*Peeks out from under the rock she's been hiding under* Hello, anybody there? Sorry, I did say that I would try to not go two weeks without an update, but things just didn't work out. I had a very difficult time getting started on this chapter, and a very difficult time deciding what I wanted in it as well. I will say that there are likely be another couple of chapters that will take over two weeks to get posted. Sorry, that is just the way it is going to have to be. I'm in a very critical part of the plot and I need to make sure I get everything right.

Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing C. S. Lewis' charming characters and world, and will eventually return them. The only thing that is mine is the plot.

Disclaimer 2: If this story in any way resembles any other fanfiction it is by complete accident, as I go out of my way to avoid reading fanfictions that resemble mine until mine are completed. My apologies to any other great minds.

Author's note: This story is set pre-, during- and post- The Last Battle. I am a first time fanfiction writer and any reviews are appreciated.

Chapter Fourteen: Do You Believe in Magic?

Everyone who was staying at the Pevensie house was up and about by nine o'clock on Christmas morning. There was the usual bustle of getting dressed and finding coffee and tea, and then everyone settled around the Christmas tree in the living room. With nine people crammed into the room it was rather crowded and Leona ended curled up on the floor next to Peter.

Peter had pulled Leona off to the side before they joined the others. He had left her at the girls' room late the previous evening with a kiss and an admonishment to get some sleep. She looked better this morning; almost completely back to normal. Her eyes were still a little puffy from crying, but she was calm and seemed happy.

"How are you doing?" Peter asked her, quietly.

"Much better," Leona replied. "Thank you for last night. I've never had the opportunity to really talk to someone about my family for years, other than Prowler. It helps to talk to a human, cats just aren't the same!"

Peter chuckled. "At your service, my lady! Slaying dragons, rescuing fair maidens and the occasional heart-to-heart are my specialties."

She grinned up at him. "Is there anything you can't do?"

He seemed to give the question serious thought for a moment. "I can't sew. I've tried. I don't think Susan and Lucy have laughed so hard in their lives."

Leona started giggling. "That's all right, as I am perfectly capable of sewing anything you need. Except for maybe a tent. I'm not so great with large projects."

Arm in arm, Peter led Leona into the living room to join the others for presents.

After everyone had found comfortable seats, Lucy, Jill and Eustace went on their hands and knees digging under the tree. Leona jumped to her feet with a little cry.

"Oh, I forgot to bring the presents I brought downstairs. Peter, would you come and help me with the box? I'd hate to drop it," she said, heading for the door.

Peter willingly got up to help. Edmund started chuckling as he passed.

"She's got you well trained already, Peter," Edmund said teasingly.

Peter aimed a smack at his brother's head, but didn't reply. Leona however, did.

"Oh, he was already domesticated when I found him," she said with a cheeky grin. "It was just a matter of housebreaking him."

Peter's jaw dropped indignantly. "I am not a dog, you know!"

"Of course not, dear," Leona replied. "You are most definitely a cat. Handsome, confidant, and incapable of admitting you're wrong!"

The room burst out laughing. Peter crossed his arms and looked sulky.

"And here I thought you wanted my help," he said.

Leona sauntered back into the room, and put one small hand on his large one. She looked up into his eyes, and said, "Please, Peter?"

Peter kept moving his head to avoid looking at her, and loosing his snit. He knew that she was only playing and so was he, but he was at least going to make her beg now that she had compared him to a house cat, and in front of the family no less! She finally managed to get him to look at her, and sure enough, his snit vanished in a heartbeat. She was looking up at him with sweet, innocent, hazel eyes and there was just a hint of a pout on her full lips.

"Please?" she said again.

"Alright," Peter said. "Cheeky little wench. But you owe me for calling me a house cat."

Leona went up on tip-toe to kiss his cheek, and then popped out of the room. Peter followed her up the stairs to the girls' room and carried the large box downstairs. Before going into the living room he set the box down and pulled Leona into his arms.

"You know, a piddly kiss on the cheek is hardly fair recompense for all the teasing Edmund is going to give me for being compared to a domesticated house cat," Peter said.

"Oh, really," Leona drawled. "So you were thinking of something a little more impressive?"

"Maybe," Peter managed to say, before her soft lips were on his. He felt her arms go around his neck, then the only thing in the world were his lips and the wonderful sensations hers were inspiring there. A few moments later, she pulled away an inch or so.

"Happy Christmas, Peter," were her soft words.

He smiled. "Happy Christmas, Leona."

She pulled out of his embrace and headed back towards the living room. "We had better get back before they send Edmund out to find us."

Peter gave a full body shudder at the thought of the heckling he would receive from his brother if Edmund had caught him and Leona kissing in the hallway. He picked up the box and followed Leona.

Jill and Lucy had passed out presents until everyone had a quite respectable pile in front of them. Leona reached into her box and started handing presents out as well, keeping Peter's present hidden in the box. "I want you to open yours last," she said.

Paper and ribbons were everywhere within a few moments. Presents were opened and exclaimed over. Susan gave a delighted squeal at the book that her package from Peter revealed. By some chance Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and Jill were all opening their gifts from Peter at the same time. The lion pendants for the girls and the rings for the men were originally meant as just a reminder of times spent in another world. But with the upcoming attempt to send Jill and Eustace back into Narnia, the Lion on the jewelry had more meaning than ever. Peter saw Susan clutching her book to her chest like a shield, and Peter was suddenly grateful that he and Leona had only found the jewelry after he had gotten Susan's present. He knew that with her self-chosen denial of Narnia, she would not have enjoyed the reminder of the land she had once ruled, and he was relieved that any awkwardness was avoided.

Lucy had gotten up and embraced her brother, with a murmured, "Thank you so much. I love it!" The Narnians were slipping on the gifts and Peter answered a questioning look from Edmund by subtly showing his right hand where a matching ring adorned his finger. His younger brother gave a little nod that said that everything was as it should be.

Lucy gave a long package each to Peter, Edmund and Eustace. "I thought these might be fun for you to practice with."

Each of the boys opened their gifts and found a long wooden practice sword. Peter and Edmund both pounced on their sister in glee. While the boys were still at school together they had been able to spar and keep up their skills, but once Peter left for college, they had no opportunity or equipment. Eustace looked happy as well, but also a little dismayed at the thought of being Peter and Edmund's 'new blood'. He had been taught how to fight in Narnia, but had not been able to sword fight since then. He and Jill had both been practicing archery since the boarding school they attended had an archery range, but he hadn't held a sword since he'd returned from Narnia. He feebly hoped his cousins would go easy on him.

Peter looked around the room. There were piles of wrapping paper and opened presents everywhere, but no other presents to be opened. He turned to Leona. He had also kept his present for Leona until the end, thinking that it would be a nice way of ending the morning. He reached into his pocket for the small jewelry box. He had kept the ring in his room, planning on using it for a later gift. As an engagement ring, a small voice in the back of his head murmured.

Leona suddenly looked a little nervous as Peter handed her the small box. Peter could see his mother across the room look excited.

Leona slowly opened the little package, and gasped when she saw the golden lion necklace inside. "Oh, Peter," she breathed. "It's beautiful! Help me put it on!"

Peter willingly pulled her hair aside and fastened the clasp, pressing a quick kiss to the base of her neck before letting her go. He noticed his mother looking slightly disappointed. He guessed that she was hoping he would offer Leona a piece of jewelry that was round and involved him on one knee, proposing. It's on my to-do list, he thought. Maybe for Valentine's Day...

"Now for your present, Peter," Leona said, reaching into the box behind her.

She handed him a very long package that was surprisingly heavy. Peter pulled the ribbon and paper away. He lifted the lid and his face went pale.

"Where did you find this?" he asked, looking at Leona.

"Estate sale actually," she replied. "It was in horrible condition when I bought it, but I know a smith in Canterbury who restored it for me."

All eyes were on Peter as he drew the sword from its scabbard. It was simple and unadorned, a plain solder's sword, and it looked very little like Rhindon, the sword he had wielded as High King. But, its blade was keen and the weight and balance perfect. He heard gasps from his siblings and he knew that he must present quite a picture, holding a sword in his hand once again. He looked down at Leona who had a curious look on her face; satisfaction and excitement.

"I know that it's no Excalibur, and I'm hardly the Lady of the Lake, but I think that it still suits you," she said.

With a sense of deja-vu, he slid the sword back into its sheath, in the same fluid motion that he had sheathed the first sword he had owned, on a Christmas morning so many years ago, in a place so far from here.

"Thank you," he told Leona simply, but sincerely. "More than you can know."

She smiled back at him as he passed the sheathed sword around to the others to look at.

"Why isn't this in a museum somewhere?" Edmund asked. "It is either a replica or at least four hundred years old!"

Leona shook her head. "It's real, alright. It was just in bad enough condition that it would have needed to be completely reforged in order to look good enough to display. The museum didn't want it."

She turned to Peter. "It's not a very practical gift. You are highly unlikely to ever need a sword in England, but I saw it and knew that it should belong to you. Now you are one step closer to matching the description that Anthony gave me when we first met."

"Oh, we really don't need to remember the drivel that Anthony was spouting that afternoon," Peter said, trying to get Leona to avoid repeating Anthony's overly flattering description.

Leona was having none of it. "What did he call you again? Ah, yes. The epitome of chivalry, a true 'Knight in Shining Armor.'"

Peter rolled his eyes as Edmund and Eustace snickered.

"Anthony talks too much," Peter muttered.

Leona smiled. "Anthony may be a bit over the top at times," she admitted. She picked up the sword that had made a pass around the room and had come back to her. She knelt by Peter's feet and holding it flat with both hands, offered him the blade. "This sword is also to remind you that even though Anthony may have been joking, that doesn't mean that he wasn't right."

As they all left the living room to take their gifts upstairs, Edmund pulled Peter aside.

"Now I see what you meant about Leona bringing out the High King!" Edmund said. "Are you sure she doesn't know about Narnia?"

Peter shrugged. "I haven't told her yet, so if she does it's because she's been there herself. I should think one of us would have heard about it in Narnia if she had, though. Visitors from our world are usually called there for a reason and tend to cause a stir. I should think she would be too old to have gone after Eustace and Jill got back the last time, so I doubt she would have been there since we last had word."

Edmund nodded. "For what it's worth, I think you should tell her. But not until after the holidays. It's just too crazy right now."

"I'm planning on it, I just need to sound her out a bit more," Peter said. "She could just be seeing the Narnian part of me coming out, and is reacting to that. I know that she is attracted to chivalry and the more noble parts of human nature. Narnia did make me a better man that I would have been otherwise."

"Maybe," Edmund replied. "She says things that make me feel that she knows more than she should. But, then I look back on what she actually said, and I realize that it could just as easily be a lucky guess or an innocent observation. I just can't tell."

"I can't tell either," Peter said, clapping his brother on the shoulder as he made to leave the room. "But either way, does it really matter?"

The day was spent playing with new gifts and talking. After lunch, Polly and Digory arrived and there was another short round of gift exchanging. Peter managed to give the two older Narnians their gifts in private and mentioned how each of the others had a matching piece.

"It's a way of binding us together," Peter said, slightly embarrassed at the sentimentality of his gifts.

"I agree," Digory said, easing Peter's discomfort. "It is a way to connect us, and remind us of Narnia, even when we are far apart from each other."

Dinner was a culinary delight. There were vegetables of every kind, breads, salads, and a glorious roast. The conversations were a bit more formal than usual, and efforts were made to ensure that Jill and Leona both felt welcome and comfortable. Every topic under the sun was discussed, from the semester tests that the children had taken, to the gifts that were received that morning.

"I sense that you had something to do with Peter's taste improving this year, Leona. He has never been this good at finding presents," Lucy was saying. Lucy had fallen in love with her earrings from Leona and had not taken them off since she had gotten them. "It was almost magical, the way that you knew just what everyone would like."

Leona gave a little laugh. "While I will admit that I did accompany Peter on his little shopping excursion, I wouldn't necessarily call it magical."

Aunt Polly saw an opportunity and took it. "Do you believe in magic, Leona?"

The majority of the table got a little quieter in anticipation of Leona's answer. All of Peter's family and friends had quite approved of Leona, but everything would depend on her response to Peter telling her about Narnia. Peter held his breath.

Leona seemed to think for a minute before slowly answering. "I suppose that depends on what you mean by magic. If you are talking about the pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat sort of magic, than no. That's just slight of hand. Witches and wizards and other sorts of that kind of magic, I suppose I believe in the possibility of their existence..." She trailed off, but looked introspective. "But, there are other kinds of magic. There is magic in many everyday things; a vibrant sunset over the ocean, a baby's first breath, the love between a man and a woman. All of those things are magic. As far as I'm concerned, there is magic in everything beautiful, if only you are willing to see it."

She looked up at the rest of the table and started blushing. "I'm sorry, it's just a pet subject of mine... I didn't mean to ramble on like that." She looked highly embarrassed.

The Professor spoke first. "Don't be ashamed. You are wiser than your years should account for."

Leona seemed to recover her spunk. "Well, age does not have the monopoly on wisdom, just on experience."

Digory raised his glass to her in salute of a well spoken reply. "Very true, and even experience does not bring wisdom, even though it should."

"Well, wisdom is not universal either," Leona countered. "One man's wisdom is another man's foolishness."

The Professor threw back his head and laughed heartily. "You have my respect, Leona. I have a feeling that you didn't learn that in school," he said.

Peter and Susan exchanged little smiles, remembering the Professor muttering under his breath "Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?" The Professor seemed to have a poor opinion of any school at which he didn't teach.

Lucy finally asked a question that she was interested in hearing Leona answer. "What about mythological animals? What do you think about them?"

Susan broke in before Leona could answer. "Lucy, is this really a subject for the dinner table? Not everyone shares your interest in legends."

Lucy looked grumpy for a moment, but Leona came to her rescue.

"Of course it is, Susan!" Leona said with a laugh. "This is the dinner table and we are talking about it, so thus it stands to reason that it is a subject for the dinner table!" She shared a wink with Lucy.

"To answer your question, Lucy," Leona said. "I assume that you are talking about dragons and sphinxes and such? Well, I don't think they exist anymore, or someone would have found evidence of them. But, I do think that they must have existed sometime, somewhere or there would not have been so many cultures with similar legends."

"That makes sense," Mrs. Pevensie said, joining in the conversation for the first time. "Either that or it was some drunken man spotting a large eagle and thinking it was a dragon. He tells his friends and the next time his friends get drunk and see a large eagle they say that they have seen a dragon as well!"

"It would be amusing to see how many folk stories are based off of a true event and how many are completely made up," Lucy said.

"We shall never know," Digory said philosophically.

Dinner had ended and the men had been shunted out to the living room so the women could clean up without interference. Leona and Susan were put to work washing the dishes; Leona washing and Susan drying and putting the dishes away. All of the other women had already left the kitchen and the two girls were left alone.

Susan broke the friendly silence.

"Leona, I have something to admit to you," Susan said, awkwardly.

Leona gave her a quizzical look in reply.

"I overheard your conversation with Peter last night," Susan confessed. "Actually, it was more of eavesdropping than overhearing, and I just wanted to apologize."

Leona looked uncomfortable. "So you know about my family," she said.

"Leona, I'm so sorry," Susan burst out. "I know I shouldn't have eavesdropped and I feel horrible about it. Can you forgive me?"

Leona abandoned her dish washing and turned to look at Susan. "Are you sorry because you eavesdropped or sorry because of what you heard?"

Susan looked confused, so Leona elaborated.

"Would you still feel guilty about eavesdropping if Peter and I had been talking about something else?"

Susan thought about it for a moment. "I don't know. I probably wouldn't have bothered listening if you hadn't been talking about something interesting. I knew I should have left as soon as I realized it was a private conversation rather than just you two chatting, but you are quite the mystery and I was curious." Susan looked at her feet, ashamed.

"At least you're honest," Leona said with a sigh. "You're forgiven. But, next time just ask if you want to know something about me. I may not be able to tell you, but at least you would be up front about it."

Susan gave Leona a relieved smile. "Thank you."

The girls worked in silence for a few more minutes then Susan said, "How did you manage? Losing your family like that must have been so difficult. I never would be able to handle being all on my own."

"It wasn't easy. I had to take each day as it came, get through life minute by minute until the pain dulled," Leona said. "It broke my spirit, at least for a while. I felt so incredibly alone, until I realized that they weren't truly gone. I could still feel them by my side, supporting me until I healed enough to stand on my own."

Susan didn't respond, and Leona turned and looked at her with a wry smile. "You are very easy to talk to, Susan Pevensie. I don't think I've told anyone other than Peter this much about myself."

Susan gave a small shrug. "I'm a good listener." She tried awkwardly to tuck a strand of hair back into her bun, but at her touch the bun collapsed. With a sigh of exasperation Susan picked up the ribbon that had come loose and attempted to retie the bow. Leona reached around to help and said as she did so, "I'd like us to be friends, you and I."

Susan smiled. "I'd like that too."

"I will admit it would be heavenly to have someone to talk 'girl talk' with," Leona said, finishing her work on Susan's bun. "Peter may be the love of my life, but he is useless when I want to talk about anything he considers 'girly'."

Half an hour later, Peter came looking for the two missing women and found them in the kitchen looking over several fashion magazines and playing with each other's hair. He took one look, turned on his heel and left before they could try and involve him. The last thing he wanted was to be asked his opinion on some silly hairstyle. He went back to the living room and told the others that the girls were getting to know each other. Peter was a bit surprised by how easily Leona made friends with Susan. He had thought that Leona and Lucy would have become bosom friends within minutes, but he knew that Leona didn't have any women friends so she probably connected with Susan because of their similar ages. For all her sweet and endearing ways, Lucy was still at least five years younger than Leona so it was to be expected that Susan would turn out to be a closer friend.

A little while later, Mrs. Pevensie sent Edmund to fetch the two women from the kitchen and make them socialize with the rest of the family. Or, as Mrs. Pevensie put it, "I'm not about to let Susan have Leona all to herself!" When Susan and Leona came in, they were still a little giggly and Peter wondered what they had been talking about.

As Leona sat down next to him, Peter asked her, "What in heaven's name were you two talking about in there?"

"Oh, Susan was just telling me some interesting stories about you and your siblings," Leona said, lightly. "Is it true that you once sledded down the main street on a door instead of your sled?"

Peter choked. "She told you about that? Never mind, I shall be having a word with my lovely sister about what stories are appropriate for sharing." He glared daggers at Susan who gave him an arch look and an unrepentant giggle.

"Oh, don't worry, Peter," Leona said. "I have a feeling that sledding stories will be the least of the tales I'll hear by the end of this visit."

Peter felt rather sick as he realized that Leona was probably right.

TBC...