Professor Harry Potter had the one of the greatest menageries in the Wizarding World. Well, a large collection of snakes, anyway. But what a collection of snakes it was! Every snake known to wizardkind was in there. If possible, both a male and a female.

Most wizards would have balked at keeping such dangerous and venomous snakes. Even other herpetologists advised Harry not to pick them up without dragonhide gloves and to drop the food in the tank, not to place it in carefully.

Harry never used dragonhide gloves to pick up his snakes and never dropped the food in. He always put the food exactly where the snake in question liked it.

Mind you, Harry's snakes never attacked him. His snakes adored him, and if a visitor were to drop by to see his collection or to ask him a question, they would hear contented hissing and probably see Harry holding one of the snakes and hissing.

Most of Harry's students disliked entering the enormous building devoted to his snakes. Even though they were all herpetology students, they were afraid of the myriad of snakes Harry kept. Harry had little patience for their ophidiophobia and often made them go to the snake house for conferences and questions.

Harry's husband was quite used to that menagerie. While he was slightly anxious about entering the snake house without Harry (even though Harry promised him the snakes would not attack), Severus had absolutely nothing against the snakes. He could always use snake venom and scales in his potions. He was not dumb enough to collect them himself, of course. Harry did that, with the snakes' permission.

Severus knocked on the door. "Harry?" he called.

"Severus!" Harry answered happily. "Marcus just permitted me to remove a gorgeous ecdysis."

Severus rolled his eyes. As a herpetologist, Harry always used the more precise terms for snakes and their various parts.

"Couldn't you just say that he let you remove his shed skin?" Severus complained.

"Why? You never call your potions by the common name. That's your passion. Snakes are mine. I'll call the shed skin ecdysis. By the way, Ophelia's been leaving scutes around, if you're interested."

"Scales, and yes," Severus muttered.

"Very specific scales, Severus, you should know that. Would you like the ecdysis Marcus shed?"

"Yes, I need something like that for one of my experimental potions. Thank him for me, please."

Harry hissed something to the cobra, who hissed back. "He says you're welcome, and he'd be happy to let you have any he sheds when he does, provided you put it to good use. Why were you looking for me?"

"Your menagerie of friends has arrived," Severus answered. It was that menagerie Severus disliked more.

"They're not a menagerie," Harry contested. "They're just all different!"

"Call them what you will. Lupin and your dogfather are here too."

Harry hissed a goodbye to his snakes and left to deal with his friends. As Severus had always known, Professor Potter had two menageries.

Menagerie – noun1. A collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition. 2. An enclosure where wild or unusual animals are kept or exhibited. 3. A diverse or varied group.