Leaning against the car window, she gazed at the outlines of the foothills and mountains that they were passing through. The shape of them reminded her of sleeping dragons, tucked into blankets of earth for a cozy night’s sleep. “A day or night for a dragon must be much longer than it is for a human,” she mused. “I bet they sleep for a thousand years.” A chuckle came from the front seat, one she would later recognize as the kind of chuckle a parent does when their kid is using their imagination and isn’t making complete sense. “I bet when they snore, we just think it’s an earthquake.” She continued, still trying to find signs of the dragons that now must exist underneath the surface of the mountains. Head still against the window, her eyes closed, and she began to dream of Dragons.
The human imagination is definitely one of our best and strongest traits. It is often pointed to as a kind of differentiator between us and the other forms of life that we share existence with, although we can use our imagination to even understand that the lifeforms around us will likely evolve their own forms of imagination in their future. Our imagination is such a valuable asset, even, that I’m at least slightly convinced that it is the main reason we’ve attracted the attention of an “alien” lifeform at all.
We haven’t always had the same capacity for imagination – in fact, it is continuously growing with our species’ evolution. As our brains develop further, we gain the ability to retain more data and use it internally, and then externally in new ways. As I am neither a scientist nor a philosopher (or even a writer for that matter), therefore I probably don’t have the correct vocabulary or specialized knowledge to really speak deeply about the evolution of imagination – but, I am a human and I have observations, and I can try to explain what I’ve observed in layman’s terms.
we are evolving, continuously. Where someone might point out the fact that hover cars have been a part of science fiction for at least hundreds of years and we haven’t developed them, and therefore we haven’t really changed much in imagination, I would point out that hover boards do exist now, but the idea of futuristic transportation isn’t where we stopped imagining new futuristic things anyway! Hover cars and transportation have only become a foundation for our imaginings of the future, a tool to help us set the scene, and one that is increasingly becoming more and more present day and realistic. No one thinks that we won’t develop this technology anymore. And if you were to pick other well known science fiction technologies, there is a similar trend – smart home technology as an idea was made popular by fiction writers and cartoon television and is now a part of common life as a reality, and they are still very young in terms of development.
In a positive light, we are already meeting and surpassing what we thought we would be capable of hundreds or thousands of years ago, even if we haven’t developed hover cars yet. To think that there were even periods of times when we thought that an organized power such as religion or government would even put an end to humanity dreaming of faeries or dragons! Our imagination, at least in True Life where freewill reigns supreme, can’t be contained – history has shown that we will evolve anyway, and the imagination is intrinsically linked to our growth and future.
In the negative light, the imagination is something uniquely terrifying that an unbelievably powerful being could use against us. In fact, this is one of the reasons I stopped reading the Harry Potter books. I haven’t considered myself a fan since book 4 came out, in middle school. I’ve only watched through the movies once, though I am a fan of the video games. There is a portion of book 5 that was decidedly “too grown up for me” that had to deal with the loss of control over your own mental facilities due to something else taking control over them instead. It involved brains in aquariums. I didn’t read past that, and have never attempted to. But, I am living here in this reality, in Real Life, where my consciousness and even sense of self has been under the control of another lifeform, and the imagination has not only been a target, but a tool used by said lifeform to evoke fear, distrust, even at times hatred.
All I can really say about that is that there seems to be an agreement from its end that the imagination is something that it values within us. Though we value these things with different intention, it is clearly a unanimous sentiment – humankind’s imagination is one of the most powerful and wonderful qualities that humanity possesses. It’s something that I am proud of my species for, regardless of the weakness it becomes under the wrong hands. It’s something almost endless and unexplainable, and every single one of us possesses in a wonderfully unique way. Every bit of knowledge we’ve learned, thing that we’ve made, concepts we think up, all of it belongs somewhat to imagination. And, we only get stronger and better the more we share our imaginings with other humans.
We do use our imagination for things like rebellions, as i am intending my sharing of imagination in this blog, but we also use it for greater community. We also use it, in the vast majority, for love. I still believe that love is the greatest force in the universe, perhaps foolishly, and that intention and context do not negate this force even in an evil intending reality.
It takes a hop, skip, and a jump between my personal memories and the media that I’ve consumed and loved to understand that Draco is a Mountain, though even with just the opening story you could link the fact that Draco (certainly at least inspired by dragon) is a Mountain. And, applied to the imaginary “husband” from the previous post, he does embody the safety that humans think of when they think of mountains. Solid, unmovable, powerful, beautiful. And yes, I do think that Tom Felton is beautiful (and I sincerely hope he’s living a wonderful and enriching life). Stay beautiful, Tom Felton.
But, to give my imaginary companion a little extra love, I’ll let you in on more of his story.
Draco can travel through time. I don’t quite remember exactly how this is true, but I believe it has something to do with his family and their thirst for knowledge and power. Whatever the case may be, he can – travel through time. In fact, in a very small and short story, this is one of the ways he found out that he could:
‘Hmm’ Draco thought, turning the card over in his hand.‘That’s…odd’ He could have sworn he saw his own name printed on the Chocolate Frog card he held – right where Merlin’s name was actually printed. He smiled for a brief moment, imagining being so famous as to get a card of his own, perhaps even dethroning Merlin himself as the “most famous wizard of all time”. ‘Not likely’ He thought, and shrugged off the oddness of seeing his own name. Facing off a dementor is a great excuse to eat chocolate, but definitely can mess with your head a little.
He didn’t think about this incident for days after the fact, until he once again found himself looking at his own name instead of Merlin’s. Draco Malfoy was unmistakably written across the card, though it was also undoubtedly Merlin’s picture. He turned the card over. “The most famous wizard of all time.” The card stated. He turned the card over once more. His name was gone, and Merlin returned.
“Maybe someone figured out how to charm the cards, and this is just a prank.” He thought, again dismissing the thing as something small and insignificant. But then it happened again, and again, and it started happening with other mentions of Merlin. He even went to the local physician, hoping it to be a small charm easily broken, but was given a clean bill of health and a reminder to drink more water. “8 glasses a day isn’t just a suggestion.” The physician warned. “You might be capable of great things, but you are capable of greater things when you take care of yourself!”
That night, he had a dream, one that seemed to be more real than real, one that made him feel slightly terrified at all times. Of what, he couldn’t say, but sometimes the body knows things the mind does not. “You haven’t figured it out yet, have you?” A voice from behind him echoed. A card appeared in front of him, hovering. Draco Malfoy was written in a flowing golden script across the bottom of the card, and this time, his own portrait appeared in the frame. He barely had time to notice that he was wearing Merlin’s robes and hat before his portrait started to age, morphing into the normal portrait of Merlin, his name one again replaced on the bottom by Merlin’s. The portrait smirked.
“But I’m making it so obvious for you…” The voice from behind him continued. “Obvious that I have some sort of internal struggle with my ego, maybe.” He murmured, shuddering at the constant fear he was experiencing. And then he woke.
Later that week, his mother and father approached him about a new opportunity. They had found new hidden knowledge, no doubt through some questionable means, and wanted to do a little experimentation with him. He knew that trying to ask where this information came from was useless, he was likely to get a lie, and one that was not so well thought out. Trying to turn his parents down was equally as useless, if he wasn’t a participant he was likely to become a test subject. He agreed to meet them the next day, and continued to try to avoid chocolate frogs.
“Here, put these on!” His mother shoved a handful of garments his way, deep shimmering blue with tiny golden stars embroidered expertly around the robes. The fabric seemed to change slightly as he moved, giving the effect of a sky in continuous twilight, a barely perceptible halo of light emminating from the bottom hem. He located multiple pockets lining the inside, and even found a hidden pocket for his wand stitched inside his sleeve. He pulled the hood over his head. They must have been very, very expensive.
His parents had adorned themselves in lavish robes as well, perhaps even surpassing the one he now donned. His mother picked an outfit that seemed to be inspired by old fairy tales, leaves and tiny flowers trailing around and circling in a crown around the hood. His father wore robes as black as midnight, and seemed to suck the light right from where he stood.
“Let’s go!” His mother barked, pushing him through a door that didn’t seem to be there before. They didn’t bother to explain what was going on. ‘I may just be a test subject after all.’ He thought, bracing himself for the unbraceable.
“I seem to be Hermia.” His mother said aloud. The name Narcissa appeared above her head in golden typecast letters, and after a moment it changed to the name Hermia. “And you’re Lysander, good.” She gestured to her husband. Looking at Draco, she frowned a little bit. “Puck, huh? Well. It appears none of us got what I was aiming for, but it will do.” Draco looked up, and saw his own name written above his head. After a brief moment, Draco changed into Puck. In the moments between, he could have swore that he saw Merlin’s name one again… but now, “Who’s Draco?” He thought. “I’m Puck.”
Fuck You, We Matter 
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