Chapter 178 - 178- Nagini

Parseltongue- $hey$

HARRY'S POV

"Well," Harry said after hearing the third question "before we do the ritual we need someone to perform it on, and we can't use it in Astoria Greengrass before we tested it."

"So we need to find another person who has 'blood malediction' and get them to agree to have it preform on them?' Luna asked

"The most important part is have her agree, as without her willing participation it wouldn't work."

Luna immediately caught on what he hasn't said.

"Of course you already have the other person," she rolled her eyes "Where is she? Who is she? Another student? Or maybe someone the Greengrass found for you?"

"No, I got her all by myself, her name is Nagini, and she is right here." Harry said and reached for his expended bag, bringing forth a cage with the snake inside.

For the last two weeks he had Dobby feed her with mouses while he waited for her to calm down, as every time he tried talking with her, or even whenever she just saw him, she would start scream and curse at him, and this time wasn't any different.

$Let me out, you retard bint$

She used to be much more creative with her curses, but after two weeks she seemed to slow down.

"Wait," Luna said "this snake is a woman? And you put her in a cage?"

"Of course I did, this woman isn't only someone who used to work with Grindelwald, but also Voldemort's familiar."

That seemed to break her.

"You stole Voldemort's familiar?!" The look in her eyes was one of shock and fear, which reminded him that no matter how much he tries to shutter their fear of Voldemort, his friends grew up in the wizard world and will always have that fear in them.

"Well, yes." He said ignoring her exclamation, which seem to calm her.

"OK, sure, no problem." Luna said calming herself with deep breaths before and after each word. "So, what is the problem? why doesn't she want to be cured?"

"I don't know if she doesn't want it, she won't let me speak, the moment she sees me she starts screaming and cursing for me to free her."

"And you won't do it because she is dangerous, right?"

"No, I won't doubt because she is the only other person who has 'blood malediction' that I know of, without her I can't move forward."

"If the problem is that she wouldn't let you talk, can't you just silence her?"

"No, tried that, I'm not sure what type of snake she is, as she appears to have poison and a magical ability to change her size, yet the biggest issue is that she is resistant to spells that aren't powerful, making me unable to silence her."

"Well then, I guess our only option is to wait patiently till she is ready."

"I guess so." He sighed putting the cage back in his bag.

ALBUS' POV

Even hours after hearing the story from Marcus and looking at his memories, Albus couldn't help but feel something isn't right.

The boy's memories seemed real, there were a few fogged places and moments, something that usually meant someone messed with the memories, but with the adrenaline and pain from the torturing curse it made sense.

'There aren't any after effects for torturing curse!'

It was like a lightning striking in a stormy, moonless night, illuminating the darkness of his mind.

Why wasn't there any side affects from the Cruciatus Curse? Even if the adrenaline prevented the body from showing the side affects at the beginning, after they brought him to the infirmary and let him calm down there should have been signs, twitching, pains all over the body, etc... but there weren't any except exhaustion, why was it?

'Let's recount the memory. He arrived at the graveyard, was captured, the ritual happened with Peter's hand and Marcus' blood, Tom resurrected, thinking that he is now able to do something he couldn't before, touch Marcus, when in fact he weakened himself by using that blood instead blood of someone more powerful, he then summoned the Death Eaters, gave a speech and touched Marcus, before 'dueling' with the boy, which was actually just him curse Marcus for a while before their wands connected, where Tom, still weakened by his recent resurrection lost the magical energy fight, giving Marcus the chance to escape.'

All of this felt right, more then that, it went just according to plan, so why didn't the Cruciatus Curse didn't leave side affects? Could it be because of the power the dark lord doesn't know?

Whole Albus' plan is to make everybody believe the power Tom doesn't know is love, he doesn't believe it himself, he isn't idiot, he is aware the ritual Lily tried to do in that fated Halloween's night to prevent the death of the twins worked even though it shouldn't have, as it required the willing sacrifice of the caster's life, and Lily didn't die, though she seemed to lose a part of herself.

Could it be that the ritual keeps working? Granting a faster healing power for the boy? Or maybe just the power to overcome the power of the man it was used against?

If so, does it also work on Harry? The boy seems so average, with maybe a slightly sharper mind then most students, and the creativity to use ordinary spells uniquely.

He would have to ask Severus to keep an eye on the boy, only to see if there was anything extra in him.