On our maps the shadow fold is a black stain, a scar that severs Ravka in two. It was created hundreds of years ago as an act of vengeance by the Black Heretic. A man who could summon shadow. He was among those rare souls, the Grisha, who could manipulate the elements of this world. The Fold locked East Ravka away from the sea ports on the west. The east withered and became vulnerable to attack from enemy nations in the north and south. With their powers, only the Grisha were capable of crossing the Fold. They joined forces with the King in service to Ravka. They became the lifeline between the two sides of our country. But they were still hated for the sins of the Black Heretic. Sins felt most deeply by his descendants. Old myths foretell of a Grisha never before seen. One who could destroy the Fold, reunite Ravka and redeem our people. A summoner of pure light. And so we wait for the one who will deliver us from the dark place we made in the world. We wait for the sun summoner. But the people, so blinded by hope and their tales of a saint who would one day free them all, forgot one small vital part of the so-called prophecy. Along with the one who will bring liberation to all of Ravka, will also be the one destined to crumble it to their feet.
Cordelia Lankova was a strange child, she knew it, her friends knew it and so did every other child at the orphanage on the Duke Keramsov's estate in Keramzin. The fact however didn’t stop Alina Starkov or Malyen Oretsev, ever the curious in their youth, from befriending the girl which consequently led to the older of the three taking the troublesome pair under her wing. Despite only being a year older the girl practically raised the two who she would now call her best friends.
Flash forward fifteen or so years later and the three are still as close as ever, it's a shame however that they are all a part of different units in the first army, Alina being with the cartographers, Cordelia being a soldier on the front lines and Mal being a tracker, making it so when their paths collide it's usually not for a good reason. Take their current situation for example where everyone has set up camp outside of the fold awaiting for the order to see who would be picked in what Mal likes to call the nightmare lottery to be on the new skiff across the fold. Units have been arriving sporadically throughout the last couple of weeks. Cordelia and Mal however had arrived at the camp around the same time and have been inseparable ever since.
That however meant that she had been dragged along to a stuffy tent full of shouting men and women watching one of her best friends fight another soldier for fun. The girl enduring the heat, noise and sweat of the space to make sure she’s there for when the boy inevitably gets himself into trouble. All throughout their childhood the older girl would find herself protecting the boy and girl from the other kids who would pick on the two for being different, the same kids who would give Cordelia a hard time when they would catch her alone, when she would have no one there to stand up for her as she would for others.
The girl watches with concern as the boy stares down at the ground, breathing heavily wrapping his hands in fabric before the next fight. Cordelia rolls her eyes affectionately when Mal pulls off his shirt chucking it in her general direction where she was standing between two of his friends, Mikhael and Dubrov, she catches the fabric giving the boy a sarcastic thank you. The cheers and shouts get louder as he gets into position ready to fight his opponent but Cordelia can barely hear them, too focused on the boy. She briefly catches the sound of a bell ringing and a man calling for any final bets before the fight proceeds with his opponent taking the first swing, hitting Mal straight in the stomach followed by the side of his head. The boy stumbles over to his three friends as Mikhael and Dubrov grab a hold of his arms and side to stable him shouting words of encouragement as Cordelia tries to assess his head quickly for any noticeable damage.
She didn’t get much time though as he went straight back to the fight, fists raised and determination set on his face. He sees the hit coming this time and is ready for it dodging the man whilst landing a blow to his side. The next move from his opponent is blocked as he grabs ahold of the man's arm landing a hit on his stomach and across his face. There are mixed reactions from the crowd, some disappointed and others very pleased. Mal ducks to avoid getting a fist to the face and then proceeds to headbutt his opponent in the face temporarily stunning the man which allows for him to be able to throw the boy onto the floor, the fight is over very quickly after this as it allowed for Mal to land a kick in the man's face knocking his opponent out and winning the fight. Cordelia lets out a sigh of relief as Mikhael runs forward to congratulate the boy on his victory.
“My boy, Mal Oretsev wins again! Who wants a go?” he shouts to the crowd, full of adrenaline. Cordelia starts to approach Mal to give him her congratulations but the celebrations are cut short as a man in a blue kefta, which was reserved for the second army more commonly known as grisha, enters the tent ready to start a fight.
“I’ll take a turn” he says announcing himself and Cordelia is immediately on edge, speeding up her walk towards Mal, the first army and the second never get along and everyone in the crowd is dead silent waiting for someone to make a move. “How about it? Just you and me?” the grisha asks before manipulating the air to throw the sand at Mal and the others, trying to get a reaction out of them. Cordelia feels her fingers twitch, eager to fight back but stops herself as she knows what the consequences would be if anyone discovered her secret.
The girl always knew she was different to those around her when growing up, in more ways than one. However one of the most prominent was something she discovered when she was fourteen and was playing in the field outside the orphanage on her own one day. The girl was messing around trying to outrun a rabbit when she tripped and cut herself on a rock. The pain, being so sudden and unexpected, led to the girl revealing to herself that she was one of the rare few that were able to manipulate the small science. The small science in question? Well that's the part which shocked the girl the most and what made her decide to never tell a soul what she discovered. She was a shadow summoner. What the girl wasn’t aware of was that there had been specific orders for the girl to never get tested whilst at the orphanage, she always assumed that she was tested at a very young age and just didn’t remember the event. After that day the girl was conflicted, she could either tell her friends and the lady responsible for all the children but she knew how shadow summoners were viewed in her world and was afraid that her only friends would hate her and that she would be sent to the little palace away from them, this left her with option two which was to never tell a soul. The girl however grew curious about her new found abilities and would often sneak off during the day and night to try and practice, and to be fair she got quite good at it after nine years.
The crowd filled with shouts as the dust was blasted around the room Cordelia was fuming, hands balled up into a fist and Mal was ready to lunge for the man but was intercepted by another soldier.
“No, no, no. If you lose, you’ll be in the medika. If you win, they’ll throw you in the brig." The soldier says pushing Mal away from the conflict but not Cordelia who was watching the squaller further taunt the boy by manipulating the air to create a spinning cloud of dust. “Shut it down boys! Shut it down!”
“You try me without that magic, huh?” Mal shouts, pushing against the man who was trying to remove him from the conflict.
“It’s just air.” the grisha says, spreading his arms out as if to say it was obvious. “Come on, anyone!” Cordelia moves forward and the man turns towards the blonde haired girl waiting to see what she has to say, he instead receives a swift and hard punch to the face and a kick to the groin before the girl is pulled away from him with a smirk on her face.
“Why don’t you go mess with one of the other witches in the camp, leave the first army alone for a change!” she spits whilst being dragged out of the tent, most likely towards someone who has some form of authority over the soldiers who will with no doubt give the girl a punishment, most likely a night in the brig with no food.
“Where would be the fun in that sweetheart” she hears the man shout out and she almost makes it out of the vice like grip on her forearm to take another swing at the grisha.
“Why must you always get yourself into trouble?” the man dragging her over to her captain's tent complains. However the girl doesn’t respond too busy thinking about how sick she is of the second army and how they treat people like her in the first. They approach the tent quickly, the soldier pushing past the entrance dragging Cordelia behind him. The Captain looks up from his place at the desk letting out a disappointed sigh at the sight which is starting to become more frequent than he would like.
“What did she do this time?” he asks the soldier with an impatient look on his face.
“Attacked a grisha, almost started a very dangerous fight” the soldier explains to their captain, who breathes out a small “of course she did.”
“Right look I'll deal with you and your shit later, I am unbelievably busy with all this crossing the fold nonsense trying to decide who we need to send across with the second army.” the captain sighs, running a hand over his face, “Private, you are aware of the consequences of causing conflict with the second army, I will find a suitable punishment for you later-”
“-but sir, he started it!”
“Lankova, I do not care for your childish behavior, I do not care who started the fight, I care about the fact that you were seen attacking a member of the second army. You’ll be lucky if I don’t get one of their lot down here, especially considering the fact that their general is arriving soon, with another complaint about one of my soldiers. Just get out of my sight, as I have said I will deal with you later.”
The girl doesn’t waste another moment in the tent ripping her arm out of the soldier's grip storming out of the tent in search of Mal, needing someone to complain to and let off a bit of steam with. It doesn’t take her long to find him but she is pleasantly surprised to see him with Alina. The boy messing around with Dubrov and Mikhael whilst Alina watches with an amused but also confused look on her face.
“Oi, haven’t you gotten into enough fights for one day?” the girl shouts while lightly jogging to get to the makeshift group. Alina's face immediately lights up once she sees the girl, embracing her in a tight hug, “Alina as much as I missed you I would like my ability to breathe back.” Alina immediately releases the girl with a sheepish look on her face before looking between her two friends with a big smile on her face.
“Look at us, the three of us together just like old times.”
“Yeah but nothing good ever seems to follow” Mal adds before looking towards Cordelia with a questioning look on his face. “Hey, where did you run off to?”
“Oh you didn’t see?” Dubrov asked
“See what?”
“Your girl over here punched that squaller right across the face.” Mikhael says proudly, slinging an arm over Cordelia's shoulders.
“You punched a grisha!” Alina shouts, half impressed and half concerned all whilst Mal just stares at the girl in shock.
“How much trouble did you get into?” he asks worried that he had once again gotten his friend into trouble.
“Barley a slap on the wrist, captains going soft” she shrugs it off as nothing even though the fact is not necessarily true and she herself is quite worried as to what her captain is going to deem as a suitable punishment. Her friends are unable to ask anymore questions on the matter as a horn is sounded in the distance signaling the start of a meeting. “Saved by the bell I guess” she mutters to herself as they all quickly run off towards the tent where their meetings are usually held. The three boys were leading the way with Cordelia and Alina following close behind before the latter grabbed onto the girls arm making the two come to a stop.
“You punched a grisha?” she asks, her voice laced with concern.
“He deserved it” she replies, “those second army lot need to learn to stop picking on us.”
“Are you sure you're not going to be in trouble?”
“You don’t need to worry about me Lina, I can handle myself. I’ve been doing it all my life.” she assures the girl placing a hand on her shoulder giving it a tight squeeze before slinging the rest of her arm over her shoulders. “Come on we don’t want to be late, then we will both be in trouble” the girl teases and with that the two catch up with the boys who had not gotten too far ahead.
Once they all make it to the tent the group of five find a place close to the back waiting for the meeting to begin. The tent is full of loud chatter as a man with greying hair climbs up the stage.
“Alright, listen up. I know some of you have been on the road for a week, so I'll be brief. Most of you will continue north to the Fjerdan frontlines. Or south to the Shu Han border. The second army, however, has a shiny new solution to our food shortage, and it sails tomorrow for Novokribirsk. If this model works, it means a full meal for everyone in this tent next week. It means bullets for your guns and sugar for your tea.”
“What about some whiskey?” someone shouts causing a few people to laugh.
“Yes, that would be nice, but don’t hold your breath. Of course they need our help bringing those supplies back, so some of you will be assigned.”
Mal turns to the two girls beside him before whispering “there’s nothing to fear. I will now be selecting names for what I call the ‘nightmare lottery’. Which causes Alina to let out a little snigger, Cordelia however isn’t focused on the boy's snarky comments and more on the immense feeling of dread which she can’t shake.
“For the supply run across the fold. Sergeant Yure Teplov. Private Cordelia Lankova-”
Shit
“-slap on the wrist,huh?” Mal whispers, turning his head towards the girl.
“Tracker Malyen Oretsev. Corporal Masyelntov.”
“Did he-” Alina starts in disbelief, “but you’re both in our unit.”
“I chose the wrong day to piss off the second army” Cordelia mutters to herself.
“Rifleman Valek Tapenyov”
“Uh, it has to be an error. It has to be.” Mal says but no one is sure as to who he is trying to convince.
“Yeah maybe for you but definitely not for me” Cordelia says panicked.
“It didn’t sound like an error, Mal,” Alina says worried that not just one but two of her best friends are being sent into the fold with the risk of never coming back.
“And finally, Medic Nolech Barenovsky. That’s it. Dinner in one hour. Come back and line up by rank. Dismissed.”
“Mal,” Alina whispers, trying to get the boy's attention.
“Well, if it does work, I'll get to visit Ketterdam” he says before walking off after the lieutenant to see if there is even the slightest possibility of a mistake.
“Cora,” Alina tries, resting her hand on the girl's shoulder.
“I don’t know Alina. I just don’t know.” she says before rushing out of the tent in desperate need of fresh air. She keeps on walking until she finds a quiet place to sit and to think over what on earth just happened. But all she manages to put together is that she had severely fucked up this time.
—--
Night had long fallen over the camp and Cordelia has yet to be found by any of her friends. She supposed she has always been good at that, disappearing when things get too much. It would happen often when she was younger and just couldn’t take it at the orphanage anymore. She would run off and hide in the field or the forest and nobody would find her until she was ready, until she would return to the orphanage when she would realise that there really wasn’t anywhere she could go, when she would remember that she was truly always going to be alone. And like always Cordelia was aware that she would need to return to her friends and to the camp where she would get what very well could be her last meal.
It was times like these where she felt as if there was a deep hole in her chest as if she was missing something, or someone. The feeling was always with her, kinda like a dull ache, but right now it was bordering agonising. She has had a few theories throughout her short lifetime, her strongest being that it was something from when she was younger, before she was abandoned at the orphanage, something that she was too little to comprehend or remember. This theory however was backed by the handmade, and to be honest really crappy, bracelet that she has had for as long as she can remember, a bracelet which appears to have another half, a twin of sorts. Cordelia has always liked to hope that the something or someone which she believes to be missing has the other half, and that one day they would be reunited and the agonising feeling would finally leave her. But hope was such a fickle and dangerous thing in this world, so it was best to not get attached to ideas.
The girl twists the bracelet one last time before letting out a long sigh and pushing herself off of the ground setting off to find her two friends, well aware now that she's up that she has missed the time to get a proper meal. It doesn’t take her long to find Alina and Mal, with the former always seeming to find a place to perch when she wants to be alone with her thoughts as Mal likes to describe it. Cordelia's footsteps are hardly audible as she climbs the stairs, the girl having lots of practice in sneaking around from her time spent at the orphanage.
“You tumbled a Grisha?” She overhears Alina question making Cordelia almost stop in her tracks.
“Mal did what with a Grisha?” she exclaims, announcing her presence, “because not even 24 hours ago you were ready to fight one.”
“No, no” he chuckles, relieved to see the girl after she had previously ran off, “I just flirted with her.” He explains shifting closer to Alina to allow for more space for Cordelia to sit next to the pair. “Maybe she flirted with me,” the boy ponders whilst reaching for some of the grapes to pass over to Cordelia, fully aware that she hadn’t eaten anything yet. “Look, Grisha women scare me. Okay?” Cordelia, even though fully aware that he was joking, couldn’t help but frown at the thought of how he would feel about her if he were to ever find out what she had been hiding from the two for almost their whole lives.
“Did you see the lieutenant?” Alina asks after a moment of thick silence.
“Yeah” Mal nods, his voice a lot quieter now.
“And?” Alina asks, voice filled with hope. But Cordelia can already tell what the words about to come out his mouth are going to be based on the look on his face as he stares out into the camp, towards the fold.
“Well…” he starts, voice trailing off as if trying to find the right words to break the news, “turns out they do need me. So…”
“So…” the two girls repeat in defeated whispers.
“I could shoot you in the foot” Alina offers half jokingly, half serious. The offer causes Cordelia to let out a snort at the idea.
“You’re a terrible shot,” Mal laughs.
“Yeah he would be better off with me shooting him if he wanted to keep it, no offence Alina”
The three burst out into a series of laughs which fades out fairly quickly and is replaced by the noise of the fold, leaving the three to stare off at the black stain on their world trying to prepare for tomorrow.
“Don’t cross it” Alina begs, her voice barely above a whisper, her pleas disappearing off into the shadows leaving a long silence.
“When I was young, I had nightmares about it. Going in. Finding my parents still dead. Waiting for me” he explains, voice cracking and Cordelia can’t help but place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, a single tear falling down her cheek, the girl wondering how the world could be so cruel. If she could take his place she would do it in a heartbeat, but she couldn’t; so she would have to settle for the next best thing, being with the boy she practically raised, every step of the way. “Well, orders are orders.”
“If it goes wrong, come back. You’ve both lost enough to it already.” the girl pleads one last time.
“I’ll find my way back to you.” he promises, “but first, I am going gambling in Ketterdam.”
“Without me”
“Don’t worry Lina, you can come with us next time” Cordelia jests, giving the girl's arm a light shove.
“I’ll write you a letter” Mal adds teasingly.
“Ok” the eldest sniffs before she lets out a long over-exaggerated sigh, opening her arms, turning her body towards the two. ”Come here,” and they don’t hesitate, throwing themselves into the girl's embrace almost pushing her off if they hadn’t wrapped their arms around her back, and the three of them stay like that for what feels like forever, no one wanting to be the first to let go.
—--
She hasn’t slept a wink, not like she expected that she would. Who could blame her? She was hours away from being sent to her death.
Instead of resting she spent the late hours of the night staring out into the fold thinking about what awaits her in the morning. She knows that there is no use in dwelling on it but she desperately wishes things could have been different.
She eventually gets up for breakfast, not thinking it to be too wise to go into the fold having not eaten since the morning prior.
To make her day ten times better when the girl steps foot out of the makeshift canteen, after eating some pretty vile porridge, she is almost run down by a carriage pulled by six black horses. This is not just any carriage however, this one belongs to the Black General, the leader of the second army. His presence doesn’t bring any comfort to Cordelia, despite his arrival suggesting that he may think that the mission will be a success. Or a tremendous failure.
The blonde girl starts to make her way towards her unit's tent to gather her belongings, managing to avoid any of her friends, not ready for the goodbyes.
Once inside the tent Cordelia quickly grabs her satchel which she hadn’t had time to unpack, followed by her rifle, revolver and two knives. She slings the rifle over her shoulder using the strap whilst placing the revolver in her gun holster, the two knives being concealed one in each of her boots.
She takes one last look around the tent, the structure itself not being much, however also being full of memories at the same time.
The girl turns around to exit the tent, a single tear tracing the curve of her cheek, but is stopped by a body blocking her way. The boy reaches up a hand, brushing away the tear before pulling the girl into a hug.
“I forgot my toothbrush,” Mal explains, wrapping his arms tighter around the girl.
“Well we can’t be having that now can we? I don’t know what smells worse, the Volcra or your morning breath.”
The boy pulls away, hitting her shoulder softly with a big grin on his face.
“Well that’s not really a fair statement, you’ve never encountered a Volcra before.”
“Yeah and I hope to keep it that way!”
Mal lets out a soft laugh walking away from the girl to grab his forgotten toothbrush, shoving the thing in his bag before going right back to the girl wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
“You ready to go?”
Cordelia lets out a deep sigh before nodding.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
The boy nods, not saying another word as he leads the girl towards the skiff and the rest of their team.
It didn’t take long for the Sergeant to give everyone their orders, Mal and Cordelia were separated with the girl being positioned towards the front of the skiff and the boy being more towards the centre. The distance however didn’t stop the girl from hearing Mal's raised voice and the voice of a girl arguing back which sounds suspiciously like Alina.
“Tell them you are too sick to go!”
“I’m never that sick.”
“Lie if you have to.”
“And what’s your lie? I’m with you.”
“Get off this boat now, or I will carry you off.”
Cordelia tries to make her way towards the pair to see what on earth is going on but is stopped by the Sergeant telling her to remain at her post. She however does spot the fact that it is not just Alina who has mysteriously ended up on the skiff, but also all of the cartographers which she works with.
Once again time seems to be moving too fast for her to focus on one thing at a time as her thoughts are interrupted by one of the grisha making her way to the front of the skiff, clapping her hands to gain the attention of the crew.
“Here’s how it goes. We go into the fold, it gets dark, but we like it dark. That keeps us from drawing attention. That’s how we travel. The only light we use is the blue one at the mast. It’s weak but safe.”
“But you’re an Inferni, right?” Raisa questions, “why are you here if we’re supposed to keep things dark?”
“For when the dark comes to keep you,” the Inferni responds ominously.
Well that's just what everyone wants to hear before traveling through the death wall.
Mal is the next to approach the woman, his mind just like everyone else’s flooding with questions.
“Where’s your general? Kirigan?” He asks, receiving no response in return. Instead someone releases the sails, the fabric unfolding in the breeze.
“Ready for launch!" A sailor shouts, and Mal and Cordelia share a final look.
“That’s our cue,” the Inferni announces gesturing for the Squaller controlling the wind to push the skiff to go.
“Right, listen to me, cartographers,” the Sergeant starts, gaining the attention of the first army members, “until we reach the western dry docks, you are to remain at your station. Do not, I repeat, do not leave the skiff during the crossing.”
Cordelia places her left hand on the side of the skiff to keep her balance as the skiff increases its speed towards the fold, her right hand tightening its grip on her rifle which she had previously taken off from around her shoulder. And as the skiff reaches the very edge of the fold the girl closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath before they enter.
“In we go.”
The next time she opens her eyes her surroundings are pitch black and all sound has seemed to stop. Despite the girl being gifted by the shadows, she feels no comfort being surrounded by them. Thunder crashes through the tension, and the sound of a creature growling in the distance is enough to put everyone on edge. She takes her left hand off of the skiff placing it on the end of her rifle as she looks around for any movement which could be considered a threat.
“Marker one” the Inferni leader states.
“How many more are there?” She hears Alina ask in a faint whisper, the girl too afraid to raise her voice any louder not wanting to attract unwanted attention from the shadows.
“Thirty-seven” the Grisha responds.
The sounds of thunder and the ominous growling continues until there is another sound, a screech of sorts, a sound which seems uncomfortably close and which causes everyone's heads to snap up just in time to see the shadow of a creature flying above them. The growls and screeches continue each getting louder and louder, it is starting to feel like there is more lurking in the shadows, more than what they had seen flying over their heads. Cordelia starts surveilling the area, a lot slower this time, trying to see if she can spot anything. Before she finishes with her half of the skiff the creature makes another appearance on the right side of the skiff, everyone with a weapon rushing straight to point it at the area where it flew past. All of the first army gather on the right hand side, cocking their guns and looking out for the monster, the grisha doing the same on the left.
And then the worst thing happens, the only light source which is deemed safe for the fold goes out, and one of the cartographers gets a hold of a lantern and a lighter.
“Blow it out, what are you doing?” the Inferni commands, fear filling her voice.
And then a Volcra lands on the deck, and all hell breaks loose.
The cartographer who lit the lantern barely gets a chance to turn around before the monster sunk its claws into the boy and flew away, dragging him with him. But not his lantern, which flies out of the boy's hand landing straight back on the deck, the glass shattering and engulfing the deck in flames, ensuring that if any Volcra in the vicinity did not already know that we were here, they definitely do now.
Cordelia shares a look with Mal before adjusting her grip on the rifle one last time and rushing forward to try and fight what is about to come.
The first to go is the squaller on top by the sail, and the soldiers try to get a clear shot on the monster but it disappears into the shadows just as quickly as it appeared. The next is a member of Alina's cartographer team, the girl asking anyone who would listen what they could possibly do, Cordelia tries to get a shot on the beast but it’s the same as last time, they are too quick for any gun to hit. More and more people keep disappearing and the first army is completely useless against the creatures.
“Come at me!” the Inferni screams, summoning fire to draw the attention of the Volcra, ”come at me, you coward!”. She doesn’t last long however as the Volcra come straight for her, tearing into her skin, bashing her body against the side of the skiff before dragging the woman overboard. Taking any last hope of surviving this attack with her, because if an Inferni of all things was not able to take down the Volcra, who can?
Screams and gunshots fill the air and Cordelia is almost out of bullets. So, when she sees the Volcra heading straight towards her and she shoots at it only to be met by a simple clicking sound instead of gunfire, she is left with no other choice. She launches the rifle at the Volcra, freeing her hands before she clasps them together, summoning the shadows, unknowingly lighting a fucking becon to all the Volcra around her. The girl pushes her palms forwards, sending a wall of darkness towards the creature, the shadows engulfing the monster. She however doesn’t get much of a chance to witness the aftermath as she is suddenly propelled forward onto the deck as someone's body slams into her for behind, knocking the girl onto the ground, and as she rolls over to see what had caused the damage she spots Mal floating in midair above her in one of the Volcra’s clutches, a Volcra which was almost definitely coming for her from behind.
The boy starts to frantically stab the beast in the foot, trying to get it to release the him, and when it was starting to look like he was going to be unsuccessful there is the sound of a gunshot and the boy comes tumbling back to the ground, right in the spot where Cordelia was laying moments ago.
Alina comes rushing over to the boy, gripping onto his hand, and the two stare at each other for a brief moment where it only seemed to be the two of them on that skiff, no Volcra attacking, no death, no suicide mission, just them.
“I’ll meet you at the meadow” Mal breathes out, a small smile on his face, content with this being the end.
Alina lets out a quiet sob before nodding her head, and Cordelia watches the two kids she practically raised with tears in her eyes as she wonders what on earth went wrong for them to all be here at the end.
She sees it coming before it happens, the girl quickly reaching for her revolver, pointing it at the creature and unloading the bullets on it, trying to stop it from reaching the girl that she loves. But they all know by now that the bullets are nothing compared to the Volcra and Alina is almost dragged away by the beast, if it wasn’t for Mal's unyielding grip.
But a person can only hold on for so long, but as Mal’s grip starts to falter and Alina is lifted further up into the sky, the most peculiar thing occurs.
In which Cordelia Lankova doesn’t believe she belongs anywhere after her parents sent her to live in an orphanage where everyone could tell she was different but she could never fully understand why. Aleksander Morozova would have to disagree, to him she is an extraordinary phenomenon and something he has been waiting for as long as the day the fold was created. Too bad he has an alternative agenda.
Or
In which Cordelia Lankova and Aleksander Morozova have the missing piece in each other's puzzles which they’ve been searching for their whole lives.
Chapters:
Chapter 1: A Searing Burst of Light
Chapter 2: We're All Someone's Monster (coming soon)
If I were easy to kill you would have done it already
Caspian had been walking for a long time and he was very much aware of the two Narnians following him. Afterall, they weren’t the stealthiest pair. At first he was a little irritated that they had decided to follow him into what could potentially be life-threatening danger but after a little while of hearing the two attempt at being quiet he started to find it quite entertaining. The Prince had finally gotten bored of the incessant rustling, which was hindering his ability to listen for actual danger and decided to speak up.
“I can hear you.” he states, turning around to face the badger and the dwarf who had decided to hide behind the nearest tree. The two peek their head around the edge, checking to see if they had been caught, before Nikabrik attempts to hide again but Trufflehunter had other ideas.
“I just think that we should wait for the Kings and Queens,” he tries to reason but Caspian barely spares him a glance turning back to the path ahead, “fine! Go then! See if the others will be as understanding!”
“Or maybe I'll come with you,” the dwarf claims, starting to follow after the Prince again, “I want to see you explain things to the minotaurs.”
Caspian freezes in his steps, slowly turning around to face the duo to question, “Minotaurs? They’re real?”
“And very bad-tempered,” the badger explains before being cut off by the dwarf.
“Yeah, not to mention big-” he taunts.
“Huge.”
Caspians mind starts to flood with all of the fairytales his professor had secretly read him when growing up and starts to wonder what else might be real.
“What about centaurs? Do they still exist?”
“Well, the centaurs will probably fight on your side. But there’s no telling what the others will do.”
The prince takes a moment to take in the new found information before cautiously asking, “what about Aslan?”
The dwarf and the badger freeze, looking towards each other in disbelief.
“How do you know so much about us?” NIkabrik asks with a hint os suspicion.
“Stories.” Caspian explains as if the answer is obvious.
“Wait a minute, your father told you stories about Narnia?” trufflehunter asks in confusion.
“No, my professor he..” the prince trails off before continuing with, “listen. I’m sorry. These are not the kind of questions you should be asking.” he carries on walking down the path but is soon stopped by trufflehunter sniffing the air, looking around in panic.
“What is it?”
“Human”
“Him?”
“No. Them.” the badger exclaims and the three turn around to see a dozen telmarine soldiers coming their way armed with crossbows.
“There they are!” one of them shouts
“Run!”
The three take off running in the forest, narrowly avoiding getting shot on countless occasions, that is until they hear a shout and a thud. Turning around quickly, Caspian spots that the soldiers had hit trufflehunter in the back and quickly runs back towards him telling Nikabrik that he will get the badger.
“Take it. Go! It’s more important than I am,” the badger begs and the prince looks around taking in his limited options before grabbing the horn, stuffing it in his satchel. He then proceeds to hoist the badger over his shoulder before he once again takes off running. Whilst this is all happening the trio start to hear the sound of the soldiers screaming and falling to the ground. Caspian takes the risk to glance backwards to see what is going on and finds only half of the number of soldiers left standing. Once the prince reaches the dwarf he quickly hands over the badger instructing the two to get out of there whilst he goes to fight the unseen attacker. The boy draws his sword and watches the final soldier get taken down before the rustling starts to move at a very rapid pace towards the boy who is left to just stand there in shock before he is knocked to the ground by a sudden force. The boy opens his eyes to be greeted with a mouse pointing a tiny sword at his neck.
“Choose your last words carefully, Telmarine.”
“You are a mouse” he manages to spit out through the confusion, which earns him a long drawn out sigh from the aforementioned creature.
“I was hoping for something a little more original. Pick up your sword.”
“Uh… no thanks.”
“Pick it up! I will not fight an unarmed man.”
“Which is why I might live longer if I choose not to cross blades with you, noble mouse.”
“I said I would not fight you. I didn’t say I’d let you live.”
“Reepicheep! Stay your blade” the badger frantically shouts.
“Trufflehunter? I trust you have a very good reason for this untimely interruption.”
“He doesn’t. Go ahead.” says the dwarf, who is still not overly fond of the prince.
“He’s the one who blew the horn.” the badger explains.
“What?” the mouse lets out in disbelief, shocked that a simple Telmarine boy was the cause of what might be a historical moment.
“Then let him bring it forward.” a new voice demands and the four turn to a group of centaurs who were hidden among the trees. “This is the reason we have gathered.”
—--
Back with the Kings and Queens the group had also been walking for a very long time trying to hunt down the missing prince and the army of Narnians waiting for them. Peter is leading the way followed by Lillian, his sisters, Edmund and Trumpkin. Lillian, who had never been this far away from the castle before, was looking around at the scenery in awe. To be honest she was annoyed that she hadn’t run away sooner, Narnia truly was a beautiful place.
“I don’t remember this way,” Susan tells Peter, unsure if the boy actually knew where he was going or if he was just making it up as he goes like the very first time the siblings were in Narnia.
“That’s the problem with girls. You can’t carry a map in your heads.” The eldest quips and the three girls all look at eachother questioning the audacity of the High King.
“That’s because our heads have something in them.” The youngest fires back and Lily turns around to give the girl a hive five, impressed with her wit.
“I wish he'd just listen to the D.L.F in the first place.” Susan complains.
“D.L.F.?” Both Edmund and Lillian question, confused by the abbreviation.
“Dear little friend,” Lucy explains and the dwarf rolls his eyes at the children.
“Oh, that’s not at all patronising, is it?”
The group of six make their way up into a circle of stone which Peter takes a moment to stop and look at his surroundings.
“I’m not lost.” he states unsure on who he is trying to convince.
“No. you’re just going the wrong way.”
“You last saw Caspian at the Shuddering Woods, and the quickest way there is to cross the river Rush.”
“But unless I’m mistaken, there’s no crossing in these parts.”
“That explains it then. You’re mistaken”
“Realistically, out of the two of you, Trumpkin probably has a better understanding of these parts, afterall you have been gone for a long time.” Lillian attempts to reason but the boy either didn’t hear her or just ignored her as he kept making his way down what he believes to be the right path. The girl turns to the other four, raising her arms in the air in question which results in Edmund slightly shaking his head at his brother and Susan explaining how it’s best to just leave him be when he gets like this.
They all continue to follow the High King until they reach a gorge, the six of them all stand in a line and look down at the water rushing below them.
“Well would you look at that,” Lillian mutters under her breath, the only one having heard her being Edmund who stifles a smirk. Susan, who has had enough of her brother's arrogance for one day starts to tease the boy.
“You see, over time, water erodes the earth's soil, carving deeper-”
“Oh shut up.” he cuts her off.
“Is there a way down,” Edmund asks the two who may have a better understanding of the magical land.
“Yeah, falling.” the dwarf responds.
“Well, we weren’t lost.” Peter attempts to reason, looking a little disappointed that he was wrong.
“There’s a ford near Beruna. How do you feel about swimming?”
Lillain shudders at the thought, thinking back to how she had almost drowned.
“I’d rather that than walking.” Susan admits and five out of six of the group start to make their way away from the cliff. Lucy glanced back one last time spotting a familiar looking lion on the other side of the gorge.
“Aslan?” the girl questions, causing the group to stop, “it’s Aslan! It’s Aslan over there!” she exclaims turning towards the group, “don’t you see? He’s right…there?”
“Do you see him now?” The dwarf questions sarcastically and Lillian feels a little sorry for the young girl who got her hopes up.
“I’m not crazy.” The valiant Queen defends. “He was there. He wanted us to follow him.”
The five look around in silence as the youngest looks up at them pleadingly, but no one can find anything that could explain what she saw.
“I’m sure there are any number of lions in this wood.” Peter tries to compromise, “just like that bear.”
“I think I know Aslan when I see him,” Lucy snaps, tired of being treated like a child.
“Look. I’m not about to jump off a cliff after someone who doesn't exist.” Trumpkin says, wondering why the group is wasting time talking about a myth.
“The last time I didn’t believe Lucy, I ended up looking pretty stupid.”
“What happened last time?” Lillian asks Edmund in a hushed tone.
“Why wouldn’t I have seen him?” Peter questions his sister.
“Maybe you weren’t looking.”
“I’m sorry lu.” and with that the group go back to following Trumpkin, leaving a devastated looking Lucy to look back at where she knows she saw Aslan one last time.
“Edmund, what happened last time?” Lillian pushes, but never gets an answer as the group follows the dwarf, walking further and further away from the gorge.
“Does your brother do anything but glare” asks Elizabeth as she sits down in between Remus and James at the table of red and gold, ducking in between the two sixth years in hope that the professors do not catch on to the raven hiding among the lions.
“I’m afraid not, he’s one miserable little git that one.”
Elizabeth glances over at the Syltherin table once again and lo and behold Regulus Black is attempting to burn a hole through the group of five with his glare. She averts her gaze towards the front of the hall where the teachers table is located, narrowly missing locking eyes with a stern looking Professor McGonagall.
“Shit. Hide me” Eliza frantically tries to hide herself behind Remus, practically joining the boy in his Gryffindor robes. Peter and Sirius share an amused look whilst James, as oblivious as ever is looking around the great hall confused attempting to locate what has prompted his sisters sudden need to burrow into his mates side.
Meanwhile Evan Rosier lets out an amused snort at the look on his friends face. Regulus, who apparently is unaware of his current state, has clenched his jaw so hard that Barty is starting to worry that he might break a tooth or two. Evan thinks that if steam was able to come out of his friend's ears, Regulus would look like a bloody kettle. His glare has gotten even worse to the point where it looks like the Gryffindor table might erupt into flames at any given moment.
"And he claims that he isn't jealous." Evan whispers into Barty's ear.
"Who knows. Maybe it's Lupin he has the hots for." Barty mumbles and Evan has to bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing.
Minerva McGonagall, whose job it is to welcome the first years, spotted the Potter girl on her way to the entrance of the great hall and decided to make a quick detour directly towards the band of misfits.
The first to notice the Professor is Sirius Black, whose smile quickly dropped.
“She’s behind me isn’t she?” Elizabeth sighed and turned around in her seat. “Evening Minnie, have you done something different with your hair? I have got to say it looks absolutely fabulous.”
James lets out a sudden snort which is met with an elbow to the ribs from his darling sister.
“You know the rules Miss Potter, you sit with your own house for events, you can sit with your brother another time.”
The girl reluctantly gets up, detaching herself from Remus' robes, and makes her way slowly towards the Ravenclaw table, she catches Regulus looking with a smug look on his face and gives him a very special gift which is her middle finger.
Once the Potter girl arrives at her house's table she plops herself down next to Emmeline.
“I have got to say that has to be the quickest she has caught you so far, you didn’t even make it through the welcome speech this year.” the girl claims, shifting over so there is enough room for the two to fit on the bench comfortably.
“I should really start to consider investing in some Gryffindor robes.”
“Or just hide in Lupins again.” Emmeline teases, nudging Elizabeth with her elbow.
Eliza scoffs rolling her eyes, “oh shut up.”
“Missed you too.”
“How was your summer Panda?” The youngest Potter asks, shifting her focus from Emmeline to the girl sitting opposite the pair watching their conversation in amusement.
“It was amazing, my family and I went to our holiday home up in France with the Blacks for a few weeks. I need to take the two of you there one day, it’s beautiful up there. It was very nice to get away from England for a bit with all the parties and balls. I also got to see Xenophilius a few times, he took me to this gorgeous flower field and we had a picnic.” Pandora rambles on.
“You and Sirius have very different views on that trip to France.”
“That’s understandable, he was miserable the whole time. I think the only time I saw him smile was when he was told it was time to leave.” Pandora explained with a distant look in her eyes.
Emmeline all of a sudden shoots up in her seat from where she was previously pretending to sulk, as the doors to the great hall open and about 40 first years step foot inside the gigantic room all looking around the magic filled hall with their jaws hanging open from both excitement and astonishment at the scenery.
“Finally, I’m starving.” She complains, her stomach rumbling as if to prove her point.
“You ate food like an hour ago!” Pandora exclaims.
“Exactly!” Emmeline expresses waving her hands in the air, almost taking Elizabeth's head off in doing so.
“Watch it Em, you’re going to end up taking someone's eye out one day, waving your hands around like that.” Elizabeth huffs, turning away from the dark haired girl and towards the front of the great hall where the group of curious first years have gathered around a stool that holds a rather old and quite frankly rude hat. Elizabeth shudders at the thought of her experience with that damn hat in her first year.
Pandora turns her attention to the new arrivals and in her usual whisper-like voice points out “there’s quite a lot of them this year, isn’t there.”
Emmeline looks at the group and Elizabeth hears her let out a prolonged groan that's followed by some comment about how she’s going to starve because of a bunch of 11 year olds.
Over on the Gryffindor table James clips Remus on the back of the head once he sees his sister sit down at the table of blue and bronze. “What the hell Moony? My sister?!” The sudden contact on the back of his head causes Remus to let out a surprised yelp, finally drawing his attention away from the youngest Potter. Opposite the two Sirius and Peter both have amused looks on their faces, the only difference being that Peter has a mix of concern whilst Sirius looks like he’s about to cry due to holding in his laughter at the look on his best friend's face.
“Oi! What the fuck was that for Prongs?”
“You know what” James declared, glaring at the poor boy. “Traitor.”
“I really don’t,” Remus lies swallowing hard as his throat seems to start to close up at the thought of James finding out what he’s been desperately trying to keep hidden for about a year now.
“Sure you don’t” Sirius scoffs, highly unimpressed at his friend's obvious attempt at lying.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Remus inquires, slightly offended, to which Sirius responds with a bitter laugh.
“Nothing”
“Well it’s clearly not nothing, otherwise you wouldn’t be so pissy with me”
“It’s just-” he ran a hand over his face and sighed “-you follow her around like a lovesick fool.”
“No I don’t” Remus denies, ducking his head down, cheeks starting to go a faint crimson colour.
“You kind of do mate” Peter speaks up for the first time since the conversation had started.
Remus doesn’t get a chance to defend himself as the doors to the great hall burst open and in comes Professor McGonagall followed by a few dozen curious first years. As the group of eleven year olds make their way towards the front of the hall to be sorted Remus finds himself looking over at the Ravenclaw table at the youngest Potter and realises that Sirius may have a point, not that he would ever admit that though.
“There’s quite a lot of them this year,” Peter observes, trying to break the tension between the three of his best mates, not entirely looking forward to their first night back together being full of drama. However it seems that none of them heard the small boy's attempt as Remus was too busy looking at Elizabeth, James was in a world of his own thinking about what he believes to be the ‘betrayal of the century’ and Sirius was staring at Remus with an unreadable look on his face.
“What was that Pete?” Remus asks, once again forcing his attention away from the fifth year.
“Nothing, I was just a little surprised at the number of first years there are.” He mumbles, directing his attention to the front of the hall, trying not to be too frustrated at his friends, as Dumbledore stood up to start off the sorting ceremony.
“Welcome! To a new year at Hogwarts, before we have our feast there are a few things needed to be done. First things first, welcome back to those of you returning this year and if you are new, I hope the next 7 years of your life are as fun and as magical as mine were when I went to Hogwarts many moons ago. Secondly I want to make it clear that all students are strictly prohibited from entering the forbidden forest unless you want to meet an unfortunate end. And last but not least I welcome Professor McGonagall who will call you all up one by one to be sorted.”
“Good evening, as you all should know by now Hogwarts was founded by the four greatest witches and wizards of their age, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. Each founder created a house and this hat-” she gestures to an old hat and wooden stool, “- is going to sort all of you into one of them.” Elizabeth, who is still thinking about her experience with the hat lets out a quiet scoff, glaring at the dusty piece of old fabric. “Listen closely for your name so you don’t miss your turn,” and with that the professor starts to call up the long list of students.
“I hate children” Emmeline claims during the clap between the most recent addition for Hufflepuff, “there are so many of them, I wish they would hurry up, I'm starving.”
Elizabeth turns to her friend and sighs resting her chin on her hand glancing over at the Syltherin table after feeling eyes on her, catching Regulus’s eye from where he had been staring at her with an unreadable look on his face and she is reminded about how she is going to be stuck with him and thinks about how this is going to be a long year.
Little did she know that a chain of events would lead to both the happiest and saddest year she will ever have at Hogwarts.
A sharp shooting pain in the side of his head is what awakes the prince from his involuntary slumber, well that and the two voices that he is sure he doesn’t recognise coming from the next room in the place which he is very certain that he doesn’t belong in. The pain hits once again whilst he tries to sit up and he places his hand over his head feeling a bit of fabric which he discovers to be a bandage wrapped securely around where he was previously whacked. After his eyes adjust to the new light and surroundings he carefully removes the bandage and places it on the tiny bed. The sound of voices gets louder, as if the people are arguing and aren’t aware that the prince has woken up.
“This bread is so stale” the first complains.
“I’ll just get him some soup then, he should be coming around soon” the other compromises.
“I don’t think I hit him hard enough.”
“Nikabrik, he’s just a boy!”
“He’s a Telmarine, not some lost puppy! You said you were going to get rid of him”
Caspian slowly makes his way towards the opening to the other room pressing his back against the door, listening into the conversation.
“No, I said I'd take care of him. We can’t kill him now, I just bandaged his head. It would be like murdering a guest.”
“How’d you think his friends are treating their guest?”
“Trumpkin knew what he was doing. It’s not the boy’s fault.”
The prince decides that he’s heard enough and makes a run for the front door, worried that the dwarf may be able to convince the badger to side with him and not the other way around. He knocks into the badger making him let out a shout as he drops the soup he had prepared for the boy and whilst doing so the dwarf manages to grab a sword and block the exit, making the prince grab the nearest thing he can use as a weapon which happens to be a fire poker.
“Stop! Stop!” the badger shouts, trying to get the two to stop their fight. “Hold it. No! No!”
“I told you we should have killed him when we had the chance,” Nikabrik exclaims.
“You know why we can't,” the badger urges.
“If we’re taking a vote, I'm with him,” Caspian tries to reason.
“We can’t let him go. He’s seen us.” the Dwarf shouts, swinging his sword successfully knocking the Prince to the ground.
“Enough Nikabrik! Or do I have to sit on your head again?”
The Prince looks between the two Narnias, highly confused and probably still slightly concussed before the badger turns to him bending down to retrieve the discarded bowl.
“And you. Look what you made me do. I spent half the morning on that soup.”
“What are you?” Caspian asks, watching the badger make his way towards the kitchen.
“You know, it’s funny that you would ask that. You think more people would know a badger when they saw one.”
“No. No I mean… you’re Narnians. You’re supposed to be extinct.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Nikabrik snarks, turning back towards the table to sit down whilst the badger comes back with a bowl of soup that he places down on the table.
“Here you go, still hot” he offers.
“Since when did we open a boarding house for Telmarine soldiers?”
“I’m not a soldier,” the prince explains, standing up with the fire poker still in hand, “I am Prince Caspian. The tenth.”
The dwarf looks at the badger in slight shock before asking “what are you doing here?”
“Running away,” he explains walking back over to the fire to put the poker back. “My uncle has always wanted my throne. I suppose I have only lived this long because he did not have any heir of his own.”
The two Narnia's sit in silence for a moment taking in the information before the badger lets out a soft sigh.
“That changes things”
“Yeah, means we don’t have to kill you ourselves” the dwarf adds on leaning back in his seat.
“You’re right” the prince admits before looking around and is suddenly hit with the realisation that he hasn’t seen Lillian. “Where’s my friend? Is she hurt?”
“She’s with our friend, the people who were after you took them both” Nikabrik replies bitterly.
Caspian suddenly moves very quickly towards where he can see his armour resting, annoyed with himself that he didn’t notice the lack of her presence sooner, he quickly shrugs on his armour and the badger gets up to follow him.
“Where are you going?” he asks urgently.
“My uncle won't stop until I'm dead. My friend she could be in trouble or worse…” he trails off, not even wanting to finish that particular thought.
“But… you can’t leave,” the badger tries to reason, picking up Queen Susan's horn, “you’re meant to save us. Don’t you know what this is?” he asked, lifting the horn up so everyone could see it. Caspian stares at the horn for a long moment before he shakes his head and turns towards the door opening it and ducking slightly.
“I really am sorry, but I have to find my friend. She’s saved my life in more ways than one, I owe her mine.”
—------
The boat is dead silent as they make their way through the river in the ravine, the only sound being the occasional splashing of water whenever Peter moves the oars. Trumpkin is sat at the front of the boat, the two sisters sat on the bench in front of him, in the middle is Peter who has taken the job of rowing the boat and in front of him is Lilian who is sat with her back against the wood of the bench that Edmund is occupying using the space to take control of the direction of the boat. To be honest they could all really do with a bit more space. Lillian is currently tracing the lines of the wood of the boat and Peter is not so subtly looking at her with interest, something that doesn’t go unnoticed by his younger brother who stifles a little smirk.
“They’re so still” Lucy whispers, causing the attention of the five others to be placed on the youngest of the group.
“They’re trees. What’d you expect?”
“They used to dance.” the just Queen explains with a small pout on her lips and Lillian can’t help but feel sympathetic. Afterall she can’t imagine coming back to a world 15 years younger than the last time she was there after over a thousand years had passed.
“Wasn’t long after you left that the Telmarines invaded.” the dwarf explains, glancing at Lillian for a brief moment. “Those who survived retreated to the woods and the trees, they retreated so deep into themselves they haven’t been heard from since.”
“I don’t understand,” the young girl starts, not believing how such a terrible thing could have happened, “how could Aslan have let this happen?”
“Aslan?” he scoffs, “thought he abandoned us when you lot did.” The comment causes all four of the Pevensies to stop what they were doing to look at the dwarf for a moment before Peter continues rowing the boat.
“We didn’t mean to leave, you know.” the high King defends, looking at the dwarf one last time.
“Makes no difference now, does it?”
“Get us to the Narnians… and it will” he promises, putting an end to the conversation.
Lilian sits up in the boat, directing her attention to the dwarf before voicing her thoughts, “you know it’s a shame that they discovered you when they were chasing us, we could have used the fact that everyone thought you were all extinct to our advantage.”
“Too late now, hopefully your boy blowing that horn gathered the attention of the rest of us, they may be coming up with a plan, that or they kill him for being a Telmarine.” Lily’s heart drops to her stomach at the suggestion that her friend could be dead, an immense feeling of dread sinking in, the two hadn’t been apart for this long before and she can only hope that he is also doing ok and isn’t on his own.
The boat journey continues for another twenty minutes before the group of six arrive at shore. Trumpkin jumps out of the boat first making his way far enough to be able to place the anchor in a secure place, the rest of the group excluding the youngest of the siblings pull the rope dragging the boat onto the land and once they are satisfied they go to retrieve their belongings but are interrupted by the small voice belonging to the just Queen.
“Hello there” she says to the bear, believing it to be friendly. “It’s alright. We’re friends.”
“What is she doing?” Lillian asks the eldest brother, fear and confusion laced in her tone.
“Don’t move your Majesty.” Trumpkin shouts and the bear begins to charge for the girl, making everyone quickly try to grab their weapons as Lucy starts to run back towards them.
“Stay away from her” Susan shouts, placing an arrow in her bow and aiming it at the bear hesitant to actually fire as the bear keeps chasing the young girl who trips over her dress and falls to the floor. During this time both Lillian and Trumpkin grab their bows, the latter being quicker to load his weapon.
“Shoot! Susan shoot!” Edmund screams, running towards his youngest sister with his sword drawn and his brother not far behind him. The bear jumps up and is about to attack the girl when an arrow flies past her and hits the bear square in the chest knocking him down. The three turn to look at where the arrow came from but instead of it coming from Susan like they suspected it would, it turns out it came from the dwarf who managed to fire his arrow a second earlier than Lillian who slowly points her bow to the ground, staring at the now dead bear.
“Why wouldn’t he stop?” the eldest daughter asks, upset and confused as to why the bear was so aggressive.
“I suspect he was hungry” the dwarf offers, walking past the siblings and towards the bear drawing a small sword. The others quickly follow the dwarf running to the youngest to see if she is alright. Peter reaches her first, picking her up from the ground and pressing her tightly into his side, pointing his blade at the bear in case it isn’t actually dead.
“Thanks” the youngest whispers, directing her attention to Trumpkin.
“He was wild?” Edmund observes, looking at the two who are from this world for guidance.
“I don’t think he could talk at all,” Peter states, rubbing circles on Lucy's shoulder in an attempt to comfort the girl.
“Get treated like a dumb animal long enough, that’s what you become.” The dwarf explains gravely, lifting up the sword, “you may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember.” He remarks, stabbing the bear with the sword causing Lucy to quickly bury her head in her brother's chest, letting out a quiet sob.
Lillain turns her attention to Susan who is stood next to the girl dead silent with a look of dread spread across her face which is unusually pale
“Hey, are you ok?” she asks quietly, trying not to capture the attention of the others. “She’s ok, are you?” Susan opens her mouth in an attempt to respond but the words fail to pass her lips so she just shakes her head and Lily quickly wraps an arm around the younger girl's shoulder.
“I hesitated.” she whispers, “ I hesitated and it almost cost her life.”
“Hey.” Lillian sternly says,”hey, look at me. I wouldn’t have let that happen, ok? None of us would have. There were five of us, Trumpkin just got there first.” A small tear falls and Lily quickly wipes it away and opens her arms to hug the girl, “come here, it’s ok, don’t cry she’s ok, everyone is ok.” However, the girl can’t help but be worried about a certain dark-haired prince and she isn’t too sure who she is trying to convince.
Anastasia Crouch and Sirius Black are more alike than one might think. Both being the eldest children to well-known pureblood families, both achieve high marks in school, both beaters on their respective teams and most importantly they both have an undying love and urge to protect their younger brothers. So what exactly went wrong in the universe for their stories to have such different, yet equally tragic endings?
Right person not enough time
Chapters:
Chapter 1: Another Fucking Ball (coming soon)
How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dying?
Back at the castle Glozelle and his men have just got back with two prisoners, one covered with a blanket and the other sitting on a horse with her hands tied behind her back. Glozelle catches the eye of Lord Miraz up on the balcony holding his newly born son before riding into the stables. By the time everyone is off of their horses the Lord had made his way down to the stables believing that the covered figure was his nephew.
“Wait, my lord!” Glozelle exclaims, stopping Miraz from checking under the blanket. “It’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it?”
“We’re not exactly sure.”
“It’s a Narnian you idiots” the two men turn towards the girl who is currently sitting on the floor from where she was unceremoniously thrown not too long ago, almost forgetting she was even there before she spoke up.
“Impossible” Miraz claims before pulling off the blanket revealing a dwarf who looks quite pissed off from the night that he has had. Miraz shares a look with Glozelle before turning his attention to the girl threatening “'I’ll deal with you later. Someone take her to a cell.”
“Yes, my Lord” Glozelle responded, turning towards Lillian grabbing her arm and dragging her towards the dungeons.
“Since when do you do Miraz’s bidding?” Lily spits out struggling in the man's grasp.
“Shut up, traitor.”
They end up in a room with a chair which he shoves the girl into before tying her wrists to the arms of the chair, giving the rope a quick tug to check that it is secure before making his way to the nearest wall leaning against it whilst they wait for Miraz to come down.
They sit in silence for about 10 minutes before footsteps are heard and Miraz enters followed by a guard who is holding the dwarf.
“Put him over there.” instructs Miraz and the guard does that, throwing him on the floor.
“What is wrong with you?” The sixteen year old shouts. Looking at the dwarf in concern.
“Shut up” the guard dismisses her before leaving the room.
Miraz turns towards the girl, finding the state she is in quite amusing.
“Where’s Caspian?” he starts, taking a step closer.
“I haven’t got a clue what you are-” she doesn’t get to finish her sentence before he hits her in the face making her head snap to the side.
“Do not lie to me. I haven't got time for your games, where is my nephew?” he shouts.
The girl turned back towards him, laughing a little as she spat out the blood that started to pool in her mouth.
“I. Do. Not. Know.” she calmly says again and it’s not technically a lie, she was knocked out the second her head hit the floor earlier, Caspian could be anywhere by now. “Why don’t you ask him?” She gestures towards Glozelle."He's the one who tried to kill him.”
“I don’t have time for this, you can either tell me where he is and live or you can stay quiet and die along with the dwarf.”
“Why would I go through all of the trouble to get him out just to tell you where he is now? Seems pretty pointless to me.”
The man who has already had enough of the teen turns to Glozelle, instructing him to gather a few men to deal with the two prisoners. Before storming out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
So that’s how Lillian ended up trapped on a boat with two soldiers and a dwarf with her hands tied tightly behind her back and a piece of cloth tied around her mouth to prevent her from talking. They have been on the boat for quite some time and Lillian is running out of time to do something to stop her and the dwarf from meeting a not so pleasant death. She notices how the man who is rowing the boat keeps glancing down at the dwarf who hasn’t stopped glaring at the man, making the soldier very uncomfortable to the point that he starts to complain to the other man.
“He won’t stop staring” he complains, and Lillian lets out a laugh that is stifled by the gag in her mouth.
“So don’t look” but this does nothing as the first soldier can feel the dwarfs' glare burning though his skin.
The man rows the boat for a little longer before stopping and saying “here’s fine” he then turns to Lillian and suggests “let’s drop her in first, less chance that we will have any problems.” and they do just that, both grabbing the girl from each end and lifting her up, despite her struggles and pleas to leave her alone, throwing her into the deep water. Immediately water fills the girl's lungs as she had her mouth open from screaming at the two men, she thrashes around for as long as she can before she gives up sinking to the bottom of the lake.
Meanwhile the men turn towards the dwarf with the intention to do the same, but before they could throw him over they are interrupted by a red arrow hitting the side of the boat. The three look over to where it came from spotting four figures running towards them.
“Drop him” the girl with the bow shouts, however that wasn’t entirely helpful because they take that as an opportunity to throw the dwarf into the water.
Peter and Edmund immediately jump into action running towards the water and jumping straight in whilst Susan takes care of the soldiers. Peter rescues the dwarf whilst Edmund grabs the rope attached to the boat pulling it to shore.
When Peter puts the dwarf down on the ground Lucy wastes no time in cutting him free and as soon as he removes the gag he's shouting “the girl, get the girl” between coughing up water. The four look at him in confusion for a moment before Peter realises that there must have been another person and sprints towards the water diving in and swimming towards the bottom where he spots a girl who looks to be almost lifeless. He quickly grabs her before kicking up off of the ground and making it out of the water in record time. Once he gets to solid ground he lies the girl on her back putting his ear by her mouth to see if she is breathing, she’s not. Completely forgetting about his sister's healing cordial he starts to push down on her chest, starting CPR and after a few seconds he pinches her nose and blows into her mouth. He keeps doing this until his siblings reach him and Lucy stops the boy and gives the girl a drop of her healing cordial.
They all wait a few seconds before the girl's eyes shoot open and she starts to cough, choking on the water in her lungs. Peter helps the girl roll onto her side and hits her back a few times to try and help get the water out. Once she had recovered she rolls back onto her back and notices that she had gathered quite the crowd. It was at that moment that Trumpkin decided to question the Queen's choice of words.
“Drop him? That was the best you could come up with?” he shouts glaring up at the girl with a bow.
“A simple thank you would suffice.”
“They were doing fine drowning us without your help.”
“Maybe we should have let them” Peter snaps, only to receive a pissed off look from the girl lying down on the ground below him. “Sorry” he mutters.
“Why were they trying to kill you anyway?” Lucy wonders, a little disturbed by what she had just witnessed.
“They’re Telmarines. That’s what they do.” The dwarf explains, pushing himself up off of the ground before offering a hand to Lily which she takes gratefully, getting up and making her way towards the boat to search for her weapons.
Edmund looks at the dwarf in confusion asking “Telmarines? In Narnia?”
“Where have you been for the last few hundred years?”
“It’s a bit of a long story.” Lucy responds whilst Susan turns towards Peter handing him the sword he discarded when he ran to go and rescue the dwarf and the girl whose name they have yet to find out, from drowning. Trumpkin takes notice of the hilt and looks up towards Peter before taking in the four of them. Suddenly he is hit with a wave of recognition and lets out a loud drawn out groan.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. You’re it? You’re the Kings and Queens of old? He asks in disbelief.
Peter holds out his hand before introducing himself as “High King Peter, the Magnificent.”
His oldest sister rolls her eyes before saying “you probably could have left out the last bit.”
The dwarf lets out a little chuckle, repeating “probably.”
And at the same time the five hear the voice of the nameless girl shout “oh he definitely could have.” from where she was sitting in the boat watching the interaction.
Peter looks over at the girl before saying to the dwarf “you might be surprised.” Before drawing his sword.
“Oh, you don’t want to do that, boy.” the dwarf taunts.
“Not me. Him.” Peter responds, gesturing towards Edmund before giving his sword to the dwarf. Trumpkin takes the sword in his hands, which suddenly drops to the floor and the girl in the boat gets up and walks towards the group curious about what was going to happen next. After all she had grown up reading tales about the Kings and Queens of old and knew that this was about to be very interesting. Edmund takes out his sword whilst smiling at Peter, getting ready to duel the dwarf. Suddenly, Trumpkin swings his sword towards Edmunds, knocking the blade away from him before swinging again. Edmund ducks which gives Trumpkin the opportunity to whack him across the face which causes Edmund to back up a few steps and Lucy to shout his name in a warning.
“Awe, you alright?” the dwarf mocks, which Lillian finds quite funny.
The two continue to fight, circling around each other before Trumpkin slashes at Edmunds feet which he doges by jumping over the blade. Edmund retaliated by delivering one final blow which caused Trumpkins sword to go flying out of his hand and onto the ground. The dwarf stumbles back in disbelief, falling down onto the sand.
“Beards and bedsteads! Maybe that horn worked after all.” the dwarf mutters the last part under his breath.
“What horn?” the High Queen asks and the dwarf and girl start to explain the very long story that was the last two days off their lives.
“Wait so let me get this straight, because that was a lot of information to process,” starts Peter. “Lillian, you had to rescue a Prince because his uncle gave birth to a son and you thought that that meant that he would be in danger, which ended up being correct, so you and his professor broke him out of his room and stole a horse and the professor sent you to protect him, which obviously didn’t go too well-”
“Hey”
“Sorry, and then he gave Caspian a horn which happened to be my sisters which he told you guys to only use at your greatest needs, which judging by the fact that we are here means that he ended up using it at some point. You guys then ran away from the castle on a horse but were followed by Lord Miraz’s men through a mystical forest until Caspian rode into a tree and you were separated. Then the two of you were captured by the Telmarines and sentenced to death because one, he’s a Narniain, which they didn’t even know existed until a few days ago and two, because you wouldn’t give up the location of the Prince?”
“Yeah, that just about sums it up.” Lily confirmed before suggesting, “we should probably start to make our way to him, before it starts to get dark. We don’t want to be here when the Telmarines come looking for their missing men.”
“You’re right” he responds before the six of them make their way towards the boat setting sail to their next destination.
Contrary to popular belief Peter Pevensie is not a troubled boy. Yeah he gets into more fights than the average English school boy and yes he has seemed to have developed a bit of an attitude problem ever since his accidental return from Narnia the year prior. But how would you feel if you spent 15 years in another world, made loads of extraordinary friends and ruled over the country, only for you to one day have that ripped away from you because you stumble across a familiar lamppost and get transported back to your world where you haven't aged a day and a horrible war is still going on?
Peter has ever since been struggling with not receiving the same level of respect he was so used to for 15 years. This led to numerous fights and arguments.
So that’s how he’s ended up here. The sixteen year old was caught between two boys in his year who he had been having trouble with for the past few months.
The fight started off because the bigger of the two bumped into him purposefully shoving him to the ground and then had the audacity to ask Peter to apologise. And Peter, who was already on a short fuse that morning, made the wise decision to swing at the bully despite being outnumbered. Lucy, who was waiting with the boy, quickly ran off up the stairs of the train station in search of her older sister in hopes that she would be able to talk some sense into the boy.
Despite Peter having spectacular fighting abilities back in Narnia, all of those skills seemed to have disappeared when they returned back home and went back to being children. This meant that he was at a severe disadvantage and was losing horribly.
Peter just about makes out Lucy screaming Edmunds name over all of the other students cheering and screaming before he too joined in the fight to try and help out his older brother. However the fight didn’t last much longer due to the commotion drawing the attention of two soldiers who blew their whistles and broke up the fight, scolding the boys and telling them to “act your age!”
The four siblings make their way to a bench sitting down Edumnd being the last to set down his luggage before he spat out “your welcome.”
Scoffing Peter replies with “I had it sorted.” preceding to slouch down on the bench letting out a sound of discomfort in doing so.
“What was it this time?” Susan asks, tired of her brother's antics.
“He bumped me.”
“So you hit him?” This time it was Lucy who questioned Peter with the same amount of disappointment as her older sister.
“No.” Peter responds and for a moment it seems like he’s going to give a reasonable excuse for the 3rd fight he has had this month, until he continues with “after he bumped me, he tried to get me to apologise. That’s when I hit him.”
“Why can’t you just walk away?”
Peter shoots up in his seat the look of shock on his face making it seem like Susan had just asked him to commit a war crime. “I shouldn't have to!” he shouts, “don’t you ever get tired of being treated like a kid?”
“Uh, we are kids.” Edmund pipes up for the first time since the argument had started.
“Well I wasn’t always.” Peter trails off deep in thought before carrying on. “It has been a year. How long does he expect us to wait?”
Susan, the voice of reason for the group of four, looks at her brother sympathetically before explaining something that had been on her mind for the past few months. “I think it’s time to accept the fact that we live here. It’s no use pretending any different.” She glances up from her brother checking to see if there was any sign of the train when she spots a boy that she was talking to earlier getting closer. Turning back suddenly to her three siblings she whispers “oh no…” before rushing out “pretend like you’re talking to me.”
“We are talking to you” countered Edmund, confused by his sister's request.
But the confusion quickly passed when Lucy jumped from her seat letting out a loud “Ow!”
“Be quiet Lucy” scolds Susan highly unimpressed with her siblings today.
“Something pinched me!” Lucy protests but is quickly interrupted by Peter turning to Edmund with an accusatory look on his face.
“Hey stop pulling!”
“I’m not touching you!” Edmund defends himself by showing his hands to his brother.
Susan who now also feels the strange touches questions “what is that?”
The sound of a train horn fills the platform as the train starts to approach the platform with a speed far too great to be stopping at the station like it is supposed to do.
“It feels like magic,” Lucy whispers in awe.
Peter, in a state of panic and confusion, suddenly grips onto his brother and sister's hands demanding, “quick, everybody hold hands.”
Edmund rips his hand out of Peter's grasp, shouting “I’m not holding your hand!” But Peter isn’t having any of it because he immediately grabs the boy's hand in a firmer grip just as the train speeds past the platform. The surroundings of the station start to vanish, the luggage, the seat, the platform and even the station completely disappear as soon as the train passes leaving the four in some type of cave on a beach. The brothers and sisters take about ten seconds to assess their surroundings and conclude that after a year they have finally been able to make it back to Narnia. The four race towards the water, Peter shoves Edmund and shouts “shame you ain't as quick as me ed!” Whilst Susan screams “last one there is a rotten egg!” Removing their blazers and ties in the process. Once they make it to the water they start to play and splash water at each other, having the most fun any of them have had since before the war started, that is if you don’t count the golden age in Narnia.
Edmund suddenly looks up at the cliff towering over the beach spotting a bunch of ruins and then asks out loud, “where do you suppose we are?”
Peter looks at his brother before sarcastically saying “well, where do you think?”
“Well I don’t remember any ruins in Narnia.” He explains before pointing up at the cliff, the other three following his hand to the ruins of what looks to be a castle.
“We should go take a look” Lucy suggests and the other three quickly agree, following the girl all the way up to the top of the cliff, completely forgetting their discarded uniform. They walk in silence for a few minutes all thinking to themselves of all of the possibilities of what might have happened to Narnia whilst they were gone. On the way to the ruins they walk through an apple orchard where Peter plucks an apple from a nearby tree before polishing it on his jumper.
“Lucy” he calls out turning towards the youngest Pevensie and tossing her the apple.
“Thanks” the girl says, smiling widely at her brother before taking a bite out of the fruit. “Does anyone still have their sandwiches?” Lucy enquiries.
“Well, I left mine in my bag and I left my bag in the train station and then I left the train station in England.” Peter explains approaching the ruins.
“I wonder who lived here,” said Lucy, taking another bite from her apple.
Susan notices something shining on the ground and picks up the object revealing a very familiar looking golden knight. “I think we did.” The four children gather around the chess piece, Edmunds face lighting up with recognition.
“Hey that’s mine…. From my chess set.”
“Which chess set”
Edmunds rolls his eyes before answering his brother's question. “Well, I didn’t exactly have a solid gold chess set in Finchley, did I?”
Lucy takes a closer look at some of the ruins before letting out a quiet gasp. “It can’t be.” She exclaims before running over to the four circular ruins in the ground.
“Lucy” Peter shouts, not wanting his sister to get herself hurt.
“Don’t you see?” Lucy pleaded, positioning her siblings in their rightful spots.
“What?”
“Imagine walls” Lucy starts to explain after taking her place. “And columns there” gesturing to the sides, “ and a glass roof.” The remaining three take a look listening to the youngests suggestions before it finally clicks.
“Cair Paravel.” Peter lets out in disbelief. The group of four slowly make their way deeper into the ruins, the atmosphere changing ever since they made the discovery of what happened to their home. “What do you suppose happened?”
“Catapults” Edmund responds without a moment of hesitation.
“What?”
“This didn’t just happen,” Edmund observed. “Cair Paravel was attacked.”
The two brothers spot a hidden wall and immediately make a run for it and start to move the wall to reveal a secret door which Peter doesn’t hesitate to break down. He then proceeds to rip off a piece of his shirt and wraps it around a bit of wood he had obtained from the broken door. He then pats his pockets in search for something to light the makeshift torch with before turning to his siblings for help. “I don’t suppose you have any matches in there, do you?” Peter enquires eyeing up Edmunds satchel.
“No…” Edmund trails off reaching into his bag with a smirk and pulling out his new torch, “but would this help?”
Peter lets out a little laugh whilst saying, “you might’ve mentioned that a bit sooner!”
Edmund turns on his torch leading the group into the underground chamber, they make their way down a long staircase until they reach an old metal gate that separates a room from the rest of the chamber. Edmund, who is still at the front of the group, slowly pushes the gate open resulting in a loud screech that causes him to slightly cringe and step away. Once inside the four siblings realise what the room is after they spot four chests with familiar looking statues behind them. They don't hesitate to rush towards their assigned chests that are full to the brim with their belongings that had been preserved and kept safe from when they were last in Narnia,
“I can’t believe it. It’s all still here.” Peter lets out in disbelief, rummaging through his chest until he comes across a familiar looking sword.
Lucy does the same but instead pulls out an elegant and long dress.
“I was so tall.”
“Well, you were older then.” Susan explains.
“As opposed to hundreds of years later, when you’re younger.” says Edmund, looking at his older brother who has picked up a shield off of the floor before blowing the dust off of the top revealing the face of a lion.
“What is it?” he hears Lucy ask Susan.
“My horn. I must’ve left it on my saddle the day we went back,” she continues to look through her chest with a disappointed look on her face, until she spots her bow and arrows and suppresses a little smile.
Peter finally picks up his sword from the chest looking at the inscription the four know off by heart.
“When Aslan bares his teeth, winter meets its death.” The High King recited.
“And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.” Lucy finishes before realising, “everyone we knew, Mr Tumnus and the beavers, they’re all gone.” Peter looks at his sister's sad expression with determination before declaring.
Determined to save one of her closest friends from a horrendous death, Lillian Monroe betrays the 'king' by warning the heir to the throne of the plan to kill him after his cousin was born. Little did she know that the impromptu escape mission would lead to her being all but dragged into a world full of Narnians, corrupt governments and Kings and Queens of old.
Friends to lovers/slowburn
Chapters:
Chapter 1: Breakouts And Magical Horns
Chapter 2: The Kings And Queens Of Old
Chapter 3: Unexpected Friends
Chapter 4: An Unlikely Alliance
Chapter 5: The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend
Chapter 6: Moves And Countermoves (coming soon)
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips We should just kiss like real people do
The cries of Prunaprismia are slowly coming to a stop and Lillian knows that the gender of the new potential heir will be revealed at any moment now.
The corridor that she is currently hovering in grows silent in anticipation which is only broken by the cries of the newborn royal. Lily holds her breath in anticipation, waiting for someone, anyone to leave the room so she can find out what is going on.
As soon as Lillian spots Glozelle making a hasty exit from the birthing room she pushes herself off of the wall and calmly makes her way over to the Lord.
“Did all go ok?” she enquiries, matching his hurried stride.
“Yes, Lady Prunaprismia gave birth to a healthy son.” He responds.
“That’s fantastic.” Lily trails off, dread flooding her mind as she worries for the young prince that is now in terrible danger. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my station.”
Glozelle pays no mind to the teenage girl and is already out of her view by the time she turns around and starts to quickly make her way towards the supposed next in line for the throne’s room.
Once she makes it outside her friend's bedroom she quietly opens the door and is greeted by the boy's professor who she has no doubts has heard of the news and has had the same thoughts as she had.
“I assume you’ve heard the news?” she whispers.
“I am afraid so.”
Lillian makes her way into the room and closes the door behind her whilst the doctor wakes up the sleeping prince.
“Five more minutes” the prince mutters, shifting in his bed in a failed attempt to get back to sleep.
“You won’t be watching the stars tonight, my prince. Come, we must hurry,” states Cornelius pulling Caspian out of his bed and dragging him towards the corner of the room where he spots the third person in his sleeping chambers.
“Lillian? Professor, what is going on?” Queries the young prince, his accent thick and voice a little hoarse from just being woken up.
“Your aunt has given birth” Lillian rushes out panic creeping in due to the lack of time they have left to get the prince out undetected.
“To a son” the professor adds, opening the wardrobe which reveals one of the many secret passageways in the castle.
The professor enters first followed by Lillian who grabs onto a stunned Caspians arm dragging him behind her. Caspian leaves the door open a crack and both he and the girl peer out, Lillian's head just below the prince’s.
It turns out they had left just in the nick of time because right after the trio had hidden themselves the door to the prince's chambers opens for a third time that night and reveals Lord Glozelle and about 10 other soldiers all armed with crossbows who one by one surround Caspians bed. They all raise their weapons and wait for the Lord's command which comes soon after. They all fire two rounds of arrows directly at the bed in which the prince above Lillian had been lying in minutes ago and she swears she hears Caspians breathing stutter. The arrows cause the curtain around the bed to drop which shows that the bed was empty and that the prince has escaped.
The three escapees race down the winding staircase which leads to a stable where the horse Destier is waiting, Caspian picks up an extra sword and LIllian also grabs some extra weapons. Caspian mounts his horse and looks down at the two people who saved his life moments ago.
“You must make for the woods” the professor explains and then turns to Lillian and adds “you too Lillian.”
The pair responds in unison.
“The woods?”
“Wait, why me?”
“They won’t follow you there” Doctor Cornelius responds, “and Lillian, they are going to know that is was an inside job and will most likely suspect the two of us, you need to go with Prince Caspian for not only your own safety but also his, Aslan knows he could use the help out there” he explains, quietly adding the last part but both of them heard it.
The prince offers Lillian a hand and pulls her up onto the horse behind him and she lets out a mumbled thanks.
“Oh, I almost forgot” the professor reaches into his satchel pulling out a majestic looking horn and hands it to Caspian. “It has taken me many years to find it. Do not use it except at your greatest need.”
The prince examines the foreign object before slowly lowering it into his pocket. He looks back up at his professor with a sorrowful look on his face. “Will I ever see you again?” He enquires.
“I hope so, my dear prince. There is so much more I meant to tell you. Everything you know is about to change.”
Lillian clears her throat awkwardly interrupting the moment between the student and the professor. “Sorry to interrupt but we really need to get going, they’re going to realise where we are very quickly.” She hesitantly speaks up.
As if on cue the trio hears commotion coming from not so far away from where they are.
“Lillian is correct, I do hope that we will all meet again, now go” the professor urges and that is all it takes for Caspian to get the horse into motion. The duo ride away from the stable, looking back at the professor one last time. Caspian leads the horse through the castle's courtyard speeding past a soldier and knocking him right down onto the floor causing Lily to tighten her grip on his waist to prevent herself from flying off of the horse. They reach the gates having no problem getting past it and onto the bridge crossing it with haste. A hissing sound is heard behind the pair causing them to look back to see fireworks being shot up into the sky.
“Prunaprismia has blessed Lord Miraz with a son!”
Lillian catches sight of a dozen of Miraz’s men leaving the stables and turns frantically around to Caspian letting him know that they needed to get out of there.
“Quick, we need to make for the woods like Cornelius said” urges the girl but it seems that the Prince was already two steps ahead of her making a beeline for the mystical woods. The sound of hooves increases in volume as the soldiers start to shorten the distance between them. Once the pair make it into the woods LIly glances behind her to see that only Glozelle was brave enough to face the unknown dangers of the uncharted woods. She manages to hear him shout “Which of you superstitious old women would like to spend the night in a cell?” Which given the circumstances Lillian should not have found as funny as she did.
The chase proceeds for a few minutes, the only sounds being horse hooves slamming against the ground and the occasional curse from the two teens. That's until they hear running water and then a big river comes into view. Caspian safely crosses the river with no hesitation or problems; however, going off of the splashing sound they heard behind them it was safe to assume that one of Glozelle's men hadn’t been as lucky. Lily shifts in her place on the saddle, growing uncomfortable at her trousers sticking to her legs due to the water splashing upwards. Caspian glances back to see if everything is alright, noticing that the men seem to have disappeared somewhere between here and the river. Lily spots it before he does and screams “Cas look out!” But it was too late and he had already collided with the low hanging branch, knocking both himself and Lillian off of the horse in the process.
Lillian lands on the ground with a loud thud smacking her head against the ground whilst Caspian gets dragged for another 20 seconds due to his foot getting caught in the stirrup. It takes him a while to recover and get up and by the time he does Lillian is already surrounded by half of the guards after Glozelle orders them to take her alive. When Caspian sits up he takes a look around at his surroundings when suddenly a tree about ten feet away from him opens and out steps two dwarfs who immediately take notice of Caspian.
“He has seen us!” exclaimed the shorter of the two with a long dark grey beard.
The prince shoots up to his feet attempting to run back to where he last saw his friend but is stopped by one of the dwarfs drawing their sword and charging at him. Startled, the young Prince falls to the ground whilst furiously patting down his pockets in search of the magical horn that he was told to use only when in great danger. The dwarf stops in his stride after spotting the mythical horn that once belonged to one of the Queens of old.
“Take care of him!” shouts the other one, taking notice of the Telmarine soldiers approaching, rushing towards them with his little sword drawn.
Caspian takes advantage of the two’s distraction, lifting the horn up to his mouth and blowing on it causing a loud sound to be produced.
“No!” The first dwarf cries out smacking the Prince on the back of the head with the hilt of his sword, successfully knocking the boy unconscious.
For the entirety of their pathetic existence Elizabeth Potter and Regulus Black have absolutely loathed one another. Because of what is still up for debate. Many assume it is because of the infamous Sirius Black's brotherly bond with the Potter siblings. Others believe it to be because of their competitive nature when it comes to classes. But if you asked anyone that is close to the pair they would say that they are certain the two are in denial of the glaringly obvious sexual tension between them.
Little did they know that one potions project would change the course of history.
Enemies to lovers/ Academic rivals
Chapters:
Chapter 1: The Unfortunate Pairing
Chapter 2: Welcome Speeches And Friendly Reunions
Chapter 3: The Timetable Fiasco (coming soon)
It turned into something bigger. Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I'd been betrayed.
Regulus Black has by far got to be the most infuriating person Elizabeth Potter has ever had the displeasure of meeting. The cocky bastard, who always seems to be nose deep inside his book, is currently sitting opposite her in the way too small for its purpose, prefects carriage.
She shifts in her seat when she becomes uncomfortably aware of how she is sandwiched between the two Hufflepuff fifth year prefects and tries to subtly move away from the two.
This year's Head Boy and Girl, that Elizabeth hasn't been bothered to learn the names of, are currently giving some speech about responsibility and honour which she really couldn't give two shits about at this moment in time. She really needs to get out of this room. The compartment is cramped and stuffy and Regulus Black is sat there with his fucking pristine robes, shiny prefects badge and a smug grin.
Merlin. I hate him, she thinks to herself and he glances over with that stupid smirk as if he had heard her thoughts. She wouldn’t be entirely surprised if he could.
She quickly adverts her gaze and can see Remus Lupin and Lily Evans sitting a few chairs down and gives them a small friendly wave when they make eye contact.
She zones back into the meeting when she hears the Head Girl explain how this year Professor Dumbledore wants to encourage inter house communication in hopes that the everlasting rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin would be dialled down a few notches. So, to do so he wants the prefect pairs to be mixed.
Eliza sits up straight in her seat and joins the complaints and moans about the new, not so favourable circumstances.
“I know you all aren’t too thrilled about this new arrangement but we both do ask for everyone's cooperation” reasons the Head Boy. She rolls her eyes and starts to glance around the room for the potential individual that she will be stuck with for the rest of the year.
The Head Girl starts with the seventh year prefects and Elizabeth rests her head down on the top of the chair waiting for her fate.
She catches that Remus is paired with the sixth year Ravenclaw girl and Lily with the Hufflepuff boy in her year. Elizabeth notices the relieved expression on her face when Lily glances over at Severus Snape, the sixth year Slytherin prefect that she used to be friends with before the incident last year when he called her a mudblood.
Elizabeth however doesn’t seem to be as lucky as Remus and Lily when it comes to the selection. Her head moves so quickly she is surprised that it did not fall off when she hears the next two names come out of the Head Girls mouth.
“Elizabeth Potter and Regulus Black”
Her heart stops.
No
No
No
Anyone but him.
She looks at Remus in confirmation hoping that she had misheard but the sympathetic look she receives in return shoots any hope that her hearing has failed her down.
Scowling, she reluctantly turns her gaze to the devil himself to see a matching expression on his face. They make eye contact and because the two are equally as stubborn they end up having what one could only describe as a glare off for the rest of the meeting which is only broken by the sound of chairs scraping across the ground creating a headache inducing noise.
Elizabeth bolts out of her seat and heads straight towards the Head Girl but before she could even open her mouth she beats her to it.
“No I will not change your pairing”
“How did you even know that was what I was going to say?”
“That look on your face”
“What look?” She asks, getting defensive.
“The one that says you would rather do anything else than be with Black”
“Well it’s true, I would literally prefer anything else”
“It’s not going to happen” the Head Girl responds with a look that says she is done with this conversation.
“Fine” she snaps, and with that she spins around ready to leave only to be met with Black's stupid face. “Move Black I am really not in the mood to fight right now”
"What? You think that I am thrilled with this decision?”
She doesn’t respond and just resorts to moving past him, not without hitting his shoulder with hers in passing. Eliza increases her pace when she notices that Remus is waiting for her at the entrance to the compartment with Lily.
“You alright?” He queries looking at her with caution out of the corner of his eye whilst they make their way back to their shared compartment.
“No” she responds with a defeated look. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.” Remus responds by opening up his arms to allow the younger girl to have one of his infamous hugs. Elizabeth can hear a muffled giggle from Lily through the cotton of Lupin's jumper and swats her hand out in her general direction hoping to make contact. She does. “It’s not funny Evans, he is insufferable.”
They continue to walk down the corridor of the train talking about their hopes for the new school year until Remus comes to a stop outside the self-proclaimed marauders compartment that they had called dibs on in their first year. The two say a quick goodbye to Lily and open the door, Remus stepping out of the way to let Elizabeth in first.
As the pair steps into the compartment they are greeted with the celebratory cheers from 3 out of 4 of the well known band of boys that cause havoc around Hogwarts and will probably cause Professor McGonagall to go into an early retirement.
“Finally, we were beginning to believe that you would never return” exclaimed the ever dramatic Sirius Black.
“Yeah well this years Heads had a lot to say and Dumbledore decided he wanted to put us with prefects from different houses to promote inter house communication or some bullshit like that.” Explained Elizabeth with a small scoff.
“You’ll never guess who Lizzy got paired with” Remus says with a small amused huff when he throws himself down onto the nearest seat, stretching out his limbs with a sigh of relief thankful for the extra space compared to the claustrophobic prefects compartment.
“Who?” Peter inquired, intrigued in why the female Potter looks so pissed off and Remus on the verge of laughter.
“Sirius’s stupid brother” Elizabeth mumbles grumpily, theatrically throwing herself on the seat in between her brother and Sirius, squeezing herself in the tiny gap.
“That's some rotten luck.” James states with a comforting look on his face, giving his sister a quick loving hug before letting go and turning his attention to Remus to ask “what about Evans?”
Everyone collectively groans, dreading another year of silly love confessions and ridiculous hogsmeade invitation attempts directed to the unfortunate Lily Evans who captured Potter's attention from the minute he met her in their first year.
“Are you still on that?” Asks an exasperated Sirius Black.
“You didn’t have to witness it during the summer.” Adds the youngest Potter, “he kept on moaning about how all Lily does is ignore him or call him an arrogant toerag and then would go on about how pretty she is and how much he is in love with her.”
“Hey!” shouts James. “This will be the year, just you wait. I will get Lily Evans to say yes to being my girlfriend.”
“That's what you say every year” says Peter with a hint of amusement at his friend's antics.
“Yeah I love Lily, but if I have to hear this speech one more time I might have to rip my ears off” Remus adds.
James slumps down in his seat with a frown and Eliza fears that they may have hurt his feelings so she gives him a playful nudge and states “hey, we’re just messing with you. Anyways I think it’s adorable how you still like Evans.”
“Speak for yourself” grumbles Sirius, slouching down in his seat in a flare of dramatics, which earns him a sharp elbow in the ribs from the female Potter. SIrius lets out a giant yelp and leaps out of his seat to hide next to Remus. “Moony, Lizzy’s being mean again” he whines, which results in the werewolf rolling his eyes at his best mate's antics.
“I’m sure you’ll live.”
The group of five settle down and for the next hour they discuss many different topics ranging from how their summers went to the next prank the group of 4 are going to pull.
Elizabeth checks her watch and realises that they are going to be arriving at Hogwarts in the next half an hour so she quickly excuses herself to go and get changed into her robes.
On her way to the nearest bathroom she passes the compartment that houses her two roommates and best friends Pandora Rosier and Emmaline Vance and gives them a wave, for the last four years it has been silently agreed that Elizabeth would spend the train ride up to hogwarts with her brother and his friends and then on the ride back to Kings cross station she would sit with her friends.
Once she makes it to the bathroom she notices that it is currently occupied so she leans up against the wall waiting for whoever is inside to finish their business.
Except it's now been 10 minutes and they are going to be at Hogsmeade station soon. Elizabeth weighs out the pros and cons and reluctantly goes to knock on the bathroom door, however when she is about to make contact the door swings open and reveals a slightly dishevelled looking Regulus Black and a pretty black haired slytherin that she isn’t quite sure she knows the name of.
“Really? You know you and your brother are more alike than you think.”
“Piss off Potter”
“Don’t be a dick, I've been waiting for ages to use the bathroom because you were too horny to wait a few more hours.”
“Careful Potter, wouldn’t want people to think you were jealous now would we?”
“In your dreams Black” she scoffs.
The pair stop their bickering when they hear an awkward cough come from behind Regulus and they both move out of the way so the girl can escape before she gets caught in the crossfire.
Elizabeth takes this as an opportunity to squeeze past the youngest Black brother but is too slow because he blocks her path and she ends up walking straight into his chest.
“What are we ten?” He doesn’t respond and just stares at her with that infuriating smug look on his face. “Get the fuck out of my way Black.”
“Make me”
This man.
“Is your life really that boring and sad that you’ve resulted to hovering outside the ladies bathrooms. It’s pathetic really,” Elizabeth snarked. “Now if you don’t mind I would like to get changed, so you can either move or I'll make you move.”
Regulus never gets the opportunity to fight back because just as he opens his mouth to respond he is brutally shoved into the nearest wall as Elizabeth forces her way past him. He lets out a little breathless chuckle as he watches the girl walk towards the bathroom and closes the door behind her.
The boy starts to make his way back to the compartment that his two friends Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch jr are currently residing in doing God knows what and quite frankly Regulus doesn’t want to know. He gives a brief smile to Pandora as he passes her and opens the door to the compartment next to hers. Regulus is greeted with the sight of Barty sprawled across Evans lap with a book in his hand, the minister's son shoots up at the sound of the door opening with an excited grin on his face as he exclaims “Reggie! Took you long enough, we were starting to think you would never return.”
“Don’t call me Reggie, Bartemius” Regulus said with a huff as he planted himself on the seat opposite his best friends.
“What’s gotten you in such a sour mood?”
“I’ve been paired with Potter for prefect rounds”
From where he has been sitting quietly, observing the conversation, Evan stifles a little knowing smirk at his friend's misery.
“Oh, how tragic,” Rosier taunts looking up at Regulus with a teasing gaze.
“Fuck of Evan”
“He’s just saying what we are all thinking,” Barty adds and as if summoned by the conversation Elizabeth Potter hurries past the compartment, successfully capturing the attention of the three boys, especially the youngest Black. But what seems to be the main focus of Regulus’ attention is the fact that Remus Lupin is trailing the young girl deep in conversation with her and he catches himself thinking what the hell is he doing there.
“Careful Reg, jealousy looks good on no one” warns Evan.
“I’m not jealous, I'm just thinking about how I am going to be stuck with her for the rest of this miserable year.”
“Sure, tell that to the daggers you were just throwing at Lupin” says Barty and then that is the end of the conversation as the train had finally arrived at Hogsmeade station.
And Regulus could not have been more wrong as their fifth year was anything but miserable.
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