Snape sat on the ground, frowning as he gnawed on a piece of charred fish.
"If only magic could conjure up butterbeer and steak," he muttered under his breath, poking the remaining half of the fish with the tip of his wand in disgust.
"Nagini," he suddenly turned to the giant snake, who had been dozing with her eyes closed, "how long have you been in Albania?"
The serpent's slit pupils glowed abruptly in the darkness.
Nagini slowly raised her head, her tongue flicking out, but only producing a few hoarse, broken syllables.
Snape put down the fish, cleaned his dust-covered fingers with his wand, and adjusted his posture so he was facing the giant snake, ready to communicate with her.
"Can—you—still—speak?" he asked slowly and clearly, deliberately drawing out each syllable, while intently watching Nagini's reaction.
But she still only let out some meaningless hisses.
Snape then tried to communicate with Nagini using gestures, finding that apart from a few simple syllables, most of the time, she just watched him without saying anything.
Encouragingly, though Nagini couldn't express complex sentences, her reactions suggested she could partially understand his language.
Perhaps it was because she hadn't spoken to anyone in too long, Snape thought. Perhaps Nagini was close to losing her ability to speak altogether.
"I am Severus Snape," Snape nodded, continuing to guide her patiently. "Do you know how we came to be here?"
Nagini's tail twitched restlessly, sweeping a small pile of pebbles into the deep shadows.
Snape sighed, staring into Nagini's eyes. "Take me out of here, please?"
The giant snake was silent for a moment, her tail thumping irritably against the ground with a dull thud.
A moment later, she slowly slid into a narrow passage deep within the cavern.
Snape quickly scrambled to his feet, a faint light glowing from the tip of his wand, and followed closely behind her.
The passage grew narrower and narrower; several times he had to turn sideways to get through. After turning three corners, the sound of rushing water began to reach his ears.
When the passage finally ended, what lay before them was a turbulent underground river, its black waters crashing against the rocks with a thunderous roar.
Nagini stopped on a protruding rock by the river and turned to look at Snape.
From her gaze, Snape oddly understood what she meant.
"Hm—" Snape couldn't help but frown. Cold water droplets were already splashing onto his face, and he had to raise his voice to be heard over the rushing water. "Are you saying—we have to swim out of here?"
Nagini didn't reply, only flicked her tongue, her body already extending into the water.
"Alright, alright." Seeing Nagini about to enter the water, Snape quickly moved to her side.
He swiftly cast a Bubble-Head Charm, encasing his head in a transparent bubble.
Snape hesitated for a moment, then tentatively placed his hand on Nagini's cold scales.
The expected resistance didn't appear. She merely turned her head slightly, staring at him with her slit pupils for a few moments, and gently brushed her tongue against his wrist, as if urging him to hurry.
Snape carefully tucked his wand into his inner pocket, ensuring it wouldn't be lost in the currents. Then, using both hands and feet, he wrapped himself around Nagini's slick body, pressing himself against her. "I hope you won't throw me off halfway."
The next second, the world spun—Nagini plunged into the turbulent dark river, and the icy underground water instantly swallowed them.
Outside the bubble was eternal darkness; he could only feel Nagini's muscles powerfully contracting and expanding beneath his arms, her body twisting agilely in the currents.
The water battered his body, and rocks scraped against his robes.
Several times, Nagini was almost swept away by sudden whirlpools, and Snape could only cling to her tighter.
The darkness above seemed to have no end. The air inside the bubble quickly grew stale, its inner walls covered in condensed water droplets, and Snape's lungs began to burn.
Just as he was about to suffocate, a faint glimmer of light appeared above.
Nagini suddenly accelerated, and they were thrown violently out of the cave by the current, crashing heavily into a calm pool.
"P-ha!"
Snape struggled to the surface, ripped off the now-deformed bubble, and greedily gulped down the moss-scented air.
He collapsed onto the jumbled rocks by the bank, casting a Drying Charm with trembling hands.
"Nagini?" he coughed, looking at the water's surface.
The giant snake was stretching nearby, water droplets rolling off her scales.
Snape noticed several scratches on her belly; dark red streaks of blood ran down with the water droplets, spreading out in the clear pool.
"Come here," he called out, and Nagini swam towards him. "You're hurt."
He pulled out his wand. Nagini cautiously retreated half a yard, the scales on her neck subtly rising. This was a sign of a snake's tension. Snape froze in place, slowly changing his movement to raise both hands.
"Just healing," he said softly. "Episkey!"
Nagini's wounds healed at a visible rate under the spell, leaving only a few faint marks. After a short rest, the humid heat of the Albanian forest enveloped them, and sweat soaked Snape's robes.
Looking up, the sky was fragmented by the dense canopy, and sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
"Thank you," Snape panted, looking at Nagini, who was shaking off water droplets. "But now, how do we get out of this forest and find people?"
At the word "people," Nagini shifted uncomfortably, even letting out a warning hiss.
After struggling for a long time, trying to communicate with Nagini through stares, Snape gave up and resorted to the most primitive wizarding divination: the wand-pointing method.
"Alright, it seems I'll have to rely on myself." He held his wand flat in his palm. "Show me the way."
The wand spun a few times in his palm, finally pointing in the direction behind him.
Snape put away his wand and slowly said to Nagini, who was lurking in the shadows of the bushes, "Stay around me, but not too close. Be vigilant, alright?"
---
Traveling through the forest was even harder than in the cavern. Snape held his wand in one hand, and a magically sharpened stick in the other, hacking away at the thorns and vines blocking their path.
He didn't see Nagini again along the way, only deducing she was still with him from familiar rustling sounds around him, or sudden silences from the birds.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally discovered a faint, almost invisible path—the marks were so ancient, it might not have been walked for centuries.
Just as he pushed aside the vines, the last rays of the setting sun permeated through the trees. In the interplay of light and shadow, a strange sight met his eyes:
A hunched old woman was wiping sweat from the face of a girl wearing a small cap made of red velvet.