Nagini?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 146170

Sonja wrote:
> <snip> Nagini is a viper, and based on the description (diamond
pattern and about twelve feet long) is probably a type of King Cobra.
 According to my sources that species is the longest known viper
> 
> http://www.szgdocent.org/resource/rr/c-cking.htm
> 
> Or she could just be a magical snake, but definitely not the one
Harry set free.

Carol responds:
I agree that Nagini is not the (apparently) male boa constrictor that
Harry set free, which was probably recaptured by zookeepers as it
attempted to make its way from London to Brazil. Good luck with that
one, Amigo!)

I also agree that she's a viper, probably more than ordinarily
poisonous, and almost certainly magical in her own right or Voldemort
wouldn't set such store by her. Somewhere (is it in HBP?) she's
described as being a "venomous green," which struck me as I read it as
resembling both the basilisk in CoS (also deadly and magical) and the
Avada Kedavra curse. That doesn't match well with the diamond pattern
described in (IIRC) the first chapter of GoF, but JKR isn't always
absolutely consistent. She may be a boomslang, in which case her skin
has magical properties. I didn't find "Boomslang" in FB, but in RL
boomslangs are deadly African vipers that can be brown or green:

http://www.survivaliq.com/survival/poisonous-snakes-and-lizards-boomslang.htm

That strikes me as a good match for Nagini, whose "milk" (venom) is
also apparently magical as it helped Voldemort to survive when he was
in his fetal form and was also, IIRC, used in the potion our
supposedly untalented rat friend used to create that rudimentary body
for Vapor!mort. Another loyal female servant for Voldie, the
serpentine equivalent of Bellatrix, and a surrogate mother as well,
providing mother's milk for a thoroughly repulsive infant. (Shudder!)
He may have discovered her in Albania, though what a boomslang (if
that's what she is) would be doing in Albania is anybody's guess, or
he could have befriended her on his travels before he returned to
England to recruit followers for VW1. (If Vapor!mort was possessing
her part of the time, that might explain how Quirrell could find him
and take him to England before Vapor!mort took up residence in his
head and how Wormtail got him back from Albania as well. But he
wouldn't have wanted to possess her too often before she was a Horcrux
because it would use up her life force, so he possessed rats and other
small animals instead.)

At any rate, she's Voldemort's familiar, and there's an uncanny
empathy between them whether or not she's a Horcrux. (I think she is,
and he was possessing his own Horcrux when Nagini attacked Mr.
Weasley.) That may be what Dumbledore meant by "in essence divided"
when the (green?) smoke formed itself into a two-headed snake in OoP.
(If Voldie had an Animagus form it would definitely be a snake.)

So definitely not the snake in SS/PS, which was only a plot device to
intorduce Harry's magical powers and foreshadow his ability to speak
Parseltongue in CoS. The defeat of Nagini may be foreshadowed as well
by the killing of the Basilisk in CoS. (I'm betting that Harry will
use the Sword of Gryffindor to do it.)

On a side note (Do I overuse that expression? Don't answer.), Nagini
can mean female snake, female cobra, or female snake being, depending
on which source you consult. I would say that she's possibly a
boomslang, probably a Horcrux, and definitely magical. 

Carol