Harry Potter and the House of Ravenclaw

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Chapter Seven - Trolls or Pogrebins?

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The fifth-year boys' dormitory was buzzing with excitement that night.

"Oh, this is cool." Dean grinned as he pulled off his robes. "A field trip."

"I didn't think we'd ever get to go on one," beamed Ron. "Bill and Charlie said they went on one nearly every year, but when Quirrell took over...well."

"I doubt he was the field trip type." Harry couldn't help laughing.

The Professor Quirrell he had known had been possessed by Voldemort but had no doubt continued to act in the same manner he always had in order to avoid suspicion. Harry couldn't help but think that with or without Voldemort in his head Quirrell would have been a nervous, twitchy man.

"Why do you suppose Hagrid is coming?" Neville asked as he clambered into bed. "I mean, four teachers are going, but why Hagrid?"

"I suppose it's in case the trolls get out of hand." Seamus nodded assuredly. Neville seemed to agree with this conclusion.

Ron let out a short laugh. "Fred and George are going to be so jealous."

~~~~~

'Jealous' was something of an understatement. Fred and George were now in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts; both preparing to take their N.E.W.T.S.

"I don't believe this. We've never been on a field trip." Lee shook his head.

"Unbelievable. Completely unfair." Fred scowled.

The twins and their friend Lee Jordan were not in the best of moods the next morning at breakfast. All the fifth-years and some of the sixth-years were talking about the trip on Friday. The seventh-year students, however, seemed quite bitter about their inability to attend.

"Your exams are coming up," Hermione stated in between mouthfuls of cornflakes. "I doubt you'll be tested on trolls; they're a bit easy for final year N.E.W.T.S."

"Completely not the point." George frowned at her. "We've never been on a field trip and we're never going to. All because that stupid Quirrell had to go and get himself possessed."

"Oh, because I'm sure he planned it that way just to annoy you," Hermione snapped back. "He must have set out thinking: 'Oh I know. I'll go and find You-Know-Who and let him into my head so I don't have to take my students on field trips'."

George apparently didn't have a comeback and instead turned to Lucy.

"I suppose you're going too then?"

Lucy, who had a mouth full of porridge, nodded. "Have to. It's compulsory for us," she said finally after swallowing. "Professor Lupin has an assignment for us on different sorts of large creatures as part of our N.E.W.T.S coursework. We're looking at trolls, giants, and then we have to pick a third one ourselves."

"We finished our coursework last year," Lee muttered. "We got stupid Pogrebins as our dark creatures. They were crap."

"Pogrebins?" Harry muttered to Hermione.

"Oh, they look like little grey rocks, but with hairy bodies. They crouch down to hide and pretend to be normal rocks. But they love to follow people, infusing them with a sense of hopelessness until the person collapses," Hermione whispered back, sounding like an encyclopaedia.

"And then what?" Harry frowned.

"And then the Pogrebins eat them, well attempt to." Hermione raised her eyebrows. "They are native to Russia. Quite interesting but not exactly challenging."

"Who else is betraying us and going then?" Fred practically growled at the table, making Lucy and Ron laugh.

"There's a list up in the Entrance Hall." Hermione pointed towards the doors. "You can go check for yourselves."

"Well, we will." George jumped up out of his seat and set off out of the hall, followed closely by Lee and Fred.

"Unbelievable." Hermione shook her head as they watched the three older boys go. "Well, come on. I don't want to be late for Arithmancy." With that Hermione got up and left. Ron stared after her for a few seconds before making a sort of miserable noise. "Oh, no." Ron half frowned, half sneered. "That means we've got Divination."

Harry could only nod. The thought of spending any amount of time in the same classroom as Professor Trelawney was depressing. She had now become particularly inventive about how and when he was going to die. Even Harry had to be impressed with the level of detail she was prepared to go into in order to make an impact.

~~~~~

As the two boys left the hall, Harry noticed that there indeed was a list of students who would be attending the field trip.

"Should we have a look to see who's going?" he asked Ron carefully, hoping that his real reason for wanting to check wouldn't be too obvious.

Lupin had mentioned the students in the year above. Lucy had said she was going but Harry couldn't help but wonder if Cho was going too. The trouble was, he didn't even know if she took Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts.

There were two lists were pinned to the notice board, each one with the header:

Students attending field trip 27^th - 29^th October 1995.

The first list had the name of every student in Harry's year. The second list for the sixth-years was much shorter; apparently years of lacking a good Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had affected many people's choice for N.E.W.T.S. There were only four from each house in the class.

Harry looked down the list for the sixth-year students:

Kirke. Harry vaguely knew him and was pretty sure he was called Andrew. Ravenclaw and then Rowl. Finally Sloper. No, he didn't know him.

Harry began to check the Hufflepuff list. Busby, Jones, Smith and Summers. Harry didn't know any of them.

"I hardly know anyone who's going from the sixth year," Harry commented to Ron, hoping it would sound like an offhand comment instead of concern. What if Cho wasn't taking Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts?

However the second name on the Ravenclaw list settled this. Chang. That meant Cho was going, but so was Roger Davies, the captain of the Ravenclaw team. Edgecombe and Chambers were also going. Harry didn't know any of them, but he was willing to bet Cho did. This meant it would be hard to get her on her own.

"Oh no!" Harry heard Ron exclaim.

"What is it?"

"Look who's coming from Slytherin."

Harry scanned the Slytherin list. Bletchly. He was on the Slytherin Quidditch team. Malfoy. So Heather was going as well as Draco. Montague. He was the captain of the Slytherin team. Turner. Harry had seen her a few times with Heather Malfoy.

"Marvellous." Ron scowled. "So both Malfoys are going, plus half the Slytherin Quidditch team. Great."

Harry couldn't help agree with Ron that this was definitely terrible news, however, he was finding it hard to feel that bad. News that Cho was going on the field trip made his heart soar; a feeling that thankfully lasted all the way through Divination.

**********

As the trip drew nearer, Harry found himself unable to concentrate. The thought of spending a weekend with Cho was making him both excited and very nervous.

By Thursday afternoon Harry had reached a point where he seriously thought he was going to go mad from waiting. He had never been on a field trip before. Whenever one had come up at his primary school, Aunt Petunia had refused to sign his permission slip. Lupin had, however, known well enough to send his slip to Sirius - who, according to his letters, was now living in his mother's old house in London on Dumbledore's orders - instead of to Privet Drive.

Sirius told Harry in his letters what no one else had told him: that Dumbledore had called all the people who had fought against Voldemort the first time round, the Order of the Phoenix, into action. Apparently they were using the Black family house as their headquarters under a Fidelius Charm, with Dumbledore as their Secret-Keeper.

Sirius was getting increasingly excited as he kept reminding Harry that this Christmas he was to come to London and spend it with Sirius.

Harry was overjoyed at the invitation, and although he would miss seeing Ron, he was looking forward to seeing Sirius again.

~~~~~

Severus sat glaring down at his first-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. It was Thursday afternoon, a double lesson, which usually meant double the chaos.

He had never thought it possible to come across a student more inept than Neville Longbottom. Longbottom's ability to melt a cauldron and spoil a potion was something Severus could only marvel at. However, he had been proven wrong with this class.

There were six students in this class of twenty who could seriously rival Longbottom for title of Worst Potions Student of All Time. Unsurprisingly, five of those six were from Hufflepuff.

"Sir!" He could hear a small voice calling him. "Professor!"

"What is it, Miss Cashin?" Severus snapped at the eleven year old Ravenclaw calling him.

"Sir, I think Glenn needs some help again." She pointed over to a plump Hufflepuff boy whose cauldron was emitting a series of blue and green sparks.

"Gartside!" Severus rushed over to the boy. "You put in the rats' tails before the dragon scales, didn't you?"

The small boy nodded glumly.

"Idiot," Severus muttered as he looked down into the cauldron. Still it was a simple mistake, easily sorted. All he would need to do was...

Severus paused, his train of thought seemed jumbled. He tried again to recall how to correct the mistake. What he would need to do was...

Severus looked up at the class, they were all watching him. The cauldron had begun to smoke now; thick clouds of pink smoke were billowing out of it. He looked back at the cauldron. His mind felt as clouded as the room was getting.

"You are all dismissed," he barked at the class. "Take your cauldrons off the heat before you leave."

As the last of the class filed out of the dungeon classroom Severus buried his face in his hands. It was a simple error. It had happened thousands of times before. Every year someone did it. So why couldn't he remember how to fix it?

~~~~~

Severus lay in bed that night thinking about how his memory had failed him. How could it have happened? He had always prided himself on his excellent memory, especially when it came to potions. Like Dumbledore said, he had a natural talent.

But that talent had failed him today. He had been at a complete loss as to how to stop the botched potion from exploding. In the end, he had taken it off the heat and waited for it to cool. Only while he was sat waiting had he recalled the correct way to dispose of the offending mixture.

Severus closed his eyes and lay still, hoping to fall asleep. This was proving difficult, however, with his brain continuing the running commentary of what had gone wrong in class.

And as if that were not enough, a knock now came at his bedroom door. He sat bolt upright, reaching automatically for the wand on his bedside table. Another knock followed, harder this time.

"Lumos," muttered Severus; then as the wand tip ignited: "Who is it?" he called out.

"Verena." Her voice was muffled by the heavy door.

Severus almost jumped out of bed and opened the door. Ravenclaw smiled at him.

"I was worried you'd be asleep."

"No." Severus shook his head. "I wasn't." He could have told her why, but he was too ashamed at having forgotten such a simple thing.

"Shame," she said, her smile growing, "because if you were, I would have had to wake you up. Like this..."

She leaned in and kissed him delicately on the lips.

"I can't stay, Severus." She ran her hand down the side of his face. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't going on the field trip tomorrow."

Severus shook his head. "No. Lupin and your brother are the attending teachers. Hagrid, Poppy and Rolanda are going along too."

"I wasn't sure." Ravenclaw pulled away and started back out the door.

"Wait." Severus reached out to her. "I know you can't stay, but can you at least stay a little while?"

Ravenclaw shook her head. "I wish I could. But tomorrow night, who knows? I might be able to stay the whole night."

With this, she winked and left. Severus stood in the doorway feeling unbelievably good about himself. He shut the door and climbed back into bed, whispering, "Nox," as he laid his wand back down on the bedside table.

Closing his eyes he couldn't remember why he had been so worried, or why he hadn't been asleep to start with.

**********

Friday morning seemed to drag on and on. The fifth-year boys had packed their bags the night before and were now sat around their house table in the Great Hall.

"I can't stand this waiting." Seamus fidgeted in his seat. "It's driving me mad."

"We've only got a little longer to wait." Neville tried to calm Seamus, but his voice gave away that he was just as excited.

"What time do we have to be in the Entrance Hall for?" Seamus asked no one in particular.

"Half twelve," Ron answered.

"And what time-?" Seamus began but Ron cut him off.

"It's quarter past."

"It couldn't hurt if we went now though." Dean shrugged. "I mean, it's better that we're early than late."

"Yeah." Seamus nodded and got out of his seat. The rest of the boys followed suit.

Harry followed the others out into the Entrance Hall. By the size of the group assembled, most people were already there. Lupin was asking the sixth-years from each House to get the fifth-years to line up.

"Hey!" A sixth-year boy Harry didn't know called over. "Over here, come on!"

"What's going on?" Ron asked as they reached the rest of the Gryffindors.

"Just waiting for everyone to get here, then we're getting off," the boy said as he scanned the crowd of students. "It looks like all the Gryffindors are here. I think we're just waiting for a few from Hufflepuff."

Eventually the remaining students arrived and were lined up with the others from their houses. At the front of the group, Lupin put up his hands. One by one, the students fell silent.

"Now that everyone is here I'd like to explain what will be happening," Lupin said to the crowd. "We will be departing in a moment for an area along the Lågen River in Norway. It will take us approximately three hours to get there as we will be travelling by carriage."

A few students let out groans. Harry turned quickly to Ron, who didn't look happy.

"What's wrong with carriages?" Harry whispered.

"The school carriages, ugh. It's going to take ages to get there and they're really uncomfy," Ron whispered back. "They make me feel sick."

"Come on, now!" Lupin called for order from the groaning and whispering students. "We have to travel by carriage. We can't Floo there, can we? There is too much risk involved if we use a Portkey. I'm sorry but this was the only other option." Lupin looked at the students apologetically as if this truly had been a last resort.

"Now I want you to listen to my instructions carefully," Lupin continued. "You'll be remaining in your house groups while we're travelling. However, for observation exercises and written work I am going to put you into mixed groups. We'll leave in a moment; please remember you'll be expected to carry your own bags, which is why you were asked to keep packing to a minimum." Lupin broke off as Professor Rowl came down the stairs with Madams Pomfrey and Hooch.

"Right, I believe we are ready." Lupin rubbed his hands together. "Sixth-years will be in charge of their house groups. Please form eight lines, seven in each line."

There was a shuffling of feet as the students complied. Harry found himself in a group with Ron, Hermione, Neville and Parvati. He glanced at the head of his line to see the sixth-years in charge of his group were Lucy and the boy who had spoken to him before.

In turn, each line was led out of the main doors and down the steps to the waiting carriages. The carriages were not the usual Hogwarts ones: small and black. These were about six feet tall, and seemed to be translucent.

"They've been charmed," Harry heard Hermione whisper to someone in their group. "It must be so the trolls don't see us coming."

"Do you think we'll be sleeping in these too?" Harry turned to Ron.

The carriages reminded Harry intensely of the Beaubaxtons carriage which had brought and housed the students attending last year's Triwizard Tournament. An unwelcome reminder, the carriages brought with them floods of memories. Cedric's death ... Harry had tried so hard not to think about it.

Ron just shrugged, unaware of Harry's troubles. "I dunno, mate."

As soon as they entered their carriage, Harry found his question had been answered.

There were no beds inside, just two leather sofas stretching along the front and back of the carriage. There was room enough inside to stand up comfortably and even to walk as the space between the two seating areas was greater inside than on the outside.

"It's loads bigger inside," Neville gasped.

"That's right." Lucy nodded. "It's so we don't get all cramped up. We can walk around, stand up; it's more comfortable to travel in this way."

Harry stared out of the window at the seven other carriages. Professors Rowl and Lupin were checking each of them to see that all the students were aboard. Madam Pomfrey had gotten into a carriage with a group of Ravenclaws and Madam Hooch had gotten in with Malfoy and his group.

"Malfoy won't be happy about that." Hermione shook her head as Harry looked at her. "I noticed you looking. Harry, are you all right? You don't seem yourself."

"I'm fine, Hermione." Harry lied. "Just nervous, I suppose, about a trip."

Hermione looked as thought she was going to say more, so Harry turned to face the window again just in time to see Hagrid squeezing into one of the Hufflepuff carriages.

"Do you think we'll get a teacher travelling with us?" Hermione said as Professor Rowl climbed into the other Gryffindor carriage.

"Well, as long as you don't mind," came Lupin's voice from the doorway.

Harry turned in his seat and smiled at Lupin. The presence of the teacher meant that he could focus on the field trip and not on Voldemort's return.

"Of course we don't." Neville beamed.

"Excellent." Lupin climbed in and slammed the door shut. As he did so the carriage gave a lurch.

Harry couldn't help but look out of the window again, only to see the ground disappearing from under them. He turned back to Lupin. "We're flying to Norway?"

Lupin nodded. "We are indeed."

Hermione and Parvati began to talk animatedly about how the carriages could work; Neville sat there open-mouthed listening to them.

Harry looked around the carriage. Ron, Lucy and the sixth-year boy, Jack, were all talking about Quidditch. Ron had gotten into an argument with Jack about the Cannons' chances of winning the Quidditch Cup.

As Harry's eyes went to Lupin, he found the professor staring right back at him. Harry knew that if he continued to make eye contact, Lupin would come over to talk to him. Harry enjoyed talking with Lupin usually, but he had a feeling the professor would make him talk about the events of last summer, about Cedric and Voldemort. He couldn't do that, not yet.

Harry broke eye contact and stared out of the window. He couldn't see the other carriages, only clouds. As far as the eye could see, there were only clouds. They looked peaceful and Harry soon drifted off to sleep.