"Careful, it's steep," Glasses warned. The three of them were making their way through a limestone passageway. The tunnel began in a back room of a ramshackle house which turned out to be a sort of general store for both magical items like quills, preserved potions materials, and common spell books as well as non-magical items like candy bars, soap, and double A batteries. "They're always open," Jay told Draco as they opened the front door and sure enough a cranky-looking teenager was behind the counter. She looked up from her book long enough to inform them that they were all 'royally screwed'.

"This whole area is full of limestone caves," Glasses told Draco, "They're awesome in the summer, cause it gets so hot here. This passage is the only entrance to the campus." Sure enough, before long they were headed up a steep incline and could see the grey morning sky ahead of them. The three of them hurried along a rocky path that wound around a high ledge. Through the trees, Draco could see a river in the distance and several lights directly below.

"That's the lower school," Jay informed him, "The little kids go there."

"How little?" Draco asked.

"Well you can start when you are five and you usually stay till you're thirteen."

"Unless you're on the extended plan like Jay-Jay here."

"Shut up, Glasses!"

They continued a little further down the path, until they came to an iron staircase which wound its way down the ledge. As they descended, Draco saw several houses and cabins of various sizes.

"These are the boarding houses," Jay told him, "Mine is the best cause it's almost at the bottom of the hill." Draco was surprised to see that most of the boarding houses seemed to be quite awake for such an early hour. He could hear laughing and arguing coming from most of the windows. Some houses even had kids sitting out on the porches talking or playing guitar. In front of one house was a pair of little girls in pigtails. They were floating around inside bright blue bubbles and laughing their heads off.

"You are so screwed, Jay-Jay!" yelled one girl as they went by.

"Thank you! I appreciate your concern!"

"Which one is yours?" Draco asked Glasses. He rolled his eyes in response.

"I don't board," he told him, "My mom won't let me."

"Why not?"

"Because she's a psycho."

As they reached the bottom of the hill, Draco could see a huge meadow filled with fireflies and mist. Deer were grazing on the far side, near the edge of the woods and Draco noticed flashes of silver in the trees behind them. Finally, Jay led them up the steps of a large white house that was held up on one side by stilts.

"Here we are!" Jay said happily. Draco breathed a sigh of relief. He was so exhausted he wasn't sure he could make it to the bottom of the hill without passing out. He'd be happy to sleep on the floor if he could just close his eyes for a second.

Just as Jay was reaching for the door knob, the door swung open, almost decking him in the face, and a tall, thin man burst out onto the porch.

"Jay, you are totally screwed!"

"Hello, Mr. Dutton.

"Eleven O'clock! Is this a difficult concept?"

"No, Sir. We would have been back on time but…"

"I don't want to hear it! You are six hours…Glasses?! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Please?!" Glasses begged.

"Forget it! Go home!"

"But I asked my mom first!" he whined.

"What did I say?"

"Mr. Dutton," Jay interrupted, "He doesn't have time to go home! We're leaving for camp in the morning."

"Boy, it IS morning!"

"Besides, it's not our fault! We found this lost kid and…" Dutton looked sideways at Draco, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

"Have you lost your mind? You can't just bring random kids in here! Am I suddenly running an orphanage here? I thought we covered this concept when you tried to bring in that rattlesnake!"

"He was in a cage!"

"Jay, this is a boarding house! We take care of people's kids here! You can't just bring in some guy off the street without knowing who he is or anything! He could be a terrorist or something!"

"Yeah, that's it! He's a terrorist!" Jay shouted, "He's a blond-haired, blue-eyed teenage terrorist from England! He goes around launching terror attacks on schools! Look, it's the last day! We're leaving in four hours. Are you going to let them get a couple hours of sleep or are they supposed to go get a cup of coffee at 7 Eleven and suck it up?" Dutton looked over at Draco and Glasses and said, "Fine. Towhead can sleep in the back porch and Glasses can have your bed. You ain't going to need it. You and I are going to have a long talk."

"Come on," Glasses whispered to him and pulled him down the hallway before he could get too indignant at being called 'towhead'. He led Draco out onto a large, screened-in porch with a stone fireplace on one side. On the wall by the door was an enormous chalkboard which listed the names of the boarders and their chores for the week. In the corner, there was a large hammock filled with pillows.

"You can sleep in here," Glasses said, "the hammock's comfortable and did you see the bathroom." Draco shook his head.

"Oh. Well it's back there, we passed it, on the right."

"Right, thanks."

"Well…anyway. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Draco went to the bathroom and drug his backpack with him. He opened the top and found a toothbrush and washrag right on top. He pulled them out and cleaned himself up. He looked at himself in the mirror and it was suddenly hard to breathe. He grabbed his bag and hurried down the hall. He could hear Dutton yelling at Jay in the kitchen as he went. He climbed into the hammock and buried his face in a pillow as he gave into sobbing. He cried because he wasn't at all sure that he wasn't a terrorist. He cried as he tried to remember how he had begun the night planning to commit a murder and ending up sleeping in a hammock in a strange house a thousand miles a way. He cried as he wondered just how angry the Dark Lord was with him. He cried as he wondered what was happening to his mother and his friends and his home. And then he cried as he wondered what was going to happen to him next.