Harry and Ginny were at the back of the Room of Requirement, standing before a large cherry wardrobe. Every minute or two, the wardrobe rattled and shook a bit; not enough to be noticeable, unless you were looking for it.
"How did you get a boggart in there?" Ginny asked.
"I didn't," Harry said. "I guess it's in there because I required it." Even he was a little surprised that the boggart was present. At the beginning of the night, when Ginny had opened the Room of Requirement, Harry was struck by an interesting thought—did the Room's properties become fixed when the door appeared, or could changes happen on an ongoing basis, depending on the needs of its occupants? Harry had suspected that he would need to leave the room and return before a boggart would appear, but apparently that wasn't so. Despite the fact that Ginny hadn't given a boggart a single thought when she opened the room for the D.A. at the beginning of the night, they were standing in front of a boggart-infested wardrobe.
Ginny whistled slowly. "That's impressive. I wonder what else this room can do…"
"We should test the limits of the room, but not now," Harry said. "We've got a boggart on hand; we shouldn't let it go to waste." Harry began to walk toward the wardrobe. "Stand over there, in front of the wardrobe. I'll open the door, and the boggart will come out. You're going to focus on your happy thought, point your wand, and say the incantation 'expecto patronum.'" Ginny opened her mouth to protest, but Harry shook his head. "Don't worry about getting it right the first time; it took me weeks to cast the Patronus charm successfully."
"That isn't it," Ginny said. "A boggart is supposed to take the form of my greatest fear, right?"
"Yes," Harry said absently, as he reached toward the wardrobe.
"And the Patronus charm is used to drive away dementors, right?"
"Right," Harry said, his hand on the door.
"What makes you think that my boggart will become a dementor?"
"Er…" Harry paused, hand on the wardrobe's handle. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten something so fundamental. His boggart was a dementor, but that wasn't true for everybody. "What form does your boggart take, anyway?" Harry asked.
Ginny put her hands on her hips and fixed Harry with a glare. "Would we be having this conversation if I knew?"
"Good point," Harry said, releasing the wardrobe handle. "Didn't you learn about boggarts with Professor Lupin?" Harry remembered the lesson clearly; why couldn't Ginny?
"I studied defensive spells with Professor Lupin," Ginny said. "Disarming charms, tripping jinxes, leg-locking curses… you know, second year stuff."
Harry rubbed a hand through his hair. Different students learned different things in different years, naturally. Lupin taught Harry and the other third year students about dark creatures, but Ginny, who was a year younger, had learned about spells.
"Didn't Moody show you a boggart last year, then?" Harry asked. That would have been Ginny's third year.
"Moody was focused on things like inferi, giants, werewolves, dementors…" Ginny shrugged. "He mentioned boggarts, but we never did a demonstration."
Harry nodded slowly. The creatures that Ginny had listed had all been allied with (or used by) Voldemort during the first war—precisely the sort of thing that Moody would teach. Boggarts were more of a household nuisance.
"Well," Harry said, "you're here because you hate dementors, so there's a chance that your boggart will be a dementor. If it isn't, we'll trade places. I know my boggart is a dementor, so you can practice on that."
Ginny raised her wand. "Fine, let's get it over with."
Harry hesitated for a moment—Ginny clearly didn't want to do this. Harry could try teaching Ginny the Patronus charm without the faux dementor, but Harry knew from experience that the true challenge of casting a Patronus charm lay in summoning a happy memory while under the influence of the dementor's aura of despair. It was worth trying, at least, to see if Ginny's boggart would take the form of a dementor.
After giving one last look to make sure that Ginny was ready, Harry opened the wardrobe and released the boggart. Harry was immediately disappointed; the boggart had not taken the robed form of a dementor. Harry drew his wand and prepared to drive the boggart back into the wardrobe, then paused. The boggart had taken the form of… Ginny herself. The Ginny-boggart looked young, around the age that Ginny had been when Harry had rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets, and it was wearing a Hogwarts school uniform. Harry lowered his wand slightly, perplexed. Ginny's greatest fear was herself?
"Please don't hurt me," the boggart said to Ginny. The boggart held its hands out pleadingly, and crept toward Ginny.
Ginny's wand hand, still extended in front of her body, began to waver. "Stay away from me," she said.
"Please," the boggart said in Ginny's own, quavering voice. "I'm just a little girl… there's nothing I can do…"
"You're not," Ginny said. "You're not a little girl…"
Harry raised his own wand and took aim at the boggart. He knew that he should intervene, but watching Ginny confront her deepest fear was absolutely fascinating. He would allow this to go on for a moment or two longer; if Ginny didn't do anything in the next few seconds, Harry would rescue her from the boggart.
"But I'm you," the boggart was saying, still creeping forward. "Just a girl…"
"You're not," Ginny said, taking a half-step back. "You're a monster."
"You're right!" The boggart said triumphantly. It grinned, and the boggart's mouth opened wider and wider, far past the limits of a human's jaw, past the limits of physical possibility, until the lower half of the boggart's face had become an enormous, gaping maw, filled with an uncountable number of needle-sharp teeth. At the same time the boggarts eyes were receding, leaving two black, sunken holes in their place, with tiny pinpricks of light in the center that glittered with malevolent intelligence. The boggart's fingers lengthened, as well, and it was holding them out like claws.
"I'm a monster," the boggart-Ginny-thing hissed, "but I'm still you! You can jinx me, hex me, but it doesn't matter! I'll always be inside you!" The boggart crouched, ready to leap forward, and Harry decided that he had seen enough.
"Riddikulus!" Harry said, flicking his wand.
The charm struck the boggart in the shoulder, spinning it in a rapid circle. When it came to a stop its Hogwarts uniform was gone, and instead the boggart was dressed in a pastel pink leotard and a ballerina's tutu. Harry snorted with amusement; Pansy had once remarked that Ginny's red hair would clash horribly with Slytherin green, but this combination was far worse. And Harry couldn't think of any activity more unlikely for Ginny than ballet—Ginny was many things, but delicate was not one of them.
Harry waved his wand again. "Levicorpus!" The boggart was unceremoniously hoisted into the air by its heel. Harry began to laugh, and the boggart twisted in the air, struggling to see its attacker. Its futile struggles only added to Harry's amusement, and laughter. The boggart grabbed its hair and began to screech in pain.
"Chiropterus mucosum!" Ginny had recovered from her indecision and managed to cast a spell on the boggart. Harry didn't recognize the hex, but its effects were quickly apparent. Several bogeys began to crawl out of the boggart's nose, sprouting dripping, sticky, membranous wings as they went. The bogeys doubled in size, then doubled again, and began to flap around the boggart, swooping in to smack it in the face with their wings.
Harry was laughing uproariously, now. This was the bat-bogey hex that Ginny had once used to threaten Draco, and seeing it in action was well worth the wait. Ginny was laughing, too, and the boggart was thrashing around in the air, obviously in pain.
Harry cast a banishing charm on the boggart, sending it hurtling through the air toward the wardrobe. As the boggart entered the wardrobe, it stretched out its hands and grabbed the doors of the wardrobe, slamming them shut behind it and trapping the bogeys outside. The bogeys flapped around the wardrobe for a few more seconds, seeking a way past the doors until Ginny dispelled them with a wave of her wand.
"Looks like we'll be using my boggart," Harry said as he moved toward Ginny.
"I don't want to talk about it," Ginny snapped.
"Obviously," Harry said. "That's why I didn't ask you to."
Ginny's face turned red as she realized that Harry hadn't asked about her boggart, or what her boggart had said. She stomped forward toward the wardrobe, and Harry had the impression that she was doing so out of a desire to hide her face rather than a desire to proceed with the lesson.
"Wait a moment," Harry said, as Ginny reached for the wardrobe doors. "Do you have your happy memory in mind? You're the one who's going to be fighting this dementor."
Ginny made an angry noise. "How am I supposed to focus on a happy memory after that?"
This part, at least, Harry had remembered. Harry waved his wand at his bag. "Accio chocolate bar." A bar of Honeyduke's Best Chocolate flew out of his bag and into his hand. Harry unwrapped the chocolate bar, broke a piece off the end, and offered it to Ginny. "Have some chocolate. It will help."
"Chocolate?" Ginny said. "Really?"
"Yes," Harry said. "It was Lupin's favorite way to cheer me up. No matter what, every situation is better if you're eating chocolate."
Ginny gave Harry a skeptical look, but took the chocolate anyway. Harry left her in peace while she ate, pointedly looking around the Room of Requirement and allowing Ginny to regain her composure. Harry took a bite of the chocolate for himself and was going back for a second when he saw Ginny's outstretched hand.
"Give that over," Ginny said. "You're not the one who just had your greatest fear put on display."
Harry shrugged and handed her the rest of the candy bar. It disappeared quickly; Harry was reminded that Ginny was Ron's sister and probably shared his appetite. Harry had often wondered how Mrs. Weasley had fed all seven of her children; he would have thought that magic was the answer, except that first principle exception to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration stated that food could not be conjured from nothing. Perhaps Mrs. Weasley simply multiplied the food after she had purchased it…
"I think I'm ready," Ginny said, bringing Harry's attention back to the present.
"Do you have your memory in mind?" Harry asked, and Ginny nodded. "Good," Harry said. "Here's the plan, then. When you open the wardrobe, I have to keep the boggart's attention; if I don't, it will try to transform out of its form as a dementor. You can stand off to the side and practice the Patronus charm. I'll give you a few chances, then I'll drive the boggart back into the cabinet."
"Sounds fine to me," Ginny said. She grabbed handle to the wardrobe door. "Ready?"
"Ready," Harry said. Harry raised his wand and braced himself for the familiar chill of the dementor's aura. Ginny opened the wardrobe and stepped back, and the darkly robed boggart climbed out of the wardrobe.
That was Harry's first clue that something was wrong. Dementors, as he had been reminded at his trial, did not walk, or run, or climb, or do any action that required feet. And yet, the robed figure that emerged from the cabinet was definitely climbing, no doubt about that. And the hands which reached up to draw back the hood were not the skeletal black hands of a dementor, but small, flesh-covered hands of a human, probably a woman. When the boggart lowered the cloak's hood, it revealed the familiar skull of a Death Eater's mask and a head of medium length golden blonde hair.
"Harry?" Ginny asked. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," Harry said uncertainly. This wasn't right; his boggart was a dementor, not a Death Eater. Death Eaters didn't frighten Harry. Or, rather, they frightened Harry, but certainly not as much as Voldemort frightened Harry, and not nearly as much as dementors frightened Harry.
"What's going on?" the boggart asked rhetorically. The voice was horribly familiar. "I think it's rather obvious. I've finally realized that you're a lost cause." The boggart reached up to remove its mask, but Harry already knew the face he would see behind it—Tracey's. "It had to be this way," the boggart said in Tracey's voice, once the mask was pulled away. "There's a war coming, and I will finally be able to cleanse myself of the taint that my ancestors created. There will be plenty of opportunities for greatness… but not if I'm standing at your side."
"Get rid of it, Harry," Ginny said from behind the boggart. "Don't listen to it."
Harry nodded. He set his feet and flicked his wand. "Riddikulus!" The spell struck the boggart, but there was no effect. Instead, the boggart transformed into a different shape with a snap. Now Harry found himself facing Theo Nott.
"We're not really your friends," the boggart said. "Tracey and I are just waiting for the best chance to betray you to the Dark Lord. It's all an act."
"Riddikulus!" Harry repeated. Again the boggart changed shapes, and now Harry was staring at Hermione.
"Joining the Dark Lord was the logical thing to do," the Hermione-boggart said. "You don't have any hope of winning; anybody with basic intelligence can see that. It wasn't easy, finding the courage to reach out to him. But if Pettigrew could do it, I knew I could, as well. The Dark Lord doesn't like muggles, but he does respect talent."
"Riddikulus! Riddikulus!" Harry repeated the charm, over and over, and the boggart continued to cycle among his friends, first Ron, then Fred, George, and Ginny, all of them speaking the same sentence, with only brief interruptions caused by transformation: "It's the best thing… we could do for… our family. Giving you… to the Dark Lord bought us our lives…"
When Ginny saw the boggart once again take her shape, she stepped forward angrily. "Riddikulus!" Struck from behind by the spell, the boggart was unable to resist its effects. The boggart-Ginny was now wearing a ratty old dress, which Harry recognized as some approximation of the dress that Ginny had worn for Yule Ball.
"Riddikulus!" Ginny repeated. Now the boggart's face was covered in horribly applied makeup, almost clown-like. "Riddikulus!" A pair of ill-fitting shoes with perilously tall high heels appeared on the boggart's feet. As it began to totter around, Ginny finally started to laugh. Her laughter grew and grew, and the boggart began to wobble its way toward the wardrobe. It climbed unsteadily inside and closed the door after itself.
Harry fell to one knee and put a hand to his forehead. His face was hot with embarrassment. What had just happened?
Ginny was suddenly at his side, sitting on the ground next to him. "Are you okay?"
"No," Harry said. "I'm not."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Harry took a deep, unsteady breath. "It was so much worse than a dementor…"
"I know," Ginny said.
"I can defeat a dementor with a spell," Harry said. "All it takes is a charm. But that…" Harry shuddered. "I can't stop that. I can't stop people from betraying me."
"That was just the boggart talking," Ginny said softly. "Nobody is going to betray you."
"Did Draco tell you that?" Harry said, voice full of bitter sarcasm. "Or was it Pansy? Maybe we should ask Mr. Malfoy if it's possible to betray your closest friends and family. Or, better yet, we could have one of my parents ask Peter Pettigrew."
Ginny reached out and put her hand on Harry's arm. "I don't know about them, but I can speak for myself," she said. "I would never do that. You saved me, and you saved Percy. As long as the fight against You-Know-Who lasts, I'll fight by your side."
Harry placed his hand atop Ginny's. He felt her fingertips flutter hesitantly, and he moved his fingers slightly in response. For the briefest of moments their fingers intertwined, then Harry released Ginny's hand, feeling embarrassed.
"Thank you," Harry said. "I don't know if I'll ever truly be able to believe it, but… thank you."
"So…" Ginny leaned back and placed her hands on the ground. "I take it that we're done for the night?"
Harry shook his head, then put his hands on his knees and pushed himself to his feet. "No."
"You actually want to keep going?"
"No, but that's the point." Harry said again. "If we can't produce a fake dementor, then now's the best time to practice our Patronus charms: when we feel our absolute worst."
"I think I might be starting to hate you again," Ginny said jokingly as she, too, stood.
"We'll practice together," Harry said. "Think of your memory for a moment or two." Harry thought back to the Chamber of Secrets, calling to mind the surge of elation he felt when he saw Ginny open her eyes… and the surge of elation he had felt only moments earlier, when their hands had clasped together. Harry felt his heart swell with happiness.
"Are you ready?" Harry asked Ginny.
Ginny, who had been humming to herself, stopped. "As I'll ever be."
"On three then," Harry said. "One… two… three."
Harry and Ginny spoke together. "Expecto Patronum!" A few wisps of white sputtered out of Ginny's wand, but an enormous shield emerged from Harry's. The shield's opalescent whiteness was almost opaque, and it stretched so far to Harry's right and left that it easily would have covered Ginny as well as Harry.
"Wow," Ginny said.
"Wow is right," Harry agreed, eyebrows raised. This was an enormous and unexpected change from what had happened this summer in the alley in Little Whinging, when his patronus had been so pathetic. It wasn't unwelcome, though, and Harry was pleased that Ginny was so impressed. And the changes to his patronus didn't seem to be done, either; as Harry pumped power into the charm, the opal colors of the shield were starting to resolve themselves into scale-shapes. The semi-solid white light of the charm began to thicken where it emerged from Harry's wand, and as Harry watched the shield itself began to bend and wave, almost like the winding body of a snake…
Harry waved his wand and dismissed the patronus shield. Having a basilisk suddenly appear in front of Ginny wouldn't do him any good. "That sort of thing takes a lot of practice," Harry said quickly. "My first try looked a lot like yours."
"That sounds like a challenge," Ginny said. She smiled at Harry and raised her wand once more. "Let's try again."
An hour later, exhausted from repeatedly casting the powerful charm, Harry and Ginny emerged from the Room of Requirement. Harry and considered inviting Ginny to share his invisibility cloak during the trip back to Gryffindor Tower, but ultimately decided that any such offer would be interpreted as a transparent attempt to get closer to Ginny. Instead, he settled for walking Ginny back with the Marauder's Map activated. As they went, Harry told her the story of the Map—that his father and Sirius had made it along with Professor Lupin and Pettigrew, that it had been confiscated by Filch and later nicked from Filch's desk by Fred and George, and that the twins had given Harry the Map in thanks for rescuing Ginny at the end of Harry's second year.
"My mother would love to get her hands on that map," Ginny said.
"Lupin and Sirius know I have it," Harry said. "It's not going to hurt anybody."
"She wouldn't just want to confiscate it," Ginny said. "She'd use it to check us. She's worried sick whenever we're out of her sight, even when we're at Hogwarts with Dumbledore. She's got this clock in the kitchen, you know, and it tells her where every member of the family is. It has nine hands, one for each us and one for my mum and dad. Instead of numbers, it says, 'at work,' or 'travelling,' or, 'home.'"
"Sounds neat," Harry said. Sometimes, despite years of immersion in the magical world, he could still be surprised by the power and ingenuity of enchantments.
"It is. Or, it was, until we woke up one morning this summer and discovered that 'mortal peril' had appeared as an option on the clock. Now, no matter what we do, everybody's hand is creeping closer and closer to mortal peril." Ginny shook her head. "It's driving mum crazy."
Harry and Ginny had stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, but Ginny made no move to go inside. "The last few years have been rough on your mother, haven't they?" Harry asked.
Ginny nodded. "I wind up in the Chamber, Percy is captured by Death Eaters, You-Know-Who is back… not to mention her usual worrying. I mean, Bill and Charlie are in danger whenever they show up for work, and the twins seem hell-bent on poisoning one another…"
"I never thought of all that," Harry said. "Being a parent must be awful."
"There are rewards, too, I'm sure," Ginny said. She suddenly grinned proudly. "Like me."
Harry laughed, and his voice echoed through the halls, reminding both Harry and Ginny that it was well past curfew. Harry glanced at the Map again and saw that there was nobody around to hear them talking. It was time to go, though, before some prefect or professor did arrive.
"Well, goodnight, then," Harry said. "Practice again next week, same time?"
"Of course," Ginny said. "I'll see you then." She gave Harry a wave, then mumbled the password to the portrait of the Fat Lady and stepped into Gryffindor Tower.
Harry's return to the Slytherin common room was uneventful. When Harry arrived back at his dormitory, his roommates were all asleep in their beds, except for Theo, who was completely absent. This was no surprise; Harry had seen the dot representing Theo tucked away in a broom cupboard on the second floor, his name overlapping with Tracey's. Harry quickly cast some diagnostic spells upon his bed and upon Theo's, then reinforced their wards for the night. The spells were becoming routine; Harry was done with the wards in less than a minute and under his covers in less than five.
Harry fell asleep almost immediately, exhausted from the evening's practice. His dreams came quickly, and all of them seemed to end in a vision of a blue, torch-lit door.
A/N: Only the last two chapters of this book remain unwritten. High fives.
Speaking of high fives, Friday April 17th is National High Five day here in the U.S. There will be a bonus chapter posted on that date.
