The Black Lake is a constant presence on the Hogwarts grounds, and becomes crucial to Harry’s completion of the TriWizard Tournament in the fourth book.

We find out about several of the inhabitants over the course of the series, including the giant squid, grindylows, and of course, the merpeople.

I decided to make a small stuffed squid and grindylow that could be velcro-ed onto the page. For the merpeople, I wanted something a little more detailed and substantial. I cut, sewed together, and embroidered the hair, body and tail for the front, and then the back separately, so that each side was complete before joining them together around the edge.

The sequins were hand sewn in a similar way to the Occamy from the upcoming Fantastic Beasts pages. Before cutting out the pieces, I started at the bottom and secured each sequin with two passes of a single thread. Then I’d layer the next sequin up, overlapping the bottom sequin half way. This gave some nice substantial weight to the tail and gave the whole thing more interesting texture.

Once both sides were completed I stuffed the piece slightly and then sewed around the outside with a mattress stitch in a similar color to blend in.

I added two panels of felt seaweed or kelp, one that flips down, and one to the side, to hide all the creatures from prying wizard eyes.

The choice of a black page worked out well because, well…. it’s the Black Lake. But to be honest it was purely because quarantine/ stay-at-home orders were in place by then and it just wasn’t worth it to me to risk facing a pandemic simple to buy a piece of dark blue felt!

Below is a look at the page in action!

And now, on to the final pages!