The Professor's Niece

You were in the library the day they came. You were sitting curled up with a book, when you decided that you would stretch your legs. You were making your way towards the main entrance hall where the rugs were really good fun to jump and slide on them. As you approached the entrance, you heard Mrs McCredy saying: "There is to be no shouting, no running, and no playing boisterous games inside the house. Do you understand? The Professor likes peace and quiet." You smiled to yourself. Your uncle loved busyness and noise. Just to prove that point, you gave yourself an extra long runway to jump onto the rugs. You ran, jumped onto the rug and went skidding through the entrance. "Yahoo!" you cried. You heard Mrs. McCredy give a loud huff of indignation and: "That girl!" you were grinning as you sped through the hallway. Then you realised why you didn't do this often. You couldn't stop until you smashed into something. Sure enough, you were soon on the floor with a suit of armour on top of you.

'Ow. I must stop doing that.' Then you heard Mrs. McCredy approaching, and ran for it. You ran and hid in the library. When you were sure she had gone, you deemed it safe enough to venture out into the house again. You just hoped you didn't bump into the Pevensie children. You were very shy and weren't very comfortable with new people at first. You made your way to the music room. You sat down at the piano. You had been learning piano for 9 years and was very good at it. You cast your eyes onto the heaps of music all over the floor, picked one at random and began to play it. It was a happy, cheerful one which reminded you of spring. You only stopped when your stomach told you it was hungry because of the large rumble it had made. You ate your dinner in the kitchen. You had fixed it yourself by opening the cupboards and dumping everything in a big pot and cooking it for about 20 minutes. You made sure however, that it met your daily ration, otherwise Mrs. McCredy would murder you twice over. One for breaking a precious suit of armour, and second for making her go and buy more ration tokens for you.

The next day was rainy. You looked at yourself in the looking glass. You had long, thick, wavy brown-blonde hair, deep brown eyes and full lips. You weighed probably a little more than you should but you didn't care. You didn't want to look back on your childhood and realize that you spent half of it obsessing about the way that you looked. You were tall, about 5"7. You were 15 years old. But your greatest shame was that you had never been kissed by a boy. Ever. All your friends had, so you just lied and said you had, as if you were kidding yourself. You put that out of your mind, washed and dressed and went to see your Uncle to wish him good morning.

"Morning Uncle."
"Morning Sophie, how are you today?"

"Fine Thank you." Your uncle smiled.

"Have you met the Pevensie children yet? There's two of them about your age. Peter and Susan I thin they're called. It will be nice for you to have a friend to stay."

"I've got friends here."

"Ah, But you can't always reach them can you? They turn up when you least expect them or want them to, and they turn up when you're not thinking about them." Your uncle gave you a knowing smile. "Now, run along and I don't want you cooped up in that music room and library all day long you hear me?"

"But Uncle Diggory" you said. "It's raining."

"Hmm. What? Oh well, alright then."

"Thanks Uncle."

Your uncle smiled at you as you closed the door. You spent most of the day in the music room playing various tunes that came to you or reading. It wasn't until later when you first clapped eyes on the Pevensie children. You were in your Uncle's study in a dark corner looking at the various books on the shelves. When two children walked in. They began to talk to your uncle about their sister who had claimed she had been in a different land for hours and hours when in theory, she'd only been gone a few seconds. You listened with awe, and when they'd left after your uncle had given them a few words of advice. Turned to you and said: "Well, that's a turn up for the books isn't it?"

The next day was sunny and as you walked around your uncle's grounds with your nose in a book you heard the shouts of some children playing cricket. All of a sudden a ball landed right at your feet. You bent down to pick it up. A girl approached you. You handed her the ball.

"Hello, I'm Susan. Were you the girl that was skidding on the rugs the other day?"

You smiled sheepishly.

"That was me. I'm Sophie by the way."

"What are you doing here? Were you evacuated here too?" asked Susan.

"Sort of," you replied. "I'm staying with my uncle for a bit. Until the war is over."

"So your Professor Kirk's niece?"

"Yup."

"Hey, hurry up. Su! It'll be nightfall before we finish this game!" cried a boys voice

"Just coming." She turned to go. Then she turned back. "Do you want to come and play as well? We could use another fielder."

"Sure, I loved to," you replied.

"Come on then."

You both went back to the game. The other three stood up and stared at you. Susan broke the ice.

"This is Sophie. Is it okay if she joins in?"

"Of course. I'm Edmund by the way. This is my sister Lucy and my brother Peter." Peter looked to be the oldest. He smiled at you. You smiled back. Edmund and Susan exchanged glances. "How old are you?" Edmund continued to ask.

"I'm 15" you replied. "You're about the same age as Peter then. C'mon then let's continue with this game." You put your book down which also had in it, the game plans for the Netball team next term. You were captain of the second team. Which is why you proved to be such a good fielder, with quick reflexes and an accurate throw. You were all having fun, until Edmund hit a stray ball that went straight through a window.

"McCredy's going to kill us!" you cried as you all ran for the house to see the damage. You stared at the bits of broken Elizabethan glass scattered all over the floor. You then heard heavy footsteps which was the sign of McCredy approaching. "Run for it!" Peter cried. You all ran. Trying to run from Mrs.McCredy, but she knew lots of different secret

passages. Peter threw open a random door. You all piled in. You then spotted the wardrobe. You flung it open. "Get in!" The looks of doubt vanished from their faces. You followed Peter, who was last to go in, and found yourself pressed against his chest.

"Stop pushing!"

"Hey Lu, that was my toe!"

"Get off me!"

All this squabbling was cut out. When Susan gave a huge cry. A tree! It's a tree! You all went towards the sound. As you stepped onto the snow, you were as surprised as anyone. But not about the land you were in. More about how you got in. "Sophie."

Peter jerked you out of your senses as he put a coat around you. "Come on, we don't want to get cold." He then addressed all of you.

"Where to now?"