Disclaimer: The following has been written for the International Wizarding Schools Challenge. I do not own the Harry Potter Franchise or any of the recognisable characters or locations mentioned henceforth.
Story Title: Face my Fears by GhostDragon42
School: Ilvermorny
Theme: Boggart
Prompt: [Event] - First Dumbledore's Army Meeting
Year: 7
Wordcount: 2063 words.
Face my Fears
It was 8:00 pm on a Wednesday evening in October, when Harry Potter found himself standing in the middle of the Room of Requirement, beside Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and an old Wardrobe that kept making gurgling noises as the students walked through the oaken doors staring at the room in awe. Group by group they arrived, usually in Houses, before taking up positions somewhere in front of him. Harry made sure to smile and wave at everyone as they entered, more to settle down his nerves than the anxious faces he saw in the ever-increasing crowd. Once Harry was satisfied everyone was there, he gestured to Ron, who moved to the door and locked it.
"Okay, everyone. Welcome to the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army. Thanks for still showing up despite Umbridge's latest Educational Decree banning us from doing pretty much everything." Several scowls and muttered curses were thrown Umbridge's way at that statement. "For our first meeting, I thought I'd bring out an old favourite, and use it as a sort of teeth kicker, and a trust exercise." Harry kicked the wardrobe, which began to groan again, before turning back to the crowd to catch the looks of realisation crossing the faces of the Patil twins and some others.
"I'll admit, I am no saint. I've broken almost every school rule Hogwarts has had – and that was by the second year alone." Most of the Gryffindors laughed, the Hufflepuffs did not. "But after everything I've seen, everything I've done – good and bad – I think it's safe to say that the hardest obstacle to overcome is fear." That did not earn any laughs. Instead most of the crowd, even the Weasley Twins, looked at him as if he'd suddenly grown a second head.
"You out flew a dragon! How could fear be the greatest thing you've faced?" Colin exclaimed, his brother Dennis, Neville Longbottom and Lavender Brown all nodding in agreement. Harry smiled softly, "And I was absolutely terrified the entire time. I had no idea if I'd even make it out of that arena, let-alone get past the Dragon. My plan was sketchy at best, and I had no back-ups." The looks on Hannah Abbott and Susan Bone's faces made it very clear they didn't believe him. "But instead of letting that fear control me, or disillusion me from even trying, I turned it into a fuel, a resource to use. Fear is not evil; fear means your human. It's conquering fear, that's the mark of a true hero. And that is what we are going to do today. Conquer our greatest fear." Harry spun around and stood in front of the wardrobe, before nodding to Hermione, who bit her lip, clearly repressing the urge to tell him how much of a bad idea this was. But she tapped the wardrobe with her wand, and the doors slowly swung open.
Harry was not surprised that the Boggart didn't take the form of a Dementor as it had in Professor Lupin's office two years ago. He was not afraid of Dementors anymore, he knew how to fight them. What he feared was something far worse now. A figure stepped out of the wardrobe wearing robes of the darkest black. He was tall, thin but muscular in all the right places. In each hand, he held a wand. In his right, a brown wooden wand with a black handle. In his left, a wand of pure white. His hair was black and messed like a birds nest, flying in all directions, and his eyes were solid red. It was warped and twisted, a being of hatred and cruelty.
"Hello, Harry. Having a good day?" Harry stood in front of the Boggart, which had morphed itself into an image of himself, however it excluded an aura of rage and scorn, powerful enough to fill the entire room. And as the people behind him stepped back, many of them – boy and girl alike – shrieking in terror, it seemed to grow taller. More malevolent, if that was even possible.
Harry took a deep breath and locked eyes with his counterpart. "Tell us what you are," he commanded, steeling his voice as best he could, as the boggart grew taller and stronger.
The torches flickered, and the other Harry laughed -a booming laugh that made him want to shit himself. But he stood his ground, and did not take his eyes from the red irises of his other. The red eyes of Voldemort looking down on him wearing his own face.
"I am you, Harry! Surely you must know it? I am you as you could be in all true glory! If you would just give in to the darkness of your heart. The horrors of your past, present and future. The cupboard under the stairs! The endless threats and beatings from Uncle Vernon and Dudley! Harry Hunting! Lord Voldemort! Your mother's death, your only memory of her! Your friends turning their backs on you! The Basilisk! The Graveyard! Everyone who's died for you! I am what you are, on the inside. All you have to do is let me out! All you have to do is embrace me!" The Boggart cackled as its head brushed the roof, dark smoke falling from its robes like ash blowing in the wind. But he never let go of its gaze.
"The day I let myself become you, is the day I let the horrors of my past define me, control me. And hell will freeze over before I let that happen."
Images of his friends, of the Weasleys, of Sirius and Remus, and of his parents flashed through Harry's mind. He slipped his wand from his pocket, and with the slightest flick of the hand, whispered the word, "Riddikulus."
The Boggart collapsed in on itself, transfiguring into a boy and a girl dancing around in a circle as birdsong filled the air. The woman had fiery red hair and blazing green eyes, while the man had messy black hair and a cocky grin. It was the scene from the photo he kept on his bedside. The reminder that his parents were always there, even if they weren't.
Harry turned around and looked to the rest of the students as they stared in terrified awe, wands held limply in their hands.
"Conquering your fear is the first step. But it's not something you have to do alone. Now everyone form a line. One by one, you're going to approach this Boggart, and it will shapeshift into the thing you fear the most. Once it does, your job is to stand tall, aim your wand, and cast the spell 'Riddikulus' while thinking about something you find funny, or personally important, something that the Boggart cannot make you fear." Harry took a deep breath, ignoring the dancing figures behind him.
"The point, as I'm sure many of you are wondering, is to confront your fear. But you won't be facing it alone. Here, you are surrounded by your friends and colleagues. What better place to face your greatest weakness than amongst friends? And by extension, by doing this here, in front of everyone, no one has anything to hide. We all have something we want to hide from the rest of the world. A Darkness we try to deny. I've trusted you all with mine, now it's time to trust us with yours."
Harry stepped aside, and the students hesitantly formed into a line. Hermione came to stand beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Well done, Harry. That… that couldn't have been easy."
Harry shuddered, "I'm asking them to do it. If I didn't, what does that make me?" Hermione didn't say anything, merely squeezing his shoulder as Ginny stepped up to the two dancers, wand at the ready. The Boggart transformed with a snap, revealing two young people lying on the ground. An eleven-year-old girl with red hair kneeling over a twelve-year-old boy with black hair.
"No! You can't die! I won't let you… you saved me… I… You can't die, please…" the girl, a young Ginny covered in muck and grime from the Chamber of Secrets, whimpered, lifting the young Harry's head. The older Ginny glanced to him, then turned back to her younger self and proclaimed, "Riddikulus!" The two figures vanished, and the line of people gasped as the young Harry stabbed a sword through the roof the giant Basilisk's mouth.
Ginny stepped out of the line, and Harry pulled her into a hug.
"Well done," he whispered, rubbing her back.
"Thanks. I… You're right. It's easier when you have other people with you," she said softly. A whip crack echoed through the room, and Harry, Hermione and Ginny all stared at the Boggart standing opposite Luna Lovegood. It was a tall man with shoulder-length stringy blonde hair mixing potions at a desk.
"Come on Luna, what's the worst that could happen?" He poured a red liquid into a green, and the entire workspace exploded. When the smoke cleared, the man was lying on the floor, burns covering his still and lifeless body.
"Riddikulus!" Luna exclaimed, and the scene vanished, warping into an image of Voldemort – in all his pale skinned and absent nosed glory – in a tutu, doing a pirouette. The line broke into applause, and Luna slipped away, stepping over to Harry, Ginny and Hermione.
"It's nice," she said as if the image hadn't even affected her, but Harry could see that her eyes, usually hazed and dreamy, were hollow and devoid life, "having friends." Ginny pulled her friend into a hug, and Harry grinned at them both, before the next person, Ernie Macmillan, stepped up for his turn at the Boggart.
So, it continued, each person stood up to face their fear, and each person defeated it, to the applause and cheers of the rest. And when they stepped away, Harry made sure to let them know that they weren't alone, as friends consoled friends. Harry couldn't help but compare the class to the last time they'd encountered a Boggart. In their third year, most of the fears people had faced had been creatures, monsters or in some cases people. Now, they faced death, corruption, failure and loss. It was a sad thing to realise. To see just how friends – all of them still students – like him, had lost their innocence. Now they had true fears, like the death of loved ones, failure at a career, or even terrorism to face. A cruel reminder of a crueller world. However, as each person walked away from their fears and into the comfort of their friends, he couldn't help but feel proud of each and every one of them. And once the line had finished, and the Boggart put back in the Wardrobe by Hermione as it screamed about how it was her fault her friends were dead, Harry stepped into the middle of the crowd once more.
"You should all give yourselves one hell of a pat on the back. What you've done here today, is one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do in your entire life. But here is proof that you can face your fears and win. From now on, every time that fear creeps up on you at night, or in your thoughts when you're feeling low, you're going to think back to this moment, and you're going to remember what it felt like to stand here, and you're going to remember that you have friends you can go to ask for help, and you're going to know that no matter what it is you're struggling to face, they're facing a struggle of their own. You've seen it with your own eyes. Everyone has fear, and today you've trusted yours with everyone here, just as they've trusted yours with you. So, don't be scared to ask for help. No one is going to judge you for it here. You've all done a fantastic job, well done!" The people all broke into raucous applause, and Harry's cheeks tinged red.
"We'll meet again on Monday Evening next week. For now, Class dismissed."