Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me: No money made from this and only recompense is a few cheap thrills. This is a vignette- no further chapters intended.

A/N: Found this and thought I'd repost it for all the angst lovers out there...

TO HEAL A SNAKE

"What would you like to talk about today?" The voice asked Harry as he lay on his cot staring at the cracks in the ceiling. Harry had been doing a lot of that- staring at the ceiling. He often listened to the voices around him. There were several voices: the most prominent ones being Tom Riddle, Lucius Malfoy, Nagini, and of course, Draco Malfoy. Today they were all soft and blurry, or maybe it wasn't them- he did feel a bit peculiar today. He felt a bit like he used to when in the presence of Severus Snape. It was a good feeling and he wanted it to last forever.

Harry listened to the voices because he was locked away in Malfoy Manor. He had been captured by Lucius and Draco after Severus Snape took his wand away from him and threw him out of 12 Grimmold Place for a supposed infraction of some archaic pure-blood wizard rule. Harry still wasn't clear about what rule he had actually broken… The only serious conversation he had ever tried to have with Severus Snape outside of school work had been regarding their personal relationship.

Harry smiled as he looked at the big snake. "Hello, Nagini. You are looking lovely today. You really should not be down here though, there is a bit of a chill here in the dungeons today and it could cause you harm."

She hissed at him appreciatively. "I am well, thank you. It was very kind of you to heal me again."

"You are welcome. You are such a pretty lady that I can't abide you being ill. I just wish you would tell Mr. Riddle that someone has been slipping poison into your food."

Nagini slid up on Harry's bed and curled up on him, head extended so that he could idly rub her head. The snake subsided to a state of inertia and gave small happy hisses as he petted her and hummed quietly. This is often how they spent hours lately. Nagini had come to him in the beginning because he spoke parseltongue and she had a question and had stayed to become best friends.

That is how Tom Riddle found them several hours later. By then Harry had fallen silent again and Nagini stayed because she liked the boy who always had the time to talk to her, pet her, and heal her when she was ill. "Nagini, what are you doing?" He asked gently of his loyal pet.

Nagini raised her head. "The boy… I often come and spend time with him. He has healed me several times when the poison in my food makes me ill. He also talks to me." The snake did not know what else to add.

Voldemort asked the snake as he moved slowly forward noting that the boy's chest was not rising and falling, in fact the boy looked quite still and cold. "Nagini, is the boy cold? He does not appear to be moving."

The snake hissed an affirmative. "He has been getting colder every time he helps me. This last time may have been too much. The last few days he has even given me some of his food. He says he saved it for me because his food is clean."

"What did he feed you?" The old wizard sounded odd. He had killed enough people in his life to know what a dead corpse looked like. Harry Potter, hero of the Wizarding world was definitely dead.

Nagini hissed, "I watched as he transfigured a piece of bread into a huge juicy rat. He makes the best rats." If a snake could smile Nagini would have been one huge smile.

Voldemort nodded. "A piece of bread. You will have to show me how he did that since I have his wand."

Nagini watched her master as he sat down on the bed beside her and reached over to touch the eyelids of the skinny little wizard who had become her best friend over the last few weeks. "He is gone, isn't he?" She had to ask.

"Yes. He is gone." Voldemort looked down at his precious pet and then to the boy who had saved her in spite of all the horrible things he and the Malfoys had done to him since he had been captured and brought here. Harry Potter had been beaten, starved, and tortured several times since he took up residence in the Malfoy dungeons.

Tom Riddle was intrigued. "Nagini, show me what it was like to be his friend." He immediately entered the snake's mind and began reliving all the times she had crawled into the boy's cell, sick and miserable because someone had sprinkled powdered dragons dung on the rodents he fed her. He was awed by the raw power of the boy; wandless magic, healing magic, and even voice magic.

"Come, Nagini. We must go upstairs and tell everyone that Mr. Potter lives no more. I have a lot of planning to do and must speak to Lucius."

She slid off the bed but did not want to leave her only friend there. She kept looking back and forth from Voldemort to Harry. She tried desperately to make her master understand: Harry had told her a few times that he did not mind being in the dungeons but he would like to be buried outside under the stars.

Voldemort finally gave in and scooped the boy up off the bed. He carried him upstairs as the snake hissed menacingly at his side at the people who stared in amazement to see Voldemort carrying his mortal enemy out of the dungeons.

Lucius and Draco both came running when they heard him shout. Behind them, Severus Snape followed at a slightly more sedate pace. He had been sent by Dumbledore to find Harry and fix whatever misunderstanding they had. He reckoned the best place to start his search was there at the Manor since Draco had been seen talking to Harry just before the boy disappeared completely.

He stared in open mouthed amazement at the sight in front of him. At first glance, Potter seemed to be sleeping, but a closer look let him know that the boy really was dead. Voldemort placed the body gently on the couch in Lucius study. Snape came forward and slumped beside the boy. He looked up at Voldemort, eyes filled with tears and hands shaking badly as he brushed a lock of hair out of the now closed green eyes. "Master, what has happened?"

Everyone watched as Snape's hand curled fretfully against the side of Harry's face. "How did he die?" The older man buried his face in the inadequate shirt that made no pretense of hiding the protruding ribs of the dead boy.

For the first time in ages Voldemort felt a pang of remorse. "He overtaxed himself trying to heal Nagini, and then finished himself off by starving himself to death so she could eat food that was not poisoned."

Severus could be heard mumbling, "No, you can't be gone. You told me you loved me. You said you are my soul mate." His anguish was more than the others could bear.

Draco twitched as he heard Snape say, "I came to get you. I am supposed to take you home." He glanced at his father.

Lucius stared at the scene wide-eyed. "Draco, did you know this when you brought Harry here?"

Draco nodded no. "When I brought him here he never said anything about why he came with me. His wand had already been broken and I handed it to our Lord as it was." He shook his head and stared at his father then back to his Potions Master. "He never spoke at all…"

Snape refused to let go of the dead body. His voice quickly became nothing more than dry sobs as he lost his grip on reality.

Voldemort looked at the lot of them and shook his head in frustration. "So stupid. Why do I even bother? I finally win and find victory so hollow it might well be non-existent." He looked at Lucius, "All the power in the world, for what? He could have escaped from your dungeon at any time. He had more wandless magic than all of us combined have with our wands. He gave it all up for an old man and his pet."

Their faces turned to him in shock, "What?"