Disclaimer: Still not mine :)

A/N: As promised, here's chapter twenty-two! Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Two: Advances

"Edmund likes me."

Hermione had no idea what made her say it. It was an ordinary day, with her hanging out with Lucy in the said queen's bedroom. It just… came out.

Lucy's action was instant. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and she jumped from her bed. She towered over Hermione and started to circle her. The brunette stared at her, a little dumbstruck, but the queen did not seem to mind.

"I KNEW IT!" she finally cried.

The brunette blinked and frowned. "You knew?" she asked.

The queen sighed and once again sat on her bed and forced Hermione to look at her. "I've known Edmund my entire life, Hermione, so of course I know when he acts so unlike himself," she stated matter-of-factly. "Specifically because he had started to harbour feelings towards my lady-in-waiting."

Hermione's cheeks slightly reddened with embarrassment. Hearing it casually from Lucy's lips made her strangely embarrassed. "I've rejected him," she softly added, completely freezing the queen on her seat.

"You…" Lucy started, dumbfounded by her words. But then, understanding appeared on her face, and she shook her head. "So that explains his sudden grouchiness." The young queen licked her lips and continued, "Why?"

The brunette felt dreadful as she scowled and looked away from her. "It's not the right time," she explained, desperate for Lucy to understand, seeing that her brother refused to believe so. "We're in a war, Lucy. Well, a looming war."

The youngest Pevensie seemed to contemplate Hermione's words. Finally, she sighed. "I have this feeling that I should be angry with you for breaking my brother's heart but I just… can't," she said. "Still, your reason doesn't make sense at all."

Hermione frustratingly stood up from her seat and started to pace. "Affections don't make sense," she reasoned out. "Rejecting such a wonderful, beautiful feeling doesn't make sense, too." The brunette stopped and rounded about, her face full of desperation. "Please, understand that I have no intention of hurting Edmund. I… He'd become special to me, Lucy. I just... I think that I just need to focus more on my part as the Chosen One."

Lucy sighed and stood up, approaching Hermione and holding both of her hands. "All right, all right, I'll try to understand you," the young queen said, squeezing her hands. "But you still have overlooked another problem, Hermione."

The brunette's face scrunched up in confusion. "What problem?" she asked.

The queen pursed her lips, intently stared at Hermione, and said, "Peter."

"That's it," Peter hollered, his hands cupped around his mouth to resonate his voice. "You're doing great!"

Hermione pulled back the reins to halt Harry from trotting. Her black horse followed with ease and soon, both of them were standing in front of the High King.

A huge beam was seen on Hermione's face as she effortlessly dismounted herself from the black horse. "I did it!" she cried, her heart almost bursting out in joy. "I finally did it!"

The smile that Peter had returned was ten times brighter than Hermione's. "Yes, you did," he earnestly said. "Congratulations."

Hermione was currently having her horseback riding lessons with Peter. She was to control Harry into galloping, like the wind if she were to describe it, and her apprehension had been evident ever since they trotted into the Gentle Meadows.

She had started using Harry a few weeks ago and it made her pleased that the horse was easy to get along with. Even though Stardust was a brilliant horse, Hermione thought that her coordination with her new, black horse was better than her and Stardust. Thus, riding on him was easier than what she had originally thought. Harry seemed to always sense what his owner felt and Hermione was happy for such a sensitive horse. Sadly, she would always think about her wizard best friend and thought that he shared some traits with her horse.

The brunette laughed, imagining the horror on Harry's face if he discovered that Hermione was likening him to a mere horse. 'But it's true, Harry,' she murmured inside her head. 'Just look at him.'

"Let's take a break first," Peter then said, breaking her off her reverie. He lifted a small basket for her to see and beamed. "I asked Babbity to prepare us some lunch since I foreshadowed that our lesson would take longer than expected."

Peter placed a picnic blanket at the middle of the meadow and sat down, one-by-one pulling out the contents from the basket.

Awkwardly, Hermione stood frozen on her spot and stared. It was only when Peter cajoled her to sit down when she plopped down on the blanket, making sure to leave a good, wide space between her and the High King.

"Does… Lucy and the others know?" she softly asked.

The High King shook his hand in dismissal. "Lucy said for us to have fun," he explained, grabbing a sandwich from one of the plates and taking a bite from it. "I'm sure they won't mind."

"Right," she sarcastically muttered, envisioning Edmund's reaction over this ordeal. Thankfully, Peter was not able to catch her sarcasm and resumed eating.

After a few moments of contemplation, Hermione finally decided to grab one apple placed on top of the blanket. She took a bite from it and looked away, aware of Peter's eyes following her every move.

"Is it all right?" he asked, absentmindedly producing his handkerchief from his pocket and offering it to Hermione.

She thankfully clutched the cloth and wiped her mouth, sending him a small smile. "Yes, thank you," she said.

He nodded and then comfortable silence ensued.

At the corner of her eyes, Hermione stared at the High King calculatingly. As days passed by, his fancy towards her became more and more evident. It was egotistical for her to think, but even his siblings and Caspian were noticing that Peter was starting to become extra mindful of her.

Dread filled her heart as she immediately looked away and stared at her lap. 'Not you, too,' she thought with an audible sigh.

Peter was High King; hence, his responsibility was far greater than his other siblings, namely, Edmund. If she had rejected Edmund due to his responsibilities as the Narnian King, then she would downright reject Peter because he was High King.

'What happened to lying low?' she asked herself, a small frown now forming on her lips. The moment she woke up into the magical land of Narnia, Hermione had already decided not to attract too much attention to herself. She was new and this place held too much magic and mystery for her to act lax and careless.

She never regretted saving Lucy from those Telmarine rebels. Merlin, she had no idea what would happen to Narnia and the Pevensies if something awful had happened to Lucy. But doing so made her closer to the royalties, and she managed to successfully trigger weird feelings from the two Pevensie brothers and she had no idea what to do.

Contemplating Peter's feelings for her made her remember Edmund's. With a frown, she shifted on her seat and stared straight ahead, her eyes immediately landing on Stardust and Harry.

As days went by, Edmund's coldness grew. They never talked anymore. Even during swordsmanship lessons was a struggle because Edmund made it a point never to comment or instruct her how to do things at all. There were times when he would actually ditch their lessons and Hermione would be all alone in the Place of Arms, fighting back pained tears.

"I don't think that whatever we do, we'll go back to our old ways."

Hermione closed her eyes as his last words rang loudly in her head, prompting her to tiredly sigh. Undoubtedly, she had hurt Edmund and due to the pain that she had inflicted on him, he refused to acknowledge her as a friend. Scowling, she realized that he was a kind of person who would be bitter over things he did not achieve – a strong trait of a competitive soldier and leader.

'Why can't he just accept that there are far greater things than… what he wanted from me?' Hermione grumbled in her mind, annoyed that Edmund's sudden indifference was still affecting her after all this time.

It was plainly obvious that he wanted to be something more to her. She had unknowingly managed to make herself suddenly a very important person in his life, making her think what Edmund was exactly to her.

'A friend, most definitely,' she told herself, absentmindedly taking another bite from the apple. 'From being the most insufferable person I had ever met, he became one of the most important friends I have.'

That was it, right? Hermione kept on asking herself. He was just that to her so there was no reason for her to become so guilty over her decision to reject him. He was an important friend, yes, and she cared enough for him not to lead him on.

So, why was this nagging voice inside her head kept on telling her that the best decision she should have ever made in her whole life was to accept his affections?

"Hermione?" Peter asked, surprising her as he placed his hand atop her free hand. "Are you all right? You seemed awfully quite today and I'm starting to worry."

Slowly, she retrieved her hand back and placed it on top of her lap. With a small smile, she said, "I feel all right, your highness. Just… a little tired."

It was partly true. She obviously did not feel all right; thus, the tiredness she was feeling was not merely 'little'. Instead, it was the kind of tiredness that even reached the tips of her hair strands and Hermione believed that no amount of rests would replenish that seemingly lost energy.

"Do you like to go back?" he asked, a hint of disappointment in his voice. He forlornly looked at the meal he had prepared, prompting Hermione to swallow. Here was the High King of Narnia, the most powerful being next to Aslan himself, and he had stooped down so low just to make her happy with a small picnic he had prepared with the help of Babbity.

"I…no," she lied, cursing the compassionate side in her. Her simple words had a massive impact on the king since his eyes lit up and a big smile stretched on his face. It was funny how transparent Peter Pevensie was to her. She could almost read him like an open book, perhaps the usual cliché ones with predictable endings, which made Hermione frustrated in the end.

Peter then nodded his head and grabbed another sandwich from the plate and gave it to Hermione. "Here, try this. I am sure you will like this because it was Babbity who made it," he offered.

Hermione gingerly accepted the sandwich and thanked him. He flashed her a charming smile before returning back to his meal.

Soon, silence once again settled between the two of them.

Just when Hermione's mind almost flew away, Peter spoke up and the next words that came from her mouth froze her on the spot. "Is something going on between you and Edmund?" he asked.

Hermione jolted on her seat and stared at him, open-mouthed. 'Does he know? Does he know?' she frantically asked herself again and again in her mind. When his eyes landed on her, Hermione knew he would never back away without a decent answer from her. "W-what do you mean?" she stumbled, clearing her voice to cover her nervousness.

A soft laugh escaped from Peter's mouth, amused by the look of panic on her face. "You don't talk anymore," he plainly said.

In spite of herself, she smiled. "Lucy said the same thing," she pointed out.

"Ah, so my youngest sister noticed, too," he said, regarding her calculatingly. "Did… Edmund do something?"

She immediately looked away, her cheeks oddly flushing at the mention of his name. "I'm not really sure if he'd like you to know," she slowly said with honesty.

To her surprise, he placed a hand on her arm and gave it a squeeze. "I'm not afraid of Edmund," he stated so deathly serious it almost made her laugh.

Hermione shook her head and smiled at him reassuringly. She placed her hand on top of his and said, "No, no, don't misunderstand. Edmund is not doing anything. At all. I swear." 'In fact, I'm the one who had been causing this fiasco between him and me.'

She watched as his cheeks colored, his eyes shooting a look at her hand. Slowly, she unlatched his hand from her arm and placed it back on the blanket. "Is it alarming? Me not talking to him?" she asked, a small, amused smile on her face. "I'm not really sure why everybody is starting to act a little worried over this small matter."

Peter laughed and shook his head, showing as if what she stated was preposterous. She frowned at him, making him laugh more. "We all know that you both had a rocky start," he said, calming down. "And, I think we already established that Edmund disliked you. But somehow, you managed to prove yourself to him, make him believe that you never wished any harm on us or Narnia. Which isn't surprising at all…" He faltered, giving her a pointed look, and Hermione sighed.

"What I'm saying is that, I've been living with Edmund for years now, Hermione," he continued. "I've watched him grow, took care of him at times, and I could read him like an open book. I think this little row of yours is affecting him. After all, you are his friend."

Hermione willed herself not to snort. 'Friend. Right,' she bitterly thought, once again remembering Edmund's last words to her.

"Edmund rarely trusts people," he added. "It's a wonder why Aslan bestowed him the title of the Just. Perhaps, it was because of his encounter with the White Witch during our first arrival in Narnia and how he immediately switched back to our side after seeing Jadis' true colors. And, he is a one, stubborn bloke. Trust me; I've been living under the same roof with him and he could throw monumental tempers if he wanted to do so. I… I just don't want him to lose a dear friend, Hermione."

The brunette sighed and looked squarely into Peter's eyes. She smiled at him, seeing his obvious love for his younger brother, and regretted the next words that came out from her mouth.

"I'm quite sure he doesn't want me to be his friend anymore."

Hermione released a shriek of horror as she ducked in time. The tip of Edmund's sword slashed on the place where her face used to be. In the end, it had hit the stone wall behind her, leaving quite a large dent, making the brunette realize that he had placed quite a lot of effort in that hit.

"I told you to duck!" he roared, anger written all over his face as he glared down at her. He released his sword with a loud clang, landing dangerously close to Hermione.

The brunette, indignant and incensed, abruptly stood up to her fullest height. Her nostrils flared, her cheeks red with anger, and her eyes were narrowed. "No, you did not!" she retorted back, trying her best to control her anger but to no avail. "I think it somehow slipped off your mind that you are not talking to me, remember? You overlooked the fact that you should have warned me to duck when you tried to slash your sword at me."

She paused, heaving with unsuppressed anger. Her face was dangerously close to his. Edmund, like her, was equally heaving heavily.

'I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!' she threw at him in her mind, coming up with imaginative ways of cursing him with her wand if she could produce magic.

Hermione looked behind her at the dent on the wall. She swallowed the furious and horrified lump in her throat. She almost had that dent on her face and if she did not duck on time, she was afraid all the Chosen One crap regarding Jadis' comeback would all be gone to waste.

She looked back at him, still fuming, and thanked the heaves above that she was currently magic-less. Else, Edmund would realize that he should not mess with the brightest witch of her age.

"I'm sorry."

Her eyes widened and she stared. "E-excuse me?" she asked. Did she hear him right or was she merely hallucinating the words she wanted to hear from him?

Edmund sighed and looked away from her, running a hand through his hair. Hermione noticed how his right hand, the hand that held his sword a while ago, was uncontrollably shaking.

Her glare had softened and she stared at him, a myriad of emotions swirling in her heart. Amidst this, she was only sure of one thing – he was not shaking due to anger.

"I-I'm sorry," he repeated once again, gritting his teeth in annoyance. "I… Blast."

In spite of herself, Hermione tiredly sighed and lifted one corner of her lips. "All right," she said. "Because you stuttered."

His eyes suddenly hardened and his back snapped, ramrod straight. His schooled his features and took a step back, once again coolly looking down at Hermione. The brunette, on the other hand, sighed at his sudden change of mood. She concluded that he had finally realized that he was talking to her when it was obvious that he had sworn not to.

"Let's take a break," she offered. He wordlessly nodded his head and bent down, grabbing his sword. He strode towards once again the ledge that he always occupied when they were on breaks. And Hermione, as usual, plopped down on the place where she was currently standing on.

The tension in the room became thicker even though they were feet apart. Hermione's head rested tiredly against the wall; Edmund's forehead leaned against the dirty window.

'It's getting worse,' she thought with an inaudible sigh. She shot him a quick look, annoyed that his face was unreadable.

As days passed by, his indifference became worse and Hermione merely accepted this with bitter and sad feelings.

"I'm quite sure he doesn't want to be my friend anymore." The words she had uttered to Peter during their mini-picnic in the Gentle Meadows once again appeared in her mind. What she had said were true; Edmund did not want to accept her friendship anymore. Obviously, he wanted something more and she could not give it. Hence, his infamous cold shoulder.

Yes, they were feet apart, and yet, their minds were thinking of the same thing.

With horror, Edmund stared at his right hand. He softly growled, annoyed that because of his current indifference, he almost had hurt the object of his affections.

It was petty for him, of course, to ignore Hermione Granger; to believe that she was a mere being filled with molecules and nothing more. But somehow, he viewed it as his defense mechanism. He was afraid that if he continued to notice her despite her blatant rejection of his feelings, she would sooner or later break him. Effortlessly.

He accepted the fact that he was at fault for almost injuring Lucy's lady-in-waiting. She had a point when he overlooked his precaution for her to duck down when he showed her the new sword movement he was currently teaching her. Of course, she did not need to know that. After all, he had made this personal vow to have as minimal contact and conversation with her as possible.

Things were getting worse and worse between them as days went by. Sometimes, he would catch her shooting him forlorn and hopeful looks, which he would always pretend to ignore. Her looks had always caused this weird stirring in his heart and he admired himself for being able to hide it from her.

His ignorance was hurting her, too; he knew it did. And somehow, it made him triumphant, making her feel what she was making him feel – hurting. It was evil of him, very caddish and unregal, but he thought it would be unfair that his pain was only one-sided.

Edmund rubbed the heels of his hand against his eyes. 'I'm such a bastard,' he thought with a soft, forlorn chuckle, once again feeling Hermione's hopeful eyes on him.

He tried his very best no to stand up, throw his arms in the air, and proclaim that her rejection of him did not mind him at all. He tried his very best not to give her a reassuring hug and tell her that he had forgive her for carelessly rejecting him.

On that day, though, he swore that he'd be a little less harsh. He did not want what had happened today to happen ever again.

They were in the forest, picking ingredients for a simple healing serum that Hermione was able to research during one of their sessions.

Lucy, with a small frown on her face, stared at her lady-in-waiting at the corner of her eyes. She released a humongous sigh, and then, without any warning, she clutched the brunette's hand and squeezed it tight. Hermione lifted her eyes and stared at the queen in bewilderment, but Lucy merely shrugged. Hermione gave her a small, distracted grin before ones again looking ahead, her mind immediately drifting with the clouds.

The youngest Pevensie silently observed the young witch and was dismayed with what she had discovered. Dark bags were prominent under her tired eyes. A small, contemplative frown seemed to be always permanently glued on their face. Seeing this made Lucy realize that the current, bizarre love triangle she was suddenly thrown into was not exactly Hermione could handle.

"Are you all right?" she asked, already knowing her answer.

The brunette slowly turned her head and thoughtfully tilted her face at Lucy. "I think you already know my answer," she pointed out, prompting Lucy to smile. It was funny how they could already read each other, with Hermione mostly doing the reading.

"Do you want to rest for a bit?" the queen offered and Hermione absentmindedly nodded her head.

They sat down on a protruded root. Silence was heard between them but Lucy did not seem to mind. Her lady-in-waiting was once again busy making the motors in her mind work and she did not want to interrupt her at all.

As days passed by, Lucy started to notice that Edmund's indifference… worsened. He seemed not to address Hermione's presence anymore. During meals, he merely talked to Peter and Caspian, and them alone, or just quietly finish his food. Their swordsmanship lessons had momentarily stopped, having skipped three meetings already. She had heard from Hermione that their last lesson had almost injured the brunette and thought that having a hiatus would do both of them some good.

'Oh, what are you doing to yourselves?' Lucy asked, wordlessly shaking her head in disappointment.

Truthfully, Lucy Pevensie thought that Hermione Granger was merely in denial. Which was funny, because the brunette seemed adamant in believing that her feelings for Edmund were mere friendship.

The first time she stepped into Cair Paravel, Edmund's reaction had been instant. She was, after all, observing him. There were neither hostility nor suspicion in his eyes; just plain curiosity or perhaps a hint of awe. Therefore, the weeks that followed after Hermione's official stay in the castle were amusing and interesting for her. Even though Edmund believed that he despised the suspicious lady that appeared out of nowhere, Lucy was convinced of the otherwise.

Edmund had always loved mystery; it was a strong trait of his that made him an extremely good leader and warrior. And so, it did not really surprised Lucy when he became attracted to mysterious Hermione Granger. It gave him the challenge to know her, to discover the inner workings of her mind and heart.

Somehow, Lucy believed that for Edmund Pevensie, Hermione was a battle. And in that battle, Edmund was determined to win.

'When will you realize?' Lucy thought, looking hopelessly at Hermione. It was painfully obvious for her, although it wasn't for Edmund, Hermione, and even the others. Peter's apt description of her had always been a 'too observant person' and so, all the not-so-obvious things were perfectly obvious for her.

The stolen glances, the small smiles, the blushing cheeks, the witty banters… everything, everything screamed attraction and she could not believe that it was Edmund who had first succumbed to this idea when Hermione was far more intelligent.

She remembered that little scene she had barged into during their first lesson in swordsmanship. Their compromising position had filled the whole Place of Arms with sexual tension and Lucy cursed her bad timing. She knew that if she arrived later, for all she knew, they could be snogging the daylights out of each other.

Sometimes, she was just tended to grab both of their heads and push them together, proclaiming loud and clear, "Kiss."

"What?" Hermione distractedly asked, looking at Lucy with confusion in her eyes.

Lucy's eyes widened, surprised that she had uttered that word aloud. "Nothing, nothing," she smoothly lied, giving Hermione a sweet smile.

The brunette frowned and looked away, her eyes landing on her lap. "I've been thinking, Lucy," she said.

The queen nodded her head, a small smirk on her face. "I think we've already quite established that," she said, prompting Hermione to smile.

"I still don't understand, though," she continued. "Why… me?"

Lucy's eyebrows knitted together. "What 'why you'?" she asked.

Hermione's cheeks colored and she cleared her throat. "There are a lot of beautiful creatures here in Narnia," she elaborated slowly. "Creatures that have such awe-inspiring beauty. For instance, Thalia – "

The queen released a loud, unladylike snort. Hermione glared at her and she pursed her lips, although she failed miserably to hide her humoured smile.

"It's true. She's beautiful," Hermione interjected, frowning. "Although, her attitude is one of the worst I'd ever seen, therefore, forever making her ugly in my mind." She then shook her head, her mane flying all over the place. "But, that's not my point. My point is, why me? Why have affections for me when there are far more wonderful creatures in this magical land. You know, the type where I pale in comparison against them."

Lucy frowned, contemplating her words. Her lady-in-waiting had a point. As a ruling queen of Narnia, she had already seen a lot of beautiful creatures than the woman sitting beside her. But as she surveyed Hermione, coupled with all of the memories she had after her mysterious arrival in Narnia, she came up with an answer.

"You see, you have this certain charm," Lucy stated carefully. "I don't know. I think whenever I see you, there's this warm feeling surrounding you. We're amidst a war, Hermione, and I think it might sound extremely sappy for you, but the boys think you can be a beacon of light and hope for them."

Hermione softly laughed and shook her head. "Seems like a valid reason," she said with a small smile.

"Then why don't you - " Lucy stopped herself on time, afraid that her opinion would confuse Hermione more.

"Why don't I what?" the brunette asked, a look on confusion on her face, but Lucy shook her head.

"Never mind," the queen said with a reassuring smile. Hermione still gave her a suspicious look but then left her alone.

'That was close,' the queen thought, a secret smile on her face. She was meaning to tell Hermione to give Edmund a chance but held her tongue just in time. She'd rather that Hermione discovered it on her own while she watched in the sidelines.

'This would be interesting, then,' she thought, hoping that the next few days would be entertaining to watch.

A/N: So, good? Bad? Eh? Meh? I know it's a little shorter than the previous chapters but I try very hard :)

Yipee, I told you I'll update on Monday. I just came back from the team building thingy, which was AWESOME by the way, and I have like three more weeks of free time before I move to my new dorm away from home and start my new life as a college student. GAH, I'd like to thank all those who bade me good luck for being a pre-med student. I know for a fact that I'd be struggling a little, if not very much, once I start schooling.

Anyway, WOW, "When Two Worlds Collide" reached 400 plus reviews. I AWFULLY LOVE YOU GUYS. I can't believe that this story will have so many readers and reviewers when the pairing is not conventional. If I could thank you properly by hugging each and every one of you, then I would.

Chapter Twenty-Three will be VERY INTERESTING, I tell you. Do wait for my next update on Friday!

'Til next time :)

With love,
WickedlyAwesomeMe