Old Fear

During breakfast down at the Great Hall, I nervously awaited the morning owl post. Soon, I saw our family's great grey owl that Sasha had affectionately named Hootie, she had named it after the bird sounds it makes.

Swooping down silently, she dropped off a small package with a letter attached to the outside.

Remembering the shenanigans from last year, I hesitantly opened the letter. Thankfully, the letter was normal and didn't do anything, but I could almost feel the disappointment in the quill strokes.

Happy that I wouldn't be the center of attention, I opened the package to see what was inside. After tearing it open, a small black leather bag fell out.

I smiled with happiness. My dad knew that my last bag with the expanding charm had been mostly destroyed in the cave during the previous year, and he had promised to make me a replacement.

I now knew from experience that having something like this could make the difference between life and death. Tucking it snugly beneath my robe, I was determined never to go anywhere without this bag. All I needed to do was start filling it full of things that may be useful in the future. If the grendel incident taught me anything, it was that I always needed to be prepared for anything.

I ended up receiving a few more birthday letters from the rest of my extended family. My uncle's gift was a new hider bracelet that was able to give me a different appearance, along with the present was a note warning me not to get into too much trouble.

Not wanting to be late for my transfiguration class with Professor McGonagall, I quickly wolfed down the rest of my breakfast. This year, Ravenclaw had transfiguration with Hufflepuff, so when I got to the class, I saved a seat for Cedric.

While waiting for class to begin, I noticed that there was a stack of stones around two feet high sitting next to a pile of snuff-boxes on Professor McGonagall's desk.

Professor McGonagall began the class with the same no-nonsense attitude as the previous year. "Last year, you all experienced what it is like to transfigure things. This year, we will be increasing the difficulty of the objects to be transfigured."

Upon hearing her words, most of the class let out a groan. Professor McGonagall chose to ignore the noise and continued, "But, before we move on to the hard stuff. Our first couple of weeks, we will be covering perhaps the easiest topic you will ever learn in my class."

Seeing how the class had perked up a little at her words, she smiled and asked, "Now, having been exposed to the wonders of transfiguration. Have any of you wondered why all wizards don't live in wondrous mansions? After all, when you can transfigure everyday items into more valuable material. What is stopping magical families from transfiguring their homes?"

A mousy looking Hufflepuff raised her hand, "Yes, Ms. Greenwood." Professor McGonagall called putting.

Lowering her hand, she hesitantly answered, "The difficulty."

"Well, that would stop some, but not all." Professor McGonagall rebutted.

Silence ruled the classroom, seeing how no one else was going to answer. I raised my hand.

"Go ahead, Mr. Fawley," Professor McGonagall said.

"Because even if you transfigured something, it's not real. For example, if I transfigured metal into gold, it's not real gold, it's just metal that has been magically altered." I answered.

Nodding her agreement, she went on, "Correct, and in the future, should any of you feel the urge to transfigure metal into gold. I suggest you look up the tale of Gregory the Unwise and learn what happens if you try and give transfigured gold to goblins. They have methods of confirming whether the gold is real or not and do not take kindly to those they consider thieves. However, what I believe Mr. Fawley is alluding to, is that any object no matter how masterfully transfigured, they will never truly be real. Now, this leads to two key problems. The first is that most magical families heavily enchant their home and it is vastly more difficult to weave additional spells into a transfigured items. And second, it is also infinitely easier to return transfigured items to their original form, which is why it is considered especially foolish to construct a home out of transfigured items. Any half-trained wizard would be able to revert the materials to their original form."

To demonstrate her point, she waved her wand towards the dozen or so stones stacked on her desk. Several of the rocks reverted to sand, and the whole stack of stones came tumbling down.

"Now imagine what would have happened if that was a building you were in." She added.

Personally, I thought her last comment wasn't really necessary. The demonstration was more than enough to demonstrate her point.

Although, this explains why the Weasley house was a strange assortment of buildings that seemed magically sandwiched together, had they tried to transfigure their home, it probably would have fallen apart.

"Now, the first thing we will be focusing on this year is returning transfigured objects to their original form. The nice thing about untransfiguration is that it is generally easier to return an object to its original form."

Professor McGonagall waved her wand again, and the small snuff-boxes on her desk began flying towards us. As they honed in on us, they shot off in different directions, with one going to each student.

"You all should recognize the snuff-boxes from your previous year. I like to save your final project for this lesson because I've learned that it generally helps students master untransfiguration if they work with an object that they have transfigured themselves." She explained.

Professor McGonagall pointed her wand towards the chalkboard, and a white piece of chalk rose and wrote Reparifarge on the board. "Now, this is a general spell that can work with most basic transfigurations. When you chant it, try to visualize the object you are working with returning to its original form."

When her voice trailed off, there was a flurry of movement as students pulled out their wands eager to begin practicing.

Ejecting my wand from its holster, I pointed the ivory-colored wand towards the small ornamental snuff box that I transfigured the previous year. Concentrating heavily on the little brown mouse that it used to be, I muttered, "Reparifarge."

The snuff box gave off a small shimmer as it quickly returned to being a mouse. Looking up, I found Professor McGonagall observing me carefully. I couldn't help but let out a wide grin. Magic is so awesome!

"Well done, Mr. Fawley." She congratulated, "Five points to Ravenclaw for succeeding on your first attempt. For the rest of the class, you should continue to transfigure the mouse and then return it to its original form.

A few chairs down, I saw Jessica eyeing me. Gritting her teeth, she turned back to her snuff-box, determined to be successful like me.

Ten minutes later, Cedric was the second to find success, and a few minutes later, right on his heels was Jessica. She shot me a happy smile, glad that she was one of the few that had succeeded so far.

By the end of the class, a little less than half had succeeded with the spell. But, considering that this was transfiguration, that was impressive. I suppose this was what Professor McGonagall meant when she explained that it wasn't a demanding spell. I fully expect that within a couple of weeks, everyone will be able to complete the spell.

After lunch, the next class up was History of Magic. Professor Binns started the year off with the second goblin war of 1612. I found the goblin wars to be a fascinating subject. Goblins didn't have access to magic like wizards do, but they have their own magical abilities and were able to threaten wizards.

From what I could tell from my reading, most of their abilities come from imbuing or enchanting deep-dwelling earth metals. One of the most common warnings wizards had about goblins, was never to confront them in their homes beneath the ground. Many arrogant wizards and witches who died in wars and rebellions do to goblin traps beneath the ground.

In our charms class, Professor Flitwick started on the Freezing Charm. To be honest, the class kind of bored me, I had already mastered the spell in the previous year along with all the other spells that would be taught this year in charms.

Thankfully, the Room of Requirement had already provided me with the next year's book. Along with learning those spells in my off time, I figured that I should look into the Patronus Charm as well.

If Harry could learn it in his third year, I am confident that I could master it in my second. Although, it wouldn't be as effective as learning it with a Boggart that turned into a Dementor.

I was relatively confident that I could find a Boggart somewhere at Hogwarts. They tended to spawn every once in a while in an unused classroom. I think it has something to do with the amount of magic that Hogwarts gives off.

Although, the ghosts of Hogwarts are pretty vigilant in making sure that professors are told of when a new Boggart forms. I bet I could use the Room of Requirement to either bring one to me or help me track one down.

I wonder what my biggest fear would be, there are things I am afraid of, but nothing sticks out too much. I started going through my memories, what in this like had scared me. A swift thought of the Grendel's unyielding face as it dragged its bloody body towards me flashed through my mind, or maybe it was the Whithorn cartel. Hell, perhaps it was snakes, I had never been too fond of those as well.

As the rest of the class flew by quickly, I couldn't get over my curiosity about what my deepest fear was and what it was. To be able to confront your greatest fear was a boon if I could learn what it was and master it. Maybe in the future, it wouldn't be able to affect me as much.

After a quick bite to eat, I rushed to the Ravenclaw tower to grab Athena. No way was I going to try and confront my biggest fear without my trusty sidekick. I learned my lesson from last time.

When we made it to the Room of Requirement, I found a book on boggarts waiting for me. After reading it, I learned some interesting information. The book warned that while boggarts aren't deadly creatures and that most won't attack you physically at all. They simply assume the form of your worst and deepest fear and force you to face it.

However, the book warned that if the Boggart assumed the form of such a deadly creature that there could be negative consequences because it would act similarly. Which explains why Harry was so impacted by the dementor form that the Boggart assumed because it performed like a dementor would in the real world.

The counter was the boggart-banishing spell. Weirdly, it doesn't kill the Boggart, but rather the spell merely banishes the creature away. Not much is known how they are created, or even how many of them there are. Boggarts tend to show up in magical populated areas, often spawning in small dark enclosure waiting to surprise someone.

The biggest key in countering them is humor. While chanting Riddikulus, it is vitally essential to imagine whatever form the Boggart assumed into a more amusing form. When done correctly, the Boggart will vanish.

After reading everything on the subject, I knew that any further preparations were pointless. Closing my eyes, I mentally wished for the room to provide a boggart trapped in a closet.

When I opened my eyes, I fruitlessly scanned the small room for a closet or wardrobe. Well, since that didn't work, how about access to a place in Hogwarts that contained a boggart within.

Wanting to see if it worked, I made my way over to the door and opened it slowly. On the other side was a pitch-black room that I could barely see a few feet within.

Holding up my wand, I chanted, "Lumos."

A bright light pierced through the darkness, illuminating what appeared to be an unused classroom. The design of the room made me think of the classes down in the dungeons.

When I stepped inside, I let the light spell fade as I used my wand to light the first candle on the wall. Once it was lit, it started a chain reaction lighting all the other candles inside the room. Once the class was appropriately lit, I was able to confirm that this was definitely a room inside of the dungeons.

On the far side of the room, an old creaky potions cabinet started shaking as if whatever was inside wanted out. I'm not going to lie, that sound raised the hair on the back of my neck.

Athena hopped up to her favorite perch on my shoulder and let out a loud hiss that seemed to penetrate the room. The vibrating cabinet went still for a moment, before starting up again.

"It's ok, that's what we're here for," I soothed.

Pulling out my wand, I forced the potion cabinet's door open. A swirling black cloud erupted from the cabinet when it stopped moving. The scene chilled my blood.

Crawling out of the closet was a half-dead looking teenager with a look of utter hatred on his face.

My heart started pounding heavily. I never thought I would see that visage again. It was me, but not the current me, it was me from my previous life.

The Boggart started crawling its way to me, and I could help but shake the feeling that something horrible would happen should it touch me.

Pointing me wand at it, I shouted, "Riddikulus,"

It just grinned viciously at me and continued crawling over. It seemed to move the way bodies did when a demon possessed them. I thought that this was as bad as it got, but then it did something I never expected, it spoke, "You're dreaming," It taunted.

Sneering at me it continued, "It's always been a dream, you're still stuck in the hospital bed wasting away."

The Boggart's words shook me to my core. This was my deepest, darkest fear. I thought I had dealt with this long ago, soon after I had been born, but I guess I just buried it deep within my subconsciousness.

"That's... that's not true, my new life is real," I weakly defended.

Glaring at me with its bloodshot eyes, it spat, "Do you think you're somehow unique? That you were worthy of being reborn into this world? No, you're still lying helplessly in your bed, barely too weak to move and dreaming about a better life. Think about it, how many times did you wish for something like this to happen? This life is just your deluded mind dreaming up something nice and cozy for you to escape the pain that you're constantly feeling. Now, I'm here to wake you up and send you back to that miserable excuse of an existence that you have."

As it continued to crawl over towards me, the fear that it was telling the truth started building within me. Maybe this life was all a delusion.

"Riddikulus. Riddikulus. Riddikulus" No matter how many times I said it, the Boggart continued to crawl towards me.

Then out of nowhere, I felt something I had only felt once in my entire life. Athena bit me.

For the second time in my life, I felt an awareness pass through me the same way it happened on the night we bonded. But, this time, somehow, she was able to communicate her deep love for me and that she was real. I felt it deep within my soul. There is no way I could have dreamed this feeling up.

Opening my eyes in confidence, the paralyzing fear the Boggart created in me started to bleed away slowly. Now, seeing the Boggart crawl towards me in my previous body started to piss me off.

Glaring at it, "You're just a bully aren't you," I muttered.

Full of confidence, I pointed my wand at it and said, "Riddikulus."

This time, there was a dramatic effect. The Boggart started shrinking, and as it continued to proclaim that this life wasn't real, I laughed at how high pitched his voice sounded, it sounded like the Boggart had been inhaling helium.

The more it protested in its high-pitched squeaky voice, the more I laughed. Soon, the Boggart seemed to fold in on itself and disappeared.

Happy that I had been able to deal with this old fear of mine, I made my way back to the Ravenclaw tower. When I got back to my room, on my bed was a thick white envelope with a silver spear etched on it.