Jupiter | Harry James Potter

ix ; the boggart

    "Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" Pansy Parkinson asked Draco at the Slytherin table.

"It comes and it goes. Still, I consider myself lucky. According to Madam Pomfrey, another minute or two and I, uh, I could've lost my arm. I couldn't possibly do homework for weeks." Draco boasted.

"What an absolute liar. It was just a scratch." I snapped, rolling my eyes at my idiot cousin.

"He's really laying it on thick, isn't he?" Ron scoffed from beside me as we stared at Draco.

"Yeah, but at-least Hagrid didn't get fired." Harry sighed.

"Yeah, but I heard Draco's father's furious. We haven't heard the end of this." Hermione sighed.

"He's been sighted! He's been sighted!" Seamus Finnegan yelled, running over to our side of the table.

"Who?" Ron asked as Seamus threw a copy of the Daily Prophet on the table. On the front page, there was a photo of a man I had seen too many times. He had matted black curls, sunken cheeks, paper white skin and wide, deep eyes that screamed for help.

"Sirius Black!" He said, and all of the Gryffindor's huddled around him to read the paper.

"Dufftown?" Hermione gasped, grabbing the paper off the table. "That's not far from here."

"You don't think he'd come to Hogwarts? Do you?" Neville asked, his face turning pale.

"With dementors at every entrance?" Lavender Brown scoffed from beside me.

"He's already slipped past them once, hasn't he? Who's to say he won't do it again?" Seamus said.

"That's right. Black could be anywhere. It's like trying to catch smoke. It's like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands." A Gryffindor named Bem said, and I caught Harry's worried eyes.

I had been playing Sirius Black off as a joke for too long now. If Harry Potter was worried about him, I had no right to act unafraid.

-

"Intriguing, isn't it?" Professor Lupin asked as we stood in his classroom staring at a dingy cupboard which shook like mad. "Would anyone like to venture a guess as to what is inside?"

"A boggart." I said, my eyes fixed on the knob it was trying to turn.

"Right you are, Miss Lestrange." Professor Lupin smiled. "Can anyone tell me what a boggart looks like?"

"Nobody knows." Hermione's voice came from beside me.

"When did she get here?" Ron gasped, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at Hermione in confusion.

"She's been here, Ronald." I whispered to him.

"What?" He gawked, his mouth wide open as his eyes darted back and forth between me and Hermione.

"Boggarts are shape-shifters. They take the shape of whatever a particular person fears the most. That's what makes them so..."

"So terrifying. Yes. Ten points to Gryffindor for Miss Lestrange and Miss Granger." Professor Lupin finished. "Luckily, a very simple charm exists to repel a boggart." The cupboard shook violently. "Let's practice it now. After me: Riddikulus."

We all repeated.

"Very good. A little louder, and very clear. Listen. Riddikulus."

"Riddikulus!"

"This class is Riddikulus." Draco snarled from the back of the room.

"Very good." Professor Lupin ignored him. "Well, so much for the easy part. You see, the incantation alone is not enough. What really finishes a boggart is laughter. You need to force it to assume a shape you find truly amusing. Let me explain. Uh, Neville! Will you join me, please?"