"Songs?" Harry asked. "What do you mean?"

"I went to a Muggle summer camp once. They sing songs around the campfire. It's fun."

"I don't know any," he said, starting to feel nervous. "That wasn't on the list."

"It's ok, we can do campfire together one night and your campers can learn from mine."

Harry nodded. "My group and Neville's are going to do some things together too. Maybe we can all plan something together."

"What about your group Draco?" Willow asked. He was leaning on a table nearby and listening, but not participating in the conversation. So far over the last two days it seemd like he wanted nothing to do with Harry or Neville.

"Sure," he said quietly, "whatever."

"We can talk at lunch then," she said.

As the floo in the Great Hall came to life behind the staff table and a student tumbled out with his backpack, McGonagall directed him to Draco, who was holding a sign with a Falcon on it. "Falcon group," she told him, and the first year hurried over to Draco, looking nervous. He was a Hufflepuff, and Harry wondered how Draco would treat kids from houses other than Slytherin this week. Neville had asked Harry the same the night before, but Harry had promised he was going to treat every kid in his group the same. He knew what it was like to be treated differently and set apart from the rest. He hated always feeling like he was on the outside looking in, and didn't want any of the boys in his group to feel like that.

Ten kids came through the floo before one was finally directed to Harry, who was standing by the door to the Entrance Hall.

"What's your name?" he asked the sandy haired boy who came over to him.

"Darius. I'm from Hufflepuff," he offered.

"We're not doing houses this week," Harry said. "For the week you're an Arrow."

"Arrow? Like Applebee Arrows?"

"That's right," Harry said. Another boy came out of the floo and was sent to Harry's group and then two more, twin brothers from Ravenclaw. By the time Harry had his eight campers, the eight boys were excited and getting rowdy.

"Time to see our campsite," Harry said, and led them away. He had four first years, two second years, and two third years. Several of the boys were from Slytherin, but Harry tried to push it from his mind, telling himself he didn't care.

When Harry led them into camp, one of the boys said, "That tent's awfully small for nine of us."

"Go inside and see," he said to the group, and they disappeared under the tent flap one by one.

Harry followed them in and said, "Everyone pick a cot. The one by the door is mine." He had initially set his up in back, but after seeing Neville's tent he'd moved his cot to the front. "Put your blanket and pillow on your cot and your bag underneath, then come stand in a line by the entrance."

The boys did as they were told and came back to the entrance to stand in line in short order. Harry could feel the nervous energy coming off of the group, and tried to squash his nervousness down inside of himself. If he acted calm and collected, so might they.

He led them to the empty campfire circle where there were nine tall rounds of wood, stumps Hagrid had cut for seats earlier in the week.

"We have to go over a few rules first thing, and then we have to get you set as Arrows," he said.

"What's that mean?" one of the first year Slytherins asked.

"It means this week there are no houses, only camp groups. This is the Arrow group, after the Applebee Arrows, which is why we have their colors of blue and silver and an arrow on our flag." He pointed to the flag above the tent entrance. "But you don't get to just be an arrow, you have to earn it."

Harry explained the rules of the camp, and then the rules for their group. "You have to brush your teeth and hair morning and night, and wash your hands, face and arms morning and night. In the morning when you're done brushing you have to line up at the door and let me see before you can leave for the day to do your activities. After dinner and campfire you have to line up at the campfire to show me before you go into the tent to go to bed."

"Who's gonna check your teeth and hair Harry?" Darius asked, and without missing a beat Harry said, "Professor Snape." Darius' eyes grew wide but the other boys snickered and Harry said, "Now it's time for you to earn your spot as an Arrow."

"How we gonna do that?" one of the twins named Ben asked.

"Follow me."

Harry led them out of the woods and to an open area in front of the green houses. "We're going to play Seekers and the Snitch."

"Never heard of it."

"It's a camp game," Harry said. It was a game of tag he'd made up the night before while being unable to sleep.

"I'm the Snitch, you're the Seekers. Two at a time you get to come out and try to catch me. When one of you catches me, you've earned your spot on the Arrows and you go and sit down. If you don't catch me, you go to the back of the line. You catch me by tagging me with your hand, like this." He reached out and touched one of the boys shoulders. "It has to be on the shoulder or it doesn't count."

The boys seemed eager to play and Harry called the twins Ben and Aiden up first. "Ready, go!" he shouted, and the twins both chased after him. Harry twisted out of their reach, dodged to the right, then the left, ducked under their arms and finally was tagged by Ben, who he told to sit down on the side. "Ben's the first Arrow!" Harry said loudly. "Who's next?" Jack and Ollie stepped forward and Ollie tagged Harry after Harry tripped and fell. One by one Darius, Aiden, Jack, Alfie, Graham and finally Finlay all tagged him and sat down in a circle in the shade of Greenhouse three. When they'd all tagged him Harry sat down in the middle of them and pulled out the tin of blue hair color.

He held out the tin to Ollie and said, "Take a scoop and wait." Ollie took a scoop and the tin passed on to the next boy, then the next until it made it's way back to Harry, now nearly empty, and Harry took the last of the hair cream out.

"When you put this on, you'll be an Arrow for the week," he said seriously. "The color will last all week, and anyone who sees you and your blue hair will know you're an Arrow. They'll know you're one of our brothers. There's a camp cup, just like the house cup at Hogwarts. When you earn points by doing good things, you'll earn a blue gem as an Arrow. Points can't be taken away here, but if we win the camp cup at the end of camp we all get a big bag of candy from Honeydukes. So when you're ready to be an Arrow, put this in your hair. You can make a streak of color in your hair, or make your hair completely blue." Harry rubbed both hands together to coat them in gel and then began running his fingers through his hair and the other boys followed, hair all soon turning a vibrant dark electric blue.

Harry led them back to camp to wash their hands and then up to the castle for lunch. After lunch they would be breaking off to do afternoon activities and Harry was looking forward to learning to break curses with Professor McGonagall.

* * *

Severus sneered into his coffee. The newest recruits to Potter's little fan club were telling all who would hear over lunch how they were ‘inducted' into the ‘Order Of The Arrow'. Apparently Potter had conducted some sort of ritual to brainwash the children, and had dyed all their hair blue. It wasn't uncommon, Severus knew for the counselors to find some way to differentiate their campers from the others, case in point the Mermaid team all had vibrant pink hair, some with darker streaks of pink throughout, but it rubbed him the wrong way that Potter was running his group this way.

"I'm brothers with Harry Potter now!" one of his first year Slytherins announced to his table of campers at lunch, and a boy from Neville's group said, "Awe, not fair!"

"Yeah, well who wants to be in a stinky boy's group anyway?" a girl asked. "I'm a Unicorn and my leader braided my hair with pretty silver ribbons. Look!" As her voice carried across the hall, Severus noted seven other little girls also had their hair braided in double braids down their backs with silvery strings and ribbons intertwined.

The least offensive of the groups appeared to be Longbottom's who all wore an armband with an owl on it. Some of his campers had put the armband around their leg or wrist instead, but the Gryffindor didn't seem to care.

When Severus had been a third year they had put on Summer camp at Hogwarts, and he had been separated into a group that was thankfully free of Potter and his gang, and that had been run by an upper year Slytherin. He had spent a happy week learning spells and potions that had set him on a path to becoming a Potions Master after Hogwarts. These camps could be pivotal in student's lives, but only if the campers were having fun. His eyes roved over the students with blue hair and he noted several of them were Slytherins. He wished Minerva and Filius hadn't given Slytherins over to Potter to bully. He was definitely going to have to check in on them later. Potter passed by him at that moment and into the staff lounge behind the table with Willow and Neville, the brat. It made Severus' skin crawl to think they had allowed the boy to even think of himself as staff. Potter would never deserve to use the staff lounge after all his misdeeds at school, and as far as Severus was concerned should be banned from the lounge on principle.

* * *

Harry was pleased to find that classes were separated into groups based on age. While some of the first through third years had chosen to learn cursebreaking that afternoon, they were in a separate group with Professor Vector, who was helping McGonagall this week. McGonagall had taken the fourth through seventh years to a different room and had them trying to detect curses on a variety of objects hidden around the room. Parvati Patil had come back to school to attend camp, along with Theodore Knott and Hannah Abbot, so there were some kids in his year that he knew. Neville had chosen to go to the greenhouses that afternoon, and Draco had gone off to learn some advanced charms with Flitwick.

All of the courses were being offered several times over the course of the week, so if you wanted to do an activity but it was at the same time as another activity you wanted to do, you had time to do both. So long as you were at an organized activity during the day, they didn't care which activities you did, or even if you repeated the same ones again and again.

After two hours of cursebreaking with McGonagall, Harry switched activities and went to the greenhouses to find Neville. He didn't have a particular interest in Herbology, but had promised his friend he would come to at least one lesson.

"There you are Potter," Sprout said. "We need your help."

"Me?" Harry asked.

"Yes yes, come here." She pointed to a spot at a workbench with Neville near the back and said, "It takes three to complete this activity."

Harry looked around, noting some younger students were filtering in and standing at the front of the greenhouse.

"Don't worry about them," she said, "You and Neville are doing advanced magic. We just need a third."

Draco came in a moment later and she called him over. "The three of you will be grafting three plants into one. All three of these are poisonous by themselves, but if you can manage to graft them together, the properties of the sap in each will balance the sap of the others out, and you'll have a plant that will produce several Galleons of rare sap per week."

Draco raised his brows. "How do we-"

"Neville will explain. I have an activity to do with the younger children." She hurried off to start her activities with the group of twelve kids who had just come in, and left the three fifth years to themselves.

"This one's Venomous Moly," Neville said, pointing to a pot with a plant with a black stem and white flowers. It's used in potions to counteract powerful enchantments after the poison has been counteracted." He handed it to Draco.

"This one is Mimbulus Mimbletonia," Neville continued on, pointing to a plant in front of him. "It makes stink sap which isn't poisonous to the skin, but is if ingested. We're using this as the base plant because it squirms and has a great defense mechanism with the stink sap."

Finally he set a pot in front of Harry. "Venomus Tentacula," Harry said with dismay at the green spiky vine with teeth sticking out of the pot. It was a baby, but it still tried to grab Harry's hand and sting it.

"Right," Neville said, "we'll all need gloves. You each need to cut a piece from the plant at a diagonal, and then stick it into slits I'll make in the Mimbulus Mimbletonia. At the same time we each need to seal the plants in with the Scalus spell." He described the spell and said, "If we get it right, we'll have one new plant that will make a sap that smells foul but will counteract powerful charms. It's rare and no one has had success in making one in a hundred years. In the old times Merlin used one of these to coat Arthur's armor and shields with the sap and it made him impervious to magic from the opposing army's wizards."

Draco didn't seem pleased to be working with them, but he worked diligently anyway in his silence. Harry fought the Venomus Tentacula, which did not want to be cut and grafted, and ended up with several scratchy swollen spots on his arm for his efforts. After almost forty minutes however they had successfully grafted each plant together with the Mimbulus Mimbletonia, and Professor Sprout looked like she couldn't be prouder.

"We've tried with several seventh years over the years," she told them, "but no one has been successful. With Neville's knack for understanding plant behavior however, I wanted him to try it. Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, with the aptitude you've shown today, I'm surprised your grades aren't higher in Herbology."

When she left, Draco asked Neville, "She said the sap is worth money. Who gets the money then?"

"The cool thing is, now that we have one plant, we can split it into three. Not right now, but by the end of the summer when school starts again, it'll be ready to split up. It needs at least a month before it starts making sap anyway. Professor Sprout said she'd take care of it if we managed to combine them, and then we can come in after school starts and divide the plant."

"Not bad," Draco praised Neville, giving him an appraising look. "Is this what you plan to do after Hogwarts?"

"Sure," Neville said. "Why not? I can run my own business and live anywhere I want grafting and growing rare plants and selling them for ingredients. Professor Sprout said there's only a few growers and they all specialize in something. If I can grow lots of different things then everything I have will be in demand somewhere."

A few minutes later they left the greenhouse and headed for their separate camps. Dinner was soon and their campers would be returning.

Harry retrieved two blue crates with the name Arrows labeled on the side and carried them to his campsite. When his campers came back he made them all wash their hands and come to the fire ring for dinner.

"Who's going to help pass out dinner tonight?" he asked, and several boys jumped up eagerly. "Alfie," Harry said, and motioned him over. Harry reached into the crate and handed Alfie a tray of food and removed the charm holding all the food in, and Alfie handed it to Darius, then gave the next to Ben and the next to Aiden. When the trays were passed out Harry had Alfie hand out cups and then Harry went around pouring pumpkin juice into each. He started a fire in the fire ring despite that it was still warm out and they set to eating their dinner (roast beef with vegetables and mashed potatoes).

"One at a time starting with Darius," Harry said, "Tell us what activities you did today and what was your favorite thing you learned."

The boys each told him in turn, and then Harry told them about his time breaking curses and grafting plants. When dinner was done he passed out raspberry white chocolate cookies for dessert and then sent Alfie and Finlay to take the crates full of dishes back to their spot by the greenhouses.

"Neville says to invite you to the Owl camp for crafts," a third year boy from Gryffindor said, coming to stand next to Harry.

"We'll be there in a minute," Harry told him, and the boy went around Draco's camp and back to Neville's.

That evening while Neville had the Owls and Arrows making bracelets with blue, black, red and gold string, Draco's group went to Willow's camp to sit around their campfire and tell ghost stories and sing songs, and the other two girl's groups did their own thing. When Harry's watch read eight he led his boys back to their campfire and then went into the tent to retrieve the novel he had checked out to read to them. After explaining that everyone but Harry and the other campers had to whisper or talk quietly after eight, the boys settled in to listen to the story as they stared into the dancing flames of the fire. Harry was as engrossed in the story as the boys were, and didn't see the shadow of a man coming into the woods and watching them.

Severus narrowed his eyes. All seemed quiet with the six campsites as the older students led the younger campers in quiet time activities. Draco's group was playing chess, Neville's group was drawing in the light of the campfire, two of the girls groups were doing crafts and one was talking and giggling. Even Potter's group was quiet and well ordered as he read to them from a book. Severus wasn't close enough to hear the words as Potter read quietly, and he wondered what the boy was reading to them. Whatever it was, the eight younger boys listened raptly.

Minerva had been surprised when Severus volunteered to be the one to check on the students that night, and he had made an excuse about wanting to stretch his legs. Hagrid was camped nearby with Fang, so there was already a staff member present, but the Ministry guidelines stated a second staff member was to check in with the campers before ten each night.

It was almost nine and Potter seemed to be finished reading for the evening. Severus watched as he had the eight boys in his group line up in front of him as he sat by the fire on his stump, and wondered just what was going on. The first boy held out his hands, flipped them over, then opened his mouth and Potter sent him on his way to the tent. The second boy repeated the ritual, but was sent to the wash basin and outhouse set up at the back of camp. Severus narrowed his eyes. That boy had been a Slytherin, what was going on? The third boy was sent into the tent, then the fourth and fifth.

Severus walked closer to hear what was being said as the seventh boy, a first year Hufflepuff, was also sent to the wash basin.

"Hands," Harry said as Alfie finally made it to the front of the line and the first year Slytherin came back from the wash basin to get in line again.

Alfie held out his hands and Potter inspected them. "Teeth," Potter commanded, and the boy opened his mouth. "And your hair is brushed too. Good job, head inside and get in your cot."

Ollie came forward this time and held out his hands to Potter for a second time that evening. He flipped them over and Harry said, "Good job. Now they're nice and clean. I already saw you brushed your teeth, and your hair looks good. Go inside to your cot. As soon as we get Ben checked we'll both be in."

Ben, one of the Carcroft twins came back from the wash basin and Potter repeated himself again. "Yep, they look really clean now. Good job. Go ahead into the tent and get into your cot. Remind the other boys that whoever is quietest when I get inside gets to help pass out meals tomorrow."

"Ok!" Ben said brightly, and hurried away to the tent.

Harry stood up and stretched, looking like he was ready to go into the tent himself, but a small voice stopped him, and he turned to find a boy from a different group behind him in the darkness.

"I don't have a toothbrush and no one has extra. Do you have any?"

"Sure, wait here."

Potter went into the tent and came out with a clean toothbrush. He spotted the Falcons shirt the boy was wearing and said, "I'll walk you back to your camp. Did you ask permission before you left?"

He shook his head.

"Better ask permission next time. You're more likely to earn points for your camp if you follow the rules."

Harry walked him back the twenty feet to Draco's camp, and Severus waited for the brat to start berating Draco for letting his campers wander, but he didn't. The little boy ducked into the Falcon's tent and Potter crossed back to his own camp.

Severus had been... surprised with what he'd seen. He'd expected Potter to bully the Slytherins in his group, but he hadn't seen any indication yet that the boys had been bullied. Instead the teen had read to the boys and made sure they'd brushed their hair and teeth and washed their hands. He was certain though that Potter knew he was there watching. He had to be if he was on his best behavior.

He strode forward and said, "Indoctrinating the next generation of your fan club Potter?"

Harry startled, not having seen him come up from behind, but before he had a chance to respond, they heard loud whispering from the tent flap and both looked over to the entrance to Harry's tent as a boy said, "He's coming to see if Harry brushed his teeth and washed his hands and face!"

Harry put his hand up over his mouth to hide his smile and turned to Snape. "All clean sir." He held out his hands and said, "Do you want to see my teeth too?"

Severus dearly wanted to take points off the boy for his cheek, but instead he strode away into the darkness.

Harry watched him go, puzzled, and then turned back to his tent with a grin. "Into bed. How am I gonna choose one of you to help with meals if you're all breaking the rules?" The boys scattered into the dark tent and Harry chuckled. Neville had been right. This was fun, and it wasn't going to be such a bad week after all.