W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L—I-N—R-E-V-E-R-S-E

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"They usually get lost on the way to this village
and then suffer some obscure death because
they wandered down the wrong path."

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"I'm sorry."

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Chapter 02

Backwards Compatible

Life was almost surreal after that experience in his dreams, though he'd forgotten some of it. He did the things that were typical of him daily, from the school to chores to the playground... At cupboard-time he gladly welcomed the embrace of sleep. Life just went on as it always did. Nothing changed. He was still chased around and sometimes beaten up by Dudley. He still was forced to do an overwhelming list of chores to receive his supper. He played at the playground quietly and had fun. He aced school, but no one cared. He was used to it before that night, so exactly what made it all different now?

But even when he was enjoying himself, there was still something that didn't make sense. He couldn't put his finger on it at first. Whatever didn't add up in his life, whatever it was, it frequented him with an irritating bewilderment that came from being halfway between remembering and forgetting. Had he really forgotten something important?

Just thinking of having forgotten whatever it was made him feel panic. Why would he panic? Maybe what didn't make sense was the feeling of having forgotten something. But could he have forgotten? Did it have to do with the dream? He was starting to lose track of his questions. He was so confused!

It drove him crazy for months.

It took half a year for him to come to the conclusion that whatever it was, it would come to him with time if he was patient. I shouldn't worry, our little hero told himself. Forcing myself will just make things worse. And so with that out of the way, he gradually forgot more and more until it was only a wisping smoke to be erased by the wind.

... Most people forget...

He was turning nine years old today. Not that it mattered. Maybe he should do something special for himself. After weeding Aunt Petunia's garden, perhaps he'd go explore the wooded area nearby. He'd never done that before, but he was sure Dudley wouldn't bother him there. Maybe he could sneak a snack out of the fridge and then make a break for the woods! Maybe he could even run away... Fat chance of that happening, though. Anyway, perhaps if he found a good clearing of grass, he could lie on his back and watch the clouds go by...

No one cared about him anyway, so it wouldn't matter if he was out of the way for some time.

As he finished up his last chore and walked back into the house, he found his vision suddenly usurped by a bony face of an ass—whoops, his aunt, sorry. She shoved a brown paper bag into his hands and told him to stay out of the way for a few hours since they were fumigating the room of his fat lard of a cousin. The phrasing she used was different than what he would have used, but the meaning was the same.

Oh, well, all the better for him. He actually gets a meal today. He smirked as he strolled out the front door. So far so good.

"Feels good to do what I want, once in a while." He thought, "Though maybe I should've thought this through more. I feel like I'm forgetting somethin'."

... "Wow, it's sweet!" ... "Your welcome." ...

An hour or two later, a familiar pair of emeralds were invited to the grand vision of blue again. Not having memory of ever falling asleep in the first place, Harry was horribly disoriented and out of his wits when he woke up. His bespectacled oculars blearily swivelled around in a dizzying circle to take in his surroundings. Despite his half-awareness, he managed to process trees, his empty lunch bag crumpled up beside him, and a light weight on his stomach...

It looked like a black lump, though it would take a few minutes for Harry's eyes to focus on it. Whatever it was, it was warm. Did he bring anything warm with him, here? He was too sleepy to be alarmed. With the intention of moving whatever the black object was, Harry lazily raised a hand to his stomach... and grabbed a fistful of fur. Startled, he snapped into a straight state of mind.

Did he just touch a stray animal? Was it wild? Was it rabid? Was it alive? Would it bite him since he startled it? He never had a pet before, and the only experiences with animals he remembered were intimate chases by Aunt Marge's unfavourable dog. So, his first gut reaction was to panic. Indeed, he did. Well, inside anyway. He really couldn't find it in him to move. It was as if he was frozen in place.

In response to his small actions, the black lump that was actually a small animal taking a snooze on his stomach raised its head to stare him right in the eyes. Harry gulped. 'Twas...

A cat. Some kind of breed he didn't recognize, but still a cat. No, it was only a kitten!

Oh. Never mind.

Wait, why wasn't he panicking? So what if it was a cat, that didn't change the fact that it was possibly rabid or diseased! "Ack!" Please get off, please get off.

Then, to Harry's horror, the young unknown feline started to cross his chest to his face. "Nya. Nya." It cried, and he embarrassingly squeaked in alarm as it head-butted his nose. After that, it 'attacked' him with a lick that landed almost over his eyelid, and pawed his face uncomfortably. How incredibly dishevelling! Our little hero was being done in! Help! S.O.S.!

"Oh, come on. This is pathetic. You've faced worse. Remember the bloody dog?" He reminded himself and slapped himself into reality.

Harry pouted, sat up, and lifted the kitten into the air from its middle. Its feet dangling in the air in front of him, he sternly glared the creature in the face. It simply stared back incomprehensibly, and then meowed its quiet 'nya' once again. Right then, our protagonist lost himself to giggles.

"Good thing then, that no one is around. Felt silly right then for panicking."

"A cat... Geez. You surprised me." Harry spoke to no one in particular, not expecting the cat to reply.

It didn't. The kitten sat there contently where he placed it on the ground beside him.

Feeling compelled to talk to someone, perhaps out of loneliness, his mouth ran off on its own. Ideas that Harry had been harbouring in his conscious and subconscious floated to the surface of his mind. "I don't know what it was today that made me want to come out here. Just woke up, remembered that it was my birthday, and felt like going somewhere. What I don't know is why I chose here. Maybe I just wanted some peace from life, who knows?"

He scratched the kitten's head, and it responded with an uneven purr that sounded right for a young feline. He never had a pet, so he couldn't make an educated guess about its age, but it looked rather tiny so... maybe a few months? One year? He doubted it would go far from its mother if it was younger, but he wouldn't know for sure.

"Something keeps coming back to me, though especially since I just woke up a while ago. I remember that there was this dream that was driving me crazy this—eh, last year? I don't know what it was about, but I'm sure that there was something I should've remembered—it has to do with that dream." Harry mused.

The cat meowed at him and cocked its head sideways, as if asking him something. But caught up in thought, and disregarding the silly notion that it understood him, he thought nothing of the action.

"The colours were way off in the forest—yeah, it was in a weird forest! Purple and turquoise. The leaves in the trees had this purple glow about them. I remember being scared, and trying to get away from someone. I don't think he was a bad person, though. He gave me an apple... I think. Or maybe it just appeared in my hand... Anyway, the dream was fun. I don't remember much other than that, but I know I liked it. Maybe that's why I tried so hard to remember it?"

He finally glanced at the black kitten at his side, and noticed something peculiar. "Hey, you have green eyes like me! Creepy. Awesome, but creepy."

The cat pulled away from his petting hand and licked him. With its ears pulled back, it had the most unpleasant expression that Harry couldn't help but gaze blankly at. Why was it looking at him like that? His throat constricted, cutting off anything else he would've said as well. He didn't know why he felt like this when the kitten stared at him. It pulled him out of that after a cute cry. Harry laughed nervously at his strange feelings about this whole situation. It can't be, he repeated in his head.

"You don't understand me, do you?" He asked at the risk of sounding stupid. "But hey, I'm alone, aren't I?"

"Nya." It made affectionate gestures to his leg, and then looked at him pointedly in the eyes.

Green met green again, and something sparked in his mind.

Whatever it was he remembered, it would need to be brief; the protagonist would faint soon after.

"... I'll be back—just wait. I promise."

Well, if there was anyone who could defy the normal laws that govern the universe(s), it was Harry Potter. Though he shouldn't have knowledge of that yet, that was basically the case here. He found himself waking up in the familiar forest of Wonderland against all reason, under the warm glow of fluorescent leaves and cushioned by soft turquoise. He must have still been unconscious while floating to the ground, because he had no memory of it.

Contrary to the natural method of awakening he usually used like the previous slow starting, this time he sprung up onto his feet as if his arse was on fire. In a sense of anxiety and mystique, he whirled around with wide eyes as he recognized everything. Everything was exactly like last time, so he reckoned—

"Midri!" His happy voice shattered the quiet of the forest. "Hey Midri! I'm back! I told you I would, see!"

He searched desperately up into the lower branches of the trees around the clearing. No one.

"Midri?" Harry called out again. No answer.

Excitement dropping exponentially as if doused with cold water, he furrowed his brows in confusion. Disappointment crept into his chest and strangled his heart. Thoughts and memories made together in that short but magical dream ran through his mind like speeding trains on collision courses. His emotions on all this turned to despair in mere seconds.

"She didn't wait?" Harry thought, expression shocked and disconsolate. "Best friends... She meant that, didn't she? But maybe she just doesn't know I'm here—she's at her home! Yes, she might be even sleeping at home!"

Trying not to be give up too early, he paced around the clearing for a few minutes. His footsteps sounded to his ears unnaturally harsh against the grass that he remembered sharing with Midri. Thoughts of her turned him slightly impatient. He pouted in frustration as he decided what to do next.

His eyes strayed to the rich dirt path he once walked before, and then with a sudden inspiration he darted off in a sudden movement down the winding path further into the dark woods.

They hadn't been mindlessly wandering the last time he was here with Midri. If they had been doing that, they would have gotten lost. She had been leading purposefully down this path. Both of them had been heading somewhere. He just hadn't given much thought to where before, because he was enjoying himself.

Harry hoped it would lead to his long-lost friend.

Eventually, after almost losing himself twice, he was amazed to find what appeared to be a village in the forest. The clearing this time was much larger, with some of the gargantuan trees hollowed out to make apartment buildings and residences (with doors, windows, and everything)! All sorts of people were up and about, most being adults with purple hair, but they seemed to glance at him indiscriminately before going on with what they were doing. As he looked up toward the canopy, he realized he could finally see the sky in some spots. It was black and speckled with an innumerable amounts of stars. He wouldn't be able to tell now if the day was normally blue like his own world, since it was nighttime.

Harry felt more hopeful than before. "Maybe Midri's really sleeping."

"Midri? Why would you be looking for her?" A boyish voice sounded from behind him.

Whirling around, he faced an older boy (likely around 14) with yellow eyes and bi-toned black-purple hair. A quick glance around had him thinking that he had yet to find someone without purple somewhere on his or her person. Was this a popular trend here? If it was, it was pretty ridiculous. Not to mention it was overwhelming. They all looked generally the same, like they were cloned off each other. Actually, it wouldn't be such a wild idea, Harry thought. He also had yet to see a female too. They could all be cloned off some purple-haired man, for all he knew.

"Oi, are you listening, nyaki-chi?" Something in this guy's tone didn't sound nice. Harry was surely being addressed demeaningly too, though he may not have known what 'nyaki-chi' meant. It put him on edge.

Despite what his instinct told him, our little hero asked, "Do you know where Midri is?"

When the rude boy smirked knowingly, Harry was reminded of his fat cousin when he was pleased because of Harry's misfortunes. It didn't foretell good things. Harry's leg muscles tightened in an urge to leave. But he stayed. Why? Because his desire to find his friend seemed to override that.

The boy's eyes glinted seriously as he regarded Harry with acute inspection. "Well, well... We don't get many humans here. They usually get lost on the way to this village and then suffer some obscure death because they wandered down the wrong path." Harry froze in fear at that information. Midri hadn't told him that about the forest. "You're either very lucky, or you were shown toward this place by a Cheshire." Or maybe she had known and had been looking out for him after all.

Smirking again, however, the rude boy looked positively sadistic as he continued his unnervingly accurate examination, "Seeing how you're asking for Midori-nyan, though... I can see you were discovered by a Cheshire. Did you lose sight of her? Perhaps that's because Midri is imprisoned right now."

Harry gasped. "She's in prison? Why's Midri in jail?" He couldn't believe it. Had she done something wrong?

"Well, nyaki-chi, that's because she's been missing for a year. Our elders were worried she would go rogue, so they captured her two days ago and have had her locked her up against her will since then! Happy ending!" He chuckled in amusement.

That wasn't funny to Harry, considering that he himself must have been the reason she'd been missing. He angrily retorted, "It's not funny! She was only missing because she was looking for me! They shouldn't lock her up!"

Purple eyebrows raised suggestively. "Oh-ho?" He imposed on the younger boy's personal space and leant his face uncomfortably close to Harry's, until their noses were practically touching. Harry startled, but still glared defiantly into the face of the older boy. "You must be someone special if Miss Midri went missing for a whole year, for you." He smiled widely. "You'll probably be thrilled to find out the happy situation she's in right now." The way he said it didn't make it sound good, and Harry worried about what he'd find out.

"What situation?" Harry fired at the boy, but unfortunately the Cheshire had pulled back and was already fading away into invisibility. Soon Harry would be talking to only air. "Hey! Wait! Where's the jail? What happened to her?" He yelled.

The creepy grin was still showing, frighteningly floating in thin air. "Her jail cell is the highest point in the forest—and wouldn't you like to know?" Soon even the grin faded, and Harry was again left alone amongst a sea of purple-haired strangers.

"Where's the highest point?" Harry muttered irritably to himself as he turned on his heel to glance around at the trees.

He stopped and was surprised to find that the tallest point was on the tree just behind him. A doorless entranceway on the tree led to a spiralling staircase inside it, which went up an exhausting length. Harry did not look forward to climbing those stairs. He would probably expire before he made it to the top!

Harry groaned crabbedly, "Oh for heaven's sake... Midri better make this up to me afterwards."

Though irascible in tone, Harry truly worried for the state of his best friend. She had gotten into trouble because of him, and was imprisoned unfairly because of a promise he had made... and had failed to remember until a year had passed. He felt guilty, but angry that the Cheshires would be so unreasonable! So he would try to talk to them, and if that didn't work... He would break her out somehow!

Though he hadn't quite figured out how, yet.

He would figure that out while he ascended those stairs.

[ Continue to Part 2 of Backwards Compatible, Chapter 03. ]