Disclaimer: JKR owns Harry Potter. CS Lewis owns Narnia.

Dedicated to Hope (AccioHope) for being an awesome, pestering (I mean encouraging...) friend who loves Narnia and Skandar Keynes :) It is also entirely her fault I wrote this in the first place =P

James Sirius Potter is rather fond of that saying.

Not in the least because he's the one who constantly goes around saying it – but that's beside the point.

He's fond of it because it sums him up perfectly. He's the daredevil, the prankster, the risk-taker, the quintessential Gryffindor – and he never says never.

Well, actually he did, once.

And his saying came true, because karma did indeed come back around and bite him for it.

See, once upon a time, when he was young and didn't know better, he told his cousin Lucy that the Chronicles of Narnia was a stupid book series.

"A magical land with talking animals and four kings and queens?" he had scoffed. "That's impossible. We're never going to end up in Narnia, Luce."

Lucy, in true little girl fashion, had smacked him with the book and flounced off.

If he had been superstitious, James might have admitted to hearing a ghostly voice whisper into the wind – "You shouldn't have said never, James."

But that was probably just Lily being Lily, or something.

Naturally, on his fifteenth birthday, James falls into a waterfall.

It's not his fault, really. It's all Albus's fault. He's the one who pushed him. And it's also Victoire's fault, for telling Albus about the waterfall. And also Lily's fault, because she's Lily and she lives to annoy him, so everything is her fault.

But, yeah, it's not James's fault.

The water is cold, almost unnaturally so, and as he sinks further into the blue waves of the little pond, the laughter of his family fades away – it doesn't stop, merely fades, and perhaps that should have raised his suspicions? But James is too focused on how, the lower he sinks, the warmer the water gets. It's a little weird, if he thinks about it too long.

And then he surfaces.

But he's not at Shell Cottage celebrating Dominique's birthday anymore.

Quite frankly, he doesn't know where the heck he is. Is he still in England? Britain? Europe? Earth?

On the verge of panicking, James quickly begins swimming in a random direction, just so he doesn't have to think about the possibility that he might have, like, fallen off the face of the Earth or something equally dramatic. Mentally, he thanks those two months of swimming lessons his mother made him take when he was young as he paddles, fast and furious, around the ocean.

There's no sign of land.

A little desperate now, James opens his mouth, ready to yell for help – when, out of nowhere, a majestic ship is suddenly looming in front of him, golden and gleaming in the high afternoon sunlight.

"Oh, look, there's someone in the water!" says a young, feminine voice, and it's like music to his ears because it means that somebody's finally spotted him and he might be getting rescued, at last.

"Are you okay?" yells someone from above, and James tilts his head up, spluttering out the water in his lungs, and finds himself looking into the concerned face of a dark-haired boy, around his age, leaning over the edge of the ship.

"Do I look okay?" he calls back, because he's James and he excells at being annoying. "Can someone pull me up, please?"

"It could be a trap," warns a deep, masculine voice, belonging to someone clearly much older than the boy and the girl.

"Don't be ridiculous," chastises the first voice, the girl. "He's clearly almost drowning! Caspian, do something!"

"I'll go," interrupts the second boy, and suddenly, somebody's jumping off the edge of the boat, diving straight for James. "Hold on, kid."

James coughs at the splash of water that results from the boy's jump. "Thanks," he mutters as the boy grabs hold of his arm and pulls him to the spot where the crew is lowering a stand for them to climb up on. "Appreciate the rescue."

The boy snorts. "Yeah, no problem."

They scramble onto the stand and the crew hauls them back up onto the ship. Almost immediately, the boy next to him is attacked by a girl in a hug.

"Oh, good, you made it," she says, beaming, pulling away from the boy – her brother? They seemed to share a familial resemblance.

"Of course I did, Luce," grins the boy. "Do you want to say hi to our newest guest?"

The girl turns wide brown eyes towards him. "Hello!" she chirps cheerfully, reminding him an awful lot of Lucy for some reason. "I'm Lucy." Oh. That would be why. "What's your name?"

"James," he answers, looking around at the crew and double-taking when he realizes there's a big, black minotaur (what the hell?) on board. "Where am I?"

"You're on board the Dawn Treader," says another boy, more fair-haired than the one who saved him, a grin on his face as he walks forward to clap James on the back. "The finest ship in all of Narnia!"

Never say never, is the last thing James thinks before collapsing to the ground in a dead faint.

When he wakes up, the first thing he sees is a girl who must be a dream.

(She's too pretty to be otherwise.)

"Hello," she greets him, a smile on her face. "Are you feeling better?"

"Mm?" James asks sleepily. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"You're on the Dawn Treader," she replies, offering him a glass of water. "And I'm Lucy Pevensie."

The name rings a bell inside his mind as he sits up and accepts the glass with a grin. "James Potter. I think I know you from somewhere."

Lucy blinks, puzzled. "Really? Where from?"

"I don't know, I – " James freezes, the water half-way into his mouth. "Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. Am I in Narnia?"

"Well, yes, of course," Lucy says matter-of-factly. "Where did you think you were?"

"Uh, Earth?" James suggests, a little dumbfounded. "You mean – you're Lucy Pevensie? Queen Lucy Pevensie?"

"Yes, I am," she smiles at him. "You know what, you seem a little familiar, too. I'm sure I've seen your eyes somewhere before."

James stares at her. "You have?"

"Yeah!" Lucy nods, cinnamon curls bouncing, and he has to stop himself from reaching out to touch her hair and see if it's as soft and light as it looks. "You remind me a lot of a girl I once knew, many years ago. Her name was Lucy, too, and she had those exact same eyes."

His eyes – blueblueblue, just like Lucy, because they both get them from Granddad Arthur, and, Merlin, how did he not put the puzzle pieces together earlier? – widen. "Merlin's beard, are you kidding me?"

Lucy tilts her head, bemused. "What do you mean?"

"Are you telling me Lucy made it to Narnia?" James demands. "She actually, truly, honestly made it to Narnia? Narnia is real?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you," she replies, a playful smile on her face. "Why?"

James stares at her for a minute, then shakes his head and falls back down on the hammock.

At the very least, he consoles himself, he's in Narnia with a pretty girl. That's a plus, right?

Lucy giggles. "You're silly."

Yeah, definitely a plus.

Eventually, he gets all caught up on what the hell is going on, despite never having read the Narnia books himsef. But he figures out quickly that the dark-haired king is Edmund, Lucy's brother, the blond-haired king is Caspian, their friend, and the blond-haired boy is Eustace, an annoying little prat.

And there's a mouse named Reepicheep somewhere in the chaos of the Dawn Treader, but that's not the point.

"So, how long do you think you'll be staying?" Edmund asks him on a peaceful day with nobody to fight when they're all lounging around in Caspian and Edmund's cabin. "I'm afraid I've quite forgotten how the whole visiting Narnia thing worked back in the Golden Age."

"I remember," Lucy pipes up, having successfully trounced a now-sulking Eustace in some Narnian board game or the other. "One day every year for two years, then a month on the third year, and then they were gone."

"They?" James asks, straightening up. "Who's they? You had more guests?"

"We had plenty of guests," answers Edmund. "Most of them were muggle children. I think the only two of your kind we got were Victoire and Lucy."

James chokes. "You're kidding. Vicka came here, too? I thought it was just Lucy!"

"No, not at all," Lucy beams. "I remember Victoire! And Lucy! Oh, it was so much fun to play with them!"

"Yeah – but they both had to leave soon," remarks Edmund dryly, earning himself a glare from his sister. "What? They did?"

"Oh, don't pretend you didn't mope over Lucy for weeks, Ed!" Lucy giggles, making Edmund blush. "Both Victoire and Lucy kind of stole the hearts of my brothers, see?" she tells James knowingly, thumping Eustace on the back of the head when he starts snickering at Edmund's expense.

"I wouldn't say 'stole our hearts'," grumbles Edmund. "Just – she was very pretty."

James makes a face. "Look, as touching as this is, really, can you not talk about your crush on my baby cousin, please?"

"Cousin?" Edmund demands. "What do you mean 'cousin'? You're related to her?"

"Well, yeah, obviously," James says, rolling his eyes. In doing so, he catches Lucy's eyes and sees her trying to smother a giggle. He grins and winks at her. "Haven't you noticed? We have the same eyes."

"Plenty of people have blue eyes," Eustace points out, looking annoyed at the lack of mention for his own blue eyes.

"Yes, but not everybody has blue eyes the same color as the Narnian sky," Lucy tells him, flashing James a smile.

James tries not to feel pleased and fails rather miserably. "Yeah, aren't they special?"

"You're a little egotistical, you know that?" Lucy says cheerfully.

"I've been told," James admits, grinning.

"So, are you related to Victoire, too?" Edmund asks, leaning forward with interest. "Because Lucy and Victoire were cousins, weren't they?"

"Yeah, they are," James nods. "I'm their cousin, too. We're a very large family, you know."

"You breed like rabbits, apparently," mutters Eustace, and then he ducks behind his chair because James is growling at him and looking every inch the terrifying older brother.

"Calm down," Lucy says quickly, standing in the way of James and Eustace. "He doesn't mean anything by it, honestly. He's just…"

"He's just Eustace," chorus Edmund and Caspian at the same time, trading grins.

"Don't insult my family," James threatens.

"Sit," Lucy orders him, touching his arm and guiding him back down onto his chair. James tries not to focus on how light and warm her touch is against his bare skin.

"So," Caspian says, breaking the silence that falls and interrupting James's examination of Lucy's pretty smile. "Where to next?"

The next day, Lucy approaches him while he's out on the deck, leaning against the edge of the ship and watches the bright blue waters fly by.

"I don't think you're going to be here very long," she tells him solemnly, brown eyes wide.

"Oh," James says, not quite sure how to respond, as he turns to look at her. "What makes you say that?"

"I had a dream," Lucy answers, smiling a little as she glides forward to stand next to him. She's wearing a dress, for once, and it's made of blue Narnian fabric, softer than silk and clinging to all her curves, and James finds it a little hard to keep his eyes off her (he always did have a thing for forbidden girls).

"What about?" he asks, drumming his fingers on the edge of the railing.

"I don't remember," Lucy shrugs, cinnamon curls spilling down her back, and James swallows and looks away. "But I do remember that someone – Aslan, I think – gave me a message that you were going to leave soon. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day."

"That's – that's too bad," James manages. "I was really enjoying it here."

Lucy raises her eyebrows. "Oh, really? You gave off the impression that you thought this entire world was childish and stupid and make-believe when I told you about it."

James blushes. "Yeah, well, I changed my mind. I'm allowed to do that, aren't I?"

She giggles. "You're cute when you're flustered."

He blinks at her. "Um. Thank you. I think."

"Oh, it was a compliment," she assures him happily. "Just don't tell Edmund I said that. He'd go crazy over the fact that I dared to think a non-related boy was cute. He doesn't even like it when Caspian and I spend time together."

Her smile is playful (and, yeah, really pretty, but maybe that's just the magic of this world?) and James suddenly realizes that Lucy Pevensie is a girl who he might kindasortamaybe actually like.

As in, like like.

Yes, he's talking like a little kid.

Is that a bad thing?

"You like my sister."

"That," James drawls, twisting away from the edge of the ship to look at Edmund, "is ridiculous."

Edmund crosses his arms. "Oh, really?"

"Really," James nods knowingly, and tries not to think about how Lucy makes those brown eyes look a million times better than Edmund does. "Because I've only known her for a day. That's too short a time period. Not to mention, we're from different worlds. Also, I'm still half of the opinion that this is a dream and I'll wake up soon."

Edmund snorts, crossing his arms on top of the ship's edge. "Narnia's funny that way. A day here could be a year out there. So it's possible you might have known her for a year."

"That doesn't make sense," James points out validly.

"Perhaps not," Edmund shrugs. "But it only took two days for me to fall for your cousin, you know."

"Doesn't mean it's going to happen here," James says firmly, looking away and out towards the rolling blue seas.

Edmund raises an eyebrow. "You mean it hasn't already?"

James gulps. "I don't believe in love at first sight."

"It's Narnia, James," Edmund tells him, suddenly seeming so much more like a King of Old than the teenage boy James had always seen him as before. "You better start believing."

Lucy falls overboard after dinner, and it's entirely Eustace's fault.

"You little bugger," James begins, ready to punch the kid, but Edmund holds him back.

"I'll deal with him. He's my cousin," he says, leveling a warning glare at the trembling Eustace. "You go play knight in shining armor for my sister, okay?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Caspian whispers as James blushes at the thought.

"Positive," Edmund remarks wryly. "Trust me. He comes from a good family. What are you waiting for?" he demands of James. "Do you want me to jump in and rescue her for you?"

"No." James squares his shoulders, summoning that Gryffindor courage. "I'll go."

And he jumps straight into water – again.

Maybe he is suicidal or something?

"Hold on, Lucy!" he calls, swimming furiously towards her.

"I'm – fine – " Lucy gasps, coughing. "Oh, you didn't have to – I could have swum – "

"Don't be ridiculous," James says, wrapping his arms around her and trying not to pay attention to how her white shirt is sinfully transparent (she's too young – or maybe she's too old – and she's from a different world, remember?). "Come on, up you go, you don't want to miss your brother beating up your cousin, do you?"

Lucy giggles, her body pressed delightfully close to his as he swims them to the ship. "Oh, no, that's going to be a sight to see, I'm sure!"

"Yeah," James says, offering her a smile. "It sure will."

He grabs hold of the lowered stand and hauls the both of them up, shooting a glare at some crew worker who's quite openly ogling Lucy but flushes and looks away at James's stare. Edmund, waiting for them at the front of the crowd, offers them both a towel.

"Thanks," Lucy says to her brother as he hands one towel to James and wraps the other around her. "And thank you, James."

"No problem," James laughs, flashing her an easy grin. "I'm always up for an adventure."

There's a moment of cheers around them at the safe return of the queen and Caspian and Edmund have both turned to threaten a cowering Eustace, and in the midst of it all, James and Lucy just stand there, smiling at each other, and there's something vaguely like butterflies waltzing around in his stomach, and her brown eyes are ohsopretty and ohsokind and she's really gorgeous, with her cinnamon curls spilling down her back in a damp cascade, the towel wrapped around her slim figure, and all he really wants to do is –

Edmund clears his throat.

James looks away from her, a blush filling his cheeks. Right. Never gonna happen.

(You'd think he'd have learned to never say never by now, huh?)

It's amazing how fast an opinion can change in two days, it really is.

"Enjoying your time here?" Lucy asks, stepping into his quarters with a smile of greeting on her face.

"Very much so, thanks," James says, grinning lazily at her from where he was stretched out on his hammock. "You?"

Lucy sighs and sits down on the edge of his hammock. "James, you're going home tonight."

He chokes. "Wait, what? I thought I had a day left!"

"I'm sorry," she says sincerely, brown eyes bright as she leans over to place a comforting hand on his arm. "I don't think you were meant for this world – I think it was an accident."

James stares at her for a moment, trying to figure out what she means. "You mean, because I never believed in Narnia the way Vicka and Lucy did?"

She nods solemnly.

He swallows a curseword. "Lucy, no offense, but that's ridiculous."

Lucy blinks. "What do you mean?" she asks, sounding genuinely confused.

"How do you not get this?" he asks, a little frustrated – she's looking at him, but she's not seeing. "I belong here, just as much as you or Edmund or Victoire or Lucy or, hell, even Eustace do."

"But you never believed," she whispers. "And I don't think you'll be coming back."

"Screw that," James says fiercely. "I belong here because I wouldn't be here if I didn't. That's all there is to it."

He's always been about simplifying matters, has James.

"Are you sure?" she breathes, and there's a spark of optimism in those coffee-bright eyes of hers, and all he wants to do is kiss her, for the second time in as many days. It's kind of ridiculous, but kind of not.

"Postive," he grins, and then he gathers all his courage and leans forward.

(Maybe two days is a bit too soon. But he's James, and he's never been big on waiting.)

She tastes like honey, and for one precious moment, Lucy's all that matters.

For one precious moment, they have forever in their hands.

That night, he falls asleep and wakes up on a sandy shore, next to the waterfall he first fell into, staring up at Albus and Victoire and Lily.

He's never been so disappointed to see his family in his life.

"Are you okay?" Victoire asks, kneeling down next to him.

James blinks – blue eyes, him and Victoire and Lucy, and there's something magical in all of them, but he's too disoriented to figure it out right now – at her. "Yeah," he manages to cough out. "I'm fine."

"Can you move?" she queries, waving Albus and Lily away when they try to get closer. "Go on, guys, I'll fix him up."

He scrambles to a sitting position. "Vicka – Merlin, Vicka, you'll never believe where I was."

Victoire smiles wistfully at him, reaching out to finger-comb his hair down. "Narnia?" she guesses, taking him aback.

"How'd you know?" James demands.

"You smell like Narnia," she tells him simply, and then she draws him into a hug.

"I didn't think I could fall in love with anything – a world, a girl – in two days," he admits, voice muffled by the sleeve of her dress. He won't cry – he refuses to cry – he's James, for Merlin's sake. "We should have had forever."

It's strange how empty a word can feel. Forever - but he's learned the hard way not to say 'forever'.

(Forever never lasts.)

"Narnia's magic works in strange ways," Victoire tells him, sounding much older – like a Queen, almost. "It'll be all right, James. I promise."

He never says never (forever) again.

Author's Notes: Okay, I feel like my crossovers are getting progressively worse D: So, it's up to you guys to stop me from feeling that way ;) /shameless begging for reviews - please? =D

Don't favorite without reviewing, please and thank you :)