The fifth Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia fanfic) [Editing]

Chapter 9: Legends and Prophecies of the ancient Narnia

I decided to not drink it. Not right now, anyways. Maybe later.

I sat down on the bed and just looked at the book. It was quite big and old, but still very beautiful. On the front cover, it was a forest and a lion. And of course the title. The title and parts of the lion was painted with gold. I felt like I didn't dare to open it. It felt like it was forbidden.

But then the lion on the book nodded. I blinked. Did that really happen? I'm not really sure, but now I had the courage to open the book. I did it. I opened the book on the first page, but it was empty. I turned the page and it was empty too.

I stared at the yellow-white parchment and sighed. I don't know how I knew it, but the book was testing me. To see if I was worthy reading it.

Some people would have given up then. My sibling would have given up. But I didn't.

I closed the book, looking at the front cover. I turned it around, but the back cover was black. Nothing there. When I turned the book and looked at the front cover again, I saw something.

There!

In the middle of the letter O in the word prophecies, was a small keyhole. Now I just have to find the key.

I searched both the front cover and the back cover of the book, but nothing. I opened the book and looked at all the pages closely, but still nothing. But I noticed that both the front cover and the back cover were unusually thick. How strange.

I looked at the spine of the book. The books title stood there, but it was also decorated with a pattern with pictures of leaves, trees and flowers. It was beautifully made and I couldn't see anything wrong in it... wait. Something is not right.

In the middle of the pattern, on a picture of a tree, was an ugly drawn key. It just didn't fit into the picture.  It was too big to look as it fit in there, but smaller than a normal key. It looked like...

It could fit the keyhole in the book!

I touched the drawn key, but quickly pulled my hand back. That hurt! Not very much, but it still hurt.

I looked at the book again. The key was gone.

Where did it go? What did I do? Did I use magic? Did I imagine it?

I felt that I had something in my hand. I looked down and realised that I held the key in my hand.

I decided to not try and figure out how that happened and just confuse myself too much, and I put the key in the keyhole. I turned the key and tried to pull it out, but instead a part of the front cover fell down.

Now I knew why the cover was unusually thick. Inside the cover was another book. But this book was a lot thinner and looked like someone actually did read it before I came. It was named Magic for Beginners.

I closed the front cover and took out the key. There was nothing more there.

I opened the other book, Magic for Beginners. I flipped through it, not really interested. But one line caught my interest. The line was shows hidden text. I searched the page for the beginning, and found it. My finger followed the text as I read.

To hide written text is harder than it looks. The spell needs to be performed on a full moon exactly one month after the text is written. The spell itself is complicated and it's hard to get it to work. The spell is Et abscondet verba ad omnes, non fuerunt digni, and every word needs to be rightly pronounced, otherwise it can get very wrong and be very dangerous. That's why no beginner ever should try to hide words from others.

However, the opposite is a lot easier. The spell that shows hidden text can be performed whenever the caster have time, and isn't very complicated or hard to get to work. The spell is Verba Spectaculum, and beginners can try this without any worries. If it doesn't work the first time, don't worry. Just try again.