Wands and Wings

Chapter 18

I wandered through the corridors. The moving pictures on the walls tugged at a memory in my mind.
I heard an annoying voice down the corridor. Following right after the voice was what I almost took as a ghost until it poked me in the eye.
"What was that for?" I growled. It seemed to be holding a wad of gum. "Someone isn't what she seems!" It sang. "She's hiding something!" And then it zoomed away. I glared at it and then continued walking down the corridor that it came.
I heard voices after a while.
I followed the voices until I came to a room. The staffroom.
The door was open, and I was just about to go in when a tall man in billowing black robes pushed past me. He seemed cranky.
I watched him leave, and then went inside.
I closed the door carefully.
A raggedy looking man stood at the front of the crowd of kids. "Now then," he said. He went to the end of the room, where there was a wardrobe that looked as if it had seen better days.
As the man-who I assumed was Professor Lupin- approached it, it suddenly shook violently and banged against the wall.
A few students had jumped in fright and shock, and backed set. Lupin smiled calmly. "There's absolutely nothing to worry about." He said reassuringly.
The boy at the front seemed absolutely terrified when Lupin said, "there's only a boggart in there."
I inched closer.
"They like dark places, such as wardrobes," The professor gestured towards the wardrobe, "cupboards, clocks..." The doorknob rattled.
"Now. First question." Lupin looked at us. "What exactly is a boggart?" I saw a hand shoot up and I looked to see who it was.
It was Hermione, with her bushy mess she called hair.
"A boggart is a shape-shifter that can take the form of whatever frightens us most." she said confidently. "Correct. I couldn't have said it better." Professor Lupin turned back to the rattling wardrobe.
"Right now this boggart is in the darkness looking like whatever a boggart looks like when it's alone. When I let him out he will become what each of us fears."
The boy at the front squeaked in terror. "Which means we have an advantage. Do you know what that advantage is, Harry?" Lupin asked.
I spotted Harry next to a frantically bouncing Hermione. "Uh...it won't know what to turn into because there's a lot of us?" Harry's voice held a guessing tone.
Lupin nodded. "It's good to have someone with you when you're going to meet a boggart. It'll become very confused and maybe turn into both, which sometimes isn't frightening at all."
The wardrobe gave a massive shudder. Lupin ignored it. "Now, the thing that will finish a boggart is laughter. You need to force it to become something that makes you laugh. The spell is quite simple, really."
I followed everyone's lead and pulled out my white wand.
"No, without wands, please." Lupin said, raising his hand. "Repeat after me...riddikulus!" The class repeated the word.
"Riddikulus!" "Good." Professor Lupin nodded. "Now, this is where you come in, Neville." The boy stepped forward, shaking so violently it was almost worse than the wardrobe.
"The word is the easy part. Now, what frightens you the most?"
Neville muttered something which I assumed was something like snakes or such, but when Lupin asked him to repeat it he said softly, "P...Professor Snape."
Everyone laughed. "I see. Now, you live with your grandmother, am I correct?" Neville nodded. "I don't want the boggart to turn into her, either..." He said softly. Lupin smiled.
"No, it won't. Could you tell us what clothes your grandmother wears, Neville?" The boy looked sort of confused, but he nodded. "She wears a hat with a stuffed vulture...a long green dress, and sometimes a fur scarf. And a big red handbag."
Lupin nodded. "Good. Now, I need you to picture those clothes in your mind very clearly."
"Now, when Boggart Snape comes out of that wardrobe, you will raise your wand and say "riddikulus", and concentrate on your grandmother's clothes."
Lupin didn't say more to Neville. He turned to us and said, "Think of the thing that scares you most, class, and then think about how to make it look comical."
The room was quiet. I furrowed my brow. What was I afraid of? I couldn't think of anything. I bit my lip. It's not like I could just go up there and not be prepared or anything.
"Everybody ready?" Lupin called out. "No." I muttered. "Back up, everyone, so Neville here can have a good shot." The class backed against the walls. Neville was alone with the wardrobe. "Wand at the ready." Lupin said.
Neville raised his wand.
"On three. One...two...three!" Lupin shot a jet of sparks from his wand at the wardrobe, and it swung open.
The greasy haired man that had pushed past me before stepped out of the wardrobe. He had a hooked nose and his eyes glinted black.
"R..r...riddikulus!" Neville stammered. And then suddenly with a crack like a whip, he was wearing a long green dress and a vulture topped hat with a red handbag.
The class roared with laughter. The boggart stopped.
Lupin started yelling names, students stepping forward to meet the boggart.
None of what the the boggart turned into scared me.
Not even that banshee thing.
Suddenly Ron was up, and the boggart turned into a huge spider. The terror on Ron's face was unbelievable. And then Ron yelled "Riddikulus", and the spider's legs fell off. It started rolling around.
It rolled over towards Harry, but before he could do anything about it Lupin ran over. The boggart made a cracking noise and turned into what looked like a silvery orb.
It looked like the moon.
"Riddikulus." Lupin said calmly, and the boggart fell to the floor as a cockroach. Lupin called for Neville to finish it off, and then Snape was back in his lacy dress, but then the boggart exploded into smoke.
"Excellent, all of you. Five points to Gryffindor for all of you that faced the boggart...ten for Neville because he did it twice, and five for Hermione and Harry because they answered my questions."
Lupin nodded. "Homework, read the chapter on boggarts and write a summary on it. Due Monday."
And then the class pushed out the door, all talking excitedly about what happened. I caught up with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Ron was joking that Hermione's boggart would be homework that got nine out of ten.
Hermione have him a look.
I smirked.
Harry shook his head. "What would your boggart be of, Katrina?" He asked. Ron nodded and looked at me. "I have no idea." I shrugged.
Hermione furrowed her brow. "You must be afraid of something. "Not that I can think of." I shifted my weight, and doing so, adjusting my broken wing. Pain shot through me and I flinched, but I held my stance.
Harry looked away. There was a weird look in his eyes.
I realized I was still carrying Griffin in my sweatshirt. I set him down and he ran over to Ron and started scratching at his leg.
"Hey!" Ron quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a sickly looking rat, and tucked it into his shirt. "Control your dog, Katrina!" He snapped.
"Griffin." I said softly. The dog returned to me and licked my hand. "Bad dog." I said while petting his head.
I looked at the rat in Ron's shirt. Something about that thing did not seem right.

-Okay I know that was a while to wait, but all my teachers decided to give out a whole load of homework, so I barely had any time to update. I'm thinking of bringing in a new character because yeah.
He's pretty awesome.
You'll like him.
I will make you like him.
Love you guys. Thanks for all the followers and votes!
-Leap