Some Day | Wolfstar

Forty - part one

(15 years old)

Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of the most popular -and difficult- subjects at Hogwarts. It was a favourite among James, Sirius and Remus, even if it was quite difficult sometimes.

"Alright, class," their Professor spoke, smiling at them. "Today we will learn how to defend ourselves against a Boggart. What is a Boggart, may I ask?"

Lily put her hand up. The Professor smiled at her. "A Boggart is a creature who takes the form of the biggest fear of whoever is in front of it."

The Professor nodded his head. "Now, there is a simple, rather easy spell which you can use against a Boggart," he put his wand away, "Riddikulus. The important thing is to picture something funny that could make you laugh whild you cast the spell."

Remus muttered it to himself softly, testing the word on his tongue. Riddikulus.

"Alright. Form a line." The Professor released a Boggart from a small chest. James was in front of Remus, and behind him was Sirius.

When Remus got to the front, a large sphere appeared in front of him, dark wisps of smoke gently floating around it. Full moon.

He pictured one of those balloons he'd seen at a Muggle shopping complex once, with a weird face painted on it. "Riddikulus!" The moon dissolved into a bright yellow balloon with two cat ears on top and a winky face painted on it in black. He moved away and stood next to James. They watched Sirius take his place.

The balloon stopped bobbing up and down, and quickly morphed into a human figure; a man. His lean figure appeared first, then thick black hair, and finally he took a very familiar face. He was dressed in rich black robes trimmed with emerald fur, and on his finger sparkled a gold ring with a massive black stone set in it.

Sirius Black.

The class went silent. Sirius -no, the Boggart- stepped closer to Sirius, smirking. He was tapping his wand on his other hand, like a teacher showing off his cane. Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw the Professor pull his wand out, preparing to step in. Sirius looked frozen.

The Boggart came closer. The Professor raised his wand, but Sirius beat him to it. "Riddikulus!" The Boggart turned into a woman in a clown's suit. It was Walburga. It started pulling a long string out of her mouth, wiggling its eyebrows. The class erupted in giggles. It was funny to see one of the most fearsome witches in Britain perform clownery for them.

Sirius walked over to them coolly, and they watched the rest of the students take the Boggart on. Later in the evening, when Sirius had gone to shower, they finally talked about it.

"I don't get it. Sirius is afraid of himself?" Peter frowned.

Remus shook his head. "He's not afraid of himself, Peter. He's afraid of who he could be. Didn't you see that ring on his finger? He saw himself as Sirius Black, the Black that everyone expected him to be. Especially his family."

"For a moment, I was worried that he wouldn't be able to cast the spell," James said. "But he did."

And they stopped talking about it as Sirius returned, hair dripping water on to his black t-shirt. "So I heard the Hufflepuffs are partying in their basement..."