Nagini
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
|---|---|
| Nagini | |
| Gender | Female |
| Species | Snake |
| Owner | Lord Voldemort |
| Special powers | Possible Horcrux |
| First appearance | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
Nagini is a fictional animal from the Harry Potter series. She is a snake and the pet of Lord Voldemort, a Parselmouth, who is capable of communicating with her.
Nagini seems to be Lord Voldemort's equivalent of Albus Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Even more so, however, she seems to be Voldemort's spiritual familiar, sharing an intimate bond with her master. Nagi is the female counterpart of Naga, the name for cobra in Hindi and most other Indian languages. In Hindi, the word is pronounced /nαːgi/.
During the fourth year Harry spends at Hogwarts, Voldemort's temporary body was sustained by Nagini's "milk" (presumably her venom), harvested by Peter Pettigrew (known as Wormtail). After Voldemort returned to his former glory, the snake remained in his service.
Readers are first introduced to Nagini in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In that chapter, Voldemort, Pettigrew and Nagini are living in Voldemorts Fathers abandoned house (The Riddle House) discussing their plot to kill Harry Potter. Nagini is the first to notice Frank Bryce, the house's gardener, and uses Parseltongue (the language of snakes) to communicate with Voldemort and alert him to Bryce's presence. Bryce is then murdered by Voldemort.
In the fifth book, Harry witnessed Nagini attacking Arthur Weasley in one of his dreams. He saw this from Nagini's point of view, and felt as though he himself was the snake: Dumbledore explained this as being due to Harry's connection to Voldemort (who was possessing Nagini at the time).
In the sixth book, Dumbledore speculates that Nagini may be one of the six Horcruxes that Voldemort left behind to achieve immortality.
It is unknown what true species of snake Nagini is, though she is believed to be venomous, due to the fact that Voldemort refers to her "milk" in the potion that brings him back to life in the fourth book. In Order of the Phoenix it is also revealed that her venom makes it very difficult for wounds to heal, and melts stitches, supporting the idea that she is the opposite of Fawkes, whose tears magically heal wounds. The fact that she has a hood suggests that she is a cobra (Naja naja or Naja hannah), and due to her size, specifically a King Cobra. Given the unusual properties of her venom it is highly likely she is a magically altered or wizard-bred variety of cobra, though in the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, she is depicted as some form of Python.
