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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.

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Chapter Nineteen: Caught and Found by nagandsev
Summary: The golden Horklump serves its purpose; Dumbledore chooses Severus as the source to question.
                                                                oOoOoOo

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.*

                                                                              oOoOoOo

With a sharp cracking sound, Nagini found herself and Pettigrew Portkeyed and standing in a dark cavernous space, still holding the Horklump between them. But only for a second.

Instantly, hexes hit them, and her body was thrown back against a wall. She had only seconds to cognitively take in several shady forms before one singular shadow became clearly visible.

Clad in dark robes up to his jawline, the waxy, deathly pale features of a wizard became distinct. The feeble light from sconces accentuated his red burning eyes as he drew slowly closer to her, and Nagini blindly scrambled backwards along the cold stone wall, her fingers clawing in irrational fear for any gap in panic, battling with her brain racing and screaming, Why? Who are you?

She heard menacing laughter echo in the vast chamber and saw another hex hit Pettigrew's collapsed form, laying in the distance, as her back hit the corner wall.

Somehow, from somewhere deep inside her, she found her breath and nerves and screamed, "Why?"

Her adrenaline raced from fear, already causing a deep need to defend herself, prickled throughout her. Being wandless due to the detention rules, her instincts snapped her defense mechanisms within her like a chameleon changing colour—her transfiguration to her Animagus was imminent.

But the formidable, skeletal wizard beat her to it as he leered and raised his wand, his hex hitting her hard.

With a loud, painful crack, she was fast-forwarded to her Animagus self, a rearing, hissing serpent of substantial size. Her reptilian form snapped and lashed at the wizard who only jeered euphorically before slashing his wand at her, sending her serpentine form through the air and slamming her against another wall, deflating any impetus or ability to strike momentarily.

A bare foot was felt on her reptilian neck; her golden snake eyes glared up at the wizard as she silently tried to place her tail behind him, to coil and throttle the breath out of the baleful bastard.

"No. No, I don’t think so, Nagini Malfoy," spoke the omnipotent sorcerer quietly.

And even as her tail slithered upward and found and wrapped itself around his neck to squeeze and snap it, he slashed another wand stroke across her, and she slowly distorted and throbbed, coagulating back into her human form.

She felt a strange numbness throughout her body, unable to move.

The wizard’s slits narrowed, and his taut features twisted to form a cryptic smile.

"I am Lord Voldemort."

His foot was again on her windpipe, threatening to crush it. "Lucretia never spoke of me? Only Grindelwald to you?"

Nagini whimpered in fear, petrified, her bulging eyes begging to answer him.

The Dark Lord locked eyes with her, raised his wand, and with one quick jabbing motion, he penetrated her mind. His razorblade slice cut through any feeble attempt of defense, and she was left utterly malleable underneath him.

The shards of sharp pain coursed through her as Voldemort probed and plundered, searching for something, causing a burning, cascading sensation as the recesses of her mind were thrust open, again and again.

Reeling in her mind flew images from her past: Durmstrang, Dymphna, a dirty, drunken Muggle cursed dead in a gutter, black forests, a crisp, pious Muggle offering food, a bright, clean cottage; a dark, cramped hovel, a sterile chamber, her mother, her mother’s companion Adolphus Rohn—

Voldemort paused momentarily and then with another jab of his wand he probed, and suddenly, all that Nagini could see in her mind’s eye was the image of… Severus!

Time stood still, her mind turned blank, and the only tether of consciousness she then knew was – at some point in the agonizing void – the Dark Lord probing further until his desires were finally satiated, and with a precise jerk, he pulled out of her.

Another hex hit her, and as she blacked out, she heard Voldemort state softly, "I’ll continue with you later… Rodolphus, she’s all yours, my worthy follower."
                                                                                      oOoOoOoOo

Several weeks. Several weeks had passed since Severus found the bodies of Nagini and Pettigrew unconscious at the bottom of a gully in the Forbidden Forest.

After an exhausting night of rooting up Horklumps with Hagrid and then waiting for Nagini at the meeting point, it became obvious to Severus that something was wrong. She should be here...

The dawn's weak rays were slowly filtering through the Forbidden Forest's dense shadows and growth when Severus, Hagrid and Fang started the search.

So in the early morning light, they followed the signs of the trail Nagini and Peter had freshly left behind.

With a marksman's eye, Severus spotted and followed the succession of trodden grass that led to a subtle path made recently by different footsteps. Arriving at a rotted log, he found an almost empty sack of Horklumps. Turning, he spotted what appeared to be an opening through thick Yew trees. As he pushed his way through the evergreens, finding himself encircled, he rushed and picked up a second sack nearly full of the fleshy pink mushrooms.

Severus felt sweat run down his face as his keen eye was drawn to a visible gap behind a large gnarled Blackthorn tree. As he made to go through the opening, he grabbed a branch for balance keeping him from plummeting down a sharp gully directly behind.

Catching his breath from a close accident, he spotted two human forms at the bottom of the treacherous incline. Calling for Hagrid to be careful, he carefully sat on his arse and slowly zigzagged his way down, sliding and pausing at intervals. Reaching the thicketed ditch’s bottom, his chest burned as he knelt down beside one form. Nagini!

She was faced down, unconscious. He swallowed hard and then ever so gently turned her face upward. She’s alive!

Severus called out to Hagrid, "Here! I've found them!"

"Don't!" whispered Severus fiercely as Hagrid lumbered over to the other body and made as if to pick it up. He knelt down beside Nagini's unconscious form. "We need special help. Madam Pomfrey or—" Severus stopped short seeing Nagini’s deathly paleness; her once lustrous mercurial hair was lank and lifeless, a faded dull brown, as if all the vitality had been sucked out of it. She was in a deep stupor, and her face was bruised and cut, seemingly from falling down the steep bush-clad incline.

He gave a look over at Pettigrew’s twisted body and managed to utter. "We might do more harm than good. There might be… internal bleeding."

Just then, high in the sky, a sound was heard, and Severus saw the crimson form of Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix companion, circling above them. In a series of flashes, the phoenix swooped down, and in a blink of an eye, disappeared then reappeared above, only now Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey stood, Apparated, near him and the fallen bodies.

Dumbledore slowly walked over and looked down, his searing glance swept over Nagini’s body, and then his piercing blue eyes held Severus’ for several moments.

"I’ll take over from here, Severus."

Madam Pomfrey gave a quick wave of her wand over Nagini and Peter’s forms. Giving Dumbledore a concerned look, she informed, "I’ll take the boy. See to the girl, Albus; she needs your special close attention." Pomfrey placed Pettigrew’s head and torso firmly in her arms against her chest, and then with a soft pop, they were gone.

Dumbledore stared intensely at Severus even though he addressed the half-giant. "Hagrid, you go back to the castle." He pulled from his robe Severus’ wand and handed it to him. "From Professor Slughorn. Your detention is over. Take this and use it if need be—go back exactly the way you came."

Dumbledore slowly waved his wand over Nagini’s body; a light golden glow encompassed it momentarily and then faded. He then levitated Nagini into his arms and whispered something into her ears before the two figures Disapparated.

Severus blinked, feeling empty and lost. Out of the corner of his eye, something glinted in the leaves under where Nagini's body had lain. He bent down down. It's the ring, the Dark Lord's ring given to Nagini by Rodolphus that day on the train... He carefully picked it up and immediately felt a painful lump in his throat, spreading like fire down through his chest. The Dark charm has been broken... It's able to come off her finger!

Severus knew then and there that Rodolphus had had her.

A wave of nausea rolled over him, and he felt dizzy as the realization sunk in, then the denial, only to be followed by a flame of anger flaring up inside him, clarifying a violent need to get back to the castle... And bash Rodolphus' skull in with my bare hands!

As Severus began to climb frantically back up the cliff with Fang and Hagrid following behind him, Fawkes continued to soar and circle above them.

Severus made for the back side of the ancient gnarled Blackthorn tree and grasped at its trunk and lower branches to pull and steady himself on up and back into the clearing of grass.

As they all reentered and crossed through the circle of Yew trees, there was a flash and Dumbledore stood in the middle. The old wizard’s eyes blazed and he gave a sharp look around and walked directly towards the Blackthorn tree.

His heart pounding, Severus watched as the Headmaster touched the tree as if summoning something from within it and then stood still in a meditative state.

Several seconds passed in silence before Dumbledore suddenly turned around and snapped at him, "Severus, you’ll Side-Along-Apparate with me!" And with that, the Headmaster roughly grabbed him, and within seconds, he was beside Nagini’s bed in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts.

"Look at her, Severus," ordered Dumbledore severely. "Look at her!"

Severus jerked his arm away and scowled in his frustration and suppressed fury as his fingers squeezed the broken, cursed ring. Through his long, lank bangs, he saw Nagini’s limp unconscious body. It had already been cleaned of the blood and dirt, but now the bruises and red swelling were clearly seen. He swallowed hard and felt the blood pulsing in his veins. He just wanted to get to the Slytherin dungeons, find Rodolphus, and—

"What have you to say to this?" Dumbledore peered over his half-moon glasses, his face grim.

Startled, he snarled, "Sir?"

"Who did this to her, Severus? It wasn’t from a fall. She’s been violently hexed several times, suffered an attack. Several attacks. Violent and brutal."

Seething, Severus became glum and taciturn. His breathing slowed down, even though his heart was racing, thumping hard, painfully hard… He could feel his hands trembling in anticipation of what the Headmaster would say next.

Dumbledore paused, watching Severus’ reactions keenly, before he continued, saying, "Nagini has been assaulted. Violated, to be more specific."

As Dumbledore's meaning sunk in, confirming what he already knew but irrationally was trying to deny, Severus felt a wave of nausea roll over him. He felt an involuntary spasm ignite. He lunged over and vomited up acidic fluid; the only content he'd had inside from not eating since the day before.

"Poppy!" called Albus, and the matron appeared as if already expecting this. She waved Severus clean and then the floor before Accio'ing a potion-filled phial.
Severus gave the purple potion a wary look.
"Drink this. Drink this like a good lad."
"No! No," protested Severus, wanting all of his wits, wanting to feel the painful nausea as to remember every bloody detail. Keep my mind alert! He wouldn't be sedated. Not now.
"We insist." The Headmaster’s eyebrows rose and his gaze became somber as he emphasised, "I insist."
Seeing a stern, cold look on Dumbledore's face, Severus forced himself to knock back whatever the hell Pomfrey was offering. He gagged slightly as the distinct taste of caterpillars was recognized. And something else has been mixed in…

"You were seen," continued the older wizard.

Severus sputtered, "Wh-what?"

"I have witnesses that saw you together."

"Who?" he asked in a fierce, desperate whisper. "When?"

"James Potter, Sirius Black, and a Ravenclaw Prefect said you and Nagini were on," the Headmaster paused to find the right word, "intimate terms, after curfew hours in the castle’s corridors... When you all were reported late and missing this morning, they offered, as well as your own Slytherin Head Boy, that perhaps you’d taken this opportunity to be late to—"

"No!" he roared violently, backing away from Dumbledore, shaking. "No… No, no, no…" His voice weakened even as his body did, sliding down against the wall his back hit. "Those bastards! Those filthy, conniving lying bastards!"

"Who?"

Visions of faces flashed through his mind: Potter’s, Black’s, Belby’s, Lucius’, Rodolphus’!

"All of them!" His muscles were now quickly becoming relaxed, and he could feel a heavy sensation of sleep creeping up on him. He shook his head as if to forestall the feeling of lethargy.

"I’m not saying it was you, Severus." Dumbledore peered over his half-moon glasses. "However, I do believe you know who it was."

"Who it was what?"

Dumbledore slowly walked over to Severus. "Get up. Here, let me help you, Severus. Sit."

He indicated the hospital bed nearest to them, and as Severus groggily, shakily sat down, the Headmaster did as well beside him. Severus was trembling uncontrollably.

"Show me what’s in your hand, son."

Severus gripped the broken ring tighter. "Nothing."

"Severus. Please." Dumbledore patiently held his hand out.

Miserable, Severus broke, unable to control himself, hating himself for not being able to, and sobbed in bitter, broken riffs as he handed the cursed object to the Headmaster in a spastic movement through his growing sluggishness.

"It is clear that there was some mischief at hand," the old wizard sighed heavily, "some mischief has indeed been done, Dark and violent, but to what extent it has been done, exactly why and by whom, the consequences of all involved and affected, is what needs to be known."

Dumbledore gave Severus an all-knowing look and asked him, the older wizard’s voice sounding sing-song like to his ears, "Is there anything you wish to tell me about this?" He held the broken ring up. "Voluntarily, Severus?"

Severus strained to keep focused but the Calming Draught with a dash of Sleeping Potion kicked in full force, and he blacked out.
                                          oOoOoOo
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