Do I? Do I really need to point out that I don't actually own any of this? I guess I do, because I forgot and low and behold was reminded of it.

Feel free to comment as you see fit, but know that I am petty enough to just delete anything that is just rude and offers no insight. I don't get those often, but when I do they get the boot.

Chapter 1

Vows

Thus it came to pass that one Harry Potter found himself fallen upon stone steps, fire at his back and an incensed dark lord Voldemort closing the distance to ensure that his next attack would be Harry's last. When inexplicably, Harry glanced behind Voldemort. Looked for a moment at the Mirror of Erised, which he had spent long hours peering into the depths of earlier in the year. He wasn't sure why he looked. Maybe he was hoping to see his parents one last time before he died. Maybe he wanted to give them a fingertip wave as his death came for him. Maybe he simply wanted to see someone that loved him, even if it was manufactured, before the end.

The last thing he expected was what he actually got.

The reflection the mirror gave him does not include himself, or the possessed Professor Quirrell. It contains nobody and nothing of which he is familiar. Instead there is a throne room. A red carpet of the finest velvet leads to a golden throne, past marble columns and what appears to be a royal guard comprised of man size playing cards with arms, legs, and heads. The throne has a young girl sitting upon it. Long, straight dark hair and eyes widened with surprise. She wears a blue dress with a blood splattered white pinafore worn over the top. The white and black horizontally striped socks slip beneath black leather boots that have many buckles leading nearly to her knees. Her head tilts to one side as she begins walking towards the mirror from the inside of the glass, her head still cocked in wonder and she begins to speak. As she does, Voldemort turns to face this possible new threat, though backing off enough to keep Potter in his sights.

"Curiouser and curiouser." She says, as she reaches the glass, and wipes her hand upon the inside. "In the interminable lengths of time I have been trapped in this wretched thing, I never would have believed that my release would force a vow, much less one that was magically binding."

Harry uses the confusion as both he and Voldemort consider what has been said to get back to his feet, his eyes never leaving the mirror as he does so. "My name is Harry Potter. Who are you?" As he asks, he backs slowly away from his adversary and with two steps, stands over his fallen wand, though he does not dare try to pick it up with Quirrelmort in the room.

"My name is Alice Liddell, and I thank you for asking. It has been so long since I had need of my last name I had nearly forgotten what it was." She turns to face Harry more directly, as Voldemort takes the time to cast some kind of magical investigative spell, while still keeping an eye on Potter. "It was you, was it not, who looked into this mirror and wished for help, life, and an end to being the only one upon whom you can truly rely?"

Harry thinks about this. It is probably true, he suspects. He expected to see his parents, because that was what he had seen before. But it wasn't what he was wishing for, as he had known that they would be unable to help him. "I guess so. I mean, not in so many words, but it was definitely on my mind."

She gives him the slightest of smirks, and then her face goes back to being largely expressionless. "I see. So, less a plan and more a desperate plea then? Very well. I do hope we can manage to get along, because an open ended arrangement like that in the magical world is like to ruffle us quite thoroughly if we cannot."

At this point, Quirrelmort speaks up. "Young Alice. If you would halt this course that would require I kill you, I would be willing to use all of my not inconsiderable power to free you under circumstances that would favor you rather than put you in the position for which you are currently destined. Chattel slavery would almost have to be less preferable to simply owing me a favor, would it not?"

Alice regards him coldly. "You are either a child murderer or a perfectly paranoid pedophile who is perturbed by Potter's purloined posterior. You are literally two faced, and one of them appears to be some sort of reptile. Not since the apple and the snake has there been anything in reality or fiction that I would be less likely to trust my freedom to. There are worse things than being bound to another, and it seems likely to me that being in your debt is one of them." She turns to Harry, pulling out from behind her back a butchers knife. A full sized butchers knife, that against her twelve year old frame appears to be over half the length of her arm. It is covered in intricate runes, and seems to hum with a barely restrained thirst. She holds the blade in her right hand, and pressing the blade against her left makes the slightest cut, which bleeds horribly, the red staining her forearm as she makes a fist and holds her hand over her head. "I accept the terms to end my incarceration. I shall make the problems of this one my own, and I shall keep him safe and healthy as long as he will have me, and this bond shall only be able to be broken by one Harry Potter!" With that, she smears her blood across the glass and then taps it with the blade of her knife, causing it to shatter into the room.

From the point that she had started her vow, Voldemort had given up his attempts to use magic to stall the situation so he could deal with Potter and then make some kind of deal with the mirrors denizen. He began casting blasting curses of all kinds instead, endeavoring to destroy the mirror altogether and thereby end the confrontation. While damage is being done, the resilience of the ancient artifact is strong and it holds out until the glass shatters. At that point a lot of things happen very quickly.

Harry reaches down to get his wand, and once he has it dives to the only cover he can see, the shattered remains of the mirror frame. Voldemort screams "Avada Kedavra!" The green blob of death energy misses Alice by inches as she ducks, throws her knife at his wand hand, and reaching behind herself to pull out a black and purple jeweled decanter full of some kind of liquid that glows a faint red. She tips it down her throat as the knife removes Quirrell's fingers from his right hand, his wand bouncing down the steps as her knife reappears in her hand just in time for a change to take place.

Harry's eyes widen in shock as Alice becomes something else. Curled and twisted rams horns creep out of her skull as her skin turns a dull red, with her hands dripping blood as they twist into vicious claws.

Then, using her knife and claws, she pounces on the wounded and shattered dark lord and tears him to pieces while letting out a powerful roar of rage and hate directed at this miserable swine that had the nerve to attempt to kill her with a spell. The black smoke of Voldemort's essence swirls around her, abandoning professor Quirrell and attempting for a moment to gain some kind of purchase on her, but when he attempts to invade her mind he is met by a legion of card shaped guards. They chop at him wickedly with halberds and axes, damaging him until with a screeching cry of pain he leaves. A cloud of hate and suffering that is soon gone leaving Harry and Alice alone in the room.

With that done, she collects her bottle from where it had fallen and sits upon the steps, breathing heavily as she concentrates in an effort to end the change. Using magic unique to herself, she burns the remainder of the potion from her system, causing an uncomfortable but necessary change back to human. Once she is once again normal and the only sound in the room is the slow trickle of Quirrell's blood down the stairs, she looks up at Harry. "You can come out now, you know. It is over."

Harry Looks at her dubiously. "I can see that. What was that you did?"

Alice looks at him as he stands and starts walking over. "That was a potion of sorts. When a bit younger physically than I am now, I spent a lot of time in my mind attempting to create order from chaos, as my mind, such as it was, was not a healthy place then. When I reached my twelfth year and became locked up in that thrice damned mirror, I had nothing to do for many, many years but to order my mind and peer out into the world to which I no longer belonged. That mirror tended to be owned by powerful, and magical people. Moreover, it spent many of those years in the locked closet between two classrooms, where I had nothing to do but listen. So I have tried to find ways to make the things in my mind a reality when I ever managed to secure my freedom. To pass the time, you see. Honestly I thought I would never be free but something changed a few months ago. Someone changed the way the magic of the mirror worked in such a way that things could be removed if certain circumstances were met. Once the precedent was set, I think it was some form of protection on yourself that worded the oath I would need to make to be free. Powerful, at least semi-intelligent magic. It lays upon you like a dew. A light mist. Just above your skin. I don't know the origin of it Harry, but I would wager that someone sacrificed a lot to give it to you. Perhaps everything. Magic that strong and long lasting carries a price, generally speaking."

Harry considers her words. That would make a certain amount of sense, if his mother or father had cast some form of protection on him and then died for it. That would definitely be the sacrifice needed.

"I think it must have been my parents. They died when I was very young, protecting me."

Alice looks at him, as though seeing him for the first time. "So you are an orphan then? So am I. My family, save myself, died in a fire when I was quite younger than you are now. The shock saw me committed for a couple of years, then I was placed in an orphanage full of the most disagreeable people. A year later, no more, the mirror capitalized on my mental state and offered me what it didn't possess. Instead inflicting yet more madness that it took me years to beat and then imprisoned me for decades more. Do you understand the nature of the agreement that we have entered?"

Harry looks down at his feet, his hand fiddling with his wand as he considers his reply. "Umm... I think so. It sounds like you are basically going to be looking after me as best as you can until I say you don't have to anymore. Do you want me to do that? Because I will, I don't like the idea of keeping someone like that. It's wrong."

Alice looks at him with a new respect. "Well, normally I would say that you were right. It would be very wrong to do this to someone. But in my case if I am honest, it may be no bad thing to have a purpose for a time. I have lacked any for so very long. Let us say that we leave the topic open to be revisited, but not concern ourselves with it for now. Besides, an unbreakable vow may be needed to curb some of my more esoteric tendencies. At least until I feel that my feet are once again firmly planted on the ground. I have been committed, after all, and was under the care of a head doctor when the mirror captured me. The next question of course becomes, do you wish others to know of our agreement, or would you prefer it to be hidden?"

Harry thinks about this for a minute. "Maybe hidden for now? If we can? It is almost the end of the school year, if we can hide you until then, we can try to figure something out over the summer. Maybe you could enroll in school here next year. I can pay for it, my trust vault should have enough for that."

Alice looks at him, her lips quirked into a very slight smile. "Very well then. If you wish me to remain hidden until summer, there is only one thing to do." With that, she reaches behind herself and pulls from a compartment in the shape of a skull that rests over the knot of her pinafore, a small purple bottle. She uncorks it it and downs the contents in a single gulp. Before she has even put the bottle away, she is becoming smaller. Tinier and tinier. Her clothes shrinking with her. When she is merely two inches tall, she concentrates for a moment, burning the potion out of her blood, and then turns to Harry, climbing up him as he gapes at her in awe until she is resting on his shoulder, under his robe. Her voice has become much higher, but she is still understandable as she talks to him. "I will stay this size until I take the counter agent. So I will eat next to nothing and should be able to keep out of sight. Just be careful with me, I am quite fragile like this after all."

Harry shakes his head. "Yes, of course. In case I had forgotten to mention it, thank you. Thank you very much."

"Not at all. I have been fighting psychotic despots so long I had feared becoming one. It is I that should be thanking you. Time spent as a prisoner of ones own whims will sadly be my legacy if I cannot find another path."

With that, Harry lay down to make himself as comfortable as possible. Unsure if he would be able to get back through the fire at the doorway, He and Alice murmur a soft conversation for awhile before he drifts off to sleep. Discussing his family, such as they are. His classes, and his friends. The circumstances that led to this battle, and the significance of the red rock in his pocket. Unbeknownst to him, a rock that is collected by Alice and shrunk to fit in her pouch once he is sleeping.

A windfall like that cannot be left to others, she decides with certainty.

Waking up in the hospital wing, he looks around, and panics a bit as he sees that his robe is sitting on the chair next to his bed. At least, until he realizes that Alice is curled up against his neck, just under the blanket and seemingly asleep. Some time later, he gets a visitor in the form of Hermione Granger, the bushy haired genius of his trio of school chums, and the conversation is a little disturbing.

"Harry, what happened? Professor Dumbledore brought you back to the infirmary, but he looked shocked, as though he didn't know what he had seen, but knew that it was not good."

Making a quick decision, and glancing around to ensure that they were still alone, Harry responds.

"It wasn't Snape, Hermione. It was Quirrell, and he had Voldemort's face sticking out the back of his head. Must have been why he wore that ridiculous turban all the time. They wanted the philosophers stone to bring him back. They would have gotten it to, and killed me, except that I had some help."

Hermione looks relieved. "Of course you had help. We weren't going to let you do it alone, now were we? I am going to go check on Ron, he is over in the far corner. Take care, I'll be back soon!"

As she walks away, Harry starts to mumble that her and Ron's help wasn't really what he meant, but stops, considers, and goes back to sleep instead as he barely hears a slight giggle from very near his ear.

The headmaster, one Albus Dumbledore, calls Harry into his office the day after he met Alice. As Harry approaches the Gargoyle at the base of the stairs to the headmasters office, he tries to explain the headmaster to Alice.

"So... Dumbledore is this really old and very powerful wizard who runs this school as well as having various political titles throughout the magical world. He is pretty close to universally respected for having dealt with Grindlewald during the second world war."

He can feel Alice stir against his chest, where she has made her home in an inner pocket of his robe.

"So, then. A political creature with a lot of power, personal and otherwise, and a fascination for children. I think I have heard people discussing him in the past Harry, and you should know that these discussions were not always complimentary to the man. I once spent six years in the antechamber of a family that considered Dumbledore the "Leader of the light-headed" and that it was only the blind worship of the man that kept him from prison. But more than that, you should know that I have heard from multiple sources that he is a master of Legilimency."

Harry glances down, looking at his chest even though there is no way she can see him. "What does that mean? What is Legilimency?

Alice wiggles again, having gotten out her knife and made a small vertical cut in his robe, so she can see out the front as though peering through blinds. "It means that without even trying, if he can lock eyes with you he can invade your mind. Don't meet his eyes if you can help it. In fact, it is likely he is calling you into his office so he can do so without witnesses. If you feel he is going that route, do something with your hands in front of my pocket, then move them away quickly. We will discover what he thinks of trespassing on my thoughts instead."

Harry looks confused. "How would that help? You know as much or more about the situation between the two of us as I do."

Alice gives a little giggle. "Yes, but Harry, you are not insane. Moreover, you have not spent nearly a hundred years with nothing better to do than to conquer your own mind. I would be willing to believe that should he attempt such a thing with me, even were he willing to use the spell in earnest, rather than passively, he would find it to be quite the mistake.

With that, they reached the gargoyle, who moves gracefully to the side after hearing "Jelly Belly." Once at the top of the stairs, the door opens before Harry can even knock upon it, and Dumbledore speaks.

"Harry, my boy! Good to see you up and about! Now, I have to ask you a few questions about your experiences last night."

Looking about the room, really making it a point to look anywhere other than at the headmaster, Harry sees Professor Snape. The unbelievably cruel and biased potions master is sitting in a chair against the far wall in front of a shelf full of the oddest little contraptions. "Why is Professor Snape here? If I may ask?"

Dumbledore looks somewhat askance, though his eyes continue to twinkle in a grandfatherly fashion, and his smile, though a tad strained for a moment, is never in fear of failing. "Why Harry, he was just visiting with me. It isn't as though I knew exactly when you would be arriving. Now have a seat here. Would you like a lemon drop?"

Harry waits a few seconds. Then when it is obvious that the headmaster is not going to be doing anything further, He hears a slight murmur from his pocket. "Despicable, that two grown men in positions of authority feel the need to outnumber and intimidate a young boy. Play the game their way, Harry, and you can do naught but lose. But know that despite what they would have you believe, it is actually you that holds all the game pieces. The fact that he is speaking to you rather than the bobbies is proof enough of that."

Harry starts backing towards the door. "I do apologize, Headmaster. But I have nothing to say about yesterday that I wish to do in front of an audience. Perhaps another time."

As he swings the door shut behind himself, he can hear an indignant snort and derisive tones from Snape, and the look he gets from the headmaster is sheer astonishment.

As he descends the staircase back to the hall, he can hear again from his pocket the giggle of Alice. "Power plays. By their nature they tend to crumble when forced into the harsh light of civilization. Indeed, it is worth noting that anytime someone tries to use authority to put you in a bad position, particularly if they are attempting to look honorable doing it, adding more and various authority is never a bad plan. Schemes intended for small little cabals tend to fall apart when one introduces them to game players that are not part of the current retinue."

Harry considers that while he is slowly walking back down the corridor to his dormitory in Gryffindor house. "So, anytime I have to talk to him I should bring along somebody then. Suggestions?"

By her tone, Harry can almost see the little smirk dancing about her lips. "Someone you trust, someone that has enough personal power to not to take too much of his crap, and somebody that you can be at least reasonably assured does not already belong to him. For most of these children, that would be a parent or guardian. Sadly, for you I am guessing it will need to be one of the professors. Is there one that you trust that isn't already in Dumbledore's pocket, so to speak?"

Harry considers that for a minute. "My first thought would be my transfiguration professor, McGonagall. She doubles as my head of house. But she is the deputy headmistress. So I am not certain I can trust her with this. Besides, she has a disturbing habit of not believing me when I tell her things or attempting to get justice for slights from students or staff anyway. The rest of the Professors unfortunately are either unknowns for something like this or hostile."

Alice considers for a moment. "Well, if you can't get assistance through bonds of friendship, the kind of friend we need for this can likely be purchased. Have you the money to acquire a solicitor? At worst they can tell you what your options are. At best, it is probable that the headmaster has abused his authority in more than a few ways if what we discussed yesterday was true."

"What do you mean?"

"Harry. I like you. Don't be a simpleton. You are famous in the magical world. That whole "Boy who lived" rubbish. What is the likelihood that in the last ten years, nobody has tried to reach you. Sent a letter to you. Wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I find the odds astronomically against, and the chances are quite good that the miserable old man hid you away with your relatives, either uncaring that they treated you poorly or expecting them too."

"Wait, hold up a second. Why do you think it was him? Couldn't it have been somebody else.

There is a moments pause. Then a light sigh. "Harry, I know you are intelligent. Think for a bit. Nobody could find you for ten long and monumentally ugly years. Then when somebody does it is a school owl that is controlled by Dumbledore, and Hagrid. Who, though your description paints him as a good caring man, is most definitely Dumbledore's creature. This malignant tumor of a human being knew where you were and is guilty of either neglect or malicious intent for putting you there where no one else could help you and then not bothering to check up on you."

Harry stops. Leans against the wall, thinking it though. "So. What are you suggesting then? If he really wants to get me alone, there isn't a lot I can do to stop him. He is the Headmaster, after all."

There is silence for a few seconds. "Well, it is only a week until the end of term. Ignoring a summons may cost you some house points, but really what else can he do? Send you home, where we can start to work out what to do next? If that happens we can call it a good thing and simply move on. Honestly, I recommend simply not leaving your dorm room save for classes and meals, and if they try to make you go anywhere else tell them you would like your guardians notified and to be sent home to start looking into other magical schools to attend next year. I am betting that will silence the man for a time."

Amazingly enough, the plan worked. Two days later when Dumbledore cornered him in the halls and Harry explained that if he continued to be tormented by staff he would find another school to attend, the man seemed too shocked to go on. Stammering something about how that would be unacceptable and backing away lest he bother the young man further.

The trip back on the Hogwarts express at the end of term was almost painful, as both Ron and Hermione could tell that there was something going on with Harry, but try as they might they could not get him to divulge what it was all about. Meeting the Dursleys at the station was it's own brand of hell, but then Harry had a suspicion that a lot of things were about to change, very quickly.