Home.

Home.

So this was it. This was what all the fuss was about. Lily gritted her teeth at the sharp, stabbing pain between her legs that came with every thrust. She watched James move up and down on top of her. His eyes shut tight beneath his glasses, small drops of sweat dripping from his black hair onto her body as he let out soft grunts.

She was a long way from home. Far away from those sunny afternoons spent at the seashore with her parents and Petunia. How the ocean had beckoned her, called and seduced her. She’d spend hours in the water while Petunia worked on her tan in an expensive bathing suit. At the end of the day, her father would have to pull her out of the sea. If she could have stayed in it for ever, she would have.

So here she wayingying in the dirt behind a shrubbery. A most unromantic location.

“Where else can we go?” James had urged. “We can’t do it in the dorms, we can’t do it in the castle. Come on, Lily! Please?” he had whined, like a little child.

With every motion James made, her back slid through the filthy substratum. Lily pulled her knees up and widened her legs in an attempt to get more comfortable. All in vain. James took it as an invitation to move in deeper and faster.

“Oh, yes, Lily, YES! You’re so good!” he cried out.

At least it would be over sooner, Lily hoped. James moved faster, and faster still until he finally moved no more. Lily felt something pulsate within her and James let out a sigh. She reached her hands over his back, trying to hold him close, but he pulled away most suddenly.

“Ah, thank you, Lily. That was really great of you,” he said. “Got to run. Peter needs my wit with a Transfiguration essay.”

James kissed her quickly on the forehead, then zipped up his pants and ran back towards the castle. Lily watched him go, then reached down and cringed, letting out a cry of pain. Did he even know? She lay there for a moment, angry and alone, wishing she could walk into the sea and swim. Just swim until she could swim no more.

She got up, a mixture of warm, runny liquid and colder, sticky substance dripped down her thighs. She looked down at the rust colored stains on her legs and whimpered. Slowly, she started walking back to the castle. Then she saw the lake.

A soft wailing sound came from the icy water, not unlike the call of the sea she’d so often heard. There it was again! Softly, but surely, it called her. Hesitating no longer, Lily stepped into the water and let out a gasp of relief. She let her toes wiggle around in the lake’s sand and moved in deeper. She didn’t stop until she was up to her breasts in the cold lake. It washed the dirt off her back, the stains and stickiness from her thighs and it soothed the pain in her fruit. Slowly she fell back, letting herself float in the water, closing her eyes for the first time that night. And there she floated for a while, washing away the sin she just committed.

Lily had no idea how long she’d been in the water when she first felt it. The faint wailing she’d heard became louder, seemingly comming closer to her. Then, slowly, but surely, her body was covered with the tactile suckers of the Giant squid’s arms. They moved up and down. It was as if she felt a thousand little kisses all at once, all over her. The squid wailed again, as if to say: “I’m so sorry for what happened. I’m lonely too.” Lily understood.

She let the arms move over her. She let the chemoreceptors in the cephalopod’s suckers taste her skin. She listened to the squid’s song as it rocked her slowly in it’s arms and finally, finally she felt at home again.