Taking Chances and Making Changes – Chapter 28
Authors Note – This story is an AU. It follows canon events up until the events of Prisoner of Azkaban. Several canon events still take place throughout the story but it does not comply completely with canon events.
Disclaimer – I own nothing except the OC's. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. Anything you recognise from the books/films is not mine.
Hayley (POV)
I walked back from the Leaky Cauldron to where I got off the bus that morning, Once at the bus stop I didn't have to wait too long as the bus I needed was due in just a few minutes. I got on and went up to the top floor and went straight to the back. I watched out of the window as the bus drove off and headed towards Grimmauld Place. I made sure to watch out for my stop as it neared as I still needed to learn this route. I got off at my stop about 20 minutes later and made the short walk from the bus stop to Number 12.
Once I arrived at the house i stopped outside taking a breath and hesitating. I knew everyone would be worried and most likely mad that I left without telling anyone, not to mention running off and hiding when Dumbledore tracked me and sent Order members to find me. I sighed as I walked up the front steps and as I put my hand on the handle had the smallest of urges to run off again but I shook my head and forced myself to push down the handle and go inside. The minute I walked in everyone rushed out of where they were and into the hallway. It was a matter of seconds before Dora rushed over to me throwing her arms around me in a crushing hug.
"I'm so glad your okay. We were all so worried" She says
"I know i'm sorry I didn't mean to worry everyone" I said not entirely truthfully. I hadn't wanted to worry everyone. I had hoped it would have annoyed a few of them and judging by their reactions of sending order members to find me after sending Hedwig with a letter with a tracing spell I'd say I succeeded.
She pulled back and I hugged a few others reassuring them I was okay. Before I could be bombarded with questions Mrs Weasley suggested that everyone head on upstairs so the adults could talk to me alone. Everyone knew that from the tone of her voice it wasn't a suggestion. Everyone headed upstairs while the adults walked off into the kitchen. I took a breath as I followed behind them shutting the door behind us. I took a seat with Sirius to my right and Dora on my left. As I sat down I glanced around the table noting who was actually here. There was obviously Ted, Andy and Dora as well as Sirius, Remus and Mrs Weasley.
Seeing that Mr Weasley wasn't here I guessed he was at work. I was unsurprised seeing
Dumbledore at the end of the kitchen table but I was slightly surprised to see both Professor McGonnagall and Professor Snape. I internally smirked slightly noting that Dumbledore must have thought that having so many adults and authority figures in attendance that I would be automatically do whatever they said and would be more likely to trust them when in reality all he had done was save me a job of trying to gather everyone to reveal what was in the will. Dumbledore had unknowingly provided me the perfect opportunity to confront him and the others about all the secrets and lies. There was a few moments of silence before anyone decided to speak up.
"Hayley were all here because we need to have an important conversation about how you have been acting lately. Were worried about you. You've been unusually disrespectful, arguing back, storming off and now today you ran off. It isn't like you and we want to know what's wrong. What is making you act like this?" Dumbledore says softly pretending to be concerned .
A few years ago I would have believed his act completely and broken down in tearful apologies but with everything I knew now I could see straight through his act. He wasn't concerned for me, he was concerned he was loosing his control over my life. The thing that annoyed me the most was that I knew he wanted to regain my blind trust in him and as such his control over my life but what I didn't know was why. Why he was so concerned about loosing control of my decisions. But hopefully I would know soon. I was determined to find out whether he was the one to tell me or if I had to find out for myself.
I sighed slight pretending to feel apologetic. If Dumbledore wanted to play games then I would too. And I would come out as winner.
" I'm sorry. I hadn't meant to worry everyone. I've just had a hard time with everything that's happened lately and I resorted to isolating myself and dealing with my problems on my own, old habits die hard I guess" I said which wasn't exactly a complete lie
The adults nodded around the room knowing what I was referring to. I saw the faintest trace of a smirk on Dumbledore's face and a slight twinkle in his eyes as he thought that he had me in my place.
"Okay we all understand you've had a difficult time these past few months. Which is why we've all been trying to help by not troubling you with things going on. We didn't want to overwhelm you until you were ready. Which is why were all concerned with you acting out. Were worried that it's all becoming a bit too much for you" Dumbledore says
I nodded slight pretending to agree with what he was saying. " I know, I've been really irritable lately and I'm sorry for snapping at yo-" I stopped in the middle of what I was saying unable to say it with a straight face. I couldn't help but laugh slightly at the words I was saying and the fact that they were all falling for it.
I soon was able to stop myself laughing and composed myself enough to start talking again."
Sorry I just couldn't hold it. I can't believe you all fell for that." I said shaking my head amusedly
" What do mean Hayley?" Dumbledore asks
" I haven't been acting this way because I've been overwhelmed or had a hard time dealing with what's happened these past few months. I've been acting like this because I've had enough of the secrets and the lies" I say frowning my tone making it clear that I wasn't happy and was far from apologetic.
"Hayley whatever Professor Dumbledore or anyone else has kept from you was done so with the best intentions. There's a lot that your not ready for, we are just trying to protect you and you are being extremely disrespectful" Mrs Weasley said from where she was sat near Dumbledore. " With everything I heard this morning and everything else that I've found out on my own I'm way past caring about respect." I say forcing myself to remain as calm as possible
"I don't know what you think you've found out but it doesn't give you the right the behave the way you have been" She says again
"Do you want me to go through them. I'm more than willing to list them all. In fact almost everyone that I think should know about these things is here so thank you for that Professor" I say taking one of my notebooks out of my bag where I had written down all the various things I
needed to confront the adults about.
"Firstly and one of the things that upset me the most is that Professor Dumbledore in his all mighty knowledge decided it was a good idea to completely ignore my parents will" I said taking the will out of my rucksack too. "He was one of the witnesses of the will and was the person they trusted to see it through if anything happened to the both of them and he ignored it" Several people sent angry glares at Dumbledore mainly Sirius, Remus and Professor McGonnagall.
"How were you able to get hold of their will. I told the goblins that it was being dealt with and there was no need to formally deal with it" He said
" When I was 9 Vernon's father passed away and I remembered them mentioning the will. I didn't even think about it until a few weeks ago when I was at Gringotts with Andy retrieving some things from the Potter Vault. I asked Vinclaw if they had a will and he provided me with a copy" I said taking it out of it's envelope
"It's not that big of a deal surely. Anything important would have been dealt with as outline in the will surely?" Mrs Weasley says glancing at Dumbledore expecting him to agree with her.
"I though that too but when I read it today I found out that pretty much nothing was followed.
Most importantly the order of custody should anything have happened to both my parents. According to their will the order of custody was Sirius as my godfather, if he was unable to then it would go to my other set of godparents Frank and Alice Longbottom. Followed by the Tonks as Andy is my second cousin on my fathers side. Then finally if no one else was able to take me in for whatever reason custody should have been given to Minerva McGonnagall" I said as I handed the document was passed around.
The room was silent apart from a few people mumbling curses under their breath and it was painfully obvious who they were aimed at.
"Why did you ignore the custody order Albus. I only agreed to placing Hayley with her aunt and uncle as you said that they were her only family" McGonnagall says. If I had known that there was a custody order in James and Lily's will then I never would have condoned it" She says directing the sentence at me.
I nod in her direction." I know you wouldn't have". I look back at Dumbledore. "Also on that note it says that I shouldn't have been placed with the Dursley's under any circumstances. My parents knew that they wouldn't properly care for me. They hated everything to do with magic" He sighs. " There wasn't another choice. The safest option was for you to live with your aunt and uncle. Specific wards were created that night that would protect you so long as you lived with blood relatives from your mothers side"
"There are numerous other wards that could have protected me regardless of who I lived with. Besides those wards only protected me from dangers outside of the home . It did nothing to protect me from those inside" I said
I sighed before taking the other document from the will. " They also left instructions as to what should happen in regards to what they left for various people. They left Sirius 1000 Galleons, they left Remus 1000 galleons and ownership of Pottage cottage in Dorset. They left Pettigrew 100 Galleons and ownership of Williams House in Glasgow but given he's a traitor we can ignore that. Then they left 1000 Galleons to Frank and Alice and 500 to Neville as their godson so we will need to talk to Neville and his grandmother" I say turning the page over
"Then they left 1000 Galleons to Professor McGonnagall for personal use with an additional 3000 galleons for the purpose of buying new brooms for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. They also left her in control of both the Potter and Gryffindor Wizengamot seats until I become of age. Finally they left Professor Dumbledore 500 Galleons as funding for the Order and they returned ownership of Godric's Hollow" I explained Everyone is silent taking in the information.
"Is there anything else?" Sirius asks
I nod." They also authorised that 300 Galleons a month be transferred to the vault of whoever ended up taking custody of me to go towards the cost of bringing me up. Then finally they left the Potter, Evans and Gryffindor vaults to me along with my trust vault. Until i become of age control of those vaults belongs to my guardians. In terms of properties there's Potter Manor, Redwood House and Westlake Cottage" I say putting the documents down.
Everyone remained silent for sometime the only sounds to be heard the ones of the documents being placed back in the envelope that they came from before being placed down on the table in front of me. It wasn't long however before someone felt that the silence had gone on long enough and decided to speak up.
"Now that that's been discussed I think it is best if we discuss what happened this morning"
Remus says forcing himself to stay calm
" In regards to what. Me running off or the things that were said that led to it?" I ask the collective adults in the room.
"Both. In terms of you running off, it was very reckless given what's going on considering that no one knew where you were and you could have been attacked or gotten hurt and none of us would have been any the wiser. In future if you are to go out alone you need to tell one of us where your planning on going before you leave" Andy says
I nod." I know and I'm sorry. I really didn't want to worry anyone I just really had to get away for some time alone" I sigh
" We understand that you didn't mean to worry us. We understood that you were just hurt about what you heard and that you needed time on your own to process everything you heard" Ted says
" It's also why we decided it was best not to send anyone to try and find you. We knew you would be sensible enough to stay to places that you knew and wouldn't stray too far." Sirius says next to me
I frowned and glanced between both Sirius and Dumbledore. " You didn't tell them" I said sighing and shaking my head
"Didn't tell us what?" Sirius asks slowly
"After I spent some time doing some shopping around London, I went to the park not far from
Privet Drive because it's quite old and unused, in fact most people have forgotten it still exists so I knew it would be empty and the perfect place for me to be alone and relax for a bit. About three hours after I got there I took a short break from reading and was considering leaving and heading back when I heard people at one of the park entrances. I was instantly on alert as no one ever uses it apart from the occasional troublemakers and the voices sounded older. Just before that Hedwig had landed with a letter tied to her leg and it was from Professor
Dumbledore. I didn't bother reading it I just put it in my bag. It turns out that there was a tracing spell on the letter. When I realised i gathered my things and left leaving the letter so they knew that I had been there and that I had managed to get past them" I explained
" How did you manage to get out without at least one person seeing you?" Dora asked despite having an idea
" After I finished shopping I went to Gringotts and asked my account manager to place a concealment charm on me. I figured it was the easiest option if anyone came looking for me" I lied easily, well half lied.
After that conversation finished it was decided that enough had been discussed for now and everyone slowly left the kitchen dispersing to different parts of the house. I took a breath as I looked at Professor Dumbledore who was the last one left in the kitchen. I knew there were a
few things best said in private so I stayed sat down given that he had made no move to leave. "I know you know. About how the Dursley's treat me. I told you enough that I never wanted to go back and combined that with the wards and Mrs Figg reporting things back to you it shouldn't have been too hard to come to the conclusion that my upbringing was not a pleasant one" I said He sighed. " I did know and I apologise what you went through. I put my trust in the wards to keep you safe"
I nodded. " If I hadn't managed to avoid you for so long last summer and changed my guardians without your knowledge or permission would you have made me go back there if it had been possible?"
"Yes I would have. They were the safest and only option. As I said in order for the wards to work you had to live with blood relatives of your mother" He explained
I sighed while shaking my head slightly." Can you at least tell me what was so important about these wards and why it was linked to Voldemort wanting to kill me?" I asked hoping that he would give me some more information.
"I'm sorry Hayley but I cannot. You are too young to know the reasons behind Voldemort's fixation with you. I know you don't want to hear that but I refuse to burden you with the knowledge " He says
I look at him and sighed again." Okay that's up to you. But you know i'll find out one way or another. If someone is keeping something from me I'm relentless until I find out what it is. I always have been"
He smiles slightly. " I'm well of how relentless you can be especially in the pursuit of the truth. Your mother was the same. It is no surprise you would be the same. But I implore you to trust that I am right"
I found myself smiling slightly as I glanced down at the table. " I want to be able to trust you Professor. But with everything you have done and everything you have kept from me I can't. I hope that one day I will be able to trust you again" I said with a sigh as I gathered my things into my rucksack and stood up from the table and began to head to the door. "Goodbye Professor. I
will see you in September" I said as I walked about the door and headed up the stairs to my room.
Once back upstairs after I unshrunk everything I had bought and took it out of my rucksack before starting to put them away in my trunk. I noticed Hermione and Ginny watch me confused and I smiled at them. " I'll tell you everything in a bit. I only really want to go through everything once so I need Ron and the twins here too." I explained
They nodded understanding. " I'll go and get the boys now if you want? We can hopefully go through everything before dinner" Ginny says
" That sounds like a good idea. Thanks Ginny" I say as she leaves go get the boys
"Hayley are you sure you want Ron to know everything. I mean i know the two of you are talking again but are you sure you trust him enough?" Hermione says taking a seat on her bed "I'm sure. Besides I told him I would tell him everything eventually and now seems like the best time. If the two of us are going to make any progress we both need to trust each other enough to not keep secrets" I say nodding
"Okay. I'm glad the two of you are starting to get back on track. It'll be nice for us all to be friends again." She says with a smile.
I find myself smiling too. " I know I am too. Besides there's some things that I haven't told you all and you deserve to know"
Ginny came back a few minutes later with Ron and the twins. We sat down in a circle and everyone looked at me slightly confused. " Hayley what's going on. Ginny says you had something important to tell us?" Ron asks
I nod as I take out my mums wand from my arm holster and wave it at the door placing a powerful silencing spell along with a locking spell so the adults wouldn't be able to hear us if they tried to listen in.
" Hayley you shouldn't be using magic. Your underage, you cold be in serious trouble with the ministry" Hermione says sharply
"There's no need to worry. The ministry wont be able to find out because I've found a way to get around the trace" I say smiling
"How on earth did you manage that?" Ginny asks
"I figured out that the trace isn't applied to the person it's on the wand. The wand we get when from Ollivanders is registered under our name and has the trace applied to it. That's how they know if an underage witch or wizard does magic. If you use someone else's wand that doesn't have the trace on the ministry won't know" I explain
"That's amazing" Fred says
"How did you figure it out?" George asks
"Well I didn't do it all on my own. I had a friend pose the question to me and I thought about it for a few weeks until I realised. Once I did it was just a matter of getting hold of another wand that didn't have the trace on" I said
"Genius" The twins say in unison
"So how did you get one. You couldn't have gone to Ollivanders. So how did you do it?"
Hermione asks
"About two weeks before my birthday I went to Godric's Hollow with the Tonks to the cottage where my parents and I were living before they died to see if I wanted anything from the house. We got quite a bit but the thing we were really looking for the most was my parents wands. The Tonks felt it was only right that I should have them if I could. They weren't at the house and we knew that they hadn't been buried with them so we assumed they had been put in the Potter Vault at Gringotts. Andy and I went and retrieved them the same day. Ever since I got them I started using them to practice magic that I didn't want anyone else to know about. I mainly use my mums as out of the two it works the best for me. Neither of them work perfectly but they have work well enough for me until I can go back to Hogwarts and practice with my wand again." I explain
Everyone nods. I then go onto explain everything about what really happened last summer to Ron as everyone else already knew. He was slightly shocked that Draco and I were family but as he had grown up in a wizarding family he knew that many pureblood and halfblood families were related and intertwined with one another a lot over the centuries so it wasn't as much of a surprise. I then went onto explain the things that I had kept secret from everyone .
" When I went to the Malfoy's new years eve party last year I was given a book that was given a copy of the Malfoy family Grimoire. Every Malfoy is given a copy when they turn 16 and it contains a multitude of spells. Now it's not exactly light magic spells but I wouldn't class it as dark magic either. I would call it grey magic. I started practicing the spells in the book as soon as I returned to Hogwarts. Most of the time I was on my own in an abandoned classroom on the 6th floor but every so often Professor Snape would check on my progress. In order to not raise any suspicion he would pretend to give me a detention every month or so and we would go over different spells. I'm sure you can understand why I didn't tell anyone about the book. If anyone found out the teachers would go crazy, the media would have a field day and the public be in an uproar and I would be vilified faster than I was by the students in second year" I say taking the book out of my trunk.
"Can I ask?, why did the Malfoys give one to you and why so early?" Hermione asked
"I wondered the same thing so I asked and Lucius said it was because I was family and that Malfoys protect and look out for their own. In terms of my age he said he wasn't worried about my competence. He knew I had the skill to start practicing them especially with Professor Snape overseeing my progress. He also said that there was a very high chance of Voldemort succeeding at coming back and that there was no doubt going to be another war no matter how much people wanted to deny it. He said that I needed to be ready to fight when the time came and he had a feeling that Dumbledore wasn't making sure I was ready." I explained
Everyone nods. " We all knew it's true and as much as the adults want to keep us from worrying there's a war brewing and when it comes we'll have to fight." Hermione says
I sigh biting my lip. " Just because I have to fight doesn't mean the rest of you should have to involve yourselves.'
"Hayley none of us are going to let you go through this alone. If your involved were involved. We've said it before and we'll say it again as many times as it takes for you to understand. Were with you until the end" Hermione says with everyone else nodding and agreeing their sentiments.
I look round at everyone seeing the determination on their faces and I hesitantly nodded. "Okay.
I really appreciate you all sticking by me" I say with a small smile
" Your welcome besides someone needs to keep you out of as much trouble as possible" Hermione says with a smile as everyone laughed.
We all continued to talk for a bit. " So what happened this morning. What did you hear the adults talking about that made you decide to run off?" Ginny asks
I sighed as I began to explain everything." I only heard the back half of the conversation but it was enough to get an idea of what they were talking about. They were unhappy with my behaviour last night at dinner and they were concerned about a lot of things including how isolated and closed off I've been, why I've been so reluctant to trust them specifically Dumbledore and my relationships with both Blaise and Draco. Apparently they believed they are the cause of my disrespectful behaviour over the past few months which couldn't be further from the truth"
"We all know that. You started being more distrusting of them last summer. Way before you started spending time with Blaise and Draco" Ginny says
"So what is the reason. You've not actually said what caused you to stop putting as much trust in Dumbledore's decisions?" Ron asks
" The reason I stopped trusting Dumbledore and by extension the people that completely trust him is because I found out just how much they were keeping from me mainly in terms of this whole ministry and Voldemort business. They all know how much I hate being lied to or having secrets kept from me when especially when there about me. I spoke to Dumbledore before I came up here and asked him to tell me why Voldemort is so fixated on killing me and why there seems to be a connection between us but he completely refused to tell me anything saying that I was too young to understand it. Then he asked me to trust that he was right in not burdening me with it" I said sighing
"What did you tell him?" Hermione asked
" Well I told him that I wanted to trust him but with everything he's kept from me and everything I've found out I can't put blind faith in him like I used to. I also told him that if he wouldn't tell me the reason then I would find out myself" I say. " I need to know. I've gone far too long not knowing far too much about my life, about this connection with Voldemort whatever it turns out to be and I can't do it anymore. I won't" I say with determination
" Well whatever happens and however you find out we'll be here for you" Hermione says giving me a hug and I gave her one back smiling too.
Authors Note – Hey guys I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I am pleased to be getting into a slightly more consistent schedule. I have many ideas for the coming chapters but if you have any or any improvements I could make please feel free to leave me a review or PM me. As always thank you to everyone who reviews/favourites or follows this story but also a huge thank you to everyone who reads this story and has stuck by the story despite my extremely sporadic and inconsistent schedule. Next chapter should hopefully be up in a few weeks. See you then.