Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Marvel or the characters therein. Nor, sadly, do I make any moneys from the posting of this fanfiction.

Hello to all you happy campers! Thanks for joining the fun. Hope you're enjoying life (as best as you can given what's going on). Please if you could, review. It would help loads.

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The Reluctant Camper

Needless to say that it hadn't been Hermione's idea to go camping. If anything, she had been the one to vote no on the notion each and every time the matter was brought up—whether there was an election for it or not.

It had first come up as an idea to get the team to start rebuilding the bonds broken by what the civil war had torn apart. The concept of camping was spoken about several times over the course of the next few meetings and it was decided that they would all do it. And the meaning of all, this meant everyone. Including and not limited to those working closely with the Avengers. This wasn't exactly looked upon as a good thing.

"If I were meant to camp, I would be living in the woods," Hermione stated to them. "No! Just no."

"Too bad, you're going," Tony told her. "It won't be that bad."

She turned a look on him that could fry bacon and snapped, "It's winter and we are currently in the middle of a blizzard. How can it be a good thing?"

"Who said that we had to camp here? It's summer in Australia!"

Hermione got to her feet, threw the closest thing at hand at Tony, and stalked off.

"Was it something I said?" Tony asked, as he rubbed his arm where the book she had nailed him with hit.

"It's always something you say," came from Darcy, as she got to her feet. "This time you said several things that I could strangle you for." She walked out of the room, following her sister.

In the end, it was decided that they go out camping later in the year, when the snow wouldn't be an issue. Hermione didn't like this any better, but then any choice they made about going camping she would have not been pleased about.

…

They traveled in the middle of spring when they ended up making their way to the private camp site by any means they could over to what Tony referred to as the middle of nowhere. Friday then corrected him, of course, by telling him exactly where they were.

Tony had himself and Pepper driven to the camp site in a pimped-out bus that could have been used as a place to live permanently if there was a need for it. Steve rode his bike out, Natasha and Clint parachuted in, and Darcy drove herself and Jane in her new Mini-Coop. Hermione appeared out of nowhere with Bucky in the middle of a clearing near their camp site.

When she saw the others there all she could think of to say was, "I am way too sober for this."

Bucky kissed her temple. "You can do this."

"I know I can," she muttered. "Doesn't mean I want to."

"Got me there," he sighed. "Do you need help with anything?"

"I'll deal with the tent, but if you could see to the firepit?"

"I'm on it," he said and got to work on building it.

…

Tony looked at the small tent, scoffing, "Are you sure that you and the Buckster are going to fit in that thing?"

"Certainly," she answered, going on to say, "Several of the others are as well."

Frowning he looked to her, as he pointed to the tent. "In this?"

"Yes, in this." She tossed another log into the firepit, as she looked up to the sky going dark. "Are Bucky, Steve and Thor still fishing?"

"Yes, they are showing Pointbreak how to be manly in the woods."

She looked over to him, asking, "Are you just pissed off that they didn't ask you to go with them or that Bruce got the invitation even if he didn't accept it?"

"Neither! I have plenty of food in the bus!" He looked over to Hermione. "Want to see it?"

"Not really, but I will if I must," she sighed.

She went into the large luxurious RV. Tony would have thought she would be impressed with. She wasn't.

"It's so closed in," she muttered, exiting as quickly as she could.

"Really?! Have you not seen your own tent?!" he yelled after her.

Later on, while dinner was being made, Tony had asked several of those there if they had wanted to stay in his very deluxe RV.

Peter let out a hissing noise and cringed. "Uh, I'm staying in the tent."

"The tent? There's only one tent here and that's…" He looked at the tent and back over to Peter. "That one? The one that shouldn't be able to hold one person let alone three?"

"Ten."

"What?!"

"What?" Peter repeated, looking over to his mentor. "What did I say?"

"From the sound of it that ten people are staying in that…" He pointed to the tent. "…thing!"

"Well…I…uh…I don't know about the exact numbers involved. But Hermione told me that her sister, Thor, Jane, Bruce, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Bucky, and Pepper were staying there too."

"Pepper?"

"Yeah…" He spun around. "What's that? My spider senses are going crazy! I gotta go!" And hightailed it out of there before he was questioned further.

Fed up, he stomped over to the tent, ripped the flap open, and charged straight into…what looked to be the great room of a two-story log cabin!

Hermione walked over to him, handing him a hot toddy. "Here. You look like you need a drink." She looked around the accommodations. "I think the improvements worked out well, don't you?"

Tony was absolutely speechless, as he stood there watching as everyone that had come along for the camping trip…His eyes narrowed when he saw little Lilly Potter playing around with whom must be her brothers in front of a large fireplace at the back of the cabin.

"Just how many rooms does this thing have?"

"It started out with eight," she answered. "And it didn't have half the amenities."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning it now has four full bathrooms and a gourmet kitchen," she told him. "And that's just part of it." She went over to Ginny to help her with setting the huge table.

Bucky walked over to him, saying, "You haven't a clue about what she and her friends went through, do you?"

"Not really," he admitted. "But what does this…" He waved his hand around. "…have to do with it?"

"She and her friends were on the run for around five months," Bruce said, as he joined them. "They were forced into camping to stay off of the radar. She can't stand camping now."

Tony said nothing, as he looked over to Hermione again who was now with a dark-haired young man. Her head was resting on his shoulder, as they danced to a slow song off in the corner.

"Before you say it, Harry's like a brother to her," Steve told him, as he joined them.

"How do you know I was going to say anything?" Tony asked.

"Because you so would go there," Darcy was the one to reply, adding in a louder voice, "Dinner's up! Go get washed up and get a place to sit."

Soon enough everyone was at the large table, passing around the food on the large platters and chattering away about whatever happened to be going through their heads at that moment. Tony looked around the happy group, seeing for the first time just how jovial everyone was. Smiling to himself, he sent a text to the RV driver that he could leave but to come back to pick them up in a couple of days.

"What's up?" Pepper asked him, looking at his phone. "I thought you said no electronics?"

"I needed to text the driver," he told her, putting the phone away. "Seeing as I'm staying in the room with you here."

Grinning, Pepper kissed his cheek. "Can you believe that this is a tent?"

"It used to be much smaller," Harry said to them as he passed a plate over towards them. "And it actually looked like a tent interior."

"How big was it before?" came from Bruce.

"Approximately 139.35 square meters," Hermione answered, as she took up another plate. She was serving herself and handing the plate to Bucky, as she went on to say, "It's now expandable as needed. And as I just added about four more rather large rooms…" She blushed. "I have no idea how big it is now." She shrugged it off. "It's all good."

"Why did you do all of this…" Tony waved around to the cabin and furniture. "…if you don't like camping?"

"I loathe camping," she told them, as she accepted another plate of food. "It doesn't mean I don't like spending time with my family and friends." She passed the plate on once she was finished with it. Looking over to Tony, she said, "I have a treat later for us."

"Treat?" he asked puzzled. When he realized what she was speaking about, he blurted out, "Medicinal cannabis?"

"A milder form," she told him with a grin. "Edible."

Laughing Tony crowed, "We need to do this more often!"

Chuckling Hermione shot that idea down with a simple, "No."

Some of the other adults at the table started to laugh at that. For a moment there they had thought that Hermione would warm up to the idea of camping. Apparently, not so much.

Bucky leaned closer to her, murmuring, "Are you sure I can't talk you into another camping trip—just the two of us?"

Flushing, she told him, "Only if it's in a five-star hotel suite with room service."

Kissing her lips, he whispered, "That can be arranged."

It was while she was taking a sip of her water that Hermione thought that perhaps under the right circumstances camping could be passable. The chattering got louder and the children began to run around as they were apt to do. Perhaps if she drugged herself now, she could start being able to ignore everyone but the stars overhead?

Harry pointed to her and said, "No!"

"I didn't say anything!" she replied.

"No, but you were thinking that drugging the children would be a good idea."

"No, I was thinking about drugging myself." She went quiet a moment. "Giving drugs to the children would get me into more trouble than it would be worth."

That gained her several bouts of laughter, knowing that she would never even attempt as much. Yes, Hermione reasoned, perhaps camping wasn't all that bad. Just the same, she really couldn't wait for Sunday to come so the camping holiday would be over.

TBC…

…

Another one bites the Internet? Yeah, I totally need to listen to more music if that's the best I can come up with. Thanks for reading and I hope you're all staying excellent.