A/N: This is the last chapter before Narnia! I don't want to spend too many chapters on the Professor's, so I tried to fit it all in here. This chapter is actually the longest one yet.

When the morning comes, Maisie is woken by a sudden loud voice. She startles up, and sees Lucy at the window, a look of dismay on her face.

"It's raining!" The young girl groans.

Maisie gets up and joins her. The sky is bleak and grey - the ground is covered in a watery haze. It looks like they won't be going outside after all.

"Lucy, be quiet. You'll wake up the others." Susan mumbles, sitting up. She rubs her eyes, then sees Maisie. "Oh, I'm sorry." She turns to her sister. "See, Lucy?"

Maisie smiles at them both. "It's all right."

Susan sighs and flops back into bed, pulling the duvet violently over her head.

Maisie turns around to check on Annie, and sees the girl, curled up on top of her duvet. Her heart sinks. She walks over to her sister and gently pulls the duvet over her small body. Annie doesn't even wake up. Her skin bears goosebumps - she's obviously slept like that all night - and her face is covered in tear tracks. Maisie knows what that means.

Annie has always been afraid of the dark, even at home. But now, in a new house, a new bed, the fear must have been worse than ever. Maisie feels awful - she'd left her little sister to battle her demons alone.

As soon as Michael comes out of the boys' room, she corners him and tells him about it. He looks worried, and almost charges right into the girls' room to check on his sister, until she tells him that Susan is still asleep in there. They have a hushed discussion in the corridor - Peter comes out for a second and gives them an odd look. Eventually, they agree that Annie can wake Maisie up, if she can't sleep again.

By the time that the girl eventually emerges, everyone else is up and dressed. She has dark smudges beneath her eyes, and her entire posture screams exhaustion. Michael insists on carrying her down to breakfast - in fact, he insists on carrying her everywhere that day.

Later on, they find themselves in their sitting room, confined by the rain. Maisie still insists that exploration is a bad idea (although she is sorely tempted) and Peter reluctantly agrees. So, they are entertaining themselves.

Lucy and Philip are chattering on the window seat - Annie is snoozing on Michael's shoulder - Edmund is carving his name into a chair leg. Peter, Maisie, Susan and Michael are playing a guess-the-word game of Susan's own invention.

Maisie doesn't think that she has never been so bored.

"Come on, Peter. Gastrovascular!"

It's Peter's turn, and he gives a resigned sigh, before replying, "Is it Latin?"

Edmund adds a final flick to his name and slides out from beneath the chair. "Is it Latin for worst game ever invented?"

Susan slams the dictionary in her hands shut, scowling at her brother.

"I'm bored." Lucy slides off of the window seat and sits down in front of Peter. "Can we play hide and seek?"

Peter glances slyly at Susan. "But we're already having soooo much fun..."

"Please?" Lucy drags out the word, looking up with pleading eyes that, evidently, Peter is unable to resist, because in the next moment he begins to count.

Lucy beams and runs from the room, Philip hot on her heels. Michael shrugs and pulls Annie up with him, and even though they seem unenthusiastic, Susan and Edmund go next.

Peter grins at Maisie, still counting. He puts his hands over his eyes and leans against a wall.

"Ten... Eleven..."

She whirls out into the corridor. Susan has disappeared already, Annie and Edmund are running up the corridor, and Lucy and Philip are nowhere to be seen. She looks down and sees Michael peering out at her from under a tablecloth.

"Plenty of room under here!" He hisses, and Maisie holds back a laugh. She scrambles under the table with him, and they begin the inevitable battle for space.

"I thought that you said there was lots of room!" Maisie elbows him.

"Well, there was, until you turned up..."

A shout echoes down the corridor. "Hey! Give me my hiding spot back!" The voice unmistakably belongs to none other than Annie Somerville.

"Uh oh." Michael nudges Maisie.

"I bet it's Edmund." She whispers back, seconds before the boy himself says, "No! I got here first!"

"You shoved me!" Annie yells.

"Run, Edmund, run." Michael murmurs.

"I did not! It is not my fault you're slow!" Edmund sounds vaguely smug with this remark, but as any of the Somervilles could have told him, he won't be smug for long.

"Here we go..." Maisie tries not to laugh. As quiet as Annie may seem, she has a temper, and Edmund just might make her lose it.

"OW!" There is a thump as something (or someone) hits the floor.

"And Annie wins again..." Michael gives a mock round of applause, and Maisie bursts out laughing.

"Ninety six... Ninety seven... Ninety eight... Ninety nine..."

"We're back! We're back! We're all right!"

Peter's footsteps come out of the spare room and stop, just in front of Maisie and Michael's hiding spot. His voice is full of confusion. "I'm not sure you four have quite got the idea of this game..."

Maisie crawls out from under the table, ending up by Peter's feet. He stares down at her, and she gives him a bright smile, before standing up and looking down the corridor.

Lucy and Philip are standing in the hallway, panting. Annie is standing at the side, glaring down at Edmund, who is sitting in the middle of the floor. He looks shellshocked, gaping up at her, and Maisie resists the urge to laugh.

At Peter's words, Lucy and Philip's excited grins fall, and are replaced by bemused looks.

"Weren't you wondering where we were?" Philip says.

"That's the point." Edmund raises his eyebrows.

With an exasperated sigh, Michael emerges from beneath the table. "What's going on?"

At the same time, a breathless Susan rounds the corner. "Does this mean I've won?" She says, grinning.

"But..." Lucy looks from Maisie to Peter to Michael to Susan. "We've been gone for hours..."

"What are you talking about?" Maisie frowns.

Philip looks crestfallen for a second, but suddenly brightens. "Come on! We'll show you!" He turns to Lucy, and the two of them take off down the corridor, not looking back.

Maisie and Peter exchange a quick look, and then follow the others.

They are led to a room that is empty, apart from a huge, carved oak wardrobe, which stands at the back of the room. A dustsheet lies crumpled on the floor, and the wardrobe door is slightly ajar. Through it, Maisie catches a glimpse of fur. To her surprise, Philip makes straight for the door and steps inside, disappearing behind a sea of fur coats. His muffled voice floats out, accompanied by his footsteps.

"And there was a wood in here... and a lamppost... and lots of snow... and a faun!"

"He was called Mr Tumnus!" Lucy adds. "And the land was called Narnia!"

Philip appears again. "Come on! Come and see!"

Maisie looks around, and hesitantly steps forward. Philip jumps out of her way as she climbs into the wardrobe, and pushes through the coats. It's too dark for her to see anything, so she walks blindly forward, hands outstretched, and walks straight into the solid sheet of wood at the back.

"What am I supposed to be looking for, Phil?" She calls.

"Just walk through!" Philip answers confidently. "You'll come out into the trees!"

She sighs and turns around, coming back out. The younger children watch her eagerly as she steps down and smoothes down her clothes.

"There's nothing there."

Philip's face creases. "There is, you must have just missed it."

Susan has already climbed in. They can hear her uncertain footsteps and then, a gentle knock on the wood.

"The only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe!" She climbs out.

"But it really was there!" Lucy cries.

Edmund unexpectedly speaks up. "Well, I believe you." The entire group stares at him disbelievingly.

"You do?" Lucy says, looking very uncertain.

"Yes. " Edmund nods, and his face cracks into a grin. "Didn't I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboard?"

Peter's eyes darken from their usual sky-blue. "You always have to make everything worse, don't you?" He takes a step forward.

On the other hand, Edmund retreats, saying defensively: "It was just a joke!"

Peter gives a sigh, leaning back. "Oh, when will you just grow up."

Everything about Edmund changes just then. He goes from looking small and slightly ashamed, to being suddenly furiously angry. He surges forward and yells, pushing right into Peter's face.

"Shut up! You think you're Dad, but you're not!"

With that, he whirls around and leaves the room, slamming the door behind him. There is a shocked silence. Peter stares after his brother, frozen. Susan glares at him, and says: "How was that supposed to help?"

He just looks at her blankly.

"We're telling the truth, Susan." Lucy says quietly.

"That's enough, Lucy." Susan says shortly and pulls the door open, stalking away.

Michael smiles sadly and reaches out to ruffle Philip's hair, but his hand is batted away. Looking mildly upset, Michael disappears, followed by Annie.

"Maisie..." Philip looks at Maisie pleadingly.

"Susan is right, Phil." She softly says. "That's enough."

Philip's face falls. He steps back, a stony look coming into his eyes.

With a sigh, Maisie leaves the room. Peter follows her, leaving their youngest siblings standing by the wardrobe.

Instead of going straight back to their rooms, she stops by a window and sits down on the bench beside it. She looks out over the farmland, and quickly finds the railway. She follows it to the horizon, gazing in the direction in which London must lie.

To her surprise, Peter sits down beside her. His eyes are lowered, and his hands are clasped. His fringe falls into his face, and he speaks quickly. "I'm sorry about Edmund and me. We used to be close, but since Dad went away, it's been different."

"That's all right." Maisie turns back to the window. "It's been different for us, too." She smiles wryly to herself. If only he knew how different...

Peter shifts slightly beside her. "I wish I could've gone too. If I'd only been a few years older - !"

She looks up at him sharply, feeling like she is being confided in. She studies him for a moment.

"Everyone in my family went." She tells him. "My uncles, my cousins, my dad..." At the last one, her heart gives a twinge. She clears her throat. "Michael wanted to as well, but he was too young."

"It's the same with us." He sighs. "I just... I feel like I'm missing out."

She laughs hollowly. It's getting harder and harder to talk about this with every passing moment. "Missing out on what?" She looks straight into his eyes. "Look, Peter, all you're missing is blood and mud and bullets. It's war, people go missing, they die..."

He looks quietly back at her. "I'd just like to do my part. That's all."

Maisie looks away, letting it slide. "I suppose that's reasonable enough." Her voice sounds a little odd as she speaks, and she prays that he doesn't notice.

When she raises her head, Peter is frowning at her as if trying to puzzle something out. He stands up, and offers her a courteous hand.

"We should be getting back." He says, with a slight smile. She takes the hand and steps to her feet, letting go as soon as she is up.

Lucy watches the flame of the candle, letting it entrance her until she is the only one awake. She watches as it flickers and almost goes out, wavering in an unfelt breeze.

Narnia is real. She is sure of that - she has the handkerchief curled in her hand to prove it. And Philip was there too. They aren't imagining the wood in the wardrobe.

Then why wasn't it there when the others had looked?

The candle gives Lucy an idea. She lies very still for a moment, considering it. She feels bad about leaving Philip out, but she since can't get in to the boys room to wake him up...

She gets out of bed and puts on her dressing gown and slippers. She picks up the candle, and sets off across the room, careful not to trip on the carpet. She opens the door as stealthily as she can, and slips down the corridor, feeling like a spy or a character in a novel. She smiles to herself, her only outward expression of the excitement within her.

The door to the wardrobe room is open, as if inviting her in. Her candlelight reflects on the uncurtained windows as she crosses the room. With one hand, she turns the door handle and cracks the wardrobe open. A wind rushes through the gap and blows out her candle. Lucy grins against the sudden cold, and steps in.

Maisie is woken by a loud thump and muffled shouting through the wall. She opens her eyes, and finds herself blind - the candlelight is gone. She jumps violently when she stretches out, and touches a warm body beside her.

"What is it?" Annie's sleepy voice comes through the darkness beside her.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Maisie whispers back: "Something's happening next door."

There is a groan from the other side of the room, and a rustle as Susan sits up. "What are they doing now?" Her bedside light clicks on, and Maisie winces in the sudden light. When her eyes adjust, she sees Susan staring down at Lucy's empty bed.

"Where is she?" Annie asks tentatively.

Susan glances at them. "She's next door. I heard her voice." She gives a resigned sigh. "Come on, let's go and find out what the matter is."

The boys' room has been sent into a state of chaos. Philip is standing on his bed, his bedcovers strewn on the floor. Michael is a loudly complaining lump beneath his duvet. At the sidelines, Edmund stands, looking rather uncomfortable. And in the centre of it all, a very tired Peter is attempting to talk to a very excited Lucy, who is bouncing on his bed. When he sees Susan and Maisie, his shoulders slump in relief.

"What's going on?" Susan folds her arms and strides to the centre of the room. Philip, who had been shouting to Lucy, stops yelling and stares at her. Michael emerges from beneath his bedcovers.

"I went to Narnia again!" Lucy cries. "And this time, Edmund went with me!"

All eyes turn to the boy in the corner. He shies back, shifty-eyed.

"...Ed?" Peter asks.

Edmund seems to hesitate, glancing at Lucy. "I... I was just playing along." He gets more confident. "I'm sorry for encouraging her, Peter, but you know what little kids are like these days." He smiles spitefully at the young girl. "They just don't know when to stop pretending."

Lucy bursts into loud sobs, and leaps off Peter's bed, running from the room. Philip sends Edmund a deathly look, and follows after her.

"Philip!" Maisie calls, just as Susan shouts, "Lucy!" They take off after the younger ones, Peter shoving Edmund onto his bed on the way out.

Maisie is panicking. It's a big house, but Mrs Macready is sure to hear them... They'll get in trouble, and they'll get sent home, and Mother will be so ashamed, and they'll never see the Pevensies again...

She slows to a halt, dismayed, as she rounds a corner and takes in the sight before her.

Lucy is clinging to the legs of an eccentric looking, white haired man, while Philip stands by. The man is peering down at the two children over the tops of his glasses, a very bewildered look on his face.

Mrs Macready appears and gasps aloud. "I'm so sorry, Professor... I told them that you were not to be disturbed-" She gives them a look that doesn't bode well.

"Oh, that's quite all right." The Professor says mildly. "I'm sure there must be some rational explanation for this." He peers down at Lucy. "But first, I think this one is in need of some hot cocoa." He pats her on the shoulder.

Lucy detaches herself, still sniffling. Mrs Macready tuts and becomes suddenly maternal, putting an arm around the girl's shoulder. Philip steps forward and quietly requests to come too, and the housekeeper nods.

"Come along, dears." She leads them out of sight.

The Professor scrutinises the rest of them - excepting Edmund, who had stayed behind - and gestures for them to follow him.

They file silently into a high ceilinged room, it's walls lined with books. The Professor goes to the desk in the centre and pulls a wooden box out of a drawer. He lifts out a pipe, and sits down in the chair. He looks at them over the tops of his glasses.

"You seem to have upset the delicate internal balance of my housekeeper."

"We're very sorry, sir." Peter says. He takes Susan's arm and attempts to discreetly pull her from the room. "It won't happen again."

Susan resists. "It's our sister, Lucy."

"And our brother, Philip." Michael adds.

"Ah, yes." The Professor lights his pipe and puts it in his mouth. "The weeping girl and her friend."

"They're upset-" Maisie begins.

"Hence the weeping." He nods sagely.

"They think that they've found a magical land." Susan tells him. "In the upstairs wardrobe!"

Professor Kirke looks up suddenly, pulling his pipe from his mouth. He stands up, and leads Susan to a sofa. "What did you say?"

Maisie sits down beside them. "The wardrobe... Lucy and Philip say that there's a forest inside it."

"What was it like?"

"Like talking to a pair of lunatics!" Susan replies.

The man frowns. "No - not them, the forest."

"They said it was snowy, and there was a lamppost..." Maisie frowns. "And something called a faun."

"You're not saying you believe them?" Michael asks, leaning on the back of the sofa.

"And you don't?" The Professor stares at him.

"Well... no." Michael says.

"Logically, it's impossible." Susan adds.

"Logically..." The man mutters to himself. "What do they teach you in schools these days..."

"Arithmetic, and the ABC." Michael whispers. Maisie whirls around and shoots him a warning look, but luckily, the Professor hadn't heard.

"You think that we should just... believe them?" Peter says, frowning.

"I should say so." The Professor puts his pipe back into his mouth. "You're a family, aren't you?"

There is silence as they glance at each other.

"You might just try acting like one!"

The next day dawns bright and fair. After the disastrous game of hide and seek, the older Pevensies and Somervilles are desperate to get the younger ones out of the house. So, they settle on the grass outside, playing cricket with a dusty bat that Mrs Macready given them. Lucy and Philip are sitting among some trees close by, not wanting to take part, but seeming to have cheered up a little.

"And he's running up, and it's another wicket for Peter!"

The ball hits Edmund in the shoulder. "Watch it!" he shouts, scowling at his brother.

Peter laughs boyishly. "Whoops! Wake up, Dolly Daydream!"

Edmund turns to Susan. "This is boring. Can we play hide and seek again?"

He is quickly shouted down, no-one else being keen on the idea. Lucy looks daggers at him from across the grass.

Peter gets ready to pitch again, throwing a teasing smile at his brother. "Are you ready?"

"Are you?" Edmund shouts back, and lifts up the bat.

There is a crack as the bat strikes the ball. They all watch it as it glides through the air - and crashes straight through a window. There is a universal groan.

"Oh, well done." Peter looks at Edmund, who flushes rapidly.

"You balled it!"

They drop the cricket gear and leave it where it is, running into the house. Surprisingly, it doesn't take them long to find the broken window, and the scattered suit of armour that lies beneath it.

"Well, we're in trouble." Michael sighs, picking up a sheet of metal and looking at it uselessly for a second.

Maisie kneels down and picks up a few bits, trying to put them back together. "I'm sure we could fix it... If we just had a little time-"

Suddenly, they can hear footsteps coming down the corridor. The all-too-recognisable click of Mrs Macready's shoes.

"Mrs Macscary!" Lucy gasps. The group stares at each other for a second, before taking off down the corridor.

As soon as Maisie has started running, she is doubting whether she should. Wouldn't it be right to stop, and explain what had happened? But the adrenaline pushes her ahead, trying every door they come to. They are once again hopelessly lost. She searches the walls for something that she recognises, looking for somewhere to hide. She feels a rush of relief when she sees that Edmund has managed to find an unlocked door, and is holding it open at the end of the corridor.

She skids to a halt when she sees that the room is none other than the wardrobe room.

"Oh, you have got to be joking." Susan expresses the sentiments of the group with a groan.

Philip and Lucy exchange a quick look, and run into the wardrobe. Annie follows on straight away, urgently calling them over.

The footsteps get closer.

They give in and climb into the wardrobe, Peter closing the door behind them. Maisie suddenly realises that eight people in one wardrobe is not the best of ideas, as they push each other, shouting and trying not to fall. She steps backwards, trying not to slip on the mothballs, and tries to find a space. A body crashes into her and says a hurried sorry - she pushes away from it and reaches out for the back of the wardrobe, but it seems to go on forever and ever.

Eventually, her hands meet something, but it isn't wood. She slides out of the fur coats, and gives a gasp as a wall of cold air suddenly hits her.