Chapter Five
Hippogriffs and Boggarts
Harry was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch. Yesterday's rain had cleared away; the sky was a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as they set off for their first ever Care of Magical Creatures class.
Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other. They had had another row about the Divination class at lunch. Harry walked beside Faykan as they went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was only when he spotted three only too familiar backs ahead of them that he realized they must be having these lessons with the Slytherins. Nott was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling. Harry was quite sure he knew what they were talking about. Draco wandered over to them, earning a glare from the other Slytherins, but he ignored them.
Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.
"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"
For one nasty moment, Harry thought that Hagrid was going to lead them into the forest; Harry had had enough unpleasant experiences in there to last him a lifetime. However, Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.
"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it, make sure yeh can see… now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books…"
"How?" said the Draco.
"Eh?" said Hagrid.
"How do we open our books?" Draco repeated. He took out his copy of 'The Monster Book of Monsters', which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out too; some, like Harry, had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips.
"Hasn'… hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen.
The class all shook their heads.
"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look…"
He took Hermione's copy and ripped off the Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.
"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Nott sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess?"
"I… I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Hermione. "Oh, tremendously funny!" said Nott. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"
"Shut up, Nott," said Harry and Faykan coldly. Hagrid was looking downcast and Harry wanted Hagrid's first lesson to be a success.
"Righ' then," said Hagrid, who seemed to have lost his thread, "so, so yeh've got yer books an'… an', now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on... "
He strode away from them into the forest and out of sight.
"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Nott loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him
"Shut up, Nott," Harry repeated louder.
"Careful, Potter, there's a dementor behind you…"
"Oooooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown, pointing toward the opposite side of the paddock.
Trotting toward them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures Harry had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel colored beaks and large, brilliantly, orange eyes. The talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly looking. Each of the beasts had a thick leather collar around its neck, which was attached to a long chain, and the ends of all of these were held in the vast hands of Hagrid, who came jogging into the paddock behind the creatures.
"Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains and urging the creatures toward the fence where the class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them and tethered the creatures to the fence.
"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"
Harry could sort of see what Hagrid meant. Once you got over the first shock of seeing something that was, half horse, half bird, you started to appreciate the hippogriffs' gleaming coats, changing smoothly from feather to hair, each of them a different color: stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut, and inky black.
"So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer…"
No one seemed to want to. Harry, Ron, Draco, Faykan and Hermione, however, approached the fence cautiously.
"Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is, they're proud," said Hagrid. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."
Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle weren't listening; they were talking in an undertone and Harry had a nasty feeling they were plotting how best to disrupt the lesson.
"Yeh always wait fer the hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt.
"Right, who wants ter go first?"
Most of the class backed farther away in answer. Even Harry, Ron, Draco, and Hermione had misgivings. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this.
"No one?" said Hagrid, with a pleading look.
"I'll do it," said Faykan, climbing over the paddock fence.
"Good man, Faykan!" roared Hagrid. "Right then… let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak."
He untied one of the chains, pulled the gray hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off its leather collar. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath. Harry saw Nott's eyes were narrow maliciously.
"Easy now Fay," Hagrid was saying quietly. "Yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink... Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much..."
Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at Faykan with one fierce orange eye. Faykan was staring right back, not blinking even when tears started to trickle down his cheek from the strain. "Tha's it," said Hagrid. "Tha's it, Faykan... now, bow."
Faykan bowed deeply, averting his eyes from the Buckbeak, who only stood staring haughtily at him unmoving.
Hagrid motioned for Faykan to back away, but then the hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into a bow of its own.
"Well done, Faykan!" said Hagrid, ecstatic. "Right, yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"
Faykan looked only slightly nervous as he edged forward, and slowly patted the hippogriff's beak gingerly. Buckbeak closed its eyes lazily, enjoying the caress.
The class broke into applause, all except for Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were looking deeply disappointed.
"Righ' then, Fay," said Hagrid. "I reckon he might' let yeh ride him!"
Faykan's eyes shot up, "What!" he yelped as Hagrid lifted him easily and set him on Buckbeak's large back, "Hagrid I don't think this is a good…"
"Go on, then," roared Hagrid, slapping the hippogriffs hindquarters.
Without warning, twelve foot wings flapped open and the hippogriff charged across the paddock, soaring into the air while Faykan screamed in shock. They flew around the entire paddock once and landed back down with a loud thud.
"Good work, Faykan!" roared Hagrid as everyone except Nott, Crabbe, and
Goyle cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"
Emboldened by Faykan's success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock. Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock. Neville ran repeatedly backward from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees. Harry, Draco, Ron and Hermione practiced on the chestnut, while Faykan watched.
Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle had taken over Buckbeak. He had bowed to Nott, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainful.
"This is very easy," Nott drawled, loud enough for Harry to hear him. "I knew it must have been, if Undol could do it... I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" he said to the hippogriff. "Are you, you great ugly brute?"
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Draco was stroking the beak of the chestnut hippogriff when he heard Nott's piercing scream. His head whipped around, and he saw Hagrid wrestling Buckbeak back into his collar as it strained to get at Nott, who was lying curled in the grass with blood pouring from his arm.
"I'm dying!" Nott yelled as the class panicked. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"
"Yer not dyin'!" said Hagrid, who had gone very white. "Someone help me, gotta get him outta here…"
Hermione ran to hold open the gate as Hagrid lifted Nott easily. As they passed, Draco saw that there was a long, deep gash on the boy's arm; blood splattered the grass and Hagrid ran with him, up the slope toward the castle.
Very shaken, the Care of Magical Creatures class followed at a walk. The other Slytherins were all shouting about Hagrid.
"They should fire him straight away!" said Pansy Parkinson, who was in tears.
"It was Nott's fault!" snapped Draco. Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly.
"Like you care, blood traitor!" Pansy yelled, and she ran up the marble staircase. The rest of the Slytherins grew very quiet as they watched how Draco would react. Draco stiffened, not particularly caring about the idle threat that Pansy's pronouncement would mean right now, more focused of how this development was going to affect Hagrid, who he counted as much of a friend as he did Harry or Faykan.
Faykan grabbed Draco as he made to move toward the dungeons, "Wait," he whispered in Draco's ear, "Come with me."
Faykan then lead Draco up the marble staircase toward Gryffindor Tower, following behind Harry, Ron and Hermione. As they reached the seventh floor, he tapped Harry on the shoulder and inclined his head down a nearby corridor. Harry looked back to Ron and Hermione, but they were arguing about the recent event with Nott again, so the three boys slipped down the corridor unnoticed.
"What's this about Faykan?" Draco asked as they made their way across the corridor.
"I'm showing you two the place where we care going to continue your training for the rest of our time at Hogwarts." Faykan replied.
Harry looked like he was going to say something, but Draco suddenly recognized where they were by the tapestry. Faykan stood across from it, staring at the blank wall with a look of deep concentration. Several seconds went by, and suddenly the wall glowed, forming a giant pair of doors with runes etched in, writing in elvish. Draco was surprised that he was able to recognize what they read; he and Harry had been studying the language book every spare moment so they could use the language to converse without anyone else being able to listen in: 'n'uma aa' auta nan' ai' ya ier vee' mellon beth.' [1]
Faykan placed one hand upon the door, and simply read the words upon the door, causing it to grind open. Within was a perfect arena for dueling, both magical and martial. Rows of weapons lined the walls, along with books on combat and defensive spells. There were even archery targets on the far wall, and several bows rested on them. The three boys entered, Draco and Harry looking around in awe, while Faykan pulled a shrunken bundle out of his robes. He approached a waist high table off to the side with many chairs around it, and set the covered Palantír from his house on it.
"Well?" he asked finally as he turned to them both.
"It's wonderful…" Harry said, still looking around.
"How did you find this Fay?" Draco asked. He remembered this room from his first year, but it had only been a tiny cupboard then. How had it changed?
"This is the Room of Requirement," Faykan explained, "It stands idle, until someone passes it who had great need for something, anything, and then the room becomes it. For example… Say I needed a shortcut to the Gryffindor common room." He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and a door appeared in the side of the room. Faykan walked over and opened it slowly, revealing the Gryffindor common room, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the fire, still arguing and not noticing the new door that had opened out of the solid wall behind them. Faykan closed the door and smiled at Harry and Draco's shocked faces.
"Should we tell Ron and Hermione about this?" Harry asked after a long pause.
"Depends," Faykan replied, "Are you willing to sacrifice training time to bring them up to your and Draco's level?"
Harry didn't answer him, but wrenched the door Faykan had created open and marched into the common room. Draco could see Ron and Hermione startle at Harry's sudden appearance, and they stared open mouthed at the doorway. Faykan stood off to the side, shaking his head, but grinning while Harry led the two Gryffindors into the training room and explained what Faykan had told him and Draco about the room as well as their stay at Faykan's house.
"That must have been so educational…" Hermione said dreamily, as if being in such a historical building was a dream come true.
"Wow Harry," Ron added, "I didn't know you and Draco learned how to fight with swords."
Both Ron and Hermione practically demanded to join in and train with Harry and Draco while at school, and together Faykan, Harry and Draco spent the rest of the day to teaching them the basics of swordplay. Ron picked the concept rather up easily, far faster than Draco remembered learning it himself, but Hermione seemed to struggle. As odd as it was, she just didn't seem to have the mindset to actually hit an opponent when they were so close together. So Faykan pulled her aside and swapped her sword for a bow and tried teaching her the concepts of archery, which she seemed to handle far easier.
They kept at it until around dinnertime, Harry and Draco alternating with Ron and Faykan with Hermione at the targets across the room, when Ron's stomach gave a particularly loud rumble. His ears went slightly pink and he muttered, "Must be time for a break, huh?" Draco agreed wholeheartedly, his arms were getting sore from lifting a sword over and over to block and attack; the weapons supplied by the room were much heavier than the ones that Faykan had trained them with at Orthanc. Faykan and Hermione joined them in the corner where the small break area was set up, and they slumped into chairs around the table where the Palantír rested.
Faykan closed his eyes for a moment and trays of food from the Great Hall appeared around the black wrapped orb, and they settled down to eat while Faykan, Hermione and Harry read from different books, and Ron challenged Draco to a game of chess, raising his eyebrows when a set appeared between them.
After they had all eaten their fill and Ron won their second game (barley), Faykan decided to pair them up for some dueling practice, starting with Expelliarmus, and working up through several spells that were O.W.L level. Hermione was the only one who could perform all of the spells perfectly, not for a lack of trying on the account of the other three boys, when a distant clock chimed, signaling that it was well past curfew.
Draco paled slightly, unsure how he was going to get to the dungeons without being caught, when he remembered where they were. As the Gryffindors filed through the door to their common room, Ron yawning loudly, Draco closed his eyes and focused on receiving a doorway to his dormitory. After several seconds he opened his eyes slightly, and spotted a green door directly across the room from the red door to Gryffindor Tower. Edging it open, Draco saw the interior of his dormitory, the other beds filled with sleeping boys. Silently he swept through and closed the door, noting that it changed into a large tapestry of the Slytherin Serpent.
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Nott didn't reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through double Potions. He swaggered into the dungeon; his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, acting, in Harry's opinion, as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.
"How is it, Theo?" simpered Pansy Parkinson. "Does it hurt much?"
"Yeah," said Nott, putting on a brave sort of grimace. But Harry saw him wink at Crabbe and Goyle when Pansy had looked away.
"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Snape idly.
Harry and Ron scowled at each other; Snape wouldn't have said "settle down" if they'd walked in late, he'd have given them detention. But the Slytherins had always been able to get away with anything in Snape's classes.
They were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution. Nott set up his cauldron right next to Faykan and Ron, right in front of Harry and Draco, so that they were preparing their ingredients on the same table.
"Sir," Nott called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm…"
"Undol, partner with Nott so that he can make today's potion, Weasley will have to manage on his own for this lesson." Snape said without looking up.
Ron looked livid, but Faykan simply sighed and moved closer to Nott to work with his ingredients, chopping the roots expertly and quickly to make up for having to essentially start over. Harry saw Nott lean closer to Faykan and start whispering in his ear, causing Faykan to stiffen with anger. Harry could only hear bits and pieces of the half conversation.
"…he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this, who knows if my arm'll ever be the same again…?"
Harry tried to tune him out, and focused on his and Draco's potion. As he started slicing dead caterpillars, Nott leaned closer to Faykan again, and out of the corner of his eye Harry saw him slip his uninjured hand under the table. Faykan jumped immediately and glared at Nott, who raised his eyebrows innocently before smirking wickedly.
A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned…
"Orange, Longbottom," said Snape, ladling some up and allowing to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see.
"Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"
Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.
"Please, sir," said Hermione, "please, I could help Neville put it right…"
"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."
Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear.
"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione.
"Hey, Harry," said Seamus Finnigan, leaning over to borrow Harry's brass scales, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning, they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted."
"Where?" said Harry and Draco quickly. At the table in front of them, Nott looked back, listening closely.
Seamus said that it wasn't far from Hogwarts, but he hadn't been caught as it was only a muggle that had seen him, and he had been long gone when the ministry had shown up.
"Not too far from here..." Draco repeated, looking significantly at Harry. He turned around and saw Nott watching closely. "What, Theodore?"
Nott sneered at Draco before turning to Harry, eyes shining malevolently, "Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed Potter?"
"Yeah, that's right," said Harry offhandedly.
"Of course, if it was me," he said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy; I'd be out there looking for him."
"What are you talking about, Nott?" said Faykan roughly next to him.
"Don't you know, Potter?" breathed Nott, his pate eyes narrowed.
"Know what?"
The Slytherin let out a low, sneering laugh.
"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."
"What are you talking about?" said Harry angrily, but at that moment Snape called, "You should have finished adding your ingredients by now; this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers and then we'll test Longbottom's... "
Crabbe and Goyle laughed openly, watching Neville sweat as he stirred his potion feverishly. Hermione was muttering instructions to him out of the corner of her mouth, so that Snape wouldn't see. Harry and Ron packed away their unused ingredients and went to wash their hands and ladles in the stone basin in the corner.
"What did Nott mean?" Harry muttered to Faykan as he stuck his hands under the icy jet that poured from the gargoyle's mouth "Why would I want revenge on Black? He hasn't done anything to me… yet."
"He's making it up," said Faykan savagely. "He's trying to make you do something stupid..."
The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.
"Everyone gather 'round," said Snape, his black eyes glittering, and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."
The Gryffindors watched fearfully. Nott's group of Slytherins looked excited. Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor's throat.
There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm. The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.
"Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, which wiped the smiles from every face. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."
Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione climbed the steps to the entrance hall. Harry was still thinking about what Nott had said, while Ron was seething about Snape.
"Five points from Gryffindor because the potion was all right! Why didn't you lie, Hermione? You should've said Neville did it all by himself!"
Hermione didn't answer. Ron looked around.
"Where is she?"
Harry turned too. They were at the top of the steps now, watching the rest of the class pass them, heading for the Great Hall and lunch.
"She was right behind us," said Ron, frowning.
Nott passed them, walking between Crabbe and Goyle. He smirked at Harry and Faykan, his eyes lingering for a few seconds on Faykan before disappearing up the marble staircase.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Hermione was hurrying back up the dungeon stairs, just in time to reach the spot she had left when using her Time-Turner.
"She was right behind us," she heard Ron saying.
As she mounted the stairs she saw Harry, Faykan and Ron waiting for her, utterly confused as to where she had gone.
"How did you do that?" said Ron.
"What?" said Hermione, joining the three boys.
"One minute you were right behind us, the next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again."
"What?" Hermione looked slightly confused. "Oh, I had to go back for something. Oh no…"
A seam in her bag had split, spilling out several of her course books.
"Why are you carrying all these around with you?" Ron asked her.
"You know how many subjects I'm taking," Hermione retorted.
Before Ron could push the matter further, Faykan stepped forward and started picking up the books that fell on the floor. "You two go save us seats, I'll help Hermione with these. We'll be right behind you."
Ron and Harry shrugged, and proceeded over to the Great Hall. Hermione smiled at Faykan as he hefted her fallen books. "Thanks," she said as she mended her bag.
"For what, picking up your books or distracting Ron," Faykan retorted with a grin.
"Both," she replied simply.
"You should take great care Hermione," Faykan said abruptly, as they made their way across the entrance hall, "We're not a thick as you think, even Ron's noticing. Maybe you had better drop a class or two and turn that little secret in…"
Hermione stopped, eyeing Faykan suspiciously, as he just looked back with a funny little grin, like he had said nothing out of the ordinary. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said.
"Oh, but I think you do. Come on its almost time for Defense." And he walked off. Was it her imagination, but had he noticed… no, Hermione scolded herself, she had been far too careful for anyone to notice completely, but then again…
She entered the Great Hall just in time to hear Ron saying to Harry, "D'you get the feeling Hermione's not telling us something?"
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Professor Lupin wasn't there when they arrived at his first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. They all sat down, took out their books, quills, and parchment, and were talking when he finally entered the room. Lupin smiled vaguely and placed his tatty old briefcase on the teacher's desk. He was as shabby as ever but looked healthier than he had on the train, as though he had had a few square meals.
"Good afternoon," he said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today's will be a practical lesson. You will need only your wands."
A few curious looks were exchanged as the class put away their books. They had never had a practical Defense Against the Dark Arts before, unless you counted the memorable class last year when their old teacher had brought a cageful of pixies to class and set them loose.
"Right then," said Professor Lupin, when everyone was ready. "If you'd follow me."
Puzzled but interested, the class got to its feet and followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom. He led them along the deserted corridor and stopped, right outside the staffroom door.
"Inside, please," said Professor Lupin, opening it and standing back. The staffroom, a long, paneled room full of old, mismatched chairs, was empty except for one teacher. Professor Snape was sitting in a low armchair, and he looked around as the class filed in. His eyes were glittering and there was a nasty sneer playing around his mouth. As Professor Lupin came in and made to close the door behind him, Snape said, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this."
He got to his feet and strode past the class, his black robes billowing behind him. At the doorway he turned on his heel and said, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear."
Neville went scarlet. Harry glared at Snape; it was bad enough that he bullied Neville in his own classes, let alone doing it in front of other teachers.
Professor Lupin had raised his eyebrows.
"I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation," he said, "and I am sure he will perform it admirably." Neville's face went, if possible, even redder. Snape's lip curled, but he left, shutting the door with a snap.
"Now, then," said Professor Lupin, beckoning the class toward the end of the room, where there was nothing but an old wardrobe where the teachers kept their spare robes. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall.
"Nothing to worry about," said Professor Lupin calmly because a few people had jumped backward in alarm. "There's a boggart in there."
Most people seemed to feel that this was something to worry about. Neville gave Professor Lupin a look of pure terror, and Seamus Finnigan eyed the now rattling doorknob apprehensively.
"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks, I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice.
"So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a boggart?" Hermione put up her hand.
"It's a shape shifter," she said. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," said Professor Lupin, and Hermione glowed. "So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears.
"This means," said Professor Lupin, choosing to ignore Neville's small sputter of terror, "that we have a huge advantage over the boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?"
Trying to answer a question with Hermione next to him, bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet with her hand in the air, was very off putting, but Harry had a go.
"Err… because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?"
"Precisely," said Professor Lupin, and Hermione put her hand down, looking a little disappointed. "It's always best to have company when you're dealing with a boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh eating slug? I once saw a boggart make that very mistake, tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening."
"The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing.
"We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please... Riddikulus!"
"Riddikulus!" said the class together.
"Good," said Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough. And this is where you come in, Neville."
The wardrobe shook again, though not as much as Neville, who walked forward as though he were heading for the gallows.
"Right, Neville," said Professor Lupin. "First things first: what would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?"
Neville's lips moved, but no noise came out.
"Didn't catch that, Neville, sorry," said Professor Lupin cheerfully. Neville looked around rather wildly, as though begging someone to help him, then said, in barely more than a whisper, "Professor Snape."
Nearly everyone laughed. Even Neville grinned apologetically. Professor Lupin, however, looked thoughtful.
"Professor Snape... hmmm... Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?"
"Err… yes," said Neville nervously. "But, I don't want the boggart to turn into her either."
"No, no, you misunderstand me," said Professor Lupin, now smiling. "I wonder, could you tell us what sort of clothes your grandmother usually wears?"
Neville looked startled, but said, "Well... always the same hat. A tall one with a stuffed vulture on top. And a long dress... green, normally... and sometimes a fox fur scarf."
"And a handbag?" prompted Professor Lupin.
"A big red one," said Neville.
"Right then," said Professor Lupin. "Can you picture those clothes very clearly, Neville? Can you see them in your mind's eye?"
"Yes," said Neville uncertainty, plainly wondering what was coming next.
"When the boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will assume the form of Professor Snape," said Lupin. "And you will raise your wand, thus, and cry 'Riddikulus'… and concentrate hard on your grandmother's clothes. If all goes well, Professor Boggart Snape will be forced into that vulture topped hat, and that green dress, with that big red handbag."
There was a great shout of laughter. The wardrobe wobbled more violently.
"If Neville is successful, the boggart is likely to shift his attention to each of us in turn," said Professor Lupin. "I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical..."
The room went quiet. Harry thought... What scared him most in the world?
His first thought was Lord Voldemort, a Voldemort returned to full strength. But before he had even started to plan a possible counterattack on a boggart-Voldemort, a horrible image came floating to the surface of his mind...
A rotting, glistening hand, slithering back beneath a black cloak... a long, rattling breath from an unseen mouth... then a cold so penetrating it felt like drowning...
Harry shivered, then looked around, hoping no one had noticed. Many people had their eyes shut tight. Faykan was watching Professor Lupin, while Ron was muttering to himself, "Take its legs off." Harry was sure he knew what that was about. Ron's greatest fear was spiders.
"Everyone ready?" said Professor Lupin.
Harry felt a lurch of fear. He wasn't ready. How could you make a dementor less frightening? But he didn't want to ask for more time; everyone else was nodding and rolling up their sleeves.
"Neville, we're going to back away," said Professor Lupin. "Let you have a clear field, all right? I'll call the next person forward... Everyone back, now, so Neville can get a clear shot…"
They all retreated, backed against the walls, leaving Neville alone beside the wardrobe. He looked pale and frightened, but he had pushed up the sleeves of his robes and was holding his wand ready.
"On the count of three, Neville," said Professor Lupin, who was pointing his own wand at the handle of the wardrobe. "One two… three… now!"
A jet of sparks shot from the end of Professor Lupin's wand and hit the doorknob. The wardrobe burst open. Hook-nosed and menacing, Professor Snape stepped out, his eyes flashing at Neville.
Neville backed away, his wand up, mouthing wordlessly. Snape was bearing down upon him, reaching inside his robes.
"R-r-riddikulus!" squeaked Neville.
There was a noise like a whip crack. Snape stumbled; he was wearing a long, lace trimmed dress and a towering hat topped with a moth eaten vulture, and he was swinging a huge crimson handbag.
There was a roar of laughter; the boggart paused, confused, and Professor Lupin shouted, "Parvati! Forward!"
Parvati walked forward, her face set. Snape rounded on her. There was another crack, and where he had stood was a bloodstained, bandaged mummy; its sightless face was turned to Parvati and it began to walk toward her very slowly, dragging its feet, its stiff arms rising…
"Riddikulus!" cried Parvati.
A bandage unraveled at the mummy's feet; it became entangled, fell face forward, and its head rolled off.
"Seamus!" roared Professor Lupin.
Seamus darted past Parvati.
Crack! Where the mummy had been was a woman with floor length black hair and a skeletal, green tinged face… a banshee. She opened her mouth wide and an unearthly sound filled the room, a long, wailing shriek that made the hair on Harry's head stand on end, "Riddikulus!" shouted Seamus.
The banshee made a rasping noise and clutched her throat; her voice was gone.
Crack! The banshee turned into a rat, which chased its tail in a circle, then… crack! became a rattlesnake, which slithered and writhed before… crack! becoming a single, bloody eyeball.
'It's confused!" shouted Lupin. "We're getting there! Dean!"
Dean hurried forward.
Crack! The eyeball became a severed hand, which flipped over and began to creep along the floor like a crab.
"Riddikulus!" yelled Dean.
'There was a snap, and the hand was trapped in a mousetrap.
"Excellent! Ron, you next!"
Ron leapt forward.
Crack!
Quite a few people screamed. A giant spider, six feet tall and covered in hair, was advancing on Ron, clicking its pincers menacingly. For a moment, Harry thought Ron had frozen. Then…
"Riddikulus!" bellowed Ron, and the spider's legs vanished; it rolled over and over; Lavender Brown squealed and ran out of its way and it came to a halt at Harry's feet. He raised his wand, ready, but…
"Faykan!" Professor Lupin cried.
Faykan stepped around Harry, an eager look on his face.
Crack!
Harry gasped, it looked like a dementor had appeared in front of Faykan, but it wasn't the same. The black robed figure had legs, and its hands were covered in armored gauntlets, as well as boots. Upon its head, perched upon the hood covering its face was a tarnished circlet of gold. Faykan had frozen in fear. The creature drew from with in its robes a large cruel looking sword, and then it shrieked. Everyone covered their ears as the horrible sound bounced off the walls. It was worse than the banshee that Seamus' boggart had become, but Harry though he could hear… something amidst the high piercing notes of the creatures screams, "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." Fear assaulted Harry in waves, and his body demanded that he run, hide, do something other than just stand there with this creature.
Faykan fell backward onto the floor, grasping his chest, as an unearthly scream was torn from his lungs, adding to the din created by his boggart. He had dropped his wand and just lay there, curled in agony as the creature advanced slowly on him, raising the sword high, ready to stab it down into the boy.
Harry darted forward to defend Faykan, just as Professor Lupin dived between Harry and the boggart, "Here!" he shouted.
Crack!
The robed figure had vanished. For a second, everyone looked wildly around to see where it was. Then they saw a silvery white orb hanging in the air in front of Lupin, who said, "Riddikulus!" almost lazily.
Crack!
"Forward, Neville, and finish him off!" said Lupin as the boggart landed on the floor as a cockroach. Crack! Snape was back. This time Neville charged forward looking determined.
"Riddikulus!" he shouted, and they had a split second's view of Snape in his lacy dress before Neville let out a great "Ha!" of laughter, and the boggart exploded, burst into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone.
Harry was kneeling by Faykan, who hadn't moved from his place on the floor, although he had stopped screaming. The rest of the Gryffindors had circled around them, muttering amongst themselves, trying to figure out what Faykan's boggart had become. Professor Lupin came striding through them, a chocolate bar in hand, and knelt beside Faykan, urging him to open his mouth. Faykan did so, agonizingly slowly, and Lupin fed him the chocolate, asking Harry to make sure that Faykan chewed it, as he seemed reluctant to do it himself.
"Class dismissed, Oh… Let me see… five points to Gryffindor for every person to tackle the boggart, ten for Neville because he did it twice, and five each to Harry and Hermione."
"But I didn't do anything," said Harry.
"You and Hermione answered my questions correctly at the start of the class, Harry," Lupin said distractedly, still watching Faykan. "Homework, kindly read the chapter on boggarts and summarize it for me... to be handed in on Monday."
The Gryffindors left, still muttering, until only Harry, Ron, Hermione and Professor Lupin were left with Faykan. "Professor, what's wrong with him?" Hermione asked tentatively.
"He's in shock. That creature was something like a dementor, and if I make my guess right…" he ran a hand over Faykan's chest, where the scar was, and Faykan let out a whimper of pain. "Yes, his wound had inflamed again. I'll need to take him to the hospital wing." Professor Lupin then lifted Faykan into his arms and led the way upstairs, with all three Gryffindors trailing right behind him.
[1] nan' ai' ya ier vee' mellon beth : none may pass but those who speak as friends
[2] Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. : One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
Important! Important! Important!
Author's Note: Okay. I'll say this plainly, I am very upset with my readers! I looked at my stats the other day and saw that I have over 100 people reading this story, and yet, I only have 18 reviews! I've seen countless story and author favorites. And ton's of author story alert's too! But only 1 review for the last chapter? One out of all the alerts I got.
I feel a little used and discouraged by this. I don't write just for the reviews, but because I enjoy it. However, it helps to know that the readers enjoy what I'm writing as well. I don't really think you guys, as a whole, realize the affect you're having on the community as a whole.
I know a lot of you may have concerns about reviewing. Let me put most of them to rest.
1. "If you think that because you're not a writer or don't write well, that you don't deserve to review other's works."
To this I say, "Do you have to be a writer to go to the bookstore, buy a book, and say whether you like it or not?" No! Of course you don't. Writers just like to know if you liked the chapter or story. You don't have to give detailed criticism, but we would like to know if there was something specific you liked and would like to see more of. Or if there's something you hated and never want to see again. We also like to know what you see for the future of the story. You don't have to write well to have a good suggestion that may relieve writer's block and give you an update faster!
Some of you may say that authors who get published don't get reviews, they get sales numbers and that I should be happy with the amount of favorites and alerts I got. To that I say, that is true. But! Authors who get published also get reviewed by critics and other authors. Plus they usually get fan mail or messages on their book's website.
2. "If you think you shouldn't review because you can't write in English."
To this I say, that is what Google Translator is for!
So if you are foriegn, please feel free to review! If I don't understand your language, please say what the language is in English at the top of your message and I will translate it and my answer using Google Translator. :)
3. "If you don't review because you have abandonment issues from authors writing a couple chapters and then leaving, or you don't review until the author gets a fair amount of chapters done, or you don't review unless the story is updated consistently."
To this I say, I will never abandon you! Ever! It's not in my nature. I will keep this story going until I have finished it, the same as my others. I might get writer's block for a couple weeks sometimes, but not often and I always work through it. I will always try to update consistently. Every Tuesday if I can manage.
For those who only review after the author has a certain word count or chapter count, doing that discourages newer authors from continuing. They think you don't like it and that's why they're not getting feedback. Older authors know better and usually readers know them as well and know they won't abandon them. We know that most people put they're search on over 10,000 words to avoid clogging up your screen with one-shots. But the newer authors don't most of the time. This makes them defect to writers coffee shop, live journal, and other sites.
5. "If you don't review because the story is from a new author and not very good."
To this I say, when you first rode a bike, were you perfect? No! Newer authors need encouragement and time to improve. To flamers, if you don't like it, don't read it, and flaming doesn't help! Encouragement and politely telling them what it is you don't like work far better.
Now, thank you for your time and patience. And thank you for the reviews I have gotten and the support. Please, if you have friends on this site, reader or author alike. Pass on the message and start the revolution to save from going the same way as MySpace when Facebook came along. This site deserves better!
Now please review!
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