had born into your soul made you special. The power inside of you merged you and Lord Voldermort together bound by one destiny, one prophecy. That sealed Voldermort's fait and he was torn in two. He was then bound to walk the earth as a dammed nomadic spirit, until he became reborn into his final stage, but he also had done something else before he attacked you and your family that night. About a year before he came after you, he was able to almost fulfill another much darker desire for himself. Tom hated his family more than you know Harry. He had killed off most of his blood heirs before the night he came after you, my mother was the last Riddle alive when he killed her."

Tears began to well up inside of Jon's eyes as he thought of his mother. Harry offered Jon his kerchief as the emotion began to pour out of Jon. "It was horrible Harry, "Jon sobbed, "All of my family was killed such a very long time ago, my grandfather and my uncles all had been murdered by their own blood, even their extended families while they slept in their beds. My mom was a SQUIB! Why did he have to take her? He sent his deatheaters to murder her, she wasn't even awake! She was stabbed once in the abdomen and once in her back. She was paralyzed and the shock sent her into labor. My father walked in from work that night to see his wife dying and his newborn son stuck inside of her womb. In a last ditch effort she told my father to cut her to try to save me and in the process he had finished the job the deatheaters left. In the process of being born, my mother died. I was whisked away and given my father's last name of Clift. It was only this past year I realized I was a Riddle. My father raised me in the protective custody office of the MOM." Anger began to build behind Jon's fierce blue eyes, "Well, Voldermort had better be ready for me I am an orphan, made by him and I will do whatever it takes for him to regret his big mistake."

After calming down the darkness of Jon's voice lifted. It was now Jon's turn to swallow hard, "There is something else."

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"There is a chance for us to defeat Voldermort but I will need you to help me. The Book of the Dead clearly states 'Death is only the beginning…' "

"But Voldermort has been reborn, he is stronger again, are you telling me that he needs to kill you in order to move on?"

"No Harry, he will need to kill us. Just as the Book of Death is a beginning so is The Book of Life."

Harry and Jon shared the uncomfortable silence as the Main Hall Clock chimed Nine PM.

Harry jumped up and said rushing quickly down the hallway, "It is getting late, come on then. We need to be getting back to the Common Room before Mrs. Norris catches us."

Busting out into a full sprint to catch Harry, "Ha-a-a-rry wait… what is a…. Mrs. Norris?"

Rushing down the corridors Jon and Harry ran up to the portrait before the Gryffindor Common Room. Just as the portrait opened up an out of breath Jon put his hand up blocking Harry and stated, "Promise me Harry you will not talk about this to anyone and you will let me teach you how to cloud your thoughts and how to enhance your abilities."

"I know what it is like to be hunted and if you can help me, then I will help you with anything. That is what a true friend does. That is what any Gryffindor will do for each other, especially me." Harry stated like a natural leader.

"Then we will unite and grow together then." And with that simple understanding, Harry and Jon entered the Common Room not as boys, but they became men united in the same cause.

Elsewhere deep inside of the Forbidden Forest an old and mystic voice rattled out, "Death is only the Beginning…"