The Discovery
Harry wasn’t completely sure just how many days had passed since the night Voldemort returned, or even how long since the crash, but he knows he’s locked in a room, with a giant snake that wants to eat him. He awoke the first time because of his inability to breathe or sit up. There was a weight on his chest and after some time thrashing around, he realised a great dirty snake was coiled up on top of his chest, which did nothing to help his panic. Harry had gasped at the creature to get off and was surprised when it did. He managed to roll off the side of the bed and hit the floor with a painful thud. The panic, the lack of air, the remaining injuries caused him to pass out just as he saw two eyes coming closer towards him from under the bed, and a womans voice whispering, hissing his name.
He woke again, and was beginning to get tired of not being conscious for any normal amount of time, or not being in some sort of pain. At least one of his wishes came true, as he felt the pain in his head and body significantly decreased and he could think more clearly than he had in a while. As he sat up he became aware of something else in the room and felt cold when he saw the snake curled up, this time, at the end of the bed by his feet, which he slowly drew closer to himself, attempting to not disturb the thing as he did so. The size of it, the weight he’d felt twice now and the muscles bunched up languidly on the duvet told him that this snake could do serious harm to him from a distance if it wished. Harry decided to carefully leave the bed, and after finding his feet he tiptoed towards the door only to find it locked.
”Awake, child is awake. Silly child, too fragile to live, too bony to eat.” said a womans voice behind him, and Harry whipped his head around to see the snake staring at him, making its way off the bed towards his feet which were quickly backing up into the door. ”Thinks I want to eat it, silly child.” The snake suddenly twisted around the other side of the bed towards a spot of warm sunshine on the floor where it began to coil round and round again before, presumably, falling asleep.
It was the snake? The womans voice in the graveyard, the voices before he’d passed out were the snake? Harry decided to take it in stride, something he was learning to become accustomed to the longer he was in the magical world, but decided it best not to respond to Voldemorts pet talking snake. Thinking of the graveyard brought back memories from the night, and Harry found himself leaning on the door at the weight of them. Voldemort had returned, the man who had killed his parents, tormented the wizarding world and tried to kill him twice now, had returned. He needed his wand, he needed to get out of there. He started pulling apart everything in the room, looking for his wand, looking for a way out, careful to step around the snake, but he could find nothing, and attempts to smash the window just caused the snake to wake and bare her fangs at him and threaten to eat him before grumbles of needing peace to sleep.
He was trapped, and had no protection, he wondered if anyone was looking for him. Ron and Hermione probably wouldn’t know anything had happened, but surely the muggles would have reported him missing, surely someone in the magical world had been alerted to what happened. Dumbledore perhaps! Harry hoped someone was looking for him, he didn’t know how long Voldemort planned on keeping him alive, and what for.
At that moment the door made the clicking sound of being unlocked and it burst open. Barty entered the doorway and looked around the room, settling his eyes on Harry and then falling to the snake who was slithering away out the door with exclaims of relief. Barty looked just as haunted and terrifying as when he’d killed Harrys relatives, and Harry couldn’t help but step back further into the room, the bed between himself and the man who was glaring at him. Barty continued to stare for a moment before he placed a roll of bread and a cup of water on the floor before storming out. Harry supposed that was all the food he was getting for a while, and started to take in deep breaths to calm the pounding in his chest.
Harry could barely sleep that night, the images of green flashes of light, explosions and great big snakes crawling around his room kept him tossing. The horrific jolt as the truck slammed into the car, the brick smashing into his head over and over, the sounds of Dudleys screeches, the last sounds he would ever make and the soft rush of robes rustling in the cold night air and dragging over the grass covered ground. He must have fallen asleep at some point in the early hours, but when he woke, Harry wondered if he was still in a nightmare and bolted upright at the sight of Voldemort himself standing by the door. He startled again as the snake popped her head up onto the bed and began to slither onto it, but Harry kept his eyes on Voldemort whose own eyes had travelled to the scar on his forehead. Harry in turn watched the man before him, for he looked much more human than the last time he’d seen him, as a wretched face on the back of Professor Quirrells skull. He looked less menacing than that night, and could almost pass for a normal, handsome, 20 or 30 something year old man, but Harry knew in an instant he could be dead and he wasn’t entirely sure why he wasn’t yet.
Voldemort started forwards and as Harry tried to scuttle backwards, he heard a hiss and found Nagini had slithered beside him, blocking his escape and as he jolted forwards away from the snake he came face to face with Voldemort, who grabbed his face in one hand and stared into his eyes. Harry felt uncomfortable, and the grip was painful but he couldn’t look away, he wondered what was going on and was suddenly aware that Voldemort was touching his face, but he felt no pain, the mans hand didn’t crumble into dust, what had changed?
”I’m so huungry Master, kill him and let me eat him already.” The snake whispered. Harry tensed, certain now that death was coming for him but strangely, Voldemort himself seemed to have loosened his grip slightly, and his brow was furrowed. He let go and took a step back, straightening up while Harry sat frozen, trying to think what to do? What could he do? There was nothing, no way out, wedged in between the man who would strike him down and the snake who would eat him whole he couldn’t think of anything, when Voldemort broke the silence.
“What?” He whispered under his breath, silent enough that Harry almost didn’t hear him. He looked shocked now, an expression he didn’t expect to see on Voldemorts face, and it unnerved him more than anything else had. Voldemort moved his head forwards, his eyes becoming intent on Harrys and said “How…Nagini, I’m not so sure he’d be good for you to eat…”
To which Nagini whipped her tail around, thrashing angrily and Harry tried to move away but found he couldn’t move and so simply flinched at the violent motion. ”I need food, why would this little one not do Master? He means nothing to you now, you can kill him surely” she spat out, as Voldemort looked above Harry at the wall across the room and seemed to be deep in thought. Harry could move again, but he didn’t dare try as Nagini began to wrap herself around his body, squeezing a little too tightly as Harry tried to evade her attempts at crushing his bones.
“You understand her.” Voldemort finally said as Harry began to gasp slightly for air, looking up and seeing Voldemort staring at him once more, a much more composed look in his face as his eyes flickered up to his forehead. “Answer me, you understand her, don’t you.” Voldemort said threateningly.
“Ye-augh” Harry choked out. “I don’t un-“
“You can’t have inherited it, which must mean…” Voldemort pondered seemingly to himself, as Harry fell sideways at Naginis deathly grip. Was he going to be crushed to death by a snake? Is that what Voldemort had planned? The man proceeded to walk back and forth agitatedly, and Harry watched in horror as Naginis face was finally right by his and she began to open her great maw, extending and extending further and further as she began to size up how she would begin to eat him. ”Nagini, put him down. The boy must live, he is like you.”
”Like m-you mean…?” Nagini stated in…shock? Harry supposed? if a snake could be shocked, as she began to loosen her grip on him.
“Yes.” Voldemort looked annoyed, Harry didn’t know what to think, he didn’t know whether to hold out hope this meant he wouldn’t be killed anytime soon, but he could at least begin to gasp air into his lungs again as Nagini quickly uncoiled herself and made her way off the bed. Relieved, Harry began to take deep breaths and looked over to the door, where Voldemort gave him one final look of disgust before walking away, slamming and locking the door as he did. Harry hacked out some coughs and calmed his breathing. He’d never had any GOOD feelings about this situation, but he felt as though his bad feelings had ominously got a whole lot worse.