Taking Chances and Making Changes

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

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. Thank You to ForestCat21 for the OC submission of Elysia.

Hayley POV

Not long before dinner was due to finish I started heading down to the dungeons for my detention with Professor Snape. I couldn't believe how stupid I had been to allow myself to snap like that. I knew that at the time I hadn't been bothered as I was so irritated and was at my limit but I shouldn't have acted spoken to him as I had. Looking back I understood that he hadn't meant for his comment to sound as snarly as it had come across but he was probably confused as to why my Potion had been so bad considering I had been doing so much better. I shook myself out of my thoughts as I arrived at his office. I knocked and waited for him to answer.

After I heard a curt 'enter' I went inside shutting the door behind me as I went in. I took a step toward the desk and without looking up from the papers on his desk he spoke. "You will be redoing the potion you were supposed to do in class. There is a cauldron set up over there" He says

I nod and I take out my Potions Book which has the instructions on before setting my bag underneath the desk. I look and see that the ingredients are all laid out on the desk along with the required equipment. I look at the instructions before getting to work. I found that this time around I was able to concentrate more and was much calmer and I was able to actually make the potion correctly.

After I had finished I looked over at Professor Snape."Sir, I have finished"

He stood up and walked over. After a few moments of silent scrutiny, he nodded."Good work. Bottle it up and then clean the workspace. Then you can leave"

I sighed and bottled up the potion before labelling it. I then proceeded to clear away the equipment I had used. As I put my book away in my bag and threw it over my shoulder I carefully placed the vial on his desk and left.

The week continued much the same as it started. The dreams persisted and despite how tired and stressed I was feeling I was able to control my temper and irritability during class. In order to do this, I had to go out to the lake during my free periods or when classes ended for the day so I could angrily throw rocks into the lake. It was during one of these times when I met someone who would get me to open up to someone about these dreams.

I was sat on a chair that I had conjured while throwing small rocks and pebbles into the lake when I noticed her walking towards me. I first noticed that she was a Slytherin and as she got closer I recognised her as Elysia Fawley. She was in the same year as me and we both took the same electives. She didn't sit down but stood to the side silently obviously waiting to see if I would say anything. When I stayed silent and continued throwing the rocks in my hand she faintly sighed and moved to stand in front of me causing me to cease my throwing. I looked at her bored.

"Did you want something?"I ask "Because if you haven't already noticed I'm quite busy" I add

"Clearly," She says sarcastically raising a speculative eyebrow. "You made quite the scene earlier this week, "She says obviously referring to what happened during Potions.

I sighed and looked at her."So, what does it matter?"

"Despite your reckless Gryffindor attitude your not exactly the sort of person to disrespect a teacher like that," She says. "Or at least not to their face"

"Like I said why does it matter. If you're looking for a fight you're out of luck, I'm not in the mood" I said as I threw a rock over the top of her head in anger

She raises another eyebrow again."It matters because people have started to notice that for the past week you have been extremely annoyed and irritated. That means that people are going to purposefully try to get under your skin"

"Why do you care?"I ask sighing

"Despite what people might think I'm not heartless or at least not completely."She explains "It's not hard to notice that you're keeping something to yourself that you don't want anyone else to know, especially your friends"She points out

"Once again what does it matter. I thought Slytherins were supposed to be all secretive and keeping things from people even their friends?"

"No, apart from cunning and ambition a Slytherin's best trait is resourcefulness. Or more specifically knowing their best resources and how to properly use them to their advantage"She smirks

"What's your point?"I ask bored

"It's painfully clear that the best resource you have is your friends. Rather than keeping them oblivious to things, enlighten them."She says turning away

"But what if I don't want to burden them with trivial things?"I say

"If there really your friends, then they won't feel burdened, "She says

I watch her as turns away fully and heads back towards the castle. Once she was out of my sight I laid my head back in the chair slumping and sighing out loud as I began to think about what she had said. She did have a point in that if my friends were proper friends then I should be able to go to them and ask for help without worrying about feeling like a burden. Also as I thought about it more I had always felt stronger when I was surrounded by my friends. And every time I had been in a dangerous situation I had only gotten out of it with the help of my friends. The only actual time I hadn't was when I fought off the Basilisk but even then Fawkes had helped by blinding it.

I sighed again before throwing the last few rocks from my hand into the lake before standing up and vanishing the chair. I grabbed my bag from the floor beside me and slung it over my shoulder and began to head back inside.

Authors Note - Hey Guys I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know that it is on the shorter side and probably not as good as previous ones. It took me slightly longer for me to upload as I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to post it or not. The upcoming chapters will hopefully be on the longer side. Thank you again to ForestCat21 for submitting the OC of Elysia. Thanks for reading.