Title: Ravens and Riddles

Fandom: Harry Potter (fusion with Alice in Wonderland)

Warnings: implied child abuse

Pairings: Harry/Snape, implied past Voldemort/Dumbledore and Snape/Lucius

Summary: When Harry was young, he sat at a table and had tea with a dog and a wolf and a dark-haired man. Now they're fighting a war. Fusion with Alice in Wonderland.

Notes: A while ago I was talking with pineapplepeople about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and in the same email started to talk about Snarry. This happened. Blame her.

Some, if not all, of the parts will have subtitles stolen shamelessly from songs.

EDIT: Now with breaks where they should be

Sad but True

The first time Harry visits the place he calls Wonderland, he is six and bleeding.

He lands amid a flurry of skirts, and women scream and clutch at their chests before one approaches him.

"Oh, you poor thing," she says, and Harry only lets her touch him because he knows that Aunt Petunia would not be able to bear even looking at the dress the woman is wearing, outrageously flamboyant as it is.

They care for him there, bandage his wounds, dress him, feed him.

He is always aware that he is dreaming.


He has tea, the next time he is there. He sits at a large table on a large chair, and sips from a large cup, reveling in the experience as only a ten year old can. He talks to a wolf, laughs along with a dog.

A man sits at the opposite side of the table. He watches Harry with his black eyes and does not speak to him.

"I am a window, I am a lamp, I am clouded, I am shinning and I am coloured, set in white. I fill with water and overflow. I say much, but I have no words. What am I?" the wolf asks.

"A curtain!" pipes up the dog, and the wolf pretends not to hear.

"I... I don't know," says Harry, shame bringing a blush to his cheeks. "Sorry," he says, and lowers his head.

"Severus?" the wolf asks cheerfully.

The man at the other end of the table does not remove his eyes from Harry's face as he answers, and timidly Harry raises his eyes to the man. "An eye," Severus answers, and his voice makes Harry shiver right down to his toes.


Harry visits Underland many times and only once he has turned twelve does something change their routine.

"Severus," the wolf whispers. "Severus. He's coming, the Red Knight!"

Severus starts, his eyes moving away from their habitual resting place on Harry's face. He nods sharply at the wolf and dog, and they immediately slouch in their seats, faces oddly slack.

Severus meets Harry's eyes once more, face grim. "Be quiet and still," he says, and then a man is riding into the clearing and swinging himself down from the horse. "Severus," he drawls as he swaggers toward the table.

"Lucius," Severus acknowledges, and the man, Lucius, turns his eyes to regard the two animals at the table.

"And your band of lunatics. How lovely." The dog grins at him, teeth bared. Lucius turns toward Harry. His eyes widen.

"Why Severus, I don't believe I've meet your new acquaintance."

Severus will not look at Harry. He keeps his eyes carefully averted as he answers Lucius. "Lucius, meet Harry."

Lucius smiles, but it sends shivers down Harry's spine, and he turns his eyes to Severus for guidance.

Lucius spins a chair to face Severus and sits down on it. "Such...interesting acquaintances you're keeping these days, Severus," he purrs, sliding a finger down from Severus' forehead and across his cheek.

Severus' face remains impassive, but Harry bristles at Lucius' proprietary gesture.

"I do so wish I could stay longer," Lucius says, "but there is a mutual acquaintance of ours who will be very interested to know who has fallen into our world." He stands and reaches over to kiss Severus on the lips before leaving.

"That was random," the dog quips as soon as Lucius is no longer visible, but Harry keeps his eyes on Severus' face, on his lips.

The dog draws the wolf into conversation, but Severus keeps his face down-turned until, after several minutes, he lowers his teacup, looks at Harry and asks " Whys is a raven like a writing desk?"

Harry gapes. "Because...because they can both be black?"

Mutely, Severus shakes his head, stands, and walks away, into the bare forest.

"Nobody leaves the tea party!" the dog exclaims, but the wolf swats him with a paw and says "He needs time alone."

"He has nothing but alone time! The bloody man hardly says one word a day! Locked up inside his own head like that, Moony, it's not healthy!"


When Harry is next in Wonderland, he is seventeen and his eyes have acquired a haunted, desperate look.

The dog starts to talk to him, jabbering on about his personal habits, and Harry stares down at it with a befuddled expression.

"What the fuck?" he says.

The wolf looks at him with sad eyes. "He has forgotten," he whispers to the dog.

The dog blinks.

Harry pinches his arms a couple of times.

"Has he turned to self-harm?" the dog whispers to the wolf.

"Don't be ridiculous, Sirius," replies the wolf. "He thinks he's dreaming."

"Oh." The dog sits back on its haunches, watching Harry expectantly.

"What the fuck?" Harry repeats.

The dog narrows its eyes. "Are you sure it's the right Harry?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Padfoot," says the wolf. "Of course it's the right Harry."

"You're... you're not real," Harry says.

The dog smirks. "Boo."

Harry regards both the animals for a moment, and then he sits, rather abruptly, on the grass and rubs his forehead.

"See?" the wolf whispers to the dog, "He still rubs his scar when he's confused."

"It hasn't faded?" the dog frowns.

"Of course it hasn't, Padfoot," the wolf answers with a long-suffering sigh. "It's from him."

"Who?" Harry asks.

"Come on," the wolf says, instead of answering him. "Severus will want to see you."

Harry follows the animals, befuddled, as they lead him through mazes and over hills and gigantic rocks until they come to a place where a giant table is set against a backdrop of trees. A man stands from the table as they approach, a man with long white hair, and he gazes at Harry and his retinue for a long minute before fading away into the trees.

As the group approaches the table and the dark-haired man still sitting there, the wolf bounds ahead of the others.

"Severus!" the wolf exclaims. "Was that-"

"Yes," the man interrupts, face inscrutable. "It was."

The wolf falls silent, head drooping, and the dog approaches the man next.

"Harry's back," he says, and Severus turns to face Harry for the first time.

"But you...you were a dream," Harry says, blushing fiercely. "Just my imagination!"

"Were we," the man says. He raises an eyebrow. "How novel."

Harry gapes.

"Severus," the wolf chides, and Harry shivers as the man's gaze is turned away from him to glare at the wolf.

The dog butts his nose against Harry's leg, glancing up at him with wide eyes. "So you do remember us?"

"No," Harry denies immediately.

The dog continues to stare up at him. Harry runs a hand through his hair.

"I...I remember that I used to have dreams about this place." He looks around the clearing. "But I haven't had a dream about here in years."

The dog sighs. "You haven't visited us for ages."

Harry laughs shakily. "Sorry?"

The dog huffs, and they both turn their attention back to the wolf and the man.

"Harry's back," the wolf repeats.

"Quite," Severus replies, not meeting the amber eyes.

"You know what these means, Severus."

"Of course I do Lupin!" the man snaps.

"Wait, what?" Harry asks. "What does what mean?"

The wolf turns to face him. "You're back," he says slowly. "That means it's the Frabjous Day."

Behind him, the man sneers in disgust.

"What's Frabjous Day? What are you talking about?"

The wolf turns to face the man once more, apparently waiting patiently for the man to explain. Severus is silent for several minutes, before he stands and turns away from them. His voice is quiet when he speaks.

"The Frabjous Day, Potter, is the ridiculous title given to the prophesied day on which you kill the Jabberwock, and by doing so, defeat the Dark Lord."

Harry laughs a short bark of laughter. "You're kidding."

"No."

The dogs shifts closer until he is leaning against Harry's leg in support.

Severus continues. "According to this prophecy, only you can rid us of the Dark Lord's tyranny."

"This is ridiculous," Harry states. "Like, my subconscious has come up with a lot of crappy stuff over the years, but this, this takes the cake."

Severus turns back to face them.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" he asks.

"Um..." Harry thinks it over. "I still don't know."

"Exactly," Severus says quietly, as though that explains everything. "Were you dreaming, Harry, do you not think you would be able to think of an answer?"

Harry shakes his head. "It's a dream. It doesn't have to have an answer."

"But there is an answer."

"Is there?"

"All things have an answer, thus they are things. Did they not have an answer, the would be undefinable, and therefore not a thing."

"You're mad," Harry says, shaking his head in bemusement. The dogs huffs in agreement.

"It's been said," the man concedes. "But save for you, all those who thought so out loud are dead. Yet I am still alive."

Harry opens his mouth to say something, and then closes it again. He bites on his bottom lip.

"What's a Jabberwock?" he asks finally.

"A monster."

"Yeah, I got that."

"It has been known to kill everyone in a village, to destroy parts of the forest with no provocation. That is all that is known for sure."

"Convenient," Harry mutters.

"Except, of course," Severus adds, "that you are the only one who can kill it."

"Why?"

"The prophecy says that only the man "born of the Underworld, raised in the sun," can kill it," the wolf says. "That the man will be born at the end of your world's July, and that his parents would have defied Voldemort, the Dark Lord, three times."

"My parents?" Harry asks. "They were from here?"

"Your father was," the wolf says. He is quiet, and looks at the man.

"You mother was not," Severus finishes.

"And that bastard killed them," the dog finishes.

"Oh." Harry slumps into a chair. "So, in my dream I am meant to defeat a man whom I've invented to explain my parents' death?" Harry asks. The dog nods enthusiastically.

Severus studies him from the other side of the table, his dark gaze both intimidating and comfortingly familiar. "You are different then you once were," he says quietly.

Harry cocks an eyebrow in inquiry.

"You are more cynical."

"That'll happen to a person," Harry mutters.

"You have put away childish things, old dreams and beliefs." Severus frowns sadly.

Harry raises his chin defiantly. "I've had to."

"There is never any reason to forget Underland."

Harry picks at the tablecloth. "Did you know that the first time I came here, the first time I dreamt of here," he corrects himself, "before I met any of you, I landed in the court of the White King?"

Severus nods in acknowledgment, and Harry does not look to see if the animals do as well.

"I was bleeding. They thought I'd tripped. I hadn't."

The dog growls and the wolf drops to the ground, but Severus continues to gaze at Harry.

"What better reason to remember Underland?" he asks.

Harry stands abruptly. "Because this isn't the real world!" he snaps. "I've lived my life up there, in reality, where dreams don't do anything but make you wish for things that can't be real!"

"They are real," Severus replies. 'You just have to let yourself believe it."

Harry drops back into his seat. "I can't," he says plaintively. "I can't. Because the real world is waiting for me, as soon as this dream is over."

Severus drops his gaze, finally.

They are silent for several minutes. Harry feels the seconds tick past in his head, a steady pattern of lost time accompanying the drum beat of his pulse.

"If you believe this is a dream," Severus says slowly, "then what is the point in not aiding us?"

Harry opens, and then closes his mouth. Behind his chair, the wolf gets to his feet with a weary sigh.

"No—nothing, I guess," Harry says hesitantly.

Severus stands, regarding Harry shrewdly. "You will aid us and bring about the Frabjous Day?" he clarifies.

Harry bites his lip and then agrees. "I will."

Severus turns his faze to the two animals beside Harry. "You know your parts," he tells them. "Go"

"Snape..." the dog warns, before Severus interrupts him. "I know, Black," he says firmly. "Now go."

The animals obey the order in the man's voice, both of them butting Harry with their nose before running off into the forest.

The clearing is very silent once they have left. Harry turns to face the other man, who is regarding him silently once more.

"What happens next?" Harry asks softly.

Severus moves away from the table and looks back at Harry, cocking his head forward in an order to follow. "Now we play our parts."