The Professor's Niece (A Peter Pevensie Love Story)

Chapter 4

We spent the next afternoon taking turns playing cricket. Lucy, still hurt over the fact that none of her siblings believed her, sat under an Apple tree, reading a book I let her borrow. I stood behind Peter, ready to catch (but more likely to chase) the ball Ed might hit. Susan stood behind Edmund, ready to catch the ball if Ed missed. "Peter winds up, poised to take yet another wicket!" Peter says, announcing his actions like a sportscaster. He throws the ball, watching as it hits Edmund in the leg, making him jump back. He yells, running his leg and glaring at Peter. "Whoops! Wake up, Dolly Daydream." Peter says with a smile on his face as Susan throws the ball back to him.

"Why can't we play hide and seek again?" Edmund asks, Peter glancing at Lucy for a second.

"I thought you said it was a kid's game." Peter inquires, looking back at Edmund. Every once in a while I would see him look back to the house. Did he actually go in the wardrobe or was Lucy mistaken?

"Besides, we could all use the fresh air." Susan admits, trying to stop the boys from arguing before it happens. Edmund mumbles something that Peter and I can't hear but I see Susan roll her eyes at him.

"Are you ready?" I ask him, looking at both of the boys.

"Are you?" Ed asks me. I see a slight smile appear on his face and I smile back, getting ready. Edmund beats his bat on the ground and then Peter pitches the ball. Edmund, who was now paying attention, hits the ball hard and we watch as it smashes through one on the upstairs windows. I look back at Lucy who is smiling excitedly, knowing the game of cricket is over. I look back at the window and the lot of us run inside to look at the window.

We all stared at the window, which now had a gaping hole in it, and the fallen suit of armour on the floor. I hear Peter sigh as I continue to stare with my mouth agape. "Well done, Ed." Peter scoffed, making Ed look at him with a glare.

"You bowled it." Ed blames him, still glaring. Peter put his hand on my shoulder about to say something when he was interrupted.

"What on earth is going on up there?" Macready yelled, making us all jump. I looked at them, their eyes just as wide as mine.

"Run." I tell them, grabbing Peter's hand, leading them throughout the house. Everywhere I tried to hide, Macready seemed to be right around the corner. Her footsteps echoed loudly throughout the house. I held onto Peter's hand tightly as an idea came to mind. I ran to the spare room. When we were all inside, I closed the room door and Peter and Susan stared at the wardrobe. They both groan but I pull on Peter's hand, following Edmund into the wardrobe. Susan was the last one in, closing the door most of the way, leaving a small slit so that the door wasn't completely closed. The older Pevensies start to bicker, telling each other to get off their toes. I kept quiet until I fell back into the snow, agaian. I groan and move out of the way as Susan and Peter fall into the snow as well.

Susan and Peter get up and look around, astonished at the world before them. Lucy and I smiled at each other as we kept from saying 'I told you so'. I hear Susan mumble something about this being impossible and Lucy giggles. "Don't worry. I'm sure it's just your imagination." I wink at Lucy as Peter looks at the two of us.

"I believe you." He tells me, making me smile, remembering the night in the kitchen. He then turns to Lucy. "I don't suppose saying we're sorry would quite cover it." Lucy shakes her head, keeping her hands behind her back.

"No. It wouldn't." Peter sighs and looks down as a snowball hits him in the face, making him look up at Lucy. "But that might!" I start laughing and a snowball hits me in the face. I look up at Peter and gasp at him.

"How dare you." He laughs as I throw another snoball at him, the four of us starting a snowball war. Someone hits Edmund with a snowball and he turns to us, glaring and rubbing his arm.

"You little liar!" Peter accuses, remembering that Ed lied.

"You didn't believe her, either!" Ed yells at him.

"I already apologized. Apologize to Lucy." Peter orders. But Ed just stands there, looking at Lucy. "Say you're sorry." Peter says, stepping up to him.

"All right! I'm sorry." Edmund says half heartedly. But Lucy accepts his apology, smirking at him.

"That's all right. Some little children just don't know when to stop pretending." Edmund rolls his eyes at her and scoffs. I smile at Lucy.

"Maybe we should go back." Susan says, wrapping her arms around herself to keep herself warm.

"Don't you want to look around?" I ask them, watching a smile appear on Lucy's face. "Let's go see Mr Tumnus. Right Lucy?" Lucy nodded, excitedly and took Peter's hand.

"But we can't go hiking in the snow dressed like this." Susan says, motioning to her outfit. I went back into the wardrobe and picked up a few coats, handing them to everyone.

"I'm sure my uncle won't mind us borrowing these." I smile as I hand a coat to Peter, slipping one on myself as well. Lucy starts walking, her and Peter up front, leading the way. I followed behind with Susan but Edmund was far behind us.

As we walked through the snow, Lucy explained to Peter about the fun time we shared with Mr Tumnus. I had grown to like the faun, though I was still weary of him. She suddenly stops and I follow her eyes to the broken down door. Lucy runs to the house and I follow, Peter calling after the both of us. When I walked into the house, I saw everything laying on the ground. I stepped forward and hearing something crunch underneath me, I looked down to see the photograph of Mr. Tumnus' father. I lean over and pick up the picture. "Why would someone do something like this?" I hear Lucy ask. I can tell she's about to cry, so I walk over to her and hold her hand. I look behind me to see a piece of parchment on the wall.

"The Faun Tumnus is hereby charged with High Treason against Her Imperial Majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternizing with humans.

Signed Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police. Long Live the Queen."

My face goes white as I remember the stories Digory used to tell me. Jadis is the White Witch. She's the evil woman that Digory told me about in his stories. She's still alive. "Ok, now we should go back." Susan says, her tone explaining her fear.

"But what about Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy asks her, but Susan shakes her head.

"If he was arrested just for being with a human, I don't think there's much we can do." Susan tries to explain to her. I turn towards her, sighing.

"Lucy and I are the humans. We're the reason he was arrested." I tell them all, still holding the photograph in my hands. "Jadis must have found out that he helped us." Lucy squeezed my hand and Peter put a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, Lu. We'll think of something." Peter tells her but he's looking at me. I nod, though in my head I'm fighting a battle, trying to decide if we should help him or not. If Jadis is as bad at Uncle Digory described, would we be able to help him? Or would we just be getting ourselves killed?

I hear a 'psst' and I look towards the open door. "Did that bird just "psst" us?" I ask, taking Lucy outside with me, the rest following us. The bird 'psst' again and I look up at it. It's staring directly at me. My eyes move to the bushes as they rustle, Peter stepping protectively in front of us. The bushes continue to rustle until a beaver steps out from the bushes, looking at us. We all sigh and Peter moves towards it. He clicks his tongue and holds his fingers out. The beaver just stares at him and sits upright.

"I ain't gonna smell it, if that's what you want!" I laugh as Peter jumps back, not expecting it to talk. The beaver looks at us and then steps forward. "Lucy Pevensie? Anastasia Kirke?" Both Lucy and I stop laughing as we look at the beaver. We nod and I step forward, crouching down to the beaver. He hands me a handkerchief with Lucy's name on it.

"Hey, that's the hankie I gave to Mr. Tumnus." She says as she comes forward, taking it from me to look at it.

"He got it to me just before they took him." The beaver explains. I sigh, looking back to the beaver.

"Is he alright?" I ask him and the beaver looks around before nodding his head to the forest, scurrying off. I look back to the Pevensies and shrug before following the beaver. I turn back to the Pevensies, hearing them bickering. "Are you guys coming?" I ask them, catching Peter's eye. He nods and I smile at him, walking back into the forest, following Mr. Beaver. He led us to his dam through the cliffs.