A/N: so i just ended up deleting the entire rewritten version of the first chapter and starting 'afresh.' i like it much better... for now. so continuing on then--don't forget to review :))

"Peter! Peter! Wake up!" Lucy shouted, shaking her older brother.

He opened one eye to look at her before covering his face with a pillow.

"Come on Pete!" Edmund grumbled. "I'm hungry."

Peter sighed and rolled out of bed. The girls were already dressed and ready for the day but Edmund was still in his pajamas and slippers.

"Are you going down like that?" Peter asked, gesturing Edmund.

"Are you?" Edmund snapped back, pulling on a robe.

"No." He rolled his eyes. "Susan, Lucy, we'll be five minutes."

"Alright. But hurry up now. It's past eight. The Professor said last night that breakfast is generally at eight," Susan said as she shut the door behind her.

"Get dressed, Ed."

"Don't boss me around!"

Peter glared at his brother.

"Get dressed," he repeated coldly.

"Alright, alright."

Edmund dressed and was ready in no time at all. Peter fussed over his disobedient hair with a wet comb and, in Edmund's opinion spent a little too long deciding on what to wear.

"Come on!" Edmund moaned. His stomach rumbled softly.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go get the girls."

The girls were in their room making their beds.

"Took you long enough," Lucy commented as they started down the steps.

"Yeah, Ed," Peter looked over at his brother slyly.

"What?" Edmund shoved him. "It was you who couldn't decide on a shirt."

Susan gave Peter an inquisitive look. Peter shoved Edmund.

"Stop it, you two," Susan sighed. "Do any of you have any idea where we are or where we are going?"

"We're going to the kitchen," Peter said confidently, leading them through a door and down a staircase.

After five minutes of going up and down stairs and through doors Peter finally admitted that he didn't know where he was going.

"We've been going in circles," Lucy commented, gesturing at an umbrella stand that they had passed twice before.

"Have you?" Jade asked. They all jumped.

"How do you always turn up like that?" Edmund asked rudely. "It gets rather annoying."

"Well excuse me then. I'll just go." She pushed past Edmund, knocking him back into the wall.

"Hey!" he protested.

She turned around and stared him down. "Move next time."

Peter hurried after her down the hall, the girls and an even more cranky Edmund.

"Jade. Jade! Wait!" He grabbed her arm.

She stopped, taking his hand and removing it from her arm.

"Yes?"

"I er, we're a bit lost... again."

She didn't say anything.

"So would you be a dear and show us to the dining room?" Susan asked in a rush.

Jade smiled at Susan and Lucy. "I'd love to."

Susan grinned appreciatively at her. They linked arms and led the way.

"What's up with her?" Edmund asked Peter. Peter shrugged.

Mrs. Macready was in the dining room setting breakfast on the table.

"Good morning, Mrs. Macready," Jade said happily, sitting down at the table. Susan and Peter sat on either side of her.

"Indeed," Mrs. Macready said. "The Professor had an early breakfast and went into town to see an old friend. He leaves his apologies to all of you and a promise that he'll bring a new book home for you, dear."

Jade beamed at her.

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Jade was smiling and looking around at all of them, but she didn't say anything. A few comments were made about the cloudy weather and the scrambled eggs but other than that the only noise was that of forks on china.

"Pass the butter, will you Lu?" Susan asked.

Lucy obliged.

"Are you alright, Jade?" Lucy asked.

Jade's smile had faded and she was staring out the window with a slightly clouded expression. She turned slowly to face Lucy and gave her a serious look.

"I'm just thinking. I need to talk to the Professor when he gets back. Excuse me." And she got up and left.

"What's with her?" Lucy asked.

Edmund opened his mouth stupidly, rolling his eyes and twirling his index finger at the side of his head.

"She is not crazy!" Peter said defensively. He threw a cloth napkin at Edmund's face and exited the room, too.

He didn't know what had made him follow her. Something about her was just...magnetic. He couldn't help it. He looked up and down the hall and headed through an open door. He ran down another hallway and turned a corner just in time to see a door close. He hesitated before opening it but found the room empty.

"Jade?" he asked in whisper. There was no reply.

He went through a door on his left.

"Yes?"

"Oh! Mrs. Macready, have you seen Jade?"

"When in doubt, check the library."

"Could--could you direct me to the library?"

"Well heaven knows there are already enough bookshelves in this house so I'll show you."

"Thank you."

Peter almost had to jog to keep up with Mrs. Macready's swift walk. He almost ran into her when she stopped abruptly.

"Through the double doors at the end of the hall."

"Thank you," Peter said again.

He opened one of the doors and stepped hesitantly into the room. It was dimly lit, like the majority of the house. Light shone feebly through the light curtains. The room had a musty smell. He could see the dust collected in the light from the tall windows. Books lined the high walls and rows of shelves, sat on end tables and were stacked on chairs, and were even piled in neat stacks.

Peter circled the shelves of books, looking down the rows while catching various titles of the books. He recognized most of them from the school library. He found Jade in the last aisle he looked down, sitting cross-legged with a large brown book in her lap. She didn't look up when he walked towards her. She closed the book softly.

He sat down next to her, looking down at the book she was reading. The picture of a tower and a girl sitting in its only window was faded, but the gold lettering remained bright.

"It's one of my favorites," Jade said.

She stood and slid it into an empty space in one of the shelves. Peter stood, too. He followed her out of the library and back to the dining room.

"Where have you two been?" Lucy asked.

"Library," Jade said.

"You have a library?" Susan asked.

"It's huge," Peter said.

"But there are books everywhere. You have more?" Edmund asked.

"It's like a real library."

"Where's she off to?" Lucy asked.

Peter turned. Jade had left.

"Who knows," he sighed.

"She's a queer girl," Susan said. "But I think we'll be good friends in time."

The children explored the house for the rest of the morning. Lucy disappeared for a few minutes, returning with a magnificent story of a hidden land in the back of a wardrobe they had passed in one of the rooms and a faun named Tumnus. They figured she had dozed off.

Mrs. Macready found them for lunch.

"The Professor won't return until nightfall and Jade won't be joining you so I expect that you will not get into any shenanigans. I'll be leading a group about the house today so be sure to stay out of the way."

She left them before they could ask questions.

After lunch they meandered around the house until they found the library. Jade was carrying a stack of books to an empty shelf.

"Want to play a game?" Lucy asked her.

"What game?" she asked, obviously uninterested.

"Well I don't know. I guess we could play hide-and-seek or something."

"Alright."

Susan offered to be 'it.' They scattered in the hallway, Edmund and Lucy going right and Jade going left. Peter followed Jade.

She ran around the house before stopping in an empty room. The only things on the walls were various tapestries and some candle brackets. Peter closed the door behind them, breathing heavily.

"Following me?" Jade asked.

"You know this house better than anyone."

"I do."

She went back into the hallway and around a corner. Peter followed, bumping into her.

"What--?"

"Sh!" she hissed.

He listened. Mrs. Macready was somewhere near with her tour group.

"Where is she?" Peter asked.

"I don't know," Jade breathed.

She crept down the hallway and looked around the corner, Peter one step behind her. A woman's voice shrieked with laughter, followed by some other chuckling voices. Jade stepped back, bumping into Peter, who, in turn, bumped into a table. The vase on the table wobbled. Peter shut his eyes and braced himself for the smash, but it didn't come.

He opened his eyes to see the vase suspended in midair. Jade's hand was outstretched as if to catch it and her face bore a look of complete and utter horror. Mrs. Macready's voice rang louder with each passing second. Peter shakily replaced the vase on its table and grabbed Jade's hand, ignoring the familiar static shock and running down the hall to the empty room.

Jade pushed one of the tapestries aside and disappeared. Peter followed, intruiged and found himself in the library again. Jade grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a bookshelf. Susan was leaving the room.

"What just happened?" Peter asked.

Jade sank down onto the floor against one of the shelves.

"I don't know. You--the vase--Mrs..." she trailed off, shaking her head.

Peter paced up and down the aisle for something to do. He was just as in shock as Jade was. He nearly tripped when Jade gasped.

"What now?"

She held up her arm. Her sleeve was pushed back and her wrist bore black crescent moon and star.

He sat next to her and softly touched the tattoo. It felt like touching ice.

"What is happening to me?" Jade sobbed, burying her face in her other arm.

"I don't know, but as soon as the Professor gets home we'll see if he knows."

He squeezed her hand comfortingly. His wrist brushed hers briefly.

There was a sudden burst of light as a blue orb surrounded their adjoining hands. Jade screamed but the sound was somehow dead and didn't carry through the room. Their feet were slowly lifting off the ground as the blue orb sent pulses of light up and down the aisle. Jade took Peter's other hand and the orb grew until it surrounded both of them. No words could describe the alarm that they were feeling. The orb changed colors: first red, then purple, blue again, green, purple again, pink, orange, and then gold. It shimmered and sparkled. Jade's eyes turned from their dark blue to deep violet. And then the orb disappeared and they toppled onto the floor.

"Get off me," Jade groaned.

"Sorry," said Peter, hastily standing up. He brushed glitter from the orb off of his shoulder.

"What?" he asked. Jade was staring at his right hand. He looked at it. It seemed completely normal.

"Your--your wrist! You've got one too!"

He let out a cry of surprise. Sure enough, there was a black sun imprinted on his right wrist. He touched it gingerly. It burned his finger.

"It's hot!" he said. "And yours is cold."

He took her hand gingerly and traced the moon and star.

"What's happening to me?" she asked again, horrified.

"I don't know. Your eyes changed color, too."

She touched her face with her unmarked hand and closed her eyes to hold back tears. Peter hadn't noticed that he was still holding her hand. He put his other hand on top of hers on her cheek comfortingly.

"There you two are!" Lucy called. "Susan, Edmund, I found them!"

Peter let go of Jade's hand and dropped his other, hastily stuffing them into his pockets. Jade took a step back.

"We've been looking for you for ages and ages," Susan said.