"Do you reckon he'll be any good?" There's a slight pause in Ron's sentence, the inhaling of air that escaped him from running up a flight of stairs. Briar snorts slightly and nods her head, arms full of books with subjects she'll no doubt never need.
"I suppose so. I mean, how could one possibly be any worse than Lockhart and Quirrel?" There's a slight tremor in her voice as she says both of their names. Ron doesn't notice, instead his eyes are looking over the small planner she had gifted him, but he lets out a laugh and nods his head.
Ron glances at her and there's humor in those eyes of his and Briar is swept away by the love in his eyes, for it's all for her. There's some people you trust and others not, Ron was one she could. He saved her and she couldn't be more grateful. In times like these, she's reminded that she has a support system, but she could never tell them of Tom.
"-riar? Briar? Are you with me?" Ron has stopped in his tracks a few feet in front of her and she wonders when she stopped walking.
"Ah, sorry Ron. I got caught up in my thoughts." She gives him her sheepish smile and she returns it. She strides toward him and her boots make small clicks on the smooth ground.
"You were with Hermione earlier, right?" Briar nods her head and Ron continues. "Did she find a new shortcut? I could've sworn she was with us when we made that first turn and then she was gone!" Ron looks confused and she bet she does as well. It's a mystery how that girl works. Taking every elective was going to hurt her in the long end. Briar had no doubt that - in at least one class - Hermione was going to storm out and never return.
"I think I saw her run ahead of us into the corridor near Professor's Sprout's class. However, let's enter and see what's in store for us in this class." As she said that, they arrived at their classroom with the double-doors open. Half of the class was there already, Hermione included. Her eyes lit up as they saw them and she motioned them to her. Ron and Briar shared a look: We'll ask her later. They sat to her left, Briar in between her two best friends.
With a strike of a clock, 2:00, the lesson began.
It was such a familiar scene in front of him. Children smiling and whispering behind backhands, giggling slightly. It warmed his heart. It was sights like these that reminded him of why exactly why he took the mantle of teacher.
His eyes peered over the class from the corner of the room, lurking, and he wondered how far their fears would be. There were many types of fear and he was instructed to figure out which each and every student had. There were fears of people, unanimated objects, animals, monsters, situations, and more. It was those with fears of people and situations - memories or what may come in the future - that he had to note down.
As he pondered over his lesson plans, he never noticed the entrance of the green eyed girl and her freckled friend.
A strike of a clock and the room was full and eerily silent.
Time to make an appearance. Remus thought with a sharp smirk. With a flick of his wand, the lights flickered off and murmurs swept in the room. With a blaring crack, he appeared in font of his desk and the light shine on him and an 'eep' went throughout the room when he appeared.
Perfect.
"Hello and good evening to you all. I am Professor Lupin and I will be teaching you your third year of Defense Against the Dark Arts." Remus smiled at the excited faces of the third years and contained the chuckle, it was obviously their first time having a small performance like he had done.
"Wicked!" His eyes peered over the red head who exclaimed the sentence, many seemed to agree with the boy and let it be known. Remus made the mistake of looking to the left of the boy, for there was the girl with wine colored hair and lightning streaking across her forehead. His breath left him and he cleared his throat - not now, lupin. pull yourself together. - and the class quieted down.
"Today, we will be leaning about a boggart," explained Remus as he told everyone to leave their desks, grabs their wands, and follow him to the cleared area with nothing but a wardrobe in sight. "It is a shape shifter, which will assume the form of a person's worst fear. They like dark, enclosed spaces, like wardrobes or beneath beds, which in the muggle world has lead to them being known as a bogeyman, although muggles rarely see boggarts plainly, and instead assume them to be a figment of their imagination. Now, nobody knows exactly what a boggart looks like when it is alone - right now, it is just waiting to be released from the wardrobe, to assume a nightmare."
The previous excited mood was then flushed and everyone looked at each other nervously. Those who were near the wardrobe, slowly made their way to the back of the group. Remus's smile grew gentle and said, "A boggart, whilst it feeds off fear, is hurt by the simplest of remedies; laughter. Laughter is poisonous to a boggart, and is a surefire way to chase them off."
A girl with bushy brown hair raised her hand immediately and Remus recognized her to be Hermione Granger, and called on her. "How exactly do we laugh at our worst fears?" Her voice was strong, but her eyes were filled of worry and kept flitting to another.
"This is what I will be teaching you today. there are many ways to overcome a boggart in order to make it funny. If facing a boggart, it is a good idea not to do so alone - that way, the boggart is more likely to get confused. A boggart is confused when a person has more than one great fear, or when there are multiple people with different fears nearby. In an attempt to scare them all, the boggart can sometimes make itself not scary at all. For example, one person is afraid of a huge slug, the other of a headless corpse. The boggart might turn itself into a half slug - which is far more comical than terrifying."
"When you are alone," Lupin carried on, "and need to do away with a boggart, there is a spell specifically designed to force the boggart to transform into something you find funny, or ridiculous. That's an easy way to remember the incantation, which is Riddikulus. The key thing about this spell is that you have a good focus and a strong image of what form you want to force the boggart to take. The incantation and wand movement - which goes like this, copy me, yes, that's right - don't do anything on their own. Now," he said, clapping his hands together, "who wants to go first?"
It was not a surprise when nobody raised their hand. He expected it and so when he decided to choose the one who looked the most nervous, Neville Longbottom. Briar, from what he could see, whispered something in his ear and gave him a small, gentle smile. This seemed to ease him, as he walked up to Remus with a straight back.
He was shocked when the boggart turned into Snape, and made a note of it. So he gave Neville advice on what to do and soon Snape was in bright pink clothing with a sunhat on his head, and all with a swish and a yell of "Riddikulus!"
A line formed when they saw that Neville was able to accomplish it and a few seemed to be apprehensive, Briar seeming to be one along with all of Slytherin.
Dean Thomas was afraid of zombies. Lavender Brown's fear was a mummy. Seamus Finnegan's fear was a banshee. Then, the cycle was broken and then Remus watched as Parvati's bogart turned into an older version of herself - grey and wrinkly - but the girl's eyes were staring at the boggart's vacant left finger. She was afraid of growing old alone.
And then - Parvati's eyes were hard and determined - a shout of "Riddikulus!" and the boggart became nothing more than a puppet dancing a jig on strings.
The red haired boy from earlier stepped up and the boggart grew into a troll and a club that was splattered with blood and something else - hair? - and he swished his wand and with a whisper, the troll became a small spider, the size of an ant. He looked at his friends with a wide smile and they returned it.
Hermione stepped up and the boggart stood there morphing, and it looked like it would be Professor McGonagall before it morphed into a book taller than he and on the page lay:
Basilisks.
The Basilisk is a giant serpent, also known as the King of Serpent. Herpo the Foul was the first to breed a Basilisk; he accomplished this by hatching a beneath a which resulted in the creature known as a Basilisk.
The Basilisk has a classification as an XXXXX creature, meaning it is a known wizard-killer that cannot be domesticated due to its immense powers.
Pipes.
There was more to read but Hermione had calmly said the incantation and the book was then shrunk into a mound of sand. Remus wondered why it wasn't the actual monster but he supposed there was a reason to her fear.
And then Briar Rose - sweet, sweet Briar Rose - stepped to the queue and there was a slight - barely noticeable - tremor to her step and then the boggart was morphed into a boy with scarlet eyes. Remus watched as her eyes widened and there was a glass sheen to them. This was not going to go well.
Our worst fears? Briar thought today was going to be fine. She was feeling happy with thoughts of murder and him far from her mind. And now, she had to face her fears. This was not a good idea.
Briar could see Hermione's and Ron's worried glances at her and she knew that she wouldn't let them worry for her anymore than they already did. She gave them a tight smile.
"Mr. Longbottom, could you step up here?" Neville, who was in front of her, started to hyperventilate. She stepped forward and gave him a small hug.
"You'll do just fine, my dear god-brother. If anything, I'll go up there and help you with it if the Professor doesn't. I believe in you." Her voice was lower than a whisper but he heard it just fine and he walked to the front with no nervousness and she felt proud of him. It was just too bad she wouldn't be able to do the same.
She was relieved yet surprised when the entity became Professor Snape and not the Lestrange woman. Perhaps, he was more brave than anyone else, her included.
She watched him change the man into an outfit she had seen Dowager Longbottom wearing once and she let out a small giggle.
Then, he stepped away and Dean stepped up and his zombie was eating his own brains. The mummy's own wraps began to unwrap when Lavender yelled the spell. Seamus's banshee lost her voice and looked quite weird.
Parvati stepped up and in shifted into herself but she was old and she knew exactly what her fear was and with a look, she confirmed her suspicions. Briar remembered the talk that she had with the Indian girl last year and she could remember the tears that Parvati shed over fiancée's death. It was arranged but she had known him for years and he was dear to her. It was the day when she realized there was more to the girl than she had ever known. She wanted to hug her friend but she knew that she would be fine right now.
Briar Rose shook her head when she realized that Parvati was walking towards the crowd once more and she ran forward and gave her hug. Parvati returned it enthusiastically.
Briar's eyes flitted over to Ron - he was next - and she wondered what it would be. A spider? Perhaps something worse. She had no clue, but he knew what he would see because Ron didn't flinch as the boggart brew and grew into a troll - the troll from her first year - and her eyes looked at the club which had blood and if she looked closer she could see strands of brown curly hair - Hermione's hair - and wine colored curls - her own.
It was just more proof of their friendship and her heart fluttered at the notion. It was kind of sweet, in a very, very dark way.
The troll shrunk and it was Hermione who went up next - but only having a group hug. Again, like Ron, she had no clue what exactly her fear would be, but she had an inkling.
Failure. It was one thing that Briar knew for certain that her best female friend feared. So when the boggart decided on the book, her heart clenched.
It was the page that had solved the mystery - both Hermione and Ron had been petrified and she remembered seeing the page clenched in her hands - of the monster. It had been so obvious and yet in the end, it had taken them all so long to figure it out.
Hermione's fear was the outcome of would have happened if she hadn't figured it out, if she hadn't grabbed the ripped page. It was a topic that only the three would approach together. Hermione's eyes were unforgiving as she cast the spell. Briar watched as the book became a mound of sand.
Hermione turned around and she inhaled and then exhaled. The trio looked at each other and they silently agreed to talk to talk about it later.
Now, it was Briar's time and she was terrified.
What would the boggart morph into? She had no idea and that was what made the walk towards the boggart horrifying.
And then, the boggart morphed into Tom Riddle, eyes scarlet and dark. Tie, a green and silver striped one. Hair combed perfectly to the side, aside from one unruly curl - one that he had complained about at times. His mouth in that twisted smirk of his.
There was nothing else it could have been, she thought. She could laugh at how stupid she had been, thinking it could have been someone else. She had every right to be terrified of him and she was and she still felt her heart break a little when he appeared.
She ignored Lavender's gasp, Hermione's questioning eyes, and somewhere behind her she could hear Malfoy go on about how he didn't who that student was and how he found it hilarious that it was a Slytherin. No, all her focus was on him.
Tom was standing and in his hands was a little black book - a diary. The diary she had fell into many times before she had destroyed it with a fang.
He took one step forward and she took one back - this dance was not one she liked as it reminded her far too much of that night - and then he was in front of her on the floor and his image flickered into a small girl with dull - dead - eyes and dirty red hair, Ginny Weasley.
Then he reappeared behind her and she could see the defiant twist to his mouth - a smirk sharper than a basilisk fang - and he whispered, " Hello, my dearest Rose, do you like what I've done? This is what you wanted, correct?" Rose could feel a tear fall down her face and her body tremble even more that it became known to those in the room.
"You wanted me to be free and this is how it will happen." His arms hang around her shoulders and she can feel his breath on her neck.
"Ri-ridikk-" Her voice trembles and her eyes are on Ginny, it's the Chambers all over again. She is hyperventilating, this she knows but they don't.
"My Rose~" His voice is still like a siren's, alluring yet beyond dangerous. "Do you remember what you said to me?" Rose knows what he is referencing to and she is beyond scared to admit.
"No? Well I'll say it for me. You said it many times, you know. Before you killed me that is." There's a gasp at his words. They are treating her situation like those novellas that her Aunt once watched. After all, how could the Golden Girl kill someone?
"I love you, Tom. I would do anything for you." His voice is slightly different and by the looks on Professor Lupin's face, he is speaking Parseltongue. She can do this, Rose thinks.
She ignores Ginny's cold body and rips herself out of Tom's grasp and her voice is strong as she says, "Riddikulus." Ginny's body disappears and Tom is screaming and the diary falls to the ground with a thud and suddenly there's a fang in it and yet she still hears:
"You did well, dear."
Briar wants to die, just like Rose did.
And then all eyes are on her and Briar can't take the attention, not right now. For there is Amortentia in the air, there has to be - for how else could she actually smell him still? Her eyes are unfocused and she ignores her tears and Hermione and Ron are walking towards her and she can see Professor Lupin put away the boggart - his own turning into a white floating orb - and there's too many eyes on her.
And so she runs.
