The Choice Within A Dream (Le Choix Dans Un Rêve)

Complete Summary: The muggles in the Harry Potter series did not receive their letters from Hogwarts because a very strict Headmaster, who does not accept muggles, runs the school. So Harry, Hermione and Dean Thomas don't know anything about magic or anything that is associated with it (including Ron). It's like Hogwarts never happened.
Harry lives a normal life, with both his parents and his two best friends, Hermione and Dean. But in a dream, Harry finds himself in a magical world where there is a boy named Ron, where he is famous for a lightning bolt scar but, a world wherein his parents are dead.
In the end, Harry Potter has to choose between living the life of a muggle, or living in the world of magic.

*Note* I'm putting French translations, because I want to. Hehehe. Hope you like this story, and if you're confused, or you hate it, or you like it =) .then just review and say so. Thanks for the reviews!!! =) Cheers to you readers!

Here it is, folks. I hope I've got everything covered, explained it all clearly. I admit I got confused myself, which is why I advise you never to post a story until it is all finished. I sort of had trouble adjusting to the chapters that I already had posted. Anyway, I tried my best to explain it all and if it gets confusing just review and say so. Hope you like it. Even if it gets boring.

Oh and once you've realized who Sir Richard is, you'll understand why that's his name. =)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. That's thanks to J.K. Rowling, not me. :-p

+read, enjoy, review+

Chapter 13 - The Choice to be made (Le choix à faire)

"Before your first year at Hogwarts, you received a letter, addressed specifically to you," Sir Richard said. Harry opened his mouth to ask how he knew about that but Sir Richard simply held his hand up. Harry snapped his mouth shut.

"Now this letter invited you to a place you have never know before. A place that was magical, quite literally of course, but also figuratively. You came to this place where you met your best friends, Ron and Hermione, where you transfigured objects, where you flew on a broomsticks. But most important," he paused dramatically, "where you discovered about the fate that awaited you, and the destiny that was made for you."

The boy who lived, Harry thought. Then he waited patiently for Sir Richard to continue.

"All this happens when you are dreaming. Now, have you ever wondered about how your life would be if the exact same opposite had happened?" Sir Richard asked, gazing at Harry with his blue eyes that reminded Harry of the sea during a summer day - crystal clear but with uncertain depths.

"How my life would be?" Harry repeated. Now that he thought of it, he did wonder how his life would be like. But then he understood that he had already lived the life of what if the exact same opposite had happened. "But it's what my waking life is like."

Sir Richard smiled slowly. "Correct, Harry. What if you hadn't gotten your letter? But what would be the reason behind you not getting your letter, since you are half-wizard by blood? Well now, the answer to that is the Headmaster of Hogwarts-"

"What, Professor Dumbledore did this?" Harry interrupted, unable to control himself.

Sir Richard's eyes twinkled as he smiled once more. Harry had the distinct feeling that he had seen those eyes before. "He may have something to do with it," Sir Richard admitted. "But as I was saying Harry, the present Headmaster of Hogwarts is not him."

"What?" Harry exclaimed, his eyes widening. "But who is it?"

"His name is not important, Harry," Sir Richard answered. "However it is his-" he paused, thinking of a better word, "-unyielding bigotry that is of a concern to us. He does not accept half bloods, or muggles at Hogwarts. Only purebloods are accepted at Hogwarts."

Harry thought for a moment. So that was why the others weren't accepted. He wondered how Ron was dealing with this new Headmaster, or if he favored the Slytherins.

"Naturally so," Sir Richard commented as though reading Harry's mind. "He does favor Slytherins. After all, who else but Salazar Slytherin came up with all that pureblood nonsense? And as for your friend, Ron," he peered at Harry, "I daresay he is doing fine."

"I wonder who his best friends are," Harry thought out loud.

"Well, you don't know them, just as Ron wouldn't know who one of your friends are. He doesn't know who Mona is," Sir Richard clarified. Then he cleared his throat. "So you see, Harry, because muggles weren't accepted at Hogwarts, history changed too. Your mother wasn't accepted at Hogwarts, being of muggle parentage herself, and she didn't meet James Potter."

Harry frowned slightly. "So instead she met my other dad, Harold Potter," he stated, more to himself. He looked at Sir Richard. "But how come my surname is still Potter? Why not just, er, O' Clarence? Or McGregor? Or some other English name?"

"Harry," Sir Richard began, his voice soft. "Some things are meant to stay the same."

"Right," Harry said, leaving the topic at that. "But what about Voldemort? I mean, what happened to James Potter?"

"He went to Hogwarts, where he did meet his friends and formed that group called the Marauders," Sir Richard said, adjusting his cloak that Harry for the first noticed was purple in color. "Now, as for Voldemort, he did rise to power. There's a different boy who will defeat him when the time comes, but that, Harry, is not our business."

Harry's shoulders sagged. He wondered though how Hogwarts was like when he was at Stonewall High Public School, living as a muggle. "But I still don't understand why my life is like this," Harry mumbled feeling stupid. He did understand though that he it was like some sort of parallel universe. While he was going to Stonewall High, there really was a Hogwarts.

"You are right in thinking that," Sir Richard said. "While you and your muggle friends go to Stonewall High, Ron and his wizard friends also go to Hogwarts. This is proven during that day when you and Hermione and Dean saw his sister go through that barrier. You know, of course that that barrier is the secret gateway to Hogwarts."

Harry remembered now what had happened. Ron's dad had cast the Memory Charm on them, which is why they couldn't remember. He looked at Sir Richard with a perplexed expression, and asked, "How come I remember that now since Mr. Weasley cast the Memory Charm on me?"

"Because of where you are now, Harry," Sir Richard replied. "You are in that place between waking and sleeping, between being a muggle and being a wizard. Now, you were wondering why your life is like this," he gave Harry a stern gaze. "That Harry is my doing."

"What?" Harry cried out, incredulous. "Why would you do this? I've been driven to insanity just trying to figure out what I really am! I've begun to think I had some sort of split personality I didn't know about but it was weird since it all just happened in my dreams and-"

"Harry, I did what I did because I wanted to give you a chance," Sir Richard interrupted quietly. "I know it is hard for you, but in the end, you will find yourself thanking me for what I've done."

Harry seriously doubted it, but he didn't say anything.

"Living as a wizard you have your friends, you have your classes that teach you to do magic, you play Quidditch, you explore the very walls of your school which can do magic on its own," Sir Richard enumerated. "But what you don't have is your parents. I have seen you hunger for this kind of love, Harry, and on your last year at Hogwarts, I wanted to give you a chance."

A ringing silence fell inside the cave. Harry's heart was beating fast. He wasn't sure what to say, or how to act. Dimly, he became aware that he was now in his 7th year at Hogwarts, and it gave his stomach a funny jolt. He was going to graduate and leave Hogwarts soon.

Sir Richard had given him a second chance to be with his parents, but at a cost. He wasn't a wizard and history was changed. And then he voiced a thought that was troubling him. "But if you wanted to give me another chance, how come it was with a different father? Why not my real dad, James Potter?"

The old man sighed deeply. "I knew you would ask that," he murmured. "And Harry the answer, I'm afraid, will not be enough for you. I have told you already that your mother wasn't accepted at Hogwarts. She had gone to a muggle university where she met Harold Potter. But I assure you, Harry, there is a strange likeness between James and Harold."

Harry sank bank down on his rock, feeling dejected. What kind of strange likeness anyway? It disappointed him that he had to have two different fathers.

"I didn't write the story that you know live, I merely designed it," Sir Richard quietly answered. "Some of it I did not decide on my own. But I surmise as much, Harry. Some things are meant to stay the same. You have the same mother in both lives because of the special bond that she gave to you."

Harry stared at his feet. But if his mother didn't meet James Potter, and if they didn't have a son, then Voldemort wouldn't have come after them. And if he, Harry Potter, wasn't born, what reason did Voldemort have to come after Lily Potter? And if Voldemort didn't come after the Potters at Godric's Hollow, what reason would there be for Lily to die for her son and thus giving him that special bond?

Sir Richard stared at Harry. "Harry, your muggle life has its origins from your wizard life. That is how I designed it. And as long as that was done, I left the other details to human nature," he paused, "Or shall I say, Mother Nature?"

Harry remained silent. His slowly understood it all. His dreams were really what were happening at Hogwarts to remind him of his original life as a wizard. But when he woke up, he was living the second chance that this man had given him - to satisfy his hunger on the love that his parents had given him. And even, the love that Hermione had given him.

Harry looked at Sir Richard, wondering if he was reading his mind now. He wanted to ask about Hermione. Why then did she love Ron in the wizard world and why did she love him in the muggle world?

He shook his head. He didn't have to ask that. Putting the thought aside, he wondered what he was doing here - in this place between waking and sleeping - wondering what was going to happen to him. "What-" he began to ask but right then, Sir Richard gave him a piercing glance. And Harry knew.

He had to make a choice.

He had to choose which life to live. That was what he was doing here. That was why this man had explained it all to him. He was being given a chance to live with his parents or to go on living without his parents, but-

Sir Richard reached for his cane, and tapping it against the wall three times, thousands of candles burst out from it, lining accordingly along the wall. Harry blinked several times to get accustomed to the light.

They were both silent, watching as the flames danced, playing shadows on the walls.

"Harry, this is something I wanted for you. To know what it is like," Sir Richard began to say, "And I am sorry, my boy, but you cannot live like this forever. There has to be a point in your life that you have to choose between a life where you *have* everything, to a life where you *can* have everything. The choice is entirely up to you, Harry."

Harry nodded, fully understanding it. "Once I've made my choice, will I remember what the other life was like?"

"Do you want to remember, Harry?" Sir Richard asked in return. "Do you want to remember how you would have lived like this, or that, and then you would go on thinking how you wish you would have made a different choice. You would go on wondering and thinking what if you chose differently," he shook his head. "No, it's best of if you don't remember."

Harry was silent. Then he asked, "Do I have to make the choice now?"

Sir Richard looked intently at him. "Not really," he replied. "I will you give two days and two nights, and then, I shall come back for your choice. Is that enough?"

"I suppose so," Harry mumbled feeling his heart beating faster than normal. Two days, and two nights before his life would entirely change. Two options for one choice he had to make. He supposed it was fair that he didn't have to remember anything. It was fair, all right.

But it wasn't! Harry thought miserably. How could he make a choice like this? He was only eighteen! He couldn't choose between magic and his parents, or something like that. He needed more time-

"We are agreed then, Harry?" Sir Richard said, interrupting his thoughts.

Harry looked at the old man. With the light in the cave, he saw more clearly the old man's face. His blue eyes shone like the light itself. His nose was crooked, as though it was broken twice already. He was thin, and very old because of the long silvery hair and beard that was tucked in his belt. And his cloak shone purple.

Harry had already met this man before. But he couldn't place him.

Sighing deeply, Harry nodded. "We're agreed. Two days and two nights."

Sir Richard smiled and nodded. He reached for his cane, and stood up. "See you then, Harry Potter," he called as he hobbled towards the same place he had come in. As he took each step further away from Harry, each candle vanished out of sight. And the cave grew darker as he left, until he was gone.

Harry blinked, thinking it was rather rude of him to leave Harry in the dark.

But when Harry stood up, he felt something hard and uneven underneath him. He reached for the stonewall of the cave, but when he did, he touched nothing. And he nearly fell of the roof. He was back on the roof, with the stars twinkling above him. And the moon still hidden behind the cloud.