In Which Implications Are Implicated
When it was his turn, Harry took a step forward to get the boggart's attention. He wasn't sure what form it would take, but he was sure he could figure out how to handle it. (Unless, it would occur to him later, it turned into a crying Bunny, or maybe Uncle Vernon naked. He couldn't handle that.) Professor Lupin was about to step in front of Harry to prevent the boggart from taking the shape of Lord Voldemort, but he froze when the creature let out an odd whimpering noise and... dissolved into a smokey cloud of evaporated crystal ball, for lack of a better description.
Remus blinked in confusion. The students blinked in confusion. The-Boy-Who-Apparently-Lived-To-Be-A-Fearless-Little-Shit grinned widely and curiously tried to poke it. The cloud made a growling noise but didn't move away. "I think it's friendly," Harry cheerily announced to the class.
"Potter's scared of smoke?" someone in the back of the room muttered disappointedly. Harry tried to peer over the other students to see who it was. It had sounded suspiciously like Malfoy, which Harry thought was odd because Slytherins were supposed to be in Charms. Maybe the Pureblood Wonder was stalking him.
Lupin stared incredulously at his best friend's child. "Harry..." the man whose name literally means Wolf Wolf began hesitantly, "What... what exactly are you afraid of?"
"Boggarts," Harry answered with an innocent expression as he continued prodding at what was apparently the true form of a boggart.
"Boggarts. That's surprisingly mature of you, Harry. It implies that your greatest fear is fear itself," Hermione said as the trio left the classroom along with the rest of their classmates, leaving their Professor staring blankly at the wall as he processed what had happened.
"Wouldn't the boggart of someone who fears fear be a dementor though?" Harry wondered aloud.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Dementors cause depression, not fear. If your boggart had turned into a dementor, it would imply that you fear sadness or loss."
"Thank Merlin it didn't turn into a dementor then. That would have had a lot of implications that I don't want implicated about me."
"I'm... not sure that made grammatical sense, Harry."
"I'm pretty sure it—"
"Are we not going to discuss the fact that we're some of the first people to see what boggarts actually look like? Harry might even get an award or something," Ron interrupted, speaking up for the first time before turning directly to Harry, "I'd congratulate you, but I'm pretty sure you only did it to mess with the class and possibly the Wizarding World at large."
Harry thought for a moment before he shrugged noncommittally.
I feel like I could change every chapter title to "In Which Harry Is A Little Shit" and they would all still be 100% relevant to the chapter.
Seriously though, if Harry's boggart was a dementor, his greatest fear couldn't have been fear itself because the nature of dementors isn't to cause fear. Dementors steal happiness and force their victims to relive their worst memories. Harry's greatest fear was depression and losing those he cared about.
Send me chapter ideas if you have any!