Please don't speak parseltongue


Yesterday I took my wee ones to the zoo after school.  We had gone the week before but it was Earth Day.  Earth Day at the zoo means that 500 school buses filled with half-supervised children flood the zoo ensuring  a two year old afraid of crowds wants to go home.  The three o’clock slot on a non-Earth day is much better.  We visited the reptile house.

The first reptile we saw was a Komodo Dragon.  For those of you who haven’t seen a Komodo Dragon, it is a dinosaur.   There were two of them.  They are huge.


Most of the exhibits were venomous snakes.  I don’t love snakes, but I don’t hate them either.  I was interested in the black and yellow striped ones, and the green mamba, black mamba wrapping themselves up on their own bodies like playdough.  There was a cute little turtle swimming around with a long neck and webbed front and back feet. And then we saw the Python. 

Enter Harry Potter flashbacks.  I looked at the huge snake half way emerged from his cavernous hole, yet long enough to easily fit my two year old inside of him.  I looked down at my cute little girls, and baby boy in the stroller and had a thought.  Now, I know that Harry Potter isn't real.  I am an educated, grounded, powerful woman with a pretty good grasp of reality.  I know that there isn't a Hogwarts.  But…I couldn't stop the thought that maybe one of my children was a wizard.  If they were wizards and got angry, they could make the glass disappear and release that huge Python into the reptile house and he would be hungry for four month old baby boys.

 I am happy to announce that none of my children have shown magical abilities.  It would be unlikely, as they are muggle born.  But, my husband does resemble a hot Harry Potter.


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