Chapter 4: Kirkenes
Neville and Luna awoke the following morning to be greeted by a fairly cloudy sky. They were to spend one more night with Arvid and Freja before catching the train back to Narvik. A lot of their final day was spent packing and ensuring the clothes they had been wearing the previous day were completely dry.
After lunch, Arvid drove the couple into Kiruna. They bought some things they would need on the journey and booked the morning train for the next day. The trip home was expected to take as long as their outward journey as Luna had her doubts about aeroplanes. During breakfast, Neville asked Luna about her reluctance to fly.
"Luna," said Neville, "You don't seem willing to fly these days. I know it makes for a more interesting journey, but what happened to stop you flying? You must have flown to get to India and Southeast Asia."
"I don't know." said Luna, "I just had this feeling about this particular trip. I know it seems silly, but when I have a premonition, I feel it's better to act on it. Not all of my premonitions come to fruition, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
"I suppose so." said Neville, "Perhaps nothing would have gone wrong and we would have had far quicker journeys. Are you looking forward to the boat trip from Tromsø to Bergen?"
"Of course!" said Luna, "And I hope we have clearer skies than we did on the way up, especially since we're going to spend a day or two in Kirkenes before we go South to Bergen."
"Why are we going there?" asked Neville.
"There's someone I want to see who lives there." said Luna, "He is another magizoologist, and he claims to have seen a crumple horned snorkack a couple of years ago."
"Are you talking about Sigurd Jansson?" asked Arvid, "He must have moved right up to the North."
"Yes, I am." said Luna, "Daddy gave me his new address. He moved there about three years ago. I would really like to see him. Also, it means that we'll sail right up to the North of Norway. If we went any further, we'd reach Russia."
"That should be an interesting journey." said Neville, "How long will it take?"
"The voyage to Kirkenes will be two days." said Luna, "From Kirkenes back to Bergen will take five days. Then we'll have the train journeys through several countries back to London."
Following further discussions over several cups of coffee, Luna and Neville enjoyed their last evening meal with the Erikssons. For their farewell evening meal, Freja had prepared an 'English' dinner, roast pork with apple sauce, served with roast and boiled potatoes and greens. Luna complemented Freja on the way the meat had been prepared. She particularly liked the crackling, which was as succulent, crisp and brittle as It should be.
"I wish I could produce crackling like this." said Luna. "Mine usually turns out more chewy than crisp."
"The thing to remember," said Freja, "Is that the skin should be completely dry before you score it and apply the oil and salt. Don't score too deeply. Only penetrate part way through the skin. If the skin does not appear to be turning to crackling towards the end of roasting, I usually turn the temperature up about ten minutes before the end."
"Thank you, Mrs. Eriksson," said Luna, "I'll try to remember that. I guess I've been preparing it too soon after rinsing it."
"That could be your problem." said Freja, "Any trace of moisture on the pork skin inhibits blistering, so what you get is a bit leathery."
After the roast, Freja served up chocolate pudding with a very tasty chocolate sauce.
"You seem to know what I like." said Luna, "How did you find out?"
"Xenophilius told me all about your liking for puddings," said Freja, "Especially chocolate ones."
After dinner, over mugs of hot chocolate, the four discussed their forthcoming voyage to Kirkenes and watched some Swedish television. It appeared from the news that that day's flight from Kiruna to Stockholm was delayed and missed its connection with the London flight. 49 people were stranded for up to 3 days as all the London flights were fully booked.
"I said I had a premonition that something would go wrong with the journey if we'd flown." said Luna, "We'd have been stuck in Stockholm."
"If we had flown, we would have travelled on a different day." said Neville.
"And the missed flight would have happened on that day." said Luna, "Anyway, we might see more of the Northern Lights from the ship."
They also discussed Luna's meeting with Sigurd Jansson.
"We're going to meet Sigurd in Kirkenes." said Luna, "What's he like?"
"He's quite a jolly man for a Norwegian," said Arvid, "Especially living so far North. I think you'll like him. I should mention, he keeps quite late hours. I'll call him later this evening and let him know which ferry you'll be on."
"Thank you." said Luna, "That would be helpful. Has he got a car?"
"I think he's still driving a bright yellow Saab." said Arvid, "I think it's the only car that colour in Kirkenes. If he is still driving it, you'll find it's got the same mods as my Volvo and Arthur Weasley's old Anglia. By the way, what happened to that?"
"In his second year at Hogwarts," said Neville, "Ron Weasley missed the Hogwarts express and flew the car all the way from Kings Cross to the school, with Harry and Hermione as passengers. As they approached Hogwarts, the car broke down and landed in the branches of the whomping willow. It descended through the tree, ejected its three passengers, and drove itself into the forbidden forest. As far as I know, it's still running around in the forest."
"I'm not surprised it broke down." said Arvid, "That's nearly Eight hundred kilometres I wouldn't dare fly mine more than fifty or sixty kilometres at one go."
Before sleeping, Neville and Luna packed everything they wouldn't need the next day. Later that evening, Arvid contacted Sigurd Jansson to inform him when the couple would be arriving. He said he would meet them at the dockside.
Early the following morning the couple awoke refreshed and ready for the next stage of their journey. When they entered the kitchen, they were greeted by another substantial breakfast. This, they tucked into with relish, as they would have little more than snacks until they boarded the ship in the early evening. Arvid took them to Kiruna station so that they could catch the morning train to Narvik. The train journey went more smoothly than their trip in the opposite direction a week or so previously. They bought some sandwiches and a drink before boarding the bus to Tromsø. This part of the journey was uneventful and they arrived in good time to board the ship, find their cabin and make themselves comfortable before it set sail. Neville and Luna made sure they were on deck at half past six to see the ship move gently away from the dockside and sail along the fjord towards the open sea. The clouds that had threatened rain earlier in the day had cleared and the sky was clear. By the time the ship was under way, the sun had set. It was getting quite dark when the couple went down for dinner in one of the ship's restaurants. Once they had eaten, they went up on deck again to witness another wonderful auroral display.
"I know I love seeing the stars," said Luna, "But this is amazing. I didn't realise the sky could do such wonderful things. Look at those green curtains with their reddish bottoms. The tops are red as well, they seem to go right up into space."
Luna's eyes were shining, and her smile told Neville she was ecstatic. He felt deeply contented that his sweet wife was enjoying the auroral phenomena. The couple watched the display for a couple of hours before returning to their cabin. By the time they got up the next morning it was daylight, and the ship had left Hammerfest. As they travelled further North, snow was visible lower down the mountain slopes. There had been very little at Tromsø. They spent the day exploring the ship and watching the rugged Norwegian scenery passing by. That evening, there was another display of the Northern Lights, which they watched for a while. They went to bed fairly early as they had to be ready to disembark at Kirkenes at nine o'clock the following morning.
Once Neville and Luna had eaten their last on-board breakfast and sorted their luggage, they went out on deck to watch the ship docking. After disembarking, they walked back along the dockside. They had not gone very far, when they were accosted by a tall blonde bearded man with a ruddy complexion and twinkling blue eyes.
"I guess you're Neville and Luna." said the man, "I'm Sigurd. Arvid said you'd be on this ship. Have you had a good trip?"
"Not bad." said Luna, "At least we got to see the lights on the last two evenings. When we sailed from Bergen to Tromsø, all the nights were cloudy."
"That's good." said Sigurd, "It's a bit disappointing if you come all the way up here and don't see them. Let's help you with your bags."
Sigurd led the couple to the car park and located his car. This was not difficult as it was a really startling shade of bright yellow. Luna looked at it in amazement.
"I had it painted this colour so that it was visible under most conditions." said Sigurd, "It even shows up well in snow, unless, of course, I make it invisible."
When their bags had been loaded, they drove to a house on the outskirts of Kirkenes. As they were getting out of the car, they were greeted by Sigurd's wife, Linnea and her two boys, Axel and Viktor. Luna's ash blonde hair and ice blue eyes were not lost on Viktor.
"Are you Swedish?" he asked Luna, without waiting to be introduced.
"No." said Luna, "I'm Irish."
"What country is that?" asked Axel.
"Come on," Said Sigurd, "I'm sure our guests would like to talk about this inside. It's still quite cold out here."
After Linnea had made Neville and Luna comfortable in the lounge and provided coffee, while Sigurd unloaded their bags, the boys persisted with their questions.
"You said you were Irish." said Axel, "What country does that mean you come from?"
"Ireland." said Luna, "It's a big island to the West of the British Isles."
Sigurd had overheard the conversation and came in with a large world atlas. He opened it at the page showing the British Isles and showed his to sons where to find Ireland. He then turned to the map of Europe to show them where Ireland was relative to Northern Norway.
"What made you think I was Swedish?" asked Luna.
"Your eyes and hair." said Viktor, "You look very Swedish, like my cousin Louise. You're so blonde!"
"It's not only Swedes that have blonde hair." said Sigurd, "Anyway, I think our guests would like to settle down a bit before you two interrogate them."
Axel and Viktor took the hint and retreated to their room as they had some schoolwork to do. Linnea joined them. Neville and Luna spent the next hour or so recounting what they had been doing in the region round Kiruna during the previous week. They also described their overland journey to Northern Sweden from England.
"Did you see the Northern Lights?" asked Linnea.
"Not until Arvid took us to a lake about fifty kilometres from his house." said Luna, "Then they were really bright. I love starlight, but that was even better."
"Incidentally, why did you travel overland?" asked Sigurd.
"Firstly, the Ministry had warned that apparating between England and Scandinavia was extremely hazardous this autumn," said Neville, "Also, Luna had a premonition that flying might be problematic. I always take notice of her premonitions. Most of them are right, so we used the trains to get to Bergen and the coastal ferries to get here."
"Were there any problems in the air?" asked Sigurd.
"On the day we left Kiruna, our flight would have missed its connection at Stockholm." said Luna, "We would have been stranded there for up to three days."
"Yes, I think that's what would have happened to us whichever day we had tried to fly home." said Neville, "Still, we have had an interesting journey."
"And you've seen more of the Northern Lights than you would have done if you'd flown." said Sigurd.
"That's true." said Luna, "They were very bright when we were on the edge of the lake with Arvid. Apparently, there was a solar storm last week. Anyway, what is there to do up here? We're booked on the half past twelve ship the day after tomorrow."
"This afternoon, I'll show you round our small town." said Sigurd, "This evening we can discuss the snorkack. Tomorrow, I'll take you out of town and show you some of the scenery round here. The next morning, I'll take you back to the quayside to catch your boat."
Neville felt a lot happier now that a programme had been laid out for the two days. He didn't like too much unpredictability. Thos was the only source of friction with Luna, who could be quite spontaneous at times. Now they had finished their initial discussions, Neville and Luna spent the rest of the morning talking about geography with Sigurd's two sons. They were fascinated by Luna's description of her trip to South East Asia. Her portrayal of the warm rain in Malaysia seemed unbelievable to two boys who only knew cold rain and snow. Neville told them about the battle of Hogwarts. They had been told about it, but found the account of someone who had actually fought in it especially interesting. He was evasive about the killing of Nagini and blushed when Luna described what he had done.
Lunch was served. The family dined on a local marine pest.
"What is this?" asked Neville.
"It's called king crab." said Sigurd, "It's taking over the seas round here. It's a nuisance, but it does taste good."
"How did it get here?" asked Luna.
"Nothing much grows up here." said Sigurd, " So back in the days of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin wanted to put some of his army just over the Russian border from here. Soldiers have to eat and the only possible food source was the sea."
"So?" queried Neville.
"The seas round this end of Russia didn't have much in them," continued Sigurd, "So the Soviets moved a large number of crabs from the North West Pacific Ocean near Kamchatka."
""How have they got this far?" asked Luna.
"Once the Russians had no further use for them," said Sigurd, "They were no longer being caught in large numbers, so the population of crabs increased. They started spreading Westwards and now they are the main type of shellfish along a lot of the North of Norway. They're a real pest. They eat everything they can find."
"Can't anything be done about them?" asked Neville.
"Short of poisoning them, no." said Sigurd, "And doing that would kill everything else, so we catch them, eat them and sell the surplus to the Americans among others. I believe you have a saying in England, which says 'It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good'. The crabs have killed our shellfish industry, but we now catch and sell them instead."
After lunch, Sigurd gave the couple a guided tour of the small town of Kirkenes. The first thing they did was to go down to the harbour and watch the Hurtigruten ferry sail out on it's way back to Bergen. They then looked round the shops in this remote outpost of Nortern Norway. The conversation inevitably turned to Luna's belief in some fantastic creatures. She outlined the behaviour of nargles and wrackspurts and their apparent effect on Neville.
"I think wrackspurts made Nev think I was attractive." said Luna, "Nobody else wanted to get to know me."
"Don't put yourself down, Luna." said Neville, "Your bright smile and cheerful attitude to life was what I found attractive. Your beauty was a bonus."
The evening was devoted to discussing their adventures with Arvid Eriksson near Kiruna and their unsuccessful quest to find any snorkack activity. They also discussed Sigurd's possible sighting of one of the creatures near Kirkenes
The following day, after a restful sleep, Sigurd took Neville and Luna to the place where he thought he had seen a crumple horned snorkack a couple of years earlier. Luna did agree that it was the kind of environment liked by the beast.
"Don't they like less cold places as a rule?" asked Neville.
"Yes, they do." commented Sigurd, "But I think that the ones up here hibernate for more than half the year. I don't even know if the one I saw has survived the last two winters."
"That's sad." remarked Luna, "You think they might now be extinct?"
"That is probable." said Sigurd, "After all, it was over two years ago I saw the beast and there was only the one. Anyway, it's good to know that some people are still looking. I think Arvid may have more chance of seeing one despite your lack of success."
"Yes, he did seem to know where the animal might be found." Said Luna.
Before dinner, Neville and Luna did their final packing for the long journey back to England. As a change from crab, the dinner consisted of reindeer venison with vegetables. The dessert showed that Arvid had told Sigurd about Luna's liking for chocolate. It was profiteroles with cream. Discussions about fantastic beasts and other rare creatures lasted deep into the night. Luna persuaded Sigurd that Wrackspurts and Nargles were real and not a figment of her vivid imagination. Before they spent their last night in Northern Norway, they had a look outside. The northern lights were obscured by cloud, so they went to bed and succumbed to sleep.