A/N: Chapter nine. Here it is. Once they've all arrived at the spot for the
hike things start to quicken. Laura and Madelyn are beginning to become
desperate for Hermione to stop (fake) moping. They come up with a plan to
get her and Harry back on speaking terms, which isn't exactly the most
brilliant plan of the century. Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione begin finding
it harder and harder to keep their relationship a secret and Dudders is
busying himself with various schemes to pester Harry's life. He's also in
two-minds about Hermione... They all have one thing in common, though.
Mission: Impossible.
Notice: This chapter is a bit different, since not everything is Hermione's POV.
Hehe. We'll just get cracking right away, don't you think?
Disclaimer: Duh! Of COURSE they're not mine.
~oOo~
Chapter 9 - Mission: Impossible
~oOo~
The hike was going to be tough, Laura realised that right away. It was of course virtually impossible to place all of Camp Moonlake at the same camp- site, there simply wasn't as large clearings in the vast forests surrounding the camp. Thus, the cabins had been sorted into groups of three per clearing. Just her normal luck to end up with Dudley, Piers and Grey.
Well, it COULD have been worse. She could have been without Hermione and Harry, too. But seeing how she was in the same cabin as Hermione, that was all right. And of course Harry, Will and Sam's cabin was the third at the site.
It was funny, really. She'd thought that the groups would be all-girls and vice versa, but no. Not in her case, at least. In every other case, yes. But naturally the numbers didn't match exactly. And she had to be stuck in the middle of it.
During all of the walk up, which had been completed about an hour ago, she'd seen Hermione cast longing glances at Harry, meanwhile he was intently talking to Will and Sam and obviously refused to look at her. And then there was Dudley, who'd been giving Hermione flirtatious yet somewhat appalled looks the whole way - meanwhile scratching his bottom every five steps.
She was ready to throw up, as was Madelyn. The two girls were now sitting together by the fire, which Dudley had spent the full hour trying to light. He actually managed in the end, but Laura suspected it was only because she and Madelyn had begun talking in really loud voices about how both Harry and Hermione would have been done AGES ago.
Now the resident pig-in-a-wig and his disgusting little friends had withdrawn into their tents (to cook up evil schemes about how to annoy Laura until she went insane, no doubt) and the only ones outside were all the leaders and some camper or other from the other two cabins. Hermione was sitting with her back to a tree, reading a huge novel (which Laura was positive in reality was a transfigured school-book). Harry, Will and Sam were throwing a tennis-ball between them (in Harry's case ogled by Tina and Maria) and Madelyn and herself were deep in low conversation next to the fire.
"All, right", Laura said tiredly. "Look at her."
She nodded towards Hermione, who had stopped reading in favour of staring at Harry for a moment.
"She looks miserable".
"No, she looks pathetic. I'm sick of this. What're we going to do? We HAVE to get them back on speaking terms again."
"I don't know, Laura. I mean at least he doesn't look like he'd want to."
"Believe me, he does. I've seen him stare at her, too. I'd be damned if he doesn't have feelings for her, other than as a friend."
"Really?", Madelyn said and raised her eyebrows.
"Absolutely. Now, how best to do this...?", she furrowed her brow, deep in thought.
"How about forcing them into a tent together?"
"Nah. They'd just open the zip and be out of there in nanoseconds."
"But if we jam it..."
"Wouldn't work. They'd just...", Laura remembered just in time not to tell Madelyn about witches and wizards. "Hermione'd find a way to get out, no doubt about that. And it's too obvious. We need something more subtle."
"It's a pity we can't just tell them to make up and that'd be it."
"Madelyn! That's it! You're a genius!"
"Huh?!"
"We'll tell Hermione that something's happening somewhere in a cave or another clearing or something. Then we'll tell Harry something similar. They'll both go there without knowing about one another - and then they'll meet and you bet they'll get talking if there's no-one else around! The only question is when and where."
"You said something about caves. Would an old mine do? You know the one we passed with the bus on our way to camp. If my calculations are correct, it's not that far away from here."
"You, know. If we take all of this clearing. Including Dudders and his minions", she added with a frown. "And then we'll try to..."
Laura smiled inwardly. This was going to be PERFECT.
~oOo~
It was late at night on the first day of the hike. Hermione had, under the pretence of going to the loo, managed to sneak away from the others and gone a couple of hundred metres into the forest. When she was certain she was well out of seeing and hearing range of their camp, she lit the tip of her wand with a simple "Lumos", and swung it around meanwhile whispering loudly:
"Harry!"
She knew he'd be around there somewhere. They'd passed this place on their way out, and decided on using this as a meeting place.
Before long she found him sitting with his back to a large spruce with branches hanging nearly all the way down to the ground. His face literally lit up when she pointed the light from her wand straight in his face.
"Hey, Mio", he said and got up. "Finally, I thought I was going to have to wait for ages."
She hugged him tightly.
"Not a chance. It's not like I can stand our scheme very well, either."
"It'd better be", he said and kissed her.
They came up for air.
"Honestly, Harry. I'm beginning to find it very hard to keep this a secret. Rose already knows, and I'm beginning to think Laura and Madelyn's suspecting something, too."
"Not to mention Will and Sam."
"What?"
"Well, not Will, really. He's a bit too daft about these things. But Sam figured me out - about my feelings for you. And, naturally, he told Will and they cornered me about it. But they don't know we're actually together - yet."
~oOo~
Dudley Dursley was lying in his tent, his hands under his head, staring up into the dark fabric of the ceiling. He was thinking - a rather common activity when it came to him, surprisingly. The thing was, his head often got "overloaded" with thoughts and then he had to retire in order to figure everything out.
And today he had an itch. It was a very persistent itch in his bottom. He'd been suffering from it the whole day. He didn't know where it came from, but he had his suspicions. Those blasted magic folk.
Right now he was - not so surprisingly - thinking about his cousin and that girl called Hermione. Harry was easy - Dudley loathed him. He'd always loathed him. Especially since he'd become a wizard and all, getting to go away to that school and all. He figured Hog-what's-its-name was a lot different from Smeltings. Better. And now - well one had but compare the two young men to realise what Dudley's problem was.
And then there was Harry's friend - or were they enemies at the moment? - Hermione. Dudley didn't really know what to think of her. He'd caught a glimpse of her once or twice when Harry hadn't moved out, but she looked a lot different now. He had to admit she was very pretty. But he was, of course, in denial anyway. She was a witch - a freak in his eyes. He could never like a girl like her, could he? And he reckoned Harry'd kill him anyway, if he tried something. He was afraid of the possible magic means of killing someone. They had to be horrible.
And then there was that other girl - Hermione's cousin. She was fiery, he'd give her that, but still just as pretty as her cousin. And - as far as Dudley knew - she was NORMAL.
But the itch - he was SURE it was Harry's doing. He was trying to figure out a good way to get back at his cousin when the zip that closed the tent flap flew open and a half-disgusted-looking Laura stuck in her head.
"Ey! Dudders! Get out here - leader's assembly!", her tone was one no-one in their right mind would argue with.
He got out. The rest of the leaders were already seated around the fire, Harry and Hermione looking uncomfortable next to each other. He didn't understand their behaviour.
Laura took charge.
"All, right. Madelyn and I have come up with something for the campers to do tomorrow night. We're going to have a spooky-trail."
"Where?", Hermione said dryly.
"The old mine four kilometres from here", Madelyn answered. "We'll go there in the afternoon, cook and stuff. Then all of us save one or two will go into the mine and prepare a trail for them all too follow. We'll stand behind cliffs and stuff and jump out and scare them - the usual, you know."
"Sounds great", Harry said dryly.
"Now, Laura and I went there and back again after supper. We're working on a map of the trail and spots where we can stand. It's not finished yet, so we'll give it to you when we get there."
"What we CAN tell you, however, is that there is only one entrance to the tunnel - that we now of. So we'll hit a dead-end about five hundred metres into the mountain, where we'll do something big."
Dudley sighed inwardly. He dreaded the upcoming night. He just KNEW something was going to happen, to him. Some evil prank or something. Played by Harry, no doubt. And he wouldn't be able to do anything good as payback. It was impossible.
~oOo~
A/N: Chapter nine. There it was. Well, then. Next chapter is "truth or dare?". The concept is horribly clichéed, but I'm hoping it'll be fun. And that I'll be able to get it out soon.
How about that spooky-trail? What'll happen? Hmm...
Review? Please, do!
Notice: This chapter is a bit different, since not everything is Hermione's POV.
Hehe. We'll just get cracking right away, don't you think?
Disclaimer: Duh! Of COURSE they're not mine.
~oOo~
Chapter 9 - Mission: Impossible
~oOo~
The hike was going to be tough, Laura realised that right away. It was of course virtually impossible to place all of Camp Moonlake at the same camp- site, there simply wasn't as large clearings in the vast forests surrounding the camp. Thus, the cabins had been sorted into groups of three per clearing. Just her normal luck to end up with Dudley, Piers and Grey.
Well, it COULD have been worse. She could have been without Hermione and Harry, too. But seeing how she was in the same cabin as Hermione, that was all right. And of course Harry, Will and Sam's cabin was the third at the site.
It was funny, really. She'd thought that the groups would be all-girls and vice versa, but no. Not in her case, at least. In every other case, yes. But naturally the numbers didn't match exactly. And she had to be stuck in the middle of it.
During all of the walk up, which had been completed about an hour ago, she'd seen Hermione cast longing glances at Harry, meanwhile he was intently talking to Will and Sam and obviously refused to look at her. And then there was Dudley, who'd been giving Hermione flirtatious yet somewhat appalled looks the whole way - meanwhile scratching his bottom every five steps.
She was ready to throw up, as was Madelyn. The two girls were now sitting together by the fire, which Dudley had spent the full hour trying to light. He actually managed in the end, but Laura suspected it was only because she and Madelyn had begun talking in really loud voices about how both Harry and Hermione would have been done AGES ago.
Now the resident pig-in-a-wig and his disgusting little friends had withdrawn into their tents (to cook up evil schemes about how to annoy Laura until she went insane, no doubt) and the only ones outside were all the leaders and some camper or other from the other two cabins. Hermione was sitting with her back to a tree, reading a huge novel (which Laura was positive in reality was a transfigured school-book). Harry, Will and Sam were throwing a tennis-ball between them (in Harry's case ogled by Tina and Maria) and Madelyn and herself were deep in low conversation next to the fire.
"All, right", Laura said tiredly. "Look at her."
She nodded towards Hermione, who had stopped reading in favour of staring at Harry for a moment.
"She looks miserable".
"No, she looks pathetic. I'm sick of this. What're we going to do? We HAVE to get them back on speaking terms again."
"I don't know, Laura. I mean at least he doesn't look like he'd want to."
"Believe me, he does. I've seen him stare at her, too. I'd be damned if he doesn't have feelings for her, other than as a friend."
"Really?", Madelyn said and raised her eyebrows.
"Absolutely. Now, how best to do this...?", she furrowed her brow, deep in thought.
"How about forcing them into a tent together?"
"Nah. They'd just open the zip and be out of there in nanoseconds."
"But if we jam it..."
"Wouldn't work. They'd just...", Laura remembered just in time not to tell Madelyn about witches and wizards. "Hermione'd find a way to get out, no doubt about that. And it's too obvious. We need something more subtle."
"It's a pity we can't just tell them to make up and that'd be it."
"Madelyn! That's it! You're a genius!"
"Huh?!"
"We'll tell Hermione that something's happening somewhere in a cave or another clearing or something. Then we'll tell Harry something similar. They'll both go there without knowing about one another - and then they'll meet and you bet they'll get talking if there's no-one else around! The only question is when and where."
"You said something about caves. Would an old mine do? You know the one we passed with the bus on our way to camp. If my calculations are correct, it's not that far away from here."
"You, know. If we take all of this clearing. Including Dudders and his minions", she added with a frown. "And then we'll try to..."
Laura smiled inwardly. This was going to be PERFECT.
~oOo~
It was late at night on the first day of the hike. Hermione had, under the pretence of going to the loo, managed to sneak away from the others and gone a couple of hundred metres into the forest. When she was certain she was well out of seeing and hearing range of their camp, she lit the tip of her wand with a simple "Lumos", and swung it around meanwhile whispering loudly:
"Harry!"
She knew he'd be around there somewhere. They'd passed this place on their way out, and decided on using this as a meeting place.
Before long she found him sitting with his back to a large spruce with branches hanging nearly all the way down to the ground. His face literally lit up when she pointed the light from her wand straight in his face.
"Hey, Mio", he said and got up. "Finally, I thought I was going to have to wait for ages."
She hugged him tightly.
"Not a chance. It's not like I can stand our scheme very well, either."
"It'd better be", he said and kissed her.
They came up for air.
"Honestly, Harry. I'm beginning to find it very hard to keep this a secret. Rose already knows, and I'm beginning to think Laura and Madelyn's suspecting something, too."
"Not to mention Will and Sam."
"What?"
"Well, not Will, really. He's a bit too daft about these things. But Sam figured me out - about my feelings for you. And, naturally, he told Will and they cornered me about it. But they don't know we're actually together - yet."
~oOo~
Dudley Dursley was lying in his tent, his hands under his head, staring up into the dark fabric of the ceiling. He was thinking - a rather common activity when it came to him, surprisingly. The thing was, his head often got "overloaded" with thoughts and then he had to retire in order to figure everything out.
And today he had an itch. It was a very persistent itch in his bottom. He'd been suffering from it the whole day. He didn't know where it came from, but he had his suspicions. Those blasted magic folk.
Right now he was - not so surprisingly - thinking about his cousin and that girl called Hermione. Harry was easy - Dudley loathed him. He'd always loathed him. Especially since he'd become a wizard and all, getting to go away to that school and all. He figured Hog-what's-its-name was a lot different from Smeltings. Better. And now - well one had but compare the two young men to realise what Dudley's problem was.
And then there was Harry's friend - or were they enemies at the moment? - Hermione. Dudley didn't really know what to think of her. He'd caught a glimpse of her once or twice when Harry hadn't moved out, but she looked a lot different now. He had to admit she was very pretty. But he was, of course, in denial anyway. She was a witch - a freak in his eyes. He could never like a girl like her, could he? And he reckoned Harry'd kill him anyway, if he tried something. He was afraid of the possible magic means of killing someone. They had to be horrible.
And then there was that other girl - Hermione's cousin. She was fiery, he'd give her that, but still just as pretty as her cousin. And - as far as Dudley knew - she was NORMAL.
But the itch - he was SURE it was Harry's doing. He was trying to figure out a good way to get back at his cousin when the zip that closed the tent flap flew open and a half-disgusted-looking Laura stuck in her head.
"Ey! Dudders! Get out here - leader's assembly!", her tone was one no-one in their right mind would argue with.
He got out. The rest of the leaders were already seated around the fire, Harry and Hermione looking uncomfortable next to each other. He didn't understand their behaviour.
Laura took charge.
"All, right. Madelyn and I have come up with something for the campers to do tomorrow night. We're going to have a spooky-trail."
"Where?", Hermione said dryly.
"The old mine four kilometres from here", Madelyn answered. "We'll go there in the afternoon, cook and stuff. Then all of us save one or two will go into the mine and prepare a trail for them all too follow. We'll stand behind cliffs and stuff and jump out and scare them - the usual, you know."
"Sounds great", Harry said dryly.
"Now, Laura and I went there and back again after supper. We're working on a map of the trail and spots where we can stand. It's not finished yet, so we'll give it to you when we get there."
"What we CAN tell you, however, is that there is only one entrance to the tunnel - that we now of. So we'll hit a dead-end about five hundred metres into the mountain, where we'll do something big."
Dudley sighed inwardly. He dreaded the upcoming night. He just KNEW something was going to happen, to him. Some evil prank or something. Played by Harry, no doubt. And he wouldn't be able to do anything good as payback. It was impossible.
~oOo~
A/N: Chapter nine. There it was. Well, then. Next chapter is "truth or dare?". The concept is horribly clichéed, but I'm hoping it'll be fun. And that I'll be able to get it out soon.
How about that spooky-trail? What'll happen? Hmm...
Review? Please, do!
