A/N: Okay, I didn't follow the scenes from the books or the movies, because I don't have access to either at the moment. So, I'm straying from the direct lines a little. Probably a better idea, now that I think about it...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wardrobe, Lucy Pevensie tumbled out of the wardrobe. "I'M BACK!" She screamed, landing on all fours on the wooden floor. "I'm back!" She looked up to see her three older siblings staring at her.

"Er, Lu, I'm beginning to think you don't get the idea of the game," Peter said. "You're not supposed to scream out where you are." Lucy shook her head wildly, looking both breathless and ecstatic all at once.

"No, no! I- the wardrobe- there's another world on the other side!"

"What are you babbling on about?" Edmund muttered, shaking his head and staring at his sister like she had lost her mind.

"There's another world through the wardrobe! Middle Earth! I met a hobbit named Frodo Baggins, and I walked in an apple orchard in Hobbiton, and Frodo's invited us to his uncle's one-hundred eleventh birthday party!" Lucy panted. There was a long, drawn-out pause. Lucy was smiling. Peter, Susan and Edmund's expressions were blank. Then, Susan and Peter exchanged worried looks.

Susan moved forward, past Lucy, and went around to the back of the wardrobe. There was the sound of wood scraping wood as Susan tugged at the wardrobe. She turned back to the others. "Lucy," She said quietly. "There's no orchard back here. The only wood here is the back of the wardrobe." Lucy was shocked.

"But- but- It was just there! I wouldn't lie about this!" She cried. "Doesn't anyone believe me?"

"I believe you," Edmund said, with a companionable look on his face. Lucy froze, looking hopefully at her brother. "After all, didn't I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboards?" He said with a laugh. Lucy felt ready to cry.

Peter rounded on Edmund. "Oh, just stop. You always have to make everything worse, don't you?" He growled.

"It was just a joke," Edmund said defensively. Susan and Lucy tensed, sensing a fight on the horizon.

"Why don't you just grow up?" Peter snapped. That seemed to be his favorite phrase to growl at his brother when they fought. It hit just the wrong nerve at just the wrong time.

"Shut up!" Edmund screamed. "You think you're, dad but you're not!"

"What-"
"SHUT UP! THE BOTH OF YOU! JUST SHUT UP!" Lucy screamed, slapping her hands over her ears and running from the room. Susan turned and gave Peter one of her "looks".

"Well," She said, an edge of sarcasm in her voice. "That was nicely handled." Then, she turned away and went after their sister. "Lucy!" She called. "Lucy, wait!"

"Leave me alone!" Lucy cried, dashing down the hallway. Now she was crying, and wasn't paying any special attention to where she was going. Lucy ran right into someone- Professor Kirke.

"Whoa, now, what's all this about?" The Professor asked when he saw tear-streaks on Lucy's face.

"Oh, Professor Kirke!" Susan exclaimed, looking surprised. She also seemed slightly embarrassed at the situation they were in. Peter and Edmund (both of whom were determinedly avoiding each other's eyes) had come up behind her, and froze when they saw the Professor.

Lucy started trying to tell the Professor what happened, but her words were choked and hysterical, and he couldn't make them out. "Shh, shh, calm down child." He said, trying to soothe her. "Why don't you go lie down for a few minutes?" He patted her shoulder, and then turned to the three other children. "Peter, Susan- may I please speak with you?" Professor Kirke asked as Lucy shuffled into her and Susan's room and closed the door.

Lucy flopped down on the bed, furiously rubbing her eyes. She hated how she had gone from being miserable, to elated, to completely miserable again. How could someone feel so wonderful, and become so mad and sad so quickly? She lay there and sniffled for a moment, and then sat up. Lucy reined her emotions back in and composed herself.

"I'm going to that party tonight," She whispered. "Whether they believe me or not. I told Frodo I'd go, and I'm going to go. And phooey on them for missing it."

"Now, what seems to be the trouble?" Professor Kirke asked. He had beckoned Susan and Peter into his study so that he could speak to them. The two older Pevensies exchanged brief, concerned looks before Susan spoke.

"It's our sister, Lucy, Professor. She thinks she's found some other world in the wardrobe. Some place called 'Middle Earth'." She explained. Professor Kirke nodded slowly, appearing to be in deep thought. The two teenagers waited for him to speak.

"Well, has she ever lied to you before?" He asked. Susan shot a bewildered look at her brother. Was the Professor actually questioning the logic of another world in his wardrobe?

"Well, yes- er, no- well, she doesn't usually." Susan said, trying to get the correct words out. "Rarely."

"Yes, usually it's Edmund that lies." Peter remarked wryly.

"Peter!" Susan said sharply.

"What? You know it's true, Susan!"

"So," Being the wise man that he was, Professor Kirke sensed that the brother and sister were about to get into a heated argument, and nipped it in the bud before it could begin. "If she usually tells the truth, and doesn't usually lie, then logically, she's telling the truth, yes?" He asked.

Both teenagers looked confused. "But, sir, it's not possible… How can there be another world in that wardrobe?" Peter asked. The Professor gave the two a knowing look and a little smile.

"I'll let you two in on a little secret," He said. "That wardrobe is not an ordinary wardrobe. The tree it was carved from was not ordinary. The seed that tree came from was not ordinary, because the fruit it came from was not ordinary. I won't tell you the finer details, but I will tell you that that wardrobe… Is special. Very, very special." The smile he gave them turned mysterious. "Maybe… One day… You'll find out just how special…"

That night, the Pevensie children went to bed around eight o' clock. Not because they were tired, and not because they had been ordered to by Mrs. Macready, but simply because there was nothing else to do. Lucy wasn't speaking to any of her siblings, understandably. Peter and Edmund were fuming at each other and risked a battle bloodier than Antietam when they had to talk to each other. Susan was trying to ease the tension while simultaneously trying to convince Lucy that Middle Earth didn't exist.

Needless to say, there were some hard feelings at the end of the day.

But as soon as she was certain Susan was asleep, Lucy ever so quietly got out of bed. She hadn't even changed her clothing- she had just made sure to get into bed before Susan and pull the covers up to her neck. Lucy picked up her shoes and carried them with her, not daring to put them on in case she made a noise.

When she got out of the room, Lucy was terrified all the way that she'd run into Professor Kirke or Mrs. Macready. While Lucy was a very logical little girl, she had just enough imagination to believe that Mrs. Macready would make her sleep in the stables. In the darkness, not risking a candle, Lucy navigated to the room with the wardrobe. She silently pulled the door open, and let it shut with a soft click behind her. There it was. The Wardrobe.

Tip-toeing over, Lucy put on her shoes, and grabbed the handle. Just then, a horrible thought struck her. What if the wardrobe didn't work? What if she bumped into a hard, wooden back instead of coming out into the orchard? Quickly pulling the door open, Lucy took a deep breath and stepped inside. She shut the door behind her, and counted the steps to the back.

One.
Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

"Oh!" There it was! The drop after the end of the wardrobe! Lucy grinned and carefully stepped out of the wardrobe and into the grass. She ran out into the orchard, and saw that it was glowing with hundreds of fireflies. The Shire truly was a dream! Just then, it occurred to her that she hadn't asked Frodo where the party was. Then, she remembered him saying something about half the Shire being invited… So, that meant a lot of people, right?

Lucy ran a little farther, to the bank where Frodo had stood earlier that day to greet Gandalf. She looked straight on. Trees. To the right. Nothing. To the left- "Yes!" Lucy whispered. It looked more like a circus than a party. Frodo hadn't been exaggerating when he told her how many people had been invited. Lights sparkled in the darkness, and she could hear music playing.

Climbing down from the bank, Lucy went at a trot to the party. It was definitely something! When she arrived, she saw hundreds of men and women that were about her height, even though many looked far older than she was. "Now, where's Frodo?" She murmured, looking around for her friend. She walked past an old hobbit, who was telling a story to a group of hobbit children.

"…arguing, about how they were going to cook us- boiled over an open fire, roast us, or maybe sit on us one by one?" The children gasped. "Well, the trolls spent so much time arguing that the first rays of the sun shone, and puff!" The children jumped. "Turned them all to stone!" Lucy found herself listening to the story, and snapped out of it and looked around again. She wandered over to a group of tables, centered around a dancing area.

"Come on, Sam! Ask Rosie for a dance!" Came a delightfully familiar voice. Frodo was cajoling one of his friends into dancing. The other hobbit mumbled a vague reply that Lucy didn't quite catch, but he must have refused, because Frodo tugged him up and pushed him into the dancing circle, laughing. Lucy laughed too, and Frodo caught sight of his friend. "Lucy! You're here!" He looked around. "Where are your brothers and sister?"

Lucy's face fell and she plopped down next to him. "They didn't believe me when I got back," She said. "They thought I was making it up."

"What did you say?" Lucy repeated everything she said, and Frodo nodded. He didn't say it out loud, but he couldn't help but think that if his brother or sister said that to him, he'd think they were a little off as well. Nearby, Gandalf shot off another round of fireworks. They crackled in the air, and the sparks took on the shape of butterflies.

Lucy, momentarily forgetting about her siblings, stared. "Wow! How does he do that?" She asked Frodo. The hobbit grinned.

"Remember that wizard I told you about?" He nodded at the man directing the fireworks. "That's Gandalf the Grey. He's an old friend of Bilbo's. I told him about you, and he seems rather interested in speaking with you?" Lucy's eyebrows shot up.

"Me? Why would he want to talk with me?" Frodo shrugged.

And so, the night went on pleasantly. Frodo and Lucy danced, talked, laughed. Frodo introduced her to his friend, Samwise Gamgee, and Lucy temporarily forgot about the misery she had felt earlier that day. It was unusual for her to have this much fun by herself- and by herself, meaning without Peter, Susan or Edmund hanging around. It was a party full of strangers and adults, and yet she was totally at ease with her surroundings.

Eventually, Frodo had to go talk with his uncle, and Lucy was left to sit at a table by herself. Though, she was hardly lonely. So elated with the events, she swung her legs back and forth and hummed along with the music. She had definitely noticed by now that things were a bit more… Medieval… in Middle Earth, than on Earth. It looked like a scene out of a timeless fairytale, like Rumpelstiltskin or Snow White. You could only guess in general when they took place.

So, it was while she was sitting alone that Lucy caught the eye of one Gandalf the Grey. The wizard had just finished up with his first batch off fireworks, and was taking a break. He had some ale, and looked for a place to sit. And all at once, he saw her. The human that Frodo had invited to the party. He knew she was human, because she was taller than all the other children there; not to mention her ears were not pointed, like all hobbits.

Gandalf noticed that she did not look like human girls from Middle Earth. Her shoes were of strange make, and she wore strange material on her legs. Her skirt only went to her knees, and she wore an over-coat (or what appeared to be one) over her shirt. She had dark red hair, and a smile that seemed to grow as bright as the fireworks. Gandalf knew there was something odd about her- just something that didn't quite fit in with Middle Earth.

Quietly, the wizard approached the child. Lucy Pevensie was her name, if he recalled correctly. She didn't realize she was being watched until Gandalf made his presence known. "Hello, Miss Pevensie." He said in a friendly tone. Lucy jumped and whirled around. She recognized Gandalf on sight, and froze when she remembered Frodo saying that the wizard had wanted to talk to her.

Gandalf took a seat across from Lucy, and she now saw why he was called Gandalf the Grey. He was dressed in all gray robes, and his hair was gray as well. "Hello, Mr. Gandalf, sir," She said, half-awed, half-intimidated. He was, after all, a wizard. There was no telling how powerful he could be. Gandalf smiled at her, and she relaxed slightly.

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Pevensie. Please, call me Gandalf." Lucy nodded.

"All… All right… Then, you can call me Lucy." She said. Gandalf nodded.

"Lucy, then. Frodo tells me you appeared in the apple orchard this morning." Lucy nodded. "How did you come to be in the orchard?" Now Lucy hesitated. Peter and Susan hadn't understood, so how could she make Gandalf understand without thinking she was lying? Well, she did what she always did- stuck with the truth.

"I… I came through a wardrobe, Gandalf." She said. Gandalf's brow furrowed.

"A wardrobe?" He asked. But he said nothing like 'That's impossible!' or 'You're lying!'. He merely motioned for her to continue. Lucy nodded.

"You see, Mr.- I mean, Gandalf, my brothers and my sister- Peter, Edmund and Susan- and I were playing hide and seek, and I went up stairs, but all the doors were locked and Edmund kicked me out of the spot I was going to use, and so I went into the spare room and saw the wardrobe and I hid inside and when I tried to move to the back I fell out and into the orchard." Lucy finished. She had not paused for breath through the whole thing, and was panting slightly now. (So for all you nit-picks, the major run-on sentence was on purpose).

Gandalf nodded. "And then you met Frodo." He finished. Lucy nodded.
"We talked… And he invited me to the party." She said.

"Yes…" Gandalf said, pulling out a wooden pipe and putting it in his mouth. He didn't smoke it, however. "He told me. He also said that your siblings were invited. Are they here?" He asked. Lucy dropped eye contact.

"No… They didn't believe me when I came back. They thought I was making it up." She said. Gandalf chewed on his pipe for a moment, thinking.

"I see… Where did this take place, Lucy? In your house?" Lucy shook her head.

"We're living in Professor Kirke's house right now. We were evacuated from London because of the war that's going on." She explained. "All the children in London were evacuated to the country because of the air raids." Gandalf cocked an eyebrow at this. He didn't know what an air raid was, but he deduced it must be something serious to make a city evacuate all its children.

"What was that Professor's name?" He asked.

"Kirke. Diggory Kirke." The name struck a bell with Gandalf, though he couldn't quite remember where he had heard it before. "Lucy, what-" Without warning, a massive, violent BOOM resonated through the party grounds. Now, if you can imagine poor Lucy right now; she had spent a very long time listening to loud BOOMing noises in London- follow by fire and screaming. Naturally, she was terrified out of her mind, and signaled it by screaming her lungs out.

A giant red and gold firework shaped like a massive dragon flew into the air, before diving low and barely scraping the top of the tents in the area. Lucy and Gandalf had to dive off their seats before their table was knocked over by the tail of the firework. Lucy covered her head and looked after the dragon as it sped over the lake, fizzled for a moment, and then exploded into a gigantic, spectacular show that made her laugh instead of scream. Lucy turned to see Gandalf standing up, looking none too happy.

His mug of ale was upside-down on top of his gray mop of hair.