Chapter 57
"Hey, Hermione," Harry said as he and Ron caught up with her. "Can I ask you something?"
"Okay," Hermione answered with a nod, though she kind of had a feeling where this was going.
"What was with that glare at Ron?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," Ron said. "What was that for?"
"Did you see that wizard who walked us to the gate?" she asked.
"The one that obliviated the Muggle back there?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," Hermione said. "That one."
"Yeah, so?" Ron asked.
"Well, he was talking to your dad," Hermione said.
Ron shrugged. "So what," he said. "Lot's of people talk to my dad. He's part of the Ministry."
"He said that the Muggle back there has to be oblivated ten times aday!" Hermione said. "Lookaround! Is it any wonder he suspects something's weird when these tents have chimneys or bird baths and gardens, or even multiplestories. You remember what that obliviate spell did to Lockhart. Look, I don't doubt that there's an enchantment over the camps so that he may only see Muggle tents when he looks up the hill, but wehaveto watch what we say and how loud we say it."
"What are you looking at me for?" Ron asked when she finished her comment looking at him.
"You know very well why, Ronald," she said.
"Oh," Ron said, deflating. "Yeah."
"That wizard said that even Mr. Bagman was part of the problem with having to obliviate that man so much," Hermione revealed.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Apparently," she said, "Mr. Bagman was talkingreallyloud around him about Bludgers and Quaffles."
"Cool," Ron said in awe, with a slight laugh.
Hermione turned and smacked him with a scowl. "It's not funny, Ron! We have the International Statue of Secrecy for areason! The point is, he should have known better, and so shouldyou!"
"Come on," Harry said. "Let's not fight."
They trudged up the hill to a spot along the edge of the wood where they found a sign hammered into the ground which read WEEZLY.
"Couldn't have asked for a better spot," said Mr. Weasley happily. "The field is just on the other side of the wood there, we're as close as we could be." He sighed as he took off his pack. "Now, no magic, strictly speaking, since we're on Muggle land. We'll be putting these tents up by hand! Shouldn't be too hard... Muggles do it all the time...Here, Harry, where do you recon we should start?"
Hermione glanced at him when Harry didn't respond and saw he looked rather pale. "Ron," she said, turning to the red head. "Why don't you and the twins go and get some wood?"
"Where are we supposed to get that?" Ron asked, looking confused as to why she was ordering him around.
"In there," she said pointing to the wood nearby. "Just gather it from the ground."
"All right, fine," Ron groused and headed off to get the twins.
"Ginny?" she said, turning to the girl.
"Yeah?" Ginny asked, coming over from where she was helping her father empty the packs they had brought.
"Do you think you can follow Ron and your brothers and bring back some good sized stones?" Hermione asked. "It would really help."
Ginny looked confused for a moment, but then nodded. "Sure," she said and quickly hurried after her brothers.
"What is it?" she whispered after the others nearby were gone, so that Mr. Weasley didn't hear them as he continued to empty the pack.
"I don't know how to put up a tent," Harry admitted keeping his voice low. "I've never been camping before."
"That's okay, Harry," Hermione said with a gentle smile. "Really."
"No," Harry said. "You don't get it."
"Get what?" Hermione asked in confusion.
"I've never really been anywhere..." Harry admitted. "I mean, I - I went to a Muggle school before Hogwarts, St. Grogory's Primary School. I was supposed to go to Stonewall; my cousin was going to Smeltings, but..."
Hermione wrinkled her brow but didn't say anything, waiting to see if he continued.
Harry took a shaky breath. "They never took me camping... they never took me anywhere...except that one time... to the zoo."
"Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked, looking at them in confusion when Harry didn't come help him.
Hermione reached out and placed a reassuring hand. "It's okay, Harry," she said and smiled at him gently. "Lots of people don't go camping. Fortunately, my mum and dad took me a couple times. I'll help."
Harry took a deep, shuddering breath and she saw him relax and nod before he moved forward with her to help Mr. Weasley. They pulled the tents out, and with Hermione's help, figured out which poles went with which tent. Hermione then showed them on how to unroll the tents and peg down the corners.
Mr. Weasley was more of a hindrance than a help however, because he got thoroughly overexcited when it came to using the mallet, often missing the spike altogether, and hitting the ground instead, which caused him no end to entertainment though it took longer to get things done because he refused to let either of them use the mallet to move things along. Once he was done, she showed them how to determine which pole went where, and how to thread the poles through the sleeves on the sides of the tent. She was pleasantly surprised that once Mr. Weasley had finally managed to get the last spike in the ground, pitching the tents went much faster and soon they had erected a pair of two-man tents.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione asked when they were done, seeing the look on his face as he took in how small the tents looked.
"T-that's it?" he asked, seeming puzzled and somewhat disappointed. He looked around but the packs they brought were empty now.
Hermione blinked, realizing what had Harry so puzzled. She gave Harry a quizzical look when she saw Mr. Weasley drop down to his hands and knees and disappear inside the first tent.
"We'll be a bit cramped," Mr. Weasley called, "but I think we'll all squeeze in. Come and have a look."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other in confusion. Once Percy, Bill and Charlie joined them, they would be a party of ten, and Mr. Weasley said they would be abitcramped?
Hermione and Harry headed over to the tent opening and crawled inside, one at a time. Hermione had to tap Harry to move forward because he'd stopped halfway through, apparently in shock. When he moved out of the way letting her enter behind him, she found out why. They were standing in what appeared to be an old-fashioned, three-room flat, complete with bathroom and kitchen. Hermione noticed that it had the distinct smell of cats and that the furniture had crocheted covers on the mismatched chairs.
"Well, its not for long," Mr. Weasley said. He must have felt a little uneasy at their silence because he mopped his brow with a handkerchief and peered at the four bunk beds that stood in the bedroom. "Borrowed it from Perkins at the office," he explained. "Doesn't camp much anymore, poor fellow, he's got lumbago." He picked up the dusty kettle in the kitchen and peered inside. "We're going to need some water," he said.
"There's a tap marked on the map the Muggle gave us," Ron said, entering the tent. "It's on the other side of the field."
Hermione turned to look at him questioningly.
"Wood's outside -" he began and at her surprised look, he quickly added, "Firewood's outside. Though I don't know why we need it..."
"Oh," Hermione said, her enthusiasm quickly fading. "All - all right."
"Geeze you're weird," he said, shaking his head. "Ginny's got the stones you wanted, too."
Hermione ignored his comment and headed outside.
"Well, why don't you, Harry and Hermione go get us some water then?" Mr. Weasley asked and Hermione caught a glimpse of Ron catching a flying kettle as she passed him.
Hermione found Ginny and the twins outside.
"Hey, there's our girl," Fred said, making Hermione laugh.
"We're about to go wander, want to come?" George added.
"I do!" Ginny said excitedly.
"Sorry, sis," George said.
"Wasn't talking to you," Fred finished.
"Aw, come on!" Ginny said with a pout.
"Sorry, we gotta finish setting up camp first," Hermione said.
The twins groaned and Hermione shook her head.
"Okay," Hermione said. "Now what we want to do is clear an area about two and a half to three meters of leaves, sticks, grass or any vegetation. It needs to be bare soil so we can start the fire and not burn anything else on accident."
"Okay, on it," George said.
"Oh, and this spot should be twelve to fifteen meters from the tents, so they don't get burned if something happens. Fred, do you want to grab the shovel? I think I saw your dad pack one."
"Got it," Fred said.
"What about my rocks?" Ginny asked.
"Well, once the campfire spot is cleared," Hermione told her. "We'll dig a small pit, and then the stones can go around the edge."
Ginny made a face as if she was trying to picture what it would look like in her head, causing Hermione to laugh.
"It'll be great, you'll see," Hermione said. "Come on, let's check out the other tent."
Ginny nodded with a grin and she and Hermione went on a quick tour of the girl's tent. It was smaller, only having two rooms and a bathroom instead the bigger one the boys would have. Hermione noticed a zipper around the edges of both tents and wondered if Perkins, the wizard Mr. Weasley had mentioned borrowing the tents from, had ever had them connected.
"What are you doing?" Hermione heard Ron asking the twins as they exited the tent.
"Don't know," George said.
"I think we're making a spot for the fire to go," Fred said.
"I still don't get why we can't just use the oven," Ron groused. "I mean, I know dad just said that we're camping like Muggles, since we're on their land, but it just seems like a pain."
"Some Muggles actuallyenjoycamping, Ronald," Hermione said. "It's a way for them to destress."
"Destress from what?" Ron asked.
"Oh, I don't know," Hermione said. "Maybe from inane questions like that?"
Harry struggled not to laugh.
"What"? Ron asked, noticing Harry's expression.
"I don't know, Ron, I'm actually with Hermione on this one," Harry answered and then noticed Ron's face. "I mean, I actually find it fun, considering this is my first time."
"Really?" Ron asked surprised. "I would have thought, like dad, you would have gone loads of times."
Harry shrugged. "The Dursleys weren't really into camping, so I never went."
In that moment, Hermione smiled softly. She felt warm and glad that she'd been the one to help Harry with something when even Ron wouldn't have understood. She was glad that she'd sent him off with his brothers to get the firewood and that Harry had trusted her enough to share a bit about his life with his relatives. Knowing that they had more or less kept him from the world, she hated to call them his family.
"Hey, dad wants us to get some water," Ron said, breaking into her thoughts.
"Oh, I know," Hermione answered. "I heard on the way out."
"Shall we go?" Harry asked, and held out a sauce pan to her.
"Um," she said, looking around. "Yeah, hang on." She walked over to Fred and George, and picked up several of the pieces of wood they'd brought back from the wood. "Hey guys, I wanted to let you know how to set up the wood for the fire."
"Isn't it just like in a fireplace for the floo?" George asked.
Hermione sighed. "Well... yes and no. It's actually a bit different. Here, let me show you."
Taking the sticks she'd brought, she laid out two parallel to each other, and then on top of those, stacked two more that laid across the tops of them, so that when you looked at it from above, it made sort of a rectangle. Then, with some others, she made a cone, standing them upright, but leaning in at an angle with some spaces in between.
"The trick is, there has to be air flow between them, or the fire won't last," she said. "Think you can do that?"
"Yeah," George said.
"Looks easy enough," Fred added.
Hermione smiled, wondering if they were in for a surprise. "You don't have to start it right away, we can light it when we're back from getting the water, and the dirt you dig up, for the pit, just leave it nearby so we can fill it in tomorrow, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," George said.
"Got it," Fred answered. "Hurry back so we can go wander. I'm sure Ollie's looking for us."
"Oh, well, you don't have to wait for us,..
if you get done with the pit before we get back," Hermione said, and waved. "Have fun and let him know I'll see him when I can if you find him before I do."
"Sounds good," Fred said.
"See you later then," George added.
With that, Hermione grabbed the sauce pan that Harry held out to her when she headed back to join them as they headed off to get water from across the field.