Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.
Her Greatest Fear
Ryua was waiting outside the DADA classroom, almost vibrating with excitement. This was her best class next to Potions, and from what she'd heard, Lupin was a good teacher after all. He certainly didn't look tremendously impressive, as he walked (not strode, strutted, shuffled, just walked) in his shabby robes and silvering hair and opened the classroom. "Well, the Slytherin second years at last," he said mildly with a non-antagonistic smile. "Please have a seat, and we'll start the lesson."
Ryua sat next to Blaise Zabini, refusing to have another class with Crabbe as her partner. He was just as excited as the rest of the class, and whispered, "So, d'you think we'll get to tackle that boggart everyone's been talking about? Bet we could take it out."
"Shh!" Ryua shushed him as Lupin started to speak.
"Well class, I'm flattered and pleased you're all so keen to get started. Unfortunately, the last group of Hufflepuffs was too much for the boggart, and I've been unable to find another." He was interrupted by a chorus of groans from the class. "Now, I know you've all been looking forward to a good class, and I promise, you'll have a good year. In fact, I've scheduled the start of Hinkypunks on your next class with me, and you'll be the first to get a chance at it. However, we cannot just skip boggarts. Today will be a book lesson..." he grinned as he was cut off by another round of groans, "Well, I can't skip them entirely. They're a very important dark creature, and one that needs to be studied. I'll be combing the castle to find another one, so you may all have a shot at it if you'd like."
He then launched into a lecture about boggarts. The interesting thing was, it was actually interesting. Maybe not as good as actually seeing a boggart, but he used some very well done wand holograms, and actually spoke like the information was worth paying attention to. Sooner than they all expected, the class ended, and he assigned them a short essay on what they believed their greatest fear was, and how they would counter it on a boggart.
Later that night, Ryua sat in her chair (no one else dared sit in a Malfoy's chair without explicit permission, so she always got the one next to the fire) in the common room, trying to think about her greatest fear. This is going to be hard she thought. She had always suppressed fear, as it simply served her no purpose. Fear would get you in trouble, so it wasn't something you openly advertised. Dread, she understood, and pain, hatred, disgust... But none of them would really do. Hmm...
An image of her Father, face livid as he drew back his wand popped into her head. She shuddered, pushing it out of her mind. She didn't particularly fear Father anyways. She hated being near him, and didn't exactly relish the curses, but fear didn't really come into the equation. No, that wouldn't do.
Then, she remembered creeping cold, a white mist, rattling breath... dementors. There was no doubt about it, she feared them. She could fight Father, or at least hold her ground, but the dementors could get right past her defenses. Ryua leaned forward to dip her quill in ink, then stopped as a final image built itself in her fertile imagination.
It was dark, night somewhere, lit only by flickering torches. She was surrounded by people she knew to be her Father, Crabbe, Goyle, Avery, the Lestranges escaped from Azkaban... the entire inner circle of Death Eaters. The doors were locked, cloaked figures guarding every entrance to prevent escape. She knew they were there to keep her test victim from escaping, not her, but she was still trapped. It was a Death Eater's inauguration ceremony, Draco had already been branded, she'd tortured the muggle on the ground to death to prove her prowess with curses, but the worst wasn't done yet. The Dark Lord strode towards her, grabbing at her arm, trying to claim her as his own, his servant, to erase any thought of independence from her mind...
Ryua dropped her quill, sat back in her chair. She'd never remembered that dream before, although she knew now she had it almost every night. She was not afraid of pain, killing, even her own death, as long as she was free. That's why she hated her family, because of the pressure to be one of them. That's why she was so full of unrest in her ancestral school House. And most of all, she was really petrified about her future. As a dark pureblood witch, she had limited choices: she could marry a Death Eater, or become one herself. The other option was death, and it would be slow, weeks long, and the pain would make it feel years, as befits a blood traitor. She was most afraid of being trapped, of being forced into something she couldn't get out of. Anything else she could live with, as long as she kept some control over her life.
Ryua thought for a long time in her chair by the fire, dark thoughts chasing around a dark mind. In the end, she realized, it was far too risky to relate her fear to anyone, even one who seemed as trustworthy as Lupin. And anyways, she couldn't think of any possible way to make being branded a Death Eater amusing. Resolutely, she leant forward and picked up her quill again. "The thing I fear most," she wrote, "Is rats." Which was complete hogwash, she'd trained them to do tricks, then cursed the traitorous things into piles of ash when they bit her, but she needed something she could make into a believable report. She made up some detailed thing about having Parsyl come along, make them jump hoops she made with her long body, tricking them into waltzing down her open jaws, and other things which would be quite amusing. I wonder if Parsyl would actually do that? she wondered, as she cheerfully polished off her amusing, though slightly bloodthirsty anecdote.
Author's Note: I had so many ideas for the Boggart. Unfortunately, they would all have ended up with word getting back to Ryua's father, or the Dark Lord, since she's in Slytherin and the entire house is full of Death Eater children. If its just images in her mind, however, no one will ever know...
Oh, and I've been trying to fiddle with the formatting on this, make it more reader friendly. Unfortunately, I don't think it's transferring onto my disk properly. If anyone has any suggestions on how to upload it so it looks better, please tell me, ok?
