October 1993

"I would rather not participate in this activity."

Remus Lupin couldn't stop his eyes from narrowing. He tried to remember that the boy before him was not his father, but it was hard. They had the same face. They had the same arrogance. And they apparently shared the same sense of entitlement. "It's not an optional activity."

The boy's smirk flattened. "I heard you let Potter off."

Remus frowned. Whatever this boy was afraid of it was surely nothing like a dementor. It was probably embarrassing. He would not cater to a Malfoy's pride. "Harry was a special case." Fortunately, Harry was the only one of the students to have had a severe reaction to a dementor. Even Ginny Weasley had not manifested one.

He could see the boy grind his teeth. "It won't end well," he muttered stubbornly. Around them he could hear the boy's housemates whispering about 'freaks' and 'self-important gits.' The Hufflepuffs looked unimpressed.

It was a matter of will to refrain from rolling his eyes. He quickly took a deep breath of the cool October air to center himself. After a fourth year Ravenclaw transformed a boggart into an elephant, he had decided to do this lesson outside. For the structural integrity of Hogwarts.

He turned to the cage he kept the boggarts in to hear them cowering at the back of the cage. They sounded like they were trying to press themselves through bars so they could flee into the Forbidden Forest. It was unusual behavior. Boggarts were mischievous and liked to cause fear. It was contrary for them to exhibit reluctance in doing so.

"They can see it better than humans can."

He whipped his head around at the short blond boy. What kind of remark was that? He was really milking this. Remus could hardly discern why. When his surely mundane fear was revealed this type of melodrama would just lead to greater ridicule.

Abruptly fed up, he levitated one of the creatures of the cage and set in front of Malfoy.

The boggart exploded.

It exploded into a dragon so large it seemed to be taking up the whole sky. Its head was easily three stories high. Its eyes burned silver as it seemed to regard them intently.

Malfoy, ironically, was the only one who didn't exhibit any fear. Half the class ran for the castle. Some of the girls fell to the ground covering their head. Many, himself included, froze. With great effort he turned to find the boy just standing there. It must have been due to the strange light the beast was emitting for the boy's eyes seemed to glow the same burning silver.

"Malfoy, the spell," he said as calmly as his terror would allow. The Riddikulus Spell worked best for the one the boggart was targeting. Although he was having a hard time believing anything would make this creature look ridiculous. It would still be plenty terrifying with pink scales or in Augusta Longbottom's night clothes.

The boy didn't seem to hear him. His eyes remained fixed on the dragon before him.

It turned out to be unnecessary.

The serpentine creature rapidly starting collapsing in on itself until it became a small shriveled looking creature that could have only been the true form of a boggart. The creature screamed in agony as a silver light poured out its eyes and mouth. It was like it was melting from the inside.

And then it stopped. It stopped moving or screaming. It was dead.

He swallowed in pity and guilty relief. He was very glad the creature had been unable to hold that other form.

"Class is dismissed," he said softly, but it was enough to send the remaining students running back to the castle. Most of them casting looks of terror at Malfoy as they skirted as far from him as possible.

The boy hadn't moved.

"Sorry."

Lupin his mouth to say something, but then he realized the boy wasn't talking to him. His eyes were fixed on the boggart's corpse and they somehow still seemed to glow.

Sorry. The word seemed so inadequate.

The boy then turned and walked slowly back to the castle.

Remus was sorry too.

Since the incident, the boy's housemates gave him a wide berth. Before they seemed vicious, after they seemed to want to disappear entirely from his sight. The Slytherin's regarded him as a traitor, but they too seemed wary. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs largely seemed to ignore or actively avoid him.

He'd asked Harry about it, but they boy just shrugged. He said that Malfoy had been rather mean when he met him, but that had been before Hogwarts. As far as Harry knew Malfoy hadn't really done anything too awful since he started attending school. He hardly said anything in class and he rarely ate in the Great Hall. He apparently did have one friend though: Luna Lovegood.

No one seemed to like her either. Flitwick was sympathetic, but the rest of the staff was irritated by her tendency to hardly pay attention and spout nonsense when she did. Her peers called her 'Loony' and her father's outlandish rag seemed to be constant source of ridicule.

Of the two, she was objectively nicer than Malfoy, but something about the directness of her gaze unnerved him. It was like she could read his thoughts.

Like she knew his secret.

It was Friday and he was setting up his class for the 1st year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs when the boggarts started screaming.

He turned and saw that Lovegood had arrived early.

"They can see it better than humans can."

He shuddered. That's what Malfoy had said before. "Ms Lovegood," he acknowledged in a way that wasn't quite a greeting.

"Professor Lupin, they say Luna was a moon goddess."

He swallowed thickly as the words cut into him like a threat. "I've heard; it's commonly known."

She hummed. "They're wrong of course; She wasn't a moon goddess."

A part of him wanted to ask what she meant, but the larger part of him didn't and ignored her as he finished getting ready for the next class. Ignored the ceaseless terrified chittering of the boggarts. Ignored how when the students arrived they stood nowhere near her.

He doesn't make her participate; he doesn't even offer.