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!

I'm down to the 3rd to the last chapter.oh God, I'm getting more nervous as we get closer to the end. See, I feel as if you'll all hate my ending. ;p You'll get disappointed or something. Thanks for the reviews anyway. I hope everything's clear by now. And yes, it IS an easy choice to make.but as this guy is Harry Potter.well, it has to be hard. =)

Sorry if it's been so long since I last updated.midterms, homeworks, stuff like that! Anyway.no more excuse. I'll finish this story within the week. But hey!!! Submit your reviews, okay?! I want lots of them!!! ;)

Oh, and I took a leaf out of J.K.'s book, and made a spell/charm of my own. ;) Go on and read about it!

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

+read, enjoy, review+

Chapter 16 - The Choice Within A Dream (Le Choix Dans Un Rêve)

As Harry's eyes grew focused, his eyes trying to grow accustomed to the darkness. He smelled the familiar scent of the cave he had been in almost two nights ago. He groped around, in search of that same rock he had been sitting on and found out.

Upon sitting down, from his left side, the same glow of light he had seen before illuminated a bent old man hobbling towards him, resting his weight on a cane. Harry did something he realized he should have done before. He walked towards the old man, and helped him.

"Thank you, my boy," the old man said appreciatively.

"Anytime, Sir Richard," Harry replied sitting back down on his rock.

Sir Richard gave a long happy sigh, as though he had been walking for hours and sitting on a rock was now giving him rest. He reached for his cane, and once more, tapped it against the wall three times, whereupon thousands of candles burst out from it, lining accordingly along the wall.

Harry blinked to accustom his eyes to the bright lights.

Sir Richard set aside the cane on his left side. Then he turned to Harry, and smiled. "Well now, Harry, I hope you're ready."

Harry slowly nodded. He knew now what choice he was going to make.

Sir Richard smiled even wider. "That's what I like about you, Harry. You always make a decision. You don't leave things unsaid, or undone," he explained. "Oh no, Harry Potter. That's what's special about you."

They were both silent, Harry unsure of what to say.

"Harry, I don't want to ask about what choice you are going to make," Sir Richard interrupted looking contemplative. Harry looked up at him, feeling a surge of joy. He didn't have to choose now!

"We'll leave that later," Sir Richard continued, and Harry felt his joy burst like a balloon that was punctured with a needle. "I want to talk to you first, Harry. About your life," and upon seeing the look on Harry's face, he hastily added, "Both of them, Harry."

Harry frowned. "Er."

"I'll ask you questions," Sir Richard continued. "And you can ask me anything."

Harry nodded slowly. He didn't know what questions this man wanted to ask him.

Sir Richard surveyed Harry slightly. He coughed, and asked, "Harry, how have you felt these past days?"

Harry didn't know where to start. He looked at Sir Richard. "Well, honestly, sir, I have never felt more confused in my entire life."

At this, Sir Richard chuckled. "Quite understandable, my boy."

"Well, when it first happened, I thought it was just my imagination. But then bits and pieces of my past came back, and I started to recall that I was a wizard too, just as I was also not a wizard. After all, it was like I was living two lives, and one was already driving me crazy, but two!"

"And you must have gotten more confused when you met me? The old man in the darkness?" Sir Richard queried his white bushy eyebrows raised.

Harry shrugged. "Actually, I felt thankful that there was someone who was going to explain all this-this," he paused searching for a better word, "- all this madness to me. And well you did explain it to me. Something about giving me a chance with my parents-"

Sir Richard interrupted, though ever so politely. "Harry, do you remember in your first year at Hogwarts when you stumbled upon something you shouldn't have?"

Harry wrinkled his forehead. "Er, the sorcerer's stone?"

"No, no. That, well, I'd say you didn't stumble upon that one. Why, you and your friends found out all about it, through the slip of Hagrid's tongue, but still," Sir Richard's eyes glinted. "You were bound to found out about that. What else?"

"Something I stumbled upon?" Harry repeated. "Well, I certainly didn't stumble upon being a wizard, right? What then? Being a seeker? That was all Malfoy's doing actually. It was his own stupid fault that-" Sir Richard cleared his throat. And Harry flushed. "Right, right. What else happened?" Harry asked himself.

And then he remember-

"The mirror!" he exclaimed grinning. "The Mirror of Erised, I wasn't supposed to know about that was I? But I walked in that classroom and I saw it there and-and," he stammered. What he had seen in the mirror, his parents and his whole family surrounding him.

Sir Richard nodded. "Now you understand, Harry. And with the help of a simple charm, it is called the *Erised* Charm. I simply said these words out loud - 'Erised stra ehs ihae ver.' and what happened, happened."

"I did want to see my parents," Harry murmured.

"What the charm did was to let you live the deepest desire of your heart," Sir Richard explained calmly. "And so, you were given a chance to be with your parents. That was how, one day, you found yourself waking up and going to Stone Wall High Public School."

Harry nodded disrtractedly. "I just wish-" he paused, knowing in his heart that it was never going to come true. He looked at Sir Richard, holding the tears in his eyes. "I wish I could have the chance of sharing both lives."

Sir Richard smiled at him, but his smile didn't quite reach his crystalline blue eyes. "That is something each and everyone of us hopes for, Harry. A chance to live a live that is so complete that we'll spend the rest of our lives being extremely happy."

Harry looked at his feet, blinking the tears away.

"It's a burden we all share, Harry. We can never have everything we want," Sir Richard finished, his voice gentle.

Harry nodded, understanding everything. He couldn't have both his parents, and be a wizard at the same time. It was either this or that. And it was a choice that he had to make.

"I'm sure you won't regret this, Harry," Sir Richard said quietly. "One day, you'll thank me for this chance."

Harry seriously doubted it. How could he thank a mere stranger for putting him in a situation like this? He didn't want to thank Sir Richard. He wanted to demand to him, to undo all these-

The entire cave fell silent, and only their hushed breathing was heard.

Harry didn't know how long they sat there, just thinking and thinking. Images of his muggle life flashed before his eyes - his father teaching him how to ride a bike, his mother fussing over a wound, he and his parents laughing during Christmas time.his wonderful birthdays, his best friends - Dean and Hermione.

Hermione.

His first love.

And then, images of his wizard-life flashed before his eyes - the day he first met Hagrid and his discovered he was somethimg more, after the Halloween party where he and Ron became friends with Hermione, his knowing about his godfather Sirius Black.the friendship that he, Ron and Hermione shared.

"Harry," Sir Richard's voice seemed faraway. "-once you've made your choice, every memory you once possessed of the other life you lived will be erased. But," he paused his eyes glinting against the flicker of the candles. "-you won't entirely forget."

"I won't?" Harry asked.

"Well, I daresay you won't remember every detail but, you won't forget *everything*," Sir Richard explained, a smile creeping up his face, reaching up to his eyes. "Oh no, not everything."

Harry nodded, not understanding thoroughly, but feeling resolved. He knew now which choice he was going to make. "All right. Then if it's time-"

Sir Richard held up his hands. Harry fell silent, watching as Sir Richard reached for his cane and with a slight flick, all the candles went out.