Taking Chances and Making Changes
Disclaimer – I do not own anything from Harry Potter. That honour goes to JK Rowling. I only own the idea and any OC characters. Anything you recognise is not mine.
Author's Note – This story is an AU and does not completely follow canon events. Some canon events will feature but not all of them.
Hayley(POV)
It was a little over a week later and we were getting ready to head to the station to get the train. I had been packed for several days now, along with Hermione, so we weren't stressing about last minute packing. So, while everyone else was running around, Sirius pulled me into one of the rooms upstairs to talk before I left.
"I would have preferred to see you off at the station, but unfortunately, it's not safe to go out in public, even in animagus form." He said.
"Don't worry about it. I prefer you to stay here where it's safe." I said.
"You shouldn't worry about me, kiddo." He said with a smile.
"Of course I should. Lord knows you don't worry enough about yourself." I said jokingly
Sirius laughed with a smile on his face. "I distinctively remember your mum saying that to James, Remus and I before we go on order missions when she was pregnant with you."
"Maybe if you listened to it, we wouldn't have to keep saying it." I smiled.
"Maybe." he said. He paused for a moment before taking an old and slightly crumpled picture out from his pocket showing it to me. "This is a picture of the original order. I thought you might like to have it." he said, handing it to me.
I smiled as I looked down at the picture. "Thank you, Sirius."
We spoke for a few more minutes, with him pointing out different people from the original order on the photo until Mrs Weasley shouts upstairs that we needed to go. I placed the photo in my pocket and gave Sirius a hug.
"I'll see you at Christmas. Be careful." he said, hugging me.
"You too, Sirius." I said, smiling.
"Remember to write." he said as we started to head downstairs.
"I will."
We headed to the station with Molly, Ted and Dora seeing us off, as both Arthur and Andy had work that day. I said goodbye to Ted and Dora, promising to write and that I would be good.
Dora looked at me while Ted was putting the trunks in the carriage. "Be careful, Hayley. I won't ask you to try and stay out of trouble because I know it's inevitable with you." she said jokingly.
"I keep saying it, but no one believes me. I don't go looking for trouble; trouble looks for me." I said with a laugh.
She smiled and gave me a hug. Ted got off after finishing with the trunks and gave me a hug as well, before we all got on the train and went into our carriage. Shortly after the train set off Ron, Hermione and I were joined by Neville and Cyrus while Ginny and Luna were in another compartment with some of their friends. We spent most of the journey talking about how our summers had been. About halfway through, Hermione and I went to change into our uniform and robes so we could do our prefect rounds before saying to Neville and Ron that we would see them later. Cyrus had also been selected as a Ravenclaw prefect.
During the rounds, I noticed that several people would glare and whisper as I walked past, but would stop once they saw the Prefect badge, without me having to say a word. I knew this would happen and was prepared for it but it was still irritating. I was planning on dealing with it as I dealt with most things. Ignoring it until it either became too big of a problem to ignore or it stopped, whichever happened first. I knew it wasn't healthy to handle problems like that, but it was a habit.
On my rounds, I saw that the Slytherin prefects for 5th year were Draco and Pansy, as I passed them in the hallway to start their rounds. Pansy saw me and smirked as she went to make a snide remark, obviously thinking she would be able to get away with it because she was a prefect. She saw my own prefect badge halfway through and stopped with her mouth open in shock.
"You might want to close your mouth, Pansy. Wouldn't want to catch flies, now would you?" I said with a slight smirk.
"How are you a prefect? I thought Granger was the female prefect for Gryffindor this year?" She said after managing to compose herself.
"Apparently, the professors felt that there wasn't a good enough prefect candidate from the 5th year boys in Gryffindor." I said, forcing myself to remain polite.
"Makes sense. I heard you got the second best results in the year. Just behind Granger and just ahead of myself. No easy feat." Draco said with a smirk after seeing Pansy's shocked face.
"Your correct. Exceeds Expectations in History of Magic and Outstandings in everything else." I said. "Where is that you came again, Pansy?" I asked, trying not to sound smug.
"Seventh." she muttered.
I smirked slightly at Draco while Pansy wasn't looking. "Well, it was nice to talk to you both, but I better continue on with my rounds." I said before walking past them and heading down the hallway. Hermione and I finished our round separately before meeting back up towards the end of the journey. When the train stopped, we directed the first years over to Hagrid while the other years went over to the carriages. We joined back up with Neville, Ron, Cyrus, Ginny and Luna and got in a carriage together to go up the castle.
When we entered the Great Hall, Cyrus and Luna said goodbye before going to the Ravenclaw table, while the rest of us went over to the Gryffindor table. As I sat down, I noticed two things. Firstly I noticed that I was still getting glares and had people whispering, but strangely it was from people I thought were friends specifically Seamus, Lavender and Parvati. I noticed that Dean was once again not participating in the behaviour, but wasn't saying anything in defence, either. If that was how it was going to be, 5th year was set to be the longest yet. The second thing I noticed was that there was a new addition to the head table. Sitting to the right of McGonnagall was a woman I had never seen before. I assumed she was a new teacher and it made sense that she would be teaching DADA, as that was the only class that for whatever reason was taught by someone new every single year, which was very annoying. I had never really thought about it until now, but it was extremely odd that no one who taught the subject lasted more than one year; almost as if the position was cursed. I wondered if there were any books in the library about previous teachers. I filed that thought away for later and turned my attention back to the new addition. I had to look away after a short while, as her entire outfit was in bright pink along with matching heels and hat. Part of me admired her commitment to an all matching outfit, but it was just too much. I prayed that all her outfits weren't just various shades of pink. Otherwise, I thought I would be sick.
I turned away from her and looked down at the table, bored. I zoned out during the sorting ceremony, as all I wanted to do was go to my dorm and relax before classes started. I started paying attention at the end, when it was announced that there were four students who were siblings and were transfers from the American wizarding school of Ilvermorny. The first student to be sorted was a 4th year student called Kyla Mitchell who was sorted into Slytherin. Next up was her sister Miranda, who was a third year and was sorted into Ravenclaw. Then there was her siblings Todd and Cassandra, who were twin first years and were sorted into Gryffindor.
After the sorting was finished, I vaguely paid attention as Dumbledore began his speech. My interest piped up when he introduced the new teacher. Her name was Delores Umbridge, and my assumptions were correct that she was going to be teaching DADA. I was about zone out when Umbridge interrupted Dumbledore and began speaking herself. She disguised it by feigning politeness, but after living with the Dursley's for a little under 13 years, I was an expert at seeing through peoples' masks and knowing when they were being sincere or not. When she finished talking and the feast began, Ron looked between me and Hermione, slightly confused.
"What do you think that's all about?" he asked.
"I think it means that the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts." Hermione said.
"But why? They haven't bothered before so why now?" Neville asked.
"Because Fudge is in denial about Voldemort, and is worried that Dumbledore wants to steal his job, so he's trying to do all he can to discredit both Dumbledore and myself. He must think that by having Umbridge here to spy for him, he will be able to find something to either leverage Dumbledore into resigning or to push public opinion in his favour even more than it already is." I said.
After the feast was over, the prefects for each house started directing the first year students to their common rooms. Once the first years were settled, Hermione and I joined Neville, Ron and everyone else in the common room to relax for a bit before bed. While sitting in the common room, I noticed several people staring and whispering. I ignored it for as long as I could, but eventually I had had enough.
"Okay; I've ignored you it for long en, but I've had enough. I honestly don't care what the Ministry and the Daily Prophet or anyone else is saying, because it's all complete garbage filled with lies. So if anyone has a problem with me, then you come right out and say it to my face, instead of whispering behind my back like a bunch of cowards." I said, standing up getting everyone's attention.
"Who are you to say that the Ministry and Prophet are full of lies?" Seamus asked, standing up.
"I'm the only living person from the night he came back that isn't on the dark side." I said bluntly.
"You expect us to blindly trust you and Dumbledore?" He asked.
"No, I don't expect you to blindly put faith in anyone. That's stupid. I expect you to use common sense." I said. I paused, sighing slightly. "Think on this. The Ministry point plank denied Voldemort's return without investigating the possibility at all. They had a known and confessed death eater in custody and sentenced him to the dementor's kiss without even interrogating him. Not to mention they didn't ask me to provide memories of that night or question me under veritiserum, both of which I would have and still would willingly provided."
With everyone left speechless, I headed upstairs to my dorm room and got ready for bed. After I got my things sorted for the morning, I changed into my pyjamas and took out the book on Animagus transformation. Sitting on my bed with the curtains pulled, I vowed to do some reading before bed.
The next morning, I woke up, stretching out of the uncomfortable position that I was in after I had fallen asleep reading. I cricked my neck before pulling the curtains back and standing up. I placed my book back inside my trunk before locking it. I grabbed my things and went to the bathroom to get a shower before everyone else woke up.
As I came out of the bathroom after showering and getting dressed, Hermione was just starting to wake up.
"Morning, Hermione." I said, heading over to my bed.
"Morning, Hayley. I don't know how you always manage to wake up so early without an alarm." She said, yawning slightly.
"My aunt always woke me up early and I guess my body has just gotten used to waking up early." I say with a smile as I start getting my bag ready for the day.
Once I had finished getting ready, I waited for Hermione to get ready, which didn't take long. The two of us headed down to the common room. While we were standing in the common room, talking to the 6th and 7th year girls that were on the Quidditch team, I noticed Ron and Neville come down the stairs, too. Hermione and I looked at them, confused.
"You guys are up early." Hermione said.
"Yeah, well, this is our 5th year. It's important. Better to get an early start." Ron shrugged slightly.
"Okay. Who are you and what have you done with Ronald Weasley? Are you sick?" I said jokingly.
"Ha-ha very funny, Hayley." Ron said, playfully punching my arm as the four of us walked out of the common room and headed down to the Great hall for breakfast. We received our schedules during breakfast. As we now all had weightless and expansion charms on our bags, none of us had to deal with the hassle of heading back up to the common room to switch books. We looked at our schedules to see what we had. We started with Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, then we had double potions with the Slytherins and then one of our elective subjects before lunch; so that meant Ron and Neville had Divination, while Hermione and I had Ancient Runes. After lunch we had double DADA with the Ravenclaws.
Classes that day were quite uneventful until it came to DADA. We were sitting in class, waiting for the teacher while throwing around a magical paper airplane. Umbridge came down the stairs from her office and with a flick of her wand the paper was set alight and the ash fell down onto someone's desk in a small pile.
"That's enough of that." she said sweetly. "Welcome children. I understand that your teaching in this subject has been somewhat lacking but I aim to change that." she said as she waved her wand and several piles of textbooks began to float from her desk to each of us, settling down in front of us. I cringed slightly, seeing even the textbooks were covered pink. I started to get out my parchment, ink and quills for class, while Hermione started to flick through the book. I noticed her frown as she read through the books.
She put her hand up and Umbridge nodded in her direction. "Yes, Miss Granger?"
"Professor, there's nothing in here about using defensive spells?" she asked slightly confused.
I frowned as well, and began to have a quick look through the book as well.
"Why on earth would you need to use spells in my classroom?" she said, as though the very idea was absurd.
"Wait, so we're not going to be using magic at all?" I blurted out.
"Students will raise their hand when they talk in my class." Umbridge said sharply, turning in my direction.
I balled my fist, forcing myself not to snap. "You will be learning how to use magic in a theoretical, risk free way." She continued to explain.
I frown and sarcastically raise my hand. "But if we were to be attacked, it wouldn't be risk free. How are we supposed to know how to defend ourselves if we're not learning how to cast spells?" I said bluntly.
I could see she was fighting to stay sweet and kind, and knew she would blow any second if I kept pushing. I knew I should stop, but she and the Ministry were putting us all in danger with their denial.
"Who would want to attack children such as yourself?" she questioned.
"I don't know. Maybe Lord Voldemort?" I said sarcastically, but honestly. The entire classroom went silent after my outburst and Umbridge was practically radiating rage and anger.
"You have all been told that a certain dark wizard has resurfaced once again. This is a lie." she said slowly.
"So your saying that Cedric Diggory just dropped dead of his own accord?" I shouted angrily.
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident." she said.
"You're wrong. Voldemort killed him. I saw him; I fought him!" I yelled.
"Detention, Miss Potter!" Umbridge shouted before turning away to compose herself before beginning the class.
I sat there stewing in anger for the rest of class,, not paying any attention. There was no point; it wouldn't matter either way, considering it was all theoretical.
As soon as class ended, I packed up my things and was the first person to leave. Given that there was still a few hours before dinner, I headed to the Astronomy Tower for some alone time. I sat on the floor with my feet dangling over the edge, looking out over the grounds. It was about an hour later when I heard the door open and close before soft footsteps approached from behind before taking a seat next to me. Blaise put his arm around me and I leaned into him with a soft sigh. We stayed like that for some time before I pulled away and looked at him.
"I missed you." I said.
"I know. I missed you, too. At least we're together now, though." he said, taking my hands in his with a smile. "Do you want to talk about whatever is upsetting you?"
I shook my head. "No. It's okay. Just had a stressful double DADA class."
"Aah okay. How is the new professor? The Slytherins haven't had her yet." he said.
"Absolutely awful. I wouldn't count on actually learning anything in her class. All she's teaching is some new purely theoretical curriculum that's apparently ministry approved." I say.
He sighed slightly "So much for a stellar magical education. Thanks for the warning."
I laughed at him. "Thanks for cheering me up."
"You're welcome." he said with a smile. "Also, Draco asked me to give you this." he said, taking out a letter from his robe pocket.
I smiled and we stayed in the Astronomy Tower for a bit longer, up until dinner. After dinner, I had about an hour until my detention with Umbridge, so I made a start on some homework. Shortly before my detention, I took my things to my dorm and placed the letter from Draco under my pillow, intending to read it after my detention and before I went to bed.
I grabbed my robe and bag and left the common room before heading to Umbridge's office for detention. As I walked into her office, after knocking, I frowned and internally groaned at the walls and furniture all in varying shades of pink. Her wall was covered in magic portraits of cats and the room had a strong vanilla scent that was so sickly sweet that it was starting to give me a headache.
I sat down at the small desk next to the wall and noticed the pink parchment on the table and assumed she would be having me writing lines of some sort. I reached for my bag to get a quill and ink pot when she stopped me. "You will be using one of my special quills today. Your lines will be 'I must not tell lies'. I nodded slightly but rolled my eyes so far back I'm fairly certain I was able to see the back of my own skull.
"How many times do you want me to write it?" I asked, bored and wanting to get it over and done with.
"Let's say however many times it takes for the message to sink in." she said in a sweet voice with the fake smile before she walked back over to her desk.
I glanced at the desk, picking up the quill to have a look at it, grimacing slightly at the pinkish red feather and shaking my head. There was absolutely no need for this much pink.
"Excuse me, you haven't given me any ink?" I asked her.
"You won't be needing any ink." she said, not even looking up from her desk.
I frowned and looked back down at the parchment, picking up the quill again and beginning to write. I got about three or so lines in, when I noticed that my left hand was starting to cramp slightly. I paused writing and stretched it out before continuing. I managed to write another three lines before I felt a stinging sensation on my hand, as though something was irritating it. I put the quill down and pulled up my sleeve to get a better look at my hand. I was shocked when I noticed thin red scars spelling out the words 'I must not tell lies'. Glancing down at the parchment and at the quill I realised that as I had been writing, the quill had been scarring the line into my hand at the same time.
I noticed Umbridge had stood up from her desk and had come over to where I was sitting.
"Now you understand, dear. Deep down, you know that you deserve to be punished." She said in the sickly sweet tone that made me want to throw her through a window. I avoided saying it, knowing that it would just make things worse. She declared that the detention was over and she allowed me to leave. Seeing that I still had another hour before curfew, I headed to the library to see if I could find any information about what kind of quill this was.
Once in the library, I grabbed a few books and started flicking through them. I finally found some information in the last book I looked in. It was a book about various types of quills, and according to the book, it was called a Blood Quill. It is known for having a pinkish red feather and rather than using ink, it uses the writer's blood along with a dark enchantment to permanently scar the writer's hand with whatever is being written at the time. According to the book, it is a cruel punishment and because of this, being caught in possession of one, much less being found to be using them on people, could end with a one way ticket to Azkaban.
I closed the book and pondered the information I had. I knew that I should report her, but I also knew that the chances of someone believing me were very low. Not to mention, even if someone did believe me, with the connections Umbridge had at the Ministry, including the Minister himself, there was no chance she would be found guilty. Plus, even just the process of going through it would be complicated and stressful due to the problems between Dumbeldore, myself and the Ministry.
In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle and that I would just keep it to myself. I cast a concealment charm on my hand to cover up the scar, knowing that if anyone found out, I would never hear the end of it. I placed the book back where I got it and headed back up to Gryffindor Tower.
After lying to my friends about the detention, I headed up to my dorm room and got ready for bed. While laying in bed, I took out the letter, seeing if there was anything important.
"Dear Hayley,
Firstly Narcissa and I wanted to congratulate you on becoming prefect and for doing so well in your exams.
Secondly, I wanted to warn you about the new DADA professor this year. Delores Umbridge is purely there to spy on the school, Dumbledore and yourself and report back to Fudge. He is worried that Dumbledore is wanting to take his job and is trying to do all he can to discredit the two of you. Be careful around her; she can be very ruthless and dangerous when she wants to be, despite the sweet and kind facade.
Thirdly, I wanted to give you an update in regards to Voldemort and his plans. So far, there have been no plans or attacks set in stone except for a plan to eventually break out some of his followers that are currently in Azkaban. Unfortunately, a date has not been agreed upon, but once it has, Severus will be informing Dumbledore and the Order accordingly to see if anything can be done.
I will keep in touch and inform you if anything new arises.
Lucius."
After reading, I put the letter away in my trunk before locking it, pulling my curtains and going to bed for the night.
Author's Note – Hey guys. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry it is shorter than normal; I have recently started a new job, and my beta has also been working a new job, so I don't have as much time to write as I would like. I am determined to keep to my current schedule of every two weeks. I have some interesting ideas for upcoming chapters and am really excited for you to read them. If you have any ideas or improvements, I am open to them; please send them via review or PM. As usual, thank you to everyone who reads, reviews, favourites and follows; it means so much that you enjoy it. Next chapter should be up on the 15th of August, as I have designated every other Sunday as my posting day for both this story and my other story, Well this was Unexpected.