Chapter 14: Nightmares are Like Boggarts

Despite their heightened activity, the days appeared to have added hours to themselves. June seemed to last at least a fourscore of days, but maybe things were just progressing that slowly. It might have been the weariness of defensive spell after defensive spell being cast all day while trying to teach their Obscurial magic. He was right. Each wave of his wand seemed to come with its own mini-battle, the Obscurus glorying in the open flow of magic. The Defense professor eventually had to call on his daughter to calm the child down – which led to her proctoring every future magic session. Ravina wasn't tough like her father. She'd barely passed the Boggart-Banishing exam in Third Year after one sight of that hungry acromantula. But to this dark force, at least, she was blind. The Obscurial she could whisper to and cut a rampage in half even if it caused her father to turn his eyes to high heaven. Just being there seemed to help. Rocky was never sure what the secret was, but whatever she did for the troubled protégé, it worked.

If there had been doubt about keeping an Obscurial at school, no one, not even Laren Ro, could discount his adeptness at wizardry. The DADA professor would relate to impressed ears all that he could accomplish while not quaking on the floor, which went beyond anything any First Year had displayed in his whole career of teaching. The ten-year-old was a natural at magic; though the anticipation of Obscurus outbursts still caused him to be timid about using it. Professor Hodges secretly worried if he was still intentionally still holding it back, but he said nothing at first. Ravina wondered about it too, but the days wore on, painfully, and she and her father had enough to think about.

His body tightened. The color drained from his face until it was ashen as the mare of the moon while it contorted in strain. His hand dropped the wand as it was overcome by trembling.

"Here," Ravina helped him onto the foot of the bed. Sometimes if he could be calmed down quick enough the Obscurus could be subdued before an all-out battle began.

He grabbed a few gasps before apparently regaining enough control to speak. It wasn't the first time this question had come out. "Why are you helping me?"

She smoothed down his dark hair that had grown a little out of the bowl-cut since his arrival. "Because you need it."

"No one else ever helped me before."

The witch bit back her sorrow. The boy hardly ever spoke of his former life. The little she had heard made it sound like he had escaped a lion's den. "What did they do to you?"

"Ma hit me," he said, twisting his hands together to control the shuddering. "She'd make me take off my belt and hit me with it."

Ravina stared, remembering the lines on the boy's hands when he had first arrived. So that was the truth.

The child spoke again. His words came tumbling out as if they had been behind a dam for years and it was beginning to crumble. "I couldn't help it. I kept doing things, like the cup, and the windows. Ma made me stop, but it got so strong – and it hurt. I just wanted it to go away. But it always came back, it was always there. It never left... But then it wanted me to do things. It wanted to hurt Ma, and Chastity. I didn't want to hurt them! But it told me –"

"Wait, slow down," Ravina interrupted. She knew she probably shouldn't interrupt the boy when he was giving the names of people in his family, but the shock had knocked that out of her brain. "How did you know what it wanted? Does it... does it talk to you?"

The child hesitated, furrowing his brow, "No... I don't think so. I just know things that it wants. It hates everything, except –" he stopped abruptly.

"Except what?"

He shook his head and went on like he hadn't heard. "I tried not to think about it, because it's always destroying everything, and it just always wants to get out. But in my dreams it'll get out and go to tear something up, and then when I wake up it's too late. I can't see, only where it is. And I can't control what it's doing, except a little. I thought, what if it blows up the house or something while I'm there, and I couldn't do anything to stop it?"

"Shh, don't say that, that's not going to happen. No one is going to hurt you here." The young woman wrapped her arms around him in intense pity and wondered why she had never asked about his dreams before. "Credence, does that still happen here?"

His eyes had gone glassy and he had only the strength to nod.

"Oh, Credence..."

"I'm sorry. I know what Mr. Hodges said," he added hastily.

"You can't be expected to fight off a dark parasite in your sleep."

Ravina wracked her brain, trying to think of something she could possibly say to help. A real life Obscurial probably didn't show up out of the blue for most people. He himself attested to how dangerous it was, but her mind couldn't focus on that like she knew her father's would. She just kept picturing the lonely nights of tossing and turning with those white eyes. No one to tell. All alone.

"My momma died three years ago."

She hardly knew she had said it aloud, but she must have because the child stopped half-sobbing and stared at her with startled expression. "I know it's not the same but... You know, I had trouble sleeping after that too. I had to move here, with Daddy – Mr. Hodges. Everything was so different. I felt so empty, and alone." She took a deep breath. "But he always told me, 'nightmares are like boggarts', have you read about those yet?"

He nodded, glancing at the bookshelf to one of the older works called Bestiarium Magicum.

"He said, 'everyone can control what scares them most, but no one starts out thinking that.' He says, 'regret keeps you in the past, 'what if's steal your present and worry mars the future'. I used to think I would never get out of it, but I somehow did. We'll find a way out for you."

He rested deeper by her side, the dependent lean almost tearing her heart out, "But what if it gets too strong for me? What if... something happens to me?"

"What makes you say that?" she asked sharply.

"I don't know," he shrugged, "I mean, you called it a parasite..."

"Nothing is going to happen," she asserted, feeling the need to say it. Saying it might make it true. "I promise, I promise I won't let anything happen to you."

A/N: Thank-you all for making it through Part 2 (this is the last chapter in Part 2). This scene… makes me want to cry for so many different reasons. I've always wondered what exactly the relationship is between the Obscurus and the Obscurial, and I'm glad Crimes of Grindelwald shed a little more light on it, even though I'd like to hear more from Credence himself, not just the guy whose sister might have been an Obscurial. This is what I got. Especially considering Dumbledore's words, I feel like the Obscurus might be a sort of maniacal shoulder devil, or as he put it, a dark twin. Also, I just have to say, Ravina is going to eat her words. Big time. Please review!