Edmund Pevensie: To be a King.

Summary: What if Edmund was the one who went through the wardrobe, not Lucy? What if he didn't return? A year later, the three remaining Pevensie's find Narnia and the brother they thought they had lost. But Edmund has changed and it will be a hard road back to where their family once was.

Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia! CS Lewis does.

Author's Note: I am a major Narnia fan, but having discovered it through the movies and therefore not having read all the books yet, this will be a movie-verse fic. However, I am going to try and write it in the style of CS Lewis, with the first paragraph being an excerpt from the LLW book in this first chapter to help with the set up. I had started writing this a while back and have now decided to edit it and post it. I hope you like it, and please review once you've finished! I accept criticism, but only if it's constructive. That means no flames! Please be kind, as this is my first Narnia fic.

Chapter One: The Argument.

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air raids. They were sent to the house of an old professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a large house with a housekeeper called Mrs Macready and three servants. (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Chapter One)

This man was called Professor Digory Kirke, and he had lived in the house since his childhood. One might wonder why a man would stay in the same house all his life, but Professor Kirke liked this house because he thought it to have an air of magic surrounding it.

Now Professor Kirke was actually true in his thoughts, despite what others would say as, when he was younger, he had travelled to a magical land called Narnia, ruled by the mighty Lion Aslan. When he had travelled back from Narnia, he had brought with him an apple, with which, he had created an apple tree. When the apple tree eventually died, he had used the wood to carve a wardrobe that stood in one of the upstairs rooms. On this wardrobe were carved pictures of his adventures as a way of helping Professor Kirke remember. He hoped that one day the wardrobe would allow him back into Narnia.

Alas, that had not happened, but nevertheless it is this wardrobe that forms the beginning of our story.

Now the day after the children had arrived was a particularly rainy day, which did not help with the children's impressions of their move to the countryside. All four of them sat in the boys' bedroom playing a word game that Susan – the second eldest and probably the smartest – had created.

"Come on Peter, Gastro vascular." Susan had said the same word three times now and she was beginning to get exasperated.

"Is it latin?" Peter asked, boredom lacing his voice.

Edmund hazarded a guess, though it was dripping with sarcasm. "Is it latin for 'worst game ever invented'?"

Susan rolled her eyes, while Peter – though always the serious one, as he was the oldest – chuckled slightly.

"Why don't we play hide and seek?" Lucy suggested.

Peter nodded. "That's a good idea Lu." Susan also nodded.

Edmund, however, snorted. "I'm not playing a stupid kids game."

"Come on Ed, it's fun." Lucy – ever the innocent one – really wanted them all to play together. "Please."

"No, and stop being such a whinny brat."

Now one might thing that Edmund was being immensely cruel to his sister, who had done absolutely nothing wrong and in part, he was. But Edmund also had a reason for acting the way that he did. You see, when Edmund had recently started to attend a new school, Canon Prep in London. At this new school, were a group of boys who disliked Edmund, for reasons unknown, and as a result, bullied him. At first, Edmund had tried to tell his mother of this, but she had been too busy with worry over their father who was serving in the war. He had then tried to tell Peter, but he had been too busy trying to be the 'man of the house' in his father's absence. Finally, he had tried to tell Susan, but she had been too preoccupied with her friends and potential boyfriends to be bothered about her younger brother. This coupled with the fact that all three of them still seemed perfectly able to entertain Lucy's childish fantasies and games, no matter how busy they were, made Edmund feel very ignored and hurt. As a result, he had become immensely angry and spiteful towards his siblings for refusing to acknowledge him while at the same time demanding that he acknowledge them.

His siblings knew none of this though, only acknowledging the fact that Edmund had been acting rather beastly the last couple of months, Peter and Susan making sure that they reprimanded him every time he lashed out, without listening to Edmund's reasons. This was only making Edmund even more angry and spiteful.

Peter gaped at his brother, not expecting him to lash out at Lucy for such a simple request. His own anger boiled. "Take that back Edmund."

But Edmund would not back down. He had had enough. Why should he put up with Lucy's childish whims when they couldn't be bothered to acknowledge him when it pertained to a much more serious issue? "Make me."

Striding forward, Peter grabbed Edmund's collar roughly and pushed him against the wall. "Say you're sorry."

"No."

With that one word, Peter's restraint broke. His fist collided with Edmund's jaw, knocking the younger boy to the floor.

"PETER!" Both Lucy and Susan were shocked at their older/oldest brother's actions.

Edmund cradled his now throbbing jaw, tears collecting in his eyes as he stared at the one person that he used to look up to but who now angered him more than anyone in the world. "You're a hypocrite"

Peter, who had been in shock at his actions, blinked and turned his head to where his younger brother now laid, "Wh...What?"

Edmund pushed himself up with one arm and stood. "I said you're a hypocrite. You tell me off so many times for not 'caring about Lucy's feelings'" He used air quotes. "Or not listening to you and Susan, but none of you ever care about my feelings. None of you ever listen to me." Pausing for a moment to wipe the tears from his eyes, he continued. "You believe me to be a beast ever since I started Canon, but none of you ever asked why? All the times I came home with a black eye or a split lip, and you all just brushed it aside. But the truth is, I was being bullied. And I tried to tell you and mum, but you were always too busy. So I thought, 'why should I listen to them if they won't listen to me, why should I care?' and even then you didn't catch on. Every time I did something wrong, you would yell at me, but you would never ask why because you don't really care" His voice broke, and he slumped back down to the floor. "You used to, but you don't now"

By now, all three siblings had tears in their eyes from listening to Edmund's story.

"Edmund..." Susan stepped toward her younger brother, her arm stretched out in an attempt to comfort him, but Edmund flinched away, his anger returning. Standing, he glared at all three of them in turn. "Don't pretend to care now." Turning, he ran from the room, tears once again falling down his face.

AN: Well that's the first chapter showing Edmund's feelings which will play into his reasoning for his actions later. The next chapter will focus on Ed finding the wardrobe and therefore Narnia. I hope you liked this chapter! Please review, it's like candy to me!

Thanks for reading!

Holly