The Missing Boggart
Caught up in the excitement of being chosen for the Quidditch team, James could not fall asleep at first because of all the thoughts running around his head. However, he finally managed to drop off after an hour or so of tossing and turning, and he remained unconscious until the rising sun shone through the window and onto his face. Rolling over, he felt a sudden pain shoot through his spine thanks to a crick in his neck, and his head throbbed dully after his dreamless sleep.
Despite his discomfort, he sat up immediately after spotting the empty four-poster next to his and looked around the rest of the dormitory. On one side of him lay Sirius, still asleep; to James' right, Peter's legs hung over the side of his mattress like those of a limp rag doll; just beside James' four-poster drifted the window curtains, caught in a breeze flowing through the crack left open from the night before. However, after James had completed a sweeping analysis of the room and turned back to look at the fourth four-poster, he felt the panic in his chest begin to swell. Leaping up, he crossed over to where Sirius lay snoring under his covers and shook his shoulders.
"Wake up!" he hissed urgently. Groaning, his friend lifted his head and yawned sleepily while James rushed over to Peter and prodded him as well. "You too, Peter!"
"What is it?" Peter asked, sitting up willingly despite his weariness.
"Remus isn't here!" James answered, gesturing towards the empty four-poster. Sitting up abruptly, Sirius stared at the undisturbed comforter as Peter gasped in surprise.
"I thought that he would slip in after we fell asleep!" Sirius said, jumping up and searching under the four-posters as if Remus was hiding just out of sight.
"Where do you think he is?" Peter asked, clambering hurriedly off his mattress. "If he was caught out of bed after hours, he could have been sent to detention or worse! What if—"
"Not him," James interrupted, shaking his head. Running back to his four-poster, he quickly slipped on his robes. "Something must have happened to him if he didn't make it back. We have to find him."
"Let's check the hospital wing," Sirius suggested immediately, grabbing a shirt stuffed under his four-poster. "Even if he isn't there, we should tell Madam Pomfrey in case he's hurt."
Changing as quickly as they could, the three boys rushed down Gryffindor Tower and sprinted through the hallways in the direction of the hospital wing, Peter keeping up as best as he could while he struggled for breath. To the surprise of several other students, they zipped by the Great Hall without so much as a glance in its direction and continued their hurried pace around the next corner. After passing a few more doors, they burst into the hospital wing and caused several students in the white cots lining the room to jerk upright in surprise. Ignoring the stares, James and the others ran down the unusually-packed ward and skidded to a halt in front of Madam Pomfrey, who looked up in surprise from where she was bent double over a fourth-year.
"Madam Pomfrey, is Remus here?" James demanded. Startled, the matron did not answer right away, and he continued urgently, "He didn't make it to our dormitory last night, and we think that something happened to him. We need to find him before—"
"What are you doing here?" a voice interrupted him from behind, and James spun around to stand face-to-face with Remus, who was staring in surprise at his roommates. His shirt collar stuck up at an unusually high angle under his disheveled hair, and he had two dark circles under his eyes.
"There you are!" Sirius exclaimed thankfully, and Peter exhaled in relief. "We were looking for you!"
"You came all the way down here just to find me?" Remus asked, still confused.
"Of course we did!" James replied. "You didn't come back to our room last night. Where were you?"
"I'm sorry to put you to all that trouble," Remus apologized sheepishly, fiddling with his collar. "Peeves chased me into a broom closet with a spear and locked me inside. I was stuck in there for almost the whole night until Filch found me."
"Then what are you doing here?" Sirius questioned, confused.
"Uh," Remus stammered, glancing at Madam Pomfrey, "I wasn't feeling too good after I got out. I'm allergic to dust."
Sharing a glance with Sirius, James shrugged. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah," Remus answered. "I was just on my way out." Giving one last backward glance at Madam Pomfrey, who still looked caught off-guard from the whole exchange, James joined the others as they walked out of the hospital wing.
After clearing his throat, Remus asked James, "So, how were tryouts?"
"Oh, I made it," James replied distractedly, and Remus smiled brightly, the motion causing his collar to fall a few inches.
"Congratulations!" he said, but the others had suddenly grown quiet, staring at his exposed neck; immediately sensing his error, Remus pulled his collar back up to cover the long scratch a little below his ear, still an angry red color as if it had only just stopped bleeding.
"What's that?" James interrogated, but Remus shook his head dismissively.
"It's nothing," he answered.
"Did Peeves get you with the spear?" Sirius asked, and Remus shrugged noncommittally.
"Why didn't you tell Madam Pomfrey?" Peter asked. "She can mend it in a second."
"I didn't want to bother her with it," Remus replied quickly.
"We can go back," James insisted. "We can ask her to—"
"It's too late now," Remus interrupted sharply. "Classes start in a little while. Besides, she has enough students to attend to."
Detecting a slight scoff in his tone, James threw a glance back at the hospital wing's door. "Yeah, there seemed to be a lot of people in there. Do you know what happened to them?"
"They're lucky to be alive," Remus told him. "Apparently, someone started a game to see who could get close enough to the Whomping Willow to touch the trunk."
"What's the Whomping Willow?" James inquired.
"It's a big willow tree that was planted on the grounds last year," Remus explained. "Surely you've seen it before?"
"How did all of those students get injured, then?" Sirius asked. "It's just a tree."
Shaking his head vehemently, Peter piped up, "I once saw it punch a hole in the ground as big as a giant when a bird hopped too close to it! That thing's mental!"
Glancing at James briefly, Sirius asked him, "Do you think that's what those people were doing last night?"
"You saw them?" Remus questioned, surprised.
"We saw a group of students walking on the grounds from our window," James informed him. "I thought that they were going to the Quidditch pitch or something, but now that you mention it, they could have been heading for the forest."
"I hope they've learned their lesson," Remus stated, shaking his head. "The Willow shouldn't be played with."
"Well, everyone who landed in the hospital wing just had the wrong idea," James teased, elbowing Sirius in the side with a grin. "You have to be riding a broomstick to be quick enough to avoid the branches!"
Unamused, Remus turned a threatening glare on the two of them as they laughed. "If you even think about—"
"I'm only joking," James told him, but Remus did not look comforted.
"You'd better be," he threatened softly as he turned away.
The roommates returned to the Great Hall for a quick breakfast, but James insisted on heading to Defense Against the Dark Arts a few minutes early in order not to miss anything. Agreeing only too eagerly, the others followed his lead and arrived at the classroom with a quarter of an hour to spare, and they found Professor Alamanzar already fiddling with a tall cabinet in the front of the room. As they entered, he greeted them with a nod, but he did not move away from his work, leaving them to watch him in silence. For the next several minutes, he experimentally tapped the top drawer as if placing protective barriers over it, and James thought that he saw the cabinet shiver a few times. Eventually, the other Gryffindors entered and took their places around the room, and Alamanzar straightened to face the class.
"What is definition of boggart?" he asked. Now used to his straightforward teaching style, the class was prepared; immediately, half of the students shot their hands into the air.
"It's a non-being that changes its appearance to resemble someone's worst fear," Lily stated matter-of-factly when Alamanzar nodded at her.
"How does one repel the creature?" This time no one offered an answer, everyone turning to look at each other instead. Turning around to face the blackboard, Professor Alamanzar quickly drew a word in decorative cursive.
"The appropriate banishing charm is pronounced 'Riddikulus,' but the spell alone will do nothing. You must think of something fun to get rid of boggart. Laughter destroys it. Think of your worst fear and find a way to transform it into a spectacle. For example . . ."
Trailing off, Alamanzar opened the top drawer of the cabinet with a flick of his wand, and James leaned forward eagerly, expecting a dark figure to rise out of opening. However, he was surprised when nothing climbed out of the drawer; instead, the wall behind Professor Alamanzar suddenly changed, growing larger and more spacious by the second. Almost immediately, rows of chairs and desks spawned to fill up the new space, each seat occupied by a person staring expectantly at Alamanzar. The new scene looked like a near-perfect replica of the actual classroom, but the new section of the room was much more crowded, and even James started to feel unnerved by the hundreds of staring eyes.
Lifting his arm, Professor Alamanzar pointed his wand at the newcomers and announced, "Riddikulus!" At once, James and his classmates burst out laughing as the hundreds of eyes in front of them looked down in horror to see themselves in their underclothes. Pleased by the students' reactions, Alamanzar turned around and gestured invitingly with his wand.
"You want to try?"
Instantly, the students sprang out of their chairs and began to form a queue under Professor Alamanzar's guidance, everyone eagerly taking out his or her wand. Finding herself unexpectedly at the front of the line, Hillary grew uneasy and glanced behind her towards the others, but Professor Alamanzar took her arm and led her to the front of the room.
"No, come here, do not be shy," he told her, and she gulped as she faced the underwear-clad students.
Watching intently, the rest of the class gasped as the illusionistic scene dissolved and the room shrank back to its original size, the rows of extra desks vanishing abruptly. Scared, they took a few steps back as a ten-foot troll stood over the cabinet, bearing a heavy club and blinking stupidly down at Hillary. She looked like she wanted to faint, but she lifted her wand and faced the creature bravely.
"Riddikulus!"
Slowly, the troll adjusted its gaze to its hand in astonishment as its fist slowly rose, lifted by the oversized balloon that it now held in place of a club. Laughing, the other students pushed the shocked Hillary away, and Lily replaced her in the front of the queue. When she stepped forward, the troll disappeared, and a crack ripped apart the floor just in front of her until the room resembled the edge of a cliff. Although she looked slightly queasy, Lily extended her wand steadily, recited the incantation, and stepped forward off of the ledge. Alarmed, James almost cried out until her foot hit some invisible barrier and she bounced up as if supported by a giant spring.
Jumping forward, Sirius held his wand at the ready as the scene transformed again, this time displaying a tall mirror with a person reflected on its glassy surface. At first, James thought that the mirror was not working properly, but he soon realized that the person facing Sirius was Regulus, the top of his dark head standing a few inches shorter than his sibling's. Shaking his head, Sirius gave a short laugh and waved his wand at the mirror, making it shatter into a thousand pieces on the floor.
"I'm next!" James exclaimed, pushing his way forward. As usual, the boggart's previous form disappeared, and James held his breath excitedly as he held out his wand. However, after several long moments, nothing had come to replace the shattered mirror, and James lowered his wand in confusion as the students behind began to whisper amongst themselves.
"Did we defeat it?" Alice asked Professor Alamanzar, who was staring at the empty spot with surprise. Although a little disappointed, James put his wand away and grinned at the rest of the class.
"I guess I don't have any fears!" he joked, and Lily rolled her eyes as the others began giggling, the tension released. Still perplexed, Alamanzar quickly ushered James to the back of the line and brought Peter forward expectantly.
No sooner had Peter approached the front than a large shape appeared in front of him, and James briefly wondered why the boggart had not responded to him. However, the thought quickly flew from his mind as Hillary screamed, and he snapped back to attention as he stared down at Peter's boggart, now in the form of a snarling werewolf. Baring its fangs, the werewolf growled at Peter, who had frozen in fear, his mouth halfway open. Dragging its claws across the floor with a painful ripping sound, the monstrous creature took two menacing steps forward, and Peter finally seemed to jerk out of his stupor.
"Riddikulus!" he cried, raising his wand with a flinching rapidity. Growling deeply, the werewolf remained unperturbed and started running towards Peter, sending the students behind him scurrying out of the way. Alarmed, Peter shot off several more spells in quick succession as he backpedaled frantically.
"Riddikulus, Riddikulus, Riddikulus!"
Bombarded by the spells as it lunged forward, the werewolf shrank mid-flight and fell to the ground, becoming a harmless puppy. The girls in the back giggled with delight, and Peter straightened, looking pleased with himself. As he walked towards the back of the line, Sirius cupped his hands around his mouth to yell at him.
"Look lively, mate! It'll get you next time!"
Turning crimson, Peter smiled shyly as he joined the back of the line, and James turned back to where Remus now stood in front of the class only to come face to face with . . . himself. Standing in front of Remus was a perfect replica of James: his familiar round-lensed glasses were perched crookedly on top of his nose, and his black hair stuck up untidily in the back. However, the fake James did not wear his expression of shock, donning instead a look of pure disgust as he eyed the frozen Remus up and down critically.
Utterly dumbfounded, James glanced from his twin to Remus and then back to Sirius and Peter, who both stared ahead with an equal amount of surprise. When James looked back at the boggart again, he watched as it transformed once more, although this time into an identical copy of Sirius. Wearing an expression of wide-eyed shock, the second Sirius quickly backed away from Remus as if he would catch an illness by standing too close to him. Finally, when the fake Sirius had in turn been replaced by a terrified-looking Peter, Remus unfroze from his rigid position and waved his wand.
"Riddikulus!" he cried, and Peter immediately fell onto his back and burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Eventually, most of the other students began to giggle as well, but James and Sirius remained impassive as Remus pocketed his wand and slipped out of the classroom, unnoticed by the others.
Looking back towards the front desk, James spotted Professor Alamanzar staring at the door as well, wearing an expression of surprise. After a moment, he seemed to compose himself and glanced back at the waiting students, clearing his throat. "No more today," he told them, and he turned away to flick his wand at the boggart again, confining it to the cabinet drawer as the class groaned.
Although James wanted to run after Remus, he knew that it would be nearly impossible to find him in the winding hallways of the castle. Sharing one last look with Sirius, he merely turned back to his desk and collected his belongings, purposefully hanging back while the other students left the classroom. When Sirius and Peter waited for him by the door, he waved them ahead, and they left him alone with Professor Alamanzar where he was fiddling with the boggart's drawer. Finding James at his side when he turned around, Alamanzar stared down at him in surprise.
"Sí? Would you like something?"
"Yes," James answered, unsure of how to begin. "I was wondering why . . . well . . ."
"Are you wondering about your friend?" Alamanzar guessed.
"Yeah," James replied sheepishly. Eyeing him thoughtfully, Alamanzar rubbed his mustache for a moment.
"He does not fear you," he finally said, turning away to set another protective spell over the shivering cabinet.
"How do you know?" James asked.
"Unlike a troll, which must only exist to create fear, your image portrayed an emotion. This is what he fears, not yourself," Professor Alamanzar answered simply.
Confused, James stared at the ground. He could not think of a reason why he would ever look at Remus the way the boggart had. James had only ever regarded one person in his life with that much loathing, and that person was a whole House away . . .
"Professor?" James piped up again, and Alamanzar turned to face him. "I was also wondering: why didn't the boggart work on me?"
"The only way to defeat a boggart is to overcome fear," Professor Alamanzar corrected, but he eyed James carefully. "But I wonder—do you have fear of being alone?"
Surprised, James frowned. "I don't think so. At least, not that I've ever noticed. That seems like a pretty silly thing to be afraid of."
"You would be surprised," Alamanzar answered, but he smiled. "Maybe you are right. You may have no fears at all." James grinned, and Alamanzar spoke again with a voice of suppressed interest. "If you do not mind telling, what was the meaning of your other friend's boggart? Does he pride himself on his good looks?"
"Oh, that was Sirius' brother in the mirror," James answered. "Sirius doesn't like his family very much, because they approve of the Death Eaters and all that."
Confused, Professor Alamanzar tilted his head slightly. "I am sorry?"
"The Death Eaters," James repeated. When Alamanzar continued to stare, he explained, "You know, Lord Voldemort. The pureblood supremacist."
"Ah," Alamanzar finally said, nodding. "I remember reading from The Daily Prophet. Your Minister gave a speech."
"I bet she did," James muttered.
After a pause, Alamanzar stated matter-of-factly, "Headmaster Dumbledore does not approve of Dark Lord. Why?"
Surprised, James stammered, "Well, Voldemort thinks that pureblood wizards are better than Muggle-borns. The Death Eaters attacked some Muggle towns last year."
"No one was hurt, sí?"
"No, they didn't really do much. A Quidditch player was sent to St. Mungo's, but I think that she just got in the way," James answered. Nodding thoughtfully to himself, Professor Alamanzar rubbed his mustache for a moment and murmured silently until James slowly began to back towards the door.
"We will talk the next class," Alamanzar said in farewell, turning around again towards the cabinet. Nodding, James exited the room and closed the door on the professor's contemplative form before running down the hall to join his friends.