How Boggarts work (was Why is Lupin afraid of the floating silver orb?)

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27324

> Cindy wrote:
> 
> > Hmmm.  I never considered why Lupin doesn't transform when the 
> > boggart moon appears.  Maybe Lupin is able to resist because the 
> > Boggart moon is so small -- the size of a crystal ball, 
apparently. 
>  
> > Had the Boggart transformed into a huge moon, perhaps Lupin would 
> > have transformed.  After all, I assume if the Boggart changed 
into a 
> > mini-Dementor, Harry wouldn't have been overcome.
> > 
> > It's weak, but it is the best I can do.
> 
Amy Z wrote:

> Not at all--I think it makes a lot of sense.  And the fact that the 
> Boggart *doesn't* turn into a full-size moon might indicate that 
> the Boggart isn't strong enough to pull off that impressive a 
> transformation, and therefore may lack the power of the moon.  
(Also 
> that materializing an 2000-mile-diameter satellite within the 
castle 
> might pose some problems <g>.)
> 

Now I am starting to wonder if we've missed the easiest and most 
obvious explanation for why Lupin doesn't transform when the boggart 
moon appears (and forgive me if someone already mentioned this and I 
missed it).  

When Harry has his anti-dementor lessons with Lupin, the boggart 
demonstrates that it does indeed have the powers of the thing that it 
is imitating.  Each time Lupin lets the boggart out of its box, the 
lights in the classroom turn off.  Could it be that the boggart 
itself, not the dementor form, has the power to turn off the lights?  
No, because there is no mention that the boggart causes the lights to 
go off when Neville and the students fight the boggart or that they 
are manuevering in the dark.

On his first two attempts to conjur a Patronus, Harry faints, so we 
don't know if the darkening of the classroom really happens, or 
whether it is part of his subjective experience.  But on the third 
and more successful attempt, we are explicitly told that the lights 
do in fact go out:

[Lupin hands Harry some chocolate]
"Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood.  Same time 
next week?"
"Okay," said Harry.  He took a bite of the chocolate and watched 
Lupin extinguishing the lamps that had rekindled with the 
disappearance of the dementor.

So if the boggart has the powers of the form it assumes, then why 
doesn't Lupin transform when the boggart appears?  Well, Lupin never 
encounters a boggart unexpectedly.  On each occasion, he has found 
the boggart and deliberately brought it with him as a teaching aid.  
So if Lupin knew he were going to encounter a boggart, and if he knew 
what form it would take when it saw him (Ron's muttering about the 
spider tells us that wizards can predict the form the boggart 
chooses), it only makes sense that he'd have a swig of wolfsbane 
potion to make sure he wouldn't transform during the lessons.  
Perhaps had he not consumed wolfsbane potion beforehand, then the 
boggart's turning into the moon would indeed have caused him to 
transform right there in the classroom.

So, if a boggart has the powers of the form it assumes, is Harry in 
danger of being Kissed when he does not successfully conjure a 
Patronus to ward off the boggart/dementor?  Well, Lupin is there to 
prevent this, of course.  If Lupin had not been there, would Harry 
have been in danger?  Hard to say, but apparently, dementors don't 
necessarily Kiss every wizard they see the first chance they get, or 
even drain the power from every wizard they encounter.  We know that 
Fudge had a dementor with him when he went to interrogate Crouch, and 
there is no suggestion that Fudge, Snape or McGonagall were drained 
of their powers and had to be fed chocolate.

Finally, there's the question of why the boggart explodes in a wisp 
of smoke sometimes, but is forced back into a packing case at other 
times.  I guess the boggart is destroyed as smoke when it has been 
suffiently abused, either with lots of little charms (the students) 
or by a single strong blast (Harry in the maze).  Lupin, of course, 
doesn't want to destroy it, so he doesn't blast it hard enough 
to "kill" it.

Cindy (who half-wonders whether Fudge's awful behavior in GoF is some 
evidence that he in fact has been Kissed)