Just when I think I'm invincible-Isabella Ackerley

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

The wind howled as he had to cover his ears at some times during his way back into the castle known as Hogwarts, and assignments had been piled on him like crazy these days. Unsure if he should just head back to the dorm where it was cozy and he didn't have to worry about the stress of school assignments weighing him down at all. Today wasn't any different from any other for James other than he needed help with his essay as he couldn't think of anything to write at all. The library wasn't going to help him, however, that was the last place he wanted to look as he wanted to ask around the common room constantly for advice on his homework. Most of the other Gryffindors didn't want to share their ideas with him just so he could copy them, but in fact he would honestly be happy enough to try replacing their ideas with a slightly modified version of his own. Thinking that his last resort was the library, or he could just hang out before it to make it look like he was going in until someone interesting caught his eye.

There weren't many Gryffindors at the library anyways, there were usually more Ravenclaws than anyone that took their time to focus on what was important there. Sure, he knew this was the best place to find the source of information he was looking for and wanted to know more about lethifolds. One of the deadliest creatures that didn't inhabit these parts thank god, but James couldn't honestly remember what else the professor had said about them. The essay was to describe how they fed, and what could be used to get rid of them. The last thing James heard while he was day-dreaming was something about a Patronus being effective against them. Plus something about not falling asleep in a jungle down in Africa, and that had woke him up right there on the spot. Almost as if the teacher had aimed that directly at him. Shifting a hand through his shaggy brown hair, his 6'1" slim, athletic figure walked down the corridor towards the library's entrance. Once more on the verge of turning back to head back to his dorm room.

Or he would just stand here until the sun set as he finally decided to take a chance, while his back was up against the wall, quite literally this time too. James started to take small baby-steps towards the library as if pretending to be afraid to go in, however, his curiosity got the best of him. Lethifolds and sleeping were kind of important, the latter more so than the first. Looking at all the books he didn't know where to go first, but he supposed this would be one of the books in the restricted section since the creature was a Level 5 Creature Classification. Wait, was it defense against the dark arts that had told him about this or Care of Magical Creatures? Either way he was going to write an essay on both just in case. Kill two birds with one stone at least before anything bad could happen to him. Finding the book on the shelf he needed, soon pulling it out and realizing he had been watched the whole time. The gaze didn't disturb him as much as how beautiful she was.

James thought it was his imagination as he brushed a brown lock out of his face, and then pursed his thin lips while wearing the common Gryffindor shirt, as well as the pants, shoes and belt to keep them up. Giving a quirky smile to a fellow Ravenclaw that just happened to be someone he hung around with on occasion, Isabella was her name if he remembered correctly. He had seen her here and there, sometimes asking for help on assignments when she wasn't busy herself. One case, was this one right now, but he wondered how often she came to the library as he already had his quill out. Looking up to her again, "Oh hey, Isabella, how are you?" he asked her calmly setting down his quill for a moment. Not wanting his scroll to be written by itself, he started jotting the things down he was reading in the book while talking to her. Multi-tasking like this wasn't easy so he wouldn't be surprised if he had to scribble out a few mistakes.

[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

Isabella already had her homework done, but that’s just how it was for her as she was usually one of the first ones to finish the assignments, next to Raychel of course. That was just how the Dynamic Ravenclaw Duo were. But unlike Raychel, Isabella didn’t have any Head Girl or prefect duties to do. So instead she resorted to the Library where she has pretty much read every single book, including the ones in the restricted section. That was one thing that she loved about being a top student, teachers didn’t care if you got books out of the restricted section. But today she wasn’t in the restricted section for the librarian had told her of some new divination books that came in.

So the young Ravenclaw girl was now stacking book after books in her arms and was on her way over to a table when she heard someone speak up to her. She stopped, almost causing her small tower of books to fall over, but somehow she managed to keep them from falling. “Oh hey James, I didn’t know you were there,” she said with a soft smile that glowed as she looked around her small tower of books. “I’m doing alright, just a bit of extra research here, you?” she asked casually, still standing there with her stack of books. When was the last time she saw James anyways? She believed it was at the Welcoming Feast, but it was briefly as Isabella always got swept away by other Ravenclaws asking about her summer, of course with Raychel by her side at the time as well.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

James had been looking through the stack of books he had grabbed in return and almost cursed on the spot since only one of them really had anything to with what he was studying about. Sure, he liked Care of Magical creatures, but some of these creatures made him shudder just reading about them. The pictures that depicted some brutal acts of murder, however, he was a strong boy considering who his father was. James hated the fact that he sometimes was living up to the reputation of his father, but in fact he didn't know what he liked more. The pretty girl in front of him or the fact he was actually working on an essay for a change.

It was unlike him to even take work seriously as he looked at the books with disgust settling them down on the table in front of him. Turning the pages of the book to the end pretending to read it on the spot. Well, he technically had read it as he had brought out his wand, uttering the one spell that let him flip through the pages easily. Perhaps it was a form of cheating in his own words, but he kept the words lodged within his mind as his hand quickly wrote a few words down. Then those few words soon turned into a paragraph, followed by covering the whole page. Nodding his head at it, and then turning to Isabella after wards again. "Sorry, just working on article about Lethifolds for Care of Magical Creatures, or was it Defense Against the Dark Arts?" he asked her politely since she was the only one that would know about it.

Plus Isabella was the only one who actually understood the dilemmas he had with his homework, but he had missed talking with Isabella when he could without her friend Raychel present. Since they were attached at the hip at times, it was hard to talk to her alone, but he honestly didn't have a problem with Raychel at all. That was a good thing, since she was Isabella's best friend after all. "You got any advice for me about this one? Plus, yeah, I'm just here for an assignment, I don't usually venture to the library just to read...though I could at times. Most of these books are entertaining in their own right," he finished, and chuckled a little as he was already writing a second page. Merely looking up at Isabella as he did so, having to look back down at the paper every so often so he wasn't mis-spelling anything.

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[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

Feeling that perhaps she would end up sticking around for a while Isabella placed her stack of books upon the table that James sat up. Sure, James didn’t know that she was a seer, but there was the fact that most knew that Isabella tended to overdo her work for all of her classes. So it wasn’t like it would be a big surprise to see Isabella with a bunch of Divination Books. “Lethifold? That would be Defense Against the Dark arts. I highly doubt that we would ever learn how to care for them, after all they are rated as a five X mom classification,” Isabella chuckled as she glanced over at James’s parchment that was full of ink from writing an essay.

“Well a Lethifold is considered a living shroud, and it’s mainly from the Tropical regions,” Isabella started before she dug into her bag and pulled out a book that was tightly bounded by a belt. “Here, this book is quite helpful. It’s the book Magical Beasts and Where to Find them. There’s a nice little section on Lethifolds in here,” she said half smiling and she begun to unbuckle the book. She always liked how this book was made, as it was kind of neat how it was made as if it were a book that attacks you. She quickly ran a finger down the spine of the book before it even had a chance to chomp at her hand and it opened up for her. Quickly she turned the pages as she looked for the section she needed. “Ah, here it is!” she smiled before she turned to book so that James could read it.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

James raised an eyebrow and knew fully well what lethifolds were. Merely asking where he could find more information on them but as soon as she told him it was Defense Against the Dark Arts, he nodded his head towards her. It was said the only way to defeat them was the Patronus charm and had an actual entry from someone who had encountered one to survive the attack. It was impossible to deal with one directly on it's own, but he was certain there was much more to the lethifold than what he knew as Isabella had pointed out to him. Sure, he wasn't prone to look through a book for a long period of time, but he was mainly at the library to see if Isabella was here.

Raising a curious eyebrow at the many other books she had, and he knew she probably visited this library so much that there was not a single one she hadn't read. Even having read them thrice he bet in his own mind, but he let that thought go as he realized he should thank her for pointing out the book for him. Even so, he could now finish his assignment without having too much trouble in the long run with his essay. Soon he was finished writing it within about two minutes as he quickly glanced at the page with the lethifolds..having gotten up to get it. Gesturing to Isabella to stay there for a moment or two.

"Remind me to never get caught by one in my sleep," he added, and then noticed that the Patronus charm was used for getting rid of dementors too. Even so, he was still glad that he could easily get his own to work just fine by the time he had been in his third year, just like his father. Even so, he had Potter blood which said a lot, and even the Weasley genes didn't help much either for how much trouble he liked causing. That was besides the point as he returned to glancing at Isabella's books, "Doing more research on divination? Why do you have all those books out? I usually know that you don't do this unless you have some other goal in mind, what's up?" he asked curiously.

It wasn't like him to take interest, but he had known Isabella for a little bit. Definitely not one to take no for answer, he sat there putting his papers away now gazing up curiously at her.

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[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

“Remind me to never get caught by one in my sleep.” Isabella chuckled lightly as she sat down at the table. She was tired of walking around the library searching for books after all. It seemed to be that way now a days, maybe she should take Raychel’s advice and stop reading books about divination. But she had a feeling she wouldn’t stop until the two of them got out of their last year and traveled the world together. She was sure that by traveling the world she could find her answer somewhere.

“Doing more research on divination? Why do you have all those books out? I usually know that you don't do this unless you have some other goal in mind, what's up?” Ah crap. Of course James would end up questioning her about the books she checked out. She really needed to start disguising books so that people didn’t ask too many questions. Really it did get annoying, but perhaps part of that was her fault for wanting to keep the fact that she was a seer, a secret. He knew how many people would bombard her with questions about their love lives and future if she let the world knew that she was a seer.

However, she had a feeling that James would never tell her secret to anyone if she asked him, yet at the same time she felt that it wasn’t time to tell anyone. The only people that knew were Raychel, Professor Longbottom, Professor Shacklebolt, Professor Swanepole, Professor Swanson and her parents. She intended to keep it that way for now. “Well you see, I have a big project coming up in that class and I wanted to put in some extra work for it,” she hoped that James would buy that little white lie. She was pretty sure that he wasn’t taking Divination. Many people thought the class itself was ridiculous. And from some of the professors that have taught the Divination Class, she could completely understand.

She noticed that he was putting all of his papers away. Was he really going to stop working on his essay part way through? Isabella could never do that, she had to finish it all in one shot; her mind was always all over the place with taking twelve subjects. And now it seemed he had his full attention on her, was she blushing? She felt her cheeks become a bit warmer, why was she blushing? It wasn’t like she never talked to a boy before and the Potter boy couldn’t be any different right? Well she just hopped that he didn’t notice that she was blushing.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

“Well you see, I have a big project coming up in that class and I wanted to put in some extra work for it,” James listened to her as he got lost in her eyes for a moment, but did he see a blush working up on her face from where he was sitting. Nah, he was just imagining things again, and just passed it off for now. Yet his gaze kept traveling to the divination books, that was a lot just to study. If he remembered correctly, she normally didn't study this much unless there was something on her mind besides just studying. James, really couldn't assume since he had only seen her once and a while. Just gathering up his stuff, he had finished his essay already as he didn't like writing out immensely long scriptures.

James was now just relaxing as he put his arm in front of him, mainly offering a seat so she could sit down and place her books near him. Surely, he wouldn't over-react no matter what she told him, now he was just gazing at her with his serious eyes, "So, what's on your mind right now to be in the library besides studying? I mean, I usually come here when I want to relax to think things over. Sure, some stuff has really been bothering me, but here is not the greatest place to get it off of my chest," he admitted as his blue eyes looked up to her own.

James wasn't blushing at the moment, since he had a rather serious look for a change, even though the Gryffindor enjoyed his many pranks that he loved to pull. Not many could resist his charming smile when he had honed in on them. Yet, he knew that there was another boy that was interested in Isabella, but James found himself already starting to crush a little on this Ravenclaw. Sure, she had the looks and the brains, while he had his own reasons for liking her, yet he still wasn't blushing. Deciding to just leave the conversation there for the time being, finally just sighing lightly. "You know, I normally don't confide in anyone, but are you good at keeping secrets?" he asked her curiously, although this wasn't the best place to discuss this still.

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[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

“So, what's on your mind right now to be in the library besides studying? I mean, I usually come here when I want to relax to think things over. Sure, some stuff has really been bothering me, but here is not the greatest place to get it off of my chest,” Isabella’s chocolate brown orbs looked at James questionalbly. Did he forget who she was? Why would she come to the library just to think? She went there to study and study only. If she wanted to think she went out by the lake, even in the winter time. But even the infamous James Potter has things that were bothering him? Oh dear Isabella was all too curious about this, that was for sure. Her full attention was now on the young Potter as she wondered what it was that was bothering him. She of course wouldn’t poke and prod, it wasn’t her thing to. If he wanted to tell her, he would, right?

“You know, I normally don't confide in anyone, but are you good at keeping secrets?” Wait, James didn’t normally confide in anyone? Isn’t that what best friends were for? She could’ve sworn that he had one or two of those. But now he was choosing her to confide in? What was it about her that he would want to do that? But none-the-less, she would listen and keep whatever secret he told her, as she was never the type to spill the beans as some called it. “Of course I can keep a secret,” she said as she lowered her voice to almost a whisper. It was how her and Raychel had always passed each other secrets even if there was no one in ear shot. “And just for the record, I do come to the Library to study. I don’t come here to think, I do that by the lake,” she let out a small smile. There he probably learned something new about her. Which probably wasn’t hard to do as the two of them didn’t know a whole lot about each other.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

James was considering that this was indeed a silly place for her to be if she wasn't studying, and then realized that it was what she was here for. Practicing his confiding skills was hard for even the infamous Potter, but having recent events happening to the young Champion. Surely there were others that were more messed than him up about this, but he wondered if Isabella really could keep a secret like this. Even if he didn't know her that well as he had just met her only recently this year, having many random encounters with her in the hall. Plus, her beauty was something he had noticed, however, had never mentioned it that that much.

That would be too obvious, and he wanted to make sure this wasn't just a simple crush like usual with most gorgeous girls. Even as his eyes roamed hers, he then sighed softly, and looked a little more troubled than normal. "I'm blaming my brother, Albus, for the attack on Hugo Weasley, but it obviously wasn't him. Apparently anger was guiding my actions, but I just needed to get that off my chest. Other than that, I have a feeling that that's not the only attack," he thought to out loud to her, of course keeping it within a low whisper as well to stop anyone from eavesdropping on their conversation. Speaking of such, he was examining her books more so as he said this. Eyes hovering over the many divination ones, nodding his head softly.

Secrets were hard to keep, especially when you had someone nosy as the Potters on your hands, I mean, she did realize she was talking to one of the few trouble-makers that liked getting an answer. Plus, it wasn't like him to be interested in another person's business that he barely knew, but he had to pipe up, "Well, for studying that's a lot of books to do with divination, is something bothering you?" he asked quietly in return moving closer so that they could remain within whispering distance without having to reveal too much information too loud.

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[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

“ I'm blaming my brother, Albus, for the attack on Hugo Weasley, but it obviously wasn't him. Apparently anger was guiding my actions, but I just needed to get that off my chest. Other than that, I have a feeling that that's not the only attack,” Isabella was about to open one of her books, but then she stopped. Did she hear him right? Was he really blaming Albus? She didn’t know Albus that well, but she knew that people shouldn’t blame their own family members so easily, yet it seemed like James wasn’t really giving it much thought. She had seen Al from time to time, with his two best friends walking in the hallway and Raychel had told her that his friend Scorpius was a pretty good prefect. She couldn’t imagine Albus wanting to attack his own cousin.

“Well, for studying that's a lot of books to do with divination, is something bothering you?” Well what would one expect of a Ravenclaw? Of course she would have a lot of books, but really that didn’t matter to her right now. She was still more curious as to why he was blaming his brother. “I may not know the kind of relationship you and Albus have, but why would you blame your brother? I’m sure I can think of other people out there that would be more than likely to attack Hugo than Al would,” she said softly, purposefully not answering his second question. The secret he had just shared with her was much more important than the reason why she always grabbed a lot of books when studying. Sure it was because she had a secret to, though hers was perhaps much bigger than his. Plus, she wasn’t ready to tell other people yet. She needed to keep it a secret a little longer still.

“If you want my opinion I think you should really think about it more before you go and blame Albus,” she said thoughtfully when another thought occurred to her. “You didn’t go and blame him yet, did you?” she asked, knowing that it wasn’t the best thing that he could do in this situation. One should always gather clues and evidence first before making these type of accusations.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

James was considering what she said, but he doubted he had to tell her what went down. Even as his eyes went down as she had asked him that one simple question that had him filled with guilt after all, Albus was his brother. After all, accusing him wasn't like him, but he could have just used the marauder's map to see what was going on. Not that it was hard to, as he knew he headed out to the shrieking shack from time to time, and it wasn't too easy to hide your shoe prints on that map. Even using it to sneak around the corridors at night made it that much riskier getting caught.

James knew all of the secrets about Hogwarts and all of the many secret passageways that would get him to his destination. It was no secret he was about to use it again to get the information he needed out of certain people. Even as he then leaned back slightly in the chair almost toppling over on the spot. Thinking how he should answer this and decided to do so carefully. Or just blurt it all out on the spot. It had been a while since he had even considered talking to Isabelle, but she was beautiful in her own right. There were few others that could have interested him as much as she did. Oblivious to the fact that she could even have a slight hint of a crush on him. Right now, he was perhaps just considering her as a friend he could confide in.

No one else would dare cross her if he had his way, and he would even protect her too if need be. Yet, these thoughts weren't there for long as he had to continue of thinking how to answer. "It's over and done with, and I feel horrible about it. So I planned on apologizing to him at the Quidditch match where everyone could see it. Sure, it's one step to mending our relationship, but it's not like he knows that I care about him. Even if I make fun of him cause he's in Slytherin all the time, it's a brother's job to be annoying. Plus, it's to help him better defend himself, plus he's got friends that will support him no matter what. I'm proud of him, but I'm never really going to show it in an affectionate way, since that's not my style," he said to her. It was hard for anyone to understand his feelings at times.

Even right now, it was hard even admitting this to someone else outside of his trusted circle, and had barely mentioned a word to even his best friends about his feelings at times. James was rather bad at holding most of his feelings in until finally they lashed out at someone, and he ended up hurting them without meaning to.

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[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

Isabella watched James as it looked like he was battling something inside of him, probably how he would say what he was going to say next. And by the way he glanced down at the table he knew that James had gone and blamed Albus. Izzy let out a small sigh wishing he hadn’t done that and she was surprised that him accusing Al hadn’t gotten around the school yet. With the school’s gossip witch always seeming to be able to find out anything about all the students at the school. She didn’t like the Gossip Witch at all, but she still read her gossip every time she passed by the enchanted parchment that was hanging on the Ravenclaw board in the Ravenclaw Common room in hopes to not see any gossip about her or anyone that was close to her.

“It's over and done with, and I feel horrible about it. So I planned on apologizing to him at the Quidditch match where everyone could see it. Sure, it's one step to mending our relationship, but it's not like he knows that I care about him. Even if I make fun of him cause he's in Slytherin all the time, it's a brother's job to be annoying. Plus, it's to help him better defend himself, plus he's got friends that will support him no matter what. I'm proud of him, but I'm never really going to show it in an affectionate way, since that's not my style,” She listened to him as he rambled on about wanting to apologize and how he was proud of Albus. Well it was good that he was proud of Albus and yes older siblings were meant to be annoying, or rather siblings in general as Izzy thought about both her older sister and younger brother. But there was a such thing as going too far at times. “You know, I think maybe you should perhaps cut back on teasing your brother for being in Slytherin. It really isn’t that bad of a place and there are some nice students in Slytherin,” she said lightly, hoping he wouldn’t get mad at her. But all she was doing was trying to help him out. “Besides bad students have came out of Gryffindor as well. Ever heard of Peter Pettigrew? I would think you would since he used to by your grandfather’s best friend from what I’ve read, she said lightly remember something she had read up on his grandfather. After all, Isabella had read many things about the history of the Wizarding World.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

James was riled up a little, but he supposed there was good reason for that, even after hearing the reason for why he was taking his anger out on his little brother. There were better ways to vent his anger about the attack on Hugo Weasley, but he had apologized now, while Isabella didn't think she knew half of the story about his brother as much as she did. Surely, they would never ever get along, but at some point, a truce would have to be drawn to get them to actually contact each other. Perhaps, via owls would be the best way to actually sort this mess out, but if he actually worked together with Albus for a change instead of just going off on his own. Well, that was his own problem, not James's, but he had heard of another attack on Lyra.

Shaking his head, he stayed in the present and soon focused back on Isabella, surely there wasn't much to learn at this point in time. Even if he did gain a good deal of information that might help him in solving the issues he had with his brother. Of course, Albus wouldn't really forgive him after he had almost attacked him just like that, so giving him time to heal would be rather helpful he thought. Yawning and covering his mouth with his hand so as not to appear as rude to her he then nodded in the after-math of the speaking. "You know I never thought of why that would be so bad, but I'd have to admit you are right about Peter Pettigrew. If it was me, I wouldn't have let him get one inch out of the door so he could come back later to try to hurt our family again," he gritted his teeth.

Of course, that was long past now, and he knew there were no more Pettigrews in the world that could torture his family with their insane insolence and standards. Even betraying the Potters once, but twice was surely enough to get him thrown out to Azkaban, at least that's what James wished had originally happened. Even if the dementors were no longer there. "Do you have something that's bothering you that you wish to talk about? I mean, I've never really seen you with so many books before," he asked her now, getting rather curious.

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