Nagini at the Ministry (was: ...Biggest Error)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 124135


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:
> 
> > > Vivamus (snipped):
> > > 1. No snake that has ever lived, AFAIK, could chomp on someone 
> > > like the snake that bit Arthur Weasley.  She describes the snake 
> > > splintering bones with it's bite, which snakes' jaws are not 
> > > physically capable of doing. 
> 

bboyminn:

Quick note to Vivamus; I think you meant to say, no snake currently
living rather than no snake that has ever lived. Is it really true
that there never was a pre-historic snake or pre-historic snake-like
creature who ever lived that could break bones with a bite?

Also, keep in mind that this takes place in a world where Dragons,
Sphinx, and Hypogriffs are common. Can we firmly say the no
mythological creature fits the bill for Nagini?

Also note that there is a form of mythical legless dragon know as a
wyrm. Could Nagini be this type of Dragon?

Further, we are dealing with a magical world; a world in which hedges
grow 30ft high in a month, where pumpkins grow to the size of garden
sheds, where brooms fly, where people apparate, cloaks make you
invisible. Can we really say that Voldemort hasn't taken a common
bushmaster (or other snake), and charmed and enchanted it into a more
formitable snake? Or that Voldemort didn't interbreed a muggle snake
with a magical reptile (or two magical reptiles), to create his own
super-snake?

> Magda:
> 
> Personally, the questions I want to know are:
> 
> 1.  Why was Nagini (assuming it was Nagini) in the MoM at all? 
> 
> and
> 
> 2.  Why did it bite Arthur at all?
> 
> If Nagini was there to take Voldemort to get the prophecy then it
> was pretty darn stupid to bite a sleeping guard like that. ...  
> 
> Magda

bboyminn:

I don't think Voldemort was there to steal the Prophecy in that
moment; he was there to perform reconnaissance, to get a better look
at what he was dealing with at the Ministy and in the Hall of
Prophecies. Voldemort could not personally go to the Ministry with any
reasonable degree of stealth, so he piggy-backed a ride inside Nagini.
Certainly a snake in the night is far less noticable, more quiet, and
can sneak through smaller spaces than a full grown wizard who is pale
as a ghost and looks like a lizard-man. 

So Voldemort via Nagini was there for a first-hand look at what he was
 up against in getting his hands on the Prophecy. Voldemort would not
likely risk reverting back to his (semi-) human form to take the
Prophecy from the shelf and carry it out himself. So, unless Nagini
was able to swallow the Prophecy and carry it out that way, Voldemort
was just looking.

Unfortunately, when Voldie!snake came slithering down the hallway, he
encounted the unexpexted presence of a guard. Even more unfortunately,
that guard woke up and saw Voldie!snake just as it was passing.
Voldie!snake now had no choice but to either defend himself, or be
cursed by the guard. Voldie!snake attacked the guard and left before
it/he could complete his mission.

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn