We belong together || Harry Potter x Reader

Chapter 41

Back at the shack, Hermione and Harry hid behind a shelf laid out on the corner, tipped to its side. Snape was sliding down the wall. Voldemort's wand piercing the skin on his throat. Nagini, Voldemort's snake, slithered around its master's feet, its venomous teeth shining in the moonlight.

"So, Severus," Voldemort commented, placing more pressure on Snape's forehead. Snape winced but never lost eye contact with Voldemort's slits for eyes. "Where is the wand?"

"I... I don't have it."

"LIAR!" Voldemort snapped.

Hermione flinched at the sudden abruption, momentarily causing the shelf to move just a centimeter.

Nagini stopped slithering, its head glancing up like a puppy hearing its name being called. Nagini stared at the drawer.

"Don't make me raise my voice, Severus." He removed his wand from Severus' forehead, taking a few steps away from him and embracing the shadows like an old friend. The muted cloak he was wearing chased after him like a loyal follower, the ends of it caressing Snape's twisted feet.

With the swift movement of his arm, Voldemort faced Snape again, a cold smile on his face. "You killed Dumbledore for me, such a great display of loyalty. But, you know, Nagini and I feel something is off about you. Wouldn't you agree?" He glanced at his pet. Nagini snapped out of its trance and slithered vertically, resting on the bottom part of its body. Now at waist level of its master, Harry could peep through the slide of the drawer that Nagini's eyes pierced his like a hawk. Harry felt his blood turn cold.

"What is that, Nagini?" Voldemort asked, crouching down, its hole for an ear directly aligned with Nagini's mouth. A few hissing noises were exchanged between both of them. Hermione felt her stomach drop, she ruined it.

Harry understood what they were saying. Nagini knows that someone is hiding in there. Harry closed his eyes in defeat. This is the end. It all ends here.

Hermione held tight to her wand and mouthed a few enchantments. Her eyes closed in concentration and her heartbeat matching the heavy footsteps of Voldemort's making his way towards them.

"It is the wand you want?" Snape asked, his voice barely audible after so much pain. "I can give... it to you."

"I'll deal with you in a moment Severus," Voldemort ordered, his footsteps alarmingly closer to where Harry and Hermione resided.

A quick gesture of his arm disarmed the shelf of its home and crashed on the wall, its contents flying in many directions across the shack. Voldemort's eyes searched the area, the minuscule slits that made up his nose opened and closed, it had a mind of its own.

"Nagini, what did I tell you about LYING to me?!"

Harry and Hermione, under an intense obscurity spell, looked at Voldemort with pure fear and horror. Harry could feel those slits look directly at him when the shelf clashed to the wall, but Voldemort only saw old wood planks and cobwebs hanging on for dear life anywhere it could find looking back at him.

He slithered down the shack again, facing a helpless Snape. Snape's breathing has become mechanic, the wheezing echoing and painfully reminding himself—and the others inside— that his last breath would be coming soon.

"I don't have time for any of this." Voldemort's impatience highlighted his sour mood, his gestures only becoming more and more violent towards Snape. "That wand belongs to me, Severus, and no one else. Nagini, deal with him."

"No.... Please my lord..."

"Quiet, Severus!" Voldemort warned, his wand pointing directly at Snape's head. "While you live, the Elder Wand can not aid me at all. Do you see the problem we face?" He lowered his wand, his shoulders slumped and his thin lip pouted, mocking sympathy. "You truly were my most loyal servant, I can not change what must be done. Nagini, now." With a force flicking gesture, Voldemort instructed Nagini to charge towards Snape.