This lesson contains a PRACTICAL assignment. Please remain in character. Any out of character comments should be put behind spoiler tags!

Magnus Lee, Ravenclaw.

Magnus gulp. Oh, he knew what he boggart was, alright. He faced it in the defense club. It was awful. The boy was shaking when he stood in front of the barrel. Then suddenly his father was in front of him. "I hate you Magnus, you are a complete waste of space. Thats why we are having another son to replace you."

-Crack- His mother was in front of him. "Oh look its the stupid mongrel. Why we ever adopted a werewolf I'll never know. I wish we could undo it."

-crack- Now it was his auror friend Paul. "I regret saving you. No one wants you."

The boy fell to the floor and was crying as the boggart kept shifting.

(( Think Magnus needs help xD))

[img align=left]https://sapi.subeta.net/shared/263871.png[/img]Cackling as though he'd swallowed a whole bottle of laughing potion, Nathaniel walked into the DATDA classroom. It was in this way that he and his friends often walked around the school but, on entering the classroom, their expressions rapidly dropped. A man stood smoking a fat cigar, clouds of tobacco smoke hanging heavy in the air. A hook protruded from his shirt sleeve in the place where a hand once was. This was a man who had clearly experienced some dark magic.

He found an empty chair near the back: he didn't want to get too close to the front, remembering a story that one of the house ghosts had told him about a disastrous session in the 90's involving Cornish Pixies. He grimaced visibly at Professor Valdez' instructions: he hated leaving his belongings behind but he grabbed his wand with an internal moan and followed the Professor closely. He'd been sat at the back and as a result he was now heading the class through the winding passageways of Hogwarts towards a storage room.

The room was nigh empty but for a storage barrel that quivered occasionally in a lonely corner. "In here we have a Boggart." There was an audible reaction from the students, one of anticipation and dread. Some groaned, a few girls gasped and one boy placed his hands together in wicked excitement.

With the other students, Nathaniel practiced the Riddikulus incantation quickly, desperately trying to think of something funny.

Quite suddenly he realised that it was his turn, and he had nothing. Shit.

With a loud crack, the Boggart contorted and snapped into it's new shape. A burning body, screaming for help, started running towards Nathaniel head on, her molten arms outstretched. The flesh was burnt away to the bone and her open mouth continued it's pained wail. She was in agony and the heat of the fire felt all too real, licking outwards from the body it was destroying.

He flung his arm forward, flicked his wand and, albeit with a shaking voice, Nathaniel cried "Riddikulus!" at the monstrosity before him.

Crack. The flames disappeared in an instant: the Boggart was changed and Nathaniel bit his bottom lip, eyes widening at the sight before him. The Boggart had taken the shape of Professor Valdez. Dressed in a muggle fire-fighter outfit, he had a helmet tucked under one arm and his jacket open to reveal his bare chest.

Nathaniel didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His mind worked in mysterious ways, it seemed, but he was grateful that the fire had been extinguished all the same and glad that his turn was over. He turned to the Professor, cringing internally, unsure of what his reaction would be.

--Nathaniel Pitt, Slytherin

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Professor Valdez stepped closer to the Lee boy but not near enough to cause the boggart to shift.

"It's not real son." he said in an authoritative tone. "It's just like a nightmare. The dream is bad but you're the one in control. Take control or if you need to, step back to the wall and out of its reach."

((OOC: I'll need your house named on your post in order to award points. Also, I about died laughing!))

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Jona was uneasy, sitting in the far back during the entire demonstration and following most of the other students' turns. Was this really a class lesson? To look our fears dead in the eye? What was wrong with this school? Jona felt tormented inside, especially since most everyone else was standing around, albeit nervous to go up to the boggart, but still as if everything was relatively normal. Jona continued to hang back and watch as everyone's fears wear broadcasted to the entire class. He really wasn't sure what to expect if he were to walk up to one.

Just as the thought passed, Professor Valdez made eye contact with him and nodded, signifying it was his turn. Jona gulped, finding his throat dry and blocked by a large lump. Would it be a swarm of bees? A large wolf with two heads? A large wolf with three heads? He started getting fidgety as he walked up, every possible fear he had wafting in his mind from all directions like smoke as they transformed from one monstrosity to the next. He was so terrified he didn't even look up when he knew the thing had changed into his fear. He just kept looking at his feet, slowly suffocating in the silence.

"Jona."

At this, he gasped but remained with his eyes glued to the floor. It's not real. It's not real. He balled his hands into fists and shoved them as deep as they would go into his trouser pockets. "You can't be real." He whispered to his feet.

"What's that, boy?" The voice was strained, already taught with anger. "You talkin' to me? Then quick mumblin'! Pick yer head up and look at me like a man!" Jona heard footsteps, his heart quickening in pace with each footfall.

The voice was right in front of him now. "How dare you do what you did? You think you were playing hero? Huh? Well, now I found you, kid! And I'ma deal with you first, then I'll go find yer ma." Jona flinched but said nothing, moving only to further curl in on himself. "No... no, I'll save her for last," the voice cooed venomously. "Right after yer brother." Jona was crying at this point. Hands grabbed for him and the voice shouted, "Boy! You better look at me!"

Jona looked up at the man then. Of all his fears, this one was the one he had pushed so far back that he'd almost forgotten about it - of course, then would it be the first and most potent fear to bubble forth. Jona stared into the man's eyes, visibly shaking under the stress and was only able to let out a strangled whimper forming the word "Dad."

Then, he fainted.

Jona Fletch / Hufflepuff

((OOC: updated with my house! I'm still in tournament mode haha!))

Mallowsweet saw the professor was bending over to help the boy that the boggart had called a werewolf. A werewolf! The pony sized centauress reared in terror at the thought.
Perhaps that movement brought her too close to the boggart, perhaps it was just the strength of her fear that caught it's attention, but suddenly what was now a human man before them, turned towards her, his shout turning to a feral snarl. Coarse gray fur erupted over his body as his face stretched into a muzzle filled with deadly fangs. Talons sharper than that of any natural wolf tore through the creature's fingers, as it prepared to spring. Fear for the boy now prone on the floor, vied with mallowsweet's fear for herself, and she reared again, sharp hooves striking at the monster. Desperately she tried to think of a way to turn a fearsome werewolf into something humorous. As she spun to lash out at the beast with her hind hooves, she remembered the adorable white puppy that one of her gryffindor house-mates had. Fixing the image of the pudgy white fluff ball firmly in her mind, she turned to face her greatest fear. The fangs disappeared first as the beast's muzzle shortened to a puppy's snout, then the coarse hair grew soft and fluffy. Mallowsweet laughed as the now were-sled dog puppy whined and attempted to pounce at her.
She was barely able to say "riddikulus" as she wiggled her wand down then up. Mallowsweet, Gryffindor.

[img align=right]https://78.media.tumblr.com/10842968d9ebe8d4a5e5478f0b45763d/tumblr_inline_p0mfd3v7ew1r28tx7_540.png[/img] Luck's heart dropped when she heard it was a boggart. She already knew what it was and was certain of what it would become. She wiped her sweating hands on her skirt to better grip her wand and practice Riddikulus.

She watched the other students who went before her. Their fears seemed so legitimate; from emotional or even physical abuse to horrific death. No one could judge them, in her opinion. Close as it was, even the boggart of a werewolf seemed more reasonable than her own fear. Her stomach churned as she knew she would have to face her own, but on top of it all she would be the one who felt "ridiculous" for what it was.

Then came the moment she was dreading: her turn. She shakily approached the boggart as it began to morph, deciding on what to take shape as. It began to snarl then let out a deep bark as it shrank down on all fours and became a large dog. Baring all its sharp teeth, it sprayed spit and drool as it barked at her.

Luck had been afraid of dogs for as long as she could remember. It was called cynophobia, an irrational fear of dogs, and it was just that: irrational. Having the time to reflect on it in safety, she knew that it was an excessive and irrational fear. She knew that dogs could be nice and friendly, but whenever she would come in contact with one, it was as if a switch flipped inside her brain that threw all ration out the window, and anxiety filled her as she felt the need to protect herself. She couldn't control it, and having to visit anyone who had a dog always filled her with dread and the desire to avoid the situation altogether - a particularly inconvenient thing to deal with, since she had family who owned the beasts.

This time was no different. Her heart was racing as the boggart dog became more aggressive. Luck whimpered as she drew her hands close to her chest and her feet danced as though she were trying to climb up to safety on something that wasn't there. It began to lunge at her and she thought it was probably getting joy from getting a rise out of her.

Simultaneously, she took a leap backwards and pointed her wand at it. "RIDDIKULUS!" she shrieked.

The dog boggart yelped and transformed, shrinking smaller and smaller until something clattered against the floor. It had become a teacup poodle, with a literal teacup for a head, which made it become top-heavy and do a face-plant. Luck let out a nervous chuckle at it. The animated face on the cup whined as it took off back towards the barrel with its tail between its legs.

(Luck Bee, Hufflepuff)

"I-I don't know 'ow to make it funny," Magnus said completely at a loss.

[img align=left]https://sapi.subeta.net/shared/358232.png[/img]Marcia sighed before swallowing nervously, her throat suddenly feeling tight. Of course it had to be boggarts, right? Something that she was completely unprepared for and even more-so unexcited. She had somehow convinced herself that perhaps she'd be able to avoid this lesson all together, but it was apparent now that she had not been so lucky.

She shuddered visibly as the students before her struggled with their fears, some even fainting. This was a moment of truth for her. Marcia knew very well what her boggart was already, but thusfar she had spent her years at Hogwarts lying to everyone about its form. "Spiders," She would say. "You know, the large sort. Like the acromantula." Maybe deep inside, she thought if she repeated it enough, it would become true. That maybe she could change her greatest fear to spiders instead of what it was.

Marcia fought to keep composure as Professor Valdez motioned her up to the barrel. Her turn had come all too soon, but as a proud Slytherin, she couldn't let the class see her scared. She readied her wand as the boggart started morphing. And there it was. So unassuming and weak, but yet so terrifying for Marcia. Her, as a young child, sitting faced away, knees curled up into itself. The boggart turned it's face to look at her sadly before standing and morphing into an identical copy of herself right now, but with tired eyes puffy from crying. Then it approached her, closer, and aged into an elderly Marcia, sickly and alone. An overwhelming feeling of isolation and abandonment washed over Marcia and she was frozen in place, wand raised weakly in a futile attempt at defense. To an outsider, it might look like her fear was simply growing old, but her internal struggle revealed much more than that.

Silent tears started trickling from her eyes, making her heavy eye makeup streak down her cheeks unappealingly. There was no way that she could cast riddikulus. There was nothing funny about her fear of dying alone and in her mind, there was no way of making it so. The boggart came alarmingly close to her before she broke from her trance-like state.

"I'm sorry, I can't do this," She choked out dejectedly before retreating to the back of the classroom, trying to surreptitiously wipe away her tears.

Marcia Rainer, Slytherin

Chell | Ravenclaw

She slowly approached the barrel. The mass inside twisted and turned in a horrifying manner as she got closer and closer. Then, suddenly her worst fear appeared: a spider. It wasn’t a gigantic, monstrous spider, mind you; it didn’t have to be! Any spider of any size received the same shriek of horror.

“Get it off of me!” Chell pleaded. She stumbled around the classroom, bumping and knocking over anything (or anyone) in her path as she attempted to bat the false spider out of her hair. Finally, she managed to get a grab on it and throw it to the ground in front of her. In more panic than anything else, Chell raised her wand defensively and yelled, “Riddikulus!”

The spider inflated. Its previously blood-red, beady eyes became soft, and its mouth turned to a silly grin. It became, dare she say, cute??

Chell couldn’t help but burst into laughter as she witnessed her worst nightmare become nothing more than a child’s toy. She playfully batted the balloon away from her.

She let out a sigh of relief. She felt proud, not of her apparent impression of a tornado, but that she had, indeed, survived. She, unfortunately, could not say the same for the desks that were overturned and the papers that were flung in the wake of her flailing.

She turned to face her instructor. "Oops...," she said meekly, "Sorry, Professor!"

Cassie McCleod, Slytherin

Cassie was well aware of her fear, but couldn't possibly imagine how it could manifest in a boggart, so she approached the thing with more curiosity than fear, until suddenly the lights around her went out and she looked around to find herself in an empty room. The silence was deafening. She then realized what she actually heard was the sound of her own heart thumping in her ears. Her chest felt hollow and the back of her neck tingled. She was alone...entirely alone. Everyone had left her...abandoned her...with no warning. She stumbled backwards, retreating until she began to see lights flickering around the edges of her vision. The slight murmur of voices echoed in her ears. Suddenly she realized what was going on. "Um," she raised her wand, not sure where to point, since the boggart was masked by her fear of being abandoned. "Redikkilous?"

Suddenly, the lights came back on and her classmates were surrounding her, laughing at the boggart, which had burst into a shower of smiley-faced confetti.

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Lily wasn't quite sure what a Boggart was until the Professor explained it to the classroom. She tried to put on a brave face. Why did this have to be her very first spell?! She tried to put a brave face on as she saw the terrors that came out of the horrible barrel. Her face slowly decomposed more and more, she tried to think of what could possibly come out for her. She felt horrible seeing some of the other kids' Boggarts.

When the Professor called her name, she involuntarily squeaked while trying to gulp down the lump in her throat.

She slowly approached the Boggart, as it slowly turned into a small doll, back turned to her. She heard some of the other kids laugh, but her hair stood on end, she knew what it was. The dolls back stayed turned, but the head slowly did a 360°, eyes black as midnight. Lily was frozen, trying to remember the spell..."R...riddikulus" she managed to sputter out. The doll began laughing maniacally, the voice slowly getting deeper, like a broken record.

Lily wanted to turn and run but she stood firmly, took a breath and repeated "Riddikulus." The doll turns around and begins yodeling "It's a small world" in a a funny Swiss mountain outfit.

She sighs in relief and returns to her spot in the back, very glad that she'd managed to do her first spell and overcome her very first fear.

-- Lilith Aldaine, Hufflepuff

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Professor Valdez looked from the boggart to Magnus and his expression softened. Taking the youth by the shoulders, he led him to the back of the room, motioning the next student forward with his hook.

"Some things in this world simply aren't funny Mr Lee. You've just learned the truest danger of a boggart...but we'll save the rest of that lesson for another time. Catch your breath now. And if you feel like ducking out early that's ok with me."

Magnus allowed himself to be moved away, grateful when the sounds of his boggart were replaced with another's. "Thank you sir," he said. When the professor went back to giving the others attention, he slipped out the door, went and grabbed his stuff from the class room and fled. If ever there was a time he could run fast, it was now. He took off at a run and went outside, going as far and as fast as he could. It would take him a lot of mediation to get back to his centre but he would recover, he was strong.

~Magnus Lee, Ravenclaw.

Aderyn was shaking like a leaf as she stepped up to the front of the room. She stared at the barrel with trepidation and took a slow, deep breath to ground herself before stepping within range so the boggart could assume the form of her worst fear once it was released. As Professor Valdez let it out, its form rippled and it morphed into a large, sinister-looking, pitch-black spider. Its legs were hairy and its pedipalps were twitching in anticipation of its next meal. It scuttled forward toward Aderyn who was frozen in fear.

It's not real. It's just a boggart. Raise your wand!

As she silently encouraged and steeled herself, she raised her wand with a shaky hand, fumbling and nearly dropping it. She pointed it at the spider as it moved closer to her and made an unnatural hissing noise with its fangs bared.

"R-riddikulus," she stammered.

The tip of her wand glowed faintly for a moment but nothing happened - the spider was still coming at her. Panicking now, feeling her heart hammering in her chest, she held out her wand more firmly, waving it in the necessary pattern as she attempted the spell once more, picturing a much less horrifying image in her mind.

"Riddikulus!"

The spider's form rippled once again and it grew smaller. It continued to shrink until it was barely the size of the palm of Aderyn's hand. She gasped, surprised that she was able to perform the spell, and dropped to her knees. With her heart still pounding, she peered at the tiny creature, grinning brightly at its new, much cuter and less fierce form.

"Oh my gosh," she breathed softly. "I did it!"

Aderyn Jones // Ravenclaw

Niamh waited for some of the other students to have a go first, then took two cautious steps towards the barrel. She wasn't entirely certain what shape the Boggart would make, as there were a few things she felt terrified her, but braced herself as it spotted her and began to morph. Much to her surprise, it wasn't the giant Acromantula she'd been too scared to even look at the picture in her books, nor was it a severed hand crawling towards her. Instead, the Boggart had turned into what could only be described as a cross between a zombie, a vampire and a snowman. "How am I meant to tackle this?" she thought, as the thing approached, its icy face twisted into an grimmace of zombie-like blankness, and the terrifyingly evil look of a hungry vampire.

It was only a metre away by the time Niamh realised she had to do something, so she waved her wand up and down, while doing her best to say "Riddikulus" even though she was so terrified, the word was challenging to say. Niamh didn't think it would work, so she screwed her eyes tight so she didn't have to see what happened next as the thing approached. At the sound of the other students laughing, she opened her eyes a little, and realised it had worked - the zombie/vampire/snowman was sitting next to a roaring log fire, and had started to melt.

Taking a few deep breaths, she stepped back towards the other students who had already taken their turn, ready to watch the others have a go.

Niamh Doyle, Gryffindor

(OOC: She's not actually afraid of snowmen as such, but it's a combination of her (seemingly unknown) fear of zombies and vampires, coupled with her dislike of the cold :P)

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Nervously, Lysandra had followed her classmates yet she couldn´t concentrate on practicing the spell like the Professor had told them. The part-fae girl knew her Boggart already, it was always fire, fire, fire, burning herself or her beloved ones to death in a blaze.

Still unsure where her way would lead her here in Hogwards, she wasn´t up to face this situation again. All too fast, the teacher nodded at her to signal it was her turn.

She dreaded to think what would happen in the next seconds, her preoccupation had clouded her mind and she had no idea how to make something funny about something lethal which triggered her primeval fear so much.

„All you have to do is survive the next three minutes!“ she muttered and took a step forward, inclined to close her eyes firmly yet she saw the frown of Professor Valdez just in time.

With a sigh, Lysandra faced the barrel, already fealing the heat of the boggart which would come out of it in a blink. In utter horror, she saw another boggart emerging and coming for her, though.

It was her beautyful mother, her beloved pale and serene face red and grimacing, and her otherwise silvery voice shrill and jarring. She pointed her long index finger at Lysandra and covered her with insults which made the girl go pale with fright.

„You were already useless in the elven forest, not being able to wield elven magic, never before we had to send a star child of ours to the humans to learn some magic and to top it all off, look at you, futile again, can´t take a boggart, clearly you are damaged…." and on and on it went.

Speechless for shame, Lysandra covered her eyes and the hot tears spilling out of them, sinking down onto the floor. Her wand had slipped from her grasp yet there was no way she could say „Ridiculous!“ to her mother anyhow. She had slumped and missed another chance of eliciting magical powers, be it elven magic or witchcraft. This seemed to be a path of trial and tribulation here just as back home.

Suddenly, a streak of stubbornness, well inherited from her mother, grasped her. "Where there's a will there's a way!“ Lysandra thought and pulled herself together, rising slowly. She wipped off the tears and picked up her wand up from the floor, almost smiling now. „I can try!“ she uttered under her breath and with determination, Lysandra joined the end of the queue again.

(Lysandra, Ravenclaw)

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Callista has done this before, but she still hates it. She's not sure what she hates most about it--the fact that it's so unpleasant, or the fact that her worst fear is so stupid--she's led a happy, privileged life, and the worst things that have ever happened to her have been losing a very old owl while she was in America, and having to go to her great-grandmother's scary funeral.

It's embarrassing.

Which is essentially what she fears most about it.

It's laughter. Directed at her. And knowing she's ridiculous. It's her friends in Slytherin finding out how interested she is in other cultures, including non magical ones; it's girls on the street in Shibuya or Harajuku, muggle girls she doesn't even know, secretly thinking she's an idiot while telling her that her coordinates are pretty to her face, it's people snickering behind their hands as she passes by.

It's being ridiculous and inconsequential. A middle daughter in a huge family with bizarre interests and everyone thinks she's hilarious. Nobody will ever want to marry her, everyone thinks she's hilarious and just pretends to be nice when they bother. Being bullied, being teased, doing everything wrong all the time.

Everyone knows, and they're all laughing at her. Even the teacher is. Professor Valdez knows what a ridiculous failure she is.

This...

This will not do. This is not how a daughter of the Sabines conducts herself.

Callista straightens up. "Riddikulus!" she spits out, because it's super hilarious actually, isn't it? And it is, because they're all in their underwear, all of the people laughing at her. And holy crap, but they have awful taste in underwear, too!

(Callista Zabini, Slytherin)

[img align=left]https://i.imgur.com/zpJX4oB.png[/img]Ezekiel's anxiety went sky-high as soon as he realized he and his classmates would have to deal with a boggart. Not only he was scared by a boggart who decided to live in his underwear drawer as a kid, his fear was silly, and usually people would laugh at him for it. He didn't wanted the whole class laughing at his fear of house spiders.

He stood very close to the backside wall of the class, almost merging with it. He couldn't do it, face the monster, until he realized he would need to do it anyways. He decided to take a step further and volunteer as the next student to take the assignment, ending up this suffering sooner than later.

"I-I... I'd like to go nex--xt Professor Carlos, p-please." His throat was stuck. Professor Carlos took the boy by the arm and guided him to the front of the barrel. As soon as the Professor stood back, the boggart showed up.

It was a 2 meters tall Daddy Longlegs spider, and tears started to fall from Ezekiel's eyes almost instantly. Those long, skinny legs, he could feel them in his body, crawling under his skin, and soon Ezekiel was hyperventilating. "It's Riddikulus! Just say Riddikulus dude!" He could hear someone shouting to him across the room, but soon those worlds were covered by laughs.

At the moment Ezekiel couldn't tell, but there weren't any laughs, only he was hearing them, it was the boggart putting all his fears together, and that giant spider was starting to crawl to his direction. He fell on his bottoms on the floor as the laughs were getting louder. He did what he could, Ezekiel covered his face with an arm, aimless pointing the wand at the boggart and screaming between sobs. "Riddikus!" - "Ri-Ridi-" - "Riddikulus!"; the boggart hesitated for a moment, like if that babbling spell had hurt it just a bit. Taking the chance, Ezekiel looked directly at the monster, anger in his eyes for all the shame he thought he was going through, and shouted once more: "RIDDIKULUS!"

The spider's legs turned into long, red ribbons that swiftly formed a bow on top of the spiders body, and the poor thing was laying helpless on the floor, like a Christmas gift to a hungry lizar. Ezekiel wasn't laughing at all, but he could hear some giggles in the back, that's when the boggart turned into a dark fog and returned to the barrel. He really needed a chocolate bar now.