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

[meboriqua at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27341

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., cynthiaanncoe at h... wrote:

 <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.>

I'm sure this has been said before, but I always assumed that Lupin 
didn't transform into a wolf when he saw the boggart simply because he 
is a powerful and experienced enough wizard to handle it.  It's kind 
of like Harry learning to throw off the Imperius Curse; can't practice 
and experience help fight boggarts too?  After all, boggarts are not 
quite real - they are more a copy of what people fear.  Harry reacts 
to the boggart-as-Dementor because he is not yet accustomed to dealing 
with boggarts.  He does not yet know the difference between boggarts 
and Dementors.  Like the Imperius Curse, it is something he must fight 
psychologically.  Lupin has already done that.

--jenny from ravenclaw, being rambly ***************