"Have you been to Rush Creek?" Severus asked him after breakfast one morning as they walked back towards the cabin.

Harry shook his head. "What's that?"

"If this was Rhys' first summer here it was possible he didn't know about it. There is a small creek at the Northernmost end of the camp. It is half a day's hike but it is worth the trip."

"Did Dusty go?"

"Yes. We went several times."

Thinking that Snape wouldn't bring it up unless he wanted to go there, and that he'd been awful nice to him in the last few days, giving him clothes and letting him do what he wanted, Harry asked, "Can we go?"

"If you wish. You will need hiking boots and we will need to take a lunch."

"I only have sandals and tennis shoes."

"I am aware. There are no hiking boots in the clothing closet, but I have an extra pair and would be willing to shrink them down for you."

"You would?"

"Yes. First we will go back and take two of the packed lunches. They keep several packed in the fridge for those who wish to go hiking so they don't have to skip lunch."

Snape lead Harry back to the Dining Hall and into the kitchen and Harry was pleased to see that he was right. There were ten brown bags in the fridge and when Harry looked in one of them he found an apple, a sandwich, a bottle of water, a package of peanut butter crackers, and several celery sticks. Snape pulled open a cupboard and pulled out a clear gray water bottle that had the camp logo on it and handed it to Harry.

"Fill it up at the sink. Every camper gets a water bottle and I have not seen you with one yet."

"I came late," Harry reminded him and did as he was told. They went back to the empty cabin and Harry watched curiously as his Professor pulled out a gray and blue pair of brand new hiking boots from under the bottom bunk and then dug his wand out of a hidden pocket in his bag. He said a spell Harry hadn't learned yet and the boots shrunk down to Harry's size.

"Try them on. I may have to re-size them again."

Harry touched the boots reverently. He'd never had new shoes like this before, and these looked like very expensive hiking boots. He sat on the floor and pulled them on and laced them hurriedly.

"Well?"

"They fit great," Harry said with a grin. This was the second time Snape had given him clothes.

"Empty your backpack so that you can take your water bottle and lunch." Snape moved to put his own lunch and water bottle in an empty backpack and Harry did the same.

As Snape lead him up the trail towards the ropes course, Harry found that he was actually feeling excited. He liked exploring and he and Rhys had found a number of cool things within the camp in the week Rhys had been there.

They walked as far as they could up the trail past the obstacle course before the path started to curve back down towards the bike course and lake and then Snape stepped off the path next to a large rock and beckoned Harry to follow. They walked in a straight line for twenty or more feet before a small lesser worn path appeared and they got onto it.

"What do you do at the creek?" Harry asked. He hoped he wasn't going to be expected to swim.

"Some fish but it is really too shallow for fish to be in the water. Others enjoy catching crawdads, frogs, and salamanders. Dusty caught a garter snake the first time I took him to the creek."

"Are there other creeks?"

"There are two that flow into the lake on the far side by the signing rock. This one does not flow into the lake. It flows through one corner of the property before going out across the main road and joining a river. Further down the river there is another summer camp several miles away."

"Like this one?"

"No. It is more organized and there are less counselors and more campers."

"Have you been there?"

"I have seen it." In his first summer his camper had run away and had followed the creek to the river and then down to the other camp which was more typical of a summer camp. Several children hid him and gave him a camp shirt for the other camp and he successfully blended for two days before the staff caught on and contacted Camp Kennewick. Harry seemed prone to running and hiding though, so he didn't want to give him any ideas.

They stopped for several water breaks because they were hiking uphill and finally after almost an hour they came to the creek. It was beautiful. It was too wide to leap across but also shallow, never more than three feet deep but in most places only one or two. There was even a little four foot tall waterfall to the left.

"The waterfall marks the Easternmost edge of the property. You can walk down the creek in the other direction for almost five minutes before you will hit the Northern boundary."

"It really does flow right across the corner doesn't it?" Harry set his bag down on the edge of the creek and sat to pull his hiking boots and socks off, not wanting them to get wet. Severus watched curiously as Harry stepped into the water carefully with a smile on his face. He did not seem to be afraid of shallow water. He reached his hands up into the air and stared up at the small piece of visible sky through the tree tops and then started walking up the creek towards the waterfall, not being careful about splashing.

"How do you catch a crawdad?"

Severus set his bag down and explained that you needed to put a worm or piece of meat on a string and gently bob it up and down by a large rock where crawdads might be hiding in the shadows. Harry came out of the creek and dug with his fingers before picking up a sharp rock and using it to dig for several minutes. He finally came up with a worm and said, "Do we have a string?" He grinned when Severus pulled one out of his bag and noted that there was a fishing hook on the end. Now being experienced in fishing since Rhys had taught him, Harry fearlessly speared the worm on the hook and waded back out into the cool water of the creek.

"Like this?"

"Raise and lower it more slowly. Keep your feet away from whatever crawdads you are trying to bait because they pinch."

Harry moved his feet back then and leaned forward to try to lure a crawdad to his bait. Nothing was biting in that location so he found another large boulder under the water and fished there. This time it was only a minute before his line tugged and he pulled it out of the water. The crawdad wasn't hooked, but it was holding on for dear life to the worm with it's teeth.

"What now?" Harry asked. This was possibly even more fun than fishing.

"You can pull it off and put it back. Be careful, it pinches and when they latch on they do not want to let go."

Harry laughed as he tried to carefully remove the feisty pinching crawdad and finally managed. The worm was still squirming and though he felt bad for it, he didn't want it to go to waste since it was probably going to die anyway since it was already hooked, so he dropped it back into the water on the line and almost immediately pulled out a crawdad.

"I think it's the same one. He's not very smart... or he just really wants the worm."

A moment later Harry was surprised when Snape stepped down into the creek with him. He was also barefoot and his hiking boots and socks sat safely on the shore next to Harry's.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked warily. Uncle Vernon holding him under the water flashed in his mind, but in the next second Snape was bent over and had both hands in the water.

"Looking for Gillyweed."

"Gilly what?"

"If one eats it, they can breath underwater. I have found some in this creek on occasion."

"Really? What does it look like?" Harry bent over to look down into the two feet of water. All he saw was slimy rocks.

"It is a grayish green and is not usually visible from the surface. It grows under rocks covered in a specific kind of slime. You must feel for it. It feels like coarse thread with hair. Be aware that there may be crawdads in the rocks however."

Harry lifted small stones worn smooth by the water and felt in the mud and silt. Finally he felt something that felt hairy and hoped it wasn't a creature as he tugged on it and it came loose.

"Like this?" he asked, holding it for Snape to see.

"That is gillyweed. The grayer it is, the less time it will allow you to spend underwater. You can dry it out and rehydrate it in water later for use. You should never eat it dry."

"It doesn't look very good," Harry observed. To be honest it kind of weirded him out to be holding it because it was slimy.

"It does not taste pleasant. The handful you have would allow you to breath underwater for almost an hour however. It gives you gills and allows you to filter air through the water. Be aware that it does not work well in stagnant water."

"Gills? Do they go away?"

"Yes. It does not work on Muggles. It interacts with a wizards magic to create the gills."

Harry looked at it skeptically. "How much for just a minute?"

"Pinch off one inch from the end."

Harry did as he was told and then closed his eyes and pushed it roughly into his mouth and swallowed. It felt slimy all the way down and after a few moments he felt like he couldn't breath at all. He gasped and Snape said, "Stick your head and neck into the water. You will not be able to breath air with the gills for at least a minute."

Desperate, Harry did as he was told and got to his knees in the water and put his head under just enough for the gills at the top of his neck to be submerged. He opened his eyes and breathed deep. It was like another world down here, and Harry looked down the few inches to the bottom and was able to easily see another patch of gillyweed. He pulled it free and observed it. It looked almost luminescent underwater. After another moment it felt as though he could no longer breath and he reached up to his neck to find that the gills were gone, and pulled his head up above the surface.

"Ace," Harry said in approval. He held up the new handful of gillyweed. "Are there other useful plants around here?"

"There are magic mushrooms on the high trail at the northernmost edge of camp."

"What do they do?"

"It is a common variety of mushroom used in many potions, though it has no practical use raw. You have used them in class. They are red with white spots and are poisonous if used raw. By the time you get to use them in class they are shriveled and brown or ground up into a fine powder."

Harry scrunched up his brows like he was thinking, and then said, "Calming draught and veritaserum?"

"Yes. You can buy several pounds of powder for a knut at any good apothecary."

He nodded and seemed to store this information away for later, and then ate another pinch of gillyweed and went back under the surface, coming up a minute later with more gillyweed. By the time they left the stream, Harry had a pocketful, enough for several hours underwater, and Severus wondered if this would calm the child's fear of the water. Was he afraid of drowning, or something that lived in deep water?

Harry asked if they could hike the high trail at the top of camp boundaries instead of heading back for dinner right away, and Severus reminded him that if they did that, they would likely miss dinner or be very late for it.

"Please?" Harry asked as he pulled his sandwich out of his backpack and ate it as they walked.

"Very well. We will be eating leftovers during campfire time however and it will be dark before we get back." They followed the stream and then found the high trail. It was heavily wooded like most of the camp but eventually the trees thinned out and Harry could see how high up they were. The lake was far below and there were several small white dots on the water that he knew were probably sailboats and kayaks and canoes full of campers.

"There is a race next week," Severus said. "It is not mandatory, but many of the campers are preparing by learning how to boat."

"A boat race?"

"A race across camp," Severus said. "By whatever means necessary. The camper and counselor who reach the signing rock first and write their names down win a prize."

"What kind of prize?"

"It is different each year. Last year it was a bicycle."

Harry looked up. "A bike?"

"Yes."

"Do you think it'll be the same this year? Can we enter?"

"The race involves swimming and boating because it is not possible to get around the lake faster than a boat can go across."

Harry bit his lip as he thought. He looked torn between asking to enter again and forgetting about the whole thing.

"We can enter if you wish, but you must first earn the swimming bracelet or they will not let us enter."

"Do we have to do it in the pool or lake?"

"Yes. You must swim across the deep end of the pool unaided in under two minutes."

"Do others have to be there?"

"Callum is the one who awards the swimming bracelet and he must be on duty to see you swim."

They hiked until it was almost dark and then Severus lead Harry through the underbrush and woods down a steep slope where there was no path, and they ended up at the bike course. He said they would have been able to make it to a path down if it was still light out but that it wasn't for almost another half a mile and they didn't have time.

They made it back to the dining hall almost half an hour after dinner had finished, and people were just starting to make their way down to the campfire. Harry and Severus went into the kitchen and pulled out leftover cold ham and boiled eggs and vegetables and started making up a plate of food for each of them, though it wasn't much more than finger foods.

"If you wish we can take this to the campfire to eat. It will be starting in a few minutes."

"Ok," Harry said happily, and they took their finger food dinner to the campfire and sat in the back like Harry seemed to prefer. Harry scarfed down his dinner and when they handed out marshmallows and chocolate he ate probably a dozen marshmallows and an entire chocolate bar on top of that.

Before bed Harry washed up by himself in the showers while Snape waited outside. He'd never had a bike before, and he really loved riding one around the camp with Rhys. He didn't know if Snape could ride a bike or not, but Harry really wanted to ride again before camp was over, and he really wanted to have a bike of his own. He wasn't sure if the youth home would let him have one of his own or if he could take it with him to Hogwarts, but if he had a chance to have a bike, shouldn't he try? He had gillyweed now, so if he started to drown he could stuff some into his mouth during the swimming test or out on the boat. But what about the scars on his back and chest, and the bruises? By the time he got out of the shower, he had a plan formed in his mind.

As they walked back down the path to the cabin in the darkness, Harry fidgeted with his fingers and asked quietly, "Could we ask Callum to do the test while everybody's at dinner?"

"The swimming test?"

"Yeah."

"You wish to enter the race."

"Yes."

"You cannot use gillyweed in front of the Muggles."

"I know."

"I will ask him."

"Thanks."

Harry lay in bed that night and dreamed of having his own mountain bike as he raced around the forest with Rhys, and curiously enough, with Snape.