Link of Hogwarts

Thirty-One

Lupin finally announced a practical class after two weeks of introduction and theories. After Quirrel and Lockhart, Link didn't have much expectation if any for the class but Lupin went above and beyond his already low expectation.

He speaks clearly with no stuttering. His class not only looked like a normal class, lacking the pretentious grandeur and self-portraits of himself, but also smell...normal. It didn't reek of anything other than parchment and ink along with the scent of the wooden table and some pleasant herbs that really relaxes their nerves.

He's competent, something that their previous professors of Defense lacked...

Now, Link hoped it was not another play when he declared 'practical' because that's what Lockhart did to justify his theatrical classes. Luckily, it didn't seem so as Lupin took them to an unused classroom and opened the door to show Snape sitting on a chair in front of a lone wardrobe that shook against the chains keeping it closed inside a large circle. Upon Lupin's entrance, Snape swept out of the class despites the former's attempt to thank him.

Lupin gathered the class and began to question them about the creature trapped in the wardrobe, testing their understanding of the chapter he asked them to read last class. As usual, Hermione raised her hand to answer but surprisingly so does Ron. Despite his recent studious nature from First Year, he never actually willingly participates in class like Hermione. But maybe that's more because of the teachers.

Lupin pointed at him and Ron answered, "It's a Boggart,"

After a few more questions and House Points being given, he started up a cheerful music and taught the class the spell to ward off the Boggart; "Riddikulus".

Neville suddenly found himself at the front of the line made to face the creature and paled before breathing in and out to calm his nerve. He quietly confessed to Lupin about his fear of Snape and Lupin help guide him to think of the funniest thing that he could imagine about Snape; draped in his Gran's most 'traditional' witch garb.

The door opened and the Boggart quickly assumed the image of a furious Snape sneering at Neville, towering. Link noticed that this version seemed to tower even higher, almost looming over the class. Neville stuttered the spell and it failed to be cast.

Lupin gently advised from the side, "Calm your nerves," Link noted that the man had his wand out, body posed and ready to jump in should he found the need. Once again the man showed his competence as an instructor.

Neville took his advice to heart and successfully transformed Snape's looming appearance.

As upbeat song lightened the situation, the line slowly shortened towards Link. Ron faced his giant spider, Hermione tearfully faced her fear of failure with a sob and laughter, Neville once again found himself facing Snape and this time managed to cast the spell once successfully, and finally...Link stood before the clown in a box.

Lupin shifted but before he could truly interfere, the Boggart shifted.

Link had wondered while waiting for his turn about his greatest fear. He had faced a pseudo-ghost Voldemort but he does not fear the man. He had faced the basilisk and even swallowed by it but he found that he does not fear it either. He thought of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Marge and even that one time in his younger year when Ripper managed to bit his calf bloody, yet none of them stirred his heart with fear.

The Boggart took a familiar shape; emerald gaze, a button nose, rosy lips set in a heart shaped face and framed by sunlight golden hair, familiar ears peeking from their curtains on the sides, her graceful form clad in pure white ceremonial dress...perverted by Death and Malice.

His greatest failure...

Flowers, familiar and nostalgic, wilting around her ash and grime covered form. Blood pooling, pooling, spreading bigger as a hole appeared on her chest, the edges burnt through her heart and dark crimson stained her snow white dress...

A familiar sound beeping in his head...

Mechanical limb climbing over rocks and Link looked up to see a singular mechanical eye training red laser onto his head...

How does one make fun of carnage?

How could he laugh in the face of his failure that leads to the end of it all?

In the end, Lupin stood before him and the image of his despair morphed into the full moon which Lupin changed into a balloon that farted out air from its loose end. He pulled a frozen Link to the side and Link was lost to the subdued class. He didn't notice when the class end nor did he notice his friends trying to rouse him from his state. He never noticed how Lupin shooed them away and slowly guides him through the hall.

He didn't react to anything that Madam Pomfrey tried to wake him from his stupor.

In the end, she put him to sleep after feeding him Dreamless Potion. She looked at Lupin and questioned how Link ended up the way he did. His answer surprised her. She looked at the sleeping boy, wondering what his fear meant. It was not something someone like Link should have known, let alone fear.

When Albus came to visit after hearing about such a serious case of reaction to a Boggart, she told him Lupin's description. His heart broke for the boy.

It would be understandable had Link's fear formed into Voldemort. He would understand it more if it formed into a Dementor because of its effect on the boy. Merlin, if it had turned into the basilisk, Albus could still understand.

From Lupin's description of the girl, it seemed to tie with what had broken Link in First Year before the Mirror of Erised. He had whispered how he had "failed her" and Albus could not understand it back then. He had asked for the full description of what the Boggart had morphed into other than heartbreaking sight of the girl.

Lupin's description was like something out of a nightmare; "At first it was just the girl. She has ears like Link's and I thought she was sleeping. There's this flowers around her, it looked unlike any flora I have ever seen. I was wondering if Link was afraid of something about the image since it looked suspiciously serene,"

"Then the flowers started to wilt and the girl's chest seemed to cave in. It honestly looked like something powerful had shot her. But it wasn't just that...there was this...smoke...miasma...I don't really know how to describe it but everything in me, everything that make me myself, rejected it," Albus knew that Lupin was referring to his second state.

He continued, "Then there's this thing coming from that....smoke...it looked like an overturned urn with six mechanical legs with talons made out some sort of material, metal or stone I do not know...it made this strange beeping noise and the head, or what I think is the head, has this one eye and it was looking at Link. The eye trained this red light onto Link and that's...that's when I jumped in,"

Lupin sat down tiredly from where he had paced as he restlessly described what he had seen, "I...the wolf...it just jumped in. It was like...if I didn't then..." He gripped his hands into white knuckled fists, "Then I am sure that Link will die," He whispered.

How a child not even two decades old did come across such sight, such carnage?

Albus understood that only a mad man could make joke of something so horrendous. When compared to the fears that plagued the common students, theirs are indeed childish when in comparison to the true horror that visited the depth on Link's conscious. Loss, guilt and despair; only those who had experienced it could understand the terror of these emotions.

Even the illustrious Albus Dumbledore...could not claim to have overcome this haunting darkness...