A/N: Hello, all! I am very happy to say that I HAVE MY ACTUAL LAPTOP BACK! YAY! So, now I can actually type without having to worry about not being able to get on at the same time! Haha…anyways, I've really gotten back into Harry Potter fanfiction lately…especially in the Marauders era. I don't know what it is, but I really love stories with young James/Sirius/Remus/Peter…before all of the crap that happened happened… (siriusly, JK?), and so I decided to write one myself. Yes, to all of my normal readers/reviewers, I will be continuing WJC…I just haven't been able to start on Chapter 3 yet. I also need to take a step back and plan it out, since I haven't actually figured out where it's going yet. I'll figure it out soon, though. I'm also working on another MALA chapter, a Narnia fanfiction, a Star Trek fanfiction, a Star Wars fanfiction, and…a bunch of other ones…I promise they'll all get out. Somehow. ;)

Also, as in pretty much every story, I have a main character OC! Her name is Leah Thompson, and she is a fourth-year Ravenclaw. She meets the boys on the train to Hogwarts under…interesting circumstances. Leah will, just as a heads up, have at least one mental disorder, since it fit in the plot of the story, and because I decided that it was high time to write a character with the same sort of thing that I struggle with every day. Therefore, if you don't like reading stories about people with social anxiety (and possibly more "weird things"), this might not be the story for you.

DISCLAIMER I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL!

Tons of thanks and love to my beta, FansieFace! She's one of my Newsies "Core Three", and I asked her to take a look at this story! Thanks so much, FansieFace-and Hulu! ;) Hope you're both doing well!

Without further adieu, please enjoy "The Leah Chronicles" Chapter 1!

Awh crap…next time I need to make sure to find Lily before I get on the train! Now everyone's staring at me…

These were the thoughts of Leah Thompson, a fourth-year Ravenclaw. She had just boarded the Hogwarts Express, and usually sat in a compartment with Lily Evans and-annoying though he was-Severus Snape. However, she hadn't been able to find the older girl, and so had had to content herself with getting on near the back. She looked up and down the hallways, but there were no really open compartments…all of them were filled with people…and Leah didn't do people. Not at all.

By the time she had arrived back where she initially boarded the train, it was almost time for the train to leave. The conductor was glaring at her rather impatiently, and so Leah began to look for a compartment as fast as she could. The nearest one to her held four boys-two rather tall with dark hair (one with glasses, one without), a slightly shorter boy with blond hair, and a much shorter, somewhat stouter, and more nervous-looking boy, also with blond hair. They looked to be about a year older than her, and…

Oh crap.

Why did it have to be them?

Everyone knew about James Potter and his friends, and the masterful pranks they pulled frequently around the castle. Leah had pretended to be mad at them when her friends were, but she secretly admired the complex magic that they had been able to pull off. She had seen them before while hanging out with Lily, but never this close up…and never had the courage to talk to them.

Well, there's a first time for everything, I guess…

She shuffled a little closer to the compartment door, and quietly knocked on the door. All four heads swung towards her, causing Leah to gulp and move backwards in fear. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath, drawing together her almost-non-existent courage.

"Is this…can I…everywhere else is full."

Smooth, Leah. Real smooth.

The taller blond boy-Remus Lupin, she recognized-smiled gently at her. "Of course you can sit in here. Just ignore these two nitwits."

"Oi! Who're you calling a nitwit, Moony?"

"I believe he was referring to you, Padfoot."

"I was including you, Prongs." Leah let out a light chuckle at their bantering, finding it a bit easier to enter the compartment. She was very thankful that she wasn't having to talk very much. Somehow, it seemed like the boys could tell she was uncomfortable with talking to people who she didn't know, and so they just continued to argue with each other. Finally, though, they stopped, and turned to Leah, who was sitting in the corner, as far up against the wall as she could be. "What's your name?" Sirius asked, grinning as he swatted away James's hand, which had been incessantly poking him in the side. Leah gulped again.

"Um…I'm-"

"Leah! There you are!"

Leah turned to look out of the compartment's window, and sighed in relief. Lily Evans stood there, and immediately swept into the compartment to give the younger girl a hug. "How are you? How was your summer? I've missed sitting with you today!" She looked up briefly to glare at the four boys, before turning back to her friend.

"Sorry, Lily-I couldn't find you before I got on, so I just got on the back end, because of…you know…" She cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable with the boys overhearing something, "and then I couldn't find a suitably empty compartment, so I just took the closest one to the back. My summer was good…we went and visited my older brother and his Quidditch team out in America, and then hung out around London for a while. My sisters were nuts, but that's just normal behavior for them." She slowly sighed. "And you know how…sitting with Severus makes me feel."

Lily sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, I know. Oh-the trolley lady's coming around this section of the train. Why don't you go get yourself something-on me?" Leah looked about to protest, but Lily shook her head, instead pulling her friend to her feet, slipping some Sickles into her hand, and pushing her out of the compartment. "Come on, Leah-you know me better than that! Go get something! These knuckleheads'll still be here when you get back!" Leah finally nodded, and headed off. Once she was out of earshot, Lily spun back to the boys. "I don't know why she chose to sit with you lot, but whatever you do, if you touch her, I swear I will-"

"Don't worry, Lily-I'll make sure nothing happens to her." Remus assured her. Lily let out a small sigh of relief. Out of the four boys, Remus was the one she trusted the most. Maybe it was because he was a prefect, or maybe because he didn't seem to get into as much trouble as his friends.

"Thanks. Oh, and by the way-if she seems very reluctant to talk, it's not because she is shy or secretly hates you and won't tell you."

"And why are you telling us this?"

"Because I know you, Potter, and I know you'll be asking her endless questions before too much longer. I just wanted to let you know that if she does choose to answer some of your questions, count yourself lucky. Leah suffers from social anxiety, and is terrified of social situations involving large groups of people, or people she doesn't know."

"I've heard of that-I thought it was only a Muggle thing."

"Wizards can have mental disorders just as commonly as Muggles can." Lily responded. Then, she sighed. "Look-apart from the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and some others in her house, I'm pretty much her only friend. If you want to join me, fine, but don't rapid-fire questions at her. Start fighting with each other-or whatever it is that you four do-and let her feel like she's part of the group without having to say anything." She broke off as Leah came back to the compartment, carrying a bunch of Chocolate Frogs.

"I grabbed some Pumpkin Pastries for you too, Lily." Leah grinned. Lily rolled her eyes, but accepted the candy. "Thanks, Le. I'll leave you with these nutcases for now, but Severus and I are further up if you want to come hang out, all right?" Leah nodded, and Lily gave her a brief hug, before waltzing off towards her own compartment. Once she left, Leah seemed to deflate in the corner a bit, more nervous around the boys now that her friend was gone. Remus decided to change that. He scooted a little closer to Leah, before offering his hand. "You're Leah, right? I'm Remus Lupin, and these are my friends-Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter." Leah quietly shook his hand, before shyly waving at the others. "Hi-I'm Leah Thompson." she muttered. James's head shot up. "Leah Thompson…now where have I heard that name before…"

"You probably haven't." the younger girl responded, but James was already nodding, his eyes lighting up. "Do you play Quidditch, by any chance?"

"James, we-" Peter started to whisper, before Sirius stepped on his foot. Leah slowly grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I play Keeper for Ravenclaw."

"I knew it! You're the Keeper who stopped me from scoring sixty points last time we played each other!" All of the other Marauders remembered that game. James had missed multiple shots due to a very efficient Ravenclaw Keeper, who had stopped every one of his shots-and almost all of Gryffindor's shots as a team. The entire team had been frustrated with the loss, James included. They wouldn't tell Leah that, though.

"You're a bloody good Keeper, Leah." Sirius grinned at her. Leah smiled lightly in response. "Thanks. I think I get it from my brother. He plays Keeper for the American National Team."

"Wait…you have a brother who plays professional Quidditch? I bet you'd like that, Prongs!"

"Well, excuse me…" The two started bantering again. Leah looked between the two of them, and then back at Remus and Peter, who shrugged, as if to say, "What can you do?"

For a while, the four friends bantered amongst each other. Remus, James, and Sirius made sure to draw Leah into their joking, and she started to relax in their company. They even got her to talk a little about her family, especially her brother in America. "My older brother was a Gryffindor who graduated two years ago, and my two twin sisters are second-year Hufflepuffs. I'm the weird one out-my father was a Hufflepuff and my mother was a Gryffindor. My mother likes to say I have the brains of the family." The boys chuckled. "It'll be interesting this year…my sisters are trying out for Hufflepuff's Quidditch team this year…both as Beaters. If they do make the team, I'll have played against every one of my siblings. I played against my brother my second year."

"And nearly peed yourself, I heard!" A deep voice rang out from behind them. Leah gasped, chancing a glance out of the window, before groaning and sinking down as low as she could in her seat. "Oh no…no no no no."

Really? Why did it have to be now?

"I didn't see you earlier, you little social butterfly! My friends and I had to search the whole train to find you!" Leah sighed, sinking down even lower in her seat, quietly groaning. (She tried to do it so that the boys didn't hear it, but Sirius, of course, heard it, being the dog that he was. He then proceeded to subtly kick James in the foot, who then kicked Peter, who then kicked Remus.)

"Hello, Montair." She sighed, closing her eyes in horror and shame. "I thought I had missed your big ugly mug today." A tall and overbearing Slytherin waltzed up to the compartment door. He had short brown hair, a large beak-shaped nose, and an overly large frame. James looked over at Leah, who had scooted as far back in the seats as she could, as was looking very uncomfortable.

James immediately didn't like him.

"Why don't you come and sit with my friends and I? I'm sure we'd be better company than this lot." Montair sneered, indicating the four Marauders. Leah faintly growled at him-which, again, Sirius heard-and shook her head. "I'm much more comfortable here with the four of them, thank you. I'm sure Severus would like nothing better than for you and Adoph and Bennett to go talk to him. And besides-it's not like you could ever make me go with you. The last time you tried that, Lily and I hexed you into next week."

SLAP!

The slap occurred so quickly that none of the Marauders had a chance to react. Leah immediately jerked back in pain, holding the side of her face. Montair then stepped fully into the compartment and shoved her to the ground. She let out a gasp of pain. Montair chuckled from where he was standing over top of her. "You seem to forget-the only reason you got the better of me was that Mudblood friend of yours. You couldn't beat me on your own, you stupid inbred freak!" He kicked her in the ribs, before knocking her head against the seats. That got the boys moving, if nothing else. Peter pulled Leah back towards the middle of the compartment, while Remus, Sirius, and James quickly darted in front of them. "Now, I don't know about you, Sirius, but I don't like when people hurt my friends. Do you?"

"No, mate, I don't really fancy it. And I think Remus and Peter would rather agree with me. I also don't think any of us like it when you call Lily Evans a Mudblood. Do you agree, Leah?" A slight bit of silence followed Sirius's question, as they all looked back to see Peter helping Leah slowly to her feet. She winced a bit as she stood, her ribs possibly a bit bruised, but she glared at Montair. "I agree. No one calls Lily Evans a Mudblood around me."

"Right, then," James declared, "now that that's out of the way…would you like to do the honors?" He hadn't really aimed the question at anyone, so all five people in the compartment pulled out their wands.

"Abigo!"

"Affligo!"

"Avis Oppugno!"

"Furnuculus!"

"Levicorpus!"

Montair now made an interesting sight. He was strung up by his ankle, covered in boils, had birds flying at him to peck at him, was thrown back into the wall, and was repeatedly punched in the stomach. Upon first sight of him, everyone started laughing, including Leah. James even thought that he could see Lily and Severus some ways away down the corridor. Snape, of course, looked mad, but Lily looked as if she was smiling. James couldn't tell. He was just glad that Leah was laughing. Another prefect came down the hall, and everyone around seemed to scatter. Before whoever it was could yell at them, the Marauders and Leah had slammed their door shut and were laughing as hard as they could. Once they had calmed down somewhat, Remus turned to Leah, who was now holding her ribs a bit. "Are you all right?" he asked. Leah nodded, but then hissed in pain a bit as Peter nudged her right shoulder. Remus rolled his eyes, heading over to sit by her right side. She finally pulled up her sleeve so that he could see a nice cut coming down her shoulder. Remus smiled at her. "This shouldn't take too long. Episky!" A second later, the cut was disappearing as the magic took effect. Leah grinned shyly at him. "Thanks, Remus." she muttered. Remus slung an arm around her shoulders, poking Sirius in the side as he did so. "Don't worry about it, Leah. But let us know if Montair comes after you again, all right? We'll give him a piece of our mind."

"Wait…you guys are going to keep talking to me after we get to school? I thought you wouldn't, since you're a year older than me, and we're in different houses, and-"

"Leah-relax. Of course we're going to keep talking to you. You're one of the only girls who like us for who we are, and not just because Prongs and Padfoot here are apparently good-looking."

"Oi! What're ya-"

"Shut it, Padfoot. You seem pretty cool to us-and since you are friends with Lily, James is going to love you."

James rolled his eyes. "What Mooney is trying to say is that we like you, and we'd like to keep being friends with you. I mean, we've never had a 'younger sister' friend before." The bright grin on Leah's face solidified the friends' opinions.

They were going to look after Leah this year.

Montair wouldn't get near her again.

They wouldn't let him.

A/N 2: Well, this ended up much longer then I thought it was going to…Sorry for that! I just kinda got going and then I couldn't stop it…writing the Marauders is super fun! I apologize if Peter kinda gets shoved to the back sometimes…I don't like Peter as much (since he kinda leads to Lily and James's deaths and all), and so sometimes I don't mention him as much because I really don't like him now. And can you blaim me?

Anyways, this is just a "introductory" chapter…hopefully you'll all stick around for the next chapter!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you soon!

God bless,

1monster2