Year 3: Those Fragile Bonds

Chapter 25: January 2016

Before Dominique knew it, the Christmas holidays were over and she was back at Hogwarts. Though she'd enjoyed her time with her family immensely – especially visiting ruelle des lumières in Paris – she was happy to be back at school with her friends.

They, on the other hand, only wanted to hear about her trip to France. Brooke was obsessed, and all three of her closest friends were extraordinarily jealous that Dominique had gotten to spend her holiday abroad.

"Really guys," Dominique kept telling them. "Mostly it was a lot of having tea with my grandmother and listening to Victoire's moping."

"But you were in Paris," Brooke cried. "Meanwhile we were all stuck at home."

Dominique shrugged. Her friends could think she'd had an adventure – which she supposed she had a bit. But she'd been to visit her grandmother before, so Paris hadn't been much of a novelty.

Meanwhile in defence, every since they'd returned from the Christmas holidays, they been learning about boggarts. Professor Derlid had been hopeful that a boggart would take up residence in Hogwarts at some point during their study of the creatures so that they could get some hands-on advice, and to his delight, one had. So Wednesday morning, the third years filed into the defence against the dark arts classroom to find a large trunk on top of Professor Derlid's desk.

The desks were pushed against the walls and the chairs had been positioned in a semi-circle around the room. Professor Derlid ushered them into their seats, eager to start the lesson quickly to give everyone a chance.

"Now you all know the incantation to use against boggarts. We've practiced enunciating and wand movements enough that I'm confident you can all do that part. But I want everyone to take a minute now to think of what their greatest fear is and how you can make it funny. I'll give you five minutes and then we will begin."

"Five minutes?" Dominique whispered in surprise. "That's it?"

"It shouldn't be that hard," Miles shrugged. "I've already got mine. Why don't you tell me what your fear is, and I'll see if I can think of something funny."

Dominique found herself shrugging. "I don't know," she admitted. "I mean, I'm afraid of heights, but how can a boggart turn into heights?"

"Good point," Miles nodded. "Is there anything else you're afraid of?"

Dominique thought. There were a good deal many things she was afraid of, but none so terrifying as her fear of heights, and none strong enough that she suspected the boggart would choose it.

"I honestly have no idea," Dominique said. "Actually, now I'm a bit afraid of the boggart, because I don't have a clue what it's going to do."

Miles found this funny. "Maybe it'll turn into a boggart and we'll finally find out what they look like."

"Not likely," Dominique muttered.

"Alright," Professor Derlid clapped his hands together. "Time's up!"

Dominique groaned. She still had no idea what she was going to do. Hopefully there wouldn't be enough time in the lesson and they wouldn't get around to her.

Professor Derlid asked for a volunteer, and Timothy Coote boldly raised his hand. He confidently swaggered up to the front of the room, where Professor Derlid undid the restraints on the trunk and held it closed.

"Ready?" he asked. Timothy nodded.

Dominique swallowed. Though it wasn't her turn yet, her classmates could have some pretty terrifying fears. She told herself to focus on the funny part of the lesson instead of the scary and was a little comforted.

Professor Derlid opened the trunk, and for a moment, Dominique wondered if the boggart had escaped, because nothing happened. Then, the trunk rattled, and a skeletal hand reached up and grabbed onto the side of the box. Pulling itself up with it's hand, a whole skeleton climbed out of the trunk and dropped to the ground, focusing on Timothy and walking towards him.

Dominique watched as Timothy gripped his wand tighter. He looked like he was shaking just a bit and Dominique had to close her eyes and take a deep breath. Then he shouted the incantation, and the skeleton was suddenly wearing a top hat and dancing a jig.

"Excellent job Mr. Coote," Professor Derlid said happily. "O for you for today's lesson."

"Wait," Dominique hissed under her breath. "We're getting graded on our performance?"

"Don't worry," Miles assured her. "It's no big deal. You'll do fine."

Dominique wasn't sure about that. And she didn't like being graded on something she hadn't had the chance to practice. She didn't even know what was going to happen when she got up there.

Brittany Philbrick volunteered to go next. She stepped forward and the dancing skeleton transformed into a giant fountain, spraying water everywhere. Some of the spray even bounced off the floor and hit the students, and Dominique was surprised to find herself actually wet from the water droplets. Wasn't the point of a boggart that it was all in your imagination – that the real thing wasn't really there?

"Brittany's afraid of fountains?" Brooke frowned in confusion. "With so many other terrifying things in the world, that's her biggest fear?"

Dominique shrugged. She wasn't about to judge Brittany's fear. Who knew what the boggart would do when her turn came around?

Brittany shut her eyes to cast the spell, and suddenly instead of a fountain of water, it was a fountain of confetti, and little pieces were falling all over the students, much to their delight.

"Fantastic," Professor Derlid nodded. "An O for you as well."

"If managing to cast the spell is all you have to do to get an O, then what has to happen to get an A or an E?" Dominique wondered aloud. "If you don't manage to cast the spell, then I assume it'd be a fail, right?"

"Maybe he's not giving out E's and A's," Miles posited. "It's probably just pass/fail today. Either an O or a P."

Dominique sighed. She would surely get a P.

Professor Derlid called for his next volunteer and requested that this time it be someone not in Gryffindor, to Dominique's relief. If he was focused on giving all the houses a turn, then she wouldn't have to go up for a while yet.

Looking bored, Brandon Thurkell from Slytherin sauntered up to the front, immediately all the confetti in the room disappeared, reconstituting itself before their eyes into a swarm of bees. Almost immediately, Brandon took off at a run around the room, the bees following him and chasing them with their stingers. The class erupted into laughter and eventually, Professor Derlid had to intervene by conjuring some honey in the trunk at the front of the room and luring them back.

Brandon looked ashamed as the bees were safely locked away. Professor Derlid told him that he could try again at the end of class if there was time, and the Slytherin boy slunk back to his seat, to the amusement of the rest of the class.

"I guess he won't be so cocky from now on," Dominique muttered, referring to his attitude from before he'd faced the boggart.

Once the class had calmed down, Professor Derlid called for the next student to come forward, and Daniella Lewson from Ravenclaw volunteered. When she was ready, Professor Derlid opened the lid of the trunk once more, and a flock of angry black birds flew out and straight for her, pecking at her and causing her to scream. She managed to cast the spell though, and she turned the flock of birds into a flock of butterflies.

Following Daniella, a slew of students continued to volunteer. They were faced with horrors including a pack of rabid dogs, bats, a mummy, snakes, insects, and even a miniature tornado.

When Summer Snow's turn came, the boggart turned into a mirror, in which she appeared as an ugly wench. She burst into tears and became the second student of the day unable to perform the spell.

"How self-involved is she?" Brooke wondered. "Her greatest fear is being ugly? Seriously?"

Joey Jenkins, from Hufflepuff, went up, and the boggart turned into a pack of people all laughing and pointing at him. Dominique immediately felt bad for having made fun of so many of her classmates already that day.

A few more students took their turns. Volunteers had long since run out, and Professor Derlid was calling students up at random. Dominique was getting nervous, knowing that the more students took turns, the less there were to choose from, and the closer she was to getting picked.

Tom's turn came, and his boggart turned into a clown. When he cast the riddikulus spell and turned it into a stern man in a set of serious dark robes, Dominique was pretty sure he'd gotten the concepts of 'funny' and 'serious' mixed up. It seemed to work though, and Professor Derlid gave him an O for his efforts.

When Miles' turn came, Dominique gave his hand a small squeeze as he squared his shoulders and stood to face the boggart. Trent Mitchell had just turned a faceless man stalking them with a knife into a faceless man stalking them with a banana – far less threatening. When Miles took his place, the boggart seemed to explode into a bunch of tiny black flecks, which settled around the room and plunged the space into darkness.

Dominique felt herself gulping. So Miles' fear was of the dark. She had to admit, she was pretty scared herself. She'd never been in a room as dark as this – she couldn't even see her hand when she passed it in front of her face. Normally there was the light from outside, even if it was just the moon, to help her to see. But it was like she was blind.

Though she couldn't see Miles, she could sense him and his hesitation. She silently willed him to push through the fear and defeat the boggart, and no sooner had she sent up a silent prayer, he was screaming the incantation, and suddenly there were flashing lights everywhere, lighting up the room.

"Wonderful job Mr. Bailey," Professor Derlid congratulated him. "Very good. Next – Ms. Hill?"

Brooke stiffened next to Dominique and she placed a comforting hand on her friend's back.

"You've got this," she assured her.

Brooke nodded and rose, the room immediately returning to it's full brightness as the little bits of the boggart all clustered together in front of her, turning into her four-poster bed from the dorm.

There were a few snickers from fellow classmates and Dominique glared at them pointedly until they stopped. It wasn't funny that Brooke was afraid of going to sleep – it wasn't funny at all. And it brought tears to Dominique's eyes, knowing that this was a constant fear that Brooke had to face everyday, never knowing what might happen once her eyes were closed and she had drifted off to unconsciousness.

She cast the spell, but nothing happened. She tried again, but the bed remained in front of her. She went to try again, tears running down her cheeks now, and Professor Derlid stepped over to her, telling her that she could take a seat.

Shaking, Brooke sat down next to Dominique. She wouldn't even look at her friend – only kept her eyes facing forward. Dominique wrapped an arm around her and leaned towards her, wanting Brooke to know that she was there for her.

Blaine Townsend went next, and the boggart turned into a mini-thunderstorm with thunder clapping and lightning flashing. He managed to make it so that the thunder claps were happening to a beat, and the lightning was almost dancing. The class laughed and clapped along with the music, and he received an O.

Karen Bonell's boggart became a huge wave that crashed over everyone and soaked them, but when Dylan Becker replaced her, everyone found themselves dry once more, all remnants of the flood gone.

The boggart took a minute to take form for Dylan, and when it did, it took the form of an older man. While previous attackers had been faceless, this one had a distinct identity, though Dominique had no idea who it was. He was weaponless, and Dominique wondered what Dylan's fear was, or whether it was just of this man in general, but then the man started to step towards Dylan and he began to remove his belt.

Dylan was immobile. His wand was clutching in his hand at his side, but he could do nothing. He couldn't raise it, or run. It was like he was paralyzed.

The boggart gathered the belt in it's hands folded it in half. He approached with a menacing expression and Dominique wanted to be sick when she realized what was going on.

"This isn't right," she said as she shook her head. "This is wrong. Professor Derlid shouldn't be making us do this. It's cruel. And even worse is that he's making us do it in public. The least he could do would be to have us all go into a room one by one and face the boggarts on our own. Now everyone's going to know all our deepest fears and insecurities."

She saw Miles and Brooke nodding on either side of her.

"You're right," he agreed. "I mean this – this is just sick."

In the end, Dylan was unable to vanquish his boggart and Professor Derlid had to step in for him. When he turned back around to take his seat, his face was pale and he was visibly shaking – a side of Dylan that Dominique had never witnessed before.

"Alright Dominique, you're up," Professor Derlid announced then.

Dominique sucked in a breath and she felt her heart start to beat erratically in her chest. She wasn't ready for this. She couldn't do it. She still didn't even know what she was going to be facing.

"You've got this," Miles said to her reassuringly.

"Yeah, go on, destroy that thing," Tom added.

"Well I really shouldn't destroy it – " Dominique muttered. "There are still other students who need to take a turn."

Tom shook his head. "Just get up there and dominate," he insisted, and Dominique found herself smiling at her friends' encouragement.

She walked forward until she was standing right in front of the boggart, which was already shifting its shape. She tensed as the boggart chose its shape and then frowned as it settled on one. It was a broom, floating motionless in front of her. For a moment, Dominique was taken aback. This wasn't scary. Sure, she was afraid of flying, because of the heights, but brooms in general were just that – brooms.

Suddenly, the broom took off, zooming around the room, and before Dominique could spin around to see where it was going, it came up behind her and under her, knocking her off her feet and lifting her into the air.

Dominique screamed. The broom flew her higher and higher, and she could only thank Merlin that the window was closed and it couldn't take her outside. Professor Derlid had said that boggarts only mimicked their fears, that they couldn't directly interact with them, and that for that reason they had nothing to fear. But right now, Dominique was very much in the air and very much at risk of falling to the ground and to her death – or at least a very painful injury.

She continued to scream as the boggart flew her back and forth, zooming down towards the ground and then shooting back up to the ceiling. Her classmates had all jumped out of their seats and scattered to the edges of the room to avoid being hit, and all Dominique could do was shut her eyes and clutch onto the end of the broom for dear life.

"Professor Derlid!" she heard Miles cry. "Do something!"

Dominique was grateful for Miles, because there was no way she was going to conquer the boggart while being suspended like this. She couldn't even think, let alone figure out how to balance herself on this thing to get a hold of her wand. And what could she possibly do to make this funny? There was nothing funny about this! She felt like she was going to throw up.

She heard Professor Derlid scream 'Ridikkulus' and the broom disappeared from under her. She screamed as she plummeted to the ground and shut her eyes, knowing this was the end. Instead of landing on the stone floor though, she landed on something springy. She opened her eyes to find herself bouncing on a trampoline.

It took a minute for Dominique to regain control of her breathing. When she was ready, she carefully rolled off the trampoline and set her feet on the ground. She'd thought she was ready to walk, but her legs felt like spaghetti and they buckled underneath her. Miles and Tom ran forward to help her into her chair as she trembled. Brooke sat next to her and wrapped her arm around her friend, pulling her close to comfort her.

"Right," Professor Derlid nodded once Dominique was settled. "Who's left?"

Dominique was appalled that Professor Derlid was continuing the lesson, but she didn't say anything. There were only a few students left, and they took their turns without much incident. Before long, class was over and it was time for herbology.

Professor Longbottom immediately knew something was wrong when the third years filed in quietly and with serious expressions on their faces. When he asked what had happened, it was Miles who answered.

"Professor Derlid had us face off with boggarts this morning, Sir," he explained.

Professor Longbottom nodded in understanding. "I see," he said. "I remember when I had to do that in my third year. It was a pretty terrifying experience."

"Professor?" Miles inquired then. "Professor Derlid had told us that boggarts couldn't actually hurt us. That they were only trying to scare us, but that the fear was in our heads. But then just now – well they got pretty physical with a few of us, and a few times it felt like some of us were in very real danger."

"Well while I assure you that there was never any danger with Professor Derlid present, boggarts are a very real threat," Professor Longbottom said. "It isn't a coincidence that they're classified as dark creatures and taught in defence against the dark arts instead of in care of magical creatures class. If you're ever faced with a boggart in real life – it'll do it's best to kill you. Most likely by frightening you to death, but possibly in other ways too."

Dominique gulped. So the boggart had been trying to kill her. She wondered if it would have kept flying her around until she couldn't take it anymore, or whether it would have tried to throw her from her seat. Either way, Dominique knew she never wanted to face another boggart for the rest of her life.

"I can't believe Professor Derlid would do that to us," Dominique said quietly to her friends. "It's just – it's not right."

"How else are we going to learn to defend ourselves, if not like this?" Tom wondered.

Dominique shrugged. She didn't have an answer to that. All she knew was that she didn't think she much liked their new professor. And she hadn't liked how eager he was to have the students keep going, even after so many of them had been traumatized. Something was off. She just didn't know what.