Finding Narnia

A Chronicles of Narnia Fanfiction by Darkened-Storm

Disclaimer: I, Darkened-Storm, own only my plot, ideas and characters. C.S Lewis owns The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Any characters you do not recognise from his series, including Stephanie and Rebecca Pevensie, are my creations.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Since I plan to be writing a lot of Narnia Fanfiction in the future, I had created a section for it on my blog, so if you want to read more about my upcoming series you can head to my blog (my FFN profile has the link) - at the moment its got a timeline and some sketches of Steph and Becky drawn by the wonderful Strayberry-Liger and some character profiles for the girls as well - I update that pretty regularly too and will put snippets of upcoming chapters on there so you can read them there first before I update - check it out in your spare time and I hope you enjoy this update.

Chapter Three: A Lesson in Logic

That night they were all woken by Lucy's excited squeals coming from the boys' room. Steph sat up, feeling around in the dark for my nightgown until Becky, who's bed was closest to the light switch had the sense to turn on the light.

"What's going on?" Becky mumbled, stifling a yawn.

"Lucy," Susan said at once, looking from Lucy's empty bed to the door. She pulled on her dressing gown and hurried into the boy's room. Blinking sleep from her eyes, Steph stumbled out of bed and stuffed her hands into the arms of her dressing gown and shoved her feet into her slippers. She almost walked right into Becky as they both stumbled in the hall where Edmund was waiting silently.

"Edmund, you look horrible," Becky said.

Horrible was an understatement, Steph decided as she looked Edmund up and down. His pale skin looked even pastier than usual and had a slight green hue to it. He looked as though he might be sick if he tried to speak.

"Are you all right, Edmund," she asked. He nodded numbly and his teeth chattered.

"Come on, let's get you back to bed," she said, putting an arm around his shoulder. He didn't shy away as she expected him to do, but rather he leaned into her so that he was almost hugging her. Surprised, she hugged him back and helped him into the room, where Susan and Lucy were arguing. Peter sat helplessly between them.

"Oh, you've just been dreaming Lucy," Susan said, exasperated.

"But I haven't!" Lucy exclaimed. "I saw Mr. Tumnus again, and this time Edmund went too!"

What little colour had remained in Edmund's face up until now drained away as they all turned to look at him. Peter looked the most surprised of all of them. "You saw the faun?" he asked.

Edmund shook his head.

Lucy got up off her brother's bed, not looking quite as excited as before. "He didn't actually go there with me," she admitted. She must have thought of something then because she turned around and looked at Edmund suspiciously (well, as suspiciously as an eight year old could).

"What were you doing Edmund?" she asked him.

Edmund shifted uncomfortably on the spot and Steph thought he looked as though he was trying to come up with something to say. "I was just playing along," he said, suddenly looking very apologetic. "I'm sorry Peter, I shouldn't have encouraged her but you know what little children are like these days; they just don't know when to stop pretending."

The corner of his lips twitched upwards as he fixed his sister with the superior look he usually had when talking down to Lucy, only this time it wasn't quite right as though he wasn't as sure of himself as he usually was.

Lucy's face turned from pale to a wicked red colour and she began to sob. Glaring at her brother through tearful eyes, she ran from the room almost tripping on her dressing gown as she went.

Susan shot her brother a disapproving look before going after her sister and Becky, looking as though she wanted to throttle Edmund, went after them both, muttering under her breath about 'beastly boys'.

Neither of their reactions was on par with Peter's however. The oldest Pevensie looked positively infuriated as he got out of bed and snatched up his dressing gown and tugged it on. He shoved Edmund as roughly as he could as he passed and the younger boy fell back on his bed.

"Ow!" Edmund exclaimed, though he wasn't really hurt, and Peter was already too far down the hall to hear him.

Steph looked at Edmund feeling not the least bit sorry for him. "You can't say you didn't deserve that," she told him coldly. "Why did you have to go and upset Lucy again? Can't you see she's already having a hard time of it?"

Her words stunned him, but she was beyond caring for whatever Edmund had to say for himself and left the room without so much as a backward glance.

She was angry at herself for having been fooled earlier into worrying about him. She knew now that Edmund had only looked so ill because he knew he was about to be told off by Peter again for upsetting Lucy. She was going to have a good word to Peter about his brother's behaviour. And if that doesn't help I'll go to the Professor, she decided.

She rounded the corner after her cousins and walked straight into Peter so suddenly that she almost fell down. He shot her an anxious look and she saw Lucy further down the hall with the Professor. All the commotion had woken the Macready as well, and she was looking quite furious. "You children are one shenanigan shy of sleeping in the stable!" she exclaimed.

"That's all right Mrs Macready, I'm sure there's an explanation," the Professor said, "but I think this one is in need of a little hot chocolate." He handed Lucy over and she followed Macready down the hallway towards the kitchens.

Quietly, Peter tugged on Susan and Steph's robes and motioned for them to go back to their rooms. Susan turned at once and Steph grabbed Becky by her nightgown. They were only two steps down the hall when the Professor cleared his throat and they all turned around, quite certain they were all in trouble.

"Now, about that explanation," he said, and Steph was relieved to see he didn't look half as angry with them as she'd expected him to. He brought them into his office and Susan began to tell the Professor all about Lucy's magical land inside the wardrobe and how Edmund had begun making fun of her and how the older children were beginning to worry that Lucy was going rather mad.

"She's not mad, my dears," the Professor told them wisely. "One only has to look at her and talk to her to see that."

"You're not saying you believe her?" Peter said at once.

The Professor raised an eyebrow at them. "You don't?" he asked them.

The four of them exchanged confused looks. This was not how they had expected a grown man of the Professors age to talk and because they had all been certain Lucy was making things up.

Finally, Susan said; "of course not. I mean, logically it's impossible."

The Professor fiddled with his pipe, frowning to himself. "What do they teach in schools these days?" he wondered. When none of them had an answer for him he lit hit pipe and put it in his mouth. "If she's not mad, and she's not lying, then logically we must assume she is telling the truth," he told them.

"You're saying that we should just believe her?" asked Peter.

"She's your sister isn't she? You're her family," the Professor insisted; "you might just try acting like it."

"Professor, sir," Steph said quietly. "I was thinking that just maybe all this talk of the war has gotten to Lucy's head." She looked meaningfully at Peter, who nodded agreeably. "Perhaps she simply made this place up in the wardrobe to get away from it all."

"Yes," Becky said at once, "or maybe Lucy is just a little bit lonely. Oh, Professor, is there maybe something we can do to help Lu?"

"My dear young lady," said the Professor. "There is one thing we haven't thought to try yet."

"What's that?" Becky asked.

The Professor looked at them all very sharply over his spectacles. "We might all try minding our own business." And that was the end of the conversation, for he sent them all off to bed after that.

By the time they returned to their rooms, feeling just as confused as each other, Lucy was back in bed holding a cup of hot chocolate. The warm drink seemed to have done the trick, because she looked a little better than before. Susan took the cup and placed it on the bed side table and Becky tucked Lucy under the sheets before getting under her own.

Steph and Peter didn't feel the least bit tired, however. Their meeting with the Professor had given them a lot to think about and together they went down to the kitchens to discuss it over a hot chocolate. They were surprised to see Edmund there and when he saw them both, Edmund leaped up off the chair and made for his room, but Peter caught him by the back of his night gown.

"Now look here," Peter said savagely. "You've been quite beastly to Lu ever since she started this wardrobe nonsense, and now you go playing games with her and setting her off again."

"But it's all nonsense," Edmund said.

"We know it's all nonsense." Steph told him, crossing her arms over her chest. "The problem is Lucy doesn't think it is and now the Professor says we ought to leave her well enough alone – and that means not giving her a hard time about it."

"I thought – " Edmund began.

"You didn't think at all," Peter said, "you were just being spiteful. You've always liked being beastly to anyone smaller than you; we've seen that at school before now."

Edmund screwed up her face and muttered something horrible under his breath that Steph didn't quite catch, but that made Peter say; "Get to bed Edmund, and if I hear you've been saying nasty things to Lucy again I'll be writing to Father about your behaviour."

Edmund went back to his room without another word. They heard his footsteps as he stomped up the stairs in a huff and Peter heaved a heavy sigh and sank into Edmund's abandoned chair.

Quietly so as not to disturb the Macready again, Steph went to the cupboard to fix them both a hot chocolate. She spooned some cocoa into mugs and added water from the kettle. It was still warm from Lucy's cup earlier. She stirred them both, taking some of her frustration out on the spoon as she stirred.

She had been terribly mad at Edmund for what he'd done, but telling him off for it didn't make her feel any better at all and it seemed Peter felt a thousand times worse than she did. The whole situation was a big mess, and Steph felt partly responsible for it.

"I'm sorry, Peter," she said, handing him a mug and sitting on the stool next to his. "I think I only encouraged Lucy with those books."

Peter shook his head. "It's not your fault," he said. "You didn't know she would start up this wardrobe drivel again and drag us all from our beds. I don't know where she got the idea for this nonsense with the wardrobe, but it's getting a bit beyond me."

"Lucy's been upset since we got here," Steph reminded him, "maybe this is just her way of handling it. Look here a minute," she said, when Peter looked as though he was going to interrupt. "When we were little we used to make up all sorts of stories and adventures together and I know Lucy's a bit old for that now, but maybe Lucy wants this 'Narnia' to be real more than anything because it's a safer place than the real world is right now."

He looked troubled by this. "What can we do for her then?" he wondered.

"Perhaps we should just mind our business, like the Professor said." The expression on his face told her Peter would rather do anything else to help Lucy, but at this point, all four older children were beyond themselves. And then there was the problem of Edmund, who was bound to be twice as horrible to both of them tomorrow.

Silence fell between them and Steph took a long sip of her hot chocolate. The liquid was warm against her throat and made her feel a little better.

"It's not easy, is it?" Peter said suddenly, staring into his own cup, "trying to be the grown up."

"No," Steph admitted sadly, "it isn't."

"I wish Father was here," he said earnestly. "He was wonderful with Lu, and Edmund too. I promised him that I'd help Mother take care of them when he left, but all I've managed to do is make things worse."

"You do the best you can," Steph told him. "And you do far better than I do. I don't know that I'd handle Edmund half as well as you do."

Peter smiled appreciatively. "You do all right too, you know," he said. "You've been absolutely wonderful with Lucy these past few days. I think Becky is very lucky to have you for a sister."

Steph smiled gratefully and drank some more of her chocolate while Peter went on telling her what he thought they might do tomorrow. Steph was eager to try her hand at cricket, which she'd watched Edmund and Peter play a few days earlier and Peter promised to teach her and Becky. When they were done, they rinsed their cups in the sink and climbed the stairs together.

They said goodnight and the moment Steph's head hit her pillow she was fast asleep.

Thank you to my very loyal reviewers, notably WillowDryad and AquilaTempestas for reviewing both chapters so far.

I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, and remember I am still looking for Narnian OCs for later in this fic and my upcoming fic (dwarves, centaurs, talking animals, anything you have =) ) - just drop me a line in a review or a PM - I check my inbox pretty regularly.