For a reason beyond myself, I am going to be writing a fan fiction story. Whoop whoop. I am very excited. Really. (._.) Look at that shining emoticon. Anyway, I'll tell you these warnings flat out: many original characters, alternate universe, parody, loose canon... far-off future chapters may hold gore, violence, sexual themes, and may not be appropriate for any audience. Though I doubt you'll see that right away. Thanks for reading this note. m(_ _)m In any case, I sincerely hope you enjoy.

W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L—I-N—R-E-V-E-R-S-E

I am a dream.

When you wake up, you will eventually forget all about me. So, will you...

... stay asleep forever, for me?

Chapter 01

Reiteration

Our story starts with our hero's small feet padding quietly into his small cupboard, again. As he does so, he thinks about the action of curling his young form in the cramped space. It was getting uncomfortable at his age of a whole eight years. Well, it was not because he didn't fit, seeing as he was too thin and short to be outgrown for it. However, this feeling of discomfort could very well be the beginning of a phobia.

Oh, how he wished he could have his own room... Even that small bedroom next to Dudley's, where that fat child stored the junk that he hardly ever bothered with anymore, even that room would be fine enough. But no! He was too much a freak, a burden, and thus undeserving. It never failed to be degrading. But he learned quickly to get used to it, or else he would never again see the light of day. It really was a choice between which hell he would prefer, and before cupboard-time our little hero wondered in unadulterated angst what heaven would be like. The only time he could claim he was in heaven was when he was sleeping, where the life before his open eyes was replaced with something completely unrelated... and liberating.

With his spirits lifting at the thought of escaping again tonight, the young boy of eight closed his eyes and gradually fell into a deep, deep, sleep.

... Nice to meet you, nya! ...

Defying all common sense, he was floating softly down to the ground, eyes still closed. But by the time the realization hit him, his feet were flat on the earthy ground again. His eyelids snapped wide open in an instant and scanned his surroundings. He was in a small clearing of...

"A forest," his rational mind spoke, but what was before his eyes was something a little less than an image of sanity. It could even be called frightening.

Ridiculously toweringly tall trees, black trunks warped in a way that seemed almost like vines, were topped by bushes of fluorescent violet leaves. Though far up and away from where he was standing, he could still feel the subtle warmth that radiated from the leaves. Though they were intimidating in appearance, that small quality made him glad that they were like that, because otherwise he was sure he'd be cold. Though, he couldn't see the sky because of them, either... Our little hero wondered if the sky would be a strange colour like everything else, too.

Speaking of strange colours, he looked down at the earth under his feet. It was still dark brown, but it seemed richer, softer, and more fertile than the earth he usually saw—even the dirt in his aunt's garden wasn't as good as this kind. He weeded her garden often, so he would know. Anyway, he was standing on a dirt pathway of some kind, and in front of him it twisted deep into the forest until it was out of sight. Looking behind him, he noticed it went a little ways until it faded into thick turqoise grass...

"Turquoise grass?" He, dryly, stated aloud to himself.

Unexpectedly, an affirmative hum answered him immediately, followed by a soft girl's voice, "So... how long are you going to stand like that, just looking around?"

He whipped his head to face the treetops so fast, that his neck gave way to a small crack. His startled posture was so stiff, he was sure he'd feel it later. But at the moment, he disregarded his discomfort and stared in wonder at the creature sitting on a branch in a nearby tree.

He would have recognized her as a young human girl, if it weren't for the cat ears on top of her head and the tail wagging behind her. The ears twitched once in a while at small sounds, like a real domesticated cat, and looked very real. He looked for normal ears but her messy bi-coloured hair, though only falling to her chin, obscured the sides of her face very well. Her green eyes were as fluorescent as the tree leaves above her, and set in a pale face that was currently staring back at him in interest.

He opened his mouth to speak, but when she jumped to the ground right in front of him, he was at a loss for words. His own unique green eyes stared into her creepy ones. In the slight dark of the forest, hers glowed faintly with an energy he couldn't grasp in his mind. Scary, he thought as he stumbled backwards in shock. She wouldn't let him be, though, and followed him. Eventually he tripped and landed on his bum, go figure. Then she took advantage of the moment to sit down and... introduce herself, apparently.

It was no matter that he didn't say anything (or was shivering), as she seemed happy enough to talk for the both of them at the moment. "Hi, I'm Midri the Cheshire. Since I discovered you first, nya, you'll be my charge and I'll be your guardian. I'll be responsible for your presence here, so in exchange I ask that you... nyaa..." She seemed to 'nyaa' as she drifted off in thought, and then continued, "... that you be my best friend!"

Despite her odd, black and green themed appearance (especially in her hair), she flushed pink in nervousness when she smiled. She reminded him of the girls at his school, though he never talked to them. Somehow those thoughts caused our protagonist to calm down. Rationalizing, he reasoned that she had not given him much cause to treat her with fear and disrespect. Though, she did appear out of nowhere, she seemed well-intentioned right now. If she was friendly, maybe she could help him find out where he was too.

Gathering the courage in him, he replied, "I'm Harry Potter." Receiving an enthusiastic greeting from Midri the Cheshire, he asked "What's a Cheshire?"

She paused and blinked at him. He could just picture her scrounging for words in her head before she explained happily, "A Cheshire is a descendant of a powerful being that once had the ability to travel anywhere, and do anything. Its name being The Cheshire Cat, The Cheshire Cat used to be the most powerful magical presence in Wonderland... Though not a cat, it had the ability to fully transform into a cat, or even become invisible, too!" She grinned in pride, with not a little amount of boasting. "As if he'd know!" She added silently in thought.

It was Harry's turn to pause, and in that time he digested all this confusing information. Many questions popped up in his mind, but excitement tended to blur his words somewhat together. At his age, he wouldn't notice. What he asked, though, was "Magic is real? What in the world is Wonderland? And does that mean you can do all that stuff, too, if you're a Cheshire? Are those ears real?"

He blushed in embarrassment when Midri seemed to fall over in laughter. Confused, he glared at her until she stopped. After settling down, she patted his shoulder in a placating manner, and explained quickly to get back on his good side, "Magic is real, depending on who you ask. Not everyone believes in it, but the Cheshires are so obviously magical, so now that you asked one... Yes, yes, magic is very real." Seeing the even more confused look Harry was giving her, she elaborated slowly, "Sorry if I'm not making sense. It's a Cheshire thing. But like I said, not everyone believes in magic, so they choose to say that it doesn't exist... So, for them, magic fades out of existence. But there are others who do, and it stays in their families and such. The question is, do you believe in magic?"

He seriously thought about it for a second, but was still bewildered as he replied, "I don't know. I guess."

After that long explanation, they took a moment to rest. Not that they had really went anywhere, but they had moved over to a more comfortable place on the turquoise grass. Midri lay down on her back to watch the glowing canopy of the forest, and eventually Harry copied her posture. He admired the view and the warmth flowing from them, while wondering why they glowed like that. Midri asked if he was hungry, and he looked over to see her holding out a green apple. He accepted graciously and gingerly they ate their fruit. As soon as he bit into it, he was assaulted with a sweetness more so than normal apples. It was more like candy here than from where he came.

"Wow!" Harry exclaimed. "It's so sweet!"

Midri polished her apple off in record time before he realized it, and while she licked the juice off her fingers, she smiled indulgently at him. "Your welcome." And in a more serious tone, she bravely ventured despite nervousness, "I am your best friend, after all. For you, only the best. I promise."

Harry didn't know how to reply to that. This Cheshire girl was very different than the kids he was used to, and he was sure that if his family found out about her, they would forbid him from seeing her ever again. So, it wasn't as if he didn't want to be her best friend, but he couldn't. Not safely, anyway. Then again, he didn't want to hurt her feelings. He had never had a best friend before; Dudley had made sure of that. There was one more problem, too...

"Hey, Midri?" He tentatively asked, sitting up.

Hearing his odd tone after her self-proclamation, she sat up as well. "Yeah, Harry?"

"Where are we?"

"Whoops. I forgot to explain your situation clearly." It was a good thing she was a Cheshire, because they naturally—normally—had good intuitions, which gave them good comprehensive skills. "This might confuse you, but try to go along with this anyway: you remember falling asleep, right?"

He nodded slowly, a look of dawning realization washing over his face. How come he hadn't remembered it until now? He wasn't sure if this should scare him, but... His blood raced through his veins in apprehension for her explanation on what happened or was happening to him.

"My new best friend is a sharp one, alright! He's realized it already." She commended him, before vocalizing, "After you fell asleep your consciousness brought you here, to a different dimension's land, which you may call Wonderland. This forest is in Cheshire Territory. It's probably because you're magical like me and most inhabitants here. This has happened before numerous times to various people like you." She mused, "The first ever recorded person to come here when they were sleeping, was when The Cheshire Cat was still alive, and her name was Alice."

Harry started at that last fact. "Hey, that's a story in my world!"

Midri's eyes widened in curiosity. "Really, nya! Cool!" Her ears perked forward.

Harry laughed; she had looked like a domestic cat he saw once. "Yeah, it's a book and a movie. I think it was called Alice in Wonderland, too." Harry replied enthusiastically, having recognized something finally. In such a strange and unfamiliar world, it was the familiar things that made him more comfortable. To be able to relate was naturally very pleasing.

"Maybe she wrote about us." Midri's excited face beamed at Harry. "Did you watch it? What was it about? Was The Cheshire Cat in it?"

Harry laughed, and Midri realized what she just did. She flushed and smiled sheepishly. She may look different, and act bolder than most kids, but otherwise she acted like any other kid he knew.

Though it turned out Harry never watched the whole movie, because his Aunt and Uncle hated freakish things, he had watched part of it during school. As they walked around the forest and recreated Alice's quest in jest (Harry being Alice sent them into fits of giggles), they talked about the movie; they talked about what people they were familiar with, and parts that were right or wrong, and so on and so forth. They fooled around for a long while.

"This isn't so bad. Midri's cool, and being here is fun, though strange."

Their fun came to a halt, though, soon enough. Before they could anticipate it, Harry was hearing a voice echoing distortedly in the back of his mind...

"Bbooyy! Bbooyy! Ggeett uupp, tthhiiss iinnssttaanntt!"

Harry stopped in midstep, frozen. When Midri glanced over in question, he asked her, "Did you hear that?"

She shook her head. He insisted "I just heard my Aunt calling for me."

She tilted her head in thought, before bounding toward him and examining him closely with her eery neon eyes. He wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she must've found it, because soon she pulled away with a rather pouty expression on her face. Seeing Midri upset caught Harry off guard; she was usually either mischievous or peppy. That was from what he saw so far, anyway.

When she didn't say anything, he asked apprehensively, "Midri? What's wrong?"

"You came here through a dream, so you'll go back through waking up. Basically, like Alice, you'll wake up again. Or at least that's from what I can tell." Midri frowned and didn't meet his eyes. She then added in a whisper, "I am a dream. When you wake up, you will eventually forget all about me. So, will you... stay asleep forever, for me?"

"Midri..."

She knew that what she was asking of him was impossible, not to mention somewhat wrong, but she couldn't help but try... Then again, Midri would feel guilty about tearing him away from everything he knew just because she was selfish. So, she slapped a smile on her face even though her insides said otherwise. Maybe he wouldn't be that perceptive, and he could leave in peace.

The possibility of a person visiting Wonderland in their dreams again was near impossible. Even Alice, who remembered her dream vividly afterward, never came back. What were the chances of Harry Potter, the eight year old?

She laughed, though inwardly it was for a different reason. Weird, that it would hurt. "I'm kidding! I'm sure you'll be back... someday. Just, don't forget me, okay? Most people forget..."

Harry shook his head fervently. He smiled in determination. "I won't forget! And I'll be back!" His vision was getting darker, and he felt lighter than air all of a sudden. Alarmed, he grabbed her hand, though it was becoming hard to hold onto because she was rooted firmly to the ground while he rose. "We're best friends, right? So I'll be back—just wait. I promise." Even though he didn't know if he could, he felt it needed to be said.

Okay. Midri's girlish voice filtered shakily through the fog of darkness that overtook his mind. She sounded sadder than she had looked like. Okay, I'll wait for you. Did she know if it was even possible to return to Wonderland? He hoped they would still be best friends even when they were far apart. Okay, her reply to his promise echoed repeatedly in his memory.

He woke up.