Goodness, I have two weeks to edit and I'm out of ready to go chapters... so much work at the end of this semester preventing me from getting to work like I'd like to. Still, we go on... thank you for your continued support, and enjoy! ~F

Chapter Five

Hippogriffs and Boggarts

Most of the class backed farther away in answer to Hagrid's question. Even Harry, Ron, Draco, and Hermione had their misgivings. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this very much.

"No one?" said Hagrid, glancing about with a pleading look.

After another couple of terse moments, Faykan sighed loudly and stepped forward. "I'll do it," he said, climbing over the paddock fence as he did so.

"Good man, Faykan!" roared Hagrid, exuberant at someone in the class participating. "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 the leather collar from around its neck. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath around Harry and his friends. He glanced back, feeling something itching the back of his neck, and saw that Nott's eyes were narrowed maliciously as he watched Harry's best friend slowly approach the hippogriff.

"Easy now, Fay," Hagrid was saying quietly, beckoning him with one hand. "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, refusing to blink even when tears started to trickle down his cheeks from the strain. "Tha's it," said Hagrid. "Tha's it, Faykan... now, bow."

Faykan bowed deeply, not averting his eyes from the Buckbeak, who only stood unmoving, staring haughtily at him for a long while. 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, sounding both excited and releived. "Right, yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"

Faykan looked only slightly nervous as he edged further forward, and slowly patted the hippogriff's beak. Buckbeak closed its eyes lazily, enjoying the caress even as the hippogriff leaned further into Faykan's hand.

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 the thirteen-year-old wizard 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!" Hagrid said loudly, 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 and approached the group of hippogriffs. 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; meanwhile, had taken over with the gray Buckbeak. He had bowed to Nott, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainfully back at Harry and Faykan.

"This is very easy," Nott drawled, loud enough for Harry to hear him. "I knew it must have been, if even 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 the hippogriff's collar as the powerful creature 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 into his massive arms. As they passed, Draco saw that there was indeed a long, deep gash on the boy's arm, although clearly not in a location that would pose any problem for Madam Pomfrey to heal within the hour. Blood splattered the grass and Hagrid ran with Nott up the slope toward the castle. Very shaken, the Care of Magical Creatures class followed far behind at a walk, the other Slytherins were all complaining loudly about Hagrid the entire way.

"They should fire him straight away!" said Pansy Parkinson, who was in tears.

"It was Nott's fault!" snapped Draco in retort. Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly, but he wasn't scared of either of them. He knew enough about the pair of them when they were set to be at his side rather than Nott's in order to deflate their false sense of bravado.

"Like you care, blood traitor," Pansy yelled at him, catching them all off guard, and she ran up the marble staircase. The rest of the Slytherins grew very quiet as they watched how Draco would react to that challenging declaration.

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, whom he counted as much of a friend as Harry or Faykan did.

Faykan grabbed Draco as he made to bypass all the staring eyes 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 ahead to Ron and Hermione, but they were arguing about the recent event with Nott again, and therefore did not notice the three boys as they slipped down the side corridor.

"What's this about, Faykan?" Draco asked as they made their way across the corridor. "People will ask questions if they see a Slytherin this high up the castle at this hour…"

"I'm showing you two the place where we are going to continue your training for the rest of our time at Hogwarts." Faykan replied, almost daring Draco to complain further about being on the seventh floor.

Harry looked like he was going to say something, but Draco suddenly recognized where they were, by the tapestry on the wall of pink tutus on troll forms. 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 quite easily; he and Harry had been studying the language of Quenya every spare moment so they could use the language to converse without anyone else being able to listen in: 'Ui mo ecmentië anat i quete ier málo.'

Faykan placed one hand upon the door, and simply read the words upon the door, causing it to grind open. Within, up on a slightly raised platform, was an arena for martial and magical dueling. Rows of weapons lined one of the walls, along with bookshelves on combat and defensive spells.

There were even archery targets on the far wall, and several bows rested by 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, and 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 even 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 he had created open and marched into the common room. Draco could see Ron and Hermione start at Harry's sudden appearance, and they stared open mouthed at the doorway. Faykan stood off to the side, shaking his head, smirking, 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, glancing over at the stand of weapons, "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 when the invitation was offered by Harry, and together Faykan, Harry and Draco set the rest of their free time teaching them the basics of swordplay.

Ron seemed to pick up the concept easily, far faster than Draco remembered learning it himself, but Hermione seemed to struggle. As odd as it seemed, the brilliant witch just didn't seem to have the mindset to actually hit an opponent when they were so close. Faykan eventually pulled her aside and swapped her sword for a bow and tried teaching her the concepts of archery, which she seemed to grasp a lot easier.

They kept at it until around dinnertime, Harry and Draco alternating with Ron, and Faykan with Hermione at the targets across the room. Finally, 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 slightly sore from lifting his 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, barely, 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 their curfew.

Draco paled slightly at the thought, 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 back into a large tapestry of the Slytherin Serpent as soon as he had turned away and glanced back.

~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~

Nott didn't reappear in classes until late Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through their double Potions lesson. The boy swaggered into the dungeon with his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, and acting, in Harry's opinion, as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.

"How is it, Theo?" simpered Pansy Parkinson as he passed by her, "does it hurt much?"

"Yeah," said Nott, putting on a brave sort of grimace. However, Harry saw him wink at Crabbe and Goyle the moment Pansy 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 instead. But the bias toward the Slytherins had been nothing but the one constant in any of Snape's classes.

They were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution. Unfortunately, Nott set up his cauldron right next to Faykan and Ron, who were in turn right in front of Harry and Draco, so that they were all preparing their ingredients on the same table.

"Sir," Nott called, waving his unbandaged hand to attract Snape's attention, "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 even 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 too. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And with 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, whispering too quietly for Faykan to hear, but out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Nott slip his uninjured hand under the table. Faykan jumped moments later 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 sarcastically, ladling some up and allowing to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see.

"Orange..." He repeated, "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," snapped Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. Rounding back on Neville, Snape continued, "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-handedly, Potter?"

"Yeah, that's right," said Harry offhandedly, not caring what the weedy menace had to say.

"Of course, if it was me," Nott 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, in such a pointed fashion that it caught Harry's attention.

"Don't you know, Potter?" breathed Nott, his pate eyes narrowed.

"Know what?" Harry said, only half as disinterested as he was previously. Faykan clearly knew something more about the situation with Sirius Black, and hadn't told him. Harry was slowly get fed up with his best friend keeping things like this from him.

The Slytherin let out a low, sneering laugh.

"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," Nott said, smirking at all the attention. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it were 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 out. "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..." he said, overriding anything that Harry, Faykan, Draco or Nott could have said more on their topic.

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..."

But even as Faykan said it, Harry could tell that there was something else that was left unsaid, in the way that Faykan's eyes darted away.

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. The 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!"

But Hermione didn't answer. Ron looked around.

"Where is she?" he asked, confused.

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. Harry sorely wished that Faykan would tell him the truth of what he was hiding regarding their conversation, more than anything.

~~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?" Hermione said, feigning ignorance as she joined 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 repeated, trying to look 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, although Harry's eyes lingered longer. The other boy looked almost annoyed at something, but Hermione pushed that to one side, focusing on her torn bag and mending it with a spell. Hermione smiled at Faykan as he hefted her fallen books. "Thanks," she said, swiftly piling them back inside.

"For what, picking up your books, or distracting Ron?" Faykan retorted with a grin.

"Both," she replied simply, accepting that of all her friends, Faykan was likely the first to figure out her secret.

"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, especially Ron. 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 at her 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, emphasizing that she was doing quite well with keeping her method of travel a secret.

"Oh, but I think you do. Come on though, it's almost time for Defense." Faykan retorted, and he walked off. Was it her imagination, but had he just implied that the others were actually starting to notice as well… no, Hermione scolded herself, she had been far too careful for anyone, aside from Faykan apparently, 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?" and that worried her all the more.

~~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, Harry noted, but looked healthier than the Professor had seemed on the train, as though he had had a few square meals.

"Good afternoon," Professor Lupin said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags; today 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 lesson before, unless you counted the memorable class last year when Lockhart 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, Harry got to his feet alongside the rest of the class, and together they followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom. He led them along the deserted corridor and stopped, right outside the staffroom door.

"Inside, please," Professor Lupin said, opening the door and standing back to let them pass. 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 darkly and there was a nasty sneer playing around his mouth. As Professor Lupin came in after the last of the class entered and made to close the door behind him, Snape spoke up, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this."

Snape got to his feet and strode past the class, his black robes billowing behind him. At the doorway he turned on his heel and remarked, "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; however, had only raised his eyebrows. "I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation," he replied, "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," Professor Lupin said, 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?" he continued, and Hermione put up her hand.

"It's a shape shifter," she said when Professor Lupin nodded at her. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."

"Couldn't have put it better myself," said Professor Lupin, smiling, 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," continued Professor Lupin, choosing to ignore Neville's small sputter of terror as he moved toward the wardrobe, "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 tried anyway.

"Err… because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?" he said, half-guessing.

"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 even remotely frightening."

A few of the students sniggered at the thought, but silenced themselves when the wardrobe rattled again.

"The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind." Professor Lupin continued, pulling out his wand, "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!" repeated 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, encouraging him. Neville looked around rather wildly, as though begging someone to help him, and 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... yes, well he does frighten us all a little. Now 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 also 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 of it. And a long dress... green, normally... and sometimes a fox fur scarf."

"And a handbag?" prompted Professor Lupin.

"A big red one," supplied 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, demonstrating by turned to the wardrobe and raising his wand. "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 hard... 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, and 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, you next!"

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!"

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 as he approached the boggart.

Crack!

Harry gasped, along with many of the others in the room, but it was more out of puzzlement rather than fright or surprise.

It seemed that a man had appeared before Faykan, slender and very tall, yet with a commanding and almost royal demeanor to him. With a start Harry recognized that the man's ears were pointed, like the descriptions of the elves anciently, but this figure had none of the attractive or beautiful qualities that he recalled being described to him by Faykan.

Faykan had frozen before this figure, neither moving nor attempting the incantation, even as the figure drew from within his robes an object: a ring of solid gold, with no jewel or decoration of any kind upon it, and placed the item upon his own forefinger.

"No…" Faykan said, hardly above a whisper, slowly raising his wand, as though fighting to command his own body to obey.

"Faykan, fight the fear!" Professor Lupin called encouragingly, even as the boggart stretched the ring-bearing hand toward Faykan.

"Riddikulus!" Faykan shouted, his wand snapping forward.

Crack!

But the boggart had not become amusing, if anything it grew greater and more terrible than before. It looked as though a dementor had appeared in front of Faykan, but it wasn't the same. The black robed figure had legs, and these along with its hands, arms and chest were covered in armor, as well as a great horned helmet covering its face. Upon its finger rested the same golden band, but now it burned with fiery letters along the outside, which caused the room to darkened as Harry determined that they were in some form of Elvish, a dialect that he did not recognize.

Faykan had frozen in fear once more.

The creature drew from with in its robes a large cruel looking sword, and then it began to speak, the guttural harsh words painful to even hear. 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.

"Shre nazg golugranu kilmi-nudu, Ombi kuzddurbagu gundum-ishi, Nugu gurgunkilu bard gurutu, Ash Burz-Durbagu burzum-ishi, Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu…" Fear assaulted Harry in waves, and his body demanded that he run, hide, do something other than just stand there with this creature.

And yet he could do nothing, even as the figure advanced on Faykan slowly, the gauntleted hand bearing the fiery gold ring extending toward his best friend's face and the sinister spell continuing, "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul… Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu!"

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 felt something snap within, some force that allowed him to overcome the fear produced by this creature, and he darted forward to defend Faykan, just as Professor Lupin also seemed to overcome the horror of the creature, and dived between Harry and the boggart, "Here!" he shouted, attracting the boggart's attention.

Crack!

The armored 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!" in a strained and weary voice.

Crack!

"Forward, Neville, and finish him off!" said Lupin, turning to aid Faykan and Harry as the boggart landed on the floor as a cockroach. Crack! Snape was back. This time Neville charged forward looking determined, if still shaken from the monstrous figure from moments ago.

"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 knelt on Faykan's other side, a chocolate bar already in hand, urging Faykan 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, momentarily distracted from everything that just happened, and confused why he was focusing on such a strange detail.

"You and Hermione answered my questions correctly at the start of the class, Harry," Lupin said lightly, focusing back on Faykan. "Homework," he called to the rest of the class as they swiftly filed out, "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 functioned something like a dementor I heavily suspect, and if I make my guess right…" he ran a hand over Faykan's chest, where they all knew the scar was, and Faykan let out a whimper of pain.

"Yes," Professor Lupin said, sadly, "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.

Ui mo ecmentië anat i quete ier málo : no one may pass but those who speak as friends

Shre nazg golugranu kilmi-nudu : Three Rings for the elven kings under the sky,

Ombi kuzddurbagu gundum-ishi : Seven for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone

Nugu gurgunkilu bard gurutu : Nine for mortal men doomed to die

Ash Burz-Durbagu burzum-ishi : One for the Dark Lord, on his dark throne

Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu : In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie

Ash nazg durbatulûk : One ring to rule them all

ash nazg gimbatul: one ring to find them

Ash nazg thrakatulûk : one ring to bring them all

agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. : and in the darkness bind them.

Daghburz-ishi makha gulshu darulu : In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie

Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned

Lot's of paragraph juggling here, dividing the Hippogriff section between chapters because of chapter length. Otherwise, small additions here and there to tie together the enveloping plot between Harry and Faykan, as well as a large change at the end. Mnay will recall that Faykan's boggart was once the Witch King, but that was brought to my attention as not the best choice at the time, due to event later on where the Witch King returns and is fought directly by Faykan. therefore, I upgraded it to a fully restored version of Sauron, which for Faykan, and indeed all the Istari, would be the worst case scenario of any reality.

~F