Fear of a Name

Chapter Fourteen: The Boggart in the Wardrobe

Nothing really interesting happened until about halfway through our Potions lesson on Thursday morning, when Malfoy came swaggering into the classroom, his arm wrapped in bandages, acting like a heroic survivor of a war or something.
I watched as he sat next to Ron, telling everyone that it "hurt terribly," but turning to his two friends, who I had learned were called Crabbe and Goyle, and winking.

The rest of the class went by fairly uneventfully, unless you count Snape mocking Neville, then Hermione, before feeding Neville's toad a possibly poisonous Shrinking Solution and taking five points from Gryffindor when it worked properly. Naturally, the rest of the Gryffindors were furious.

Then was Care of Magical Creatures, which was decidedly dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his nerve since "The Great Hippogriff Attack of '93" as it had started to be called. I have no idea who started it (probably Fred or George Weasley, it sounds like the sort of thing they would say), but as soon as the name was thrown into conversation in the Gryffindor common room, that's what it was called by everyone in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff; in fact, I had even overheard some Slytherins using the name!

After Care of Magical Creatures was Charms, where we learned "confundo". At least, almost everyone else learned it. Hermione and I already knew it, so we tried to help Harry and Ron with it, with little success.

I walked into lunch about five minutes after the trio, having stayed behind at the end of Charms to ask Professor Flitwick about our homework. Ron and Harry were muttering to each other, and I caught the words, "Why in Merlin's name does she have all those books with her?" as I sat down next to Hermione.
Nudging her, I whispered, "Time-Turner?" in her ear and she looked at me, surprised, then nodded.
"Don't worry, I know how important it is to keep it a secret, I won't tell," I whispered again, smiling.
"Thanks," she murmured back, smiling too.
I grabbed a ham sandwich and started eating, wondering what we were going to do in DADA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Professor Lupin wasn't there when we got to Defence Against the Dark Arts, so we all took out our books, quills, parchment, and ink, and started talking.
He arrived about five minutes later, still wearing shabby robes, but looking far healthier than he had done on the train, when he had looked almost as underfed as me.
Placing his battered briefcase on the desk, he smiled and said, "Good afternoon. Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today's will be a practical lesson. You will only need your wands."
I quickly pushed my stuff back into my bag, looking curiously at Lupin as I did so.
"Right then," he continued when everyone was ready, "if you'd follow me."

We all got to our feet and followed him out of the classroom, down a deserted corridor, and around a corner, where the first thing we saw was a poltergeist floating upside down, stuffing gum into a keyhole. He didn't look up until Professor Lupin was about two feet away, when he suddenly broke into song.
"Loony, loopy Lupin, loony, loopy Lupin, loony, loopy Lupin—"
I realised this must be Peeves; Hermione had warned me about him as we were going up to the dormitory on my first night, though she had told me that he showed some respect for the teachers. We all looked at Lupin to see what he would do, but he was — surprisingly — still smiling.

"I'd take that gum out of the keyhole, if I were you, Peeves," said Lupin pleasantly. "Mr Filch won't be able to get in to his brooms."
Peeves blew a loud, wet raspberry in reply.
Professor Lupin gave a small sigh and took out his wand.
"This is a useful little spell," he told us over his shoulder. "Please watch closely."
Pointing his wand at Peeves, he said, "Waddiwasi!" and we all watched in amusement as the gum flew out of the keyhole with the force of a bullet, and down Peeves' left nostril. He quickly turned the right way up and flew off, swearing loudly.
"Cool, sir!" said a boy in amazement.
"Thank you, Dean," said Lupin, putting his wand away again. "Shall we proceed?"

We started walking again, and I could see everyone looking at Lupin with increased respect. He led us down another corridor where he stopped outside the staff room door.
"Inside, please," he said, opening it and standing back, allowing us to enter.
The staff room was empty except for one teacher — Snape. He was sitting in a low armchair, and he looked around as we all walked in. As Professor Lupin came in behind us and started to shut the door, Snape said, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this."

He stood up and strode past us, but at the doorway he stopped, turned around, and said, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear."
Neville went bright red, Harry glared at Snape, and Lupin raised his eyebrows.
"I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation," he said, "and I am sure he will perform it admirably."
Neville's face went even redder, which I had not thought possible until that point.
I automatically looked at the floor and closed my eyes as Snape's lip curled, and when I opened them again a few seconds later, he had left.

"Now then," said Lupin, motioning for us to come to the end of the room, where there was only an old wardrobe. As he went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall loudly, causing some people to jump backwards in alarm.
"Nothing to worry about," said Lupin calmly. "There's a Boggart in there."

I looked at him, my face going pale. I saw others reacting similarly; Neville looked at Lupin in pure terror, and Seamus Finnigan, another third-year boy, was eyeing the rattling doorknob with apprehension.
"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboard under sinks — I once met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice."
I bit my lip nervously.

"So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a Boggart?"
Hermione put up her hand quickly.
"Hermione?"
"It's a shape shifter," she answered promptly. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," said Lupin. "So, the Boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a Boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears."

Neville gave a small splutter of terror, which Lupin either didn't hear or chose to ignore.
"This means," he continued, "that we have a huge advantage over the Boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?"
"Er — because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?" he said, phrasing it more as a question than an answer.
"Precisely. It's always best to have company when you're dealing with a Boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug? I once saw a Boggart make that very mistake — tried to turn himself into a headless slug. Not remotely frightening."

The wardrobe shook again. Lupin looked at it for a second, then continued.
"The charm that repeals a Boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a Boggart off is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape you find amusing. We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please... riddikulus!"
"Riddikulus," we repeated.
"Good," said Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough. And this is where you come in, Neville.

As Neville shakily stepped forward, I hoped this was going to be easier than it sounded.