The Dragon
by Jardyn39
Part Three of "The Apprentice Piece"
Chapter 2: Out of Bounds
Very early on Saturday morning, Harry was woken by the sound of Ron trying a little too hard not to wake him.
"Ron, what are you doing?" he asked groggily.
"Getting dressed quietly so you don't wake up, obviously," Ron said with his back to Harry. "Just go back to sleep will you, or Hermione will get mad at me."
Harry, fully awake now, decided he would get up. He threw off his bed sheets.
"Why would Hermione be mad at you?" Harry struggled to ask, yawning widely and stretching.
"Because you can't come and I insisted one of us had to go with her."
"Why can't I come?"
"Well she's got this mad scheme and she needs to do it in the refugee camp."
Harry quickly pulled on his clothes and followed Ron downstairs.
"Morning, Hermione," Harry said with a grin. She was sitting in her favourite chair by the fire reading some notes.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously ask she replied, "Morning, Harry."
She reached for her wand.
"Hey," said Harry putting his hands up and smiling, "you wouldn't stun me just for wanting to say Good Morning, would you?"
"Not for that, no," she admitted. "Well it's nice to see you Harry, but Ron and I have business elsewhere this morning. We'll see you later."
"I'm coming too," offered Harry at once. "I don't think you should go to the refugee camp with only Ron for protection."
"They won't be alone," said Neville coming down the stairs.
"Of course not," chipped in Ginny from the dormitory door.
"Well," said Harry, trying to ignore Hermione's smirk, "at least you're thinking along the right lines. I'm still coming by the way, just to be sure."
"Okay, Harry, you win," said Hermione with a sigh. "But only if you shower first. We'll meet you in the Great Hall."
"Great," said Harry, rushing back upstairs.
It was only when the dormitory door closed behind him that he realised Hermione hadn't actually promised to wait for him. Cursing his stupidity, he rushed to shower.
*
A few minutes later, Harry ran into the Great Hall. It was, as he suspected, completely deserted.
He swore loudly to the empty hall.
"Language!" said an amused voice from behind him.
Harry spun around to see Luna.
"Sorry, Luna," he said smiling, "but Hermione tricked me. She said they would wait until I had a shower before going to the refugee camp. Or rather I believed she was saying that."
Luna smiled and nodded.
"Do you want to get something to eat or shall we just go?" she asked.
"Er, I'd prefer to just go, really," said Harry honestly. "You know I'm not supposed to go there, don't you?"
"I assumed so, yes," she replied dreamily. "Are you coming or what?"
*
Harry and Luna walked into the refugee camp unchallenged after a walk that took them just over half an hour.
On the way, Luna had told of Hermione's desperate attempts to maintain control of the speculation that had been generated as she gathered the information for his psychological profile. Luna and Ginny had advised her it might be better to just drop the whole thing, as Hermione's protests were just creating more rumours.
In truth, Harry hadn't been that annoyed with Hermione anyway. He knew she was trying to act in his best interests, although he did now wish she had listened to Luna and Ginny.
The refugee camp consisted of many identical small plain tents placed at regular distances apart with a few larger tents towards the middle. They walked along a wide thoroughfare towards the centre. It was still cold from the night and there was a light mist that surrounded the area.
It was still very early and there was little sigh of activity with everyone still asleep inside their tents. It struck Harry how different this camp was from the one at the Quidditch World Cup. These tents looked entirely functional, entirely fitting for a Regiment. He also wondered were the Regiment soldiers were camped.
Luna pointed out a signpost ahead which had a large noticeboard next to it.
They read the notices posted up on the board for clues what Hermione and the others might be up to.
"Good morning," said a voice from behind them, "you must be from the school?"
They turned to see the Lieutenant smiling at them.
"Morning," they both said.
"We were looking for some friends of ours."
"They are setting up in the school tent. Just follow the signs that way."
They thanked him and set off in the direction he had pointed them in.
"Strange he let us just pass like that," muttered Harry, glancing back.
"It's almost as if they were expecting you to be out of bounds today," said Luna with a smile.
After a short walk they were overtaken by two small children dragging their harassed looking mother along.
"It's still early, not even nine-thirty yet," she was insisting.
Harry looked at Luna who smiled and nodded. They picked up their pace and followed.
Up ahead the mother and her children disappeared into a large tent. When they got closer, Harry could see the makeshift sign next to the door. It read, "School" and underneath hung an elaborate sign saying, "Storytelling 10 am Saturday."
The lower sign could only have been Hermione's work.
They entered.
*
Harry was surprised to see a number of small children sitting happily on some old carpets in the middle of the area, laughing happily and chatting.
In front of them, Ron was trying to put up a folding table. Much to the children's amusement, he was having a few difficulties. Every time he managed to stand one end up, the other would collapse. He would then move to the other end of the long table and try again, apparently oblivious to the howls of laughter behind him.
At the back of the tent several tables and chairs were provided for parents to sit and take refreshments. Ginny and Neville were helping an elderly witch serve drinks.
Seeing Harry and Luna, Ginny came over.
"It's almost ten. Harry, will you help Ron?"
By now the tent was becoming crowded with excited children. Harry carefully made his way over to Ron.
"Ginny says it's almost ten, so we'd better draw the act to a close," said Harry smiling.
Ron looked up frowning and wiped his sweating forehead. Harry tipped the table over and locked the legs in place at each end before setting the table the right way up.
There were a couple of groans from Ron's audience as they realised that the table wasn't going to fall down again.
"Hermione's going to be mad at you for coming, you know that don't you?" said Ron with the faintest of a smile.
"Where is she?" Harry asked but at that moment she breezed right up to the front, beaming widely at the children sat cross legged before them.
"It's lovely to see you all here this morning. Before we begin, let's thank Ron here for entertaining us and putting up this table, shall we?"
Harry joined in clapping and cheering and then followed Ron to the side where they found a couple of seats.
"This morning I thought you'd like to hear a story," said Hermione, "and if there's time after you might like to draw some pictures about it."