Giant Squid

Giant Squid
Species information
Skin colour	Blood red or purple
Related to	Cuttlefish Octopus
Native to	Great Lake, Scotland
Mortality	Mortal
Distinction	Enormous with lots of tentacles
Affiliation	Black Lake
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast
Status	Extant

"The bane of ancient mariners and students at Hogwarts - should the latter decide to go for a dip in the lake."

— Chocolate Frog Card

The Giant Squid is a gigantic cephalopod, with eight arms and two long tentacles.

Description

Giant Squids can reach tremendous sizes and are one of the largest living organisms on earth. It is strongly suspected Giant Squids had magical powers. Giant Squids are known to Muggles, although they remain mysterious animals to them. Although their extraordinary bodies have washed up all over the world, Muggles only managed to capture a live Giant Squid on film in 2006.

History

A giant squid lived in the Great Lake

A semi-domesticated Giant Squid inhabited the Great Lake, on the grounds of Hogwarts Castle. Though the Chocolate Frog Card for Giant Squids described the Hogwarts Giant Squid as "the bane" of students at Hogwarts who wanted to go for a "dip in the lake", it appeared to be harmless, at least to humans, as it failed to attack Viktor Krum when he swam in the lake, allowed students to feed it bread, and rescued Dennis Creevey after he fell into the lake.

The entrance to the Sunken Vault was in the form of a statue of a Giant Squid with the door in the beak of the creature. The statue was located in an underwater cave in the Great Lake. Jacob's sibling and their friends encountered it during their infiltration at the end of the 1989–1990 school year.

In his sixth year, Ron Weasley once stated that dating Lavender Brown was like going out with a giant squid because the more that he hinted that he wanted to finish the relationship, the tighter she held on.

Behind the scenes

A Giant Squid tentacle as seen in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

• True Giant Squids (genus "Architeuthis") are deep-sea-dwelling creatures and can not live in fresh water such as inland lochs in Scotland. It would not be able to stand the sunlight, pressure, lack of salinity of the water, the space or the lack of food. At one point during the books it is fed bread, which it would not be able to digest. Giant Squids also have very tender skin that would break if they were tickled by a stick, as the Weasley twins did. However, it is possible that the Hogwarts Giant Squid is a magical subspecies, similar to, for instance, what Kneazles are to mundane cats, and has different tolerences.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (GBC version only)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter Trading Card Game
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Pottermore
• Wizarding World
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite