Harry Potter: The ghouls awakening

Chapter 77

No one's POV

Halfway up the field stood an extravagant confection of striped silk like a miniature palace, with several live peacocks tethered to the entrance.

A little further on they passed a tent that had three floors and several turrets, and a short way beyond that was a tent which had a front garden attached, complete with a birdbath, sundial and fountain.

"Always the same." Mr. Weasley said, smiling.

"We can't resist showing off when we get together, ah, here we are, look, this is us."

They had reached very edge of the wood at the top of the field, and here was an empty space, with a small sign hammered into the ground that read Weezly.

"Couldn't have a better spot!" Mr. Weasley said happily.

"The pitch is just on the other side of the wood there, we're as close as we could be."

He hoisted his backpack from his shoulders.

"Right." He said excitedly.

"No magic allowed, strictly speaking, not when we're out in these numbers on Muggle land, we'll be putting these tents up by hand! Shouldn't be too difficult...Muggles do it all the time...here, Harry, Kyle, where do you reckon we should start?"

Harry had never been camping in his life, the Dursleys had never taken him on any kind of holiday, preferring torture him.

However, he, Kyle and Hermione worked out where most of the poles and legs should go, and though Mr. Weasley as more of a hindrance than he help, because he got thoroughly overexcited when it came to using the mallet, they finally managed to erect a pair of shabby two-man tents.

All of them stood back to admire their handiwork.

Nobody looking at these tents would guess they belonged to wizards, Harry thought, but the trouble was once Bill, Charlie and Percy arrived, they would be much bigger party.

Hermione seemed to have spotted this problem too, she gave Harry and Kyle a quizzical look as Mr. Weasley dropped to his hand and knees entering the tent first.

"We'll be a bit cramped." He called.

"But I think we'll all squeeze in, come and have a look."

Harry Ben down, ducked under the tent flap, and felt his jaw drop slightly.

He had walked into what looked like an old-fashioned, three roomed flat, complete with bathroom and kitchen.

Oddly enough, it was furnished in exactly the same sort of style as Mrs. Figg's, there were crocheted covers on mismatched chairs, and a strong smell of cats.

"Well, it's not for long." Mr. Weasley said, mopping his bald patch with a handkerchief and peering in at the four bunk beds that stood in the bedroom.

"I borrowed this from Perkins at the officer, doesn't camp much any more, poor fellow, he's got lumbago."

He picked up a dusty kettle and peered inside it.

"We'll need water."

"There's a tap marked on this map the Muggle gave us." Kyle said, who followed Harry inside the tent, and seemed completely surprised by its extraordinary inner proportions as well.

"It's on the other side field."

"Well, why don't you and Harry go and get us some water, then–" Mr Weasley handed over the kettle and a couple of saucepans.

"–and the rest of us will get some wood for a fire."

Harry and Kyle nodded and after a quick tour of the girls' tent, which was slightly smaller then the boys', though without the smell of cats, Harry, Kyle, Jessie and Hermione set off across the campsite with the kettle and saucepans.

Now, with the sun newly risen and the mist lifting, they could see the city of tents that stretched in every direction.

They made their way slowly though the rows, Kyle and Jessie were staring eagerly around.

It was only just dawning on Harry how many witches and wizards there must be in the world, he had never thought much about other countries.

Their fellow campers were starting to wake up.

First to stir was the families with small children, Harry had never seen witches and wizards this young before.

Here and there adult wizards and witches were emerging from their tents and started to cook breakfast.

Some, with furtive looks around them, conjured fires with their wands, others were striking matches with dubious looks on their faces, as though sure this couldn't work.

Three African wizards sat in serious conversation, all of them wearing long white robes and roasting what looked like rabbits on a bright purple fire, which a group of middle-aged American witches sat gossiping happily beneath a spangled banner stretched between their tents which read: The Salem Witches' Institute.

Harry caught snatches of conversation in strange languages from the inside of tents they passed, and though he couldn't understand a single word, the tone of every single voice was excited.

"Has.... everything gone green to you all?" Kyle asked as he looked around.

"We must have entered the Irish area." Harry said as he looked around.

What gave away that Harry was right, was that the patch of tents were all covered with a thick growth of shamrocks, so that it looked as though small, oddly shaped hillocks had sprouted out of the earth.

Grinning faces could be seen under those which had their flaps open.

"Let's go, quickly." Harry said as he ushered the three out of the Irish section.

"I heard that the Chinese have interesting decorations up." Kyle said as they walked.

"I wonder what it is." Hermione said and they all turned to Harry.

"Very well, we can go look." He said as the three smiled.

They walked over to a large flap of tents, where Chinese flag, a field of red with five golden stars that was fluttering in the breeze.

The tents there had not been bedecked with plant life, but each and every one of them had been decorated with gorgeous tapestry and on the tapestry dragons could be seen moving along them and on one of the tents was a poster of someone.

"Qin Shi Huang."

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