ALICE POTTER THE CHESHIRE CAT

SUMMERY: The summer before fourth year Alice Potter receives a strange collar with magical properties...putting it on Alice gains a friendly Ally, freedom from Dumbledore and the Dursleys, Dobby as a free house elf friend and the strength to get through her toughest year at Hogwarts yet...one that involves The Triwizard tournament.

CHAPTER ONE: A collar of escape.

JUNE 20th 1994

Alyssa Potter the girl who lived more commonly known as Alice to her friends strode through Diagon alley with purpose and determination. The past three years in the magical world had taught Alice that the public were sheep...Lockharts fan base and treatment of Professor Lupin came to mind. The past school year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry had taught Alice that authority figures were corruptible -and abusive of powers- often placating with one hand like Fudge last summer when it was thought Sirius black was after her and Hermione's gift of a time turner and strangling with the other like Sirius being hunted on the run despite being innocent. The past forty eight hours however had taught Alice that freedom was attainable and worth fighting for...

FLASHBACK

JUNE 18th 1994

Alice sat in the car as Vernon drove them back from the train station. As usual it was silent and awkward as Vernon huffed every five or ten minutes due to the terrible traffic. The silence latest until the car turned off the motorway and onto the dual carriageway into little whinging.

"When we get home, You'll take everything you have up to your room and remain there unless told otherwise understand" Vernon ordered gruffly

"Yes Uncle Vernon" Alice replied robotically agreeing with the Dursleys ridiculousness tended to help her out in the long term.

"Good" Vernon said looking both smug and confused at the same in time at Alice's monotone voice.

The last twenty minutes passed in the same awkward silence and after the car pulled into the driveway of number four Privet drive. Alice got out of the car and at once opened the boot to get Hegwig's empty cage and her trunk, Alice entered number four and lugged the trunk and cage upstairs remaining in her room as ordered. Sitting on her bed Alice couldn't help but think and mourn the simple freedom of space, the last two weeks of Alice's third year had passed by in a blur with Alice wondering about Sirius's safety and how she'd survive the summer with the Dursleys but she'd been able to walk the corridors without much bother.

Alice looked up in surprise when a half hour later Aunt Petunia came in with some fruit, a sandwich and a six pack of water

"I'd recommend going to the bathroom now" She said sounding a little defeated "Vernon will lock you in afterwards"

"Thank you" Alice said with a nod before following her aunt out and headed to the bathroom

Moving quickly Alice used the facilities and had the sense to grab some bathroom supplies from the cabinet as well as two towels from the hallway closet. Hiding the stolen items away in time for Vernon to appear at her door a set of keys and locks in his hands.

"You'll work on our schedule girl" he said with an unusual grin plastered on his face"and you'll get used to it"

Alice remained sitting on the bed as the door was closed and locked, she waited patiently for Vernon to thump heavily back down the stairs before opening the bedroom window to allow Hegwig to come and go as she pleased. Getting to her feet properly Alice pulled her trunk out and with some effort managed to dump everything out onto her bed. Pulling the inkwells, potions bottles and quills out of the heap she put them on her desk after a quick check for breakages. Robes and clothes went into two piles on the floor for later organisation as books were piled on the pillow and other equipment and parchment were piled on the chair.

Alice stalled at the sight of the purple-sh black collar sitting amongst the remaining rubble of her school stuff. It hadn't been obvious due to being entangled in amongst the few punk band T-shirts she'd managed to buy last summer. Maybe it was an early birthday gift from Hermione or the twins, The three of them knew how much she was into the alternative clothing and music scenes. Her curiosity peaked Alice picked up the collar and turned it over a few times...the urge to put it on getting stronger with each turn. Giving in Alice changed her shirt and opened the wonky wardrobe to watch her putting it on in the mirror. For a moment Alice felt happy since it strangely suited her.

"Well Hello" A voice said in the back of Alice's head surprising her enough to make her jump. "Who are you?"

"I'm Alice, who are you?" Alice asked feeling a surge of panic begin to simmer in her stomach"Where are you?"

"I'll tell you in a moment child" the voice said sounding a little worried "The first thing I'm going to do however is remove all the blocks on your core, whoever did this has definitely tried to harm you and this strange thing in your head definitely shouldn't be here"

"What?, Blocks on my core?, a strange thing in my head what's happening?" Alice asked in a panic as a magical energy pulsed from her feet up.

The energy met resistance before surging rather strongly, flooding Alice's mind in a painful rush, Alice swayed violently as the world began to spin. Alice swore rather violently before her knees buckled and the world went black.

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JUNE 19th 1994, 06:15AM

Alice groaned at the pounding headache she had as she woke up, the room swarmed a little bit as she sat up.

"Well, Well, Well" The strange voice in the back of her head purred happily "Look who decided to wake up"

"Who are you?" Alice almost shrieked as she looked around before frowning in confusion "Where are you?"

"I'm the Cheshire Cat" the voice replied sounding smug at her confusion "And I'm in the collar you're wearing"

Alice got to her feet and went back to the mirror in the wardrobe door. Touching the collar the moment she saw it, Alice stared at it for a moment before looking herself over. Alice was now almost a foot taller in height, her hair was fuller with a more controlled wildness to it. She had a tail and her ears had morphed into Cat ears. Her eyes were her usual green but somewhat slanted, the scar on her forehead had opened and bled at some point when she was unconscious.

"What happened Mr Cheshire Cat?" Alice asked touching the scar and recoiling slightly at the pain "What did you do?"

"There were three blocks attached to your core" Cheshire cat replied in a kind tone "one was placed by your mother which was disintegrating anyway and two were set by an Albus Dumbledore which were doing more damage and hampering you in growth"

"How did I get cat ears?" Alice asked touching her ears before staring at her tail "And a tail?"

"I had to fuse my magical core with yours" Cheshire cat replied answering honestly "It was starting to disable after the removal of the blocks and I'm pretty sure you didn't want to end up in a magical hospital"

"OK" Alice said after panicking for a few minutes as things barely made sense in her head, she turned to sit down on the bed"Why did my scar open and bleed?"

"Ah that was something called a Horcrux" Cheshire answered "It is a thing of intense evil...when we are somewhere safer I will explain it in detail for you"

"Thank you" Alice said sitting down and grabbing the plate of food "I do have some other questions could you answer them when your ready?"

"Sure" Cheshire prompted "I'll ask to the best of my ability"

"Did you know that there's a book that mentions you?...it's called Alice in Wonderland" Alice said "Were you aware of it?"

"Vaguely the previous owner of my collar wore it long enough to create some wards" Cheshire replied "However the story is real enough...Alice was based on a girl called Alice Liddell her family were magical's"

"Really?, Sweet" Alice muttered feeling calmer "May I ask how did you end up in the collar?"

"Ah that was one of my weirder experiences" Cheshire chuckled "when Alice came to wonderland the second time she was stuck trying to get home...I joined the Mad Hatter and the Door mouse in the attempt to get her home alongside the white queen...the Queen of hearts had caught wind Alice was back however, she turned up with the Bandersnatch and an army at her back, the white queen held the army off as well as she could but as Alice stepped through the portal to take her home I was executed alongside the Hatter"

"That's terrible" Alice said sliding to the floor to sort out her clothing "what was the queen of hearts problem?...what did Alice do to provoke her?"

"I'm not entirely sure" Cheshire replied "There was a Croquet match Alice was apart of...and there was court case involving the Knave of hearts that she spoke against as well"

"Shall I assume bruised ego on the queen of hearts part?" Alice added with a frown and a tilt of the head "And a hint of stupidity on Alice's?"

"I can agree with that" Cheshire purred warmly sending happy thoughts to Alice as he did so "Hey want to work on illusions?"

"You can do illusions?" Came Alice's question as she folded the last bit of clothing "What else can you do?"

"I can go invisible at any time" Cheshire replied a little too happily "I can also show different parts of my body as well as showing illusions...I can teach you if you like"

"Yes please" Alice answered smiling looking over the rest of her stuff "Man I need some help with this"

Alice flinched when she heard a pop, turning to the door Alice saw Dobby, the house elf she'd freed from the Malfoys

"Does Miss Alice need help?" Dobby asked sounding a little too hopeful "Anything Dobby can do?"

"What are you doing here dobby?" Alice asked in surprise "How did you hear me?"

"Now don't be mad at dobby" Dobby began to answer his hopefulness shrinking "but when you freed me from bad master I partially bonded with you...Why does Miss Alice have cat ears?"

Alice frowned and groaned at the same time rubbing her eyes giving herself time to think and answer without anger

"I cant tell you right this second why right now and I'm not angry Dobby" Alice finally said "The question is Do you want to bond with me?"

"And how quickly?" Cheshire added with a chuckle and a smirk before being mentally shushed by Alice

"Please, Please, Please Miss Alice Potter" Dobby said with a hyper smile "I'd love to be your elf"

"OK how do we do that?" Alice asked checking the time and panicking slightly when she saw the time saying six fifty five and hearing movement from the rest of the house "And what of that illusion Cheshire?"

By the time the Alarm clock hit seven am and Uncle Vernon started opening the locks to the door. Alice Potter looked 'normal' again and she had the silence, service and loyalty of a house elf for the rest of her life.

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JUNE 19th 1994 22:45

Alice waited with baited breath, at eleven o'clock Dobby would magic the locks on the other side of the door. For the past seventeen hours or so Alice and the Cheshire Cat formed a plan to leave the Dursleys for good and with the help of Dobby they could leave without much of a magical trace. She could have left earlier thanks to Dobby being able to magic her out but if she left without the Dursleys seeing her in her room before she disappeared she'd be in more trouble than it was worth. The time wasn't just used going over the plan, The Cheshire cat had explained several things over again and in more detail as well as helping Alice on bringing up and dropping the 'normal' illusion with merely a thought. Hegwig came and went as Alice told her owl to find her later tomorrow.

As the clock on the table flickered to eleven pm Alice heard the locks click open, the door swung open and Dobby stood in the doorway

"Ready to go Miss Alice?" Dobby asked with a smile and a slight bow "Freedom awaits"

"Yes thank you Dobby" Alice replied "Are all the Dursleys under the sleeping potion you bought?"

"Yes Miss Alice" Dobby said bouncing up and down "They be in deep sleep for hours and hours yet"

"Good" Alice said an idea quickly forming "Could you shrink my trunk and Hegwig's cage for me please I need to get something from the Dursleys bedroom leave my backpack though"

"Yes Miss Alice" Dobby said setting about doing what he'd been ordered to do as Alice crept quietly down the hallway.

Opening the bedroom door to Vernon and Petunias bedroom Alice slowly crept in watching them sleep as she did so. Walking to Petunias chest of drawers and wardrobe Alice searched through them until she found the box filed with the items meant for her from her mother Lily and the paperwork for Alice including her birth certificate. Setting everything back so it wasn't obviously rifled through Alice made to leave before spying Vernon's wallet on the top of his chest of drawers. Grabbing it Alice opened it up and seeing the good chunk of notes there swiped quite a few of them.

"What are they for?" Cheshire asked with interest "Do they mean anything?"

"I'd like to have proof of my existence in the muggle world" Alice answered "I would like to complete my muggle education by next summer if possible"

"That's rather wise...and the money?" Cheshire added Alice could hear the smile and the tilt of his head

"I need money to get to London...I don't want a magical trace...it'll take the magical's longer thought the muggle side after all...besides if I use my bank card too often it'll be tracked that way too"

Alice took the the items back to her room and packed them into her backpack alongside the shrunken trunk and cage. Putting on the backpack Alice gently closed the door and quietly walked downstairs as dobby magically locked the locks. On a whim Alice went to the kitchen and pocketed some dry edible food, Pepsi cans and some fruit. Alice met Dobby back at the front door picking him up before unlocking and opening the front door. Alice used the hidden keys to lock the door behind them. They walked to the end of Privet Drive before Dobby snapped them towards the train station on the other side of town.

'That was never my home' Alice thought to herself taking a seat as the train pulled away 'and it never will be again'

At Number four Privet drive the weak wards set up to protect Alice and the Dursleys gave up and faded away without as much as a pop. High up north in Hogwarts school for magic in the offices Dumbledore claimed as headmaster several silver doodads tied to the wards of Number four shuddered, smoked and broke. It would take a week for Dumbledore to realise since he was in France for the talks on the Triwizard Tournament.

FLASHBACK END

Reaching the steps to Gringotts 'wizarding' bank Alice took a moment to bow slightly to the goblin guards as she passed them, Those with a brain however knew that the bank was pretty much goblin territory. Seeing that the tellers were busy and had queues in the lobby Alice sighed and joined the nearest one and resigned herself to waiting.

"You know love this meeting is going to change your life" Cheshire purred warmly from the back of her head

"So meeting you and gaining Dobby's employment hasn't?" Alice replied playing with the collar around her neck

"Of course it was but meeting me was merely the beginning" Cheshire replied sound smug as usual "But the meeting will improve your life immensely"

Alice snorted to herself but remained quiet otherwise, she'd spent the night in a really nice London hotel thanks to the bank account she'd set up the previous summer with the galleons she'd exchanged for muggle money. The money she'd swiped from Vernon's wallet was more than enough to get a train ticket to London and to get to the hotel with some left over.

Reaching the front of the line Alice took a deep breath and stepped forwards knowing full well she didn't have much time since Goblins could see through most magic #

"Teller Pike I am Alice Potter and I come with a request to see the banker in charge of the potter accounts" Alice said as respectfully as she could slyly reading the tag at the front of the desk "I apologise for not sending a letter forwards but I'd been in no position to do so until late last night, I am willing to wait for a time at his convenience but I must see them...I am willing to prove myself by blood if need be"

"Please wait over there at those seats ma'am" Teller Pike said looking both surprised and a little confused "I will check with banker Bloodfang and send teller Griphook to you when it is time to head to the meeting"

"Thank you master Teller" Alice replied with a slight bow "May your money flow and your enemies quiver in their boots"

"May your enemies quake in theirs Ma'am" Teller Pike replied before watching Alice walk over tot he before mentioned chairs and sat down before turning to Teller Griphook as he passed his chair "Teller Griphook a word please"

Alice sat and began humming the tune to the poem 'T'was Brillig' having heard Cheshire singing it earlier much to the joy of the cat at the back of her head. It was the second hum around when Griphook appeared before her

"Miss Potter" he said with a slight bow "Master banker Bloodfang is ready for you please follow me"

"Of Course Teller Griphook" Alice replied getting to her feet and straightening her clothing as she did so "Please lead the way"

Alice followed the goblin across the lobby and down a corridor hidden in the corner of the room. They walked past quite a few doors and round a few right turns before reaching a door with a plaque stating Banker Bloodfang Potter Accounts. Griphook cleared his throat and knocked on the door. It didn't take too long for a deep booming voice to call out

"ENTER!"

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AUTHORS NOTE:

THANK YOU FOR READING THE FIRST CHAPTER OF ALICE POTTER THE CHESHIRE CAT

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ALL POLITE, RESONABLEY CONSTRUCTED AND RESPECTFUL IN CONTENT WILL BE RESPONDED TO AND WELCOMED.

ALL FLAMERS AND REVIEWERS UNABLE TO WRITE RESPECTFULLY WILL BE DELETED AND BLOCKED.

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CHAPTER TWO IS BEING WRITAIN AS WE SPEAK AND WILL BE POSTED SOON.