Magical Menagerie

• Type: Shop
• Location: North Side, Diagon Alley, London, England
• Owner/Residents: An unnamed witch
• Key Features: Cramped, noisy, and smelly interior; walls lined with cages containing various magical creatures

The Magical Menagerie is a wizarding shop located on the North Side of Diagon Alley. The interior of the shop is described as cramped, loud, and odorous, with every available inch of wall space covered by cages. These cages house a wide variety of magical and mundane creatures available for purchase by witches and wizards. The shop is managed by a witch who wears heavy black spectacles. She is shown to be knowledgeable about the animals in her care, offering advice to customers on their health and temperament. For example, she noted that Ron Weasley's rat, Scabbers, had been looking “peaky” for some time and offered him some Rat Tonic. She also correctly identified Crookshanks as a particularly intelligent cat who had been in the shop for a very long time because no one would buy him.

The Magical Menagerie is first visited by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger during their initial trip to Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Harry observes many of the creatures but does not make a purchase. The shop plays a far more significant role in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. When the trio visits, Ron seeks a tonic for his ailing pet rat, Scabbers. While Ron is at the counter, a large, ginger cat named Crookshanks leaps from a high shelf and attacks Scabbers. Despite Ron's protests, Hermione Granger is charmed by the cat and decides to purchase him. This event marks the beginning of the long-running feud between Crookshanks and Scabbers. It is later revealed that Crookshanks, being part-Kneazle, immediately recognized Scabbers as an impostor—not a true rat, but Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form. The purchase of Crookshanks from the Magical Menagerie is therefore a crucial event, as the cat's subsequent actions are instrumental in exposing Pettigrew and revealing the truth about Sirius Black's innocence.

The shop appears to be a single, crowded room filled with cages. Creatures observed for sale within the Magical Menagerie include:

• Enormous purple toads.
• A Giant Tortoise with a jewel-encrusted shell, which may have been a Fire Crab.
• Cages of bats.
• Sleek black rats that used their long, bald tails as skipping ropes.
• A fat white rabbit that could transform into a silk top hat and back again.
• Cats of every colour, including Crookshanks.
• Poisonous-looking black beetles.

• J.K. Rowling later confirmed that the shopkeeper was correct in her assessment of Crookshanks's intelligence and that he is, in fact, a Kneazle-cross, which explains his ability to see through Peter Pettigrew's Animagus disguise (J.K. Rowling Website).
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Magical Menagerie is depicted as a multi-levelled, chaotic shop where animals, including monkeys and various birds, roam more freely than the caged descriptions in the novel suggest (film).