Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 28 – Talons and Boggarts
Two days later during their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the term Harry's feeling that he knew Lupin from somewhere grew. The new professor seemed unaware of Harry's scrutiny though, and didn't waste any time jumping right in to lessons.
"Can anyone tell me what a boggart looks like?" He asked as the class stood around a wardrobe that was shaking ominously.
"No one knows." Unsurprisingly Hermione had the answer. "Boggarts are shape shifters. They take the form of whatever a particular person fears the most." Ron whimpered, no doubt thinking of spiders. Harry's mind didn't immediately jump to any one particular thing. At least, not something that a boggart could easily take the form of. His real fear was loss, the loss of his friends, who he'd really only known for a short time, and the loss of anyone else he cared about, which aside from Ron, Hermione and Ginny, really only consisted of Hedwig, Aldora and Cornelius. Though, he supposed, the rest of the Weasleys were quickly being counted among them as well. Lupin taught them the spell to defeat a boggart, or rather to subdue it, for killing a boggart was supposed to be quite difficult. Luckily, they got easily confused and a simple spell existed that could help with that, though what really finished a boggart, they were told, was laughter; you had to find a way to turn your fear into something funny. He got them all to line up and one by one each student faced the boggart. It was interesting to see what each of his classmates were afraid of. Ron's was, predictably, a giant spider, which he dispelled by making it lose its legs. Seamus' was a banshee that lost its voice, Padma's a mummy that she made trip over its own bandages, while Neville's was Professor Snape whom he gave a wardrobe change, making him wear his grandmother's clothes. Even while laughing at the sight of the feared potions professor wearing a hat with a stuffed bird on it and carrying a handbag, Harry, Ron and Hermione knew that this would not go over well during their next occlumency lesson when Snape saw this in their minds. Hermione was next and Harry supposed that hers too was as predictable as Ron's had been. Professor McGonagall appeared before them carrying a stack of essays with failing grades as she began to yell at Hermione that she'd failed everything. Most of the class thought this funny on its own, which Harry and Ron couldn't fully disagree with, and were disappointed when Hermione changed it into a stack of essays with passing grades eating the stack with failing ones. Finally it was Harry's turn, and although he was still unsure what his boggart would become, he was not expecting the hooded cloaked dementor that appeared before him. It lasted only a second though, and Harry hadn't even had time to raise his wand before Lupin jumped in front of him, making the dementor disappear and a white glowing orb appear in its place.
"Riddikulus!" The orb stopped glowing and became a balloon that lost its air, flying around for a moment before Lupin banished it back to the cabinet it lived in. "Thank you everyone, that will be all for today." Those who had yet to go groaned, having actually been genuinely enjoying a defense class for the first time since they entered Hogwarts. Doing as their professor said though, they packed up and began to shuffle out of the classroom. Harry, however, hadn't moved from his spot staring at where the dementor had been moments before. Ron and Hermione hung back as well, looking worriedly at their friend.
"W-why did you step in?" Harry finally found his voice and turned to the professor. Lupin raised an eyebrow.
"I would think it was obvious, Harry. I assumed the boggart would take the shape of Lord Voldemort." He said, and Harry's mouth fell open in shock, not because of what Lupin guessed to be his greatest fear, but because he'd said Voldemort's name. The only other person Harry knew that wasn't afraid to use it was Dumbledore, and that included all the foreign dignitaries he'd met over the years, who came from countries that had been only minimally impacted by the last war. Voldemort's reach had been vast, he'd had Death Eater supporters in dozens of countries, but it could not be denied that Britain had been his primary focus and many countries further abroad only read about the war, not lived it. Still, the stories were enough to scare them and not one person from a foreign country that Harry had met actually used Voldemort's name. "I didn't think it a good idea for Lord Voldemort to materialize in the classroom." Lupin continued. "I imagined that people would panic."
"I didn't even think of Voldemort." Harry admitted, which was true. He feared what Voldemort could do, what death and destruction he could cause, but he didn't fear the man himself. "My biggest fear is losing the people I care about." He glanced to Ron and Hermione. "But then that dementor appeared…"
"Well, well…I'm impressed." Lupin smiled as Harry continued to look surprised. "That suggests that what you fear most of all is fear itself. Very wise." Harry nodded and Lupin sent them off to their next lesson.
In the weeks following, Professor Lupin's classes continued to be among the highest rated throughout the school. Though there were always a few dissidents, like Malfoy, the majority of students, regardless of year, seemed to enjoy them. That could not be said for every other class. As third years, Harry, Ron and Hermione got to choose two or three electives to take. Ron opted for only two, taking Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, while Harry opted for three, joining Ron in his two as well as taking Arithmancy with Hermione. The resident bookworm herself had, of course, wanted to take each and every class available. She'd badgered McGonagall enough over the summer that the Deputy Headmistress had agreed that during the first month of school Hermione could rotate between classes to get a feel for them before choosing a maximum of three. Hermione had been disappointed at first, but knew the professor wouldn't budge any further and so agreed. In the end she'd chosen Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Divination had turned out to be a joke and after the second class where the Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney, predicted Harry's death, she'd walked out and not returned. The other possible elective, Muggle Studies, had at first fascinated Hermione, thinking it would offer a wizarding perspective into the muggle world, and while it did that to a point, the information was so outdated and the professor so ignorant of how the muggle world really worked, that Hermione said it was no wonder the wizarding world thought what they did of muggles if this is what was being taught to them.
Harry agreed with Hermione's opinion of Divination but decided to not switch. The class wasn't just a joke in how it was taught, but also in the work they had to do. There wasn't much homework to begin with and what homework they did get they could basically make up, which gave Harry extra free time. This was a good thing as it meant he had time for all the extra quidditch practices that Oliver had scheduled. The Gryffindor Captain was in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts, which meant this was his last chance to win the cup and he was determined to do just that. Extra practices had been scheduled every week, sometimes twice, and though each member of the team loved quidditch, they all deemed this excessive, and Angelina swore that if Oliver didn't let up a bit, she'd shove his broom up his arse.
Care of Magical Creatures class with Hagrid proved to be better than any of them expected. At least it did once Malfoy had been put in his place. Hagrid had brought hippogriffs to show them for their first lesson, and as usual Malfoy and his cronies were goofing off in the back instead of paying attention to the lesson. However, they did pay attention when Harry inadvertently volunteered to be the first to approach Buckbeak, one of the hippogriffs.
"Knew if Saint Potter could do it, it couldn't be that hard." Malfoy was heard to loudly say. Harry rolled his eyes from his spot in the next paddock where Ron and Hermione were taking their turns with a different hippogriff. "I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you, you great ugly brute?" Harry whipped around in barely enough time to see Buckbeak strike, it happened so fast. Malfoy screamed and fell to the ground clutching his arm, the hippogriff standing over him with his wings spread and a ferocious look in its eyes. Hagrid quickly moved to subdue Buckbeak, but Harry had a different target.
"You great bloody idiot, Malfoy!" He roared angrily even as he pulled out his wand and magicked a sling from a piece of Draco's torn robe.
"I'm dying!" Malfoy moaned pathetically. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"
"For Merlin's sake, shut up!" Harry growled, putting the sling around Draco's arm. "You're not dying."
"Wait until my father hears about this! You'll regret this. You and your bloody chicken!" The threats were what Harry had been waiting for.
"Tell your father whatever you like, but if you think for one second that anything is going to happen to Buckbeak or Hagrid because you stupidly ignored everything he told us to keep us safe, then you've got another thing coming." Harry pulled Draco up and all but frogmarched him up to the hospital wing where he stuck to the Slytherin's side like glue, under the guise of being a concerned friend; it was well known, after all, that the Malfoy heir and the Minister's ward spent a great deal of time together growing up. Lucius Malfoy arrived barely an hour later, with Cornelius in tow, which surprised Harry somewhat. He'd anticipated heading off the Malfoy patriarch now and having to write to Cornelius later to ensure no further repercussions. Dealing with them both now though, would save him some time.
"Ah, Harry!" Cornelius greeted him happily, while Lucius' greeting was much more subdued. Draco had stopped moaning the moment his father had entered. He wasn't above milking his injury for everything it was worth, but to show such weakness in front of his father was unacceptable.
"Cornelius, Mr. Malfoy." Harry greeted back. "I wanted to assure you, Mr. Malfoy that what happened was entirely an accident."
"An accident?" He hissed dangerously. "A blatant attack on my son, is an accident?"
"Yes. You see, he called a hippogriff a 'great ugly brute,' to its face and while I can't entirely fault his statement, hippogriffs do not take kindly to being insulted." Harry explained.
"Hippogriffs? Those are dangerous creatures, Mr. Potter. Far too advanced for a group of third years." Lucius wasn't backing down.
"Not exactly, sir. The Ministry classifies hippogriffs as a level three beast, meaning that any competent wizard should have no trouble with them." Harry wasn't backing down either. "And as they are native to Britain we may very well come across them in the wild one day, meaning it is important to know how to deal with them, and Professor Hagrid is well within the curriculum to teach us about them, so long as he instructs us on how to do so. Which he did," Harry pressed on when Lucius went to interrupt. "Though I'm afraid Draco here was so absorbed in studying his text that he missed some of the instructions that Professor Hagrid gave us."
"There, Lucius, you see?" Cornelius smiled at Harry, clearly proud of him for what he saw to be helping a friend. "I told you it was all a misunderstanding and that no dangerous creature intentionally harmed young Draco here. And while I applaud your studious nature, Draco, perhaps next time it would be best to focus on the text after the professor finishes the lesson." He wagged an admonishing finger at Draco.
"Yes, sir." It was said through gritted teeth, though Cornelius didn't notice. Nor did he notice the glares that both Malfoys were sending Harry, while his ward smiled on innocently. Harry's takedown of Malfoy became legend in the Gryffindor common room and quickly spread throughout the rest of the school. Harry didn't care about that though, he was merely glad that Hagrid didn't face any repercussions for the incident. With the Minister convinced it was an accident it meant that Malfoy couldn't just bribe or threaten someone from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures into doing what he wanted. If Lucius tried to push the issue, there would, at minimum, be a full investigation, and Harry was confident that if that happened then his testimony, and the rest of the class', save the Slytherins, would be enough to convince the investigators that Hagrid had taken the necessary precautions and Draco had merely ignored them. Giving the Malfoys the out of Draco having missed the instructions because he was studying the text instead of insisting it was his own fault he got hurt also helped as it meant they saved face, regardless that the entire school quickly knew the truth.
A/N - Very much a filler chapter, could have probably cut this down and tacked it onto the next chapter, but I enjoyed writing it, so instead you'll get the next chapter a bit later today.
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