Author's note: Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been reading. I'm pretty new to publishing fanfiction, and this is the first story I've ever written. If you're still keeping up with it, I'd love to know what you think so far. Please review. Any comments or constructive criticism is welcome.

12. Getting Riddikulus

Best case scenario, he's great, Callie thought. Worst case scenario, well... how much worse could it get than Quirrell and Lockhart?

She and her housemates made their way to Defense class on Friday morning. Callie was looking forward to either getting it over with, or finally meeting a teacher who knew what he was doing. Based on the last two years, however, she didn't have much hope for the latter.

"Welcome, everyone!" the man greeted as they settled in. "My name is Remus Lupin, and I'll be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the year."

"Just the one year, I presume?" Malfoy piped up from the back of the room.

Lupin looked confused. "I beg your pardon?" he said.

"Nobody lasts very long in the position, I'm afraid," Malfoy explained. "Or hadn't you heard? Job's cursed."

Callie rolled her eyes, but Lupin simply smirked.

"Yes, I've heard that rumor," the man replied. "Suppose we'll see if I can't break the record myself. After all, counter-curses, being defensive magic, are one of my specialties."

Callie bit her cheek to keep from smiling. That's right, get him! she thought.

"Nonetheless," the man continued, "I gather the last two years have been a bit of a disappointment in terms of your education in defense. Hopefully I can help to remedy that... before my time in this position is over."

He shot a glance at Mafloy, who looked rather peeved.

"We're going to start off with a bit of fun," Lupin continued. "As much as you can have with such a subject as this. Who here can tell me what a Boggart is?"

Nobody spoke, but simply looked around at each other for the answer.

"Anyone?" Lupin pressed. "Right then. A Boggart is quite an unusual entity. It is a shape-shifting creature that takes on the form of whatever a person fears most. Be that a snake, or a spider, or even a certain professor who makes you uneasy. Nobody knows what a Boggart looks like in its natural state, and it will appear differently for each of us, based on our greatest fear."

He walked over to a wardrobe set up in the center of the room and knocked on it. Something inside clunked around like a trapped creature wanting to get out.

"What's in there?" somebody asked.

"A Boggart, ya dafty."

"Right you are, Blaise," Lupin said. "Can anyone guess how we might defeat a Boggart?"

Again, nobody knew.

"We do it," Lupin went on, "with laughter."

Nobody spoke for a moment, and then, "Laugh at it? That's what we do?" Daphne said skeptically.

"Precisely. What we must do when faced with our greatest fear is to make it less menacing," Lupin explained. "Something absurd, comical... ridiculous."

When he didn't elaborate, Callie asked, "How do we do that?"

Lupin smiled mischievously. "You'll see," he said. "Everyone form a line, single-file."

They did as he said, their wands at their sides. Tracey stood at the front of the line, and Lupin approached her.

"Hello, dear," he greeted with a warm smile. "Tell me, what is it you fear most?"

"I don't know," Tracey replied nervously. "I guess... I've always been afraid of... merpeople."

Everyone laughed behind her. "Merpeople?" Pansy said, incredulous.

"Yes, merpeople," Tracey repeated. "They're creepy. You ever actually seen one? They're nothing like they are in fairytales."

Pansy scoffed. "Dafty."

But Lupin ignored her. "All right, Tracey, I want you to picture a mermaid. Now tell me, what could make this creature funny instead of fearsome?"

"Nothing, I don't think," Tracey replied.

"Clowns!" Lupin suggested. "Clowns are funny. What do you see when a picture a clown?"

Tracey shrugged. "I guess... a big red nose. White face. Big curly red hair."

"Very good. Now imagine a mermaid with all of those features."

Tracey considered it, and after a moment said, "Yes, it is rather silly."

"Exactly. Now, I'm going to open this wardrobe, and when I do, the mermaid will appear. But I want you to keep that image firmly in mind, the clown mermaid. Then you will aim your wand at the creature and say, firmly and clearly, Riddikulus!"

"Ridiculous?" Tracey repeated.

"No, no - Riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus."

Lupin nodded. "There you go. Ready?"

Tracey hesitated, but then gave the go-ahead. Lupin unlatched the wardrobe and sure enough, a mean-looking mermaid floated out, screeching as she made her way toward Tracey. The girl raised her wand, and yelled in a strong, barking tone, "Riddikulus!" The creature's scraggly hair became a big ball of red fuzz, and a matching nose appeared in the middle of her now white-painted face.

The class laughed and applauded while Lupin congratulated Tracey. "Atta girl," he said. "Who's next?"

Everybody took their turn facing the Boggart and turning it into something absurd. Callie saw a mess of snakes tied up together in a knot, a werewolf transformed into a chihuahua, and a mountain troll on roller-skates, slipping and sliding, unable to gain its balance. Finally it was her turn, and she wondered exactly what she'd have to deal with. She'd never been one to scare easily, finding monster films and horror stories more thrilling than frightening. When she stepped up to the front of the line, however, she was taken aback as the bumbling mountain troll disappeared, and in its place was... nothing.

Callie grasped her wand firmly in her hand, waiting for something to happen, but nothing came.

"What is it?" someone shouted out.

"Where is it?"

She turned to look around the room, only to find that all of her classmates had disappeared. Hadn't two people just spoken? Where had they gone?

"Professor Lupin?" Callie called out. But when she turned back, he was gone too.

However, the man's voice sounded as though he was standing right beside her. "What do you see?" he asked.

Panic crept through her as she looked in the direction of his voice, into nothing. "I... I can't see you," she said.

But she could feel a hand on her shoulder, gently nudging her back. Suddenly, Lupin appeared as if out of thin air, as did a round, whitish object hanging in front of the wardrobe.

"Riddikulus!" he said, pointing his wand at the object, which morphed into a deflating balloon and fell to the floor. He glanced at Callie and then said, "Let's try again, shall we? Vincent?"

Crabbe took Callie's place at the front of the line, and she moved to the back.

"What happened? What was it?" Tracey asked as Callie passed her.

But Callie was too confused herself to have an answer. All of her classmates and Lupin had completely disappeared, or at least become invisible to her, and she had no idea as to why. Nobody else had had that happen, not before her turn or after. She spent the rest of the class feeling highly uneasy, and was happy to get out of there when the lesson was over.

"Miss Warbeck?" Lupin called out as she grabbed up her bookbag. "I'd like to speak with you a moment."

Callie assumed he was going to scold her for not being able to work the spell. However, once her classmates were gone, he shut the door and smiled kindly at her.

"Interesting lesson," he said.

"Yes, it was," Callie agreed. "Much better than anything Professors Quirrell and Lockhart ever taught us."

"Thank you. I try." He took a seat near the window and gestured for her to join him. "What exactly happened when you faced the Boggart?" he asked.

Callie took a deep breath, trying to wrap her mind around it herself. "I don't know, sir," she replied. "The mountain troll was the last thing I saw, and then... nothing."

"Nothing?"

"I mean, I saw the room and everything, my surroundings. It's not like I went blind. But all the others, and you..." she paused, before concluding, "...you all disappeared."

Lupin studied her curiously.

"I could hear you all, though," she added.

"Hmm," Lupin muttered thoughtfully. "What might you have seen if... everything had gone as normal?"

Callie shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I don't... really know what scares me."

He looked off into the distance and said, as if to himself, "We all vanished - correct?"

Callie nodded.

He went on. "So you were standing - appeared to be standing, I should say - in the middle of the room by yourself."

Callie waited as he pondered that. After a long moment, he looked back at her and asked, "Callie - do you have many friends here at Hogwarts?"

She felt her cheeks redden. Bowing her head sheepishly, she replied in a quiet voice, "No. Not many, sir."

"I see. Must be rather lonely, I imagine."

She lifted her eyes and noted the sympathetic look on his face. "Yes, sir, at times it can be."

"I take it you're not one to enjoy solitude?"

"Sometimes I do. Better than being surrounded by..." Arseholes, she wanted to say. Instead she nodded in the direction her housemates had gone off.

"Not a very pleasant bunch?" Lupin guessed.

"No, sir, not exactly."

"Sorry," he said. "I wasn't quite so... welcome in my days as a student. I can sympathize."

Lupin was kind, and he cared enough to sit and talk with her about her problems. She decided right there that no matter how the rest of his lessons went, she was happy to have him as the new Defense teacher.

He went on. "I think I may have an idea what happened today. The Boggart did appear as your worst fear. Do you know what that is?"

Callie shook her head.

"Being alone," Lupin said.

Callie furrowed her brow. "I... I don't get it?"

"You were alone," he explained. "It's as simple as that. Your worst fear was being alone. Does that make sense to you?"

She thought about it. As a child she'd been rather popular, with many friends. Since coming to Hogwarts, however, she'd lost her friends from home, and had only made one friend in Slytherin, who she was now at odds with and had never been particularly close to in the first place. She was friendly with Hermione Granger, but the two had only socialized on a couple of occasions. And last night at dinner, it had occurred to her how desperately lonely she was, sitting by herself with no one to talk to.

"Yes," she said, rather sadly. "Yeah, that sounds right."

Lupin squeezed her shoulder encouragingly. "Don't fret, love," he said. "Sometimes it takes a while to find where one fits in. You'll get there."

Callie shrugged. "I don't know if I fit anywhere in this place," she said.

Surprisingly, Lupin replied, "Maybe not. But there's a whole world outside of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You'll find your place, in time."

She couldn't help but smile at him. Why couldn't he be her head of house? Snape would never be so encouraging, so sympathetic. "Thank you, Professor," she said.

"Please, come see me anytime you need someone to talk to," he said. "My door is always open."

She checked the time and noticed her next class had started five minutes ago. "Oh, no, I'm supposed to be in Charms," she said, rising to her feet.

"I'll write you a note," Lupin said. "Professor Flitwick will understand."

"That's good," Callie replied, "'cause I can't afford to lose anymore points for my house."

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Callie wandered about the library that night, for no other reason than it was the place she always went to avoid her housemates. Aside from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, but she didn't have the energy for the ghost girl today.

Picking out a volume on crystals and their magical properties, she made her way to the sitting area, where she found Neville Longbottom hunched over a copy of Magical Drafts and Potions. She made her way over to him.

"Hi, Neville," Callie greeted.

He looked up at her and became rather flustered, knocking his - thankfully empty - cauldron to the floor. "H- Hi," he stuttered, bending to pick it up.

Bloody hell, was he jittery. "Mind if I sit?" Callie asked.

He simply nodded and brushed all his stuff into a small pile at the corner of the table. She took a seat across from him, not sure whether to be offended or amused that he didn't seem able to meet her eye.

Nodding toward his supplies, she asked, "Having any luck with that?"

He shrugged, still avoiding her gaze. "Not really," he said, his cheeks red. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I followed the recipe exactly!"

"It worked yesterday," Callie reminded him. "We all saw your toad turn into a tadpole."

"Yes, but Hermione helped me," he said. "Tried it myself again today." He held up his cauldron. "Nearly melted the bloody thing."

Callie grabbed his book and looked over the instructions. "Well," she said, "maybe you added too much or not enough of something. Or maybe it's the caterpillars. Sick ones can mess up the whole thing."

"Really?" Neville asked. "Snape would give me sick caterpillars. Just to make me foul it up so he could rag on me."

Callie smirked. That did sound like something he would do.

"Wonder what he's gonna have me do tomorrow," Callie mused. "Detention, ya know."

Finally, he met her eye. "I'm... sorry about that, by the way," he said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

"You didn't. I didn't have to say anything, but I wanted to. What kind of sad sack of dung tries to kill someone's pet?"

"Haven't you seen the dead animals he keeps in jars?" Neville asked. "I'm sure he'd have loved adding Trevor up on the shelf."

"Yeah, and then giving him back when a recipe called for toad."

"Ugh!" Neville groaned.

"Maybe don't bring him to class anymore," Callie suggested.

He shrugged. "Thinking of letting him free. Always losing him, anyway," he said. "Bloody thing's more trouble than he's worth."

They sat in silence for a moment, before Callie said, "So, I saw you in Magical Creatures. What other classes are you taking?"

"Divination," he replied.

"Ugh," Callie exclaimed.

"Why's that bad?"

Callie shrugged. "I wouldn't want to know the future," she said. "Kind of like... tempting fate, I guess."

Neville pondered that. "Never thought about it that way," he said, and then paused before adding, "Doesn't really matter, Trelawney's kind of a nutter. Don't know how much truth there is to anything she says."

They got to talking about their professors, who was good and bad, who was nice and who was, well, Snape.

"Lupin seems nice," Neville said. "I like him."

"I do too," Callie agreed. "Did you all have the Boggart lesson this week?"

Neville smiled to himself. "Yeah. That was really... something."

Curious, Callie asked, "What was yours? Your Boggart, I mean."

The flush in his cheeks had disappeared at some point, but now it came back. "Um..." he said hesitantly. "I didn't get to go. Lupin ended the class before all of us got to do it."

"Oh," Callie said. And then she was kicking herself for bringing it up, because he asked, "What was yours?"

"Er..." she stammered. How was she supposed to explain that her greatest fear was being alone? That would just make her look sad and pathetic. "Mandrakes," she lied.

He furrowed his brow. "Like the plant?" he asked.

"Yeah. All last year I hated working with them." This was true. "Especially when they were young, they looked like little babies."

A small smile curled Neville's lip. He looked quite amused.

Callie went on, "I don't know how you could slice into one. Ugh, the idea is ghastly!"

"They're just plants," Neville argued. "They look human, but they're not. They don't feel anything."

"Still," Callie said, "that was the worst. Which is saying a lot for Herbology."

"You don't like Herbology?" he asked.

"No, I hate it. Most plants look the same to me. Most of the time I can't tell 'em apart. And every one's got different properties, I can't keep 'em straight. It's almost as bad as Astronomy, with all the different stars and such."

Neville suddenly looked deep in thought, biting his bottom lip. Finally he said, in a soft voice, "I could... I could help you out, if you want. With Herbology, at least. Couldn't tell Venus from Mars when it comes to Astronomy."

Callie raised a brow. "You like Herbology?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's my favorite." Looking bashful again, he added, "One of the only classes I'm actually good in."

His obvious lack of self-confidence made her feel bad for the boy, but she had an idea. "How 'bout if I help you out with Potions, and you can help me with Herbology?" she suggested.

He perked up and said, "You would do that?"

"Yeah. I'm just dying to figure out what you're doing wrong," she said. "Orange, Longbottom?"

Yet again, he blushed.

"Only joking," Callie said with a smile. "Yeah, I can help. Meet me tomorrow in the Great Hall at dinner. We'll find an empty dungeon and work on your Shrinking Solution."

"Why so late?" Neville asked.

Rising to leave, she reminded, "Detention, remember?" At least she would have something to look forward to now.