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A Nagini and Severus Tale	By : MJurjevic Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > General Views: 3508 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Harry Potter Fandom, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Chapter Sixteen: Horologium Ascending – Part One

Summary: Desperate to find a way to be with Severus, Nagini asks Lucius for help. Severus becomes acutely aware that others’ malicious intent towards Nagini is alive and well.

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Selective eyes watched Nagini as she crossed over to the Slytherin table through the hub of the Great Hall during the evening meal the following day.

Bellatrix glared, Rodolphus purred, Regulus and Narcissa smiled but each for different reasons, and Severus followed her movements like a cat tempted by a shiny object as she approached Lucius and asked her cousin if he would speak with her privately.

Staring at her coldly, Lucius considered her request for several moments in silence, causing Nagini to bite the inside of her cheek in anticipation. She had avoided and snubbed him and his cronies as much as possible during her entire time thus far at Hogwarts, but now she needed his help. She felt desperate, and Lucius could smell her desperation. So after making her squirm a bit, he slowly rose and told her, "Follow me."

As Lucius and Nagini walked away together, the Slytherin Head Boy was being watched very closely by his inner circle as well as by the very discontented and suspicious Ravenclaw Head Boy, Marcus Belby, sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Belby was thoroughly put out that the Malfoy chit had already got herself into trouble with the Heads of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff catching her red-handed. She’s already bringing shame to Ravenclaw and no doubt House points will be deducted by McGonagall!

Marcus glared as he saw Lucius’ close mates rise from the table and start to follow where the Malfoys had gone, but his eyes narrowed shrewdly as he fixated on Severus. It’s that Snape’s fault! Cavorting with him, doing Merlin knows what! Belby fretted in insidious contemplation as he watched them leave the Great Hall, stewing in his own juice with pernicious suspicions of what the Slytherins were up to with the errant Ravenclaw.

Lucius led Nagini outside of the Great Hall and down the corridor; they walked in silence towards the Slytherin part of the castle, but before descending, Lucius motioned her to a hollowed side vestibule and guided them inside it.

Raising an eyebrow in cool disdain, Lucius said, "Very well, I’m all yours."

He waited, curious as to what was so important that she had finally sought him out in front of everyone, desperate enough to break some unspoken pledge she had declared to disassociate herself from him since arriving and being placed in Ravenclaw. To say Lucius was miffed was putting it mildly—he was fuming at Nagini’s perceived insolence towards him but had had other pressing things to worry about. Between his upcoming marriage immediately after finishing his NEWTs and impatience to be his own man in all things, especially impatient to finally unconditionally bond with and bed Narcissa Black, there was the increasingly delicate balance of fulfilling and pleasing his father and the Dark Lord in the wily ways of their esoteric world, separate from the mainstream Wizarding one.

His aggravation was only exacerbated by still being stuck at Hogwarts and the daily trivial annoyances of his remaining days and duties as Head Boy as well as being under the platitudinal auspices of Albus Dumbledore daily. The meddlesome, bromidic old coot… The Malfoy heir was about to explode from all of the pressure he was feeling.

Having Nagini so close to him physically reminded him of yet another irritating obligation that would have to be fulfilled at the bequest and arrangement of his father: the settled agreement between Abraxas and Lester Qualmsick, the family's barrister; Nagini was to be Qualmsick’s apprentice, his bonded familiar.

It wasn’t the old magic bonding which annoyed the young Malfoy as much as it was Lester Qualmsick. Lucius had always despised him and his seeming control and influence over his father in certain matters. When I come to power, Lester will be one of the first to… disappear…, brooded Lucius darkly.

Oblivious to everything but her own need, Nagini gulped and then explained, "Everyone is going to Hogsmeade this weekend, but I was informed by Professor Flitwick that I’m not allowed. Abraxas—Uncle didn’t give his permission."

Utterly irked, Lucius blinked at her. "So?"

"I thought if you could—we could—together ask the Headmaster, then Dumbledore would give his permission, as you and he are legally responsible for me as well… if your father is not around…"

"Ah, I see," commented Lucius caustically. "You’ve been purposefully shunning me, but now that you want my help, you think you can just ask for it, and I’ll give it to you?"

"I’ve been trying to fit in—my time schedule, work in the library; we’re on completely different time tables—"

"Why?" asked Lucius, not listening nor believing one word she blathered out.

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to go to Hogsmeade?"

She shrugged. "Just to be with—with my friends…"

"Friends?" Lucius abruptly grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her into the shadowed alcove corner.

"You have no friends, do you hear me? What is friendship—tell me that, Nagini? Hmm? Those freaks you hang out with—Lovegood and Hope, Burbage, Trelawney?" He gave a derisive huff. "What do they know of the true meaning of bonding—pride, wealth, honour—loyalty? Does any of this have any meaning to you?"

Nagini watched as Lucius spouted out his diatribe, and her heart started racing. I only want to go to be with… with Severus… she thought frantically as her gut feeling warned her not to disclose a hair’s-breadth of this to her increasingly livid and irate cousin.

"You’re not even listening to me!" snarled Lucius, snapping Nagini back to the moment. "You shouldn’t be asking about wanting to go to bloody Hogsmeade but rather about what you should be doing for your family—"

"My family?"

"Yes," he spat out, "For my father, for me! How to enhance your place in our world—fulfill your obligations, and it’s not by socializing with your Ravenclaw oddities!"

She raised her chin a bit and answered, "I am a Ravenclaw."

Lucius stilled and then asked in a very quiet voice. "Are you, Nagini? I’ve been meaning to ask you, but you’ve denied me your charming company thus far…," his eyes narrowed, "Remember? You promised me that we would have a little talk, just you and I… You really should learn not to break your promises to anyone—especially me, dear cousin." He pressed her arm tightly. "Did that wretched Sorting Hat offer you a choice?"

Nagini blinked, trying to remember under Lucius’ vitriolic stare. "I—I can’t remember."

"Don’t lie to me!" He gave her a shake.

"Let go of me, you brute!"

But he gripped her even harder. "You asked that filthy rag to put you into Ravenclaw—but you were meant for Slytherin, weren’t you? Why?" he yelled, having worked himself up in a tizzy.

"Really, Lucius, don’t you know that that’s not the way to get what you want from her?" The smooth voice was followed by its owner’s smoother and sleeker form: Rodolphus Lestrange glided near to them. "Either play very, very nice and be very, very patient with the pretty little witch," Rodolphus smiled an eerie smile at her, "or just take what you want. Force her."

"Not now," huffed Lucius, glaring at Lestrange. The blond wizard turned back to Nagini and informed her with a nasty smirk, "You can’t go to Hogsmeade either way—Have you forgotten? You have your first detention this weekend. Any would-be privileges are foregone."

Nagini was speechless; she had forgotten. But how does Lucius—

As if reading her thoughts, Lucius sneered. "I’m Slytherin Head Boy. I know everything…"

He gave Nagini an odd look and added, "You’ve been very naughty, getting one of my top Slytherins ensnared with you and your little escapades."

"What are you talking about?" asked Nagini, playing dumb, as she caught a strange glint in Lucius’ eyes and heard Rodolphus harrumph loudly and announce, "Here’s Bella!”

"My filthy little blood-traitor of a cousin has a big, juicy mouth," jeered Bellatrix, entering from the corridor, drawing close to the trio with Regulus Black close behind her.

Nagini stared at Regulus, shocked and confused.

"No, not me," snarled the youngest Black, "my mudwallower brother… He and his other Gryffindor berks have been crowing about how they caught you and—"

"There you all are," called out Narcissa. "We were wondering where you had taken Nagini, Lucius." She smiled graciously up at Severus, who accompanied her, as everyone stood, silent and waiting for someone to break the ice. Narcissa obliged and asked, "What were you talking about?"

"Just that Sevy here and Miss hoity-toity Malfoy have detention together tomorrow with those filthy Gryffindor vermin," pouted Bellatrix. "Poor, Severus… no Hogsmeade for you either." Bellatrix sashayed over to him. Cocking her head in a curious way, she asked him in a mocking baby voice, "Or is it the good ol’ Hog’s Head you were really aiming for? A bouncy bed and whatnot?" She gave a malicious glance over to Nagini and then threw her head back cackling like a madwoman.

Her heart thumping wildly and face burning in humiliation and shame, Nagini broke away from Lucius and lunged past them all, daring to flee as fast as she could back to Ravenclaw Tower without another word being said or even a look back at Severus.

Severus made a move as if to follow Nagini, but at that moment, Narcissa swiftly turned into him, forcing him to engage in direct eye contact with her. Severus heard Narcissa warn, Don’t! Don’t do it! Danger!, although her lips did not move.

Noting their little silent interaction, Lucius stared stoically at Snape as he crossed over to Narcissa in order to take her by the arm and walk with his fiancée back towards Slytherin.

Giggling insanely, Bellatrix with a wild-eyed, snickering Regulus Black bounded before the rest of them as the Slytherin group made their way slowly towards their common room. Before descending downward, Bellatrix twirled around and with her forefinger pointing back and forth between Rodolphus and Severus, she sang out, “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch the half-blood by her toe. If she screams don’t let her go, Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. My mother told me to pick the very best one, and you are now it!”

Bellatrix’s finger jabbed her fiance’s chest, and Rodolphus began to laugh a dark, deep laugh which she joined in, cackling loudly at some inside joke known only to them. Severus watched in tense silence as Bella abruptly stopped and slowly sauntered over to him. With a challenging look in her wild eyes, she poked him rhythmically in the chest as she taunted, “O U T spells 'out' so out you must go, because the Warlock and Sorceress say so!”

Severus was appalled as Bella whispered fiercely, "Hurry, Sevy, hurry! Before something wicked takes her for his very own!" He looked around at all of his mates, and each one seemed to be waiting for ‘it’ to click.

Vexed, he felt his face burn, and giving Narcissa a fleeting glance, catching her thinly-disguised pained expression, Snape turned around slowly, before bolting away towards Ravenclaw Tower in hot pursuit to find Nagini. The sounds of Bellatrix and Rodolphus’ cruel, jeering laughter spurred Severus on.

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A Nagini and Severus Tale