Chapter 159: Riddle and Nagini

Stepping through the dimensional door, Xiven and Riddle arrived together on a small hill in Albania.

The sky had now grown dim, and winding, crawling black shadows darted through the grass on the ground from time to time. As their bodies rubbed against the turf, they produced a spine-chilling rustling sound.

Xiven felt a chill run down his spine and was about to cast a protective spell to shield himself from any venomous snake bites when Riddle moved first.

Not only was there no trace of fear on Riddle's face regarding these venomous snakes, but instead, a warm and friendly expression appeared.

Shortly after, a strange hissing sound came from his lips—resembling both the hissing of a viper and the whisper of a demon...

Following the bizarre sounds emitted by Riddle, the surrounding black shadows gradually closed in, gathering around him. Some of the smaller snakes even crawled onto his body, affectionately rubbing their serpent faces against his skin.

Xiven illuminated his wand and took in the scene before him—

Riddle was draped with numerous vipers bearing oval patterns. Some were coiled around Riddle's arms, legs, and waist, while others rested upon his back, thrusting their heads forward. These snakes seemed to have transformed into living ribbons wrapping around Riddle, carrying an inexplicably eerie and captivating beauty.

"So Parseltongue isn't just used to converse with snakes, but to control them as well?" Xiven asked curiously, looking at Riddle, who was adorned with snake ribbons.

"I'm not certain whether it can be called control," Riddle shook his head, saying to Xiven. "But they are indeed quite generous in offering me their assistance."

"If that's the case, it still seems remarkably impressive!" Xiven smiled and praised. "Let's go, let's meet up with Dumbledore and the others first."

The two of them walked toward a glow of fire near the small hill.

Xiven's dimensional door had not opened very far, and after walking only a few steps, they could see Dumbledore, Newt, and the others sitting on the ground around a campfire, sheltered by a hemispherical transparent protective barrier.

Outside the barrier, however, was a crowd of vipers drawn by the warmth of the fire. These vipers were huddled together, all attempting to inch closer to the cozy campfire, only to be blocked outside by the barrier.

Upon reaching the exterior of the barrier, Riddle once again conversed with the vipers using his Parseltongue hisses, quickly causing them to part and clear a wide pathway.

At that moment, Dumbledore spotted the two of them.

With a smiling wave of his wand, the transparent protective barrier opened an arched doorway to let them inside.

Just as Xiven and Riddle were about to step into the barrier, Aberforth raised a hand to stop them.

"That dark-haired boy there, are you planning to bring snakes in with you?" he asked loudly, looking with displeasure at the various small snakes clinging to Riddle.

It was then that Riddle remembered he was still draped in numerous snake ribbons.

He offered an apologetic smile, then spoke to disperse the vipers from his body, before finally joining Xiven by the campfire.

"Care for some barbecue?" Dumbledore lifted a wooden skewer threaded with meat slices, asking Xiven and Riddle with a smile.

Xiven looked at Newt, who was working hard to grill meat by the campfire, and Theseus, who was standing nearby getting in the way, and could not help the twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"How on earth did you end up having a barbecue?" Xiven asked.

"Well, we haven't had a proper meal all day after all, and I figured since we've made the effort to come out into the wilderness, we might as well see what it feels like to barbecue ourselves," Dumbledore said with keen interest. "As it happens, Newt's case has plenty of barbecue tools and seasonings, so all we needed to do was catch a few small animals, and everything would be complete!"

While speaking, he casually lifted another wooden skewer from the campfire, naturally used a spell to lower the temperature of the roasted meat, and popped it straight into his mouth.

"That looks rather good." Xiven stood on no ceremony, picked up two skewers from the fire, handed one to Riddle, and took a bite of the other himself to try.

A moment later, both of them let out words of praise, giving Newt a thumbs-up.

One had to admit that as a magizoologist who spent years out in the wild, Newt's grilling skills were quite exceptional. Ordinary pheasant meat could be roasted to taste like a rare delicacy.

Once Xiven and Riddle joined the ranks of the barbecue consumers, the rate at which ingredients were consumed instantly stepped up a notch. Newt quickly noticed that the meat had run out, and so he said to Dumbledore:

"Albus, the ingredients are used up."

Dumbledore nodded, stretching out his hand quite casually toward the direction of the forest, whereupon a brightly colored wild pheasant flew out from the woods.

The transparent barrier timely opened an aperture, allowing the pheasant to fly inward through the opening and land directly in Dumbledore's grasp.

Under Dumbledore's exquisitely precise control, the pheasant peacefully departed.

Using goodness knows what spell, or perhaps relying solely on his peerless mastery of magic, Dumbledore made the pheasant hover mid-air while its feathers automatically shed themselves.

Following that, a few blades of grass on the ground pulled themselves up by the roots, transformed through Transfiguration into wooden skewers, automatically pierced through various parts of the pheasant, and delivered themselves right into Newt's hands.

Having already witnessed Dumbledore's outrageous displays through the eyes of his spiritual body, Xiven maintained a relatively calm expression, though inwardly he remained deeply in awe of Dumbledore's level of control.

As for Riddle, watching this whole routine left him completely dazzled, marking the very first time he realized magic could be utilized in such a fashion!

...

After eating and drinking their fill, everyone rose to their feet, jointly using Vanishing Spells to clear away the picnic debris.

Afterward, the day's actual business finally began.

"Tom, did Xiven tell you what we've asked you here to help with?" Dumbledore looked toward Riddle and asked.

"Yes, I already know," Riddle said, nodding. "We are looking for a witch who may have turned into a snake, correct?"

Dumbledore gave a slight nod of his head, then glanced briefly at Aurelius.

"Nagini's snake form is a bright green viper with oval patterns, roughly twelve feet long," Aurelius understood and described to Riddle. "We are counting on you this time, Mr. Riddle."

Newt chimed in from the side as well: "An ordinary viper won't exceed four feet in length, so we simply need to ask those small snakes whether they have seen such a large serpent, and finding Nagini will be quite easy."

Riddle nodded, turned to walk back outside the transparent protective barrier, and stood right in the center of the serpent swarm.

Moments later, a series of eerie hisses rose from the midst of the snakes...

Both Kama and Aberforth looked toward Riddle's location with some unease, evidently still harboring doubts about Parseltongue. However, under Dumbledore's stern gaze, they suppressed their inner misgivings and patiently waited.

Before long, Riddle returned to the side of Dumbledore and the others.

"How did it go?" Aurelius asked hopefully.

"Mission accomplished," Riddle smiled with a hint of complacency, saying to Aurelius. "There is indeed a large serpent living deep within the Albanian forest, and the vipers here have already acknowledged her as their Snake Queen!"