"There are two of them." Remus clenched his fists, then released them along with a long exhale, turning toward the fourth-year student who had just approached him.

"What?"

"There are two bogarts now." She repeated.

"How?" This situation was getting worse by the day.

"I don't know. I just….the Chuckie one is in the dungeons. I've heard of four separate sightings this morning but I'm also getting reports of another one on the fifth floor."

"Is the other one behaving like a normal boggart?" He asked.

"In what way?"

"Is it changing shape?" He clarified.

"I think so."

A younger girl came running from the east corridor, her eyes wide and frantic. "The one in the dungeons has started moving up." She told them.

Not seconds later an older boy came running from the south corridor "The one on the fifth floor has started moving down"

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" Remus took another deep breath.

Stay calm, he told himself. Stay calm. You can fix this mess. You are a strong, confident, defence teacher. I believe in you. You have survived a lifetime as a lycanthrope. You survived seven years in a dorm with James Potter and Sirius Black and all the chaos that came with that. You even survived the pineapple incident of which we do not speak. In fact, new rule, don't even think of the pineapple incident, ever again, seriously, stop thinking about it. What were those selkies even doing in a brewery? Stop thinking about it! What was I saying? Oh yeah, you can survive a couple of boggarts.

A scream from the west caught everyone's attention and the whole group took off at a run. Remus himself highly grateful for the distraction.

Arriving at the staircase they were met with a growing crowd.

"What's happening?"

Jason Manning who was looking over the staircase banister leaned back at the sound of the Professors voice. "The two boggarts are now both on the third floor" He told them "The first bogart is still the Chuckie doll and the second boggart seems to have stopped shifting too."

"So there are two Chuckies now?" The girl who had found Remus first asked. He really needed to learn more of these kid's names. There were just so many of them.

You're a defence teacher anyway, he reminded himself, everyone knows the position is cursed. No one lasts more than a year. Why even bother learning them all? You'll be gone soon. Probably going to be fired for bringing a rouge bloody boggart into the school. That's it Remus, that's how you'll be remembered, the defence teacher who unleashed a boggart on Hogwarts and couldn't even catch the bugger. And now there are two.

"No. Only the first one is Chuckie…" Jason was explaining. "…the second one is…"

"What? What is it?" Remus prompted impatiently.

"Well…have you ever seen The Conjuring?"

Remus nearly growled, infinitely relieved that he had not been exposed to any of these muggle entertainment films based on the nightmares he had been forced to witness recently. "Let's assume no"

Apparently the young man who had warned them about the second boggarts movements was not as ignorant "Are you telling me that thing is running around looking like Annabelle?"

"Maybe." Jason grinned clearly amused.

"What is with these boggarts and dolls?" The boy (Ben? Toby? Jack maybe? Sod it, it doesn't matter) asked angrily "Why dolls?"

"Because they're creepy." Someone said.

Remus could almost feel the grey hairs forming "So Annabelle is a doll then?"

"Yes" they told him.

His ignorance didn't last long as a gasp from below caused the gaggle of students crowding around the banister to fall silent as they all looked down towards the staircase where the two boggarts had just appeared and were now sitting side by side. The now familiar Chuckie doll and the newly formed but highly disturbing creature Remus could only assume was Annabelle.

"That is the ugliest doll I have ever seen" He muttered.

"It's kind of sweet actually." Mary Jones laughed quietly, edging closer to their group.

"Sweet?!" These students were losing it.

"Look at them" She prompted

"I'd rather not"

"They are holding hands. They're like a creepy doll couple."

"Wasn't Chuckie married?" Someone asked.

"I don't think the boggart is obligated to honour the fictional dolls marriage vows." Someone else responded defensively "If it wants to have a weird romance with an Annabel boggart it can."

The younger girl tilted her head in curiosity "Are they going to have babies?"

A dozen pairs of eyes turned towards the defence teacher, gazes burning into him "Professor…how do boggarts reproduce?"

Remus had no idea how boggarts reproduced but the very idea was enough to drive him into action.

A large portion of students gathered on multiple floors to watch the boggarts were treated to the highly unexpected but impressive sight of Remus J Lupin launching himself over the edge of the fourth floor bannister, wand drawn as he dived through the air towards the third-floor staircase and it's two doll like residents screaming "SEPARATE THEM!"


Hey everyone. Sorry for the wait.

You will be relieved to hear I'm done with Chuckie now and will be moving on to other monster's in the upcoming chapters. I've had a few suggestions so will be trying out some of those. Sorry if I don't manage all of them.

As a side note;

Chapter 4 included the boggart turning into Pennywise the clown from Steven King's IT.

Since writing that chapter I have now actually read IT (such a long book, took forever) and I shit you not, I think that thing actually was a boggart!

My reasoning - throughout the book IT turned into each person's individual fear to attack them, IT hid its true form, and the key to defeating IT was a ritual that involved making IT laugh. There was a little more to it that that and I know that's not exactly the same as boggarts which you defeat by laughing at them but the similarities are pretty strong.

Thought it was a neat observation that I had to share.