What is a Maledictus?

Harry brushed a drop of sweat from his forehead. He had never considered that brewing potions could turn into real work. Especially looking at Slughorn that idea seemed rather implausible. Shredding eighty Boomslang skins had taught him better.

It had also left Harry annoyed over his own laziness. If he had prepared the ingredients in advance and not only when he had been in dire need of them, it would have been less taxing. His right hand had actually cramped halfway through the hassle of shredding them in a hurry. But what was done was done.

All he needed to do for the moment was stir the concoction counterclockwise for a few more minutes which he did with his left hand. Tomorrow, a bit more clockwise stirring would finish the potion.

While absentmindedly staring at an hourglass, Harry considered what to do next. It was still early afternoon. The weather was nice too.

Unfortunately, Gryffindor had reserved the Quidditch pitch. Taking his trusty Firebolt for a ride was therefore out of question. The Weasley twins would aim their training bludger at any Slytherin who dared to show his face remotely close to their team's training. So he'd better not give them an excuse to hunt him down.

He could have done his homework. But it was only Saturday. And he worked faster when he felt the pressure of time anyway. The Boomslang skin was proof of this.

He could always check whether Nagini was sunbathing at the stone circle. He hadn't visited her yesterday. And she hadn't been at the circle the day before.

The idea grew fond on him as soon as he had it. His mental activity switched from musing to hoping that she wouldn't be absent today as well.

About an hour later he found the giant snake. She was indeed lazing close to the Megaliths. Despite her considerable size, Nagini was hard to find. Her green and black scales were especially hard to spot since a breeze was shuffling through the tall grass.

Nagini lifted and turned her head only when he had finally detected her and was only a few steps away from her.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm cold." was her answer.

Harry frowned. Upon leaving the castle, he had cast a warming charm on himself. He did the same for her before sitting down next to her.

"That's a bit better." The snake sighed in content. "It's good that you came today. I wanted to tell you that I'll retreat for the winter."

Harry repeated her words in surprise, "You'll retreat for the winter?"

"I'll be asleep for the cold period of the year." Nagini scoffed, "It's what all snakes do. The cold is making me all stiff. I feel tired too. And I've lost my appetite."

"Why haven't you told me that you hibernate?" And why hadn't he realized this of his own? Like every autumn, Hagrid was currently pointing the course at every animal that went dormant for the winter. "So this will be the last time we'll meet until spring?" He made a quick calculation in his head. He did not fancy the result, "That's five months!"

"We can meet tomorrow and Monday if you want to but I'm not sure about Tuesday." Nagini slithered closer to him. She placed her head in his lap and gave a content hiss. "It depends on the temperature and whether it will rain."

Harry noticed that Nagini's body was still cold. He cast another warming charm on her and put his left hand right on her neck. Due to her sturdy scales, Nagini did not fancy petting or a neck massage but she liked the warmth of his skin. "What are you going to do? Dig a hole?"

"I've got a cave." Nagini shuffled more of her body close to him.

Harry felt her press into his back. He knew that she was basically leeching his warmth but she was also a convenient backrest. He cast another warming charm. "Where is the cave? I would like to visit you once in a while."

"You can't." Nagini hissed apologetically, "I'll be asleep. And I wouldn't want you to wander for hours through the forest anyway."

Harry sighed in frustration. He was not keen on taking a break on talking to his newest friend for five months. He had really grown fond of conversing with Nagini. She had an interesting perspective on things. And everything was just so easy with her. It was weird but he felt really close to her despite the fact that he had only known her for little more than a month.

Harry grumbled unhappily in response, "You could have told me before!"

"I'm doing so now." The snake was unfazed by his attitude. "Without the recent cold snap, this wouldn't be an issue for a few more weeks."

This snippet of information made the wizard's ears prick up. "The cold is all this about then?"

"Obviously. That's why snakes sleep during the winter."

An idea formed in Harry's head. "Let me get this straight. If it wasn't cold, you wouldn't sleep through the winter at all?"

"What a weird question!" Nagini rubbed her cheekbone on his belly. "No, I wouldn't."

"Good news! I have the perfect solution to your problem." Harry grinned down at her. "You can stay in the castle during the winter."

"I'm not allowed inside the castle."

"And the Forbidden Forest has its name for a reason." Harry countered her argument easily. "That didn't stop me either. It's not important whether something is forbidden if you won't get caught!"

Nagini hissed, "You think I can't fault your logic?"

"I know a room you can hide in. I've been brewing the Potion I told you about in there for four weeks now and nobody has found it. And I've got this." Harry pulled out a parchment. He tapped it with his wand and thus made brittle lines appear. "This will allow us to sneak you into the room."

It was a bit of a surprise when Nagini's head suddenly left his lap. Usually, she would not budge an inch until he had to get back to the castle. He felt the coil of her body shuffle away which had until now supported his back. She seemed to be set on leaving him behind.

"What's wrong? Where are you going?" He cried out in surprise.

Nagini hissed in distress, "I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you before. But I was never sure how to do it."

"Tell me what?"

"The answer to all those questions I refused to answer."

Harry jumped to his feet and hurriedly followed his friend. She had not stopped at the treeline like she usually did when they said goodbye. He knew which questions she meant. There were a lot of those. But he had figured the truth out without her help. "What does it matter that you came here as some students pet?"

Nagini stopped. Her head lifted from the ground until she was at eye level with him. Once more Harry realized how big she was. But the young wizard felt not threatened. He trusted Nagini with his life. Maybe the fact that she could have killed and swallowed him in one piece at any of their meetings had something to do with that. Besides, they were real friends. They had grown close not because it was easy for them but despite a lot of obstacles. You couldn't be any more different than they were.

Harry explained empathetically, "I don't think bad of you, because you ran away from a student. You had every right to do so and certainly don't need to feel ashamed of it. That happened such a long time ago that it's hardly true anymore! I mean my parents were not even born back then."

"I'm a Maledictus." was all Nagini said before she lowered her head and went back to slithering into the forest.

"A Maledictus?" Harry frowned and wondered whether he was supposed to know what that meant. "I don't know what a Maledictus is."

"Rarely anybody does. They had to explain it all the time." Nagini hissed and accelerated further.

"They? Who are they?" Harry gasped while trying to pick up speed. It was weird how a creature without legs could move this fast.

Nagini answered in a clipped tone, "Go. Ask Dumbledore. Or McGonagall."

"Okay, I will do so if you promise that we'll meet tomorrow to talk about this!"

Instead of giving that promise Nagini vanished in a clutter of broken or uprooted trees. The casualties of a storm one or two years ago.

Harry needed a moment to collect his thoughts and his breath. He decided to approach Professor Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall had been very irritated by the recent pranks of the Weasley twins. And for some reason, she was of the opinion that he was partially responsible for their actions. She reasoned that he and the twins goaded each other.

Once more slightly huffing after the numerous stairs Harry tried to recover his breathing in the Gargoyle Corridor. Before he could address the stone statue on his own, it said, "The headmaster is waiting for you."

A little confused, Harry stepped on the turning stairs. An open door invited him into Dumbledore's office. He looked around. Fawkes sat in all his glory on his perch and trilled welcoming. He took note that the collection of weird silver trinkets had grown. The number of paintings of previous headmasters had not changed as had their ability to pretend to be asleep. "Good evening, Harry. What a nice surprise."

Harry had no idea how this was a surprise when Dumbledore had been waiting for him. "Good evening, Professor. How are you doing?"

"I'm alright Harry. Thank you for your concern. How are you?"

"Fine."

"Have a seat, please!" The headmaster gestured kindly at a chintz seat in front of his desk. "Would you like a toffee?"

"No, thank you."

Dumbledore leaned forward and said conspiratorially, "I was waiting for you to come to me. In fact, I was expecting your visit a bit earlier."

"Excuse me?" Harry asked dumbfounded.

For a long moment, they stared at each other over the huge desk. Dumbledore looked over his half-moon spectacles and Harry through his round glasses. "Maybe I've gotten a bit ahead of our discussion?"

Harry had no idea what the older wizard was talking about.

"I'm sorry. I did not mean to interrupt you or your line of thinking." The headmaster chuckled softly. "Maybe we should do this the classic way?" When Harry had no immediate answer for that he aimed an expectant look at him. "You wanted to talk to me?"

This was definitely weird. The student scratched his head. "Yes."

"And what about?"

Harry accepted the weird situation with a shrug and asked, "What is a Maledictus?"

Dumbledore asked calmly but with an unusual pronunciation, "And why would you ask such a question?"

A light bulb went on in Harry's head. "You know about Nagini?"

The headmaster smiled in amusement. "Your meetings with her have recently come to my attention."

At first, Harry was about to ask 'How?' but he thought better of it and repeated, "So, what is a Maledictus?"

The wise wizard sighed sadly, "So she told you that she is a Maledictus but has not revealed to you what that means?"

Harry shook his head in the negative. "She told me to ask you."

"Yes, that makes sense." Dumbledore sighed again. "It's easier to believe me than her."

Harry snapped, "I would have believed her!" The rock-solid conviction in his voice surprised not only himself.

Dumbledore smiled at him when he did not answer the question once more but asked inquisitively, "What do you think a Maledictus is? You have some kind of theory, don't you?"

Harry thought of rebuking the question. He had come here to get answers not be asked questions. However, he had the distinct impression that playing along would get him the answers faster than complaining about the game. "A Maledictus is obviously some kind of magical beast that looks like a giant snake. She is a magical beast that is sentient like a Sphinx. Though a Maledictus can't speak like a Sphinx but hisses like a regular snake."

Dumbledore gave a single nod. "A very interesting theory. You've taken the things you know and pieced them together. It's a rather obvious approach. Most of the time this manner of thinking leads to the best conclusions." Dumbledore did not say 'but'. However, it felt like he had. "You know from personal experience what werewolves and Animagi are. It is said that a Maledictus is something right in between."

Harry's patience was worn quite thin. He snorted rather undiplomatically, "That makes no sense at all." In a suffering tone, he added, "Can't you just tell me what a Maledictus is?"

"Sadly, it makes perfect sense, Harry." And then Dumbledore explained wearily, "Nagini was born as a witch. Like any Animagus, she could turn into one animal. A snake in her case. But like any Werewolf she was destined to lose control of the transformation. Only she didn't turn into a snake once a month but lost the ability to turn back into a witch over the years. Once that happened she was henceforth stuck in the body of a snake."

Harry gasped in horror, "You can't be serious!"

"Sadly I am." Dumbledore finished his explanation, "Many generations ago one of Nagini's ancestors was cursed. She became a Maledictus. And she passed the curse onto her daughter and so forth until the witch was born you recently met."

Harry shook his head in denial. "That's ridiculous!" Because he thought that it was utterly stupid to use such a curse. Harry claimed, "That can't be." because it should be impossible to do such a thing. It was just wrong. And he also asked, "Who would do such a thing?"

In a manner of answering Dumbledore asked a question of his own, "How can a powerful Dark Wizard try to kill a baby and fail?"

Harry had never understood that as well. Nobody knew what happened on the night his parents were murdered. He gasped. He was not sure which fact surprised him more, that Nagini was a cursed witch or... "I would not have believed her!"

Seemingly without any connection to their current discussion, Dumbledore said solemnly, "Magic can be great in every sense of the word but it also makes terrible things possible."

Harry considered the words. "Okay, so what do we need to do to break the curse?"

"I wish the curse could be broken." Dumbledore sighed. "Sadly, no means of healing a Maledictus are known to wizardkind. It has been tried before. It failed every time. The nature of this kind of curses makes them so persistent. They become a part of their victim. And they can rarely be healed without doing more harm than good."

Dumbledore closed his eyes and told Harry of an experience, "Not long ago, I examined a witch whose family was struck by a Blood Curse generations ago. Her curse was less prominent and severe than the Maledictus Curse. It had even weakened over time. Still, I couldn't help her. Her Blood Curse was ingrained too deeply into her being. Breaking the curse would have killed her."

The following conclusion was disillusioning, "I could not help someone who was suffering from a weakening curse and I certainly can't help Nagini since her curse has grown stronger with every generation who passed it along."

"This is only terrible!" Harry complained. "Where is the so-called greatness of magic?"

"Maybe it is your ability to offer friendship to Nagini." Dumbledore smiled softly.

Harry was not pacified by this statement at all and snapped rather fiercely, "That's stupid!" The bespectacled wizard glared angrily at his headmaster. In truth, he was mostly shocked and sad but in the presence of the old wizard, he held desperately onto his anger. He wouldn't cry for his friend in front of an audience. It was bad enough that he'd cry the next time he'd meet Nagini!

Harry stood and turned to leave. "I'll ask her to move into the school for the duration of the winter." It was an announcement and not a question.

He was stopped at the very last moment before descending the stairs, "One moment if you please."

Harry turned around scowling.

The headmaster waved his wand and summoned a small pile of items onto his desk. "Please hand these back to Nagini. I kept them safe for her."

Harry could hardly justify to ignore this request and therefore stomped angrily back to the desk. He looked over the very small pile. "That's all? Where is her wand?"

"She never had one." Dumbledore said softly, "We were going to get her one but it was never meant to be."

The scowl on Harry's face grew in intensity. He was about to claim the assembly of cheap clutter when one item caught his attention. Right under his nose and on top of everything else lay a hairbrush. A small number of black hairs were stuck to the bristles. Involuntarily, Harry thought of his huge cauldron full of Polyjuice Potion.

"These are pretty long hairs," Dumbledore said casually. "I would say the correct ratio is one on seven shredded Boomslang skins."

"But you can't use Polyjuice Potion to change into another species." It was an almost postscript comment on the description of the potion and it had vexed Harry right from the beginning. He would have really liked to turn some people into pigs and others into peacocks.

"Nagini was, is and will always be a witch, Harry. No matter what she looks like."