All's Well in Good Old, Muggle-Style Summer Camp.

Chapter 1

Harry Potter thought miserable thoughts as he packed his truck, ready to leave Hogwarts for the summer.

"This is just pathetic," he grumbled to no one. "People usually enjoy summer, though, then again, not everyone is stuck with the Dursley's..." He glared meaninglessly at a spider that was scurrying across the floor.

Once finished packing his things, he decided to go down to the Great Hall, as the end-of-term feast would soon be beginning. As usual, he sat between his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, who were, as usual, arguing.

"Is not!" Hermione spat.

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is TOO!"

"Is NO-!"

"Hello," Harry said rather irritably.

"Oh, hello, Harry," Hermione smiled. "Ron was just insulting my well put together, amazing, good-caused house-elf liberation organization." She sent Ron a scowl. He stuck out his tongue at her.

"Whatever," Harry rolled his eyes.

Dumbledore began all the speeches and such and was just about to give the signal for the feast to start, when he added, "Ah, yes, and a select few students will be attending a summer camp the staff and I have set up. It will be mandatory for them, their parents have been informed and given permission, and it will be muggle-style, meaning no magic. Helps build character." He winked mischievously. The students all exchanged scared glances. "Minerva, if you will announce the names, please?"

Professor McGonagall stood up with a scroll in her hands. Harry did not recognize all the names she called, but of those he did were: "Abbott, Hannah, Boot, Terry, Brown, Lavender, Chang, Cho, Creevey, Colin, Finnigan, Seamus, Goyle, Gregory, Granger, Hermione, Longbottom, Neville, Lovegood, Luna, Malfoy, Draco, Patil, Parvati, Patil, Padma, Potter, Harry, Thomas, Dean, Turpin, Lisa, Weasley, Ron, and Weasley, Ginevra."

The Great Hall let out its breath. Hermione thought of summer camp as extra credit. Ron thought of it as torture. Draco thought of it as insulting, but Harry thought of it as freedom. Food had appeared on the table, but suddenly, no one was hungry.

"Summer camp?!" Ron boomed.

Summer camp!" Seamus bellowed in reply.

The remaining Gryffindors flopped on their couches grumpily.

"To think- my brothers on the train now. Going home." Colin Creevey grumbled. "Lucky..."

"Well, come on, how bad can it be?" Hermione suggested.

"Speak for yourself," replied a disgruntled Ron. "You're muggle-born; it'll be easy for you."

Lavender and Parvati both looked distressed.

"What did I do to deserve this?!" Parvati cried rather shrilly.

Silence fell upon the Gryffindor common room. This was going to be a long summer.

The next day, the Great Hall was almost empty at breakfast. Harry ate his food rather quickly, Ron, on the other hand, appeared not to be hungry.

"This stinks," he said finally. "Summer is supposed to be fun. And the only thing I can think of that's less fun than school is muggle-style summer camp. Muggles won't even be there! So why do we have to act like them?!"

"I think Dumbledore made it muggle-style so that we can appreciate our powers. Maybe he thinks everyone he selected to come takes magic for granted." Hermione suddenly began to look angry. "I, for one do not take magic for granted. But really, Ron, you've got to eat."

He ate a bit of bacon. "I'm not hungry," he grunted, pushing his plate away. He got up. "Well, tomorrow we start concentration camp"-

"Summer camp, Ronald!"

"Right, summer camp. Whatever, Hermione. So, let's roam around the castle while we still can and have some fun."

Harry decided this was an adequate suggestion and stood up as well. "So, what will we do, then?" he asked.

"We can read books in the library!" Hermione cried excitedly, standing up dramatically in hope.

"Um, no, Hermione." He raised his eyebrows skeptically. "The #1 qualification for being fun, is the thing has to be...well...fun!"

"We can play Quidditch!" Harry suggested.

"That sounds good!"

"That sounds boring." Hermione didn't seem too interested.

Harry grinned at the angry-looking Hermione. "Come on, Mione, we can play chasers and try to get the quaffle past Ron. Not that that will be hard. Ha ha. Just joking, of course."

"Fine....Hermione eventually agreed, but did not look happy. "But after that, we're going to the library."

The trio sped up the broom cupboard to pick out a broom for Hermione, and unfortunately, the best model they could find was a battered-looking Comet Two-sixty.

The three were having fun playing Quidditch (which, to Hermione's surprise, was more fun than she had expected), when they heard a shout from the field.

"What are you people doing here?" a drawling voice said. Harry looked down to see Malfoy and Goyle. Harry felt like laughing at how stupid Malfoy looked one crony short (Crabbe did not have to attend the summer camp).

We're flying. Not against the law, now is it?" Harry scoffed. Draco sent a sneer up at him. "Go away," Harry shouted.

Draco gave Harry one more angry, beaten look before stalking off, Goyle at his heels.

"Oh, great," Ron said agitatedly. "Not only do we have to go to summer camp, but Malfoy will be there! This just keeps getting better and better."

After a few more games of Quidditch, the three decided to spend the rest of the day in the Library, like Hermione had wanted. The read all the way until dinner, or, at least, Hermione read all the way till dinner, while Harry and Ron played tic-tac-toe and hangman.

When dinner time rolled around, the trio went to the Great Hall, to find the small portion of the school attending summer camp sitting at their house tables and all the teachers at the high table.

"Looks like we're late," Ron murmured as they sat down at the Gryffindor table. Dumbledore Smiled as Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats and then, he stood up.

"Hello and good evening! Before we eat, I would like to inform you what we shall be doing, starting tomorrow, at summer camp. First off, there will be two separate cabins; one for boys, one for girls. So forget your house! It will hardly be needed. Secondly, all staff members will be covering something different. Professor Spout, botany; Professor Trelawney, Astronomy; Professor McGonagall, exercise; Professor Hagrid, Animals; Professor Snape, swimming; and Professor Flitwick will cover camping and hiking trips. Madam Pomfrey will, of course, be coming along for first aid. The large area in which we have set all this up is, of course, unplottable, so that no Muggles may interfere. Thank you for listening, now, let us eat!"

Piles of food suddenly appeared on the tables. Ron didn't seem hungry. "This is gonna be the worst summer ever!" he insisted.

"Oh, shut up, Ron!" Hermione cried. "If it's not fun, make it fun!" She seemed quite fumed. "You are so annoying!"

The Next morning, Harry woke up early without even trying to. He got dressed and double-checked his trunk to make sure everything was in it.

"Well, Hedwig," he said to his owl. "This is surely going to be an interesting summer..." Harry got lonely rather quickly, his only company being and owl, and so he decided to wake Ron up. "Come on, Ron! Up you get!" he shook Ron, but the red-head boy simply grunted and turned the other way. Harry sighed. "Come on! Up!" he persisted. Some of the other boys in the common room had woken up and gotten dressed; Finally, Ron sat up and surrendered.

"Please, Harry! It's Only 6:45!"

"Yeah, exactly, and we're leaving for the campgrounds at 7:00!"

"Really?!" Ron bolted up right and jumped out of bed. "People really need to wake me up for things like this!" he said, pulling on his clothes and scrambling to get his things together.

"Well, you know, I tried, but it didn't really work out." Harry frowned. Ron pulled on a clean shirt and pants and they were off to the Great Hall, their trunks banging loudly down the spiral staircase.

When they finally reached the Great Hall, the students had already begun to drain out of it. "Where have you been?!" screamed a voice from behind them. Harry and Ron whirled around to see a disgruntled Hermione wearing a T-shirt, jeans and a frown. "I was down here an hour ago! You missed breakfast!"

"Well I can see that, thank you very much!" Ron spat.

Hermione's eyes brimmed with angry tears. She pushed past Harry and Ron towards the line that was filing out the door, trunks in hand.

"Touchy," Ron muttered. He turned to Harry. "Come on; let's go."

The train ride was just like the train ride to and from Hogwarts, though the air of this one was rather tense. Harry was oddly nervous for some reason. What if Ron was right? What if this would completely ruin summer? Well, if this didn't, the Dursley's would. The silence of the compartment was only broken by the snack trolley, which Harry and Ron bought sweets and cakes from avidly, as they hadn't eaten yet that day. Ron looked at his Pumpkin Pasty sadly. "I bet the food at camp will be disgusting. I can't believe my mum and dad agreed to send me here."

"Probably to get you out of their hair," Hermione mumbled. Nobody heard her.

"Ah, well don't look at me," Harry spoke. "I'd much rather go to summer camp than spend the season with the Dursley's."

Then, suddenly, the compartment door burst open, revealing none other than Remus Lupin. He sniffed the air "are you eating pumpkin pasties?" he asked hungrily, looking slightly manic.

"Um, yes," Harry held up his pumpkin pasty. "Want one?" he asked.

Without warning, Remus gobbled it up.

"Thank you, Harry," he said formally. "I don't know why, but I think I've lately built up an addiction for these things." He licked his fingers.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Ron wondered rudely.

"I'm one of the chaperones" he said proudly, drawing himself up, a goofy smile placed on his face. "I'm patrolling the corridors." Harry noticed a badge on Lupin's chest that said "CHAPARONE".

"Well, better keep going," Lupin said, "bye!" and he walked off.

Eventually, the train reached the camping grounds. Harry sighed, unsure of what was ahead of him.

To be continued....!