Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Harry Potter
"Bloody hell!" Ron shouted as he crashed into a wall. His robes were torn, and he had bloody gashes all over his face. His red hair was thick with mud and sweat. His hands were bleeding profusely, and they have been like that for an hour. "Be an Auror, they said..." Ron Weasly panted.
It's been 5 years since the battle at Hogwarts, and Ron was offered a job as an Auror trainee at the ministry. So was Hermione. And Harry. They all had accepted. The training had seemed fleeting and they were all now full-fledged Aurors of the Mininstry, destroying the last few fragments of dark magic that lingered around. The cases that Ron had handled were trivial, even boring, by Auror standards: following suspected Dark wizards, busting a basilisk farm, checking up on Dark spells left behind after the Dark Lord's demise. He was finally given a more challenging task: killing The Boggart.
Two months ago, some officials from the Magical Creatures Department had discovered a Dark Wizard experimenting on a boggart. The ministry wizards had surrounded his mansion and were almost sure that they got him. But somehow, he had vanished through their Anti-Disapparating charms and the boggart had gone into hiding. Nothing was heard of him or his boggart, and everything was calm. Til 2 weeks ago.
Bodies of wizards, witches and Muggles were found near and in the mansion, in various stages of digestion, all with a look of shock and fear permanently etched on their faces. All wands found at the mansion had been used to perform the Ridikulus charm. And last week, 2 of the investigating ministry witches were also killed in similar fashion. Fear had started to spread within the Ministry, of the creature simply known as the Boggart.
The Aurors had to step in to squash the rumors and the fear. Ron and Hermione were assigned to the case. They were going in without a proper idea of what they were dealing with. They were going in blind.
In quick time, both Ron and Hermione had discovered that the Boggart was exactly what the rumors said it was. It could shapeshift to any terrifying form and was able to attack as quickly as it could transform. The Riddikulus charm had no effect on it; the spell bounced off it. Other spells seem to be absorbed into it. Even Hermione had run dry on her stock of spells. In their desperate need to kill it, they had destroyed more than half of the mansion. There had to be a way.
In the chaos, Ron and Hermione got separated. Ron had just escaped from the creature and was hiding behind a wall, gasping for the air his lungs craved for. Ron froze. There was no noise. The wood was creaking. There was no slithering. He slowly looked into the room, his wand gripped tightly in front of him. Where had it gone? It was just there. He started to kick around objects on the floor, trying to get it to stir. Nothing. He needed to know where it was. He stopped and strained his ears.
Out of a sudden, a tumbling sound echoed from behind him. Ron had the Stunning spell at ready and almost had sent it, when he saw Hermione crawling over the debris, towards him.
"Blimey Hermione! Why did you do that? I almost Stunned you! Almost! I was that close! And we both would have been sitting ducks!"
Hermione stood rooted to the ground, her head hung low.
"I'm sorry, Hermione, this thing is just putting me on the edge. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted. Are you alright?" Ron walked forward to hug her.
He was inches away when he noticed that, for someone who had been battling a mad creature in a collapsing house, Hermione did not have a single scratch. And it was at that moment that 'Hermione' changed into an Acromantula.
