Fighting Fears
By LeapingWithFate
Summary: Fear is a powerful thing. Of course, not everyone falls prey to it.
Warning: 1230
Word Count:
QLFC Captain Season 10 Round 2 Prompt: All Hail the King- IT
Team: Tutshill Tornados
Neville, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all standing at the entrance to an old manor. The building was falling apart, with half of it burnt down. "Thank you for coming with me. I want to fix this place up, but the Boggart here is too powerful for me alone." Neville said as he looked at the scorched Longbottom crest attached to the ruined doorframe.
Hermione nodded at the man next to her. "Of course, we will always be here to help Nev. Besides, with how strong this one seems to be, it will likely take all of us to beat."
Harry nodded his head and drew his wand. "Well, let's take this thing down."
It made everyone else smile. Harry had always been the one to jump in head first. "We should go room by room. If we place down some wards, we can corner it." Ron said before turning to his wife. "You said you would find some good wards. How long will it take to set one up?"
Hermione opened a book that she had brought with her. "It will take me about three minutes to apply a rune ward to each room and take minimal magic."
"Then we get to head into the heart of the beast once more." Harry said as they walked into the first room. The moment they had crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut behind them. Then a ghostly figure started forming in the middle of the room, and when it solidified enough, Fred was standing there.
"Well, if it isn't my least favorite brother." The ghost said, freezing everyone in place. "It is so funny seeing you now. So happy, with a wife and kids. At least you beat out one of your brothers in stuff like that."
"Fred…" Ron said as he listened to the hateful voice of the ghost.
"You know, it is so funny. I might not be dead if you had been worth more. Poor ickle Ronny had to leave his friends because he wasn't strong enough, had to leave and slow down the war process, and had to leave so that a lot more people died. I WOULD STILL BE HERE IF YOU HAD BEEN ENOUGH RONNY!"
Before the ghost could continue it suddenly looked like Fred with angel wings, floating up and away into a golden light and Hermione was the one standing behind it with a wand drawn. "That wasn't a Boggart itself, but almost like a piece of one."
Harry looked confused, Neville looked frightened, and Ron looked hurt. "How is that even possible? Boggarts can't break off pieces of themselves."
Hermione shook her head. "I am not sure, it doesn't make sense. It is almost like a hor…"
Harry picked up what she meant as she trailed off. "A Horcrux, Neville you said this damage was done during a Death Eater attack right?"
The Longbottom Lord nodded. "Do you think Voldemort created this Boggart and left it here after the attack?"
Ron, having come back around, spoke up finally. "It seems like something he would do. He was likely trying to weaponize fear but created a weapon he couldn't control. This Boggart isn't just shooting for fears though. It is playing on insecurities too. We need to be even more careful going forward."
Hermione started waving her wand around. "Well, I will set up the ward and then we will push on. Be careful and keep your eyes open."
The next few minutes passed slowly, but when Hermione was done they all moved on. The next room brought another surprise for the group. Inside stood Voldemort and a wave of magic burst from him, knocking everyone to the ground. He strode forward and stood over Hermione.
"You think your wards will hold, you stupid mudblood. How pitiful are you to think you are smart enough? You have never been smart enough. You couldn't stop my snake, you couldn't stop the dementors, and you couldn't stop my resurrection. If you had been smarter, then the war would never have happened. Everything, all the destruction, and all the lives lost, it's all your fault."
Hermione shook her head. "I was too young to be able to stop it all." She said, trying to ignore the painful sting in her heart.
"Oh you feel too young to have helped, that is just an excuse you use though. We both know that-" Before the creature could continue Voldemort was wearing a wig and dressed like a clown.
"Hermione did more for us than any of the teachers. If it wasn't for her then none of us would have made it through." Neville said, having been the first to get to his feet in front of the oppressive magic. "And this is my house!"
The fake Voldemort vanished with a crack and the four friends stood there shaking. "The Boggart may be getting stronger the closer to it we get. I wasn't expecting that, but nothing about this is what we were expecting."
Once more, the wards were set up and the four friends took a moment. Then they headed to the next room where a small basilisk was coiled in the center of the room. It looked right at Harry and opened its maw, showing a young Ginny. It then swallowed her hole before looking at Harry. "All you have going for you is luck boy, you think you can win this fight again. Luck is why your wife is alive, luck is why you survived, and luck is why you won that final fight. Your luck has run out though."
With that, the creature lunged forward and broke a stone pillar as Harry rolled out of the way. "It was luck when I was younger. It was luck that saved Ginny, but I am a lot stronger now." Harry said as he nodded towards Ron, and together they blasted the basilisk back.
Ron looked at the snake and smirked. "I am stronger and here this time as well. We will always have each other's back and that is why we are going to beat the real you. So run and hide if you can't but with Mione's wards we know you can't."
The basilisk hissed in rage before disappearing and the group got ready to head to the next room. This is when they came face to face with the Boggart for real. The creature looked like a spider-centaur. Its lower body looked like a spider without a head. Where that head should be was instead a man's torso, arms, and head.
His skin was pitch black and his eyes seemed to be glowing lights that danced across his noseless face. Then his mouth took up most of the rest of its face. It was a rather creepy-looking beast, but none of the four hesitated.
"So you came to die." The beast spoke as it looked down at them. "Good, I have hungered for years without nourishment and your flesh will taste divine."
Neville stepped forward and spoke then. "We came to defeat you, not to feed you. Just like I said to that Voldemort-looking fragment of you, this is my house. I am the Lord of House Longbottom and you are not welcome here anymore." He said as all four sent out a blast of silver light that seemed to successfully destroy the Boggart.