Slowly, Nagini was falling in love with Voldemort, the darkest wizard the wizarding had ever known. She couldn't tell yet, she could hardly consider friendship after 11 years of solitude, but it was happening.
Although the same couldn't be said for Voldemort, he had begun to find that he wasn't spending time with her simply to figure out how useful she really was. It wasn't really friendship, but it was certainly far more feeling that Voldemort had with any of his other "friends".
His plan the entire time was to use her, for reasons none of the other pure bloods could fulfill. Yes, their families were powerful, but that wasn't everything. If it was, Voldemort would be nowhere near his level of power yet. He could see that same potential in Nagini, and he felt that if he twisted her the right way, instead of being a powerful rival, she could help him ascend to power very quickly.
Snow softly fell to the ground and melted in the water as Nagini stared out into the lake. It was December, and although she would've much rather have been inside with Voldemort, she felt like she needed some time alone for once.
That was a though that would've never been something she considered just a mere few months ago, but after all, she had spent nearly every spare moment with Voldemort since she came here. Her relations with her dorm mates were steadily improving, but she still felt it was dull to talk with a bunch of giggling brats.
Nagini took her shoes and socks off and froze a small section of the lake and stepped on the ice. Although she still couldn't use her wand well, she had gotten much better at pretending to and her magic in general was improving dramatically.
The ice burned coldly against her feet, but it was easier to keep her balance than with shoes on. She sat down, relishing the feeling the cold gave her.
She froze when she heard footsteps crunching in the darkness. Out of a purely involuntary reaction, she turned invisible and floated off a bit and turned.
"Hi Voldemort," she acknowledged.
"What are you doing here? With your shoes and socks on the bank?"
She shrugged, "It gives me better leverage on the ice.
"Do you want to see something?" she asked, a smile toying with the edges of her lips. "Just be prepared to lug me up to the castle if this takes too much energy." Which is most likely would, but she was sure he could probably find a way.
"Sure," he replied.
She glided toward the center of the lake. The energy output was minimal, but she knew what she was going to do next was going to be extremely taxing. She began to glide across the rippling water, willing the water to move up into great, twisting pillars. Slowly, the word Slytherin began to form, a snake twisting in and out of the letters. As she moved away, it froze into an enormous block of ice. Although as she created her masterpiece, she felt completely fine, but as soon as she began to towards the bank, she felt like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. Finally, she fell right onto him, holding onto his shoulder to even stand up.
Voldemort smiled, but underneath, he was doing some very intense thinking. He was feeling extremely apprehensive of the girl who had suddenly collapsed into his arms. However, he also felt relief that he was able to befriend her and was confident that it was going to be a very useful investment.
"Let me just rest a second before we leave," she muttered, her voice barely a whisper.
"You're not going to die from exhaustion are you?" he joked.
"Of course, wonderful time to make jokes, Tom." she retaliated.
He froze at her use of his muggle name but relaxed quickly.
Suddenly, her entire weight fell on him and he realized she had fainted. He chuckled as he saw how much younger and innocent she looked unconscious, with a small smile sitting on her lips.
He made them both invisible again, and levitated her up and made his way back to the castle.