The Tale of How the Giant Squid Got to Hogwarts

Chapter 1: Grounded

The sun shone brightly upon the fields as lunch approached. Sunny days like this were all Hogwarts' students craved for after a long week.

"Come on! Jump into the lake! The water is great today!" cried out the young red haired girl, beaming.

"Well, it was you who asked me... Don't complain later!" answered the tall, thin and somewhat odd-looking boy.

As he emerged from the depths, after a great somersault from the rock he was standing on, which by the way splashed water all over the girl's face, the boy was taking the hair off his face, so he could see his friend.

His icy blue eyes amazed her. He was quite handsome; even though the slightly crooked nose gave him that odd look everyone talked about.

"Albus! Why do you always do that? You know I don't like having water splashed all over me!" cried his friend, letting out a big laugh afterwards, as she started to throw water at him in revenge.

"If you don't like it Harriett then why do you get into the water in the first place?" asked Albus, once more taking the hair off his face.

"Well... I guess I like the feeling of being on the water. There are other ways of enjoying the lake, you know?"

As Harriett said that a great bell sounded through the school grounds, telling everyone it was time for lunch.

The Great Hall was full of laughter as the happy students retold their morning adventures to their friends who were engaged on their own adventures. They were now very close to the end of classes. "Four more weeks" Harriett Weasley said cheerfully to Albus and their friends "and we're off to travel!"

Harriet, Albus, Edward and Michael had been planning their vacation's excursion to India for nearly five months now. They had already decided where they would stay and which places they would visit.

"I want to see the Thaj Majal!" said Edward happily as Albus shook his head smiling. "It's Taj Mahal Edward... Taj Mahal... If we want to go there without being spotted as wizards we must at least learn the names of the places right."

Almost at the same time Albus stopped talking the whole room fell silent, as the Headmaster, Finneas Nigellus, stood up for a speech.

"Distinguished students of this most noble school. I would like to talk to you about some disciplinary problems that have just come to my attention." said the Headmaster, who wore an emerald green and jet-black robe, embroided with arcane silver runes, and a long and very straight black conical hat.

"It seems that some student still do not understand the importance of the prohibition of wizard-centaur interaction, since I was informed last night by our keeper of the grounds that a group of four students was seen heading towards the Dark Forest and talking to these beasts! This will not be tolerated! As a punishment I have decided that no student will be allowed to leave the castle for any reason, not even to return home before this incident is thoroughly resolved. Owls have already been sent to your homes explaining the nature of this disciplinary measure."

As soon as Nigellus finished this rather short speech the students of all four houses started talking loudly, which made the Headmaster get up again and say in a dry tone, "And no more conversation will be allowed during the meals."

Latter that day, at the Gryffindor's common room, Harriett spent almost two and a half hours staring at Albus with a look some people would classify as murderous.

"I just can't believe you did this Albus Dumbledore! Are you INSANE??? This has ruined not only our holidays but also everyone else's," she said in a whisper that could easily be confused with a teapot's whistle.

"If they find out it was you I'm sure you'll be the youngest prisoner ever to be locked in the dungeons of Azkaban! Breaking this record will certainly not be as satisfactory as all those others, I'm sure..." Edward added, bitterly, pointing to a group of small paintings, one of which portrayed Albus and the Headmaster, who was handing him an award for never before achieved marks on all his OWLS. This and all the other paintings' Dumbledores had curious looks on their faces, trying to get at least a bit of the conversation, especially to understand why the girl was pointing at them.

"Well Harriett... You know I don't believe in this 'Centaurs are mindless beasts' story that we are told in our Care of Magical Creatures classes. I had to see them for myself! And I must say that they may be a lot of things, but they are not mindless. If you could only see the spark they have on their eyes! They are very well versed in astrol..." Albus stopped speaking as a fellow Gryffindor entered the room. The lad was a fourth year, two years younger than Albus and his friends, and looked at them trying to understand the reason for the sudden silence in the boy's bedroom.

"Something wrong Albus?" asked the boy. "Angry because of the prohibition too, eh? Don't worry. No one here is going to tell the Headmaster. After all we are not Slytherins." the boy added with a laugh.

"Yes, you're right... We were complaining about the grounding..." said Edward, looking at Albus with his eyes squinted into slits, a subtle yet very effective way of expressing his current thoughts.

"But there is no need to be so angry... I'm sure all will be solved before the end of the term," said Albus in a comforting tone.

"If I can find a way to explain it, that is..." he thought as the fourth year left, looking happier after the school's best student ever reassured him.

It was now two weeks until the end of the term and Albus had yet to find a solution to the problem he had got himself into. He couldn't just walk into the Headmaster's office and blame himself or anyone else, for that matter. To make things even worse, his role as a headboy was now to find out who had done that and report to it Nigellus. He even had daily meetings him since the first Monday after the fateful speech!

It was during the break after his 'creation and use of magical devices' class that the idea dawned on him. He would have to make a magical device that looked like a centaur. Surely that would be a dreadful undertaking, even for a gifted student such as Albus Dumbledore, but the four of them could do it. The problem was: they only had two weeks left and couldn't leave the castle.

"So, you expect us to do this inside the castle, without being caught, in less than two weeks? And have you forgotten that you are the only one here that takes that loony class? You should ask your Ravenclaw friends for help..." said Harriett, her usually white face almost as red as her hair.

"She's right you know?" continued Edward "It can't be done. Besides, what do you expect to use as raw materials? Pumpkins?" he said, laughing along with Harriett and Michael.

"That is indeed a very good idea, Edward my friend!" replied Albus, a bright spark shining through his blue eyes. "We could ask the house elves on the kitchen for some pumpkins. I'm sure that you and Michael are more than qualified to make them steel hard. After all, you are the best transfiguration students of our class, aren't you?" he said with a grin. "Though we still have to solve one problem... We don't have a place to work."

"We? WE? You are completely crazy, you know that Albus Dumbledore?" said Harriett with a laugh. "And believe it or not, I'm as crazy as you, since I actually believe we can do it."

"I know one place..." said Michael, almost whispering. He didn't speak much and when he did, it was always with a whispery tone. Some said it was because of the incident involving some rogue Dementors that nearly killed him and his parents a couple of years before he went to Hogwarts.

"Then tell us about it!" said Harriett, shaking Michael's shoulders as if trying to bring him out of a dream, since the boy was staring at the wall instead of talking about the place he knew.

"Well, one time I was really distracted..." he started, again in the whispery tone, "walking on a corridor on the... I think it was the fourth, no fifth... or was it the..."

"Get to the point!" said Edward, who was getting impatient.

"Fine. It was definitely the eighth floor. I was walking past a statue when I saw a door I had never seen before. That's not unusual, since I don't pay too much attention to details," Michael continued. "I entered the room to see what was in it and to my surprise I found every book I had ever lost inside that place."

"It was almost as big as the library, for sure," said Harriett, holding a laugh. "But what's so special then? Anyone can find us there..."

"Not quite," Michael replied, with an expression of victory on his face. "You see, no one else ever saw that door. For instance, did you know about the place Mr. Albus "Hogwarts: a History" Dumbledore?" he added.

"No I didn't Michael. Which is very interesting... I guess they will have to print a new edition then. That is, after we finish building our clockwork centaur," Albus replied.

On the days that followed the four friends would go to the secret room Michael had told them about at every spare time they had. To their surprise they found the room full of tinkering equipment or, as Albus said when he first saw the place, "A dragon hoard's worth of excitement". They worked hard, even spending their Saturday and Sunday nights awake. It had to be ready before the end of the term, of their trip to India would be lost.