My
dream last night had alternate endings for the Harry Potter series. I have
never read the books, and I only saw two of the movies—one that I was delighted
and overjoyed at seeing, the other that I despised so much, I had no interest
in seeing the rest. And no, I won’t say
which was which.
In
my dream it was nearing midnight, and Harry, Hermione, and Ron had fled to an
elevator at the top of a dark castle.
There, they awaited the final battle with ultimate evil—tense, wordless,
with no real hope of victory.
They
were joined by the twins, who suddenly entered the elevator, and who had become
powerful wizards in their own right.
This cheered the original trio, improving their odds. One of the twins took some time to lean over
to Hermione and ask if she was all right, obviously concerned she might have
been physically injured. That done, the
five of them waited in silence for the showdown with ultimate evil.
My
dream skipped the final battle.
It
now went to one of two alternate endings.
In the Potter series, Harry
and his friends are going to their academy in real time, and the people who
know them are aware they are growing up.
But in my dream they were spending time in a realm where time passes
differently, much as in the old fairy stories where people spend time in Faerie
and come back startled at the difference in time.
In
the first alternate ending, Harry, Hermione, and Ron have reverted to their
ages at the start of the series. They
are running across an open-air stone structure, high above a grassy field and
with a body of water in the distance.
They are concerned about getting back to our realm, and Hermione leads
the way. She remembers they have to
crawl through a semicircular opening in the low stone wall on the edge of the structure—obviously
designed to allow water to drain out.
Hermione is the first one through, followed by the two boys.
They
drop down to the field without injury, then look back up at the stone
structure. Drops fall on their faces from
the opening, and they realize in disgust that the drops are sewage.
The
three of them turn and run through the field with great difficulty because of their
small size and the high grass, often having to hop as they run. They wonder how much time has passed here,
and whether their families have been looking for them.
This
part of the dream ended. Obviously, this
is similar to the end of C.S. Lewis’ The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where the four children come out of the
wardrobe at their original ages.
photo by Zaheer12a
Now
the dream turned to the other alternate ending.
The trio return to our realm with their ages intact, but hardly any time
has passed here. Hermione returns to a
job she had, taking in people’s wash.
With a basket of laundry tucked under one arm, she approaches an elderly
woman sitting on some outside steps at night.
Hermione
is not sure how many hours have passed, or if it is the same day. Trying to act normal, she hands a large
ticket back to the elderly woman, to see if the laundry is due. (I know the customer hands the ticket to the
launderer, but this is how my dream went.)
The
elderly woman hands the ticket back, saying, “It’s not due.” Then she looks Hermione up and down. Finally, she says, “Child, why is your face
is so wan? Why don’t you come inside?”
Hermione
is puzzled at the elderly woman’s refusal to acknowledge reality: Hermione is not only taller, but she has gone
from being a child to being a woman. But she smells the scent of hot soup
coming from the woman’s apartment, and she relaxes and agrees to go
inside.
photo by John Griffiths
Meanwhile,
Ron is sitting in the middle of a dark living room. He is staring at a framed photograph in his
hands of himself, taken at the start of his adventures. The picture shows him as a young child. Done with his contemplation, he looks up and
says to his parents (who are outside the range of my dream), “Obviously, I’m
older.” This is the revelation moment,
after his parents have accepted him back but have awkwardly not shown any notice
of the change in him. The dream
shifts.
photo by DavidDjJohnson
Harry
is standing in a grocery store at night.
He is startled to find the cheese crackers he was looking for—the boxes
are on hangers which can be swung back and forth, the way movie posters used to
be displayed in music stores. He is
obviously not used to seeing crackers displayed like this and wonders at the
differences brought by the passage of years.
(This contradicts the premise that practically no time has passed in our
realm, but that is the nature of dreams.)
Harry’s
mother comes walking down an aisle towards him, muttering out loud the items
they need to buy. (Yes, I know Harry is
an orphan. It’s a dream.) She comes up to him without looking at him, still
talking.
He
interrupts her. “Look at me.”
She
does. What she has been avoiding after
accepting him back and going to the store with him becomes undeniable as they
stare each other in the eyes: Harry has
grown up.
Harry
continues to stare at her, wondering what will come of this. The dream ends.
That
second ending was more the Rip Van Winkle sort of ending, but with people oddly
wanting to avoid the unexplainable aging of the three former children.
This
is not fan fiction. The dream really
happened, so in a way it’s a form of non-fiction. It may seem suspiciously literary and
detailed, but I have added nothing to it.
All the scenes were dark, except for the ending where they are running
across the stone structure and the grassy field, which was in filtered sunlight—presumably
that part of my dream was lit so I could see the action. Also, The grown version of Harry Potter did
not look like Daniel Radcliffe. He
looked like Stephen Kreiger, who used to hold the world record for the longest
paper airplane throw. See my entry on
him.
If
you want to have dreams this literary and this detailed, I suggest you read and
write a lot.
