"The Minister was just telling me about your lucky escape, Potter. Quite astonishing, the way you continue to wriggle out of very tight holes... snakelike, in fact."
How ironic, he thought later, in his cell in Azkaban.
Because, after all... Lucius Malfoy could not say that his own lack of self-knowledge had not led to his downfall.
He was a snake.
What was a snake?
A snake was a sneaky creature, long, elegant, venomous – a snake would wriggle out of sticky situation through loopholes and charm... A snake was cunning, a snake would never back down, a snake stood not for offense – but a snake was not a mere badger, he did not rely on others...
Other snakes could not be relied on.
A snake could only rely on the work of his own brains, of his own scales – a snake could not risk mistakes, a snake would take what he wanted and be unaffected by the plight of others, for they were the others, of course, and a snake had worked, presumably dishonestly, on his own for all of this...
To work alone and succeed or to work together and fail, that was the question. Pity had no way in the snake lair.
And a snake was fierce and brave – yes, most would be surprised to observe that snakes were quietly brave, but they were. A snake would stick to his fate, and not fight it, for he alone understood its importance. A snake was not like a lion, forever fighting for the greater good... Oh, no, no... A snake always worked his advantage, no matter the situation.
He had done all of these – he had fought bravely –
Though he was a coward, oh, yes he was.
He had taken advantage of that silly girl, Weasley, but he hadn't succeeded-
The thought still infuriated him. Perhaps he had been wrong to not suspect Potter... Take Draco's ramblings of the boy "hero" as childhood jealousy and spite.
He had worked his charm over the Governors and made Dumbledore go by making threats-
That had worked... for a while. That mad old man had managed to come back, had he not?
He had tried to curse Potter for daring to free that wretched Dobby-
Since when was he weak enough to be defeated by a mere house-elf?
He had won the case over that Hippogriff and had managed to get it executed-
The Hippogriff had somehow escaped.
He had returned to the Dark Lord... most faithfully on that night-
The Dark Lord had expected repayment.
He had coerced pitiable Fudge by bribing him-
But Fudge knew now, did he not? Idiotic Hufflepuff, that man was. Forever seeking, never satisfied.
He could have managed to retrieve the prophecy-
If not for that Longbottom boy.
Lucius closed his eyes. Snakes had but one same weakness, to his knowledge.
A snake was afraid and deathly angered by failure.
And he had had more than his share of them.
His snarls echoed in the fortress, along with the waves rushing, lapping around the hedges from the water of the North Sea.
Written for the House Animals Challenge at Magical Challenge Menagerie.
Er... Yeah. This is sort of weird. I researched a tiny bit on snakes - didn't find anything I didn't already know - but it is to note that I'm deathly afraid of snakes. And Wikipedia has lots of... snake photos.
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