A/n: Okay, first - Tissue Warning! Second, You can easily tell that I have opted to continue this story. Enjoy!
*+ovo+*
Nagini watched thoughtfully as her speakers got ready for the day. The way that her Tom and her Harry were acting sluggish and tired worried her but Severus, clever spy that he was, watched the pair with his own wary eyes. Nagini resisted the urge to chuckle or demand that they all get back in bed. Severus wouldn't let them over do it again if he could help it, she knew. The plan was to head to Hogwarts and retrieve the things both of her younger speakers had left behind. Nagini was somewhat glad they had forgotten that sending one of the brownies was possible. After all, the castle had been calling for her Tom since he was quite small and only the old goat had stopped him from living there.
Voldemort stumbled as he moved towards his office, immediately drawing Nagini's sharp attention. This would not do!
"~Sit! If you are more rested after mid-day meal you may go but the very fact that you are not moving well means more rest!~" Nagini ordered all of them with a hissing growl.
"~Nagini!~" Voldemort protested only to unconsciously cause his fellow wizards to realize that he was subtly shaking.
"How hard did you push yesterday!?" Harry demanded as he gave in to the urge to just push the older man into a chair. "And why are you the one shaking just to stand if I was the one knocked silly?!"
"~Foolish hatchling!~" Nagini hissed in obvious displeasure. From her position on the floor she rose up almost to the height of a full grown man, towering over the now seated Dark Lord. "~Your shaking harms your ability to strike! Neither of the other speakers have been taught yet. They can not yet defend the nest! What did you do? What foe did you fight? Or must I insist on many days in the bed-nest after each outing without me?~"
"~I defended us against the ones who would destroy all nests!~" Voldemort snapped. "~The old goat tried to take Harry away and the one in pink who marked his hand tried worse! I will not stand for them being taken from us!~"
Nagini regarded him sternly, occasionally scenting the air with her tongue, refusing to return to her prone position on the floor for the moment.
"Insufficient rest will encourage others to come for us, mistaken as a rescue attempt or not," Severus warned softly. "Also, why can we not call a house elf from the school to fetch our things instead of risking a violent confrontation with the staff and students?"
"The house elves... are not an option due to the binding with the school staff," Voldemort admitted with a grimace. "Using the Malfoy elves is not feasible for the simple fact that its not their territory and within elf society unless you have legitimate reason to be in another elf's territory or household can be bad. Unless the local elves don't like their charges the invading elves can be returned in pieces or not returned at all. This is in large part due to previous historical and quickly stopped attempts by purebloods to use house elves as assassins. I would rather not risk the various consequences of being seen as one who tried to bring back that failed practice. Getting permission first is one thing, sending them in without first clearing it is quite another. Its, quite frankly, simpler to just show up at the castle ourselves and sort out the mess I have made of your previous positions at Hogwarts while retrieving at least some of your things if not all of them. Besides as a statement it would be particularly powerful and ensure that even the children understood I am serious about fixing this... well I am not quite sure what to call it anymore. Campaign? Society? Our World? The Dark Faction? Well you see my point."
"Now that you have highlighted the problem you want to prevent panic and get people moving towards an actual solution," Severus summarized, nodding slowly in understanding. The concerns about the house elves were actually a bit more reasonable than he had thought. This was especially true as he had forgotten that he might not count as staff to give permissions to the elves at the moment. Until their official status was sorted, at least in regards to the school, there was an honest concern that they could accidentally activate the school defenses. If they made any attempt beyond an official and completely above board to retrieve their things and/or enter the school it could end in utter disaster.
"What if we owl Professor McGonagall first?" Harry suggested. "Besides shouldn't we tell Madam Bones and the Goblins that we will let them look at our memories soon?"
"~The healer will be displeased that you have risked yourselves. I am displeased. You are all still hatchlings,~" Nagini hissed with blunt displeasure. "~You do not have any where near as many seasons as I under your scales or did you never wonder why it was so easy to bond with me without even your own body-form?~"
Voldemort gaped at his familiar, flummoxed by this new fact about her.
"~I have been bonded to you since before you first wailed for food with nothing but pink flesh to bite into prey with. Every wizard of your line has a spirit serpent bound to them yet most never meet them. You were a hatchling that I could not aid for all that you were mine before your birther bled out with you in her arms. I finally managed to merge with a mortal non-magical mother snake that was dying while your soul screamed for aid in that forest,~" Nagini hissed furiously. "~If you think for one striking move that I will let you or the other hatchlings kill yourselves through neglect or idiocy then you are very wrong and need a great deal more time in the bed-nest!~"
"How...?" Voldemort asked, completely bewildered.
"~How do you think you speak our noble tongue?~" Nagini chuckled as she lowered herself to eye level instead of towering over her unruly hatchling. "~Even those not born with it and bound to a spirit serpent since they first drew breath must have one of us to even speak. Although, more than one can be bound to one spirit serpent as can more than one spirit serpent be bound to a speaker. I made my claim to the three of you, accepted by magic, and any other mortal, immortal, or spirit among the serpents will bow to my rulings as your mother snake. A spirit serpent taking on a physical form is never easy, simple, or without importance. The fact that I am a great many more seasons old than many a being except for the fire-bird can count is but a side effect. I am the one who first granted the gift of Speaking to the line now claimed to Salazar Slytherin. I refuse to see my hatchlings destroyed through pure stubbornness! You will rest and we will revisit the idea of leaving the nest once all three of you stop showing signs of potential collapse, such as shaking.~"
"~Yes mother,~" Voldemort said contritely, still floored by the morning's revelations.
Nagini scented the air then nodded slowly before settling back on to the flood. She just adored the warming charms in the floor but the warm comfort would not lull her into watching her hatchlings destroy themselves. They would rest, they would heal, or she would bloody well know why!
Under the serpent's watchful eye they spent another rest day around the fire in the sitting room reading or doing quiet paperwork. Not a single one of the parselmouths tried to cross the mother serpent that day.
*+ovo+*
At Hogwarts most of the school was still in a massive amount of shock. The cause stemmed from the reappearance of the Dark Lord, the proof that Potter had been warning them in truth rather than lying, or over the fact that the Dark Lord now held Potter and Professor Snape prisoner. The only people at the school who really knew what had happened during the raid were the Staff members who doubled as Unspeakables and Hermione Granger. Of those in the know Hermione was the only one the school had proper access to that might have understood what had happened for all that there were other witnesses to the oath. Her simple answer when asked? "Harry traded himself for our lives! Haven't you all done enough to him?!"
Blaise Zabini, 5th year Slytherin, approached the owlery with a malicious smirk and his proudly displayed Junior Inquisitor badge on his chest. He was the one who had managed to snag Potter's owl the first time for High Inquisitor Umbridge and she had tasked him to keep the owl at the school by any means necessary until she returned. It was just too bad for the beauty that someone (a cousin in the ministry) reported to him that the Savior brat had tried to arrange for his mother's death using his influence. A little mission for his (mafia) family, kill the beloved owl and make the family's displeasure over the clumsy attempt known.
Blaise didn't even have to nudge all that hard to get one of Potter's own dorm mates to agree to toss or destroy his things. The crazy Gryffindor Pyromaniac would probably burn them but that was no skin off of the smirking 5th year Slytherin bent on killing Potter's familiar.
Hedwig watched warily as the boy wandered into the flyer's domain and looked at her with malice in his heart. If he was looking at her like that then her Harry-chick was in danger!
In a flash of white Hedwig flew into his face, clawing at him as she tried to take out his eyes while batting him around the head with her strong wings. Every owl there knew the risk of a wand drawn so when he threw her against the wall and furiously drew his wand, something he had been known to do in the past against the school owls, they struck! A big barn owl slammed into his side as a pair of smaller pygmy owls worked in tandem and snatched away his wand, determined to loose the thing deep in the forest they knew well for food but rarely saw humans in. Hedwig, heavily injured, watched in grim satisfaction as he was driven from their roosting area. Breathing heavily she hoped to see her Harry-chick again but knew that with one wing and several ribs broken she might not last the night. Between the castle cats, unskilled human hands from students and staff alike, and the weather for late October/Early November in the Scottish Highlands few owls injured so badly would survive without aid.
Hedwig would fight to live as long as possible for her Harry-chick but knew that the snapping of the familiar bond would hurt him. If she managed to survive this she would make him find a magic that would let her stay with him always when she wasn't delivering messages. She would also demand a deeper familiar bond, one that went both ways better than the one she had first forged with her human chick.
With that pleasant thought Hedwig tried to go to sleep to escape the pain she couldn't even voice. The loyal owl would never wake up again, passing in the night. Her death would cause her Harry to wake up screaming and crying as he felt the familiar bond snap. The Serpent and Slytherins would cocoon him in warmth and love as they exchanged a look of pain on his behalf. Both older wizards knew the pain of loosing a familiar.
*+ovo+*
A/n: First - don't kill me. Hedwig needed to die for a couple of different reasons. One of which includes giving Harry a new familiar but another, less pleasant, reason is to show how vicious and petty some people can be even if they learn to change later. I wont list the other reasons, instead I'll just inform you that Musey demanded it if we were going to continue the story. Animals, especially ones that bond with humans, are far from stupid even if their understanding of the world around them is so very different from how we understand things. I took no pleasure in killing off Hedwig but her death and other connected events will help weed out the trustworthy students from those who are dangerous for Harry. I am still debating sending him back to the castle and as a result am proceeding with the assumption that musey will insist upon it at some point even if its just for a day. As a result these preparations are necessary for future points in the story.