Hogwarts School, Fourth Floor | 6:50 PM

Among the connoisseurs of sanitation engineering, the indoor plumbing system found within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is considered a wonder of the magical world. Installed with the founding of the school, it pre-dates the Muggle Great Conduit of London by almost 250 years, and shares so much in common with our modern-day plumping technology that some have taken it to be proof positive that one of the four Founders was secretly a Seer. Yet more remarkable still is the series of charms and enchantments which allow the pipes to expand and change shape without any disruption of the castle's structure, completely eliminating the problems of ruptures, breaks, and clogs caused by non-magical means.[1]

And so it was that when a horned serpent named Nagendra slipped reluctantly into a sink in the fourth-floor girl's lavatory, the faucet pipe merely expanded to contain his considerable bulk[2] and returned to its original position once he'd been deposited into the basin. He spilled over the porcelain edge, sank to the stone floor, and flicked his tongue dispassionately.

Cold. The floor was cold. The air was cold. The room was cold. Really, anywhere in the castle would seem cold to him now. He'd spent the last hour curled happily in a steam pipe beneath the library, listening to Giant-Mama and her fellow Salem -- what was the word, champ-hions? -- discuss their plans for "the upcoming task." Nagendra didn't understand any of it, but that didn't matter. Hearing his mother's voice was comforting when he couldn't be with her directly, and he'd learned of many new human words, particularly from the One-Who-Tasted-Green.[3]

But now their studying was nearly come to an end. It would be dinner time soon, and Nagendra was not to be out during dinner. It was too easy to be seen. He must return to the nest, but the only way to do that from here was to access the pipes of the drinking fountain across the hall. Curled in the shadows beneath the sink, Nagendra lifted his head and tasted the air. There were humans nearby. Students, perhaps. He would have to be quick about it.

With that in mind, he slithered along the baseboards, pushed the door open with his horns, and darted into the hall.

1.	Now that Harry Potter's numerous biographies have revealed the full story of the legendary Chamber of Secrets, it may be safely assumed that these spells were placed by Salazar Slytherin purely for the convenience of his basilisk, but that doesn't change the fact that it's incredibly convenient, especially for the caretaker.
2.	Current Size: 7.4 ft (2.26 m) long | Current Weight: 18 lbs. (8.16 kg)
3.	He, like other humans, was called many different things -- Tracy, Trace, Captain, and Yes Mom among them -- but Nagendra liked his names better.

"Ooog..."

The term 'green around the gills' may be used literally for the partial merperson Heliotrope LeJean especially if she was unwashed after a swim from a rather algae populated section of the lake. But for her splotchy haired Hufflepuff roommate Obderedria Pienas it meant something else. Not that 'green about the hair' would make anymore sense.

Obderedria had dodged out of dinner earlier than she usually would to head for the library. Since her old wand was being fixed and she had Professor Sandusky's Wife's wand as a temporary replacement, she had become increasingly curious about wands. There had to be a few books about them, she had seen one about woods -- but as she climbed the stairs Obderedria began to feel queasy.

She rarely got sick from eating and nothing could be undercooked if the house elves prepared it. And dead minnows weren't falling out of Heliotrope's sleeves into the soup again. What could it have been? Someone had passed around a bag of sweets -- it probably had been a Puking Pastille. If she'd swallowed the whole thing that could cause the delay. When Obderedria had once been to Weasley Wizard Wheezes and noticed they had candy -- Skiving Snackboxes came with Puking Pastille, Fever Fudge, Nosebleed Nougat -- it had to be a metaphor, right? Like how people said you could come across a vomit flavored Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean. Who would intentionally pick a horrible flavor like that, even if many Bertie Beans left something to be desired -- in any case, Obderedria learned the hard way why the Skiving Snackbox package did not contain proper sweats. Learned by being sick for three days after downing the whole box at once.

Clutching her stomach and feeling mounting nausea, Obderedria made a beeline for the nearest bathroom -- while analyzing any taffy, gum, or chew suspiciously green and purple she might have eaten in the last few hours. Her skin was pallid, oddly moist. She fought to keep her breathing steady. Her shirt collar was too tight, she could almost smell an over abundance of bile on her breath. As she reached the bathroom the door swung to meet her -- no one came out. Strange, but for all Obderedria knew the castle might have been sympathetic to her plight--

--And then something slipped past her ankles!

Running was not Erik's favorite pastime, but  it was not uncommon to see him running through the hallowed halls of Hogwarts. Whether it was from a prefect, a classmate, Almasy, a housemate, a prefect, his sister(s), another student, or his own backfired plan, the boy was always running somewhere doing something that always led to or from trouble. And so should come to no one's surprise that Erik Collins wouldn't be paying enough attention to where he was going keep himself from tripping on something.

"HAH--oof!" was all the little brunette could choke out after his feet got tangled together beneath a snag in the floor before he toppled over onto a lump beneath him, "Er, sorry..." Erik pat his hands against the obstacle, who he perceived as a person, but it only took him a moment to look down at a pile of dark-colored scales slithering beneath him. Erik furrowed his eyebrows together as he looked towards where the mass of scales was slithering away from, then his gaze agradually looked back up at his classmate Drea, who looked about as good as a booger-flavored bean.

But Erik took the moment to try and focus on what was beneath him. Obviously an animal. Obviously something that slithered. And obviously something with scales. But only one answered echoed in his head as his furrowed gaze remained fixated on his Hufflepuff classmate while his brain sluggishly tried to apply logic... so it had to be a yellow badger? or a brown badger? A badger badger--

 "...Snake?" As if someone had put the breaks on the boy's vocal cords, Erik finally produced the correct answer; but from the twisted and hesitant expression on the boy's face, he could hardly be described as content.

Creature…bad creature, darkness, hidden, wicked soul…!

The taste Nagendra caught as he burst into the hall sent a violent jerk of instinct through his long body. The girl-child he’d passed tasted of darkness and trickery, wicked hearts and twisted truths. It was the taste of magical beasts, but not His Kind, no, it was something of the old world, something hidden and cold, something that should not be in his territory.

He sprung away from the child’s legs, straight into the ankles of another, sending it to the ground. It tasted male, all energy and speed, but he hadn’t the time to waste on identification. There was the intruder to deal with, the trickster, the fae.

Dodging from beneath the fallen human, Nagendra reared back with a hiss, prepared to strike – but, no. He couldn’t. It was only a mask, a cover, the lingering traces of another’s presence. Beneath the scent, its true identity: a human child, female, sweet.

Bad Naggie no biting!

At the last moment, he changed course, lunging past the Fey-Cursed Girl a second time. His tail-tip cracked her ankle like a whip, hard enough to bruise. He sprung across the hall, instincts screaming -- caught, seen, not good, get away! – but the boy-child was between him and the fountain. There was no choice, then. He darted down the hall, racing for the nearest window. There was a drain there, and it would carry him to safety, even if it meant a few hours in the dungeons. Anywhere was better than here, now.

Obderedria shivered from the effect of the -- whatever it was -- rubbing against her ankles. She looked down in confusion only when Erik, Dahlia's troublesome Gryffindor brother, flopped at her feet. She shared a long look at the thing. Whether the sudden sickness was clouding her mind and plugging her years to Erik's exclamation or not, Obderedria tried to figure out what it was.

It was long. It was brown. It had come from the bathroom and it smelled of a toilet.

Squirming with horrified convulsion, she fell painlessly backwards onto her padded behind, checking her socks for smears. How much washing would she need to do? The sudden change of elevation did not improve the feelings of nausea. Obderedria almost gagged.

She held that in, but shrieked as the thing slithered away. A high pitched "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekk!!" that echoed throughout the halls going in either direction.

Erik felt the snake turn offensively and roll out from other him, but he didn't dare look at it-- It was Hogwarts, any student could have decided they wanted to be the next owner of a giant Basilisk--except he did. Boy was it big! And immediately the young Gryffindor covered his eyes and jumped up off the floor as he pointed in no particular direction and asked the Hufflepuff, "Whoa! Do you see that?!"

Of course when Drea screamed Erik let his hands fall away from the face and quickly looked around, first at Drea to see if she was okay (and alive), and then his his eyes darted around for the snake. Maybe closing one's eye wasn't the best way to get anything done when one was immediate danger, but to Erik it seemed like a good idea at the time.

With the boy's immediate adrenaline rush subsiding he was now curiously and calmly looking around the hall, "Hey...," he directed a gaze toward Drea again before asking, "Where'd it go?"

Obderedria shivered where she had fallen against the wall. She hadn't wanted to look but her glazed eyes kept watching it travel away.

"It -- up to the window--" she pointed down the hall, where the last flash of brown had crossed her vision. She stood up tenderly. She wished she could get something flat to settle her stomach.

"But why would you want to follow it? It smells."