Chapter 20

A silvery blue lightning-like flare burst out of Harry's wand, lighting up the now darkened room. Since the wizard's stopped training, the lack of magical flashes had created a cavern-like atmosphere. Time slowed down as the sparks traveled across the room towards Amber's direction, straight towards her chest.

Harry's lips twitched into a smile at the thought of the snobby cheerleader's defeated face. The flash of light disappeared, the room turning near black again. He looked at where Amber had stood, expecting to see her body lying on the ground. To his surprise she was standing.

The blow had missed her by about three inches. She dodged it.

This would've been one of those moments where she would've had every right to boast, but even though she dodged the spell, her face read pure panic.

Nevertheless, the wizards were speechless.

"Not bad for a muggle, huh?" she managed, her voice quivering slightly.

Harry shook his head, amazed. "Not bad indeed...think you can dodge another?"

"Maybe," Amber said. "Care to make a bet?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What do you want now?"

Amber's shifted her feet nervously. Whatever it was she wanted, Harry knew he wouldn't like it.

"If I dodge the next five spells..." She stopped. Her eyes begged Harry to say yes before she even asked.

"You have to let me fight in the battle against the witch hunters."

"Are you fuc—" he stopped himself. Nothing good came from shouting at her. All she ever did was yell louder. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

"Do you have a death wish?" Harry asked, smiling through clenched teeth. Surely he looked more terrifying with his deathly calmness than he did yelling at her.

Amber didn't respond in fear of making Harry any angrier. She only glared at the ground as Harry looked to the group for backup. None came. Most all the members where either too in shock by Amber's request, or—like Amber—afraid to make Harry angrier.

Neville was the sole exception. "You should let her fight," he told Harry. "You can't protect all of us, Harry. Not from You-Know-Who, or the witch hunters." His voice wasn't defiant, only pessimistically grave.

Those last words hit him like a low blow to the stomach. The whole reason he created the D.A was to protect them. However, Harry's concerns weren't well founded. It wasn't only his friends he cared about, it was his own sanity.

The young teen was unsure he could bear another death as a result of his existence. Cedric had been the last straw.

Harry's voice was devoid of anger when he replied. "If she dies, whose fault do you think it'll be?"

"Not yours," Hermione said, squeezing his shoulder. The sincerity in her tone almost made him believe it.

Harry clenched his fists and looked at Amber. "Fine. Die, get kidnapped. Do whatever you want. Don't expect my help," he hissed.

If she was hurt, she didn't show it. Amber only nodded.

"What are you staring at?" Harry growled. "Go back to training."

"Sir, yes sir," Dean and Seamus said in unison.

Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed Amber's hand again, not speaking to her for the rest of the lesson.

When it ended, Harry refused to look at her and said. "The festival tomorrow, you're going. Meet us in the morning."

She called after him—maybe to apologize or ask more questions—Harry pretended not to hear.

Neither Ron nor Hermione ever quiet enjoyed Harry's company when he was angry. Luckily for Hermione, she had to part ways with the two boys as the corridors split and she headed for the girls' dorms.

Ron simply pretended Harry wasn't in the room—a good tactic while he calmed down. Both teens shoved random clothing items into their bags, preparing for the camping trip. Harry muttered unintelligible words under his breath. Something along the lines of 'reckless, damn muggle, stupid cheerleader, etc.'

It worked, his anger slowly dissolved, but his worry remained.

Without knocking, Mike and Darren barged into the room. Harry was unsure of what their first words were. Mike babbled rapidly about the camping trip, sparks of excitement practically shooting out of mouth. It was quite odd for him to be out of 'the cool' like that. The journey to the camp site being mere hours away must've broken his well-built barrier.

Darren was on his phone, talking with what Harry assumed were his parents.

"And the behind the lake there's a ca—why the hell is an owl standing outside your window?"

Bloody hell

"Owl?" Harry said, innocently turning towards the window. 'Damn Hedwig,' Harry thought. "Wow, that's er, quite strange."

"I think there's something on its leg," Mike said slowly and cautiously edging closer to the window, as to not scare the owl away.

A normal bird would've taken flight by now, but Hedwig wasn't going anywhere until harry took the note attached to her leg.

Finally, a reply form Sirius, but why now?

Harry looked at the wide-eyed Ron whom was just about as lost at what to do in this situation as he was.

The air around Harry—along with the blood in his veins—grew cold as Mike lifted the window.

In mere seconds Hedwig flew from the window to Harry, ignoring Mike's attempts to grab her.

Gracefully, she landed on his shoulder, Mike gawking at the scene. Darren had dropped his phone in alarm and threw Harry a cautious look.

" Don't. Move." He whispered, afraid of startling the creature. "There's no telling if she'll peck your eyes out or not."

As serious as the situation was, Harry was forced to use every ounce of his energy not to laugh at Mike and Darren's petrified faces.

Dementors? No. Owls were the muggle's most frightening experience of their world yet.

Harry made his way to the window and put Hedwig down on the ledge.

"There's a note on it," Mike said.

Harry undid the note from her leg, internally cursing himself for his coming action.

Unrolling it, his eyes flew by the note before he crumbled it up and tossed it out the window.

Internally screaming, the teen turned back to the awestruck muggles.

"Just a blank sheet," Harry lied. "Quite strange, right?"

Hedwig gave a confused hoot before Harry all but shoved her out the window. She wouldn't be too pleased to greet him tomorrow to say the least.

The four boys stared out the window at the fading snowy figure that was Hedwig taking off into the night sky.

Ron was the first to break the silence.

"Wow! I've never seen an owl up so close before!" Ron said.

Mike and Darren didn't see through the lie. Harry was surprised that those words escaped Ron's lips so convincingly. He wasn't one to tell lies so easily.

Mike only shook his head in amazement—he probably never really had seen one so close up. Luckily Hedwig was least likely to lead to the assumption that he and Ron were wizards. Just a random chance situation of an owl delivering a letter.

The only reply that came from Darren was "I'm drawing it."

"Anyway, you were saying something about a lake?" Harry told Mike.

"Right!" the memory from the last three minutes of Hedwig's visit were erased almost instantly by the mention of the lake. "Hmmm... I'd be best if I show you tomorrow." Mike said, leaving the intrigue.

"Darren, weren't you on the phone with someone?" Ron asked.

Darren's eyes widened. He'd forgotten all about that since Mike opened the window. While he may not look like he was on to anything, the teen had been staring intently at Harry ever since he untied the 'blank' note.

"Oh no," Darren sighed and picked up the phone. "She hung up. Bethany is now officially going to murder me."

"Bethany?"

"My sister. We haven't exactly been on good terms since I painted the walls in my room on my last visit," he explained. "I told her I'd be stopping by to pick up our tent we left there last year."

"Great," Mike said. "We'll be lucky if we find it in the trash bins now."

"That bad?" Harry asked.

"She's awful." Darren laughed dryly. Harry had a feeling Darren didn't want to get into detail with he and his sister's relationship. If she was anywhere near as bad as the Dursleys, Harry understood why.

Darren shot Mike an apologetic look. "Sorry, I'll find a way to get us a new tent."

"Don't sweat it. I just got a new one this summer. I'd planned to let you keep the old one...not what I had in mind though."

The muggles helped them finish packing and left about a half hour later.

It had only been when Mike and Darren brought it up that he realized that he and Ron had no tent.

"Are you going to look for the letter?"

Harry shook his head and signaled to the window. Autumn leaves were blowing everywhere, and the light sound of rain slowly began to reach their ears.

There was no way that letter survived.

Harry sighed miserably. "I managed to read the name Snuffles at the bottom."

In his last letter Harry had asked his Godfather all sorts of questions. He'd told him about Cole, the W.S.S, asked if he knew why they'd been sent here. All those answered he'd waited an entire month to hear had just vanished with the wind.

"Need a pillow to scream into?" Ron asked.

Harry nodded, jumping face first into the bed, the muffled scream loud enough to reach a couple nearby rooms.

Just then, the door creaked open.

"Er—sorry to interrupt," a familiar voice said.

Harry lifted his face from the pillow to stare up at the both amused and concerned face of Hermione.

"Amber said to give you this...and this," Hermione told him. She placed a cardboard box on the floor, and handed him a rolled up sheet of notebook paper.

Harry unrolled it to find a letter.

Dear Harry,

You took off so fast that I didn't get the chance to ask you if you had a tent for the camping trip. Though, I highly doubt you do.

In the box is mine, you can share it with the red-head. I'll be sleeping in Ajah's this year. Please don't be mad anymore.

Also, the rooming arrangement changes you asked for are still in progress.

Sincerely, Amber.

P.S: You still owe me a broomstick ride.

Harry was in awe at the neat, fancy handwriting. A smile began to from at the corner of his lips when he realized the paper smelled just like Amber's usual flowery perfume.

"Well, guess I'll be going then," Hermione said, exiting the room. "Get some sleep before tomorrow."

She shut the door behind her. It was only then that Harry noticed Ron's horrified expression. Just when he thought he'd stop being mad at Amber for the night, the worst came to pass.

The red-haired teen was staring down at the now open box.

"This is bad," Ron stressed. "This is very very bad."

"What, what is it?"

"The tent," he said. "It's PINK,"

Mike and Darren were very apologetic for not being able to drive the three wizards to the campsite. Mike's mom was already driving Linda, Mike, and Darren there, plus the luggage didn't really leave room for anybody.

But of course, Amber already had them covered. Her father showed up in that same fancy black car they'd borrowed to go to the W.S.S meeting.

The weather cleared up nicely after the light rain last night. There was still a light fall breeze in the air—overall Harry could tell it would be more or less sunny—the bright daylight just visibly rising.

Amber walked along side Harry wearing a dark blue fall dress, gray coat and matching gray boots. Her hair was braided to the side instead of in her usual tight cheerleader ponytail.

Harry on the other hand didn't look as nice. He hadn't wanted to wear most any of the clothes Amber got him other than a simple pair of new sneakers. It was a camping trip after all. Those nice clothes would easily get damaged, not to mention he would look way out of place.

He wore the Christmas sweater Mrs. Weasley gave him to cover up Dudley's hideous hand-me-down shirt and a baggy pair of jeans.

Ron dressed quite similarly. Hermione wore a brown sweater and dark jeans. Her curly hair was patted down thanks to a wool knitted hat. She might've just been the only one out of the three wizards who looked decent enough to be introduced to the strange man that was Amber's father.

A large bald man stepped out of the car. He looked like some type of super human Harry wouldn't exactly want to mess with.

Even with the expensive black suite he wore, the shaping of overly large biceps was visible, along with an intimidatingly muscular neck, abdomen, you name it.

Even with the alarmingly athletic figure, a warm smile instantly crossed his slightly bearded face the minute he saw Amber. Such a kind smile on such a large man was one of the weirdest sites Harry had witnessed this week.

"There she is! There's my girl!"

Amber blushed as she was pulled into a bear hug.

"Dad—air," she gasped.

"You must be Amber's new friends," he said, smiling only at Hermione. Harry got the feeling he was the type of dad that didn't have any problem hiding he and Ron's dead body if they broke a personal space rule with his daughter.

Somehow pulling herself out of the hug, Amber signaled to each of the wizards.

"That's Hermione," she said, bracing herself for the guys' introduction. "That's Ron, and he's Harry. My friends."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Harry said, extending his hand. Mr. Clarck didn't take it. Harry curled his fingers back, shoving his hand awkwardly back in his pocket.

"Well then," Amber said hurriedly. "Shall we go?"

She grabbed her dad's sleeve, quickly pulling him to the driver's seat. Harry was thankful for that. The more eye contact he could avoid with her father, the better. Of course, it didn't help that he kept glaring at Harry and Ron through the rearview mirror.

It was a good thing Amber sat up front. If he could stay far enough away from Amber, maybe he would survive the car ride.

It was an hour long ride mostly comprised of glaring, failed small talk, and the continuous Let it Be Beatles album playing.

When they finally arrived, Harry and Ron where quick to exit the car after uttering a quick 'thanks for the ride'. Amber hugged her dad goodbye.

"You're sure you can't camp with me...again this year?"

Mr. Clarck sighed, pulling away from the hug. "Amber, you know this is training season," he told her.

She nodded, smirking at Harry's petrified face for a moment. The thought of her dad being at the camp site was one that would guarantee zero sleep for him.

She waved goodbye as he drove off.

Only when he was about a mile's distance from the campground did Harry and Ron let out a deep breath.

"That was fun," Amber said. "I've never seen you scared before."

"Shut up."

"Training season?"

"My Dad's a soccer coach for the soccer team at college," she said. "Well, at least he is now. Before he was a professional boxer."

"You're kidding?" Hermione said in awe.

Amber rolled her eyes and picked up her bag, uninterested in her dad's career accomplishments. "I have to go find Ajah."

Before he could ask her to show them the way, she was off.

Harry looked around the camping area. It was a wide panorama composed of a flat grassy field surrounded by tall trees of various kinds. A couple meters off was visible path heading directly to the woods. The happy-go-lucky voices not far from where they were could've reminded Harry of anything but the forbidden forest. The sun had now fully risen, its rays of light dancing on fiery colored leaves of Fall.

More cars arrived, mostly teenagers around their age. Only a few were accompanied by parents.

They all took the same rout Amber had. Harry figured they should do the same.

The campsite hadn't been that far from where they'd been standing, tall trees had fooled them to think so.

Harry hadn't been camping before. The closest the teen had ever gotten was at the Quidditch world cup.

The area was enormous with wooden signs and trails signaling different areas. For those with excessive money, signposts for cabins were to be found among them as well.

Chirping birds, carefree children, teenagers and adults made it a welcoming sight.

They reached a center point where several different paths divided. In the middle of it was a board listing daily activities any of the guest were welcome to attend. Only one was reserved; the soccer game.

Anyone was free to attend, but the players' spot was already full.

A sheet titled Teem Panthers (Walker High's mascot). It didn't take long for them to find the name Mike Harris on there. Right below it was Ron's name.

"When did you—?"

"I wrote it," said a voice from behind them.

"I'm sorry," Mike said. "The sheet was getting full, and you just had to play!"

"We told him not to do it," Linda and Darren said in unison, coming up behind Mike.

Ron sighed, amused. "It's fine," he reassured Mike. Though, it sounded more like he was reassuring himself.

"I got an extra uniform," he said, throwing it at Ron.

The six made their way to a wide soccer field. Ron hadn't looked this nervous since the day he'd stepped foot in Walker High. However, Harry didn't fail to notice the excitement on his face as well.

They would play against two other schools that reserved spots at the festival.

Harry could hear the hungry roars of excitement breaking through the barrier that had been the peaceful campsite.

Not a hint of jealousy plagued him today. The only thing he could feel as the afternoon breeze brushed against his face was content.

All the worries of the last couple weeks had been forgotten in those instances as he laughed alongside Linda Hermione and Darren at the enthusiastic hoots from Mike and Ron as they neared the soccer field.

On the benches the four held up signs with the words 'go walker high' written on the front. The back had Mike and Ron's name in bright red letters. The only complaint he really had was resisting the urge to enchant the sign in order to make them like those at quidditch games. Plain paper without moving letters really wasn't the same.

The one word Harry would use to describe the game: brutal.

It was the complete opposite of what he'd experienced in the pep rally. That had been just an innocent celebration parade. This was kill zone.

Insults from team to team were launched from the opposing benches. Popcorn, food, silly string and, and suspicious substances landed their way. Both claps and booing was heard each time a goal or foul was announced. Eventually water guns some teenagers brought entered the picture—it was glorious.

And that was just the action off the field. The game itself had brought out the players' inner animal instincts. The last time he'd seen Ron run that fast was at one of their many near death experiences. He and Mike were blurs of blonde and red hair in the early afternoon wind.

Walker high had won the first game. The other team had been good, but not good enough. Ron had surpassed most everyone's expectations. While Mike had been the one to score most all the goals, Ron could steal the ball back from the opposing team faster than Harry could blink.