On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... Title: Eleven Rainy Days Author: (lee_west) Fandom: Harry Potter Word Count: 100 Characters: Harry, Remus, Molly, Neville, Sirius, George, Hermione, Lockhart, Umbridge, Albus, Tonks, and assorted Bogarts. Challenge: Eleventh Day of Christmas: Eleven Rainy Days Rating: PG Disclaimer: Me? Own any of this? Nah. I'm neither English nor rich. A/N: Took another liberty today. Rainy days and Mondays always get me down *g*, so these are about what made the characters sad: their biggest fears, their Boggarts.
Thanks to my friend Ceria for the beta.
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1. Harry
Professor Lupin, with a tone of respect in his voice, told him he feared only fear itself.
Harry muses about it: his Boggart takes the form of Dementors, the bringers of misery and despair, one of the darkest creatures tormenting wizards and Muggles alike. It's normal to fear them, but Harry's reaction goes beyond fear.
It's not fear of what they will do to him; it's the unknown, a faint memory that grows stronger with each Dementor haunting him.
It's a mix of terror and deep sorrow for a young woman, who screams hopelessly for her baby to be spared.
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2. Remus
Remus can't remember a day when he wasn't fearful of the full moon. Actually, he can hardly recall the last time he saw it.
A little boy, watching the moon rising up in the sky, round like a big wheel of cheese, plays safely in the enclosed yard. Amazed by the beauty of the summer night, he counts the stars and marvels at the moon, oblivious to the beast lurking nearby, just waiting for the change to take place.
Inside the house, the father who dared to defy Fenrir Greyback, rushes out in panic when he hears his son screaming.
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3. Molly
Molly can't stop shivering, even after Sirius convinces her it's only a Boggart.
During the day, she busies herself with household chores, to forget about the Boggart, but her mind plays games with her.
Oldest first, then second and third. And then George. Each time she forces herself to think about something positive, as if warding off a Boggart, and the dreary image disappears as if it's smoke.
But when it gets to Fred, she breaks down, too tired to fight with the vision in her brain. She sits down and breathes deeply.
It's only a Boggart, she tells herself.
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4. Neville
He knows his fear is unreasonable. Snape is only a person, and he wouldn't dare to hurt Neville physically while Dumbledore is around and watching.
But he can't avoid being afraid of the man and sometimes he wonders why. It's not the fact that he's humiliated constantly. He is used to being put down: his Gran constantly does so, comparing him unfavorably against a father who was a hero and a mother who was brave beyond measure.
Maybe he fears Snape because, deep inside, there's the knowledge that the man was a cohort of the people who hurt his parents.
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5. Sirius
When he was a young man, Sirius used to boast that he didn't have a Boggart at all: there was absolutely nothing he feared in life. When someone challenged him on it, he would laugh and say that he was immune to fear just by having survived living with his family. They were the scariest things he'd ever seen.
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In Azkaban, utter despair overcame any form of fear.
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He never had a chance to face a Boggart after he escaped from Azkaban, but he was sure that, had he seen one, it would transform itself into a lonely, dark cell.
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6. George
In the Burrow there was a book about Magical Creatures. It was a favorite of the older boys and, when they were reading it to the younger ones, George would close his eyes when they came to the Thestrals. Their skeletal forms, their empty eyes and their connection with death horrified him. Their invisibility compounded the problem and he would stay awake at night, hoping that he would never see death, so he would never see the Thestrals.
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After the battle, he can see the animals, but they don't scare him any more. They were replaced with Fred's lifeless body.
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7. Hermione
She can describe what a Boggart is, word by word, from the textbook – she's memorized it. While the other students are practicing the spell, she's doing it perfectly on her own, using the correct wand movement and the accurate intonation.
But when Professor Lupin tells her she doesn't need to practice Riddikkulus, she's relieved. She doesn't want anyone to know what her deepest fear is.
And then Ron jokingly asks her if her Boggart is not getting top grades in any subject. She squints at him and dismisses him with a haughty snort.
She'll never tell him he was right.
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8. Lockhart
His persona is of a fighter, a courageous man who's not afraid of anything. He writes heroic tales of fights against terrible creatures; he faces situations that would send a chill down anyone's spine.
Lockhart isn't afraid of those foes: he knows he'll never see them, as the adventures were either a figment of his imagination or fought by someone else.
But there is something he can't overcome. It's a deep terror that makes him shiver in panic, and sometimes causes him to jump from his bed, awaken by a nightmare.
In it, someone has seen him with bed hair.
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9. Umbridge
Fears, she had a lot of them – not to have power, having someone promoted over her, falling from grace at the Ministry. But none of those could actually constitute her greatest fear. They were only common human concerns.
When she was sent to Azkaban for crimes committed against Muggles, Dolores thought she had finally met her Boggart. The desolation, the despair that prevailed in the prison would haunt her forever, even though there were no Dementors present any more.
But when she walked free and heard the clop of horses' hooves, she realized nothing compared to her fear of centaurs.
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10. Albus
As Albus walks around Hogwarts, the students, still shaking from a Boggart-repelling class, watch him in awe: there goes a man who fears nothing. He's the most powerful wizard of his time, the one who defeated Grindelwald. The only one You-Know-Who has ever feared.
It must be nice, they think, not to have to watch over your shoulder, to be able to look under beds and inside closets and know that no horrible image will come out to haunt him.
Really, what can such a powerful man fear?
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His Boggart is his own wand, casting the deadly blow to Ariana.
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11. Tonks
Tonks can't imagine life without Remus: she loves him dearly and does everything she can to make him happy.
Her greatest fear is to live without him. She doesn't care if he stays only because of their son. As long as he's around, she's satisfied.
She can't believe he left the two of them alone and joined the battle at Hogwarts. She fears he won't come back. She leaves Teddy with her mother and goes after him, wand at the ready to defend him, ready to lay down her life for him.