A Future Riddle

The Yule Serpent

Jessie loved her new residence. Her private room was in the dungeons and offered no danger of sunlight whatsoever. Inside her room was a large four-poster bed decked out in blood-red. There was also a small cooler as well as a dresser and a closet. It was obvious that Dumbledore had seen to her room, because the cooler was stocked with bags of blood. Her bathroom was amazing too. It had a large hot tub complete with perfume faucets and fluffy blood-red towels. When Jessie had first entered her room, she had felt a ridiculous need to jump on the bed like a giddy school-girl. Luckily, in Dippet's presence, she had managed to curb her desire.

With Dumbledore's permission, Trixz was given free reign of the school. Dumbledore had quelled Dippet's anxiety by reassuring the old bat that Trixz would be useful in ridding the school of its gnome infestation. Already, with Jessie just beginning to unpack her ancient travel bag, Trixz had scampered off to explore. The cat seemed as happy to be in the school as Jessie.

The whole atmosphere of the castle was joyous. It was practically impossible to not be affected by the holiday spirit going around. The House Elves had set up decorations everywhere. Seeing the enchanted mistletoe and the gigantic heavily fairy-lighted Christmas tree had made Jessie's dead soul soar.

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On the Eve of Christmas, Jessie had been in her new classroom setting up various Defensive Dark Arts objects when none other than the object of her pained curiosity had silently appeared in the doorway.

Tom Riddle had consistently been absent. Jessie had never yet seen him at meals or anywhere for that matter. When she had inconspicuously asked Dumbledore which students were staying, he had assured her suspicions that Tom was in the castle. Where in the castle however, always seemed to be where she was not.

Jessie's senses warned her that she was being watched. Quickly, she pivoted and met the eyes of the dark haired stranger leaning lazily against the door frame.

Tom was almost as pale as any Vampire, and his sharp cheek bones and handsome features made him all the more formidable, but what caught her attention the most was his devilishly glowing emerald green eyes. She had always thought of black or Voldemort's red slits when picturing the face before her. The intense green was mesmerizing and Jessie found herself getting lost. She quickly snapped out of it and shook her head smirking when she realized why he was staring at her so harshly. The silly boy was trying to pry into her mind!

She gathered her defensive mind blocks and using a nonverbal legilimens spell, said Boo to the Young Dark Lord.

He quirked an eye brow at her. "Boo back." He finally said as he calmly glided into her classroom. She waited patiently as his eyes took in the various objects she had displayed. He seemed to be assessing her and probing for weaknesses. Jessie thought this a little premature, but maybe he deserved more credit then she was giving to him. After-all, she had already underestimated Grindelwald. It would be foolish to commit the same mistake twice Jessie reasoned.

When he had finally tired of pretending to look around the room, he turned to Jessie and said carefully, "I wanted to meet you before term started and introduce myself. Always interesting to know what the new DADA professor is like."

Jessie didn't like at all the way he was so confident in his use of the word "what". Did she just go around with a big sign saying, "Hi! I'm a Vampire. Why don't you all tell me about it?" on her back?

Tom advanced up to her and held a hand out. Jessie remained with her arms crossed and face impassive. Tom smirked slightly and let his hand fall indifferently.

"Tom Riddle, Sixth Year Prefect," he said smugly, knowing that he was grating on her nerves.

Jessie remained emotionless and said in a flat tone, "Jessie Pandora. But you shall address me as Professor."

Tom sensed that she was going to be stubborn and wisely retreated. On his way out however, he said with his back facing her, "Yes Professor Pandora."

Jessie remained where she was with her arms crossed for several minutes after he had left. It was certainly interesting meeting the annoying, arrogant future badass of the Wizarding World.

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Christmas day started early for Jessie. It had been decades since she had been forced out of bed in the actual daytime morning. Professor Dumbledore had somehow convinced the traitorous Trixz to berate Jessie until she awoke. With Trixz continuously pouncing on her as she tried to sleep, Jessie had eventually caved.

Before leaving her room, Jessie slipped on her large black wizarding cloak over her usual outfit of faded jeans and a black sweater. She didn't want to risk accidentally passing by any windows and smoking up the hallway.

As she traveled through the vast dungeon corridors and passed a section of particularly damp gray stone, a figure emerged from seemingly beyond the stone. It was none other than the heir of annoyingness himself.

His devilish eyes lit up at seeing her and he quickly came into step with her and said, "Happy Christmas Professor. I didn't think it was safe for you to be out and about right now, but I was obviously mistaken."

His biting remarks brought a smile to her face. So it was a challenge he craved for? A challenge he would get.

"Oh, it's not. I do hope you don't accidentally get cut. With the two of us all alone down here, who knows what could happen?"

"I'm sure the great and all-powerful Dumbledore would arrive before anything got too out of hand." His voice cracked with hatred as he spit out the deputy headmasters name, but he regained his silky voice and devilish glint as he added, "and wouldn't that be a pity?"

Jessie was almost thankful that they had arrived at the great hall before she had to answer. He was definitely NOT trying to bring out the best in her. And any more of their "little talk" and she might have snapped his arrogant neck.

Quickly leaving him to sit up at the head's table, Jessie was greeted by Albus who took her hand and wished her a very merry Christmas, and indeed it was.

The Great hall was beautiful in all it's holiday splendor and the breakfast affair was amazing in its variety of foods. Unfortunately for Jessie, she didn't really eat food anymore. It was like trying to eat grass as a human. It just didn't work.

Dumbledore kept her occupied however and surprised her when he said, "By the way, I'm sorry I forgot to inform you, but with all the excitement over Grindelwald's defeat, it's a little understandable." Jessie nodded politely and waited for him to continue. "Every year, Hogwarts has its annual Yule Ball. It was a tradition started by the Triwizard tournament many many years ago, and the students liked it so much that it became a Hogwart's tradition. As a teacher, I expect you to attend and chaperone the kids. Make sure their hormones don't get the better of them and all that fun sort of stuff!"

At seeing the look of horror on her face, Dumbledore misinterpreted it and said jovially, "Have no fear! It's completely at night. It starts at 7:30. Don't be late my dear! And do try and save me a dance." With a last twinkle, Dumbledore excused himself and left Jessie to her misery.

Jessie spent the remainder of her day asking the other female professors if they had a spare dress she could borrow. Finally, at 7:10, with no hope of acquiring a dress in sight, Jessie sighed and transfigured her black cloak into what she hoped would be a presentable dress.

She had made it floor length and form fitting. As for design, it was held up by spaghetti straps and showed off a good portion of her back. The fabric wasn't great, but overall, with the materials she had, Jessie felt unusually proud of herself. She completed her outfit by transfiguring her combat boots into black heels and doing up her golden hair in a somewhat tidy attempt at a bun.

After getting Trixz's purr of approval (which might have been bribed out by a bag of blood), Jessie left her room and nearly flew to the Great Hall where everyone had already entered. She was only ten minutes late as she pushed open the doors and had to endure the stares of all the students and professor's who were already seated and enjoying their meals.

She ignored the stares as she quickly made her way to her seat next to the beaming Dumbledore.

As she sat, he leaned over to her and whispered, "You look amazing tonight my dear. Don't forget to save me a dance."

Jessie could only nod. She didn't know whether Dumbledore was teasing her, serious, or a combination of the two. Knowing Dumbledore however, she assumed it to be the latter.

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After pretending to pick at her food for the past twenty minutes, Jessie looked up to find several couples already on the dance floor. As her eyes unknowingly scanned the room for Slytherin's heir, a hand lightly tapped her shoulder. It was Dumbledore suggesting with a wink that it would be easier for her to search for someone if she actually got up and started with her duty as chaperone.

Jessie shot Dumbledore a quick smile and headed off for a perimeter sweep. She quickly found herself forgetting the dark hared wonder as she was asked to dance by quite a few of the seventh year boys who kept asking her why they hadn't seen her before. When Jessie got to the part about her being their new professor, they usually opted to imitate a fish and discontinue the dance. After this happened several times, Jessie found it wiser to inform them after the dance had ended to prevent a traffic accident.

It was while she was dancing with the Gryffindor Quiditich Captain, a muscular blonde boy of about seventeen named Sean Patterson, that she felt a cold hand on her shoulder. Before she even knew what was happening, and Sean for that matter, Jessie was in the arms of Tom Riddle and Sean was being forced/danced away from them by a burly seventh year witch.

"Oh. What a surprise Ms. Pandora." Seeing the glare she was shooting him, he added with a smirk, "My, that black dress is stunning with your complexion."

"Of course it is Riddle. Now, would you care to explain yourself to your professor?" Jessie was about to boil over any second now.

"No." Riddle said simply as he twirled her before she could address her indignation. Enjoying her anger, but realizing he was pushing it, he continued, "I'd rather explain myself to Jessie, or..." he suddenly pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear, "Jinx."

That did it. Without thinking, Jessie pushed him out of her personal space and grabbing him by the collar dragged him outside to where a garden had been set up on the grounds.

Once they were safely out of earshot and eyesight, Jessie roughly pushed him onto the ground and with her game face coming on said in a low growl, "How is it you know so much about me Tom?"

It thrilled her when he cringed slightly at the way she had said his hated muggle name.

If seeing Jessie in game face scared Tom, he didn't show it. He simply picked himself off the ground slowly and dusted himself off. Ignoring her completely as he did so.

Finally, he turned back to her and she saw that his smirk was firmly back in place as he said, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Jessie finally came to her senses when she saw him smirk. It reminded her that while the teenage Riddle might be sure of his prowess and abilities, it was she who held the upper hand, and she who had the ability and the motive to kill him where he stood. As the seconds ticked away, and the two stared at each other, Jessie pondered the idea and decided it was the opportune moment.

A calmness seized her and she slipped back into her human features. Slowly, almost sensually, she advanced up to him. Riddle seemed puzzled by her sudden turn in behavior and kept tense.

Jessie didn't stop until she was close enough to smell his scent. It reminded her of evergreens. Her dad probably would have sneezed just by being near the kid, Jessie thought with a laugh. Her dad had been extremely allergic to evergreens.

Riddle stood his ground and seemed confident enough to wait for her to make the next move.

Jessie had been formulating her plan and had decided on distracting him by kissing him and then stunning him with her wand. She would then finish the job by draining him dry. Unfortunately, as she got closer she couldn't help but look at him.

He was so handsome in his black dress robes with his hair slicked back that she began to have second thoughts. Maybe she didn't have to kill him? Maybe she could just talk him out of destroying the world?

Before she could determine a plan of action, Riddle stepped in and grabbed her around the waist pulling her into a deep kiss. Ignoring the shock, Jessie kissed back. Her cold lips were almost on fire at his touch and his fingers scorched where they made contact with her pale back.

Before the kiss could get too passionate, Riddle pulled back and with a satisfied smirk said, "I hate enchanted mistletoe, you never know who you're going to be forced into kissing. Oh well, for a Professor, you weren't terrible. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a prior engagement that must be attended to. Do try to have a little more self-restraint with the other students."

With one last look of triumph, Riddle bowed calmly walked away from the royally pissed-off Vampire.

Jessie had just been made a fool of by a teenage Wizard! She took a few moments to collect herself and then headed back into the Great Hall where she snapped at any students she saw were being too friendly. Eventually, Dumbledore begged her into a two step but Jessie just wasn't in the mood. She was too angry with herself. She apologized to Albus and excused herself, saying she wasn't feeling very well. Too much exposure to daytime she reasoned with him.

Once in the safety of her room, Jessie transfigured her clothing back and fell on her bed. She stop her body from quaking anymore than she could stop her eyes from tearing a few moments later. For the first time since she had been turned, Jessie wept. She knew she was being childish, but she couldn't help it.

No one beat Jessie Pandora at her own game, but Tom Riddle just had, and it frightened her. For the first time since she had come up with the incredible idea of defeating the Dark Lord before he became Voldemort, she doubted herself.