This chapter references the events of The Horse and His Boy. If you're unfamiliar with it, feel free to leave a review or pm me for clarification.
The thestrals finally landed for the night.
"Do you think this is it?" Caspian asked.
"No, I think they need to rest. We haven't even switched worlds yet," Peter said.
"How do you know?"
"It's just a feeling we've gotten every time we've traveled between worlds," Susan said.
"So… now what?" Caspian said.
"Can't really plan without the others… I guess we just have some free time to talk about whatever," Hermione said.
"Let's… let's all share some secret we've never told anyone," Susan said with a small giggle. "That's always fun."
"You start, Pete," Hermione teased, poking him gently in the side.
"Umm… I'm not sure I have secrets," Peter said, scratching his head. When they all gave him a look, he said, "I mean ones that Susan wouldn't already know. She kind of makes it her business to know my secrets."
"That's fairly true," Susan laughed. "But I doubt I know all of them."
"Fine… um… Oh, here's sort of one. Mostly just secret because I didn't want to say anything yet until I was sure, but I'm thinking of seriously studying Herbology as a career choice. Like medicinal herbology," he said.
"Really? I would have pegged you for an Auror," Hermione said.
"What's an Auror?"
Hermione quickly explained.
"Hm… that might have just changed my mind," he said. "How about you, Hermione? What secrets do you have?"
"And please make it a more interesting one that Pete's," Susan added.
"Hey, mine wasn't that bad!" Peter protested.
"I… I used to be teased pretty bad when I was younger. I guess that's not really a secret to those who knew me, but I doubt anyone know really talks about it. I was kind of a know it all and teacher's pet type," she said.
"So you were always this smart," Peter said, pulling his arms around her. "And others were always so jealous of your brains."
"My, aren't you the charmer," she teased, but she leaned back and placed her head on his. She rather liked that he seemed to think her being smart was a positive trait. And that her showing that she was smart wasn't negative.
"Well, I'd like to go next, if you don't mind," Caspian said slowly. They all looked towards him and nodded. "I… When I was young, the stories of the Golden Age were well, just that, stories. And as a child, of course I liked playing pretend. And.. I would use sticks to pretend to be using Rhindon and pretend to be you. Other times, I'd pretend to be Edmund breaking the Witch's wand. But… I also pretended to be one of your knights… and sent on quests to rescue Queen Susan and winning her hand."
He blushed at the end. Rather than be flattered, Susan frowned and said, "And now?"
"And now… I know that it's rather stupid of me to think you are the helpless type who needs rescuing… but the second part… I mean… I would rather… I would like to court you," he said, blushing deep red. He glanced at Susan whose face was impassive. His palms got sweaty as he thought she might not want his advances. "I'm sorry. I'm doing this all wrong. This… my timing's horrible. I'm so sorry."
Susan leaned over and placed a finger to his lips to hush him. "I still haven't said my secret yet," she said, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Oh, right. Of course," he said, looking down at his fingers rather than facing her.
"My secret… is that I have been hoping for quite some time that you would say that," she said, her small smile growing wide. She tackled him to the ground, lying practically on top of him.
"Um… hello?" he said, rather stunned both that she actually accepted and that she was so… forward. Susan smirked and kissed him on the lips. She then climbed off of him and pulled him up by his collar to kiss him again.
"That's enough," Peter said with a scowl.
"Are you angry with me for not asking you permission?" Caspian asked anxiously.
"No, my sister can make her decisions for herself," Peter said, much to Susan's satisfaction. "And you're loads better than that Malfoy boy. But… do you really have to do, yeah that, with my sister in front of me?"
They all laughed as Susan lightly slapped her brother and gave a fake, disapproving frown that was really more of a smile. Hermione was rather happy about how Peter didn't try to control his sister. She would never marry any man who tried to control her. She blinked, realizing she had just thought about marriage. Wow… She hardly knew him. But there was something so different about Peter that made her much more spontaneous about such things. That made her already idly think about marriage. She was a bit jealous though of how romantic Caspian was towards Susan, having managed to be in love with her before even knowing she existed.
"Hey, can I change my secret?" Peter suddenly said. "I've got a better one."
"Well, what is it?" Susan prodded after he didn't automatically respond.
"My secret… is that I have never told a girl – other than my sisters and that's in a completely different way – that I love her…. Before now," he said, slowly turning to Hermione who clapped her hands to her mouth in shock when she realized what he was about to say. "Hermione, I… I love you. You inspire me to be a better man and are constantly amazing me with how talented and incredible you are."
Suddenly, Hermione didn't feel so jealous anymore. "I love you too, Peter. And… I've never said that to a boy before. And never thought I'd be saying that to a boy so soon after meeting him."
Peter turned towards her and cupped her chin, gently kissing her. Hermione was surprised at how gentle he could be. His other hand started caressing her cheek softly as he kept kissing her. She wrapped his arms around his waist, pulling her body in towards him.
"Hey, do you really have to do, yeah that, with my brother in front of me?" Susan said, mimicking Peter. He scowled teasingly at her. "Oh, and Hermione? If you hurt my brother, you'll have me to answer to." Hermione just laughed. Although she wasn't entirely sure that Susan was joking.
"Oh, right. Cas, if you hurt my sister, you'll have me to answer to," Peter lightly threatened, knowing that wasn't likely to happen.
"If Susan leaves any of me to answer to you," Caspian joked.
"Well, looks like you at least sort of know what you're getting into," Peter grinned. There was still one hesitation that Caspian had about courting her. There was this one story he had heard of…
"Just wondering though, is the legend about one of your ruder suitors being turned into an ass true?" Caspian asked a bit anxiously. "That can't be true right? Both nurse and my tutor said they figured it was probably meant figuratively."
"Oh, no. That was entirely true," Susan teased in an overly-sweet voice, giggling as she saw Caspian look a bit scared.
"Wait, what?" Hermione said incredulously. "That seems like a bit of an overreaction. Although I guess it's not too bad if he was turned back. Was he?"
"Yes, he was… but I wasn't the one to turn him into an ass. Aslan did that," she assured.
"And that suitor was trying to essentially capture Susan and force her to be his concubine And also tried to take over Archenland and Narnia when he realized Susan had escaped," Peter explained.
"And you let him turn back into a human after all that?" Caspian asked, rather relieved that the circumstances had been rather severe. He was already the king of Narnia and had no intention of taking over Archenland, and definitely no intention of forcing Susan into anything, so he should be safe from being turned into an ass.
"Well, if he had left Calormen again, he would have transformed back into an ass again," Susan said. "But don't worry, it's not going to happen to you." She kissed the tip of his nose fondly.
"You planning on transfiguring me into anything?" Peter teased Hermione.
"If you force me into being a sex slave? I will transfigure you into a door mat," she threatened.
Peter just laughed. "Wouldn't need to force you because you can resist my charm," he said teasingly, wagging an eyebrow and playing with a lock of her hair.
"What charm?" Hermione retorted, but the venom in her voice was easily nullified by her leaning towards him to kiss him again.
"We probably should sleep. Just in case there's any problems tomorrow with getting the fruit. The legend we know said the Witch was there when the Professor and Miss Plummer – or Lord Diggory and Lady Polly as the Narnian legend would call them – went to get the fruit. But it also says the other fruits, because she had eaten it, would be abhorrent to her."
They all settled down for the night. But none of them really got much sleep since they were each still so excited by what had happened that day
"We should go ask the merpeople if they've seen anything," Harry said.
"I wish the High King and Queen were here. They might not answer to us," Veta said anxiously.
"Really? They would bow to and follow the requests of some monarchs they never met who apparently abandoned their ancestors, but you think they wouldn't even give us some easy information?" Harry retorted angrily. This was really getting on his last nerve. The two Pevensies kept acting like they expected everyone to follow them, and he was sick of it! Fine, maybe in some other world they were kings and queens. But not here! And couldn't the Narnians see that they didn't have to follow them here? They should be listening to him more than them. This was his world after all, not those annoying Pevensie siblings. He should be the expert here.
"They're the High King and Queen," Baledin said with a shrug, as if that explained everything. "They might also follow King Caspian."
"They have no reason to follow any of you!" Harry shouted. Ron stood there awkwardly. He was on Harry's side, but he also didn't really want to make anyone angry at him so soon after him betraying everyone.
"How dare you speak that way of the kings and queen!" Baledin said angrily, falling back into the role of the dutiful, loyal knight.
The other Telmarine Crevan tried to calm him, saying, "Baledin, I'm sure he just doesn't understand Narnian and Telmarine standards of honor."
That did it for Harry. Now they were acting like he was an ignorant fool? They were the ignorant ones, still living in the medieval dark ages! "Now, I'm just smart enough to know better than to bow down to a bunch of idiots!"
"Idiots?!" Veta shouted. "Says the boy who endangered us by trying to keep fighting when it was only a foolish, possibly mortal risk!"
"That's it!" Harry shouted. "This isn't even my fight! Your precious king was the one who was fool enough to call up the White Witch. None of what happened was a result of those here, and yet we're the ones endangered because of his stupidity. Well, I'm through with this! I'm not going to bother helping fix your mistake. You can do that yourself. C'mon, Ron. Let's go. Ron?"
Ron hadn't budged. "Sorry, Harry. But… I … I betrayed everyone to the White Witch. So… so I'm going to stay to make it up to them. But… you go along. If you don't think this is your fight, then just go on."
Harry looked at him incredulously. But Ron seemed adamant. "Fine, then. Fine," he said as he stormed out.