Nagini
Conversation with a Snake
Tom Marvolo Riddle had been living in Green Orchard Orphanage for as long as he could remember. He didn't really get along with the other children there, because he didn't think very highly of them. He knew that he was more important that they were.
For one thing, Tom was a wizard; the only one at the orphanage. He despised the muggles who were there with him. Another way he was different from them was that he got to leave the orphanage for most of the year to go to boarding school. It was no ordinary boarding school, though, it was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
He had gone through two years at Hogwarts. He was quite a brilliant student, one of the cleverest since the time of Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw. Most of his teachers favored him. The only one Tom had noticed that didn't was his Transfiguration teacher, Professor Dumbledore. But Tom knew Dumbledore was an old fool.
Every year, when the spring term ended, Tom asked if he could stay at Hogwarts. The answer was always the same. He would have to go back to the place he hated; stay with the people he hated. This made Tom a bit angry with Headmaster Dippet, but he never showed it.
None of the teachers at his school really knew Tom. In fact, nobody really did. His professors and other students from school just knew he was a brilliant and popular, pretty good-looking wizard boy of 12 years. The other kids at the Orphanage that Tom so despised just knew him as a freak and a loner, but they knew not to mess with him.
Nobody knew about the hateful evil that grew inside of the young boy. He hated the fact that he had to live in an Orphanage, he hated the fact that his mother had died immediately after she had named him for that monster of a father. Tom hated his father more than anything else. His father had left his mother when he found out she was a witch, but she still loved him anyway, enough to name her son after him. Tom hated her for still loving his father after what he had done to her, and he hated the fact that he was named after the man he hated most in the whole world, a muggle nonetheless. He didn't talk to anyone about this hate, so it just grew inside of him.
On one particular day during the summer after Tom's second year at Hogwarts, he was sitting in the garden of the orphanage, the one good thing about it, in his opinion. The grasses and weeds were overgrown and the trees were gnarled, but Tom liked it, especially during weather like it was just then. It was sometime in the early afternoon, but the sky was blanketed in gray clouds that had a purplish tinge to them. The clouds were brewing and the odd rumble of thunder was heard coming closer.
The matron came to the steps and ordered everyone inside, but Tom ignored her. She ignored him as well. That was their unspoken agreement. They disliked each other a lot. The matron was an elderly lady, who didn't trust Tom with a stack of pancakes. Tom didn't really have a good reason for disliking the matron other than the fact that she was a muggle, but that was good enough for him. After the rest of the children had been herded inside, the matron stepped inside as well and slammed the door, which caused Tom to smirk; he had gotten to her again. As he was a wizard, storms were nothing to worry about; wizards weren't killed as easily as muggles.
Tom sat there for a while, just enjoying the howling of the winds, the rumble of thunder, and the streaks of lighting that flashed across the sky, when he heard a rustling sound. He looked around him in the overgrown grass, but he didn't see anything.
"Looking for me?" a low female voice asked.
Tom jumped in surprise. He didn't like being surprised. "Who's there? Show yourself." He demanded.
"I'll do what I please, Heir of Slytherin." Replied the voice coolly.
"Who are you? What do you mean 'Heir of Slytherin'?" Tom asked, becoming more curious.
"I mean what I say. You are the last remaining heir of Salazar Slytherin." The voice replied.
As Tom contemplated this new information, a snake slithered into his sight. He had never been this close to a snake before, but something told him she wouldn't hurt him, so he ignored it. "I asked who you were!" Tom said, speaking past the snake into the grass.
"I am Nagini." The snake said.
Tom looked surprised for a moment, but then he took control of his facial expression and maintained a poker face. "So, you're the one who's been talking to me so rudely?" He asked the snake.
"I do not regard you as more important than myself, so I'll talk to you as I wish." Nagini hissed, inching forward so that her face was in Tom's.
"Well I'm afraid I don't agree with you there." Tom said, as bravely as he could with an angry poisonous snake in his face.
Nagini hissed and moved as if to strike, but hissed in resignation. "Very well, moving on, I have things to tell you."
"What sort of things?" Tom asked suspiciously.
"For one thing, in case you haven't noticed, you're a parselmouth, so you can speak to snakes." Nagini said in her cold superior tone.
Tom rolled his eyes. "No, I didn't notice that." He said sarcastically.
"Another thing: We're destined to be partners, so I won't have that attitude from you. I want respect." She added, still using the same tone, which Tom would know her for in a few years.
"I'll show you respect if you respect me, so stop talking to me in that tone of voice!" Tom commanded.
"As I've told you, I'll talk to you how I like. When I trust you I may become less cold and controlling. Understand?" Nagini asked.
Tom nodded.
"Good. Now, I've been studying you and as I have great senses, I noticed all the hate inside you. Also, the fact that you have a lot of determination and that famous Slytherin ambition. You're destined for great things, and I shall help you along the way." Nagini continued.
Thunder boomed loudly after her last statement, slightly ominously.
"What...sort of great things?" Tom asked hesitantly yet still coldly; he didn't like this snake very much yet.
"Powerful, evil, great things." Nagini said, as lighting struck a tree behind her, which caught on fire.
Tom stared at the flames as he asked, "And what do I have to do for you?"
"Treat me as your partner, your equal, and with respect. We are better than your average human or snake." Nagini hissed.
Tom thought about this. 'What an egotistical snake. She reminds me a bit of....me. I don't know if I like her, but I do like the sound of this power thing...' He thought.
"Alright then." He said aloud to Nagini, still watching the flames lick the tree-bark, killing it slowly. He started to laugh a cold, high laugh.