In 1865, a young girl by the name of Alice Liddell went missing from outside of her home in Oxford, England. Left in the care of her older sister, Margaret, no one could understand how the seven-year-old had disappeared so suddenly. Yet, after multi...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THE ENTIRE HERBOLOGY CLASS WAS SILENT, all of them focused on Alice. As Mr Rabbit claimed he didn't hear anything, Alice shook her head in disbelief. He had to have heard it if there was anyone present who could over her, it was him.
"Don't you hear the humming?" she whispered to him. "Please tell me that you can-"
"Alice, I heard you humming but that was it," Mr Rabbit kept his voice low, " there was no one else. I couldn't hear a thing outside of you and you know my hearing is quite good. Maybe you're-"
He was suddenly silenced by Alice's hand showing up in his face abruptly. She could hear it again and by then, she was becoming absolutely frantic. She couldn't possibly be the only one to hear it but it was already looking bad. But the only way to prove herself was to find the source.
"Alice, calm down, " Mr Rabbit told her, " you're probably just tired right now. Perhaps you just need to lie down. Maybe we should head back to the Common Room."
"Or maybe you should take her to St Mungo's," one of the students said loud enough for the others to hear. "That's where she belongs, with her kind."
If Mr Rabbit wasn't so occupied with keeping Alice calm, he would have bunny-kicked the girl who thought it was appropriate to make such comments during that time. However, he was growing more and more worried as Alice clapped her hands over her ears. It seemed the singing was becoming louder but no one else could hear it. She feared for the worst because if someone from Wonderland couldn't confirm what she heard, what did that mean for her?
"Help me," she whispered to Mr Rabbit, " please, I don't know what's going on! But I can't make it stop!"
Mr Rabbit didn't know what to do with the present situation, but he could read the fear in Alice's eyes. Her entire body was shaking as she continued to keep her ears covered. Gently, he leaned forward and grabbed her robes, pulling her along to guide her out of the greenhouse.
"She ought to go to the Hospital Wing," Professor Sprout suggested. She turned to her class, scolding them and telling to be quiet. She was fully prepared to escort Alice to Madam Pomfrey herself, but Mr Rabbit insisted.
"I'll be the one to bring her there."
Once they were out of the area and a safe distance from the greenhouse, Mr Rabbit brought Alice to sit down in the grass. He decided against the Hospital Wing, knowing that it would just bring more unwanted attention to her.
Something, she definitely did not need.
"Alice..."
She looked up at him, dropping her hands from her ears. "I'm going mad, aren't I? I'm truly going mad. If you can't hear it, I must be."
"My dear," Mr Rabbit said, " you went mad a long time ago. And it's certainly not a bad thing at all. In fact, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to you. I don't know what's going on, but right now, we're just going to sit here and let you relax. How does that sound?"
"Lovely," she answered him, " but you really didn't hear any of the humming?"
"No," he replied honestly, " but just because I didn't hear it, doesn't mean it wasn't happening. It's very possible that I just couldn't hear it. Do not think of the worse, Alice."
The two remained sitting outside by the Black Lake. Alice had her hands folded in her lap, with Mr Rabbit resting beside her. A little while later, Cheshire appeared in her lap, purring loudly as he allowed her to run her fingers through his fur.
"Ah, there you are, Alice," he said, " it seems I won the game."
"What game is that?"
"Were we not in a game of hide and seek?" Cheshire questioned. "The twins seemed to think you were hiding again. I thought we were in the middle of another game."
"It's not a game, Cheshire," Mr Rabbit told him with a nudge.
"Oh, then what exactly are we doing out here?"
"Relaxing," Alice said, " or at the very least, trying to relax. Although, I never found sitting still very relaxing. I think I'm going to go for a walk."
The two jumped up, fully prepared to join her, however, she turned to them with a kind smile.
"Alone, if you two don't mind?"
Alice walked along the school grounds, enjoying the silence as it allowed her to think to herself once more.
"Being mad isn't a bad thing back in Wonderland, everyone is mad there," she said, " and if you aren't, you will be shortly after your arrival. But here, it's not a favourable trait and is definitely frowned upon. That girl said what the majority were thinking, that I should be sent to St Mungo's to live out the rest of my days. As if that will solve the problem."
She kicked at a rock as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her robes.
"Or that's just it. They do not wish to solve the problem, just hide it from the public eye. Hide those from the rest of the world because they are different. I bet plenty of those people are wonderful company, but because they are different they are frowned upon. But it's all up to definition again, isn't it? Just like how Percy and I have different definitions of trouble, I bet people have different definitions of normal too. I wonder how the majority defines the norm? And who gave them the right to set the standards? For all I know, Wonderland could actually be normal and it's the rest of the world that is full of nonsense."
She blinked at her revelation but decided to calm down before she got ahead of herself.
"Or perhaps I'm just spewing nonsense right now, after all, I'm the one hearing things in my head currently."
"You're really good at carrying a conversation by yourself," someone interrupted, " aren't you?"
Looking over her shoulder, Alice smiled as soon as she spotted George. He was proving to be quite the friend when she was in need, where Mr Rabbit and Cheshire couldn't help her. She needed friends from both sides to keep her balanced.
"Years of practice," she said, " I often spoke to myself when I was much younger. I was the only one who cared to listen to my thoughts and point of view. That was good enough for me."
"Well, I could always lend you an ear if you want."
"Do you really want to listen to the chaos that takes place up here?" she asked, pointing to her own head.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious."
"Curiosity has gotten me into plenty of trouble, George."
"Well, it's a good thing that I'm not afraid of getting into trouble, right?"
"Oh yes, I distinctly remember. Speaking of trouble, where's Fred by the way? You two never stray far from each other."
"We overheard what happened in Herbology class, some of the other students were talking about it in the corridors. Don't worry, we took care of them. Once we confirmed it, Fred went one way and I went the other, and well, Cheshire went wherever he wanted to."
"Oh, I guess he found me first, but you came in second, so yay you!"
"Yay me!" George exclaimed as he clapped his hands and jumped in the air. "But if you don't mind me asking, what happened during Herbology? You always hear rumours around the castle, but I definitely rather hear it from the source."
"During class, I was humming to myself and then I heard someone humming with me. I thought it was Mr Rabbit, but it turns out it was all in my head."
