"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.