He sat by himself, a trait I only associated with his older sister who I'd seen wandering the grounds to visit him and his brother. He wasn't the type that disliked company, in fact, he normally relished it, but this year… this year was different.

I've taught the Pevensie brothers since their first year here. The day Edmund entered my classroom for the first time, I recognized him as a trouble maker, bothering the other students, getting into fights, general mischief, that type of thing. He was self-centered, but he wasn't an uncommon type around this school. There were different groups of boys, getting into fights, apparently he and his brother had been in a horrible scuffle at the train station before they arrived.

But this year, none of his old friends could get through to him, his brother's rather surprising streak of violence had stopped and the young blond had retreated into himself. There were days I saw Edmund sitting with his brother, not saying anything. They would sit for hours, sometimes missing their different classes, but for the life of me I never had the heart to reprimand them, the two of them just seemed so sad… The Headmaster wasn't as understanding however, and the two boys were often in trouble.

I wandered through the grassy field, passed a group of boys playing rugby, to the bench where he was sitting, brown suede bag beside him, filled with various school books and the odd personal belongings. A small charm, presumably from a woman's bracelet, dangled from the strap of the bag. It was a tiny silver lion, I'd never noticed before. It probably belonged to one of his sisters.

"May I sit here?"

He looked up at me for a moment before nodding and moving his bag onto the ground to make room. "Good afternoon Miss Appleby." He addressed.

"Good afternoon Edmund." I replied with a soft smile. "Why aren't you playing with the other boys?"

He watched the others laughing as one of the boys was tackled and he shrugged. "It seems so childish."

"But you are a child." I added warmly, the poor boy, he looked so lost…

"I suppose so." He replied with a sigh, looking down at his books.

"Where's your brother?"

"With the Headmaster." Edmund replied. "Something about consoling, it's a load of rubbish though."

I was the one who suggested Peter be taken to a counselor, his current level of mood swings and violence were out of character for him. He was upset about something, and I thought it was best. "Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why is it a load of rubbish?"

Edmund brushed some of his dark hair away from his eyes. "Imagine…" He paused and considered his words carefully. He became as serious as I'd ever seen him, staring off into space, deep eyes fixed on an imaginary target. "Imagine you were a King… or Queen." He corrected. "Imagine fighting for your Kingdom, no matter what the cost, from a very young age, growing up there, earning battle scars and loosing friends. Then imagine being forced to leave all you've worked for, to abandon it, and to come back thousands of years later to find it all destroyed. Then imagine working to rebuild that empire, and after losing pieces of your soul, your childhood and innocence to protect that Kingdom, to never be allowed to see it again." He blinked slowly.

We sat in silence, listening to the boys in the field as I pondered what he'd said. It was a rather long metaphor, fairly intricate, but for what it was trying to tell me, I was unsure. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

He let out a sigh, as if exasperated that he needed to explain himself. "Imagine that type of pain, Miss Appleby. If any therapist could understand that type of pain and abandonment, then please, let them talk to him. Otherwise he just needs time."

I watched as his eyes closed briefly, before he began picking up his bag, making an obvious move to leave my presence. I placed a hand on his arm and he looked over at me curiously for a moment. I let out a sad sigh. "What's happened to you?"

"Pardon?"

"You… you're not yourself lately, what's happened, Edmund?"

"I grew up I suppose."

"Why Edmund? People don't just grow up, something happens… what happened?"

He went quiet again, a look in his eyes I had never seen before, trying to figure a way for me to relate with what he was struggling to say. This wasn't the rambunctious Edmund I knew, this wasn't Edmund who terrorized numerous classes and would trip other boys in the hallways providing his older brother wasn't nearby to lecture him. He'd become a quiet thinker, his grades even, in my class, reading his writing, it was different, deeper, and it was an extension of this new persona.

"Have you ever had a dream that you were sure was real?" He asked, looking at me with a weak smile.

"I think we all have."

He nodded. "Well, I had a-a…" he struggled with the last word. "dream." He sighed, playing with the small lion charm on his bag. "I had a dream where out of my own selfishness I nearly got my family killed. I've seen my brother risk his life for others and seen others hurt, I mean really hurt, by things I've done. Suddenly I wasn't a child anymore Miss Appleby... suddenly none of us were" He paused and gave me another sad smile. He must've been speaking of the other members of his family, though how they knew his dream, I'll never be sure. "Peter will be fine. He graduates soon, soon they won't treat him as a child anymore." He stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. He gave me a polite nod, before heading towards the entrance of the school, the lunch break was over and it was time for his classes again… in fact, I would be late too if I didn't hurry.

I'll never be sure what happened to that young man, the mischievous one who entered my classroom a few years ago.

I closed my eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply. He'd seen things, apparently in his dreams that boys shouldn't be seeing at his age and I felt sad. I never thought I'd miss the old Edmund, but this new one… just felt too old.