37
The Boggart in the Wardrobe
The next few days passed relatively quickly for Emily. She spent most of her time outside of classes in the hospital wing with Draco. Most of his injuries were easily healed but his arm seemed to be quite sore despite the fact that the bone was no longer broken. Emily had yet to get the chance to talk with Cedric after he had kissed her and she wondered if he was regretting the action.
It was Thursday morning and Emily was waiting by Draco's bed as Madam Pomfrey finished wrapping his sore arm. That morning Madam Pomfrey had declared Draco was allowed to go back to attending classes as long as he agreed to wear a sling on his arm. Emily's patience was starting to thin as she continued to wait for the witch to finish. They were going to be very late to their double potions class at this point.
"All done dear," Madam Pomfrey said standing up as she smoothed out her robes. "You may go but remember to take your pain reliever for the next week and that arm stays in the sling until I have personally told you it may come off! Understood?"
Draco nodded eagerly, willing to agree to anything that got him out of the hospital wing.
"Good now off with both of you," the matron replied bustling back to her office.
Emily and Draco hurried through the halls to the dungeons only pausing briefly to catch their breaths and compose themselves before entering the classroom. Unsurprisingly their table in the front of the classroom was unoccupied. They swiftly took their seats and began pulling out the ingredients needed for the Shrinking Solution they would be preparing today.
"Draco," Blaise called out from behind them. "How is your arm? Do you need any help?"
Emily watched as Draco controlled his blush using his occlumency techniques before turning to answer the Italian wizard. "It's doing better but it is quite painful still," Draco replied with a slight grimace.
Emily had to suppress an eye roll. She had a feeling Draco was really going to ham it up as long as Blaise continued to be extra attentive to his needs. Perhaps if it drove her too crazy she could always come up with a way help the two along. But right now it was too early to start scheming, she would give them some time to figure everything out on their own first.
"Your focus should be on your potions," Severus reminded the students.
The class slowly turned their attention away from the distraction of Emily and Draco's late entrance to focus on their own cauldrons. Emily had begun preparing her ingredients and making notes in her book as Draco once again called attention to himself.
"Professor," Draco said raising his hand, "I can't cut my ingredients myself and need help chopping the daisy root."
Emily raised an eyebrow at her friend. She would be happy to help Draco prepare his ingredients and he knew that as well, so why was he asking Severus?
"Weasley," Severus called out making the red head that had been talking to Harry and not paying attention jump. "Weasley, please chop Mr. Malfoy's roots for him."
Weasley glared at Draco making his way over to their table complaining that there was nothing wrong with Draco's arm and that he just liked the attention. Draco for his part looked disappointed that Severus had chosen the Gryffindor to help him.
Weasley who refused to stop grumbling seized Draco's knife and began haphazardly chopping the root into many unequal sized pieces before dropping the knife on the table to turn and head back to his cauldron.
"Professor, he maimed my roots!" Draco called out to Severus. "I can't possibly use these."
Severus slowly made his way over to the table narrowing his eyes at the mess of randomly chopped roots. He turned slowly, crossing his arms as he walked towards Weasley and looked at the roots at his station. "I highly suggest that you trade roots with Mr. Malfoy," Severus said in a dangerously calm voice.
Weasley opened his mouth, no doubt to voice his anger and outrage at having to give up his carefully chopped roots to Draco, but stopped short at the look Severus was giving him. The red head slowly brought his roots over to Draco as he angrily grabbed the mutilated ones and returned to his cauldron to attempt to fix what he had done.
In an attempt to make class continue smoothly Emily reached across Draco to grab his shrivelfig and began to skin it. Once she was finished she diced double the needed caterpillars measuring out half to Draco before moving on to finish her Shrinking Solution.
Emily surveyed the classroom as she allowed her potion to simmer. Theo seemed to be in a heated whispering match with Harry and Weasley. His smug grin when the two Gryffindors glared at Draco's arm made her curious but there was nothing she could do for the moment. Not far from them it appeared Longbottom was having trouble with his potion once again.
"This is orange, Longbottom," Severus stated blandly as he ladled a small portion before slowly letting it drain back into the cauldron. "Explain to me, after I was very clear about the solution only calling for one rat spleen and just a dash of leech juice, you still end up with an orange potion? How can I make you listen and implement the instructions correctly?"
All Longbottom could do was tremble in reply as he stared at the floor. Granger tried to come to his rescue but was quickly told to sit back down.
"Maybe if we feed this to your toad at the end of the lesson you might be motivated to create a potion correctly. So you have until the last few minutes of class to fix what you have created before I feed a few drops to your pet and see the outcome." Severus went back to the front of class and Emily turned her attention to Draco who was just now allowing his solution to simmer.
"Want to tell me why you didn't just ask for my help from the beginning?" Emily whispered as Draco rubbed his injured arm. Instead of answering Draco's eyes traveled in the direction of a certain Italian born wizard.
Emily chuckled, "You could have just asked him directly."
"Can we talk about something else? How about Diggory, have you kissed him again lately?"
Emily rolled her eyes at her best friend, "You know I haven't. I haven't even seen him. I've been with you in the hospital wing for the past few days. He probably regrets kissing a third year by now anyway."
"I doubt that. My father was a seventh year when my mother was in her third. If he had reservations it wouldn't be over your age gap."
"I thought their marriage was more or less arranged?"
"Not exactly, they were encouraged to be together very strongly by their families. In the end what mattered though was that they loved each other, and they do."
"Well I know they love each other, it's clear to see. I guess I didn't realize they started dating while Luc was at Hogwarts."
"Age means very little in our world when it comes to marriage and dating. Especially to purebloods, which may I remind you, Diggory is."
"I guess…" Emily hesitantly replied.
"Well you will know for sure by dinner tonight because you won't be stuck eating with me in the Hospital Wing," Draco said nudging Emily. Seeing Emily looked a bit nervous at the thought Draco decided to change the subject, "Come on lets clean up our stations."
After a quick glance at the clock Emily realized class was almost over and joined Draco in ladling her Shrinking Solution into vials to turn in before cleaning out her cauldron.
"Would everyone please bring forward their samples of their solutions for grading and then gather around Longbottom's desk?" Severus called out to the class.
Emily watched as the Gryffindors slowly made their way towards Longbottom's table. Many looked fearful knowing with Longbottom's lack of skill in potions that his toad was likely to be poisoned. The gathered Slytherins on the other hand did not look too care much for what the outcome would be other than Theo who seemed almost gleeful at the thought that Longbottom may no longer have a toad in a few minutes time. Once everyone was watching, Severus ladled a few drops into the toad's throat. Within a few seconds a pop sounded and sitting in the palm of Severus's hand was a tadpole. The Gryffindors cheered while the Slytherins looked expectantly at Severus hoping to be dismissed.
"Miss Granger, I believe I told you to allow Mr. Longbottom to correct his own mistakes," Severus said. The Gryffindors quickly lost their gleeful looks. "Five points from Gryffindor and next time you help him when I tell you not to, it will be twenty. Dismissed."
Emily and Draco slowly made their way out of the Dungeons towards the Great Hall, side stepping an exhausted looking Granger who came barreling back down the stairs on their way up.
"We've barely started the year and Granger looks like she is worn out already," Draco commented as they continued toward the Great Hall.
Emily shrugged, "It's a hard year, everyone had to add more classes to their schedule while none got taken away. Maybe she is just stressed from trying to organize it all."
"True…" Draco bumped Emily and whispered, "Incoming Hufflepuff."
Emily looked up as they entered the Great Hall and noticed Cedric smiling as he walked towards her. He leaned down kissing her cheek as he embraced her. Emily felt her nerves go away as she wrapped her arms around the handsome sixth year.
"Hey, I have to run to my next class but I was hoping we could go flying after dinner," Cedric said as he pulled away.
"Yeah sure, I'd enjoy that," Emily answered smiling up at him.
"Good, I'll see you tonight," he leaned down to kiss her head and ran to catch up with his friends who were waiting for him to head to class.
"So I guess he didn't regret it after all," Draco teased.
Emily rolled her eyes and playfully shoved her best friend as they headed over to the Slytherin table for lunch.
Emily groaned as she and Draco made their way to the front of the DADA classroom. Professor Lupin was not there yet so the Gryffindors and Slytherins were using the time to taunt each other. Emily wondered whose bright idea it had been to place the two Houses with the greatest rivalry together for an entire day of potions and defense.
The taunting came to an abrupt end as the door to the classroom opened and Professor Lupin walked in. He smiled tentatively at the class as he placed his briefcase on his desk and stood before them.
"Welcome," he annouced. "If you have gotten any of your supplies out please put them away now. We will be starting our year off with a practical lesson I believe you will all enjoy."
Emily looked at Draco and raised an eyebrow, maybe this year was going to be different than the last two. They had yet to have a defense professor teach a practical lesson. Unless you counted the pixie fiasco, which Emily certainly didn't, seeing as the professor at the time, Gilderoy Lockhart, spent the entire period under his desk before running from the room.
"Wonderful," he said when he noticed everyone had finished putting their things away. "If you would all go to the door and follow me, we will be working in another room today."
As the third years quietly made their way through the deserted halls they came across Peeves who was happily stuffing gum into the keyhole of Filch's favorite broom cupboard. When Peeves noticed Professor Lupin he began to do a little jig midair while singing, "Loony, moony, you're back for some fun! Oh loony, moony Filch better run!"
Emily was surprised to see the poltergeist react in such a manner towards a teacher. Usually he would bow before leaving the area when he came across a teacher but he instead seemed to view Professor Lupin as an accomplice of sorts. Instead of getting upset Professor Lupin shook his head at Peeves, Emily noticed he was smirking as he pulled out his wand, pointing it at the resident poltergeist prankster.
"Waddiwasi," he stated calmly before turning and motioning for the students to continue to follow him, though no one noticed as they all watched the gum Peeves had been sticking in the keyhole shoot towards him and up his nostril.
"Wicked," Dean Thomas said in amazement while many students nodded their heads in agreement.
"Thank you but shall we continue on," Professor Lupin asked as he motioned for a second time for them to follow.
"This is war, silly loony, moony!" Peeves called down the hall after them. Professor Lupin chuckled at Peeves' remark as they approached the staffroom. Opening the door he motioned for the class to go inside. The staffroom was devoid of most furniture other than a few chairs by the fireplace and an old wardrobe that seemed to shake slightly every few seconds. In one of the chairs by the fire sat Severus who sneered in Professor Lupin's direction as he rose and strode towards the door.
"No need to close the door, I do not intend to watch this disaster." Emily felt Severus place a small slip of parchment in her hand as he swept passed her. At the door Severus turned to look at Professor Lupin one last time, "You should be warned that Miss Granger takes great pleasure in whispering instructions to her friends, especially Longbottom, who tends to botch the most simple of things."
As the door shut behind Severus, Emily noticed Granger looked partially outraged at the comment but couldn't keep the pink of her blush from the truth of the statement from her cheeks. Emily knew well that Severus was upset that Granger had told Longbottom how to fix his potion because it meant Longbottom wasn't learning, instead he was relying on others to fix his mistakes.
"Well, Neville, I believe you will be the first to help me with today's lesson and I have no doubt that you will do just fine," Professor Lupin said turning to look at Longbottom. Longbottom's face turned bright red as he attempted to take a step back and hide himself partially behind Dean Thomas.
"Now I would like you to all turn your attention towards the wardrobe," Professor Lupin said as he stood to the left of said piece of furniture. It was then that most of the students realized that something seemed to be causing the wardrobe to tremble against the wall. It was accompanied by random banging sounds as if something was trying to escape the confines of the wardrobe.
"No need for alarm, it's just a boggart in there," Professor Lupin instructed. Longbottom looked from Professor Lupin to the rattling wardrobe and took another step to put him completely behind Thomas. "Boggarts feel at home in dark enclosed spaces, this one took residence in the wardrobe yesterday and I thought it would be great for all of you to practice on. With that said can anyone tell me what a boggart is?" Emily raised her hand and a smiling Professor Lupin called on her.
"A boggart is a type of shape-shifter, which takes the shape of whatever a person facing it fears most. Their affinity for dark spaces has been the cause for many of what muggles deem "haunted" objects. While their personal magic is somewhat strong they can never fully emulate the magic of the being they take the shape of. For example if taking the shape of a banshee its cry will not kill you."
"Very good!" Professor Lupin exclaimed. "With that knowledge we know that the boggart in this wardrobe has yet to take shape. The natural form of a boggart is unknown to us. When I release it from its confines it will immediately take the shape of our fears, but that gives us an advantage over it. Can you tell us why, Harry?"
"Because… there are too many people in here, it will be confused about what shape to take," Harry replied hesitantly.
"Exactly," Professor Lupin said turning to the rest of the class. "The more people you have when facing a boggart the better. It has to try and decide what form to take, sometimes even attempting to take multiple forms at once. Suppose that you are afraid of a flesh eating slug and the person next to you fears a corpse, you may just end up with a partial slug that has legs. Which, if you ask me is more comical than frightening."
"Amusement is exactly the emotion you need when dealing with a boggart. You must force it to take the shape of something that causes you to laugh. It is the laughter that ends a boggart. Now I want everyone to repeat after me, without wands please… Riddikulus!"
Once the class had repeated the incantation a few times Professor Lupin motioned Longbottom forward to stand next to him in the center of the room. Emily noticed Longbottom was trembling as he hesitantly moved toward Professor Lupin. Briefly Emily wondered if you could confuse a boggart by being fearful of many things at once. It seemed as if poor Longbottom had a strong fear of many things and she felt slightly sorry for the Gryffindor.
"Now Neville, can you tell the class what you fear most in life. It can be a person or a creature, even an object but it must be your one, greatest fear," Professor Lupin instructed patting the boy on the shoulder. Longbottom seemed to mumble something that only Professor Lupin heard. He nodded in understanding and then began whispering with the nervous boy. Straightening up to address the class Professor Lupin stated, "If Neville can accomplish his task the boggart will turn to one of you. I want you all to begin preparing now. Think of your greatest fear and then how you could alter it to a more amusing state."
Everyone was silent as they began to imagine their fears. Emily was having a hard time answering that question though. What did she fear above all else? Her mind went to Voldemort, the name inspired a conflict of emotions for her but fear was not one of the more prominent ones. Her mind warred with what image to give the name even, the handsome boy she had seen in the chamber or the snakelike face that shared Quirrell's body.
What did she fear? Would fear make her weak? And if it did, did she really want to identify it and possibly show it to the people around her... As she looked around the room she noticed most people seemed ready and excited to face the boggart, why could she not place her greatest fear as easily as them?
"Is everyone prepared?" Professor Lupin asked.
Emily grabbed Draco's hand, she wasn't ready and she was not going to ask for more time to think upon her fears when she seemed to be the only person unprepared. Her eyes briefly landed on Harry who had taken a small step back, his head was slightly down looking at the floor… perhaps she was not the only one who was not ready after all.
Professor Lupin instructed the class to move as far from the wardrobe as they could and for Longbottom to stay put in the middle of the room. Emily leaned into Draco to rest her head on his shoulder as they watched Longbottom shakily push up his sleeves. Draco seemed to notice Emily felt unsettled and rubbed soothing circles on her back.
Professor Lupin counted to three before pointing his wand at the doorknob of the wardrobe. Slowly the door swung open and Emily could not stop the soft laughter that escaped when an annoyed looking Severus emerged.
Longbottom started to back away. His mouth kept opening but no words were coming out. After a few tries Longbottom managed to speak the incantation. A sharp crack echoed in the room. Severus appeared to stumble, as he righted himself it was clear he was now wearing a lace dress and carrying a large handbag. All Emily could think of as the room erupted in laughter was how angry Severus was going to be when he found out about this.
"Parvati, you next!" Professor Lupin called as the boggart paused for a moment trying to find another fear to prey upon. The Gryffindor strode forward to take Longbottom's place and Severus began to blur before turning into a mummy with various bloodstains on it. She was much calmer than Longbottom as she raised her wand and clearly called out, "Riddikulus". The mummy began to stumble before tripping over a loose end of its wrappings. It flailed wildly as it fell to the ground causing the laughter in the room to begin again.
"Daphne!" called Professor Lupin. The Slytherin stepped forward and with another snap the boggart shifted forms. Before them was a large snake that lifted its head ready to attack. Daphne quickly said the incantation and the snake turned into a giant jack-in-the-box. Suddenly several cracks were heard as the boggart kept changing shape, confused by the laughter in the room and the number of people in it. Dean Thomas went next followed by Blaise. The boggart was moving about the room trying to find a fear to focus on as the laughter grew louder.
It stopped before Harry and Emily watched as Professor Lupin moved in between them. The boggart shifted to become a silver-white orb. Professor Lupin pointed his wand at the object and with another crack the boggart flew to the center of the room. Longbottom was called forward to finish it off. This time when Severus appeared in a dress the laughter was so loud the boggart exploded into puffs of smoke and vanished entirely.
"Well done!" exclaimed Professor Lupin. "I am awarding five points to everyone who faced the boggart today and then another five for Emily and Harry who answered my questions at the beginning of class. For homework I would like you all to read and summarize the chapter on boggarts in your text and have it ready to turn in next class. You are dismissed for today, thank you."
Emily and Draco navigated through the excitedly talking students to get out of the room. Never had students seemed so enthusiastic over a DADA class since they had begun at Hogwarts. Emily herself enjoyed the lesson very much, though she was extremely glad she had not been one of the people called on to participate.
"That was the first time I wasn't bored in a DADA class," Draco said escorting his friend down one of the many staircases.
"Yeah, it was points in Professor Lupin's favor when he didn't find something to hide under after he released the boggart from the wardrobe," Emily joked.
"I only wish I had gotten a turn to face it," remarked Draco glancing over at the witch. Emily just shrugged. She was happy not to be chosen and she really did not want to think about the why. Sensing Emily's shifting mood Draco nudged her and picked up his pace towards the common room. "Come on we need to get some work done before dinner because someone has a flying date with a certain Hufflepuff seeker."
As Draco rushed off Emily took a moment to read the note Severus had given her at the start of class and smiled. The parchment read:
Fears are a difficult subject. My door is always open.
S.S.