A/N: WARNING: This chapter gets... dark. TW: Implied suicidal thoughts through Boggarts. Other themes of suicide. You have been warned.
Year Three: Boggarts
Remus eyed his Third Year Slytherin class worriedly. He just had the Gryffindors, and he had refused to let Harry face his. Perhaps sensibly. Showing a Dementor to the class wouldn't be the best idea, after all.
But now he wondered - about James' daughter. Would she have the same fear? She hadn't fainted. Well, better to get on with the class.
"Today," he told them, "You'll be facing Boggarts. Who can tell me what they are?"
"Shapeshifters," said a pale blonde kid - Malfoy, was it? - quietly. "They look like our greatest fears. It's a defence mechanism."
Remus smiled. "Very good, Mr. Malfoy. Five points to Slytherin." The kid beamed. For a moment, Remus wanted to tease James with a 'see? they're all kids, Slytherin or no!'. Then he remembered that James was dead.
"Who would like to volunteer with the Boggart first?" he asked instead, to distract himself from the sudden pang of sadness. He pretended not to hear an outraged whisper of 'we have to face our fears in public?'.
"I will," James' daughter said quietly. "I want to know what my fear is."
"A very mature approach," Remus supplied, carefully masking his concern. He'd seen something in the girl's eyes, so fleeting he wondered if he'd imagined it. A dull flash he'd seen in the mirror oh so many times over the years. He shook it off. "First, we practice the spell," he said. "Repeat after me: Riddikulus!"
"Riddikulus!" the class echoed dutifully.
"Now," he asked the girl, "have you thought of anything funny to use with the Boggart?"
James' daughter pondered for a moment, then nodded. "I think so."
Remus sighed. No use putting it off, then. "Very well. Ready!"
He flung open the cabinet door.
Nothing emerged. Well. That was odd. He turned his gaze to the class... and found a sea of pale faces. Uh oh. He shot a look at his volunteer, and froze.
Right in front of the girl, partially hidden by the cabinet door unless one looked straight into the cabinet, was a corpse.
Pale.
Hanging from the ceiling of the cabinet.
Bearing an exact likeness to the girl staring at it, wand trembling.
Remus hadn't moved that fast in years, but he found himself between the girl and the corpse, one that, now that he was closer, had a tiny plaque with 'what are you waiting for?' written on it. He saw that for a split second, before the Boggart assumed the now familiar shape of the full moon. "Riddikulus," he intoned calmly, turning it into a deflating balloon and stuffing it back into the cabinet.
He stared at the closed door for only a split second, before turning back around.
Half the class was staring at him with respect in their eyes. The other half was staring at James' daughter in horrified realization. Malfoy was rubbing soothing circles into the girl's back.
"Do you want to go to the Hospital Wing, Miss Potter?" he asked gently.
The girl didn't answer. Malfoy, however, looked him in the eye and nodded firmly. He nodded back. "The rest of you, stay here," he commanded. "You are not to attempt to engage with the Boggart without my presence. Understood?"
He received nods from the serious faces before him. Good. He can trust them to keep their word.
"Come along," he coaxed gently at both Mr. Malfoy and James' daughter. He would not let her down any more.