Vaughn was not sure how deep the connection between Voldemort and Nagini ran, but he could confirm that, at least for now, she had not become a Horcrux.
And Voldemort was surely focused on his resurrection ritual right now, so these little maneuvers would go unnoticed.
Vaughn did not actually know whether Nagini would still become Voldemort's final Horcrux. Under his influence, the plot had gone completely off the rails, and many things had changed beyond recognition.
But he needed to assume the worst. If he influenced Nagini too much now, everything he had done might be exposed if Voldemort later turned her into a Horcrux.
So Vaughn merely hid his persona armor in the deepest reaches of Nagini's Mindscape without exerting any influence.
His original plan had been to use the persona armor to remove her snake memories and awaken Nagini's human personality.
Yet the blood demon curse had been more thorough than he had imagined. Nagini had become a snake through and through. Her human memories were neither sealed nor suppressed; they had vanished entirely.
Or rather—they had been forgotten!
It was like an irreversible Obliviate!
Vaughn considered this briefly, then lightly drew a hand across Nagini's body, opening a cut. He took out a bottle and filled it with blood before lifting his other hand from the top of her head.
All the white mist flowed into Nagini's eye sockets as Vaughn altered her memories of their encounter.
Vaughn did not know how accomplished Voldemort was at memory magic. If he could rival Old Dumbledore, he might discover traces of tampering if he used memory magic on Nagini.
But Vaughn thought Voldemort probably would not do that.
True, Voldemort was suspicious and cautious, but his trust in Nagini was almost absolute.
Just then, Nagini suddenly grew agitated.