A/N: Thank you for all the reviews. *takes cinnamon buns out of oven* I really appreciate them. one crimson tie: Thank you. I just fixed the 'floo' problem. I'll try to fix previous errors with each update.

posted: 6/14/03

Controlling the Campers

The next morning, Draco entered the South wing with an army of house elves holding silver platters. "Time for breakfast, everyone line...." He looked around. Barricaded hallways...broken windows...makeshift rope ladders...frantic screaming...and was that an explosion? Draco ran out knocking down house elves in his wake. Touching his wand to his SMITEM badge he shouted, "I don't care what lie you have to tell, get back here right now. We have trouble."

"...quidditch...bake sale...water polo...gotta go...bye..."

To say that Draco's plan had hit a slight hiccup would be a major and indescribable understatement. The manor was in chaos. Purebloods were chasing down Muggleborns, Muggleborns were falling through cursed stairwells, house elves were beating back devil's snare and Malfoy Manor was flawlessly exhibiting its highly effective yet thoroughly illegal security systems. At the moment Pansy was firing curses like streamers and Ron was trying to calm a brown-haired kid mid-hysterics.

"Look, I can't let you owl your family...and they are most definitely not in the dungeons! Just stop crying okay, you're safe here. It's going to be fun, there'll be games, and crafts and... It's for your own good...just shut up already! Malfoy," Ron looked over "some help here?"

Draco bent down putting on his best concerned expression. He placed a hand on the small shoulder, and looked down paternally at the shaking child. "Now what seems to be the problem?"

The little boy sniffed. "Well, you see..."

"Oblivate!"

"Malfoy!"

"What? It worked didn't it?" He replied looking at the shocked redhead.

"You just wiped out his memory." Ron shook his hand at the dazed kid.

"It's not like he'd want to keep it once he realized what he's been through. He'll probably thank me later." Draco responded proudly.

"Yeah, if he could remember he'd forgotten anything! " Ron looked down at the boy again. "What's your name? What's your house?"

"....."

"Do something Malfoy!"

"What? I don't know how to reverse Oblivate."

"Okay... um... nobody panic," as Ron shifted to 'fast but reckless' mode. "Your name is... Jonathan Hayes... no Horte... you're twelve...sure. Your house is... " He looked pleadingly at Malfoy.

Draco looked 'Jonathan' over. "Vacant expression, bad haircut," he scowled, "choo choo jammies... if he wasn't a Hufflepuff before he has to be one now."

"Fine... You're a Hufflepuff. Um...you like anything orange and..." Ron grumbled. "This is too much work. Look, you have no parents, you have no family, you've lived in Hogsmeade all your life, you're really enjoying camp and you're hungry... go get a sandwich or something...."

As the boy wandered off Draco came up next to Ron. "Oh masterful done Weasley. The professors are really going to enjoy their new quidditch-obsessed second year with an inexplicable love of pumpkin juice and your sister. He'll have no understanding of first-year concepts and, oh I almost forgot, a desperate need for sandwiches."

Ron tried to defend himself. "Ginny can take care of herself and it's not like you learn that much first year anyway."

"Maybe you didn't."

"They'll just think he forgot it all over the summer and... wait a minute. You're the one who oblivated him. I was just doing damage control." he remembered.

Draco shrugged as he made to leave. "Well, if you're so set on 'fixing it all' there are two more over by the fireplace. Go make them twins or something."

"...okay your name is Kyle... or Kyla ... sorry didn't see the pigtails..."

After rounding up the wanderers, patching up the mauled, and freeing the rest from cursed footpaths, hellhound, garden ogres, and every manner of invisible, disgruntled, or demented man-eating plant, they were all settled into the ballroom for a little chat. Draco grabbed Ron and headed to the front of the room. "Alright there's a perfectly good and in no way suspicious explanation for why all of you are here. It's so good in fact that none of you will make anymore trouble for the rest of camp. " He said getting the groups attention. "You see...keep eye contact now...Obliv*mmph*..."

Ron turned Draco away from the group, removing his hand from Draco's mouth. "No. I'm not making up life stories for an entire room of people. I don't care what you think...we're doing this some other way."

"Then what do you propose Weasley? We can't tell them the truth, Imperius only last so long, and Cruciatus can get very messy."

Ron mentally took stock of the situation and the pieces he had to work with. "Okay, I can handle Ravenclaw...I know how they think."

"Really..." Draco got ready for a long commentary.

"Shut up Malfoy," still thinking through the others. "We need to get Gryffindor in a room with Ginny for an hour... It'll be best if she breaks down on her own. That only leaves..."

"I can handle Hufflepuff." Draco said, but sighed after seeing Ron's face. "Fine, without hexes."

"Hope so..." he mumbled before facing the crowd. "Okay, Hufflepuff follow Malfoy, Gryffindor go to the drawing room with Ginny, Ravenclaw follow me to the libraries and we'll explain everything."

Draco led Hufflepuff towards the owlery. "I'll explain about camp soon but I know you're all worried about your parents. I thought it best to let you owl home first." He started handing out supplies. "That's right, perfectly good parchment, high-quality quills and ink. Go on now, write whatever your heart desires to your beloved families. Mind you they already know you're here...and writing home after the first night does seem...well horribly childish. The others will be calling you crybabies behind your backs. But then I suppose that doesn't bother Hufflepuffs does it. You get that all the time at Hogwarts. You must be hardened to being called push-overs by now...oh and people saying you couldn't clasp your robes without assistance...but that's unimportant." He looked over the group. "Shall I leave you alone to it? I don't want to disturb you while you're writing. I for one respect your...delicate composures." Draco said in a very mater-of-fact tone.

Hufflepuff looked at their parchment and then at each other, after a long moment an older boy spoke up. "No... no, I think we're fine." He steeled himself. "In fact, we don't need to write back right now...they...they know we're alright." He started to gain momentum. "In fact we can go days!" He saw Draco shaking his head. "Weeks! We can go weeks without writing home. We can go longer than Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. Let's see who breaks first! They'll never call us crybabies again!" As other voice joined in agreement.

Draco looked at them all with an innocent expression. "So you don't want to use the owlery then?" he asked softly.

"NO!" Parchment and writing equipment came flying back into his arms.

"Then I could always address your fears about staying at the big scary camp for the summer? Seeing as you hated being alone in the dark so much...without mum and dad to protect you." He suggested helpfully.

"We're fine!" They shouted. "We love camp!"

Draco shuffled his feet, clutching the pile of parchment to him for effect. "In that case, I'll just go put these back then..." he said quietly, leaving a highly determined and self-assured Hufflepuff house behind him.

Ron waited till every Ravenclaw was comfortably seated at a table or leather chair before beginning. During the long walk he reviewed every academic thing Hermione Granger had ever said to him. He knew that Ravenclaw respected her study habits even when everyone else thought she was crazy. He knew Ravenclaw, like Hermione, had an absolute fear of academic failure...and now he would use that to his advantage. He cleared his throat, steeled himself, and started a lecture Snape would be proud of.

"As you know academics are extremely important...you might even say crucial." He saw every head turn towards him. "Most important is testing. How else would they determine your academic capacities. If it weren't for testing the entire system would fall in on itself." He ran a hand over the nearest self, pulling a book at random and skimming through it. "That's why you're here really...testing."

One Ravenclaw raised her hand. "But the schedule said the testing was optional," stating known fact for the group.

"Oh, they are, but those aren't the test I'm talking about." Ron felt the first hint of panic in the air. All eyes were glued to him waiting for him to explain.

"Now 7th years you have the NEWTs coming up and while I'm sure you all did...fine...on your OWLs, can you really be sure those prepared you? The NEWTs aren't just textbook and classroom knowledge. They're strongly bias on wizarding culture. Things that wizards growing up in the magical world would naturally know and even take for granted. Sure all of you could transfigure a cloak into formal dress robes, but how many could transfigure them for a arranged-marriage ball at the Delater estate. They asked that ten years ago and similar questions since." He said casually. "You just don't have the wizarding knowledge to keep up. One slightly obscure question with a high point value could destroy your chances at a good apprenticeship or university...your entire academic record completely ruined." Their faces paled. That's right. Ron thought. Keep listening to the redhead.

"In fact I've heard rumors that if you don't perform well enough on your NEWTs you don't graduate at all. They revoke your wand, and send you back home...in your cases the muggle world. I mean how many muggleborns have you actually talked to since they 'graduated' anyway? You'd have no more magic and...well considering you'd spent the last seven years getting a wizarding education you really wouldn't be fit to graduate from muggle school would you? You'd have to start all over again." He said thoughtfully. "It must be hard being seventeen, taking courses a thirteen year old passed ages ago...but then you're all fast learners." The dead silence was punctuated only by the lack of breathing.

"...please stop..." came a desperate whisper.

"Sorry, got off track for a moment. Now back to why you're here. It's not fair that you don't know about wizarding culture, it puts you at an unfair disadvantage. We brought you to Camp Muggleborn to get you up to speed. If you don't cause any more trouble we may have just enough time to get you ready. The 7th years need this now, but it can't hurt the rest of you to have a basis to build on. After all," he smiled with what he thought was a mad gleam in his eyes, Ravenclaw seemed to find it reassuring. "You can never start studying too early!"

He walked towards the door. "Now you all know the schedule, I suggest you consider it a syllabus, start getting some reference materials together so you aren't ill-prepared for classes. The Malfoy libraries are probably the best reference you'll ever find to" he muttered, "stuffy, antiquated, backstabbing," he cleared his throat, "wizarding culture and etiquette." As he walked out he heard the sudden rush of feet and the frantic rustling of bound pages. Well, that went well.

"Guys just calm down. I can't tell you alright." Ginny said with her house surrounding her, throwing accusations. They'd been at it for nearly an hour and didn't seem near stopping any time soon.

"Malfoy's sending us to the Dark Lord."

"You're under Imperius, I know it!"

"Not a problem, we get all the other Gryffindors and we storm out all at once."

"We knock Malfoy unconscious on the way."

"Can we do that twice?"

Gryffindor was already searching the room for weapons and considering escape routes. Ginny was spinning around trying to get them to listen to her. She couldn't take it anymore. "STOP!" They froze mid-arming. She got up on a highly polished wooden table, finally drawing everyone's attention. "That's not true! Malfoy's not sending anyone to anybody. " She sounded panicked. "You have to stay or we can't save Harry from V..." Her eyes went wide and she clamped her hand over her mouth. "Never mind."

The noise level doubled.

"What do you mean save Harry?"

"Is he in trouble...what happened?"

"Tell us now!"

Ginny already at the end of her nerves gave in. She sighed and gathered the others closer as she whispered. "Harry is locked up...and he can't get himself out...and Dumbledore and the others aren't doing anything. He's not being feed...and it's probably dark. Even Malfoy couldn't stand seeing him like that, and he's Deatheater spawn." Anger now tinted her voice. "Just because Harry's special, not to mention far more powerful than him. Thinks he can break The Boy Who Lived of his 'abnormality'. If it were up to him, Harry would never see the magical world again. Just rot in that...place...and with those horrible people." She stomped her feet on the table...leaving horrible scuff marks. Her voice rose higher as her back straightened and she started in on a battle speech any Gryffindor would stand behind. "Well we're not going to let him! We can't get him now, but once this..." she waved her arms, "...is finished, we'll be strong enough to take him...blood warding and all. We'll show him what we're made of muggleborn, pureblood or otherwise. We're preparing for battle, we're saving Harry, and we're making sure that beady-eyed, pasty-faced, magicist tyrant never lays a hand on our Harry again!" Ginny screamed, face a bright red that put her hair to shame. She looked around at the silent faces below her. Gryffindor stared back ready for orders.

"So what do we do?"

Ginny smoothed her hair, composed herself, and then checked the time. "First...we have lunch."