Riley walked into DADA with Luna, and Arlo hiding his wings. He came everywhere with her, sometimes carrying her books in the side satchel Luna made for him, in exchange for him helping the girl with her mail too. He had become a favourite in the Ravenclaw girls' dorm, with the two other girls Riley and Luna shared their dorm with. One being Eleanor Gray, and the other being Selina Good-Water. They also happened to be there when they walked in the classroom.
Lupin spoke, "Hello, I'm Professor Lupin, and I'll be your DADA teacher. Today, for our first lesson we'll be doing boggarts. Ravenclaw is here, no? Does anyone know what a boggart is?"
Riley raised her hand, "The boggart is a creature that will take the form of its target's greatest fear, whatever that may be. The path of reverse for a boggart, or in a sculpting of expression, the counter attack, is the spell Ridikulus, which will break the objective of fear. If one was scared of a snake for its poisonous fangs, they would immediately disappear, with other side affects placed, upon the casting." Riley said. Luna nodded thoughtfully, the Ravenclaws gave impressed looks, as the Hufflepuffs looked very confused.
Luna spoke up, "In other words, a boggart will be what you are most scared of, and if you want to make it less scary, you have to use the spell Ridikulus." The Ravenclaws tutted for her use of simple explanation, but the Hufflepuffs looked at her with gratitude.
Lupin coughed to get the class' attention, "Well done..."
"I'm Luna Lovegood, and this is my friend, Riley." Luna said in her dreamy voice.
"Right. Luna and Riley were correct. Ten points to Ravenclaw each. Today, we'll do practical, and our next lesson will be the theory. Who would go first?"
Lupin took a box from his desk and the class raised their hands. The Hufflepuffs were scared of things like bears, snakes or dogs, but one was scared of a piece of paper.
Lupin apparently saw what was on the paper and had to send the kid to Madam Pomfrey, but otherwise, the Hufflepuffs managed to get through it decently. Two Ravenclaw boys and Eleanor Gray got failing the end of year exams, which they defeated with confidence.
Selina Good-Water and her triplet brothers, Sauros, who was also in Ravenclaw, and Selarin, who was in Hufflepuff, got an image of a woman who looked like Sauros, and so too had to be taken to Professor McGonagall.
(If it wasn't clear - what about that was clear, Blue?- that kid was a muggle-born, who had a muggle illness, that was on the verge of being terminal. It wasn't visible, so no one knew. And that paper said it had reached the terminal stage, and he was to die before his thirteenth birthday. For the Good-Waters, that was their mother. She was a muggle (they are half-bloods), and would often get drunk. She left their dad for a rich guy two years before they started at Hogwarts. Their dad married their step-mom last year, and they adopted their older brother by two years, Evan, who is in Hufflepuff. But, they still get nightmares of their mother during her drunk periods. The Hufflepuff kid went to Madam Pomfrey because it was medical problems, and the triplets, because they weren't all in the same house, went to Professor McGonagall, because she is the Deputy Headmistress.)
Then it was Riley's turn. When the boggart faced her, everything went dark.
She calmed herself, and said, "Ridikulus." It went away instantly. It wasn't that she was scared of the dark, but what was behind it. What she didn't know scared her.
And finally, Luna's turn.
The boggart turned into a knife, a stiletto. Pretty thing, really. Riley couldn't remember where she knew it from. It had a sharp, silver blade, and the handle was platinum, with fat, cut sapphires.
At the sight of it, Luna began laughing hysterically, paling, with fear and tears in her eyes and crying with pain. Her eyes flit around the room. She kept mumbling, "This'll be fun, Lu. Don't worry, it's just a game. No need to tell anyone. Mummy will be alright. It doesn't hurt Mummy. Mummy likes it. You want Mummy to do the things she likes, don't you, Lu?" Lupin's face filled with worry, as he escorted her to Professor Flitwick's office, dismissing class early.
That was the day students at Hogwarts earned a new respect for Luna Lovegood.
(Ooh, this is difficult. Do I put the lore behind it, or not? No. Not now. Keep the Reader-friends ignorant while I can.)
YOU ARE READING
As Odd As Can Be ~Hogwarts AU~
Fanfiction(I can't give too much away, so here is what I can tell you.) Adeline Julia Felicity Riley Dark de Valentine knew three things with all her heart: she was adopted by the Grindles, who hated her, she loved books, and that she had way too long of a na...
