C is for Camping

As Hermione packed one last box of food into the car, Draco complained once more.

"Hermioneeeee." He stretched the end of the word, whining like a child. "Why do we have to go campinggggg?"

"Stop your whining, you big baby." She scolded playfully.

"But whyyyy?"

"Becauseeee." She mimicked his voice. "It'll be good for you."

"But Muggles go camping."

"Exactly."

"I still don't get it."

"You'll like it."

"But… Muggles…?"

"Look, Malfoy. Harry and I came up with this idea a while ago, remember? You were there? We are all going to go camping. Loads of Muggles do this at some point. No magic, a total disconnection from the Wizarding World. I used to camping all the time when I was little."

"But whyyy?"

"Draco, baby, you need to learn to get over your fear of Muggles. I grew up with them."

"I'm not scared of Muggles."

"Sure, sure." Hermione rolled her eyes and hugged him tightly around the waist. "You need to understand them though."

"I'm not scared of them!" Draco protested, hardly hugging Hermione back. She looked up at him.

"I never said you were." Hermione giggled at his stupidity.

"You implied it."

"Stop your complaining. Get in the car."

"But why are we driving there? Why not just apparate?"

"No magic, remember?"

"No even to get there? Ridiculous…" Draco muttered.

"You're ridiculous." Hermione laughed, shoving him into the passenger seat of the car and shutting the door before walking around to the driver's seat. Settling into the seat, she plugged the keys into their hole and started the car, ignoring Draco's complaints.

"But who's going to be there? Potter better not be coming." Draco grumbled. "If he is, I'm not going."

"Too late for that… You're in the car, and he's gonna be that."

"Let me out, Hermione. Now!" He tugged on the door, yanking it so it would open, unaware that he was pulling at the window lock. "It won't open, DAMIT!" Hermione laughed out loud. "WHAT!" He snapped, glaring at her.

"Nothing…" She tried to muffle her laughs, but failed and gave up before continuing to laugh at his idiotic moment.

"Whatever." Draco gave up on escaping from the car and scowled at people passing the car on the street instead, who looked at him oddly.

"You know, quite a few people are coming with us. We've rented out a whole camp ground so surrounding people don't get suspicious." Hermione informed him, to which he grunted in response. "Harry and Ginny, Ron's finally gotten over me being with you so he's coming with Lavender-"

"Brown? Lavender Brown? Oh, God, get me out of here…"

"Don't like Lavender? Yes, well, understandable." Hermione giggled, but soon felt guilty for insulting her friend, however annoying she was.

"Whatever…" Draco rolled his eyes meanly, but Hermione didn't believe he was too annoyed with her for dragging him out camping. Hermione smiled at him when he wasn't listening and continued to list off names of wizards and witches that would be joining them, including Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom, the Patil twins and Luna Lovegood, but she could tell he wasn't really listening.

Ten minutes later, Draco was complaining again.

"How do Muggles live like this?" He screamed. "It's torture!"

"Hold onto your pants, Draco." Hermione laughed. "It just a few hours away."

"Hours?" He exclaimed. "It's like sitting through double potions all over again! Except this time, Snape isn't going to hand me house points like pieces of cake!"

"Oh God." Hermione rolled her eyes. "You can't seriously be comparing this to potions lessons, can you? It's just a car ride…"

"A bloody long one!"

That night, sitting around the camp fire, after Hermione struggled for hours to set their tent up by herself, as Draco refused to help and demanded that the camping elves do it, Draco fidgeted in the camping seat he was perched in. Everyone was having their own little conversations, catching up with long-lost-friends, including Hermione, who was deep in conversation with Parvarti Patil. Malfoy felt alone as he sat alone, as none of his Slytherin friends were there. He coughed awkwardly, hoping to catch her attention. When nothing happened, he coughed again, a little louder. Hermione couldn't hear him. He gave up with that a touched her shoulder lightly and she whipped around to face him, leaving Parvarti mid-sentence.

"What?" She hissed.

He smiled at her sheepishly. "Can we go home now?" He mumbled. Behind Hermione, who was rolling her eyes, Parvarti giggled at him. This was going to be a very long night.