Lesson Three: Boggarts

[Kaileena Lovegood]

Kaileena put her hands on her hips after putting away her wand, smiling proudly of herself. Today was going to be a good day. She glanced over to the large wardrobe she had brought in for the lesson. The doors rattled a bit, making her blink and she rolled her eyes, pulling out her wand once more to silently lock the doors. Just then, students began to walk in, making her giddy with excitement. "Good morning, everyone!" She smiled brightly, noting their confused expressions. "Today, you'll need your wands. We'll be working with them for this lesson." She walked over to the wardrobe in a graceful manner and put her hand on one of the doors.

"We'll be working with a Boggart today." The wardrobe rattled under her touch, making her gasp out then clear her throat. She lightly smacked her hand on the wardrobe and it ceased its shaking. Hmph. "Boggarts are known to be shape-shifters and when faced with an opponent will take the form of their greatest fear. No one's ever seen the true form, however, so please don't ask what it looks like."

She paced around, in front of the wardrobe and smiled warmly. "Though Boggarts haven't been known to cause harm, they are considered Dark creatures because they feed off a person's fear and use it against them, much to their dismay." She ignored the rattling wardrobe and leaned against it casually, taking out her wand. "However, there is a way to counter boggarts, and conveniently enough, it's very easy to do so. Does anyone know what it is?"

Leena pointed to a Ravenclaw boy in the back who raised his hand. "It's the Riddikulus spell. When you say it, you visualize your worst fear turning into something funny, and it'll happen to the boggart."

Leena beamed. "Excellent, Mr. Geoffrey! He was absolutely right, class. Ten points to Ravenclaw." She cleared her throat and clapped her hands once."Everyone, repeat after me--no wands yet, just repeat after me. RIDDIKULUS!" Her voice boomed out when she said the spell and she smiled. "Make sure you say it loudly and clearly." She beamed once more as the class all chanted it back to her simultaneously and she moved aside, pushing away from the wardrobe.

"Now everyone, line up in a single file line and you'll take turns till every person in this class has gone. So without further ado..." She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the wardrobe, unlocking it. She took in a deep breath as the doors opened and the first apparition came out. Now, if only they were prepared for this...

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Homework:
Role play facing the boggart and using the Riddikulus spell against it. Be descriptive about what form the boggart takes for you and what funny thing you will do to it. Remember, although not all spells work, you cannot fail with this one but you might not get the desired effect that you wanted. Please be careful with spelling and grammar as too many mistakes will lose you points. Give me at least two decent sized paragraphs. This assignment is worth 30 points. Bonus points will be awarded for outstanding work and originality.

[Addison Bell]

Addison trailed into class behind a pack of Ravenclaw girls, they were excited talking about the upcoming dance or some nonsense. Scooting closer to get a better view of the room, she noticed a big wardrobe taking up most of the space, the desk were gone and there stood Professor Lovegood smiling at them.

"Today, you'll need your wands. We'll be working with them for this lesson."

Addison beamed, finally, some wand work! She had been looking forward to something like this. But then she heard what the lesson was, Boggarts, that's just great, now everyone in the class would see how much of a big pansy she really was. Her classmates started pushing around, trying to form a line, Addison moved out of the way and walked to the back of the row.

As every single one of her classmates went, Addison got even more nervous. But she started to calm down, a lot of kids were scared of things like spiders and snakes, making her fear seem a little less stupid, but still not enough.

Addison stepped up to the front, taking in a deep breath, she stuck her hands in her robe pocket and pulled out her wand. She turned to Professor Lovegood and nodded once. Breathing deeply she watched as the doors opened and out stepped...three pretty blonde girls with big blue eyes.

Addison swallowed, "Riddiku-kulus" The three blondes laughed, "Awhh, poor little Addison, can't even say a simple spell. No wonder James doesn't like you, you short, ugly, thing. You'll never be as good as anyone in your family, all your muggle relatives could pull this off better than you. You are so useless Ads." They just kept laughing at her, twirling their stupid blonde hair, the only good thing was that no one knew they were her cousins, afraid of her own family, what a joke. Addison cringed, pointed her wand she yelled, "RIDDIKULUS!" The blondes stopped laughing and looked at each other, suddenly their faces started being covered in pimples, buttons popped off their clothes as they started inflating, Addison chuckled, much better, the boggart went back in the wardrobe. Addison smiled as she walked back to the line, proud of herself.

[Dastan Cross]

Dastan swept into the Defense Against the Dark Arts class with his usual attitude, trying not to let on that he was planning on doing something drastic that night. Dark Rituals were no simple thing, nor were they particularly safe, and he didn't want any meddlesome professors digging into his business.

Flashing a look around the classroom and his dark eyes landing immediately on Astin, Dastan amended the previous thought: he didn't want anyone digging into his business. Not tonight. Not when there was so much on the line. Dastan sat down at his desk, placing his dark rituals book on the edge of the surface, knowing that if someone wanted to read it, they could, but not thinking that anyone would care to. Swallowing and sitting back to listen to the professor, Dastan waited to hear what sorts of demons they'd be messing with today. He hoped it wasn't anything like the Grindylows he'd had such a hard time with last time, or anything that warranted a partner.

"We'll be working with a Boggart today." As the professor's words settled around him, and with it all of the implications, Dastan felt the rest of the sounds in the class fade away to nothing.

Boggarts. He hated those things. He'd always ended up facing Lord Nezam. He didn't want to in front of all these people. When dealing with them at home, it had only been with Lord Alex, who would simply watch him calmly with those all-knowing eyes and wait to see what he'd do. The first several times, he'd nearly fainted with the memories that had come with seeing his slimy ex-master again. By the end, he'd managed a pretty convincing Riddikulus spell that had blown the bastard up until he exploded.

As the first apparition came out, Dastan took a deep breath, tightening his grip on the wand he'd just pulled out of his boot. His hands were sweating. And Astin was here, too. He shot another glance at the boy. He wouldn't let himself be defeated. He wouldn't. Not by a stupid boggart.

After what felt like an eternity, Dastan stepped up to place in the line. His hands were drenched in sweat, so he rubbed them on his robe as the boggart began to shapeshift and turn into...

Confusion hit him before the shock did. It most certainly wasn't Lord Nezam. It was a blonde figure, who was turned away from him. And then the figure turned around, and it was Astin. But blood soaked his clothing and his face was pale, large blue eyes widened as the hands took in the injuries, and then looked up at Dastan, accusation glistening plainly in those depths.

"How could you?" Astin--no, he corrected, that thing that looked like Astin---said in a broken voice that was surprisingly convincing. "You've killed me, Das."

Tears glistened in the creature's eyes, and Dastan fought the urge to rush over to that thing's side and catch him before he fell to the ground. It felt to Dastan like everyone else had faded away completely. There was no-one here except him and this thing.

"Your taint killed me, Dastan. I pity you, so I tried to be your friend, but I never wanted this...how could you?"

Dastan's mouth felt so dry, and his knees were going to buckle. He couldn't do this. It was too much. "R-" he tried, finding his voice to be impossible to find. The thing was reaching out to him, trying to catch him by the robes, stumbling.

As the thing was about to touch him, he finally managed to get control again, if only temporarily. "Riddikulus!" he called, pointing the wand at the boggart-Astin. Immediately, the thing transformed into one of those goofy sheet-ghosts and floated away, but the damage was done. Dastan had humiliated himself in front of everyone, including the very subject of his biggest fears.

Turning and shoving some of the other students out of his way, Dastan all but fell in his haste to get out of the room before he humiliated himself even further. He was shaken to the core, the boggart had been so convincing. He was going to make himself scarce for a while in order to set up for the ritual. He wanted to hurry up and get this over with, because he didn't think he could face Astin again. Not after this lesson.

[Astin Descartes]

Astin recalled what he'd learned of Boggarts from the introductory lesson. They were nasty buggers. They used a person's greatest fear against him or her and forced them to face it. In the instant that he realized that, his eyes shot to Dastan. Could he handle this? He'd been abused heartlessly. Astin prepared himself; if whatever it was really got to his ex-friend, he was going to jump in. He didn't care that he wasn't supposed to protect him; he would do it anyway. He was loyal to a fault, and he always would be.

But when Dastan's Boggart morphed into him, his jaw went slack. That was not in any of his imagined scenarios. The words were an even greater shock. He could never think any of that about Dastan. But Das didn't know that... Astin could only watch as Dastan cast Riddikulus and ran off. He really was useless.

Astin's eyes caught a glimpse of the book Dastan had left behind: a book on dark rituals. His heart stopped. Dark rituals... dangerous rituals... and knowing that Dastan had always cared more than he let on, the only thing that made sense was that... Dastan had written those letters.

Fuck.
[/i]
Astin stared at the door for what seemed like ages after Dastan. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to run after him, but he couldn't. His feet were rooted to the spot. They were too heavy for him to even lift, like he had bricks attached to them or two-ton blocks strapped to the bottoms of his feet.

Someone nudged him, and he jumped. He was up next. He swallowed. He had no idea what the creature was going to morph into, but judging from Dastan's apparition, there was going to be nothing pleasant or funny about it.

It morphed into two dull orbs, black on brown on white, hollow and empty. Astin's hand shook. He knew those eyes. Those were the same eyes that stared back at him every time he closed his own; the emotionless, lifeless eyes that he'd seen trapped inside the Box of Ambrosius. To anyone else, it may not have seemed like much. But to him, it was a reminder of all of his failures-- past, present and future-- and how he'd let down the one person he'd die to see smile.

He closed his eyes. There was nothing funny about this apparition at all. It caused sheer pain, and it always would. But he hadn't failed at this class yet, and he wasn't going to. When he opened his eyes again, they were set with fierce determination. He'd jumped off a tower for those damnable eyes; he could do anything.

"Riddikulus!" The eyes looked almost confused before they shifted to harmless, colored marbles.

Astin had turned and was out the door before they'd even hit the ground.

[Rosemarie Willington]

((OOC I have permission to use Addison Bell))
Rose walked into the classroom rubbing her temple, sure she was excited beyond that she was able to get a date for the dance but she didn't see any need to talk about it every second of every day until the dance. Sure details and excitement was talked about between her and her friend Addison, but they didn't scream about it every time they met up. She went to go take her seat.... but there wasn't one. All the desks and chairs had vanished from the classroom. At first she thought she might have walked into the wrong classroom, until she spotted Professor Lovegood standing at the front of the classroom standing next to a huge Wardrobe, that shook, which meant they were being introduced to another creature.
Rose wonder to the front of the class were she met up with Addison
"Do you know what's going on?" Rose asked curious.
I am not sure but if were partnering up again. Will you be my partner? She asked excited.
Uh, I'll have to think about that....Yeah! She said laughing. Professor Lovegood started the class so Addison and Rose both quieted down to see what they were doing.
Today, you'll need your wands. We'll be working with them for this lesson. Wand? We'll be using magic! Excitement course through Rose, she couldn't wait to begin. Lovegood told them about Boggarts were and how to stop one before she set them free. When she did they lined up. Only a couple of people ahead of her, she was about the 4th or 5th person to go. A couple of people went ahead her, somewhere really good things to be scared of, other were just over dramatic, like someone having the same outfit as her or missing there favorite shoes. Rose thought for a moment, her fears were always changing, she wondered which one it would be today.
It was finally her turn, she peered over her shoulder really quick, Addison was at the end of the line. Rose took out and deep breath and nodded toward the Professor. She took out her wand and the Professor opened the door. Rose stared at the door, it took a few minutes for the Boggart to come out. It was her.... Only her rosy cheeks were paled, her bright greean eyes were darkened, her lovely red hair was flat and....Without life? If that makes sense, she didn't know how to explain it. She almost thought is was her except dead... until her eye's fell onto her ropes. Slytherin, she was a Slytherin...No her mind repeated to her.
The Boggart laughed an emotionless, cold laugh. "Oh yes its true. You me Rose. Why just look at your family. They share your blood" The Boggart said. She stood there frozen, the Boggart was right, they did share they same blood as those....People. She didn't want to. They were dark and fake and she never want to be them, she didn't want to be like them so much it scared to her. Rose closed her eyes trying to shake the thought from her mind. Then suddenly she was back in the Abandon classroom with Addison, cleaning it up to get it ready to turn into a hang out for her and her friend. Rose had just gotten done telling Addison about how much of and outcast she was.
Well I guess that makes you cooler Addison told her. Your cooler than them. Your cooler. Your not them. You are you. She told herself. She reopened her eye. The Boggart stood there with a smile on its stony face.
"I am not them. RIDDIKULUS!" She said. The Slytherin uniform fell to the floor. After a few seconds the uniform moved and out popped a frog. She heard some laughter from some of the other students.
She walked down the line, she got a couple of high fives from some the Gryffindor's and some dirty looks from the Slytherin. When she reached Addison she stop and smiled
"Thanks" She told her.
"For what?" She asked confused
"For being a good friend" She said with a hug before going to the end of the line.