Sorry to those of you who were requesting more Peter/Hermione. It just didn't fit into this chapter. I'll make sure to have a scene for them in the next chapter!

"So… you and Peter huh?" Lucy asked with a big grin on her face as Hermione and Lucy raced towards the woods.

"No! That was just… I don't…oh shut up," Hermione said. Lucy giggled.

"So, how exactly do we go about finding this Aslan?" Hermione asked.

"Not entirely sure. When the time is right, he'll find us," Lucy said.

"Oh, great. Absolutely fantastic. So we're just going based on hope?" Hermione groaned. What she wouldn't give to have some book on how to find elusive deities in the form of a lion. Unfortunately, the chances of such a book existing were very, very thin. If any chance at all. Suddenly, Lucy sat up straight.

"Telmarines," she whispered. Hermione got her wand out, ready to fight. "There!"

Hermione looked where Lucy had pointed. "Petrificus totalus!" Lucy giggled as the man froze and toppled over.

"Behind us!" Lucy shouted. Lucy was better at listening for and looking for enemies in woods than Hermione was.

"Expelliarmus!" she shouted as his sword went flying. Unarmed, the man became cowardly and ran away. She then saw another guy about to shoot at them. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she shouted, and his bow went flying into the air and Hermione directed it away from anyone.

"Watch out!" Lucy shouted as she saw another about to shoot at them. He had already shot it by the time Hermione had turned around, so she shouted "Protego!" and fo6rmed a shield around them before using the Jelly Leg's curse "Locomotor Wibbly!" on him, causing Lucy to giggle uncontrollably.

"I think we're good now, but there's still a chance that we'll meet some more of them, so keep watch," Lucy instructed. Hermione felt it strange that a girl only a bit over half her age was acting in charge, but she realized from their story about being in Narnia before that they all had to have lived a lot longer than it looked like they have lived. Plus, Hermione wasn't about to let her guard down anyways.

Meanwhile, Peter was preparing for his duel against Miraz with Edmund's help.

"So, you and Hermione huh?" Edmund teased as he helped Peter into his armor. "You in love?"

"It's just a quick thing," Peter protested. "You know, when people hurry into relationships because they might die the next day? If we survive this, I doubt we'll actually be a couple."

"Mhm, sure Pete. C'mon, I'm your brother," Edmund said with a grin.

"Okay, fine… there's something about her that's just so attractive. How she's not scared of my at all, her complete lack of caring about titles and such, her boldness, how little she seems to care about her looks, her strength in general, her –"

"Whoa, okay there! Come up for air," Edmund said with a laugh. "You really are into her."

Peter laughed. "I should've known I could never keep anything from you. Even stuff I hadn't really realize myself."

"That's what brothers are for," Edmund said with a smirk. He suddenly got quiet and leaned in to Peter's ear. "Look who it is."

Sure enough, Caspian had just slunk into the room, seeming unsure if he would be allowed in there. He wanted to do something, anything that might make them like him more. Mentioning the duel though had seemed to gain him some favor, but from the looks the brothers were giving him, he was still far from being in their good graces.

"Caspian," Peter said curtly.

"Your majesties," Caspian said slowly. "Do… do you require any assistance?"

"I've got it covered, thanks," Edmund said brusquely.

Caspian's face flushed and he looked down, muttering, "I'm just trying to help."

Edmund and Peter exchanged a glance. Edmund rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"Just go check on the other Narnians, will you?" Peter said. "Tell us if there are any problems."

Caspian nodded eagerly and backed out of the room awkwardly.

"You're being… well not friendly, but civil at least," Edmund said, a questioning look in his eyes.

"Yeah, can you be sure to accidently slip it into a conversation with Hermione?" Peter asked eagerly. Edmund just laughed and shoved him playfully.

"Let's concentrate on winning this war before thinking about a girl, 'kay?"

"Caspian," Susan said, striding up to him.

"Your majesty," he said, bowing. Susan was easily his favorite of the four. When he was little, Peter being the High King was his favorite, but since actually meeting them, something about Susan simply entranced him. The legends had failed to mention just how strong and powerful the gentle queen was, qualities which Caspian found to be the most interiguing aspect of her.

"You're familiar with my part of the plan, no?" she said briskly. She already knew the answer. "It would make more sense, however, for you to take my place, and then I can lead the archers."

"Wha- do you really mean it?" Caspian said excitedly. Peter had pretty much shut Caspian out of the plan everywhere, ousting him from any leadership position. Caspian hadn't been too surprised by that, but it was still rather infuriating to be treated like a normal soldier instead of as a prince!

"I wouldn't have said so otherwise," Susan said succinctly, briskly turning away.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Caspian said, grabbing her by the waist and turning her back. She gasped from surprise. Caspian's thinking then seemed to catch up to his actions. He let go and stammered, "Um, my a-apologies for, yeah, that, um, your majesty."

"Never mind," Susan said tersely. "I need to go inform my brothers of the alteration to the plans. You, go find Glenstorm and the others in charge of collapsing the How and inform them." She hurried out before she could do anything she might regret. She was surprised to realize that she had enjoyed his touch, as inappropriate – in this world at least – as it was. But even though she felt Peter and Edmund had been being a bit harsh on him, she still hadn't completely forgiven Caspian for trying to call the White Witch, and until he proved that he would never attempt such a thing again, Susan would refuse to grow close to him. But letting him lead part of the battle would give him a second chance to prove himself.

Suddenly Hermione and Lucy were being chased by an entire division of Telmarine soldiers.

"Lucy! You're going to have to go on alone! I'll stay here and hold them off for as long as I can," Hermione shouted as she jumped off the horse. Lucy nodded and kicked the horse just hard enough for it to realize that Lucy urgently needed him to run his fastest. Hermione turned and faced the soldiers. She began with a protective spell that would hopefully stop most of their arrows. She wasn't entirely sure. She cast another spell to make it hail where some of the soldiers were, surprising them. She took advantage of the confusion to cast individual spells to take out some of the soldiers. But sooner or later they would come after her and she couldn't stop all of them at once. There were simply too many of them. She used a water spell to make the ground wet so their horses would slow down. At least it would take them longer to get to Lucy that way and she might escape even if Hermione didn't.

Harry was annoyed. Dumbledore's last minute instructions to Ron and him made no sense. He was to find a talking lion. Not Hermione, but a talking lion. Why? Of course Dumbledore didn't bother to answer that. But Dumbledore was usually right about things, so Harry went along with it. And Dumbledore said something about "if you cannot find him on your own, the Kings and Queens of Old can lead you to the lion." So… Harry and Ron had to either find a talking lion, or some old people who were apparently royalty in this world who knew the talking lion? And just how many kings and queens could there possibly be?

"Who's to say this lion is good or on our side anyways?" Ron said, breaking into Harry's thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Harry frowned.

"Sounds fishy to me mate. Lions sound dangerous. Maybe we should look for creatures of magic. You know, because we have magic to," Ron said.

Harry looked at him strangely. That was a weird statement. First, since when did Ron give up on something just because it sounded dangerous? That was pretty much their life everyday at Hogwarts. And what was with the magic comment? "And… talking lions wouldn't be magic? Plus, Dumbledore wouldn't purposely send us to a lion if it was dangerous. Well, probably not… well, not unless he thought there was a good reason for sending us to danger." Harry kept amending his statements as past memories of dangerous situations Dumbledore let them get into resurfaced.

"Not to mention, who's to say we should get rid of this White Witch Dumbledore kept mentioning? Shouldn't we be on the side of witches since we're wizards?" Ron said. Harry frowned. Why was Ron defending her?

"By that argument, we should support Voldemort and the Death Eaters," Harry pointed out. "The White Witch is apparently incredibly evil, although Dumbledore didn't exactly elaborate."

"Kept stuff secret as he always does, eh?" Ron said. "Has he even met this White Witch? How do we know he hasn't made a mistake?"

"Nope, I was just telling him about that new witch, and Swanwhite – a portrait in his office – realized it was her," Harry said.

"The… new witch," Ron said, scratching his arm which suddenly became uncomfortably itchy.

"Yeah, Jadis. What's wrong?"

"No… he must have meant some other new witch…"

"No, definitely her."

"That doesn't make sense…" Ron trailed off with a frown.

"What doesn't make sense?" Harry asked.

"She just… it's that she – dude what's that?" Ron said, seeming relieved to have a legitimate reason to change the subject. Harry looked towards where Ron was pointing and saw a hailstorm seeming to be centering in on one very specific area of the forest. They both ran to go check it out. Hermione was taking on what seemed to be a mini army all on her own. Harry and Ron quickly began casting spells to help her out too. Soon the soldiers were so terrified by all the magic that those who could ran off. Harry and Ron ran up to Hermione.

"Ron? Harry! How did the two of you end up in Narnia?" she asked breathlessly.

"Dumbledore had us walk into a portrait of some lady named Swanwhite in his office and she led us into Narnia. Hermione, there's an evil witch at Hogwarts named Jadis or the White Witch," Harry began.

"The White Witch!" Hermione gasped. "I need to tell Peter right away." Harry's eyes shot up. It wasn't like Hermione to act before she had all the facts. But she was probably right that this wasn't the time to sit down and explain everything that has happened to each other.

"Who's he? Never mind. Dumbledore has a plan already. He told us to go look for some talking lion. And if we needed help, the 'kings and queens of old' would help us."

"We were just looking for Aslan!" Hermione exclaimed. "C'mon this way. We might be able to catch up to Lucy."

"Wait, Aslan?" Harry asked. "Jesus?"

"Jesus? - oh… I see what you mean," Hermione mused.

"We're supposed to be looking for a talking lion," Harry pointed out.

"That would be Aslan," Hermione nodded. "C'mon. We need to catch up to her! But she's on horseback so she'll be way faster than us…"

"We brought our broomsticks. You can ride with me," Ron offered eagerly.

"Okay. She went that way," Hermione said, pointing in the general direction she had sent Lucy off into.

"Who's this Lucy?" Harry said as they flew over the trees.

"She's one of the queens of old, like you were talking about," Hermione explained, hugging Ron tighter. She wasn't particularly comfortable with broomstick flying.

"Makes our job easier," Ron muttered, although he didn't seem happy about it. Harry shot him a look.

"So what exactly have you been up to?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Well, I got here, they were as confused as I was. One of them – his name's Caspian – had been illegally trying to call up the White Witch, but somehow ended up calling me. Oh, and apparently every other witch in Narnia that they know about has always been evil, so they were super suspicious of me. But they trust me now, and even were okay with my using magic," Hermione said, running her words together from speaking to fast. Harry ended up only more confused. He centered on the one thing that seemed important.

"And you met the kings and queens of old? How'd you meet royalty so fast?"

"They had been trying to stop Caspian from calling up the witch. And they aren't like, in the castle, distant from the people type of royalty. They're from England actually," Hermione said.

"What?"

"Yes, apparently this is the second time they've travelled into Narnia," she explained. "They – "

"Merlin's pants! Look at that!" Ron suddenly blurted. It was as if the forest itself had come to life.

"The trees… they're awake. Turn around!" Hermione said.

"Huh?"

"If the trees are awake, surely Lucy and Aslan would be headed back to the battlefield."

Harry and Ron both gave her confused looks but turned the broomsticks around. As usual, Hermione seemed to know a lot more about what was going on than they did.

"Down there! By the river," Hermione pointed. There were soldiers lined up on one side of the river with creatures Harry couldn't even name and … trees? chasing them. On the other side seemed to be a young girl – human as far as Harry could tell – and a lion. Hopefully that was the talking Jesus lion?

"That's Lucy! So that must be Aslan beside her," Hermione said breathlessly. Harry began flying down toward the lion, Ron and Hermione quickly following.

"Bloody hell!" Ron suddenly shouted. Harry looked around, started, and saw that the river itself was coming to life and destroying the bridge.

"Wha… what is that?" Harry said. For once, Hermione had no answers and was also gaping in shock. Soon the soldiers were being swallowed by the river-person-thingie. Harry diverted his course to land farther away from the river just in case. Afterwards, the weird creatures seemed to be in charge.

"Should we go up to the lion now?" Harry asked. He was kinda hoping Hermione would say no. That lion was terrifying.

"We should wait. The kings and queens and … Caspian are going up to greet him," Hermione whispered back. "Afterwards though…" Harry looked and saw four humans walking up to the lion. They all bowed before him. Then all but one got back up.

"Those are the kings and queens… of old?" Harry said quizzically.

"Yeah.. they reverted back to their original ages after they returned to Narnia after their first visit 1300 years ago," Hermione responded. Harry and Ron both looked at her incredulously.

"Oh! Caspian just got up. I think that means that Aslan has accepted him," Hermione mused.

"Caspian… he's the one that started all this trouble with the White Witch?" Harry frowned. He didn't like the sound of that. Nor did he like how the blonde hair boy kept shooting suspicious glances over at them.

"Yeah."

"So.. if Aslan accepts him… does that mean he's on the side of the White Witch?" Harry said worriedly.

"No, it means Caspian is forgiven. And unlikely to be executed," she said absentmindedly, concentrating on the mouse procession that seemed to be happening.

"Oh… they execute people here?" Ron said, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"Apparently. Peter almost executed him actually, until I pointed out that he should have the right to a trial, a jury of peers, a"

"Okay, okay. So chances are we won't be executed?" Ron pressed.

"Possibly not," Hermione said unhelpfully. Suddenly the lion roared at some little person – height wise, not age – startling the trio. "Then again… Not sure what that was about."

"Think we should make a run for it?" Ron whispered, fingering his wand.

"Hermione!" the blonde boy beckoned regally, extending a hand towards here, a clear gesture for her to come to him.

"Who's that?" Ron hissed.

"Peter," Hermione said. Harry wasn't sure, but he thought she might be blushing. "C'mon, he'll introduce us to Aslan." When they got close, they looked at each other, unsure how to act. They then all knelt in front of the lion.

"Aslan, I would like to introduce Lady Hermione to you," Peter said, taking one of Hermione's hands into his own and raising it, causing her to stand at his side. Hermione panicked, not knowing how to act. Defying Peter and purposely acting insolent towards him was one thing. Something about this lion made her feel as though she wanted to worship him and follow him. Hermione had her doubts before, but now she was sure. Unfortunately, she was sure that he knew all her doubts about the existence of God, both in England and in this world.

"Welcome, Hermione. Peter, she showed great courage and tremendous skill in protecting your sister," Aslan said. Peter nodded, understanding what Aslan wanted him to do later. "And your two friends?"

"This is Ron, and this is Harry. They're … we go to school together," Hermione finished lamely, not wanting to bring attention to the fact that they were wizards. The Narnians might have sort of accepted her, but asking them to accept three of them might be pushing it.

"Dumbledore sent us," Harry blurted out. "The White Witch is at Hogwarts."

The two girls gasped. The youngest boy looked deathly pale. The eldest managed to keep a calm demeanor, but his eyes narrowed dangerously and his hand twitched toward his sword. Harry wondered just what their connection to the White Witch was that made them so terrified. The others looked upset, but not nearly as much as those four humans.

"We'll do everything we can to keep you s – help you," Peter promised. He almost accidently said to keep her safe, but he had a feeling saying that might get him hexed.

"It may not be that easy. You see, Hermione is from a different time period. If you return to your world with her and her classmates, you will not be able to return to your own time," Aslan said gravely.

"But our parents…" Lucy said sadly. Edmund pulled her in for a hug. The four looked at each other. Hermione tried to gauge what Peter was thinking, since it seemed likely he'd be making the decision. But his face was impassive and he seemed to be purposely keeping from looking at her. Susan kept looking at her younger siblings, clearly worried.

"The rest of us? Those who live in Narnia?" Caspian asked.

"Narnia time and time in that world run differently. I will make it so the time you spend in that world will only account for a few minutes of Narnia time," Aslan explained. He then addressed the Pevensies. "You will not have to face the decision for another two days. But you must know what you wish to do by then."