5:00 PM

"No, Naggie. You stay here."

The horned serpent[1] flicked his tongue in objection, coiling his tail around her ankles in an attempt to keep her from the side door of the castle. Taryn hopped around the coiling scales and winced at the pain that shot through her bones at the sudden move. Merlin and Nimue! It felt like half her skeleton had splintered and was stabbing her from the inside.

With a concerned hiss, Nagendra nudged his huge head under her hand. He was large enough now that her palm and all her fingers fit easily in the space between his horns. Taryn sighed, stroking his scales. "I know you're worried, baby, but Ah promise I ain't hurt. It's just damned growing pains." And if anyone around here was going to know how to deal with them, it was Hagrid.

Nagendra hissed again, his tongue tickling her side. "I know you want to come, but we've been over this. You gotta hide and there ain't enough places to do it out there. It ain't safe. An' it's way too cold. You'll get sick!" She'd never seen a snake give anyone puppy-dog eyes before, but Nagendra was trying his hardest. "I'm fine. You just stay outta sight while I'm gone and I'll be back before you know it. Okay?"

The serpent was not pleased, but he retreated out the door and along the edge of the wall until he reached the castle's gutters. Like all the plumbing, it expanded easily to accommodate him. Taryn kept an eye out until the tip of his tail vanished into the tub. Then, she pulled her coat around her and tromped down the snowy path to Hagrid's place.

Every step along the uneven trail made her bones ache and her muscles scream. Taryn bit down on the inside of her lip to muffle the groans. It'd been two, almost three years since her last growth spurt, but you never forgot the ache, especially not when it came on as sudden, as hard, and as painful as they, apparently, did for half-giants.

When she finally got to the door of Hagrid's Hideway, she paused only long enough to pull the glove off her right hand before knocking as loud as she could muster. "Hey, Professor Hagrid! Are you home?"

1.	Current Size: 25 ft (7.63 meters) long

With the last task finished and exams coming up, Hagrid had quite a full plate on his hands. Apparently, someone caught site of a snake, and after an initial investigation by the TWT security, he had gotten handed a rather large snakeskin.After ruling out the snake wasn't a Basilisk or anything hunting down students, Hagrid was content to investigate the issue until winter break. For now, the half-giant was finishing up the final touches on his exams for the fourth years, when he heard someone calling at the door.

The half-giant looked around the room and quickly rolled up the large snakeskin sittin on a counter and tucked it into his front apron pocket. He forgot to put down one of the tie-die cloths, which was currently died a funny blue and yellow girl and went to get the door, "I'm comin', comin'--that you Taryn?"

With the girl being well over the height of any normal human being, Hagrid opened the top and bottom part of one of the red Dutch doors and nodded down at the  girl. "What are you up to lass?"