21/2/25
Groaning everyone started to untangle themselves from each other.
Sitting up Jack looked around and noticed Ron was lying over his legs, which were sticking out from under him with someone-else's.
Grinning Jack grabbed the other's legs and call out to the group: "I - I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs! That Portkey has paralyzed me!"
Quickly the wizards got up afraid, while the Muggle-born's (minus Elisa because she saw the grin on his face) checked on Jack.
Groaning Harry sat up and snatched the leg from Jack. "Those are my legs."
"Huh?" Jack asked sounded confused and looking the legs over again. "Oh, that's better," he said reaching out and feeling his own true legs. "False alarm everyone." he said slowly getting up being welcomed by a whack around the head by Bunny.
"Yes well," Mr Weasley said trying to calm down, turning to the Portkey station masters, one holding a gold pocket watch while wearing a tweed shirt and thigh-high wellington boots, and the other with a thick roll of parchment and a quill, dressed in a kilt and a poncho. "Morning, Basil."
"Hello Arthur," Basil said taking the newspaper from Sirius and throwing into a box of used Portkey's which included an empty a drinks can, a punctured football, and a manky old boot. "Not on duty, eh? It's alright for some... we've been up half the night..."
"Oh well Quidditch World Cup and all that," Mr Weasley said making sure everyone was ready.
"Aye, hang on I'll find your campsite," Basil said looking at the list.
"It should be under Black," Sirius said after a minute or two making Basil look up to see Sirius.
"Sirius Black?!" he asked waking up a little a dash of fear coming to him as he felt for his wand.
"Yes. The innocent, wrongly imprisoned, now a freeman, Sirius Black. And I would like to know where the camping grounds are, so if you please," Sirius said calmly.
"Right," Basil said turning back to the list going a bit faster. "Err... About a quarter of a mile's that way, first field you come to. Site manager's called Mr Roberts."
"Thank you," Sirius said turning everyone away and leading them out.
"You would have thought," Jack said speaking up as they left seeing all the eyes of the adult staff on Sirius. "That everyone would know of your innocence by now. Especially if they are from the Ministry, and were there on your grand reappearance into society day."
"Yeah well, not everyone pays attention to the papers, do they," Sirius said looking around at all the eyes himself. "But all these stares are partly why I stay at the house most of the time and it's Remus who does the shopping and all things like that."
"You know, you'll need to get used to being seen and stared at by others eventually, right?" Elisa said to him as he came to walk beside Harry. "And I'm guessing this place would be the best place to do that."
"Come on Snowflake, you gotta learn to walk before you can run. Baby-steps and all that," Jack said stretching his arms a little. "Besides, how many other people can there be here who would do that?"
"I don't know, mate," Fred called from the top of a small hill, "How about you come and look."
Confused Jack and Elisa came up the hill and saw rows and rows, and rows of tents and people moving around them, looking around quickly before starting fires with their wands or trying to use muggle matches and jumping and dropping them when they lit themselves in surprise.
"And this is just the first field," Fred said seeing the looks on Jack, Elisa, Annie, and Harry's faces.
.
Carefully they all made their way to their field to a small wooden house where an old man was sitting in a chair on the porch.
"Muggle alert," Jack whispered to everyone.
"Good morning," Mr Weasley said politely, smiling.
"Morning." said the Muggle.
"Would you be Me Roberts?"
"Aye, I would," he said looking over everyone with a small glare on his face. "And who are you?"
"Black. Three tents booked a few weeks ago," Sirius said pulling out his muggle wallet.
"Right," Mr Roberts said looking at his chart. "You've got a spot up near the woods there. Says here you're staying a week."
"Well it might not be that, but you know: Better to have it and not need it and all that," Sirius said calmly.
"Right, you'll be paying now then?" Mr Roberts asked making sure.
"Sure how much?"
As Sirius was getting out the right amount, Mr Weasley was investigating the notes and the coins that were being sorted.
"I don't know these little pieces of paper," he said in a whisper.
"We'll try and explain it later Mr Weasley," Elisa said calmly with a smile.
"You foreign?" Mr Roberts asked hearing this as Sirius was trying to find the last £10 note he would need.
"Foreign?" repeated Mr Weasley.
"Yes," Jack said stepping up. "We're a mix of American, and some other places. Our currency is just different. 'Dollars vs. Pounds' and all that."
"I see. You're not the first one who's had trouble with money," he said taking the notes from Sirius. "I had two try and pay me with great gold coins the size of hubcaps a couple of hours ago."
"Did you really?" Mr Weasley said nervously.
"Perhaps they thought the bigger the coin the more valuable it is?" Annie asked.
"But if you make things bigger sometimes it devaluates it instead," Tooth said knowing a thing or two about money.
"I only care about getting money from strangers who want to camp on my land," Mr Roberts said looking for the right change to give to Sirius. "Never been this crowded before. Hundreds of pre-bookings like yours but they came early."
"Is that right?" Mr Weasley asked unsure what to say.
"Aye, and not just foreigners. Weirdoes, you know? There's a blonde man walking around wearing a kilt and a poncho."
"What's wrong with that?" Elisa asked her arms crossed. "If that's what he wants to wear, let him. What are you the Fashion Police?"
Mr Roberts ignored her, Sirius' change still in his hand. "It's like... they're waiting for something."
Just then a wizard in golfing trousers and a large t-shirt apparated outside Mr Roberts' front door pointed his wand at him and said;
"Obliviate."
Jack and Bunny had to quickly grab onto Tooth before she could move forward to hit the new Wizard.
Slowly Mr Roberts' eyes went out of focus and he looked drowsy.
"A map of the campsite for you, and your change," he said giving everything to Sirius.
"Thank you," he said quickly moving on, seeing Tooth still trying to get to the new wizard who was saying how Mr Roberts needed to be hit with memory charms 10 times a day.
"And Bagman isn't helping." he continued after a yawn. "Trotting around in his old Quidditch robes going on at the top of his voice about Quaffles and Bludgers, not a care about the anti-Muggle security. Blimey I'll be glad when this is all over."
Saying goodbye he left.
"I want you to tell me who that man was right this instant, Mr Weasley." Tooth said coming over to Arthur now she was free.
"Oh that was-"
"Mr Weasley, if you want him to still have all this teeth and/or both his eyes, I would keep quiet," Bunny said in a loud hushed voice.
Confused Mr Weasley looked back at Tooth and noticed her fists and twitches in her arms wanting to hit something.
"Toothy you had to have expected this," North said gently placing a large hand on her shoulder which she shook off.
"Who was he?" she asked.
"Um... I'm not sure I've not seen him before today, come on." Mr Weasley said quickly moving along the line of tents.
"He called you your name as he left!" Tooth said running after him.
"Hey Jack," Elisa asked in a whisper to the laughing boy beside her. "Why is she so upset about this? I remember her being like this with Lockhart at the end of the school year two years ago."
"Tooth's the Guardian of Memories," Jack said after checking everyone was minding their own business or trying to get Tooth to calm down. "So when she learns or sees someone zapping another's memory away, she kinda gets upset."
"I thought Ludo Bagman was the Head of Magical Games and Sports?" Ginny's voice spoke up when there was a pause in Tooth's demanding for identity. "He should know better than to talk about Bludgers around Muggles shouldn't he?"
"He should," Mr Weasley said agreeing, grateful to be free from Tooth for the moment. "But Ludo's always been a bit... well... lax about security. You couldn't have wished for a better Head of Department, though."
.
Silence came over everyone as they continued to look for their area, waving to some, calling out to others, even pointing out some of the strange tents that you couldn't help but see why Mr Roberts was getting suspicious.
For the most part the tents looked very Muggle worthy, but there were others with glass windows, chimney's bleaching out bright green smoke, gardens with water fountains and white picket fences out front, and one rather large posh looking one even having live peacocks tethered to the entrance.
"Always the same," Mr Weasley said as they pass one which let of mini green glitter cannons as they passed in support for Ireland. "We can't help but showing off to each other when we come together."
"Found our spot!" Fred called out in front of a small patch of wired off land with a sign reading Black.
"Couldn't have picked a more perfect spot," Mr Weasley said setting the bags down. "The pitch on right on the other side of the trees, we're as close as we can be."
"Right then," Sirius said setting his bag down and pulling out his wand. "Let's get these tents up then."
"But we can't use magic, can we?" Harry said quickly grabbing his godfather's wrist.
"He's right," said Arthur. "After all this is Muggle land, anti-Muggle security. But it shouldn't be that difficult, Muggles do it all the time."
"Harry, we passed at least a dozen people using magic, on our way over here," Jack said not believing this.
"How about, we put up one tent by hand, for Mr Weasley, and the others – if we want to – we put up by magic?" Elisa asked not wanting an argument to begin.
Agreeing with this, the tents were divided and the Weasley's and Neville helped put the poles together while North read out the instructions.
Not wanting to get in the way, Jack, Harry, Sirius, Elisa, Annie, and Hermione were seeing to their tents.
"Right then, Annie," Elisa said standing back and getting her sisters attention. "Now, there is a tent peg there," she said pointing to one which was holding the line down to the left. "And there is a tent peg there." she point to the one on the right.
"I know Elisa, I helped hammer them in." Annie said throwing the hammer down.
"Well I'm just reminding you so you know where they are so you don't trip over them." Elisa said grabbing her bag and going inside.
"What's that about?" Hermione asked seeing Annie going red with blushing.
"A few years ago, before Hogwarts," Annie started to explain. "Mum and Dad took us out camping. We were playing around the tent and..."
"And she tripped over both tent pegs, landed in a mud puddle made by the rains the night before, and we had to go home early because we didn't pack any spare clothes for her." Elisa said coming back out with a glass of coke in her hand.
"If there was a tent peg there, and a tent peg there," Jack said pointing to imaginary pegs. "And she was younger, meaning shorter, how could she trip over both tent pegs?"
"No idea," Elisa said shrugging. "Mum thinks it's something genetic as apparently Grandma would do the exact same thing when she was camping with her Girl Guiding group."
Not wanting to continue to talk about it, Annie grabbed her bag and went inside pausing at the entrance.
"It's bigger on the inside!" she said grabbing Elisa so they could explore it together.
The Weasley's tent was finally put up – its guide-ropes crossing over themselves here and there – but it was standing.
The third tent, Sirius put up with magic before putting his wand away.
Once everyone had put their bags in their tents, Mr Weasley told Harry, Ron, Hermione and Jack to go get some water from a tap marked on the map Mr Roberts gave them, while everyone else gathered wood for a fire and prepared lunch.
"But we have an oven," said Ron, "why can't we just –"
"Ron, anti-Muggle security," Mr Weasley said getting grins and eye rolls from Sirius and the Twins.
"Admit it Arthur, you just want to experience camping the Muggle way, don't you?" Sirius said as the kids went off with pots and pans.
AN: Sorry for the delay on updating.
Hopefully I will be quicker next time.
* The story about Elisa and Annie's grandmother the Girl Guiding tent pegs is actually a real-life story about my own grandmother.