Consequences Of The Heart.

Chapter 25: New Fears

It was the end of the day and James and I were still coming off our win yesterday when we completely humiliated Peter and Sirius. James had come up with the idea of getting them doused in green slime. But of course, no prank is complete without a little pizzazz and flair, so I thought why not add a few bells and whistles...or a troll. Of course lining up the entire Gryffindor house to watch, which could be considered a bit too much to some people, was James' idea but I supported him, especially since -with Sirius back- the other team would not be going easy on us with whatever they have in store; which -if I know Sirius- could probably be either a real giant who's only motive is killing us or a Jelly-Legs Jinx. To sum it up, either terrifying or stupidly basic. 

Thankfully, James and I had a few tricks up our sleeve. We thought it best -since we had already completed our prank and didn't have a specific need to talk- that we would leave classes separately because we obviously wouldn't be bombarded when we weren't together so they would have to go for something smaller because we would always be alone. Also, we decided we would take shifts sleeping so there was no possible way they could ambush us in the dorm. It was foolproof. And if they had thought of it, we surely wouldn't have been able to set a troll on them. Well, a fake troll but still. 

In any case, I knew what it felt like just before someone pranked you: there would be no one else around, everything would go deliberately quiet and then something funny -to everyone else- yet equally terrible -mostly for you- would happen to you in the middle of the hallway. Like a fake troll would explode green slime over you. Or something. 

But that's not what happened. Actually, as I walked down the hallway, the muffled conversations somehow increased, except I saw no one around to make said sounds. That and the never-ending feeling that someone was watching me means I was convinced the prank was going to happen now. 

The sounds with no source, the empty hallway, my nagging feeling: it all had only one reasonable explanation. I stopped in my tracks and extracted my wand. Whatever was coming, I was going to be ready for it. The feeling of being watched grew stronger with every second of time that felt like an hour drowning in my nervous sweat. 

Then from straight behind me, I felt a low growl. I turned around, startled by the animalistic nature of the bark-like sound. 

His red eyes sparkled under the moonlight and contrasted the rest of his grey and drab body. He strutted toward me with an attitude, oscillating his body from left to right with every new footstep. His sensitive ears twitched with every new and miniscule sound that emerged from the outside. His gloomy strands flinched with every new, slight breeze and his teeth shivered in his strong jaw. I tasted the sourness of freshly drawn blood as I kept biting down on my tongue which tingled even more disgustingly on my tongue at the sight of the stale, red liquid running down his face: He had just killed someone. 

There was a werewolf on the loose. 

My feet subconsciously stumbled backward at the sight of the wolf. My wand almost slipped through my sweaty palms. I couldn't speak properly; I was terrified. 

"St- s- Stupefy!"

The light shot out of the end of my wand toward the wolf but was deflected upon hitting his figure. It didn't affect him at all, he just kept inching closer to me with more, low growls. There was only one explanation for what the wolf could be.

"Riddikulus." 

The wolf's limbs were sucked into his body and two long balloons took their place. Not before long, I had a full balloon animal standing -or should I say floating- in front of me. I laughed as loud as I could authentically because obviously laughter is was defeats them. Thankfully, I laughed hard enough to defeat it.

But this wasn't over. 

I ran over to the end of the hallway and toward another long hallway in hoped of finding James. He wouldn't have known it was a boggart.

But what I found was way worse. In the middle of the hallway stood James with his back to me and his wand on the floor. The only illuminated part of the room was in front of him which is where four easily recognizable figures lay splattered on the ground. The cold blood ran down from their chest cavity onto the stone floors and the white shirts underneath were stained with the stale ichor. Their torsos were still and flat; no sign of any sort of respiration. All of their hair had run dry and crusty. We were dead. 

James' boggart was the three of us -plus Lily of course- dead. It was heartbreaking that we were his boggart and mine was something as stupid as a random wolf on the loose whose only motive is trying to kill me. The bodies on the ground dug deep into into my mental skeleton, shooting through every bone and under every ligament. 

James was standing with a slightly bent posture and sobbing into his robe sleeve. I jumped as fast as I could -which wasn't very fast because I was still a little shaken up- in front of him. And then I waited. I waited to see the familiar fur of the wolf that haunted my dreams. 

But it never came.

The bodies remained where they were. 

"Riddikulus." It was a whisper among the tense silence and soft sobs. 

I didn't know what had happened was possible, that anything like that could actually happen. I thought it was an impossible phenomenon: my boggart had just changed.

PS. Peter's collage.
The rat is obviously his Animagus form.
The cheese is to symbolse how he is actually more like a rodent than people think.
Pepper is like innocent looking on the outside but is actually bitter and we'll peppery and though most people think it is a necessity, it doesn't have to be.
The shoes are a call to how he is half Muggle and also to his conformity.
The smoke implies how when people start smoking, they think it's like poisoning but in the long run, it doesn't help them.
The rocks -which are slightly complicated- symbolise him and how the water(James, Voldemort) shapes and moulds him and he lets them and even does their bidding and just sits there in the sidelines and let's others take control.

Word Count:- 1132

Love, Kale.