Boggart

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26912

Okay, several things to address and random theories to throw out:

***

1) Are Boggart manifestations metaphorical?

Possibly.  Lupin hints that Harry's boggart manifestation (a dementor) 
is, by saying that it indicates his greatest fear is fear.  However, 
one might also argue that this could be specific to Dementors.  
Dementors by their nature may be symbolic of fear (or depression or 
whatever), but perhaps not all boggart manifestations are.

I offer a more specific, closely-related belief (read as: the same 
thing in "Luke terms"): That boggart manifestations are metaphorical, 
but to the extent that the target (the person who the boggart is 
currently affecting) associates those abstract thoughts with a 
concrete image.  For example, Lupin may not be literally afraid of the 
moon, but has come to associate the things he is afraid of (the 
terrible things he might do as a werewolf, loss of control, pain of 
transformation, social rejection, etc.) with the moon.  If he had 
associated these things with something else, such as, say, a sock (for 
whatever illogical, unknown reason) then he would see a sock.  
Basically, I am clarifying that I do not think the symbolism is 
*inherent*, but created in the psyche of the target.

Neville's fear may not be truly Snape, but the reflection of his own 
sense of inadequacy that Snape constantly reminds him of.  He has come 
to associate this fear with Snape.  Obviously there is nothing 
inherent in Snape that makes him literally symbolic of Neville's fear 
(to anyone but Neville).

Under this system, Harry has come to associate whatever his greatest 
fear is with the dementors and whether or not a dementor is inherently 
symbolic (though potentially true) is irrelevant.

This, of course, will not apply to everyone.  Some people, especially 
certain children, have more concrete fears to begin with (Parvati's 
mummy, Seamus's banshee).  I actually have a hard time believing that 
this is truly their greatest fear, but perhaps it is their most 
conscious one, and hence somehow easier for the boggart to home in on.

***

2) To what extent does a boggart manifestation take on the properties 
of its real counterpart?

We know that Harry was affected by the boggart-dementor in the same 
way as a real dementor would affect him.

We don't technically know that this is true of all boggart 
manifestations, do we? (real question--I'm feeling too lazy to 
scrutinize canon)  It is quite possible that Harry himself 
psychologically caused this to happen, moreso than it was an inherent 
capability of boggarts.

Assuming it was an inherent capability of boggarts, then it could be 
nonetheless limited by other factors.  Perhaps it only can take on the 
properties of its real counterpart so long as the target believes it 
can.  The more belief in and fear of the boggart, the more powerful 
the boggart.  Hence, Lupin has over time made himself relatively 
immune to the boggart because he is not as afraid.  Note the way he 
tackles the boggart in a very casual, ho-hum manner.  Or perhaps the 
dementor scenario is one of a few special cases, because both their 
powers are primarily psychological and therefore it is possible for 
the boggart to emulate it.  It would not, then, be able to 
administrate the kiss or do anything similarly concrete.  Nor would it 
have concrete abilities held by other manifestations, like the venom 
of spiders or even the ability to cause physical harm.

***

3) What really destroys a boggart?

It is not the Riddikulus curse itself, as Lupin states (and as Dave 
Hardenbook was pointing out in his Flint question).

But is it necessarily *really* laughter either?  I think it is 
entirely possible that Lupin told the students that because it is much 
more concrete and easy to grasp that way, when, IMO it seems to make 
much more sense that the way to destroy a boggart is simply not to 
fear it.  So laughter works if its genuine, but wouldn't if forced (it 
is not the act, but the emotion behind it).  But laughter wouldn't be 
necessary either, provided the absence of fear was there.

-Luke