Author's Note This stems from a conversation with a friend where she noted that most people just like writing odd fic. The pairing she cited as an example was "Giant Squid/Tonks!" and the idea's been nagging at me ever since. I just wanted to poke fun at emo Harry… I'm really crazy, guys.
Warnings: None, really. Very clean, just odd.
Disclaimers: I don't own anything: not Harry, nor Hogwarts, nor the noble species architeuthis dux.

Sudden Squid

Harry flung himself out of the castle and pounded down the front steps, his robes trailing out behind him. Tears blurred his vision, and he whipped off his glasses to wipe them away. He was headed in the direction of the forest, but he didn't really know where he was going.

Just... away.

It was the third night that week he'd run out of dinner. Before, he'd simply dashed to his four-poster bed and sobbed until the others had returned, and he'd composed himself and made his excuses, though the other Gryffindors never believed him.

But tonight, he really did need to be alone.

Sirius' loss was simply too much. At the Dursleys' over the summer, it had been easy enough to push the troubles of the wizarding world from his Muggle existence, but at Hogwarts the memories rushed back with overwhelming force. Ron had been as much help as he could, but Ron's total experience with death reached as far as the passing of a couple of minor uncles and the "death" of Scabbers in their third year. He had never lost anyone nearly as important to him as Sirius was to Harry, and for all his trying, he simply couldn't relate. Harry knew better than to try and consult Hermione, who would pull out a book on grieving and tell him that what he was feeling was normal. Sitting across from his two friends night after night, with their concerned but unhelpful expessions, was unbearable.

Harry reached the lake shore without having intended to end up there at all, and flopped down on the soft lake sand. He dug his fingers into the beach, watching as the setting September sun cast its glorious colours out over the lake's surface, illuminating the Forbidden Forest, reflecting off the windows tucked into the castle's high walls.

Sirius would have loved this, thought Harry dimly as a fresh wave of grief burst forth.

A tentacle broke the calm surface of the lake, mere feet from the shore, and began inching its way through the water toward Harry. At first he was too absorbed in wallowing to notice it, then too miserable to be surprised. The tentacle snaked up the sand to Harry, who watched it inanimately as it rose to gently stroke his forearm. An eye popped up in the water some way off, and Harry met its gaze placidly. Though the squid could not audibly communicate, the look it gave him now spoke volumes. The squid, too, had lost someone once: a Mama-squid perhaps. It wanted to help Harry deal with his grief as well. The only person at Hogwarts who could sympathize with his sadness was not a person at all.

Harry reached out and hugged the tentacle as it wrapped itself gently around him. He buried his face into the soft, silky, moist skin as another tentacle reached up the shore to cradle him.

As the sun set over Hogwarts, its last rays flashed over a strange scene on the lake shore, as boy and squid shared each other's sorrow.

Fin.

Special Update! My friend Lily, a talented artist, has once again kindly obliged to illustrate. Her interpretation may be found over at but FF.N refuses to link it, so just add "/view/18538070/" after the deviantart URL to see it! Hope it works!