A/N Not going to lie - this was a real struggle to write, I don't know why, it just seemed to take AGES. Anyways - I've done it! But I might not be able to do anything for about a week - I have my speaking exam that i have to memorise - I seriously don't know WHY, because I'm never going to go to France and tell them if I follow Fashion or not ... anyways, hope you like it ^.^

Chapter Six

The Boggart in the Wardrobe

A few days after, Amara and Hermione were able to have their first ever Ancient Runes lesson. Amara's timetable had been sorted by Professor McGonagall so that she had less Divination lessons so that she was able to take the class. Ron and Harry seemed jealous at this, for they had to carry on doing to full amount. Amara had been sorely tempted to drop Divination as a subject, but refrained herself, as they had only had one lesson and she did not want to drop a class just because she didn't like the teacher.

Their Ancient Runes class was very small, Amara had found, once arriving with Hermione in tow. There were only about sixteen people there.

"I heard it's a hard subject," Hermione explained.

"Excellent," muttered Amara. From what she saw, there was only Sophie Roper from Gryffindor there, but there were six Ravenclaws ("Figures," Amara said to herself.) Amara also saw three Hufflepuffs and four Slytherins.

The classroom itself, upon entering (the teacher had yet to turn up.) was one of the smaller ones.

"I think there's other classrooms for it, for different things," Hermione whispered.

The room seemed to be a perfect square, with desks facing the teacher's desk at the front, opposite the door, and there was a large blackboard propped up from the ground. There was also a storage cupboard with a large padlock on.

Professor Babbling came through the door in a frenzy of crimson robes, enormous hair and some parchment. Hannah Abbott immediately went and helped her pick things up.

"Thank you, thank you," the Professor said breathlessly. "Now, I've got you all in alphabetical order, so that I remember your names."

There were slight groans from the class, especially the Slytherins, which luckily did not involve Malfoy, but Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Theodore Nott and a small girl called Lily Moon.

After a few tables, Hermione was placed next to Anthony Goldstein. The Professor assigned Amara a seat, which was in the middle row in the middle, with Hermione along and up one.

She walked to her table, which already had her table partner on, a boy called Roger Malone.

"Hello," Amara said to Roger Malone. He was of average height (taller than Amara) with blonde hair that fell into his olive green eyes. He was cute, in Amara's opinion, but she had never spoken to him before. He was in Ravenclaw and from what Amara had seen, was quite shy and hung around with Oliver Rivers, who was sat next to Padma Patil. Oliver Rivers was a rather geeky, scrawny looking boy with thick glasses, and Padma did not look as though she was enjoying herself, in fact, she was throwing glances at the boy in front of her, in Hufflepuff, without him noticing (Amara doubted he would, he looked rather clueless, for his table partner, Daphne Greengrass, was looking disgusted with having to share her spot with a Hufflepuff muggle-born).

"Hi," stammered Roger, looking startled. Amara refrained herself from cracking up (the mental image of Fred and George laughing and pointing was firmly pushed from her mind).

"I'm Amara Matthews," she said instead. "From Gryffindor."

"Oh," said Roger Malone. "I already know that."

"You do?" Amara asked, dropping into a seat. "I didn't think I'd talked to you before."

"You haven't," said Roger, a faint blush appearing on his pale face.

Amara looked at him.

"Anyway," she said. "As we're going to be table partners, we might as well get to know each other?"

Before she could continue, Professor Babbling ordered silence and the small class became quiet.

"Welcome to Ancient Runes …" she beamed. "This year, we shall be focusing on the simple runes that are easier to decipher – but in a few years, we will be focusing on much harder, difficult stuff. Also, within this class, you will be given projects within the lesson to do – normally you will have to translate a passage and produce an essay of what it means and how you solved it. There is not much practical work in Ancient Runes, for it is reading the runes, and not making spells to attack each other with."

Then she wrote down all the numbers in runes on the board and made them copy them down. Amara saw that the whole time, Roger kept glancing up at her, thinking she hadn't noticed.

-OOOOO-

Malfoy did not 'recover' from his injury until late Thursday morning, when the Gryffindors and Slytherins were cooped up in Potions together. Malfoy came swaggering in, his arm in a sling, with a proud little smirk on his face.

"How is it, Draco?" simpered Pansy-the-pug from the other side of the classroom. Amara wondered why on earth it had been let into the classroom, but considering the pug was a Slytherin, it seemed to be aloud. "Does it hurt much?"

"Yeah," said Malfoy to Pansy-the-pug, but gave Crabbe and Goyle a wink.

"Settle down, settle down," called Snape. Amara scowled at how lazily he said it - if any Gryffindor had walked in late, they would have detention for a month before you could say 'sorry'.

Today they were making Shrinking Solution, which Amara was trying he hardest at. She wasn't awful at potions like Neville was, but she wasn't as good as Hermione. She was in the nice comfy middle, where Snape could not sneer at her. Malfoy set up his cauldron next to Harry and Ron, and Amara was very glad that she had not sat at their table today.

"Sir," Malfoy called. "Sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm."

"Weasley," Amara heard Snape reply. "Cut up Malfoy's roots for him."

Amara turned and started cutting her own daisy roots in even pieces, tuning Malfoy's drawl out so that she could concentrate. Next to her, Hermione was zooming ahead, whilst Neville was sweating and stirring his potion, which was not what it should look like.

"Hey, Amara," said Seamus as he borrowed a crystal phial from Amara. "Did you read the Daily Prophet this morning?"

"No, I missed it," said Amara, who had been running late that morning and had only had time to grab some toast and sprint up to Divination. "Why?"

"Oh, they reckon Sirius Black has been sighted!"

"Really?" Amara said, forgetting her potion for a second. "Where?"

"Not too far from here," said Seamus. "A muggle saw him - rang the hotline and everything, but he'd gone by the time the Ministry arrived."

"Not too far from here?" Amara repeated, thinking of Harry.

Seamus nodded and was about to reply but Snape swept over to their table to bully Neville. Neville's potion had turned orange somehow, not the green that Hermione's and Amara's was.

"Orange, Longbottom," said Snape. "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 looked as though he was about to cry. The whole class had stopped to watch by now, and the Slytherins were all smirking.

"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, making Hermione go pink. "Longbottom, at the end if this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to you toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."

With that, Snape stepped away from them, going over to Dean's table.

"Help me!" Neville moaned to Hermione. She started to give him instructions out the corner of her mouth. Amara finished her potion and packed her things away and washed her stuff up in the stone basin.

The end of the lesson came along and the time for Trevor to be fed Neville's potion.

"Gather round," Snape said. "And watch what happens 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."

Amara gulped as she watched Snape pick up Trevor and dolloped a small amount of the green potion on a tiny spoon. He fed it down Trevor's throat and the whole class waited. Pop. Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm. Amara clapped hard, grinning at Snape's sour face as he turned Trevor the tadpole back into a fully grown toad.

"Five points from Gryffindor," he said, which wiped the smirk off Amara's face instantly. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."

Amara, Harry, Ron and Hermione left the potions classroom together, all furious with Snape.

"Five points from Gryffindor because the potion was right! Why didn't you lie Hermione? You should've said Neville did it all by himself!"

Amara turned to see what Hermione thought, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Where is she?" Amara said. "She was with us!"

"There she is," said Harry after a minute or so. Hermione was running up the stairs, bag in one hand, her other hand putting something down her robes. Amara frowned. Hermione seemed to be disappearing and reappearing a lot lately.

"Where'd you go?" Amara demanded.

"What?"

"Why were you suddenly at the bottom of the stairs, when you were right behind us a minute ago?"

"What?" Hermione looked confused. "Oh – I had to go back for something – oh no …"

Hermione's bag had split, which was not at all a surprise, considering it was crammed full of large textbooks.

"Why are you carrying all these around with you?" Ron asked.

"Ron, Harry, you two can go on," Amara interrupted. "I'll help Hermione with her books."

Ron and Harry glanced at her before deciding not to argue, and disappeared into the Great Hall.

Hermione, it seemed, was about to follow them, but Amara grabbed her.

"What is going on?" she demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, in faux confusion.

"You keep disappearing everywhere – you're carrying way to many books and Ron was right about your schedule – how are you getting to all of them? Divination is the same time as Ancient Runes sometimes, and Ron and Harry say that you're always in that class, but I know that you're in Ancient Runes! You haven't got some sort of clone doing it for you, are you?" Amara said.

Hermione did not meet Amara's eyes, instead, she focused them on the hourglasses behind her, keeping track of the points.

"Hermione!"

"I can't tell you!" Hermione said. "I promised!"

Amara stiffened. "I thought we told each other everything."

"Yes, but – but this is different!"

"How different? It's worrying me, Hermione! You're taking loads of extra classes and you obviously can't have all of them! You must've got something helping you!"

"I promised Professor McGonagall, though," Hermione said desperately.

Amara scowled. "I didn't realise schoolwork was more important than worried friends."

"Amara –"

"Save it! Until you can tell me, that is."

With that, Amara wheeled around and stomped off into the Great Hall for lunch, deciding to sit with Ethan and Eddie, because she could not face Harry and Ron's questions. Amara noted that Hermione did not make it to lunch.

"How are you classes then?" asked Amara to the two first-year boys.

"Wicked," said Eddie, who Amara liked and reminded her of Fred and George. "I like Defence Against the Dark Arts best, Professor Lupin's awesome."

"I have my first lesson today," Amara grinned. "I can't wait – what about you E?"

"I like Potions," said Ethan. "And Astronomy."

Amara nodded, but did not comment, for she did not like these subjects much.

"Flick loves Charms and Piper loves transfiguration – McGonagall has a definite soft spot for her, she could get away with murder," Ethan carried on, munching on his pie.

Amara laughed. "They're my favourites too. Are you starting your flying lessons soon?"

"We're starting on Monday," said Eddie, immediately looking excited. "I can't wait – don't you think Ethan would be a good Beater? Flick agrees with me."

Amara nodded. "I suppose, you'd probably need to get a bit bigger, first," she grinned. "Fred and George are our beaters, though, and they're amazing, they could give you tips. Eddie, what position d'you like?"

"I'm not sure," Eddie mused. "I'd prefer to commentate, or just have a fun game. Not really into proper professional Quidditch."

The rest of the meal past in constant chatter, which Amara found rather exhausting.

-OOOOO-

Amara decided to go back to Harry, Ron and Hermione in their Defence lesson. Hermione seemed upset, so she decided to forgive her. Ron and Harry knew it was wise not to say anything, so instead, whilst they waited for Professor Lupin to arrive, they talked about Ethan's love for Potions.

"You don't want him turning into another Professor Snape," Ron said wisely. "It won't do the world any good."

"Imagine if he was put in Slytherin," Amara said. "Snape would favour him so badly."

Professor Lupin finally arrived, smiling around the class.

"Good afternoon," he said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today's lesson will be a practical lesson. You will only need your wands."

Amara immediately began to feel very excited – they'd never had a practical lesson before.

"Right then," said Professor Lupin. "If you'd follow me."

They all trooped after the teacher curiously. The corridors were deserted until they found one where Peeves was shoving some chewing-gum in the nearest keyhole.

"Loony, loopy, Lupin," he broke out into song. "Loony, loopy Lupin, loony, loopy Lupin –"

Amara was surprised at how rude Peeves was at a teacher. Teachers like Professor McGonagall received respect from Peeves, but not this. Professor Lupin, however, smiled.

"I'd take that gum out of the keyhole, if I were you, Peeves," he said. "Mr Filch won't be able to get in to his brooms."

Peeves merely blew a loud and wet raspberry. Professor Lupin got out his wand.

"This is a useful little spell," he said. "Please watch closely."

"Waddiwasi!" he said, lifting his arm above his shoulder and aiming at Peeves.

The chewing gum shot out of the keyhole and straight up Peeves' nostril, making him fly away, cursing.

"Cool, sir!" said Dean.

"Thank you Dean," said Professor Lupin. "Shall we proceed?"

They then made their way to the staff room, where Lupin instructed them to get inside.

Amara had been in the staff room once before – hiding in the wardrobe and listening to the news about Ginny being taken into the Chamber of Secrets. It was empty except for Snape, who got up and swept to the door. "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."

Amara scowled at Snape, her mouth set. She hated Snape completely – it was unfair that he bullied Neville the entire time.

Professor Lupin 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."

Snape left, his lip curling.

"Now then," said Professor Lupin, beckoning them over to the wardrobe that Amara had been in for half an hour at one time. It gave a nasty lurch and Amara jumped back.

"Nothing to worry about," he carried on. "That's a Boggart in there."

Amara had no idea what a Boggart was – but some people did, and were giving the wardrobe a wary glance.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks – I once 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, predictably, raised her hand.

"It's a shape-shifter," she said. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us the most."

Amara did not like the sound of a Boggart anymore. "Couldn't have put it better myself," Lupin said. "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 it's alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears.
This means, that we have a huge advantage over the Boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?"

"Er – because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?"

"Precisely," said Professor Lupin. "It's always best to have company when you're dealing with Boggarts. He becomes confused. Whish 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 finished a Boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape you find amusing. We will practise the charm without out wands first. After me please … riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" chanted the class.

"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."

Neville walked forwards as though he was in death row.

"Right Neville," said Professor Lupin. "First things first: what would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?"

Neville made no noise.

"Didn't catch that Neville, sorry," said Lupin.

"Professor Snape," Neville whispered extremely quietly.

Everyone laughed, even Neville grinned somewhat.

"Professor Snape ... hmmm ... Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?"

"Er - yes," said Neville. "But - I don't want the Boggart to turn into her either."

"No, no, you misunderstand me," said Professor Lupin. "I wonder, could you tell is what sort of clothes your grandmother usually wears?"

"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?"

"A big red one."

"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 nervously.

"When the Boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will assume he form of Professor Snape. 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, that green dress and that big red handbag."

Everyone laughed again.

"If Neville is successful, the Boggart is likely to turn its attention to each of us in turn," Professor Lupin said. "I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you the most and imagine how you might force it to look comical ..."

Amara thought about what made her heart stop in the world. She thought of a swarm of wasps or a deadly horse but then her mind wandered to last year, down in the Chamber of Secrets, the horrible monster ...

But how to make it funny? She could make it smaller or take away its fangs ...

"Everyone ready?"

Amara nodded and rolled her sleeves up and got her wand out.

"Neville we're going to back away, 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 -"

Amara backed away, leaving a trembling Neville by the shaking wardrobe.

"On the count of three Neville," said Professor Lupin. "One - two - three - now!"

Professor Lupin unlocked the door with his wand and Professor Snape stepped out of the wardrobe.

Neville looked utterly terrified as he was bearing down at him.

"R-r-riddikulus!"

Snape stumbled as a noise like a whip-crack sounded through the air. He was now dressed in a lace trimmed fess and a lovely (Amara shuddered) vulture-topped hat.

Amara burst into laughter.

"Parvati! Forward!"

There was a crack as a blood-stained mummy took the place if Snape.

"Riddikulus!"

The mummy's bandages got caught up and he fell over.

"Seamus!"

The mummy turned into a woman with floor length black hair and a skeletal green face - a banshee. She shrieked and Amara covered her ears at the horrid noise.

"Riddikulus!"

The banshee clutched her throat - her voice gone.

The banshee turned into a rat, which chased its tail - crack - it became a rattlesnake.

"Amara!"

Amara walked forward and crack, a Basilisk, smaller, it seemed, so that it could fit the staff room, but no less frightening, was bearing down in her, long fangs in its huge mouth. Its normal bulbous yellow eyes were punctured and blood was dripping out of it and onto the floor.

Everyone screamed and backed away to the sides of the class room. Amara stood frozen in the middle, the terrifying beast coming ever closer Amara screwed up get courage and yelled "RIDDIKULUS!"

The basilisk back tracked quickly, smacking its mouth together where the fangs had disappeared.

"Excellent! Dean!"

Amara retreated to where Hermione was standing. She felt herself shaking slightly as Hermione gave her a quick hug. She leant against the wall, watching Dean's severed hand Boggart get caught in a mouse trap.

"Ron, you next!"

Ron leapt forwards. Crack. A spider, six feet tall and hairy all over was approaching Ron, who had frozen slightly. A few people screamed.

"Riddikulus!" bellowed Ron. The spider's legs vanished and it rolled over and over until it landed at Harry's feet. Professor Lupin hurried forwards and the Boggart changed into a slivery orb hanging in the air.

"Riddikulus!"

The Boggart turned into a cockroach. "Forward, Neville, and finish him off!"

"Riddikulus!" yelled Neville, who was more confident now that he'd done it once. He let out a great 'HA!' and the Boggart exploded.

"Excellent!" cried Professor Lupin. "Excellent Neville! Well done, everyone. 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 Hermione and Harry."

Amara grinned with the rest of the class as they began discussing the events.

"Very well, everyone, an excellent lesson. Homework, kindly read the chapter on Boggarts and summarise it for me … to be handed in on Monday. That will be all."

Amara and the rest of the class went out of the classroom, eagerly talking about their Boggarts.

"Did you see me take that banshee?"

"And the hand!"

"Amara's Boggart was terrifying!"

"And Snape was hilarious in that hat!"

"And my mummy!"

"I wonder why Professor Lupin's frightened of crystal balls?" said Lavender.

That struck a thought in Amara's brain – why was their new Professor's Boggart something so strange?

"That was the best Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson we've ever had, wasn't it?" said Ron as they walked back to collect their bags.

"He seems a very good teacher," said Hermione. "But I wish I could have had a turn with the Boggart –"

"What would it have been for you?" sniggered Ron. "A piece of homework that only got nine out of ten?"