Category:Snakes

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Creature profile
Snake
Ministry of Magic Classification	up to XXXXX (Basilisk)
Appearance	limbless, elongate reptile
Origin	worldwide
Known specimens	Nagini, the boa constrictor, Slytherin's Basilisk
First appearance in canon	The Vanishing Glass (PS)

Snakes or serpents are limbless, elongate reptiles. Like all reptiles, snakes are ectothermic and covered in scales. All snakes are carnivorous. Snakes of widely varying size and appearance can be found on all continents except Antarctica (WP). Most are non-magical and known to Muggles, but there are several kinds of magical snakes: the Basilisk, a giant and highly dangerous beast, the Runespoor, a three-headed snake from Burkina Faso, the giant Sea Serpent that inhabits oceans, and the Ashwinder, a serpent born from magical fires (CS11, FBAZ). Furthermore, the Occamy resembles a cross of a serpent with a bird (FBAZ). Snake fangs and venom are used as potion ingredients (PS8, GF33, DH6).

Parseltongue

Snakes have their own language, Parseltongue, which can be understood by some wizards. The ability to speak Parseltongue is an extremely rare gift, and Parselmouths are historically associated with the Dark Arts. Many wizards go as far as considering Parseltongue itself a Dark Art and mistrust anyone who can talk to snakes (GF31). Important Parselmouths include the Dark wizards Herpo the Foul and Salazar Slytherin (CS11, FW, FBAZ). Slytherin's descendants, including the Gaunts and Lord Voldemort, inherited his talent. As long as Harry Potter carries a piece of Voldemort's soul inside him, he, too, is able to talk to snakes (CS11, BLC).

Snakes and Dark Magic

Most wizards are highly suspicious of snakes and Parselmouths, as serpents are often used in Dark Magic (GF31). The most deadly snake, the Basilisk, is a Dark creature. Many Dark wizards choose snakes as their symbol. The Slytherin blazon shows a serpent (CS11); a symbol that is repeated over and over again at the Blacks' house at Grimmauld Place and by the Gaunts (OP4, HBP10). Slytherin also chose a Basilisk as his monster inside the Chamber of Secrets (CS16). Voldemort's sign, the Dark Mark, shows a snake protruding from the mouth of a skull (GF9). His pet (and Horcrux) Nagini is a giant venomous snake and her venom is used in the Dark potion that restores him to a feeble corporeal form (GF1, GF33, HBP23). Runespoors are popular pets among Dark wizards (FBAZ).

Important events involving snakes

In Ancient Greece, the Dark wizard Herpo the Foul, a Parselmouth, creates the first Basilisk by hatching a chicken's egg under a toad (FW, FBAZ). The creation of Basilisks is banned in the Middle Ages (FBAZ).

Sometime over a thousand years ago, Slytherin secretly builds the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts and places a Basilisk in there before he leaves the school after the disagreements between him and Godric Gryffindor. He intends his heir to open the Chamber and rid the school of Muggle-borns (CS9, CS16).

At the end of the 17th or in the 18th century, Glanmore Peakes slays the Sea Serpent of Cromer (FW).

In the 1920s, Bob Ogden visits the Gaunts to sentence Morfin for performing magic in front of a Muggle. A dead snake is nailed to the door, and Ogden finds Morfin inside, talking to a live adder (HBP10).

Growing up in a Muggle orphanage, Tom Riddle discovers that he has many strange talents, including the ability to talk to snakes (HBP13).

In 1943, Tom Marvolo Riddle opens the Chamber of Secrets and releases the Basilisk within to hunt down Muggle-borns. The Basilisk kills Myrtle. Before he is found, Tom frames Rubeus Hagrid for the attacks. He makes a Horcrux out of his diary, which has the power to reopen the Chamber (CS13, CS16, CS17, HBP23).

After he is reduced to a bodiless spirit on Hallowe'en 1981, Voldemort sometimes possesses animals, snakes being his preference. However, the possession shortens their lifespans and none of them lasts long (GF33).

On June 23, 1991, the Dursleys, Piers Polkiss and Harry Potter make a trip to the zoo to celebrate Dudley's birthday. Inside the reptile house, Harry starts a conversation with a boa constrictor. In a fit of anger, he performs accidental magic and vanishes the glass of the cage when Dudley knocks him over. The snake escapes, and Harry is locked in his cupboard for several weeks (PS2, PS3).

On Hallowe'en 1992, Ginny Weasley, possessed by the piece of soul contained in Tom's diary, opens the Chamber of Secrets and releases the Basilisk. The giant snake Petrifies Mrs. Norris. Harry Potter can hear it mutter in Parseltongue through the school's walls while it moves through the pipes (CS8). The Basilisk strikes again on November 8 and Petrifies Colin Creevey (CS11).

During the first—and only—meeting of the Duelling Club on December 17, 1992, Draco Malfoy conjures a long black snake with Serpensortia. Gilderoy Lockhart tries to make it disappear, but his attempt fails and the enraged snake tries to attack Justin Finch-Fletchley. Without thinking, Harry tells it to leave Justin alone in Parseltongue. The snake obeys him, but Justin, who cannot understand Harry, gets the impression that Harry set the snake on him and flees. Severus Snape vanishes the creature and Ron Weasley drags Harry out of the hall, explaining to him that his ability to speak Parseltongue is a rare talent that is widely distrusted. After the incident, most students believe that Harry is the heir of Slytherin and that he tried to kill Justin. The suspicions are solidified when Justin and Nearly Headless Nick are Petrified the next day and Harry is found at the crime scene (CS11).

On May 4, 1993, the Basilisk Petrifies Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger, who had just discovered its secret. Tom Riddle takes Ginny into the Chamber on May 29; Harry follows them there and fights the Basilisk with the help of Fawkes, the Sorting Hat and the Gryffindor's sword. The monster is killed and Harry destroys the diary (CS16, CS17).

During the Gryffindor third-years' first lesson with Professor Lupin in September 1993, the Boggart he shows them turns into a rattlesnake, among other forms (PA7).

In the summer of 1994, Peter Pettigrew brews a potion that creates a feeble corporeal form for Lord Voldemort. The potion includes snake venom from Voldemort's giant pet snake Nagini (GF33). Voldemort needs to drink her venom regularly to stay alive. He turns Nagini into a Horcrux using the death of Bertha Jorkins (BLC). Pettigrew, Voldemort and Nagini travel from Albania to England and inhabit the Riddle House in Little Hangleton. On the evening of August 23, Frank Bryce spies on Voldemort and Pettigrew. Nagini discovers him in the hallway and tells Voldemort, who kills Bryce. Harry Potter witnesses the scene in a dream (GF1, GF2).

The food samples Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class has to feed to the Blast-Ended Skrewts includes bits of grass snake (GF13).

On May 31, 1995, Harry has another visionary dream during Divination in which he sees Nagini, Voldemort and Pettigrew. When Voldemort says he will not feed Pettigrew to Nagini for letting Barty Crouch, Sr. escape and promises her Harry instead, the snake hisses (GF29). Rita Skeeter witnesses Harry's trance and consequently publishes an article that reveals that he is a Parselmouth on the morning of the third task of the Triwizard Tournament on June 24, 1995. The Slytherin students make fun of Harry after the publication by waggling their tongues like snakes (GF31).

Nagini is present at the Little Hangleton graveyard with Voldemort and Wormtail when Harry is brougth there by Portkey after the end of the third task. She is slithering through the grass and circling the headstone Harry is tied to (GF32, GF33).

Voldemort sends Nagini into the Ministry of Magic to explore the entrance to the Department of Mysteries in the night of December 18, 1995. She attacks Arthur Weasley, who is watching the entrance. Harry see the scene through the snake's eyes and warns Albus Dumbledore (OP21).

During his fight with Dumbledore at the end of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort turns the fiery rope Dumbledore shoots at him into a snake. When it is about to strike the Headmaster, Dumbledore vanishes it into dark smoke (OP36).

Nagini accompanies Voldemort to Malfoy Manor in the summer of 1997; she wraps herself around his neck during the Death Eater meeting in which Charity Burbage is killed. Voldemort offers her the corpse for dinner (DH1).

Voldemort sends Nagini to Godric's Hollow, where she slips inside the corpse of Bathilda Bagshot. On Chrsitmas Eve 1997, she lures Harry and Hermione into Bathilda's house where she attacks Harry and summons Voldemort. Hermione can Apparate Harry out of the house before Voldemort arrives (DH17).

After he learns that one of his Horcruxes was stolen from Gringotts on May 1, 1998, Voldemort decides to keep Nagini close to his side at all times. He takes her with him to the Gaunt shack and the cave, where he finds his Horcruxes gone, and from there to Hogwarts (DH27). On May 2, he hides her in the Shrieking Shack, where she floats in a protected magical cage in midair. The Trio try to reach them there to kill the snake and destroy the Horcrux within. While they are in the tunnel under the Shack, Harry witnesses how Voldemort orders Nagini to kill Severus Snape through his mental connection with Voldemort. Voldemort and Nagini leave the Shack (DH32).

Before Harry enters the Forbidden Forest to let himself get killed by Voldemort, he tells Neville Longbottom that Voldemort's snake has to be destroyed. Nagini is at the clearing in her floating cage when Harry enters it, but he has no chance to kill her (DH34). When Voldemort goes to the school to present Harry's supposedly dead body, she is wrapped around his shoulders. Fulfilling Harry's request, Neville slices its head off with the sword of Godric Gryffindor (DH36).