"It's an interesting theory, Chris... and I"m sure that would be correct, but I've never in my life met someone who has NO fears. Even if their greatest fear is a small fear, that fear still exists. Afterall, a courageous person isn't someone without fears. It is someone who stands against those fears. A person without fears is a fool. Perhaps that is why we don't know what such a person sees when they encounter a boggart. Fools rarely last long in the Wizarding World."

If someone is afraid of loneliness it might make all of the rest of the people in the room appear to be gone.

"I see what you mean. Like if someone feared....pain," Birdy said, thinking for a good example, "It would be difficult to show that. Things like the cruciatus curse can't be shown in a single illustration or image."

"That's true, Genie. It could show the people you are most afraid of losing turning their backs on you. Interesting... and what would it show if the person was afraid of the dark?" She smiled and recalled her younger sister in their youth.


ooc: I will be leaving for about 30 minutes, but I intend to be back. I'm sorry to do this to you, but I have to change locations . Thank you!

::genie raises hand::

well since it can take on any shape i would think that it would take on a shape to block out all forms of light from entering the room.

"Well...the boggart could envelope the person's surroundings and smother out the light if they were afraid of the dark....I guess," Birdy voulentered, uncertainly.

"Yeah, and it can also form into darkness and the shapes that the person sees in the dark like shadows off things in the room.."

"Maybe yourself in a dark lonely place, like your house when you are alone. Or maybe it would show you something symbolic to yourself, seeing it can get inside your head... maybe a corridor which never ends and a sensation it creates.

That idea could work, the lonely, dark house. But does a boggart have enough power to create a whole illusion of a building, or can it only shape itself into things like people and objects?

"Yeah, actually my representation could work both for "loneliness" and "darkness" the same. Maybe both." *to ladybird*

"Can a boggart really transform itself into something that would envelop a person's view of any sort of light around him or her?" Arkee asked. "What would that look like from the outside?"

She took a cautious glance at the box currently housing the boggart, and shuddered.

"I hope we don't have to reveal our own fears in class today. I don't know what mine is. Hey! Maybe I have a fear of showing my fear! Now that would be interesting to see on a boggart."

"A boggart has massive magical capabilities to reproduce your fear, but it is limited. I think a house would be a bit much. Besides, why would it need an entire house? Now... here's another question for you... why would a boggart need to cause its victims immense fear?"

"Maybe it feeds off it's victims fear or emotions.",suggested Fiona

"Yeah, somewhat like a Dementor feeds on negative feelings like despair," Arkee agreed. "D'you suppose they're related? If they are, I'd hate to see THAT family reunion," she lightly joked.

"Yeah, like the Dementor" to Mystic. "But also as a way of protection, I think. You would need to make people get away from your, err, home. I think Boggarts makes it as a way to protect their territory, but may be too weak to defend it by force. Hence using our fears against us."

Shannon raises her hand. "Maybe it's their defense mechanism. Maybe they're really afraid of us, and they use this ability to make us afraid of them so we won't hurt them. Like when a skunk is scared, it sprays that smelly stuff. Boggarts 'spray' you with...whatever you're afraid of."

"Uh, no, I didn't mean it would turn into a whole house, in real dimensions. I was thinking of a miniature image of one self in the middle of nowhere. I'm one to think of how horrible would be the notion of being inside my house but knowing there's no one else.... Just the image, even if small in my head, terrified me as a child. "

*to Arkee* "You know, I've heard of Vapires that can do that. Creepy. They seems to form darkness around you do you can't see anything, and even you cannot speak, as if you lost your voice. Must be the scarriest thing... The lethifold has something similar, if I recall correctly, it makes darkness around you. So maybe the boggart will turn into a lethifold to scare you if you were afriad of the dark."

Hmmm...didn't think of that. It makes more since than what I said.

Professor Rae nodded. "Boggarts qualify as spirits, rather than beings or beasts, and Wizards have very little contact with boggarts outside of being attacked by them, so there really isn't a definite answer on that one. But I like your suggestions, and I think there are facets of all of them in what a boggart gets from its victims."

"But let's move on to something a bit happier. There IS a spell to confront the boggart. Who knows what it is?"

Arkee shivered.

"That is creepy. Vampires are not my favourite creatures, anyhow. And lethifolds I can live without. I thought they tended to, um, eat their victims, catching them by enveloping them like a cloak. I didn't think they covered their victims totally in darkness. Eating their victims is one thing, but making them fear the darkness surruounding them before they get eaten is just plain rude."

"The spell to resist a boggart? Riddikulus, of course. Makes the boggart take the form of something funny, not fearful."

"Riddikulus! You have to think of a happy or funny things when casting it, confront your fears and chant the spell. Your fear will partially transform in osmething that will make that fear less... scary."

The spell is Riddikkulus! You must think of something you wish your fear would be turned into and cast the spell repeatedly until it changes.

Shannon raises her hand again. "The spell is Riddikulus (not ridiculous)."

::raises hand::

i believe you have to say riddikulus and then laugh professor

"Yes, Arkee... five points to Hufflepuff. The spell does indeed force the boggart into a humorous form. But it isn't the spell itself that causes the boggart to weaken. What is it?"