
Collectors' card for giant squids[src]

Giant Squid are gigantic cephalopods, with eight arms and two long tentacles. Giant Squids can reach tremendous sizes, and are one of the largest living organisms.[2] It is strongly suspected Giant Squids have magic powers.[3]

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.[3]

A semi-domesticated Giant Squid[3] inhabits the Great Lake, on the grounds of Hogwarts Castle. Though the Chocolate Frog Card for Giant Squids describes the Hogwarts Giant Squid as "the bane" of students at Hogwarts who want to go for a "dip in the lake", it appears 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.

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Giant Squid as shown on Pottermore new map

Behind the scenes


A giant squid lives in the Black Lake

  • 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, salinity (or lack thereof) 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 squid 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 of a different magical subspecies, which to non-magical giant squids would be what, for instance, kneazles are to mundane cats.
  • Ronald 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 it, the tighter she held on.[4]


Notes and references

  1. Giant squids were part of the beast chocolate frog card
  2. "Giant squid" on Wikipedia
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Writing by J.K. Rowling: "The Great Lake" at Pottermore
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