"Oooh, pancakes!" Alastriona skipped up to the Hufflepuff table and hummed as she put three pancakes on her plate, Darcy sat opposite her and did the same thing, the two girls incredibly happy as they drowned their pancakes in maple syrup.
"Ah," Theo announced himself as he sat next to Alastriona and Blaise took his seat next to Darcy, "here we see two Hufflepuff's in their natural element," he winked at Blaise, "you'll notice how the maple syrup calms them completely-"
"Unless you keep talking in which I am sure will result in us wearing maple syrup." Blaise cut in, and Theo noticed both girls were glaring at him despite having their mouths full of pancakes.
"Right..." Theo smiled sweetly at them before making himself a plate, "What do you two have today?"
Alastriona grinned, "We've got our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class today! I can't wait, I really want to see if he'll be any good..."
Darcy snorted, "No one could ever be as bad as the last one!"
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Alastriona and Darcy met the rest of their fellow Hufflepuff housemates and the Ravenclaw's they shared the class with and went inside the classroom and saw Professor Lupin standing in front of the class next to what looked like an extremely old garden shed.
"Good morning everyone!" He had shifted all the desks and chairs to the sides of the room and the whole class was eyeing him off, trying to decide if he was anything like the last one.
The shed gave a massive shake and the whole class collectively took a step back, "It's all right, you can come closer." He waited until the class moved back into position, "It didn't take me long to find this shed, and inside it is a boggart."
Alastriona stepped back, narrowly missing bumping into Terry Boot. "Unfortunately, there are many boggarts around Hogwarts, lots of places to hide, you see? A boggart prefers dark and enclosed spaces, shed's like this one, wardrobes, even a chest of drawers. Today you will be facing the boggart inside this shed. So, who can tell me what a boggart looks like?"
Alastriona felt a few eyes fall on her but she shuffled back some more, away from the boggart, Hannah put her hand up. "A boggart is a being that can take shape of what someone fears the most."
"Yes, exactly! Thank you, Hannah, five points to Hufflepuff. The boggart in this shed hasn't taken on a form yet and that's because he hasn't come close enough to see any of your fears. Because of this, no one has ever seen a boggart in its true form as it changes whenever it comes across someone. Now as it has not seen our fears, this gives us an edge, can someone tell me how? Padma?"
"I suppose because we have lots of people in the room it wouldn't know what shape to take?" Padma answered.
"Yes, you're quite right! Five points for Ravenclaw." Padma smiled at his praise and Professor Lupin moved on. "When you're dealing with a boggart it's best to do it with company, this way the boggart can become confused as he won't be sure what form to take and more often than not will turn into half of one persons fear and half of someone else's."
