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It was the fourth day of school, morning. Gryffindor's living room. I'd just come back from an early training session, my brain working mediocrely - it was the effect of the Dementors somewhere outside the castle. Such an unpleasant sensation, as if I didn't get enough sleep.
"Scabbers is gone!"
Accompanied by the laughter of the already awake boys, a distraught Ron was running around the living room in his disheveled clothes, trying in vain to find his rat. And for the past couple of days, I still hadn't gone down and checked on Wormtail. Hadn't checked on the basilisk. Hadn't started chopping it up into the right ingredients if it hadn't already been chopped up for parts without me at all. I did not believe that it could simply spoil because, firstly, it is cold there. Secondly - basilisk tends to spoil only in the sun at temperatures above fifty Celsius. Anyway, it must be there - I'll definitely check today, right after the DADA lesson.
"Will you calm down already," Seamus clapped Ron on the shoulder, and the redhead looked at his comrade with a kind of desperation. "I'm sure your rat will be found. Do you really feel so sorry for him? You didn't seem to like him very much."
"It's not about me," Ron waved aside and collapsed into a nearby chair. "I will be punished at home."
He made a characteristic gesture with the back of his hand across his throat and stuck his tongue out, letting us know the depths of his love for his pet.
"Ready for work?" Hermione sat down next to me. Quickly she tidies herself up after the workout, and now she clearly smelled of the characteristic freshness from the shower. There doesn't seem to be any perfume scents, but something elusive...
"Absolutely," I nodded back. "I look forward to my first DADA class."
"Also Runes and Arithmancy."
"Yes, but it's all on a program that's been established and time-tested for years. With a few additions. What about DADA - it is always an intrigue."
"Professor Lupin should be competent enough. He dodged spells very well on the train, and Protego at the tip of his wand with the spell extinguishing is pretty high level."
"We'll see."
Runes and Arithmetic went off without a hitch - the completed homework and the knowledge of several books in the head, albeit far from the necessary volume, allowed us to cope with the tasks set quickly and efficiently. But the DADA...
The audience was the same as last year. The same stone walls and thank the Old Man that there are no more of those horrible in every sense Lockhart portraits here. Instead, there were posters with various creatures, their descriptions, and a list of spells to counteract them. Posters visualizing the performance of various simple defense and attack spells. Charts of some sort. Strict and to the point.
The lesson, as always, was with the Slytherins, but to my surprise, while we were in the same office for ten whole minutes without any supervision, nothing irreparable happened. Well, and fixable too - ours talked loudly among themselves, the Slytherins - quietly. That's all. And so it went on until the door to the adjoining office, the teacher's room, was opened.
"Hello," Professor Lupin walked into the office with a slight smile.
Quite tall, but a little slouchy. Underneath the not-so-new but the high-quality robe was a light brown business suit and old but kind of solid boots.
"You can put aside your textbooks. We're going straight to practice today."
Everyone perked up, and I suddenly realized that the situation was extremely uncertain.
"Come on, get up from your seats, grab your wand, and step up."
As we followed this rudimentary instruction, the tables and chairs moved away toward the walls, freeing up the middle of the auditorium. Now that there was visually more space, an enclosed closet with a rose mirror on the door caught everyone's attention. When did it get here? Magic, no less. Someone was definitely in the closet and didn't want to be there - the muffled scraping sounds and shaking of the closet said it all.
"So, kids, anyone has any guesses as to what we're going to be working with today?" Professor Lupin walked slowly between us and the closet. "No? Oh, please."
The professor pointed his gaze somewhere behind me.
"Probably boggart, sir."
"That's right, Miss..."
"Brown. Lavender Brown."
"That's right, Miss Brown. There is a boggart in the closet. Who knows how to fight it?"
"Burn it!" - someone shouted, causing an approving hum from the students who realized the essence of this creature.
"That is, no doubt, an effective way to destroy a boggart, Mr...."
"Nott."
"Mr. Nott. But it would be nice if you could name a spell not for destroying, but specifically for counteracting, neutralizing the boggart. Any thoughts? No?"
After looking us over and not finding anyone willing to answer, Lupin smiled.
"This spell is called Riddikulus. You can use it to turn a boggart into something funny. Who can tell me what it's for and how it helps? Miss in the front row?"
"Granger. Hermione Granger, sir. A boggart has the ability to freely penetrate a victim's mind, reading his greatest fears and taking their guise. The boggart needs this because it feeds on the victim's fear emanations, and the stronger they are, the better for it. The stronger the fear, the more you fear it, the stronger the boggart becomes, increasing the mental impact in the process, increasing the fear, and so on to infinity. Riddikulus is able to break this chain by transforming the boggart into something, if not funny, at least not scary."
"An excellent extended answer, Miss Granger. Five points for Gryffindor. Now, let's learn this spell."
Lupin took out his wand from his robe's inner pocket and began to show the gesture, after which we repeated it a dozen times. Then we repeated the activation word, "Riddikulus."
"Great. Remember to clearly visualize your fear turning into something funny and cast the spell. So... who's first?"