DISCLAIMER: Yes, this chapter gets a special disclaimer. If you don't want
me to ruin the chapter don't read this disclaimer. Okay, firstly I would
just like to say that I don't claim ownership over wonderland, or anyone
found there, so don't sue me. I don't own the wonderful Cheshire Cat
either, even though it isn't Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat. It actually
belongs to a friend, but you'll hear all about her in the bottom blurb, so
don't worry.
uLand of Wondersu/
It was dark in Dumbledore's office. The light coming from the dimmed lanterns of the room glimmered off the gold trim of gadgets, and doo-dads on the shelves, and shelves that lined the room's walls. Fawks cooed softly from his golden perch looking over his master's shoulder. Dumbledore gazed interestedly into the glass gazing ball on his desk, watching the tiny figure of Gen within the glass ball sitting at a work table in her dungeon, gluing broom bristles to a silver disk.
He wasn't sure what she was doing, but he knew it had something to do with her machine. She had over more than a month been disassembling the mechanics of her machine, and taking selected pieces to make... something. She had finished with that not long before, and fitted this something into a silver canister.
Now she was, as Dumbledore had realized concealing the canister within the bristles of her broomstick. She appeared to be nearly finished, but Dumbledore wasn't rushing her. He had grown fascinated with her strange magic. The girl didn't realize it, but her ability to make such a complex machine came to her from her complex magic, that not even she understood. She had it in her to cast any spell thinkable, but they were all too simple. She could only cast the spells she learned at Hogwarts when she wasn't thinking about it; when she was nervous, or tired.
With gloom Dumbledore gave into the realization that she would probably never develop her abilities, but then, as soon as her machine was finished she would no longer be safe at Hogwarts...
Gen jammed a handful of bristles into the head of her broom. She was finished with her machine, and wanted to take it for a test drive, but she wasn't quite ready. She was afraid that if she left she might never see Hogwarts again. Christmas was coming. In fact it was Christmas eve. Gen had snuck off the grounds to buy presents for the tree house gang a few days prior, and had wrapped them with care, putting Hermione's in the mail, as she had gone home for the Holiday. She figured she may as well wait to see Christmas at hog warts before leaving on a second test drive, and being tossed into a new world of mystery, so she put the broom up against the wall, and got out her notebook. She made a final description of the Model Two Bridge, before recording her plans. It was late at night but Gen wasn't tired. She put her notebook away, and opened the door walking out into the corridor.
It was cold; so cold that it made Gen wish she had fur. Outside it was snowing, or so she assumed. It had been snowing for the last few days. The boys spent a lot of time out in the snow, fighting with balls of ice. Hermione had left for the holiday the prior week, and even still the search for Nicholas Flamel continued. Whenever the boys were tired of getting pelted with snow they were in the Library. Gen had a good feeling that f she went into the Library at the crack of dawn Ron and Harry would be there. It wasn't like them to be so persistent, but they were.
Gen pulled her work robes close around her. She hadn't even changed into her pajamas yet, or rather her night clothes as she was now accustomed to calling them. She thought about stopping off at the front steps to look out at the snow, but changed her mind, to head off to her dormatory. She turned a corner, and saw for a fleeting moment, out of the corner of her eye, a cloak whip around the next corner past a suit of armor, and out of sight. She heard a thunk and hurried whispered before there was silence. She rose an eyebrow a she moved towards the sound, instinctively pulling out her wand.
She stepped lightly through the torch light, making as little sound as possible. Unfortunately the dancing flames cast her shadows down on the ground, and around the corner two stooping figures trying to hide in the shadows saw her advancing silhouette. Consciously Gen made plans to kick over a near by suit of armor. According to her calculations if she did it just right the suit's ax would ricochet, and hit whoever, or whatever it was, at least distracting them, or it for a moment to let her catch a glimpse of them, or it.
It was a good, well formulated plan, and would have worked if her subconscious hadn't been making plans of it's own, and what really happened was a combination of many things all happening in a very short space of time. First she kicked out the supports holding up the suit of armor, and cast a disarming spell at the same time.
The suit toppled, the ax flew, and intercepted the disarming spell before it got a chance to reflect on the window pane it was headed for. The ax blade flew up wedging itself in the ceiling, and the handle flew to the side knocking over another suit of armor, that, evidently, was charmed, and shot out about twenty blades at Gen's head and torso, but luckily the moment after she started her two plans in motion, seeing her mistake she ducked down behind the statue of a rather frumpy witch, putting her hands over her head, and the blades all lodged themselves into the statue instead.
When the clatter stopped Gen stood up. She no longer trusted her wand, and thus threw it on the ground before plucking a longish blade from the witch's left eye, and tossing her volumous robes onto the ground to get them out of the way moved to the corner, holding her breath. She tried to get up the courage, and nearly did, but didn't get a chance to. Before she knew what hit her she was on her back, panting on the floor, the wind totally knocked out of her.
"I've got 'im, I've got 'im... her?" Harry looked down wonderingly at Gen's horrified face. She could hardly breath, as his knees were in her gut.
"What?" a voice called as a very pale Ron came around the corner, "Gen? What are you doing here?"
She tried to answer, but no words came through her throat, as she had no air to use in a word.
"Oh, right, sorry." Harry got up off her beaten body, and got to his feet.
"Trying to go to bed!" Gen said attempting to sit up, but getting very dizzy. Harry picked up the knife Gen had dropped in the fall, and admired the blade.
"Do you know how close you came to stabbing me right in the stomach?" he asked laughing almost crazily
"You're the one who jumped on me," she said struggling again to sit up, holding her aching head. There was a loud ringing in her ears, and she was sure her head had hit the floor.
"Yeah," Harry frowned, "sorry about that."
"Apology accepted," Gen said briskly as Ron pulled her to her feet, "but the next time you sneak around at midnight give me some kind of warning."
"How about you giving us warning?" Harry asked setting the knife down carefully.
"Okay," Gen said irritably, "here's warning. I'm going to be out tonight, and tomorrow night, and the night after that. Good enough for you?"
"What are you doing out so much?" Harry asked confusedly, "and how do you manage to not get caught?"
"I'm very sneaky," she assured him.
"No you aren't, we heard you coming a mile away," Ron laughed.
"When I want to be, I'm sneaky, okay?"
"Okay," Ron smiled, "but what are you doing out all the time?"
"Studying," she said shortly.
"Studying what?" Ron asked, and Gen opened her mouth to answer, but she didn't have time to chronicle some false to him, because at that very moment the corridor was filled with a bellowing.
"PEEVES! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW?!?"
It was Filch. He had heard the clatter, and from the sound of it he wasn't happy. Realizing what a terrible mess they'd made the three gathered all evidence they had been there, and ran away down the hall. Just as they turned the corner out of sight Filch happened upon the site. The three pedaled down the corridor, winding around corners, up and down stair cases and through rooms, wanting to put as much space as possible between them and the crime scene, certain that Filch was on their tails, though he was too busy cursing Peeves.
They came, rather relieved, upon the painting of the Fat Lady, and called out the password, flinging themselves into the common room. They lay strewn about the room, panting for a while before their panting gave way to laughter. Ron lay collapsed, half in a big red chair, and half on the floor. Gen was on her knees against the wall near Ron's chair, and Harry was laying on his back between the two. Their spirits had been raised thanks to their short escapade, and the night gave way to a game of Exploding Snap before the fireplace. It would have been a game of Chess had there only been two of them, but as it was they were playing Exploding Snap.
Gen and Harry lost miserably, and the three fell asleep before the smoldering embers of the fire place, or rather, the two did. Gen sat, tw two boys yawning and nodding to her either sides on the couch. As she gazed into the dying flames a tear came to her eye. Sun would rise soon, and it would be Christmas. But Gen's will to go on, like the flame in the fireplace, was burning out. She didn't think she could live through saying goodbye to these boys who had become something like brother's to her.
Suddenly it hit her. She loved them: Ron, Harry, Hermione, Neville... She loved Hogwarts. The thought that she might never see any of it made her miserable. She couldn't bring herself to leave, but then, she couldn't bring herself to stay either. Before long the necessity to leave out weighed the desire to stay, and she got up to leave. She knew that if she stayed a minute longer she would change her mind, and with one last look at her two friends she ran through the portrait hole.
A soft snow fell, coating the grounds, turning the trees of the forbidden forest white. A harsh wind blew through the night as Gen walked down the front steps. She didn't imagine she would ever see the grounds she had come to love again, but she tried not to think about it as she mounted her broom. She double checked her bag to make certain she had her notebook, and everything she deemed necessary. She would miss the Model One Bridge, but it didn't fit in her bag, although later she would remember her spell-sand, and curse herself for not bringing it.
As she was about to finish her check she heard a voice calling from the doors, and then footsteps down the front stairs. Gen didn't have to look back, she knew the voice was Snape's. She felt rather rebellious at the time, and decided that she knew better than anything he could possibly tell her. She didn't have the time, or the care to notice what he was saying, and just before he was upon her she kicked off from the ground, taking to flight. The snow stopped falling, and Gen could clearly see the stars, and something else, a sight that no mortal has ever seen, but she had seen it once before.
The machine making whirring, and humming noise behind Gen, and the heavens began to swirl, the stars leaving their courses. The Bridge was opening up the portal world between dimentions, and choosing which portal to take. Gen began to feel a rather strange sensation, one that hadn't taken her the first time. It was almost as if the higher she got the lighter she became, even to a point where she wasn't sure if she was still seated on the broom.
The broom had chosen a black and white swirling nova, and as they got closer too it Gen began to feel as though, while the bridge wanted to take her into the black and white hole the portal itself didn't want her. In fact it seemed like another portal, one of blue and green was pulling her toward it, off of the broom. Soon her body was completely off the broom, except for her frightened grip of death she had on the handle. Her whole body flew out from the broom, and it was as if she was being torn between Portals. Working against the portals Gen pulled herself to the broom, as if finding safety in it, but eventually the strain became to much for her to handle, and she no longer knew what was going on, save that she needed to keep hold of the broom, and she slipped into a strange unconsciousness.
Gen had no idea where she was. A black void, darker than the shadows that lurked in the hallways of Hogwarts had swallowed her up. There it held her, steadfast against any hopes of recovering. If she were to open her eyes, she'd find naught more than a black sheet pulled over her. Her eyes would strain (to the point of bursting) as she tried to penetrate this unconsciousness. Somewhere, deep within her mind, she felt her body begin to stir slowly and the very thought of her muscle flinching to relieve it from a fly's torment made her scream in unrelenting pain.
It was this that ultimately woke her from her blacked-out bliss. Her eyes flew open with a loud isnap/i and she felt her body freeze with fear as she gazed upon the world she was tossed into.
Shadows littered the ground where no leaves fell, shattering the smooth surface of the black and red checkered pathway. Trees, as ancient as the stone that built Gen's home, stood majestically over the gothic path, their branches gnarled and twisting high into the air. The small twigs that sprung from the large limbs reached out for their mates who clung to the tree across the way; faraway, so close! The ones that met rejoiced in their bond and from that, there sprouted another oak, or ash, or whatever it was that these 'trees' were. The leaves that grew were hidden from Gen's view and stretched to the glass ceiling that of this snow globe-like world. She was certain that this was no real world; it simply didn't make sense. Other than the roots on the bottom of the tree, that stuck suddenly out of the ground to rudely trip the feet of inattentive travelers, the forest in this haunted universe seemed to be nothing but complete and utter inonsense/i. Tacked onto the thick trunks of these guardian trees were signs. Not just any ordinary signs, for ordinarity is a sin in this 'wonderland.'
iWonderland,/i Gen thought. iThat seems like an appropriate name./i And after finishing this thought, she drew in a deep breath and braced her legs. Rising to her feet, she was greeted by the unpleasant feeling of lightheadedness, and the oddest sensation of a hook just beneath her neck, gently tugging her backward. Ignoring both these senses, which, I assure you, is a bad thing to do when alone in a forest (you're better off waiting until you feel better), she took a step toward the nearest tree, and placed her eyes next to the sign, reading the words.
' This Way', the blue sign screamed at her, pointing to the left. Gen tilted her head to gaze down that pathway. Immediately, she regretted it, for her eyes began to ache for they tried to look through the dark shadows that covered it, taking it into almost complete darkness. Gen liked being on the lighter path. That way, she can see things around her. Above the blue sign, it's bright orange companion yelled (in nothing but the worst eye-smartingly bright pink) 'To Yonder'. It, too, pointed to the left.
Swallowing her fear, Gen took a step to the left, following as the signs instructed. After the first one, she took another, and then another in the way that one should when walking. However, those few steps were as far as the forest would let her go, for near to immediately, she was assaulted with another sign. This time, it was in the colour of icy white and the black scrawl that was written on it said 'There'. This sign went against everything Gen had been told, and pointed the opposite way. A green sign pointed down, and said 'Over Here' upon it, confusing Gen even more.
Gen spun around to get away from the signs only to see more of them, all hammered in an askew manner onto the trees. Frightened, she ran in the opposite direction that she had been heading. The pull within her chest increased, and it was then that she realized that by going down the dark 'alley', the pressure on the hook went down. Her heart seized in her chest and her breath shortened as she looked around in fear. Five steps within her mad dash, she came to a screeching halt. Her legs danced beneath her as her eyes scanned the woods, desperate to find some sort of way out of the hellhole she had found herself within.
She was trapped. There was no way out. The pulling force under her neck caused her mind to spin, and a roaring began in her ears. The solid ground that her feet rested on tipped violently, and before Gen knew it, she was gazing up at the tops of the trees from where she lay on a red checker. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and what she used to see, she could no more, for the world blurred. Absently, she ran her hand over the grassy pathway. Alternatively, wait - was it grass just because she ibelieved/i it to be grass? Or, did she think it to be grass because it just ifelt/i like grass? These frighteningly philosophical thoughts pushed her sanity to the brink, and more tears splashed down her cheeks in a downpour of loneliness and terror.
She didn't have long to angst alone with her sorrows, to be truthful. The very instant she gave herself up to the woods, and her tears fell against her bitter judgment, she heard something. Not just a nothing something, but a something that sounded quite like a song. But, the woods singing? Impossible. Yet, there it was, loud and clear, and seeming to emanate from the bark of the wood in the areas in front of her. It started low in her hearing, and then worked its way up to a forte, capturing her interest, and making her look up to a branch not too far from her. The lyrics, though. They didn't sound like anything she'd heard before. If she ventured a guess, she'd say they were nothing but gibberish. i "'Twas brilig, and the slithey toves, did gile and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the boragoves, and the momewraths outgrabe!" /i
Gen had no time to wonder about the appearance of a boragove, or the habits of a momewrath. In the duration of the song, the air above the branch that had Gen's attention began to twist itself into a spiral, the breeze that didn't exist crashing in upon the air that was under it like the swells on a beach. Soon, in the spot of weakness, something began to glimmer and glint in the patchy light. It appeared to be a grin - a bloodthirsty grin that didn't even appear to try to seem friendly.
Inch long fangs seemed to drip with ill-will as they glittered in what sunlight made it through to the ground. The lines around this curiosity began to harden, twisting this faceless mouth into a well-placed sneer. Two great, big, lemon colored eyes dropped from nowhere to stand stock still above the mouth as a pink nose began to fizzle into view. The optics swiveled in their unseen sockets to land upon Gen, taking on a cold feeling as they took her in. The mouth said nothing, continuing to grin in it's malicious way.
Gen timidly cleared her throat. "Um, excuse me. If... you could be so kind as to-"
"Kind!" the bodiless grin shrieked, floating down to where Gen was sitting. "You want me to be ikind/i? You expect kindness when you, and you ialone/i, took it upon yourself to trespass on a world that isn't yours? You expect me to show you ihospitality/i when iyou/i were the one without the invitation?"
Gen was quite dumbstruck. She sat there, puzzling for something to use in response when the eyes closed. Gen, being the observer that she is, noted that they were, in fact, green. They then gave off the distinct impression that the invisible head was being shaken.
It is very curious to see the back of an eye, let alone two iand/i a grin. Gen got to experience this curiosity first hand as they turned and began to prowl back to the tree on which it first appeared. Curiouser and curiouser things got as the floating appearances scaled the tree. Soon, all the curiosity of the being vanished as it began to take form.
As it made its way to a brand, Gen was unnerved to notice that this creature back to solidify. Above the eyes there formed two green ears, equal distance apart and standing proud, like the pyramids in the sands of Egypt. From the base of the ears, green tufts of fur hung loosely from the cheekbones, giving the impression that this creature was very thin. Gen's eyes ran up from his nose and over his ears to his back and watched as it arched dangerously into the shape of a pleasing curve. His spine elongated, and where a great, poofy tail may have been, there stood one with the fur hanging from it. Had it not been for the mangy look running through the rest of this animal, Gen would have called it 'luxurious' with the way its ex-silken strands draped over the whip-like thinness. His body, save for his eyes and his nose, was, surprisingly, green in color. A light grass green made up the majority of his coat and the main parts of his face: around his eyes, and outlining his mouth. The color was so lively that it gave the leaves on the trees a reason to hide as they became green with envy. Silver claws protruded from his clover paws. Gen blinked; no, those were not shadows on his perfectly cheery coat. They were, in fact, stripes of a darker green persuasion. A very curious and perverse shape of stripe, for it cascaded down his spine in a flowing river, before outrunning its banks and carving their way down his fur. There they freeze up into their pine green glory, and shatter into shards of dark, mutilated patches of lace upon that lovely cloak that covered his body. The jade delighted itself with standing in stark contrast with the lighter that it stood upon.
Gen tore her eyes away from the distracting color to let her eyes graze over his body to figure out what he was, if she could recognize the shape at all. The triangular ears that perched themselves upon his skull flicked back and forth, searching for a noise. The yellow eyes that sat below those smart ears were round and just about as large as dinner plates. The lamplight orbs were almost enough to draw attention away from his skeleton. Almost.
Although his striped did a good job with obstructing his shape, and trying to conceal his ribs, one could notice that this animal had seen better days. His ribcage stuck out at sharp angles and his hip poked out from his coat, making him look starved, and nothing less than sick. Gen felt her heart go out to his creature. Before she could make a comment on the sickly way he was presented, or the two golden hoops that hung from his right ear, or the undeniable sight of a tail wrap over his fur, was the fact that the realization of what he was smacked her up the back of the head, and caused her to gasp.
"Why, you're a cat!"
The cat slowly blinked his eyes before rising on his hind legs. He leaned his upper body against the trunk of the tree, crossing his forelimbs over his thin chest as he did so. The whole thing was really quite curious. "Very well spoken," he said with an obvious note of sarcasm.
Gen was taken aback, having hoped that his initial rudeness was only a one- time deal. "Pardon me, but -." She didn't have time to finish what she was saying.
"Stop being so polite! The Queen knows we had enough of ithat/i with Alice!"
Silence. Then: "Alice?"
The cat sighed, his chest heaving with the effort. "Yes. Alice. Haven't you read the books?"
Gen perked up. She's read books; a great number of books. Opening her mouth, she let her lips form the words to tell this to the Cheshire Cat.
Much to her dislike, the statement served only to annoy the Cheshire. "iHonestly!/i" he cried, pushing himself away from the trunk and landing back on the branch, his four paws tucked under his body. In all her months at Hogwarts, she took the time to listen to each person talk, and she nearly had the talent to place each person's accent with a region of the UK. This Cat's voice carried the distinct lilt of an Irishman. Also, one must mention that his grin never once left his face, each fang still wet with saliva. "You'd think that those that take it upon themselves to enter this wood would have at least read the books that Alice wrote." Grumbling, he added to himself, "Money greedy wench." Turning his attention back to Gen, he ran his sandpaper tongue over his teeth. "Oh, no," he began, seeing the confused look on Gen's face. "Don't think you're the only one who has come here. Just last Wonderyear, we had a dragon, a unicorn, and their human companions come waltzing right through here like they owned the place!" He placed a paw to his forehead and took a deep breath. "They even had the igall/i to take our previous Cheshire."
Gen felt her face break into an excited grin. "You mean there are more of you?"
His eyes snapped back to her, his voice clipped. "Of course! I'm his replacement! What's Wonderland without a Cheshire Cat, I'd like to know?"
"... What did you call this place?"
A sigh echoed through the cat's empty ribcage. "Wonderland."
Gen crossed her arms, having had just about enough of this cat's sour mood. "I didn't know that cats could be so rude."
The Cheshire's eyes narrowed and the twisted grin looked even more maniacal than before. "And I bet you didn't think that humans could be so ignorant, either."
"Hey!" Gen cried indignantly.
The Cheshire ignored her displeasure and opted to vanish from sight.
"Wait!" Gen called, not wanting to be left alone in this insane asylum. In her mind, rude company was better than no company. She let her eyes drop in despair. It's a lucky thing she did, too, otherwise, she wouldn't have noticed the tiny blades of grass - that was what she resolved to call them - bend over, yielding themselves to a heavier creature. She watched in silence as the paw prints marched in two columns before splitting and each going on opposite sides of her. They rejoined behind her, and the whole thing left Gen quite confused. Her head ached from trying to understand all of this. The pressure left the red block and the Cheshire appeared on the tree opposite the one that he was originally perched. He looked down upon Gen in distaste.
She felt her face grow hot with blush. "Sorry. I just didn't want to be alone."
"You're not alone."
Something about the way he said that sentence, with his fangs ever gleaming in this setting, and his cool, calm voice caressing the words made Gen go uneasy. "...Oh..." She could tell that he was growing tired of dealing with her. She gathered her courage to her to ask a question, but it was all in vain, for the cat spoke before she could.
"The Queen is that way" - he said, pointing to the left - "The Mad Hatter is that way" - his other paw pointed right - "And the white rabbit went that way" - Rising on his tail, he used his bottom paws to point at Gen, and away from her, both in the different directions.
Taking a breath, Gen shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking bout, Sir Cat.."
He grinned at her, that blasted grin that made Gen want to scream until her voice box was torn from her throat and she died from the blood that would pound from her body. "You will soon enough," he stated, his tail beginning to vanish, like a sugar cane disintegrating into a glass of water. "You'll soon find yourself lost in a world where nothing is as it seems, your voice screaming for help. Fear not, for the only place you will be lost in, will be your own mind." All that was left now was his grin. "Oh, and in case you were wondering, your broom is with the Mad Hatter. Don't fear," he cooed, his words wrapping themselves around Gen's body like some sort of hated coat. "We're all mad here. Even," he paused, his grin beginning to flicker, "you."
Gen found herself with nothing for comfort, than the cat's cackle, which was just almost as bad as his grin, the gibberish song echoing from the trees, the soundwaves bounding off the bark.
She was completely, and undeniably, alone.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN!!! FINALY!!! Were you just dying with anticipation!?! Well I just wanted to wish you all a happy Christmas, and a Wonderful New Year! If you were wondering I didn't write this entire chapter. Because in it I've used the brilliant writing of the wonderful Jess MacPhisto, she is my guest writer you might say. Try to guess where she started writing and where I stopped. Well, there's more fun for Gen in Wonderland coming, so don't worry. If you want to read more by the lovely Jess look her up, her name is Jess MacPhisto, she's in my Favorite Authors list. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!! I NEED REVIEWS!!! Thanks a ton, I love you all!!!
uLand of Wondersu/
It was dark in Dumbledore's office. The light coming from the dimmed lanterns of the room glimmered off the gold trim of gadgets, and doo-dads on the shelves, and shelves that lined the room's walls. Fawks cooed softly from his golden perch looking over his master's shoulder. Dumbledore gazed interestedly into the glass gazing ball on his desk, watching the tiny figure of Gen within the glass ball sitting at a work table in her dungeon, gluing broom bristles to a silver disk.
He wasn't sure what she was doing, but he knew it had something to do with her machine. She had over more than a month been disassembling the mechanics of her machine, and taking selected pieces to make... something. She had finished with that not long before, and fitted this something into a silver canister.
Now she was, as Dumbledore had realized concealing the canister within the bristles of her broomstick. She appeared to be nearly finished, but Dumbledore wasn't rushing her. He had grown fascinated with her strange magic. The girl didn't realize it, but her ability to make such a complex machine came to her from her complex magic, that not even she understood. She had it in her to cast any spell thinkable, but they were all too simple. She could only cast the spells she learned at Hogwarts when she wasn't thinking about it; when she was nervous, or tired.
With gloom Dumbledore gave into the realization that she would probably never develop her abilities, but then, as soon as her machine was finished she would no longer be safe at Hogwarts...
Gen jammed a handful of bristles into the head of her broom. She was finished with her machine, and wanted to take it for a test drive, but she wasn't quite ready. She was afraid that if she left she might never see Hogwarts again. Christmas was coming. In fact it was Christmas eve. Gen had snuck off the grounds to buy presents for the tree house gang a few days prior, and had wrapped them with care, putting Hermione's in the mail, as she had gone home for the Holiday. She figured she may as well wait to see Christmas at hog warts before leaving on a second test drive, and being tossed into a new world of mystery, so she put the broom up against the wall, and got out her notebook. She made a final description of the Model Two Bridge, before recording her plans. It was late at night but Gen wasn't tired. She put her notebook away, and opened the door walking out into the corridor.
It was cold; so cold that it made Gen wish she had fur. Outside it was snowing, or so she assumed. It had been snowing for the last few days. The boys spent a lot of time out in the snow, fighting with balls of ice. Hermione had left for the holiday the prior week, and even still the search for Nicholas Flamel continued. Whenever the boys were tired of getting pelted with snow they were in the Library. Gen had a good feeling that f she went into the Library at the crack of dawn Ron and Harry would be there. It wasn't like them to be so persistent, but they were.
Gen pulled her work robes close around her. She hadn't even changed into her pajamas yet, or rather her night clothes as she was now accustomed to calling them. She thought about stopping off at the front steps to look out at the snow, but changed her mind, to head off to her dormatory. She turned a corner, and saw for a fleeting moment, out of the corner of her eye, a cloak whip around the next corner past a suit of armor, and out of sight. She heard a thunk and hurried whispered before there was silence. She rose an eyebrow a she moved towards the sound, instinctively pulling out her wand.
She stepped lightly through the torch light, making as little sound as possible. Unfortunately the dancing flames cast her shadows down on the ground, and around the corner two stooping figures trying to hide in the shadows saw her advancing silhouette. Consciously Gen made plans to kick over a near by suit of armor. According to her calculations if she did it just right the suit's ax would ricochet, and hit whoever, or whatever it was, at least distracting them, or it for a moment to let her catch a glimpse of them, or it.
It was a good, well formulated plan, and would have worked if her subconscious hadn't been making plans of it's own, and what really happened was a combination of many things all happening in a very short space of time. First she kicked out the supports holding up the suit of armor, and cast a disarming spell at the same time.
The suit toppled, the ax flew, and intercepted the disarming spell before it got a chance to reflect on the window pane it was headed for. The ax blade flew up wedging itself in the ceiling, and the handle flew to the side knocking over another suit of armor, that, evidently, was charmed, and shot out about twenty blades at Gen's head and torso, but luckily the moment after she started her two plans in motion, seeing her mistake she ducked down behind the statue of a rather frumpy witch, putting her hands over her head, and the blades all lodged themselves into the statue instead.
When the clatter stopped Gen stood up. She no longer trusted her wand, and thus threw it on the ground before plucking a longish blade from the witch's left eye, and tossing her volumous robes onto the ground to get them out of the way moved to the corner, holding her breath. She tried to get up the courage, and nearly did, but didn't get a chance to. Before she knew what hit her she was on her back, panting on the floor, the wind totally knocked out of her.
"I've got 'im, I've got 'im... her?" Harry looked down wonderingly at Gen's horrified face. She could hardly breath, as his knees were in her gut.
"What?" a voice called as a very pale Ron came around the corner, "Gen? What are you doing here?"
She tried to answer, but no words came through her throat, as she had no air to use in a word.
"Oh, right, sorry." Harry got up off her beaten body, and got to his feet.
"Trying to go to bed!" Gen said attempting to sit up, but getting very dizzy. Harry picked up the knife Gen had dropped in the fall, and admired the blade.
"Do you know how close you came to stabbing me right in the stomach?" he asked laughing almost crazily
"You're the one who jumped on me," she said struggling again to sit up, holding her aching head. There was a loud ringing in her ears, and she was sure her head had hit the floor.
"Yeah," Harry frowned, "sorry about that."
"Apology accepted," Gen said briskly as Ron pulled her to her feet, "but the next time you sneak around at midnight give me some kind of warning."
"How about you giving us warning?" Harry asked setting the knife down carefully.
"Okay," Gen said irritably, "here's warning. I'm going to be out tonight, and tomorrow night, and the night after that. Good enough for you?"
"What are you doing out so much?" Harry asked confusedly, "and how do you manage to not get caught?"
"I'm very sneaky," she assured him.
"No you aren't, we heard you coming a mile away," Ron laughed.
"When I want to be, I'm sneaky, okay?"
"Okay," Ron smiled, "but what are you doing out all the time?"
"Studying," she said shortly.
"Studying what?" Ron asked, and Gen opened her mouth to answer, but she didn't have time to chronicle some false to him, because at that very moment the corridor was filled with a bellowing.
"PEEVES! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW?!?"
It was Filch. He had heard the clatter, and from the sound of it he wasn't happy. Realizing what a terrible mess they'd made the three gathered all evidence they had been there, and ran away down the hall. Just as they turned the corner out of sight Filch happened upon the site. The three pedaled down the corridor, winding around corners, up and down stair cases and through rooms, wanting to put as much space as possible between them and the crime scene, certain that Filch was on their tails, though he was too busy cursing Peeves.
They came, rather relieved, upon the painting of the Fat Lady, and called out the password, flinging themselves into the common room. They lay strewn about the room, panting for a while before their panting gave way to laughter. Ron lay collapsed, half in a big red chair, and half on the floor. Gen was on her knees against the wall near Ron's chair, and Harry was laying on his back between the two. Their spirits had been raised thanks to their short escapade, and the night gave way to a game of Exploding Snap before the fireplace. It would have been a game of Chess had there only been two of them, but as it was they were playing Exploding Snap.
Gen and Harry lost miserably, and the three fell asleep before the smoldering embers of the fire place, or rather, the two did. Gen sat, tw two boys yawning and nodding to her either sides on the couch. As she gazed into the dying flames a tear came to her eye. Sun would rise soon, and it would be Christmas. But Gen's will to go on, like the flame in the fireplace, was burning out. She didn't think she could live through saying goodbye to these boys who had become something like brother's to her.
Suddenly it hit her. She loved them: Ron, Harry, Hermione, Neville... She loved Hogwarts. The thought that she might never see any of it made her miserable. She couldn't bring herself to leave, but then, she couldn't bring herself to stay either. Before long the necessity to leave out weighed the desire to stay, and she got up to leave. She knew that if she stayed a minute longer she would change her mind, and with one last look at her two friends she ran through the portrait hole.
A soft snow fell, coating the grounds, turning the trees of the forbidden forest white. A harsh wind blew through the night as Gen walked down the front steps. She didn't imagine she would ever see the grounds she had come to love again, but she tried not to think about it as she mounted her broom. She double checked her bag to make certain she had her notebook, and everything she deemed necessary. She would miss the Model One Bridge, but it didn't fit in her bag, although later she would remember her spell-sand, and curse herself for not bringing it.
As she was about to finish her check she heard a voice calling from the doors, and then footsteps down the front stairs. Gen didn't have to look back, she knew the voice was Snape's. She felt rather rebellious at the time, and decided that she knew better than anything he could possibly tell her. She didn't have the time, or the care to notice what he was saying, and just before he was upon her she kicked off from the ground, taking to flight. The snow stopped falling, and Gen could clearly see the stars, and something else, a sight that no mortal has ever seen, but she had seen it once before.
The machine making whirring, and humming noise behind Gen, and the heavens began to swirl, the stars leaving their courses. The Bridge was opening up the portal world between dimentions, and choosing which portal to take. Gen began to feel a rather strange sensation, one that hadn't taken her the first time. It was almost as if the higher she got the lighter she became, even to a point where she wasn't sure if she was still seated on the broom.
The broom had chosen a black and white swirling nova, and as they got closer too it Gen began to feel as though, while the bridge wanted to take her into the black and white hole the portal itself didn't want her. In fact it seemed like another portal, one of blue and green was pulling her toward it, off of the broom. Soon her body was completely off the broom, except for her frightened grip of death she had on the handle. Her whole body flew out from the broom, and it was as if she was being torn between Portals. Working against the portals Gen pulled herself to the broom, as if finding safety in it, but eventually the strain became to much for her to handle, and she no longer knew what was going on, save that she needed to keep hold of the broom, and she slipped into a strange unconsciousness.
Gen had no idea where she was. A black void, darker than the shadows that lurked in the hallways of Hogwarts had swallowed her up. There it held her, steadfast against any hopes of recovering. If she were to open her eyes, she'd find naught more than a black sheet pulled over her. Her eyes would strain (to the point of bursting) as she tried to penetrate this unconsciousness. Somewhere, deep within her mind, she felt her body begin to stir slowly and the very thought of her muscle flinching to relieve it from a fly's torment made her scream in unrelenting pain.
It was this that ultimately woke her from her blacked-out bliss. Her eyes flew open with a loud isnap/i and she felt her body freeze with fear as she gazed upon the world she was tossed into.
Shadows littered the ground where no leaves fell, shattering the smooth surface of the black and red checkered pathway. Trees, as ancient as the stone that built Gen's home, stood majestically over the gothic path, their branches gnarled and twisting high into the air. The small twigs that sprung from the large limbs reached out for their mates who clung to the tree across the way; faraway, so close! The ones that met rejoiced in their bond and from that, there sprouted another oak, or ash, or whatever it was that these 'trees' were. The leaves that grew were hidden from Gen's view and stretched to the glass ceiling that of this snow globe-like world. She was certain that this was no real world; it simply didn't make sense. Other than the roots on the bottom of the tree, that stuck suddenly out of the ground to rudely trip the feet of inattentive travelers, the forest in this haunted universe seemed to be nothing but complete and utter inonsense/i. Tacked onto the thick trunks of these guardian trees were signs. Not just any ordinary signs, for ordinarity is a sin in this 'wonderland.'
iWonderland,/i Gen thought. iThat seems like an appropriate name./i And after finishing this thought, she drew in a deep breath and braced her legs. Rising to her feet, she was greeted by the unpleasant feeling of lightheadedness, and the oddest sensation of a hook just beneath her neck, gently tugging her backward. Ignoring both these senses, which, I assure you, is a bad thing to do when alone in a forest (you're better off waiting until you feel better), she took a step toward the nearest tree, and placed her eyes next to the sign, reading the words.
' This Way', the blue sign screamed at her, pointing to the left. Gen tilted her head to gaze down that pathway. Immediately, she regretted it, for her eyes began to ache for they tried to look through the dark shadows that covered it, taking it into almost complete darkness. Gen liked being on the lighter path. That way, she can see things around her. Above the blue sign, it's bright orange companion yelled (in nothing but the worst eye-smartingly bright pink) 'To Yonder'. It, too, pointed to the left.
Swallowing her fear, Gen took a step to the left, following as the signs instructed. After the first one, she took another, and then another in the way that one should when walking. However, those few steps were as far as the forest would let her go, for near to immediately, she was assaulted with another sign. This time, it was in the colour of icy white and the black scrawl that was written on it said 'There'. This sign went against everything Gen had been told, and pointed the opposite way. A green sign pointed down, and said 'Over Here' upon it, confusing Gen even more.
Gen spun around to get away from the signs only to see more of them, all hammered in an askew manner onto the trees. Frightened, she ran in the opposite direction that she had been heading. The pull within her chest increased, and it was then that she realized that by going down the dark 'alley', the pressure on the hook went down. Her heart seized in her chest and her breath shortened as she looked around in fear. Five steps within her mad dash, she came to a screeching halt. Her legs danced beneath her as her eyes scanned the woods, desperate to find some sort of way out of the hellhole she had found herself within.
She was trapped. There was no way out. The pulling force under her neck caused her mind to spin, and a roaring began in her ears. The solid ground that her feet rested on tipped violently, and before Gen knew it, she was gazing up at the tops of the trees from where she lay on a red checker. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and what she used to see, she could no more, for the world blurred. Absently, she ran her hand over the grassy pathway. Alternatively, wait - was it grass just because she ibelieved/i it to be grass? Or, did she think it to be grass because it just ifelt/i like grass? These frighteningly philosophical thoughts pushed her sanity to the brink, and more tears splashed down her cheeks in a downpour of loneliness and terror.
She didn't have long to angst alone with her sorrows, to be truthful. The very instant she gave herself up to the woods, and her tears fell against her bitter judgment, she heard something. Not just a nothing something, but a something that sounded quite like a song. But, the woods singing? Impossible. Yet, there it was, loud and clear, and seeming to emanate from the bark of the wood in the areas in front of her. It started low in her hearing, and then worked its way up to a forte, capturing her interest, and making her look up to a branch not too far from her. The lyrics, though. They didn't sound like anything she'd heard before. If she ventured a guess, she'd say they were nothing but gibberish. i "'Twas brilig, and the slithey toves, did gile and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the boragoves, and the momewraths outgrabe!" /i
Gen had no time to wonder about the appearance of a boragove, or the habits of a momewrath. In the duration of the song, the air above the branch that had Gen's attention began to twist itself into a spiral, the breeze that didn't exist crashing in upon the air that was under it like the swells on a beach. Soon, in the spot of weakness, something began to glimmer and glint in the patchy light. It appeared to be a grin - a bloodthirsty grin that didn't even appear to try to seem friendly.
Inch long fangs seemed to drip with ill-will as they glittered in what sunlight made it through to the ground. The lines around this curiosity began to harden, twisting this faceless mouth into a well-placed sneer. Two great, big, lemon colored eyes dropped from nowhere to stand stock still above the mouth as a pink nose began to fizzle into view. The optics swiveled in their unseen sockets to land upon Gen, taking on a cold feeling as they took her in. The mouth said nothing, continuing to grin in it's malicious way.
Gen timidly cleared her throat. "Um, excuse me. If... you could be so kind as to-"
"Kind!" the bodiless grin shrieked, floating down to where Gen was sitting. "You want me to be ikind/i? You expect kindness when you, and you ialone/i, took it upon yourself to trespass on a world that isn't yours? You expect me to show you ihospitality/i when iyou/i were the one without the invitation?"
Gen was quite dumbstruck. She sat there, puzzling for something to use in response when the eyes closed. Gen, being the observer that she is, noted that they were, in fact, green. They then gave off the distinct impression that the invisible head was being shaken.
It is very curious to see the back of an eye, let alone two iand/i a grin. Gen got to experience this curiosity first hand as they turned and began to prowl back to the tree on which it first appeared. Curiouser and curiouser things got as the floating appearances scaled the tree. Soon, all the curiosity of the being vanished as it began to take form.
As it made its way to a brand, Gen was unnerved to notice that this creature back to solidify. Above the eyes there formed two green ears, equal distance apart and standing proud, like the pyramids in the sands of Egypt. From the base of the ears, green tufts of fur hung loosely from the cheekbones, giving the impression that this creature was very thin. Gen's eyes ran up from his nose and over his ears to his back and watched as it arched dangerously into the shape of a pleasing curve. His spine elongated, and where a great, poofy tail may have been, there stood one with the fur hanging from it. Had it not been for the mangy look running through the rest of this animal, Gen would have called it 'luxurious' with the way its ex-silken strands draped over the whip-like thinness. His body, save for his eyes and his nose, was, surprisingly, green in color. A light grass green made up the majority of his coat and the main parts of his face: around his eyes, and outlining his mouth. The color was so lively that it gave the leaves on the trees a reason to hide as they became green with envy. Silver claws protruded from his clover paws. Gen blinked; no, those were not shadows on his perfectly cheery coat. They were, in fact, stripes of a darker green persuasion. A very curious and perverse shape of stripe, for it cascaded down his spine in a flowing river, before outrunning its banks and carving their way down his fur. There they freeze up into their pine green glory, and shatter into shards of dark, mutilated patches of lace upon that lovely cloak that covered his body. The jade delighted itself with standing in stark contrast with the lighter that it stood upon.
Gen tore her eyes away from the distracting color to let her eyes graze over his body to figure out what he was, if she could recognize the shape at all. The triangular ears that perched themselves upon his skull flicked back and forth, searching for a noise. The yellow eyes that sat below those smart ears were round and just about as large as dinner plates. The lamplight orbs were almost enough to draw attention away from his skeleton. Almost.
Although his striped did a good job with obstructing his shape, and trying to conceal his ribs, one could notice that this animal had seen better days. His ribcage stuck out at sharp angles and his hip poked out from his coat, making him look starved, and nothing less than sick. Gen felt her heart go out to his creature. Before she could make a comment on the sickly way he was presented, or the two golden hoops that hung from his right ear, or the undeniable sight of a tail wrap over his fur, was the fact that the realization of what he was smacked her up the back of the head, and caused her to gasp.
"Why, you're a cat!"
The cat slowly blinked his eyes before rising on his hind legs. He leaned his upper body against the trunk of the tree, crossing his forelimbs over his thin chest as he did so. The whole thing was really quite curious. "Very well spoken," he said with an obvious note of sarcasm.
Gen was taken aback, having hoped that his initial rudeness was only a one- time deal. "Pardon me, but -." She didn't have time to finish what she was saying.
"Stop being so polite! The Queen knows we had enough of ithat/i with Alice!"
Silence. Then: "Alice?"
The cat sighed, his chest heaving with the effort. "Yes. Alice. Haven't you read the books?"
Gen perked up. She's read books; a great number of books. Opening her mouth, she let her lips form the words to tell this to the Cheshire Cat.
Much to her dislike, the statement served only to annoy the Cheshire. "iHonestly!/i" he cried, pushing himself away from the trunk and landing back on the branch, his four paws tucked under his body. In all her months at Hogwarts, she took the time to listen to each person talk, and she nearly had the talent to place each person's accent with a region of the UK. This Cat's voice carried the distinct lilt of an Irishman. Also, one must mention that his grin never once left his face, each fang still wet with saliva. "You'd think that those that take it upon themselves to enter this wood would have at least read the books that Alice wrote." Grumbling, he added to himself, "Money greedy wench." Turning his attention back to Gen, he ran his sandpaper tongue over his teeth. "Oh, no," he began, seeing the confused look on Gen's face. "Don't think you're the only one who has come here. Just last Wonderyear, we had a dragon, a unicorn, and their human companions come waltzing right through here like they owned the place!" He placed a paw to his forehead and took a deep breath. "They even had the igall/i to take our previous Cheshire."
Gen felt her face break into an excited grin. "You mean there are more of you?"
His eyes snapped back to her, his voice clipped. "Of course! I'm his replacement! What's Wonderland without a Cheshire Cat, I'd like to know?"
"... What did you call this place?"
A sigh echoed through the cat's empty ribcage. "Wonderland."
Gen crossed her arms, having had just about enough of this cat's sour mood. "I didn't know that cats could be so rude."
The Cheshire's eyes narrowed and the twisted grin looked even more maniacal than before. "And I bet you didn't think that humans could be so ignorant, either."
"Hey!" Gen cried indignantly.
The Cheshire ignored her displeasure and opted to vanish from sight.
"Wait!" Gen called, not wanting to be left alone in this insane asylum. In her mind, rude company was better than no company. She let her eyes drop in despair. It's a lucky thing she did, too, otherwise, she wouldn't have noticed the tiny blades of grass - that was what she resolved to call them - bend over, yielding themselves to a heavier creature. She watched in silence as the paw prints marched in two columns before splitting and each going on opposite sides of her. They rejoined behind her, and the whole thing left Gen quite confused. Her head ached from trying to understand all of this. The pressure left the red block and the Cheshire appeared on the tree opposite the one that he was originally perched. He looked down upon Gen in distaste.
She felt her face grow hot with blush. "Sorry. I just didn't want to be alone."
"You're not alone."
Something about the way he said that sentence, with his fangs ever gleaming in this setting, and his cool, calm voice caressing the words made Gen go uneasy. "...Oh..." She could tell that he was growing tired of dealing with her. She gathered her courage to her to ask a question, but it was all in vain, for the cat spoke before she could.
"The Queen is that way" - he said, pointing to the left - "The Mad Hatter is that way" - his other paw pointed right - "And the white rabbit went that way" - Rising on his tail, he used his bottom paws to point at Gen, and away from her, both in the different directions.
Taking a breath, Gen shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking bout, Sir Cat.."
He grinned at her, that blasted grin that made Gen want to scream until her voice box was torn from her throat and she died from the blood that would pound from her body. "You will soon enough," he stated, his tail beginning to vanish, like a sugar cane disintegrating into a glass of water. "You'll soon find yourself lost in a world where nothing is as it seems, your voice screaming for help. Fear not, for the only place you will be lost in, will be your own mind." All that was left now was his grin. "Oh, and in case you were wondering, your broom is with the Mad Hatter. Don't fear," he cooed, his words wrapping themselves around Gen's body like some sort of hated coat. "We're all mad here. Even," he paused, his grin beginning to flicker, "you."
Gen found herself with nothing for comfort, than the cat's cackle, which was just almost as bad as his grin, the gibberish song echoing from the trees, the soundwaves bounding off the bark.
She was completely, and undeniably, alone.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN!!! FINALY!!! Were you just dying with anticipation!?! Well I just wanted to wish you all a happy Christmas, and a Wonderful New Year! If you were wondering I didn't write this entire chapter. Because in it I've used the brilliant writing of the wonderful Jess MacPhisto, she is my guest writer you might say. Try to guess where she started writing and where I stopped. Well, there's more fun for Gen in Wonderland coming, so don't worry. If you want to read more by the lovely Jess look her up, her name is Jess MacPhisto, she's in my Favorite Authors list. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!! I NEED REVIEWS!!! Thanks a ton, I love you all!!!