A/N: Hello, all! So, this is not a multi-chapter (thank God)…this is just a one-shot I had the idea for. I wanted to write something that dealt with the Marauders in the years between their 7th year at Hogwarts and that one Halloween night…and this is what my brain spat out. It's got Leah in it-of course-and it's also got a lot (I think) of James. I noticed that he had been trying to take over most of my TLC chapters…so I figured I'd appease him with this little one-shot. ;) Haha…this is set two years after the Marauders leave Hogwarts, which means that they are all nineteen and Leah is eighteen. I don't know when Peter exactly betrayed them and started working for Voldemort, so I'm just saying that hasn't happened yet, and he's still a semi-nice person. Oh, one little thing-in this chapter, Sirius changes into his Animagus form, and Leah knows who he is. This is because of an event that happens in TLC, chapter 10. At the time that this story is being published, the TLC chapter in question is not published, so I won't be spoiling it here…you'll just have to wait! ;) Haha…

I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL I JUST LOVE THE MARAUDERS WAY TOO DARN MUCH!

Word of warning: At a certain part of this fic, Leah gets really mad, and explodes in anger when the Marauders are with her. She makes frequent use of the word "frick", which is a word I tend to use in place of other words. If this word is offensive to you, please ignore it-I just wanted to let y'all know that it's in there!

Please enjoy "A Giant Mission"!

It was a normal day in St. Mungo's. It was a bit busier than usual, but there had just been a large scale battle against some Death Eaters, and there were numerous wizards and witches injured. Most of them were Aurors, but there were a few teenaged and young adult wizards and witches as well-including Mara Benson (18), Joseph Merinor (20), James Potter (19), Sirius Black (19), Remus Lupin (19), and Peter Pettigrew (19). The Marauders weren't too badly injured, just a few bumps and bruises between them, but Mara and Joseph…they were in critical condition, and were still in the ICU department of St. Mungos. No one knew how they had gotten that injured, as people swore up and down that they were not a part of the battle, and had arrived at the hospital before the wounded from the battle. Whenever a curious person asked, however, they were directed to go talk to a "Leah Thompson", who apparently knew all of the information.

Leah sat in the hallway, nursing her bruises while trying not to draw too much attention to herself. It was true that she was in pain, but she didn't want anyone to catch her while she was injured-particularly the Marauders, Lily, or Elliot. She knew that all six of her friends would fly into a murderous rampage when they saw her, and she didn't want them to get in trouble because of her. She was also ashamed to face them, after everything that had happened on her mission.

After a little while, the hubbub of people had died down some, and Leah figured that she would be able to take care of her injuries-or find someone to take care of them for her. She tried to raise herself to her feet, but immediately fell back onto the bench, crying out in pain. She had been sitting for so long that her body refused to get back up. Leah rested her head against the wall, closing her eyes and trying to relax. A few seconds later, however, her hopes were dashed. She heard a distinct keening and whimpering coming from in front of her, and she opened her eyes to see a dog sitting up on its haunches, staring straight at her.

A large dog.

A large black dog.

Oh crap.

"Sirius…" she murmured under her breath. The dog slowly moved closer and closer, staring directly at her, before letting out a quiet cry. Leah made weak hand motions to shush him, but Sirius continued on. After a few seconds, the older boy stopped, and Leah sighed in relief. "Sirius is in his Animagus form and can't turn back at the moment, and so long as he's the only one that's here…or noticed…"

"Leah?"

Oh crap. Crap, crap, crap.

Leah knew exactly who that voice belonged to, and while she normally was very happy to see that person, she currently wanted to do nothing more but curl up into a hole where no one could find her and hide for a while. She had closed her eyes and hung her head in shame, and so didn't notice Sirius moving into a small room nearby and transforming back into his human form, or the other three figures approaching. The first to reach her was Remus, who crouched in front of her, laying his hands on her knees. "Leah…" he breathed, looking in shock at his younger friend. "What happened to you?" The younger girl opened her eyes, but looked down at her bruised and bloodied hands, refusing to answer. She felt two of her friends sit down next to her-Sirius and Peter-while James joined Remus in front of her. "Leah-what happened? Who did this to you?" Leah shook her head-stopping pretty quickly, as her nausea reacquainted itself with her head, looking everywhere except for her friends.

Before one of her friends could ask her again, a derisive laugh came from behind them. "What are you doing near that retarded bastard? After how badly she failed?" Both James and Remus turned around to see a tall boy who looked to be about twenty years old, who was glaring straight at them. "I told you before-she had no place at Hogwarts, and she has no place here." All four of the Marauders growled, immediately recognizing the man. "Fox."

"I mean, seriously-how can you stand to be around that disgrace?" the older boy continued, almost ignorant of the Marauders' growing anger. "Have you not heard about what she did?"

"What are you talking about?" Peter squeaked. Fox let out a harsh chuckle, glaring directly at Leah, who was quivering with shame and anger. "She went out with some of her friends on a 'secret mission', and left them for dead when things got sour! And when she got captured, what did she do? Absolutely nothing, except tell her captors everything they needed to know to attack us!"

"I did not!" Leah's raised voice surprised everyone, as they had never heard her raise her voice in the four years that they had known her. "I have already explained myself to Dumbledore and everyone else who was involved-I do not need to explain myself again to you."

"Some of your precious Quidditch teammates almost died! I bet Cooper and Carter were super pleased to hear about that! I wonder how long it'll take before they come after you!" And with that, Fox turned around and headed down the hall.

"Expelliarmus!" Leah's wand-which she had just drawn in order to hex Fox in his back while he sauntered off-swiftly flew through the air to land in James's hand. He then placed it in a pocket of his robe, where Leah wouldn't be able to reach it.

"James-give me back my wand." the young girl demanded. James shook his head, exchanging glances with Remus, Sirius, and Peter, who all nodded. They then began to subtly hold Leah down, in case she tried to get to her feet and take her wand back. Peter and Sirius both rested a hand on one of her shoulders (one hand on each), while Remus again rested his hand on her knee. "No, Leah. Tell us what happened." She looked away again, refusing to answer…although her friends could see her hands starting to shake slightly underneath her. They sat there in silence for a little while, before Sirius sighed, sounding almost annoyed with her. "Leah-just tell us what's going on. You know we're always here to help you whenever you need us."

"I know that, Sirius, it's just…you can't help me. Not this time. I screwed up, and I have to pay for it myself."

"What exactly happened, Leah?" Remus was very thankful that the hallway was now clear, as Leah seemed to be getting more and more frustrated by the second, and if she blew up in anger, at least there wouldn't be anyone around to hear it. "If people don't hear what happened from you, they will believe whatever Fox tells them to, and you know how he feels about you. If you want people to know the truth, you need to tell us."

"Tell you what? How I horribly failed the mission and everyone involved? Oh sure-I'll tell you all about that." Leah was truly enraged now, and she shot to her feet, despite her friends trying to hold her down. "I went on a stupid mission with some of my friends, and for whatever stupid reason, Dumbledore chose me as the leader of the group. We were discovered, and my friends forced me to finish the mission and deliver this fricking letter, and I actually did it, instead of staying behind to help! It took me A FRICKNG DAY TO DELIVER THAT FRICKING LETTER, AND THE STUPID BASTARDS WERE STILL GOING AND TORUTURING THEM, EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE STUPID LETTER! Then I got them out of there, not really caring if I got captured or not-which I did-and then THE STUPID FRICKING IDIOTS CAME BACK FOR ME EVEN THOUGH THEY SHOULD HAVE JUST LEFT ME THERE, AND IT ENDED WITH MARA AND JOSEPH GETTING REALLY BADLY HURT, AND ALMOST DYING! ALL BECAUSE OF ME BEING A FRICKING CRAPPY LEADER AND FRIEND!" While she was yelling, she had begun to pace around and around, not seeming to notice that every time she put weight on her left leg, it was drastically bending underneath her. Finally, James couldn't take it any longer, worried that his friend was going to hurt herself even more. He slowly rose to his feet, stepping in front of Leah so that she couldn't pace anymore. The moment she saw James, she narrowed her eyes at him, trembling in anger. "Give me my wand back, James."

"Not when you're in this frame of mind, no." James shook his head. Leah made a move towards him, but he moved out of the way, gently grasping her wrist as he did so. "No, Leah. I will not give you back your wand until you've calmed down, and don't look like you want to go run off and hurt someone else…or yourself." She reached out again with her other hand, but Sirius wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her off of James, before holding her steady in one spot. He was a bit stronger than James-due to being a Beater rather than a Chaser-and so could effectively hold Leah, who, as a Keeper, was probably the weakest of the Quidditch players. "Let. Me. Go." she growled. Sirius shook his head, simply pressing her tighter against his chest, while still being aware of her injuries. "Not yet, Leah."

A sudden noise startled everyone, and they turned to see Remus and Peter approaching. They had left for a few moments, and were now coming back carrying a few potions between them, and also a med-kit, with numerous other things inside of it. "We can either do this the easy way or the hard way, Leah." Remus murmured. "The way we choose is up to you." Leah continued to glare at him, and he finally sighed. "The hard way it is, then…Placeo." He had already had his wand out, and quickly cast the spell before Leah could react. Once Remus knew that the spell had taken effect, he whispered, "Sede", nodding at Sirius, who slowly released his younger friend. As soon as he did, Leah went and sat down on the nearest bench. Remus then cast his final spell, "Collapsus", and Leah immediately fell backwards to rest against James, unconscious. All four boys sighed in relief. "Thank goodness she's out. It was going to be a lot harder if she was conscious." the werewolf murmured.

Pain.

That was the first thing Leah registered as she awoke. She could feel a few other things, like that she was extremely tired and lying in a soft bed, but other than that, all she could sense was pain. She began to roll over, trying to get rid of the pain. Two strong hands held her down, gently pinning her to the bed. "Easy, Leah. I can't force you to stay still with magic without aggravating your injuries, but you have to stay still, all right? Just relax." Leah took a deep breath, and then another, and slowly began to relax. Her friend stayed with her, encouraging her both with their words and their constant presence. Once she had fully calmed down, her eyes flickered open to see James sitting next to her. Sirius was leaning against the foot of the bed, and Remus and Peter were off to her right. All of them were watching her, concern shining in their eyes. "…Hi…" she murmured quietly. She could now feel that most of her wounds were healed, and the rest were on their way. Embarrassedly, she tried to curl back into the blankets and go back to sleep, but she was forced to stop as James's hand moved to cup her cheek, stopping her from turning. "Leah-look at us. We just want to know what happened to you."

"I already told you what happened." Leah murmured, trying again to curl up. "My friends got captured and made me go ahead with the mission, which took a whole day, and then I got captured getting them out, which meant that they had to come back and rescue me and got hurt again…all because of me."

"It's not your fault, Leah."

"Yes it is, Remus. I'm the reason they got caught, and the reason they got hurt. If I hadn't gone on that mission, they wouldn't be seriously hurt." A few silent tears leaked from her eyes, and she looked down again, embarrassed. A couple seconds later, she felt a gentle weight on the side of her bed, and looked over to see a black dog curling up against her side. "…hey, Sirius." she murmured quietly, slowly stroking the dog, who licked her hand. Remus cleared his throat. "Leah…who were you taking this letter to?"

"No one of importance, uh…just the, um…Dumbledorehadustakethelettertothegiants…"

"To who?"

"…the Giants." She looked up just in time to catch her friends' horrified expressions. As she looked down again, she felt Sirius move to rest right up against her side, gently placing his head on top of her chest. "Dumbledore sent you…to the Giants?" Peter finally wheezed. Leah simply nodded, her energy beginning to deplete. "Yeah…we left on Thursday and got back late last night."

"That explains why your knee looks like it got bashed in with a club." Remus muttered. Leah nodded again. "It had been going well for a while…but then one of our group members let his…rather anti-Giant feelings…show, and then five or six Death Eaters came around."

"Wait…how did it take you a day to deliver the letter, then, if you were already with the Giants?"

"We were on the outskirts of their location, and still had a day to go to get to the leader of their settlement."

"And then you went back for your friends, which led to you getting captured and treated like this, right?" The young girl nodded again. The werewolf sighed, reaching into his robe and pulling out a bar of chocolate, passing it over to Leah, who slowly ate a bit. Leah was almost as addicted to chocolate as Remus was, and so he would always give her a piece if he had a bar in his pocket.

"All right, Leah-here's what we're going to do." James declared, taking control of the situation as only he could do, as their "leader". "We are going to go talk to Dumbledore and figure out why the heck he sent you to meet with the Giants, and you are going to sleep and rest. If we have to, we'll put you under with a Sleeping Spell before we leave, but you are going to sleep. Then, we are going to contact Elliot and let him know what happened, and you are either going to stay with him, or come home with Lily and I while you recover." Fear briefly flashed in Leah's eyes as James brought up Elliot-as she didn't want him to know at all what had happened to her-but her older friend continued. "Lastly, we are going to make sure that you fully recover, and then we are going to make sure that you will never be sent near the Giants again. All right?" Leah nervously bit her lip, but nodded. "All right. Sirius, would you be okay with standing guard?" The dog nodded. James let out a small sigh of relief. "Thanks, Padfoot. Leah, do you want a Sleeping Spell?" Leah quickly nodded.

"Okay, then…Moony, Wormtail, you guys can head on out-I'll be there in a second." Remus and Peter nodded, and slowly made their way out of the room. As they did so, James turned back to his younger friend. "Rest and get better soon, all right, Leah?" He leaned up and gently kissed her forehead, before drawing his wand. "Sopor". Leah fell asleep almost immediately, and James smiled down at her, before scratching the dog behind the ears. "Thanks, Sirius." he muttered.

"James-are you ready to go?" Remus asked, sticking his head back through the door. James sighed and nodded, slowly heading out of the room. "All right—now let's go ask Dumbledore why the hell he sent Leah to go meet up with the fricking Giants."

The Marauders were not happy.

Not happy.

At all.

And they were going to fix this. Once and for all.

A/N 2: Well…that actually went well, I think! I really enjoyed working on it-I'm currently on choir tour, and it was a nice distraction from the 5 hour bus ride…I mean, I love my choirmates and all, but sometimes I really want to punch them in the face. ;) Haha…anyways, I hope this story tides you over until the next chapter of "The Leah Chronicles"…in the meantime, feel free to read some of my newer stories…I now have…2 new multi-chapters, I think, that I'd love it if you could check out… Wow, I am coming up with nothing to put in my author's note...today really drained my energy! ;) #ChoirTourThough

Well, I hope you enjoyed this story, and I'll see you all soon!

God bless,

1monster2

Spell Dictionary:

Placeo: "be agreeable" (gentler version of Imperious Curse)

Sede: "Sit"

Collapsus: "in a deep sleep" (falling asleep)