Draco sighed as a herd of children approached him and his colleagues. Signing up as a camp coordinator sounded in some way interesting at first, but now, as he looked at the mass of hormonal teens that were getting ever closer, he thought to himself that perhaps volunteering at St. Mungo's as a filing clerk would have been a better idea.
Once all the students had gathered by the camp site they were divided into their respective year groups. When that was done they were taken to their areas and a role call was carried out. Draco read out the names and marked them off accordingly. There were forty-two persons in the fourth year group, 25 boys and 17 girls. He began to work out the sleeping arrangements as Granger introduced them, as if the children did not already know her as part of the Chosen One's trio and him as the former Death Eater.
"Malfoy?" A young girl bellowed. "You mean the Death Eater? How'd they allow a twit like him to look after people's children?" She was short, fair skinned and her shoulder length hair looped and curled. She made him think of that Muggle girl in the children's story, he believed they called her Golden Locks, or something of the sort.
"Now Bethany, it is Bethany right?" the girl nodded in confirmation and Granger continued, "That's no way to talk about your camp coordinator. Or anyone for that matter."
"What's wrong Beth? Afraid he'll steal you away and torture you?" a young boy said. He was plump and had dark brown hair, he looked somewhat like Vincent and Draco felt his stomach knot at the thought of his lost comrade.
"You lot finished making Death Eater jokes?" Draco said as he held up the parchment in his hand. Before they could reply he read out the sleeping arrangements. There were nine tents, excluding his and Granger's, and each was able to hold five persons. The boys were split up into five groups of five and the girls into four groups, one of which had a fifth member. They were sent to set up their tents as he and Granger supervised. On his way to the third group Granger approached him. He eyed her suspiciously.
"Malfoy, they're just kids, they don't mean it," she said to him as if they never been bitter rivals in the past. The sincerity in her voice was disconcerting to him since he was not used to it, especially not from Granger.
"When you were their age," he replied as he looked out at them, "you would have meant it, wouldn't you?" He looked at her then.
"..." she frowned slightly, "I suppose I would have."
"You punched me in the face Granger. Of course you meant it," he said as he observed the group of girls whose tent seemed to collapsed on one of them.
"You were a right git though. What else was I sup-"
"One of the girls seems to be in distress," he cut her off and strode away towards them.
Draco could only see the lower half of the girl, her feet kicking about wildly and her muffled cries for help came from within the tent. The girls around her were in a slight panic and the only calm one was trying to get the trapped girl to calm down. Draco hid his amusement and tried to get the group of girls away from her. Granger had her wand out and told the girl to calm down a bit as he ushered the girls away. Granger set the tent up properly around the girl and he cast a levitation charm at her before she could slide down the steps inside the tent and the group members screamed in fright, a hex flew at him and he cast a protego and then set the girl on the ground.
"Don't you dare point your wand at her you brute!" one of the girls screamed at him. As he turned towards the boys' section of the camp he sighed inwardly. It would be a long and trying two weeks.