A/N: It wrote itself. Really. Someone please get a character tag made for our favourite maledictus.

Dec 1926 – early 1927

Nagini.

It wasn't her name. It wasn't even a Korean name. She didn't know where they got the name from but after a certain amount of time at the circus, the name just stuck and she no longer felt the need to chastise them. No one ever found out her real name and she liked it that way. She hadn't been the young and innocent forest dwelling witch for a long time now and drawing a connection between that naive girl and the circus 'snake girl' she was now didn't seem right. Sometimes, just sometimes, she even forgot what her birth name was.

"Nagini," he whispered, standing right outside her cage. "Are you awake?"

He didn't know either.

He, her only friend, didn't know much about her other than her possessing the ability to turn into a snake at will and the fact that she disliked their ringmaster. She didn't have the heart to tell him what she really was. From the very first time she laid eyes on him, she could see that although he was a troubled soul who had his own set of demons to deal with, he was only temporarily passing through the circus. He wasn't restricted to circus work, not in the way that she was. One day, he'd overcome whatever had forced him to join the circus and would move on to bigger and better things. She wouldn't. He'd only needlessly worry about her if she told him the truth. She didn't want that.

That was why she currently fell back on her old tactic of pretending to be asleep, sighing in relief when she heard him walking away from her cage. The last week—the interval between the last show and the next—had been uneventful for her and, as a result, she hadn't transformed in a week. The snake was squirming inside her, making her restless and unable to sleep. It was begging to be released.

Now was as good a time as any; he had probably gone back to the menial workers' quarters, and the other circus acts, many of them magical creatures like herself, all seemed to be asleep. There was no one around to watch her and then ask why an Animagus would randomly take her animal form in the middle of the night. After one last scan of her surroundings, she wrapped her arms around her body, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Within seconds, she transformed into a viper.

.:. QK .:.

One would think that freaks would understand one another and get along, becoming friends as they navigated through their wretched lives together. One would be wrong. After over a decade spent living with various types of outcasts like her, she had yet to hear a nice word from any of them let alone form a meaningful connection with one. The others looked upon her in disdain, letting her know that they were disgusted that they'd all been captured and forced into this line of work whereas she'd walked into the circus all on her own, becoming the show's star attraction along the way. They thought that her life was so easy. They knew nothing. They couldn't even begin to understand.

The ringmaster was no better. He couldn't care less about any of them; they were nothing more than business tools to him. He treated her only a little less cruelly than the others, and that was because she brought in the most money. That didn't stop him from keeping her in a cage, though. He obviously knew that without the cage, she could slither away from him whenever she damn well pleased. Not that she would. She had nowhere else to go. Her mother had long since succumbed to her curse and the money that had allowed for a quiet life in the forest was all gone by the end of her first year living alone. As long as the circumstances remained the same, she would stay with the Circus Arcanus.

The others sneered at her as they returned to their cages, no doubt having received a beating or two from the ringmaster. She glared at them in response, not looking away until they all looked away first, one by one. Sometimes, she worried that her face would become stuck in a permanent scowl long before her entire body became stuck in her beast form.

She smiled when he joined her, sitting down next to her and silently offering her his bowl of soup. She shook her head in response, realising that she probably looked worse for wear after the previous night's transformation. Since the ringmaster hardly thought they deserved mirrors, she had no way of knowing. While her mother had failed to pass on certain bits of knowledge pertaining their curse to her, she had figured out for herself that as her permanent transformation loomed closer, it would take a toll on her appearance—towards the end of her human life, she'd look frail, gaunt and tired.

She shook her head again, this time to herself, wondering why her appearance suddenly mattered to her. It was all for nought when she'd never be as human as the man sat next to her.

.:. QK .:.

They didn't really talk much, him and her, often sitting together in companionable silence. She didn't mind. Having spent the first twelve years of her life in a secluded forest meant that she was ill-equipped for socialising and very much preferred quiet to constant chatter. Looking over at him as he worked, she wondered what his story was. The haunted look in his eyes told her that he'd been through a lot in his first twenty-five years or so of life and was still hurting despite having started a new life here.

It was strange how quickly they had taken to one another, at least in her eyes; she had never been one to trust easily and he struck her as someone who had trusted too easily and had paid the price for it. If anything, they should have avoided each other like the plague. And yet, she had a hard time imagining such a scenario because in their short time together, she already felt like she'd known him her whole life.

Kindred spirits, she thought, as he approached her. The term fit them well.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked, referring to the ringmaster who was heard yelling at someone from the other end of the tent.

"No," she answered, noticing him tightening his jaw and becoming a few notches paler. The ringmaster was practically roaring now, and one of the workers was heard crying out in pain. She winced, trying to get a handle on her nerves as she gently placed a hand on his arm, leading him farther away from the commotion. "He's not even the worst ringmaster I've seen."

She realised she'd made a mistake when he tensed up. "You've worked in other circuses before?"

"Three," she replied, her hand still on his arm as she gestured for him to sit down with her. He complied, and the pair of them settled on the bench near the entrance of the tent. She released his arm, hardly able to hear the ringmaster now. "One non-magical, two wizarding."

"What did you do at the non-magical circus?" he questioned, seeming a little less on edge than before.

"I was a dancer," she responded, recalling her time spent in said circus. "They dubbed me an Arab belly dancer. I don't think they even realised that I'm Korean." She rolled her eyes at the ignorance of the Non-Magiques. "If they did, they just didn't care."

"But then why did you leave dance for this?" he asked, looking and sounding confused.

"Actually, I left this for dancing. I did the snake act at my first wizarding circus before dancing for the Non-Magiques. Dancing was okay, sometimes I liked the attention of the men, but it didn't feel right. Sometimes they wanted more... more than I was willing to give." She shuddered at the last thought. "So I left for the second wizarding circus. Circumstance forced me to leave that one a while later and join this one."

He nodded. "As you know, this is my first job. I don't think I'd be able to do this work a second time, let alone a fourth."

"You shouldn't," she told him, her voice soft. "You're too good."

It dawned on her that she must have said the wrong thing because right after she spoke, he suddenly stood up and bowed his head in apparent shame. "You wouldn't say that if you knew what I'd done," he said quietly, not looking at her.

She remained seated, watching as he returned to work, the last few words playing over and over again in her head.

A/N: Idk why I have an aversion to referring to characters by the name. But hey at least there's a name at the beginning!