Michael Brown

While Hogwarts was certainly a bit more unique than any "normal" school, with all the "quirky features" that seemed to have been deliberately installed to manipulate students, I eventually noticed that I was slowly falling into certain patterns when it came to my education.

Take classes, for example.

All those "magic" classes, such as transfiguration and charms, were already starting to become quite mundane, despite the fact that it was only my second year. Eventually, the initial awe and paralyzing fear of death began to pass, leaving only the typical boredom associated with mandatory classes. Well, the transfiguration and potions classes weren't so bad, as I'd still learn a few new things there, but classes like charms (where I'd already gone beyond the class material) or astronomy/magic history (which were ridiculously easy anyway, given my reincarnated/artificial/digital nature) became quite tedious, forcing me to spend several hours a day in complete boredom.

As it turned out, there were only two classes that were still, let's say, intellectually stimulating: Herbology and DADA.

Herbology actually happened to be quite a pleasant surprise, as Sprout apparently decided to keep her promise from the previous year by giving me extracurricular assignments to "cultivate" my botanical talent. Since I already knew how to handle mandrakes ( something my housemates could certainly attest to), Sprout decided it would be prudent to show me how to handle more advanced plants, such as bouncing bulbs and bubotubers.

It was... useful and all that, although I still wasn't quite sure why she would do that for me, especially with Dumbledore as her boss. Was this some kind of elaborate trap? Or did she simply want me to continue her legacy of eco-terrorism? I was pretty sure she was already tutoring Neville for that very purpose, but maybe she wanted some kind of failsafe?

Well, whatever was the case, I was grateful for her tutelage, as her lessons on various magical plants would be quite useful in my future endeavours. I wouldn't join Sprout in her ecological crusade, of course, but she didn't need to know that yet.

The second exception was, of course, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Feral monster he was, Even I couldn't deny that Lupin was a very talented teacher. As we found ourselves far behind our expected schedule (courtesy of my personal hero, Gilderoy Lockhart), Lupin immediately sprang into action, doing everything in his power to remedy that. Using blitzkrieg methods, he went through the entire first-year material at lightning speed, effortlessly teaching us everything we "needed" to know and repairing the damage Lockhart had done to the school's most important source of indoctrination.

It certainly worked quite well, especially since Lupin also proved to be quite well-versed in the mentality of children. Knowing that children would be more susceptible to visual examples, he often conducted practical lessons, directly demonstrating "good" spells and "bad" monsters during his classes.

In the previous class, Lupin even promised to show us "something special". As it sounded incredibly ominous, I reasonably assumed that he was planning to reveal his werewolf nature and devour us, so I decided to put some silver rings (which I stole from the Room of Requirement) in my pocket, ready to punch the feral werewolf in the snout.

As it turned out, however, I shouldn't have bothered. Lupin's surprise was... something else.

Something that, in retrospect, I should have seen coming.

"Hello everyone. Just as I promised last week, I have something interesting to show you..." Lupin exclaimed excitedly, pointing to the object standing next to him: a simple brown wardrobe with a large mirror in front. Despite its plain appearance, the students looked at it with some interest, as for some reason it was constantly shaking, its movements clearly caused by whatever was inside. Lupin seemed to notice the students' growing interest, because he continued, his voice cheerful. "Today we are going to learn about ... boggarts! As some of you may already know, boggarts are...".

Lupin then began to explain the nature of bogarts to the students, but I wasn't really listening, more focused on the wardrobe. Looking at the annoyingly familiar piece of furniture, whose appearance was almost identical to that of my false memories, I couldn't decide whether I should feel angry or impressed by the sight.

It was clear that the spectacle currently taking place was intended to manipulate me. It was well performed and played, sure, but it was simply obvious that everything had been planned from the very beginning. After all, why else would I find myself in a scene almost directly copied from the movie? While the golden trio was thankfully absent, everything else seemed almost identical: Lupin explaining the nature of the boggart, the wardrobe in the middle of the room, the inevitable confrontation with the boggart...

Taking all of that into account, it was obvious that the entire class was some deliberate attempt to evoke nostalgia and convince me of the sincerity of the reality around me. The whole thing just screamed "Hogwarts is a magical place full of wonders! Don't look behind the curtain, because there's nothing behind it!".

Well, it obviously didn't work on me, but I could respect the effort put into this scene. Well done, shadow masters and/or mechanical overlords.

Actually, now that I thought about it, the fact that they decided to use boggarts of all things could even turn out to be a blessing in disguise...

"Well, this will certainly be a disaster..." I muttered with a smile, my tone of voice was surprisingly cheerful. If all went well, the students would soon begin to distrust Lupin.

Although I said these words quietly, it seemed that Marcus, who was standing next to me, heard them, as he looked at me with a heavy frown on his face. For a moment he said nothing, apparently fighting the impulse to ask me about my words, but after a few seconds he sighed, clearly having lost the internal battle.

"...I will probably regret it, but... why do you think so?" asked Marcus, his voice already strained. I hesitated for a moment, knowing that he usually didn't take the truth about the world well, but then decided that he deserved to know. He was my friend, after all.

"Well, just as Professor Lupin said a moment ago, the boggart manifests itself as our greatest fear, right?" I asked, receiving only a simple nod in response. "So let's think about who will be exposed to the boggart during this class."

"... We are?" Markus replied hesitantly, clearly not understanding the problem. It seemed I needed to explain in more detail.

"Yes, we. A group of twelve-year-olds who are currently going through the process of puberty, and whose greatest fears are to be revealed to everyone they know." My words provoked a reaction, as Marcus turned pale, a look of understanding slowly dawning on his face. "You think your greatest fear is some overgrown spider or snake? Wrong! Everyone here is probably going to see your doppelganger shitting its pants, your crush rejecting you in the harshest way possible, or one of your dirtiest secrets. And that's just you. What about people with traumatic experiences? They will probably see their dead parents, abusive stepfather or other messed up things. Buckle up, Marcus. Shit is about to get heavy."

Marcus didn't say a word as I finished my monologue, looking at me speechlessly. His lips moved slowly, as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out despite his efforts. After a few seconds, he slowly hid his face in his hands and bent down, breathing heavily as if he was having some kind of panic attack.

"...Why would you tell me that? Why?" Marcus finally muttered, his face still hidden behind his trembling hands. "If you hadn't said anything, I probably would have seen a huge spider. I probably would have been terrified, but I would have overcome it and cast a spell. Now I hope to see that spider. It would be better than ... all this... Dammit! Why did you do this to me?!"

"Well, you're the one who wanted to know." I said, shrugging my shoulders. Marcus apparently didn't appreciate my remark, however, because after sending me a dirty look, he walked away. That was fine. There was no truth without pain. I knew that better than anyone else.

Fortunately, no one bothered me after that, because for some reason everyone seemed to avoid me.

Well, whatever.

After a while, Lupin finally finished his explanations and told us to form a line so that we could fight the Boggart. Since I was quite far down the line, behind Robert and in front of the still silent Marcus, I was able to watch many students overcome their fear. It was all commendable and whatever, but I was quite surprised that none of their fears were even close to my predictions. Instead of social humiliation or dead relatives, all I saw were overgrown animals, clowns and intimidating people from the students' lives. All these fears seemed to be easily overcome by the use of Riddikulus, turning these overwhelming fears into overwhelming jokes.

...Did I make a big mistake by exposing Marcus to my thought process?

Well, I shouldn't think about it for now. After all, I was about to fight the boggart myself.

Surprisingly, I wasn't too worried about revealing my fears. Although it was possible that the boggart would reveal some dangerous secret, such as the existence of the simulation, I was fairly confident that this would not happen. Even though the simulation was quite frightening, the fear was quite distant and indirect. I was definitely more afraid of things much closer to me, such as the tyranny of the Ministry or their atrocities. I felt comfortable revealing this because not only would it help my cause, but it was also something that both Lupin and the other students should already know. The students from the lectures, and Lupin from, well, committing these atrocities.

Well, there was also the possibility that the boggart was a Dumbledore spy, sent to retrieve my secrets, but that wasn't something I was too worried about either. The sorting hat had already learned most of my secrets, and Tom said I shouldn't worry too much about someone using legilimency on me.

He didn't want to explain it, but I assumed he used some kind of spell to protect me from mental attacks.

Well, if there was one person I could trust, it was Tom Riddle.

With that in mind, I finally approached the boggart.

At first he looked like a huge, balloon snake, courtesy of Robert's spell, but as soon as it saw me, it began to change. Its shape began to twist and warp, almost instantly becoming a whirlpool of images, sounds and colors, too fast for me to even recognize. It spun faster and faster, seemingly searching for the perfect fear it could embody, but then...

... it suddenly stopped, its final form appearing in front of me.

I immediately raised Kenny, ready to cast a spell, but then I stopped, too surprised to do anything. After all, I didn't see Dumbledore, Lupin or any other war criminal when I looked at the boggart. No, I saw...

...myself?