Hermione's Journey

Chapter Eight

I sat over by Lucy talking to her, while the other Pevensies were playing cricket. Lucy rested her head on my shoulder and I rubbed her back soothingly, as if I were an older sister comforting a younger sibling.

"Peter winds up, and goes for the wicket!" Peter cried and hurled the ball in his hand at Edmund, who was hardly paying attention to the game. I smirked slightly when it hit him in the leg.

"Ow!" exclaimed Edmund. Lucy perked up slightly. It was a beautiful day outside. Everything was green and the sun was shining like it was its last day to do so.

"Whoops!" Peter laughed, "Wake up, Dolly Daydream!" Edmund scowled as Susan tossed the ball back to Peter.

"Can't we play hide and go seek again?" Edmund whined. Lucy turned her head to glare at him and then huffed into my shoulder. I rolled my eyes at him.

"I thought that you said it was a kid's game," Peter teased.

"Besides," Susan tried to lighten Peter's criticism, "we can all use the fresh air."

"It's not like there isn't air inside," Edmund answered sourly. Peter tossed the ball into the air and caught it again, giving Edmund a look.

"Are you ready then?"

"Are you?" Edmund smacked his bat on the ground and then readied it to swing. Peter took a step and then released the ball from his hand, letting it fly towards Edmund. It bounced off of the ground once, then Edmund hit it for all he was worth. All five children watched in horror as the ball sailed through the air, and smashed through an upstairs window. A nasty clang rang out. Lucy looked almost delighted at the fact that Edmund had done something wrong.

"Oh no," Susan groaned, and as if we could read each other's minds, we took off towards the house at a dead sprint.
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I stared down at the suit of armor in dread, or what was left of it. It was broken into several parts and sprawled out on the floor, the ball sitting in the middle of the mess.

"Well done, Ed!" Peter cried exasperated.

"You bowled it!" Edmund answered defensively. I froze as I heard footsteps echo around the room.

"Shut it, you two!" I yelled.

"What is going on up there?"

"Listen," Susan ordered, and we all stood silently, "The Macready!" Lucy grabbed my hand and all of us were tearing out of there like there were wild dogs chasing us. We ran up and down stairs, and through hallways, but the footsteps sounded like they were everywhere. The Macready would skin us when she found the broken suit of armor.

Peter ran up to a door in a hallway and tried to open. It was locked. The second door was a different matter. Edmund threw open the door and didn't hesitate to run inside.

The rest of us followed suit. Standing on the other side of the room, was the wardrobe. That magical feeling ran through my body again, and I made sure I had my wand tucked in my sleeve. Edmund unlatched the door and swung it open, holding his hands out.

"Come on!" he urged. Susan stopped running and stared at the wardrobe, annoyed.

"You have got to be joking!" she complained.

"I'm not sticking around to find out," I pushed past her and jumped into the wardrobe. The footsteps began to come closer, and Peter followed my lead.

"Go!" Peter cried. The rest of the Pevensies piled into the wardrobe and I drew back, trying to get some breathing room.

"Get back!" Susan hissed. There were a few exclamations of "ow" and "watch it" as we were driven back towards the back of the wardrobe. As we griped, I noticed the air seem to grow colder. What was going on? I turned from the siblings and just walked normally towards what I thought was the back of the wardrobe. Prickly things kept brushing my shoulder, and I just waved them off. It began to get slightly lighter.

I started running, not daring to hope that this may be Lucy's forest. I broke free of the darkness, and tripped over something, landing face down in something soft and cold.

"Guys! Look!" I exclaimed in excitement and scrambled to my feet. I gazed in amazement at the winter trees and the snow covering the ground, quite the opposite from the weather in England currently. There were a few shouts from behind me, and I didn't bother to turn around. I should have. A few seconds later I felt something collide into my back, and I fell face forward once again.

"Ungh!" I grunted. I kicked my legs out from underneath Peter and Susan, but they were fixated on the magic of the forest in front of us. They stood up slowly, and all four of the Pevensies walked forward. I stood up, brushing the snow off of my legs, and crossed my arms.

"Impossible!" Susan said softly.

"Impossible?" I scoffed, "Are you blind?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's just your imagination," Lucy said with satisfaction and came to stand by my side.

"I don't suppose saying we're sorry would quite cover it?" Peter asked sheepishly. Lucy and I gave each other a mischievous look before Lucy answered.

"No, it wouldn't," she said as I handed her a snowball behind her back, and she chucked it at Peter, nailing him in the face, "But that might!" Peter laughed, and everyone scrambled to find more ammo. Peter threw one back immediately. I scooped one into my hands, and Susan and I simultaneously threw snowballs at each other. Susan somehow managed to dodge hers, but she hit me in the stomach.

"You little-" I trailed off jokingly and packed a huge ball of snow into my hands. Susan wasn't watching me, and threw one across the clearing. It smacked Edmund in the arm. It seemed everyone had forgotten what had happened until he made a sound.

"Ow!" Edmund rubbed his arm, "Stop it!" Everyone stopped playing and began to glare at Edmund, just realizing that he had lied.

"You little liar!" Peter said furiously.

"You didn't believe her either!" Edmund argued.

"Apologize to Lucy," Peter commanded, and Edmund just looked at her, "Say you're sorry!" Peter took a step towards Edmund.

"Alright! I'm sorry!" Edmund said. We all knew he didn't really mean it, but we couldn't force him to mean it.

"That's alright," Lucy looked at him smugly, "Some little children just don't know when to stop pretending." Edmund muttered something that sounded a lot like 'very funny,' but didn't make any other retort.

"Maybe we should go back," Susan glanced at the dark area we had emerged from.

"Can't we at least take a look around?" Edmund's attitude changed.

"What? You didn't do enough of that last night?" I asked. Edmund blushed.

"I-I-" Edmund didn't have an answer.

"Don't try to answer that. You might hurt yourself," Peter smiled down at his sister, "I think Lucy should decide!" Lucy's face lit up, and she spread her mouth into a wide smile.

"I want you all to meet Mr. Tumnus!" Lucy grinned.

"Well Mr. Tumnus it is," Peter walked into the wardrobe.

"We can't just walk around in these clothes!" Susan pointed out. I fingered the edge of my sleeve doubtfully. I should probably wait until we really did need magic.

"We can use these coats," Peter came back out of the wardrobe, a pile of furs in his arms.

"Peter, they don't belong to us," Susan sighed.

"Who cares?" I said.

"Well, I don't think the Professor will mind. And if you think about it logically," Peter handed a coat to Susan and smirked, "we are not even taking them out of the wardrobe." He turned to Edmund and handed him a thick grey coat.

"But that's a girl coat!" Edmund protested.

"I know," Peter said and thrust it into his chest. Edmund reluctantly slipped on the coat, and Peter came to me last.

"Here you go," he said quietly and gently put the dark brown coat into my arms. I rose an eyebrow. He seemed to be making an effort to be nice to me since last night. I wonder what I had said?

"Thank you," I put my arms through the sleeves of the coat and snuggled into it. Peter only put on his coat when he saw that all of us were wearing ours, then we all trudged off into the snow.