Chapter 286: The Boggart's Worst Fear (Edited)

Tom: ...

This man is terrifying!

Hermione also looked at him with curiosity, eager to know what Tom feared the most.

"Could it be...?" Hermione thought, her face blushing. Seeing Hermione's reaction, Tom suddenly realized that a major crisis awaited him.

It is well known that a Boggart can reflect a person's worst fears, and since Hermione's worst fear was her own corpse, it would make sense for Tom's worst fear to be Hermione's corpse as well... but what if it wasn't? Would Hermione have a problem with that?

Tom suddenly became nervous. What should he do? What if the Boggart's transformation was not what he desired? He couldn't speak to the Boggart and ask it to transform into something beneficial for him to see if the transformation would pass the test, right? Tom didn't believe the Boggart would follow his advice, and they couldn't even communicate with each other.

But as the saying goes, "the arrow has been shot," and with Professor Lupin's orders and the class watching, Tom had no choice but to step forward and open the wardrobe for the test.

Suddenly, the path to the wardrobe became unbearably long. As he walked, Tom's mind was in turmoil, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly, with a flash of insight, he realized a useful spell: Occlumency. The Boggart had learned what others feared the most by intruding into their minds, so couldn't he close his own mind to it?

Furthermore, the spell of Occlumency could falsify memories, so he could...

As he thought about it, Tom felt a pang of something bad. Falsifying memories, it seemed, would be advantageous for many reasons, at least to maintain harmony between them, but what was the point?

It was a deception!

Was it possible to fake something emotional?

Tom came to a sudden stop for a moment. If he used the Occlumency spell to fake a scene, wouldn't that be cheating? How could he do it? How could he do that? Hermione didn't know Occlumency. How could he do that to Hermione?

Obviously not.

In just a second, Tom thought a lot and finally felt relieved. He removed Occlumency from his mind and calmly walked toward the wardrobe containing the Boggart.

Of course, Tom appeared very calm on the outside, even though he had a lot of inner drama along the way. The brief pause went unnoticed, even by Professor Lupin, who only sensed a slight nervousness in the young wizard. Lupin had noticed Tom's reaction. Deep in Professor Lupin's mind... this was so amusing! Observing the interaction between the boys and girls, Lupin felt as if he had rejuvenated and regained the fun of school life.

With everyone watching, Tom approached the wardrobe and watched as Professor Lupin used his magic to open the door.

When the door opened, Tom's heart raced faster. He could feel something mysterious, something invisible, something uncontrollable, moving in the darkness of the wardrobe, something akin to the Obscurus, but entirely different.

The Boggart inside the wardrobe "saw" Tom standing at the door, and in an instant, it saw into the boy's mind, knowing what he feared the most. Just as it was about to transform, the Boggart noticed the ring on the boy's hand and felt a very familiar power in that ring.

Boggart: ???

What's so strange about this ring that makes me feel intimately connected to it?

He paused, curiously sensing the ring in Tom's hand through the air, and the more he felt it, the more familiar it became.

Boggart: This ring feels so familiar to me... how is it that it feels like one of my own kind... Wait!

The Boggart, who feeds on fear, finally experienced what fear truly is today. Dark creatures like the Boggart are nearly impossible to destroy, and they have no concept of time or longevity as they live almost eternally. But the Boggart could sense that the ring had been made by destroying a Boggart. This went beyond its comprehension and knowledge, giving it a sense of "fear."

With a burst, it transformed into a million tiny puffs of smoke and disappeared into the cracks of the staff room.

[Achievement Unlocked: One Thing Leads to Another, +10 magic stones]

Boggart: You didn't expect that, did you? This is my escape route! Wizards still aren't a match for me in a battle of wits.

Professor Lupin continued to wonder why the wardrobe door had opened but the contents hadn't come out. It was the first time something like this had happened to him. Professor Lupin had a sudden flash of insight: he knew of a mental illness among Muggles called claustrophobia, in which the person has a fear of closed or crowded places and feels an unknown fear in those places. Perhaps Yodel was claustrophobic, right? That's why his greatest fear was confined spaces, in other words, the small wardrobe!

Lupin thought his assumption was reasonable and logical until he heard the sound of a burst and saw a million tiny shards of smoke coming out of the wardrobe and disappearing.

Professor Lupin: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

He knew that this type of smoke only appeared after a Boggart had been subjected to too many "fun pranks," usually when a Boggart had been messed with too many times and opted to flee, commonly known as being "played with until broken." But he had just found this Boggart, so theoretically, he could play with it for a long time, so why did it explode?

Confused, Professor Lupin waved his hand and told Tom to come down. Then, as he looked at the empty wardrobe, Lupin suddenly realized a serious problem: his "teaching material" had disappeared!

He had gone through a lot of trouble to find that Boggart, and now it had exploded. He couldn't get another one.

He turned his head, looked behind him at the young wizards who were also a bit confused, and awkwardly smiled, "Class, there has been a little problem... so we'll start this lesson with the theory of..."

The good thing was that Lupin was quite good at teaching, and even when caught off guard, the theory lesson was also quite good, vivid, and interesting. He also assured the young wizards that he would find another Boggart for them to practice with, so he managed to deal with this little commotion.

After class, several young wizards approached Tom to find out why the Boggart had disappeared, but Tom had no choice but to say that he had merely used a funny spell and it had dissipated.

What do I care, Tom Yodel, if the Boggart disappears?