"For all his gruff, I think he rather adores some of them," Dumbledore said to McGonagall one day after a staff meeting. He'd said it loud enough for Severus to hear as he left the staff lounge, but he ignored it. He didn't adore anyone, but the student's weren't as bad as he made them out to be. He enjoyed his status as head of house, and as the Hogwarts Potions Master, and without the students he wouldn't have either title. There was one student he despised though, and the staff knew who it was. They never smiled when he put the fourth year Gryffindor down, gave him detention or took a few too many house points off of him. Potter was the bane of his existence and he made that plainly clear to all.

So when the staff were informed that this was to be a ‘camp year', Severus grumbled as he usually did about having to watch the students for an extra week at the start of summer, and about the trouble it would cause him, and the staff gave each other knowing looks. Severus told himself however it would all be fine, so long as Potter didn't stick around to attend summer camp. Such a thing was beneath the boy, Severus told himself, so there was no need to worry about the brat sticking around for an extra week. Why would the boy want to stick around for an extra week to learn after all, as that would take effort, and especially after what had happened at the end of the tournament a few weeks before?

* * *

Hermione sighed heavily as she looked through her trunk a third time for a book she'd misplaced as she sat in the common room, waiting for her housemates to walk down to the platform for the ride home.

"I'm sure it will turn up," Ron said.

"It's not about the book," Hermione told him.

"Then what's it-"

"The camp," Harry and Hermione both said at the same time.

"Rotten luck," Ron said. "I wanted to stay too. It'd be kind of fun to boss a bunch of kids around like a Prefect, but mum wrote a few days ago and said dad secured a summer job for me making Floo powder down the lane with the neighbor. I want to earn money for a nice broom."

Hermione had fretted over having to go home for summer for the last week of school, ever since they'd found out it would be a summer camp year at Hogwarts. They hadn't had one since the year before Harry had started school, and Hermione was convinced that anyone who stayed to help with younger years would become a Prefect. It was something she badly wanted.

"I just wish mum and dad hadn't thought to schedule a vacation to Norway until next summer," she said, "or at least waited until a week into the summer. I already wrote and asked if we could postpone and they said they already had reservations at a hotel and plane tickets."

Ron asked again how the Muggle flying contraptions worked, but Hermione only sighed again and ignored him.

"At least Harry's staying," Ron said. "If any of us was going to be a Prefect, it was always going to be him."

Hermione gave Harry a sour look and Harry raised his hands, "I didn't say it," he said and he pointed to Ron, hoping she would direct her anger at him instead.

Her look softened and she said to Ron, "That's not why he's staying and you know it."

They both looked at Harry, who pretended not to notice. Ever since Ron and his brothers had rescued Harry in the flying car, they all knew what his home life was like. The scars Ron had seen on Harry's back in first year had suddenly made sense once he'd seen the lock on Harry's tiny bedroom door and Uncle Vernon practically breaking Harry's ankle as he tried to hold on to Harry as he escaped from the second story window. Ron had told Hermione of the daring escape, but thankfully she hadn't questioned Harry on it much, and the topic was then relegated to a mutual understanding of silence: Harry didn't want to talk about it, and so they didn't often bring it up. If ever there was a time Harry didn't want to return to the Dursleys however, it was now. Not after what had happened in the graveyard and with Cedric. He would take any chance he could to postpone the misery of returning to Privet Drive as long as possible.

Ron slapped Harry on the back. "Have fun for us, yeah?" he said, as a seventh year Prefect began telling the gathered Gryffindors it was time to head for the train.

"I'll walk with you," Harry said, and followed them out through the portrait hole.

"Does camp start tomorrow?" Hermione asked.

"The day after," Harry said. "The upper years who are staying to help are supposed to have two days to learn how to take care of the campers first. So after you leave we'll meet with McGonagall at ten this morning. Camp starts Monday."

"All the campers are going home on the train then?" Ron asked.

Harry nodded. "They go home for two days and drop their stuff off, and then their parents floo back with them Monday morning. They're supposed to just bring a week's worth of clothes with them and a blanket and pillow."

"Will you write to us and tell us how it goes?" Hermione asked.

"Sure," Harry said.

"I don't need a letter every day," Ron joked, and Harry gave him a thumbs up. "I'll let you know at the end of the week. Except Hermione, I'll write more often," and at this she gave a nod and a smile.

After Harry had seen his friends onto the train and watched them speed away down the tracks, he headed back to the castle alone and into the Great Hall for breakfast. Neville, Draco, and several older girls were eating together. Harry and Neville sat together at Gryffindor, and it appeared Draco had joined the group of girls at Ravenclaw table.

"It'll be exciting," Neville said, "don't you think?"

"Sure," Harry told him. He wasn't eager to lead a group of younger years around for seven days, but that's what he had to do to stay another week. He had half a mind to just never leave and find a place to hide out until the end of summer when he could go back to classes. It was his chance for a Dursley free summer, and as that idea really took hold over him, Professor McGonagall came into the Great Hall with the Headmaster.

"Can I have your attention?" she asked, and the six students gathered there looked up at her. "Let's have everyone sit at Ravenclaw table this morning." She looked to Harry and Neville, who both got up and moved to the table behind them. Then McGonagall and Dumbledore took a seat at the front of the table and McGonagall began passing papers down to the six students seated there.

"Today we'll meet until lunch, and then you'll have the rest of the afternoon to do the homework we'll assign. Then we'll meet again tomorrow from breakfast until lunch, so you can have the afternoon tomorrow to prepare as well."

"From this point forward, for the next week," the Headmaster said, "you are not Hogwarts students, but camp counselors. As summer camp is run by the Ministry of Magic, house points can not be awarded or taken for good deeds or transgressions, nor can you be punished as students. However as the camp is being run by Professors McGonagall and Flitwick this year, they may punish you as they see fit. Given who is sitting before us this morning however, I don't expect any issues shall arise." He gave them a serene smile and gave Harry a twinkling look. Harry thought that since Draco was going to stick around to counsel for a week that there was sure to be trouble, but when he looked at Draco the Slytherin didn't look at him from across the table.

"We'll start by giving a brief history of camp, and then talk about what camp will be like this year, and then go over the Ministry's guidelines," McGonagall said. "Every five to six years a summer camp is held at Hogwarts, paid for by the Ministry of Magic. Most years this is a camp designed to show off various careers students might wish to pursue after schooling. It depends on what professions are most in need of new recruits in the next few years. Some years the camp is geared towards sports like Quidditch, others it is geared towards careers at the Ministry. This year there is a mixture of careers, including Quidditch and a variety of skills that can be used to start up a business, such as running an apothecary." She passed down a list of things that was going to be offered at camp this year, and Harry let his eyes scan down the parchment.

He wanted to shout his excitement and enthuse with Ron or anyone who played Quidditch when he saw that the third day of camp was a ‘Quidditch Day', and that there would be several famous players from well known teams coming to teach players new tactics and maneuvers and talk about what it was like to play Quidditch Professionally. The only one at the table who played Quidditch however was Draco, and Harry didn't think the blond Slytherin would want to talk to him about anything, even Quidditch.

"As you can see," the Headmaster said, "There will be a variety of activities. Given that most of the campers will be first, second and third years, many of the activities will be meant to excite them and get them interested in the subjects of Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, and Healing."

Harry noted Professor Snape would be teaching potions like hair gels and toothpaste, as well as several potions that were meant to be explosive or do things like change to all the colors of the rainbow. While Harry thought he might like to learn some of these, he didn't want to spend any more time with Snape than was absolutely necessary.

Dumbledore would be teaching a fun transfiguration class geared towards transfiguring clothes and fabric as well as other personal items into wild colors and patterns.

The Herbology class was labeled, ‘Herbology for fun, for the home, and for the love of plants,' and Harry was certain Neville would be spending all of his time there for the next week.

McGonagall was going to be teaching curse breaking, and Flitwick was going to be teaching a class about stealth and charms to use in a duel called, ‘Stealth games for the prospective trickster.'

Even Madam Pomfrey would be teaching a class with basic healing spells. Judging by the list it looked like it was all spells that really couldn't be messed up, even by a novice.

"There will also be several field trips throughout the week," McGonagall went on, indicating a list on the back of the parchment. "There will be a trip to Hogsmeade for a tour and history of the village," here Professor Dumbledore broke in to say, "and to load up on sweets of course," and McGonagall nodded.

"Professor Snape will lead a field trip around the grounds one day and up into the highlands another day to collect Potions ingredients, and Nearly Headless Nick will lead a field trip around the castle to explore hidden passageways and to give a history of where several important or interesting things have happened through the castle's history."

"As camp counselors you will each be given a group of students from first to third year. It will be your duty to ensure they are all fed, taken care of, and ready for the day. You will sleep with your group of campers, and attend breakfast and dinner with your group of campers. If one of them is sick or injured, you will bring them to staff immediately to be seen to. As a counselor you are seen as a representative of the Ministry of Magic for the week and are expected to act as such. It is expected that you will encourage your campers to attend a variety of activities during the camp, and ensure that each of them is having a good experience."

"What about during the daytime?" Draco asked.

"Even though you are counselors, you are still campers," Dumbledore said. "As soon as your campers are off to their own activities for the day, you are free to attend whatever activities you choose, or to relax."

McGonagall and Dumbledore spent the next hour going over rules and the Minsistry's summer camp guidelines. Each counselor was to choose a name for their group of campers, and during times in the morning, and the evening when activities weren't taking place, they were supposed to come up with games or activities to keep their campers occupied. Hermione would have loved this, Harry thought, and he was sad she and Ron were going to miss it.

Since the Ministry was funding this camp, the staff, and other adults and guests such as the Quidditch teams who would be coming to help were all being paid. As counselors they weren't going to be paid, but they would still enjoy the privileges the staff would that week, and they were gaining ‘points' towards a future career within the Ministry of Magic if they chose to after graduating.

"While you will still be campers this week," Dumbledore said, "you will be considered staff and treated as such. The staff lounge behind the Great Hall will be open to you during your free time, and should you need a break or help with your campers, all you have to do is ask. This also means that during camp you are not to be seen as a member of your house. Instead of Gryffindors, Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws you are staff, and must cooperate with each other as if you were." Here he gave Harry and Draco a pointed look, knowing the three girls from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw wouldn't be a problem. Draco and Harry did look at each other then, but they didn't say anything or even nod to each other.

"During the week you will be living with your campers at the edge of the West Woods behind the greenhouses. Each group will have their own tents. Members of a different group will not be allowed in your tent. There will be three girls tents in a grouping and three boys tents in a grouping. There will also be an outhouse and sink set up for each group, so there will be no need to enter the castle unless it is for an activity. Morning and evening meals will also be eaten at your group's campsite, and Hagrid will be camped nearby as well and will be the adult in charge should any medical issues or emergencies arise."

"Will food be delivered to the camps then?" one of the seventh year girls asked.

"Meals will be delivered in crates next to the greenhouses. For breakfast and dinner each group will retrieve the crate with their name and take it back to their campsite to eat. Leftovers and dishes will be returned in the crate to the greenhouse when finished. During the daytime lunches will be eaten in the Great Hall, and you will not be required to sit with your camp group during lunch. Lunch is considered free time, and you may attend lunch or not, or go to the staff lounge. There will also be coffee and pastries located in the staff lounge before breakfast if you wish to retrieve them. So long as there is an adult or another counselor watching your group, you may leave them for short periods of time no longer than half an hour. If there is an emergency and you must take a camper to seek medical attention, you must get another counselor to watch after your group before you leave them."

"It's imperative that you treat each other as staff," Dumbledore reiterated, again looking at Draco and Harry. "If you do not, and you put each other down in front of your campers, they will not behave for other counselors when you must leave them with another counselor during emergency or for a break."

"Yes sir," Harry said and Dumbledore gave him a smile.

McGonagall looked up at the clock above the Head Table and said, "We will leave it here for today." She passed another sheet of parchment around to the six students and said, "This is a checklist. You are expected to answer every question or complete every task before tomorrow morning, and return to tomorrow's meeting with the list in hand. Also write any questions you have and bring them tomorrow."

"Are there any questions before we end for the day?" Dumbledore asked.

"Are there any older students coming for camp?" one of the girls asked.

"There will be ten or twelve," McGonagall said. "Fourth to seventh years will be in their own encampment near the Quidditch Pitch, where a staff member will check on them in the morning and evening. They are not to come into the camp area near the West Wood, and will have no authority over younger students. As counselors you will have authority over them if you see something is amiss or that there is a medical issue, however we would encourage you to pass the issue off to one of the adult staff if possible before trying to deal with the older campers on your own."

After that they broke for lunch Harry and Neville headed back to Gryffindor, chatting about their list of things to do and to complete that day.

"Give your group a name," Neville read as they walked down the corridor near Gryffindor tower. "What will you name your group Harry?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "We can't very well name them after the houses can we?"

"I think I like Owls," Neville said, "as a group name. Owls are so intelligent. I always wondered why we don't have a house with that mascott."

"Does it have to be an animal?" Harry asked. "What about naming them after a Quiddtich team?"

"Which one?"

"Arrows." Harry said. His favorite Seeker played for the Applebee Arrows and Harry admired how diverse the Arrow's team was. It seemed like every player on the team had a different background, and many of the players came from different countries. He thought it made their plays unpredictable to other teams, because each player was unique and brought their own style to the game. They didn't always win, but more often than not they did.

"That's a good one," Neville said, and when they got into the tower they wrote down their answers on their checklists and checked off a box.

Harry didn't think the list would take that long to complete, but it took him all afternoon and into the evening. Harry had to come up with a list of ten games to play with his campers over the course of the week during free time, and gather any supplies he might need for those games into a crate (McGonagall had delivered ten crates each to all of the counselors that evening before dinner). Harry had listed several types of Muggle tag he had seen kids play in primary school, Gobstones (he was able to get three sets from the game closet in Gryffindor), and capture the flag, which he and Neville had both listed, and he hoped they could play together one evening after dinner.

Another item on the checklist asked him to come up with a quiet activity to do with the campers before bedtime. Neville said something about drawing animals, but Harry didn't know how to draw, so he went to the library and checked out a novel about a boy with a hatchet roughing it in the wild by himself. He didn't read novels very much, but thought it would be a good quiet time activity to do with the kids in his group.

Harry also had to make a flag for his group with the mascott and group colors, and find a way to easily identify and keep track of his campers, since the campsites would all be close to each other. Harry decided that since they were the Arrows and the Arrows had blue and silver robes, that he should do something with that. He wasn't sure what until he overheard Draco talking at dinner about the potions Snape was going to be teaching involving hair dye.

"Professor McGonagall?" Harry asked her after dinner.

"Yes Harry?"

"Since we're staff now... I mean when camp starts Monday, can we go to Hogsmeade to get supplies?"

"What do you need?"

"Blue hair dye."

She smiled. "I expect that will cost around 20 Sickles. You may go after the meeting tomorrow provided you go with another counselor and return by dinner. I'll give you the funds you need after the meeting."

"Thank you," Harry said.

Harry left the Great Hall but was stopped in the Entrance Hall by Draco. "You're dying your kids' hair?" he snapped.

"To keep track of them," Harry said. "Are you going to do it too?"

"I'm making shirts," Draco said.

"Do you need supplies in Hogsmeade? Do you want to come with me tomorrow?"

"Whatever Potter," Draco said, and stalked away back to the Dungeons.

"We'd like to go Harry." Harry turned and found Willow, the sixth year Ravenclaw who was staying as a counselor. "My team is going to be the Mermaids and I need pink hair dye. And I overheard Olivia and Amelia saying they needed supplies too."

"Great," Harry said, and set off to find Neville to see if he wanted to go with them the next day as well.

* * *

Severus was seething. Potter hadn't decided to attend camp that year, he'd stayed to lead it! He would be leading around an entire group of young impressionable children and indoctrinating them for seven days. Severus couldn't understand how Albus or Minerva could allow such a thing given the trouble the boy got himself into each year. There was a reason they weren't making him a Prefect, so Severus couldn't see why they would allow him to be in charge of younger children now at summer camp.

He'd tried talking to Dumbledore about it, but the man had only smiled and said camp was already in motion, and that there was no one else to lead Harry's group now. "I fear you're overreacting dear boy," he'd told him, and then left him there in the staff lounge to seethe.

What was the brat really playing at? Was he staying so he could sneak into Slytherin and set up booby traps for the next year? Was there some kind of task he and his little band of miscreants had deemed ‘immenant and dangerous' and therefore something they needed to do after school was out? Severus had no idea, but had decided it was his mission to find out. What could have been a week of fun and joy for the younger students, (and a relaxed week of teaching easy potions for him), had now turned into what he was certain would be a week of hell. An extra week of Potter, he shook his head. It made him want to throw something. What was worse, the boy was ‘staff' for the week and so Severus couldn't give him detention or take points. He couldn't even punish the boy, as that would be up to Minerva or Filius since they were the two adults running the camp. Whatever you're up to Potter, I'll find out.

* * *

Draco did end up going with them to Hogsmeade the next day after lunch. McGonagall had dispensed funds to all of them to get supplies and instructed them to bring back receipts to give to the Ministry aide in charge of funding the camp. The group walked to Hogsmeade after lunch chatting together about games they would have their campers play and the names they'd chosen for their groups, and while Draco didn't talk to Harry or Neville, he did talk to the older girls.

Harry and Willow went to the apothecary and got several tins of clear hair dye. Harry described the color he wanted to the apprentice running the apothecary and he brought out a blue powder made of benign ingredients and mixed it into the dye canisters for Harry. Then he mixed up bright pink dye for Willow, and they paid him and left.

Neville had gone to the seamstress and bought a dozen pale blue arm bands with an owl stitched on the front, and Draco and Olivia purchased t-shirts, Draco's light gray with Falcons for the Falmouth Falcons, and Olivia's shirts were yellow with a fierce looking red Dragon emblazoned on the front. Parts of the red dragon were shiny and looked metallic.

They had been given a second list of things to complete by bedtime that evening, since campers were arriving in the morning, but this list was about getting their encampment ready, so the group spent the afternoon after their trip to Hogsmeade out at the edge of the West wood putting up the muggle style tents and getting supplies ready. Each group had one tent that looked small on the outside, but was magically enlarged on the inside, just like the tent Harry and the Weasley's had stayed in at the Quidditch World Cup.

Once Harry and Neville had set Harry's tent up, they set Neville's tent up, and then helped Draco with his.

Later Harry set up nine cots in a row in his tent and spent half an hour drawing up a piece of parchment with his group's rules and used a spell to stick it by the entrance on the inside.

Harry put his crates of games and activities in the back of the tent with spells on them to keep kids out until it was time to use them, and dug toiletries out of a crate he'd gathered from the Gryffindor common room. On each cot he set a small tube of toothpaste, a blue toothbrush, and a towel and washcloth.

"All ready?" Neville asked, coming in to see how Harry had his tent set up. "Come see mine."

"Just got the flag left to put up," Harry said, and grabbed the blue and silver flag he had made with an arrow on it and hung it outside over the tent's entrance.

Neville's tent was on the other side of Draco's, but Draco made no comment about them passing through his camp as they went. Neville had arranged the cots in his tent on both sides in a line and had his cot by the door. "I'll know if any of them go out at night this way," he said. Neville had crates of art supplies by the door and a crate of books for kids to borrow from, and Harry noted he'd set up a spot by his cot just for Trevor.

"I don't have an owl to be our mascott," he said, "just our flag."

"You can borrow Hedwig for the week, so long as I can use her for letters and you feed her," Harry said.

"Really?"

"Sure. You can take her cage to your tent. But leave it open. I'll tell her to stay with you. So long as she can get out to hunt, she'll be happy."

Neville retrieved Hedwig and her cage and as they passed through Draco's camp a third time, Harry and Neville paused to see what Draco had done with his tent.

"What Potter?" Draco spat. If Harry didn't know him better, he'd almost say Draco looked nervous as Harry pulled his head out of Draco's tent.

"We were just wondering how you'd set up," Neville said. "Do you want to see our tents?"

"No," Draco spat.

"Okay," Neville said, "well if you change your mind."

"Yours looks nice by the way," Harry said as they left, but Draco didn't reply or seem like he'd heard them at all.

"I like how he had his cots in a circle," Harry said to Neville as they went back to Neville's tent.

"It's smart," Neville said.

All six tents were in a line, with about twenty feet between them. In this way any counselor was near enough to help another counselor if it was necessary, but they were far enough apart to still be separate. They could see any encampment from their own and see what was happening. The line of tents was set back about twenty feet into the edge of the West Wood, but they could still see the front door to the castle. The greenhouses weren't far off, and Neville quite liked that, as he planned on spending most of his week there with Professor Sprout, who was fond of telling people that Neville was actually a Hufflepuff disguised as a Gryffindor.

Before dinner Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick came out to the tents to make sure everything was in order, and then had the six students come back to the castle for dinner and into the staff lounge behind the Great Hall. They gave them last minute instructions for the morning and then bade them goodnight and told them not to stay up late, as campers were arriving just after breakfast.

Harry was too excited to sleep that night, and so was Neville, and they ended up staying up late in the common room talking about things they wanted to do at camp that week and planning activities for their groups to do together. Harry was grateful that Neville wanted to help his campers with art projects during freetime, and Neville thought playing capture the flag with the two groups would be fun. Finally around one in the morning, Harry fell asleep, excited and nervous for his campers to arrive in a few hours.

"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.

Harry pulled his shoes on and stuck his head outside the tent, hair a mess, and nodded sleepily. The sun had just barely begun to rise. A look at his watch told him it was barely half five in the morning.

"Olivia is watching my group for now. I'm headed to the staff lounge for coffee and donuts. Do you want anything?"

"Coffee would be amazing," he croaked, and she giggled at him. "Ok, it's your turn tomorrow then. Want a donut too?"

"Please," he said, and she skipped away, positively too awake and chipper at this hour to be human. Harry rubbed his eyes again in the chill air and saw Draco coming out of his tent not looking much more awake than he was. It seemed Harry had been Amelia's last stop before she headed for the castle.

Harry got a small campfire going to warm up by and then went back into the tent to change. According to the schedule McGonagall had given them for the week, he didn't need to have the kids up until six thirty, so it seemed he had some time to himself. After he was dressed, had visited the outhouse and washbasin, and had looked at his schedule again, he went back out to the campfire, and was surprised to find Neville pushing a new log into it with a stick.

"Morning," he said. He too seemed to be more awake than Harry today.

"Don't we have to stay in our own camps?" Harry asked. He realized that might sound like he didn't want Neville to visit, but Neville didn't seem to take it that way.

"Morning is break time," he said cheerfully. "Kids don't get up for another hour. I think that's why the tents are all lined up like this. I can see if any of my campers come out of the tent from here."

Harry nodded and sat down on one of the stumps. Amelia came back twenty minutes later with a crate that had six mugs of steaming coffee, a bottle of caramel pumpkin creamer and a huge box of donuts, and let Harry and Neville each take a donut and mug and then headed down the line of tents to hand out the rest.

"What are you going to do for the rest of the summer Harry?" Neville asked.

He laughed into his coffee quietly and said, "I've half a mind to stay right here."

"It is nice out," Neville said. "My uncle took me camping once when I was younger up on a loch in the highlands."

"That sounds perfect," Harry said, prodding the fire with a stick.

Draco sat around his lifeless campfire ring drinking his coffee and listening and Neville called, "Wanna come over Draco? Our fire's warm." Draco frowned at them and took his coffee back into his tent.

"What do you think makes him more angry?" Neville asked Harry. "That we've been nice, or that he can't think of anything to say to us that won't make him sound like a jerk because we've been nice?"

Harry laughed at that as Willow came to join them a moment later with her own coffee. "What are we talking about?" she asked.

"Just camp," Harry lied. "What activities are you doing today?"

"Charms all day," she said. "Professor Flitwick is teaching ice elemental charms in the morning, and doing stealth games in the afternoon."

"That actually doesn't sound bad," Harry said. He couldn't wait to get to a Quidditch activity, but that wasn't starting until tomorrow.

"Tomorrow he's doing wind elementals and stealth games, and the day after that fire elementals and stealth games."

"What about you Neville?" Harry asked.

"Herbology this morning, but I'm quite interested in those stealth games. Some of my campers talked about the stealth games they did yesterday."

They woke their campers half an hour later and got them going on their day. Harry made sure all of his campers scrubbed their faces, necks and arms so they looked clean before they went out for the day. One of his campers had hair gel and wanted help putting his hair up into a spiky blue mohawk, and several of the other campers wanted to do the same. Apparently just having dark electric blue hair wasn't enough, but Harry helped them anyway and laughed as the younger boys headed out to their activities, hair standing on end.

In the charms room that morning at nine thirty, Draco sat heavily in a seat next to Harry and Neville and said, "Your campers look ridiculous Potter."

"But they're having fun," Harry said. "That's what matters."

Draco was quiet for the rest of the class on ice charms. Flitwick spent two and a half hours teaching them to cast a thick icy layer over any surface, how to turn their shoes into ice skates without transfiguration, how to cast a stream of icy slush out of their wands, and how to send an icy blast of air at an opponent. The icy blast of air wasn't enough to hurt anyone or freeze them, but it was enough to take their breath away for a moment and startle them if they weren't expecting it. "If a witch or wizard were to get creative with these charms you've learned today," Flitwick told them at the end of the class, "they could combine these spells and techniques to form powerful attacks, though that won't be something we'll be learning today."

Harry's mind was turning with ideas. He wanted to know how to turn these charms into defensive spells. He already thought that if someone was chasing after him, turning the floor to ice would be a brilliant way to buy some time to get away. Maybe he could figure out how to turn the icy slush he could cast to spears of ice if he combined that charm with the one that cast an icy blast of wind.

"Are you staying for stealth games after lunch?" Neville asked, and Harry nodded. They headed down to the Great Hall for lunch and into the staff lounge where they found the rest of the counselors sitting and chatting as they ate. Professor McGonagall came in to ask them how their first night in camp had gone and if they had any questions or concerns.

After lunch they went back to the Charms room. Professor Flitwick wasn't there however. Instead there was a note on the chalkboard that said, "I am on the first or second floor of the castle. The first to find me earns a point gem for their camp."

"Oooh," a third year said, coming into the room and seeing the note. "He's hiding. A girl from the unicorn group found him yesterday!" He turned and ran out of the third floor Charms room, determined to find Flitwick first.

"Wanna look together?" Neville asked Harry, and Harry, unconcerned about the camp points agreed.

They methodically checked all the hidden corridors and classrooms, and Harry tried to reach out with his magic to feel for any hidden magic like he'd learned in McGonagall's curse breaking class the day before.

"There's something here," Harry told Neville. He could feel a shimmer of magic rather than see it next to a suit of armor in the first floor Defense corridor.

"Is it him though?" Neville asked.

"I don't know." He reached his hand into the space and got no resistance, and then pushed against the brick wall, which didn't budge. Harry and Neville spent five minutes working counter curses, counter jinxes, and incantations before finally they found one that worked and Professor Flitwick appeared out of thin air.

"Very good," he told them. "A second year knew something was here but couldn't figure out how to counter the charm."

The little man turned to the nearest portrait and told it to call out to the Charms students and tell them to go back to the Charms classroom. The portrait passed the word down the corridor and they began hearing portraits delivering the message.

Harry and Neville went with Professor Flitwick back to the third floor Charms room and the rest of the group filtered in after them. It had only been twenty minutes since the class had started.

Flitwick tapped the chalkboard with his wand and a list of charms and counter charms appeared there. "These are stealth charms, some of which we covered in the stealth games class yesterday. When you have need to hide, spy, eavesdrop, half of your success will be upon how well you can disguise yourself. Some of your success will always depend on luck, and the rest upon your own skill in reading people and thinking about where they might look and might not look."

Everyone sat down and Flitwick went over the twelve charms on the board. "These twelve charms are basic stealth charms that rely on intent more than specific wand movements, and so they are easy to learn and master." After thirty minutes most of the 20 students felt they had the majority of the charms and counter charms down, and Harry noted that several people had written the list down.

"Divide into two groups," he told the class. "Hunters and hunted. Hunted over there, yes, by the door. In a moment the hunted group will have five minutes to find a hiding spot and conceal themselves with one of these charms on the first or second floor. Remember, misdirection is important. After five minutes has passed, the hunters will be released to find you. No one is to go beyond the first or second floor. If a hunter finds a person hiding, that hiding person becomes one of the hunters until four when class ends. At the end of the game, if all the hunted are found, the original 10 hunters get a point for each of their camps. If however at the end of the game there is still at least one hunted hiding, and not caught, the original group of 10 hunted will each get a point for their groups. Do you all understand the rules?"

They nodded. Harry was in the hunted group, though he hoped at some point this week he would also get to try his hand at being a hunter. Draco and Neville were both in the hunter group for now.

Flitwick sent Harry and the other nine kids in the hunted group to go hide and they scattered. Harry's eyes darted here and there to potential hiding places as he went down the stairs to the second floor. Where would they be searching for him? Flitwick had hid near a suit of armor. There were various hiding spots in classrooms under tables and behind bookshelves and teacher desks. He didn't want to hide in any of those places, or in the hidden passageways behind tapestries.

Harry looked back up the stairs, knowing his time was running out, and then stepped to the wall and sat criscross on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. He cast a corium charm over himself and disappeared. This was the charm Flitwick had used to hide from them earlier. Corium relied on intent to look like your surroundings, and Harry had wanted to look like the wall, the floor, and the edge of the bannister. It didn't transform him into those things, it only made those passing by think he was those things. It was a strong enough charm to give people an illusion of touching air if they reached out into the space he was sitting in. Flitwick had told him and Neville that when Harry had reached out next to the suit of armor earlier, that Harry had actually touched the top of Flitwick's head, but to Harry it had felt like he'd only touched air.

A minute later and the group of ten hunters came down the stairs, passing him without a second look. Flitwick cast his eyes down at Harry as he passed and smiled. He must have felt a ripple in the magic in that spot as Harry had.

Several times over the next hour students passed him by, and one even kicked his shoe on his way up the stairs to check the stairwell again. Harry noted that some of the other kids in the hunted group had already been found and were now searching the halls and rooms as well, but no one spotted him.

Finally Harry's watch read four, and a call went down the corridor from the portraits, telling everyone to go back to the classroom except for the remaining hunted.

A group passed by Harry and when they were gone, presumably back in the charms room, the portraits called out again, this time for any remaining hunted to return to the classroom as well.

Harry and a first year girl went back to the room.

"Where were you Harry?" Neville asked.

"Right at the bottom of the stairwell outside this room," he said. "Sitting on the floor."

"And which charm did you use?" Flitwick asked.

"Corium."

"But I used corium and I got caught," a fourth year boy said.

"Who found Ewan?" Flitwick asked, and Neville raised his hand. "How did you find him?"

"He was under a desk in the defense room," Neville said. "From one angle, I couldn't see him, but when I moved around the desk looking around the room I turned and saw him from another angle. Parts of him were invisible, but not all of him."

"What was your intent with the corium spell Ewan?" Flitwick asked.

"To hide on the floor under the desk and look like I was part of the desk."

"And Mr. Potter?" Flitwick asked.

"I wanted to look like I was part of the corridor floor, part of the wall I was sitting against, and the stairs and bannister going up the stairs."

"Harry covered himself from all angles," Flitwick said. "Someone looking straight down at him would see the floor and bottom of the wall. Someone coming towards the stairs would see the floor, the wall, and the stairs and bannister on the other side of him. Your intent must be complete, or you will not be completely hidden."

Everyone in the group of hunted students got a point for their camp. Harry's camp got two points since one of his campers had been hunted as well, even though he'd been found early in the game.

"We have one hour left until dinner. Reverse groups," Flitwick said, and now the hunted became the hunters. After five minutes Flitwick released the group of hunters to go and find the kids who were hiding. Harry was the last out the door, but he turned to Flitwick and asked, "So long as I follow by the rules you set, anything else I do isn't cheating is it?"

"No. In situations as these we do what we must to complete our task."

Harry went outside the Charms room and Flitwick followed, curious what Harry would do. Harry went up to a portrait and said to it, "The game is over. Tell the hunted and hunters to return to the classroom."

Flitwick laughed as the portrait did as it was told, and began delivering the message, which was quickly echoed down the corridors of the first and second floor. A few minutes passed and kids began to filter back up the stairs. As they passed into the classroom door Harry tagged each of the hunted group on the shoulder and said, "I found you. Go sit down."

Draco glared at Harry when he tagged his shoulder but went into the room nonetheless. The entire second round of the game had only lasted ten minutes.

"Eighteen, nineteen, twenty," Flitwick counted as the last of the students came into the room, to be certain he had them all.

"Well that was fun," Flitwick said. "The hunters win this round."

"The hunters didn't win," Draco said. "We were called back to the room."

"By a hunter," Flitwick said, indicating Harry.

"That's cheating," a girl said.

"We do in times as these what must be done to complete our task, which is what I told Mr. Potter when he asked me if he could do something outside the rules I had given, so long as it wasn't breaking one of the rules already laid down. If someone was after you, and you were hiding, you would be expected to do all you could do to hide and stay safe. The same is true if you were an auror, let us say, hunting down a criminal. As long as you work within the law, the rules and boundaries that have been laid down, you would be expected to do what you must to outsmart and outwit the person you are hunting. As I said, misdirection is an important factor for either side. Harry made everyone believe the game was over, when it was not. Another way to think of this is changing the paradigm, which is what Mr. Potter did. He wanted to win without searching, to make it a quick and decisive victory. In order to do that he had to consider the rules, the box you were all placed in, and think outside of that. He decided to play the game differently."

As they left, Draco eyed Harry and scoffed and said, "I'm going to get you next time Potter. I had the perfect hiding place. If you hadn't cheated you wouldn't have found me."

"Where were you hiding?"

"If I tell you, I lose the advantage of using that spot again."

"If this is a challenge, I accept," Harry said, but Draco was already hurrying off.

Dinner that evening when much as it had gone the night before. Harry sent two boys to retrieve the crate for their group from by the greenhouses with meals, and then Harry and the two chosen boys passed the meals out. After dinner the kids still seemed full of energy, so they organized a game of tag with several of the other groups. Draco's group had already made plans to do crafts with one of the girl's groups though, so they didn't join in. At eight, when everyone was tired, Harry had his group wash, brush and get into pajamas and then come back to the campfire to continue the novel from the evening before.

That night Harry had no trouble falling asleep, and neither did the boys in his group. As he drifted off, he thought it would be the perfect game of misdirection to never go home, and just stay at the castle for the summer. The Headmaster would think he was with the Dursleys, but Harry would be right here, where he should be. All he had to do was have the courage to hide in the woods and not get caught.