The Giant Squid

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First Published on:11/09/21

Last edited: 11/09/21

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"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Lyra looked out of the window and saw that the train was really slowing down and said, "Shall we get off then?"

"You mean right now? The train hasn't stopped yet!" Ron exclaimed.

Lyra facepalmed and glared at Ron for a bit, "Of course not right now! We must have reached our destination already and the train will stop in a bit of time, so it's better if we get out of our compartments, don't you think?"

"Uh... Yeah"

And the three of them got off once the train stopped. The people rushed and in the crowd, Lyra lost sight of both Harry and Ron. She couldn't see Susan and the others either. As she shivered in the cold, she suddenly felt her vision get blurry, her legs weaken and she couldn't hear anything. She stumbled a bit but she stabilised herself by leaning on the train a little.

Lyra took in a few deep breaths and felt her strength return. She looked around and saw that Hagrid led the first years somewhere and followed them.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

Lyra froze at the magnificent sight. Only when she heard Hagrid say that there shouldn't be more than four in a boat did she recover from her stupor.

She looked for Harry's boat but he was near Hagrid's and smiled apologetically at her as there were already four people in it. Susan and the others were also in a boat.

Everyone had already gotten on the boats and only the last boat wasn't full. She looked at the last boat which was already occupied by two boys and sighed, "Can I ?"

The two boys nodded and Lyra got on. She noticed that the boy who looked shy was dressed very meticulously and the other boy dressed casually. The casually dressed boy gave off the impression that the muggle-borns usually gave off. Like they are very new to this magical world. But Lyra didn't think so. Somehow when she looked at his eyes, it gave her a sense of pressure. She had this kind of feeling only when she saw the ministry's Aurors.

But why would a boy of her age be trained? And they shouldn't use magic before the age of 11 right?

Just as she was pondering, she heard Hagrid shout "Everyone in? Right then — FORWARD!" and the fleet of boats started moving forward all at once.

Lyra stared at the great castle far ahead, still a little amazed as she heard a voice.

"Hello, I'm Zale Osmond. What are your names?" The casually dressed boy asked after introducing himself.

"I- I'm Arche Nyx," the shy-looking boy said in a strong Greek accent.

Lyra was a little shocked at his surname but recovered soon after and introduced herself with a smile, "Lyra Bones. Nice to meet you two."

The three were silent after the introduction and when they were halfway across the lake, somehow Lyra had a bad feeling. Her instincts told her that something was about to happen. She vigilantly looked around but couldn't see anything clearly in the dark.

She noticed that Zale also looked alarmed.

Arche Nyx also noticed their tension and asked, "What's wrong you two?"

When the two were about to answer, something from underneath the lake bumped into their boat and the boat shook. Lyra held onto the rim of the boat tightly but the thing bumped into their boat again and the three of them fell into the water.

The water felt so cold that Lyra thought she'd become an ice sculpture in a little while. Fortunately, Lyra held onto the boat.

"Lyra! Here!" Zale had already gotten onto the boat somehow and he stretched out a hand towards her. She held onto his hand and climbed back onto the boat. She shivered as the chilly wind hit her drenched body.

"Are you alright?" Zale inquired but Lyra didn't answer him as she tightened her coat even though it was completely drenched. Zale took out his wand and cast a spell on both of them, and Lyra felt all the dampness go away.

Lyra finally remembered that Nyx wasn't with them.

"Where's Nyx?" Lyra asked as she looked around in the water. Earlier, when they fell, Nyx wasn't being careful and fell a little further than the two of them.

But as it was dark, she couldn't see any farther than half a metre.

As Zale was about to answer, they noticed Hagrid approaching them in his boat, "Are ya'll 'lright?"

Hagrid had stopped all the boats and approached them hearing the huge commotion caused by them falling. Lyra saw that everyone was looking at them when Zale reported to Hagrid, "We are fine but Nyx is missing"

"Missing?" Hagrid asked and as he was about to search for the boy, all of them heard a yell, "Help!"

It was Nyx's voice. When they looked clearly, he was about to be strangled by one of the Giant Squid's tentacles!

"What's happening?" Lyra was completely shocked. She had heard from her mother that the Giant squid had never attacked anybody. Why was it attacking Nyx now?

Maybe it purposefully bumped into their boat earlier? But, why?

At that time Hagrid was ready to send out a distress signal, but fortunately, the Giant Squid let go of him at the last minute and went deep inside the lake. Hagrid lifted Nyx up and helped him onto the boat again.

"Thank Merlin, nothin' 'appened to you Nyx. Be careful ya'll". 'ave to report this to Professor Dumbledore" Hagrid said and signalled for the boats to start moving towards the castle again.

At this time no one talked and Nyx was shivering from both cold and the shock.

Lyra turned towards Zale to ask him to cast the spell again on Nyx. But as if he already anticipated what she was about to ask, he looked at her and said, "No." Before she could ask why they had already reached the shore.

As she stepped onto the ground a few people rushed towards her. It was her friends along with Harry and Ron.

"What happened? I heard that someone fell off the boat? You are alright, right?"

They all inquired, but fortunately, no one seemed to know that she too had fallen into the lake as she was dry, thanks to Zale's help. And since it was dark, none other than Hagrid, Zale and herself saw the Giant Squid. They heard only Nyx's cry for help.

"I'm fine, really. I don't know how it happened too... He just fell" She decided to play it dumb so as not to raise their curiosity towards the Giant Squid.

After confirming her well being, the lot of them followed Hagrid as he led all the first years.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once and Lyra saw a tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes standing there. She must be Professor McGonagall, from what she'd heard from her mum.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here," said McGonagall as she pulled the door wide.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, on Ron's smudged nose and then finally on the drenched Nyx.

Lyra saw that many of them looked nervous, except for a few of them like Carina, Zale and a few others whose names she couldn't remember.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall.

"Please wait quietly." And she left the chamber.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry asked.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

Lyra shook her head at Ron's brother's nonsense, but she too was curious as to how they'd be sorted. It was kept as a secret by all the parents after all.

She was shaken out of her pondering when a few of them screamed. Only then she saw that a few ghosts had appeared in front of them and seemingly not aware of the firs years' presence they chatted among themselves.

"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."

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A/N: So what do you all think about this chapter? I was away for around 2 months, I suppose, forgive me for that. But anyway, why do you think the Giant Squid did that? And Zale seems suspicious too... Doesn't he? Share your thoughts through your comments!

And thank you so much for the 34k views guys!