"I can't ditch class on the first day of classes," Susan giggled as she flirted with Malfoy. They hadn't even had breakfast yet and he wanted her to skip History of Magic class to show her something. As intrigued as she was, she also wanted good grades in her classes. And with coming in as a 6th year with absolutely no background, that probably wasn't going to be easy.

"Seriously, he won't notice. He hasn't even realized he's dead," Malfoy sneered. Susan cocked her head to the side in confusion, which Malfoy found irresistible. How come Pansy never made him feel this way? He explained, "Professor Binns is a ghost. Supposedly he died one day, came back as a ghost, and kept teaching without even noticing he had died."

"After class," Susan said, tugging his tie flirtatiously.

"I have to do it then," Malfoy said reluctantly. "Some other time then. But do you want to meet up after class? I can take you for a ride on my broomstick."

Susan paused, unsure if Malfoy literally meant a broomstick, seeing as this was a magic school, or if he meant… something else. "Broomstick?"

"Yeah. I'm an expert rider," he bragged. Susan still wasn't sure if he was speaking literally or not.

"Umm…"

"I've been flying since I was a little kid," he bragged. Susan untensed, realizing he must quite literally mean a broomstick. Either that or he was doing things as a young kid most young kids didn't even know about.

"That would be nice. I should check with my brother though to make sure he didn't want to meet up."

"Alright," Malfoy said with a dark look. When they got to the dining hall, Susan turned to go to the Hufflepuff table where she saw Peter laughing with some of his new friends. She smiled, realizing she hadn't seen him having fun in quite some time. But then she realized his laughter was somewhat forced. He must be trying to hide his concern over the White Witch being at Hogwarts so that there was no chance of scared chaos. When he realized that she was going to the Hufflepuff table, he pulled her sleeve and said, "Don't go over there with them."

"Them?" Susan asked incredulously. "That's my brother over there."

"Oh," Malfoy said and for a moment Susan thought he was repentant, but then he sneered, "Well, then your brother's not at the level you are. Trust me, you're not going to want people to know you have a brother in Hufflepuff."

Susan took a deep breath to calm herself from getting angry with Malfoy.

"Susan?" a familiar voice asked.

"Caspian!" she said, her voice sounding a bit too relieved.

"Who's this?" Malfoy sneered.

"Who's this?" Caspian retorted. He was standing much too close to this blonde snobbish boy for Caspian's liking.

Susan sighed. "Malfoy, this is my brother's friend, Caspian. Caspian, this is Draco Malfoy."

"Brother's friend?" Caspian spluttered, looking hurt that Susan didn't introduce him as her own friend. But she needed to get close to Draco to keep an eye on him and with him so clearly interested in her, flirting seemed the easiest way. But she promised herself that she would let Caspian know what was going on the moment she could.

"Well, I'm going to go speak with my brother," she interjected before Caspian could say anything, giving Caspian a meaningful look.

"Me too," he said, instantly stepping closer to her.

Malfoy scowled. "Trust me, Susan, you don't want anyone knowing you have a brother in Hufflepuff."

And you don't want Narnians knowing you insulted their High King, Susan was tempted to say. She almost smiled, picturing little Reepicheep challenging Draco to a duel or such. Although if that did happen, she'd be betting on the mouse for sure. Instead, she turned to Caspian, clasping his hands in her owns and saying, "Give my best to my brother then. I'm going to eat breakfast with my new friend Draco."

Caspian was about to get upset, but he felt a piece of paper in his hands. Susan had clasped his hands to surreptitiously hand over the note she had planned to give Peter, telling him about Dumbledore's instructions regarding Malfoy and assuring him that their relationship was a fake before Peter got furious and challenged him to a duel or such. She realized that Dumbledore had spoken to her privately because he didn't want everyone to know, but there would be Tash to pay if Peter and Draco began fighting. She hoped though that Caspian would understand "give my best to my brother" meant that he was supposed to simply give the note to Peter.

"See you later, qu-Susan," Caspian said, nodding his head a little and walking over to Peter at the Hufflepuff table. Susan sighed a little in relief when she saw Caspian secretively sneak the paper into Peter's hand.

Later in that day, Hermione managed to get messages to all of them to meet up. Everyone but Susan showed up.

"Susan's also on a… side mission, let's say," Peter explained. "Dumbledore gave it to her. That's all that needs to be said."

He put a bit too much "high king" in his voice, but figured he was safe doing do with this group. But he was quickly annoyed when Ron said, "What's this mission? We should know."

To Peter's surprise and relief, Caspian jumped in to back him up. "Ron, if we needed to know, Susan or Peter would tell us. So what is the plan for today?"

"I made these coins," Hermione said, passing them out to everyone. "I've enchanted them so we can update each other on when and where we are meeting up. It'll show on the numbers here."

"Amazing," Peter murmured as Hermione handed him his coin, making her blush. She instantly became angry with herself. She was a bright young witch, not a blushing schoolgirl! She shook her head to clear it and continued to pass out the coins. Then she knew she had to get rid of Ron so she could tell everyone about what she found out.

"Oh! I forgot a book I need back in the common room which has melting spells which might be helpful. Hey, Ron, would you mind getting it for me?" Hermione asked.

"Can't you get it yourself?" Ron grumbled.

"You would make a lady walk all that way?" Baledin asked chivalrously.

Ron gave him an incredulous look. "How about you go then?"

"I will!" he said.

"No! Hermione asked me," he retorted. He didn't want to walk all the way there, but he didn't want this Baledin fellow moving in on her either. He already had to keep an eye on that Peter fellow who seemed too close to Hermione. Ron turned and stalked out.

The moment Ron was out of earshot, Hermione leaned forward and said, "I don't know exactly how to say this… but Ron's betrayed us. He's working for the White Witch."

Everyone reacted angrily except for Peter, much to Hermione's surprise. Harry looked incredulous for a moment but believed her and looked grim.

Peter raised his hand to quiet the Narnians. He nodded gravely and said, "My sister and I thought that may be the case, but were hesitant to accuse in haste without proof." Something about the way he said it and the grave looks on Peter's face made Hermione think there may be a story behind that statement.

"So how exactly did you come to find out he has betrayed us?" Peter asked.

"Followed him to the Shrieking Shack," Hermione said. The Narnians all looked confused so she added, "It's a building on Hogwarts grounds that was supposedly haunted but it was just a werewolf."

"Just a werewolf?" Caspian said incredulously, remembering his own experience with a werewolf.

"He's really nice," Harry said defensively.

"The entire inside of the Shrieking Shack was covered in ice," Hermione said. "She was sitting on some sort of ice throne. She was angry with him for not bringing your younger two siblings. She told him that she wants him to bring you to him, but not tell you because seeing her will be a happy surprise for you."

Predictably, the room got noisy again until Peter signaled for quiet. Harry was starting to get really annoyed by him. Why was he suddenly the leader in all of this? Especially a Hufflepuff! Well, Cedric Diggory had been Hufflepuff and would have won the Triwizard Tournament with him, but still, most Hufflepuffs weren't leadership material. And this guy had only been in Hogwarts for one night!

"Do you have a plan, your- um, Peter?" Caspian asked.

"We should spy on her," Harry interrupted, annoyed that Caspian and the others all seemed to be turning to Peter to come up with a plan. If anyone were to come up with a plan, it should be Hermione.

"Bad idea," Peter said, making Harry's annoyance spike even higher. "She doesn't yet know that we know that she's there and if she sees a spy, she'll start putting up more defenses against us. We also don't want to give her time to amass more followers. Hermione, were there any signs of others?"

Hermione shook her head. "Not at the Shrieking Shack, but there could be others who weren't there."

"So she's relatively undefended. So we need to act as quickly as possible," Peter said decisively.

"I can go in first," Baledin offered. "Then you'll know if she has anyone else on her side."

"We need a better plan than just charging in. Peter, if I may," Caspian said, looking to Peter before continuing. He had been feeling very awkward about all of this since he had been the one to call up the White Witch. He also wasn't sure if the High King was still angry at him for calling her.

Harry felt even more annoyed. Asking Peter's permission to speak? And this guy was the one whose coronation they attended while in Narnia. Harry didn't understand why someone who was a king would kowtow to another. But Peter nodded to Caspian and Caspian continued, "She is even less likely to be on the defensive if we let her think we have fallen for her trap."

Caspian anxiously studied Peter's face. He seemed to be mulling over the idea, but didn't seem upset that it was Caspian's idea. That was a relief. But it was Hermione who spoke up first, "That's a good idea. The rest of us will follow invisibly. We have the invisibility cloak and – "

She got quiet when she heard the door opening, but it was just Susan. "Sorry I'm late! Just ditched Malfoy."

"I'll catch you up real quick," Peter commented. "Hermione says that Ron went to the White Witch, and we've decided to fall for the trap on purpose." Hermione was relieved to see that Susan too didn't seem angry with Ron for betraying them.

They quickly began laying out strategies for what spells and such they should all know to confront the White Witch.

"And Harry and I'll head to the library to see if I can do some more research on her brand of magic," Hermione commented, since she didn't have to spend time learning new spells as the Narnians did. Harry groaned.

"And keep an eye on Ron," Susan added. If Hermione hadn't witnessed Ron betraying them, Harry would have laughed at the irony of a Slytherin saying they needed to keep an eye on a Gryffindor.

Everyone started talking amongst themselves now that they had a general plan of attack.

"Peter, I wanted to speak with you," Caspian said. Peter turned to him and slowly nodded for him to continue. "Since we keep talking about here, I've found it awkward to not know. And I just, I really need to know. Have – have you forgiven me? For calling up the White Witch?"

"Aslan said it was in the past," Peter said curtly, evading the question.

"Peter," Susan scolded, overhearing their conversation. "Yes, Caspian. We've forgiven you. You proved yourself well in the battle following."

"Thank you. But, Peter, have you also forgiven me?" he said anxiously. Susan stepped back, realizing that Caspian needed to hear from Peter himself. Hermione started overhearing and decided to listen in as well.

Peter glanced at Susan who gave him an encouraging look. He sighed and clasped Caspian's upper arm. "Yeah, I guess so. Especially since you're working now to undo it."

"Thank you," Caspian said fervently.

Peter felt like there was still something unfinished between them and said, "And I apologize for being so harsh on you. Especially when you had just found out about Miraz killing your father."

"No, you were right to be angry with me. I rashly endangered the lives of many Narnians for my own revenge," Caspian said.

"Oh, great. Now you two have gone to the other extreme," Susan joked.

Peter laughed and surprised Caspian by hugging him. "We spent too much time arguing between us. I'd much rather we spend time as at least allies, if not even friends."

Susan pursed her lips. Peter might be forgiving now that Caspian was letting Peter take charge, but that was likely to change if Caspian started being more of a leader again. She hoped Peter had grown out of his bossy stage, but was worried nonetheless.

"Nothing would please me more," Caspian said genuinely. It was always strange, talking to Peter. He often forgot that this was the man he had grown up hearing stories of and idolizing. He had often pretending being a knight for him, fighting alongside him, but had never imagined being able to be simply friends with him. But here he was, being friends with the legendary High King. Even if Peter wasn't his childhood idol, he would have still wanted to be friends with him. When Peter wasn't angry with him, he really did seem like he would be a great friend.

Hermione walked over to Peter once Caspian had walked away. "Hey, that was nice of you."

Peter shrugged and said, "It would be bad for the team if we have two members quarrelling pointlessly."

"I suppose. But you did actually forgive him, right?"

"Yeah, of course. By the way, Hermione, I heard you're really good at your studies. Perhaps maybe you could give me some tutoring?" he said, winking at her.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Sure. Because you'd totally be studying during that time."

"Well, I'd be studying something," he teased, taking her hands into his. Hermione blushed. She had never been with a guy that was so… so forward with his feelings. This was all rather new to her. But not unwanted.

"Hmm, and what would that be?" she teased.

"Hmm, definitely the knots in the wooden tables," Peter said with mock sincerity.

"Oh, I'm sure they're fascinating," Hermione said with a frown.

"But not as fascinating as you," Peter said, releasing one of her hands to push a strand of hair back. Hermione felt her heart jump a little at his touch. She knew she really should be concentrated on their mission, but there was something irritatingly irresistible about Peter.

"I'll tutor you," Hermione said suddenly.

"Sounds like fun," he whispered, playing with her hair.

"BLOODY HELL!" a voice shouted from the doorway. They turned and saw the Ron had returned. His face was beet-red as he glared at the two of them, taking in their proximity, their joined hands, and Peter's hand entangled in her hair.