He spared a thought for Harry. At least he'd convinced Dumbledore of the Muggles' unsuitability. Presumably Sirius would get the boy now. The mutt loved Harry, but would he be able to steer the boy through all the dangers that Voldemort and his Death Eaters would pose? His idea of strategy was faking a twisted ankle to get an attractive witch to notice him.
Still, in some ways, perhaps it was better for the boy in the long run. With his Dark Mark, Snape would never have survived Voldemort's second rise. Better that he die now, before the boy grew too attached.
He stiffened involuntarily, a gasp escaping his lips as Nagini nipped a little harder. "Where ssshall I bite you first, traitor? Ssshall I sssink my teeth into an eyeball and let it melt in its sssocket while you writhe in agony? Or perhapss I sshould ssimply give you another little sssqueeze тАУ like ssso?"
Snape felt his ribs creak as the snake tightened her coils, and the breath was forced from his lungs. "My master ssaid to make sure you sssuffer, lying one. Would you like to ssee what being crushed to death feels like? Perhapss I will crush you a bit and then bite you until you revive enough to ssscreamтАж"
The edges of Snape's vision were beginning to gray out, and he prayed that he would lose consciousness quickly. Then he heard the one sound that could force him back from the brink.
"Da? I'm back! The unicorns were fanta-" Harry broke off with a gasp as he jerked to a halt on the threshold of Snape's office.
"RunтАж." It was hardly the shout Snape had wanted. With the amount of air left in his lungs, it was barely a whisper, but it was all he could manage. At least Nagini had remained wrapped around him, rather than going after the boy, though her head was now pointing towards the boy and weaving dangerously, tasting the air.
Snape hoped Harry would, for once, do the sensible thing and either flee or hit the creature with a blasting hex. He'd be dead too, of course, but he was already; his still-beating heart was merely a technicality. Even Flitwick, champion dueler that he was, could not target Nagini's erratically bobbing head, and anything else would leave Nagini time to kill him before launching a new attack. She was Voldemort's familiar, after all, and she was as strong in her own way as he was in his.
Harry gaped in astonishment. His da hung, grey-faced, in the coils of an enormous snake which, from the looks of it, was slowly squeezing him to death. The red scratches around his da's throat, where his high collar had been torn aside, showed that the snake had been playing with him, threatening to bite. A jolt of possessive rage surged through Harry.
"Oi!" Harry yelled in outrage. "What're you doing?" He didn't even realize he'd lapsed automatically into Parseltongue, or that his wand was already in his hand.
Harry was utterly incensed. How dare some stupid snake threaten his da? Wasn't he a Speaker? All the other snakes he'd ever spoken with had been impressed and respectful. What was wrong with this horrible creature? He'd never seen a serpent this big before тАУ it made the boa at the zoo seem like a garter snake by comparison тАУ but he'd never before met a snake he didn't like. He was prepared to make an exception for this one though.
Well, it was going to be sorry it had messed with his da! He would teach it a lesson once and for all. "Get away from him!" he stepped forward fearlessly. "He belongs to me! How dare you attack what is mine? Do as I command!"
Nagini tasted the air again, puzzled. The small human didn't smell familiar, but there wasтАж somethingтАж about him that was reminiscent of her master. And he certainly sounded like Voldemort in a temper.
"I said get away from him!" Harry shouted, livid with rage. "I am a Speaker and YOU WILL OBEY ME!"
Nagini hesitated. The boy felt like her Master. He sounded like him. But he didn't taste like him. A wild bolt of magic shot past her head and she ducked in fear. Okay, that felt a lot like her master when he was in a fury. True, he had sent her to kill the traitor, but as much as Nagini loved her master, she had to admit that consistency was not one of strong points. There had been more than one occasion where a favored Death Eater at one meeting became her lunch at the next.
And there was no denying that this wizard sounded like her master at his most possessive, not to mention that he spoke Parseltongue with the same inflections, and there was a feeling of familiarity that positively radiated from him, particularly now, when his anger was exploding outward.
The snake's hesitation, coupled with his da's growing pallor, was the last straw. Harry's accidental magic, perhaps triggered by or strengthened through his horcrux's link with Voldemort's familiar, lashed out in a blaze of dazzling light aimed at the snake.
That did it. Her master had clearly reconsidered. Nagini fled, bewildered and blinded.
Snape fell back into his chair, gasping for air, as the snake unwound itself with even greater speed than it had shown in capturing him. His eyes had been somewhat less dazzled by the light, since it wasn't directed at him, but even so he barely managed to make out the snake's tail vanishing out the door to the corridor.
Harry, poised at the other door, yelled something in Parseltongue, then тАУ No! No! Idiot child! тАУ promptly raced after it.
Snape tottered to his feet and, using the desk and walls as support, struggled after the little nincompoop, determine to strangle the brat the instant he got his hands on him.
##
Hagrid prowled down the dark dungeon corridors, his crossbow at the ready. After dropping Harry back at the castle's doors, he had been alarmed to find a breach in the building's wards, and signs that some Dark creature had recently slipped inside. He had been able to track it to the dungeons, but there had lost itтАж until a huge snake whipped around the corner and knocked him flying.
Hagrid banged his head on the wall hard enough to see stars and was only minimally aware of a small form trampling unceremoniously over his back in pursuit of the snake. By the time his wits had cleared enough to be aware of his surroundings, Hagrid caught sight of Professor Snape, looking half-dead, trying to stagger down the corridor, and he ran to help him.
Harry charged after the snake, determined to punish the creature who was stupid enough to attack his da. The staring portraits helped identify which way she had gone, and then he came upon a white-faced Ron and Hermione cowering behind a sheltering suit of armor. "Did you see a big snake?" he demanded.
"Blimey! I'll say!" Ron gasped. "Forget spiders тАУ it's snakes that are scarier than anything!"
"Which way did it go?"
Hermione clutched at his arm. "You can't possibly want to follow it!"
"It nearly ate my da, and I'm going to teach it a lesson," he snarled back, sounding remarkably Snape-like.
Hermione and Ron exchanged a glance, and then Ron shrugged. "Three wands are better than one," he pointed out philosophically.
"Oh, I just know this is a bad idea," Hermione said miserably, but she too drew her wand and followed the boys.
"It went in there?" Harry said in disbelief, indicating the half-open door.
Ron just nodded.
"But we can't go there!" Harry said, scandalized. "I mean, it's a girls' lav!"
Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Oh, for heaven's sake! You're willing to take on a fifteen foot snake but you won't go in the girls' toilet?" She pushed past the other two and cautiously entered the room.
Sheepishly, the boys followed her.