Chapter 2: The Glowing Night Sky
Sunrise the following morning was bright and clear without a cloud in the sky. The previous evening's clouds had cleared. Neville and Luna were awakened by the rising sun as their bedroom faced East. Someone had opened the curtains during the night, so it was full sunshine that woke them.
Freja had prepared a substantial 'English' style fried breakfast as they had a long day in front of them. Before their evening excursion to possibly sight the snorkack, Arvid was going to show them round the local area.
Their first destination was the site of an extraordinary muggle hotel. As they started out on their tour, Arvid tried to explain it.
"You have just spent a comfortable night in a warm bedroom." said Arvid, "In this hotel, during the early months of the year, muggles spend nights in bedrooms at minus five degrees Celsius. The whole building is made of ice. It opens in December and closes in April. The muggles build a new hotel out of ice from the river each year. The surprising thing is, the guests actually enjoy it."
Arvid showed them the site of the hotel. They also went into the foyer where there were photographs of the previous winter's ice hotel. Since it was late September, there was nothing to be seen on the actual hotel site by a river. He explained that the hotel starts to be built each year in November and melts the next Spring. The melted ice just runs away into the nearby river.
"That's crazy!" said Luna, "Who would want to sleep in an icy bedroom. It makes me shiver just thinking about it."
"I agree." said Neville, "I hope your tent is warmer."
"I assure you it is." said Arvid, "Did you go to the Quidditch final the year it was disrupted by death eaters?"
"Yes, I did." said Neville, "The tent I slept in there was comfortable and warm."
"My tent is like that." said Arvid, "Don't worry. It's also dimensionally transcendent."
"What does that mean?" asked Neville.
"It's larger inside than it is outside." said Arvid.
The trio continued their tour with a trip round Kiruna itself, after which Arvid engaged the invisibility device and flew first along the local river and then over the lake they would be visiting later that day.
"The best place to look for the snorkack this evening is on the North shore of this lake." said Arvid, "I'm looking for somewhere to land this car. We'll drive as far as we can, then fly along the lakeshore to a smooth level area where we can touch down. Ah! That looks a good spot. It offers access to the local forest and good all round visibility. Let's check it out."
Arvid landed the car on the small spit of land, which jutted out into the lake. They got out of the car and tested the ground. It proved to be firm and solid, so they could use it as the base for the next evening. There appeared to be a couple of well used tracks leading into the forest. Arvid was not sure what made them, but he took them as a hopeful sign. Having chosen a location for their first base, Arvid placed a locator on the spit of land before they returned to his home for lunch.
"What did you just do?" asked Neville.
"I know it will still be daylight when we come back here," said Arvid, "But we might go somewhere else and come back after dark, so I put a locator beacon here. The car will find it."
"Why is that?" asked Luna.
"You'll find out." said Arvid, mysteriously.
While they had been away, Freja had prepared a substantial lunch. Fish from the local lake, grilled this time with vegetables and potatoes. This was followed, much to Luna's delight, by a sponge pudding with treacle. The reason for this repast was their late afternoon excursion. The 'evening meal' might comprise sandwiches, as they would be at the lakeside.
Arvid spent the next couple of hours preparing his car for the quest. He loaded the tent and some very strange looking equipment into the back.
Late that afternoon, the three set out for the first foray, to the lakeside place they had marked out earlier. They took off under a bright sunset and arrived at the lakeside peninsula after about thirty minutes. While it was still daylight, they explored the first hundred yards or so of the two tracks leading away from the clear area, then returned to the car. This evening's foray was mainly to listen for any unusual animal noises and for Arvid to show Luna the night sky.
As it got dark, Luna and Neville were able to appreciate the sheer silence of the place. There had been a major solar storm a couple of days earlier. What greeted Luna's eyes when she looked up at the sky both astonished and fascinated her. The sky was filled with multiple glowing red and green curtains, which seemed to move around randomly. The brighter ones had a tinge of red at their bases as well as their upper parts.
"Wow!" was all that Luna could say. She was totally entranced.
"That is so incredibly beautiful." said Luna, once she had recovered her composure.
"What is it?" asked Neville.
"It's the Northern Lights." said Arvid, "We get them on clear nights up here, although I haven't seen them so bright for a long time. I think they've put on a special show for you two this evening."
"What causes them?" asked Luna.
"Muggles tell me," said Arvid, "That they are the result of streams of particles from the Sun hitting the Earth's magnetic field. When the Sun is very active, as it is at the moment, they are brighter. Back in September 1859, they could be seen all over the World."
The trio forgot the quest for the snorkack for the time being, although they did keep their ears open for any unusual sounds. They spent the next hour or so watching the display, transfixed by it.
"Will they affect our flight back?" asked a slightly worried Luna.
"No." said Arvid, reassuringly, "They're over seventy miles up. My car can't fly that high. We'll just get a better view of them without these trees."
They were just thinking about getting ready to leave, when Neville's sharp ears detected a rustling sound in the forest.
"What was that?" whispered Neville.
"Keep perfectly still." whispered Arvid.
It wasn't the reason for their quest. After a couple of minutes, two reindeer trotted out of one of the tracks onto their spit of land, checked them out, had a drink of water and returned to the forest.
"Well, that was an interesting interruption." said Arvid as the two beasts departed up the other track, "Well heard, Neville. Your ears are sharper than mine."
At this point, they enjoyed jam sandwiches under the lights. Luna particularly enjoyed them as they were sweet. They spent a further half hour watching the sky before preparing to return to Arvid's home. The aurora had only diminished slightly in intensity when they took off. Luna gasped as she saw the extent of the Northern Lights from horizon to horizon.
"This is so amazing, so beautiful!" exclaimed Luna as they flew high over the lake.
Looking along the length of the lake, she could see the green 'curtains' reflected from the surface of the water.
After returning safely to Arvid's home, Neville and Luna went to bed with the curtains open, so they could watch the aurora before they finally dropped off to sleep. Luna was so transfixed by the aurora, that she stayed awake, watching it, until after three o'clock in the morning. Despite this, she still woke up when the bright Sun shone on her face. It was another bright, clear morning. Surprisingly the lack of sleep had not affected Luna. She had had less than three hours. Once again, a substantial breakfast greeted the pair when they went downstairs.
Arvid's plan for today was to go to the spit of land they had occupied the previous evening. They would spend most of the day looking along the two tracks, looking for evidence of snorkack activity. After all, commented Arvid, if reindeer used these tracks, so would the snorkack. After that, if they found nothing, they would depart for another likely place that Arvid thought the beast might be found. Since it was further away, they would camp for two or three nights before returning to the house.
Immediately after breakfast, Arvid loaded the food and water they would require into the car and they set off, by road this time. After they had driven round to a vehicle lay-by on the far shore of the lake, Arvid ensured that there was no-one about, rendered the car invisible and flew the short distance over the lake to the spit of land.
"What, exactly are we looking for?" asked Neville.
"Footprints, disturbance of foliage and, not to put too fine a point on it, droppings." said Luna.
At this point, Arvid produced a picture of what he believed was a crumple horned snorkack footprint. He also explained the difference between a reindeer dropping and that of the snorkack. After this, the trio explored the first mile or so of one of the tracks. At one point, Neville thought he had found a snorkack footprint, only to be told it was two coincident reindeer footprints facing in opposite directions. He did admit, however that it did look like the real thing. After this search, they returned to the car and enjoyed a barbecue lunch.
"It's not only the Aussies who can have a barbecue." commented Arvid.
"I used to think it was too cold for that kind of thing up here." said Neville, "but it's not too bad."
Before they set out on the investigation of the second track, Arvid set up some fishing gear at the edge of the lake. He cast a charm on it, so that it would place any fish it caught in the keep net. That way they would have fresh grilled fish for their dinner that evening. Once again, they started out and looked for evidence along the first mile or two of the second track. When asked why they did not look any further up these two tracks, Arvid explained that the snorkack rarely strayed very far from water. That was one of the reasons they were so rare. Again, apart from a couple of false alarms, they didn't find any definite evidence of snorkack activity. They returned to the car. Arvid dismantled the fishing equipment. There were three substantial fish in the keep net.
"Do you two want dinner now," said Arvid, "or shall we have it at the next place?"
"It's a bit early for dinner," commented Luna, "Let's have it at where we're going."
Arvid killed the fish and placed them in an insulated cold box, froze some water into small chunks of ice and packed the box with these.
"Magic is very useful when you can make ice with a wand." said Arvid, as he placed the box in the car.
Once everything was ready, Arvid retrieved the location device he had placed on the spit of land earlier and got into the car. The trio took off while it was still bright sunshine as Arvid wanted to land at the next destination with enough daylight to set up the tent. The journey to the second lake took about an hour. This time they landed on a fairly large expanse of treeless lakeside.
"Dinnertime, I think." said Arvid, as he set up the barbecue to grill the fish they had caught earlier. He then assembled the tent ready for the night. Once he had finished and cast charms around their camp site, it was time for dinner. Before preparing dinner, he got a table and three chairs from the tent and set them up.
"I think you'll like this." Said Arvid, as he disappeared into the tent with a few potatoes.
He returned about five minutes later, prepared the fish, placed them on the barbecue, and returned to the tent. When one side of the fish was cooked, Luna turned them over as requested. Just as they were ready, Arvid emerged from the tent with three plates, salt, pepper and a wire basket of chips. Just as the Sun was setting, Arvid, Neville and Luna settled down to a delicious fish and chip supper under the darkening sky.
This area of land offered a far wider view of the sky and the adjacent lakeside as the forest was further back. Arvid indicated that they would start looking for clues which might indicate the presence of the snorkack at dawn the next day.
"I hope you're ready for a lot of walking tomorrow." said Arvid, "There's a lot of forest to look through and a lot more animal tracks."
"Will we see the Northern Lights again tonight?" asked Luna.
"Almost certainly." said Arvid.
As he said this, the sky was darkening and the afterglow in the West was diminishing. The first indications of the aurora were beginning to show high above them. After about an hour of relatively low level activity, the sky suddenly came to life. If anything, the display was even brighter and more colourful than it had been the previous evening. The red tops of the curtains, stretching right up into space, were more obvious as were the red lower borders. Luna was totally fascinated by the display. She had almost forgotten why she was in Northern Sweden.
"We don't see this kind of thing where I live." said Luna.
"That's just as well," said Arvid, "Because if you did, all the muggle communication systems would fail."
"Why is that?" asked Neville.
"Neville, I believe your specialities are Herbology and the associated geology." said Arvid.
"Er - yes." Said Neville, hesitantly.
"Then you will have come across magnetic rocks." said Arvid.
"Yes." said Neville.
"Have you ever thought how they became magnetic?" said Arvid, "They are magnetic because the Earth is a huge magnet, and they pick up the planet's magnetic field. That magnetic field also interacts with streams of electrically charged particles from the Sun. That interaction is what produces the aurora. The more particles there are, the brighter the aurora. This week, there has been a solar storm, which has produced a lot of particles. If a solar storm was as intense as the one in September 1859, they would disable all the muggle communication satellites and disrupt large electrical power grids. Fortunately, all this storm is doing is producing very bright aurorae. Let's settle down and enjoy the show."
Neville, Luna and Arvid spent the next three hours watching the glowing night sky constantly changing its form until it was time to enter the tent, find their beds and sleep. During this time, they kept their ears open in case they heard any unusual sounds in the evening. Neville and Luna were pleased to find that Arvid's tent was very similar to those at the Quidditch final. Although it looked quite small from the outside, it had a lounge, a kitchen area and two ample bedrooms. Neville and Luna managed to drop off to sleep relatively quickly and woke up refreshed at dawn the next day.