Nagini the snake

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158586

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Donna" <donnawonna at ...> wrote:
>
>  
> Iumuggle asked:
>  
> I have a quick question. In the beginning of Goblet of Fire, Nagini
> Needs to be milked to feed Voldemort? What is that all about? Why
> does he need to drink Nagini's milk? 
> 
> iumuggle
>  
Donna replied:
>  
> Snakes do not give milk.  The term, "milk a snake", refers to the
process of extracting the snake's venom.  In the real world, the venom
is then used to make antivenom which is used to treat bites from that
type of snake.
>  
> The impression I got from the book is LV drank Nagini's venom for
food which imo, helps explain LV snake like appearance.

Carol responds:
Yes and no. Yes, Wormtail "milks" Nagini to feed her venom to
Baby!mort in GoF, and it does appear to sustain him while he's in
fetal form. Her venom, along with unicorn blood, is also an ingredient
in the potion that creates this rudimentary body. (As I noted in an
earlier post, she seems like an evil caricature of a mother here since
her venom gives life to this revolting "fetus" and she sustains it
with her "milk.")

The use of her venom could account for the snakelike appearance of
Voldemort's fetal form except for one thing--he already has the red
eyes, flat face and slitlike nostrils when Harry sees his face
sticking out the back of Quirrell's head. And since the Death Eaters
express no surprise or revulsion at his appearance in the graveyard,
it seems likely that he appears there as he did at Godric's Hollow.

We see that the creation of Horcruxes alters his appearance. In the
DADA interview, when he's probably created about four Horcruxes
(diary, ring, cup, locket), his features are blurred. Harry sees them
as slightly snakelike, but that may be hindsight. By the time of
SS/PS, where he can only reveal a face by using another's body,
they're fully snakelike.

Some posters suggest that the creation of Horcruxes in and of itself
makes him more snakelike. Certainly it makes him less human, literally
and figuratively, as reflected in his appearance. I've suggested (in a
hypothesis that rivals abergoat's Aberforth-is-a-goat theory in
unpopularity) that perhaps Nagini was made a Horcrux *before* Godric's
Hollow, which would account for Voldemort's snakelike appearance at
that time. (I think we can at least safely speculate that he made at
least one more Horcrux between the DADA interview and Godric's Hollow,
regardless of what that Horcrux is.)

Dumbledore accounts for the affinity between Nagini and Voldemort by
her being a Horcrux, but his suggestion that LV used Frank Bryce's
death to make that Horcrux is problematic for a number of reasons
discussed in earlier posts and does not account for the affinity
between them when LV is possessing her in OoP, which occurs before
Frank Bryce's murder.

There is unquestionably some bond between Voldemort and Nagini that
enables her venom to sustain him and to be used in the potion that
created his fetal form, and enables him to possess her without
shortening her life. He seems to love "[his] dear Nagini" in a way
that he loves no human being. And she is somehow different from the
snakes that died when he possessed them as Vapor!mort.

Even if she's not a Horcrux (and I still think she is), she appears to
be powerfully magical. She doesn't fit the description of any of the
magical snakes in FBAWT, but I don't think she's just an ordinary (if
large) snake that he met and befriended on his travels. I've suggested
(with a resounding silence in response) that she may be his familiar
(in the sense of an evil spirit in animal form, cf. Grimalkin and
Paddock in the "Macbeth" scene, not in the sense of a pet like Trevor
the toad).

All of this to say that, yes, Wormtail "milks" her and feeds her venom
to Baby!mort, but, no, that's not what makes him snakelike!

Carol, predicting (again) that Harry will slay Nagini with the Sword
of Gryffindor in the library, I mean, in Book 7