Back To Nature
Ophelia was sitting in the front row of the classroom with Ginny and Luna. They had started school a few weeks ago now, and were getting quite settled into the routine, and were all enjoying themselves.
Ron, Harry and Neville were starting to feel quite grown up as they were no longer the youngest students at the Ottery St Catchpole School.
They were meant to be practising their alphabets, but Ophelia was whispering to Ginny excitedly.
Ophelia had now discovered that she could whisper with other people in the room, if it was someone, she was comfortable with. So, for example, she could whisper to Ginny, Luna, or Harry and even her Daddy during class.
‘Is there something the matter Ophelia?’ asked Remus crouching down between Ginny and Ophelia’s desks, so he was at her eyelevel.
She shook her head frantically.
‘Then why were you talking sweetheart?’ asked Remus gently.
‘I already know this,’ she whispered quietly.
‘You already know your alphabet?’ asked Remus.
‘Why don’t you do some nice reading for me then?’
‘Yes Daddy,’ she whispered getting her book out and reading avidly.
Some of the other children had found it a bit weird whispering rather than talking properly in school, but at least she was talking it was better than it had used to be.
‘Ok guys,’ said Remus, ‘can we all finish what we’re doing, we are going to have a special outing.’
Everyone got very excited, as they had started going on outings into the Muggle world, so they could learn about things, and also learn how to integrate properly with Muggles which was a skill that many wizards didn’t have.
‘Are we going to the library?’ asked Percy. They never were, but that was his idea of a perfect fieldtrip.
‘Or the cinema!’ said Cedric.
Remus had told them all about the cinema and had promised to take them sometime when there was a good children’s film on.
‘No not today,’ said Remus, ‘we’re going on a nature walk.’
There was large amounts of groaning from some of the students. Nature walks took up the whole afternoon, and also meant they couldn’t have either music hour or flying time that day.
‘But before lunch,’ said Remus fetching his guitar, ‘it’s music time!’
All the students, even Percy loved music time. Remus had tried to teach them nursery rhymes, but the kids just weren’t interested. They were far more interested in the folk music from the 60’s like The Seekers that he used to love when he was young and his parents had taught him.
Everyone in the school like different parts of the day, Percy liked maths and hated flying, whereas Fred and George loved flying and hated reading. But everyone liked music hour, because they all their had their roles to play.
Felicity was now taking flute lessons at the weekends, and Cedric kept the beat for the group with a set of bongos. Fred and George were both learning the harmonica, and weren’t terrible, and Alice was trying to teach Neville how to play the piano, but she wasn’t getting very far as Neville wasn’t very keen on learning the piano. Harry kept on showing an intrest in Remus guitar, he thought it sounded very cool, and also Remus had told him that his Dad used to play the guitar.
‘Ok,’ said Remus sitting down with his guitar as the children all got their instruments out.
‘So we’re going to try a new group today.’
‘No more Seekers?’ asked Luna.
‘We’re going to try something a bit more mainstream. I’m going to teach you some of The Beatles, your Dad used to love them Harry.’
‘Really?’ asked Harry his mouth hanging open.
‘They were his favourite group,’ said Remus.
‘We’re going to start off with quite a simple one, you can all join in during the chorus and I’ll teach you the instrumental parts later ok?’
‘Ok,’ beamed Cedric.
‘Right,’ chuckled Remus getting his guitar ready, ‘this first one is Yellow Submarine.’
‘What’s a submarine?’ asked Percy who always liked learning new things.
‘It’s a bit like a Muggle boat, that travels underwater,’ said Remus, ‘and they’re huge, can hold loads of people.’
By the end of music hour, the class had started to get to grips with Yellow Submarine and had even learnt some of the words beyond the chorus. Then all the children went out for lunch, and Pandora came for the nature walk.
Now that there wasn’t a nursery class anymore, Hope helped Remus with the teaching and Mrs Weasley stayed at home and kept on top of things at The Burrow. But Pandora came in usually about once a week and took all the children on a nature walk.
The nature walks were good for the children as it got some healthy exercise in the fresh air. But it actually also helped with Potions classes when they were older. Pandora and Remus would point out which plants could be used in Potions, and what they were used for.
After lunch and playtime, the kids all pulled on their wellies. It was October now, and even if it hadn’t been raining today, it was nearly always muddy especially when they lived in the countryside. It was safer to wear wellies and not risk getting covered in mud than think you might be ok without them, and then ruin your shoes.
Mrs Fawcett had finally gotten over the ridiculous notion of sending Felicity to school in frilly dresses with matching pinafores. Felicity was still dressed considerably better than the other children, but they were a bit more practical. And Remus always told Mrs Fawcett when they were going to have a nature walk day, and Mrs Fawcett would send Felicity in a jumper and jeans on those day’s so Felicity wouldn’t get scratched by brambles or stinging nettles.
Felicity led their slightly strange group with a large basket swinging off her arm to collect the wildflowers she thought were the prettiest and putting them in her basket. Cedric was walking next to her, he wasn’t as interested in the flowers as Felicity, but usually carried her basket for her when it got heavy.
Fred and George used the nature walks as an excuse to let off steam and spent most of the time running through the fields and climbing fences and gates. Harry and Ron usually joined them, and sometimes even Ginny but at a much slower pace.
Remus usually made sure that Fred, George, Harry, Ron and Ginny didn’t get hurt falling out of a tree they were trying to climb or something, whilst also making sure that the flowers Felicity and Cedric picked weren’t poisonous or anything.
Pandora would show all the different flowers and animals to the other children. Percy would take detailed notes on everything she told him about the ingredients that could be used in Potions, and he would make annotated diagrams of the plants.
Neville would listen enthralled, he was only five, but he already loved plants, and would much rather help his Gran in the garden to going flying like Harry and Ron. Every word about the different plants that Pandora told him about the plants would stay etched on his mind.
Luna and Ophelia would listen patiently to what Pandora told them and kept well away from the plants that she told them were poisonous. But they were much more interested in the animals they sometimes met, fieldmice, or rabbits or birds. If they were very quiet, they sometimes even saw the odd deer, and one day they saw a baby fawn, but it had run away when Felicity had tried to pet it.
Today Felicity had been making herself a harvest festival crown. Cedric was helping her weave together the straw and barley left behind by the farmers when they had harvested everything last week. They had added a few early holly berries, and the effect was actually quiet pretty on Felicity.
Fred and George had been trying to climb some trees, and Harry and Ron were playing aeroplanes. Remus had taught them all about muggle aeroplanes, and they were zooming down the meadow with their arms outstretched pretending to be aeroplanes.
‘Mrs Lupin!’ yelled Fred and George running over, ‘Mrs Lupin! Mrs Lupin!’
‘Yes Fred, George. Can I help you both?’ asked Pandora, looking away from helping Percy with his diagram on fluxweed.
‘We found a bird’s nest,’ said Fred.
‘We think’s it’s a Robins,’ said George.
‘There are babies!’ beamed Fred.
‘Do you think we could have a look Mrs Lovegood?’ begged Felicity.
‘Please,’ begged Cedric.
‘Alright,’ she sighed, ‘but be careful not to hurt the birds.’
Remus sat Fred on his shoulders, and Fred carefully reached into the tree and brought down the bird’s nest which he passed to George.
‘Oh, look at the babies!’ gasped Ginny.
‘What do they eat Mrs Lupin?’ asked Cedric.
‘Birds eat most things,’ said Pandora, ‘worms, bird seed of course, berries, wheat or straw.’
Felicity clung onto the harvest crown she was still wearing, clutching it desperately to her dark hair thinking that the birds might want to eat it!
‘They don’t want your crown Flick,’ laughed Cedric.
‘We could gather up some more wheat and hay in your basket for them, they would like that.’
‘Ok Cedric,’ said Felicity beaming and skipping off with Cedric into the next field her basket swinging between them.
Fred and George went to go and help find food for the birds with Harry and Ron, and Pandora explained to the others about the birds, and Percy drew an annotated diagram of the bird family.
When they got back with the basket of food, the birds were very grateful as that would last them ages. Remus put the food in a hollow section of the tree by where the nest went, and George carefully put the nest back where they had found it.
They all went back to the house that afternoon having had an exciting afternoon. Mrs Fawcett was a bit confused as to why Felicity was wearing a crown of straw, barley and berries but it had gotten to the point where she had stopped questioning things with that child.