What happens when little Ginny gets sucked into the world of Alice in Wonderland?

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

Harry Potter in Classic Movie Moments

Ginny in Wonderland

The third day of September in the Burrow was hot; almost too hot to be de-gnoming the garden. But that was what Ron and Ginny were doing, nonetheless. It was a task that had to be done regularly, especially in the early autumn when gnome count was the highest and crops were ripe.

"This time next year I won't have to suffer this because I'll be at Hogwarts," Ron grumbled in a tone that somehow managed to reflect both frustration and eager anticipation.

Ginny huffed, completely fed up with his rant about Hogwarts that had been going ever since their older brothers had left for school. "I wish you'll end up in Hufflepuff," she said bitterly as she tossed her gnome over the hedge, then quickly grabbed another one.

"I'm sure I'll be a Gryffindor," Ron stated as he finally succeeded in trapping an especially elusive gnome. "Just like every Weasley before me. Hey, do you think Harry Potter will be a Gryffindor, too? He should be on my year, you know."

Ginny rolled her eyes. They had done the math on which year Harry Potter would end many times, and most often at Ginny's instigation. She was always hopeful that one day their calculations would put him in the same year with her instead of Ron.

They whirled their gnomes around over their heads, then let them go at the same time, following their flight over the hedge with their eyes. To Ron's surprise, Ginny's gnome flew easily as far as his, though it was hard to estimate the exact length. He gave an uncertain glance at his sister, only to see that she was looking straight back at him with a challenge in her eyes.

When his next gnome landed significantly short from Ginny's, Ron was seriously amazed – and worried – about his little sister's throwing arm. The winner was still far from decided, but he thought he'd be better off preparing an excuse, just in case. "Hmm, have you noticed that the gnomes are much heavier on my side of the garden for some reason?" he uttered nonchalantly.

Ginny, of course, saw right through his feeble attempt to save his face. "You could at least come up with less a pathetic excuse for why mine fly farther than yours," she said and laughed dryly.

"That's not it!" Ron claimed, his face taking a reddish hue. "And no, they don't. Because everybody knows witches can't throw."

"Well, this witch can!" Ginny fumed. "When I grow up, I'll play Quidditch, and I'll be a Chaser, and so will Harry Potter."

"You don't know Harry Potter plays Quidditch," Ron retorted.

"I'm sure he does, and you'll be lucky if we let you be a Keeper when we play." She paused. "Well, how about we have a real competition to see who can throw better?"

"I wouldn't want to dispirit you," Ron said, turning away. Risking a defeat was not something he was willing to do. "Besides, I think I sprained my elbow a bit. I better go and see mum and ask her to fix it."

"Coward! Just run away. You don't fool me," Ginny yelled after him, and slumped down to a shadow of a tree where she laughed her guts out. So, evidently, she could toss a gnome as well as her stupid prat brother. And she had been secretly practising flying with their old brooms. Perhaps, if she kept training, she could finally show his brothers and play Quidditch with them. And maybe in Hogwarts she could be a Chaser in a house team. Now that would shut up Ron for good.

"Not good. Not good at all!" someone suddenly said. "I'm late! Late!" the voice added, and Ginny finally spotted the speaker. It was a garden gnome, and what peculiar one it was. Never before had she seen a gnome wearing clothes, but this one had cute leather boots, a white jacket, and a golden pocket watch which it was peering worriedly. But it was a garden gnome nonetheless, and it was in Molly Weasley's garden, thus it had to be de-gnomed.

Ginny sprang to her feet and reached out for the gnome, but at the last moment, it slipped between her legs and sprinted away, and Ginny had trouble keeping up with it. The gnome zigzagged between the trees and berry bushes, and she chased it, slowly but steadily gaining. Just when it was in her reach again, it jumped into a gnome hole under the roots of an apple tree. Ginny swore, using words a nine-year-old girl would never use in the hearing range of her parents, and stuck her hand deep into the hole where the gnome had disappeared. She pushed forward, and noticed that if she tried very hard, she could fit her head and one shoulder into the hole as well. But it was dark under the tree, and she couldn't see anything, and also, it felt really tight. To her horror, she soon found out that she was unable to back off. She was stuck.

She held her breath, determined to keep her head cool. It was no use to panic. Sooner or later, someone would find her. Then she realized that while the root itself was hard, the ground was not, and she might be able to dig herself out. Using her hand that was on the outside of the hole, she moved small amounts of dirt out of the way, little by little widening the hole. When she thought the hole was wide enough, she pushed back again, but somehow, she slipped, and instead fell forward and into the hole.

She fell down to the pitch-black hole and screamed in her horror. Then her scream cut off when she had to take breath, and then she screamed again. The fall took a long time, and after a few sobs, she stopped screaming altogether. She was actually getting bored of the weightlessness.

Then, as suddenly as her fall had begun, it ended. Darkness turned into light, and before she had the time to begin panicking again, a floor appeared underneath her. Instead of being squashed like she expected, the floor stretched like a muggle apparatus called tramp-o-line, sucked her in, and finally bounced her back. With more luck than skill she landed relatively softly on her feet, stumbled only a little, and came to a halt with one knee and one hand down.

"Nice landing," someone praised, and she heard a bunch of people clapping their hands.

"Why, thank you," Ginny said, feeling very pleased by herself, and looked around. She saw that she was in the middle of a luxurious parlour with a shining marble floor, and a ceiling so high that one could fit half of the Burrow in. There was a massive dining table on the left side, a plush sofa set on the other in front of a huge glass cabinet, heavy carpets on the floor, several large paintings on the walls, and a couple of very fancy looking crystal chandeliers. But no people. So, who had talked? "Where are you?" she asked.

"The girl doesn't see us," one voice said.

"Is she blind?" said another.

"I say she's a bit daft," said a third one.

"I'm not daft!" Ginny exclaimed. "I tell you to show yourself!"

"The girl tells us to show ourselves," said the first voice again, mockingly.

"She really is daft," said the other, and laughed, soon joined by other voices.

That was when Ginny noticed that the portraits on the wall were moving. They were watching her and pointing their fingers at her and laughing at her derisively. At first, she felt very embarrassed and intimidated by them, but soon their mocking made her more defiant side emerge. "Shut up! Stop making fun of me! You're not even real people. You're nothing but portrait pictures!"

That made the laughing stop.

"How rude!" said a bearded man with a pointy hat in one picture.

"Watch your mouth, girl!" said a woman in a fancy dress in another.

"I'm late! Late!" said the garden gnome in white jacket, speeding across the room.

"Hey, wait up!" Ginny yelled, and darted after the gnome. The gnome ran out of a tiny, little door, and once again, Ginny found out that she was too large to follow him. She crouched down and peered through the door, seeing that it opened into a beautiful, green garden.

"How can I get out of here?" Ginny pondered aloud, as the little door seemed to be the only exit.

"Drink me!" said a tiny voice then.

"Who said that?" Ginny asked.

"Over here, on the table," the voice continued. Ginny walked to the dining table and saw that there were two bottles of potion on it, red and green. They certainly had not been there a moment ago.

"Drink me, and I will make you smaller so that you can fit through the door," said the red potion.

"No, drink me!" said the green potion. "It is I who will make you smaller."

"Don't drink him," the red potion said. "He's trying to trick you."

"Don't trust her," the green one said. "She's the one trying to trick you."

"I'll make you small!"

"No, I will!"

"Stop it!" Ginny yelled at the arguing potions. She examined them closely but couldn't find any other difference than colour. "What will happen if I take the wrong potion?"

"Nothing," said the green potion.

"You will become a toad," said the red potion.

"No, she will become a beautiful unicorn," the green potion said.

"No, she will die a horrible death."

"Yes! Or perhaps she'll grow horns and a tail."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Ginny swore, and turned to ask the portraits for help, but they were either asleep or frozen or disappeared from their frames altogether. She took both bottles in her hands and glared at them morosely, and they wisely remained silent. She looked at the door that was still too small for her, and sighed. "I'll just drink you both and hope for the best." And without further ado, she took the bottles on her lips, and emptied them both at one go.

First, nothing happened.

Then she hiccupped.

Then her stomach growled.

Then she began to grow. "Hey! I'm going to the wrong direction!" she yelped, yelling at the empty bottles. But the bottles remained silent. "Hey, how do I stop growing," she yelled at the portraits when her head hit a chandelier. Then she had to bend down to avoid the ceiling, and soon she was on her knees, and then curling into a ball. It was quickly getting tight in the room.

At last, she filled the room almost completely, and still she grew, even faster than before. Her body was pressing against the walls and the floor and the ceiling, and it was already hard to breath, soon impossible. Her screams for help died because it was just too tight. Just when she felt like suffocating, the building structures gave, the walls separated, and the whole house exploded and crumbled down around her.

Ginny drew a hungry breath when the pressure around her suddenly eased. She coughed a few times and straightened her legs and drew her arm out from a window hole as she shook away pieces of the house that were still lying over her body. In a moment, after she had recuperated a little, she looked at her surroundings and noticed that she was sitting in the garden that she had seen earlier through the door.

"Hello, Ginny," said a girly voice then. "I wondered if you'd join us."

Ginny spun around, rising to her knees, and faced the speaker. In a white, pretty garden table there sat two people, one of which she immediately recognized as her good friend Luna, and the other was Luna's dad. "Luna! How did you get in here?" Ginny asked.

"I've always been here," Luna answered. "Would you like some pumpkin juice before tea?"

"Yes, please," Ginny said, suddenly realizing that she was very thirsty, and she plopped down in the chair next to Luna.

"Oh, I'm forgetting my manners. This is Harry Potter," Luna said, and gestured at someone small on the opposite side of the table.

"Oh, my! I'm late. Late!" said the very same garden gnome whom Ginny had been trying to catch all afternoon. He quickly jumped down and sprang away towards an opening in the hedge that surrounded Luna's garden, and disappeared before Ginny had time to react.

"How very rude of him. He didn't even thank," Luna said and frowned. "Well, you can have his juice now." And she took the almost full glass of pumpkin juice that stood in the place the gnome had vacated and moved it in front of Ginny. "Anyway, you remember my dad, of course."

"Yes, how could I forget. Good afternoon, Mr Lovegood," Ginny greeted with a smile. She had always liked Luna's dad, even though he was a bit eccentric.

"Good afternoon, Ginny," Mr Lovegood said. He was wearing colourful robes, a blue scarf, and a funny medallion that he always had in his neck. Compared to his other clothing, the old, wrinkled, and ugly wizarding hat that was in his head clashed horribly.

"Gryffindor!" said the hat suddenly.

Ginny blinked and stared at the hat. "What is that?"

"It's a Sorting Hat," Luna answered.

"Ravenclaw!" announced the Hat contentedly.

"What does it sort?"

"Nobody knows. Some say tropical fish, others suspect parts of muggle farming machinery. It only says four words, but nobody knows what they mean, either."

"Hufflepuff," grunted the Hat, looking annoyed.

Ginny watched the Hat suspiciously, but it seemed to have gone out of words, and soon she lost her interest. Cautiously sipping her pumpkin juice, she looked around, noticed the wreckage, and remembered the way she had arrived. The house that had been so large when she was still in the inside, now looked like pieces of someone's destroyed toy. "I'm sorry about your dollhouse."

"Oh, it's not my dollhouse, so don't worry about it," Luna said.

"Okay, if you say so."

"It belongs to the Queen of Hearts."

"Slytherin," exclaimed the Hat grumpily.

"Queen of Hearts? A Queen? Should I worry about her?"

"Probably," said Luna lightly. "Tea?"

Luna didn't wait for Ginny's consent, but moved a teacup to Ginny. Mr Lovegood stood up and took a teapot, but when he tried to pour the tea into Ginny's cup, nothing came out.

"What a pity. We're out of tea again," Luna said.

"No, no. That cannot be the case," Mr Lovegood said. He opened the lid and peeked into the pot. "Ah, there you are," he said, and pulled out a white, sleeping ferret. The ferret woke up, bit him into a finger, and then ran off.

"That's better," Mr Lovegood said, as he finally succeeded in pouring the tea.

"Uhm, thank you. I think," Ginny said, and pushed her cup an inch away in concealed disgust.

"You're welcome," Luna said. She was silent when her dad poured tea into her cup, too, and then continued after taking a sip. "This is nice. It's been a while since I've had anyone of my age visiting us. We should do something fun!"

"Yes, we certainly should," Ginny agreed. "I mean, at home it's just me and Ron, and Ron is a boy. Boys are stupid."

Luna nodded with consent. "I know! We'll play a game."

"What kind of a game?" Ginny asked.

"How about riddles?"

"Fine by me, I like riddles. Who should go first?"

"Oh, I will. I have a good one!" Luna exclaimed. "Why is a diary like a basilisk?"

Ginny pondered the riddle a good while, but she had to give up eventually. "I don't know. Why?"

Luna's shoulders slumped and she looked disappointed. "I haven't the slightest idea! I really thought you would know. Well, come back in a few years if you find the answer."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I must be dreaming," she wondered aloud.

"Of course, you are!" Luna stated. "Or maybe I am. I mean, it would be hard to know the difference, don't you think?"

"No, I'm pretty sure it's me," Ginny said, looking at Luna incredulously. "And I think I've had enough sleep. How can I wake up?"

"That's easy. You must go to the Queen of Hearts."

"Slytherin!" exclaimed the Hat sharply.

"And where can I find this Queen of Hearts?" Ginny asked, ignoring the Hat.

"She's not far," Luna said. Abruptly, she stood up and took Ginny's hand. "Come on! I'll take you to her."

"Take the Sorting Hat with you," Mr. Lovegood said, and put the Hat on Luna's head.

"Good thinking, dad," Luna said. "You'll never know when you run into something that needs sorting."

"Ravenclaw," said the Hat.

Hand in hand the two girls walked across the lawn and through the hedge, following the steps of Harry Potter the Garden Gnome. "So, can you tell me more about this Queen of Hearts?" Ginny asked.

"Slytherin," the Hat said, and Ginny began to see a pattern in its sayings.

"Well, I don't know too much of her, really," Luna said, biting her lower lip while thinking. "Me and my dad just try to keep out of her way. But I know that her real name is Bellatrix."

They were now walking beside a thick hawthorn fence which seemed to go on forever, and to Ginny it looked like Luna's uneasiness was growing the further they want. "So, do I understand it correctly that you're actually afraid of her?"

"Oh, yes! Terrified," Luna said as she stopped two steps before an opening in the hedge. "Oh well, here we are."

They had barely stopped when they heard a shrill voice from the other side of the hedge. "Crucio!" it yelled, and it was followed by screams of pain.

"Is that her?" Ginny whispered.

"Yes," Luna answered, also whispering.

"Slyt-he-rin," the Hat whispered with a trembling voice.

Ginny drew breath and mustered her courage. She inched closer to the opening and took a cautious peek. She blinked and pulled back, rubbed her eyes, and then took another peek, not quite believing her eyes. But the view did not change. What she saw was a backyard and a farming garden of a magnificent, medieval mansion, and on the yard, right between a potato field and a pumpkin patch, there was a gathering of garden gnomes, over two dozen of them. They were standing in four neat lines, two lines at a side and facing the centre. In the centre, one gnome dressed in while jacket – the same one who Luna had named as Harry Potter – was writhing on the ground in pain.

And then there was one more gnome, female, twice the size of all of the rest, and twice as ugly. This gnome was dressed in blue and white robes, much like those of wizards, with large red hearts embroidered everywhere. Somehow, the costume reminded Ginny of a card in a muggle card game which her dad had proudly shown her one time. The gnome was the Queen of Hearts. Bellatrix.

"They're garden gnomes!" Ginny exclaimed. "How come you're afraid of garden gnomes?"

"Don't underestimate Bellatrix. She's quite vicious," Luna warned.

"Slytherin!" spat the Hat venomously.

"Crucio!" yelled Bellatrix, making Harry Potter cry in pain again.

"But… they're just garden gnomes," said Ginny incredulously. "How would a garden gnome know how to wake me up from my dream?"

"I have no idea whatsoever," said Luna. "Oh well, got to go back to dad. I wish you luck. Thank you for having me in your dream. I had so much fun."

"Gryffindor!" said the Hat for goodbye.

Luna skipped away, back towards her tea party, and Ginny turned to watch the gnomes again. One more crucio from Bellatrix, and she was seething. How could they treat one of their kind like that? Caution flew out of the window – they were just gnomes after all – and Ginny marched to the yard. "What do you think you're doing?" she shouted.

Each gnome in the lines gasped a breath and took a step back. Bellatrix, too, stopped what she was doing, and turned her eyes at Ginny. "A human child," she muttered tilting her head. "Who are you to address the Queen?"

"My name is Ginny Weasley. I demand you to stop hurting him," Ginny said as she came to a stop a few meters before Bellatrix.

"Impudent human! Nobody demands the Queen anything. Crucio!" Bellatrix swung her wand at Ginny, and a colourless ball of a spell hit her before she could even think of dodging. The spell snapped her like a belt that Fred had once tormented her with, and it stung like a dozen bees.

"Turn your wand away from me!" Ginny yelled. The she realized something; Bellatrix had a wand. The pain forgotten she quickly came to a conclusion that maybe she didn't need the Queen of Hearts to awake. Maybe she just needed the wand. The more she thought about it, the more certain she became. "My, my, what a beautiful magic wand you have there. Where did you get it?" she said sweetly as she took a wary step closer.

"It's mine. Mine!" Bellatrix cried. "I stole it fairly." And she flicked it again in order to cast another torture curse at Ginny, but the girl was already too close, and three long steps took her upon the Queen.

"I'll take that, thank you," Ginny said as her fingers wrapped around Bellatrix's wand with swiftness that would have made a professional Seeker envious. But the gnome had strong hands and a steely grip, and when Bellatrix pulled back with all of her might, screaming curse words, Ginny lost her balance for a while. Never before had a gnome fought back! That made her realize how big the Queen really was, reaching up to her upper thigh in height. This was one garden gnome she would not be able to pick up and swing around and throw over the hedge.

And then things went worse as something clung to her right leg, and then something bit to her left ankle, and suddenly every little garden gnome on the yard was assaulting her. Each gnome weighed just a little more than a pint of pumpkin juice, but the whole horde of them greatly outweighed her, and so all it needed was a little tug by Bellatrix to make Ginny stumble down. The gnomes swarmed over her, and she kicked and screamed and tried to get up to her feet. "Let me go!"

"Bloody hell, Ginny!"

And just like that, she was back in the Burrow orchard.

"Ron!" Ginny yelped as she flung her arms around her brother's neck. "I had the weirdest dream."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Ron chuckled. "Remind me to never try to shake you awake from a nightmare again. You have a wicked punch for a sleeping girl."

"Oh, did I hurt you? I'm sorry," Ginny said, and when she pulled back, he rubbed his jaw with his hand.

"Don't worry, I'll live," Ron said as he pulled her up to her feet. "Mum sent me to call you for dinner. Come on, let's go already! I'm starving!"

The brother and sister raced home and arrived at the porch side by side, their earlier quarrel forgotten. At the door, Ginny paused and took the last glance at the orchard. Her eyes spotted a single gnome who peeked from behind one of the apple trees and looked straight at her. Maybe she just imagined it, but for the briefest moment the gnome appeared to glance a pocket watch before it disappeared into a hole again.