Serpentine

"Augamenti."

Morena watched as her coffee cup filled with water from the tip of her wand. She glared into the reflection of her own tired-looking eyes - try as she may, she could never get those dark circles to disappear. They had even been there when she was a child, inherited from her father. Coupled with her small nose, thin lips, and narrow eyes, she looked like either a very tired or very angry snake - her animagus form had been no surprise to her at all. In fact, she had rather expected it. She could still remember being called "Morena Moccasin" in her first and second year. Preteens could be so cruel.

Of course, they grew up. When they finally realized how white her skin looked, and how black and lank and messy her hair was all the time, they started referring to her as "that vampire girl." Ah, memories. How wonderful they could be!

She tapped her wand on the side of the cup a few times. "Fervereos," she shot at the cup through gritted teeth, as though it had caused her years of suffering. A small jet of red sparks hit the water, and it instantly began steaming. Morena set it down on the table in front of her and dropped a teabag into it. She then looked down at her watch.

"Where the hell are you?" she mumbled to herself, glancing over her shoulder at the front door of the cabin. She shook her head at her own stupidity - there was no point in a wizard who could apparate using the front door. "Bloody ingrate... makes me go through being tossed around all morning by an inbred lunatic and can't even show up on time to discuss it..."

"So that's how you feel about me, then? I'm hurt."

Morena jumped at the sound of the sudden voice and looked up from her watch at the armchair in the room. Grindelwald was now seated there - she wasn't entirely sure how he had managed to Apparate and be one hundred percent quiet about it.

"Don't be. I don't think highly of much of anyone."

"I wouldn't expect any different of someone with your attitude. And it's besides the point, anyway," he said, cutting Morena off from responding. "You said you had news?"

"Yes, I do," she said, picking up her tea from the table. "First of all, you're going to buy me some bloody aspirin. That inbred retard tossed me around so much I about got snapped in two and I was almost positive he was going to nail me to the door before I left. That means your paying for my therapy as well, as my near death experience has addled my brain.

"Now, for the really important bit," she continued. "Morfin Gaunt has a Ministry hearing for hexing a Muggle. After his father's episode over it and his episode over his father's episode, there is no doubt they'll both be in Azkaban soon. For how long, I haven't got a clue. There is no doubt that Marvolo Gaunt will carry his precious ring to Azkaban with him. If he dies there, it will go to the Ministry. If he gets out before he dies and dies at home, it will go to his son. If his son is still in Azkaban when he dies, it goes to no one. With any luck, he will die at home and no one will know about it except me as I'll be watching him, and I can take the ring from there and you can be completely rid of me, wouldn't that be nice for both of us?"

"Not so much, no," said Grindelwald. "You'll be good for spying and you're not bad as far as planning goes. I don't have many permanent followers, and as I do need more, I may have you continue working for me if you finish with this quickly. Feet off the table please." Morena raised an eyebrow, but took her feet off of the coffee table in front of her. "I didn't kill the hermit that was living here so you could make a mess of the place."

"What?" she said perplexedly. "You said this was headquarters."

"Your headquarters, yes. You're not coming to my own, you're not to find out who my supporters are until you are one of them. It's slightly more convenient and less expensive than having you stay in motels as you obviously won't be able to return to your home in Ireland, and this is so rural that I doubt anyone will ever find it."

"Well," said Morena, putting her feet back up on the coffee table, "as long as I'm living here, I don't suppose you have any say in where I put my shoes."

"If you value your life, then yes I do."

Morena scoffed, but put her shoes back on the floor yet again. "And I'm the one with the attitude. Aren't we done here?"

"Not yet, and I might be able to establish why if you could manage to keep your mouth shut for more than ten seconds at a time." Morena glared at him, but refrained from saying anything. "Good. We need a more solid plan in case your scenarios don't work out. Take for instance, Marvolo Gaunt returns home and you find that he has left the ring with Morfin, who is still in prison, to reduce the risk of it being stolen."

"He is quite protective of it. More protective of it than of his own daughter, to say the least."

"I expected he would be," said Grindelwald, though he sounded slightly annoyed over it. "What about the daughter? Is it likely she'll leave while they're gone to prison or does Marvolo Gaunt have her trained well enough to stay?"

"I don't doubt she would leave, but she might need a little convincing."

"Good, then you won't be completely useless while the ring's owners are gone."

"Completely useless?" Morena scoffed and crossed her arms, and took to staring off in the other direction. "That's a nice thing to say about someone you forced to work for you after slaughtering her parents. Really nice."

"You were grateful enough. From what I gathered, there is no doubt you would have eventually killed your father anyway."

"What the bloody hell are you going on about?"

She managed to disguise her confusion for annoyance, but the perplexity was still inset in her mind at the statement. How could he have known that she didn't really mind her parents being... well, being dead? She enjoyed being free from all the yelling and grueling work on that stupid farm, but she hadn't ever said that. So now Grindelwald could read minds too? That was a somewhat unpleasant thought. Morena knew of Legilimency, but she knew no one that knew how to use it. Dumbledore, her old Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts for her last couple of years had known of it, but he had a reputation as a genius and was bound to know about it. It seemed he knew about everything else in the world. He was one of Grindelwald's greatest pursuers and rivals, and with someone like him on Grindelwald's trail there was no doubt he would be caught.

... Eventually.

"I believe you know exactly what I'm 'going on about.' You think rather loudly. I have no reason to want to know what's in your mind, but anyone with even an ounce of knowledge of Legilimency could hear your thought process. Now, if you'll allow me to continue -"

"I think loudly?"

"As I was saying," Grindelwald continued, raising his voice above Morena's, who began strumming her fingers on her knee in her impatience of his disregard, "regardless of whether Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt go to Azkaban, you will remain at the Gaunts' home. If they do go, then you will reveal only to Merope that you were the snake that managed to escape from her brother durring his outburst. You'll tell her you had lost something in those woods and it seemed it would be easier to find if you kept low to the ground in your animagus form, but you strayed accidentally in the path of Morfin Gaunt. You will convince her she needs to leave the house, and then you will check every day on that house until Morfin or Marvolo Gaunt return home. If Marvolo Gaunt returns home alone and has the ring, kill him and take it."

"Wait, I have to kill someone? I don't like that."

"You also don't like Marvolo Gaunt, I don't see why you would have any trouble killing him."

Morena made a noise of frustration and hit her fist on the coffee table in front of her. "I wish you would stop reading my mind! I don't say the things in it out loud because I wish to keep them private from the outside world. You, being a part of the outside world, do not need to be inside my bloody head!"

She crossed her arms at this and again turned her head in the opposite direction. Having never had her mind read before, Morena wasn't entirely sure what to think (or if she should even continue to think for fear of someone knowing what she was thinking). She definitely didn't like it. There couldn't possibly be a worse invasion of privacy than for someone to be breaking into her thoughts. Of course, apparently she thought too loudly - she scoffed to herself at this. How was it possible to think loudly? That didn't make any sense at all.

"If Marvolo Gaunt doesn't return home with the ring," Grindelwald continued calmly, as if there had been no disturbance whatsoever (furthering Morena's extreme irritation with the man), "then I will have to think of something else. He will still be unimportant however, and will possibly be in the way, and I may still require you to kill him - your protest to the subject will only succeed in irritating me, so don't bother."

Morena only scoffed again. "Then irritated you will be. I don't want to kill anyone and I'm going to bloody fight it tooth and nail."

"I could easily Imperiuse you into doing it anyway, so there isn't much of a point in objection, then, is there?" She chose just to grumble a few swears in response rather than complain again. It seemed to be getting her nowhere, anyway. "Good. Then I believe that is all." She saw a shadow move, and she assumed this was Grindelwald standing. "Oh, yes, I didn't mention. The hermit that lived here was a wizard, and he did have a house-elf. If it misbehaves, feel free to get rid of it. It was rather attached to its master, so it may attempt to kill you in your sleep."

"Gee, thanks for the heads up..."

"As I said, if you don't want to take the risk, get rid of it. You have your new orders for the time being, then - convince Merope Gaunt to leave her home and stay there until she does. If you have any more new developments in the future, report them to me immediately. Now, go on to the Gaunts' house and see if Marvolo and Morfin have been taken into custody yet."

"I don't even get to finish my tea?"

"Go."

Morena rolled her eyes before setting her tea down. This was twice as bad as the work her father made her do. "Fine." She stood from the sofa and shot a glare at Grindelwald. "I'm going."

"Thank you."

"Yeah, whatever." She focused her mind to the part of the woods she had Apparated to last time and, with a pop, she was gone from the cabin and going through the rather uncomfortable, constricting sensation of Apparating. It stopped a moment later, and she looked around to see the same bit of the woods she had landed in earlier. The sun was migrating towards the western side of the sky now, whereas it had been set towards the East earlier that morning - that was the only difference, and it was barely noticeable in the thick forest.

Morena decided that, just in case Marvolo and Morfin hadn't been arrested for some unknown reason, she should probably head to the house in her snake form - and so she transformed. She moved almost silently across the leaves blanketing the forest floor, all dead and brown despite the hot summer weather. The leaves in the trees high above her head were perfectly green, but the forest floor was littered with dead plants and similar mulch that greenery was poking up through.

It seemed a rather long journey to that little house, but she supposed this was probably because her current form was so small. She made it there in good enough time, however, and she found the crack in the side of the stone hut. She slowly slithered through it, only poking her head through to begin with. When all she saw was Merope, pacing back and forth in the kitchen in a rather restless manner, she took the opportunity to go through.

"Are you here alone?"

Merope jumped at the sudden voice, obviously unaware of Morena's presence, but she seemed to recognize the voice as a snake's hiss, as she replied (rather nervously, Morena noted), in Parseltongue.

"Yes... who's there?"

"Where are your father and your brother?"

"The wizards from the Ministry took them into custody for attacking them. Where are you?"

Good - it was perfectly safe. Morena could turn into a human and hopefully not be hexed. Even with her father and brother gone, she still seemed rather timid and scared, which meant she would definitely need some convincing before she could leave. It also probably meant she wouldn't attack Morena, but that was mostly wishful thinking. So, the moment she was in her human form again, she made sure to put one hand at her wand. Merope, who had been looking for the source of the voice she had heard, turned around and jumped at the sight of Morena now standing there. She said something in Parseltongue, and Morena shook her head in response.

"I only understand that in my animagus form, sorry," she said, gripping the handle of her wand.

"Oh." Morena let her wand go when she saw that Merope was beginning to back away towards the corner she generally stood in to try to keep her father from noticing her. "W - aren't you the girl from Ireland who -"

"Yes, Morena Serran. That's me," said Morena, looking down at her feet. "I managed to escape being killed by transforming and getting out of the house, then Apparating. The wizard that did it had put an Apparition block on the house. Long story, but I ended up in the woods out there and accidently strayed out into the open, and your brother found me. I was here for the Bob Ogden ordeal. I figured they would probably be arrested." She sat down on the arm of a chair she had been standing next to upon transforming. "You realize you could leave now, don't you?"

Her eyes widened. "My father would kill me if I left."

Morena laughed, shaking her head. This was going to be far too easy. All Morena would need to do would be to convince her that her father would have no way of finding her, and then she would be out faster than a Muggle could run from an angered Marvolo Gaunt.

"What's funny?"

"It's nothing," said Morena. "Just I always thought the same thing about my father. I was more worried he'd kill my mother if I left, but I know now that there would have been no way for him to find me if I had left."

"But if he ever did -"

"Tell me," said Morena, standing up and walking to the kitchenette area where Merope was. Merope seemed to grow warier yet at this sudden movement. "What's the farthest your father has ever ventured from home?"

"D - Diagon Alley..."

"How long ago?"

"The year before Morfin was kicked out of school."

Morena nodded. "You're eighteen, aren't you?" Merope nodded slowly. "You've got your entire life ahead of you. Would you rather spend it out in the real world or cooking your father dinner while he shoots insults and hexes in your general direction?"

She shook her head at this. "I've never even been to Hogwarts. I took Morfin's old textbooks after he was kicked out and read them, but that's as far as I ever got to learn. My father only taught me spells that could be used to do chores."

"Muggles can survive without magic, can't they?"

"I guess so, but -"

"You could start a new life, just move to a nice little Muggle neighborhood where no one knows you and therefore can't associate you with your father."

"I would, but it's not just him," said Merope, glancing at a window on the front of the house.

It didn't take Morena more than a moment to understand. "Oh." Unfortunately, that was the best thing she could come up with to say on a moment's notice. Of course, she should have thought of it; it was the reason Marvolo and Morfin were off to Azkaban in the first place - Tom Riddle. He was the Muggle Morfin Gaunt had hexed, the one that Merope apparently "hung out of the window to see coming home," according to Morfin (whose word couldn't really be taken as true testimony, considering he was more or less out of his mind).

"I'll never see Tom again if I leave."

"So Imperiuse him into coming with you," said Morena - it seemed a reasonable enough idea to her. "I could show you how to use the spell."

"I'm not going to do that!" said Merope, shaking her head rapidly. "That would be wrong."

It was nice to see someone in the Gaunt family had a sense of right and wrong, but it wasn't particularly good in this situation. If Morena couldn't talk Merope into leaving, then that would foil almost any plan Grindelwald could come up with to get Marvolo Gaunt's ring.

But then - then it hit her. Merope loved - or at least thought she loved - Tom Riddle. That was why she didn't like the idea of using the Imperius Curse on him. That was more forcing him. There was another way, however, a method that Morena hoped beyond hope that Merope would have no problems with. There was no doubt that if Merope didn't leave, Grindelwald would find another, slightly less humane way to take her out of the picture. Morena didn't want anyone to have to go through that, so this seemed likely to be the last resort.

"What would you say to Amortentia, then?"

"A... Amortentia?" she said, raising her eyebrows questioningly.

"Ah, yes," said Morena, "I learned about it in my sixth year. I suppose I'll have to explain a little."

Morena did truly hope Merope would agree to this idea rather than shoot it down as she had the Imperius Curse. Amortentia, the world's strongest love potion, seemed to have a more romantic appeal to it, which Merope might be more apt to accept. She could only hope.