Siblings never apologised, this was a well-known fact. You'd ignore each other until eventually, you forgot, and things were back to normal.

Well, Edmund was ignoring Anne, and Lucy was ignoring everyone.

Peter had suggested a game of cricket in the gardens, and Edmund had reluctantly agreed whilst Lucy took a book outside, facing away from her siblings. Susan played wicket-keeper, and Anne laid in the sun, her auburn curls spread across the grass. Peter had started a commentary on the game as he played.

"Peter winds up, poised to take yet another wicket!" He throws, but the ball hits Edmund in the leg

"Ow!"

"Whoops! Wake up, Dolly Daydream,"

"Why can't we play hide and seek again?"

"I thought you said it was a kid's game!" Anne shouts over

"You're not even playing anything!" he grumbles

"We could all use the fresh air," Susan says softly, trying to form some peace

"It's not like there isn't air inside,"

"Are you ready?" Peter starts to bowl

"Are you?"

Anne hears the bat thwack the ball...then glass shattering. She sits up and sees everyone looking at an upstairs window. Lucy helps her stand and the children rush upstairs to see the damage. Ed has knocked the ball through a crest in the window, and into a suit of armour which has fallen over.

"Well done, Ed," Peter says sarcastically

"You bowled it!"

"It's no one's fault," Anne says gently, she pulls Edmund towards her, and he lets her.

"What on earth is goin' on?!" Mrs Macready's voice rings the home.

"The Macready!" Susan exclaims, it was a nickname they'd taken to calling the barely human woman.

"Run!" Peter and Anne exclaim, leading the younger children out of the room.

"Come on!" They all run through the halls, trying to open locked doors, then stepping on each other's toes, Lucy leads them into the room with the wardrobe, and Edmund runs to open it

"Oh, you've got to be joking," Susan sighs, the footsteps get louder and she looks backwards, running into the wardrobe. Peter pushes Anne in before turning to shut the door.

"Get back!"

"My toe!"

"I'm not on your toe! Move back,"

"Will you stop shoving?"

"Ow! That's my hair!"

The children argue with each other, swatting away the numerous fur coats in the wardrobe before Anne feels herself being pulled backwards. She falls down onto a cold substance, Peter and Susan are beside her, they look around and find themselves in a snowy forest.

Slowly, Anne stands and looks around, she turns to a smirking Lucy as Susan gasps

"Impossible,"

"Don't worry. I'm sure it's just your imagination," Lucy says smugly, watching Anne touch a tree nearby, hardly understanding what she was seeing.

" I don't suppose saying we're sorry would quite cover it," Peter stammers out

"No. It wouldn't," Lucy bends down and forms a snowball, flinging it at Peter "But that might!" Peter throws one back at her, as the other girls collect some snow in their bare hands. Anne flings one at Peter, and Susan does the same to Edmund.

"Ow!" he rubs his arm "Stop it!" the siblings slowly turn to him, realising that he lied about Lucy imagining it.

"You little liar!" Peter exclaims

"You didn't believe her either!"

"But we didn't see this, did we?!" Anne exclaims "You did! And you deliberately upset her!"

 "Apologize to Lucy," Peter instructs, Edmund just looks at her "Say you're sorry,".

"All right! I'm sorry,"

"That's all right. Some little children just don't know when to stop pretending,"

Anne bites her lip to try and stop herself from laughing

"Oh, very funny!" At his words, Anne flings a snowball at her brother, he glares up at her before reaching down and throwing two snowballs, hard. She puts her arms up in defence and laughs loudly.

"Maybe we should go back," Susan suggests

"But shouldn't we at least take a look around?"

"I think Lucy should decide," Peter exclaims, and Edmund pouts

"I'd like you all to meet Mr. Tumnus!"

"Mr Tumnus it is," Anne smiles, ruffling Lucy's hair, Peter goes back into the wardrobe.

"But we can't go hiking in the snow dressed like this,"

Peter returns with several fur coats in hand "No. But I'm sure the professor won't mind us using these," he hands them out, passing Anne a large brown one, she puts it on quickly "Anyway, if you think about it logically, we're not even taking them out of the wardrobe," he shoves a coat at Edmund.

"But that's a girl's coat!"

"I know,".

✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵

The children walk through the woods, laughing and giggling. Anne was in awe of the woods, it was impossible, yet there they all stood. Lucy points out the lamppost where she met Mr Tumnus, and Peter leads them down a large hill, he trips and falls, but laughs. At the bottom of the hill, Anne flops backwards and starts to form a snow angel, not minding the cold snow on her hair.

As they near Mr Tumnus' 'cave', Lucy starts to talk more about him "We'll have lots and lots of lovely food, and we'll have lots and lots of..." she trails off, looking at a broken down door in the middle of the stone.

"Lu?" Lucy gasps and runs towards it, Anne chases after her "Lucy!"

Inside, the place is ransacked, glass and china broken everywhere, with wooden furniture tipped over. Through it all, Anne could see that once, it was homely and comforting.

"Who would do something like this?" Lucy asks innocently

Peter looks around, noticing a piece of paper stuck to a wall, he tears it off and starts to read out loud.

"The Faun Tumnus is hereby charged with High Treason against Her Imperial Majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternizing with humans. Signed Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police. Long Live the Queen." he lets Lucy read it as well and Anne puts comforting hands on her shoulders.

"All right. Now we really should go back," Susan announces

"But what about Mr. Tumnus?"

"If he was arrested just for being with a human, I don't think there's much we can do,"

"You don't understand, do you?" Lucy looks down at the ground "I'm the human! She must have found out he helped me!"

"Maybe we could call the police," Peter offers

"These are the police,"

"Well, the secret police," Anne receives two glares for that

"Don't worry, Lu. We'll think of something," Peter promises

"Why?" Everyone turns to look at Edmund "I mean, he's a criminal!"

"Ed, all he did was help Lucy," Anne explains, before he can make a remark back, a quiet 'psst' draws their attention. Susan looks out of the door, noticing a small Robin on a branch of a tree.

"Did that bird just 'psst' us?"

Peter leads his younger siblings outside, they watch the bird fly away, but then hear rustles in the bushes. Susan jumps and bumps into Anne, who steps closer to Peter, the rustles continue and seems to surround them, the girls hide behind Peter. Suddenly, a beaver appears.

" It... It's a beaver," Lucy mutters, confused. Peter steps forward and puts his hand out

"Here, boy," he clicks his tongue "Here, boy," slowly the beaver approaches, then stares at Peter.

"I ain't gonna smell it, if that's what you want,"

Anne's eyes widen, and she looks at the Beaver almost petrified

"Oh! Sorry!" Peter steps back while Lucy laughs

"Lucy Pevensie?"

"Yes?" The Beaver hands over a handkerchief "Hey, that's the hankie I gave to Mr. Tum-"

"Tumnus. He got it to me just before they took him,"

"Is he all right?"

"Further in," he scurries off and Peter starts to follow, before Susan pulls him back Susan grabs

"What you are doing?!"

"She's right. How do we know we can trust him?" Edmund asks

"He said he knows the faun," Peter shrugs

"He's a beaver. He shouldn't be saying anything!" Susan mutter ridiculously

"But he is! Do you want to go against magical talking Beaver?" Anne remarks

" Everything all right?" The beaver pops up from behind a rock

"Yes!" Anne and Peter say quickly

"We were just talking."

"That's better left for safer quarters,"

"He means the trees," Lucy mutters, and Anne shrugs at her siblings, following the animal, Edmund and Susan give each other exasperated looks.

✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵

The beaver merely introduces himself as 'beaver' and so the Pevensie children had taken to calling him 'Mr', he leads them through the forest and to a dam through the cliffs.

"Come on. We don't want to be caught out here after nightfall," They continue travelling under a bridge and then they see a Dam in the middle of a frozen pool. Smoke rises from the chimney.

"Ah, blimey! Looks like the old girl has got the kettle on. Nice cup o' Rosy Lee," Anne grins, a cup of tea would be lovely, she was cold, and her hair was damp.

"It's lovely," Lucy compliments

"It's merely a trifle. Still, plenty to do. Ain't quite finished it yet. It'll look the business when it is, though,"

As they approach his home, a woman's voice calls out "Beaver, is that you? I've been worried sick! If I find you've been out with Badger again I..." She exits the dam and sees the five children "Oh! Well, those aren't badgers. Oh, I never thought I'd live to see this day," she turns to Mr Beaver "Look at my fur. You couldn't give me ten minutes warning?!"

"I'd have given a week if I thought it would've helped," the kids laugh along with him

"Oh, come inside, and see if we can't get you some food, and some civilised company," she guides them into the warm home

"Now, be careful. Watch your step,"

"Excuse the mess. Can't get Mr. Beaver to get out of his chair,"

Mrs Beaver had insisted the children take their coats off, and warm themselves by the fire. Due to a limited amount of seats, Lucy was sat on Anne's lap as the older girl sipped from a green teacup.

"Isn't there anything we can do to help Tumnus?" Peter questions

"They'll have taken him to the Witch's. You know what they say. There's few that go through them gates that come out again,"

Mrs. Beavers dashes over and plunks a plate on the table "Fish 'n' chips!" Lucy looks down at the unappealing meal, a sad look appearing on her face, Mrs Beaver misinterprets it "But there is hope, dear. Lots of hope!"

Mr. Beaver spits out his tea "Oh, yeah, there's a right bit more than hope! Aslan is on the move!" The children are unphased, mainly a bit confused, Edmund comes over from his place on the stairs

"Who's Aslan?"

Mr. Beaver laughs "Who's Aslan? You cheeky little blighter!" Mrs. Beaver elbows him "What?" he looks at the children's confused faces " You don't know, do you?"

"Well, we haven't exactly been here very long," Peter defends

"Well, he's only the king of the whole wood. The top geezer. The real King of Narnia!" Edmund pulls a face and walks away, Anne looks at the Beavers in interest.

"He's been away for a long while."

"But he's just got back! And he's waitin' for you near the Stone Table!"

"He's waiting for us?" Lucy questions

"You're blimming joking! They don't even know about the prophecy!"

"The what?" Anne places down her teacup

"Well, then..."

"Look. Aslan's return, Tumnus' arrest, the secret police," Mr Beaver lists off on his paws "It's all happening because of you!"

"You're blaming us?!" Susan exclaims

"No! Not blaming. Thanking you!" Mrs Beaver smiles

"There's a prophecy. 'When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone sits at Cair Paravel in throne, the evil time will be over and done.',"

"You know that doesn't really rhyme."

"Yeah, I know it don't, but you're kinda missin' the point!"

"It has long been foretold," Mrs Beaver continues from her husband "that two Sons of Adam and three Daughters of Eve will defeat the White Witch and restore peace to Narnia."

"And you think we're the ones?"

"Well, you'd better be, 'cause Aslan's already fitted out your army,"

"Our army?"

"Mum sent us away so we wouldn't get caught up in a war," Susan whispers to Peter, Mrs Beaver clears her throat

"The prophecy is rather long you see, it says that 'The sons of Adam and daughters of Eve shall rule, but the oldest daughter shall never be equal to her siblings',"

"Well, what does that mean?" Anne questions, Lucy hops off her lap so she can lean in to talk to Mrs Beaver

"Uh, well..." she looks somewhat nervous, her husband chimes in, ever the enthusiast

"Aslan's gonna make your siblings King and Queens! You'll be a Princess,"

"A princess? Well that's hardly fair"

Peter interrupts "Look, I think you've made a mistake. We're not heroes!"

"We're from Finchley!"

"I don't think they know where that is," Anne mutters, watching Susan stand

"Thank you for your hospitality. But we really have to go."

"No, you can't just leave-"

"He's right. We have to help Mr Tumnus!" Lucy exclaims

"It's out of our hands. I'm sorry, but it's time the four of us were getting home," Peter turns to the stairs " Ed?" he's not there, Peter looks at his sisters "I'm gonna kill him,"

"You may not have to..." Mr. Beaver says grimly "Has Edmund ever been to Narnia before?".