Chapter 23. A Swarm of Boggarts

The answer was quite clear. The 'Riddikulus' spell would have had no effect on an actual Basilisk.

"Do you think the teachers figured it out? And that's why instead of evacuating the students, they made us all gather in the Great Hall?" Witter mused.

"Why didn't they announce it though?" Hazel spoke up, her coloring was much better now but she was still holding her wand tight. "It's better Boggarts than Basilisks right?"

I thought about it, their deductions made sense.

"Announcing that it was Boggarts would have complicated the situation, I guess. Currently, everyone's fear is bumping into a Basilisk and from what we've seen, the Boggart-Basilisks don't inflict as much harm as an actual Basilisk." I rubbed my jaw in thought. "Anyway, that's assuming they actually know what's going on."

"That aside, how did so many Boggarts get into Hogwarts in the first place?" Witter stepped forward  to check on the student, just like with the Hufflepuff we found in the Dungeon corridors, they were out cold.

"Hazel, do you know the bathroom where Nellie first saw the Basilisk?" I asked, walking over to the bathrooms.

Hazel blinked in surprise, following behind me. "Uh, the last to the left, why?"

I followed her directions and pushed open the door of the stall, it was a little darker than the rest of the bathroom.

There were no mirrors in the stall though so it meant that she hadn't seen it in here but she had used it, there might be some clues to be found.

The stall wasn't very big to begin with so there weren't a lot of hiding spots. It meant that I was able to find a clue quite quickly.

I pulled out a charmed chest, hidden behind the toilet seat. It was much bigger than I had previously anticipated when I first caught a glimpse of it.

"What is that?" Hazel asked in a hushed voice. She stood at the entrance to the bathroom stall, her eyes wide in wonder.

It was slightly open and the first thing I did was to slam it shut. "I'm guessing this was how the Boggarts got released into the castle."

Hazel's gray eyes only got wider. "It was planted?"

"It has to be." I muttered, making my way out.

The passed out student had already recovered by the time we made it back to the corridor.

They looked pale and shaky but none worse for the wear.

We couldn't personally drop the student at the Great Hall or we wouldn't be allowed to leave again.

"What's that?" Witter inclined his head in my direction, after sending away the student.

We weren't very far away from the Great Hall, they would be able to make it there safely.

"A box of Boggarts." I casually replied.

"What?"

"What?"

Both Witter and Hazel expressed their shock.

"Tell me you're kidding."

"I'm not." I deadpanned.

"I thought you said it was used to bring the Boggarts into the castle?" Hazel frowned.

"Yeah, there's also a couple left inside here. If I hadn't shut it close, they would have escaped."

"So what are we going to do with it?" Witter raised a brow, tweaking his neck.

"Report it in of course, but not now… I trailed off, looking around.

I needed to hide the box in plain sight, I couldn't risk whoever planted it coming back for it.

The simplest thing would be to transfigure it into something that could be hidden in plain sight.

I brought out my wand and transfigured the chest into the first thing that popped into my head, an old piece of chewed gum.

Although no one had previously chewed the gum, it still felt slimy in my hand.

Hazel and Witter looked on curiously as I found the perfect spot to attach it to. No one would guess that the ancient looking piece of gum stuck to the wall was what they were looking for.

"All done!" I dusted my hands, resisting the urge to go to the girls bathroom and wash my hands.

There were no protests so we went straight to the second floor because if we hung around the second floor we were bound to run into a Professor.

I also had a hunch that the perpetrator wouldn't want to be in a place with such high risks of getting caught.

As soon as we got to the second floor corridor, the atmosphere changed. I could feel a chill in the air, it was ominous.

"What's going on?" Hazel whispered in a small voice.

I guess I wasn't the only one sensing it.

We all had our wands out, moving cautiously. There was also one glaring stark difference between the first and the second floor.

While the second floor was chaotic with students running around trying to get to safety, the corridor that we were traversing was eerily silent.

We walked further and after a turn we saw, up ahead, what was the cause of the chill.

Dementors. Two of them.

We all froze up the same way we did when we saw the Basilisk. It was suddenly clear why the teachers had chosen to omit the fact that it was Boggarts infesting the school, to prevent situations like this.

The thing about Boggarts was that laughter dispelled them, it was the whole point of the 'Riddikulus' spell. To make one's deepest fears comical so that you would be able to laugh in the face of your terror.

They could also be defeated in the manner used to defeat whatever creature they took the form of.

The thing with Dementors, they were so creepy that efficiently making them look comical would be quite the feat.

If one could create a perfectly good Patronus charm, you would be better off utilizing that instead.

They had their back to us and while I knew that they could deal as much damage as actual dementors, they were still dangerous.

I lifted my wand in their direction and chanted the spell to cast the Patronus charm.

I was more curious than anything else because I was yet to see what kind of patronus I would get.

The Dementors weren't that much of a harm to us because if the Boggarts turned around in our direction, they would immediately try to change into our deepest fears.

It would be a waste because there were three of us so it would be impossible to pull off something even remotely terrifying.

But they seemed to be attacking someone, that person was in a lot of danger.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The gasps that sounded when my Patronus was released wasn't mine but my mouth was wide open in shock.

It was massive to begin with, shooting down the corridor at light speed and devouring the Dementors.

It was bright and silvery, and also huge which made it difficult to tell what animal it was.

It turned around and seemed to incline its head in my direction before fading away.

A Basilisk.

I stared at the fading white wisps, mindblown. Beside me, Hazel and Witter were staring at me in disbelief.

A sob broke us out of our bubble though, it had come from the student lying on the ground.

We rushed forward to check on them, it was a member of Slytherin…

"Blair?"

Her brown skin was so pale it was almost greenish, she did not look okay.

I felt really bad. Blair and I were friends of sort, we got along well as Quidditch teammates.

She was usually bright and active, it stung to see her this beaten down.

"Could you help me take her to the Hospital Wing?" I found myself asking.

Witter seemed quieter, there was something like silent respect in his green eyes.

"And you?" Hazel glanced at me.

"I'll be fine." I answered quickly, getting to my feet and running down the hallway.

There was no disadvantage to the actions I was taking and the decisions made. I would get SP from this and level up madly.

I also wouldn't get into that much trouble because I would be helping the school get rid of the troublesome Boggarts.

It was a win-win.

I wasn't worried about Hazel or Witter because they were together and they were also competent enough to stay safe.

I hoped Blair would be alright though, she might turn out to be physically okay but the Boggart-Dementors might have scarred her for life.

I continued down the hallway until I could no longer see their retreating forms behind me when I looked back. 

I held my wand out as I moved, mentally doing a quick calculation of the Boggarts we had come across.

There was the first instance with Professor Esme and that Hufflepuff student, she had been acting a bit strangely too so that was something worth nothing.

Then the Basilisk in the corridor that led to the first floor girls bathroom, and then the two Dementors.

That was already four, not counting the one or two left in the charmed chest.

This was quite the odd occurrence indeed.

Who would go through so much trouble to acquire so many Boggarts just to release them in the Hogwarts castle?

It definitely couldn't be an outsider from how heavily protected the castle was…

There was no time for me to try to figure it out now though, I had to first get rid of all the Boggarts I could find.

Hopefully before the Professors got rid of them.

'It was time to do some banishing.'

///Author's Note///

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