A/N: Harry Potter is not mine, nor is my reference to the wonderfull musical, the King and I.

Chapter 4. Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.

Nagini finished her bath, and carefully collected the hairs that had come loose from the pools she had used. Nagini considered bathing a recreational activity, and had chosen to live in this part of her Master's stronghold because of the luxurious baths it contained. The Lady that the ancient place had been built for had had very good taste in her opinion. The furnishings of the rooms, including the clothing, had been protected from time by some magic, and she had simply appropriated them, altering a few of the rooms for her own needs.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd drowned in there," Snivellus said as she emerged from her bath, her damp hair draped across an arm to keep it off the floor.

"Highly unlikely," she replied "as I can breathe water as easily as air."

"Really?" Snape asked nosily, "Do you acquire gills when you go in the water, or…"

He broke off as Nagini fixed hum with her most menacing glare. What happened to her in the water was none of his business. She laid the hairs she had lost in the bath cross her vanity, and proceeded to brush the tangles out of her hair. Every hair that came out was carefully drawn from the hairbrush and laid with the others. It was suppertime when she'd finished and re-braided her hair.

"I'm going to put my equipment in your workroom," Snivellus announced over supper, "and my books in your library."

"Fine," Nagini snapped, "just stay out of my hair."

"The hair on your head or the hair by the loom?" he asked facetiously.

"Both," she said acidly

"Do you ever cut it?"

"Yes," she said shortly, "every couple of months."

"Just enough to keep it off the floor?" he stupidly assumed. He clearly hadn't paid attention in class, if Hogwarts even was advanced enough to have Nagas on the curriculum.

"Shoulder length, actually."

Snape looked puzzled for a moment. It took far too long for him to reach the obvious conclusion.

"Your hair grows very fast," he said stupidly.

"That's quite an understatement"

"I take it your hair is magical then, like with veela."

"Do not ever use that word in connection with me!" Nagini snarled. She hated veela.

Snape just smirked. He was obviously glad to have found a chink in her armor.

Nagini bathed again the next day, though she emerged well before lunch time.

"You bathe a lot." Severus commented as Nagini once again brushed out her hair from her bath, and laid the fresh hairs with the ones from the night before.

"It's called hygiene Snivellus, something you obviously aren't familiar with"

"I wash" Severus said defensively.

"I see." Nagini said. "So you deliberately apply grease when you're finished then?"

"No." Severus replied shortly.

"Could have fooled me" she said, smirking at him.

At least I'm not obsessive compulsive Severus thought.

"I heard that!" Nagini snarled, smacking him on the back of the head.

It was his turn to smirk as she gagged, held her greasy hand out away from her, ran to the bathroom, and from the sound of it, began to scrub her hand vigorously.

When she was finished, Nagini carried her hairs to the workroom, sat on a bench, and began to wind the hair on a spool by hand. Severus followed and began to gather the materials and equipment for an experiment he'd been wanting to do for some time.

Some way into his work he noised that while Nagini was winding steadily, she hadn't' even finished with her first hair yet, and that she had a look of intense boredom on her face. He well knew that a bored Nagini was a bad thing. She and Bellatrix were quite good friends and had the same idea of a good time. Torturing someone. Severus really didn't want that someone to be him.

"I could just flick my wand and do that for you," he offered, somewhat condescendingly, s she really should have thought of it herself.

"Go right ahead," she said, without pausing in her work.

Nothing happened. Severus made a few attempts, then asked suspiciously, "Are you stopping me or is there some reason it doesn't work?"

"It just doesn't work; otherwise I would have taken your wand and done it myself."

"I thought you had your own," Severus said, nonplussed.

"No, I lost the last one I stole."

Doing what? Severus wondered. Apparently, Nagini's hair was resistant to magic. He wondered if it gave her any protection from curses and such. He noticed that Nagini was connecting her strands of hair together by pricking her finger and putting the ends in her green and red blood. They magically fused into one.

Severus desperately wanted to test the magical properties of Nagini's hair. "Could I have some of that?" he asked, careful not sound as if he particularly cared whether he got it or not.

"No, and if you steal any, I'll kill you with a darning needle in a vat of salty lemon juice."

At first Severus thought this threat was ludicrous, then he thought about how blunt darning needles were, and how much salt and lemon juice hurt on an open wound. It would be a long, painful death by torture. He was going to try stealing some anyway, tonight , while she was asleep.

"How do you come up with things like that to say?" Severus asked conversationally.

"In the bath. Try it sometime"

Severus added the last ingredient of his experiment and braced himself. Normally, what he had just done would result in an explosion in the hands of someone less skilled than he. He'd altered the procedure, guessing that it would have different results. He'd been right. There was a small bang, a small cloud of smoke, but no catastrophe.

"Have you ruined my cauldron?" Nagini asked angrily, getting up to peer curiously over his shoulder.

"Oh, I'll be able to get this out" Severus assured her.

"What is it?"

"Pure silver."

"That's supposed to be impossible."

"Not any more. At least for me," he said proudly.

"Hurrah for you, Snivellus" Nagini said sarcastically.

"Are you mocking my genius?" he asked hotly.

"Me, mock your non-existent genius?" She said in a scandalized tone. "But of course"

"Non-existent!" Severus exploded.

"Your miraculous achievement occurred entirely by accident, Snivellus. I am completely unimpressed. You could just have easily blown yourself up. I'm a bit disappointed actually."

"You wouldn't be sorry?" Severus asked in an aggrieved tone, trying to make her feel guilty for 'hurting his feelings'.

Nagini laughed cruelly. "The only people who would be sorry are Narcissa and Draco because they'd have to clean the bits of you up, and a few of your enemies who would be disappointed they didn't get to finish you off themselves."

Severus' stomach clenched unpleasantly. "At least I have enemies to be disappointed. You've eaten all of yours!" he retorted, realizing what she'd meant at their wedding supper.

"Thank you for the compliment." Nagini said sweetly.