The Giant Squid spread his tentacles wide, feeling pleased seeing all the fish and mermen flee before him, afraid that they'll be caught and turned into his midday snack. He was deep into the Black Lake, passing his time frightening the pitiful sea folk, having nothing better to do.

He was just turning around, wading through the dense network of waterweed, when he felt something tickle the top of his elongated head. Slow-minded as he was, he payed it no mind. He passed through the waterweed, and felt the 'thing' roll of his head and drop to the ground in front of his eyes. His bulbous pupils slid to look at it, and he just saw the corners of a object he had not seen before, which looked like a dark-square-open-thing with a circle-bright-hole-stone-thing in the center.

He was stressing his mind too much. Looking up from it, he began to swim towards the surface, hardly noticing one of his tentacles brushing the circle-bright-stone-thing in the process.

He couldn't swim to the surface any more.

In front of his eyes flashed the image of a supposedly beautiful young girl, the ends of her intelligent eyelashes curved upwards, her long white hair flowing down her back, her smile piercing the ends of the earth, as it seemed to him. She was laughing, and his heart rose. Then she was crying, and he felt like rushing to her side to comfort her. He just couldn't stop thinking about her, whoever she was. Perhaps she was a student, at the strange house near the water?

He kicked for the surface as fast as his eight tentacles would allow him.

He had to have her, or he wouldn't survive.

Hestia was still crouched near the banks of the lake, after hastily telling Lily and Alice to leave, not knowing whether to be sad, or angry. It was some time after she had chucked the ring into the water, and she couldn't bother with wondering what had happened to it. Who cared? She hated it. Never wanted to see it again. It was the thing that had possibly made her so angry.

But she was angry at Sirius too. He should have listened to her. The fact that he would choosed-she shuddered to say it- Phillipa over her, was so depressing that she couldn't move her legs even if she tried.

The crying had stopped a while ago. It looked at her tears had simply run out for her to weep any more. She stared out into the lake, wondering how the Potions class was going, having nothing better to think about. She planned to miss most of her classes that day, knowing that it was an extremely cowardly thing to do, but she just couldn't imagine her going. Her mind was too messed up.

She slowly regained feeling in her legs. Was that a good sign? Twitching one of her toes, she crawled towards the edge of the water, going far enough as to allow her hands to sink under. She stood up on wobbly legs, feeling the water wash over her feet as a chill ran down her spine. Walking further into the lake, she realized that this was what she needed- a distraction. A small smile played around the corners of her lips as she remembered about all the fun she used to have out at the beach in front of her house. It was like she liked being in the sea more than on land, though it was the first time she had ever stepped into the lake since she came to Hogwarts.

Without thinking twice, she walked further into it, wincing as sharp stones pinched the bottom of her feet, though not minding in the least. This was where she was meant to be; in the water.

Sirius stared at Hestia as she waded out into the lake. The others had gone for Potions, and he had insisted that he stay behind. He was hiding, obviously, behind a tree, so she wouldn't see him, and he was silently cursing himself for the good part of half an hour.

He knew now, that he should have listened to her. He shouldn't have chosen Phillipa.

And why, in heavens name, did he choose Phillipa? Maybe Hestia was right, maybe he did like her.

But he didn't! He loved Hestia, not Phillipa! And he shouldn't have walked away. That was a very stupid thing to do. She had a right to be jealous, of course! Now that he thought of it, he had been acting a bit weird around Phillipa, and he shouldn't have been. If Hestia didn't want him to talk to her ever again, then he should have said that he wouldn't.

Ah, what have I done? he thought with a sigh. He had done the wrong thing. Maybe I should go talk to her...

Maybe he should.

Hestia was shoulder- deep in the water now. Her soaking robes felt much heavier, but what the heck? Robes were the least of her worries.

Right now, all she wanted was freedom.

That's when the absolutely giant head of the Giant Squid came up barely from three feet in front of her face. Its humongous eyes had an unnaturally wild look in them, and its tentacles waved around her like they planned to wrap around her neck.

She was silent only for a moment before she screamed.

"EEEEK!" the sound was shrill and pierced the calm atmosphere as she turned around and tried to run towards shore, but her waterlogged clothes held her back. She was barely going a mile an hour. She didn't even look back at the squid, afraid of the sheer image of its crazy face, and, noticing the heaviness of her robes, realized what she had to do.

No one was around, right?

As fast as she could, she slid the cloak off her shoulders, moving forward as she went along, half worrying what would happen should she never find her clothes in the water again. Ducking her head underneath the surface, she slid her shoes off and, knowing that she didn't have time to disrobe any further, began to swim forwards, air bubbled erupting through her mouth as one of the squid's tentacles closed around her arm.

She couldn't breath.

Water flowed into her lungs and she couldn't help it. She couldn't move her arm either, seeing as the width of the squid's tentacles was wider than the length of her arm and was not allowing movement at all.

Her heart sank. Her wand was in her cloak. Her cloak had most probably drifted into the lake.

She almost laughed at the possibility of her death being caused by the Giant Squid, of all people.

Then she passed out.

Sirius heard the scream as he whipped around, his first sight being of the Giant Squid, which was standing just a few feet away from Hestia. Try as he might, he couldn't move. He saw her remove her cloak and then dive underneath the water, never to come up for at least quite a bit of time, and that was when he regained his senses and darted towards the water as fast as he could.

"Twat!" he called, wondering whether he had actually ever called her 'Hestia' before, drawing his wand just as the tips of his toes touched the water.

The Giant Squid pulled her above the surface, lifting her so high that her feet dangled more than a foot above, and felt his heart sink as he looked at her face. She wasn't the one he wanted. He let her fall and felt droplets splatter in his face as she sank beneath the water, planning to move ahead just as something hot stung his face and he blacked out almost immediately.

Sirius replaced his wand back in his pocket as he swam out towards the squid, feeling pleased that he had managed to hit it, and groped around in the water for Hestia. He was ashamed to admit that he had never opened his eyes underwater before, it hurt too much. In fact, he never went into the water if he could help it.

His arm closed around something soft, and he pulled. It was Hestia's upper arm, and he yanked hard, dread filling his being as her white face emerged from over the surface.

"Twat!" he gulped. "Come on!" Okay, now I'm just being stupid, he groaned inwardly as he pulled her towards shore instead, realizing it to be the most logical thing to do. Placing her on solid ground, his calmness vanished and the panic returned in full force.

"What am I supposed to do?" he wondered as a tear rolled down his cheek, disappearing in the water that already covered it. He had never done this before. He wasn't a Healer. He wasn't a God who always knew what to do, like Moony. Or even Lily-Flower.

He was just Padfoot, always cheery, always the optimistic one, the naive one, the one who was most oblivious to bad things going on around him, the one who could never keep a cool head when he needed to.

Yet he had to do something.

He felt like crying, but before he could, he ran his hands over his face as if it would calm him down. Taking deep breaths, he thought back to what his father would do if Regulus somehow almost drowned himself in the shower. Did Regulus ever almost drown himself in the shower? Never, and he knew it.

He looked down at her unmoving face and felt his heart rate speed up again. It had been far too long. She could be dead.

No! She isn't. he forced himself to think as he crawled a bit closer to her. She's not going to die. Think logical, Padfoot... she's just fainted. Why would she faint? Um... water in her lungs or something?

A light bulb clicked on in his head. He had to get the water out. He put his hands on her chest and began pushing as hard as he could, hoping that the water would come out.

He was doing something wrong. Nothing happened.

That was when he started crying. And he couldn't stop.

And no matter how much he wanted not to believe it, it was the truth. She was dead.

He pulled his elbows into his wet cloak as he sobbed, his hand touching something bumpy. Almost instantly, he stopped crying. Fast as lightning, he pulled his wand out of his pocket, wondering how on earth he could have been so stupid so as to forget about it.

He didn't need to speak as he pointed it at her throat, bracing himself as the water slowly floated out, splattering on the ground next to her head.

After a second she coughed.

And he laughed.

"Come on, Twat, off to the Hospital Wing we go," he couldn't stop smiling as he slid one arm under her knees and the other around her neck, lifting her up and, literally bouncing with glee, made his way to the front of the castle.

Hestia, with great difficulty, lifted an eyelid and just saw a blurry shape in front of her. Turned out that whatever it was, it was carrying her but she didn't want to find out who it was. She closed her eye and tried not to pass out again as she nestled her head into something soft, and somehow fell asleep despite the circumstances.

When she woke up, she was in the Hospital Wing, with Lily's and Alice's faces looming over her.

"Hey, Hest!" smiled Lily.

"God, what time is it?" was the first thing Hestia asked, a groan issuing from her mouth.

"Around six in the morning, but that's not the point," Alice groaned. Hestia closed her eyes.

"What is the point, then?" she asked.

"You know, in a way, Hest, almost getting drowned by a squid was probably the best thing that's ever happened to you," Lily was on the verge of whooping, as Hestia noticed.

"How so?"

"Well, once we-" Lily hesitated. Sirius told her not to tell Hestia that he was there. "Um... once we found out what happened, we suspected something weird was going on. You see, the Giant Squid has never really attacked a student before."

"And so..." continued Alice. "We cornered him, well... figuratively, and then we found out the he was under a spell. Or curse, it depends."

"A curse?" asked Hestia curiously.

"Yeah." nodded Lily. "Remember that ring you threw in the water?"

"Of course!"

"Turns out he touched it or did something with it, we have no idea... but the point is, there was a curse on the ring that sort made... the, um..." Lily couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing, joined shortly by Alice.

"What is it? Come on, tell me!" Hestia grew impatient.

"To be blunt, let's just say that the squid's now madly in love with Phillipa and he's not going to stop trying to get to her." Alice said. Hestia was silent only for a second before a sly grin crossed her face and her eyebrows creased in a frown.

"Oh, is she going to get it," she muttered under her breath.

Sirius summoned Hestia's cloak and wand from the water early that morning, wondering what Hestia would think if he dropped it off. Or maybe he should just send it with Lily? Wouldn't that be easier?

"That would make you a stinking coward, Padfoot," he told himself firmly, clenching the cloak tight in his fist and walking up the stairs to the fourth floor with adequate confidence. But with every next step, his heart sank even more, until he was right in front of the Hospital Wing with practically no stomach left. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and walked inside, opening his eyes only once he had walked a few steps.

She was near the end of the wing, staring at the opposite wall with a bored look and steadily tapping her finger on the mattress. His first reaction was of his cheeks growing hot as he tried to think of what would happen if he just dropped the stuff and ran out of the room. I mean, it was okay when she was unconscious, but now...?

Just as he was debating on running away, she turned her head towards the door and he thought, just great, now I have to...

"Your, um, stuff," he said weakly, waving her cloak around in he air.

"What?" she called, unable to hear him.

"I said, your stuff!" he said slightly louder, a bit embarrassed.

"Oh," she said. Was he just giving an excuse for trying to visit her, or was he just coming there to give her her cloak back, period? Somehow she hoped it was the first one.

"Right. So..." he walked up to her and handed her stuff over, wanting to say something but not knowing what to. He blushed and turned around finally, feeling abashed that being a Gryffindor he was so cowardly, when she said something.

"Um, J- Sirius," she said, blushing too. It felt weird calling him that when she hadn't, ever. "How did you know that this was in the water? I mean, do you know how I got out of there? You know what, scratch that, I actually don't want to know," she said hastily, cursing herself for going on one of her rants now, of all times.

"Oh, um... well, just so you know, I was walking and I saw something in the water so I summoned it and I got this, so..." he lied. Merlin, cloaks don't float, how dumb am I? he thought with a mental wince. "And I have no idea how you got out of there, sorry."

"Okay," she said. "I just thought..."

"Thought what?"

"Nothing."

He didn't move for a long while.

"Uh, Tw-" he began, and then stopped. She might not want me to call her that again. "Um..."

"It's okay, call me Twat, you do remember why we called each other that in the first place?"

"Right," he smiled a bit. "So, Twat, I just... wanted to..."

"Leave?" she asked. Of course he didn't want to leave, but whatever he wanted to say, she didn't want to hear.

"Yeah, that. Yeah. So..." he spluttered a bit. "Bye." and with that, he walked straight out of the room, Hestia's eyes following him all the way, wondering whether they would ever get back together again.

"Amos!"

Amos turned around and saw Phillipa walking towards him.

"Phillipa?" he asked.

"Turns out I don't need your help after all, " she winked, and then turned around and walked away.

"I guess that's a good thing," he shrugged, and began to stroll down the corridor again, just as James, Sirius, and Remus passed him from the other end.

"Ah!" Sirius hid behind James so fast that Remus almost tripped.

"What's wrong with you?" James tried to get out from in front of him, but Sirius held tightly on to his shoulders.

"There's Phillipa," he said quietly, just as she went down the stairs.

"Padfoot, don't be a baby," said Remus. "I mean, come on, it's bad enough you haven't even been to the Hospital Wing during the last eighteen hours, but you don't have to keep hiding every five seconds."

"Look, Twat somehow thinks that everything is Phillipa's fault, and I don't want to make things worse than they already are." Sirius gulped, finally standing up straight and letting go of James' shoulders. They didn't know that he had been to visit her, and he didn't want to tell them either, mostly because it had gone badly and they wouldn't help matters.

"Oh, I think I have something that might help," grinned Remus.

"Like what?" asked Sirius.

"Hmm..." thought Remus. "What if we somehow crashed into the inside of the Vanishing Closet, and then..."

"Ah, Moony, you wouldn't," groaned James.

"And you've lost your sense of adventure," Remus stuck his tongue out. "Come on, it'll be fun! We can see Florean, or steal something from Dervish... and I bet Sirius would like to beat the pulp out of Wormtail, we could find something that could make him wet his pants or make him embarrass himself in front of everybody. "

"Oh, yay!" Sirius said happily. "You just made my day better, Moony."

"No problem," Remus grinned.

"I don't that's a good idea," James bit his lip.

"Please, Prongs?" Sirius looked at him with puppy-dog eyes. "For me?"

"Okay, first off, I told you never to look at me like that again," James made a show of spitting on the floor. "And okay, it's actually been a while since we've done something like this. But... we're going to miss some of our classes..."

"Prongsie, you should really get away from Lily-Flower for at least a week, she's tampering with the fun side of your brain." Sirius grabbed his elbow and yanked him forwards. "Now we need to go find the Vanishing Closet, it might take ages."

"Fine," James said grumpily, allowing a grinning Sirius to steer him down the corridor, Remus at his heels. They climbed down the staircase and wandered around for a long time until they found the closet. A few minutes later, they were hightailing it out of Borgin and Burkes in their Muggle clothes, sprinting for their lives until they came to a halt in Diagon Alley, panting.

"That... was... awesome," breathed James.

"Finally,"said Sirius. "I've always wanted to go to Knockturn Alley,"

"Me too," said Remus.

"I already have," said James.

"When?" asked Sirius.

"Come on, don't tell me you don't remember," James rolled his eyes. "The time Lily took our Portkey and I had to go get her back?"

"Oh yeah," Remus smacked himself.

"It's almost lunchtime," Sirius grumbled. "Darn, I was really looking forward to it."

"So? We'll just go to Florean's and pig out," James shrugged. "But that comes later, I really want to see what new stuff Dervish has got delivered,"

"Make sure we get Wormtail a souvenir," Remus said as they walked down the alley.

"Oh, you have no idea," Sirius narrowed his eyes shrewdly. Peter was going to regret the day he abandoned his friends so badly, he would probably not be recovering full usage of his two legs for weeks. Maybe both arms as well, Sirius thought with a malicious grin.

By then maybe Twat will forgive me.

Okay, so I'm not going to be posting anything for a few weeks. It's like I have been writing NONSTOP for the past few months and I seriously need a break! So I'll try to get something up by the end of July, keep in touch. ;)