Author's Note: Please read and review on this. I actually kind of like it, compared to some of my other fics (but about other books)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize about the series.
About: This takes place a couple years after the children leave the castle.
Chapter One - Place of the Past
"Ouch!" yelled Edmund, pushing his younger sister away.
"Will you two stop making trouble already?" asked Susan, her voice filled with exhaustion. "It's like the last time we were here. You're both children again."
"And you aren't?" asked Lucy with a grin.
Susan grumbled. "I'm a young lady, and if you don't think so, why, then -- "
"All of you, calm down," demanded Peter as he knocked on the castle door. "The last thing the Professor needs is a bunch of children making a ruckus. He invited us here because he needed good company, not so that noisy kids can come argue in his home."
"I'm not a child," Edmund growled. "You know well that I'm not. I was already grown when we were last here."
"It's only been two years since we left," murmured Lucy, rolling her eyes. Both Peter and Susan had to chuckle at this.
"A lot can change in two years, you know..." murmured Susan. She of course was referring to the fact that in the past two years, the town's boys had taken quite a bit more notice in her than they had before.
"Shh, someone's here!" exclaimed Peter as the sound of footsteps came. The door's lock clicked and the door opened slowly, but not without a screechy "creak" noise.
"Children!" said a familiar face. "How good of you to make it, the Professor will be delighted."
"'Ello, Mrs. Macready," greeted Peter, smiling, but only to be polite and not seem rude in front of such a stern figure. "It's nice to see you after all this time."
"Yes, yes," Mrs. Macready muttered under her breath, as if not taking notice of his polite greeting. "Well, then, follow me. Dinner's just about ready." The children looked at the cool summer evening mist one last time, and stepped inside, glad to sniff the smell of roast beef and corn floating through the air, and they were finally reminded of how hungry they were after the trip back to the castle.
Mrs. Macready lead them to a small dining room, and at the table sat none other than the Professor, already digging in to his roast beef. "I believe we have some guests," announced Mrs. Macready.
The Professor looked up. "Oh, delightful, then! Peter, you look like a fine young man. And Edmund - you've grown quite tall... Susan, what a pretty young lady." He said, going down the line of kids. He stopped when he saw Lucy. "And who's this? Little Lucy?" Lucy nodded and went red. "Oh, look at you, once a child, now almost a young lady! Please, please, all of you -- sit and start on this fabulous dinner, prepared by my old friend."
They sat, and Peter looked at the Professor. "An old friend, sir?"
"Ah, yes, an old friend of mine, helped me with my studies when I was a bit younger," the Professor told them casually. "Margaret!" he called out. "You and the children, please come join us for dinner!"
A door to another room slid open and out came a short, plump lady with auburn hair and green eyes, followed by a tall boy with dark hair and green eyes, a rather short girl with dark hair and green eyes, and a boy with brown hair and blue eyes.
"Now, children," he said, referring to Peter and his siblings, not the others. "This that friend of mine, Margaret Varenkov, and her twin children, Alden and Juliet. And of course, this boy here," - the brown haired boy - "is Skye Brown. He was a neighbor's of the Varenkov's, in London, but a fire destroyed both their homes, and unfortunately, Skye's family perished and he had no other family that didn't live in that mansion." Skye nodded and looked down. "They will be staying here until they find a proper place of their own in which to take residence." He looked at them. "Please, take a seat," and they all sat down looking a bit nervous, and began eating, but slower than everyone else.
After dinner ended, the sky outside was already dark and the wind was getting cold, and it seemed a sign that everyone needed to get to bed soon.
Skye was given the job of showing the children which rooms they would be staying in for their visit, and he stumbled up the steps.
"H-here's your room, Miss," he said while pointing Lucy into a small bedroom. "And next, Susan, and after that, Edmund. Finally, Peter, yours is on the end."
The girls and Edmund sauntered into their rooms, but Peter stayed a while, hoping to get to know Skye better, he seemed nervous around the girls.
"Are you alright?" asked Peter, without sounding worried one bit. "You seemed a bit jumpy earlier."
Skye nodded. "I'm fine. I'll see you, tomorrow, then."
"Yeah... tomorrow."
Skye turned and walked right back down the steps, careful not to look back, and Peter shrugged before walking into his room and falling asleep the second he touched the bed.
Skye checked the other's room a half hour after he had showed them to the rooms. He glanced around nervously, and gave a sigh of relief after he saw that they were already fast asleep.
He stumbled up another pair of steps, and halfway down the hallway on that floor. He swung open one of the doors, and saw his favorite room in the whole house.It was filled with tons of old furniture, all covered by white sheets, and all very dusty from not being touched for at least a year.
All of them, except for one -- a large wardrobe at the center of the back wall. The sheet lay loosely over it, as if it had just been put on recently, and the dust seemed to stay away from the old wardrobe, as if it had been used recently -- and as if the wardrobe was something else completely.
He walked quickly to the back of the room and threw the sheet off of the wardrobe, revealing beautiful, dark polished wood and carvings. He opened one of the doors and laughed to himself, a sign of victory in his mind.
He could escape now, escape everything that had ruined his life, and just by stepping into the wardrobe. He could escape his home being burned down, his siblings being slowly burned to death, and his parents dying trying to save them. He could escape the disgusted gawks the pretty girls at his old school gave him, he could escape the laughs he got from the older boys at the academy...
Of course, he though that the wardrobe only worked when he least expected it to - but he figured out that if he willed it on enough, the glistening trees would appear, and he could spot the lamppost in the distance.
He couldn't help but dance around in front of the wardrobe in joy. "The place, the place I love!" he sang at the top of his lungs, not caring if anyone woke up, because he'd be gone soon enough. "The place that's perfect - for me! The only place - I want to be! The place where everything goes right, the place where I can see the glimmering stars at night!"
At last, he couldn't wait any longer -- He jumped into the wardrobe and ran through as fast as he could, and danced around the trees until he could dance no more, then he fell to the grass and sang some more.
Little did he know, that a figure had been listening to him singing in front of the wardrobe, and had a fit of giggles after Skye had went into the wardrobe.
This figure of course, had been a girl. A girl named Lucy. She had almost forgotten about the great land inside the wardrobe, and left the hallway and sought the others. They, surely, would want to go back to the place the wardrobe lead to. But should they show those twins the wardrobe as well? She couldn't decide, and she didn't want to listen to Edmund, Susan, and Peter fight about whether to let them come or not. She decided she wouldn't let anyone know the wardrobe was still here.
Too late.
She spotted a tall figure at the end of the stairs. "What're you doing up, then?" asked a voice, and she recognized it as Alden's. "I heard Skye's voice from up there."
He nodded towards the hallway upstairs. "Where has he gone to? That room filled with all that old furniture? He loves it in there for some peculiar reason."
"I - I.. well --" Lucy stuttered, not knowing what exactly to say to him.
"Oh, off with you, then," he grumbled, shrugging, and running up the steps and past her in a flash.
Lucy gulped, and she could hear him open the door to the wardrobe. "Smells like pine!" she heard his voice say in the distance. "What's this--?"
Lucy doubted that the other twin would want to be left out.