The Chosen Two

34- The Second Task Part 2

HAILEY'S POV

First day back to classes was awful. The stress of the tournament really started to hit me for some reason and I accidentally put frog legs in our potion rather than toad legs. Snape scowled at me for the first time ever, and it was terrifying. Draco just laughed at me as I tried to fix it, which didn't help either.

The tournament stress wasn't the only thing on my mind. The guilt was starting to consume me. I had cheated, with Draco, and he didn't even know what he helped me do to Cedric. I spent a whole week with him and didn't care or stop it. I spent every night back in my own dorm crying because I realized the mistake I had made. I wanted to be with Cedric...

I think.

I was walking down the halls, during the middle of the night. I didn't even care that Madame Maxime would kill me if I got caught. I wandered to the bridge I found the first morning and just stared. I was so dumb. Cedric had already been cheated on once, sorta, and now here I was, hurting him again in the same way when I knew. I didn't want to be this person, this awful girl that feels the same way about 2 very different boys, but I was. If I had more experience with boys, I might have known it was right to break up with Cedric until I figured out what and who I wanted, but of course, I am inexperienced with boys and therefore decided it would be best to come clean and beg for Cedric's forgiveness.

I was walking back to my tower, going over my plan in my head, when I remembered Celeste had told me she had a plan during break.

"Celeste!" I nudged her sleeping figure when I returned to the dorm.

"Huh?" She shot straight up, saw that it was still dark out, and slumped back to sleep. "Hailey go to bed!"

"What was your plan, Cel?" I whispered and nudged her again. She huffed, and without opening her eyes, explained the whole thing. It was brilliant, but I felt awful.

///

I woke up from my 2 hours of sleep, though I tried to fall asleep for hours. It was another day of mistakes and laughter, mostly from Draco.

I had started making a different potion than asked, and Snape got very mad. He started rambling about what a waste of ingredients it was, and I cried. I couldn't help it, Snape getting mad was the cherry on top of all my problems. It was all too much, and I was excused from the rest of class. I saw pity in Snape's eyes, though his face still had an angry scowl on.

"Malfoy! I want you to get your Potions partner together." I heard Snape growl, and it wasn't long before the blonde boy's head was popping out the classroom door, and into the hall.

"Don't cry, Hails, Snape charmed his ingredients in the Potions closet to refill themselves when empty, it wasn't actually a waste." Draco tried to console, rubbing my arms.

"No, it's not that." I cried, wiping my eyes.

"Then what is it?" He asked. I couldn't handle him right now, or anything else, as he was part of the reason. I broke out of his grasp and started running down the halls, towards the grounds, to get to the path.

"Hailey! Hailey wait!" Draco yelled, chasing after me. I didn't stop running until I was well down the path, my lungs burning. I collapsed on the grass, crying hysterically. I felt awful about myself. How could I? I heard footsteps a few minutes later, but I couldn't dare to look up and see him. "Hailey..."

"I did something bad. I messed everything up." I said quietly, deciding to come clean without explaining in detail.

"What'd you do?" Draco asked, but realized he had over stepped when my eyes grew wide and I began to push myself back up. "Never mind, never mind, that's not important." He mumbled, grabbing my arms and pushing me back down, coming down with me.