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 only hit when I returned to my dorm and was putting my dress and shoes away that because of having to remain at Hogwarts for the Yule Ball, chances were that I wouldn't be spending Christmas with the Tonks, with the obvious exception of Dora. I decided to go and talk to Professor McGonagall if it would be okay to return home after the Yule Ball for the last week of the holidays. I headed down to the common room stopping for a few minutes to speak to the twins and a few others from the Quidditch team. They were talking about having a snowball fight in about an hour. I told them that I would be up for it once I had spoken to Professor McGonagall. While I left to go to Professor McGonagall's office Fred and George were leaving to go seek out some more of their friends. I arrived and gently knocked on the door. After a few seconds, she opened the door and smiled at me.

"Hello, Miss Potter what can I do for you?"Professor McGonagall asks kindly as she gestured for me to come inside and take a seat.

I smiled as I took a seat and she did the same thing."Professor, I'm aware that I have to stay at the castle for the Yule Ball but I was wondering if I would be able to return home the next day and remain there until the end of the holidays?"I asked

She nodded."Yes, you would be able to do that. You would need to use the Floo network but it is up to you and the Tonks as to whether you would leave late on the 24th or early on the 25th"Professor McGonagall explains

"Okay that's fine, I'm going to send a letter to them after dinner and I'll ask them what would be best "I explain

Professor McGonagall nods."Okay, Miss Potter that is fine, once you have decided which day you will be leaving just come and inform me"She says making a note on some parchment.

After I finished I headed back up to the common room to spend some time talking with everyone before getting ready for the snowball fight which I was sure would be extremely fun especially with Fred and George planning it. After around an hour, we all decided to end the snowball fight and go inside to warm up and relax before dinner. It had been mostly Gryffindors that had joined in but I did see a few Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's, mainly in the upper years so it made sense that they were probably friends with the twins and the other 6th and 7th year Gryffindors. Before walking back into the castle many warming and drying charms were cast and by the time we got back up to the common room you were completed unable to tell that we had just spent an hour throwing snowballs at each other in freezing cold weather.

That evening after dinner I sat on my bed writing my letter to Ted and Andromeda about coming home after the Yule Ball and whether I should Floo that evening or if I should wait until the morning. Deciding to leave sending the letter for a day or two so I could get the chance to talk to Dora and whether she would be able to come home for a few days or not.

It was two days later when I finally git the chance to talk to Dora about Christmas and whether she would be able to come home for a few days or not. We had met up during the last period of the day which for me should have been History of Magic but once again I was skipping it in favour of trying to find ways of deciphering the message behind the ear-splitting screech. Dora had met me in the Gryffindor common room to help me as it was empty of students. As I shut another book down on the ever-growing pile I sighed and leaned back in the chair."I give up. I need a break. This is driving me crazy" I groaned from my chair putting my head in my hands. Dora chuckled from the chair opposite me as she put her own book down. "Dora I was wondering if you would be allowed to take a few days off after the Yule Ball to come and spend some time at home?"I asked her

She looked at me smiling."I take it that's what you're doing then?"She said back.

"Yeah I asked Professor McGonagall the other day if I could do that and she said that it was fine. So I thought it would be nice if you were able to come too and we could spend a few days together as a family over the holidays."I explained

She nodded. "Well, I can write my boss a letter to see if it is possible. I can't promise anything though."She said gently

"I understand"I nod

Dora left when people came back from classes after talking for a few minutes with the twins. Neville, Hermione and I talked briefly about what I missed in History of Magic which wasn't much considering I had been reading the textbook on my own going over things and I was further ahead than what they were going over in class. Hermione was concerned that I was hardly attending History of Magic anymore but she understood why. The reason that she wasn't causing a fuss and telling Professor McGonagall was that I was still doing the homework assignments that we were being given and still covering the content.

After talking amongst ourselves about how the research was going and the Yule Ball and our plans for the holidays I stood up and said that I was going for a bit of a walk to get some fresh air and that they were welcome to join me if they wanted. Hermione declined, saying that she was going to do some more studying before dinner and Neville said that he was going to relax for a bit before dinner. "Okay that's fine I'll probably see you guys later at dinner," I said as I left the common room.

I was walking among the grounds and as much as I was enjoying the fresh air after being inside for most of the day It was much colder than I had expected so I pulled my robe tighter around me making my mind up about not staying outside for too long.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by someone tapping me on the shoulder and talking to me. "Hey Potter"

I turned round to see Malfoy with his typical half smirk on his face. "Hey, Malfoy what's up?"I asked

"My mum sent me these in the mail a few days ago and told me to give them to you..I was going to give you them after History of Magic but I noticed that you weren't there again."He said handing me three different letters. "I don't know what two of them are but I know that one of them is an invitation to the New Years Eve party that my parents are holding," He says with another smirk

I look at him confused."Thank you for the invite but why would your parents invite me?"

"As much as you hate to acknowledge it, Hayley, you're famous and exactly the sort of person that would be invited to events like even if that wasn't the case your family"Malfoy says, sounding genuinely kind and for the first time since meeting him 3 years ago actually called me by my first name rather than my last.

"Thank You, Draco. I will definitely think about going"I said honestly.

He nods at me and turned around before heading back inside the castle leaving me to my thoughts once again.

That evening I opened up the first letter from Narcissa which was as Draco had said was an invitation to their New Years Eve party and after reading through it I had made up my mind that I would be going as long as Andy and Ted were okay with it. I then opened the second letter.

"Dear Hayley,

I hope that you are well and that school is going well for you. Draco told us that your name had come out of the goblet and that many people believe that you somehow entered your name. Lucius has been listening out amongst his contacts to see if any of them have anything to with it. I also wanted to say that you did the right thing in changing your magical guardian to my sister and her parents may have disowned her from the family when she married him but I never agreed with the decision. The third letter that I sent is to go to my sister. We haven't been in touch since she was disowned and I felt that it had been too long.

I hope that you are able to attend the party on New Year's Eve and I hope that you enjoy the Yule Ball.

Love

Narcissa "

I smiled as I put the letter down in front of me. It was nice to know that Narcissa and Lucius cared about me enough to try and see if my name coming out of the goblet had been part of some plan made by deatheaters. It was still so strange that I was on speaking terms with Draco and his parents.

"If someone had told me two years ago that Malfoy and I were on civil terms with one another then I would have laughed and said that you were a crazy person," I thought to myself.

I finished writing the letter to Andy and Ted explaining that I had been invited to the Malfoy's party and asking if I could go. I sorted the letters putting everything into one envelope giving it to Hedwig along with a small letter to Narcissa and Lucius thanking them for the invite and that I would think about it. After sending Hedwig off with them I changed into pyjamas and went to bed.

It was the morning of the 24th of December and the Yule Ball was taking place that evening. Classes had ended for the holidays on the 16th and they started back up on the 2nd of January which meant we had just over two weeks off. Two days after I sent the letter to Andy and Ted they replied back saying that I could Floo back home on the morning of the 25th and I could take the train back to Hogwarts on the 1st. Dora was also coming home for a few days but she had to return on the 29th. They had also said that if I really wanted to I could go to Malfoy's New Year's Eve party. Most of the day passed by uneventfully and relaxed and went it came time to start getting ready Fleur had said that she would join us in our dorms. Ginny and Padma also joined us in our dorm to get ready so in total there were 7 girls getting ready for the ball. We all helped each other with our hair and makeup for those of us wearing makeup.

Fleur had chosen to put her hair in a slicked-back bun at the back of her head and was wearing a one-shoulder silvery grey dress with a white flower embellishment just below the shoulder. She was wearing a pair of strappy silver heels that complimented the dress. She had chosen to wear a small amount of silvery grey eyeshadow and pale pink lipstick. Parvati had put her hair in a long plait down one side of her head with gold ribbon braided within that matched the gold bracelets on her wrists. Her dress was a hot pink one-shoulder dress with silver sequins adorning the shoulder. She had chosen to wear a pair of black strappy heels with her dress. Padma had gone with an almost matching dress to her sister except in turquoise rather than pink. She had braided her hair with a silver ribbon and then twisted the braid into an elegant bun. The silver ribbon matched the silver bracelets on her wrist. She had chosen to wear strappy silver heels. Lavender had decided to curl her hair leaving it down and her dress was a red dress with a silver belt and shoulder straps. She was wearing a pair of matching red strappy heels. She had decided to wear some light champagne coloured eyeshadow and some bright lipstick to match her dress.

Ginny had gotten a soft sage green dress with matching ribbon belt and lace shoulders. Her shoes were a pair of black short platforms with ballerina-style straps around her ankles. Her hair was left down with two side braids joining at the back. Ginny had decided to wear a pink tinted lipgloss and a little bit of blush. Hermione had gotten a soft blue off the shoulder dress with lace embellishments on the top with a slightly lighter blue ribbon belt around the middle. Her shoes were a pair of short dark blue heels with teardrop cutouts on the front and sides. We had used a generous amount of Sleakeasy's hair potion and curled it slightly before putting into an elegant knot at the back with a few pieces left in front to frame her face. She had chosen to not wear any eyeshadow but to wear some red lipstick. I had gotten a forest green one-shoulder dress with a layer of green lace embellishments and a slightly darker green skinny belt. My shoes were a pair of matching dark green heels with floral designs and cutouts. For my hair, we curled it and left it down. I decided to wear some gold eyeshadow and red lipstick.

After we all had finished getting ready we noticed that it was nearing eight o clock which is when the champions would walk into the hall with their partners and would start the ball off with the opening dance. The 7 of us left the dorm and common room finding it empty as the other students attending had already gone down to the entrance hall. We were all meeting our dates by the entrance hall bef9re the students went in to wait for the champion's entrance. Ginny, Parvati, Lavender and Padma went first round the corner to meet their dates. Ginny was going with Neville, Lavender was going with Seamus, Parvati was going with Dean and Padma was going with Terry Boot, who was a fellow Ravenclaw. After they had met their dates it was only me, Fleur and Hermione left at the top of the stairs. Fleur went first and met Declan and went over and stood by Cedric who was stood with Cho Chang. Hermione then went next and I watched as she met up with Viktor Krum at the bottom of the stairs before going to stand with the other two champions and their dates. Finally, I was the only one left and taking a breath to clear my nerves I stepped around the corner and saw the eyes of the people that were still in the entrance hall slowly turn towards me as I walked down the stairs meeting Cyrus at the bottom of them.

Authors Note - Hey Guys sorry for the massive delay in posting this. I have been really busy with uni assignments and I haven't had much chance to write until very recently. I can't say when the next chapter will be posted but since it is going to be shorter it shouldn't be too long of a wait. I won't be posting with much of a regular schedule anymore but it will typically be on a Sunday/Monday. Hopefully, the next chapter should be up within a week or maybe even less if I get it written quickly.

PS - You can find the link to the girls outfits from Pinterest in my profile.