Author's Note: Ficlet written for the LiveJournal hp100 challenge. August 10's subject: use any of the twenty-seven sentences supplied. I give you:

26) This upcoming school year at Hogwarts includes an encounter with the Giant Squid.

Just the Beginning

By Trisana McGraw

Dennis couldn't believe his luck. For two years Colin had enthralled him with stories about Hogwarts, how he'd made friends with Harry Potter and been Petrified in his first year, and how the murderer Sirius Black had been in the school itself. Upon arriving, Dennis hadn't known how he would achieve anything close to that sort of adventure.

Then he managed to make quite a splash, literally, when he fell into the water and was tossed back out by the Giant Squid. Then he got to wear Hagrid's huge, warm coat.

Not at all a bad start for the year.