Vernon swings, hits.
Her chest caves, breath stolen, ribs cracking.
He's shouting at her but she's learnt to block it out. Thinks about Hedwig and magic, the feel of sun on her face and snow beneath her bare feet and a world that isn't pain but happiness.
She passes out, must have, because she wakes out in the cupboard with her tongue wet with the taste of iron and her left eye so swollen shut that it feels alien on her face. She spits, grimacing at the clump of blood and saliva that dribbles awkwardly on dry lips and wipes it on her sleeve. She's dehydrated and her throat feels like cotton and shaved iron as she swallows.
It's only the third week of the summer holidays and Harry looks down on her thin long fingers that won't stop trembling and realizes that if he keeps it up, Vernon will have killed her before her fifteenth birthday and there's absolutely no one out there who can be bothered to care.
She makes a noise, hand reaching up to drag through messy hair and grimaces at the fuzzy buzz beneath her fingers from where Vernon had shorn it all off on the second day back. She's stick thin, her face sharp beneath her fingers and when she lifts her collar her chest is so flat that her breasts has shrunk to barely nothing.
She doubts anyone would recognise her as Harry Potter if it weren't for the scar, red and burning beneath the pads of her fingers.
She listens, trying to pinpoint which time it is. The house is silent which means that either the Dursley's are out or it's night time. No puttering or huffing from her aunt, no loud television or the crunch of snacks from her cousin, no rustle of paper or complaints from her uncle.
She wonders if Petunia has wiped the blood from the kitchen table yet or if she expects her to do it.
"He's going to kill me." She tries the words out, rolls them carefully in her mouth. Her knuckles are bruised knobs on her hands and she stares at them. Imagines her wand gripped in her right, the feel of magic in her blood. If she had her wand she'd be able to get out. She'd run somewhere - anywhere. Scar up half her face and hide the lightning bolt in the mess of it. Colour her hair and leave for good.
She closes her eyes. Can practically hear the click of the lock and the taste of fresh air on her like the greatest burning relief that spreads through her-
Click.
The burning fades, dies, leaving her exhausted.
Harry stares at the door.
Fumbles, finds the knob.
It opens with a twist of her hand.
The bathroom is small but no-one pays her any mind when she slipps inside and the muted chatter of the patrons in the small fast food restaurant is a buzz barely registering at the back of her mind. She's wearing a stolen hoodie and she lowers the hood of it, wincing at the sight of herself in the mirror.
It's even worse than she'd expected. Her chin razor sharp, her nose awkward and pointy and her eye too big over sunken cheeks. Her left is so flushed shut that it looks grotesque and there's pus weeping from an infected wound by the brow. She reaches out and the merest touch of her fingers makes a stream of pus and blood fall. She wipes it away hurriedly with a pad of toilet paper.
She needs to sterilize it or she risks the infection spreading to her eye and taking it with it.
She fumbles for the zippo in the riff-raff of things Dudley kept in his pockets, stares at it.
She leaves the bathroom smelling of seared flesh. It mixes with the ooze of the burgers and no one pays any head as she slips out, trembling hands pressed deep into her pockets and an ugly burn marring the left side of her face, hidden by the darkness of her hoodie.
She doesn't dare to visit Gringotts.
The idea of someone recognising her, the fear of being put back into the hands of her relatives, makes her leave that part of London - fleeing to the dirtier parts. She scavengers trash bins for food, nearly sobbing with relief as she crams half of an old brown apple into her mouth and chews desperately. The juice, the soft flesh - it's such a relief to her stomach that she laughs wetly into her knees as she slides down the bricks and collapses on the wet ground.
The saviour of the magical world sobbing over a rotten apple.
It's a fucking joke.
The first few weeks she checks the newspapers daily. Digs them out from the trash bins and flips through them - keeping track of the dates as she licks grease from her fingers. But she's moving constantly, getting further and further from the depths of London until she's standing on the edge of a forest, paper dangling from her fingers.
It's an idea.
It might be a stupid one but no one would be looking for the Girl-Who-Lived in the middle of a fucking forest and she's tired and thin. There's a stolen backpack hanging from her shoulder and there's something terrifying building inside of her - something daring.
She breaks into a farm - steals a large knife, a smaller one. Scourges until she finds rope and thread, a saw and a club. She finds a half-empty bottle of coca cola which she empties and a smaller one she sticks onto the side of her backpack. Finds a large metal dunk and grins at the sight of it. She pulls out drawer after drawer, pauses. Stares long and hard at the gun she finds inside with two packages of shells.
She pockets those as well.
She finds a fleece blanket which she stuffs into the backpack, a large sized jacket made to stave of rain and shrugs it on, absolutely drowning in it, and a cap with faded words which she pulls over the growing strands of black hair on her head. Pulls on two thick woollen socks she finds and ties the heavy boots as tight as she can.
She vanishes as silently as she had arrived, a shadow in the night.
It's cold and dark in the forest but having spent half her life in a dank cupboard without light she finds it surprisingly easy to navigate deeper into the forest under the low light of the moon creeping through the dense branches.
She walks for hours until her weak body decides that enough is enough and she collapses and buries down beneath the roots of a tree ripped from the ground. The earth is wet but she draws her hands into the sleeves of the jacket, tucks her neck down the collar and pulls the fleece around her shoulders and curls up to sleep as best as she can.
She wakes up mid-day, wiping sleep from her eyes.
She knows she needs to find water and establish some kind of camp but she wants to be far away from civilization before it becomes permanent. She also needs food and she shoulders her pack up and keeps an eye out for edible roots and plants from herbology, chewing some stale bread from the depth of her backpack, knowing it won't last forever.
Thankfully it rains often in England and it's easy to find puddles of water and she drinks it with relish, filling both plastic bottles up and carrying them along. It's on her ninth day that she finds a small lake of water that makes her eyes widen and her bag drop to the ground. It's absolutely perfect and Harry is giddy as she crouches out in a rock and peers into the depth. Little fish glitter beneath the surface and she knows - she knows she's found the perfect place to put up camp.
She makes her actual camp a bit from the fresh water lake. It's too open for her to be fully comfortable setting up beside it but she fills the metal dunk and drags it along with her until she finds a small clearing with thick canopy ahead which will help keep the rain from falling on her.
She hunts for sticks and dry grass, makes a fire with a click of her zippo and feeds it until its burning properly and makes a little raise from two bigger branches and places the dunk on it to boil and remove bacteria from the water.
She breaks off and collects larger sticks and starts propping them up into a makeshift tent, using rope to tie them near the top and keep them from being blown down. She pads the space between them with clumps of moss and fries fish caught by spear over the fire, eating with relish.
It nears the middle of autumn and berries joins the roots and fish diet and she's got a routine of fetching and building a proper pile of firewood that she stores in the tent to keep dry the days it rain to make sure she can make a new fire.
She gets clever with traps - catching rabbits which she skins after trial and error. She gets lucky one day with a beehive and despite the many stings she's grinning at the end of it, feeling accomplished as she licks honey from her fingers.
She puts flesh back on her bones but it turns to slim wired muscles from hard work and her breasts remains small. The reflection in the water turns less grim, happier. The scar is ugly but it hides the curse scar and she comes to like the girl reflected back at her.
She keeps her hair short, shearing it off before it climbs past her ear. It gets stringy and disgusting despite the baths in the lake if she keeps it longer and it's handier, crammed beneath her hat.
Winter comes. Food gets scarcer. She snares rabbits and eats her dwindling stock of roots and dried berries. She's shivering more than she's not but she's determined and edging on desperate the day she catches sight of the deer grazing some ten feet away from her she knows that it's time to get the bigger prey.
The moon is full above her - casting light that catches in the icy crystals below her. Her breath mists in the cool air and there's a pounding in her chest, a stretch of something foreign and welcoming that becons at her with every step, slowly closing in.
Her nose flares, eyes dilating as she sinks lower and lower, until she's practically on all four and-
Then she is and her teeth sinks into a soft neck and there's blood in her mouth and a dying screech beneath her and she holds it and shakes her head with instincts that slithers through her like an old friend and after a long struggle it finally stills beneath her.
She eats the flesh warm and steaming from death, barely chewing as she rips chunk after chunk that disappear down her gullet with gusto. Afterwards she licks her chops and clean blood from her paws where it's spilled and somewhere in the back of her mind she thinks wolf.
It's easier to keep warm in her animagus form and it opens up an entire new world of smells and opportunities.
A year ticks by.
Two.
In the back of her mind she's aware of the danger of spending too much time as a wolf and less as a human but it's easy to ignore when she's crouching through the underbrush in spring, her eyes pinned on an grazing elk. It's her largest pray yet and there's with a darkly curling hunger she licks her chops and she presses her belly closer to the ground and moves slowly forward.
Its ears prickle and she stills, wind blowing towards her, hidden in the tall grass.
It looks around but then lowers its head back to the grass and she tenses, ready to lunge-
Something large and impossibly long lurches out from the opposite side of the clearing, wrapping its long thick body around the elk and sinking long fangs into the neck of the elk before the animal have time to realize what's going on. The venom must be fast acting because it lurches, falls, the snake (and it is familiar, so so familiar) hissing in pleasure.
§Tonight I'm going to feast§ it hisses, tongue flickering. Its attention prickles and Harry freezes in place when golden slitted pupils narrow upon her. §Little Wolf§ it hisses. §You better stay away from my prey§ It opens its mouth wide in warning, revealing rows of teeth, and Harry takes a slow step backwards as her body twists and changes until she's a dirty human girl crouching on all four.
§I won't take your prey§ she hisses back.
The snake rears in surprise. §You speak?§ It unwinds slowly from the elk, gliding closer to Harry who remains still as it raises its body to peer at her, eye to eye. §What kind of creature are you to linger out here in the woods on your own?§
§One that is more wolf than human§ Harry tells her, both curious and wary of this large magnificent creature. §It is my home§
It hisses lowly. §I am Nagini, Little Wolf§ It winds around her, trapping her and Harry takes care not to tremble. §Why chose the vast forest as your home, hm? I know how you humans crave companionship§
§I got tired of the humans§ she tells the great creature. §All they do is lie and hurt§
Nagini reers. §You're a clever Little Wolf§ She buffs Harry's face carefully. §Clever enough to be allowed a piece of my meal§ The snake decides.
Harry buffs her face back, hissing her thanks.
Nagini becomes a strange addition to her life after that, coming and going as she pleases.
Sometimes Harry will happen to her in the middle of a hunt - sometimes when she's feeding and sometimes the enormous snakes drops down from the middle of absolutely nowhere and scares her half to death.
Sometimes Nagini is waiting for her back at her tent or, depending on the weather, crammed entirely inside it or sunning herself outside it.
The lake becomes a frequent haunt during late spring, summer and early autumn - Nagini sunning herself on the large rocky cliffs or half-drowning Harry by coiling over her shoulder with her large heavy body easily pressing the much smaller human down with a hiss of laughter.
She becomes better at anticipating the sudden surprise attacks, snapping back as she dances away from enormous fangs on light paws.
Summer turns to Autumn, Autumn to Winter.
Nagini appears one particularly cold night with a blanket in her mouth and curls around her trembling wolf form with a hiss and holds her until morning when Harry has to struggle to unfreeze her aching limbs.
Nagini isn't overly impressed by her. §You're a witch§ she hisses. §You don't need a stick to warm a rock to curl against§.
Harry asks her to help her choose a good one.
Spring comes with a whisper in the back of her mind and a displeased Nagini who visits her as Harry is sitting naked by the lake, contemplating.
§My Speaker is being a very silly human today§ Nagini informs her, curling around her bare body to bask in the miniscule of sun peeking down at them, §I wish I had words to tell his followers to stop hiding and start helping but they are all being ridiculously unhelpful§ Nagini had snapped at their ankles when they came hurrying out of Tom's office and all it had made them do was speed up instead of turning back.
§Snake-In-Disguise and Pretty-Words aren't back yet?§ Harry inquires.
§No§ Nagini hisses sulkily.
Harry pets her head. §Poor, poor Nagini§ she hisses.
Nagini shoves her into the water with a sharp heave that makes her go tail over nose with a yelp.
Summer comes around and Harry is sprawled out in the sun, intimately entwined with Nagini. Coils around her, between her legs, pillowed beneath her head and a large head resting on top of her chest between her breasts.
This is how she first comes face to face with a human for the first time in almost three years.
Though, human, might be a relative term.
§Nagini§ The voice is lower than Nagini's, huskier, but no less sensual. It's also vaguely surprised, perhaps intrigued, and Harry cracks an eye open along with the reluctant snake on her chest.
Voldemort is leaning against a tree near her tent watching them both. His eyes are just as red as she remembers, his skin just as pale. Some forty, perhaps fifty years old in his skin, neatly combed dark hair on his head. He stands in black robes, his feet as bare as her own against the forest floor.
§Tom§ Nagini hisses back, her coils shifting and tensing with movement. §Did something happen?§
Harry shifts but Nagini coils tight, keeping and down and trapped amidst her heavily muscled body, apparently content by the shared warmth of her skin and the sun and unwilling to relinquish it.
§Narcissa informs me that you have not been in the mansion for weeks§. Both Harry and Nagini blinks at that and Harry realises that it's probably true. It had been unusually hot and Nagini had lingered to enjoy it after they hunted down and dragged back a buck each to feed on. She'd been heavy and content and Harry had never denied her company.
Nagini hisses, a low noise. §We were sunbathing§ the snake informs her speaker.
§It looks pleasant§ his eyes linger for a second on bare breasts and the glittering coils over naked hips but Harry has lost all sense of modesty, meeting red eyes head-on when they finally seek her own. §I was unaware you were entertaining visitors... Care to introduce us?§
Nagini flicks her tongue and from her position and flitters over a perky nipple. §Tom, this is Little Wolf§
§Little Wolf?§ he echoes, raising a brow.
§It is my name§ Harry says, knowing that the name Harry Potter is sure to earn her a death sentence.
Tom jerks in a way that's entirely unbecoming a Dark Lord. §You speak?§ he demands, taking a sudden and violent step forward. §Nagini, you did not tell me you'd met another speaker!§ His voice is low, warning in its tenor.
§Little Wolf is mine§ Nagini hisses back, rearing her entire upper-body. §I found her! She's my snakeling!§ Harry understands abstractly that she's suddenly become the ward of an enormous snake with enough bravado to challenge the Dark Lord.
Tom pauses, tilts his head, eyes sharp. §Snakeling?§
Harry doesn't understand the pitch of his voice, the emotion in his face, but Nagini is coiled tight and it makes her hackles rise and she struggles until Nagini tenses enough her with enough force to steal her breath away and she has no choice but to comply in her hold or be strangled.
Tom watches it all with unreadable eyes. §Mine§ Nagini warns, mouth opening, teeth bared in warning.
§I will not hurt your snakeling§ And he puts a strange emphasis on the word. §I was merely surprised, that's all§. Nagini slowly relaxes enough that Harry can struggle into a sitting position, Nagini's head drawing back, coils shifting until her head came to rest on her shoulder.
§So you are the reason Nagini has been complaining less of my absence§ Tom says finally, studying the dirty human child naked in the coils of his long-time friend. She's young, short shorn black hair curling by the ears, her hips slim and her breasts barely a handful. She's got all the signs of having spent too much time as an animagus - it's visible by the yellow irises, the peak of her ears and the sharp points of her fangs behind pulled back lips. It's in the curl of her back, as if she's about to fall on all four and run. The cocking of her head as she listens.
Little Wolf, Nagini had called her, and it suits her.
She's also a Speaker and it's a struggle simple not to whisk her away.
§Nagini is always welcome here§ the girl hisses. By the flash of sharp white teeth the girl is just as protective of Nagini as Nagini of her.
§I am pleased to hear that§ he says, cautious of scaring her away, keeping his tone pleasant. §Any friend of Nagini's is a friend of mine and I am happy to have found her in good company instead of sulking beneath a desk§.
§I do not sulk§ Nagini huffs.
Harry pats her head.
Nagini gives a hard enough squeeze to make her choke for air.
They're curled in her tent, watching the dark clouds rolling in, and by the smell of wet in the air it's about to rain. Nagini is easily curled around her, her upper body stretched out to rest her head on Harry's crown with soft snake-like sighs of contentment. Harry might be nearly twice the size of a normal wolf but Nagini is a thick long cord of muscles and had easily wrestled her down to use as a combination of pillow and heater.
§Tom wants you to come around and play human with him§ Nagini informs her with a tone dripping with reluctance, burying her coils deeper into the fluffy fur beneath her, as if to keep her right there.
Harry opens a lazy yellow eye, her tail swishing with a buzz of of amusement because she knows that Nagini wouldn't say it for anything. Not when the unwillingness is so clear to read.
Nagini must have sensed it because she huffs. §He made me a dozen mice§ she grudgingly admits, flicking her tail
Nagini has only gotten more possessive of her since Tom happened upon the two of them. Harry bears it with a grudging mess of patience and fondness as Nagini grooms her and curls around her and eats the carcasses she drags back for her in some sort of need to provide for her. The wolf part of her understands it, revels in it. She feels like a wolf pup suddenly, long-limbered and stumbling under the patient eyes of her mother.
She's eighteen - she knows this in an abstract sort of way. But Nagini is there and real and warm and wonderful.
She huffs and swipes her tongue over the coil beneath her chin and Nagini hisses in pleasure.
She's not going anywhere, she thinks, her deep happy sigh echoed by the other.
Harry fiddles with the long string she'd found, wiping sweat beading from the warm Autumn air. Normally she'd just use her spear or stalk the low water by the east of the lake where large fish lurk among the straw and snap them by her fangs or by sharp sticks. It's hard work and not always doable and she finds herself fishing less and hunting more. But she's found the string during a hunt and it had scratched at something at the back of her mind and before she knows it she's making a fishing pole.
Her hands are strong and sure and she uses her knife to make a hack at the very top of the stick she'd carved herself and drags the cord in it, knotting tightly.
She uses an old soda can to make a glittering bait and takes a bit of rotting gut remaining from last moon's hunt and fasten it to the makeshift hook.
She has a supply of mushroom, roots and berries waiting by her hut but it's been awhile since she had a good fish. She thinks of fish filled with berries and cooked over the fire and licks her chops as she throws it out.
She's patient.
As she sits she realizes with a muted sort of realization that it's probably the most human thing she's done for months. It's pretty nice, she thinks. Sitting, waiting. It's like stalking prey but it allows her to enjoy the warm air and soft breeze.
Autumn gets cold quickly, especially as the signs of winter starts creeping around the corner and she starts waking with frost beneath her paws. Her clothes are nearly completely ruined save the jacket which she's fastened to the roof of the hut months ago when she rebuilt it to make more space for Nagini who'd woken her up to complain about it more than once. It's more like a roof with one proper side-wall, the other half-patched to leave just enough room for something thick to slide through.
The first time Nagini sees it she stretches out with a hiss of deep pleasure, the better part of her in the sun, curled just enough around Harry to keep her from moving. It might be chillier but she solves that sleeping in fur around her rock which she has to remind herself to reheat as it gets colder.
She's skinning the deer she's dragged back from her hunt. It's half-eaten which had lessened the strain of carrying it back but it had still been heavy and it's a relief to sit down with the knife. She needs to replace the old one in the tent which has gotten torn and she misses the fresh scent of prey in her home.
It's a pretty fur - soft brown spotted with colour.
Absently she raises a hand to her face and licks it clean as she frees the last bit of skin and checks to make sure the fire is ready to be used.
The good thing about the cold is that the meat spoils slower. During summer she'd become used to eating until she felt like puking and surviving on it for several moons before she made for another. It was the way of the snake and she loved stretching out with Nagini under the sun with a rounded belly, feeling fat and lazy.
But it's cold today and the meat frozen and she rips the ribs apart and with a bit of adjustment throws them on the severed metal dunk that had once been used to boil water but now served as the perfect tool for cooking meat when she was hungry for something tasting less like coal and smoke.
She drags off her shirt and hangs it on a stick near the fire as she throws the food together with some wild herbs and roots and wait for it to cook.
Nagini huffs at the cold of the snow, her coils sinking deep into the white fluff. At least Tom is clever enough to get a proper den during the winter, burying beneath enough blankets that he's warm and toasty enough for her to curl around for weeks. Her snakeling is stubborn and refuses to entertain the idea of digging a warm den to sleep in during winter.
Nagini is sort of half-tempted to make her one anyway. Perhaps by that tree by the lake…
Nagini slithers into the familiar clearing that's become a second home to her, shaking snow from her coils. §Little Wolf?§ There's no answer and Nagini tastes the air in the direction of the forest to check if her snakeling is hunting near when the smell, inexplicitly, comes from the den.
Nagini frowns.
The sun is high in the sky, glittering against the snow, and her snakeling is always up at now. She slithers towards the den of sticks and moss, through the hole her Little Wolf had made for her, and she rears at the sight of her snakeling. §Little Wolf?§ She brushes her snout against her scaleless little snake whose skin is flushed, mouth open in small pants, her entire body trembling.
Glassy yellow eyes open, a trembling hand reaching out for her, falling. §Nagiiinii§ the voice is weak and more hiss than words. Nagini buffs her nose beneath it and it slides listlessly down her back before hitting the snow. Nagini makes a low noise of distress.
She's a snake - her scales are sleek and slick and she has no hands to hold with but she's stubborn.
§Hold on Little Wolf§ She presses herself under the body that suddenly feels so small and frail, manoeuvres until her snakeling is hanging naked on her back.
She's aware of every panting breath above her, the soft whines. She has to stop frequently to slide her little one further up as she keeps slipping down but at least the snow makes it easy on the arms and legs dragging against the ground.
Tom's den appears after what feels like hours, gates opening to let her in and for the first time she doesn't pay a single mind to the peacocks.
Tom is gone she knows so when the doors to the mansion swings open she coils left, scenting the air for the mate of Pretty-Words. She knows Sweet-Smells enjoy the upper floor and she has to wrap the end of her tail around her snakeling to keep her from sliding straight off her back. It's slow and Little Wolf makes a distressed noise when they reach the top, shaking so badly that Nagini has no choice but to drop her off her back as she curls upon herself with a desperate noise. Nagini buffs her nose gently in reassurance before hurriedly slithering down the hall.
She finds Sweet-Smells talking with Pretty-Words by a desk and rears her entire body up until she towers over the both of them and hisses high and sharp to draw their attention.
Both startles, stepping back with wide-eyes. Pretty-Words recovers first, stepping neatly in front of his mate as he says something in a soothing voice, hands raised. But Nagini has no time for pretty words, yanking her head and hissing sharply at them to follow.
She makes another noise, another sharp jerk, rolling down and back out the room, waiting impatiently for them to understand what she wants when they don't immediately scramble after her.
It is Sweet-Smells that hesitantly steps forward and Nagini hisses gently in praise. Little Wolf is hurt she wants to tell them. Hurry! But humans are stupid and cautious and normally she would have revelled in it.
But her snakeling is sick.
She slithers out, waiting until she hears twin-steps following, and slithers back down the hall, reaching her snakeling as there's a gasp and hurried steps towards them while Nagini carefully curls around the back of her little one. Sweet-Smells hesitates for barely a moment but Nagini keeps herself flat and non-threatening, her eyes only for her Little Wolf.
"Lucius, you need to call Severus," Narcissa demands as she brushes short sweaty strands away from the young face. It's startling to see Tom's companion so clearly distressed and she wonders how in the world the snake managed to drag a girl all the way to the mansion and up the stairs.
But all those concerns are brushed to the back of her mind as she draws her wand and drags it down the young body.
Fever, a high-one. Frostbite darkening the tip of her nose and toes.
"Nagini," the snake flickers to attention. "I need to lift her." She makes a motion to lift and gestures towards the guest room down the hall. Nagini slowly coils aside and she takes it as an agreement, flicking her wand to lighten the girl and gently scooping her up - aware of the enormous snake weaving anxiously by her feet as she leads the way, door opening with a press of her magic. The blankets folds back and she puts the girl down as gently as she can.
Nagini immediately slithers up beneath the cover, curling close with a hiss and buff of her nose against the girl's. Dazed yellow eyes open in confusion and distress, a low hiss escaping human lips and immediately answered by a worried Nagini who presses closer.
"Was that-" Lucius gasps out but he's interrupted by Severus who steps past him with a clinking bag floating by his side.
Narcissa fills him in and Severus starts pulling vials from his bag.
Lucius bends down to fire call Tom while his wife and friend stabilizes the girl. He knows his master is a busy man but another speaker is sure to be a concern to him.
"Lucius." He's in his Marvolo Gaunt shape, pale and powerful with only an illusion to mute the red of his eyes to something more human. He's a powerful man, impatient, but he's the key to revolutionizing a stagnant world and Lucius serves him with pride.
"Nagini arrived with a… companion." Lucius says carefully. "Narcissa and Severus are with her."
Tom's eyes darkens, sharpening in interest. "I will be back in an hour. Keep her safe," he says shortly and the fire flickers and dies.
Lucius straightens.
How… curious.
The girl is breathing much calmer, her cheeks still flushed, but she's stopped trembling and Nagini curls carefully around her once they step away. The child shifts closer, twisting to throw a leg over a thick coil and press her face against soft scales. Her brow smooths out and Nagini hisses something low into her ear as she draws her tighter.
It looks like a mama python cradling her young and Narcissa throws a thoughtful look at the duo as they step out of the room.
Lucius is waiting for them outside, leaning against the bannister. "Tom is aware of her," is the first thing he says when the door closes. "He'll be returning in an hour."
Severus raises a surprised brow. "I thought he was dining with the French Minister?"
"Apparently he's cutting it short." Lucius folds his arms as they digest the information.
"Am I the only one who's wondering how Nagini managed to drag a naked sick girl right to our study without triggering any alarms?" Narcissa asks with a nod towards the steep stairs.
"Tom must have added her to the wards," Lucius says after a moment of hesitation. "There's no other reason she wasn't blasted out the gate the second Nagini attempted to bring her past it."
"Which begs the question just who she is," Severus says darkly. "And just how much Tom trusts her to have extended such an invitation."
"Considering how close she is with Nagini it could have been extended on her behalf," Narcissa offers doubtfully. "But she's a Parseltongue… We all know how much Tom longs for-" she bites the word off, buries it before it can escape.
She half-expects Tom to sweep up with a curl of his lips but there's only the three of them.
"A fellow Speaker. One who has befriended his snappish Familiar." Lucius finishes softly. "It's not long-shot that he might have come to care for her through Nagini."
"Considering how he's always working…" Narcissa hums in agreement. "What a little mystery we got on our hands." She hesitates. "Her eyes-"
"Too much time spent in her animagus form," Severus shakes his head. "I haven't seen anyone quite as severe except, perhaps, Wormtail." The man had become fairly recognisable with his abnormally large front teeth, round ears and beady black eyes. A far cry from the watery eyed boy with a crooked smile that Severus remembered from his school days.
Lucius rubs his brow. "I think I'll take a nap," he says grouchily. "Knowing Tom and his temper he'll be pacing the moment he arrives back."
Severus and Narcissa exchange a look and he nods, accepting the chair she summons with a flick of her wand and pulls a book from his robes as Narcissa sets off after her husband.
§She's going to be fine§ Tom hisses gently to his familiar, his eyes unreadable as he sits at the edge of the bed and extends a hand to gently press against her head. He's known Nagini since he was just a young man and it's rare to catch her in such a state of anxiety and worry, watching every puff from struggling lungs, every soft whimper answered with a gentle hiss to soothe.
He'd hurried back for her because for a long time Nagini had been all he had and he owes her more than he'll ever admit to.
When Nagini had claimed the girl as her snakeling, her child, he knew it had meant something. He was away a lot and he thought, perhaps Nagini had grown lonely, perhaps she had ventured out to find some sort of companion in the forest.
And she had.
But instead of the snake he'd expected he'd found a human child ensnared in her coils, ready to bare her teeth at him for upsetting Nagini. A child more wolf and snake than human, feral and distrusting.
§She scared me§ Nagini is shifting, withdrawing to press against him, seeking comfort. §She was so weak§ Her body remains against the girls but she presses her head against his hands and he strokes her gently.
§You saved her by bringing her here§ he soothes her. §She's alive because of you§.
Nagini hisses in pleasure at the words and Tom pets her fondly.
Harry wakes in something that's soft and foreign when she opens blurry eyes with a sharp hiss and she struggles her tired body into a sitting position. Blankets fall into her lap and she stares at them, unable make sense of soft whites and blues when she'd expected brown fur and the smell of wet moss.
She jerks, eyes widening as she looks around. Human, her instincts hiss at her, danger!.
The sheets beneath her are soaked and she hauls herself off the bed, stumbling in her stupid two-legged body, and curls down, shifting until she's on all four. Her legs are still unsteady and trembling and she scents the air desperately for something familiar - stilling when she catches the scent of Nagini.
Her mind is tired and it feels like she's slammed her body against the wall until it was bruised black and blue and it's a struggle to make sense of anything past the blurry vision and unsteady legs.
She's weak.
She needs Safetymomfriend-
And her mind locks on that scent - the scent of safety and home, the wolf inside of her crying out for the warmth and comfort of thick coils and a gentle hiss in her ears as she stumbles on unsteady legs towards the door and presses it open with her nose.
She thinks large as she creeps down the corridors, shuffling slowly down wooden stairs, pausing frequently.
The air smells of burning fire, food, the clinking of china but it drifts over her senses, mindlessly focused on the only thing that matters.
She shoves her shoulder against double doors, stumbles inside and ignores the humans as she moves one paw past the other towards Nagini who's moved her head from the lap of Her Human at the sight of her. She's hissing something but Harry only sees the soft pillowed nest beside her and near the burning fire and she's oblivious to the stilled silence of the room as she puts both paws on the couch and attempts to heave herself up.
She gets one hind-leg up, slips, but a warm arm scoops against her butt - pushes her the last way and Harry collapses with a whine against Nagini's coils with lidded eyes. She snuffles the soft coils, buffs her cheek against Nagini's and makes a tired thump of her tail as Nagini coils around her, dragging her until she's completely surrounded and safe.
She takes a long drawn out breath and chuffs contently
She's got all the colours off the northern wolf - whites, greys, soft black. A thick pelt. But she's also over twice the size and makes the large couch look small, doubly so with the enormous snake curled around her. Nagini is hissing softly and Tom keeps an half-ear to the comforting words as he tilts his head towards Narcissa and nods, allowing her to gently settle the warm afghan blanket over both snake and wolf before settling back down across them.
"She shouldn't be out of bed," Severus huffs but his eyes are studying the wolf now breathing softly by an enormously pleased Nagini who's cuddled her in properly.
"She lives on her own in the forest," Tom admits. "Her first instinct would have been to seek out safety." That safety in this case happened to be the enormous familiar of the Dark Lord was an another thing entirely.
Narcissa raises her cup to her mouth and sips, the picture of calm and proper lady. But her eyes are worried, drifting frequently to the girl.
Tom hesitates. "I met her several months ago," he admits. "You told me Nagini had been spending more and more time away and when I didn't see her for several weeks I decided to hunt her down and see just what was holding her up." He leans forward, elbows on his knees, one arm curled, the other a soft rest for his chin. "I found her entwined with a naked half-feral child. My first instinct was to bring her back. A speaker! I thought. She must come with me." He glances to his familiar. "But Nagini was adamant - argued with me for days. She's my snakeling! she said." He rubs his face. "I didn't have it in me to ruin something that so clearly made her happy."
It's a weakness, he knows that. It pains him to admit it, too. But these three people knows him best - are his most trusted. If he cannot tell them-
"Do you know who she is?" It's Lucius, ever practical.
"No." Tom glances at the child, remembers her short hair and golden eyes. "Nagini calls her 'Little Wolf' and she was reluctant to claim a name of her own during our meeting."
"Depending on how much time she's been out there she might have forgotten it entirely," Severus weighs in. It's the likely truth. Too much time as an animagus had reshaped the form of her face, her ears, her eyes, her entire body. It would be impossible to place just who she'd been unless she offered it up on her own or stopped turning wolf entirely, forcing her body to turn back. But depending on how long she'd been wolf it might not work anyway.
"What are you going to do with her?" Narcissa places her cup down on the table with a soft clink.
"Give her time to heal," Tom says firmly. "I'll talk with Nagini - see if she can be convinced to keep the child here until she's completely healthy and it isn't as cold outside. With how worried she's been it might just be doable."
"We'll have to tell Draco," Narcissa warns. "He's coming back for the holidays with Blaise and I don't think locking either of them up would be a good idea." Her mouth curls in humour.
"It might be good for her to meet someone her own age," Tom reluctantly agrees, lip curling. "We should get her some clothes - probably cotton and a bit big - she'll probably shun anything that hinder her movement."
"Get them in the same colours as her fur - psychologically it might be soothing, make her more inclined to wear them," Severus offers.
Tom listens as they plan, feeling warm. The girl is a stranger, wild, and her only ties are to Nagini and through Nagini to him. They don't need to help her but they will because it means something to him.
His soul is torn, split. But for just a moment it feels almost whole on the couch with his familiar and a wild-child surrounded by what can only be something he dare not name.
Harry wakes, stretches, feeling marginally better since last time she'd woken up as she immediately becomes aware of coils behind her back and turns her head to give a lick to the corner of Nagini's mouth. Slitted eyes open to regard her and Harry softly thumps her tail as she presses closer to her Nagini, a soft rumble in her chest.
§You scared me, Little Wolf§ Nagini hisses and Harry stills the movement, ears folding back. §You are not setting a paw outside these walls until your breathing doesn't sound like a wet rattle§ Nagini gives her a firm look and Harry quails.
She whines and pushes her nose under her chin, trying her best to look contrite.
§You are lucky Tom's humans aren't as stupid as the rest§ Nagini grumbles, but she nudges the large wolf head until she can scent it properly and Harry bears it patiently, tail thumping. §You need to eat§ Nagini decides, pushing the wolf until she has no choice but slide the rest of the way and land on unsteady paws. §Sweet-Smells brought you human fur and Tom says there's soft food waiting for you - human food§ she adds at her snakeling's look.
She looks at the child until she huffily complies, stretching until she's naked and pulling on the grey cotton shorts and shrugs the white and black t-shirt over her head. It dangles almost to the hem of her shorts and Harry looks expectantly to her companion.
She's hungry but nauseous and Nagini is probably right but it makes her uncomfortable to stand there knowing that there's humans moving inside the house. Humans who, by Nagini's words, had healed her. But still humans.
She thinks of Vernon's heavy hand, the bruising grip of Petunia's, the smash of her cousin's knuckles against her face and grimaces as she trots after Nagini.
It's a large house - a mansion, she thinks distantly - though the word means little to her. The wooden furniture and walls smells nice and there's much of it and there's little artificial smells which makes it bearable despite the claustrophobic feeling of being inside.
Nagini leads her to what can only be a dining room and there's Tom, she'd recognise Nagini's human anywhere.
Snape - she remembers Snape too. Black eyes, a crooked nose and soft oily hair falling by his chin. He's the first to look up as she walks inside and she almost bares her teeth in warning least he tries anything.
The only two she can't recall the name of are Sweet-Smells and Pretty-Words. Mr and Mrs Malfoy, she thinks, with a furrow of her brow as she recalls a small blond haired boy on a train platform. But it's the most and she cocks her head as she hesitates by the doorway.
"Come here, don't be shy." It's Mrs Malfoy and her smile is soft and warm. "Why don't you sit down- I had some broth prepared for you when we heard you were awake." Harry looks to Nagini who flicks her ankle with her tail and a look before slinking out the room to hunt for her own food.
Harry watches her leave, heart constricting with worry.
She drags a chair out two steps from Mrs Malfoy, aware of their eyes, and plops down on it - slumping almost immediately. A bowl appears, startling her minutely, but she remember school food appearing suddenly and sniffs it curiously. It smells like bird and there's soft clumps inside the warm broth which she picks up and plops into her mouth, chewing hungrily.
She flicks her eyes up as Snape places a glass of water before her but he simply raises an eyebrow.
She knows that look.
She fumbles for what she knows are human words, knows and manages with an awkward curl of her lips: "Thank you." It's more hiss than proper English, more growl than pleasant British. But it's a word and she's pleased by herself for remembering it.
"You're welcome," he answers with that familiar soft drawl.
She flicks her eyes from one human to the other as she fishes for another lump, catching a minute wince from aristocratic faces as she licks her dirty fingers.
§Hello Tom§ she greets, because Parseltongue is much easier than human speak.
§Little Wolf§ he acknowledges. §You had Nagini in quite the state§ he informs her as she uses both hands to lift the glass and drinks carefully.
She cocks her head, placing the glass down. §I was sick?§ she says a bit unsurely. §It's a bit fuzzy to be honest§ she fishes for another piece of chicken.
§You were quite lucky that Nagini found both Lucius and Narcissa at home§ Tom drawls and Harry nods thoughtfully at the names. §And of course Snape, our resident potions master§ he tilts his head to the dour man and Harry looks at him curiously.
§I don't have anything to trade you for the help§ Harry says after a brief moment of hesitation, looking back to the Dark Lord.
Tom raises an eyebrow at her. §We wouldn't make you pay for being sick. All you need to do is stay here until you're healthy enough that Nagini won't have a heart attack on your behalf§ he says this firmly before smirking. §Besides, Nagini would probably strangle me in my sleep if we did§ he adds dryly and Harry bares her teeth in wolfish agreement.
She drinks the broth by tilting the bowl until her stomach cries in protest and she knows she risks throwing it up instead. Tom is speaking with the humans but it's a tiresome language for her ears and she doesn't bother trying to keep up, shifting restlessly and wondering just where Nagini had gone and when she'd be back.
§Little Wolf§ she jerks, realizing she's half-twisted on the chair on her knees trying to peer for her companion and looks up to Tom who's eyes she cannot read. §Narcissa has offered to help you bath - Nagini will probably be back by the time you finish it§ it's as much a command as an offer and Harry recalls her aunt's wrinkled nose and sniffs herself curiously.
She smells of sickness, sour from sweat and grimaces in agreement.
When the woman rises Harry drops from her chair and trots obediently behind with only a moment of hesitation. She's in Tom's den. If smelling good will make him approve that's what she'll do.
Narcissa is speaking softly and Harry keeps half-an-ear open for familiar words and phrases, catching the gist of it as being a bit of an explanation for the den and something about her family. Harry looks at her - sees the blonde hair and soft skin. The curve of her hips and the swell of her hips - so different from Harry's skinny body.
The bathroom is big and the fall of water is something foreign. The Dursley's had never allowed her to take baths and their bathtub had remained been small and unused as Dudley outgrew it. Hogwarts preferred showers as well and the swim in the prefect bathroom had been less bathtub and more pool.
But this is clearly made for people to sit and lean back and enjoy the warmth and she strips before Narcissa can ask her to, catching a half-opened mouth from the corner of her eyes as she slides inside with a soft noise as her dirty fingers meets see-through water.
Like the snow melting in her hands in winter.
"Will you allow me to stay and help you?" Narcissa asks gently as Harry rolls in the water, splashing the little that is around her, and she looks up - grinning.
She's never taken a bath before.
Narcissa shows her how to do it right and Harry is endlessly fascinated.
First she helps her wash up - explaining that the water would be too dirty if she just went in it. They drain it and then they refill it and Narcissa pours something that makes it grow white bubbles and Harry paws at them as the water climb up her hips to just below her breasts before Narcissa turns it off.
She's rolled up her sleeves and tied back her hair as Harry puffs at the yellow duck she'd placed in the water, staring at its yellow skin and empty eyes as it glides over the surface.
She tenses when Narcissa first touches her, flinching and peering from her as she ducks warily. But Narcissa is gentle, careful, her voice soothing as she helps her with her hair and Harry melts at the first soft scratch of nails against her scalp.
Narcissa scrubs her neck and shoulders, down her back and front with clinical gentleness. She directs her to clean between her legs on her own and Harry nearly slips when she has to haul a foot up to have the nails cleaned and trimmed.
When Narcissa is finally done with her she feels squeaky clean and stands perfectly still, a bit wobbly on tired legs and sniffling a tiny bit as Narcissa help dry her down and dress her in a new pair of shorts, black, and a white t-shirt as she yawns.
"What a good girl you are," Narcissa praises her gently and it stirs something distant and half-forgotten inside of her.
§You smell like you've been rolling in a field of flowers§ Nagini informs her as Narcissa nudges her down in the seat where she'd woken up earlier. She's resting lazily in Tom's lap who is playing what looks like chess with Severus whose brows are deeply furrowed in concentration.
§You would know§ Harry yawns, sniffling.
Severus looks up at the noise, says something that's too far beyond her tired mind and leaves briefly. She blinks when there's a potion suddenly dangling in front of her and makes a tired grab for it.
These humans are supposed to want to kill her, Harry knows, staring at it. If it wasn't for the scar on her brow, covering up the lightning bolt shape, they would have stuck a knife in her back and been long gone with it. The name Harry Potter is a dangerous thing and she knows - she knows she can't stay long.
Knows that trusting these humans would be a fool's thing to do.
But she's tired and sick and Nagini is right there and she raises it to her lips and swallows.
She'll stay a week, she thinks as she stretches out and drops her head into Tom's lap so she can curl around Nagini properly, throwing her leg over a thick coil and nose up until they're cheek against cheek, Harry's head on the side and Nagini moving to rest more firmly against her.
Tom stays frozen for several moments, rook dangling in his hand as the child makes herself comfortable in his lap like an overgrown human puppy.
Lucius makes a suspicious coughing noise and Severus has a hand over his mouth that isn't discreet at all. Narcissa's soft aww makes him twitch.
He decides to ignore her.
And if, by the third game, he has a hand on her brow, soothing creases from a dream, none of his followers dare to comment on it.
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Welcome to Charred Paws and Heavy Coils. A fic about family, war, consequences loss and revolutions. This is an AU, obviously, and I have grand plans ahead and a lot to unfold. I have a pretty unconventional way of looking at intimacy and that's a theme in this fic, as a fair warning, but if you liked this chapter you should be fine. There will be mention of past non-con.
There are more characters I want to tag. Like the trio of Ginny & Blaise & Draco, that we'll meet soon, but also Fenrir and the Inner Circle and Ron and Hermione both as this darker AU unfolds.
Everything up to year 4 is pretty much canon - including what happened at the graveyard - except Harry's homelife.
Wanna chat for a bit? Questions? I try my best to respond to you all!
Leave a review on your way out and let me know what you think.
Cheers!