AN: It doesn't happen all the time, but every once in a while I get early on when writing a story a very clear idea of what I want the ending to be like. I loved the idea of having Susan and Peter pop back up into the fountain at the end (I was somewhat inspired by a very good tv version of Cinderella I saw once in which she traved to the ball through water, poping up in a fountain like that, which I thought was really cool). In my orignal notion of the ending however, it was Mrs. Macready who was sitting in the garden chair upon their return. It wasn't until I was in the middle of writing it that I thought, "This doesn't make any sense! Why would Mrs. Macready be there all calm and stuff like that? What the heck was I thinking?" So then I thought I'd make up a sub-plot that might loosly imply that she had a visable dæmon, by having a dog be with her, since I think I mentioned something about her liking dogs earlier in the story in passing. But that just made it all the more confusing, and it asked more questions than it answered. While I wanted an open ending, I didn't want it quite THAT open, so I ended up scraping Mrs. Macready's presence altogether and writing in the professor which made much more sense.
I thought, though, that since everyone was kept waiting for the last chapter for so long, I might post the alternate ending to sort of try to make up for that. So, here's my orignal ending, lacking some details, obviously, because it was scrapped long before I added any major embelishments. (You might notice, also, a mistake I made, in forgetting to write Maugrim in at all).
As for Peter and Susan's return to their home world: they found themselves suddenly surrounded by clear, fresh silvery-blue water, the level slowly rising the further they walked (eventually waded, as walking became impossible) beyond the door Aslan had opened for them.
Then they felt a rush and a pull upwards, till at last they stood, dripping and breathless, in the fountain on the campus grounds of Uncle Digory's College.
Mrs. Macready, who was sitting in one of those stiff, high-backed iron garden chairs, reading a crisp newspaper, looked over her shoulder at the wet figures standing with water up to their calves in the cool basin.
"Ah," she said as coolly as if they'd just strolled in through the front gate, having been invited to tea formally; "so you're returned." Folding the newspaper into three creases with a neatness that Susan couldn't help secretly admiring for its perfection, she added, "I'll tell the Master you've come."
AN: Yeah, I know it wasn't much, and i didn't care for it myself, which is one reason I changed it. I'd be glad to hear any comments regarding it though. Anyone think I shouldn't have changed the ending? If so, why? Just curious.