Team: Kenmare Kestrels
Position: Chaser 1
Prompt: Alice in Wonderland
Optional Prompts: clandestine, gamble, kaleidoscope
Beta'd by: SpacesInMyMind, QueenBookwormtheFirst
Word Count: 2458
Harry dragged his hands through his hair. After their defeat in the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, Oliver Wood was pushing the team to practice more and more often. The only problem was that there weren't enough hours in the day for classes, practice, and homework. Seeing as Harry couldn't miss class or Quidditch, his homework was suffering.
"You're going to have to do the work at some point, Harry. If you want to sneak out to the next Hogsmeade weekend, at least finish up whatever homework you have left." Hermione patted his arm and scratched out a formula on her Arithmancy homework. "You don't have very much to do. It's only Professor Snape and Professor Lupin's essays, along with practice for Charms and Transfiguration. It isn't terrible."
"That's because you're taking all the classes possible. Of course our homework doesn't look very hard." Scratching his head with the back of his quill, Ron gave his Divination homework a confused look. "Have I said I'm going to die by strangulation yet?"
"Yes, up there, in Wednesday's dream." The brunette glared at the redhead. "You shouldn't be making up all this stuff."
Ron rolled his eyes. "The whole class is ridiculous. Why shouldn't I enjoy myself?"
"Because..."
Harry felt his eyelids grow heavy as the sound of his two friends' bickering faded away...
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
"Wake ups, Master Harry Potter sir! Wake ups!" Harry felt himself being shaken awake and opened his eyes to find Dobby standing over him. "I is being late!"
"Whazzat...?" Rubbing his eyes, Harry sat up slowly and looked around. He was still in the common room, which appeared to be empty. The clock suddenly began to chime, once, twice, three times. Three o'clock in the morning. He wasn't sure if it was worth it to stay up now or go up to bed. "Dobby, it's three in the morning. I'm not late to anything. Why are you waking me up?"
"Because Dobby is being late if Master Harry Potter does not wake up!" Dobby gave Harry one last shake and ran out of the room, slipping through a door behind a gryphon tapestry.
The Boy Who Lived to be Confused rubbed his eyes again. Where was that house elf going? Sticking his hand in his pocket, Harry found his invisibility cloak stuffed inside his robe. He pulled it around his shoulders with a yawn and started after Dobby.
Pulling the tapestry aside, Harry found a tiny wooden door set in the wall. That must have been where Dobby disappeared to. Maybe the house elf could fit through that, but a thirteen year old boy, even a small one like Harry, definitely could not squeeze in. He knelt down on the cold stone floor and, carefully pulling open the door, peered through. He could see a big room with chairs and a table weighed down by a party's worth of food. It was more food than Harry had ever seen, even at the Hogwarts feasts. It was then that he noticed the bar of Honeydukes chocolate beside his foot, with a label that read "Eat Me" in a handwriting not unlike Professor Snape's. He looked at the door, then back at the chocolate. There was always the chance that this was poisoned or worse, but Harry didn't think so. Making a gamble, he tore off the wrapper and took a bite out of the chocolate bar. He immediately began to feel odd as his vision turned to a kaleidoscope of colors.
When his sight finally cleared, Harry found that everything around him had grown! It took a couple of minutes before he realized that it wasn't the furniture that had grown, but him who had shrunk. Shrugging, he went through the door without a problem and looked around. Then he realized there was something else he had to figure out: he was too small to reach the table or chairs. Thinking of the bar of chocolate, Harry inspected the room carefully. There! All the way across the room was a bottle of what looked like butterbeer that was just his size. He shook his head. If he had to walk across the room it would take forever. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he caught sight of a Firebolt only a couple of inches away. Well, that was a nice bit of luck. This place was very odd. Walking quickly, Harry came up to the broom and swung his leg over it. Once he was in the air he directed the Firebolt towards the bottle of butterbeer. There was another label around the bottle, one that said "Drink Me". It hadn't hurt him to listen to these labels before, so Harry took a swig of the beverage. As soon as the liquid hit his tongue, his vision began to kaleidoscope again and the next thing he knew he was back to his original size. But now he was larger than before! Now he towered over the table. But wait, was that—
"Dobby! Hey, Dobby, wait!" Harry ran over to the house elf, nearly smashing a few chairs in the process. "Wait up! Where are we? What's going on?"
"Dobby is late, Master Harry Potter sir! Dobby must run!" Dobby turned a corner and Harry lost sight of the little elf again. All he saw was a doorway that would've been a perfect fit if he was his original size.
"I can't be this tall. I have go back to my regular height," Harry whispered. He'd always wished he was taller, but this was too tall. If he wasn't careful, he could probably smash Hogwarts!
"Why Harry—" a voice called.
"Is there—" said another.
"A problem?" the voices finished. From his seat on the floor he saw two figures poke their bright red heads through the doorway.
"Fred! George! What are you doing here?" Harry asked with relief. Their familiar faces were welcome in this strange place. Who even knew all this was within Hogwarts's walls? The castle was even larger than he'd thought. "Where are we?"
The redhead on the right (Harry suspected it was Fred) gave him a quizzical look. "Who is this 'Fred and George' you speak of? I am TweedleGred—"
"And I am TweedleForge," the one on the left finished.
Harry shook his head at the twins' antics. "This prank isn't funny, guys. Let's just go back."
"What is this—" Fred—no, TweedleGred—started.
"Prank you are—" TweedleForge continued.
"Talking about?" The twins looked at each other. It was then that Harry realized they were wearing their Weasley sweaters. Instead of having an 'F' and a 'G' on it, though, there was a 'TF' and a 'TG' on the sweaters. Maybe they were right. Maybe it was just a coincidence that they looked exactly like the twins.
"Sorry. I guess I was wrong. You two look like my friend's brothers." Harry rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Do you know how I can get through this door?"
"Well, we would assume—"
"You would have to—"
"Be a lot smaller—"
"In order to do that." As they had before, the twins finished the sentence together.
The one on the left—TweedleForge?—held out a hard candy. "Try this. It's—"
"Our new—"
"Shrinking Deluxe—"
"Candies."
Harry shook his head to clear it and took the candy. Another gamble. It seemed like everything in this place was about taking chances, but that was alright. Harry was used to taking chances on things that seemed impossible. He popped it in his mouth. This time, there were no colors. He simply shrunk down to what he thought was the size he had been before eating all those weird foods. "Thanks!"
"Not a—"
"Problem. We're happy—"
"To help." They waved and skipped down the path, disappearing from sight.
Harry shrugged and began down the same path through the dark, tangled forest. It was the only path in sight, so he had to assume that this was the one Dobby had taken earlier. Why did the house elf need him? Harry hadn't seen him since last year, when he freed him from Lucius Malfoy. Maybe this was the elf's way of thanking him?
After a few minutes of walking he found himself entering a sunny clearing. "Hello?" He called hesitantly. He didn't want to interrupt anyone if he didn't have to.
"Hellooooooooo," a voice called back.
As he stepped further into the clearing, Harry saw a girl with dirty blonde hair, radish earrings, and an enormous lion hat sitting at the table drinking from a teacup. "Um, hi. I think I'm lost."
"One is never lost. One is simply not where he thinks he should be," someone else said.
Turning to face the other voice, Harry gasped. "Hermione?!"
"I am not 'Hermione'. That is a ridiculous—Mousenald, what do you think you are doing?" The girl who looked remarkably like Hermione but evidently was not lifted a red furred mouse out of the sugar pot by the back of his neon orange sweater. "You cannot have that much sugar."
The blonde took a sip of tea. "Are you lost, stranger? Come, have tea with us."
"Oh, I can't, I'm looking for—" Harry started.
"It matters not who you are looking for. What matters is that you are here." The girl who looked like Hermione set the mouse on the table beside her teacup. Now that Harry was really looking at him, the mouse kind of reminded him of Ron. "Eat. Drink. There is nothing more to life than enjoyment and knowledge."
Harry looked back and forth between the two girls. This whole place was just really, really bizarre. "I think it's time for me to go. I have to go find Dobby."
"Dobby?" Blonde asked.
"He's about this tall, pointed ears." He held his hand a few feet off the ground. "He was running this way when I lost him."
"I saw someone who looks like that run that way." Not-Hermione gestured to where the path continued on the other end of the table. "It may be helpful to check in that direction."
"But you should always keep an eye out. You never know when the Blibbering Humdingers will strike."
Harry gave the blonde girl a nod, not knowing what else to say, and started on his way again.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
Every so often Harry thought he caught sight of a little figure running along the dirt path, but he couldn't be sure. Suddenly, he saw a peculiar sight.
A crowd of men and women on what looked like the newest, most popular brooms were flying around a rosebush with silver paintbrushes and buckets of silver paint. Based on the color of all the other rosebushes, Harry had to assume that this one had started out scarlet as well, but now the roses were covered in the silver paint. "What's going on?" he asked, puzzled.
One of the women turned to face him. To his surprise, it was the captain of the Holyhead Harpies. "This? We must paint the roses for His Highness the King of Snakes!"
"But why?" A crease appeared between Harry's brows. Why paint the rosebushes silver? Weren't rosebushes supposed to be red?
"Because the roses are red!" A man shouted. "His Majesty does not like scarlet roses! Scarlet roses are banned in the Kingdom of the Snake!"
"Oh." Harry couldn't help but think that this king sounded an awful lot like Draco Malfoy's father. It was all about using your money to get what you wanted taken care of. "So—"
"Don't bother us! If the king sees this—" Another woman slid her fingers across her throat. "He shall have our heads!"
"Our heads!" the other players echoed together.
"I guess I'll be going, then." Turning on his heel, Harry continued along the road, finally coming upon Dobby. "There you are! I've been chasing you everywhere. Where did you go?"
"Dobby had to get to his other master! Dobby hopes Master Harry Potter is not upset." Dobby looked up at him with wide eyes. "But Master Harry Potter cannot come! Other master will kill Master Harry Potter!"
Harry crossed his arms and stood his ground. "I'm going to come with you. I can't leave you alone."
"No, Master Harry Potter!" The elf began to race down the path but this time Harry kept up with him.
After several tense minutes of running Harry found himself in front of a giant manor. On the lawn in front was a familiar figure. "Mr. Malfoy?" he asked in surprise.
"Excuse me?" The blonde man glared down his nose at the child. "I am not Mr. Malfoy. I am King Lucius of the Kingdom of the Snake!"
Oh. So it was Mr. Malfoy. Just different, like everyone else in this weird place.
"For that—off with your head!" Lucius pulled out his wand and pointed it at Harry's throat.
"No!" The Boy Who Intended to Keep His Head turned on his heel and tried to flee.
"After him, Players!" The king swept his arm past his Quidditch players and they jumped on Harry.
"No Mr. Malfoy! No..." Harry's vision turned to a kaleidoscope of colors until they finally merged to black.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
"Harry? Harry, are you alright?" Hermione shook Harry's shoulder until he slowly sat up and began rubbing his eyes.
"Hermione? Oh, 'Mione, you're you! You're not that weird person from my dream..." Harry's voice trailed off as the girl raised an eyebrow. "You were!"
Ron shook his head and stuffed a pastry into his mouth. "You must've been dreaming, mate."
"I wasn't! There was a door, behind that tapestry, over there." He pointed to the gryphon tapestry on the wall across from them. "You were a mouse who kept going into the sugar bowl. And there was food, with Snape's handwriting—"
"Professor Snape, Harry," Hermione admonished.
"Fine, Professor Snape's handwriting. I was following Dobby and there were all these strange people..." Harry shook his head. "It must've been real. It felt real."
"A clandestine door in our common room? People who were us, but not? You haven't even seen Dobby in a year." She shook her head slowly. "It was simply a very vivid dream, Harry."
Seeing that he wasn't going to win this argument, Harry decided to quit before it turned into an all-out fight. "I think I'll go to bed. I'll finish my homework tomorrow."
"Good idea. Maybe you need to sleep, then these crazy dreams will stop," Ron agreed. "Night."
"Good night." As he walked up the stairs, Harry could've sworn he saw Dobby standing in the corner and give him a wink. But of course, it could've been his imagination.