Taking Chances and Making Changes

Authors Note - This story is an AU. It follows canon events up until the end of Prisoner.

Disclaimer - I own nothing except my OC's. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. Basically, if you recognise it from the books/films then it is not mine.

Hayley POV

It was two days before the first task and I was headed towards the library to do some more research about which spells I could use in the current task. I had researched and practised a few already but I Knew that I needed to be as prepared as possible in order to survive, I wasn't so bothered about the winning part. It was a Tuesday and because of the lessons I had, I was taking the rest of the afternoon off. It was currently lunchtime but with the date of the first task looking over me, I didn't really have much of an appetite. After lunch, I was supposed to have a double history of magic but I decided for once I was going to skip the classes and do something more productive with my time. Usually, I would use a note-taking quill and spend the time doing other homework and essays but I was up to date with my other assignments so I would have nothing to occupy those two hours with. I arrived at the library and started to go through some charms books to see if there was anything useful in there rather than looking through endless Defense and Transfiguration books.

As I searched through one of the charms books I came across a spell that looked interesting. It was the summoning charm. Thinking about it, the judges had said that she could only take her wand into the arena with her, but they had never said that they weren't allowed to use their wands to summon items into the arena. Placing the book down on the desk I started to come up with a few plans for how to use the summoning charm to her advantage in order to get past the dragon. Thinking about the research I had done on the dragons I came up with a few ideas of different items I could summon. As I saw quite a few students leave the library at the same time I vaguely registered that it was the end of lunch. I knew that Neville wouldn't be worried as I had told him that I would be skipping history of magic in order to prepare for the task and he said that I could borrow his notes if I needed to. I thought about a number of items that I could summon including my broom and my invisibility cloak. I decided that I would make up my mind upon which I would use later that evening after practising the charm. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to summon my cloak or if it would have some kind of charm upon it that prevents it from being summoned. While researching I had tried to see if there was any information regarding whether or not the cloak would work against the dragon because I know that there are certain magical creatures and objects that can see through invisibility cloaks and other concealment charms.

Not long after the final class of the day ended Neville joined her in the library sitting down next to her.

"Hey, how's the research going, "He asks taking in the large piles of books and parchment that were littered on the desk.

"Really well. I have a plan for what how I'm going to get past the dragon" I said glad that we were sat towards the back of the library with no one else close enough to us to overhear.

"That's great. What have you got planned?"Neville asks me interested

"I'm going to use Accio to summon either my broom or my invisibility cloak to me in the arena. It's a summoning charm" I explain

"Are you sure that you'll be able to practice enough to properly cast it. How difficult is it?"He asks concerned

"I've been looking over the theory for it and it doesn't seem to hard. According to the charms book, we learn it later in the year."I say showing him the textbook

As he looks at the page, he nods to himself."Are you going to practice casting the spell today then?"

"Yeah we have about an hour until dinner and then after dinner, we have four hours until curfew so I will do some tonight. If I continue tomorrow after class I should be able to cast it properly in time for the task" I say

By Wednesday night I had managed to cast the spell properly a number of times. I had made sure to see if I could manage to get the charm to work from a similar distance to what it will be during the task and although it was slightly harder I was eventually able to cast it from the distance I needed. I had decided in the end to go with summoning my broom. It turns out that there was some kind of charm preventing me from summoning my cloak and even if it had of worked I was still unsure as to whether the dragon would be able to see through it.

Waking up on Thursday morning I was extremely nervous and was dreading the task that was happening after breakfast. I woke up and got a shower to wake myself up and try and calm my nerves. As I got dressed in the outfit that we had to wear for the task. It had the Gryffindor colours and Hogwarts crest with 'Potter' on the back of the robes in a similar fashion to my Quidditch robes.

I brushed my hair and pinned it back so it wouldn't go in my face during the task. As I headed out of my dorm I passed Hermione who looked as though she wanted to say something to me and the look on her face indicated worry and concern. I put it to the back of my mind resolving to ignore it until after the task. Meeting Neville in the common room I was given lots of cheers and good lucks from the assortment of students who were currently in the common room.

We got to the Great Hall and was glad that there was only a handful of students currently in the hall so far. Everyone had the day off for the tournament and as the task wasn't until 11 o'clock many students were taking the opportunity to sleep in. We sat down at the table and Neville started to fill his plate. Despite my nerves causing a lack of appetite, I forced myself to eat something knowing that it wouldn't be good to skip breakfast completely.

Not long later I noticed Cedric come in and sit down at the Hufflepuff Table, with a group of friends, wearing the same outfit as me but in yellow and black. He caught my eye and gave me a small smile trying to be reassuring but it was obvious that he was nervous too. About 40 minutes later the hall started to get busier as more people woke up and came down to eat. Most of the students were talking excitedly about the first task many theories flying around about what it was going to be.

Soon enough it was time for everyone to walk down to where the first task was being held. The champions had been told that there were all allowed one person to accompany them down to the champions tent. Viktor and Fleur went with their respective headmaster/headmistresses, Cedric chose his head of house and I chose Dora to accompany me. I noticed the slight shock on Professor McGonagall's face when I didn't choose her but I didn't care. As much as I liked her I was still mad about how she had taken Dumbledore's side on the day I returned to Hogwarts. Viktor and Fleur left straight away and Cedric left shortly after. When only me and Dora remained in the hall she looked at me seriously. "Do you have a plan for the first task?"

I nod at her."Yeah, I came up with it a few days ago and I've been practising the spell ever since. I managed to do it properly last night" I explain

"What spell are you using?"She asks

"I'm using Accio to summon my broom to me, "I say

"Are you even allowed to do that?"She frowns slightly

"Yeah, the rules only say that we can't take anything except our wands into the arena with us. There aren't any rules about summoning items to us once we are in there"I explain

"Good. Now be careful."She says as we head out of the hall heading towards the tent that connects to the arena.

As we stop outside of the tent she gives me an almost bone-crushing hug."Be careful. I'll be on my rounds making sure everything is secure for most of the tournament but I' promise I will make it back for yours. Mum and dad are here too" She says

"Okay. I'll be careful I promise"I say before she heads off and I take a breath steadying my nerves before heading into the tent.

Eventually, the task got underway and Cedric walked out into the arena first to face his dragon. He had picked the Swedish Short-Snout, Fleur picked the Welsh Green and was going second, Viktor had picked the Chines Fireball going third and I had picked the Hungarian Horntail and was going last. Soon it was announced that it was time to face my dragon in the arena and collect the Golden Egg. When we had been told to collect the Golden Egg my first thought was that I could just summon the egg to me but then as I thought about it more I realised that the egg most likely had anti-summoning charms on it.

(Skip to completing the task)

I picked the golden egg up as I flew past it before landing at the side of the arena close to the medical tent. I hadn't been injured too badly and considered myself lucky knowing that it could have been so much worse. The applause from the crowd was almost deafening. I noticed that Cyrus and Neville looked extremely pale no doubt from worry and nerves and they were clearly relieved when they saw me land looking relatively unscathed. Oddly enough Hermione also looked quite concerned and worried and I sighed as I headed into the medical tent.

Immediately Madam Pomfrey started to fuss and fret over me seeing what my injuries were. As I placed the golden egg on the chair next to the bed I looked at the others. Cedric was having a burn on his face treated and it appeared that although it wasn't too bad right now when it first happened it must have been quite painful. Fleur didn't appear to be injured much and was sitting talking to Madame Maxine. Her skirt was burned badly and appeared to have a small burn on her leg too. Viktor didn't appear to have any injuries and was sat talking to Karkaroff. Soon enough Pomfrey had treated the wound on my shoulder from where I had been slashed by the dragon and the small cuts on my arm from where I had fallen from my broom onto the roof of Ravenclaw Tower.

Soon enough we were all cleared to leave and just before we left the tent the tournament officials came in to give us the details of the next task. The Golden Egg that we had to collect from the dragon contained a vital clue that we had to decipher. Without the clue there was very little chance of succeeding in the second task would take place on the 24th of February so I had exactly 3 months to figure out the clue and prepare for the task. As we all left the tent we were all silent and I could tell it was because of four of us were processing the news of the next task as well as coming down from the surge of adrenaline after the task.

After arriving back at Gryffindor Tower I was immediately deafened by a huge round of applause and cheers and congratulations with Fred and George even lifting me up onto their shoulders. After they set me back on the ground my friends pushed through the crowd of people and came over to me. Neville gave me a huge hug clearly glad that I was okay and unharmed. Ginny did the same thing and talked to me for a few moments before going back over to her group of friends.

That evening the entire Gryffindor common room was a complete blur of people as a huge celebratory party commenced courtesy of Fred, George and the majority of the Quidditch team.I noticed that Cyrus had been invited to the party too and I was really happy. We shared a hug and he gave me a gentle punch on the arm for doing something so stupid as to attempt to outfly a dragon.

As the party progressed I noticed Ginny talking to a few people from her year that I either knew or at least recognised but there was one person that I didn't recognise at all. She was fairly tall and slender with bright, piercing blue eyes and medium brown hair that fell down to about the middle of her back. I knew that I wouldn't be able to think back to when Ginny's year group was sorted because I hadn't been there for the sorting as Ron and I had flown his dad's car to Hogwarts after Dobby sealed the barrier to Platform 9 and 3/4. Going over to Fred and George I asked them if they knew who she was.

"Oh, that's Rosie Carter. She and Ginny became friends over the summer. She was homeschooled by her parents for two years. At the end of last year, her parents got some big job in Australia and wouldn't have much time to focus on homeschooling her properly. They decided to have her move in with her grandparents who live close to the Burrow"Fred and George explain together

I nod wondering why I didn't remember her name or who she was as she would have stuck out during the sorting but I put it down to excitement at being back at Hogwarts as well as nerves about what Dumbledore's reaction to my shenanigans over summer.

The party continued well into the night with the exceptions of the younger students who had earlier and only ended for everyone else when Professor McGonagall shut down the party reminding everyone that we all had classes the next day.

That evening I went to bed still in a great mood from the party but also extremely nervous about the next task as well as the upcoming Yule Ball. I couldn't help but still feel extremely paranoid about who had entered me in the tournament and why. I eventually fell into a somewhat peaceful sleep.

Authors Note - Hey everyone, thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I apologise that it is a day later than scheduled but I have been quite ill over the past couple of days and have been feeling extremely tired and in pain, so I haven't really wanted to write much. The next chapter should be posted on either the 29th or 30th of September so keep an eye out for it. The Yule Ball will be happening in Chapter 13 so if you have an idea for who you want to see as Hayley's date please review or PM me. The options are in Chapter 10's author note but I will list them again. The options are Hayley/George, Hayley/Fred, Hayley/Cedric, /Hayley/Cyrus and Hayley/Declan. As always if you would like to see your OC in my story all you need to do is leave a review with your bio or PM me with it.

Thanks for reading.