Chapter 9

Nagini's tongue tasted the air as she moved from the Riddle Manor towards London at a decent pace despite Voldemort worries of her getting destroyed. As her snake body travelled, her mind wandered to how this journey began. For once, Nagini enjoyed the freedom of her own hunting and feeding around Riddle Manor instead of being stuck in that silver sphere since Voldemort decided to split his soul once more, shove it into her and now paranoid, she was kept in that blasted sphere.

Out hunting, she sensed a piece of Tom such as he was heading towards London, the soul fragment calling to the other fragment. The piece of Tom in her was puzzled and demanded her to follow up. Voldemort was hard to convince but once it was pointed out that if she could get this soul, take it into herself it would be safe from being destroyed. That and she was very dangerous as Bellatrix found out when she asked to go instead.

Bellatrix still was pouting at the mild, mild bite that Nagini gave her as a result of her 'dangerous.' Such Nagini got to go and Bellatrix couldn't.

As for still being at Riddle Manor rather then say, the Malfoys, Nagini wanted to explore were Tom could have grown up, but to his eyes, it was full of good hunting grounds and relented just this once to stay for a while.

Nagini found a nice hidden piece of wilderness such as it was in the English countryside, as the sun started to rise and settled down to sleep. She declined a port-key as it threw off her snake senses and pointed out that if she had any Death Eaters with her then her investigation would for not. After all as a snake she could travel incognito but with humans it would scream 'attack.' She did ask for a speed spell to help her along.

A hissing voice interrupted her as she started again the next day. 'Why are you displeased with us? Are you not ours and we are yours?'

Nagini, if she was human would have snorted in disbelief. 'At one time yes. But now, I don't know.'

Nagini remembered how she came across the young wizard when he was five at that blasted orphanage or in her words, place of loneliness.

Nagini was strongly reminded of her onetime friend and lover Credence Barebones and so stayed at young Tom's side. In time, he became a fast friend in his own right, until he decided to split his soul for the first time. By doing so, it completely changed the human who she had called friend and had changed her tender feeling towards his to just loyalty for she knew that in reality, she was his only friend.

Three days later she was burrowed in the bushes behind the side of the Black House's fencing that separated it from it's nearest neighbor. A movement of a door opening, and such the wards, beckoned to her. Nagini slipped between the startled wizards and swiftly started towards the other horcruxes calling that called to the one insider her body.

She moved swiftly enough that the magic that was being aimed at her, glanced off of the 'shield' that her owner gave her, tied to the horcrux inside her and not the main body.

Nagini hissed in exasperation and mild cussing at the closed door that hide the thing or person she looked for.

A weak voice told the wizards to stop trying to kill her, and she noticed the one called Harry, leaning heavily on a dark haired wizard arm come up behind her. She swiftly rose to attack if necessary. Instead to her surprised, Harry hissed back as he had heard the hissing from his room and noted that most of it was cussing.

'Why are you here?'

'So you are of Slytherin's line as well as Tom's. This makes it easier inside of death for the other wizards. I seek and the other horcruxes in me seek what is behind this door. That is all. Once I see what I need to see I will report back." Nagini didn't know why she decided to explain herself but she did so. Such it helped her cause.

Harry, still weak, but strong in spirit listened as Nagini explained why she was here. The only reason that Harry and Nagini could even have this conversation was that Tom Riddle's soul bypassed the wards as they didn't count on non-humans needing to go in or out, save house elves. That and Harry was of Slytherin's line, ironically quite distant from Tom Riddle's wizarding heritage, but still connected.

Harry Potter nodded and opened the door despite the protests of the other wizards. Nagini slipped in as the door shut and locked, she bypassed the ward and curled up, on and around Tom Riddle's body and closed her eyes.

The wizards outside didn't know what to make of the screaming of the snake, but they really didn't know to make of the sudden silence afterward.

Tom Riddle groaned as his soul eagerly sucked up another of his soul fragments, as Nagini screamed in pain as Harry had done when his soul fragment left his body. He gladly took the soul fragment because having Nagini as a vessel was horrifying.

Two days later, Tom Riddle's blue eyes with the slightest hint of red, opened for the first time since he split his soul into two. A heavy, but comforting weight of a presence he had forgotten he loved, was with him.

His voice was scratchy and hollow from disuse, but joyful at the same time. "Nagini."

His almost complete soul realized how much he missed Nagini's affection. Tom knew intelligently snakes didn't do affection, but Nagini was human once, and such she would curl and flick her tongue at him when she decided to be cheeky or exasperating at his high and mighty ideas when he was young (the killing of Billy's rabbit was justified well kind of. Nagini was starving and it was winter out! He probably should have gotten Billy another rabbit or something. Oops.) He noticed in his memories of the other now anchored soul fragments that her affection slowly morphed into just loyalty as he continued to split his soul.

Now in a place of honor in the Malfoys Manor, Lord Voldemort opened his eyes and frowned. Something was different, very different. He just didn't know what.