Five years later
"Harry!" Alice called. "Don't keep Bandy waiting, Time may not forgive you forgetting him again."
"I never let the tea turn cold," he said. "And I shan't miss the Upperland trip either; besides, Time doesn't like to be kept too closely either."
Alice sighed, amused, as the wild haired boy slid down the stairs. As an Uplander himself, he joined her on her yearly visits. She also taught him about Upperland's customs, though advised him to follow his heart and keep his muchness rather than follow Upperland's expectations too closely.
This time she had promised to take him to a forrest where bluebells grew by the hundreds, with plenty of animals to discover and paths to follow for the young boy.
He slipped on his boots; a present from his tenth birthday, a week ago. They had had a marvellous tea party with all their Wonderland, or Underland, friends, and he had cut the cake for everyone else's un-birthday. In return, each of them gave him an un-un-birthday gift. It had been brilliant fun.
Eager to go topside, he clambered onto Bandy. He was one of the few who could do that without Bandy swiping at him; he had taken a shine to the messy haired boy, just as he had a blond haired girl many years back.
With that, they set off to find adventure topside, in the Overworld.
They were half way to the forrest when they were assaulted by an owl.
"Good evening, Wise One." Harry said politely to the owl currently sitting on his arm.
"Speak featherfancy, Harry. Remember, Upperworld creatures have a dislike of commonspeak." Alice reminded him.
Harry sighed. He could speak the language of birds, but the specific dialect of owls had always been too wordy and wise for his liking.
Greetings, wise one, He said, albeit with a rather strong accent. To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit?
The Upperland Magic Folk send greetings and a message, young Underlander. The large owl hooted. It held out its leg, where a letter was tied. Once Harry took the letter, the owl bade him farewell and flew away.
"It's an invitation to a magic school!" Harry said excitedly. "That sounds so cool!"
Alice chuckled at his excitement, and at his use of modern slang. He seemed to switch between that and more Underlandian speech quite frequently. "Absolem said this may happen. So, what do you think? Ready to go on an adventure in the Upperlands?"
Harry nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I'm ready, I can do it! Absolem has been teaching me all sorts of magic stuff!"
"Well then, let's go tell the others." She said, leading the way back to the mirror.
Harry skipped onto the platform, with Alice and Tarrant trailing behind. Mandy was holding Alice's hand, unused to the hustle and bustle of the Upperland.
"Careful, Harry," Alice said. "Don't get lost, or we'll be in quite the muddle."
Having asked a helpful shop assistant in Diagon Ally how to enter the platform, they strode through the barrier.
"Now you are to be travelling far and away, you may be needing a certain something." Hatter said, one hand going to cover Harry's eyes. Alice grinned, knowing what he intended.
Harry stilled as he felt the weight of a hat fall onto his head. He reached up in wonder, Hatter uncovering his eyes. Lifting the hat from his head, he found it to be a stunning matte black top hat, newer than Hatter's and with a bright green ribbon. A scarlet feather from the Jubjub bird and a bundle of four leaf clovers adorned the side.
Harry threw himself forward, hugging his adopted father happily. "It's marvellous, superb, wonderful, frumptious-"
"Harry!" Mandy said, giggling.
He blushed. "Oops. Um, thanks dad."
Alice gave her Hatter a smug, 'I told you so' look. She knew it was perfect, despite Tarrant's fretting.
Harry reluctantly said his goodbyes to his family and clambered onto the scarlet steam train. "I'll be back before you know it!" He called out of the window, seeing Mandy wiping away tears. Tarrant and Alice started, then chuckled a trifle madly.
He straightened his hat, then strolled down the carriage, in search of adventure.
Harry perched upon one of the seats in a carriage. He was going to miss Underland, but at the moment he just felt excitement. Pulling a book out of his bag, he flicked through to the page about the school houses. "Brave, loyal, cunning and wise..." He muttered. "But isn't everyone some mixture of all of them?"
He looked up as a ginger boy entered the carriage. "Er, can I sit with you? Everywhere else is full." The boy said.
Harry gave his best grin, adjusting his hat. "Sure! I've not got any tea to offer at this very moment, I'm afraid, but we'll make do. Harry Hightop, at your service."
"Er," the boy said, looking rather baffled. "Ron Weasley."
There was silence for a moment, before Ron asked "So, which house do you think you'll be in?"
"I...don't know." Harry said, looking rather worried. "The book didn't say much apart from giving each house a word, and no person could possibly be one thing."
"I'd say Gryffindor's the best; that's where I'll probably go." Ron stated happily. "My whole family's been in Gryffindor."
Harry frowned. "Why, that seems a little strange. My family is like milk, tea and madness; none of us are quite the same, but we fit together."
"Er, right." Ron said, wondering just what he had gotten himself into. "I'd say my family's more of a quiddich team." He mused after a moment.
"Quiddich?" Asked Harry. "What's that, an important date?"
Ron gaped at Harry. "You don't know what quiddich is?" He asked, horrified. "It's the best sport in the world! See..."
Harry listened as Ron described a game on flying broomsticks, with a variety of balls and rules. He wondered what his mum would say to flying broomsticks; she would probably be delighted. She often wondered what it would be like to fly.
After a while, a woman came in with a trolley of food.
"Have you got any tea?" Harry asked. The lady looked rather confused by the question.
"No, dear, but there is pumpkin juice. Will that do?" She asked. Well! Replacing tea, the vital liquid madness of Wonderland, with liquidised vegetables!
"No thank you. I'll be okay with what I have." Harry said, a touch coldly. The woman gave him a confused smile and, after Ron also said he didn't want anything, carried on to the next cart.
Moodily, Ron went to unwrap his sandwiches – only to stop and stare as Harry brought an alarming collection of objects.
"What's all that?" He asked faintly.
"Tea!" Harry exclaimed, with a rather mad grin.
"...Oh." Ron said. Maybe it wasn't too late to move into a different cart.
Inwardly smirking, Harry drew out a large, ornate teapot. Something told him these wizards needed a proper tea party.
Draco Malfoy stalked into the carriage. "I heard Harry Potter was on this..." He trailed off in confusion.
The carriage had a different layout to the others; four people around a central table. On one side was a ginger boy, obviously a Weasley, looking at the cup in his hand with confusion. A pudgy boy and a frizzy haired girl sat on the other side, the boy grinning shyly while the girl chattered about anything and everything.
It was the head of the table that really drew his attention. A boy his age sat proudly on a high backed chair, a tall top hat on his head. He looked utterly mad, with bright olden style muggle clothing, an insane smile and a fevered light shining in his eyes. He looked up to where Draco and his associates stood bewildered.
"Hello!" He cried. "You're awfully late for tea!"
The girl frowned. "How could he be late to a place he was never expected to be?"
"Well, now that your finally here, sit, sit." The mad boy said, gesturing to the empty seats. Crab and Goyle waddled over obediently upon seeing the scones, and Draco automatically picked up a teacup, moving round to sit between the girl and the top hat boy.
"Who are-" Draco started hotly.
"Introductions!" The mad boy exclaimed, before introducing each of the people at the table.
"This here is the brave Ron Weasley," Draco had spotted that a mile off.
"The esteemed Neville Longbottom," The cowardly boy was a Longbottom?
"The beautiful and knowledgable Hermione Granger," The girl, undoubtedly muggle born, blushed.
"And I myself am Harry Hightop, hailing from Underland and currently contemplating the letter 'C'." The mad- that is, Hightop, said grandly.
Recovering from this onslaught, Draco gathered himself up haughtily and said "Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."
"And you Gentlemen?" Hightop asked Malfoy's two acquaintances.
"Crabb," grunted Crabb.
"Goyle," rumbled Goyle.
"Tea?" He asked, holding up an ornate teacup. "I assure you, it's perfectly safe."
Draco had not even though tea could be unsafe, and was now a touch weary. However, he didn't want to offend Hightop, so nodded regally.
And so, the train rolled on, taking the tea party with it.