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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
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Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Of all the trees that grow so fair,

Old England to adorn,

Greater are none beneath the Sun

Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.
(Puck of Pook's Hill, by Rudyard Kipling, 1906)27
                                                                                                        oOoOoOo
"When I said you needed a distraction—when I asked you to keep an eye on Nagini, I didn't mean for you to...," Lucius searched for the right phrase, his cool grey eyes peering into Severus' black ones, deliberating his choice of words, "get involved with her intimately."
Snape didn't blink or move but sat stiffly in his Head Boy's plush armchair that graced the Prefect's quarters. As if he'd been Petrified, he stared back solemnly at Malfoy, masking well his inner thoughts.
Lucius sighed heavily, and his lips pursed tightly as he made his decision. "Severus, I've been more than generous with my favours to you all these years," he put his hand up in defense as he pressed his point, "of my own accord, and I've had no regrets... until now."
The blond wizard slowly walked over to his ample bed and began to undress in front of the taciturn housemate. When bare from the waist up, Lucius flicked back his long hair, turning around to Snape, and pointed out matter-of-factly, "She's been marked by and for others. So stop before you continue anything further." He crossed over to in front of Severus and sat on the edge of his massive writing table, bracing himself so that his muscular arms flexed in his pose, and whispered fiercely, "Immediately!"
Severus had learned well to parry and ignore Lucius in all of his dubious, duplicitous ways and intentions.
Lucius ran a hand through his hair and gave Severus a challenging look. "Well? Say something, Snape!" He impatiently sniffed. "I'll take your silence as a complete agreement."
Still, Snape sat without moving or speaking. Seconds went by in silence. Lucius began to glare at him and his jaw clenched in growing tension. "Rodolphus... and the Dark Lord have claimed her—"
Severus croaked out, "She chose me! Nagini chose me!" His voice was weak but his eyes flashed in anger at Malfoy.
Lucius jolted up and paced around, clenching and unclenching his fist. "What I'm about to say, I mean with all sincerity for your well-being, Snape," Lucius noted that Severus' eyes now gleamed with attention, "Don't. Be. Stupid."
To emphasise his point, he grabbed Severus by the arm. "Nothing... and no one is worth risking the displeasure of the Dark Lord."
Severus snarled, "Even Narcissa?"
Lucius' eyes narrowed. "Cissy is not your concern." His expression hardened. "Just as Nagini is not your concern."
Feeling an innate cruelty to push his point, Malfoy reminded Severus, "She wears their cursed ring—bewitched until Lestrange has had her." His grip tightened so much that Severus winced, and Lucius continued, "It was either Nagini or... Narcissa, in repayment of my... access to Bella. A reciprocity of sorts." He gave Severus a defiant look. "You will not interfere with their intentions regarding Nagini. Your path and hers are never to cross other than as schoolmates in Hogwarts—do you understand me? Her path has been decided upon by others, and it has nothing to do with you."
A soft knock on the door caused Lucius to loosen his grip on Snape's arm, as well as soften his voice, as the blond wizard repeated, "Do you understand, Severus?"
The knock became louder, more insistent.
"There's always Guinevere, willing and able to amuse you... or...," a caustic sneer appeared on Lucius' face, "or your little Mudblood—one swish of your wand and Evans is yours." Impulsively, Malfoy offered, "I'll do it for you—"
"Lucius...," a voice was heard from the door, which opened slowly, and Severus turned to see who was entering, his pulse racing in expectation of coming face to face with Lestrange and feeling a wild surge to strangle him. But it wasn't Rodolphus who slipped in and stopped in the doorway—it was Regulus Black.
Dressed in a sleeping robe, Regulus stared at Severus in surprise.
Malfoy huffed, miffed and restless. Shooting Snape an indignant look, he motioned to Regulus, saying, "Come on in. Snape was just leaving."
As Black casually sauntered over and lazily stretched out on the bed, Lucius reminded Snape as he left, "You've been warned."
A lump in his throat, Severus gave his two Slytherin housemates a fleeting glance before he left without further ado, leaving Lucius and Regulus to their own devices and privacy.

It wasn't the Forbidden Forest's undergrowth that raked Nagini's nerves, nor even the incessant, nervous twirping of Peter Pettigrew pecking away at her patience as they brushed and poked under thick shrub growth in the moonlight, searching for mutant Horklumps.
The main part of her irritation was the cursed ring on her finger annoying her; it had been tightening on and off all evening, and she had an almost uncontrollable need to scratch around it. In order not to rub her skin raw, whenever she felt the urge to dig her nails into her skin around the metal, she would fiddle with her mother's necklace she wore to distract from the horrid ring.
But on top of this, more intensely bothering her and putting her nerves on edge, was Severus' changed behaviour these past few days. Something was wrong, very wrong, and she couldn't put her finger on it, but his apparent avoidance of her confused her. Whenever she saw him, his eyes looked at her just as intensely as whenever he had kissed her, but ever since the evening of the ambush by Belby and the Gryffindors, ever since he had said goodnight afterwards and kissed her goodbye in front of the Ravenclaw door, his dismeanour was stiff, formal—cold.
Trying to catch him privately to talk, she had lingered down beside Ravenclaw Tower's steps in the evenings this past week as long as allowed, hoping that he would make a secret appearance. That not happening, Nagini had loitered after classes in the corridor leading to the Slytherin's dungeons and dawdled in the Great Hall after each meal, watching and hoping that they could both accidently-on-purpose meet each other. But nothing had occurred. They had only exchanged a few brief greetings in the hallways between classes, and 'I'll contact you when I can' was all Severus had further offered her in a quick hushed whisper two days ago.
So when Professor Flitwick announced that her detention would be that Saturday evening with the other guilty students, she couldn't wait. At least I'll be able to talk to Severus and find out what's wrong; what's troubling him!
Their detention to look for and gather magical fungi this night under Hagrid's charge was monotonous, but having been paired up with Pettigrew while Hagrid kept Severus with him was more and more tediously taxing. "Best not to put yeh and Severus together, yeh see, nor Severus and yeh," Hagrid had informed her as well as the nervous Gryffindor, who was glancing back and forth from Severus to Nagini.
"Now, yer lot'll be collectin' these mutated sorts o' Horklumps, well, all kinds—whatever yeh find—Madam Pomfrey needs their juice for her healin' potions. The thing is, they grow in dark clumps; yeh'll be manually diggin' and pullin' 'em out o' the ground under shrubs and whatnot. It's dirty hard work, but someone's got ter do it." He gave them a knowing look. "And that someone is yeh three. Plus me and Fang. We'll divide up."
Hagrid gave Pettigrew a supportive look and then turned to Nagini. "Sirius told me that yer good around snakes. If yeh run into any errant Streelers or Runespoors, yeh'll know what ter do," he pointed out, giving Nagini a nod.
"Why would Black say that?" she asked defensively.
"You're a Parseltongue!" squeaked Pettigrew. "I heard you. We all did—"
"And where exactly are the other Gryffindors?" asked Severus through gritted teeth, cutting him off.
"Oh, they'll be doin' a separate detention, once Lupin is up and about. There were six o' yeh, so the professors decided to split yeh up in two groups o' three. And I decided to split us up in two groups o' two." He gave Fang a fond look. "Well, two and a half and two."
Severus made a derisive sound, which Hagrid ignored as he announced, "So it'll be yeh and me, Severus, with Fang. Peter, yeh with Nagini. Extra points if yeh come across a Velebetian Horklump," he handed out huge canvas-clothed sacks to each of them, "and after yeh've unearthed them one by one, toss 'em into yer bag. We'll meet back here at dawn."
"At dawn?" squeaked Pettigrew. "But that m-means we'll be here all night." He peered around into the murky forests apprehensively.
"Well, yeh should o' thought o' the consequences o' yer actions before goin' around, throwin' hexes at each other. As if yeh haven't better things ter do." Then Hagrid with Fang beside him turned around and headed off in one direction, only to stop and call out, "Come along, Severus!"
Nagini's heart leapt and then fell as Severus only gave her a quick glance, but not a word, before following Hagrid, leaving her feeling worse and full of more doubts than ever before.

And so it was hours later, after Nagini and Peter had slowly sauntered deeper into the Forbidden Forest's woods, they managed to find a thick growth of Horklumps and proceeded to root them out of the dark earth under the bright moon's light. Well, Nagini was doing it; after two or three samples, Pettigrew sat lazily on a half-rotten log lying in front of what appeared to be a circular thicket of Yew trees behind him.
Nagini pulled the muddy fungus she had her fingers wrapped around, carefully feeling and gripping around its tentacles with her other hand, and gave Peter an annoyed look. She huffed and gave another tug, unearthing it. "You're supposed to be helping me, Pettigrew! Our detention remember?"
"But you're doing such a fine job without me," commented the smug Gryffindor.
"You think you're so clever, don't you?" she quipped, throwing the Horklump in her half-full bag.
Peter said in a small voice, "Well, I am. I'm more clever than you know."
Nagini frowned. "Alright, so you're clever. Now, will you help me? The sooner we collect enough, the sooner we can finish this and go back and wait for them. Your bag is practically empty, in case you were too clever to notice."
Peter opened his mouth to retort but stopped, frozen, as a soft hissing was heard, followed quickly by two other hisses.
Runespoors! thought Nagini, recognising their distinct sounds immediately.
"Pettigrew, don't move! Just be still." She took a step closer to him and saw the magical creature behind the boy's back. She concentrated and softly hissed, asking the Runespoor to move away and leave him alone, that they meant no harm.
The three-headed serpent agreed and then unexpectedly gave Nagini advice. "Yonder where the Yew trees fork, a rare Horklump lays... In the heart of the Blackthorn tree, one Horklump like none other! Take it, and you'll need no other... It's medicinal juice is the rarest of the rare... but you must be quick! It's magical power is so great that it can will itself to move through space! Hurry!"
"How did you know we were looking for Horklumps?"
"We've been watching you," said the centre head of the Runespoor, "You humans are a loud, noisy lot... but you are not all human are you, my dear?" And with that, the three-headed creature slithered off, leaving Nagini unnerved by its last comment.
Looking alarmed then relieved, Peter gasped, "You saved me! What—what did you say?"
Nagini blinked in thought, still stunned by what the Runespoor had just said, and then slowly she answered, "I just told it to leave you alone and go about its business."
"And it did it? It listened to you? Just like that?" Pettigrew stood and looked Nagini up and down, as if seeing her for the first time. "You're that powerful? I owe you—"
Nagini felt a sick feeling in her chest, seeing him gawp at her in awe. "I'm not powerful!" she snapped. "I'm just a regular parseltongue—I'm normal. It's not a big deal." She hurried to point out, "You don't owe me anything—just help me, follow me—stay by my side before something else almost happens to you." Nagini gave her half-filled sack a tug and hitched it over her shoulder. "This way."
Gods, how she wanted this night to end! She wanted to find and get this special Horklump, return to the meeting point, hope that if what the Runespoor said was true, the rare medicinal fungus would appease Madame Pomfrey and help refill her stock enough to not have to repeat this detention. She would think more about her interaction with the Runespoor later, for most of all she just wanted to hurry back and have some private time with Severus before returning to the castle. She felt like she would never be alone with him again.
She stepped through the Yew tree thicket with Pettigrew near her, and they found themselves upon a bare open patch of grass, circularly surrounded by the evergreen grove—except for one very different tree.
"Look!" exclaimed Pettigrew, seeing the object of interest before she did. Across from them, a gleam of gold shone brightly in the moonlight. The Gryffindor bounded towards a knarled old Blackthorn tree incongruously standing twisted and sinister within the Yew circle. In the centre of the ancient tree was a large golden mushroom-like object.
"Wait, Pettigrew! Don't touch it!"
"You want it all for yourself?"
"Don't be stupid—it might be poisonous! I've never seen one of these in Professor Sprout's class, have you?"
Pettigrew stopped in his tracks, conceding, and waited until Nagini caught up with him; they both cautiously approached the tree until that stood before the golden entity.
"Is it...?" The runt of a young wizard raised himself on his tiptoes to see better. "A Velebetian Horklump? I don't know what one looks like."
"Neither do I," whispered Nagini and squinted as she observed it closer. The Horklump had, what appeared at first, the typical black bristles which usually covered and identified it. "It's not poisonous because it has the dark bristles..." She poked it with her finger for good measure. Then she touched it more gently. It's texture was soft and it's skin shiny. Nothing happened.
But as she stood face to face with the fleshy fungus, studying it, she saw that the black patterns weren't just inlayed bristles but were tiny lines of... Runic symbols? She whispered, "It seems to be..." Nagini stopped and tried to remember what she had learned thus far from studying Runes and world Runology. No... it's a... a saying or a spell of sorts... But some of these runic patterns... It's not a Nordic one, but it's a... Witches in England would place them on objects in olden times for... protection? She sighed frustrated. Where is Xenophilius and Hibiscus when I need them?
Staring at the Runic symbols, suddenly, Nagini remembered a childhood rhyme:
Evil return to the one who sent thee

For me and mine are now set free
No, not a rhyme... a spell? Her forehead furrowed in thought and flashes of her mother's face, light from a spell being cast, and then Dymphna came to mind—her old caretaker's face and voice was sensed so strongly, as if she was standing near, whispering the words into Nagini's ear. She closed her eyes, simultaneously touching and holding the necklace Dymphna had given her from her mother so long ago and whispered aloud:
Evil return to the one who sent thee

For me and mine are now set free

No hurt nor harm can enter here

For my life and way are now made clear.*
"Here now, what are you up to?" asked Peter nervously.
Nagini's eyes flew open, and she reached up and touched the protruding symbol. She pulled at the fungus; it's texture seemed to toughen under her touch. But also it appeared to move a wee bit. She felt compelled to tug at it, loosen it more. But it still wouldn't come out. "Pettigrew, help me. Just tug on that side, and I'll on this one—we have to pull as many of its tentacles out as possible to unattach it!"
They worked their fingers around and under the exotic magical fungus, huffing and puffing until, simultaneously, they pulled it out. Holding it together, admiring the mesmerising golden Horklump, they barely realised what they had done when a flash of light burst forth from it, and they were Portkeyed away to a spelled destination.
                                                                     oOoOoOoOo
A/N: *A Celtic Protective Spell from The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, as contributed by Jacqueline Paterson, date unknown.
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A Nagini and Severus Tale