Gerard beamed, pleased with himself, and followed Gabe down the staircase. So what if his Gryffindors had kicked him out of the Tower after the very useful and informative safe holiday sex talk he'd given? Gerard was totally rocking the shit out of this Secret Santa gig.
"So you like it?" he said, unable to resist asking even though he could tell from the look on Gabe's face that he was fucking thrilled. Gerard was clearly upholding his duties as an Auror, even if it did mean drinking in the middle of the day -- sad Gabe Saporta could have been depressing enough to bring down the entire castle. "I mean, it was sort of an impulse buy, like I said, but they're such cool fucking snakes, the whole ultra-camouflaged hunter thing. And giving them a long bath in the wine's supposed to give it a wicked kick, the crypsitoxin leaching out of the scales or whatever, but mostly I just bought it because I liked the look on Sassy's face."
He caught himself and winced. Gabe would probably want to name his own snake, but Gerard had had her in his trunks for years -- naming her had been sort of inevitable. He couldn't remember if it had started out as Sassafras or Sarsaparilla, but Sassy had just seemed to fit. She definitely looked like a snake with attitude, anyway.
"I mean, obviously you can call her whatever," he hastened to clarify. "I'm not even sure she's a girl, to be honest."