You Leave Me Breathless

By Lily Orange

Upon entrance into her sixth year at Hogwarts, Isabel Willoughby decides she is sick of her friend Sirius Black's incessant love games with all the girls in their year – her solution? To play Sirius at his own game, by creating the whole new persona of Amanda through the excessive use of Polyjuice Potion. However, as Isabel lets Amanda get incredibly close to Sirius – she finds herself slowly, but surely, falling in love with him...

A story of romance, friendship and humour

"Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship – never." - Charles Caleb Colton

A/N: Thank you to everybody who reviewed my story, added it to their alerts subscription and their favourites, I can't say how much I appreciate it, especially when I open my emails and see loads from fan fiction! I hope you like this chapter, please review!


Chapter Three

Sorting Memories

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years, over here!"

The voice of Hogwarts' gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid boomed across the hoards of students exiting the Hogwarts Express. He was standing, looking quite intimidating in the twilight atmosphere, but in actual fact had a heart of gold and wouldn't hurt a fly.

The timid little first years accumulated in front of Hagrid, all wearing their brand-new Hogwarts robes and looking extremely frightened – Hagrid's tall appearance didn't really help matters.

Lily, James, Remus, Peter, Sirius and Isabel jumped onto the platform, fully dressed in their robes – the casual jeans, t-shirts and scruffy shoes were now gone and had been replaced by trousers and skirts, shirts, smart shoes and their red and gold Gryffindor ties. They saw Hagrid, who beamed at them.

"Alrigh' there, you lot?" he asked kindly, and they nodded and replied their brief answers as they were herded up to catch the carriages. Lily looked to see if they could get in with their Ravenclaw friends – but Rosalind, her boyfriend, and their friends were just filling one of them. Petra, part of the little Ravenclaw group, jumped in as quickly as possible when she saw Sirius approaching, laughing and joking with Isabel.

Coming back and getting off of the Hogwarts Express every year on September the first reminded Isabel every year of the memories of her first journey to Hogwarts. She had known nobody as she entered Platform 93/4 with her parents – the children of her parents' friends were quite a lot younger than she was. Her parents had married two years after leaving school and then literally nine months later she was born. Isabel thought it was quite romantic as they had been together since fifth year at school – she didn't really know anyone who was together at school, apart from Rosalind and her new boyfriend, but that had stemmed from a summer fling as they lived near each other.

"Do you want to get in the carriage, Iz?" Sirius asked, bringing Isabel out of her random contemplations and ushering her into the carriage which Lily, James, Remus and Peter had already sat down inside.

"Oh yeah, sorry, in a world of my own – I feel sorry for the first years, looks like it's going to rain!" Isabel laughed.

"Remember when it was our first day? It bloody poured down!" Sirius reminisced.

Isabel remembered her first day very clearly – especially the train journey.

Because of some miracle, Isabel had found herself actually carrying her trunk. The train was due to leave any second and she had said her goodbyes to her parents – she promised she'd see them at Christmas and would write regularly. Her lovely tawny owl Alethia was ready to send anything – as of yet she had not been able to make herself useful, thus causing much hooting and irritation for Isabel.

"Don't worry, Alethia, I'll send some post eventually, but I don't know anybody to send it to as of yet!" she growled at her rapidly maddening, hooting owl as she pulled her trunk down the aisle. Most of the other students had settled into carriages, and Isabel was worrying about where on earth she would be able to sit – without a doubt, there would be many others who didn't know anybody in the first year but Isabel couldn't see anybody with the same lost and alone look that she undoubtedly possessed at that moment in time.

As she passed full carriages of older students, she was beginning to panic. She had found that you could put your pets in a luggage carriage at the end of the train – where she had deposited Alethia, who hadn't been too happy about it – but now came back to the problem of where to sit. The train was just leaving the platform of nine and three-quarters, and she waved at her parents through the window as the train passed them.

"Well I don't know where I'm going to bloody sit..." she murmured anxiously as she was nearing the end of the train.

Finally, she reached the last carriage – thankfully it was full of friendly looking people who also looked as if they might be first years too.

"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit with you? Everywhere else is full," Isabel requested apologetically. A girl sat by the window with flaming red hair and sparkling green eyes smiled at her warmly.

"Of course," she said. The four other boys present in the carriage nodded too, and Isabel moved her trunk so that she could get it into the compartment. She pushed it hard – and it fell over, bringing her down with it, at the feet of one of the boys. He was prematurely good looking, alarmingly so in fact.

"Would you like a little help?" he smirked, offering her his hand. Isabel took it, and he sat her down beside him whilst he and another boy, with messy black hair and glasses, lifted her trunk to put it on the luggage rack.

"Thanks," she blushed, cursing herself for falling over in front of these people.

"It's fine," the bespectacled boy grinned, "introductions... I'm James, James Potter."

"Nice to meet you James, James Potter," Isabel smiled impishly, causing the good looking boy to laugh heartily. "I'm Isabel Willoughby."

"Sirius Black," the good looking boy said, holding out his hand for her to shake. She did.

"This is Remus Lupin" – a sandy haired boy smiled kindly at her, lifting his head from his book – "and Peter Pettigrew," James continued, pointing at the remaining male in the carriage, a short, chubby boy who looked very nervous.

"And I'm Lily Evans," the red haired girl said. She was sat on the other side of Isabel, who was opposite James.

"Hang on... is that a Holyhead Harpies badge?" Sirius and James asked concurrently, then looking at the other, chuckled. Isabel looked down at her little shoulder bag she had bought onto the train, containing her copy of the Daily Prophet(there for Quidditch-related purposes only) and saw that she had left her badge of her favourite Quidditch team on it.

"Yes, why, do you support them?" Isabel asked. This made James grin widely – Quidditch was his favourite conversational topic and he was never one to stop himself from praising his team, the Tutshill Tornadoes.

"No," he scoffed, "the Tornadoes! They rock my world!"

"Ah, that is where you are wrong, my dear James," Sirius interjected, making Lily and Isabel laugh, "the Montrose Magpies are the most successful team in the league ever, therefore making them the best team – they rock my world!"

James murmured something under his breath which sounded suspiciously like, "Glory hunter."

"Oh, you think I'm a glory hunter?" Sirius asked in a mock-annoyed voice.

"Bring it on, Black!" James fake-growled.

"Alright then... MAGPIES!" Sirius hollered as loudly as possible, nearly deafening poor Isabel as her ear was quite close to his mouth as he yelled.

"TORNADOES!" James countered, equally as loud.

"MAGPIES!"

"TORNADOES!"

"MAGPIES!"

"TORNADOES!"

"I say... MAGPIES!"

"I say... TORNADOES!"

"I say... HARPIES!" Isabel joined in, causing Lily to laugh much more. Isabel decided that, though Lily hadn't said much, she liked her a lot and thought they would be close friends.

Sirius and James both looked at her.

"Shall we look at the League, then?" Isabel asked, producing her copy of the Daily Prophetfrom her shoulder bag and showing them the results of the last few matches. "Oh look, the Holyhead Harpies reign supreme and are beating both the Tornadoes and the Magpies!"

This silenced the two bickering boys, who looked at Isabel in awe, surprised that a girl could comprehend the importance of Quidditch.

"Is it me or did this girl drop from a Quidditch-flavoured heaven?" James asked Sirius. Remus rolled his eyes at the melodramatics of his new-found friends.

"I think you are correct, James, old buddy old pal," Sirius grinned.

"What – you like me because I like Quidditch? Shouldn't you look for better qualities in a friend than that?" Isabel asked, bewildered.

"Nah, Quidditch is EVERYTHING!" James concluded.

"Of course I remember – you decided you both liked me because I liked Quidditch!" Isabel laughed.

"Oh yes, speaking of Quidditch, how are the Holyhead Harpies doing, Iz?" Sirius asked, adopting Lily's nickname again, something Isabel had discovered she didn't mind. "Looks like they got beaten by the Montrose Magpies in their match a few weeks ago!"

"You are so full of it!" Isabel teased.

"Wow... it's so beautiful..." Lily said dreamily – all of the people in the carriage turned to see what she was looking at: Hogwarts Castle. Isabel had found that there was only one sight which could rival that of the beautiful Hogwarts Castle against the night skyline, lights flickering welcomingly in all the windows and the Black Lake shimmering in the moonlight. And that sight was the one from the top of the cliffs, looking out to sea, a short walk away from her house on the Cornish coast.

"I don't know what I'll do when we finish school – I love this place," Sirius said.

"We'll go live somewhere cool together, Pads, with our girlfriends," James grinned, "perhaps somewhere on the coast!"

"Near a nudist beach, right?" Sirius laughed. "Hey Izzy... don't you live near the coast? Perhaps we could move in next door!"

"You can't move in next door – 'next door' is about three miles away, down a hill," Isabel chuckled.

"So you live in the middle of nowhere? Well, we'll just move in with you," Sirius concluded.

"Okay. Anyway, sorry to shatter your sleazy, hormone-fuelled illusions, Sirius, but there are no nudist beaches near where I live," Isabel informed him.

"Damn. I'll still come and live with you, though," he winked, and Isabel chortled.

"Actually – my parents said that at Easter, as I'm seventeen and coming of age and all, you can all come to my house for the holidays and we can hang out on the beach and stuff," Isabel said. Choruses of "Wow!" and "Cool!" rang out.

"Yay! Partying at Izzy's house and raves on a nudist beach! My kind of holiday!" Sirius said excitedly and suggestively.

"How many times do I have to tell you that there is not a nudist beach near my house?" Isabel said exasperatedly.

"BRAINWAVE!" Sirius bellowed. "We'll make one! We just need to run down to the beach, strip, do a little bit of skinny dipping, invite some hot randomers..." he continued dreamily.

"Whoa! Sorry, but I am going to interrupt your sordid little fantasies about naked women and tell you right now that we are NOT going to create a nudist beach – and that includes stripping and skinny dipping. I, for one, am not going to parade around naked in front of you," Isabel said sharply.

"Um... could it just be me and the hot randomers?" Sirius pleaded desperately.

"You actually disgust me, do you know that?" Isabel snorted.

"I think you'll find that's the second time you've said that today," Lily informed her, looking amused.

"Well you disgust me very much then!" Isabel laughed.

"Aw, Izzy, you know you love me really!" he said arrogantly before jumping out of the carriage – it appeared they had already reached Hogwarts. Isabel could see the little fleet of boats containing the shivering first years crossing the Black Lake, and thought back to when that was her.

Lily and Isabel stood close together as Hagrid led them from the station towards the boats that they would be sailing in to Hogwarts. They couldn't even see the castle yet – they were getting increasingly agitated because it was raining heavily, thus they were very cold and they wanted to catch a glimpse of their home for the next seven years, minus holiday times. Sirius, James, Remus and Peter were stood behind them, anxious as they were – even the cocky, self-assured Sirius – about the foul weather and wanting to see the castle.

They certainly weren't disappointed as they turned a corner and got a full view of the beautiful castle that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Welcoming orange and yellow lights flickered at windows and the mass of towers and turrets stood, not ominously, but enchantingly.

"Four to a boat!" Hagrid called – James, Sirius, Remus and Peter immediately ran to a boat together, whilst Isabel looked around nervously – the only other person she was acquainted with was Lily, and they obviously weren't a four, and needed two other people.

"Oh, Isabel, come with me," Lily whispered, and grabbing Isabel's hand, led her over to a boy with greasy black hair and a hooked nose.

"Hello Lily," the boy said in a voice that was obviously meant as a pleasant remark but was tainted with something unpleasant which Isabel could not quite identify.

"Hi Sev – Sev, this is Isabel Willoughby; Isabel, this is Severus Snape. Sev, do you mind us sharing a boat with you?" Lily asked. The boy flashed a quick, if not entirely kind, smile at Isabel, which she returned, and the three clambered into a boat. Due to an odd number of students, they were fine as a three.

The rain hammered down on the first years sitting in the boat – Isabel's curly chocolate brown hair was plastered to her pale face and she was shivering badly.

"I suppose the castle, at least, will be warm and dry," Lily whispered, making Isabel smile.

The light, warm Great Hall was a thoroughly welcome sight as the six young Gryffindors entered it and took their places at the table. It was accompanied by James and Sirius sending a couple of homicidal glares in the direction of the Slytherin table – mostly directed at Severus Snape and his pureblood maniac friends. Lily had, since their first year, extinguished her friendship with Severus Snape. This was due to her defending him when Sirius and James had taken it upon themselves to hex him and then he threw it back in her face when he called her a "Mudblood," in front of everybody. Friends didn't do that kind of thing.

"I hope Dumbledore's speeches don't last very long, I'm starving!" Sirius muttered, causing Isabel to snort with laughter, earning some withering looks from the Professors at the staff table.

The doors banged open, and the little first years entered, looking around meekly.

"When I call your name, you will come forth, I will place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses," Professor McGonagall said somewhat sternly.

The scared first years were deathly silent as Professor McGonagall cast her eyes down the list of names.

"Albert, Benjamin!"

The first to be sorted, a tall blonde boy, sauntered up to the chair a little overconfidently, and after a little disapproving wrinkle of her nose, McGonagall placed the hat on his head – it was after a matter of seconds that it yelled,

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table cheered – and James and Sirius booed, though stopped when Isabel kicked them both hard in the shins, and looked as if they might cry. For such a skinny girl who seemed to possess no kind of bodily strength, Isabel had a good kick – something which was advantageous in any fight with a Slytherin; not that she was prone to fighting, except in the one case, when she had been cheered on ardently by the Marauders when she was trying desperately to injure Narcissa Black, a cousin of Sirius' who was extremely horrible.

"Banks, Aretha!"

A small black girl with braided hair finished with brightly coloured beads bounded up to the seat enthusiastically, and was proclaimed to be a "RAVENCLAW!"

"Bennet, Marianne" became the first Gryffindor after two were placed in Hufflepuff – followed quickly by "Dashwood, Liam", "Fitzpatrick, Annie", "Jackson, Lucy-Rose" and "Goldman, Barry".

The Marauders, Lily and Isabel cheered loudly for the new Gryffindors, who smiled at them timidly as they sat down at the table – the first years were next to them, in fact, and had left big gaps between themselves and Isabel and James, who were sat on the end.

"Peace, Bessie!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Price, Robert!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Sanchez, Evelina!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Cheers erupted along the Gryffindor table, with James and Sirius taking it slightly overboard and jumping onto their seats, doing a little victory dance. Evelina Sanchez blushed as she took a seat next to Isabel – the fact that two ever so good looking boys were cheering so happily at her arrival into their house and that they appeared to be ever so slightly mad must have been daunting for her. Isabel smiled at her warmly, and said to her,

"Don't worry, they're only let out of the asylum once a week," causing Evelina to giggle nervously.

"Sanderson, James!"

"Ooh look, Prongsy, this could be your little prodigy!" Sirius said excitedly as a tall boy with messy brown hair ran up to the stool, and had the hat placed upon his head. He even wore glasses like James, but they weren't rounded, were more of a rectangular shape.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat yelled, and Sirius and James once again did their little jig, and invited the newly sorted James Sanderson to sit with them, and immediately introduced themselves.

"Hello, I'm James Potter, prankster extraordinaire," James said warmly, shaking the first year James' hand.

"And I'm Sirius Black–" Sirius began, but Isabel cut across him with a roguish grin.

"He's a womanising extraordinaire," she added, and the mini James grinned at all three of them.

"This is our good friend, Isabel Willoughby, she's a, erm..." James drifted off, not quite sure what Isabel could be classified as an 'extraordinaire' at.

"An academic extraordinaire!" Sirius beamed at her. Quick introductions of Remus and Peter followed, and then James turned to introduce Lily to the mini James.

"This is Lily Evans, she's the most beautiful creature ever, the love of my life and my future wife," he said adoringly, earning a slap round the back of the head from Lily – who despite the slap, looked highly amused.

"And don't worry, if you hit on Lily, you'll get whacked too, she doesn't just reserve it for me," James added, causing the mini James to laugh heartily.

When they had finished laughing, including Lily, the sorting had finished and Professor Dumbledore began speaking to them.

"I know you are probably ravenous – particular students could be named for being constantly ravenous but we do not have the time – so I will save all speaking formalities and notices until after the feast. Enjoy!" he said, standing in front of the teacher's table, wearing silver and purple star-spangled robes that glittered in the candle light.

The food appeared in front of all of the students at their tables, and Sirius instantly grabbed enough food for an army and piled it onto his plate.

"I would say 'you disgust me', but then I'd sound like a broken record," Isabel smirked as Sirius looked up at her innocently, whilst halfway through eating a mountain of roast potatoes covered in gravy. In fact, everything on his plate had been covered by liberal amounts of gravy as he had poured it on like there was no tomorrow.

"I am a growing boy!" he said in defence.

"Growing boy? You're what, six foot three? I'm still a growing girl, I'm only about five foot ten!" Isabel responded.

"Padfoot – you have used that excuse since you were eleven," Peter pointed out.

"Yes, but I have been growing since I was eleven, haven't I?" Sirius said in despair at the apparent ignorance of his friends.

"As I said, you are six foot three. You cannot grow much more," Isabel said slowly and clearly, as if she was talking to an imbecile.

"I'm growing in more ways than one," he winked.

"UGH! YOU ARE NAUSEATING!" Isabel bellowed, in a slightly louder voice than intended – the whole hall fell silent and looked to the rapidly reddening Isabel and Sirius Black, who was laughing in his dinner and looked like he was about to fall on the floor he was laughing so much.

"It's okay, nothing to stare at here, Iz was just, er, telling me off," Sirius said.

"Yes, Miss Willoughby, I'm glad that you can be responsible for giving Mr Black his first telling off of the year," Professor Dumbledore said, blue eyes twinkling. Isabel blushed and everybody went back to eating.

"I will get you, later, you know that?" Isabel hissed scathingly as the puddings appeared on the table and Sirius went straight for a large chocolate fudge gateau with about six layers on it, and cut himself three pieces.


Thanks for reading - I'd love to get 30 reviews... hint, hint... anyway, please review to get the next chapter, which involves Isabel formulating a plan and Lily making a shock confession...

:) x Lily Orange x (: