Yes, this is it. The Alternate Ending of Dooooom (or the alternate ending of one fanfic I've written, actually) :)
If you haven't read A small change this might be a little confusing. If you have, this is what it would be like if chapters 21-23 never happened. It begins sometime in summer.
II(:
Disclaimer: If it was all mine why would I post it here?
Prologue
Fourteen-year-old Procyon Black was having a very strange dream. He was being introduced to people he already knew. Most of them, however, behaved as if they had never seen him before. Some seemed surprised or even shocked at the fact of his existence. Procyon had no idea what was going on.
'Denis! Denis, it's me!' he almost shouted as his best friend walked over to him 'Don't you know me?'
Denis Creevy raised his eyebrows.
'It's great to meet you,' he said 'but… well… no… How could we meet before anyway?' he asked and that was the end of their conversation.
A moment later Neville Longbottom showed up.
'Er… pleased to meet you,' he said 'My name's Neville Longbottom.'
'Yeah, I know!' Procyon said. Honestly, who didn't know Neville Longbottom? 'What's going on?' he asked.
Neville was confused. He generally seemed more confused than usual. And less self-assured. There was also something slightly different about his appearance, but Procyon wasn't sure what it was.
'Why are you all acting like you don't know me?' he asked 'And why are you acting like you think I don't know you? Everybody knows you, Neville!'
'They do?' the older boy asked.
''Course they do!' Procyon replied 'You're - ' He paused. He suddenly realized what was wrong with Neville. And possibly with everybody else. 'Never mind…' he said 'Pleased to meet you too.'
This was not the same Neville Longbottom he knew. Not the hero of the wizarding world, but the shy, clumsy boy from a world where Harry Potter was the hero. From the other world.
Procyon had found out about the other world a little more than a year ago when he met a man who claimed to be what the boy's father could have been. How exactly the man, known as Padfoot, had got here was top secret Department of Mysteries business, but Procyon was allowed to know where he had come from.
Chapter one
Procyon woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door. Just as he opened his eyes the door opened as well and the boy looked up sleepily at his uncle.
'Get up, Procyon,' Uncle Reg said.
'Do I have to?' the boy whined.
'If you want to say goodbye to Padfoot before he leaves,' his uncle replied ' then yes, you do.'
'Why can't he leave a little later?' Procyon complained 'You are in charge of the whole project. You could change it…'
'It's not that early, Procyon. It's eight o'clock. And we need to be at the Ministry at ten, so you'd better get dressed and come down to breakfast.'
'Oh, all right,' the boy finally agreed although he still didn't why his father's Gryffindor other self had to leave his world so early in the morning. Or why he had to leave it at all for that matter.
XXX
'Hello' Procyon said, walking into the kitchen. A man who resembled the boy's father quite a lot was sitting at the table.
'Oh, you're up at last,' he said 'I was beginning to think you might forget to wake up today.'
'Where's Uncle Reg?' Procyon asked.
'Talking to someone at the Department,' Padfoot replied 'Making some special arrangements to let you come with us.'
'So I have to get up early, but I still don't know if I'll be allowed to go?' Procyon asked 'That's not fair!'
'Who told you life was fair?' said Padfoot, who, Procyon knew, had a very good reason not to believe in justice. That reminded the boy of a question he had wanted to ask for a while now.
'Why are you doing this anyway?'
'Doing what?' the man asked.
'Why are you going back there?' Procyon said 'To that other world…'
'It isn't that other world for me,' Padfoot cut him off 'For me this is another world.'
'I don't get it!' The boy nearly shouted 'You want to go back to living in hiding in a world where half of your friends are dead? Why?'
'I don't know… Maybe for the other half of my friends? The ones who probably think I'm dead… I don't know, really. It's just… the right thing to do…'
Just then Uncle Regulus returned from the fireplace in the living room.
'It's all right, Procyon,' he said 'You can come.'
'Wow.'
So he really was going to enter the Department of Mysteries! Of course, they wouldn't let him find out any more about it than it was absolutely necessary and he wouldn't ever be allowed to talk about it, but it was still quite amazing.
'Now we just have to wait for Orion and we can go.'
Procyon's older brother had found out about Padfoot and the other world a few months ago. Procyon had been rather skeptical at first about letting him know too much, but apparently it had had a positive influence on the choices Orion had been forced to make recently.
XXX
After a few minutes the older boy fell out of the fireplace. He had not come here earlier because he didn't want his father to suspect anything. Procyon had decided it wouldn't do anyone any harm and spent the night at his uncle's house to avoid having to get up even earlier.
'What took you so long?' Procyon asked his brother.
'No time for this now,' Uncle Reg said before Orion could even start explaining 'We need to hurry up a bit.'
'We could Apparate,' Procyon suggested 'Er… You can take me side-along or something.'
'You're going in through the guest entrance, Procyon,' his uncle said sternly.
'All right, all right.'
XXX
And finally they left the house, dressed in Muggle clothes: Orion's a little bit mismatched, Uncle Reg's ridiculously formal, Padfoot's ridiculously informal and a little old-fashioned (almost as if he hadn't noticed the last twenty years passing and thought he was still a teenage boy in the 70's) and Procyon's own slightly too small as he had grown a couple of inches since the last time he'd worn them. The four of them set off for the Ministry of Magic.
After a rather long journey through the Muggle city they finally reached the old telephone booth that was really the entrance to the Ministry.
XXX
The 'special arrangements' meant that getting into the Department of Mysteries was a very long and complicated procedure. The boys had been told (many times) not to touch anything, put under the influence of several charms to prevent them from paying attention or remembering the most secret things and finally led into the room with the Veil through a very complicated set of corridors. While all this was still happening, Procyon thought it was taking a lot too much time. However when they had reached their destination he felt as though it had all happened too fast. He didn't want to say goodbye yet. Actually, he didn't want to say goodbye at all. Over the past year the man from another world had become more like a father to Procyon than his real father had ever been (at least since the boy had got sorted into Gryffindor and become best friends with a Muggleborn). But he had always known it would have to happen at some point, so now he only wished that point was not right now.
'Well,' Padfoot said 'I guess that's it. It was really great to meet you all, but… well… goodbye.'
He was standing right in front of the Veil and Procyon, his brother and uncle and two Unspeakables had formed a half-circle around him. Then he shook uncle Reg's hand, hugged the boys goodbye and turned to face the Veil.
'I guess it's safer… you know, with my situation in my world… if I transform.' He said.
'I don't think it'll cause any problems,' an Unspeakable said and cast some sort of spell on the Veil 'It should be all right now,' he said.
The other one began to count down 'five… four… three…'. Padfoot transformed into a huge black dog. (Orion, who had never seen him do it before, gasped.) In a few seconds it would all be over. Procyon felt like crying…
'two…'
Only a second left. Procyon had once wished he could just follow his almost-father back to the other world. Of course he knew he couldn't, because…
'one…'
Because what? He thought. He couldn't just stand here and watch! There wasn't time for thinking. In a split second he made up his mind. He leapt forward and grabbed the dog's tail just as it disappeared behind the Veil. He followed it.
'What are you doing, you idiot!' he heard his brother shout.
And then there was… nothing.
