Two new companions III

Where we left of…

"No, unfortunately I have no idea what it is, I just found it in… I mean on the streets and I just took it with me, after all it would be a waste for something as interesting as that to just lie around, I mean it could be anything, who knows? I would give it to you for only 13 galleons, are you interested?"

Even though the worth of the magical currency had fallen tremendously in magical Britain after opening up to the world, this amount was still not negligible in the slightest, at least not for the average child roaming through Diagon Alley to get their school supplies.

Now the only question was if he was actually unaware of the contents of the cage which probably meant he had stolen it from somewhere, or if he was just another scammer who had brought his business to London.

‚If it's the first option it might actually be what I think it is but I would have to get out of him where he got it from or this could pose a problem later on, on the other hand if it's the second option… well, let's just try this out…'

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Pulling something out of one of his enchanted pockets Julius answered the stall owner:

"As I said I am quite interested, but to say your explanation was suspicious would be an understatement", the stall owner was already preparing to play the part of the outraged citizen when he saw what Julius just pulled out of his pocket, then his face suddenly turned white, „so I would like to know where this cage really came from and I think you know what happens if I find out you lied to me. Do we understand each other?"

Already nodding frantically before Julius even finished talking the stall owner immediately told him everything; apparently he was a smuggler for a while and only a few weeks ago he had been in Africa to get a few ingredients for rituals commonly seen as dark when his partner got shot, judging from his explanations they apparently accidentally entered South Sudan and had not used notice-me-not charms or similar ones and, what a surprise, they got ambushed and his partner was shot.

But as his partner was the one carrying the expanded bag they used for smuggling the other smuggler, now stall owner, took the bag before disapparating and leaving his partner to die.

And when he looked into the bag to make sure everything was there and his partner hadn't taken anything and put it somewhere else he saw a great amount of random things, some obviously personal possessions of his partner and some things he was obviously hiding and smuggling by himself.

Apparently the cage and many of the other things displayed here were from this bag, as the stall owner decided to sell all of the legal things in Diagon Alley and then try to sell the illegal things to their original customers, as he obviously didn't know for whom the other things were intended for.

After the stall owner gave him the cage „as a gift" he took it and decided to leave Diagon Alley for now.

Disappointingly though, no movement was seen from the cage when he took it which made him think that maybe it actually was planned as a scam.

After all crystal vipers were known for not liking being held in captivity.

And not „that's not nice" not liking being in captivity, more like „I'll bite you fucking bastard and when you scream for help while my venom kills you I will eat the fingers you used to hold me in captivity" not liking being in captivity.

But one of the most outstanding features of the crystal vipers, besides their deadly venom and near invisibility, was their intelligence.

If you saved them from captivity and set them free they would usually follow you around and you would have the best friend imaginably, and due to their lifespan they would not die before you like a dog sadly would sooner or later.

'Well maybe they just understood I'm saving them and that's the reason they're this quiet, or maybe they're just waiting for a chance to escape.'

When Julius arrived back at the manor he went out into the garden and sat down in a pavillon with the cage on a table.

Now the first thing to do would be to make the snake visible.

Julius had learned a spell for that from his grimoire but he would rather not try using it with his wand the first time he actually used it on a living creature so he had to use the grimoire despite his desire right now to use his wand for everything he could.

"Hmm what was the spell again? Ah, here; visibilem!"

As soon as Julius finished casting the spell, a light blue outline appeared inside the cage, forming the shape of a small snake, maybe around 30 cm long but it was hard to tell while it was curled up as it was.

'Great! That means it actually was a crystal viper, but why was it not moving all the time? Maybe it's sick?'

Then it suddenly dawned on him; the smuggler from Diagon Alley didn't know what was inside the cage so he obviously didn't feed it!

And judging from the size of the snake it was still only a few months old, meaning it was not yet able to live from just the magic it was able to absorb from the air.

So Julius called for his house elf:"Theo!"

"Yes Master?"

Theo answered as soon as he was called and, as far as Julius was able to infer from the face of his house elf, he was quite happy for his master to finally rely on him more.

"Do you know if we have any meat from magical creatures in the mansion?"

"Yes, Theo knows! When you left today George told Theo to prepare for different kinds of possible pets and Theo got a bit of the meat of a murtlap in case you got an owl or cat. It's meat shouldn't have to much of it's curse mitigating effect left but it should still be quite the dillicious and nutritious meat!"

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The next chapter might be a bit shorter as I plan to go over Julius' process of becoming an animagus and becoming "friends" with his "third companion".