Disclaimer: I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia, or any of the characters/actors (although I wish I did, particularly some of the actors…;) )

A/N: Obviously, this is an AU, but I'm only changing one thing— Jadis's initial treatment of Edmund, and subsequently, his initial reaction to her. The only events this will change is how Edmund ends up with her after meeting the Beavers and how he ends up betraying his brother and sisters. In my opinion, this is a very likely telling of how things would have happen had Jadis not recognized the advantage of sweet talking Edmund. This will probably be a short story, no more than five or six chapters.

Clinging to Hope

Chapter One

Edmund looked around in awe at the wood he had stumbled into. He couldn't believe that Lucy had been telling the truth. Of course, in his heart of hearts, he knew she wouldn't lie. It was not her nature, a nature he resented because he did not understand it. He began to feel a little guilty at how he tormented her with her, at the time, ludicrous story of a magical land in the wardrobe.

Suddenly, he heard sleigh bells. He looked up and saw what seemed to be a flurry of snow moving on a swift wind. As it approached him, he realized that it was not just snow and jumped aside just before he was trampled by the white reindeer. The sleigh it was pulling stopped a few feet from him, and a short, bearded figure hopped out. He had just enough time to register the small creature as an actual dwarf before he was charged at by the knife-wielding individual.

Edmund's eyes widened at the sight of the sharp instrument, and he turned and tried to run. However, the dwarf anticipated this and caught him with his whip. He fell to the ground and the dwarf was upon him in seconds with the knife at his throat.

"What is it, Ginarbrik?" (sp?) a cool voice asked from the sleigh.

"Make him leave me alone!" Edmund cried desperately. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"How dare you address the Queen of Narnia!" the dwarf shouted in outrage.

"I didn't know!" Edmund pleaded.

"Didn't know!" the so-called Queen cried out, indignant. "How dare you enter my dominion, Son of Adam! Now, tell me, why have you come? Who has brought you here?"

Edmund felt a flash of fear as he looked into her cold eyes, flashing with angry blue fire, and knew that this woman could and would hurt him. Her position and bearing reminded him of the dictators, Hitler and Mussolini, who his father had gone off to fight against in the war. He trembled with more than just cold as he realized that he was trapped at the moment and could do nothing more than answer her truthfully.

"My sister," he said fearfully. "I followed her in."

"And has she been here before?" the Queen demanded.

"Yes," he answered.

"Did she meet anyone? Well?" she asked at his silence and the dwarf pressed the knife to his neck a little harder.

"Yes, a faun, Tumnus, she said," Edmund answered, feeling guilty at admitting it, but not knowing why.

"And do you have any other siblings?" she inquired forcefully.

He was confused at the question. Why should it matter? But he answered anyway, fearing her wrath, "Yes, a brother and a sister, neither have been here before though."

The woman smiled cruelly. "You will bring all of your siblings to my house, just there between those two yonder hills," she said, pointing.

Edmund felt a flash of foreboding and without thinking shook his head at the proposal. He immediately realized his mistake when he saw the anger in her eyes.

"No! Well, we will teach you to defy me! Remove his shirt!" she ordered the dwarf. With much wrestling due to Edmund's struggles, he finally striped the article off. Then, at the behest of his mistress, he tied Edmund to a tree with his front facing the bark.

"Give him ten lashes," the ruthless woman commanded.

The dwarf gleefully took his whip and began to do as she bid. With the first couple lashes, Edmund fought hard to keep his tears and cries of pain in, but with the fourth stroke, he could bear it no longer. When he was finally untied, he dropped lifelessly to the ground.

"You will bring your siblings to me, Son of Adam. I know you would hate for them to suffer the same fate." With that said, her and her minion rode off, leaving Edmund lying half-naked in the snow.

The pain he felt was unbearable. All he wanted at the moment was Peter to protect him and tell him it would be okay, or Susan to soothe him and nurse his injuries, or Lucy to smile sweetly at him and cheer her with her presence. All the resentment he had been feeling these past weeks for them, all the anger he had harbored towards them, had melted away. He needed them, now more than ever. However, he knew that he couldn't just lie there and hope they would come. None of them had any idea where he was.

Painfully, he managed to drag himself over to his discarded clothing and pull his shirt over his bloody back. He then pulled his dressing gown on for what little warmth it could provide. He then got up slowly from the ground and made his way towards the lamppost. Before he made it there, a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Edmund? Oh, Edmund!" Lucy ran towards him and wrapped her arms around him. At his cry of pain, she looked up and frowned. "Are you alright?"

Ignoring the question, he asked her one, "Where have you been?"

"With Mr. Tumnus! He's fine! The White Witch didn't get him."

"White Witch?"

Lucy leaned in secretively. "She calls herself the Queen of Narnia, but she really isn't. She's the one who makes it always winter and never Christmas. She rides around on a sleigh and turns people to stone!"

Edmund paled at that. It must have been she who he had met. If she had the power to do all of that, what could she do to him? He feared that she could and would do a lot worse to him. Right then, he wanted to leave Narnia and never come back.

"We should be getting back," Edmund simply said, trying to keep as much fear out of his voice as he could.

"You look awfully pale, are you sure you're alright?" Lucy asked.

"Well, it's freezing out here, what do you expect?" he replied, avoiding the question yet again. "How do we get out of here?"

"Come on."

OoooOoooOoooO

A few minutes later, they were out of Narnia and back in the spare room with the wardrobe. Lucy then proceeded to drag Edmund to the room he shared with Peter.

"Peter, Peter!" she cried jumping on his bed. "Wake up! I've been to Narnia again! And this time, Edmund went as well!"

When this had registered to Peter's and Susan's (who had come in at the noise) sleepy minds, they stared incredulously at Edmund.

"You saw the faun?" Peter asked.

"Well, he didn't actually go there with me. He…" She trailed off hesitantly then looked at him. "What were you doing, Edmund?"

He quickly looked down and avoided their searching eyes. "I don't really want to talk about it, and I most certainly do not want to go back there."

Lucy frowned at this statement. "Why not, Ed? Isn't it a wondrous place?"

"Not the part I saw," he said, turning his back on her.

"Edmund," Susan said, reaching out and touching his back. At his gasp of pain, she immediately withdrew her hand.

"Ed?" Peter said in askance as he got up and stood next to his brother. Edmund tried to shy away from him, but Peter persisted and managed to get the dressing gown off of him. What he saw made him gasp in horror.

"Edmund, who did this to you?" Peter questioned urgently, looking in shock at the amount of blood that had bled through his brother's pajama top.

Tbc…