Late 1927

The Dark wizard was not trustworthy at all. She could see what his real agenda was from a mile away, especially given his past with her dear friend. The wizard obviously wanted him for his power, for what a great asset he would be to his cause. She was disappointed that he couldn't see it. After all this time, he still placed his trust far too easily in the wrong people.

"He's evil, Credence!" she exclaimed, pacing around on the rooftop of the latest building they'd been staying in. "He's used you before. You said so yourself!"

"But I don't care about him," he said, steadying himself on the rooftop. "I just want to know who I am."

"Even if means joining a Dark wizard?"

He didn't answer straight away, something that was worrying in itself. He should have replied in an instant, in the negative. "I'm not joining him," he assured her, holding his arms up. "I'll just go to his rally and see what he has to say. Maybe I'll find something out while I'm there."

"Or you'll walk right into a trap he's set up for you," she told him, crossing her arms.

"Nagini," he started, walking over to her. "Ma"—he shook his head—"Mary Lou told me that my mother was unnatural. My mother must've been a witch. There's no other explanation. The gathering will be full of witches and wizards. Maybe I'll meet someone there who knew her. Maybe I'll even meet my father."

She bristled at the mention of the word 'father'. He seemed to notice this and asked what was wrong.

"What if this father of yours turns out to be a Dark wizard too? Or someone like Skender? Or someone equally as bad?" she asked in rapid succession. "What will you do?"

He remained silent, apparently lost for words. She never wanted to tell him about her messed up origins, her messed up conception, but she felt like she had no choice at present. If her past could prevent him from making a mistake in the near future, she was going to use it.

"I was once like you, Credence. I wanted to know who my father"—she spat the word out—"was, what he was like, what he did for a living, all of those little things. My mother always ignored my questions about him when I was younger. It wasn't something that could be explained to a child but I think she was also trying to protect me. I think she hoped that I would lose interest. I didn't. When I got a little bit older, she started calling him a—never mind. I think the closest English translation is 'despicable man'. She still refused to answer my questions, though.

"Then, after my first transformation, she started telling me about our curse, about how it always passed from mother to daughter, and how the only way to eradicate it was to stop reproducing. She said that our foremothers had been greedy, trading their chances to end our line for the chance to have sons rather than no children at all. My grandmother had been one such woman. My naive young self asked my mother if that was why she chose to have me. She told me she didn't have me by choice. She told me that about a year before I was born, the despicable man found out about how the curse passed down and decided he could make a profit if he acquired more Maledictuses.

A year later, I was born. Throughout the whole pregnancy, it was a competition between my mother and the despicable man to see if I'd be a boy or a girl. He won. My mother cried for days."

"I'm so sorry, Nagini," he whispered, looking positively mortified. She buried her face in his shoulder, not wanting him to see how her eyes were tearing up. He drew her into a sort of awkward embrace and she couldn't help but smile at how typically him he was being.

"He later got what he deserved. The Japanese killed him after he stood in their way when they tried to kill me and abduct my mother. The only worthy thing he'd ever done, in her opinion, besides teaching her English and some French. I don't think she ever realised but that comment allowed me to figure out, years later, that the despicable man was, in fact, the snake charmer she worked for years before I was born. The money we lived on for years after his death, the money I lived on before I started working, was his money." She shuddered in disgust. "The same money he made from parading my mother around, not that she wasn't a willing participant." He would have made money off her as well, had he been given the chance to.

Realising that she had gone off topic and remembering the real reason she'd started saying all this, she pulled away to look him in the eyes. He released his hold on her but they remained close. "Credence, the whole point I told you all this is so that you realise that finding out who your parents are doesn't necessarily ensure a happy ending."

"I know," he said, nodding as if to say that he agreed with her, before re-establishing eye contact with her. "But can you honestly say that not knowing wouldn't have bothered you for the rest of your days?" She raised an eyebrow. Most of the rest of her days would be spent as a viper, remembering nothing of her human life. He seemed to realise his mistake as he added, "I mean before... you know..."

She closed her eyes. Of course, he was right. She hated to admit but she knew he was. Knowing that her father had been a rapist and aspiring Maledictus breeder had shattered her, even though her opinion of him had already diminished considerably by that time, but wondering who he was for the rest of her human life would have been like having a lifelong itch that she could never scratch. She sighed in defeat; if anything, she would have wanted to know the truth even earlier, were it possible.

Unlike her, her poor friend hadn't even met his birth mother. He didn't even know what her name was. How could she still call herself his friend after depriving him of the chance to find out? She couldn't. She opened her eyes and shook her head. "No, I couldn't."

"Will you go with me?" he implored, holding a hand out towards her.

She knew that he was going to go anyway, with or without her, so she decided to acquiesce. After all, he had never asked her for anything before but had always done what she asked without question. She nodded, placing her hand in his, allowing him to lead her to what he so ardently hoped to find.

.:. QK .:.

Scotland was cold, much colder than anywhere she'd ever been, Arcanus stop-overs included. Shivering, she clutched the coat draped over her shoulders closer, feeling more lost and out of place than she ever had as she stood on the bridge outside the wizarding school. The name of the school evaded her, a million other thoughts occupying her mind. Once again, she stood out like a sore thumb amongst the others, the others this time round being a group of the Dark wizard's enemies. His enemies. There were people amongst this group who had lost friends and family to the Dark Side. At least, in that, she wasn't an outsider.

For the first time in her life, she was not glad that she'd near enough correctly predicted something. She'd gone into the amphitheatre, prepared to either find out who his parents were or lose him to the Dark wizard. She just never thought he'd abandon all reason—abandon her—and willingly join the Dark Side just to uncover his parentage. Never had she imagined him to be so selfish and never had she expected him to be so cold as to leave her, someone who had no one else in the world, in the middle of a battle without so much as a word.

Heat rushed to her face as she glanced at the person who had saved her life, recalling how she had wept like a useless fool on the ground instead of trying to escape in the face of the flames that would have surely killed her if not for his intervention. She willed herself not to cry as a mixture of embarrassment and sadness threatened to overcome her. Fear was present too but she and fear were old friends; it didn't affect her nearly as much as the other emotions did.

Staying rooted to her spot on the bridge, she peered up at the magnificent castle ahead of her and breathed in the fresh Scottish air. While Credence was now the enemy, something she'd have a hard time processing, he had also freed her from the circus and opened her eyes to the bigger picture. There was more to life than earning a living, even for someone like her. At the end of the day, the two of them had chosen different sides. Like they often said at the circus when an animal got loose or a performance went wrong: the show must go on. She had to live on if only to cherish the last gift her only friend had given her.

A/N: I think this is borderline AU now.