I've been thinking of a story like this for a long time, but haven't had the motivation/time to write it. Nagini and Severus are both really interesting and complicated characters when not in humor fics, and therefore pretty difficult to write; he's probably a little OOC.

About my other three Death Eater stories... I'm not ditching them (got drafts of the second chapter for two of them), but I have precious little time to write fanfic in November. Those of you who are doing NaNoWriMo (challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month) will understand.

Enjoy!

There was the knock at the door. Again. Severus groaned; it was one o'clock in the morning. Couldn't the idiots leave him be? He didn't answer the repeated knocking, but whoever it was opened the door anyway. It was locked, but not by magic, and alohomora was a simple charm.

Severus didn't try to sit up from the hospital bed; the bite wounds throbbed enough already. Even though they weren't injected with venom, they took long enough to heal. Severus closed his eyes and pretended he was asleep. His brain wasn't fully awake yet. Maybe he could slip back into the beckoning drowsiness and deal with this in the morning…

"Ssseverus," a voice hissed; soft footsteps made their way to his bed. Now Severus' eyes opened, wide, his body tense at the sound of the voice.

I'm dreaming, he told himself. This isn't real. She's dead. I'm dreaming…

"Severus, look at me," the voice said sharply. If it had been Lily's voice, Severus would have been on his feet at once. But this wasn't Lily. Of course the deceased come back to haunt him couldn't have been those whom he wanted to see.

"Sorry, the bites you gave me tend to get in the way of any neck movement," he snapped, still not willing to face her, even if he'd acknowledged the fact she was in the room.

Slim, graceful hands appeared in his peripheral vision, one on his chin and the other on his neck as they twisted his head to face their owner. Severus winced, gritting his teeth to avoid crying out in pain. He felt a few of the stitches in his neck come loose, ripping against the torn flesh; his eyes darted wildly before landing on the face of Nagini.

She was paler since her last transfiguration, her skin a bit greener, her form slimmer and her hair dark and long. But Nagini's face was still the same, her eyes grey-gold serpentine, with a slim nose and thin lips; but she was pretty in her slow, snakelike way.

"How the hell did you get in here?" Severus whispered, wincing again as he spoke, the way his vocal cords moved at the base of his throat.

"How the hell do you think?" Nagini said, her voice a hissing whisper of grief and cold fury. Severus noticed a thin white scar across her neck - all the way across her neck, where he was told Gryffindor's sword had removed her head from her body.

"Why are you alive?" Severus continued, even though every word sent jolts of pain down his spine.

"I'm alive because of magic," Nagini snapped. "You, Severus, are alive because I spared your life. The Dark Lord would have had me kill you."

"You didn't do much better," Severus snarled, remembering the way the blood had streamed from the four fang wounds. He vaguely registered the way Nagini referred to her supposed master, Voldemort, as 'the Dark Lord' now, a sign of respect she had never granted him when he was alive.

"You're alive, aren't you? I could have killed you in a minute," Nagini hissed.

"But you didn't." And the unspoken question: why?

"You were a traitor," Nagini continued, ignoring him. "You are a traitor. Hell, it was so obvious, even from the start. I could have let the Dark Lord know - I could have convinced him you needed to be disposed of. I could have killed you from the very start. I could have stood aside and let the Dark Lord kill you when he doubted your loyalty. I was the one who convinced him to let me bite you that night… it's because of me you're alive." Granted. Severus never tried to deny it. Nagini's eyes narrowed.

"God, Severus, I should have killed you," she spat. "You miserable trai…"

"You didn't seem to have a problem with it when dear old Vol…" Severus began, but he never got a chance to finish; the back of Nagini's hand came in sharp contact with his cheek. Spots appeared in his vision as pain shot down, embracing every fiber of his body.

"I would just kill you now," Nagini hissed, her voice barely audible although her mouth was right beside his ear, her lips tickling his skin. Not that he paid that any mind - his mind was too busy focusing on the blood that had started to run onto his shoulder. "I would just kill you now, but there's something you have to do for me first."

Severus smiled, somehow, and muttered, "What's the point of that, if you're just going to kill me after?"

"I won't kill you after," Nagini hissed, pulling back. "It's something that will take many nights to complete, and after it's finished, I'll leave you alone."

"Or I could just call for the Healers."

"Not before I snapped your neck, you couldn't," Nagini said sharply. "Severus, I've saved your life hundreds of times. I've taught you Parseltongue. You've taught me how to read on the Dark Lord's orders. It's time you give something back to me, before we disappear from each other's lives forever."

She was right, in a way, not that Severus would grant her the victory of recognizing that.

"All right," Severus hissed. "What do you want, pray tell?"

"You're going to turn me into an Animagus," Nagini said, glad that he'd got the message. "And you're going to do it properly, or I will kill you."

Yes, that would take many nights. Depending on the frequency of her visits, it could be months. And if it took months, time would pass, and eventually she would no longer have the threat of death hanging over his head.

"How do you know I won't simply kill you once you hand over your wand?" Severus asked. He didn't bother asking where Nagini had got the wand.

"I don't. Just remember what I said thirty seconds ago," Nagini said. "I've saved your neck so many times. You owe me one."

"Then you really hurt my neck," Severus said. Nagini ignored him.

"You'll do it, then?" she asked. Her voice was still calm and balanced, but her snakelike eyes pleaded with him.

Ever so slightly, Severus felt himself nod.

"Thank you," Nagini's voice portrayed only a hint of gratitude as she surveyed him. Severus was hardly in any condition to be casting spells. "I'll come back soon," she said, "with instructions. Don't summon Aurors." Severus would have groaned if talking didn't hurt his throat. He wasn't that stupid - he would have to tell the Aurors that he'd talked, almost bargained with Nagini if he was to turn her in.

Nagini lifted her hand albit awkwardly in farewell as she strode toward the door. Severus sighed, closing his eyes as he heard the door shut. He hadn't shaken off all traces of the Dark Lord yet.

I stopped writing about halfway through and picked it up again a week later, and I'm hoping no one will notice... anyway, review!