Field-Trip
‘Ophelia wake up!’ said Harry bouncing up and down on Ophelia’s bed.
‘Harry sleep,’ said Ophelia frowning at her cousin who had just woken her up.
‘No!’ said Harry still jumping excitedly.
‘We’re going to the zoo!’
Today was the last day of term in the first ever year at the Ottery St Catchpole School, as tomorrow Bill was coming home on the train from Hogwarts. To celebrate the end of the first year, Hope, Remus and Mrs Weasley with help from Pandora, Mrs Fawcett and Mrs Diggory were taking the children including the nursery class to the zoo for the day.
Harry had never been to the zoo, and was very excited.
‘What’s going on in here?’ asked Stefan wondering what all the excitement was.
‘We’re going to the zoo!’ said Harry still jumping on Ophelia’s bed.
‘So we are,’ said Stefan taking Harry off Ophelia’s bed.
He took his hands, and Stefan and Harry danced around the room singing, ‘we’re going to the zoo!’ and Ophelia sat up in bed and clapped happily.
‘It’s going to be a long day isn’t it?’ asked Lyall raising his eyebrows as he watched the three children laughing and clapping.
‘Yeah,’ sighed Remus running fingers through his hair.
‘It’s a good thing I’ll be at work then,’ said Lyall chuckling maniacally as he went to get up.
‘Why do you have such a maniacal laugh,’ muttered Remus shaking his head.
‘Ok gang,’ said Remus, ‘nobody is going to any zoos, until we all get dressed.’
‘But we are going to the zoo, right?’ asked Stefan as he stopped dancing suddenly.
‘Yeah,’ sighed Remus nodding, ‘we are going to the zoo….’
‘We’re going to the zoo!’ Stefan and Harry sang as they went to get dressed.
‘Come on princess,’ chuckled Remus picking up Ophelia, ‘let’s get you ready for the zoo.’
He dressed Ophelia in a dungaree dress with rabbits sewn on to it, with a pink t-shirt underneath. He finished by tying a pink ribbon on the end of Ophelia’s tiny plaits.
At breakfast, Harry and Stefan were far too excited to eat properly. Harry was talking about all the different animals he wanted to meet, and Stefan was wondering if they’d have any eagles at the zoo.
‘Why can’t you eat your breakfast like Ophelia?’ asked Hope.
‘There’s a good girl,’ she beamed as Ophelia finished her toast.
‘Perfect Ophelia,’ muttered Stefan darkly taking a bite grudgingly from his own breakfast.
Harry just stuck his tongue out at his cousin, before eating his breakfast.
As they finished breakfast, a very excitable Weasley family arrived. Fred and George were bouncing with energy, Percy was reading a book about different animals, and Ron was wearing a t-shirt with a tiger on the front, and pretending to be one.
‘Ron!’ shouted Harry leaping down from the table, and hugging Ron.
‘Roar!’ yelled Ron, ‘I’m a tiger!’
‘I’m a tiger too!’ laughed Harry.
Mrs Weasley just shook her head at Harry and Ron. She had been trying to calm Fred and George down since sunrise, but everybody was just so excited for today, that she had given up.
‘Mr Lupin,’ said Charlie, ‘do you think there’ll be dragons?’
‘We’re going to a Muggle zoo Charlie,’ laughed Stefan.
‘And?’ shrugged Charlie.
‘Muggle’s don’t have dragons Charlie,’ Percy pointed out.
‘Oh,’ said Charlie slightly disappointed for a second.
‘It’ll still be nice to meet all the other animals though,’ he beamed.
‘What do you want to see Ginny?’ asked Hope.
‘Baby elephants,’ said Ginny giggling.
Ginny had talked of nothing else for a week, ever since Percy had told her all about the elephants and the baby elephants he had read about in his book.
The other children soon arrived with their mothers, but the last to arrive was Mrs Fawcett and Felicity.
Felicity today was very excited, because she wasn’t wearing a pretty dress with an apron or pinafore to keep her dress tidy. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt like all the boys. Mrs Fawcett didn’t see the point in dressing her nicely today, if they were going to get straw or goodness knows what else all over her dress.
Mrs Fawcett herself was looking very uncomfortable. She was wearing a Muggle summer dress, that she had gone shopping for last week with Mrs Diggory. She missed her long flowing robes, elbows should not be on show, and neither should her knees. But as the children wanted to go to the Muggle zoo, everyone had to make sacrifices, and for her that included dressing like a Muggle.
As there so many fully trained witches and wizards, they were able to apparate everyone to the zoo after only two trips. It was much faster than driving, and they were soon all standing outside the London Zoo.
‘Wow!’ breathed Fred and George as they all lined up to buy their tickets.
‘Do you think they’ll have ponies Mummy?’ asked Felicity skipping by her mother’s side.
‘I don’t know dear,’ said Mrs Fawcett looking dubiously at the Muggle teenage girls who were wearing short shorts, and tank tops in the hot June sun.
‘They’ll have zebras,’ said Cedric, ‘and those are almost like horses. They’re really cool, they have stripes!’
‘Do you think we can stroke one?’ asked Fred.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Remus, ‘they don’t usually let you touch the animals. They sometimes have a smaller petting zoo though, maybe we can go there.’
‘Oh look,’ said Pandora, ‘we’re at the front of the line.’
‘Yay!’ shouted the children.
When they had all bought their tickets, then Remus lined all the children up, so he could talk to them.
‘Now this is very important,’ said Remus, ‘I don’t want anyone getting hurt or lost. Everyone has their buddy; can everyone please show me who their buddies are?’
Stefan and Percy were looking after Ophelia and Luna, Charlie was with Ginny, Harry Ron and Neville were each other’s buddies, Fred and George were together of course, and so were Felicity and Cedric.
‘Good,’ said Remus, ‘now this is a big zoo, I don’t want anyone running off on their own, don’t go anywhere without an adult. If anyone does get lost, we will meet you back by that giraffe over there by the exit. Do we have any questions?’
George put his hand in the air impatiently.
‘Yes George?’ asked Mrs Weasley.
‘Can we see the animals now?’ asked George.
‘Yes we can,’ chuckled Remus.
They were looking at the first exhibit, and Percy and Charlie were explaining all about the Giraffes. Charlie loved animals and knew a little about all of them, Percy had been reading about animals for weeks so he could tell everyone about the animals.
‘Charlie,’ said Ginny pulling on Charlie’s jean trouser.
‘Yes Gin Gin?’ asked Charlie.
‘Do you have a question about the giraffes Ginny?’ asked Percy.
‘Can’t see,’ sulked Ginny.
Ginny could see, as Mrs Weasley had been holding her up so she could see the animals properly.
‘Do you want to fly Gin?’ asked Charlie knowing his little brother very well.
‘Yes!’ beamed Ginny.
‘Hold on tight then,’ said Charlie lifting her up and putting her on his shoulders.
‘And we have lift off!’ he beamed.
‘Elephants?’ asked Ginny.
‘Yes the elephants are next Ginny,’ said Mrs Diggory who was busy with a camera so she could document the whole day.
They spent the morning looking at the lions, and elephants and zebras. After they had seen the penguins, they all stopped to have their picnic lunches in the grass.
‘Mummy?’ asked Luna.
‘Yes Moonbeam?’ asked Pandora.
‘Where are the nargles?’
This was too much for Fred, George, Felicity and Cedric who burst into laughter.
‘There are no such thing as nargles silly,’ said Percy dismissively.
‘Yes there are,’ said Luna stubbornly.
‘Says who?’ asked Fred.
‘My Daddy,’ said Luna proudly.
‘I don’t think they have any nargles here dear,’ said Mrs Diggory trying to stop the others from laughing.
‘No dear,’ said Pandora pulling Luna onto her lap, ‘the nargles are so special, they can’t be kept in a zoo, even a magical one.’
‘Then how do we see them?’ asked Felicity.
‘With time and patience,’ said Pandora softly, ‘they’ll come to you. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to see them.’
The children all seemed very impressed, and Remus came back over from talking to the zoo manager.
‘That nice man has given me a map to find the petting zoo,’ said Remus.
‘We can go and pet rabbits and the ponies, and the goats.’
‘Ponies!’ exclaimed Felicity.
‘I wanted to see the crocodiles,’ said Charlie disappointed.
‘And the snakes!’ agreed Fred and George.
In the end, Hope, Mrs Weasley and Mrs Fawcett took Charlie, Fred, George, Harry, Ron and Neville to see the reptiles and all the other animals, whilst Remus, Pandora and Mrs Diggory took Luna, Ophelia, Ginny, Stefan, Percy, Cedric and Felicity to the petting zoo.
Felicity and Cedric were stroking the little Shetland ponies, and Percy and Stefan were talking about whether those were the same kind of ponies that the Hobbits rode in Lord of the Rings.
Ginny tried to feed a goat the crusts from her sandwich at lunch, but the goat seemed to be more interested in eating Ginny’s hair and Remus had to save her quickly.
Luna and Ophelia were playing with the rabbits with Mrs Diggory. Ophelia was enraptured as one of the smaller rabbits hopped onto her lap, and let her stroke it.
‘Do you like rabbits Ophelia?’ asked Mrs Diggory as she took dozens of photos of the two girls with the rabbits.
Ophelia nodded eagerly and hugged the rabbit.
‘Well you’ve got a birthday next week,’ said Mrs Diggory, ‘if you’re a very good girl, maybe your Daddy will get one for you.’
Remus came over and heard the last of the conversation that Mrs Diggory had been having with Ophelia. He looked down at his daughter who had never looked happier in her life.
‘Thank you,’ mouthed Remus giving Mrs Diggory the thumbs up behind the children’s backs.
‘You’re welcome,’ mouthed Mrs Diggory laughing.
They met back up with the other group by the gift shop, and all the children bought things. Ron and Harry got matching tiger t-shirts, but Neville wanted a panda one. Charlie got one of the hats like the zookeepers wore so he could pretend to be a real zookeeper at home,
Percy and Stefan got books on their favourite animals, Stefan’s favourites were the eagles, because Gandalf rode a huge eagle at one point in the books, and also an eagle was Ravenclaws house animal.
Fred and George just bought loads of sweets, Cedric got a Lego set of the giraffes which had been his favourite, and Felicity got some plastic models of a zebra, a giraffe, an elephant, and three horses.
Ginny got a plasticine set so she could make all the animals, and Luna and Ophelia both got matching fluffy rabbit toys.
When they went home, Stefan and Harry told Lyall excitedly about all the different animals, and Ophelia dropped off to sleep on Remus’ lap cuddling her new rabbit toy.