Sohrin had hoped it wouldn't detect any fear and would pass on to the next person. But that was just wishful thinking on his part. Instead, the previous fear it had transformed into was now changing so quickly that Sohrin barely had time to react.

With his fear in front of him, the eleven-year-old's hand trembled as he lifted his wand. "R-riddi---Riddiku----" But before he could think of any of his earlier ideas, the giant sea monster opened its large wide mouth, and the young Ravenclaw acted reflexively.

He let out a terrified yelp, accidentally dropped his wand to the floor, and wrapped his arms around his head as if it could protect him. He wanted to get up and leave the room, but his body seemed to be frozen in place. He didn't want to face his fear; he just wanted someone to help him.

A range of emotions immediately flooded through the small first year when Professor Khanna stated that their time was up on practicing. She wasn't even entirely sure that she had the incantation and wand movement correct yet! Time would certainly tell for sure though once it was her turn.

Bryony wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or bad thing that several of her peers were in line ahead of her. This did two things for her... it gave her the chance to see what would happen as they each faced the Boggart. What it would turn into as their fears, how they responded to it and then how they made it into something silly. And from what she could see so far... These fears were no joke. She might not understand them all, as they weren't her fear but that didn't make them less scary for those dealing with the Boggart in that moment.

The things she was seeing.. Some of them made her want to stop and think about what she was going to encounter. Did those ahead of her already know what they were up against? Was it better not to know?! The tiny blonde was kinda lost in her thoughts again when there was a sudden roar from a 'sea monster?' and then a clatter of a wand hitting the floor which rolled near her feet. Instinctively she bent down to pick it up for Sohrin and tapped his shoulder from her spot behind him, offering him a supportive hand should he want it as well as his wand. "You've got this, it's okay.. try again?" Her words were soft and meant to be comforting.

Bryony had only been thinking about trying to assist someone that needed it. What she wasn't thinking about at that moment was that she may have been getting in the way of Sohrin's Boggart/Sea Monster fear and allowing it to see her own. Giving it that brief second it needed to see deep within her and see her most inner fear that even she didn't know.

With a girl as active as herself, generally fearless and outgoing there wasn't much she feared. Losing family and the creatures in her life were probably at the very top of the list, it made sense too. Creatures were always part of her life since she had been born.. and both of her parents had been part of the war, though she didn't remember that incredibly well she remembered enough. Yet, there was someone else that was always in the back of her mind, someone that was her number one. If anything happened to her family it would be absolutely devastated. Yet, this wasn't it. Should anything happen to Aryan, her bestest friend, the one person that was always there for her and never ever judged her.. she would be lost. If he ever decided he didn't like her anymore and didn't want to be friends.. where would she be? She had known him nearly her entire life.

As soon as Kion stepped forward he stopped short as the door opened revealing... the Nundu.. The grip of his wand tightened as he lost all feeling in his limbs from head to toe. He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't move. He felt himself shrink in that moment as its snarl went through his ears that it was amazing he didn't jump from the initial shock.

As frozen as Kion felt, his mind and heart was working overtime. Riddikulus.. Riddikulus... Think of something funny.. not scary.. Just as one of the paws raised a thought of the Nundu becoming a squeaky plush toy came into his mind as he nearly fell taking a step back with his wand extended out to draw the movement, "Ri....Riddikulus!"

Closer. Closer. Closer. Soon it could grab her. Soon it could scream a bloodcurdling scream directly in her face that would frighten the life out of her. Soo-

Before the Boggart-Inferius could accomplish its intention, it found itself in a Mouse costume with a pretty dress - like a mascot - dancing of all things! It twirled and pirouetted and freestyle. Congratulations, human. You have done well.


The Boggart became a mirror image of the little human. It spared the real girl a piercing glare before collapsing onto the floor in a seated cross legged position. It’s face was burning in its palms as it started wailing. “Why do-doesn’t aunty-oone want m-me? I haven’t d-done anyone a-any wrong!” The wailing continued and seemed to raise a decibel with each sound uttered.


Even as the monster continued to bellow, the human dropped his wand. Oh, this was going to be easy now that he was defenseless. The monster brought its bellowing to an end. It creepily began to edge towards the human. Those arms around his head were useless now and would be useless once the Boggart-Monster pulled out more scare tactics. Oh yes. There were more of those to come, boy.

If it hadn’t been for that meddling little girl, things would have all gone according to plan. Unfortunately for the Boggart, things went terribly downhill from the moment she stepped up to help the boy regain his wand and to comfort him. The Boggart-Monster sensed her fear too and it naturally tried to scare her and the boy simultaneously.

The result, after a whip-cracking sound, was the Boggart taking the form of one Aryan Atreyu-Rehman. At least it took the skinny form of the girl’s best friend from the neck down. It even chose to don the same clothing Aryan liked - that button up shirt with a tee under it and jeans. But the face? It remained the same with - long, sharp, crooked teeth and pale eyes.

Not very frightening since it looked like Aryan was simply wearing a ridiculous mask.


This was too easy. The Boggart-Nundu thought it had this one in the bag, with the human being frozen like that. Until he no longer wasn’t. Before the paw could swipe the boy - just an inch more would have done it - the Boggart seemed to emit a whip-cracking- like sound as it shrank in shape and size to become a rather sickly cute cat plushie.

Meow!

Well done, human.

Dhruv had been watching intently all the happenings of the activity. Leaning against the wall as they lazily called out the children’s names one at a time, they couldn’t have been more entertained. Some of the fears they witnessed fascinated them, some made him yawn, some were outright ridiculous and some were puzzling. But none were their problem. As a matter of fact, Dhruv had not lifted a finger to assist any of the children. It had not been done when some froze, not when a few dropped their wands.

Unfortunately, it was time to end the entertainment of the day. The professor approached the Boggart. It immediately turned into a mundane creature with which they had had an unfortunate encounter with during their Ministry of Magic days. Using wandless magic, it Komodo Dragon was turned into pink, yellow and blue confetti. As the confetti began floating to the floor of the Spare Office, Dhruv turned to face the class.

“Not a bad attempt. Of course, most of you could have done much better.” Their gaze lingered on a few that had struggled with the Boggart encounter. “As I am required to award points for helpfulness as a form of encouragement to you, Ms. Paton, take five… no, three points for assisting Mr. Solberg.” Three was sufficient and that was that.

What else was there to address? Homework. Yes. “For homework, I’d like one parchment detailing your encounter with the Boggart today. What did you do wrong? What did you do right? What would you do to remedy the wrongs? To be turned in next Monday before the start of that DADA lesson. You are dismissed.”

Finally.

Finally Dhruv could have some peace.


OOC: Thanks for being such sports, guys!!! I reallyyy enjoyed reading through your posts and learning more about your precious charries! This thread will remain open for a few more hours, if anyone wanted to finish their RPs!

Seeing the therapist herself helped a little for Vera, because the woman herself wasn't so scary. And that little bit of relief have Vera a moment to come up with something. She was pretty certain that she was going to be more scared of what was going to be said. So... She just had to make sure the bogart couldn't talk. Right?? She had just starting to imagine a zippered mouth (classic comedy) and raised her wand "Rid-".

... And then the words registered. And whatever the Gryffindor had been planning just... Poofed from her head, the words taking all the wind from her sails as they blasted through her.

Say goodbye to the family you know.

Her head was blank. And she definitely was no longer prepared for anyway to get through this current encounter.

Which is why it was the biggest relief to hear Professor Khanna announce the lesson was over, so she scurried back and away to grab her belongings. She could hear the assignment being given, but considering she would be doing her best to scrub this entire encounter from memory - that was an assignment she would not be completing.

And with the official dismissal, the brunette was out the door as quick as she could.

Phoebe was both mortified and terrified by her boggart. The image scared her to her core- nothing was more terrifying to Phoebe than the possibility of being abandoned for no good reason. And even worse, now the whole class would know what her biggest insecurity was.

Not. Very. FUN.

Phoebe started to cry despite her best efforts, and then when she cried she couldn't breathe, and she gave herself a coughing fit, and she totally forgot about any spells or learning things, and she just fled to an older student for the mercifully short rest of the lesson.

When the professor was done telling them about homework and how they were all bad at everything (that was Phoebe's interpretation of Khanna's words, at least), she grabbed her stuff and left as quickly as possible. She was never coming back to DADA ever again! She was going to fail anyways, why make herself sad and scared in the process?

Tears pricked the corners of his eyes as he made another brave attempt to confront his boggart. But his terror was heightened when he realized his wand was missing. Panicked, the Ravenclaw drew his arms away from his face to search for his wand, catching another glimpse of the sea monster in front of him, which was now etching closer.

Another terrified shriek emerged and the first-year student was about to turn around and leave the office when a soothing voice appeared beside him. He looked at Bryony, who was holding out his wand to return it to him. Could he give her a hug? "T-Thanks" He said as he took the wand but did not turn to face the boggart.

Because the boggart had begun to take on human characteristics. Only it was half human and half sea monster. For some reason, he found this image less frightening because it simply looked like a person wearing a mask. But then he looked at the Slytherin to see if she was all right. Wasn't this their boggarts combined?

Before he could do anything useful, the Professor announced the end of the class, and Sohrin waited with nervous anticipation to see what shape the boggart would take for them. He looked down at the floor in embarrassment as he was looked at for a second longer for his failure, but he looked up again when the Professor decided to reduce their five points to three. "You deserved five points..." He mumbled to the Slytherin.

As soon as homework was assigned and they were told to leave, Sohrin grabbed his bag and left without even saying goodbye, except for Bryony, who received a thank you with a red face and a bye before he stormed out.

Bryony nodded her head slowly at Sohrin. "You're welcome." It was best to help someone if she could, right? Her mama would've encouraged her to do so. Helping others was also a good way to make more friends. And everyone could always use more friends. As for that hug, she wouldn't have minded at all, hugs were quite nice.

What she did mind.. was how the Boggart that was once the really loud 'Sea Monster' was starting to change. This was when she had realized what she had done, helping someone else jumpstarted her own moment of reveal. Only it wasn't at all what the Slytherin was expecting. Not even remotely close. The body of the sea monster had morphed into that of a human, one she recognized immediately. The issue was, it still had the head of the sea monster. What was going on?! Was it stuck between hers and Sohrin's fears because they were so close to one another, side by side? Was that another way to beat a Boggart?! Bryony stared at it in confusion but not real fear, why was it trying to be Aryan?

Nothing else was happening though and before she could ask Professor Khanna about it, he was addressing the class. To her surprise she had earned a few house points for helping Sohrin to which she simply smiled and nodded. No arguing out loud here about whether she should've had those five points or not. However a tiny nod was very discreetly given to the Ravenclaw in agreement.

Upon being told they could leave, Bry grabbed her things and wiggled her fingers at the Professor on her way out. She had some things she needed to figure out now.

It was probably indeed a good thing that the lesson ended. Vera Thanatos for one would have needed rescuing; not by Dhruv, of course. Perhaps one of her brave classmates would have. Their gaze followed her not-so-surprising speeding self out the door. Phoebe was clearly another one that would have needed the same action from at least one classmate. Since she had been facing away from them, Dhruv hadn't had the chance to see that she had started to cry. They did become aware of her very obvious coughing fit, yet did nothing to help. They didn’t mind if Phoebe didn’t find it fit to return to another DADA lesson. One less child to deal with was a huge win for Dhruv.

Had they been caught in a more generous mood, certainly Bryony {who seemed content with the points} would have been awarded five points. As they had not been, three it was regardless of what Sohrin thought. Dhruv was not at all broken up about not receiving a goodbye greeting; the young Ravenclaw could ignore them for the rest of the school year and they wouldn’t care. Since Bryony gave him one of those finger wiggle-waves, they nodded to her as she exited.

Once the last of the children had departed, Dhruv exited the Office, closing the door behind them. It was time for a scalding cup of tea in the Staff Room.