December 20, 1974.

The day was unusually pleasant and clear. In the afternoon, I was going to be picked up by the head of Camp Samuels. All I knew was that he is a wizard amongst muggles, serving to keep his father's orphanage alive. I packed up all my things. Quite tedious it was. All things scattered around or just thrown into my trunk. Typical boy's dromitory. I used to pack up my trunk when I was leaving for Prince's home. Erasing the bitter thought that it is no longer there, I set about looking forward to my new home.

Soon afternoon, after telling good byes to my room mates, I was waiting in Professor Mcgonagall's office. Having nothing to do, I looked around the room. Professor Mcgonagall was a deputy headmistress. The room was full of transfiguration book and stuff. Since transfiguration was my Achille's heel, I preffered to not into the shelves of books about tranfiguration.

I heard footsteps. Professor Mcgonagall walked in along with another man.

'Samuels, this is Mr.Gideon. He will take you to Camp Samuels were you will stay for this Chirstmas.'

I looked at the man. He was tall about six and a half feet. He was quite young, about 25 years old. He had an enthusiastic look on him. I liked him immediately.

'Hello Mr.Samuels, I am Gideon. Pleasure to meet you.'

'Pleasure to meet you sir'

'Well, what are we waiting for? Off to Camp Samuels! Brooms?'

Since I was good at brooms, I agreed for a broom journey. Gideon seemed to be quite quick so far. He made my trunk weightless and put it in his bag, which innocently small can hold large amounts of bulk. We were travelling through Hogsmeade.

'Your are a quidditch player?'

'Yes, sir. I am. Beater.'

'I was a Quidditch player myself too. Chaser for Griffindor. What house you are?'

'Ravenclaw'

I caught a slight look of disapproval that Griffindor usually have for Ravenclaw. Neverthless the talk continued. We were travelling slowly around 50mph because it was cold. Gideon told me of how to behave in Camp Samuels. It is an orphanage for muggles and I am going to be one of the few wizards there. He told me to behave like a muggle lest a suspiction arises. He told me the history also. Camp Samuels was first started by unknown wizard around the 1840s. It was used by the wizard to provide homage to orphaned muggles. It passed on and finally it came to Gideon's father. Tragically he disappeared like many others who defied Lord Voldemort. It seems Lord Voldemort demanded something from him. Now it has landed in the hands of Gideon to take care. Gideon was an auror in the Department of Law Enforcement. But now he takes care of his muggle orphanage fully.

Suddenly the sky darkened and the temperature dropped.

'Turn back! Dementors.'

I did not know what was happening. The biting cold was getting to my bones. Also I felt a feeling of gloominess. Now knowing what to do, I blindly followed

Gideon. The feeling of gloominess seeped in and I heard something other than the whooshing of air. Someone screening. It became more and more intense…

'Expecto patronum!'

It was Gideon. A silvery lion erupted out from his wand. The silvery lion radiated light and a feeling of warmth. It went behind me and after that I did notice because I was too afraid to look back. But the sky cleared and everything became clearer. We resumed our normal route after sometime and after a long time Gideon spoke.

'Its the dementors. You have to be careful when you travel in the skies'

'What do they do?'

'Foul creatures who feed off your happiness and leave you with nothing but despair.'

I remembered the feeling of gloominess and the screaming.

'I heard someone scream.'

'Well, it might have been one of your worst memories. That's the power of dementors. They make you play your worst memories in your mind. Just forget it.'

I was a quiet travel after that. I kept thinking about the dementors and that voice.

After a long time, Gideon spoke.

'I'm sorry for this Samuels, but I did not expect dementors.'

'No problem sir'

Thankfully, the rest of the journey was without incidents. I was shaken by the incident, but not afraid. Part of facing the world outside Hogwarts, I told myself. Soon we set foot on Camp Samuels. It was just as its name- a camp. This glorious camp was nicely hidden in a valley in the district of Rochester. The mountains that surround the camp gives it a very nice scenary. Also it looked a nice place to seek refuge for anyone. There was a hospital too. According to Gideon, the hospital is the second best to St. Mungo's. I heard of this hospital from a few fellows, but compared to St.Mungo, it was small. The valley was nicely connected to the muggle part of Rochester. Gideon took me to a tour of Rochester. The place was nice. There was a huge castle nearby called as Rochester castle and a cathedral. The castle was about 900 years ago. We spent a lot of time looking into the castle( I was dressed in muggle clothes). By the end of the day, I found that Gideon liked me.

My first few days of stay was quite without any incidents. I stayed with few other wizard orphans. Two Ravenclaw first years, a surly Griffindor second year and a fifth year Hufflepuff. We developed some sort of relationship, but not much. The third day had a visitor. I was a martial arts teacher named Mr. Sameer Patel. Gideon has arranged this for a muggle orphans to practice karate. I met Mr.Sameer Patel too. To my surprise, I found out that it was a my room mate Parthiban patel's father! He was a muggle though. He was a teacher in India, but now he for a decade, he was teaching in England.

'Would you like to learn martial arts?'

I looked confused. Why would a wizard like to learn martial arts?

'Ahh! I see the question in your mind: why need martial arts for wizard, right?'

'yes sir…. I think that it is not for wizards.'

'Yes but martial arts like karate is not mere fighting as many muggles and wizards will preceive. The main thing about martial arts is about focussing and strengthening the mind- a thing that can help anyone on this planet.'

That looked better.

'I am conducting free training for a month in this orphanage here. I heard that you will be staying here for two more weeks. So I thought you might be interested.'

I thought about it. Why not try it?

'Yes sir. I am interested to learn it.'

Well, that was the main thing in the winter stay at Camp Samuels. Karate was nice to learn. The first few days went with drills on the basic moves. Later I was paired up with the others and we were made to do basic fighting. Although everthing seemed mundane, I did feel better off after a week. As Sameer Patel said, I did feel a change in my mind. More energy and more concentration. I did realize that it could help me greatly in Quidditch. In one particular class Sameer taught us the vulnerable points in a human body. Although we did not practice that particular art, I got a few ideas more on how to attack an enemy with a bludger.

'I once attacked and defeated a wizard with my ability with karate.'

I looked at him incredulously. Well, no matter how strong you might be with martial arts, we wizard can certainly finish off anybody with a wave of the wand?

'Well, no matter how strong you wizards might be, you are still human. As a human everyone has weaknesses. Some of them lethal.'

He told me about how a wizard had appeared in his apartment and how in the ensuing fight he managed to knock him out with a series of well placed nerve attacks. I was impressed.

Gideon managed to see me everyday in Camp Samuels. Having such nice people around made my stay in Camp Samuels, my days at Camp Samuels passed off quickly. When finally the last day came, I was actually a bit reluctant to leave for Hogwarts. But I had to. The prospect of telling Kingsley about this was overwhelming. The journey back to Hogwarts was an uneventful one, this time by means of Hogwarts express.

Continued in the next chapter — A Change in Fortunes