Serena Inverse: Hello, and welcome to the first chapter of Sweet Dreams! I'll be your other author alongside Lizeth. I'd firstly like to thank Lizeth for letting me work and play around with her ideas so much, despite me being a completely unknown writer! I'd also like to thank the authors of all the characters in this story (none of whom belong to us) for creating such wonderful characters and worlds.

With no further ado we present chapter 1, I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

Sweet Dreams
by Serena Inverse and Lizeth Hallington

Chapter 1

Harry let his forehead fall softly onto the window in front of him. There was a dull thud that resonated across the glass and he pressed his hands onto the cool surface as well, ignoring the fact his Aunt Petunia would berate him for putting greasy handprints all over the window.

It had been a whole month since he'd returned from Hogwarts, and although he had to admit that after the warning from the Order, he'd been treated slightly better then normal, his life was darker then usual.

Sirius was gone, and he wasn't coming back. That dark thought was somehow overpowering all the other problems he faced in his life, shoving Voldermort and his Death Eaters deep down into the depths of his mind and locking them underneath a wall of sorrow. He knew he should be worrying about the imminent threat to the whole wizarding world, but all he could think of was his own heartache. The only family he'd ever truly had... and he'd let him be snatched away. Harry hit his head harder on the glass.

"It shouldn't have happened like that... It shouldn't..."

He growled as he felt moisture on his face and scrubbed hard at his eyes with a dirty sleeve before lifting his head to look back out the window. The world outside was grey and overcast; it was raining. Typical.

He sighed, took a breath. It didn't help. He glanced down at the photo album given to him by Hagrid all those years ago, a few of the pictures had Sirius in, if only in the background. Strange to think that he somehow missed him more then his own parents. Then again, he had no real memory of his parents, only these photos and what people had told him. It was harder to miss a distant memory then a person you'd known living and breathing.

Hedwig hooted in her cage and shifted about on her perch. Harry sent the bird a sympathetic glance. She needed to stretch her wings. He'd been neglecting her.

He stretched his legs and wandered over, unlatching the cage and letting Hedwig hop onto his arm. The white owl seemed to have sensed her master's bleak mood; she'd barely complained or made much of a fuss since they'd returned. Harry stroked her feathers and sighed.

"I'm really pathetic, aren't I, girl? Moaning on like this, Sirius... he'd be mad at me for moping over him when there's a job to be done."

She hooted softly and nipped his thumb affectionately. Harry smiled at the bird with sad eyes and ran his fingers through her feathers again.

"I just wish... I know it's stupid, but there's so much more I wanted to tell him, that I wanted to ask him... I just wish I could see him... one more time." He sighed. "But there are some things even magic can't do."

The owl stared at him quietly.

Harry shifted her weight and opened the window with his free arm.

"Have a nice flight, Hedwig," he said as she soared out the window.

Harry watched as she floated like a spectre through the night sky, soaring up towards the big round moon. He wondered for a moment where a bird as smart as Hedwig went when she wasn't hunting -- when she just wanted to stretch her wings. It would be interesting to know. He smiled sadly and settled back down to look through his photo album again before his Aunt called him down to eat something and then clear up after the meal.

It was much, much later when Hedwig reached her destination. She fluttered down onto the long elegant arm that was held outstretched and folded her wings in neatly. The arm's owner gave her a minute to regain her wind after the long flight and then amber eyes met deep maroon red.

The woman smiled enigmatically at the bird, and Hedwig felt the air around her shift and coil like the smoke coming out from the long pipe held in the woman's free hand.

"So..." the mysterious woman said simply, "Shall I grant your wish?"

The owl hooted at her.

"You know that there will be a price?"

Hedwig hooted indignantly.

"Very well, what is your wish?"

Hedwig dropped a rag of paper on the floor from somewhere underneath her feathers. It was picked up and examined for a moment before the owl was stared at in earnest.

"You understand what this entails? The danger?"

The owl hooted at her for a few minutes.

"Oh?" the woman said, sliding one long leg over the other, exposing a scandalous amount of thigh underneath her slitted black dress. She sucked on her pipe for a few minutes, staring at the moon in the sky and contemplating.

"I know who you need, the best person to grant this person's wish..." She grinned and continued, "He complains a lot but he's a hard worker, and his attitude suits your stubborn charge... But getting your charge to him unnoticed will be the true difficulty. For what you can afford to pay, this intervention and the circumstances necessary to allow your charge to reach his destination will be the most I can do. Do you understand?"

Another hoot in the night.

"Very well." She stood, turning back to face the house. "Then let your wish be granted."

Yuuko Ichihara, as beautiful as she was strange and powerful, smirked at the owl and then snapped her fingers.

"Maru! Moro! Find Mokona, we've got work to do!"

There was movement from within the house as two hyperactive children bounced forth and started to run around in search of Mokona.

Hedwig watched with apprehension. She was starting to think that she was prescribing her master a life or death remedy, but... she had faith in him.

"All right owl," Yuuko said, startling Hedwig as the Dimensional Witch turned and pushed up her sleeves. "We need to make some modifications."

The look in the woman's eyes could have made Hedwigs feathers go grey.

Far away, completely unaware of what his owl had planned for him, Harry Potter was getting into bed for the night, carefully leaving the window open to let Hedwig come in whenever she decided to return. It wasn't unusual for Hedwig to be gone for days at a time, even when she wasn't delivering a letter, off wherever it was owls went at night, but he was starting to get worried about her.

"Where are you Hedwig?" he spoke out loud, glancing at the empty cage. He sighed in frustration at his inability to do anything and switched of the light, focusing on trying to get some sleep.

It was some unknown hour in the early morning when Harry was woken rudely from an admittedly fitful sleep by a loud, urgent hooting.

Harry struggled to disentangle himself from the sheets, but when confronted with the sight in front of him, even with all of his strange experiences in the wizarding world, he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. Riding on a very embarrassed looking Hedwig's back, holding an owl sized rein and sitting on the smallest saddle in the world, was the strangest looking black rabbit Harry had ever seen. It was as round as a football, had nearly non-existent front paws, squinty eyes, and what looked like a blue gemstone stamped onto its forehead.

And it was wearing flying goggles.

"H-Hedwig?" Harry stuttered, fumbling for his glasses and sliding them on, bringing the two into sharp focus. Unless his glasses were seriously broken or enchanted, he was not seeing things. The only thing keeping him from completely loosing his cool was that he knew Hedwig wouldn't bring him anything dangerous...

And then the rabbit spoke to him.

"Yo! Harry Potter! Harry Potter the wizard!" it chirped happily raising a paw in greeting.

"You... what are you?" Harry eventually managed to stutter.

"Mokona is not a what!" it said indignantly, dismounting a still very embarrassed looking Hedwig and bouncing across the room to him.

"Mokona is Mokona!" he yelled and then leaped straight into a jumpy Harry's arms, making the poor boy let out a muffled yelp at the sudden movement as his arms were suddenly full of a black ball of warm fuzz.

The bunny even had the audacity to giggle at him.

"Look, you!" Harry fumed trying to keep his voice down and putting the rabbit down firmly on the bed in front of him. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Mokona is Mokona!" the creature repeated cheerfully.

"Alright, but what do you want?" Harry asked. "And keep your voice down," he added quickly as Mokona opened his mouth again. "You can't wake my aunt and uncle."

"Really?" Mokona asked with an innocent expression but in a tone of voice that made Harry think he shouldn't have handed over that piece of information.

"Hedwig, why did you bring this thing here?" Harry asked in annoyance, trying to divert attention. Hedwig, however, was too busy tearing the saddle and harness to pieces with her beak and talons to respond.

"Mokona came to find you, rejoice!" Mokona said, bouncing happily in front of Harry.

"Why should I rejoice that you broke into my room in the middle of the night?"

"I didn't break in! I was brought! It's time to go, Harry Potter!"

"Go!? Why would I go anywhere with you?"

"'Cause you have to," the creature said matter-of-factly, almost pouting.

"No. I've had quite enough of being dragged off in the middle of the night, and more than enough of strange creatures telling me what to do during my summer break, thank you very much."

"Hurry up!" the creature yelled, bouncing up and down on the bed again.

"No! Keep your voice down!"

"HURRY UP, HARRY POTTER! WE'LL BE LATE!"

"Shut up!" Harry yelped and tried to grab the creature, but it was just too fast for him, easily dancing back and forth just beyond his reach. "You're going to wake everyone up!" he whispered furiously as he chased it around the tiny room. Given how badly the incident with Doby ended, he didn't want anything like that happening ever again.

"Then come with me!"

"No!"

"In that case..."

And that's when the creature opened its mouth and generated a massive wind. Harry watched in horror as his precious family photo album was sucked into its mouth and swallowed.

"No!" he screeched, forgetting he was supposed to be being quiet.

The creature then proceeded to open its mouth and spit out an album twice its size, completely undamaged. It grinned smugly.

"If you want it back then follow Mokona!" it laughed, swallowing the album again and twirling on the window ledge.

"No!" Harry yelled as it jumped down out of the window and out of his reach. He growled and then fled back to his bed, throwing on some clothes and pocketing his wand before tearing out of his room, shoving his feet into some old trainers on the way.

"What do you think your doing, boy?!" Uncle Vernon yelled, having finally been roused by all the noise, bursting out of the master bedroom wearing an old blue dressing gown, Aunt Petunia wavering behind him.

"I don't have time for you!" Harry yelled, shoving past his Uncle and fleeing down the stairs.

"Fine! Run back to your stupid abnormal Order, and good riddance!" he yelled after Harry as he shot out the door, looking for where the rabbit had landed, not bothering to correct his Uncle's assumption. Let him think whatever he wanted.

Amazingly, the creature was sitting on the gatepost outside the front door, waiting for him, but Mokona smirked and jumped off as soon as he knew Harry had spotted him.

"Wait!" Harry yelped as he scrambled out onto the road and after the rabbit. "Wait!" he yelled again, but the creature kept on bouncing ahead of him.

Adrenaline and anger pushed Harry on through the dark streets after the rabbit. How dare that stupid bunny steal his album! Everything he loved got taken from him, and everything he cared about got hurt! Those photos were all he had left of his family now, and he'd be damned before he let that album get away from him as well.

"Come back!" Harry said, barely restraining himself from simply throwing a curse out at the annoying animal to stop it.

Before he knew what was happening, he found himself facing the rabbit down in a dead end alley near the local public school. Perfect, the little rat was trapped.

"Got you!" he said, drawing his wand. "Now don't make me hurt you. Just give me that back, rabbit."

"Mokona is Mokona! Not a rabbit!" the creature yelled indignantly and then squirmed his way under the fence that ran along one side of the alley.

"Bloody-!" Harry swore as it escaped yet again. He threw himself to the ground, scrambling to force himself under the fence after it. If he hadn't been so aggravated at that point in time he might have thought to go over the fence instead of under, but he was so blinded by rage at that point that he forced his (thankfully) scrawny body through the tiny gap. After several minutes of squirming and cursing in the dirt trying to get through the gap he finally felt himself come free and he popped out the other side. He paused and gasped for breath, trying to ignore the burning sensation along his back where it had been scrapped along the bottom of the fence.

"Hello!" the rabbit waved cheerfully from his perch on the top of a lamppost.

"You little-!" Harry started to rant.

Hold on, Harry's brain suddenly said, interrupting him as the adrenaline abated enough to let it kick in. I just went under a fence that should have led into someone's back garden. I could see the house behind the fence before I went under it... so how did I end up in another back alley?

"Where are we?" Harry asked instead, puffing and getting his breath back as he glanced around him.

"Another dimension," the creature said matter of factly. "If you hadn't been so mad you might have noticed the change while you were squirming in the earth just like a little wormy!"

"Stop saying things like that so cheerfully!" Harry yelled, pulling out his wand for the second time. Forget the restrictions on underage wizardry. The first thing he'd do once he'd caught it was a silencing charm.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"'Cause it's the fastest way to get where we're going!" it bounced. Did that thing ever stop moving? "Now hurry, if you stay here too long we'll get trapped! This way!"

"What?" Harry yelped as the creature bounced down onto the ground and led him forward again. "Wait, you stupid-!"

"This way!" it laughed and it bounced between two trees planted very close together

"Wait!" Harry yelped as he ran forward and forced his body through yet another narrow space again. And this time, now he that was thinking of it, he did feel something shift all around him, like something was changing the world around him. The moment both his feet were planted on the other side of the trees he realised everything had changed.

Where the previous places had been quiet suburban pathways, this place was full of noise despite the early hour. The area was built up and well developed, and the air was more pungent. The last time he remembered being somewhere like this was when he'd been taken through the busy streets of London.

Thoroughly confused and increasingly apprehensive, Harry looked around for the rabbit.

And realized it was gone.

Lizeth: Tada! Serena wrote the majority of this, and I was thrilled when she threw in Mokona. X3 Hopefully with a co-author (with much better time-management skills than mine!) we can keep this story moving along.

Thanks for reading!