Deep Magic 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia, nor do I make any profits from posting this fanfiction.
Summary: Non-Epilogue compliant. Harry, mid fight against remaining Death Eater factions, finds himself somehow transported to a strange world, Narnia. He learns to live, to love, and eventually to be a little bit selfish.
Warnings: Slash. Cross dimension travel. Character death. Murder, violence, fighting.
Pairings: HP/EP. Potential PP or LP with a HP character.
Chapter 3
Narnian year 1001.
Harry turned the page and smoothed it down ready to read when there was a knock on his door.
"Harry?"
"Come in Ed." He called and the door was immediately pushed open by Edmund. The eleven year old glanced around the room until his eyes settled on Harry.
"Is this a bad time?"
"Nope, not at all. Come in." Edmund stepped a little more into the room and Harry closed the book, keeping one finger inside the book to mark his page in case it was only a short visit. "What can I do for you?"
"Nothing really, I just…well…we were all going to go horse riding and we wondered if you wanted to come along."
"Um…horse riding isn't really my thing Ed." Harry admitted grudgingly.
Edmund got a cheeky grin. "Well riding a horse has got to be easier than riding a broomstick surely. And the horses here talk so they can tell you what to do."
"Yes because having the horse you are sitting on telling you how to ride a horse is sooo easy." Harry snarked; which earned him a dark grin.
"So there is a limit to your bravery then is there?"
Harry ground his teeth.
"I hate you." He declared.
Edmund smirked.
"You're what, ten?!" Harry scowled, shoved his book onto the table and stood up.
"Nearly twelve."
"Great. And I'm nineteen so how is it you keep beating me?!"
"It isn't like you put up a fight." Edmund gloated and Harry huffed as he grabbed his riding cape from the wardrobe.
He didn't put up a fight. He had been in Narnia a nearly a year and in that time he had become wound around Lucy's finger, and knotted around Edmund's. If the two of them asked him to help them he always did. He could refuse Susan and Peter, their maturity seeming rather intimidating considering their age. With Lucy though it was all childlike innocence and sweetness and Harry did not have it in him to refuse. Edmund was just manipulative. It wasn't in a mean way; it just meant that Edmund knew how to get Harry to agree to his request. And like Edmund said, Harry never did fight back.
"Come on then. Who else is coming?"
"Peter, Susan and Lucy are all coming. The idea is to eventually end up at the beach for a swim if the weather holds."
"Which of course it will because it is a stunning day."
"Exactly. You can bring your book if you like."
"And risk you lot getting it wet? I don't think so."
Narnian year 1002
The black dwarf sullenly threw down his sword. The grotesque hairy boggle to Harry's right grunted in disgust but then threw his axe down to the side and fell to his knees.
"Victory!"
"In Aslan's name – VICTORY!" The cheer went from being to being, sending on the best news Harry had heard all day.
"Oh thank Merlin for that." He muttered, spared the boggle and black dwarf another look, then turned and walked away as a centaur came over.
"Lord Harry, King Edmund requests your presence."
"OK. Where is he?" Harry asked, wincing as he put his sword away causing pain to shoot down his arm from his shoulder wound.
"He stands due West." The centaur pointed in the direction Harry assumed was west. If he knew what time of day it was he could work it out by the sun's position, a skill the Pevensie's had taught him in recent months. The problem was Harry did not have the slightest clue as to whether it was morning or evening so the sun's position was useless.
"Right." Harry nodded to the centaur then began walking west. As he went he pulled his wand and started casting a few healing charms at his arm, wincing again at the pain and tugging as the wound closed over.
As he walked across the field he had to dodge various fallen bodies of Narnian's and those from the White Witch's army. Several Cruels that Harry himself had slain blocked the way and since there was no possible route directly through the group of bodies Harry had to go around them. Cruels were despicable things. Harry imagined if Dementors removed their hoods then they would look something like pretty Cruels. Harry shuddered. He would have nightmares over the Cruel's for the next few days he was sure of it. They might be dead but their hideous appearance would haunt him for ages.
"Harry! Over here Harry!" Edmund looked quite cheerful considering the number of bodies he stood amongst. Now twelve years old, they guessed, Edmund was a few inches taller than he had been at his coronation. The clothes makers had been most upset but his growth spurt, as had the black smiths. Edmund had been pleased by the changes, although it had taken him a while to get used to his new height and his proportions. Naturally his balance had changed due to the extra height and he had become awkward during sword practise for a while. He eventually settled into his height though and was probably due to grow more eventually, which would annoy Harry to no end because Edmund was steadily catching up with Harry's height.
"Hi. You hurt?" Harry asked as he drew up closer to the boy. Edmund shook his head, sweaty locks of hair sticking to his forehead as the shake allowed it to touch and stick to skin.
"Nah. Lucy gave me some of her cordial, I'm fine. How about you? There's a lot of blood…By Aslan, your shoulder!" Harry's arm was abruptly grabbed and yanked making Harry stumble.
"Oi! I'm fine. I healed myself. I'm good as new."
"You better not be lying."
"Of course not your majesty." Harry rolled his eyes.
Edmund tsked and released Harry's arm. "Fine. Well, in any case, the battle is won and they have surrendered. All weapons are being collected by Mykos' people and Peter is currently working out the conditions of the surrender with the groups' second in command."
"Conditions of surrender?"
"Their rights and things now they have surrendered to us." Edmund shrugged. "That's why he is High King and I'm not, so I don't have to deal with all that paperwork. At least not yet any way. Come on. You can help me."
"With what?"
"We have got the job of gathering our dead ready for a proper funeral. Susan and Lucy are tending to the wounded."
Harry helped Edmund move and lay out the dead ready for burial. Hours later the bodies were identified, noted down, and buried in the ground. The trees and Dryads offered a seed to each grave, a life to grow where a life was lost.
Harry threw his soiled clothes down on the grass by the tree stump which had his clean clothes laid out on top of it. Shucking off his trousers Harry walked the few steps to the river in just his underclothes. The water was not warm to step into but Harry had to go in, he had to clean off the blood, filth and mud from the day's battle and cleaning charms were not going to work. Shivering he stepped in up to his waist then used his hand to cup the water and bring it up to various parts of his body to scrub and clean. A fox nearby had just swum back to land, shook off and was licking his body clean looking rather bedraggled. A few fauns were also washing, as well as playing with a naiad.
By the time Harry made it back to his tent he was freezing cold and couldn't wait to cast a heating charm on his covers and slip into his bed. He might have been in a tent but all those years of transfiguration lessons had come in useful. He had practised over the last few months but was now an expert at transforming his sleep mat into an actual mattress. He had even done the same for Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, including a few members of their army who had asked him to do the same for them. McGonnegall would be proud.
He put his dirty clothes on the floor, rubbed a hand through his hair trying to dispel some more of the dampness, then climbed into bed. No sooner had he climbed into bed did a voice call our, and a hand rustled the door to his tent.
"Harry?" That was Susan's voice. Harry sighed and climbed out of bed again, already mourning the loss of the warmth.
"Yes Susan?" He asked, pulling open the material door. Susan looked very apologetic but determined.
"I'm sorry to call on you it's just…well…it's Lucy." She said with a sigh. The sigh held a lot of resignation but her words instantly put Harry on alert.
"Lucy?! What's wrong with her?"
"Nothing, she's just gone missing again."
Again. Lucy going missing happened a lot. The youngest Pevensie girl was always going walk about for some reason or another.
"I'll just get my cloak."
"Thank you." Susan muttered and Harry went back inside his tent to grab his cloak and slip on his boots. Ready, he went back out to find Susan waiting on him with impatient restlessness. He looked at her seriously, held out his wand. "Point me Lucy Pevensie."
His wand spun once then pointed out of camp. He looked to Susan who huffed, gathered her skirt and started off in that direction yelling for all her siblings. Having Harry's 'point me' spell really helped them track down Lucy, as it always did when she went off by herself. They found her only a few minutes later walking around with Mr Tumnus chatting. The girl looked quite surprised by Peter's burst of frustrated worry at her having gone off without telling anyone.
"I-I-I'm sorry Peter…I just couldn't sleep."
"And you couldn't come to me, Su or Ed with that?"
Harry slipped away from the siblings; it was clearly a family issue so he would just give them their privacy. He didn't get more than a hundred meters away when he was called back and the four Pevensie children met him half way.
"Harry, you wouldn't be able to put all our beds in one tent for tonight would you? Lu's worried about nightmares and it might help for us all to stay together." Peter asked with determined steel in his eyes and a look to Edmund that clearly allowed for no arguments. Edmund had a very cross look on his face if his pinched lips and glowering was anything to go by.
"Of course I can." Harry agreed which made Edmund transfer his glare onto Harry.
"Thank you." Peter said primly and they all headed back to camp with Edmund trailing behind still glaring. Harry held back a little bit to walk alongside the upset boy.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Then why are you sending us all looks that could kill?"
"I just got used to having a room all to myself and now I have to share with all of them again! All because Lucy had a nightmare! I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't after a battle but I'm exhausted and I know I'll never get to sleep now because Peter snores!"
Harry stifled a laugh.
"Would you like me to put a silencing ward around your bed so you won't be able to hear him?"
"No because then I won't be able to hear if we are in any danger."
Harry tutted and shook his head. "I will put up the silencing ward, and I will put up safety wards around the tent so that you remain safe while you sleep. How's that?"
"Won't that take a long time? I know you are tired too."
"Not nearly as tired as you are, and I'm a lot older so I can cope with it better." Edmund scowled fiercely at those words and Harry sighed again, running a hand through his hair. "No, the wards won't take long at all, only a few minutes. I am very used to casting these wards. Alright?"
"Fine." Edmund huffed then sighed. "Thank you."
"No problem."
Harry charmed each of the Pevensie children's beds to float into Peter's tent, which he had to enlarge, then he cast the various other charms and wards before wishing the children goodnight and heading off to his own bed at last. He kicked off his boots, hung up his cloak, then slid between the heated covers with a sigh. He really needed to work on being able to charm heating charms into clothes, not just onto bed covers. Now that the skirmish was over with one of the remaining groups from the White Witch's army he could dedicate some more time to learning and practising.
Narnia year 1002
His sword clashed loudly against Edmund's and the resulting impact sent shock waves up his arm. He gritted his teeth, swung his sword back again and aimed for the opening he could see coming…
The swords clashed again, Harry's sword being thrown violently from his grip and in less than a second he had a sword up to his neck.
"Do you yield?" Edmund asked, triumph glittering in his eyes. Harry huffed and nodded.
"Of course I yield." He muttered and Edmund pulled back the sword, holding out his hand to shake with Harry. Harry grudgingly took the teenager's hand.
"If it's any consolation, your sword work is improving."
"Still not good enough yet though is it?"
"At least I don't knock you on your rear anymore. Phorcys is training you well." The words were little comfort given how Edmund was eight years his junior and was fighting with his sword as if he had been born with it in his hand.
Harry had been training every other day with the Centaur Phorcys in the training yard. He trained during the morning then practised his wand work in the afternoon, or got distracted by various different things. He didn't have any books on magic with him except the books he had bought at Diagon Alley the day he had disappeared. Those books had been read to exhaustion over the last few months and were looking very worn. Harry could easily perform all the spells now and as he didn't have any more to practise he had started trying to come up with new spells he could use to aid battle, healing, and general home life. With his knowledge of various wand movements and both his, Edmund, Peter and Susan's grasp on the Latin language they had come up with plenty of potential spells.
"Another match?" Edmund asked, swinging his sword around full circle. Harry shrugged. It wasn't noon yet and he had nothing better to do.
"Yeah why not?" They adopted their stances again, waited out the other. Harry watched Edmund's face searching for the barest hint of an opening move. The teenager was testing his weight in his stance, staying ready but teasing the edges of both of their patience. Edmund broke stance first to swing. Harry blocked quickly. Their swords clashed with the gnashing of steel against steel. The pressure of sword against sword disappeared as immediately as it appeared. Edmund swung his sword around again, Harry blocked the low attack then blocked another one seconds later. Harry attempted an attack when he saw Edmund had left his side unprotected. Edmund blocked it immediately with a swing across his body, shoved Harry's sword out of the way and…
"EDMUND! HARRY!" A female voice yelled and Harry lost concentration, swinging his eyes over to where Lucy skidded into the courtyard.
Pain sliced through his arm.
"Ahh!" He gasped, winced and looked sharply at his arm, dropping his sword to the floor. His tunic had a slice taken out of his arm and blood was freely pouring from the wound.
"Aslan's Mane! I am sorry Harry!" Edmund apologised quickly, sword being thrown down immediately. He grasped Harry's forearm with one hand and carefully tugged at the tunic's material with his other hand.
"HARRY! Oh my gosh I am so sorry!"
"Ah that's nasty." Edmund muttered, face the picture of regret and empathy. Harry winced and craned his neck to get a better look at the wound. It was deep but it was at least an even slice through his skin and muscle. The most annoying part was that it was on his wand arm, because he had to practise wielding his sword with his left hand so he could use sword and wand at the same time.
"Damn!" He muttered, gritting his teeth. Now he was going to have to try to heal it using his left hand.
"I'm sorry Harry, we both got a little distracted I think." Edmund murmured again and Harry nodded.
"It's fine. It's not like you chopped my arm off."
"Thank goodness." Came the bemoaned extension of Harry's sentence. Harry gave him a rueful grin.
"Harry, are you OK?! Did Edmund cut you?! Oh my goodness he did! What were you thinking practising with real swords?! Is it deep? Do I need to get my cordial? There's so much blood!" Lucy gasped out, eyes wide and hands fluttering.
"I should be able to heal it, its fine." Harry fumbled to get his wand out of the wand holster with his left hand. Blood had already soaked through his tunic sleeve though and made it rather difficult to lift the sleeve and grasp his wand.
"Here, let me." Edmund ordered and Harry shot him a grateful smile as the boy made quick work of folding up his sleeve and prying the holly wand from the holster. Harry took it with trembling fingers. He wasn't trembling because of the pain. His arm hurt a lot but it wasn't unbearable. After a cruciatus nearly nothing was unbearable. He wondered if he had just lost too much blood already, you could enter shock after losing only a thimble full of blood after all.
Harry held up his wand to his arm and muttered the various healing spells he knew to close the wound and fix the muscle. It was reluctant but the wound did heal, the flesh knitting together neatly and leaving not even a scar. It did take several minutes and several repetitions of the spell before it got to that stage though.
"Ah that's better…" He sighed and relaxed his arm, putting his wand into his pocket for now. "I might have to go and get changed."
"Yes I think you should." Lucy agreed. "Honestly, why were you practising with real swords?! I thought you used practise swords!"
"You have to practise with a real sword some of the time too otherwise it isn't realistic of battle. And us using real swords is completely beside the point! What were you doing yelling our names when we were practising! That was really dangerous Lucy." Edmund scolded and the girl did look contrite for all of a second before she bounced up onto her toes again and fluttered excitedly.
"Oh yes, I quite forgot! I came to get you because Mrs Beaver has had baby beavers! Come on, you have to come and see them! They are sooo cute, and there are six of them! Can you believe it?! Six!" Lucy blurted out her words in a frenzy.
"That's your news that almost got Harry killed?! Mrs Beaver has had beavers?"
"I think they are called pups, aren't they?" Harry asked thinking hard about what a baby beaver was called. He didn't think he had ever had to think about that before.
Edmund shot him an unimpressed look. "How is that relevant? You nearly got your arm lopped off because Lucy wanted to tell us about the beavers!"
"Well it's important! You have to come! Say you'll come and see! You will won't you?" Lucy's words didn't really give much room for refusal especially since she accompanied them with wide eager eyes. Harry had to shut his eyes because he could feel himself caving in to the girl's whims as he usually did.
Edmund was clearly having the same trouble because he heaved a huge weighed upon huff and groaned out an agreement. "Yes Lu, we will come and see the beavers."
"Oh good. Come on then!" Harry opened his eyes in time to see Lucy turn and walk away quickly, her skirts billowing behind her. He shared a look with Edmund, clearly they were expected to follow and they were going to have to go immediately.
They both made to walk off to follow Lucy when the girl abruptly halted and spun on her heals.
"You might want to get changed first…" She murmured and gave a pointed look to his sleeve. "You too Edmund, you're a bit sweaty."
"Of course we are sweaty, we were training!" Edmund blurted patronisingly then rolled his eyes. "Come on then Harry. Let's get cleaned up."
"I'll wait for you by the stairs. Don't take too long!" Lucy demanded and spun on her heel again and skipped off.
"Oh Aslan save us…" Edmund's voice was muffled as he rubbed his hand over his face. "I'm going to ban Lucy ever coming into the training courtyard. I'll have words with Peter, you just wait. Are you sure your arm is OK?"
"I'm fine Ed, don't worry! Look, good as new!" Harry declared and pulled apart his sleeve a little more to show Edmund the healed skin. It was still tender but it was bound to be, there was also bound to be a nasty bruise there in a few hours, but it was at least healed.
"I really am sorry."
"I know you are." Harry assured him.
They went into the castle and up the main staircase, along the corridor guarded by two fauns, then up the other staircase before they were finally in the residents wing of Cair Paravel. The four Pevensie children had one wing and they had given Harry a room in the wing next door to theirs, one for close family and friends. Mr Tumnus was housed in the rooms next to Harry and they shared comfortable reception and lounge area. Unluckily the faun was using the reception room to relax in and immediately looked alarmed when he looked up from his book and noticed Harry's bloody arm.
"It's fine, don't worry about me." Harry said by way of a greeting and pre-empting anything he would say. Mr Tumnus snapped his open mouth shut immediately with a muffled whimper as he stared at Harry's arm. Harry supposed it did look very alarming since his once mint green tunic shirt was now a bright crimson. He gave the faun a smile, a wave, then disappeared into his room to strip off the tunic and wash off his blood.
It only took a few minutes to have himself cleaned off, the basin of water in his room having turned a dark muddy red colour from all the blood. He flicked his wand at the basin to clean it then stowed away his wand and left his rooms doing up the buttons on the front of his tunic as he walked. Mr Tumnus gave him a half-hearted smile as he passed, eyes pinned on Harry's arm as Harry passed. Harry didn't stop to say anything else to him, just all but ran out the door and along the corridor. He found Edmund waiting for him at the stairs down to the general castle level, the boy's hair was wet and he was donned in clean clothes. The dark blue tunic he wore now had a thick silver trim around it and a silver leaf decoration around the collar almost obscured from view by the floor length riding cape he wore.
"Ah…are we going riding?"
"I checked with Lucy, Mr and Mrs Beaver are at their home and one of the birds passed the message of the babies to her. So yes we are riding, unless of course you want to walk all the way to their dam?" Harry could have done without the smart Alec comment and the smirk, but since Edmund had laughter glittering in his eyes Harry chose not to rise to it.
"Accio riding cloak." Harry intoned. There was a bang, then a scream, the creek of a door and then the rustle of material flapping in the wind.
"That is cheating." Edmund said seriously as Harry swept his cloak from the air and wrapped it around his shoulders.
"Oh but your Majesty, I prefer to think of it as using my initiative. And, besides which, I was injured today so I wouldn't want to over exert myself." The amused sneer that graced Edmund's lips at that comment nearly had Harry chortling loudly, as it was he settled for quietly laughing.
"Oh ha ha. Come on, let's go before Lucy comes charging up to get us."
They walked down side by side but Harry fell a few steps behind as he finished off fastening his tunic top as they walked. Lucy was waiting for them at the bottom of the main staircase with Susan.
"Peter can't come; he has business to attend to."
"Well, that's strange. Anyone would think we had a kingdom to run."
"Edmund, don't be mean." Susan chided immediately.
"I wasn't." Edmund rebuffed her. "Come on then, it's going to take a few hours to get there and since the days are getting shorter I don't want to be travelling back in the dark."
"That's what Peter said." Lucy agreed and Susan indicated to a small group of material wrapped packages.
"Yes and I thought we would probably need some food for on the go since we are missing lunch."
"Is it noon already?" Harry asked trying to get a look at the world outside.
"According to Ashur it is, I was with him when Lucy came to tell me the news."
Ashur was another Centaur, one who was helping to teach all the Pevensies about their roles as kings and queens of Narnia and to help them word treaties and various other things.
The ride was quite pleasant and they stopped an hour into the journey to give the horses a rest and so they could eat their lunch. Harry had never eaten so much fruit and veg in his life before coming to Narnia. His horse was called Lina and she was particularly chatty about the other horses she stayed with. If a horse could be catty then Lina won that role. She was particularly vicious about Philip, Edmund's horse, but since Harry and Edmund rode together the banter between the two was almost cringe worthy. Harry had to do his best to block out his hearing at some of the horse's barbs and Edmund seemed to spend most of the journey biting his cheeks to stop from laughing.
Mr and Mrs Beaver's kits, as Harry discovered they were called, were very cute for beavers. They were dark little fuzz balls that wiggled and squirmed around so much it took both Mr and Mrs Beaver to keep them in the house as they kept following their noses out the door, even when the door was shut. The girls were very enamoured by the beavers which Mr and Mrs Beaver were ecstatically pleased about. They even named two of the beavers after the two queens, although they altered it to Susy and Luisa. Edmund politely refused having any named after him by saying he would hate to have the kind of obligation to live up to a namesake. Harry wasn't offered the honour, not that it particularly bothered him, as the Beavers didn't know him as well as they knew the Pevensies. One beaver did get named Peter and the others were unnamed.
"Aww they are so cute. However are you going to cope with six of them?" Lucy asked and Mrs Beaver puffed herself up.
"Oh don't you worry about that my dear, I am made of stern stuff. I'll manage just fine, and I have Mr Beaver to help me if I need him to."
"Oh I hope I don't have six when I have babies." Lucy said then got a strange look on her face. "Why did you have six?"
"Well, that's just how many I was supposed to have." Mrs Beaver said and if she could have shrugged Harry was sure she would have.
"Yes but how come beavers can have six kits but humans only have one baby?"
"That's because humans can't cope with six children at once, but we animals can." Mrs Beaver said then nodded with a sense of finality. Lucy nodded, accepting that answer for a while.
Then… "How do babies get inside women?" The question was innocent enough and Harry supposed it made sense, given the situation, for Lucy to ask it. The problem was that Susan looked a little clueless too, as did Edmund. Harry felt his blood drain from his face. He was not sticking around for any conversation that followed that question.
"Right…I'm just going to step outside OK?" He didn't wait for an answer, he just slipped outside closely followed by Mr Beaver who breathed a sigh of relief at escaping.
"Well, I wasn't expecting to face that answer so soon." He said and Harry laughed.
"No, I don't expect you were. I wasn't for that matter."
"You forget how young they are at times." Mr Beaver mused. "They seem so old but they are only children."
"Yeah, I suppose so." Mr Beaver was right; the Pevensie children were just that…children. Peter was now 15years old, Susan was 14, Edmund was 12 and Lucy had just turned 10. They weren't even fully grown but they were ruling a country.
And they were doing a very good job.
Harry didn't know what was worse; that they had so much responsibility, or that they did so much better than most grown-ups did.
Harry stood outside the Beaver Dam and watched the water for ages. Eventually Edmund emerged from the house licking apparently dry lips.
"OK?" Harry ventured.
"Yeah." Edmund breathed looking every bit the traumatised child he probably was.
"The Talk went alright then?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Edmund dismissed and flopped to sit on the ground next to Harry. Harry laughed, remembering his own version of The Talk. He had only received it officially a few months before arriving in Narnia. Before then he had just muddled through, taking things as he found them. After the war when Harry got back together with Ginny he was sat down by Mr and Mrs Weasley and given the Talk. He couldn't look at Ginny for weeks after that and he had only consented to hold her hand a while later. Kissing went out the window for ages when he had flash backs of 'The Talk' whenever Ginny got close enough to talk.
"Fair enough." Harry agreed and sat down next to the boy.
They sat in silence for ages, side by side watching out over the little river in Narnia. Occasionally fish would pop up or jump out of the water which gave them some entertainment. Otherwise they just sat there comfortably until Edmund eventually broke the silence.
"We have to head back soon."
"Yeah, I suppose so. It will start getting dark in a while."
"Mm." Edmund agreed absentmindedly. They fell quiet again. Abruptly Edmund shifted around to look at Harry head on. "I should have had that talk with my parents. Mrs Beaver said normally it is a parent's responsibility to explain those things but since we were in Narnia, and because Lucy asked, she felt she should help us to understand."
"I suppose normally it is parents who explain it."
"How about your parents? Did they give it to you?"
Now that was one talk Harry had never had with any of the Pevensie children.
He shook his head. "No. My parents died when I was little and I was left in the care of my aunt and uncle. And before you ask, no it wasn't them who talked to me about it. My best friends parents pulled me aside one day and talked to me. Apparently they decided I needed to know, or at least they wanted to make sure I understood some things."
"I didn't realise you had no parents! Why did you not tell me?" Edmund looked scandalised. Harry tried to give him an apologetic but reassuring look even as he explained.
"It doesn't really seem important most of the time. You don't exactly talk about your parents you know."
"I suppose not. But at least I have some, although Father is away at war and when we came to Narnia we had been evacuated away from Finchley and Mother had to stay behind. How did your parents die?"
"They were murdered during the war." Edmund looked shocked but Harry waved his hand. "I'll tell you about it some other time. Promise." He added the promise at Edmund's disbelieving look.
"You don't really talk about home much…England I mean."
"Neither do you." Harry pointed out and Edmund nodded in acceptance of that but still looked at Harry waiting for a better response. Harry sighed. "I don't feel like it prays on my mind here. It's odd really. I only think of home, of England, sometimes. And when I do I don't feel homesick which is really strange because whenever I was away from them before they would always be on my mind. Maybe it is something about Narnia? Or maybe I've just got so many things to do here that I don't think about home much."
"I suppose so. I don't miss home much either, I don't even really think about it. Narnia is my home now, and I have most of my family with me anyway…come to think of it that doesn't exactly make me fortunate." He joked and Harry nudged him with his shoulder making the boy laugh and shove back. "Alright, seriously! I think it is because of Narnia. A bit like how I learned how to use my sword so quickly. Like magic…Narnian magic."
"I guess so. Well, whatever it is I am grateful because I don't know how long I will be stuck here for and if I had to spend all that time pining for the people I left behind I would be a miserable old sod."
"I guess so."
They spent a few more minutes sharing the peace and quiet before the air seemed to take a slight temperature drop which prompted Edmund to stretch then get up to his feet.
"We better get the girls and head home. It will be dark soon and Peter will have my head if I don't get them back on time."
"I will go make sure the horses are ready." Harry offered and they went their separate ways. Lina was more than thrilled to be heading home and away from Philip, Lucretia and Swiftfoot. Philip grumbled about how it was they who had to be thankful. All the horses did allow Harry to put blankets on them and the reigns. Edmund appeared and put the reigns on Philip himself but the girls didn't emerge until a few minutes after. Edmund and Harry helped Susan and Lucy up onto the horses then jumped up themselves and then they were off.
Peter met them on the steps looking a little haggard but glad to see them. They all ate together in one of the halls, Lucy regaling them with various tales and tall stories as well as recounting the entire day to Peter. Mr Tumnus enquired over dinner as to whether Harry's arm was OK. Peter explained all about the problems he had encountered during the day.
They all retired to one of the lounges, Mr Tumnus joining them and various other beings as well. Mr Tumnus read stories with Lucy, each of them taking turns to recount various tales from the book. Peter chatted with Susan and the others. Harry and Edmund settled down for a game of chess. Edmund was gold, as always. Harry played as the silver pieces. It wasn't like wizards chess, thankfully, because Harry had not charmed any of the pieces. The chess set had been a gift to Edmund from some being or another on his twelfth birthday, the solid gold and silver pieces having stunned the boy stupid when he first opened the box.
"Check mate! Yes!" Harry crooned an hour or so later. Edmund groaned but smirked.
"Well at least you got to win something today."
"Oi! Don't spoil my victory."
"Best two out of three?"
Harry lost the next game then won the final game by the skin of his teeth because in one move Edmund would have won but Harry just managed to get the check mate in there before hand.
It was very dark when they all retreated to bed and Harry had just finished getting changed when there was a knock at his door. With a startled frown he crossed the room and gently pulled the door open to reveal a sheepish Edmund.
"Are you alright Ed?"
"Yes. I was wondering, if you weren't too tired, whether we could finish our conversation from earlier. The one about England?"
"Well…" Harry hedged. Edmund's eyes had a hopeful look in them though so Harry nodded and agreed. "Alright, come in."
He pulled the door open the rest of the way and allowed Edmund to enter. They settled on the pillowed windowsill overlooking the beach. Occasionally there would be the shock of white in the sea where some Narnian being would splash the water or just catch the moon light. Otherwise the world was dark, sleepy and peaceful.
"What do you want to know?"
"Tell me about your friends. Or about life with your aunt and uncle."
"Well…" Harry pondered where to start and in the end he just settled for telling about the arrival of his Hogwarts letter, the day when everything changed. He didn't finish talking until he had Edmund laughing at Hermione's words when they had successfully escaped the three headed dog.
"She was really that worried about not being expelled after she could have died?!"
"That was Hermione. Learning first."
"And the Cerberus? Did you meet him again?"
"Cerber…oh, Fluffy!" How did Edmund have all those creature names in the forefront of his mind? "Well, we eventually did meet Fluffy again but I think that might be a story for another time."
"Alright then. I suppose it is late. Perhaps we could continue tomorrow night?"
"I suppose so, or maybe you could tell me about your home."
"I could I guess, though it wasn't as exciting as your time in Hogwarts I don't imagine."
"Nothing could compare to Hogwarts, but then again you lived in England during the war. A lot has changed since 1940 you know."
"I imagine it has. Alright, how about we take it in turns. A tale a night."
"OK then." Harry agreed and they walked to the door together, Harry pulling it open for the young king.
"Night Harry." Edmund waved and slipped through the door.
"Night Ed!"