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

[Cindy C.]

No: HPFGUIDX 27789

> > Luke wrote:
> > 
> > > Oops, I somehow missed your comment about the lights going out 
in 
> > my 
> > > response to Boggarts' abilities to take on the powers of their 
> form 
> > > counterparts.  Now that puts an interesting spin on things as 
> proof 
> > > that Boggarts do have some ability to affect physical changes.  
> > > Interesting.  > > > 

<snip> 

The difference from my ealier assertions is that I now have 
> no specific support for my claims like I did before when it seemed 
> likely that the boggart could only harness psychological effects.  
Oh 
> well.  I think I stated the first time this came up (at a time when 
I 
> was saying much more intelligent things, BTW) that it's also 
possible 
> that boggarts only have as much power as there is fear in their 
> target.  Or belief, for that matter.  Such as, the boggart could 
only 
> harm you if you feared/believed it could.  

Good grief!  I cannot believe I am *still* thinking about the powers 
of these darn boggarts.  I just can't let go until we figure this 
out.  Forgive me for bringing this us up just one more time, but I 
have to know if the following rambling idea makes any sense at all.

OK.  We've established that a boggart takes on some powers of the 
thing it impersonates, otherwise the lights wouldn't dim when the 
boggart turns into a dementor.  In addition to extinguishing the 
lights like a real dementor does, I think there is another thing 
about boggarts that suggests that they really do take on the 
characteristics of the thing they are supposed to be.  Remember in 
the maze when Harry fights the boggart?  He first believes it is a 
dementor, so he conjures a patronus.  What does the boggart do?  It 
falls back and retreats, just like a real dementor would.  Lupin told 
us that Ridiculus is the spell for fighting a boggart, not Expecto 
Patronum.  So a boggart shouldn't be bothered at all by a patronus; 
it ought to just keep right on coming, shouldn't it?  So now we have 
some evidence that boggarts take on the powers of the thing they 
impersonate (dimming lights), and we see that they react in the same 
way as the thing they impersonate (retreating when confronted by a 
patronus).

But then again, the maze boggart doesn't become a perfect version of 
the dementor, does it?  No, because it trips, and dementors don't 
trip.  So that suggests that the boggart has some of the powers of 
the thing it becomes, but it doesn't become a perfect replica and 
gets some details or characteristics wrong.  (This idea is consistent 
with Lupin explaining to the students that he has seen boggarts get 
confused and become half a slug.)

As applied to Lupin, then, the reason Lupin doesn't transform when 
confronted by a boggart moon might have nothing to do with how he 
feels, whether he is especially talented or experienced, whether he 
has fear, or whether he drank his potion recently.  It could be 
simply that the boggart is doing the best it can to impersonate the 
moon and behave like the moon, but hasn't gotten the details right, 
just like its counterpart in the maze.

The devil is in the details, as they say.

Cindy (who swears that she will try very hard to give it a rest now)