To Asha's surprise, Snape's threat of further disciplinary action turned out to be an empty one, and when a particularly nasty potions assignment in January required background reading, he grudgingly relinquished her ban from the library. So even though Asha was still facing an unrelenting sense of unease and many unanswered questions, she threw herself into her school work (with the exception of potions) and all in all, life at Hogwarts had returned to its normal state.

Asha was especially enjoying Defence Against the Dark Arts. She had never liked a teacher more than she did Professor Lupin. This was her first year of learning real defensive magic - her previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professors had been utterly useless - and Lupin was a very practical, down-to-earth man and evidently an exceptional wizard. Walking into his class immediately made Asha's underlying feelings of frustration and distress dissipate. Today was no different.

As the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins entered the classroom, Professor Lupin cheerfully called, "No need to get out your books today, everyone. We'll be heading up to the staffroom for a practical lesson." Asha's spirits lifted even more. What could Lupin have in store for them today? Perhaps they would finally get to have another go at duelling, she thought hopefully.

The staffroom was not as lavish as Asha had expected. It was a long, spacious room, lined with mismatched chairs and the occasional coffee table. Perched on a chair in the middle of the room was Professor McGonagall, sipping a cup of tea and perusing a copy of the Daily Profit.

"I hope you don't mind Professor, I came across a Boggart in the back wardrobe yesterday and I was hoping it would provide some good practice for my third years" said Lupin, genially.

"Of course, not a problem, Remus," she smiled, "I've got plenty of work to be getting on with anyway". She stood up and slid past the crowd of students and out the door, her cup of tea bobbing along behind her. Asha found it strange that McGonagall hadn't wanted to stay and watch the show. Having read about Boggarts in the DADA textbook, Asha knew they were creatures that turned into the victim's greatest fear. It would be fascinating to see what scared everyone the most. Now she thought about it, she was quite interested to see what the Boggart would turn into for herself. She could think of plenty of concepts that frightened her, like the torture of her friends, the raping of her mother, the permanence of death. But a thing that frightened her. What would that be? Perhaps an Inferius, or, she thought with a sickening sensation in her stomach, her brother telling her it was all her fault...

"Right, gather round everyone," called Lupin, indicating an old wardrobe in the back corner of the room. He explained the basic behaviour of Boggarts to the class and had begun introducing the Riddikulus charm when he suddenly stopped mid-sentence, having noticed something behind the mass of students.

"Ah, Professor Snape, I didn't see you there. Apologies for the interruption," said Lupin. Sure enough, at the back of the room, lounging on a faded leather armchair and reading a black, titleless book, was Snape. He looked up coldly at Lupin and Asha felt a wave of anger at the potion master's lack of respect for her favourite teacher. "I'm afraid this lesson is bound to get noisy so you may want to continue your reading elsewhere," suggested Lupin.

"Actually, I would be quite interested to see what this Boggart has in store for your students, Lupin," replied Snape, with a malicious look in his eye.

"Very well then. As we were everyone. Repeat after me... Riddikulus".

Eventually, the time came for the Boggart to be released. A Slytherin boy called Blaise Zabini was up first. There was an air of nervous anticipation in the room. After a count of three, Lupin sent sparks at the wardrobe and a huge, hunched beast burst from the door, growling and drooling from a snarling wolf-life snout. Its skin was grey and patched with matted fur, taut against its skeletal limbs. Screams and scuffling feet sounded from behind Asha as half the class hurried to create more distance between themselves and the werewolf. Asha was horrified yet mesmerised as the creature prowled towards Blaise, its huge claws clicking against the stone floor.

Blaise yelled "Riddikulus!", and with a crack, the werewolf shrank to the size of a chihuahua and let out a pathetic yap. The room filled with laughter (and gasps of relief from some of the Hufflepuff girls) and Lupin forced the Boggart back into the wardrobe.

"Oh well done, Zabini," came a drawling voice, causing the class to fall silent and turn to the back of the room. "Very impressive you were able to keep a clear head while facing such a horrendous beast. Don't you agree, Professor Lupin?" Snape's eyes were gleaming.

"Yes outstanding work, Blaise, seeing as you were the first one up," said Lupin, though Asha thought his smile looked forced and his complexion had paled slightly. "Right then, who's up next?" The rest of the class did not seem keen.

After a few moments of silence, Asha said, "I'll do it."

"Excellent, Asha," said Lupin. She stepped forward and he pointed his wand at the wardrobe. Once again the door burst open, this time revealing...

Slap!

It took Asha a second to realise what she was looking at. A lumpy, liquid mass of black and red had come tumbling out the cupboard and splattered on the ground, spraying her with scarlet droplets. If she wasn't so confused, she might have laughed at the seemingly pathetic nature of her Boggart in comparison to the snarling beast of Zabini's.

Just as Draco Malfoy sneered "What the hell is that meant to be, Winters?", something rolled from the top of the bubbling mass and stopped at Asha's feet. Looking up at her through empty eye sockets was a hairless, blistered severed head. The jaw had been ripped from the face and the apex of the skull had been blown open.

The confused silence of the class quickly turned to cries of horror.

Feeling nothing more than extremely surprised and curious, Asha stepped over the head and approached what she now realised must be a mutilated corpse. The next thing she saw was an obscenely twisted severed arm that appeared to have been savagely ripped from the body. This topped a mound of several more grotesquely severed limbs, some shredded to the point of being unrecognisable. She identified a torso from a ribcage that looked as though it had been partially dissolved. Her feet suddenly became warm and wet as the pool of blood spreading from the pile of gore soaked into her shoes and socks. The smell of barbeque filled the air and with a lurch of revulsion, Asha realised that dispersed between the remains were clumps of semi-cooked flesh and organs.

The rest of the class hastily covered their noses with their robes and a couple of students rushed out of the room, desperate to escape the smell. Several Hufflepuffs were retching, meanwhile, Pansy Parkinson had already been violently sick in the corner.

After a minute of chaos, only those who could handle the sight of the mangled body remained in the room and silence fell once more. Snape had risen from his nook and was approaching the scene, mildly interested to see what all the fuss was about.

"Asha?" said Lupin tentatively, taking a step towards her, though not getting too close as to become the focus of the Boggart, "are you all right?" Asha was still staring at the bloody mass, her brows furrowed.

"Er... yes, I'm fine," she said truthfully.

"Why don't you have a try at the Riddikulus charm?" said Lupin. Then, when Asha didn't reply, "That's okay, perhaps I'll step in this time". As he made to step in front of Asha, she shot out her arm and held him back.

"I don't understand... is this supposed to scare me?" she asked, "I mean sure, it's horrific and cruel but why does the Boggart think that this is my greatest fear? It can't even attack me. It's sort of... pathetic."

A thick silence coated the room. The rest of the class exchanged nervous looks and Asha finally looked up to see Snape, glaring at her as if trying to intimidate her into admitting fear.

"Er, I'm not sure Asha. That is odd," mused Lupin, "perhaps you're just not so easily frightened as the rest of us"

"Oh, I highly doubt that," came Snape's deep drawl. "Everyone has their fears, Lupin. I think perhaps you've just found yourself a faulty Boggart"

Asha wasn't listening. A scrap singed, blood-soaked, blue material had caught her eye and she was carefully leaning forward, and fishing it out of the viscous blood with the tip of her wand. It was from the sleave of a jacket and read: 'POLICE: Authorised Officer'. This only served to spark more questions in Asha's mind.

"Maybe the Boggart's just targeting someone else in the class," she suggested, "someone whose worst nightmare is a police officer turned inside out?" She almost laughed at the absurdity of it but a severe look from Lupin wiped the smile from her face. Returning her attention to the Boggart she flicked the blue cloth from her wand and said, "Riddikulus". The puddle of flesh and blood swiftly morphed into a pink salmon in a red dress which flopped about comically on the stone floor.

"Well done, Asha," said Lupin, "although it might have been better had you got to it a little sooner - spared the squeamish students some discomfort. Right then, anyone who still feels nauseous or light-headed should go and get something from Madam Pomfrey. Otherwise, let's keep tackling this potential slightly ill Boggart. Even if it doesn't present you with your greatest fear, it will still be good to practice the spell."

The rest of the lesson went smoothly. The Boggart seemed to behave normally for the rest of the students. Asha watched from an armchair as Matt made an Acromantula tapdance, Maive turned a great white shark into a goldfish, and Alisha gave a dementor a gorgeous, blonde head of hair.

Snape didn't show much interest after the first two Boggart encounters of the day, but to her annoyance, Asha noticed the professor kept eyeing her shrewdly. Initially, she played the typical Hogwarts student and quickly looked away. But the third time she caught him looking at her she had had enough and held his gaze fiercely until he finally broke eye contact.

By lunchtime the following day, news that a boggart had morphed into a horrifying half shredded, half liquified corpse for no apparent reason had swept the school. Asha was grateful that, for the most part, her involvement in this event had not been deemed relevant to the gossip. However, she was not happy with the fact it had deeply worsened her feeling of unease. Could the boggart sense whatever's wrong with her? Frustrated that instead of finding answers, she was just coming up with more questions, Asha headed to the library after lunch (at which time she was supposed to be in divination).

It took her 10 minutes to find what she was looking for. She slammed A history of the Great Wizarding War down onto a desk (earning a dirty look from Madam Pince) and leafed through the pages until she found the section depicting all that was known of Voldemort's whereabouts during the war. It was then, that Asha discovered the dark wizard was definitely not in New Zealand during the time she would need to have been conceived. He had been tracked travelling across Europe, causing death and destruction and gaining followers. A wave of tension and distress that she didn't know she had been holding on to was washed from her body. Her mother couldn't have been raped by Voldemort. Asha wasn't 'The Dark Lord's' spawn. She leaned back in her chair and stared out the window into the grey, cloud-covered sky. This still left her with so many questions. Things still didn't make sense. Where on Earth had she got her Parselmouth from?

A/N: Just a cheeky reminder to drop a vote if you're enjoying the story c: