Fight For Your Life
Nagini had walked up and down three times in the corridor with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. "This is weird."
"What is weird?" Hermione looked up and down the corridor like she was expecting another prefect to appear out of nowhere. It was not even curfew yet! "And where is Harry?"
"He wanted to meet us here," Nagini said while walking back and forth again.
"Maybe, we're in the wrong corridor?"
"No, we're definitely at the proper place."
"And why couldn't we meet right after or maybe even before dinner?" Hermione snapped in annoyance.
"Because he wants to show you something in secret?"
"Will you please stop walking up and down? You're making me nervous."
Nagini took a close look at Hermione. The other witch looked anything but comfortable. Maybe, they overdid the secrecy a little bit? "My walking back and forth is supposed to make a secret door appear."
"A secret door?" Hermione looked curiously around. "Where?"
"Right there." Nagini pointed at the wall right opposite of Barnabas' depiction.
Hermione pulled out her wand and started casting a vast number of spells. This kept her busy for four minutes. "I can't detect anything."
"The secret room is right here." Nagini slapped the wall. "I don't know why it doesn't appear today."
"I can't detect a hidden room." Hermione cast another round of charms. "This wall seems very solid to me. 'Hogwarts: A History' mentions several secret rooms. Are you sure about this place?"
"Yes, I am. I've been in this room quite often."
"Are you sure that it the right spot?" Hermione asked yet again.
"Yes, I am. The tapestry is hard to forget..." Nagini pointed at Barnabas the Barmy who was trying to teach ballet to a gang of trolls.
Hermione's eyes flicked back and forth between the wall, the tapestry, and Nagini. "Look," she said calmly, "I don't want to argue with you but it's almost curfew. Maybe, we should both go to bed. You would get into even more trouble than I if you got caught in the halls after curfew."
"Harry said he would meet us here right before curfew."
Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe, he ran into some prefects who escorted him to his Head of House? I guess he mentioned that he is at odds with Professor Snape?"
Nagini looked doubtfully at the other witch. "But Harry always came, when he promised to."
"I'm not saying that he is breaking any promises." Hermione explained smoothly, "I just say, let's not get into unnecessary trouble that won't help anybody."
Nagini felt her resolve waver. "Let's wait for five more minutes?"
Hermione hesitated briefly before nodding curtly, "Okay, but only five minutes."
In the end, they hung around the corridor until after curfew. Hermione grew more impatient and nervous by the minute. "You should really go back to Hogsmeade. I'm sure Harry has a good explanation for ditching us. But let's listen to it tomorrow, okay?"
"I don't mind if you want to leave. I'll stay here and wait." Nagini crossed her arms defiantly.
"It's not me I'm worried about!" Hermione hissed. "The worst that could happen to me is detention. You, on the other hand, could get into way more serious trouble." She grabbed Nagini's hand. "I'll escort you downstairs."
Nagini shook her head in defiance. "I'll wait."
Hermione's mouth was already open but a clicking sound interrupted their imminent argument before it could take place. Both witches turned their head in time to see a door swing open just half a step left of where Nagini had claimed was one.
Robed figures stepped out of it. Dressed in black, each of them wore a very recognizable mask. Even Nagini who had never before seen one recognized them as Death Eaters.
Wands were pointed at them. And before either of them could react, they were struck down by spells. Nagini found herself lying on the ground. She had been bound with thick ropes.
"A welcoming committee, what a pleasant surprise!" A deep booming voice commented.
A female voice, notably muffled by its mask, snapped almost instantly, "What are you two doing here after curfew?"
Nagini turned her head to look at Hermione. She had not been bound but was lying on the floor as well. Something was clearly wrong with her. She was twitching like she had a seizure.
"Hermione?"
When she did not reply instantly, Nagini was kicked in the back, "Answer or you'll end up like your friend."
Nagini was too shocked to listen or even realize the pain. She could not look away from Hermione's contorted face. A booted food forced her onto her back. "When we ask you a question you answer!" One of the masked wizards peered down at her.
Nagini had felt the transformation come over her a thousand times. However, in all those instances she had never been truly glad to be capable of it. Being a big, scaly monster had never been something she had wanted to be.
At Circus Arcanus, she had always aimed to slow the process of her transformation down so the spectators could have a good look at her shifting body. This time, however, was different. She intently pulled her second self around herself. Right under the nose of her attacker, she turned into the curse that had shaped her entire life.
Before the Death Eater leaning over her could express his surprise, she lunged at him. Her teeth sunk into his soft throat. Warm blood gushed everywhere.
They both fell down.
Nagini ripped her teeth free and his throat out.
For decades, she had been living in the Forbidden Forest. She had shared that space not only with unicorns and bowtruckles. The forest on the Hogwarts grounds was not a friendly place. There was no space for fancy fairy tales in the wilderness. Huge and intelligent predators roamed the darkness under the canopy of leaves.
Few creatures understood how fast a snake could move across short distances. Nagini unfolded the tangle of her body was and as fast as a whiplash she struck her next target down.
Wands got pointed and spells struck her. They bounced off her scales.
Surviving as the only one of her kind in the Forbidden Forest had not been a certainty. And it was not through luck that Nagini was still alive. She had to fight to remain alive in the vicinity of trolls, hippogriffs, thestrals, centaurs, and acromantulas. None of them had been happy to share the forest with her.
Nagini had taught them all to leave her alone. She had chosen her territory and forced the other beast to arrange themselves around her.
Her tough scales and her steely determination to exist had been hugs boons. But the fact that she was bigger than most other creatures had helped immensely. Nagini was longer than the hallway was wide and wasn't that useful when she catapulted herself from one wall to the other? She bowled the still standing wizards over like toys.
Nagini felt her skin prickle. The Death Eaters were probably using some nasty curses which would even affect a being as resilient as her. But somehow they chose the wrong ones. Pain turned into anger. And the attackers learned the hard way that using the Imperius Curse to control a mind that was set on killing while oneself was afraid of dying was not a good idea. Had Hermione been conscious she could have told the wizard who hurled blood boiling curses that those were not very effective on a cold-blooded creature, to begin with, and that he also needed more power to inconvenience a massive creature like Nagini than the short flicking of his wand could produce.
Her body curled reflexively around one of the bodies lying on the floor. There wasn't even a scream. Just the dull sound of a dozen bones cracking.
These humans had no idea whom they were fighting. They had never experienced the attack of a dozen man-eating spiders out for their flesh.
Nagini knew these things.
She felt an impact. Her body curled instinctively back. She hid her head in between a coil of herself.
A wizard screamed something.
Nagini couldn't understand him the second time better than the first one. Her ears were not meant to listen to human voices.
A third impact shook her body. And there was actually some pain that told her that she was hurt. It felt like a foolish hippogriff was trying to maul her tail. But it wasn't too bad. Long dagger-like claws had hurt her before. They had sunk very deep into her flesh. The scars had healed perfectly.
Despite not seeing her opponent, Nagini knew exactly where he stood. She could feel his footsteps through the ground. She whipped her tail to get him off his feet. When he was down she flung herself at him. She grabbed him and pressed the life out of him.
She looked around and found Hermione lying close to a wall. She had stopped jerking and looked almost peaceful at the moment.
Nagini also noticed another Death eater moving. It was the witch. She was probably hurt. Maybe, she had hit her head when she had been bowled over?
Singlemindedly, Nagini slithered over to her. Her body coiled around the human. She started to constrict. There was only a single groan. Nothing in Nagini's clutch got a second breath. Nagini looked back at Hermione.
The unmoving body made her angry. She crushed until she felt bones crack.
For a moment, she was very tempted to eat one of the humans. Nothing said more, I'm not your prey than eating someone of the attacker's species.
But, she had sworn to herself that she'd never make that step. She was no man-eater.
Once they were out of danger, Nagini realized that she couldn't turn back into her human form.
She slithered closer to Hermione. Her tongue darted in and out to check if there was something unusual about her.
Nothing seemed to be off about her.
Nagini tried to come up with a way to get Hermione to the infirmary. But she could not see how to do it. She could not risk biting the witch to drag her. And wrapping her tail around her was likely harmful as well.
She tried to think of a way to make the nurse come to Hermione.
If she had been anything but a snake she could have made some noise to attract attention. But snakes were not loud.
She looked around. She had just decided to tumble over some suits of armor to make a ruckus when she felt footsteps. Someone was coming.
Instinctively, she turned to face the new threat only to recognized the 'clack clack' of the grumpy caretaker's shoes through the tremors in the ground.
Nagini retreated, hoping her absence would benefit Hermione.