A Future Riddle

When You Were You

"You don't understand Albus! He needs to be eliminated!" Jessie paused a moment in her rant to crack the hospital wing door open and check on the young pain-in-the-butt Dark Lord. He looked to be asleep, but Jessie could hear his pulse and knew he was listening in on her and Dumbledore. His smooth white face emotionless, but his dark brows were slightly knit together in concentration, betraying his otherwise Oscar-worthy performance. She didn't really care though, better he heard it anyway.

"He is a danger. By allowing him to stay here, you're putting all the other children at risk. I'll go to the board of Governors if I have to, but he is NOT going to get away with this!" She glared at her colleague and dared him to argue.

He did not disappoint.

Giving a sigh, Dumbledore calmly stated the obvious, "I believe you Jessie, but that doesn't change the fact that you have no proof. If you take this to the Governors, there's a strong chance that they will look into your record as well and come to the conclusion of your true nature. That, of course, will mean your resignation."

"It doesn't matter! I just want him gone! Gone from Hogwarts, Gone from England, GONE FROM THIS PLANET!" Her eyes flashing amber, Jessie took a deep breath and said in a softer tone, "Albus, you know we have to do something. Grindelwald is nothing compared to what this young man will become. We CANNOT allow this to happen. Please...please, help me."

Dumbledore considered her for a moment. Finally, laying a hand on her shoulder and gazing into her blue/green orbs, he said, "What would you have me do my dear?"

Jessie opened her mouth to thank him, but was quickly interrupted as Dumbledore continued in a somber, deathly serious tone that didn't seem to suit him at all. "But I will not kill a student, nor will I allow anyone to do so."

Jessie stood there a moment in the empty hallway, mere feet from where the future Voldemort lay, and pondered how to save the world as it would become without further intervention. It was a grave and monumental task, not to be taken lightly, so Jessie told Dumbledore after a few minutes, "I'm not sure yet...Come back after sunset, I'll have decided by then."

At seeing his questioning look, Jessie added, "I'll stay in here with him and Madame Reynolds and make sure nothing happens. Could you fill in for me in class?"

He nodded, "Actually, this is a great opportunity! I'll get Minerva to sub for me in Transfiguration while I take your class. I believe she's ready. She's been itching for a while to student teach, she told me as much at the dance last night."

Jessie stood there for a moment in awe. Had the dance really only been last night? Surely it had been a few years ago? -at least that was what it felt like. Shaking the dark thoughts of the previous evening from her mind, Jessie gave Dumbledore a small smile and said, "I'm sure she'll be great."

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Jessie stayed out in the dreary, torch-lit hallway outside the hospital wing until she could no longer see Dumbledore's sparkling purple robe. Grimacing, she turned around and strode into the equally dreary hospital setting.

Glancing at the dreary bed she had been in only an hour before, Jessie couldn't help but feel that the dreariness was following her. Perhaps, subconsciously, she was in fact bringing it with her.

It seemed appropriate however, for how could there ever be any happiness anywhere, if Fritz was gone?

Swallowing the grief, the pain, the ...rage that threatened to consume her dare she look upon the cause of all this, Jessie quietly sat down on her bed and stared lifelessly out through the magically tinted windows. Dumbledore's doing of course.

Riddle had the courtesy to not pretend to wake up as he sneered, "You're not going to cry, are you?" He adjusted in his blindingly white bed so that he was sitting up.

Jessie spared him no reply and simply let her mind try to find some comfort in the dark blue linings of the gray clouds -even though she knew them to be puffy white clouds with shimmering silver linings beyond the protective tint of the windows.

Riddle continued to taunt and condescend to her. Jessie's new found numbness seemed to be driving a stake through his heart. Finally, at the point of extreme agitation, (he would have cursed her, but Dumbledore had confiscated both their wands) Riddle asked, "Are you ever going to tell me how you found out about my life, my intentions, my secrets?"

At last, Jessie turned to him and looked him over. It appeared to Riddle that she had just discovered his presence. His blood boiled at her indifference.

For her part, Jessie loved to feel his blood pressure soar. She basked in it for a moment before slowly saying, "When you're ready for it. I promise to tell you. But not before, and certainly not now. You have earned no favor from me." Still in her slow, calm monologue, Jessie continued, "At this moment, I would like nothing better to snap your neck."

Riddle's quickened heartbeat did not show on his face. The boy was a master at controlling his fear, Jessie had to give him that. "What ever happened to the lovely ripping my heart out and letting my carcass boil away in a vat of bubotuber puss? I must say that I found that visual imagery to be far more stimulating."

What a funny thing to be afraid of child of darkness, Jessie thought as she said, "That it may be, but nothing compares to the simple pleasure of feeling a spine crack beneath your fingers." She let her Vampiric features slip to the surface and licking her lips, murmured, "I can just...feel it...right now."

Riddle paled visibly, but his features remained nonchalant.

To be afraid of something you have never experienced...Jessie continued to stare evilly at the boy as she summoned Trixz to bring her a bag of blood.

Trixz arrived a few minutes later with a small bag of the dull red fluid gripped in her jaws. She first serenely jumped onto Riddle's bed, where the future Voldemort gave a small start, and then, quick as a flash, jumped to Jessie's bed and presented her master with the bag.

Jessie gently took the bag from her beloved cat's grip and violently ripped open the bag with her ivory fangs, allowing the cold, dead liquid to gush and spurt. She finished the small bag in several hideous gulps and languidly licked up the last drops, stroking the soft cream-colored fur of the purring Trixz with her other hand as she did so.

She purposely took her time and made sure the horror and disgust were prominent in Riddle before she lazily looked up at him and smirked, "So you want to be evil?" She let a frightening smile come across her demon facade, "You want to be powerful..." She gracefully stood from her now blood-stained bed and, faster than the blink of an eye, appeared directly before the surprised boy. Leaning down over him so that every speck of blood, every shadow of wickedness was evident on her face, Jessie whispered, "You want to live forever..."

Riddle scurried away from her in panic as a mouse might a cat. A look of mingled disgust and fear marred his otherwise perfect face.

He stammered, "No..no.no. no." Feeling more secure a little ways away from the frightening spectacle Jessie made at the moment, Riddle came a little back to his senses and finally said in a shaky voice, "I'll not be robbed of the immortality I have planned!"

Jessie laughed. A truly contorted and otherworldly laugh as her demon vocal chords seemed well beyond the human range.

"Silly, foolish, scared little boy. Did you really think I would offer you the Dark Gift?" Again, Jessie appeared immediately before Riddle as if she had apparated, though Tom knew that was impossible as Hogwart's wards would prevent such an act.

His back against the wall, Riddle was unable to escape as Jessie said in a rhetorical drawl, "Why on earth would I want to spend eternity with you?"

Grinning wickedly, Jessie leaned toward the now still, quivering Riddle and let her fangs caress the skin above the throbbing vein on his neck. She felt Riddle's heart race in fear and...excitement?

Not the reaction she was looking for. Jessie backed up a little from Riddle and let her features slip into human form just as Madame Reynolds came in from her office.

"Is everything alright dears? I just glanced up and noticed neither of you in your beds." The portly older woman asked in concern, her eyes growing a little wider as she rounded the corner from her office and witnessed her patients proximity.

Jessie turned from Riddle's ashen face and giving a reassuring smile, said, "Oh yes. I'm sorry to bring you from your office. Mr. Riddle and myself were simply having a talk. A lot is going to change for him in a very short while, and I wanted to be sure he fully understood the consequences of his decisions."

Madame Reynolds looked confused for a moment, but seeing nothing physically wrong with either of them nodded and journeyed back to her office saying, "If anyone can make a good decision, I'm sure Tom will be able to." In a quiet murmur to herself that only Jessie could hear, the old nurse added, "Such a charming boy. He'll be Headboy next year."

Jessie shook her head in wonderment. Ah, the naiveté of people! Jessie slowly turned around again to stare at the boy/young man in front of her. In his own way, he too was naive. Perhaps more than most.

They continued to regard each other. Neither maliciously nor in hunger, just seeing the other for what they were. Finally, Riddle asked, "What have you and the jolly Professor decided to do with me?"

"Well, Dumbledore says I'm not allowed to kill you. Though, if I were to do that right now, I'm not sure how he could stop me."

Riddle pressed his back further against the wall and whispered, "It'll mean the end of your pathetic existence if you do so, are you really prepared to void your unlife just to make sure I die?"

"I'm more than prepared." However, instead of advancing forward once more as Riddle anticipated, Jessie backed up and let Riddle by her. "Unfortunately, a very old magic keeps me from going against Dumbledore's wish."

Reaching his bed and flopping down on it, Riddle smirked, "You owe him a life-debt."

The blue in Jessie's green eyes sparkled as she stared at him, a smirk playing on her ashen lips. "You have so much potential."

Mild shock on his behalf, and then, "You're changing the subject." But he didn't seem to mind.

"Asking questions you already know the answer to is pointless and unbecoming, a change of subject was in order. Back to where we were before the good nurse interrupted," Again, Jessie moved faster than the human eye could follow, and the next thing Riddle knew, she was gracefully lounging on her bed, staring at him intently. "Why is it you fear death so?"

"Is that what all that was about?"

"No, I also enjoyed seeing you squirm."

Riddle scowled at her mirth and said, "So, you're telling me that you never feared death... back when you were mortal I mean."

Jessie thought for a moment and said, "Not really. I knew, just as I had known nothing before I was born, so I would know nothing after I died. That made living so much sweeter. So much more precious. It made death like a finish line, a prize to receive after all my efforts were completed." Her face darkened and she added in a voice laced with spite and passion, "But that prize was ripped from me, just as it has been ripped from so many others who have died before their time."

Riddle looked at her in disbelief. "So you would rather die a mortal death of old age than live a thousand years?"

"Of course! A life without death is no life at all. After a while, it becomes meaningless and empty. You become a shell merely existing. That is why so few Vampires have ever lived past a lifetime or so."

"Well, what about you? If it's so awful, why don't you just jump out that window right now and burn in the sun in a blaze of ashen glory?"

"Ah, but that's the thing. I still have a purpose."

In a voice of feigned disinterest, Riddle implored lazily, "And what would that be?"

"To prevent a great evil from rising and killing so many others before their time. Before they've had a chance to live and experience life and enjoy their families." Thinking of the Potters, she added, "Before they've had a chance to feel home, and love and the joy that comes from a world of magic incased in a time of peace."

Riddle's mask of disinterest evaporated and he was left with the horrible light of realization gracing his dark features. "So you've come to stop me."

"Above all else. And I will succeed. Whether it be by your death, or by you seeing the error of things not yet come to pass."

"But if what you're saying is true, then I've already succeeded and all your efforts are in vane. I will become Voldemort."

"No. As the saying goes, the future is not set in stone, it's what we make of it, and like I said earlier, you have so much potential." In the blink of an eye, Jessie was once more near Riddle, this time on his bed, her face a mere foot away from his. "You don't have to be a dark lord."

Riddle sat unmoving and stared at her in almost rapt fascination and a new consideration as she went on, "You could be just as great as a wizard of light. Minister of Magic, Headmaster of Hogwarts, Wizengamot appointments...all these are within your reach, and much more. Why throw it all away? Just because your dad abandoned your mom and your mom abandoned you? WELL GUESS WHAT TOM! YOUR MOM CHOSE DEATH! She wasn't murdered! She chose to die when her love wouldn't have her. She knew when she poisoned his mind into loving her that it might end up that way. It was her choice. She didn't want, nor would she have wanted you to exact revenge on your father for this. You're taking everything out of proportion and twisting it around so you can have someone to blame for all the suffering you endured as a child in that awful orphanage."

Riddle's pale cheeks reddened as the blood rushed to his head in anger. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT!"

"A lot more than you do. And let me tell you something-Living forever and making others miserable will never take away the pain. Only moving on and making a peace with yourself will do that!"

For the first time since she had met him, Riddle let his mask completely slip to reveal a confused, defeated young man. Finally, Riddle looked to her and said, "When did you become my ghost of Christmas future?"

Jessie gingerly laid a cold hand on his shoulder. "When I found out that you were you...and you were real."