vdansk | Philosophy and Dreams

If you had the chance to rewrite the past so that a child did not grow up isolated and alone, a family did not become selfish and bitter and ugly, would you? What if that dysfunction MIGHT be part of what saved the world?

I dreamed last night that I belonged in Harry Potter's world, that I knew him casually--and that I ended up with him, bizarrely, in the past. We watched as the Walloping Willow smashed the car with Harry and Ron inside.

"What is THAT?" I asked.

"Um, it's the Willow--"

"I know a walloping willow when I see one. Why are we HERE?"

There was no answer to that, but after a gallop through Hogwarts I felt another shift, and found myself on a small suburban street where a giant snake was trying in vain to approach a small house. On the doorstep was a baby, and when the door opened a young Petunia, severely handsome, appeared to scoop up the baby. I followed inside where it was clear that she was a very stressed young mother with an unkempt house and sleepless nights. I changed the baby for her, sent her to bed, looked around, and...took over.
.
The next scene was a decade in the future. I put a coat away in the closet under the stairs that was clearly only used for storage. Vernon stopped me on the stairs. "You know that blue, red and white jam, that's rather like paste? It's all gone," he accused.

"Would you like me to put it on the shopping list?" I asked serenely.

He harrumphed, nothing to fight against, and wandered off. At the top of the stairs was my little bedroom, and beside it the larger room that Harry and Dudley shared. Harry was less skinny, with new glasses, and Dudley was a pleasant boy, only moderately stout, and I hugged them both and told them how proud of them I was.

"But will you still be our housekeeper when we come home from school?" Harry asked.

I smiled and pulled out the wand I'd kept hidden for so many years. "No, I've a new job to take on. I was supposed to take it some years ago, but this will be for the best. I'm going to be in charge of Wizard-Muggle relations at Hogwarts."

I brought them to the train station, where the passage through was a roller coaster and there was a brief musical number--"You're in their world now", and a happy and secure Harry and Dudley went off together. Dudley was sorted to Hufflepuff, Harry to Gryffindor, and the future was changed, perhaps disastrously, perhaps wondrously. I was convinced, though, that whatever happened...it was worth it.