Now, I'm not a herpetologist, *but*...

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115729


charme asked:
> 
> Forgive me, however I do need to ask this question:  is everyone
theorizing Nagini was the snake that bit Authur Weasley in the DoM?
I'm confused, since in that same scene the bites are described as follows:
> 
> "He reared high from the floor and struck once, twice, three
times..." (I have a US Scholastic edition of OoP)
> 
> Maybe it's coincidence, but wouldn't the "three bites" possibly mean
a Runespoor (Fantastic Beasts) instead?  Or is there canon I missed
which says Nagini did it?
> 
> Help me here...
> 
> charme

Carol responds:
Snape tells Harry that the reason he saw from the snake's point of
view is that Voldemort was possessing the snake at the time: "'You
seem to have visited the snake's mind because that was where the Dark
Lord was at that particular moment,' snarled Snape. 'He was possessing
the snake at the time and so you dreamed you were inside it too'" (OoP
Am. ed. 532-33). The only snake we know of that Voldemort could be
possessing is Nagini. Granted, the animals that Voldemort possessed in
the wild died (like Quirrell) when he left their bodies, but maybe
Nagini, being magical, is immune to that fate, or maybe he didn't
possess her long enough to sap the life from her as he did when he
relied on the bodies of others for sustenance. There is, of course,
the problem of how a snake, whether or not it was Nagini, got into the
MoM (that's been discussed before but not resolved to my knowledge).
It's possible, then, that Snape was wrong and that Voldemort is yet
another unregistered animagus (who not surprisingly transforms into a
snake as PP transforms into a rat). But, yes, there is canon for
Voldemort possessing the snake that bit Mr. Weasley, if not for that
snake being Nagini.

Carol