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The students all settled down in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. y/n sat with Hermione towards the left side of the classroom while Harry and Ron sat in the middle row right next to them.
"Where do you reckon he is?" Ron, who was sitting on Harry's right, asked.
"No idea," Harry said as he looked class to see everyone wondering the same question.
Harry stopped his gaze as it caught on with another pair of eyes -- y/n's.
The girl slowly grinned, which made Harry start smiling too. y/n let out a chuckle and turned back to Hermione, leaving Harry there, still keeping his gaze.
Professor Lupin finally entered the room. Looking around and smiling at the quiet students, he set his tatty old briefcase down onto the teacher's desk.
"Good afternoon," he said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags? Today's will be a practical lesson. You will need only your wands."
The students glanced at each other curiously as they kept their books back. They had never had a practical Defense Against the Dark Arts class before unless you counted the memorable class last year when their old teacher had brought a cageful of pixies to class and set them loose.
"Right then," said Professor Lupin, when everyone was ready. "If you'd follow me."
Puzzled but interested, the class got to its feet and followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom. He led them along the deserted corridor and around a corner, where the first thing they saw was Peeves the Poltergeist, who was floating upside down in midair and stuffing the nearest keyhole with chewing gum.
Peeves didn't look up until Professor Lupin was two feet away; then he wiggled his curly-toed feet and broke into song.
"Loony, loopy Lupin," Peeves sang. "Loony, loopy Lupin, loony, loopy Lupin --"
Rude and unmanageable as he almost always was, Peeves usually showed some respect toward the teachers. Everyone looked quickly at Professor Lupin to see how he would take this; to their surprise, he was still smiling.
"I'd take that gum out of the keyhole if I were you, Peeves," he said pleasantly. "Mr. Filch won't be able to get into his brooms."
Professor Lupin gave a small sigh and took out his wand.
"This is a useful little spell," he told the class over his shoulder. "Please watch closely."
He raised the wand to shoulder height, said, "Waddiwasi!" and pointed it at Peeves.
With the force of a bullet, the wad of chewing gum shot out of the keyhole and straight down Peeves's left nostril; he whirled upright and zoomed away, cursing.
"Cool, sir!" said Dean Thomas in amazement.
"Thank you, Dean," said Professor Lupin, putting his wand away again. "Shall we proceed?"
They set off again, the class looking at shabby Professor Lupin with increased respect. He led them down a second corridor and stopped, right outside the staffroom door.
"Inside, please," said Professor Lupin, opening it and standing back.
"Now, then," said Professor Lupin, beckoning the class toward the end of the room, where there was nothing but an old wardrobe where the teachers kept their spare robes. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall.
y/n and Hermione stood near towards the right side of the classroom, Harry and Ron lost in the crowd together.
"Nothing to worry about," said Professor Lupin calmly because a few people had jumped backward in alarm. "There's a Boggart in there."
Most people seemed to feel that this was something to worry about. Neville gave Professor Lupin a look of pure terror, and Seamus Finnigan eyed the now rattling doorknob apprehensively.
"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks -- I've even 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 put up her hand.
"I swear to Merlin Hermione-" y/n said jokingly.
"It's a shape-shifter," she said. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," said Professor Lupin, and Hermione glowed. "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 he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears.
"This means," said Professor Lupin, choosing to ignore Neville's small sputter of terror, "that we have a huge advantage over the Boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?"
y/n turned to see where Lupin was looking -- Harry was towards the front of the class with Ron, looking nervous.
"Er -- because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?"
y/n smiled at the fact that Harry had managed to answer the question.
"Black, I didn't expect you to be anywhere away from saint Potter," said a voice behind her.
y/n turned to see a familiar blond with bandages wrapped around his left arm.
"Malfoy." The blond smirked.
"We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please...riddikulus!" Lupin said from the front of the class
"Riddikulus!" said the class together.
"This class is ridiculous," Malfoy complained. "Who wouldn't know about Boggarts? Anyways, house-elves could get rid of them very easily."
"Well Malfoy, not all of us have house elves now, do we?" y/n pointed out cooly.
Malfoy looked over at her, impressed?
"It's a pity you didn't get to live where you belonged, isn't it? I heard the Black's household is quite decent," Malfoy said. "Too bad you had to move in with those Weasleys."
"I think the Burrow is quite cozy," y/n said honestly. Malfoy raised an eyebrow.
"Anyways, you could come over to the Malfoy Manor over Christmas if you want, or even over the summer. Then you can get a taste of what you're missing out on."
Now it was y/n's turn to raise an eyebrow, did Malfoy really just invited her over?
"I'm sure father wouldn't mind. It's not like you chose to be raised with those blood traitors anyway," said Malfoy like it was nothing.
y/n sighed and shook her head as she turned back to focus in class, Malfoy can't be serious. He just couldn't.
"I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical..." Lupin said to the class.
What scares y/n most? Harry would probably have Voldemort come out of the cupboard. But what would she make appear? She, like Ron, was also scared of spiders, but she was sure that wasn't what scared her most.
Soon enough, everyone took turns to face the Boggart.
Pavarti, then Ron, then a few other students... Then finally, y/n.
y/n walked up to the confused Boggart. It took notice of her and started shifting. Soon enough, her greatest fear appeared a human skull.
Death.
"Riddikulus!" y/n said bravely. The human skull turned into a friendly smiley face. y/n stepped away and Harry went next.
Before the Boggart could read Harry properly, Lupin stepped in front of Harry and pointed its wand at it.
The Boggart turned into a round, whitish-grey circle ball with smoke... or clouds... surrounding it.
"Riddikulus!"
"Forward, Neville, and finish him off!" said Lupin as the Boggart landed on the floor like a cockroach. Crack! Snape was back. This time Neville charged forward-looking determined.
"Riddikulus!" he shouted, and they had a split second's view of Snape in his lacy dress before Neville let out a great "Ha!" of laughter, and the Boggart exploded, burst into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone.
"Excellent!" cried Professor Lupin as the class broke into applause. "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."
"But I didn't do anything," said Harry.
"You and Hermione answered my questions correctly at the start of the class, Harry," Lupin said lightly. "Very well, everyone, an excellent lesson. Homework, kindly read the chapter on Boggarts and summarize it for me...to be handed in on Monday. That will be all. Oh! And y/n, do you mind staying back for a bit?"
y/n glanced at the other three and waved them goodbye. Lupin was moving the wardrobe back to the side of the room.
"Why didn't you tell me you were teaching here, at Hogwarts?" y/n immediately questioned.
Lupin let out a soft chuckle and smiled. "I knew you'd ask me that. Well, a simple question with a simple answer, I wanted to surprise you!"
y/n looked at Lupin with raised eyebrows.
"You certainly were surprised," Lupin pointed out, gesturing with his wand to walk with him out of the room.
y/n followed the professor out of the room.
"That was a really interesting lesson. We haven't had a good Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher before," y/n said as Lupin closed and locked the room door.
The professor smiled proudly. "Well, I'm flattered. Well, that's it for now then. You should go join your friends. I see that Hermione is waiting for you." Lupin pointed forwards where Hermione was standing, waving at them.
"Can I come to visit you then? At least this year I can save some ink by just talking to you here at Hogwarts instead of writing you monthly letters," y/n suggested.
"Of course. I'll owl you when I'm free and we can talk," Lupin smiled.
"Bye professor!" y/n waved, walking towards Hermione, Lupin waving back.
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// Hello again! How are yall? I hope you had a good day! I've enjoyed writing this chapter :) Please do take care of yourself! Thanks for reading this story. Lots of love <3