Written for The Houses Competition, Year Two, Round Five.
House: Hufflepuff
Year: 5
Category: Drabble
Prompts: [First Line] His/Her/Their hiding place had been discovered. What on earth was/were he/she/they going to do now? [Speech] "Yeah, and that would be great if we could afford it"
Wordcount: 484 (Google Docs)
Betas: Zoe and Aya. Thank you so much for helping out and making this fic clean!
Title: Boggart in the Cupboard
Summary: Mr. Boggart is not proud, just very hungry.
His hiding place had been discovered. What on earth was he going to do now?
The raggedy-dressed couple had returned early, and the Boggart scuttled behind the swinging door to hope for the best. He watched as they hefted something into the empty cabinet above the stove that he'd originally selected for himself. It was the perfect location: dark, and eye-level with his victims.
"Yeah, and that would be great if we could afford it."
"Well, until next pay period, this is all we've got."
The air felt ripe with anticipation. Their backs were turned, and now was his chance.
"Hi ho!" he heard himself saying, as he swung the door shut, trapping them inside the kitchen with him.
The woman screamed, and the man dropped his ripe tomatoes on the floor, they splattered, red and juicy onto the tile, a big bloody mess if he ever saw one.
Catching his reflection in the polished glass of the oven, he took pause. He was a pirate, flourishing a flimsy saber over his head. A plastic patch covered one eye, and a long ostrich plume stuck out of his cartoonish hat. He looked down and was dismayed by the sight of a wooden leg.
It was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever seen. But if his victims were suitably frightened, he'd run with it. Their fear spread out before him, like a grand Christmas Feast. It was time to feed.
"Argh, you scurvy dogs! Give me your plunder, or I'll make you walk the plank!"
His words didn't hold much bluster, but they did the trick. The woman dropped to her knees, while the man grabbed the sack from the cabinet and dropped it at his feet.
"H-h-here… take it!" the man begged. "It's all we have!"
He inhaled, absorbing their terror. Even in this humiliating form, he was being restored.
"Argh!" he sputtered… and spewed more garbled words that he hardly understood until his hunger was sated.
"No, no no no…" the woman was saying, covering her face with her hands, still shaking.
The man knelt down beside his wife and put his arm around her. "It's okay, honey. I gave him everything."
Out of curiosity, he used the tip of his saber to open the sack.
It contained individually wrapped crackers, lifted from the free condiments section at the diner down the street.
"Oh for crying out loud!" he exclaimed in a very unpirate-ish voice. The woman took his exclamation literally, sobbing and carrying on like he was her worst nightmare.
He guessed he was. But he was full up on fear, and didn't want to be a stupid fake pirate anymore.
"Have a nice… day?" he said, and left, whistling a little sea shanty. When he was far enough away from the flat, he felt himself released from that hideous form, and gratefully slunk into the shadows until his hunger surfaced again.