Innocent Mistakes:
Chapter One

Looking back Isabelle realized that it all began with one simple mistake, one innocent mistake and her whole life altered and changed dramatically. And she realized that she that given the choice she wouldn't want to change it.

It really began with a simple wrong turn at an intersection onto the wrong stretch of road at the wrong time. At twenty years old Isabelle was much to concerned with getting to her work on time and her latest assignment than safety and she didn't notice the out of control vehicle heading straight for her, she didn't hear the screech of tires, the sound of broken glass and children crying, the strong stench of petrol or the hot flames in her car. All she felt was immense pain and then nothing, just black nothingness.

And this is where our story begins...

She felt as if she were under water, swimming and fighting her way through the numbness to that elusive conscience state of mind. Voices surrounded her and as much as she tried she couldn't decipher their gibberish, she felt as if she had to tell them, had to speak to them but couldn't. Her dreams were strange and contorted with broken images and sounds and lights but eventually those faded and her mind began to surface to the real world and she opened her eyes.

Bright whiteness blinded her for seconds and she thought wildly that she had died and this blinding whiteness was heaven but the spots cleared and she realized she was in a hospital. Beds with their blue spreads and the metal frames of the beds surrounded her as she began to take her strange surroundings in. Sitting next to her in a chair, limbs sprawled wildly was a young man, about her age with messy black hair, unshaven jaw, glasses askew and a lightening bolt scar on his forehead. This man radiated warmth and friendlessness and mostly importantly safety. She felt immediately as if she could trust him. And she had never seen this person before in her life! '

Her return to consciousness obviously had been noticed as a plump matronly woman bustled into the hospital wing and beamed at her while checking her pulse and bandages and pupil dilatation. "At last! How are you feeling? Any headaches? Any nausea? Do you hurt here?" She proceed to prod her with a long stick "Here? No, Well, I'll just go and get the headmaster, he'll be wanting to see you." Isabelle blinked up at her departing back and shakily asked "Where am I? Where are my parents? The last thing I remember was that I was driving... what happened? I need to...." She was cut off by the male voice from the man next to her bed. "You have been asleep for two weeks, you are in the infirmary at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after appearing from thin air and landing on me in the middle of a duel very badly hurt." The man rubbed his head ruefully, "had a very nasty bump too." And he grinned at her as she looked dazedly at him. His eyes which she noticed were a bright emerald green, were looking at her with curiosity and she noticed with a start worry.

'I don't understand. What school am I in and what happened to me and who are you?" She looked around feeling incredibly stupid and confused. The man smiled gently at her and began to explain, "Well, firstly my name is Harry Potter. You are in a magical hospital infirmary and judging by your blank stare and the information we have found out about you, you don't believe in magic." At her nod he began to speak again, "Your name is Isabelle O'Rielly, you are an American lieutenant in the Marines. You have a mother, father and sister still living. Last week you were involved in a car accident on your way to work and you are currently dead." At this statement she sat bolt upright and looked at him "WHAT!!" Pushing her gently back down onto her pillows Harry smiled sadly and said softly "You are dead to your family, you no longer exist in the Muggle World, your world. We are not quite sure what happened but somehow you transported yourself to the Wizarding world and now only exist here as your family have had your funeral already. I'm so sorry." She stared blankly at him, it had to be a sick joke, a dream or something, anything! She couldn't be dead, her whole life was ahead of her, she was getting a promotion next week! But strangely despite what her logical side of her mind said she had a feeling that everything that this Harry had said was true and she sighed and then finally nodded, pushing away her feelings to be dissected at a later time. She knew that later on she would not be so accepting. Harry looked slightly surprised at her peaceful acceptance but nodded back at her and looked up at the entrance of the woman, whom she assumed to be the nurse and an ancient old man with long flowing robes and the longest white beard she had ever seen. Harry softly said, "Madam Pomfrey, the nurse and Headmaster Dumbledore." '

The old man, Dumbledore, was looking down at her with sympathy and asked in a strong reassuring voice whether Harry had filled her in on her current situation. She nodded again, struck dumb by the aura that this man seemed to exude. At her and Harry's nod he spoke "Then I am very sorry for you loss, my child. Please let me explain the current situation to you." And he proceeded to tell her for the next hour. She discovered that another world existed, a magical world that was in danger from an evil man named Voldemort who sounded a lot like Hitler. She learnt that although she was transported to the magical world she didn't have any obvious magical powers and yet she couldn't return to her world as she was dead and her returning would cause a scandal and unwanted questions. And she might also, the headmaster explained return to her very badly injured state where without magic she would certainly die. At this she felt anger, anger that she couldn't go back to her old life and see her parents again, but she realized that if she did her life would never be the same. At the end of it all she learned that the man sitting next to her was a very famous wizard who had saved the wizarding world more than once and he hadn't left her bedside while she had been asleep. At this Harry looked embarrassed muttering something like nothing better to do and blushing madly.

At the end of the day, she was alone thinking over what she had just learned, what she had just lost. The headmaster had offered her a home in Hogwarts and a place in the fight against evil but the question was did she want that? Did she want to die a few months for now in a cause she had no place in? However, she had joined the Marines with a burning desire to defeat evil and protect her country, which had never faded, and this was just another evil to fight and she had her new life to protect. She had decided, she wasn't going to let evil win, she was going to fight for what she felt was right! There was time for tears later, she had to get well and join the struggle, join the fight like she was trained to do!

Chapter 2: '

Time passed and she healed. She learnt basic magical defense techniques for non-magical folk and acquired a means of protecting herself in a fight. Isabelle moved from Hogwarts infirmary to the Resistance's headquarters; 12 Grimwauld Place a month after her awakening and she discovered a world that she hadn't even dreamed existed. It was a world of magical creatures, medieval clothing she thought wryly and magic. Although she couldn't actually perform magic, she unlike most muggles could see it and was amazed by the miracles that her friends could perform. This was something that puzzled Dumbledore greatly but she didn't dwell on it.

' To help the light side she organized a squad of elite, non-magical folk either squibs or relatives of wizards, which ran messages for the Order of the Phoenix and provided a guide in the Muggle world. Her group of five consisted of only women as any potential male candidates refused or were just too unfit. Her group gained notoriety for the protection at any costs it provided to the Order members while in the muggle world. Isabelle, although it was a tense situation, loved life at the headquarters as she was accepted for who she was and people such as the Weasley's and Hermonie Granger helped her recovery. During the first six months of her new life she didn't see anyone past the Weasleys, the Grangers, Remus Lupin, Dumbledore and Harry. Harry's godfather, who many people talked about in an awed tone because he apparently came back to life a few years ago, was on assignment. His name was Sirius Black and his battle skills were spoken about in the same tones as Harry and Dumbledore's. Apparently he would plunge into battle completely without fear. He was not afraid of death, she'd been told, much like herself. She had never met him. '

And then there was Harry. Harry was like the best friend or the brother she never had. There were no romantic feelings involved and their relationship was built on the love of friendship. Harry explained that he had stayed in the hospital with her because he felt that he had to protect her and had done so. They were joined at the hip, many thinking that they were romantically involved, but they didn't care. He helped her through her painful recovery and her grief at losing her family. Without him she would have never become who she was today. Harry's friendship, she thought, also sprung from loneliness and a lost love. Harry's best friends in Hogwarts, Ron and Hermonie, had married and were not involved with the physical aspects of the Order. They were analysts and Harry could go months without seeing them. Another source of his loneliness was Ginny Weasley. Isabelle could tell that he was in love with her but she, married in all but name to a friend of Harry's, Dean Thomas, was oblivious and instead he turned to Isabelle for companionship. She didn't mind and enjoyed his company.

On this day however, he was severely trying her patience by jumping on her bed at some godforsaken time. Sirius had arrived home! He was excited and needed for Isabelle to come down and greet his godfather, as there was no one else home. And this is where our story really begins.

Isabelle sighed, her voice muffled under the pillow that she had attempted to block Harry out with sounding extremely tired. Harry felt a twinge of regret at waking her so early but pushed it aside. "Come on." He coaxed gently "It's only 5.30 in the morning. You can handle that. Right I want you up NOW." He bellowed and watched with satisfaction as Isabelle leaped to her feet, her body responding automatically to an order. "Fiiiiiiinnnnnnnnneeeeee." She groaned "But you owe me big time." Harry paled slightly when he saw the maniacal grin on her face but settled for tugging her down the stairs in her pajamas. Leading her into the kitchen he pushed open the door with one free hand and propelled her into the room with the other and turned and greeted a tall man sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee.

As she watch Harry greet, who she assumed was Sirius, Isabelle felt surprised as Harry's famed godfather was nothing like she pictured. She had pictured a man as old as Remus and just as tired with gray hair and wrinkle lines. This man was.... Well.... Handsome. Sirius Black looked about ten years older than her, with long black hair pulled messily into a short ponytail, black intense eyes although animated with Harry held a haunted look, probably she mused, a left over of Azkban. These eyes were framed by long sooty eyelashes and he had a strong, determined unshaven chin. He had the look of a man who was powerfully strong but hid it very well and overall he just radiated something that she couldn't quite put her finger on but it drew her to him. Feeling very self-conscious in her fluffy pajamas she tried to hide her bare feet and wonder wildly if her hair was too much of a mess.

Harry after a lot of back pounding and boisterous yelling with his godfather had turned to see her standing there and Sirius turning felt his smile freeze on his face. And he got his first look at Isabelle. Standing there with brown curls wildly askew, big brown eyes looking very tired she gave the impression of a child much younger than she really was. It was not until Sirius looked at the rest of her did he realize that she was indeed Harry's age. There was nothing extraordinary about her, she was not an amazing beauty but her eyes drew him to her. He reached out his hand after Harry had introduced them causally and felt flames shoot up his arm and then immense pain.

Isabelle felt as if her entire being was on fire. She had touched Sirius' hand and suddenly was bombarded with images; terrifying images of the man that stood before her. Images that she realized were memories. Memories of a horrifying and sad childhood, memories of Hogwarts were a happy blur filled with three friends, the war against Voldemort filled her with fear and terror and after that there was a blank horrifying void which was Azkban. Isabelle was filled with all the knowledge that Sirius had acquired over his lifetime. She felt old beyond her years and sad for the man standing in front of. Still holding his hand, unable to let go she felt herself curl up in pain as the images became more disturbing. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked up at Sirius, who was trying to get her to let go of his hand. He was searching wildly for some way to put her out of the pain she was in but couldn't. Harry had sprinted to the fireplace and was frantically calling Dumbledore, who responded quickly. Just as Dumbledore emerged from the fireplace Isabelle felt the memories and images recede leaving her staring up at Sirius with horror. She snatched her hand back and then promptly fainted leaving three very puzzled and worried men.

Chapter 3:

Sirius Black was worried. This was a very unusual occurrence unless it was in some way related to his wayward godson. No, this worry was different. He had no reason to be worried about the woman laying in the next room, unconscious but he had caused her pain and for some reason he was filled with a paralyzing fear. A fear that transcended anything he had felt for Harry.

Speaking of Harry, his godson was sitting in the chair next to him eyes wide open and terrified. Poor man, Sirius realized that this woman must be very special to Harry. At this disturbing thought Sirius felt a sharp pain thinking of his godson and the woman next door together which he pushed aside to ponder over at a later date. Harry had told Sirius who the woman was. Apparently she was a muggle who had some how overcome the barriers of entering the wizarding world.

The door to the room opened and Dumbledore beckoned the two men inside.

Hey what do you think? I could continue once finished with The Meaning of Betrayal if you guys like it?