Harry Potter: The Musical

Chapter 3

***

Down, down, down they went, a giant tentacle wrapped tightly round each of their mouths. Harry was fast running out of breath, and he could see clearly from the looks Ron and Hermione were giving him that they too were about to drown/ suffocate. Ron looked positively terrified and his red mass of hair was floating around his head like a weirdly shaped halo, while Hermione, looking bewildered was fumbling desperately in her robe pockets, Harry assumed for her wand, though he couldn't imagine why. Harry himself was also rather frightened, but even under the circumstances, he could only imagine the ill effects this unpurified water would have on his complexion.

Ron began to look particularly green, and Harry, being the bravest of the three, put on his brave face and gave them both a wink and an encouraging thumbs-up.

Suddenly, the split second Hermione had been waiting for happened; the Giant Squid was quickly re-adjusting his tentacle over her mouth, and in that instant, Hermione seized the opportunity to call out a tricky spell (though it came out in bubbles), and three jets of light flew from her wand, hitting herself, Harry and Ron right in the face.

Harry felt a cold feeling closing over his head, and he felt like his head was going to burst, it was swelling and suddenly.. he could breathe!!

"Nice one, Hermione," he mouthed at her, smiling the same smile that had won him the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award for the first time. The Giant Squid still hadn't released them, though he had shifted his tentacle position from their mouths to their waists rather coincidentally.

Suddenly Harry realised, with a jolt, that the Giant Squid was singing. He cupped his hand behind his ears eagerly trying to make out the song of the Giant Squid, and hoping to get a clue on what the Giant Squid was about to do with them.

"I have captured three meals," it sang, in a low rumbling voice that echoed throughout the entire lake.

"Delicious, they feels,

I will eat them for tea,

on the floor of the sea,

A nice yummy snack,

their bones will go crack,

They is better than cake,

that is dropped in the lake,

Even better than.. ice cream,

No on will hear them scream!! Muahahahahahahah.. Muahahahahahah.. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!..."

It continued to cackle evilly, getting louder and louder, and increasingly louder for the next 23 seconds (according to Harry's watch), the whole lake seemed to be rumbling and vibrating, but then it stopped so suddenly and abruptly, that Harry thought he might have imagined the whole thing.

"What was that all about?" Harry mimed at Ron, and Ron mimed something back that Harry thought looked suspiciously like, "He sounds like a sleazy rapist!" Harry nodded at Ron fervently in agreement, and Ron looked at him in surprise. Harry had obviously misread Ron's lips, so he grinned and winked back at Ron to win back his confidence. Ron grinned back, immediately reassured. Hermione however, was not impressed. She crossed her arms and scowled at them from below where she was positioned in the Giant Squid's tentacle. The boys looked guiltily over at her, clearly this was not the time for one to be grinning and winking at one another.

But as Harry opened his mouth to mime an apology, the Squid made an abrupt movement on the sea floor and began carrying them toward what looked like a large sea cave.

"Hi -ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go," the Giant Squid sang merrily in an opera-like voice. Ron raised his eyebrows.

***

They had now been imprisoned within the sea cave for three days.

Harry, sitting against the wall of the cave reflected on his time there and his experiences so far. It had been interesting, if nothing else. At first the Giant Squid had insisted on tying them all up with sea ropes made of slimy weed, and only letting them outside every half hour to go to the toilet. However, as time had passed, Harry began to wonder whether or not the Giant Squid really had any intentions of eating them. He also noticed, how the squid was making a move on Ron, constantly flirting with him, and batting its slimy eyelashes in his direction. But Ron, who had no experience with females whatsoever, didn't even notice. This put the squid into sulky fits, where it was inclined to disappear into its sleeping cave for prolonged periods of time, and all three of them could hear from where they sat tied up in their own cave.

On the second day of this however, Hermione had had enough.

"You know, either we tell that whiny squid to shut up, or--,"

"Or what Hermy?" Ron asked, "Are you gonna threaten to leave if she doesn't? I don't know about you, but I'm tied up with about a hundred sea weeds!"

At this moment though, there came a wailing from the sleeping cave...

"I gaave youu my muuusiiiiiic,

Maade your soouuulll take wiiiiiiing..."

("You call that music?" Harry muttered grimly)

"And noow, you have betrayed meee,

Deniiied me and repaayed me.." (It lapsed into silence)

"Hey!" Hermione shouted, fed up at last. "Hey you, you, Giant Squid!"

"What?" Came the sulky reply from the squids cave.

"If you're going to give us your music, do it properly will ya? It's 'Now you have repaid me, denied me and betrayed me', not the other way around!"

There was a short silence following Hermione's speech, in which Hermione wondered meekly whether she had angered the Giant Squid. She sighed unsurely, glancing at Ron.

"Herm!" Ron exclaimed angrily, "What'd you do that for?"

"Look, Ron," Hermione snapped, "If you're not going to get us out of here, then I might as well annoy her, and let us die quickly, without pain!"

"How would dying quicker be any less painful?" Ron said scornfully, "And what am I supposed to do exactly?" He fired at her, shifting his position in the sea ropes so that they tightened painfully around Hermione's neck. She squealed in fright. "RONALD WEAS--,"

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!!" Harry roared from in between them. "RON, CLEARLY THE GIANT SQUID HAS A CRUSH ON YOU, HERMIONE, STOP PISSING RON OFF, OR HE WON'T GET US OUT OF HERE!!"

A ringing silence followed this outburst, Ron looked dazed, Hermione, somewhat subdued.

"So she really likes me?" Ron asked Harry quietly.

Harry nodded slowly. "Indeed she does, Ron. Indeed she does."

***