<A/N: PLEASE just tell me anything about it if you read it. It only takes a few seconds for you to put a smile on my face!>
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Camp Muggle Part 16
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"Hermione!" the shrill, whining tone of Meegan's voice pierced through the crisp morning air. It was seven o'clock in the morning and Camp Silver Lake was just waking up.
"Yes, Meegan?" Said Hermione in a rather groggy voice as she slid out of her nice warm bed and onto the icy cold wooden floor with a shiver. Suddenly, Meegan, dripping wet from just having taken a shower, appeared in front of Hermione. Her hair was wrapped up in a towel and she wore a white, terrycloth bathrobe.
"Do you realize this is our last full day at camp?" Said Meegan with a quaver in her voice.
"Yes," Hermione sighed as she bent down and began digging under her bed for her shower tote.
"Aren't you the least bit sad?" inquired Meegan as Hermione popped back up with her supplies in hand. Meegan had remained in place, giving Hermione an awful depressing look.
"I assure you that once I've gotten my shower and had the proper time to wake-up, I'll show an adequate amount of remorse to appease you," said Hermione as she grabbed her towel and bathrobe off the clothesline, hung them over her shoulder, stuck her feet in some unlaced tennis shoes, and fumbled out the door.
Meegan harrumphed and left to braid her wet hair (her style of choice for the last month) before it had the chance to dry in a tangled mop.
~*~
At breakfast that morning, the tables were quieter than usual. A sort of somber mood had fallen over the entire camp that day.
As Hermione entered, her girls tailing like ducks behind her, she immediately made her way to the food line. Her girls followed suit, all eager to eat quickly, then go out to enjoy the day. With a bowl of cheerios in hand, and a small carton of milk, Hermione was the first of her group to sit down at the table. With droopy eyes, she popped open her milk and dumped it over her cold cereal. Grabbing a spoon from the container of them left on their table, she began to lazily stir her cereal.
After yawning, Hermione raised the spoon to her mouth and took a bite, deciding not to wait for her group to return before beginning to eat. As she set the spoon down, a small spark suddenly shot from her bowl. Her eyes widening, Hermione glanced around quickly to see if anyone else had noticed. Her girls were still in the food line. Everyone else around her had their heads drooping down, focusing on their meals.
With a note of curiosity, Hermione's gaze flipped back to her cereal as she eyed it with suspicion. Slowly, the individual cheerios in her bowl began to move. Hermione blinked her eyes to see if it was her imagination. Slowly, the small O's arranged themselves in her bowl into three words.
DANCE WITH ME?
Hermione looked across the room at Harry. He was smiling devilishly back at her. Her immediate thought was to become angry with him, but since no one else had seen, and he was being so adorable at the moment, she mouthed the word 'yes' to him. He responded with one of his large grins. She smiled back, but was disrupted as Meegan and Allison went to sit down, talking together rather loudly as they joined the table.
Hermione quickly glanced down at her cereal. With a small burst of sparks, the words unscrambled, splaying milk across the table. Meegan and Allison stopped talking and looked at her suspiciously. Hermione prayed that they hadn't seen the sparks.
"Geez, Hermione," Allison suddenly laughed. "Are you having so much trouble eating that you have to spill it all over the table?"
"No kidding," laughed Meegan as she reached across the table and grabbed some napkins to hand to Hermione.
"Thank you," said Hermione as she accepted the napkins from Meegan. "Maybe I fell asleep in the bowl," she smiled as all three girls laughed. As Hermione mopped up the mess, she glanced up at Harry and scowled. He shot her a sheepish smile back and mouthed 'I'm sorry'. Hermione shook her head and went back to her breakfast as the rest of her campers filled up the table.
Hermione began to fret to herself about Harry using magic out of school again, but then she recalled they'd done so together on Ron just the other day. They'd gotten away with it then because; among with all the charms Dumbledore had placed on the camp for Harry's protection, he'd lifted the ban on Underage Wizardry initially unbeknownst to all save Hermione and Madam Pomfrey. This was incase magic was needed in order to protect Harry.
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After breakfast, everyone had three options to chose from: swimming, a game of dodge ball, or arts and crafts. The counselors had the options of going anywhere, since the campers were randomly splitting up, so Meegan and Hermione decided to go to Arts and Crafts together.
Hermione had a table already picked out when Meegan walked in a sat down in the chair next to her. Wendy, the Arts and Crafts director was setting out random supplies and small projects across the table. It was a basic free-for-all for what anyone wanted to make. Hermione had some shiny red foil and multiple pieces of red and pink construction paper next to her. When Meegan looked over, Hermione had already cut out a perfect heart, and was decorating it with the foil and small bit of construction paper.
"Who's that for, Harry?" said Meegan in a teasing voice as she rifled through some of the supplies in front of her, selecting some for herself.
"No," Hermione blushed, lying through her teeth, "actually, it's for my mother."
"Oh, that's sweet," Meegan grabbed a piece of construction paper and folded it in half; "I think I'll make a goodbye card for Ron."
"How are you two doing?" asked Hermione as she grabbed some lace and began delicately cutting it to line her heart with.
"Good," said Meegan as she traced the letters to Ron's name on the front of the card. "We haven't had as much time together recently as we'd like, but we've decided to continue seeing each other during break and what not after we leave. And we can always write each other." She grabbed a marker and began outlining the letters she'd just drawn.
"That's good," said Hermione, focused on precisely cutting the lace.
"What about you and Harry?" said Meegan as she began coloring in the letters.
"What?!" said Hermione, her head shooting up from her job in shock.
"Haven't you told him you liked him yet?!" said Meegan with exasperation.
"Oh, no, not really," Hermione blushed, hoping Meegan wouldn't ask any more questions. She and Harry had both agreed not to go public until after camp, if they even did. She buried her face in her work again, hoping Meegan wouldn't pry anymore.
"You should. I really think he fancies you!" said Meegan cheerfully and she grabbed some more markers and began doodling a border around Ron's card.
"You think so?" Hermione smiled, relaxing a bit seeing as Meegan had no idea they really were a couple. She'd begun carefully gluing the lace around the outside edges of the heart.
"Have you seen the way that boy looks at you?" beamed Meegan, "It's like you're the only one he sees. I'm telling you, he's probably just too shy to say anything." Meegan was busy drawing small hearts around the card to frame it.
"I'll think about it; maybe at the dance," said Hermione with a large smile on her face thinking of Harry asking her to dance with him earlier. Of course she'd planned on spending the majority of the evening with him, but it was so cute of him to ask her.
"About time," Meegan smiled as she flipped open the card she'd been working on for Ron and began writing inside with a sparkly silver marker.
Hermione remained silent. She'd just finished gluing on the lace and was now tracing small lines of glue around the card with precision. Once she'd finished with that, she carefully sprinkled silver glitter over the glue, then pushed it aside to let it dry.
Meegan and Hermione worked hard in silence for the next thirty minutes, each concocting a gift for their boyfriends. Hermione had left the writing of hers, choosing to do it later in privacy where no one would see she'd address it to Harry.
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"Does my hair look alright?" said Annika, one of Hermione's campers suddenly popping up beside her. She'd wound her long brown locks up into a French twist.
"It looks fine," Hermione didn't glance up, she was too busy staring in the mirror Meegan had propped up for her fussing over her own hair. Usually, she didn't do so, but she really wanted to look good for Harry for just one night, at least. She missed that she wasn't at Hogwarts where she could cast a spell over her hair, but her muggle background would have to do for this one. Hermione finished clipping up a few curly tendrils and stared satisfyingly at herself. Her hair was partially down, with parts pulled off her face and twisted back. She'd even put on a tad bit more makeup than she was used to.
Everyone else in the cabin had their hair, makeup, or parts of both done. No one was dressed yet though, and they had only twenty minutes to get to the lodge for the dance. They were all running around in pajamas or sweats. Overall, Hermione's cabin of pre-adolescent girls were in a furry as they roamed around sorting out their outfits.
Hermione was trying not to pay too much attention to the chaos around her. Instead, she was focusing on what she'd wear. She hadn't really brought much for the occasion. After searching her wardrobe time and time again, she decided on a lofty knee-length skirt with a pale floral print, and a matching pale blue sleeveless shirt with a generous 'v-cut' down the middle. It was rather hot out still, being the end of summer, so she didn't want to be too dressy and end up uncomfortable.
"Hermione?" Said Meegan from somewhere behind her. She sounded fairly distressed. Hermione turned to see a half-dressed Meegan holding three different shoes in her hand. Her hair was spiked out to the side in a sloppy ponytail. She wore an overly large t-shirt and no pants.
"Meegan, are you all right?" said Hermione, standing up to help her friend.
"Can you please help me," said Meegan rather flustered. Holding out her pile of shoes.
"Of course, I'm done," said Hermione smiling putting a hand on the pile of shoes and gently lowering Meegan's hand. She put a comforting arm around her shoulder and led her off to clean herself up.
~*~
"Thanks again for you help Hermione," said Meegan, leaning in close to whisper to her friend as they, along with their cabin, walked up the steps to enter the lodge. Most of the groups had already entered judged by the noise inside. Meegan was now wearing a mid-thigh pale yellow sundress with thin straps and a square-top front. It synched at the middle with a thin, yellow ribbon. Her long brown hair was let to fall gently down her back.
"No problem, Meegan," said Hermione smiling as they entered the lodge. As they stepped inside, they had to give themselves a minute to let their eyes adjust. All of the indoor lights had been shut off and small, spinning overhead lights had been set-up sporadically around the room. The long tables, which usually filled the room during mealtime, had been swept to the sidewalls and out of the way. A few tables had been set-up for refreshments.
Hermione and Meegan's girls instantly split off giggling and searching for boys to lure to the dance floor. Meegan gave Hermione's arm a small squeeze and went off in search of Ron. Hermione stood alone glancing at the small amount of people on the dance floor, a few couples and a few groups of solely girls or boys. The dance was just beginning.
Hermione noticed one of Harry's boys dancing with Annika, her camper. Immediately, Hermione began scanning the crowd for Harry when a voice behind her nearly made her jump out of her skin.
"Hello," said Harry, softly into Hermione's ear. She could feel his breath tickling the bare skin of her neck. She dared not to turn around yet for fear of melting right there and then. "Are you going to properly welcome me?" She could hear the teasing note in his voice.
"I'm sorry, but could you please leave me? I'm trying to find my devilishly handsome boyfriend," said Hermione, biting her lip in mid-smile after her voice softly replied so as no one else in their vicinity could hear her.
"My mistake," said Harry, still talking softly against her skin. She could feel goose bumps rising on the exposed flesh. "I thought were her."
"Are you looking for someone also?" said Hermione, resisting her urge to turn around and look him in the eyes.
"My girlfriend, actually, completely gorgeous, kind, smart beyond all means. But you couldn't be her . . ." said Harry, trailing off as he let a hand slowly roam up to her shoulders, drawing his cool index finger along her warm flesh.
"Why is that?" said Hermione, biting her lip even harder to pull her thoughts from succumbing to temptation. She was trying to focus her sight on something out in the crowd, anything, but it was becoming increasingly more difficult as time passed.
"Because . . ."
"There you are Harry! Hermione!" Said Ron suddenly coming up beside them with Meegan. Harry's hand pulled away from Hermione like he'd just touched a hot burner. Hermione's face turned a nasty shade of crimson as the glaze over her eyes lifted and she focused in on her approaching friends.
"Hi Ron, Meegan," said Harry, taking over and stepping out from behind Hermione to smooth over the situation incase they'd seen anything. Hermione finally got her first look at him. He was wearing khakis, even though it was well too hot for them, and a button up dark blue shirt that had the top two buttons undone. It was especially his messy, still damp hair that did it for her. All in all, he looked amazingly good.
"Come dance! You two can't stand on the sidelines all night," said Meegan jovially. She was happily clasped onto Ron's hand. Since it was the last night of camp, neither one of them cared any more.
"Ya, we came to make your two socialize rather than act like wallflowers," said Ron, smiling at his two friends and he let go of Meegan's hand. He grabbed Harry by the shoulders and yanked him toward the center of the room. Meegan did the same thing to Hermione. Before they knew what had happened, Ron and Meegan had shoved them into each other's arms and left.
So there they were, slow dancing together in the center of the room. Now that more people had arrived and began to dance, they weren't so alone of the dance floor. Hermione glanced over Harry's shoulder and saw the Ron and Meegan had begun to dance again as well.
"Do you think we've been setup?" said Harry with a teasing tone in his voice, leaning in and wrapping his arms more firmly around her shoulders.
"That just may be the case," Hermione smiled, leaning her head against his shoulder. He smelt so good and she felt so safe and cared for, she would have been content just staying there in his arms forever.
They stayed like that through the next two slow songs. After that, a faster song came on and the dance floor became flooded by nearly the entire camp, but they didn't notice, they continued to dance. Most of the campers chose to ignore them, but more and more people had stopped dancing to wonder why they hadn't ended their slow dance yet.
By the end of the next song, at least twenty people or so had circled around them, yet Harry and Hermione remained oblivious to the crowd.
"Ron?!" said Meegan, suddenly pulling away from him. They'd been happily dancing together for quite some time.
"What?" said Ron, a bit flustered by her suddenly pulling back from him.
"Look over there," said Meegan, taking Ron by the hand and pulling him to that he faced Harry and Hermione.
"What do those two think they're doing?!" said Ron, highly surprised at their very apparent public affection which seemed very out of character to him for his two best friends to be doing.
"They're dancing Ron!" said Meegan with a large smile.
"But…OH MY GOD!" said Ron in shock.
"OH MY GOD!" countered Meegan.
A gasp from the parting crowd revealed to the rest of the crowd Harry and Hermione, who'd just begun to kiss in front of the entire camp.
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SORRY<!> One chapter left. Good reviews (or any for that matter!) Will get the next chapter two you ASAP. That review box is SO easy! And it's right at the end of the chapter. You don't have to put your name or anything. Just leaving it as anonymous and saying something mundane like "liked it" then hitting review is good enough for me!