Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns all characters that have been in her series or elsewhere written by her, and all places.
The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw 3rd years sat down in their benches in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Their teacher, Professor Griffin, stood in the front of the classroom with a mysterious look on his face. It would be interesting to see what they should do today – when the professor had that look it was something special. The Marauders took their usual places in the front row. In most classes they sat in the back, but in D.A.D.A. and Transfiguration, which was Remus and James' favourite subjects respectively, they always sat in the front to be able to come as close to the teacher as possible.
Professor Griffin smiled when everyone sat down. He cleared his throat to get the talking to stop, but to no avail. He did it once again and then tried to say "Quiet, class" but no one reacted. In the end Sirius stepped up on his table and looked out over the class.
"OKAY EVERYONE! SHUT UP! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER WORD UNTIL THE PROFESSOR SAYS SO!" he shouted and the class immediately became quiet. They all knew it was very foolish to defy the Marauders, especially for such a little thing as this. Plus, Sirius was one of the two most popular boys in school and not many wanted to defy him. The teacher gave Sirius a grateful smile.
"Thank you, Mr Black." He nodded and Sirius nodded back with a straight face. "Today, class, we're going to do something interesting. We will fight a boggart."
A collective gasp flew through the class. A boggart? Everyone who knew what it was looked scared. Sirius swallowed loudly but couldn't help but feel a little enthusiastic. At least he would learn how to defeat one now. His parents had punished him with boggarts since he was five years old. It would be nice to know what to do against them and not being helplessly locked into the cellar together with one.
After explaining what a boggart was for those who didn't knew, the professor led them into another classroom, an empty one except for a wardrobe which was shaking slightly. Sirius easily recognized the signs of a boggart, having seen them enough times in his life.
Griffin turned around to them and looked at them, challengingly.
"Do anyone know which incantation you are supposed to use against a boggart?" he asked and a few hands was raised – six Ravenclaws and two Gryffindors: Remus and Emelié Benoit. Griffin looked over them before turning to one of the girls.
"Yes, Miss Jennings?"
"Riddikulus, professor." A Ravenclaw with brown hair answered.
"Correct. Five points to Ravenclaw." Griffin nodded. "Now, the wand movement. Wands out, please."
They trained the movement for some minute before he thought that everyone seemed to have gotten it right. Then he told them to stand in a line. But before he let the boggart out he asked one more question.
"Our biggest advantage against the boggart is our numbers. Does anyone know why?"
A few hand was up in the air again, including Remus this time too.
"Mr Lupin?"
Remus smiled slightly and began to tell everyone.
"Since a boggart takes the form of whatever the person fears the most, sir, it will be confused if there's too many around, and not know which form it will take. Therefore, if you're too many, it can end up being something incredibly un-scary because it tries to do too many forms on the same time and becomes something laughable as a result. And laughter is a boggart's biggest enemy."
Griffin nodded appreciatively and turned to the whole class.
"Mr Lupin is absolutely right. Ten points to Gryffindor for that excellent answer. And now it's time to begin."
The first student in line was a boy from Ravenclaw named Christopher Nelson. His wand was out and ready, even if he trembled a little when Griffin began to open the wardrobe. Out from it a mummy stepped, with bandages hanging from its limbs and some dried blood onto the head. It was a disgusting sight. Nelson's eyes became wide with fear but he pointed the wand against the mummy and did his best.
"Ri-riddikulus!" he tried but to no avail. "Riddikulus! Riddikulus!" this time it worked and the mummy was unwrapped. Instead of a corpse a ballerina stood there in a most ridiculous skirt. Laugh came from the class when Griffin told next student to go forward.
The next student was Rianna Gibbs from Ravenclaw and her boggart was a gigantic Rottweiler which growled at her and showed its sharp fangs. "Riddikulus!" she shouted and it immediately turned into a poodle puppy that began to walk on it hind legs and it looked like it was dancing. It was adorable and the class laughed.
Next in turn was Remus. He thought he knew what the boggart would show and it was anxiously he walked forward to face it. It began to spin and within seconds the class gasped in horror. On the floor the dead, clawed and bitten body of James Potter was lying. Remus immediately knew that he was the one who had killed James, during his transformation. He stared at it in horror and it felt like the guilt was crushing him. He couldn't move, he couldn't close his eyes. He couldn't do anything but stare.
"Remus…?" a voice came from behind. James' voice. It woke him up from his trance and Remus raised his wand and pointed at the boggart and said with steady voice: "Riddikulus."
James' body immediately disappeared and instead Sirius stood there, making silly faces. The relief was over-whelming and Remus couldn't help but laugh when he saw his other best friend instead. The real Sirius growled slightly behind him, not wanting the class to see him like that, but he supposed it was worth it to see Remus so relieved and happy.
Lily Evans stepped forward to the boggart with her wand raised. Sirius disappeared and a girl took his place. A girl with blonde hair and a sneer on her face when she looked at Lily. She looked mocking and slightly hateful when she looked at the red-haired witch and raised an accusing finger.
"Tuney…?" Lily whispered and the boggart looked even more hateful.
"You foul fre…" it began but Lily yelled "Riddikulus!" and instead a clown showed up and began doing silly things like falling over and pinching its own nose.
The Marauders exchanged looks in confusion. Who was the girl, and why was she Lily's worst fear? James looked concerned but now it was his turn. With a cocky grin James stepped forward, even if those who knew him (Sirius, Remus & Peter) could see a nervous look in his eyes.
James faced the boggart and it turned again. Once more the class gasped in horror when another dead body showed up on the floor. Sirius'. Just like Remus' boggart had been, it was bloody. But this wasn't something done by physical claws and teeth. The body had curse scars over the whole body, and was almost unrecognizable. James' eyes widened in horror and he fell to his knees, seemingly forgetting that it wasn't real.
"Sirius?" he whispered and the whole class, and Professor Griffin, stared in shock. It was one thing with a boggart that was someone killed by physical force, killed by physical means, but this was a work by magic. Dark magic. "No. No. No." James muttered. "No. This can't… Sirius… no. This isn't real." Tears had begun to steam down his face when he stared at the dead body. "It's not real. It can't be. Riddikulus!" he shouted and the body began to swirl. But instead of being something funny, it was now Remus who lied there. This body was covered in gashes and teeth-marks. For the other three Marauders it was obvious that this was how James imagined Remus after a transformation. Remus was almost shocked how accurate it was. They hadn't seen him directly after a transformation, only after that the school patron, Miss O'Connor, had patched him up. But it was still horrifying alike.
"R-riddikulus!" James tried again, but he wasn't able to find a single way to make this funny. How could his best friends' dead bodies be funny? The boggart turned into Peter. This body didn't have any physical injuries the class could see, but it still was easy to see that it was dead. "Riddikulus!" James screamed and the class held its breath as the boggart began to swirl. First when the swirling stopped and a cat with a little pink top hat sat there instead of another dead body the class let out a collective sigh of relief. The cat paraded around and looked incredibly important, and it was hilarious. The class laughed in relief of not having to see anymore dead bodies.
With a sigh Sirius walked forward. He already knew what he would see, having faced boggart un-countable times already. The cat disappeared and in front of Sirius a woman stood, who looked extremely look-alike with the black-haired boy. She had expensive dress robes, perfectly styled black hair, the same grey eyes as Sirius and his little brother, cousins, father, and almost all Blacks, and a feminine version of Sirius' own face. All purebloods and some halfbloods immediately recognized her as Walburga Black, married to the Black family's Head and mother of their Heir: Sirius. But also the other halfbloods and muggleborn quickly understood that this was Sirius' mother. They were too look alike not to be family.
The boggart-Mrs Black quickly took two steps forward with a horrible sneer on her face and a cruel and hateful gaze in her eyes, which should've been beautiful if they weren't so ferocious. In her hand an elegant wand was, pointed toward Sirius who flinched with fear in his eyes.
"You filthy bloodtraitor and mugglelover." Mrs Black hissed, loud enough for the whole class to overhear. "You're a disgrace to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and you do not deserve being the Heir. You're a shame for the Family and a dishonour for the wizard-kind."
Sirius' eyes flickered around the room, as searching for an escape-path, and he recoiled a step, fear obvious in his face for everyone in the room.
"How dare you smirch our honourable Family-name? You do not deserve to be a Black at all."
With a few quick steps James hurried forward and placed his hand on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius' flinched meanwhile the boggart continued to spit insults on him.
"Sirius, mate, it's a boggart. You can't do this, I know you can." James whispered in Sirius ear, not loud enough for anyone but Sirius – and Remus with his fantastic hearing – to hear. Sirius nodded almost imperceptibly and raised his wand, took a deep breath and said, with steady voice, in the same time as Mrs Black raised her wand and began to say an incantation: "Riddikulus."
The boggart span and soon Mrs Black still stood there, but with a silly grin on her face and in a very short ballerina-skirt, singing muggle-lullabies on the top of her lungs meanwhile dancing around in the room.
The class laughed, but some of them gave Sirius' concerned and/or confused gazes. After laughing a little at his mother's derision both Sirius and James realized this.
They both turned to the class with wands in hand and glared at them, which made them to immediately shut up their whispers.
"If anybody ever mention this again," Sirius threatened. "They will be hexed into oblivion and have the Marauders' wrath upon them for the rest of their Hogwarts career."
The class swallowed and nodded, a bit scared of James and Sirius. They were both hilarious, brilliant and awesome, and the high of cool, but they could be really fearsome when they wanted to. And no one wanted to be the subject of the Marauders' wrath – just look at Snape. There was nothing good with being hated by the most popular students in school. Especially if they also happened to be best in class in almost everything.
"Now, now." Griffin said, still trying to recover from the shocking boggarts. "There will be no such things as threatening, or I will have to give you both detention."
"Sorry, Professor." James and Sirius answered in chorus, but they gave the class one last look before turning back to their teacher who swallowed.
"Well, I think we've done enough for the day. Class dismissed." He said and the class nodded and left the classroom.
The Marauders stared at each other before letting out a short, relieved laugh, which eased the tension a little bit. They all marched out of the classroom and back to their dormitory to find something else to do. None of them felt like talking about what happened this lesson.
An hour later Professor Griffin had informed the Head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall, about Sirius' at least said disturbing boggart, and he was summoned up to her office. They began to have weekly teas together, because there was a lot Sirius had to unlearn about wizard-kind, and especially authority figures.
Review!
I admit, much of the Sirius-parts, especially that with weekly teas, was stolen from a headcannon I found at Pinterest.
I hope you found this enjoyable. What do you think, should I write one of Sirius' teas with McGonagall? If I can get a good idea of how it would go, of course. Would you find that interesting? I want your opinions, people!
Oh, and Peter's boggart is - if you listen to me - being abandoned by his friends and that they would tell him how pathetic and worthless he is. But I didn't know how to write that, so I decided not to. I especially didn't knew how to write his friends' reactions. Would they be re-assuring (of course we don't think that Pete. You're not pathetic)? Slightly mocking (get a grip, Pete. If we thought that we wouldn't want to be seen with you at all), or something completely different? That's why I didn't write it and Peter got such a little role in this. Sorry for that.