Boggarts and Dementors

[dfrankiswork at netscape.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 26957

Amy Z wrote:

>Which returns us to a very interesting question:  what effect *does* a
Boggart have on people?

>The Boggart-Dementor has much the same effect as a real Dementor: the
lights go out, Harry (and presumably Lupin) relives horrible memories,
etc.  Why doesn't Lupin transform when the Boggart turns into the
moon, then?  My theory is that he would if he didn't get rid of it
pretty fast.

Some good answers have already been given on this: here's my two Kt (we need proper symbols with lines through for Ga, Sk, and Kt, BTW  Even better, like Lsd, the letters should not correspond).

The ability of the Boggart to produce real effects may be mainly limited by the magical ability of the person affected.  (Someone made this suggestion two or three months ago.)  Harry is, we are given to understand, quite a powerful wizard (though to be fair we have been given only a limited idea what is meant by that), and so the Boggart is, through his power, able to make the lights go out.  Whether Lupin would relive horrible memories might then be a function of their relative ability.

I think it's an intersting question whether Lupin would transform if left defenceless alone with a Boggart.  Even if, as Rita suggests, the transformation is induced by the phase and not the appearance of the moon, it is transformation that is the essence of the fear, and if the power to do this is in Lupin himself, he would do it.  OTOH, if the power is in some kind of infective magical organism (phylogenetic classification of Lycanthrobacillus, please, Dave), this would not be affected by Lupin's own hijacked magical ability, and so he would not transform.

Of course, we have only been given an elementary lesson in dealing with Boggarts: an experienced wizard like Lupin might have a number of strategies over and above Riddikulus for managing a Boggart - for example, permitting him to observe its effect on Harry without himself being affected.

On the question of what Lupin means by fearing only fear itself, I think possibly we are reading too much into it.  The point is that most people's Boggart, as somebody has mentioned, is a concrete external thing.  In Harry's case, it's another being which acts directly on the mind (or soul?).  So Lupin is indicating, in a loose sort of way, that Harry has got beyond being frightened of this or that thing, and is afraid only of the darkness within himself which the Dementor can call forth.

You could argue that if you could find a person whose fear is strictly fear itself, you could use them to find out what a boggart lookd like in its 'natural' state, as it would transform into ... a Boggart.  What happens if two Boggarts meet?  If a Boggart meets a Dementor?

As far as Lupin's own reaction is concerned, we have too many reasons why the full moon should be his Boggart.  What it shows, as Hermione no doubt realised, is that Lupin's struggle against his own condition is the dominant feature of his life, around which everything else has been shaped. Even the good things in it reflect this - the whole MWPP were brought together by it.

David, disappointed that Amy Zabini has not revealed the gender of the wizard in her family.


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