The Totally Boring Life of a Giant Squid
It was one of those days that seemed to simply drag on without purpose or progress. The sun was high in the sky, the tall grasses rippled in the light breeze, and Lyric sat with her back against the trunk of a large willow tree, gazing out at Hogwarts’ Great Lake.
She smiled to herself, taking comfort in the long lance-shaped leaves hanging around her on either side. In her lap she held an unopened letter from her parents, the first she had received that year.
To be entirely fair, it wasn’t very far into the school year, but Lyric couldn’t help but feel a little…oh, what was the word?
Well, never mind. She brushed off the feeling and broke the letter’s seal. It spilled out onto her lap, a single, crinkled piece of parchment.
Lyric immediately recognized her mother’s swirly handwriting, and a small smile lit up her face.
She breathed in deeply, and swore she could almost smell her mother’s perfume. Like dandelions and sunshine, if that could be a smell.
The letter was short and direct, and read as thus:
“Dear Lyric,
Your father and I have been very busy with you gone. Today Rupert dropped the fine china when he was supposed to be cleaning it for your father’s important dinner party (you know, the one where he’s just about to close a deal) and Freya came along and stepped it in. She got a shard in her foot, and was wailing for the next hour, so we had to take the dinner party outside, where the dog terrorized the guests and ate the food off the table. It was a disaster. We wish you would stop this nonsense and come back home.
Sincerely,
Your Loving Parents.”
Lyric sighed and ran a hand down her face. While it had been evident from the start that her parents were no fans of their daughter’s newfound place in the Wizarding World, she couldn’t help but wish they would at least pretend to be enthusiastic. Or even, just generally pleasant.
When Lyric had received her letter, it was blown off as a joke at first. Until they just kept arriving. Finally, someone came to explain everything to Lyric and her parents, but this only made them more disinclined to the idea of sending their middle daughter off to some magical school.
They had insisted that Lyric remain at home and care for her younger siblings until she was old enough to be shipped off to the same boarding school her older sister attended year-round.
Yet, even with Lyric’s limited knowledge of the Wizarding World, she knew enough to recognize a rotten deal when she saw one.
So, she had pushed back, and her parents had relented under the conditions that once she “saw how foolish it all was” she would return hastily, even more angelic and compliant with their desires than before.
There was just one, tiny flaw to their plan. Lyric saw nothing about Hogwarts as foolish. Actually, it was quite brilliant.
She had already learned a great deal, and though she was yet to make any friends, she didn’t see that as a primary concern.
It did bother her, being away from her siblings so long. The knowledge that she was missing out on the vital years of their childhood was a constant ache inside her chest, but one she endured with the hopes that whatever life she could obtain from the opportunities the Wizarding World supplied, she might use one day to help her family in more ways than one.
Lyric slid the parchment back into the envelope, then ran her fingers over the mark of the seal. She could see students strewn across the grounds like ants, moving alone or in packs, laughter drifting across the surface of the lake, sounds glancing off its glassy surface.
For a moment, Lyric allowed herself to wonder what it must be like to be the giant squid, dwelling under that surface. All its days spent confined to a single lake, where it was the only one of its kind…it must be awful lonely, Lyric decided.
…and BORING!
She smiled to herself, taking comfort in the long lance-shaped leaves hanging around her on either side. In her lap she held an unopened letter from her parents, the first she had received that year.
To be entirely fair, it wasn’t very far into the school year, but Lyric couldn’t help but feel a little…oh, what was the word?
Well, never mind. She brushed off the feeling and broke the letter’s seal. It spilled out onto her lap, a single, crinkled piece of parchment.
Lyric immediately recognized her mother’s swirly handwriting, and a small smile lit up her face.
She breathed in deeply, and swore she could almost smell her mother’s perfume. Like dandelions and sunshine, if that could be a smell.
The letter was short and direct, and read as thus:
“Dear Lyric,
Your father and I have been very busy with you gone. Today Rupert dropped the fine china when he was supposed to be cleaning it for your father’s important dinner party (you know, the one where he’s just about to close a deal) and Freya came along and stepped it in. She got a shard in her foot, and was wailing for the next hour, so we had to take the dinner party outside, where the dog terrorized the guests and ate the food off the table. It was a disaster. We wish you would stop this nonsense and come back home.
Sincerely,
Your Loving Parents.”
Lyric sighed and ran a hand down her face. While it had been evident from the start that her parents were no fans of their daughter’s newfound place in the Wizarding World, she couldn’t help but wish they would at least pretend to be enthusiastic. Or even, just generally pleasant.
When Lyric had received her letter, it was blown off as a joke at first. Until they just kept arriving. Finally, someone came to explain everything to Lyric and her parents, but this only made them more disinclined to the idea of sending their middle daughter off to some magical school.
They had insisted that Lyric remain at home and care for her younger siblings until she was old enough to be shipped off to the same boarding school her older sister attended year-round.
Yet, even with Lyric’s limited knowledge of the Wizarding World, she knew enough to recognize a rotten deal when she saw one.
So, she had pushed back, and her parents had relented under the conditions that once she “saw how foolish it all was” she would return hastily, even more angelic and compliant with their desires than before.
There was just one, tiny flaw to their plan. Lyric saw nothing about Hogwarts as foolish. Actually, it was quite brilliant.
She had already learned a great deal, and though she was yet to make any friends, she didn’t see that as a primary concern.
It did bother her, being away from her siblings so long. The knowledge that she was missing out on the vital years of their childhood was a constant ache inside her chest, but one she endured with the hopes that whatever life she could obtain from the opportunities the Wizarding World supplied, she might use one day to help her family in more ways than one.
Lyric slid the parchment back into the envelope, then ran her fingers over the mark of the seal. She could see students strewn across the grounds like ants, moving alone or in packs, laughter drifting across the surface of the lake, sounds glancing off its glassy surface.
For a moment, Lyric allowed herself to wonder what it must be like to be the giant squid, dwelling under that surface. All its days spent confined to a single lake, where it was the only one of its kind…it must be awful lonely, Lyric decided.
…and BORING!