By the time they were due to leave for the camp, Snape and Harry were about ready to kill each other. Harry was furious that Snape had confiscated his invisibility cloak for the summer, saying only that he intended to keep him from pulling any foolish stunts on his watch, and it irritated him to no end how the man was an organization freak and yet could not keep his house clear of dust and grime. He could not understand why Snape thought it was ok to bait him, and then get angry when he defended himself, nor could he understand why Snape had grounded him on his second day there. Snape, for his part, hated that Harry was lazy (oversleeping! even if it was the second day of summer vacation), and could not stand Harry’s attitude and rudeness. He could not even take his grounding without complaint!

So it was in a tense silence that they apparated to what looked like a short gravel driveway surrounded by red buildings. It looked like the whole camp was set on a gentle slope leading down to the shores of a lake, so Harry could see a good amount of its spread. There were two clusters of four red cabins on either side of a dirt path, and a third cluster of three cabins down a bit closer to the lake. Interspersed around the path were a few other larger buildings, and around this central path were fields, and even what looked like a quidditch pitch. The entire camp was surrounded by woods on three sides, with the lake on the fourth.

Harry felt a light touch on his shoulder, and he turned quickly, stepping back, to hear Snape say, “Move out of the way,” as he pointed beyond them. Harry followed him over to where a few people were grouped, standing beneath a tall sign that read ‘Egbert the Eccentric’s Summer Camp.’ Harry nearly snorted at the name.

Snape got in line behind one other at what looked like a registration table where two adults sat. When he reached the front, Harry watched Snape speak to the men in sign language and sign a piece of paper. Then he saw Snape’s face seem to harden slightly, and he spoke in jerky motions, spinning away from the table once he had received a response and barking at Harry, “Come.”

Harry hastened to follow, dragging his trunk and owl cage behind him. He trailed Snape to the nearest circle of cabins and into one labeled with a ‘B3’ on the door. When Snape finally turned around, he asked, “How do the other kids get here?”

Snape looked distracted as he answered, “A few of the older students apparate, some take the Knight Bus, quite a lot Floo in. Most of them are not here yet. Pick a bed.” He gestured to the bunks along the walls as he said this last part.

Harry glanced around and walked towards a bed in the corner, pulling his trunk with him. He considered the top bunk, having thought it would be cool to sleep on the top of a bunk bed when he was younger, but ended up settling on the lower, deciding there was something about it that made him feel safer.

He turned around as he asked, “Is there somewhere I can bring Hedw…” He trailed off as he saw Snape was setting up his trunk at the foot of a single bed by the door. He walked over so that he was in Snape’s line of vision and asked, “What are you doing?”

Snape glared at him as he got out sheets and a blanket. “I am setting up my bed.”

Harry gaped at him. “You’re the counselor for this cabin, my cabin?”

“Trust me, I am not thrilled about this either,” Snape sneered at him.

Harry sighed. This was going to be a very long summer. “Is there somewhere I can bring Hedwig? Or do I just keep her here?”

“There is an owlery on the second floor of the building by the lake. Here, this has a map and a schedule.” Snape handed him a small roll of parchment, which Harry took and left, making sure his cap was still securely on his head as he went.

Glancing at the schedule after he had left Hedwig in the small roost, Harry saw that the only thing scheduled until dinner at 5:00 was ‘Registration and Unpacking.’ Having very little to unpack, and only a sleeping bag he had borrowed from Snape to set up on his bed, he decided to explore the camp a little.

xxXxx

About an hour later, Harry found himself angrily skipping stones across the waters of the lake, the shade from the eastern woods cool on his face. Why did Snape have to control every aspect of his life? Why did Dumbledore have to send him to the git -- he wasn’t that deaf! He’d gotten by fine so far; he could usually understand Snape, even if he did have to strain a little. And now Snape was his counselor for the whole bloody summer!

Suddenly, a wave of grief overtook him. He missed Sirius, he missed having an adult who actually cared for him. He swiped at his face. Why did he have to go to the bloody Department of Mysteries, why hadn’t he listened? It was all his fault. Well, it was a bit Snape’s fault too; he was such a bloody git to Sirius. But it was mostly his own fault.

He glanced at his watch and saw that it was nearing 4:30. He should probably go up and unpack; he didn’t want to give Snape a reason to punish him on his first day. He turned around and was startled to see that another boy was by the water’s edge too, about twenty feet closer to the path and a bit behind him. He was not yet used to people being able to sneak up on him so easily. The other boy was quite a bit taller than Harry, likely around six feet, with dark, styled hair and a brooding look about him. He did not acknowledge Harry as he passed by, and Harry returned the favor, heading back to his cabin.

When he reached the cabin, he saw that Snape was gone, though a couple of other boys were unpacking at their beds. Six beds were full already, including his own and Snape’s, and he wondered if the whole cabin had arrived already or whether any more were coming. He walked straight to his own bed and began unpacking his ill-fitting clothes onto a nearby set of shelves. He was just spreading the old sleeping bag onto his bed when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned to see a boy only a few inches taller than his own 5’3” with mousy brown hair that flopped into his eyes just a bit. The boy gave him a wide grin and began signing rapidly, speaking at the same time but too low for Harry to hear.

Harry stared at him for just a minute before he spoke up, saying, “Sorry, I can’t hear you, and I don’t know much sign language yet.” Snape had only just begun teaching him some basics, and he had admittedly been rather stubborn about practicing.

The boy looked slightly puzzled, but he spoke a bit louder, and Harry could just make out him saying, “…I’m Sean, … …your name?”

“I’m Harry,” he answered, clumsily spelling out H-A-R-R-Y as Snape had shown him. “You’re Sean?” he asked, trying to confirm he had heard the other camper correctly, haltingly spelling out S-E-A-N for clarity.

Sean nodded enthusiastically, moving through S-E-A-N incredibly rapidly and then making the sign for smile (spreading his index and thumb below his chin). Harry assumed this to be his name-sign, a concept Snape had briefly mentioned to Harry. He mimicked the sign, and smiled in response to Sean’s own grin.

When Sean sent him a questioning look, Harry shrugged, feeling awkward. “I only just lost my hearing recently, well not all of it, I guess I’m hard-of-hearing,” he tried to explain, finger-spelling H-O-H to try to clarify what he meant.

Sean nodded, either understanding or not wanting to ask. “… …going… …dinner?” he asked.

Harry nodded, and they walked together to the cafeteria in silence. When they entered the building, Harry saw a large room filled with round wooden tables. He saw no dishes on the tables, and wondered where the food appeared, until he saw a couple of long tables on the opposite end of the room which was piled with covered dishes, presumably of food. Sean led him to a table that was already occupied by three boys who looked to be around their age. He made a round of introductions as they sat, but Harry only caught the name of the first boy, David (his name sign curiously looked as though one were drinking from a cup or a mug), who had platinum blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and looked stocky and well-built. He nodded to each of them and proceeded to attempt to follow their conversation, which involved rapid signing and some spoken words (Sean and one of the others spoke, while the others did not) which he only occasionally could hear. He was already feeling completely lost and a bit isolated by the time their table was tapped to get in line for food, however the other boys seemed friendly enough as they good-naturedly jostled each other and him to get in line. He spent the rest of the meal growing more and more fatigued as he tried to follow what was going on around him.

Eventually, the lights in the building were flashed a couple of times (Harry wondered how they had gotten seemingly electric lights to work in a magical camp), and the room of children began moving towards the exit and back to their cabins. Harry vaguely remembered that ‘Bonding Time’ was next on the schedule, and his heart sank at what that might mean in Snape’s cabin.

xxXxx

When the five boys trooped back into the cabin, Snape was already seated cross-legged on the floor. The other boys joined him, forming a circle, and Harry quickly followed suit. Then Snape began signing and speaking out loud. Harry realized the spoken words were likely only for his own benefit, and his face flushed a bit.

“Welcome to Egbert… …ummer Camp. I believe most of… …been here before, and likely know each other, but I would like you to go around the circle and introduce yourselves anyway, … …how long you have been coming to this camp and your age. Then we will play… …-know-you game.”

As they went around the circle, Snape translated each of their responses, for which Harry was immensely grateful. This time, he learned that the boy with the dark skin and the close-cropped tightly-curled hair was Rudy, and the boy with the olive complexion, hazel eyes, and loosely-wavy dark hair that flipped out a bit around his ears was Gio. He also learned that Sean and David had been coming to the camp since they were five, while Rudy started coming when he was seven and Gio started coming when he was eleven. They were all either fifteen or sixteen. When it was Harry’s turn, he felt embarrassed as he awkwardly fingerspelled his name, then let Snape translate the rest of his response. He noticed that each of them glanced up at his lightning scar, which was only partially obscured by his fringe, although they did appear to try to be discreet about their stares. Even Snape went, introducing himself as Severus and saying he had been coming to the camp as a counselor for the past seventeen years (omitting his age).

After the introductions were done, Snape explained that they would be playing a game called ‘two truths and a lie.’ Basically, each person would take a turn saying three things about themselves, two of which were true and one of which was a lie. The rest of the group would have to guess which statement was the lie. At first, Harry was worried about what to say - he was famous, what could he say that they would not know? But he soon realized that they were all friends with each other anyway, so he decided he might actually have an advantage that way.

When it was his turn (he was seated as far from Snape as possible, so he was third out of the five to go), he said (with Snape translating), “I’ve never left the country before except to go to Hogwarts in Scotland, my favorite subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts, and my patronus is a lion.”

Snape did not bother trying to translate the group’s discussion, since each was talking over the other, but when he finally gave their final answer as the first one, Harry grinned and shook his head.

“No, my patronus is a stag,” he explained.

They all looked surprised, and David and Rudy got into some intense discussion which was halted eventually by Snape. The other boys mostly listed exploits from their past year as their facts, presumably because they knew most other things about each other from seeing each other at camp each year. When it was Snape’s turn, Harry was quite surprised to learn that his patronus was a doe, his favorite color was not black despite the fact that he rarely wore any other color (he did not disclose his actual favorite color), and that he played keeper on the quidditch team when he was in school.

As they got into bed, Harry was rather pleased to see that Sean's bed was the bottom bunk next to his. There were enough beds for ten campers, so not every bed was filled, but Gio was in the bunk above Sean's, and David and Rudy were both in the bunk on Sean and Gio's other side, with David on the top bed.

xxXxx

Harry, along with his cabin mates, was woken the next morning by flashing lights in the cabin. He groaned and rolled over, trying to cover his face with his pillow, but felt someone roughly shake his shoulder. He lifted his head and saw Sean grinning down at him, signing something he could not understand.

He learned what Sean had been warning him of when he finally extricated himself from his warm sleeping bag fifteen minutes later to see that he was last in line for the showers (there were only two). By the time he got in, the water would not get any hotter than lukewarm and it was rapidly turning cold. He washed quickly and dressed hurriedly to follow the other boys to breakfast, stuffing his cap back on before any of his cabin mates could see his odd-looking ears.

They were all handed class schedules that morning, and Harry groaned to realize that the ‘Class’ section he had seen each weekday morning on the camp schedule consisted of real school-type classes, not some strange camp activity as he had assumed. The rest of the table laughed at the expression on his face.

“… …not bad. …learn good stuff,” Sean tried to assure him. “What classes… …taking?” he asked.

Harry shrugged, looking down at his schedule. He turned his face up towards Sean as he read out, “Intermediate Signed and Verbal Magic, Beginner British Sign Language, Beginner Speechreading, and Wordless Magic, it says.”

Sean frowned. “Who signed you up?” Harry shrugged again, and Sean added, “I… …Verbal Magic and Wordless Magic with you.” He grinned at Harry, and Harry could not help but to smile back.

“What activities do they have in the afternoons?” Harry asked.

“… …choice… …outdoor activity or indoor… Football, … … quidditch, … … Indoor activities are chess, gobstones, and then… …both arts and crafts,” Sean told him brightly. “I usually go to all the outdoor ones.”

Harry nodded. “I’ll probably go to all of the outdoor ones too. Sorry, what were the second and fourth outdoor activities?”

“Swimming and gaga.”

Harry frowned. “Gaga?” He fingerspelled the word he thought he had heard and Sean enthusiastically nodded. “What’s that?”

Sean’s eyes lit up. “Oh, it’s a great sport!” he exclaimed, and was off on a detailed explanation of the rules.

Harry did not catch all of Sean’s description, but he was already growing tired of asking people to repeat things or clarify things, and so he just let the enthusiastic boy speak, nodding every once in a while in encouragement.

xxXxx

Harry and Sean walked together to their first class, with Sean now explaining the camp-wide Olympic Games that would begin in the second week, with the campers being split into teams by cabins. They took their seats in a classroom in the building by the lake (the building did not seem to have any official name, and was generally just called ‘the building by the lake’ or occasionally the ‘lake building’) with about ten other students. Their (rather one-sided) conversation was halted when the teacher entered the room, introducing herself (fortunately in both BSL and spoken English) as Sally.

Signed and Verbal Magic turned out to be pretty much what it sounded like. The students all had individual assistance in pronouncing spell words (a rather difficult feat when one could not hear the incantation very well or at all, Harry realized) as well as instruction in signed magic, which used variations on signed words to cast the spells. Harry thought that Hermione would find this adaptation fascinating, although he himself found it rather frustrating. The other students seemed to have a much easier time with the signed magic than with the verbal, but he found himself struggling to cast a simple Levitation Charm by signing.

In Beginner BSL, he was the only camper older than twelve and the only British person in the class. All of the other students were coming to camp for the first time from a different country and spoke a different sign language. However, despite his age, Harry soon felt quite a bit behind the younger children, who seemed to be picking up the language with surprising ease. He learned quickly that sign language was much more complicated than he had thought, with its own grammatical system that even involved facial expressions, and was really nothing like English.

He was quite relieved to realize that he was not the only beginner to Wordless Magic, and that he was not far behind those who had practiced it before. However, he had to bite back a groan when he learned that Snape was their teacher. Fortunately, although the man was still swooped about the classroom, looking intimidating, he seemed noticeably more patient with the students at the camp than at Hogwarts.

And he developed a grudging respect for the man when he realized just how difficult speechreading was. He was one of only a couple in the beginner class (the others were all, of course, eleven-year-olds), and he learned that speechreading was not as simple as learning which mouth shapes corresponded to which sounds or which words. In fact, only approximately 30% of speech could be read from the lips; the rest was all context and guesswork. Apparently, Snape was not exaggerating when he said that he was impossibly good at lipreading.

As the week went on, he began to get to know his cabin mates better. He learned that David’s name-sign was actually the sign for 'coffee,' and just how appropriate that was considering how many cups of coffee he drank each morning. David and Rudy were best friends, except for when they were arguing, which was about once a day. Gio was quiet, and perhaps a little shy, but brilliant, and had a surprisingly hilarious dry sense of humor. Sean quickly became Harry’s closest friend at the camp, despite their language barrier, and Harry realized just how optimistic and cheerful he was. The boys soon began referring to Harry by his scar, tracing a zig-zagging line on their own foreheads as his name-sign. Harry was not sure that he liked being referred to in such a way, but he did not want to risk his fragile acceptance.

The communication problems Harry was having were beginning to wear on him. He was increasingly fatigued each day as he strained to hear sounds that he could not and was immersed in a language he did not yet know. Some days he developed a pounding headache by bedtime. It left him feeling oddly in-between worlds; striving to use the hearing he had, acting as a hearing person, and unable to really speak or understand BSL, yet unable to hear what many people were saying very well.

Consequently, he became eager to learn as much BSL as he could as quickly as he could, although he soon discovered that many other sign languages besides BSL were spoken at the camp. The primary language for the camp was BSL, because the camp was in England and had been founded by the English, however campers came from all over western Europe, and a few even came from eastern Europe. Most of the campers were multilingual, speaking their native sign language and BSL, and many of them also spoke the native oral language of their country. Around half of the campers, including Sean, David, and Rudy, knew American Sign Language (ASL) as well because they attended the Washington Wizarding School for the Deaf, which was located in Washington, D.C. Sean also knew Irish Sign Language, and Gio knew Italian Sign Language. The camp even had classes in ASL through the advanced level, and in French Sign Language (LSF) through the intermediate level.

Despite the language barrier, Harry’s cabin mates, and the vast majority of the other campers, seemed to get along with him ok, even if some of them were not quite sure how to act around him. One of the older boys, however, seemed to resent him, as he learned on their first full day.

He and Sean had walked together from swimming to quidditch, lagging a bit behind the other three boys in their cabin. When they reached the pitch, Harry groaned to see that Snape was the referee. Sean gave him a confused look at the annoyed expression on his face, but made no comment. As Snape was rummaging in a shed for the trunk that held the quaffle, bludgers, and snitch, a tall boy with styled hair, whom Harry recognized from the lake the day before, walked up to Harry and Sean with a couple of his friends flanking him. He began speaking in sign language, a disgusted look on his face, while his friends glared at Harry and Sean shifted his weight uncomfortably. When the three older boys turned back around, Harry asked Sean for a translation.

Sean hesitated, then said, “… …you don’t belong here. … …hearing, not Deaf. He called you ‘the famous Harry Potter,’ … …like an insult.”

Harry nodded, pulling his cap lower over his head self-consciously. He was prevented from further conversation by Snape emerging with the trunk and beginning to split them into teams and explain the rules.

Later that night as he lay staring up at the dark underside of the bunk above him, Harry thought about all of the changes that had occurred over the past week and a half. He felt a bit lost and disoriented, as though something had attempted to cut him adrift from his old life but had succeeded only in partially severing him from it, leaving him just barely hanging on and tossed by the waves. Although he was still desperately trying, he felt less and less as though he could truly fit in with the hearing world once he returned to it, but he also did not really fit in with the Deaf Wizarding world, and had even been rejected by some of them. He sighed and rolled over, his mind churning as he tried to fall asleep.