When Harry Met Susan

(And Peter and Edmund and Lucy and Mr. Tumnus and so on and so forth, you know the rest…)

Summery: The Pevensies are being crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia and it's time for Harry and Pansy to go home.


Chapter Six – East, West, South, North, Home

"To the glistening eastern sea, I give you Queen Lucy the Valiant." Aslan's booming voice was carried through the Great Hall of Cair Paravel, as Lucy lowered her head and Mr. Tumnus placed a beautiful silver crown on her hair. When she lifted her head her smile was so wide it was amazing her face didn't split in half.

"To the great western wood, King Edmund the Just." Edmund looked ready to faint with pride and embarrassment at the attention he was getting. The fawn placed a golden crown on Ed's head and the boy avoided his eyes guiltily from some reason.

"To the radiant southern sun, Queen Susan the Gentle." If only Aslan had seen her that day under the tree, scolding me for wanting Peter, he wouldn't call her so gentle then! But right now she was the perfect picture of gentleness and I must admit that the silver crown complemented her dark hair beautifully.

"And to the clear northern skies, King Peter the Magnificent." Well, you said it! Peter's eyes lifted after the fawn laid the golden crown on his head and met mine, we smiled warmly at each other. From the corner of my eye I could see the knowing smirk on Pansy's face and pointedly ignored her.

The crowd broke into cheers calling joyfully,

"Long live King Peter! Long live Queen Susan! Long live King Edmund! Long live Queen Lucy!"

The four of them sat on their thrones looking a little like lost kids. The only one who managed to pull this off with grace was Lucy, probably because she was too young to understand what it really meant.

I looked at Peter and tried hard not to think about what was to happen in an hour or so, instead I forced myself to reminisce on the previous night. Not with much difficulty I must admit.

..oo00oo..

We stood in front of the big window watching the sunset.

After a week of sleeping in the same bed every night this seemed the most natural thing in the world (I officially had my own room, once I left the healing room but I'm not even sure where it was…). During this week we've grown very comfortable with each other, and right now we were standing in only our underwear, looking out. Peter stood behind me, his arms circling my waist. We didn't speak. It was our last night together and we both knew that.

We spent that last week talking, about our homes and lives and hopes and friends and practically everything there was to talk about, everything that will make us forget that fact that each passing day brought closer the enviable. Now we had nothing left to say, and tonight was not a night for words.

The sky were painted in red and pink and orange and the sun looked like a giant orange as she descended behind the hills, whose silhouettes looked bluish-grey like thick smoke. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and we just stood there and watched the sun going down. I never actually took the time to watch the sunset before arriving in Narnia and right now I was wondering if the sunsets back home are the same, the sad thought of being able to find out far too soon made me bite my lip and take a shuddering breath to try and calm myself. I vaguely remembered reading somewhere that the best time to watch the sunset was when you're sad. Today seemed perfect for that, as both Peter and I weren't exactly overflowing with joy.

Peter softly nuzzled my neck, in the same way I loved doing to him, which always tickled him. His fingers entwined in mine and I closed my eyes tossing my head back on his shoulder giving myself completely to the feeling of his lips on my skin. God, I'm going to miss that so much. I turned around and captured his lips with mine, I didn't care if someone came in (I wasn't sure if Peter remembered to lock the door) as I pushed him slowly to the bed without breaking the kiss. We fell on it and painfully knocked our teeth together. Smiling apologetically at Peter who robbed his upper lip with pain I leaned again and ever so softly kissed it to ease the pain.

I mentioned that we were sleeping in the same bed for a week, and that is exactly what we did- sleep. And snog, tenderly, passionately, lovingly and just friendly-like. Each time was just as amazing as the other. Even after a week and a half of our first kiss it never became ordinary or casual. I think it was the blue eyes-blond hair- angelic look combo that did it. And every time I did kiss him, I completely forgot about everything else.

When I kissed Peter, in my mind I already made the decision to stay here with him for all eternity. But I couldn't say the words out loud, because I knew I couldn't act on them. I couldn't stay in Narnia. Peter isn't going to stay here forever either. And while this was a lovely adventure at the moment we both knew it would be far too difficult to work on a daily basis. It was far bigger than Susan's petty jealousy or the fact that we didn't want Edmund and Lucy finding out, it had nothing to do with Pansy either but it had everything to do with the fact that neither of us was really ready to face what that sort of relationship meant, not only to outsiders but mostly to us. I was going home tomorrow and that was it, and there was no way around it.

I forced this thought out my head and looked at Peter. I began to place feather light kisses all over his face, as some mode of remembering. It was like I was carving his face in my brain with my lips, making sure I would never forget how sweet and beautiful they are. Peter smiled with his eyes closed, clearly enjoying the attention. When I was done I gave him a final kiss on the lips, running my tongue slowly on his soft bottom lip. I then put my head on Peter's shoulder and lazily started tracing slow pattern on his chest. I could feel his skin shivering under my fingers and smiled, he was so ticklish.

We slowly drifted to sleep holding each other. I knew that Peter was rather anxious about the coronation tomorrow, after all- how many chances does one have to get crowned as a king at the age of sixteen?

..oo00oo..

The halls of Cair Paravel were full of music and song as the coronation party was well under way. All the creatures that were in the castle were dancing and laughing and eating and enjoying themselves immensely. The four new rulers of Narnia along with Pansy and me stood in front of Aslan in a small back room where the noises of the party were faded.

All six of us looked nervous and avoided each other's eyes. Aslan stood patiently and waited for us to say our good byes. I hugged Lucy and Edmund tightly, both of them as well as me had tears in our eyes, in fact Lucy was openly weeping into her handkerchief, Ed was trying to hold a brave face and I have a feeling that the fact I left my broom to him helped him greatly in doing that. I knew I'd miss them, they became almost like my little brother and sister during our time in Narnia.

I then proceeded to stand in front of Susan, not sure what to do, should I hug her or not, will she hug me? We stood in front of each other embarrassed and then she threw her arms around me, whispering in my ear,

"I'm really sorry I gave you so much trouble. I hope you have a safe trip home. Take care of Hannah." I bit my lip and tried to fight the urge to strangle her, she just had to go and say that last bit didn't she? I released her and tried to smile pleasantly at her.

She then turned and said in a brisk voice,

"Come, Ed, Lu. Let's go and join the party." The young ones turned and waved at us and Susan smiled sadly at me and left without a word to Peter and I forgave her for all she'd done and said.

Pansy turned to Aslan at that point and started questioning him about how we are to get home, and both of them turned their backs discreetly at Peter and me. I swear I saw a very amused spark in Aslan's eye eyes before he turned.

Peter and I stood in front of each other looking rather embarrassed, I couldn't really think of anything appropriate to say.

Then Peter looked up with a wicked little smile playing at his lips and closed the distance between us, and his lips found mine. It was the most amazing kiss we shared by far, we purred all our longing and love and desperation of my departure into it. After what felt like years we finally broke apart and I felt my head swimming with delight and lack of oxygen.

"Give this to Hannah for me." He whispered with a smile and turn to leave before I had a chance to say a word.

I stood looking after Peter, trying to fight back tears when I felt Pansy's warm hand slipping to hold mine, I squeezed her hand with silent thank.

We turned to face Aslan. The giant lion looked at us sadly, as if he too was sad about our leaving Narnia.

"Narnia and its people thank you, Harry Potter and Pansy Parkinson, for all your help. Now it is time for you to return to your own world, where you can offer further help and wise council." We both blushed at his words and he turned to a big oval feature covered with a velvet cloth, which he pulled with his teeth. Under the cloth stood an ancient mirror set in a heavy frame of gold, the surface of the mirror was old and scratched like an ice arena in the end of a harsh winter. We both approached the mirror and stood in front of it; it reflected us and the room through a grey haze.

"Walk through the mirror and you shall return to your world." Aslan's voice was quiet behind us. Pansy and I looked at each other and nodded resolutely and took a deep breath before putting our free hands before us and gingerly walking forward.

Our fingers sank into the mirror's surface like it was made of water and I heard Pansy gulping beside me. I tightened my grip on her hand and we took another step forward, and then another until the darkness enveloped us both.


A/N:

The bit about the sunsets is from "The little prince" (which is one of my all times favourites).

The bit about the mirror surface is a small tribute to Gerald Durrel's "Rosy is my relative", another one of my favourites. (It's not an accurate quote because to my chagrin I've never actually read it in English- it's like impossible to find this book anymore… sniff sniff)