Disclaimer: I don't own House of Anubis or The Chronicles of Narnia.

CHAPTER NINE:

One Week Later

"ALFRED MARMADUKE LEWIS AND JEROME WHATEVER-YOUR-MIDDLE-NAME-IS CLARKE!"

If everyone in Anubis House wasn't awake that morning, then everyone certainly was now. Amber's shrill scream was probably heard on the other side of the country.

Jerome poked his head inside Amber and Nina's room, grinning from ear to ear. "Yes?"

Amber stood in the middle of her bedroom in her hot pink robe, her wet hair piled above her head and covered in mud. In her hand she held a muddy shampoo bottle, and if looks could kill, Jerome would be dead. "ALFIE LEWIS! WHERE ARE YOU? I KNOW YOU HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS, TOO!"

Alfie edged himself into the room, giving Amber a sheepish smile. "Oh, hey, Amber. Nice weather we're having, eh?"

"And might I say, brown is definitely your color," Jerome added, winking.

Amber let out a long, ear-splitting scream and Jerome and Alfie high-fived, chuckling.

It had been a week since Nina had "gone off the deep end" and Patricia and Eddie's argument, and since then, things had been quite uneventful, and quite better off for Nina. Everyone had been told (by Fabian, Amber, and Eddie, of course) to mind their own business and to not talk about the incident, and everyone was quite eager to comply. (Well, not Patricia and Joy so much.)

However, Nina still spent most of her time locked up in her room, although she came out during mealtimes. Whenever she did, she never spoke, and everyone mostly left her alone. Other than Amber and Fabian, and sometimes Eddie. They tried to talk to her like everything was fine and the whole event with the wardrobe had never happened, but it was harder than it sounded. The worst part about it for Nina was that she realized that Fabian probably thought she was a liar, or a lunatic, or even just really desperate for attention. Despite all the times she'd denied it up and down, Nina really had liked Fabian. Not a lot, she'd told herself. Just a little. And if he had even fancied her back, she doubted that he did now.

On the other hand, Nina completely avoided Jerome at all costs. What he'd done to her had been horrible, and although she didn't know his reasonings behind it, she was pretty furious with him. It wasn't like she'd ever do anything about it, though.

Jerome and Alfie had bounced back into the pranking business head-on. Every day you could expect to find a fake spider hanging above your head when you woke up or that your toothpaste had been replaced with shaving cream...or, like today, that the contents of your shampoo bottle had been replaced with mud. In fact, one day, Alfie and Jerome had tied long strands of invisible string to every object in Eddie's room and had hid under his bed, so that when Eddie entered the room they immediately began pulling random strings, causing the objects to fly off their shelves, seemingly of their own accord. Which, of course, scared the life out of Eddie. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone. (His loud, girlish screams had been a big clue, however.)

For Jerome, though, pranking was a distraction. He wasn't hungry anymore, and when he actually did eat, he ate very little. The taste of the Turkish Delight still lingered in his mouth, and all he wanted was more. He knew he desperately needed to get the others into the wardrobe somehow, but how? He needed to figure out soon. He was starting to get particularly hungry.

Patricia and Eddie didn't speak a word to each other the whole entire week, not even to argue. In fact, they wouldn't even look at each other, and at mealtimes, they sat as far away as possible. If one of them were to enter the same room that the other one was in, they would promptly walk right back out. They were still pretty furious with each other, not to mention Patricia was embarrassed beyond belief that Eddie had caught her crying over something that he of all people said. She tried to go on like she didn't care, but in all honesty, his words had hurt. Only after he'd said all those things to her had she realized that she actually cared about the stupid boy's opinion, a lot more than she would like. Which, of course, made the whole thing even worse. It didn't look like things would be fixed between them anytime soon...unless one of them got over themselves and apologized, that is.

Mara attempted to stay out of the whole thing. She didn't like to start drama, so she mostly spent her time in the library, her nose stuck in a book. That was how she normally spent her free time, anyways. Jerome had come up to her one day and asked if she wanted to play chess. They'd played for hours on the same day as the hide-and-seek fiasco, and Mara had to admit that she'd had a lot of fun. But, she turned him down this time. Jerome had just shrugged and walked away. He didn't ask her after that, although Mara half-hoped that he would. Which she scolded herself for. Jerome was a mean person, and he had proved it even more after being so hurtful to Nina. "I'm not even sure why I let him play chess with me in the first place," she told herself numerous times.

Joy was in fact very happy at the way things were turning out. If Fabian had fancied Nina before the whole incident with the wardrobe, it didn't look like he did anymore. Why would he? Like Patricia had said, Nina had invented the whole thing because she'd been desperate for attention. It was weird, though - Joy always thought that Nina seemed like a perfectly nice and normal person. But she didn't really care. She'd been spending a lot more time with Fabian recently, so who cared what Nina's intentions were.

Mick was bored out of his mind. That whole rainy week he walked up and down the corridors of Anubis House. He'd tried reading a book one day, but that didn't last for very long. No, he usually spent most of his time alone - that is, unless Mara came out of her cave (otherwise known as the library) and came to talk to him. Mara was nice, but she was a bit boring, not to mention they had next to nothing in common, so there was really nothing for them to talk about. In fact, if Mick didn't know better, he would've said that she fancied him. But he was probably saying that only because most girls did. Still, he supposed that walking with Mara beat walking aimlessly around by himself all day.

It had rained every day that they'd been at Anubis House, which nearly drove all the children off the edge. Being cooped up indoors all day was starting to make all of them incredibly cranky.

Back at the present time, Trudy came running into Amber and Nina's room, causing Jerome and Alfie to immediately stop laughing. "What's going- oh goodness!" She gasped as she took in the sight of Amber. Nina sat on her bed, a book in her lap, watching with a little bit of amusement.

Amber pointed towards the two boys. "They did it!"

Trudy turned to face Alfie and Jerome, who offered sheepish waves. "Boys," Trudy said sternly. "This has got to stop! I know you're bored, with it raining everyday and all-"

"Wait, look!" Alfie cried suddenly, running over to the window.

"Alfie Lewis, don't you dare change the subject-"

"No, really, look!" Alfie cried, beckoning everyone over. "It's not raining anymore!"

"Really?" Everyone rushed towards the window, even Nina. Sure enough, the sky was a vivid blue and the sun was shining brightly.

"YAY!" Amber cried in delight, and before anyone could say anything else, she grabbed Alfie and Jerome by the back of their collars and pushed them out the door. "Get out! I've got to get dressed so we can go outside!"

After everyone was done eating their breakfast, they excitedly ran through the house and out onto the front lawn. Nina sat on the ground by a tree, reading her book, distancing herself from the others, as usual. Amber and Mara, who didn't have a knack for sports, decided not to play either, and simply sat on the sidelines. Amber, of course, designated herself as the official cheerleader, and ignored everyone when they tried to tell her that there weren't any cheerleaders in cricket. Eddie was chosen to be the batsman, Mick as the bowler, and Jerome as the person who caught the balls Eddie managed to miss. (A/N: Sorry, guys, I'm not British, so I don't really know the names of the positions or the rules of the game!) Alfie, Joy, Fabian, and Patricia filled in the leftover positions.

Mick seemed to enjoy announcing his moves as he made them, which was a little irritating, to be quite honest. Still, it was a fun game - until Mick swung too hard, causing Eddie to hit the ball and send it straight through the library window. He dropped his bat in shock as everyone groaned, hurriedly running up to the library to see what the damage was.

The window was positively smashed through, and the ball lay on the floor surrounded by shards of glass. Unfortunately, the ball had managed to knock down a full suit of armor as it crashed through the window. "Oh no..." Mara moaned.

"Now you've done it!" Mick glared at Eddie.

"What? You're the one that bowled it!" Eddie reminded him.

"Eddie, how could you be so careless?" Nina groaned. It was the first time she'd spoken in a while, but no one had time to be surprised.

"What's going on?" Victor's voice shouted from about two corridors down.

Everyone froze, staring at each other with wide eyes as they heard footsteps come towards them - multiple footsteps. "Oh no," Amber said in a despairing voice. "Isn't today the day that Victor is leading a tour?"

Everyone's eyes widened with horror as they thought back to Vera's words when they'd first arrived at Anubis House - to remain absolutely out of sight when Victor was leading a tour, unless they wanted to suffer extreme consequences.

"Run!" Joy shrieked.

They didn't have to be told twice. They bolted from the library, quickly turning down the corridor, trying to get as far away from Victor and the tour group as possible.

"We've got to find somewhere to hide!" Mick shouted.

Patricia put her hand on a door knob, but to their misfortune, they heard Victor's footsteps coming behind it. And they were off again, running every which way. Apparently, Victor was at every door they turned to.

"For an old man, he sure can move fast!" Alfie said in a loud whisper, and everyone laughed.

They turned down a corridor, and Joy stopped to listen outside a door. There weren't any footsteps behind it. She flung the door open wide, and the ten children stopped short.

They were in the wardrobe room. And this was the only place left to hide.

Jerome smiled in satisfaction. Now was his chance. He burst forward and flung the door to the wardrobe open. "C'mon, hurry!" He shouted.

"You've got to be kidding me," Patricia said in disbelief.

"There's no way we can all fit in there!" Mara cried.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of Victor's footsteps behind them.

"Well, we're just going to have to try," Fabian insisted. Hesitantly, the ten children climbed inside the wardrobe. Mick, who was the last one inside, cracked it behind him, since everyone knows it's foolish to shut oneself in a wardrobe.

"Ouch!"

"GET OFF ME!"

"I'm not on you!"

"Could you not shout in my ear?"

"Stop shoving!"

The wardrobe was small and cramped. The ten children screamed and shouted and shoved one another. In fact, hiding in the wardrobe was doing them no good at all, because even though Victor wouldn't be able to see them, he would certainly be able to find them from all the racket they were making.

It started like a domino effect. First, Eddie stepped on Patricia's foot, causing her to become unsteady and knock into Jerome, who promptly knocked into Alfie, who crashed into Amber, sending her sprawling to the ground, screaming. She braced herself for the painful, hard wooden floor, but she didn't meet it. Instead, she found herself face down in something soft, and surprisingly cold. Blinking the stuff out of her eyes, she slowly sat up. She had been going to yell at Alfie, but when she saw her surroundings her anger was immediately forgotten.

"Oh my gosh," Amber breathed, her eyes wide. She began to hit the person to her left, which happened to be Fabian, lightly on the arm.

Fabian turned, and gasped. Soon everyone was stepping out of the rack of coats and into the woody, snowy clearing.

They were in Narnia.

"Impossible," Mara said in awe.

There was a long stretch of silence where everyone stared at the snowy scenery, gaping. Nina was the first to break the silence. "Do you believe me now?" She asked smugly, smirking.

The nine other children exchanged guilty glances. Patricia, who'd given Nina the most grief, suddenly became very interested with her shoes.

Fabian was the one that spoke up first. "Nina, I'm really, really sorry." He admitted guiltily.

"We should have believed you," Amber agreed, looking at Nina apologetically.

Nina smiled. "It's alright. I suppose," she added jokingly, grinning. In all honesty, she wasn't very angry. She was just glad that they finally believed her. She turned to Eddie, who looked blown away. "Well? Do you have anything to say?" She raised an eyebrow, smirking.

Eddie sighed. "Fine. You were right," he grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"And..." Nina asked expectantly.

"I'm sorry," he muttered.

Nina grinned. "Much better." She turned towards the redhead, looking at her expectantly as she continued to study her shoes. Alfie quickly nudged her, and she looked up, sighing. "Alright, well, it's not as if it was an easy story to believe. You can hardly blame me for thinking you were insane," Patricia said defensively. Nina raised an eyebrow, waiting. She sighed again. "But, I guess I'm sorry." She muttered, avoiding eye contact.

Nina smiled, satisfied. "Thank you, Patricia."

Everyone else chorused their apologies, looking extremely guilty...everyone that is, except Jerome. Amber, the only one that seemed to notice, turned to the blonde, her eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute. If this place is real, then Nina wasn't making it up all along. That means Jerome was here, after all!" She accused as Jerome's eyes widened in alarm. "You little-"

"Easy, Amber," Nina placed a hesitant hand on Amber's arm, holding her back and sending a glare towards Jerome.

"You made her look insane!" Eddie said angrily, glaring at Jerome. The others turned to face the deceiving blond boy, looking at him disapprovingly.

"Hey, none of you believed her either!" Jerome pointed out, backing away.

"That was low," Fabian narrowed his eyes at his cousin. "Even for you, Jerome." Jerome just scoffed.

"I think he should apologize," Amber declared, crossing her arms in front of her chest and tapping her foot impatiently.

Everyone stared at him expectantly. Jerome swallowed. He'd rather eat dirt than apologize for anything, but what other choice did he have? Nine angry faces were glaring at him, and he had a feeling Eddie would give him a nasty punch in the face if he didn't apologize, soon. Jerome sighed and turned to Nina. "I'm sorry," he said, trying to sound sincere, even though he was far from it. The words sounded disgusting and foreign on his mouth. Gross. Now I'm going to have to scrub my tongue with soap.

Nina searched Jerome's eyes for sincerity, and she could find none. What Jerome had done to her was terrible. He'd made everyone think she was an absolute lunatic. Thanks to him, no one (excluding Amber, Fabian, and sometimes Eddie) had talked to her for an entire week. And if she was being honest, she was still a little furious at him.

Jerome wasn't a good person, this much was obvious. But Nina was. And she strongly believed that everyone deserved a second chance. So, she pushed her resentment down, and decided to accept his apology, no matter how insincere it was. "I forgive you," Nina stated. Then, just for good measure, she added. "Somewhat."

Jerome rolled his eyes, but didn't answer.

"So...now what?" Mick asked out loud, after a short moment of silence.

"Let's go visit Mr. Tumnus!" Nina suggested, forgetting about Jerome for the moment and grinning.

"Or maybe," Mara spoke up tentatively. "D'you think, we should go back? I mean, we don't know how dangerous this place could be..."

"Yeah, maybe Mara's right," Patricia agreed, her eyebrows furrowed. "Besides, it looks like it might get dark soon."

"Oh, come on you two! Live a little!" Joy nudged her two friends.

Patricia rolled her eyes. "Well, sorry, but I'd rather not die of hypothermia."

"If only there were some sort of object specifically designed to hold some type of clothing that would keep us warm," Eddie said drily. He rolled his eyes and walked over to the racks of coats, grabbing a bunch, and passing them out.

"But, that's stealing," Mara protested.

"Actually, stealing is taking something from its proper place and not returning it," Fabian pointed out. "When we won't even be taking the coats out of the wardrobe at all."

"Very clever, Fabian," Nina agreed, grinning at him. Fabian smiled back, the tips of his ears growing pink. Joy watched, her eyes narrowed. Great. Now that Nina had been proved not crazy, it looked like Fabian was going to toss Joy and their friendship to the side. Again.

"But -" Mara protested.

"Oh, c'mon, Mara. Joy's right, you've got to live a little." Mick nudged Mara playfully, causing her to turn crimson. Amber watched with a smug smile on her face, her eyebrow raised. She always knew that Mara had a crush on her brother, and this definitely confirmed it. Aww, poor, misguided Mara. He's so wrong for her, the love guru thought to herself.

Eddie went around the circle, handing a coat to each person. "Do you want me to help you put on your coat, Amber?" Alfie asked hopefully.

"No, that's okay." Amber said immediately, shooting him down. Noticing Alfie's disappointed look, she quickly added, "But thanks!"

"Right," Alfie said, still looking pretty dejected. Jerome snorted.

Eddie handed Jerome the last coat. Jerome stared at the coat, baffled. "But- but that's a girl's coat!" He protested.

"I know," Eddie said amusedly, shoving the coat at him.

Jerome scowled and snatched the coat away, shrugging it on. Eddie turned to his twin sister. "You know the way to Mr. Tumnus's house, right?"

"You mean we can go?" Nina asked, practically inflating with happiness.

"Why not?" Eddie shrugged.

"Yes!" Nina cheered. "Follow me!"

And so the group moved on, Nina, Amber, Eddie, and Fabian in the front, with Joy, Alfie, and Mick following closely behind. Patricia walked just ahead of Mara, both of them a little hesitant, and Jerome brought up the rear, grumbling and muttering under his breath. At least I've finally brought them here, he thought to himself, trying to see the positive side of things. Although I've got no idea how I'm going to get them all to the Queen's house... He sighed. Ugh. This is not going to be fun.

A/N: So, everyone is FINALLY in Narnia...which means things are going to start getting more interesting. This chapter was actually really fun to write, for some reason.

Oh yeah, I kind of borrowed the idea of the prank Jerome and Alfie played on Eddie with the strings from another fanfic, although I can't for the life of me remember what fic it was - I know it was a Jara fic though, and in it they played the prank on Mick, not Eddie, but the idea is totally not mine!

Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hoped you really liked this chapter!

Question for the chapter - have you guys seen any good movies recently? I saw Taken 2 this weekend, because the first movie is one of my very favorite movies of all time, and it was alright - no where near as good as the first one, and a tad bit disappointing. But it wasn't necessarily BAD. Anyways, what are some movies that you guys like?

Again, thanks for reading, and please review! :)