Who or what is Nagini? (Was: Harry Horcrux redux)

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 155120

> Ken wrote:
> > Oh my, could Nagini be the snake Harry released from the zoo
> > in the first book??
> >
> Carol <justcarol67 at ...> responds:
> That question has been asked before and I'm pretty sure that the
> answer is "no."

Ken:

And yet I wonder....

I looked over the thread from last January and I see a lot of
discussion of what actual snake Nagini could be. Is there any known
snake that fits? My impression is that Nagini is quite large, in
part from the fact that LV threatens to feed Harry and Pettigrew to
Nagini. I believe the constrictors eat larger prey than any poisonous
snakes and none of them could eat an adult human, to my knowledge. So
Nagini would have to be some magical species or ...

... could LV, with Peter's help, have magically modified the snake
from PS/SS? It might have been transfigured to be larger, poisonous,
and be under something like an Imperious curse. I can't imagine that
a big snake would have much luck hitching a ride to Brazil. I doubt
it could survive an English winter either but that is small potatoes
to a fiction writer. Harry's snake could be still be stuck wandering
about the English Potterverse for LV to use.

The problem I am trying to guess a solution to is that our young
hero is clearly unable to take on Snape in a duel and yet somehow he
is expected to defeat LV less than a year later. Plus DD keeps
telling him about his vague advantage in that he has the power to
love. To me, that means he will probably be able to call in some
debts during the final confrontation. We know that Pettigrew "owes
him". Who else? It is not obvious that Snape feels a debt to him, he
has a strange way of showing it if he does, and they may both be on
the same side already. A snake that struggles to throw off an
imperious and recognizes Harry as a friend could be a nasty surprise
for LV at a bad moment and a delightful plot twist for author and
reader alike.

Ken