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

Chapter 9

"Pssst! Pssst! Malfoy! Draco Malfoy!"

Draco woke to incessant whispering. "What?" he asked haphazardly, sitting up. "Where are you?" He didn't even know who he was talking to.

"I'm over here by the exit, div," the voice said.

"Div?"

"Yeah. You're a stupid div. Now get over here." An arm reached toward him and pulled him out the door of the tent. The hand of the arm had sparkly pink nail polish on it. As he left the tent, Draco rubbed his eyes and yawned. Standing right in front of him, in hot pink lip-printed pajamas, was none other than Cho.

"Hello, Cho, what are you doing here?" Cho shifted her eyes from side to side suspiciously. Then she grabbed the collar of his shirt and kissed him.

"Blech-Cho-get off!" he shoved her back. "I might have pretended to go out with you, but that doesn't mean I even wanted to." He pushed his platinum blonde hair from his eyes. God--girls just swarm to me, he thought smugly. "Now, why are you really here?" he asked with a smirk.

"To snog you, git."

"Well you can't. This hottie is off limits."

"Draco?" asked a third sleepy voice. Ginny walked over from her tent next door. "What are you doing here? With Cho?!" she clapped her hands to her mouth, scandalized.

Draco sighed a bored sigh. "Why do I feel like I'm in some stupid dramatic romance movie?" he said tonelessly.

"You-get-away-from-him!" Ginny snapped at Cho, waving a finger at her scoldingly.

Cho looked quite miserable. Her lip trembled slightly, and she strode away, looking on the verge of tears.

"Well that was...random," Draco said, his eyes wide, as though Cho had just scurried over in a tux and boater and tap-danced about the meadow.

"She's been moody ever since Cedric died," explained Ginny, and she frowned at him and proceeded to return to her tent.

* * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *

The next day, day two, was slow. The only news was that tomorrow, day three, they'd be having another hiking trip.

"Oh, no! Why another?" Harry said blatantly as Flitwick thrust the notice at him.

"It's good exercise!" Flitwick beamed. "Kids nowadays don't get enough of it." Harry and Ron exchanged rather disturbed glances as he waltzed away.

"Right. Anyway. Got any plans for this one?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione mischievously.

"No," Harry replied flatly. Ron raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I do." He breathed for a beat and then began speaking again. "We can run off on our own."

"Well that's complex, that is," Hermione rolled her eyes, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Besides, you're the one who's all goody-goody with this--why be so intent on breaking the rules?"

"Ah, Herm, but what is summer camp without a little adventure?"

"And stop calling me that."

Unfortunately, later they discovered, today was not a day off to ponder what to do during the hiking trip. Instead, it was their swimming exam.

"God, what's the point of having tests in swimming?!" Ron said disgustedly as they made their way dreadfully to the lake. "Besides--we're supposed to be on a camping trip. Why leave it temporarily so that we can be tested for something wizards don't have to learn."

"Well swimming is a useful skill to master, I mean--suppose your wand snapped and you needed to cross a lake?" Hermione said.

"Well," Harry said. "I'm positive Snape did it on purpose. He must have gone through withdrawal from not being able to torture us, and accidentally scheduled our swimming exam during our camping trip." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh well," Hermione sighed. They eventually reached the lake, which looked even more menacing and cold than usual. Snape probably did it on purpose. Of course, conveniently enough, it was only Gryffindors taking exams at this moment, and one-by-one, Snape called the Gryffindors' names up, until he reached "Granger, Hermione".

"Granger, Hermione!" he called out sickeningly.

Hermione walked up to the greasy professor casually.

"Five laps, in butterfly!" he commanded, literally spitting his words out. Hermione obliged, looking rather irked.

"I hope she comes back alive," Ron gulped hopelessly. "Snape seems to be in an exceptionally bad mood today."

Harry raised his eyebrows, but did not verbally respond, for Ginny had strolled over- or should I say stalked over- scowling.

"That filthy slut!" she grumbled. Her hair looked rather matted and ratty, as though she had not wanted to go through with the trial of combing it.

"What?!" Ron cried, reacting as though Ginny were in mortal peril.

"Cho Chang," Ginny spat, looking pained at the very mention of the girl's name. "She tried to snog Draco last night! I'll have her head!"

Ron snorted. "And I bet he did nothing to stop her," he scoffed.

"Actually," Ginny emphasized, "he DID." Ron raised his eyebrows with skepticism. "He pushed her away and told her to bugger off!" Ron raised his eyebrows even further, for they were no longer visible at this point. "Well," continued Ginny, "Maybe that wasn't exactly what he said." Ron raised his eyebrows even more--well, at least I think he did, as they had already merged with his hairline.

"Ron, lay off her," Harry said.

"Yes, please do," Ginny frowned. Just then, Hermione returned, panting as though she had just run a marathon.

"What a work-out!" she managed. "I thought it would never end!" Harry moved closer to her, wrapping his arms around her. "So," she breathed. "What's up, Ginny? Why so angry?"

Ginny made a shrill, high-pitched and quite incoherent noise. The pigment of her skin now was matching her fiery hair. Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Will you three quit with the skeptical raising of eyebrows?!?!" Ginny exploded in reply.

"Potter, Harry!" Snape called with sure vengeance. Harry walked over, feeling doom with every step. "Drop down and give me fifty!" Snape spat.

"What does that have to do with swimming?!" Harry whimpered.

"Do you not remember when we went over strength? You need to have it to swim, Potter. Though I'm sure you had much better things to do other than participate in your school work." Snape's voice was poisonous, though his lip was not in its usual curl. He clearly loathed his summer job almost as much as he loathed Harry--a sure accomplishment. .

Harry began to do the push-ups, angrily thinking "He didn't make anyone else do this..."

Over at the lucky ones who did not have to swim, tension was about.

"I'm really not sure about this whole thing," Ginny sighed, slowly calming down. "Me and Draco, I mean."

"Ginny," Hermione said in a serious voice. "Only break up with him if you feel its right. I don't want you getting heart broken."

Ginny smiled weakly. "Yeah," said Ron, clearly trying to sound as sophisticated as his friend. "Only break up with him if you feel it." Though he added in undertone, "you had better feel it."

"You can stop now," Snape drawled after Harry had painfully completed his fifty push-ups. Harry sat on the ground, shaking and panting. "Get up!" Snape ordered. "Now I want you to do 10 laps around the lake, breast-stroke."

Harry moaned, but did as he was told. As he swam, sweat trickled into the water, even though Harry was positively freezing. God, Snape was a git.

Finally he finished; his turn had taken much longer than anyone else's. He walked over to his friends, still shaking.

"Hold did it go?" Ron asked, knowing his doom would soon come to him.

"Bad," Harry spat.

"I hope not too bad," said Hermione softly. Harry let out an annoyed snort. Hermione began to play with his hair soothingly. "I've got an idea," she said after a pregnant pause. "Since everyone's in such a rotten mood right now, we can have a party in the hide-out later to cheer all of us up!"

Ron gaped. "R-really?" he said in a small voice, looking as though he'd just won five million galleons.

Hermione smiled. "Yes."

Harry grinned as well. "That sounds awesome!" Ginny nodded in agreement. Everything seemed slightly better when....

"Weasley, Ginevra!"

"Oh, no," Ginny croaked. "Well--here I go to my death." She stormed away, swaying a little, and looking very pissed off. When she returned she looked--if possible--even worse. And Ron wasn't happy either, for as soon as she got back, his name was called.

"Weasley, Ronald!"

"Noooo!" Ron groaned. "I was hoping he would forget! And to make it even worse...he called me Ronald!" He walked away furiously.

Snape glared at him as he walked up. "Weasley," he said maliciously. "Drop down and give we twenty!"

Ron paused shortly before saying, "What?"

Snape rolled his eyes. "This is a muggle-style summer camp, so I suggest you learn your muggle phrases! Now get on the ground, and do twenty push-ups!"

Ron moaned again. He tried one push-up, and fell to the ground with a muffled "ouch!"

"I hope he doesn't give Ron a hard time," Harry said.

"Yeah--Ron doesn't exactly know his muggle activities very well, does he?" Hermione agreed

Harry and Ginny both shook their heads.

Luckily, as Ron returned, cussing and fuming, it was all over, for Weasley was currently the last surname in Gryffindor. They hiked back to the camping trip site, and flopped down in their tents. As Harry and Ron entered their own, Draco greeted them with his usual smirk.

"Hello," he said lazily. "Have a nice exam?"

Ron clenched his fists. "Shut up, you ba"--

--"Yes, Ron and I found it very enjoyable," Harry said calmly, cutting Ron off from saying anything rude. He didn't want to give Malfoy the pleasure and satisfaction of a negative reaction.

The smirk stayed on Draco's face. "Since all the Gryffindors were gone, Flitwick let us do whatever we wanted, the whole time."

"Yes, well, luckily, we have the exam over with and you don't," Harry retorted triumphantly.

"Well I'm sure it'll be much easier for me than it was for you," Draco drawled, examining his fingernails with laze.

"You worthless ass!" Ron exploded. "No wonder my sister wants to break up with you!"

For once, Ron had caused the sneer to fade from Malfoy's face. "What?" he replied feebly. "She what?" He seemed absolutely shocked and powerlessly upset. "But-but! No!"

Ron smirked at Draco's reaction. "Yup. That's right, pretty boy. She doesn't want you."

Harry knew that Ron was putting it on very thick; exaggerating the situation to the fullest, but Draco was surely just getting his come-uppance. He'd find out the truth soon, wouldn't he?

And as they ate dinner, Draco seemed much less confident, almost depressed in fact, and Harry almost felt bad for him.

Too be continued!!! (once again).