Voldemort looked away from Harry and began examining his own body. His hands were- PAWS? Struck with unabated horror, his clawed fingers scraped across his own barrel chest, his pititfully scrawny and short arms and legs, his face; MY FACE...?! His red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness, his impotent rage, fury and indignation growing to uncontrollable levels. He held up his hands and flexed his claws- teetering on the brim of cauldron as he did so, struggling to keep his balance and stand upright on his legs, instead of toppling over and falling back into the massive, cavernous cauldron beneath him. Eventually, he managed to wrap his head around the task of bringing his unruly, scaly tail- TAIL?- under control, stopping it from flailing it around and finally managing to use it to gain a steady purchase. This- this couldn't be! This wasn't supposed to happen, this was impossible, IMPOSSIBLE...! "No... no, no, NO NO NO NO! I'm a, a... RAT? A RAT!? WORMTAIL! YOU USELESS, INCOMPETENT, STEAMING PILE OF..."

Harry recoiled, covering his ears, trying to block out the frightful, incomprehensible onslaught of rodent screeches, spewing out of the mouth of the freakish snake-rat creature which squatted before him. Even now, it teetered on the brim of the cauldron, wildly gesticulating with its short, weak forelimbs as if it was possessed. And if the snake, Nagini, had indeed been telling the truth, and Wormtail had indeed been trying to reincarnate the person he thought he'd been, then this vile naked snake-rat was indeed possessed, the vessel of the greatest evil imaginable. The scar on Harry's forehead seared with a sharp pain again, so intense he thought his head would burst with the pain- getting worse and worse, as the reptilian rat creature got more and more agitated, and its screeching got louder and louder. Clearly, its over-large head made the balancing act difficult, and its lack of whiskers didn't help either- though the snake-like prehensile tail clearly helped. Harry shuddered, having to fight to stand steady on his own feet in the face of the creature's unholy din. Merlin, it looked disgusting- this thing needed to be put down for its own good. For the good of all mankind... Gritting his teeth, trying to block out the unholy din, Harry stepped forward, wand in hand. Pettigrew may have managed to do a runner, at least for the time being- but there was no way he'd let this creature, this... Lord Voldemo-RAT, escape the clutches of justice...

"Immobilus!"

"...PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR- Aaaghh!~NAGINI!~" Interrupted in mid-diatribe, caught off-guard, Voldemort switched to parseltongue and yelled out at the top of his voice, summoning his snake familiar to his side from wherever the hell she'd gone off to, as the towering figure of Harry Potter advanced on him, and a Freezing Charm erupted from the end of Potter's wand. The charm surged towards him, seemingly in slow motion- no doubt due to the heightened metabolism, better reflexes and far stronger fight-or-flight instincts of this body, thank Salazar for small mercies- and he had no problem leaping out of the way, launching himself through the air, and landing on all fours in a crouching stance. Could he fight back? Could he even cast any magic himself any more, in this pitiful excuse for a form? He'd never be able to hold a wand with these useless, weak excuses for hands; and he didn't have the time to find out right now. He'd never felt more weak, more feeble, more vulnerable- more at risk of imminent death... "~NAGINI! TO ME! WHERE ARE YOU...?~"

"~...Coming, coming! What's the matter, Master dearest? I was just sitting back, keeping an eye out like you told me to. And enjoying the entertainment, of course. Listening as that filthy rodent screeched out his last breaths, so loudly, for sooo long... Ooh, please tell me it's snack time at last!~" The great snake slithered back into sight, snaking her way through the maze of tombstones- before abruptly coming to a halt, stunned into silence as she emerged into the clearing of the circle, her eyes widening as she set her gaze on the scene in front of her for the first time. When she spoke again, every trace of the satisfaction and amusement which had laced her silky-smooth words a few moments earlier had vanished, replaced by shock and utter bewilderment. "~...What? What's going on here? What is- is that Wormtail? Where, where is my- Master? MASTER?~"

"~Protect me, Nagini! Attack Harry Potter, now, KILL HIM NOW...!~" Lord Voldemort hissed at the top of his voice, raising one of his forelimbs to point in Harry's direction- who'd been set aback for a moment or two, when this creature had actually started speaking in a tongue he could understand, but who now stood there with the flame in his eyes blazing anew, all traces of doubt about its true identity erased from his mind. Keeping his wand fixed on Voldemort, Harry whipped around to face down Nagini, his muscles coiled to avoid the snake's anticipated strike- but Nagini still wasn't moving, lying there where she lay in the grass, her eyes still fixed unerringly on the small, monstrous creature Lord Voldemort had become. Snakes didn't have facial expressions- but looking at her, even in this near-total darkness, Harry could somehow read the emotions of horror, disgust and betrayal playing across her features, as clear as day.

"~...MASTER?! That- that's YOU?! You, you're- you used me, used my venom, to become like THAT? Like HIM? No, not even like him; some perverted CROSS-BREED, an unnatural union between ME and HIM! ME and WORMTAIL... Oh Salazar, I think I'm going to throw up...~"

Voldemort's eyes bulged almost out of their sockets; turning to glare furiously at Nagini, baring his horribly mish-mashed set of teeth and fangs at her and spitting at her with livid rage. "~What? NO! I SWEAR, I'LL KILL THAT...~" In the periphery of his vision, Voldemort saw Harry's casting hand moving. Recognising the amateurish wand-work instantly, he scrambled out of the way yet again, just in time to avoid the trap- behind him, the patch of grass surrounding where he'd just been standing transfigured into a shoddy metal pet cage. "~NAGINI, I don't have time for this! Now, do it NOW!~"

"~This, all of this, was about him, wasn't it? That's why you wanted Wormtail to do it with you instead of Crouch, isn't it? You wanted to be like him- You want to be WITH him, don't you? Don't you! You, you're sick. You're both SICK...!~" Recoiling away, Nagini spat the words at him, before turning away, shaking her head. Voldemort froze, fixed to the spot; his misshapen face went blank, as all of the emotion simply fell away.

She has the nerve to spout this, insane drivel, and then turns her back on me? ME...? "~I DIDN'T WANT THIS!~" He yelled, scream-hissing even louder than the steam whistle on the Hogwarts Express on full blast. "~Stop throwing your damned HISSY-FIT, and KILL THIS BASTARD ALREADY...!~"

"~Nagini. Nagini? Are you really going to let him speak to you like that? HIM?~"

Nagini pulled herself out of it, turning around to fix her attentions on the speaker- this, Harry Potter, the young man she was being ordered to kill. Yet, he spoke to her with more kindness, consideration and respect in his voice than her Master ever had- more than her Master ever would, or could. His wand still locked onto the horrific, perverse serpentine rat creature that her Master had chosen to become- the creature which she now realized was a perfectly reflection of the man's true character- Harry was staring into her eyes, crouching down slightly so that his own bright emerald eyes were closer to being level with her own. Gazing into them, she could see that they were filled with acceptance, warm, welcoming and inviting... This new Speaker, this Harry Potter, might only be a juvenile human- in all likelihood, barely any older than she herself was- but Harry Potter was looking at her like she was actually worth something. Looking at her like her respect and acceptance were things which were actually worth earning; like he sincerely intended to try and gain her allegiance on merit, to try and prove that he was worthy of her. So unlike the other Speaker, Lord Voldemort, who simply demanded that she serve him for all eternity without question, and still did even now...

Slowly, Nagini shook her head. He was right. She was worth more than that; she did deserve better than this. "~You know what, Harry? No, I'm not. Not any more...~"

Voldemort's jaw dropped open in disbelief. How- how could...? "~What?! You dare defy me? ME?! I am your MASTER, NAGINI! I AM LORD VOLDEMORT! OBEY ME!~"

"~You are NOT my master! Not any more; NEVER AGAIN! YOU'RE FILTH!~"

Harry smiled at Nagini's fierce outburst, filled with a surge of hope and relief by her words. "~Right on, Nagini. You've done yourself proud...~"

Nagini looked up at Harry, eyes gleaming in the faint moonlight; popping out her fangs and sticking out her tongue out as far as it could go, in an expression which only a parseltongue would be able to read as a beaming grin. "~Thank you, Harry.~"

"~You're welcome, Nagini...~"

"~No. No, this isn't happening. I won't let this happen- you, you will see what happens to those who oppose the Dark Lord. BOTH OF YOU, YOU HEAR ME? You shall feel the wrath of Lord Voldemort, mark my words...~" Harry and Nagini broke their eyes away from one another to look back down on the enfeebled figure of Lord Voldemort, rambling now as he struggled to stand his ground, and visibly trembling. Not with rage or anger though, not any more; Nagini could smell it. The reptilian rat reeked of fear, the smell of it already almost as potent as the stench of Wormtail's unceasing state of near-terror had been. Even Harry could sense it, as the pain in his scar dwindled away to almost nothing. "~So. What do you think, Nagini? Ready for snack time?~"

Nagini fluttered her forked tongue gently, a gesture which Harry heard in his mind as an amused, playful giggle. "~Oh, no, No! Are you joking, Harry? I have some food standards; and just the sight of him's enough to make me want to hurl. But...~" Nagini reared the upper third of her body up into the air, glaring down at the rodent-like form of Lord Voldemort, quivering before her. The corners of her mouth flicked upwards to form a semblance of a smile, deadly poison dripping from her every syllable. "~...It's definitely killing time...~"

"AAAGH!" Voldemort screeched his tiny lungs out as Nagini launched herself at him, deadly beads of venom visibly glistening on the tips of her fangs. Instinctively, he span around on the spot, focusing as hard as he could on the place where he wanted to go, and pleading, pleading, pleading that he still had just enough magic flowing in his veins to pull it off and apparate away from this accursed place. Pettigrew- I have to find Pettigrew!

POP. Nagini's fangs bit down, but only on thin air and the tips of the overgrown grass. "NO!" Harry yelled in anger, casting an Incendio Charm at the nearest tree and setting the upper half of it ablaze. Voldemort was gone; both of the rats had managed to escape his clutches, AGAIN.