"If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise, if you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise."
"Is that a song from one of your horror movies?" The Slytherin asked with interest. He had been present for the movie night fiasco and had noticed similar tunes used prominently to incite unease.
Oddly enough, learning that muggles could be downright terrifying had made many of the pureblood students far more accepting of them.
"Nah, just a nursery rhyme for children." She was singing it in a rather creepy pitch however. It fit the mood.
The boy nodded, accepting that answer. "Do you think we'll find it?"
The trees surrounding them were getting thicker and with Hagrid now rooming inside the castle no one was likely to hear them scream if something went wrong. The boggart wasn't the only thing lurking out here after all.
A low deep chuckle echoed from their left and the Gryffindor gripped her wand tighter, turning towards the sound even as everything in her said run. They had found it.
"For every bear that ever there was, will gather there for certain because." Her singing was barely a whisper, the focus of reciting the words calming her a little as they forged ahead with the mission "Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic."
"I think you need more than one bear for a picnic." The Slytherin pointed out as the faint scent of strawberries reached his nose and his companions greatest fear came into sight. More than one of these bears would definitely be two too many however.
"Hi," The great pink creature smiled its glassy eyes holding a sinister edge "I'm Lots-o-Huggin bear. But you can call me Lotso."
It took a lot of talent to make a greeting that friendly sound like a death threat. Thankfully as a Slytherin he knew lots of people who possessed such talent and was unaffected by it now.
"Hi Lotso, I'm Timere. You can call me Tim."
The specially constructed containment box (which absolutely was not a cat carrier) was placed gently on the ground. Two wands were raised in preparation.
"Watch them, catch them unawares." the girl continued to sing, creeping around to flank it.
This would require some exquisite team work.
"Alright." Tim declared ready and able. "Let's bag this bear."
…
Ten minutes later two figures emerged from the trees and started the long trek back across the grounds; one small container swinging between them. "Beneath the trees where nobody sees…"
"Are you sure that song is for children?"
…
Meanwhile in the castle;
"Come out come out wherever you are."
A Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw closed in on a toothy looking troll that was lurking in a supply closet, its odd little eyes blinking up at them as they approached.
"Gotcha"
"We're in business."
…
Until recently Grudger hadn't had much contact with humans.
Until recently not many boggarts anywhere had.
It was a fairly straight forward relationship between the species really.
Human meets boggart.
Boggart scares human.
Human runs away screaming.
Or
Human hits boggart with a sneaky trick.
Human laughs at boggart.
Boggart runs away screaming.
Either way, the meeting was brief and ended with screaming and a parting of ways.
Both species usually did their best to avoid the other wherever possible. Deciding early on that they were not interested in forming any deeper connection. Heck, the humans didn't even know what boggarts truly looked like.
Neither did many boggarts themselves of course but that was beside the point.
This is where recent events become significant.
The humans Grudger was encountering these days were not exactly…avoiding him. In fact, at this very moment they were making a rather pointed effort to corner him.
They also felt wrong.
Feelings were very important to boggarts; they were highly attuned to them. Fear was a key one. They would sense what an enemy most feared and assume that shape to drive it away, it wasn't exactly pleasant to sense another beings fear but it was a highly useful defence tactic.
Amusement was another. More specifically the rattling wails of laughter these humans made when they felt it. Horrible sound. Like nails of a chalkboard.
Not many other emotions really came up in the boggart / human relationship. Not many others were needed. It was a simple and predictable pattern of scare, laugh, run that had been playing out for centuries.
Recently, however Grudger was sensing something else. Not fear exactly, fear was there under the surface of course but not the bone chilling fear he had always inspired in the past. Not amusement either. None of these humans had forced him to change shape with their nasty laughing trick in quite a while. They weren't laughing at him, but neither were they screaming. Or running.
Instead there was some other emotion defining their many interactions. A kind of excited anticipation. A rush of fear tinged adrenalin overlain with a hint of joy.
Not haha ouch joy.
Just a feeling of low-level fun that Grudger was beginning to discover he didn't find entirely unpleasant.
In fact, despite his long-time instinct to avoid humans the curious boggart was having quite an enjoyable time trying out all the new shapes and personas he found in these human's minds. He was also enjoying being able to stay in those forms for longer periods of time; something he maybe could have done in the past if he had wanted but had never bothered to try after the human had run off screaming.
This excited-fear-joy-mix the humans were emitting was making him feel very relaxed honestly. With no urgency to change into something more frightening to any particular human and drive them away.
"Gotcha" the human nearest to him said with a smile but no unpleasant laughter.
Then he was in a box.
…..
He was in a trunk now. A fairly spacious trunk.
There was another boggart in here with him. They had met before in the castle. Spent some time together until she had run off to the woods.
She was pleasant company. Her emotions, like his, were cautious and curious about the humans they had been meeting recently.
Before he found the castle, she'd had more experience with humans than he did, having been brought here by the one with the angry wolf beast lurking in him. Even then she had been shut inside a trunk and was not in contact with the wolf beast man very much.
Then there had been a stressful period of fear, laugh, hide before the new excited-fun feeling had started. She was also enjoying the new shapes.
Now they were together in a box and heading somewhere.
He let out a hum of contentment for her to feel and enjoyed the burst of warmth she sent back.
It could be worse.
…..
In July the Hogwarts express sped towards London with two boggarts on board.
By September it was heading back to Scotland with an additional twelve.
Those students who had been in on the plan gathered in the compartment of the train to see what their efforts had produced. A strange assortment of creatures emerged from that trunk, half formed creatures and curiosities, not quite the terrors that had plagued Hogwarts that last year, aside from the two twisting putrid ghouls hovering over the rest however, but no one payed them any mind.
The younger boggarts were still learning their art.
The humans in front of them were not afraid, and the new-borns did not know to expect it, only knowing the excited-happy-anticipation they had been feeling from their first humans since birth.
By the time the train rolled to a stop the twelve young ones had been distributed to twelve new friends.
…
In the castle, preparations were being made for the surprise tournament due to take place.
Their most esteemed guests were about to get a surprise of their own.
A bit of a transition chapter here to mix things up. I'm struggling to keep momentum with this story so thought a change would be good.
Let's assume the events of the third book took place mostly unhindered by the various boggart appearances as we move on now to fourth year.
I included the boggart's point of view because I wanted to show that no boggarts were harmed in the making of this nonsense.
According to google translate which I shall not question, Timere means fearless which I think is a good name.