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: Another Harry Potter story! This is my masterpiece that I spent ages working on and have completed so can post whenever :) and I was originally going to wait until I finished posting Such Sweethearts but I was too impatient so I'm going to start now! Please review, I'd love it if everybody who read this reviewed!

Chapter One

A Loveable Rogue

Isabel Willoughby was finding manoeuvring her exceedingly heavy trunk around King's Cross station extraordinarily difficult – she was certain that if she had to lift it again, she would find herself with a broken back in the Hospital Wing as soon as she arrived at Hogwarts; or, more likely, in a bed at St Mungo's. She was also sure that girls of her age, sixteen, should be able carry their trunks by now, and juggle it with a cage for their owl as well, besides her shoulder bag. Isabel's owl, Alethia, was hooting at regular intervals, to warn Isabel not to treat the cage so harshly.

She could blame herself, really, for having no help in carrying her trunk, owl cage and shoulder bag – she had spent the past few days in London, staying in a room at the Leaky Cauldron by herself. Her parents had gone early to visit her grandparents on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, but Isabel had politely declined – not that she didn't want to seeher grandparents, but she hadn't learned to apparate as of yet, thus making it difficult to get back to London swiftly for the first of September.

The barman of the Leaky Cauldron, Tom, had helped her to lug her cases to the entrance of King's Cross, but had had to return to the pub to help finish up the breakfasts. That left a rather irritable Isabel with her hooting owl and heavy trunk, which she had to get to the Hogwarts Express on Platform 93/4. She hadn't been able to locate a luggage trolley, and couldn't see any of her friends about so had had to content herself with moving the trunk, owl cage and bag herself. Which was not easy, no matter what anybody said.

"I am never packing this much again," she hissed angrily as she dropped the trunk on her toe, and resisted the urge to swear loudly. She could hear the carefully stacked piles of books just fall amongst the folded, neatly ordered, piles of clothes and everything get tangled. She groaned – she had spent ages making sure everything was in its right place. Isabel was something of a neat freak – something relished by her best friend, Lily Evans, as Lily had a habit of being slightly untidy so Isabel's tidiness complimented her untidiness perfectly.

"Why did there have to be so many bloody books on our bloody book list?" she cursed, dropping the trunk again, causing Alethia to hoot in shock. Isabel shot her a murderous glare, before turning back to the problem in hand. She could see other Hogwarts students milling about, with their trunks and pet cases on trolleys! Why was it that she was the only one without?

Deciding to go about it strategically, Isabel carefully lifted her trunk – nearly breaking her wrist in the process – and stood it up against one of the pillars, and put Alethia's cage down on the floor next to it. It was only half past ten – one of Isabel's traits that came with the excessive tidiness was to be excessively early for anything. It had been a good job she had got to the station an hour early – it had taken her half that time to get her trunk down the steps and onto the walkway between Platforms Nine and Ten. Now she just had to get to the barrier, and somehow get her, Alethia, her bag and her trunk through it.

Coming to the conclusion that she would struggle to move the blasted thing whichever way she went about it, Isabel looped her shoulder bag over her left shoulder, grabbed the handle of her trunk in her right hand, and the handle of Alethia's cage in her left, and began to drag the trunk across the station, causing it to make a horrible, conspicuous, screeching noise.

"Bloody hell, I hate this stupid bloody damn thing!" she cursed, and then heard hysterical laughter behind her. Putting Alethia down – consequently getting an irate hoot – she spun round to locate the source of the laughter. Her bright sapphire eyes immediately saw it – two very tall teenage boys doubled up in laughter, roaring at her expense.

"Having a little trouble, Isabel?" the taller of the two asked – when he had stood to his full height, he was a good three inches over six foot, with shoulder-length dark brown curly hair and a face that was so insanely attractive it was untrue. His eyes were a stormy grey, and creased at the corners due to his amazing smile, bearing his perfectly aligned teeth.

"Nothing I can't handle, Sirius," Isabel responded politely. Sirius Black snorted with laughter, and walked forward to stand by Isabel and her belongings.

"You need to grow some muscles on that stick-thin body of yours," he whispered. She grinned. Contrary to how they often presented themselves, Sirius and Isabel were very good friends – she wouldn't let anybody else get away with telling her she was stick-thin without being hexed into oblivion first.

"Give the poor girl a hand, Padfoot!" the other boy said. Isabel smiled at him too – he was about an inch shorter than his best friend, with hazel eyes and unbelievably messy jet black hair and glasses. He was good-looking too, but not as insanely beautiful as his best friend.

"Sorry, Prongs, oh Magnificent One," Sirius smirked and picked up Isabel's trunk with ease – Isabel furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance and he just laughed, responding with, "it's my Quidditch muscles, baby!"

"I'll take Alethia for you, Isabel," James Potter, the messy-haired bespectacled boy, said helpfully. Isabel smiled at him gratefully. "And... could you put a good word in for me with Lily? Tell her how utterly helpful I've been?" he grinned sheepishly.

Isabel rolled her eyes, "Of course – was that your ulterior motive to helping me?" she asked cheekily.

"No! It was just an afterthought," he shrugged.

"Still as infatuated with my emerald-eyed friend as ever, James?" Isabel quizzed.

"Not infatuated, Isabel, I love her!" he said passionately, carrying Alethia carefully through the crowds.

Sirius was leading the little line of three sixteen-year-olds through the hustle and bustle of the morning at King's Cross, followed by James and then Isabel, who had been left with her shoulder bag to carry – which wasn't heavy in the least, so she was happy. She was anxiously looking across the hoards of people to spot her aforementioned flame-haired, emerald-eyed, flawless best friend Lily, but to no avail – in fact, she bumped into a stunning blonde girl with long hair who completely disregarded Isabel's mumbled apology of "Sorry, I'm really clumsy," and just glared at her. "Way to be friendly," Isabel muttered as the girl pushed past her, obviously searching for her friends too. She wasn't a Hogwarts girl – she wasn't pushing the trolley with the customary leather trunk and carrying an animal of some description, she was carrying a Muggle weekend bag and a vanity case.

"Had a good summer, then?" Isabel asked the two boys as they came to the barrier to Platform 93/4. Sirius kind of half-grinned, and James looked ecstatic.

"I ran away," Sirius said wistfully. Isabel was one of the few who knew about Sirius' family – his parents, Walburga and Orion Black, were pureblood maniacs who had placed all their hopes on their oldest son, but had had them dashed when he got sorted into Gryffindor instead of the mandatory Black family Slytherin. Sirius' younger brother, Regulus, had not dishonoured the family name as badly as Sirius – who had proceeded to associate himself with half-bloods, blood traitors and muggle-borns and to hex every Slytherin who crossed his path – well, at all, in fact, as he had entered Slytherin house and proceeded to go around with a group of pureblood maniacs, the spawn of his parents' friends. Sirius got badly beaten up and tortured every time he spoke out at home, including being subjected to the Cruciatus Curse on more than one occasion.

"Really, Sirius? That's great!" Isabel beamed at him, and patted his arm comfortingly. "Where did you go?"

"Prongs'," he said, grinning inanely at James.

"They treat him like he's my brother – if I wasn't their real son, I would say that he was their favourite!" he laughed.

"That's so good, Sirius, I'm really proud of you," Isabel replied. "Where's Remus and Peter?" she asked, referring to the two boys' other friends that grouped with them to make their mischievous, prank-loving group that had been dubbed the 'Marauders'. Remus Lupin was a quiet, sandy-haired boy that often looked ill but had a good heart and was very smart – he was sweet and kind, and was a prefect with Lily. The other boy was Peter Pettigrew – short and rather chubby, he wasn't as likeable as his three friends and was by no means categorized by the females of Hogwarts as attractive, and was rather mousy and not very clever, having to be helped in virtually every class by the other Marauders.

"Should be round here somewhere," James said absentmindedly, casting his twinkling eyes around the large mass of students milling around the magical platform of nine and three-quarters, outside the scarlet steam train of the Hogwarts Express.

"IZZY!" Isabel turned round to see a pretty girl with flaming red hair and sparkling emerald eyes running towards her, with her arms outstretched.

"LILS!" Isabel yelled back, hugging her best friend tightly.

"Oh how I have missed you, Izzy!" Lily said, using Isabel's pet name which she only let Lily use – Sirius would make many variations on it if he was permitted to use it.

"I've missed you so much Lily," James interjected before Isabel could even respond to Lily. Lily turned to look past Isabel, and saw James grinning at her, holding Alethia in her cage.

"Why has James stolen your owl?" she asked, grabbing her cage from James' hand. He didn't even mind – just smiled at her like a lovesick puppy. Sirius suppressed a grin.

"Lils, he didn't – he was helping me, there were no luggage trolleys left so Sirius and he helped me carry all my stuff down here," Isabel informed her, then, grinning wickedly, added, "they even offered to take it onto the train for me and put it in our compartment."

Sirius looked at Isabel with raised eyebrows, and she grinned sweetly.

"Did you really, James?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Of course I did, Lily," he replied sweetly. Lily smiled at him, and Isabel did a thumbs up at Sirius over her shoulder. He rolled his eyes, but grinned all the same.

"Shall we get on the train, then, before all the compartments are filled?" Isabel asked, and Lily nodded, picking up her owl cage – James offered to take Lily's trunk onto the train for her whilst Sirius pulled Isabel's along. Isabel reluctantly took Alethia's cage off him – she had been enjoying walking without any baggage apart from her small shoulder bag – and Sirius and James followed them on to the train.

As they walked down the aisle, it seemed most of the compartments had already been filled – Lily and Isabel were the only Gryffindor girls in their year, and subsequently hung out with Ravenclaws around school – but the Ravenclaw sixth year girls had filled a carriage out already, seeing as one of them, a blonde girl with short hair and an impish smile called Rosalind Harris, had managed to secure herself a boyfriend and he and his friends had piled into the same compartment, leaving no room available for Lily and Isabel.

"Er, Lily, Isabel, where exactly are you planning on sitting?" Sirius asked uncertainly as they neared the end of the train.

"There must be somewhere for us to sit," Lily muttered – but it turned out that there wasn't. The only spare seats were in the carriage with the Marauders – Sirius and James having already secured themselves a carriage and Remus and Peter were now sitting in it, Peter watching the people walk past the window on the platform in fascination, and Remus already reading a book.

"It looks like you're sitting with us," Sirius winked, and Isabel followed them into the carriage. Lily grabbed her arm before she entered.

"What, Lils?" Isabel asked her impatiently – she wanted to sit down and get her sweets out, she had bought some from Diagon Alley the day previous and there were enough for the whole carriage to share, even with Sirius and Isabel's large appetites.

"Do we really have to share a compartment with the Marauders?" she said apprehensively.

"And by that you mean the increasingly infatuated James Potter?" Isabel asked sarcastically, batting her long dark eyelashes mockingly.

"Um, yes," she responded automatically.

"Don't worry, Lils, if he begins to salivate on you, we'll move," Isabel grinned cheekily, and, before Lily could protest any further, Isabel dragged her into the carriage and sat her down opposite her. Lily was now sat between Remus and James (which she wasn't too happy about) and Isabel between Peter and Sirius.

"Is anybody hungry?" Isabel asked, causing Sirius to jump up and down in his seat animatedly.

"I am! I am!" he cried like a child about to open his Christmas presents on the twenty-fifth of December.

"Padfoot – how can you fit anymore food in?" James said exasperatedly. "You ate practically four breakfasts at mine this morning – and you bought a baguette from that little kiosk outside Kings Cross!"

"Hey, I got that girl's number," Sirius responded dreamily, and produced a piece of paper and gave it to Isabel to read.

"Sirius – this is a receipt for a packet of Polos," she snickered.

"Turn it over!"

"Oh, a number, and a name: Lydia," she read out in a stupid voice that was a mockery of Sirius' charming, seductive voice which he used when chatting girls up.

"Why has she written a number on the paper, though?" he asked her, clearly puzzled. Isabel rolled her eyes, and tucked her chocolate brown hair behind her ears – it fell in soft corkscrew curls which Isabel rather liked; she viewed her face as plain (though many others didn't, as her sapphire blue eyes illuminated her whole face) but she loved her hair.

This was what happened when a boy grew up in a house which hated anything muggle. "Well, Sirius, muggles have a communication thing called a telephone and each household with a phone has a phone number, and if you dial it on your phone, it will reach theirs and you can have a conversation. Lydia is obviously expecting you to call," Isabel explained; she was a half-blood, born of a pureblood mother and a muggle-born wizarding father.

"You really should have taken Muggle Studies," Lily laughed, who was a muggle-born therefore grew up using a telephone.

"Nah, she was pretty but not pretty, if you know what I mean," he said lazily.

"That did not make any sense," Remus grinned, making the girls laugh.

"Well, I mean that she was a pretty girl, but she wasn't the right sort of pretty," Sirius attempted to explain.

"I'm just going to repeat my previous comment," Remus said, eyes glinting.

"Well, for example, Isabel is pretty" – he smiled friendlily at Isabel, who blushed, and muttered, "Thanks," – "but... she," he said, eyes lighting up as a striking raven-haired girl with a rather curvaceous body walked down the aisle outside the compartment, pausing slightly by the door (Isabel could have sworn that was on purpose) to look through the window to the countryside the train was passing, "is the right sort of pretty," he grinned, jumping up and sliding the compartment door open.

"Hey, if I had a garden, I'd put my two lips and your two lips together," the Marauders, Lily and Isabel heard him say in his charming, seductive voice to the girl – a Hufflepuff fifth year by the name of Zara Brooke – who promptly giggled in the most annoying, girlish way ever, but a way that would certainly appeal to Sirius, who dragged her off to find a quiet corner to snog.

"So I guess I'm not the right kind of pretty, then," Isabel said, accompanying it with a hollow laugh.

"I'm sure that's not what he meant," James assured her.

"Yep, anyway, he loses out – he doesn't get any sweets!" Isabel said; her eyes lighting up with excitement as she dumped the seven bags of sweets she had bought from Diagon Alley during her stay at the Leaky Cauldron on the seat in Sirius' recently vacated spot.

The remaining five in the carriage delved into the mountain of sweets – even Remus, who was usually shy and retiring but had a bit of a fetish for chocolate, much like Lily, who was munching away on a Chocolate Frog – whilst Sirius got passionate with Zara Brooke down in the empty Prefects compartment, as the meeting hadn't started yet.

"So Lily, did you do anything nice over the summer?" James questioned adoringly.

"Yes, thank you, James, I went to France with my parents and sister," she said – Isabel noticed her face screw up at the mention of her vile sister, Petunia. Isabel had met Petunia – she normally stayed at Lily's for a week every summer holiday, and then Lily came and did the same at Isabel's house on the Cornish coast, but this summer they had struggled due to conflicting holiday dates of the Evans and Willoughby families – four times and each time Petunia had acted like Isabel and Lily were like a piece of dog excrement she had got all over her best suede shoe and were creating a horrible smell.

"Sounds good," he said.

Remus glanced at his watch. "Lily, we'd better go for the Prefects meeting," he reminded her.

"Oh yes, thanks for reminding me – I completely forgot!" she laughed, "I'll see you in half an hour Izzy."

"Bye Lils, bye Remus," Isabel waved as the two Gryffindor prefects left the carriage – now it was just James, Peter and Isabel but they weren't left alone for long. Isabel and James were deeply in discussion about Quidditch:

"No, Isabel, the Tutshill Tornadoes are waybetter than the Holyhead Harpies!"

"Sorry James, I think your brain is momentarily defecting if you think the Tornadoes are superior to the Harpies!"

"It's a team of only women!"

"So?"

"So it's not as good!"

"That is so sexist – you'd better watch it, I'm the Gryffindor beater and happen to possess a very heavy Beater's bat!"

As they were just arguing – in a friendly manner, of course – Sirius staggered into the carriage, with pink lipstick all round his mouth and printed on the side of his neck, smiling cheerfully.

"Have a nice time with Zara?" Isabel asked somewhat bitterly – she hadn't properly forgiven him for the pretty comment earlier yet.

"Yeah – we got chucked out of the Prefects' compartment," Sirius grinned widely.

"Ha! I bet Lily and Remus weren't pleased!" James roared with laughter.

"No – not when they walk in on their friend with his hand down the top of a random hot Hufflepuff girl," he smiled, causing James to laugh even more.

"You are such a womaniser," Isabel chastised him. He put his head on her shoulder and batted his abnormally long eyelashes at her and smiled.

"Yeah, but you love me really," he said.

She took one look at his face, and smiled – who couldn't say no to that expression?

"I suppose," she replied.

Suddenly, a tall girl with pale red hair and a rather large chest entered the compartment – Isabel noted that she was wearing an impossibly short skirt and her lips has so much red lipstick on them they looked like large, inflated strawberries.

"Hey Sirius, baby, fancy a quick..." she trailed off suggestively. Sirius waggled his eyebrows and wandered off with the random girl who was perhaps even curvier than Zara.

"I despair of him," Isabel moaned.

"You've got to admire his stamina," James winked.

Secretly, though Sirius was a loveable rogue, she decided that she was going to get her own back at Sirius Black for his womanising ways, and play him at his own game. She just had to come up with an idea first.

:) x Lily Orange x (:

I hope you liked this, please, please, PLEASE review!!!!!