Bell and the Others Were Innocent

"Splash~ Splash~"

The sound of surging waves echoed in the pitch-black night.

Under Shanna's control, the Giant Squid slowly approached the shore of the Black Lake.

"Fina, jump up and roll around on its tentacles a few times... Good, you can go back to the Forbidden Forest now."

Once you return to the lair, venture deeper into the Forbidden Forest, then circle around at a distance to mask your scent before returning.

After watching Fina's figure disappear into the Forbidden Forest, only the final step remained.

"Sever the tentacles, hmm... let's start with three."

Upon hearing Shanna's command, the Giant Squid began to vigorously twist its three tentacles.

Squid generally possess a self-defense skill: they can break off their own tentacles to distract predators and escape.

Clearly, although this Giant Squid is vastly different in size from ordinary squid, it has not abandoned this traditional craft of its species.

Bang bang bang~

The Giant Squid's three tentacles broke off one after another and fell onto the grassy bank, stirring up a cloud of mud and grass clippings.

"Very good! You can go back now."

After using the Memory Charm to alter part of the Giant Squid's memories, Shanna nodded in satisfaction and waved her hand, indicating that the squid could go back to sleep.

So as everyone can see, these three tentacles were given to her by the Giant Squid, not cut off by her. In other words, she did not disobey her Gege's instructions.

Hogwarts is such a wonderful place; even the animals here are so friendly.

You might not believe it, and even she herself wouldn't believe it, but she actually refused the gift from the Giant Squid.

But to her surprise, the other party so decisively severed its own tentacles without giving her a chance to refuse.

Now that the tentacles have fallen off, it's impossible to put them back on, right?

An won't go back; if you don't believe me, go ask the Giant Squid.

Therefore, she had no choice but to reluctantly accept the gift.

There's nothing we can do about it; she's just that kind of cute little girl who's bad at saying no.

Hehehe~!

(ω)

Shanna happily stuffed the tentacles into her bag, just like a little girl who was happily harvesting her own chives as they grew well.

Shanna patted the small crossbody bag at her waist, a look of joyful satisfaction spreading across her face.

In this way, even if the professors discover that the Giant Squid is missing a few tentacles, they will only assume that some Magical Animals from the Forbidden Forest attacked their Hogwarts darling tonight.

As for why these tentacles disappeared out of thin air?

This will test the professors' imagination.

In fact, many kinds of Magical Animals can do this.

For example, the Occamy, once it grows large enough, can swallow three tentacles in one gulp.

For example, the Niffler. Don't be fooled by their small size; their sacs on their bellies have a very, very large capacity.

For example, the Nide Hog can eat food hundreds of times its own weight in one go.

So there are many possibilities, but it certainly wasn't taken by that well-behaved and adorable little girl. It's even less likely that it was done by the weak, pitiful, and helpless Little Fina.

"Time to go back to sleep!"

Sure enough, as the saying goes, "When you have nothing to do, you feel carefree."

Having successfully completed her plan, Little Shanna now feels completely relaxed.

Although her two friends were exhausted.

I'm so tired!

Early the next morning, a commotion broke out in the Slytherin Common Room and quickly spread throughout Hogwarts.

As is well known, Slytherin Common Room is located at the bottom of the Black Lake.

In the morning, just as several small snakes were passing through the lounge, the Giant Squid happened to swim overhead.

Then the little snakes were surprised to find that the Giant Squid, which had lived leisurely in the Black Lake for countless years and had practically accompanied most of the British Wizards as they grew up, seemed to be missing a part.

After confirming several times that they weren't seeing things because they hadn't woken up properly in the morning, they hurriedly ran to Professor Snape's office and reported the situation to their homeroom teacher.

Snape was shocked when he learned of this news.

You see, he had been craving that Giant Squid for a long time.

The accumulation of countless years, and its size comparable to the Kraken, if one could cut off some key parts from its lower body, it would surely be able to create a wonderful Potions.

Unfortunately, his tempting proposal was opposed by most of the professors at Hogwarts, including Dumbledore.

"Hmph! A bunch of barbarians who don't understand the beauty of Potions!"

So when he heard that someone had actually done what he had always wanted to do but had not been able to, Snape couldn't help but feel a surge of admiration.

He couldn't wait to see the other person, and then... he would knock them down with a Curses and snatch the ingredients for the Giant Squid!

As the only Potion Master in Hogwarts, could anyone be more qualified to deal with those tentacles?

Without hesitation, Snape, looking both excited and, more like grim, went to the Headmaster's Office and reported to Dumbledore the situation he had personally confirmed.

How the professors appeased the Giant Squid and plowed the Forbidden Forest from top to bottom several times is something the Little Wizard currently having breakfast in the Great Hall could never know.

Perhaps some gossipy Little Wizard will pry a few bits of information out of the professors' mouths, which might add one or two more terrifying legends about the Forbidden Forest.

But that's still a long way off.

"Bell! Tell me! Did you do this?!"

This morning, after hearing the news of the Giant Squid's attack, Hermione immediately thought of the Bell siblings.

If we're talking about anyone in Hogwarts who had both the ability and the motive to attack the Giant Squid, then it would only be the Bell siblings.

And she hasn't forgotten the scene where Shanna wanted to catch the Giant Squid and eat it.

"What? What do you mean we didn't do it?"

Bell's mouth was full of food as he looked at Hermione with a puzzled expression.

"Stop playing dumb! It's the Giant Squid. Tell me! Did you attack the Giant Squid and steal its tentacles?"

"How could that be! We didn't do it!"

"Real?"

"Real!"

Bell swears they didn't do anything!

He just watched the whole thing, enjoying the spectacle, and absolutely did not participate in the fight.

Lim had no idea about this at all; he simply prepared the ingredients that Shanna had given him.

From beginning to end, Lim had never even seen the Giant Squid's face, so how could he possibly attack it?

So, it really wasn't them (Bell and Lim) who did it!

(ω)