Lucy's eyes snapped open. She was sure that someone had been calling her name, though now when she'd woken up that seemed impossible; there was no one but her sister in the room at the Leaky Cauldron and the voice had been too loud and clear to have come from someone outside.

She must have imagined it.

With a sigh she sat up and looked over at her sister. Mandy Diamond, her twin, was sleeping peacefully in her own bed, her black hair in a complete mess, as usual. Lucy smiled at the sight; somehow Mandy always made her smile, no matter what sort of trouble they'd gotten into.

She lay back down, but found that she was too alert to fall asleep. In her mind she told herself to just relax, but her body did the exact opposite and tensed.

With a groan, Lucy sat up and swung her long, pale legs over the edge of the bed. She'd always been the taller of the twins, though Mandy had been the stronger. Sometimes it was hard even for them to say that they were twins, because everyone expected twins to be a lot alike one another. Mandy and Lucy weren't; Lucy had golden-blonde hair, Mandy had black, they had different skins, were of different length and acted completely different.

Lucy shook her head at the thoughts, then walked over to the window to look out over the dark shops of Diagon Alley. Her new owl, Josephine, sat in her cage close by, her yellow eyes peering out in the same direction.

"You didn't hear anything, did you?" Lucy asked the horned owl, as if to assure herself that that voice really had been just her imagination. The owl did not answer.

"Great, now I'm talking to you and expect you to answer", Lucy muttered. "I hope this is all nerves."

Honestly, she was really nervous; the next day she and Mandy would get on the train leaving from King's Cross Station to go to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, for the first time. They had never been more excited than when they had received those two letters and their parents had joined them in their cheer, both of them having attended Hogwarts before.

Still, they had chosen not to come along to the station. Instead they had dropped them off at Diagon Alley and hugged and kissed them good-bye.

"You're going to be great, little one", Lucy remembered that her father had whispered in her ear. She had noticed how wet his brown eyes looked as he then walked away with their mother, who was weeping. As if something was about to happen to them, as if they weren't going to a school but into prison.

Lucy was just about to head back for bed when Josephine raised her wings and seemed to whistle, which woke Mandy's pygmy owl, Fannie, who started to squeak and peep while flapping its wings. Mandy groaned from her bed, rolled over and fell down on the floor with a heavy thud and a curse.

"What the hell is going on?" she groaned as she got to her feet and pushed the black hair out of her face.

"I don't know, I was just…"

"Why are they doing that?" Mandy continued, ignoring her sister (she had a tendency of doing that) and instead looking at the two birds. Both of them were looking out through the windows, down on Diagon Alley, and continued to make sounds as if to alert someone.

"Oh, shut up, you two!" Mandy groaned and smacked the cage belonging to Fannie. Lucy grabbed onto her arm.

"I think they wanted to show us that."

She pointed out through the window, down on the dark alley below, at a small plume of smoke that was rising in the middle of the street, seemingly without any source.

"What the hell…" Mandy muttered, before she was interrupted by a voice.

"Freedom…"

"That's the voice!" Lucy said, her eyes wide in surprise. "That's the voice that woke me up, but then it was saying my name instead…"

"So that pillar of smoke is the reason for all of this?" Mandy asked and glared at the two birds.

"I suppose."

Mandy then turned around and grabbed her coat, then put her feet into her new boots.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked.

"Since that thing's the reason for all of this, I'm going to make it stop so that I can have a decent night of sleep before we're so overloaded with homework that we won't have time for it", Mandy answered.

"But what if… what if that thing, or its origin, is dangerous?"

"Then they haven't met me yet", Mandy muttered. Lucy grimaced at the thought. She knew perfectly well that when Mandy had slept too little, she could be in a foul mood for hours, and she snapped at once when something didn't go her way.

"Well, then I'm coming with you", she said and put on her own boots. Mandy grinned in appreciation, before they both snuck out of their room and down the stairs. Tom, the bartender, was laying on the counter, snoring so loudly that he didn't even notice when the floorboards creaked under their boots.

Once outside, Mandy pulled up her wand and knocked on the special stone in the middle of the brick-wall. Earlier that day they had stared in wonder as the stones had moved aside, then moved back once they were through; now they didn't have time to stop and look at it again. Mandy stomped over to the pillar, put her hands on her hips and glared at it.

"Alright then, Smokey, who are you and why do you disturb us like this?" she asked.

The smoke did not answer.

"Oh, lost your tongue, have you?" Mandy continued. "Well, you could speak earlier, we heard that."

"Mandy, maybe it's better if I talk with… it", Lucy suggested. "You can be a bit… intimidating…"

"I have no idea what that word means, but sure, you have a go."

She took a step back and Lucy stepped up instead, frowning a bit at the pillar before her.

"Well, I… I thought you were calling for me earlier, that's why I woke", she said. "So, maybe you could tell us why?"

"Freedom?" the voice answered, sounding clearer than before.

"No, I'm Lucy", Lucy said. "But I guess that we have our freedom… I mean, we are free to do what we want, so…"

"No, you are Freedom", the voice interrupted.

"That's a name?" Mandy asked, stepping up again. "If you need to know, it sounds a bit Native American to me. Not that that's bad, but we're British and we have British names."

"Who's Freedom?" Lucy questioned, ignoring her sister's remarks.

"That's you."

"She's not", Mandy answered. "And look, it's not very funny to speak to a pillar of smoke, could you clear up a bit?"

"Very funny", the voice dryly said. "But no, I can't. The portals are closed from this part of the universe, only one's open that I know of and that one I can't access."

"What portals?" Lucy asked.

"Gateways to other places, you would have passed through the one I referred to tomorrow unless I'd contacted you now."

"What is this thing talking about?" Mandy muttered.

"Hey, I'm not a thing, I'm a person", the voice responded.

"Well, at the moment you look like a thing to me", Mandy bit back. "Come on, Lu, let's get back to bed."

"You said that we could pass through from here", Lucy said, still looking at the smoke.

"Yes."

"Oh, come one, you do not believe in that, do you?" Mandy exclaimed.

"There's no other logical explanation", Lucy pointed out. Mandy just muttered to herself, not wanting to receive another lecture from her twin.

"Alright, where is this… portal of yours?" she asked.

"I suppose it is in an alley", the voice answered.

"Oh, congratulations, we are in Diagon Alley, meaning that this thing would be… well, let me see, it could be just about anywhere!" Mandy remarked.

"Shut up, Mandy", Lucy said. "Is it in this alley or in one close by?"

"This one, I think this… smoke could lead you there. Let me see."

After a while, the smoke shifted and started to move. A triumphant shout was heard.

"Got it, it's going to lead you to the portal. You just need to pass through it and you'll be here, alright?"

"What about our things?" Lucy asked.

"And our owls, don't forget the owls", Mandy filled in.

"They'll come along, don't worry", the voice responded as the pillar moved further down Diagon Alley. Mandy rolled her eyes.

"This is insane."

"Well, you were the one that wanted to talk to it", Lucy remarked.

"And you were the one that it started to talk to", Mandy said, then grinned. "Guess we are in this together, sis."

The smoke had stopped in the middle of the road, close to Ollivander's shop. It then formed what seemed to be an archway.

"Ready?" Lucy asked.

"Can't be worse than a portkey", Mandy answered with a shrug. Then they grabbed hands and stepped forward.

Mandy was right; it was not worse than to travel with a portkey. In fact it was over before they had even realized it had happened.

They were now standing in a courtyard by a white castle, lit up by torches. Both the sound of waves and the smell of salt told them that they were close to the sea.

"Well, this was… unexpected", Mandy said.

"Really", Lucy agreed.

"There you are!" the familiar voice called. "I thought that you would be close to where I was, but obviously I had miscalculated that."

The man that came running towards them was in his twenties, had pitch-black hair falling down into his face and brown eyes. Both girls noticed that in his belt hang a sword, something that made them stare.

"Welcome to Narnia", he greeted. "And don't worry; you will have plenty of surprises here before you leave tomorrow."

"Where are we going tomorrow?" Mandy asked. "You just said that we couldn't go back to our world."

"Well, you won't, you will just be going over the Western Mountains", a second man said as he came forth. This one was blonde with dark-grey eyes and was somewhat older than the previous one, but the similar features in their faces told the twins that these two were also siblings.

"That's where you were heading to begin with", the blonde man finished.

"Hogwarts?" Lucy said, her eyes wide in surprise. "Hogwarts is just on the other side of those mountains?"

"It sure is", the black-haired one said. "Sorry, I should probably introduce us both. I am King Edmund the Just and this is my brother, High King Peter the Magnificent."

"No curtseys, thank you", Peter quickly said, noticing the girls' movements. "You are our guests and you have the same rank as the rest of us."

"Yeah, right", Mandy muttered. Peter smiled.

"Come, let's get you two inside to your rooms. You can meet the rest of the family tomorrow."

Once they were inside, he grabbed onto Lucy's arm, taking her in one direction, while Edmund dragged Mandy in the opposite.

"Sorry about that", Peter apologized. "But we have a lack of rooms at the moment, despite the size of Cair Paravel. The only two we had available were in different parts of the castle."

"So, this country, it's called Narnia?" Lucy carefully asked, peering up at the older man.

"Yes, and it's a part of the Magic Realm", Peter answered as he led her up a set of wide stairs covered in a red carpet. Lucy noticed that the borders of the carpet were decorated with golden lions, the pattern looking somewhat familiar. After a while, she settled on that she was thinking about the mark of Gryffindor.

"The reason that you are here is because of that you are eleven now, which means that you would come here for the first time and needed to be prepared", Peter continued his explanation.

"Prepared?"

"You were born in this world, but thanks to the danger you were sent away, to be raised in a different family. Same thing with young Mandy Diamond; the fact that you two were raised together is an omen that no one has been able to understand."

"You are talking in riddles", Lucy said and shrugged.

"You will find that you remember things about this place", Peter continued, ignoring her comment. "Patterns, places, maybe even people. But the most important thing you must know is this…"

He turned towards her and bent down so that their faces were inches apart.

"You are the daughter of Aslan."